The sound of rustling in the leaves immediately woke up the woman sleeping in the branches of a huge tree. She silently grabbed the stone dagger from one of the many pouches attached to her belt and she crouched against the sturdy branches of the tree. Terrah had been here for what she could only assume was 6 months. The watch with the countdown to the end of her mission had long since been smashed.

                The rustling came again. She waited for something to pop out, but nothing did. She slinked towards it silently and moved a few of the leaves, looking to see what her threat was. A baby Pterodactylus had fallen from the nest a few branches above where she had been sleeping and had gotten its head stuck in a tangle of twigs.

                Terrah let out a sigh and made sure her thick leather gloves were securely on her hands as she untangled the prehistoric creature. The baby dinosaur started biting at her gloves, not doing much damage. Even though it was a baby, it was still the size of a pigeon. She let it go and it squawked at her and snapped its jaw. Terrah saw the adult of the nest coming down to get her baby. She knew better than to stay here.

                She jumped down the 20 feet to the ground, making sure there were no other animals near. She ran towards the lake. Her job was a time scout for the Bureaucratic Time Salvation Agency, or The BTSA. She made it past the thick trees and saw the airship that had the rest of her crew-mates on it. They were doing research on prehistoric life. She was the only one placed on the ground. She did have a partner, Siwon. He had saved her from an Allosaurus attack and had almost been eaten. His body was immediately teleported back to the ship as soon as his vitals had shown his death. The ship was also constantly monitoring her vitals. If a time agent died in the field, there couldn’t be any evidence left behind.

                Their job was to continuously scout the area around the ship to make sure no one unexpected had come through the time rift with the ship to change history. She had been doing it alone since the incident 4 months ago. She hadn’t had any normal contact with another human since. Her sub-mission was to report all of the things she saw while living down here.

                She stared up at the large bronze flying ship hovering over the lake and realized she was still in a crouching position. She quickly stood up and fixed her posture. It was almost time for her to patrol. She had started going by the suns position, since her watch had been smashed by a run in with a mother Pterodactylus guarding her eggs. She sighed and looked around her current location, everything was clear.

                Terrah began running while scanning the area. She was 100% positive that no one had followed the ship through time, but it was still protocol for the scouts to stay on the ground for the duration of the stay. She was now mostly scanning for anything that could risk her safety or the safety of the ship.

                Suddenly there was a deafening roar. She immediately recognized it. It was an Allosaurus. She froze in her tracks and instinctively grabbed her stone dagger. Ground scouts weren’t allowed any modern weapons. They weren’t allowed to kill any animals either. They had to only eat plants and fruits. Unlike what most people would think, not all of the animals of the same species look identical. Terrah had learned how to tell the individual animals apart.

                A couple young Stegosaurs came running out of the trees. They weren’t that fast, but just by their sheer size and height, were able to move pretty quickly compared to humans. They ran past her as she stared in shock as an Allosaurus broke through the trees. It had already spotted her. There wasn’t any time to run. She recognized it as the same one who had taken her partner from her, leaving her in isolation. She had suddenly lost her reason and got back into her comfortable defensive crouching position as the giant slowly moved towards her, debating if it should eat her or continue to chase after the Stegosaurs.

                She knew that if she didn’t move, most of the dinosaurs wouldn’t think of her as a meal because of her small size. The Allosaurus’ head was only a few feet away from her. She could feel its breath rush against her body as it breathed out. It suddenly opened its jaws and roared again. Terrah closed her eyes and immediately got into an attack position.

                She suddenly heard a lot of voices and felt something reach out for her. She instinctively sliced at it. She opened her eyes as she was tackled to the ground. She realized that she had been teleported back onto the ship. She had sliced at her commanders’ arm.

                Her commander was screaming at everyone to get off of her. Terrah continued to just lie on the ground. The leader smiled and bent down next to her, moving a chunk of her matted hair from her face. “Terrah, you’re safe now. I’m here.”

                Terrah sighed and closed her eyes as a few tears ran down her dirty face. “Woo… Woosang…” she mumbled in a rough voice as she passed out on the floor.

                Terrah woke up and was in a bed and sat up. Her body was sore. It had been half a year since she had been in a bed. This wasn’t a regular cot or bunk bed that the majority of the crew got to sleep in. She saw that the sheets were crisp and white and the bed had a canopy and curtains closed around it. She groaned as she tried to move. She managed to open the curtains and she couldn’t hear anyone. She stood up and quietly walked towards the closest door and put her ear on it. She could hear running water.

                The water suddenly shut off. She quickly ran back to the bed and closed the curtains. She knew she wasn’t in danger, but she had to keep herself from going into a crouching position. It was then that she suddenly realized that she was clean and her hair had been washed. She relaxed and sat cross legged on the bed, running her hands through her long hair. She couldn’t remember the last time she could do this.

                The curtain suddenly opened, making Terrah jump back a foot. Woosang was standing there with a towel around his waist and a towel on his shoulder. “I’m sorry for scaring you.” He said smiling at her. He sat on the edge of the bed. “I’m sorry for leaving you down there alone. We didn’t have anyone else besides me who was trained to be down there. As you know, the commander isn’t allowed to leave the ship.”

                Terrah knew all of the rules very well. She had gone through training with Woosang back when they were students at BTSA. She was trained to be a scout in all time eras of the past. She was able to survive in the wilderness and go undercover in any time era, with or without humans. Woosang had all of her training plus he had trained in commanding troops as well, so he was placed in charge of a lot of military and non-military missions. He always brought Terrah as one of his ground scouts if possible.

                Woosang laid back on the bed and looked at her. “Do you feel better now that you’re clean?” Terrah nodded and ran her hands through her hair. He smiled and closed his eyes. “That’s good then. Was it hard being out there alone? Most agents don’t have to deal with that. I can’t even imagine how hard it must have been for you.”

                Terrah sat there in silence for a while. Staring at her longtime friend and suddenly she realized she wasn’t alone and in danger anymore. She felt a rush of relief go through her body as her eyes welled up. She crawled over to the older man and curled up under his arm and cried on his chest. He silently laid there and ran his hand through her hair.

                An hour later, she had finally calmed down. Woosang looked down at the top of her head. “Are you feeling better now?” She nodded. Terrah wasn’t used to speaking much now after being silent for 4 months. The muscular man sat up, bringing her with him. “You were asleep for 5 hours. You should rest some more. You can stay in here.”

                He tried to stand up and walk away but she grabbed his wrist. “Woosang… don’t leave me…” She had been isolated for so long after seeing Siwon give his life for her to escape. She didn’t want to be alone again. He smiled back at her. “You do remember that my name is Woo Sangsoo? I had to tell the crew that you passed out before finishing my name.” He sat back down and poked her in the forehead. “Only you can get away with calling me that, but not in front of the crew.” He laughed.

                Terrah smiled slightly. The first smile she has had in a long time. Woosang laughed again. “Good to see you didn’t forget how to smile. If you want, I will stay with you. It will be like when we were young again.” She nodded and smiled a little more. She was almost 22 and he was 23, not that old but since they were time travelers and it felt like they lived many lifetimes. He smirked “But, I do need to put pants on. It’s improper.” She blushed and let go of his wrist as he stood up and closed the curtains around the bed again.

                “No peeking Terrah!” She laughed. She wasn’t going to peek. It’s not that he wasn’t someone worth peeking at, he definitely was. But she had already seen it. They had been an item back at the academy as the top two students, but once you get into the field they were trained in, you aren’t supposed to have relationships. Sometimes time agents would just seem to disappear, the government didn’t want the agents to have families to worry about. Sometimes the covers they took involved them being in fake relationships or families with whoever their partner scout was as well.

                Woosang opened all the curtains on the bed and tied them up to the pillars. He was only wearing a pair of pajama pants. Terrah hadn’t even realized what clothes she was wearing. She inspected herself and saw that it was a black t-shirt on top of clean undergarments. Woosang laughed. “The staff was shocked when I told them that I would take care of cleaning you and everything.” She remembered the staff and then she remembered when she was brought back on board. She quickly crawled over to him and grabbed his arm. There was no cut.

                He laughed as he crawled back into the bed and sat down with his back against the headboard. “You cut me really good. They had to digitally stich me back up. You were in worse shape. You had bites and cuts all over.” She sighed and leaned against him. “It was rough out there. Dinosaurs haven’t even seen humans before. A lot of them automatically tried to eat me.” He nodded and put his arm around her shoulders. “I haven’t had to be a scout on a pre-human mission before. I only know what they teach at the academy.” She nodded. “Classes don’t teach you how to react to an Allosaurus.” He closed his eyes and rested his chin on top of her head.

                There was a ringing sound that caused Terrah to jump again. Woosang calmed her and he leaned over to the table next to the bed and pressed a button. A screen appeared above the button with another familiar face on it. Terrah remembered the ship’s doctor. Her name was Sandara Park. Everyone just called her Dara. “Commander, has Terrah woken up yet? Is she alright?”

                Dara suddenly realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt and covered her eyes. “COMMANDER!! This is a video call! Please make yourself decent when answering!” Woosang laughed and grinned when he heard Terrah laugh. Dara heard her too. “Oh! She is up!” The screen suddenly moved around the commander and went in front of Terrah. Dara smirked. “You wake up after a really traumatizing experience and the first thing you get to see is a half- commander! I’m jealous!”

                Terrah and Dara had become friends during the pre-mission preparations. Dara was the one who monitored her vital signs while she was off the ship. “Actually, when I woke up, the Commander only had a towel on.” She said teasing the doctor. “COMMANDER!? REALLY!” the screen moved over so she could glare at him. He was lying there with his arms out on the headboard. Dara Gasped before she could lecture him. “Well… anyways, now that I know you are awake and it seems like all your digital stiches took effect. I will need to see you as soon as possible Terrah.”

                Terrah nodded and laughed when Woosang leaned into the view of the screen. “I’m sorry doctor, but she will not be able to see you until morning. I will make sure she is alright.” He said winking at her. Dara gasped again. A lot of the crew would tease the doctor because of her innocence. She was older than a lot of people on board, which made it even funnier. He rested his face on Terrah’s shoulder and smirked as he hung up on the doctor.

                Woosang burst out laughing as the screen disappeared back into the base. Terrah was laughing a bit. “It’s not nice to like that.” She said smiling. He just continued laughing. “You would think that she would be used to it by now. Everyone on this ship has like that. She probably thinks that she is the only one on this ship who isn’t erted.” Terrah laughed and tried stretching.

                “Ouch…” she said as she stopped moving. Her body was definitely sore. He pulled her back and laid her down and covered her with the blankets and crawled in next to her. “Let’s go to sleep. You need a full check up in the morning. You will also need to see the psychologist.” She groaned. She didn’t want to see him. He wasn’t one of her favorite people. Woosang smiled at her groan and clapped his hands and the lights turned off, leaving only a glowing globe in the corner. He wrapped his arms around Terrah and felt her body tense up then relax again, quickly falling asleep.

                In the morning, Terrah had woken up first. It took her a moment to remember where she was. It still felt odd not being covered in dirt and surrounded by trees. She slipped out from under Woosangs’ arm and went to the window. The ship had returned to the current time, 3250 AD. She relaxed and was content that she didn’t have to worry about seeing giant dinosaurs everywhere. She looked at the clock, which showed the current time where ever and whenever they were. It was only 6am, she had no idea how long she had been asleep.

                She crawled back into the bed next to Woosang. She didn’t know why, but anytime she was with him, she felt the need to let him protect her. Everyone knew that she was obviously able to take care of herself, only he has ever seen her weak side, besides Siwon in his last moments. She shook the image of her former partner out of her head and studied the face in front of her. She smiled and climbed back under his arm. He let out a sigh in his sleep and pulled her closer. She finally felt safe and went back to sleep.

                Terrah didn’t know how long it had been since she went back to sleep but Woosang was waking her up and he was fully dressed already. He smiled “Don’t worry about changing your clothes. Dara should have some for you after the physical.” She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Woosang grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the bed. “Let’s go slow poke.”

                Dara glared daggers at Commander Woosang as they entered the room. “Commander! Her body is in no condition for you to be doing those kinds of relations with her!” Terrah started choking on the air as Woosang had to explain his joke to the naïve doctor. Dara blushed furiously and pushed him out of the room. He looked back around the door and yelled “Terrah! I will go get you food!”

                Dara pushed the button, closing the door on him. “Terrah, how do you put up with that man?!” Terrah was still trying to compose herself. She shrugged her shoulders as she sat on the table. Dara smiled at her. “Well, let’s get you all better then.” She said as she handed Terrah thin cloth undergarments. Since she had to put these on, it meant that she was getting a fully body scan.

                She changed as Dara went to get her file. Terrah laid down on the table and smiled as the doctor came back in. “Well, Commander Sangsoo did a very good job of stitching everything up. You shouldn’t be getting any scars. You have a few minor bone fractures which is why your body is sore but I can fix those right up for you.” She pulled a couple handles out of the front and back of the table and stood them up. She started typing in things as the handles started radiating light between them and particles began to fall down onto Terrah’s body. She sighed as the pain slowly went away.

                The door opened and Woosang had come back with a plate of food for her. Dara glared at him. “Don’t you have any work to do besides taking care of her? You are the commander of this ship you know…” He laughed. “We are already back home and in port. All that’s left is de-briefing her. After she is done here, she needs to go see Sehun.” Terrah sighed again.

                The machines glowing light finally turned off and the handles went back into the table. Terrah sat up and reached her hand out towards Woosang. He smiled and started to reach his own hand out to her. She raised her eyebrow at him and he laughed and handed her the plate of food. She quickly started eating. She hadn’t had meat in months. She sighed and quickly scarfed down the food and drank water. Dara put her hands up. “Slow down! You will get sick!”

                Right as she said that, Terrah started coughing. The meat wasn’t going down well. Woosang quickly came and patted her on the back and gave her more water. “Your body isn’t used to all this food right now. I shouldn’t have brought so much.” Terrah calmed down and drank some water. She slowly continued eating. Woosang went to check over her chart. “So is she done here doctor?” Dara nodded. “Yup, she is all better and shouldn’t be experiencing any physical pain.”

                Woosang handed Terrah her clothes and took the plate of food from her. “You can have this back after you get dressed.” She pouted. He was the only one to treat her like a kid. She found it hard not to go along with it. Dara was shocked. She had been at academy at the same time as the other two, but was in the medical program. She knew the rumors about how dangerous both of them could be when they needed to be. During the preparations before the mission, only Woosang had been playful like this. Terrah was very professional and some could say that she was even cold and calculating. She was always taking note of everything in the room, trying to recognize any danger. All Dara could see right now was a normal girl.

                Terrah quickly got dressed and took the food back from Woosang and followed him down the hallway grumpily till they reached the room where her least favorite person was, Sehun, the psychologist. Woosang opened the door and shoved her inside of the small office. The young boy had been sitting in an oversized chair and immediately pulled out the file with her data from before the mission. “Terrah, it’s good to see you. I have been waiting to talk to you.” He said as he turned around.

                She didn’t like his almost constantly grumpy face. She saw him smile a few times and he seemed like he was plotting some evil plan. He also seemed to want to use her as an experiment. She wasn’t even sure if he was old enough to have this job. She made a grumpy face as Woosang left her alone in the room. Sehun looked over the chart and nodded. “So, tell me about 4 months ago?”

                She glared at the young boy. He must be like 4 or 5 years younger than her. She stared at his head. “Why is your hair a rainbow?” she asked, very confused. He laughed for like a second and went back to his notes. “My hair is irrelevant to our meeting. Tell me about Siwon. How did you handle his death? Did you mourn him?” She stared at him in disbelief. He was lucky that she would go to prison if she murdered him. “I watched my partner shove me out of the way of an Allosaurus! I watched him get bit in half! I saw his body get teleported back to the ship and had to automatically run so that I wouldn’t be next! There wasn’t time to mourn!”

                Sehun took notes of how angry she got. “Then, how did you manage to live alone for so long? Was it hard?” She bit her lip. She knew these were questions any psychologist would ask, but he didn’t seem to realize that the way he asked everything was infuriating. “I just followed my training like any scout would. We are trained for any situation. I managed.” Sehun just nodded. Terrah really did not like this boy.

                Sehun continued to question her for what seemed like an eternity to Terrah. After about an hour, he connected her to the de-briefing chair. It would just download your memories of the trip into video for research instead of relying on what memories the scout could actually recall. She was ecstatic when he said she was free to go and to send in the commander. She walked out the door and Woosang was sitting on a chair, half asleep. She smiled and poked him on the nose. He sat up immediately, almost smacking her in the head, if she hadn’t gotten out of the way. “The grumpy rainbow wants to see you.” He started laughing as he walked into the room, leaving her in the hallway.

                A few moments later he came back out and put his arm around the shorter girls’ shoulders. “Well, you get a 1 month paid vacation. He says you need to get re-accustomed to living in modern times. You also need time to mourn and get over what you witnessed.” She just nodded and followed him to the ships locker room. Her locker was right next to Siwon’s locker. His locker had become a sort of memorial for him. She put her hand flat on the locker and sighed. “Thank you Siwon…” she whispered.

                She opened up her own locker and grabbed her clothes from before the mission. They had been cleaned and hung up so they wouldn’t be wrinkly. She looked over at Woosang who was putting Siwon’s memorials into a box with the contents of his locker. It had to be delivered to whoever he listed on his information. If no one was listed, he would be buried at the academy and his stuff would be given to them.  Woosang and Terrah both had their parents listed as first, but they had each other listed as second in case something happened to their parents.

                Terrah changed into her dark blue t-shirt, black skinny jeans and put on her black sneakers with neon green accents on them. Her clothes fit her loosely now. She sighed as she realized this meant that she had to buy more clothes when she got home. Woosang nodded. “I thought so. Your body definitely got more toned and muscular. Did Dara tell you how much weight you lost?” Terrah shook her head as she tied her shoes. “Well, you weigh 110 now and that is about 20 pounds less than when you left. According to your chart, you lost 30 pounds fat and gained 10 pounds of muscle. Who knows, you might be stronger than me now.” He laughed.

                She started laughing “I doubt that! Your arms are like the size of my legs.” He put his arm around her shoulders again and put Siwon’s box under his other arm. “Let’s get you home. We have actually been gone 6 months this time.” She nodded. She wondered if her house was still alright. She took mental note to get food on the way back.

                They left the airship and Woosang took her to the shuttle station. She stared in awe at the smaller airships and the cars zipping around above their heads. Woosang nodded “I sometimes forget how modern we are after missions in the past.” She nodded in agreement. The shuttle silently floated down from above them and stopped on the ground with the sound of a rush of air. Terrah flinched a bit. He hugged her and whispered in her ear. “Don’t spend your month alone. Go socialize. That’s what your vacation is for. Then come back to me when you are ready for another mission. Don’t hesitate to call me.”

                She smiled and hugged him back as she got on the shuttle. She waved at him as the shuttle doors closed and it rose back up into the air to connect to the rest of the shuttles. She remembered how it worked. She had to go through the doors at the end of each car and find the one that would stop where she needed to go. It was kind of like a train in olden times but only specific cars would float down to each station.

                Terrah walked through the cars, looking at the signs with the locations and arrival times. One car had a group of about 3 police officers who looked impatient to get to where they were going. She stopped and showed her badge to them. “Is something going on? Do you need any assistance?”