Rena was stuck now with the crying girl. She truly wanted to comfort her, but the throbbing in her ear wasn’t letting her focus at all. Placing a soft hand on the girls back, she patted her gently. “It’s alright. Really no big deal. Tell you what, when we get this blasted ship off the ground, I’ll teach you to fight some? Alright?” Despite the pain and her gritted teeth, Rena was trying to do a good job at calming the girl. Any other time it would have been easy for her, she was always good with kids, but not this time. As one hand rubbed Anisa’s back, the other snaked up to touch her ear.

Ren let out a gasp. Prodding at the flesh her other hand instantly darted up to her other ear to compare. Half her ear was gone! The top inch of her perfectly pointed ear had come clean off with the bullet and all that was left was the base and some blood. Rena tried to force back tears as she knelt near the girl. Startling Anisa would do no good, so Rena let out a warm smile and silently prayed that the small one would calm down.