A Fallen HomeKin

PART II

Fralith floated on a sea of mist, gentle waves rocking him back and forth.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Wind murmured around him, stirring eddies in the mist. It caressed his face and tickled his ears with a strange sound, something like a word.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The waves swelled beneath him and the wind hissed in his ear urgently with that sound. It frisked over the billowing white waves, urging them higher, stronger, rougher. And it hissed again, this time louder and harsher. It was a word, he knew now, the wind was hissing a word. No, words. It was trying to tell him something. Something important. Something urgent.

Beep, beep, beep.

A howl moaned over the waves, now frothing at their crests. They were no longer made of mist, but something else. Something harder, but still soft, just more...solid, like a pillow full of feathers. Hmmmmaaaah, the wind howled. Eeess hmmmaaaah.

Beep, beep, beep, beep.

What was that beeping? It was annoying, like the rough waves and howling wind. He frowned. Why couldn't they stop? He wanted to go back to sleep in the mist. Sleep. Go back to sleep. If he wanted to go back to sleep, didn't that mean he was awake? A particularly hard wave shoved his shoulder, its touch warm, almost like a hand. No, it was a hand, and the wind was someone talking. What? Where—

Beep, beep, beep, beep!

Fralith's eyes flew open to a white ceiling. Glaring light filled the room, making him almost immediately shut them. Where was he? He squinted, unease prickling his neck. A form loomed over him and he cried out, shoving at the surface he was on with his hands and attempting to scuttle away. Hands descended from around him, pushing him down.

"No!" He lifted his hands to shove them away and froze. Bare. His arms were bare. A white rock hung off one of his fingers and a clear tube protruded from his wrist. His breath stuttered to a halt. What had they— another shadow fell over him. Person. It was a person. He whipped his head to the other side. Person. Another person. Her lips were moving, but he didn't understand a word. A blonde strand fell in front of her face. Blonde.

Fralith fell back, all the air gushing out of him as a bucket of ice melt water splashed over him. A RedShirt. She was a RedShirt. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no! The RedShirts here, they'd captured him! They'd captured him and— and— taken his clothes and put strange stuff on him and were going to— going to— he flung himself forward, ripping away from the hands. He scrambled to his feet, heart flip flopping frantically. Gasping for air, he scrambled on all fours to the edge.

Hands grabbed him again, their owner's shouts of alarm and that incessant beep! Beep! Be-ep! rang in his ears. No, no, no! Fralith thrashed, kicking and punching wildly. He had to escape! He had to get out of here! The hands kept coming back, grabbing onto him and pushing him down. "Let me go!" he screamed as arms wrapped around his middle pulled him forwards. Before he could strike back, he was pressed tightly into someone's chest, trapped between it and the person's arms.

He pushed at the person's chest, straining against the arms that pinned him there. His breath rattled with each sharp inhale and exhale, its rhythm snagging with each stumble his heart took. It flipped and flopped in his chest, like it always did when he did things with too much effort. The world tipped and slid, and he collapsed forwards, struggling to breathe, ears ringing with urgent yells and a high pitched, beep, beep, b-beep, be-ep, b-beep, beep!

Fog gusted into his brain, dragging him downwards. No, Fralith groaned inwardly. I don't want to. I need to...I need to...

↶⬝◂⚘▸⬝↷