Solivagency - Empires SMP

XXI

A/N: Scott Smajor has a public Tumblr. No one is safe now /j

I hope y'all have a Merry (Late) Christmas!

They awoke instantly, jolting back into reality with a quickness one could call snapped. Their heart thudded in their chest, the remnants of some half-forgotten nightmare haunting their mind.

But they didn't move or twitch or maybe even breathe. Xornoth's head hurt.

It ached and pounded and throbbed so hard one might think there was a separate heart beating in it, and the result was they could barely think. What had caused their head to radiate such loud pain?

Then it hit them like the time they had been six and they had stacked snow on top of a piece of wood that snapped and dumped the pile on top of them - they didn't have their antlers.

The memory made them shiver weakly as if they were still numbly trying to dig themself out of the snow with tiny hands cased by mittens. Maybe their antlers had been inconvenient at times, but they had been theirs. It was a constant throughout what they remembered of their life - their soft, fawn coloured antlers and later black horns that had always been on their head, shedding every spring and softly regrowing a month after.

It wasn't the only thing that was in pain, for their back and their arm and pretty much everything felt ablaze, but the loss of their antlers made something inside of them clench. It made them curl up a little from where they were lying-

What.

Xornoth had not been lying down, let alone in a comfortable position. Let alone on something comfortable. They'd been... still chained, right?

But no, whatever the ground was made of was not cold and wet brick that dragged the life out of their being, but something of fabric. And they were cocooned in something soft and light that felt rather like a comforting blanket.

Maybe whatever had happened was a dream and they were back at Mezalea, even if they deep down knew that the odds of them being there were zero. A few weeks ago Xornoth would never have thought that they would have missed the Mad King of Mezelea so bad, but although he was... well, mad, it was hard to pretend his eccentricities weren't somewhat loveable.

(Although it just made them feel rather empty now. Who knew loneliness was so hurtful?)

Xornoth let themself go limp against whatever surface they were on and whatever blanket they were wrapped in. It was probably a trick, to make them think they had escaped even though they hadn't. Any second know they expected to be kicked.

The kick didn't come for what seemed like hours, although it was probably minutes, and uneasiness started to spread through them. What if the blanket wasn't a trick? But that would mean they weren't at Rivendell. But that would mean they were somewhere else, probably to be trialled again when everyone knew what the outcome was already.

At least it probably wouldn't be as quick.

Xornoth heard someone mutter something and they tensed, flinching backwards more than enough to be embarrassing. They kept their eyes screwed shut, scared of what they would see if they opened them. They had no idea what was going on, and quite frankly they were terrified.

Eventually whoever it was leaned over them and pressed a hand on the underside of their arm, gently lifting it up, and began to unravel something around it. They were still confused, nothing was making sense anymore, but soon something was being wound around their injury, tightly but not uncomfortably.

They mumbled something incoherent and tried to stir, shifting their head just a little, but the movement only made the throb in their skull intensify. Xornoth made some sort of small noise and they felt someone's hand almost brush through their hair before it pulled back again.