** Only one thing can still prevent Neverland's downfall: In the dark times when a star's light perishes, a new one must be found! **
Neverland - a world in which simply everything was possible as long as you could dream it. But behind a shining lig...
Fire. Her lungs felt like fire, a piercing burn stoked by rough salt and.... a hard surface. Fiona felt her palms, cheeks, knees.... everything was burning. As she tried to gasp for air, a salty liquid forced itself down her throat. Water rolled over the small body, pushing it deeper into... Sand?
Fiona braced herself against the bottom and sure enough, she sank in a few inches. The stinging in her hands and knees grew worse, but at the moment she barely noticed it.
Air!
With a jerky movement, the strength drove back into her limbs, and Fiona managed to brace herself. She finally broke through the surface of the water, coughing and spitting up salt water. She felt nauseous as if she had drunk an entire ocean and yet had not consumed a drop of liquid. As she tried to focus the rest of her senses, to fight a stinging headache and debilitating exhaustion, she blinked against salt water and wet hair. It was dark around her... at least that's what Fiona believed.
With difficulty, she pulled herself ashore, feeling something heavy around her body. The weight of the soaked fabric and the squeezing tightness in her chest as something held her torso in the unyielding embrace of the firm, pliable wooden bars. A corset. The word seeped into her mind like honey, slow and viscous so she could barely grasp it. As she tried to focus on it, part of the world sank back into darkness. It was so hard to fight it, to bite down the pain and keep crawling until cold, fine sand began to stick to her wet skin and clothes. She felt strangled and sent back to live. But why? What... What...
Fiona didn't manage to form a question she could have focused on. Her mind was like a cut spider's web. Every thread ended somewhere in the darkness, no coherent thought would help her understand...
When finally no more waves crashed against her feet, she simply slumped down and lay breathing heavily. It wasn't a minute before nausea increased immeasurably and Fiona propped her up on her elbows to vomit another gush of salt water. The burning in her throat got worse, but at least she managed to take a decent breath afterward. Completely exhausted, she toppled to the side, rolled away shakily, and tried to get up, but when the first grains of sand dug into her sore palms, Fiona gave in.
A bitter taste had spread across her tongue as she fought the feeling in her stomach. Shivering, Fiona curled up on the cold sand, her eyelids fluttering as she tried to open her eyes. Everything was dark, the crashing waves drowned out every other sound, and... she was all alone. Why was it dark? Night... it's night.
That she knew it didn't reassure Fiona in the least. A sea... why a sea? Why beaches? Why had she almost drowned? An image of glistening sunlight peaked between the despair, but after that everything broke off. Now almost complete darkness enveloped her, broken only by the delicate rays of a strange moon. Was it bigger? Had she even seen it before?
Slowly, panic poisoned her exhausted limbs, without Fiona being able to say why. Something was wrong, she sensed. But what? What the hell was it? Too many thoughts were racing around in her head at the same time, she couldn't tell which were wrong, unimportant, right, or significant.
How to distinguish reality and dream?
Not at all... not now. Fiona. That was her little bit of certainty, it couldn't be wrong.
My name is Fiona.
The dry lips pulled apart a little, but as the corners of her mouth moved the scratches on her cheeks faded instantly. Pain pulsed through her face like a blazing surge, but she didn't get any warmer. Everything was cold and wet, her dress had wrapped itself clammily around her body as if it wanted to crush her. Too heavy to stand up.
Fiona moved, trying once again to stand up. Violent shivering, partly from cold and partly from exhaustion made her arms buckle and sink back into the sand under the weight of her body. The excruciating cold ate deeper and deeper through her clothes, skin, and flesh, right into her bones. Fiona didn't know where she was, there was no memory to hold on to. Freezing night air brushed over her, closing her tired eyes and causing her to sink into a dangerous stupor. Fiona was so exhausted... So exhausted beyond measure. It was freezing cold and yet she felt every grain of sand in the scrapes on her face, hands, and knees.
Suddenly there was a sound. It rose above the rolling waves, the cold night wind. A dark, harsh sound, and at the same time it had something pleasant about it. In another state, she might have rejoiced at the prospect of rescue, someone who could help her. Just then she barely managed to open her eyes and blink against the darkness. Something had changed. The blackness around her was no longer complete but pierced by tiny specks of light. Were they... Torches?
The few spots were small and barely gave enough light to make out who had spoken. A silhouette, close to her and yet too far away to make out more than the mere shadow. Slowly she turned her head, trying to look at the figure. It had to be a man, for the shoulders were too broad for a woman. Help... there was finally someone here who would help her. With the last bit of determination and will to survive, she braced herself. She wanted to say something... but when her lips parted, all that managed to come out was a pitiful croak. Instead of a few sensible words, she had to cough and writhed under the burning of her throat.
When it finally got better, she tried to fix the figure again. In a daring gesture, she wiped a few strands from her forehead, feeling the cold sweat that sprinkled little beads over it as a testimony to exhaustion and effort. Just as she was hoping to start again, something jumped into Fiona's field of vision like a biting dog. Moonlight refracted on a blade, glaring at her for an instant and revealing cold steel. Startled, she flinched, tried to get to her feet, and tangled herself in the damp layers of cloth. With a thud, Fiona landed back in the sand.
"Wh-Who are you?" was all she could think of at that moment, and that was all she could produce.
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