The Towers of Adrala

Chapter 3 - Unlit (Part Two)

“Argh!”

From the way his head jerked off his chest and the sluggish chaos of his thoughts, Zook realized that he had been asleep. He heard a ragged breathing and then was startled by Pird's voice.

“Who shut my bloody windows?”

Zook was immediately bewildered. He had given the thief enough Lentus to knock him out for a day, give or take a few hours due to Pird's unusually high metabolism. This was further supported by the ache Zook found in his back, the hunger that twisted in his stomach, and the chill that had sunk into his flesh.

A whole day? Zook thought with despair, That can't be right, the Fellasceince must have burned the drought faster then I thought.

Reassured by the sound explanation, Zook asked, “Pird?”

“Wha-?” Pird began, surprised, “What're you doing in my room?”

“This isn't your room.”

There was a long pause.

“The quake?” Pird asked in a small voice.

“It happened.”

Another pause.

“Zook...how big is this place?”

“Pird-” Zook began.

“Be precise,” Pird said in a strange voice, “How big.”

Zook thought for a second before catching on. He answered as truthfully as possible, “Thirty by thirty, a nice cozy hole in the ground.”

“All right then,” said Pird, pleased, “Well, I'm gonna nod off again. Hope you don't need me for anything.”

“As much as I need a beard.”

Soon, as he was unhindered by drugs this time, Pird began to snore. The next amount of time went by in an odd manner, for Zook had no idea if that was seconds, minutes, hours, or more. The cold, the weight of Eris’ head, his hunger and thirst, all seemed to fade in and out of perception. Sometimes every feeling of cold and misery was etched in excruciating detail. Sometimes they were a haze on the edge of his idle mind. He must have fallen asleep once or more, as the absolute darkness seemed to stir with the unseen colors of Zook's mind. The shadows seemed to have thickness and weight. Zook had no idea how long this went on, time having no relevance in their hole, but if someone asked him Zook would answer, “Somewhere around forever.”

“Anyone awake?”

Zook again found that he was unconscious, jerking awake at the sound of Sye's voice.

“I am now,” Zook groaned, feeling every one of his joints crack as he sat up. His stomach twisted in protest, hunger filling him with a thin weakness. Sand seemed to line his mouth and his tongue felt like a lump of ground meat dropped several times.

“Thirsty?” Sye asked.

“Yes,” Zook replied, surprised at the rasp he heard in his own voice.

“There's a puddle to your left. Clean as far as I can tell.”

Zook found it and drank, reveling in the cool water as it ran across his parched mouth and throat. It felt so good it hurt, making him splutter. He then wiped his mouth and said, “We're going to have to dig soon.”

“Zook...”

“I'm done waiting,” Zook pressed, “It won't be too long before we're too weak to even stand. We need to dig.”

“Give it a little more time,” said Sye, “Please.”

Zook filled his lungs, set to berate his friend, then let his breath out in a whistling sigh. There simply wasn’t the energy. He and Sye had already shook out the issue of digging out, Zook didn't feel like pursuing in his hungry weariness. Now fully awake and having nothing better to do, Zook recounted what happened, thinking in the detached way he had as a Healer so he wouldn't automatically shut it out. As he played the disaster over and over in his head, an oddity in the terrifying memory kept on coming into focus.