Eclipsis: Water

Chapter 4

Ondine had never felt so low in her life.

She had been attacked by the Moons as soon as she had come up for air. They had pushed her head back under-water, only for a couple of seconds, and then hauled her out as if she weighed next to-nothing. She probably did to them, seeing as there were four of them and one of her.

The initial shock of it made her freeze, but as they tried to hoist her into the air - they were all winged, she quickly realised - her 7 years of training suddenly kicked in. She had elbowed the two stood behind her in the nose, hard. They had both cried out, releasing her arms to clutch their damaged faces, and this had given her an opportunity to push the other two in front of her.

A certain element of surprise was on her side, as the Moons had not expected her to fight back, and she was free, she was running back in the direction of home -

The taste of blood in her mouth was not a pleasant experience at all. Nor was the impact of how hard she had hit the ground, having been shoved from behind by one of the winged Moon people. She had felt a heavy weight on the backs of her legs, trapping her against the grass.

"Careful with it." One of them had said - barked, rather.

It. She was an "it" to them.

Strong arms had hoisted her back up, and she had kicked out, she would not go down without a fight, she refused to. But there was more of them than there was of her, and they were all much bigger and stronger. It was no use - each of the four had grabbed her by each limb so she couldn't flail, and were beginning to lift her into the air.

There was no one around, people were cautious about hunting so close to night-fall. She couldn't believe how stupid she had been, going off by herself -

"Dinnie!"

Alara.

The four creatures' heads had turned with Ondine, as if debating whether they should take it's owner, too.

Ondine had screamed. "Allie! Allie!"

Her voice was silenced with a moist, callused hand that had clamped down over her mouth, hard. She had jerked her head away, trying to see if she could bite it, but the Moon's fingernails dug into her cheek.

"If you make one more sound, I will gut you right here, Sun." He was damp-smelling, like he had just emerged from a swamp.

Ondine has felt tears spring to her eyes, only she could not furiously wipe them away like she wished to. Crying was not going to help her. 

The Moons had each risen higher into the sky with her, further away from the lake. Ondine did not know what Alara was doing, not at the angle she was facing, but the Moon holding her left arm turned his head.

"The Sun is following us." His voice was smooth, pleasant-like. He sounded young. She wasn't sure if it was her imagination that made her think that the creature was unnaturally cold, even through the clothes he was wearing. Ondine would have been able to turn to look at him if the swamp-smelling creature released his grip on her face.

"The Sun", Ondine knew, was her sister. She had felt a sense of hope, as she knew there was no way Alara would let the Moons take her.

"Should we kill it?" The creature holding her right leg had asked without turning back. It had a high, squeaky kind of voice that was unnatural for its large stature.

Ondine had felt her insides turn.

"Too much trouble than it's worth. Just fly faster, we'll lose it soon." The swamp creature had answered.

Ondine knew that with Alara's wings, she would have gotten to her in no time, and yet again felt an immense guilt at having injured her older sister. The last time they had spoken had been closer to an argument than a conversation.

At this point, Ondine had stopped struggling - she knew that falling from this height would surely kill her, if not paralyse. She was just beginning to wonder if Alara was still following them when she felt a weight lift off of her left arm. The oddly-cold creature that had been holding had cried out in pain, and then he was falling.

The swamp creature had sworn, his head turning back. Ondine waited for the remaining three to circle back, to make sure their fallen member was okay. But they didn't.

"Faster," The swap creature had barked. "Kōri's already a dead man, even if the fall didn't kill him."

+

It was far too dark to see where they were going, but Ondine knew it was to Lune. After a couple of minutes of flying, the remaining three Moons placed a bag over Ondine's head. She tried to calm herself with deep, slow breaths, focusing on the amount of turns they took so she would be able to get herself out, but it was no use. The journey was too long - she wasn't completely sure about the directions.

The Moons who had taken her did not encounter anyone else in their journey, which Ondine found quite strange. Surely in Lune, like it was in Sol, it would be teeming with creatures?

Maybe this was a back entrance or something, Ondine thought. They didn't take me in through the main part.

Just when she was beginning to contemplate whereabouts that could be, her vision went black.

Ondine woke up in a cell. A jail-cell type of room, with one door and no windows. She frantically took in her surroundings, trying to look for a means to escape. There was a meagre amount of water in a black basin in the corner, not nearly enough to sufficiently replenish her energy. That was it. There was no other objects in this room.

Ondine felt like crying again, but pinched herself, hard. Alara would surely be looking for her, so everything was going to be okay. She just had to keep reminding herself of that.

Her sister would find her. She would.