An Astral Tale in the Underground

Chapter One: Fallen

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"Why...Why am I still alive. I don't deserve it....I have no reasons left. So, why?"

The voice was clear in its speaker's head as they thought those thoughts in the darkness in front of their closed eyes. The questioner's entire body ached at what they had made themselves do that had resulted in their position on the solid stone ground. They didn't dare move to investigate the warmness of liquid seeping from their partially pain-numbed upper back in the face of discomfort of the fact that would probably awaken the rest of their body's senses to the pain of the abrupt halt to the free falling of the action that their current condition rendered them as.

They decided to ignore the resulted pain as the person tried to push off the ground with their arms and legs to produce a half-kneeling position from their original lying face-down position that they held while they wearlily recovered from the loss of consciousness from the fall.

They paused, their labored breathing the only sound that echoed amongst the ragged stone walls of the cavern, trying to give their body a slight break from its ordeal as the red liquid life force dripped from the crooked, torn black, neon blue, white feathers and broken bones that were once wings that drooped sickeningly to the ground from the shredded indigo jacket on the person's back.

"If I fell down here, then the others will try to find me...I can't let them see me. Not like this....not...not ever. I have to move somewhere else if I want any chance of dying undetected. But...where?" They thought to themselves as they opened their purple eyes a crack and resumed to shakily stand up, using the nearby wall as support to avoid stepping on the yellow-gold flower patch that they almost fell upon earlier.

"Niba would have liked those flowers if he was...heh, I can't think those thoughts anymore. They will only cause pain. An unnecessary pain at that...I have to move on...Even if they are still alive, they'll all be dead soon anyways. Might as well consider them all as such." Were the thoughts that echoed in their mind.

The person started forward a few steps before collapsing to their knees, breathing quite heavily that quickly turned to deep-throated coughing from which blood was hacked up and splattered unto the ground as it slowly subsided, leaving the person shaking from the calming effort of the coughing. They shook their head in distaste at their convulsions from their condition in which they believed they deserved from their previous actions.

A soft, shaky sigh replaced their previous breathing and with it, a new demeanor of thoughtfulness.

"If I want to cover more ground to get away from where they can find me at, I should rest...but if the legends prove to be true, I don't want to be found and have the chance to be healed if they choose to be friendly. Hm...if I use my powers down here, will it be amplified if there are monsters? And if I use it, will I be more trackable? That is...if it even works.........I can't let them see me like this. Not ever. I...have to try."

The person seemed motivated by their thoughts and tried to focus on their body as best as they could while trying to fully accept the entirety of the pain that their pain tolerance blocked. A short, but still quiet, hiss of agony escaped through their clenched, slightly-feline teeth before the burst had diminished and slowly begin to ebb to a painful throb on each shoulder blade on their back.

They started to cough again at the stress being used on their personal spirit, or otherwise known as a SOUL, for it was not use to being used towards anything the body needed very often and was therefore very difficult to use its magic-power potential.

The body then laxed when the fit was over and the person felt slightly clearer-headed before their illusionary feat to hide the bloodied mess upon their back completed using the appropriate amount of power from the SOUL to hide the wings.

They further slumped against the wall due to the exhaustion of events that had occurred throughout that day and casted a glance around their surroundings to try to spot anyother being in the area, but found no one else besides themselves in the cave like room. Slumping even further, they reached the ground where they focused, once again, their powers to act upon their body in order to change it to a believable disguise.

Their heart quickened as more pain was felt by their efforts of the illusionary magic changing their body to the disguise that complied and hid certain features that would have given off their identity. They felt their hair lengthen, shorten, and change to a silver-tabby like pattern. Their body and clothes glowed softly indigo-purple as the lines between the matter of each piece melded together as the entirety shrunk and shortened.

The glow diminished leaving a hunched over silver tabby cat with a slightly bushy tan tail, ears, and paws along with a fine golden-bronze chain necklace with a small clear crystal and the long, raw scratches and evident scars along the front and back legs, shoulder blades, and tail.

It's still-purple eyes watered from the transformation but otherwise strugged to keep the slouched position against the wall. A forced cough squeaked from their throat as they tried to clear the red blockage that had trickled in from the previous coughing in their form before the transformation.

The person-turned-cat's legs buckled underneath them as the last of their strength was quickly failing them.

"N-no, I can't let them see me. I have to continue on... I just can't bear for them to see me like this."

More thoughts that seemed to come from their heart more so than their mind urged them to move further away from the place they landed at, but the body fought against such commands till its consciousness started to blur at the edges as the cats' vision failed along with it.

With the final ounce of will, they resumed conscious a few seconds longer, but to no anvil as the darkness in the mind enveloped them as their eyes fluttered and remained shut as they lost to their battle of their mind against their body.

The purple SOUL piece wavered inside them with exhaustion as it accepted the simple fact of un-wanted, but highly needed, sleep.

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