Elementals II: Prophecies (DISCONTINUED)

~ Chapter 19 ~

Year: 3205
Mars

Breeze:
Never in my life did I ever think I would survive a crash-landing on Mars. I obviously hoped that I would never experience a crash-landing anywhere for starters, and secondly, I did it on a planet that is not my own. As I am regaining consciousness, that is one of the first thoughts that actually hit me. It isn't about the fact that there is a red landscape around me, or the fact that it feels as if I don't have a right hand anymore. It's about the roles being switched around, because right now, I am the alien, not Aqú. From this point forward, I have to lean on him to guide us through whatever it is his intention here was.

I am sitting outside the wreckage of the pod in which we escaped. I remember I opened my eyes for a brief moment right after the crash struggling to breathe. My gills took a hit somehow and almost suffocated me. I guess Aqú fixed that because I am now staring out into the Martian landscape around me. I'm not perfectly breathing yet. I gasp for as much air as I can, but it doesn't come. I'll just have to wait to adjust I suppose.

"Oh, thank goodness, you're alive. I was worried that you had suffocated completely because of the gills..." Aqú mentions. I look at the wreckage for a moment, realizing that it is a damn miracle that we didn't die. Aqú somehow managed to slow down the pod enough for it to not immediately kill us, but I bumped my head in the window, which probably smashed the gills he had put on me earlier. "...alive for now, you mean." My head is obviously giving me a hard time, and the funny thing is that it is the least of my worries. "We should take that for as long as we can. Of course, your Grand Master didn't make it easy for us. We're not in the most ideal spot." Aqú starts as I just look down for a moment. "We landed in the middle of nowhere. We've got quite a way to go for protection against the sandstorms. They can get pretty vile."

He sets up his things next to me, and the moment I turn my head, I almost flinch a little bit. He looks different now. "What?" He asks, as if there couldn't possibly be anything to react to. "Oh, right..." He then realizes as I keep looking at his face. "...we're no longer in human-friendly atmosphere so I turn back to my natural form. We're not all that different from you humans, but you've been right about our appearances for the most part: green-ish skin, sharp ears, weird noses...to be honest, I think your noses look better..." I shake my head. "Are you serious?" I ask him slightly annoyed. "Yeah, well, I was just trying to distract you I guess." He says as he opens the chest. I am actually amazed that it survived without a single crack.

"What's the plan from here?" I ask while trying to remember the fact that every breath I take isn't in air for human lungs. The gills fastened just beneath my cheekbones are the only things separating me from suffocation due to the different composition of gasses. Aqú is going through the chest looking for something. I am just more interested in what we're doing on Mars in the first place. "Our plan is actually pretty simple, though slightly complicated..." He answers. "How do you figure?" I ask somewhat annoyed, but at the same curious. "Our objective is simple, kid: find the others. That's the easy part because I know where they are. The complicated part is getting there while avoiding trouble...and keeping you alive."

That's when I look down on my hand, as if I just now realize how much it actually hurts. I mean, I suppose I always did notice the pain, but I had so many other things on my mind that it didn't come to its full intensity before Aqú mentioned it. "Unfortunately I don't have enough herbs to get you through the entire journey..." I look at it as Aqú unravels the bandage and we both get a decent look at it. "That does not look good. The crash obviously didn't help you much, especially that we landed further away from where I planned. Your hand is deteriorating at an alarming speed." I try to look away from it, but just the mere pain brings the image to my head.