Court of Feathers

Three

Word Count: 2,080

He was falling.

Shiro felt as if his whole body were being torn apart, as indescribable pain ran through his limbs. He could hear himself screaming, both out of pain, and out of fear of what was happening to him.

They were falling, somehow, someway, but where to, Shiro wasn't sure.

Keith had followed him in, and he could hear the teen's cries as he fell with him, some part of his brain tried calling out to him, but all that came out was a jumbled mess of words as his stomach jumped to his throat not allowing any speech to pass.

He couldn't see.

It was like a large white mass was obscuring his vision, he couldn't see anything but white. It was a constant twist of limbs as he fell, winding head over heels towards what he could only guess was the ground, and from what Shiro could tell in his panic-ridden mind, it was going to be a sudden death for them both. Hitting the ground at as fast as they both were going was going to be fatal at the least.

Until it wasn't.

At some point Shiro had squeezed his eyes closed, waiting for the anticipated impact to come at him. It never did.

He now opened his eyes in confusion to find himself laying on a bed of grass and a face full of dirt.

"Keith?" Shiro wheezed, still trying to get his breath back from the exhilarating ride, his head was spinning and his sight refused to focus so he was currently stuck watching his vision move without his control. He pushed himself up to his elbows, looking around him, his eyes finally landing on a fuzzy figure on their back a few feet away. "Keith?" Shiro tried again, his voice still shaky, but a little more firm than last time.

The figure groaned, the teen rolling onto his side to look at Shiro, "What happened?"

"I don't know," Shiro admitted, getting up to a sitting position rubbing at his eyes in an attempt to clear them, which, in fact, did help a little.

"Where are we?" Keith asked a couple of minutes later after Shiro had gotten some of his swirling sight to calm down a little, the only noise between them the rustle of wind through branches and the chirping of birds and Shiro's rapid heartbeat pounding in his ears.

Shiro hated to admit it, but it took him several seconds to process that they certainly weren't at the Garrison anymore, matter of fact, Shiro didn't think they were anywhere near, well, anywhere. Looking around only gave him the same view of mossy trunks, an occasional boulder, and ferns and undergrowth as far as the eye could see. Looking above, Shiro could see a thick blanket of leaves covering their heads, bright sunlight filtering in through the branches while bird calls echoed through the trees.

"I don't know either." It was kind of unnerving to change from living in desert conditions, to suddenly shift to lush greenery by falling through a- a portal? A teleporter? What even was that?

He wasn't aware of any super technology that advance to suddenly push someone to another environment completely, and if the Garrison knew about it, Sam certainly hadn't said a word to him about it.

Groaning a little with the strain to getting to his feet, he leaned back, feeling his back muscles pop with the movement. "But I don't think we should just hang out here and wait for help to come."

Military training kicking in, Shiro looked around them, noting every small detail around them, a plan beginning to formulate. "I'm going to go scout ahead, Keith, you stay here and- "