The Hovering Ingress: The Hidden World

Chapter 36

Grim Realization

Later That Cycle

Xengu slowly opened her eyes, a deep growl rumbling in her throat as she looked around. This place looked to be the... hospital, a hospital room. Her body felt strange, especially considering the last time she felt it. No burns, no wounds, but everything felt restrained and tight, but her wings felt sore, so that was expected. Something was in her nose though... and was something touching her backside?

Quietly she tried to breathe normally as she looked down at the bed. She was under uncomfortable and heavily weighted blankets, and many wires were stuck to her and led out to the ground or elsewhere. Somehow the nurses were alerted that she was up and entered the room quietly.

Xengu flattened her ears against her head and let out a low growl as they started to take out the wires from her body and poke and prod at her. Strangely they wanted to get to her underside, so as soon as they lifted the blanket, the panther kicked and hissed. Whatever reason it was, she was weak and had her legs easily pressed against the bed.

A hiss escaped her as they removed... whatever was touching her and put the blanket back over her. Looking to her side she found her wings were lifted up and stretched out. No wonder they felt sore as soon as she woke up.

"Good to see you're up, Xengu," a familiar voice called.

Glaring past the nurses that were trying to get her to face them, Xengu spotted Jordain coming in quietly. She was going to say something when one of the nurses took her by the chin gently and brought her face to them. They then grabbed the strange tubes that went through her nose and started pulling at them, causing her to nearly yowl and jolt. The nurses quickly hushed her as they continued to pull out the tubes, which eventually went by smoothly.

Coughing and snarling, the panther glared at them as they put a paper towel to her nose. She only got a glimpse of it, but the wet feeling to the towel was definitely some of her blood. Once the nurses had made sure she wasn't bleeding anymore, they left the room to leave Xengu and Jordain alone. The winged panther simply gave a concerned stare at the wolf.

"What did they do to me?" she asked warily.

"You were in a coma for over a ninth sune, we had to feed, give you water, and allow you to pass waste somehow," Jordain gently chuckled out.

Xengu's eyes widened and she tried to sit up, though her wings being stretched out made her snarl and fall back.

"Did you get Favi and Marsh back? I need to know!"

"Well... no, to put it bluntly. In fact, there's worse news to share..."

The winged feline's eyes widened before softening with defeat and despair, turning to the clean white tiles on the floor.

"Jasar was stolen after I got knocked out..." she mumbled.

"No, it was two sune cycles after the battle, at night," Jordain sighed out, leaning against the wall and crossing her arms. "Raid was found escaping the prison in the middle of the night, where it was extremely dark. Aife was sent out to fight her and essentially lost the fight. What's worse is that..."

Xengu sent a confused stare as Jordain struggled to say the words.

"Please don't get needlessly angry... but Aife said she heard Jasar's voice echo something to Raid during her escape."

The winged panther widened her eyes in horror and flattened her ears against her head. Jasar was with Raid? Why? He knew well enough not to be close to that ophoris! It was against the rules! Maybe... no... maybe Raid stole Jasar? Was he crying out for help?