Vitae Memorandum

21-Guiding Light

By the next day, Thanrie was still out for the count. It was no simple task to endure injuries like the ones she suffered from, though even Thanrie herself was unaware how seriously she was injured.

Caught away from the waking world, Thanrie was bound into the halls of her own worries. In her slumber, she felt as if she was lost within the darkness, being chased from every angle. She ran and fled uncertain what else to do. Suddenly, she was struck from behind, and she fell deep into a hole in the ground. She grasped for a ledge to stop her fall, finding a sinister shroud haunting the ledge. She tried to avoid it, but the shroud leapt for her, and thus she fell through the wall behind it. She found herself then within a dark corridor, alone, still lost.

She was tired and weak, but still she pushed on. She wasn't going to simply give up. As she traveled forwards, the walls moved and shifted, from stone to steel. The shadows gave way to gray, as an electric current surged along the walls in the same direction. Even lit, nothing had color. She pressed onward, but she was getting tired, unable to keep going for much longer.

The steel shifted to glass, and currents shifted to cars travelling much too quickly. She was lost among the colorless vehicles, passing as if in a blur. She couldn't keep up with everything that was going on, but still she moved on. From behind, one of the cars came right at her and connected, even on this side of the glass, and she went flying through the glass above her. Everything shattered, cutting into her. After a moment, she got up from the pool of gray blood to look around.

She was on a colorful flowery hill, her blood flowing downhill over the flowers, taking their color away. She reached out for a flower, as it withered and died. Soon, the blood had covered the entire hill in a lifeless gray. She went down to the bottom, and found just beyond the hill were three remaining roses, half wilted by heat. The dirt they were growing from was actually ash, the blood had stopped only because it was incinerated.

She stopped before the flowers, still herself bleeding gray colorless blood, knowing that she needed to do something to help these last remaining flowers. She reached out for the flowers in an effort to help them, and her hand lit on fire. She shifted the ashes away from the flowers, and the hill behind her inverted, going down instead of up. The ashes started to pour down upon her, but she pressed on. Soon, the ash was all behind her, the roses resting in normal brown dirt. They were going to be okay.

Rainfall started, the area behind her filling quickly with water. She scrambled up, but found that the water could not touch her. She passed through it like it was nothing more than air. Water filled the area, relinquishing all of the flames, including her own burns. Her other injuries, gone. She arrived at the area with the roses once more, and reached out to touch one. In response, it bloomed.

Thanrie opened her eyes, finally awake. The fading thoughts of her dreams left her troubled about what she had actually been missing in the waking world. She was back on a proper bed, the room filled with medicines and other simple medical tools, such as bandages. She herself was wearing plenty of bandages. A sudden twitch brought her agony. She was injured? She tried to look around further, despite the pain, and noticed she was not alone. Mhyl was asleep on the edge of the bed, otherwise sitting in a chair. She looked exceptionally ragged, like she had been pushing herself for a while. This only concerned her further.

"Mhyl?" Thanrie's own voice was very soft, a clear sign of her weakened state. She couldn't remember why she was so injured, but the whole situation had her very worried. Despite her soft voice, Mhyl shot awake right away, banging her foot in the process. "Oh! Oww.. Thanrie!!" Mhyl was visibly contemplating how to give her a hug, but could not figure a way to achieve that without causing Thanrie pain. Meanwhile, Mhyl sounded absolutely exhausted. Thanrie considered her circumstances awkwardly. "I'm sorry for everything I've put you through." "It's.. it's okay. I'm glad you're awake." Thanrie's concern only rose as Mhyl began to cry.