Through The Branches

She walks through the large empty room, she recognizes it as a dim version of the stairway landing of her home. She knew it wasn’t real, she knew she was in trouble, pain raced through her chest as she walked down the stairs, it had all gone from bad to worse quicker than she had thought it would have. It was supposed to be a simple thing, something she has done since the tinderbox was lit years ago now, wow years really. Airship goes out to have a peek and sometimes doesn’t make it back, when they linkshell back, she sometimes gets tapped to go find them and bring them home. She was good at being sneaky, getting in places without being seen and so it should have been easy.

It should have been easy, but then the beasts came and came fast. She was good at the bloody things, many years of practice but this was more than she could handle, and she knew it when she told the crew to run, one of them had a broken leg and they would need time to get back to the airship that carried her into the area. She had turned to face the horde of the nightmare things and did so with anger and lightning. She knew though there were far too many, and as they came on and on, she got slower and slower. Expending aether, bruises cuts.. Stabs.. All took their toll, so much she didn’t see the shadow creep up on her. She doesn’t see it as they close in for the kill, licking fang filled mouths savoring the meal to come.

She didn’t understand how she got here, she could hear the sounds of the waves outside, and the distant cries of gulls dance in her ears. She pauses as a light breeze rushes past her bare legs and in that moment she realizes she is clad in what she was when she got the call to head out, shorts and a tank top hair down and swishing in the breeze. “You…” a voice said.. Nearly a whisper in the wind, full of malice but also confusion..”You … infected… me.” it said as ayla spun around trying to find the source of it.

She stopped when she saw something. A shape.. Vaguely outlined in the corner of the room, she narrowed her eyes and gazed as the form seemed to move a bit, gaps appearing as if to suggest it was looking back. “Who..” she began to say before a sound akin to nails on a chalkboard echoed out from it and caused Ayla to stagger back and cover her ears. “FUCK!” she managed to shout before the sound stopped.

The sound stopped as suddenly as it began at that pained utterance, causing ayla to look up.. Unsure of what was going on here. “Is this it?” the words hung in the air as the waves rolled outside. “Am I .. dead.” she asked perhaps herself but the form seemed to solidify more, enough so it had a vague outline of a person, maybe even a viera judging by the ears.

“Not yet.. hurt though.” it said as if it both relished and hated the words. “I.. wanted to … help hurt.. But.. they are… and you.. You …” it seemed like it was struggling for words. “Feel… you…” it motioned to where its heart would be. “You need help… or will die, can’t go home or will die.” it said as that wavering confusion creeped back “we … die.”