Ugh…huh?

Huff...ehh...I... f. ri...t

My head, it, it feels heavy.  What, what happened.  The ground, it’s squishy, and, wet? Where the hell? Thomas, having barley figured out his surroundings, passes out again. 

Thomas, Ifrit yells, her voice barley reaching the passed out and concussed figure in the darkness. Thomas THomaS Thomas! She continues, desperately trying to wake him.

Thomas! Wake up!

“Huh? Ifrit….” “What... happened?” Owe! Thomas yells, blood flows from the back of his head where he landed, it was not a graceful fall. 

“Don’t move, your legs broken, and your head is bleeding, hold tight I’m going to make some light.”

“Orbis lucis et sapientiae, da mihi luce mut tenebras illumine” Ifrit shouts an incantation for a lighting spell, in the hopes it can illuminate their situation.  Both Ifrit and Thomas are unaware of their current predicament.

“There, one small fire ball he-he, now, let’s look at that head and leg.”

As I move my leg, having not heard that it was broken, I can hear it crunch, as the jagged edges of the pieces of bone scrape against each other. “Ah! ****! It ******* hurts Ifrit!” I yell; the pain is enough to make anyone pass out, but with the unknown area and the uneasiness he feels, the adrenaline keeps him awake.   “I don’t mean to complain but is there any magic for pain?!” I ask, desperately. I feel close to passing out from the pain, my body has gone cold, yet I’m drenched in sweat.  This isnt anything like when I broke my arm when I was a kid.  I’m close to passing out, I can’t, not here, I need to stay awake.

“Sorry.” I clear my throat, “Ifrit, is there anything you can,” I wince from the pain. do for the pain?” “I’m trying to stay awake, but I fear I might be close to passing out” I plead.  “Don’t” She says, “Don’t pass out, hold on.”

“Just give me a minute, I need to warm up.” “This magic takes time to prepare.” She says, concerned, not just about the time, but also because, she can sense the mana in the air, and this overwhelming pressure, its such a strong force.  This wouldn’t be present in Thomas’s world.  Which can only mean one thing. 

“I’ll warn you ahead of time, this magic, its nothing compared to the soul magic, this, this is going to hurt.” She says hesitantly.  “Honestly, I can’t say I’m surprised, from what I’ve experienced, most magic probably hurts, doesn’t it.” “Whatever, let’s do it.”

“Wait!” I yell, “How bad will it hurt!?” “I’m not ready, I lied!” I say panicked, I hate pain, I don’t want to feel pain!

“Listen, it’ll hurt, like a, fire, yeah! Like a raging fire, and your in the middle of said fire, it’s going to suck.” “Honestly, do you have any other option, Thomas? We don’t know where we are. So were **** out of luck.” “Either you learn to walk with a shattered leg, or you can take it like a man.”

“Just do it, it’s better than walking on it shattered like this, do your worst”

The pressure from the space they find themselves in is almost too much for Ifrit, Thomas, a human, should be more effected by this overwhelming pressure than she is.  Why isn’t he affected by it? She asks herself.  How can a mere human withstand this, or for that matter, not even notice it? What the hell did I bring into this world, or what did that thing bring here.  That eye, that void, the blackness, why would it bring him here?

I glance up, ifrit looks deep in thought, but I don’t know what about.  She hasn’t said anything for a few minutes, it’s everything I can do to just stay conscious.  This pain, it’s awful, I can see the bone, the deafening sound of the crackling and grinding.  No don’t look, don’t look, if you look, you’ll pass out, don’t…. oh! Damn! Errk… I said not to look idiot.  I held back the vomit in my throat, swallowing the acid. 

“Ifrit? Hey, hey you good?” “Not for nothing here, but could you please heal me?!”

Ifrits daze breaks, moving her eyes to meet mine.

“Oh! Sorry! my bad, I was just, no never mind, all good, give me a minute.”

“Brace yourself” Ifrit says with anticipation in her voice.

“Dea morborum et aegrotantium, sana corpus fractum et confusum ante me, ut iterum terram ambulet!”

Sparks of light begin to rise from my shattered leg, twisting and swirling through the air.  A beautiful sight, truly.  The heat begins to set, It’s not that bad, honestly.  The light that surrounds me begins to turn red, dark red, sparking as the tiny balls twist and converge on one another.  The heat rises in intensity, filling my leg with an other worldly heat.

I contain my scream as the heat changes to an even higher degree, like I have dipped my leg in molten lava.  If I could see my leg, I would have assumed it was gone.  The pain, it’s too severe, why is a healing spell hurtful, why would this magic, of all the magic in this world, hurt so bad.  It feels like it’s rendering the flesh on my bones to ashes, I claw at myself, ripping my face apart, trying to contain my screams.  Soon my face begins to burn along with my leg, i forgot about the head wound, now theres claw marks in my face as well. 

It’s too much.  I can’t.  Once again, I pass out, the pain is just too much, my brain switched into protective mode.    

It’s too much, the pain of the spell woke me up, the pain is to severe, there’s no way healing magic is more painful than death, is she ******* with me?

I just lay here, awaiting the spells completion, I can’t bear to open my eyes, I can feel the bones reshaping, the fragments collecting, the torn muscle fibers assimilating back together.  I hold through the pain, I need to.

I shut my eyes, focusing on a distant memory, a happy memory, when me and mom went to the aquarium.  This was my ninth birthday.  Me and mom went to the national aquarium, we saw all sorts of fish, my favorite was the electric eel.  We got to handle stingrays in the walk-in pool, swam with dolphins.  That was just a few years before she died.  I’m glad we were able to make happy memories together.  

The pain recedes as I reminisce on the good times with my mother.

What the hell? Is he smiling right now? She thought to herself, with all this pain. He must really be a monster.

How, how in the goddess, how is he sleeping at a time like this, he really must not feel this, it’s the only explanation.  Puzzled Ifrit looks at Thomas with what can only be described as confusion and interest. 

How did he even fall asleep? Or did he pass out? There shouldn’t be any pain… not anymore at least, and where we are?... it shouldn’t be possible.

Hmph! Crossing her arms, Ifrit shuts her eyes with a face close to that of constipation, as a bead of sweat falls from her chin, trying to finish the spell quickly.

When the healing spell finished, Ifrit got a little too curious about Thomas, so she did something without thinking.  She closes her eyes; her whole face begins to contort as she concentrates.  A huge golden ring erupts from her forehead.  Like a looking glass, not much larger than a magnifying glass lens appears in her view.  She shouts.  

“O sapientia, sine me videre”

A picture manifests itself within the lens, it’s, regrettably, Thomas's mind, his dream-state.  What could be revealed by such a spell? What trouble could this lead us to? Ifrit looks on with a judgmental look on her face, she sees Thomas, with his mother, but she doesn’t have a face, nobody does, everyone has been seemingly erased. 

In an instant our hero’s younger self looks away from his dream mother, making direct eye contact with ifrit.  His piercing gaze, like a veracious lion; makes Ifrit flinch and flutter backward. 

“What the ****!” yells Ifrit in shock. 

Moving side to side, carefully watching, “He’s following me that’s for sure.”  Ever so puzzled, Ifrit reaches out into what can be assumed is a pocket dimension, her hand and forearm go invisible as she pulls out a book that’s perfect for her size.

Out of panic, and concern; Ifrit stops the magic spell, the dream vanishes from the lens as the lens bursts into golden dust.

Flipping through it, periodically checking on Thomas, who is still smiling for some reason.  No, no, not this, nope, nah-uh." She slams the book shut in frustration, she couldn’t find anything that could explain what she had just seen

As I lose myself to the dreaming world, where my loveliest memories lay and my horrors wait in silence, I can feel the fire, or lack of, as I ascend from my memory, I feel no pain as I open my eyes.  The once gruesome scene of my leg in its splintered state was no-more, a perfect leg, honestly too perfect to the point my legs don’t match! 

“Ifrit?? How the hell is my leg, like, brand new?!”

“Pfffft! Hahahaha, well I mean it was high level magic; it just made your leg the best version of itself” “One leg has been achieved through the physical and the other through magic, of course there going to be different, do you want me to shatter your other leg? Will that make baby better?”  Thomas’s comment seems to have relaxed Ifrit some, she can still see the piercing gaze from his dream-state but has decided to deal with it when they are out of danger.

“Yeah, I get it, thankyou Ifrit….” “it’s not as if I don’t appreciate the support, the difference just caught me off guard that’s all.  Thank you for healing me.” 

“It’s a lot better than the other leg, you’re not wrong, if anything I should do the other one; even it all out” She says laughing.

“That’s ok, I feel like we don’t really have the privilege of time here, I don’t know what it is but it’s not just really dark in here, I can feel eyes, does that make sense, I feel like somethings watching us” I say sheepishly.

“Where even are we?” “…...That thing, in the sink, it grabbed us, both of us.”

“I thought it was just trying to grab you Ifrit, and when I ran after you, its tendrils were also pointed at me! What the hell did I do? I, no offense, but I could understand it grabbing you, you’re from here, but me?!”

“I must not be the only one trying to get to you…... if that’s the case, it’s a good thing I caught you first, think if you had been grabbed by that thing first? You’d be here without me….” “The whole beast melting incident doesn’t seem that bad now, does it. She laughs.

“No, you’re right, I’m glad you did.  I would probably already be dead if you weren’t here with me, I couldn’t imagine having a broken leg, and the pitch black? I’d die just from the shock alone.”

In a moment, as if provoked by the laughter, she shoots her head back to me.  Ifrit’s eyes turn to fire.  Her hands become ingulfed in flame.

“Ifrit…... look I’m sorry I didn’t mean anything by it.”  I coil, waiting for the sensation of fire burning my flesh.

Only, I feel a rush of heat past my head.  As I open my eyes, I turn to see there’s this giant gargoyle thing, leaking goo.  What the **** What the ****! I scream.

I shoot up, back straight, eyes forward with murder in my eyes.  

What the ****, Are these the eyes I felt earlier? Ifrit thinks to herself.

What is it? I’m not moving myself, what the hell? wait, is this magic? My body turns, for a moment I see a magic circle on my back, WAIT!... is that ingrained in my back!!? Ifrit? When-

“Shh, focus on what’s in front of us, or we die”

In a moment, a jet-black hand stretched out towards me, and in a flash, I dodged its attack.  “Ifrit, what is this?” I yell.  “It’s a Guardian of The Great Chasm” Their everywhere, usually on their own, their such a brutal species they have to have entire territories to themselves, or they devour each other.  We happened to fall within its area.  It must have been hunting elsewhere and sensed us because of my magic.  All that matters is it’s here and if we don’t kill it, we’re dead.

What the hell is it doing here though? She thought to herself.  As far as i know, this isnt the Great Chasm, this place, it feels different.  It's too dark, and wierdly wet, to be part of the chasm.  

My body straightened; my hands felt like there were burning? Or are they itchy? I can’t differentiate, the adrenaline, the sheer adrenaline, what is this, my body’s tingling.  I’m so thirsty…. I want blood, I need blood. 

My body takes on a sprinters position, I can feel my thighs tightening and loosening, they are becoming bigger, bigger than ever before.  I shoot forward with the force of a star, at speeds unattainable without the use of magic.  All I can see is blood.

All the while, theres a voice in the back of my mind screaming at me to kill.

KILL-KILL-KILL-KILL-KILL It repeats.