Life Here After - Chapter Two - Part One
I hadn't grown accustomed to the pain my body was going through but I had become familiar with the cold that seemed to slowly creep into my body. The air I was breathing was slowly stopping. Whatever had happened, it was over. I opened my eyes slowly but all I saw was darkness. I wondered if maybe I was still asleep. I shook my head and closed my eyes for a brief second before I opened them back up, quickly noticing a small glimmer of light that shined through a crack in the darkness.
I closed my eyes again and felt my ears begin to strain. I heard the emptyness around me and for a while that was all i heard until my ears finally managed to lock onto the sound of the fluid I was in and how it made a kind of lapping sound. The sound only happened when I moved. I was going to try and test the theory but a sharp pain throughout my body told me that i was better off just staying still. I closed my eyes, once again, allowing the darkness to enter my mind.
After a while in the darkness I started to hear something different. It sounded similar to echoes and for a while I wondered if maybe I was going crazy. I was surprised to hear the voices getting clearer and louder. As quickly as the voices had been heard, they stopped and I was left to the darkness. I couldnt help but wish that the darkness would go away. Ever since I could remember the darkness had been there. I made a soft sighing sound, a wince appearing on my face as my lungs began to hurt. I tried to remember were I was but all I remembered was the darkness. I grasped at a name at the back of my mind but it quickly vanished.
I just continued to float there in the fluid. My eyes were nearly shut before I saw a small glimmer of light, not from the spot in the darkness but from something else. The light moved closer. I was in too much pain to move so I just floated there staring at the foggy light that danced through the darkness, then came the voices. Quiet at first, then loud. I could only make out what my brain thought was "Is it alive?" I scoffed a bit, blowing some bubbles out the sides of my mouth, causing more pain to dart through my body. Soon after my ears had faintly heard the bubbles pop on the surface I heard a scream. A part of me wanted to laugh.
I opened my eyes as best I could and watched as the shapes in the darkness moved close together. I continued to watch them until both forms turned and ran away. Once again I was left in the darkness. My ears strained to hear the voices. For a while I did hear them but soon the screams faded and I was left to listen to the sound of the water. I began to close my eyes again, a small voice in the back of my mind saying words that I didn't understand. I tried to shake my head to get the words to leave me alone. All the action did was bring pain. I winced again and just remained still, letting the sound of heavy feet lull me back towards the darkness
A sound was ringing in my ears and for a while it was deafening. After a few moments of the sound echoing through the fluid I floated in I started to move around. Once the sound stopped I opened my eyes and looked out into the dark room in front of me. There again were the two forms I had seen the last time my eyes had opened but this time there was a third, this one larger.
I flexed my fingers and hands, thankful that the pain was starting to go away. I wasn't alone, or at least, I hoped I wasnt alone. The thought gave me strength that helped me overcome the pain that started to go through my body, forcing a low growl to emit from my throat. If there was someone out there then I wanted to be out there as well. I fought against the wires that were connected to my body and for a brief second pain that I hadn't felt before coursed through my body.
I stopped moving and the pain stopped. I felt a bit relieved and once again I felt the cold entering my body but this time with the cold came a new sensation. Something warm was coming from the areas of my body that had hurt just moments ago. I didn't get much time to think about it before I started to feel myself sink. The more I sank the more I started to panic and the more I panicked the more I started to realize that I was breathing in liquid. I started to choke, the act searing my lungs and forcing them to hurt more then I had felt them hurt earlier.
I growled but only bubbles came out. Seconds passed before I heard a near deafening sound which was followed by the sound and feel of water rushing past my body. After a second I started to move. I continued to move until I hit something hard. I tried to move but couldn't, I tried to breath but nothing happened.
I heard myself gasp and was shocked to feel something hit my chest hard. Once. Twice. Three times. After the fourth time I felt liquid force its way up through my throat. I closed my eyes and tried to get it to stop, instead I felt myself being rolled onto my side. I vomitted what was left of the fluid I had nearly drowned on. I felt something touching my back and heard softly spoken words., the words I didn't understand but the touch was welcome. It further proved that I wasn't dreaming.
After the last of the fluid left my lungs I was rolled back onto my back. I gasped and winced as cold air entered my lungs. It hurt but it felt extremely good. Once my body got the air it needed I suddenly started to feel colder then I had felt before and with the cold came a chattering. I was a tad shocked to realize that my teeth were making the sound. I felt my body curl up to try and conserve warmth.
I heard more sounds which was soon followed by two light footsteps retreating into the darkness. I closed my eyes and kept them closed. Something didn't feel right for some reason. Everything felt out of place. I didn't understand that feeling so I pushed it from my mind. All I really cared about was getting away from the cold and the darkness. I felt something warm touching my body. The warmth started to spread and eventually I stopped shivering. Shortly after the shivering stopped I felt myself drift into a deep sleep, hoping that the cold and darkness would be gone when I woke.
The dreams came like they hadn't before. Someplace I felt I knew yet at the same time I could tell I had never been there. A female was there. Her name was there in the darkness and for a while I tried to grasp it but every time I managed to grab it the female and the name would vanish. There was something else there in the darkness. Someone, a creature I thought I knew. It came closer and moved it's mouth to speak but nothing came out yet at the same time I understood everything it said. I shook my head and a sudden pain forced me from my dream.
I snarled at whatever was closest to me. Something had hurt me and I had tried to scare it off. I made a low growling sound as I let the dream fade from my memory and allowed the sleep to fade with it. I wasfully awake. That was certain. My head was starting to hurt but it was no where close to how much my arm had hurt when the pain had started.
When I finally realized were I was I started to relax, slightly. It didn't feel dangerous here and those I sensed nearby didn't seem to give off a threatening feel. I blinked my eyes and looked at the thing that had hurt me. It was halfway across the room. I blinked again as I looked at it. Something at the back of my mind told me that I knew what it was but I couldn't grasp a name for the form that stood in the far corner.
I groaned and closed my eyes, my head throbbing. I moved my hands up to gently massage my temples. It was then that I started to get that unmistakable feeling that something wasn't right. I opened my eyes and blinked them, allowing a puzzled expression to appear on my face. My hands were covered in something. I blinked again, Was that normal? I flexed my fingers and hands then made a soft "erph" sound as the claws at the tips of my fingers dug into the palms of my hands..
I sighed and shook my head. It felt wrong but with no answer to that feeling I pushed it from my mind. I looked around the room. There were four creatures nearby. One still standing in the far corner of the room. One near the foot of the thing I was on and two a couple feet behind that creature. All of them were looking at me.
I moved my hands back up to rub my temples, it actually helped quite a bit. What helped even more was when I closed my eyes. After a while my ears perked to the sound of one of the creatures speaking. female popped into my mind, shrugging I decided to label the creature as female. It seemed right "Well, we know it's male and, from the looks of it, he is a wolf. Seems to be in decent condition but I didn't find a tag or a collar That would mean he doesn't belong to anyone important."
Belong? Even with me as I was I understood that word to be meant as a insult. I opened my eyes so I could look at the female, low growl coming from me in response, the female backing away from the bed quickly. My ears turned to the sound of another creature speaking, once again female came to mind so I labeled it female as well. "What do we do with it? If the patrol sees that we have a male here we could get arrested.." The females sentence dropped as I heard a knock coming from somewhere behind me.
I lifted my head, wincing a little as a pop came from my neck and a quick shot of pain screamed through my body before stopping. I ground my teeth and closed my eyes waiting for the after effect to go away. After it finally did I started to look around again. The place wasn't very big. It seemed to be built right into the earth. I blinked at that thought and rolled the word around in my head a bit, a curious expression visible on my face.
I found it odd that strange words kept popping into my head. Female. Earth. I closed my eyes and listened to another, louder and harder, knock coming from the wall behind me. I opened my eyes again when I felt one of the females touching me. I tilted my head as I looked at her. She placed a finger to her lips before helping me up, a groan coming from the female before she fell with me to the ground.
I made a odd sound that I felt was extremely out of place. A yelp. The female pushed me off her and clamped her small hands around my maw before saying "Shhh" I tilted my head to the side before nodding like I understood.
I bit on my lip as she grabbed my hands and started to drag me across the floor. I tried to turn my head to look in the direction of the sound when another, more forceful, knock came from the other side of the wall, a voice following the knock, "Open up or we will break the door down! It's been brought to our attention that you are in violation of the law" I turned my head back towards the female before looking up at her, a few moments afterwards I felt her near thrown me into a small dark area and felt her close the door. I blinked as I lay there.
I truthfully didn't know what to do about this situation. There wasn't anywhere I could go from what I could tell. It was just the darkness. I was a bit surprised to see that the dark wasn't bothering me right now. Maybe it was because I knew I wasn't here alone? I shrugged a bit and felt something fall from the door and smack me in the face. I bit my tongue in case I made that odd sound again but nothing came out this time. I cautiously moved my hands up to the object and felt it.
It was soft and long. I tugged on it a bit and was surprised to realize that my rump was on whatever it was but for some odd reason it hurt anytime I tugged on it. After a bit I stopped to listen to the commotion on the other side of the door. The knocking had stopped. I heard muffled voices. They were quick. I got a feeling that something was wrong but not to a point that I should be worried. I rolled my eyes and continued to just lay there upside down continuing to try and figure out what I held in my hands and why it hurt every time I pulled on it.
Before I could find a answer to the question I felt the door I was laying on move and felt my body fall and thud loudly to the ground. It had happened to quick for me to really do anything about and for a few moments the sudden change in lighting was blinding. I quickly closed my eyes, waiting for them to adjust, before I opened them slowly. My head tilted to the side quizzically as I saw two females standing above me. They were looking me over and I knew they weren't the females I had seen just moments ago.
I remained silent as I lay there. It was quiet enough for me to hear not only the breathing of each creature in the room but I was also able to hear their heartbeats. I blinked and looked back and forth between the two females. It was evident that something was about to happen.