Dragon_Scribbles
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Will-o-the-Wysps
🕑 Added 2022-05-30 12:36:49 +0000 UTCA/N: Hey, guys. Got a fun, little story that popped into my head yesterday and wouldn't let me go. There's definitely material here for a series, and I've already got an idea of where I want to go with it, though it'll be secondary to R,H and ASiS. Still, it's a fun concept, and I definitely want to continue it. Hope you enjoy!
Will-o-the-Wysps
Why doesn’t Jhaem understand?
Mmer skipped over a fallen branch, buzzing his annoyance.
We have been friends almost since our lights first sparked. Shared each other’s brightest moments, and lit each other’s darkest. He was there for me when lightning took Raem, and I helped him master the wardance every night for two full seasons so the Sentinels would choose him as a first apprentice. Why does he not support me in this?
Each new thought and memory brought a sharp, new direction to his angry wanderings. I have told him many times that I want to be a male, that I have already started the change, but still he dotes on me more and more, like I’m already a female ready to be courted.
He settled to the forest floor. I know he wants us to be a mated pair. He has always been my friend, the first I race to find adventure with, but he does not spark my core like that. Even if he were choosing to be female, I wouldn’t court him. Why can’t he understand that?!
Buzzing in anger, he spun a wide circle, the static of his frustration dragging enough air along with him to disturb a few leaves. Why can’t he accept what I want?! Why can’t he understand that wanting to be his partner in adventure isn’t the same thing as wanting to be mate-bonded for life?
With an extra burst of energy, he spun so fast as to turn his circle into a glowing ring, lifting himself on his static alone. With a final, angry buzz he released his turn, zipping away in a blur of pure momentum.
Slowing, he drifted up to the canopy with a warble I will explain my choice to Jhaem, and that it is final. Either he will accept it, and we will still be friends, or he will refuse to accept it, and we won’t. He hummed a firm tone. And if he can’t accept it, were we ever really friends, to begin with?
Warbling again, he put the matter aside. For now, though, I am alone. Sometimes, one needs to dance as a concourse of one. Wandering through the treetops, he basked in the symphony of life around him. He chirruped as he drifted over the faint emanations surrounding each branch and leaf and twig, weaving his way between the delicate fingers of a tree until he could lazily orbit his way up the branch. The light of the sun, the Great One, drifted close to the horizon. Soon, the Great Wysp of the Sky would hide its brilliance from them, but only in the shadow of the night could their own light truly stand out from its brilliance, and they each would become their own, tiny sun, illuminating the world in the Great One’s absence. Or so the shamans teach us.
Spiraling up the trunk of the tree, he zipped through the last few leaves and slowed to a hover above the top of the canopy, drinking in the sun’s rays. Soon, it would dive beneath the horizon, and he would have to return to the concourse and have his conversation with Jhaem. But for now, I dance a concourse of one.
Humming a happy tone, he dropped back down into the canopy, and jetted off through the treetops. Racing along, he danced and spun and whirled around the branches, skipping off their emanations, but always dodging and skimming around them. He didin’t need to avoid them. But the dance and the race are more fun that way.
The Great One drifted closer to the horizon as he raced through the trees, twirling, and orbiting, changing direction as the whim took him. Sometimes dropping to the forest floor to zip over roots and through ferns and laurel, sometimes back up to the trees to dance with the creatures there, or annoy them.
The Great One had very nearly begun its dive into the ground when a new light lit the sky. Catching the glint of fire and the distant scent of plasma far above, Mmer skidded his race to a stop, then zipped up above the treetops to see.
There, to the southeast. Fire in the sky. No. A piece of the sky is falling. A great streak of fire with a burning tail raced through the air. The glow and tinge of plasma faded as the piece of the sky grew closer, but fire still trailed behind it. The Great One’s lingering light glinted off it as it soared over him, and Mmer realized it was a solid thing. It looks like a feathered warbler, or a gliding chitter.
More fire jetted out from it in sharp flares, and the solid thing slowed, but Mmer flinched down a bit as it hit the canopy. It was still going far too fast for a solid thing striking trees. It disappeared in a cloud of branches and a gout of fire, and many moments later, the air shuttered with the delayed vibrations of its desperate roar, crash, and explosion.
Something went terribly wrong, he thought, wobbling for a moment in indecision. There could be great danger there, in this strange solid thing that crashed to the ground, but somebody should check it out. I doubt I could help it, if the solid thing is even still alive after such a great collision, but maybe I could give it some light in its final moments.
He realized his decision had already been made before he even finished his thought. He spun a circle once, to orient himself, then dropped back below the canopy and took off in a straight line, as fast as he could move, zapping through branches and trunks alike.
*****
Nat gasped as consciousness returned with a jolt.
Her next breath was a wheeze, and the following cough stabbed a sharp pain in her chest. Oh, that’s some broken ribs. She wheezed again, her breath coming shorter than it should. Aaand a punctured luuung.With another cough and gritted teeth, she pushed herself back off her control console.
The broken half of her harness fell into her lap. What kind of piece of- “Ah!” She was cut off by the sharp spike of pain as her right shoulder touched the scorched back of her flight chair. “Fuck.” She clenched her teeth and struggled to not double over or pass out as another series of coughs wracked pain through her chest.
“Ow,” she said once the coughing finally subsided, leaning against her left shoulder and struggling to catch her breath. She grimaced at the lights flashing in her face, and the dull alarms buzzing in her ear came rushing back to full clarity. “Fuck.”
She glanced over her console. Master Alarm in. Yeah, no fucking shit. Not new. Fire alarm buzzing. I silenced that already, that means something else is burning. Power Failure still in. Electrical Failure still in. Hull Breach is in again. Expected. Hm. That one’s new. Oh. “Oh, fuck,” she said aloud as she read the bright red “JETTISON FAILURE” alert flashing over the ordnance display.
She slapped at the release for the surviving half of her harness, snagging it on the second try, and hauled herself to her feet. Using the upper harness for support, she stepped around the port side of her flight chair, and immediately stumbled as her right leg failed to support her weight. Her flight helmet thunked against the bulkhead, but it was the raw burn on her back and shoulder that sent her to her knees.
Wheezing again, she struggled to breathe as her broken ribs stabbed her chest. C’mon, Warner! Gotta get up! Gotta get out! Don’t need that right foot, anyway, got two left ones.
With another wheeze, she dragged herself up the bulkhead and hauled herself to the Emergency Escape Hatch. Survival kit. Survival kit.She slapped the quick release tab and yanked the Disaster Kit off its rack and hobbled to the door. She yanked the escape lever hard, and explosive bolts blew the door away.
Tossing the Disaster Kit out ahead of her, she stepped out onto the inflatable escape ramp, only to then realize that it failed to inflate. “Fuck!” she shouted as she fell out of the door, landing flat on the ground three feet below.
“Ow,” she wheezed, struggling for breath again, her ribs determined to stab her to death. If I didn’t have a ruptured lung before … At least the hard, unyielding plastic case of the survival kit broke my fall …
Groaning through clenched teeth, she managed to roll off the Disaster Kit. Darkness tinged the edges of her vision, but she fought it back. I don’t think I can stand up right now. Still gotta move. Panting in short breaths, she rolled back over and started to crawl away from her ship, pushing the Disaster Kit ahead of her.
Couldn’t have landed in a nice, open clearing? She thought as she struggled over fallen logs and branches, the smoldering fires of the wreck her only illumination. It is a landing. She grunted as she shoved the Disaster Kit over another log. I’m only crawling because it’s too dark to walk. She hauled herself over the log, then cried out in pain as she landed on a branch that jabbed into her broken ribs.
Hissing short breaths through her teeth, she nudged her HUD toggle with her chin. The fuck are the painkillers?! Should’ve auto-injected already. She brought up the Health Display, and pointedly ignored it until she switched it to show the available injections. Oh. It already did. “Fuck.”
She closed the display, and pushed the Disaster Kit ahead of her again, crawling after it. Losing light. Fires must be going out. Or I am. Fuck. Gotta get away.
Her vision turned to black as darkness engulfed her, and still she crawled. Awareness faded until all she knew was pain and the struggle of crawling after the Disaster Kit.
Pain.
Shove.
Pain.
Crawl.
Pain.
Shove.
Pain.
Crawling through the darkness, she considered giving up for the eight time, when a faint light zipped up out of nowhere. It circled around her several times, faintly illuminating her surroundings, before zipping away again.
She crawled to the Disaster Kit in darkness once more.
With a faint hum, the light came zipping back. It circled her once, then wobbled in a direction to her right, like it wanted her to follow it.
Fuck it, she thought, shoving the Disaster Kit after the light. Her awareness faded back to pain and struggle once more, save for a faint little light guiding her around the debris.
*****
Mmer’s light glowed through the smoke of burning trees and underbrush. Slowing his approach, he dimmed his light, just to be safe. You never know what strange dangers giant creatures falling from the sky might bring.
The forest abruptly ended in a clearing of shattered trees. A long scar of broken trunks and splintered branches. It’s like when the great, howling swirl of wind ripped through the forest to the west several seasons ago. Smoke hung in a haze above the clearing, lit by a handful of smoldering fires.
Cautiously moving along the scar, in the direction of bent and broken trees, Mmer found the thing. It’s larger than any creature I’ve ever seen! He wobbled about its bent and broken corpse in awe. The concourses near the Great Water have told stories of such creatures that live there, that are too large to survive on land. He drifted over the creature, inspecting its crumpled body. Such as the case seems to be with this one.He clicked softly to himself. But what was a creature from the Great Water doing in the sky? And how could a creature of water burn?
And what is it made of? He hardened his phase and flicked himself against its skin a few times, bouncing off with a weird tinkeach time. It is not like any creature I have ever seen, not made like any creature I have ever seen … and the emanations of it … Its body does not hum with life, but still, there are strange emanations within.
Releasing his phase, he drifted around the creature again, close to its skin. The creature’s body was clearly smashed and broken by its fall, but many of these injuries are on its top, and look like it was punctured. Some of these holes look like the skin softened and melted, and there are faint, lingering traces of emanations around them. He clicked again, spinning about on his axis as he drifted along its side.
Wait, what is this? He traced his way around the edge of a gaping hole in the creature’s side. This doesn’t look like it was clawed or ripped out. It is neat, tidy, like it was purposefully shaped … He clicked again. Dim lights flashed inside.
Cautiously, he hovered past the threshold of the hole, and pinged his surprise when he found the creature to be hollow. The lights continued to flash.
Is someone here? I’ve never seen a Wysp with those colors before … <Hello?> he called, softly projecting his emanations. <Is someone there?>
Zipping inside, he searched for the source of the light. He found many bizarre things he could not explain, and several things that flashed or glowed with strange lights, but no Wysps. Everything that flashed gave off strange emanations, as did many things that cast no light. Some emanations were active, some were just faint traces. He investigated them all, but was careful not to get too close. There are strange rocks can give off emanations, sometimes powerful enough to confuse or even trap a person. Best not to get too close.
Finding no evidence of anything alive, solid or otherwise, he began investigating the creature’s body. Curious, he edged up to the inside of its skin, and poked into it. Hmmm … he clicked. This material is denser than most things. I’ll have to pay more care to my integrity if I linger inside it … He popped out of the skin, then back in, and out, and in a few times. But I can pass through it as easily as anything else. He skimmed along the inside of it, slowly, investigating it closely It also seems to reverberate the strange emanations from the many strange things inside this creature. Bizarre.
Zipping back out of the dead creature, he reilluminated himself. Nothing here at all, it seems. He spent a few more moments buzzing around the creature, examining its exterior again, when a strange motion caught his attention. I was wrong! There is another thing here!He stopped, slowly rotating in place as he studied from afar. It is a much smaller creature, crawling away from the larger one.
He zipped over to it, to investigate closer. As he approached, he caught its unexpectedly powerful emanations and his light almost extinguished, nearly overwhelmed with darkness, pain, fear. Shaking off the creature’s confusion, he circled around it a few times, inspecting it. It is injured. He paused, looking back towards the Great Water beast from the sky. Now that he was lit again, he could see the track where the smaller creature had clearly crawled away from the Great Water beast. Not that it is really all that small. It looks as large as a long-hoofed leaper, or a tree pouncer.
He clicked, wobbling in place. A child thing? Maybe the large creature ate it before it died? It definitely wants to flee. And it’s hurt. He clicked again. Very hurt.
He zoomed away, inspecting the clearing smashed open by the large creature’s fall, then into the trees, looking for a place where this creature might take shelter.
It only took him a few moments to find a suitable location, and he zipped straight back to the creature, zapping through a couple trees along the way. Hovering over it, he hummed a concerned tone as he spun about on his axis, considering the area around it. Seeing a clearer path, he looped a circle around the creature, then wobbled around in the direction he wanted it to go, pulsing his light in the hope that it got the message.
The thing stopped, lying still long enough that he feared it had died. Just as he was about to zoom back for a closer look, it shoved its strange object at him and crawled after it.
As the creature reached the end of the fallen limb, he wobbled in a new direction, still humming his anxious tone. It turned and followed him, but its pace was slow. Its emanations sharp, and frequently spiked with jagged edges. It’s in great pain. He paced a small orbit. It can barely move. If only it weren’t such a giant thing. It’s many times larger than even a ground chitter, and it took twenty of the concourse to carry that dead one out of the ley. It might take the whole of the concourse just to lift one of its protrusions.
Jagged emanations spiked below him, and Mmer realized the creature had finally reached him. Humming his concern, he wobbled off to light the way to the next step in the path. Then the next, and the next, and the next.
Eventually, they reached the last point, and the creature crawled into the nook he found at the base of a ribbonroot tree, hauling its dead thing in alongside it. Mmer wobbled in place with a worried hum. He could feel the dark wind of the Great One singing through the ground almost directly below them, now. It took so long to crawl here. Half the night has gone by!
He lowered his hover as he realized the thing was just lying there, gasping in short, ragged breaths. Unable to silence his anxious hum, he drifted closer. I have seen solid things breathe like that before. All of them died.
The creature shifted, slowly pushing itself up with spikes of jagged emanations. So distracted was he by its pain that he didn’t notice it crack open its strange object like a tree chitter splitting open a brownnut until it was almost too late. He barely dodged out of the way of the top as it swung away in time. Not that I really needed to, but it’s the principle of the matter! He buzzed an annoyed tone, then drifted back to light the creature’s final moments once more.
Inside giant nut-like-thing were more strange and bizarre objects, unlike the fruit of any nut he had ever seen. Not that I’ve ever seen a nut this large … if it even is a nut. The creature rummaged around for a moment, then pulled out some strange, blocky tube thing. It pawed at it a moment, then promptly stabbed itself with the thing. Mmer spun a loop in surprise, pinging his shock.
The creature tensed into a tight arch, and he was slapped with another spike of jagged emanations, but it was quickly replaced by a cooling wave. The creature dropped the blocky tube, revealing itself to have not been stabbed after all, though he caught some strange emanations from the thing, and moving through the creature. It twitched and spasmed a moment, then relaxed, panting in short, exhausted gasps. Its emanations still spiked, but not as hard, and the jagged edges were dulled.
What did it do to itself? he wondered, as one of its protrusions twitched, then jerked over to the probably-not-a-nut thing and pawed around inside it again. It pulled out a larger cylinder, and after several moments of uncoordinated fidgeting, the cylinder beeped and hummed and flashed as new emanations sparked to life. Mmer rolled on his axis as he studied this bizarre thing.
Pawing at the cylinder twice, the creature pulled out a flexible tube, like the trunk of a wagglenose, and pressed the end against its skin. It took several tries, pressing it in the same spot, before it stuck. The Cylinder beeped and flashed a new tone, and the creature leaned back, falling limp against the tree.
Mmer hovered in closer as he felt its emanations dim and fade, slowly wobbling around the creature. It took him several moments to realize that they weren’t fading to oblivion. Moving even closer, he slowly orbited around the primary locus of its emanations. It’s sleeping, he realized. Maybe it won’t die, after all. With a chirrup, he spun a happy loop as he maintained his orbit.
Now that it was no longer overwhelmed with pain, he could get a proper sense of its emanations. He already knew they were strong, but he realized they were stronger than any creature he had ever encountered before. Even when asleep! And there is a pleasantness to them, more than just the peace of its dreamstate.
Continuing his orbit, he basked in the power and pleasant tingle of the creature’s emanations for many moments before the thought of time crept its way back into his thoughts. Idly, he oriented his axes with the dark winds of the Great One, then shot up in alarm. Great Skyhosts! It’s half-way back to the sky! I’ve been gone most of the night!
He spun a quick loop around the ribbonroot tree, then zoomed back to the creature. He zigged and zagged around as he examined it, and the strange emanations inside it as best he could. Reassured that it no longer seemed about to die, he allowed himself one more orbit around it’s primary locus, silently promising to return, then zipped away, weaving through the trees as he raced back to the concourse.
Comments
Mango_bomb
Oh Mmer is adorable. Can't wait to see where this goes.
