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A gasp tore from his throat as his eyes flew open. His heart pounded against his chest and his temples. Where...? A memory flashed into his mind. It's of him leaping off a cliff just as a spear of white-hot magic slammed into his back. His skin prickled, the pain feeling so real that it jarred him awake. And now that he was, remnants of the magic still pinched his limbs and gripped his spine.
Why had he needed to leap, in the first place? Moreover...didn't he bring someone with him over the edge? His breath hitched. Did he kill someone? Why..? He groaned as he pushed himself up, his bones cracking and whining like rusty joints. He gritted his teeth against the pain and scratched his eyes.
A quick look around told him that he was inside some kind of cavern with a domed ceiling painted blue. No, not painted. Just water being reflected into it. Water...
Where was this cave? How did he end up here after falling into the ocean? Who was the female voice that spoke to him sometime ago? Where was she?
He winced as pain shot from his ankle to his thighs the moment he edged off the raised platform he had been lying on. It's... a stone whose top part was smoothed clean. A thin layer of itchy straw crowned it. His nose wrinkled at the prospect of those scratchy things touching his skin. Then again...why?
Panic rose to his throat that made his heartbeat rush against his ears. He clenched his jaw in an attempt to drown it out. Calm down. Calm down. He blew a breath out. Once. Twice.
His eyes shot open. When had he even closed them? Everything...everything was in better quality than when he first woke up. His mind registered that the cavern he was in as spacious enough for ten people, complete with a workstation resembling a kitchen.
Shelves lined the walls from his far-right, into the end of the cavern. Kegs, chests, and a veiled hole as large as a man decorated the end to his left.
Then, his gaze traveled down his arms when he felt a strange, binding sensation around them. Bandages snaked tight around his wrist, climbing all the way to his shoulders. Even in his dazed state, he felt that there were splints in his wrists and his elbows. Huh, perhaps that tight feeling in his chest was the result of bandages, too. What in Umazure happened?
A sigh tore out of his lips as he tried standing up. As soon as his legs stretched, they quivered before throwing him to the ground. His world spun as his chin hit the cold stone. Gods of Calaris, even his ankles have splints too?
Fabric swished somewhere to his right and the female voice graced his ear again. "Ceris, what are you doing? You are in no position to start moving!"
Nyxis frowned and continued doing so as strong hands hauled him off the ground and helped him back to his rock. He raised his head to meet dark orange ones. His chest heaved, partly because he was catching his breath and because he had never seen such stark eyes in all his life.
Or had he? He couldn't remember anyway.
The girl clicked her tongue, catching Nyxis's attention once more. She was barely his age but it's impossible to tell with fairies. Blue hair cropped to her chin crowned her head, tied with what looked like seaweed. Nyxis blinked out a disturbing image of seaweed eating people's heads. It's just seaweed. There's nothing to be afraid of.
