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Tears…. I just wrote a whole section and lost it again. waaa.

Ok. bah. here we go again… well, at least, for me… here we go… again. :,(.

 

Abirami

I put on my garb as Ku’Aya stormed in and stomped over to me.

I held my hands up as she wielded her quarterstaff like a painter’s brush. “How dare you throw me! What if my hive hadn’t caught me? Eh? Thought of that? You woulda’ brained me!”

“Okay. Stop hitting me. I was just trying to protect you.”

“Protect me?” That only increased her fury. “I told you not to do that!”

“Ow. Ow. Okay, Stop- sto- stop!”

She held her staff in the air, ready to continue should I say something she didn’t like.

“It’s just, I can’t fight well when I’m worried about you, is all.”

She started bashing me on the head and shoulders again. “We talked about this! Let me fight too!”

“Okay, okay. Alright. I’m sorry.”

She slammed her stick into the ground and leaned against it. “Jerk.”

I sighed, rubbing the small pebble-shaped bruises forming on my scalp.

“So, where are we?” she asked as she gazed around.

“I don’t know. But, apparently these people aren’t from our world.”

She looked at me incredulously.

I nodded. “I know.”

She shook her head. “Well then, what now?” She pointed to the wreckage behind me. “That things dead.”

“Hmm. Not sure, Ku.” I gazed around. “Perhaps there’s another one somewhere in here. They did say it was  a rather large underground dungeon. If they got here through the shaft leading from that dormant volcano, then perhaps there are more of them.”

Ku’Aya closed her eyes. A cloud of insects swarmed from out of her bag and dissipated, heading in all directions.

“Oh.” I remembered the lady I had froze. “Let me see the artifact.

She squinted her eyes at me, her sharp teeth glistening through her wary smile. “You’re about to do something really stupid, aren’t you?”

I motioned with my fingers. “Just give it here.”

She placed her pack down and rummaged around for it.

She pulled out the artifact and handed it to me.

Without delay, I turned and ran, searching for the lady.

The artifact was cold in my hands. It had two small handles, like a pole, with a zirconium disk through the center of it. The handles were painted with diamond dust, and two tetrahedron gems were embedded in the ends. One end held a stone of jasper, while the other had an onyx stone.

Spying the lady kneeling next to the man I had injured, I turned and ran toward them.

Oh yeah. The man.

I sighed, dreading what I was planning to do, but… it was only fair.

Seeing me coming, another man jumped forward and brandished his weapon.

The lady pleaded with him to wait, that I was no danger.

I don’t think the man believed her.

I stopped just short of the man’s weapon.

The lady stood on wobbly legs and shuffled toward us.

The man lowered his weapon as she approached.

She was about to say something when her knees gave out, and she fell toward the floor.

I jumped forward and caught her, bringing her safely to our knees.

“Thank you.” she said.

I nodded, then offered the artifact out to her. “Here, take hold of this.”

She tilted her head. “What is it?”

“An artifact.”

Her puzzled look reminded me that they were of another world.

“Oh, it has an essence ability…” I berated myself. No essence. “Um… it can… it will heal you.” I said, unsure of how much I should say, so just saying the bottom line.

“Oh! In that case, do you think you could heal him first?” She looked back at the injured man. “Can it do that?”

I nodded, and her countenance brightened. I was surprised by her selflessness.

However, the other man would not let me get any closer to the injured man.

“How do we know it won’t steal his soul, or make him worse?” he asked.

“It won’t.” I didn’t like his tone.

“Says you.”

I stood. Didn’t like his attitude either.

“I’ll do it, then,” the lady said. “Then we’ll know. And then you can heal him?”

I nodded. “Sure.”

The other man didn’t object, so I kneeled down once more.

She grasped the handle this time, then asked me, “What now?”

I gripped the other end, then placed my free hand over the gem of jasper. “Now press the black stone there.”

The two gems slid into place, and I immediately felt it working, like blood flowing through an empty vein.

Her face flooded with shock, which was quickly replaced with contentment and relief.

I gasped and clenched my muscles as her pain and fatigue transferred to me.

It wasn’t just the cold, but the measure of fatigue was incredible. Just what had she been doing to build this much fatigue?

It was more than I expected, but not more than I could handle.

I sighed as the gems jumped back out into their original places, the job done.

Satisfied, the other man allowed me to approach, and I shuffled toward the injured man.

I looked into the face of a man who looked like he’d been in his fair share of fights.

So this is the man who saved the girl from the tannink’esh.

His chest was drenched in blood.

I had done that.

Sighing, I took my garb off to prepare. This one was going to be much more difficult.

I placed his hands on the artifact and pushed the gems in, the pathway opening once more.

I immediately convulsed and fell, the pain overwhelming me.

I could hear the girl cry out. She said something, but it didn’t register.

It was working. The gashes on the man slowly closed up as identical marks opened upon my chest.

This was the worst part. I couldn’t augment while still attached to the artifact.

I couldn’t stop the groan from leaving my lips as more pain and fatigue left his body and entered mine. I fought to keep conscious.

I had to stay awake, at least until I could start the axolotl healing augment.

The man’s eyes opened, and he looked around. Upon seeing me, he tried to scoot away, but the artifact held his arms in place. As much as he pulled and tried to release it, the artifact would not allow it.

My arms shook, shivers wracked my body, and my legs squirmed in protest.

Then the gems shot out, and it was finished. The man pushed himself away, reaching for his weapon, and I collapsed.

I tried to focus on the image of the axolotl.

Faintly, sounds of the lady speaking in rushed tones entered my ears, but I couldn’t make anything out. She was probably talking to the guy I just healed.

Grasping the essence of the axolotl, I began feeling the healing process start. It still hurt just as much, but at least I could rest easy knowing I wouldn’t bleed to death or anything.

Boots entered my blurred vision, and Ku’Aya leaned down.

“Yup,” she said. “Stupid.”

I closed my eyes as my mind went blank.