One Wrong Turn-II
***** ***** ***** ***** CHAPTER TWO***** ***** ***** *****
Adric blinked, his mind raced and he felt like he had just been run over by a cement truck. His whole body was racked with pain, he could feel his senses returning as he tried to figure out what had happened. He tried to think back to what had accrued, he had stopped his car to look at something, and there had been a truck. Suddenly he remembered the crash, and groaned.
"Oh heck, I am so boned" he muttered in a weak voice. Slapping his face he noticed two things. His arm cried out suddenly in horribly agony, as if the skin had been burned; and second, his hand smacked a tightly wrapped bandage that covered his whole upper head, the bandages dark with dried blood. Adric's eyes opened quickly as his heart began to race. It hadn't occurred to him that the crash between car and semi would have actually harmed him.
"Jeebus! I must have been lucky to survive!" Adric thought about his brush with death as he tried to picture what had happened to his car. Fearing the worse he conjured up an image of it, crumpled and wrecked by the side of the road. He moaned at once, knowing what it would do to his insurance costs. He realized that he must have been hit by debris, as a direct hit from the Semi would have him in a state to not be thinking at all and not bandaged up. Suddenly a thought crossed his pain-fogged mind. If he was bandage, it meant someone had found him. So the question was: "Where am I now?"
He immediately guessed the truck driver had called for an ambulance and he was no doubt in some Intensive Care Unit. Quickly a whole new swelling of doubt and concern grew. What happened to his car, or the wreck of it? Had his parents been informed? How long was he out? How was he going to pay for this? The throbbing pain all over his body seem to grow worse as he began to dwell on all the ramifications of this unwanted Hospital stay.
Yet the longer he thought about it, the more he didn't think he was in any hospital. It was far too quiet, too warm, and the bed was more comfortable then any he had ever imagined. Looking up, he noticed someone, someting, he hadn't before. It was huge. As he strained his eyes to see what it was, the creature stepped into the light. He took a double take as his brain dropped into his stomach.
Standing over him was a demonic looking creature that appeared as if it had stepped out of some horror movie, only this thing was real. It stared intently at Adric with dark green eyes as it reached a clawed hand over him. Adric was scared witless. Panic and terror gripped him as he instinctively tried to flee from the monster. Even as he began to move away, he heard the thing make a screeching noise like nails on a chalkboard. He tried to lunge from the bed but was gripped by pain as his body was reminded of its injuries as bandages tore, and slightly healed injuries ripped. Rolling in new found agony he felt something being placed on his forehead, there was a small flash of light and Adric fell dead asleep.
Darnethlil sighed, as he carefully placed the creature back in his warm bedding.
"What a fool I was, to completely neglect how my appearance might affect this, thing." He had probably scared the poor creature halfway to Carth. He meditated for a moment, scorning himself for being so abrupt in revealing his form. He remembered the disastrous meeting when the first forces from the Empire gazed at his people and acted much the same way. In terror and fear, these thoughts were all to easily felt. Even those races in the Alliance, whom to him were oddities, had regarded the Trathalans with a fearful caution. Was his race cursed with an appearance that all others would hate and despise?
He looked back at the poor creature on his bed. It breathed deeply as it lay resting in a deep trance like sleep. He thanked his star that the bluestone, which he had firmly fixed to its flat head, had worked on it. Darnethlil wasn't completely sure how he would have calmed it or kept it from injuring itself further if it hadn't. Granted, he hadn't wished to forcibly sedate it like that. But he saw little choice, and he hadn't much time to act. As he watched over it, he became more thankful then ever he had chosen the gift of healing when he was taught as a child.
Growing up under the watchful eye of his Mentor, Krahnos Galinsitelo, he was taught early on how to properly control his mind. Although Krahnos was not from his Clan he was always a welcomed member at their home. So at the age of twenty, as Darnethlil passed from childhood to adolescence, his Mentor was not at all surprised when Darnethlil announced that he wished to focus his mind on the art of healing. He had always had a weakness for helping those in need, and the poor creature before him certainly needed help.
If only he could guess what it was. It had no wings, no tail, light pale skin and five fingers.
"Five fingers. Truly, whatever it is, is alien indeed!" Darnethlil thought about this, even those strange races from the Alliance had four fingers. He twitched his wings up in a humorous fashion, thinking how silly it was to discriminate over such immaterial a thing as physical differences. Unlike the Empire, size shape and appearance mattered little to the Trathalan. The teachings of the Hashñaya taught him this. He rose to change some of the old bandages on its body as he contemplated the improbability of its arrival.
It had emerged from a legendary Crossgate, practically landing at his feet. Crossgates were ancient; no one knew where they came from or what they were. The ancient texts had told of brave Trathalan's who had entered a Crossgate to explore what lay beyond, only to appear Turns later as a charred corpse. Yet somehow this being had survived albeit barely. Its injuries were so severe that there were several open wounds, its clothes were nearly burnt off and its skin was severally burned as well. He had to use many of his herbs and a whole vile of Methla (which was very hard to come by these days ) just to stabilize it's condition. He was amazed at how well the alien creature healed after only a few treatments. It was recovering nicely over the past few days until just a few moments ago when it had awakened. Darnethlil sighed again as he looked at it, he placed his hand over it's head, feeling the confused and random thoughts surging through it's mind.
"You are a mystery my unknown friend. I hope when you awake again that I shall know more of you." It stirred a bit as he spoke. He sighed as the night wore on.
It was not until the next evening when night had fallen did Darnethlil choose try once more try and awaken his guest. After night when the Imperial patrols slacked off, after night when they would return to sleep, and most Trathalans where just becoming active. Darnethlil had made ready this time. He had treated his guest, he had a basin of water in case it was needed, and he had dimmed the oil lamps in the wooden panelled room. He also had retrieved something from his hidden wares, something he had not thought he would ever need to use. As the alien lay sleeping, its wounds closed once more, only the pulsing blue crystal on it's head kept it in a state of deep sleep.
Darnethlil leaned forward, softly prayed to Crie, and slowly removed the crystal before attaching a new one.
Adric gasped suddenly as he awoke from sleep. His heart raced and his body ached. Something had startled him good and he felt breathless as he, again, remembered.
"Good Lord what a dream!" The memories of the crash and his injuries were dragged back into his head. He felt a pain from his chest and then the bandages around his head and arms. He remembered what had happened, and then what he saw.
He tilted the gaze of his eyes just slightly till they came upon the thing from his dream. Unfortunately, Adric suddenly realized it wasn't a dream. The creature, for it's part, sat upon a large, wildly embellished wooden chair watching him intently.
Again his instinct was to flee, and put as much distance between himself and the monster as possible. Adric tried to get up but his body refused to move. He tried with his greatest effort to move a signal limb, but none worked, his mind panicked as he wondered if he had been paralyzed.
The creature for its part, slowly got up from its' lavish chair, it seemed just to stare at him, it's form largely hidden, backlit from an oil lamp behind it. It stood over him for some time as Adric began to feel slightly, odd. He suddenly felt as through he was no longer in danger, and soon after, heared the creature speak...
///"If you would be so kind, I humbly request that you do not try and run again. I have already used more than enough of my medical supply to heal you and do not wish to squander any more on one who appears ungrateful."/// Adric was dumb founded. It did not move its lips yet he could hear its speech perfectly. Adric touched his head and felt a large ring with a strangely warm crystal pressed into it attached to his forehead, as if he were wearing some sort of crown.
He looked back at the thing standing next to him. A trifle more relaxed, he could see it wasn't quite as horrific as he had envisioned. It was however huge, almost over 7 ft tall. It had a large bony crown around its head that formed up into two long horns, behind it flowed long dark black hair, which almost hid the creatures two long, notched ears. It had a short reptilian snout that was attached to a long face where two large dark green eyes looked on. Behind it's long smooth skinned body were two huge wings that twitched like the tapping of fingers.
There was only one thought on Adric's mind when he finished looking at it. And he promptly spoke it out loud.
"Holy Cow, its' a Dragon!"
Darnethlil winced as he heared it speak. Its speech seemed loud and shrill, he wondered if its race always yelled so rudely like that? He couldn't quite understand what it had said; the spoken words were completely alien and sounded like mere grunts. Trying to comprehend what the translator he had attached to his guest's forehead had conveyed was confusing to say the least. As far as he was concerned, the first spoken words of the alien roughly translated to, "Religions animal, that is dragon" Whatever a ‘dragon' was.
"At least its thoughts can be clearly heared." Darnethlil thought, a curious feature as most of his race had to concentrate deeply to hear the thoughts of the other Races that had used a Translator. As clear as the thoughts came in however, it was still difficult trying to understand them. He shuffled his wings, showing his confusion in hearing what the alien had said. When he got no response however, he decided to say something.
///"Please forgive my rudeness, but when you speak, could you endeavour to try and indicate precisely what you mean to say"///
A bit numb from the experience of having an alien talking with him, Adric pondered what to do. He could barely move anything below his neck, but this wasn't on his mind right now. What was central on his thoughts was that for all intensive purposes, a Dragon like alien was talking him to.
"Ok, all right, yea sure, I'll believe this happening. I guess this could be some massive hallucination, but damn if it doesn't seem real." He said to himself as he began to think just what in the name of his slipping sanity happened after his car crash. "Maybe it's just curious about me, I'll get the photo's in my wallet to show it I'm a nice guy" Adric, making a sudden great effort to move, tried reaching down to his pants only to discover he wasn't wearing any. It was at this point that he saw his cloths hanging from a peg over a round door. Or at least the remains of his clothing as they seemed nearly completely burnt and in tatters. "Ok, great, not only I'm I talking to an alien, I'm also naked, and my clothes are gone! My ‘Don't Panic' shirt is gone! I liked that shirt! Oh God what a day"
Darnethlil laughed as he listened to the thoughts as best he could. He didn't understand much of what it was thinking internally, going at far too fast a pace, but he could tell it at least wasn't terrified of him. Concerns over personal items seemed to currently be distracting it from the larger ramifications of what had happened.
Adric however, was still trying to comprehend how it was communicating to him. He guessed it had something to do with the ring he had on.
"Maybe this works both ways" he thought. Adric closed his eyes and began to concentrate. ///"WHERE-AM-I? "/// He tried to think as hard as he could, not sure he was being understood.
"Even in thought it is loud! I wonder if their whole culture is so loud and over bearing!" He said as he composed himself reciting a short pray to calm him as he formulated a proper response.
///"You do not need to express your thoughts with such intensity! I can ascertain your thoughts quite well enough. As of present you need not worry about you current location. You are safe here as I have been caring for you ever since you arrived through the Crossgate. I must comment that it is surprising that..."/// Though that was as far as he got. He had planned a long response and was pleased with what he would say to the alien. However before he got any further, Adric interrupted.
///"What are you talking about? Are you talking I am not location Earth anymore? Additional what do you know about how I got away? And for Religious afterlife sake! What happened to me and why I am so physical damaged?"/// At this, Darnethlil nearly lost his temper. Inside he was frustrated at the continual rudeness of the alien. It shouted at him in jumbled and poorly worded thoughts that could be more easily understood with a bit of patience; it had no respect for letting him finish speaking, and it almost seemed to imply that he was responsible for it's condition.
Darnethlil held his temper, though just barely. He arranged his wings in one of the most frightful gestures he could think of and glared at the creature. He chose his words carefully as he struggled against his primitive urge to rip the throat from the alien for his disrespect and rudeness.
///"If you are somehow implying that I abducted you on my own account, you are grievously mistaken in your assumption. I know not from where you came from or how to return you to such a location, only that you were near death when you arrived and that your caretaking has used up my precious time and resources! "/// Adric froze with the stern look the alien now glared at him with.
It was one thing to listen to someone yell at you, quite another to have the words directly blasted into you mind. Adric tried to calm down, trying not to think about the once caring eyes of the dragon, which had taken on an expression of malevolent rage. His thoughts whirled with questions and confusion. It was all too much for Adric, who was still getting used to realizing his car was a hopeless wreck, let alone being teleported to another planet. He calmed himself down enough to try and speak to the alien again.
///"Can you at least tell me where I am? "/// There was a long pause and then a strange look came over Darnethlil. But he never got a response as Darnethlils face suddenly went blank.
"Xarth! I'm late; the forces must of started ten clicks ago! " Adric looked confused, not realizing what was happening as the creature spoke in a series of high pitched clicks and trills.
"Are you talking to me? " he tried to think but he got no response. Hurrying to catch up for lost time; Darnethlil yanked the ring from his forehead and grabbed a sack from the ground as he bolted towards the door. Adric turned around, he had a huge headache all of a sudden and blinked as he saw him head for the door.
"Hey wait a minute! What's going on, where do you think are you're going?" He barked aloud in a loud, angry voice. Darnethlil whirred on his small feet and glared at Adric
///"STOP ASKING QUESTIONS AND BE SILENT!"/// The last thoughts boomed into his head with a direct forceful blast. And before he knew it, the door was locked and Adric was alone.
Adric lay back into the bed for a moment with a hand to his pounding head. The events of the last few moments beginning to sink into his mind as he recalled his bizarre benefactor and curious surroundings. Looking up at the arched wooden roofed, his mind conjured up a clichéd phrase, '"Toto, I don't think were in Kansas any more.'"
"That could be a vast understatement." Adric said as he shifted, attempting to get comfortable with his deeply burned body. Trying to lift his head up slightly, he looked to the small table to his right and noticed something familiar. Lying on the table next to him was the burnt remains of his wallet, cell phone and his wristwatch. Straining to move his arm the short distance, his skin stinging maddeningly, he slowly picked up the remains of his wallet.
The plastic cards inside had melted into a solid mass, the various bills of money where deeply burnt around the edge and the wallet itself seemed to crumble in his hand. Setting it down less he destroy it further, he turned to pick up the wristwatch. The outer casing seemed blackened and the rubber melted in places, yet as he looked at the small screen in it, he realized it was still functioning. He blinked as he checked the date.
Dec 26, 2006. 2:38 pm. Four days. He had been out for almost four days before he had regained consciousness and he now tried desperately to think what had transpired during that time. His first thoughts turned to his family.
"Four days ago I was supposed to be home for Christmas, then a Semi hit my car, and then I woke up here. And wherever here is, it probably isn't somewhere that will let me get home." Adric thought to himself as the full magnitude of his situation sunk in. Not his situation, but his parents, his brothers, his friends. He had vanished, his car smashed, and no clue or evidence as to what happened to him. The police would be called, his mom would worry, his dad would fume, and Christmas...
Adric couldn't take it. He tried to calm down, couldn't, and began to sob. His heaving chest only making his bandages stretch and his burns ache as he wept. That he was somewhere with dragon like beasts, where they seemed to be able to read his mind and that something had caused him to be terribly burned and wounded didn't help at all. The great glow of moonlight upon him caught his attention as for the first time he noticed a window and looked outside at the sky.
The sky was strange, the stars where different, and a moon many times more massive then his own filled the night. It was not his sky, and he could no longer ignore that he was on another world.
He pulled a blanket around himself and wept bitterly.