FFXIV Write 2020 #15: Ache
Smoke. All he could smell was smoke. Stinging his eyes and burning in his lungs as the stone almost fell away underneath him.
The tangy copper of blood was on his tongue, dripping from his lips and he choked on the taste, wretching and spitting and hacking when he remembered.
Je’zehl pulled himself to his knees, but the explosion had rocked his orientation sideways. He couldn’t tell up from down as the stone began to shift under his body again, vertigo assailing his senses along with ash and screams.
Or were they screams? All he could hear was the deafening sound of ringing, boring into his head like a steel drill.
A hand to his ribs, he counted three cracked and tender. The backs of his legs burned with the fuzz of his tail, singed in places and still smoking.
Body burning with white hot fire, he dragged himself to the side, his legs incapable of supporting himself, and slumped against the wall.
All around him were blurred shapes and figures; shadows running, machines grinding, guns firing. The fires claimed the city proper, swallowing the buildings under tendrils of flame and snaking to the sky.
With every breath, Je’zehl’s body laboured. The push of his ribs against his lungs felt like knives.
Mismatched eyes settled on a figure as it loomed above him, before a heavy hand was on his collar and hauling him to his feet.
