One second he could feel solid stone beneath his planted feet. The next, he was falling, as if the ground had suddenly given away and opened up to bottomless pit. He scarcely had time to scream, but with his ears he heard his teammates cry out his name at the edge of deep gasps they all had taken. Along with the cackling screams of the skull witch who had so swiftly ended their battle like a coward--by singing her songs to render a hole beneath his feet instead of finishing him herself--all of his team’s voices slipped out of earshot within seconds, and in bled the wind and the white noise. A passing shadow would be the last thing he saw before he blacked out.
The boy would eventually wake again, with a swimming dizziness and ringing in his ears to welcome him unkindly back into the conscious world. The memories of the scuffle beforehand were all but a haze, though he remembered the witch, and Antauri’s brand new silvery form, and Jinmay’s cries of terror as she stood helpless against the Dark One’s wrath.
His body ached from whatever he had collided with. His gloved fingers dug deep into the earth while he hissed through gnashed teeth, waiting for the pain of rising to pass. He could tell that he had landed on grass, which was much more forgiving than stone or cement--but he couldn’t help but feel that the air was thin; either due to his lightheadedness, or the atmosphere itself. He did not know where he was, and he could no longer sense the presence of his mentor, or even feel the eerie, dense air that hung over the Savage Lands. Something told him he was some place completely different, before he could even open his eyes.
@worldpangs
