A/n: ~Alright, so I pretty much failed my challenge again aw. I thought I could make this story a one-shot and finish it by tonight but then I realised that I'd already written so much and it wasn't even at the climax yet. So I thought, why not break it up and save you the trouble of reading a 15-page story that's not yet even fully completed from this point? :) So please, take this as one fic. for my challenge. This idea has been swimming in my head for such a long time now and even though many,many peope have already used this similar scenario, I wanted to give it a shot. So I hope you like. Two more to go!~

::Dedications to who, to who... well, with the point of my progress here on the site, I guess it goes out to all you really :) To everyone whose been keeping tabs on my work or if even you've read only one story for kicks, you don't know how happy I am to be sharing it with you. I've barely opened this account for 5 days ago and I've already had so many story hits, talked with/heard from many sweet fellow users here and have already bookmarked a hefty amount of great work :) So thank you so much, you're all awesome! Special shout out to Amethyst - who, although I can't reach by PM, has been a swell reader that I am grateful to.~

Stirring

July 10, 2010

by: Her Head in the Clouds

Breaking news

A camera comes into focus on a frantic young woman, dressed in a business suit and holding a microphone in her hand. She is among hysterics, surrounded by people who are fleeting behind her in their distress. A big episode of terrible sorts is happening around her. There is smoke and fire, but mostly wreckage.

"Good evening, I'm Linda Yentl and we're live from Heroes Port where another large sky transport vehicle has just crashed… Scattered all around me is debris that was blown from the airborne transit just minutes ago – there are shattered windows, twisted scraps of metal, and if you can see behind me, a long drag in the dirt that was made when that carrier hit the ground and skidded to a stop nearly 225 metres from its initial impact site. With several members of the Red Eagles just coming in to survey the damage, we know that it is now the fourth sky-bus to crash here on Terra Atmosia, making it now the most amount of sky-to-ground collisions of any terra in any near quadrant. It is most likely believed that another Cyclonian squad may be responsible for the carrier's shot down but as we speak, our Sky Knights and volunteer rescue crews are searching for survivors…"

The next day

"Good evening, I'm Linda Yentl. Just yesterday, a massive sky-bus transporter carrying 34 passengers crashed along the streets of Heroes Port, the fourth to be shot down yet again by Cyclonian Talons on Terra Atmosia. Several rescue teams and members of the Red Eagles were quick to the scene, arriving within minutes of its collision and while no intensive investigation has yet to take place on the technical causes for its fall from the sky, witnesses, along with Sky Knights who were surveying the skies at the time of the carrier's descent, believe more than anything that it was the result of a stun blast from an approaching Cyclonian battleship."

Witness: "I saw it through my telescope, I did! My wife begged me to stay home yesterday after the terra's alert horn went off on Monday for us take cover. One stun blast and it was fallin' out the sky like a star; smoke and flames everywhere!"

Witness: "That carrier was doing nothing harmless! H-How could they just sh-shoot it? There are men, women, and children, babies, families for Atmos' sake on that ship! They ain't fighting in this war! How could they just shoot it down?"

"Stress and fear are already escalating in this development as it was discovered that the carrier was holding over 30 people during the time of its depart from Terra Mesa. It was on an original course set to travel directly over Terra Atmosia and head west for Terra Zooma where it was to deliver the passengers for safety. As we know, they are still working around the clock to sort through the debris, but unfortunately as the numbers stand, nearly 20 of the people discovered to have ridden on this sky-bus are all dead. They are still looking for any survivors…"

"Wait…wait! I've just been told that – yes! Yes, they have just found two survivors in the crash. Thank heavens! Oh… now, now both are in critical condition. One is a male survivor, the other female and… remarkable, they're two children! Two children have just been found alive in the crash! My goodness! The Red Eagles will be quick to look for the reminder of their family members but as we speak, relative contacts are already looking to be searched for them…"

Minutes later...

"Linda Yentl, back with development on the sky-bus crash in Heroes Port and I am sorry to say to our humble viewers that the severity of this crash has been more than our rescue teams have hoped to expect. Of all 34 passengers expected to have been transported to Terra Zooma just yesterday, only two have miraculously survived the ordeal. Both children, to be around 8-9 years of age, are now in extensive care at the hospital but both are suffering from critical conditions from the crash. Although they are currently undergoing emergency surgery, doctors were easy to contact us on the status and they say that they do have a more than likely chance of recovering fully. Our hearts go out to all the families of the victims in this terrible turn of events…"

Three weeks later…

The terra's attention on the sky bus crash soon ended.

The flowers stopped and so did the get well cards. The sympathy notes stopped as well.

People still wondered if those children were going to be okay and hoped for the best but they moved on with their daily lives, with the war currently swirling around them, they went on without being affected by it. The hysteria about riding transport carriers was over, this tragic memory going to the back of their minds, as they let themselves get absorbed in what was truly important with the concern on the national state of security.

An eye flitted open. Like a broken wing, his eyelid was sensitive and wary with the lights, aware about blinding his eye. After first, he didn't want to try opening it again. He felt dizzy, and it hurt the first time he'd awoken and tried to crack them open easy. He was like that – always ready to get up the instant he woke from a sleep, ready to see the world through his expressive green irises and welcome it with widespread arms like his mother had always told him to. But in this moment he didn't feel that way at all, didn't feel good. Instead, he felt like something was terribly wrong, and the pit of his tummy was turning. He wondered if he was standing near the edge of that cliff close to his home again and was just closing his eyes to feel the feeling. He hoped not. His mom would get mad.

"Mhmhmm…mmssm…smbmmsmhmm…"

He suddenly heard sounds. Were they voices? He couldn't tell. They were sounds, though. Strange fuzzy mewling sounds like when he covered his mouth with a piece of cloth and tried to talk through it for a good laugh. Is that what it was? Who was doing it?

Then the sounds transformed into mumbles… Evolved into soft whispers... Eventually they became words, words spoken in a hushed tone not in secrecy, but the way they sounded when someone didn't want to bug him while he was sleeping when he was actually pretending.

That's when Aerrow realised he was lying on his back. He could feel the soft comfort of a warm, fleece blanket folding gently against him and rubbing his bare back every time he twitched. He wondered what color it was. Purple? Some girly colour maybe, it was too soft to be a blanket that belonged to him.

Curiosity got the better of Aerrow and with the daring he always prized himself to have, he couldn't take it any longer. Steeling himself for a surprise, he tensed his body, took a sharp inhale, held it, and moved slowly.

'Just like Robin always says before I practice riding my bike…' he thought sombrely.

Slowly and cautiously, he peeled his eyelids apart.

The first sting of light, a bright bright light broke his will and before he could even think of what it could be, the breath he was holding passed through his nose violently and caused him to shut his eyes again tightly. So much for being brave. He let a moment pass.

Aerrow tried again. This time, he opened his eyes to find that he was in a world he had never been in before.

Never in his life had he seen such a place so, so… clean. He suspected he might've been in a girl's house since one of his friends told him once how they didn't like to get dirty with boys in the dirt. It was true, most of the girls he knew back home were never around when they wrestled in the mud or hung out in the trees. Well, a couple did, but he thought they acted more like boys than they acted like girls. He had a sinking feeling in his tummy. In a girl's house…?

Then he took another look around the room and realised that it couldn't have been a room in a house at all… there were things it had that made it was just too high-tech. Unless it was like one of those futuristic homes that his uncle once told him about, he didn't think anyone would want to live in a room like this, with all the bits of technology beeping and stringing to the floor like plastic tree vines and the crystals he could see humming brightly from weird machines . Besides, it was way too white.

'White… white, like that blinding light I saw before we–!'

Aerrow bit his lip. He suddenly felt cold, felt lost; he had no clue where he was. The last thing he remembered was hearing the voice of the pilot over the intercom and holding a woman's hands, because he was sitting beside her. They weren't even holding each others' hands; they were clutching, gripping to the point that he remembered how much it hurt when she was digging her nails into his skin. He looked down to his hands. Too entranced in the purpling nail marks dotting on his palm, he wasn't aware of the IV needle poking into his wrist.

'Then the carrier took a sharp turn down, and then… nothing…'

Speaking of which, where was that woman? Was she alright? And, where was the nice man with the scraggly green beard who'd given him a can of soda for the trip to Terra Zooma? Where was everybody else; and the sky-bus? Was he there? Was he already at Terra Zooma? His green eyes scanned the room. There was nothing in here except for a curtain that separated him from another part of the room. And hearing beeping machines like on TV shows, he figured that he was somewhere where he needed to be alone.

Again, he asked himself the question. Where was everybody? More concerned with them than himself, he wanted to see if they were okay. Before he could even think to move out of the bed, a woman dressed in a mint green uniform with an ID around her neck came into the room most likely to check on him. Her head was bent, focusing on the clipboard without looking.

Aerrow narrowed his eyes since the first time they'd opened fully to the world around them.

Sally, it read on the card. There was a last name as well, but Aerrow only bothered with her first name. It was Sally.

Sally gave a wistful glance to where Aerrow was lying before turning her gaze back to the clipboard in her hands. Aerrow made his mouth a thin line. He waited patiently; he didn't want to be demanding her attention when she had left him to sleep peacefully moments before. He wondered how long he had actually been sleeping…? If and when she looked ready to leave the room, he'd croak her name and get her attention.

Sally was a short woman, with a short auburn hair and a wisp in her bangs. She had a concentrated look fixed on her face but Aerrow could see her eyes jumping back and forth as she read the paper beneath her. They were like honey and wam with an inner kindness he somehow was able to pick up. His heart raced a little as she started to walk toward where he was lying. She still did not see his face; his eyes were open and awake, watching her intently. Instead she was busying herself with fingering something above and behind his head that he couldn't see.

Aerrow furrowed his eyes. What had he gotten himself into? He couldn't take it. He needed to know.

"S…Sa…Sal…" his voice was like a hushed whisper and cracked from being mute for the whole time he was asleep. He'd hoped it would've been louder and stronger.

The young woman jerked and quickly pulled her hand and body away from over his head in fear. If Aerrow wasn't feeling so tired, he would've laughed. She jumped like she'd seen a scorpion fly. He settled for a smile instead.

Looking down to see his grinning face, the young woman froze wide-eyed and open mouthed. It lasted only a second before her expression suddenly melted into one of both a mixture of joy and sorrow. An oxymoron, but Aerrow would never know what that meant at the time. All he knew was that while she looked astounded to see him awake, something in her face told him that she had a secret; a secret she did not maybe want to share.

"Hey… Good morning Aerrow…" She whispered happily. Hesitantly she reached up a hand and placed it upon his cheek, cupping his face softly. Aerrow's smile pushed a bit wider; he suddenly felt a weird sensation on his cheek at where she was touching him. It was almost rough.

That's when he realised he had a bandage there, and it was starting to throb.

Aerrow made a face and instinctively pulled his face away from her touch. He didn't mean to, in fact he liked it. But senses were telling him otherwise and he couldn't fight it. The more he thought about the pain in his face, the more pains began to multiply all over his body. A thump was pounding in the back of his skull; his forehead throbbed; his neck was tense; his collarbone was hurting; his side was aching as was his back; both his legs were numb; and his right arm, the one with the IV he finally realised was poking him with, hurt like everything else but double. He couldn't move it for the life of him.

Aerrow took in a deep breath from these alarming discoveries. He was scared. What had happened? He'd never gotten so many cuts and scrapes to feel this bad! And as he breathed heavily, a weird beeping noise was emitting a loud screech behind his head. It made his ears hurt.

Sally quickly lifted her head to the device above him then dropped it back down to him. Her eyes were wide with alert.

"Alright, Aerrow? Aerrow, honey?" She asked loudly. Aerrow's eyes went to his legs. He couldn't see them; there was a blanket covering them. He continued to breath deeply. It hurt but he couldn't stop.

"Aerrow, look at me. Focus on me, okay? You've got to calm down. Calm down alright? Just breathe more slowly. Do it with me, okay? Breathe…" She made a slow inhale and exhale to which Aerrow was smart enough to follow. They did it a couple more times.

The beeping eventually faded away into the steady beat it was first at, and Aerrow was left to hear only Sally's soothing voice. She looked relieved.

"I'm sorry honey. I didn't mean to startle you. In fact, you startled me." She said happily with a warm tone. Aerrow smiled again.

"No… I'm…"

"Ahh…" She interrupted and gently placed a warm palm to his head. "Don't say anything. You need to rest."

"Can you… can you just tell me wh…wh…?"

Sally smiled serenely but her eyes still held a secret.

"I will, honey… I will…"

And before Aerrow could think of any more questions to ask her, he felt what felt like a big cloud loom over sunlight, and his world was shadowed over.

Her face was a blur, and then nothing. When he was finally asleep, Sally sighed. She soothingly rubbed the top of his mop of vibrant red hair.

"It's a start…" she whispered.

~First off, I don't know how Robin is. You can choose he should be to Aerrow; friend/family, I initially thought he'd be a friend. And I chose the name Sally because well, I thought it was a nice name for a nurse :) The next chapters to this will come after I finish my challenges for the week. So until then, I hope you liked the beginning of this story :) Until tomrrow.

Much love, Abby~