Swallowed Up
"Still no sign then?"
"Of what?"
"Life. Hope. Anything."
"Neither. Everyone's rejoicing because they don't know what price our salvation was wrought…"
"And even if they knew – "
"Would they care?"
The darkness was all there was. Darkness and nothingness. That was all there was, all there ever would be.
"It's been over two weeks now."
"If you're asking me to give up hope then think again."
"I'm not asking you to give up hope. I'm asking you to be realistic."
"I am being realistic. I will not give up either of them."
Sometimes there were glimmerings of things in the darkness. Figments of the past. Shadows of what was, perhaps. But they were just as quickly glimpsed and just as quickly gone.
"I never told you how much I love you. I wish I had. I still have that white feather – from when we fought the Shadows.. You never knew I had it but I do. I kept it and it keeps me strong."
The glimmerings are getting stronger now. I – that is strange – I am able to make out shapes now. And this I – I have no memory. But I am defiantly an I now. I do not know what that means.
"Keep fighting. I know you can. You never gave up then, you can't give up now."
"She can't hear you."
"What makes you think that? Science?"
"Yes. I thought you lived by science."
"No. I live by the ties of family. And I know she can hear me. Wake up Kiddo… please."
Kiddo. The name seems almost familiar. The glimmerings are getting stronger. I can almost tell who they are. It is just there, on the edge of my reach. I stretch out my hand to grasp them but fall just short. I feel like I will never get there and wonder if I should just give up.
You can't give up.
But I can.
They need you. He needs you.
He?
The zafara. The one you tried to save. We have him here with us. Come find us and find him. He needs you.
It's gone now. But I reach out my hand and try to reach across the gap again. And this time I make it.
"Melody! Come' mere! Hurry!"
The voices are painful to hear. But somehow there is a swell of joy just to hear them. I can feel now and behind the darkness is light. I open my eyes and the light nearly blinds me. I close them again. I can feel someone holding my hand and I vaguely remember the voice as Sabreur's.
"Kiddo! You awake? Can you hear me?"
"Y-yes," I say, "I'm awake now."
****
It was a long time before I was fully awake. The doctors were in and out constantly. At least one family member was by my bed at all times. When I finally came to fully it was Terraile.
"Hiya," I said weakly, opening my eyes to take in the pristine whiteness of a hospital room.
There were flowers by my bed.
"Kiddo," my shoyru said tearfully, her eyes alight, "Are you okay?"
"Ngh, I hurt. Is it safe to sit up?"
"Yes. You're all healed, just really really weak right now."
She hurried to my side as I struggled to bring myself to a sitting position. There was an IV in my arm and a stupid breathing tube in my nose. I took that one out but refrained from touching the IV.
"How long was I out?" I asked.
"Bordering on three weeks now."
I sat there, stunned. Three weeks…
"The doctors thought you wouldn't wake up at all."
"I heard them."
A funny look came across her face.
"You heard everything that was going on around you…?"
"No. I just remember voices. I don't know what they were saying though."
Terraile smiled grimly.
"Sabreur will be glad to hear that. He was about to swear off science the last time the doctors told him there was no sense in talking to you for hours on end."
"Hours…?"
"Hours and hours. He'd just sit and talk… it was as if he were going to bring you back through sheer determination."
"What… exactly happened?"
"Well, you fell. You hit a lake instead of solid ground which I think is the only thing that saved you. As it was, you were very badly injured. Very, very badly. A normal person would never have survived the fall to begin with… the fact that you're the Essence is the only thing that saved you. That and the faeries. Fyora looks like she's had a nice healthy dose of humble pie. They worked non-stop for nearly a week after you fell to save you."
"So the faeries healed me then."
"Yes. And then we just waited for you to wake up."
"And what happened to Aldrai?"
Terraile took a deep breath. When she spoke again her voice was strangely hushed.
"No one really saw what happened. We could only guess. People saw someone in the sky get hit by light magic – a lot of it. That must've been you. Then it vanished and all the power Aldrai had accumulated faded. A couple minutes passed and he flared up again. Then you fell from the sky. A couple seconds after you started falling the entire sky lit up with this shockwave of light magic. It was centered around Aldrai. Then it all retreated in, like Aldrai was sucking the power to him. At that instant every light in Neopia went out. And everyone who had fallen into a coma woke up. Just like that; in an instant."
"What happened then?"
"Well, Aldrai went into a nosedive. It was like a comet falling from the sky. All the power he'd gathered was trailing around and behind him. He hit the ground… and the earth… swallowed him up. There's been nothing since then."
I took a deep breath, held it, and let it out slowly.
"I-I'm sorry Kiddo."
"No, it's okay," I said slowly, "He's still alive. I know he is. And I think we can get him back."
She looked at me, puzzled.
"I'll explain later. Just trust me on this. What I did wasn't in vain."
"I'm glad. We were really worried for a while there. I'll go call the others. They'll want to see you – now that you're awake."