A/N: Sequel to New Universe, resubmitting it slowly to the end of the first.
If you liked the ending of the first, don't read this little ditty. It's just to give an alternate ending to those who don't like Kullervo winning and Connie dying.
Ch.1 Cold and Alone
The dark coursed around me, leaving nowhere to turn. Tears slid down my face, but I didn't know why. I just wanted to go home and be safe, out of the swirling darkness that held me here in this cage. Every once in a while a flicker of silver lit the inside of my cage, but the blue snuffed it out.
My breath fogged before me and I watched as it changed. I turned it to small snowflakes, then a large one. I watched as I willed it into different shapes – yet none of them were familiar – before the mist faded. Then another breath out and I started again.
Sounds flitted through my prison at infrequent intervals. A gust of wind sailing past my ear, humming of some old marching song, crickets in a field. I felt so alone, unable to see what was making the noises. Perhaps my captor wanted me to cry out in pain?
I tried to call out but couldn't open my mouth. I reached up and felt a cool band around it. My captor didn't want me to cry out...
I watched another burst of breath and tried to form it into something recognizable, but nothing came to mind. Cold prevailed over me and I watched my breath.
In...
Out...
In...
Out...
In...
Out...
In...
Out...
Out...
In...
Wait! There had been another breath besides my own! I held my breath and watched as another's filled the area. Large flakes of snow formed, then turned yellow. It was something familiar, something that I knew. The yellow grains slid against one another and whispered in a soft voice.
I stared at the small grains, pushing myself to remember what they were. They slid and slipped back and forth, creating that voice-like sound. It was getting louder, drowning out the sounds of the outside that I could not see.
The word was on the tip of my tongue... And then it was. The granules shifted into my mouth as the band disappeared.
Shift!
How could I forget him? I had forgotten the best friend I had ever had! Sand – that's what it was called! - was still in my mouth and it gritted against my tongue, the taste earthy and somewhat sweet.
I scraped the sand out and watched as another breath came to being, combining with my own. A snout had emerged from the blue. It was blue itself, yet I knew it was not the same. Slowly it emerged into the cage, small and dripping wet.
It was a snake that was about three feet long, jewels for eyes, small wings folded across its back. It seemed unable to see with the blue gems, so I reached out to touch it.
Gasping, it felt as if my mind was thrown into a desert. The heat beat down on me and I breathed in the dry air. It was the familiar place that I had come to know with Shift. Where was Shift? I wondered about it.
I had met him only a month ago, after the day I had vanquished Kullervo, and then I had been pushed into this prison.
He truly took you then? A voice entered my head. It was Shift's – I knew – yet I did not see him anywhere. All that was near my was the small, blue...
"Shift?" I whispered, my own voice course and strange to my ears. Somehow sounding unused for years. I cleared my throat and tried again, my throat rasping.
"What has happened?"
You are here, and Kullervo has control. He must have taken you bit by bit, as we journeyed together. It has been twenty years since we met.
Just a short first chapter to the sequel. What do you think?