A/N: I didn't think I'd have time to post a new chapter this weekend, due to my birthday weekend full of fun, but I managed to sneak it in between activities.
99% of this story is NOT in my first draft, and I was surprised at how strong (and long!) this chapter was, just coming from my head on the fly, as I was typing it up. I'm very happy with the result, and hope you will be too. Happy reading!
Nightmares, Chapter 6
By Darcerin
The memories had come back to Adora in a sudden flood after she and Adam had realized they'd broken their legs at the same time, the same way, at the same age. The only exception was that they had been on completely different planets. None of that revelation had been a coincidence, and it was something else for Adora to ponder about later. However, she doubted Adam had received the same treatment she had afterwards.
"Adora, may I come in?" Marlena peeked in through the ajar door. Adora was sitting on her bed, her knees bent up against her chest, her arms wrapped around her knees. Adora simply nodded at her mother.
"I had to leave," Adora's voice was hollow, "I wasn't going to be able to contain myself in the dining room."
"Dear, what happened?" Marlena's voice was full of worry as she sat down next to Adora, and pushed some blonde wisps away from her face.
"I don't know that it's something you want to hear." Adora couldn't look directly at her mother as she said this.
"Yes, it is. I'm your mother," Marlena pulled her daughter's chin up so that their eyes would meet. "You can tell me anything." Marlena voice was firm as she pulled one of Adora's hands into her own. "I'm right here; please tell me."
Seven-year-old Adora hit the ground so hard she had the wind knocked out of her as she watched her steed gallop off. The blue horse with the dark mane had stepped on a branch and broken it in two pieces, the noise spooking her so badly that she'd run for about a mile afterwards, before bucking Adora, and fleeing further into the forest in sheer terror.
"You stupid animal!" Adora shouted when she could speak again, but immediately regretted it. It was her own fault for taking the most nervous horse in the Horde stables out for a ride, and it was her own fault for taking a path she'd never gone down before. She'd been warned not to stray too far from the Fright Zone and now she was probably lost.
She scooted to a tree she'd fallen next to, and tried to regain her composure and her breath. Her right leg was throbbing painfully; hopefully it was only a minor injury. Her little red pantsuit that her nanny, Chakra, had made for her was filthy. She dug her fingers into the mossy dirt, and closed her eyes, attempting to keep herself from panicking. She would just rest for now; perhaps the pain in her leg would go away.
About an hour later, as the sun began to shine the last rays of the day, the pain had not subsided, and Adora knew it was time to find her way back to the Fright Zone, pain or not. If she was late or missed dinner entirely, there was going to be hell to pay. Hordak didn't like her missing meals – he told her needed her nice and strong if she was going to be in his army one day.
She attempted to stand, and found her left leg cooperative. Her right leg, however, made her scream out in pain and she fell down, catching herself with her hands, her hair falling over her face. Tears unbidden streamed down her cheeks, and she knew now this was no mere twisted ankle, and could no longer rely on herself to get home. She was going to have to call back for help, something she'd be told never to do unless it was a real emergency. Well, this counted, right?
She backed up to the tree again, and touched the communicator button on her wrist, which, thankfully, looked like it hadn't been damaged in the fall. "Adora to Comm Center. I have fallen off my horse somewhere near the Fright Zone, and I need assistance."
"Mreow, Comm Center to Adora. Do you still have the horse?" Blast it all, it had to be Catra on duty, didn't it? And she hated Adora – the blue-haired teenager had made that quite clear some time ago.
Adora paused, "No, Catra, the horse bucked me and ran off. I'm out in the woods facing north toward -"
"I don't care," Catra purred into the communicator. "If you don't have the horse, you can get home on your own – and I'm telling Hordak, too." With a scream that was a cross of laughter and a large meow, Catra shut her end off.
Fear seized Adora. She'd never been out of the Fright Zone this late, and now she had to get home on her own somehow. What if she couldn't get home? What if she was stuck out in the woods forever? Chakra had let her go riding alone, but she had no idea where her charge had gone – they'd never find her!
Stop panicking, and don't cry. Hordak hates it when you cry. Hordespeople do not cry, she admonished herself. You are powerful, brave, and strong. You can get home, remember your Horde training and use it!
She inched her way up the tree with her back, her arms grasping the trunk, using her left leg as support. Any sort of pressure on her right leg meant excruciating anguish. The forest floor was full of hazards for an injured girl, including a small brook she and the horse had jumped a while back. But failure was not an option for Adora; she'd survived fights with Catra, she could survive this.
After the fifth time of falling on her face after failing to grab ahold of something to steady her balance on one leg, she decided crawling might be a better option. While not terribly comfortable on her knees, and the debris on the forest floor ripping her pantsuit some, at least she made better progress than hopping from one tree to another on one foot. She soon learned to look ahead on her path to find what obstacles lay ahead; after putting her hand on a soft patch of earth, her arm sank straight into a burrow of some underground animal, and she wound up with a mouth full of dirt.
She made it back to the brook, washed out her mouth, and took a long drink before deciding how to cross. It was now getting increasingly dark, the first quarter stage of the Etherian moon beginning to rise above the forest. At least it would be of some help getting her home.
"The sun sets in the west over Whispering Woods…the moon rises in the east above the Fright Zone. That means after the brook, I should head to the right a little, and I should see the Fright Zone after that," she thought out loud.
The brook was shallow, and not wide, so she made it to the other side with little trouble, although she did get wet, and without the sun to dry her out, she became chilled in her damp clothes. It also made everything she crawled on stick to her as well. More than once she had to stop to brush her knees and hands of the bark, dirt, and general compost that clung to her, so she could keep going. Soon enough, she saw the spires of the Fright Zone come into view, and breathed a sigh of relief. She pushed back her hair from her face, leaving dirt on her cheeks. She realized as soon as she reached one of the entrance that she was unable to, in her current state, reach the call button next to the door to ask for entrance.
She hit her comm link on her wrist again, hoping Catra's shift was over. "Adora to Comm Center, I'm at the east entrance, and I'm injured. Please assist."
"Commmm-Centerrrr to Adora, I'm coming!" Thank goodness, Mantenna! He was the most affable of Hordak's troops, and genuinely seemed nicer than Catra was to her.
Mantenna reached the door minutes later, and saw Adora sitting on the ground, filthy and soaking wet. "What happened, Adoraaaa?"
"I think I broke my leg," she said in a wavering voice, finally allowing herself to show the emotion she'd been holding back. "I can't stand on it."
Mantenna scooped her up gently. "I'll see if I can sneak you past Hordak to your room. Where's Chakra, your nursemaid?"
Adora shook her head as they started to walk. "I don't know. Chakra saw me off this afternoon as I left to go riding and I fell off the horse."
"So you did, did you?" a large voice snarled behind them, making Mantenna jump off all six of his legs into the air with a scream. He turned, shaking.
"M-m-ighty Hordak," was all he could sputter. Hordak was standing there, flanked by both Shadow Weaver, and Chakra, who looked dreadfully worried about the condition of her young ward.
"So, Adora, you thought you could skip dinner to keep playing outside, didn't you?"
Adora held out her hand. "No, my liege, I broke my leg. I radioed for help, but Catra wouldn't send anyone to help me back to the Fright Zone." Real fear lanced through her voice.
Hordak looked very displeased, and neither Mantenna nor Adora was sure at whom. "Mantenna, bring Adora to the throne room. Chakra, Shadow Weaver, with me."
Adora felt a knot growing in her stomach, and Mantenna's trembling didn't help ease her at all. They reached the throne room and Hordak ordered Mantenna to put her down. Adora sank to the floor in front of Mantenna, her broken leg in front of her.
Hordak stormed up to his throne, sat down, and pushed a button. "Catra, get to the Throne Room immediately!" he screamed.
Catra ran in within seconds, and stopped short on seeing Adora. "Y-yes, Mighty Hordak?"
Even sitting on the floor and only able to look up so high before being blinded by lights, Adora could tell Catra knew she was in trouble, but that didn't make Adora happy, even if they didn't get along.
"You left Adora out there, alone, in the woods, after she contacted you!" Hordak yelled. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"B-but Hordak," Catra mewled, "she lost the horse…and -"
"SILENCE!" Hordak was seething with rage. "You are to be demoted immediately, and as for your punishment…" He smashed his fist on the right arm of his chair, and the floor beside Adora opened up, and she shoved herself sideways as Catra disappeared down the hole, yowling at the top of her lungs.
"Mantenna!" Hordak shouted next, "you tried to slip Adora past me, and pretend nothing was wrong, didn't you?"
"No, Mighty One! It was my fault! I did it! I asked him to help me!" Adora cried out.
"We'll get to you in a minute, dear." Hordak snarled, and Adora shrank back. She saw Chakra quiver, and she wanted nothing more right now than to be by her side instead of facing Hordak. "Answer me, Mantenna."
"W-w-well, I, uh, that is, uh."
"That's all I wanted to hear." He smashed his left fist down, and ended up hitting the wrong button. Adora screamed as the floor beneath her disappeared, and she began to fall down a shaft. Mantenna scrambled forward and grabbed her, using his legs as an anchor on two sides of the hole, as Chakra and Shadow Weaver raced forward as well.
Hordak snorted out a laugh as Mantenna pulled Adora up to safety and to a panel of the floor that didn't open. "You have just redeemed yourself, Mantenna." He strode down to them, Adora leaning on one leg and Mantenna for support. "I'll bet you're hungry, aren't you, Adora?"
Adora looked at the floor, shamefaced, and shaking like a leaf with fright. "Yes, sir."
"How about an open-faced sandwich for dinner?"
Adora nodded, still looking at the ground.
Seconds later, she found herself sailing through the air across the room, after Hordak slapped her across the face. The last thing she remembered hearing was Chakra's scream of horror before blacking out.
When Adora awoke the next morning, she was in her bed, and had no memory of what happened beyond arriving back in the Fright Zone last night. Chakra was sitting on the bed next to her, singing softly. Adora tried to sit up, but Chakra pushed her back down. "Rest, dear, you're hurt."
"I-I broke my leg, didn't I?"
Chakra nodded, "We got you a cast though, and it set while you were asleep. You'll be in it for the rest of the summer."
It was then Adora noticed that her nanny had bruises all over her face. "Chakra, what happened to you? You got all beat up."
Chakra cringed, but waved her charge's worries away. "I fell down the stairs again. You know me."
"The clumsiest nanny on Etheria," Adora repeated Chakra's mantra. Then she looked down at her blanket woefully, and asked in a small voice, "Is Hordak very mad with me?"
Chakra closed her eyes, suppressing the urge to tell her the truth. "No, dearest, he was very concerned for you. He took you to the Infirmary himself."
"He did?" Adora looked up at Chakra, and Chakra nodded. "He really is wonderful, isn't he?"
Chakra's stomach lurched. "Wonderful. Yes."
Mantenna knocked on the door just then and poked his head in, looking dismal. "They found your horse, Adoraaa."
Chakra grabbed ahold of the night stand as she struggled to stand up. Her ribs, if they weren't broken, were incredibly bruised or cracked. She held out her hand to Adora and smiled sadly. "Come along, dear. Hordak will want to see you now."
Minutes later, Chakra and Adora hobbled down to the stables, where Grizzlor was standing, holding her horse's reigns. Scorpia and Catra were there as well, chatting to each other, but quickly shut up when Adora arrived, giving her furtive, nasty glances.
"Good of you to join us." Hordak swept past Chakra, who visibly flinched. Adora noticed, and wanted to ask what was wrong, but she'd learned long ago to hold her tongue in front of Hordak, especially if he was about to a make an important speech.
"This horse has been a thorn in my side for some time. It is not brave or nearly as strong as any of its counterparts in these stables. Yesterday, it threw dear Adora after being spooked for one stupid reason or another. I cannot abide animals that cannot follow simple commands, and I cannot allow this one to stay in the Horde stables any longer."
"You're going to set it free?" Adora asked innocently as Chakra gripped her shoulder.
"In a way, yes," Hordak nodded. "This horse does not deserve to continue receiving the comforts we have given it thus far for what did yesterday. It abandoned Adora, and thus, we shall punish it for its failure to protect a member of the Horde." His left arm changed into his power cannon, and he walked toward the horse. Adora knew now what was coming, and screamed for Hordak to stop, begging him to punish her instead. Chakra grabbed her and forced her to look away, pushed Adora into the side of her thigh, so that the little girl would not have to witness the horse's murder.
"His arm gun went off...the horse screamed once...and it was over," Adora finished in a hollow tone. She had cried bitterly through the majority of her story, as Marlena had with her, but as she finished, she felt cried-out, and numb. "It took me a long time to realize that Shadow Weaver had probably suppressed my memory with magic, and Chakra hadn't actually fallen down any stairs, but had taken my beating for me that night – had probably taken ALL my beatings for me when Hordak was angry with me. How she's still alive now, I have no idea."
"Oh my dearest," Marlena whispered as she held Adora, "my poor little girl. I knew the Horde was evil, but to do all that to you!"
Adora's voice was filled with shame, "I didn't want to unload that on anyone else. I shouldn't have said anything."
"Dear, you can't carry that kind of burden by yourself. To keep that all inside without telling anyone – I'm glad you told me now. I think, somewhere deep down, I needed to know how my little girl grew up," Marlena kissed Adora on the crown of her head. "Why don't you go wash your face and get changed and I'll stay with you until you fall asleep."
Adora felt too tired from everything that had happened that day to argue, so off she went. Minutes later, she emerged from the bathroom, still red-faced, but a bit calmer. Marlena turned down the sheets and Adora lay down on her side facing her mother. Marlena dutifully tucked her in, and then sat next to her on the bed and stroked her golden locks. Quietly, she began to sing an Earth lullaby until Adora closed her eyes at last, and fell sound asleep.
End Chapter 6
