In Which Skipper Needs to Be Alone
Xanaria ran through the darkness chasing Skipper's screams. The ground tipped and shook doing it's best to knock her over and the light from the walls came and went disorienting her. But Skipper kept screaming so Xanaria kept trying to reach them, a thousand horrible possibilities flitting through her mind. She ran until the light flashed bright again and there was a nasty crunching boom and the ground slammed into her so hard she flew. Xanaria ducked her head and rolled. She hit the ground hard but safe and had only a moment of relief before she slammed right into a bush. She blinked in the sudden darkness and realized it was silent.
Skipper's stopped screaming, she thought with dread. She detangled herself from the bush and stumbled onward, ears ringing.
When Xanaria broke through into the clearing with the Metastone she saw Justina lying flat on her back with Skipper sprawled across her. Justina looked battered and the bicep on her right arm was a raw bloody mess. On her chest, breathing in tiny panting gasps, Skipper's head was soaked in blood and wet streaks saturated the fur all down their back.
"Sleeping Goddess," Xanaria fell to her knees beside them, "What happened? Whose blood-" she cut herself off realizing it was a stupid question.
"Skippers, mostly. Something is very wrong with them."
"I'm, I'm…" Skipper started, but then trailed off with a whimper.
Justina struggled to sit up cuddling Skipper close as gently as she could with her good arm. She shared a helpless look with Xanaria. Light flickered again and then Skipper let out a long breath and the walls faded up to a steady, but faint, glow.
"Ow." Skipper whimpered in a weak voice, sounding impossibly young.
"What in the depths just happened?" Xanaria asked.
"I, ow… I hurt, and I ran, and I think I crashed. I've never crashed before. I think I'm stuck in the side of a metaverse. I… need to heal. I hurt. Oh, ow. I hurt so bad!"
Justina looked concerned and gently smoothed their blood soaked fur.
"Is there anything we can do?"
Skipper blinked bloody tears from their eyes, "I can't… I need you to leave. I don't know if I can keep things safe in here. I've never crashed before. I've never been torn at like that. I don't…" Their voice dropped so low Xanaria had to lean in to hear. "I'm not sure I can heal this."
"You can." Xanaria told them fiercely. "You will get better."
Justina nodded, still stroking Skipper's fur. "If you need us to go we can go. But I don't want you to strain yourself opening a door. I'm willing to risk staying while you recover. Xanaria can use the Metastone, if she needs to."
"It won't hardly take anything to open a door. It's almost harder to keep it closed; I'm so close, and I think that man broke something."
"Okay." Justina nodded. "Maybe Xanaria should come through the door too, then? In ca-" Justina cut herself off midword.
"It's okay." Skipper reassured her, "if I die the Metastone is… heavy isn't the right word but I can't think of a better one. It will fall into the metaverse we're stuck to. She won't be stranded in between, and she'll be safer in an avatar."
"You're not going to die, okay? Let me find you a blanket."
"No, thank you. Put me on the moss, please? I'd like to be in contact."
Justina set them down gently and they lay sprawled across the moss. Their paws dug into the springy green as blood soaked into it and disappeared. She left a reassuring hand on their back.
"I need to open it now." Skipper said, their eyes closed, "While I'm still awake."
"Okay." Justina whispered and Xanaria thought she looked like she was trying not to cry.
Skipper shuddered and a small hole peeled open in the air. It only reached as high as the spot where the tattoo had torn through and then shuddered to a stop spitting painful red sparks.
Justina gave it a wary look, then turned to Skipper. "I will see you soon." She told them, then nodded to Xanaria and crawled through the door. Just before she got there Xanaria saw her pause and lift one hand to look at something. Whatever it was she put it in her pocket and disappeared.
Xanaria gave Skipper a gentle ear pat and then crossed to the Metastone. She wrapped her arms around it and closed her eyes waiting for the familiar sensation of melting into it. But nothing happened. It stayed solid stone under her fingers. She opened her eyes, let go for a moment, and tried again. Still nothing.
She turned her head.
"Somethings wrong, Skipper, I can't connect to the Metastone!"
Skipper peeled themself up and limp crawled over. They cocked their head, closed their eyes, and shivered. Their eyes flew open.
"Oh no! Xanaria I think this is your home Metaverse! You can't connect to an avatar because it's where you're from!"
"But Justina's already out there! She's expecting back up. I have to be able to connect!"
"You can't." Skipper folded up again, knees giving out.
"I hate to ask, but can you bring her back?"
"She's too far away." Their eyes slid closed. The walls dimmed.
"Skipper, I know you need to sleep and heal but can you open the portal for me once more?"
Skipper nodded weekly, "You know this is a horribly dangerous plan, right?"
"I know. I can handle it now."
"Promise you'll come back?"
"I swear by the dreams of the Sleeping Goddess I will do everything I can to come back, and to bring Justina with me. Rest and heal, dear Skipper."
Justina brushed bits of moss from her knees and touched her pocket to reassure herself the pebble was still there. She had felt it under her hand as she crawled toward the door and it reminded her of the glowing stone she kept by her bed. She hadn't really thought before she put it in her pocket. Maybe I'll be able to tell how Skipper is doing with it?
Taking a deep breath she looked around. The air was filled with the sound of wind chimes. She was at the edge of a forest looking out at a pebble beach and a slate gray sky. There was a steady cold wind and waves beat against the shore. She wrapped her arms around herself wishing her jacket was thicker or at least that her right sleeve hadn't been torn to shreds. The wind tugged at her skirt pulling it out like a flag. She had leggings underneath but still she wasn't dressed for this weather. She had put them on for Pegasus Station and had since drunk, fought, slept, and been sick in them. The alcohol she had run through seemed to have seeped into her shoes making them damp and cold. Mixing with the sharp scent of alcohol she could smell the coppery tang of blood. Her chin hurt from where it had smacked the floor in engineering and her arm throbbed and burned where the tattoo had gotten her. Her tongue felt swollen and throbbed with her heart beat. She was shaky and wanted nothing more than to sink into a bed and stay there until the world felt like a better place.
Down the front of her green jacket blood stood out in dark swaths. At least the bloodstains on her skirt weren't too bad, the busy pattern didn't exactly hide them, but it made them less obvious. When she finally steeled herself to look at her right arm she flinched. Her flesh was badly torn under the shredded right sleeve adding it's own seeping bloodstains to Skipper's.
She shivered, and looked around. Behind her was a narrow path heading back into the forest. It looked well used and there were two cairns of flat rounded stones on each side of the trailhead, each stone painted in shades of blue, white, and green. The surrounding branches were hung with an eclectic assortment of objects; pieces of paper, wind chimes, woven baskets, sparkly rocks, and the like. It looked holy, like this whole section of beach and forest were a shrine.
It gave Justina the creeps. She walked along the beach looking for a different path, but before she could get far it began to rain, sudden and hard. She hunched up her shoulders and turned back weaving against the wind. She ducked beneath the relative shelter of the trees as soon as she could and set off down the path trying to be optimistic. She could still hear the waves of the shore behind her and through the wind was much reduced by the trees it still bit though her clothes. The trees creaked all around her.
Justina tried to focus on sounds. The wind in the trees, water dripping, and birds. She tried not to think about the hot throbbing ache of her chin and tongue, the sharp pain down her arm, the pounding in her head, the bruises on her back, or the nausea that grew and receded but never seemed to go away. She tried to ignore the way her feet felt increasingly numb and heavy. How her hands felt weak and clumsy. She tried to zip up her jacket but her fingers couldn't grip. She overlapped the jacket's open edges as tight as she could and folded her arms across her chest to keep it closed.
She kept moving one step at a time, her eyes on the path. She was vaguely aware that she had slowed down, but there wasn't much she could do about that. She just kept putting one foot in front of the other
She didn't notice there were other people on the path until she almost ran into them. Justina stumbled to a halt and looked down into the very round and golden eyes of a preteen girl. She was wearing a rough cloth dress in a brown that looked like it had come straight from a sheep.
Did she just say something?
"What?" Justina mumbled with numb lips.
"Are you okay, Milady?"
"No, not especially."
"Um…" The girl glanced over her shoulder. "Mom? We should take her home. She's hurt."
Justina followed the girl's glance to see a woman standing about twenty feet up the path looking troubled. "Of course." She said slowly.
Something about the woman was strange but Justina couldn't quite place what it was.
"I'll bring the prayers back afterward, okay Mom?"
"I'm not as bad as I look. If you could just point me to a dry place to sleep, that would be wonderful." Justina hoped all her words had come out right because she couldn't tell.
The woman sighed and came over to take Justinas good arm, moving the basket to her other hip. The girl went to duck under her right arm but stopped with a gasp.
"That looks bad, I don't think I should touch that."
The woman looked over and hissed through her teeth. "Right. Lisa, be a dear and take my basket too? I've got her."
Once both arms were free the woman hauled Justina's left arm over her shoulders and wrapped an arm round her waist.
"I… I'm not… sure…" Justina mumbled.
"The Sleeping Goddess sent you to us. We'll get you safe. Oof," She wrinkled her nose, "Was the liquor supposed to be antiseptic or anesthetic?"
Justina mumbled something unintelligible and stumbled along letting herself be led.
"I suppose it doesn't matter now." The woman sighed.
Something oddly soft and warm was under Justina's left hand. She looked down and saw orange fur with leopard spots on the woman's arms.
Oh no. Justina thought, Xanaria won't be able to join me, will she?
