It stung.
Bright light stung her eyes even though her eyes had been closed, and even though she had been asleep, the bright light had stung her eyes to the point that she was forced awake.
Her eyelids fluttered, struggling to open fully, having almost been sealed shut from the gunk that had covered her face.
As she attempted to reach up and clear her eyes, the sudden movement alerted her brain of her horrendous injuries by sending a colossal shock of pain up her nerves.
A mental defense had previously blocked the pain from her consciousness, but the dam overfilled when she tried to move and her body was flooded with endless torment.
Her scalp was still in pain from having a chunk of her hair yanked out. Her left canine-ear dangled from the loose skin it was barely attached to.
The electric-burn marks on her neck occasionally sent phantom shocks up her almost dead nerves. Her throat spasmed and she struggled to swallow air.
The infected nail beds of her declawed fingers and toes were rotting away her flesh. Almost every joint and bone in her right arm had been broken.
Her creaking spine and cracked ribs screamed at her with every movement.
A wave of dark red and green, of bright yellow and white, exploded out from her throat with enough force to send most of it out of her nose instead of her mouth.
Her only respite was the ability to breathe once more. The act of vomiting had also made her eyes bulge out their sockets.
'Ahh.'
Her body and mind found peace as she stared at the world outside.
Through the small entrance of the cave she was about to die in, she saw a bright blue sky white pure white clouds and a brilliant yellow star shining.
Her one wish, to see the beautiful sky before she died, had been accomplished. Acceptance numbed the pain and fear, she was ready.
'Mother, everyone, I'm sorry. This is as far as I could make it.'
As her consciousness wavered, she suddenly found herself remembering the past, of times she thought forgotten and lost forever.
A blue sky, one just like the sky she just saw. A figure she couldn't remember, a person she couldn't see, her father carried her on his shoulder.
She couldn't remember his words, but the sentiment was engraved on her soul. She was loved.
'So it wasn't the sky.'
The last thing she wanted to see, the missing memory that haunted her dreams, it hadn't been the sky afterall. She just wanted to see her father.
What a worthless daughter she was. Mother had been enslaved alongside her. Mother had sacrificed her life to let her escape.
She didn't know how many others had also thrown away their lives to ensure she could make it out of the Dust Mine she had grown up in.
It had all been for naught. She would die, not even satisfied in her final moments.
If… if only she had found joy in her captivity, something dark was born in her dying brain. She had Mother and a whole host of other people who cared for her, and yet she wanted freedom?
She had been loved, why did she want more? Why did she dream for more?
Mother's warm embrace had always cradled her. Regardless of the beatings either of them had endured that day, at night she could forget about pain and be soothed by Mother's lullaby.
Her bones grew cold. Blood was leaking from the various wounds that littered her body. Her mind grew foggy.
Why wasn't she happy enough?
Sure, she had been abducted and enslaved before she could even walk. Nearly beaten half to death almost every week before she could even talk. And assaulted before she could bleed.
But she was never hungry.
'Ah.'
That's right, she had never been hungry. Mother always ensured she had enough food to never feel the pangs of hunger.
Scenes flashed through the forefront of her mind, she had always covered her eyes and closed her ears, but that didn't mean she couldn't hear Mother screaming in pain.
What a worthless daughter she was.
She recalled even more. When Mother was physically incapable of acquiring food, others would chip in to feed her instead.
Fingers, bruised and bloodied, with skin so tight to show off even the ridges of their bones, they handed her food. Even as their skin squeezed their rib cages, they fed her.
A kaleidoscope of memories overlapped. People collapsing on the spot. Corpses never waking up.
'How many? How many people died of starvation because of me?'
She couldn't recall, by the time she could form solid memories, she couldn't recall how many mothers sang their last lullaby as they held her.
'Mother…'
The features of countless women swam over the blurry mirage she called Mother.
What a worthless daughter she was.
She hadn't wanted freedom, she just wanted to escape. To run away from the beatings, but more importantly, to run away from the eyes of the people who thought she should survive.
Those desperate blood-shot gazes, they demanded she run, that she escape and find happiness.
She was happy, she was loved, but she couldn't be happy as a slave, she needed to be free to be happy, right?
Free at last, bleeding in a cave, she had probably unconsciously attempted to symbolically return to the depths, but unfortunately this was a shallow cave.
She hadn't expected to awake today, she had planned on dying in her sleep somewhere deep.
What a worthless daughter she was. No, she accomplished her mission. She escaped, she was free now.
The people back home could eat their own meals. The people back home could die satisfied that they helped a young girl find freedom.
The dark thing in her mind died, she no longer had any regret after she came to understand why she had been kept alive for so long.
As her mind began drifting away from her body, the numbing coldness of the stone and her bones made it difficult to comprehend where she ended and the cave began.
Her muscles relaxed as she released command of them.
The faint echoes of countless voices singing the same lullaby reached her ears.
'Mother, can you hold me once more?'
She could almost imagine countless arms reaching beyond the boundary, open and beckoning for her to join them.
'Mother… I'm sor—un—'
Her final thought was interrupted, something just sent more pain through her body. Opening her bleary eyes, she didn't immediately spot anything that could've hurt her.
She had definitely felt the familiar sensation of being kicked in her side or something, when she lost focus during her lazy attempt to mine, the overseers would occasionally punt her a bit.
'…Mother… I—UN—'
Her entire body was shoved a few inches. "Ow, fuck!" Her voice was surprisingly clear. A wave of confusion circulated within her brain. "What?" She asked as she held up a hand before her eyes.
She had no trouble moving, the only pain she felt was from the odd shove from a moment ago. As she sat up and inspected her body, she couldn't find the single hint of any open wounds.
If her rags and skin wasn't absolutely caked in mud and blood, she would've thought the whole thing a dream or figment of her overactive imagination.
She looked around, searching for whoever kicked her.
'It wasn't a dream, I really was dying, but now I'm not, I've been healed somehow.'
The only explanation that made sense was that someone saved her, but no matter how much she searched the small cave, she couldn't find anyone. But they couldn't have gone far, they had just kicked her awake.
"But seriously, what a small cave. I think my cell was bigger than this." Her words carried a hint of disappointment, she had definitely gotten attached to her cell back home.
Her taste wasn't small or large rooms, she preferred a middle size that allowed her to play around in while staying safe.
"What are these?" She poked at the odd protrusion coming off the ground, and there were even some on the roof. After drawing back her finger from the moist rock, she wiped dry on her messy rag. "They're so gros—AH!"
Something slammed into her hip and sent her tumbling. Her body ached in a fresh wave of pain, but she forced herself to stand.
She slammed her foot down at an angle on one of the spikes on the ground, and then she snatched the odd stone spike that was sent spinning through the air.
Ferally she swung it around her immediate surroundings, each swing had enough force to break bone.
"I don't care if you healed me, I'm done with the whole being kicked around thing."
She was free now, and alive too. Sure, she was grateful for being saved but she was also sort of pissed off, she had almost been reunited with Mother after coming to peace with her life so far.
'What's it called again? Oh yeah.'
"Stop being invisible and face me head on! We could talk, or something." She tightened her grip on the rock she was wielding.
Her eyes began scanning the ground, searching for footprints or anything of the sort to give away their position. And then she blinked once her brain understood what she was seeing.
Some sort of white stone slab was zipping around in what appeared to be frustration.
And as she calmed down, she also noticed something else.
[Status] - [Name: Luna Eisenclaw] - [Rank: E] - [Job: Dungeon Manager]
[HP: 78/100] - [AP: 681/1000] - [STR: E] - [END: E] - [AGI: D] - [MGI: E] - [CHA: E] - [LUK: E]
[Skills] - [Co-Existence Lv. 1: The life of the Dungeon Core and Manager are linked together, when one dies, they both perish.]
[Dungeon Management Lv. 1: Manage the Dungeon and the Core.]
[Dungeon Core's Mood: Dissatisfied! Dissatisfied! Dissatisfied! Dissatisfied!]
'Ah, words… right? I probably should've paid attention when Mother was trying to teach me to read.'
"Still, the outside world is pretty freaky." She attempted to touch the rectangle but her fingers just passed through.
'This is uh… glass, right?' And the weird stone-like thing was probably an insect or some such.
AN: Hello, yes, I'm here.
I'm extremely happy with how this chapter came out.