~Chapter 2~
Elahemé felt warm and comfortable as her consciousness returned to her. The light burned at her eyes as she tried to open them, causing her to wince and turn, only to find she was unable; pinned beneath something heavy. Settling back, she began to take in her surroundings. Something firm, yet cushioned, cradled her neck, and a dull ache began to spread across her head. She regretted trying to move, now that sensations were beginning to return. Like her head, her limbs were fairing no better, until she relaxed her muscles and the aches, at least in them, faded away. Slowly opening her eyes once again, they watered as she blinked, and then began to focus.
Glancing around, she found herself in unfamiliar surroundings, and the heavy thing above her appeared to be a weighted blanket, covered in spiraled grey fur, too thick for her to look over, narrowing her field of vision.
From where she laid, the room was warm and smelled of flowers. There was a soft, warm breeze coming in from an open window to her right. Above her, the ceiling appeared to be a single slab of wood, the striped pattern like that of tight rings of a tree, banding in a wide arc across it. The walls, curved and rounded, were coated in a chalky looking white substance, like plaster that had been sanded with a coarse grit, and never painted. It was strange to her, but she felt as if she was somehow inside of a large tree, or rather, a room at a fun-house designed to feel like such. The only other item she could see from where she laid, was the edge of a wide black ring, hanging from the ceiling. It looked to be metal, and with no other indication of a light source, she assumed it to be just that.
Taking a breath, she found her unfamiliarity and the unusual architecture of the room to be disorienting. The only things she knew for certain about her surroundings, was that she was laying in some sort of bed, although she seemed to be near, if not, resting on the floor, and she most definitely was not in a hospital. She also knew from the pain in her head, she probably wasn't dead either. She didn't want to be frightened or nervous, and the room was light and airy, which should have been a comfort, but something felt very off about the situation and it put her ill-at-ease.
Bearing the aches, she lifted her shoulder and attempted to pull out one of her arms, but the moment she pulled, she was rendered breathless, wracked by a pain like scraping a sunburn with a luffa, which inadvertently caused her to cry out as she shuddered and labored to breath, creeping back into her previous position. Relaxing her arm as much as she was capable, she began to breath sharply in through her nose and slowly out through her mouth, a method that had always helped to calm her in the past. Staring up at the ceiling, tears welled into her eyes, wherever she was stuck, for now she would have to remain. She was injured, and had to refrain from moving.
As the tears began to slip from the corners of her eyes, she heard a door unlatch, although she wasn't able to see it thanks to the obstructive view of the blanket.
Hello?" she said, hoping that whoever had entered the room was here to help or would at least be willing to provide some answers.
She heard someone sigh and step closer, and a man, who looked vaguely familiar came into view. He appeared tall from her perspective, and appeared to be in his mid to late thirties with hair the color of chestnuts, that hung well passed his shoulders even with its soft wave and deep red scarf with silver fringed edges wrapped around his head. Adorned in a shirt the same shade red as the scarf, the sleeves were tight fit, and even with the cuffs turned back, came half way down the back of his hands, while the rest was loose and flowy, giving it the appearance of a light-weight silk fabric. His pants, however, being brown in color, were clearly made of leather; tight fitting from the bit she could see, with black lacing along the outer seams.
"Chonvey, chonvey. Vry ough ew ewve." He had a pleasant voice, deeper in tone that she had expected from someone as thin and lanky as he appeared.
"What? I'm sorry, I don't understand," she replied as he scratched at the back of his head, while wearing an awkward smile.
"E g'lowe. Civ et hime," he replied, lifting both of his hands up by his shoulders, slowly waving his fingers towards her.
"I don't understand," she repeated, her voice having lost all its strength which appeared to be the reason the man moved closer. "Please, I only speak English and a tiny bit of French. If you have a cellphone, maybe we could use a translator?"
"Cellphone?" he questioned, sounding confused.
Standing up, the man tapped at his chin, repeating 'cellphone' several times to himself.
"Yes, cellphone. I have one in my purse."
"E ought owe thes hings."
"I'm so confused, and my head won't stop pounding. I just want to know what happened to me. Please, just tell me where I am. Where… is… here?" she questioned, hoping that maybe he was capable of understanding single, separate, words.
"Sah'korhune," he replied, dropping his shoulders and looking away. "It ay take some ime…"
"What did you just say?"
"I said, it may take some time…"
"You're speaking English? Why didn't you…"
"Please," he raised his voice and held his hands out towards her, "please stay relaxed. I will explain. Stay calm. Your injuries were extensive. It will take time for you to recover."
"Can you at least tell me where I am?"
"You are in my home. There was an accident. Karanosi, my father, he decided that bringing you through to my home world was the best course of action."
"Home world? What are you talking about? Why didn't you take me to a hospital?"
The man looked stumped by her question, his brow arching and scrunching, his soft, light brown eyes wavering as he knelt down and crawled up next to the bed.
"Please, I'm begging you, just give me my purse. I'll call my husband and he'll come and get me. I'll tell him you helped me. You won't get into any trouble, I swear."
"Apologies, I sincerely give, but this truly is all I can do for you."
"No, please. My husband, he was expecting me home for dinner. He's going to be so worried if I don't call him," she pleaded, tears escaping from her eyes. "If you let me call him, we can sort all of this out. Make arrangements. Just tell me what you want? If it's money, we don't have much, but I'm sure we can sort something. Please, I just want to go home."
She watched as the man closed his eyes, his expression and posture were of a man filled with sadness. His presence felt heavy. Opening his eyes, he took in a deep breath and bowed his head.
"I know I cannot imagine the difficulty of what you are feeling in this moment, but I beg you to hear me. I want for nothing. I would return you to your home and husband if I could. Will you allow me to explain?"
"Yes, please. I'll listen," she replied, not knowing what other choice she had, under the circumstances.
"My name is Venificus Foedari. My father, Karanosi, he calls me, 'Ven'. You may also. What may I call you?"
"Mae. You can call me, 'Mae'."
"It is nice to meet you, Mae. I wish it were under far different circumstances."
"It's nice to meet you too, Ven. Thank you for taking care of me," she replied, casting him the friendliest smile she could muster, hoping that if she remained kind to him, that he would find it in his heart to let her go, once she had recovered enough to move.
"I'm afraid Karanosi deserves most of the credit. He's far more adept at healing than I; part of his lineage. My specialty is normally not quite so handy," he remarked, his expression softening. "Allow me to start with something easy. I cast a Translation spell on you while you were sleeping. I'm not speaking your language. You are actually speaking mine. As against every regulation that there is, it made the most sense. This way, you will be able to communicate with near everyone here, as opposed to me being the only one who can understand you."
Mae bit down on her tongue to stop herself from laughing. He was speaking utter nonsense. Magic wasn't real, and he was obviously as human as she. Which led her to conclude that there was no other possibility; as nice as he seemed, this man, was clearly insane.
"I see. Makes perfect sense," she said, closing her eyes as her head throbbed once again.
"Are you in pain?"
"Just a headache. It's nothing to worry about," she replied, screaming at herself that she had just given the crazy man a reason to drug her. "It's better if I let it pass on its own."
"There is no need for that," he remarked as he shifted his position.
Watching as he leaned over, Mae could hear him sliding out a drawer, and although she couldn't see anything behind her, she could infer that there was a cabinet or dresser of a sort. The drawer sounded light, small and wooden, and when he turned back to her, he was holding a strip of white cloth in his hand.
"Please do not be frightened. It is best if you hold still," he spoke calmly as he leaned over her and draped the cloth over her eyes, forcing her to close them.
She felt his fingers, the tips harsh and calloused graze against her brow, pushing her hair back, and then a cooling sensation of a liquid, an oil, being rubbed along her hairline.
"This will help relax your mind," he explained before adding, "I hope. Truly, despite how similar our appearances may be…" He stopped speaking and cleared his throat. "I do not wish for you to be in any unnecessary pain, but some discomfort will be unavoidable. I will have to change your bandages before night fall, and you will have to eat before that. There will also be the need for you to get up, if you have to relieve yourself. Please, call for me when that is the case. It isn't safe for you to be moving about on your own for the next couple of days."
"What happened to me?" she asked as he removed his hands from her.
"This may be difficult for you to understand, so I will attempt to keep it simple," he replied, setting, what felt like a small flat stone, against each of her eyes. "It would be yesterday now, that I opened a trans-planetary portal to your world, which we call Nubarra, from the Dailen Shaad. Unfortunately, it opened directly in your path. I wasn't yet half way through when we collided. Your forward momentum with my unstable position, caused me to react. I grabbed onto you and we fell back into the Shaad, together."
"The burgundy grass…" She whispered and gasped at the recollection. "That wasn't real. That can't have been real…" She swallowed and took in a shaky breath, and his hand pressed down upon her forehead.
"It was real, and there was an explosion. When I pulled you though the portal, it caused a backlash in the dimensional matrix crystal, causing the portal to collapse and it to overheat. It exploded shortly after. The burst of magic burnt you through your clothing, although where you had multiple layers, it was less severe. The force, however, sent you back against the gate stone. You cracked open your head in the impact, before falling into the river of life and…" he paused, pursing his lips before taking in a deep breath spitting out the words, "and ingesting some of its water."
"I'm covered in burns, and cracked open my head. Why did you make it sound as if swallowing some water is the worst thing that happened to me?"
His hand slipped from her forehead.
"Because it is. Your burns can be treated, your wounds will heal, but we have no idea what the waters will do to you. Your planet, your species, all species there really, have been severed from the Shaad for so long that you've evolved to exist without it. As far as Karanosi knows, there has never been a severed species enter the Dailen Shaad before, let alone drinking from galaxy creating waters. The fact that I was able to resuscitate you was miracle enough, but the fact that so far, it appears not to be having an effect on you, is in a word, unbelievable."
She giggled nervously, "Unbelievable, that's certainly the word for all of this."
"Yes, I suppose you would find all of this impossible. I don't suppose your species has made contact with any off planetary lifeforms yet?"
"You mean aliens?"
"Aliens; that is a strange word. Somethings that we say may not translate correctly. Sometimes words simply do not have counterparts. Like earlier, you asked for cellphone and purse. I don't understand what those are."
"The black bag I was carrying with my personal items inside, that is my purse. Do you know where it is?"
"Yes. I have all of your belongings in the room below. They will be safe there."
"I would really feel better, more comfortable, if my purse was with me."
"I understand. I'll retrieve it for you once we have finished speaking."
"Right," she replied, "you asked about aliens; off planetary lifeforms. No, no, I don't think so. There are always rumors and stories, but that's about it. If they have visited, no one's thrown them a welcoming party."
"That isn't surprising. Nubarra and its galaxy were never the easiest places to get to, and being severed from the Shaad has made it a less than desirable location. For a fraction of the effort and cost, one can just as easily travel through the Shaad to any number of planets with far more to offer, where the dreadful first contact has already taken place."
"We call our planet Earth."
She heard him try to stifle his laughter, succeeding in only reducing its volume.
"Apologies. That was very rude of me."
"It's fine. I'm sure in the right situation I'd find whatever I said to be just as amusing."
"How is your head?"
"It's strange. I never even noticed that the pain had gone away."
"It seems our medicines are just as effective on you," he replied, removing the weights from her eyes before lifting the cloth away. "There we are." He was smiling down at her even as he dabbed the tears from her cheeks. "You were wise to lift your arms when you did. You managed to protect most of your face from the magic, the side of your chin caught the worst of it."
"Why do you speak as if you aren't human?" she asked, growing tired of humoring his delusion.
"Because I'm not. You aren't on Nubarra, I mean Earth, nor are you in the Dailen Shaad. After the explosion, after we pulled you from the river, Karanosi made the decision to bring you here, to my home world of Sah'Korhune. There is a species here called the Ech'latean. In outward appearance, they are near indistinguishable from humans. Karanosi believed that this made it the safest world of all the potential worlds near our research station on Larne branch, for you. I'm certain my ability to stay with you, also influenced his decision, even if he will refuse to admit it. Here I'm known as a half-blood or Gren, although like you, I can pass as a pure, as long as I keep my ears covered."
"Show me," she requested as she turned her eyes from the ceiling to his. "You want me to believe that everything you have said is real, then show me your ears. Prove to me you aren't what you look like."
"And what do I look like to you?" he asked as he removed the scarf from his head.
"A want-to-be pirate whose spent too much time in the sun, but you sound like you're from the Alberta plains. I would have guessed Edmonton at first, but the more you talk the more I think you're from much farther north. Somewhere in the Northwest Territories, Yellowknife perhaps?"
Putting the scarf around his neck, he looped it back, gathering all of his hair into a tail behind his head, before tying it into place.
"Are you still so sure?" he questioned as he turned and pushed the remaining bit of his hair up over the pointed tip of his ear.
However, Mae remained skeptical, seeing as how the effect could have just as easily been obtained with a body modification, albeit, she admitted to herself, an extremely well-done modification by a very skilled modifier, who had paid attention to the details and not left a noticeable scar behind.
"Too pointed for a Ech'latean, and not pointed enough for an Evleshian."
"Ven? Where are you?" Another man's voice, this one even deeper than Ven's with a soothing, almost monotone quality about it, came from the area beyond the doorway.
"That would be Karanosi, one moment," he remarked before standing and stepping away. "I'm up in the outer high room. Come and greet our guest."
Returning to the bedside, Ven knelt down next to her, his eyes brighter and smiling more confidently than before.
"Please do your best to remain calm. I know his appearance will be frightening for you. My father is quite different from the both of us. Even in this form, the truth of what he is, is quite apparent, but at least he fits through the doors."
"She is awake?"
She could hear Karanosi speak, his footsteps sounded heavier than Ven's, and he seemed to be approaching with a modicum of caution.
"She is. Her name is Mae, and the translator spell is working perfectly. We've been having a nice conversation."
"That is wonderful to hear. Greetings Mae, my name is Savhejan Karanosi. I am the patriarch of the Larne Branch Crystal brood. My mate, Golkic has sent along several items of clothing and hopes you will find them comfortable. Although now I fear they may be too large," he spoke as he stepped closer.
She gasped and froze at the sight of him, her brain refusing to believe what now stood beside her. His eyes were mauve with pink irises, and his skin, where not covered in iridescent scales that shimmered like the inside of a seashell, was as white as the walls. But even if all of this could be mistaken for makeup, his features were recognizable as humanoid after all, and his hair as an elaborate wig with fake horns attached to his brow, it was his wings that broke the illusion. They shifted with his movements, flexing with his breath, the scales dancing in the sunlight. And then he smiled, showing his teeth, sharp pointed fangs a plenty, shiny like polished chrome.
Her breath caught in her throat, as she stared towards him. Karanosi truly was something alien, and the realization that Ven may have been speaking the truth, caused her to tremble uncontrollably.