(Rose)
I'm running rapidly away across the unpredictable landscape of an abandoned city. Some kind of wild dog is after me and I lost the chance to flee from the way I came to inside the city. I'm therefore running randomly further inside the presumed territory of the beast.
I'm running and jumping around decays of broken streets and fallen buildings. The beast behind me is barking like a dog, but it no longer looks like one.
I'm actually having some fun running away from it, even though I'm also scared. I still have a knife to defend myself, but seeing the beast chasing me and the toughness incarnated it seems to be, it seems I would rather need a shotgun or a war rifle if I wanted a consequential chance to wound it without sustaining injuries.
Running after me with an undefined amount and number of legs, about eight I think, it's catching up to me.
I can't yell at Blume but I'd like it if she did something to help us. Maybe the panic is freezing her.
I reach a broken bridge by mistake. The gap is wide, but I feel adventurous and the adrenaline rush makes me reckless. I give it all to speed up my run and jump across.
I hear Blume ring in surprise.
I land heavily against the edge and barely grab it with my hands. The right one I trust. The left one is slow to react and stems are not as tough as fingers. I try to hold but I lack air in my lungs and am unable to breathe after that painful landing against my chest.
It's only dirt below us, no more water flowing down there. This river's arm dried during summer.
I have hiccups and can't manage to pull myself up. My right arm betrays me first as I lose grip. Some of my flowers growing out from my left arm are ripped as I fall below.
I land rather well, lying down in a thick mud. I'm exhausted though. I can't hear or see the monstrous dog anymore.
The sun is shining rather strongly in the quiet sky.
~
A few minutes of rest around that mud, catching my breath and looking around carefully pass.
B - Are you alright?
R - ... Sore. Why didn't you react?
B - I couldn't follow what happened. It was so rapidly occurring.
R - I guess... My adrenalin doesn't speed up your reactions... Too bad...
B - What should I have done?
R - Use your power anyway you want, to protect us... If you could have helped me climb the bridge it would have helped too.
B - Are we safe?
R - If it's no longer after us... I guess we passed its hunting ground. I can't say what else might lie ahead however...
I fully stand up and stretch, painfully. I'm leaving the mud now marked with my rough silhouette. It wasn't a bad fall luckily.
B - That looked... Dangerous.
R - You can say insane. Well, if the height had been greater I probably would have considered stepping back some more. At times like this you make the best of what you have left of intelligence and... I'm not sure.
B - You become more of an animal when facing danger?
R - Well, humans are animals. We do what we can. We adapt. And when we fear for our life, we act a lot different obviously. Sometimes better, sometimes worse... I become violent...
B - You didn't attach it though.
R - I considered it a lot but felt overpowered so I didn't try a fight by myself.
B - ... Would you want me to kill it next time?
R - No. Not unless we meet dire circumstances.
B - I regret not managing to help you.
R Well, if you can do some magic you surely can help next time... Are you alright with the flowers I lost?
B - I am, don't worry. They're yours and they'll grow back probably.
I'm looking at my hands and fingers, the missing ones.
R - I expected a little more than that. I wonder if I should train myself...
B - I'm working on finding the proper way to regrow your left hand as you wanted, but it's complex. It's not a single hormone or cell or gene that controls everything.
R - Gene? What's that?
B - Oh... Oh, sorry. It's something related to how biology works that I learned from the corpse we found last time. But it's likely something you never learned in your time.
R - As long as you know what you're doing, I don't mind being patient.
B - It's alright. I'll manage to regenerate your left hand. In the worst case scenario, you'll just have to amputate it to restart the growth.
R - Eh... If I can avoid that, I'd be glad, you know.
B - I was joking. I'm slowly learning how to play with the complex chemical system your body is. I'll find the right tweaks to help your hand heal soon enough. I'm processing slowly in order to keep you safe.
R - I appreciate it. Well, now let us go.
I cross the dry river bed toward the other side and a different city block. I unstrap my knife just in case. I enter an empty and dusty street like every other, but I'm more cautious now. And my whole body still aches from the fall.
I walk alongside buildings eroded by time and tragedy. The landscape is chaotic.
B - Do you think you can find something interesting here?
R - I wonder. The buildings here seem very old... Maybe that place was abandoned prior to the end of time?
B - You mean it might have been a ghost city even before the vanishing of humankind?
R - It looks so to me. The decay is far more advanced than in other cities we went across. I wonder, but I don't see any clue pointing to anything interesting to see. Maybe we should follow the river bed and leave.
B -Wait... I think I saw something in the distance.
I'm bewildered. I was about to go back on my steps, as I reached a dusty dead end.
R - You... saw?
B - I think... That way.
I look ahead where she asks me to. All I see are collapsed buildings turning slowly into dust, rocks and sand. It's dusty and colourless. Every missing window is a gap into everlasting night, spots of plague scattered everywhere around us.
R - I don't see anything. What have you?
B - It's there, across the square, in that building. I can see it... No, I can feel it. I can't really tell what it looks like, but I think we should go and get it.
R - Please be more specific. I'm not at ease here, I don't want to play riddles now.
B - I lack the words... Not secret geheimnis... Please trust me, there is perhaps something you should absolutely find up there. And quick...
R - You seem agitated... What is it, something good?
B - Something like... Power. Something strong. From here, I'd say it looks like an odd concentration of energy like mine, but it's leaking around, it's abandoned and wild.
R - A being like you lies ahead?
B - It feels as if one died, and its power is about to spoil. If you don't go secure it, something really bad could happen.
R - Ah... It's funny how you are afraid of something like that still, beyond what I can see... Though, is it dangerous for us?
B - I don't think so, but we're still a little far away to say. Please hurry!
The place is so quiet now. I can't manage to relate to her feeling of emergency. I still agree despite not sensing anything peculiar. I trust her instinct.
~
I've crossed the ravaged square. Rats fled. Six or seven legged rats. I think they were rats anyway. Who knows?
I reach the tilted building, four stories tall and long as a street. It's broken and fissured open at various points. All the windows are now openings toward endless indoor night.
I grab my knife and my lamp before entering through the wide doorway. I proceed with some caution. Blume startles me by speaking loudly suddenly.
B - I think we're alone.
R - Geez! You scared me.
B - Sorry...
R - So?
B - It's above, and further up. It feels... safer than I feared.
R - That's good news I presume.
B - It is. You don't need to hurry anymore.
R - So you panicked truly? That is funny. Well, let's find us a stairway.
B - Wait till you see what it is awaiting us up there. I promise you, you won't regret taking this detour.
R - Oh, I'm intrigued. What kind of power is it truly?
B - Well, to tell you the truth... Now that I don't see any danger, I think I will let you discover it for yourself. I'll keep it secret until you find it.
R - What? Are you joking?
B - Don't worry, you probably can't miss it. And you will forgive me.
R - You little!
She's laughing again. I shake one of the flowers as if I were grounding her. She's playing with me again. I sigh, and resign myself to play. I climb up the stairs I found to look for the unknown oddity.
On the third floor, she whispers me to go further up the street side of the building. I go through corridors and offices with scattered furniture. With all the windows missing, it isn't as dark as it seemed, seen from outside. I don't need my lamp.
We reach a fissure of light and rays of sunlight filtered by the dusty air. I step ahead and pass the hoke in the ground that goes along with the fissure.
A little further, a larger fissure splits the building in half. I have to jump across.
B - It's lucky for you, you looked like you were eager to do some more jumps above void. And this one is easier too.
R - I swear I will roast your flowers one by one if you keep mocking me like that.
She shivers. I scared her.
B - You wouldn't... You like roses.
R - I do, and you've been a little too wild lately. Time for a trim maybe?
She squeaks like a critter and hides under my clothes. She's putting up an act and joking as usual.
I take a deep breath and a few steps start. I run and jump easily across the broken part. I resume the walk and begin to feel odd just a little further.
My skin begins to feel like it's massaged by some kind of low hum. My hair is stretching as if there was a lot of electricity in the air. My saliva tastes like honey suddenly.
R - What the... What's happening?
I see my voice turning into coloured clouds that expands and stain the walls for a second before vanishing.
With each step I see small bubbles of colours bursting. I see my heartbeat emitted away from my chest. My breath and voice filling the air with translucent clouds flying around.
My skin itches and tickles on my face and hands. I keep rubbing my face as I go in deeper.
B - You're close. Don't worry, it's harmless.
I pass an empty doorframe and enter a kaleidoscopic room, giving me a sudden vertigo. I manage to keep standing.
When I focus greatly, I can still the place as the abandoned office it truly is, but something here is messing greatly with my senses.
The walls are undistinguishable with the moving colours on them like kaleidoscopes. It's surreal.
In the middle of that office is a large puddle of liquid. On the ceiling too oddly. Droplets are going up, or down. Sometimes one falling down hurts one falling up and they scatter randomly. My brain kind of shuts down while looking at that, unable to process what I'm seeing logically anymore.
I see other puddles here and there, losing droplets in random directions, almost.
And in the middle of this odd circus is the heart of the kaleidoscope and source of light in this sealed room.
A glowing bulb of light is floating there in the middle, between all the puddles. It doesn't blind me but my silhouette does stop the colours from appearing behind me.
It's not a single bulb but a set of small rocks, like fragments of a broken glass or translucent sculpture, only glowing and floating in the middle of this circus.
I extend my fingers toward it as if to touch it, but suddenly stop. I'm waking up and realising I'm not cautious enough.
I turn my back on it and the colours vanish from everywhere, only the glow and the itch remain. When I look at it, my eyes see the kaleidoscopic effect everywhere, but it stops as soon as it's not in my field of vision anymore.
It's an optical illusion like a rainbow that I see?
R - That's peculiar... But what should I do with this kind of prism?
B - Hm, I expected you to be more surprised. Well it is a very highly concentrated amount of energy, originating from a new lifeform like me. I think you should take it before it spoils or ends up in the wrong hands.
R - Another one like you created this, or died here?
B - Something along those lines yes. Probably died. I don't think something like me would leave such a thing behind and unguarded.
R - Where is the body?
B - I think you're looking at it. Though I cannot be a hundred percent sure.
R - What will happen to me if I touch that thing? I already feel so strange just being close to it...
B - Maybe you can cover it up with some cloth, but it shouldn't harm you. It's solidified power like the one I use, and it looks rather safe to handle in this state.
R - Solidified magic? What do you want us to do with that?
B - Consider it as a whishing stone. Since the living being processing it is dead, that stone is now a slowly decaying power that could grant you or anything else using it, one wish.
R - A wishing stone... It does sound interesting. You can do that too?
B - Under specific circumstances, I might. I cannot yet. And this stone is holding currently more energy than I do today, so I wouldn't be able to do it shortly.
R - That glowing thing holds more power than you little flower?
B - Well... Yes. Even if you don't know how to use it yet, it would be wise to take it with us I think.
R - I guess I'd rather have such a power on our side yes. But you're sure it's not dangerous?
B - You can cover it with a piece of cloth to stop it from affecting you, but I'm confident you're immune to its radiations. We can think about what to do with it later.
R - Well, a wishing stone does sound like a promising thing to have. I'm still feeling a little like I've lost my mind however...
It's too surreal to be logical. So I'm not fully sold with the idea, but I do it. I use a handkerchief to take and wrap the set of small stones. One larger one and smaller fragments. I make them vanish in my pocket and the room returns to its almost normal state.
The puddles drip from the walls and ceiling. The magic from this place is gone. Soon after, as I'm on my way, the weird feelings that was on my skin also ends.
I resume my way out of this large city without anything else happening. I feel a little hollow. That discovery and what she told me made me feel profoundly weird...
~
At night, by the fire I lit and set to last about an hour, I look at the stones. They look like raw gems now. Glowing less but still a little. And if I look long enough at the largest one, I gradually begin to see kaleidoscopic forms and colours everywhere around me.
It is rather funny seeing the sky warp on itself, and all the stars turn into all sorts of shapes and colours somewhat randomly. I could get lost inside a colourful world for a moment.
I put the stone back into the cloth. The effect inside my eyes stops, my sight returns to normal.
R - I admit it is fun to look at. But I feel dizzy now.
B - That's only a minuscule glimpse at what you could do with it. A funny one although.
R - So, what could I do with it?
B - You could regrow your hand in a matter of seconds. Or use it as an artefact to use magic more easily.
R - Hm... If I had one wish, what would it be?
Of course I know what it would be...
R - I presume resurrection isn't an option?
B - I fear not in the way you think off... It could reanimate someone just recently deceased, but hardly recreate someone dead for so long there's nothing left of them.
R - Well, that's too bad... It could help you create our safeguard then? Something that would resurrect us just as we were if were to die suddenly.
B - It would certainly ease the process to have this much power available, but I still need some time to figure out the best way to set that right. It's too early.
R - Well, I'm out of ideas for now. What about you? Any wish?
She ponders about it seriously, then laughs. Of course...
Hers has already come true. I laugh.
We'll find out another day.
~