Reawakening

Light.

Calsh still couldn't make sense of the sensation - his eyes were trying to tell him something, but it took him a few moments to realize that he needed to open them. Upon doing so, his eyes screamed in pain.

Too bright. He immediately shut his eyes, but the pain didn't go away, it just moved to the rest of his body. It had likely been there all along, he realized, but why hadn't he noticed?

For that matter, what am I doing here? Try as he might, he couldn't quite explain why he hurt so much, why he could barely move. Going back to sleep seemed like a good idea.

Tired as he felt, though, the pain prevented him from doing so — particularly the headache that he could truthfully classify as one of the worst he'd ever had.

Okay. Can't sleep, so let's figure out the situation. He wasn't quite ready to risk opening his eyes again, but he had other senses.

I'm already hurting. Something's constraining me. Ignoring the pain, he tried to move - his strength didn't seem quite what it used to be, but he realized that while his body felt constricted, it didn't compltetely prevent movement. I'm bandaged. I was injured. Why?

His headache seemed to be interfering with his hearing, but by concentrating, he was able to hear even breathing - even if it echoed a bit. Someone — or maybe more than one someone — was near him. Whoever they were, though, they hadn't reacted to his clumsy movement; either they weren't aware of him — perhaps asleep, or distracted? — or they didn't care.

If I'm badly injured, it's likely I was fighting someone or something. And I apparently lost, so my companions might be hostile. Better to not draw attention to myself just yet until I know more about what's going on.

Okay, so why was I fighting?

Fighting wasn't unusual for Calsh, but losing this badly in a fight was. Either he'd been fighting something that vastly outclassed him, or he'd been caught off-guard...

Guard! He'd been guarding... someone. Someone. Reias!

If he'd been hurt, it was because someone had been trying to get to her. She could still be in danger. I need to know where she is!

Now wasn't the time to worry about how much his eyes would hurt. He forced them open, and forced them to stay open, even as the light washed over them and nearly blinded him. His headache got worse, if that was even possible, and forced him to involuntarily take a sharp breath. Hopefully his captors wouldn't notice.

He didn't hear any change in the breathing, though, and soon enough, his eyes managed to adjust to a brightness they hadn't seen in nearly two weeks. What they revealed was ceiling. Not especially useful.

The easiest head motion seemed to be to the side; he thus turned as quietly as he could until his ear was resting against - a pillow? Would a captor really give him that? Or a bed, for that matter?

His bed, in fact, was not the only one in the room, nor was it the only one occupied — and he recognized the small figure on it. How fortunate, then, that the person I'm looking for was in nearly the first place I looked. It was hard to ascertain what Reias's condition was from his own bed, but he could at least see that she was breathing, and didn't appear visibly mangled. That was good enough for now. His head was killing him. He rolled back to looking at the ceiling, and closed his eyes.

This was seeming less and less like a hostile situation. Reias wasn't killed, so either we're simply not in any further danger, or someone's keeping her alive for something. But nobody that had any interest in her would need him around — he'd simply been her guard, and there'd be no reason to allow him to live, especially since he'd obviously been incapacitated for at least a little while.

He needed more information on his surroundings. His eyes didn't hurt as much this time, although the rest of him still did, and he tried to sit up. Big mistake. He felt a wave of dizziness wash over him, and immediately fell back on his pillow, but not before seeing a familiar figure observing him.

Disrah? Reias's succubus?

That changed things. If the demon was present with the two of them, the chance of them being in any immediate danger was even lower. And she'd certainly be more lucid then he remembered Reias being when he'd been guarding her, which couldn't have been more than...

How long have I been out? He closed his eyes again.

I need some questions answered. And she can probably answer them. He tried to speak, but his mouth seemed to have forgotten how — it took several awkward lip movements before he was finally able to figure out how to talk again. "...D...Disrah?"

((Posted 17 November 2009))