THE 25th CENTURY RAPTORESS
The Memory
The blue dragoness blinked, raising an arm to the bright light, trying to focus on anything but the white, yellow and light blue tones.
'Contrast, too great, close eyes, sleep, forget ... forget what?'
Again she opened her eyes, one more than the other, forcing herself to look around.
'Sinithij.'
Her eyes snapped open fully, oblivious to the brightness that immediately began to sear at her skull. She stared as a crystal shard passed and snapped out her arm to it, catching it, hauling it towards her.
'Sinithij.'
She lay on her side on a larger chunk of rock and stared at the facetted face of the crystal shard, split by a force greater than the planet could withstand.
'Sinithij.'
She narrowed her eyes at the stone, it was strangely transparent, a very light sapphire...?
'Njitharana Sinithij.'
She closed her eyes, finally embracing the echo in her mind, blocking out the light that hurt so much. Other regions of herself hurt aswell and she found herself unable to move much.
"NightShard Sinithij, Njitharana." she repeated, out loud. "Who is that?"
Again she opened her eyes only to see them mirrored on the blank and rilled surface of the chipped shard, contorted, mirroring her mind, her soul and her own purple scales. "Who am I?" she asked out loud, the question echoing in her mind as a loud and clear question, unlike the whispered thoughts of before. It annoyed her, this new sensation of thought. Her vision finally cleared.
'What am I? Blindfolded by light ... sky above or below, left or right, where am I, what am I, who am I, why...'
Again her thoughts trailed as she stared at the aquatorial band of light aligning the ... what? She stared at the dark mass, trying to put a name to it. As she stared, she began feeling uneasy and her vision began blurring again ... tears welled up as despair clawed it's way up to her throat, clinging to it heavily.
'Sky writhes ...?' she stammered to herself in her mind, moving her lips to the phrase but not managing to choke it out. 'Sky writhes?' she repeated, staring at the slowly changing and swirling colors, so slowly only a long stare revealed movements. 'Sky writhes, twists and - breaks.' she stared on, onto the shifting mass that was seamless in it's make yet had defined patches.
She had not moved anything but her arm, and the same still hovered before her, not bound anywhere, it was not hard to keep it up... 'Pull me.' she instructed, mentally, narrowing her eyes at the arm. Nothing happened, she felt no gravitational sensation. 'Pull me.' she repeated. She contorted her face to a frown, her eyes burning as she stared. It took her a long moment to realize why. 'Blink.' she commanded herself. Vision vanished for a moment as she obeyed.
'Blanket my sight, wrap me in calm, wrap me in a cool, caring embrace. Blindfold me. Where is reality? What is reality? Why.'
Again she stopped in midthought. She tried to lift her head, only to yelp in a rather true fire burning up her spinal cord along the neck. She froze, letting the pain ebb away and the tears stroke her snout tenderly, speaking to her ... "Child, be not scared, we are with you."
They fell from her jawline and impacted on moist earth to her side, onto something blank, polished and shiney. Light refracted for instants, then was gone.
She brought both her arms to behind her head and felt along the top of her neck, tracing the lines of the crystal mane. It vanished into earth as if grown from it, eeriely attatched, hugging, loving and caring embrace - DO NOT LEAVE! - and shelter and it hurt so much to try and leave - STAY! - but she had to, find reality, find it... - PLEASE DON'T GO! - and then she hugged it with her palms, tightly pressing onto it... and yanking it out. Squinting onto it's large shape, she saw earth littering it like drops of blood from a dying animal.
She twisted her head around and saw the earth.
A gaping wound cut into it, screaming - NONONO, STAY STAY, DON'T GO - and yelling and screaming more, painwrecked. She placed a paw on the shadow-bleeding wound and stroked it, making it vanish partially.
'All is good now, silence is your friend, silence will remain with you and silence loves you if you do not cry, for that silences the silence.'