Starfinder

ALIVE

DROWNING.

First there was panic. The clutching for the sky, lungs burning, throat filled with frigid water. She remembered tumbling and the rocks beating her. The bottomless river pulling at her coat. Feet kicking, mouth screaming without sound. Bobbing up for precious gulps of air.

Dying.

How long did it take to die?

Fiona’s head lay on the rocks. Was it night? She couldn’t tell. Maybe she was blind.

She heard the water, very nearby. She had swum to the rocks. Or maybe the river had spit her out. Her cold legs were still, useless. She shivered and couldn’t stop herself. If her eyes were open, she saw nothing. But there were things she remembered, a jumble of things that didn’t belong together yet somehow held hands through her brain. She saw Moth with her mother and father, together on an airship sailing to Medona. She saw the great blackness of the Avatar chasing her. She smelled cinnamon. She was a little girl again.

Seeing herself made Fiona happy.

Pain stabbed her skull. Fiona thought about crying but couldn’t find the strength, so the little girl in her mind began to weep.

Sleep, Fiona told herself. Or just die. Whichever.

The sun shone brightly on her face. Fiona hadn’t seen it rise. Its gentle warmth baked her body.

I am a ghost now. In heaven.

Fiona didn’t move. Her mind floated as she gazed up. The sun was a yellow flower in the sky. Her fingernails scraped the sand beneath her. When her head began to throb, she knew she wasn’t dead.

Soon…

An animal might come and eat her. She might starve. Or she might just sleep forever. Fearlessly, Fiona closed her eyes. Her parents were in heaven, waiting there for her. Sunlight burst with colors on her eyelids. Her body felt like it was falling.

A shadow dropped across her face, blocking the sun. Annoyed, Fiona willed her eyes open. A hazy face hovered over her. Long, brown hair fell from the head and down its back like the mane of a lion. Its enormous, muscular body bent down on its two front legs to examine her. Fiona nearly smiled. She had seen this beast before.

“Are you Jorian?”

A hand came down to touch her forehead. It swept gently over her eyes, closing them. Immediately Fiona felt sleep tugging at her. And something else lifting her. Her body felt limp and out of her control. Fiona surrendered, drooping in the arms that carried her and drifting off to sleep.