And the light was nearly blinding, after so long in comfortable, comforting darkness. She winced against it, reaching up and covering her face with both hands. When it didn’t burn to see, she lowered her fingers gingerly, swallowing and making a face at the cottony feeling at the back of her throat. Food. Food and water. Maybe a shower. All trivial thoughts but forming the list gave Anta a sense of normalcy in this room of…
Were there people in those pods?
Was that what she was in? She looked around her own surroundings, frowning as she tried to remember what brought her here. Memories filtered into her brain as she looked around at the different pods, trying to place the vague shapes she could see from her own pod. Fighting, shadows, some kind of trial… Hunters. What hunters? What were they hunting?
Her brain felt fuzzy and sore as she tried to grasp at something more than the straws that planted themselves in her head, but nothing came from it. Grimacing, she grasped the edge of her pod, hauling herself out of it and stumbling slightly as her legs remembered how to hold her weight. She turned slightly, and stopped, squinting at something strapped to the side of her pod.
Anta Mubarak
25. Female.
25. Female.
Well, that certainly answered some questions… She exhaled, and started to step back from her pod, turning slightly and beginning to navigate her way towards what was, hopefully, an exit. She leaned into some of the pods as she went. They were all closed, from what she could see, some glowing still and others dark. Finally, she spotted the door, and squinted at the sign there.
All new personnel should proceed to the Cove to retrieve their weapons.
Weapons?
Grimacing a little, she glanced over the map quickly. Somehow, she’d joined this merry band of hunters. She pushed through the door, exhaling. Alright then.
The walk down to the Cove was short thanks to the crudely drawn map, and Anta went down the stairs to the small room waiting there. It was much smaller than the Pod room she’d been in, and very dark, save for the faint glow of runes on one side and a torch on the other.
“Hello?” Anta called warily, stepping down into the dark and looking around. No one seemed to be in the room, but at the same time it didn’t seem that she was alone. Something was there, waiting for her. She felt a strange tug at her chest, urging her forward.
Oh, who’s this then? Come on, little rabbit…
She didn’t seem to hear the whispering from so far from the wall, and even if she had, she was too distracted. There was only really one thing of interest in the room, and it was the wall of tablets. She should have been more nervous about approaching it, but she had to collect her weapon, right? Some part of her knew that that was the only way to proceed, so she stopped in front of the wall, looking everything over. The runes weren’t just sitting against the wall, they were the wall.
She reached up, running her fingers along a few of them. The result made her jerk her hand back; some of them hummed, whispered at her, made her feel… But none of them felt right. She moved down the wall, eying the runes, until her eyes stopped on one.
comeoncomeoncomeONCOMEON
She reached out slowly, frowning as the tug seemed sharper, almost like something was pulling her into the wall, and grasped the edge of the tablet.
THERE you are! About ********’ time, kid.
Anta yelped, letting go and stepping back. “Who said that?” She looked around, frowning, because while her rational mind demanded that the speaker was in the room, she… Heard it in her head. Not in the room.
Right here, kid. Come on, let’s have a chat, you and I.
Anta looked back at the tablet, staring at it. What the hell. While she was vaguely aware that this shouldn’t have surprised her… It was a talking rock.
It was a talking ******** rock.
Still, this was the whole process in getting a weapon… She reached out, putting her palm against the rune and sucking in a breath at the searing rage that swelled up in her stomach for a brief moment, before it simmered down.
Oh, you’ll do nicely. What’s your name, then?
Anta couldn’t believe she was doing this. “Anta.” She eyed the table, grasping it at the edge and pulling it free from the wall. “Anta Mubarak.”
Yeah, sure. There was a snicker that reverberated in her head. You can call me Raith. She wasn’t sure if she would call him anything except a weapon, really.
Once the tablet was free from the wall, Anta suddenly wasn’t holding a tablet. Raith had split into two twin knives that settled into her hands like they belonged there. She eyed the weapons, and smirked a little. “Cool.”
Shall we, kid?
“Yeah, alright. Don’t be so bossy.” She muttered, biting back a grin. It felt good to have something deadly in her hands again. She’d have to try and keep this one.
