Quote:
After Dancing Waves
Mirror in the Sky (13) : This time of year, the air is unusually clear and crisp. Maybe that’s why you’ve noticed something a little unusual in the sky. At first glance, it appears to be normal clouds–light, fluffy, scattering slowly in the wind, but something keeps catching your eye, like the sunlight is reflecting of a traveling plane–only, nothing’s there. Just the clouds. And they can’t be that reflective, right? Wrong. After a moment of random lights flashing out of the corner of your eye, you finally see it–the clouds themselves look like mirrors, reflecting the light of the sun right back down at you. The clouds are moving back and forth, like the tide going in and out. There’s probably some scientific explanation for why the clouds look like an ocean in the sky but why take the time to look it up when you could just appreciate how beautiful it is? It is especially lovely if you can manage to catch it as the sun is going down. Just don’t stare directly into it, you wouldn’t want to hurt your eyes. But then again, maybe if you look hard enough you’ll see something everyone else is missing…
’You’re supposed to heal faster on your Wonder…’ was probably the least inspiring thing Undine had heard all year.
Because it wasn’t like he was going to sit here in this frozen wasteland until he felt better.
Literally as far as he could see was just a great expanse of white nothingness. No trees or mountains or buildings- he might as well be staring into the ******** void. It was only because of some sort of… hazy remembrance that Undine was fairly certain this particular sheet of ice and snow was the ocean. If he wandered west for however-many-freaking-miles, that sheet of ice and snow was the beach. And that was all the information he had about this place that he was supposed to protect? From something.
And theoretically, it was also supposed to help him- but he wasn’t going to hold his breath about it.
He’d wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt. That completely unnecessary tussle with that Negaverse girl had wounded him. Not as grievously as it could have (and hardly the worst Calder had ever been through), but at the suggestion that he should recover on his Wonder, Undine had (foolishly) thought maybe that was a good idea. Maybe whatever bond he was supposed to have with this place would manifest while he was in hurt and in danger.
…Nnnnnope. The situation was exactly the same as he’d last left it, months ago. A white so awning that it left him dizzy. Even the sky was foggy, cloudy. No blue, no sunshine. Just… an endless expanse of white. No different than last time. It was practically blinding.
He didn’t come often to Undine. When this was all that awaited him, he just didn’t see the allure. Even if he wanted to, the transport seemed impossible to do more than once every handful of weeks. And he couldn’t stay here for any prolonged length of time. It was freezing, with no shelter from the crisp wind. And there was nothing. Here. What was he supposed to do?
Even now, as he lay flat on his back in the snow, staring up at the sky, bleeding sluggishly from a Negaverse agent’s blade, Undine had to wonder why was it like this? He’d been to other people’s worlds. Even in bad condition, they still had something going on. But his was… just an empty wasteland… And it was ridiculous of Undine to think sitting here would help him ‘heal faster.’ What a waste. Wasted trip, wasted energy. If this had needed to be a life saving trip, he certainly would have perished.
As it was, he expected to be fine. Unless that girl had some sort of slow-acting poison on her, or something. But he doubted it. He had to take a chance and try the Wonder Trick- because he absolutely didn’t want to go to the hospital. He hated the hospital. As everyone did. He’d avoid it, if he could. That left him here, looking up.
It wasn’t that it was a bad view, necessarily. It was just that it happened not to look like anything. White snow, white sky, almost glinting, as if some sort of ambient light reflected off the snow. But Undine couldn’t even see the sun on his world. He imagined this was the sort of limbo someone would find themselves in if they had died… Which wasn’t a great thought for someone who was literally bleeding out right at this second. Okay, okay, not bleeding out, but he’d been blemished, and that was equivalent.
’If there is something I can do to help here…’
But he wouldn’t say that out loud. It wasn’t as if anyone would answer.
And the cold had left him feeling more numb than anything else, which was nice for now, but he better return home and seek some actual medical care.
[WC: 645]
