Hidden Closed Windmill's Shore
Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 2:28 am
The first thing he heard was the ocean, and the groaning creak of wood. His eyes fluttered open, and winced shut again as the glare of light made him groan. He raised his hand to block out the light as he sat up. He let himself acclamate to the daylight, seeing the glow slowly dim behind his lids, and opened his eyes again.
His hand was still a ghastly sight. The back of his arm was completely covered in spines of varying lengths. The longest had to be almost four inches, and had narrowed and shimmed until they looked almost like blades. His hand, now black as coal, looked like is should belong to an evolved lizard. He was thankful he still had a thumb. His pinky and ring finger had fused completely together, and he now had four nasty looking talons. They reminded him of velociraptors from... some... thing... movie? Whats that? His head hurt, and he heard and dull ringing way in the back of his mind, like a dull bell. He felt like he had packs of wet cotton stuffed between his ears.
"Am I dead?" he asked out loud. God, in His wisdom, decided not to answer.
He looked out over the field, his mismatched eyes taking in the serene setting, rolling fields spotted with slowly turning windmills. He also saw floating equations and records of computations and encounters. Gate in time, Gate out time, monster regen clock, level strip, item level range. Information written into the sky and floating in mid-air, picked out in red fire. A line of text was even floating past him:
Q:/fields/textures/landscapes/field/daylight/grass.w.tx
He reached out with his maimed hand, to touch it. The moment his finger touched the words, he heard a screech like a nail on a chalkboard, and the wording slowly blackened and disintegrated. As it did, he saw the green grass flicker and wink out, replaced with a field of darkness, picked out of a hexagon pattern that glowed with a sickly green light.
He screamed and jumped to his feet, thinking he'd plunge into the darkness if he waited too long, and bolted away. The green field started again a dozen feet behind him, and he all but dived towards it, rolling along the ground. He got back up on his knees to survive his handiwork. Almost a hundred foot square section simply was no longer there.
Note to self... he thought. don't do that again.
He got back to his feet, his legs feeling stiff and full of sand. He groaned as he stretched for the first time in what felt like months. He couldn't stay here long. They.... they? the hackers... they could find him if he stayed here to long. He was vulnerable. He had to get home, to Mac Anu.
As he walked, he cocked his head to one side, and his menu opened. He checked his backlog of messages. It was long, much longer than it had a right to be. He... his name was Kodel? That didn't seem right... had been asleep for a long time it seemed. Most of the messages he could guess at from the Subject lines: variations of Where are you? and Are you alright? Why hadn't he gone to them for help?
"Because you're stubborn, and stupid to boot." he muttered under his breath. He opened one of the last ones, the one that appeared even after the messages checking in on him had trickled away. It was from Nejla, a name he recognized immediately. She had beaten the stuffing out of him then had decided to help:
I've been told you might not recieve this from quite some time. I hope you will be alright once you wake. You're memories should return eventually. You were... scattered somewhat to keep you safe while you recuperated. You're consciousness had taken quite a beating. Human minds where not meant to interface when computers the way that yours had, though some good came out of it. Helba wanted me to thank you. She said you suffered more than anyone deserved, but the information it produced helped.
I'm afraid you won't see me again. They know where I am, and who I am, and I am not willing to sacrifice myself the way that you have been. Still, I'll try to help if I can. The World is not the only battleground anymore...
Don't trust the admins.
Don't trust the hackers.
Don't trust anyone except Helba and your... compatriots.
Anyone who doesn't want to kill you will want to use you, and that is even worse.
Be well.
-Nejla.
Who's Helba? he thought. He realized it didn't matter, and closed the message. As he had read it, things had come back, slowly at first. Nall, Vera, Gingi. Tokki, who'd saved him initially, months and months ago. Faces and places. Garaa, he thought as his mouth twisted in disgust, and his talons slid from his fingers.
"I hope the codes I remember still work." he muttered as he summoned a town gate. Time to see what was to see.
His hand was still a ghastly sight. The back of his arm was completely covered in spines of varying lengths. The longest had to be almost four inches, and had narrowed and shimmed until they looked almost like blades. His hand, now black as coal, looked like is should belong to an evolved lizard. He was thankful he still had a thumb. His pinky and ring finger had fused completely together, and he now had four nasty looking talons. They reminded him of velociraptors from... some... thing... movie? Whats that? His head hurt, and he heard and dull ringing way in the back of his mind, like a dull bell. He felt like he had packs of wet cotton stuffed between his ears.
"Am I dead?" he asked out loud. God, in His wisdom, decided not to answer.
He looked out over the field, his mismatched eyes taking in the serene setting, rolling fields spotted with slowly turning windmills. He also saw floating equations and records of computations and encounters. Gate in time, Gate out time, monster regen clock, level strip, item level range. Information written into the sky and floating in mid-air, picked out in red fire. A line of text was even floating past him:
Q:/fields/textures/landscapes/field/daylight/grass.w.tx
He reached out with his maimed hand, to touch it. The moment his finger touched the words, he heard a screech like a nail on a chalkboard, and the wording slowly blackened and disintegrated. As it did, he saw the green grass flicker and wink out, replaced with a field of darkness, picked out of a hexagon pattern that glowed with a sickly green light.
He screamed and jumped to his feet, thinking he'd plunge into the darkness if he waited too long, and bolted away. The green field started again a dozen feet behind him, and he all but dived towards it, rolling along the ground. He got back up on his knees to survive his handiwork. Almost a hundred foot square section simply was no longer there.
Note to self... he thought. don't do that again.
He got back to his feet, his legs feeling stiff and full of sand. He groaned as he stretched for the first time in what felt like months. He couldn't stay here long. They.... they? the hackers... they could find him if he stayed here to long. He was vulnerable. He had to get home, to Mac Anu.
As he walked, he cocked his head to one side, and his menu opened. He checked his backlog of messages. It was long, much longer than it had a right to be. He... his name was Kodel? That didn't seem right... had been asleep for a long time it seemed. Most of the messages he could guess at from the Subject lines: variations of Where are you? and Are you alright? Why hadn't he gone to them for help?
"Because you're stubborn, and stupid to boot." he muttered under his breath. He opened one of the last ones, the one that appeared even after the messages checking in on him had trickled away. It was from Nejla, a name he recognized immediately. She had beaten the stuffing out of him then had decided to help:
I've been told you might not recieve this from quite some time. I hope you will be alright once you wake. You're memories should return eventually. You were... scattered somewhat to keep you safe while you recuperated. You're consciousness had taken quite a beating. Human minds where not meant to interface when computers the way that yours had, though some good came out of it. Helba wanted me to thank you. She said you suffered more than anyone deserved, but the information it produced helped.
I'm afraid you won't see me again. They know where I am, and who I am, and I am not willing to sacrifice myself the way that you have been. Still, I'll try to help if I can. The World is not the only battleground anymore...
Don't trust the admins.
Don't trust the hackers.
Don't trust anyone except Helba and your... compatriots.
Anyone who doesn't want to kill you will want to use you, and that is even worse.
Be well.
-Nejla.
Who's Helba? he thought. He realized it didn't matter, and closed the message. As he had read it, things had come back, slowly at first. Nall, Vera, Gingi. Tokki, who'd saved him initially, months and months ago. Faces and places. Garaa, he thought as his mouth twisted in disgust, and his talons slid from his fingers.
"I hope the codes I remember still work." he muttered as he summoned a town gate. Time to see what was to see.