(May '17) Prompt #2 - "Overflow." [Archive]

ArtisticVicu

08-04-2017, 04:36 AM

The first thing he noticed was the ringing in his skull. It was high, sharp, and painful. He winced, subsequently agitating other injuries. His entire went from numb to on fire in that one motion and he let out a sharp his, forcing his left socket open. He couldn't seem to get the view in focus and his magic was acting weird. He knew he had no pupil present, he could feel that, and being unable to form one meant that there was something terribly wrong. He had the magic for it, it just wouldn't form. He opened his other socket and felt the magic automatically fill the void, creating the soft spot of an eye light that was the useless pupil of his blind eye. Great. He was more or less blind, then.

He tried to move only for a cry of pain to rip itself from his throat. His entire left arm was on fire and the pain in the same hip was crippling. He felt tremors course over his bones, his magic sputtering all about trying to heal the injuries he was irritating. He focused, taking in stock of what his magic was doing; it was a pointless endeavor.

There was too much damage. He had sustained more than his magic knew how to deal with, meaning that there was no order to the process and being unable to see or really distinguish the injuries he had sustained, he had no way of directing the chaos without an outside source. He closed his sockets, trying really hard to relax as his magic worked frantically to heal everything at once.

When he came to again, he was able to see better than the first time he had awoke, though it was not still not up to par. Everything was still blurry outside a given radius but now he could look at himself and take in the damage he had sustained.

He retched at the sight. He pressed a shaking hand to his teeth, pupils gone from both sockets as he took in the information.

He should be dead. There was no way in the Undergrounds that he should be alive. Why was he alive?!

He forced his pupils to reform, bringing the world into a tighter focus. He looked around, searching for anything that told him why he was still alive, but the only things around him that he could distinguish was the dirt churned by whatever had happened and hunks of material that looked like rock and metal. There were no other bodies, no piles of dust.

His gaze snapped down to his person but he was dust free.

H-how? How was this possible?! He should be dead! He was not a strong monster!! He was weak, and frail like his dad! Like his pa! He shouldn't be alive! He shouldn't-he shouldn't....

Something wet hit his hand and he blinked, finding his vision clearing as another drop of liquid hit his hand. Tears. Magical tears. He gave a dry laugh. He was crying. He was crying because he was alive and he shouldn't be.

His started to laugh hysterically. He had truly lost it. That was it. He had finally lost it after so long!

A sob choked him in the middle of a hysterical laugh. He pressed his hand to his face as he tried to laugh hysterically and sob at the same time.

It only made him vomit.

The sour taste of half digested magic broke through whatever he had been in the middle of and he came to as if he had awoken for a third time staring down at the discharged magic. Swallowing thickly, he wiped at his mouth, wishing he had some water.

Finally, the world around him was coming into clear focus and he let out a whimper. He didn't recognize where he was, but that could be due to the evidence of the explosion he was certain he had miraculously survived. He felt the last of magic healing his injuries dissipate. Not overly skilled in healing magic, it was no surprise that it still hurt to move but he was able to get to his feet, even if it was unsteadily.

He used the nearest chunk of building to keep himself upright as he took another look around from the new perspective. Yep, still no fricken clue where he was. Man, his dad was going to kill him. And then his Dunkle was going to ground him for the rest of his natural born life and then some. He groaned. He was not looking forward to seeing his family.

A part of him knew that, while they would be upset that he had been at the labs without permission, they would be beyond relieved that he was alive and in - mostly - one piece. Only issue was that he had no idea where he was.

In what he could only deduce as two hours later without an actual clock to look at - he had lost his phone in all the chaos and it would honestly not surprise him if the thing was destroyed - he sat down on the dirt, feeling as if he was going in circles. He moaned, tightening the arm currently wrapped around his still fractured ribs. He had discovered they were still fractured after a rather stupid stunt and he had bound them as best he could but still they hurt if he moved the wrong way. He was finding as the day wore on that any move was the wrong way.

He opened his eyes, finding it hard to stay awake. He had never realized how large the forest was in these parts and the snow was not helping. He was grateful he was a skeleton but he could still succumb to hypothermia just like any other monster not built for chilling temperatures. He would be fine as long as he didn't fall asleep but, right now, sleep seemed like the greatest thing to do.

He shoved himself upwards, swaying so badly that he slammed his shoulder into a tree and managed to scrape at the bark to keep himself upright. The sudden surge of pain worked wonders at waking him up in that instant. Hissing, he summoned his magic, leaving it formless so that it supported him more fully and used it to straighten himself out. He eased up his control and the magic dissipated completely.

The indignant squawk that left him he would deny fiercely and take the fact to his grave. Thankfully, his magic was a step ahead of him. His panic had flared magic out of his right socket - which, honestly, was far easier than his left seeing as the right one was already damaged to begin with - and sent a burst of magic to form between him and the ground.

Instead of hitting the ground, he barely fell a few inches before something pressed up against him, catching him. Opening his sockets, magic still spilling from his right socket like a flame, he found himself laying across a massive skull. It was so large, he could fit himself, his Dunkle, and his dad in there and they would still have room to move about comfortably. Heck, he and his dad could sit up within the maw. He stared, wide-eyed at the beast of a skull and the only thought that came to mind was dragon. He squealed in delight - and nearly fell backwards with the sudden upward momentum of joy. The skull reacted and careful teeth closed around what fabric still remained on his small frame, keeping him from falling to the ground for a second time. He instantly leaned forward, laying across the snout of the skull and resting his chin on it, patting where his hands rested outstretched. "I can't believe it," he croaked, his throat feeling raw. It wasn't much of a surprise. He needed some water when he had first woken up and he still hadn't found any. "This'll make finding home all that much easier."

There was very little thought that needed to go into getting the skull to do what he needed it to do. In fact, it was so effortless, that he nearly thought the thing was sentient. He'd have to ask his dad if the things had any sentience to them. Or his Dunkle. They both were able to summon them. He had seen them on a few, rare occasions.

The skull shifted, scooping it onto the snout properly. He shifted about till he was settled in and the skull took to the air. He could feel it using his magic but it didn't feel like a strain and it wasn't using magic quickly. As soon as they rose above the trees, though, he shivered. The trees had been blocking most of the wind and now he was fully exposed. Pressing closer to the skull, he felt more than heard it hum, a pool of magic forming in the back of the skull's mouth. It warmed the bone beneath him and, while it wasn't quite enough to warm him up completely, it did mitigate the freezing air enough that he stopped shivering.

He could definitely feel the pull on his magic now but he knew he could generate about four more of these things, charge them multiple times, and fire the blast without even taking a fifth of his magic. It left him baffled. He had been so used to having only enough magic to keep his body together, he never dreamed suddenly having an overflow of magic to the point of creating things he never dreamed he would be able to produce.

Shifting about, he looked down on the fog in the forest that had been obscuring the majority of his long distance view while he had been in it. He was close to the edge of the forest's border with the warmer climate region that followed, which meant-

He looked up. Sure enough, the ceiling had dropped significantly at a sharp slant, plateauing out above his head a good hundred or two feet over the treetops. It would do another sheer drop till the warmer climate region turned into caverns.

He knew where he was at, finally. He had been heading in a good direction at least. He was rather close to the warmer region and would have reached its waters within the day. But, this way, he didn't have to backtrack.

The skull turned around, pointing towards home. Even from this distance, he could see all of the town he called home situated in the heart of the forest, and on the edge closest to him was the lacking view of the lab. He pushed the skull forward and the thing took off like a bullet. He let out a whoop of surprise and excitement as he shot through the air. The icy wind stunk his eye sockets and magic built up and spilled out of them like tears.

He collided with something.

Something rather fluffy wrapped around him and he clung to the fluffy mass, finding it fantastically warm. He nuzzled into it, nearly purring.

A familiar chuckle was heard over his head and his head snapped back to meet the relieved gaze of his dad. "Hey, baby bones."

This time the tears spilled over the rims of his sockets out of joy as he buried his face into his dad's chest again. "Dad!" he called out, holding tight. His dad gave him a squeeze, a skele-kiss bouncing against the crown of his skull. "I've got ya," the older skeleton uttered softly. "I've got ya."