![[Image: CoeurlDie1.jpg]](http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j189/kyatai/CoeurlDie1.jpg)
Chiané was shocked to find herself alive.
She lay half in and half out of the lake, the air around her still and dark. She could still smell disturbed earth and guano, ozone and water. She fumbled to get her bearings- but it was no use. The entire landscape of the cave was changed.
She followed the remains of the room around, stumbling over corpses, murmuring apologies and prayers, and trying to find an exit.
There was none.
She was trapped.
She closed her eyes, then opened them, her attention focused on the lake. The water had to enter from somewhere... she recalled feeling currents brush her skin, the edge lapping gently onto the rocks...
And something had pushed her out from the small air pocket chamber and back to the surface. She didn't remember anything past the encroaching black, the churning nausea and immense pain.
She had never expected to surface.
Yet here she was.
She sat down, resting her head between her knees as another surge of dizziness and nausea washed over her. Her right upper arm felt odd, heavy and swollen. She grimaced, placing her hand on it as she recalled the sword slash-
The let out a disgusted cry to feel several elongated, soft pulsing masses attached to the site. She tried to knock them off, fighting another round of nausea, but they were latched on.
She put her head back between her knees, taking in deep breaths. She knew the leeches would fall off as soon as they got their fill... and their mere presence told her the river did in fact lead out...
But that was the limit to her thankfulness.
Chiané felt the first one fall off within a few minutes, followed pretty quickly by the others. Her arm wept tendrils of blood and felt strangely tingly, but other than that, seemed in good order. She quickly felt around for more creatures that cared to feed off her, then let out a sigh of relief finding no more. After a quick bandage over the deep incision on her arm and shallow on her palm, she groped for her hip pack, feeling blindly inside for the few bits of tech she'd salvaged from Petyr's home before...
She pressed her palm to her eyes, feeling the strange disorientation and burning pain in her chest again. Before...
She sniffed, shaking it off as she slipped the aerobreather on to rest against her teeth, then dove in to the water.
It was dark, murky with the dust and dirt... and blood.
Lifeless bodies drifted past, arms and legs stroking her in their final caress. She pushed them aside, refusing to acknowledge who- or what- they were. She could not... not now.
She would grieve later. Speak words over them later.
The cave would be their eternal cairn.
She dove deeper, her breathing slow and even as the aerobreather broke the chemical bonds and changed the cool water into cool, if somewhat stale, air. She felt for the edges of the underwater cavern and tunnel, following the gentle urging of the current toward its source. After what seemed to be hours, she sensed a light, then more light. She fumbled, waving her hands forward into the murkiness, following the light now.
Several minutes later, she found the source... a small crevasse in the wall that was barely as big as her head.
She began grabbing and pulling at the rocks, seeking loose ones and kicking and hitting others to loosen them. Slowly but surely, the light grew and she managed to open the hole up just enough to wiggle through.
When she emerged, she was bloody, ragged and totally disoriented. She wasn't certain where the underground river had dropped her off- but she had to believe it was somewhere along the Velodyna. But nothing in the landscape looked anywhere close to familiar.
Chiané pulled the aerobreather out and sucked in a deep breath of fresh air, peering up at the sky.
The red giant was... gone... But the sky was a murky red-brown that shimmered oddly as the sun tried to shine through it. She took a step forward, scanning the landscape for any sign of life.
There was no one.
Nothing.
Not even a bird singing or the whine of insects.
Just water burbling over rocks, wind whipping through the trees... and a low, unearthly, throbbing that seemed to be heard in her bones as well as the lower frequency of discernible sound.
Nothing.
All that seemed left in the world was just one lone, barefoot Duskwright standing in dripping rags along the side of a rushing river.
***{And thus ends the prestory}***
Hope those that read enjoyed, OOC comments/criticisms are appreciated.
Thanks for reading!
