Character: Darrurz
Location: Unknown
System: Unknown
Date: Unknown
"He's worth more to us alive than dead."
Am I?, Darrurz wonders.
The new medic, Fi Khong, pulls out an injector module and checks the label.
Satisfied he places it next to Darrurz's neck. "This will take care of the pain,
Darrurz." There's a look of sympathy in his eyes.
Darrurz feels a slight prick in his neck followed by the sensation of a cold
fluid entering his body. Soon after, his extremities go numb, and the adrenaline
of combat dies. His eyelids grow heavy, and he soon realizes he can't fight the
anesthetic that's carpet bombing his nervous system into a warm fuzzy oblivion.
Resistance is futile. His eyes close and all goes black.
Fitful dreams come to Darrurz. He relives the fight with Verroel. A knockout
punch lands him on his back, and the scene segues to a brightly lit room where
doctors work on him. Once they're finished, his dream self stands, thanks them,
and walks out the door. It leads to a lazy river, meandering through a forest in
midsummer. He joins some childhood friends on black rubber tire tubes and they
float downstream. After some joyful splashing with his fellow pups, Darrurz is
suddenly alone. He is content, albeit lonely.
A large fish swims alongside. Its long whiskers become evident once it nears the
surface. Darrurz reckons it must be two meters long. It surfaces and speaks.
"All alone again, Darrurz."
Thinking nothing strange about a talking fish, Darrurz replies, "Yes. What of
it?"
"You don't have to be. Come, swim with me. You'll never be alone again."
"I'm a wolf, not a fish."
"A wolf without a pack. A lone wolf. What sort of life is that?"
Darrurz considers the whiskered fish's proposal. He stares into the depths of
the river—clear one moment, opaque the next. "No. I will find a pack."
"The last one nearly killed you."
"My mistake for trusting a pair of corsairs."
"And Gvarokh?"
"A fool. The Imperium bred the wolf out of him."
"Hazel?"
"Hardly my fault. Bloody corsairs murdered her."
"Still, it was you that convinced her that there were market opportunities along
the border."
"And there were! We were doing quite well until the corsairs came along. Is
there a point to all this?"
"You've faced enough adversity in life already. There's rough water ahead. Save
yourself some trouble, and come swim with me."
"No, thank you. As I already told you, I'm a wolf, not a fish. Now go away
before I eat you." Darrurz flashes his teeth for emphasis.
The fish swims away.
The river changes to rapids. Darrurz has to concentrate to hold onto the inner
tube. An insect flies by and buzzes about his head.
"Go away you stupid fly."
"Who are you to dictate terms to me!" the insect replies. With that, it begins
to grow in size. In an instant, it is the size of Darrurz's paw.
Darrurz tries his best to avoid the insect and stay on the inner tube, but as
the insect grows further, his movements become more erratic. The rapids are
more intense.
When the insect is the size of a speeder, it bellows, "I will feed you to my
young!"
Just as the insect moves in to grab Darrurz, he is swept into the river. He
struggles to keep his head above water but away from the insect. As he surfaces
for air, he catches sight of the ocean. Grey clouds hang overhead while sea
monsters eagerly await him. Darrurz spots a sandy beach along the riverbank and
uses all his strength to swim there.
He reaches the beach with maybe ten meters to spare. The disappointed sea
monsters eye him once more before swimming off. The enormous flying insect is
nowhere to be found.
The offshore clouds grow closer to shore. A cold wind picks up, and the
temperature drops. Darrurz shivers despite his fur. Snow begins to fall, and he
see icebergs on the horizon. He retreats inland through waist-high grass, but
the snow and ice are gaining on him.
A voice calls out to him, "Follow me!"
Darrurz looks around and sees an older female wolf. Her fur is nearly white. She
charges ahead towards some cliffs. Darrurz is forced to get down and run on all
fours to keep up. It feels undignified and primitive, but it works. He is able
to maintain the distance between him and the encroaching ice.
They reach the cliffs and Darrurz watches the other wolf enter a cave. While he
stands up, she remains on all fours. Inside, he spots her lying by a fire.
Darrurz can't smell it, but he can feel its warmth. He sits down by it,
realizing for the first time that he is naked save for his fur. The other wolf
is too, but doesn't seem to care nor notice.
"I'm Darrurz."
"I know," she replies.
"So who are you?"
"I'm Llallaeknuez."
"That name sounds familiar."
"I'm surprised. Most wolves have forgotten me."
Outside the cave, the snow and ice have arrived. The entrance, while not
completely blocked, is soon filled with snow.
"I'm cold," Darrurz says. "And we're going to need more wood for the fire."
"It will be fine," Llallaeknuez says.
"How can you say that?"
She ignores him.
Darrurz paces around the cave, rubbing his arms in a effort to keep warm while
Llallaeknuez continues to lie by the fire.
With a sigh, Llallaeknuez says, "You have a long journey ahead of you. You need
to rest to preserve your strength. Fighting the cold will only make it worse."
Darrurz's ears perk up. "Journey? What journey? Where am I going?"
"To a place where you'll be needed. This world is filled with savagery and has
no further use for one such as you. A great death is coming. If you leave this
cave, you will die. If you wish to live, come lay with me by the fire. I'll
watch over you."
Darrurz searches Llallaeknuez's face for meaning as his nose can detect no scent
from her. Even the fire lacks flavor. Normally a vargr could tell what wood was
burning by the scent of the smoke.
Llallaeknuez's face morphs into his mother's. With her voice, she says, "You
always were a logical pup."
"Mother?"
And then it's Llallaeknuez again.
Suddenly Darrurz remembers who she is. When he was a little pup, Darrurz's
mother told him about Llallaeknuez one stormy night when the house shook with
each rumble of thunder. Llallaeknuez was the name of one of the great ancestor
spirits who watched over pups. Mother told him an elaborate tale of how
Llallaeknuez sheltered all of the pups in her pack from a terrible storm, with
heroic feats of strength and resourcefulness. When he was an adult, Darruz
realized the story was exaggerated, but it served its purpose. He had slept
through the rest of the storm, secure in the knowledge that everything was going
to be all right.
And now here she was. Wherever "here" was.
"Good," she says, "You remember. Now will you please stop that pacing and come
lie down."
The adult, logic-driven portion of his brain shut down. He was a pup again. As
he approached Llallaeknuez, she grew in size, or Darrurz shrank. It didn't
matter. He snuggled in beside her. He felt her warmth and that of the fire. The
howling wind shrank to a whisper, displaced by Llallaeknuez's heartbeat. Darrurz
closes his eyes and sighs. His heartbeat slows, and he drifts off to sleep. A
very long but peaceful sleep.
Character: Darrurz
Location: Unknown
System: Unknown
Date: Unknown
The dream of the cave and Llallaeknuez has faded. Now there's only a bright
white light and cold. Darrurz wishes that he'd been left there. He tries to call
out to Llallaeknuez, but he's forgotten how to use his tongue. He can only
think and that isn't doing it. He feels the weight of a hundred starship hulls
pressing down on him. It hurts to breathe.
A flood of pin pricks washes over his skin. He wants to scratch them; he wants
to bite. Still, he's pinned to... the ground? No, a slab perhaps. An
unintelligible muddle of voices gurgle in his ears.
The starship hulls are slowly lifted from his body, though breathing still
hurts. Tears, unbidden, well up in his eye sockets. The muscles in his neck
loosen, and his head falls to the left. The movement brings a lancing pain
along his spine.
Why did you bring me back to life? I was content.
"He's coming around." The voice of a vargr female speaking in Gvegh.
Darrurz tries to bark or growl, but his tongue is glued to the roof of his mouth
and his lips sealed shut.
A hard plastic tube digs its way into his mouth and soon after releases water.
The drops are slow at first, but as the water dissolves the glue holding his
tongue in place the flow increases. It is the first thing he's tasted besides
his own blood since breakfast with... with... that big corsair and the wolf
they'd gone to see about something to do with the ship.
The tears have drained from his eyes bringing some form of focus to Darrurz's
surroundings. It looks like some sort of hospital, and the light isn't as bright
as he thought it was. The female is close by. He can smell her and two males.
He still can't move his head but he can hear various machines. They remind of
him of his last visit to a hospital—when Hazel died.
The female comes into view. Maybe it's his burred vision, but she looks
beautiful. She smiles. "Wonderful! You're awake. Don't try to move. You're still
recovering from an extended period of cryosleep. Your muscles are severely
atrophied, but otherwise you seem in good health. Your heart and lungs are
operating on their own and that's a great sign." She places a latex glove
covered paw on his chest. "Just be patient and give us time to get you back on
your paws. I promise you'll be out of here in no time."
Darrurz's tongue is free, and his jaws are no longer locked in place. He thinks
he can ask her a question, but he'll have to keep it short and simple.
He takes in a deep breath through his nose, inviting the smells of his
surroundings and those around him to awaken him a little more. Looking at the
female vargr he forms the words of a question but no sound emerges.
"Wwwww..." He works his jaw some more and tries again. "Wwwwhhhooo...
Whhhaaatt... Whheeree... Whenn... How?"
She leans in close and says, "Slow down, Darrurz. There will be plenty of time
for questions later. You need to save your strength while your body recovers. I
promise we'll answer those questions and more when you're better." Her smile
appears sincere. Darrurz can see it in her eyes. Her tail is wagging, striking
his bed. "You're safe, and among friends."
Exhausted by the effort to wake up and talk, Darrurz sighs and relaxes. His
eyelids are heavy. He closes them, intending it to be brief, but he falls fast
asleep. He dreams of playing in sunny meadows, chasing small animals but never
hurting them. Dark clouds obscure some mountains in the distance, but they never
encroach upon the meadow.
Next: A New Day for Darrurz