Groaning Void

It was there again, that sinking feeling. Maybe not necessarily a bad thing, but it was a literal… sinking… feeling.

Down, down, deeper. It was like an impending weight, but more comforting this time.

Consus slowly opened his eyes after rubbing them with his… hand? Not quite. A strange sort of pincer remained in place. Normally, something like this would frighten him, but Consus felt as if this was supposed to be normal. He could feel it in his chest, just as he did before.

Everything was strangely dark, yet the water around him seemed to have a life of its own as it flowed past him. Small bits of some sort of shiny debris collected in droves as it made curls in the currents. There was a constant groaning that seemed to drone on and on, like a ringing in the ear, but it was quiet enough to withstand.

As he moved, Consus noticed his segmented-like legs kick beneath himself, scattering sand particles around. There had to be something around… anything. This… abyss couldn’t aimlessly stretch on, could it? There had to be someone else around, right?

What was this place, and why was he here?

The sudden surge of discomfort seemed to take over his being; whatever sense of strange familiarity had gone as soon as it came. It was if he had realized some sort of trap had been laid, yet nothing had changed aside from the swirling of the currents.

What Consus had assumed to be whimsical little curls of water became a lifeless surge of the sea, rushing away and dissipating into the void. He turned to the current's absence as if it had abandoned him, only to spin around again at the sight of a larger, living creature.

It spoke in a lowly voice, orange scales coming to view.

“You should wake up before you forget how to.”

Consus felt two pairs of clawed hands grip onto his arms, suddenly pulling him from the deep.

As he woke up and looked around, Boingo and Vatos had mixed expressions of confusion, humor, and concern.

“I don’t know what the hell that was, but I think you might want to rest… awake though.”

Vatos sighed and handed the painted satyr a mangee. 

Boingo could only nod and gave Consus a pat on the back.

“Believe it or not, it seems like this is happening to plenty of people - seemed like you were having some sort of nightmare.”

END. 411 Words.