[dream & video] [week 7, day 1] Awakening
Dream: Awakening
You never saw it coming. There was no sound, no smell. Not even that prickly sense of impending danger that you have acquired after a year of averting ambush by assassins from the West. All you know is that one moment, you are following Sanzo inside, and the next there is only pain, exploding so viciously inside you that you don’t even feel the impact of stone that slams into your face when you hit the ground.
Your heart is pounding so hard you can hear it, dully rhythmic in your head. A gun goes off in the night, three furious shots, one after the other.
Sanzo…? What’s happening?
You wonder why it’s so wet on the ground, as you don’t remember any puddles in the street. It smells of blood, sticky and hot. You realize it’s your own.
There’s a flurry of people around you now, and suddenly you’re on your back. A glow of light hovers above, and an odd constricting sensation races through your abdomen. You choke, spitting up blood from your lungs.
“Bind him tighter, Gojyo!”
“I know that! Fuck…what the hell happened!?”
“His injures are too deep! He’s losing too much blood-“
Life is draining from you rapidly. The pain is almost gone now, replaced by a numb chill that begins in your fingertips and is working its way up your arms. You know this can’t be the end of you.
Is it really bad, Hakkai…? I feel pretty bad. I feel like… I feel like…
The voices begin to muffle, and the world is darkening around you. Something about it feels horribly permanent. This is too soon, not now, not before Sanzo. You have things to do. The heated voices are just garbled murmurs now, too fuzzy to make out. How much longer can you hold on? As long as it takes, and you will. A hand reaches above you, and something slips away, the familiar weight that wraps around your head.
And then, there is pain.
It is back, and with a vengeance, but there is something else as well. A sense of lightness in your being that you have never known before. It is as though your soul has been unchained, and instincts have awakened you to the world as you were meant to see it. Your eyes snap open and you leap up to a nearby rooftop, and from there you let out a great roar so terrible the ground shakes with your fury. You summon the powers of the earth, and they obey you. They come, sweeping up from the soil, the trees, and the rocks, warm heat that is pure chi from the earth itself. A tingling sensation fills you as your wounds heal under their nurturing energy.
You rise to your feet, flexing your claws as you gaze down at the crowds that have amassed in the street below. Faceless, nameless minions. They are nothing to you. A feral grin spreads across your face.
You have awoken.
Action: Video
[The Hitomi goes black for a while. The screen comes back on after a few minutes, and this time all the viewer sees are branches of a willow tree, as though the device is sitting on the ground somewhere, facing up at the sky. Shoots of grass sway lightly around it, moving in and out of view.
Sounds indicate that there is someone nearby, and he begins to stir.
His eyes flutter open, slowly. It is morning, and a sliver of sunlight flickers through from the branches above. He moves his fingers, his toes, his eyelids. Everything seems to be in working order. Was it all a dream? It was strange and frightful, and it still feels hauntingly real to him. He sits up, feeling disoriented. He’s dressed in his usual attire, and unlike in his dream, they are not ripped to shreds nor soaked in blood. He turns toward the sound of running water, trickling down the trunk and into a pristine pond below. What was this place?]
Sanzo…?
[He calls out, but there is no answer.]
Where is everyone...? Hakkai?
…Hm?
[Suddenly, you can see a face, looking down at the Hitomi.]
What’s this?
[EDIT: I rewrote the action sequence so he wakes up in Himorogi...I hope I haven't confused anyone. ^__^;;]