Dream
Fly.
Blood ran in rivulets along his sinuous body, his lean flanks; in some places the tender skin between his scales was virtually shredded. But it was nothing compared to the sickening pain inside, the black illness spreading through his body in a rush of nausea and vertigo. His head pounded and spun, his stomach lurching violently. He had the sense of falling endlessly: touched by something so unclean, he could not even gather himself to claw his way up through the air.
Fly.
The only thing that kept him aware was Chihiro's strong limbs wrapped around him, and her voice calling out to him. He held her name in his mind like a talisman, as though it might drive back the pain and impurity. He couldn't swim or fly, but he must. If he fell now, she would die with him. Her life was in his keeping...a vague memory, her weight on his back familiar...
Fly!
He felt the currents of the air rushing past them and grasped onto them, fighting the unclean disease but not his momentum. He turned, curved, snaked upwards, then fell. Again, ribboning back and forth, writhing as much from pain as from his efforts to gain some buoyancy. Little by little, arresting their fall, slowing, slowing...rushing again now, with the air this time, her hands on his horns--her name, what was her name--and the disease creeping through his insides, so much pain, he couldn't think anymore. Couldn't remember. Only onward, flying/falling, metal blades spinning ahead; he fell against them snarling and tore them out and hit bottom with a shattering thump.
Blood ran in rivulets along his sinuous body, his lean flanks; in some places the tender skin between his scales was virtually shredded. But it was nothing compared to the sickening pain inside, the black illness spreading through his body in a rush of nausea and vertigo. His head pounded and spun, his stomach lurching violently. He had the sense of falling endlessly: touched by something so unclean, he could not even gather himself to claw his way up through the air.
Fly.
The only thing that kept him aware was Chihiro's strong limbs wrapped around him, and her voice calling out to him. He held her name in his mind like a talisman, as though it might drive back the pain and impurity. He couldn't swim or fly, but he must. If he fell now, she would die with him. Her life was in his keeping...a vague memory, her weight on his back familiar...
Fly!
He felt the currents of the air rushing past them and grasped onto them, fighting the unclean disease but not his momentum. He turned, curved, snaked upwards, then fell. Again, ribboning back and forth, writhing as much from pain as from his efforts to gain some buoyancy. Little by little, arresting their fall, slowing, slowing...rushing again now, with the air this time, her hands on his horns--her name, what was her name--and the disease creeping through his insides, so much pain, he couldn't think anymore. Couldn't remember. Only onward, flying/falling, metal blades spinning ahead; he fell against them snarling and tore them out and hit bottom with a shattering thump.