Chapter Text
[LEO POV]
I woke up well, all I could feel was aching all over my body. I couldn't move, and there was screaming everywhere surrounding me. I felt like i was floating. Maybe this is all death is.
Then flashes of light went around me, not outside of my eyes but in this space in between death and life. Wild whirls and I couldn't think and my eyelids would not open and I was everywhere and nowhere.
My yes fluttered open and I was in a room the pain had ceased this place looked like a waiting room, then a sting erupted on the side of my arm, like an injection of poison. All I could feel was my heart beat again slowly, then Black. Everything went black. my racing thoughts stopped. When my consciousness came back I could feel sand beneath me but I was not fully awake, just stuck.
What felt like hours I began to itch everywhere and I felt myself throw up onto my stomach. Sticky liquid slowly dripped down my waist.
Then quiet. Nothing but waves? Like the sound that made you fall asleep. I didn't want to fall asleep. I wanted to think clearly.
Years, it must have been, but my eyelids finally fluttered open, I stared up at the sky, it was night. The stars glittered for thousands of miles. I felt so groggy and disgusting I needed to do something about that.
I sat up too quickly and I felt my head get dizzy again. Everything was blurry for a minute. My leg, it must have been broken. It felt like t was the one that had died.
When my vision was somewhat normal again I looked around all I could see was the ocean, and the beach that I'm on, behind me is a small forest of trees and nature. I think I see a path. The water was beautiful and the trees seemed ancient yet like they had never been touched by unwanted hands.
The vomit was still on my stomach though it was dry, gross. I was also wearing a white shirt and light brown army pants so not a great mix
Great I was in the middle of fucking nowhere and I needed a shower.
Even worse was the fact that I didn't know who I fucking was
.
My name? No idea. The only things that really came to mind was that I was human.
I knew everything but I did not know how I knew it. My brain must be clogged with salt water and the rest of me fuzzy of sand.
Well at least it could not possibly get worse, and of course the most cliche shit that ever happened.
One of those things that you see so many times in movies so when It happens you begin to expect it It rained. Then it thundered.
Great now i'm soaked
At least the vomit was slowly getting of of me. The droplets fall onto my face and drip slowly down my face, it felt so familiar, like a warm embrace.
Rain wasn't alive why yet why is it like I am meeting an old friend. No idea.
Thi is stupid, I am most certainly stupid. I wanted to walk out to the thunder and cry and I wanted it to hug me back.
After a while of standing in the rain and thinking generously about the thought of absolutely nothing I decided I needed to try and figure some things out. Well I saw a path earlier so I might as well investigate. I got up and walked up the beach hopping slightly as I walked as to make sure my leg would stay intact. Once I reached the path I saw at the ned of it was a small cottage. It had a garden in front of it, a very beautiful one, with every type of flower I think I could name. The closest pots to me were quite big and inside them tiger lilies. My head went fuzzy, it was exploding, I was drowning and in flames. I fell to his knees and smacked my face trying to get the pain to stop. The rain was not helping.
I dropped to the floor and my eyes shut. I saw images like badly watercolored pictures, a broad pale hand with a single flower the color of a sunset, a smile with a dimple that started to laugh, that sound, I couldn't remember much but I knew I loved that sound.
I started shaking, no someone was shaking me. I opened my eyes and the hurt my head had been experiencing had stopped. There was a woman, she was gorgeous, she was looking down at me, her brown wet braid dangling over me. The rain dripping down her face onto my chest. She was surprised to see me. I sat up my leg was now on fire but I had more important matters to attend.
“What?” She said with her eyes full of surprise “H - how, you look like death, are you okay”. The pain from earlier slightly increased. Before he could think much she kissed me. The rain intensified. She knelt over me still standing, she was careful to avoid the mess on my shirt. It felt like she longed for this, like she needed it. I was in an extreme state of shock because it almost felt like I didn't enjoy it. Ot maybe it was just the fact that I didn't know who she was, or her name for that matter.
She pulled away breathless “I did not think you would actually come back” She smiled “I can help fix up that dragon and we can go.” Dragon? Might just be a figure of speech. This slightly surprised me, why would she want to leave, she lived in paradise. She never stopped smiling, she was looking at me like her knight in shining armour. She put out her hand to help me up, lightning cracked in the background, trust flooding me. I felt the need to trust her I took her hand and got up. Stupidly puttting all my weight onto my broken leg, my vision went down to like a frame a second and then black.
***
The next thing that I feel after the feeling of nothingness, being in a prison in my own body, is pain white hot pain or whatever, it honestly feels more red. All I can feel is my leg, pure agony. My thoughts are blank.
Pain
Stop
Pain
Help
Pain
Please
Pain
Finally the pain dies down and I fall asleep again.
When I wake up again the pain is almost gone and I think I'm flying, no I'm on something that's flying. I may or may not be completely attached to it by something that feels like a belt. With a jolt I realise there is someone next to me holding onto my hair. Most likely to keep me from falling off though I would prefer if i was falling out of the sky not to be held by a few strands of my hair..
The person next to me feels small but warm, maybe about the same size as me. Even warmer is the thing I'm attached to; a machine, and when I put my hand off my chest to feel it, I can feel it breathing.
Not breathing exactly but it was close to alive.
I can see how it works down to its very gears, which is how I know i'm dreaming. It’s a dragon and dragons don't exist. It is also how I figure out that I'm insane.
Machine dragons will fly when I see superman eating Mcdonalds.
Yet why does this big flying machine soar like it has wings? Maybe this is a dream but if I was in a dream I wouldn't be thinking about it. But I can't remember ever having a dream.
Okay it is official I am insane.
The person yelps and the machine sputters, and it starts falling down, my eyes blink open, wind making my tangled curly hair going everywhere. I was till in the same dirty clothes. All around me I saw blue sky, It was quite a nice day, the sun was now shining. However when i turned my head slightly to the left, I saw metal wings, startled I stood up putting both my hands onto the metal body, looking around I saw the girl that had kissed me with a terrified expression clinging onto, oh, past her is a big metal head, one of a dragon.
At this point in time I was wondering what asylum might have the best facilities when the girl screamed. “ DO SOMETHING TO HELP FESTUS”.
The pain returned to my head again. If the huge belt wasn't still holding me onto the thing I would have fallen off by now, as we continued spinning through the air, the ground getting a bit too close for my comfort.
Festus
“The dragon's name is Festus” I inquired.
At the exact moment I said Festus, the dragon came to life (as alive as a machine can be) he spread his wings and it jumped me up so I was sitting upright facing backwards towards the tail. Because of course there is a tail. The girl was still startled holding onto the dragon. Then it started clicking something that I somehow understood. If I wasn’t going insane, which I was starting to believe, maybe I wasn't insane, it was the world that had gone crazy, then the dragon just said I'm sorry I have been flying too long ill land now.
Dragons can not speak. Humans can not understand them.
The dragon started towards the ground, now that we were close to the ground I could see we were near a small village in the middle, it looked quite nice. Except when I looked around the village or there was for miles was trees, clearings and rivers.
The middle of nowhere
The girl turned around and looked at me “Are you okay Leo?”
Leo
Leonidas Valdez that was his full name.
That was his name. How he knew this he had no idea.