\|/ Turn ??
I feel utterly horrible, but I'm alive…
I fell asleep after my last entry. I didn't think I would survive. When I woke up, I was immobile for a few turns.
I can move my right hand now, Mik helped prop up my journal against a rock. I'll document the turns where I wasn't moving.
After falling asleep in Mik's arm I entered a weird half-awake state. I barely remember anything, just coldness and seeing Mik and the fire.
Then I fully lost consciousness.
-Two turns ago-
I woke up some undetermined time later, it was light outside. I had been shifted in my sleep (Mik moved me, I think) and I was on my side. I couldn't move at all. It was utterly quiet except for the fire crackling.
Something entered the tent. I could only see it out of the corner of my eye due to my position. It was pitch black and partially covered in something white. It was the living shadow, or its family. I couldn't tell its taste in the air.
Finishing the job… I thought to myself.
The thing walked around the tent. It was weird, with only two legs, but the cloak was the one from the living shadow.
It entered and put a limb on me. It rolled me over to my back.
I looked at it with barely open eyes, and hissed, barely audibly:
"You got the last laugh."
To my surprise, it yelped and stumbled backwards, before scampering to me.
It then pulled down its cloak that was over its head.
It was Mik.
Am I dreaming again?
Mik quickly took the rest of the cloak off and threw it to the side. The white parts started to… melt?
Mik told me something, which I of course couldn't understand. Then it took a bowl and brought water to my mouth.
No Mik that's not how I-
I couldn't say it out loud, I was too weak after what I thought would be my cool last sentence.
I promptly started choking on the water shoved into my mouth. I spat out as much as I could.
Mik finally realized it was drowning me and threw the water aside, saying something (swearing, or an apology, or both) and angling my head so I could spit the water out.
I wanted to laugh from the ordeal, but I didn't have the energy to do so. I managed to wheeze once.
Mik let my head go too quickly in its own fumbling. My head hit the ground, making me feel even more lightheaded.
Mik continued fumbling with its right arm, stammering, and hitting itself against the head with its palm. It was really struggling from the surprise. It would've been hilarious to watch from the side, but unfortunately, I was the one being poorly puppeted.
It tapped my tailend once in a large hurry and went over to the other side of the tent. It retrieved the bowl it threw and went outside.
Mik came back just a few moments later, with a bunch of white substance in the bowl, the same mysterious mass from the cloak.
It took the bowl and set it off next to the fire and returned to me. It lightly enveloped me with its arm, saying something. Afterwards it hurried off and got its journal.
It had drawn a sketch beforehand, seemingly prepared for this situation. The sketch was on three pages.
The first page had half of a sphere, with me and Mik drawn on it. I was in the tent, lying down, while Mik was standing. On the top of the page there was a larger sphere on the left side.
The second page was the same sphere we were on with us in the same spots, but the bigger sphere was in the middle of the page now.
The third was the same, but the bigger sphere was on the right now.
It flipped through the pages a few times. I wasn't counting.
I had no idea what it was trying to convey. The passing of time? Us surviving on Tau?
Afterwards it put down its journal and sat down next to me.
It spent the rest of the turn like that, next to me, talking about all kinds of things I couldn't understand. The background noise was comforting, at least.
-One turn ago-
The following early light I could move my head the slightest bit. I hadn't slept much, and Mik had only slept a little (though it was fighting the urge to fall asleep next to me). I was regaining some semblance of strength.
Before Mik woke after dozing off another time, with the early light seeping in, I could see what Mik was wearing.
What I thought to be a relative of the shadow was instead a cloak. Underneath was my design, leaves glued together with some reinforcing sticks. But on the leaves, glued in the same fashion, was the cloak of the shadow.
Mik had descaled the corpse of the shadow and made clothes out of it. That's what it was doing when I found it.
The concept was so disturbing that it made my trust falter for just a moment.
But the fact that Mik had taken care of me for however long I was out, reminded otherwise.
I couldn't stop staring at the cloak though.
At least the shadow's death wasn't in vain…
Light continued to trickle in, the fire having gone out long ago. It was somehow cold within the tent. Not as cold as when I had the fever, but disturbingly so. Without my blanket and my cloak, I would be freezing. I couldn't even imagine how it was outside of the tent, then. Mik also helped with warmth, being next to me, but it was also huddled under a blanket.
I looked at the bowl, and where the white substance had been now there was… water?
How did water come from that?
It wasn't living or moving in any way, it had been a mass of white. Now it was water. It smelled neutral.
I know water can freeze, we experimented with that, but it didn't have any applications, but this?
Is there another state of water?
It was hard to grasp. Water has a third state.
This was as big as discovering that plasma exists as a fourth state.
Now water itself has three.
More time passed, and Mik woke up. After a bit of stretching (which I was quite jealous of because I felt immeasurably uncomfortable) it got the bowl of mystery water.
It held the water in its hands for a bit, presumably to warm it (that ability is still beyond impressive to me). It brought the water and held it like that, awkwardly. After a few moments of reconsidering it poured it over my head. Some of it got directed into the thorns and absorbed. It felt like regular water.
Mik covered me with its blanket as well and dawned its cloak. It tapped my tailend once and left.
While I was alone, I was wondering about how long it had been since I passed out. It was stupid cold outside, Mik had managed to make a cloak, and I wasn't in agony. Mik's head growths covered even more of its face. Had I fallen into a coma?
How long have I been lying here like a lump of scales?
Have entire phases passed?!
I was in a mild panic when Mik returned. It came back with more meat in the bowls, but this meat wasn't black. It was pale red with bits of mystery water clinging to it.
Mik had hunted as well.
It took off its cloak and put it aside. It put some sticks (that it had piled up in a corner of the tent which I hadn't noticed) and started a fire.
While it was waiting for the fire to properly start it turned to me.
It touched the meat with its finger, opened its mouth and waved its hand in front.
What?
I couldn't show that I didn't understand. Usually, I tilt my head for elaboration, but it would take far too much effort.
It cooked the meat and let it cool.
Then it brought a bowl to me. The meat had a normal air taste, reminding me of a meal my mother used to make. I miss eating regular food.
It fed me the weird meat in little chunks. I managed to chew on my own, and it seemed happy with that. I was actually starving, so at last I got my appetite back. The meat tasted pretty good.
After I ate without any problems, it went to eat.
And I think it got poisoned or something.
It took a bite, and everything was normal. It kept eating, but its face kept getting progressively redder. It exhaled loudly through its mouth and kept eating.
Why are you eating if it hurts you?! I screamed internally.
"stop…" I managed to hiss.
It turned its attention to me, still disturbingly red, and brought me another piece of meat. I didn't open my mouth, and it just stared at me while holding the chunk in front of me. It didn't understand the message. It offered me the chunk once more before retreating back to its position.
Mik ate its entire portion, coughing by the end of it. It was unbelievably red.
I had eaten the same meal, sick, and was fine.
How does a species function when it gets poisoned from food, and continues to eat it?
Mik went and got more branches that turn, bringing them inside and heading to sleep when darkness fell. It didn't take its blanket back from me, instead using its new cloak.
It was deeply unsettling having Mik sleep in the carcass of the shadow as I once had. The air taste was only Mik's now. The cloak reminded me of much darker times, but I bared through it. It was the least I could do for Mik.
-This turn-
Now it's dark again. Mik was gone most of this turn, getting wood and such.
It "melted" more water, gave me some more. I can't tell Mik I don't need as much as it thinks I do, but I applaud the effort.
In the early light it helped me when I moved my right arm. I tried reaching for my journal next to me. Mik noticed and placed a rock underneath it and the pen in my arm. I've been writing this the entire turn. I'll try moving more next turn, but this was already exhausting.
I'm getting better, at least.