\|/ Turn 26 or 30
I was definitely in a coma, but I don't know how long.
This turn I woke up after Mik. Mik was already outside somewhere. There was some melted water in a bowl next to the fire for me.
I need to explain to Mik that I don't have to drink every turn.
I decided to do some exercise while Mik was gone.
And by exercise, I mean getting up.
I managed to sit last turn. Even without my left arm, I should be able to get up.
I dragged myself out of the blankets, keeping my cloak on me while I did so. After a few spans I managed to get out and was promptly shocked by the cold.
While being under the blankets for the past few turns, I had forgotten how cold it actually was.
Nope, no, too cold, freezing
I quickly put the blankets around me again to stop myself from getting temperature shock. I did leave my legs and tail partially uncovered so I could actually get up. I felt the cold stinging there.
Would I even survive the dark without Mik making a fire?
I could see light from outside, but it barely meant anything. I could only imagine how cold it would get without the campfire.
Being 'saved' every dark…
Because that's what it was.
Without the fire, I would've been dead long ago.
…
I refocused on standing. I needed to gather my strength again to contribute when it stopped being unreasonably cold. When water stopped being white.
I first sat up, careful to only use my right arm for support, it took a few moments.
Afterwards, I started trying to get up from a sitting position.
I tried holding myself with only my right arm to place my legs underneath, but I struggled and failed.
Damn it, I'm fat
If I had to estimate, I am about 30 weight with a height of about a tail length. That was my last measurement on Unity's Hope. I was probably lighter at this point, since I wasn't eating as much.
"Just big scaled…" I grumbled.
I tried getting up that way again. I failed.
I needed to try something else.
Left arm…
I really didn't want to use my left arm for this, but I had to. There simply wasn't enough strength in my right arm yet.
Ok…
I planted my left and right hands onto the ground. My left immediately stung, but it was bearable.
I groaned as I slowly started to lift my body with both arms. The left started shaking and stinging more.
"Come on…" I panted through clenched teeth.
After more struggling, I managed to put my legs underneath me and push up.
My legs shook and felt like they would fail me. My tail was lashing to keep me balanced.
But I was standing.
"YES!" I hissed, bringing my arms above me in celebration.
I felt an immediate, excruciating pain from my left arm going above shoulder level.
"AAH!" I screamed as I fell forwards, having lost my balance from the sudden pain.
I faceplanted into the remains of the fire.
"owww" I mumbled into the charred remains of the wood.
I dragged myself out of the campfire, my face and top part of my cloak now covered in soot.
I rolled on my back again, staring at the ceiling, wiping black soot off of my face. I couldn't even taste the air if I didn't want to lick char.
Then, I remembered the bowl of water. I dipped my hands in it and continued wiping, trying to get everything off, contemplating my choice of celebration.
Of course I did that. Why wouldn't I do that. Celebrate by bringing my ruined arm up. Yippee.
I continued wiping my snout.
At least the fire wasn't burning… Dying from being burnt alive during extreme cold as a desert dweller would've been… ironic.
And the melted water DID come in handy in the end. I thought, as I was wiping my cloak now.
Maybe I won't tell Mik anything. It can think I drank the water. Not that I needed to clean myself from falling like an idiot.
I didn't want to imagine Mik laughing at me while my snout was completely black from my blunder.
Definitely not.
…
After a lot more cleaning, I repeated the whole process again and stood up, this time a little more stable.
No celebrating no celebrating no celebrating…
As I stood up, lightheaded and wobbly, I tried to take a step.
I managed to take a step.
Good…
I took another step. Still wobbly, still lightheaded, but I wasn't falling down.
Let's see what the outside looks like.
I took a few more steps to the entrance of the tent. I moved the entrance aside and looked outside.
I was blinded for a moment as my eyes adjusted to the harsh light. And then I noticed that…
Everything was white.
E v e r y t h i n g.
The landscape looked like a natural disaster had struck it.
OH SUNS
Most of the trees were dead. There were no leaves. Just husks.
There were only a few trees I could see that weren't dead, but they were small and prickly, not even having proper leaves. Some species I never heard of.
No no no no no no!
The world died while I was in a coma.
How!?What HAPPENED?!
…
The water.
I noticed that it was falling from the sky. It was like rain but deeply wrong, small and white, landing onto the heaps of it outside. The air had a fresh taste I never felt before.
I held my hand outside for a moment. A few droplets of the white water landed.
They were freezing cold.
I quickly retracted my hand, feeling the white water burn on my scales.
It melted and turned into regular water. It was then absorbed into my body as any water would be.
I took one last look of the landscape outside, seeing nothing but dead trees, white water and Mik's tracks in it, heading away from the tent.
I went back inside so as not to freeze over.
…
I sat in my usual spot, exhausted and horrified.
Mik and I are stuck on a dead world.
I thought the falling leaves would be like something in the green domain, where they would fall once a year and then regrow over a couple of turns. Something normal.
But no.
They were falling because this planet is dying.
The white water is the harbinger of death. Only the most resilient trees are surviving. I have no idea how Mik is even leaving to get wood and food.
I was right to call this planet a dead rock. It just seemed alive for a short period of time.
…
I was too horrified to continue functioning properly. Mik and I were living on borrowed time. If it stays like this, I won't survive for long, and neither will Mik.
…
I waited quite a while for Mik to return. I had another thing burning in my mind. I still didn't know the turn, and I needed to know how quickly the onset of the heat death of this world took. If entropy was this quick to freeze everything… what did that mean for Varanth?
What did that mean for the rest of the universe?
…
Mik returned a couple of marks. It was starting to get dark.
It entered the tent with its cloak covered in white water with some wood under its right arm.
Had Mik really been gathering just wood for that long?
It bared at me and entered casually, like it wasn't walking around an apocalyptic wasteland.
"How are you even alive in that cold?" I asked while staring at it. It bared its teeth again, not understanding at all.
It set the wood aside and took the dry wood from the stockpile and lit a fire. It went outside and scooped more white water into the bowl. When it was done it sat down next to me, and it tapped my tailend like it usually did.
It took out its journal and drew something.
It looked like an animal. It was drawn in the usual "Mik lines" fashion. It had four thin legs and a body with a longer head. Something like the shadow or screechers, but different proportions. Mik then scribbled out the animal drawing.
A silent dread hit me.
Of course… It didn't find any food. How could it find anything in this wasteland?
The fact that it had found food at all for when I woke up was nigh impossible…
After showing me the drawing Mik went to write in its journal.
I was hungry but not starving yet. I had survived for longer without food when we both crashed, so I wasn't a stranger to the feeling.
Then I remembered what I wanted to ask.
The three drawings of the sphere and half sphere. I figured out that they meant the passing of turns, the sphere on the top being the red dwarf. Mik showed me the drawing a few times, but I wasn't counting. Now I could know what turn it was.
"Mik" I poorly said in its language. It looked at me again.
I tapped its journal and went to take it with my right hand.
Mik pulled it back lightly.
I tugged more.
"Come on, Mik, I'm being serious."
It continued tugging and managed to get the journal away from me.
I stared at it in frustration, tail twitching.
It bared its teeth, said something short and gave me the journal.
How can it be this light-hearted in a dying world? Is its entire species just cynical?
I took the journal and flipped through pages and pages of Mik's weird (and bulky) script. I saw some drawings from before, like its first drawing of us, while I called it Friend and so on. I found the three drawings.
Half sphere, large sphere left, then top, then right. Mik standing, me lying down.
I held the journal in front of Mik and tapped it. It looked at me, then at the journal.
"How much time has passed, Mik?" I demanded softly.
It flipped the pages.
Once, twice, three times, four times, five times, six times, seven times, eight times and then nine times.
Nine turns?
I didn't even have that many fingers to count on.
It had been that long?
Wait…
I was out for nine turns, or was everything happening nine turns ago?
I tapped the journal a bit more, now panicked.
It looked at me, took the journal lightly from my hands, and held its right hand in front of me, fist closed.
It extended one finger, then two, then three, then four and finally five.
It closed its fist and did this again, stopping on its fourth finger.
It was counting with its fingers.
Nine turns, but until WHAT, Mik?!
I couldn't explain my frustration to Mik, but I also wouldn't lash out on it again. It wasn't its fault we couldn't communicate.
I bowed my head in frustration, tail twitching, while it took its journal again.
It made a snapping sound with its fingers to get my attention. That startled me.
What kind of noise is that??
When it got my attention, it went back to its journal. It wanted to draw and show me something.
It drew a few symbols, with a lot of space between them. They were fairly large.
It tapped the first symbol, vocalized something in its language, and showed one finger.
The second symbol, two fingers. And so on until it got to ten.
It was teaching me its numbers.
Better than focusing on the outside. I thought grimly.
I took my journal and lightly took Mik's journal, copying its number system. It was illogical, every number having its own symbol as opposed to having one symbol that expands with every addition, but at least I understood the basic premise of its mathematics.
I decided to show it the correct way of counting. Of course it couldn't repeat my hisses, just as I couldn't repeat its language, but Mik reciprocated writing down the numbers. It looked surprised that at the number eight was divided into two symbols, tapping it once before writing it down.
"Base eight, Mik. Don't have that many fingers…" I muttered. Mik was too mesmerized to notice.
After writing everything down it drank some water, tapped my tail and went to write in its journal. I saw it making comments around my symbols for numbers.
Mik is sleeping now. I still don't understand how it is this indifferent to a dying world. I did some calculations and figured out that either it is turn 26 (if my illness was nine turns ago) or turn 30 (if I was out for nine turns).
I have an idea on how to figure out the truth. I'll ask Mik again tomorrow. If it shows 10, then I was ill ten turns ago. If it shows nine again, then I was out for nine turns.
I really don't want to think about that. Being out for five turns is horrifying, but being effectively dead for nine whole turns…
I hope Tau somehow recovers from this white death.
I can only hope to be as positive as Mik.