[ Fᴇᴀᴛᴜʀᴇᴅ ᴏɴ @WᴀᴛᴛᴘᴀᴅAsɪᴀɴFᴀɴᴛᴀsʏ, @Fᴀɴᴛᴀsʏ, @Aᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ᴀɴᴅ @ᴍʏᴛʜᴀɴᴅʟᴇɢᴇɴᴅ ]
Wᴀᴛᴛᴘᴀᴅ Iɴᴅɪᴀ Aᴡᴀʀᴅs 2021 Wɪɴɴᴇʀ (Tʜᴀᴛ Sᴇᴄʀᴇᴛ Qᴜᴇsᴛ)
ONC 2021 Lᴏɴɢʟɪsᴛᴇʀ
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬・✿・▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
As mysterious flash-floods rising from a dam reservoir begin drowning the town of K...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬•✿•▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
"Hima," slipped the word from the sailor's tongue as sleep left her.
She woke up to a rich green ceiling above her and the steady gurgle of conversation. The huge solar-powered fans on the ceiling swung back and forth on their creaky hinges, circulating air through the ward. The world smelled of eucalyptus oil, holy basil, menthol, camphor and turmeric. Shadows moved across the glowing, orange screen, lacking clear outlines and voices. It took several blinks for her vision to return to normal and focus on the staff flitting in between the hospital beds. Someone had changed her into clean clothes from her sodden rags. She groaned as a headache announced its presence on one side of her head, making her turn over to the other side.
A Kedhan girl of roughly eighteen sat beside the sailor's bed on a stool, carving a smiling face into an apple. The girl's traditional, black cotton Kedhan jacket was sleeveless, and she had paired it off with a grey blouse and billowy grey pants. The black tattoos swirling around the visible parts of her tanned arms, neck and face sparked recognition in the sailor.
"Demoness, Rākshasi," rasped the sailor, her voice sounding like a shaking bag of gravel. She realised that her throat had no water left to smoothen her words.
The girl looked up from her apple sculpture and extended the back of her palm to the sailor's forehead to take her temperature. The febrile sailor backed away into the cocoon of her bed-covers. The girl frowned.
"Don't you dare touch me, demoness! Make no mistake, I won't hesitate to skewer your head upon m-," she warned, groping for her javelin in her empty bedsheets. Her eyes were thrown wide open in a sudden frenzy that had seized her body.
The staff and patients who noticed her sudden outburst glanced at her before returning to their interactions. The girl did nothing and simply waited for the panic to subside. And when it did, she folded her hands and bowed to the sailor.
"I'm a m-mage apprentice, m-ma'am," explained the girl, placing the smiling apple on the small bedside table. Her lips quivered and her neck muscles stiffened when she spoke again.
"You were rescued from Ketakey during the overflow of the Ketakey Reservoir and brought...for m-meh-medical attention. We are yet to discover the reason for the sudden flooding. As of n-n-nuh-now, almost all of our m-mages and apprentices are on day or n-n-night shifts to carry out rescue operations. You're safe now, I'm sorry for scaring you earlier."
The sailor looked around her, the frenzy slowly fading from her body as tiredness set in. Her stomach growled at the former demoness, now a mage apprentice to her heavy eyes.
