Radiance

Reality

Longer chapter because I felt like it and wanted to use a section of writing I had done before :3

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|Lucas|

"Ow..." I feel the words escape my mouth as a cold rag stung against the wounds across my stomach. It burned for a moment before ebbing away into a soft pain in the background. Hold up- WHERE AM I?! 

I snap my eyes open as quickly as I could, then hiss in pain as a torch shone into my eyes and the pain in my stomach worsened for a moment. Lights danced in my eyes as I shut them and let out a slow breath. Wait- Am I dying? Is that why I feel like I'm in absolute pain?

No.

No, I'm not dying. I just feel like I am.

A cold rag presses to my forehead and as if it was the cure to my pain, I sag into it, sighing.

"He's awake for sure... We should tell Grace or the Leaders he is. Should I go get a guard and go or do you want to?" An unfamiliar, smooth voice meets my ears, accompanied by another. Both were soft and gentle, almost like a breeze through the tree leaves on a warm summer day, but more calm and at ease.

"I'll get a guard, just make sure the non-steve doesn't reopen his wounds or we'll have a lot harder time getting them to close properly." I hear rustling of clothes to indicate a man standing up, then footsteps on a wooden floor to cross the room and a creaky door opening and closing.

I manage to peek my eyes open enough to see a figure fill my vision: Tall, with a thin physique and a gentle aura about him. He had been watching his partner leave out the door, then lets out a sigh. Though... Wait, he has green hair?? How common is that??? I... I must have just realized that so many of the people here don't have normal colored hair or attire colors. They all seem to be very bright and full, almost like the colors you would see in a shimmering rainbow after a storm. This... It's not what I'm used to seeing.

After a moment, the man turns back around to me and freezes. I meet his eyes: brilliant green ones that shone like gems. Carefully after a few minutes of silence, he lifts the cloth from my forehead and dips it back into the basin beside the bed. He preoccupies himself with that for a moment before I decide to try and talk.

"How... How long have I been out for?" My voice is raspy, even to my own ears, and the man starts and turns to look at me. He opens his mouth a bit, then looks back to the basin.

"Sorry... Didn't... mean to startle you..." I manage out as he sighs and gives a small smile.

"It's alright. It's just my first time seeing a non Steve... much less having to heal one." He seems to be still on edge, so I decide to try and lighten the mood a bit.

"Yeah, that's reasonable. I still feel like I'm dying, but it comes with the deal of being alive and taking a swipe at the stomach." I chuckle and he half smiles with a vague chuckle.

"I... guess."

I want to sit up, yet I know that would be a bad idea already due to just talking causing me pain in my stomach. I let out a small groan and sigh. What a welcome to this world I guess. Getting injured on my first day here. Though... I haven't really had time to process everything properly.

To start off the list, my longtime friend who both I and Tewtiy thought was dead or in the hands of the Undying, is actually alive. Tewtiy dragged me off to the portal ruins that we all thought was only a pathway to a small pocket dimension of ruins and is actually capable of connecting to an entire world. Then I found myself in an entire kingdom of a civilization to which Sabre is around here.

Speaking of which. Where is he and Tewtiy?!

I start to pinch at the comforters of the bed under me as a sudden anxiety and sensory overload was starting to get to me.