Disguised In Stardust ✔

Chapter Fourteen

To return us from the sacred sight, Faelin applied water to his lids and mine. His fingers were just as gentle as last time. When I came to my senses, a wave of excruciating heat smacked into me, and suddenly my winter coat felt like magma against me.

I panted and shrugged my coat off, watching Faelin’s breath run short too. It seemed the heat wave had already hit us.

How long had we been gone?

“Now what..?” I gasped, fanning my face that was already dripping with sweat. My hair clung to my face and random strands flew up from my braid. I wiped at my forehead and tied the coat around my waist. I rolled my sleeves up.

Faelin lifted his shirt momentarily, letting his wings spread weakly under the cloth. I looked at them, then down to his bare skin, both of which slicked with sweat, peppered with little gleaming reflections of light.

“Can you carry us?” I breathed out in a puff of heat. The sun seemed to burn brighter through the trees. He shook his head and subtly rolled his eyes.

“The atmosphere on Earth is far too thick for me to fly.” he clarified honestly. He spread his wings out and flapped them a few times. “My wings are too weak to carry the both of us.” he tacked in.

I nodded in understanding, and having realized we had no choice but to walk back, I groaned. “The house has air conditioning.. Let’s go there, we have all the stuff, right?” I hiked the cumbersome travel bag further up my shoulder. The skies grew dark with a bronze tinge to the misty clouds. The heat was really getting to the world, and fast.

"That sounds refreshing." He sighed just at the thought, it seemed.

My eyes fluttered a few times, my head going light. It felt like I was floating on air.. Then the atmosphere grew heavy. My vision flickered a few times before I waved it off. The heat was probably getting to me.

We retraced our steps from where we first camped, then back out into the open. We traversed a field of long, unkempt wheat and stepped past the muddiest, dirtiest ditch I've ever seen. I didn't see that last time.

"Something feels... off. There wasn't a field here before." I noted, to which he swiveled on his heel and stopped. He took a good look at the scenery around us. "Where's the road?"

He huffed and shook his head. "Let's keep moving." Had we traveled through time? How long were we actually there?

Soon, we approached the start of a dirt trail that eventually panned out into the same worn road we followed on our way here. Faelin started, "See? Everything's fine-"

BOOM!

The ground quaked as a loud, thundering crash echoed through the air. The noise was so loud that I could feel the waves travel through my entire body. Faelin stumbled on his feet, grabbed my hand and ran for it.

"Come on!" he urged as we scrambled towards the city outskirts. More crashes reverberated around us, and as soon as I looked up, I gasped.

The sky was like a glass dome, a long, thick crack flowing through the clouds as if it were a hologram. The sky warped, clouds twitching and morphing vulnerably.

"W-What's happening?" I sought, squeezing his hand tightly as we continued to dash for the city. It was just out of reach, the town. I could recognize the small apartment complexes and compact convenience stores. My hometown was right there, I could practically feel it.

Then, I felt the ground crack and shift. It lifted below us, slowly giving my feet less and less room to support myself on.

Until I found myself with no more ground.

I squeezed my eyes shut, and I gripped onto Faelin with all my might. The last thing I felt was the cool sensation of Faelin's shaking fingers rubbing something across my eyelids.

_

I could feel long, fuzzy grass tickling me. My hands were pressed against the cool dirt that was layered below. I shot up and heaved in a sharp, deep take of breath. My heart beat rapidly in a fit of panic.

"Prish-!" I heard a curse next to me. "Oh Gods, I did it wrong! Now we're phasing through different realities!" I looked up to find Faelin sitting up beside me, knees pulled up to his chest while his wings were fanned out behind him.

I sat up and groaned.

"What was that..?" I muttered.

"The procedure went wrong. Maybe a miscalculation of mercury in the solution... Maybe something else. But now we're lost in the endless nexus of realities." he groaned in frustration.

"What?! How do we fix it, then??" I pushed myself to my feet and brushed off. I helped him up and we made our way through the forest that I thought we just left.

No, I know we just left it. In another reality, that is.

Once we exited the thicket of trees, a recognizable opening came into view. The same wheatless, grass field that eventually led to a curving road. We neared the turn in the road and I was just about to step onto the blacktop when Faelin pulled me back.

"I'm dizzy.." he panted. I reached out, but he met me halfway before I could touch him. He collapsed against my chest, his bag thumping against my hip as it slung over his shoulder.

He was in a cold sweat.

I hurriedly picked him up, hiking him onto my back while my bag hung around my shoulder, and continued to head for the farms that led to the city.

Even with his sinking weight on my aching shoulders, I don't think I've ever set a pace as fast in my life.

_

Midway there, I nearly collapsed myself. The heat was weaving its way into my core, sending spouts of numbing tingles down my spine. I could feel our sticky clothes soaking in sweat; I wanted to take a shower as soon as possible.

I eventually made it back home with a burning chest and tense, aching arms. As soon as I set down Faelin on my bed, my wrists and biceps cramped up.

While I cooled the house down by closing the windows and turning down the thermostat, I also activated the air conditioning. I made sure to place a fresh ice pack on Faelin's forehead and finally retreated to the bathroom to wash up.

I huffed and dragged a hand through my hair, taking out the braid that I had fixed perfectly just a few hours ago. I stripped off my clothes and hopped in the shower.

The water was scalding, even suffocating. I took a brisk, cool shower instead.

When I was finished, I wrapped my hips in a towel and squeezed the water from my scalp. Brushing back my hair, making sure to separate it evenly, I eventually left the bathroom a new man.

That was until I walked out to find Faelin right there, skin still shining with sweat, eyes drowsy.

__