I bobbed in and out of consciousness. For a moment, I smelled something else.
Old carpet. Warm food. A room I almost remembered.
Then it was gone, swallowed by iron and stone.
When sensation returned, it came in pieces. The cold of the night air against my flesh, the sensation of sharp objects digging ferociously into my wrists and ankles, the weight of my own limbs making even the slightest movements difficult. Then pain—distant, but I could definitely feel pain. Why? Why did I have to go through this over and over again? I did my best not to groan at least aloud. I was definitely cursing every star in the sky in my mind.
I tried to open my eyes, but they wouldn't listen properly. My body felt wrong and heavy, I was so so tired. Voices drifted in and out as my thoughts and awareness cleared.
Grunts and growls, a bit of gurgling. Low, rhythmic sounds that didn't belong to any language I knew, but felt… intelligent.
I realized, dimly, that I was being carried. Not dragged. Carried. The motion was uneven but careful, as if whoever held me didn't want me bouncing around too much. My side throbbed in a slow, wet pulse that matched my heartbeat. Each beat felt weaker than the last.
I tried to breathe. My lungs moved, but it didn't matter. I'm pretty certain one of my lungs had been punctured. I was slowly drowning... On the bright side I may bleed out before I drown. Thank you, Apnea! The cold was settling deeper now, curling around my ribs, around my heart.
'This is bad,' I thought distantly.
My heart tried to slow.
Then stuttered.
Then kept going anyway.
Something warm spilled over my stomach from the open wound. It was blood. My blood.
Too much of it. I wanted to panic. Wanted to thrash, to scream, to fight. But my body wouldn't listen.
My endurance kept me conscious longer than I had any right to be—but it didn't make me stronger. It didn't heal the wound. It just forced me to feel more of it.
"Ughhh." I groaned unintentionally.
The sounds around me soon began to bounce all around. Echoing now. A cave? It was surely a different one then the one I had slept in. We seemed to have traveled quite far after all.
I caught a brief glimpse as my eyes fluttered open—firelight flickering across rough stone, shadows jumping along the walls. Shapes moved around me. Green skin. Long ears. Too many teeth.
A goblin leaned over me, its eyes bright and curious rather than afraid. Why would it be at a nearly unconscious weapon less human? I was basically a breathing corpse. I'd sigh if my lungs weren't full of blood. The little beast poked my wound with its taloned nail.
I screamed. Or I thought I did. The sound didn't quite make it past my throat, only causing me to spurt blood directly in this smug face. The goblin hissed sharply and jerked its hand back, more annoyed than startled. It chattered something to the others, and I felt myself being lowered onto cold stone.
They laid me down on the stone cold floor and just stood around me. Ugh this was starting to look like someone kind of cult sacrifice. They weren't going to eat me were they? I think I had let their dinner go earlier. All kinds of thoughts spun around in my mind before quieting as my energy slowly dissipated.
My vision blurred. The firelight stretched into long, wavering lines. My thoughts slipped, one by one, like hands losing their grip on a ledge.
I felt something press against my chest.
A clawed hand. Was it trying to hold me down? I wasn't exactly a flight risk in my current state unfortunately, for me that is.
Then a sharp pain at my wrist. Something bit into my skin—not teeth. A blade. Crude and jagged. I felt warmth spill again, felt the tug as something was pulled free.
Blood. They were taking my blood. The realization floated through me, heavy and distant.
A goblin lifted something up into the firelight. A shallow bowl, dark liquid sloshing inside it. Another goblin dipped a claw in and smeared a symbol onto the stone floor. The symbol glowed faintly. Red.
Holy this really is a cult!!!
That was the last clear thought I had. The cold rushed in fully then, swallowing everything else. My heartbeat slowed. Stuttered. Stopped.