Flash Fiction February 2023 — Day Two

Prompt: Return of Body

Drystan was unconscious at her feet, her crossbow clutched in one hand, a knife in the other.

In front of her was the monster from her nightmares. U’lad’s long, segmented body writhed in the dark tunnel, his orange eyes alight with rage and contempt for the small Kalashtar stood before him. His centipede-like body filled the entirety of earthen tunnel, filling it so there was no way for Kora to slip past. No, she had to fight him.

She leveled her crossbow at the dream spirit, his nightmarish form twisting and flexing, his eyes flaring with anger at her threat . This was the creature that had stolen her voice. This was the creature that had killed Winona. It had nearly killed Drystan.

She would not let him leave this place.

“Sweet child,” U’lad’s voice scraped against the inner walls of her mind, making her wince. “Sweet Kalashtar. We can make a deal, you and I. There’s no need for such… violence.” His voice was like a hundred beetles, scrabbling across the floor; scratchy, rough, and nauseating all at once.

Kora sent her thoughts back to him, in that strange way that only Kalashtar could communicate. She couldn’t speak, after all. Not after U’lad. “I’d rather die than make a deal with you.”

He sneered at her, the sound both from the creature in front of her and the voice that was in her head. “Then die.” His monstrous form lunged at her, his black carapace blending in with the shadows of the wall. As he ran for her, small lights, no larger than the palm of her hand, began to wink to life, bright orange and angry. Kora felt a pit in her stomach as she realized the small lights were lights at all, but glowing eyes, filled with rage and pain and sorrow.

Any sane person being charged by an evil dream spirit would have run. But Kora couldn’t leave Drystan here. U’lad would kill him; or worse, possess his body like he had Winona. So she stood her ground, her unconscious friend at her feet, took aim, and fired.

*

Skye ran down the tunnel, her thoughts frantic and rushed as she tried to make her away over the uneven ground. Please be okay. Please be okay. She ran through the dark tunnel, her mind drifting to the carnage she had just left behind. Winona was dead. The rest of their party was in disarray. And Kora… Kora had ran off, chasing U’lad to who-knows-where.

Her frantic breaths echoed in the tunnel, she continued on and on, towards where she hoped she would find Kora, alive and well. Skye knew Kora had predisposition to being wild, and carefree, and often got herself — and by extension, Skye — into trouble. She had chased after U’lad without a second thought. At least she has Drystan with her, she thought, though that wasn’t much of a comfort. Drystan was just as much of a danger magnet as Kora was.

She lost track of time, running through the darkness, the horrible feeling that she’d be too late making her sick to her stomach. Then she finally heard it. Thee sound of someone moving, breathing, through the tunnel, straight for her. “Kora!”She called out. “Kora’tana!”

Her childhood friend came into view, limping and bloody, but alive. A nasty cut above her eyebrow made her face a bloody mess, her mouth a grim line of determination. She was carrying an unconscious Drystan, struggling under his weight as she made her way to Skye.

Skye ran for her, her vision blurring slightly as she blinked away tears that had been threatening to form. “Kora, you scared me!” She came to a stop right in front of her, accessing her friend for any serious harm. Her injured leg was trembling, blood seeping through her clothing. But aside from that, and the cut above her eye, she looked fine. But as Skye looked at her face, there was a sinking feeling in her stomach. A terrible sense that something was wrong. Something was off in her eyes. There was a haunted look there; a look that Skye had never seen on her face before.

“Kora?”

She readied herself to hear Kora’s voice in her mind, as she usually did. She’d communicated that way since she was a child, and Skye was long used to it. Neither of them had known why Kora couldn’t speak — at least, not until recently. They’d always assumed she just… couldn’t. Neither had ever thought it was because an evil dream spirit had stolen it; after all, how does one even steal a voice?

But to Skye’s shock, Kora opened her mouth, her voice clear and string. “Skye…” she breathed.

Skye blinked at her, eyes wide. “Your voice…. you have it back.” The realization of what that meant crashed into her. “You did it, then! You killed U’lad?”

Kora opened her mouth to speak again, but stopped. Instead, she merely nodded.

Skye reached out a hand to her, to gently cup her face. “Kora, that’s-” Kora flinched away from Skye’s outstretched hand, as though she were afraid of getting burned. Her body shuddered, and Skye quickly realized that it was because she was crying.

“I’m not Kora,” she said through her tears. “I’m not her.”

Hand still outstretched, Skye stood there, frozen to the spot. “What?” Her voice sounded meek. Quiet.

“I’m Tana. Her-”

“Her Quori. Her dream spirit.” Skye didn’t ever pretend to understand the dream spirit thing. The bond between a Kalashtar and a Quori. The bond that had apparently let Kora speak into others’ minds. Even their names were reflective of their bond. Kora and Tana, two souls in one body. “How?”

Tana grimaced, her eyes squeezed shut. “I don’t know. We were fighting U’lad and… and Kora died. I felt her die. I was supposed to die with her. But… instead I woke up, in her body.”

Skye’s heart pounded in her chest, the world around her seemed to spin. “Kora… died?”

Tana finally looked back to Skye, her eyes still filled with tears. “I’m so sorry, Skye. But… Kora is dead.”