Post date: Aug 13, 2016 2:20:19 PM
Caradorynee: Feats & Wagers
#17
Star began to sweat profusely.
Her journey to the base of the cone hadn’t taken as long as she had anticipated. Which was a good thing. The bad was that the pressure building in her head from the decrease in oxygen was making her slightly dizzy.
Not a good sign. She’d only begun her climb.
Trying to take only shallows breaths in an attempt to lessen the intake of corrosive gases that she could smell through the tattered cloth around her nose and mouth, Star reached up with her left hand and grasped another clump of hardened volcanic ash that comprised the cone she was climbing.
Star tested her grip on the formation. Satisfied that it was firm she released her right leg from the small ledge she’d found earlier and hoisted herself upward.
A trickle of sweat ran from her brow and caught in the inner corner of her left eye. Star squeezed her eye shut but not before the salty sting of the droplet made her eye begin to water.
Blinking rapidly Star tried to rid herself of the unwanted sweat and tears from her eye as she reached up with her right hand to search for another handhold.
She found one and then another and another. Pretty soon Star was making good progress despite the fact that she was winded and her muscles were beginning to show the first signs of serious fatigue.
“Come on.” Star whispered, urging herself onward. “You haven’t come this far to give up now.”
The smell of the gas was getting harsher. The desire to cough was almost becoming unbearable.
Star reached up and winced painfully as an outcropping of the volcanic ash slit the palm of her right hand.
“Oy!” Star squealed and then began to choke.
Blood dripped from her palm and unable to see just how deep the cut was Star whipped the tattered cloth from around her face. She left a red smeared streak across her right cheek and along her jaw.
Pressing herself against the jagged cone Star raised her right arm until her left hand came into contact with the tattered cloth.
Star continued to cough as she tied the tattered cloth around her bloody hand and then carefully choose another chunk of volcanic ash to grab hold of.
Hoisting herself upward again Star coughed into her shoulder and tried to take a breath.
Thankfully the fabric yielded a small amount of oxygen which gave Star a momentary reprise.
Star glanced up and tried to gauge just how much of the cone she had left to climb.
Too much.
She’d never reach the top before her lungs suffocated or her extremities began the process of hypoxiation. Either way she wasn’t going to finish this last challenge.
Should she turn back? Climb back down to the base of the cone?
To what end?
She didn’t have any better chance of survival. Caradorynee was a hostile planet. She had barely been able to keep herself alive for the past few weeks since the Artemis had crash landed.
There wasn’t much left of the spacecraft. Not much that could be of any use to her.
She’d lost the crew. Every one of her friends were dead.
She was out of food and water. What little reserves that hadn’t been destroyed by the inferno, she’d consumed days ago.
Then what was she to do?
Another coughing fit brought Star abruptly out of her depressing musings.
She leaned her left shoulder against the cone’s volcanic walled surface and quickly began to unbutton her shirt. She shrugged out of the sweat damp material and wrapped the cloth around her face and head, careful not to sway too much on the two tiny ash footholds where she was precariously balanced.
Her concern for modesty had vanished. What did she care if her delicate skin was exposed to the harsh sun or that she got even more sunburned?
This was her last attempt at survival. At least she would die with her boots on.
Star laughed at the thought of her withered body. Sunken from the lack of oxygen and moisture. Nothing more than paper thin skin stretched over jagged bones.
Would any creature from Caradorynee even bother to bury her? Or would they leave her corpse out for the ash worms to devour?
Star didn’t have any faith in the Caradorynee people. They would leave her-
“Owwww! Oy! Hey, what the…!”
Several more sharp, stinging jabs stung along Star’s side. She winced as more jabs suddenly began to pepper her bare back and along her ribcage and legs.
Turning her head she angrily glared over her shoulder. Her eyes widened as she saw a mass of Caradorynee creatures converging upon her.
“Son of a…” Star yowled, as more jagged ash clumps tore into her bare flesh.
What were they trying to do, kill her? Yes, either that or get her moving again.
Star started climbing again.
She forgot about her injured hand as she groped for any small measure of purchase in the volcanic ash. Her feet instinctively seeking any out cropping that would support her weight.
She forgot the horrible smell of the gases and even forgot to breathe as she scrambled frantically upward.
But she couldn’t forget the noise.
The booming sound of the Dormoan volcanoes as they continued to expel their gases.
And there were other noises as well. Harsh calls, excited shrieks, and battle cries. The combined noise was overpowering.
Still Star clawed her way up. Both her hands now bloodied and raw.
She could feel the painful sting of sweat seeping into the open gashes scattered across her back and the scraping of her knees, now exposed and bloodied, as her pants shredded against the razor sharp edges of the ash clumps.
Her whole body screamed in agony, yet she kept scrambling upward.
Star tipped her head back.
She was almost at the top of the cone. The end was in sight.
Then from out of nowhere she was suddenly plucked off the side of the cone and flung downward.
Star howled.
A winged creature, with razor-edged talons, sunk the pointed ends deep into the muscles of her shoulder. Then it shook Star violently.
Star shrieked again and again as she was thrashed from side to side.
Pain spread across her belly and bare breasts. It took her a moment to realize that she was being peppered with the same jagged chunks of volcanic ash that had shredded her back.
The Caradorynee inhabitants were set on flailing her to death.
Star closed her eyes briefly.
She could feel her strength ebbing away.
Her head, from loss of blood, became light. Her vision started to blur.
Another booming sound echoed in Star’s ears. She thought it was the pounding of her heart. Or the rush of her blood as it flowed out of her many wounds.
The pain in her shoulders suddenly stopped.
She felt herself falling and her mind belatedly registered that the winged creature must have tired of her or instinctively knew she was close enough to death that it didn’t want to play with her anymore.
Star continued to fall.
How soon before her limp body would crash upon the surface of Caradorynee?
She should have died with all of the others aboard the Artemis.
Why save her, to have her suffer a horrible death only a few short weeks later?
Why was the universe so cruel?
And why was she suddenly staring at the orange man with the vivid green eyes?
©Human in Inhuman Worlds by Janet Merritt