Shedding Strength pt. 8

Glancing around at the strange wooded area filled with various colored flowers and vines dangling from nearly every limb in sight, Rondrio carefully stood and dusted his butt off. “Double ow!” He groaned at the numerous pains plaguing the back of both his legs as well as his head. “What cracked my noggin?” he muttered while realizing he stood in the middle of a blackened crater. It was only a few feet deep, but it would’ve been nice to know how he got in it. “Whatever,” he muttered before dropping his left hand to his side and drawing in a deep breath. After exhaling slowly, he flicked open his hand and crooked each finger as if they formed a claw. A moment passed and his brow creased. Confusingly, he glared down at his empty palm. “Uhm… okaaaay.” Bringing his left hand to his face, he tilted his head and examined it carefully. Aside from a few minor cuts and bruises, it appeared fine. Each finger wiggled with little effort. He could make a fist and relax it rapidly with no problems. He even swiftly waved it back and forth to see if it would do something weird like fall off for no reason. Finally convinced that it truly was his left hand, he slapped it and fussed, “What are you, broken or somethin’?”

A scream echoed throughout the area, but it sounded a distance away. From where Rondrio stood, he couldn’t begin to figure out what direction it came from. He tried scrambling up the side of the crater, but his legs gave out. He barely managed to brace himself against the hardened rock surface before his face almost kissed it. “Oh, c’mon!” he grumbled. “My body don’t act like this! Get it together, ya crappy limbs!”

Practically crawling his way to the edge, Rondrio pushed off and attempted a clumsy roll over the rim. His body flopped over, and he landed awkwardly on his back. Both legs flared up, and in that moment he realized what really bothered him about the pains. They weren’t the regular soreness pains he’d been used to over the past few years. It felt as if something was using his legs as pincushions. “TRIPLE OW!” Had he been stabbed and didn’t remember? But if that was the case, why could he still move his legs as much as he could? “None of that explains the throbbing between my ears,” he whispered to himself. He quickly brought his hand to his face again. “Nor does it explain your blatant insubordination! You better get your act together, mister, because if you don’t… you will be fired! And I mean that in every sense of the word! You got me?!”

Until he could figure out what was going on with his body, Rondrio decided it would be safer to take things slower. Carefully, he sat up again to get a better look at his surroundings. Even though the tree canopy did its best to block the sun, he still had enough light to examine the plant life… not that he knew a thing about identifying plants outside of sunflowers and poison ivy. “Let’s see… Flowers from every corner of the rainbow, trees are way taller than the ones at home, and the air…” He inhaled deeply. “A little salty? Maybe I’m near a sea.” He sniffed again. “But something else is there. It’s faint, but it’s familiar.” He tried focusing on the drifting scent, but his head throbbed more and distracted his thoughts. “Alright, forget that for the moment,” he resigned. “Let’s work backwards and figure out how I got here. Okay, there was a speedy, blue hedgehog.” He shook his head. “No, wait, that was the day before yesterday. Oh, yeah! I was reading my Spider-Man comic, waitin’ for Za and her friends to pick us up! Hold on… ‘us’? I was with somebody?” The pounding in his head multiplied. Dropping to his knees, he clutched his skull. “Stop it! You’re my head! You obey me!”

After a few seconds of struggling with the memory interference, he slammed his fists against the ground. “New plan,” Rondrio growled as he defiantly stood again. “Since somethin’s determined to screw with my head, I’ve got three very important questions. And there better be some dang good answers!” He held up the index finger of his left hand. “Ichi: Where am I?!” Adding his middle finger, he continued, “Dos: What the heck did you do to my hand?!” Before raising his ring finger, he calmed his breathing considerably and narrowed his eyes to slits as his features turned gravely serious. “Three… and be very, very careful how you answer this one…” He turned in a circle, randomly pointing to four of the nearest trees surrounding him. “Which one of you is knocked up?!”

Shedding Strength pt. 9  (13+) Soon-to-be high school graduates wake up in a strange place... #2060342 by Kadiro