castleinthemist | 1 | Won't You Save Me?

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1 | Won't You Save Me? | Open!

"AUUUUGHH!"

The scream was muffled, but still managed to echo through the chamber as it sounded from one of the sarcophagi. Whoever was in there was not doing well. At all. And a broken leg that was still in a cast but angled very awkwardly where he lay was the cause of it.

For Sokka it was not the darkness or the confined space that he noticed first after waking with a massive headache. It was the fact that he couldn't hear anyone, or anything, except himself and his own breathing. Well, breathing, and the screaming that came once the pain in his leg hit him.

Where were his friends? Where was his sister? Why was everything so damn silent? It didn't make any sense! They had been there not an hour before when he'd gone to bed with Suki! And what was this... thing he was confined in?!

Of course there were no answers, especially since he never asked any of the questions aloud (not that anyone would have been there to answer anyway), but as the pain ebbed some clarity managed to come back.

"... Katara? Suki?"

No answer. Not even the sound of a voice. Just the wind blowing through windows somewhere near by.

"Hello?! Some one get me out of here!"

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"One... step at a time." Duo said to Toph with a bit of weakness on his voice. He was forced to start eating that stuff again and he wasn't all too happy about it.

"Sokka? It's bad. The food here is..." He grimaced. Hated that stuff. What else could he say about it?

"Yeaaah, you gotta see it." There had to be a better way to do this, right? Find better food? Welp, there was an ocean, and there was birds!

"Hey, I can be humble!"

Sometimes.

"... that bad?"

It sounded positively horrid, and he was not looking forward to that.

"It's not nice to lie, Sokka," she said as she nudged him in the side.

Here, her room was closer. She had roommates, but they wouldn't care, at least she didn't think so. Sokka could rest on her bed. She opened the door and let them enter first.

"The food's edible, but not good at all. There's fruit tree and some fish in the courtyard, but it's not enough to keep us all fed."

She sat on the edge of the bed. Here, Duo, have a rock chair.

"Is Quatre home?" Duo asked quietly as he entered, then looked around. Hm. No sign of him. Weird. Ratchet wasn't here either. He looked to Sokka and gave a brief shrug, bringing him over to the bed. Once he set him down and withdrew, he noticed the chair bent out of nowhere.

"Hm. Thanks Toph." He took a seat.

"There's apples, yeah. I've been trying to live on the apples and fish... Looks like it's not enough."

Sokka just rolled his eyes at Toph, but didn't try to argue. He hadn't asked, but from the sounds of it she had... some how been there a lot longer than just a day or two. He wasn't about to give her a hard time if that was the case.

He dropped down on the bed with Duo's help, rubbing his upper thigh above the cast with a groan. The worst part of a broken leg wasn't the actual break sometimes, it was the damn muscle cramps from being laid up, walking funny and having an extra five pounds of cast attached to it.

"No other animals?"

That'd be weird if there wasn't. What place didn't have at least some sort of local wildlife beyond, well... fish.

Try a week or two. Perhaps longer. She honestly had lost track. What was the point in counting passed days, anyway, when she needed to focus on finding a way home?

"I can hear birds, but I don't know how far away they are," she pointed to the window. "They might be too far off to be considered a food source."

"No, the birds are gulls and crows. They're big enough to eat but hard to catch. Course we haven't really tried yet." He shrugs. Fish were just easier.

Remembering he promised Sokka some aspirin, he rose from the chair again. "Hey, you guys talk amongst yourself a few minutes. I'll be right back."

"Huh."

That just got Sokka thinking more, of course. Things he'd have to work on, when he could walk.

He watched Duo leave, looking to Toph once he was out of the room again.

"... how long have you been here?"

Might as well ask the question that's been bugging him all this time.

"Talking to me?"

She didn't hear anyone else in the room after Duo had walked out, so she assumed so. Still, it didn't hurt to ask. Perhaps it was just habit. She waited for his affirmation before continuing.

"I don't know. A little over a month, I think. I didn't keep track."

"A month?"

How was that even possible? He had seen her less than a day ago.

"... are you sure I'm not having some crazy dream?"

"Yeah, pretty positive. Here, I'll show you."

Without sparing him a glance, she reached out and socked him in the arm.

"You're not dreaming," she clarified, dropping her hand back into her lap. Her gaze was still set on the floor.

"Though I wish we both were. I don't like it here."

And Duo walks in to see her punching him and he just looks at her, peaking in through the door. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

Duo held out the cup of water and the two ibuprofen.

"Here Sokka. Swallow these. It'll ease the pain."

"Wh-- Owwww!"

Well, that was certainly real. And painful. Sokka rubbed his arm where she had hit with a scowl, though it faded quickly at the tone in what she said after. He didn't really know what to say to that.

Duo returning distracted him, though, and he took the pills and the cup, looking at them in slight confusion.

"... what is it?"

"Is that the... medic...ation?" She asked no one in particular. She remembered when they'd tried to give her some for her painful shoulders, but she'd refused. She wasn't brave enough to swallow anything she couldn't identify. She figured Sokka might have the same distrust for the little purple tablets.

"Don't worry, Sokka, whatever Duo gives you, you can trust it. He's a good guy. Even if he wasn't, I could take him out if he poisoned you."

At least she was grinning again.

Duo laughed quietly and smiled. "Yep. It's just something to numb the pain. Modern medicine."

He took the bottle from his pocket and showed it to Sokka. "It won't kill ya, bud. Just swallow them whole and it'll kick in in about twenty minutes."

Sokka was still skeptical, but he trusted Toph at least. And if Toph trusted Duo...

He sighed, then swallowed the pills with a grimace, letting out a noise of disgust at the texture and taste.

"Uagk!"

Toph giggled slightly at the noise Sokka made. She would have been worried, if Duo hadn't made the same sound when the water failed to grab the pill and it stayed in his mouth rather than going down his throat.

Of course Toph trusted Duo. He hadn't done anything yet to make her not trust him. Honestly, that could be said about anyone in the castle she'd met.

"Now hurry up and get better so we can show you around."

"Yeeeah it takes some practice. Sorry. Drink sommore water. Aaand next time you take some put em under your tongue." Duo said as he sat on the bed accross from Sokka.

"How long have you been in the cast, anyway?"

Sokka just made a face at both of them. That was not pleasant and he really didn't want to do it again, but he had a feeling it wasn't going to be that say.

"Uh... a while. Month, maybe."

It had been easy to lose track of time, what with all the things that had been happening since Zuko's coordination as Fire Lord. The weeks had started to blend in to one another now that they were no longer on the constraint of the comet's arrival.

A month? That was good. Her Sokka hadn't been in the cast much longer than that. Hopefully this one would be the same way, and he'd be up again in no time.

She scratched at her nose, opting to stay out of the conversation while the boys talked. They were both the smart types. They'd talk each others' ears off, no doubt, about everything in the castle.

Toph didn't care. She instantly was feeling much better about her whole situation. Sure, she was however far away from home, her powers were greatly limited, and she was otherwise alone, eating gross food and sleeping in cold rooms and being attacked by things she couldn't detect...

But her Meathead was around, and she was more than happy to admit that when it wasn't her Earthbending or Appa's flight saving the day, Sokka's brain took over and they made it out of anything alive and in one piece.

"...that means two weeks to another month at most." He shrugged. It was an uneducated guess. Probably a lot sooner if he got enough sleep and food. So he'd give him more pain pills as needed.

As far as actually small talk or conversation, everything he's said so far was basically gleaned from Toph and whatever she had to say about him. He looked Sokka over, leaning back on the bed. So he's what? Fourteen?

Eh. Let the kid ask some questions instead. "Anything else you wanna know?"

Edited 2012-03-16 02:10 (UTC)

Sokka scowled at the thought of being in his cast that much longer. Katara had been healing it every couple of days in hopes of helping the mending along and getting him out of the cast faster, but without her there he was stuck waiting out the rest of the time as normal. That was a lot of days being inactive, unless he could get another crutch some how.

A sigh was all that he used as a response, followed by a grunt as he pushed himself back on to the bed and leaned against the cold stone wall. Luckily his robes were more than thick enough to keep him from shivering.

"I'unno. Sounds like you guys don't know all that much about what's going on here..."

"All we really know is that it's safe in the rooms, but not many other places. Avoid the shadows, try to find a way out, choke down the gruel, and get along with everyone. That's about all there is to do so far."

Correct her if she's wrong, Duo, but Toph hadn't seen much of anything else going on besides that.

"When the shadows attacked about a week before you came here? Two?" He's losing track of time.

"Uh. The rooms were the only safe place." He didn't like the fact that now he had yet another set of battle scars, on his face even.

"... that's not a lot."

Not that he could blame them for not information gathering. If it was that dangerous just to leave rooms, and the place honestly looked abandoned save for those poor souls dragged there... well, he wouldn't be eager to get out there and start trawling for information either.

"Guess I'll get the full tour when I can walk again, yeah?"

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