This Running Dance

feel out all the spaces

"Pearl!" False greeted the other hermit with a yell.

"Oh, hi False!" Pearl had seen False around, but they weren't really friends yet. "What can I do for ya?"

"Gem's hurt."

Pearl felt her eyes narrow. "What."

The word had come out as a statement, cold and hardened.

"Xisuma's with her at his base, we should go."

False didn't waste any time getting to the point, and neither did Pearl, adjusting the straps on her elytra before boosting off with a rocket. She followed the expert flier, using more rockets than she normally would have to keep up with False's pace.

"Xisuma, what's going on?" Pearl had barely landed before she'd demanded answers from her admin. She'd told Gem this place was safe, she'd convinced her to come here. If she got hurt, it was on Pearl.

"I'm looking at her code, she seems fine from there, but we think something triggered her into a state of shock-slash-unconsciousness." He didn't look up from where he was typing. Pearl couldn't see his face through his helmet, but could tell from his voice that his brows were furled. "If you could talk with Stress and False, that would be great?"

"Why me?"

"You know her best." False answered. Her face had a hardened expression, and it didn't take an expert to tell that she was hiding her guilt.

Pearl followed False out into the hallway, wondering if False's guilt was typical -for lack of a better word- survivor's guilt, or if the woman had done something to Gem. She didn't have more than a few seconds to contemplate before they were in a sitting room. Stress was wearing her guilt much more plainly, worry splashed across her face.

Pearl sighed.

"Can you guys tell me what happened?"

Gem was afraid. That was the first thing she noticed. The fear in her heart, her pounding chest, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes from a nightmare.

The nightmare was the second thing she noticed. She'd had a nightmare. She never had nightmares.

It wasn't until the third thing that she realized she had no idea where she was.

The fear, the nightmare and the unfamiliar surroundings was enough to warrant a panic. She breathed in quickly, and desperately tried to scramble to her feet. There was something stopping her- ropes? Shackles? No, a blanket. This was ... odd.

There was someone else here, too.

Gem took another breath in, this one slower. She needed to be strong, she needed to at the very least act strong. Confidence, even fake confidence, could be the difference between life and death.

So Gem opened her mouth, and with as much strength and confidence as she could muster, asked the stranger, "Who are you?"