Mythigore | A Fablehaven and Dragonwatch Adventure |

Chapter Twenty - "Shift, or no Shift"

Seth worked at the manacle restraining his ankle. The somehow still cold metal rubbing away at the skin was starting to become less irritating and more painful. Exasperatingly painful.

As he shifted the end clamped around his poor ankle, the chain chimed in disapproval. Seth winced in frustration as he tried to adjust it, but the only thing it would do was twist, and that just irritated the sensitive skin.

With an aggravated, yet pained groan, Seth kicked his restricted leg with one quick motion. The chain jerked and kept his leg from stretching out all the way. The sudden stop pushed the cuff painfully into his already bruised and raw ankle, causing him to hiss in discomfort.

Seth clenched his fists, making a face at the stupid chain keeping him a top the bed. He stared long and hard at it, as if doing so would maybe make is shy and stop hurting him. But that was silly.

He had no idea how much time had past, really. But, he was starting to no longer care. Everything about his situation was starting to catch up to him, but in a different way than it had before.

Instead of the crushing anxiety he felt when he really took the time to take his current circumstances seriously, he felt a sort of haunting feeling. A paranoia that was itching away at the back of his mind. Images of Ronodin pecked at the front of his eyes, like memories being relived.

He didn't feel the calmness of his ignorance. Nor the annoying whispers in his head that told him something wasn't right. No. Instead it was almost like he was reliving his experiences briefly, but as it would have been if he had still contained his memory. It made him feel sick to his stomach.

Seth's attention was brought forward when a rough kick to the bottom of his mattress jarred his mind. He yelped as his body stiffened, his hands shooting to the metal railing at the head of the bed to keep his balance. Then another kick rattled the bed. Then a third.

"Would you cut it out?" Seth exclaimed as he looked over the side of his bed to see the boy below, feeling a fourth kick.

The annoyed look on Seth's face went away almost immediately as his eyes landed on the raven head.

Swing, has Seth had recently titled him, had his eyes closed tightly and his arms wrapped around himself protectively. The boy looked slightly paler than before. But the main thing that caught Seth's attention was that he looked to be asleep.

"Err," Seth mumbled out as a Swing kicked the bottom of his mattress for the fifth time. "Hey." He said, snapping his fingers as close to the raven head's face as possible, which wasn't very close. "Hey!" Seth tried, louder this time, when Swing didn't respond.

Swing just kicked Seth's bed again, causing the mattress to go up, and then down, lifting Seth's body in the prosses. Man, this kid could kick.

With a bored expression plastered onto his face, Seth took in a deep breath. He looked at Swing for a moment, debating what he was about to do, shrugged, and braced himself. "WAKE UP!"

Swing's eyes shot open and a fist went straight into Seth's peering face, causing him to yelp and sit upright on his mattress.

"Gah," Seth hissed. "You punch so hard; What the Heck?" He gingerly touched the top of his forehead, right above his left eyebrow. The area Stung painfully. Luckily, the punch wasn't hard enough to knock him clean out. But, it was hard enough to make Seth see a couple stars when he blinked.

Swing didn't respond, and Seth had half a mind to look back down at him. "Are you at least awake now?" Seth asked through clenched teeth, hoping that the stupid question would get an annoyed answer in return.

In which, it did. An exhausted grunt sounded from below. There was a little hint of irritation, but not much.

Before Seth could ask Swing what the 'kicking in his sleep' was all about, the door to the dull room slammed open, causing Seth to flinch violently in surprise. A clocked figure walked into the room, a black mask hiding their face as they advanced into the room and looked straight at Seth.