Imperial Orders

♕The Miracle♕

She was falling. 

Her limbs were splayed out around her, her long, tangled hair whipping in the wind, entering her mouth and her nose, choking her. The rain fell sideways, brushing past her bloody arms and rushing mercilessly into her mouth, drowning out her silent screams. 

Metal touched her, and she touched metal, but it said nothing to her flailing arms. She could no longer read its story. It was no longer a warm, living surface. It was cold, hard death, pinning her between its folds, tumbling closer and closer to the ground as she soaked in her own blood, until... 

Tuofah coughed loudly, startling herself with the clarity of the sound. The air was still around her, signifying that the storm had passed. Slowly, painstakingly, she pried her eyelids open, feeling the thick crusts that lined them pop. At first, all she saw was the clear, blue sky, totally free of clouds. She tried to sit up, but found that she was completely immobilized, forced to stare indefinitely upward at the pristine blue above. 

Am I dead? The young Tactile thought to herself. Considering what she remembered, this was a very real possibility. Her ship had split in two in a horrific crash, and she had fallen along, and possibly into, a tornado. 

As her brain gradually returned to consciousness, increasing her awareness of her surroundings, Tuofah very quickly ruled this scenario out. 

She felt pain. 

As she emerged from her prior shock, she felt a strong, burning sensation in her arms and legs, spreading up through her torso and into her chest. She lay on some sort of hard ground, and as far as she could tell, her feet were completely submerged in liquid. 

Water? 

Confused, Tuofah propped herself up on her left arm, ignoring the waves of agony that ripped through her side. The surface under the left side of her body immediately responded to the increased pressure placed on it, groaning as it dipped downward. Water rushed onto the Tactile's elbow and she instinctively flipped onto her stomach to preserve her balance, affording herself a clear view of her circumstances. 

She lay on a rectangular, grayish board, which floated quite excellently on the surface of what appeared to be a lake. Much of her body was covered in blood which, thankfully, had not dried into scabby cakes due to the water. The water undulated in even ripples around and under her, suggesting that it had an acceptable measure of stability. 

"Hhh...Hugo," Tuofah rasped, barely able to speak the whispered words. If he had survived the crash, she was sure that the leader of the Peenutz would not be able to hear her call, even with his Auricle abilities. 

Her throat was parched, and the entirety of her body ached far too much to facilitate any sort of swimming. She strained the muscles of her neck and leaned forward in an effort to float herself to the nearest shore, but she leaned too suddenly and with too much force, causing the board to fly violently out from underneath her. 

She sank into the water, writhing wildly in an effort to break the surface. Tuofah kicked her heavy boots off and shed her coat, casting off as much dead weight as she could until she managed to grab hold of the board once again. She sputtered as she spewed water out of her mouth, heaving herself onto the board's solid surface once again. This time, she wrapped her arms around it and let her cheek rest on its smooth top, absorbing its faint, soothing whispers. She was exhausted, and injured in far too many ways to do much else. 

However, her ears were soon drawn to the scuffle of boots on the muddy shore, which was closer than she remembered it. She must've drifted quite a bit during her struggle to stay afloat- and attracted some attention. 

"Captain! It's Tuo! She's alive!"

Tuofah forced her neck to turn further to the size, seeing a jubilant Nut running along the edge of the lake. Her brown pigtails were caked in mud and there was an open gash on her forearm, but other than that, she didn't seem to have sustained any significant injuries. 

A few yards away from the waterline, a line of shrubs shifted and a weary Hugo emerged, a crate of evaporated food slung firmly between his arms. His eyes lit up at the sight of Tuofah and he set the heavy crate on the ground with a momentary sigh of relief, jogging to the side of the river. 

"Give me your hand, Tuo," he commanded. 

"Uhhh," Tuofah groaned, the wounds at the edges of her mouth burning from the brackish water of the lake. 

"Do you think she's hurt?" Nut's eyes widened with innocent fear as she approached Hugo, wrapping her small hand around his wrist. 

"Well, we're about to find out." Hugo squatted in front of the spot where Tuofah's makeshift raft floated gently on the still waters of the lake, reaching out to grab the piece of plastic and pull it to the edge of the water. Tuofah wanted so badly to tell him that she was alright- to ask him what had happened, and what had become of the ship- but her lips refused to separate, parched and swollen from whatever they had faced. 

"Okay, I'm going to need you to roll, now, Tuo." Perhaps it was just Tuofah, but Hugo's voice sounded higher in pitch than it had on the ship- kinder, somehow. For the first time since she had confirmed the fact that he was Djareny, the girl almost felt safe with him. 

Tuofah clenched every muscle in her shoulder as Hugo held the board to the shore, forcing her body to do his bidding. Her bloody arms screamed in protest as she rolled straight into the mud and she heaved, forcing herself into a semi-sitting position. 

Hugo quickly glanced over her body. "You're in much better shape than I expected. It really is a miracle we all made it out alive. I don't think your wounds are infected yet, thanks to all the water that's been washing them, but we'd better get them cleaned before they are. Nut, go down to the wreck and get the others. See if you can find any bandages or rubbing alcohol- actually, anything that could be of use." 

The child darted off in seconds, clearly glad to have something to do. 

"So," Tuofah began, propping herself up against a bush in order to use as few of her aching muscles as possible. "What was I doing in the middle of a lake?" 

"You mean you don't remember?" Hugo frowned. 

"Should I?" Tuofah cocked her head to the side, confused. "The last thing I remember is you saving me from that crazy Djaren back on the ship, and then the tornado and...I woke up here. I assume I passed out somewhere along the way." 

"How did you do that while unconscious?" Hugo mused, sitting cross-legged on the ground in front of Tuofah as he brought his finger up to his lips in pensive thought. 

"Do what?" Tuofah raised an eyebrow. 

"The ship was destroyed by the winds. We were sucked- no exaggeration- into the eye of a tornado. We were spinning around and around with several broken pieces of metal ready to impale us at over a hundred miles an hour. I wasn't kidding when I said us surviving this was a miracle." 

"That doesn't answer my question," Tuofah persisted. 

"I don't know how to tell you this, Tuo," Hugo sighed. "Just know that what I'm about to say may be shocking, and you may not believe me at first, but I was conscious through everything and I know what I saw." 

"What?" Tuofah whimpered, an uneasy feeling settling at the bottom of her gut. "Hugo, you're scaring me. Just tell me. I was there, too." 

"You aren't just Tactile," he backed away from her slowly, genuine fear registering in his eyes for the first time since he had met Tuofah. It took little more than one glance into those eyes for the girl to know that whatever he was about to say scared him just as much as it would scare her. 

"You're telekinetic."