Convulsion

✿ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴡᴏ ✿

Lily

"What just happened?" I groan, clutching my stomach and doubling over onto the ground. This doesn't feel like the floor of my living room. The ground feels soft and I can feel tiny points on my hands as if I'm kneeling on grass, but I feel too sick to open my eyes. Now is not the time to throw up, but I'm having trouble holding everything in. What in the world just happened?

"I think I'm going to puke," I whimper. I can't remember who I'm talking to. Was there even anyone with me? The blackness was consuming; grabbing at me, slicing through me. Only a tingle of warmth kept me together. And even though the darkness is gone, it still hurts so much. So much that I'd be fine with dying right here and right now if it meant that the pain would be gone. My stomach feels like it's about to burst and I can taste disgusting bile in my throat. I need to throw up somewhere, anywhere, but if I open my eyes I won't be able to keep it all in.

"We're in Delmasia." A voice from somewhere behind me reminds me that I'm not alone. I groan again, the bitter taste that's coming up my throat brings me further into the pain. The voice sounded like the girl, but I can't tell. "Here." By the sound of her voice, it's the girl, and I think she's closer to me now.

I feel her put both of her hands on my back, and the moment she does I feel a sort of a coldness spreading throughout my body. I can feel the frigid feeling racing from her fingertips, almost like she's filling me up with water on the inside. After a while the water-like substance is pulled away quickly, leaving me yelping in surprise. But the pain left along with it. I feel refreshed, and I'm able to open my eyes.

I stand up carefully, taking a step back as I take in the view. The majority of the pain has faded but a part of me still hurts a bit, as if I fell hard on the ground. And by the look of this place, I wouldn't be surprised if I did. We're standing on top of a cliff, facing an ocean that fades away on the horizon. I mean, this looks like a cliff, but it's covered in bright, almost neon green grass. Not the type of neon that hurts your eyes, but a nice kind of bright green.

Actually, the grass below me is way shorter than the rest, making it seem almost white. Weird. I turn away from the cliff's edge and the surging ocean right below it to follow the weird white grass. It stretches forward and then turns back on itself, and it looks like some sort of carved symbol. It stands out to me, and its presence is a lot more obvious to me than a lot of other details right now, as if I can feel it...

"It's a compass." I look up toward the girl's voice, and the first thing I see is the wide expanse of trees behind her. It's as if someone drew a line along the entire cliff and just dropped a bunch of trees right behind the line. I was so busy studying the grass that I didn't notice the forest right behind the entire grassy expanse. When I look around for the girl I notice that this rocky cliff goes on for as long as I can see, to both my left and my right. Miles and miles of the grassy cliff stretch to both my sides, with the forest and ocean stretching along with it.

This time when I turn back around to search the area around and closest to me I see the girl, pointing at the ground. She's standing in the middle of the circle of white grass, and centered around it are more white-colored grass lines. As I study the lines and follow them with my eyes I remember what she said. It's a compass. And the white grass does look cut to look like an intricate compass, except instead of the letters N, E, S, and W there are the letters I, Z, W, and T. So if this doesn't represent north, east, south, and west, what does it represent?

This compass is actually pretty big, with each letter larger than both my feet. So why can I see it so clearly? I would've had to be at least ten feet off the ground to see the whole thing and yet I can tell exactly what it says, all the symbols and markings. Now that I know the general shape, I can see every detail. Like when you struggle to see something in a painting or picture, but then someone tells you exactly what it is and where it is so you can see it too.