| [Jun. 12th, 2009|04:00 pm] |
Tsume nearly retched when they reappeared, blinking against images in her mind's eye. Twists and whorls and lines and dots--complicated seals she didn't begin to fathom. They should not have been on the backs of her eyelids. Or the world around her.
Her head still ringing she could better understand. She'd expected to be deafened by nails on metal.
Fresh air. Still salt air, but fresh salt air. "I really hate ships," she muttered, trying to drag herself upright to be of some use. Asuma pulled on her arm. She went with him, hoping his sense of sight was coming back faster than hers was. Her chakra pathways felt fried, but that wasn't anything new. She tugged on them carefully anyway, drawing energy as rapidly as she could.
There were shadows. Shadows were an improvement over symbols. There was shouting, heard faintly over the ringing in her ears. Most likely someone had noticed their handiwork. Probably even noticed that they were gone. Which meant they could expect to be blind and deaf--
Now.
Somehow, knowing it was coming made it marginally better. Or perhaps that was just because she hadn't been able to see or hear exactly, anyway. It did lessen her headache.
Being free definitely helped.
Asuma's tug on her arm lessened, and then a big hand grabbed her shoulder and pushed. Coils of rope, and behind them, a rail. She wasn't jumping overboard, and the rope wouldn't do much good. Hiding would only work for so long. It wasn't like the weapon would turn off after a time period.
Unease began to crawl up her spine. The void was beginning to whisper.
It wouldn't turn off, but maybe--if they could--what? Start blowing things up? She couldn't even smell any gunpowder nearby, and--
--Wolf's teeth it was dark. How far to an enemy? One length? Two? Half the ship? She could feel rope and Asuma. Were they in the open or hidden well? She could do jutsu, but aimed where?
The silence she'd been grateful for a moment ago pressed on her now. Like swimming through tar--black and sticky, filling her ears and eyes and nose and mouth, making it impossible to know where anything was.
Swimming through tar.
She had no idea where anything was.
The weapon wouldn't stop working.
But maybe she could outdistance it.
Tsume fumbled for Asuma's shoulder, and tapped out a quick code. Can't fight. Split up. Going to try and outdistance it. She already had a pretty good idea of what he'd think of that. She didn't wait for a response.
She'd felt the railing behind them. Tsume put a hand on it, shoving herself down as far as she could and scuttling along, having no idea where she was going or who could or couldn't see her. Running through blackness was a terrifying thing, but if she got far enough away from Asuma before they noticed her, it would be worth it.
The wood trembled. The scent of unwashed humans rose. Thanking the fact that they hadn't bathed, she decided she'd gotten as far as she could--and flung herself overboard.
Hopefully, she'd remember which way was up. And if she didn't, drowning in water was no worse than drowning in tar. |
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