The Samurai, the Typhoon, and the Strange-Familiar Land

[Serril Indaiyu]

Immediately following the events of Flowers are Flowers Because They Fall...

What is a dream?

What does it mean to be awake?

Consciousness ebbed and flowed. It swelled in moments, opening Serril's eyes to a world without focus or understanding. He was distantly aware of the taste of blood in his mouth, and the all-permeating smell of smoke, but before he could understand their meaning, he was subsumed once more, and blanketed by the darkness. When Serril opened his eyes again, he saw no recognition in the trees around him. Was he still in the Wilds?

Serril stirred, now aware that he was not moving under his own power, but was being carried.

"Sibi?" his hoarse voice cracked through dried, bloody lips. It was so hard to focus.

The head above tilted slightly in recognition to the voice. Serril's addled mind tried to make sense of the face he was seeing. Not Sibi. Not his kin. Serril's body tensed, dulled instincts finally starting to wake. Then he saw it. The eye. That horrible, monstrous eye, sitting within the fold of a terrible scar across one side of the man's face. There was nothing natural about that eye. bright blue and twisted, large and misshapen, it bore no resemblance to it's dark counterpart on the other side of the man's face. Fear brought him closer to the brink of being fully awake, and Serril began taking panic breaths as he tried to resist. It was too much in that moment, and the torpor of his injuries once more closed his eyes.