I knew my day was ruined when I slipped off of the rock crossing the river. My leather footwear should have had ample traction to traverse the natural path across the river, and I had tread upon this series of worn stones many times before. I flopped flat onto my back which took the wind out of me as I landed on the handgrip of my bow. While I was expecting a rude bounce into the shallow water and perhaps getting thoroughly soaked, that isn’t quite what happened.

  I floundered as I splashed into water that didn’t seem to have a bottom. Accidentally getting a mouthful I hacked and coughed, somehow getting even more into places that water shouldn’t go. The water was bad. This wasn’t the river. Splashing haphazardly, I managed to cough out the contents of my lungs without inhaling even more and I took a look around.

  By the ancestors, there was nothing. Water as far as I could see. I had never been to the Great Expanse before, but I had talked to travelers who had. This had to be that. Finally managing to get my breathing under control, I considered my options. Swimming anywhere was out of the question. I had no idea what direction to go and while I was in good physical shape I could only tread water for so long.

  I turned in the water slowly. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Wait. Off in the distance there was… something. A boat? I couldn’t tell, but it wasn’t more of nothing, like in every other direction.

  I had my bow around my torso still, but with the string wet it was useless. Magic might do it. I could put together an improvised Working to cast some light, but I was concerned with how effective it would be in the daylight.

  I had seen the air bursting chemical packs that the Chimaltan’s used on festival days, and supposed I could eek out an approximation of one of those. It would be sloppy, but doable.

  I put as much oomph into it as I dared, saving enough in case I had to do it again. Holding my hands in the air for the few moments I could spare to not use them to keep myself afloat, I formed the Working that would make writing of light in the air and formed it instead into what I remembered from the last celebration I had attended in the Chimaltan village. Letting the shapes fly, I settled down to wait.

  And I waited. And waited. About the time when my endurance was running out and I had decided that I was probably dying, I heard the noise. Between the feeble splashing of my limbs, I could hear a noise like hundreds of people clapping to a fast rhythm. My paddling faltered and I ended up coughing through some more water.

  Deciding that this was my last chance to be seen I threw my arms up again and sent more light into the sky, with everything I had left. Of course this cost me as I lost what was left of my rhythm and slipped under the water again. Panicking some more I flailed again and then something grabbed me. That was the final straw between me and my insides becoming completely full of water, and I remembered nothing else.

  I woke up in the dark. After a few moments to collect my thoughts, I realized it was because I had something over my eyes. My head seemed completely covered, which also muffled my hearing. I didn’t seem to be having a hard time breathing though. Whatever was covering my mouth made pushing the air in and out harder, but there didn’t seem to be a lack of it. I tried to raise a hand to push away the material, but my wrist was held down to my side. So was the other. More panic. Pulling hard, I found no give, but I did hear someone quickly approach. Even more panic? Yes. all the panic.

  A hand touched my forehead and then someone made comfortable shushing noises. It… she… started talking, and I didn’t know that language. I stopped to listen. Yeah, never heard a word of that one before.

  So I tried responding in my native tongue of Raltian. My voice was muffled from underneath whatever had been put over my mouth. The voice stopped while I was speaking but didn’t answer. It started again, more of those words I didn’t know. Maybe this person knew Lower Cordathan? Nope, more of the same. So I tried Gutter Faltan. Everyone knew at least a little Gutter Faltan. No useful response, just another pause while I was talking and then the voice started right up again.

  Shimrith? Nothing. Xinifish? Nothing. I even tried the few words I knew in Farbanith. More nonsense words.

  Dejectedly I rattled the bands around my wrists. The voice stopped, seeing that I had given up. Exhausted, it wasn’t long before I fell asleep.

  When I woke up again there was another voice. This prompted me to try again, asking questions in every language I could. Still no useful replies. Pausing to take stock of myself, I determined that aside from the high fatigue and some odd pinching in assorted places around my body I wasn’t seriously injured. My chest hurt, but everything still seemed to be functional. While I couldn’t see anything around me, I could still feel my eyes blink so my eyes probably still worked. Also despite my ears being covered I could obviously still hear.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  After a while of listening to the person puttering around the room I got bored and tried singing to myself. The mask made it difficult but I got the attention of whoever it was in the room with me, and after a long pause he said something else I couldn’t understand. After another few minutes I felt that something had been placed near my head. There were some more words from the voice and the thing near my head started making music.

  I didn’t know the song and it didn't have any words but it was pretty amazing. I tried to imagine what kind of price one would have to pay for a device that would make sounds as sophisticated as this. I had no idea how one would do the enchantments. After listening to the thing near my head for as long as I could, I drifted off to sleep again.

  I woke up hungry. Although I was not able to effectively verbalize it to the voice in the room, my body handled it the old fashioned way and gurgled in complaint. This brought more voices into the room and there was a fair bit of discussion among them before it became quiet again. In a short while, the covering over my lower face was removed by the voice, and the change in the air prompted me to take a more comprehensive accounting of my condition. My chest still felt like an ogre had clubbed me. There were still uncomfortable or slightly painful spots around my body.

  My mana was low. With this long not using it, I had more than enough time to completely refresh; even with my body drawing it off to heal. But it was low. That made me consider the ambient Aether, and I was shocked to find that I couldn’t feel it. At all. Panic some more? No, I had panicked enough; and even though my circumstances were the strangest I had ever heard of, none of the voices seemed threatening. And I was healing, albeit a lot slower than was typical.

  While I was considering it, a good smell came into the room. It had to be a fish. I could smell it get closer. The voice tapped my mouth with something metal.

  “What was that for?” I tried to ask. No sooner than I had opened my mouth the voice stuck a piece of fish in it.

  Rude, but understandable. The voice tapped my mouth again with whatever it was. Mortifying. I opened my mouth again, and got more fish. It didn’t seem to be seasoned, but it was a good fish with a decent broil done to it. Almost like it was invalid food, I supposed.

  Was I hurt worse than I knew? Was that why I had so little magic? I managed to eat a little more with the assistance of the voice, but I fell asleep again before I finished.

  When I woke again I could feel that the covering had been put back into place over my mouth and nose. My face itched and no amount of scrunching was helping. When a new voice realized I had woken up the covering was removed again, and more face scrunching managed to convey that I needed help. The relief was palpable when the voice rubbed over my face and nose with some object, and while it left an alchemical smell, more rubs with successive objects reduced it to something that didn’t make me want to gag.

  More food came, more of the unseasoned fish. It was tragic that someone had condemned such a good fish to such a boring meal, but I thanked the ancestors that I was being fed at all.

  Some time after I had eaten more voices arrived and had some discussion. Some of the voices sounded angry, which didn’t do anything good for my nerves. Lots more voices and sounds of things being moved and other sounds I couldn’t identify, and then it went still. One of the voices said something slowly and with a low tone of voice. More stillness.

  I felt hands doing something near where mine were held down and then my left hand was free. I could probably wrench it free from the large hands that were holding me still but since I couldn't see if anyone was covering me with a weapon I figured discretion was the better part of valor. The right hand and my legs soon followed.

  I wasn’t surprised when they restrained me again, this time with small linked chains and metal bands around my wrists and ankles. They seemed fairly well constructed, but I almost certainly could break it if I wasn’t so low on mana. Were they doing something to me to block it?

  Many hands around me lifted and put me on a flat board, and then again into what my fingertips told me was a metal basket. Then they strapped me down again.

  “If someone who can talk to me doesn’t tell me what is going on I may panic and do something rash.” I warned the room. The voice came back and spoke near the top of my head, a long string of words and then there was a pause and I was tilted. First left and right and then forward and backward. The tilt was pretty extreme, and I didn’t fall out of the basket, so I supposed there was that as a mark in the positive ledger.

  I was carried and tilted and jostled more, into areas that were increasingly noisy. Before long I felt the sun on my skin again, accompanied by that unfamiliar clapping noise. It was so loud I felt myself start to panic again. More hands patted me, and I did my best to keep the shrieking terrors on the inside where they couldn’t disgrace me. A helmet that didn’t fit me properly was put over my head, which squished my ears in even more than whatever was wrapped over my head already, but at least it reduced the noise.

  The clapping noise went on again for what seemed like hours. At last I was carried away from it and to a quiet room. More hands unstrapped and lifted me onto a bed that was much more comfortable than the last one, and before long the room got quiet again.

  A voice spoke to me again, and at last someone started unwrapping my head. As the bandaging material cleared my face and the pads that were protecting my eyes fell clear, I saw that I was being attended to by a simply dressed human. My ears flicked reflexively as they were finally freed from the wrappings.

  “I don’t suppose you can help me dig my tail out of these blankets? I am lying on it and it is uncomfortable” I asked. The woman showed no comprehension. This was getting old.