From the prompt: "Wind-swept land..."
"Keith's Awakening: Nice and New"
“Erm, y’know, I have seen ‘the Matrix’, and this doesn’t compare,” Keith called out, gazing around at the flat, barren wilderness. “Where’s the city, and all the cool techno stuff? And what about the lady in the red dress?”
“This is the astral plane, Keith,” Angel’s voice answered, a tad snappishly. “You’ve taken to this psychic deal, as you call it, well. And with some degree of...maturity. For you, anyway. You’re being Awakened, and here in the elevated designation of the astral plane.”
“The Matrix?” an unfamiliar girl’s voice demanded. “Have you been raiding that storehouse --? ”
“Back off!” Angel hissed.
“Who was that?” Keith asked curiously.
“My assistant,” Angel answered stiffly. “She will not do that again.”
“Um...Gabriel’s the telepath. How did you get here?” Keith asked. “How did I get here?”
“Gabriel is linking through both of us,” Angel answered.
“Erm...I won’t die?” A tinge of worry spiraled around Keith.
“No more questions,” Angel snapped. “Now let’s get on with it.”
Keith gazed over the desert, shivering when Angel’s words washed over him in a cold wind.
He jumped at the sound of a muffled whump! A circle of fire exploded up out of the ground around him, quickly followed by an outer ring. The flames flickered and danced, reaching mid-thigh on Keith.
Angel’s voice was surrounding him on the wind-swept plain, rising higher and higher on the wind. Keith recognized the six runes of the portal when they appeared between the two rings of fire. But he didn’t recognize the runes that shimmered in the air before pain rocketed through his body.
He squeezed his eyes shut, a cry ripping forth from his lips.
“Muspelheim is the realm of primal fire,” Angel intoned. “Kenaz is the rune of primal fire.”
Keith opened his eyes, gasping at the burning pain in his chest. Looking down, he could only draw in a horrified breath at the sight of the fiery rune emblazoned across his skin, above his heart.
Pain and agony began splicing his nerve endings. He shut his eyes, body arching helplessly. Some outside power lifted him up off the ground, filling his body and exploding outwards in a stream of fire. Keith could feel the fire filling him, surrounding him, flames racing across his skin, scorching behind his eyes.
His eyes flew open so he witnessed his own body burning up, surrounded by flames and fire. He threw his head back and let loose a bestial roar, tongues of flames leaping forth on his voice.
He lost energy then, dropping bluntly to his knees.
He knelt there on all fours, gasping, when he realized that the two rings of fire were gone. He rose shakily on his feet, casting a wide-eyed glance around the barren lands.
“Erm...hello?”
A soft chuckle echoed through the sky around him, a cool breeze sifting its fingers through his hair.
“Feel different, Keith?” Angel asked.
Keith licked his dry lips, wary at the question. “Sort of.”
“You can open your eyes now.”
“You can open your eyes now.”
No response.
“Hey Keith, open your eyes, man!”
“Gabriel, I think you killed him.”
“Shut up, Tobias. Hey, Ulster brat, snap out of it!”
Keith opened his eyes and yawned delicately. “I have a name, you know.”
He was sitting in the Awakening chamber, the other three peering in through the door.
Angel smiled. “Feel nice and new?”
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© Agent Duo 2004