|
  |
Even in December, Rio carried some of the hottest temperatures that most in the states and in the northern hemisphere would kill for. Then the frost giants came, and then the other giants, most were battling in the field and nearly made it war torn, villages and most cities were damaged where none would help save them. But then it mysteriously ended; everything went back to a spot of normal, normal back when it was in the year 1910's and lacking the technology the states had to keep everything running smoothly.
But there was still some purity, the jungles of Rio still had their small villages in which they rebuilt, some high places.. some low.. some so thick with wildlife and vegetation that it would be nearly impossible to travel through without a blade or thick gloves to push the vines and other possibly poisonous plants out of the way.
Which is where Jean was now, not chopping anything down, but forcibly bending each branch and vine out of her way. She caught wind of his mind as soon as they touched down at the airport, and suffered to go alone in retrieving him.
"Gabriel!" Jean calls out, "Gabriel! Where are you!"
*
It had been a horrendous time for Gabriel in many facets. He had not remembered much from his drug induced frenzy which had led to him and his 'God' mode of existence before flying off. Really it was like a vague memory clouded over in his mind which was made profoundly worse by the presence of other memories that had been stirred loose by the drug slipping into his mind. So much so that several of the native people that had born witness to the flying purple being, the way he talked and behaved, had come to believe him either madman, diety, or some combination of both. It had resulted in him being chased out of multiple villages as he wandered the jungles of Rio.
Lost, confused he had eventually made his way to a catholic mission where he discovered the ability to speak Portugese and had been able to communicate enough to get himself under way again to the next village along the Amazon basin, slowly making his way towards the coast, towards Rio itself.
Lost in a strange land well outside his understanding with flashes of his past life occassionally creeping in and going through some of the worst drug withdrawls possible to endure, Gabriel was in a living hell and had finally succumb to the trials of travel, settling in the ruins of a village hut, abandoned with the migratory patterns of the tribe, where he lay upon the ground in a realm between awake and sleep, between coherent and lost. The voice was the same he'd heard before during his travels and reaching up he touches his temples.
"I'm trying. I'm trying to get back to you…" The voice is a cracked hoarse tone as he responds to the Jean in his mind, not realizing that is actually her voice pressing to the hut.
A fallen tree was quickly hopped over, well.. as much as she could hop over it. A tangle of her dress managed to get snagged into the broken branches, some which cling and poke holes through the fabric, which she forcibly rips free as she stumbles on. There was a look of frustration there, tearing the rest of the linen down into something a little bit more mobile, as beat up sneakers still traverse the grounds of the jungle. "Gabriel!" She calls out again, only seeing the tops of the ruined and abandoned village for now, her foosteps slightly quick with a hope and a prayer that he was there.
She could hear him, or maybe that was a figment of her imagination, the canteen soon brought up to drink out of at first, then the furrow of her brows as she turns around to spy the animal from afar. It was a quiet watch, along with a tilt of her head, and once it moves along she does as well. "Come on Gabriel.." She reaches out with her mind. "Say something. Look at something. Do anything. I'm here!" Though, those words were mumbled, they were broadcasted to him to show her a way.
Touching his mind, much easier now that she's in range is still a dangerous ideal. Reaching out, she could feel him, know him in that moment and the flood of chaos in his mind releases freely. None of his shields being present to keep anything from touching the surface. All it is, is the fury of memory. The drug induced actions, the chaotic wandering of the jungle, some of the real memories that are of his past which are dumped on her.
It passes by, flashes over until his own eyes reflect the staring at the top of the hut in front of him. He is weary from travel and hunger, from lack of rest and confusion… he won't die, he is simply worn and lonely. That is the emotion that emanates from the hut that is quickly drawing closer to Jean's steps.
He heard her, it was evident by the fill and flood of memories that weren't hers. Like a bash against her skull, one that takes the wind out of her that has her doubling over in pain. Her hand reaches out to find the ground as she presses her fingers to her temples, her eyes squeezed shut and tight as she begins to blindly half-crawl along the jungle floor. And then the emotion, tired and lonely. She felt it with a wheeze of her breath, one that forces her feet upright to break out into a run until the rooftops of the village could no longer be seen but the village itself.
"Gabriel.." She calls out, breaking into one ruined hut. No, not there. Warm, close to hot. The other door was blasted open and a peek, and then another.. right into the back of the village until she sees him there, laying upon the floor, looking like a slice of hell in a bright spot. "Gabriel!" She nearly shrieks out, running to a skid upon the ground (and possibly ruining her knees in the process), immediately gripping and grabbing his shoulders to try to get him to sit upright. "Gabriel, Gabriel.. look at me.. come on.."
It is a struggle, battling through the chaos of the turmoil but his eyes push open and he widens them to see Jean in front of him. Gabriel's head shakes, as if trying to push the image away, the fact that this isn't the first time in his withdrawl symptons he has seen her. But eventually all fades away. It takes a few minutes but when the realization that it isn't a dream or hallucination comes over him, his arms reach up, hand touches Jean's cheek to see if she's real then they wrap about her. "What have I done?"
Jean was two seconds away from backhanding him, but figuring that'll possibly bring out a -horrible- reaction from him, she thankfully doesn't do it. "Gabriel, stop! It's me!" But maybe.. just maybe if she shook him hard enough, he'd actually realize it and see! And he does! The touch to her cheek allows her to briefly kiss his fingers, his arms around him has hers pulling him closer to her even more. She closes her eyes as a sudden relief washes over her, her own fingers curling into his hair to keep him held tight against her. "N.. nothing! Nothing bad!" Which, really was true. "You weren't yourself. Something.. I don't know what happened but I saw it all. Something made you sick.. it's okay. It's over now."
Gabriel shakes his head a bit and looks at Jean. "I remember but it is … it doesn't make sense. It's all jumbled." He takes a deep breath though, reaching up to touch his forehead. "Where am I? I undrestand these people but I don't recognize anything… how long has it been?" The bombardment of questions comes as he pulls back to look at her, to see if it really is Jean or if he's just dreaming.
As he speaks, Jean settles upon her knees, drawing her canteen from over her shoulder to uncap the top so that he could drink. She even had a small bag of fruits and vegetables, something that she's taken a huge liking to ever since meeting him.. and considering that it was all he ever ate. The little bags inside were filled with diced carrots, a few small tomatoes and a ton of grapes and sliced apples. They were carefully set out before she even begin to answer his questions.
"I.. don't know what village this used to be, but you're about three hours from Rio De Janiero. I brought some people with me to help, but they're back in town." She wonders.. he can understand them? That's.. actually pretty impressive. "Brazil. Possibly over ten hours from home. New York. America.. I.." She frowns then. "You've been gone for nearly three weeks. I tried looking for you everywhere.." She carefully presses her hand against his cheek, clear worry settling in. She wasn't going to ask what he remembered, it was all jumbled. "Do.. do you need me?" As in, should she 'feed' him.. it was odd enough to ask, even when she willingly let him take.
He doesn't need help eating, that much is obvious as he looks at the food, the grumbling in his stomach growing and he sets to work actually eating it himself while Jean explains the length of time he was gone, a rough explanation of where he is. The idea of geography was still new to him but the time was not. Three weeks was a long time and he nods slowly. "Three weeks… that… that feels about right." Looking up at her, he looks to the entry then back. "The city, is near?"
As he begins to eat, she relaxes, leaning a little upon her side to draw her foot upright, pulling her sneakers free so that she could idly rub her feet. She grumbles quietly, wriggling her toes as she gives a faint nod. "About three hours .. from here." Okay, so maybe she should have made marks of where she was, it possibly would be the only way to find her way back there. Or a stray mind. Or the animals, yes. The animals would help. "I don't know if there's any working phone line near.. no, that's stupid. There wouldn't be out here. But there aren't any clear roads we could take and.." She pauses, considering. "..you can fly. Do.. do you remember how you did it?"
Gabriel shakes his head. "No… I remember doing it, but it was like another part of myself doing it. All of that, it was like watching someone else using me to do those things." He frowns, sighing softly before rubbing his face, a bit scraggly with beard with both his hands. Then he looks at Jean and shakes his head some. "The people told me to walk in this direction, so I did. When I first awoke I was in the mountains, in a building there." He must mean one of those Andes mountain temples; meaning over the past three weeks he's treked most of the Amazon basin towards Rio.
"Three more hours… I stopped here because I just could not think anymore. Everything got worse, more confusing and more confusing… I couldn't remember who I was rather than that other part of me. I can't explain. I just needed to rest here. I think that was three days ago." He pauses, looking at some of the fruit before he eats it. "I had given up… but it didn't matter. Nothing happened to me. I just laid here."
All he did was walk, and after three and possibly more hours, Jean's feet hurt and she was tired. Did he even understand that concept? Her other shoe was removed and soon her feet were both rubbed, bent at awkward angles so that she could get to each painfilled spot. But she listens. "And you can understand them.." Jean clarifies, her fingers soon flexing at the pad of her feet then releasing. But.. nothing happened to him. It was a good thing, but .. he was going mad, or is he still there already?
"We can stay here for a night." She finally says, pushing the rest of the food and the canteen of water towards him so that he can eat and drink. "We're surrounded by animals but they won't hurt us. They're just curious, curious enough to protect us should anything bad come our way." She slowly draws to her feet, moving towards the door of the hut to look up towards the sun. "I don't know when it'll set, but I think I should go out to try to find more water for us. Does it get cold here at night?"
"It is always cold, or hot, or both." Gabriel says towards Jean, the confusing statements describing what he does not understand. Withdrawls. Either shivering uncontrolably or feverish. It is why his mind is a wreck, why everything is chaos and why his body did in fact finally give out on him. The most addictive drug on the planet, he got dosed with it and then dropped cold turkey in the middle of nowhere. If he had a way to explain that, he would. But instead he's stuck with weird messages and sounding partially mad. Certainly the withdrawls will pass in time but he is still dealing with the lingering effects.
"If we need to stay, we can stay. One of the priests gave me some things." He motions to the corner of the hut. A pack with a blanket is there, a canteen as well which he had put water in at the last spring he came across. "He told me not to drink the river water but only water that certain plants grew by, that the water there was safe, so I did. And to eat those plants too." How he survived beginning to make sense hopefully with the tales. "He gave me this as well." Gabriel goes to the pack and pulls it open, a bottle is produced and he holds it out to Jean. Asprin. "He said it would help with my … my symptoms?"
'Burn him.'
Jean tilts her head to the side as if she were listening, staring towards the line of where the jungle haphazardly ends. "What?" She says quietly.
'Burn him.'
Jean shakes her head, withdrawing from the door with a turn as he explains his feelings. It didn't help, but either way, they were going to rough this one out together. Her feet hurt, but she had finally found him! She wanted to be alone with him before she takes him back for care. Selfish as that sounded.
That stupid drug. She had managed to bring it along with her on the trip. But it was back at the hotel, possibly safe. She doesn't even know why she was hanging onto it but..
As he begins to show off the things that the priest gave him, there was -some- relief. They didn't need to go out, in fact, he had everything that they needed right there. And asprin? She reaches out to take the bottle, reading the contents quietly, her gaze lowering and lifting towards him yet again. "Headache? Chills? Fever?" She reaches a hand up to press against his forehead.
'Burn him.' She says.
"She wants me to burn you." Jean confesses outloud.
Gabriel tilts his head at that, to burn him. He blinks and speaks quietly after a moment of thought. "Does… she want you to burn me to kill me?" He asks, not certain what to make of it. The coherent part of his mind wondering if that is the point, or if it is something else altogether.
His skin is a bit clammy, but he isn't really chilled or feverish. He just is off. "Ask her. Ask her why she wants to burn me."
Jean tilts her head to the side as if she were listening, her right eye slowly lighting up with fire as she gives a shake of her head. "She said your soul.." Her face scrunches a little, her hand reaching up to cover her eye as she slowly begins to rub the fire away. "To burn out the illness. Not kill you." She looks relieved at least, then smiles. "I prefer the natural method." Such as, get over it! Though, it would be hard.. would he go even more mad throughout the night?
He listens then slowly nods.
"Do it." The words are quietly given towards Jean and he looks at her steadly. "What is the worst that can happen? Something is wrong with me.. maybe she understands."
"Maybe.." Jean murmurs quietly, skeptical of the entire process. But it was worth a shot. She reaches out to take his hands, holding them both into hers as she closes her eyes. He could feel it at first, the heat that draws from her fingers and his palms, radiating out towards her entire body as the heat begins to redirect herself towards him. She takes a step in, releasing his hands to draw her own around his body, pressing her head against his chest as a flash of fire envelopes her, which is admittedly safe for the both of them. Yet it feeds directly into his chest. Heating him, quite possibly even coursing through his veins. It may hurt, it may not, but either way she held onto him for safety.
Through him the fire raged, through blood and vein, artery and lungs, cutting off his breath and leaving Gabriel shuddering as the heat grew. It washed about his body and then abruptly he felt it start burning away with him. Not his flesh but some part of him, he could feel small etches and pockets of something within his body and within his being smoldering away until it was done, and he collapsed limply into Jean's arms as she held him.
But it felt normal. He felt normal…
Jean wasn't physically strong by any stretch, his limpless letting her know that it was done, her feet scrambling to find purchase towards the ground as she quickly tries to manuver him towards the mat that was there. She was careful at lowering him, a clear and obvious strain upon her face, and once he was safe upon the ground she follows suit, flopping upon her back with a huffed breath and shaky arms from keeping him safe and upright. Psh, even after three weeks, he was still heavy. And probably in need of a little shave!
"How do you feel?" She manages out, slowly rolling onto her side, scooting forward in a familiar fashion to place her head upon his chest as they lay there.
He opens his mouth to speak but struggles to find words, exhaustion having settled in. So instead, he reaches down tiredly and pulls her hand up from his chest to rest on his cheek, eyes closing. Gabriel cannot send things to her, but he can allow himself to feel more open, and does so. He feels normal. His mind's chaos is receding into the distance, his body is no longer fighting the battle it was against the drug in his system. He is healing. The fire having purged the drug from his system leaving him the opportunity to heal. Finally the words come. "Better." He whispers to her. "I have you with me… I am better."