“You can’t catch me!” Riku started running toward the entrance of the cave.
“Bet I can!” Sora turned to follow him, but before he could get more than a few steps, the earth shook violently. Sora stumbled and dropped to the ground. Ahead of him, he saw Riku pitch against the side of the tunnel and fall heavily to the ground. He started to crawl toward Riku when he heard a cracking noise behind him and a rush like water.
Sora turned back to see the wave crashing toward him and he stumbled toward Riku. He was about to reach his friend when he was pushed forward by the force of the water. He grabbed blindly at Riku, catching ahold of his wrist before they were both swept up. He felt like his skin was crawling and thought there was something wrong in the water, but he couldn’t figure out what. Exhausted, Sora wrapped his arm around Riku and tried to find the surface. It seemed a long way off and his eyes were burning and his lungs and –
There was a tug on his collar. His first instinct was to fight it, but when he felt his grip on Riku weaken, he stopped moving. Whatever happened, he wouldn’t let go.
And suddenly, there was air. Sora gasped and sputtered and felt Riku being torn out of his arms. He tried to yell but he could only groan. When his eyes finally began to focus, he realized that it was Professor Braig who’d grabbed Riku, and that he was giving the boy CPR. It seemed like he watched the repetitive action for far too long before Riku finally coughed and spat and tried to sit up. Sora thought he’d never been so relieved in his life.
Braig picked Riku up and carried him into Sora’s house. They waited nervously for hours for Sora’s mother to return, with Braig fussing over Riku. Every few minutes at first, Sora ran from the bedroom down to the beach and back, waiting for his mom to appear on the horizon. He still didn’t know what had happened, only that the beach was closer to his house than ever and it was harder to see Mideel on the horizon.
When Sora had been on the beach for half an hour, Alamuir came down to keep him company. “You okay?”
Sora nodded.
“Worried?”
Sora nodded again.
Alamuir put an awkward arm around him. “It’ll be okay. The Planet said nobody died, so your mom has to be okay. There’s just… well, I’m not totally sure what happened. Something about a cloud and the meteor in the sky and holiness. It all makes my head hurt.”
“That’s funny. One of the guys my mom’s been treating is named Cloud.” Sora stared at the older boy. He never really asked what Alamuir meant when he said the planet was talking to him, but he was glad to know his mom was okay.
Finally, near sunset, Sora spotted a rowboat. When it got closer, he saw his mother rowing. He ran out into the shallows and waved until she waved back, and he yelled for her to hurry. When she reached the shore she jumped out and hugged Sora tightly.
“I’m so glad you’re okay, I was worried,” she said.
Sora hugged her back and then started pulling her toward the house. “Riku almost drowned, Mom! You gotta make him better.”
After the hugging and the crying and Riku generally being fussed over, Braig took Sora aside.
“You know that what you did was mind-numbingly stupid, right?” Braig asked. His long hair had come loose in the makou and he’d wrapped it up in a towel. If the situation had been any less serious, Sora would have laughed.
Sora kicked at the dirt. “Yeah. Are you going to tell my mom I was stupid?”
“As if! I don’t know if I would’ve reached him in time without you there, Sora. Just don’t do anything that stupid again, okay? You’ll have plenty of time for stupid mistakes after you’re grown up.” He ruffled Sora’s hair. Sora nodded.
“Now get in there and help your mom take care of your friend, okay?”
“Okay!” Sora smiled and ran into the bedroom. A moment later, his mother came out into the hall looking for Braig.
“It’s… I’ve never seen makou poisoning take hold so fast,” Teru said, shaking her head. “He keeps talking like he hears something. I think he’s having fever dreams.”
Braig had a sinking feeling in his stomach. “Talking? Er, can you make out what he’s saying?”
Teru shook her head. “Only that he’s calling for his mother and talking to her. He must be hallucinating her. Such a shame how it affects children that young to lose their parents.”
“What? Oh, right, lose their parents,” Braig answered. As far as Teru knew, the boys were just orphans. But if Riku was talking to his “mother”… This was not good.
“Can you watch him while I run and get my PHS? I need to call a doctor I know in Midgar about his, um, condition.” Without waiting for her to answer, Braig ran out of the house. This was not good. Definitely not good.
