With a gasp the Venators eyes shot open, his hearts pounding in his chest as if he had just run a marathon throughout the entire hive tunnel network. He focused his mind as he began to slow his breathing. Deep breaths in and out… in and out. It took several minutes but eventually, his breathing had returned to normal and his hearts were no longer beating themselves to exhaustion.
Mobius sucked in a sharp breath as he thought just what the hell had happened to him. He had prayed to the Empress many times, yet none had left him in the state he was in now. He closed his eyes briefly with a groan as another headache began to pound against his forehead. He pressed his armored hooves against his temples, hoping the action would do something to help dull the pain.
Eventually, the pain began to subside as the Venator reopened his eyes and sat up from his bed. He scanned the room without really paying attention to what he was seeing, his subconscious having already recognized the walls of them belonging to his living quarters adjacent to the Halls. His mind was still ablaze with questions.
Why did I pass out?
Why is my head hurting?
Why are the corners of my vision red?
Why is there a red translucent changeling sitting on my couch?
*Warte, was?!* yelled the Venator internally as his gaze whipped back towards the couch in the center of his room only to find it empty, with no such changeling looking back at him as the red receded from the corners of his vision. The Panssari shuddered against his carapace, seemingly affected by whatever had happened to him as well.
*Now I’m Hallucinating…Fantastisch.*
Mobius was just about to get up from the bed when the headache returned once again, the corners of his visions turning red once again. This time the Venator fought the urge to close his eyes and instead kept scanning the room. And just as the Venator had predicted, that ghost for lack of a better term was back.
The translucent form of the small red changeling was no longer sitting but instead standing only a few meters away from the Venator causing him to jump back in surprise. The Panssari fused to his carapace however did the opposite as its form was covered in small waves flowing in the direction of the figure.
Its lips were moving yet no sound was heard.
“Uhhhhh”
The ‘ghost’ tried again but to no avail. They also seemed to have noticed their failure to communicate and huffed in exacerbation, their red mane being flung from their place before her red and distinctly female eyes. She sat on her haunches as she seemingly began muttering to herself, her gaze drifting to the floor.
“Can you hear me?”
One of her ears twitched as she looked back up at the Venator before giving a small nod.
“Okay well, that certainly makes this interesting.”
She huffed again and mouthed something Mobius could guess meant ‘You don’t say’.
“Do you have a name?”
She looked incredulously at the Venator like he had just asked what 1+1 was.
“Right stupid Question… Not like you can answer anyway… Wait, hang on why am I doing this? You're a Hallucination!”
The changeling face contorted into a frown, clearly offended at having been called a Hallucination by the Venator. She quite clearly made her displeasure quite known…even if Mobius couldn’t hear a single word of it but it couldn't have been anything nice. The constant showing of fangs and spread-out wings made it obvious just what her current emotions were.
The Panssari reacted in tandem with the ‘ghost’, its surface pulsing and quaking with every beat of her wings or baring of her fangs. Mobius couldn’t take it anymore as the Panssari began to pull against his carapace with such force it was threatening to shatter his very exoskeleton.
“Alright! Alright, I’m sorry for calling you a Hallucination! Now stop whatever it is you're doing, argh, please?” Groaned the Venator as he could feel his exoskeleton begin to reach its limits, any longer, and soon he wouldn’t have an exoskeleton to attach the Panssari to.
The ghost got the message when she saw the pain the Venator was in as her silent tirade instantly came to an end, and a look of worry and regret overtook her features instead.
She began muttering something that looked like an apology to the Venator as she approached Mobius. He would have backed up further but his back was against the metaphysical wall as his limbs refused to follow his commands.
The ghost, probably taking it as permission, flew up onto the bed next to Mobius with a silent buzz as she began to look the former Kommandant over, the bed beneath her remaining still under her translucent hooves. The Panssari reacted to her presence once more with the waves across the armor still flowing towards her. Eventually, once her apparent visual examination was no longer enough she reached a hoof out and touched the Venators thigh.
Mobius winced and hissed in pain at the touch before he stopped and realized. He felt that. Not exactly the touch of her hoof, but the pressure it exerted upon the Panssari and his tender carapace. She appeared to have noticed this as well as she stopped to look at her own hoof before once again muttering something to herself in silence.
Curiously she attempted to swipe at the small table beside the bed, attempting to knock its contents onto the ground. She had no such luck as her hoof simply went through it as if it weren’t there.
Mobius watched on in curiosity as well as the pain on his body and mind began to subside. The redness in the corners of his vision faded as the mare became ever more transparent. And then she was gone leaving the Venator with a single Question.
*Was ist gerade passiert?*