Beyond Space & Time

"My aura's not that strong!" Atlas protested, but she tried anyway. She was able to keep the water away from her for the most part, but the crushing depths of the ocean were too heavy for her. Slowly the bubble she had around her began to shrink and shrink.

Confidence was one thing, but Atlas was young and not specifically trained in keep countless tons of water at bay. She did her best, and somehow kept the tiniest bubble of empty space around them. But it wouldn't be long before they crushed. Wolfie noticed one of the gems on her bracelet glowing, but he probably didn't know which one of them it was for.

"Hey! Hey, no!" Atlas protested, but it took all of her strength to stop the water caving in on them. She couldn't keep hold of Wolfie as one of the water creatures took him away, and the other one seemingly groped her. "Hands off," she grumbled, swatting its hand away.

Atlas continued struggling, and her aura weakened as she got distracted and more tired. The bubble around her shrank and shrank, until she only had the tiniest bubble around her head. And it didn't have much air in it. The water was deathly cold, she could feel her limbs cramping up from both the temperature and the crushing pressure. She was blacking out. They better get to where they were going soon.

Atlas quickly rubbed her eyes and looked around though her vision was blurry and she had a weird ringing in her ears. "I'm dreaming," she mumbled. She had to be, because what she was seeing as just too weird.

"This is why I asked you what would happen before we got here," Atlas growled, clearly pissed off by the unknown situation Wolfie had yet again gotten her into. "What do I have to do?" she asked as she sat up and looked around.

With a sigh, Atlas got to her feet and stretched out her limbs. "Alright, but you guys asked for it," she said, looking at the nearest creature to see what kind of dance they enjoyed. It all seemed rather floaty and slow, which Atlas could manage. She imagined there was music playing, and slowly began to dance. It looked utterly ridiculous but she was beginning to get into her, swaying around and trying to enjoy herself as she appeased these sub-sea weirdos. Hey, Atlas was actually enjoying it, which Wolfie could probably tell from the giant grin she had on her face.

Ahh, so this was what Wolfie needed. If it would help, Atlas would keep on dancing until he was back to full health. So she danced and spun and shimmied and sashayed, forgetting her hunger and aches as she too was restored to full being. At some point it was like she lost herself to the dance and was unaware of anything else other than the motion of it, as if she were hypnotised by and addicted to this feeling.

Atlas's eyes were slightly sparklier than usual, as if she was seeing stars that Wolfie couldn't. "Aww, just a few more minutes!" she begged, taking his hands and putting them round her waist. "Dance with me, c'mon!" she goaded, spinning around with him. She was completely unaware of the situation.

"Woo!" Atlas whooped, thinking this was a new dance move as they flew away. The more they moved away from the nymph's dwelling, the more awake she became. "Hey... Hey Wolfie, they're kinda scary," she told him as she watched the nymphs chasing them.

"Wow, 20 years," Atlas murmured. She snort-laughed when Wolfie said 'a month', because that was clearly a joke. Except Wolfie didn't joke. Oh god. "A month?!" she squawked. "Why didn't you stop me sooner?... Was it so bad you needed a whole month to heal?" she added in a quieter, more concerned tone, reaching up to touch his chin. "I didn't realise how hurt you really were."

Atlas slowly smiled and kept stroking his chin. "You're fully healed now though, right?" she murmured. "So it doesn't matter. It was just a month, which is nothing when we have all the time in the universe." She nearly added 'together' to that, and realised it sounded corny. "Hey, yeah, learning to heal would be awesome. What if I learned to heal better than you, and then you have to keep me around forever?! Haha!"

"That sounds good- ah!" They had cleared the water and were flying up through the sky now, and the sunlight had blinded her momentarily. "Y-yeah, I'd like that. And can we get something to eat?" she added as her stomach piped up loudly. Her hunger had returned after a month of dancing and feeding off aura.