Sterim's whole body was surrounded by a fluid. It felt like going into the bathtub back home but it was much heavier than normal water. It felt colder. It dragged him down.
A moment later his clothes were completely soaked. He felt the fluid leaking into his head bag. As it reached his chin as he was trying to get his hands free. As it touched his eyes as they were darting around to find a way out.
His wrists tore at the ropes. He could not move. He could not see. A cold fear gripped his heart.
He felt something behind him.
Suddenly his head bag was lifted and he felt a blinding light.
He tried to focus his eyes on this bright world around him but he could not understand it. There was just nothing with no end. No truck, no Words, no stones, no mine, no sand.
No sand.
He slowly looked down.
Beneath his small body, the water stretched down deep into a silent, unmoving darkness.
Looking further down between his legs he noticed the end of a gigantic tail slithering up from the darkness.
It ended directly behind him.
He felt something behind him.
His muscles locked up. His heartbeat drummed in his ears.
There was nowhere to go. Not with his hands and legs bound. Not with only seconds of air and a scream of fear that he suppressed. Not with this bright emptiness in front of him.
He slowly turned his head only for it to be held in place by something. A translucent white appendage loomed into the corner of his eyes.
He heard a low hissing in the distance that increased in volume until his head felt like a loadspeaker that drummed out the words:
"Bad idea."
He puked into the water as his consciousness began to slip away.
His gaze shifted upwards to a large reflective ceiling above him. He did not see this ceiling before but from its reflections he could see behind himself.
And he was gone.
