"You're awake!" a soft voice pierced the darkness of unconsciousness, guiding my focus through the haze. I remembered falling, and right before that a searing pain—my leg.
Again, a gentle whisper tickled my outer ear, "I-It's alright, you're safe now. You've been asleep so long that I was starting to get worried; I tried to save it but..." Delicate fingers traced along my own as I tentatively caressed the bandaged stump just below my left knee. The slightest touch was agony, and as if anticipating my recoil, my mysterious savior tightly intertwined her fingers with mine as to offer some condolence.
The pain dulled, the itches of a phantom limb began and the soft swell of hot tears lines my eyes. My savior consoled me with a gentle coo, her scent enveloping me, warm and inviting. I slowly focused on the sight of a pair of violet orbs staring back at me from beneath a mop of silky black hair.
"Where am I?" The room was ill-lit, a ramshackle space that served both bedroom and general living space; driftwood nailed into a mockery of a home.
"Well," she paused to gather her thoughts, "you're safe now." A gentle hand brushed against my cheek and I felt the kindness of a shaky smile, "When I found you, the carrion-eaters were already circling; I did my best for your leg...but it wasn't enough." Perhaps it was shock that kept me awake, that and confusion; what had happened?
I fell. Yes, I fell a long ways down but...why was I here? Was this a dungeon? A cave? I must've hit my head harder than I'd known or anticipated, as memory eluded me.
A certain weight shifted beneath me, hidden by several layers of patchwork-blankets. "Nasty things," she added. There was a certain beauty to my rescuer: naïve, inexperienced but entirely wholesome. A soft-hearted grace befit her, and given my current state, perhaps my opinion of her was a bit skewed in the positive.
"Thank you," I said with a nod, taking the offered hand and letting her pull me up. I leaned on her as she guided me upright, allowing some leeway to adjust to my one-leggedness; were we on a bed? Another shift in weight, something coiling under the blankets beneath us. It was thick, clydrical, and I swore that I could hear that faint patter of numerous digits.
"What is that?"
She flinched at my question, her cheeks flushed an adorable shade of pink. She reached out with her free hand, gingerly tracing over the coils, "It's my legs."
Legs? "Are you a...?"
Her expression hardened, brow furrowing, "M-Monster?! No, I wouldn't say that. Though I guess I'm not entirely...'human'." She tapped the tip of one index finger against the other, "I'm...well..."
"It's alright," my voice was hoarse, cracked with thirst, "you can show me."
A hesitant nod, and then the young woman shifted, pulling away the blanket. From the waist down—barring a cotton sash—a thick, segmented coil of milipede-like legs rapped against the shoddy floor. While my rescuer was most certainly a woman, easily passing as a human from the waist up, she wasn't exactly such. The body of a girl, perhaps a teenager, but the lower half was that of a centipede, its chitinous exoskeleton coated in a patina of brownish rust; shame burned in her cheeks.
"I've never shown anyone," she admitted, "and I don't know how much I should tell you about me. This place isn't exactly...safe. I don't know how to get you back to the surface, we're just so far down and I—"
"What's your name," I interjected, a timid touch resting upon one of her chitinous segments, "let's just start there."
"Oh, uhm..." She wrung her hands together, "I'm, well, I'm Yewi." There was something so incredibly endearing about Yewi. My mind was abuzz with questions, doubts and worries—and pain—yet Yewi's awkward kindness somehow pushed them aside.
"Well, that's a lovely name. You live in this place by yourself?" I noted the dilapidated structure with a nod.
Yewi's violet eyes shimmered with bated excitement, "W-Well yeah! This is my home. I put it together all by myself; I like building things!" It was as though she'd been waiting a lifetime to share her life with someone, anyone. Her budding smile softened, "I've never had help with anything. My kind don't really stick together too long and it's pretty dangerous down here for surfacers, like you...no offense."
"None taken." Gods only knew how dangerous this place must have been, yet I felt safe with Yewi. I winced before touching my left stump again; how would I get back to the surface with only one leg? Did I even want to?