Captivity
#2 of Alien World Series
Captivity
By Felsune
When Xotka woke next, it was with surprise. She had expected to awaken in the Jungle fields of the Great Night! Instead she woke up in a place that could only be described as...off. Something about it was just plain wrong! She frowned and carefully pushed herself up, finding her second surprise, by the fact that her leg was...stiff? She turned to look at it, tilting her head to point an eye at the limb, only to see it was covered by a strange stiff...covering? It sounded stupid, even in her own mind, but there was no way to explain it. It was like some sort of...bandage maybe? But what kind of bandage was stiff?
Frustrated, she used her tail to carefully push herself up and began to limp around. She had to be very careful as her front arm was to awkward to rely on. And, just as she had feared back out in the Jungle, her ability to move was severely compromised by the loss of her foreleg's mobility. With painfully slow movements, she began to explore her new location. It didn't take her long to discover that she was not able to move more than a few dikos before she ran into a strange barrier! It was like a solid barrier that looked like...well jungle. But it was flat, and she was unable to move through it! Whacking her tail against it a few times proved that it was impossible to force her way through it. With a frustrated huff, she turned and began to explore again, following the taste of water.
What she found was some sort of strange...puddle. It was in a rock like basin, but the rock didn't feel like rock! What was going on?! A sudden thought made her go stock still as she turned towards the wood spire that grew in her...area? Wobbling over to it, she reached a claw up and pressed it against the bark. And just like she had thought, it was...wrong. She just stood there, scared, alone and in shock. It was the Kitik. They must have put her into something...a pit of some sort? Something that would keep her from escaping? But...why? What could be the point of doing this? They had never bothered to capture any of the Zatchi before.
Still, she was not willing to remain in this strange pit for a moment longer than she had to. She needed to get home, to tell her siblings she was alive, and to teach the colony about these cruel traps! Working to the edge of the pit, she began to scratch at the ground, resting her jaw on the ground to brace herself since she was missing a leg. She managed to get a meager few clawfuls down before she hit the rock like bottom of the pit! She couldn't dig out, couldn't break out, and without her other limb, she was not going to be climbing out!
Frustrated, stuck, Xotka decided there was only one thing to do. She needed to build herself a home, and perhaps somewhere to hide from the Kitik until she was healed enough to make an escape climbing out. Slowly, she began to gather rocks and wood spire droppings to begin building with. It took her several cycles, but she did it. She used the wrong wood spire as a base, and dug her way down as much as she could, since it was deeper near the center of the area, and built her home. She was so tired by the time she finished, that she began to nestle into the center of the hole she had built, when something else changed.
Something in the sky was changing! Carefully, she poked her head out at the strange grinding noise, and saw a hole open in the very sky itself! She had no idea what could possibly do that, but if it was the Kitik, she wouldn't be surprised! Maybe they had created a small world and stuffed her into it! Were they doing it to torture her? Had she somehow offended them? But in the end, her question, was not answered. Instead, a sweet scent began to fill the air as a strange stone claw began to lower a Kitwi corpse into the pit. She watched it, without any sort of trust, as she remembered her last experience with such an offer.
So, she stayed still and just watched the meat, distrustfully. As cycles began to pass, she felt her body growing weaker, hunger gnawing into her, as she realized she still hadn't eaten for a day! While she could go several days without eating, being wounded meant she wasn't in the best position to deny food. Still, she did not want to end up even worse off than she already had! But, she had learned her lesson this time, and she would not lose any more limbs! Carefully, she wriggled out of her nest, and grabbed a wood spire limb to waste the jaw's bite.
Limping to the carcass, she began to carefully poke at the corpse. Working to try and set off the jaws that guarded the dead! Yet, no matter how much she poked and pushed the body, nothing attacked the wood spire limb, the jaws never bit. Maybe it would require the sense of life to attack...but then, what could she really offer and risk losing? The tip of her tail! She might lose it, but she would not be nearly as crippled if she lost just the tip! Dropping the wood spire limb, she carefully brought her tail around, readying her strike.
Quick as a flash, she slapped her tail against the carcass and whipped it back, slamming it into the strange barrier wall of the pit, hoping to outrun the jaws. But no jaws came...and the only pain in her tail was from banging it against the barrier. Maybe the jaws only protected Sxotics? Well either way, it was time to begin eating and rationing her food. Who knew how often she was going to be able to eat! Using her claws and teeth, she began to tear the Kitwi into chunks. Letting her teeth come down to tear the flesh apart. The organs she quickly ate, knowing they wouldn't be able to be preserved well for later.
Her work was quick and efficient as she began to take the chunks and drop them into the water, knowing that would preserve them much longer than if they were in the open air. And Kitwi, being fruit eaters, had a unique ability to last longer when hydrated. It was part of why they were such great food! Still, with her work done, she carefully covered the puddle with a rock, to protect it from evaporation, and crawled back over to her nest, snuggling in, and closing her eyes. She was, beyond exhausted by now, and hopeful for the future. She'd clean up the blood later.
When she woke up again, she was met with a strange situation. The area had grown warmer, which had caused her feathers to retract in her sleep! Carefully, she peeked out of her nest and found things had changed again. The dirt where she had tore apart the Kitwi was...gone. Well, it was still there, but it had been cleaned of blood! She flicked her tongue out and found that even the scent of blood was gone! With a worry, she wriggled further out and limped over to her puddle of water and pushed the rock off! Inside the puddle her meat was still there...but the water was different. She carefully dipped her tongue in and blinked her eyelids.
The blood in the water was gone, and the water was...pure. It was clean of any sort of contamination! This was...not good. She needed more protection than she already had, as it was obvious that her tiny world was being manipulated somehow...She began to gather the last bits of wood spire limbs and fortified her den even more! More cycles went by as she settled in, and the space was beginning to cool down again. As she was just contemplating using her feathers again, a bright light exploded into existence above her. The pain was immediate as her eyes struggled to handle the power of the midday sun!
With a screech of pain she thrashed her head and closed her eyes, and scrambled to try and get into her den! Heat and light radiated down in painful waves, making her quiver in fear in her den. But just as quick as it came, the light suddenly went out! But she wasn't going to fall for it, hiding in her den fearful of what further torment might come her way. Many more cycles went by but she refused to come out. Only as her bladder and insides began to grow to full did she finally venture out again. But she only went far enough to carefully bury her waste, before dashing back into her den. She went on like this, for many cycles, carefully sneaking out only to grab her meat or hide waste.
And yet she never saw what removed her waste, or how they purified the water. Each day was more terrifying than the next, as her crippled limb kept her from moving as quickly as she would have liked. Not to mention she was always afraid of what might come next. Be it the hole in the sky or the burning light, her whole experience was filled with fear. What made things worse was that she was running low on food. And while she had a feeling that when she ran out of food, more would come, from the sky as before. But if that happened, there was a higher chance that something would happen.
Twice now she had been tricked by the Kitik, there would be no third time. She still had plenty of fat in her tail, so there was plenty of time for her to wait this out. And so time passed, cycles turning to bundles as Xotka waited out the whole thing. Several bundles had passed since she had made her decision, and her food had run out. As she had suspected, the hole had appeared again, with the hole had come more meat. But this time, she had not bothered to touch the food, making her opinion clear. She would not let herself be tormented by the Kitik!
This went on for several more bundles, with Xotka slowly growing weaker, her tail thinner, as her fat stores were depleted. Or, she was pretty sure it had been such, as there was no Moon or Sun! She simply had to guess based off of the time she spent sleeping or resting. And while boredom was a huge weakness, it was only a weakness if she was awake. Like all Zatchi, she could slow her heart beat down and enter a state of torpor called susix. By doing this, she could slow down how fast her body burned energy. It also allowed her to relax her mind so that she did not grow bored!
It was because of this, that she survived for so long without any fear, planning to outlast their interest in her, even if that was not the safest idea. And while it did take a long time for them to lose interest in her, the day came, with the hissing sound of some sort of contamination of the air! Clamping her breathing slits tight, she waited, uncertain what was to come next. Was this contamination designed to kill her? If so, maybe when they tossed her out, assuming her dead, she could sneak back off to her home?
With renewed hope, the first she had felt in a while, Xotka made sure not to move at all, trying to ignore the burning sensation growing in her body from the lack of fresh air to breath. But luck was on her side, for once, as the air began to feel cleaner shortly before she felt like she would have to breath! At first, nothing happened, so she carefully, and subtly, took a breath, opening her breathing holes just enough to slowly let air in. But a few twists later, the wall seemed to open, just like the sky had, but...differently. Sliding open without the scraping that had happened on the sky, but a soft whooshing sound instead.
What came through made her heart clench though, for it was a pair of Kitiks! She wanted to scream, to run, to escape from the creatures that were the raw embodiment of fear! But she knew that this was likely her only chance, and she refused to let it go. But all of that was nearly for not as at third creature walked through the entrance to the world. It was a creature, of similar height to a Kitik, but...softer looking. It had a fleshy look rather than the strange stone like texture of the two who had entered first.
But before she had a chance to steal a look through mostly closed eyes, the blinding light returned! Xotka fought to keep from jerking away, trying to hide her eyes, as she pinched them fully shut to stop the pain. Struggling to show no signs of her fear and pain, she almost missed it as a sound like nothing she had heard before came from the area where the Kitiks were! While they had always assumed that they had always assumed that the Kitik had some way to communicate, this was beyond anything she had ever expected.
The two most popular theories had been that they communicated via motions or some sort of scent based system. The third and less accepted idea had been put forth that they might have been able to communicate via some sort of mental link, but that had been scoffed at by most of the elders and adults. But now she had full proof, by the length of the noises emanating from their direction, the Invaders communicated vocally, just like the Zatchi! But at the same time, it didn't explain how they could hunt them so efficiently...unless there were two breeds. Maybe the rocky armored ones were the lesser of the two, and were incapable of vocal communication!
Rocked by this new information, Xotka was to stunned to even react as she felt something placed nearby, and two cold claws grab her and drag her onto said something. If only she could open her eyes, then this would not be as terrifying. Or...maybe it would be more? Well, either way, she didn't have a choice, and just had to wait and see what happened. Hopefully, they would discard her somewhere easy to escape from, rather than harder. Well, either way, she had escaped the terrible world she had been stuck in! She felt a warm glow in her chest at that thought, she had succeeded in tricking the Kitik!
Now, it was a waiting game, although one that turned out to be an extremely short game! Mere twists later, she heard a strange sound, like a click, and then a low whine. Moments later, she was placed down onto something that radiated a cold through the thing beneath her, and made her want to push her feathers out! She fought that urge down, stamping on it as she waited to see what happened next. Steps...walking away, the whine...and then click. Followed by silence that was complete, without anything to break it aside from her own breathing. Carefully, she opened an eye, whimpering at the agony of the bright light glaring down on her, as she felt herself chilling. Quickly, she pushed her feathers out with a sigh of relief, feeling herself begin to warm up almost immediately.
Better, now, it was time to escape. Even with her crippled limb and hampered vision, she could feel around with her other limbs, quickly finding that she was on some sort of...strange stone ledge that was above the ground, but by how far she had no idea. It couldn't be too far though, as Kitiks were only a few dikos tall. Which meant, while it might hurt, she could fall and not risk any major harm! Carefully, slowly, she began to wiggle her rear off of the ledge, and let her tail down. Her tail was the same length as her body, which made it easy to tell that the ledge was, in fact, not far up! Excited now, she quickly wormed further backwards, sliding back, mindful of her leg. With a meaty smack, and some scraping of claw on the rock, she fell.
It made her chest clench, but the fall was quick and relatively painless as she landed on the chilled, hard ground. She shuddered, feeling strange on the alien terrain, but a sense of urgency pushed her on. She needed to find some way out, and more importantly, away from the blinding light. With a determination born of desperation and fear, she began to nose around. It didn't take long to discover the area was smaller even than her last hole, and was filled with strange objects. Some of which she found had some...give to them. A little bit of clawing revealed they could be pulled open! And inside was the blessed darkness, as well as a potential hiding place. Other than that, the whole pit was one solid and strange wall! So she returned to the hidden cave and began to work on hiding herself.
Carefully, awkwardly, she used her mouth to pull open one of the flaps, just enough to wriggle her way in, and carefully push in. It took some work, and the space was already filled with...things, things she crushed to force more of her bulk into the small cave. Once she was nestled in, she began to search for a rear entrance to the cave, only to find it was less of a cave and more of a burrow. Still, it was relief from the light, and might give her a chance to escape the pit once the Kitik returned. And once more, it was back to waiting, hoping it would not take many cycles for the Kitik to return.
As it turned out, it only took a few twists before the sound of the invaders returned. A strange cry, one she took to be shock or surprise, followed by the thunder of their feet on the strange ground. She shuddered in her hiding hole, hoping it would be safe from the invaders. It was so small, there was little chance they would think to look in there! After all, she was too big to comfortably fit, so most likely she had escaped! Right? Wrong, no such luck was on her side. The blinding light fed in through one of the flaps at it was slowly pulled open. Panic, full blown mind numbing fear raced through her as she launched herself forward, hoping to take the Kitik by surprise and make a break for it.
Sadly, she had forgotten about her crippled limb as she worked to barrel her way out, and the pain that shot through her limb caused it to buckle under her, sending her face first into the hard floor with a pained hiss. But, she was not alone, and as she had burst from her hiding place, the flap had rammed into something soft and forced it back. And while she couldn't see very well, it was impossible not to recognize the general shape of a Kitik! Her mad dash had caused the flap to slam into the creature, knocking it over backwards, with a whoosh of air! Now, she was partially laying on the creature's upper half!
Freezing in place, Xotka stared down for a moment, before she began to madly scramble away. Banging and grinding herself against the cave entrance as she tried to get away from the Kitik! She was careful, though, not to slash the Kitik, lest she invoke its ire, as she attempted to escape. And the creature seemed to have a similar feeling, letting out a loud sound that made her head hurt from the sheer volume of it! Dazed now, but still afraid, she quickly ran towards a corner, head whipping around in search of some sort of exit! There! Somehow, an opening in the wall had formed, which meant she could escape!
Floundering forward, she attempted to get to the exit before it was too late, all the while keeping one eye on the strange Kitik. Or well, eyeing it as best she could with the blinding light! Strangely enough, the Kitik was making some strange noises and trying just as hard to get away from her it seemed. Either way, she was out! Free of the Kitik's pit! Or she would have been, had the darker passage not revealed two Kitik running back towards her! Turning to look the other direction, she found much the same, with two more Kitik running towards her, all of them carrying some strange thing in their claws. There was no way she could get passed them, which meant she had to go back in...into the pit. Turning around, she scrambled back inside the blinding room, and began to frantically search for some way to escape! But she knew it was hopeless.
Being found so early and not having a chance to slip by unnoticed had doomed her just as quickly as her broken foreleg. She was going to die, for sure this time, and there was nothing she could do. Sure, she could savage the Kitik still in the room, but that was more likely to end with her suffering even worse than anything she already had. Pushing herself back into a corner, she just lay there, and began to sob. Bitterly, orbs of glowing liquid seeping from her gums as she curled into a tight ball, and waited for the end as the thunder of feet upon the strange stone ground echoed around her as if she were in a cave.
A burst of sounds came from the Kitik entering the room, more from the one in the room, then silence. The communication continued for several twists while Xotka just waited, droplets of the cleaning fluids for her teeth dripping onto the floor with every ragged breath. At the sound of the Kitik in the room moving, she tensed up, tightening the coil of her body, as fear coursed through her like an icy fire. Burning away at her poor nerves, fraying the edges of her mind. Each step of the Kitik in the room pounding on her skull. But what came next was not pain, but...confusion.
Something warm was pressing against her back, slowly running down it in a...soothing sort of way. Still breathing with ragged whimpers, she carefully opened one pained eye to look at the blurry image of the room. The Kitik from before had moved over to crouch down next to her, and was touching her with a claw. If this was some sort of method of killing, it was...strangely pleasant. Of course, maybe that was the point? It definitely didn't make her want to run away, but it did not do to awful much to sooth her fearful heart.
The Kitik made more noises, and the four other Kitik at the door seemed to...relax? Shifting a bit, lowering the objects in their claws, and just waiting. Twists passed slowly, and confusion began to replace fear in her mind, warring for position as the dominant emotion. Still, she felt her gums no longer weeping the cleaning fluids as she relaxed, despite herself, at the constant touch to her soft feathers. The Kitik pulled its lips up, not revealing the inside of its mouth, but seemed to be trying to convey something. Either way, she could not possibly know what it wanted!
Still, her eyes hurt, and she closed them as best she could, while still watching the Kitik. At this, the Kitik seemed to realize something, and made a sound at the armored Kitik at the door. One of them hesitated for a moment, then reached a claw over and touched the cave wall. Immediately, the brightness dimmed down, and this was repeated until the pain was mostly gone, and Xotka could at least see. She blinked a few times, opening her eyes fully as she looked around, hesitantly. She was still uncertain what was going on but obviously they had no intention of killing her right then and there.
The unarmored Kitik seemed to move one claw at the others, a quick jerking motion towards itself, and communicated again. But, at the jerk, Xotka jerked back, lowering herself and whimpering! This caused the Kitik to turn back to her and then look at its hand and pull its mouth up again, trying to convey something as it slowly stroked her back again, even as she cringed, fearing the worst. For another few awkward twists, nothing happened other than the soothing touching on her back. Then, a Kitik of the fleshy kind came in, moving quickly, and carrying something. Of course, this set her to trying to pull back, to escape the quick movements, and earned the new Kitik a bark of some kind from the one near her.
The other stopped as if it had run into a wall and then...rubbed a claw on its own head? Was that...a sign of submission or something? It squeaked back, and then very slowly, as if she were the dangerous animal, or it was stalking her, moved towards her. She tensed, but did not run, even as every instinct demanded she do exactly that though. Still, she was curious, despite herself, about what was going on. Of course, the answer came by way of some sort of strange glowing substance coming from the strange object, in the shape of strange objects.
These objects were then placed in front of her, slowly, along with s container like object, that had entrances of the same shape. Xotka looked around, confused for a moment, before the Kitik touching her back, slowly reached out, and took the round one and pushed it into the round hole, then looked at her. Did...they want her to play along? Was she supposed to...put them away for them? Hesitantly, she moved forward, every watchful and careful, to do just that. Looking at her broken limb, she decided it would be best to use her mouth, even if that seemed risky.
Opening said mouth, she flicked out her tongue, and wrapped it around the three pointed object, and lifted it to her jaw. Moving forward, she pressed it into the three pointed hole, using her tongue to get it the rest of the way in. Strangely enough, the object felt solid, but almost...liquid. Like it existed and did not exist, at the same time! She shuddered at the sensation, but steeled herself to continue. She picked up the five pointed object next, and carefully worked it into the five pointed hole, then the four pointed object into the four pointed hole. Once done, there was a squeal from the new Kitik, as it bounced and clapped its claws together.
Afraid she had done something wrong, Xotka jerked back, cowering again, trying to show her submission and regret. The first Kitik barked at the other again, and made Xotka wince from the volume of it! The other seemed to become...submissive again, and placed its claws over its mouth region, as its face turned a strange shade of...red? It took more twists, but eventually Xotka calmed down again, and the next strange thing was put up for Xotka. This time the strange container like thing was replaced with a flat object that stood up, while another was placed in front of her.
A sound came from the device, and a section of the laying down object would brighten. She stared at it a few moments, and the sound played again. When the part that had brightened, did not this time, she hesitantly leaned forward and tapped it with her jaw. The sound was played, and the part lit up. This seemed to get a reaction from the Kitik watching her, and a new sound was played, and a new section lit up. Understanding what was needed, she tapped the proper section, and the sound played again. This happened a few more times, each time she followed the sound and light combination. This got the Kitik in the room to start communicating again, and she was...ignored for the moment.
Curiosity, though, was not going to let her rest during this time period. She carefully brought her tail around, since she didn't want to risk punishment to her face should there be one, and touched a spot. It played the sound, and she touched another. It too played a sound when she did this! Excitedly, she began to touch them in an order that made the sounds into a single one, that was a solid wave, and pleasing to her. She continued this for several moments, before she realized there was something wrong.
The Kitik in the room had stopped their communication and were just watching her. Worried now, she backed up, only to receive a strange action from the Kitik. They gently, and slowly, pushed the object back towards her, as if to tell her it was...okay? Hesitantly, she began to play with the light and sound object, enjoying the way the sounds flowed. They let her do this for several twists before one of the armored Kitik came into the room with two strange objects. This, of course, made her stop immediately and pay attention to it with unease. The first Kitik held up a claw, stopping the armored one, and caused it to set the objects on the floor.
The second Kitik grabbed the objects and pulled them apart, revealing liquid and meat in each container respectively! The first Kitik, then pointed to the water, and pressed a light source, to make the sound. Then, he pointed to the meat, and pressed a different spot, playing a different sound. Xotka wasn't sure how this test or game was supposed to work, so she merely tilted her head. The second Kitik made a sound, and the first moved its head up and down. This was followed by the coverings going back on the meat and water, then the water being pushed forward.
The first Kitik then pointed to the sound maker, and waited. Maybe...they wanted her to tell them which one it was based off of the sound? Well, that was simple, if that was what they wanted. She used her tail to poke the light that would make the sound they had made when the water had been shown to her. Then she pointed her head to the other one, and used her tail to touch the light used to mean 'meat' apparently. This was followed by the Kitik communicating rapidly, in what she took to be...some sort of high energy tone that was hopefully good for her.
Slowly, the first Kitik pulled the covers off and pushed them to her, to show that she was allowed them? Well, it was true, she hadn't eaten in a while...and they seemed to want to see her do things. So, she complied, if only to sate the gnawing in her gut. Carefully, she used her tongue to pull out a chunk of meat, shaped like the four pointed object, and moved it into her mouth. Using her tongue, she carefully put it between her hard gum plates, and began to mash it up. If it started to slip, she carefully pushed her teeth down, and used her tongue to push it back into place. Over and over she did this, until it was mashed enough to swallow safely, without fear of choking.
This seemed to also...excite the Kitiks that watched her, or perhaps 'observed' would be the better term. Once she had finished with the meat, she carefully dipped her muzzle into the water, and began to drink. Using suction to pull the water into her mouth, then lift her head up and carefully wash everything with her tongue. She repeated this until she was clean, and no longer thirsty, the pushed a bit of the cleaning fluids through her gums again. Not as much as when she had been crying, but enough to get any meat or juice traces from inside her teeth slots. She carefully spat this out, as it was bitter and not good tasting.
This all seemed to excite the two Kitik as well...which just confused her even more. By this time, she finally noticed that the four Armored Kitik by the door had been reduced to two. Were they no longer as worried about her? That was...probably a very good thing. The first Kitik then began to move, getting onto its knees, and moving closer to her, holding up its claws, as if to make a wall. Confusion locked her in place as the first claw's palm was placed onto the front of her muzzle. Okay...so she wasn't to move? Simple enough. But the second touch was the confusing one. It pointed to her broken limb, on the right side.
Did...they not know it was broken? No, that could not be, they had bandaged it and made it impossible to move it well due to the solid casing around it. So...they wanted to do something with it? She very slowly moved her head up and down. She was hoping this would translate well, as she guessed at what it meant. It seemed to be some sort of agreement motion, to the Kitik at least. This was met with more high energy sounds, and the second Kitik moved in closer, slowly, and reached to touch the wall in a new place. This in turn caused something to descend from the roof, making Xotka jerk a little.
The first Kitik made a soft sound to her, and used the other claw to gently stroke her head, while the first remained on her muzzle. The second one took the thing from the ceiling, and brought it down, pointing it at her broken limb. It made a soft sort of cooing noise, comforting perhaps, as it pressed the object to the stone like limb-locking-object. It moved the object around a bit, seeming to make sure to touch every part of it, before moving it up to her uncovered parts. Stopping just short of the shoulder bone, they made a soft sound. The two other Armored Kitik moved in, slowly, and began to surround Xotka.
This...this was scary. She began to tense up, but both Kitik made soft cooing noises, as the other two Armored Kitik placed their items down, and put their claws on her body and tail? Okay...strange, disturbing, but not aggressive. She was pressed down, but not with any obvious harm in mind? Why were they doing this tho-. And that was when the sharp pain hit her, as something jammed into her from under the object pressed to her upper foreleg! With a screech and a whimper, she tried to thrash, but was restrained!
What had she done wrong?! Why were they doing this?! She whimpered and tried to escape, but they just applied more pressure, all the while the first two Kitiks made soft crooning noises! The second kept repeating something, over and over, but all that mattered was the burning sensation rapidly moving down her leg...from the inside! Full blown panic! It hurt and was scary! But no matter what she did, the two Armored Kitik just put more pressure, even going so far as to use their full body weight, to keep her from moving. Agony spread through the whole limb for twists on end! But then, just as suddenly as it started, the agony stopped. It became a soft pain, then an ache, then faded away.
Xotka's feathers stood on end, panting from the strain, as the other two Kitik just pressed into her gently, just stroking her, as if to comfort her. She still didn't know what she had done wrong, what she had done to deserve it, the pain. She wanted to cry again, but her fluid was gone to the point she could not force anything but tiny droplets out. She was wrung dry, even as the tiny droplets fell. Still, they did not let her up, as the device was brought back down again. Fear renewed her strength, as she tried to escape from the horrible device!
But they just held her tightly again, as the device was traced down her encased limb. A strange scent, like something burning, filled the room. The two Kitik not in some kind of Armor wrinkled their noses, but worked none the less, to finish slowly moving the device down the encasing. There was no pain this time, so Xotka's struggles became weak quickly. And in merely a twist and a half, the device was pulled back and moved to the other side. Again, the room filled with the burning scent of something horrid, but no pain came. A whimper escaped her, earning her croonings and strokes down her neck, but nothing more as the other Kitik worked on her encasing.
Again, another twist and a half passed, before the device was removed again, but this time, the encasing object fell away. They had been removing it! Her feathers finally lay flat, and the two armored Kitik moved off of her back and tail! Another device descended from the ceiling at a touch from the first Kitik, followed by the first device ascending and disappearing! The first Kitik moved it along her right limb, and a flat object popped up, showing something that looked like her limb...but showing the bones inside! After a few moments, the first Kitik nodded, and made a soft sound of...something, and then let the object go up to disappear as well!
Still, now Xotka had to be careful not to move the limb without the encasing to help her! She really must have done something...what was the first Kitik doing? They had been watching her, waiting, but she had done nothing! Now the first Kitik gently reached for her broken limb! She cringed back, but couldn't really go anywhere as he took her claws in his, and began to pull gently. Expecting the pain of moving a broken limb, she winced again, only to find that it...didn't hurt! She blinked, and looked at her limb! Moved it! It was healed! She gasped and began to tap it around, slowly, putting weight on it!
The pain from before...it had been the healing! She looked up, awe and fear warring in her now as she realized how truly powerful the Kitik were! With little effort, they had broken her leg, only to fix it with just as little effort! They obviously hadn't before, because it would have hurt so much! And she had not done...whatever it was that she had done to draw their good will. Mulling this over, she remained steady as she processed how to handle this. But motion caught her eye, as she saw the first Kitik push itself up, letting out a groan like sound before it made a slow but sort of energetic sound to the other Kitik.
Who in turned motioned with a hand, like it was pulling the air from Xotka's position towards it! Was she about to be yanked by an invisible force towards them? Tensing, she waited, but...nothing happened. Okay...so she felt a bit silly, but it could have been possible! Once more the Kitik did this, and stepped back a bit, then did the motion again. Oh...it meant to follow? If this was the case...she was going to feel...really stupid. She hesitantly took a step forward, and was greeted with the excited energy sound. Another step back and the motion again from the Kitik.
No one...must ever know about this moment...ever.
She followed, her feathers raising up a bit around her head, in embarrassment, as she followed. They seemed to be making sure she understood a few more times, before just walking out into the pathway tunnel. Xotka followed, taking up position behind the second Kitik and one of the Armored Kitik, and in front of the first Kitik and last Armored Kitik. They kept darkening the passageways, and leading her through a twisting maze of strange stone tunnels, until they came to a strangely open area. They led her into the room, filled with other Kitik, both armored and unarmored.
At this sight, Xotka tensed up and froze, only to hear the same soft cooing noises come from the first Kitik behind her. With a shiver, she moved further into the room, and let herself be guided up onto a strange...long four cornered bed like area? The first Kitik began to communicate, talking to the other Kitiks, for many twists. Whatever it was that was being said, it seemed to make the other Kitik a bit more uneasy. Or some of them at least. Others seemed a bit excited, but none the less, it was...concerning. For her at least.
Then, one of the flat floating objects came down, and an image of her was shown, being lay on the ledge! She watched in fascination and mild horror as the whole scene was played out. From her careful escape attempt, her hiding attempt, her bursting out, and so on. Murmuring sounds of the Kitik talking in hushed voices continued as the flat object showed the past events in vivid detail. Then, the object began to grow! Turning into a strange transparent mimicry of the past! Like it was happening, all over again!
This was fascinating and terrifying for Xotka, who watched all of the events continue. The scenes of her trying to escape, coming back in...the despair. Some of the Kitiks seemed very uncomfortable at this, averting their eyes for moments, or cringing as they listened to her panicked cries. Her despairing sobs. Then the...tests? Games? Whatever it was, this seemed to get a very excited and high energy reaction from the crowd! Which seemed to turn to a bad reaction near the end. Some actually running from the room, followed by sounds like they were expelling something? Violently. The scene was paused, letting the Kitik return to finish watching the test, their colors having become paler and their stance quivering a bit.
Then some strangled groans as the scene moved on to when they were healing her limb. Her own pained screams making her flinch as she re-lived that scene, turning her own head away, not wanting to watch. But still, one eye kept the scene in view, as she watched the whole thing from a sky view. Finally, it ended with the scene of them leading her out, before it flickered and disappeared completely. At first, there was silence, then the whole area became loud with the sounds of the Kitik! Xotka quivered and cowered at the sound, moving her claws up to cover her hearing holes, even after squeezing their flesh shut with her muscles. What was going on? What was going to happen now?