"I... I can't.. breathe... I'm scared...."/ "It's an asthma attack, they're getting your medicine hold on, calm down, I'm not leaving your side." -- BKF
They told Rinu that ze had a delicate constitution. In the wrong weather, or when encountering the wrong substances, air was a struggle to obtain. Hir life diminished to tents of steam, foul-smelling concoctions, and nasty medicine. Followed closely by equal foulness coming out of hir in the midst of unstoppable, wracking coughs.
As the only heir to a vast estate, considerable time and expense was spent in an effort to find a cure.
Rinu's time outside of attacks was spent in specialists, experts, experiments bordering on mad science, and magic bordering on utter quackery. Hir meals had to include certain things like ivy leaves, or certain fish, and avoid other things like nuts and potatoes. Every day had a new treatment regimen. Every night had more things Rinu had to do, or have being done to hir. And then the Star People came.
Rinu's staff shoved hir into the Panic Room, and set the oxygen feed higher than it needed to be. All Rinu could do was watch as they descended on the family estates like locusts. Hir throat began to catch and clog as the armies assigned to protect the estates fell like wheat before the scythe.
The sacred technology was not helping. Not the monitors that let Rinu see what was happening outside. Not the automatic machines that filled hir air with medicated mists. Not even the emergency store of pressed ivy leaves, mashed together so tightly that they looked like a chocolate block.
Ze was only permitted chocolate on hir best health days, and monitored intensely thereafter. Rinu was far more likely to have pieces of the ivy leaf blocks than a single piece of chocolate.
The automated machines began playing meditation music. Some screens replaced with text instructions. A work of significant effort by the family's technomages. Sit in lotus position, said one screen.
Rinu knew this would help hir breathe. Ze also knew that the bed in the panic room had devices that would detect hir weight and position. So ze had to comply. Even though breathing was a struggle, ze could still attempt to focus on imagining green fields and colourful flowers. Or peaceful forests. Or ocean waves.
Ze had seen none of them hirself. Hir constitution was too delicate for travel. Rinu had seen them all in books. Pressed pictures and vivid descriptions that let hir imagine them in full.
Nothing was working. Because Rinu could still see soldiers falling. Ze could still watch the approaching red dots on the tactical map, weaving their ways around the green of estate troops.
It would be days later when ze remembered that the dead were meant to be displayed as little skulls.
The red dots were getting closer to the Panic Room.
Were they thieves? Barbarians? What did they want with the estate? Why were they coming for Rinu?
The door to the Panic Room opened as if Rinu's parents had used the code-key. On the other side was a massive Star Person in armour. Eclipsing the light that the doorway should have let in.
Rinu's breath came as a whistling squeak, and hir ribs hurt just to try.
"Ah shit," said the Star Person. "That's a kid." An immense gauntlet rose to press a button, and the armour peeled apart. Inside was a far more Human-shaped person. Softer. Rounded. They had a friendly face. "You're going to be okay," they said. "I've just scanned you. I know how we can help."
Rinu could barely talk. One word per breath. "I," gasp, "can't," gasp, "breathe." Gasping, coughing, and panting. "I'm," gasp, "scared."
"We won't hurt you," said the Star Person. "May I hold your hand?"
Nobody had ever asked before. They just... handled hir. Rinu nodded. Risked putting hir hand into the hand of a stranger.
Their hand was warm and calloused. Their demeanour very calm. They breathed along with Rinu, though their breath was far easier than Rinu's. The weird thing was that the company and synchronised breaths helped Rinu breathe easier.
"There's a Medik on their way," soothed the Star Person. "They've already seen my scan of you, and they have some medicine. I promise we are here to help."
The Medik had to wriggle past the armour. "Ah. Teenaged... asthmatic. Bronchial spasms. Low tech solutions..." they tutted. Then produced a face mask with a bulb attached. "I'll need to connect the air feed from your suit, Maes."
"You do that. I'm not leaving the kid."
"Rinu," ze said. "My name is Rinu."
"Nice to meet you," said Maes. "This is Medik Kai. I'm Maes. We're here to stop people doing bad things to people. That includes rescuing captives and re-organising the ways things are run on this world."
"Including improved medical intervention," said Kai. "I need to put this on you. All you need to do is breathe."
Rinu was very used to medicated mists. Ze'd never had any that actually worked before. If it weren't for the hostile takeover, ze would have fallen in love with the Star People.
As time went by, ze learned they weren't as hostile as initial impressions implied.
[Photo by Mockup Graphics on Unsplash]
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