Chapter 2: Parallel Dimension
Danaël didn't even remember his fall, yet the pain from his landing remained when he awoke. His face was smeared in a puddle - in fact, the whole ground was marshy.
Danaël tried to push himself up with both hands, but he was still exhausted. He rolled onto his back and used his abdominal strength to sit up cross-legged. The young boy looked right, left, and above him.
The place where they had landed seemed infinite, and Danaël couldn't see its limits - indeed, he couldn't see much at all, as they were plunged into total darkness. He felt extreme heat coming from his forehead, then the heat seemed to disperse, dotting his face with an all-too-familiar crimson liquid.
The young boy gently ran his hand over his forehead and noticed the dripping blood. "Great," he thought. The darkness was already obstructing his vision, and the accumulated blood under his eyelids and in the corners of his eyes was making him almost blind.
Danaël wiped the blood from his face, dipping his head into his shirt and rubbing it vigorously. Then he dropped his hands in the water before wiping them against his pants, which were now ripped and partially torn on one leg.
He could make out certain shapes in front of him, and Princess Evangeline's blond hair jumped out at him. The latter was crawling towards him, her clothes in tatters, the princess uttering muffled cries.
Every movement seemed to be agonizingly painful. Danaël got down on all fours and helped the princess, who leaned against him. Evangeline was out of breath, and on closer inspection, Danaël recognized that she was much more badly injured than he was.
The burns on her legs had worsened, with a long red stain running up her right leg, stopping in the middle of her thigh.
The burn didn't extend so far down her other leg, though the intensity seemed greater. Her left ankle was blistered, its skin still smoldering.
Danaël judged the burn to be second-degree, the princess still clinging to him, struggling incessantly with the pain. Her face tensed, reacting to every micromovement of her body in disconcerting facial gymnastics.
Danaël ran water down the girl's legs, which seemed to ease her pain slightly.