Freeport Eleven: Medical

[Jazzi]

The sudden clarity was refreshing. Akin to standing on the balcony of her family home on Erie with snow covering the landscape, hot flask of coffee in her hands. The memory brought comfort, as did the familiar landscape in this realm. Was it a real place brought back to life? Was it a work of fiction? Was it malicious, an attempt to disarm her with a realm consutrcted to appeal to her likes?

Catherine pushes the thoughts aside just as she pushes herself up from her sleeping repose. Despite why it was here, she did truly find it a wonderful and magical illusion. did these creatures really exist once? They were so beautiful. Her chests rises and falls with pain. Her eyes close and open, blinking as if in her true self. With each blink she sees that ghosting image of herself in the shattered cockpit, and a spark of panic and fear. Get out of this pl- Perhaps her autonomic nervous system still dealing with the trauma of a broken body. Do such things bleed into these visions?

"This is a dangerous act. If you are near to the Freeport, you put both of us at risk."

---

Across the lake, at the clearing's edge, the source of the footfalls revealed itself. A creature, an embodiment of feline grace and avian elegance, almost mythical in its presence. Piercing blue eyes locked onto Catherine's, as if contemplating her words. It tilted its hawk-like visage, crowned by antlers, and emitted a loud, shrieking call.

And the forest responded. The sound traversed the lake, parting the water in its wake. The grass-like groundcover swayed along the unseen trail, as if a gentle breeze had pushed it aside. The reverberation stopped just short of Catherine, at a nearby plant, its leaves gently separating to unveil a small, purplish-blue fruit.

---

Catherine finds her eyes locked onto the magnificent creature's blue eyes. She watches it intently as it makes it's call into the lush hungle-scape around them. Her ears ring with the call as the forest reciprocates whatever power the creature had unleashed. Her gaze follows the cutting wake of the sound across the water to where she takes in the sight of this fruit that had been revealed from the plant's leaves.

She steps towards it, slowly and cautiously, as her mind races in it's attempt to interpret. To understand. To decypher. Cat reaches out, fingers delicately stroking the fruit's unusually coloured skin. She registers it's texture, the mindscape's clarity heightening her senses.

Swiftly, she looks to the creature with mouth aghast and eyes wide. "I see, I think." It didn't need to be said. To say anything more of it may reveal the sudden pang of fear she felt. A rush of concern that had her heart beating quicker. Even docked, even in the safety of a medical bay, she may not find seclusion. Get ou-

Swallowing, Catherine turns to face the elegant creature. She dips her head a little in fear in respect. "How is it I am on the freeport? Is... was the experience in the freeport real or... another layer. Another vision? Am I truly there?"