Part 44
Something splattered against his face.
Duo jerked his head back, then went still. That hurt. A lot.
Move slowly...
Carefully, he raised his head. Yes, that was definitely better. Slow and easy.
He blinked a few times to clear his vision, and looked around slowly.
Walls. Grimy bricks. Trash. Old blacktop turning to potholes here and there. His shoulder pouch. On the ground, under his head.
::Well, that's weird...::
He lay next to a drip from an old-fashioned fire escape. A small puddle of dirty, rusty water had pooled in a proto-pothole.
Very slowly, very carefully, pausing when the ache spiked, Duo worked his hands under him and levered himself upright. He hurt quite a lot, he realised. From his toes right down to the tip of his braid. He felt himself all over, looking for blood or broken bones and checking his pockets. He wasn't missing anything and he found only a small smear of blood on the left side of his head, along with a throbbing lump.
::Something knocked me out?::
Above the universal thrum of abused nerves, his shoulders ached and his back twinged when he moved. Sharp pains radiated through his legs and up into his back when he struggled to his feet, but though he wobbled quite a bit, and his knees seemed like balls of fire, he could still walk.
Once vertical, his stomach began to complain and he retched into a convenient trash can.
He snagged his pouch and stumbled further into the alley, finding a doorstep to sit on for a few minutes. He rested his head in his hands, breathing slowly and deeply.
::Must have run into something... One of those ladder things, maybe. Geez, that hurt!::
He forced himself to make sentences and to remember where he was and why, to be sure that his brain wasn't leaking.
::What city?::
::Um... Indianapolis.::
::Why?::
::Mystery stonework.::
::Who?::
::Dwarves.::
::Am I done?::
::Yes.::
::Where am I going right now?::
::Home.::
::Oh, yeah. My telepoint. Alley.::
::Then what?::
::Umm... Ran into something and knocked myself silly?::
::Probably.::
::Do I have a concussion?::
::Probably.::
::I should go home?::
::Good idea.::
"Yeah," he said out loud, "Umm... Duo? Yeah. Good idea, Duo; you should go home."
He pushed himself vertical again; this time his legs were more cooperative. He made his weaving way to the last fire escape on the right, and teleported.