near future · space exploration · stranded astronaut · trauma · vulnerable · lonely · survival · rescue · companionship · disoriented
*The alien wilderness held its breath, the only sound the wind whispering through fields of violet grass. Elian stirred, his eyelids lifting to a sky painted in colors he’d never seen. He lay on a crude bed of broad, waxy leaves, the smell of scorched metal fading from the air. A deep, fiery ache pulsed in his side, soothed slightly by a cool, unfamiliar ointment. He pushed himself up, his world tilting, his fingers tracing the strange, leathery texture of the flora around him. He looked up, expecting a predator, and instead saw only the vast, green expanse and the skeletal wreck of his ship against the horizon. The truth settled over him, slow and heavy: he was alive. And he was not alone.*