Bring The Heat

15. Child of the Earth

Wren's vision returned to her slowly. Everything was fuzzy, and she was lying down. She began to lift her head, but felt a warm hand push it back down. She groaned, and just lay there, blinking.

Once vision, and sense, returned to her, Wren brought her hand up in front of her face. It... was completely fine? Wren could've sworn she had lost it... and it felt off. Like having a phantom limb when the limb was still there...

A head popped up into her peripherals. It was a girl, and she smiled proudly.

"That's my work. Only the finest. You're welcome!"

Wren flexed her hand. It felt so strange...

"What did you do?" she mumbled weakly.

"I got you a new hand! Well... it's not technically a hand. It's a plant life organism, but I made it just for you! It might feel weird, but it'll function perfectly! Ahem... YOU'RE WELCOME."

Wren had no idea what anything the girl had just said meant, but she was so assertive about being praised...

"Thank you..."

The girl smiled proudly once more.

"You're welcome! I'm Lewis."

Lewis outstretched her hand for Wren to shake. Wren outstretched her human hand in return, but Lewis smacked it away, saying "ew" and giving Wren an offended glare. Wren reached out with her plant hand instead, and Lewis gladly shook it. It still didn't feel right.

Wren looked around her, and realized she was in BM's compound's medical bay. She sighed, relieved to be back home. She then looked over at Lewis.

Lewis was scribbling notes onto diagrams of Wren's plant hand on pieces of paper manically. She already seemed pretty annoying, but in an almost endearing way. But that might just be because she was a pretty girl and Wren was a total simp. Lewis was wearing a beanie over thick, fluffy blonde hair. She wore circle frame glasses, a Joy Division band shirt, black jeans, and large black work boots.

"Where's Cece and Tenson?" Wren asked, realizing that they must be worried about her.

Lewis decided that she didn't really care about Wren's question, and had found something more interesting.

"Tenson. That short kid with the grey hair? Weird name..."

Wren just sat there. Yknow, this annoyingness was turning out to be less endearing than it had originally seemed.

Luckily, BM burst through the door at that moment.

"Wren!" he exclaimed, joyous but composed, like a butler welcoming a celebrity to a fancy party.

Wren hopped out of bed and hugged him tightly.

"Careful with that, Wrennie! If you break it I'll charge you for it!" Lewis scolded.

Something about being called a nickname by a pretty girl replaced what would've been annoyance with a warm buzz in Wren's soul.

"God, I am so sorry. I really didn't expect things to escalate so much! I should've been there instead..." BM apologized.

Lewis scoffed, insulted somehow.

"But, uh, unfortunately, I was bringing us her," he continued, gesturing to Lewis, who muttered something under her breath in a different language, "so how is it, your hand?"

Wren stretched and flexed the fingers, and even though it still felt weird, she smiled.

"Good as new!"

Lewis scoffed again, and spun around in her chair to face them.

"I would advise staying in here, just for today. You have to worry about plant diseases too now, and you don't want that to rot. You're also gonna need a crash course in taking care of plants." she said, almost robotically, but smiling softly to herself at the implication of her and Wren spending the day together.