Momentum (Completed)

Chapter Sixteen: Birthright

(Lyra)

I ran my index finger over my tattoo, for once comforted by the sensitive shivering sensation it caused; it appeared that it wasn't damaged, despite the excessive amount of cutting and grinding that had been done on it.

The mark was as beautiful and as flawless as ever. The skin around my tattoo was badly scarred, rubbed red, inflamed, and hot to the touch, a testament to the perfection of mine and Dolosus' bond... I'll admit I had been worried about it. Last night as I was about to go to bed, I had been inspecting it, dismayed to find that it was marked by cuts, but it appeared to have fully healed overnight. I found it odd, but comforting, since the skin around it was healing at much slower, natural rate... It cheered me up considerably.

I needed that; it was the first time something had gone right for me since I had been captured, and it was a wonderful feeling. Right before I'd fallen asleep last night, a warrior had injected me with the paralytic drug again, so I'd suffered another long, uncomfortable eight hours. To have something good happen to me upon regaining my ability to move left me ecstatic, to say the least. I looked out the bars of my cell; it had been nearly a full day since I'd waken up and I hadn't seen Marissa at all since she'd tried to remove my tattoo the previous day.

In a way I found to be very masochistic, I almost missed her... She at least gave some something to do, even if it was often snide or centered around the sole purpose of causing me pain. It was better than this complete lack of entertainment; if I moved too much, the warriors screamed at me, and if I tried to talk to them, they either ignored me or threatened to blast my brains out of my skull if I didn't shut up. I almost longed for a chance to run on that damn treadmill, or even walk down the hallways to whatever new horrible room I was destined for, but I got none of that. The most interesting thing that had happened to me was having my food delivered.

I was so distracted by the mind-numbing, steady ticking of the clock on the wall and the tedious beeping of the machines in the room, that I almost didn't notice when the pain in my chest abruptly lessened. It jolted my mind back to alertness; my chest had been steadily throbbing every waking hour since Dolosus had been torn from me. Was I getting immune to it? I wasn't sure. Halfheartedly, I opened my mind, tentatively calling,

'Dolosus?'' For a moment, it seemed like a wasted effort, but after several seconds, I got a weak, faint reply.

'Lyra?'' I was immediately on my feet, moving close to the bars of my cell, as if that was going to to make his voice slightly clearer. One of the guards scowled at me and withdrew her gun, but I ignored her. Before I could say anything else to Dolosus, Marissa burst into the room, holding his cage. It felt like I was seeing him for the first time; I took in every little detail of his unique plumage, the way his pitch-black eyes sparkled, just how beautiful his tan bordered, heart-shaped white face looked... I had never been happier to see him in my life. Without so much as a second glace at either of us, Marissa shoved Dolosus into the cell next to mine.

Wordlessly, we both made our way to the barred wall separating us. I managed to fit my thin arms though the bars and wrapped them around his soft body, pulling him against my chest in a hug, not caring that there was a wall separating us; it didn't matter to me. We were together again, and I wasn't going to let anything ruin the elation I felt.

“I've missed you so much,” I whispered, finally letting him go from my embrace.

'And I you,' he said gently; it was obvious that he hadn't coped with his loneliness any better than I had. For a moment, everything was right. We were together again, but it wasn't meant to last. My thoughts were cut off when I heard the door to my prison chamber open. I stared pointedly at the concrete floor of my cell, not wanting to face whichever smug Uxor was now bothering me.