Last Life Part 1: Homecoming

Clear Morning

Verres

I woke up, my bones grinding, my hide soaked. Everything felt raw, everything felt agonizing. My eyes were slow to adjust to the brightness of morning. I really can not recall a day in the last century where I had seen so much light. I closed my ancient eyes again, something was different. I sensed it, hanging in the air with the power of silence. Lying still I then realized, I could... think. Oh, I could think! So clearly, no madness, no hunger- Something against my side shifted. I peered over and saw a little human. Well, I suppose it was not that small, yet when compared to me, it was nought but a runty piglet.

Carefully I attempted to rise, knocking my head against the ceiling of the little concrete box. I blinked, something caught my eye, something else I had not seen in centuries, green, luscious, lively, green. No, not the dingy, yellow-blotched tinge upon dying foliage, but healthy, gorgeous green. Tiny vegetables grew in a series of long troughs filled with spongy peat along a thick glass window. Oh... Their smell... So alive. The structure my head was in was filled with all sorts of strange oddities, animal bones, gadgets, strange devices. A bunch of useless junk.

I heard a weak, moaning sound. I looked down and found the minuscule human sitting up and holding its masked head. Fully standing, with my head pressed against the ceiling, I backed out of the building to allow him to go into his home. He looked very dazed, he stumbled about and as he fell, caught himself on my foreleg. Startled, he looked up at me, eyes behind the dark glass wide and wondering. I stared back, opened my tusked mouth and began attempting to communicate. Maybe he'll understand.