Mistlyn

Chapter 7: Opening Gifts and Peacock Blankets

I awoke to find Sahria in the room, organizing the gifts into little neat piles.

I rolled over in bed, brushing my hair off my face.

"You're awake," she smiled, "Finally."

"I'm so tired," I mumbled.

"All you did all night was sit," she laughed, "I had to move around." She threw a pillow at me and I pulled the blanket over my head.

"Get up!" she giggled, ripping the covers off me.

"Five more minutes," I said, grabbing back the blanket and curling up tighter in the warm space made by my body.

"No more minutes. Up! Up!" She jumped on the bed until I rolled onto my back and glared at her. "Lazy," she said, sticking her tongue out at me.

I threw a pillow at her before getting out of the bed.

"Hungry?" she said. "They brought up food and I've been waiting for you to wake up to eat."

I picked up a plum from the silver tray. My chin quivered as I held the fruit, rubbing its smooth surface with my thumb. My nail bit into its delicate flesh, which first resisted, then tore.

"What's wrong?" Sahria said, coming up to me.

I let the tears fall as I put the plum back on the tray. "My brother used to like plums," I said.

"Mistlyn," my friend said as I slid to the ground, sobbing. Sahria cried as we held on to each other. "Maybe they're still alive," she said. "Maybe they got away."

I shook my head. "I don't think they are. You know as well as I do that no one survived except us. They couldn't have. You saw all the bodies."

She sniffled as she looked at me, the veins in her eyes bright red. "It's better to be hopeful."

I shook my head. "Will we ever get back?"

"Get back to where?" Sahria's forehead scrunched. "The village is burned."

"I know, but I mean, to humans, to another human village."

"I don't know," Sahria shrugged, "Maybe. But what would we do there?" she choked on a sob. "We wouldn't know anyone."

"We can't stay here," I whispered. "We're Humans, they're Reptiles."

"We can make this place our new home. They seem mostly nice, even if they're weird." She shrugged, noticing my expression. "Maybe we shouldn't see them as different in a bad way, but just, I don't know," she shrugged again, "Just different. Some are nice, some aren't, just like Humans, when you think about it."

"Nice or not, they're not us and we're not them. We have to escape. We can't just stay here for the rest of our lives, which may not be that long."

"How are we going to do that?" Sahria said in a hoarse voice. "When they brought us here in that cart it took three days. Imagine if we went walking."

"Maybe we can take a komodo," I said, "They have to have stables around nearby."

"I don't think it'll be easy to steal something like a komodo, Mistlyn."

"Maybe," I said. "I'll figure something out."

"In the meantime," Sahria said, wiping away her tears, "Let's eat. This is usually what they give for lunch. And then we can open the gifts."

The envelope from Dinjn was what I wanted to open the most, but for now, I said nothing to Sahria about it. I realized that she was getting used to the Reptiles, too comfortable for what I thought was her own good. I didn't want her saying something to Nexor.