The Belly of the Beast

Ch. 80, Reborn

Waking the first time after I'd lost my arm had been a struggle of blinding pain. But I'd woken in the Belly. To the same scents and sensations that I'd always known. Even without my arm, I knew where I was and who I was in the world.

Waking in the silence was different. The thrum of the engines, that distant tremble I'd felt my entire life, was gone.

It was as disconcerting as if my heart no longer beat in my chest.

I lifted my head from the metal, blinking away the fuzzy edges of my vision. The room lay tilted at an odd angle, which my brain couldn't rectify. Had they failed to kill us? Why couldn't I feel the engines?

"Dagger!" My voice rose, high and panicked. "Are you there? Dag!"

He moaned to my left. My fingers on both flesh and iron arms tingled with pain before I found the strength to crawl to his side. His head hung limp against his chest, and blood leaked from his mouth.

I am a doctor of the dead.

I forced the thought away and shook him. "Dagger? Are you alright?"

He didn't respond. I took a slow, steadying breath and then felt for his pulse. Strong.

And then, finally, I saw that the light in the room wasn't coming from the lights set into the walls. Instead, the light came from a massive crack in the side of the room.

And behind it lay only blue.

Blue.

I stared at it, disbelieving. It wasn't possible. We were in a room... on the Beast... but that's not what I saw through the opening. Was I dreaming? Or dead?

But no, my heart pounded in my chest, my lungs drew in a short, sweet breath. I was alive... which meant... which meant...

My body felt numb, a dull ringing filled my ears as I made my way to the crack then climbed through it.

And then I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Couldn't move.

An endless sky of blue stretched above.

Blue like I'd never seen. Blue like I didn't know could exist. Blue so high and far above me, if gravity surrendered its hold I could have jumped and fallen into forever.

I wanted to cry for the beauty of it all. I wanted to cry because I was here, but Xyla and Yana weren't. I stood silent, my heart breaking and bursting, because the price I'd paid was as wide and infinite as the sky above.

Oh Xyla, it's so beautiful. I wish you could see it, Yana. I wish you both were here. A cool soft force brushed across my face, carrying scents I had no name for.

Wind. This is what they called wind.

Tears ran down my cheeks as I rotated, the sky so vast and wide I couldn't even see it all without twisting my head. We were right, Xyla. It's blue. Imagine what Yana would have said. Was it possible to be both infinitely happy and infinitely sad in the same moment?

The wind ran gentle fingers through my hair, as if it heard my loss and sought to comfort me. The glorious scents finally drew my eyes to our surroundings. Trees grew around us, and gentle, waving plants that caught the wind and rippled like water. The land stretched so far away I felt exposed, naked... and reborn.