Odymn and Wen-le-gone
leave the Slain
asleep in the shelter.
Push into woodland
to find food.
Odymn reads the forest
with runs and jumps
of parkour,
learned in her days of servitude.
A way of staying
strong and sane.
Wen-le-gone flows beside her,
runs among the trees
in the way of his kind.
Odymn finds a patch of spenel.
Fills the crummnel with berries.
Hampered by a broken hand
still healing.
Wen-le-gone digs
in the forest loam.
Brushes sand
from the bugs he finds.
Pops them into his mouth.
"Gone'is'?
What next?"
says Odymn,
in Gel-speak.
Afraid to ask.
"Slain felnas?
Will he recover?"
"The wound was clean,"
says Wen-le-gone.
"The slammer bullet
in and out.
He is fit, strong.
Anath far'natha felnas'.
With the anath
he will heal."
"When I was fourteen,"
says Odymn,
"I had an operation.
Appendicitis.
"Up walking on the first day.
Eating proper food the next.
"The first night
the nurse told me
to wiggle my toes,
blow air into a long tube
with a marble inside.
"Pneumonia prevention."
"Nen ben'nen.
Those can do no harm.
Nonagh log ma'itwithnath.
And they may make you feel better,"
says Wen-le-gone.
YOU ARE READING
Meniscus: One Point Five - Forty Missing Days
Science FictionAfter the Slain is shot, Odymn and an Argenop elder work together to try and return him to good health. As they journey towards the Themble, survival is a challenge. Odymn must add to her foraging skills and survive an attack by the vicious kotildi...
