Later, they sit by the fire,
watch embers fall to ash.
Odymn turns to the Slain.
"You said you are sorry
for selling me
to the Dock-winders."
The Slain nods.
Looks into her eyes.
Studies the sprinkle of freckles
across her nose.
"You know, it's wrong," she says,
"to help those shit-heads
in their slave trade.
Wrong to put
another Human being
into a cage.
Doom them to the honeycombs.
Sell them to a life
of servitude."
The Slain watches her face —
lips bloodless, narrowed eyes.
He remains silent.
"The tokens you kept.
Locks of hair?
An earring?
Someone's tooth.
"A whisker?
A feather?
"Not all Human."
"The whisker was an evernell's,
caged as a pet in Prell.
The feather belonged to a grell chick."
"The rest all Human?"
says Odymn.
The Slain shakes his head.
"Two Humans, one Gel-head,
one Dock-winder child."
"A Dock-winder and a Gel-head?"
Odymn's eyes grow wide.
"Also contracts.
Also sold to servitude."
"Them too,"
says Odymn.
"We should put all of them back.
Reverse the contracts.
Redeem the wrong."
The Slain thinks
of twenty one-suns on the trail.
Three hundred and thirty contracts.
Collected tokens for only a few.
"We can travel to Prell,"
says Odymn.
"Release the evernell."
The Slain looks at Odymn's lips.
At her hand on his arm.
At her tangle of hair.
He would do anything
for the love of this girl.
Even the ridiculous.
YOU ARE READING
Meniscus: One Point Five - Forty Missing Days
Ciencia FicciónAfter 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...
