A Dash of Blue

In which a bird is revealed

'Never trust a survivor,' my father used to warn me,

'until you find out what he did to stay alive'

Kurt Vonnegut

When she woke the room was bathed in a yellow light. Mal was the only other person in the room and he was still sleeping, his steady deep breaths were calming.

The infirmary had dark stone walls, the door to the office at the far end was disguised by the huge wooden closets which flanked it. That was probably the place where they kept the medical equipment and the gowns and linen for the beds.

The doors to the closets had no locks, and she despised them for it. They were either naive or careless. She didn't know what was worse.

The street where she had grown up had seen many injuries, much sickness and she wondered if all the medicine and all the equipment, she had ever dreamed of possessing had been here all along.

Did they know people died of fevers, infections and pneumonia while they sat here in their abundance without even bothering to lock it up? She turned her back to the closet as if another scenery could erase the acid burning in the pit of her stomach.

Outside the sun was slowly rising, it felt like years since she last had seen a sunrise and maybe it was, she couldn't remember.

It could have been minutes or hours when she heard his footstep, they were quiet, graceful, catlike.

"Morning, Mal"

"Morning"

She could feel his gaze upon her, but she didn't turn, her eyes stayed fixed at the sunrise, as if studying this one could somehow make up for all the ones she had missed.

"It's May?" The words tumbled out, and they carried her urgency. The very question suddenly seemed so important for her, how long had she been gone? How much had she missed?

"It's July" he sounded sorrowful, like he knew the way his words hit her. July. It had lasted 7 months. Seven months for them, a lifetime for her.

They were quiet for a long time the sun was almost up by the time any of them moved. It was Saia that turned her back to the sun, she couldn't bear to look at it another second. Instead she sat down on her bed and Mal turned towards her.

"Are you going back? When your wound has healed, do they intend to send you back?" She chuckled at his words. As if they would care about her health when they chucked her back in hell.

"No, I think they would've been here already if that was the plan"

"So why are you here?"

She shrugged but decided to elaborate. It felt good sitting here and just talking.

"My name is down for the school, I told them so last night. They have to let me study here, you know, it's written in the law."

"You're blue-marked? Why didn't you say that earlier, you probably could've evaded prison time"

Saia only shrugged in response. She didn't want to tell him that by telling her captors about her mark she probably would have gotten her hand chopped off.

"I'm the snake. The symbol for shapeshifters." He turned the palm of his hand up, revealing the tattoo of the snake. "But you'd probably figured that out yourself"

She nodded but didn't say anything.

"Come on, I showed you mine, now you show me yours." He grinned.

Saia hesitated, but decided to play along, it wasn't like he would recognize her mark anyway.

This time around she only unwrapped her hand, he didn't need to see her the black tattoo that snaked its way around her forearm, just thinking about it brought bile to her mouth.

She turned her fisted hand and studied him, his eyes shone bright, the curiosity burning within them, and it was this careless and happy attitude that made her unclench her hand and show him what had been, until a few hours ago, her greatest secret.

"It's a bird. But how?" His eyes found hers. "That shouldn't exist. We only have snakes for Shapeshifters, fish for Evhnas, dog for Trackers, scorpions for Oshnans and dragonflies for Healers. There isn't a bird"

She shrugged, "I suppose I just don't fit into one of the categories". Mal took a hurried look at her, she knew what he was dying to ask, but it would be downright rude, so he kept his mouth closed and studied her hand instead.

Then he sprang up, grasped her hand to inspect it further. She hissed, but he paid her no mind and didn't seem to discover her discomfort.

"How did you get these scars? It looks like someone tried to cut the mark off." He looked like he was going to be sick.

"Well, I did. Tried to burn it off as well. Where I born it could be downright dangerous to have, you could be killed for having it."

He shuddered, "is that why you wrap your arms up?"

Saia considered him for a moment, the truth was that the wrap still hid her blue mark. Not for the rebels on the street where she had grown up, no, she was a part of the rebellion now. But the fact was that nobody would trust a person that was blue-marked, even if they were allies. Plus, it didn't hurt that it kept her other tattoo hidden, she didn't need to see and remember it every other second. But for all sakes and purposes he didn't need to know all that, so she simply nodded.

He let go of her, seemingly deep in thoughts and she pulled her hand towards her wrapping it up again. There were certain things, she thought, she could never again reveal to another soul.