Mirror

Something Better

I set the crystal ball down again and wiped away the moisture on my cheeks. "Shora is coming here," I said. "He's not well."

For a long minute, no one seemed to care.

"I want to go for a walk," I announced and struggled to stand.

Not everyone moved to suddenly stop me, but it was close. I looked at Shimi, our de facto leader, and pleaded with her. "Please, I want to see the river."

She was obviously opposed. He face screamed "No," but she nodded anyway and helped me stand. I used her shoulder as support until I reached the door. "I want to go alone," I told her.

"No," she replied firmly before I had even finished.

"Please, Shimi. If I'm not back in an hour I'll let you all carry me home. I'll be careful. I won't fall in."

Shimi deflated a little underneath my arm. "In my opinion, you've been allowed more dying wishes than any one individual should get." She gave me a wry smile. "You get thirty minutes."

I chuckled, which was exactly the wrong thing to do. Shimi glared at me. Even Geera's ever-compassionate expression hardened with disapproval. "Thank you," I said to the room in general. Placing a hand on the door frame, I shifted my weight away from Shimi and stood on my own. I smiled back at everyone inside for just a moment before closing the door and leaning against it. The wind was cool on my face and smelled of prairie grass. I breathed a sigh of relief so powerful that my body shook with the force of it. It was over.

I may have misjudged my own strength. I was going to have to crawl, dragging half my body, to the river and even then I wasn't likely to make it there before my time expired and everyone came looking for me.

"Tazmia?"

I refused to turn toward the voice and refused to believe my ears. I froze, waiting to hear it again.

"Tazmia?"

It was! "Danny?"

"Yes." His voice was beautiful, deep and resonate, like it had been when he had carried me and May along the glacial river. I looked up then and there he was in his original form, his black wings nearly invisible against the night sky.

Balancing my weight on my right leg, I tried to stand and only barely made it off the ground before I pitched to one side.

I never hit the ground, though I didn't feel him catch me either. "What are you doing?" he asked with an odd mix of amusement and concern.

I smiled and let my body rest as ease in his arms, strange arms as they were. "I wanted to see the river again. Just one more time."

I gasped when my body suddenly left the ground. "What are you doing?"

"Carrying you to the river, but not for the last time."

"Danny-" I began.

"No, Tazmia, I can still save you."

I didn't reply, not until we reached the bank of the river. I hadn't actually seen it since the river Life had been revived, though I had heard that the stream had swelled. By the light of the moon I saw that to be undeniable true. What I remembered to be a stream shallow enough to wade across and just too wide to leap over was now too far across to see the other side in the darkness. Its depth was impossible to judge.