The Garden of Heathen

Changes

Aussie woke up in the twilight with a mouthful of Gertie's matted curls and a very localized pressure on her chest. She tried to swallow and it hurt. Gertie's head popped up to look at her.

"You're awake!" She smiled.

Aussie just nodded, afraid to try and speak just yet seeing how swallowing went.

"Good news, I haven't heard any fluid in your lungs yet," Gertie informed her proudly.

Aussie's eyebrows went up, her expressions going along with her thought of "'Yet'? That's lovely bedside manner, Gertie."

The younger girl helped her to sit upright and gave her a glass of water. The corner of her nose twitched in apprehension at trying to swallow again, but Gertie nodded reassuringly. Aussie braced herself and took a sip, Gertie instantly pressing the hollow can to her chest again and listening  for liquid to go down the right way.

Aussie rolled her eyes and tried to shake her head but that hurt as well. She was in her own bed in her raised house away from the trees. The builders did their best to keep her as far as they could from the pollen and grass that bothered her so much. Her home was near the punishment pits. They started as the old hole where they'd tried to dig under the wall. They were impossible to get out of without a ladder if you were in there alone, and extremely difficult even if you weren't.

"Can you talk?" Gertie asked her.

Aussie parted her lips to try, but it wasn't her voice they heard.

"Hey!" A deep voice laced with panic yelled out loudly.

"Oh geez, he's awake now too," Gertie groaned.

"Hey, get me out of here!" He yelled again.

"She threw him in the pit?!" Aussie asked though it pained her. Her voice was raspy and trying to make it louder was painfully ineffective.

Upset with this development, she took a bigger drink of water and risked the pain to clear her throat.

"Ah. Ah!" She tested it out.

It hurt but she could do it now. She needed Thena to listen to her. She scooched down her bed so she could get out of it around Gertie.

"Where do you think you're going?" Gertie cried, reaching for her wrist.

"To get him out," Aussie said, pulling her arm out of the younger girls reach.

"He almost killed you!" Gertie cried in confusion as she got up and tried to bar the door way.

"He's scared, like we all were," Aussie said, her voice cracking in and out now that she was using it. "He can't spend his first night in the pit."

She pushed past Gertie and went down stairs, the last of the mosquitos swirling in the cooler air.

"She has guards posted near the pit to make sure he doesn't get out and that no one gets close," Gertie informed her.

Aussie ducked down to look below her house in the direction of the pit. Two guards with spears and torches were standing back to back in front of the pit, one to watch the pit and one to watch for anyone or anything approaching. The boy was still yelling to be let out of the pit, the guards not acknowledging his cries.