Displaced

Chapter 96

As she sat on the main deck of the Flying Toaster, her gaze through the windows glued on the jagged mountains to the north, Arlette didn't know what was worse: the long uncertain wait for Blake and Gabby, the low hum of the "propellers", or...

"Sofie, I'm going to lock you in a cabin if you don't stop that pacing," she told the restless Earthling.

"I... I'm sorry," Sofie replied. "I'm just..."

"I know, this sort of thing is always hard. But you can't let the worry overtake you. You're driving Samanta and me crazy."

"You've dealt with this sort of thing a lot, haven't you?"

"You know I have."

"Can you teach me?"

"It's not really something you teach. Everybody deals with it differently," Arlette hedged. She didn't really feel like having a talk about dealing with grief and loss right now.

"Well, how do you do it? How do you handle this feeling of helplessness and uncertainty that just twists everything inside you into knots? Not knowing what happened after we left is tearing me apart. I feel like I need to be doing something, but all I can do is wait!"

Oh, was that what she was talking about? Maybe Arlette could give her a few pointers. "For me it comes down to trusting in others."

"That's it?"

"That's it. I led a mercenary band, remember? I had to send people off on important tasks all the time. It's easy afterward to start questioning if you did everything you could, or if they would be okay on their own. But you can't let that feeling overwhelm you. You have to put your trust in them to do what they set out to do. They can handle themselves."

"I know they can, but I just... "

"Look, Sofie, those two might be the strongest people I have ever seen. If anybody can take on a god and live, it would be them."

"I'm not worried about them, I'm worried about Pari. What if it does something to her?"

"What more could it do to her that would make any difference? She's already dead."

"Half dead," came the immediate correction.

Arlette shook her head. "Whatever. I don't entirely understand what Blake was talking about when he said Pari wasn't entirely dead, but from what I got, she's not about to start running around again, is she? She doesn't even breathe. There's no real difference between this and death."

"Hey, you don't know! All sorts of crazy things happen in this world! There might be a way to bring her back!" Sofie argued, though she sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than Arlette.

"I see something," Sam remarked from a nearby window.

Their conversation forgotten in the blink of an eye, Sofie rushed to Sam's side, her gaze following the girl's pointed finger.

Arlette wasn't too far behind, though her gaze went to the skies instead. It wasn't until she was sure that there was no monstrous beast headed right for them that she breathed a sigh of relief and glanced down at the insectoid figure quickly skittering closer.

The multi-legged vehicle appeared much the worse for wear. One side of the cabin on top appeared half-melted and a bit of the back seemed to be entirely missing. But it still ran, carrying its two occupants towards the airship within which Arlette and the others waited.

Two occupants, not three.

Despite her reluctance to get her hopes up, Arlette's spirits fell. The other two went quiet as well as they each noticed the same thing and came to the same conclusion about what it meant.