Rachel stood at the nurses’
station, flipping through the day’s intake charts when she felt the flare of
heat through her body. She smiled, but didn’t turn. Soon enough, Nazu fitted
his body against hers in a comfortable hug. She leaned her head on his
shoulder, relishing the fact that no one here cared or judged who she loved, or
how she showed it.
“How was your day,” he said in the
warm, deep voice that teased her with promises. His fingers trailed up her
arms, and hers traced the silver cuffs at his wrists.
“Busy. Tis the season. Our
incubators are full, and we have more babies coming every day. I had to put
four newborn peltews in the sink with hot water for awhile, until their mother
recovered enough to inflate her pouch.”
He chuckled, and she felt weak in
the knees. When she got him home….
“I knew you would bring creative
solutions! I never would have thought of that,” He said, nuzzling behind her
ear.
She turned in his arms. “Stop
that, unless you’re taking me home right now,” she warned with a twinkle in her
eye. “And seriously, we need more space for NICU. What can you do for me?”
He raised his eyebrows and she
laughed. The boowen guard in the lounge looked up, then back to his fishing
magazine. Rachel always raided the bookstore whenever she was in the human
hospital long enough to go outside. She knew little things meant a lot when you
work long, hard, sometimes boring, and sometimes dangerous hours. Didn’t matter
if the work was in the human hospital, or through the portal in the demon
wards.
Nazu said, “Well, I was thinking
about bringing in some more help for you here. I found someone you should
meet.” He took her hand and led her toward the portal. She glanced back down
the empty hall.
“Cornawa, tell the hall nurse I’ll
be back in 20 minutes,” she called to the boowen. He nodded without looking up
as she stepped through the portal by Nazu’s side.
It still surprised her that the
portal didn’t feel like anything. Just stepping through air, no different on
one side or the other. But she would know blindfolded which side she was on.
For one thing, she could smell the Starbucks. Her mouth watered. Nazu laughed,
but remembered himself and did not kiss her. She had finally convinced him this
was not acceptable in the human world.
Dogs in house
|
Houdini, Brindle
|
Time writing:
|
45 minutes
|
November word
count:
|
23,657
|
Prompt: More in One World than the Other, Part 1
ReplyDelete_This is my new world. This is my new world._ But saying it over and over did not help Jai’na in the slightest. She hugged the oddly slick sack to her chest and tried not cower as one of the fiery air transport monsters roared overhead. Made by people. It was all made by people.
“This is a way,” said the kindly older man, highly accented and grammatically incorrect, whose name had sounded something like ‘Melon’. But it probably wasn’t.
He gestured, and Jai’na guessed he meant for her to follow. He strode off the hard metallic surface on which they stood into a clear tube that rose up and down, intersecting similar metallic surfaces in both directions. He bobbed and held out his hand, smiling. Jai’na swallowed. She crept to the edge and stared at him.
“It is falling.” He smiled again.
Jai’na hoped he meant to say something else. She crept further forward, until her toes jutted out over the edge. There was a strange pressure from below, like they pressed on soft down. She clutched her sack tighter and gathered the same courage that had helped her lead the fight against the invading hordes at the lips of the caves; the same courage that had kept her going once she had fallen, to drag her wounded carcass deep into the caves to set the poison in the queen’s chamber, expecting to never see light again.
She looked up at the faint stars visible above in the forever-night sky. Weak and coloured lights shone, each illuminating their own patch of metallic world. She was not sure she was entirely happy about seeing this light.
Time writing: ~20 minutes
Very intriguing! Lots of nice details. Can't quite wrap my head around it yet, but I like the small touches and would definitely read more.
Delete