Light on My Feet

  “Eralla!”

  Ma yelled as soon as she saw me, launching herself forward and wrapping her arms tightly around me. The others came running as soon as their eyes landed on me.

  “Eralla.”

  Ma’s hands cradled my face, turning it side to side as she checked for injuries.

  “I was worried sick about you,”

  Ma added.

  I flinched when I felt someone poke my wounded leg. I looked down and noticed Batharalla.

  Ma pulled away, her eyes widening when she noticed the injury.

  “What happened?”

  She dropped to her knees, lifting my injured leg to inspect it. I braced myself against falling over.

  “Ma!”

  My hand found Agile’s shoulder to balance myself. Her firm shoulder. She didn’t flinch away, letting me hold on to her. My stomach twisted.

  “I would ask Ka-Tohthorayn to look at it.”

  “No need, Alla. I will take Tigeralla to the med bay,”

  Agile said.

  “But-”

  “Ma, I will be fine with Agile-Eye.”

  Ma stood up. I felt her eyes on the two of us as Agile led me away from the crowd and into a quiet hall. My eyes once again looked around, noticing the detailed infrastructure of the ship. It was built with an elegance unfamiliar to me.

  “Here.”

  She led me into a room lined with multiple touki. The walls were embedded with glowing panels, glass cabinets filled with sterile instruments, floating diagnostic screens, and metallic arms folded neatly into the ceiling. None of it resembled anything from Ma-Oktava.

  “Sit there.”

  She gestured. I limped over to the chair. A small hovering medical drone glided toward me, gently lifting my injured leg. I flinched back slightly.

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  “Relax.”

  She sat down on the hovering machine, holding something white in her hands. She unwrapped the cloth around my leg, inspecting the wound.

  “What caused this injury?”

  “A shard of wall.”

  She dabbed the wound with a small, fuzzy white ball.

  I winced, but she continued working.

  She grabbed a bottle, poured a clear liquid into a shallow dish, and dipped the fuzzy white ball into it. It absorbed the liquid instantly. She brought the ball over with a tweezer and pressed it against the wound.

  My hands clenched up, and I bit my lower lip to hold back from making any sound.

  She continued tending to the wound, and before I knew it, a clean white cloth was wrapped securely around my leg.

  “There you go. Be light on your feet. It will heal in a few days.”

  I was tempted to say “I am always light on my feet” but I held back. She stood from the hovering chair and walked over to a wall console. Everything here looked identical. Foreign. Unfamiliar.

  She turned her head toward me. My heart stumbled. I realized I was staring at her.

  “The ship will be departing soon. You should join the others as they bid farewell to your home.”

  I nodded and watched as she walked out of the room.

  My gaze fell on the cloth she wrapped around my leg.

  Finally, after the long, chaotic day, my mind had calmed. Calmed enough to recall everything that had happened.

  I lived.

  I survived.

  The day ahead looked brighter.

  And I was ready to begin a new chapter of my life — wherever we were going. With Ma. With the others.

  And Aourine.

  ?