Lupine strode toward them, eyes narrow and ears back.
‘Oh, wonderful, what is it this time?’
“Cloud!” Lupine said. “Y-you were supposed to meet me at my den when you returned today to talk about Farlight’s training. I-I’ve had to divide my time all day between, uh . . . s-sorting through spats and teaching your apprentice.”
“He’s taking a break,” Songbird said. “He’ll be there when we finish eating.”
“Songbird, I-I-I was-was speaking with Cloud, not you. Now this is e-extremely important, so Cloud, if you could come with me—”
“Let him eat, Commander,” Songbird growled. “He hasn’t eaten almost anything all day. Your one-credit problem can wait.”
“Songbird, how about you, uh, go into your den while I-I . . . while I speak with your mate?” Lupine said.
Cloud rubbed his cheek against hers, fighting back the urge to rake his claws down Lupine’s face. “No, it’s alright. I’ll be back soon. Don’t wait for me. Go ahead and eat your fill. I’ll finish up whatever’s left when I’m done with him.”
“But Cloud—”
Cloud sneezed. He shook himself off and gritted his teeth. “I’ll be fine. Waiting a few extra moments to eat isn’t going to kill me. Maybe someone else in this glade, but probably not.”
She sighed and padded back into the den.
“Come on, Cloud,” Lupine continued. He nodded toward the commander’s cave. “Let’s get this sorted out. I’ve called Farlight in already. No n-n-need to keep him waiting; he seemed to be in a rather a-agitated mood.”
Cloud lowered his head. He coughed twice, then followed him back. “Yes, sir.”
‘Maybe, while I’m out, I can go hunt down Fledge again and give her a briefing on the project. Nothing too long. Might as well at least let her get started gathering the supplies. Then I’ll go straight home, and Song and I can be together.’ He smiled. ‘Getting stuff done and being there for what’s left of my family. Multitasking. I won’t be long at all.’
Chapter 11
Ember
Ember yawned as Hye opened her cage for the third time that morning. A grey haze loomed inside her head, fogging up her mind. Somewhere in the fog, she felt the same sense of excitement she’d felt on the morning of the meeting.
“Tired?” Hye asked.
Ember licked her lips nervously and tried to blink away the little tears her yawn had created. She moaned softly, yawned again, and repeated the process. “You try sleeping here. Domestics are too vocal and will not listen to anything I say for more than five—what were they called? Seconds? Five seconds! They do not shut up and the dogs are even worse. How do you people put up with this? Other than leaving. Unless no one keeps their pets with them at night. But I know that you do because at exactly twenty-three, forty-one last night, I asked Thai. And I’m guessing that’s a late time. It felt late. Please, for the sake of my sanity, get me out of here. I’m going to lose my mind. Why does nothing feel real?”
He chuckled.
“What are you laughing about?” she said. “Have you ever missed a night of sleep? I don’t care how much information you give me to dig through. I need my sleep, and everyone here decided, in unison, to take it away from me.”
“I’ve had more than my share of sleepless nights, but it’s not that. I just find it interesting how you answered a yes or no question with a paragraph or two. You’ve been thinking about that complaint of yours for a while, huh? Also, your legs are looking . . . colorful.”
“I had a lot of time to think.” She sighed and stared down at her artificial limbs. They were dark turquoise fading into a bright orange at her paws. “And to play with Thai. Oh, I know what a second is and what it’s called, by the way. I just added that part for emphasis, because I kind of thought it needed to be emphasized. I don’t know why. Now that I’ve said it, I think it might have made me sound like a fluffhead. I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. I don’t even know what I am anymore. Why am I saying all this to you again? Oh yeah, ’cause I didn’t get any sleep last night and can’t think straight.”
“Slow down, Ember. Michelle’s going to try to take you to her place tonight, so you’ll get some peace and quiet soon.” Hye rubbed his hand against her head, then massaged her neck.
She closed her eyes and leaned closer to the pressure. A faint purr rumbled up her throat. ‘Oh, this feels so good. But wait, why is he doing it? Is he trying to distract me from something? What is he doing?’
Her eyes snapped open to focus on his other hand, which dangled at his side. ‘Okay, he’s not doing anything terrible yet. He hasn’t done anything terrible from what you’ve seen. He saved your life. So why don’t I trust him? I don’t even know. I can’t think right. Correctly? I’m tired.’
“Oh, by the way,” she said. A little burst of warmth burned her face. Blue and grey stripes pulsed with it. “I couldn’t exactly reach the litter box. Again.”
“That’s fine. Nothing I haven’t dealt with before. Alright, I’m going to pick you up now, okay? It’ll be easier for you to try to walk on the ground than that tight, dirty little cage.” Hye said.
“Uhm?” Ember mewed as he pushed his hands underneath and around her.
He hefted her into the air. Once beyond the walls of her confinement chamber, she could see a lot more of the Center. A few cages down, it opened up into a big, bright area with a lot of mechanical-looking things. Beyond that lay a glass door leading to another hall, this one with dog cages. Blocking her view of most of the place were several humans. Most of them she’d seen before but one was new. Ember shivered.
“What are they doing? Why are they staring at us? I don’t like that one on the left. He’s not from here, is he?” Ember asked.
“It’s okay. They want to see history as it happens,” he replied.
‘No it’s not. I’ve seen that symbol before. He’s from ARC, isn’t he? Please don’t let him take me.’ She shook her head. “But history is always happening. Why do they have to watch my history happen?”
“Because you’re a special girl, Ember,” he said. “Your history is a part of ours.”
Michelle burst into the room. She exclaimed something in her language. Hye replied quietly. Her hand flew to her mouth. She glanced at the new person and let her hands drop to her sides.
‘What was that about? That was weird. And what’s making all this light?’
Ember looked up at the ceiling. Several tiny suns pierced her vision. She looked away and closed her eyes, trying to rid them of the lingering glares.
Hye lowered her to the floor. “Take it slow, alright?”
Ember sprang to her paws the moment he let go. “Cold! Ow! Sorry, I didn’t do it slowly. Ow. Ow-ow-ow.”
A sharp pain arced through her body. She clenched her teeth and willed for it to go away.
“Otherwise that will happen. Which is why it’s important to listen. But now that you’re up, when you’re ready, how about you try lifting a paw? Something simple to let you try shifting your weight.”
Ember growled at herself and pulled back into her head. She mentally shook the fog away. ‘Why do I think of this feeling as a bad thing? Why not enjoy it? Okay, this is not pain, it’s something that’s not pain that I like. Alright, now take a step forward, Ember. See if you can do it.’
She lifted a hind paw, then set it down a little farther forward. ‘That worked. Yep, it’s just like walking, only I guess I’m going to have to listen to those whirry sounds every time I move. As if I wasn’t bad enough at hunting. Well, oh well. Not an issue right now. Time to walk.’
She tried a few more steps, heart pounding with excitement. Each new movement gave her another dull ache, but when compared to the joy of walking again, the pain didn’t matter. She spun around, vivid, sunset oranges flaring in her mind.
‘Wait.’ She stopped, heart sinking in her chest. ‘It doesn’t feel real. I’m not using my muscles, I’m just using my mind. Where’s the fun in running or moving
when I feel like I’m being carried all the time? This isn’t a good thing. This is terrible.’
“What’s wrong, Ember?” Hye asked. “Does it hurt? Is there a problem?”
“It’s not the same. I move like I used to, but I’m not putting any effort into it. It’s like I’m being carried, and it’s, uhm . . . it’s boring. Walking is boring now,” she replied.
“Oh,” Michelle said though her wrist phone. “I guess I could try to fix that with my next design but I’m still not sure how. Synthetic muscles aren’t enough. To feel real, it has to be real. I’m afraid this may be the closest I’ll ever get when it comes to affordable technology.”
Ember sighed. ‘I haven’t tried running yet. Let’s see if I can do that with my fake legs. Who knows? Maybe I can even run faster now.’
She pounced forward, but her paws didn’t react fast enough. She stumbled and landed on her face. Bright sky blue pulsed in her mind’s eye. Ember groaned and lifted herself back up, nose burning. She whimpered a few comforting mews to herself, trying to take her mind off of how much everything but her legs hurt.
“Are you okay?” Hye asked. “For your own good, you have to take this slowly.”
She ignored him and lowered herself to try again. ‘I am going to do this. You will not stop me from doing this, legs. I’ll do it. I’ll do it and I’ll go home, and everything will be okay.’
She leaped for all she was worth. For a moment she flew, weightless, through the air. She landed hard on all four paws. A shock wave arced across her spine. She winced but narrowed her eyes in determination. ‘I can do it. I can do it! Okay then. Let’s do it again.’
She did her best to ignore the gathering of humans and focused only on moving her legs. She leaped into the air like a fox attacking a mouse after a blizzard. The landing brought on another wave of blue crashing down on her, but the pain didn’t matter. She jumped again and again, bouncing and running like a playful fawn.
One of the onlooking humans shouted, reminding Ember of their presence. The human slapped her hands together over and over. Ember stopped as others joined in, making sounds like rocks falling onto other rocks, or heavy rain on leaves. The noise attacked her, and it grew louder with every human that joined in. When she looked up at them, the tiny suns burned themselves into her vision.
Ember flattened her ears, tucked her tail, and darted behind Hye. Her heart beat even louder than their hand-slapping. Yellow and cyan seared through her subconscious.
“It’s okay, Ember. They’re just clapping. They’re happy for you,” Hye said. His voice was distant and muffled, yet entirely too loud at the same time.
‘Why are they doing this? Why are they doing this! I gotta get out of here. Gotta get outta here, gotta get outta here, gotta get out. Where do I go? Where can I go? Wall—wall of humans. I need to go past them. Who do I go past? ARC human. I’ll go past him. More room. Don’t betray me, whirry legs.’
Ember charged forward and darted through the gap between his leg and the wall. To her joy, another human opened a door behind him. The person jumped back in surprise as Ember ran through. She found herself in a long, narrowly winding chamber. It brought her past a sleeping Yegor and into a room full of even more people—people and pets of all kinds. She stopped. Dogs barked, stabbing her eardrums and making her fur raise. They struggled against their owners’ leashes, each of them wanting to hurt her in some way for no reason at all. Cats in little cages shied away from the dogs. The humans themselves gasped, glared, and stared at her. She took a few steps back, still breathing hard.
One little dog broke free and trotted up to her, as if, despite being half her size, he could chase her away. He barked in her ears. Adrenaline entered her bloodstream, and she knocked his paws out from under him. He fell with a yip, then scampered, whimpering, back to his person.
Ember turned and ran back into the hallway, past the humans chasing her. Her ears rung from the noise. Her eyes stung from the lights. Her entire torso burned with achiness. She tucked herself into a corner, pressed her head against the wall, and cried. Green and orange, she needed to think about green and orange, yet only green appeared. The color of her family loomed a clawlength out of reach. She didn’t have claws. She didn’t have anything left, except a few mutilated pieces of herself.
Human voices surrounded her. Hye shouted. She shivered as the beginnings of a headache crept in.
‘I hate this place. Why can’t I go home already? I wanna go home. I want Mom and Dad. I want Kivyress. I want Hyrees. Please just take me home. Why did I have to follow Tainu? Stop trying to be a hero. You’re not a hero; you’re a coward, remember? That harehearted coward who’s afraid of the sun. Why do I even try to be anything else? Wait!’
She opened her eyes.
“Hey, are you okay?” Hye asked.
His voice was quiet, calm, and close. Ember spun to face him but pushed herself closer to the wall.
[Incoming call from Dr. Hye-sung Sagong.]
[Would you like to accept?]
‘No.’
[call declined]
“Don’t shut me out, Ember,” he said. “I can help you if you’d just let me try. Tell me what’s wrong.”
Michelle said something untranslated to him. Hye exclaimed and stepped back.
Ember panted. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I don’t—no!”
The human with the ARC symbol spoke something and leaned closer. His hands moved to grab her. Ember flung herself away from his fingers. Once again, she found herself running. Hye shouted for her to stop. The other humans shouted too. Their yells pierced her ears. Another door swung open, and a man with a cat cage entered. She dove between his legs and out to freedom. And snow.
She sprung sideways when her paws touched the frozen ground. “OH TAHG IT’S COLD!”
‘Thai, can you turn off the temperature feeling in my legs?’
[Yes, of course, Ember.]
The cold against her paws stopped. Everything mechanical felt numb in a way she’d never experienced numbness before. Feeling snow without its chill was almost like walking in the creek in those places silt liked to gather, but without the coolness that usually came with it. It calmed her for a moment. However, even without sensors, bitter, freezing snow still swirled through the air and pounded against her sides. She shivered and charged toward the nearest patch of woods. It was unfamiliar, but it looked more like home than anything in the Center.
‘I have to get out of here. They’re going to take me. I have to get out of here!’
Out the edges of her vision, she noticed her paws, which stood out like turquoise and orange trees against the lightness of the ground.
‘Thai, make my legs white.’
[How’s this?]
Her prosthetics became a creamy white. Not quite the shade of snow, but much better for camouflage. The colors of her fur didn’t change, but the less of her they could see, the better.
She bit her tongue. ‘Good.’
Her heart raced, her chest tensed, and adrenaline surged through her body. The forest moved around her in a blur as she ran. With each step forward, tiredness and coldness threatened to make her stop. Yet she kept going. She had to escape.
[You have one new message from Michelle Castell.]
[Would you like to view it?]
‘Not now. I have to get away from this place. They’re going to hurt me. I have to go home. Gotta go home. Thai, which way is Toad-something Mountain? Where is home?’
[I couldn’t find any results for how to get to Toad-something Mountain, but in case you meant Little Toad Mountain, you’ll have to turn south. You are currently going east.]
She spotted a patch of snowless ground leading south and ran toward it. It led to more snowless patches.
[Incoming call from Dr. Hye-sung Sagong.]
[Would you like to accept?]
‘No. Leave me alone! You’re working with them, aren’t you? I have to get out of here.’
Something loud whizzed by. Embe
r slid to a stop and peered through the trees. She shivered more violently. Her vision bounced in and out of focus as she stared at the stone path blocking her way. Everything around her felt like a dream.
‘The Wolf Trail? If I cross it, they’ll never find me. I can hide and wait for this snowstorm to pass, and then I can go home. I can go home. I can do it. I have to!’
She stumbled closer to the trail. Another pod flew past. She shivered even harder. This was the trail that Tainu had led her to, the trail that had nearly killed her, the trail she’d killed beside. It was death, betrayal, war, and large objects moving at speeds she couldn’t dream of outrunning, all in one.
‘I have to cross it. I have to . . .’
Her gaze wandered beyond the woods. A giant mountain loomed ahead, ominous and distant.
‘Home. That has to be home. Tahg, it’s so far away. But come on, Ember, you’ve gotta cross.’
She sucked in a deep breath, lowered her head, and ran. The hiss of moving air came rushing forward. She pushed herself to run faster. A pod appeared on the horizon. A different kind of pod, raised and rectangular. Her paws barely hit the snow on the other side when the machine whirred past. It let out an ear-splitting cry. Ember locked up and tumbled into the snow. The machine smacked against the tip of her tail.
She sighed with relief, got to her paws, then staggered into forest. Once she could no longer see the Wolf Trail, she stopped to get her bearings. Brambles coated most of the forest floor, making the snow naturally patchy. The trees themselves grew small and dense. Some of them were so close together a rat couldn’t fit between them.
‘Well, I guess I won’t have any problems hiding. Now I just need a den, or a fire. Or a fire outside a den. But all the wood is wet, and sparkstones . . .’
She stopped and blinked a few times to try to keep herself from drifting off. ‘Why is it so cold? Snow cold. Snow is snow cold, and I’m snow tired, and I’m snow going to die if I don’t get some shelter soon.’ She yawned and flattened her ears. ‘You have to keep going, Ember. Stuff some snow in the tree to make sure you can find your way back. Okay? Okay. Just in case. Hum, I don’t feel so good.’
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