by C.L. Mozena
*****
Orion awoke to a much cooler atmosphere. He felt warm under layers of blankets, with a cool breeze on his face coming from an open window. He opened his eyes to see gentle sunlight streaming in and settling on his bed. The bed looked a little too white. The walls were all white, too, with strange pictures hanging on them. Fresh flowers sitting in a tall, elegant vase were giving off a sweet scent on the windowsill. He tried to move, but soreness and bandages prevented it.
“Welcome back to the world of the living, Orion,” said a voice to his left. Orion turned his head to see his brother, Joshua, smiling down at him.
“I thought you went back to Lunspae, Josh,” Orion whispered.
“I did,” Joshua replied, “but when I heard about the crash, and that you were hurt, I decided to come back.” He sighed. “That took guts, what you did.” Orion looked at him questioningly, so Joshua continued, “You know, rushing in to that fire to save that girl.”
“Girl? What girl?” Orion asked, his head spinning.
“The one you pulled from the wreckage, Bro. You saved her life.”
“Oh,” Orion vaguely remembered that night. The crashing spaceship, the fire blazing out of control, and the still, small ninmisn, crying for help inside the ship. “She’s alright?”
“Yep, and thankfully, you are too.” Joshua began unwinding a bandage from Orion’s arm. “Or at least you will be after I heal you.” Joshua paused and began healing Orion’s arm. The familiar heat of healing comforted Orion, pushing the blazing wreck out of his mind. “Guess what, Orion,” Joshua glanced up at Orion’s face, “I’ve been studying to become an official healer.”
“Yea?” Orion was falling asleep.
“Yep! Ever since Rick and I got back to Lunspae, I decided to take my studies one step further. I want to do something useful, so I’ve decided to become a healer and stay here on Olhoe with you.”
“You’re gonna live here?”
“Uh-huh. I’ve got to go back and finish my studies, but then I’m coming back here. I’ve thought long and hard about it. Once the kingdoms are joined, there’s so much I could do here versus Lunspae.”
“What did Mother have to say?” Orion asked, changing the subject.
“About what?”
“About when you and Ricky went back.” Orion stared at his brother, “You know, you two came to Olhoe as lunimorves. You went back to Lunspae as jisbae.”
“Oh, that!”Joshua laughed. “You should have seen the look on her face, bro! She stared openmouthed at both of us for what seemed like an eternity, unable to string two words together.”
“Yea?” Orion couldn’t help but smile.
“Yep! And then she started checking us to see if we really were her sons. She pulled our wings, yanked our ears, put her face right up into mine,” Joahua’s voice trailed off as he shook his head. “She even tried pulling my tail out, thinking it was just tied on somehow,” Joshua sighed.
“I hope she doesn’t do that to me!” Orion laughed out loud.
“What was really weird was every time she looked at Rick, she mumbled something about some guy named Roger,” Joshua chuckled, “He eventually gave up reminding her that his name’s still Rick.”
“I guess,” Orion was still laughing, “she didn’t realize that he didn’t change his name to go with his new look, huh?”
“Either that,” Joshua suddenly looked downcast, “ or she was referring to his father.” Orion stopped laughing and became serious. He gazed at his brother, meeting his eyes. “Rick didn’t want to talk about it,” Joshua said quickly. Orion nodded with understanding.
After being healed, Orion wanted to meet the survivors of the wreckage. He wasn’t able to discern whether the person he saved was male or female while he was trying to escape the wreckage, but now that he knew, he was eager to meet her. She was lying in a room in the hospital wing, similar to the one Orion was in. Upon entering her room, he found, not the girl he was expecting, but an angel. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Her soft, brown hair flowed over the white pillow and down her shoulders. Her skin was like new fallen snow, giving way to strawberry lips. Her pointed ears gently curved away from her face. Orion bent over her, hardly daring to breathe as he stared at her.
“She’s pretty, ain’t she, Majesty?” A doctor walked in and startled Orion. He straightened up.
“She’s a jisbae, just like me,” he commented.
“Yep,” the doctor nodded, “She is at that. They all are.”
“All?” Orion looked up at the doctor.
“There are only eleven survivors, Majesty, but they’re all jisbae. We still don’t know where they came from, though.”
Orion made a habit of checking on her anytime he could. He would stop in and see her before his studies, during lunch break, after his studies, before and after dinner, and before and after training. He learned that her name was Tanya, and that both of her parents had survived the crash. Orion would see her parents in her room a lot, and they wanted to know about the planet they had crashed on. They asked how Orion was a jisbae when everyone else was telblec, what were the customs of the telblecs, was the war over, and things like that. Orion only wanted to talk about Tanya, but obliged her parents while they sat over her. Orion began having the same daydreams as he had with Kelia, except he would put Tanya in Kelia’s place.
Orion didn’t concentrate on anything that didn’t involve Tanya. He would talk Alex’s ears off during training and when they went flying. Alex would just keep silent and listen as Orion rambled on and on. Orion figured that Alex just didn’t understand, so Orion would talk some more to try to make him understand. Alex just smiled and nodded anytime Orion asked him his opinion about Tanya. Eventually, everyone in the palace took the same position as Alex whenever Orion started telling them about the beautiful jisbae in the hospital wing. They would just smile and nod, not really listening, while they did their chores or walked in the hall, Orion following. Even Joshua got tired of Orion’s rambling, and went back to Lunspae to continue his healer studies. It was only a month before Tanya woke up, but it seemed to take forever for everyone else.