‘Ronnie needs to look at your wings better. See if they need to be fixed…’
Her energy bristled and I knew that she had just seen what we’d done to Maxine.
‘Look at Dawn’s wing with her knife? Look inside Dawn?’
Yeah, that was pretty accurate.
‘Yes, but only because she thinks it will help make sure you can fly. Ronnie is a special human. She specializes in looking inside people.’
Dawn looked at Ronnie, who was now in the corner of the cave chugging a bottle of water. Our ration supplies were still here. Thank God the acid hadn’t gotten to them.
‘Dawn’s body will heal. No need for friend to look inside.’
Fuck.
I sighed.‘Dawn, your wings are made up of things called tendons. Ronnie thinks you broke some of them. They need to be surgically repaired or you can’t fly.’
Dawn peered up at me with her wise glassy eyes.
‘Dawn body is not like Kit body. Dawn body heals twenty times faster.’
Now I was questioning myself. Did Dawn know something I didn’t?
They did consume the green stuff, which our tests showed was regenerative as well as combustible.
“She says she’ll heal. Like on her own,” I told Ronnie. Not wanting to question Dawn’s knowledge of her own body, Ronnie looked up at me, relieved.
“Like accelerated?” She seemed to accept this was a possibility. We didn’t know a lot about the alien creatures.
I just shrugged. “I guess so. Can we wait it out a day and see?”
Ronnie sighed, leaning back against the cave wall.
“Yes. We’re not in the Dream War in our sleeping forms. We can stay here as long as we need until we are healed enough to transport.”
And when I was able to make another opening into Earth again. But we didn’t say that. That was the most depressing thing of all. We couldn’t wake ourselves up out of this one. I had to get us out, and the last time I tried I’d gotten a… a brain bleed I guess.
“I need sleep,” Ronnie finally admitted.
“Yeah, I don’t see any immediate danger if we all take the day to rest. Maxine and Dawn can’t travel and I can’t open portals right now.”
“We’re stuck here.” My best friend was astute.
I stroked Dawn’s neck. “At least she got us to Skyhome. On the ground we’d be ghoulie food.”
Ronnie nodded. “Don’t check in with Damien or anyone else, and no more mental speak with Dawn unless you have to. I want to give your brain a rest.”
Tell Damien we were okay… that’s exactly what I wanted to do. But she was right. I’d gotten a freaking nosebleed. That scared me. My hand went up to touch my nose now as if I’d feel something there. It was dry.
“Alright. Let’s rest.” I snuggled in next to Dawn.
We were safe in the cave if acid rain started. We had enough water for a few days and a few bags of pretzels. There was no immediate threat. Rest is what everyone needed. I had a feeling we would need all of our strength in the days to come.
With that, I lay my head down and fell asleep.
Eight
Idreamed. I dreamed so vividly and for so long I forgot where I was when I woke up. I’d been on the beach with Damien in my dream, somewhere tropical. We were all on vacation. Jeremy was complaining about how the sand felt on his toes. It was such a good dream that I actually felt a physical pang in my chest when I awoke and realized it wasn’t real.
