Page 19 of Finding Her
His eyes lit up, and his hands clapped together victoriously. “I packed for us already. We’ll be gone for a few days.” Graysen nodded his head to the large, hefty bag slouched against the wall.
He already packed?I understood now. He wasn’t asking me if I’d go… he was telling me we were going. Couldn’t forget to bring his pet, I guess. Dick move to assume my compliance.
I huffed out a frustrated breath. I’d been thinking day trip, not a complete side quest. Surely, he knew my priority was getting back to Earth. Not that I was making any progresstowardsthatat the moment, but the option would be nice. I pivoted mentally. I was going whether I wanted to or not, might as well make the most of it. The more I could learn the better, and it would be hard to do that from the couch. A little worldly immersion and bonding might get the wheels turning if I were lucky.
“This seems fairly sudden,” I remarked, voicing my hesitation a final time before standing up to commence my unexpectedly eventful day. “I’m taking a bath before we leave.”
“Have some faith, Faeryn.” Mykie patted my back. “You’ll love it. I’d be thrilled to go if I could.”
“I won’t let you down.” Graysen’s face was beaming.
My desire to bathe wasn’t exactly hygiene-related, but rather motivated by an obsession with my own reflection. I’d miss having access to a mirror for a couple of days. Turning the faucet on and slipping my clothing to the floor, I stood in front of the sink as I had done compulsively since my arrival. I would grip the counter edge and gaze into my own eyes, asking them about what they had witnessed before I forgot everything. I knew the truth lay somewhere within them.
I relished discovering any new, unique features. The most recent was a birthmark on my left thigh. Yesterday, it was the faint freckles on my shoulders. Today’s body scan was sure to turn up something else.
My hips were wide and shapely, with dimples spotting the backs of them. I cupped under each of my breasts and lifted, finding them to have weight but still fit mostly in my hands. My neck was slender compared to my rounded cheeks, flushed pinkwith life. Conceited as it may be, I felt as though I could fall in love with my own body. It was like a different person who I was meeting for the first time and I knew I would have a meaningful relationship with forever. There were no memories of bullying or societal expectations to dampen my self-image, just a female form whose flesh told stories I hoped to one day relearn.
Knock knock.
“Who is it?” Pulled back into reality, I realized the tub had been filling for quite some time and needed to be turned off before it splashed over the sides.
“It’s me,” Graysen’s voice answered. “I bought you some new clothing yesterday while I was out. I thought you might prefer them to my button-downs or Mykie’s tramp shorts.”
“I heard that!” Mykie’s voice shouted distantly from downstairs.
I cracked open the door, and his large hand pushed through a cotton bag. “It should all fit comfortably, but tell me if it doesn’t. Whatever you don’t wear today, bring downstairs and we’ll pack it for our trip.”
“Got it. Thanks.”
I kept my bath reasonably short, unsure of how long a travel day was ahead. Wrapped in a towel and dripping on the tile, I pulled the drawstring of the sack to examine its contents. At the top was a black satin ribbon wrapped in twine with a pink flower tucked into the bow. It only took a moment for me to realize its intended neck-coverage purpose. This ribbon would have to be worn around my throat to avoid raising questions about my anatomy. I was appreciative of the sturdier material, the one Mykie had given me kept slipping, and the threads were already beginning to fray.
“A pet with a pretty new collar—lucky me,”I thought to myself, rubbing the quality fabric between my thumb and forefinger.
Most of the shirts and pants were practical and loosely fitted in design, with ties in locations such as the waist and ankles to add adjustable shape. I unraveled a sage green sundress with dainty straps and a flowing skirt of asymmetric handkerchief layers that ended at various lengths below the knees, grateful that Graysen had also been intentional in selecting something so pretty for me. Realizing there was a small satchel blending into the bottom of the sack, I shook it out into my hand. Inside it were two halter-style bras, one black and one white, and some underwear and socks.
I slipped on the sundress and looked in the mirror. Finally, clothing that seemed to belong on my body. I looked feminine. I felt beautiful. Pulling my ashy hair over my shoulders on each side, I saw my reflection smile back genuinely for the first time.
Faeryn
“You can hop into the coach. I’ll throw our bags in the trunk,” Graysen instructed as we walked out to his carriage. Violet and Venus were already hitched up, one of them releasing an antsy screech-neigh and stomping in place impatiently.
“You’ll be fine,” Mykie encouraged as I froze in place and stared at the carriage. “I promise that your chance of getting eaten is minimal.” She whispered the last part into my hair, clearly trying to keep it out of Graysen’s earshot. I assumed this was her attempt at quieting my nerves. Surprisingly, it worked. I snickered out a subtle—but genuine—laugh.
My heart rate accelerated the moment I sat on the cushioned bench. The last time I was in this spot, I was terrified. I could practically see Graysen ducking into the room in his mud-soaked attire, looking like he had crawled through hell just as much as I had. My eyes fixated on the doorway and replayed the scene in my head.
While I struggled with my recent traumatic memories, I could hear Graysen talk to the Silvates, giving them direction as if they were taxi drivers. He was factual about where we were going and thanked them for their assistance. I had been so disoriented during our last “trip” that I hadn’t taken notice ofthe lack of driver. I concluded that the Silvates must be equipped with their own internal GPS, because… of course they were. Ten points for “coma” theory.
Bleeding into the grimy memory of Graysen from mere days ago, his clean stature ducked into the carriage. “Expect about a nine hour journey,” he said as he took a seat on the bench across from me. “It takes time to get to beautiful places. But we’ll be there by night.”
“What time is it?” I peeked out the window to find the two large stars were still in view, but was unsure what that implied for the remaining daylight.
“It’s sixteen hundred,” he answered after a glance at his dark silver watch.
“How long are your days?” Sixteen hundred wasn’t so unusual in Earth time: 4:00 pm. That said, I knew from their clocks that such a translation was likely not appropriate.
“Forty hours. It becomes dark around thirty and then brightens up again at six.” As he spoke, the carriage jumped into motion, causing his wide shoulders to sway.
“Do you get different seasons?”
