AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Within a few hours, myself, Charlie, Daithi and Zaide were driving to the airport, where we would board an airplane. Charlie was the only one of us who was familiar with that form of transport.
Zaide whispered to me that many other realms traveled by sea or magic, and at that moment in time, I wanted to travel like someone from another world too. Planes were frightening. In my day, we only used them for war.
I clenched my fists at my sides as the car sped to our destination. The smell of the artificial air freshener in the car made my stomach roll as I stared out the window. Houses, streets, and shops passed by too quickly for me to process, and I closed my eyes to shut them out.
I wish Winnie was here.
A tiny whimper escaped my lips. She couldn’t help me now. Once my guide in this new century, new life, new body, she had set me adrift. I had no one.
I have Charlie. I have Zaide.
I did have them. But Charlie was, understandably, busy trying to get us to the right place to save Savida, and I also got the impression he was uncomfortable with me as a human.
And while Zaide had been nothing but attentive and kind, I didn’t know him. He didn’t know me. I was comfortable with him, but he didn’t understand why living in this form was so difficult for me, and I didn’t have the energy to tell him.
Why did you have to do this, Winnie?
I worried we would be too late to save Savida. Too late to save Winnie from herself. I wanted to do both with everything in me, but it felt like walking underwater trying to get my body to work with me. I’d forgotten how overwhelming being human was.
A large hand on my thigh made me jump back to the present. I relaxed slightly, realizing it was Zaide, and something inside me settled.
He didn’t acknowledge his movement, nor did he draw attention to how I was struggling. He just let me know he was there. My gaze moved over his face softly. He was so kind.
My hearing tuned in as he’d been asking Charlie questions about airplanes to reassure all of us. Charlie gave us a basic understanding of the machine and gave him the statistics of the likelihood of an accident, which calmed everyone down considerably.
In the port of air travel, as Zaide called it, I gasped at the amount of people, the bright lights, the size of the building, the shops, the plane. Seeing things on a TV with cat eyes and seeing them in real life were wildly different experiences. The natural indifference I had as a cat protected me from feelings of shock, fear, intrigue, and worry—all feelings that battered me to the rhythm of my quickened heartbeat as a human.
There are so many people. So many things, I thought. I was overwhelmed with the images my brain was processing, and I supposed that since my human brain was dormant for so long, it was struggling to keep up.
“Savida will be sorry he missed such an exciting port,” Zaide said as we walked with our luggage to the check-in desks.
Charlie laughed. “Tax free too, so it’s cheaper than anywhere else.”
“We will forget to tell him that when we come home.”
Savida was in a coffin. He’d gotten collected by a funeral director and taken to the airport separate from us. Daithi spelled him to look human and seem dead to human eyes. Charlie assured us it would be very disrespectful to look into a closed casket but asked him to spell Savida, just in case.
In the queue to check in, I started to feel unwell. The voices on the overhead speaker sounded so close they could have been shouting directly into my ears. The lights seemed to blur and swirl around me. I could smell coffee from the café, and the metallic taste in my mouth made my stomach churn.
“Daithi, you guys definitely look like you do in your passports, right?” Charlie whispered.
Daithi scoffed. “Yes.”
“Just checking.”
“This line is taking a long time,” he muttered angrily. “Why is it taking so long?”
“If I had to guess, I’d say the check-in agent is new. See how they’ve got a supervisor hanging over them?”
Charlie was right. As we were called forward and handed our passports over the gentleman, Fred, he explained that he was new to his role and asked for us to be patient with him. Unfortunately, Daithi had little patience as we waited ten minutes while the man clicked on his computer.
When a frown appeared on Fred’s face, a cold sweat broke out across my whole body. I looked at Charlie in a panic. “Don’t worry, deep breaths,” he whispered and stroked my hair.
The agent looked over the computer with a sheepish grin. “I’m afraid I’m having trouble. Just let me check with my supervisor.” He disappeared to speak with the woman who had been helping him earlier and I tried to take deep, steadying breaths.
“Charlie, what is happening?” Daithi growled.
“Nothing to worry about. Just be patient.” His tone was as calm and relaxed as his body as he leaned against the desk. With his sunglasses on his head, he looked like a movie star. Not that I would ever tell him that.
