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Ren leaves me by the fire with a fresh bowl of berries before he disappears into the forest with the body. I wait until the crunch of his footsteps have silenced before I rise to my feet, dusting my backside free of debris.
I won’t be gone for long. It’s possible I’ll even beat Ren back to camp.
For the last half hour, that holy church bell has haunted me. There’s a town nearby, one I haven’t visited yet. However unlikely, there could behumansurvivors living there.
So far, I’ve swept through a handful of overgrown cities. Not one of them has been inhabited by more than bones. Even so, I have to keep looking.
What good comes from clearing the sickened mad ones if this celestial home is empty of its prized species? For eons I’ve listened to prayers, blessed the broken, and healed the sick, all fromafar.I am here now.I can help them.
I admit, thinking about greeting someone other than Ren in the flesh causes my stomach to flutter. With Ren, introductions came easily. For a human? One who’s never officially accepted the divine as reality?
Who knows what questions they’ll have, or if I can even answer them? I’m only a designer, a watcher, after all.
I enter the forest on the opposite side Ren departed from, my mind mapping where I heard the bell. It took fifteen minutes to make it back to camp after hearing it, but who knows how far the sound had traveled from.
So my pace is brisk. I march through the woods, my dress bunched in both hands. The sun is high in the sky now, giving me perfect visibility in the dim lit habitat. Creatures scatter around me, but none get too close. I’m a woman on a mission, and it seems they aren’t keen on leaping in my way.
Eventually, I cross paths with the moss again. This section of moss is spread in an almost perfect oval, so manicured it could have been a decor piece in some rich woman's villa.
I take a right, bee-lining toward the bell's memory.
The brown compost morphs into patches of grass as the trees thin, and soon, I’m close enough to see the outline of buildings past the forest's edge.
A red brick building catches my attention first, its glass windows reflecting the sun overhead. Between me and the structure is a gravelly, cracked parking lot, and-
And agirl.
The wind rises around me, pushing the trees from side to side until they groan in protest. Something within me sees this as a sign.My purpose has only just begun.
The girl must feel something too, because her eyes dart over the trees, skimming past my spot within the shadows.
She drops to her knees, grasping at twigs that have fallen onto the concrete below her. Her brown skin contrasts the pale color of the pavement, causing her form to stand out like a flower within the wheats. Her wavy, dark hair slides over her shoulder as she focuses her attention on the ground, fingers pinching around sticks.
The thundering in my chest speeds up.A human girl.She seems to be the same age as the body I have, somewhere in her early twenties. Her legs are toned and capable of the performance she must need to survive in this new world.
But despite the battered landscape surrounding her, this woman’s clothing is clean and stylish. Clean leggings, a stain free shirt, and a gray fleece jacket to match her aesthetic.
I tug on my grass smudged dress as I step forward. She doesn’t look up as I creep over the threshold, leaving the forest and officially entering the townscape. I stand beside her a moment, debating how a person like me should greet a human as formidable as this survivor.
Her chin snaps upward before I have time to work it out in my head. She shoots straight up, spine rigid.
When our gazes connect, I’m stunned into silence. Her umber eyes swirl with alarm, darting all over my face. A small part of me, the mortal part, is self-conscious by her intense observation. What must I look like to her?
Before now, I assumed my body was as close to human as it could get. But now, seeing one up close? The difference is astronomical. Her hair doesn’t lift with an invisible warm breeze quite like mine does, and her skin doesn’t shimmer like some sort of illumination powder has been rubbed onto its surface.
I’mstrangeto her.
If only she could see me as I really am.
“Hello, my child.” My fingers twitch, wanting to reach out and stroke her cheek as if she were a kitten. I refrain from doing something so unpropitious. “What are you doing out here?”
Her gasp is audible. “Wh-what are you?”
Damn it. I had hoped I wouldn’t need to explain something so intricate to her. And of course, now that I’m on the spot, I’ve lost all ability to gather the right words.Oh, don’t fret, little human. I’m only the mythological goddesses your kind has worshiped for all time. Oh yes, angel? Quite the same thing, my dear.
I open my mouth to tell her I’m someone sent to help when a fresh voice enters the conversation.
A loud, masculine voice.
