Chapter 342 Chapter 342
Terah broke the water’s surface and then just floated there, only from her eyes up out of the water. She looked along the shore to see who was there. Not many were at this time of the morning. The sun was barely sitting in the sky. She watched Konner as he came down to the water with a bag. He bent down and took off his boots and then pulled the legs of his clothes up. She thought maybe he was going to come for a swim with her, and she felt a flutter inside her chest. There had been no one to swim with her since she was a child. No one like her at least.
He walked out and then reached into the bag and took out a bottle. He was filling bottles with water from the lake. She smiled; this was good. That other water in the plastic bottles tasted strange.
Pushing back with her arms, she closed her eyes to feel the water sliding over her body. It felt nothing like the small tank or water from the pool. It soothed and gave her energy. She had never felt as strong as being in this lake made her feel. Her mother used to tell her stories about lakes and deep rivers, but this was the first one she had ever felt for herself.
She was never going back. Ever. She would rather die than go back to that pain and isolation. For more years than she could count, she’d been completely alone. In that small space with barely a tub big enough to fit her whole body in. The only others she saw in that time were the men with thick collars around their necks and one woman. Most of them didn’t speak to her.
A few of them did, but it was usually with voices that were filled with a pang of sadness, and she didn’t know if it was for her or themselves. The woman did not have a collar on, and she did not feel sadness, she was cold. Terah wasn’t sure, but she thought now that she may have been a doctor. She glanced at the shore again, not like the doctor here. The man and lady doctor that was here had such kindness and very caring.
Terah dropped beneath the surface and looked at her arm. She ran a webbed hand along the part from her elbow to her shoulder. How many needles had that cold woman put in her arm? She didn’t know, could not count that high. She didn’t know what was in the needles, only that it made her care less about everything after it. Rayne and the one doctor here were talking about it when Terah had been resting. They thought it was to keep her quiet and happier.
Turning, she swam with all the strength she had. Their needles had failed. She had never felt happiness since her mother had died. Breaking the surface again, she rose far above the water and then opened her arms to splash back in. The first time in all these years she’d felt anything close to happiness was when she’d swam in this water. Turning, she looked to see Konner standing on the shore, his hands on his hips, looking in her direction. When she’d found out he was her kind. That had been joy and relief. Relief that she wasn’t alone anymore.
When the men without collars had moved her to the houses, the women there had talked to her. No one in those places was happy, but the company was nice. She loved the children, cand ould forget about her pain when she was with them. Rayne told her that the children that were at the last house were also saved. All of the children needed to be saved from that life.
Diving down, she went all the way to the bottom and swam fast for a moment, she couldn’t think about all of that right now. Not when she was in this lovely lake and swimming free, it was not the time for sad thoughts. Turning, she shot upward to the surface again and then paused to watch Konner once more.
She swam toward him, keeping her eyes on him. He was taking her to where he lived, where more of her kind were. Her heartbeat was so fast every time she thought of being with people like her.
When the water was shallow enough, she could stand, she wobbled and put her hands out to steady herself. Walking like this was hard to do. Her feet, when like this were not meant to move in this manner.
“We’re going to go in a half-hour,” Konner said loud enough she could hear.
Looking up from the water, she nodded at him, then watched him pick up the bag and walk away. She didn’t know how long a half-hour was. She couldn’t tell time. Willing her body to change back, she decided she better hurry, so she didn’t delay leaving.
The first few steps were always hard for her, she wasn’t used to walking at all. A few steps down a hallway had been the most she’d really gone before, or from a building to a car to a house, but nothing like this. The sand felt strange on her feet, but she could feel the moisture in it and that made her smile. Looking up, she saw Konner had stopped and was watching her, she smiled at him and tried to walk faster. The smile on his face was real, she knew that. There was nothing better than a real smile from someone. It made her think of hopes and dreams and things better than the life she had lived so far.