Page 8 of Stone Cold Alien

“Pam,” the female whispered. “His hand is moving.”

“I can see that. Keep touching him.”

His. I was no longer an it to her.

The change spread up my hand and wrist. Stone became flesh beneath her fingers, warm and sensitive after so long without either. I curled my hand into a fist, then opened it again.

My chest softened next. I drew in my first breath in hundreds of rotations and immediately began to cough. My lungs burned as they expanded, forcing life back into a body that had forgotten how to breathe.

For a moment, a strange thought stole my attention. What if this was a dream? What if none of this was real, just another creation of my own mind to keep me sane?

But there she was. A female who had woken me. I wasn’t a very creative gharrgoil. I believed in facts rather than hopes. My dreams were based on memories rather than fiction. I doubted I could make up something like this, even in a dream.

With great effort, I blinked, clearing the dust off my eyes. The blurry outline of the female came into full view. Her mane was even shorter than I’d thought, each hair no longer than my fingers, the colour of a winter sunrise. Around her piercing blue eyes was a strange metal contraption, a fashion statement, maybe. She was short but her hips were wide and her belly soft. I couldn’t help but stare at the mounds pushing against her tight jacket, promising breasts made for squeezing.

The female raised her other hand towards me. She was going to touch me.

“No.”

The word broke from my parched throat, little more than a rasp, but she’d heard me. She released my wrist at once and lowered her other hand before it reached me.

“Sorry.”

She stepped back, giving me as much room as the narrow wall allowed. I stared at her while warmth continued to spread through my body. My battle wraps softened around my hips. My tail twitched behind me, heavy and clumsy, while sensation returned to my wings.

The others had touched me without asking and laughed when nothing happened. This female had stopped the moment I told her to.

Wind brushed over my skin. Moisture gathered beneath my feet. The world smelled of wet earth, vegetation and the human standing beside me.

There was only one person capable of waking a gharrgoil from environmental petrification. I had known that when Cairn explained his plan, but it had seemed impossible.

This female could not be my mate.

I refused to consider it.

I pushed myself upright. My knees threatened to give way, but I locked them before she could offer help. My right wing folded easily, although the muscles protested. The left remained stiff and painful.

“What… are you?” she asked slowly.

I did not yet have the words for long explanations. I was confident that I knew enough of her language to make myself understood, but first, I needed to drink. Mead, preferably, but I would take water if I had to.

I looked towards the lake. The sky was hidden behind clouds, but it was open. There were no walls and no stone trapping me in place. Freedom was a few steps away. Even better, a few flaps of my wings.

I extended my wings. Pain flared through the left one, sharp enough to blur my vision.

The female moved towards me, then stopped herself. “I don’t think you should fly.”

I had not waited hundreds of rotations to take advice from a human who didn’t have any wings of her own. I stepped onto the edge of the wall and launched myself into the air.

For one glorious moment, the wind caught beneath both wings. I rose above the castle and saw the lake stretching below me, dark water surrounded by green hills. Now that my vision had returned almost to normal, I could appreciate the beauty of my prison.

Then my left wing folded.

I dropped. I beat my right wing hard, trying to correct my position, but it only turned me sideways. My shoulder struck the castle wall before I tumbled into the courtyard below.

I twisted before hitting the ground, protecting my right wing. The left caught beneath me. Pain exploded from the joint and travelled down my back.

For several breaths, I could only lie in the wet grass and stare at the sky. Pain was everywhere.