“This color will look stunning with your hair and red marking.” She turned to me, holding the material aloft, her warm eyes sparkling.
She didn’t ask me about my Walker marks, but I could hear the curiosity in her voice. She possessed such an obviously kind nature. I wasn’t a horrible person, but if anyone messed with me or those I considered mine, I was inclined to go all psycho. Talina appeared to be a genuinely gentle soul. Could she really be half-Walker? I didn’t get the impression that kind and gentle was part of their ... our nature. I could open my necklace and test it for sure, but I didn’t want to scare her away before having the chance to explain everything.
“Okay, strip off your clothes.” She gestured for me to throw them into a nearby bucket. “Stand tall and hold your arms out to the side. I’ll hose you down and then we can get these wraps on.”
She produced a large smooth device, like a bucket, but it was in the shape of a half-clam. I discarded my clothes and was turning around to face Talina when she dumped the entire contents of the shell on me.
“What the hell, Talina?” I spluttered as the clear liquid ran down into my mouth.
It didn’t taste like water. Actually, it was similar to the fruit we had been eating here. I was amazed and grateful that it cleared the last clogging from my throat.
“Oh, sorry, Abby. I should have warned you. We don’t generally wash, since we are always in the ocean, but the juice of the cucreamer fruit is our only means of fresh water.”
“I guess that explains why we haven’t needed anything to drink since we arrived here,” I said, sardonically wiping the excess liquid off of my face.
It wasn’t sticky. In fact, when I looked down I realized I was clean, as if it had literally sucked the dirt off as it flowed over me.
Once I was reasonably dry Talina showed me a simple but effective manner of wrapping the soft strips so they covered everything. It was pretty ingenious; they were secure and actually really supportive. She led me over to a reflective surface against the side wall. It wasn’t a mirror, more like another of the giant shells, but it did echo a slightly distorted version of my image back at me. My red and black curls hung loose down my back, and the meshy wraps offered more coverage than a swimsuit. My mark was obvious, even all the way down my hip and thigh. I liked the mesh. I felt liberated, no clothes weighing me down, and they were amazingly soft and light.
Standing there, hair flowing free, Talina and I looked like Amazonian woman.
“Okay, let’s leave; Gladriel doesn’t like it if we’re late for dinner.” Talina’s creamy features paled to a sickly white and her eyes widened.
Every time she mentioned her mother, the brown of her lovely eyes dulled and she retreated even further into herself. I didn’t like it. I wondered what the odds of me making it through a dinner without punching Gladriel in the face were. Low, I’m sure.
I followed her from the room and we moved out to a central landing with a curved wooden stairwell that went both up and down. She led me up to the next level. We emerged out onto an open deck. The moons were in the sky, spanning the four corners. They cast that lovely blue tone. I liked it. It was as if the world was washed clean each night.
The first person I saw was Samuel. He stood stiffly against the railing, staring out over the expanses of the water surrounding us. In the distance, following in a line, looked to be many of the strange flat-bottomed pontoons. Samuel turned at the sound of our footsteps on the wooden decking. Before I could catch myself, I laughed.
He stalked over to me. “Don’t even say it, Aribella. They gave us no choice.”
He crossed his arms over his broad and bare chest. I didn’t bother to look closely. You know, brother and all that. But I did notice the series of faded scars criss-crossing his arms. They were similar to Lucy’s but so much more detailed. Some were the faded pale pink lines of aged scars, others were still a puckered red. I hadn’t expected these physical reminders of his year-long imprisonment. For some reason I’d thought First Worlders healed all injuries.
“Abbs, I’m so glad you’re awake. It’s just spectacular out here. You have to come and see everything.” Lucy bounced over to us.
She was wrapped in baby blue, which matched her eyes. Talina obviously liked to color-co-ordinate. Her curves were highlighted in a really obvious way; she looked like a mermaid from the ocean, blond curls flapping in the winds. I noticed Lucy’s wraps were a little more detailed, hiding most of the red welts on her back. She stopped right before me. Taking a step back, she gave me a once-over. Lucy loved fashion. She never stopped trying to dress me like her own life-sized doll.