Page 20 of Phoenix Chosen
I sit up and stretch. My whole side is sore from sleeping on the ground. A bed of leaves is going to take me a while to get used to. Then I realize Kalistratos is staring at me like I’ve grown a third arm.
“Your belly,” he says.
“Oh god, you don’t have to remind me. I almost forgot about?—”
I freeze as I rest my hand on my stomach, and frantically look down. It’s gottenbigger. Not dramatically bigger, but enough that it’s way more than just the slight swell that it was last night.
“Is this normal?” I ask in a mild panic. “Is it supposed to be like this?”
“How would I know?” he says. “I have no experience with this.”
I get out of bed and check my clothes, which are drapedacross a rock near the entrance of the cave. They’re dry, and I move behind cover to change.
“If this b—” The word gets caught in my throat for a second. God, there’s a fucking child growing inside of me. “If thisbabykeeps growing at this rate, it’s going to pop out of me like a fucking chest-burster alien.”
Oh, man. Thank god, I’m still able to button my pants.
“Alyx and I have a plan,” Kalistratos says. “We go north to Athenos. It’s the capital of the region.”
“Is that where the temple is?” I say as I pull my shirt over my head. It feels like I have a beer gut. All those hours spent at the gym, undone.
“No, but it’s a big city. We can find knowledge about your condition. Hopefully.”
“Hopefully?” I say, coming out from behind the rock.
Kalistratos’s blank expression as he sees my outfit is almost comical.
“You look strange,” he says.
“These are my clothes,” I reply.
“You’ll attract every stray eye wearing those, you know. You’ll need to cover it.”
“I can wear that tablecloth from yesterday... Eventhough it smells like death and looks like a boarding house for fleas.”
Kalistratos laughs. “I have a better idea.” He picks up the cloak I was using as a blanket, and just like when he made me the sandals from scraps of leather, he alters the cloak so that it fits me perfectly.
The fabric drapes majestically around my body and is all pinned together at my right shoulder. It flows as I turn and I can’t help but feel like a kid playing on Halloween. I’ve always wanted to wear a cape.
“This works,” I say. “It even hides my belly.”
He smiles at me. Damn, is he handsome. It’s kind of ridiculous, actually.
“The road is clear,” says Alyx, appearing out of the morning sunlight at the mouth of the cave. “Are we ready to go?”
“We’re ready to go,” Kalistratos says. His only luggage is a cloth bag, which he slings over his back and ties across his chest.
“Need me to carry anything?” I ask.
“Of course not. You’re pregnant.”
“Hey, I’m still capable. What about all of this stuff?” I gesture to the collection of things scattered around their hideout.
“No need. We’re never coming back here again,” he says.
The land is mountainous, cut with large boulders and rock formations that jut from the earth like fingers. There isn’t a great density of trees, at least not like back home. Here it’s scrub, brush, oak, and olives, along with beautiful fields of multicolored wildflowers and fragrant grasses. Every so often we pass a small stream crossing the road, and we stop and drink straight from the water. I see eagles flying overhead, and deer roam in the distance. I can’t say I know a lot about nature stuff, but I’ve binged every single David Attenborough documentary I can get my hands on, and this feels like I’ve been dropped in the middle of one.
Kalistratos and I stay on the side of the road, and Alyx walks off in the scrub out of view. The road isn’t busy, but it’s not empty either. Travelers move by foot, on horseback, and riding those magic hover carts Kalistratos calls flyers. They’re a mixture of human—or at least seemingly human—and beast-form people. It’s a little startling how quickly I’ve gotten used to seeing them. The oxmen, tall and stocky in their human form with cow ears, tails, and some with thick brown beards, have set up stalls all along the road where they sell supplies and food. Kalistratos stops at one and buys me a stick glazed with honey.