My return to consciousness was sudden, and blinding. I threw my arm up to block the stabbing light, rolling to the side to avoid it. Somewhere in the middle of that movement I realized since the light was hurting me, I could see. I could see!
My hands flew immediately to my face, feeling around at the miracle that had occurred. After confirming my eyes were actually there, and this was not a fanciful dream, I cautiously opened them again. The light hurt, but it wasn’t the stabbing pain from before. I blinked rapidly, trying to adjust my eyes to the light. While they adjusted, my surroundings slowly came into view.
Out of a blurry mass came a bed, lumps in the blankets where my legs lay. Beyond that was a blank white wall, unadorned with decoration or color. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. The subtle shade variations, where paint had been applied thicker than the surrounding areas, the spidery cracks and flakes spread across the wall, and the slight wave in the contour of the wall all captured my eyes, holding them with the sheer intensity of appearance.
After staring at the wall for what felt like a year, I realized I was staring at a wall and turned my attention to other things. To the left, a bank of instruments and machines hummed against the wall, wires and tubes leading to my bed. To my right, a door with a bank of windows. I stared at everything in wonder, trying to take it all in. It wasn’t every day one got their sight back.
With the surprise of suddenly regaining vision, I had started to breathe heavier and quicker as the excitement got to me. I finally realized that my chest should have been in excruciating pain only after ten minutes. Cautiously reaching up and pushing against my ribs, I was delighted to feel no pain. It seemed my father–if he was my father, I not entirely convinced–had healed all of my injuries.
I laughed with joy, exhilarated by the prospect. The deep laugh reached down to my toes, shaking my entire body. I leapt out of the bed, moving freely for the first time in a week, and ran around the room, shouting at the top of my voice. I ran, skipped, and jumped my way around the small room, from floor to bed to floor again, body flooded with energy.
A loud gasp from the door shook me out of my manic dance. Spinning around, I saw a nurse begin to crumble to the ground, presumably from the shock of seeing a formerly bedridden blind patient leaping about his room. Not wanting to be the cause of a concussion, I bounded across the room and caught her before she hit the ground. It must have only been a light fainting spell, because the nurse came to as I set her back on her feet.
“Oh, thank you,” she said, voice a light trill that reminded me of a songbird. “I don’t know what came over me.”
I shrugged. “I didn’t mean to startle you, I was just overjoyed to find out I’d been healed, I went a bit crazy.”
She shook her head. “It wasn’t the mad dancing that startled me.” Lifting a shaky finger, the nurse pointed at my face. “It was your eyes.”
I shrugged, luxuriating in the sensation of freely moving my chest and arms. Before I could reply, I noticed the nurse had a faint scar on her scaly cheek, a pale white line among the green. The sight was something very ordinary, but I was inexplicably entranced by it.
“That,” she said pointing again. “Your eyes get all weird when you do that.”
Weird? Since when did a medical professional refer to something as weird? So I asked her as much. “Weird? What do you mean?”
Her face gained a quizzical look before she answered, “Really, really intense. But that not really enough to describe it. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they flashed for a moment. Truly flashing, like a light.”
That was certainly a strange way to describe someone’s eyes. “Ookay,” I said slowly, “yes, I’d say that’s a little weird.”
The nurse jumped. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to insult or offend you. It’s just, you startled me.”
I waved my hand. “It’s fine.”
She visibly sagged with relief. “Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I need to ask you something.”
I lifted my eyebrows–now that I had my eyes back, it felt normal again–and said, “Ask away.”
“How in the world did you go from bedridden to fully healed in a few hours? Not to mention YOU REGREW EYES.”
Her voice climbed at the end, highlighting the fact that I was a medical miracle. Despite the fact I knew exactly why, I hesitated while answering. Most people didn’t believe in Elder Beings, or thought them a myth. And how was I supposed to explain that I wasn’t actually a full jahen, but rather a jahen-Elder Being hybrid? No, best to feign ignorance.
“I…I don’t know,” I said, trying my best to sound confused. “I just woke up and I could see.” That was not entirely a lie.
“Hmm. We’re going to have to go see Doctor B’honnes.”
When B’honnes saw me, he had much the same reaction as the nurse. Shock, followed by disbelief. You would think as the top doctor in the sectors top hospital, he’d be accustomed to seeing strange things, but apparently not. After his initial shock had worn off, B’honnes put me through a vast number of tests, scans, and more tests. At the end of it, he was left scratching his head.
“I have no idea how this happened,” he confessed. “There is nothing abnormal about any of the tests, other than the obvious. From what I can determine, you just woke up fully healed.”
The confused expression on his face was almost enough for me to tell him what really happened, but I still felt it was best to remain silent about the whole thing.
“There’s nothing that would suggest what caused this? Nothing strange at all?” I asked.
“Strange? Yes. A great many things are strange. For one, your eyesight is the best I’ve ever seen. I know jahen tend to have exceptional eyesight to begin with, but yours is exceptional even for a jahen. And you seem to have gained a good deal of weight, most of which seems to be muscle. But for the love of Eythra, I have no idea how this came to be. I’d like to keep you under observation for a while, to see if there are any negatives that come from this.”
I really didn’t want to be in the hospital any longer. “Do you happen to know when Clint is returning? I will be leaving with him.”
I couldn’t fly a ship out to wherever he was, the Rebellion didn’t have nearly enough ships to spare, nor did I know where to find him.
B’honnes shook his head. “I have no idea. You could try contacting him from the communications room the military set up, though.”
I thought that was an excellent idea. After gathering directions, I made my way to the room and instructed the operator to contact Hand of War. He gaped at me for a moment before I barked at him to do his job.
It was nearly twenty minutes later when he made contact after jumping from relay to relay, tracking down the location of Hand of War. It wasn’t easy to contact a Special Forces ship operating in enemy territory, but after the necessary precautions were made and the right hoops jumped, the familiar face of Ker’keq appeared on the screen. As the unofficial communications officer of the Bandits. Ker’keq handled nearly everything that came through the Bandits’ comms.
The look of shock on his face was priceless. I held up my hand, one finger extended. “Save it. yes, it’s a miracle. No, you’re not dreaming. Could you get Clint for me?”
Nodding wordlessly, Ker’keq disappeared for several minutes. When he returned, it was with a great deal of noise, namely the pounding of feet as a being of generous heft bounded across the floor. The wild-eyed face of Clint Stone blinked into view on the screen, mouth stretched wide in a toothy grin.
“Well, holy shit. Ker’keq wasn’t kidding. You really are better.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” I said. Clint laughed.
“And so calm about it, I see. How is this possible?” he asked.
I knew, and I did intend to tell Clint, but not while there were others who could hear. “I wasn’t calm earlier, believe me. And I don’t really know. I just woke up like this.”
Clint’s mouth opened and closed rapidly, his brow furrowed. Finally, he asked “What now? Are you being discharged from the hospital or…?”
“B’honnes wants to keep me under observation, but yes.”
Clint’s already wide grin grew even wider. “We’ll come get you.” His grin faded a little. “But that will be in a few days. We’ve got to take care of…things, first.”
I understood. “That’s fine.” Besides, with a little more time here, I would be able to talk to Mylaxi again.
“Sir,” the operator said nervously, “we’ve got to cut the line soon.”
Clint looked through the screen. “You best stay out of trouble, Tedix. I fully intend to hug you half to death when I see you, and I can’t do that if you’re injured.”
I grinned and nodded. “I think I can manage that,” I said as the screen cut to black.
Here ends Book Two of The Chronicles of Clint Stone: Rebellion