Clari’s fingers ran along the dots of the book. Ze paused pondering over the word. Carmine, the dots said. First, it was the usual definition hir mind suggested: bright red colour, pigment, hex code #D70040 – empty notions ze had learnt by heart in false hope it would give hir orientation. Then suddenly, where a week ago there was the uniformity of blackness, a fountain of juicy vividness spurted up in hir imagination.
The fifth phalanges of Teh-Mi-Ja’s first and second opposed fingers bent to twist the card. She paused millimetres before the picture would be revealed and allowed herself to guess.
I woke up on the beach, my body stiff and stinging from the salt. As I rose on my elbows, the crystal shell encapsulating me began to fall off.
I picked up a burnt rock and weighed it on my palm. The wind ruffled my feathers…
I looked up at Aidan, his bearded profile dark and bulky against the white hospital wall. He had never seemed that big to me before.
His dark-blue fins pushed off the air, caught the current, allowing Yleeng to soar in the direction of the mountains.