Element Rebirth

13. Fertile

The sharp blade was dragged across the sensitive creases in my palm. I clenched my teeth to bite back a cry of pain and watched the thick red liquid ooze out from the cut. I turned to the Hunter who gestured to the tin in front of me. Biting down on my lip, I opened out my hand and stretched the skin, feeling it sting painfully.

More and more blood leaked from the cut as I stretched it open as far as I could then relaxed. A single ribbon of blood trailed down my hand and dribbled into the tin. I watched it slowly spread out, drop by drop and frowned, wishing that I didn’t have to do this. It didn't help that it was going by so agonisingly slowly.

Clenching my bloodied hand, I squeezed more and more drops into it, wanting to get this done and over with and to know the verdict.

It took another cut to a bigger vein to release more blood before I was given a strip of dirty cloth to wrap it around. It must have had some grains of dirt on it or something like that because I immediately felt a stinging pain lace through my hand and shoot through my arm.

The Hunters were obviously impatient while they got one of the Trackers locked up in a cage to sniff out my blood. I cringed at how it lapped up the blood and let out a guttural snarl that seemed to have some sort of meaning to the Hunter in charge.

The same Hunter, in human form thankfully enough, turned to me with an irritated, disapproving frown. “Still infertile. Next.”

The relief that I felt was enough to calm my racing heart as I clenched the cloth tighter and allowed two of the supervising Hunters to shove me out the door.

Immediately I searched for Nellie, desperate to know what her verdict was. She should have been around here, all the other young girls like us were loitering, sharing good or bad news and embracing each other either in relief or grief.

I started to panic, finding myself alarmed that Nellie hadn’t been waiting for me. I couldn’t see Kate anywhere at all.

My heart started to drum heavily as a couple Hunters started to shoo us off and back to the Lake rather than back to our huts, much to my surprise but it would mean I could go tell Kyle the good news – if he was still there of course.

“Nellie?” I called softly, glancing around frantically and wished I still had the Crystal on me to provide some light, even though it would be a terrible idea. The Hunters could probably spot the crystal from inside the building if I had it anywhere near this place. “Nell? You there?”

“Terra, we’re here.” I heard Kate’s voice call to me from near the edge of the Lake which calmed my panic. She didn’t sound too concerned so I took this as a sign of good news.

“There you are,” I said breathlessly, glad to find the two huddled together. The smile of relief started to fade when Nellie didn’t turn to face me. She remained emotionless, dipping her toes into the Lake water and curling them tightly before repeating the same process. “Nell?”

“What was your result?” I didn’t even notice her quivering voice, too caught up in my relief and happiness that I was deemed infertile to carry a baby – for now though. But that was better than anything.

“Infertile,” I said eagerly. “You too?”

She finally turned to give me a stony look but her eyes gave her away; they were red and puffy and the tear stains were obvious beneath her eyes. My heart dropped out of my chest and clattered on the ground noiselessly. “What do you think?”

“No . . .” I shook my head disbelievingly. “No. Nellie, there’s got to be some mistake. You must have heard wrong or –”

“See this?” I couldn’t see very well what she was pointing at until she snatched my hand and placed it on her cheek. It felt warm – too warm. And it throbbed too. “I got slapped in the face for asking three times whether I was hearing right or not.”