Heir Ascending

In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act - George Orwell

There were bees buzzing all around inside my head. That's the first thing that tells me I'm still alive. That and the splitting plain that is, well, everywhere. I don't have the energy to open my eyes yet, but I can hear the soft shouts of Oliver. Maybe we're in hell together, and I didn't actually heal him. I couldn't help but inwardly smile. At least we would be here together.

Another loud slap of skin against skin, and my hearing started fine-tuning itself, like turning the volume up on a holograph. I was wrong before. I wasn't in hell, that was Oliver, not softly shouting, but very loudly interrogating someone.

"Jack, stop being a jackass," I wheeze.

His tortured, contorted face eased. As he and the others rushed over to me.

"Hey, don't try and get back up," Oliver soothed, "your heart stopped beating for a bit there."

"What happened," my parched mouth croaked out. I remember everything that happened before I passed out. What I was curious about, was what the others figured out during that time.

"How come you never told us you were a Papillion?" Kim whispered. Great. Everything. They know everything.

I just shrugged in response to her and pulled myself up using Drax's arm.

I couldn't look at Oliver. When I do he makes my heart race, and I don't know if I'm allowed to feel like that. He was dying when he asked me to kiss him, and as much as I don't want things to have changed, Oliver is Oliver. He doesn't seem like the emotionally cushy kind or committed relationship material.

"I found out at the anointing ceremony," I began, "and-"

Excuse me something behind the others huffed.

I looked around them, and they follow my gaze to the same dog from before, "What is that thing still doing here?!" I panicked and scrambled backwards. "It turned into-"

"Eden I know," Oliver said sternly but calmly. "I sware, it just, went all gloopy and turned into a human said it was called a Bons, and then went right back to a dog."

"Bons, as in-"

"The things Odyssey talked about in the illusion," Kim finished for me, not meeting my eyes.

"So your one of the good guys?" I asked it.

"Eden," Drax said warily, "Your eyes-"

"Are purple," I mused. "Yeah, I know."

"What are you doing," Kim asked cautiously.

"Talking to the dog-Bons, I think," I corrected.

Now that the blonde boy knows that I didn't kill you, do you mind telling him to stop torturing me? It huffed.

"Oliver, stop torturing him," I said absentmindedly.

Finally, someone who listens to me.

"If I can understand you, can you let them understand too," I gesture to my friends?

You're using one of my people's gifts to understand me, and yes I can turn into a human. That is if you have any spare clothes lying around, otherwise, I would be-

"Naked," I finish for him.

Well If you took your clothes off I would feel much less out of place. In fact, picturing you naked has been the best part of my day.

"Care to fill us in the conversation," Oliver seethes.

"Where's the nearest town? He needs some clothes in order to turn into a human," I ask. "Oh, and he wants to see me naked," I add.