July 2, 2099
July 2, 2099The surgery hurt far more than he’d expected.
But then, how could he have prepared for an experience so new? He’d known nothing of pain.
Until the first cut.
A line of fire ripped across his back and he screamed. It was the first audible sound he’d ever made.
Feathers were falling, surrounding him with a curtain of drifting white. It took him a moment to realize that they were his own feathers. They had lost their familiar luminescence and looked alien.
He was becoming alien himself. The idea horrified him, until the surgeon sealed the wound. Heat seared across his back, following the line of the incision. Wetness spilled on his cheeks and he tasted the salt of his tears.
Another first.
His bellow made the floor vibrate. The smell of burned flesh was new as
