At long, long last, the beating slowed and stopped. Lina gradually became aware that something new was happening. She was being pulled slowly through hands that, for once, felt gentle. Fingers combed through her and picked out a bit of chaff here and there.
And the face that bent over her - the face was smiling!
Lina looked down at herself. She felt dizzy with shock. She was - she was - she didn't know what she was! She was something new entirely, something she had never seen before. Gone was her hard outer stalk, and gone, too, her stiff inner core. What was left was a drift of long, golden fibers that flowed and rippled in the gentle hands that turned her this way and that. The fingers could sift right through her. It was a strange sensation, but at least it didn't hurt, even when they found and removed another bit of stalk that still clung to her.
Lina couldn't believe it. Had the old rumor been true, after all?
To be continued. . .
Repairing the Breach,
Debbonnaire
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