previous part https://jordynsaelor.com/2026/02/12/seize-a-sky/
all parts: https://jordynsaelor.com/cant-catch-me-now/
***
I paddled toward the plant-covered shore . . .
so I could sprawl in the mud,
waves lapping the backs of my knees.
Nothing
burst out of the grass (or whatever it was called.
The bases
looked like upside down noses
but all green
and the tops jutted from the nostrils like razor spikes)
to eat me
so I slowly
rolled over,
lifting my feet
from the water.
And I didn’t have feet anymore.
I had silver
swimming paddles
covered in micro
scales
and only remnants of toes
webbed together thick as a chunk of meat.
So
I couldn’t draw runes
with those
very well anymore.
Plus the runes on my toes
obviously were gone,
but I doubted I’d need to make any more
pencils walk back to me
so
no huge loss there.
It did hurt, though,
that my bone-digit frame
was apparently melted down to thread
and woven into this ugly gray sack I had on,
since that meant
I couldn’t make runes with mechanical fingers either.
But the sea deity
had left the invisibility runes intact on my–scaleless–ankles,
except I needed to find
a potent ink to layer them with for them to work.
And I had the healing rune
inside my elbow.
And I had
whatever this new realm was
with the green plants
and green-blue sky
with no Percy
or imminent bullies.
So I stood.
Wobbled.
Splashed out of the mud,
into the grass
and wobbled more;
my heels
had gone soft
and my toes
weak,
but I grunted
and kept walking
through the grass
that didn’t even cut,
I tottered over
crumbly soil
and I practiced
walking like a toddler.
I had no clue what to eat
or if the lake was safe to drink
or what I’d make a new hand frame out of,
but if I could walk–
I toppled forward
and lifted myself back up–
if I could walk,
I could figure
everything else out,
right?
***
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Jordyn Saelor 