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The air felt different, right from the get-go. Nimona couldn’t tell what it was, but it begged for her attention. It pushed at her chest like it was trying to get into her heart, but on instinct, she couldn’t let it.
“Are you strong enough to walk?” Ballister asked. He must’ve seen her wobble a bit to get her footing after shifting back to her ‘normal’ form.
Nimona shrugged. “Yeah.” She jumped onto the couch to prove her point, though she hid how glad she was to be sitting down. “Whether or not I want to depend on why you’re asking.”
“Have you been able to see the Kingdom?” Ballister asked.
Nimona raised an eyebrow.
“Or see anything, in general?” Ballister pondered that, then shook his slightly and addressed Nimona again. “The Kingdom’s changed a lot since you– since… you know, because you’ve been… away.”
“Blown up?”
“Well, yes, but, you know, you’re here now, so it’s not like it stuck.”
Fair enough, he had a point there.
"So... would you be up for going around the Kingdom?"
Nimona started picking at her fingernails. Touring around the Kingdom didn't exactly seem the most appealing, but that didn't necessarily mean there was no reason to go into the Kingdom. "Not really, but I could be bought with some pizza," she said finally. She looked back up just in time to see Ballister's smile widen.
Ballister stuck out his hand with a ‘come here’ gesture and started to say something, but Nimona had something different in mind. With his hand as a good landing point, Nimona shifted into a small bird and flew over to him. Ballister looked shocked for a second, but his smile quickly returned and he turned towards the outside.
Ballister started gushing about something — Nimona wasn’t entirely sure what. The transformation had taken a bit more out of her than she cared to admit, and she didn’t feel like listening.
He brought her to a car, and before she could’ve realized it might be a bad idea, she shifted back to her regular human form. At least the passenger seat was comfortable.
“I ended up buying it from the company we stole from when we were trying to talk to the squire,” Ballister said. Nimona looked over at him and gave a weak smile and nod.
Ballister got into the car and started it up. “She’s very reliable,” he continued. “Apparently the only reason the one we stole stalled was because the company disconnected it.”
“Ah,” Nimona said, the memory still fuzzy in her mind. She looked back out the window as Ballister pulled up, the wall coming into view.
The pressure against her chest suddenly became so much stronger as the wall came into full view. The guns dotting the wall… they were gone! There were glass building there now — greenhouses — and trees… and people! There were people up there! Nimona scanned as much of the wall as she could see. Some places appeared to be under construction, but…
Finally, her eyes landed on that Part of the wall. Where the director had been when she tried to destroy Nimona, destroy the Kingdom. Where Nimona had blown them both up. That event had been clearly marked with scorch marks, and an opening in the wall.
An opening people were going through.
An opening Nimona could go through.
It felt like a vacuum had been breached inside Nimona’s chest, and air had rushed in. Except, it wasn’t actually air that had filled this metaphor place in her heart, it was a feeling. A feeling Nimona hadn’t allowed herself to feel in so long, she almost forgot it existed.
“Yeah,” Ballister said, startling Nimona back to reality, “it’s amazing, isn’t it?”
Nimona couldn’t stop staring at it. She could see the mountains! And the river! She hadn’t seen them in so long!
“You were right, Nimona, it’s so nice out there.”
No more motion detectors, no more automatic guns, no more targeting missiles. Nimona could leave the Kingdom again.
“We could go there after we get our pizza, if you want.”
Nimona turned back to Ballister and smiled. “I’d like that.”
She was finally free.