I woke up with a moan to a very worried dog. Sadie sat in front of me, her eyes watching my every movement. Her ears pricked up and her tail beat the carpet when she saw me open my eyes.
"Hey, girl." I murmured, reaching out slowly and rubbing my hand on the spot in between her ears, where she liked it. "How's it going?" She mumbled in pleasure, and I laughed. The laughter died in my throat as I realized something very important: I wasn't in pain anymore. The pain I'd been experiencing for the past hour was gone. I stood up, using Sadie's back as a leverage. She stood with me, and looked at me with expectancy, her head tilted to the side.
What should she be expecting? I'd almost fit my problem together before I passed out, so I regrouped my thoughts, the ones I could remember clearly. I pondered for a moment, and, to my surprise-and relief-the pieces started falling into place. I sat up, rubbing my forehead.
Sadie knows something I don't. She knows why I was hurting. I was hurting in my back. There was something on my back when I passed out. But that means…what?
I reached back slowly, without any sudden movements, underneath my shirt. I trailed my fingers down my spine, pausing every few inches. I was almost afraid to touch whatever it was that was back there; what if it was alive? I brushed the thought away as soon as it arrived. It was my own back, after all.
My fingers touched something after my fingers traveled down about five inches, and I froze, sweat beading on my forehead. I probed it, to find that it was inhumanely soft. I reached even further down the object to find a ridge on it. Without even thinking, I pulled on it. Something came off in my hand, which was as soft as where it came from. My hands shaking, I lifted it up over my head and to my eyes so I could see what it was. I clamped a hand over my mouth before I could scream.
It was a feather.