[Two years earlier]

"You have 76159 new messages." She sweared. When was she supposed to read all of those? She skipped through them, filtered them. Most of them were some sort of newsletters she had forgotten to unsubscribe; others were news from Red Shield about minor changes in the foundation but nothing of actual importance. Most of the friends from her last life had stopped writing within the first years of her hibernation. She did not blame them – after all 30 years was a long time compared to a human life span. Those, to whom she did not explain her situation, asked for her whereabouts and why she did not answer, other told them new addresses that by know surely were outdated. The latest personal message had arrived 17 years ago.

After the war Red Shield had turned into an organisation that protected and conceal chiropterans from the public. A network of researchers and medics took care of their health and supplies, while agents and reporters covered up leaked information. (Ever once in a while the members had discussed about making the existence of chiropterans public, but since the reaction of the crowds and other consequences could not be foreseen, they had decided against it.)

Red Shield's main base was hidden at a deserted corner of the Antarctic. Most of it was lying underground: laboratories, conference rooms, storage rooms and high safety bunkers to ensure the queens' safety during hibernation. Only a few houses for the staff were situated over ground. There Saya had lived for the past weeks to recollect her memory and prepare to go out into a modernized world.

Ideally some of the staff should always stay for more than 30 years so that a queen could meet a familiar face upon awakening, but this time it did not work out and Saya had to start over in a group of strangers. Anyway they were kind and she became friends with them soon, but now her time at the base was almost over and she had to prepare for departure.

Saya was sitting in her storage room in the midst of junk that she had collected during her "last lives". For now she could pack a suitcase and once she had settled in, the Red Shield would deliver the rest to her new home. She was looking around but there was nothing that she considered to be of any use. Most of it she had kept as a reminder of some precious memory that she feared to loose along the way and hardly anything was actually useful. She considered taking some clothes but concluded that the new ones she had gotten from the organisation would blend better into the latest fashion. After all she had no idea, what the world looked like right now. She had watched some videos and read reports, but it was not the same as living out there in the new civilisation.

In the end she left the storage room without the suitcase. There was no point in hanging onto past memories if she had no one to share them with. Her head seemed to be too full of them anyway.

She had tried New-Delhi, but it was too crowded. Then she had moved to and Lapland but the winter was too cold for her taste. Now Saya had ended up in a small town in Wales, living from one day to the next without a particular plan. She had found herself a job in a café and some friends to hang out with. Yet she had trouble to settle in since none of this meant much to her. She travelled a lot restlessly searching for new places; for somewhere that felt like home. However she had been searching for more than a year already and doubted, that she would settle in somewhere before her next hibernation.

Saya had just returned from her last trip and was exhausted from the long journey. She had taken a warm shower to relax before going to bed. When she reached out for the towel, she felt the pain again: slight, yet present. Every once in a while her neck and shoulder ached when she carried something heavy or made sudden movements. As it was not very intense, she had never given it much attention but recently it appeared more frequently and she began to worry, since pain without injury was knew to her.

Saya ran her fingers over her neck and felt some disturbance in her otherwise perfectly soft skin, like a scratch or scar. She wiped the steam off the mirror to see what was wrong. Saya's heart skipped a beat, when she discovered the red line that was no longer than her pinkie and no wider than a hair. What was it? If it was an injury, why did it not heal?

Suddenly a pale face framed with blond hair returned to her mind. What was her name again? Iren: her body marked with cracking lines, the expression of despair when the thorn defeated her. Saya shuddered at the sad memory. Was it the same curse that had befallen her now? Motionless she was staring at the reflection in the mirror, at the red line and at her skin that was turning paler and paler until it had the same colour as Iren's.

Eventually she realised that she was shivering with cold. She covered her naked body and the thorn with a dressing gown and decided to calm herself down by a cup of hot chocolate. She would contact the Doctors from Red Shield and have them check on her. After all it was just a tiny scratch….probably completely harmless. Maybe there had been cases like this before. Maybe Red Shield's consultant Doctor Leonhard knew what to do. They would send her a ride and tomorrow she would be back at the base, getting some medical infusion and everything would be back to normal. And yet the more she thought about it, the more she doubted it. She had been oddly tired lately even though her last hibernation ended not even two years ago.