It was dark. She could taste salty tears on her tongue. She tried to open her eyes, Nothing was there. She blinked, once, twice. The darkness around her left nothing to see. She felt small, and… a bit heavy. She tried to move, her limbs sloshing around against some metal. Her eyes clacked into something, dissolving and reforming seconds later. She panicked and felt her face, confused. Her hands went right through. She screamed but made no noise.

*****

 She woke with a start, her little sister whining about something just outside her locked door. What a saturday morning, already half of it lost to sleep. Oh well, she never really like the daytime anyways. She’d joked once that she must’ve belonged to the moon since she only liked the night. Her mother, not one to take jokes very well, said “It’s a shame you aren’t, would’ve been better for you to be the daughter of the moon than the daughter of him.” Gwyn loved her father. Mother did not. She never said why. Her reasons were inconsistent. Nothing made sense when you asked her about it, so people had stopped asking.

“Yeah yeah, a few more minutes Maria…” She sighed, digging her face deep into her pillow as her sister’s whines and screams intensified. Finally she couldn't take it. She opened the door quickly and tossed a pillow at Maria’s face, sending her sliding across the floor. She went from cries and screams to steady giggles at getting her usual morning greeting.

“Again again!” Maria cried steadily, pounding at the door that had shut before she reached it. Gwyn could be heard inside. Maria recognized that dreadful noise and ran screaming out into the back living room. Gwyn stepped from her room with a vicious smile, holding what looked to be a gun. She ran after her sister, who, still screaming, ran outside. Eventually Maria collapsed from exhaustion and Gwyn open fired, releasing a high speed pillow. She reloaded quickly as Maria began to roll downhill. She kneeled and took aim, firing a little bit high so gravity and friction would take it down. As if by precise calculations (or sheer luck) the pillow landed smack on Maria’s face, who screamed in surprise. Maria wasn’t down for long, however. She picked up the pillow and ran at Gwyn with renewed energy. Gwyn fired, smirking with success.

“DODGE THAT!” She challenged, watching the pillow fly towards her sister. Maria smiled and took the pillow to the belly, tossing both of the pillows aside. Gwyn realized her fatal error, quickly reloading with her last pillow. She fired again, this one clotheslining her sister. Perfect, just enough time to get to the other pillows for more shots. She ran towards Maria, who was croaking in disbelief about some unexpected speed boost the pillow had received. Almost past her sister, Gwyn felt Maria’s hand close around her ankle. She looked down as she fell, seeing Maria’s devilish grin. Maria pried the cannon from her sister’s hands and declared victory with three hits from a pillow.

After that they both went inside and took a nap in the sunlit, warm back living room. The carpet was always the perfect temperature for napping, and the sun was dulled enough that it was always nice on the eyes. Gwyn’s stomach growled and she realized she had yet to eat breakfast. When she got into the kitchen and checked the clock, she was shocked to see that, after waking up at 11 and pillow fighting for twenty minutes, they had been napping for a full four hours. She understood that they all loved to sleep, she understood that her sleep cycles were crooked, but she didn't expect her sun loving sister to be napping beside her for so long. After puzzling that scenario over a bowl of fruity pebbles, she returned to her room to get ready for evening chores.

One, make sure that all the water is full for the horses. Two, give the horses a bit more feed. Three, make sure the barn was clean. Four, clean all clothes, and finally the normal chores of watching for message capsules. She winced as she put on her gloves. They hurt a bit more than she thought. She looked at the box beside her, wondering if she should find a better place to hide it. Eventually she decided to do just that. She pulled out the heart and was mildly surprised to find the box nearly full of the same salty tears. She didn't know what exactly to do, considering she was pretty sure she hadn’t cried that much. She reached into the box and picked it up carefully, the tears freezing beneath her touch to her surprise. She put it in her pocket, the tears separating from the heart and floating around her, the frozen bit melting quickly. That would certainly make it more difficult to hide. She felt almost attached to it now, though she couldn't quite explain why. She opened the door and left quickly, not wanting to risk Maria waking up and seeing her like this. It would certainly be a shock to her.

After she had gotten outside, she hurried to the shop to hide it, making sure not to bother Peaches, or “Stupid”, “Stinky”, and “Filthy”, as grandpa had named her. He loved her, but no one could tolerate her breath, no one could get her in a bath, and no one could claim her to be intelligent. She hurried up the steps, checking each cooler to see which one was the cleanest. She set it down in one of them, watching as the tears sped from orbiting her and coalesced together. She watched it for a moment as it continued to beat steadily, then shut it to do her chores.

A few hours passed, and Gwyn went to go cuddle Peaches, who was barking steadily at the cooler. The heartbeat was still faint, but quite clearly stronger. Gwyn shooed peaches aside, peeking through the cooler lid. The tears had filled the bottom of the cooler. Maybe it was just water that it was collecting. Either way, it was a lot of fluid. Unsure of what to do, and not really scared of the possibilities, she opened it entirely. The heart rose, the fluid surrounding it a little bit cloudy with a milky white. Gwyn fell back in awe as it passed over the window. It glimmered beautifully, looking almost like a shining gemstone. She reached out to touch it, watching as it deformed and bent away from her hand. She looked up at the highest point, swearing she had seen a face for a second. The water deformed and flowed around her again as the heart fell. Gwyn scrambled to catch it, feeling part of it clink against a ring on her finger. A deafening scream broke that pierced her to her heart. Peaches didn't react except by growling. The noise clearly didn't bother her. Eventually the scream faded, leaving Gwyn shocked with a feeling of loneliness, pain and sorrow. Disturbingly, she felt broken. She pulled the ring off quickly, not wanting to risk that again.

“What the actual-” She started, but stopped herself from finishing as she reminded herself swearing was bad. It was a nasty habit she’d picked up after training for meteor showers since everyone there swore like a sailor. She felt like the heart needed to be protected, although she didn't have an explanation for why. The heart felt lonely, as if it was lost, confused and scared. After a short time of sitting and thinking, she brought the heart closed to her own and made a promise. “I don’t know what you are, I don’t care if dad sent you or if you came here on your own, but I will protect you.” She declared, deciding to carry it around so the fluid could keep pumping. It gradually attempted to form a body again, lifting itself out of her hands and swirling gently. It glittered in the sunlight again before dispersing and falling into Gwyn’s hands. It rose once more, twisting and turning, two eyes forming that seemed so sad and lonely.

“Promise?” She heard it say before it started to wobble. It seems it wanted her mind made up before it fell back apart.

“I do promise,” She finally answered it, watching it close its lonely eyes, wobble, and collapse. She caught the heart again, this time with much more ease, and held it close to her own for a second. The water stopped freezing under her touch and flowed around her arm, gently but with an almost resonating power. She watched with interest as she held the heart. It beat, but flowed around her own body instead of making its own. “What exactly are you?” Gwyn asked under her breath. An eye formed from the water on her wrist.

“I could ask the same about you,” It said and blinked sarcastically, which until that moment Gwyn hadn’t known was possible.

“Fair enough,” Gwyn admitted, standing up and looking at Peaches, who seemed to be indecisive as to whether she should bark at the strange heart or if she should snuggle up to her favorite female human. Eventually, her tiny dog brain was overwhelmed and she went to bark at rabbits over by the burn pile.

“What is that creature?” The heart inquired, a small appendage forming to point at the dog who was heading out of the shop. Gwyn looked after it.

“I think it’s a dog. Now that you say that though, she could be some kind of mutant rat…” Gwyn admitted, realizing Peaches really did look like a rat dog hybrid.

“What is a dog?” The heart asked. Gwyn thought about that for a second.

“I guess it’s just like me, we’re both made of flesh and blood, and in a way, she’s also a bit like you, you’re both intelligent although she’s less intelligent.” Gwyn stated.

“It sounds annoying…” The heart moaned, listening to the incessant barking of an inferior creature.

“Well, I guess it might be to you, but to me it means she’s having fun!” Gwyn said with warmth. The eye looked at her as if it hadn’t ever thought of that, but there was no way it would ever say that aloud. Gwyn felt it was holding out on something. “Where are you from?” She asked it after about ten minutes of waiting. The water shifted to one side, making Gwyn go off balance and fall over.

“How about you go first? Where are we?” It said, water slowly creeping up over Gwyn’s neck.

“Earth, in the solar system in the milky way galaxy!” Gwyn said happily. The water started to cover her mouth and she panicked. “I can’t protect you if I’m dead!” She reasoned as the water covered her only source of air. Her nose was pretty stuffy from the spring pollen. The water stopped.

“What is... death?” It asked, not realizing that what it was doing would’ve killed her.

“You just end, if you get hurt really badly everything just stops. You don’t feel anything, you can’t touch anything, you aren’t even you anymore.” Gwyn answered quickly, having just thought of this about a week ago. She remembered what had happened when the heart hit her ring. “I think it’s like what happened when your heart got hit, except it ends everything.” She finished.