Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 126358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 505(@250wpm)___ 421(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 505(@250wpm)___ 421(@300wpm)
That was another problem—because she was growing so rapidly, L’eesha had a huge appetite. And because I felt what she felt, I was ravenous much of the time, too.
This meant that I was now eating more than I ever had in my life. And for the first time, my body started really filling out. I’d had to get a bigger uniform size twice since the Hatching and my breasts were getting so big it was difficult to find a uniform shirt that buttoned without being much too long in the arms.
Luckily, my Dragon Glass pendant kept anyone around me from noticing what was happening. But when I dared to take off my clothes and look in the mirror, I saw the truth—I was getting actual curves.
My chest was no longer flat, and my hips were no longer boyishly straight. Instead, I had full breasts tipped with ripe pink nipples and wide hips as well as a full behind that jiggled when I walked.
“I have to stop eating so much!” I told myself sternly. But then L’eesha would get hungry again and project her hunger onto me and I would find myself heading to the Mess Hall or the Commissary to get something to eat.
I suppose my body filling out probably had something to do with what happened next, though I couldn’t be sure. But surely it must have played a part.
Before coming to the Academy, I had been on the brink of starvation. My body had stopped growing and maturing—even my monthly cycles had stopped. But one morning when Ryse woke me up for our usual morning work-out, I didn’t feel so good.
“You go without me,” I told him, putting a hand to my abdomen. “I must have eaten something that disagreed with me last night.”
He leaned over me, looking worried.
“Are you all right, little one?” he murmured, putting a hand to my forehead, as if to feel for fever.
“Fine.” I tried to smile at him. “Just…not feeling good enough to do pull-ups today.”
“All right—I’ll excuse you…this time. But tomorrow we’re back at it,” he said sternly.
“Fine,” I said again and rolled over, wondering what was wrong with me and why I felt so bloated and sick.
After he left, I managed to get back to sleep. L’eesha was safe in the nursery, and I didn’t have classes to get to, which was nice.
But when I woke up, I felt a strange, sticky wetness between my thighs. What was going on?
I stumbled to the bathroom and pulled down my Academy issued underpants, which were white with blue stripes.
To my horror, I saw a new color on the familiar fabric—dark red.
Oh no—what’s happening to me? What’s wrong? I thought, panicked.
It took me a moment to remember that if I had still been having my cycle, this was the day of the month it usually started on. The red was blood. I was apparently having my monthly courses, which had stopped months ago, never—I had thought—to return.
But here it was, back again to try and give away my secret. What was I going to do?
I looked at the blood and wanted to cry. What could I use for sanitary napkins? I bitterly missed the bandages I’d used to bind my breasts—I could have ripped them up and used them, but I had no idea where they were or what I was going to do.
I could cut up one of the two towels I had been issued (they were washed daily by the laundry service) but how could I explain the missing towel? Also, I needed both my towels for when we went to the Cook-pot to bathe. I had to have one to wrap around my waist and the other to drape around my neck, so it covered my breasts.
I knew the Dragon Glass pendant was hiding who I really was, but I felt uncomfortable being topless in the company of the opposite sex. My breasts had gotten too big and sensitive—I didn’t want to walk around with them bare, even if the men around me had no idea what I was doing.
Other than towels, we really didn’t have many spare clothes. We had work-out outfits, which again, were washed every day and undergarments and socks. Maybe I could use socks…except they only issued us two pairs, and they were only washed every other day…
As I was doing mental calculations and wondering what I was going to do to hide my period, my cramps hit, and they were bad.
I’d always had painful menstruation—even back in the very beginning when I first got my monthly courses the pains had made me double over and cry until my father angrily ordered me to “shut up!”
My mother had died too young to teach me anything about a woman’s body. If it hadn’t been for the dour old housekeeper from the village my father had kept until we could no longer afford her, I would have thought I was bleeding to death.