?I will stay,? I agreed And my tenth life began EPILOGUE Continued Life and love went on in the last human outpost on the planet Earth, but things did not stay exactly the same This was my first rebirth into a body of the same speciesI found the transfer much more difficult than changing planets because I had so many expectations about being human already in placeAlso, I'd inherited a lot of things from Petals Open to the Moon, and not all of them were pleasant I'd inherited a great deal of grief for Cloud SpinnerI missed the mother I'd never known and mourned for her suffering nowPerhaps there could be no joy on this planet without an equal weight of pain to balance it out on some unknown scale I'd inherited unexpected limitationsI was used to a body that was strong and fast and tall?a body that could run for miles, go without food and water, lift heavy weights, and reach high shelvesThis body was weak?and not chanel sheep bag just physicallyThis body seized up with crippling shyness every time I was unsure of myself, which seemed to be often these days I'd inherited a different role in the human communityPeople carried things for me now and let me pass first into a roomThey gave me the easiest chores and then, half the time, took the work right out of my hands anywayWorse than that, I needed the helpMy muscles were soft and not used to laborI tired easily, and my attempts to hide that fooled no oneI probably couldn't have run a mile without stopping There was more to this easy treatment than just my physical weakness, thoughI was used to a pretty face, but one that people were able to look at with fear, mistrust, even hatredMy new face defied such emotions People touched my cheeks often, or put their fingers under my chin, holding my face up to see it betterI was frequently patted on my head (which was in easy reach, since I was shorter celebrity chanel bag than everyone but the children), and my hair was stroked so regularly that I stopped noticing when it happenedThose who had never accepted me before did this as often as my friendsEven Lucina put up only a token resistance when her children began following me like two adoring puppiesFreedom, in particular, crawled onto my lap at every opportunity, burrowing his face in my hairIsaiah was too big for such displays of affection, but he liked to hold my hand?just the same size as his?while chattering excitedly with me about Spiders and Dragons, soccer and raidsThe children still wouldn't go anywhere near Melanie; their mother had frightened them too thoroughly before for her reassurances to change things now Even Maggie and Sharon, though they still tried not to look at me, could not maintain their former rigidity in my presence My body was not the only changeThe monsoons came late to the desert, and I was glad For one louis vuitton purses thing, I'd never smelled the rain on the creosotes before?I could only vaguely remember it from my memories of Melanie's memories, a very dim trail of recall indeed?and now the scent washed out the musty caves, left them smelling fresh and almost spicyThe scent clung to my hair and followed me everywhereI smelled it in my dreams Also, Petals Open to the Moon had lived in Seattle all her life, and the unbroken streak of blue skies and blistering heat was as bewildering?almostnumbing ?to my system as the dark press of heavy overcast skies would have been to any of these desert dwellersThe clouds were exciting, a change from the bland, featureless pale blueThey had depth and movementThey made pictures in the sky There was a great deal of reshuffling to be done in Jeb's caves, and the move to the big game room?now the communal sleeping quarters?was good preparation for more permanent arrangements to follow Every space was white prada bag needed, so rooms could not remain vacantStill, only the newcomers, Candy?who had remembered her correct name at last?and Lacey, could bear to take Wes's old spaceI pitied Candy for her future roommate, but the Healer never betrayed any discontent at the prospect When the rains ended, Jamie would move into a free corner in Brandt and Aaron's cave Melanie and Jared had kicked Jamie out of their room and into Ian's before I'd been reborn in Pet's body; Jamie wasn't so young that they'd needed to give him any excuse Kyle was working on widening the small crevice that had been Walter's sleeping space so that it would be ready when the desert was dry againIt really wasn't big enough for more than one, and Kyle would not be staying there alone At night in the game room, Sunny slept curled into a ball against Kyle's chest, like a kitten who was friends with a big dog?a rottweiler whom she trusted implicitlySunny wasalways knock off chanel earrings with Ky