by Alyssa Hope
Mikal rolled over and nuzzled into his chest, and he allowed himself the luxury of holding his beloved, and the joy that gave him. His final morphing was definitely taking place, which meant that their third was not too far away. This was happiness! He stroked the back of Mikal’s head gently until the human’s head came up and Vara found himself looking into beautiful dark eyes. Not as black as the eyes of Vara’s people, but still beautiful and dark. Very beautiful.
Mikal stared up at him in confusion, so he just kissed his beloved and moved away with a sigh. He still had to take care of feeding the bearing ones, and then the trip to their shuttle and back which was best done in the daylight, which meant an early start.
Tanu was still snoring, and someone had to stay with all these sweet people to protect them, so he decided that going by himself was the best solution, not to mention the quietest. The trail was broken out from yesterday, and he had already almost figured out how to turn a bench from the shuttle into a sled which he could pull. It would be easy.
Those who were awake had the rest of the emergency rations for the morning meal, and then he bundled up and set off. His beloved Mikal watched him leave, and he was pleased that he was able to navigate on the snow-shoes as though he knew what he was doing. He didn’t fall over until he was around a corner behind a large rock and out of sight, which was excellent.
His mind was occupied with details of building a sled or maybe even two, which was why he was almost back to the shuttle before he noticed that there was an extra set of foot prints in the snow. His and Tanu’s, and then a totally different set which criss-crossed back and forth over theirs, as though someone had been following and watching them?
On the verge of panicking, he realized that the new foot-prints, strange shaped snow-shoe prints, were heading for their downed shuttle, not for the surface craft that sheltered their loved ones. At least those ones were safe for now. If he had to die to keep them that way, he would. He snuck up on the shuttle, but there was nothing and no-one to be seen. It seemed safe enough, although he was glad he hadn’t brought Tanu. That one would have been screaming by now.
He made it up the door and opened it quietly, and then someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around enough to see a mass of white fur, and fainted.
He regained consciousness cuddled in the lap of his second beloved, who was, against all odds, a snow monster! He just about fainted again, but then reminded himself that the universe didn’t make mistakes about beloveds. He looked cautiously up, and found himself staring into the glorious black eyes of one of his people.
He did panic then. Gods, the snow monster was eating his beloved! He began hitting out at it and trying to make it let go, and it began making a horrible noise, which sounded almost like it was – laughing? A cloud of white fur floated down around him as he clawed at it, and the more he clawed the harder it laughed.
“No, eat me, but let my beloved go!”
The monster lowered its head and kissed his throat, still making that strange laughing noise. Vara suddenly realized that the monster was not behaving very monsterish. It had kissed his throat, not ripped it out?
It must have let his beloved go, he realized, and the white fur was merely part of the shell of the monster which was now covering his beloved. He relaxed, and wrapped his arms around the monster’s neck. His beloved’s neck. This was confusing.
“Dear one?”
“Beloved, I was not eaten by a monster, truly. I made a suit out of rabbit fur to keep warm.”
“Thank the gods.” He found some bare blue skin and kissed it. “What is a rabbit?”
“A small animal with warm fur.”
“Oh. I am Vara, beloved. If you are neither a monster nor a rabbit, what do I call you?”
His beloved snorted with laughter again, and kissed him. “Beloved. Or Sno. Who are the others, where you just were? I have been up here for years, but they just got here, I think. Did you escape from them, or do they need help?”
“They need help, but we have it under control,” Vara assured him. “Mostly. I have to try sending another beacon to our parent ship, which is in orbit, and they will send a shuttle to take us all to safety. While we wait, I was going to make a sled out of a bench and drag supplies over to them. Two of them are bearing ...”
Vara found himself sitting in the snow as his beloved suddenly stood up. “Two are bearing? We can’t waste time. Where are these beacons?”
When he got back on his feet Vara pulled a beacon out of the shuttle and began to load a message, then hesitated.
“You must know these mountains well. Where is a safe place to land a shuttle and load everyone up? Where there isn’t too much snow, and no big rocks?”
“About halfway down, there is a plateau - flat and level, below the turbulence, yes? That is what you need?”
Sno drew him a map and he loaded a copy of that as well, and then prepared to send the beacon.
“I hope this one goes up alright. The last one didn’t.”
Sno took the beacon from him and examined it, fiddled with a switch, and then handed it back. “Try that.”
The beacon went up through the light clouds and kept going. Vara smiled happily at his clever beloved, and kissed him. Then he kissed him again, just because it felt so good.
“We’re a great team, aren’t we? Now the sled.”
“Or three sleds, to get all the people down the mountain safely?”
“Clever beloved.”
“No, Vara, you’re the clever one, to rescue everybody.”
Vara thought of something. ‘Do you mindtalk?’
Sno almost fell over backwards. ‘Yes! You do, too? How wonderful. And so much safer. We have to be careful, as any sound can cause an avalanche.’
Vara wasn’t sure if Sno was joking or not, but he didn’t want any avalanches. He had seen pictures, and they didn’t look good.
‘No avalanches. But I haven’t asked our lovely human if he mindtalks.’
‘We have a human?’
‘Yes, he is our third, beloved. He must be what was drawing you to that little craft. Mikal is beautiful, even if he is very thin right now, and he doesn’t talk very much. And he may have a broken leg. He uses a crutch to stand. I – we - need to get him to Medical on the Crusader.’
‘A human? Do you know what the humans here do to us?’
‘Um, no. I just got here. There are two humans in that craft, both pure white and very thin, and one is our third and the other is my co-pilot Tanu’s third. They don’t seem very dangerous?’
‘White ones? Very strange. The dangerous ones are a funny light beige color, with brown hair. You’re sure these are white, beloved?’
‘Yes, beloved, white. As white as the snow, and their hair is nearly as white. Very beautiful.’
Sno didn’t say anything else, and they concentrated on their project, working quietly.
Vara was pleased to find that he and his new beloved worked well together, quickly stripping the benches out of the shuttle and loading one of them with all the supplies. Sno was also polite enough to not say anything about the upside-down state of the shuttle, other than to mention that it made it easier to get the benches out.
This pleased Vara, as he didn’t want to have to blame his co-pilot for the state of the shuttle. That wouldn’t have been very sporting, even if it was true.
The speed with which they got the sleds ready to go gave them time to have a quick lunch before they headed back to the others, and also to curl up together and snuggle for a very little while as well. It was a delightfully safe feeling, Vara thought. Sno made him feel safe, together they would make their human feel safe, and it would all be good, no matter what else happened.
He was beginning to understand the happiness of triads now. Far better than staring at Tanu across a table, and he didn’t even feel guilty for that thought. Tanu had his own triad now as well, and those three could all stare at each other. He was pretty sure his own triad would think of other
, far more interesting, things to do.
They loaded all the supplies onto one sled, and then doubled the other two empty sleds up. Sno looked doubtfully at Vara.
‘The double one is light, and will bounce all over the place. Will you be able to manage that one, beloved?’
Vara tried to not be insulted. ‘Of course I will, beloved.’
‘Good, I go first, the heavier one will make a better trail for that one. I wish it to be easier for you, beloved, now that I have found you.’
Vara could live with that.
They were still lashing everything down, making sure the load was well-secured, when both of them were suddenly hit with a sense of urgency. They looked at each other in alarm, and then set out back to the others as quickly as they could. There was no teasing, no loving looks, just the need to get back in a hurry. Thank the gods the trail was well packed by now.
When they did get back to the little clearing in front of the surface craft they discovered that they hadn’t been the only ones feeling that way. Tanu had shepherded all the others out of the little craft and into the shelter of the nearby trees, and everybody was looking worried.
‘You too?’
‘Yes. What ...’
The craft that had sheltered the escapees exploded even as they were trying to figure out what was wrong, what felt wrong in the air. They were left silently hanging onto each other as small pieces of their temporary home rained down around them.
‘Damn.’
Tira hugged his beloveds and looked like he was going to cry. ‘They found us. We are going to die now, the babies ...’
Tanu tried to look soothing, although maybe not very successfully. ‘Our ship will be coming for us. Won’t it, Vara?’
‘Yes, we sent another beacon, they are meeting us halfway down this mountain, this hill, whatever we call it, on a plateau, and then we’ll be safe.’
‘We would rather die than become captives of those demons again. But the babies ... ’
‘Nobody dies,’ Sno said reassuringly. ‘We’ll get everyone to safety. As far as the demons know you were all sheltering inside the little craft when they blew it up, so they’re probably not even looking for you anymore. We have these sleds, we have lots of supplies, you were clever enough to being your blankets with you, it will all be fine.’
Tanu, who hadn’t seen Sno until then, screamed and fell over backwards. ‘A snow monster!’
Vara stared at Sno in astonishment. He hadn’t heard him say so much all at once before.
The rest of them just looked at him, waiting for an introduction, and Vara sighed. ‘This is Sno, he is – obviously - one of us, which is to say a Cerulean, he has lived up here for years by himself, and has many skills that may prove useful to us. Plus, he is my beloved, and Mikal’s. And he suggests only mindtalk, because we don’t want to start an avalanche. He is very clever.’
Gali, Tenu’s blue beloved, hugged Sno and whispered something to him. He smiled at Vara. ‘I knew him a long time ago, when we first came here as children. I thought he was dead! I’m so glad he isn’t.’
Gali and Sno hugged again, and then Gali hugged Tenu again. ‘We are all so lucky to have found each other.’
It occurred to Vara that Tanu’s beloveds were perhaps looking slightly envious, but he could be mistaken. Maybe. Everyone always thought that their own beloved was the best and the smartest and the most beautiful. This time, though, he knew he was right. His two beloveds were the best. He smiled over at Mikal, who smiled back. Everything was going to be just fine.
‘We have a plan. Three sleds, three triads, lots of supplies, including weapons. And food, of course.’ He began handing out the food. ‘So we will have a good lunch, and then load the sleds, and my triad will go down first, to break a trail and make sure it is safe. Sno knows this area very well. Then Tanu will follow with his triad, making the trail even more packed down, and then Tira will follow carefully with the bearing ones. Alright?’
Everyone nodded with varying degrees of certainty, largely because there was no other plan to choose. There was only Plan A.
Sno fashioned a very clever splint for Mikal’s leg, just to keep it from getting hurt even more as they made their way down, not that there would be trouble, and they nursed Manu and Dora one more time before wrapping them as snuggly as they could in all the blankets.
‘The Crusader will be sending a shuttle to pick us up, meeting us on the plateau, and in no time we’ll all be on the ship, with warmth and food, and medical help for the bearing ones, gods protect them, and for the babies when they come.’
‘They can’t meet us up here?’ Tira looked suspicious.
‘The turbulence in the air here, which caused both of our ships to crash, makes it impossible. Also, up here we cannot even reach them by mindtalk or radio. At that lower level, it will all be better and safer for the babies. Really. We sent the ship a beacon, with a map, so they know this.’
It had to be a shuttle under the circumstances, Vara knew that much. Transporting bearing ones, especially so close to birth, would be dangerous when they were not in good health. Fortunately Tira didn’t ask about that option. Vara didn’t want to scare Tira with thoughts of what could go wrong – he seemed capable enough of doing that by himself.
As he spoke a green flare appeared in the sky, raining sparks down from the heavens, and Vara breathed a sigh of relief, which he quickly suppressed.
‘That’s their acknowledgement that they have the message, and will meet us on that plateau. So now we just have to get loaded.’
‘Who knows how to use these weapons?’
Chapter 3.
They double-checked everything at the top of the slope, and hugged each other. No-one said good-luck or good-bye, or anything else that would suggest that this might not work. It had to work, there were too many lives depending on it. Vara prayed to the gods and to the crew of the Crusader that it would all go smoothly and according to plan.
He wanted to spend time with his beautiful beloveds, and raise many children with them and grow old in their arms. He kissed them and told them that, and then they loaded onto the first sled. Vara was in front to take the brunt of any flying snow or debris, Mikal behind him where his injured leg was protected as much as possible, and Sno was steering from the rear. They were all armed, just in case, although no-one said ‘just in case’ of what.
The trees were widely scattered and the snow was deep, so the main thing would be to find a safe route for the others to follow. Speed was not a factor, as this was not a race. Safety was the main thing – getting everyone to the bottom of the slope and then up to the Crusader all alive and well.
The trip down the mountain side was actually quite pleasant, as they wove gently in and out of the trees. Clever Sno made sure to always guide them to the easiest possible route in gentle sweeping curves. Mikal hugged Vara tightly, and Vara thought it was not just to hang on so he didn’t fall off, or out of fear. Maybe Mikal was feeling the beginning of the bond too? He had heard that humans could be slower to understand what the blue people knew right away when they met their beloveds.
Really, it felt like they were simply having a sledding party under a bright blue sky. At the bottom of the hill, where the snow was getting sparser, they slowed down and then came to a sudden stop.
The welcoming committee was just as surprised as they were, which saved their lives. Sno tipped the sled over to give them cover, and Vara felt the weight shift as their fur-covered beloved disappeared. Mikal, lying on his good side, freed his rifle and opened fire, and Vara did the same. The humans, some kind of army unit by their uniforms, returned fire, but the sled was bullet-proof, thank the gods. But how long could they keep them at bay?
There was a roar from the far side of the clearing, and a familiar-looking snow monster rose up out of nowhere and threw one of the soldiers through the air, knocking a cluster of the others over. Then the monster opened fire as well.
The soldiers were clearly shaken, but n
ot yet ready to give up. Just as they were regrouping, there was a wild yell from up the hill, and a second sled barrelled into the clearing, knocking soldiers over and scattering them like toys in a children’s game. Tanu, of course. He couldn’t do anything quietly, but this time it was extremely effective. Vara was sure that Tanu would later claim to have done that deliberately. If they all lived, he could claim anything he wanted.
The whole army unit of humans was scattered over the little plateau by this time, and some ran for the road down the hill, forgetting their mission, whatever that was. They were getting fired on by crazy people from at least three different locations, and it was just too much for them to handle.
The remainder tried to regroup, but then were astounded by the sight of a tree sliding silently down the hill towards them. A tree advancing on them? When the tree opened fire, the rest of the soldiers decided they’d had enough. They bolted down the hill to safety.
The tree slid to a stop, and Tira’s head poked out. ‘That worked?!’
Vara almost laughed. ‘That worked. You are a genius!’
‘I had to protect my beloveds. And our babies, even if that meant taking a risk.’
‘You did good. We all did good.’ Then he saw that Sno wasn’t in their little group and celebrating with them.
‘Sno?!’
Vara realized with a shock that he could feel the pain radiating from his darling, and he ran towards the snow bank where Sno was lying bleeding. He stroked his head and prayed to the gods that it wasn’t serious.
‘Sweet one, hang on, the shuttle will be here any minute, and we’ll get you to Medical. Just hang on, beloved, please ...’
To his surprise Tanu pushed him aside, and started checking Sno over, probing under the furry white suit. He found the wound and applied pressure to it, and ordered – ordered! – Vara to get a pressure dressing from his pack.
‘You really are a medic?’