Fic: Peace on Earth
Dec. 23rd, 2008 04:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalA little bit of holiday cheer in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chaypeta's universe. All characters and situations are copyright her, not me.
“Where are you two going?” Terinu demanded, when he spotted Rufus and Melika slipping their coats on. It was well into the night watch, close to the start of a new calendar day here on at Rufus’s family estate here on Vulpine Prime. Most folks in big mansion were in their bunks by now. Teri was only awake because he was still lagged and restless trying to match his body to the local time here. Not to mention bored. It was local winter and everything outside was covered in white, frozen water particles “snow” that everyone around seemed to think was a treat instead of a big hassle.
“Just outside for a bit,” Melika answered. “It’s the Winter Solstice tonight.”
“What’s a Solstice?”
“The start of a new season,” Rufus said, wrapping a hand woven muffler around his neck. “It’s the longest night of the year. From here the days get longer, until the beginning of summer.”
“Still doesn’t explain why you’re going out in that.” The snow was still coming down, in big fat particles that obscured everything three or four meters. It was already twenty centimeters deep on the ground and showed no sign of stopping.
“Come along and you’ll see, son,” Melika said.
“Um,” he hesitated. He hadn’t been invited along in the first place and he had the feeling this was one of those times that Rufus and Mel preferred to be alone.
“We could use the company,” Rufus added. “This is something I’ve only done a handful of times in my life. It’s worth seeing.”
“See what? If it’s such a big deal, why is everyone else asleep?”
“It’s a private thing, or rather something to be shared with those you’re very close to. Come along, son. I want you to see it.” Rufus rested his paw on his shoulder. “Please.”
“Okay.” Terinu grabbed his thermal coat from the entry hall closet, thought briefly about running back to his room to get the boots he’d recently had made for himself, then shrugged and just followed Mel and Rufus outside. The paved front walk had been treated with anti-icing chemicals, but was still freezing. In response he felt his body’s bion flow down and out, warming his bare feet and hands, shielding him from the bitter cold. Melika and Rufus had no such protection, just relying on their footpads to shield them from the cold, their ears twitching occasionally to flick off snow flakes.
They walked down the manor’s drive, soon turning off the road to follow a fenced line that marked the edge of the Brushtail’s farmland, the ground dead of anything green this time of year. Rufus pulled a hand torch from his pocket as they left the comforting perimeter of the manor’s lights, entering the white darkness. Their feet crunched through the snow, the only sound Terinu could hear besides his own breathing and the srrush of snowflakes landing on the shoulders of his padded jacket. The snowflakes were acting like some kind of sound suppression system, making it all unnaturally quiet to his ears, so used to the subconscious hum of a ship’s drive or the whir of ventilation fans from life support. Bloody unnerving it was.
“Where are we going?” he asked softly. It seemed wrong to talk much louder than a whisper.
“Just a quiet place,” Melika answered, her hand holding Rufus’.
“Quieter than this?”
“Oh, yes.”
They came to the edge of a wood, filled with denuded trees, their leaves long since fallen, their branches covered in snow, reaching up like skeletal arms towards the sky. “It’s so dead here,” Terinu muttered, shoving his hands deep into his coat pockets.
“Do you really think so, Terinu? Reach out with your bion and see,” Melika said, smiling at him.
“What’s the point? The only thing alive inside of a kilometer is the three of us.”
“You’d be surprised, lad,” Rufus told him.
Terinu shrugged, closed his outer eyes and concentrated on his inner vision, letting his bion field expand invisibly outward to feel whatever life might be around him. There was Rufus and Melika, bright sparks in his inner vision, both feeling relaxed and happy. Then there were the trees, not as dead as they seemed, the life pulsing slowly through them. He opened his eyes suddenly, pulling his bion back in on himself before he became overwhelmed. “There’s so much of it!” he exclaimed. “But I don’t see it!”
“These woods are very much alive this time of year. Some if it sleeps, some of it walks quite softly through the snow, but there is life nonetheless, lad.” Rufus pulled back the sleeve of his coat, looking at his chrono, then glanced upward. The flakes were slowing, letting them see a little further than they could before. “Come on, it’s almost time.”
They went deeper into the woods, following a trail mostly visible by the depression in the ground that wove between the trees. Eventually they reached a small clearing, a naturally formed bowl surrounded by thick trees that had to be hundreds of years old.
“If the weather reports were accurate, the last of the clouds should be cleared by the weather sats about… ah, now.” Above them, the dark clouds suddenly dissapeared, leaving…
…stars. Hundreds of thousands of stars floating in an inky black sky, pinpricks of white and red and blue in a wide, bright band across the sky, marking what humans called the Milky Way. The trees surrounding the clearing made it seem to Terinu like he was looking through an enormous window, looking out into infinity. Wierdly, rather than make him feel small, he felt oddly light on his feet, as if the bright stars were drawing him upward into their embrace. He had seen them more times than he could count through the portholes of ships, on viewscreens, and even with his naked eyes as he flew through the vacuum without the spacesuits other species required for survival. But they had just been background to whatever else had concerned him. He had never, never really, looked at them.
“Holy Den Mother’s blessing upon us all, at this time of the Solstice,” Melika said softly, looking up with him.
“Holy Den Mother bless and protect us,” Rufus answered.
“Holy Den Mother provide us with comfort and solace in times of pain.”
“Holy Den Mother be thanked for joy and love,” Terinu finished, the words coming out of his mouth without any forethought.
“Amen,” Melika finished. She smiled, breaking the spell the woods and stars had cast. “Come along, son. Let’s go back home.”
Merry Christmas
chaypeta's universe. All characters and situations are copyright her, not me.“Where are you two going?” Terinu demanded, when he spotted Rufus and Melika slipping their coats on. It was well into the night watch, close to the start of a new calendar day here on at Rufus’s family estate here on Vulpine Prime. Most folks in big mansion were in their bunks by now. Teri was only awake because he was still lagged and restless trying to match his body to the local time here. Not to mention bored. It was local winter and everything outside was covered in white, frozen water particles “snow” that everyone around seemed to think was a treat instead of a big hassle.
“Just outside for a bit,” Melika answered. “It’s the Winter Solstice tonight.”
“What’s a Solstice?”
“The start of a new season,” Rufus said, wrapping a hand woven muffler around his neck. “It’s the longest night of the year. From here the days get longer, until the beginning of summer.”
“Still doesn’t explain why you’re going out in that.” The snow was still coming down, in big fat particles that obscured everything three or four meters. It was already twenty centimeters deep on the ground and showed no sign of stopping.
“Come along and you’ll see, son,” Melika said.
“Um,” he hesitated. He hadn’t been invited along in the first place and he had the feeling this was one of those times that Rufus and Mel preferred to be alone.
“We could use the company,” Rufus added. “This is something I’ve only done a handful of times in my life. It’s worth seeing.”
“See what? If it’s such a big deal, why is everyone else asleep?”
“It’s a private thing, or rather something to be shared with those you’re very close to. Come along, son. I want you to see it.” Rufus rested his paw on his shoulder. “Please.”
“Okay.” Terinu grabbed his thermal coat from the entry hall closet, thought briefly about running back to his room to get the boots he’d recently had made for himself, then shrugged and just followed Mel and Rufus outside. The paved front walk had been treated with anti-icing chemicals, but was still freezing. In response he felt his body’s bion flow down and out, warming his bare feet and hands, shielding him from the bitter cold. Melika and Rufus had no such protection, just relying on their footpads to shield them from the cold, their ears twitching occasionally to flick off snow flakes.
They walked down the manor’s drive, soon turning off the road to follow a fenced line that marked the edge of the Brushtail’s farmland, the ground dead of anything green this time of year. Rufus pulled a hand torch from his pocket as they left the comforting perimeter of the manor’s lights, entering the white darkness. Their feet crunched through the snow, the only sound Terinu could hear besides his own breathing and the srrush of snowflakes landing on the shoulders of his padded jacket. The snowflakes were acting like some kind of sound suppression system, making it all unnaturally quiet to his ears, so used to the subconscious hum of a ship’s drive or the whir of ventilation fans from life support. Bloody unnerving it was.
“Where are we going?” he asked softly. It seemed wrong to talk much louder than a whisper.
“Just a quiet place,” Melika answered, her hand holding Rufus’.
“Quieter than this?”
“Oh, yes.”
They came to the edge of a wood, filled with denuded trees, their leaves long since fallen, their branches covered in snow, reaching up like skeletal arms towards the sky. “It’s so dead here,” Terinu muttered, shoving his hands deep into his coat pockets.
“Do you really think so, Terinu? Reach out with your bion and see,” Melika said, smiling at him.
“What’s the point? The only thing alive inside of a kilometer is the three of us.”
“You’d be surprised, lad,” Rufus told him.
Terinu shrugged, closed his outer eyes and concentrated on his inner vision, letting his bion field expand invisibly outward to feel whatever life might be around him. There was Rufus and Melika, bright sparks in his inner vision, both feeling relaxed and happy. Then there were the trees, not as dead as they seemed, the life pulsing slowly through them. He opened his eyes suddenly, pulling his bion back in on himself before he became overwhelmed. “There’s so much of it!” he exclaimed. “But I don’t see it!”
“These woods are very much alive this time of year. Some if it sleeps, some of it walks quite softly through the snow, but there is life nonetheless, lad.” Rufus pulled back the sleeve of his coat, looking at his chrono, then glanced upward. The flakes were slowing, letting them see a little further than they could before. “Come on, it’s almost time.”
They went deeper into the woods, following a trail mostly visible by the depression in the ground that wove between the trees. Eventually they reached a small clearing, a naturally formed bowl surrounded by thick trees that had to be hundreds of years old.
“If the weather reports were accurate, the last of the clouds should be cleared by the weather sats about… ah, now.” Above them, the dark clouds suddenly dissapeared, leaving…
…stars. Hundreds of thousands of stars floating in an inky black sky, pinpricks of white and red and blue in a wide, bright band across the sky, marking what humans called the Milky Way. The trees surrounding the clearing made it seem to Terinu like he was looking through an enormous window, looking out into infinity. Wierdly, rather than make him feel small, he felt oddly light on his feet, as if the bright stars were drawing him upward into their embrace. He had seen them more times than he could count through the portholes of ships, on viewscreens, and even with his naked eyes as he flew through the vacuum without the spacesuits other species required for survival. But they had just been background to whatever else had concerned him. He had never, never really, looked at them.
“Holy Den Mother’s blessing upon us all, at this time of the Solstice,” Melika said softly, looking up with him.
“Holy Den Mother bless and protect us,” Rufus answered.
“Holy Den Mother provide us with comfort and solace in times of pain.”
“Holy Den Mother be thanked for joy and love,” Terinu finished, the words coming out of his mouth without any forethought.
“Amen,” Melika finished. She smiled, breaking the spell the woods and stars had cast. “Come along, son. Let’s go back home.”
Merry Christmas
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-12-24 02:54 am (UTC)Just *hug*
:)
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Date: 2008-12-24 09:33 am (UTC)