by Juno Wells
She sat down on the co-pilot’s chair, hands running through her hair.
I knelt down in front of her. “Look, he may not have gone about it in the right way, but his heart seems like it was in the right place. Besides, the danger is gone now. Would you want to spend the rest of your life disowning your parents and being angry at them for what they did to you? Imagine when we get married. Who walks you down the aisle? No one? How would you feel if your three-year-old daughter never knew your grandfather?”
With every word, her anger subsided. “All right, all right. You’ve made your point.” She eyed me. “Are you asking me to marry you?”
I smiled. “Did it sound like a question?”
She tilted her head, still squinting suspiciously. “Okay, smart-ass.”
I pulled the conversation back on topic. “At least hear him out. You don’t have to agree that he did the right thing, but you can understand why he did what he did.” And with that she looked away from me, doing her best to hold back a smile.
“You know I’m right,” I said, leaning forward.
She laughed. “I know! And I hate it.”
My lips met her luscious ones, taking in her sweet aroma. “You love it,” I teased.
“You love me,” she said, smiling.
“I do. And you love me,” I said, kissing her again.
“I do,” she said.
“Are you two ever going to come up for air, or am I to expect you to make a slew of children with all the sex you’ve been having?” Flora walked in, carrying a tray of food.
I laughed. Flora had taken in Aurora most graciously, treating her like a princess while she still treated me like a little shit.
“Here you go, Miss Aurora,” she said sweetly, handing her a plate with eggs and toast.
She thanked her sweetly. “What about me?” I asked as Flora set down the tray with the other plate on it.
“I brought it up here, didn’t I? I ain’t gonna spoon feed you myself.” And she left the room.
“She loves you,” Aurora said sarcastically, smirking and taking another bite of toast.
“Yeah, yeah. She better,” I said, grabbing my plate off the tray and digging in.
“Hey, whatever happened to the ship after you saved me?” she asked, looking up. “I realized you told me you killed her, but didn’t say what became of the gang, and…” she giggled, “I forgot to ask.”
I explained how the Crow had helped retrieve her and had told me he would take over. I did not include the detail of him expressing his love; I figure she didn’t need to know, or already guessed and didn’t care.
Her face wore a sardonic expression. “As he should. And anyways, he’ll be good for the gang.”
I nodded, “Yeah, I suppose so.” She had told me they had kissed after I woke her up. And that when she remembered her past, she didn’t engage in a love triangle. Which I appreciated.
I wasn’t concerned or angry with her; I knew the effects of the amnesia were strong. But I knew our love was stronger.
After a few days of traveling, Obsidian came into view, a large grey and black and white planet, with swirling storms in the north and mountain ranges you could make out from here in the south. The moons were different colors, some red, some yellow, some a milky white and some a jet black. A few had little civilizations on them, while a few others had space stations and satellite dishes, and the rest were empty and desolate rocks, orbiting peacefully.
We stood side by side in the control room, staring at the massive planet.
I looked over at her and took her hand in mine. “Are you nervous?” I asked.
She glanced at me and nodded, giving my hand a little squeeze. “A bit, yeah,” she said.
“It’ll be fine,” I reassured her.
She nodded. “Yeah, hope so.”
Chapter 13
Aurora
He pulled me into a kiss, his lips tenderly moving against my lips, his tongue moving in time with mine. I was glad he was here, with me, pushing me to confront this. I knew he was right, but I couldn’t shake the fire in my mind. The red and black cloud that I could feel around me, crackling menacingly. The better judgement was buried deep beneath the storm, and the storm was all I could feel. Not to mention, after everything I’d been through, I deserved a fucking apology, at least.
The planet loomed closer and we sat down side-by-side, preparing for entry and landing. He’d since shown me a few things about flying his ship, despite getting distracted…It was so hot, every time he’d lean over and point at something, he’d get halfway through showing me how to launch a missile or put up and take down the shields and I would leap on him. He never resisted, and doing it on the dashboard was…excellent.
We passed through the atmosphere, and the mountains and valleys were thrown into greater detail, most of them covered in a layer of thick powdery snow.
“Is that it?” I pointed out a huge manor that was in the middle of one of the valleys.
“Oh no. It’s just…” August checked his map, “over that range.” And he pointed to a huge jagged looking clump of mountains coming up.
We maneuvered around the spikes of the mountains, which rose up past where we flew.
And as we came out the other side, a glorious number of manor houses, all set into the steep sides of the mountains came into view.
The manors were made from mahogany and black wood, with intricate carvings and designs set into every panel and every beam. There were about six of them. Wires hung from the mountaintops above them, leading down or over to another mountain or across the pass, and each had a little car attached that moved along it, suspended hundreds of feet in the air. The cars were of the same design as the houses, black wood and mahogany, with an iron frame that held it to the wire.
I gaped at the sight. So this was where I’d been born and raised for the first few years of my life. We had to leave the ship hovering above the pass, controlled by Flora, as there was nowhere to set the ship down.
The pod August used brought us to a small landing strip in a cave to the far left of all the manors. We touched down, and the second the pod-doors opened, cold wind rushed in, piercing through my clothes and skin. I felt like the ice shot straight to my bones. Within seconds, my face was numb, and I looked at August, who wore a similar expression.
The cave held other aircraft, all small, and a few cars made for going down the mountainsides, but those had massive bumps on them.
A wooly, wolf-like man came over to us with a jolly sort of bounce in his step. “Hello!” he barked. He held two coats that were identical to the one he had on. Sheep’s wool on the inside, a thick and long fur on the outside.
The man had kind eyes, both electric blue, and a thick beard, peppered grey and black, like the fur of his coat. He reminded me of a wolf very much, though he had human features. I couldn’t unsee it. The way his nose twitched at us, or his ears perking this way and that…
“H-h-hi,” I said through shuddering lips, throwing on the coat. It was instantly warmer, as if the very fabric of the coat was a heater.
“Visitors? Strangers? Friends? What’re ye here for?” the man asked in his gruff voice, though his tone was exceedingly warm.
“I’ve come to see my father. We’re not expected. His name is Ghrian,” I said, hugging the giant coat around me.
“Oh, Lord Ghrian! Right this way,” The wolf-man lead us to a door in the cave wall, blue with a few symbols in a language I recognized but couldn’t speak or read for certain.
He led us into a thin hallway that seemed to go on forever.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Crossing the mountains, lassie. This here lets us go immediately to our village. Dead useful, wouldn’t yeh say?” he asked, looking back at me with those electric blue eyes. There was something familiar about him…
“Have I met you?” I asked bluntly.
He laughed loudly, the sound like a bark. “O’course you’ve met me lassie. I was wonderin’ when
you’d remember your old friend! Mathan Maddadh-Allaidh. You called me Madda when you were a wee one. Mathan will do fine.”
I smiled at him, remembering that barking laughter from a dim memory of my childhood.
“You used to try and run out of the cave! Thought you could fly,” he laughed. “I can see you got a bit more brains in you now.”
“You used to catch me,” I said, knowing before the memory surfaced.
He turned back and smiled at me again. “Aye! I did!”
We talked all the way into the village, and at the door, before letting us out, he turned to look at us.
“This is where we part; I must go back to my station. Lovely meeting you again, Miss Aurora.” He gave me a big hug, lifting me off my feet and knocking the wind out of me slightly. Then he patted me on the shoulder with his huge hand, making my knees buckle, and walked away down the tunnel.
I gave August a grin, who was beaming at me, and we opened the door. After walking through many more rooms, we made it to my parent’s manor. August and I were led by another wolf-like man with flaming red hair into a huge room, where many people were, some with gowns that glowed and others with fur hats and coats and some who had fur sprouting from the spines on their backs, going up to their pointed furry ears that stuck out of their hair.
At the end of the room were two huge golden thrones. I felt that odd deja vu of having seen them before. There were two people sitting in them…oh, my dream! The thrones in my dream, this must be them. And the people whose faces I couldn’t see…
The wolf-man led us right up to them and bowed and then stepped aside, putting me face to face with the lord and lady. The room’s music and noise did not die, but a hush grew in the circle of people nearest us.
My parents, looking exactly as they had in the photo I’d been shown of them, stood up, both staring at me in awe. My mother, blonde, with her many braids crowning her head, wore a red dress decorated and accented with fur and paw prints. My father, wolf-like face, with jet-black hair and piercing blue eyes, looked like a bear—big belly, hulking arms and thick neck. He had a beard that matched his hair, and round cheeks that were scrunched against his eyes in a warm smile.
My mother rushed forward and took my face her hands, searching my eyes.
“Hi, Mom,” I whispered, tears welling up, though I’d done my best to stay serious. I couldn’t help it. I’d wanted all my life for love and family and for freedom.
She threw her arms around me. “Ohhh, child, I’ve missed you,” she whispered. Her voice was like a familiar song on the breeze, and made me feel safe and loved.
I wrapped my arms around her and hugged tightly, never wanting to be parted from her again. “I missed you too, Mom.” Tears were falling down from my cheeks in earnest, and with great difficulty I held the sob down, my throat feeling constricted and lumpy, like I would choke if I didn’t let it out.
After some time, we let go. My father stood there, beaming, with tears in his eyes. “My, how you’ve grown,” he said.
I didn’t move forward, but stared at him, unable to speak as tears rolled down my face. He came forward and took my arms in his huge hands, leveling his gaze with mine. “Sweetie…I’m so happy to see you,” he whispered, his voice deep.
I struggled to keep my face together, despite the waterworks now pouring down my face silently.
“Can you ever forgive me for sending you away?” he asked.
I couldn’t speak. I wanted to, I wanted really badly to say something funny, something like you’ll have to work for my forgiveness. But I couldn’t clear the knot lodged in my throat. I think he understood, though, and he picked me up, wrapping me in a bearhug. “I’m so sorry, my dear.”
I buried my face in his chest, the fur of his coat taking the brunt of the tears. My father hugged me close, stroking my hair with one massive hand.
“We’ve been so worried,” my mother, Lady Adhair, said. “Your guardians told us you’d been kidnapped, and they were unable to locate you for months and months. How did you ever escape?”
I was not ready to speak. I couldn’t muster up my voice, and I wanted to rage, I wanted to be angry with him, with both of them, but I couldn’t. The fire I thought I would have was replaced by a rainstorm of emotions I’d bottled up for years and years.
“Uh, I can help with that one.” August, thank god he was here, piped up finally when I didn’t say anything.
“Come, let’s move this reunion into another room,” Father said. He carried me into an antechamber off the great hall, August and my mother following behind. The party resumed in full behind us.
August proceeded to tell them the whole story, with me piping in when I could. My parents’ reactions to the whole thing was by the book shocked.
“We owe you, thank you so much. How can we ever repay you?” my mother asked August when he’d finished.
He looked at my father and then at me. “Well, I wonder if we could have a word, uh, in private?”
I stared at him, confused, trying to ask silently. He shook his head in a don’t-worry-about-it way.
“Of course, of course. I’ll show you to your room. We kept it intact for you.” My mother got up and led me out of the room and into a stairway. Maybe he wanted to get advice about his own father? I knew he still needed to resolve a few things there…
“He’s a handsome man,” my mother said, breaking my thoughts.
I smiled, “Yes, he is.”
“Darling, I know this must be so difficult for you. I want you to know, I know your father loves you very much. I tried to talk him out of it, but we’ve seen what that…woman has done to other villages and families. We were trying to protect our people as well as you.”
I nodded, “I know, Mom, I know you were. I just…I missed you guys so much. I felt alone for so long. Don’t get me wrong, I love Aimsir Shona, Karratha and Lusan. Very entertaining people. But they’re not you.”
She looked at me, strongly. “I know. And I can’t change what we did.”
I got it. I could continue to harbor my anger and upset…or accept the reality of the past and move to create a better future. Exactly like August said. My heart swelled once more. “I know, Mom. I forgive you.”
In the days that followed, my father had a real heart to heart with me, alone. He did his best to make up for what happened, and explained what he’d been thinking as everything had happened. I listened. I didn’t want to continue shoving in his face that he did wrong. I understood, from his perspective, what he had done seemed like the right thing. And that was all he’d tried to do, the right thing.
My guardians showed up on the third day. My father had thrown another celebration to welcome us to the village, and Lusan, Karratha and Aimsir Shona had burst in, wearing colorful coats of fur that matched their skin tones.
“Oh my dear, we were worried sick!” Shona cried, throwing her arms around me.
“Absolutely flabbergasted! We guessed what had happened, as we had been fearing it for so long,” Lusan said, wiping tears out of her eyes.
“We’ve been searching for you for ages, you wouldn’t believe what we’ve been through!” Karratha said.
“But then, we hear you’d been found!” Lusan said.
“And returned home!” Karratha said, throwing up her hands.
“My dear, I feel we were so close to locating you, really we tried, but you know how we are with technology,” Shona said.
I shut them up by giving them each a big hug. “I know, I know.” I smiled. “Everything is all right now.”
Later that evening, August took me to a little balcony overlooking the mountains. The moons shone brightly in the sky, each of their unique colors casting a different shade across the snow-capped houses and mountains.
“What were you and my father talking about?” I asked. I hadn’t gotten the chance to until now.
He smiled. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
His expression changed, becoming deep and heartfelt.
&n
bsp; “What?” I asked.
“Marry me,” he said.
My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. “What?”
He sunk to a knee and pulled out a small golden band, interwoven with a silver one. An odd jewel was inset into it, black and gold and red. Like a dark opal. “Will you? Will you marry me?”
My heart swelled with happiness as I looked into those beautiful brown eyes with the one electric green iris. “Yes. Yes, of course.”
He smiled and slipped the ring onto my finger, then stood up, lifting me into the air and twirling me around, kissing as an explosion of stars went off in my head.
The wedding was prepared for in the coming days. It was to be traditional and on Obsidian.
The day of, my mother helped fit me into a violently red dress, with beads sewn into the extremely long train. My guardians were to hold it for me as I walked down the aisle. My mother braided my hair in the interwoven and intricate braids that usually crowned her head. I wore red on my lips as well.
The doors to the great hall opened, my guardians at my train.
Some of the villagers beat drums, others played complicated flute instruments. The aisle was lined with candles set on the floor. All the guests wore furs and knelt, heads turned to me. My father stood behind August. August was dressed in red and black and white, with two furs on his shoulders and his huge chest exposed. I felt my heart go into double time. My father dipped his fingers in a wooden bowl and drew some symbols on August’s chest, then bowed his head and walked to the far side of the grouping, kneeling down on the floor as everyone else.
