by Black, Tasha
Meanwhile, Tansy and Burton had been spending early mornings weeding and planting around the pond. And Drago and Arden stopped by each evening to encourage the new life to grow.
No one else was allowed near the pond. Which made Riggs a little grumpy.
Sage, being the practical one, planned out the ceremony and created the invitations, such as they were, with Riggs’s help.
“No one is coming besides us,” Riggs had said, confused.
“Oh, it’s nice to have something to commemorate the day,” she had replied with a secret smile.
So many secrets.
Like the one in his pocket.
On the day of their escape, Dr. Bhimani had given the men an envelope of cash to be used in case of an emergency. They’d had a private meeting this week and decided that a proper wedding for their mates qualified.
Without the women knowing, the three brothers had made an extra stop on their trip to town last week to purchase three slender gold rings and three plain silver ones from the local jewelry shop. Their marriages would have all the trappings.
They had reached the pond at last.
Otis sat on a stool near the water, playing Greensleeves softly on his ukulele.
In the darkness, Riggs could see that the tall grasses and shrubs that surrounded the north side of the pond were gone and something smaller was in their place. The delicate fragrance of flowers floated on the breeze.
“Roses,” Burton whispered.
“It is beautiful, brothers, well done,” Riggs whispered back.
Burton nodded, looking pleased.
The flickering of candlelight came from the other side of the pond.
“They’re here,” Drago breathed.
The rest of it seemed to go in slow motion.
Arden appeared first, wearing a simple white cotton dress that was a perfect contrast to her dark hair, in which she wore a circlet of flowers. She smiled up at Drago as he came to take her hand.
Then Tansy arrived, even taller than normal in high-heeled sandals and a silvery dress that revealed her shoulders. Her short hair was glossier than usual and shimmering earrings skimmed her collarbones. Burton ran to take her hand, earning her indulgent smile.
At last Sage walked slowly around the pond to the rhythm of the music. Her wavy hair was down around her back and she wore a long, lace dress that made Riggs think of tiny stars against a sky. It was old-fashioned yet beautiful, just like his darling mate. And Riggs felt a love so fierce it was like a pain in his chest.
When her hand was at last in his, he nearly cried with relief.
“We have a surprise for you,” Sage told him.
The hedges on the south side of the pond were suddenly moving.
He realized that in the darkness his eyes had been fooled. Two screens with branches on them had stood in for the shrubbery.
Behind them were seven smiling people, each holding a candle, except for the one holding the baby.
Bond and Posey, Rocky and Georgia, Rima and Magnum, and Dr. Bhimani, with baby Estrella Grace in her arms, all faced them smiling.
“Guests,” Riggs breathed.
“Guests,” Sage agreed, squeezing his hand.
And now he knew why they had hand printed the beautiful invitations.
There was a flurry of excited whispering and waving, and then the ceremony began.
The words washed over him and he managed to follow along, but Riggs was lost in a sea of love and wonder.
At the proper moment he slid the ring onto Sage’s finger and was gratified by her expression of surprise and delight.
Then he was bending to kiss her, pressing his lips to hers as if they could somehow freeze the moment if only he kissed her thoroughly enough.
When they finally broke apart, the guests cheered.
They all followed the path back down to the barn where Otis had set up their reception.
The interior of the barn was aglow with fairy lights.
Three enormous cakes covered the large table in the middle.
“There’s one for each couple, so everyone has to eat three pieces,” Otis announced.
Arden and Drago’s cake was carrot with cream cheese frosting and a garnish of peach blossoms on top.
Tansy and Burton’s was a honey cake, festooned with hundreds of delicate marzipan bees.
And the cake for Sage and Riggs was a traditional vanilla wedding cake with peach infused frosting and a constellation of chocolate chips on top.
Music started in the background and Riggs wondered if they would dance soon.
“Is that David Bowie?” Sage asked Rima, who had come over to congratulate them.
“Oh, yes,” Rima laughed. “That’s my mom’s old Heroes album. It’s the only one we have on cassette tape. Otis called in a panic earlier and said there was no music in the barn. The boom box is the only thing we had with a big speaker that runs on batteries. Sorry.”
“No,” Sage told her. “Don’t be sorry. I think… I think it’s just right.”
“Shall we dance?” Riggs asked her.
“Do you know how?” she asked.
“My training was watching 80s movies, of course I do” he teased her. “You’re a silly girl for asking that question.”
She grinned and he swept her into his arms.
Over her shoulder, he could see his brothers and their mates on the dance floor, beginning to sway under the fairy lights.
Outside this barn, he knew, were the rest of the humans who inhabited the surface of this wild, sad, funny, inexplicable planet.
He was truly one of billions of brothers and sisters now - a full-fledged participant in Earth’s chaotic march toward who knew what ends - tragic or magical. This was a brotherhood so much larger than himself and those he loved, that he was humbled by it and overwhelmed with a desire to help them all somehow.
But for tonight, he turned his attention back to his own mate, and the sweet universe that was her love.
Sage lifted her chin to meet his eyes, as if knowing he was dreaming again, worrying about a world so big he could hardly change it in a hundred lifetimes.
He waited to see what she would say, yearning to hear her thoughts and feelings on this important evening as they began their life together formally.
But she only smiled up at him. It was a smile that told him that all was well, that she was his and he was hers. It was her most twinkly-eyed smile, the one that brought him back to himself as he realized she always would.
He smiled down at her, amazed that he had found her, amazed that she had accepted him - accepted everything about him.
And they whirled to the music as the blue-green planet whirled around its only star, joyfully, steadily, forevermore.
***
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Tolstoy (Sample)
1
Anna
In a forgotten corner of the galaxy, far from the established trade routes, and even farther from where it was supposed to be, floated a long-forgotten ship, one among many.
And at the center of that abandoned ship grew a forest.
Anna Nilsson froze in place, wishing there were someone to share the unusual sight with her. But she was alone, the only sound the hiss of the air pump in her spacesuit.
She stepped closer, mesmerized.
After the endless burnished aluminum of the Stargazer, the lush greenery before her almost hurt to look at.
Anna stood in a derelict luxury star cruiser the size of a shopping mall. She’d already made her way through winding corridors of threadbare rugs and corroded, flickering chandeliers, using her tagger to mark items of interest along the way. The passageways circled rings of rooms that extended along the sides of the ship as far as she could see. She almost felt as if she were in a Scooby
Doo episode, or visiting the sunken Titanic, until she opened the latest door.
Maybe it was the lack of sleep since she’d found out she would be running her first salvage mission completely solo, or maybe the oxygen mix in her suit was a little high, but Anna couldn’t shake the feeling she’d stepped into a dream. She blinked to clear her head, but nothing changed.
She stood before a huge wall of glass, or something like glass, anyway. Beyond the wall, trees - real, honest to god trees - stretched upward, their lumpy branches bristling with bright green leaves. They had to be hundreds of years old.
As a child, Anna had visited the indoor rain forest exhibit at the Baltimore Aquarium on Earth. Clutching her big brother’s hand, she’d dashed up the wooden platforms, trying to catch a glimpse of the sloth or the toucan. The trees there had been spread out, the bustling city always looming just outside the floor-to-ceiling windows.
What stood before her now was not an engineered approximation. It was a real forest, branches growing thick enough to block out the light source above. The surreal scene was made complete by a pair of ancient looking lamp posts glowing faintly at the edge of the tree line, their light barely penetrating a few steps into the wooded area.
The ship was as good as dead, but the forest was very much alive. Tendrils of ivy burst through the crevices between the corroded metal panels that held the glass in place, refusing to bend to the will of the man-made structure.
Hot tears sprung to her eyes and Anna had to lean over and rest her hands on her knees to steady herself in the wake of sudden emotion.
She hadn’t seen a tree in six months.
Well, technically it had been far, far longer. But she tried not to think about that part.
Light from above filtered down into the woods, dappling the soil and stones beneath the trees.
For a moment Anna was back at the cafe in Tarker’s Hollow, gazing out the window at the park as her mother scolded her to bus the lunch tables. She could smell the almond croissants baking, hear the mindless chatter of the patrons as they discussed whatever it was people with real lives discussed. It had been her entire existence, and now it was just… gone.
A light breeze sent a shiver of motion through the leaves in front of her. It must have been manufactured weather, still operating on reserve energy. The movement highlighted what she hadn’t noticed before.
The plant life had run riot, but there were no birds, no squirrels, not even insects on the forest floor. Besides Anna, the forest was the only living thing on the ship.
She stepped closer, placed her gloved hand against the nearest pane in solidarity, and holstered her tagger. She couldn’t imagine needing it in here.
A tremendous sycamore towered over her head just inside the glass.
She gazed up into its branches. The light seemed to be brightening above.
No. That wasn’t right.
The tree was brightening.
Before her eyes, the green leaves faded then burst into flaming orange.
All around the sycamore the other trees erupted into a symphony of yellow, peach, pink and scarlet.
Anna was watching summer turn to fall, as if someone had pressed a button on the remote that controlled the speed of the world.
A tone sounded in her helmet.
She looked down at her wrist.
Her origami drone unfolded from its dock and then refolded itself into something resembling a bird, before fluttering up to her.
“The atmosphere is breathable,” BFF19 sang out.
Anna released her helmet and pulled it off.
***
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Tasha Black lives in a big old Victorian in a tiny college town. She loves reading anything she can get her hands on, writing paranormal romance, and sipping pumpkin spice lattes.
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