random_nanorimo_stuff | Other Trails Chapter 12

Shade slept well, curled against Starfighter's avatar's back and with her sister using her flank for a pillow. When she woke the gas giant was a massive glare of colour in the sky above, and there was a tray heaped with dandelion greens, well-washed hill onions, and ground tree leaves sitting on a corner of the bed.

"Breakfast." She groaned and stretched, then lifted her head and looked toward the wall with a frown. "Where's Mist?"

"Working with Dr. Lou on training her pet," said Starfighter, sounding absent. "She tried to wake you up to ask if you wanted to come with, but that shock you had yesterday really knocked you down and you wouldn't even open your eyes and look at what she was saying."

"Poor sister." Shade hung her head over the edge of the bed and frowned remorsefully.

"She's alright. I just hacked a security feed and she was laughing and talking up a storm with the Doc."

"Oh good." Another stretch had Shade pulling faces, and then she rolled onto her side with her head pillowed on her bunched up blanket as she turned her attention to her breakfast. A quick giving of thanks was followed by a thoughtful examination of how the vegetables were arranged and of the single dandelion flower that had been balanced carefully on top of the little heap. "What are you doing? You sound distracted."

"Furball asked me if I wanted to play a game, so we're doing this thing with straws. It looks easy, but you really have to rusting think before you can make a move. And Sebastian's not really helping, even though he thinks he is."

"A game with straws?" Shade lifted her head curiously. "Are you holding them in your hand?"

"No. They're down on the floor along with a handful of little rocks, but there are all these rules..." Starfighter trailed off with fascinated frustration.

Shade chuckled softly, then made a good breakfast of the contents of the tray before sitting up and finding her hair brush. It was the work of a moment to smooth the tangles from her mane and then make two slender braids at the sides before pulling them back and joining them into a single fatter braid. Finding a fastener wasn't so easy, but an orphaned twist of wire that had broken off a spool several days before and been set aside soon served her purpose and she was frowning at herself curiously in the mirror to see if she looked anything like the shifter woman who had been wearing a similar hair arrangement the day before. Deciding that she really didn't, but that the 'do looked alright, she trilled softly and brought the tray out of her shuttle-shaped friend and back to the mess.

No one was there, so she returned to Starfighter to grab some wire, and then settled in a nice shady spot near the corner of the building that held the mess and started making a red Gift Day ball with yellow stars on it. The work was engrossing, so she was startled when a large, soft, grey paw gently covered her work.

Thoma's grey brother shrank back as she shoved at him and scrambled to her feet, his blue eyes wide and his plush fur on end.

"What? What are you doing out here, Milton? You were supposed to be helping Thoma when you came." Shade stared at the young people cat, looking for traces of hostility from the being who she'd heard had just barely failed the sentience tests.

Milton stared back for a moment, but then lowered his eyes and chattered softly before rolling onto his back and showing her his soft belly.

"Presenting Belleh means you're the boss, and please love me," she remembered Thoma telling her when she'd first met the dark-eyed brown feline soon after her crew's arrival on the planet. She'd snorted at him at the time, taking his showing of his underside the same way that she took Starfighter's teasing. But there was something about Milton's hopeful little sounds as he lay there that gave her the unmistakable feeling that the grey boy was in earnest about what he was telling her.

"D'awww," she said softly, finally, the tension leaving her shoulders as she went to one front knee to gently touch him on the chest. "I'm not your boss, Milton. Are you lost?"

"Noooo," he told her softly, his purr booming out in the still warm air.

"Are you looking for your brother?" She patiently fell into communication mode.

"Nooo." His eyes closed and he purred more loudly.

"Are you... wait. Were you looking for me?"

He chirped happily, his eyes smiling as he opened them again and looked up at her.

"But we haven't even met before. How do you know me?" Shade frowned with confusion, her ears twitching.

Milton glanced over at her Gift Day ball, then reached a patty paw toward it. "Nrrpt. Mmmru."

"Someone told you about the balls I make?"

Another happy chirp. "Meeeeeeeena."

"Oh! Does Meena want me for something?" Her brow cleared.

"Noooo. Meme!" He squirmed hopefully, then stilled as she gently caught him by the cheek fur. Mighty purring followed.

"Why don't you show me what you want?" She folded her arms over her upper chest, head lifted with curiosity.

"Mrrp!" He rolled over and bounded off around the building, then came back and peeked to see if she was coming. Seeing her trotting in his direction after picking up her work and material, he chattered and bounded away again.

"You better not... Oh!" She stopped and stared at the two tiny purple and grey women who stood uncertainly beside the powerful young crossgenic. At first she was so surprised at seeing the two so far away from their protective barrack that her mind couldn't settle on anything to think, but then she noticed the purple yarn doll that the one was clutching close. "Meme? Are you Freedom's Meme?"

The woman perked and purrled softly, her dull eyes brightening just slightly as she smiled happily at the sound of her name. Then she pointed to her doll and to the other elderly unicorn woman, who was regarding Shade with timid hopefulness.

"I don't understand." Shade couched to be closer to their level.

Meme wrinkled her muzzle slightly with unhappiness, but then squeaked and swatted at her companion as the other woman tried to take her doll.

"Oh! She tries to take your baby away," said Shade, her face clearing as she nodded.

Meme saw the nod and took it to mean that Shade would help her. Another happy, purrling smile accompanied the offer of a handful purple binding straw.

"And you want me to use this straw to make a baby for her." Shade slowly pointed from the doll to the straw to the other unicorn woman, who was whimpering softly with distress and trying to get away from a Milton cuddle so that she could once more try to take that alluring purple toy.

Meme gave the straw to the black-furred girl, then hugged her doll and watched expectantly.

"Um..." Shade looked down at it. "This isn't enough straw to make a doll though. Meep!"

She watched with wide eyes as Milton bounded away, rumbling absently as Meme and the other woman cuddled close to her for security. Then she smiled as she saw the muscular young feline returning with a large bundle of the coloured straw in his mouth, bits shedding out and littering the ground behind him as he neared.

"Here, let me see." Quick black fingers took the straw and started laying it out in neat, straight strips on the ground in front of her. "This will work. The head will need to be a different kind from the one on your doll though, Meme."

Meme looked up and blinked, then watched as her friend started to try and help Shade lay out the straw.

"No. Like this. Yes! Good!" Shade trilled absently, then gathered up some of the straw and started to weave a little ball out of it, similar to her Gift Day balls. "I can even use this for her horn. Do you guys know you used to have horns? I wonder." She looked at those blank, trusting faces and felt sad as she wondered if the two women had ever known any happiness in their secluded, lonely lives full of babies they never got to keep and humans who treated them like animals. "Speaking of wondering... Milton, do the doctors know that these women aren't lost?"

Milton sat up and looked at her intently, trying to understand what she was asking him. "Mmru?"

"Bring me a doctor," said Shade. "Bring me someone in charge."

Milton perked and once more went leaping away.

Meme called after him softly and wordlessly, but then sighed and curled up on the ground by Shade's side and went to sleep hugging her doll.

Shade watched her, then looked at the other lady, who was still engrossed in carefully laying the straw out in a neat row. The sight of that poor face so intent on the simple task made her sigh, and she didn't look away as Meena stopped in front of her and fussed at a proudly purring Milton.

"I can't believe you took them from the barrack! That's against the rules! These two haven't been helped yet. They could get lost, or hurt!" Meena tried to check the straw arranger for injury and then stepped back with surprise as she was squealed at and pushed away.

"She's helping me make her a doll," explained Shade, her fingers still skillfully weaving the straw. "And I think Milton was careful. He seems like a quieter being than Thoma is."

Meena glanced over at the show of a soft grey belly and beseeching blue eyes, then looked at Meme and the other unicorn woman. "They aren't even afraid of you."

"I think someone told Meme I helped make her doll, or that I make things like her doll." Shade rumbled softly in response to a sigh from Meme. "She asked me to make one for her friend out of this straw."

Meena blinked, and then smiled widely. "She asked you?"

"Yes. She even tried to explain how this lady keeps trying to take her doll." Shade selected a couple of plain coloured leaves of straw to use for the doll's eyes. "And then when this lady saw me laying the straw out she decided to help."

"Being out of the rooms is helping them," said Meena softly, looking very pleased though her eyes were bright. "And somehow you're not frightening despite being so big."

"Well, I am furry too. Maybe I remind them of Thoma and Milton?" Shade checked the inside of her work and then continued weaving.

"Maybe. You rumble too." Meena watched the weaving for a moment, then turned her head to watch the careful arranging of the straw. "This is wonderful. Who would have thought that they could rally this much with just a little encouragement?"

"They're people," Shade reminded the older woman. "And part of being a person is learning and growing, right?"

"Yes." Meena gently scratched Milton's chin, her expression thoughtful. "I think Freedom and Thoma will be alright without me for a little while. Will you show me how to do that weaving?"

"Sure. Do you want to work on that Gift Day ball? It's an easy design." Shade nodded toward her earlier project.

"Alright." Meena went over to pick it up, then studied it closely as she returned and sat with her back to Milton. "Ahhh. I can see how this stage of the work is done."

Shade watched the quick purple fingers start to move and smiled, then checked on Meme again before resuming her own work.

* * *

"That was kindly done, Shade. Thank you," said Dr. Syrya as she watched Meena herd Milton, Meme, and the other lady back toward the protective barrack.

The black-furred girl snorted softly and blew the words away as she thought of the joy that the little straw stuffed basket-work figure had been received with by its new mother. "Anyone would do that. There was no reason not to."

"A lot of people would've thought of a reason," countered the lanky shifter man who had come to join the comfortable crafting session and had spent it asking Shade questions and writing down her answers.

"Fff!" Shade picked up one lone last forgotten wisp of straw and nibbled on it, then tied it over the wire on her braid.

"No, Sheldon's right." Dr. Syrya patted the black furred girl on the shoulder, then sighed and stretched before rubbing an absent hand over her head scales. "Most people have very little patience for those whose IQ level is lower than their own."

"Then they're stupid, no matter how high their IQ is," said Shade with finality.

"Score." Sheldon chuckled, and then offered her the hardcopy pad he'd been taking notes on. "Read this and tell me if I got everything right?"

She took the pad, marveling at the idea of having words made with colouring on thin plastic instead of light on a screen, then frowned intently as she worked over the slightly malformed Common glyphs.

"Er, do you need a different script?" asked Sheldon uncertainly, his brows drawing together under his insignia band.

"No. Common's the only one I can read yet. I've just never seen ones made like this before." Shade nodded as she became familiar with the shapes of the little pictograms and started reading faster.

"What do you mean?" asked Dr. Syrya curiously.

"Huh? Oh." Shade shrugged her lower shoulders and offered the pad back to Sheldon. "I mean I've only seen the ones that are made when you touch a key or a typing image."

"Ohhhh!" Sheldon snerked and turned brown with embarrassment. "My handwriting's not as bad as most peoples'."

"I didn't say it was bad." Shade took the stylus that he handed her and carefully made tiny approximations of the two hand signs that made up her name on the line that he said to sign on.

"Heh. It's alright." He lightened to blue, then waved and got up to walk away. "Thanks!"

"You're welcome." Shade watched him go, then turned to the gentle medical worker at her side. "Now what?"

"Now..." Dr. Syrya smiled. "Why don't you come and meet the other unicorns? You don't really have anything official to do till the ship for Earth comes."