A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 36

It didn't take much time and Simmit didn't have any more to give and she looked at Copper a little uncertainly. Copper shook her head, "I just needed that. I'd really rather just go to back to sleep."

"Will you sleep with us, Luddy?" Simmit asked as she looked up, "There are plenty of furs and I would like it."

"Come on, you big thing," Copper growled, "Don't you get shy now. We've slept together since our sleepovers when we were kids. I just wouldn't let you do anything before as we got older. I don't care anymore Luddy. You can do whatever you want, as long as it's ok with Simmit and I get to have a little sleep."

"I don't want to do anything but sleep now," the troll said honestly, "Besides, seeing you guys screw looks a little dangerous to me."

"Will they let the pets sleep together?" Simmit asked as she looked up.

"Sure," the troll nodded, "They'd probably like to have their pets sleeping together. I'm the one who's nervous about it. I'm not sure I want to be in the same bed with you the next time you go nuts on each other.

But you aren't pets yet. Not until you've made your acceptance of their offering the way I did."

"Good then," Copper yawned, "I'll get to work on them first thing in the morning and I'll bug them all day if I have to. I'll suck anything they wave in my face for the chance at all this especially if you'll sleep with us, Luddy, since it's not so warm way over here in Pet Land where the kept ones will live.

I don't care which one I have to suck, either. Both of them, I don't care. Twice, three times each, I won't give a damn. I'll make their eyes cross if I have to. Why I'll, ..."

She looked at them and the way that she'd made them chuckle. It was what she'd wanted. She smiled, "Please lie down and sleep with us, Luddy."

The troll looked at them with wet eyes, but she nodded, "Ok," she said.

"Don't you get all emotional either," the dwarf-girl warned a little sternly, though she didn't mean it, "After all of this, I don't want to wake up half-drowned and hanging onto those melons of yours for dear life."

"Why not?" Simmit asked, reaching to move a few braids out of the way as she laid her hand on one of the troll's breasts, "it sounds nice and- ".

"It was a figure of speech," Copper grinned, "Now I'm wondering why I've never wanted that before."

The three curled up together as though they'd done it forever and Copper and Simmit smiled up at the troll who held them closely before they closed their eyes.

"Luddy really isn't into girls," Copper whispered a few minutes later in the darkness.

"I know that," Simmit whispered back very softly, "But I like her and I am warm."

The mystery of the morning came when each of them awoke to find that the pair of little boys had found enough space to worm their way in between and gone back to sleep.

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The weather had turned warmer a few weeks later and the snow was soft and wet, as though it was thinking about melting, but hadn't really made up its mind yet. A snow hare had discovered the first stalks of some snowbells which were trying to push up through the thinner snow at the base of an evergreen tree and a lynx was watching the hare and thinking about finding a male, since the promise of spring had begun to get her juices flowing, and she knew that she'd need the extra nourishment.

There was a quiet roaring sound far off and the ears of both creatures turned in that direction, thinking ahead. As the sound grew louder, they both turned to look that way.

When Copper's Bradley crested the low ridge to rise up and bang down again, the lynx passed the hare in her haste to get out of town. The hare hung a ninety and flashed out of sight under a tree.

"I like it better when you have the trailer of fuel," Yuan shouted to Copper, "It makes you drive slower."

The half-dwarf laughed, "Sometimes ya gotta just let go and live a little. Besides, you aren't fooling me for a minute. I see you grinning your ass off too."

She looked at Simmit in the driver's seat, "You just keep it nailed to the floor, honey. Time's a wastin' and I wanna bait the trap."

Simmit slowed a minute later and Copper walked up, "What's goin' on?"

"There is an animal in front of us," the demon replied, "This one does not run out of the way."

Copper looked at the monitor and nodded, "A moose. We probably startled him. They're not that bright to start with and actually thinking takes the last of the common sense they were born with. He looks like he's thinking to charge."

As though the animal had heard her, the bull lowered his head and pawed the ground, but only twice. Then he was on his way and the crash was felt as a mild shock to the occupants inside.

"Great," Luddy said from where she sat at the back braced with her feet against the frame and holding Simmit's boys to keep them from bouncing around, "That last ridge almost gave me hemorrhoids and now there's a moose who's trying to give me a headache. Drop the ramp, Simmit. I'll go settle him down."

"Well hurry before he breaks one of my headlights," Copper said, "I've only got a couple of spares left. If he'd back up a little, I'd shoot his ass, but he's too close."

The ramp whined down and Luddy pulled herself out and bounded around the Bradley to face the angry moose. "Come here, lover boy," she grinned.

Since she was moving and not sitting there, the bull turned in her direction and snorted angrily.

Luddy began to walk, "I don't have time for you to do the whole show again. Let's just cut to the chase and do this."

She got to within twenty feet from him when he charged. Luddy took a quick step and planted her wide feet. As he came to her, she grabbed his antlers and stepped back with a heave just as he'd have missed.

She let go then and his head fell to the ground, his neck broken and his body twitching. "You want me to drag him out of the way?"

Yuan came around from the back, "No, we have mouths to feed and he's a big one."

Twenty-seven minutes later, the fighting vehicle rolled on with the body of the moose strapped to the armor skirts over the tracks. He was cooling now, dressed out and gutted, his carcass packed with snow.

Luddy would have complimented Yuan for the speed and efficiency of the whole operation, but Yuan wasn't there. As the Bradley rumbled over the next little rise, she watched as the aerials wiggled out of sight before she took off climbing. She wanted to see this place that Copper had spoken of from the sky.

She reached about a hundred feet above the snow below her when she shifted and though she lost a little during the change, she more than made it up in seconds as each stroke of her wide wings took her higher and faster.

She bore more than a passing resemblance to a species of Pteranodon. The class included some of the largest flying creatures ever to have developed on Earth. The type which her mother had modeled her after may well have been the largest and though it was no dinosaur – it was a reptile all the same back then.

But this was now. As far as she knew, all of the large dragons were gone.

Yuan was no reptile, and as she was now, she was the single largest living thing flying.

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Rachel Wannamaker was on her way to meet Cha'Khah over at Barnett's home. She had a few things on her mind, and the main one was the trouble today – as it had been for a little while. Like the darkest of anyone's troubles, it was the uncertainty which made it all the worse.

Rachel was debating as she walked along on the damp and melting snow, packed down so well by the traffic of their feet as they all tramped to and fro between the entrance to the mountain and Barrett's farm, or what would be his farm soon, since cattle ranching was going to be only one of his efforts come the spring.

Rachel walked a little slowly, wondering how to go about broaching a very sensitive subject with her closest friend. Among other things, it was Cha'Khah's nature which also required some thought. If she just blurted out what her thoughts were, who knew how the Drowess might react? With shock and concern, certainly, but after that had passed? It was about anybody's guess. She kept walking.

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Barrett looked up, hearing the dull clank and grind as the old vehicle pulled up at the gate nearest the house. Cha'Khah didn't know what to think as she heard a whine and then a rather short person in oversized coveralls jumped down onto the ground to wave at her husband.

"What is that?" Cha'Khah asked and Barrett laughed, "That's somebody that I don't get to see near enough. That's Copper Kettlebottom. I think I can even guess why she's come, too, judging by the time of year. Come on, this is someone you'll regret not meeting."

They met a little closer to the idling Bradley than halfway, since Copper was hauling a load, walking with a small keg on her shoulder and a large tankard in her free hand. The introductions were made in a minute and Copper appeared to be so pleased to meet Cha'Khah; so much so that she remarked on it.

Copper laughed, "I know what you are, Cha'Khah," she said, "That's not the thing to me. I'm a little astounded that you've landed him, but I'm happy for the news." She nodded with a gleam in her eye, "I think you make a grand couple, I'm just surprised as hell, that's all."

Before the Drow could ask what was meant, the dwarf laughed again, "There are all sorts of people around. Why not Drow? Now that I think about it a little, it seems really right to me – that it took no less than one of you to rope somebody like Barrett, since he minds his own business so much that almost none of us ever get to see him."

She held out the tankard, "Here. Try some of this. If you ask your guy there, he'd tell you some bull-honky that I'm a master brewer – and it would be true, I guess, though I never used to brew very much. But whenever I did, I'd always bring Barrett a little like I'm doing now. This is my spring bock. Go on, have a taste, because once Barrett gets his mitts on it, it'll be gone."

Cha'Khah's eyes lit up at the first sip, "This – this is wonderful, Copper. And you only make a little?"

"Well, that's all I used to do, but I'm thinking of going into a bit of regular production, private-like. I won't brew anything for the inns and taverns. It's too much trouble. I was thinking about it and I think I'd rather stay a little small and just brew custom on demand. I could give you a full keg every few weeks, but I don't think you can hold that much all the time and keep that figure – even with bottomless Barrett helping."

But Cha'Khah wasn't thinking about just the two of them and she asked for a price for a full keg and they'd see how long it lasted. She moved Mo-Wenn to her other arm and took another sip.

Copper asked about the child and was astounded and happy to hear about the turn of fate which had made them a family.

After a time, they drifted over the Copper's vehicle and she introduced Simmit, laying their relationship out plainly as a bit of a test.

Cha'Kha didn't blink. She was happy to meet Simmit and she laughed, saying that she had to meet Rachel.

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A ways off in the forest, Rachel slowed to a stop as she heard voices.

The development of small demons is a little odd when compared to that of human infants. Human children develop fairly evenly as they grow. But using that measure as a yardstick against demon children is often startling. They develop much more slowly in some things, but in others, they pass humans by very quickly.

One of Simmit's twins was stringing some sentences together while the other was still in the place where they'd both been the previous week, boiling down an entire question to just the verb spoken as a question. 'Where are you/we going?' could simply be asked as 'Going?' in this fashion. So one still did this while the other was well on the way to becoming a chatterbox.

Rachel came very slowly around a bend in the path and stood stock still, staring at a female troll – with two demon children perched on her shoulders and they were in a bit of an earnest conversation then.

"Go," one of them whined a little, and the troll nodded, "I know you have to go," she said, "You can go here."

"Too deep, Lud-dy," the other said, looking down.

"Deep," his brother agreed, not really knowing what the word meant, but since his brother had said it ...

"Fine," the troll grumbled a little, "Gimme a second then." She cleared away a little of the snow with her large foot. "How about now?"

"Not know," the first one said.

The troll rolled her eyes and picked one up from her shoulder to set him down and he didn't sink that much. She stepped away a little and created a second depression with her foot to set the other one down in. "There," she said, "Now go."

"Lud-dy, .. too far away,. Want to be there." He pointed to where his brother stood, looking a little uncertain.

"Oh no," Luddy said, waving her finger, "You go here, and you," she pointed at the other one, "You go there. I'm not dumb enough to put the two of you anywhere near each other now. One of your little contests was enough."

Luddy saw that they didn't understand everything she said, but Simmit had told her to speak to them as she would to a young adult. "If you speak to them in baby talk, you look stupid, and they will take longer to speak well."

Luddy pointed at the snow, "Just go pee."

"Not want to go here," the better orator between them said.

"How?" the other asked.

"Look," the troll growled a little, "you had all the room you needed when we were walking in the ruts of the Bradley tracks, but you didn't HAVE to go then, you guys said.

Now you tell me you NEED to go, so stop fussing and go. And don't ask me how either. I've seen you pee just fine all on your own."

She could see that this was about to become a test of wills, so she put on a really stern face and glared at them, "And if you want to play the fools with me and get yourselves all wet like you don't know how, that's fine. I'll wash you with a handful of snow and I'll be the one laughing then."

The demons did their business then, but they couldn't hold their pretenses and began to giggle toward the end, knowing that they'd almost suckered Luddy in again. They were about to stand looking helpless with their arms up wanting to be picked up out of the snow when they noticed Rachel and ran to Luddy with no trouble, deep snow and all for the way that they helped their progress with their wings.

Luddy got them settled on her shoulders and turned to look at Rachel.

"Excuse me, "the demon began, "Are – are those yours?"

"As if," the troll replied in her deep voice, "No, they're a friend's. I'm just the idiot babysitter, now that I see how they've been playing me. My name's Luddy."

"Rachel," the other said stepping forward to offer her hand. The troll looked surprised and genuinely pleased that someone wanted to shake her hand. She reached out and shook Rachel's hand with a smile.

"They're adorable, "Rachel smiled.

"They're little buggers," Luddy chuckled, "They always pull this 'Can you help, Lud-dy?' stuff on me because it works."

"Bug-gers," the quieter one said thoughtfully as he tested the word.

Rachel grinned, "I know the feeling. I've got one of my own. He's getting near ten now, but when he was this size, it was awful. I'd want to pull my hair out and then he'd flash me his little smile and I couldn't stay annoyed."

The twin who didn't speak as well as the other sat holding his hand out, reaching for Rachel, so she stepped closer and he took some of her hair in his hand and held it up, looking at his brother.

It began a conversation between the females that Rachel wasn't ready for as she listened to Luddy.

Afterwards, they parted and she stood waving a little at the boys, who rode on Luddy's shoulders, looking back at her a little hauntingly.

"Bug-gers," one twin said and Luddy told him to forget the word, so the other one now began to say it, but they fell quiet pretty quickly when the troll threatened to make them walk.

When they were out of her sight, Rachel resumed her solitary walk. Going over the talk in her mind. She told herself that the father's name had been Harrick.

It might have given Rachel the excuse to shelve her gnawing doubt, but then she remembered what the troll had said – that the same person had impregnated the admittedly too-trusting troll-girl and his name had magically changed to Bron then.

She stopped, no longer wanting to see Cha'Khah quite so much anymore. She felt very foolish and she wanted to be alone, but she knew herself. Other than the features in their little faces and their hair, she had little – other than her intuition. And what her intuition told her, ...

She felt her tears beginning.

Rachel wanted to fly away then, not knowing where to go at all and not really caring where she went, but of course she couldn't do that. But she did find a clearing and she took off anyway, just to give herself something to do while she thought.

As she climbed, she thought about the other thing that she'd been told. There were now dragons here someplace. Rachel wondered what that meant to her and she doubted that it mattered one little bit She'd been a little fascinated with the legendary creatures as a girl, but then, she'd also wanted to be a marine biologist when she'd been a girl too - for little more than for it the way it felt to say the words. When she'd gotten a little older, she found out that in her case it meant being a girl on a mountain who loved the ocean. Other than liking fish, there wasn't much mileage there. The dragons went into the childhood scrap bin along with the marine biologists and the unicorns.

At six thousand feet above the average ground level below, Yuan watched as Copper and Simmit climbed into the back of the Bradley and a minute or so later, they began to roll away, headed back to where Luddy was with the boys as she walked. Yuan watched the pair of individuals that she'd seen Copper speaking with as they walked away from the farm, the dark female carrying what looked to be an infant and the male human walking with the small keg of lager on his shoulder that Copper had given to Barrett as she did every year since they'd met, pretty much if she knew that he was at the family home.

It wasn't a sure bet, though, so usually, she hauled a little keg with her and if he wasn't home and didn't look to be living there, it wasn't a big deal to drink it herself. Neither of them ever said it, but they'd liked each other forever. It had just never occurred to either one that the admiration might be mutual. That didn't stop them from enjoying a tankard together when they met. To Copper, Barrett was what she thought that all human men ought to be like. She was actually very happy for him.

Yuan was mindful that most people spend very little time looking up, but a lot of them did look up sometimes, so she flew hidden, a pale spot in a pale sky. As the pair below her walked, she was getting a clue and it wasn't long before they were headed straight toward a likely-looking mountain. From everything that Copper had been able to piece together in her travels, that was where the one that they searched for lived with some others. She wasn't as intent on killing him as Copper was, but she could understand the reasoning and this might help her get some information about her own quest.

The quest that was looking more absurd to her with each demon that she met. Other that what had happened to Beyl'eth when she'd arrived and the way that Sheth and Simmit had been transported along with a clutch of insane demons, there wasn't all that much to be feared, she thought.

A shape flew past underneath her, going right to left and the motion caught her eye, so she looked. After an instant, she looked again and actually turned her head – something which she avoided in this shape because it caused huge drag in the direction that she looked and required her to make large adjustments that would only cost her speed which had to be regained by spending a bit of energy.