Mountain Farewell MB Fanfic #2

 Frank nodded with satisfaction at the new stables the military folks had built with him. All the ‘horses’ - he had only been able to see them as capybara horse chimera, seemed to be happily settling down there.  The Dogs looked a bit more like normal dogs, and bedded down along with them on the pine needles. The Mountain people had arrived  and taken over the Horizon Motel, two per room, and the place smelled of woody spice and campfire - even though they’d only used the microwaves in the rooms. They were more sociable than Te - who’d stayed on their mountain every night, coming down to visit every morning. 

June would still have found them dull, so Frank was relieved they’d flown off with Verge and Diedre to take a cruise with the Vapian refugees on the Oceanics trading ship.  Oh, and Steve had managed to sneak a ride, so the whole town was taking a vacation this stop. 

He finished his coffee, and sauntered down the road, to where it abruptly ended, and a pathway lead up to the next mountain over. Te waved from Fel’s back, and met him at the intersection of their realities. 

“So, what’s up with the stones and panels?”

“Everyone who has ever lived here, has left a marker - stone or ceramic. Anyone who visits, makes one as well, but those are usually just wood or bark. It’s also a boundary, however porous.”

“And is that why my people are doing as well?” Frank looked at the crystals and pentacles, cardboard gods and plastic gnomes clustered a yard or so back from the edge of the tarmac. “I think Trinkett’s shop is all out here now.”

Te smiled, and joined Frank in the stroll up the road, with Fel lagging behind to graze the exotic vegetation. 

“Can I ask you about the… um, hugs?”

Te paused, possibly waiting for the translation to make a few more tries.  Then nodded. “Yes, that is… well, since we are not a sexual species, we gather and mix genetic material as a separate behavior. But one side effect of sex is … ecstatic connection, for you? For us, as a people who is thinly spread and living what would seem very isolated lives, we evolved something else. Sorry, the translator is not going to do much better.”

“No, no, that gives me the idea, enough anyway. And it’s… just watching when the three of you just… it’s blissful? Sorry, I don’t mean to stare, but …”

“It’s fine, it’s not considered a private act, like sex is with sexual species. I …recommend you don’t hug any of us unless you mean it though. Fel and the other horses, as well as the Dogs, seem to have adapted some of that into themselves, over the millennia with us, so that probably gives you a sense of it.”

“Got it.  Yeah, maybe good that June isn’t around, she can be a hugger… without warning.”

“You all look very different from each other.”

“Not unlike your dogs.  I have a link to Eldin, he showed me a Great Dane and a Shitsu, so, yeah.  We mix for a lot of diversity, and are hardy, because of it. All of us are closely related,  but with all possible genetic matches and epi-genetics and biome variations. We exchange genetics, and save it in our… pod pouch. I’m told that’s a very inaccurate translation. But that assembles and reassembles the genes over many years, until we are old enough to … bud - again, not a good term. We reproduce once or twice in a lifetime. One of my Pair is going through this now, and I will be one of the three parents in a few years.”

“Congratulations, right?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll do my best.”  

“Frank.” Te began.

“Yes?”

“Will you make a marker for my mountain?”

“If you like.” Frank coughed and put his hands in his pockets.

“Oh, and show us how to make pockets. Don’t know how we missed that.”

“Sure, maybe get one of the people who actually sew, but sure.”

________________________________________

Frank sat at the counter of the Sheep’s Eye, not drinking the beer in front of him. 

Trinkett watched him from a table, resisting the urge to say anything. Until, “Hey, Frank. Nearly time."

Frank nodded, patted his pocket."

"June is back, passed out.  Edgy Steve too."

"Good."

"Surprised Verge and Diedre returned as well. They seem to have a plan, though."

 “Taking a walk.”  He patted his pocket again, and was out the door and down the road.  He was at the end, staring at the fence and curtain of tchotchkes, and there was Te and Fel. His face lit, and he stepped into the margin.

“Fel wanted to say goodby.”  Indeed, Fell trotted over, and draped his large head over Frank’s back, and drooled.  Frank sank his fingers into the fleece of his neck, “Aww, good friend, good horse….” 

Fel stepped back, and Te was close, holding a thick gold colored ring with an opaque dark green stone. 

“I made this for you.” Frank accepted it, and slid it on his finger. 

Frank reached into this pocket, and held out a rather beautifully cared egg of wood, satin smooth. “For you, useless as requested.”

Te held the gift, sighed, and decided. They held out their arms. 

Frank swallowed hard, and they embraced tightly. Time passed. 

And then they stepped back, turned.  Frank found his way to the bench beside the road, and felt the change. He sat, and all around him the cosmos danced, and he watched the stars though tears. 

Much later, he heard Trinket’s footsteps approaching. “Hey, Frank. You ok?”

“I feel wonderful.  Sad, but wonderful.”

Mountain, MB fanfic

 Te heard… no, felt would be more accurate, the change.  Te knew their mountain, their home all their adult life. The cabin built with their own hands, snug and warm, smelling of soap and horse. Te slipped out from under blankets, arranged the skirt of their sleep dress, sleepily opened the door, to thick fog. Still, they knew, the air moved differently, even though it moved not at all at the moment. Horse moved in the stable.  They shrugged off the cool damp weight of the early morning, to feed their only companion.  

“Well, Fel, have you noticed a change, too?”  they asked the shaggy beast, while filling the trough with fruits and grasses from the bin.   

He snorted and nibbled their shoulder gently, as they patted the black wool of his back.  He nosed into the food, but lacked the usual appetite. Te took this as concurrence. Something odd was happening, if not necessarily anything wrong - exactly. 

Te turned on the fire, made breakfast, and packed enough food for a couple of days. Te considered sending out a message, but… what would they say?  More information needed, before reaching out to the Sextet of the World. Before I leave, they promised themself. 

An hour or so later, the new mountain came into view. Te was not as surprised as they should have been, but Te tended to the typical quiet curiosity of their species. It was very close, where the lake was yesterday. And such an appearance required a visit. Te smiled, put on their eye shades, and portable translator, a broad brimmed hat, and called for Fel.

“Well, Fel. I’ve let the Sext know about the geographical anomaly, shall we go see?”

Fel ambled over,  his large paws making no sound on the dry twigs littering the yard, and waited with  calm demeanor as Te grabbed the deep felt on his back, and swung themself up.  They worked their way down the trail, to look for what should not be there. 

Frank saw them first.  A figure in multiple layers of fabric, white slitted glasses, oversize straw hat not unlike a mysterious traveler in a Japanese samurai movie. No sword, he noticed, to his relief.  The animal they rode was far more alarming. Horse sized, but fur more like a sheep or llama, with a  too long neck, and a head more like a camel.  Black back, in an ombre shade to brown below.  

“Oh. boy.  Um… Hi!” He waved, the hat nodded, seemed to have spotted him, continuing along the road. 

“You seem to be new here, and brought a mountain with you.”  Their mouth moved, then Frank head the words.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry if it’s a bother.  Won’t be here forever, probably only about six months.” Frank held up his hands in apologetic supplication. 

Another nod. 

“So, if we are neighbors, I… well, come meet everyone. Tell us how to be good neighbors to you.”

“You can call me Te.  This is Fel, my horse. What may I call you?”

“Frank, I’m Frank.  Um, never seen a horse like… Fel, before.”

“No, probably not. Horse is what the translator is calling it for you, fills the closest ecological niche, or social role as what you call a horse. Our translators are pretty good, but there is always a limit in any form of communication.”

“Well, Fel is a beautiful creature, whatever else it is. Kinda… face looks like a capybara I think they’re called. May I touch him?”

A moment’s pause between beast and rider, “Yes, you may.”

Frank reached out to the side of Fel’s neck, where the fur was less sheep-like, and felt an immense sense of peace and trust. The large head drooled lightly on his shoulder, and Frank sighed deeply, before stepping back from the embrace.

“Wow, that’s, his fur is so soft, and…”

“Fel, like all horses here, have serenity they can share.  They are intelligent, and very gentle with anyone good hearted.” Te smiled, and Frank felt his own smile form irresistibly. 

“Well, let’s go, I’ll give you the tour… and some of an explanation.”

——————————————————————————————————-

Verge stared at Te through narrowed eyes.  “The Teds never got your planet?  But you speak English?”

“I do not speak your language.  I have a high level translator. There are six sentient species on this planet, each dominant in their own environment. Long term isolation while evolving, I’m told it’s very unusual. None of us can tolerate living in, and for some of us, even visiting, the other realms. We trade, through the oceanic people, who could live away from the seas, but aren’t much interested. We have spent the last few thousand years learning how to communicate without physical contact. Sharing even a language is… not entirely possible. 

“The Teds did show up, a few hundred years or so back. We refused their offer, and through methods that we will never disclose to outsiders, ran them off.  We knew it meant never becoming spacefaring, and agreed among ourselves this was acceptable. It did spur us to improve our networks to protect each other.

“Some of your people have made it here, you are Vapian, correct?”

Verge had stopped breathing for a moment, unable to react. 

“Yes” they finally rasped out. 

Frank coughed.  “I think I know why we’re here, then.” He whistled in a low, and slightly annoying fashion. 

Te took the silence, and used it to gaze around the bar.  The beverage in their hand smelled interesting, but they did not feel like experimenting with alien substances today, and while not at home. The woman at the bar watched while rubbing a spot on the counter over and over. Te suspected it was a nervous behavior, and not a particularly stubborn stain. 

They’d left Fel to taste the new vegetation, and  provide therapy to the anxious humans outside. Te could almost hear the sighs of the humans, and smiled. 

This looked to be an interesting winter. 

——————————————————-

Trinket looked out over the forest from the… well, she knew it was a hunting blind, but chose to think of it as a treehouse. 

“Eldon, why did they make me take you up here?’

“Paranoia, I have to assume. But given what the Teds are, I have to respect the attitude.  Weird thing is, I can’t even perceive their communication networks. I can see it working, but I not only can’t read it, I don’t even know what they are using.”

“You can’t. Huh. Very interesting.”

“Can you?”

“Um, yeah. It’s even clearer than all the human conversations I know about.”

Steps on the wooden ladder announced Te’s arrival. “It’s beautiful up here, are you enjoying my mountain? I left Verge to talk to her people a while. All the Six peoples have looped in the Vapian refugees here.”

“That bunker for your video conferencing is remarkably advanced, for someone who seems to be living so close to the land.”

Te nodded, “We do not wish to broadcast our technology. And we all seem to need to live close to the forces that formed us, to be healthy. It seems normal to us, of course. But we have had enough visitors to understand we have approached the question very differently.”

“But…” Trinket hinted broadly, “that’s not the whole story.  I know this, because I can… hear it all.” 

Te went very still. 

“May I see your eyes without the snow goggles? The polar people on my planet made eye protection like that.”

Te carefully did so.  And they looked into each other’s eyes.  And recognized the shared connection. 

“I came across… no, in a strange way, I was gifted some Space Foot. I made a potion of it, and drank an … ill advised amount. Do you have that fungus here? Is that what I’m connecting with?”

“To tell you such a thing would be to betray my own six peoples.” Te whispered, their tone painfully neutral.

“Then I won’t ask you to do any such thing. Nor will I share my knowledge with anyone, ever. To do so would be to betray all of life.”  Trinket laid the palms of her hands on her chest, her face, then the top of her head, and heaved them up into the air in a gesture of expulsion. 

“I hope your sweet beast wasn’t too depleted from our humans yesterday. They’ve been carrying a lot of distress.”

“Fel loves meeting people, if he hadn’t been enjoying it, he would have pulled me away and home.  I tire of others far sooner than he does.  He is, however, sleeping it off today. Thank you for asking.” Te glanced to Eldon, “can your square friend also be trusted to be discreet?”

“Eldon?”

“Trinket, I don’t even know exactly what I need to be discreet about. Te, I will not lie to Verge, but I will not offer what I may sort of guess at. Be assured, though, your communication networks on this planet… are fucking impressive. And I’m not easily impressed.  As for Verge… well, her people are here as well. Protecting them all is now my first priority.” 

Te gazed at Eldon, “Protecting your people, that is acceptable.”   They looked over the railing, “I suspect your Verge will want to be home  with the woman at the bar, after this. I can’t stand being away from my home more than a few days. Imagine how hard a life it must be to lose so much, and how strange to find some part of it again. But, from what Frank told me, you all know how that feels. Please take care of them, of each other, yes?”