-:-
I would like to step out of my heart and go walking beneath the enormous sky.
-"Lament" by Rainer Maria Rilke
He was on the station radio again, and though she could already see the reason, it was good to hear his voice.
"Hello, this is PG-1, receiving transmission," Tinya gave her usual greeting, wiping at her eyes to diminish the glowing blue that was the result of staring down at the evergreen and beautiful colors on the other side of Legion Heights Mountain where it was perpetual spring, as opposed to her own territory in the winter ranges where she was surrounded by white snow, black trees and animals that came to breed and rest before returning to the green and golden forests and glens.
In her early days of coming to Rawl to escape her mother and the chained leash that came with her birthright, Tinya had believed that it was like what paradise and happiness could be. That really hadn't changed and most likely never would.
"Hello, PG-1, this is TW-1," the voice greeted back, and she felt like but didn't imbibe in saying 'duh' to the disembodied voice announcing his station code; being the only other ranger in over three hundred miles aside from their backup to the east and west, and not giving off the ringtone of her mother, there were few other people that it could have been, "I'm calling to report an impending surplus in Landstrider migrations; over."
"Can you account for the reason? I've seen a couple herds already bypass the snowdrifts and first Alder trees along the ridge; over."
There was a slight pause, but not a silence over the line; papers rustling and the sounds of what she assumed were a set of his silverware inside the coffee cup he kept around falling to the floor. She watched some of the Landstriders (nine feet tall in height, a sort of beige or muddy blue color, legs like grasshoppers with hooves with their bodies and faces not too different from amorphous mountain sheep or short horned deer; their calves loping after the mothers and single fathers skittish and afraid of the white they'd never seen) with all the delight she had available at the hour after twelve chimes from her over-sized ornate grandfather clock until the other ranger was done cursing at himself and answered her question.
She was curious when or if they'd ever get past the formal 'over' and just speak to each other as individuals, but didn't want to push. Even after six months of his being the only ranger she'd yet to see after a disaster, she didn't want to push; trying to put those old habits she'd been learning in the Capital since she was small away to bed and then the grave.
Night watch made her think entirely more than she had any business of doing with so much stale coffee in her stomach and the soreness of her feet from patrolling the grounds catching up to her.
"Sorry," he finally spoke, noise in the background still clattering, molding her a perfect image in her mind's eye of all of his dishes and maps and those silver compasses all the rangers were given when they were hired but never used after their first month on the job and realizing it was almost impossible to get lost on shift, "Just crashed into my own mass of destruction. To answer your question, there's a raving Drakkari that's torn three buck Striders to shreds already in Rokk's region alone, a set of Kamparine's in Gim's woods, and I found a dead Calidah not three hours ago; over."
"Well, fuck."
The crest of Brin's ear raised with the goosebumps underneath his fur, almost making his camouflage cloak ride up. The sounds of his designated territory had been rather quiet over the last week, but it was not to be unexpected; many of the wildlife headed up towards the north until they could be sure that they and their young would not be brought to danger by a rabid predator they couldn't outrun or outfight even on their best days.
Yet still, there was a noise, just for a moment.
The Honey Palm fruit he'd been picking from the lowest Die Tranen tree branch in his entire area was slowly brought forth from where his arm had paused in mid-motion, tucking the yellow sap covered morsel into the satchel bag he'd packed with ice as his ears tilted high on his head, eyes focusing on everything and nothing in a mere scintilla of a moment where something could very well go terribly wrong, and he all alone but for the trees and birds hiding within them.
The smell of blood on the wind came with the call of the animal he'd been ready to fight claw to claw and strength to brutality in disease when the moment arrived; with nothing to warn the oncoming moment of impact, but the stampeding footfalls of over twenty Landstriders he hadn't dared to think he would see again so soon. Their great speed and stalking gate clumsy and unintended as they cried out in fear and panic into the open glen he'd been courting the edges of since he'd awakened that morning to remember that all he'd had was the coffee on his table he hadn't been able to finish after talking with Tinya about the architecture he'd gotten to see on Winath before taking the job along the mountain for the whole of the stagnant seasons to replace a friend of his, Imra Ardeen, who'd wanted to take one of the other rangers back to that exact planet and see if she could help him find his brother. He well and truly enjoyed his nighttime chats with the woman (she seemed a woman to him, anyway; his being a mere twenty-one, she might well have been even older, but he had a feeling she was just younger with a sense of obligation that made her come off years ahead instead of being in the same place he'd been in youth) but their talking made him forget himself at times.
He finds it very perplexing, as his eyes fixate on the commotion, that he hadn't heard the break of snow and ice that would signal a small avalanche, but he also wasn't overly surprised to see the onslaught of frost and cold tumble with and after the fleeing animals, both assisting and impeding their escape from the groaning, vicious predator a mere hundred yards behind them. The white crested and stalled to an end against the fruit trees that were basically the border from the northern territory and the southern territory; brighter leaves falling down at the strain while the darker woods beyond kept their foliage and did not bend to the elements, even as the great beast (not unlike a rabid bear in jumbo size, but with cartilage that built up like plating and longer limbs to maintain balance for all the sharp points at the ends; six eyes blown to twice their usual size with blood coming out of them as well as its' mouth and nose) rumbled and loped forward after what it probably wanted.
'Poor thing,' was his only thought as he realized he'd probably have to kill it, despite his hope that he and Tinya had spoken of in the night that maybe its disease hadn't spread to its brain and it could be given an herbal remedy they'd both heard of during their ranger training from Gim and Rokk respectively, but had never actually gotten the chance to use; things were usually so slow and quiet in the season they'd chosen to watch and protect in.
"So, why'd you decide to take this job, if I may ask?"
The personal questions had started, like he'd known and she'd known in their own ways that they always would. With the moons above them so bright, an opal and plate of gold just passing each other, petals from a different tree and still so beautiful. Both of them had finally stopped using 'over' to pass their sentences off along the streamlines of the radio and were peaceful in the company of another voice in the dark wilderness they found themselves growing to be a part of.
But, Tinya found, she didn't mind so much. He couldn't see how uncomfortable she was and she couldn't see the blankness of his face.
"...I needed to get away from where I was. Some peace and quiet, being alone for a while without being really alone was something I felt like I needed."
She didn't say she was also getting away from her mother putting a new title over her head and around her shoulders that fit so well as a cloak and crown, but felt more like a death mask and shroud that would kill her in their time if she didn't put some effort into her life.
The quiet over the line seemed cognizant of the words she didn't say, though.
"You know, I came for almost the same thing, but I think our reasons might be worlds apart."
And neither of them broached that subject. They respected each other too much already.
Brin was right, anyway.
The snow was thick around her as she moved through it, her head just cresting over the white to make sure she was heading in the right direction, the animals' footfalls and galumphing about making it a little easier to keep track and balance. Her short inhales and exhales seemed almost like the snow fall and avalanche itself giving breath, puffs of white steam not so very different from the smoke trails of a train on its iron road across bridges and countrysides.
Her radio had been broken when the Drakkari had made to climb her station nest, banging inside and scaring her half to death when its destroyed senses made it look for warmth and meat, without really understanding it was impossible for either to do anything for it now.
Jumping out a window might not have been the brightest idea she'd ever had in her life, but she could count herself lucky that all she'd gotten was a slightly twisted ankle, slight bruising from the roll on landing into some rocks and dead trees and cuts in her ranger coat (different from the others, a white and black ensemble that would be useless below the snowline, but was perfect for hiding in the snow capped mountain range) that made the journey downwards more difficult, but not horrifically so.
Tinya rose up for air again, this time taking better stock and finding that the avalanche and fleeing Landstriders had come to the end of her territory, her feet at once planting on real ground and allowing her to lift up and out of the pure white.
The Drakkari was a mere few yards ahead of her clumsy exit from the snow, blood dripping dark against the frost and not noticing her even as she turned solid and kept most of her weight on her uninjured leg; the mad thing more interested in the single Landstrider calf that was slower than all the others and was having trouble on its thin, young legs in the snow that it shouldn't even have been in before the season turned and it was taken up the mountain to learn proper survival from its mother.
Technically, if she got involved, it wasn't against the rules since she had to kill the larger animal. If she could save one thing while destroying another and take no delight in either, she wasn't breaking any ethical codes the rangers had out in the winter seasons to let the weak be eaten and the strong survive.
Fading just the slightest amount, she managed to slip through the snow and make out just beyond where the Drakkari was, heading it off from the calf with a shock at seeing something that had not been there; it gave the smaller animal time to get out of the snow and into the glen, leaving the bleeding other to rear and snarl at the two-leg.
She just sighed, taking a few steps back and out of its reach, phasing so that its long reaching claw hit a tree instead of herself; her hand reaching inside her cloak to find the dart and shot-flute she was supposed to use in these situations as she and everyone else on the mountains weren't to use rifles or any real weapons on the animals.
"Poor thing; I'm awful sorry about this."
More blood dropped to the ground, this time along the leaves of the southern territory to make slimy trails along the leaves as it tried to follow her with eyes failing and nose full of blood.
He heard the shot before he saw the figure in white and the large form he'd lost sight of momentarily along the trees in order to help move along the Landstrider calf, get it to its mother dawdling behind the rest of the terrified herd to find the infant and then doubled back.
The Drakkari was dead on the ground, maw open and bleeding out what little excess blood it had in its throat, lethal dart in the soft nook between its eyes and, most unexpected for Brin to see, a woman in the northern rangers gear crouched down next to it. Giant paw in one hand and the other feeling inside the fur of its neck, checking for a heartbeat, to be sure.
"...Tinya?"
The paw was carefully set down among the leaves before the girl-woman-person turned around (oh, and her neck was actually rather long, he couldn't imagine how he hadn't consider that when picturing her; his images had all involved slightly more muscles and tan with maybe lighter hair) and blinked wide grey eyes over at him. Her mouth hung a little open as she took in his own image (she knew, somehow, that he would be tall and had been expecting the fur and coloring from what Rokk had described when she'd asked him about the other, but she wasn't expecting him to look quite so...pretty wasn't exactly the word, but it wasn't wrong) and stood up as well as she could without jarring her sprain or tripping over the animal dead at her feet. And it was dead, absolutely no heartbeat left to give; the poison in the dart had done its job.
"Brin...?"
He slowly walked out to meet her in the sunlight that was peeking out from behind the clouds, light making him a clear marvel in his own gear, smelling of the fruit in his bag and the wood smoke of his oven the night before he still hadn't washed out with a shower. The gold in his eyes reflected the snow just behind her like stars in the middle of the day.
She remained in place, not wanting to leave the fallen dead alone just yet, but smiled as best she could when he finally reached her (wow, he was really, really tall) and held out the hand with the glove not sticky with animal blood, too much grit or melting snow.
It was as strange a way to meet anyone as they ever had, or were likely to again, but they shook hands anyway.
Actually, they ended up holding hands a lot that day and going forward; Tinya's leg giving out, Brin worrying about her when she explained what had happened; apologizing for not realizing, chiding for that apology as it wasn't like he could just know something was wrong but chance; him taking her to his own tower to get cleaned and fixed up, her actually ending up having to stay for a long while until the damage of her own tower was repaired.
They felt like they had known each other just through talking and not really seeing, but with the seeing and being near, found a lot more to get to know.
Neither could claim that it displeased them.