Chapter One
Bitter breezes. Stinging snowflakes. The suffocating dark of the night enveloped me. Never had I imagined the night could be so…wonderful. The stars peeking down at the earth found me in a small hollow, not far from a little country home settled amid a little aspen grove. My family lived there. They were quaint. A woman and her two children, a boy and a little girl. The woman, quite short and plump, was a widow. She worked hard to support our little family. She worked as a seamstress in the town a few miles away. Even though she was gone most of the day, she still managed to come home and cook for the children. The boy, in his early teens, was reliable to a fault. He managed all the chores of the little home. He kept the house warm with the wood he would cut each day from the woods to the west, being careful to keep his mother's beloved aspen trees standing. He also washed the dishes and other meaningless house duties. As for the woman's daughter, well, she was only three. She was klutzy, bumbling into all the furniture and knocking her food into the floor. She was, to put it simply, a disaster. A disaster I was normally tasked with caring for. During the day, I keep her out of trouble, avoiding most accidents she causes and cleaning up after her on the ones I cannot avoid. However, once dusk falls, her care is turned over to the woman and I disappear for the night. Most nights I stick close to the grove, but on nights like this, I prefer to come and sit by the spring in my little hollow.
I watched as the flakes fell upon the spring's surface, melting away the instant they made contact. My fur rippled as the wind bit into my skin. The moon darted in between clouds, allowing small slivers of moonlight to dapple the ground here and there. I laid at the water's edge, my paws tucked underneath, and my plush tail wrapped around my side. If I remained still, one could not tell me from the snow or the rocks. I turned my attention to the sky. The brim of the hollow was turning from navy to violet. "It'll be dawn soon." I sighed, "And another day with the brat begins." I rose to my feet slowly and stretched out, extending my legs until my claws dug into the ground. I began making my way west, seeing as my grove was east and away from the boy's cutting area. As I reached the summit of the hill, I looked down upon the country home. It was a pale blue, worn from the weather and from age. The gardens in front were nothing more than twigs this time of year. The kitchen, overlooking the front twig garden, was lit. The woman was up and preparing for work. I made my way to the side porch. The woman kept her transport here, a rusty pickup truck made of assorted parts and brands. I reach up and swat the bell the woman has hung for me to announce my arrival. A few moments pass before the woman comes and opens the door.
"Audra, you're punctual as ever." She smiles at me as I make my way past her and into the kitchen.
"It's never a bad thing to be on time, Lyra. You could learn from it." I remark as I begin to lick the snow water off my fur.
Lyra, now going back to preparing the traditional lunches for the children and herself, shakes her head at me. "Come now, no need to be so sour. If you'd rather stay here on these bitter nights, you know you are more than welcome to."
"I'll have you know that these 'bitter' nights are a paradise to a snow leopard such as myself. Where I come from, we have nights such as this every night of the year." I retorted, glaring at her back.
"Yes, yes. The graceful hideaway of the Snow Leopards. You've mentioned it many times," She turned to me, pointing a wooden ladle at me, "And before you start complaining again, you are Genevra's familiar and you –"
"'—must fulfill your duty first and foremost'. Yes, I am aware of my contract." I snort in between swiping my tongue over my paw to wash my head with it. My ears twitched at the sound of footsteps approaching. "Iven. You're early this morning."
The boy passes his mother, opening the fridge, "Hard to sleep with you two hens squabbling." Iven takes the milk from the middle shelf and pours some into a glass and a small sippy cup. "Genevra's up by the way." He turns to me and sets the sippy cup on the kitchen table.
I nod, then approach the table, and rise up on my hind legs to grab the girl's cup in my jaws. "It's the same process over and over." I think to myself as I drop back onto all four paws and pad out of the kitchen and down the hall. I make my way into the tot's room and spy her playing with her stuffed toys. She turns toward me and smiles.
"Au-ra!" Genevra exclaims, climbing to her feet and tottering over to me. She grabs a clump of fur behind my ear. I drop the cup to the floor and grimace whilst she bends down, using my fur as support, to pick the cup up.