Cold nights on Vulcan part 2

So, here we go, Cold Nights on Vulcan parts 2 and 3. (I'd say look i've uploaded two chapters in one day but they were meant to be one chapter and I just did them in three parts as I think people would get bored of reading such a long chapter).

I want to take a moment to say thanks to all those who have taken the time to review, thank you for your words of encouragement they are truly appreciated and special thanks to Babita and QTFics, your reviews always make me smile.

Saturday 26th September.

6:14 am.

It is a thing of beauty to wake up and find yourself being kissed by your partner. Spock's arms had wrapped around Nyota before his eyes had even opened as he took in the wonderful feel of cool bare flesh against his own, only interrupted by material at two points. Nyota pulled away as he opened his eyes.

" I was wondering how to wake you, I've never seen you sleeping before." She whispered running her fingers through his hair.

" I only require four hours sleep, I spent most of the night awake in case you had bad dreams again."

" That's sweet." She moved up to kiss him again. " I woke up because it's starting to get hot in here again."

" Yes, the sun is starting to rise. It is best if we get up now and start our journey so we can arrive at our destination by mid-day. Then we can take shelter against the worst of the heat."

He Could sense her smile.

" Where is our destination?"

" It is in the mountains, an ancient holy place where our ancestors used to hold ceremonies."

" The mountains seem so far from here."

" The desert conditions create illusions, what seems far is actually near and at time that which appears near is actually very far. I have accounted for your pace and rest times Nyota, we will reach there in 5.34 hours." Spock found the zipper and undid the sleeping bag allowing them more room.

" How long will we have at this holy place if we need to get back here before dark?"

" Allowing for the time it'll take to set up camp four hours."

" Just four hours?"

" Yes." " Not 3.98 or 4.01?"

" Are you teasing me again?"

" A little." Spock rolled onto of Nyota causing her to giggle, he was careful to keep his body weight off of her as he found her hands and pinned them above her head.

" Cadet, it is a sign of disrespect to tease your superior officer."

He bent his head down to kiss her, she responded enthusiastically.

" What's the punishment for such insubordination Commander?"

Spock cocked his head to one side and looked at her puzzled a to why she would wish to be punished.

" There is no punishment Nyota."

She looked up at him and giggled then freed her hands and reached them upwards to frame his face.

" I was being playful Spock."

" It is playful to wish for punishment?"

" Not in to spanking, I will add that to my little book on facts about Spock."

" If you truly have such a book please guard it well I would not wish for others at the academy to know my preferences on such matters. Secondly, what is spanking?"

She gave a short laugh.

" Firstly, the book is all in my mind. Secondly."

Spock felt a sharp stinging slap to his left buttock. Nyota sat up and crawled on hands and knees out of the tent. The sky had lightened considerably as they had talked. He watched the swaying of her butt as she went thinking how he would be glad to have come on this trip with her just for the freedom of the last few minutes, and to see her crawling with her rear end stuck in the air out of their tent.

Spock began to get undressed he had just taken off his robe when Nyota's panicked whisper sent a shiver of fear down his spine.

" Spock!" She sounded scared.

He hurried out of the tent. Nyota a few feet away from him, she was knelt beside the fire as if she had been trying to stir it. She was staring out across the desert. Spock looked over her shoulder what had frightened her was apparent, twenty meters away a sehlat was stood watching them as intently as they were watching it. Spock took slow steady steps over to Nyota, he bent down next to her.

" There's a bear." Nyota said quietly.

" It's a Sehlat Nyota, I thought you wanted to see one."

" Is it going to eat us?"

" It's not likely."

" How unlikely is not likely?"

" She will not attack unless she feels threatened."

Go Friend, We do not mean you or your young any harm.

The Sehlat stared at him for another moment and then turned and walked away.

" It's actually quite beautiful."

" You should drink and eat before we leave."

" Yes okay."

10:03am

They sat on the hot desert sand. Nyota gave a dissatisfied little huff as she flung herself onto the floor, Spock reached into his bag and handed her a bottle of water, and he took a small sip from his own.

" How are you?"

" Walking so much difficult here than on Earth."

" Yes, It is due to.."

" I know."

He gave a small smile.

" I know why Vulcan's do not say when things are beautiful."

" You do?"

" It is because they are always so surrounded by beauty they lose appreciation for it."

" You think it's beautiful here?"

" yes."

" That would be a sad fate indeed Nyota. But I do not think it is correct, Vulcan's do dedicate some of their time to arts and music."

" Then why is it?"

" Perhaps it is because it is a somewhat emotional word, and avoided so as it does not rise emotions in us. " He watched her take several more sups of water.

" Are you ready to continue?"

She looked down and shook her head giving a small laugh.

" Next time your taking me to Paris." She said standing up.

" If you want there to be another time by the end of the day then I'll take you to Paris."

" I'll hold you to that."

11:14

The mountains loomed over them, Spock figured that they would be at the foot within twenty minutes, which was good as the heat of the day was burning his skin despite the heavy layers of sunscreen. He kept to Nyota's pace, he looked over at her and she gave a tired smile.

" Almost there."

" Indeed." He stared up at the ledge built into the side of the mountain. Along the ledge were twenty-foot statues made of red granite that caught the sun and glittered in stark contrast to the plain yellow rock of the area. He glanced across at Nyota again, she had been keeping her tired eyes pointed to the floor to protect them from the glaring sun. He would wait till they were closer before pointing them out to her.

Five minutes later he decided they were close enough, he stopped and took Nyota's arm. She looked up at him.

" We're almost there, I can manage." Nyota said thinking he was going to tell her to stop.

" I know Nyota, I just wanted to show you something." He pointed up at the ledge. Nyota shaded her eyes with her hand and looked up.

" Statues?" She asked puzzled. " Are they of gods?"

" No. They are images of the greatest philosophers in history. In the middle is Surak, and the one on the furthest left is Spokh, my name sake."
Nyota gave a wide smile.

" You're named after a philosopher?"

" Yes."

" It's suitable."

" Thank you Nyota, that is a great compliment."

She laughed.

" So these are what we've come to see?"

" Not quite." He pointed to the side of the mountain. Nyota stared for a moment looking confused and then her eyes widened in realization.

" Is that a cave?"

" Yes, we can take shelter from the sun there."

She nodded and they increased their pace, desperate to get out of the burning sun.

As they reached the dark cave Spock reached into his backpack, he had prepared for the journey by packing two torches, he handed one to Nyota and she thanked him as she peered into the cave a little uncertainly. He turned the torch on and walked a few meters into the entrance relishing the coolness of the shade of the cave.

" We can rest here." Spock said.

" Okay." Nyota agreed.

He knelt down and searched through his pack finding two protein bars and handing her one. She sat on the floor of the cave and bit into the bar. He knelt beside her.

" So, these caves are sacred?" She asked.

" This is as close to a sacred place as the logic of Vulcan's will allow."

" Is that because of the statues?"

" Partly."

" Explain Spock." She said with a short laugh. " You're being strangely withholding, you usually can't wait to teach me about anything."

" I will show you when you have finished eating and are fully rested."

He knew that she had begun eating faster and surely enough within two minutes she was holding out the empty crumpled foil wrapper of the protein bar. When he took it to throw back into his bag she jumped to her feet.

" Come on." She urged him excitedly.

" You must promise to rest when we reach he oval chamber."

" I promise Spock. Now come on, and put your eyebrows down."

"How did you know…" He asked as her torch was pointed down the narrow corridor of the tunnel and not on his face.

" Because I know you. This looks as if it's been made." She ran her fingers over the jagged walls where tool marks were apparent.

" Not by phasers."

" Rough stone tools." Spock informed her.

" It must have taken ages."

" It is not possible to give an exact time but it would have taken years."

He reached forwards and took her by the hand and they made their way through the swerving uneven tunnel deeper into the mountain. Nyota stumbled against him and he brought her closer to him wrapping his hand around her waist.

" How far to the oval room?"

" Oval chamber, it's ne hundred and two point 3 feet in."

They continued for another seven minutes making slow steps through the tunnel so as not to fall, then the tunnel got wider and finally he saw space in front of them and they stepped out into the large domed oval chamber that had been cut into the rock. The room was five meters by seven meters wide and ten meters high. He pressed a few buttons on his torch widening the beam so they could see the entirety of the room. Nyota gasped as the wide beam lightened the walls of the cave revealing the simple and ancient paintings that covered every inch of the walls.

He watched her as she stepped away from him, walking to the other side of the room and reaching her hand out as if about to touch the stonewalls and then stopping herself. He waited for her to speak but she quietly walked the perimeter of the chamber. Finally after four minutes and thirteen seconds she turned to him.

" It's beautiful."

"Yes."

Her eyes flickered up to the roof that was painted with a deep blue pigment and little yellow dots depicting the correct positions of the stars.

" It's old." She said.

" Over 20,000 years."

" It's just like the cave painting's on earth."

" Yes, our races were developing in much the same way at that period." He stepped towards her and took her hand and led her across the room to a section of the painting he had seen many years ago. It depicted a small family group dressed in furs and sat around a fire, the male held the woman's hand as they watched a small child playing with a wooden carving of a Sehlat. Nyota reached out her hand again hesitating an inch away from the wall. She looked at him and he nodded, with a single finger she touched the little picture stroking along the man's rounded ears.

" Vulcan's started developing more sensitive hearing between eighteen and fifteen thousand years ago." He explained.

" And the points developed with that." She said, he nodded.

He squeezed her hand and got him to follow her a few more meters around the edge where the picture depicted a life-sized naked Vulcan woman, the skin painted a dark brown, the ears rounded, she was tall and long limbed, with slight curves, wide dark eyes, and long flowing black hair.

" I didn't think that there were any dark skinned Vulcan's in this area."

Spock ran his hands over the tiny stick figures next to it.

" These tell her story, her name meant flower and she travelled thousands of mile over the ocean on a small boat with a male she was related to. She is the first immigrant in Vulcan history, when she arrived here the villagers welcomed her as a god, they worshipped her as the ideal of beauty. She taught the people about herbs to add to their food and how to make the pigments that are on these walls. She played a flute made out of the hollow roots of a cactus and danced naked around the fire. The last two pictures depict her death, with the entire village mourning and them finding this cave to lay her to rest in and began painting."

" They did all this for her."

" She brought them the arts and beauty and they worshipped her."

She turned to him and impulsively kissed him, he enjoyed the soft movements of her lips against his and pulled her closer to him relishing the feeling.

She looks like you, I can understand why they worshipped her.

Nyota pulled away from him, her eyes shining in the dim light. She smiled wordlessly and took his hand to lead him over to another of the pictures. She pointed up to one of a sun dweller with three little people stood underneath it.

" Is that a giant dragonfly?"

" It is a sun dweller."

" Why have they coloured the wings like that?" She said referring to the bright purples, greens and blues depicted.

" I believe they were transparent but had many facets and reflexes multicoloured light when the sun hit them. Your earrings are made out of the fossilised wings although the fossilisation process have made them opaque you can still see how that would work."

Nyota's hand went up to brush her earrings, her mouth open slightly as she starred at the wall painting.

" When the sun dwellers were beginning to die out there was a saying that when you saw one it meant a change was coming in your life."

" And when you gave them to me, were you hoping that a change would happen in my life."

"A part of me was, but I believed you would like them."

She turned to him and quicker than he could react she threw herself into his arms and kissed his surprised mouth again, with an intensity that left him breathless. The kiss lasted a lifetime but yet not long enough, when they pulled away from each other panting and flushed Spock noticed that her eyes were red with unshed tears. He felt his sharp intake of breath and unconsciously placed his hand on her cheek. She shook her head smiling widely.

" I'm happy Spock."

Spock felt his eyebrow twitch. He wondered if she was lying to him, people didn't usually cry when happy.

"Then why do you appear as if you are about to cry?"

" It's just you do something wonderful and then you don't even tell me about it till months later.. and you bring me here to this wonderful place, and you hold me when I have nightmares and you're quiet and sweet and you're just so amazing. I Love you Spock."

Spock felt as if his heart were trying to punch it's way out of his body., it was hammering so hard at her words, at the sincerity in her eyes and the gentle breathlessness of her words.

" You don't have to say anything Spock, just know that I do."

Spock was thankful at these words he was struggling with the emotions the words arose in him. He did not feel he could say the words in return, it was not that he did not feel it. Anything but he fully expected Nyota to be his life mate. It was that expressing such emotions was difficult for him, there was only one other person he loved and that was his mother and he had never told her, not in twenty-four year. He had wanted to but had found it almost impossible, the word love was rarely muttered on Vulcan, he had only heard his mother say it and as a child whenever she had said he loved him or tried to kiss him or hug him even when not in public he had felt a kind of embarrassment. Now here with Nyota, the woman he loved, the woman he adored and wanted to spend his life with, he felt as if it were impossible to talk and a slight shadow of embarrassment that he cursed himself for. He stared into her eyes and knew it was true she wasn't expecting the same response. He reached for her, pulled her into his arms and held her hoping that his inability to express himself would not prevent him from holding her everyday for the rest of their lives.