Dawn (2 page)

Dawn marveled at her uncle. Fluid in his motion and confident in his air, he was completely unfazed by the altercation and didn’t even break stride. While she didn’t feel any happier, suddenly Dawn at least felt more secure!

A third guard turned a more distant corner. Too far away for a hand strike, a flash greeted the interloper as a long sword seemed to burst into existence in Llewellyn’s hand and split the guard’s weapon in two. Just as quickly, the sword winked out and was gone. Llewellyn now had time to close on the perplexed soldier and, with a similar strike, send him unconscious to the floor.

Llewellyn read the confusion and surprise in Dawn’s face. “Live Steel,” he offered matter-of-factly. “You been traveling a lot off of the home world, so you probably haven’t seen it much, have you?”

Amazed and confused, Dawn shook her head. “Heard of it, sir, but never seen it in use.”

He sniffed resignedly, “No bad thing that you haven’t needed to see it before. We are almost there now; keep your chin up.”

They turned another corner and opened a door to find the room ahead had already met minor carnage. Twelve guards lay either bound and gagged or just simply unconscious on the floor. In the center of the room five Shukurae warriors stood in full armor with weapons at the ready. Averaging easily nine feet in height, they stooped to deal with the low ceilings. Their great frames were rough, almost scaly, but with a wart-hog like appearance gave lie to their characters. Dawn immediately knew they were in good company: while somewhat scary on the outside, the Shukurae were a noble race.

They wasted no words on meeting, and it was obvious immediately to Dawn that they knew each other well. They all functioned in unison like a well-oiled machine. As the pair approached, one turned and knelt, revealing a climbing harness on its back. Llewellyn carefully helped Dawn up into the harness and tested its straps.

“
Hold tight,” he offered to Dawn. “Watch her head on the doors on the way out,” he instructed the Shukurae. “You guys are a bit big for these rooms.”

They did what passed for a chortle among them and then asked simply, “Forest Wall?”

Llewellyn nodded and stated evenly, “In 30 seconds…”

With that, the great frames of the Shukurae burst into action. They tore down the halls at breakneck speed. The one Dawn was riding held a steady but alarming pace while the others leap-frogged ahead to open doors and cover the beyond with their weapons. Down long hallways they raced over and over again. Suddenly Dawn heard a voice rattling inside her head again. She recognized it this time as her uncle’s voice once again, but this time there wasn’t even the growl: it was only in her head, not her ears…

Forest Wall…

As the echo faded from her head, the world around her exploded into shades of green. Massive trees erupted from the floor with total disregard to the concrete floors or steel structures. Firs and oaks, pines and birch, they all sprang up out of the ground shredding and displacing the building as they did. In a manner of seconds the roof was torn clear and she could see sunlight. Blinding sunlight! Too long inside in a dim room she buried her face into the back of the Shukurae to shield her eyes. By the time she felt safe to open her eyes again, she realized they were no longer running in a city, but rather the city had been completely replaced by a forest. She marveled at it as it whisked by. Confused by its origin, she chose to pay heed to her uncle’s advice and held on tight!

It had been three days, long and bewildering days, since her uncle had rescued her, and now they were getting ready to land on their home world of Afon. They had transferred from a human drop ship to a Shukurae assault craft to an Altshea Confederation star liner until finally transferring once more for the last leg of the journey. This time it was to a human drop ship once again, designed to efficiently shuttle between orbit and the ground below. Dawn always found the humans a little silly looking, no fur at all, just hair on their head. But regardless of her childish impressions, she knew her First Mother had held humans in high regard. They were clever, resourceful, and had a never-give-up attitude that was appealing. Now Dawn had her own reason for liking humans: their spacecraft all had wonderful windows! She shifted her weight to get a better look as she peered down below. The great oceans offered a proud blue against the blackness of space, while clouds covered the Highlands directly below.

“
Hold on tight, miss,” offered one of the human crew. “The magnetics over the Highlands play havoc at times with our controls, and things may get a bit bumpy.”

Dawn complied with the prudent warning, buckling in tight to her seat. But not so tight that she still couldn’t peep out the window.

Afon. The home world. While she had, in fact, been born on Afon, Dawn had probably spent less than a year of her life combined “home.” Her First Mother, Helen Winteroak, had been the Ambassador-at-Large for the Highlands regions. As a result, they traveled a lot both on and off world. A lot more of it was off world. A whole lot. Dawn permitted herself a small amount of comfort about returning to the home world. No longer would her family be the outlier, the ones that confused everyone. It wasn’t their fur coats and tails, heavens no! They had actually spent most of their time around fellow Taiks at the various planets and colonies. It was their
family
that had always confused people. Having four mothers seemed to cause no end of confusion and curiosity. That and the fact that it was her First Mother rather than her father who was ambassador.
Of course
it was her First Mother! First Mothers were the heads of the family; why in the world would someone expect her
father
to be the ambassador? Males didn’t get involved in politics and things like that; that didn’t even make sense. She let out a simple sigh; that level of confusion was one aspect of her former life she wasn’t going to miss.

Old life… New life… Beside her sat her uncle. As he was her most immediate family now, it had been decided that she would go to live with him. She had last met him five years ago at his marriage, so any children at the house would be far younger than she was. She only hoped there would be others her age somewhere near by… or maybe not. She sat back in her chair and looked down at her fur. Black and plain, plain and black. No hint of stripes or spots, much less beautiful rosettes like her uncle, she was just a plain,
plain
solid black. All the others at least had belly fur in a contrasting color… well, that wasn’t true. There were the Aurorans and their beautiful solid white coats. They took their name from the first young girl with a solid white coat named ‘Aurora’ some five hundred years ago. Their coats were bright, like fresh snow from tip to tail, but even they had pink noses. Dawn, well, even her nose and the pads on her paws were black. Looking down at her hands and fur she could almost hear her older sisters teasing her. Would the new kids tease her like her sisters did? And then there was that other issue…

“
Touchdown in 3… 2… 1… Contact! Landing gear stabilized. 1320 meters above mean sea level. Showing 925 millibars and 1.05 of standard gravity,” the loudspeaker barked sending Dawn back to the present.

Her uncle yawned himself awake and stretched before shouldering the bag that held Dawn’s meager belongings. A few plain dresses, some books her father gave her for her last birthday, and a few childhood mementos―all of her previous life wrapped up in a canvas sack. He smiled to Dawn and beckoned toward the door. “Let’s go meet your new family.”

Dawn tried to smile and take the offer graciously, for she knew he meant well, but she knew it wasn’t her home. Time would heal wounds they say, but that doesn’t mean they don’t hurt in the meantime.

She joined him at the door and watched as the lower ramp opened. Suddenly a blast of fresh cool air washed over her with sweet smells of spring. Seconds later, fresh sunlight bathed over the pair all but washing the mild chill out of the air. Dawn had forgotten how good fresh air could truly be!

The pair stepped clear of lower ramp and moved a few hundred feet away. They waved as the ship lifted back into the air. The human copilot waved cheerfully back. With the blast from the exhaust quickly fading, Dawn found herself standing in an immense alpine meadow abounding with wildflowers. A purple butterfly teased her nose as she sniffed a flower, the antics of the little insect sparked a small fit of laughter.

Her uncle smiled softly, happy to see her laugh for a change. There was no denying his own sadness at the passing of his sister and her family, but his current priority was to do the best he could for his niece. “The path leads to a bridge at the edge of the meadow. We’d best be on our way.”

Dawn squinted and looked across the field. She was unable to discern any path at all! Dutifully she followed her uncle across the gently sloping meadow, and enjoyed the sights and fresh air. Tall trees surrounded the meadow while distant snow-capped mountains framed them all around. The meadow sloped away sharper yet and revealed a slow stream spanned by a large stone bridge. At the stream’s edge she caught sight of two figures. The first was a child of about three years of age, with brilliant reddish-orange fur and hair, sporting a splash of white along her belly from nose to tail. The second figure was an adult, a striking lady dressed in light green. But it wasn’t the dress that caught Dawn’s eye, the lady was a beautiful Auroran, snow white from top to bottom with long white hair. Long hair indeed! Dawn had never seen hair so long and silky before. It came down her back so far it seemed to flow into her tail.

The two newcomers quickly caught sight of Dawn and Llewellyn approaching and came up the ford to meet them. The young child half ran, half tumbled up to Llewellyn’s outstretched arms. He spun her around high overhead and the little girl giggled away.

Closer now, Dawn could more clearly make out the Auroran. Tall and graceful she showed signs of late pregnancy but carried it effortlessly as she approached. Dawn couldn’t recall ever seeing anyone quite so beautiful. She suddenly became self-conscious of her own bland dark coat, but was too mesmerized to dwell on it.

“
This,” began her uncle, “is Heather. Heather, this is Dawn.”

Heather

The little girl squirmed and bobbed until she was let down and suddenly ran up and hugged Dawn. “Heather! I’m Heather! Oh… Daddy said that…” Pointing over to the Auroran, “And this is Maria, my Second Mother.” She darted over to Maria, leading her forward by her hand. “And this,” she offered as she suddenly put her ear up to Maria’s belly, “is Lily! …I think… or maybe Siôn…” She wrinkled her nose, unsure of what to think of a baby brother.

Dawn bobbed and shook Maria’s hand, “Delighted to meet you, ma’am.” Dawn found herself staring at the Auroran, awestruck.

“
Delighted to meet you too, young lady.” Her dove-like voice echoed in Dawn’s ears and she giggled giddily.

Maria and Llewellyn shared a quick embrace and nuzzled each other lightly. As they parted Maria mysteriously offered, “And the twins…”

“
You’re having twins?” her uncle asked, visibly confused.

“
No, but they might be,” she offered back.

A shocked look rushed over her uncle and briefly all his fur stood on end. This obvious emotional display from her outwardly stoic uncle caught Dawn by surprise, and she giggled in spite of herself. Suddenly aware of her actions, she nervously mumbled, “Sorry, sir…”

He shook his head, “No, I probably deserved that. Let’s get to the house before I get in any more trouble.”

The quartet gathered together, set out across the ancient bridge, and headed deep into the tall woods. Not scared so much as feeling that she had a comfortable blanket of life all around, Dawn found herself very much at peace.

“
Sorry, ma’am, but you mentioned twins,” prodded Dawn.

“
Yes,” she answered, “the Third Mothers. Llewellyn filled you in on the family, didn’t he?”

“
No, ma’am.”

Maria stopped and stared at Llewellyn, “You never set her up for introductions?”

“
No,” said Llewellyn flatly.

“
You had her in your charge for three days….”

“
It never came up.”

“
Never came… Did you actually ever even introduce
yourself
?”