Auriga

[Lucien]

Lucien had glimpsed Topaz’s excitement about seeing Auriga, but what he couldn’t tell was how long she was going to want to stay. He’d been sent out from his home world to hunt vampire, and he had done just that for over 1600 years, but there never seemed to be any diminution of vampire, and over the centuries, his own people had dwindled to only a small portion of what they had once been. Perhaps it was time to go home for a while.

The Prince hadn’t called for his return, but Mikhail would not deny him time in his native world, and besides, they would be bringing a rare gift with them. Sylviana may be half Carpathian, but she carried a very old and very respected blood line. She needed to be introduced to her family.

He groaned, Sylviana had wanted to take ALL of her toys with her, and he’d had quite a time convincing her that she couldn’t possibly take them all. The problem he decided was Tormay. Every time the lad was around Sylviana, she wrangled a new bear or gift from him, and doting half brother that he was, he gave in to his daughter’s wiles.

Lucien headed for the Star’s End docking port to file the flight plans. They would leave with the morning window for Auriga.

He checked the Star Wanderer one last time. Everything was ready.

[Topaz]

Topaz did not know how long she wanted to stay either. She knew she didn’t want to leave until she had seen and experienced everything there was to see and experience. How much of that there was she would find out once they got there. She had, of course, searched Lucien’s memories of Auriga. But his memories of his home had faded over time. Besides that, it was unlikely that the place had remained unchanged for so many centuries.

How long they would stay would not only depend on how long she wanted to stay, though. It would depend on how long she could stay, too. She needed the magic that on Rhydin was only to be found at the small sanctuary in Darkwood Forest. If Auriga did not have such a place, she would not be able to stay long at all, a couple of weeks at best. Knowing that did not distract her in the least about going, though.

She headed straight from her shift on Twilight Isle to the Stars End docking port. Lucien had already fetched Sylviana and Puppy and settled both upon the ship. Sylviana, despite protestations that she was too excited to sleep even for a minute the entire trip, was now soundly asleep in her room with Puppy curled up at the foot of her bed. Now Lucien was just waiting for her to get there.

The Star Wanderer was easy to find. It was the only sleek, shiny silvery arrow look alike in the port, and still right where it had been the last time she looked at it. Just in case she still had any doubt if she had found her ship, Lucien was standing at the loading ramp.

[Lucien]

Lucien had everything ready to go, and he knew the moment Topaz set her path from the Isle to Star’s End Spaceport. He met her at the ramp with a heartfelt hug and kiss. She completed his world, and there was no way he could ever repay her for that.

He led her aboard, showing her where Sylviana had already gone sound asleep. The dog curled up beside her in the protective manner of the breed. The dog lifted his head, brown eyes giving Lucien an inquisitive look before dropping his head onto his paws once more.

They headed for the cockpit, Lucien wanted to show Topaz the beauty of escaping an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere and leaving behind the blue of one for the velvet blackness of the other. He showed her how to strap into the co-pilot’s seat before settling into the pilot’s seat on the left side of the cockpit. “We will return when you are ready, this trip is for you.”

[Topaz]

“I may be a while.” Topaz wrapped her arms around Lucien’s neck as he strapped her into the seat and kissed him tenderly instead of arguing about the silly seat belt. When he sat down and got himself ready for takeoff she watched him with a lovingly smile. “Especially if we find a place there that is like the lake with the willow.”

“What do all these buttons do?” If that seat belt didn’t keep her to her seat, she’d try them all out herself. But before she could do anything about that Lucien’s hands had moved over a bunch of them and the ship was moving. Topaz glanced from Lucien to the window and was promptly distracted by the view.

At first the view was pretty much the same as the one she experienced every time she flew up at night and was looking ahead or up instead of down. But as the craft rose the view surpassed what she could see when flying under her own power. The stars seemed to come closer and closer, yet without a single one of them growing in size as one should if they were actually approaching it.

Topaz reached for Lucien’s hand and once she got a hold of it drew it into her lap to hold there with both of her hands. She squeezed his fingers with excitement as the ship shifted balance and a bluish ball filled most of the window.

“Oh. Pretty.” She watched the ball shrink with wide eyes. When it had become too small to hold her interest any longer she looked over to Lucien again with a warm smile, still awed by what she’d just seen. “Marvelous, even more so than for the test flight, Do you think Rhydin knew we were going away for a while and it looked extra pretty because of knowing?”

[Lucien]

Lucien had to laugh. He’d correctly predicted that Topaz would want to touch and press every control feature on the cockpit surfaces, and while some of them would not matter, there were a few that could put them in some serious trouble.

They at last slid through the atmosphere into near space of RhyDin and he glanced out the view ports as the blue glow of the atmosphere began to recede into the velvet black of space. He showed her how the planet differed from so many of those that they would pass on their way to Auriga. Most were cold and lifeless rocks completely lacking any kind of a gaseous atmosphere. It was those relatively few places that had a gaseous cocoon where life had taken hold.

They passed the time sharing the glory of space and the unique phenomenon that would come into view only to vanish as they covered the distance from RhyDin to Auriga. The dog grew restless a day before they were due to arrive, and Sylviana was showing the effects of being cooped up for so many days on end.

The star known as Auriga was rapidly growing larger, and to all appearances brighter, although in fact, its actual color and temperature never changed. The impression that it grew brighter came from the narrowing distance to it, and Lucien ‘felt’ the draw of his home world. He had been denied all emotion for so many centuries; it surprised him that he felt an inexplicable longing to set foot once more in his native soil.

[Topaz]

Topaz felt the longing in Lucien and made it her own. Their daughter was far from immune to it, too. By the time the Star Wanderer touched down and its door opened for them, they all felt the draw of ‘home’ and were eager to head straight for that native soil to be found in the Carpathian mountains.

Having Puppy with them prevented them from simply shifting into mist to travel there swiftly. So they went with the next fastest method of getting there. Lucien and Topaz shifted into forms of great birds, Lucien took up Sylviana’s dog and Topaz took Sylviana up with her. Once they were in the air no one minded the slightly slower progress as it gave them a wonderful first view of the land.

They would spend at least the first part of their stay in the seemingly endless forest. Its rich soil made the perfect resting place for Lucien during the day until they would find a more permanent location while on Auriga. During the first few days Topaz roamed that forest with Sylviana and Puppy in search of that magic energy that would allow her to stay as long as she pleased.

Lucien surprised them by leading them to a cabin nestled in the mountains that overlooked a series of waterfalls that dropped from great heights above. The cabin belonged to the Prince, but was only used when someone needed to get away for a time. Lucien deemed now to be the time.

Topaz found the perfect source during the third day. The deep pool of water lay nestled between mountains. Not a single breeze rippled the surface that early afternoon and the surface appeared blue, grey and dark green, reflecting the sky above, the mountains and the green of the trees all around. The lake, though a small one, was much larger than the one that was part of her sanctuary in Darkwood Forest, perhaps even as large as Otyep Lake in Atrebla. But most importantly, sentient magic wafted in thick clouds over the lake, in its water, and through the trees and earth at its shores.

Sylviana, Puppy and her stayed right there for the rest of the afternoon, soaking up the magic, playing in the water and among the trees. When the sun dipped toward the horizon, they returned to where Lucien rested. Topaz could hardly wait for him to rise so she could show him her find.

[Topaz]

For the first time Topaz was truly happy. Here she did not have to be anywhere away from Lucien, not even when Sylviana was up and wanted to play during day light hours. There was plenty of forest just outside the cabin and there was no one in the house that could mind the noises a lively girl made. Sylviana was changing her sleeping schedule, too, adjusting to that of her parents. Not having to deal with the gut wrenching discomforts that always came with being any distance from Lucien, getting to heap their undivided attention upon each other, and the luxury of sleep aplenty, showed. Topaz looked healthier and younger than she had in a while.

The weeks flew by and turned into months with none of them paying much heed to the passing of time. They were so busy with just exploring and enjoying a relatively small area of the vast forest, one long night melted into the next. They did not even seek out any of the other Carpathians that were bound to be in the area.

Every now and then, when Topaz made use of the communication device they had brought along so she could continue with her shifts on Twilight Isle, someone asked when they intended to return. Topaz was vague in her replies to those questions. So far she had only promised Azjah to be back in time to witness her getting married to Wil Savage, and she hoped no dire emergency would arise at Atrebla that required her to be present.

Topaz did not mind at all that Azjah didn’t have a date set yet for her wedding. In fact, she hoped that the wedding would not happen until April at the earliest. Lucien and she had a secret, two secrets really, and if at all possible they would like to keep it that way.

[Lucien]

The mountains held a magic all their own. Lucien kept them mostly to the high country, taking them to some of his favorite haunts as a younger boy. He took them to a cliff that overlooked a deep, green valley. From where they stood, he could point out where his village had been when the Mongol hoards had swept through and laid waste to this place. It was when his youngest brother Darius had vanished, and everyone presumed him dead.

They listened to the sounds of the land. Lucien spent hours introducing Sylviana to the sounds of nature untouched by humans. The prowling cougar as it hunted through the underbrush, the rooting of the bears for berries and roots gave a unique echoing sound to the forest. He found a pair of foxes trotting through the tall grass at the edge of the forest, and taught Sylviana how to greet them from afar. The pair stopped in their tracks, muzzles lifting into the air before giving a return yip yip back. Then they put their noses to the earth and continued their own search.

There were myriad species of birds in the forest, but from their perch high above the valley, only the great hawks and an eagle dared the dizzying heights. They watched as a harpy eagle soared for long periods in a huge arc overhead. The bird never seemed to move a feather, and yet remained aloft, searching the ground below for its next meal. Then with a single angle change to the inside wing, the great bird plummeted toward the ground, talons stretching out at the very last minute to grab the unlucky rabbit from its warren runway beneath the grass.

Lucien glanced at Sylviana. “The eagle could hear the rabbit as it made its way beneath the grass. It did not need to see the rabbit to know it was there. It knew where it was in the grass by sound alone. You need to learn how to see with more than just your eyes.” His lesson would not be taken to heart just yet, he knew Sylviana was too young to really learn such things, but he wanted her to grow up knowing how wide the world was, and how limited humanity’s perception was.

He watched the play of emotions cross his daughter’s face. Sadness for the rabbit, elation for the eagle that it would have a meal and continue to soar the skies at the unchallenged ruler of that realm. “The rabbit has left behind its own children Sylviana, it is not a waste. And the eagle will eat all of the rabbit which allows the eagle to survive. It is a perfectly balanced system with moments of loss, but always for another to live on and keep the cycle going.”