11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Aubrey

“This one too!” Aubrey said, holding up a small rock between her thumb and first finger.

Purring, Tarrian held up the bag in his hands and let her drop the rock in. “It looks the same as the other one.”

“But this one has bigger inclusions,” she explained.

He jingled the bag. “Remember, we can only carry as many rocks as fit in this bag.”

She laughed. “It’s only a quarter full, plenty of room!”

“Don’t be upset when we have to leave some precious stones behind,” he said with an amused rumble.

“I won’t!” Aubrey promised and moved to the next auspicious looking spot.

She was having the best time! Last night had been long and boring, and by the time they moved to the silent meditation portion of the evening, she’d fallen asleep in Tarrian’s lap. He hadn’t complained, and she got to snuggle in his lap, warm and comfortable. She wasn’t sure how anyone stayed awake in the dim room as all the Talins harmonized their rumbles.

It was late and cold by the time they’d retired to the dormitory-style sleeping area. The cot was barely big enough for Tarrian, so she’d slept mostly on top of him with the omnie covering her. It was probably a combination of exertion and thin mountain air, but she’d slept soundly despite the tight bed.

They’d gotten a lot of looks during the lecture, dinner, and meditation, but no one approached. The mountain wasn’t the place to ask about a human pet, and Aubrey found it refreshing.

Now they were exploring the mountaintop east of the monastery where a sharp ridge kept the section of rock from being covered in snow. She paused to take in the mountaintop with the monastery tucked behind several large outcroppings.

“I thought it would be warmer up here,” she murmured as a bitterly cold wind tugged at her omnie.

“You thought it would be warmer?” Tarrian echoed, sounding a puzzled rattle. “You saw the snow from the ground!”

She laughed. “Put like that, it sounds ridiculous, but you said there was a geothermal vent up here. I thought it would keep this section of the mountain warmer.”

“It does,” Tarrian said and pointed to another mountain peak in the distance, a little lower than theirs. “At this height the snow never melts, but that peak has snow so thick I could stand on another Talin’s shoulders and still not be above it. On this peak, the snow is never as thick, and that’s due to the vents. One is under the monastery and powers the kitchens and other necessities. If we were on that peak, we’d probably be frozen solid by now.”

“I guess warm is relative,” she said with a little shrug, turning her attention back to the rock wall.

Tarrian followed behind her, carrying the bag and an extra omnie in case she got chilled. He hadn’t said anything yet, but she knew he was keeping an eye on her color and the steadiness of her hands.

She couldn’t believe how lucky she was to have such a dedicated male ready to keep her from accidentally suffering frostbite because she was too distracted to notice.

The bag was about half full, and they’d descended a little when Tarrian sounded a purr and drew her into his arms.

She tried to pull away. “Do you see—”

Her words were cut off as he pressed her face against the exposed section of his neck. Pushing back, she leaned away from him as far as his embrace would allow. She wasn’t interested in cuddling right now!

“Tarrian, what the hell?” she exclaimed.

“I think your core temperature has dropped too much,” he declared, picking her up with a purr. Now she understood what he was doing. The strip of exposed skin on his neck was the only place he could really feel the true temperature. By putting her face against it, he could gauge how chilled she was.

She stopped pushing and let him cradle her against his chest. Now that she was pressed against his warmth, she realized how cold she’d gotten. She couldn’t feel her face or her fingers. Her feet weren’t much better despite the plush slippers and waterproof covering Tarrian had slid over them.

“I guess I’m not really dressed for this place,” she said, feeling sad because it was all over.

“Not for spending all day outside,” Tarrian agreed. “Let’s get you warm, and then we’ll see about coming back out.”

“Great!” Aubrey cheered at the same time she watched the monastery get farther away as she looked over his shoulder. “Uh, Tarrian, I think we’re going the wrong way.”

“We aren’t going back to the monastery,” he said. “I’m taking you to a sheltered spot I think you’ll enjoy.”

“Sounds fascinating,” she agreed, even if it also sounded cold. At least they’d be out of the wind, and if she kept snuggled up against Tarrian, she’d be warmed up in no time.

The first thing she noticed as Tarrian carried her closer to a small, keyhole-shaped cave opening was that there was almost no snow in the area. The next thing that hit her was the faint smell of sulfur. Yup, there was a vent close by!

To her surprise, the smell of sulfur didn’t get much worse as Tarrian squeezed them through the opening. The narrow opening gave way to a nice large cavern that allowed Tarrian to stand straight and carry her without having to maneuver. The problem was that she couldn’t see anything.

“Should we stop here?” she asked. “It’s dark, and I’m worried we might get lost.”

If she was being honest, she was more than a little worried. She liked rocks, but she wasn’t ready to be buried among them just yet!

Tarrian stopped. “I didn’t realize you wouldn’t be able to see.”

“Are you saying you can see?” she asked, relief making her feel a little dizzy. She’d been more scared than she wanted to admit.

“My vision is impacted by the low light, but not enough to cause me confusion,” Tarrian assured her. “I know where I’m going, and when we get there, I can retrieve the light I packed for us.”

“You packed a light,” Aubrey said, excitement starting to bubble up inside her. “You planned this little adventure.”

“I always plan our adventures to the best of my ability,” he assured her. “Are you comforted enough to allow me to continue, or do you require the light right now?”

“I can wait,” she said, snuggling close and enjoying the warmth radiating from him. He started moving again, rumbling out a purr that sounded more intense due to the acoustics in the cave.

She couldn’t see where they were going, but it was clear the temperature around her was steadily climbing. They had to be getting closer to the vent. It felt nice, and she could imagine curling up with Tarrian, surrounded by thermally warmed rocks and taking a nap while she finished defrosting.

After they’d turned a few corners, she heard water. It was faint and only sounded like a slight trickle, but it was definitely water. The humidity in the cave increased sharply, as did the temperature. Compared with the cold outside, the change felt positively tropical.

“I’m going to set you on your feet,” Tarrian warned her. “Please remain still until I’ve found the light.”

“I won’t move,” she agreed. Despite the warmth of the room, she shivered a little once he wasn’t holding her anymore. Tucking her hands in the opposite sleeves of the omni, she grasped her own wrists and waited. To her, it was pitch black and all she could hear was the water and Tarrian rustling around in the bag he’d brought. She heard her smaller bag of rock samples land on the floor and a short burst of an irritated rattle.

“I’ve dropped your rocks,” Tarrian said.

Aubrey chuckled. “I figured that out. Don’t worry, I'm sure you didn’t bruise the rocks.”

“Close your eyes,” Tarrian warned. Aubrey did as he asked and soon sensed warm light through her closed lids. “Open your eyes slowly, my human.”

Blinking, Aubrey looked away from the light Tarrian was holding and let her eyes adjust. When she could see, she gasped at the place Tarrian brought her to.

They were inside a good sized cave, probably about as large as the dormitory they had shared with fifty other people last night. It wasn’t the size of the area that made her gasp, it was the contents. The entire center of the cave was taken up by a pool of water with gorgeous speleothems all along one side.

These speleothems were in the forms of stalactites hanging from the ceiling, and under them were stalagmites reaching up, almost as if they wanted to touch their stalagmite cousins. Normally mineral deposits like this would be formed by rainwater seeping into underground caves, but this had to be due to snow melt caused by the warmth provided by the geothermal heat.

“It’s beautiful!” she breathed.

Tarrian started purring. “I’d hoped you'd find this interesting. I worried that the smell would be harsh so I brought a deadening agent for us to use.”

She looked over at him. “Smell?”

He was still kneeling on the ground, searching the bag. When she spoke, he looked up with a questioning rumble. “You can’t smell it?”

“You mean the sulfur smell?” she asked. “It’s like something rotting.”

He went back to searching. “Yes, we call that type of smell discolored. It smells like something is decaying but the cause is a chemical, not organic. It is truly not bothering you?”

“Nope, I’m fine.”

“I’m not. It’s intense, bordering on painful.” Tarrian pulled out a bulb with a small cup attachment. He fit the cup over his nose slits and squeezed the bulb while breathing in deep. Then he offered it to her.

She shook her head. “I don’t think I need it. But we can leave if the smell is still bothering you.”

“I’m perfectly fine now.” He dropped it back in the bag. “It’s there if you need it.”

She pointed to the water. “Can we swim in that?”

“Yes, it’s within the water temperature you can tolerate. There’s another cave where the water is much too hot and two others that are cold enough to occasionally form thin layers of ice. This was the only one with an appropriate temperature range.”

Aubrey moved close and wrapped her arms around his waist. “You really did plan this all out. It’s like a honeymoon, I love it!”

He embraced her back, purring. “Honeymoon?”

“It’s a human tradition for couples to spend time alone, usually at an exotic location, after they’ve gotten married.”

His purr got a little louder and the smell of peppermint got stronger. “Yes, this is our honeymoon, my perfect Aubrey.”

When his purr started dipping into the sensual register, Aubrey pulled away a little. “Um, shouldn’t we be worried about someone finding us?”

Tarrian tapped a finger over his nose slits. “Unless everyone is packing deadening medication, no one will bother coming in past the cave entrance. The smell will turn them away. Besides, the Talins visiting the mountaintop aren’t here to explore. Very few will even leave the monastery grounds.”

“That means we’re really alone here,” she whispered, going up on her toes and lifting her face toward his.

“Yes.” Without hesitation he lowered his head until their lips met.