Infalna
sat on the edge of the bed Gast had given her and studied her surroundings.
Well, she finally found out what was in the weird house on the edge of
town. Professor Gast, being a
bachelor, hardly ever went into the downstairs bedroom that he’d given
Infalna. It was bare except for a
few boxes of machine parts, a bed, and a weird machine that Infalna didn’t
dare touch. All of his stuff was
upstairs in the lab, the floor and shelves covered with oddities and gadgets.
He slept on a cot that was pushed back behind his desk.
Infalna made a mental note to herself that she would clean up his house,
she may be his specimen, but she refused to be tested in such a pigsty.
Footsteps
walked overhead and then Gast appeared on the staircase, “Is everything to
your liking?”
Infalna
arched an eyebrow at him and rolled her eyes, “You mean besides this place
being a mess, you watching over me like vulture, and the fact that I don’t
want to cooperate with you at all, what is to my liking?!”
Gast sat down on the stairs, “Why are you so disagreeable about this?”
Infalna
turned away from him, “Well, considering your reputation, I thought you’d be
older.”
“Considering
your beauty, I thought you’d be nicer. Guess
we were both wrong.”
Infalna
glared at him then turned her head, “If you don’t mind, I have had a very
tiring morning, I’d like to take a nap.”
Gast
walked over to a door on the far side of the room and opened it to reveal a
practically empty closet, “I bought you a few things this morning before I
went to the Inn, just in case I got you to agree… I’m not sure if they’ll
fit you or if you’ll even like it, but as you said I’m young.
I don’t have an old man’s experience in what women like.”
He
pulled out a long white nightgown with a high collar, ruffles on the sleeves,
and little red bows sewn on it randomly.
The
moment she saw it, Infalna began to laugh.
Gast
looked from her to the nightgown, “What?”
Infalna
fell back on the bed laughing, “That is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen!”
Gast
smiled, “Yes, I suppose it is rather hideous.”
Infalna
took it from him, “Thanks anyway, maybe I can sew it into something more to my
tastes later. But first, I believe
you wanted to ask me some questions about the planet.”
Gast
looked at her, surprised, but she just smiled at him.
Gast
was writing in his journal several hours later, Infalna was downstairs sewing on
her nightgown. He sat back in his
chair; he’d gotten more done in an hour of talking to Infalna then all of his
research over the past four years. The
planet had been wounded in the past, that was the North Crater, and the planet
was pulling energy from the rest of the world to that spot to heal itself, which
is why the snow up there never melted. And
the planet had a protection mechanism that would spring out of the planet if it
ever felt threatened, all of it. It
made Gast’s mind spin. She was so
intelligent, with the grace and beauty of an ancient race, the ancient race. Though
she didn’t know what Cetra or Ancients meant, she knew so much.
“I
finished,” she called up the stairs.
“That’s
good,” Gast said, putting his notebooks and folders away.
“What
do you think?”
Gast
looked up and nearly swallowed his tongue. She
stood at the top of the stairs, one hand resting lightly on the railing.
She had cut off the sleeves and the high collar so that it was a sort of
tank dress. She’d also snipped off
the red bows and the ruffles. The
bottom was hemmed up a little so instead of dragging on the floor, it whirled
around her feet, only the tips of her toes poking out when she walked.
Her hair was down and brushed, flowing down her back, almost as if it had
a life of its own.
Gast
stared dumbly at her as she walked toward him and stopped on the other side of
the desk.
She
smiled, “Why Professor Gast, I do believe your eyes are about to bug out of
your head.”
He
blushed and looked away, “You needn’t call me Professor, I’m only
twenty-seven.”
Her
fingers trailed along the edge of his desk; “I just came up to say goodnight,
Jonathan.”
He
nodded, “Goodnight, Infalna.”
She
turned and walked back down the stairs, “Make sure you go to bed early, if
you’re up all night writing in your notebooks, we’ll never get any work
done.”
Gast
watched her disappear down the stairs and sighed, this was going to be harder
then he thought. She was so
beautiful, how was he supposed to keep his mind on his work?
Infalna
woke up late the next morning and got dressed as quietly as possible.
She tiptoed up the stairs and peered around, Gast was asleep on his cot,
breathing evenly. She pulled on her
robes and the big blue coat. Infalna
made her way silently to the door and went outside.
The sun almost blinded her, it was one of Icicle Inn’s nice spells, but
many people came into the town suffering from being snow-blinded.
The
Item shop was empty except for the man behind the counter and Darry.
Infalna grabbed a few things off of the shelves and took them up to the
front counter.
“Infalna!”
Darry jumped at the sight of her.
She
smiled at him, “Don’t worry, Darry, I don’t hate you anymore.
Professor Gast is actually really nice, and we’re finding out new
things about the planet.”
Darry
was relieved to hear both things. He
hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep worrying about her, which explained his being in
the Item shop, he had been buying sleeping pills, “Well, what’s all this?”
Infalna
put more stuff on the counters, “His place is awful, so filthy, covered in
inches of dust.”
The
clerk’s eyebrows went up, “Will there be anything else?”
Infalna
smiled sweetly, “No.”
The
clerk shrugged and began ringing everything up, “Broom, mop, bucket, dust
rags, soap, and… a snowboard?”
Infalna
laughed, “Yeah, I thought I’d take it up, seeing how I’ll be here for a
while.”
The
clerk still looked at her like she was crazy but totaled up her items.
She charged it to Gast’s account and Darry offered to carry the stuff
back for her.
Gast
was opening the door just as Infalna and Darry walked up to it, “Where have
you been?”
“Shopping,
why, what’s wrong,” Infalna asked, walking past him into the house.
Gast
sputtered angrily as Darry set the stuff down.
“What
has gotten into you? This place is a
mess, I just went to get some stuff from the Item shop, did you think I ran
away?” Infalna asked, hanging up her coat and robes.
Gast
sputtered some more then began angrily muttering under his breath.
Darry
looked at Infalna, “Are you going to be all right?”
She
nodded and waved for him to go. He
nodded back and left, closing the door behind him.
“You
didn’t tell me, you didn’t even leave a note!” Gast burst out as soon as
Darry had gone.
“So,
I didn’t even think you’d be awake till after I got back, I just thought
I’d let you sleep, so I--”
“That
isn’t the point, someone could have grabbed you, you could have gotten hurt
and then where would I be?”
Infalna
turned her back on him, “Yes, where would you be without your precious
specimen, goodness knows that’s the only reason you want me here is
because I’m a Cetra!”
She
turned back to glare at him one time before stomping down the stairs.
Gast
stood rooted to the spot, he couldn’t think of a thing to say in response to
her. He was worried about her, but
he didn’t think it was because she was a Cetra.
He
walked slowly down the stairs and stopped at the base.
She was curled up on her bed, her back facing him.
She was sobbing softly, her hands over her face.
Gast
walked over to the bed and gently touched her shoulder.
She sniffled and jerked away from him.
Gast
sat down next to her, “I’m a confirmed bachelor, and I’m a scientist.
I always have been. I have
junk everywhere and a layer of dust over things I haven’t used in years.
But I wasn’t worried about you because you’re a Cetra; I was worried
because I love you.”
Infalna
stopped crying and looked at him. Tears
stained her cheeks and her eyes held complete disbelief.
Gast brushed her hair back from her face, “Doesn’t that at least get
me a smile?”
Infalna
smiled slightly, “You’ve known me for one day.”
Gast
slipped an arm around her waist, “And I’ve loved you since you tried to run
strait through me.”
Infalna
shook her head, “This isn’t right, it can’t be.
I have to hate you, you’re a creepy scientist that is going to run
experiments on me, and I’m just a specimen to you.”
“But
you’re not a specimen to me; you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever
seen.”
“But
you’ve known me one day!!”
“You
said that already,” he teased, “And if you remember correctly, I’ve known
you for four years, you just kept delaying our physically meeting, but you see,
we were destined to be together.”
Infalna
studied his face for a moment; “I can’t believe I’m doing this…” and
she leaned forward, pressing their mouths together.
Infalna
woke up late that night, in Professor Gast’s arms.
She rolled over and kissed him on the nose, “Wake up.”
His
eyes fluttered and when he focused on her, his eyes were wide with surprise.
She smiled and cuddled closer to him, “Now, isn’t a bed much more
comfortable then that stupid cot? You
can get a good night sleep in a bed.”
He
buried his head in her hair, “Yes, my love, but I don’t think it’s the bed
that made me so comfortable.”
He
kissed her neck gently before pulling himself up onto his elbows, “There’s
somewhere I’ve wanted to take you since I first heard about you… somewhere
special. I think you’ll find it
very interesting, but you’ll have to dress warm.”
“I’m
kind of warm right where I am,” Infalna’s smile made him blush slightly.
He
kissed her again before getting up. Infalna
rolled over onto her side and watched him lazily while he picked up his
scattered clothes. He slipped on his
pants and boots then looked around for his shirt.
Infalna
laughed, “It’s over by the stairs.”
He
blushed again and buttoned up his shirt, “And my glasses?”
Infalna
reached over and plucked them from the nightstand, “Do we have to go right
now?”
Gast
took them from her and smiled, “Yes, it’s a rather long walk, if we want to
get started by first light, we go now.”
“Alright…”
she stood up and began to dress also. He
coughed and turned away; beat red for the third time, “I’ll uh… go
upstairs and uh… go do uh… something that needs to be done.”
He
hurried up the stairs much to the amusement of Infalna.
She
joined him after a moment, fully dressed in warm clothes, “So where are we
going?”
Gast
helped her into her coat before getting into his own, “You’ll see.”
He
grabbed her new snowboard and his own and led her out into the darkness of
Icicle Inn. The days were incredibly
short; the sun would be up soon, so they had to hurry.
If they spent too much daylight getting there, they would never find
their way back in the dark.
He
dropped her snowboard at the top of the hill and buckled his own over his shoes.
Infalna
did the same and then fell back on her butt, “Ow!”
Gast
raised his eyebrows, “Why did you buy one if you didn’t know how?”
She
struggled to her feet, “Because I was planning on learning.”
He
smiled; it was going to take a little time to get down the mountain then.
“You’ll
get the hang of it, cry out if you fall behind, you don’t want to go down the
wrong turn and get lost.”
They
slowly made their way down the slopes and then picked their way up the next
mountain. After doing the same to a
few more mountains they stopped at the edge of a huge crater.
“What
is this place?” Infalna peered
over the edge of the gaping whole.
Gast
pulled her back gently; “Be careful, it’s a long way down.
It’s the planet’s wound you told me about.”
Infalna
shivered and then caught her breath; “I hear them…”
Gast
looked at her closely; “Tell me what you hear.”
Infalna
looked around on the ground, “I hear their voices, crying, sickness, death,
sadness everywhere, it’s her fault.”
Gast
looked around, alarmed, “Her who?”
Infalna
ran to the edge of the crater, “Where?”
She
ran away from the crater, then along the edge, frantically searching, Gast
struggling to keep up with her without falling over in the snow.
She
stopped, “Where is she?”
Gast
gasped for breath as he caught up with her, “She who!”
Infalna
covered her face with both hands and cried out wordlessly, “There!” she
screamed, “She’s there!”
Gast
walked over to the edge of the crater and looked down.
There were a few ledges that he could get to without killing himself.
One of them was a large, flat ledge; one side of it had a large boulder
of ice sitting back against the crater wall.
He could see something sticking out of the ice boulder.
Gast pulled a length of rope out from under his coat as if by magic,
“Here, tie this to that rock over there, I’m going down there a little
ways.”
“No!”
Infalna threw her arms around him and held him tight, “She’s evil,
don’t go, let’s just go back to town, please!”
Gast
handed her one end of the rope and pointed to a nearby boulder.
Her lower lip trembled and she bit back tears, “She caused this crater,
you can’t bring her into our world, get explosives and blow her up, destroy
her now.”
Gast
shook his head, “You know I can’t do that as a scientist, she might be able
to tell me things that you can’t, she’s not alive, look at this place,
it’s merely gene testing.”
Infalna
turned away, her shoulders shaking with sobs but she nodded and went to tie the
rope off.
Once
tied, Gast scaled down the crater wall about twenty yards.
He stepped gingerly onto the ledge, testing it for loose under snow.
After making sure it was sturdy, he turned his attention back to the ice
boulder. The thing sticking out of
it was caked with frozen snow. He
brushed it away and moved back quickly, almost toppling over the edge.
He was breathing hard and nearly screamed when Infalna’s voice floated
down to him, “What is it?”
Gast
took several deep breaths, “A woman’s hand.”
Infalna
was silent for a moment, then called again, “A severed hand?”
Gast
closed his eyes tightly and shook his head, “I think she’d still attached to
it.”
He
stood up, brushing the snow from his coat. He
pressed his hand up against the ice boulder; the snow covering it was powder.
He took a deep breath and brushed the snow away, “Oh God.”
Infalna
sounded so far away, “What is it? Jonathan,
I’m coming down.”
“No!
Don’t come down here, don’t even think it.
I’m coming up, stay right there.”
He
walked far around the ice figure before him and took hold of the rope before
frantically climbing up and away from the blue skinned creature and all that it
had whispered sweetly into his mind.
When
he got to the top, Infalna wrapped him in her arms, “Everything’s all right
Jonathan. It’s dead, isn’t
it?”
“No,” Gast whispered softly, “it’s not.”
Onward
to Part 3!!