Hidden Earth Short Tales

Amurus: First look

Hail pelts the mountainside. The sky swirls with grays and white, a silver, milky soup. It would be a beautiful sight had he not known just how deadly it is.

Despite the danger, he can't help but crawl closer to the entrance of their cave to peek out. He swishes his long, split tail around himself for a hug of courage and looked across the lip. He opens his eyes wide, then shuts the bottom pair. As dark as the tunnel had been, the ice is much too bright to look at with all four. His pointed ears then swivel and he turns his head. An innocent, fanged-tooth smile grows across his face. "Mama!"

"Jasper!" She strides over to him. The hooves of her hind legs clack sharply along the hard cave-floor. The light shining through the snowstorm makes her silky white fur almost glow. Dark indigo stripes swirl and twist along her body. She glares at him with all four of her turquoise eyes as she jerks him from the lip by his scruff. She holds him up level with her small triangular nose. "You know better than this!"

Jasper only giggles, reaching up to pull on his mother's twisting horns, bringing his face obnoxiously close to hers. He blinks, nearly cross-eyed. "I see you!"

His mother sighs with a tiny smile, unable to stay mad at the cub and cuddles him close as she carries him back down the tunnels. By now he's moved on from tugging her horns to trying to gnaw her indigo braid. Gently, she takes her hair away and sets him on a gray wooly mat in the floor in the middle of a cavern. He crawls away to a pile of carved, wooden blocks he had previously abandoned while his mother lounges on a couch and pulls a white bearskin blanket over herself and watches him.

Every once in a while, she glances at a crystal clock upon the wall and bites her lower lip. She listens to the hail beating in the distance and steels her nerves against her urge to pace.

Jasper crawls over to her and up into her lap. He looks at her with his four wide eyes, holding one of his tail tips in his paw. "When Dada home, Mama?" He asks.

His mother strokes the indigo tuft on his head. "I'm sure he'll be home soon. Your father is smart and strong. He would have hidden from the storm."

"Where go?" He lays on her chest and she pulls the blanket over him as well. She would have to stir the furnace again soon.

"The chief elder summoned him." She gently taps his nose. "An outsider has come and required the presence of the head researchers and analysts."

"Dada researchy!"

"Yes, Jaspy." She smiles softly. "But as soon as the storm grows tired, he will come home."

Jasper nods and lays his head on her chest and pokes the tail tip in his paw into his mouth. She just rubs his back and watches the clock as time ticks by.

******

"Bertramus, dear, dear Bertramus. It's been ages, hasn't it?"

Bertramus lifts back his hood and dusts snow from his black hair with a short laugh. "It feels like it was only last month."

"That's because you age funny compared to we Amuri."

"Fair enough, Tanzanite." He looks at the grinning face of the elder and steps closer to him. He stands at least a head taller than he. Although Amuri are notoriously slighter in stature in comparison to many other races, the chief elder is short to his own kind. "You did get my message?"

Tanzanite nods. "Yes, my head of research should be here in only a moment. Would you like some cider while we wait?"

Bertramus watches the elder's emerald striped tail twitch with a slight frown. "Might as well. I have a feeling your researcher is going to be sharing bad news."

"How—how do you—" His four green eyes grow wide.

"Tanzanite, you have always been terrible at hiding your emotions. Your tail tells on you." He sighs, accepting a mug from an Amurus female with a nod.

He looks away and sighs. His tail hangs still. "Unless Larimer's findings have changed...It is horrible news."

"My findings have not changed."

Bertramus and Tanzanite turn and look at the tall Amurus behind them. His stripes match the snow storm brewing outside. He only has his bottom pair of ice blue eyes open and snow still clings to his fur.

"Ah, Larimer. Perfect timing."

Larimer nods and walks over with a paper report. "Are you able to read Amurish, sir?"

"I know enough to get a jist." The wizard shrugs, taking the papers from him. He reads over the sheets for a few minutes. His slight frown from before deepens to a grimace. "Tanzanite, your tail was right to be anxious." He then looks at them.

"What are you going to do?"

Bertramus scratches at his short beard, glancing down at the sheets. "First, I want to take a look at the machine myself and I want a copy of this to go. I'll consult the elves."

Tanzanite's eyes widen again. "There are still elves? I thought they had finally all moved on to Valinor."

"No...Only the older orders of elves have...The new order elves still remain. But it is true, they have lost much of their older culture and traditions after the great divide when their elder orders left them. For awhile, they were practically gone."

Tanzanite nods and looks towards the cave entrance. "You'll have to wait until the storm clears to go."

"Yes, it was just beginning to hail when I got here." Larimer sighs.

"Isn't hail largely harmless? Just a little bruising?"

Tanzanite snorts and shakes his head. "It was the last time you were here, but it's grown deadly, Bertramus. The ice is sharp; it cuts and slices. You go out into that storm, and it will shred you worse than snow panther claws."

Now Bertramus looks out the cave as well. "How long does a storm like this last?"

"Anywhere from an hour to a few days...There is no way to tell."

"Feathers." He grumbles and turns back to them. "If it lasts for long, I'll have to find another way through it. A raven can only fly so fast, and I need to talk with the elves about this matter."

Tanzanite pats his shoulder with a long-clawed, hand-like paw. "Well, you are a wizard, aren't you? I'm sure you have a spell of some sort."

Bertramus sighs. "It's not that simple..."

"I'm sure it's not, but you do make it look easy."

The wizard rolls his eyes and sits down with the cider. He looks at Larimer who is staring out the cave exit, his arms crossed over his chest. "Family?"

Larimer looks over at him and nods. "Yeah. Wife and a cub." He leans his head against the wall, looking out at the storm again. "I'm sure he and Lazuli are fine. They have plenty of stores in the pantry...it's just..." He sighs and hangs his head.

Bertramus smiles a little. "You sound like you need something stronger than cider."

"I'm sure you're aware that we don't drink alcohol, sir." He glances at him, but he smiles slightly.

"Oh I'm aware." He chuckles and sips the cider. "Larimer, if it's snow panthers you're worried about—"

"No, it's not them. Lazuli is fantastic with a spear." He grins for a brief second before the worried look returns. "It's Jasper, our son. He's the age where curiosity starts weeding out cubs. One moment he's trying to stick his tail in a socket, the next he's trying to wander out into a hail storm. Fluff, if Lazuli took a nap and he wasn't sleeping, he could be out in that ice right now. I could come home and find a small bloody bundle of shredded fur."

Bertramus looks at him for a long moment, contemplative. He finishes his glass of cider and hands it to another Amurus female before standing up and walking over. "Come."

Larimer blinks and tilts his head. "Do you have a death wish? I do not have a death wish."

The wizard rolls his eyes as he begins to spread his hands out above his head and starts spanning them downwards in an arch. The air around his hands lightly shimmers scarlet. He looks at him, frowning. "Well? You coming with me or what?"