Vivi laughs, unoffended. “It does not.”

“It does look a bit like a canoe,” Nadine offers, watching from nearby. She has been helping Vivi with skis for days now, both of them trying different versions before settling upon this one. I see them together often, their heads bent, smiling and laughing, and I am glad that my Vivi is friendly with her…and I am jealous at the same time.

I want all her laughter. All her smiles.

And because I am a jealous fool, when they suggested trying out the skis, I insisted I join them. Now I have a slippery wood-thing strapped to my boot. Nadine hands me a pair of poles and I lean on them while Vivi slips the other ski on my foot. By the time she is done, I am sliding back and forth on the snow, trying to remain in the same spot and failing. “I am drifting!”

“Turn your ski,” Vivi instructs without looking up.

Nadine finishes strapping hers to her feet and braces herself on her poles, testing them out. “Not bad, not bad.”

“Let me put mine on and we’ll give them all a test run.” She grins with excitement up at the others. The skis are twice as long as my feet and not very wide. I turn slowly in the snow, lifting each foot as I prepare myself. We are bundled up heavily and have taken to the hills just above the cove to test the skis out in the snows. Vivi worries they will not stay together well enough, so we’ve picked a “small” hill to ski down.

Now that I have these bone sleds attached to my feet and I feel how uncertain my stance is on the ground? The hill looks very large indeed. “The bottoms of my skis feel very slippery,” I confess as Vivi finishes strapping her skis to her feet and stands upright. “Are they supposed to?”

“They’re slippery because they’re greased,” Vivi tells me. “So we can go faster, remember?”

“If you don’t want to try the skis out with us, I can go get Thrand and you can watch Deenie instead.” Nadine’s tone is sweet.

“Bah,” is all I say. I should be the one with the skis on my feet, as it is my mate’s idea. “I will be excellent at skiing. Wait and see.”

“I’m sure you will, babe,” Vivi tells me, and poles her way forward a bit, testing the skis on her feet. “This version seems to be holding. That’s a good sign.”

“They feel sturdy,” Nadine agrees. “Much better than the reed ones. I think the length and width helps, too.”

Vivi makes a hmming noise. “They’re not as long as I want, but maybe that’s a good thing? We’ll just have to take it slow and make sure we don’t topple over as we go downhill. You remember what I told you, Skarr?”

I remember some of it, but I had also been admiring how strong and fine she looked when she was instructing me. “Balance my weight on my knees. Do not lean forward too much. Crouch. Steer with my knees. Turn to the side when I get to the bottom so I can stop.”

“You’ve got it.” Her eyes sparkle and she skis over to me, then puts one of her poles in the wrist loop and pulls a hood over my head, tucking a scarf around my neck. “How’s your tail sock?”

“Warm. I like it.” She made me an attachment that ties to the back of my leggings that covers the majority of my tail and helps me stay much warmer. I do not care for the festive pom-pom she put on the end, but it makes her smile and I like her smile, so it stays.

Vivi beams at me and taps a finger on my nose. “I’ll go first.” She turns to the other woman. “Nadine, you want to go last so you can help Skarr if he gets stuck?”

Nadine nods. “Will do.”

My female flashes a smile at us and then shuffles to the edge of the hill we are upon. She pushes off and crouches low as she glides down the side of the hill, picking up speed as she goes, her poles lifted horizontally under her arms. Near the bottom, she wobbles, almost losing her balance, and my heart leaps into my throat. I start forward to go after her, but she rights herself and I can breathe again.

When she gets to the bottom, she turns her skis and straightens to her full height, waving and giving us a thumbs-up gesture that means she is happy.

“Go for it, Skarr,” Nadine says. “You’re up.”

I bite back a heavy sigh. I will be excellent at this, I am certain. I just…do not want to do it. I like my feet on firm ground. But Vivi is gazing up with an expectant look and I do not want to disappoint her. Gritting my teeth, I move to the edge of the slope and hunch over.

The skis move forward a handspan, nothing more. And they do so agonizingly slow.

“Push off,” Nadine says. “With the poles.”

“I know this. I was just testing.” I try to push myself forward with the poles, but the angle is wrong.

“You want me to give you a nudge—”

“No,” I snarl at her. “I have it.” I shoot Nadine an indignant look and try to push myself forward again. This time I start to slide forward and pick up speed, and the snowy slope begins to rush past me. My heart does not beat as I fly at high speed down to the bottom of the hill, and I laugh in triumph when I make it all the way to the bottom. I knew I would be the best!

But…then I keep going.

I stand up, surprised, and look back over my shoulder at Vivi as my skis keep on carrying me across the snows, the momentum of my speed propelling me way past my mate.

“You have to turn your skis to stop,” Vivi calls after me. “Otherwise you’re going to keep going.”

“I am simply testing them,” I call back to her.

“Of course you are, babe.” Her laughter is sweet on the air, taking the sting out of her words.

I finally figure out how to turn my skis and when I do, I flop over onto the ground. Hmph. I will need to work on that part. I suppose I cannot be amazing at everything right away. Getting back on my feet proves to be a bigger challenge than the hill. By the time I manage to get upright again, Nadine is down the hill and standing with Vivi. I slide my way back to them and I have to admit, it does let me move across the snow quickly.

Vivi’s eyes are bright with excitement. “Let’s try going across the snow down here and go cross-country for a bit. I want to give the skis a real workout before we call them a success.”

We ski for a bit longer, but then one of Nadine’s blades breaks, and then the two women spend a long time examining the broken piece, looking for flaws and discussing how to make it stronger for the future. “I should head back anyhow,” Nadine says, glancing up at the suns and their position in the sky. “Thrand and Deenie are going to be wondering where I am.”

“We’re going to stay out for a bit longer,” my mate says. “If the weather holds, I want to ski out to one of the supply caves. Don’t wait up for us.”

“Oooh, a sexy honeymoon. You know I won’t.” She winks at us and then waves, picking up the broken pieces and hiking back up the snowy hill to the trail that leads back to the beach camp below.

“We are staying out for longer?” I ask Vivi, surprised. “For a sexy honeymoon?”

My mate moves closer to me, skiing to my side. She bumps into me and grins, and then adjusts the scarf around my neck again. “Not exactly. We’re partners, right?”

“Right…?”

She gazes up at me. “Do you trust me?”

“You know I would follow you anywhere.”

Vivi pats my chest. “Good, because I’m about to ask you something crazy.”

Chapter Thirty

VIVI

I see the tracks again.

The moment I landed at the base of the hill, I noticed the heavy drag mark next to the paw prints, and I realize the same snow-cat that followed us across the mountains is still in the area. I forget all about the skis and the weeklong project I’ve been buried in.

A plan forms in my head.

Part of me knows we should be getting back to camp. Sabrina is organizing things for Flor and I’rec’s wedding feast, and I should go back to help cook, or tend the fire, whichever way I can contribute. But if this snow-cat has a busted leg, he deserves our help. I’ve been thinking about this ever since my finger broke and healed up so quickly thanks to the khui. If his leg is broken, it likely healed wrong. This means that I can re-set his leg and it will heal properly and he can go back to being a normal snow-cat.