I don’t know why, but it’s important to me that I help it. I just need to get Skarr on my side to see that what we’re doing is right.

“There’s an injured snow-cat out here and we should help it,” I tell him. “I think it has a broken leg. I want to fix it.”

“You want to…hunt it?” he corrects.

“No, I want to help it. I want to re-set its broken leg as best we can so it has a chance of surviving.”

Skarr gazes down at me, a frown of disapproval on his face. “But it is a fierce animal. Everyone says that snow-cats are dangerous. I brought no weapons, and I do not like the idea of you going near a wounded creature.”

“We’re partners, remember? You have to trust that I know my limits. And my idea is a simple one. Hannah showed me this herb that grows nearby on the cliffs. It makes you sleepy and you pass out. We can pull a kill from a cache, stuff it full of the herbs and wait for the cat to eat it. Once it’s asleep, we tie him up and fix his leg, and then we release him again.”

“But how do you know he will eat it?”

“If he’s got a busted leg, he’s probably starving. He’ll eat it,” I say confidently, even though I have no idea if my plan will work or not. I’m just winging it, but I also don’t want to sit back and do nothing and wait for someone else to kill it. The sitting-back-and-feeling-sorry-for-myself phase of my life is over, just like my old life. I’m Vivi now, and Vivi doesn’t wait for shit.

Vivi makes shit happen.

“Come on,” I tell him, adjusting my poles. “Nadine showed me where the closest hunter cave is.” I point at a distant peak. “If we get to the other side of that, there’s a cliff that has a fat double rock on top of it, and the cave is just underneath. We’ll supply there and get weapons, and then track the cat.”

“You’re sure this will work?”

“Not in the slightest, but we’re doing it anyhow,” I tell him confidently.

I wait for him to object. For him to tell me that my plan is stupid, or that he thinks we should leave it alone. That messing with a predator is dangerous. Instead, a slow smile curves his mouth and he grins at me. “I love it when you’re bossy.”

That’s good, because I like being bossy.

The skis make traveling easier. We glide over the snow, avoiding hills when we can and just hauling ourselves over the mostly level terrain in the valleys. I pause a few times to gather leaves at the plant Hannah showed me. It’s easy to pick out because the leaves have a gray underside with a V pattern, and they’re plentiful. I fill my belt-pouch with them and we continue on. We’re still sweaty and winded by the time we make it to the supply cave, but the light is just starting to fade when we find it. Nadine told me that it was at least a day’s travel away from the camp. That means we crossed nearly a day within a few hours.

I like it. The skis held up, too, though they’re showing a bit of wear. I’m pleased.

We find the fat double rock and comb the cliffs until we see the entrance to the cave. Just as Nadine described, there are supplies in here, though they’re not put away as neatly as she said. They look as if they’ve been rummaged through, and I’m guessing that whatever hunter was here last was a slob.

Doesn’t matter. I spy several bone spears in the back of the cave, a basket full of fuel cakes, and furs. The temperature is dropping with encroaching nightfall, and I’m reminded again that Skarr needs warmth. I’ve been checking with him all day to ensure that he’s not too cold, but he’s been fine. The extra layers I’ve added to his leathers this last week have helped, along with the tail-sock. His tail isn’t thin and whip-like like the sa-khui. His is thick and meaty and has a lot of mass, and he loses a lot of warmth when it’s naked in the cold.

I’m not risking him for a snow-cat, no matter how much helping it means to me. “We’ll build a fire and I’ll work on getting some snow to melt while you take care of it. Do you need help with setting up blankets?”

“No.” He flexes his hands and lifts his arms, flexing his biceps. “Your fierce warrior has plenty of energy.”

I don’t bat an eye at his showing off. “It’s not your energy I’m worried about but your temperature.”

He lowers his arms. “It’s much warmer today. Nothing aches.”

“You’d tell me if it did? So I can prepare accordingly as your partner?”

Skarr nods. “The only thing troubling me today is resonance.”

Me, too. I focused on skiing for the last few days because it helped to have a purpose, a goal in mind. But skiing with Skarr today reminded me how strong he is. I’m sweating and winded after all that skiing but he just looks warmed up. He could probably go all night, and the graceful way that he handled his poles after a bit of practice? It made me weak in the knees. Even now, I’m staring at him a little too hard.

I’m…not entirely sure what I’m waiting for, I realize. To remember my old name? I’m realizing today that it no longer matters to me. At some point I’ve stopped thinking of myself as a clone, a strange replica wearing someone else’s skin. I’m not a faceless nobody, or Vivian the clone. I’m Vivi, a bossy human woman who resonated to Skarr, the most arrogant gladiator on the planet. And I’m good with that.

“You don’t think anyone will come after us, do you?” Skarr asks as I crouch near the fire pit, setting up fuel cakes at the center. “If they do, should I chase them off?”

“They won’t come after us.”

“How do you know?” He doesn’t share my confident assessment. “I would come after you.”

“That’s because you’re my mate,” I tell him lightly.

He grunts. “True.”

“I know they’re not going to come after us because of what I told Nadine,” I explain. “When we don’t come back, they’re going to assume we are holed up in a hunter cave, fulfilling resonance.”

Skarr nods, expression thoughtful as he hands me another fuel cake. “Do you think they will believe our feint?”

That’s adorable. He still thinks it’s a feint. The more I think about it, though, the more I decide I like the idea of us taking tonight for ourselves. After all, there’s a lot of downtime at night, and our little cave is very isolated. I like that thought a lot, so much that it makes my khui sing louder. I mentally command it to quiet down, because if Skarr realizes we’re going to fuck tonight, he’s not going to want to do any sort of preparation for the plan.

“Here’s what we’re doing,” I tell him in a firm voice once the fire starts. I get to my feet and stretch. “We put away the skis and poles and I need you to make a bed for us with the furs here. I’m going to take one of those spears and find the nearest marked cache—we passed one close by—and pull two small animals from it. One for us for dinner, and the other to stuff with the leaves. I’m also going to get some snow for us to melt for water. You’re going to stay in here and make things cozy so when I come back I can just relax.”

Part of me expects him to gripe about the role reversal—I’m basically telling him to stay and keep the home fires burning—but he just nods. “If you are not back by dark, I will come looking for you.”

“I’ll be back,” I promise him. And then I lean in and give him a kiss full of promise that scatters his thoughts.

He gives me a dazed stare as I pull back, and it’s clear he wants to kiss me again. “I’ll make up a bed.”

I grab a spear and a leather satchel, test the heft of the weapon in my hands, and then head out.

By the time I come back, Skarr is waiting at the entrance of the cave, the firelight glowing behind him. He brightens at the sight of me, taking the two frozen beaver-like hoppers from my belt hook. The bag I’ve carried slung over my shoulder is now full of snow waiting to be melted, and I fill the extra carved bone bowls and pouches with slushy snow while we wait for the first batch to melt. The truth of the matter is that a huge bag of snow only amounts to a very small amount of water melted, so we have to be careful with every drop unless we want to work on melting it all night.