Hi There,
This week’s Boot Camp sees Aeron with a familiar face… hope you enjoy.
Update on Full Circle.
My hardware is on its way so hopefully I will be able to start working on Full Circle soon. I’m excited and nervous about sharing the book with you and I’ll keep you updated on progress.
Big Smiles,
Jody
Act 4 Scene 4
I was getting kinda cold…
The snow was hitting my eyelids so hard that I couldn’t blink them away fast enough and I’d lost the feeling in my hands hours ago.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
I heard the sound through to my core.
Gunshots. I knew the sound of gunfire.
Crack.
The sound bounced off the white expanse around me. A blizzard had hit. I couldn’t see nothing. I couldn’t feel nothing.
Someone screamed… sounded like Hankings… I turned to go trudging in and help but where? I should go help.
“Kid, you keep walking the way that your superior told you,” a guy said beside me. “Don’t go making my mistakes.”
I turned and squinted only to see the guy from the memorial wall… Renee’s dad. “I’m supposed to help.”
He shook his head. “Not every cry for help is genuine.” He studied me. “You left the breadcrumb back at base, yes?”
I nodded. The wind howled around me and I couldn’t see through my frozen eyelids. “I’m not meant to see you. I don’t get why I can.”
He tidied his beret and stuck out his chin. “’Cause I am on duty, kid.”
“Renee sounds so much like you,” I couldn’t help but smile even though it was through chattering teeth. “Only she’s shorter.”
He laughed. “You sound… and look so much like your mom,” he said and chuckled again much the way Renee did when Mrs. Squirrel had dashed by and stolen the nuts she’d been about to put in the squirrel hut. “You know my girl?”
“Know her?” I shivered then sighed. “Sort of… she rescued my butt… She helped me leave Serenity… a—”
“She did, huh?” he searched my eyes. “She get you playing soldier?”
“No, my mom did.” I tripped over something in the snow and collapsed onto my knees. The blizzard was closing in all around me but Colonel Black was keeping me from being so scared. Renee did that too. “I’m kinda hoping I can work with her. She’s…” How did I explain without sounding like a dumb kid. “She’s…” I sighed and pulled myself up to my knees. “She’s way too clever to have a lumbering dimwit like me following her ‘round.”
Colonel Black raised his blonde eyebrows then grinned like he was up to something. “Maybe she’s clever enough she knows having a Lorelei close by is better than the gun in her holster.” He laughed again. “An’ I guess Loreleis have that way about them, huh?”
“Do we?” I didn’t think my mom had folks following her around and she hadn’t said she ever knew Colonel Black. Guess she didn’t tell me she existed so why tell me she knew folks?
“Yup, but your mom clearly didn’t teach you about snow, did she?” He tapped the skis I had strapped to my back.
“You wanna see me on skis?” I stared at him. Colonel Black or not, he was all kinds of Serenity if he thought I should ski.
His eyes twinkled like Renee’s did and her face kept shimmering in my mind. “That’s the kind of attitude I expect from a Lorelei woman,” he said with a cheeky smile. “Now, I’m gonna help you out… I shouldn’t… but I want you to get that breadcrumb to my girl… or your mom, if she isn’t retired by now.”
“I’d rather give it to Renee,” I mumbled as I felt along with my snow shoes but I was sinking more than moving and I was so tired… too tired. “I trust her.”
“Well, then I better get you safe and sound back to her or she’ll get fiery.” He beamed at me and tapped the skis. “You listen to your superior when she told you how to fix a shelter?”
I held my eyes shut trying not to fall asleep while I thought. Frei had said to build a shelter if I got cold. She’d said that I would be impossible to find in the blizzard… but that I had to…
“That’s it, you gotta make it big enough you can get inside.” He pointed to an area that didn’t look no different to everyplace else.
Crack. Crack.
He glanced over his shoulder. “Don’t go thinking on them. You did your best. Renee ever tell you some people don’t want help and they would rather you get hurt to prove it?”
I shook my head, patting my pockets. Too tired… too cold. What was it I had to do again?
“What’s she been training you to do then?” He tapped the snow. “Dig here.”
“Right.” I followed his instruction and scraped snow away. “Er… I ain’t got to work with her yet… I want to… she’s the best.”
“Yes, she is,” he said with a beaming smile and glanced over his shoulder again. “If I could help, this’d be quicker.”
“You can’t help ‘cause you’re using too much energy keeping me company.” I met his eyes. “An’ like Renee, I want to give you a cwtch.”
He motioned at the snow. “You want to cwtch her, huh?” He laughed then directed me to place the snow into a mound. “You sound kinda attached.”
I shrugged feeling kinda warm and dumb. “She saved my butt.”
“Uh huh.” He laughed his warm, cheeky laugh again. “You should tell her that.”
“Nope,” I mumbled setting up the mound without a lot of effort considering I was so tired. I looked down at my skis.
“That’s right, kid. You know just what to do.” He looked over his shoulder again as more gunfire rang out. “Don’t forget your breadcrumb.”
“I can’t use them. I kinda blow electrics.” I placed the skis on top, climbed into the shelter and shoved snow into the gap.
His face appeared through the snow above me. “They aren’t electric. Try it.” He tapped my pocket and I pulled off my glove then winced at my cold whitened paw. “You jab it in your finger and shove it in the snow above you.”
“Okay.” My paws weren’t working much but I managed to jab the sharp bit in my finger. “How will it work?”
“Water,” he said with a wink. “Put it in the device while it’s in the snow.”
I did as he said.
Crack.
I grunted as the breadcrumb and the device fused and nearly sizzled my paws. “I blew it.”
“It’ll do.” He smiled at me then started to fade. “Just stay in here, kid… my baby hero is gonna want to teach you how to be a protection officer.” He winked then disappeared.
I groaned and shut my eyes, not sure if I’d seen him or I was just so cold I was imagining him. The blizzard picked up outside and I shivered. I’d seen him at the memorial wall so he must be real. I’d placed his breadcrumb safe back on the CIG base too. I remembered that. Guess he really had known my mom… but she didn’t look nothing like me.
