Page 14 of Purring, Presents, and Parties

Aubrey rolled her eyes at his admonishment. “Then go check!”

Tarrian hurried to do a sweep of the creak, finding only one spin slug. Picking it up, he broke off the stinger and tossed it in the shallows at the other side of the stream where it would be safe while the stinger grew back. Spin slugs were important to the ecosystem but dangerous for humans; this was a compromise he could live with.

“It’s clear,” he declared after several sweeps.

“Great!” Aubrey jumped in and splashed over to the spot she’d pointed at earlier. She pulled several rocks up and examined them, her brows furrowed with interest. She started mumbling things about metamorphic rocks while selecting one and tossing the rest back into the water.

Looking up, she squinted at the horizon. Shifting in place, she shielded her eyes with her free hand and stared into the distance.

She pointed to something. “Are there any hydrothermal vents upstream from here?” she asked.

Tarrian sounded a happy rumble because he could actually answer her question. “There is one in that mountain range in the distance, the Ancestors’ Belt.”

Her gaze remained fixed on the mountains. “Can we go there?”

“There’s a philosophical monastery built right next to the hydrothermal vent.” He pointed to a spot near the second tallest peak. “It sits there. This river is fed by the snowmelt from the Ancestors’ Belt.”

“That’s interesting but you didn’t answer my question. Can we visit?”

Tarrian sounded a questioning rumble. “For what purpose? The place is cold and inhospitable. You have to take ground transportation from the base of the mountain to the top, as flying near the mountains is prohibited. Due to the severe shape of the mountain, there isn’t one single lift-carriage that goes all the way up. There are several places where you have to travel by foot from one lift-carriage pad to another. It can take up to eight marks to make the entire journey to the top. You have to spend the night at the monastery, and the accommodations there are very rudimentary. It’s a place of contemplation not pleasure.”

Aubrey turned to face him, her head tilted down a little and her eyes looking up at him. “Getting to visit a Talin monastery would be an honor.”

Tarrian knew his human well enough to know she didn’t care about philosophy, meditation, or contemplation. She wanted to see rocks!

Sounding a derisive rattle, Tarrian picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder. Her laughter filled the air as he stomped back to the bank of the stream.

“You’re obsessed!” he declared as he found a shady spot to sit and pulled her from his shoulder to his lap.

Aubrey was unrepentant. “You’re only now figuring that out?”

“Why is visiting the Ancestors’ Belt that important to you?” he asked.

Aubrey bit her lip and pulled out one of the rocks she’d collected. To Tarrian they all looked the same, but this one seemed to fascinate her more than the others.

“I could be wrong, but I think this is tektite. This type of stone happens from a meteor strike.”

He looked at the stone then the mountains in the distance. “If this stone is from a meteor strike, why didn’t you ask me about craters instead of thermal vents?”

She held the rock closer to his face. “Do you see the spots in the tektite?”

“If you hold it any closer, I’ll be tasting the spots,” he answered.

Chuckling, she pulled the rock away. “I need to use the equipment back at our place to be absolutely positive, but I’m pretty sure that mineral inclusion is zircon formed after the tektite was created. This secondary mineralization would've happened when the tektite was immersed in mineral-rich hot water like a hydrothermal. It makes sense that the closest one would be up in those mountains, and that’s why I found so many of these in the river. I’ve been finding more and more as we move further upstream.”

“Why would you want to visit where the tektite was formed?”

“Because all kinds of fun minerals are created with asteroid impacts!” Aubrey announced, as if he was being particularly obtuse. “And there’s an added bonus of secondary mineralization!”

“This is not a trip to be undertaken on a whim,” he warned her.

“I agree. It sounds like a great adventure. I did some rock climbing before the Great Cataclysm, and I bet there are some great spots for it there. The rest of your planet is pretty flat.”

The idea of Aubrey scrambling up unstable and dangerous rocky surfaces filled Tarrian with panic. He could easily picture her slipping and falling to her death.

“No climbing!” He didn’t mean to roar those two words, but his concern over Aubrey’s safety made him louder than expected.

She pulled back, blinking in surprise at his vehemence. “Okay, I won’t climb when we visit the monastery. Besides, the trip up there will probably be exhausting, and I’ll want to save all my energy for walking around at the top.”

---