Page 25 of Purring, Presents, and Parties

It wasn’t any warmer inside, but Aubrey was defrosting a little now that she was cuddled so close to Tarrian. The omnie with its nano-infused liner helped keep her core warm, but her face and hands were cold to the point of discomfort.

Aubrey was so engrossed in watching the world below get smaller and smaller that she didn’t notice no one was talking until they were halfway up this leg of the journey. The same thing had happened in the first lift-carriage. She wanted to ask about it, but she was afraid to break the silence.

She was burning with curiosity by the time the lift-carriage stopped and they could disembark. Because they were the last ones on, they were the first ones off. Tarrian kept a steady pace as he passed the line of Talins waiting to descend.

What Aubrey couldn’t believe was not a single Talin was wearing extra garb. A few had a wide strip of cloth wrapped around their torsos several times and tied at the back, the ends almost trailing to the ground, but other than that, there was no compensation made for the bitter cold!

Looking over Tarrian’s shoulder, she noticed the other Talins that had ridden up with them were pacing themselves so everyone maintained a set distance between each other. If she wanted to ask questions, it was now or wait for an entire other lift-carriage ride!

“Why is everyone so quiet?” she whispered, even though they probably wouldn’t have heard her if she spoke normally.

“Casual conversation while on the mountain is discouraged,” Tarrian explained. “You don’t need to worry about it because you’re human, but everyone else will be trying hard to maintain their silence.”

“So no one talks ever?” Aubrey asked.

“There are lectures that the monks give on meditation and the nature of Talin greatness,” he explained.

Aubrey had to bite her lip to keep from giggling. “Sounds about right.”

“It is right and enlightening,” Tarrian agreed. “Accendens are given time to converse with each other after classes, but outside of those parameters, everyone is quiet.”

“Accenden, that’s a neat title. I like it,” she said.

“Everyone’s expected to make the trip once in their life,” Tarrian explained. “Although it can be hard for Talins who live on colonies or space stations. There’s talk about building a facility at the base of the mountain for offworld Accendens.”

“This is a big deal,” Aubrey murmured. “This trip wasn’t easy to make happen, was it?”

“One of the monks was a cresh-mate,” he said. “She alerted me to the open spot and assigned it to me when I affirmed my interest.”

“I bet there was a long list of other Talins who should’ve gotten the spot first,” Aubrey said, starting to feel guilty. “I’m not even interested in meditation or stuff like that. I think I’ve been greedy!”

Tarrian sounded a soothing purr, making it the first rattle or rumble he’d sounded since starting this journey.

“You don’t need to feel guilty, my Aubrey. You deserve to see the mountain as much as any Talin, maybe even more because you’ve experienced real hardship. This place manufactures a pale comparison of what you survived.”

She blinked at that statement. It was an odd way to say she was as tough as any of these shirtless, shoeless, not-gasping Talins. Tarrian’s words made her anxiety melt away and had eagerness taking its place.

“Thank you for this gift,” she whispered, nuzzling her face into the strip of exposed skin at the base of his neck. “I couldn’t ask for anything better!”

Tarrian

By the time they reached the top, Tarrian was starting to feel the strain of moving at such a high altitude. It didn’t stop him from carrying Aubrey, but he did slow down. The final hundred steps to the monastery were the hardest, and by the end, he breathed out a sigh of relief.

He hadn’t been tempted to purchase an Accenden Sash before, but now he wanted one for the trip down so he could use it to strap Aubrey to him.

“Welcome, Tarrian,” Salfrin said, rushing up to him. She wore the same Accenden Sash he’d seen on many Talins going down, but her sash was wrapped in the traditional, complicated pattern of a dedicated monk. “This must be your human, Aubrey. I’ve been reading about humans since you contacted me, and I’m very concerned about her stay here.”

Of all the things he expected, this wasn’t one of them. After taking a few steps away from the stairs, Tarrian lowered Aubrey to the ground and struck his chest. “Greetings, Salfrin. It’s good to see you again, my old friend.”

Salfrin struck her chest in return. “Greetings and welcome,” she said, then launched back into her earlier worries. “After reading how badly humans respond to temperature changes, I think it was foolish to bring her up here.”

“Do I have to sleep outside?” Aubrey asked. “Because if we can go inside, out of the wind, there’s no problem. We brought a second omnie to be a blanket.”

Salfrin made a few beats of a startled rattle before she remembered herself and silenced her backplates. “You can talk!”

“Um, yes?” Aubrey said, clutching at Tarrian’s arm. He could see from her expression that her anxiety was getting the better of her. Although Salfrin hadn’t said anything that should’ve caused distress, Tarrian understood and knew that, even with the carefully calibrated medication she took, sometimes her anxiety got the best of her. “I know I shouldn’t, but you started talking so I thought it would be fine, because you were worried, but I wanted to make you less worried and…”

Her words trailed off as she looked helplessly up at him. “Help?”

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