Better to Light a Candle: Tera's Perfection

Better to Light a Candle:  Tera's Perfection

I can hear Safiya talking.  "Move over, you've got all of his torso."
"And that's all I've got.  You've got his arms, legs, and head.  We're even."
"Mmmuh?"  I add my two coppers to the conversation.
"Ah, you're up."  I don't feel up.  I feel like a sack of bricks.  I'd say I feel heavy, but that's probably more the ton of muscle and scales that's holding me.  I try pulling my arms free at least, but I meet with way too much resistance.  But then, any resistance is probably too much with the way that my muscles are aching.

"Hey, wait a minute."  I hear the voice right in front of my face now, and unthinkingly come to the decision that I should open my eyes.  I'm not sure why that's so difficult to do, though.  I finally manage to pull one of them open to find Vee staring down at me with a worried expression.  To my side is Safi, also frowning about something.
"Don't try to get up yet," Vee says.  "Mom says you lost way too much energy."
"Agummuh?"  It takes me a second to realize that I probably didn't phrase that very eloquently, so I just give her a questioning look.
Safi pipes up, "You were keeping me warm, remember?"
No.  Wait, yeah.  Yeah.

I go back to sleep.

---

I can hear Vinata talking.  "It's getting uncomfortable."
"You can always just use one of the heaters."
"You use one of the heaters."
"Just change positions with me."
"Then you'll have more of him."
"You were saying earlier that we had the same amount!"
What the-?  Oh, right.  Yeah.  I was sleeping with Vee and Safi.
"Hey, you get to sleep with him twice as much as I do."
"No I don't!  Most of the time I'm with Cara."
I try to reach up and pull the covers from my eyes, but my hand is stuck.  "Wuddime-'zit?"
There's a shuffling, following by piercing, blinding light.  "What was that," Safi asks.
I turn away from the light, "What time's it?"
"It's almost time for dinner," Vee informs me.  "You've been out for twelve hours."

The information floats through my brain, seeking something to connect with to form meaning.  It doesn't find anything.  I groan in response, lacking anything more coherent to answer with.

There was something wrong last night.
I try opening my eyes as much as the pain will let me.  "Where're th'others?"
"Don't worry, everything's fine.  Evette can't get hypothermia, mom and dad have been looking out for everyone, and Lythalia's got her own heater.  Cara and Tera have been out playing in the snow all day."  She continues talking, but I can't hear her anymore.

My little sisters have been out playing in the snow.
Cara's been running around and throwing snowballs.
Tera's been making snowmono, eating snow cream, and giggling.
And I've missed it.

I bolt upright, ignoring the weight of my siblings and their confused shouts of alarm.  I scream silently; the anguish is so great that the cry dies before it is even born.  There is only pain here.  Pain and loss and the cruelty of a world that finds some sick joy in denying me all that is good.  Is this my punishment for the simplest of kindnesses?  Is this the pound of flesh you're taking because I denied you the pain of my sister?  Have you no kindness, no decency, oh malignant Earth, that you must take from me-

"Kids, it's time for dinner!"
"Oh, hey, food's ready."  I look around me at the pile of green and purple scales.  Vee and Safi are both scattered on the bed, staring up at me with looks of abject confusion.  "Well, come on.  I can't get up unless you two do."
Safi takes a slow breath before hesitantly asking, "Are- are you sure?"

---

Dinner was cozy.  Mom made something that could've been called beef stew if it wasn't miles and away greater than anything else that had ever been called by that name.  It seems that it got down to thirty-four below overnight.  Despite that being ridiculous, even by our standards, the power and the heater survived, so now that it's back up to ten degrees we're still mostly comfortable inside.

It's when Evette tries dragging me off that things become less comfortable.
Dad all but rises to his feet.  "Absolutely not.  He's only just been completely-"
"I'm not going to let her go hungry."
"You don't have enough energy to do anything about that."  I can see that he's trying to be reasonable, but the inherent condescension of telling me what I'm capable of when I know better just from sensing my own body is infuriating.
"I'm fine."  For once, the bitter, defiant tone is entirely intentional.
Mom, while significantly more reserved, still manages to stop dad before he can even respond.  "Val, you know we're just worried for your health.  It's not good to exert yourself so soon."
"I know, but I'm fine."
"I'm not going to watch you walk off-"
There's nothing but venom when I cut him off.  "Then close your eyes."
For a moment there's nothing but silence.  He looks shocked.  Everyone does.  I can't bring myself to care.  "I'm not going to let her go hungry."  I turn and stomp out, trying to ignore everything else.

---

"Hurry up, you're freezing."  This only serves to make her rest her chilled head next to mine while one of her ghostly arms trace idle circles on my shoulder.
"Don't be like that, dear brother."  She whispers into my ear "I didn't think that I could be with you like this today."

Dad was having none of it when Evette wanted me after dinner.  I can understand why, definitely, though I know my own general health well enough to know when I need to be concerned.  Perhaps there was a way to say that which didn't seem like I would just do whatever I wanted.  I could've gone without hearing Lythalia mutter "So long as it doesn't involve sex."  Mostly, though, I just wish mom hadn't looked at me like I'd just promised her granddaughters.

Maybe I should've just told them that I could tell by my flame that I've got enough to spare?  Energy to burn.  I chastise myself for the stupid pun.

I feel Evette pulling my midsection, drawing me as close to her as her chest will allow.  "You seem lost in thought, dear brother."
"I'm wondering what you have against my core body temperature."
She whines into my ear in a way that just barely sounds as though it were meant as a moan.  "Oh, but after that wonderful display how am I supposed to rush this?"  One arm reaches up and over my shoulder and hangs down over my chest.  "Doing such a thing for my comfort," she idly wonders, "so soon after making it pleasurable for us both."  Her spectral arm traces its way down to my leg, making it feel as though a finger was actually drawing across the bare skin.  I can feel the faintest brush of her lips against my ear as she asks "Could it be that you're actually trying to seduce me?"
A violent shudder wracks my body.  "Oho, what is thi-"
"C-could you p-please hurry it up," I ask, my teeth now chattering from the cold.

---

There's a slam as someone forces my door open too quickly.  I'm about to turn and give my "There's only one person with free access to my room" spiel when I see that one person smiling at me.
"Shiny!  It'scs scstill scsnowing outscside!"  I fight my way through the cuteness-induced chest pain.
Her grin of sheer joy falters slightly as she looks at me, "Uh, do you want to go play with me?"
I take a deep breath, "Do I!?"
"But," she points vaguely at me for a minute, "but you look cold."
My body immediately stops shivering under the hateful glare of my mind.  "No no, I'm fine!  Perfectly fine."
She lights up immediately, turns violently in place and grabs my hand to go.  Some small part of my reptilian brain screams at me to stop what I'm doing, to try and avoid the pain to come.  I stopped listening to it years ago.  Besides, I can generally manage to avoid having my face slam into the walls and doorways as she barrels through the hallway.

The stairs are slightly more difficult.  There's something of a dance that is required when weaving back and forth at full speed going straight down a flight of stairs.  When you get it right, it's exhilarating and only slightly terrifying.  I didn't quite get it right.

I'm barely able to get myself back up onto my feet before Tera turns back to find out what made that noise.  She smiles happily as we rush out the door.
As I breathe in the freezing air my body immediately screams in protest.  My throat and lungs both burn from the cold, and my arms want to wrap around my chest.

Still, it's beautiful.  The trees, bushes, and all else are still covered in green leaves as the fall hadn't struck in fully yet.  The snow that fell completely covered almost everything, but along the edges and underside of the branches and leaves the green still shines out.  The freezing rain that had fallen just before the freeze sit in produced rows upon rows of icicles that hang off of the trees and along the rooves.

I'm lost admiring the beauty of this when my vision goes white and the left side of my face goes numb.  I try to piece together what just happened as the numbness turns to piercing pain and coldness.  I finally reach up and wipe away the snow to find a smiling Tera rolling up another snowball, smiling like a fiend all the while.

I smile in turn.  One might think that she has the advantage, being as she can roll up larger snowballs, she packs them so tightly that they're practically chunks of ice, she occasionally scoops rocks into them by accident, she throws them with the force of a truck, and she has virtually limitless stamina, but I know better.  I have a secret advantage.

I am extremely difficult to bruise.

---

"Shiny, what are you doing?"
"Shauhrham hrurmuna hmng," I state.
"Are you making a scsnow angel?"
"Orhmunnmng nurshmm rhung," I cleverly point out.
"You're scsupposcsed to be on your back for that, not your front!"
She's such a smart, sweet girl.

"Hey, let'scs go make a scsnowman!"
"Hyu hmm huhm hishamng."  I lift an arm up to wave at her.  I'd go, Tera, honestly, but the ice just feels so nice on my skin.  The numbness is so soothing right now.
"Let'scs go!"  She grabs my still-waving hand in a bone-crushing grip and immediately drags me upward and along the ground.

She drags me over to a clear patch, where a long trench of snow leads up to what appears to be a long roll of snow leading up to an ordinary snowman.  My body constantly reminds me of my foolishness in not grabbing some thicker clothes before heading out.
"Tera, didn't you already make one?"
"Yeah, but there hascs to be two!"
No arguing with that.  We both set ourselves to the task of rolling up balls of snow to form the base.  She takes a while longer to form hers, as her claws tend to rend the snow into shapeless piles rather than balls.  I'm somewhat curious as to how she made the first.  Wait, no I'm not.
"Did you get Cara to help you with the other one?"
"Yeah.  She'scs really good at it."

It takes a while to make the second one, mostly because Tera insists it has to be taller than the first.  After a while I realize that the first one's trail leading up to it is meant to be a tail.  That explains why it has those chunks of bark sticking out of the head; they're meant to be draconic scales.  She made a little snowwyrm.

When the second one is finally formed I realize that we've made a mistake.
"We don't have anything to give it buttons."
She looks at me like I just said that we need to put in batteries to make it work.  "You don't wear shirtscs with buttonscs, though."
"Well, no," I slowly say while working out what sort of logic she's building this thing with.  Then I piece it together.
"This is supposed to be me?"
"Of courscse!  Who elscse would I make?"  She pulls herself up more and plants her fists on her hip, as though she were bestowing some sort of signal honor.

Just as she's doing that I spot the sunlight is beginning to fade from behind the trees.
"It's almost nighttime.  We should head in, soon."
Tera whirls around and gasps at the horrific realization that it's getting late.  She whines in protest of the cruel vagaries of time itself before lamenting, "Aww, I wanted to go scsledding again!"
The reptilian part of my brain starts acting up again, this time loudly enough that I decide to voice its objections.  "Well Tera, it's gonna get even colder soon, and it'll probably be too dark for us to see where we're going."

She turns slowly back to look at me, lips pulled downward in a broken expression of pure misery, eyes so watery that they could burst into tears at any moment.

---

Dad almost drops his glass as he turns to look at me walk inside.  It's probably the blood flowing freely from my various cuts, as well as my mouth and nose.  It might also be the bruising that all but covers my skin.  Alternatively, it might be the pale bluish tinge that the unbruised and unbloodied areas have taken.
"You uh, you have fun out there, champ?"
"It was basically the best day ever."