New Year Promises

Silence was a boon and a bane in the bitter cold of a wilderness blanketed in the white chains. It was the coldest time period on Hondor. Peaceful though it seemed, within its grasp lay many creatures asleep, lucky enough to have the genetic makeup for hibernation, and many more enduring winter’s hold on them. The search for food was a constant. The fact that many would become food for others could not change the urgency each faced.

Standing tall on the food chain, not immune to becoming another’s meal, were two sherewolves quietly surveying their feature-poor domain. Each morning brought a rumbling reminder that the early riser makes for the best hunter. During these cold months, a little less sleep improved their chances.

“Always the same, Jaquar.” Jemmny’s dorsal spine perked up with her irritation, displaying a slightly dull and faded array of eye-like feathers. She kept them up for longer than necessary to make her point; melodramatic, to be sure.

There was no other better for him, Jaquar mused, but how he wished she wasn’t so easily brought to sarcasm’s layer. He huffed to cover his lack of response, a mistake that often instigated a lengthy tirade he was never in the mood for. Today was different. He wasn’t going to go there.

“Shall we split up, my love? I will take the low ridge to the right, leave you with the lowlands to the left. The first to find food signals the other.” His paws were already chewing up white powder before he finished, leaving Jemmny a view of his receding haunch to complain to.

“Fine,” she growled too late to be heard by the larger mate. “Whatever.”

Large paws lay lightly upon the hard-crusted snow and sharp nails bit into the months old ice beneath it. With the powerful grace of her species, Jemmny propelled her long shape into a loping gait that could be maintained for hours without taxing reserves. A meal was waiting for her. She was sure of it.

Three easy leaps brought the large male to the top of the ridge. As soon as all four paws made contact with the euchre-colored slate, he dropped low to reduce his silhouette. Keen bi-focal eyes searched for tell-tales of movement, while his second brain filled with troubling thoughts that had nothing to do with the hunt.

This was the last day of the year, a time when his species celebrated survival and looked to the new one with great hope. As was the custom, each mate presented the other with a gift, then made a promise to the other to be kept from then on. He had the gift–there was no concern that Jemmny wouldn’t like it–but the promise…what should it be this time? The two mated young and now many seasons and pups have come and gone. Many gifts have been given, sometimes repeated because of popularity or need. Many promises have been offered and are still being fulfilled, while some didn’t for good reasons, he rationalized. His intentions have always been good.

A movement switched Jaquar’s attention to the foremind. He became as still as the rock he lay upon. From a short distance away, he ‘was’ the rock.

Again.

Yes, he almost hissed out. A bangler! They were the best he could have hoped for: large enough to share, soft and tasty, not too difficult to catch. With exaggerated slowness, Jaquar crept off the ridge and worked his way to the unsuspecting prey. Every nerve wanted to throw speed and power into a fast approach, a heavy-body leap and a bone crushing landing. Experience–he wasn’t a young pup anymore–had given him the control needed to tame these urges. With only a gnarly scrub-wangler between him and the backside of an unsuspecting bangler, he slowly counted to five–

While Jemmny prowled with her far-sighted vision, she thought about her mate and the importance of the day. Memories of how they met at the annual gathering–she recalled how clumsy he was around her at first, flustered and unsure whether he was enough to influence her selection–caused her to smile, showing a large mouth filled with twin-rows of serrated teeth. Jaquar wasn’t the strongest or the largest of her choices. He was–the most most ‘everything’, she supposed was the best way to put it. There was a kismet there, a synergy that the others couldn’t compete with. Once he realized this, he lost his insecurities and became the mate she thought he could be. That was many seasons ago, she sighed. And yet–

In the bush far ahead, to the right of her present path, an intermittent rustling of leaves implied she had found a rombat munching on terkin berries, the only fruit that could weather the bitter cold of winter. Her pulse leaped as an empty stomach reminded her of her need. Jemmny’s smile had long vanished by the time her lean belly was lightly caressed the snow from in a low-slung gait. She stalked in near silence, masked by the cold winds that always blew across the wastes. Her semi-crouch and nearly all-white feathered body insured her stealth. Instinct and experience cautioned her against fast and sudden moves. Nonetheless, every fiber of her body screamed with a desire to run and pounce in a blood lust attack. The herbivore was too engrossed with filling its stomach to notice the twitching predatore’s approach. Her massive paws reigned down from above as her full weight impacted the–

Jaquar was licking the blood of his fresh kill when he saw Jemmny in the distance heading his way. Opposite ends of a lifeless rombat dangled out of her toothy grin. There would be plenty for the both of them with leftovers to last for days to come.

She set her kill before Jaquar and gave him an approving nod for the bangler. “You did well, my love. I guess we won’t go hungry, after all.” A genuine smile broke up her customary sourness.

Jaquar took the first bite, a huge one that nearly severed the bangler in half. His eyes lit up with delight as he savored the mouthful. A preayer of thanks was given for her good fortune.

Jemmny also took a large bite of her rombat. Razor sharp edges on the backside of her teeth allowed her to chop through bone as easily as she sliced into the meat and sinew. When she had eaten enough to abate her hunger pains, she moved along side of Jaquar and bit into his kill. He moved aside to give her access to the best parts. As they ate, their eyes met often.

“Jemmny?”

“Yes, my love?”

“We have been together for many seasons. Each year’s end we have exchanged vows. I wish to admit that I have wondered what I could offer you this time that was different and more than all the times before. Only just now have I come to know what I would promise you, the best promise I could make of all.”

Jemmny stopped eating and waited for him to continue. He had given her so many promises–kept most of them, she admitted, which was better than she had hoped for from a male–and now wondered what new promise could be more and better than all the others. Her ear feathers twitched with impatience.

The male sherewolf cleared his throat. “The largest, most important and meaningful promise I could make to you, Jemmny Jolay of Jaquar, is the one that speaks from my minds, my hearts and my soul. I love you in life, my mate, love you in spirit and in sport, in hunting and resting, in dreaming and basking. You became a part of my life when we mated, are now the most important part of my life. This cannot change, as you are as much a part of me as I am of myself. For this and all the reasons I would cherish telling you about for the rest of my life, I promise to be totally yours, always yours, completely open and honest to your minds, your hearts and soul. We are one and so I am compelled to promise you all of myself to make you complete, as well. I promise this for now, for tomorrow and for the rest of our lives.” To seal the promise, he strode over to Jemmny and gently licked her gracefully sloping crown, her closed eyelids and well-formed snout, behind her ears and under her exposed chin, moving over to–

Abruptly, she weered away, leaving him hanging in bewilderment. But Jemmny was smiling, eyes fluid with the moistness of deep commitment. “My love,” she purred, “you have managed to give to me the very same promise I had planned to make to you. I shouldn’t be surprised, for I knew from the very first I laid eyes on your feathered backside that you were all I needed to be complete.” She moved along side and rubbed her muzzle against his feathered neck before continuing.

“Jaquar Jenome of Jemmny, my love for life and beyond, the promise I give to you this day, the eve of new tomorrows, is the same promise I have silently made to you every moment we have been together. I am yours in all that I am, all that I can be and all that I ever will become. I live to serve you, live to be served by your love and devotion, need no other love or desires to make me happy or complete. I could not live without you, my dearest Jaquar, and those times that I know you fluster under my sarcasm–yes, my love, I have known–I do so not for myself, but for you, for the fear of losing you to the life we must live and eventually die from. I could not bear to live without you. I promise to not live beyond you, only for you, with you, with all that you are and have to give.” Then she was silent. He sprawled in the snow on his backside, where as she pounced on his to deliver ticklish licks no less sensual. Within moments they were purring with a happiness complete.

The suns set early during the winters of Hondor. With their departure comes a bitter-sweet message: cold hasn’t been felt until they have set. Creatures of the dark have already awaken and are on the prowl. Those of the light are fast asleep in their burrows, caves and tree nests, conserving heat and energy. All except two sherewolves, intertwined by destiny and too busy to care for the night or the cold outside their den. A new year was on its way.

Copyright 2008-2016