REDEMPTION

— by Jeff Karamales

Chapter 38
Turning of the Wheel
 

Sofiya stood in the spring air outside the gate that let into the colony and watched the activity in the fields on the other side of the river. An Aurodon pulled a plow that Emanuella Diaz and Nan Pi-lei Quang had designed, the angled arms turning furrows in the rich dark soil. The fifteen-foot-wide contrivance cut ten rows per pass which other furs immediately began seeding, trying to get the planting done before the skies opened up with another rain storm. Further out Richard worked with a team to finish digging a series of irrigation ditches, the silver fox pausing to accept a canteen and waving at the red fox before taking a long drink. Sofiya waved back before turning with a sigh to return to the reports that she needed to finish compiling and send to Earth. With a sigh the vixen slipped a hand under her belly, her gait unsteady with the babies that were growing in her womb and the change in her center of gravity making it a little difficult to walk with anything remotely resembling grace.

One of the developments as she began to show was a change in her body’s chemistry as it supported the new life inside her, though it had the distinctly unpleasant side effect of making the blond haired fox feel decidedly unattractive. The other two vixens in her family did their best to reassure Sofiya that she was far from ugly, though it was Richard that had the best response to her fits of pique by wrapping his arms around her while nibbling at her neck and telling her “Pregnant ladies are very sexy!”

A rumble of thunder caused the red fox to pause and look up just as the first fat drops of rain fell to the ground. The colony had been seeing rain squalls once every few days, but as she resumed walking slowly to the operations dome Sofiya frowned, the skies looking a little darker than normal and suppressed a shiver that ran down her back. She would be extremely happy to finish the reports and transmit the data to the satellite in orbit so she could return to the house that had been more of a test of building materials.

The blocks and mortar had been developed by Rupert and Matthew along with Rupert’s mate, Ella Stauffen, the German red fox vixen having worked in her mother’s ceramics shop before volunteering for the Furmankind program. Upon seeing some of the materials that were being brought back, Ella began to experiment and now her ceramics were being employed for a number of projects.

Once proven sound, the rest of the colonists had surprised their leader and her family by saying that the structure had been more than a test and insisted that Sofiya and the others of her family move into the five room house. The circular structure had a central room complete with fireplace, two bed chambers and a kitchen that was even connected to one of the water towers with a simple wood oven and stove surface. Sofiya had found it very comforting and cozy, and was quite convinced that her aspect that belonged to vulpes vulpes felt it was a very suitable den. Windows and the door had been fashioned from spare panels from the dome materials and could even open on the flexible hinges that had been made from cured leather.

As the rain increased, Sofiya wanted nothing more than to retreat to her house, others in the colony also having completed structures of their own, to curl up in front of the fireplace with her family. She made the operations dome before the rain started in earnest, slipping in front of the terminal that was easier to use as her fingers had begun to swell periodically with her pregnancy and the actual keyboard and large touch screen were easier to operate than her PBJ.

Becoming engrossed in her work, Sofiya was unaware of the patter of the rain on the panels of the dome increasing in volume until she was finished compiling the reports on recent developments, new species discovered and general progress and sent the condensed information packet to the satellite overhead that would in turn convert the message to a tachyon burst. It still amazed her sometimes that she could relay information that would reach Earth in a little under two days, and as her claw tip tapped the ‘SEND’ icon on the screen, she leaned back in her seat with a sigh, only then becoming aware of the drumming of rain on the transparent panels.

Ruing the thought of returning to the house in such a downpour, the vixen contented herself with sipping at the cup of tea she’d made earlier. When her ears perked of their own accord, Sofiya realized that somewhere out in the storm someone was blowing one of the whistles she’d given all of her people with long shrill blasts. Lurching to her feet, Sofiya sent the cup skittering across the floor as she leapt for the door, her pulse jumping drastically.

***

Richard was setting the tools he’d been using in the supply shed next to the gate when he heard the whistle of the day watch that patrolled the platform along the top of the wall before hearing a commotion outside. He only had time to look up as Ruiz Vallejo stuck his head past the door, his eyes wide with his large, wet ears plastered to his head. “Richard! The bridge!” the bat eared fox all but screamed before ducking out.

Not even thinking, the silver fox dropped his burden of shovel and grubbing hoe before running back out into the rain.

The river was nearly thirty feet across, and to get to the other side a bridge of hewn timbers and pilings had been built. It had been more than sturdy with the slow moving expanse of water that the Furs were accustomed to, but the rains had caused the level to raise drastically, the normally lazy flow of water turning into a torrent of muddy sludge that had bits of debris and tree branches bobbing in the swift flow. Already the far end had succumbed to the floodwaters, the support pilings having washed out as the trusses in the river gave way. Nearly to the end was Kurt, his arm wrapped around the closest piling with his other arm stretched out and his fingers locked desperately into Siobhan’s robe-like top.

Siobhan in turn was holding onto Elena, the platinum vixen trying to maintain her grip on Amanda. Behind the fennec Myao Shin and Enola Bellingham fought to get closer to the others as the planks slewed crazily and began bucking with the water that pounded mercilessly at the bridge, shredding lashings and pegs with the cracking of timbers that was easily heard over the roar of rain.

“Rope! Get some rope!” someone called, Richard turning to do just that as Hector ran towards the danger, two coils over his shoulders.

Without hesitating, the silver fox grabbed one end, tying a quick loop and slipknot that he threw over his body, Rupert and Matthew along with several others holding on as Richard was fed slack.

“I am good!” Kurt yelled over the constant roar from river and sky. “Get the others!”

Richard stepped onto the edge of the causeway, the planking pitching erratically, though he was only just able to spread his feet for better support when a terrible crash sounded from beneath the water, a large support beam ripping loose and bobbing so violently in the churning wash that it seemed to stand straight up before toppling over.

Both Siobahn and Elena screamed as the heavy support timber started to fall towards them, both letting go a moment before the section of wood crashed down. The impact was enough to finish the bridge and the silver fox looked on in horror as two of his mates, Enola and Myao Shin were swept downstream.

“NOOOOO!” Richard screamed before leaping into the rush of debris filled water. He didn’t hear Sofiya’s matching scream as the vixen watched her entire family get swept downstream in the raging flood.

As he was carried along, Richard was barely able to keep his head above the current as his tail worked like an anchor, threatening to pull him under. He almost reached the yellow top that Amanda wore, the once sunshine yellow cloth now a dingy color from the muddy liquid. Then the rope that was still around his body pulled taught, biting hard into the line of scar tissue on his side below his ribs. The silver fox got a mouthful of choking water as he was pulled beneath the roiling surface before fighting free of the safety line. He was able to get back up, sputtering and coughing, just in time to see other Furs trying to get ropes to the vixens, each attempt falling short.

With a strength born of desperation and fear, the fox began to kick and swim with the current, catching up to Amanda as they swept past a small hummock where Myao Shin and Enola were able to grab on before being carried further down the river. He grabbed hold of her tail, feeling the bones pop where it had already been dislocated before, the fennec’s scream of pain turning into a choked sounding gurgle as she went under the water before struggling back up. With a surge of renewed energy Richard was able to get the two of them to the shore, making sure that Mandy had a hold of the thick grass along the bank with other Furs running to them to assist and let go to go find Elena, the river again sweeping him away from safety.

***

The river that ran along the colony perimeter slowed and widened two miles down into a large lake, the surface speckled with the rain that had finally begun to slacken and dotted with debris that had been swept down river. Exhausted and slightly battered, Richard caught a glimpse of red to his left just barely floating on the surface, the same shade of red that Elena had worn that morning, and began to make his way to the spot of color. With a strangled sound, the silver fox found the vixen floating face down and rolled her over before making for the muddy shore.

Elena seemed too limp as he struggled to haul the female up onto the grass. Sucking in air, his entire body shivering with cold and shaking with fatigue, Richard got the platinum fox on her stomach to push water from her lungs, brown fluid dribbling from her slightly open mouth as he pushed furtively on the Fur’s back before rolling her over, each action taxing already depleted reserves of strength and energy.

“C’mon, Honey…” the silver fox panted. “Don’t give up…don’t give up!”

He peeled the sodden robe top open, completely unmindful of the barely noticeable swell of her breasts and found the point just above her sternum and began chest compressions, his paws locked together, wheezing out a count as he threw his arms, shoulders and back into the resuscitation exercise. After ten compressions Richard crawled tiredly to her head, his muzzle pressed over hers, the vixen’s lips too cold and not at all as warm as the kisses they had shared that morning, his shortened thumb and forefinger pinching the nostrils of Elena’s vulpine nose closed as he filled her lungs with his breath twice.

More compressions followed, Richard ignoring the burning feeling in his back as muscles protested the added strain, tears soaking unnoticed into the fur under his eyes. “You gotta live, Honey!” he rasped. “You can’t leave us!”

No matter how hard he tried, how he pleaded and cajoled and begged, the platinum vixen’s golden-yellow eyes stared unblinking at the cloudy sky overhead, the words of her mate falling on ears that didn’t hear. When the rescue team mounted on horses found them half an hour later, Richard was barely rocking her body as he continued to perform CPR that had been modified for furmankind but still refused to give up the fight.

***

The rainclouds had begun to break up near sunset with the stars winking across the sky with cold light, the cometary cloud called the Angel’s Breath lighting the sky with all the colors of the rainbow, but no one felt the normal joy they had with the celestial phenomena after the day’s events. Richard was given a thorough examination by Riva and Suzette before Rupert, Matthew and Kurt carried him to the house that had been built for the silver fox and his family. Sofiya had them place her mate on the bed near the fireplace where a small blaze of local woods crackled, the indigenous wood giving off a scent similar to incense as the flames danced brightly.

All Richard could do was stare at the fire between bouts of slumber that he woke from with jolts as various muscles cramped painfully that the red fox had to help rub away. He already knew that Amanda had died shortly after she was pulled from the water, her tiny body battered by debris from the bridge that had pummeled her badly and caused internal injuries that even the most modern and well equipped hospital would have been hard pressed to repair.

“Kokhanyy,” Sofiya whispered, her paw stroking the fur along the side of Richard’s head and his ear as lay with his eyes open but unseeing. “You need to eat,” she said, a bowl of rich, thick soup in her other paw. “You must be getting something hot in you, miy liubov.” She watched him for several seconds before sobbing. “Please! I cannot be losing all of my family in one day!” the vixen wailed quietly, her face pinching itself into an expression of anguish as tears flowed freely.

Nothing else had moved the silver fox, but the words that Sofiya uttered seemed to cut through the black depression and he reached out, placing his paw over hers where it stroked his fur.

“I…I failed them, Sofiya,” he croaked, his voice ravaged by the cold, water and screaming. “They…looked to me to protect them…to save them. And I failed.”

“No!” the vixen cried as she put the bowl down, all but throwing herself onto her mate. “You almost died to save them! You did all that you could and so very much more!”

It was as if the touch of the blond haired vixen was the catalyst needed and he slowly wrapped his arms around Sofiya, his wince at the pain of protesting muscles lost as his face crumbled and a long howling wail ripped from his abused throat. “I tried!” Richard sobbed, his body convulsing with the outpouring of his grief. “I tried so hard!”

“I am knowing this,” Sofiya replied, pulling him tight against her, her heart hurt and broken at the loss of Elena and Amanda, yet joyful that her Richard was still with her. “And they were knowing of this! They were knowing that they were being loved so very, very much! Loved by you…loved by me. They were knowing this.”

The two gave and received all the comfort the other could muster, using that to succor themselves as they shared tears and hurt. “I’m sorry,” Richard finally whispered from where he had his face buried in the juncture of the vixen’s neck and shoulder. “God forgive me for not saving them!”

“He does, miy liubov,” Sofiya whispered. “As do I. Now you must be forgiving yourself for something that you had no control over.” To emphasize her soothing words, she pulled the silver fox even more tightly to her, willing the warmth that she had into her mate with all of the love in her heart that had always been his.

— NEXT CHAPTER —

Unless otherwise noted, all material © Ted R. Blasingame. All rights reserved.