Chapter 74

Earuu Resort, Earuu Mountains
Alade
16:09 Local Time
September 13, 2019

Vixa looked up at me and yipped softly, but turned and began sniffing the snow. The walkway had seen so much traffic that the snow was compressed into a hard layer, so I led her over to where there was some deeper, nearly-untouched snow. It was too tall for her to jump up on, but with a quick pop, she was up.

I burst out laughing as she immediately sank into the snow until only her head was visible, but it soon disappeared with another pop. Turning around, I saw that she had appeared back where she had been standing originally as she shook the snow out of her fur that was of the very same color. She gave me a look once she was done, which only caused me to laugh harder.

I coaxed her into trying again, and while she did sink again, she didn’t teleport back down. Instead, she jumped out of the small hole she created and tried walking on the surface. It was here that her small and light size was to her advantage, along with having six legs. While her paws weren’t that big, she did have six of them, which did distribute her weight a little bit better. As long as she was walking she sank very little, but as soon as she started moving faster, she hopped to stay on the surface.

So it didn’t look like a lodge at all, until you walked forward and looked over the banister. On the floor below there were even more people, though nearly all of them were more relaxed than the shoppers up above. There were more cushioned couches and chairs than could easily be counted, with many of them being filled by people that were taking a break from the cold and the snow.

If the upper floor was like a mall, then the bottom floor was like it’s food court. All along the periphery were dozens of restaurants of various sizes. Some were actual restaurants that you could go into and be seated, but the majority were basically a counter that you ordered from. Once you received your order, there were hundreds of tables to choose from, all of which were also made out of the same beautiful wood that was used for everything else.

It appeared to be a major theme, which was probably influenced by the truly massive trees that were found outside. Rather than support pillars made out of metal or concrete, carved and stained logs were used instead. While they certainly drew the eye, they weren’t nearly as impressive as the two sets of curved staircases that were on either side of the lodge.

As we walked down one of the staircases to the bottom floor, it appeared that the staircase was carved out of a single piece of wood. There weren’t any holes for bolts or anything of that manner, nor were there any signs of different pieces of wood being fastened together in another way. Even after arriving at the bottom and examining it a little bit more, no seams or notches could be found. I couldn’t imagine how long it must have taken the carver to work on one staircase, let alone four.

While I had assumed that everyone had eaten dinner while I was at my meeting, that proved to be incorrect. The first thing that our large party did was commandeer a section of tables before looking around to see what kinds of food there was. Some of the restaurants were actually ones we had seen on Menseio Station, but many of them were brand new to a lot of us. Our draconic friends predictably went to a restaurant that was producing the smell of grilled meat, but everyone else was a bit more varied. Some went to restaurants that specialized in fish, while others went to restaurants that specialized in cuisine from different species throughout the galaxy.

In any case, all of us, including my dad and the rest of the people that had followed him, were soon chatting as we ate. The reviews were mixed all around, but were generally positive. Some people wanted to try new things but didn’t really like their choice, while others had no idea what they were doing. Usually it was humans in the latter cases, as none of them had much experience with alien cuisine and often could only point at what they wanted, being unable to read the menu. Ben’s father, Michael, had the worst experience, since what he ordered wasn’t what he was expecting at all. He was one of the few who went to one of restaurants specializing in seafood, since that was his favorite back on Earth.

What he received looked ... less than appetizing, and smelled even worse. Based on the image displayed in the menu, he thought that it would be similar to something like calamari, but it was anything but. The smell was so putrid that it had all of us plugging our noses, and there was even one person that threw up before they even had a chance to eat, losing their appetite entirely. Even the phenidae didn’t like what they were smelling, with many of them burying their noses in their thick fur to try to get rid of the stench assaulting their super-sensitive noses.

Thankfully, there was one person in the group that didn’t find the meal to be objectionable in the least, a dragonkin woman named Sheimio. Specifically, she was the lone Blue dragonkin that was accompanying us back to Earth. She, like the majority of Blue dragons and dragonkin, spent the majority of her life swimming beneath Earth’s oceans. Because of that, she was no stranger to eating sea creatures that humans would find disgusting or inedible. What would be considered to be a delicacy to a human, would probably just be an afternoon snack to Blue dragons and their smaller cousins. It only took her a few minutes to eat what had been Michael’s meal, though she could have undoubtedly finished it in seconds, had she been in her natural form.

After Michael had ordered something a lot more palatable and everyone finished eating, we headed back up the stairs to one of the biggest stores; one that was dedicated to anything one might need to slide down a hill at high speeds. Surprisingly, there was nothing that was a truly foreign concept. If anything, everything they had was just more advanced than what was readily available on Earth, and it all came in wildly different sizes.

On one wall you had something that resembled a GT Racer that was big enough to fit a giant, and a few meters away there was one sized for a pygmaean ... or a small human-looking child. While Ilnod had never had the opportunity to ski or snowboard, a sled was something that he was definitely familiar with. As soon as we entered the store, he ran over with all of the other kids and looked at everything that was on display. Aside from the aforementioned racers and sleds, there were also skis, snowboards, carpets and saucers, but I sincerely hoped that the latter weren’t anything like Clark Griswold’s.

While the kids were trying to decide what they wanted to use, my friends, sisters and I headed over to the wide selection of skis and snowboards. It was so large, in fact, that had they all been on display, they would have filled the entire store. To make it easy for potential customers, the most popular models were on the walls, but there were tablets that could be used to view the entire selection. To check one out, all you had to do was navigate to it, choose the size you wanted and whether you wanted to buy or rent, and then hit ‘Select’. After a moment, that exact model and size would appear in an alcove nearby, allowing you to see if it was the right size.

Unlike skis and snowboards on Earth that use bindings to secure one’s feet, the pygmaean variety used something else entirely: electromagnets. You still needed a pair of special boots, but all one needed to do was step on a board or put their foot in a ski and then activate their boots. As long as the small power cell in each boot wasn’t dead, you were good to go for hours upon hours of fun. The main reason for doing it the way they did was mainly for convenience, but also because not every species in the galaxy has two feet. If an alien species with more than two legs tried to use an Earth board with conventional bindings, they would probably find it impossible. With the pygmaean kind, it was extremely easy since the metal core runs nearly the entire length of the board. Every species just needed to make sure that they had magnetic boots and they were good to go.

It took very little time for my friends and I to choose something that worked, and Tessa surprised us by already having her own board. It was my sisters that took a little bit more time, since none of them had ever gone skiing or snowboarding. While they had spent some of their childhood in frigid locales, they lived the majority of their lives up to this point in places that weren’t conducive to winter activities.

Fortunately, there were six of us that had experience, so we broke into pairs and assisted with measurements and the decision on whether to go with skis or a snowboard. In the end, Alexis and Lucille went with skis, while Aleena chose a board. With that out of the way, all we needed to do was put on our boots and we were ready to hit the slopes. While there were boots in stock for nearly every species out there, humans and dragonkin were largely unknown, so we had to resort to other means. Thankfully we had known that pygmaean skis and boards were different, so it wasn’t hard for Abi to come up with something for all of us.

The boots themselves didn’t look much different than regular winter boots, they just had a slightly thicker sole than was usual. Inside that thicker sole were two electromagnets, one directly under the heel, and the other just behind the toes. First generation boots only had one magnet pretty much centered under the foot, but it didn’t take long for that to change, according to Abi. Apparently there had been issues with the magnets not holding when one wanted to make quick movements or they leaned heavily to one side, but two magnets changed that, and without making the boots too heavy when just walking around.

Now, one might wonder how one keeps their footing on Pygmaean skis or snowboards even with the electromagnets, considering that most skis and snowboards have a glossy finish on the topsheet that makes it quite slippery. While Pygmaean boards have that same glossy finish as well, it doesn’t cover the entire board. Instead, only the forward and back thirds of the board have a glossy finish, while the center has something that is more akin to griptape on a skateboard. With the electromagnets active and securing the feet to the board, it provides a no-slip grip. With a lot of effort one could probably change the angle of their foot on the board, but it would just be easier to disengage and then re-engage the magnets when their foot was in the right position.

As far as actually engaging and disengaging the electromagnets, that was actually quite easy. Linked to each boot were a pair of sensors that took on a variety of forms, but the most common was a set of rings. They could either be worn like regular rings or be embedded into a pair of gloves, but when the rings were in close proximity to one another, then a signal would be sent and the electromagnets would turn on. To turn them off again, one just needed to bring the rings together again.

If rings were used, then the norm was to put them on the fingers that were the furthest apart, so as to make it harder to accidentally disengage the magnets when sliding down a hill. For humans, or human forms in the case of my sisters, Tessa and I, that was the thumb and pinky, so we took a little bit of time to practice bringing those two fingers together again and again. Only once we were confident that we wouldn’t mess up did we head over to the counter to rent our selected skis or snowboards for the day.

I would be the one paying for everyone’s rentals, so I went last, but it was interesting to see the process. As each person presented their board or pair of skis to the Pygmaean woman, she used a wireless device to scan each one. The thing was, there were no visible markings like a barcode or something similar in the slightest. When asked about it by Tessa who translated for the rest of us, the woman stated that chips were embedded within, allowing them to tell even identical boards apart, while also keeping track of a board’s location. So much traffic went through the Earuu Resort that such things were essential. It was too easy to steal a board or lose one, otherwise.

As soon as we were all sorted, we met up with the dragons, who were once again looking after the herd of children and phenidae. Even from a distance, it appeared as if they were trying to herd cats. A child would run off to look at something that caught their eye, and a dragon would hurry to retrieve them. Then, once they were back with the group, another child would run off and events would repeat themselves. The phenidae being curious about their new surroundings didn’t help matters either. One of them would run off to examine something, and more often than not, a child or one of the other phenidae would follow them. Vixa wasn’t innocent in this either, as she was just as curious as the rest. After making sure that Selalea and the others who would be watching the children would be fine watching Vixa as well, we headed towards the exit.

Menseio Station, orbiting Veria
Menseio Station
16:17 Local Time
September 13, 2019

“Here we are,” Ercan said as he opened the doors to his office and waved in his guests.

While the meeting covering Draconic Space and The Stormbringers, among other topics, was going on, Ercan and Oya were entertaining a rather important guest, if a surprise one. Mizu Tuvanto had made the trip from Fa’iir space under heavy escort, arriving at the edge of Pygmaean space in the Tuvanto flagship and it’s entire battle group of some six hundred top of the line ships. While the entire fleet wasn’t permitted to continue on to Veria, the Azivu and it’s primary strike wing were escorted to Veria and Menseio Station. Although the Pygmaeans and Fa’iir were on good terms, the former were not about to let an alien fleet of such magnitude pass through unannounced.