Chapter 480

The Prison Planet

... Not knowing what to do, Morales set about drying the dishes as she washed them. When they were done, she turned and grabbed him by the collar. Plastering her mouth to his, her tongue invaded his mouth for a moment before she pushed him back, her face red and her breathing rough. “Go work on the boot pocket for your snowshoes before I do something truly stupid. I’ll be over to put the lacing in the second set of shoes as soon as I’m done here. And Mr. Morales, stop worrying. I’ll come up with a way to solve our problem. I will not give you up.”

Her comment was totally unexpected, of course, and just as confusing as the rest of her actions had been lately. He didn’t know whether to be overjoyed, bewildered, or depressed that she couldn’t change anything, no matter what she thought. With his mind practically overwhelmed with conflicting emotions, he and Lobo passed a look.

“I saw that,” she called out with a giggle.

After using his boot for a pattern, he cut the leather a little wider than necessary, then folded the edges over and marked the positions for the holes with the edge of the ruler so the stitching would be straight and evenly spaced. He couldn’t help it. He wanted his leatherwork to look as good as he could make it. After carefully working the rawhide lacing through, his work looked almost professional.

The pocket (one for each snowshoe, of course) took longer than he had hoped, but when he had finished, there was something that resembled a shallow half-boot that he could slip his booted foot into. Then with a wide rawhide strip that went over the foot, he could secure his footwear to the snowshoe. The front of the pocket was attached to the shoe, but the back was not. This allowed the wearer to step without having to raise the whole rig on every step, and it could be removed by simply untying one strap.

Jasmine had brought over the snowshoe she was lacing and sat near him, leaning back against the wall as she worked. “That looks really professional,” she praised him.

“Thanks,” he mumbled.

“Want some coffee?” she asked after they had been working awhile.

“Sounds good.”

A few minutes later, she was back with their coffee and a plate of cookies. The cookies, of course, brought the wolves as well as the chickens.

“Oh, this is ridiculous,” Morales muttered as he shooed one of the chicks away from the cookies for the second time. Finally, he gave all the chickens a piece, then ran them off. Gertrude glared at him, and he had the impression she would try her best not to lay an egg today, but he doubted if nature would be put aside just because she wanted to punish him for not giving her more cookies.

Jasmine gave Junior a big piece of cookie while Morales was preoccupied with running the other chickens away. The chick flew several feet away before stopping to eat the piece. The wolves didn’t push it, but accepted their share and went back to lie by the fire.

“Your animals are so spoiled,” Jasmine said again with an accompanying chuckle when he plopped back down and returned to his work.

Morales saw the big piece that Junior was devouring and turned to Jasmine. “So, you don’t spoil them, huh?”

“Moi?” Jasmine returned with a giggle. “But he’s so cute, and the little bugger is smart.”

“He’s a cute little bandit,” Morales said as he laughed.

“Your animals have a sweet tooth just like you and I do. They’re one of the reasons I made so many of the cookies.”

“Granted that I’ve never been around chickens or wolves before, but I suspect you’re right.”

Morales finished attaching the pocket for the second snowshoe. Standing, he slipped his booted feet into both the snowshoe pockets and tied them on. “I guess I should try these out before I make the second set of pockets. I might have to do some adjusting.”

Jasmine checked the diagram on the laptop. “Looks like the placement is perfect.”

When they were dressed for the outside with coats and weapons, Morales carefully made his way through the door that Jasmine was holding open for him, then on out the entranceway. “They damn sure feel awkward,” he muttered just before stepping onto the snow.

“Try over there where we haven’t walked,” Jasmine instructed.

After a few minutes of walking around, “Hey, they do okay,” he called out just before the toe of one of the snowshoes dug into a hump of snow and he fell on his face. “Shit,” he grumbled as he righted himself, “gonna take a bit of getting used to, though.”

“Try it faster,” Jasmine called out a few minutes later.

“You want me to really bust my ass,” he said with a chuckle as he began shuffling forward at a much faster pace. He almost immediately stumbled, but caught himself before he fell completely. After experimenting for a short while, he discovered that lifting his foot slightly more while gliding forward was a better technique when maneuvering around in the snowshoes as it lifted the front of the snowshoe and kept the face from digging in. He quickly found that he could then move at even a faster pace with a lot more confidence.

“You have to get used to sliding the snowshoes forward,” he told her, “But if there is an uneven place, you have to bring your foot up a bit higher than you expect because of the back of the foot not being solidly attached to the snowshoe. But that same effect allows you to walk by more-or-less just sliding the shoe over the snow instead of picking the whole thing up each time. Want to try them out?”

Jasmine was shaking her head. “My boot isn’t going to fit properly in those. I’ll wait until mine are ready. Then you can laugh at me.”

Morales took the snowshoes off and propped them in the entrance tunnel. Back inside a couple of minutes later, Jasmine commented that it was still a bit early, but wondered if he wanted to eat lunch anyway.

Morales grinned at her. “You know me. I’m always hungry.”

Before she could start with lunch, he motioned to her partially strung snowshoes. “Why don’t you continue with the lacing? I’ll fix our lunch.”

“Sure,” she said as she turned away before immediately turning back. After kissing him hard for a second, she grinned, went back to the snowshoes and resumed her work.

A little later, he called her to lunch: dried beans she had been cooking all morning, with steak sandwiches made from the bread she had baked last night, and now warmed up in a skillet.

The humans had introduced the wolves to sandwiches the last time Jasmine baked bread. Now, experienced sandwich eaters, each put a foot on his or her sandwich, and with that mouthful of razor sharp teeth, tore off a bite. Each was soon grinning as the taste combination of steak, bread and condiments that Jasmine had brought with her, hit their taste buds.

She shifted her gaze from the wolves to wink at Morales. “Darn good. I think I’ll keep you.”

Morales smiled while trying not to show his feelings. Lately, it seemed that everything either of them said tended to remind him that she would be leaving one of these days. I know she wants to work something out with the General, but that’s going to be impossible. I should just enjoy her presence while I can, but everything seems to point to her leaving. What the hell is wrong with me? I used to have a beautiful woman whenever I managed to save up the money. Hell, I did without things so I could save faster. But ... it was just fun with them. I certainly never fell in love, even though they were good to me – not to mention some fantastic sex. But ... I would rather just sit and talk with Jas than anything I ever did with any of the call girls. I can hardly get my mind off kissing and holding her. I have to force myself not to stare at her all the time. Shit, it’s going to kill me when she leaves. Morales, you dumbass, why did you let yourself fall for this woman?

“Penny for your thoughts,” she said with a smile that made him want to hold her.

“You know what I was thinking about.”

“Honey, it’s too soon...” she began, not understanding.

It took him a second, but then he shook his head. “Not sex, Jas. I was ... just thinking about your ... leaving.”

After hurriedly putting her plate down, she crashed into his arms, but he managed to hang onto his plate long enough to put it on the ground beside them. Wrapping her arms around him, she hugged him fiercely. “I told you not to worry about that.”

“But, Baby. I think...”

“Hush. I’m telling you to stop worrying, and I mean it. I have a plan. Granted, it’s not complete yet, but ... I’m almost certain it will work. So, stop your worrying. Everything is going to turn out just fine.”

“Jas, I...”

Wiggling fully onto his lap, she plastered her body to his. A moment later, her mouth found his, also.

He didn’t know how long the kiss went on, but both were close to panting when it ended. Squirming her ass around a little, she giggled. “Somebody woke up.”

“I’m sorry, Jas. I just can’t...”

“Hush. From you, I take the erection as a compliment. A big compliment,” she said as she again giggled.

This time, he kissed her, but, unlike the previous kiss, his was gentle and only lasted a few seconds. “Jas, I...”

She put a finger to his lips. “Hush. Don’t say it just yet. But I know. And ... you remember what I said. Things are going to work out. Now, if we get my snowshoes ready in time, we can get a couple of logs in so we can strip the bark off tonight.”

Since Morales had already made the boot pockets for one set of snowshoes, he was able to quickly finish the second set. By midafternoon, they were cutting a tree down. As soon as it hit the ground, Jasmine was cutting limbs off and dragging them out of the way. Her ease with the snowshoes made him wonder if she hadn’t used some before.

However, they had to change their method of dragging the logs. Morales usually tied a rope around the front of the log and pulled while Jasmine pushed. But the new buildup of snow didn’t support the skis under the front of the log adequately, allowing the skis to dig into the powder. They solved the problem by tying ropes near the front and both lifting up a bit as they pulled while Lobo and Lila took turns pushing from the back.

If they had been moving the larger logs that Morales had used for his front wall, they would have been in trouble, but they managed the smaller diameter ones in the deeper snow without too much of a hassle. After the first trip, and with the snow packed down some, moving the second logs back to the cave became much easier, and the next trips were even easier.

They wound up with five logs inside before sunset. Since they had eaten an early lunch, everyone was famished by the time they had moved the last log into the cave.

Jasmine had worked like a strong man all afternoon, cutting, moving limbs out of the way, and helping to drag the logs back to the cave. Morales tried to step in to do the heavier work, but she was having none of that.

He had tried to reason with her, telling her to get the smaller limbs and he would get the big ones, but with her mouth set, she snarled out that she would get stronger.

Back at the cave after they had gotten the last log inside, he tried to get her to sit down while he prepared their evening meal, but she refused to rest. “Jas,” he said, exasperated, “you are so tired that you’re practically out on your feet. Why in the world did you want to do all that heavy work, anyway? You let me get the really heavy stuff the last time we cut trees; what’s changed?”