Virtual Snow Read Free

leaned back and winced. “Wonderful. What can be done?”
    “Well, we can put you into treatment. Apparently, you are carrying some of the Edinar genes that are most affected.”
    Sno ran her hand over her lightly fuzzy scalp. “You are kidding me.”
    “No. You will have three or four days and then you will begin exhibiting symptoms.”
    Sno sat quietly for a moment. “Can you let Healer Kyron know?”
    “Why? He will not remember you.”
    Sno waited while he realized what she had said.
    “Wait. How can you remember him?”
    “I don’t know. He did something while I was in there that bound us. I think it was my sleeping in his mind.”
    Sno rubbed the back of her neck. She had a definite ache in her bones, but she wasn’t going to mention it.
    “I will be back shortly.”
    Sno waved him off and got up to pace on wobbly legs with one hand on the wall.
    It took two days to come up with a plan of attack, but it was certain, she was heading into the wheel and taking the place of one of the Edinar. She would have her very own monitor to keep her sane through the pain.
    She didn’t even get to see her mind’s partner. They knocked her out and she drifted off to her dreamscape.
     
    * * * *
     
    Sno’s dreams were always a little odd. She had fanciful animals wandering through brooks, pools and meadows. Everything girly and relaxing under an unchanging sun.
    She lay on her back in a loose blouse and skirt, with bare feet. The sun baked her with warmth, and she could almost pretend that the hair on her shoulders was hers again and not in a garbage bin in the monitor centre.
    Footsteps came toward her, and she leaned up on her elbows. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. “No way.”
    Kyron was walking toward her, wearing a white shirt, tight trousers and knee-high boots. It said more about her taste than his.
    “Good afternoon, Sno. I will be your monitor today.” He grinned and dropped to the ground next to her. “So, this is your dreamscape.”
    “It is. A stark contrast to yours, but mine involves a lot more skinny dipping.” She grinned.
    “That sounds promising. May I join you?”
    She shivered at the thought of romping with him, naked, once again. “Of course.”
    He got to his feet and pulled her up next to him. “Which way do we go?”
    She pointed down the hill to the stone falls and grotto that she kept for bathing on lazy days.
    He took her hand, and they walked down together. “Your mind is quite bright but surprisingly calm.”
    She snorted. “You are here after the unicorn stampede. My mind is a fanciful place and it shows from time to time.”
    A cascade of bright flecks in the air cruised past them, and Kyron reached out to touch one. The bright fleck unfolded and a tiny woman stood on Kyron’s fingertip.
    “What is this?”
    “A mythical creature from across the stars. A pixie. A tiny woman who flies like an insect.” The cloud circled her and then the small creature joined her friends, making their way up the meadow.
    “Where did you imagine such creatures?”
    She stopped at the edge of the grotto and slipped free of her clothing. “I am a member of a family with an interest in history, and I had a nanny that had come from a race no one had seen before. She told me endless stories, and I remembered each one. Creatures from imagination from all over the stars have come to rest in my mind.”
    Sno took careful steps and eased into the water. Once up to her breasts in the cool liquid, she turned and watched Kyron enter the pool with a lot less care to modesty.
    Seeing him in the bright light was far different from that of the dim cabin. She had a polar bear in her mind somewhere and that was the closest creature in size and colouring to her new friend.
    He walked easily to where she was standing on her toes, leaned in and placed a short kiss on her lips, and then, he dove under the water, swimming easily into the depths nearer the waterfall.
    Sno wanted nothing more than to lie on her back