Summerhill (16 page)

Fourteen

Afterglow

The smell of wildflowers was also the first thing that Summerhill became aware of as he woke up. His eyes were still closed and his body was still overcome with a sense of tiredness, but with each slow breath, he was treated to the scent of fresh flowers, sweet and reassuring. It was almost enough to make him fall right back asleep.

Instead, he woke fully with a jolt as he shot upright. His eyes flew open, then immediately snapped shut again as he got an eyeful of bright sunlight that he was unprepared for. With a hiss of discomfort, he brought a hand up to shield his eyes, and then groaned as he once more tried to figure out where he was.

The meadow of flowers was familiar. No longer did the landscape swirl with colors. The flowers themselves were still a bright assortment of purples, yellows, red and blues, but their colors stayed constant. Likewise, the sky was a steady light purple, and the clouds that drifted by did not glow or pulsate.

Summerhill’s head throbbed. His fur felt matted and unkempt. He realized that he was naked, and when he looked down at the wide patch of flattened grass and crushed flowers that he was sitting in, he remembered Tek and what had transpired before.

Well, he remembered the gist of it, the fervent passion and the fact that they’d been together. The details were awash with a haze of hallucinatory memories and the emotional aftermath of what he’d felt, stamped somewhere in the back of his mind like photographic negatives that might be turned into real images with the right techniques and processes. He still felt a mild echo of happiness, but that joy was mixed with more than a little bit of apprehension and worry.

Then, as the fog of sleep finished lifting from his mind, Summerhill remembered where he’d been before all this had happened.

What had ever possessed him to follow the otter back to his cabin? He clutched his head and groaned as his headache flared up, and he fought to make sense of where he was and why. Katherine was still back there, on the ship with the Consortium and—

“Summerhill? Are you okay?”

The dog turned his head, despite the ensuing dizziness, and looked back to see Tek several yards behind him. The otter was just standing there, clad in the black shirt and blue shorts that had replaced his tuxedo. He looked afraid to approach closer.

“I’m fine,” Summerhill responded. “I think.” Seeing the otter again was stirring up some of the residual romantic feelings from before, but the severity of the current situation enabled him to keep them suppressed to some degree.

Tek came a few steps closer. “You’re awake now, at least,” he said, his muzzle splitting into one of his crooked smiles as he let out a halfhearted laugh. “I almost wasn’t sure if you were going to wake up.”

Summerhill wanted to scoot a little farther away, but he stayed put. He did feel silly, sitting there buck naked, but the way he was huddled up at least kept him mostly modest. “I didn’t mean to worry you,” he said, and he at least meant that much. “Are you okay? Where did you go?”

The otter gestured behind himself. “Since you were still fast asleep, I thought I’d scout around a bit and see if I could figure out where we are, exactly.” He laughed again, and this time it was less forced. “I’m still not even sure how we got here.”

There went Summerhill’s hope that Tek might have a better idea of what was going on. “Did you find anything out?” the dog asked. Out of the corner of his eye, a few feet away from him, he finally noticed his own clothes, folded in a neat pile.

“Well,” Tek said, looking skyward, “we’re definitely on Rydale. Someplace pretty unpopulated, too, from the look of it. I went up over the next hill and still couldn’t see any towns or cities nearby.”

Rydale. “This is your home planet?” Summerhill asked.

“Yeah.” Tek took a deep breath and gazed around the open meadow. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

It was certainly that, Summerhill had to admit. He reached out to all the flowers surrounding him, and now that his mind wasn’t in the grip of—well, whatever had been affecting him earlier, he didn’t experience any sensory overload this time. The vivacity of the life force here was pretty amazing, though, and drawing on just a small amount of that was enough for Summerhill to force away his headache.

“So, how did we get from the ship to here?” Summerhill asked.

“Like I said, I’m not sure.” Tek reached up and rubbed at one of his ears. “One minute, we were in my cabin, and then you fell on top of me, and then... well, then we were here.”

Summerhill crawled over to the small pile of clothes. This wasn’t his grayish clothing from back home. Instead there were a pair of neat tan cargo shorts and simple brown leather vest, both in his size. His clothing must have changed the same way that Tek’s had, and he simply hadn’t noticed because—well, because he’d been distracted on multiple levels at the time.

He got dressed, noticing that Tek made no effort to turn away or avert his eyes. “So, if we’re on Rydale, is there a way to get back onto the
Nusquam
?” he asked the otter, trying to sound casual about it.

Tek didn’t answer right away. He looked down at his feet, his bare, webbed toes curling through the grass. “Are you in a big rush to get back?” His voice was quieter now.

Summerhill took a few steps closer to him, and as the otter’s scent hit his nose, he felt pangs of sympathy for Tek’s dejected state. “I didn’t mean that I’d leave you here by yourself. But I left a friend of mine back there, and it’s really important that I find her.”

“Oh. Okay.” Tek chewed his lip as he looked up at Summerhill. “I’m sorry, though. I’m not sure there’s much we can do.”

“What do you mean?”

The otter shuffled his feet through the grass. “My civilization hasn’t developed reality jump drive technology,” he explained. “So unless the
Nusquam
were to come here, I’m not sure there
is
a way to get there.” Folding his stubby ears back, he then asked, “Are you sure you didn’t—”

Summerhill reached out and touched Tek on the cheek. “Hey,” he said with a smile. “If we can’t get there, we can’t get there. It’s not a big deal.”

No. No, that was wrong. That was all wrong.

“I’ve still got you here,” he continued. “That’s all that really matters, right?”

Wait, what? This wasn’t right at all. This shouldn’t be his immediate concern. What about the
Nusquam
and the quest to find home and Katherine and—

What about Katherine? Bah, what
about
Katherine?

Summerhill learned in and nuzzled the crook of Tek’s shoulder, eliciting a delicate moan from the otter. Webbed paws settled at the small of the canine’s back. Summerhill licked at the pulse point in Tek’s neck before kissing and sucking at that tender, throbbing spot, and his lips and tongue tingled as the oils in the otter’s fur seeped into them.

Colors once more started to frame the edge of Summerhill’s vision. They swirled and pulsed even as the dog closed his eyes, as his pulse quickened, as his breathing got ragged and his desire to be with Tek overrode any and all rational thought. No longer did he have any spare thoughts for his missing past, for his friend who was in danger, for—

Summerhill abruptly brought up both arms and planted his palms against Tek’s chest. He shoved the otter away from him with all his might, breaking their tender embrace. Tek’s eyes went wide with shock as he tumbled backwards and tripped, falling flat on his back in the field of flowers.

The clouds in the sky bent and twisted as Summerhill looked up while he backpedaled away from the fallen otter. His pulse pounded in his ears, forming the beginnings of a bass line for a tune his brain wanted to stitch together. “Stay there!” he called out, his voice tinkling musically as he pointed an accusing finger that left a color-shifted motion blur behind as it moved. “Stay right where you are.”

It was Tek. Somehow, it was Tek—beautiful, wonderful Tek, who was still so close, and if Summerhill wanted, he could just walk back up to him, help him to his feet, tell him he was sorry and—

No, no, no, Summerhill had to focus. His breathing was still rushed and labored, and when he shut his eyes he still saw bizarre patterns playing through his vision, but he could fight it off. If he could get far enough away, let his mind dissociate from where it had been stuck, he’d be fine.

“Summerhill?” Tek squeaked. He hadn’t gotten up. “Summerhill, what’s the matter? Did I do something wrong?”

Summerhill risked opening his eyes and looking back at him. He looked so scared and sad and confused. Did he really not know what was happening, what he was doing? Or was this all part of the act, part of a clever deception that had lured Summerhill here to Rydale in the first place? “You’re fine. Just... Just don’t get up.” Just for a little while longer. Just until Summerhill’s mind cleared up.

The sky was reverting to its normal lavender. The extraneous colors that muddled Summerhill’s vision were fading away. The flow of time was shedding its awkward lag.

“Please, Summerhill, you’re acting really weird.” The insecurity in Tek’s voice
sounded
sincere. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Summerhill insisted. “I’ll be fine.” He took a few more steps backward. His head was clearer, now His breathing had returned to normal. His pulse had slowed back down. His vision regained its focus. “I just need to stay away from you while I sort this all out.”

Tek’s eyes wavered and watered; even from several feet away, Summerhill could see it. “Stay away from me?” the otter asked. “But you said you’d stay with me forever.”

Fifteen

Society

Summerhill balked, his muzzle hanging open afterward. “I said no such thing.”

“Maybe not in those exact words.” Tek sat up and brushed his shirt off. “But you consented to essentially the same thing.”

“Was this when you were doing that thing where you were controlling my brain?” Summerhill asked. “Because if it was, then that doesn’t count.” He was struck with the thought that this might have been the otter’s plan all along.

Tek still had that wounded look on his face, though. “I’m not controlling your brain, Summerhill.” His voice carried a sort of pouty insistence. “Are you sure this isn’t your excuse to weasel out of a commitment?”

Summerhill rubbed the side of his head. Whether it was Tek’s claim that the two of them were now permanently partnered or if it was just a result of standing far enough away, the dog’s mental state had sobered up completely. He took a deep breath, hoping to calm himself down and rid himself of any snide, knee-jerk reactions. “Look, I don’t have any memory of saying I’d stay with you forever.”

“Well, that makes this really awkward, then.”

The two of them stared back at each other, the distance between them exacerbating the cold accusation that Summerhill felt. He’d felt so sure that Tek was this piece of his old life that he’d been missing. “I’m trying to sort things out,” he said, locking eyes with Tek in an attempt to look as sincere as possible. “It’s been a very weird few days, and a lot of what’s been happening to me hasn’t been making a whole lot of sense.”

Tek snorted. “I think that ‘We can’t do this unless you promise to stay with me’ makes perfect sense.”