Beyond Space & Time

At first Atlas shivered, but then she controlled herself and became warm. "It's been... Hmm, 353 years, four months, a week, and two days since you went to hold back the supernova," she said. "Without counting the minutes. I've been practising what you taught me from memory and I think I'm better at it now." At first she started out talking plainly, but her words sped up and she started to sound like an excited child after a while. "The people taught me stuff too. I-I was their most highly trained doctor, and I practised loads of hobbies to pass the time at night when they were all asleep. I can sew and make jewellery, I'm an artist, I can write, I can sing a bit. I would travel a lot too and I learned all of their cultures. I-I can't wait to show you everything I've learned, Wolfie!"

Atlas shivered from her ears to her tail tip. They hadn't visited a snowy world and her Earth experience of snow was limited, so this was basically a new experience for her. She was barefoot in the snow and it felt amazing. "I wasn't fine," she told him in that blank, emotionless voice she'd perfected. "I missed you. I made friends there but their lives are shorter than Earthers so they all died."

If Wolfie hadn't expected Atlas to miss him then the years they'd known each other had meant nothing to him at all. She caught the surprise in his voice and was deflated. That decade together had been so long ago. "Yeah," she murmured, reaching down, scooping up some snow, and dumping it on top of his head.

Atlas knew Wolfie was very rarely fun and she felt like he was just throwing that to try to cheer her up. "You said you were hot," she said. "I was trying to cool you down."

Atlas shivered and twitched her ears, making some of the snow fall off her head. Wolfie really needed her to cheer up, it seemed. Atlas balled up her negativity and put on a fake grin. "If that's how it's gonna be," she replied, scooping up even more snow and dumping it on him again.

Atlas' fake grin was pretty convincing as she got ready, and quickly made loads of snowballs with her hands. But Wolfie didn't notice a plume of snow rising up behind him, and just when Atlas was about to throw the first ball, the snow plummeted down on top of him from behind.

"Whoop!" Atlas lifted her skirts quickly and dodged some of the snowballs, and then leapt through the air to avoid the rest. She'd not had to move around much or too quickly in this outfit so she hadn't realised how restrictive it could be. But she still managed to somewhat gracefully out manoeuvre them all.

It was getting too much to move around in this long skirt. She undid it and let it fall into the snow, revealing some tight white trousers she was wearing underneath. Now she was able to move around much more quickly, and she kind of blended into the snow too.

Atlas kept dodging but obviously a few snowballs did hit her. One even hit her on her butt which made her gasp and fall forward into the snow. "Hey!" she yelped, rubbing where it hit her.

Atlas shook her head and took Wolfie's hand to stand up. "I'm fine. But you're pretty snow free for someone who wanted to cool down." She pulled the same trick on him as she just had, but because they were hand in hand he couldn't move away and he got covered in a small mountain of snow.

Atlas figured that this would happen but she didn't mind. "Brr!" she squeaked cutely, pressing right up against Wolfie as they were engulfed in snow. Did he intend that? Oh she could feel how hot he was, maybe that was just him or maybe it was leftover heat from the sun. But other than that, he felt the same as he always had. Funny how she remembered it despite him being away for so long. She got lost for a while in his embrace.

Atlas felt his hands lingering on her a bit, and was confused with the feelings it gave her. She ignored them and smiled up at him as she let go. "Yeah. There are log cabins nearby, I saw them as we landed. Let's go." She kept hold of his hand as she took off into the air. Oh, she used to have to take a run up and a few starting jumps, but this time she took off with one jump!

"Hmm, we need to collect some firewood," Atlas commented as they went inside and noted how chilly it was in here. "Oh, never mind." She noticed a pile of dried firewood stacked in a little cubbyhole to the side. Hmm, it was really lovely and cosy looking in here, once they got the fire going it would be really... Romantic. Ugh, no. There was even just one bed in here, this must have been a couple's cabin.