J.J.
WE HAD RIDDEN up Blue Lulu to Kabuggles Pass when I stopped. Angel looked at
me curiously.
"Holly, what's wrong?"
"I can't take it, Angel. Not
being able to ski, that is. I'm letting my parents down, and myself down, while
I'm at it. I'm going to try Kabuggles Pass now."
"All right, Holly, but just
let me pace you."
"Angel, I'm going to do this
by myself. I'm decided about it."
I looked down the slope to
Kabuggles, leaning on my poles, and tried not to gulp. It looked so steep and
dangerous, despite the blue square painted on a nearby snow-topped boulder.
Stop it, I told myself firmly. If you want to get back and laugh in
Angel's face you're going to have to work at it. I swallowed down my fear
and pushed off. This time I shot straight down a snow bank and landed in a heap
in the soft powder at the bottom.
"Oh, Holly." I looked up to
see Angel's head with its fine ears framed against the sky.
"Can you get up? That bank's
very steep." I tried, finding that I could, to climb up the bank's walls, and
found I couldn't.
"Holly, you're stuck!"
"No, I'm not, I just need
to…get a better grip…" I took off my skis, and grabbing them in one paw tried
to pull myself up, without success. Angel shook her head.
"Holly, admit it for once,
you are well and truly stuck. Hang on; I'll get down to Kougra Bite where the
Ski Patrol is. They'll come and rescue you." Her head disappeared and I heard
her swooping away downhill. Then all was silent. I sat down and examined my
surroundings. There was actually another part of the mountain that I had not
been down before. For a moment I had the fleeting thought that I might manage
to get down it, even with my meagre ability, but I noticed the black double-diamond
painted on a tree trunk at the top and that idea died. It was one of the hardest
slopes on our mountain. Sighing, I sat down to wait for Angel.
"Snowballs cry, are you listening,
On Terror's peaks, snow is glistening,
A beautiful sight, we're sleighing
tonight
Flying through a winter wonderland."
Quite suddenly, a high clear
voice rang out through the snow. It was a young voice, seeming to belong to
a pet of about my age.
"Gone away, is the 'doodle,
Here to stay, are the Poogles,
They jump, play and roll, as
onward we stroll,
Flying through a winter wonderland."
I stood up and looked in the
direction of the voice. To my surprise I saw its owner, a bright scarlet figure
floating over the snow.
She seemed quite as young as
she had sounded, about a year old. Only she was not an Usul. For one thing,
she was warmly wrapped in scarf and hat, something that Usuls rarely need to
do, owing to our thick fur. Secondly, in place of that thick fur she had a coat
of bright red scales and on her back were a pair of large, leathery wings. Also,
instead of skis, she was gliding across the white expanse on something quite
the same, and yet not.
I had seen several species
during my last Happy Valley Snow Sports Festival a year ago, and Shoyrus had
been one of them that I remembered, despite how young I had been. I waved.
"In Happy Valley we can build
a snowman,
And pretend that he's a Chia
clown,
We'll have lots of fun with
Mr Snowman,
Until some Lupes come by and
knock him down..."
"Hey," I yelled. "Hey!" The
Shoyru looked in my direction with surprise. She floated over the snow and came
to a stop beside me.
"Need help? You fell down
the slope up there did you?" I nodded. "Could you help me up there?" The Shoyru
smiled and held out a paw. "I'll fly you up. Take hold!"
I grasped her scaly paw in
both my furred-ones and held on. The Shoyru's dragon wings flapped and with
a kick from her hindlegs we were in the air and on top of the bank quite quickly.
The young Shoyress smiled at
me. "Well, you'd better watch out for those snow banks. I won't be here to help
you next time."
I looked curiously at the object
in one of her paws. It was a broad, flat board, painted forest green. Scratched
into the surface were the initials J.J. I had seen pets riding them down the
slopes at my last Snow Festival but hadn't really thought about their names.
"What's that?" The Shoyress
glanced at me, incredulously, and then laughed.
"Oh, you Usuls spend so much
time on your skis you don't have time to look at anything else."
I was about to protest at the
irony of this remark when she held up a paw.
"Never mind, don't take offence.
It's a snowboard."
I admired the board. For some
reason, it looked much more secure than my own skis.
"Could I try it?"
"What about your skis?"
I hesitated before replying.
"I can't ski, all right? Now
could I try it?" The Shoyress seemed taken aback. "A Usul that can't ski?"
"Yes, that's right, rub it
in!" I was getting rather worked up, but the Shoyress placed a calming red paw
on my shoulder.
"I am sorry, sometimes I talk
without thinking. I didn't mean any harm. Listen, why don't we meet back here
tomorrow, same time, and I'll teach you to snowboard. Maybe you'd be better
at that."
"Really?"
She laughed her merry laugh
again and lifted a paw and a wing. "Shoyru's honour! See you then." She got
back onto her board and I watched her coast down the slope.
"Wait!" I called. "What's
your name?" She paused and looked back with her large rose-coloured eyes, a
red spot on the land gleaming white in the cloud-sifted sunlight, and I heard
her answering shout float up to me.
"It's JibJamma. Just call
me J.J." She skimmed away and I managed to catch the faint strains of her song
dying into the distance.
"Later on, we'll conspire,
Eating Juppies by the fire,
And think how we played,
With the friends that we've
made,
Flying through a winter wonderland."
The sound of skis brushing
snow made me turn around. Angel and several strong looking Usuls were heading
towards me.
"She went down just about
here," Angel was saying, and then stopped. "Holly! Thank Fyora you're okay!"
One of the Ski Patrol Usuls approached me. "You're all right?"
"Yes, I'm fine. A little bruised,
but fine." The Usul smiled warmly, the grin spreading across his fine-featured
face. "We'll be off then." He and the patrol skied off into the distance. Angel
looked at me questioningly. "How in the world did you get up from there?"
"I had help."
"What kind?"
"I'll tell you tomorrow."
"Holly, what--"
"Trust me, I'll tell you tomorrow.
I'll even show you."
"Show me?"
"Yes, she's coming again."
"She?"
"Angel, please."
Angel, I could see, was still
mystified, but she was not the interrogative sort and merely nodded her head.
We had a fun day of skiing, at any rate, despite the fact that we did it in
tandem, and by the end of the day, when the setting sun spread its brilliant
saffron and fuchsia blanket of light across the snow covered peaks, we were
back at Frost Promise Usullyrn. Angel still looked at me strangely as she said
goodbye and went off with her parents.
"Well, we hope you had a good
day with the young Skyleap Usuless," said Father.
"Yes, dear," said Mother.
"The snow was excellent." The twins, chattering behind us, were too full of
their happily spent day to hear Mother's remark, though I am sure they would
have agreed with her had they noticed.
I smiled. I wasn't about to
tell them about the Shoyress. The only time Usullyrn Usuls ever associated with
pets of other species was during the Festival, which happened to be only a few
weeks away. And even then, they were generally seen as competitors.
"Yeah," I said. "The snow
was fantastic."
To be continued... | 
