Jago: The Millennium Galaxy Race

Chapter 21: Snow

A crunching sound approaching my tent woke me the next morning. For some strange reason my first thought was monsters crunching on the bones of our crew.

I jumped up from my sleeping bag, ready to defend myself. A warped shadow stopped right outside my tent. I steadied my heart and focused on finding anything I could use to fight.

"We're getting ready to leave, Sarth," Kiko's voice came from the shadow.

"Kiko?" I asked, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" she asked in a concerned tone. The shadow made a movement like it turned to face me from outside the tent.

"Nothing," I said opening my tent door. "I thought I heard—"

Cold air flooded my tent when I opened the door, but what drew my attention was the blanket of white that covered everything outside.

"Why is everything white?" I exclaimed.

"Oh, you've never seen snow, have you?"

"N-no," I shivered, wrapping my arms around my body.

"It started sometime during the night. Close this." She came inside my tent and closed the door. "And change into your cold wear. It's only going to get colder from here on out."

"I-it gets c-colder than this?" I shivered in front of her, staring at the closed door behind which I now knew lay a frozen landscape of snow. "I didn't think it was possible to get this cold. I don't think I packed anything for this kind of weather."

"There should be a setting for snow on your rain jacket."

"Okay." My teeth chattered. I leaned down and scooped up my coat, throwing it on and zipping it up to the top. On the "rain" setting the coat was large and uncomfortable, and covered my hands, so I struggled to pat down the outside of the coat looking for a panel or board to change the settings.

Watching me, Kiko smiled from one corner of her mouth and stepped towards me. "Hopeless, Sarth."

"What?" I asked, still patting myself down, now just slapping random parts of the coat.

"Look. Stop that." She smiled again. I threw my hands to my side. She stepped closer and reached for the zip at my throat, pulling it down so the coat was open, and the cool air suddenly hit my chest.

I stared at her, standing very still as she reached inside my coat, where a pocket might be, and revealed a black panel.

"Oh." I smiled embarrassedly. "It's on the inside."

She shook her head. "Didn't you set this already?"

"No, Tammy did back at the Jago, and I haven't changed it since."

"Hopeless," she said, shaking her head. She flicked a switch down, and it clicked twice. "There, two seconds and it'll change." She looked warmly up at me, and I half-smiled back, waiting for something to happen.

Sure enough, the inside of the coat seemed to grow fur like a living beast. I could feel the warm tickling of the new lining across my skin, and when it stopped the coat was heavier, but warmer.

"How's that?" she asked, still so close I could see the flecks of color in her eyes, the loose strands of hair she hadn't brushed off her face.

I said nothing for a second, words having left me, before blathering, "Oh, it's fine, thanks, thank you, haha, it's much better now ..."

She reached up and put her hands on my shoulder. "You've gone red," she said, eyeing my cheeks.

"See! It's working great!" I half-lied, quickly flapping my jacket to cool me off. "Thank you."