A Breath of Fresh Air (Judy, Saya, et. al.)

[Ozu Saya]

[Vacation Home]

Kyo managed only a half smile in response to Judy's quip, but he didn't say what was on his mind, not wanting to dampen the good spirits in the group. Instead he said, Now's fine with me, but that's more up to Saya. He turned to gauge her response.

Now is fine for me as well. I just need to, uh, run inside first. Even knowing Judy as well as she did, Saya didn't care to discuss bodily functions, not in front of Max, with whom she wasn't as familiar.

Saya stood and started for the door, pausing to ask, Do we need Alieth's leash? Or will she be safe on the trail to wander a little?

[Judith Eastman]

[Vacation Home]

"We need a couple of minutes to get ready in any case," Judy replied to the first count. "You're all fine as you are, but I'd prefer to get changed. Take your time."
"It's better to take the leash," Max added to the second.

A sensitive time interval after Saya left, Judy stood up herself.
"You two boys clear the table; I'll go get myself ready," she instructed.

She headed to the master bedroom, and came out in full outdoorsy mode. Khaki shorts and an olive-green button-down shirt, each with pocket space aplenty, replaced the lavender dress, and were accompanied by a light-colored cowboy-style hat, dark hiking boots, and a wooden walking stick (the last three items had matching numbers for Max). She had a pair of regular glasses on her, and sunglasses clipped magnetically to her lapel, to switch off as needed. On her back was a backpack, in good shape but clearly a veteran, and she smelled of sunscreen.

"We won't spend too much time in the sun, but it's best to be safe, especially when you look like this," she stated, urging the group to follow her lead. "We have spare hats and sticks if you want them, and I think Max has non-prescription sunglasses to loan out."
Max nodded, holding the ends of the corgis' leashes in his hand as they tugged on the opposite ends.
"Do you want to get the trolley, to bring some instruments with us?" he asked. The last time he had mentioned it, the comment got lost in passing, but he still thought it was a good idea. The trolley was very easy to manage on nice trails like these.

Judy deferred to the youngsters.

[Ozu Saya]

[Vacation Home]

Saya trotted inside to take care of her bladder and returned a few minutes later with a light jacket and Alieth's leash in hand.

Kyo helped clear the table and was holding Alieth when the ladies returned. I'll take some sunscreen, Kyo said. I'm even paler than you, I think, he added with a laugh.

I'd like to play something. My cell's not too heavy.

I think I'll just bring my tivara. Bassoon is not a good outdoor, spontaneous instrument. He grinned around at everyone. You want to take Alieth and I'll go back in for the instruments?

Saya nodded and reached for the three-horn, and Kyo turned to head back into the house.

[Judith Eastman]

[Vacation Home]

"You get the trolley, I'll get a guitar," Judy ordered Max, and they both went off to do just that.

Max came back with a sturdy cart, with firm tires and plenty of carrying capacity. It had a handle, made to support either pulling or pushing, as well as a coupling mechanism.
"This cart is what happens when a woman wants to take more stuff than her wheelchair can carry," Max explained, the identity of the woman being quite self-evident.
Judy came back with two hard-sided black cases, one distinctly bigger than the other. She set the bigger one on the bottom of the cart, but saved the small, light one for last.
"Which ones are you bringing?" Max asked.
"The sooner we start walking, the sooner we get there, the sooner you'll find out," was the older woman's enthusiastic reply.
"Are you two children ready?"

[Ozu Saya]

[Vacation Home]

Kyo returned with Saya's cello in its soft-sided case and his tivara in a solid, old wooden case. He loaded both of these into the cart and asked, Want me to pull it? I can bring up the rear. It'll help keep my pace down to follow everyone else. He grinned self-deprecatingly.

It's a good idea. That would have been nice to have on our trip to Europe, Saya said with a smile. One of you should certainly lead the way.

[Judith Eastman]

[Vacation Home -> Trails]

"I don't think you quite know what you're talking about, Kyo," Judy replied. "I am an actual cyborg nowadays."

Starting out, she and Max both led the way, walking side by side as they often did. Each held a walking stick in one hand, while the remaining hands met on the corgis' shared leashes.
They set off, tracking gently upstream on a broad trail.
"The creek here carries most of the watershed of our little valley here," Judy explained. "Right now, it's a bit on the calm side, but you should have seen it a couple of months ago. When the snow melted, we had a real forceful flow."
"We get a good amount of snow here, especially on the mountains. The house itself only got snowed on a handful of times, though," Max recalled. "When it melts, especially the snow in the lower elevations, it happens in a very small window of time, and we get a lot of small, temporary streams. You can see them even now if you look carefully, where the trail dips a little and then does back up."
"One of the things you notice, living here, is how many different kinds of waterways nature has, and how few words the English language has for them. The French, on the other hand, have so many different words. Whereas we, in English, aren't sure if to call the big fella a creek or a stream, and what the baby streams even are, the French would go right out and refer to the big one as a torrent, and the small ones as ruisselets."
She glanced back, not wanting to seem like she was lecturing.
"Would Bajoran be closer to French or English on this scale?" she asked curiously.

[Ozu Saya]

[Vacation Home]

Since the trail was wide, Saya walked beside Kyo as he pulled the cart, with Alieth's leash looped around her wrist. Kyo reached out to hold her free hand, causing Saya to smile up at him.

The pace was quite comfortable for her and the trail itself easy to walk. The peace surrounding them permeated and dissipated the last bit of stress that Saya had still been holding on to from the ship's last mission.

Kyo screwed up his face as he thought about Judy's question. It wasn't something he'd considered before and he was no linguist. He ran through the words in Bajoran that he could think of and finally replied, I think it might be more like English. We have several words for different types of running water, but I think they are a little less specific.

I would call that...tuvaneh? He glanced at Saya to see what she thought. She bobbed her head in general agreement. I think it would be equivalent to your 'stream'. I'm not sure about 'creek'. I don't know that one.

[Judith Eastman]

[Vacation Home]

"I wouldn't expect it to be one-to-one, in any case," Judy replied. "The delineation lines between the different words, for the most part, are rather arbitrary. Kinda like kitchen measuring units."

Judy looked at Saya and winked when she said that last sentence. They had had a conversation about that, she remembered, in a time that felt like a lifetime ago.

Then, they reached a fork in the creek.
The rightmost fork was modestly large, and didn't have a formal trail along it. It was shallow and wide.
The center fork was smaller, but not my much. Its waterway was a little narrower and deeper, and one could easily tell that its channel could fit much more depth.
The third, on the left, was the most powerful one. In the not so far distance, it could be seen carving through the mountainside.
There was also a fork in the trail. The leftmost branch was a narrow dirt path up the hill. The right-hand one was a continuation of the broad path they were on, following the middle fork of the creek. The middle path was a wooden deck, which went above and offset to the side relative to the left-hand fork in the creek. This was their path.

"Each of these forks in the creek drains a different mountaintop," Judy stated. "Mostly. It's a little more complex than that. In any case, this one will be our road today."

The deck trail here had a handrail, not quite low enough to stop the corgis, so the leashes were needed.

"When we came here, this construction wasn't here. You had to walk in the water, which was only pleasant during the month and a half of summer, out of the six months that make up a year here," Max recalled.
"It feels like it was forever ago," Judy added. "Speaking of which, Saya, I was just thinking about that week on Vulcan, and it seriously feels like it was 20 years ago already."

[Ozu Saya]

[Trails]

Alieth ambled along the trail, tugging occasionally as something caught her attention. Saya let her go out to the end of the leash, but remained on the trail beside Kyo and behind Judy and Max.

It does seem a very long time ago. Much has changed since then. Neither of us had any idea that we would no longer be serving together shortly afterward.

And I was in the process of trying to figure out how to get your attention, Kyo said with a chuckle. I was afraid of scaring you off by coming on too strong.

The tea helped, Saya quipped. I still have a cup of the blend Kyo made for me nearly every day.

They gave each other sappy looks before turning to look around as they stepped onto the deck trail.

[Judith Eastman]

[Trail]

"Judy actually took the polar opposite mindset, Kyo," Max recalled. "She came on very strong, very early on."
"I definitely moved faster than any sane person would, but you two moved sloooooowlyyyyy," Judy answered. "I had conversations, I think with both of you, last September. Tried to step it up a gear. And not to rub in the fact that I told you so, but I. Told. You. So."

Almost as if to slow Judy down, the corgis began an attempt at tying her legs up. She stopped, barely avoiding a trip and fall.

[Ozu Saya]

[Trail]

Saya and Kyo glanced at each other and rolled their eyes, both grinning and refusing to acknowledge Judy's very correct statement.

But Saya has a VERY different personality than you. I don't think an aggressive approach would have worked with her.

Assuredly not. I was not the least interested in starting a relationship at the time. Though I greatly enjoyed spending time with you. If circumstances had not...changed, she said delicately, I'm afraid you may still have been waiting.

Kyo chuckled. You did turn a little...aggressive there for a bit. He grinned as Saya blushed.

[Judith Eastman]

[Trail]

"And that's what brought it home!" Judy exclaimed. "Left to your own devices, I'm sure you two would still be circling each other, and only really realize that I was right, and you need to get on with it, at my funeral."
As the leashes tightened around Judy's calves, the whole group had to come to a complete stop while she and Max worked studiously to untangle them.
"In some sense, your feelings were a lot like this tangle of dog leashes," Judy remarked. "It took you ages to figure out what goes where. And yet, we owe your tangle a big one, because without it, I'd be untangling this actual tangle by myself right now. Seeing you trying to understand and navigate through it reminded me that it could exist, and so, when love came for me, I let it sweep me off my achey feet."
Despite the clichéd circumstances, Judy meant every word, and Max at least could tell. What he couldn't tell was the added subtle deflection from the topic of pon farr. He just gave her a little smooch, picked up the leashes, and started them off walking again.

[Ozu Saya]

[Trail]

I suppose that is probably true, Saya said longsufferingly. She paused and poised to help with the leash untangling if it was needed, but Max seemed quite practiced at the task.

As they resumed walking, Saya considered their discussion. She appreciated Judy's deflection of the topic away from more sensitive subjects. She realized she'd never really said anything to Kyo about pon farr being a rather poorly-kept secret, so he didn't know not to mention it; though he'd never said anything by name, just slightly teasing comments around the edge of it. He never pushed it so far as to make her truly uncomfortable.

The man in question reached out and took Saya's hand, tugging her close and leaning down to press a quick kiss against her nose ridges. You're cute when you blush. I like seeing you with color in your face, he whispered.

Saya's face turned a darker shade of green as Kyo added to the gooey feelings.

[Judith Eastman]

[Trail]

"You do realize Saya normally has color in her face, right?" Judy pointed out. "Pour flour on me, my complexion won't change."
"Not so much anymore, actually," Max interjected. "Since you retired, we've spent time in the real outdoors, and you have a little tan, love."
"You're full of [spoiler]shit[/spoiler]," she retorted. "Yes, that's another slip for the swear jar, but my point stands."

They continued up the trail, and soon, the sounds of the waterfall could be heard, though it could not yet be seen from the trail, which was now raised about two and a half meters above the water.

[Ozu Saya]

[Trail]

Kyo chuckled. Oh, tan. That's such a boring color. But green, green is beautiful.

Saya swatted his arm and rolled her eyes. You are a ridiculous man, she said affectionately.

He grinned back at her.

Saya turned her attention to Judy, adding her own comment to Max's, You do have a little more color in your complexion than before. It looks good on you.

You are looking very well, Kyo agreed. After they'd walked a few more minutes, he said, I don't know if this is the best time to ask, but Saya and I really did want to pick your brain a bit about children, babies, all the things you think we should know, really. I was raised in a large family, but I'm one of the younger members in my generation. My siblings and cousins are having children now, but I've never been around them too much.