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Nowhere does the Solstice Festival better than Utgard. From the tree and Ice sculpyures in Saunbert Square to the lights that start at The Golden City and spread throughout the town like a glittering spider's web. Of course it had one big advantage over other cities – the snow. This year, under Mayor Abigail's orders, an area of the ruins behind Raine's Wall had been cleared and a giant ice hotel had been constructed from blocks cut fro the Ice Lake that rivalled the 'City itself. Besides the hotel, a more supernatant structure had been built. An observation tower topped with a revolving restaurant that offered unprecedented views not only of the town but also across the Raine Tundra and of the two hovering Miracles, to any who could afford the cost of entry and were brave enough to ride the glass elevators to the top.
The town was full of tourists in for the holiday and the hotels, casinos and restaurants were doing a roaring trade. Solstice markets filled the streets offering food, drinks fairground rides and an assortment of trinkets to those not content on loosing their money in the casinos. The truly daring could take snow-bus tours out on to the tundra itself, careful scheduled to avoid waves of Miramon by the Wall's commander. Although because of the threat of rogue Miramon many of the hunters who existed there gained welcome seasonal income as guides/guards on these excursions.
But the for average men and women of Utgard, those not involved in fleecing the tourists out of every penny, life went on as normal.
This was especially true of the R.W.G. who remained on constant alert even if two of their number were now rotated out each day to stand guard at the vehicle gates through the Wall for tourists to take selfies with. Today it was the turn of Jason and Bianca to be photo opportunities.
A man, clearly an Esper, made his way through the crowd On seeing him Jason snapped to attention far faster than he ever would if he wasn't in public view. “Sir!”
The man approached the guard and made a show of brushing an imaginary speck of dirt from the shoulder of the man's impeccable uniform. “At ease, idiot. I'm not your boss any more.”
“No sir but it looks good for the image. Did you know that photo of our squad posing with the FNC is the third biggest selling postcard in Utgard and that a penny from every sale goes into the guards; social fund. Have to give the punters a bit of a show when you're out here.”
Mateo shook his head. “Is she in?”
“Up in the control room.”
“Well , get me in there then,” It was not a request.
Jason sighed and escorted his former commander to the nearest guards only entrances and keyed him in.
As it happened Xuan Pin was not in the control room. She was, in fact, supervising the hanging of decorations in the mess room. She was directing Derrick, who was stood on a table ,in the positioning of a bunch of mistletoe, when Mateo appeared at the door. Derrick overstretched and fell off the table but not before attaching the seasonal parasite to the ceiling above Xuan Pin's head.
Mateo, in a uprising display of observation grabbed his wife, who was distracted by the crash behind her and pulled her into a deep kiss, much to the approval of the guards present (although less so to the one of the interchangeable selkie admins there) who applauded the couple with cheers, whistles and banging of mugs on tables. Eventually the kiss broke so Xuan Pin could get a breath.
“You're back early.” Mateo nodded, a gawky grin on his face. “I'd have thought you'd be at home getting the decorations up.”
“Ah. Well about that.”..
The suite in The Golden City was beyond luxurious, having four bedrooms with en suite facilities, two receiving rooms and a kitchenette/dining area that Mateo had stocked with enough food to last a month rather than the four days that they would be in occupation. A large feline sprawl occupied one of the sofas. There was no sign of the other cats but Pin was sure she'd find them when she least expected.
“I've a table reserved for Solstice dinner although I can cook for us if you'd rather, Alexa will have no trouble getting someone to take the place if we cancel. Then there's tickets for Fabrice's one man show at the Mirror Palace in the evening. Again Alexa has a waiting list for these if it doesn't appeal...”
“Mateo! Calm down. How many times do I have to tell you. Using your money does not impress me.”
“Not my money this time.” Mateo grinned, “Perk of the job. This is the Shadow Decree private suite.”
It was an open secret in Utgard that both the Decree and the Union had permanent suites and meeting within the hotel and that Alexa was very careful not to allow both sets of rooms to be occupied at the same time.
She looked around the room and sighed. The hotel had provided festive decorations in the form of evergreen swags under each wall sconce and tinsel garlands running from the corners of the room to the central light cluster.
“Nobody else wanted to use it” (at least nobody mentioned it when it became known that Mateo had his eye on it) “so I thought...”
“Needs a tree!”
“So let's go and cut one.”
“OK. We'll take my car.”
Back at the Wall Mateo waited while Xuan Pin went to fetch their ride, The guards on the gate were new and he didn't recognise hem but they seemed efficient enough as they stood to the sides while the gates opened to admit a snow-bus. The large, box like vehicle ran over the snow on skis and was propelled by a caged turbofan engine at the back. Mateo waved to the young man riding shotgun, or should that be crossbow, in the vehicle's cupola and he jumped down to join the larger man.
“How is it out there, Aurelius?”
“Quiet. The next wave isn't forecast for another six hours which should give the tourists a nice light show when the guns start. Meanwhile there's good illumination from the aurora. Saw a couple of wolves over by the forest and a couple of herds of reindeer to the south but otherwise it's clear. You going out there?”
“Yes. Gotta get the perfect Solstice tree. D'you need a lift home?”
“Thanks but I've got one more trip to do tonight. And anyway a group of us hunters have a camp outside the wall and I'm staying there for the season.”
A rumble of engines erupted from the Wall.
“That's my ride,”
Aurelius nodded and went back to getting the bus ready for the next tour/
The Tundra Cruiser Mk III (don't ask about the Mk II, only know that Jason isn't a;;owed to drive any more) is less of tank than a heavily armoured RV /lorry with a bloody great big gun on top along with secondary enamourments that would not be out of place in the turrets of smaller AFVs. It can carry twenty-four fully equipped troops, two tonnes of cargo or a combination thereof. This latest model has double width tracks to spread its load over soft snow and forward facing ground piercing radar to detect crevasses or other obstacles in its path. If heavily outnumbered a version of the Devine Wall system could be activated to allow it to push its way through a mass of enemies. It has a top speed of 28 kph over snow, 45 kph on roads and has a range of 120 km.
Its primary purpose was heavy support for groin troops fighting Miramar that got through the barrage of the Wall's guns but was also authorised for supply runs and convoy protection.
It was absolutely NOT authorised for late night joy rides.
Xuan Pin skilfully drove the massive vehicle to the nearest patch of woodland. On the way they passed some of the reindeer Aurelius had mentioned. She never ceased to be amazed that animals could survive under these conditions. But then, Miramon didn't go out of their way to attack them, only humans and their works.
They parked up and selected a young spruce to harvest. Xuan Pin got the axe from the Cruiser's toolbox and handed it to Mateo, though she was sure that if left to his own devises, he would prefer to either punch through the trunk or try to pull the tree out of the frozen ground.
It might have been the look he gave when, after taking the first stroke with the axe, the snow that had adorned the tree now adorned her husband. It might have just been mischief. But she was the one that threw the first snowball.
He was totally unprepared and it hit him square in the face, turning to steam almost immediately. “So that's how it is, is it?” He scooped up a double handful of snow but her second missile hit him before he could throw. “Why you...” A third snowball hit him in the chest. He finally threw his snowball back at her. He missed but in her eagerness to dodge she lost her footing and fell on her backside. “You OK?” She murmured an affirmative. “Good!” And he started pelting her with the collection of smaller snowballs that he had been making since she fell. The giggling woman retaliated without getting up until he collapsed in laughter beside her.
It was at this point that the partially severed tree trunk gave way and the tree crashed to the ground mere centimetres from their heads and covering the pair with a spray of displaced snow.. Their laughter was enough to disturb an owl that had ignored the falling tree and was only silenced when they started to kiss. Then, with Mateo's internal fires to keep them warm, they made love in the snow under the aurora.
Snow was falling again when they finished and pulled themselves up from the, now snowless circle of steaming earth. While Xuan Pin adjusted her clothing, totally dry thanks to her husband, Mateo picked up the tree and shook it free of snow. He wanted to tie it to the front of the Cruiser and drive back in triumph but she convinced him that while she could log their outing as a scouting mission that wouldn't hold weight if they were seen to bring the tree back into the town and so it was deposited in the aft cargo bay.
When they returned to the Wall garage they transferred it to Mateo's car and, after a detour to the house to pick up a pot, some tools and a box of decorations, they made their way back to the hotel.
The concierge was somewhat put out by the couple. Her with a trolley loaded with scruffy cardboard boxes, him dragging a tree, and insisted on calling the manager. Alexa, welcoming the light relief from her nightmarish schedule greeted them with hugs and a peck on the cheek and sent them to their suite with a complimentary bottle of champagne.
By the time the tree was up and bedecked with lights (the other decorations would have to wait) and the bottle emptied, both were too tired to consider going out for dinner let alone preparing something in the suite's kitchenette, so Mateo ordered room service. They ate by the lights of the tree and the log fire that warmed the room and to the sound of Samson sharpening his claws on the special scratching post that his humans had brought in just or him. (You just know that tree is going to end up on the floor by morning with a cat stuck in its branches.)
Somewhere a bell tolled heralding the start of Solstice Day.
“Happy Solstice husband.”
“Happy Solstice wife”
They fell asleep in each other's arms without making it to the bedroom.