Another bit of the Ironics story. I've been dusting off the pieces and looking them over and trying to decide if I will ever put them together and make them into something worth reading. This story was written before the one I posted previously. I keep coming back to this one, thinking that something is there, but I haven't returned to write it through to the end.The Ironic DreamTally’s breath was hot on Garren’s face. Garren closed his eyes against the steady press of air. Their bodies were tangled inside of the small space. Their pelvises touching, his legs spread, her two in between, his right arm encircling her waist, her right arm around his neck, their faces pushed together, her lips on his cheek by the bridge of his nose. All they had to do was stay quiet, stay intertwined, stay in hiding for a few more minutes and they would be back to their landing without being detected.Garren counted to himself. 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005…Noe had promised that they would be safe before 5000 measures. Two humans smuggled through the unsettled territories in the forbidden market cargo haul of an Ironic who traded outside of his kind would carry a large reward. Garren did not trust the oct-born Ironic with his life, but he was sure that Noe would never allow anything to happen to Tally. And that certainty would have to be enough.Garren felt himself being lulled by the hum of the vehicle and the feeling of the road passing underneath the wheels. He lost count. His aching muscles went numb. Sleep found him wedged between the woman he loved but couldn’t have and the hard metal backing of a crate.The dream began like it always had. Tally was standing waist deep in a pool of clear green water waving for him to join her. As usual he was unable to heed her plea no matter how much he longed to run out into the still surf. His feet were rooted to the ground and his body was rigid. Just behind Tally a figure rose out of the water, startling her. She turned and screamed as the tall Ironic grabbed her by both arms. Garren fought with his paralyzed body as the Ironic dragged her down. And just as her head sank beneath the surface, Garren’s attention was drawn to a movement to the extreme right of his field of vision and found he could move.Garren. A whisper on the wind chilling him from the top of his scalp to the soles of his feet.This was different. There was usually only the nightmare of Tally being pulled under. Garren watched his dreamself shift and move toward the sound. Expecting one person, Garren’s two selves – the dream one and the sleeping one who watched- were both confused when their eyes sought the voice and found its source not in one person but a veritable army of Ironics.I am meant for you.Garren was jostled awake when the car hit a bump in the road.“What did you say?” Tally inquired in a softer whisper than the one Garren had just heard in his dreams. His cheek tingled with each flex of her mouth as she spoke. “I am meant for you? What are you talking about?”“Shh, Tally. Be quiet.” Garren closed his eyes. He had no answer to her inquiry and everything his mind offered as an explanation would embarrass him and complicate their precarious situation even further. How could he tell her that he loved her when he was certain that she knew? How could he still love her after she had chosen to give herself to Noe and be marked by him? Ironics were not yet the enemy of their landing but they would be once the people found out about the true extent of their powers and ambitions. For now, the Ironics were to be feared and to be watched because the humans knew they had the ability to withstand great amounts of pain and force. When he revealed the secret of the Ironics, told the others how they jumped from body to body and read minds, showed the Council proof, the tenuous peace would end. Garren swallowed and tried not to hack. His throat was dry and raw and there was no salvia to lubricate his gulp. Tally would hate him.The cargo door was open and they were being lifted out before Garren allowed himself to open his eyes again. The place where Noe warehoused his illegal goods was a large windowless building. The humming light cubes suspended from the ceiling cast an omnipresent glow. There were no shadows in the cavernous space and Garren’s raw nerves felt even more exposed than they had been since he and Tally had been sent to investigate the Ironics.Out of the crate, just out of Garren’s embrace, Tally was in Noe’s arms. The Ironic dwarfed her and she seemed to revel in his alienness. Garren stared. Noe would be the first one the Council would want to kill Tally would hate him. And he would be glad.
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