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Before his work with the Planeteers, Ma-Ti had never seen snow.
Shaman had told him stories of it, and once Ma-Ti had even dreamed of it, though his dreams, acute as they usually were, had not once come close to the true beauty of ice and snow drifts.
When he felt it for the first time, he had expected it to be colder. He had not expected it to be so difficult to walk through, and he had joined the other Planeteers as they’d laughed as he and Kwame floundered about in the slippery tracks of it.
He was still awkward and unsure of snow when the Planeteers travelled to Yellowstone. He spent the journey only half-heartedly listening to Gi’s breathless renditions of wolf stories and facts. Instead, he pressed his brow to the window, eager for the first glimpse of glittering, snow-peaked mountains.
He was cautious when he pressed his boots into it. The snow sank and compacted beneath him, crunching softly. The other Planeteers trudged ahead of him towards the cabin, and Ma-Ti watched their tracks criss-crossing, signalling the even companionship between them, and the short scuffle of an impromptu snowball fight.
He followed them, placing one foot carefully in front of the other, uncomfortable about disturbing the pristine surface coating the earth. He loved how clean and pure it was; how untouched it sat. He sent waves from his ring across the smooth dunes of it and felt the tiny stirrings of life beneath all the ice and snow – the twitch of a rabbit or the warm beat of a fox.
Life seemed even more precious when it was combined with such conditions.
Everything about Yellowstone was beautiful. Ma-Ti liked the way the morning air hurt against his skin. He liked the way the cold reminded him of how warm he was, of how alive he was and of how smoothly and steadily his own heart beat against the wind and air. Snow made him feel warm and real, and he liked that.
What Ma-Ti liked most about Yellowstone, however, was Laura.
She led the way up the mountain, chatting amicably, her shoulders brushing the show-leaden branches of pines and frozen shrubs. Ma-Ti felt uncomfortably hot whenever she glanced in his direction.
“These wolves are penned in, right?” Wheeler asked nervously. Yips and barks were echoing through the trees ahead.
“Uh-huh,” Laura answered. “Renee should be up here – she’s the expert. She’ll be able to tell you more about their behaviour.”
“It’s not like a wolf to attack cattle like this though, is it?” Gi asked, slipping slightly in her haste to keep up with Laura.
“I’ve never seen it happen before this winter,” Laura answered heavily. “Wolves usually stay away from the farm – there’s enough food for them in their regular hunting grounds. I don’t think this winter should be any different.” She glanced at Ma-Ti again, and he grabbed for Kwame’s arm as he floundered into a particularly deep snow drift.
Laura smiled and pushed through the final trees.
The wolf pen was set up with a spectacular view over the valley below. Ma-Ti could see wood smoke from Laura’s family home, though the farm itself was hidden by rocky crags further over. The wind whistled and blew ice flakes against his face.
He shivered and buried his nose into his scarf, his eyes watering. He snuck another glance at Laura, who was introducing everyone to Renee. Her eyes were bright and her nose was red with the cold. She looked comfortable and happy.
Ma-Ti’s heart started beating a little faster.
“Man, they’re huge!” Wheeler said, taking a slight step back from the fence separating him from the wolves. “They could take down a cow if they really wanted to.”
“They could,” Renee agreed, “but not so many at once, and wolves don’t just kill for the sake of it.”
“We had four more cows killed overnight, Renee,” Laura said in a small voice. “Dad’s getting real mad. He said he’ll shoot any wolves on sight.”
“We will stop them,” Ma-Ti said, speaking up for the first time in her presence. “We will find out what is going on.” His voice had a particular ring of confidence and promise to it, and he felt himself blushing as Laura beamed at him.
“Really?” she breathed. She gave him a smile that sent a hot flush of blood from his head to his toes. “Thank you, Ma-Ti.”
Renee never seemed to run out of wolf stories. At first, they had held Ma-Ti’s interest, but after a while he found himself staring into the flickering campfire, listening to the sounds of the wind and the snow falling from the branches around him.
The snow seemed less pretty at night. It was blue, and the paths through the trees were confusing. Ma-Ti wasn’t used to finding landmarks in snow. Snow shifted and melted and built up, and it tricked you.
The trees were naked and gnarled at night, looking like scary skeletons in the silver moonlight. They looked less beautiful than they had during the day. Once or twice, Ma-Ti had sent a rapid, silent pulse from his ring at the sound of something shifting, only to discover it had been snow slipping from the bare branches.
Winter was unfamiliar to Ma-Ti, and he realised he was less tolerant to it without familiar, friendly light of the sun in the sky.
Ma-Ti was disturbed from his thoughts when the other Planeteers called a greeting through the trees.
He craned his neck to spot the visitor, and his stomach did another pleasant little flip-flop as Laura emerged, leading her horse.
“I made chowder,” she said, holding a large flask forward. “It’ll warm you right up.” She smiled at Ma-Ti, and he felt plenty warm already.
Laura scuffed one boot awkwardly through the snow. “Can I talk to you?” she asked, looking somewhere over his right shoulder.
“Sure,” Ma-Ti said in surprise. He suddenly hoped she wasn’t about to tell him to go home – that she wasn’t about to tell him the Planeteers couldn’t possibly solve this, that there was no longer any need for them to be there...
Ma-Ti listened to the heavy footsteps of Laura’s horse as it trudged behind them through the snow. It was colder here, without the fire, and the striped light of the forest was disorientating.
“I just wanted to say thank you,” Laura said shyly, coming to a stop in a silvery clearing.
“Oh,” Ma-Ti said, and relief swept over him. “No problem. You know, we will stay until the problem is solved.”
“Really?” Laura asked, smiling at him. She stepped towards him, crushing wet snow. Her skin was pale in the moonlight, and her hair was dark and damp with the night frost.
“Of course,” Ma-Ti said weakly, and Laura smiled again and kissed him softly.
Her kiss was warm – wonderfully, wonderfully warm, in all that snow and ice, and his stomach flipped again and his fingers trembled with the rush of pleasure and excitement shooting through him.
She smiled at him when they parted, and Yellowstone was beautiful again, even in the cold, cold night.