"Oh, yeah. Fair point. So I'll drive you back out there after we're done with cinnamon rolls?"
Briana gave him a smile nearly as sweet as the pastries. "That sounds great. Thank you."
"I might shower first? Which isn't intended as an invitation but can be taken as one, if you want?"
"I'm almost sure that will lead to not getting my Jeep, and possibly not having time to change clothes at all, before the stuff this afternoon, so a regretful no." They finished their breakfast and Laurie did grab a quick shower while Briana put last night's dress back on. Once he saw her in it again he had considerable regrets about not being able to take it right back off her again, but they managed to get out to the fairgrounds with no further hanky-panky incidents. Briana promised to see him at the services later, and Laurie followed her Jeep most of the way back into town before turning off to go to the high school, to see if he could be of any help setting up for the memorial services.
There were already hundreds of people there, some mourning, some helping, some doing both. Briana arrived less than an hour later, dressed somberly, and although she'd said she didn't know all that many people at the Faire, Laurie watched her going around offering comfort and sympathy to people she clearly had a connection with. By early afternoon, the gym was filled. People spoke about their loved ones, shared stories, tears, and laughter, all in the support of their community. Under the circumstances, Laurie thought it couldn'tbe a better gathering, though his heart broke that it was happening at all.
In a way, the worst part was the friends and families who came to thank him, or Briana, or any of the others who had been on site and tried to help. Laurie knew they'd done everything they could, even if it didn't feel like it when he was faced with people thanking them for their efforts even through their personal losses. All he could say was he wished he'd been able to do more, and to offer hugs where they were wanted, and share tears when they weren't.
A few times, true humans who had clearly seen the shifters at work offered awkward assurances that the truth was safe with them. Laurie was incredibly grateful and also felt like an ass forbeingrelieved, as if shifter secrets were much less important than the losses their community had suffered. It was more complicated than that, and he knew it, but in the moment he fought with those conflicting emotions and tried not to show it.
There were a few others whose hostility radiated off them in such a way that Laurie knew they, too, had seen what the shifters among them really were. No one confronted him, nor did he see them confront any of the other shifters, but he knew it was the setting: if they'd been anywhere but at a memorial service,somethingwould have been said. He took notes on whose anger and mistrust overwhelmed him, and hoped others were doing the same.
What began as a memorial service became a candlelight vigil on the school grounds as the sun faded behind the horizon but the mourners weren't ready to let go yet. Briana found Laurie and they sat together for a long time, watching lights flicker out as the night grew long and people finally had to say goodbye. Eventually, when only a few dozen mourners were left, she took his hand and rose, and they helped clean up after the service. The horizon was turning grey by the time that work was done,and Briana, without speaking, led him to her Jeep, and then to his surprise, drove them up into the mountains.
They left the road behind and hiked up a trail in the slowly-brightening light, until Briana veered off along a deer track Laurie had never followed before. She did cast one fond glance up a nearly-sheer rock face as they passed it, and he guessed that without him, she would have climbed it. But instead she led him up and along the twisting path, until all at once the trees cleared and they were on a jutting rock overlooking the town, hundreds of feet below.
Briana sat down, pulling Laurie to sit beside her as the sky went gloriously pink and blue with dawn, and then spilled heartbreakingly brilliant gold across a thousand miles of countryside. The distant river caught the light, throwing shimmers over the trees that grew up around it, and the mountains glimmered, fresh-washed by the storms that had passed through. Laurie caught his breath, and Briana pulled him into a hard hug as exhaustion swept him and unplanned tears began to fall.
"Everything's changed and nothing will ever be the same, but it's a new day," Briana whispered into his hair. "It's time to begin again."
Chapter 23
Sunrise passed under their watch, and at some point, Briana fell asleep. She only became aware of it when she awakened again, extremely warm and snuggly. For the first moment or two of wakefulness, she was surprised by that: rocks were not exactly a comfortable bed. The next moment, she laughed, a bleating goat-like sound, because she had, in fact, shifted to her goat form while napping. That made sense. Goats were much more suited to sleeping on rocks than humans were.
But she was so warm and snuggly because Laurie had also shifted, and she was tucked in under a gigantic blond bear paw, and cuddled up against an enormous fluffy bear belly. Laurie began to wake up with her laugh, which meant a lot of stretching and wiggling and rumbling before he, too, realized he'd shifted. Then he froze a moment before lifting his head and looking around cautiously.
Briana understood exactly what he was looking for: anybody who might have seen them shift to begin with. It was unlikely, given they were hundreds of feet above Renaissance on a trail almost nobody ever followed, but beingcarefulwas drilled into young shifters from before they could even talk.
Which was part of what had made the decisions at the fairgrounds so extraordinary. A dozen shifters or more had cast all that training away in the hopes of saving lives. Briana would do it again, every time, but that cautious glance of Laurie's really drove it home.
Once he was sure no one else was around, he shifted back to human, which left him with an armful of mountain goat. He was a tall man, but she was abiggoat, and seemed very large indeed in comparison to his human form. She shifted, too, both of them laughing, and he leaned in to kiss her before touching his forehead to hers. "That was nice."
"It was. I didn't realize I was that tired, though. It must be…" Briana glanced at the sun, then reached for her phone to find out the actual time. "God, it's two in the afternoon. I wastired."
"You were also being literally bear-hugged," Laurie said with a waking-up sort of yawn. "That's a lot of warm cuddling to fight your way to consciousness through."
"Yeah. I could get used to that. No more cold toes in the winter."
Our toes do not get cold,her goat said with a sniff.
Briana grinned.No, they don't, but human women have cold feet all the time.
The goat had no idea what to do with that information. It was, as far as Briana could tell, perhaps the worst thing the goat had ever heard.How can they cling to rocks with cold toes?!?
They don't!
Her goat couldn't argue with that, but still thought it was just about the worst thing ever.
Laurie, not being privy to the conversation inside Bree's own head, turned to look back along the trail they'd come up. "You like climbing that rock face back there, don't you?"
She smiled again, this time at her mate. "It's my favorite spot, yeah. I camp up there."
He looked at her, stood up, and stared at the distant rock face. "There isnowhereup there that somebody could camp!"
"There is! There's a ledge about this wide." Briana gestured with her hands, measuring out about three feet. "I've camped on narrower, but it's just big enough to let me turn over without thinking I'm going to die."
