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“Sorry, my love,” she murmured to him as she hurriedly used the sling to wrap around the deer’s ears.
But by the time she had the baby in her arms again, the earth was rumbling more markedly, and the deer still looked frightened.
With no options left to her, Ella began to sing loudly, hoping to overwhelm the creatures senses with something that wouldn’t frighten it.
In spite of the fact that she knew she couldn’t carry a tune, the deer seemed to calm.
With Bo held tight to her chest in the cloak in one arm, and the harness firmly fixed in the opposite hand, Ella sang the Terra-3 coffee jingle they played endlessly on the wire-box back home at the top of her lungs.
“Just drink up your morning BREW,” she sang for all she was worth as she somehow led the deer toward the platform once more.
The creature followed docilely enough, but Ella could feel the rumble growing closer.
“Early as the morning DEW,” she sang on. “Good for every morning ACHE. Makes you glad to be AWAKE.”
By some miracle, both deer and sleigh wound up completely on the platform this time.
But when she tapped the activator with her foot, nothing happened.
“Rich and dark and it makes you SAY,” she sang on desperately, not wanting the deer to spook if she stopped. “Give me coffee every DAY.”
She looked up to the horizon.
Her stomach clenched as she saw what looked like the whole tundra moving toward her.
12
JHON
Jhon rushed to use the hand pump on the generator. There was no time to wait for it to recharge. The manual pump was designed for two people to operate it, but he did it himself, one side in each hand, muscles burning with the effort to jumpstart the generator quickly.
At last, it sprung to life under his arms.
Jhon flung himself across the utility cage and slammed down the joystick that powered the chute.
A reassuring hiss confirmed that it was done.
He ran back toward the edge of the island, where the chute should be rising.
Already he could see the herd, a massive river of mammoths, charging across the tundra. A fist seemed to close around his heart, and for a moment he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.
He felt the dragon surging forward, yearning to take control and protect his mate, then he heard a frightened voice shouting out a strangely familiar tune.
“Good for every morning ACHE. Makes you glad to be AWAKE…”
Jhon took one calming breath, resetting himself and getting control of his protective instincts.
“Ella,” he shouted, reaching the edge of the island just as the chute sailed up into view.
Ella stood on the platform with Bo in her arms and her other arm around the neck of the deer, who had something tied around his eyes. She was singing for all she was worth.
“Is that… the Universal Coffee Company jingle?” he heard himself ask.
She closed her mouth and opened it again.
Then she was laughing so hard she almost doubled over. Little Bo clung to her chest, his face melting into a smile of his own.
“Are you okay?” Jhon asked, wondering if she had gone mad. Terrans were delicate creatures, physically. Maybe their minds were more susceptible to trauma as well.
