15. Chapter 15

“Hey you guys--hold on to your seats, because I have the

greatest idea EVER!”

“Uh oh…” they all said in unison as they studied Galina and

sat back in their chairs. Tygra actually held onto his; Rangerkitty put her

utensils down.

“Whaaaat?” Galina whined, exasperated. “How do you know this

is a bad idea? It’s awesome!”

“Like the time you decided for us all to go cliff jumping at

the same time and left all of our supplies at the top of the cliff? We had to

climb through brambles, thorns and poison sumac to retrieve our clothes!”

Rangerkitty remembered, scratching her forearm at the thought.

“Or the time you decided to go swimming off the Coast of

Isolation Island and never bothered to anchor the boat? We would have drowned

in the currents if Lion-O hadn’t rescued us in the Feliner by following the GPS

data from our locator insignias!” Tygra volunteered.

Galina gasped at the two of them. “Honestly…” then smiled at

Argo and winked. “I promise. This one is much

better.” Getting exited she wiggled in her seat, looking much like a young

child who was bursting to finally reveal a long-kept secret.

They waited patiently for her to reveal her idea and

Crystalandra returned from the beverage table, holding a steaming cup of tea

and a saucer in her hands. Bengali could now be heard coming down the stairs.

The room had grown eerily silent.

“The lodge is holding their annual polar plunge!”

Rangerkitty and Tygra’s mouth fell open. Crystalandra stopped in her tracks and even

Bengali came to a pause on the stairs and grew wide eyed. “Really?” he called

from across the room. He jumped over the banister, forgetting the rest of the

stairs as he landed and rushed across the room to Galina’s chair, where he hugged

her around the shoulders from behind. “I haven’t done one of those in like,

forever! I’m in!”

Tygra looked at Rangerkitty who was seated next to him.

“What about you baby? Feeling adventurous today?”

“I usually chicken out when it comes to these things.” She

admitted, and then turned to Galina whose sapphire blue eyes were dancing with

excitement. Rangerkitty made some sounds, trying to find the right word to

decline the invitation, but her friend worked her magic with her beautiful

eyes, which were pleading and wide as saucers. Rangerkitty gave up and exhaled.

<sigh> “I’m in too.”

Galina clapped happily and looked over at Argo. “How about

you, stud?”

The tiglon had been busy working on a stack of French toast

dripping in fresh maple syrup. At the sound of his name, he looked up and waved

his fork in a circle, nodding and chewing with a mouthful of food. “Mm-mmph.”

“Huh?” Bengali asked.

“Would you mind repeating yourself?”

Argo swallowed and took a long swallow of winter fruit juice

to help the food go down. Finally able to speak, he wiped his mouth with his

napkin and grinned. “Sure. You know me--I’m up for anything.”

“What exactly does a polar

plunge entail?” Crystalandra inquired; she hadn’t moved from where she was

standing, a few feet away from the table.

“Well,” Galina began, oblivious to the laced suspicion in

Crystalandra’s voice. “It’s sometimes done for charity, as a dare, and

sometimes just for fun! We all line up, and at the sound of a whistle or gun,

we all race into the water!”

“I don’t get it. What’s so special about that?” she asked,

remembering the heated pool and hot tub she had seem downstairs the day before.

Tygra cleared his throat, drawing her attention to him.

“Erm, Crystalandra, the point of doing the plunge is to receive an adrenaline

rush which happens in response to sudden extreme changes in core body

temperature.”

Ex-cuse me?”

Bengali stood up and turned to face the Sh’iar queen. “Crys,

usually we’d run into the ocean, but as we are currently up in the mountains,

we’ll be using the lake.”

“The lake--the frozen lake?”

He nodded and all the ThunderCats jumped in their chairs at

the sound of her teacup and saucer shattering on the hard tile floor.

“ARE YOU ALL CRAZY?” Crys demanded purple eyes ablaze with

fire. She stomped her foot and clenched her fists in defiance... “THERE IS NO

WAY YOU ARE GETTING ME TO JUMP INTO AN ICE FILLED WATERY DEATH TRAP--FOR FUN, NO LESS!”

“Marozi, please

calm down. No one said you have to go in too. You can come along and

watch, you know, be our moral support.” Argo offered from his seat.

“--More likely to come and laugh at us.” Rangerkitty added

quietly.

“I don’t want you cutting up holes in the lake! I actually

enjoyed ice skating on it--it will be ruined!”

“There’s more than one lake up here.” Bengali informed her. “The one for the plunge is quite

close to the mountain lodge. Your skating rink will remain untouched. No

worries.”

Crys shook her head vehemently. “I don’t care! No—No—NO!

And as for YOU…” She turned towards the Tiglon, pointing a

clawed finger in his face. “If Galina

suggested you try jumping off a cliff you would do it!”

“Come to think of it you know… I would.” Argo nodded with a huge grin on his face. He

stood and carefully avoiding the broken saucer on the floor, he took the angry

hybrid into his arms. She struggled at

first but then relented as he used his empathic powers calming her. “You can watch from the safety of the shore

bundled in your warmest fur coat.” He

kissed her cheek. “Then when I finish my

dunk you can warm me with your body heat…What do you say?”

Crys sighed; there was no way she could say no to Argo…He

knew what buttons to push to get her to agree to his crazy schemes. “All right…I’ll come and watch you all make

fools of yourself…But I’m warning you Lee, don’t come crying to me when you’ve

realized you’ve bitten off more than you can chew.”

“I love it when you speak to me in metaphors…” He purred nuzzling her neck.

She relaxed a little, and once he released her, she bent to

her knees and began gathering the broken pieces of china from the floor where

her cup and saucer had shattered. A waitress hurried out to help, bringing a

kitchen rag along with her to help clean up the spill.

“I’m very sorry.” Crystalandra apologised to the she-cat.

“Not a problem, my lady.”

Crystalandra did not bother to correct the girl regarding

her proper title for it seemed trivial.

Crys instead rose to her feet and took a seat next to her mate and began

serving herself breakfast. She looked at Argo and sighed. “I still say you’re

insane. You’ll lose all your fingers and toes. What will you have left to

caress me with?”

He waved her off. “Nah, I’ll be fine. It’ll be fun! Where’s

your sense of adventure?”

“Well, when you have repelling races down the inside of an

active volcano, go ahead and sign me up.”

Argo leaned over and planted a loud wet kiss on her cheek.

“Mmmwhaa!”

***

The sleigh was pulled by a pair of brown and white horses

with its six guests seated in the two facing benches. They started down to the

lake, which was approximately a quarter mile from the cabin. Argo surveyed the

area as they traveled; deciding that the lake he could see in the distance

ahead must be a haven during the summer months. It would be a delightful escape

from the heat for water sports, swimmers and sunbathers alike. Now, it was

frozen solid, and he could see that a section of the ice along the shoreline

had been cut out and removed. The area spanned approximately fifty feet across

and 30 feet out from the shore.

There were picnic tables set up with large kegs of warm

water for tea and coffee, a machine to keep warm towels in, and a radio with

multiple speakers was blaring fun party music that became louder as the

ThunderCats drew nearer. Rangerkitty leaned forward and pointed to where a

photographer was setting up a tripod with a camera mounted upon it.

“Did any of you see the wall in the dining room covered in

photographs? They take one every year with all the participants in their annual

polar plunge. We’re going to be in this year’s picture!”

“Not all of us.” Crystalandra muttered with her arms folded,

leaning back in her seat.

No one bothered to respond to this comment as they all were

simply taking in the festivities and enjoyable atmosphere that awaited them a

short way ahead. The horses began to slow since they had a slight incline to go

over and began pulling harder with more purposeful strides. Crystalandra looked

back from where they had started and was startled at just how short a distance

it was back to the main house. Tygra noticed the direction of her gaze and

deduced what she must be thinking.

“True, normally it would be a short walk back, but after

having the body’s muscles exposed to the extreme cold, they will contract and

tense up, sometimes causing cramping and making it difficult to walk and

perform other purposeful movement until they return to a normal temperature.”

“So I repeat my argument--the five of you have lost your

collective minds.”

He grinned and looked out at the lake. Sure enough, in the

30x50 foot cut-out, there were smaller pieces of ice floating in the frigid

blue waters like miniature icebergs. He chuckled. “I agree. Collective mind

would be the exact thing to call it. Personally, as a scientist, I know the

physical and physiological repercussions of what I’m about to do. It weighs

heavily on my logical side, believe me, but sometimes I have to remember to

ignore that and recognise that people have been doing this for centuries; and

in the spirit of togetherness and fun, it’s important to sometimes ignore the

logic and join in the enjoyment with the rest of the tribe.”

Crystalandra cocked her head slightly to the side studying

the tiger. “Funny how I have never seen this side of you before now, Tygra.”

“Well, I am glad you are finally taking a look. I can actually be fun to be around, you

see?”

“I see.” She smiled watching as the tiger pulled out a

picnic basket and opened the lid so she could peer inside at the contents.

“Keeps us feeling warm.” He grinned, winking at her, causing

her to smile.

Rangerkitty had been watching this interaction and finally

sent Tygra a silent message using her mind power. Are you flirting?

What? No… He

thought back, looking at her with a knitted brow and closed the lid of the

basket.

You were so flirting

with her Tygra.

Honestly, you’re

imagining things, Ranger.

Tygra stood once the sleigh came to a stop, placed the

basket in his seat, and climbed out, holding out a hand to assist Galina to

exit, then held it back up for Rangerkitty. She took it and hopped out, but

Tygra did not release her. Instead, he pulled her close to him. Argo hopped out

the other side where Bengali and Crystalandra also exited the sleigh.

“I’m surprised at you, Ranger, I thought you were happy Crys

and I were finally getting along.”

She exhaled and looked away briefly. “I am. It’s just weird.

The way you’re looking at each other… it’s like, puppy love.”

“No… it’s like new friends. New family. We’re more than just getting along. We

actually are finding that we truly like one another, but it is very different

from the way I feel about you and extremely different from the way I look at

you.”

Ranger gazed up into his warm amber eyes and saw just what

he meant. The look of desire, love and adoration that she recognised in his

eyes…that was all for her, and none of those things had been there when he’d

been conversing with the Sh’iar. She moved closer and hugged him tightly. “I’m

sorry. I love you.”

“You’re sorry you love me?” he grinned, knowing that she’d

swat him for making a joke.

She pulled away and swatted at him, “Silly tiger tricks are

for kids.”

“Sillier tigress,” Tygra smiled and leaned over giving her a

quick kiss. Straightening, he retrieved the basket and took her hand,

indicating the lake. “Well, shall we?”

“Yes, we might as well get this over with before I change my

mind.” Ranger sighed.