16. Chapter 16

Galina was excitedly bouncing from foot to foot as the rest

of the gang caught up with her. Bengali quickly grabbed a cup of hot tea,

determined to warm himself internally as much as possible. Like Galina, he was

highly tolerant of the cold, but had not done extreme temperature plunges like

this since he had been a cub. There was no way he was going to lose face and

stay in less time than Tygra or Argo.

Several members of the staff had elected to form their own

team and participate. Most were from the ski and recreation team, although

Rangerkitty recognised one of the waitresses, a housekeeper and even the owner

of the lodge were there! He was seated at one of the tables, smiling and

beaming at the enthusiasm he saw on everyone’s faces. RK paused and took that

view in for a moment, saving it to memory. While the owner was an older feline,

it was obvious he was taking good care of himself physically and probably had

many more good years left to enjoy activities like this. Bengali saw

Rangerkitty having a silent moment and wandered over with a hot cup of tea,

handing it to her. She accepted it from him and shared the story of her

conversation with the owner that she’d had earlier that morning.

“That’s really cool. We should make some ornaments to give

him on the solstice as thanks for this trip. I have some extra material left

over from what I was using to make everyone’s gifts. I could come up with

something really nice I bet.”

‘Yes, that would be wonderful. If I can get my hands on some

needle and thread or yarn I can make something too…”

“Maybe later today we can

check out the gift shop or a local market to see what we can find.”

“That’s a great idea, Bengali. Thanks.”

Tygra called his friends over to where he and Crystalandra were

by an empty picnic table. Crystalandra had taken the wool blanket from the

sleigh and had it wrapped around her, keeping most of it under her so she would

not be sitting on the cold wooden bench.

“What’s up, cousin?” Argo asked, being the last to arrive.

He looked down at the tray Tygra had arranged and raised his bushy eyebrows.

“What’s this? Drinks before noon?”

“It’s part of the tradition.” Tygra informed him. “Besides

it’ll make you feel a whole lot warmer.” He added, passing a double sized shot

glass out to each of his friends, including one for Crystalandra. He raised his

and they did the same. “Here’s to being reckless, under supervised conditions!”

Rangerkitty just began laughing and Galina lowered her

glass, putting her other hand on her hip, “Really Tygra. That’s the BEST you

can come up with?”

He exhaled dramatically. “Fine then, Gali. You do the toast then!”

“I shall!” She raised her glass and the others did the same.

Tygra raised his as well, “ThunderCats SNOOOOOOWWWW!”

Argo laughed and swallowed his drink and the others did the

same, immediately feeling the warming effects of the Thunderian whiskey.

Rangerkitty coughed at the strength of it and Argo, Ben and Galina held their

glasses out for more. Tygra refilled them along with his own and they all

chorused “Snooowww!” again before drinking.

The Master of Ceremonies announced that the plunge was about

to begin, and instructed the participants to get ready and line up at the

starting line, which had been marked with small colourful flags. The

photographer was taking random impromptu shots at this point, capturing the

event in the lodge’s history.

The Thundercats undressed and placed their clothes on the

table beside Crystalandra who made a show of wrapping the blanket around

herself tighter and having another steaming cup of hot tea. She climbed off the

bench seat and sat upon the table for a better view. Tygra hovered around the

table longest and Crystalandra noticed out of the corner of her eye that he

leaned down with the bottle of whiskey and chugged quite a few mouthfuls,

before taking a sip of tea and standing to join the others. Baffled by this,

she watched as they all lined up and waited for the starting pistol to fire.

“On your marks, get set--PLUNGE!” shouted the MC and

squeezed the trigger on the pistol which fired a bright red flare into the sky.

All the participants shouted aloud throwing off their

fleeces and blankets and ran straight for the water. Crystalandra cringed as

she watched, and saw them all hit the water their yells faltering from loud to

high shrills. Galina, Bengali and Tygra dove in headfirst once they were deep

enough, while Rangerkitty and Argo did modified belly flops.

Surfacing, Argo gasped, feeling like he only had half the

room in his chest to inhale air; Rangerkitty already felt her arms, spasming.

She did her best to stand up, and found that the air felt twice as cold as the

water did, allowed herself to sink back in to shoulder depth. Finding his

breath, Argo roared, found his footing, and stood straight up. “This is

freezing!”

“Told ya so!” Crystalandra melodically sang from the shore

under her warm blanket. “Me, on the

other hand, I’m toasty!”

He growled at her sarcasm and looked down seeing Rangerkitty

struggling with the extreme cold. She had lost a lot of body fat when she’d

trained to become a Thundercat, replacing it with muscle, and thus had very

little insulation to keep her warm. “Are you okay, Ranger?”

“Cold…” was all she could get out.

He leaned down and lifted her up in his arms, carrying her

out of the water to the shore where they were met with a warm blanket from one

of the ski instructors. “I’ve got her, sir.”

Argo set her down and looked back out at the others. Galina

was waving and doing the backstroke as though the waters were warm and tropical.

“Come back in Argo! You don’t see these

two running for the shore, do you?”

The tiglon saw Tygra and Bengali were still out there and

growled, not wanting to be bested by tigers smaller than himself. Argo ran back into the icy water and pounced

on the two of them, making all of them submerge under the water. After a

moment, he stood straight up, gasping for breath as Tygra and Bengali also

emerged, laughing and wiping the water out of their eyes. When Galina swam by, Tygra pounced on her and

Bengali splashed water at the tiglon who hated to admit was quickly losing his

stamina.

“Are you two… done yet?” Argo panted, seeing his breath as

he exhaled in the cold air.

“No way, we’re just getting started!” Bengali answered pouncing on both Galina and

Tygra, causing them both to dunk under water again.

Enough was

enough. With that, Argo turned and

strode purposefully out of the lake, walking past the people who were offering

him towels and blankets at the shoreline.

Gaining momentum, he accelerated dashing past the entire gathering of

people. Rangerkitty and Crystalandra who were seated together atop one of the

picnic tables looked on in surprise as the enormous Sh’iar warrior raced past

them straight into the woods, heading for the mountain lodge.

“Argo!” Rangerkitty called after him, concerned. She stood

up on the bench and watched him disappear past the tree line and then looked

down at Crystalandra. “What on Third Earth is he doing? Where is he going?”

Crys was snickering, relishing over how she was going to

shame her boastful mate. I can handle anything...What a wimp!

“I’ll give you one guess. It’s round and bubbly and full of hot water.”

The hot tubs.

Rangerkitty realized and sat back down.

She was drying off, but was still very much chilled to the bone and

began shivering which in itself was uncomfortable, but necessary; her body’s

attempt to warm back up. As her teeth began to chatter, Ranger tried to keep

her jaw clenched, and leaned forward in an attempt to keep her body core as

warm as possible. A moment later, a

familiar bare white furry chest appeared in her line of sight. It was of course Tygra standing before her

with a hot cup of tea and a package under his arm. “Here, drink this—it should make you feel

better.”

Rangerkitty accepted the tea and tried not to spill it since

her hands were shaking, but her fingers savoured the warmth emanating from the

cup. Tygra opened the package and pulled out warm clothes that had been in a

thermal pack he’d brought with them in the sleigh. He pulled warm boots onto

her feet, assisted her into warm gloves, and pulled the cold wet blanket off

her replacing it with a heated fleece.

“How is that?”

“Much better.” She smiled, glad the shivering had stopped.

“You think of everything, my love.”

“Ok, solve a mystery for me.” Crystalandra interrupted,

“Because this is driving me crazy. How were you able to tolerate being in the

cold for that long? Isn’t your species from the jungles and rainforests where

it’s always warm?”

Tygra grinned. “Elementary, my dear Crystalandra. Remember

the discussion we had earlier, about understanding physics and physiology? I

simply used science and biology to my advantage. By drinking the Thunderian

whiskey, I caused my skin to flush which allowed my body to lose heat early on,

thereby lowering my core temperature. I actually had a few drinks before we

left the lodge, and a few more here. I also did not dress heavily. By having a

lower core temperature, and by slowing down my internal processes, the cold was

not as much of a shock to my system, allowing me to tolerate it longer.”

“What happened to our discussion earlier about ignoring

logic and having fun with the tribe?”

“Oh, I still did that--I jumped in didn’t I? I just

maximized my experience.”

Crystalandra rolled her eyes, but internally had to give the

tiger credit. He was smart all right.

Rangerkitty looked up at Tygra. “I thought you said the

drinks would help us feel warm.”

“Well my love, they DO make you feel warm, but

realistically, they make you lose heat faster. That’s why I didn’t drink any

hot fluids when we got here.”

She rolled her eyes as well, and then noticed that everyone

had left the water except for Galina and Bengali. She stood up and put her

hands around her mouth calling out to them. “Will you two be rejoining us

sometime today or have you forgotten about us?”

Bengali heard her and tapped Galina on the shoulder; she was

floating on her back with her ears submerged in the cold water. Righting herself, she asked. “Did we win? Are

we the last out?”

“Yep,” He grinned, starting to feel the cold. “Let’s head

back in for the photo.”

“Aww, do we have to? It’s soooo nice out here...” she gave

him a seductive smile, treading water. “I wouldn’t mind if they all left you

and me alone out here.”

He smiled, “Oh, Gali, don’t tease me. If you get me too

exited in this freezing water, I’ll be no good to you for days…”

She batted her long eyelashes; turned and took her hand

pulling her out of the water behind him. Galina floated on her back until the

water became quite shallow, then stood up and walked. Reaching the shore, they

ran forward to join the others who had gathered on the bank of the frozen lake

in their towels. Looking up at the photographer he gave the signal and they all

shouted and smiled while he took their photograph.