Creatures of Snow by Dr. Doctor Doctur Read Free Book Online

the most forgiving man in the Living Realm.
Sure, it probably helped that he wasn’t really a man, but was an
Iko of Protection whose job it had once been to care for the mere
mortals, but that was beside the point. The point was that he had
spent months planning and preparing a party that he knew probably
wouldn’t happen just for the odd chance that Sky might have
actually surprised him by showing up.
    “ I’m a jerk.” Sky slumped
down into the closest chair, “I’m so sorry.”
    “Don’t be sorry.” He
leaned forward across the table. The flickering lights caught his
youthful face in an almost apologetic state as a few strands of
dusty brown hair fell across it. “I knew you were struggling with
the whole school thing, but I didn’t say anything.”
    His dad got up quickly and crossed the room.
He was so quick, in fact, that by the time Sky’s eyes caught up
with him, he had somehow managed to get his hands on a long,
rectangular box that was wrapped up in gaudily adorable paper.
    “ I didn’t say anything,
because I didn’t want to ruin the surprise.” He tossed the box over
to Sky. “Happy graduation, Sky.”
    To his own surprise, he
actually caught the box which was a lot lighter than he had
anticipated. “What’s this?”
    “Well, open it up, genius,
and find out.” Ixanna strode into the room in a swirl of white lace
and silken robes, complimented by waves of strawberry-blond hair.
Her flawless face was stretched wide in a ruby red
smile.
    He hadn’t seen her for
months and she was amazingly extravagant as always. Out of all the
Iko’s he knew she was the one who never changed in appearance or
attitude, no matter what her situation. Even his dad, who in recent
years had begun to be mistaken for an older brother, had taken on a
more ragged appearance complete with rough stubble and shaggy hair
to add the illusion of a few more years between them. But Ixanna,
they could be on the farthest planet from the sun, in the slummiest
of neighborhoods, pretending to be scroungers, and she would still
have been dressed to the nines, demanding a clean surface to stand
on.
    Sky looked down at the
colorful wrapping, and the care that had been taken in making the
thin paper perfectly creased around the edges of the box. He felt
guilty doing it, but it would be rude not to open it. He carefully
undid the paper and was sure to fold it back, minding the pleats,
and opened the lid of the box.
    He froze, not understanding. “What is this?”
He asked, looking up slowly to find his dad’s eyes looking eagerly
at him.
    “Surprise!”
    Sky looked back down into
the box at the neatly folded REALM uniform. “I…I don’t
understand?”
    “ You’re still a student of
Arche, but you’ll be attending the REALM academy for a few
semesters in a new program.”
    “Axis…” He mumbled,
briefly remembering Professor Blanks and his part of the
lecture.
    Ixanna reached over his shoulders and pulled
up the jacket in front of Sky. “You see that little silver pin
under the emblem – that’s the badge of Axis. You’re one of the
first – a pioneer!”
    “ Did you guys do this?”
Sky’s mind was numb. He knew he should be feeling something, he
just didn’t know what exactly.
    His dad shook his shaggy
head and leaned towards him, “No kiddo, you did this all on your
own. Whatever criteria they were looking for – you hit it right on
the head. There were only two first-years chosen for
this.”
    “ Zeph explained everything
to us a few weeks back. He assured us that he had nothing to do
with the selections either.” Ixanna piped in. “Are you mad? You
look mad.”
    Sky shook his head, still trying to
understand. “No. I’m not mad. I just…”
    “ We knew you were upset
about leaving, this way, you get to stay, at least for a little
longer. Aren’t you happy?” Ixanna pulled his face around to look
her in the eye. “You should be happy.”
    “ I am happy. I’m just, in
shock I guess.” That was right.