Mishka

Posted on Mon Dec 23rd, 2024 @ 6:44pm by Lieutenant JG Mishka Ru'fallo

767 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: The Foragers
Location: Empok Nor, Docking Ring.
Timeline: Day of Get the Party Started

shka was nervous. She shifted from foot to foot and watched the crowd again as she waited. There were about fifty other’s all gathered around the Docking area, all waiting for the space liner Traveller to deposit her passengers.

She hadn’t seen her folks in two years, nor her sister Cassandra for three. And Cassandra’s new human boyfriend from Earth was traveling with. That was going to be a whole bit of drama as Cassy’s last message had indicated that their father did not approve of the human.

Marko would never likely approve of anyone his children dated, but a human was slightly much for the bear. He wasn’t prejudiced, but some things just weren’t approved of in their society.

Mishka shifted on her feet again and brushed at the dress she’d picked out. She felt…funny, being used to being in uniform. She was always conscious of her appearance and this was the first time she’d gotten a chance to wear the lavender flower printed, knee length dress and cornflower blue sweater, but she thought she looked pretty and that made her happy.

Then she caught site of her mother waving from the lock at her and Mishka had to school herself pointedly to keep from pushing people aside as her mother met her in bear-hug.

“You look lovely,” her mother rumbled in her exuberant, bubbly voice. She shared a similar coloration with Mishka and pushed her daughter back to look her over. “Live aboard that tin can as your father calls it seems to not be doing you any harm.”

“It’s fine mom,” Mishka told her mother as she endured another hug then glanced at the docking port and asked, “How was the trip.”

“Slightly frosty,” Nina confided. your father is being himself. Though I think by now it’s just him enjoying playing with the boy.

Mishka eyed her mother and said, “He was your husband first.”

“True true,” her mother said with amusement. “Ahh, there they are now.

Shifting her gaze, Mishka caught sight of her slightly greying black furred father, all seven feet of him, catching sight of her, “Zvezdochka (little fox) he bellowed out, by way of warning for the other passengers and people around him as he strode purposely through the crowd and swept her up and spun her about in an exuberant greeting. “You have not been eating, you are like feather.”

Mishka felt her fur twitch redder as she glanced about while people stared. “Daddy,” she complained, then her voice switched to laughter and she bussed him on both cheeks as he set her down on the deck again.

Marko touched both her cheeks with his own then smiled fondly at his youngest child. “Good to see you in the fur Mishka,” he told her as he ignored the flow of people around them. “And good to be off that liner, though I am not certain this station will be better. Do they have good vodka?”

“There is vodka,” Mishka assured her father, her happy feeling continuing to grow as her mother slid in and joined the bear hugs, trapping Mishka within. “Good or not will depend on your opinion, daddy.”

Marko harrumphed and said, “We shall see. Now where is your sister and Allen. Oh there they are.”

Mishka followed her father’s gaze and saw her black furred, svelt sister, dressed in traveling leathers moving toward them arm in arm with a tallish, sturdy looking human well dressed in a travelers suit. His oval, open face wreathed in golden colored hair.

Her parents broke from her then, giving Cassy a chance and the two sisters nearly bowled each other over with the exuberance of their hugs. They’d always been close siblings and Mishka had forgotten how much she missed them all. She shook Allen’s hand and then the party began moving to collect luggage and Mishka lagged back a little, wiping at her eyes with a hanky from her sleeve.

Seeing her sister and parents made her miss her brothers too and she thought back to their large holiday gatherings on Sodeskaya. The last had been three years ago over Yule and she sighed. As more of the luggage arrived she started to move to help her family then she stopped as she viewed them all. Allen Her mother. Father and sister.

“Goldy locks and the three bears,” she half sniggered to herself as she wiped again at her nose, then shoved the hanky in a pocket and went to help.

 

RSS Feed