Enid had her eye closed and she was letting the music flow into her. She had missed it greatly once her old phone’s battery had died in Japan. She currently had a playlist she named Music for the 29th century. They were songs from her collection that she felt suited her current situation. She felt the beat pulsing through her. She felt Apollo shift into realspace. She often wondered why that term was used, like she hadn’t been in real space a second before? She took a deep breath which was unnecessary still but she was about to see something no human had ever seen before and probably wouldn’t for decades, maybe centuries. Apparently, Apollo at full speed would kill a human.

“We have arrived Aunt Enid.”

Enid smiled as the song switched to one named home. She was sure she would never get home… But if she was here… then she should live life to its fullest. She deserved it after the previous month.

“Are you going to open your eyes?”

“Will they see a hologram, or will they see the real star and planets.”

There was a long pause.

“The star and planets through my cockpit window?”

Enid opened her eyes and she saw something no human had ever seen before. The direct light from a red star. She looked out the starboard side of her fighter and she could see several planets. Not dots, actual planets. So close they could be moons of each other. But they were obviously orbiting the sun. She felt breath hit her lungs and heart jump to life. They were close enough she was mortal again. He breath caught in her throat and she saw the planet below them. Half was shrouded in darkness half was lighter and covered in a red tinged sea and strange blue-green blotches.

“Is that…habitable?”

“Yes, my scanners are detecting a mix compatible with human life. Temperature is average twenty-six on the sunward side, nine on the dark side. It is tidally locked as predicted.”

“Oh, we so need to land.”

“We cannot! There are protocols. There could be deadly chemicals in the atmosphere we cannot detect. Unrecognizable pathogens!”

“Are your sensors detecting animal life?”

“Yes.”

“Carbon-based?”

“It seems so.”

“I’m a vampire.”

“But you’re mortal…”

“Yes, but I’ll seal my armor if I feel off it will make me a vampire and I’ll heal whatever damage is done.”

“There are laws, regulations….”

“Apollo, we came here to be the first to see it. You can’t tell me you’re willing to travel forty light years to Trap-whatsit’s three’s air on your skin. Come on, live a little.”

“Mother was right about you. You are trouble.”

“I try. Now come on lets go be bad.”

Enid grabbed the stick and took control of the fighter and barrel rolled a few times laughing the whole time and started a descent vector.

“Flying brings you great joy, doesn’t it? Space, atmosphere? It doesn’t matter.”

“That is an understatement my dear friend.”

Enid swooped into the atmosphere and went into a dive towards the icy ocean below them and she pulled up suddenly causing the freshly fallen snow to kick up into the dark air. She let Apollo keep the starfighter level and looked up. She could see two planets reflecting the red star’s light. She could feel tears in her eyes. When someone asked her favorite memories this would be one of them. She wished she could share it with Hazel and Rolf. She looked down at the controls. Apollo was moving slowly forward almost like a hovercraft with out thrust. She looked outside and a giant bird-like creatures were flocking to follow her she smiled at them. She looked down and realized it wasn’t her they were following but a group of fish. She laughed.

“Apollo this is so amazing.”

“Yes, Aunt Enid. Thank you for talking me into coming here.”

“Let’s clean out the vents, shall we?”

“You have control.”

Enid slowly pushed away from the birds and the school of giant fish. Once she felt at a safe distance she dropped to just above the now liquid ocean’s surface and she hit the afterburners, or what passed for them. The airspeed jumped from thirty kilometers per hour to four thousand almost instantly. Apollo’s skin shifted and as it did the speed increased five thousand, six thousand, nine thousand. If she were mortal, she would be dead but on the dark side of this world it was just pure exhilaration. They burst onto the sunward side of the planet still skimming the ocean’s surface.

“Inertial dampers active.”

Enid sighed and slowly decelerated the plane. The planet wasn’t that big, and they were traveling so fast she’d already reached the center of the sunward side. She could see another of the planets. Which made her giggle with glee.

“You can’t tell me that wasn’t fun.”

“I must admit it was nice to learn my capabilities in atmosphere. I was never allowed to exceed certain limits in testing.”

“Your skin is something else. It just does what it needs to, doesn’t it? Just makes it work.”

“Aunt Enid. You are a very skilled pilot. I know I’ve said that before but why are you not flying for a living? You love it.”

“Because when you’re a big girl you need to solve big problems.”

Enid sighed and glanced down. They were hovering near a turquoise forest and beneath them was a meadow of turquoise grass and a rainbow of colored flowers. She could see heard animals in in a distant grassy field grazing.

“This looks like as good a place as any. We should grab some flowers for dinner.”

“Aunt Enid we cannot stay long, you need to be ready for Christmas Eve dinner at Eyre’s apartment in ten hours and it will take four hours to get home.”

“Pish. We have time. You have sample chambers, right?”

“Yes, they have built in stasis.”

“You’re just full of tricks.”

Enid engaged the full anti-grav and slowly descended. She deployed Apollo’s landing gear she felt the starfighter shift as she made contact with the ground. She opened the cockpit and climbed down the ladder as it formed for her. She jumped down to the ground. She immediately kneeled down and pulled some of the earth up. Was it earth if it was on another planet? She laughed softly and leaned down to smell one of the flowers. It had the strangest scent. She sat there and looked out over the meadow and into the woods for several minutes.

“Apollo. I wish you could feel this! I’m touching an actual new planet that light from our sun has never touched. I’m kneeling in grass… I will never be able to put this feeling into words.”

Enid sat there with a silly grin on her face for several more minutes and then she began to gently gather samples of grass still with earth still attached to it and place it into sample jars then into the statis compartments hidden in the surface of Apollo. Her play list was still playing through Apollo’s speakers. She started to laugh when a song with the chorus: “Because it makes me feel better.” Started playing. This little joyride is exactly what she needed to relieve all the stress and tension that had been building up over the last century and half of her life. She bundled several wildly colored flowers into a tall sample jar, roots still attached. The bundle looked like some crazy eighties’ designer had mashed all of his favorite neon colors together and made flowers.

“None of these contain any pathogens or poisons, right?”

“No, but I cannot predict possible allergic reactions. I haven’t detected anything in the atmosphere that standard childhood T-cell enhancement would not stop.”

Enid slipped the jar into her own pack. It would be kept in stasis as well. She would need to ensure she cleaned the armor and ensured any alien life was removed from her pack before she traveled back to the past though.

“Going to head into the forest, get some more samples, maybe seeds, seedlings.”

“Aunt Enid, I’m detecting movement. Several human sized bipedal life signs. Warm-blooded.”

“What?”

Enid was already grabbing her tools to head to the forest but now she started to hurry she hated using pop culture references to describe the things she would see in the 29th century but in this case, she fell back to the Star Trek. No fucking way she wanted this to be a first contact situation. Not her job, no way, no how. She was almost done but cursed by mortality at the moment she couldn’t alter time and she found herself faced with six bipedal dinosaurs. They were armed with a mix of bows, spears and swords. They even had shields. They wore primitive metal armor. Enid slowly lifted her hands up.

“Apollo you said they were warm blooded but they’re umm dinosaurs.”

The group of primitive warriors were looking at her and to Apollo. None of them spoke. Not that Enid imagined in a million years she would understand a word that came out of their…very tooth filled mouths.

“They are warm blooded Aunt Enid.”

The lead dinosaur-man started shaking his sword in her direction. He pointed his other hand which held a shield at what appeared to be female. Enid was a bit weirded out to see a dinosaur with breasts but she was well past normal here. He started to speak. Enid blinked she couldn’t believe it.

“She looks female. You should talk to her. Ask who she is talking to, where she is from. Go Lrrl.”

Enid blinked.

“I do not fucking believe it. How the fuck can I understand them?”

“That seems impossible in all possible scenarios.”

“Yet I just understood every word he said.”

“What did he say?”

“He told Lrrl, that’s the female’s name, to talk to me because I appear to be female and to demand to know who I’m talking to.”

“Odd, we should leave immediately. This is highly unethical and illegal.”

Enid watched as the female approached her cautiously spear pointing towards her. Enid had little fear it could pierce her armor. Her armor didn’t care to find out and plates appeared all over the Atlantean armor. The female jumped back. Enid sighed.

“Apollo, shh.”

Enid closed her eyes briefly and concentrated. If she could do this language thing, she could do it. Faith in oneself was ninety-ninety percent of vampire powers and it wouldn’t be the first time she developed one spontaneously, maybe this was just Sextus’s telepathy manifesting finally. She opened her eyes and tried to speak in their language. She couldn’t match exactly pronunciation she just wasn’t shaped properly. She could be…if it was dark.

“Hello, my name is Enid Aurelius.”

Lrrl quirked her head to the side and her tail twitched.

“You speak our language?”

“Yes. Badly I am afraid. I just don’t have the mouth for it. But I mean you no harm. I just wanted to collect some flowers and seeds, maybe some leaves.”

“I am Lrrl of the Red Sphere. Are you a warrior?”

She pointed at the gun on Enid’s hip.

“You have an arrow thrower. We have seen them on some of the shadow tribes.”

“Yes. I am a warrior, but again I mean no harm. I had no idea anyone was here.”

“Who do you speak too?”

Enid glanced back at Apollo.

“That’s Apollo, he’s my nephew…my sister’s son.”

“I see no one just a thing of metal.”

“He’s the thing of metal.”

“You have a strange…nephew.”

“That was very good. You pick up new words well. I assure he is alive.”

"Apollo, make your skin shift."

He did. The collective dinosaurs tongues started to twitch and taste the air. Lrrl seemed unphased and continued where they had left off.

“We would call a nephew, clutch-spawn.”

“Clutch-spawn. Thank you. I am good with languages but I don’t always get all the words fast.”

Lrrl sniffed the air near Enid gingerly her tongue flicked out as if she was tasting it.

“What are you? The air around you tastes of animal blood.”

“I’m a human.”

“That has no meaning for me, you have no scales, no feathers.”

“We have hair instead.”

Enid flicked her red locks with her hand. Lrrl approached closer and reached out her hand to touch Enid’s hair with her small hand. Then she touched Enid’s cheek and quirked her head to the side.

“You are soft.”

“That’s why my armor reacted when you approached with a weapon drawn.”

“Does it talk too?”

“Not on its own.”

Lrrl tapped Enid’s Dark Mother pendant. Her small talon hitting the ruby.

“What’s this?”

“Pendent of the Dark Mother.”

“Who is that?”

“Me.”

“I do not understand.”

Enid smiled. Lrrl jumped back looking defensive suddenly.

“Why did you show your teeth, did we offend you?”

Enid shook her head.

“No! No. That is our way of showing happiness. I’m sorry.”

Lrrl and the rest of the dinosaurs became less stiff and their weapons lowered slightly.

“Why are you the Dark Mother?”

“That is a very very long story.”

“Good, we like stories.”

Lrrl sheathed her sword and raised her fist. The rest of the motley group sheathed their swords and started to lean on their spears. Arrows were slid into quivers. Enid lowered her arms, she was thankful, they were starting to get sore. She silently cursed her mortality once again.

“Apollo, looks like I’m being invited back to their place. Close up shop here and follow us cloaked and do it discreetly. Park close by please.”

“Aunt Enid, you are expect home in ten hours and its four hours and maximum lightspeed.”

“Sure, sure. I got it.”

Enid waved him off. The cockpit formed and he lifted off and vanished from sight. Enid picked up her last few tools and slide them into her pack. The dinosaurs were staring where Apollo had just been.

“Did you anger him? Did he abandon you?”

“No, he was just reminding me I need to be home for dinner with my daughter and the rest of the family soon. How far is your…camp?”

“Oh, it is not far. Is your daughter close?”

“No. She’s very far away, but Apollo, he moves very fast.”

“You have music?”

“Yes, we do. I was just listening while I worked.”

“You looked happy at first. I saw lots of teeth. We thought it meant you were going to attack.”

“Again I am so sorry Lrrl. I did not realize I was landing on someone’s land.”

The dinosaur’s walk was apparently a human jog. Enid had no trouble keeping up with her armor doing the bulk of the work, but it would tire her out before long. Thankfully it was only about half an hour jog to their…camp. Which was a walled fortress built under the cover of the massive turquoise trees. Enid looked up to the spires. The architecture was different, but this was definitely a fucking fortified city with a castle at its center.

“Lrrl, I cannot believe I missed this.”

“Shadowed ones have flyers. It is built with air defense in mind.”

Apollo’s voice chirped through Enid’s holo-phone.

“I have landed on one of the castle towers.”

“Apollo how did you miss a fucking city?”

“It is camouflaged well and the materials match the surroundings.”

Lrrl looked at Enid with a quirked head.

“I’m sorry, he doesn’t understand your language. He was just telling me he landed close by, and I was giving him shit because he missed a city.”

“Oh, it is hidden very well, as I said, it is nothing to be ashamed of. Their best flyers can’t find us.”

Enid thought for a moment. There was no word for it in their language.

“Apollo…is well to you, its magic. As he can turn invisible, he can see invisible things. He should not have missed it.”

“You have such power?”

“Lrrl, if I am being completely honest, under the right circumstances I could level your city with a thought.”

Lrrl let out an involuntary gasp her tongue twitched on the tip of her nose.

“Don’t worry, I mean your people no harm. I came here to collect seeds, and flowers. The flowers were to give to my daughter at dinner and the seeds are for some of our…scribes? Alchemists?”

“Ah. Enid of the Aurelius Clutch, you said you were warrior, yet you wield the mind magic…they allow your people to study both?”

“My father insisted on it. I was trained by one of my world’s greatest warriors.”

“Your world’s?”

Enid pointed to the sky.

“You see those pinpricks of light out there?”

Lrrl nodded.

“I’m from one of those. I couldn’t tell you which one without a chart. That’s what Apollo is for.”

“You can travel there in hours?”

“Well Apollo can.”

“He is quite the…nephew.”

“He is. Truth be told I’m not supposed to be here. Neither is he.”

“Will you be in trouble?”

Enid shrugged.

“My daughter will probably yell at me, my sister will frown at me in disappointment the Leader of our world will probably pretend to be angry, but secretly she’ll be jealous. Mmm I’ll be fine. My teenager daughter will probably be annoyed she got left behind, but she’s big and Apollo is small.”

“Do you have many children?”

Enid laughed.

“Alive, I believe that is currently three and a half. Passed away of old age…almost thirty?”

“Oh you have large clutches like us?”

Enid shook her head.

“No I’m pretty…not typical?”

Lrrl nodded.

“I have no children yet. We must serve the tribe before we retire and have children. It means only the strongest have children. You agreeing to the sharing will mean I can retire and mate. I thank you.”

“Do you have many enemies?”

Lrrl nodded her tongue twitching.

“Every shadow holds one.”

“I see. So the dayside and nightside peoples fight?”

“Yes. We have much food, they have much water. We fight for resources.”

“Why not trade?”

Lrrl’s tail started to twitch.

“You can not trust the shadowed ones each one hides a knife for your back.”

Enid nodded.

“Lrrl…where are we going?”

“To the scalekeepers. We will gather and you will tell us of…this Dark Mother.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea. We…really don’t like messing with other cultures.”

“Stories are how we share our history. You must share yours.”

“You know I will probably never be back this way right?”

“Then it is very important we hear your story.”

Enid sighed and motioned her onwards. The group climbed steps up to the stage of an amphitheater. Lrrl motioned for Enid to follow her. There were a group of people Lrrl had referred to as the dull scales. Enid had thought it sounded insulting but understanding their language meant she understand it to be honored elders and keepers of history. Lrrl was about to earn herself a bunch of reputation at Enid’s expense but Enid found herself liking the dinosaur woman. Enid waited patiently. Lrrl motioned for Enid to join her on a bench.

“They are very eager to hear the sharing of your story. They wish for me to thank you. And reminded me during the sharing ceremony I must present you a gift. It is tradition that we exchange gifts. As we exchange knowledge. While I make the arrangements, I have requested some runner steak and lightroot for you. Please eat and enjoy.”

Enid found herself eating strange new meat and drinking a delicious alcoholic beverage. She had never tasted the like and she probably never would again. She reminded herself not to smile too widely as teeth were a sign of war here. By the time she’d finished Lrrl had returned.

“Lrrl…do you have…any extra of this?”

Enid held up the bottle of fruit-based alcohol.

“Oh yes, we have many many talons worth.”

“Could I uh…trade some bottles of ours for some bottles of yours?”

“Of course!”

Enid pulled out one bottle of seventeenth century Jamaican Rum, a couple of bottles of wine from the French revolution. And three of the bottles from her father’s vineyard in Rome. She had casks of that stuff. It had been quite easy to stow away. Lrrl blinked at the many bottles Enid pulled out.

“How?”

Enid laughed trying to hide her smile from the rest of the assembled dinosaurs.

“Magic even I don’t understand, my sister does. You know she used this trick to create a whole new universe once? My sister is amazing. Its bigger on the inside.”

Lrrl waved to someone and shortly there after Enid was given twenty bottles of the fruit-alcohol.

“What is this called?”

Lrrl nodded.

“Lofufa Juice.”

“God juice?”

Lrrl nodded.

“Okay, well mine are. Rum, Wine, Wine, Wine, Wine…these are from my father’s vineyard on Earth. I helped pick the fruit and crush them as a child.”

“It is very old?”

Enid nodded.

“Oh that is the best alcohol!”

“Its not sweet though. And the rum. Be very careful with it. Only very small amounts. It is very very strong.”

Lrrl nodded. Enid slid the bottles of Lufufa Juice in her bag. A shorter dinosaur was waving to get Lrrl’s attention. Lrrl walked over and motioned for Enid to join her. Enid could see the crowd that assembled outside. There were thousands of them! Enid winced. Whoever came here after her was so fucked.

“There are a lot of them.”

“They are eager to hear your story.”

“You know I spend as much time in the dark as I do the light?”

Lrrl’s head quirked to the side and her long tongue twitched slightly. Enid had come to understand this was akin to a human jumping up and down in excitement.

“You are a boundary walker?”

“I guess so.”

“Oh joy of joys. Let us do the gift exchange and you can begin the sharing.”

“Okay but uh”

Enid glanced down at her watch.

“I’m down to five hours before I’m late.”

“Oh, that is sad, for the sharing will be a short one.”

“How long do these usually go?”

“Oh, ten to twelve is not unusual.”

“My story could easily fill that, how about I just keep it to the highlights.”

Lrrl’s tail was twitching in what Enid knew to be the affirmative. Lrrl motioned for Enid to follow her onto the speaking platform.

“I am Lrrl. Of the Clutch Redstrider. Born of the Red Sphere. I have had a meeting of scales with my new friend Enid of the Clutch Aurelius. Born of the Earth Sphere. She is of the Human Breed. She looks soft but is a great warrior and even greater mind mage. She comes to us from a distant Sphere that is only a dot of light in our sky. She is a Boundarywalker.”

The audience gasped as she spoke the last word. Not even the fact she was from a different star seemed to get their attention.

“I will now start the exchange of gifts. Then Enid has agreed to a sharing!”

The crowd roared and started to slap their tails on the stone behind them. Once they calmed Lrrl pulled a bracelet made of a strange almost ruby colored metal and bowed her head offering to Enid.

“The bracelet of my birth sphere. Though you will not know my sharing, may it remind you of me as you walk the boundary.”

Enid took the bracelet and bowed her head. She slipped the beautifully crafted bracelet over the wrist opposite her holo-phone.

“When this pendant was given to me, the woman who only knew me as Enid said that the Dark Mother would protect me in my darkest of hours. As you will see, I am the Dark Mother, so I hope it will also remind you of me and my sharing.”

She pulled her necklace off and pulled the chain out. Out of her pack she pulled a length of silk string and slide the pendant onto it and tied it off. Then bowed her head and offered it to Lrrl. The dinosaur woman’s taloned hands started to shake as she took it and slipped it over her neck. The crowd that has been hushed during the trade roared to life slapping their tails again. Lrrl held up her hands.

“Enid will now begin her sharing. She has promised her children she will be home by the time the leaves turn and the green sphere leaves the sky and she will have quite a long journey. Please give her respectful silence so we may hear as much of her sharing as possible.”

The audience seemed disappointed with Lrrl’s words, but Enid saw that many of them seemed to be nodding with understanding. Lrrl walked down and joined the row of dull scales. Enid waved to everyone and didn’t smile.

“I am Enid Aurelius. I am the Dark Mother. I am also called the Empress of Eternal night, and Darkness’s End. I am neither a creature of shadow, or light. But both. Lrrl has asked me to share my story. I was born in a place called Rome long before this city was built…”