The stars jittered, then elongated into narrow white lines stretching out into infinity. Mara Jade lifted her hands off the controls and took in the eddying swirls of hyperspace. It was good to be out in the field again. In the months since the conflict with Thrawn and Joruus C'Baoth, she'd been acting as liaison between the Alliance and the diverse smuggling groups that peppered the spaceways - too much like a diplomat than she liked. What Mara feared most was losing her edge - the edge she'd worked so hard to form, to sharpen, to maintain. Even though she had no fond memories of her more desperate days, part of her still missed the element of danger that had made life - exciting. "Credit for 'em," a voice broke into her thoughts. She had been so hypnotized by the starfield that she'd almost forgotten her copilot. She turned her head, a half-smile on her face. "You looked like you'd left your thoughts back on Coruscant," Luke Skywalker commented, returning the half-smile. "I'm just glad to be back out in space again," she replied, surprised by the surge of emotions that suddenly welled up inside her. For most of her life, she'd been taught to hate this man. The first time she had actually met him, face to face, she'd tried to hate him. She'd told him she hated him, and had tried to convince him that she wanted to kill him, but had never actually gotten around to doing it. Stars knew he'd presented his unguarded back to her often enough. Now, she wasn't quite sure exactly how she felt about him. She knew she no longer hated him, that much was clear. The rest was a confusing swirl that she preferred not to dwell on. "I know what you mean," Luke said. As the galaxy's sole Jedi Master, his movements were closely watched over by the Alliance; missions like this one were few and far between. He was to open a dialogue with the leaders of the Orious system, and Mara was to make contact with the not-so-official elements in and around Orious. It was simply for convenience's sake that they were travel companions - once at Orious Prime, they would separate and not see each other again until their respective missions were completed. They wouldn't be spending any time together. At all. Luke sighed. What a pity. "We're coming out of hyperspace now," Mara announced, placing her hands on the control panel again. The brilliant streaks shrank back into points of light against the ebony blackness of the sky. Suddenly a brilliant flash lit up the viewscreen, blinding both Luke and Mara, and a loud WHUMP shook the tiny ship. "What was that?!" Mara yelled. Luke was already scanning his readouts. "We've been hit!" he reported. "What? But who - " The rest of Mara's sentence was cut off by another violent shudder that nearly threw her out of her seat. The stars reeled. She tried to correct the ship's spin, but nothing on her panel seemed to work. "My controls are shot!" she cried, slamming her hands on her useless control panel in frustration. "Hold on!" Luke said, his hands flying over his control panel. "I'm going to try to put us down. Brace for impact!" The viewscreen glowed red as the ship entered atmosphere - of what, Luke didn't know, but at least it was atmosphere. He looked to make sure Mara had assumed the crash position, and hit a final switch. Stars danced before Mara's eyes, and the acrid smell of burning plastics filled her nostrils. Coughing, she sat up and undid her seat harness, her eyes watering in the thick grey smoke that filled the cabin. "Luke?" she called. No answer. She reached out to the shadowy outline that she could barely make out through the smoke. "Luke!" He was slumped over the control panel, his forehead gashed and bleeding. Mara's heart froze at the sight of him lying there, so still. Fearfully, she placed two fingers on his neck, feeling for a pulse. She was rewarded with a faint flutter and smiled in relief. The smell of burning was growing stronger. Mara felt under her seat for the survival case she always carried on trips, and pulled it out. It looked intact, and she slung it over her shoulder. "Come on, Luke, we've got to get you out of here," she said, undoing his seat harness and hoisting him up out of his seat. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted the final readings of the outside atmosphere frozen on the panel - a breathable compound. And cold. Very cold. Well, she'd worry about that later. Draping one of Luke's arms around her shoulders, she half-carried, half- dragged him towards the ship's exit hatch. The smell of burning was getting stronger, and she wasn't about to take any chances. An icy wind hit her face as the hatch opened. Without hesitation, Mara dragged Luke out of the ship. He was heavy, but nothing that she couldn't handle. She tried to ignore the ominous grinding coming from his ribs. Mara pulled Luke to what she hoped was a safe distance from the wreck, and glanced behind her. The ship's engines were glowing a dangerous red, indicating a serious energy leak. She had just enough time to drop Luke on the ground and fling herself over him when the ship exploded. Tiny pieces of wreckage rained down around the two of them. Mara's calculations had been correct - they were too far from the explosion for the shockwave to affect them, and any bits that could reach them were too small to do any damage. She got to her feet, breathing heavily. Luke's eyes snapped open, and he took a shuddering breath. Mara was kneeling beside him in an instant. "Luke! Don't move," she said as he struggled to sit up. "I think you may have a few broken ribs," she continued, her fingers running lightly over his midsection. "I think you may be right," he grunted. He shut his eyes, concentrating. Mara knew he was drawing on the Force - she felt it rippling around her - but she also knew that he must be in a great deal of pain for him to have to physically shut out distractions. Finally his eyes opened. Mara looked at him anxiously. "How is it?" she asked. "Not - too bad," he answered through clenched teeth, and started to get up. Mara helped him to his feet. "We've got to find some shelter," she said, placing a supporting arm around his waist. "I'm almost sure a storm's moving in." Luke was in no mood to argue. "I think I can see something like a cave over there," he said, lifting an arm to point. Mara heard his sharp intake of breath. "Okay. Okay, I see it." she said. "Let's go. Slowly." "You idiots!" Slizdeek ducked calmly as a transceiver part hurtled past his head. The whole crew was used to Captain Kazeej's little tantrums when things didn't go his way. "I told you to throw a tractor beam on them, not blast them out of the sky!" Slizdeek spoke up. "We did use a tractor beam, but we were not expecting them to have their shields up full strength when they came out of hyperspace. So instead of pulling them in, we gave them a push instead. Sir." Kazeej walked up to Slizdeek. "So. Where. Are. They?" "I've detected a sudden thermal concentration down on Croix 7. That must be where they went down." "Helm, turn the ship around!" Kazeej yelled. Snow started to fall in earnest as Luke and Mara approached the cave. The cave went in deep enough so that they were fairly well sheltered from the falling snow. When they were safely inside, Luke collapsed to the floor with a sigh. Mara knelt down beside him and gave him a once-over. Luke already knew what was wrong with him - he thought - but allowed Mara to examine him, if only to let her find out for herself. "Shrapnel, cuts, grazes, contusions, broken ribs," she announced. "And me without a medical frigate on hand." Luke smiled wryly. "What about you?" he asked. His fingers ran lightly over her hands, scratched and lacerated by pieces of the exploding control panel. "I'm all right. It's you I'm worried about," she replied. "What do Jedi do when they're this badly hurt?" "I should go into a healing trance," Luke answered. "Right. And in this temperature, you'd to freeze to death in the meantime," Mara retorted. Luke conceded the point. "First thing we've got to do is get some heat going," Mara said, checking her blaster in her wrist holster. Fully charged, as always. "You. Stay." she said, fixing Luke with a stern glare. He lifted his palms, as if he hadn't even thought of getting up. Mara looked around the cave. With that snowstorm blowing outside, she wasn't about to try going out looking for something to make a fire with. Her eye fell on a rock, and she picked it up, weighing it in her hand thoughtfully. "It just might work," she murmured, and set about collecting all the rocks she could find in the cave. Piling them up in front of Luke, she tuned her blaster to the lowest setting and fired at the rocks, heating them to a steaming white-hotness. She smiled proudly at the glowing warmth. "There. Heat." She pulled a light, sturdy metal mug from her survival pack and went outside to fill it with snow. She laid it on top of the heated rockpile and rooted around in the survival pack, hoping that she might have packed a more substantial medical kit than she usually did. All she had were some bandages and some ointment that she doubted would do anything for Luke's ribs. She took the cup of melted snow from the makeshift heater, picked up the bandages and went over to where she had left Luke. She looked at him sharply. His eyelids were already beginning to droop. "Luke!" she said loudly. His eyes snapped open. "Don't you dare go to sleep, or Leia'll kill me." "Leia?" Luke questioned. Mara bit her lip. Oh well, the hoojib was out of the sack already anyway. "Leia...sort of told me to keep an eye on you," she said. Luke rolled his eyes, and smiled. "Figures," he said. Mara wondered what it was like to have someone worrying about her safety. She'd been taken from her parents at an early age, and the Imperials who'd raised her hadn't shown any kind of emotion, affectionate or otherwise. Luke coughed. "You all right?" Mara asked anxiously. "Yeah," he answered thickly. "Don't pull that Jedi stoicism on me, Skywalker," Mara said in a voice that she hoped sounded more cheerful than she felt. Carefully, she cleaned the gash on his forehead and bandaged it neatly. "I can't do anything about the broken ribs, but maybe I can immobilize them with the bandages," she said, looking up into his face. "But I'll need to take your shirt off. Think you can stand that?" He nodded. As carefully as she could, Mara undid the fastenings and peeled off the top of his black tunic. She sucked in a breath when she saw the huge red-and-purple blotch extending all around Luke's bare torso. "You're going to have one hell of a bruise when this is all over," she told him, beginning to wind the bandages gently around his ribcage. "What do you mean, Luke and Mara never reached the Orious system?" Leia's voice was uncharacteristically raised. "That's what the Orii said, Councillor," answered the young officer whose face filled the comm screen in Leia and Han's quarters. "They waited for two hours, but Commander Skywalker and Mara Jade didn't show up. That's when they called us to find out if there had been any delays on our end." Han came up behind Leia, placing a supporting hand on her back. She leaned against him, glad for his presence. "Do we have their last known position?" Leia asked the officer. "Yes," the officer answered. "Their ship was last seen at the Croixus system when they paused to make a course correction. I'm feeding the coordinates through now." "Thank you," Leia said when the transfer was complete, and cut the connection. Han pulled up a holographic map of the sector. "The Croixus system?" he repeated, almost to himself. "That's a neighbor to Orious. They fought a lot in Imperial days. I heard Croixus wasn't too happy about Orious talking with the New Republic." "You don't suppose -" Leia lifted her eyes to meet Han's. "I'll get the Falcon prepped," he said. As he left the room, Leia reached out as far as she could with her thoughts. She wasn't the Jedi that Luke was, but their bond had been strong enough for him to touch her mind on Bespin, when he was not yet fully trained and she not at all. Putting the full force of her love for her brother into her effort, she sent out a thought across the galaxy - Hold on, Luke, we're coming... "Luke? Luke!" Mara was alarmed by the momentarily dazed expression on his face. She shook him, not too roughly. He blinked, and smiled at her concern. "I'm all right. I...I heard something. Someone," he said. He saw her release a tense breath. Suddenly uncomfortable, Mara got to her feet. "I'm going out to see what I can salvage from the wreck," she said abruptly. "Do you think you should?" Luke asked. "It's stopped snowing. I think I'll survive," she said wryly. "Don't stay out too long," Luke cautioned. "Don't fall asleep," she snapped back, heading outside. Luke stared anxiously out into the thick curtain of snow. Mara had been away for almost an hour, and the snow had started falling again half an hour ago. He hoped she wasn't lost in the snowstorm. Firmly, he pushed the unpleasant memories of Hoth away, and concentrated on reaching out to Mara through the Force. Finally she came stomping back into the cave, dragging a large piece of metal from the ship. She shook the snow from herself and positioned the metal sheet over the mouth of the cave. "That should keep the wind out," she said, walking towards Luke and looking him over. "How are you feeling?" "All right," Luke answered, returning her scrutiny. She touched his shoulder and moved away, pulling out her comlink and inspecting it closely. His eyes narrowed. Something wasn't right about her. After a while, she felt his eyes on her. "What?" she said. "You're shivering," Luke observed as he watched Mara fiddle with her comlink. "Hmm?" she said, without looking up. Luke didn't like the distracted look in her eyes, or the way her hands were trembling. "Mara, are you all right?" Luke asked with growing concern. "Of course I am," she snapped. "I'm just trying to boost the comlink signal -" her fingers fumbled and she nearly dropped the comlink, "- uh, to act as a beacon. Or something." She lost her hold on the small instrument again, and it clattered to the ground. She tried to pick it up, but couldn't quite get a grip on the device. Luke watched with growing anxiety as Mara groped for the comlink with uncertain hands. "Mara, perhaps you'd better come over here and get warmed up first," he suggested gently. "I'm fine," she mumbled. "I have to - get a signal out -" The comlink fell from her hands again. Luke caught her just as she collapsed, and lowered her gently to the ground, his mind racing. Before the Rebellion had relocated to Hoth, he had attended a series of briefings about the conditions, and the dangers, of the frigid new location. From the looks of things, Mara had run up against one of the deadliest hazards of their environment that had killed more than one good soldier on Hoth - hypothermia. "There's not much of anything left, Captain," Slizdeek said into his comlink. "The ship's a wreck." He squinted through the solidly falling snow. "And it's getting hard to see anything, what with the snowstorm and all." "Keep looking," the comlink barked at him. "Look for anything - anything at all - that we could take back with us." He lowered his voice menacingly. "It simply would not do for any of us to come back empty-handed." Down on the surface, Slizdeek gulped. "Aye, sir," he said. Shutting off his communicator, he looked around at the small group of men he had brought down with him. "You heard the cap'n," he said, "Look around for anything interesting. Anything at all." The wreckage site buzzed with activity for a while. Then, one of the men stepped forward. "Mr Slizdeek, sir," he said, "I've found something strange." Slizdeek looked at him, and the man continued, "I've scanned the wreckage for organic matter. There isn't any to be found." There was a pregnant pause. "Good work, Mr Mux," said Slizdeek. He turned on the communicator. "Captain Kazeej, sir," he said, "the passengers of the ship are missing." Kazeej was silent. This was not good news. "You know what this means, don't you?" he said at last. Slizdeek knew, all right. There was the distinct possibility that the ship's occupants might have seen the ship that fired on them. And if those passengers were rescued by the New Republic and told what they had seen, the repercussions would be very bad for Croix Alpha - and Kazeej and his crew. "A slight change in plans, then, Mr Slizdeek. Find those passengers," Kazeej said. Slizdeek responded instantly, "Aye, sir." A little less certainly, he added, "And then what, sir?" "Kill them." The first thing he had to do, Luke knew, was to raise Mara's internal temperature. He closed his eyes. This was going to be difficult. He concentrated for a minute, and the metal sheet at the cave's mouth moved a few inches to the side, just enough to let the mug go through. He steadfastly ignored the renewed waves of pain from his ribs as he raised the mug off the ground and floated it out of the cave. He mentally lowered it into the snowdrift piled up outside the mouth of the cave, filled it with snow, and picked it out of the air as it came bobbing back. Then he laid the cup on top of the pile of heated stones. The water in the mug soon began to steam. Again reaching out with the Force, Luke lifted the mug off the stones and blew on it as it hovered in front of him until it was cool enough to hold. He then slid an arm under Mara's shoulders, pulling her up into a sitting position, and placed the steaming water to her lips. She swallowed obediently as he slowly tilted the hot water down her throat. He sent the mug out for another load of snow, placed it on the hot rock pile and elevated Mara's unmoving form, supporting her head on his shoulder. He gathered her in close to him as if she were a small child, put his arms around her and shivered, feeling her icy skin keenly even through his shirt. He mentally reached out to Mara, feeling her drowsy confusion as if it was his own. "Mara?" She didn't appear to have heard him. He shook her a little. "Mara, can you hear me?" She stirred slightly, snuggling closer into his chest. He exhaled sharply as she jarred his ribs, but held on to her. "Mara, don't go to sleep. You hear me?" "I'm so tired," she slurred. "I know," Luke said. "I know. But please, don't go to sleep. All right? Mara?" "Mmm-hmm." He felt her slipping away into the fog that surrounded her mind. Desperately he reached out further to her, trying to snatch back that defiant flicker that was Mara Jade. "Luke..." Her voice was so soft that he wasn't sure he had heard her. "I'm here," he said, relief flooding through him. He looked down at her face. Her eyes were narrow slits, her lips barely moving. "Luke, I'm here," she murmured, as if speaking from the depths of a dream. "I'm here. I'm alive. Don't leave me." "I'm not going anywhere," he assured her, tightening his arms around her. "Don't leave me," she repeated. "I'm here. Don't leave me out here. It's so cold. I don't want to die here." "You're not going to die," Luke told her. "I won't let you." "Don't stop looking for me. I'm here." Luke wondered what she meant. Then he remembered. She was deliriously reliving those terrible moments in the Katana battle, when she was MIA, presumed dead, and he was the only one who knew she was alive. He couldn't explain how he had known that she was still alive; how he had felt it when she passed through the ion beams that should have killed her, but didn't; how he had known where to find her, among the wreckage of the battle. He knew it was the same inexplicable bond that had guided her to find him when he himself was adrift in space. But it was just that - inexplicable. "I won't stop looking for you," he promised. "Luke? Is that you?" "Yes. Yes, it's me. I'm here," he said. "What do you mean, stay where you are? Where could I go?" Her voice, though weak, was tinged with annoyance. Luke smiled. "That's my girl." "Luke...Luke, I can't hold on much longer. I'm running low on air...it's getting harder to breathe." "I'm coming, Mara. I'm here. Just hang on. Please." Her eyes slid closed. "We're entering the Croixus system now, Leia," Han reported as the starlines shrank back into points of light. "Getting any impressions?" he asked her. "Only that they're still alive," Leia replied despondently. She could feel Luke's presence, and to a degree, Mara's, flickering strangely. But where were they? Not for the first time, Leia regretted her lack of Jedi training. She tried to home in on Luke, but he seemed to be distracted. She hoped nothing was seriously wrong. "Out of the eight planets in the system, only four are inhabitable," Leia mused. "They must be on one of those." Chewbacca growled something. "I see it too, pal," Han answered. "Leia, there's a large spacecraft orbiting Croix 7. Ship's signature says it's a Croixus fleet vessel. My gut says they know something." He and Leia traded looks. "Move us a little closer, Chewie," Han said. Luke's voice was getting hoarse. He had been talking animatedly for an hour, trying to keep the lines of communication open between them. Mara's only response was an occasional mumbling and a few grunts, for which he was grateful. At least she was still conscious enough to make sounds. He checked the charge on Mara's wrist blaster. He'd been using it repeatedly to reheat the stone pile, in order to keep them warm and to heat more water. The charge was getting low. He hoped it would last until they were rescued - or at least until Mara recovered. He refused to believe that she would not survive. He picked up the comlink that Mara had dropped, and looked it over, seeing how she had been planning to switch the power from the receiving components to the transmitter. All he had to do was switch a few more wires, and within minutes he had completed the modifications that Mara had begun. He turned it on, and gathered Mara closer, looking skyward and hoping that someone would hear their call. "Uh, Captain Kazeej, sir," the junior comm officer piped up timidly, "we're being hailed by a New Republic ship." Kazeej began to sweat. "On audio," he ordered. Sitting up straight, even though the receivers wouldn't see him, he said, "Captain Kazeej, of the Croixus Fleet. What can I do you for?" "General Han Solo of the New Republic Fleet here, Captain Kazeej," Han answered. Technically, he wasn't an active general any more, but he liked to dust off the rank once in a while in situations like this, hoping no one would think to check. "I'm looking for a couple of friends of mine. Have you seen them?" Kazeej thought furiously. "I don't believe we have, captain Solo," he replied smoothly. "The Atreides asteroid belt obscures much of our field of vision." Han and Leia exchanged looks. Leia's eyes said plainly, _He's lying._ Han smirked. He'd figured that out a while ago. Then a flashing light on the console caught Leia's eye. The moment she saw what it was, she quickly signalled Han to cut communications. "It's a New Republic comm signal!" she said in a low voice. "And it's coming from Croix 7. It's very weak, but there's no mistaking it. Luke and Mara must be down there." "Then hang on, sweetheart!" Han said, hands flying over the controls. "I'm taking us down." By the time Kazeej realized that the Millenium Falcon was heading down to the surface of Croix 7, it was too late. "...So there we were, all five of us, suspended twenty feet off the ground in a bunch of vines. Then Artoo cut us down, and the next thing we knew we were surrounded by teddy bears with spears..." "Luke." He looked down. Mara's green eyes were staring up at him, wide awake. "That is the most stupid story I have ever heard in my life," she told him. "Hey, I didn't write it. I just lived it," Luke retorted, but he was unable to disguise the relief in his voice. "How are you feeling?" "Like I just woke up from a very bad dream," Mara answered, shuddering. "What happened?" She lifted her head, and suddenly realized just how close her face was to Luke's. "Uh, Luke - what are we - I mean, how did we - what did we -" "Ow!" "Sorry. I forgot," she said, running her hand over his ribs. "How are you doing?" "No change," he said, trying not to wince. "My, my, what a touching sight," came a mocking voice from the cave mouth. Luke and Mara looked up to see who the voice belonged to. Slizdeen swaggered in, tsk'ing. "Isn't this a perfect scenario," he leered. "A pair of New Republic dignitaries who froze to death while trying to keep warm." Two other men came in behind him, all three with the same leering look on their faces. All three of them held menacing-looking blasters, aimed directly at Luke and Mara. Luke groaned inwardly. In his weakened state, he could not hope to pull away all three blasters at once. Mara's blaster lay just behind her and Luke. She began slowly inching the arm that had been wrapped around Luke's back towards the weapon. Luke caught her motion out of the corner of his eye and spoke to distract Slizdeen. "Froze to death?" he said. "I don't see how. We're obviously very much alive." He casually draped one arm around Mara's waist to hide her movement. "Not for long," said Slizdeek with an evil grin. "One stun blast to each of you, a couple of hours' exposure to the elements, and voila! Two unfortunate victims of their environment. So very sad." "But why?" Mara asked. Her blaster was firmly ensconced in one hand - her other arm was still encircling Luke, as if she were clutching at him for support. Her eyes carefully took in the distance to the three men. "Because of what you might have seen before your ship crashed," replied Slizdeen. "We can't take any chances, now can we?" "What would we have seen?" asked Luke. "If we're going to die, you might as well tell us what for." Slizdeen considered. "Why not. You were supposed to have been killed earlier anyway, when we shot you down." "You shot us down?" repeated Mara in a mock-tremulous voice. "What for?" "We represent the Croixus system," Slizdeen said. "For many centuries, Croixus and Orious have been mortal enemies. Now, you were going to open talks with the Orious system. To make a long story short, our leaders didn't want the New Republic to tip the balance of power in this sector. But, enough talk! It was nice knowing you," he said, raising his blaster. Mara's hand tightened on Luke's shoulder as if in fear. At the same time, her other hand swept up from behind his back and fired over his shoulder, in rapid succession, at the three men. Slizdeek and another man went down, but one dodged the blasts. It was then that Mara's faithful little blaster was finally drained of its charge. The man leveled his blaster at Luke and Mara. Mara's hand clutched again at Luke, the fear genuine this time. Luke gathered his diminished strength to call on the Force, knowing that his defense would be feeble, but at least he could try to protect Mara. Suddenly the man's mouth opened and he dropped his weapon. Mara and Luke watched wide-eyed as he slowly toppled over. Han Solo strode into view, grinning. "Hello, Luke, Mara," he said. "We thought you'd be needing a ride home." He observed their slightly compromising position, still grinning. "Whenever you're ready, of course." Luke slowly became aware of a warm pressure on his palm. Carefully, he opened his eyes and saw a blur of flame-red at the edge of his vision. He turned his head towards it and blinked. The blur resolved into the sleeping face of Mara Jade, slumped in a chair beside his bed. "Hey," he called softly. She awoke with a jerk, and then a smile lit up her face when she saw he was conscious. "Hey, yourself," she replied. "How you feeling?" "A bit banged up, but I think I'll survive," he said. "How about you?" Mara glanced away briefly, and then back to him. "I had a bit of frostbite, but an hour in the bacta tank took care of that." She looked at him. "Thanks for...keeping me warm." "Do you remember anything?" Luke pressed gently. "No. I don't think so," she replied, not looking at him. He didn't press her. Luke looked around. He vaguely remembered going into the Jedi healing trance shortly after he and Mara were taken aboard the Falcon. "How long have I been here?" he asked, sitting up gingerly. "Four days," Mara said. "And Mara's been here all that time," Leia interjected, coming into the room. Ignoring Mara's reddening face, she walked up to her brother and kissed him on the cheek. "How do you feel, Luke?" "Not dead, thanks to Mara," Luke said, squeezing Mara's hand that still lay in his. "Yes, well," Mara tried to gather the shattered fragments of her composure. "You kept me from freezing to death." "You kept each other alive," Leia said diplomatically, to save Mara from further embarrassment. "What happened to the Croix ship?" Luke asked, changing the subject. "They tried to shoot us down when we left the planet with you and Mara, but Han dodged them," Leia said, a tinge of pride in her voice. "The Croixus government has denied all knowledge of the incident, saying that it was a rogue ship. They don't seem too eager to start an interplanetary incident with the New Republic and they've guaranteed the safety of future delegations to Orious. So as soon as you're back on your feet, you can try this again." Luke groaned dramatically and flopped back onto the bed. Mara grinned and said, "And this time, let's bring our skis."
© 1995 Winnie Guat-Sim Lim
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