The sound of the icetiger chomping and ripping the deer’s flesh was almost in tune with the popping and crackling of the fire. The breeze gusted every now and then, lifting the smoke into high eddies and fanning the flames.
Before it got too dark I set up my canvas shelter, unrolled my travel blanket, and set my white goatskin pillow at one end. With the icetiger fast asleep nearby, I spent the evening cleaning and oiling my boots, pondering my good fortune and staring at the fire. The sounds of the forest at night were not threatening to me. Even with the distant sound of wolves howling, I felt at home in the wilderness.
Confident that other wild animals wouldn’t come near the fire, I packed my gear, crawled into my shelter and settled down to sleep. The fact that I had an icetiger ready to defend my life, if the need arose, was enough to send me into a deep slumber.
Dawn broke with splendour; a cacophony of birdsong accompanied the day-star’s appearance over the nearest peaks. A breeze stirred the embers of my fire when I emerged from my shelter. I shivered and looked around for the icetiger, but she was nowhere in sight.
‘Icetiger?’
I called hesitantly.
Speaking through the waves had seemed as natural as thinking yesterday, but now that my new Rada-kin had ventured away from me, I didn’t know if I could reach her. I concentrated on the space in my being that allowed my thoughts to flow outwards like a gust of wind. I discovered a landscape to the spiritual world around me. Rather than being affected by the ground and trees, though, it expanded outwards emptily. It was only empty briefly, for I soon encountered the brightness of the icetiger’s presence.
‘Rada-kin?’
The sparkling icetiger shape I could see in the waves seemed startled. As I focused my attention, her form became more like the real icetiger’s, in my mind. She turned her bright eyes upon me and stalked forward. It took her a few minutes to learn how to respond. For a moment it was like she was shouting from a long way off. Communicating over distances in the waves was clearly a different skill from conversing within close quarters.
‘I’m here,’
she called.
‘I’m heading back.’
She had been marking the east side of her territory one last time, a fruitless exercise, but something she felt she needed to do.
There was still some meat left on the deer carcass when it came time for us to leave. The icetiger growled at me and muttered through the waves about abandoning it.
‘There’s plenty of food where we are going,’
I assured her.
‘There are cattle, goats and chickens.’
‘Fish?’
I chuckled.
‘Yes, but this season’s catch has been less than usual.’
‘How do you catch them?’
she asked.
I packed up as I explained it to her. Although we used words to speak to each other through the waves, they were often accompanied with images or emotions. When I spoke of the fishing that I did for Bessed, the icetiger recognised the pride I took in being one of the best fishers in Jaria. Though it was a solitary, tedious task for some, it was something I enjoyed. The simplicity of testing one’s patience against the inexorable movements of nature helped me to achieve a sense of triumph. The fish weren’t holding out on me, tricking me or waiting for me to look away. They just
were
, and they did what fish do, until one might happen upon the bait on my fishing hook.
‘You have the patience of a hunter,’
the icetiger said.
‘You seem surprised,’
I replied.
‘I know from your memories that most of your kind are not like you.’
‘Perhaps I only think they’re not. How would you know if you haven’t ever met any other people?’
She gazed up at me, struck by the profundity of the question and by the fact that she could think in such a new and convoluted way. We left the question hanging, both knowing that soon it would be answered. The icetiger would meet more people this very day, as well as other Rada-kin.
We made our way south east down the mountain, enjoying the warmth from the day-star and the smells of nature. Everything seemed more alive to me now that I had the benefit of peeking through the icetiger’s senses. Her fascination with my mind was more focused on all the thoughts and emotions. We had opened each other’s worlds in just a few days, the bond between us already strengthening.
I stopped to rest and rearrange the milk bulbs frequently, because the weight was too much for me to bear for long.
I was relieved when, through the icetiger’s senses, I noticed a person travelling north west through the forest to meet me.
‘Someone is bringing us one of those goats you were talking about,’
the icetiger said.
‘How generous of them.’
I recoiled from the vision she sent me.
‘No! You mustn’t. This is probably Bessed and his Rada-kin, Uola the ram. You must not harm another Rada-kin.’
Ranging through the forest slightly ahead of me, she paused to pull me a stinky face. Normally reserved for testing the scent of another wild cat, the expression was remarkably similar to the human expression of distaste. I chuckled at her ingenuity. Perhaps she would pick up other human mannerisms. Perhaps I would pick up animal ones.
‘How will I know the difference between Rada-kin goats that cannot be eaten and… Oh!’
I smiled to myself as I sensed the icetiger meeting Uola in the waves. I couldn’t hear what Uola was saying, but the icetiger’s words were clear enough. It was obvious from the icetiger’s emotions and body language that she was immediately in awe of this much more experienced Rada-kin. I wondered how long it would take for her to start learning to morph once she found out it was possible. Even though being an icetiger was just about the ultimate animal, there would be times when other forms would serve us better.
It was the way of my people, the followers of the wolf-god Sy-tré, to utilise many different forms. Beasts of burden for travel, small animals for sneaking, predators for hunting and, when extreme circumstances demanded it, fighting. And the ultimate form, useful for any purpose, was wolf form itself.
A few miles on, I saw Bessed hiking up through a cluster of trees to meet me. He had a gentle, rounded face, with more wrinkle lines in the shape of a smile than a frown.
The muddy pathway was littered with rocks and fallen logs, orange fungi, green moss and moist brown leaves.
I paused in front of one enormous tree stump to set down my pack and the sacks of milk bulbs. The deerskin followed.
‘Talon!’ Bessed exclaimed as he came up next to me. ‘Your Rada-kin this time—your very own.’ He clasped his hands around my shoulders and beamed at me with his yellowed teeth. ‘Nine Trees! I’m so happy for you.’
‘Thank you,’ I replied. ‘She’s magnificent. Just wait till you see her.’
The icetiger emerged from the foliage downhill from us, staring up at Bessed with wonder in her eyes. Uola, Bessed’s ram, was standing on the track nearby, concentrating on the icetiger. They were still deep in conversation.
Bessed’s smile remained and his eyes twinkled with delight. His interest in animals was not as strong as mine, but he knew a rare and powerful Rada-kin when he saw one. The blue tiger would be the talk of Jaria for months.
‘Do you know what they’re saying to each other?’ he asked me, eyes suddenly focused on my face.
‘Only her side of the conversation,’ I replied. ‘Should I be able to hear Uola?’
‘Well, no,’ he said. ‘Unless….’
The way he trailed off made my heart pound. Could it be? Would I even know by now?
He picked up two of the milk bulb sacks and started off down the path.
‘As you know, your mother was Anzaii,’ he started, ‘but what you may not have known is that her gift started to manifest itself after she first found her Rada-kin.’
‘She went looking for her Anzaii-kin, didn’t she?’ I asked, reaching up to stroke the pendant that hung around my neck.
Bessed picked his way carefully over a rotting log and under a series of thick vines. ‘She plucked the leaf from the Great Sapphire Tree of Jaria herself and had a jeweller fashion an alvurium necklace and clasp for it. Roukney awakened gradually and learned the rhythms of your mother’s thoughts long before it ever spoke to her.’
‘Don’t get your hopes up about me,’ I replied. ‘Just because I’m Rada now doesn’t mean I’m going to have any of the other gifts. I saw a Great Sapphire Tree a few days ago but it didn’t give up any of its leaves for me.’
‘You have great potential, Talon. The gifts of Sy-tré are strong in your family.’
I caught a glimpse of his face as he changed direction, shimmying down a rock wall to reach a more open pathway below. He had a pained expression on his face that he was trying to hide from me.
‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.
He glanced up at me, shrugging as he did so, ‘Things change, is all. Selfishly, I thought you might be with us forever and take over the village storehouses one day.’
‘Bessed, just because I have a Rada-kin now doesn’t mean things have to change. We can hunt—’
‘You might be surprised,’ he interrupted gently, ‘but I’ve been preparing for this day to come.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘You don’t have to,’ he replied. ‘Your clarion call will come, and soon. The gifts don’t come upon us for no reason.’
‘But there are plenty of Rada in Jaria just living out their lives as if nothing much has changed,’ I protested. ‘I’m not leaving you. It hadn’t even crossed my mind.’
‘What happened to “As soon as I get a Rada-kin, I’m going after Ella”, huh? Or “One day all Zeikas are going to fear my name”.’
‘The last time I said that must have been five or six years ago. I’m an adult now. I see how insignificant I am in the grand scheme.’ I spat the words. How helpless I had felt when Ella was taken. Why couldn’t the icetiger have come along then? Because it wasn’t my destiny to rescue my sister?
‘Now you need to learn that we are all significant. Have a child’s faith once more.’
‘What difference can I make to Ella or the Zeikas… or anyone, for that matter?’
‘You may find answers to those questions sooner than you think,’ Bessed said.
‘How’s Drea?’ I asked, to divert him.
‘She’s well,’ Bessed said with a sigh. ‘The miners have demanded more rations, which Prime Arone has granted, so we’re kept busy getting all those resources and preparing the food.’
My home in Jaria was next door to theirs, and it was just across the way from the village storehouses where the two of them worked most days. Drea was good with inventory, and if it wasn’t for her nobody would be able to read the scrolls recording what we had in stock. For all his care and dexterity with food preparation, Bessed had a messy hand. At least he could write; the same could not be said for everyone in Jaria.
Uola and the icetiger joined us after a while, for the dense foliage left only one clear trail down this part of the mountain. My new Rada-kin was learning fast, and it was hard to get a word into her mind when she was preoccupied with asking questions of the ram. Eventually we reached flat ground and the forest gave way to the thick green pastures where Jaria kept its herds. The icetiger sniffed nervously at a gate I opened for her. There were many other carnivores here, creatures she would ordinarily have avoided.
Bessed and I chatted easily as we passed by the farms on the north end of Jaria Village. It was close to midday and the people we saw were mostly on their way to break for lunch. A few waved at Bessed and one even stopped to clap when she saw my icetiger. I felt nervous and even more out of place than usual until I realised my Rada-kin’s emotions were seeping into my own.
‘It’s all right,’
I soothed.
‘These are all friends.’
The concept of friends was foreign to her, but she understood what I meant. I rested my hand on her shoulder as we walked and I tried to send calm through the waves.
Walking past the houses, the noises of human habitation shocked the icetiger until she was jumping at everything from pots clanging to horses jogging up the road in front of us. The icetiger’s ears went back and a low whine escaped her lips.
‘Steady, girl,’ I whispered. ‘We’re safe here.’
‘The prey is on the prey,’
she said, staring wide-eyed at the horses and riders.
‘You’re going to have to stop thinking of people as prey,’
I chastised her.
‘You do not eat people, ever.’
‘But I can bite them if they threaten us, can’t I?’
she whined.
‘We’ll have to deal with that on a case by case basis,’
I replied, unwilling to commit.
‘Where is your den?’
she queried.
‘I want to go there.’
I hurried to drop off the milk bulbs and other things I had gathered at the storehouse, and Bessed freed me to take the icetiger home.
I opened the front door, which was never locked, and went straight to the pile of wood I’d left by the fireplace and started a fire.
‘You like to sleep during the day, don’t you?’ I asked her out aloud.
‘Usually,’
she replied, ‘
but I do feel different
.’
She paced around the two-room house, sniffing every piece of furniture and every object on the floor. Some clothing I’d left lying around occupied her for a while. Then she stalked over to a chair by the fire.
‘What do you do here?’
she asked, rubbing the side of her face against it.
‘I read or take down records of what I’ve gathered,’ I replied.
‘Uola’s Rada… ?’
‘Bessed.’
‘Yes, Bessed… he has a mate.’
‘Drea.’
‘Bessed and Drea sit by the fire together in the evenings,’
the icetiger said. She knew this from reading Uola’s mind, but she hadn’t really understood what a fireplace was until now.
‘Where is your mate?’
‘I could ask you the same thing,’ I replied.