> Chapter 2: My father is a what?
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> The glimpses of black fur became all too common as I began to row faster. I could feel my heart in my throat as I was followed upriver. One thing soon became clear as my attention was focused on the black shadow. The black fur moved on all fours.
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> There were few animals to hunt in the north during the day that had black fur. The only ones that sprang to mind were the cave bears and direwolves. Both of which could swim and I would already be dead.
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> There was one other creature that could be this creature's size and still not come into the water to eat me. Only one problem. They hunted at night. As the shadow slipped from one bush to another, I got a better look at the fur. It confirmed my suspicions.
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> It was the black and gray striped bur of a shadowcat...
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> There was no escaping now. Shadowcats were not known for toying with their prey. "Why hasn't it killed me?" I asked aloud as the village came into view. The shadow didn't leap into the river and take me for its meal to my great relief.
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> Thank the Old Gods...
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> I was on the opposite shore of the river and dragging the little skin canoe full of smoked fish behind me as fast as I could. A dog started gnawing on my bone and skin watercraft as I drug it. I kicked at it, and heard a shout from it's owner.
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> I let the mutt be and hurried along faster. I wasn't well liked in the village. I was known for mischief, theft, and lies. I had unwittingly practiced my trade too close to home in my younger age, and made a reputation for myself as a lying, thieving, scoundrel, that was quite well earned.
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> Men and women alike stared at me suspiciously as I drug my canoe towards the far end of the village where my mother's hut was leaning against a sturdy tree. All the huts in the village were made of logs leaned against trees, with mud caked between the logs. wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, it was shaped like a cone. A small hole at the top of the hut let out the smoke from the little fire that always burned at the base of the pine tree in the center of Momma's hut.
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> Momma's hut was just next to the small forest on the far east side of the village. I could see the three year old twin girls playing chase as they ran around the hut. Their tufts of blond hair swayed in the wind behind the giggling girls as they ran in circles. I stopped and smiled.
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> There was nothing I loved more in the world than little Laughs, the elder, and little Giggles, the younger. They too had yet to receive a real adult name. They were too young. It was no use naming what wouldn't survive. It was well known that if you name someone too young, they have a tendency to die young.
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> Yet most free-folk die young.
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> I wanted Laughs and Giggles to live for a very long time. They were my precious things. My sisters. My own hair was brown., and dull, while theirs shined brightly in the sunlight. I walked slowly towards them. They hadn't noticed me yet. I smiled again. I decided to surprise them.
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> Yet I was the one surprised.
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> A heavily muscled feline form stalked slowly from the woods behind the hut. It had a falcon perched on it's back. I was too panicked to notice the absurdity and utterly abnormal behavior. It's eyes were fixed on mine. My little sisters were laughing and had yet to notice. I acted as everyone in the village should when we were faced with animals that treated humans as prey.
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> I screamed.
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> "SHADOWCAT!!!" Bellowing at the top of my lungs, I drew my flint knife and charged at the shadowcat. Maybe I could distract it from my sisters long enough for the villagers to kill it before it turned on my sisters.
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> The cry of shadowcat was picked up by the three dozen villagers behind me. The shadowcat just stayed in the edge of the trees and waited for me as my sisters heard the cries of shadowcat and ran inside the hut without noticing me. They were as scared as I was.
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> I turned around mid-step, as soon as they were in the hut, and ran back towards the villagers. I had no wish to die with my sisters out of harms way. The shadowcat was focused on me anyway. I looked over my shoulder to see it passing Momma's hut at a slow pace, as if it had not a care in the world.
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> The villagers were dropping their spears to the ground, and standing still as I ran to them. I ran passed a hut before a hand reached out and gripped my arm. I jerked to a stop as I looked at the gnarled and liver-spotted hand gripping my wrist. It was the medicine woman.
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> "He wants you." She croaked out in her throaty voice. "Go to him, and he will spare the rest of us." She said, a heat in her eyes as she glanced at her grandson, the village chief, Drall, who I noticed dropped his spear too. I jerked my head back over my shoulder to see the shadowcat had paused just a few meters from me. The village stood in silence as the stood still as a weirwood.
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> "He's yours, Lord." Drall said, in a shaking voice. Drall was young, tall, and looked every bit the natural hunter. "We will send him with the next tribute tomorrow. We will gather the tribute today."
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> The shadowcat gave a very human nod, to my astonishment. I could not understand what I was seeing. THe shadowcat understood Chief Drall? The black furred predator turned around and slowly stalked back towards the forest. Momma exited her hut in a rush, and noticed the shadowcat with a falcon on it's back immediately.
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> Dropping her spear, she fell to her knees, an expression of anguish on her face. "I have served you twice already, I have bore you three children." She sobbed out, tears filling her eyes. "Please, not again, Lord." She begged. "Not again."
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> The beast turned back it's head to look at me, as I held still in the crone's grasp. The falcon on it's back took to the air as I studied the beast. All I felt was confusion. Complete and utter confusion. My father was a shadowcat? Is this the sire of my sisters?
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> A beast?
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> The shadowcat stood on all fours as tall as Drall's chest. It had legs as thick as trees, and claws the size of my a man's fingers. It's muscles rippled under the summer fur as the shadowcat ignored my mother and sped away into the forest in a flash of black.
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> Mother had her face down in the dirt as she sobbed. I yanked out of the crone's grip and hurried to my mother. "Momma." I prodded her. "Is my father a shadowcat?" I felt sadness at seeing her tears as she looked up at me. This was all my fault, I was sure.
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> "It was the boy the Lord wanted, Kal." Drall spoke up. "Not you, again."
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> My mother looked at me with sadness. "I haven't even named you yet." She murmured to herself as she touched my face. "It is for the best. for where you are going..." She trailed off. Going? I was going where?
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> "You are not likely to live long." She whispered. "The things a man can do to little boys." Tears ran freely down her cheeks. "Better that you don't have a name for me to mourn over." Her voice caught in her throat.
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> I asked the one thing I could understand out of all of this. "Is my father a shadowcat?" I asked again.
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> "No." Momma shook her head. Tears left trails in the dirt that coated her skin. "Your sire is a skin-changer."
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> ___---___---___
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> At dawn, I was handed a sled's rope and told to follow the shadowcat. The sled was piled with smoked meat and fish. I squinted in the dawn's gloom and tried to make out the shape of the Shadowcat as it emerged from the forest. I began tugging the sled. A question rang through my head constantly. A question no one would answer for me last night.
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> What was a skin-changer?
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> I followed the shadowcat into the forest as the morning star rose behind the forest.
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> ___---___---___
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> 6 years later: Age 12
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> My name was Veranyr, and I was very annoyed.
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> Fang and Claw were fighting again. the snow bear cubs were small things, barely bigger than a decent sized dog, but they were noisy. They continued to fight one another. All I wanted to do was listen as father rutted with the pretty girl from the western most village father lorded over. Varamyr Four-skins was the Lord of 4 different villages who paid tribute with meat and women.
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> This woman sounded like she enjoyed father's brutal attention, and I wanted to hear every bit of it I could. But first, I had to make the cubs shut up. I warged into Fang, to stop him from fighting and Claw attacked viciously. I warged into Claw, to calm her down, and Fang attacked again.
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> I grew frustrated as the girl's shrieks of ecstasy echoed from the cave behind me as I sat outside with the snowbear cubs.
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> I'd missed the best part!
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> A fury swept through me. I glared down at the fighting and yowling cubs. They were only 4 weeks old, an dI wanted to kill them already. Instead of doing as father taught me on merging with the animal, I dominated them utterly. I squashed that spark of freedom and animal instinct inside of them. Their minds were gone.
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> I was suddenly seeing through 6 eyes at once. This wasn't warging.
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> Warging is bonding and merging with an animal's spirit. That is what Father taught. Yet I turned the cub's eyes into the cave, I could see through the darkness as the little snowbears could.
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> This was skin-changing... Forbidden, according to my father. It was a sin against the Old Gods.
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> My father had her on her knees on his sleeping furs as he took her from behind. I heard him grunt and saw him shudder in release before he backed away. He laid down, on the furs and he stiffened as he warged into Night, his shadowcat. The cat pounced and mounted the young girl before she realized what was happening.
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> This was my favorite part. And for the first time in weeks, I got to watch it in silence, with the bear's spirits crushed and their bodies under my complete control.
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