As we forced ourselves to carry instead of drag the bodies to the abandoned wolfstag den, I found myself almost regretting the decision. We were miles from our destination, and though I was strong enough to carry a body over each shoulder for a time, I couldn’t carry them for an extended period of time. Beyond that, Took carried Treel’s body and one of the smaller humans, while Shemira somewhat easily carried the largest human, and Sybil struggled with the final corpse.

Though she fought to hide it, every time we stopped to rest for a time, Sybil was the first to drop her load, stretch her back, and gather herself. When she noticed me watching her, she also couldn’t hide the twitch of her tail before approaching me.

“Alpha, I am not well suited for this type of work.” Her tone was brisk and clipped, and I could see that the admission cost her something.

“No, you’re not. You have never been one of our hunters. We spoke about this when we were beginning the hunt, but it turns out that your presence was of particular value today. Thank you, Sybil.”

Though exhausted and still pained from the arrow shot she’d taken, I could see the faintest hint of pleasure at my praise and thanks in the crack that showed at the corner of her mouth. She settled into a relaxed crouch, taking deep breaths as she continued to recover from the latest leg of our journey. “What did you learn from that thing?” She gestured with her head at the body of Farrah. I sighed and tried to collect myself before speaking. Shemira stood nearby, trying to innocuously listen in, and though Took lacked any subtlety, she too was listening to what I had to say to Sybil.

“No need to act like you’re not listening. I’ll tell all of my elites before long.” At my invitation, Shemira and Took stepped into a circle, close enough to easily listen to my every word. “They’re called humans. They work together, like us, but they’re different. They don’t focus on fighting directly, but on magic. Their magic is much stronger than our own, and is what we need to be wary of.”

Shemira interrupted before I moved on, “They didn’t seem that powerful. Solia, you, and even Percral can show more than they did.”

I felt my jaw tighten at the question, but answered without any particular inflection, “The two in the back, where you, Sybil, and Foire went first, were the weakest. Maybe Windspeakers, making their arrows fly faster and further. The two in the front were Earthspeakers, but not particularly strong. Some of them can cover their whole bodies with armor thicker than the two we saw here, and still move. The one in the back, the one I killed, was the strongest of those here. We were lucky she didn’t know what she was doing.”

All three heads cocked at what I said, and though I fought to hide it, I couldn’t help but sigh. “Sybil, what’s your question?”

“Is an arrow the thing that hit Treel and myself?”

“Yes.”

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“So why are the ones that killed Treel and hurt me the weakest of those we saw?”

“Well…” I felt my tail begin to twitch as I realized how far I needed to explain all this. “Arrows are dangerous, and with a Windspeaker’s help, they definitely cross into deadly. A True Windspeaker, though, could make their arrows shock us like the wolfstags could, but from afar. And a True Speaker hasn’t reached the end of their path. Those two were only barely able to use their magic to hurt us.” Sybil nodded in understanding as I explained, and, predicting where her and the others’ questions would go, I continued, “The one in the back was a True Soulspeaker. That terrorbird was her bound companion.

“A bound companion would mean that she could see through its eyes, command it from afar, and control it, to some level. Beyond that, she was nearly a True Flamespeaker, so if she’d been a bit faster and more proficient, she could have Called flames like Solia and killed most of us. The rain slows them down, different from with Solia, though, so we were lucky for that.”

Shemira looked at me, and I could read in her body language a form of dread or fear. “Could they… do that to one of us?”

“Yes.”

Though only a single word, the sound seemed to echo through the heads of my three companions. Shemira was the first to speak, “We can’t let them live. Did you learn where they live? We’ll kill every one of them to keep ourselves free.” The emotion was immediately echoed by the other two, but I dampened their murderous impulse.

“Do you know how many are in our pack?”

Shemira and Took both looked to Sybil, whose answer was immediate. “After Treel’s death, one hundred and thirty seven.”

“And the humans have ‘cities’, a word that means, the human said, a place where hundreds of hundreds, hundreds of thousands of humans live. As we are, we would be swept away.”

Took struggled to understand how many that could possibly be, but Shemira and Sybil immediately looked at each other before Sybil spoke, “And if there are that many of them, if they think that we are a threat, then they will be able to overwhelm us all, and that quite easily.” Sybil looked up at me. “Our only chance is to escape.”

“And that is what we’ll do, once we exterminate this group hunting us and I take control of the swarm.” The three khatif near me, three of the most elite of my elite, nodded solemnly at my declaration, and I felt a surge of excitement, at the upcoming battle, at the fight I would have with Redael, and the supremacy I would finally have acquired.

Sybil spoke again, her interruption taking me by surprise as her mind moved beyond what I had explicitly stated. “And that is why you do not want to eat them. If they think of us as a dangerous creature that is fleeing, they will give chase but will eventually give up. However, if they think of us as a potential predator, they will ensure that they wipe out every last one of our people. Thus, we leave the bodies outside of immediate detection, but near enough to show our ability to hold ourselves back. But if you are able to speak with them, why do we not attempt some sort of open communication?”

I flicked my tail dismissively. “I tried with that one. She said there’s some standing command to destroy the keelish nearby. They won’t listen.”

Sybil’s tail flicked. “I apologize, I had wished to be of use in this way to you, but it would appear that that is not currently an option for me. Nonetheless, I would appreciate your assistance in learning to speak their language, as it may prove to be of use to us if I can speak their language as well as offer my assistance with my magic.”

I nodded and, after gesturing for us to gather up the bodies we were carrying, began to teach all three some basic words in the human tongue.