"The heart of every band is its grand Dam, the mother of their mother's mothers. She must direct the band, lead them to new territories, and protect and develop the younglings. Wise and canny, she guides her family's part of the Children of the Stars."

--Fable of the Damen.

----------------------------------------

While Rae worked the mud and snarls out of the cub's fur, she took a peek below the tail tucked over its nethers. A little male. She double-checked if her theory on scalp fur agreed with this observation. A pale scraggly line started from the spine and coming over the head to his face. He had a crest, which was a data point in favor of the theorem. Like most sleeping baby animals, he was completely limp as she examined him. Shielding his face with part of her bedroll, she lowered her goggles and turned on the light.

Toe beans and tendril roots were similar in color and texture to the nose, which in his case was salmon pink. Rae scanned the cub in-depth, particularly under the root patches. There was a lot of nerve tissue in them. Gently prodding at the roots, she got the middle tendril to evert, a slender pink noodle emerging from the center patch, before gradually withdrawing. The structure and motive control of the appendage seemed to be from an intricate telescoping cartilage system connected by a network of slender muscle fibers. Trying the other roots, there were no tendrils under the upper and lower patch, but there were in the middle and the other four outer roots. The next time the cub was awake, she'd try and check how strong they were.

She examined his milk teeth and the cub's damaged claws. Polishing away the ragged parts of the claws, she left them smooth but slightly dulled. There were abrasions on the paw pads, seeping traces of blood. She patted some clean gauze on the blood, put it in a sample case, and took other samples, saliva, loose fur, and the claw trimmings. She found a small amount of lanolin refined from the goat wool among her cases that she used to treat leather items, like her belt. She rubbed some on his paw pads, nose, and tendril root patches as a skin barrier.

Overall his fur was a dark gray with a medium gray base coat. His facial accent marks were a khaki color, and the bare hints of a ruff were a pale gray. If it weren’t for his charcoal markings of horizontal bars along his body and clusters of spots on his limbs, he’d be very plain looking. While fast asleep at the moment, his eyes were a bright pumpkin orange which, along with his accents, added warmth to the otherwise cool color palette. She projected a holo keyboard and put 'Fire-eyes' in his file. She took out her bag of jerky and tested its pliability. She had made it dry and hard to last a long while, so she split some rainwater into another container and crumbled some of the smoked meat in the water to soften.

Rae cataloged his physiological differences from the felids she was familiar with. Besides the tendrils, his brain volume was bigger than a terrestrial big cat his size and apparent age. His eyes were double-lidded and possessed a variety of rods and cones that would see in color and many light levels. The neck was comparatively thick and had three separate trachea branching between the mouth and an intermediate structure that supplied both lungs. The inner ear anatomy was sensitive to even quiet sounds, as they twitched when she rubbed her fingers together near his ear. She put down her scanners and stroked the soft fur of his face, tracing her fingers along the accent marks bracketing his nose and on his chin, ears, and eyebrow marks.

Her absent caresses continued, eliciting contented sounds from the sleeping cub as she looked off to finally think about her situation. Ever since… Qardos, she'd been harried by demons both within and without... Now she'd learned those two were confused. She had a history of painful incidents and self-recriminations she generally kept tamped tightly down. This… voice, this... something she'd thought was a hostile part of herself, was not. It was an alien presence, not physically there, yet residing in her head. Preying on her worst impulses, it triggered a meltdown and somehow physically assaulted her. It had been manipulating her and trying to make her indifferent to things she cared for. She hadn't even properly resisted, at first believing the changes were from herself. So, what was she supposed to do about this?

Shadow didn't like carbon-based organics. It constantly harped how disgusting and beneath her they were. She disagreed, and doubly so about her romantic partners. A lifetime's worth of care and caution that allowed her to interact with human-habitable environments meaningfully was worthless to the Shadow. That was the only reason she could think of for not having saved the cub when she reached him. If she had simply picked him u, he wouldn't have gone under the run-off. Her hesitation had caused him to aspirate the filthy water with all the attendant health risks that could cause. She felt she owed it to the cub to care for him and return him to his kind.

There were other ways the Shadow had probably been manipulating her, but she should probably pay attention now; the cub was stirring. She'd left him belly up in her lap, but he was twitching all over. Suddenly he squirmed his way upright, with his body slung low in a defensive crouch. Looking up at her, he bared his fangs and claws, emitting growls interspersed with hissing and low, threatening yowls. He glanced around for a way out, but everything outside the radius of their eye's light was cold, wet darkness.

She smiled, "You certainly has a fierce. I understand. I probably look very strange to you." The cub's eyes widened, and he quieted down a bit. "That's an odd reaction to my voice, rough as it is."

Fire-eyes' tongue appeared as he worked his mouth and swallowed hard. She turned to her packs as he backed out of her lap to find himself falling into darkness. Desperately he twisted, digging into her bedroll with his claws to save himself when he was caught up just behind his forelegs by Rae's hands.

"Careful there," she said, "you're higher up than you realize, but not by much."

She unfolded her legs and stood up from her skyboard that she'd been using as a bench. Tucking him against her shirt with one arm, she used the other to pick up her bedroll and rearrange it on the forward end of the board. He peered down from her grasp, watching what she was doing. Satisfied, she put him down on the fabric, then sat down again in the middle. He carefully tested his limits, finding the edges of the board where it ended under the soft surface that she'd placed him on. Then he leaned over to try to see what was below.

Rae took off her goggles and turned on a dim light so that he could see better. He blinked and flinched at first, looking at her face, then the glowing goggles in her hand before curiously sniffing at it. She brought it close to him and let him snuffle it, then slowly turned the light down to the ground and put her other hand on his back. The ground wasn't far away. He would just reach the board with his forepaws if he stood below. She directed the light forward until it showed the swollen, rushing creek. She felt his back arch in alarm, and he inched closer to her. She looped the googles around her foot as she sat cross-legged again. She brought out several containers from her packs; the rainwater supply, the softened jerky, and a shallow, empty tray.

"Now," she said to him, "you looked thirsty before, and you're probably hungry, too."

She put the tray in front of Fire-eyes and let him sniff it, then slowly dribbled some water into it. His eyes fixed on the clear droplets, his pink tongue appearing again. She stopped pouring and tapped the side of the tray. "Come on, what are you waiting for?" He looked at her hands, and she scarcely moved them away before his head was crowding in, and he quickly slurped up the water. She poured small puddles into the tray three times and watched him drink it all before she picked up the hydrating jerky. When she opened it, he sniffed hard at the unusual scent. There wasn't much extra seasoning on the goat meat. She'd sprinkled on a little crushed rock salt and smoked it over a cloudtop wood fire, but it was certain he'd smelled nothing like it before.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Rae picked up a soggy sliver and shook off the cloudy water before putting it in her mouth, chewing and swallowing. Fire-eyes creeled softly with hunger, watching her intently. She warmed the container in her hands and poured some meat juice into his tray. He sniffed at it dubiously, but he quickly lapped it all up and looked for more once he tasted it. She put several chunks of the meat near the tray and watched him struggle with it. Raw flesh was inherently moist, and his sharp front teeth would release enough blood juices to let it slide down his throat. But this meat had been desiccated by salt and heat and smoke, then steeped in water, making it chewy compared to his usual diet. He jerked his head, working it with his back teeth. She put more clean water in the tray, and bit by bit, got it in him, interspersing it with rainwater to help him cope with the salt permeating the food.

His eyelids drooped when she'd emptied the jerky container, and he started squirming, looking over the side again. Picking up her goggles, she stood and put him on the ground to find a spot to piddle on while she provided a faint light to see. When he finished, he came up to her boots and climbed her like a tree. When he got to her waist, she picked him up and put him back on the bedroll. Rae scanned him again now he was awake and active. His eyes followed the glowing lights of her instruments and lazily swiped at them with his paws. She was concerned about the sodium she'd fed him, but it didn't seem to be adversely affecting him. He nudged the tray, and she moved it to the packs on her other side. He crept closer and leaned against her, sighing as her hand came down to his neck and gently scritched. From what she could feel, he was in a state between asleep and awake, leaving her alone with her thoughts again.

Shadow had overstepped itself. If it were more patient and hadn't tried to go against some of her hard codings, she might have succumbed to it. Her adoptive culture and her inclinations put baby animals close to her heart, even ones of dangerous species. She'd spent years on Terra raising and rehabilitating big cats, from bottle-fed newborns to palliative care for aged individuals. And it wasn't just felines; she had a soft spot for most helpless baby creatures. Months of Shadow's influence only made her hesitate in helping Fire-Eyes, but couldn't make her ignore his impending fate. But because Shadow pushed her before it had a firmer grip, she was aware it was there now and that she had a problem.

She leaned over the cub, sniffing it, and her American penny necklace dangled free of her clothes. It was from the San Francisco mint, dated 1957, the year of her birth. She was born in a special Inferus environment chamber her parents maintained a handful of miles away from the mint that struck the coin. There was nothing special about its copper alloy. The reason it survived all these centuries, not to mention a dip into Monkey's caldera, was the crystalline casing and chain of exotic materials that protected it and kept it near, to remind her of home. She tugged on the bedroll to adjust it, feeling the penny sway on its serpentine chain when a paw swiped up to bat at it.

Rae caught his paw. His ears swiveled, and he watched the penny closely as she let him go and reached up to unfasten the chain. "Feeling playful, eh?"

She wiggled the necklace, making the penny dance and turn and catch the light. Fire-eyes went into full hunt mode, alternating quivering crouches with sudden lunges with his claws bared.

"Let's try something else," she said and brought him into her lap. With one hand gently pinning his forepaws, she dangled the penny with the other. "What you gonna do now, huh?"

He struggled at first, trying to escape her grasp, then everted all ten of his tendrils, reaching for the coin. She let him catch it, then gently pulled it away. As she swung it, she learned a lot about how far the tendrils could extend, their strength capacity, and how he could narrow the ends for more delicate manipulation. His tendril-eye coordination was good, but he was still a baby. If she could compare his tendril ability with his developing pouncing skills, he probably had quite a ways to go.

He twined his tendrils around the chain, and she let him pull the penny from her as she let his paws go. He looked at it closely, turning it over with his tendrils and trying to work the chain. He got the hang of holding the chain by one end and shaking it so he could bat the coin with his paws, but she had to cover her mouth to not laugh at the results. It was as if the brain controlling the feet and the tendrils was divided between the two activities, making him markedly clumsier at both of them. He dropped the penny next to her, inverting his tendrils. Snuffling at the packs strapped to the rear of the board, he homed in on the one with the jerky in it. Rae palmed the penny and refastened the chain, dropping it back inside her shirt.

"Seems like you're still hungry, little guy."

A movement nearby got her attention, and she pulled down her goggles to see what it was. A small burrowing reptile dragged itself out a hole into the open just ahead of a surge of floodwater. It looked for a place to hide, but it was too late; it was spotted by a predator; her . She apportated the animal to her grasp and quickly broke its neck with a flick of her thumb. She tucked the body away and moved the cub back to the bedroll, putting the tray in front of him. She gave him some water, and while he drank, she examined the lizard, brushing the dirt off while her goggles scanned for poisonous carbon compounds.

When the tray was empty, she put the lizard in it. Fire-eyes snuffled at it and bit it but didn't make much headway. He tried to claw its belly and pinned his ears back when he failed. He made a complaining sound, and she remembered seeing an adult cat opening a small prey for the young ones. Rae drew a knife from her boot and sliced open the abdomen, then cleaned the blade and replaced it in its sheath. The cub renewed his attack, making little sounds as he devoured the animal. The aftermath was grisly, with blood, scales, and bits of viscera smeared on his muzzle and the tray. He looked up after licking his muzzle. She pulled out a cloth that she dampened and wiped down both cub and container.

He climbed into her lap and nuzzled into her. "Oh, thanks, little guy… or rather, you're welcome."

She looped her arms around him loosely and listened to him trill happily. Her jaw clamped suddenly as her eyes welled with tears. This moment of closeness breached into wells of loneliness she hadn't realized she'd buried inside her. She missed being around people, any people, and especially her Family. She let Fire-eyes go abruptly and gripped her legs with a bruising force so that she wouldn't hurt him accidentally. Her emotional walls crumbled, and she did her best to choke back a sob as she hung her head. Jeol…

Rae felt him bump his head against her chin and began stroking the cub with a trembling hand. She wiped her face on her sleeve and tried to get a grip on herself, raising the heat radiating from her to aid in making him drowsy. After he fell asleep, she waited out the dark stoically, with only the occasional tear she couldn't hold back betraying her emotional upset. When dawn arrived, she had herself firmly in hand again. She assessed his condition, comparing it to how she found him, and nodded to herself. She pulled back most of her drones, leaving a couple to watch the dens. The felids stirred earlier than she'd seen the day before, checking on the lessening floodwaters and nosing around in search of some scent.

She roused Fire-eyes and put him on the ground to do his business as he yawned. She rolled up her bedding and packed things away as he finished. He sat and looked up at her curiously.

"Okay, cub," she said, squatting near him, "I think your family is looking for you, so I'm going to take you where they can find you."

She fastened up her shipscoat and tucked him inside the front. Detouring away from the dens, she jumped over the creek onto a large rock as he peered out. She crouched, stealthily approaching the dense tangle of trees behind the dens. Finding a dryish pocket of limbs, she scritched him one last time before placing him inside the scant shelter. She turned away, and he started to follow her before she gently pushed him back. His ears pinned back, when a call from one of the adults turned both their heads.

A nearly inaudible whine came from him, and he settled down. "Good boy," she whispered, "stay safe."

She backed away and heard him chirp as she moved out of his sight. She ported to her board and watched the drone feed as he answered the calls, and several adult cats quickly located him. Two females, one young and one old, nearly tackled him, snuffling and licking him from head to tail. The cub's night certainly imparted unusual smells and tastes to him, from the heavy scent of metals from her, to the salt and smoke from the jerky, and the lanolin. The younger female gathered him up in her tendrils and nuzzled him, as the elder looked sharply around with her ears perked up, scenting the breeze.

She took a steadying breath and recalled the last two drones, sending the fleet out to find a path to the riverside. Rae moved the board out from the underhang and checked the area. She used her boot to scrape enough dirt to cover his business, and as she straightened, she spotted a fist-size granite rock that was nearly his primary coat color embedded under where they'd sheltered. Projecting a holo of his paw print onto it, her hands heated enough to press the shapes into the stone, leaving it smoking from her efforts. She gradually drew the excess heat from the rock, leaving it where she found it. She swung up on the board and floated silently through the woods on the way home.