Chapter 51: Cipher
“More?” the blue-furred female asked defensively, positioning herself more between the two Atmo and Jax. Harrow beamed in excitement, completely forgetting what had been interrupted just moments prior.
“Yeah! We have two in our pack!”
The female’s eyes narrowed, shifty glances were given to the two Heads. “You have enslaved them?”
This caused Harrow’s ear to tilt along with her head. “No? Violet’s the den-kit and Mama helps us with our construction. Joe would blow a gasket if we tried something like that.”
“You accepted one of them as a den-kit?”
“Well,” Jax interjected, easing his posture once he seen the conversation straying away from being combative in nature. “Our Grand Hunter has assumed a parental role over her.”
The declaration seemed to take the edge off of the female, her tension abating somewhat. She examined them for some trace of a lie, relaxing once she found none. “Would you house these two?”
Harrow glanced at Jax, her mate shrugging. “I guess? I don’t think Joseph would mind. Actually, how did you end up here with them?”
The female shrunk slightly, averting her eyes and drooping her ears. “They had saved me from those white beasts during a storm, but their shelter was insufficient. I vowed to find them a suitable den and brought them to my pack once the weather cleared. They... They claimed them mere beasts and tried to eliminate them. We ran. We only found this place some suns ago.”
“Ah, yeah. Those badgers are...”
“Difficult,” Jax supplied.
“I was going to say they were a pain in the ass, but ‘difficult’ works.” Harrow shrugged dismissively with the statement, turning her attention back to the female and Atmo. “Do they understand us yet?”
She blinked, glancing over her shoulder at the two towering figures behind her. “For the most part, I believe. They are clearly sapient, but they communicate in two parts.”
Harrow threw her arms up in frustration. “Aw! I was hoping you sync’d up.”
“Could we even?” The female tilted her head. “Their language seems to be a mix between vocal and visual. Our translators do not work on visual means.”
“Ah.”
Jax prodded her with his elbow. “You had forgotten to consider such.”
“Yeah.” She nodded with a deflated expression. “Joe is going to be disappointed.”
Her mate scratched at his chin. “Violet is learning to read and write, so perhaps all is not lost.”
The female fixed her towel, clearing her throat. “Would it be acceptable if I were to continue my bathing?”
Harrow’s eyes widened for a moment. “Oh, right! You staying here. Do you want to come with us when we leave? I need to remove the engine for a project and then we’re heading back.” The female seemed hopeful, but shot a glance to the Atmo. Harrow headed off the question. “Of course they can come. You guys want to meet Mama and Violet?” She addressed the two.
The pair looked at each other, clicking and gesturing rapidly for a few moments before nodding.
“Then that settles it! We’ll all spend the moon here, and we can start getting ready at first light!” She placed her paws on her hips triumphantly.
“I believe we have failed to introduce ourselves.” Jax gestured to him then herself. “I am Jax, Head of Security at our pack. This is my bond and mate, Harrow. She is Head of Technology at our settlement.”
The female perked in surprise, tenting her claws nervously. “I am Volta. I was in charge of sanitation aboard the ship.”
Harrow thought for a moment. “You cleaned?”
Volta shrunk at the question. “Yes...”
“Did you like doing it?”
The follow-up caught the female off guard, a few rapid blinks were given in response.
“Cleaning, did you enjoy it?” Harrow tilted her head, her query genuine.
“Um, yes, I found it soothing.” She answered cautiously.
“Want to join our pack and help us there?”
Volta gaped, her jaw slack. “Join? Not be subservient?”
Harrow shrugged. “Not something we really do. Grand Hunter’s orders.” She grinned. “We could really use someone who doesn’t hate cleaning.”
“You just wish to shirk your duties,” Jax accused with a smirk, receiving a punch in response.
Volta doubled over laughing, holding her towel with one paw and wiping away tears with the other once she composed herself. “You would need your Grand Hunter’s approval, no?”
Harrow waved a paw. “Pan’s in charge while we wait for him to return. I’m sure she would enjoy the company. The rest of us are pretty busy outside of the den. Joe’s made a point of being inclusive, so Pan will accept you with open arms in his place.”
“What of your old pack?” Jax questioned with a raised brow, his arms crossed casually. Volta darkened her expression.
“They will likely not seek me to return. I was the lowest, unable to assist with most. Returning with these two,” She gestured behind her. “was the final straw, it seems. They found a reason to exile me and did as such with impunity.”
He hardened his gaze. “Will they seek to eliminate you and yours?”
She shook her head, her eyes glossed over. “If I remain away, they will assume me dead. This planet is not known for its hospitality.”
As if to punctuate her statement, Volta’s stomach growled loudly. The female looked away in embarrassment. Harrow furrowed her brows. “When was the last time you ate?”
“Some suns ago. Hunting has proven quite difficult, more so with three to feed.” She admitted with shame in her voice.
Harrow poked Jax in the side, the male sighing and giving her a kiss before exiting the shuttle. “Jax is going to go get us something to eat. I was about to have a meal myself before he...” Her face flushed. “Before we got distracted.”
Volta’s ears fluttered, likely taking a moment to sample the air and catching what she inadvertently got in the way of. She averted her gaze once again. “Apologies.”
“No, no.” Harrowed held a paw up. “We barged in. We weren’t expecting someone to be here. Besides, I think finding friends for Violet wins out for the moon.”
The blue-furred female tapped her claws together. “I could alleviate the issue while we wait... As repayment for your generosity, I mean.” Harrow could swear the fur on Volta’s face turned purple from the blush. “I was often relegated to such task when the females were unable to find a suitable bed.”
Harrow blinked. “What?”
The female dropped her towel to show her damp fur that hid nothing about her body, the coat clinging to her generous curves on her small frame. She was about Harrow’s height and, although she was slightly more lithe, she held more on her hips and bosom than the orange-furred Lilhun. A patch of cream-coloured fur started below her breasts and rounded down to her thighs, framing her figure in an alluring way. She still seemed embarrassed, but the expression on her face had taken a more assertive shade. The two Atmo looked at each other before returning to what Harrow assumed was the baths, leaving them alone in the main room of the shuttle.
Harrow inhaled, her voice a pitch higher as she caught on. “Ah.”
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Joseph stirred, patting for his cuddle-buddy but his hand only meeting the fur of the pelt he had slept on. No warmth was present. Frowning, he rolled to his back and sat up, mentally catching himself back up with the recent events and regretting doing so just as quickly. He left the room, noticing the guest building at Loptr’s settlement was devoid of his pack.
Shrugging, and mostly apathetic, he walked to the familiar outhouses to relieve himself before he committed to anything more engaging than standing in one spot for a few moments while he allowed himself time to wake up. He left the freestanding restroom when a hint of peppermint crossed his nose, the usual rise and fall of his mood following after. A quick survey of his surroundings turned up nothing, so he figured it was one of the new girls checking in on him while everyone else got the two new servants ready to go.
When Loptr’s Paw, Serba, was given the instructions to hand off two members to ease the strain on resources, the female seemed rather pleased and quickly sent for qualifying Lilhuns to be shipped off. Joseph found it a little distasteful to simply abandon their members so happily, but that was why he was gathering them anyway. He would be offering a stable home for those that were deemed ‘lesser’ due to profession or circumstance. He noticed that a lot of the more generalized careers or specific skills were often nearly useless without the equipment they typically operated with, and so that left the owners of such to be considered more of a drain than anything.
The two they would be leaving with today fell into the ‘poor career choice for surviving a shit-hole’ category. The waitress that had served him drinks was included for being one of many support staff, and a male that seemed to have worked as a maintenance guy for several non-critical systems and appliances. Neither would be a critical addition to the base, but both were happy for the chance to see what the ‘alien’ might have for them beyond servitude and feeling like shit.
It was thoughts like these that had him miss the wall of fur that he subsequently bumped into. Or rather, bumped into him. The male glowered at him for a moment for not checking his corners when he noticed whom he had bodily assaulted, the Lilhun quickly offering a small bow of apology and scurrying off.
Joseph rubbed his nose with a raised brow at the interaction. “Weird.”
“Not so,” Sahari called from his side, causing him to jump a bit.
“Stop startling me!” he complained with a slight wince as he ended up looking straight into the sun while turning towards her.
“You have not been paying attention to your surroundings, Joseph. It is hardly my fault that my obvious approach was missed,” she replied in a smug tone.
He huffed, knowing she was right. A thumb over his shoulder accompanied his next question. “So, why wasn’t that weird?”
“You are a recognized Grand Hunter. They are below your station in every capacity. You are well within your right to raise grievances about them should they misbehave.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Right.”
A paw patted his shoulder. “Worry not, we will leave soon. Then you can continue to deny your influence with minimal reminders of your inaccuracy.”
He gave her a deadpanned stare. “You’re getting a lot more sarcastic these days.”
The black-furred female shrugged, pushing the french accent as she responded. “I am merely a tool for the one whom I gave my vow. Should my temperament change, then it would be because of the ways in which I am used.”
Joseph cycled a breath, a smile cracking at his attempted to be annoyed. “Thanks, Sahari.”
She smiled back at him, some ease coming to her shoulders. “There is nothing to thank me for, Grand Hunter.”
“And, you ruined it.” He smirked, patting her on the back. “Come on, we should hit the road early. We’re already going to be behind schedule as it is.”
It only took about an hour to arrange everyone and get on the move, the two new additions offering to take the first shift pushing a wagon while him and one of the peppermint girls pushed the other. Tel had barely even passed his vision since he woke up, opting to disappear into the trees as soon as she was able. Sahari took point, offering small course corrections for the wagons to pass through where they wouldn’t run into so much. Mi’low and her guard stayed at the back, helping to dislodge a wagon whenever it inevitably got caught on something.
The progress they made in the first day felt like about three-fourths of the progress they would have made unencumbered, leading his estimate to be about a ten day return rather than the seven the trip had taken to come out. Tossing on the almost two days they spent at Trill’s, it was adding almost another leg of the trip onto itself. It was optimistic of him to think that he would only be gone for sixteen days, and he hoped no one would worry too much about him being late.
He thought about sending one of Trill’s additions ahead to let them know they’d be behind schedule, but decided against it for a multitude of reasons, most of which being that he didn’t want to risk them getting lost in the woods by themselves. He mused the issue of sending a foreign entity to say that their friends were going to be late being perceived as a ruse instead of an update, but felt that mindlessly having a single person fend off the wildlife overruled the more selfish concern.
They had yet to have any serious run-in with the animals, save for a report or two about wolves avoiding their caravan. It seemed that the group was large enough that the predators thought better, or simply weren’t hungry enough to consider hunting them. He wasn’t complaining. If anything, he was pretty pleased, as it meant that they could possibly take out a few stragglers to top up their supplies between days. They didn’t have the time to make any jerky, but a few fresh meals would stretch out their rations enough to fit the time frame that they would be operating at.
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Water was an ever-present concern, though he doubted that the rains would leave them unmolested for long enough for it to become an issue. Some funnels were swiftly made from the local oak upon request and they could be used to collect whatever fell from the sky, as well as them just normally filling it from any small bodies of water if required. The booze could be a decent last-resort for the Lilhuns, the lack of diuretic properties on them meaning that they didn’t simply piss away whatever water was in there, but it didn’t help the only Human of the group. He could drink his own urine, he supposed, if things got dangerous enough, but he remembered that the salt content would do more harm than good for his hydration. Worst came to worst, he could find some way to replenish his fluids, even if a few of the options had him questioning his sanity when they crossed his mind.
The night came as quickly as he could have wanted, the day passed by switching out who was dragging along the wagons and Sahari reminding him to stop staring at the trees. He still hadn’t seen Tel since the morning and figured she was operating as an advanced scout as usual. It seemed redundant, what with there being an additional four that seemed to fit the same role, but he was more worried about her health.
She hadn’t seemed to have been sleeping well and hadn’t even showed up for any meals when they stopped. One of the new girls took an extra portion for her, but he felt uneasy being unsure if she was actually eating enough. Tack on a return to form from when they left initially as far as her watch habits are concerned, and you have someone he cared about dive-bombing themselves into the dirt.
He stayed up a bit later then he probably should have to keep an eye out for her, but she never came into view.
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Pan scratched Violet as they enjoyed the sounds of a music box, memories of her time with her mate crossing her mind, despite the relatively short time they had together. It was moments like this that made him feel close, the soft chimes and swelling accordion mixed with her kit’s clicking made the dull feeling fade as she remembered his warmth.
The music ended, switching to another song of much higher energy, but she didn’t mind. Joseph had listened to much of this and enjoyed it enough to retain them. Perhaps they held memories for him as well. She wasn’t sure if he perhaps had a particular moment in time for every piece, but she would ask one day and be regaled what stories there were to be heard.
Violet’s rhythmic rocking ceased as she looked at Pan, the former noticing the tears of the latter. Violet seemed distressed by it, wiping at her den-mother with the joint of her blade ineffectually to disperse the liquid emotion. Pan allowed a sobbed laugh, wiping her eyes with her own wrist and smiling to ease her kit.
“I’m okay, Violet. I’m just thinking of our Human.” She pulled the Atmo into herself, Violet returning the hug with concerned purrs. “He’ll be okay, right?”
Violet reached for a tablet, scratching something into it before displaying it for Pan to read.
[Okay]
Pan laughed, fresh water flowing as she hugged her kit with pride. It was terribly simplistic language, mostly due to her quite limited mastery and understanding of the script, but a single word brought her such joy. It was far from an eloquent speech that detailed her inner monologue, but the young one could communicate nonetheless, however minor.
“He’s going to be so proud of you, I hope you know that. I won’t be the only one tearing up all the time!”
Violet opted to bounce in place instead of writing anything, they only had so many tablets on paw for these sorts of things. As much as Pan would have loved to give her an entire forest worth so as to facilitate her education, Mama was the main force in creating them, and she was busy helping construction with Nalah most suns now that she could leave the den for prolonged periods of time.
She supposed that Harrow could help alleviate the issue somewhat, but she had left with Jax earlier in the sun and weren’t expected back until late the next sun, and even then she would be busy with her next project.
The terminal screen changed, the selection of music and accompanying visualizer replaced by a prompt to accept or deny an attempted communication. Robert had called much less than seven suns ago, so Pan really wasn’t sure what to expect when she accepted.
It certainty wasn’t a bird.
On screen was a bipedal avian, light blue feathers adorned most of her person with an off-white plumage starting at her breast and presumably continuing below the modified suit she wore. A black beak gave way to black tongue as she spoke.
“Hello again... Not Joseph. Lilhun, I believe. To whom am I speaking?” the bird asked with sharpened eyes filled with mistrust. Pan flinched slightly, feeling Violet hide behind her at the sudden change in ambience. Pan straightened her posture.
“Huntress Pan, right Paw of Grand Hunter Joseph. What is your purpose for contacting my mate?”
The bird stared for a second before blinking. “You’re Joseph’s partner?”
Pan’s ear flicked in annoyance, her brows lowering in her displeasure at her disbelieving cadence. “I am.”
“You’re so pretty!” The avian whistled as she leaned into the screen, presumably to get a closer look. Pan’s eyes widened in surprise, her jaw slackening slightly as she reeled from the shift in tone. “What did that brute do to catch something like you in his talons?”
The Paw opened her mouth and closed it without managing to say anything, shock still prevailing through any attempt at composing herself. A shake of her head managed to clear the daze. “May I know who is asking?”
The avian looked embarrassed for a moment as she cleared her throat. “I am Silva Herrin, a Union contact of Robert.” She held a wingtip up when Pan’s expression darkened. “I work against them from the inside as an informant.”
The white-furred Lilhun glared for a moment, eventually exhaling when Violet peeked from her side. Silva tilted her head almost ninety-degrees when the small Atmo appeared.
“I take it that is Joseph’s adopted daughter, Violet?” Violet scrambled for a tablet and scratched a simple [Hello] into it to display for the avian. Silva’s feathers shimmered as her shoulders drooped. “I’m sorry, young one. I can not read that. I don’t even recognize that language.”
“It is Lilhun.” Pan supplied. “Unified Militaristic Script, to be specific.”
Silva huffed in annoyance. “Of course they don’t catalogue the language. Why bother when they could simply erase eons of history with a bomb.” She refocused on the kit. “Do you know any other languages, Violet?”
Violet flipped the tablet, scratching Atmo runes into it and proudly holding that up as well. The bird seemed very interested for a moment before yelling.
“It’s Atmo!” She trilled in her excitement. “I was calling to inform Joseph that I had reached a dead-end due to some foreign encryption cipher, but I think it’s Atmo script. I need you to translate... no, there’s not enough time. I can’t send the whole packet, it’s too large for this method of communication.” Silva hugged herself with her wings as she thought out loud, feathers waving in patches hypnotically.
“What do you need help translating?” Pan asked, hoping to be of use. She wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but if she could help her mate, she would do all that she could.
Silva stiffened for a moment. “The Union... acquired something just outside of Sol before the Humans could notice. I only have doctored reports to reference, but I think the Atmo sent something to them and it was intercepted before it arrived. A black-box was retrieved and promptly put under so many layers of security that it took me this long to discreetly transfer portions of a copy out. As far as I could tell, it was meant to broadcast something once it got within signal range of Earth, but since the original system to dictate the signal was destroyed, all I can hope to do is brute force it. Without an entire history of Atmo language to work with, I can only use incompatible software to try.”
Pan nodded, placing a fist to her lips for a moment. “I believe Joseph mentioned that the Union often supplied even cheap translators.”
Silva waved a wing dismissively. “They’re controlled. Just language packs loaded onto software. If it was a cipher in any known language, I’d be through this in a few days. As it stands, without some sort of adaptive translator, I’m stuck waiting who knows how long for this thing to crack itself. I can’t afford to run the code that long.”
“We have that, though I doubt that would be of-”
“YOU WHAT!?”
Pan reeled at the noise, her ears flattening and an involuntary hiss escaping her. Violet whimpered slightly as her den-mother adjusted volume.
“Sorry.” Silva offered weakly, shaking her head to get back on topic. “You are in possession of adaptive translation?”
The Lilhun nodded apprehensively “All of us on our ship had it installed.”
The avian deflated. “I was hoping you had the module. I got exc-”
“We do.” Pan tilted her head. “I fail to see how that would be helpful from here, however.”
Silva blinked. “You have it?” Pan nodded. “Can I see it?”
The Paw frowned, but requested a moment and walked to the dormitory wing. Assuming her memory served her correctly, she had placed it in one of the rooms she was assigned when the pack gathered their meagre possessions from their previous shelter... There.
Not wanting to remove it and carry it all the way without any protections, she lifted the small black suitcase and carried it back to the terminal. Silva eyed her the entire time until the case was opened and the item displayed.
“Scan it! Scan it and send it to me!” She chirped her excitement, her feathers waving erratically. Pan furrowed her brow in confusion.
“How would I do that?”
The avian paused, navigating another terminal off-screen for a moment. A soft beep played in the den. “I’ve provided your analyzer with my information. Just pop the device in and activate it. It will take a while, but I’ll be able to work on the file I’ve collected.”
“Analyzer?”
Silva sighed. “You have a box next to the terminal, yes?”
Pan glanced at the black box that Joseph used to lay his beverages on. “Is it black and about this big?” She held her paws apart in roughly the correct dimensions.
“Yes. Those are standard for Union outposts. They’re for studying the flora and fauna as well as any minerals that the teams find.”
Pan dropped an ear as she examined the over-sized coaster with Violet curiously joining in. In truth, she had assumed it to be the system in which the terminal ran. Finding out that it was far from that was... interesting. She poked a circle on the face of it, the front opening to reveal a space about as wide as one of the woven pillows that Joseph makes on occasion and perhaps tall enough for a few of their cups, were they to be stacked.
The Lilhun looked at the compartment and back to the translator prototype before shifting her gaze to the screen. “And this will not harm the device?”
Silva shook her head. “It will send me a schematic of its construction. There should also be a cable tucked away within it for interfacing with technology. That was added a few years ago to most of them to assist in repairing equipment that may be discovered. Once I have the schematic, which should only take a moment, I can tell you where to hook up the probes to fetch the code.”
Pan cycled a breath and glanced at her kit, the Atmo nodding energetically in assent to the procedure. She giggled, feeling more at ease with her young seeming so in favour of the development. She placed the dainty device within the compartment, closing the door with a soft clack. A slight hum played from the device for a few minutes, the avian staring at something on her other screen with rapt attention.
“Interesting.” Silva glanced at Pan. “This is stolen Union tech?”
The Paw paused for too long while considering how she should answer.
“No, I’m not mad or anything. This will make the next step remarkably simple. Open the compartment and plug the red cable into the corresponding slot.” Silva thought for a moment. “You can identify red, yes?”
Pan giggled, nodding as she did as instructed.
“Perfect. Close the compartment and we can boot up the more intensive work.” Silva chirped in satisfaction with their progress. “Nothing left to do but pump some more power into it and it will automatically send me the information when it’s done! It will do a boot-up process for a while before turning on the software it needs to read what’s on the device, though.”
The Lilhun froze as the door clacked closed again. “Pump more power?” She had a bad feeling about this.
The bright blue avian trilled. “It’s an analyzer, after all. They’re not cheap to run. An outpost like yours would usually turn off all their equipment befo-”
The room went dark, a soft pop could barely be heard from the roof.
Violet clicked in alarm at the sudden absence of light, but Pan had a vague idea what she had inadvertently done after listening to Joseph so much when he was doing the initial wiring work.
Harrow is not going to be pleased when she hears about this.
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Sahari stirred, the moonlight above illuminating the otherwise dim forest. She was not required to be on watch this moon, but had long since gotten into the habit of sleeping in bursts for such, so she quickly resigned herself to being awake.
Most of the caravan was resting, two of Trill’s assigned females being relegated to this watch along with Tel assuming the position of a full watch, as usual. Sahari stretched as she stood, herself idly looking for her bond to ensure he had gotten to rest at all. She knew he was having much trouble sleeping since he learned the truth about his most recent beloved, and knew that he was struggling with a deep internal strife that the revelation had unearthed. He claimed to be able to heal, but she wasn’t so sure.
She didn’t find him in the immediate area, forcing her to widen her search to beyond what light the dim fire could provide after she added a log to it. She considered that he may be taking care of his needs further away, but noticed a black-cloaked figure sat against a tree just beyond the light of the flames, silver armour peeking out from under the garment.
Joseph had wandered away from the camp and settled some distance away, the orange glow of the fire just visible from his spot. She approached, opening her mouth to greet him once she was close enough, only to have a dull hissing sound out from above. She was being shushed from the trees.
“You harm his heart then guard his sleep, Tel?” Sahari called to the tree softly, irritation building.
The gunmetal-grey-furred Lilhun lounged on a branch, one arm hanging lazily as she rested her cheek on the other, her gaze fixed on the Grand Hunter. “He is far from the others.”
“Looking for you.” Sahari retorted quickly.
Tel remained quiet for a long moment. “Why?”
The ex-Grand Huntress glowered at the female before sighing. “He is in possession of great care for you. His concern for your well-being is greater than his sorrow.”
Tel nodded softly as she accepted the answer, shifting her gaze from the Human to Sahari. “They are a people of a single mate, no?”
“You cared not for such earlier.”
“It didn’t matter then.”
Sahari raised a brow, leaning against another tree to keep an eye on the female. “It does now?”
The female slipped back into silence, her eyes focused only on the sleeping male.
“You claimed him. Marked him. Why?”
Tel glanced at her, but quickly returned her regard to the Human. “Trill would have eliminated him. He is forbidden from harming the mark of a Blade.”
“But the treaty-”
“Does not include Humans.” Tel cut her off firmly. “Joseph would have had no protections.”
Sahari softened her expression. “Is that really all?”
The female glared at her, mouth parting to speak. No voice was given to her query, Tel instead looking back to the Human. “I didn’t want him hurt.”
A long silence built between the two. Tel kept a careful eye on the male and Sahari watched over the both of them from the ground. The black-furred female sighed.
“He loves you.”
Tel flinched. “I know, but he has his mate. They are a monogamous people.”
Sahari walked over to Joseph, standing over the male so as to break line of sight, staring up at Tel. “And yet he faults you not for your actions.”
The tree-bound female looked at her.
“You abandoned him. He opened his soul to you and you faltered, shattering what little he had reclaimed from the Void. Instead of harbouring ill intent, he justifies your decisions and blames himself for allowing it to happen. Every moment he is torn between seeking your comfort and loathing his reliance on it.” She pointed a claw at the female. “You hide, running from the consequences of your own actions and imparting greater harm upon him. Why? Must you seek his touch while shunning his care? Must you flee his affections while protecting him so?”
Tel narrowed her eyes. “I am protecting my Grand Hunter.”
“You are protecting your mate.” Sahari countered firmly. “Just as he protected you from your blood-father and his insistence on choosing whom to sire your young.”
The female averted her gaze. “A blade must only be with their sheath.”
“And what prevents him from being such? Young? Or merely your own acceptance?” Sahari waved a paw widely to dismiss the notion. “You sought him for little more than warmth until it became more. You sought a place beside him the moment he embraced your nature and sent you against Mi’low.”
“You know not of what you speak, Sahari.”
“Need i? Need I be so intimate to see? Reflect upon your words and actions, Tel. You call him your male but fail to follow through when he thinks of his mate he was forced to leave behind. You mark him in passion instead of through necessity. Even now you gaze upon him with longing in your eyes yet you hold yourself on high so as to escape once he wakes.”
“Cease, Sahari.” Tel’s voice cracked as she commanded an end to the speech.
“No. You harmed him deeper than you may ever know. I demand an answer. What stay your paw when he needed your affections the most, Tel? What stilled your words when you watched him crumble as you failed to claim him in a moment of most importance? What-”
“Verse one: Only one shall bear your mark.” The female recited a tenet from memory, stopping Sahari from continuing.
“What does that-”
“Verse two: Only one shall guide your edge
Verse three: Only one shall draw your steel
Verse four: Only one shall know your blade
Verse five: Only one shall still your claws
Verse six: Only one shall know your presence”
Sahari wore a cautious expression. “I take it those are ‘the six’ you mentioned.”
Tel cycled a breath. “’Only one shall be your sheath, and you shall rest your being within their grasp. You shall rend what draws their ire and silence that which speaks against them. You shall remain their shadow and their will. You shall defend them, body and soul. You are a blade, and a blade without a sheath shall rust to dust.’” The female’s voice grew quiet, her quoting finalizing. “’Rise, Blades of Avalon. Seek your sheaths, find their enemies, and present to them their heads. Let nary a glimmer of your radiance fall upon the eyes of others, for only one shall see its true beauty.’”
The black-furred female looked thoughtful, her eyes wandering the ground as she spoke. “You think he would deny you your oath? Trill asked what he answered to a vow. What vow would you give? You have already promised him your fealty as your Grand Hunter.”
“I would wish him mine and mine alone.” Tel answered softly. “There rests no room for more blades to a single sheath.”
“’Only one shall bear your mark’?”
“And only your mark will they bear.” The female completed the rest of the verse, though it was spoken with a heavy heart.
“His heart holds another.” Sahari stated flatly.
“I know.”
“But he has also chosen you.”
“...I know.”
Sahari took a deep breath and watched the female as her moistened eyes remained fixed on the male. “He will never bear Pan’s mark, you know. She is unable.”
Tel glared at her. “You know that is not the crux of the issue.”
“Is it not? He will bear only your mark.”
“It is the spirit of the rule.”
Sahari laughed, the noise only barely muffled by her paw as she fought to lessen the volume lest she wake the male. “Since when have you care for rules?”
Tel’s gaze grew distant. “I value these.”
“Then embrace them.”
A raised eyebrow was returned.
“Ensure no other dare mark your male. His heart is not yours alone, but he seeks no other. His bond is fond of your presence upon him as well. I’m sure she would endorse your motivations.”
Tel sighed. “I believe you were supposed to be happy that he would no longer fall victim to me.”
Sahari winced and stared back at the ground. “He was hurt when he thought you cared not for him when he had opened his heart to you. I did not want him to fall.”
“And you changed your mind?”
Sahari shook her head. “He will hurt no matter what now. His only solace is that you remain well. He is a fool, but a fool whom has chosen you, despite my wishes. If you would care for him as well, I can forgive.”
Tel watched the male slumber again, though her gaze held less hesitation. “He has rejected the notion that I may seek him.”
“You have caused him to reject that you might.”
“...What might convince him otherwise?”
Sahari rose her eyes to see a placid yet firm determination from the distraught female. She sighed, walking back towards the fire and calling over her shoulder. “He finds your confidence alluring, Tel. He will be strong for his bond, but he desires someone to be strong for him as well. Be his strength. You are uniquely suited.”
“Sahari.”
She stopped, turning an ear without moving otherwise.
“Joseph was right. You have someone to care for, you just won’t allow yourself to acknowledge it.”
Sahari continued walking, only stopping once she had returned by the warmth of the flames. She turned her gaze skyward, wondering if the Hunt Mother had perhaps laid what she had lost upon her lap, yet she was too ignorant and misguided to see it for what it was. Too fearful that it might be torn from her claws. She smiled as she remembered the Human giving her advice.
Be greedy. Grip your happiness and rip it from whatever deity dares take it from you. Tear the throat out of whomever the dares steal it.
He was very much a fool, but perhaps he had a point.
She mumbled under her breath, lest the words reach the ears of those whom it was and was not meant. “I know, Tel. I know.”