The trees are thinning: we’re heading up one of the mountains’ sides. It’s not the same mountain as the one Kalanthia’s cave is on, nor is it near the site of my arrival. Instead, it’s one a bit further down the range.

I might think that we are likely to encounter less danger except for the fact that I know that there are at least two very powerful beings living in low-density areas. Kalanthia, for the sake of Lathani, and the squid thing living in the salt lake under the mountain, perhaps because it can’t go anywhere else.

So in reality, we may end up facing anything. At the very least, we’re likely to face that monstrous spider-like creature.

I sense Sirocco arriving before I actually see her; the sun is setting and a mist is embracing the upper slopes of the mountains. Since we’re now on the upper slope of this mountain, swirling mist obscures our long-distance vision. It’s not very thick – at the moment. I suspect that that might change.

Rain may even be in our near future. I become suddenly glad that I’ve taken a few minutes every day to oil my weapons and that my hide armour has been fully tanned. Hopefully everything will come out fine.

We pause as I communicate Sirocco’s imminent arrival. A dark shape wings its way through the mist and then comes to land on my shoulder. With my thick nere-hide armour, I don’t feel her impact nearly as much as I’m used to.

“What’s been happening?” I ask, my muscles tensing. I sense that Fenrir’s still alive, and that he’s awake now, but feeling very groggy.

Sirocco sends a series of images to me, which I quickly pass on to my Bound.

“Right, so now we all know what the situation is-” I’m interrupted by the nunda juvenile.

I don’t! I’m not as good as mother at hearing thoughts and those images were too quick for me to see, she complains. I close my eyes for a moment and sigh. Sirocco sends a sense of surprised question.

No, I didn’t want her to come, I answer the bird privately. She followed us.

Sirocco responds with disapproval and concern.

I know, I tell her, trying to send reassurance along the Bond. She’s promised to be good.

When Sirocco sends a sense of doubt along the Bond, I just sigh again, but don’t respond. It’s not like I’ve got any major reassurance for her. And with this added problem of communication…I should have thought about it before.

“How much of our internal communication can you understand?” I ask Lathani. She cocks her head sideways.

What is on the surface, or has strong emotion attached. But when messages are sent too quickly, or are very complex, or things like these images, I don’t get it, she answers, a hint of shame. Mother says I will be able to do that after my Evolution.

“Much good that does us now,” I sigh. “This is another reason why you shouldn’t have come,” I say in frustration. “Having a Bond and a means of communicating quickly and silently is a major benefit to our fights.” After all, having to do everything verbally means potentially attracting attention at the wrong moment, or taking too long to communicate a message – sending an abrupt feeling of danger is a lot quicker than shouting ‘look out’, for one thing.

Then why don’t you offer me a Bond? Lathani suggests.

“No!” I yelp quietly at the idea. “Your mother would kill me.”

She wouldn’t, Lathani argues.

“Yes, she absolutely would! Maybe you don’t remember, but she almost bit my head off when she thought I was trying to tame you by feeding you cooked meat right at the beginning of things.” The young nunda tilts her head the other way.

No, I don’t remember that, she admits. But could you not offer me a temporary Bond – one just for now? If it’s gone before we return, then mother will never know.

About to say ‘no’ immediately, I hesitate. Actually…maybe that’s not such a bad idea. I could use Tame on her, offer a Bond which only lasts a day or something. Surely that wouldn’t leave any marks on her soul? Or if it did, very minimal ones? I’m not convinced that Kalanthia wouldn’t notice, but if the Bond had already been dissolved, would she be so angry about it? Especially if the reason for the Bond being in place was to protect Lathani from suffering the ultimate consequence for her bad choices?

What do you think? I send down the Bond to my present Bound.

The kiinas, as expected, are not too bothered.

If it will reduce risk to my mate, it is a good idea, is Hades’ opinion. Persephone is just as practical, but in a different way.

Communication within the pack is important. This will improve communication.

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Sirocco sends agreement, throwing her vote in for Bonding with Lathani if I insist on letting her be a part of the battle at all.

I agree, is Bastet’s thought too. If Lathani is going to join the fight, then she should be a full part of it.

Are you not letting the cubs join? I ask. She sends a sense of negation.

No. They know to find a good spot to hide, and to pay attention to our movements in case we decide to retreat.

And will they obey? I ask, a little sardonically, casting a glance at the expectant juvenile nunda sitting within our circle.

They are not yet at this difficult age. They will obey, Bastet reassures me. Not yet at the difficult age, she says. Great – so we have this to look forward to from the cubs as well….

But that is future-Markus’ problem so I forcibly move my thoughts on.

And you, River? I ask my only silent Bound.

The Great Predator is not one to anger, he warns. But, he continues with reluctance, I suspect that she would be even more angered if her cub were to die.

Yeah, that’s my thought too, I sigh mentally. Alright, looks like everyone is in agreement about inviting Lathani to – temporarily – join our little posse.

“I’m going to offer you a Tame Bond,” I tell Lathani. “It will just be for the next few hours, OK? If this ends up taking longer than the night, we’ll have to renew it. Any questions?” I pause for a moment.

What will happen? she asks, suddenly sounding a little uncertain. I frown in confusion.

“What do you mean?”

Will it…will the Bond hurt? Or do we have to battle or something? Mother warned me about battles, but I didn’t understand what she meant. Interesting – Kalanthia seems to know a surprising amount about Taming. I wonder how.

“No,” I reassure Lathani. “Not for this type of Bond. This one is more of a negotiation: I put in requirements and promises, and then you respond to either accept them or put in a counter-proposal of requirements and promises. When we both accept, the Bond snaps into place. No pain, no battles.”

Then I can change things?

“You can,” I answer slowly, “but I will be putting in the requirement that you follow instructions from any of my other Bound – you’ve already agreed to it, so I don’t see any problem with formalising it. If you change that, you won’t be taking part in the fight – you’ll be sticking with the cubs on the sidelines of the battle.” Actually, maybe that’s not such a bad idea….

Perhaps Lathani realises that I’m seriously considering side-lining her again, because she hastily confirms that it won’t be a problem for her to agree to following orders. I then check if she has any more questions. She doesn’t, so I initiate the Bond.

Into my side of the ‘trade window’, I put the time limit – only until the dawn – and my own requirement that she follow the clear orders of anyone within the network of Bonds without question. I do put in the proviso that if following the order would put her at immediate risk of harm, she can choose not to. At least this way we all have a bit more insurance against her willfulness – yelling at her after the fact for disobeying at the wrong moment is one thing, but the actual reality of it could have tragic consequences.

In return for my requirements, I promise that I will never intentionally order her into a position where she is guaranteed to get hurt, without her full knowledge and consent. I promise that I will protect her as much as I am able, and that I will not order her to be side-lined as long as she has not proven to be a danger to either herself or others.

Lathani hesitates for a moment, then accepts the Bond without adding in anything extra. I don’t know if it’s because she didn’t think that I would accept what she would like to add, or didn’t feel like a short-term Bond like this needed any further additions. Either way, I feel the Bond snap into place between us.

It’s interesting, because I sense that the Bond is as different from Sirocco’s Bond as it is from my Dominate Bonds. It’s actually somewhere in between. Where I sense that the control of the Bond of my Dominate Bonds is entirely in my hands, and with Sirocco’s Bond is split equally with each of us able to control our own ends, I sense that Lathani’s leans more towards the former than the latter.

I don’t know if it’s because she didn't put any of her own requirements in before accepting, or because freedom wasn’t such an important thing for Lathani as Sirocco. Maybe it’s because of the requirement for obedience within the Bond itself, something which is absent from Sirocco’s. Either way, I sense that in this case neither of us can break the Bond within the time-limit. I also sense that I can control Lathani with it in the same way as with any of my Dominated Bound, as long as I don’t contravene what I promised when creating it.

It’s a relief in one way, but a concern in another: is this likely to leave marks on Lathani’s soul? And if it does, are they likely to look like a Dominate Bond which then was broken? Well, it’s done. It’s not possible to change the past; if Kalanthia’s going to get angry with me for the Bond, there’s nothing I can do about that right now.

I sense that there’s a notification waiting for me – no doubt Taming Lathani has triggered a rank-up to Tame. I quickly open it and scan it, not noticing anything particularly ground-breaking. Closing the message, I resolve to look at it in more detail later; for now, we have a lizog to rescue.

Now that we have a Bond, I quickly send the images from Sirocco over to her. The bird followed as the spider-monstrosity went running through the forest. It had run in almost a straight line in this direction, moving around a couple of areas which I take a mental note of for later – if this creature was avoiding them, we probably want to as well.

Breaking through the trees had made it both easier and harder for Sirocco to follow. Easier in that it was simpler to fly through the open air of the mountainside rather than needing to dodge all the trees; harder because her stamina pool is still rather small for the amount of flying she needed to do.

Eventually, the spider had headed into a cave mouth, something wider than it is tall – the spider had to lower itself a bit to enter. Sirocco flew close but didn’t dare go in completely. She heard movement and a number of different animal noises, some she recognised, some she didn’t. It seems like there’s a whole menagerie of creatures in there. However, whether they are hostile or victims as well will remain to be seen. Though, that said, the two states are not exactly exclusive.

Time for me to try to find out more information. We have an insider; hopefully I’ll be able to connect to him as I did once before. While I’m itching to run inside and save him, I know that any information I can get will be helpful, and might be the difference between succeeding in our mission and failing. The spider hasn’t killed Fenrir yet, even though it’s arrived back in its den. It must have some other reason for bringing him back. We have time.

At least, that’s what I tell myself.