Nadi, the den-mother of the Stoneborn tribe, was sitting on one side of a circle of puppies, teaching a howl about the difference between yumao and duyu. When Rega taught this one, she always looked slightly worried, and emphasized how ill duyu could make even an adult. She had always insisted upon inspecting the yumao before it was cooked, even after the gatherers were experienced enough to know the difference.
Nadi, however, made a game of holding up a bunch of duyu, and then an almost identical bundle of yumao. Then she asked all the puppies to yip when she said the correct name, and everyone who got it right received an approving smile and a pat on their heads. Only when everyone got both mushrooms right did she run through the howl once more before giving the pups several toys to play with and letting them run free. They yelped loudly as they chased after balls made of inflated bladders, and bundles of fur, allowing Nadi to sit back, looking at the two adult males waiting nearby.
Kaz had wondered why the two males who had been guarding the gatherers when the woshi took him were there, but he was shocked when Nadi told them to watch the puppies while she went to get some water for them. And the two warriors obeyed, settling comfortably down among the pups, who promptly brought their toys over for the males to play with. What was going on here?
Kaz’s eyes lingered on the puppies, remembering how fun it had been to simply relax among them, allowing himself to enjoy their rambunctious energy, interspersed with sudden and unexpected naps. He found that he was actually envious of the two males, and wished he could simply join them without question. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen, so he followed Nadi instead.
The Stoneborn tribe seemed to be in the early part of their day. Kaz could smell the lingering scent of food, but the hunters and gatherers were gone. Females were working to prepare leather, make firemoss oil, craft weapons, and a hundred other things that were made easier by using power. He knew they were also ready to defend the den and the puppies with their lives, but there was none of the grim unease that had characterized the den of the Broken Knives.
Kaz held Li close as he made his way around the edge of the den, enjoying the fact that she was small enough for him to hug again. He thought she was actually slightly smaller now than she had been when they first re-entered the mountain, and it reminded him of the times when it had been just him and her, exchanging images and emotions without words.
Li sent him a warm rush of affection, along with a mental picture of herself, nipping his nose if he didn’t move faster.
The dragon sniffed.
Kaz glanced around, saw no one, and ran after Nadi. He could feel the ki draining from Li’s channels, then his own, but it would recover quickly enough once they stopped. Fortunately, the pool of water the Stoneborn used as a water source was just around a pair of huts, and Kaz turned the corner, almost managing to stop before he ran into Nadi. Almost.
Thanks to his body refinement, Kaz managed to avoid falling, but Nadi wasn’t so lucky. The den-mother was holding a very large, very full water bladder, and when she fell, it burst, spraying all three of them with its contents.
Nadi yelped unhappily, staring at the spreading pool of water. Kaz extended a hand to help her up, and Nadi accepted it with a sigh, not even looking at him as she muttered, “I hope there’s another bladder available in the storage cave. That was the last one I had.”
“I have one,” Kaz told her eagerly, shifting a damp and unhappy Li to the crook of his elbow so he could tap his pouch. Feeding it a precise balance of ki that had become automatic by now, he removed a bag he’d picked up in the xiyi den. It was empty, of course, but it was made from a kind of leather he wasn’t familiar with. The leather was very soft, and didn’t leak, even along the seams.
When he looked up, he found Nadi staring at him, and his ears folded slightly as he realized that in the heat of the moment, he’d completely forgotten that she might think he was dead. She might have forgotten about him entirely, for that matter, and be about to attack him or howl for help.
She did neither of those things, however. Instead, her ears went straight up, and her tail began to wag. “Kaz!” she exclaimed, looking as pleased to see him as he’d wished his sister might be. Then her eyes fell on Li, widened, and she took a step back, her paw slipping on the wet stone so she started to topple over backwards again.
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Kaz dropped the water bag and caught her hand instead, pulling her back upright until she was steady. She promptly pinched his ear as if he was a very young puppy who had stolen another pup’s favorite toy.
“You made me think you were dead!” she said as Kaz pretended to rub his ear. The pinch hadn’t really hurt, but he knew what she expected, especially when she stood with her hands on her hips and an expression of disapproval on her face. Her shape and coloring were entirely different from Rega’s, but in that moment she looked so much like his mother that he wanted to laugh. Instead, he flattened his ears, attempting to look contrite. Li clicked softly, wiggling out of his arms so she could climb up on his shoulders, putting herself higher than both Kaz and Nadi.
“I’m sorry,” he told the yellow-furred female, and it was true. He had never wanted to deceive her, but the Stoneborns had left him no choice. “The humans I was with…their leader would have killed you all for blocking his path. Then the old female insisted I stay, so I had to find a way to escape.”
“Captured or rescued pups are supposed to stay with their new tribe unless the old one comes to trade for them,” she reminded him sternly. “It’s too dangerous for you to go wandering. Though,” her eyes lingered on the golden ring of fur around Kaz’s neck, then the dragon perched precariously on his shoulders, “I heard you made your way down to the Copperstrikers. And you seem to be safe enough now. And not a numb-mind.”
She gave him a look that only den-mothers seemed to know how to do. It was at once affectionate and chiding, and made Kaz want to tuck his tail and apologize some more. “No, not a numb-mind. I just needed everyone to stop watching me.”
He could tell she’d already figured that out, but she sighed deeply, then looked around. “But why are you back? Did you decide that you wanted to stay with us after all? I think…it would not be a good place for you. When Listet heard the Copperstriker chief had offered for you, she was furious. She kept talking about how much we could have traded you for if we’d known you were a warrior and a descendent of a Deep tribe.”
Kaz grimaced. While members of different tribes didn’t speak to each other often, knowing about nearby dangers and what other tribes were doing could be the difference between being prepared or not when something happened. He really shouldn’t be surprised that news of the zhiwu swarm had reached the Stoneborns, and of course his contribution to stopping it had been mentioned as well.
He shook his head. “Li and I came to let you know we were safe, and to thank you for taking care of us while we were here. Many females wouldn’t have been so kind to a male, especially a numb-mind.”
Nadi blinked, then looked around. “Li? Your fuergar? It didn’t run away? I assumed you’d found a new creature when the old one, ah-”
Li said, hissing softly.
“After you were taken, Lan and Lok were assigned to help me keep better control of the pups,” Nadi said absently, eyes on the dragon. She lifted a finger and pointed. “Did that creature speak?”
Kaz reached up and stroked Li’s neck, silently urging the dragon not to react to being called a ‘creature’. “Li was pretending to be a fuergar before, but she’s actually a dragon.”
The yellow-furred den-mother shook her head. “Your fuergar is one of the masters, and you’re a great warrior,” she said wonderingly. “It’s like I’ve entered one of the old howls, from the time when we were guardians of the Deep. I think if the Voice spoke to me right now, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
She might not be, but Kaz was. “Guardians of the Deep?”
Nadi reached out and plucked the forgotten water bag from Kaz’s hand, then turned and led him back the way she’d come. “Did your den-mother not teach you the howls of the first ancestors? In the time before memory, we served the Voice and the Master, and carved out the city in the Deep. We watched over it for them until the Master was betrayed and the Voice went silent. The old howls tell us to wait for them to return, but until today, I thought those were only howls to keep the puppies occupied.”
It was Kaz’s turn to shake his head. Of course Rega hadn’t taught him and the other Broken Knife pups those particular howls. He was particularly interested in finding out why Nadi had called Li one of the Masters. Did other kobolds know those ‘Masters’ were dragons? Even if she tried, given the way Oda felt about history, she probably would have told Rega to stop. He wished he had time to listen to them now, but he didn’t. He’d already spent too long here. It was amazing that someone hadn’t stumbled over them yet.
Nadi crouched by the side of the pool, dipping the mouth of the bag beneath the surface. Bubbles rose as it filled, and Kaz said, “I should go. I just didn’t want you to worry about me. You remind me of…someone else, and she would have fretted over a lost pup, even if it wasn’t one of her own.”
The bubbles stopped, but Nadi didn’t stand. Instead, she watched the water as she said, “I’m glad you did. Hearing that a blue-furred pup helped a tribe several levels below us is one thing, but seeing you is another.”
She pulled the dripping bag out of the water before saying softly, “So many male pups leave, you know. Some are traded, while others die. I watch them grow up, and then they’re gone. Sometimes I get to see their puppies, but it seems like I don’t, more often than not. I think that once you leave, this will be like a dream. It already doesn’t feel real.”
Something rose up in Kaz at the deep sorrow in her voice. It was the sound of a thousand mothers, mourning the loss of a thousand young. Life in the mountain was hard, especially in the heights, where pups were as likely to starve as be killed by lopo or snatched by janjio. He felt that connection to something greater than himself again, and said, “It will be better. Soon. If this is a dream, then it’s one that foretells the future.”
Nadi looked up, meeting Kaz’s eyes, and whatever she saw there made her own widen. The water bag sloshed as her arm fell limp, and she bowed her head again, pressing her other hand to her chest. “A dream or an old, old howl,” she said softly as Li convinced the power in the air around them that their power was a part of it. The convincing wasn’t as difficult as usual, and they left Nadi behind, alone in a cavern with a water bag given to her by someone she barely dared to believe in.