Клэр Белл - The Named - The Complete Series

“All right, youngster,” Fessran announced to the young Firekeeper. “Enough for now. Go back to your work. Since the clan leader likes what you’ve done, you may continue it, but don’t use that as an excuse to be lazy. ”

Ratha called Ratharee to her and watched the student lope away with his ring-tailed companion on his back.

“He’s clever, isn’t he? Makes me feel old and stupid.” Fessran sighed.

“If you got yourself another treeling, my Firekeeper friend, you could do the same things.”

“No. If I can’t have Fessree, I’d prefer to burn my whiskers myself. And have smart young students to think up easier ways to bundle wood.”

“It may go beyond just wood bundling. You know that, since you’re encouraging him,” Ratha pointed out.

“It may, but nothing will ever top what a certain young herder did with the Red Tongue.” Fessran lay down beside Ratha, pawing her playfully.

“Flatterer! No one will ever accuse you of being old and stupid, not while you have a voice to tease me with. What power has the Red Tongue compared to Fessran’s?” With that, Ratha rolled over and play-wrestled with the Firekeeper, while Ratharee scolded both.

The sound of rustling brush and trotting feet brought both heads up. The sun flashed on a dark copper coat as Thakur jogged toward them and slowed to touch noses. With a rising purr, he rubbed past Ratha.

“It is good to smell you again, Thakur,” she said softly. “I’ve thought often of you.”

“And I have missed you, yearling. I have much to tell, but first let me rest.”

He touched noses with Fessran, then flopped himself down in the shade with Aree on his shoulder.

“I thought everyone would still be off yowling in the bushes,” he said, grinning at both of them. “Did you hear any good courting songs this year, Fess?”

The Firekeeper hissed scornfully.“None of this year’s crop of suitors has any voice at all.”

“So we make cubs by singing? That is something new among the Named.” Thakur lolled his tongue at her.

Hearing Thakur’s teasing was like old times, but it also served to remind Ratha that the delayed mating season had been short, with few of the Named taking part. Her own heat had lasted only a few days, then tapered off.

Thakur turned to Ratha.“Have the other scouts returned yet?”

“They’ve been coming in during the past few days. You’re the last. Everyone’s hungry. I’ll have a herdbeast culled.”

Thakur’s brow furrowed slightly. “The last cull took all the unfit animals. Have the herders choose carefully. We need good stock for breeding.”

Ratha felt slightly irritated at him for telling her something she knew well. But he was right; they had to be careful.

“Those who have journeyed far for the sake of their clan shall not sleep tonight with empty bellies,” she answered. “We will take what is needed, no more. Fessran, I’d like to speak with Thakur alone. Would you go and look to the culling?”

The Firekeeper sprang to her feet and padded away. Ratha turned to Thakur.“So then, herding teacher. What tales do you bring?”

He paused, then answered.“I have news, but first tell me what the other scouts have reported.”

Ratha wondered why he was being evasive, but she said only,“The scouts found many new beasts, but none appear to be as well suited to our needs as the creatures we now keep.”

“Oh?” Thakur cocked his head. “That surprises me.”

“Young Khushi came back with a wild tale about huge, shaggy creatures who bear tusks and wear their tails on their faces. Although he didn’t think we could kill the big ones, he thought we might take the young.”

“While their mothers’ backs are turned, of course,” said Thakur with a grin, for he knew how fiercely protective herdbeast mothers could be.

Ratha glanced at him and went on.“I may go with him to see these face-tails, since we might be able to use them. After all, my grandfather brought us three-horns, and everyone told him they were too dangerous. We just need to learn new ways of managing certain animals.”

“Did any other scout find something worthwhile?”

She sighed.“I suppose you didn’t find anything either, since you’re so eager to know if others did. There were some reports that I considered as possibilities. One scout said he saw many prong-horns. He also spoke of lowing beasts with widespread horns and great humps on their shoulders. He thought the prong-horns too small and fleet for our keeping and the others too ugly tempered. Again, I said I might go with him to judge the creatures for myself.” After a pause she noticed he wasn’t listening but seemed to be turned inward as if thinking hard. “What’s the matter, Thakur?”

Slowly he answered,“Ratha, I did find some creatures on the sea coast that we might herd. They are strange, but they can be managed, and I think I know how.”

Carefully he described the seamares, including their shore-dwelling existence.“These water-beasts are larger than our dapplebacks and will provide more meat per cull. They have tusks, but they are clumsy on land.”

“These creatures do sound strange, Thakur,” Ratha said doubtfully after he had finished. “Fat, tusked dapplebacks with short legs and duck’s feet? And you say they swim in this great, wave-filled lake you found? How would we keep one from just swimming away if it didn’t want to be our meat?”

“How do we keep our herdbeasts from running away when we cull them? There are ways, especially when we work together.”

Ratha stared at her paws.“I suppose. But it sounds as if herding these creatures would cause a big change in the way our herders do things. And it might not work out.”

With a sharpness in his voice that betrayed a flicker of injured pride, he said,“Clan leader, I know we can live off these seamares because I have seen another doing it.”

Ratha’s whiskers bristled and her pupils expanded. She turned her head to stare at him. He looked uncomfortable, as if he had said more than he meant to. “One of our kind?”

“I don’t know who she is,” Thakur confessed. “She may come from among the fringes of the Un-Named who have bred with the clan. I tried to speak with her, but she doesn’t talk. At least not in the way that we do.”

He went on to describe the way the young stranger had blended into the seamare colony.

“A small number of us may be able to do the same thing,” he said. “Perhaps by watching her, we can learn.”

“She actually herds these duck-footed dapplebacks?” Ratha asked. “Are you sure you didn’t just see what you wanted to see, herding teacher? She could have been an Un-Named one passing among them. From what you say, she doesn’t sound as though she has the light in her eyes or the wit to understand herding.”

“I watched her fight off a crested sea eagle from a duck-footed foal. I also saw her swimming with the creatures and sharing their food. Whatever she is doing has a purpose. What’s more, the fact she has done it amazes me even more because she’s lame.” He described how the odd stranger got about on three legs, keeping one forepaw tucked against her chest.

Ratha eyed him.“You seem to have been taken with this bit of an Un-Named one.”

“Do you think I missed the mating season so much that I would consider taking an outside female?” Thakur flashed his teeth at her in irritation. “You and I, of any among the Named, should know the dangers of that!”

“I don’t seem to have to worry,” Ratha said, her voice turning bitter. “I know I won’t have cubs this year, even though the courting fever took me as it did the others. Perhaps it is better that I don’t, since I have all of the clan to look after.” She laid her nose on her paw for a minute and stared ahead into nothing. “I’m sorry, herding teacher. I didn’t mean that. Words can hurt more than claws sometimes.”