Stormfeather Ch. 09

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When they'd finished eating, he washed the dishes in some cold water and tossed in the vegetables with the rest of the bird in the pan before he covered it. Amy lit the fire and an oil lamp as well and the room grew brighter. Winky was lying still and watching something with interest. Stormfeather heard the click and sliding of nails on the floor behind him. When he turned around, his breath caught in his throat.

Amy stood before the mirror looking at herself. She turned this way and that, a dark she-wolf with a slightly reddish tone to her fur. In the light there in the room, one had to really look to see it, but he'd seen her in broad daylight and he was certain that she'd stopped his heart for a moment. The red had been a little more pronounced then. It was mostly on her sides, her long mane had it too, but it was much darker there.

Her lupine reflection smiled at him from the mirror. "I like me," she said.

She twisted on those amazing long legs of hers and he watched her lovely tail follow the movement. The laugh which came to his ears sounded a little childlike in her joy, "Haha, Look! I've -- I've even got stripes!"

She was correct. There on her sides were faint stripes, a little darker, as though they were extensions of her mane, though they weren't. They were just a pattern to break up her outline a little -- if it could be said that they had a purpose.

She turned toward him and with two steps she was before him, taller now on her canine feet, and topped with her lovely ears as they stood up just as his own did. She didn't mean to cause it, but her tail drifted back and forth slowly a little as she put her arms around his neck to kiss him.

"I know that you find me beautiful as a woman," she said a little seriously, "and I count it as my incredibly good fortune that you do. But inside me, I've never felt that way. I've always struggled a bit on my best days just to feel as though I might be a little bit pretty.

I want you to know something," she said as she wiped a small but happy tear from her eye. "For the first time in my life, I now feel beautiful. I feel like that to me, Arn, and I can see in your eyes that you see me that way too."

She hugged him tightly as she whispered into his ear, "Thank you for this. And thank you for wanting me. I know enough about all of this and mostly I know about you to know that it's not just all about mating."

They stood holding each other for a long while -- long enough for Winky to get to her feet and walk to them, sniffing them both and walking past them once close enough to drag her side along their legs as though she was a very large and toothy --looking cat.

It made them both laugh and Amy bent down to tousle the red wolf's ruff a little and kiss the top of her snout. "I'm glad that we've gained your acceptance, cutie."

"Lets' get dressed, Arn. I want to wear the things that you made for me. If we're going to meet at least one of these others -- as you call them, then I want to be taken seriously." She nodded at him once, "I think -- well, I'm pretty sure that I could just go anywhere with you just as we are, but if there's someone there to impress, well I guess that I'd want us to not appear as another couple of wild ones wandering in if they have some expectations."

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They began the walk up the rise as Amy tightened her gunbelt.

"Why do you bring that?" Stormfeather asked.

Amy shrugged, "It's like I said, I want to be taken seriously. I also want to make a statement, I guess. See, I don't know what we'll find there. I might be just another female there. We're a pair, Arn, and I'm your female, aren't I?"

She drew her father's old Colt and inspected the cylinders for a moment before sliding it back into the holster to look at him. "I'll blow the balls off the first one who thinks that I'm available."

Arn had no answer to it. All that he could do was grin and in a moment, they laughed a little at it.

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Winky stayed with them the whole way, though she went ahead a little as they walked through the burial ground, staying well clear of the mounds and platforms which caused her to shy away. Amy had a sense that there were some sort of presences there and turned to Stormfeather. "Ghosts?"

"Spirits," he nodded, "Most do not see us, though some do. None will bother us, and Winky will stay away from those who she can see or feel."

They came within sight of the caves and Winky drew back from one, half-crouching in sudden alarm and beginning to snarl at what she sensed there and the motion that she saw inside. She turned and came cautiously back to stand between the others of her pack. Amy's hand rested on her head lightly to calm her.

There were three of them, two females who stood leaning against the wall of the opening and the silver-haired male who took a place in front.

"So there is truth to the prophesy at last," he smiled.

The females looked at Stormfeather appreciatively, but appeared to be a little unconvinced at the same time. "Very nice to look at," the older of them nodded, "and no doubt interesting to lie with, but these are the ones whose coming was foretold for so long?"

The younger female detached herself from the wall and walked over toward Amy, giving her a dismissive once-over, "A mildly strange-looking bitch that he's taken as well, if in truth this is him and if this is her."

"If you look in the right way, Sheena," Stormfeather said with a growing smirk, "You can begin to see what this young one might look like as a human."

Amy remembered his lessons to her. She tilted her head and grinned, "Uh-huh, and mildly strange-looking doesn't cover the homely bitch that I'm looking at, either."

The female snarled and drew herself back to spring, but recoiled when Amy raised her hand. The barrel of the Colt hung there steadily in her face.

"This won't kill you," she grinned, "but Jesus Murphy, is it ever gonna smart, and right now, I'd love to see you with a furrow right between your eyes."

The male stepped forward, "This is not what was intended," he said, "We have watched and seen you in the time that you have been here," he said to Stormfeather, "and we know this one from when she was whelped in this very place. These ones here have doubts, that is all. We have waited many lifetimes for the ones. To have a pair of newcomers appear together leaves them with reservations and, ... uncertainties."

Stormfeather looked at them coolly. "If the arrival of a pair of travelers causes these ones doubts so that all they can offer is scorn, then let them keep their uncertainties. We have no need to trouble you. I began far from here, made by one who said that all of us must come here -- and so I came. She told me that my coming was foretold in some tale. All of this means little to me."

He frowned, "I do not know if we are the ones that this story tells of. But I know that I can get a better welcome almost anywhere that I go from men."

He saw the remains of a small fire near the entrance behind them, long cold embers and ashes. Stormfeather raised his hand and the place was lit by a tiny sun that rose from his palm to hover above them all. The ones from the cave ducked and cringed.

The ball hissed and the dead fire was lit and flaring behind them and it was joined by other blazes, mirror images of the first as the whole place was lit brightly.

Winky looked around herself and leaned forward to sniff at the younger female. She jumped back when she was snarled at, but the female found herself lying on her back with a split lip. Amy hadn't used anything but the increased strength that she'd found in her anger. It might not have been the usual thing for a werewolf to do, but it sure felt good to throw a punch like that.

The old one was astounded, "You- you are the ones! You are to help with the troubles, I-"

"Go back to your cave," Stormfeather growled as they turned to go, "and learn to solve your own troubles."

"Wait!" the older female called, "Please hear me!"

Stormfeather laughed, "I have no wish to hear more insults. It would be better and quieter to seal the cave."

He looked at the younger female who now stood glaring at them, "If harm comes to these ones with me, or to the horses, or anything else outside of this place, you will find yourselves with new troubles."

"The others," the female said, "there are many who live in misery there," she pointed toward the cave, "you can help them!"

She stepped closer very cautiously, "Please, my mate was killed." She pointed at the other female, "My daughter's male as well." She looked down for a moment, "I ask for your pardon, and perhaps a little mercy."

She looked up again a little bit sadly as she shrugged, "Things like that, when they happen in your life, can cause one to become a bit bitter."

Sheena looked from one to the other. "I can see that," she said, "but if you hang around waiting and hoping for a foretelling to happen, and then get nasty when somebody shows up for advice, ..."

"Advice?" the younger one said, stepping over slowly, "I can offer you advice, new traveler. Stay away from the cave. I am sorry for what I said and did here when you came." She looked as though she was trying to fight off an emotion for a moment, but then it was gone as she spat out a bit of the blood from her lip as it healed.

"My parents came here looking for the place for them. I was whelped right here -- just as you were, but I was born a traveler, and did not become one from a bite. I grew up there," she said pointing, "and I found a mate for me, but he was one of the chained ones, let free by mistake. We met and were together long enough for us to decide that we wanted to go our way together."

Her eyes seemed to lose their focus as she looked away a little, "We wanted to leave the land where our kind is kept imprisoned. We wanted to go to the wild land, or even here to this land."

She looked down, "But the men waited for us at the gate. My male was caught fighting to keep me free, ..."

She looked to be faced with the emotion of her loss once more, but this time, it was clear that she was losing the fight as her eyes became clear again and her tears began.

"They used him," she said quietly, "they bewitched him and they used him to lure me so that I'd give in and go to them. I watched him bound and driven before their horses every day as they searched for me. I ran, but he always pointed them right to me. He couldn't help it."

She sobbed, "They promised me that if I came, then we could be together, but my male had already warned me that all of this would happen if he was caught. I knew that they lied, but I almost gave up."

The female held her head in her hands and wept for a few minutes. When she'd regained some control of herself, she went on with her voice breaking piteously. "He hadn't been freed by mistake. He'd been freed so that he might find a mate, though he didn't know it at the time."

A single sob escaped her, "They wanted females," she hissed, "they wanted girls to breed more slaves. He found his own voice and will as they whipped him out in the dust. They whipped him down as he told me to run and never return. I watched as a mage rode up, and when it was clear that I wouldn't go to them, the mage took the rest of my male's mind and he was less than an animal."

She held her hand down toward Winky and the wolf stepped forward to sniff once more. Satisfied, she sat down and looked up calmly.

"This one here has much more than they left my mate with," she said, "They turned and dragged him back with them. Two days later, I saw him speared on the spikes of their gates."

She looked at the others there and then to Sheena. "I see that you love each other. It is plain to my eyes. I had a male for me only a few weeks before the trap was closed. I give you my advice, traveler. If you love each other, stay away. There is nothing for you here but agony."

"Why do you tell this to us," Stormfeather asked, "Why did you wait for us to come?"

"We are three voices," her mother said, "as was foretold. My daughter tells of despair. The old one here is the voice of desperate hope. He is furious now at my daughter, though he knew what she would say to you. He thinks for the betterment of the ones inside. He thinks in ideals and would beckon you in to help."

"Which voice are you then?" Sheena asked.

The female sighed, "I am the voice in the middle. I can speak of what is real, adding little to the emotion of it in either direction. The ones in chains need help, it is simple. The men there hold many and seek even more. This male found the gate here clear and open, and watching it for many years told him that it was unguarded as it once was long ago -- again, just as it was foretold that it would be. When he saw you," she nodded toward Stormfeather, "he came to tell us that the portended one had likely arrived, but without the other who was to accompany him. So we came.

I lost my mate to the men, and every other one of my whelps. This one daughter is all that I have left." She looked at them with more than a little of her loathing showing through as she said, "I am not terribly old, but I am an old mother even so. I hate the men. I hate all humans for what they took from me. I dreamed and hoped for truth in what was portended, for nothing other than one of us to rise and kill them all.

But I have never truly believed," she said, "I always have my suspicions. Since my mate was taken, I doubt everything and cannot help it. I wish that this was the truth of the prophecy, but I fear that the men leave this gate unwatched for a reason. I fear and believe in my heart that they wait for the ones whose coming was foretold, knowing that they would have great power and desiring it for themselves.

This male wants you to come so that all are freed at last. My daughter wants nothing anymore, and warns you away." She sighed, "And I want you to come only if you are the promised ones, so that I might feel a little better if some of my hate is spent."

Sheena looked at her own male and waited. Stormfeather nodded after a little thought. "I can make my own prophesy," he said, "Unless another pair comes who is what you think you wait for, I can foretell that you will wait almost a full year longer for us. There are things which must be prepared and other things which wait undone. We need to think if we want to help at all."

"Why would you not want to help?" The male asked.

"We are travelers," Stormfeather replied, "My mate has not traveled as one of us yet, and also, we need to think about what we might have in common with the ones in there. I regret to hear that some are kept as slaves, but it happens among humans too. We walk to your gate, and you tell us that we must come to help. I still need to know why -- if there is risk to us. I still need to know if we should risk what we have against the chance to lose for these many that I do not know or have a reason to want to help -- other than they are the same creatures as we are. You may not wish to be told, but it is the truth."

The three nodded, though only the younger one of the females smiled a little to hear that her warning might be heeded at least for a while. They turned to go and as they walked to the cave, Stormfeather caused the fires to wink out until only the original one in the mouth of the cave still burned low.

"Why don't you come out of there and travel?" Sheena asked, "You might meet someone."

The female stopped after the older ones had gone in. "I do not know the ways of the humans, "she said, though I could learn, I guess. It is a thought. There is nothing here for me."

She turned back for a moment. "You may not trust some or all of us, but, ..."

She appeared to come to some sort of decision then.

"Live," she said, "live and love each other. That way, if the end comes to you as a pair, at least the other can say that they had something for a time. Maybe it is not so bitter then.

For your own sake," she said as she kicked dirt on the remains of the fire to put it out and, looking up, they saw her eyes glow softly in the darkness, "do not come here."