Messenger of the Guardians

The winter wind was in the air, although my timesense told me that it was only the middle of autumn. But the grass had already turned the dull brown color that forecasted snow, and there had been frost on the ground three mornings in a row.

About week after my joining ceremony, Raol gave the order to move. The village alpha (shaman, they called him, but that word had no meaning to me) practically ran circles around the village, helping round up the sheep here, directing the packing of a tent there. Trrl... my husband... was sent to chop down small trees that would be fashioned into sledges. The other females and I packed the food, bedding, and other belongings into the tents as they were rolled up. I had strapped Tryla to my back in a makeshift backpack that Geani had given me. My daughter's cooing sung me through the chilly morning and into the warmer afternoon.

Just past midday, we left without fanfare. No one was without something to carry. The males pulled the sledges in teams of two. I walked beside Trrl bearing my daughter and some hides that could not be tucked into the sledges. Even the children carried small packages.

I noticed Trrl glancing at me, and then looking away when I turned my head to meet his eyes. Knowing that I was doing the same to him, I smiled. Since I had told him - and admitted to myself - that I loved him, the shadowy cloud that was hanging over me had lifted. I wanted to shout to the world, "I am mated to an Acini!" My sidelong glances at him coveted everything about my strong, handsome mate, from his tufted ears to his quiet cat feet. Even the spotted Acini pelt, which had given me nightmares as a child, sent a different sort of chill through me now.

Meeting my eyes, Trrl smiled. "Are those too heavy for you?" he asked, nodding at the hides.

"I'm fine," I said, shifting my burden. He smiled at me, and my chills started over me again.

Kirin, who had been walking in front of us, lagged back a bit until she fell into step with me. The Lupani was dragging a small sledge filled with earthen jugs. "I haven't had a chance to speak with you since your joining," she said in the Lupani tongue. It was a joy to hear the beautiful sounds of my native language again after so long with only myself for company, and then a few weeks of the guttural Acini. "How have things been?" she asked, her eyes flicking towards Trrl.

I smiled broadly. "Things have been very good." Giving my mate an appraising look, I added, "I don't understand why everyone thinks of the Acini as savages."

Shaking her head, Kirin said, "Because they do not live in fixed houses. Because they listen to the rhythms of the world, rather than trying to make the world march to an unnatural drum. Because they live apart from the humans rather than alongside them." She sighed. "But mostly because they were the 'failed' part of the Daansi experiment. The humans have influenced the Children far more than we would like to believe."

I sighed. "It's not fair."

"Hardly anything is, pup," Kirin said with a low chuckle.

I noticed that Trrl was looking at us, trying to puzzle out the unfamiliar words. In Acini I said, "How long before we get to... Wherever it is we're going?"

"The winter village is in the Canyon of the Wind," Trrl said. "We should be there by midday tomorrow."

"Canyon of the Wind?" I shivered. "Sounds like a cold place to spend the winter."

Kirin laughed. "It's quite nice, really. The wind blows over the top of the canyon. You haven't heard anything until you've heard that."

"The Keepers of the Sky sing to us there," Trrl said softly.

We camped that night under the cold starry sky. The tents could not be unpacked, so we huddled together around the fires for warmth. Tryla slept soundly cradled between her father and I. Surrounded by a slumbering village of Acini, beneath the heavens, I had never felt more at peace.

The next morning, however, was another story. After a day of packing and hard walking, every muscle in my body groaned when I moved. The children didn't seem to feel it, though. While a quick breakfast was made, they ran about playing a version of the hunting game I had played as a child. Poula moved among the villagers with a foul-tasting, syrupy mixture that eased the pain a little. Without it, I doubt that I could have moved at all.

This day was not as pleasant as the one before. A bitter wind blew in our faces, and the sun was hiding behind a thick layer of clouds. The hides I carried seemed to weigh twice as much as they had the day before, and Tryla was a dead weight on my back. Resolutely, I forced myself to keep myself moving beside Trrl.

I was so deep in concentration lifting one foot after another that I did not notice we had stopped. Trrl caught my arm to stop my forward motion. When I looked up at him, his ears were cupped forward, his whiskers trembling at attention.

"What -" I began. Then I noticed that the others around me had assumed the same motionless pose, even the children.

Raol stood at the front of the column, his left hand held in the air to call for silence. Kirin, standing a short distance from me, was also at attention. She glanced at me, motioning for silence.

We stood still for what seemed to be an eternity. The heat that I had built up while walking dissipated, and I shivered in the wind. The villagers did not seem to notice the cold; their attention was fixed on something ahead of us that I could neither see nor smell.

Finally, Raol lowered his hand and turned around. His eyes lifted from the ground and regarded us for a moment before saying, "A Guardian has gifted us with its presence."

A soft sigh swept through the village. The Acini turned to each other, murmuring in awe. "The messenger looked at me, and spoke to me." Raol sighed heavily. "The Guardians have foretold misfortune. The Unknown is stirring. I will speak to the spirits tonight, after we have reached the Canyon of the Wind." With that, he turned around again and began to walk.

Stirring from their places, the villagers set off after him, all silent. I had to jog a few steps to catch up to Trrl's sledge. "What was that all about?" I demanded.

"The Unknown..." Trrl shivered visibly and said no more. Something about the set of his shoulders against the harness and his expressionless face frightened me, but I could think of nothing to say.

Kirin, too, had her eyes to the ground. Her tail drooped lifelessly behind her. "Please..." I said in Lupani. "Tell me what just happened."

She raised her eyes to mine. "You didn't see it?" she asked incredulously.

"See what?"

"The messenger." Kirin studied my face for a moment. "You really didn't see it, did you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, my voice taking on the petulant tone that my mother had always warned me against.

Kirin was silent for a moment. She shifted her burden. "It was a lynx, lying in the grass ahead of us."

My ears went flat against my skull. "Is it still here?" I asked, looking around wildly.

"No, no... It's long gone." Kirin looked up at the gray clouds. "The lynx is one of the messengers for the Guardians of the Land. It is the ancestor of the Acini - they carry its blood, the same way we carry the blood of wolves in our veins. Because of this, the lynx is the highest form that a messenger can take."

I frowned, not following this at all. I reminded myself to listen more carefully when Geani started preaching to me again. "So... Why is everyone upset? What's this about the Unknown?"

"The Unknown..." she whispered. "It seeks only to destroy the Acini and their way of life. Only when every Acini is dead can the Unknown rest."

A gust of wind sent a chill through me, and I hugged the hides closer to my body. "What... What's this about misfortune? What was Raol talking about?"

Kirin glanced at me quickly, her ears flicking nervously. "He will speak to the spirits tonight."

Grimacing, I slowed until I was walking next to Trrl again. My fur was standing on end, and not because of the nippy breeze. I fell back into my own thoughts as we trekked onward.

The terrain had grown more and more rocky as the morning wore on, until walls of stone surrounded us. Striated in beautiful reds and browns, the rock remindedme of the ocean cliffs near to my home village. The raw knot of homesickness that had been dormant this past week stirred again as I worried over Raol's vision. Of course, it was just a vision. Spirits. Superstitious nonsense. I forced myself to laugh.

I wondered why the specter of fear still hung over me.

Our march was finally called to a halt just past midday. The section of the canyon we stopped at was fairly wide, with a small spring flowing out of the wall. Boulders of various sizes lay scattered on the floor of the canyon. I sat down on a small rock with a sigh, removing Tryla from the carrier for her feeding. The camp was set up with a minimum of speaking. Everyone seemed focused on their own thoughts, and things that needed to be said were spoken in quiet murmurs. Raol had vanished, as did Poula and Jason. To speak with the spirits, I was told.

I ate my dinner of dried venison snuggled up next to Trrl. No one had the energy or the inclination to cook. Trrl had said nothing since the encounter with the lynx. His gaze was fixed ahead of him, and his whiskers drooped from his lip. I could think of nothing to say.

Once night had fallen, Raol and the Mrha finally returned. The fires cast flickering shadows on the walls of the canyon as Raol stepped to the center of the camp, his mere presence drawing silence and attention. With no preamble, he began speaking.

"The spirits are troubled tonight. They have told me that we must be wary of the humans and the other Children. The Unknown will be working through them to destroy us." He looked around and stood taller, as if drawing strength from the Acini around him. "We will have time to prepare, though. The winter will be mild, and the Summer Prowling will be undisturbed. After that, though... the spirits could give me no answers. Only feelings of gloom." Raol paused.

I had tucked my tail between my legs as I listened. The other Children would be fighting the Acini, alongside the humans. Lupani, my kin, hunting the wildcats of the forests. Somehow, the words of the spirits seemed all too real to me now. Raol's visions... Only visions? Or an actual message from the gods? I was no longer sure.

Raol took a deep breath and perked his ears forward. "But we shouldn't worry now. The spirits' warning should not keep us from living! We have a winter to endure, a spring to enjoy, and a summer to hunt in. And then - we shall fight the Unknown. On our grounds, and we will fight with honor."

A cheer rose from the throats of the Acini. I stared around, wondering how they could forget the coming doom so quickly. I hugged Trrl's arm to my chest, and he smiled down at me. "We were born to fight," he purred into my ear, taking me into his arms. "I will enjoy fighting the Unknown with you at my side, my beautiful Ralya."

A brief image flickered across my mind. Of my strong, handsome mate riddled with arrows, a spear through his chest, and a pool of blood on the ground beneath him. I stifled the sob that rose in my chest, embracing Trrl with all my strength, refusing to let go.

The low moan of the wind resounded through the canyon, carrying over the cheers. Trrl had called it the song of the Keepers of the Sky. To me, it sounded like the wail of a hunting horn. The Unknown was stirring.