Little Sister's Guardian

How long have we been walking? I can't remember, but it must be years because Little Sister is now five spins old.

She was baby in arms when we started, I am sure of it. But, no one but me seems to notice this.

"Don't be silly," Pack-Master says, when I question. "Little Sister was five-spins-old when we began our journey at the start of the drought."

But, I remember Little Brother as being six spins when Little Sister was first brought crying into this world, and six spins is he still.

And I, who was fourteen when she first came to us, am still fourteen… aren't I? It is hard to think of my age. I am not the person I was when this journey began… Maybe I am not a person at all anymore. Each night, it is harder to return to myself.

Perhaps, soon I will be lost, like the one who was before me.

*****

We are crossing the Barrens, a place of cracked shale, with only a few patches of scrub poking bravely through the cracks of the stone, the random tree or bush.

Little Brother walks in the back of the pack with the children, talking of things that children talk about. Little Sister is carried by the Pack-Master, for she is special. She talks of things that the elders wish to hear.

And even as we walk, one presses her words onto a series of clay bracelets he wears. When one is finished, he allows it to harden and begins a new one. He carries too many clay rings for us to have been walking just through the drought, has several young assistants to help him bear the weight.

I walk on the edge of the pack, talking of nothing to no one. My own people fear me, because I am the new Hunter, my place given to me when Three-Toes ran wild and left us. Many thought I was too young to assume the mantle, but it is too late. I bear the peculiar triple stripe across my cheek that was the Hunter's mark. It had not been there until Three-Toes went mad, not to my eyes, but when he disappeared, the blue mark was inked into my skin by the hands of the spirits.

My Hunt name is Night-Daughter, because I am as black as the sky and my eyes shine like the stars when I hunt.

Or so I have been told.

I remember nothing of the Hunting.

It is not pleasant to awaken naked and bloody, and to see the fear in the people's eyes. I bring food. I defend them from their enemies.

And, still they fear me.

I look no different from the rest of the Pack save for the triple stripe on my cheek. My hair is black and I wear it braided and beaded, and my eyes are solid blue from corner to corner. It is how we all look, most of us.

"Sorrow," calls the Hold-Mother, she who cares for the children when we rest.

I look up, startled, from the daydreams that occupy my mind as we walk. I was named Sorrow because, from the moment I began to walk my head bent towards the ground, my eyes following my feet as I walk. They tell me I look sad, though I did not always feel it...not then anyway. Now, I feel it quite often.

"Yes, Hold-Mother?" I frown, "Are you in need?"

She smiles, gently, her solid blue eyes turning upwards at the outside corners. "No, Sorrow, you do not have to be on duty, now. I was just noticing that you did not eat at mid-meal. I thought you might be hungry."

"Hungry?" I shake my head, "No, Hold-Mother, I…I ate after last night's Hunt."

She is the only one of the people who doesn't look away when I mention the Hunt, for she had been Three- Toes wife. She remembers what it is that happens then. Smiling, she pulls a piece of fruit from her satchel.

"Here, I spotted this at the last camp. I have been saving it for you."

I take the round pink fruit and say, "I cannot eat this." My sharp teeth gnash. "It...disagrees with me. Fruit is precious. Give it to Cloud. She is heavy with child."

"Cloud will not like this fruit. Take a bite," Hold-Mother urges. "This is not just any apple or peach."

I bite it just to please her.

Blood, sweet and metallic, fills my mouth, as if this fruit was a living creature. I suppose my look of surprise is comical because Hold-Mother laughs.

"It is called a Blood-Heart, Sorrow," she says. "It is rare, only one per tree, hidden deep inside the tree's branches. There is no fruit in these dry days, so when I saw the knot in the limbs, I knew I must cut open and take the Heart for you. The Hunters have eaten them since time immemorial. It is supposed to bring knowledge and protect your kind from harm."

"Harm?"

She strokes my beaded hair and I am so unused to being touched I almost flinch. "You are so young to be Hunter."

"These are lean times. When we reach the Valley of Infinity where the game runs abundant and the water falls in crystal streams from the mountain tops, then the Pack will be able to rest," I say, between bites, reciting the words that Little Sister preaches.

She looks up at Little Sister, riding on Pack-master's shoulder. "Yes, if ever we get there." Then, she moves off to tend to the children who have begun to squabble without her.

I finish my Blood-Heart and pause a moment to plant the seed in the dirt.

"Foolish Sorrow," snaps one of the boys, a stout boy of my age who is burdened with the name of Skunk's Son, for the white stripe in the midst of his black hair. "No seed will grow in the Barrens ever and particularly not in this time of drought."

I grin wildly, showing my sharp teeth and not wiping the blood from my lips. He draws back, a bit intimidated. "It is custom to bury the seed," I remind him. "Or risk the anger of the Lady-Who-Made-Us. I do it for myself, not for your pleasure."

Skunk's Son glares at me. "You are smart mouthed for a girl, Sorrow. I do not care if you are Hunter or not."

"You would do well to leave the little Hunter alone," interrupts Firelight, who at fifteen spins is the oldest of the boys. He is named for his hair, a brilliant red unlike anything ever seen before in the dark skinned park. "She keeps us alive. She protects us at night. But if she runs wild like Old Three-Toes, I would guess you are the one she will hunt first."

"You do not frighten me, Orange Hair," snaps Skunk's Son. "I do not fear a little girl, Hunter or not." He pulls his knife from his belt.

But Firelight is quicker and his knife dimples the skin of Skunk's Son's throat. "Then fear me, Low-Bred Boy, because my father is Pack-Master and I shall be Master when he can no longer lead. You are a builder like your father, but we have other builders. You are not so invaluable to this pack that I will not gut you like a fish for insulting me, or the young Little Hunter."

"I will not forget this, Firelight," Skunk's Son spits as he scurries away, shooting Firelight the foulest of looks.

"Thank you." I say to Firelight.

His blue eyes show no warmth for me, no love, no compassion. "It is my duty, Little Hunter," he says. "We need you to help us to reach the Valley. It is my task to see you remain well."

My heart falls. He cares nothing for me. Only Hold- Mother shows any concern. To the rest of the people, I am just the Hunter, their servant, their slave.

"If ever this Walk ends at all," I mutter.

Firelight's solid blue eyes narrowed. "You have noticed it too, have you, Hunter? How long we have walked? I am beginning to suspect that we may never reach our new home at all."

I look up at him as he stalks away, and see him begin to speak to Little Sister and Pack-Master. They speak so low that even my sensitive ears cannot hear the words that pass between them. I feel an unexplained pang in my chest.

It is Little Sister that is the important one. She is the Teller, after all, the seer who will lead us to the beautiful place, where at last we will stop this endless roaming, and at last have a home. She was born to lead us there.

Little Brother was born to stand at her side and enforce her law when he is grown.

I was born to lose my humanity in service of her people.

*****

Night-Daughter hunts

Animals nearby

Too far to see

Deer, red horned, a doe and her fawn hiding

Hiding in a grove of trees

Trees that were not there before

Trees that do not exist in the world I am from

The taste of the Blood-Heart suddenly sharp on the tongue

The crashing of terrified hooves

The silence of black paws

The exhilaration of the chase

The deer's blood is sweet with fear, sweeter than the fruit…

The fawn bleats…

Night-Daughter crushes its throat with a huge paw out of unanimalistic mercy

It will die if left alone… New Sounds…People?

Night-Daughter growls softly and pads to where the interlopers can be seen.

…children…

…children of the Pack…

Little Brother and Little Sister

Shifting suddenly!

I crouch, naked and shivering, in the shadows. What is happening?

Why did I change back? Never before has this happened. The sun usually rises before I awaken from the hunt.

Little Brother and Little Sister stand in the emptiness of the Barrens, where for some reason I have a fleeting image of a grove of trees.

"Why have you brought me here?" Little Brother whines. "I was asleep."

"It is time," Little Sister smiles, her peculiar eyes — solid green, not blue — do not turn up at the corners. "I want to show you something."

I am suddenly afraid. A low growl begins in my human throat, another first. I have never made such a noise before.

Little Sister plucks a twig from the dirt and drags it into a rough square. She stabs the middle of the square and the shale cracks inward.

White light pours from the square. "What is this?" gasps Little Brother.

"You are too young," Little Sister says, softly, too soft for anyone without the heightened hearing of the Hunters to understand. "And Firelight grows too suspicious. He questions me."

She pushes Little Brother into the light.

I am frozen with fear. What witchcraft is this? Little Brother stumbles from the light and he is suddenly not a child anymore.

He is now a man of at least eighteen spins, older than even Firelight.

Little Sister smiles up at him.

I pull back into the shadows beneath the rocks that are my shelter and whisper, "Blessed lady, what have I seen?"

"This will do," No-Longer-Little Brother murmurs. "Ah, yes. Now I see."

The taste of the heart fruit fills my mouth so strongly I wipe my mouth to see if there is blood there. There is, but it is the sweet life of the deer. I turn my head and vomit a torrent of red blood and pink flesh.

The fruit is no longer in my stomach. But it is in my veins.

*****

The next morning the tribe eats well of the deer that Night-Daughter provided. No-Longer-Little Brother sits with the men now and no one notices that he is changed. The men call him Arrow's Flight for he walks fast and straight, with the purpose and confidence one would expect in a man. There is no trace of the child he really is. He talks what men talk and no one notices anything amiss.

"Do you not see how Little Brother has been bewitched?" I ask Hold-Mother as she tends to the children. I dog her steps, anxiously. "He is not himself. He has been changed. He is no longer Little Brother."

She frowns at me. "What has you in this mood, Sorrow? You chatter like a squirrel and that is not like you. Who are you talking about? You have no little brother. You have only Little Sister who is younger, and Arrow's Flight who is older."

I feel the blood drain from my dark face. "I am eldest." I whisper.

"I think you did not sleep well and are confused. It often happens after the Hunt," says Half-Mother fondly. "Take a nap, Child. We have some time before we set out again."

I do not think it is because I am tired, but I do as she suggests, curling up in the shade of a nearby rocky mound.

It is inconceivable to me that I will sleep, but I must be awakened so we can again begin the walk.

*****

Today as we venture forth, I find myself walking closer to the young man I know to be my changed Little Brother. Arrow's Flight, chosen among all the men to be heir to Pack-Master. He will make a good leader, it is obvious, by his manner, but there is a new question in my head now.

What of the true heir? What happened to Firelight?

I find him slinking along behind the Pack, walking even further behind than the children. Arrow's Flight is in his place near the head of the elders.

What can this mean?

In my silent manner, I fall back with Firelight. For once, he doesn't move away.

He looks surprised to have company, and he says in a voice more hesitant than I have ever heard, "Y--you need s-something, Lady Hunter?"

I have never heard him stutter so before. "You are not with the men," I say.

"The m-m-men do not wish me with them." He runs a hand though those strange red tresses of his.

"Why not?" I ask.

His eyes turn down at the corners. "Why the interest in a C-cast Aside, Little Hunter?" he asks, suspiciously.

"A Cast Aside? You?" I gasp. "Since when?"

His lips grow tight, "Y-you are being c-c-cruel, S-Sorrow. I w-w-would n-not h-h-have expected it of y-you." He can barely get the words out as his face flushes as red as his hair.

"I am not cruel," I say, feeling a heat come to my cheeks. "I… have become sometimes forgetful since I took the Hunter's mark." My hand creeps to the triple stripe, hesitantly.

The anger fades from his face. "I am s-sorry. I forgot that there w-were c-complications with the Hunt." He looks out at the rest of the Pack and says, "When my father chose Arrow's Flight to s-s-succeed him as P-Pack- Master, I lost m-m-my status, m-m-my place in the P- Pack. I became a C-cast Aside."

Skunk's Son has paused by the trail to spill his water on the shale and now we pass him. He shouts out at us, nastily, as he hikes up his leather britches. "The stuh- stuh-stuttering freak is in love with the little beast. They shall have a beautiful litter, don't you think?" He slings a piece of shale our way, and it slices a bloody streak across Firelight's forehead.

I growl and gnash my sharp teeth at Skunk's Son, a low sound that is almost a roar pouring from my lips. He hoots, unafraid, and scampers off.

I look back at Firelight. He has not even moved to stop the bleeding.

I cut a piece off my tunic and dab at the blood, trying very hard not to lick my lips. "Why did you not say something to that cawing jackdaw?" I ask him, quietly.

He glares at me. "I told y-y-you, Sorrow. I h-h-have no place here, no place!" He moves away then, quickly, so I cannot see the tears that fill his blue eyes.

I look at No-Longer-Little Brother...Arrow's Flight...and wonder.

"Do not worry, Sorrow," comes the voice of Little Sister at my elbow. "Skunk's Son shall be punished."

I look down at her, suddenly afraid though there seems to be nothing to fear from Little Sister. I did not hear her approach, did not see her. That is not common. "Why are you walking back here?" I ask her, hiding my fear in the face of our innocent looking messiah.

Her green eyes smile, "I came back when Skunk's Son did that naughty thing. He is a bad boy. I do not like him. He must be punished."

A shiver runs through me. "Little Sister? What are you going to do?"

But, she giggles and skips away without answering.

*****

Night-Daughter hunts

An animal nearby

A boar

She silently charges.

The boar, it is tied down…easy prey… Tearing its throat open

Its blood is...

HUMAN

Instantly, I am myself again, scrubbing at my tongue with a bare arm. I have never tasted human blood before, but I know this is not boar's blood. This is not just a boar, and it had been dead before Night-Daughter took its throat. How had I ever thought it was alive?

And then I see.

It is black with a white stripe down its back…

…just like Skunk's Son's hair… This is not a boar.

It is a representation…it is a spell!

"Oh, murder!" I cry. I run back to the camp to where Skunk's Son still lay… Asleep?

No.

He has not been roused by my cry, though the rest of the Pack has begun lighting their lamps.

I kneel by Skunk's Son. His throat has been slit.

Hold-Mother wraps her cloak around me, "Step away, Sorrow."

Pack-Master puts his hand on my arm, "Come away, Hunter."

"He is dead!" I cry, clutching the cloak to cover my nakedness for I suddenly feel very vulnerable. "He has been murdered! That is no animal attack. There are no animals save one that are big enough to do that, and the marks are too clean for my teeth to make them."

"Did you see no one?" asks another, Arrow's Flight.

"I…was on the hunt," I tell him. "I thought brought down a boar, but then I…felt something and I came back here."

"You are supposed to protect us!" cries another, Sunflower, the woman I know to have borne the murdered Skunk's Son. She lunges at me.

Arrow's Flight stops her, "My younger sister has been told to bring us food. She was doing her duty. You cannot expect her to be everywhere at once."

Two others appear, dragging a dishevelled Firelight into the circle.

By the Pack-Master's lamplight we can all see blood on his arms and on his chest.

I alone can smell that it is indeed Skunk's Son's blood. The others do not need my animal senses to know this, though.

"Murderer!" screams Sunflower. "The Darkness will take you!"

"No…I d-d-d-did not do this th-th-thing," Firelight murmurs. His eyes are glazed and his face is devoid of expression. "I w-w-was as-s-s-sleep…"

Pack-Master closes his eyes in grief. "I am sorry, my son. You have brought shame to us all. The Teller must judge you now."

"Death to those who spill the blood of the Pack in secret and in betrayal," Little Sister intones, solemnly. "Death to Firelight. Death to the Cast Aside."

Pack-Master does not hesitate. The Teller has spoken. He embraces his son and then plunges his knife into Firelight's stomach, "You are no longer Pack…May the Lady forgive you before the Darkness takes you."

"No!" I cry, falling to my knees as if the blade had cut through me.

The taste of the Blood-Heart is as fresh as if I had just eaten of it.

Oh, Lady, what is happening here?

Little Sister and her pack pay my grief no mind. They let Firelight fall to the ground, his blood spilling out upon the shale. The strongest men pick up Skunk's Son's body to paint it and burn it as is our custom. The strongest women support the lamenting Sunflower.

Arrow's Flight takes my arm, helping me to my feet. "Come, Young Sister."

I pull away. "I am not your young sister. I am older than you by twice four spins."

"What are you talking about?" he frowns and I can see that he honestly doesn't know. I look into his eyes and see that they are as green as Little Sister's.

"Get away from me," I growl. "I do not know you."

He shakes his head and says, "The Hunt is driving you mad." Then he turns away to join the others in their mourning.

I kneel beside the abandoned and dying Firelight. He is trying to keep his blood from spilling out. I wrap Hold- Mother's cloak around his middle, binding his wound.

"G-Go away," he moans, shivering as his warmth leaves him. "It is f-f-forbidden t-t-to h-h-help me. Little S- Sister h-has de-decreed it."

"Do I look as if I care what Little Sister decrees?" I snarl. "Besides, you are innocent. Things are happening that I do not understand but you have been caught in it. This is not who you are, this weak and stuttering outcast. You are a leader, son of the Pack-Master. Something was done to you."

"What are you doing, Sorrow?" comes that voice…Little Sister.

"What have you done?" I demand of her, whirling on her and staring down at her angelic face.

She smiles, beatific and peaceful, "I told you Skunk's Son would be punished. Are you not happy?"

"He's dead and Firelight is dying." I grab her arms and shake her like the child she is. "Why are you doing this? How did you change him? How did you change Little Brother? What is happening? Why are you doing this?"

Her green eyes flash like lightning and she says, "Because it pleases me to do so."

"You are a demon!" I gnash my teeth in rage.

"Indeed," she smirks, "You wish infinity, Sorrow. You will get eternity. The Pack shall soon need a new Hunter."

I instantly shift into my hunt form, a black cat as large as a horse. None of the people have seen Night- Daughter in her fullness, having caught only glimpses here and there.

I somehow maintain human thought and the taste of the Blood-Heart fills my mouth. The fruit I ate somehow opened my eyes, I realise, somehow freed me from the spell that has taken my Pack, the spell that had begun to lose its potency over me when I first gained the triple stripe. I know now I was not to be the Hunter. She had done this to me. Made me a monster so that she would have control of the power in the Pack, all of it.

Firelight stares at me with frightened and pain-filled eyes. "Oh, Lady-Who-Made-Us…" he murmurs.

I nudge him with my head and he seems to know I mean him to climb on my back. We flee into the darkness.

But, suddenly, the Barrens vanish and we are in a forest. "Wh-what is h-happening?" I hear Firelight gasp.

I could not answer if I knew. I run through the forest, never stopping, never slowing, though the trees reach out to grab me, tearing my velvet hide.

Then, suddenly we are in a desert.

Still, I run, slipping and sliding in the shifting sand, though the dust and the heat scorch my throat.

Then, we are in an ocean.

I swim, struggling to keep Firelight's head above the water, though the waves fill my eyes and my nose, trying to drown me.

Then, there is nothing, just blackness.

And at last, exhausted, I stop and Firelight slides off my back. I become myself again.

"Wh-where are w-w-we?" he asks.

"I don't know," I answer, sniffing the air. "This place has no smell."

"S-Sorrow, look," he gasps. I turn to him.

He has been healed. The stab wound is gone.

"Little Sister!" I cry. "What are you doing? Where are you? Answer me! It is my right to know since you have changed me like this!"

"I am the Teller of Tales!" she says in a voice too knowing for her age, emerging from the blackness. "I have changed the stories. I did not like the old ones. A life of contentment in paradise? I feed on pain and despair, what use have I for Elysium?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I am not your sister!" smirks the creature that wears her form. "I serve the Darkness, and I own the child whose body I hold. For five spins I have lead your Pack on an empty quest. I have taken so many of you, drove Three-Toes to madness when he discovered what I was after eating of the Blood-Heart. I can only assume that you, too, have tasted that fruit, Sorrow. Or else you would not be here now. You would be in my thrall, as you have been for so many spins. You do not remember the girl you were before? Powerless, helpless? I gave you glory, and I took nothing but your useless humanity and a few spins of your age.

The world shifts and suddenly I am five spins older. Firelight is now a man of twenty.

My head spins but I will not let this demon's tricks stop me. I must protect the Pack. "Explain," I demand. "Why change Firelight? Why give his place to Little Brother?"

"For this reason," says Arrow's Flight, as he appears behind me and drives his knife through my back.

The pain is so overwhelming. I cannot even scream. I collapse into the nothing.

"Sorrow!" shouts Firelight, no longer stuttering, "Demon Spawn, you will pay for this treachery!"

Through the haze of pain, I see him throw himself at Arrow's Flight. I roll my eyes to Little Sister and see that she is paying me no attention, watching her champion fight for her.

Weakened and filled with pain, I transform just one hand into a clawed paw and I strike her down, crushing her throat like I had the little fawn's.

Arrow's Flight reels back and screams. He falls dead to the ground.

Firelight helps me to my feet. I am suddenly healed, and my paw shrinks into a small delicate hand like it should be.

We look down at Little Sister and something moves inside her.

Firelight takes his knife and slits her body open. There is an infant inside her, my true Little Sister. He pulls her free and she unfolds herself into the image of the girl she should have been, five spins old with eyes as blue as any pack member.

Firelight lifts the frightened child and hands her to me. Then he turns to Arrow's Flight, and does the same to the body. Inside is the cowering form of my Little Brother, his proper eleven-spins old. He is crying, too, shaking with fear and horror at what has happened. Firelight holds the frightened child, cradling him until the sobs have stopped, "You are free, you are free," he croons, rocking my traumatised brother.

The world shifts again and the black nothing has become a Valley, beautiful and green and perfect.

"This is it," I gasp, "The Valley of Infinity!"

"Look, there is the Pack!" Firelight whispers. He turns to me and touches my cheek. "The Hunter's Mark is gone. You are free of the service."

We look at our feet, but there are no bodies. The demons that had made puppets of my kin are gone back into the dark places where such creatures dwell.

"It is over?" Little Brother asks and says, "We are all free?"

Little Sister nestled in my arms, moans, softly, "I am sorry, I am so so sorry. I am bad, I am wicked."

Firelight touches her hair, "I see no wickedness, child. Look, see this place. You brought us here. You made this happen."

Little Sister risks a look around and says, through her sniffles, "It is pretty, though."

Someone runs up to us. It is Skunk's Son, alive and well. "Where have you two been? We were worried." He seems sincere, no longer mocking and cruel, hardened by the hardships of the walk.

"We were lost in the Darkness," says Little Sister, answering for us all, as good an answer as any.