Epistrèfo
Chapter X: Táfos
He spends a long time living in the Preyden with the Preypack.
His Preypack.
The other hellhound cheerfully announces that her name is Leary. She casually reveals that she just calls the Prey what they call each other, and he is shocked.
She can understand mouth-noises?!
When he asks her this, she sheepishly admits she can only understands bits and pieces, but he is still amazed.
Apart from Spítha, who the Prey call Sparky, he begins to refer to the Prey as they do each other.
The Feather-Prey is Beauty-Queen.
The Fire-Prey is Repair-Boy.
The Death-Prey is Haze.
The Vanish-Prey is Baby-Man.
The Leader-Prey is Praetor.
The Sun-Prey is Medic.
Sometimes the Prey leave the Preyden for periods of time, but the others don't seem worried, so he thinks it must be normal.
Then one day, everything changes.
It seems like a normal day at first. He and Leary wrestle (Leary wins), and then they have fun scaring the strange leaf-colored Prey out of the trees. He bounds up to Spítha to see if he wants to play, but the Prey is strangely downcast and lethargic. Leary explains it to him in an uncharacteristically somber tone.
It's the anniversary of one of their Packmates' death, she informs him sadly, He was quiet, but really nice and he never forgot about me.
What was his name? he asks softly, What was he like? He knows he would be devastated if Leary or Spítha died.
Death-Breath, she replies, Every year the Prey all go honor him by being sad and putting things by a rock.
He is silent after that.
The Prey do exactly as Leary what describes: put things by a rock. He starts to wonder why this honors the dead Prey, before he dismisses it as a strange Prey ritual.
By the time they finish placing everything there, it is overcrowded and very colorful. There is a tiny, Prey-shaped object that sort of looks like Lord Hades. There is a blood-colored box with sun-colored designs that smells really good. There are flowers and bones and sparkly bits of metal that pop out of the ground around Haze, and Repair-Boy even puts down a fake set of sharp Prey teeth.
It's very confusing.
But the Prey stand around for a long time, and they all look so sad. Leary howls, long and sorrowful.
He thinks Death-Breath must have been a really nice Prey.
And then he sees the Danger-Stick.
It's shadow-colored, sticking up from the ground in front of the rock, and he feels drawn to it.
Stygian iron, he thinks, as if in a trance.
The hellhound walks forward and touches the cold blade with the tip of his nose.