The Felines of Pern Chapter 14
I thought Oclo would adapt easily to the company of humans, and for the most part, I was right. F'lessan sent us to the wooly herdbeasts' field the next day, and my mate's reaction was amusing. He looked at the flock, then turned to me in amazement. "They're letting us kill their livestock? Really? What's the catch?"
"They understand that we're hunters and we need to hunt," I explained. "Most days, they'll give us our meal on a plate, but at least once a week, we get to take our own prey. I think they're under the impression that we'll hunt humans if we can't hunt anything else."
"I won't try to change their minds," he decided. "At least, not right away. That black-and-white one on the far right looks big enough for the both of us." Without another word, he was off at full speed. He made his kill neatly, without wasted effort, and settled down to eat. I found myself wondering, "Why does the Ted traditionally live on the kills of the other hunters if he's perfectly good at doing his own hunting?" I had no answer, and I doubted if Oclo knew, either. I trotted over and joined him for a pleasant meal.
When we returned, F'lessan and Ballora were waiting with two dark leather collars. He introduced the Healer to Oclo. Golanth passed on her request to give him a quick examination.
"I just want to check you for old fractures and signs of illness," she told him.
"How should I respond to that?" he asked me nervously.
"Stand still and let her do it," I advised him. "It's an odd feeling, being touched by a human, but it doesn't hurt, and she can learn a lot just through her fingertips."
"I thought we were the ones who were trying to learn more about them," he said.
"It works both ways," I told him. "They're very curious about the two of us because we're the first of our kind that they've ever met and talked to. As more of us become familiar to them, they won't be so curious about each individual."
"You think more hunters will meet the humans and want to live with them?"
"If I could, I'd love to bring Hunter San out of the band and into Honshu," I answered. "I suspect that she'll be the next target for Woo's anger, because she voted to keep you as our Ted. She'll be better off here. And, of course, my litter of cubs will be born here, so they'll grow up in the company of humans and dragons."
Suddenly, Healer Ballora looked agitated. "I'm trying not to eavesdrop on the dragons' translation, but did you say you're expecting a litter?"
"Yes," I said. "Oclo sired them on me a little over a week ago. I thought you knew that."
"Oh, no!" she burst out. "I just realized – you flew between the other day! Among humans, that can kill the unborn."
Oclo turned to me, shocked. "Is this one of those 'misunderstandings' that happen between us and them? How come these 'misunderstandings' always result in hunters getting killed?"
"I… I had no idea," I stammered. I turned to Ballora. "Is there a way to find out if I'm still carrying my cubs?"
"Yes, there's a test I can run," she said. "I'll need a few drops of your blood. I can test it for a substance that means you're still pregnant."
Oclo looked disgusted. "I'm liking these humans less and less with each passing hour. How are they going to get blood out of you? Do they expect me to bite you for them?"
"No," Ballora tried to reassure him. "I'll just prick her in the leg with a needlethorn. It doesn't hurt much and it's very quick. That's the only way we can find out if going between killed her cubs."
He still wasn't used to humans talking directly to him, or to dragons translating for them. "Are you asking my permission? I'm not the Ted anymore; I don't have any authority over her."
"Maybe not," F'lessan said, "but you're the cubs' father, so you're still involved."
"Besides," Ballora added, "it will make me feel better if you agree not to attack me when I stick a thorn in your mate's leg."
He thought it over for a few seconds. "Rit, do you trust this human to draw blood from you?"
"Yes, I do," I said. "She has proven that she means us good, not harm, even when she has to cause us pain, or when I don't understand the connection between the treatment and the cure. I need to know if I'm still carrying your cubs or not, and if that's the only way, then I'll endure it."
"Then I consent," he said to F'lessan. "Do I have to watch?"
"No," he smiled. "Ballora, the patient and her mate are both willing. Get your thorn and do what you have to do. I need to attend to a discipline problem with some of the indoor workers. Let me know how the test comes out."
Ballora looked unhappy. "I was counting on you and Tai to help hold her still."
"She's an intelligent being," F'lessan said. "If you tell her to hold still, then she'll hold still."
Ballora shook her head. "I'm still not used to that in the Beastcraft. My patients usually fight me from start to finish."
"The rules for these patients are different from the rules for herdbeasts and runnerbeasts, remember?" he reminded her. "You'll do fine." He limped toward the main doors, leaving Ballora alone in the courtyard with Golanth and the two of us.
"Please wait here while I get my supplies," she told me. She hustled inside and was gone for several minutes.
"How can they tell if you have cubs by making you bleed?" he asked, clearly perplexed.
"I don't understand their ways, but they definitely work," I told him. "They healed my injured flank by sprinkling yellow powder on the wound. One of them fell and broke his leg, and they did something that hurt him even worse, but they say he will fully recover as a result. They've proven that they know what they're doing."
"As you once said, anything is better than being dead," he said doubtfully.
Ballora returned, bearing a small packet of unknown objects and a worried expression. "This is going to hurt for a moment," she told me. "I can't avoid that. Please stand very still. I'll be as quick as I can." I nodded and braced myself.
"Can you relax your right foreleg?" she asked. She sounded as nervous as I felt. I rested my weight on my left side, forced my right foreleg to relax, and stared straight ahead.
When I felt the pain, I flinched and blinked, but didn't make a sound. Oclo was looking the other way, so he was unaware that the bloodletting was happening until Ballora said, "There! I'm done." She pressed a pad of clean white cloth against my leg for a few seconds, removed it to make sure the bleeding had stopped, and nodded. "Now I need to catch a dragon ride to Landing so I can run the test. Hopefully, you'll get your answer before sunset tonight." She hustled back into the main building to get her flying clothes.
"Did she do it?" Oclo wondered.
"Yes," I said. "It wasn't as quick as I'd expected, but it wasn't too bad."
"I thought you said it was going to hurt," he said, puzzled.
"It did, but I'm a hunter," I answered firmly. "I can endure a certain amount of pain."
"So… what happens next?" he said.
"We've eaten our meal," I thought out loud. "They've forgotten about the collars. I suppose we should do what we'd normally do at this time of day, and go to sleep." So we did.
I came half-awake as the sun was beginning to set. I noticed three people waiting in the courtyard. "Oclo, they're waiting for us," I called out. His new resting place was within calling distance of mine.
"Are we supposed to come when they call us?" he asked sleepily.
"No, we're not their pets," I answered. "But it makes things easier if we don't make them come after us." I leaped to the ground, stretched, and waited for him to join me. Then we padded over to where F'lessan, Tai, and Ballora waited.
"I've got wonderful news," the Healer said. "You're still pregnant! Either you didn't go between at the critical time, or cheetah obstetrics are different from human obstetrics. Either way, you're still going to be a mother!"
"That's good news, all right," Oclo nodded casually, trying to hide his pleasure at the news.
"So now that we've got that settled," F'lessan said, "we can put your collars on, and Ballora can give Oclo the examination that she wanted to give him this morning."
"So much for good news," Oclo sighed. He stood rigidly as the Healer examined his muscles and bones, and checked his eyes, ears, and teeth.
"I'm still no expert on felines," she said at last, "but you show all the signs of a healthy specimen who's in superb condition."
Tai smiled. "Ballora, give yourself credit. You're probably Pern's greatest expert on felines!"
"If I was a feline, I wouldn't find that very reassuring," Ballora said.
"Okay, now that we know everyone's healthy, let's take steps to keep it that way," F'lessan said cheerfully. "Who wants to wear a collar so our dragons won't try to flame you again?"
I thought I'd have to go first, to reassure Oclo that it was all right. But he stepped forward. "I'm a male and I'm supposed to set a good example, even though I'm not the Ted anymore. I'll go first." He stood still as F'lessan slipped the leather band around his neck and buckled it.
"Is that too tight?" he asked.
Oclo swallowed. "It is too tight. Loosen it. Now!" F'lessan quickly adjusted the buckle. Oclo swallowed again. "That is… acceptable." He stood back, shook his head several times, and watched as I received my collar.
"Does this mean we are officially four-legged humans?" he asked me. I couldn't tell if he was serious.
"It means we are official residents of Honshu Weyrhold," I answered. "We have the right to live here, we have the right to come and go, and we have the right to enter the building. I suppose that puts us on the same level as the dragons."
"Do the dragons enter the building?" he asked. "I don't think they'll fit through the doors."
"They don't enter, but they perch on the roof," I told him. "I need to take you up there someday. The view from that high is amazing!"
"You can just… walk in there, any time you want, without the humans' permission?"
"Yes, and you can, too. We're residents now. Listen!" We paused, and the dragon translated as F'lessan made a little speech to all his people inside. He explained that there were two friendly felines in Honshu now, they could be recognized by their collars, and they were to be treated with respect.
"What happens if they get hungry?" someone asked.
"When they get hungry, they go out and get their own meal, just like the dragons do," Tai told them. "They aren't people-hunters and we're perfectly safe around them."
"They hunted you," someone reminded him.
"That was a misunderstanding," F'lessan said, "and we're working with them to make sure it never happens again."
"Are they allowed inside the building?" someone else wondered.
"They're going to earn their keep by hunting tunnel snakes at night," F'lessan explained. "That's what the original felines were bred for. Yes, they're allowed inside, and I, for one, will be glad to see them in the halls, doing their job!" It wasn't clear how the group responded to that.
Some of them are still nervous about you, Golanth explained. Others hate the tunnel snakes so badly that they are willing to see you get rid of them.
Oclo turned to me. "That's all they want from us?"
"It's all they've asked of me so far, aside from a promise not to eat them," I replied.
"Well, if they want me to be a hunter, then I'll show them what hunting is all about!" he decided. "When do we start?"
"You need to see how the building is arranged first," I told him. "There are many rooms, and many of them have obstacles in the middle of them. I tried hunting in the darkness without knowing my way around, and I leaped headfirst into a wooden box. The sun is already setting, and it will soon be too dark to see inside their building. Tomorrow morning, after we eat, I'll ask one of them to show us around. We'll start hunting tomorrow night." That satisfied him.
The next morning, he seemed out of sorts. "I didn't sleep well," he admitted. "I'm not used to wearing this collar."
"You'll adjust to it quickly, I'm sure," I said. I wasn't about to tell him that I'd slept just fine. One of the servants brought us two plates of meat. I began devouring mine; Oclo repeatedly sniffed his and poked at it with his nose.
"What's the matter?" I wondered.
"I'm not used to eating food that I didn't kill," he explained.
"Oclo, that's nonsense!" I burst out. "You've been taking bites out of other hunters' kills ever since you became the Ted!"
He looked embarrassed. "I didn't think of it that way. Maybe it's because this meat doesn't look like an animal."
"It was an animal yesterday," I told him. "Just eat it. If you don't, then the humans will think there's something wrong with it, and they'll be fussing over you for an hour. I already know you don't like it when they fuss over you."
He took a deep breath and took a bite. "Well?" I asked.
"It's food," he answered glumly, and proceeded to eat it all.
We waited for F'lessan to arrive so we could ask him to show us the building. He didn't come; apparently, he was busy with other things. Tai didn't come either, and neither did Ballora. After waiting for almost an hour, I had had enough.
"If they won't show you around the building, then I will," I told him. "Come with me. I know my way around pretty well."
"Doesn't it bother you to be completely inside a human place?" he asked.
"It did at first, but I've gotten used to it. I've gotten used to a lot of things here. You'll adapt, too." We came to the Food Door with the special entrance flap set into it. "This is the Rit Door that F'lessan made just for me. He said we should push it open with our noses, but I tried it a few times, and it hurt my nose. Lower your head and push it open with your forehead, like this." I went inside to show him how it worked. He stopped it swinging back and forth with his paw, then eased it open himself.
"That's not hard," he decided. "I can do this. Would you mind if I call it the Hunters' Door instead of the Rit Door, seeing how we'll both be using it?"
"No, I don't mind," I smiled.
When he first stepped inside, he froze, looking frantically from walls to ceiling and back. I just waited for a minute until his tail stopped lashing back and forth. Then I led him down the back hallway, explaining about the food storage rooms. "These will draw many more tunnel snakes than the living areas," I told him. He stayed very close to me; I think he was still nervous about being indoors.
I showed him where the kitchen was. "There are always food scraps on the floor here, so this will be our best hunting ground. That's the wooden box I hit when I tried my first pounce in the dark. Make mental notes about where the boxes and barrels are, so you can miss them at night."
"What if the humans move them?" he wondered.
"They seem to remove a box or barrel when it's empty, and then put a full one in the exact same place," I told him. "I've only been doing this for a week or so, but I haven't seen anything moved around in the kitchen. Sometimes they move things in the living spaces, but I don't go there often. The hunting is poor there."
We stepped inside. A man with a large knife was carving up a wherry, probably for the humans' evening meal. He started when he saw us, but visibly mastered his fear. "Oh, hi there," he said. "F'lessan told us that you might be wandering around in here. Are you looking for food? Here you go." He tossed a scrap of meat to me, then another to Oclo. We snapped them out of the air and swallowed them.
"Okay, I'll admit it," Oclo said to me. "There might be some advantages to living with the humans."
As we left the kitchen, we heard footsteps approaching fast. One of the servants turned the corner, running for the kitchen… and he skidded to a stop when he saw us, wide-eyed and shaking.
I couldn't say "hello" in human language (our tongues don't work for reproducing most human sounds), so I nodded courteously and stepped aside to let him pass. Oclo also stepped aside. The man didn't move; he just stared at us, his face turning slightly pale.
"He's not as friendly as the man in the kitchen," my mate noted.
"But he's not hostile, either," I said. "I think he might be afraid of us." We kept walking, and eventually, we heard the human resume running his errand.
I showed Oclo the living spaces. He was curious about the long, padded seats, so he jumped up onto one of them to see how it felt. He stood on it, kneaded it with his paws, sat on it, and finally stretched out on it.
"I suppose I could get used to this," he said at last. "It's too soft for a proper resting place. Do you like sitting on these?"
"I still like traditional resting places," I replied. "The humans haven't changed me that much."
I showed him how to climb the stairs ("It's like stepping up onto a low rock, except there are twenty of them in a row"), and he got a look at the humans' resting places. He wanted to see how they felt, but I cautioned him that the humans don't like it when we get into their resting places.
"How will they know we were there?" he asked.
"I think we leave some of our hair behind when we rub against something," I told him. "Our dark fur against their white fabric coverings can't be hidden."
I also showed him some of the rooms that were still dirty and uninhabited. "Tunnel snakes will love places like that," he decided.
"I haven't tried hunting there," I told him. "I don't know what's safe to step on, and what will slide or give way when I step on it." He rested a paw on a piece of debris; it tipped under his weight. He nodded and we kept walking.
At last, we came out on the roof. A handful of dragons were resting there; they paid us no attention. I showed Oclo the view. He just stared, the tip of his tail twitching, silently looking around at everything.
"You were right," he said at last. He went from one end of the building to the other, giving the dragons a wide berth, checking out the view from as many different perspectives as he could find.
When he'd seen enough, he came back to me. "If I ever got stuck inside this building for the night, I would sleep here," he decided. "I wouldn't feel trapped, I could see the stars above me… and this view would be an amazing way to start a morning."
"So living with the humans might have some advantages?" I asked, trying not to smile.
"Yes, definitely," he nodded. "I have one question, though. When I was in the kitchen, there was one good-sized box that was empty. I felt the strangest urge to jump into that box and just sit in it. Is that normal?"
"I've felt it, too," I admitted. "The third night I went hunting, I gave in to the urge and tried it. It was satisfying in a way that I can't explain, but I remembered that I was there to hunt, not to sit. I haven't been back to that box since then... but someday, I'll probably try sitting in it again."
"As long as it isn't just me," he nodded. We made our way back down the many stairs. On one flight of steps, we passed a woman going upstairs with an armful of folded fabric. She exclaimed something that we couldn't understand, but she acted more surprised than frightened, and she just kept going after pausing to watch us for a moment.
"We have to adjust to many things in this human place," I said, "but the humans have to adjust to us as well."
"Some will adjust faster than others," he agreed, "based on their personality and their past experiences. That man whom Woo attacked will probably be the last one to trust us completely."
"That's possible, but by no means certain," I said. "We attacked F'lessan, and he was the first to trust us, not the last." Oclo thought that over as we made our way to the ground floor and out through our special door. It was close to high noon, and it was time for us to sleep.
"Do you miss being part of your hunting band?" he asked me suddenly.
"Not at all," I smiled. "According to tradition, you and I started our own hunting band when we made our kill yesterday morning. The land around Honshu Weyrhold is our hunting ground, and I willingly accept you as my Ted."
"I'm not sure if two hunters can call themselves a band," he said hesitantly.
"We can call ourselves anything we want," I answered him. "Who's going to contradict us? Besides, I've got a litter coming, and that will boost our numbers. In two or three years, we could outnumber our old band... especially if I'm producing cubs and they aren't. Maybe, someday, we could chase them off and reclaim our old hunting grounds for ourselves."
He stared at me for a few seconds, and finally said, "You have the most amazing ideas sometimes." He nuzzled his face against my neck.
"It helps that I have a friend who inspires me," I said quietly, and let him do it.
o
A/N
When I wrote the part where the hunters are on the roof of Honshu, I didn't know that real-life cheetahs like to jump or climb onto high places so they can look around. I learned that about them later. It was a happy coincidence.