The Loosetongue worked unbelievably well. She now knew the names of all the bullies. Name, years of age, training, and such other things. The Numbtongue had worked well too. They would say nothing at all, and thanks to her small, personal addition, they wouldn't remember the events of the night. She had bruised all their jaws to make sure no eyebrows would be raised over the second herb, then glided silently back to Kehel's room to inform her pack.
As she dropped from the ceiling, she rapped once on the door and slipped a finger under it. She felt the boys inside jump, then open the door. They let her in, and she shook her head, motioning to her own room. Gathering their things, they followed her into the rooms.
She went in first, closed the door behind her, and motioned for Sabi to hide in her roomy closet, to listen carefully and remember. Wordlessly, the child had done so. None of the boys realized the exchange she had just had with her maid.
They went in and she reported. None asked how she knew, or if they would remember. The older boys looked pleased. Kehel looked fascinated. Ty felt a great deal of selfish pride, though she pushed it away.
"So what now, Tehea?" Terry asked eagerly. "How do we proceed?"
Ty patted his head as she might have an eager puppy's. "This is the hunt, my children. The hunt requires training, as I was trained before you and now you will be trained. From tomorrow on we train, and protect, and then," she licked her lips as they shivered, "Then we hunt."
"I don't understand," Leej growled exasperatedly. "What do you mean by all these words?"
Ty was frustrated enough to slap him against a wall again, but thought better than to do it out of temper. Now she understood what they needed, Terry voiced it.
"A demonstration? Pretty please?"
Ty sighed and looked at the boy Terry was. Childish, perhaps, but sweet. Very, very sweet, and thought she didn't believe in blandness, she knew that he would keep the pack together when she couldn't. Looking at the target, she used her eyes to glace around.
It was pitch dark, near midnight. The pack had helped each other to finish their assignments so that this time to practice would be possible. The dark forest loomed around them, but Ty was not scared of the dark, or wary of it, like they were, though they denied it. The darkness was her mantle, and she liked it that way.
Ty pointed at the object hanging from a bull's-eye or target. It was a small arrow, faintly visible at its post ten feet away. She was trying to teach them stealth, and all they could thing of was noisy knight movements. She would have to show them.
"I will get to that point, but you will not see me go, you will not see me return," she said, one more whisper of a voice within the darkness. When they nodded and concentrated, Ty leaped for the tree right above her. Making no noise, she crawled from tree to tree, then her arm leaped out of no-where and took the arrow from the target. All the boys saw was the slight flash of a shadow, then nothing unusual. She landed on the ground behind them. They turned around in a flash.
Ty laughed. "Understand?"
The boys looked at one another. Their eyes said no. Ty sighed.
"My cubs, you need to become part of the darkness. If you need to go around, go around. If you need to go over, go over. If you can make yourselves invisible, be my guests, but unless you can get that arrow without me seeing you, we are going to do this until the Ordeal. Now ponder a way to get at the arrow!"
They sighed, and begun trying. They made progress that night, but not much. She would have to think of a better way to do this.