The Felines of Pern Chapter 11

When I returned to the human building, it was well past sunrise. I found a platter of meat next to my water bowl, so I ate and drank my fill. Then I looked around for the healer; I knew she would want to examine me.

At last, F'lessan, Tai, and Mirrim approached me, with their dragons staying in the background. "Where is the Healer?" I asked.

"She's occupied," F'lessan told me. "One of my herdbeast cows is having a difficult birth, and she needs the Beastcraft Healer more than you do today. Mirrim is going to examine your stitches."

"Is she a healer?" I asked warily.

"I've done some basic healing on people," she said. "You can ask Menolly; I helped heal her feet when she ran herself ragged to get away from Thread."

"I do not know Menolly," I replied.

"Well, you should," Mirrim said firmly. "She's a wonderful singer and writer of tunes. Anyway, I'm not Healer Hall approved, but I can look at your stitches and tell if there's something wrong or not. Please hold still; I don't want to pull your fur when I remove this dressing."

Her manner was very brusque, compared to Ballora's way of speaking to me. But her hands were gentle and she did seem to know what she was doing. "I've never worked on anything but people before," she said, "but you're intelligent, so you're kind of like people. These stitches look good, very good. I could never do such neat work. Maybe I should take lessons from Ballora. Your fur is beautiful! It's so soft, and the spot pattern is like nothing I've ever seen. I wish I could have a coat of fur like this for special occasions in the North."

I jumped away from her. "You want my fur? Is that why you're being so kind to me?!"

Tai exclaimed, "Mirrim! Please tell me you didn't say that!"

Mirrim pulled her hands back and covered her mouth. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry. That was a terrible thing to say. I'd never actually do anything like that."

"Rit, she didn't mean that," F'lessan said earnestly. "She says lots of things that she doesn't really mean. Even having a dragon of her own hasn't broken her of the habit."

"At least my dragon can fly!" Mirrim burst out. The other two glared at her, and she visibly wilted. "I just blew it again, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did," Tai said icily. The others nodded "yes," even me.

She muttered, "Tell the Healer that the wound is healing well," then turned and stalked away.

"Will she ever change?" Tai wondered.

"I really don't know how T'gellan puts up with her," F'lessan sighed.

"Is she going to make a coat out of me?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"No! Not even a little!" F'lessan exclaimed. "We don't make coats out of our friends." Again, he used that word.

"What do you mean by 'friend?'" I asked.

He laboriously knelt on the ground so his head was nearly level with mine. It must have hurt him to assume that pose. "With humans, a friend is someone whose company you enjoy. It's someone you miss when they're not around, and you're glad when you see them again. It's someone you like to do things with. It's someone you're comfortable talking to about personal problems that you wouldn't take to just anyone. And you know they feel the same way about you."

So the human concept of 'friend' encompassed a hunter's definition of the word, but it meant a great deal more as well. We hunters seldom talked to each other about our personal issues; they were our own to solve. I wasn't familiar with the kind of emotional closeness F'lessan was talking about.

Yes, I was. Oclo was becoming a friend in that way.

But if I was developing that kind of closeness toward Oclo, and he was feeling the same way about me, what would this do to his ability to be the Ted? He had to be impartial; he could not have favorites in the band. His attraction to me, and my attraction to him, could destroy his ability to rule us impartially. He would be cast out of the band if it became known.

The right thing for me to do was to point these things out to him, and not allow my own feelings to get in the way. I should avoid spending time with him alone, except for the short time needed for him to sire cubs on me. I should not let him become fixated on me. It was best for the band.

But I just didn't want to do that! I liked the way I felt when he confided in me. I enjoyed his company. I missed him when I wasn't around him, and I was glad when I saw him again. It was just like F'lessan said – Oclo was more than a friend in my hunting band. He was a friend in the human way. Was I being corrupted and ruined by the time I was spending with humans?

It was possible, but who or what was ruining Oclo? If anything, his feelings for me were even stronger than my feelings for him. He had had no contact with the humans at all – he hadn't even faced them in battle. I couldn't blame the humans for the situation we were in.

F'lessan broke into my thoughts. "While we're talking about important things, I want to ask you something. I don't want to start a disagreement, but... why did you and the other felines attack us in the forest?"

I welcomed the change of subject. "You are intruding in our hunting grounds. Your dragons take the beasts that we need to eat, which leaves our cubs hungry. The hunting grounds aren't big enough for all of us, and we were there first."

"Oh!" F'lessan exclaimed. He seemed relieved. "So it's just a turf war! At least we can understand that. I thought you were trying us out as a new item on your dinner menu."

He had to have Golanth explain that last part to me. "If we had killed you," I answered, "we probably would have tried to eat you, but that was not our goal. Our intent is to drive you out of our hunting grounds."

"Are you still trying to do that?" Tai asked.

"Personally, I am not," I said firmly. "I've learned too much about you. I don't think we're able to defeat you; with your dragons, you're too strong. Besides, I don't want to kill the humans in Honshu now. You are… friends."

"What about the other felines?" F'lessan asked. "Are they still eager to kill us?"

"Some of them are," I admitted. "The Ted is trying to keep our band from going to war with you, but his authority is shaky and he may not succeed."

"So we still have to be careful when we go into the forest," F'lessan decided. "That's good to know. Can you tell us where your hunting grounds are? Maybe we can keep our dragons away from there, and avoid a problem that way."

"Our traditional grounds run from the river to the hills, and from the sea to wherever it gets too cold for us," I told them.

F'lessan whistled. Tai said, "That's a lot of territory."

"We need it all," I told him. "In the past, our band has been much larger, and all that land was barely enough to feed all of us."

"I think Lord Toric has claimed some of that land for his Holding," F'lessan added.

"The other Lord Holders haven't approved that claim," his mate said.

"It won't matter if he puts farmers in place and they take their Holding," F'lessan replied. "The land will be his by default. No one else has claimed it – no other people, I mean – so no one else will lift a finger to chase his men off of it."

"The Weyrs might lift a finger," Ballora said as she joined them. "They already did it once – they sent dragons to push the Holders' ships back to their harbor. I think they'll do it again if they have to."

"It's not the same thing," F'lessan argued. "In that case, all the people in question were just passengers on ships, and no one had actually taken Holding yet. In this case, we'll be dealing with people who have already started clearing fields and building houses and barns. A man like that will fight to keep what's his. The Weyrs don't want any actual fighting."

"Those farmers will get a fight anyway, if they're settling on land that the felines have already claimed," Tai said. "They'd be better off dealing with the Weyrs than with the cats."

"I think we've kicked over a tunnel-snake's nest without realizing it," F'lessan decided. "Rit, you've told us about your hunting band. What about others? How many other bands are there?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "We have no contact with the other bands, unless we catch them trespassing on our lands. I know there is at least one band toward the sunrise, and two toward the sunset. Toward the cold is a band of unattached males. I have no idea what lands they claim."

F'lessan threw up his hands. "Maybe we should start by assuming that all of the Southern continent is claimed by one hunting band or another, and work it out from there."

Tai smiled ruefully. "I can just guess what the Lord Holders will think of that! They're desperate to move their excess people south. Who's going to tell them that the land is already claimed by bands of homicidal psycho jungle cats?"

I asked them what "psycho" meant. Ballora explained the term to me through Golanth. It was not a compliment.

"It's nothing personal," F'lessan added. "We learned that felines weren't supposed to get mentasynth, because it makes your minds unstable. It's good to know that your kind has outgrown that particular problem. Otherwise, you probably wouldn't still be here."

I shook my head. "We have not outgrown it. It still affects some of us from time to time. We call it the madness. The most common symptoms are eyes that don't focus together and an obsession with violence. It strikes with no warning and turns a perfectly sane hunter into a deranged, bloodthirsty killer in a matter of days."

"There are some people who would describe your entire race as deranged and bloodthirsty," Tai suggested.

"Is that what you think of me?" I demanded.

"No, none of us at Honshu thinks that about you," F'lessan said quickly. "We know you better than that now. Healer Ballora, can you think of anything that might treat this madness, or prevent it?"

She thought hard for a few moments. "If the madness is an effect of the mentasynth, then there are substances that will work against it. Most of those substances will also reduce the subject's intelligence, and none of them have ever been tested on felines. I'll have to do some research at Landing." She threw up her hands. "I can just guess what D'ram and Lytol will think of that! First, we needed more computer time to reduce the felines' numbers. Now I want more computer time so I can save them!"

"And how have you been reducing our numbers?" I demanded.

The humans got very quiet.

"Well?" I said, ears laid back.

"Me and my big mouth," Ballora whispered.

"If we tell her, and she tells the others, it could undermine the entire plan," Tai warned them.

"I think she has the right to know," F'lessan said.

"The plan was approved by Hold, Hall, and Weyr," Tai argued. "The situation hasn't changed, so we don't have the right to alter the plan."

"But the situation has changed!" her mate said forcefully. "We aren't dealing with wild beasts anymore. We're dealing with intelligent, reasonable beings! They're in the same league as the dragons and the doll-fins. They have rights, or at least, they ought to have rights."

"I have to side with F'lessan here," Ballora said. "I've studied the history of Old Earth, and it's overflowing with instances where one culture pushed another culture aside, or wiped them out, so the stronger ones could have all the land. I'd like to think that Pern can do better than that."

"I want no part of this," Tai muttered as she turned and stormed away.

I watched her go. "I seem to be running out of friends in this place."

"Don't worry, Rit," F'lessan assured me. "You'll have more friends than you realize, once the truth of your situation becomes known." He rested his hand on my head.

I pulled away with a snarl. Who did he think he was, to assume such familiarity with me? I might be his friend, but I was not his pet!

He pulled his hand back as though I'd bitten him. "Whoa! Sorry. I guess I'm assuming too much."

"Yes, you are. Now tell me about this mysterious plan of yours."

"Well… this may cause bigger problems down the road, but here's the situation." He described how the dead herdbeasts, dropped on our grounds by the dragons, contained a substance that would inhibit us from reproducing.

I didn't know whether I should run into the forest or rip his throat out. I stood there in stunned silence for several seconds, quivering. At last, I found my voice. "Is this how you treat friends? You will drive us to extinction! Should I call you Modoc, for Man On Dragon who Obliterates Cats?"

"This is how we were going to treat you," Ballora explained, "when we thought you were just an uncontrollable menace. We know better now."

"Then why were the dragons still taking dead herdbeasts into the forest earlier this morning?" I demanded.

"We know better," F'lessan explained, "but a lot of other people don't. It's our job to tell them so they'll understand. Then they won't want to wipe you out anymore."

"Will you start with Mirrim and her mate?" I asked. "They are in charge of the dead herdbeast project, are they not?"

F'lessan glanced at Ballora, who shrugged. "I think we should start with Weyrleader F'lar and Weyrwoman Lessa," he decided. "They have the most authority. If we can persuade them, then they can stop the whole project."

"Will these powerful people speak to you?" I asked. "Should I entrust my species' future to these powerful strangers?"

"I think I can get them to speak to me," he said with a smile. "You see, F'lar and Lessa are my father and my mother."

"I see," I said. "And do you think you can convince your sire and dam to change their chosen course of action?"

"I may not be able to convince them," he said with an odd expression on his face, and paused. "But I think you can."

o

I slept restlessly that day. I had far more issues on my mind than I was accustomed to. Friends... extinction... Oclo's troubles... Pern's human leaders... fur coats... I felt overwhelmed by it all. For the first time, I felt the need to talk to someone about my problems. I doubted that any of the humans could be objective about some of those problems, and Oclo was overwhelmed with his own problems. I would have to work out my issues in the time-honored way, by myself.

But there was one thing I could do that might help: I could distract myself by doing something useful. F'lessan still wanted me to try hunting tunnel-snakes in his building. I had seen all the rooms and I knew, roughly, where the obstacles were. I would try again tonight.

I tried and failed. The door where I had entered the last time was closed against me. I searched and found no open doors anywhere. The humans were all asleep; there were no lights on in any of the windows, so no one could open a door for me. Some of the windows were open, but they were too high for me to reach by jumping. I was about to give up when I heard a faint sound in the courtyard. It was probably just Golanth, twitching his tail in his sleep, but I checked it anyway. After all, I had nothing else to do.

Golanth was awake but resting comfortably. The sound came from near his tail, but it wasn't his tail. It was a tunnel snake that had just left its burrow and was about to take an opportunistic bite out of the unaware dragon. Not on my watch! Without a moment's thought, I tensed and sprang.

Looking back, a moment's thought would have been a good idea. I hadn't considered how Golanth might react to me leaping at him in the dark. I suddenly was swatted aside by an invisible force and flung fifty feet away. The dragon leaped to his feet, bellowing a challenge and baring his teeth. Glow-lights came on in the building; doors were banging open and shut. I had somehow aroused the whole human settlement.

Why did you do that to me? the big dragon demanded.

"Yes, why?" echoed F'lessan as he limped toward us. "I thought we were all friends!"

"I was trying to kill that tunnel snake," I tried to explain, pointing with my muzzle at the thing's burrow. "It was going to bite Golanth."

"I don't see any tunnel snakes," F'lessan said tartly.

The snake, of course, had disappeared as soon as the commotion began. Golanth put his great head next to the burrow and sniffed. It is a tunnel snake burrow, and a snake was here very recently, he decided. Rit might be telling the truth.

"I am telling the truth! Please believe me," I nearly pleaded. I didn't want a misunderstanding to ruin all the progress we'd made with each other. "I wasn't even aiming at Golanth – I would have landed right next to him, not on top of him."

That part is probably true, Golanth admitted.

"Why didn't you warn him before you leaped at him?" F'lessan asked.

"I didn't have time," I said. "The thing was about to bite him."

Tai said, "I don't know who to believe."

I believe Hunter Rit, Golanth decided. It was a confusing situation, and I made a mistake in the dark. I am sorry.

Other humans were rushing into the courtyard. Some were dragon riders, roused by Golanth's mental alarm; others had merely been awakened by his bellow and wanted to know what was going on. F'lessan assured them all that he had the situation under control, and sent them back to their beds. Only Tai stayed beside him as the courtyard emptied out.

I examined myself. My great fear was that I might have re-injured my flank. But the Healer's work was good, and I had landed on my healthy side. I would have to spend a little extra time grooming myself before I went to sleep, but that was the only injury I had suffered.

"Why were you prowling around in the courtyard at all?" Tai demanded.

"I tried to hunt tunnel snakes in your building," I explained, "but all the doors were closed, so I could not get inside. I was going back to my resting place when I heard the tunnel snake in the courtyard."

F'lessan hit himself in the head. "That was my fault. I've got everyone so conditioned to close the doors at night to keep the wildlife from wandering in... I didn't even think about how you might get in!"

"How did you get in last time?" Tai wondered.

I told them about the small door I had used in the darkness. F'lessan nodded. "We call that one the Food Door because it's how we bring foodstuffs in. That's the door that really has to stay shut at night, because it's so close to our food storage areas. We can't leave that one open for you, Rit."

"We can't exactly leave the main doors open for her, either," Tai pointed out.

"I would like to do the work you have set before me," I said, "but I can't do it if you're going to thwart me at the beginning."

"Let's all go back to sleep," F'lessan decided. "I'll come up with something in the morning." He kept his word. Before I went to sleep for the afternoon, he showed me some work that his craftsmen had just finished. They had cut a flap out of the bottom of the Food Door, and re-mounted it with double hinges on top so I could push it open with my nose from either side.

"This is the Rit Door," he told me. "You can come and go as you please, and you can do your hunting at any hour that suits you. Thank you for trying last night, even though you didn't kill anything." He paused. "How should I say I hope you do better tonight?"

"A hunter would say, 'I wish you good hunting.'"

"Okay," he nodded. "I wish you good hunting."

I returned to my sleeping place until the morning, well-satisfied. When night fell again, I would try my Rit Door and hunt some tunnel snakes. Slowly but steadily, I was training these humans to think like hunters.

Or were the humans training me to think like them?

o

A/N
The phrase "homicidal psycho jungle cats" is a reference to the classic comic strip, Calvin & Hobbes.

On October 2, 2021, this story passed the 3000-view mark, which is pretty good, considering the size of the Pern fandom. Thank you to everyone who has done all that viewing.