Chapter 6
"Leadership"
I took my place at table, the high flat rock that projected out from the mountain and into the thin wood where the three great packs had gathered. It was from here that I watched the Mighty Hena mingle amongst one another. Packs often traded members at council. No law confined them to one Alpha or another. Mighty Hena were free to come and go based on their desires and where they were best suited. Many had come and gone from the grasslands over the years. Our own Prima came to us from Castle Rock. She left her original pack in search of something more, someone more, and prospered.
I looked out over the rocks where the core of my pack had settled. Prima had taken my place and was watching over the pups. As Mother, it was my responsibility to meet with the other elders and offer counsel to those who wanted resolution to minor issues before official discussions began. I had already met with many from our old pack who had since moved on to other lands. There was Wind Talker of the riverlands who greeted me with nuzzles and tail wagging. She spoke to me of the sounds of water and rain that were so different from the sounds of grasses.
Warrior, who was once Beta, came up to me with great respect. He spoke of the bachelors he hunted with and beamed when I told him he had visited places I had not heard of. Then, there was Boulder, a heavy set figure of a Mighty Hena, who greeted me with the eagerness of a pup. He asked of Maw Mouth and others, curious as to how they fared in comparison to those who lived in the forests. He showed me the scars of the Ring Bear he had faced and I felt a great warmth from him. I could tell he would one day sit at table with us and the weight of his love would ensure that the rest of us remained down to earth. I gave Boulder my blessing and he went away as light footed as I had ever seen him walk.
Council was a great time of sharing and storytelling and show casing. I heard many renditions of our run in with the Sky Tails scattered throughout the chatter already. It was also a time of meeting old friends, making new ones, and testing the boundaries of one's station. From the edge of the table, I saw our Beta, Hunter, attentively sniffing a female from the riverlands. They had shifted away from the general population and investigated one another with mutual interest. She looked healthy. Her body was lean, but muscles tight, and her neck kept her head poised upright with playful reservation. She was likely an excellent swimmer.
I would not dissuade Hunter from his choice, especially when the female in question repaid it in kind, but the Alpha of the Rivers wasn't tolerant of promising males encroaching on his territory and he ran Hunter off with showy snarls. Hunter was quick to evade and wise to keep his distance from then on, but the female continued to keep her eye on him. Not many could evade the discipline of an Alpha with such steady impassiveness without having the makings of one themself. It was why he was Beta. I wouldn't be surprised if Hunter left us one day to pursue his own interests.
The world was a grand place and Mighty Hena should rightfully fill it.
Small skirmishes like that were common. Mighty Hena law demanded order and structure, so the mingling of packs often meant temporary restructuring. It was prime opportunity for all males to scope out their prospects and there was none more alluring than our Prima. She was once called Moon Walker for the way she moved across the land. Light and ethereal like a moonbeam. But our Alpha didn't have to bother himself with chasing off the other males. Prima's white snapping teeth and warning growls kept them away.
Her heart would not be swayed by their swagger. It was too focused on the pups which were the true twinkling stars this night. All of the other Mighty Hena marveled at their size and strength. They had younger litters that had to be carried during the trek to Castle Rock. Prima did well to keep the unwelcomed interest of the younger overly ambitious Hena at bay. Alpha's protection was not needed, but he made his presence known anyway. He stepped up to greet others first, head and tail high with a presence that exerted enough pressure to tell them of his station. This created tension among the other Alphas when he came across them, as expected of their roles, but the three pack leaders had known each other for years and already established their rankings within themselves.
My blood, Mato Shadow Foot, was the longest reigning Alpha present. Bigger in stature and presence than any other. Many of his blood had spread to other packs which established powerful relations between us and across all lands. To be Alpha Among Alphas was a great honor. He shared all knowledge and experience because all packs prospered when the Spirit was strong within us. And in the face of all this strangeness, I needed to know that the Mighty Hena were strong.
Another skirmish off in the trees spiked a few manes. The young ones who had grown into themselves, but had yet to be accepted into the pack, caused the most trouble at council. They were young Mighty Hena testing the boundaries of their comradery and ambition. For them, it was a celebration of sorts and they took great pleasure in the excitement. I looked back at the stronghold for the grasslands. Our young ones had already found their places. All except one. Omega stood by himself on the edge of where the pups were playing. This was their first council. In the shadow of Prima and the pups, most paid Omega no mind, but one of the young ones eager to establish himself spotted Omega as an easy target to dominate. He came up quickly from behind and nipped at Omega, startling him into a tail tuck. The attack would have put him on his back had Prima not intervened. She charged in and drove the intruder back into the crowd. He yelped as her jaws tore a patch from his mane. Prima spat out the hairs and trotted back over to Omega. Her presence pulled him to his feet and they walked side by side into the pups.
Intrusion dismissed.
Prima continued through them and returned to her position, dropping Omega off within the protection of her watch. Out of all these great and Mighty Hena, Prima allowed Omega within her precious litter. I need not worry for him in my absence. After proving his bravery with the Sky Tails, the pack had adjusted to his strangeness like skin that moved over ribs. Flexible and vital, but not thought of. From their own perspective, they could not see the significance of such acceptance, but from my seat at table, I could see how the pack was stronger for it. No other pack was as large as ours and no other pack had so many healthy pups. No other had a shepherd to sit with them or to watch and listen for things beyond the world of Mighty Hena.
Omega looked around at the rocks and trees and all manner of creature that had gathered at Castle Rock. There were birds and bugs and scurrying things that kept just out of reach of our paws and our jaws, listening to what we said and watching what we did. The actions of Mighty Hena almost always affected those around us. It was no small feat for the three great packs to come together, and when we did, the whole land from the rivers to the grasslands and the mountains were aware of it. They too could feel a change and wanted to know what the Mighty Hena made of it.
I listened to them whistle, tweet, snort, and chatter. I could not understand their words like Omega, but I could tell they made gossip and told stories of their own. There were more creatures congregating at council than usual. Some species rarely seen so openly. I could feel the strings of fate pulling between us. All these moving parts were delicately laced within one another. The power of the Spirit was especially strong at Castle Rock. It was another reason why it was chosen as the place to hold council, but there was a level of excitement here today that roused my old bones. This sacred place was blossoming with discovery, so I felt it as good a time as any to test its workings. I stood up and focused all of my attention on Omega to see if intention was enough to trigger his sensitivity.
His ears pricked and he looked around for what had alerted him but he could not find where it came from with so many around. I increased my focus so that he would learn to recognize it and softly barked. It wasn't much more than a huff, but the Spirit traveled much farther than sound. There were others at Castle Rock who were better trained and more aware than Omega. A few flicked their ears at my call. Others glanced up as if distracted. A small few looked up to see what I was about. The well experienced flicked me only a glance, already aware of my intentions. It was then that Omega found me in the crowd and trotted towards the rock formation to answer my summons. The rest were too busy showing off or socializing to care.
Although, to my surprise, one pup in our group heard me. They bent back and howled, toppling over. It was a small squeak of an announcement, but for the rest of the pups, it was a call to join the festivities, and the other four mimicked it. As a good Prima, she lifted their voices with her own to show them how it was done. Others in the pack then started up. I heard Maw Mouth and Jumper and Scout, but it was when Alpha threw back his head that the whole mountain began to shake. Not to be outdone, the other packs sounded their call. The five of us at table added our voices and we ended the song as one.
It was not up to us, but the Spirit, to determine when council proceedings began, and the Spirit had spoken using the tiny voice of a pup. All Mighty Hena then began to gather in loose rings around the table according to pack and station with the highest ranking closest to the outcrop. It would take many minutes still until we were all organized, so I sat and waited for Omega to hop up onto the table with me. He kept his head low out of respect for the others, but quickly realized that the elders were very much like myself. All Mothers and Fathers in Spirit who had much insight and wisdom to share with those who sought it.
The pack from the riverlands had a Mother and Father that were once a mating pair. They were the oldest of their pack with only a light speckling of grey in their coats. The pack of the forests had a Mother and Father pair that were siblings. They were the youngest of the five of us, with full color and gloss to their coats. They were held in great esteem for their patience and delegation, never once letting their age hold them back from learning the ways of others. I could easily see Boulder finding his way in with them as Grandfather in the near future.
I alone represented the grasslands. As the eldest, the others automatically elevated me to a station above themselves in experience, but at some point, I realized, they stopped standing beside me and started looking up at me from behind, so it felt good when Omega came to sit next me without considering his station in relation to mine. No one cared that he'd been invited to sit at table. All could come and speak with the elders to watch and to learn. Over the past few months, Omega had become an extension of my spirit, and now, under the light of the full blue moon, he probably seemed almost invisible in my shadow despite his extensive grey coat.
"You fare well for your first council," I told him as we waited for the three Alphas to gather at the flat slabs of rock below the table.
I glanced out into the woods where the furry and feathered spectators also began to group together.
"Tell me, what do you make of all these creatures?"
I never cared about the whims of other species before, but now that there was a Hena that could understand their words, I was curious as to what it was that drew them to council.
"What do they make of us?"
"I cannot say," Omega admitted as he watched the canopy rustle and flutter in the moonlight. "There are a great many voices. Many I have not heard before."
"You will come to know them," I reassured him. "I have a feeling this silent voice of yours will one day speak the loudest."
The three Alphas now stood below us.
"But first you must listen to your brothers." I turned a wink at him. "So that if I fall asleep, you may tell me later."
The familiar black face and ruby eyes of my kin then looked up at me. I nodded at my Alpha and glanced over my shoulders. The other Mothers and Fathers stepped up to the edge of the table to listen and give counsel when called upon. Omega scooted a little closer to me to make himself small, but I could hear his tail wagging ever so slightly with the honor he'd been given to sit among such renowned Mighty Hena. He glanced between us as if blushing underneath his coat.
"The Spirit of the Mighty Hena has gathered under the blue moon," I announced in a booming voice so that the others could hear. "Let the council begin!"
"Stop!" A voice suddenly cried out from the masses.
It was a voice I did not need Omega to interpret.
"Wait!" Damon Doom Seer called again as he appeared on top of a large boulder that overlooked the slabs from the side.
It wasn't as high as the table, but it came close. His dark shape slipped out of the moonlight as quiet as a ghost. Several of the Mighty Hena around him flinched back from his appearance. One or two pulled back their lips in reflexive growls. It was no secret that Doom Seers helped orchestrate these meetings so that word could spread as quickly as possible and we could all meet on time, but generally, they only acted as witnesses once proceedings began. Most Mighty Hena had never seen a Seer in the flesh before.
"Before we begin, might a humble hound such as myself ask a simple, but nonetheless pertinent question?" he asked.
I lowered my tail and sharpened a long hard look in the Seer's direction. He avoided my gaze, focusing on the Alphas below me instead.
"Is a council not a gathering of all the great Chariot Hounds under the light of a single moon?"
A cold chill went down my back despite the thickness of my mane.
"Does that not mean that all that call themselves, as you say, Mighty, may attend? Should but one arrive late, would the others not sit and wait until all spots at the table were filled?"
The elders glanced between one another. The three Alphas scanned the crowd for a challenger they might have missed. There were smaller packs scattered throughout the land. Many had chosen to come to council like Warrior and his small band of wanderers, but only the strongest three could balance one another upon the slabs below the table.
"Nothing good will come of this," I head Mother of the Forests whisper. "There are no more Alphas."
It was then that Damon Doom Seer caught my gaze. He smiled with those boundless black eyes and I knew him to be a traitor. A hound whose only regret was arriving late to the Bone Taker's burrow because living in the dark was so much more fun than the light.
"Behold," Damon shouted with long withheld elation. "Your brethren!"
Several gasps and whispers sprang up from the back of the crowd. A ripple of bodies opened a path from the woods to the table. A single Mighty Hena walked down it. His entire body was black. Shadows had seeped into his very skin from nose to claw. The size of his paws left wide tracks in the dirt and the cloak of darkness he wore about his shoulders was furred with many dark and bitter winters. The cold had bristled the hairs on his neck stiff like quills. His steps were heavy. They shook his great cowl like mane as if he stomped through the mountains like a Ring Bear. Not a shred of silver was left in him. No light. No balance. The only color he carried was the red glow of blood in his eyes. His very presence growled, warning others not to approach without speaking a single word. Mato alone stepped forward. He stood at the end of the trail, claws gripped tight to the stone.
"You," he snarled, head low and tail spiked high behind him.
The black Mighty Hena stopped at the edge of the slabs and lifted his head with a proud smirk.
"Me," he announced from a throne of his own making.
"What is the meaning of this, Doom Seer?" Mother of the Riverlands shouted from the edge of the table. "He is Exile!"
"He is not welcome here!" her mate added.
"Are not all Mighty Hena considered part of the pack?" Exile laughed, looking up at them. "Is it not your own words that bind me within the confines of your pack? My very name gives me my right to attend council!"
The elders flinched at his rebuke. Exile laughed again. It echoed through the woods, silencing the whispers around him. It was a haunting sound that pushed back the confines of the world, making everything outside of himself flat and distant and cold. Few found themselves strong enough to keep his gaze. Others bared their teeth, too nervous to control their twitching lips, bristling backs, and fidgeting paws.
"Oh, how I missed such revelry under the moon!" Exile went on, looking around at their reactions.
"Leave at once," Alpha of the Riverlands barked.
He stepped forward in front of Mato, off of the table. Exile stepped up to match him. Their difference in size quickly became apparent and the swift mighty river was reduced to a trickling creek. Exile's shadow slipped up onto the slabs as he approached.
"You are no Alpha of mine," he growled.
His eyes then darted to Mato where their gazes sparked.
"None of you are!" he shouted, breaking contact.
And I knew this was the reason for his coming.
"Listen well you mongrels," he continued. "I announce a new pack. My pack. The likes of which you have never seen!"
"As Exile, you are forbidden from such things!" Father of the Forests shouted.
"Who will stop me?" Exile questioned. "A pack of twigs? A sprinkle of water or some measly flowers plucked from the grasses? I hereby declare myself Alpha!"
There was vengeance in his words. A deep hatred for the Spirit of the Mighty Hena and all it represented. He failed to destroy the pack from the inside once and became Exile because of it. Now, he had returned to destroy it from the outside. And this time, he had help.
"Hear me now dogs of darkness!" Damon shouted. "The winds of change have come!"
More noise suddenly erupted from the woods. There were screeches and snarls and yelps. The path Exile had taken widened as more creatures emerged from the darkness of the woods. Purple snakes with golden necks slithered through the roots and rocks. A mountain cat with a broken fang sauntered in behind them. Sightless bats chittered in the trees with leathery wings. Dark Crows took flight above our heads. Red Spiders with poison colored legs tapped down from the trees, dragging webs and strings along with their feet. They all gathered around Exile whose black body devoured all light from the moon like a hole in life itself.
"These are not Mighty Hena," the elders whispered, staring at what Exile claimed as his pack.
"How can this be?"
"It is unthinkable!"
Unease mutated into doubt, and doubt, fear. The strangeness of it all was too real. Too close. It was all so sudden and growing in this sacred place of power no less! The very heart of the Mighty Hena Spirit! Our enemies had taken a place at table of their own accord. Such vile perversion polluted the souls of the Mighty Hena from within. Exile absorbed their feelings of growing madness. His shadow swelled with a deepening blackness and his red eyes pierced our own as if the Mighty Hena were as fragile as mountain glass. He was using the power of the Spirit, a cursed spirit, who had grown from a gnat into a snarling set of jaws more powerful than any other Hena on earth. The other elders stepped back from the edge of the table. I slowly stood and walked up to it. Exile's flaming shadow writhed at the sight of me. It sneered with gleaming white teeth.
"There she is," he said, "The matriarch. Dearest Mother."
His voice twisted and bent when he spoke my name as if his curse could not handle its power. He reached out with his dark energy, devouring the land around us in a darkness that had no depth. No color. No shape. There was only me and his insatiable appetite.
"Tell me," he whispered, words warping again as he held back a giggle. "How is Father?"
And there, in the darkness, I saw the glimmer of a Mighty Hena that was no more and my lips curled up.
"Enough!" I commanded, throwing out a pulse of my own.
It surged across the woods, slicing through the webs and shadows, instantly tearing back the visions and dispelling the nightmare that had slowly crept over us. The rest of the Mighty Hena awoke, quickly realizing that what they had seen was just an illusion. A trick played by the Doom Seer who still stood upon the rock opposite of me. Seers were strongest in speed and illusions. The less you saw of them, the trickier they became. Damon scoffed when he realized his performance was drawing to an end. Exile and his pack were gone, but the message remained.
"Pay attention and heed my warning if you want to live," the hound proudly shouted, because Seers could not resist being prophets of doom. "The reign of Mighty Hena is over!"
This charade had gone on long enough and I wasn't the only one who had lost their patience.
A great black shadow rose up from behind me in response. My silhouette grew to stand against the night sky, impossible in size. Not as my figure, but that of the High Spirit of the Mighty Hena whose eye was the moon, round and full. Its blue and white light swirled into a dark crimson red.
"If Exile of the Badlands wants to take his place at table as the mightiest of Hena, he will do so himself!" I declared, voice rippling with a power not my own, "And I will accept his challenge!"
The Spirit behind me suddenly rushed forward, jaws screaming open. Damon Doom Seer's eyes went white as the shadow rushed ahead of his sight, impaling his prophecy down to his very soul. He then fled with all of his strength and speed as Mato suddenly leapt up onto the rock after him, fangs bared and mane bristling. He carried the Spirit on his back, chasing Damon into the woods. The swift paws of Runner, Scout, and Hunter were not far behind him. They too carried the Will of the Spirit and dowsed the wood in red light. The other Mighty Hena began to bark and howl as they were filled with the power of the pack that had called itself to action. They jostled and leapt in a frenzy so full of shadows and teeth that they could not hold back any longer and rushed to join the hunt.
Within a few minutes, the yips and barks began to quiet as the packs disappeared down the mountain side after their prey. My fur fluttered down and my mane settled into place within the growing silence. The fierce red glow of my eyes began to calm and I looked down at those who had stayed behind. The young and sick and old and weak. They stared up at me with strong silent shining red eyes. When they continued to stare, even as I did nothing, I looked over my shoulder to try and find what it was they saw, but found only the night sky filled with stars and a moon that had chosen me to cast its light. It bathed me with cool radiance when I looked upon it, but from my spot at the table, I could not see the dark silhouette I, in turn, cast upon the moon behind me.
I could not see the shadow of a Mighty Hena that had just declared war.
