Chapter 18

"Communication."

The Swamp Kin stood in the river, very tall and regal and proud at the work he and his Kin had done. Omega, Phantom Back, and I stood in a line on the bank in front of him, washed with water, Spirit, and a special type of mud that made our coats glossy and free of all damage and blemish. The grey in my face seemed darker. Omega appeared as light as his eyes. And Phantom Back's spikey mane had calmed to much less threatening angles.

"As you are Mother, I am now Brother, new found friend of the Mighty Hena," the Swamp Kin announced, using Omega's voice to end the ceremony.

Omega wagged his tail. Phantom Back shyly turned his lowered head away. I softened my eyes at the River Champion. He had overhead the words "Mighty Hena" and "Brother" during the ritual. I used them so that the others would not be afraid of the Kin's ways or size or Spirit as he worked. He asked me what the words meant for Kin did not use such words. So I told him of the pack and our ways, albeit briefly. He learned of names, their power, and purpose. From there, he whole heartedly accepted the title.

And just as the Mighty Hena's naming was special, so was the ritual we had experienced. A Champion was no simple creature, but one with great strength and ability within the realm of their particular gifts. For him, the water and earth were like blood and skin. They required the greatest resilience to endure and overcome, yet contained immense power in purification. Never again would we see the river as something so simple as the flow of water. The curse Banette inflicted on me was gone. The pain in my side had subsided. And what remained of the Shaman had been taken away and exorcised. The river and its kin were safe.

For now.

"Travel swiftly, Mother and Brothers," the Swamp Kin went on, looking at each of us and swelling with the use of these new words that were now so very dear to him. "Your quest is great. Far more than the land will ever know. Take the strength of the river with you and do not hesitate to call upon us again."

The two young Mud Kin I rescued during the battle ran up to me and rubbed their cheek prongs against my legs. I touched them with my nose and they ran back to Brother, darting around him to return to the water.

We, too, must return to where we belonged.

Phantom Back turned away first and trotted up the bank back into the grasses. I followed him. Omega waited a moment. Perhaps to share a few last words with the Swamp Kin. With a flick of my ear, I caught the sounds of water, not the grasses. Eventually, Omega caught up with us at a trot. Together, we disappeared within the cover of the reeds and grasses. When we were out of sight, we stopped to call the pack and find out where the hunt had taken them. It was also a chance to let the Swamp Kin experience our own ritual. He showed great interest in our language and it took no greater form than this. I tilted back my head to lead the howl.

Omega and Phantom Back joined me. Our voices lifted up into the black sky, clear and striking like a shooting star. Our song filled the night with clarity and conviction and I could tell Brother heard it for what it was by the way his Spirit fluctuated. I hoped he would remember our voices for a very long time. Phantom Back was not so content. He glanced around, growing more restless with every second the night remained silent. He wanted to rejoin the others as soon as possible. Now that our hunt had ended, he wanted to pick up purpose again. Our time in the river had taken away most of what remained of the night.

He had no reason to worry. The pack may have gotten away from us, but they could not have strayed far. I could still see Alpha's powering stride and unwavering focus clearly in my mind. They would not have suffered defeat. In fact, forcing them away with the Spirit had probably saved them from encountering the Shaman. A force they would not have been able to face unprepared. A divine plan was in motion and we were all falling into place.

Alpha's voice came to us from a distance, but not so far that it would lead us into the day. The hunt had turned into a chase, and judging from his tone, it ended in our favor. His voice and the voices of all the Mighty Hena that followed eagerly called for our return. Phantom Back took the lead at once. We followed the trail until it ended amongst the others. They greeted us with much touching and tail wagging. They sniffed and licked, curious of this fresh new energy we carried. But there were some that could not leave their posts. The spitting and hissing further on could not be left unattended.

I quickly found Alpha and walked up to him. He glanced at me, then at the Mountain Cat they had captured during the hunt. Gruff Growl, Maw Mouth, and Keen Eye formed the corners of the cat's containment while Alpha watched the perimeter should the cat manage to attempt an escape. The cat looked at me with a new set of bloody scars across his face. One of his back legs was limp and part of his tail was missing. Maw Mouth must have gotten a hold of it. Dirt and blood defiled his tan fur. Black hair stuck out from between his claws but the others were not bothered by a few lost hairs in the depths of our manes. The most striking thing was the way the cat started speaking as if it were narrating our appearance. I could tell that the words were of an ancient feline tongue reserved for those only of royal lineage.

"He talks, but not to us," Alpha explained, glancing back at me. "It began after his wounding."

Only a creature who though itself better than others would monologue its last moments as if they were to be written in stone for generations to come.

"Why does it live?" I asked.

Mighty Hena did not take prisoners.

"We believe he carries secrets of Exile and his pack. Yet we cannot decipher them."

Interrogation was not the Mighty Hena way and subterfuge was for more devious creatures. Reconnaissance and endurance were our strengths. But as the wind changes, so must we, especially against such a new and strange threat. We must take all precautions, even if we were not used to them. I lifted my nose to examine the cat's scent more closely, but I could not catch anything from outside of the pack. Alpha must have caught one during combat. His burning eyes held me fast.

"He smells of fire," Alpha gravely stated and I knew what he meant.

Fire meant humans or Shaman and having experience both, I understood its weight. The cat's thick bubbling laughter suddenly cut into the briefing. Manes went up. Alpha glanced at the captive. I called Omega with the Spirit. He trotted over, already prepared for what I asked of him.

"Listen," I murmured so that the prisoner would not hear.

Omega came close, whispering the cat's giggling secrets in my ear.

"This must be Mother," the cat rasped. "She's older and uglier than Exile said she would be. Has winter turned early? Is that frost on your muzzle?"

His laughter twisted into a sneer.

"You senile rotten old hag!"

The cat flicked his attention to Omega.

"And what's this? Her pale shadow? The ghost of her passing come to haunt what remains of her pathetic miserable little life?"

Alpha, close enough to overhear, folded back his ears. Keen Eye saw it and the trio tightened, nipping and biting and growling so that the cat spun around on its lame leg and swiped at them. The move opened his back. Maw Mouth grabbed the cat by his loose skin and ripped a chunk of it off. The cat screamed, forcing them back with a flash of the gem on his head. Its light was dark. Barely discernable from the night. The three returned to their positions. The cat laid there a moment, exposed flesh flinching as he breathed heavily, mouth hung open. Something inside of him finally broke during the episode. Blood drooled lazily from his lip. His eyes lost focus. He could not hold himself as high as before. His slump deepened.

"You flea bitten mongrels," the cat hoarsely choked, drunk with pain and exhaustion. "You have no idea what's coming for you. You may have captured me, but it changes nothing."

Omega, Alpha, and I continued to watch, unmoved. Hiding our understanding.

"I wish I could be there…to see the look on your faces…"

The cat knew he was already dead. Whether he submitted to us or not. The fight had done irreparable damage. The last weapon in his arsenal was to wound our Spirit with his spite. A trick he no doubt learned from the company of the Bone Takers. This time, I would not let them finish. I turned an eye at Omega. He glanced at me. It was time to test the limits of his gift again. I did not fail to notice the way Omega's inflections of speech grew stronger with every creature he met. Now, we would see if his tongue was as good as his ears. I would have him speak for me. Not as Mighty Hena, but my message would be as bold and as brusque as we normally made it. I told him the words. The rest we left to the Spirit.

"I pity you savages," the cat went on. "I've seen what awaits you on the altar."

His eyes once again narrowed at me, too blind to see Omega working beside me.

"Especially you, Mother. Neither you nor your pack will escape alive."

His eyes widened, brightening. Bloody spit frothed at the ends of his lips.

"They're coming for you and they'll rip out your bones one by one you filthy hairy bitch!"

I took a step closer so that the cat's lazy eye refocused.

"Your Shaman is dead," I interjected, clamping off his threats at the jugular.

The cat paused. When he realized the words were spoken in his own cherished tongue, from the pale shadow of a bitch no less, he snarled.

"Witch!" the cat shrieked, knowing no other way but dark means to explain this strange exchange of tongues.

"So is his ghost," I added blankly.

There was no need to embellish truth.

"You lie!" the cat hissed with a false swipe.

He clawed through his own prophecy like dust and ashes, revealing the truth. The cat then whirled his hatred on Omega who now stood behind me, his voice projecting through my Spirit so that it carried the weight of my presence. The cat quickly realized that he was the one who spoke. It was a gift from the Spirit. Gifts Mountain Cats never received because they never believed in a power other than their own.

"How dare you defile the sanctity of the royal language!" he raged.

His face twisted like his insides, eyes gleaming in the pale dawn light.

"I'll kill you myself before the Shaman have a chance to curse your bones!"

Alpha dropped his head. The other three honed in on the crippled cat with bristling manes and clapping teeth. Distracted by their snarls, the cat never saw Alpha when he struck. Few could. He disappeared in a sudden cloud of smoke and shadow, reappearing in the middle of the triangle. In an overwhelming display of force, he clamped onto the side of the cat's neck and snapped it with a single thrash of his head. No longer a captive, the cat hung limply in Alpha's jaws. He threw the larger creature to the ground, despite their difference in size, but his mind was much further than the victory at his paws.

"Is it true?" He asked of me, still looking for the true face of the enemy that awaited us. "Have the Shaman returned?"

He looked up at me, determined to take the threat head on, but disheartened to have to do so in the first place. Such was the look of all good in the face of evil.

"Yes," I told him.

"But it is dead?" Keen Eye asked, coming closer with the others, "and its ghost?"

We all gathered round.

"Yes," I said again, leaving it at that.

"To think it was so close…" Keen Eye trailed off, understanding the significance of this revelation.

Phantom Back and Omega looked at one another. They knew better than to speak about what happened just yet. If they were to tell stories of me, they would do so outside of my presence. Besides, I was not the true hero here. Ume and Watepei, emboldened by what they had witnessed, came up to Omega. Only those lower than himself could look up and see what he had done with such wonder instead of strangeness.

"Your voice," Ume exclaimed.

"It was like the cat's," Watepei finished.

Omega lowered his head, bashful at such attention. It was time he got used to it.

"It is his gift," I announced, taking up his voice for once.

This intrigued the others. By now, they knew he was my apprentice, but not why he had come under my watch in the first place.

"Then he is Blessed!" they began, growing excited with such joyous news.

"Such a rare gift…"

"Speak again!"

"This carries great purpose."

Their ears and tails lifted, wagging.

"Has Mother found a name yet?"

"The pack will grow stronger with this. I have no doubt."

"Tell us what happened at the river."

"Tell us!"

The others now took into account the differences in Spirit between our two parties. They felt the blessing we received and began to unwind from the hunt by harassing Omega and Phantom Back with pawing and pushing to share in their blessing. They deserved such affectionate attention. And I was not to be left out. Alpha led me away to the side. He would hear the story about the battle from the others a dozen different times by the next moon, so he focused on what was not said.

Had we been on the hill by the den, we would've looked out at the horizon together.

"Yet you are not settled," he whispered to me.

"There is more in the cat's words," I said, reflecting on the cat's secrets, the energy he tried to summon but failed to acquire. "This is not the end."

We still had to find and face Exile. When we did, I was not sure I wanted to see what awaited us. I had my suspicions, but it would do no good to worry the pack now. Better to press on with victory empowering us.

"Then at dusk, we set out again," Alpha simply stated. "And we continue the hunt."