by Avi Silver
Even on the floor of Eiji, it felt dangerous to consider. But it was hard not to wonder: what would her life be like if she had been allowed her Minhal birthright in Ateng? The hmun would probably gender her neutrally like the Chisong, Jão, and Hiun phases, which would give her the freedom to move between men’s and women’s roles. But it would also come with the expectation of holding both masculine and feminine wisdom, which she definitely didn’t have—godless night, her last good idea had nearly killed her.
So this is what it takes for me to reach you, she thought, smiling bitterly up at Sodão Dangde. A Tengmunji fit for a Minhal.
The mountain stared down at her, unmoved. A dense void against the dazzling backdrop of the realm of gods.
But it wasn’t fully void—there was that luminescence again, flickering brighter now. More than that, it was moving, blinking in inconsistent bursts.
Sohmeng rubbed her eyes with her good hand, clearing the sleep from them to get a better look; this time, when she saw the lights, she recognized colour in them. A purple pulse. Then a green. A purple. Two more greens. It reminded her of wovenstone gently illuminating the walls of a cavern, but it seemed to be shifting downward, moving closer to the base of the mountain with every passing moment.
She looked around for Hei, vague unease settling in the pit of her stomach. Maybe they could explain what it was?
“Hei?” she called, sitting up with a wince. “Hei the Elusive? Hei the Sleepy?” No response. The lights blinked brighter before disappearing into the thick of the rainforest below. “Hei of the Inconvenient Pee Break?”
Around her, the world was slow with sleep. The crickets sang and the thick vines above swayed in the wind. Sohmeng’s heart throbbed in her chest. And across the grove, Green Bites rolled over in his sleep, exposing a throat pulsing and pulsing with a flickering emerald light that held all the warmth of the day, a warning of what precisely was coming to meet them at the foot of Sodão Dangde.
For a moment, all Sohmeng could do was stare numbly into the darkness ahead. The enemy sãoni of Sodão Dangde were coming. She had seen them, she knew it, but when would they arrive? How long did she have? Fear hit her full in the chest; she stood as fast as she could, her body protesting every moment, to face the sãoni colony that had agreed not to eat her. A lot of good that truce would do if she got in the middle of a reptilian territory war. Where in two dark moons was Hei?
“H-hey!” she called, feeling immediately foolish. Naturally, none of sãoni moved, and her embarrassment yielded to anger at herself for holding back when this was actually life or death. She tried again. “WAKE UP!”
High above, a few night birds scattered, but the sãoni stayed huddled around each other, glowing throats to the ground, unmoving.
“No,” Sohmeng muttered, reaching up and grabbing at her hair, “no, no, no I am not dying like this.”
She stumbled over to Green Bites, giving him a hard thump on the side. She expected to be greeted with a faceful of cranky teeth, but he simply rolled over with a heavy huff, ignoring her. She ran to the next closest sãoni and was met with a similar reaction. Again and again she tried, until she made it to Mama. “Wake up, Mama!” she insisted, pulling on a head spine. “You have to wake up. Come ON, you stupid lizard!”
If Hei were here, what would they do? How would they wake the sãoni? Why did they have to disappear now of all times? Her throat itched with the urge to scream—
That was it.
Sohmeng paced back and forth, trying to remember the noise Hei had practiced with her, the alarm sound. With an apology to her vocal cords, she roared, releasing the ugliest noise she had ever made into the wild.
For the most part, the sãoni didn’t move. A few stirred, but not enough to break them free of their cold-blooded snooze. That was the downfall of being an apex predator, Sohmeng realized—their biology never considered that something might dare to attack them. She screeched again and again, searching for the right tone, hoping that at least Hei might hear, wherever they were. Her next cry was so forceful, she nearly fell into the fire they had made for the jackfruit the night before.
And then she had a really, really bad idea.
Before she could think about it too hard, Sohmeng pulled a stick from the base of their shelter. She held it to the fire until it caught, and then lifted it to the tail of one of the vines above her head, thankful to be in a relatively dry season. Stumbling around the sãoni, she lit every vine she could reach—soon the canopy was garlanded in flame, releasing an urgent halo of heat and smoke. Her lungs scratched against it as the fire built upon itself, devouring every surface dry enough to catch. Knowing it was her last chance, Sohmeng inhaled deeply, and pulled from the back of her throat a bid for her life.
On the floor of the grove, a groggy green eye opened. Followed by another, and another. The sãoni stirred, looking around like so many sleepy toddlers as patches of burning vines fell upon them, small stings to amplify the growing warmth of the forest.
Sohmeng screamed again, in equal parts terror and triumph. Of course, the fire would lead Blacktooth’s sãoni straight to them, but at least now they had a fighting chance.
Alerted at last to the trouble, Mama stumbled over to Sohmeng, nudging her with her face. All around, the other sãoni lifted their noses, shook out their glowing necks, and began echoing the alarm in one horrible chorus.
Sohmeng patted Mama’s cheeks, speaking the only way she knew how. “They’re coming, Mama. I saw them on the mountain, I—oh, godless night, you have no idea what I’m saying. You have no idea.”
But this problem didn’t last for long. The distant roar of sãoni was audible now. Mama growled, flattening herself to the earth, and turned to snarl sharply at the hatchlings on the ground. At once they swarmed up a tree, curling around each other like ink—and then Mama’s nose jabbed into her side, prompting her to cry out and clutch it, grimacing. For a maternal creature, she certainly seemed to lack a sense of her own power. “I can’t climb! My useless body already failed at being a bird, I’m not about to try my luck as a snake—”
The sounds of the enemy sãoni were louder now, the cracking of branches detectable alongside the terrible noises they made. They weren’t even trying to hide their approach; it was an all-out war campaign. Sohmeng glared at the tree, trying to figure out how she was going to get out of this one.
From behind her, the alarm sound she had first initiated rang out, sharp and high and undoubtedly from a human throat. Sohmeng reeled around, facing Hei with murder in her eyes. “Where under the burning godseye have you been?”
“I was—” Hei stumbled to a stop, gawking at the forest. “Sohmeng Par, what did you do?”
“Wrong question,” Sohmeng snapped, pushing back Mama’s nose as the sãoni tried again to nudge her up the tree. “What you should be asking me is What is that awful, nightmare-inducing noise in the distance?” Right on cue, the bellow of a sãoni came rattling through the woods. Sohmeng didn’t need to speak the creatures’ language to know it was a battle cry.
“Blacktooth,” Hei said, going pale beneath their makeup. Sohmeng could only nod, her heart beating so hard she thought it might burst inside her. Hei, normally so confident and unworried, was frozen in place; after a moment, they swallowed, pulling themself together and looking at her firmly. “Get on my back. I’ll carry you up to the hatchlings.”
With no small amount of difficulty, Sohmeng wrapped her arms around Hei’s neck, grinding her teeth to keep from shouting. Hei made their way up the tree with their usual agility; it was only when they let out a few strained grunts that Sohmeng realized they were struggling.
“Are you okay?” she asked, suddenly concerned. She hadn’t noticed any injuries when Hei came running back, but she’d been too distracted by the chaos to get a good look.
“Y-yeah,” Hei wheezed, heaving the two of them up to a branch. “You’re just . . . heavier than I thought.”
Sohmeng snorted. Was this news? “You weren’t
complaining about me being fat when it was giving you something to snuggle on Mama—”
She was cut off by a particularly menacing roar out of the enemy sãoni. With one final push, Hei lifted Sohmeng onto an upper branch, where they stared anxiously down at the scene.
It was a sight to behold. Under the ominous crackle of the fire, Mama’s colony of sãoni were clicking rapidly, a rolling, snapping noise like stepping on a thousand dried berries, their bodies pressed close to the ground as if building up the energy to launch themselves at the intruders.
And launch they did—as soon as Blacktooth’s sãoni broke through, Mama’s were upon them, snarling and snapping and shrieking as they tore into each other. Something heavy pressed on Sohmeng’s leg; the hatchlings were climbing all over her, inviting her into their tangle. One reached a mid-leg to Hei as well, but they pushed it away, eyes locked on the fight.
All around them, the tatters of vines were burning up, changing the quality of the light faster than Sohmeng could focus her eyes. The trees were so bright they stung her retinas, and below, the world was a mass of tooth and claw and shadow and rage. For the first time since Hei had picked her up, Sohmeng was reminded of what the sãoni were: hunters, killers, an emblem of natural brutality.
Unfortunately for Sohmeng, two phases’ time was not enough for her to distinguish sãoni the way she did people. She could recognize a few of Mama’s colony from their distinct markings and personality traits, but from her current vantage point it was difficult to know which creature she should be sending her prayers to.
What she could see were the moons. The two wide eyes of Ama and Chehang were at full attention, boasting the divine wisdom of Chisong. Did the gods watch over sãoni?
Hei hissed loudly, lifting themself for a better view, body tensed as if they were ready to jump down into the action. Sohmeng reached for them, resting a hand on their shoulder. “What is it?” she asked. “What do you see?”
She followed Hei’s attention to the source of their distress: a new sãoni had entered the fight, different from the rest. It moved slowly, slyly, skirting the edges as though it was searching for something. When it opened its mouth, Sohmeng could just barely glimpse in the firelight the strangeness of its mouth—a corner of its teeth were blackened with rot.
Hei cupped their hands around their mouth, letting out three sounds, three cries of alarm spat out with the force of a curse: Mama. Danger. Alpha.
Being the alpha herself, Mama needed no warning, and wasted no time leaping in Blacktooth’s direction, biting and snapping, swiping viciously with her claws at the other sãoni’s eyes and sides. Above in the tree, the hatchlings squeaked and spat, writhing in Sohmeng’s arms. Frantic at the sight of Mama in such close combat, she found herself yelling nonsense. “Get her, Mama! You can do it!”
With a kick of a strong back leg, Mama sent Blacktooth to her side and lunged to rip at her exposed belly. But Blacktooth turned, banging her own front claws into Mama’s cheeks once, twice. She recoiled, trying to protect her eggs, and Blacktooth fell upon her, targeting her throat.
Hei let out a scream that had no trace of Sãonipa crackle. Distraught and furious, they yanked their hood up and leapt down the branches, plunging into the fray.
“Hei, NO!” Sohmeng cried, reaching for them instinctively. But Hei was already on the ground, yanking a sharpened stick from their shelter to serve as a weapon. All around, the warring sãoni were still entrenched in their own bloodshed. Hei was so small beside them, leaping and screaming and piercing any creature that dared separate them from their mother.
Another cry broke through the night, and Sohmeng watched in horror as one of Blacktooth’s sãoni sunk its teeth into Green Bites’ side. Hei was on them in an instant, shoving their stick into the creature’s open mouth, straight through the back of its throat. It scrambled backward, gurgling horribly, and Hei ran to Green Bites, thumping his good side, their communication inaudible through the chaos around them.
Green Bites rose again, staggering on his feet and lowering his body to the ground for Hei. With another pat of encouragement, they jumped onto him, letting out a vicious cry and leading him toward Mama.
They darted in and out of the sãoni fights, dodging stray bites and claws and heavy tails. All the while, Mama squawked and writhed, using all her strength to beat Blacktooth back and protect her cheeks from the claws raining down on her. Hei guided Green Bites back to the shelter, grabbing two more pointed sticks as they passed, indicating direction with their voice and the lean of their body. When they finally came upon Blacktooth, the eldest children of their family’s alpha, they came for blood.
Green Bites pitched into Blacktooth with a bellow, knocking her aside and digging his claws into the soft spot between her fore- and mid legs. Sohmeng held her breath as Hei vaulted off the sãoni, positioning themself in front of Mama with their pikes. And though they were small, they were fearsome to behold, the teeth of their hood glinting in the firelight, their body poised to kill. As Green Bites wrestled with Blacktooth, shredding her shoulder with his young, unrotted teeth, Hei kept off the rest of their assailants.
“Get up, Mama,” Sohmeng said, pressing back against the tree trunk. “Get up!” Helpless though she felt high above the battle, Sohmeng had faith in Hei and Green Bites. The sãoni was vicious, relentless, and Hei—Hei’s bravery in this battle appeared inhuman. She supposed that was the point.
With a ferocious roar, Green Bites sank his teeth into Blacktooth’s neck and ripped, pulling out her throat in a spray of gleaming black. Seeing this, Hei released a series of cries, victorious and deadly, raising their blood-soaked arms to the sky. Around them, the fighting ceased for a moment, the sãoni echoing the snarls one by one.
It was interrupted only by the call of a large sãoni that had come in with Blacktooth’s colony. In a flash, the others detached themselves from their opponents and hastily followed it into the forest, in the direction opposite to Sodão Dangde. Surprisingly, a few stayed, approaching Mama not with ill intent, but with caution.
Hei turned to Mama, nuzzling her face and stroking her head spines. Around Sohmeng, the hatchlings had climbed back down the tree, leaving her alone on the branch to watch the scene below unfold. She stared at Mama’s torn, still form, praying up to her estranged gods that she would see the sãoni rise.
“Par,” she whispered. “Par, Go, Hiwei, Fua, Tang, Sol, Jão, Pel, Dongi, Se, Won, Nor, Chisong—”
Tonight, it seemed, they were in a listening mood.
Mama lifted herself slowly, with a deep groan of pain, favouring her right side. Many soft clicks came all around the destroyed grove, and Sohmeng couldn’t help but echo them in relief, in solidarity. With Hei on one side and Green Bites on the other, Mama approached Blacktooth’s former sãoni who had not fled, and one by one they extended their necks, allowing a bite from her.
Just like that, the violence devolved into investigating, sniffing, rubbing cheeks. Sohmeng couldn’t follow—had they really accepted their enemies into the family that easily? Was this the way forgiveness worked here? She couldn’t say. She would have to ask Hei later.
Hei. A human who leapt willingly to their death without a second thought. Who stood beside Mama now, bloodied and exhausted, their face covered by a hood made from some other fallen enemy.
Sohmeng wanted to call for them, to ask for help down, but she could not bring herself to raise her voice. So she sat there, ruminating in her gratitude, smelling iron and woodsmoke and the flowers that ornamented the canopy.
Eventually, Hei came for her, carrying her back down with the kind of ease reserved for those who have not yet realized how closely they have brushed with death. Sohmeng was relieved to see none of the blood was theirs. Their black makeup had streaked down their face from sweat, or tears.
“We’ll go to the river,” they said. “See to our wounded. Sodão Dangde is our territory now, for as long as we choose to claim it.”
Sohmeng thought this should be somethin
g to celebrate, and many of the sãoni were triumphant indeed, leaping and nuzzling where they could. Even Green Bites had a spring in his step, wounded as he was, and approached Hei multiple times to rub his face into their side. When he came to Sohmeng, she managed her fear of being up close with the gory face of a sãoni enough to stroke his head spines, earning a satisfied rumble.
Hei remained quiet, their eyes on either Mama or the ground as they approached the river. While the sãoni all rinsed off, splashing around and playing, Hei stayed on the banks with Mama, reaching into her cheeks and pulling out the eggs one by one, separating the broken from the whole. Mama watched them with her chin pressed to the silt, blinking slowly, resting her exhausted body. It seemed to Sohmeng that she wasn’t terribly troubled by the loss.
But Hei was moved to weeping, their hands shaking as they put aside the cracked and shattered eggs. Soon they could bear no more, and simply sat beside Mama, sobbing into their knees, human all the way through.
The sãoni colony took its time recovering at the base of Sodão Dangde, basking in the territory they had won from Blacktooth. Their victory did not take away from the breadth of their injuries; Mama spent much of her time resting in the mud by the river while Hei fussed and worried.
The battle had done a number on Hei; more than once, Sohmeng watched them get worked up as they attempted to care for the sãoni’s wounds, pacing and squawking until tears came to their eyes. When this happened, Mama would take their arm in her mouth—more specifically, in the cheek pocket where she held her eggs. You’re my baby, too, the gesture said.
In those first days, Sohmeng couldn’t even imagine having the energy to worry. With her body in such rough condition from the fall, there wasn’t much she could do other than sit and heal. The morning after the battle, Hei had approached her with a fistful of spiceroot, their eyes averted from her face as they explained that they had been searching for it when they heard her alarm cry.