But there was much more to this place than what he saw. The scents of the place were powerful, almost overwhelming, triggering his Cat nature much more sharply than they had been awakened in a long time. The smells of grass and trees, of mice and moles and chipmunks, even squirrels, piqued his hunter's impulses. The smell of deer and elk, of wolves and wildcats, they were familiar smells to him, mingled in with the odd scents of chisa and kajat and inu and umuni. The canyon floor teemed with life, life from both the desert and the land of the past. He could hear much more than he could smell, from the faint baying of a wolfpack to the grunting sounds of the deer at that pond some longspan away from them. He could hear the fluttering of wings of the birds that managed to brave the buffeting winds and reach the lush paradise hidden beneath the floor of the parched desert above. The canyon floor awakened his animal side completely, and for a moment he had to just stand there and take it all in, allow his Cat self to revel in the sense of home that this place incited within him, before putting it aside and thinking about how to quickly leave it behind.
That was only the physical side of this strange land. The canyon floor was absolutely saturated with strands. They were everywhere, so numerous that their almost-visible lines almost tried to block the real world to his eyes. The feel of them caused tingles throughout his entire body, a buzzing that made his skin sensitive, almost seeking out more of the feeling, and he could feel those strands lean towards him. This region was as rich in magic as the Tower had been, a place so charged with magical energy that even the most green Novice could easily find a touch on the Weave. The only reason that he could think of as to why this was the case was the circumstances of the canyon's creation. Magic of the magnitude required to form the chasm must have left in its wake these strands, spun out of the presence of intense magical power. But one thought managed to hold itself to him through it all, a simple thought that stirred the sense of Sorcery in him, the part that had seen and heard and experienced the actions of a thousand years ago.
This was what the desert had once been.
"Amazing that something like this would be in the middle of the desert," Sarraya noted. "It looks like the grasslands of the Free Duchies."
"The canyon walls trap the humidity and keep the sun from killing the plants," Tarrin reasoned. "Since this is below the water table, this place isn't dry."
Those little hills were going to be a problem. They were just large enough to break up his view, and that meant that any number of large, carnivorous beasties could be hiding within the folds and dells they created. If he were a predator, that's how he would go about it in a place like this. Since there was no cover from trees, the cover provided by the land would have to be exploited to allow him to get close enough to chase down a meal. From the little he'd seen from kajat and inu, he knew that they were accomplished hunters, and they were much more clever than they looked. They'd have thought of that too. Any predator would have. After all, any predators that had not thought of that probably hadn't survived to reproduce.
He heard Var and Denai get up behind him, their breathing more normal now. He hadn't realized that the climb had been so difficult for them, but after so long as a Were-cat, he tended to overlook the frailty and weak stature of the other races.
"I've only been here once before, but it's still as if this is the first I've seen of this place," Denai said reverently. "It's so different from our lands."
"This is what the desert looked like before it was a desert," Sarraya told her. "We starting now, or do you want to wait until tomorrow to cross?" she asked Tarrin.
Tarrin turned his back to them, looking out over the cool grassland. Moving now would be a mistake. Denai and Var were exhausted, and they wouldn't be able to run the distance. And they would have to run. There were many herd animals, so that meant that there had to be many predators out there preying on them. The wolves and wildcats weren't that dangerous, but the inu and kajat were. The rolling hills gave them perfect cover, and even with Sarraya scouting, there was a good chance that they'd have to flee from something at least once. On the other hand, sitting in one place for a night also wasn't a good idea. Their scents would carry out, and it would lure in predators they'd prefer to avoid. The wall of the canyon had no caves, no holes, nowhere to hide and set up a suitable defensive position.
"We wait until the Selani feel like running," he said over his shoulder. "Then we move. We'll rest on the other side before going up."
"I'm ready," Denai said.
"No you're not," Tarrin replied. "We have to move fast. Both of you wouldn't get much more than a longspan before slowing. You need at least two hours of rest, and then we'll move."
"But--"
"Don't argue," Var cut in. "He's right. With so many animals to eat, there have to be many predators. We have to move quickly to avoid them, and we can't take any chances. Those hills out there hide them from us, so we can't risk strolling along."
Tarrin nodded in agreement, his opinion of Var increasing by a couple of degrees. "You two sit back down and rest. I'll keep watch while Sarraya scouts ahead a little to make sure there's nothing big we have to go around. I'm aiming for as straight a line as possible to the other side."
"Well, since I've been volunteered," Sarraya said acidly, "I may as well go."
"You rode down on my head, so I know you're not tired," Tarrin told her. "Not too far and nothing exotic, Sarraya. We'll need you when we get back up. You can get yourself eaten after we get back up to the desert."
Sarraya gave him a look, a look of surprise, then she grinned at him. "I'll do my best."
Sarraya faded from sight as she flitted away from them, and Tarrin watched and listened to her go. After she was out of his sensory range, he turned around and regarded the two Selani. They had sat back down against the wall of the canyon, and Var had taken off his shirt to shake some rocks out of it. Var was whip-lean and defined, the body of a gymnast, and his size was a deception as to how strong that Selani was. Tarrin had tasted his strength, and he knew the truth of it. Denai had her boots off, showing Var a rock that had been in it for a while, then they both laughed after Var said something about carrying the canyon along. The humor of it escaped him, but they were Selani, and Allia had shown him that the Selani's sense of humor was a little different than humankind. They could appreciate human humor, but some things struck them funny that humans just wouldn't understand.
Strange. He looked at them, and he didn't feel the same tension as he had just a few days before. Now, Var and Denai were simply there. Before, he had kept track of them at all times, kept his eyes and ears and nose on them, prevented them from sneaking up on him. But he realized that he didn't really think about them like that anymore, not even Var. He hadn't accepted the Selani as friends, but something inside him had discounted them as possible enemies. That seemed important to him somehow, a distinction he had never made before, with anyone. This wasn't a matter of tolerating them. This was a matter of not finding them to be dangerous, and since they were not dangerous, he simply didn't concern himself with them.
A shiver through the Weave caught his attention. It was a pulse of energy of some kind, a bit of magic travelling from one place to the other. It was a simple matter to sense the Weave, to feel that it had originated from the ground, and that traced it to some other part of the world. Its destination was the desert, a place about two hundred longspans to the northwest, a Conduit. A big Conduit. Nothing along the lines of the core Conduit that came out of the ground at the Tower, but this was a major Conduit, a major artery in the system of the Weave. He hadn't noticed that Conduit before, but he certainly noticed it now. And he was surprised that he could sense it from such an incredible distance.
He looked at the Selani again. Now Denai had her shirt off, bare from the waist up, but Selani didn't care much about nudity. More to the point, looking was not touching. A Selani wouldn't care showing you anything they had, but all those intimate places on a Selani's body had the same sensitivity and i
mportance that they had on a human. Var could look at Denai's breasts all he wanted, but the instant he touched her, he would cross the line of modesty, and Denai would take offense. Among the Selani, giving or taking offense was a serious matter, and honor would be lost in the course of it. But Var wouldn't dream of doing such a thing. His sense of honor was highly refined, and he knew better.
They were so small. Why couldn't he get that thought out of his mind? Var and Denai were taller than the average human, nearly seven spans each, yet Denai only came up to his chest, and Var to his shoulders. Small and frail little things, quick to tire and easy to harm.
"I need a sweat tent," Denai complained, wiping at a smear of dirt on her shoulder. "I'm filthy."
Thank Fara'Nae that the Selani weren't human. The smell of unwashed humans was horrible, but Selani didn't carry that trait. A sweaty Selani smelled like spices, a little musky, like herbs ground into copper. At least their unwashed condition didn't offend his nose, much as it may offend themselves.
"There's a pond just over that hillock there," Tarrin pointed. "Go take a bath."
"Bath? What is that?"
"Take off all your clothes and get into the pond, then wash off," he replied. "The water may not be very warm, but it'll be a new experience for you."
Denai gave Var a roguish look. "Let's try it," she said with an eager smile.
"Go into water? It sounds unnatural," Var said dubiously. "Will it be very deep?"
"I have no idea," Tarrin said. "Just go slow and be careful."
"Well," he hedged.
But Denai would have none of that. She jumped up and grabbed him by the wrist, then dragged him to his feet. "Come on," she said brightly. "Or does the mighty Scout fear a little water?"
"He won't if the cunning obe goes first," he challenged.
"Done," she accepted with bright eyes.
Tarrin moved to the top of the hill to watch over the pair as they played. Denai seemed to be absolutely fearless, shedding her clothes and marching right into the small pond without hesitation. The water seemed cold, from her reaction to it, but she was quickly submerged to her waist and haraunging Var for not moving fast enough. The Scout shed his clothing and moved into the water tentatively, step by step, and it was obvious that the cold water didn't suit him. But Denai just laughed and splashed him with that cold water mercilessly.
Now he understood why he saw Denai as a child. She acted like one. She was a mature adult, but she still had the adventurous mindset of a teenager. In some ways, she was like Sarraya. They both shared that adventurous spirit, but Denai was utterly fearless, even beyond the scope of good sense, where Sarraya was much more careful. If Denai were human, she'd be the child in the village that got everyone else in trouble with her adventures and her goings-on, taking them where they weren't allowed to go and doing things that they'd been forbidden to do. Not in acts of defiance, but in the search for what was new and interesting, what hadn't been done before. And she had the charisma and natural charm to lead her cohorts down the path of disobedience, using her natural affable nature to charm her subjects into submission.
He made that conclusion, and an actual affection for her suddenly appeared inside him. Denai was just too cute, both in appearance and personality. He couldn't help but like her. It had taken her a little time to shake off her fear of him--that he could incite fear in someone like Denai was a statement in and of itself--but now that she had, her true personality had emerged. And he found that he liked it. And he liked her. She may have made overtures to him, but it took seeing her at total ease, torturing Var, to understand what he felt.
Of course, he had no intention of telling her that he liked her. She was annoying enough as it was. To let her know that would make it worse.
Strange. Selani were another race, yet there were commonalities in their basic personalities that were similar to humans. Watching Var and Denai was much like watching a pair of human younglings playing in a pond, with Denai being the younger, more aggressive party, and Var the older, more reserved one, having to be baited into letting go by his more carefree companion. Then again, he had no idea what Var's real personality was like, because he was always very careful to remain as unthreatening as possible around Tarrin. Tarrin couldn't fault him for that, but now he was getting curious to know what Var was really like. Judging from watching him with Denai, he was a rather serious young man with a very firm sense of responsibility. But he wasn't above a little bit of fun now and again.
Tarrin had to chuckle ruefully. He kept thinking of Var and Denai as younglings, people much younger than him, when the truth was that he was only eighteen, while Denai was probably in her twenties, and Var was probably in his late thirties. Selani lived on average to be one hundred and fifty years old--some had lived as long as two hundred and fifty--so Allia told him, so those ages corrosponded to someone in her late teens for Denai, and someone in his mid twenties for Var. He was much younger than them, but his experiences and his trials had aged him mentally, made him feel much older than he really was. Not two years ago, he would have been in that pond with them, splashing and carrying on and acting foolish. Now it seemed very foolish to him, a waste of time and energy.
A lifetime ago.
Maybe Shiika's draining touch had aged him more than physically. Maybe it truly had aged him, in body and mind, giving him a mental state to match his unnaturally accelerated years. Or maybe it was just the Cat in him. The Cat wasn't above acting the fool in play, but that was for kittens, or when the Cat felt totally at ease. The rest of the time, it felt proper to act in a dignified manner.
Tarrin crossed his arms and watched as the play died down, and the business of cleaning off got under way. A scent on the wind caught his attention, a rocky, earthy smell that he knew was a kajat, and that turned him away from the Selani. It was faint, but the faint wind hadn't scattered it, and he could tell from the texture of it that it was moving in his direction. He couldn't see it yet, but the kajat was probably smart enough to stay off the hills, to not give away its position. He had little experience with kajat, but it was probably a good bet that Var and Denai's carrying on had made enough noise to attract the predator. He had had enough experience with them to know that they were so heavy that their steps made shivers in the ground, so he knelt down and put his sensitive paw on the ground, feeling for that telltale quivering. If he could feel it, then the kajat was close.
There it was. And another, and another. It was moving slowly and carefully; it was stalking, moving in for the attack. He couldn't tell direction, but a change in the wind made the scent much stronger, and he realized that the monster was approaching from along the canyon wall, and it was coming more or less right at him. He was between it and the pond, meaning that it would have to go through him to reach the Selani. That was a good thing. Var and Denai were still washing, and he let them go on without telling them. If they changed their patterns of behavior, the kajat may alter its path or plan, and Tarrin didn't want that. As it was, the Selani were safe, and that was really the only issue here.
He saw it. It was a huge kajat, so large that it peeked up and over a small hillock about five hundred spans from Tarrin's position. It looked right at him, and stared right back at it defiantly, his eyes erupting from within with their baleful greenish radiance as soon as it made eye contact. He'd been charged by a kajat twice before, so he already knew exactly what the animal was going to do. It had lost the element of surprise, but it was close enough to make a run at a meal. So it would abandon stealth and attack.
And that was exactly what it did. The reptile was about twice as big as the one that bit off his leg, much larger than the first one he encountered, and the entire land shook with each of its rapid footsteps as it quickly accelerated to a full run and came around the small hillock behind which it was hiding. Tarrin rose up to his full height and reached behind him, drawing his sword slowly, easily, as Var and Denai noticed the rippling of the water and concluded quickly that a kajat was on the m
ove very close to them. They started scrambling out of the water, calling out in alarm, but Tarrin kept his eyes locked on the reptile as it charged right at him. He was curiously without fear, watching a monster that weighed more than a house bear down on him with a speed that was shocking, given the raw size of this monster. Tarrin simply stood his ground on the crest of that hill, and he waited for it to come to him.
It didn't disappoint him. With an ear-splitting bellow, it opened those massive jaws and showed him a virtual forest of pitted ivory teeth, then started up the hill. Tarrin crouched down and lowered his weapon, ears back, eyes watching the monster intently for the little signs that would tell him when it was going to lunge at him. The other two had done the same thing, lunged when they got close and turned its head sideways enough to catch its prey in those huge jaws. This one would do the same, he was sure of it, and he knew how to counter that move, counter it and turn it into a fatal mistake.
He saw its head shiver. That was it. Tarrin crouched down, then immediately vaulted straight up just as the monster lunged out at him, striking with that big head and those deadly jaws like a snake, trying to catch the little Were-cat between its jaws. But those jaws closed on empty air as Tarrin rose over them, and its momentum carried it under and past the Were-cat as he descended. He landed on its back, just past its neck, and whirled with his sword out the instant his feet came down on its scaly hide. The monster hadn't registered that Tarrin was on top of it, and it rose up its head and caught sight of the two Selani, who had retrieved their swords from their clothes and stood in defiant challenge to it. They knew that they couldn't outrun the monster, and there was nowhere to hide. So they preferred to fight. They would not give it an easy meal.
Tarrin Kael Firestaff Collection Book 3 - Honor and Blood by Fel © Page 48