by M J Porter
He hobbled away from the wind exposed outcropping whilst still holding the bundle in his one front claw. It was uncomfortable but he managed on his back legs and front claw. He quickly settled back into his recently abandoned snow hollow and again looked at the tiny bundle. The features were perfect and one of its hands had curled around one of his claws with a grip tighter than he thought possible for something so small.
He made a snap decision. He would warm it and take it back with him when the sun rose.
His decision made he wrapped his head and the bundle under his left wing, protected from the still screaming wind and steady snowfall, ignoring the pain which shot along his back. He needed to warm the Other, although he feared it would start to cry again if he did.
Morning arrived, eventually, in a profusion of reds and browns, stealing silently across the raised parts of the land. It seemed to miss the glacier entirely, He had become aware dawn was coming by the abrupt ending of the wind. Shaking the snow lose from his giant body and still cradling the bundle, he had leapt awkwardly into the frigid sky. Full sunrise saw him already landing on his home ledge which was piled high with freshly fallen snow.
Once there he was unsure what to do. The bundle had woken on arrival and was making a pitiful noise. He wondered what it wanted. It was certainly warm enough now. He stood there, confused, for some time. Why had he brought it back with him? He reasoned it was probably because he had been specifically told not to, but he couldn’t be sure. Maybe his reasoning was flawed, and his actions had simply been instinctive.
As the bundle really woke up its whimpers turned to howls and Greeneyes could feel panic building. He could also detect hunger pangs from it entering his mind. He starred at it and it batted at his claw, whilst all the time screaming. He turned his head to look at it from a different angle, seeing it for the first time in full light with its tufty hair and bright blue eyes, but it continued to scream and he did not know what to do.
The sunlight was seeping slowly onto his ledge, distracting him by the glistening view of the frozen glacier in front of him and only when he looked back did he realise the bundle had quietened. With relief he saw why. One of the Others had come to look at the source of the noise and was now cradling it in its arms. It was the same one who he had met on the day of his predecessor’s death. He tried to look encouraging but was not sure that he did. The Other slowly backed away from him, taking the bundle away. Greeneyes hoped that meant the Other would look after it and indeed received the flash of an image of the bundle being fed and warmed before a huge fire.
He retreated from the ledge and into his cave as full sunrise turned his world to blue and white. He needed to think about his actions.
* * *
A day and a night passed until his curiosity became too much to stand and he ventured out again. The length of daylight was still so short that he doubted many of the Others would have emerged from their homes but still there was a nagging desire to be active after so much inactivity. He felt as though he had been waiting for his freedom all his life and he did not want to squander it now.
During the day and night he’d spent at home he’d considered his motivations in rescuing the small Other. Eventually he’d come to the conclusion that he’d acted instinctively, from a need to save something too weak to fend for itself. But he’d been left feeling uncertain about himself for the first time since accepting his role as Speaker. If he could feel like that about the Other’s did that make him unworthy of his position? The Speaker was supposed to be detached from the needs of the Others and able to only consider his own kind. The prescence had taught him so. Yet there was a contradiction in what the prescence had cautioned and what actually happened, for his own kind relied on the Others to help maintain the secrecy of the Speaker. He’d thought through the dilemma so much he’d grown restless and angry with himself. Finally he’d banished the thought. He was the Speaker. He had been chosen. There was no other to take his place. It was his now. He would simply have to learn to act with more wisdom and less impulsively.
And so he leapt from his wide ice locked ledge and immediately felt the exhilaration of his freedom all over again. The gentle wind flowed beneath his massive wings as he powered through the air following the same journey of a few days ago. As the sun lightened the blackened land beneath him, he detected a small scattering of smoking chimneys and even the occasional Other, scurrying over the surface of his land. He counted those he saw as he flew, mindful of the strictures of the prescence and when he reached the far distant coast, where blue ice met green, he turned back in surprise. So few. He had barely counted any.
To be sure he flew back the way he had come and then far across the Southern parts of the land. Again he detected a few smoking chimneys and a few Others, but no animals and nothing like the number of dwellings he had been led to expect by the images in his cave. It puzzled him greatly. To confirm his suspicions he flew west and north as well with always the same result. It unnerved him in a way that he did not understand. Surely he should feel relief at the lack of numbers. But he didn’t. He didn’t know what he felt but it certainly wasn’t satisfaction that the Other’s seemed so few in numbers.
As the scant light began to flee from the sky he found himself hovering over the Eastern lands. Soon the wind would turn ferocious and he knew he should leave but something drew him back and kept him firmly rooted in position. He did not know what it was and doubted that acceding to his instincts would do him any good. He had almost decided to leave when suddenly he felt hungry, amazingly hungry. He had never felt so hungry before. It puzzled him. He had only fed yesterday, why should he need to eat again? Yes, he had flown a long way during his day but not enough to warrant the pangs that ran through his stomach and made it clench with pain. He temporarily lost height as discomfort engulfed him and his wings faltered. As he struggled to retain his height he noticed movement below him. Pale shapes were slinking across the snow so indistinct on the uniform surface that if they had not been moving he would not have seen them in the deepening dusk.
The animals were moving in a pack towards the home of one of the Others and he wondered why. Then realisation came all at once. He could smell it. He could almost taste it. With an effort he reasserted his own thoughts inside his head, pushing those of the pack below him to the edge of his consciousness. He hovered, fascinated by what he was seeing and had been feeling.
The wolves circled the building cautiously and then one of them thrust itself at a part of it which must be an entrance. There was a sharp splintering sound and the animals all rushed into the building and the smell rushed out, rotting flesh. The Others inside were dead. They must have perished during Sunset. Whilst he couldn’t see what was happening within the dwelling, the noises coming from inside told him the story quite eloquently. The content images of the wolves on finally being able to fill their bellies swam with his own thoughts even though he tried to keep them at bay.
Fascinated by what was happening, he was unable to wrench himself away from the wolves feast. Nothing the presence had taught him had made him think it was possible to perceive the thoughts of other animals. Certainly when living with his own family he had not been able to see their thoughts. Now he was acutely aware that he had seen see images from the small Other, and had now had his own senses overwhelmed by the hungry wolf pack.
And then he felt something. He did not understand the feeling that went with the images but he understood the images immediately.
Without thinking, he landed abruptly, with a sharp snap of his huge golden wings, some distance from the squat dwelling. He folded his huge wings and stepped forward on the deep snow. He saw tiny footprints in the snow which were not those of the wolves and he followed them holding his tail low to obscure his own massive prints. The trail ended abruptly and comprehension dawned. There was an Other here. They had sought shelter within this part of the dwelling. They were alive and terrified.
Fear filled him and he fought to regain hold of his
own mind. It was harder to push the fear away than it had been to push away the hunger. Once he reasserted himself he acted instinctively. The wolves were starving. Ravenous. They would eat everything here and that included the Other sheltering inside the steading. One of the wolves had already picked up the scent and was busily sniffing around the prints he had followed. It was about to alert his co-hunters to the presence of warm meat, but before he could open his mouth to howl, he batted him with his front paw. The white wolf went down with a yelp and rushed back to the colder meal waiting for him inside, terror pulsing from him in waves, unable to see his invisible assailant.
He followed the injured wolf more sedately and returned to the entrance where he could hear the pack gorging. He did not begrudge them their meal but from the thoughts in his mind he knew that the Other did. He could not get inside the steading to drive them away as he was too large and so he took the next available action. Taking a deep breath, and hoping that the prescence had told him the correct information, he though of searing hot flames and with a rush of exhaled air blew all over the snow encased building. It was remarkably easy provided his thoughts were focused entirely on his intentions. The fire caught hold quickly and some of the wolves yelped and scattered out of the open door at the burning stench of damp turf and wood. Not all of them rushed out. Some were too hungry to care and they preferred their meal to their lives. They burnt quickly in the ensuing inferno with loud yelps and whimpers of pain. He banished the images he received from their minds. He had needed to act to save the Other. He could not regret his actions.
The burning smell attacked his nostrils and he took to the air with a loud snap of his wings. Only when he hovered over the dwelling did he realise that the flames would burn the entire steading including the part where the Other. Quickly he landed again and dosed the inferno with a cooling breath. Then he leapt swiftly back into the air. He journeyed home battling the ferocious night winds. What had he done now? And more importantly, what had made him feel so protective towards one of the Others, again?
Although he berated himself all night long for his actions, unable to find sleep, he found himself flying through the first faint rays of the new day. He needed to see exactly what he had done. He felt ill at ease with himself. He had killed animals on an instinctive reaction. The prescence had issued no directive that it was wrong to do so. Yet it had left him feeling uncomfortable with himself.
It took him next to no time to arrive at the blackened steading which still smoked in the frozen day. The only part still standing was the end where the Other had sheltered the night before. The door to the main steading lay open and deserted when he poked his huge head inside the still smoldering remains. There were at least two burnt wolf bodies scattered around the wrecked building for all that his view was incomplete. There were also the bodies of the Others. Whilst he knew they had been dead before they were set upon by the wolves it distressed him to see the mangled wreck which the wolves had made of them. Two bodies had their stomachs ripped out, and entrails lay all over the floor. Blood covered the nose of the dead wolves and he knew that they had eaten well before their untimely death.
He withdrew his head from the entrance. Emotions were pulsing through him which he found difficult to equate with anything he had ever felt before. On the one hand, he felt grief for the mutilated family, whilst on the other he understood the instinctives of the wolves. They had been hungry and they had chanced upon a meal to sate their hunger. Should he have intervened? Was it not the way of his home world that some must suffer so that some could survive? Was that not the very lesson he was supposed to take away from the Others who dwelled within his home?
As his mind swirled with questions he could not answer he examined the refrozen dirty snow and saw there were sets of footprints leading away from the building where the Other had sheltered last night. He took to the air again with a sharp snap and backed his mighty golden wings so that he could follow the even footprints without even questioning his motives. The death of the wolves was forgotten with the crack of his wings.
The footprints weaved uncertainly from side to side and every so often went some way in one direction, before returning to their original course. He was intrigued as to why, until he caught up with the Other making the tracks. It was staggering from side to side. He was amazed that he was making any progress at all. At times, the Other crawled forward on its knees, and as it moved loud choking noises emanated from it. The thoughts that flowed to him were incoherent and irritating as he attempted to call his mind his own. Still, he carried on following the Other, hopeful that he would understand the link he felt and reason out why he had helped him.
Eventually frustration overcame him as the day reached its peak, and he flew high, away from the staggering figure in front of him. His wings cracked as he gained height in the still day and he was struck for the first time by the noise his movement made. He had never realised before. With every downward stroke of his mighty wings there was a sharp snap as if he one of the Others had dropped something on the hard granite floor of his caves. He wondered that the Other below did not hear the noise he made. The noise throbbed in his ears and he marveled that before he had always thought he moved quietly. Now he was overly conscious of the thwack and slap of his wings as they hit the static air around him. His thoughts concentrated only on that as he climbed higher and higher, trying to get away from the sad spectacle in front of him which had drawn his attention for so much of the day.
The higher he climbed the smaller the Other became and he was struck by the insignificance of this one small creature when compared to the vast land stretched out in front of him. Why did he feel so compelled to watch him? What hold did this Other have over him? With annoyance he dived back towards the ground. He needed some answers.
As the day progressed the Other started to ascend onto the giant glacier that had appeared as no more than a sparking jewel when he had attempted to fly high and away earlier. Now it appeared immense in front of them both. He was unsure of the intentions of the figure he was shadowing. He knew from the circuit of his home that none of the Others lived here. Instead it was the beginning of the vast wall which helped keep his kind hidden from the Others and it shimmered luminescent in the sky. At the glaciers furthest reaches, his own home lurked. The glacier was a cold and frozen expanse, inhospitable to him let alone to the small Other he followed. The day would soon draw to a close, and already the winds were picking up, buffeting his wings as he attempted to keep steady. He knew that he should leave, but he could not. This Other called to him with his needy mind and he could not draw away from such desperate entreaties.
He did not return home that night, instead staying with the Other. As night had fallen the wind had picked up and battered against his tough skin, chilling him momentarily as he came to land near to where the Other had collapsed in a tangle of limbs in the middle of the frozen glacier. He could sense the cold coming from his skin, just like the Other he had rescued before, and so he sank low to the ground and covered him with his wings, creating a shield around him. He tucked his head under his wing, aware that the warmth of his breath would keep the temperature high enough for them both to survive the night.
He was unsure what he would do the next day when the Other woke. Would he follow him again?
* * *
He woke abruptly the next morning, lifting his head quickly from under his wing, where it had sheltered all night. He was not covered in snow like last time he had slept outdoors although he could feel where the chill had sunk deeply into his tough hide. It would take time for the heat to work it’s way back into his body.
He glanced all around him, his keen sight searching the glacier for the creature whose thoughts were mingling with his own. He needed to learn to control this sensation of another infiltrating his mind without his consent.
Unable to see anything, he concentrated for a moment and then felt the animal presence coalesce. He jumped to his feet in distress. It was another wolf.
It had to be. It felt just like the last time, the insatiable need to hunt and a desire for food intermingling. He could feel it searching for what it could smell, and that was the Other who still lay asleep at his giant clawed feet.
He squinted across the iridescent glacier, the early morning sunlight causing a glare that temporarily restricted his normally excellent eyesight. Finally he focused on the wolf and saw that, shockingly, the wolf was not alone. It was accompanied by an Other! He was unsure what to do. The wolf now seemed to be more interested in him than in the Other. It’s thoughts had changed from questing for his Other to questing for him, or rather for the unknown thing it could smell but not see. He could tell from the images the wolf was forcefully projecting into his mind. Whilst it did not show an image of him yet, it showed that the wolf was more than aware that the smell was something it had not encountered before.
Without further thought he took to the sky with a snap of his wings, and worked hard to gain height quickly. He did not want his presence to be discovered by the wolf. It could obviously smell him. The other wolves had been totally unaware of him. This one was different, as it could definitely smell him.
Quickly, he flew above the heads of the wolf and the Other. Only when he was high above the glacier did he glance back to where his Other lay. What would they do with him if they discovered him? He regretted his hasty actions that had made him temporarily forget about his purpose on the glacier.
He hung in the air until he deciphered what the wolf and its Other were doing with his own Other. The wolf had discovered it as soon as he had taken to the air. As the wolf dragged it off towards a sheltered cave, he turned to leave, berating himself for not thinking of moving his Other during the night.
He flew the short distance home, frantically aware that his behaviour was completely at odds with his role as Speaker. And yet he was unable to condemn himself for his actions. He had worked to save the lives of two separate Others in recent days. Surely that was better than leaving them to a cold death. He wondered how the small one fared. Perhaps he could find out by searching for its mind when he returned home. Almost instantaneously he received a stream of images from the baby. It was full and warm, and gazed in wonder at the blonde haired woman who sat cradling him within her arms. He recognised her as the Other who had taken the baby from him on his ledge.