by Lori Hyrup
The road leveled out, and the hills gave way to rolling grasslands of greenery—now thoroughly trampled. A small aftsah, with its curly brown coat and bleating voice, stepped in front of Xierex, oblivious to the massive zegu. Xierex stopped and snorted. He lowered his head toward the small creature and sniffed. The aftsah bleated in the zegu’s face, causing him to snort.
“Aw, I think it likes you,” said Aria.
Zephyron chuckled. “Looking for mama, it seems.” An answering call came from the other side of the road. The small aftsah dashed off to join the other. “There she is.”
Aria patted Xierex on the neck and smiled. The aftsah were among the normal migratory animals Aria was accustomed to seeing during her frequent cross-country treks; their herds regularly numbered in the thousands. Individuals always looked the same to her, but the parents and offspring always managed to keep track of each other.
Hours passed as the travelers made their way along the road, meandering in and out of the sea of animals. As the shadows of the afternoon sun began to lengthen, Aria spied something different. Kharra and Zephyron also saw it.
“It looks like a large wagon of some sort,” Kharra announced.
“Doesn’t look like it’s moving though,” Zephyron added.
Aria vaulted onto the zegu’s back, startling the nearby clover-hooves. The animals scattered a short distance before settling down when they realized nothing was pursuing them. “I’m going to ride ahead.”
“Kharra,” Zephyron said, “you go with her. I’ll catch up.”
Aria nodded. The kruusta clasped Kharra’s hand and hoisted the girl up behind her. With a slight nudge of her knees, Aria urged Xierex forward into a slow trot, faster than they had been traveling but not so fast as to scare the animals that surrounded them.
As they neared their destination, the wagon’s dilemma soon became evident. The large vehicle’s back axle was broken, and beyond that the entire wagon was surrounded by a large pride, maybe two prides, of grass cats. The sleek, tawny beasts bellowed and growled as they paced around the wreckage. The other herds of wildlife were wisely keeping their distance.
“There are people inside,” Kharra said softly.
Aria nodded, her own suspicions confirmed. “Stay here,” she said to her companion as she jumped down from her saddle. On instinct she summoned her krusword and advanced toward the wagon.
“Hello?” Aria called as she approached. The grass cats immediately between her and the wagon turned their heads toward her, crouched low, and growled in unison.
No one answered.
“I am Kruusta Aria. My companions and I are here to help. Are you able to answer?”
A man’s head poked out through one of the windows toward the front of the wagon. His fine brown hair clung to his head. “Kruusta, please, we need your help. We were on our way to Braylore, but we broke an axle when our horses spooked and sent us running out of control. We’ve been trapped here for two days. The excitement has sent my wife into early labor. No one else has passed this way, and I can’t leave to get help for fear of these grass cats and other predators that have been coming at night.”
“Just relax, sir. We’ll get you out of there.”
“Please hurry,” he pleaded and then ducked his head back inside the wagon.
Other grass cats, noticing Aria approach, turned their attention from the wagon and focused it on her. She counted twenty-seven cats in total. Aria waved her krusword at those that approached too close, but it was to little avail. She soon found herself surrounded by the waist-high carnivores.
A single cat in front of Aria launched itself at her. She spun around in response and kicked it along the side of its head as it passed. The cat stumbled as it landed but soon found its footing and moved around behind its companions. They were testing her defenses. Two other cats rushed her. One came in low, clawing at her legs. She danced backward and slashed out with her blade. The second ran straight at her and launched itself toward her head just as she fended off the first. Aria pulled her krusword up just in time to pierce the soaring animal through the chest. She twisted and allowed the animal’s momentum to carry its bulk past her, pulling her weapon free as it did so. The animal remained where it fell.
Aria crouched lower, making herself a smaller target. She kept her right arm and krusword raised out in front of her and kept her left arm poised behind her. She twisted her torso slowly back and forth, trying to keep her eyes on as many of the cats as possible. Four different cats, each from a different direction, lunged in and batted at her in rapid succession. She danced out of the way of two of them and kicked the third hard enough to make it withdraw. The fourth managed to hook its razor-sharp claws into her leather boot and pull her off her feet. Knowing it had the advantage, the cat pounced at her. She rolled away, but the cat pounced again without pause. Before it landed, however, a shadow passed over her eyes, and a massive white blur intercepted the cat midair and threw it back into the other cats that paced just out of reach.
The giant white tigron, four times larger than the largest grass cat, spared a glance at Aria before bellowing a deep-chested roar that rippled across the grassland. Several of the cats dashed a short distance away, but others were not to be deterred. They snarled and growled in response to Zephyron’s challenge. One male animal, the largest of the grass cats, stepped forward and began circling the bigger white cat with a slow, menacing gait. It threw its head back and roared in response to the challenger.
With Zephyron’s appearance Aria and the wagon were completely forgotten. Aria climbed to her feet but remained ready to fight. She caught Kharra out of the corner of her eye climbing down off of Xierex’s back and then disappearing into the wagon. Aria focused her attention back on the cats.
The grass cat launched itself at the tigron. What it lacked in size, it made up in ferocity. Zephyron reared up to intercept the attack and throw the cat aside, but the animal clung to the Guardian’s white fur and twisted with all its weight and momentum, forcing Zephyron into a roll. On his back, Zephyron used his large claws to push the cat’s face away from his neck and down toward the ground. The grass cat twisted away and bit down on Zephyron’s front leg.
With a snarl of pain, Zephyron used his back legs to kick the cat off him and righted himself to a crouch. The grass cat came at him again, but Zephyron was ready. With his powerful legs, he pushed himself out of the way from the other’s attack. As the cat moved past him, Zephyron grabbed it around the neck with both of his paws and flung the animal to the ground. The move forced the grass cat onto his back. Before the animal could recover, Zephyron twisted his body around and seized the cat’s neck with his teeth. The cat thrashed, kicking Zephyron with its back legs, but the Guardian only tightened his hold. Using his greater weight to his advantage, Zephyron pressed down on the grass cat until the thrashing stopped, replaced by only occasional twitches.
Though Aria was ready for additional attacks, no other cats moved in. After many agonizingly long minutes beneath the afternoon sun, Zephyron released the other cat. Aria expected to see blood coating the Guardian’s face, but there was very little. Additionally the cat she had assumed to be dead bounced up and bounded away from the tigron. It stopped, looked back at the Guardian, and then let out a throaty roar. It then turned and trotted away. The other cats withdrew from the area and followed the defeated male.
Aria retracted her krusword and walked up to the fur-covered Guardian. “You’re going to have to tell me how you did that.”
Zephyron regarded her with his unblinking blue eyes.
Aria knelt down beside him to look at his leg, the blood from the wound visible. “We’re going to need to take care of that.”
Zephyron snorted and headbutted her on her shoulder.
“Okay,” she said with a chuckle as she stood. Without realizing what she was doing, she absently ran her fingers along the fur of his head as she stared off in the direction in which the grass cats had left. The familiar surge of energy she
had come to know from touching him danced up her fingers. The sensation was not unpleasant. “Thank you for saving me once again.”
Again Zephyron snorted.
Pulling her hand away, Aria moved in the direction of the wagon. “I’m going to check on Kharra and the couple.”
The scene within the wagon was bloodier than anything that had happened with the cats, though everyone’s faces gleamed with smiles. A sweat- and blood-covered woman rested against two leather packs, and in her arm was a small sleeping newborn. Even more impressive was that a second newborn slept quietly in Kharra’s arms. The young woman looked almost as haggard as the new mother. The father was sleeping beside the mother with one hand draped around her.
At Aria’s arrival, Kharra held a finger to her lips. She swaddled the newborn in a small blanket and placed it in a basket beside the father before climbing out of the wagon. She and Aria stepped a short distance away as Zephyron, human once again, joined them.
Aria said, “I don’t have a whole lot of experience with newborns, but with what little I do remember, I seem to recall them screaming loudly. How did you get them to keep so quiet? I didn’t even hear the mother call out while she was in labor.”
Kharra spared a glance at the quiet wagon. “Apparently being an empath helps with childbirth,” she answered. Kharra’s face became pensive, and her mouth tightened.
“What’s wrong?” asked Zephyron.
“We can’t leave them,” Kharra said.
“She’s right,” Aria said, rocking her head forward and back. “Their wagon’s busted. Their horses are dead. They’re hungry, scared, and exhausted. They won’t be able to get out of this valley alive without our help.”
“What do you suggest?” asked Zephyron.
“This isn’t the greatest location, but the three of us can defend it. So let’s set up camp here. In the morning we can help them fix their wagon.”
Zephyron nodded. “After that?”
Aria’s frown deepened. “Xierex can pull the wagon. That’s not an issue. But there are no towns for several days in the direction we travel. Braylore is much closer. We’d need to backtrack…”
Kharra said nothing and stepped away. Arms crossed in front of her, she stared out over the pink-hued horizon as the sun dipped below the distant hills.
“Excuse me a moment,” said Zephyron as he joined his companion.
Though Aria heard no words exchanged, Kharra’s head nodded from time to time. After several silent minutes, they returned to Aria.
“This land is far bigger than I originally thought,” said Kharra.
“How so?” asked Aria.
“Honestly I thought it was a large island with some sort of mountain in the middle. I figured we’d be to our destination and back in a week or two.”
Aria’s eyebrows rose.
Kharra shrugged. “We didn’t have a lot of information about this land, and what we did have was pretty old. I underestimated.”
“We both did,” Zephyron added. “I should have done more research.”
Kharra shook her head. “I was in a hurry.”
“And now?” asked Aria.
Kharra’s eyes locked on Aria’s. “We need to complete our mission, but I realize now that it isn’t going to be done as fast as I’d thought.” She nodded her head toward the wagon. “The well-being of these people is more important. So we go back.”
The ride back to Braylore the following day was slow but quiet and uneventful. With Xierex harnessed, Aria drove the wagon while the family cared for their infants in the back, out of the heat of the sun. Kharra and Zephyron sat with her on the wooden bench, but they said little. Perhaps they sensed Aria’s mood, which was not one for chatting. Her behavior the day before had disturbed her.
Aria had long ago accepted her fate; the thought of her eventual death had never bothered her. It came with the territory of her calling. Living the life of a kruusta, any day could be her last. Because of that lifestyle, she had long ago decided she would never have children. She shared her bed with an occasional lover, but there had never been an emotional attachment. So why were her emotions stirring now?
Before she met the two foreigners, Aria had never contemplated that her life could have been more than just duty. Had she lived these eighty-five years serving Tanoria night and day only to have life pass her by? She had never thought of herself as lonely. She interacted with priests of the shard, other kruustas, members from the other orders, people who commissioned her services to eradicate shard beast threats, innkeepers, and others who sometimes needed her assistance. She also had Xierex and other mounts before him. They were always constant companions.
But now that Aria had spent time with Kharra and Zephyron, something from deep within her core was seeping out, something buried so long ago, she had failed to recognize it right away. Was this the feeling of friendship, true friendship? Whatever it was, her heart had latched on to it ferociously and did not want to let go. In both Kharra and Zephyron, Aria found kindred spirits, a sentiment she had never before experienced, not even with other kruustas. If she had met these two when she was younger, would she have so readily accepted her current fate? Was this feeling the cause of her recent turmoil?
Realizing her white-knuckled grasp on the reins and the tension throughout her body, Aria forced herself to relax and breathe. It mattered not what she felt now. Her body had already begun the slow process of conversion, and despite her desires, her remaining time in this life grew short. She just hoped that she could fulfill her promise to her new friends before that time ran out.
After two cautious days of travel, stopping often to see that the young mother was fed, hydrated, and in good health, the wagon and its passengers arrived back in Braylore.
As Aria unhitched the wagon from Xierex, shuffling feet drew her attention. She turned to see the young father approach. “Kru-Kruusta, ma’am.”
Aria smiled. “Call me Aria.”
The man nodded. “Kruusta Aria, ma’am. My wife, she wants to see you before you depart.”
“Everything okay?”
“Oh, yes. Everything is perfect because of you. She wants to thank you.”
“Okay, just let me finish here, and I’ll stop by.” The man smiled and retreated, not a bit of fear in him.
Aria finished settling Xierex and then left to visit the woman. She located the new mother in the largest suite in the inn, courtesy of the innkeeper. Aria knocked on the door.
“Come,” said the voice from within.
Aria opened the door and leaned in. “You wanted to see me?”
The woman, nursing one of the babies—the little girl, nodded. “Yes, please. Come in.” The baby boy slept in a basket at the foot of the bed.
Aria entered and approached the woman, suddenly feeling out of place. The little girl, with a head of dark hair, suckled with her eyes closed. The sight defused the tension Aria held.
“What can I do for you?” asked Aria.
The woman reached out with her one free hand and grabbed Aria’s hand, the one embedded with her crystal shard. The woman gently rubbed the shard with her thumb. She looked up and smiled. “You’ve done more than enough for me, Kruusta. You saved my family.”
“I’m just glad you’re okay,” said Aria.
The woman released Aria’s hand. “I don’t care what people say about kruustas,” she said. “You’re a hero. We all would’ve died if you hadn’t arrived. We don’t have much to give in thanks, so I’d like your permission to name my little girl after you.”
Aria stared at the woman. Every thought in her head froze.
“Is that okay?” asked the woman. “Is something wrong?”
Aria shook herself. “No, nothing’s wrong. Nothing at all. That…” Her throat constricted. “Yes, of course you can name her after me.”
The woman beamed at her and then looked down at her baby girl. “Aria,” she whispered. Looking back up at the kruusta, she said, “It’s a beautiful name. We’re honore
d.”
“No, it is you who honor me.” Aria knelt down to get a closer look at the baby. She put her finger in its hand, and the tiny fingers closed around it. “Hello, Aria,” she whispered.
“Do you want to hold her?” the woman asked as she held the baby out toward Aria.
The kruusta’s eyebrows rose in alarm. “I don’t—” she started.
The mother cut her off as she carefully slipped the baby into Aria’s arms. “Just hold her like this, and make sure you hold up her head like this.”
Gingerly, Aria cradled the baby in the crook of her arm. With her dangerous, solitary lifestyle, Aria rarely interacted with children. On only a handful of occasions had she even seen a newborn, and she had certainly never before held any type of infant. She looked down at the tiny human sleeping peacefully in her arm. With her right hand, she traced the contours of the baby’s soft cheeks. So peaceful she looked.
Despite the joyous occasion, Aria’s heart weighed heavily. Motherhood was something she would never be able to experience, and it was one of the few things she regretted about her life as a kruusta. Her sight blurred, and she closed her eyes to keep the forming tears at bay. She continued to brush her finger along the baby’s soft cheek and slowed her breathing. She pursed her lips and clenched her eyes tighter, but the quiet tears still found their way to the surface.
A gentle touch on her hand caught her attention. Aria opened her eyes and looked into Kharra’s. She had not heard the young woman approach, but her eyes were filled with sympathy and understanding. Without a word Kharra lifted the infant from Aria’s arm. Once Kharra held the baby firmly in her arms, Aria thanked the woman again for the honor and excused herself.
