“Yes. One might.” She wished the ground might swallow her. “But I’m sure that you have things to attend to. I won’t keep you any longer.”
He gave a nod over his right shoulder. Liara saw a few goats, and no doubt the herd she smelled was nearby. “The others don’t really trust me to do much more than look after the goats, and the goats much prefer to look after themselves.”
His smile widened. “But I might be keeping you from something, beautiful shamaness-in-training.”
Liara thought back to her conversation with Lady Irula earlier. The shamaness had seemed to want Liara out of the way while Irula investigated on her own. And she could be out of the way just as easily in the company of this frustratingly handsome young male. It was much more enjoyable than trying to track down scents that were here one minute and gone the next.
“Nothing that can’t look after itself.” And she hazarded a grin of her own.
The lion laughed in cubbish glee.
“Wonderful! They call me Niko. Wait. I already told you that. But perhaps you might do me the honor of giving me your name, Lady...?”
“Liara, of Estraal’s Pride.”
“Well, Lady Liara of Estraal’s Pride, perhaps I might further persuade you to spend the day with me. The better to tell me what you found so fascinating about my—or rather, our dance.”
“Yes.”
“Yes?” The lion blinked. “Yes what?”
“Yes, you might persuade me. We’ve yet to see if you will.”
The lion threw back his head and laughed hard. “Well, a young female might see many advantages of spending the heat of the day with a young male. I’ve been told that I’m a lad of many talents.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes. The pridelord himself has pronounced me a lad of many talents, absolutely none of which are appropriate for a male my age.”
Liara laughed at this, and was almost surprised how happy she sounded. She was enjoying speaking with this rascal.
“Yes.” Niko went on, grinning all the while. “Besides my obvious skill at dancing, I have a knack for losing arrows faster than I can make them. Once while in combat training I managed to hit myself in the head with my own spear.”
Liara giggled in spite of herself. “I don’t believe you.”
“Oh yes.” Niko nodded most solemnly, but his eyes twinkled. “Ask any of my pridemates. But some other time. I believe that I’m still trying to convince you to spend the day with me.”
“Indeed. Do go on.”
The banter shifted to easy conversation without Liara really knowing how. By the hottest part of the day, they were lounging in the shade of the shrubs that grew near the edge of the goats’ watering hole. Liara stole quick glances at Niko’s bare chest, imagining the powerful male he would one day become. Enjoying the sight of his current youth.
And when he started to groom her with slow strokes of his rough tongue, she did not stop him.
* * *
Night found the lion and lioness in more or less the same location, though they now lounged against each other. Liara did not know if she had ever been happier in her life. She closed her eyes and listened to Niko’s slow breathing, smiling at his occasional purrs. She felt long, gentle fingers rub near her ears, and she began to purr as well.
Niko’s breathing hesitated, and Liara felt his tongue run along the edge of her ear. “I have something to show you, beautiful one....” She felt rather than heard the whispered words, and a chill of anticipation went up her spine.
The lion pulled away, and Liara opened her eyes. A swarm of fireflies danced over the goats’ watering hole, a slow, green swirl of ever-changing constellations. Liara suddenly blinked and sat up. She studied the lights harder, sniffed the air, and then turned to Niko.
There was a look of intense concentration on the young male’s face. The tips of his fingers flicked in time with the flickers of the green lights. He spun a finger in a slow circle and the lights clustered around the lounging pair. Close enough for Liara to see that no insect caused them. A single green spot tickled her nose. The light was cold rather than warm. Harmless. Liara felt her lungs release the breath she had been holding in without realizing it.
This? This was the male magic they feared so? A few spots of light? Liara embraced Niko, the young male losing his concentration entirely as the lioness kissed him. The green lights winked out. “I love you....”
The lion returned her kiss and the night closed around them.
The couple awoke the next day to the sound of figures moving through the grasses near the pastureland. Liara blinked in the strong light; the sun was already high above the horizon. She felt Niko sit up beside her, touch her shoulder.
“We know you are there, cub. I can smell your magic. You might as well come out.” Liara shivered. Never had Lady Irula’s voice sounded so cold to her. So distant.
Niko looked at Liara, gave her a deep kiss, rubbed cheeks with her and then stood up. “I am here.”
Liara heard breaths catch. Three, no four individuals. Irula, Lady Adaal, no doubt, and two others from Ulani’s Pride. They were upwind, which was why Liara hadn’t scented them until now.
Irula was speaking again. “You know that we bear you no ill will personally. But you know our ways. You know the stories. A male magic-user must die.”
“But I am hardly a magic-user. I can only make a few spots of light, with no heat. This ability came to me a few months ago, and likely as not will fade away just as quickly. You need not do this.” The words were hurried, as if Niko had rehearsed them for some time and was worried about forgetting them.
“It is not what you are, cub, but what you might become. This world almost broke apart because of Baaltor. We cannot bear for it to happen again.”
“Niko is no Baaltor!” Liara stood up, surprising even herself by her strong words. She noted the surprise in Irula’s eyes and repressed a smile. “He is a gentle, kind-hearted male. He would never cause anyone harm.”
Irula looked from her apprentice to the male and back again. “You think you love him. And he thinks he loves you. This is a hard thing, girl, but it must be done. The pride comes first, and his magic threatens all of us.”
“But he’s done nothing wrong! How can he be held responsible for something that he didn’t do?”
Niko pulled her close. “I mean no one harm. We will go, leave the pride. Make our own way, far from the inhabited lands.” He turned and stared into Liara’s eyes. “You would do this with me, yes?”
“Need you even have asked?”
Niko smiled and turned towards the others. “We will disappear from your life, and you will never hear from us again. How can this not be sufficient?”
“No matter where you run, boy, you carry the seed of the destruction of our race within you. For the good of the prides, that seed must be weeded out.”
“And me with it. No. I will not let you kill me. I will not let you kill our happiness.” His tail brushed against Liara’s leg. “Stay behind me.”
Liara blinked and looked around Niko’s side at Irula’s stone face. “This is your last warning, child. I am told that these are the best archers among your females. They can kill you where you stand. I give you one last chance to do the right thing.”
“And I will not let you slaughter me, the first happy morning of my life.”
Liara felt her heart leap at his words, knowing he cared for her as much as she did for him.
The next events, when Liara tried to remember exactly what had happened, seemed somehow fast as lightening and painfully slow at the same time. Irula nodded. The huntresses drew their bows. Adaal raised her staff to point it at Niko. The male raised his paws and let out a snarl. The scream hit Liara’s ears before she saw the green flames enveloping Lady Adaal. Everyone froze as the flames rose higher and higher, and the scream grew louder and louder. The figure in the center of the flames turned black, and then collapsed into a pile of ash.
Niko’s snarl shook
Liara from her shock. Certainly such a cold, pitiless sound could never come from her Niko. She looked up at him, at the wild fire in his eyes as he watched the green flames die away. He turned to face Irula. Somewhere in the distance, Liara heard the padding of thousands of feet, the cries of war, screams of death. She saw before her all the tales of Baaltor brought to life, the entire Veldt enveloped in green fire and then reduced to a husk of ash. Just as Lady Adaal had been. Shaken by this vision she saw in the lion’s eyes, Liara embraced Niko from behind.
And plunged her flint dagger into his heart.
She felt him tense and then grow weak in her arms. She lowered him gently to the ground, tears blurring his appearance. How she wanted to engrave those features into her memory, and now her grief was robbing her even of that. He looked up at her, not understanding. His mouth opened, a few croaked sounds escaped. And then he died. Liara’s wails of grief echoed over the grasslands.
When her grief was spent, Irula was crouching at her side. Her paw reached out for Liara’s back, and then withdrew without touching. “We did not know, my apprentice. Sometimes in females their gifts develop so late, but we had never suspected that it could be the case in a male as we—”
The slap rang out in the still afternoon. Irula drew back, holding her cheek. Liara did not know if she had remembered to sheathe her claws when she struck. She did not care. She gave one last look at Niko’s body, then reached down and pulled her dagger from his chest. She tucked the blood-stained dagger into her belt, turned on her heel, and started for home. She did not care whether Irula followed her or not.
“Aye. You will bear my name well one day, apprentice,” she heard the shamaness say behind her. But her thoughts were not on her mistress. Her thoughts were far away, trying to imagine a world where one did not have to choose between love and pride. A world where males who used magic were not feared, but trained to use their gifts for the sake of all. A world where her Niko, or males like him, could still dance, and laugh, and love.
She was going to discover such a world, or build it if she had to. Build it with her own two paws. She would have to be hard, harder than flint, harder than iron, but she would do it. Her heart was dead, killed outside Ulani’s Pride. Now, she had only duty.
She would not rest until that duty was fulfilled.
Author’s Note:
I have been writing about and mentally interacting with the inhabitants of The Veldt for more years than I care to remember, but this story has a special place among them all. Not only was it one of the first stories I had published when I started taking my writing career seriously, for several years it was the story for which I was paid the most. Even more importantly, it remains to this day one of only a handful of my stories to be illustrated, including a stunningly beautiful cover illustration by the awesome Lizardbeth. (I’ll have a copy posted on my website...)
I should also note that for readers of this series, it is tradition in Estraal’s Pride (also seen in Book 1) for all shamanesses of the pride to take the name Irula when their mistress dies and they become the full shamaness. That’s important for later...
As a special bonus for reading, you can find an audio version of this story here, released by the Anthro Dreams podcast. Alas, given the podcast’s indefinite hiatus, the higher resolution version is not currently available. Anthro Dreams: gone, but not forgotten...
About the Author:
Donald Jacob Uitvlugt lives on neither coast of the United States, but mostly in a haunted memory palace of his own design. His short fiction has appeared in numerous print and online venues, including Cirsova Magazine and Flame Tree Publishing’s Science Fiction anthology.
Donald strives to write what he calls “haiku fiction,” stories that are compact in scope but big in impact. If you enjoyed Irula’s Apprentice, let him know either at his webpage: http://haikufiction.blogspot.com or via Twitter: @haikufictiondju.
If you enjoyed Irula’s Apprentice, be sure to check out Donald’s other stories.
Tales from The Veldt
Sword and sorcery adventures set in a world populated by anthropomorphic lions.
1. In the Days of the Witch-Queens
2. Irula’s Apprentice
3. Jelaani’s Choice (forthcoming)
4. Carea’s Song (forthcoming)
The Adventures of Cale ap Corwin
Light fantasy starring an unlikely young hero.
1. Serpent’s Heart
2. In the Ruins of Amir (coming October 2017)
3. TBD
4. TBD
The Butterfly Assassin
A young woman with the mind of a child needs only a hypnotic suggestion to become the most fearsome demon-hunter known to medieval Japan.
1. The Butterfly Path (coming late September 2017)
2. The Flowing Darkness (forthcoming)
3. The Cricket’s Cry (forthcoming)
4. The Plover’s Wind (forthcoming)
Stand-Alone Stories:
Wolves of Winter (urban fantasy—coming late October 2017)
Anthologies:
La Danza de la Muerte (coming Halloween 2017)
Irula's Apprentice (Tales from the Veldt Book 2) Page 2
