The Littlest Skiltaire

The Convention was an outright failure, and the "Furry Party" had become no more than a bunch of Humans servicing their egos. Bill-San retreated gladly to the lobby of the run down hotel. A pair of overstuffed chairs had become his old friends. This time Bill took the seat nearest the phone and waited.

Shyia brought tea and komochi, as she had the nite before. Her leap into the chair opposite him was as fluid and graceful as Bill could imagine. The rice cakes and tea were good, but Shyia's company was even more welcome. She fixed those sapphire eyes on him and read his soul.

Thou art troubled, Bill-San. Speak it to me, please..Shyia sent to the Human, showing respect for his newly gifted psyonic talent.

Bill smiled. There was no hiding anything from the caramel brown and silver Skiltaire. He gave up trying.

"Tell me about him.." Bill spoke distantly.

Shyia smiled. "Has he not spoken of himself?" She asked.

"Not four words together..What is he hiding?" Bill asked. "I mean, He's so.."

"That is the Savage Way, Bill-San. After these years, know ye all of My Darling Ryokyo?"

Bill shook his head. He had never gauged the depths and breadth of his White Feline Soulmate. Shyia nodded as well. "You see..Tis' the same with thyself and Roci." Shyia said easily.

"Everyone has a past. Tell me where he was born.." Bill asked point blank.

"My ears burn.." Said a familiar voice. Roci leapt into the chair from over the back! As he landed next to Shyia, the Male Skiltaire bowed to her and then to Bill-San. Bill rose for a moment, returning the bow from the waist. For some reason, Bill had always felt this proper, but he wasn't sure why.

"If you would speak of me, let my eyes see the words before they touch my ears."

"Very Well, Cousin..So mote it be!" Shyia said aloud, looking at both the Skiltaire and the Human.

Sitting in the padded chair, Bill lapsed into a state of gentle shock.

"Cousin..Aunt...!!??!!" Bill stammered...

"Let this be your first lesson in the Ways of Roci Stone." Roci said with a smile as he hugged Shyia close and gentle. "She whom you see is my most favored. If not for her, I would exist not."

Bill looked at Shyia expectantly. The cool diplomat blushed red as a tea rose in the soft lite.

"You may speak of it freely, My favored Aunt. I shall withhold nothing from Bill-San. How can one lie to one's heart and soul?" Roci said frankly. This time, it was Bill who blushed.

"Have ye the strength to undertake a journey with us, Bill-San?"

Instantly, Bill knew what Shyia had asked, and his answer was just as quick in echoing thru the minds of both Skiltaire. Bill relaxed his body, making his form relax in the chair, his hands locked together in front of him. He made of his conscious mind a blank, and all his sub-conscious followed a moment later. As he relaxed, the twin sends from his Pridemates overflowed his senses..

He struck his head softly on the low rocks, and crouched low, making himself as small as possible against the rear wall of the cave. Flickering torch lite cast an uneven, wavering lite over the scene. The sooty dark smoke from the torch sought the highest point inside the rocky chamber. Bill had to fight to hold back a cough, fearing it might interfere with the drama that was being played out on the smooth stone floor in front of him. Bill forgot his cough as soon as he saw a familiar pair of eyes!

"Now, My young Shining One shall ye know the pleasure and pain of birth. Remember well what ye shall now do.." The Elder Skiltaire said to the bright eyed younger female. The silver in the young mustelid's stripe seemed to project the torch lite about the cave as she dipped her cocoa coloured paws into a small stone vessel. Her mother took another and poured steaming water over her daughter's paws.

From the floor, there came a short cry of pain. Once again, Mother sent to daughter an age old but ageless wisdom.

"Behold, thine Aunt's moment is now..!!" she said softly, helping her sibling reach down to assist in the birth.

Bill watched in silent, almost reverent fascination. He had seen film and all the books of a moment like this, but now, even removed from it as he was, Bill felt himself swept up in the singular moment of life's beginning.

He stood up, giving him a better view of the crowded scene at the far end of the cave.

Young Shyia and her mother stood over the aquatic female, their paws a flurry of activity. In a moment, there was a sharp, high tone, and the group was lit by the momentary flicker of a lite blue aura.

That's one..!! Bill felt himself think.

Shyia passed the newborn Skiltaire to her mother, her young paws trembling with a combination of wonder and uncertainty. Her mother looked down at her daughter with a proud look only a mother could give! She took the new life in her time skilled paws, and rubbed the baby gently, to stimulate the new heart and lungs to their life sustaining work. She placed the newborn on a soft pad of twill heated from beneath by the same fire that had warmed the water. The sightless but active baby gave a small churp and fell safe and warm into the first sleep of a new life!

"MOTHER..HELP!!" The Young Skiltaire said quickly, her voice panicked. The elder Mustelid turned from the happy scene to face a moment of crisis!

"Be calm..You must turn him, my daughter.." A mother's eyes and a mid-wife's knowledge combined to tell Shyia's mother that the moment of birth had been turned, even as the newborn was, into a dangerous moment of breech!

Shyia let the ease of her mother's words crush out her rising panic. She turned quickly back to her stricken Aunt. Somehow, she knew instinctively what she had to do. Her small but strong paws slid easily into the distended opening. In a moment, she could feel the newborn and the Mother's struggle. The young Skiltaire took hold of her unborn relative and moved him gently, changing his position inside his mother. Almost at once, a strong contraction left the second baby resting in Shyia's paws!!

The young Skiltaire nearly fainted!

Across the cave, Bill watched the scene unfold, tears flowing down his cheeks!

Shyia's expression changed suddenly. The fear in her eyes by torch lite was as ancient and final a fear as anyone could feel.

"Mother...He's...dead.." Shyia whispered, her gem like eyes pooling with tears.

The look mother gave daughter was set with age old resignation and deep sorrow. She shook her head...

Bill looked on in terror, feeling that some part of him was in mortal danger!

"NO!! I WON'T LET IT HAPPEN!!" Shyia cried. "I WON'T!!"

She took the small, warm but still body between her young paws and massaged briskly, while her mind reached inside to touch the new life she could feel sliding away into the final blackness. It was almost gone!!

Looks of desperation shot between mother and daughter. Shyia conceived a desperate idea. Without stopping to think, Shyia held the stillborn baby close to her. She built a small but potent charge on her paws. Reaching out quickly, she grounded it with a touch between the Baby's eyes! The spark crossed the small gap, carrying not only electricity, but all a young girl's hope!

For a moment in time, three lives became one as another hung in the balance..

Into the dark stillness, from between the Young Skiltaire's paws, there came a faint, blue-green aura! As she held him and hoped with every bit of herself, Shyia felt the baby move!

"Mother!!"

The Elder girl smiled at the younger, as the two shared a moment beyond price or description. Her Mother nodded, dark eyes glowing without the torch lite. Shyia rose from her place, cradling the reborn Skiltaire in her paws as if the child were in part her own. Gently, she placed him next to his sibling, and then fell crying into her Mother's waiting arms!!

"My darling daughter..My darling, brave Shyia..You too have become a mother this nite. Henceforth, you are girl no more...My shining one has become a full female."

Her Mother's praise came on a gentle fall of tears and hugs, and Shyia's weeping came from a mix of relief and joy..!

"Come now, Shyia.." Her Mother said. "K'a'lia must rest now, and so must we."

Shyia's mother moved gently,picking up the young and laying them near their mother. She then covered the family with a thick woolen blanket. Shyia watched with concern, tucking in the lower edges of the blanket as her mother smiled.

They left the cave arm in arm, walking out into the star filled nite.

From his place out of time, Bill felt himself sink to the floor of the cave. The hard chiseled stone didn't bother him. The warmth of what he had experienced became his blanket against the nite. In a moment, he too was asleep.

In the Hotel Lobby, the slight Human sat still in his chair, sweat pouring from his forehead and soaking the chair back. Shyia and Roci shared a concerned thought.

Bill-San? Do you wish to go on, or should we stop now? They sent softly together.

The Human's answer returned to them on a broad wave of energy that seemed to sail him free of the body which sat in the chair. It made both Skiltaire tingle all over!

Shyia and Roci exchanged glances, and returned their sending thoughts to their shared memory of their past together.

A moment later, he felt the dawn on his face and stirred gently. He awoke to the sounds of laughter and morning birds outside the cave. He rose from the stone floor feeling strangely exhilarate. He stepped forward from his unobtrusive spot. He didn't wish to intrude, but he had to enjoy the sight of the Mother and her family!

All three lay together, a tight ball on the pad of material and the blanket. While K'a'lia slept, both young suckled loudly. He knew better than most that he ought not, but for a moment Bill found himself wishing with his whole being that he could take his insubstantial hand and touch the family gently. He knew he could, but he would have to wait for another moment in time. For now, the sight of the new family set his heart racing with a sensation that couldn't be summed in words! As he stood, watching the scene, he heard a lite rustle outside the cave.

Bill felt his own slightly wild instincts pull at him as he eyed the cave entrance with a sudden burst of protective suspicion. It gave in to modest embarrassment a moment later, when Shyia looked carefully around the edge of the cave, toward the sleeping family!

Shyia padded into the cave, and stood, watching and feeling the family before her. It gave Bill the chance to admire her in the strong, yet filtered lite of a new day. The Shyia that Bill knew so well had always been closed muzzled about her youth. Yet, as he watched the young Skiltaire before him, Bill could see the grace and deliberation of spirit that were the hallmarks of the slightly older Shyia.

Her caramel coloured coat was a bit lighter, touched with traces of coffee brown underfur. The beautiful stripe that would one day become radiant silver was already beginning to show itself in places along her back and tail. But Bill was transfixed, as he always had been, by the one thing about Shyia that was as constant and unchanging as the stars seemed to be.

For a moment, young Shyia turned sharply, looking directly at Bill's location in temporally unoccupied space. Even tho Shyia's sapphire eyes saw nothing in the space Bill felt those eyes and the fire in them weld him to the spot where he stood! For a moment, the Human feared discovery. But the Young Skiltaire that he would come to know so well simply smiled slightly, and turned back to the family that needed her.

Shyia, He thought to himself, not knowing that she could feel his thoughts on a sub carrier of the send, You are beautiful!

There was a sudden burst of warm energy along one channel of his thoughts. Without using his limited senses, Bill could feel the older Shyia blush! Bill smiled, and became a quiet spectator again!

K'a'lia moved gently beneath the thick blanket. Shyia brightened. Bright dawn, she sent easily. The traditional Kurushani greeting felt good as the tired mother stirred to tend her new family for the first time. Shyia looked on with eager interest while trying not to gawk. K'a'lia looked up and smiled gently.

It is well.. she sent at the young girl. You may draw nearer, if you wish.

Shyia took three steps forward, loosing her battle to hide her mixture of excitement and curiosity. The new mother's smile broadened.

Come..Would you aid me? she asked on a thought wave.

Shyia never moved more quickly!

Take the younger, he wants cleaning..Hold him sure while I feed his brother.

Shyia picked up the smaller of the two babies with a seemingly practiced touch that was both gentle and loving. Instantly, their minds met, sensing the mutual bond of sameness and security. The young male let out a gentle and familiar "Chirp" and nuzzled deeply into Shyia's waiting paws! She pressed him closer to her chest, allowing the thicker fur to help the newborn retain heat. The undersized baby was asleep after a moment, as if he had not left his natural mother at all.

K'a'lia looked up and smiled admiringly.

"You have the gift, my girl.." she spoke aloud, adding to the complement with the texture of her words.

Shyia looked at her elder and blushed, embarrassed to have stepped so boldly into a role not her own. The look that crossed her youthful muzzle was a combination of regret and gratitude.

"I take no offense at you, my darling Shyia..Your instincts are strong..A better mother their could not be..Do not fear to use your feelings." K'a'lia's words came on a flow of gentle strength so typical of her giving nature. Her aunt had held Shyia not so many summers before. They were as close as Mother and daughter, and now her elder had opened her most priceless gifts to her young, inexperienced heart!

"The days ahead will be difficult for the youngest one, for he is weak and small." K'a'lia offered. Shyia nodded, nuzzling the littlest Skiltaire even closer to her coat.

"I shall have much to do with only one..Might I ask your help with the smallest?" K'a'lia asked.

Shyia could scarcely believe her ears!! In a single, wonderful moment her innermost wish had been fulfilled!! K'a'lia read the shocked pulses of thought that the younger Skiltaire sent back almost involuntarily, and laughed out loud at young Shyia's wonder and confusion.

"I would trust naught other with him, my bright niece.." K'a'lia added with an answering nod that proved she was serious!

Shyia's wave of youthful exuberance turned her heart and mind into twin sky rockets that shot out far beyond the cave!

K'a'lia could feel her reaction a full ten feet distant, without even using her natural gifts! She smiled again. "So mote it be" she said. "I make you his Karakami."

Bill knew the word in his adopted language, and it's profound meaning made him tingle.

Shyia was now something far more than cousin to the sickly baby. The term was a mixture of foster mother and godchild, implying the mother's absolute trust in the young Skiltaire's ability to undertake caring for her child.

Shyia smiled oddly as her head swam. She laid down gently beside her aunt, allowing the smaller baby to nuzzle between a pair of warm coats as both K'a'lia and Shyia joined in cleaning him!

Bill's warm sensations at the scene flowed back across the thought bridge to both Skiltaire. Bill felt the galaxy eating power each could put behind sent thoughts modulate a bit. He watched in fascination, feeling a pang of disappointment, as the thought picture he had been painted into dissolved suddenly in a blur, as if someone had thrown a pail of water on a chalk picture!

After a multi coloured burst of prismatic hues, another image filled his senses, planting him like another flower on the blue-green grass of a small hillock. All around him, Bill could sense the bright, still air, and warm orange-white sunlite that marked the spring time. Not far away, he could see and hear a mixed group of young at play. They were watched over by an adult Skiltaire. As the boundless energy of the young let them romp and play over the whole meadow, a part of the group gamboled up the hill, rolling gently into and thru the clusters of late spring Snowflowers. Even tho as he stood there, he was no more than a thought on the breeze, Bill stepped aside gently, and let youth and vigor have their heads as the young playmates wrestled playfully across the field.

The Skiltaire left his charges for a moment, to race up the gentle slope after the rambunctious youngsters. The uniformed and armored male was the Largest Mustelid the Human had ever seen, excluding the Savage who was his friend and more!

He flashed across the grass and up the hill with a movement that could shame a cheetah! He stood next to Bill and watched the kids for a moment. He was larger than any otter, better toned than a fisher, and looked like a badger in his fur markings! Bill had seen Savages aplenty in his Kurushani travels, but always from a distance. The sight of the magnificent wolverine like warrior stole Bill's breath away.

Were all Savages so rugged and handsome?

The huge male waded into the tightly bunched group, zapping each and all with heavy charges of power, some of which left the soft grass brown and scorched! The Elder Skiltaire's voltage sent the youngsters flying as if each of them had been wrapped around a hand grenade! Even as they tumbled and rolled high in the air, sent sailing like light kites in gale, all the young laughed loudly!!

Each landed akimbo, sprawled on the soft spring ground. The
Elder snapped to attention, and each of his charges scrambled for a moment before becoming statues under his unforgiving glare.

"This is not the time for play. You are here to train!" He snapped sharply. "This is our Sacred Ground. You may have to defend it one day as your fathers and grandfathers did. You must learn to fight. An Enemy will not play with you. If I were your enemy, You all would be dead, and the Sacred Ground of Kamiyama would be mine!" The Elder's harsh attitude hid his caring for the young. Bill felt a spear of sympathy as each of them dropped their eyes.

"Today, we shall climb to the High Point. You must use all of your skill and strength. If you do not arrive together as a group upon the plateau all of you must re-climb it. Let us begin.."

"Master?"

"Yes, My son..?"

"One of our group is not here.."

"WHICH??" The Elder intoned sharply.

"The second son of Tal and K'a'lia, Master.."

Master Trainer Han growled his displeasure. Tal was his most honored friend. But the Teacher could not show favoritism.

"So mote it be..! He snapped, and marched his young charges by twos into the high, rocky slopes.

Bill knew the terrain as well as any Astreli, for he too had been re-born on the Sacred Mountain. He watched the small squad of Skiltaire troop slowly across the grass, up a slope and out of the small green valley. He knew as well as any hunter that beyond the ridge just outside the valley lay the serpentine path that lead almost straight up at times to the first rocky outcrop on the face of the mountain. From the meadow, it was more than five thousand feet higher!

As the group left his sight, Bill found himself scanning the expanse of field below for anyone that straggled the group. The taller grass in the depression below the hill was taller by far than a standing Human. To a small Skiltaire, traversing the grass on the edge of the field might seem challenge enough!

Bill let his mask fall away, so his own wild instincts could find flow within him. Almost at once, he felt something move several hundred feet below. The tall saw grass deflected a bit, showing a slow, but steady path thru the sharp edged weed that guarded it into the soft, green of the valley!

At the edges of the Human's vision, he caught sight of an unusually small form. While his coat was hidden in the grass, Bill could have been blind and still seen the brilliant streak of orange-red that gathered and leapt again and again, forging ahead slowly thru the nearly impassable foliage!

Bill watched, admiring the youngster's sheer determination as he cleared the grass and set out at a dead run across the meadow! The Human watched him, transfixed in admiration and wonder. As he watched the young Skiltaire, Bill felt something distant yet familiar touch his memory. It was there and gone in a moment, but its mark had been left afresh after so many years. Bill thought of another lush green place, and another young lad who had struggled there..

He found himself wishing he could interject his own cheer for the tardy trainee. He felt himself chill as the small but determined youth fought and won a slow, visibly agonizing struggle with the steep slope. Bill watched with warm heart as a pair of jet black paws planted themselves deeply in the crest of the hill where Bill stood. Crushing out the sudden impulse to kneel and assist him was the single most difficult thing the Human had ever had to do. But the Man had passed thru the Bloodfire. Tradition that re-bound his soul tied his hands, but could never stop him from feeling for some part of himself, and the young Savage as well.

For now, Bill thought, all I can do is watch...and remember..

Watch he did as the young one pulled himself up onto the top of the hill a few metres from where the instructor had stood with his training group. He had grown much since his birth, but his small body had scarcely seemed to come of age. He was half as big as the youngest trainee in his group, and it seemed to the Human that the brisk wind that seemed to rise from the hilltop to greet the youth might whisk him away like a loose blade of the spring grass!

He stood against it for one moment, them as the gust hit its vortex, Bill saw something unique. The tardy trainee looked around, being sure that the hilltop was his alone. The young wild Skiltaire turned quickly into the wind. Bill saw him rise up on his hind legs, forcing it against the tide of air. At the peak of the gusts, another sound raced against the wind.

The unmistakable, unconquerable sound of a Savage's growl!!

Roci held the sound and the spirit of it with all the strength within him. The wind stung his eyes, becoming a hammer which tried to batter his upstart voice back inside the small body. But the more the wind mocked him, the more sustained and wild sounding the growl became!

After a minute of full blown challenge, the wind surrendered to Young Savage's spirit! The Savage noise crashed down from the hilltop and across the fields of sawgrass unchallenged and unequaled before the land and nature! No one had seen it, none had shared his triumph save the mustelid and the insubstantial man inside him!

He paused, smoothed himself a bit, and then dropped his muzzle into the grass. Tracking by scent was as natural as his heartbeat. The Skiltaire did not need his natural electromagnetic tracer. He preferred to let his nose and other instincts lead him to the trails of his fellows. His group had been gone nearly an hour by the lengthening shadows before the young straggler found scent paths and their trail up the mountain. Bill saw the lite of discovery on the Skiltaire's face burn into his eyes. The look was prime-evil, as if a hunter had found his prey!

It was a look and feeling the Man knew just as well!

Challenging the wind seemed to renew him, and He dashed over the ridge with a speed and vigor of one much older. As the small Human watched the private memory, known until this time only to Roci himself, he did not feel the tears that rolled down his cheeks in the hotel lobby as his substantial heart made him a part of the flow of insubstantial events!

Bill felt his mind being pulled at slowly, as if something beyond him called him to another time and place. He went willingly, knowing better than to resist to motivating force behind the cascade of past images that were being shared with him. The human needed no wings to soar upward to a place that he knew as well as the young trainees did.

The meadow became only shadow as Bill found himself on a smooth escarpment, carved out of the granitic rock by untold ages of weathering. Bill's first instinct was to look for the light and shadows. Time had crept forward no more than a half score of minutes. Below him and slightly to the left, Bill could see a series of rugged terraces cut by runoff and rock slide into the gradually ascending slope. Boulders as large as railway cars dotted the plateau as if they were marbles strewn in anger by the temperamental child of glacial ice whose tantrums came with every deep winter on the Sacred Mountain. The mammoth rocks served now as wind breaks for a small group gathered at the base of the mountain. Here they waited, fighting the chill wind and bleak sameness as they waited the last of their number.

Bill's feelings told him before his eyes did that He was near. The small mustelid climbed between a narrow passage in twin rocks each the size of houses! As He kippered happily down the steep stone stairs, Bill felt a pang of regret, for he had heard Master Han's instructions, where the young Skiltaire had not. Bill watched as the late arrival walked over to the group. Each was as stony and cold a visage as the grey-black rocks they stood upon. The young Savage looked up at Master Han, his muzzle the picture of hard won confidence in what he had done.

The Training Master's only reaction was a look of profound disappointment.

The hopeful half smile of youth fell with a landslide crash. Instantly he dropped his eyes.

From somewhere off to his right, a smaller stone sailed by his ear. Before he could react, another skipped off of the flat rock in front of him, striking him squarely in the chest! It didn't hurt half as much as the sight of his own fellow trainee's hurling the stones at him while they mocked him with laughter!! The cascade of stones grew into a steady rain, as did the hollow echoes of their mockery! He stood still for a moment, frozen with disbelief and hurt, a look of shock and dismay on his young face. A third small rock hit him in the paw. He shrank away, but did not turn until another larger stone struck his back with a knifing pain. Only then did he seek shelter behind a large stone slab. It became a target for a fusillade of rocks that bounced off of it as harmlessly as raindrops. Behind the slab, tears fell from his hazel eyes, a poor replacement indeed for the rain of stones.

Standing on the escarpment, watching the cruel scene, Bill lost his towering temper. Without thinking, he reached down for a stone of his own, not to cast with the mockers, but to hurl at them. Bill felt a world of pain and shared his frustration as his hand passed right thru the loose stones!!

"Damnation!!" Bill felt himself say aloud.

As the dejected young one turned and sulked away back down the steep trail to repeat his climb, Bill felt a heavy lump in his throat.

The human who shared the thought flow found himself wishing to be taken back to the grassy place far below, to see him climb again and perhaps this time, to clamber over the rocks at his side, but it was not to be..

The man's next sensation was standing in the soft glow of a bonfire laid under the full moon. He looked over and saw Shyia facing the same direction as he, looking out and up at the mountain. As the young Skiltaire kept vigil, K'a'lia came between them, placing an arm around the worried young girl.

"Worry ye naught, Karakami Shyia.." His natural mother said with a re-assuring smile.

"Tis the Way of a Karakami, Aunt K'a'lia.." Shyia said as she warmed to her mother's sister's gentle touch. "Why must it be so cruel!!" She burst out suddenly in anger.

"Tis the Savage Way, my Shining one..It is the fire in which we forge ourselves." She explained.

"You are not so Savage..Aunt mine, I prey thee, take him to the waterland that is your range!" she blurted out. "There he would be happy." Shyia's words showed both concern and hopelessness, for Shyia was the first to know it could never be.

K'a'lia shook her head slowly.

"But Tal, my Soulmate, is of Astreli Savage Blood.." She explained gently."Thus the Young must be reared.." she said. "It is hard, my sweet Shyia..But rather dwell upon what my youngest shall become. How splendid he shall be when grown!" K'a'lia's words served to buoy both the young Skiltaire and the man, who had listened as well.

Shyia's downcast expression changed to a soft smile at K'a'lia's gentle hug.

Their tender moment was broken by a spear of sent pain and exhaustion. Bill could not feel as the Skiltaire did between one another, but it took no warrior's senses to see the ruined ghost of a figure who limped slowly into view on two good paws, his every step as painful in appearance as it was for his battered, bruised, and bleeding body!!

Both female Skiltaire ran forward in horror. K'a'lia was a bit quicker and caught her Son as his uninjured legs gave way! Shyia reached out and brushed the matted blue-grey fur from before his eyes.

"Mother.." He gasped, his voice an icy whisper, "..They beat me!"

Pain stole away the young Skiltaire's resolve and he passed out as his mother held him. K'a'lia looked up, her grey-green eyes filled with a sad understanding. She shook her head. Shyia raced to the nearby stream. from her belt pouch she took a piece of rough cloth and plunged it into the chill mountain water. She was back at the battered young one's side before her heart could tell her how angry she was! Shyia rang out the coarse cloth, wishing for a moment it might become the vitals of whoever had done this! Gently she laid the wet pad across his discoloured muzzle.

As K'a'lia bore him up and closer to the cook fire, Shyia's anger roared like the flames!

"Yes, Aunt mine..!" Shyia said scornfully. "See how splendid thy son looks!"

K'a'lia turned from her task, crying freely. She forgave the youngster's impertinence and instead touched the core of worry both mother and spirit mother shared for her son.

"Is this our Savage Way?" Shyia growled. "So mote it be!! I shall show the perpetrators of this what real Savagery is like!"

"HOLD!" Commanded K'a'lia sharply. Her tone froze Shyia's anger and her stride in the same moment.

"I know your spirit, but above all you must NOT!" K'a'lia instructed.

"No one attacks my kin, save they answer me in battle!" Shyia shot back.

"Do you love your cousin?" K'a'lia asked quietly. The still, quiet urgency of the question helped defuse Shyia's anger.

"With all my life and heart, this you know well.." Shyia answered quietly.

"Would you see him worse than this?" His mother asked the brash young female. "If you fight for him without his word, then you brand him coward, my Shining One. They would dispatch him straight if he were ever among them again."

K'a'lia's gentle words turned away Shyia's indignation. Tho half Savage herself, the young arboreal female had much to learn about the wild customs and traditions of her Mother's people. Slowly, Shyia allowed wisdom to conquer her towering anger. She walked gently back toward the fire, eyes down in apology.

K'a'lia reached out and stroked both Shyia and her stricken son.

All thru the deepening nite, Shyia attended him, never straying farther than a body length from where he lay. As K'a'lia slept fitfully nearby, Shyia allowed her sharp mind to unburden her heavy heart. Near moon set, with the first rays of the bright dawn, young Shyia had a wonderful, simple idea!

It came on a burst of thought so pure and strong that it roused K'a'lia with a start.

"What is it, My Bright One, what has touched your mind so well?" K'a'lia asked, looking strangely at Shyia.

"Aunt mine.." Shyia began. "Is it not according to Savage Ways that Others may also Teach and Train the Young?" Shyia asked expectantly.

"Tis true..If kin they be to them.." K'a'lia answered slowly, restating the ancient tradition that Shyia had hoped for.

"Is not Karakami as good as kin?" the young Skiltaire asked slowly.

"As good as kin and better..This you know.." The Elder answered.

"Then I might teach him as well, neh?" Shyia asked, closing the logical circle.

"Indeed ye might.." K'a'lia said slowly. "What would ye show him?" She asked.

"As soon as he is healed.." Shyia began with new determination, "...I shall teach him much..Beginning with wrestling.." Shyia added with confidence.

Shyia saw K'a'lia's wild eyes take on a sudden sparkle in the low lite of dawn. His mother nodded slowly. She put out her paw, beckoning the young female nearer to her. K'a'lia embraced Shyia litely but strongly.

"I knew my choice of Karakami was a wise one..!" K'a'lia whispered to Shyia softly. Come, she sent in turn you must help me heal him. Are you equal to it?

Shyia's excited response came on a wave of energy so overwhelming and vital that it nearly swept K'a'lia off of her feet!

Bill watched the scene unfold, his dark eyes shining with admiration.

Thru the next day and into evening, the Skiltaire females tended the injured male. The bruising and cuts had come from many hard paw strikes, as were used in close combat. The welts and swelling beneath the young Savage's coat allowed Bill to paint a mental picture of the relentless beating the others had administered to the young male. No part of his body was left unburdened, front and rear covered with bruises and the short cuts that went with Skiltaire claws. Bill noticed there was no trace of foreign fur on the youngster's coat, or pressed between the digits of his paws. Nor was there any trace of them on his claws as Shyia washed his small black wounded paws. These had been bitten, often and hard, trying to goat the youngster to combat. They had failed. His natural weapons painted a portrait of one who had not fought back when set upon!

After many combined efforts, K'a'lia and Shyia could only wait for nature itself to finish the healing process. Shyia left but once, near noon to bring both a portion of food. The third bowl of nuts, fruit and drawn cooked meat went untouched. They moved their injured charge to the shade of the cave and waited there with him. At mid-afternoon, a shadow fell across the mouth of the cave.

K'a'lia rose easily to meet the huge male Skiltaire, leaving Shyia to sit beside her son and tend his wounds.

"Hail, Han, Chief trainer to the young." K'a'lia said simply.

Inside the cave, Shyia felt her anger flare again, but she held her tongue and her place as well.

"Where is the second son of Tal?" he asked shortly.

"He sleeps, esteemed Sensei. Training has sore tired him." K'a'lia replied.

Shyia listened, her tongue pressed hard between her teeth. She knew the purpose behind the lie, but that made hearing it no easier.

"It is well.. The first days are always trying..We hope the son of Tal shall acquit himself well in the days to come. Tomorrow is a day of oral teaching. He shall come to the Great Cavern at Dawn." Master Han stated.

"By your Leave, Great Sensei.." K'a'lia answered as tradition demanded, but more owning to the respect of the tradition than to the persona behind it.

The Training Master of Kurusha turned and bounded away without acknowledgement.

Shyia heard K'a'lia growl softly as she re-entered the cave!

Can he rise in time? Shyia sent urgently.

He must, my Bright one. And all must seem as naught of this has happened, lest he be branded as weak. K'a'lia sent in return.

Shyia nodded. She picked up the untouched bowl of food and carried it to his bedside. She stimulated him to consciousness with a mild charge. He began as if to move, but then stopped as his whole body was racked with waves of dull pain! His hazel eyes fluttered open weakly, seeming to be in pain themselves.

Mother, he sent.

Rest and be well, my Son. She sent back quickly. Eat of the food your Karakami has brought for you..This has been but one day..There will be others. K'a'lia sent sympathetically.

At the mention of his Karakami, the young male let drop some of his pain. He looked up at Shyia with eyes glowing and smiled broadly thru a sore muzzle. Shyia moved the ruff Hewn wood bowl a bit closer, offering the young male the scent of what it held. Dates, Cumin nuts and smoked meat were all his special favorites! Shyia smiled broadly as the young Skiltaire fell upon the food with gusto despite the visible pain that monument and eating brought him. Overseeing the scene, K'a'lia suspected that her Son's appetite came not from the food alone, but the food bearer as well! She smiled contentedly.

As he ate, Shyia sent to him as well on a beam so tightly focused, only the two could read it.

Tomorrow shall indeed be another day. She sent to him. For when the Teacher is finished, then shall your schooling begin in good earnest. I shall teach you. Shyia sent.

The young male looked up from his food, his eyes ablaze with a fire the like of which Shyia had never seen.

What shall you teach me, Karakami Shyia? He sent asking with thought.

The strength of the stone, and the power of flowing water, my heartfelt son. Shyia sent back cryptically. Rest ye well now, for tomorrow we shall set about discovering true strength together. She sent to him on a thought pulse that warmed his body thru the covers over him.

The young male finished eating quickly, but carefully. At the first call of the nitebird at sunset, he was fast asleep and well on the mend, both in body and soul.

The trio slept together that nite in the cave. Each of them waiting the new day for different reasons but for the same purpose!

The first rays of pre-dawn coloured the sky as Both Shyia and her cousin awoke together. Healing had removed most of the obvious damage of the day before, but the young male still moved stiffly as he reached out to hug his aunt.

"Churp!" he said in deep gratitude for her caring.

Shyia returned the hug, holding her little one close and safe for an extra moment before they parted.

"Go to the Great Cavern..Master Han awaits there." Shyia said simply.

"What of yesterday, Aunt Shyia?" the Young Male asked.

"Yesterday is a shadow.." she answered. "Today is the sun. Go now, and remember, You are as a stone.."

The young Male Skiltaire shot from the cave as if struck by a bolt of lightning. As he raced across the open ground between the hills and toward the Great Cavern, his aunt's final cryptic words echoed in his worried mind.

"You are as a stone.." he found himself saying as he raced toward the day's lesson.

The mammoth expanse of the Great Cavern loomed before him, its ominous black maw seeming large enough to swallow almost the whole of Astrel. The young Skiltaire smiled. His aunt and mother had spent hours when he was younger, telling him dream stories and sending him images of their people's history and traditions, rather than made up stories to satisfy tired parents. He had known all of this place for a very long time.

From a place far back among the craggy rocks, the young Skiltaire felt a probe sweep outward toward his mind it pulled at him with relentless energy. He gave in and used the thought trail to draw farther into the Cavern. As he swept the crags and crevices with probes of his own, he could sense several forms moving in the broken and scattered rocks that lay just inside the vault of the Cavern.

The stories he had heard and felt so often seemed to whisper a warning to him. In this Cavern there once had been hidden a large Pride of Astreli Warriors who had used the rocky vault to shelter them for a surprise attack...

Without thinking, reflex and instinct made him leap sharply to one side and upward. As a large stone fell, smashing to bits where he had stood a moment before! Before the echo of the rock fall had died away, a half a dozen figures leapt from their hiding places, down upon the fallen debris! To the youth, it was obvious his attackers expected to find him beneath the fallen rubble!

He crouched low, hidden behind a short stalagmite, and watched. Six pairs of larger paws swept the shattered rock splinters aside, and set themselves to fall upon...

Nothing..!!

The young male seized the moment of complete surprise to perfect advantage! He sprang from his elevated hiding place, much as the ancient Warriors had done! His landing on top of them had the effect of a cannon ball, bowling them over easily as he twisted, moving thru their close group, then rebounding off the smooth wall to leap back to his hiding place!

From the shadows, there came a tide of deep, rolling and unrestrained laughter! As the trainees recovered their wits from among the pebbles, Master Han stepped into the subdued lite!

Instantly, the trainees were frozen to their places, Shock and worry painted on a half dozen muzzles below as the littlest Skiltaire watched with delight from above!

"Now you see the value of History!" Master Han said with a wry smile as he walked up to the surprised group of attackers. "At least one here has learned the oral tradition in today's teaching...Come before me, second son of Tal.."

Hidden above, the small mustelid was hesitant to appear.

"Fear Naught, Those who fell upon you last, are today's victims. The tally is even."

He rose slowly from his hiding place, seeming like a ghost in the dim lite. He padded over the sharp rocks into the light of Master Han's torch. The Master Trainer beckoned him closer, to stand at his side! Then Master Han he looked upon his other charges.

"The second son of Tal, whom you would scorn, has today proved himself the beginning steps to becoming a Warrior. He used his knowledge and our traditions to defeat a larger enemy force."

Master Han looked at his smallest pupil with a gently approving nod.

"So it was during the Dark War. All of you have heard your parents share the History with your ears, but only one among you took it to his heart, and he is the victor today because he used mind over muscle. The lesson is ended."

Looks of delight and satisfaction melted the frozen and humbled muzzles that stood before their teacher. They all turned to go, their embarrassment forgotten, along with the painful lesson. Only the smallest held his place beside the Master. Han allowed them to go three steps.

"Wait..!" he thundered at the others. "Those who know the lesson may leave. Those who have just learned it shall remain the day in practice!" Han fairly roared at his lazy students. Then he turned to the small one. "You have brought honor on thyself this day. I give you the remainder of it to study what you will and contemplate upon your victory."

The training Master turned with the second son of Tal, and walked beside him back toward the entrance of the Great Cavern. As the two teachers walked away, they could not see or feel the dagger eyes that followed both of them from the rebuked trainees!

"What shall you study upon this free day, second son of Tal?" Master Han asked gently as they stood together at the cavern mouth.

"I shall study Wrestling, Sensei..And then ask Karakami to tell me more of the Traditions before I rest." He replied, a slight awe in his voice.

"It is well. You may go, and Bright Dawn to the Second son of Tal!"

Master Han's kind words sent the Young Skiltaire fairly flying homeward with the speed of a happy thought!

The young one raced into his home cave just as a brilliant sunrise sent wide rays of morning light streaming into the cave. His mother was away gathering breakfast, so the Young Warrior focused all his renewed spirit on young Shyia.

KARAKAMI, KARAKAMI!!!! He sent excitedly as he raced toward her, almost knocking the female over on a thunder bolt of exuberance! He sent the whole thing to his Karakami in less than a heartbeat, a band of thoughts and feelings so varied and wide, it took the older Skiltaire's mind a moment to sort thru and feel it all!!

Shyia swept the young, panting Skiltaire into her arms and held him close. He could look up and see her eyes shining in admiration for the youth.

For a special student, we shall gather to him a special Feast of Victory. She sent back to him on a strong, wide band of thought, calming his mind, but suppressing none of the new energy he had found within himself!

He felt Shyia's send to his mother, calling gently upon her to bring wild dates, nuts, and favored fruits. She returned a few minutes later, so heavily loaded that she could scarcely move. Shyia took the food, and fell to preparing it in a special bowl while son shared with mother his victory!

Shyia turned with the special breakfast to see K'a'lia reach out and sweep her second born happily into her deep embrace! They held each other for a long moment, K'a'lia sharing looks and thoughts of near reverence for her small son. She set him down carefully and proudly on a flat rock seat before the eating slab. Shyia bowed deeply to her young cousin and set the heaping bowl before him with a sweeping motion. Then both females stepped back two paces and let the Male Skiltaire have his range, as both smiled broadly!

The young Skiltaire ate with triumphant gusto, and the fire of youth. As Shyia watched him enjoy his small celebration, Shyia sent to him softly.

Eat well and rest a bit, for in a while your Karakami's school shall open.

After he had eaten most of his meal and given his frail body a full relaxing stretch, Shyia sent to him.

Very well done. Now, would you walk with me? she asked, mind to mind.

The young male's exuberant response was to leap over the whole width of the table, landing barely a paw's width from her side! Shyia smiled knowingly, and Karakami cousin left the cave together.

Their path led away from the PrideGround. Before the pair had loped a dozen strides down the seldom warn path, the young male knew their destination.

Why the quarry, Karakami Shyia? he asked without speaking.

Tis there you shall come to know the strength of the stones. Shyia sent in reply.

Perplexed but entirely trusting, He kept pace with his aunt as he slow lope became a steady, pounding, and joyous run!

Both raced stride for stride down the serpentine path, over the rolling ground, and far from any traveled path. It was here that the ground changed as the racing pair topped the foothills and swept onward into a small depression. Here the marked path ended, and the land itself seemed to take on a different face.

Both Skiltaire raced right to the edge of the deep, but somehow unnatural pit cut from the living landscape around them, than flashed to a halt on the edge of the abyss, twin streaks of lightning quick fur.

Shyia paused and looked at her young cousin admiringly. There were not many Astreli who could match her stride for stride for any distance, let alone the nearly six kilometres the pair had put between themselves and any who might disturb them.

You run well, Young One. Shyia sent because she found herself panting and unable to speak.

He tried to respond, wanting to make it seem that the marathon run had no effect on him.

"You..too..." he said aloud, trying to keep his tongue in and not seeming to gulp for the air his lean body now begged for!

"I..didn't bell..believe such...was within me." The young male said, trying with his whole spirit not to seemed drained by the exercise or the energy he had found within himself.

Shyia reached out and hugged him gently. Behind her shoulder, she could hear and feel her cousin draw several deep, sustaining breaths. Shyia smiled, and pretended not to notice!

"Let us discover what else you hide away within yourself." Shyia said slyly. "Follow me, Young One."

Shyia somehow knew this ground better than her homewoods. The young Skiltaire watched in simple amazement as his elder led him to the top of a steep stairway. He looked down after her and grew dizzy! The steps themselves seemed nearly vertical as they snaked downward, nearly out of sight into the labyrinthine quarry! Yet, as he tried the first with his forepaws, he could feel that each succeeding step was well defined and clean, cut into the granitic rock generations ago, and showed almost no sign of weathering! Their path downward was part of the living rock, as solid as the predefined blocks that jutted irregularly from the cream white and grayish walls!

He looked back at his aunt and smiled oddly.

Lead on, Young Warrior!" Shyia said with expectant encouragement.

The male Skiltaire drew a single, deep breath, and allowed his body to slide downward, onto the first of the many steps. There, without looking down, he waited for his elder.

Shyia slid down, standing beside him, completely unaffected. She leaned far forward, and looked deep into the pit below. Turning back quickly, she swept her skittish cousin close to the edge with her!

He nearly chirped in alarm, but tamed his sudden fear in a moment at his aunt's continued touch.

"Come, she said easily. "Share this view with me. You too shall come to know this place as I do."

He felt himself relax, almost ashamed at his momentary lapse. He drew another, deep, steady breath, them matched gaze with Shyia, whose sapphire eyes swept the stone pit like some extra-worldly radar. As his fear passed away, his eyes began to see again, and the quarry seemed to take on a unique beauty in the early morning lite.

Countless days and nites of wind and climate had worked to gently polish the surfaces of some of the stones. They glinted and glistened, casting their own unique reflected lite here and there within the cavernous pit.

"You pass from one Cavern into another, my cousin." Shyia almost whispered, not wanting to break the natural spell she knew was being cast over him. "Shall we continue?" she asked after a minute. He nodded silently. Suddenly intrigued, the height of the stairs lost its meaning, and the place they led to became a goal to be reached. Eagerly, he slid down one step after another, falling into a natural stride that let him take the stone steps by twos, then threes, as all fear of falling was driven away from him!

Shyia followed behind him, smiling with satisfaction as he lead both deeper into the quarry!

After a distance that seemed longer, both reached the floor of the stone orchard. The pit was wide, but the blocky, semi-carved walls defused the britening sunlite, so that a mixture of pure and reflected natural lite illuminated the floor of the pit.

The young Male craned his short neck, straining to take in the majestic view of the stone carver's work place.

Shyia turned to him. "Know you these stones or their like, young one?" She asked.

He smiled. Shyia had told him the history of the stones a thousand times it seemed, each nite before he slept!

"From these stones.." He repeated the Tradition word for word, "..Become the base for all our underground lodges." he said, knowing that Shyia knew as well as he.

"Tis well!" said Shyia proudly. "So have you learned." she said. "But now, wise one, tell your elder the strength of the stone." Shyia invited with a questioning look.

He began to answer quickly, but halted himself as he pondered deeply the question.

Shyia smiled, and waited for his words.

"The strength of the stone..?" he repeated aloud as his young mind wrestled with the paradox. "It is solid.." he said slowly at last, fearing to give a wrong answer.

"And?" Shyia asked, her eyes brightening.

He faulted, unsure which to say next. Shyia smiled warmly.

"But soft, look about you. Whither do you see?" She asked guiding his cluttered mind gently.

"Some stones are polished, others ruff..?" He half asked, rather than stating.

"Go on.." Shyia answered.

"Outside they are the same..But within, the face of each is different. He said, his voice brightening with the beginnings of understanding.

Shyia beamed. "And what does this show you?"

The young male was still and silent for a long, contemplative moment. He felt a sort of distant, inner calm settle on his mind as his thoughts flowed. A moment came when a bright lite sparked in his eyes. Shyia saw the lite and smiled.

"Fear naught..speak what you now feel...It is not wrong to do so.." She encouraged gently.

"Myself.." He said slowly, disbelieving that so complex a question could be answered so simply. "I am as the unpolished stones." he said quietly at last.

Shyia reached out, and took the young Skiltaire into a deep and gentle embrace.

"Now the learning can begin, my small cousin.." Shyia answered with a lump in her throat.

"Karakami Shyia?" He asked gently. "Will you..could you..help polish me?" he asked tentatively, unsure if his words or the feeling that flowed behind them made any sense in logic.

Shyia put him down, gently, almost reverently. Instantly he was consumed by her jewel like eyes.

" I cannot do so alone. You must help the work of time, nature and what I shall show you. Are you willing to help me begin?" She asked seriously.

His reply was a gentle nod, tinged with awe and expectation. In the next instant, his whole will fell to the beginning of their task together. His young eyes flashed with a blaze of fire as he waited the next lesson.

Shyia smiled at his relaxed, but eager expression. She glanced at him, then round about the wide open floor of the pit. After a moment, her plan was laid, and she spied the implements she would use.

"Bring me that stone." she requested simply with a pointed paw.

He looked on in disbelief. The object of her desire was no larger than her own paw, and lay but three steps from both of them!

Obediently, he raced forward with a short leap, snatched up the mere pebble with an admirable display of quickness, and kippered back to his aunt, setting the stone in her paw only a moment after her command!

She smiled. "Well done!" she chirped encouragingly.

Taking the stone in her paw, Shyia weighed it carefully, gauging the weight of the stone fragment to within a gram. She turned the flat stone over in her paws once more. Nodding slightly, she passed it before his eager young muzzle, but with a dip, forbad him to touch it, or take it from her.

Shyia wound up her lithe young body like a powerful spring, and in a blur of motion that his eyes could not follow, sent the small stone arcing high into the air, and far out and up across the pit! It caromed off a huge block to land spinning on a stone step far up on the rock wall!

Shyia and the young male shared expectant looks. "Well.." she said casually. "Bring me that stone!" she repeated.

He begin to move, his own body uncoiling, but he was brought up short as his Aunt grasped him firmly by the shoulder and held him where he stood!

"Bring me the stone." She repeated simply with a nod.

He tried to move again, but her strong, gentle grip seemed like stone itself weighed upon his shoulder.

"The stone.." she said once more. "Concentrate!" she added gently.

His eyes gleamed, as he understood her wish at last.

Inwardly, he felt a burst of excitement. He had wished for many days to begin practice of his Will! Now he had the chance!

He set himself calmly as his Aunt's paw slid from his shoulder. Until her wish was made so, he was as rooted to the spot. Far off, he could see the small rock, balanced upon the very edge of an ancient stone step. Another centimetre would see it drop into another deep chasm cut into the floor of the pit.

He thought he might have to struggle at first, but as his centered thoughts deepened, he felt the energetic flow from his mind flow over the small stone that was fixed in his vision. It was just within his range! It took a moment for him to feel the stone, his vision unblinking as he focused all of himself on the task at paw. Calmly, as if the stone was an extension of himself, he willed it to remove!

Shyia watched eagerly as the pebble suddenly lurched from it's resting place, and fell from the step! Despite the gap between them, Shyia felt her small cousin shudder!

She steadied him with a gentle touch. The stone dipped close to the floor, and seemed to hesitate in it's motion as it came toward them centimetre by centimetre! Shyia watched hopefully as it cleared the edge of the chasm!

Shyia felt the young male exert himself, pouring almost the whole of his Will into the task! The small stone zipped untouched across open space, and then sank slowly to the floor of the pit within the outline of Shyia's waiting shadow!

The elder Skiltaire looked from the stone, to her kin, and back again slowly, her eyes wide and her muzzle open! She bolted toward him just in time to catch him as he collapsed in an exhausted heap!

"We have gone in search of a stone to polish, and found us a jewel even more precious!" She whispered to him as she took him from his feet and into her arms! As she turned slowly to take her remarkable pupil home, she looked down at the object of her lesson, that had become a lesson in Will. Something beyond her compelled her to pick up the small stone and tuck it into her pouch...

He awoke warm, but feeling euphoric before a head pain crushed him as surely as one of the massive blocks had fallen upon him! As his vision cleared, the first muzzles he saw floating above him in the mist were his Mother's and Shyia!

Did I bring you your stone, Karakami Shyia? he whispered urgently.

"You have polished the stone into a jewel beyond price, my Dear One." Shyia said, her young eyes ablaze with pride and admiration. "But rest now.." she said sweetly, "..for in my school it is you who have become the teacher." She pulled the blanket up close under his chin, and touched him gently on the muzzle. He drifted off into a warm and contented slumber, born of the fatigue of growing up. Shyia wiped a tear from her eye, and steeled herself for what she knew tradition demanded she do.

That nite as her cousin lay recouping his will and spirit, Shyia went with K'a'lia to see the Master Trainer. Both females knew it was not their place, but since Shyia had witnessed the phenomenal display of telekinetic skill, she was required to repeat what her eyes had seen.

Master Han looked long and hard into both females, asking Shyia again and again to send to him what she had seen and felt, and how it had been brought to be. After the fifth time, Han was sure it was real and true. There was a long moment of stillness between the trio of Skiltaire as they contemplated what had happened. After a heavy time of silence, Master Han spoke quietly.

"While it is not the place of Females to ask it, I understand well why you have come before me. When Tal comes down from Kamiyama, I shall ask to allow his second son to undergo the ancient Teachings. But this I cannot decree without his father's permission." Master Han said with a touch of regret.

"Oh Master.." K'a'lia spoke respectfully. "You know the Hardship he faces from the others. I fear for his well-being." She said, speaking with her heart and a mother's urgency.

Master Han's expression remained unchanged. "If he is one part in ten the Savage I feel him to be.." he said slowly, '..then it should be the others who fear him." he confided quietly to the females.

He bowed, low and slow, indicating that their audience was at an end.

As they walked downcast toward the exit tunnel, Shyia turned suddenly back upon the huge powerful Skiltaire. Her words were quick, but not sharp.

"May I continue to teach him, if he wishes it, Master Han?" The young girl's question was asked half in hope, half in desperation. Breathlessly, she waited his answer to her disrespect.

One touch of the Master Trainer's stone hard paws could tear Shyia like thin cloth. Yet she held her ground before him. Han's blazing Savage eyes seemed to knife thru the upstart girl, testing in truth her own resolve in the matter.

Shyia's eyes turned brite and diamond hard. She held her eyes level with her Elder's for a long moment, in a non-explosive test of two iron wills!

"It is well..You are his kin..This is permitted." Master Han said finally, without breaking his gaze.

Shyia smiled easily, bowed deeply and followed K'a'lia up the sloping tunnel. As the Master Trainer turned to the rack, to consult an ancient scroll, Shyia could not see his wry smile!

The days that followed were the new of the moon. A time of rest for all in Training, they gave the young telekinesis master time to restore the strength of his body and the sharpness of his mind. All the while Shyia was never beyond his sight or hearing, so that the young Skiltaire would not have to strain the to establish a mental link between them. It gave young Shyia no end of displeasure to force him to drink the pungent, heavily spiced tea of root and bark, but when the young Male found out that the bitter medicine for psyonic shock was a product of Shyia's paws, he guzzled it by the cup, and pleaded for more thru pinched and puckered muzzle!

His youth and fire weighed for him, and upon the second nite, he was able to rise and eat with his Mother and Shyia. Meals were a close and vociferous time, and Shyia's cousin seemed to be his natural self once more. But all thru their meal, the young Skiltaire could feel both his Mother and Shyia look upon him with different eyes. He felt no less love or affection, only something unspoken that lay between them. Across his heaping plate, he felt strangely different somehow. He ate his fill twice over, making up for his days of illness.

After their meal was done, the trio walked together toward the fire mound, where the Pridefire would be kindled with the last ray of the sun. Shyia's cousin knew that the tradition of lighting the fire usually went to the Eldest among them. Since his father had departed to serve his half year upon Kamiyama, he had watched nite after nite as his Mother took the torch, and put it to the pyre as the sun dipped below the horizon.

The torch was kindled by a magnifying lens aimed at the ceremonially carved wooden torch. Nature worked again, and the torch sparked to hardy flickering life as the sun passed from the sky. K'a'lia took it and turned toward the firemound, but tonite, she stopped and held out the flame to her son!

At first, he hesitated to take it. It was not his place! Shyia came over gently and touched him on the shoulder with a re-assuring nod. He grasped the fire with paws a tremble, and paced the traditional three steps to the rim of the firemound!

One step for yesterday, one for the passing day, and one for the day to come. Such was the tradition of the Astreli. He paused at the rim of the firepit, and cast a poignant look at his family. in the gathering shadows, he could see two sets of shining eyes. He cast the torch onto the ceremonial wood in a high arc that made the flame seem like a descending comet. As soon as fire met wood, there was a hungry spark and the Pridefire seemed to take on a life of it's own, just as the Tradition dictated. Soon, the wild lite of their fire was joined by others that sprang to life in on firemounds more distant, all thru the valley. As the trio stood together in the darkness, it seemed as if someone had swept a pawfull of stars down from the heavens and scattered them far and wide over the Astreli Valley.

He stood for a moment, warmed in the lite of the towering flames, and sent far distant to the Kamiyama. He waited in hope for a long moment, but felt nothing touch him from the far away peak which cast a wide dark shadow even in the lite of the Pridefire.

The next morning dawned clear, brite and hot. He bounded out of bed as the first brilliant rays of dawn painted the horizon, for he knew today would be a free day. And he hoped it would be the day when he might finally learn something else he had longed to know and understand, and that the last few days had made a painful necessity--How to fight, well and hard.

Shyia too was up and about quickly. Such was the advantage of youth. Rather than make breakfast for them, K'a'lia passed them a pair of familiar belt pouches, each bulging with fruits, nuts and other favorites she knew they loved so much!

She saw them off at the cave entrance and waved as both raced toward the quarry with reckless abandon!

The distance seemed to melt before them. As they raced along, once again even pawfall for pawfall, Shyia hid her admiration for the young male who matched her stride for stride. It might have taken another of his age seven suns to recover his mind after psyonic shock. But her cousin had again shown himself to be unique, just as she had always known he was. Today, she thought to herself, she would test his mettle again, gently but sternly, to see what kind of edge might be honed on the young Skiltaire.

As he romped alongside his elder, he felt something new touch him. He felt it in both his heart and throat. Surprise and excitement mingled, making his throat seem tighter, while his heart became a trip hammer that threatened it seemed to burst from under his ribs as he raced along! No running had ever done this to him before..And then he thought of something Tal had told him long ago about when his father had been young. Something that had to do with battle, he remembered..Then it came to him. It was instinct, telling him for the first time in his life, he was headed for a fight, albeit a friendly one. But his father's description stayed with him. A cool sort of chill as the body found a new and different rhythm, one that started when you began to grow up!

Shyia let her smooth body unwind with each stride she took, her willowy young shape gathering and snapping out like a whip crack each time she moved forward. Her run was meant to test him to his limits, and to tire him before their wrestling practice could begin. Soon the ground became familiar, and both found themselves racing headlong for the quarry! Rather than stop, he flashed ahead and to the right of her on a hidden reserve of excitement! The ancient stone steps held no fear for him this time, and he loped down them five at a time as he raced down to the floor of the quarry without breaking stride! Shyia followed, no more than a quarter step behind!

The young male waited patiently for his Karakami to slide to a short stop on the floor polished by thousands of paws thru the years. Young Shyia looked over at him and could see the fire of excitement blazing in his hazel eyes. He gave her no chance for words, but dove at her with a playful growl!

Shyia smiled at his expression as she dropped flat to the floor, and let the shocked young upstart sail three feet above her head! The Youngster recoiled in mid air spreading his paws and twisting his limber body to slow himself before rebounding with a wide leap from a smooth place cut into the rock wall. Three breaths later, he was an airborne bolt of lightning, targeted on his opponent's head!

Shyia saw him rebound, admiring his form as she stepped exactly one pace to the left. She saw her cousin's face fall as he sailed harmlessly by her ear!

This time, he was headed for a jagged cut in the wall, surrounded with odd stacks of broken rocks! Instantly, he wished he were one of them so he could drop harmlessly to the floor..! In the next instant, he felt something pluck him from the air as if he were a fallen leaf! The suddenness of the stop made him dizzy for just a moment. When his vision re-focused, he saw Shyia's blue eyes gazing at him, filled with care and caution..

He didn't rest a moment, but grabbed he roughly, throwing her off balance, and both fell hard to the stone floor!

The heavy impact cushioned him, but at her expense. She felt her breath explode outward and her ribs twinge in painful protest, followed by the blunt thud of stone against her head! Her coat armored her well, but served to dampen only a part of the hurt. The unpleasant sensation wrote momentary pain across her muzzle, and clouded her clear eyes, not with pain, but with anger!!

Her anger amplified as her mind cleared to her the Young Male laughing as if her act of prowess had been entirely for his amusement! His smile changed quickly passing thru surprise on the way to panic and regret as Shyia growled, low and menacing, despite his weight pressed heavily into her chest!!

He began to think about running away, but his aunt's strong grip crushed him into a vice before he could think about moving. He was turned over and slapped to the stone floor with a sudden force and speed of a gale wind. By the time his first paw could twitch, his slightest movement caused him pain as Shyia's body lock crushed out the last ounce of his will to resist!

Shyia saw the fire in the Young Skiltaire's eyes dim, and he dropped his pinned head submissively to his chest, for that was the only movement she would permit him without a world of pain! It was as if one of the aged stone blocks had been cast off from the high walls of the cavern and crushed him helplessly beneath it!

Shyia held him a long moment, allowing the male to taste defeat before releasing him with no outward sign of emotion. As he rose an inch at a time, every muscle and bone in his small body whined in protest! She took hold of him suddenly and felt him shudder with outright fear! In a single movement, she turned the helping touch into a hug, sweeping the Male off of his small paws to do it!

The Fear in his eyes turned to admiration. She looked at him and smiled slightly before touching him litely on the muzzle.

His admiration combined with adoration as he stood there a moment, learning his lesson well.

"Let me guess..." She said casually. "You wish to do that as well.." She suggested as she saw her young cousin smile with wonder.

"Can you teach me that as a first lesson, Karakami Shyia?" he pleaded, knowing full well that Shyia could refuse him almost nothing when she heard her honored title.

Shyia smiled, knowing his trickery. This time, for his own good, it would not work!. She shook her head slowly.

You are not yet ready, My Fiery Young Warrior. She sent to him broadly.

The downcast look on his muzzle, hurt Shyia greatly,but she steeled herself, ruffled his fur gently and spoke aloud to her disappointed student.

"Within yourself, you have even more wild fire than I." She said in consolation. "When we marry that fire with the might of your body and the learning of your mind, none upon this world shall stand before you!" She said with rising dedication that lifted both his spirit and hers.

"Come..She said resolutely. The time has come to begin forging."

"Forging?" He asked as they walked together across the pit.

"Your spirit is already forged in blazing fire..Now must we forge your body to be in that same crucible." She said as she lead him toward the large pile of fragmented rocks that he had nearly crashed into. She stopped before the column of broken rocks, and indicated one with a gesture.

"Bring me that stone." she repeated in a familiar tone.

"But Karakami, that stone is larger than I" He replied, knowing full well to move the thick slab with his mind would kill him.

So it is, she sent with a nod. But who is more powerful of body, the lifeless stone, or yourself? She asked his mind directly.

"I AM!!" His reply came aloud, on a wave of spirit that Shyia knew could move the planet if it was directed well.

"Bravo! Plaudits to thee!" She responded. "Let us fetch this one together." She suggested simply.

Both Skiltaire moved cautiously around the stalagmite of stones until they were able to grip and heft the large sheet of dull white stone. They walked out together a few paces in a sidestep before Shyia motioned to set the slab down gently on a clear spot on the quarry floor. Shyia patted her paws together, shaking the dust from them as she stood back, admiring the placement of the large rock. Her young charge looked on expectantly.

Now What, Karakami Shyia? he sent to her eagerly.

"Bring me that stone" she repeated as before. The young Male looked around his aunt as if her request had been directed at some unseen onlooker. There was no one else there.

Me?? He sent

"You alone." she spoke in reply.

"You know I cannot.." he protested, but his words died as he saw her shake her head.

"Relay not always upon your Gifts.." She said. "You must task your body as well as your mind."

It required both of us to remove it..! He sent in frustration. How might I do so alone?" he asked aloud, deeply confused.

"That stone, young one has the mass of forty small stones. When you have learned, you shall remove it with your strength as simply as you did its brother with your other gifts." Shyia said, matter-of-fact.

The young Male looked down over his undersized body in disbelief. "What Strength could there be in this, Karakami? He asked, his expectations dying along with his self image. "I am small, and weak..easily beaten..You did so yourself!" He protested.

But Shyia would hear none of it. Instead, she walked forward, taking her dejected cousin by the shoulders, and locking their eyes together.

"Come with me.." She instructed. "I would show you something."

Without waiting for his answer, Shyia fair to dragged him toward a secluded corner of the quarry. The place was set off and separate from the main excavation by a pattern of half hewn stones. As Shyia led him thru the labyrinth, the young Savages ears could hear the trickle of water. They turned around one corner and stopped as a place opened before their eyes!

From amid the striations of white stone, there was a small cavity lit by a single beam of reflected sunlite that was scattered into a thousand flashing colours by a hearty cascade of water that seemed to flow from the very rock that surrounded them!

The young Skiltaire looked up at the natural wonder, the sparkle in his eye matching the sun split spray! He looked at the grandeur of the natural waterfall for a moment, and then turned, asking Shyia with a look for an explanation.

"A natural aquifer flows around us." She explained. "One ancient stone cutter struck too deep into the rock, and water did flow into this place. Ages of water cut thru the stone to form the pool in the floor, that drains back into the layers of stone below." She told him carefully as she lead him closer to the edge of the clear pool. Their reflections dissolved in ripples as Shyia dipped a paw in to drink ,and let him follow suit.

The sweet, pure water brought a smile to their muzzles as Shyia waited for the pool to calm itself. When it did, she took him again by the shoulders and leaned him down close to the still water, where a familiar muzzle stared back at him.

"Now.." she bid him in a stern tone, "Tell me what you see."

He paused, overwhelmed by the simplicity of the question and the complexity that lay no further beneath its surface than his own reflection.

"Myself and the reflected stones above me." He said quietly, not liking the picture of the thin, seemingly brittle body the water cast up at him. He frowned at the sight of himself in the pool.

Shyia shook her head.

"Now I shall tell you what I see, My Young Warrior. Fire, water, and living rock. As many fold a wonder as this pool, if you dare to see it so."

She paused. He was shocked. No one had ever looked at him like that before, and it showed in his expression. He strained a bit, looking closer to try to understand what wiser eyes than his had seen, where he could not.

"You have a spirit of fire, and you shall have a body like this stone, only greater in strength many times above it. Together, you shall flow like this water, and none shall ever be your better. Do you believe I would speak you an untruth?" She asked.

The answer leapt to his mind and muzzle in the same instant, born of the same urgency. "Never!" He answered firmly.

"It is well. I have made you a pact. Will you help me keep these words?" She asked plaintively.

His eyes regained the hazel fire sparked with green that Shyia had seen so often and come to admire so well. Both the word and the thought came on a splendid, powerful burst of energy that was the core of the littlest Skiltaire's Savage spirit.

"YES!" He answered loudly with a truly magnificent Savage Growl!

Shyia made no move to embrace him, as she wanted to do. Rather, she stepped back two full paces, allowing the Male his range. The gesture meant more than ever could be spoken. Shyia's eyes lit with a fire of their own, unextinguished by the tears that trickled down her muzzle!

"Come aid a lady, my male of the Stones.." she said. "Before you may remove that one, there are others with which to struggle."

"Yes, Karakami!" He shouted, as he dashed off to follow her as she led him to the far end of the pit.

They stopped together before another spire of loosely piled stones only slightly smaller than the first.

"To Begin.." she said, "I wish to clear this space for your training enclosure. You may remove these stones to the other pile." She punctuated her direction with a gesture toward where they had stood before, a great distance away.

He smiled, seeking and suggesting an easier method. "This ground is clear. I shall pile them next to the large block..."

Shyia shook her head. "No.." she said gently but firmly. "It must be over there!" Again, she gestured to the distant place where they had stood before.

He nodded slowly, knowing somehow not to question too deeply what she wanted. Obediently, he stooped down, collecting several paw sized stones on top on a larger one that lay at his feet. He then lifted the entire number and began an unsteady walk across the quarry with his burden. He had gone two strides before a familiar voice stopped him where he stood!

"No, No, young one.." She said casually as she raced up and stood in his path. She brushed the collection of small stones from the top of the larger one. As they rolled across the floor, Shyia looked satisfied. "One at a time.." she said, "Or...Perhaps..Two at a time." She selected another large stone that lay nearby, and bade him accept it in one paw as she held it out to him!

He struggled to keep his balance holding the twin tablets of ruff stone, one in each paw. Shyia helped him turn gently gripping him by the shoulders, and encouraged his wavering steps toward the other side of the stone pit. The weight of his burden nearly caused him to topple over. He moved to stack them and carry them in two hands. From behind him, there came a sharp thought of reproach!! He sighed as he let the stones hang loosely as he walked across the quarry. The mass of the stones would not allow him to run, and by the time he reached the opposite pile of stones, his paws were sore, and he felt that his forelimbs might fall off! Triumphantly, he set them down in turn, and then sat on top of them to rest for a moment. He had scarcely caught his breath before an unrelenting task mistress called him back for another pair of stones!!

So it went, from early morning lite to the deepening shadows of late afternoon, he removed the stones in tandem pairs uncounted. Only when half of the stones were removed did she permit him to eat or drink any of the food or water on their beltpacks. As they ate, Shyia surveyed the product of his effort with a keen eye. She had to fight with herself to keep from seeming impressed as she was. Once he had fallen to the task, his ferocious energy had taken control, and the task she had given two days might well be finished in only one!

"It is well done indeed..But I can see that you tire..." she added slyly. He calculated remark had a calculated effect.

"Who tires!!" the spirited Male growled back, defying with his spirit what his body had admitted long before this. "If you wish these stones removed further, you have leave only to speak your wish." He said with dash!

Shyia looked around, gauging the daylight carefully, then she spoke. "It might take many to do what remains before sunset..Can you finish alone?" Shyia asked.

His response was to leap from the stone where they sat together, over to the diminishing pile of loose stones. Without a word, and punctuating his now smooth, natural movement with a short growl, he dashed quickly across the pit with another pair of stones!

As Shyia finished the last swallow of water in her bottle, she smiled broadly behind her cousin's back!

The sun still hovered above the horizon as he raced across the pit with the final pair of stones! He body had ceased to pain him, as had his paws. Both had been worked raw by the labor of the stones, yet he was so anxious to answer his Aunt's gentle challenge that he never noticed that many of the pairs of stones were marked with drops of blood!

He exalted as his tired limbs seemed to find the new energy that the challenge had given him. Rather than do it quickly, he walked a straight, steady and slow line across the pit, using the final pair of rocks to crown a small pyramid he had been constructing for some time with his labor! As the last stone touched stone, Shyia heard his growl build and blossom into a roar of triumph! This time, He had earned it!!!

Shyia broke into applause, and raced across the pit to meet him! Gently, she clasped his paws in admiration. He tried not to wince and failed. Shyia drew back her paws, their cocoa fur sticky with clotted blood!

You cannot walk. Shyia sent gently. She picked him up gently and saw his expression change.

"No..It's all right..Put me down and we'll walk home...Together" He asked simply, without trace of bravura.

Shyia complied, and let the Male take the two pace lead that was his to claim. Shyia lingered behind a step or two and cast a glance skyward, marveling at what the day had wrought.

Their journey home was far from dashing, but a measured, leisurely pace that betrayed no trace of pain or the days hard labor. Shyia sent ahead of them, and K'a'lia met both as they returned with a shared vessel of heated water, spiced with medicinal herbs to heal the growing set of black Skiltaire paws!

He fell into his sleeping pillows like one of the countless stones he had moved. He had no memory at all of Shyia applying her growing healing Gift to his scraped paws. Tho it took the young girl half of the nite, she kept to her task, all the while relating to K'a'lia in hushed whispers what had taken place. Shyia got the only measure of reward she sought when K'a'lia embraced her warmly. Then, they tucked him in together, and fell asleep piled together warmly at the foot of his bed.

When he stirred before dawn, he found Shyia awake to greet him with a smile.

"When your day is done.." She said quietly, "Come to the quarry at sunset."

He charged from the cave into the new day, and as his fluid strides made him aware of his healed paws, he came to know that he would come to like the nite as much as the day. Not so much by reason of what there was to learn, but who would do the teaching!

So, the pattern was set. The young male's days were divided between two teachers. He respected Master Han, but it was his Karakami who had won the battle for his mind and soul. There were days when he could barely contain his excitement, dashing between challenges for his body in the morning, and his body mind and heart during those wonderful nites.

After a long day of reading and understanding oral Traditions, he raced for the quarry like a sailbug on a stiff wind. Each time he made it, the hilly journey seemed to shorten, tho he could not understand why. As he raced along, the last of the stiffness from the day before seemed to fade away, leaving him a pleasant warm feeling thruout his lean body. He had eaten a tremendous mid day meal, twice the size of what the other trainees had eaten all together! Now, the lite breeze cooled his body, but not his spirit as he raced toward his second teacher of the day!

He found Shyia awaiting him, standing in her usual place atop the large slab of stone. She surveyed the pit with a studied curiosity. She looked past him, but did not speak. Shyia hopped down from her stone and walked slowly toward the opposite side of the pit. As she passed by, deep in thought, He could feel that she was counting paces as she moved deliberately across the quarry.

"Bring me that stone.." She said absently as she passed by him walking stiff, measured paces.

He smiled at the refrain, knowing full well that one day made no difference. He still could not do it, he thought to himself.

"Try thinking victory before admitting defeat, My young male of stone." Shyia said casually as she touched the other wall of the pit at last.

He smiled, shrugged and decided to try it for her sake.

He walked around the far end of the huge stone slab, where the rock sheet was thin enough for him to wrap his paws around comfortably. He took a moment to become still, them focused all the strength he could into a single sharp lifting notion.

His body tensed then lifted, but it was he who moved while the stone remained in place!

Satisfied merely for the effort, he gave up, and waited for her next instructions.

From across the pit, Shyia felt what was in his mind. She resigned herself. More work was needed. She trotted slowly back across the quarry. She looked at him with a smile as he waited eagerly.

"I have made a mistake. That place is not in the sun. Please put the stones back where you found them." Her request was almost so casual that it seemed funny to him. But his broadening smile was met by the calm, earnest expression on the Elder Skiltaire's muzzle!

"I-I just removed them!!" He stammered in amazement!

"And a glorious labor it was! You are growing stronger each day, just as intended. Now, here is your chance to grow stronger still." Shyia replied with a calmness that defeated his disbelief and growing anger.

Nonplussed, Shyia looked about the quarry and returned to her measurements with careful slowness. Her young protegee stood his ground in utter amazement. But as Shyia walked away, he began to think about what she had asked him to do. He had yet to know one thing.

"Karakami Shyia?" He asked.

"Yes?" she echoed from far off.

How must it be done? he sent strongly across the pit.

Use your own methods, young one, for I am busy building. Shyia sent back, admiring the strength of the young Male's send.

The labor instantly became an evening of play, as the method he would use came to his mind in less than a moment! He had endured the training exercise, but a part of that had left him a strange dislike for the slabs of stone. Tonite he would have his revenge!!

Without thinking, he made an easy fluid leap to the top of a half cut block in the wall. It gave him a seat from which to reach the apex of one of the stone pyramids he had built! He set himself firmly, then reached out a short distance to snatch up one of his baneful stone slabs. He hefted it over his head with a Growl, and then called upon all the strength in his thin body to send the flat stone spinning thru the air back from whence it had come!!

To his surprise, the first slab turned flat as it sailed thru the air to crash against the far wall of the pit!

The sound of the breaking rock echoed thru the whole quarry with a blast that made an explosion sound quiet! It nearly shook him from his perch!

In her far corner work place in the rocks, Shyia heard the sound and smiled, knowing the strength he would build first hauling the rocks, and now breaking them, just as she had planned!! She could not take too much pleasure in her technique, for her nimble paws had to attend building the next series of tasks that were not work that she would bid him do! She smiled, and went back to weaving rope!

He watched the second and third slabs meet the same fate as the first, and a new confidence touched him. He found himself enjoying the clean, solid sound of rock upon rock as the slabs hit the wall. It became a new and fascinating game for him. Overhead and overpaw tosses mingled with discus style heaves as the slabs seemed to fly two and three at a time! He would take one in his newly healed right paw , and one in his left, and watch to see if they would fly the same distance as he threw them both together, seeing them crumble as they struck the wall at the same time, he felt his bloody paws avenged.

First tens and then hundreds of stones moved their way, calling upon and tasking his strength, and endurance. He found himself having so much fun that he forgot his fatigue. As his body built to the labor, he found himself feeling warmer..more alive, and yes..he finally said to himself..Stronger than he ever believed possible as the shattered stones built into a miniature mountain on the opposite side of the pit!!

As the last pair of stone slabs sailed into the wall to cap the heap of broken stone less than two hours later, he felt something flash within him. In a single moment, he became as possessed! He leapt from his place and dashed toward the great stone, calling at the top of his voice as he ran!!

"SHYIA!!, KARAKAMI SHYIA!!" He yelled, he shouted, He roared!!

Not far distant, Shyia knew that tone and the spirit behind it. She dropped the rope and bucket she carried and vaulted into a flat out run. If she was right, this moment was not to be missed, for it would never come again if she did not see it...!!

She came around the corner to see him vault toward the stone, his energetic movement never stopping or slowing, but building to a peak as he came on..Instead of making for the thin end, He ran up and braced his forepaws under the center of the slab, tucking his whole body underneath it in the same movement. Without pause or waiting he put not just his legs, but all of himself into the lift. In his mind, he saw for one instant, no more than another stone slab!

As Shyia watched in open muzzled amazement, the great stone slab that was more than four times his weight resisted for a moment, and then moved!! It was borne up and away from its resting place, braced across his shoulders!

For both Shyia and Bill who found himself cheering, it was a spectacle never to be forgotten!

He not only moved it, but as Shyia looked on, he began to walk with his burden. Not just belabored quarter or half steps, but full wide steps that became full, bold strides in their turn!!

He pivoted with this last slab across his shoulders and back, and walked slowly toward Shyia, almost as if the massive stone didn't exist at all!!!

He stopped where he stood, the stone's width from her, slid the huge stone from his shoulders and dropped it casually in front of Shyia! In the same motion, he gathered and leapt, ending up standing on the great Stone that had vexed him.

"Your..Stone..Karakami Shyia.." He said, just slightly out of breath as he leapt down, to be caught in Shyia's waiting arms!

Why do you cry, Karakami Shyia..Have I hurt you? he sent as he noticed tears flowing down her muzzle again.

Hurt me? she sent back warmly. You have filled me, my young one. Now I truly hold the living rock!

She held him closer to her heart in that moment than she ever had before.

All of your chains are broken.. She sent to him grandly. No more the small one are you. Now we can begin to bring what is inside to the outside. You must now know that whatever task is set before you, you shall accomplish. You have proven to yourself that this is truth. She spoke with quiet reverence to his mind, and the lite in the elder Skiltaire's eyes told the younger one that this was as much a part of his training as the Traditions he had studied this momentous day.

"Come now.." she spoke aloud. "Let us show all this world what a large Kurushani this small form holds." She added. "I will now teach you anything you wish to learn." She said simply.

His Hazel eyes lit like Pridefires.

"Where shall we begin?" Shyia asked her student.

Shyia watched as the youth became calm, still and quiet, tho his eyes still roared with brilliant fire. Shyia could tell that he had taken another step upon the path to his potential. He looked down, over himself, but this time Shyia could tell the youth was also looking thru himself for the very first time! She waited patiently, knowing how his next words would shape his young life to come.

"I want to learn to Wrestle, Karakami...But first.." he paused, not sure how to say or send what he felt.

Go on, My noble one, never be afraid to feel. She sent to him gently.

"I want to become as strong as I feel inside on the outside." He said.

The simple, profound feeling behind the words touched the young girl deeply. Now, from that moment on and forever, she would spare him nothing he asked for.

"Such is possible.." She answered.

"How, my sweet Karakami?" he asked again.

Shyia was struck by the openness and trust that came with the complement. She never knew she was held so high. He only answer was a hug, and then she spoke.

"The Labors I have bid you do are not by my whim alone. You have felt your inner and outer strength rising. If you wish to find and call upon more of it, than more labor must you undertake. Strength, if true strength it is, comes from labor both within and without. No sword is sharp without honing, no gem flashes brite without polish." She told him.

"I wish to shine britely." He said seriously "For Mother, Father, Pride..and for my Karakami" he answered in return.

"It is well.." Shyia said. "For the conqueror of stones, I have a special gift.." She said with a sweeping bow. "Hold your place." she told him.

She left him almost reluctantly. But her explorations of the disused quarry had gifted her a pair of tools that Shyia felt would be invaluable when the young Skiltaire grew into them. She knew that moment had come, and together they would help him find himself. Now she went to fetch them. She had wished a grand celebration before his Father and Mother. She knew how both would feel at the sight and sound of their son. But the moment was ripe, and rather than let his energy diminish, Shyia elected to focus it once more.

One she could hide for a moment in her belt pouch. The other was almost too large for her, but as she hefted it, she felt somehow her young Skiltaire would grow into it as splendidly as he had tonite. Rather than attempting to hide it away, she took it by the hide thong that ran the length of the handle and slug it across he shoulders as she had seen in pictures. Then she walked from her hiding place toward the young Skiltaire.

His eyes still blazed with excitement and anticipation as she approached, her step made unsteady by a large hammer which hung loosely across her back, nearly pulling her over backwards! He saw her take it from her shoulder and hold it out to him just beneath the dull steel grey head. Instantly he knew what it was!!

"A five stone hammer!!" He repeated as she nodded. "Just like the ancient stone cutters used!!"

"Quite so,Young One..." she began, but paused to reach into her belt pouch. "And Tradition says that this goes with it, paw in paw.." She said.

"A Fang Chisel!!" he chirped happily!

He reached for one, then the other, then both together. Shyia held them both out to his excited young paws. The smaller chisel was easy, but when the young Skiltaire took hold of the huge hammer and felt it's mass, the chisel dropped to the hard rock floor with a clatter as he struggled to hold the tool that was five times his own weight! He tried to hold it up, but the head sank slowly to the floor, nearly taking him with it!

Shyia knew better than to laugh, but it was a momentary struggle.

He held the inverted hammer up awkwardly, and bent over the rest of the way to pick up the chisel. He propped up the hammer against a rock, and turned his attention to the chisel. He held its short, slightly curved length gently in his paws and looking at it reverently. His mind wandered for a moment, thing back over all the ageless stone the tool might have helped shape.

"Now, tell your Karakami the Tradition of the Stone Cutters." Shyia said gently, giving him a well earned chance to exercise his mind as well as his body!

He smiled broadly. His first memories was Shyia and his Mother telling him the Traditions as dream stories. This one was one of his favorites.

"In the ancient Dark Times, they helped build our World. When the Hated enemy came to Kurusha, their works were destroyed. Today we build our underground lodges with Their stone and our metal to remember what they built in the past, and what we build today, to keep Kurusha strong and safe." He repeated to his Elder. But as he held the tools, Shyia could feel something different. For the young Skiltaire, the words of the Tradition had been made more than that. They had become alive to the youth. His eyes sparkled as he spoke, and a part of him became the Tradition as much as the venerated tools.

Shyia made the customary bow to the Tradition and its recitation, but it was also meant as a tribute to the Tradition teller!

"Now I must ask your help again.." Shyia said. "This hammer is beyond both of us." She added, placing her paws around his as both tried to wield the fifty kilo tool. It took nearly all the strength in both Skiltaire to raise the Hammer from the floor and hold it horizontally as the hammer head dipped up and down! Shyia wavered a bit but then held steady to help the younger Skiltaire do the same. A sudden impulse flashed inside him and the young male sent all his strength to over ride Shyia's grasp as he tried to swing the hammer alone!

Caught by surprise, She could resist only for a moment before her grip was broken. Shyia watched as her cousin's sudden burst of strength gained over the hammer, and its heavy grey head sailed up and back in a wide arc, its inertia taking a suddenly off balance young Skiltaire with it!!

He staggered back three or four steps, as the handle slid backward over his shoulder!! As the head jarred against the hard stone, he was still moving backwards, trying desperately to find his balance! He hung on as the hammer acted like an anchor, and he twisted wildly around the unmoving handle before letting go to fall over backwards in a heap!!

So did Shyia...laughing hysterically!!

He flopped to rest beside the immovable hammer, sprawled out on his back, and tail in the air, sinking slowly as his head came up. He shook off the momentary dizziness and then looked languidly at his Karakami, who was convulsed to a neat ball on the floor!!

The sight of her open and honest amusement pinched out the sparks of his anger. He looked at the impassive Hammer and began to titter, and then collapsed as his own laughter swept over him!

The Humor broke the tension of a unique nite for both. Shyia sensed that both student and teacher had done enough for one special day. She walked over to the young Skiltaire and helped him to stand, gently brushing the slight dust from his coat.

"Come, My Living Rock.." Shyia said, her pride in him showing in her voice. "Tonite's work is done. If we stay here, I think Teacher and student would exchange places. There is much to tell your mother!"

"Karakami Shyia..?" He asked with a quiet, serious tone.

"Yes..?"

"Do we have to..?" he asked.

"Have to what,Little One?" Shyia asked in quizzical response

"Tell mother..I mean..about the Hammer.." He asked hesitantly.

Shyia smiled gently at his modesty and embarrassment. "As you will, My living Rock."

She clapped him gently around the shoulders and felt him recoil slightly. "How do you fair..Are you in pain?" Shyia asked.

The slight Skiltaire moved a bit, flexing his thin forelimbs at the shoulder. One popped loudly in protest. Even with his attempt at a smile, Shyia could see her young charge's stiffness. She stepped behind him, and set her older paws to work on the angry muscles in his frail shoulders and arms.

"I see.." She begin gently, "..a day wherein this body of yours will bend iron as the wind snaps reeds, and crush stone as if it were naught but glass." She said.

She could not see his smile from behind, but she could feel the confidence that her words had given him.

"Come..I have great hunger, Karakami!" the youth said.

The elder Skiltaire shared the same empty feeling. Thoughts of food had been driven from their minds by their labors. Now they returned, not to be ignored.

The young Skiltaire kippered away, prancing litely across the pit and up the first trio of stone stairs. "Race you home, Karakami!!" he said with a burst of youthful enthusiasm!!

His spirit touched something in the young girl, and Shyia found herself racing from where she stood and barrelling up the stairs only a few paces behind him as they cleared the quarry and dashed for home!!!

Tomorrow would be arduous enough for the young male, but as they ate bowl after bowl of stew that nite around the roaring Pridefire, Shyia wondered to herself if She could match his vigor and will in the days ahead!

The change of seasons was soon upon the land, and with it came all manner of wonders great and small. Their evenings spent together working and learning in the quarry began to yield results beyond both of their shared hopes!

The clever female had used stones and bracing timbers stacked inside the pit to build a network of radial plankways that allowed both of them to transform the quarry into training and playground at once. Shyia lay awake many nites, scratching the designs that poured from her head onto the ruff native paper.

While He kept the Traditions with Master Han and his peers, Shyia would give up her tasks for the day with K'a'lia's blessings, and race to the pit to continue her plans.

To Him, they seemed like the most evil of tortures!

She would bid him go to the top of the pit, not using the stairs at all, but racing at a dead run along planks barely wider than his paws, and some split so they were narrower yet! Scarcely would his heart settle when she would task him to bring water to her as she stood less than a foot from the cool, clear rainbow pool in the corner of the pit!

He came to despise the waterlogged, warped and leaky bucket weighted with stones that he would have to cast down from the top of the platform and into the water. Shyia has woven an awful, coarse rope from the long, glascine hairs of a Kalidi's tail, and hauling the stone filled water bucket up from the water to the top of the platform as Shyia stood at his side seemed to be agony beyond measure! His paws ached constantly with a burning fire that came with the rope as he hauled the bucket tens of metres to the top!! It always became a terrible race with the leaky bucket, for Shyia had set down a rule that said if the bucket reached the top platform empty, he would have to repeat the work until she drank her fill, giving him not a drop at all!

But the thing he hated with the deepest colours was the vest of stones!

At first, he had loved the tight, fur-close vest of many dozens of pockets. At first, he would put many things into it, and never take it off at all, except as the day ended and to bathe. But then, his Karakami's wonderful gift began to change. Each sunrise as he put it on, he noticed that it seemed to weigh more than the nite before! He would count his pockets and find more and more of them sewn tightly shut each morning. He would break the threads at peril of Shyia's displeasure and found his wonderful pockets filled at first with stones and then with thick metal scale weights sewn between the layers of material. In less than one moon, this wonderful gift had become the bane of his being.

Suddenly, he was forbidden on pain of punishment to remove it except to bathe! He had hoped to leave it behind when the daylite came, racing off to forget his curse as long as he with Master Han. But the elder Skiltaire had been too clever! She asked K'a'lia to praise the way his vest looked. His Mother, who had helped make it, suggested that he wear it to show Master Han and his peers!

He could not refuse, and returned even sorrier that evening, having heard his first teacher Praise both the way he looked, and the way he had come to move while wearing it!! His peers made him the object of scorn and ridicule while away from their Teacher, but the Senior Trainer knew the true and unspoken purpose of the unique garment and the admired the results that it's wearer could not yet feel, even after a new season had come and gone! Shyia gave up scores of sleepless nites, sewing on and into the jacket, measuring it's mass by the number of stones or weights the fabric hid in its layers. After three full moons, the vest weighed as much as the young male who wore it, tho he could not tell this was so!

There were other irksome tasks, all seeming menial and insignificant in the face of what He and Shyia had done those first few wonderful days that now seemed like bygone years.

Some days they would quit the quarry and instead Shyia would volunteer both of them to harvests the new crops of grain and fruits. Shyia would bid him go to the Kuman fields, where the low, scraggly shrubs hung heavy with a half buried crop of small brown nuts. Not content to leave him to the laborious work of his own design, she would lord over him, insisting that each of the hundreds of nuts on each shrub be gathered in a certain manner.

The delicate Nut meat his People prized was surrounded by a shell nearly as hard as the quarry stones he had left behind! Shyia would stand close beside him, insisting that he pick one nut at a time instead of stripping whole branches with an easy combing motion like the others who worked beside him!

Day after hot day he was humiliated as she insisted that contrary to custom, each nut he picked ought to be shelled before being dropped into his huge basket! This folly was not enough! As the shelling roller sat forgotten long after the other pickers had gone on, Shyia had insisted that he pick the nuts and shell them first in alternate pairs, one in each paw picking, the other shelling. Then just as his leaden paws and forelimbs became used to this endless monotony, she again demanded change!

She insisted that he learn to pick and shell the Kuman nuts one in each paw, and in a single movement. The elder female was fair, showing him that it could be done by taking the narrow end of the curved nut between two digits and squeezing hard enough to break off the brittle end of the shells. Then she rolled the nut over in her paws slowing down her adept movement so that he could follow and learn to art of striping the now broken shell away from the ivory white nut meat, leaving it whole, and held gently in her digits, as if it were the unbroken yoke of an egg!

Shyia made it seem so natural and fluid that anger nearly overtook him as he crushed the first dozen nets he picked into a mangled mass of broken shells and shattered nuts! Only his wish to be done and out of this folly kept him from wasting time on anger. Rather, he focused himself on the tedious task and within a half an hour was working so well and fast that the other growers and pickers returned to the field to watch him work.! With almost super mustiline speed and aplomb, they worked side by side racing each other from row to row, as the other pickers struggled to keep a pace!!

Another time would find both working at the mill. Shyia bade him carry in the rude sackfuls of threshed grain, tear them open with bare paws, and dump the grain down a long chute that poured out beneath the crank turned millstone!

He began to resent the fact that while he labored to a hard pant, she would do nothing to help him. He could see her standing to one side, looking at him intently, guiding his labor with an occasional word, but saying little and doing even less as he performed each of the separate milling tasks alone, one after the other in the time honored Way. Only once the flour spilled down the far rim of the stone did Shyia move to scoop it into a bag! Nite after nite found the Male laboring alone in the mill as she only watched. As the seasons turned again, he could feel himself seething with rebellion at the aimless, monotonous, and unending Labor that she bade him do all thru the nites, and even thru the nites of the New Moon!!!

He worked so hard that he looked forward to the long days with Master Han and his peers. Despite the curse of his vest which he had worn thru all the humiliations, laughter and back straining labor. The images his peers cast upon him of the seemingly aimless beast of burden slowly began to overflow him with anger!

One summer nite, as the time of testing and tasking drew near, Shyia sent to him from their now familiar stone cavern, bidding him go again to the mill.

Both His mother and Shyia were shocked when he absolutely refused to go!!

As she raced homeward across what had now become a well worn path in the dust, Shyia's heart soared! The night for which she had waited nearly a year had come!!

When she arrived, she crept up on the cave, hearing as well as feeling the full flow of the fiery young male's temper! Dishes and utensils issued from the cave with frightening speed and frequency, most of them to shatter in the rocks outside the cave. The elder Skiltaire paused for a long moment, allowing herself to admire the object of her long days of work! It took another long moment for her to dampen the wild enthusiasm that she felt. If her plans were to take hold upon her cousin, she would have to play the role of stern Teacher one last time..

She seemed to appear out of nowhere at the mouth of the Cave. She caught the trio of dishes flying thru the air on a beam of her own telekinetic energy, halting their flight in mid-air.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!!" young Shyia roared at the top of her voice as the dishes settled gently back onto the now otherwise empty shelf. "YOU!!" She screeched, "WILL COME WITH ME..NOW!!!"

"No..!" he replied, an icy calm chill in his mind, voice and attitude, "I will not!" He punctuated his defiance by sweeping the last three dishes off of the shelf with a swipe of his paw! They shattered to dust on the floor, as he looked on in contempt, then he looked back at the female, his eyes set for a fight!

Shyia marshalled all her emotions to stifle the mixed urge to both harm and embrace him!

You will come..." said Shyia laboring to bring the same tone to her voice, "Or I shall carry you!" she snapped.

"You have embarrassed me enough!" he blurted out in rage. "I shall STAY HERE!!"

Shyia took two resolute steps toward him. His reaction was immediate and instinctual. Beneath the vest, Shyia saw the young Skiltaire's body tense. It was such a grand sight, even half hidden by the material that Shyia nearly forgot that she might have to carry out her own made up threat!

"Very well.." Shyia said slowly, changing tactics and allowing her own emotions to cool. "Here you may stay for good and all, for no more do I have care for you!!" Shyia's surprising words were delivered on an emotional harangue so deep and well acted, that across the Cave, Shyia could see K'a'lia's eyes lite with fear!

Shyia turned and stormed out of the Cave on a fit of mock temper as real as the young male's had been. Once outside, she turned sharp and quick, pressing herself close to the rocks near the cave entrance. There, she turned off her mixed emotions, turned on her ears and listened intently!!!

The voice she heard was an unexpected one.

"My Son.." K'a'lia pleaded, "It is I, Your Birth Mother who asked her second son to do this. If Not for yourself, and not for your adoring Karakami who loves you more, perhaps than even I, then I beg of you. This last nite before the Testing, I beg you to follow what Shyia bids you to do."

"She has made me a laughing stock! She has brought me scorn and ridicule. Have you heard what they whisper about the second son of Tal? She brings us shame!" The combative child answered back.

His mother met anger with gentleness when she spoke. "She brings you love beyond measure, gifts beyond price of barter, and to Tal's family she brings Honor." K'a'lia said quietly.

Outside, in her hiding place, young Shyia's muzzle hung open!

"Now.." She began, calling on her own sense of resolution, "In your father's name, I bid you go."

He was bound to obey, and both knew it. If Tal discovered that his word was broken in his absence, his retribution would shake all of Kurusha!

VERY WELL!! He sent full of fight. "For my Father's Honor, and ONLY THIS Shall I go!" He spoke switching to words because the blackness of his thoughts might kill him.

Standing outside, she saw his shadow moving toward the mouth of the cave! She raced away quickly, choosing a shorter path to their rocky lair. She had work to do, for if she had planned and done well, tonite her small cousin would be born a second time!!

Outside of his home and his mother's sight, he let his outrage flow into an explosion of motion! Ignoring the path that he had helped to create, he tore out over the ground at a run so fast it nearly stole his breath away! Only his anger held him together as he flashed toward the quarry with all the untamed ferocity of a lightning bolt! His anger was such that he ignored the stairs and the planks, vaulting headlong down into the pit!!

Shyia gasped, openly fearing for him for the very first time in their shared life! Now, in one instant, his new and hidden strength would either cause his death or cause him to save his life. Frozen in a moment of life stopping horror, she could not move breath or speak. She could only watch and hope..

Launched into the abyss, he was transformed in mid-flight into a wild, snarling mass of pure Savage. Instinct had won him over, and in one moment, he gave up everything to the complete and utter fearlessness that was his heritage!

Shyia saw him arch his body, changing his speed and angle of descent as he sailed downward. He rebounded a moment later, springing off of one of the running planks she had set for him. It bowed but didn't break, and he used its motion together with his own to make a short but powerful leap to the stone floor! He landed upright and in a fighting stance, as if the massive vest he wore weighed no more than his own coat!

The sight of the splendid young Savage in a fit of fine temper filled her heart with joy! At long last, he let go all the months of frustration, and had given himself the strength of spirit and body to vent it with!

He looked up at the unstable network of planks and platforms wedged between the rocky walls. With a long, throaty snarl he remembered the hours and days of pointless pain he had suffered. He let his anger overflow into violent action!

A paw strike here, and a sharp bite there as he lashed out and moved thru the base of his torment. From a vantage point on the rocks above, Shyia watched in fascination as the powerful young Skiltaire snapped plank after plank as if they were used torches! He ripped up supports as thick around as he was with his bare paws, laid them across his back, and pulled forward sharply, splintering them as if they were tree bark instead of hard wood! Each of them met demolition at his paws easier than the one before it, and despite the tumbling cascade of wood from the upset platforms above, his anger and strength combined, until after five minutes of unchecked, unparalleled rage not a single plank or support or piece of plank wood longer than his body remained unbroken!!

Shyia watched silently from above and recalled Master Han's words about him being feared, rather than fearing others! As she watched her cousin below, snapping the last of the timbers to wood chips with stomps and beautifully deadly flying kicks, Shyia knew that the training master had well spoken.

"What have I set loose?" Shyia wondered aloud to herself.

Now, she would try to find out. As she moved from shadow to light so he could see her, Shyia found herself hoping she would escape uninjured!!

"Do you seek after me?" Shyia asked from her perch high in the rocks.

He looked up at her with a vicious snarl, and suddenly let drop the fragments of plank that he had been crumpling like paper between his black paws. Now, he had other meat..!!

He set her in an icy cold predatory stair. As he stalked toward her across the stone quarry, his eyes never leaving her, young Shyia felt an icy finger of fear lance thru her backbone! He truly had been transformed, and now his uncontrolled strength made her afraid!

She crushed it out using her own iron will, and began the steep descent that would allow her to intercept him. They would meet on the edge of the floor near where they had wrestled the first day. The victory that she had to win this time would be much harder, and she feared, more painful to both of them.

Shyia came off of the rocks and onto the smooth stone floor while he was still twenty paces away. The Savage Male's leap could have covered twice that distance if he had realized his own strength, and Shyia would have been driven into the stone like that fang chisel she had gifted him. Rather, his huge broad jump set him muzzle to muzzle with her only a moment later! Instantly, he re-balanced, pulling his forepaw all the way back to deal her a crushing blow!

"WAIT!!" Shyia said sharply, a plea in her voice..

For an instant, he held his anger. "WHY??" He snarled loudly. "So that you can humiliate me with more of your tricks?"

"No.." Shyia returned evenly. "You wish battle. It is well. If what I will show you now is not worth all of the Labor I have bid you do, then I grant you leave to slay me, for nothing I have ever done shall mean so much and be understood so little."

The unexpected supplication salved his towering anger with a dose of reality. As angry as he was, and as much as he wanted to fight, he didn't expect the remedy for his hurt to be found in killing! Shyia walked away from him without a word, toward the corner of the quarry that held the waterfall and pool. Without being told, he followed her after a step or two.

She stopped by the pool, the sound of the endless cascade of water filling the small grotto with muted thunder and the soothing sound of trickling water. Now, she reached out, not to grapple with him, but to draw him close so she could speak into his ear and be heard above the natural din.

She looked him up and down once, secretly wanting to remember the last time she might see the frail, weak youngster who had been in her heart for so long. Now, she could help him blossom and grow even greater, and the first step was to shed the old.

"Very well.." She began. "You say that you dislike the vest." She repeated.

Shyia reached down and one at a time, undid the hook like fasteners that bound him into the fur tight garment. To her inward satisfaction, she noticed that the topmost clasp, the one across his now thick chest resisted most stubbornly of all! As the last of the hooks gave way, Shyia slipped around behind him and helped him peel off the vest that had been like a second skin for nearly a year. She had nearly forgotten that the layered mass of weights now weighed as much as a pair of fully grown adults, and she staggered a step as she held it and walked around in front of him again, laying the vest in his strong black paws.

"Cast it away, then!!" She commanded him, indicating the deep end of the pool with a glance.

He looked at her wearily. She confirmed her statement with a silent nod.

Shyia saw him smile with delight as he took the fabric and metal vest and swung it around his head in a fast circle!

Shyia watched his new body answering the task and found that she could not look away!

The vest sailed out in a high arc that swept it almost to the far side of the pool. It struck the crystal clear water and sank out of sight in a cloud of bubbles!

He let out a brief but chilling growl of satisfaction!

Now that he had unveiled himself, Shyia could use the mirror like water's rippling reflection to allow him to see himself! She spoke to him quietly again as both walked near the edge of the pool.

"Remember I once bid you tell me what you saw in yourself as we looked upon these waters? Shyia asked in quiet seriousness.

"I remember.." he answered shortly, not all of his anger assuaged.

Shyia moved around directly into his vision for a moment, and then stood aside with a sweep, so his reflected image could be seen in the clear water.

"Now..", she said as she moved, allowing him to see himself without the vest for the first time, "Tell me if I have not kept our pact!"

His anger vanished in a heartbeat, taken away and wiped out by the shock that greeted his eyes!

It was the same light blue and white chest and under fur, but its pattern had changed! It was now finely demarcated by perfectly symmetrical sheets of muscle that rippled gently beneath the fur as he breathed! He moved a disbelieving paw to touch his middle and make sure it was real, but froze in mid-movement when he saw his well muscled forelimb flex with a strength he had never felt before! Something inside him made him turn his paws over slowly in front of his amazed muzzle. The frail paws that had spent hours raw and sore at the pads had become perfectly matched black vices that could pulverize stone without a chisel, and yet could move deftly enough to make the most delicate tasks seem undemanding! As he stood in open muzzled wonder at the stranger who was himself, Shyia slipped behind him again, first taking his paws and clasping them with her own, holding them above his head, and then rising slightly on her hind feet as she stretched out the full length of his shorter but vastly stronger body for him to see!

Every centimeter of him seemed different, not in a strange or alien manner, but in a warm familiar one. His short legs had become large and heavy with tapered muscles that allowed him to run at frightening speeds with the vest on! When he considered what he might do with two thirds less weight and the same strength, he was glad his Karakami was their to hold him up as his head spun and his mind reeled.

Karakami Shyia!! His mind crashed to a halt when he recalled what he had almost done!

In a single moment, he was mortified, terrified, boundlessly sorry, and endlessly overjoyed, all in one spirit! She let go his paws as he spun around quickly, clamped his powerful forelimbs around her, picked her up as if she weighed only a breath, and spun her around in mid air!

"WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOA!!!!!!! Shyia howled as vertigo set in, clouding her senses for the moment to the fact that as he put her down once more, the littlest Skiltaire was crying like a baby!

Instantly, he was nuzzled close into her as he had done so often before! In an instant the wild Savage was gone, replaced by the cousin that she knew and loved so well!! When he spoke his words went directly from his soul into her heart.

"Oh..my sweet, loving, wonderful Karakami..I'm so sorry...Can you forgive a young fool?" he begged, weeping unashamedly as he pleaded with her.

Shyia reached down and stroked him gently between his antennae, a gentle touch, born of the now bonded love and trust the two had grown to share together!

There is nothing to forgive, my Magnificent Rock.." Shyia said in gentle and forgiving consolation. "You have growing within and without. Your goal has been met. Now, you are truly as strong outside..."

"..As I am within..." He finished, still swallowing tears. Shyia lowered her head to rest upon his thickly stacked shoulder, and she too broke into tears of joy and relief!!

"Wait..I want you to have something.." Shyia said. She smoothed his ruffled coat gently ,turned and dashed away into the rocks again.

Shyia was back in a trice, and as she came down the steep ledge, she had a familiar hide thong slung across the chest! He smiled watching Shyia's unsteady gait, and knew what she carried!!

She came down and stood before him for a moment before sliding the five stone hammer off of her shoulder. She bowed deeply, eyes down, and with all her strength, held the ancient tool out to the young paws that had grown into the hammer at last!

He griped it behind the head, and at the end of the handle, braced himself for its weight, and pulled hard and fast!

The hammer seemed to fly up from her paws as if thrown into the air! He knew its mass well, but this time as he regained his balance, the hammer did not guide him, but he weald it, as if it scarcely had any weight at all!!

Shyia would remember the look of complete triumph that crossed his young muzzle at that moment! He switched his grip quickly, holding the hammer aloft just behind the head with one paw, and embracing Shyia easily with the other!!

"Churp!" Said both Skiltaire together, sharing the same emotions but for different reasons!!

Suddenly, amid their shared adulation, Shyia saw the expression on his muzzle change from a smile to a look of urgency and mission! He put his hammer down, gently and reverently leaning it head down against a rock, and put all of his new strength into a leaping spring into the air that ended in a dead run toward the pool!

For a moment Shyia was amazed by his prowess, and puzzled by his purpose, until she thought once more about what had happened! Then she had a wonderful thought, one that caused her to dash along behind him as fast as she could run!!

Shyia was behind him by a half a dozen strides when she saw him plunge headlong into the pool without a break in his stride! She skidded to the edge of the water, frantic with worry and fraught with panic, knowing full well that she had never taught him to swim!!

Beneath the water, in the grotto cast in a bluish lite, he barely noticed the passage between medium. His young heart was too set on his desperate search to notice his plunge deeper and deeper into the pool!

On the surface, Shyia watched a tiny trickle of bubbles set apart from the main spray of the waterfall. In the crystal water, she could spy a diminishing dark shape, trailed by the bubbles which had to drift farther to rise to the surface. He was headed for the turbulent white water directly beneath the fall!!

Under the water, he felt his movements and their quality change. He had seen his Mother swim before and tried to copy her movements as he remembered them. His motion became easier as he added a roll to his forward strokes allowing the rest of his lean strong frame to relax while his tail helped his move from side to side! His ears felt funny, and a small kernel of what felt like fire had begun to burn inside his chest. Again, he tried to relax, allowing his arms and legs to help him go deeper. Soon, the bottom of the pool was within a paw's touch! Urgently he began to look around, exciting himself to twist and turn as he hoped to spot what he so desperately wanted!

But hovering near the bottom, he could see nothing but the slightly shining stones, polished by the passage of ages of water, between and over them. Ahead of him lay a thick white curtain of thrashing water. He could feel its turbulence many lengths away. He could not venture within..

Suddenly his ears seemed to break! They popped and began to ring, and then to scream at him in high pitched sounds that seemed like a thousand Shalmette Birds! He saw his view of the bottom split in two, and then divide again as that fire in his chest flamed up and roared thru him out of control!

Instinct overtook him, and as something deep within him drove him back towards the air above, he cursed himself bitterly!!

As he longed to breath again, he found that going up was easier. Under water his new found strength found an ally in buoyancy, and the slightest pull of his brawny forelimbs shot him toward the surface like a stone launched from a sling!

Something he could fight no longer made him exhale just below the surface! That stopped the pain, but he had to struggle to crush out the natural rhythm to inhale for one more priceless second..

On the surface, Shyia saw the explosion of bubbles from the rising dark shape that shot toward the surface. Panic seized her and she too leapt headlong into the pool! She gulped in and exhaled two quick deep breathes, before plunging into the water and lancing downward with all the strength in her soul!

As they met under water, she wrapped her forelimbs around him and literally threw him at the surface of the pool!

He bolted up from the depths, and sailed into the sweet air, gulping it down along with stray droplets of water! He coughed slightly, but never gasped as he bobbed to the surface a few lengths from the falls. Instantly, he looked around for Shyia, who was still nowhere to be seen!!

Just as he squared himself for another plunge beneath the clear water, Shyia bobbed to the surface behind him and to the left! He rolled over easily and made a plunge for her! Not the desperate grip of a drowning victim, but the soft, gentle hug born out of concern and gratitude. Shyia retained his embrace and paddled them both toward the lip of pool with a free paw!

As she helped him climb out, Shyia noticed the look of deep sadness on his muzzle.

What ever is wrong, my fine young Rock? She sent, concerned for his well being.

You gave me a wonderful gift..he sent back sadly, And I cast it away! It is gone forever!

Shyia looked at him with eyes full of compassion and understanding. No..it is not gone! She sent back to him. It is here still. The strength of the stones you now wear INSIDE YOU. They will never disappear! Just as I shall never stop loving you with all that I am, My Magnificent Rock. Shyia hugged him close as both walked across the quarry, up the ancient steps, and over the hills toward home.

The familiar journey back to the cave gave his fur time to dry, and his temper time to dissipate. They raced over the ground stride for stride for a time, but he was free of the vest and the extra strength it had molded into him began to tell as the pair raced along. He lead her at first by a muzzle, and then drew deeper within himself to test his new body. He pulled away with each fluid stride, by a head, and then by half of his length, and then by two full strides! Yet, he had scarcely tasked himself at all!!

I wish to run, Karakami!! He sent quickly before rocketing ahead of her as if she were frozen in space! This time, he tried to run, tried to push too hard, trying to find some point where this dream body of his would leave him behind! He ran as if all his life was in every stride, wondering where the end or the beginning of himself might be! He felt something strange overtake him inside as fast as he could challenge himself to move! Each stride seemed to sublime into the next, as if this new body of his had been freed of it's prison and opened itself up wide to celebrate! Far, far behind him now, Shyia could feel the energy of sheer joy overflow his thoughts. As he tasked himself harder in body, Shyia knew that the young Skiltaire was running toward that moment when the body would no longer contain the spirit within!

In the days to come, Shyia knew better than most that he would need the strength of himself as well as his body.

A brace of days would pass now, calm and still. After many months of teaching and training, the time of testing drew near. The young Astreli had endured the trials set before them purposefully meant to make the disciplined, confident and self-reliant. All of his peers had grown in body and spirit, but thanks to Shyia's faith in him, where his peers had doubled, the rugged young male had redoubled!

If Shyia lived thru four millennia, she would never forget the look of complete and utter amazement and relief that swept across K'a'lia's muzzle when first her son and then his Karakami dashed into the cave. K'a'lia started to greet her own son as a stranger until scent convinced her that her own son stood before her! But it took Shyia's word and a nite long explanation for K'a'lia to begin to understand the wonder that Shyia had brought to touch her smallest son!

To a dotting mother, that seemed the most wondrous point of all. To call the Splendid male who stood before her small was as to call the Kamiyama a mound of dirt! She took him in her forepaws and hugged him until her limbs ached, able to do so for the first time in her life without fear of injury to his frail body!

As they ate with the morning sun, K'a'lia stared at him endlessly. His body and spirit had so changed that there seemed to be a wonderfully familiar stranger sitting with them around the stone table. His ever movement was flowing and graceful, filled with the strength that came with self discovery, where before his slightest movements seemed to be timid and clumsy! When she asked for the water vessel, it seemed for a moment like he would rise and move the slab to meet her, rather than passing the crockery jar!

After the meal was done, Tradition said that the Skiltaire had earned the right of rest for the ordeal to follow the next sun. Instead, Shyia found the headstrong young male filled to overflowing with an infectious energy and curiosity about the Testing and Tasking.

Since female custom was set apart from male by the Traditions, Shyia and K'a'lia did their best to relate the mystic Traditions and rituals that went with the time. When he felt Shyia tell him the Khan would be watching the Trails, his heart leapt into his throat! He wished his father was home, because he knew Shen Dai Khan well! They had hunted together on the Kamiyama when both had come of age. The young Skiltaire never tired of asking about the nature of the Huge Cat who was the elected leader of the Pride of Astrel and all of Kurusha. One nite before the Pridefire, he remembered the promise that his ear weary father had made a chattering child. That one day, perhaps upon the days of testing and tasking, he would present his youngest son to the Khan and the Dashing young Prince only a few years older than he.

No one had known until he spoke of it that the young Skiltaire had secretly lived for that day and had made it his fondest hope!

Shyia and K'a'lia exchanged glances.

Even the females knew the Tradition, for theirs was not far different. Javelin throwing, tests of strength and skill such as wrestling, races, climbing contests and matches of Komrtai for the older young and the adults!

Their words thrilled and delighted him. He felt his spirit fill with the fire that came with anticipation.

For K'a'lia and Shyia, the lean, almost predatory look in the young male's eyes had a double meaning. Both realized that he had yet to know the full scope of the strength Shyia had brought out of him. The adult and the elder youth knew beyond doubt that the days ahead would bring him. Watching him prepare mentally for the Tasking, Shyia came to know that there might be entire Scrolls re-copied because of what he might be able to do, if his mind led his body into the challenge!

They lay down together that nite, Shyia being the last to give in to nature and drift into a fitful sleep, filled with excited visions of the events that would be only one sunrise away when she woke!

He was awake a few moments later, it seemed, his excited mind radiating like a beacon! Shyia was annoyed for a moment, but then saw the dawn light streaming into the cave! Her slumber had come and gone, but it seemed her mind had never been still! His raw, radiant energy seized the girl in an infectious moment, and her lassitude was swept away like snow on the winter wind! His bright mind was as refreshing to her as the white season's breezes! Pulled from her sleeping place, he lifted her bodily in a hug so gentle as to make the whole of her coat stand on end, and so powerful as to make her ribs ache gently! Responding with an embrace of her own, she tried to wrap her forelimbs around his deep chest. Shyia succeeded, but her paw digits would barely touch, and locking both paws behind his back became impossible a moment later, as he stretched gently and drew a deep breath, breaking her tenuous hold around his middle in spite of her own stout bodied hug. The simplicity of the awesome display of strength made Shyia tingle as she thought about what his mocking peers would discover on the day of Tasking!

Rather than race for the quarry, after the meal, Shyia led him out of the cave a short distance, and into a thick stand of trees. There, he watched her as she walked slowly from tree to tree, gauging the thickness of each branch upon every tree with a practiced wisdom that went far beyond her dozen summers. The third tree in the grove was a fine young oak that bore exactly the limb that suited her purposes. She looked up at it and smiled, then cast the same glance in his direction, as if sizing the two against one another. After a moment, she spoke.

"That bough we may claim without harm to the parent tree." She said. "Fetch it to me, and I shall show you one of the tests you shall face." Shyia explained casually as she turned and walked back toward the open ground.

Nervously, the young male looked about him. "Can you fetch me a blade, Karakami?" he asked, uncertain of her intentions.

"You have no need of another blade!" Shyia answered without looking back. "You are a blade. Snap it off and bring it yonder to me."

He looked up in disbelief! The bough that she selected was as thick as his forelimb, and twice his body length!

If there was one thing he had learned, it was not to question her wants. Obediently, he began climbing the oak, hoping to gain the main limb of the tree where the shorter one joined it. K'a'lia was an arboreal, and climbing was a skill the young male had gained in spite of his frailty.

Carefully, he gathered himself up, ready to call upon all his energy to make the first leap, and then sighted a lower branch as a target, he allowed instinct to guide him..

Instantly, it was as if something had exploded beneath him the very moment of his leap! He had not leapt, it seemed, but had been hurled by some behemoth not toward the branch he wished, but toward the thin new branches at the top of the venerable tree! He almost wished to cry out in fear, but as he soared upward, the view over the treetops swept away his fear and his voice at the same moment!!

Shyia had just turned to look, and saw the youth rocket skyward on leg muscles as hard as the quarry stones, and as fluid and strong as the waterfall! She too had a sudden impulse to cry out, but the sheer beauty of his motion and it's results took her breath from her with an explosive wheeze!

A moment later there was a rustle in the timbers and a flurry of fallen leaves told Shyia the young Skiltaire turned mustelid missile had reached the treetop! But which tree was now the question!

She looked aloft, trying to anticipate his line of leap. As she stretched her body and vision, she spied a light form clinging tenaciously to the top of a ceder tree ten metres distant and half again as high as the tree she had selected!

She smiled broadly as she broke into a quick trot that brought her to the base of the tree in only a moment. Shyia stood up using the truck of the tree for support as she craned her sleek neck to see him!

He looked down at her, his muzzle a mixed expression of shock and amazement , while all the while trying to appear unflappable! Shyia swallowed hard to kill her laughter, cleared her thoughts, and then spoke to his mind, for he was well out of hearing range!

Ah, so you would prefer maple for a javelin..It is well. Fetch that limb and come along with me. I have need of a blade.

With that, Shyia walked away toward the cave, leaving the perplexed young Skiltaire to try to snap off the limb he clutched, and then climb with it down the tree, more then four times higher than any he had ever seen! As he puzzled over his predicament,the noun that his Karakami had used hit home!!

"Javelin...Javelin!!??!! He whispered softly and then shouted as it true meaning dawned on him! He was so excited so quickly that snapping off the branch with a single quick paw motion was as simple as the single jump he made from the larger limb to the ground as he dashed after her!!

By the time he caught up with her, Shyia was coming out of the cave with one of his Father's knives. Silently she took the limb from him and bade him stand and watch as she worked. Clipping all the branches and buds from the main limb was the bulk of the work. They fell away, and she set about rolling the blade in her paws as she moved, lending a unique shape to the carved wooden staff. He thought for a moment that her work had fallen to confusion, because the transformed branch looked as though it might have a point at both ends! Finally, she carefully scraped away the last fragments of bark, planing the length of the stick carefully, and taking it in her paws to gauge it's weight and balance. When her labor was done, she held at her side an unpolished but accurate copy of the Javelin he would have to throw tomorrow!

As she extended it to him lengthwise, and his black paws wrapped around it, there was an almost childlike expression of wonder on his muzzle!

"Mark what I show you well..." She said, taking back his prize gently. "For you shall have to do the like tomorrow."

"Why does a female know so well the javelin, Karakami Shyia?" he asked almost impertinently.

She reached over and stroked his head between the antennae. " I have no brothers, but my father has made generations of such as these!" She answered just a bit smugly!

"All the other things in the Games, do you know by reason of what you have done" Shyia explained. "But the Javelin's flight is a unique skill, tried as much to test the spirit as to task the body's strength."

He nodded, this time understanding what she meant full well!

They walked out of the stand of trees a short distance, and she handed the javelin back to him.

"Throw it" She instructed simply.

This time, he knew better. He remembered seeing his father do this, so he had learned the Tradition that accompanied it early and well.

"Will you teach me how to throw with the spirit?" he asked casually.

Shyia looked at him, a slight hint of surprise playing across her muzzle. "That is what I intend." she said in return.

She took him under her paws like a doll, showing him movement by movement what the ancient standing form would feel like. His lean, thickly muscled form was a joy to touch, and even at rest the young Skiltaire's body seemed to overflow with ferocious energy, seething just below the surface,and now poised to erupt!

When he was positioned at last, Shyia walked around him slowly, correcting his form here and there with a gentle touch. She spoke as she worked, so no time would be lost.

"In this you have been given no lessons, not even at the paws of Master Han." She began, correcting the way that he held the javelin at the ready on his shoulder. "This is done so that the young may try to master their spirit for the first time, doing something in which they have no skill." She explained, as she paused to take him around the waist and re-balance his stance.

"Then is your teaching proper, Karakami Shyia?" He asked gently.

"You know the Tradition. Your family may teach you anything that you have will to learn. If you choose not to learn now, I shall cease."

"No.." he answered quickly. "Go on, Please, Karakami Shyia."

"It is not unfair, my young rock. Knowledge is also a form of strength. The testing and tasking us to measure you against what you are within. By learning all that you elect to know, you are made stronger. If others choose not to learn because they feel they have learned enough, then this is their weakness." Shyia explained patiently. She reached up and finished the tip of the javelin with one final knife stoke.

Now, she sent, spring into a run, uncoil your body, and hurl the javelin without stopping and in one motion." she instructed, standing back a step.

He nodded, and considered her instructions for a moment, allowing his mind and body to synchronize, and then act. His spring was a more controlled version of the one that had catapulted him to the top of the tree. As Shyia's critical eye watched his form, she smiled. He was learning, and quickly!

He raced along a short distance, feeling the weight of the javelin on his shoulder, and drawing it back as he dashed forward in a smooth two-legged run. There came to him a moment in his forward momentum that told him the time was right. Stopping only slightly, he called all the strength in his forelimbs and paws together in the spear, and launched it into the clear sky in a sweeping arc!

Shyia watched the Javelin soar away with no hint of wobble, thru the air to lance the ground tens of metres away! He watched his effort, and as it lanced a far off point, he permitted himself a smile.

"Very well done, my handsome stone." she offered. "A few flaws, but these shall you overcome with practice. Do you wish to practice?" she asked.

His reply was to sprint after the distant Javelin, wondering to her thru his mind how many times he could throw before sunset!

As Pridefires blossomed all across the Valley, Shyia and K'a'lia came out to pull him bodily back to his dinner. Shyia took his paw, and he winced. Looking down at his strong young paws, Shyia noticed with a silent look of admiration that they were laced with splinters!! She waited until after K'a'lia had gone to bed to minister to him, using water tapped from an underground steam vent and a carefully plied needle!

After more than an hour, Shyia resorted to ordering her cousin to sleep! He went reluctantly, and only because he knew what the day to come would hold. As he laid down, Shyia covered him with their thickest hide, and her own priceless look of admiration, trust and hope. As he drifted off to sleep, Shyia remained awake to damp the lamp and quell the fire. She cast one last look at his simple, young muzzle, knowing that after tomorrow, he would never be quite the same again.

And after all that he had shown her, Young Shyia too would never be quite the same again! She dowsed the fire, leaving all three Skiltaire only shadows in the still nite. Tomorrow's sun would cast a new and shyia hoped, a brighter light on all of them!

There is a legend among the Kurushani that says if the day of the Tasking dawns brite, so will be the accomplishments of the generation that the sun shines upon. Instinct woke Shyia first, and she dashed from her resting place to the mouth of the cave!

A dull mist hung near the sparkling horizon, rendering the sphere of lite that shone on the Astrel Valley an indistinct white-yellow ball of haze. Shyia's heart flagged a bit, then she felt a slightly heavy forelimb fall across his shoulder. Instantly, she warmed to his touch, and turned to him with a smile.

"Brite Dawn, my fine young rock." Shyia said, reaching up to hold his paw gently over her shoulder.

"Do you hunger or thirst young one?" Shyia asked.

"Only to do honor to my Pride and family,Karakami Shyia." he answered sincerely, hiding a case of nerves that scarcely allowed him to swallow.

"It is well.." said a soft voice from behind the pair. Both turned, and the female Skiltaire enjoyed a long, and sweeping look at her son before hugging him gentle and close. A moment passed, and K'a'lia took Shyia into their shared embrace, hugging her as close as her own son!

"Mother...Karakami.." he said, his voice unsteady, and not from thirst. "I--I want to.." His voice failed him, and the only expression he could find was to take both female Skiltaire in a firm, loving, and deep embrace of his own.

Come along now, K'a'lia sent gently to both. This is a grand day for all our people. Let us enjoy it together.

We must hasten, Shyia sent back across their thought bridge. The PrideGround is not long away, but others gather there now.

K'a'lia turned, and picked up two belt pouches. She wished a third for her son, but she knew Tradition would not allow it this day. She allowed him to fasten their buckles, and then the trio dashed quickly toward the PrideGround, overtaken by a spirit of fun and adventure!

PrideGround was shared in common by all Astreli. It was a broad, flat plain, extending tens of miles in the awesome shadow of the Kurushani's most Sacred Mountain. Here, any and all of the Pride could meet and stay without question or enmity. Today, Tradition older than the modern Astreli bid them gather here as one so that the young who had known a full year could be seen and recognized by their Pridemates.

Shyia's words were true. As the group came within the bander stones, already more than ten score Astreli could be seen. There was no drone from the assembled throng. Rather they waited now, as one of their few informal Traditions demanded, for the arrival of the Khan and the Niiraki. For K'a'lia, other than to witness her son's tasking, this was the portion of the ritual she most enjoyed. She had met Shen Dai Khan and the young Prince more than once at her Lifemate's side, and she knew that this day, she might stand in His stead, presenting Tal's son to the Elected Ruler and Leader of the Kurushani People. She blushed at herself for giving such airs to a simple thing!

Indeed, it was true, for both Shyia and K'a'lia knew that this Khan, an Astreli like themselves had done much to alter the pomp and Traditions given to the Khan. The simple, sincere, and compassionate Kamiyama Cat had restored the Khan's nomadic lifestyle, and each and every day of his Reign had been spent traveling and staying for a time on the PrideGround of each and every Pride of Kurusha, no matter how few in number or goods they were. Shen Dai Khan had set the Tradition of any being able to approach the Khan and be heard as an equal. He had brilliantly and simply erased generations of distance wrongly placed between Khan and People. His own popularity was rivaled only by the young Prince. The tragic assassination that had laid the duties of Leader upon Shen Dai Khan, also made the Astreli the Prince's Karakami, serving as Regent until Ryokyo was of age to freely chose and be chosen as Khan of his People.

Shyia too looked forward to meeting the Prince. He was a young Cat, with beautiful fur as white as the snows of the Kamiyama, and a spirit that many said was as grand as the peak where he lived as a boy. She had seen him from a distance two summers before, but the crowd around the tremendously popular Prince had never let them see one another! Since that time, meeting him mind to mind had been among her fondest wishes. They were the same age, lacking only one season, and as Shyia moved into the end of the receiving line with the others, her girlish heart took a momentary flight, which made her warm all over in spite of the rising wind of morning!

Now, Tradition would assume control of this very special day. In a while, both elder Skiltaire knew they would have to part from the young one, leaving him alone in the long line of those waiting to fall under the eyes of Master Han, the Khan, the assembled Pride, along with the others who would compete in the events, and the Testing questions that would come from the adults of the Pride.

The trio held their place in line until the queue passed between two wolverine Samurai in full armor and drawn Katana. Their task was to allow none but the young to proceed beyond them. Surely, inexorably, in a symbolic act of severance, the two swords crossed before the trio, stopping the march of the line.

The Young Skiltaire stepped forward, placing himself in front of his elders and before the naked steel of the ancient blades. There was a moment of tension, for the Warriors had the right to slay him where he stood if he showed fear or made himself appear unworthy. Slowly, the crossed blades swung upward and held, opening the way before him. He did not step, but strode thru, past the Warriors, and their Katana lowered again before the females. The reduced line led off to the left and right, toward the open stands and the edge of the PrideGround beyond, where the ceremony would take place.

The throng grew by threes and fours as other families brought forth their young. But nothing could begin until the arrival of the Khan. Just after the rising sun swept away the dawn haze, the crowd was swept by a wave of thought energy so dynamic and forceful that even at a distance it took Shyia's breath away like a sudden blast of icy Kamiyama wind. There was no sound of reaction from the assembled. Rather, Shyia recovered and felt every active mind in the group waver, and then synchronize to a harmonic of the tidal wave of mental power behind the Khan's send. Instantly, the entire People knew not only how close their leader was, but that the mammoth Cat and his retainers were but one hill away, Rushing toward the PrideGround at a thundering pace! For a moment, there seemed to be a ripple in the white mass of sunrise. Everyfurry looked toward the pearl- like star. As a shimmer of heat and lite crossed the ground, there was another glimmer, and Shyia and the gathered Pride could see a group of five figures dashing toward them at breakneck speed! The Group was a remarkable study in contrasts. It was lead by a Cat so huge that the other four in his company combined were still not his size! Yet, at his right paw there was another, much smaller feline who matched the Leader stride for stride in spite of their size difference. He was whiter than the rising sun, and his movement flashed the sunlite almost like a mirror as they ran.

Shyia was among the first to feel their minds and the ground swell of thunder that seemed to come beneath the Paws of the approaching Cats!

Their final pounce onto their PrideGround was a sight that would always be pressed vividly into Shyia's memory. They crested a small ridge, rebounding from it high into the air before the sunrise and the crowd! The vision of the airborne Cats filled the young Skiltaire with awe, and for the first time in her life, Shyia felt the vivid history of the bygone war touch her heart, as the springing Cats paid homage to the waves of them that had fought to free planet and populace! She expected the ground to rend open beneath them as they landed, but a last second mid-air roll loop, lead by the young Prince let them land so lightly and easily that it barely disturbed the morning breeze!

Shen Dai Khan and his councilors walked behind Prince Ryokyo as they mingled slowly with the crowd and sat down without acknowledgement, as if they were any other Astreli!

The assembled onlookers watched as to the sounding of ram horn trumpets, the young Astreli marched three abreast onto the open space marked by four torches that glowed brightly, even in the face of the rising sun. At their head rank, Shyia could see Master Han, resplendent in his full armor, Daiku, and katana. He broke rank with a practiced sidestep as the final rank met the first, closing a three deep circle of the young to be Tested or Tasked.

In unison, the circle of ninety with Tal's son in its midst snapped to a halt with a sharp and resounding two step before Khan and Prince. The circle parted for a moment to allow Master Han to stand directly before his Liege. He bowed, then spoke quietly but in a rich, ringing voice that all could hear. His words were the fulfillment and continuation of both Kurushani Principle and the Pride of Astrel.

"Tradition demands that as this year turns that the new young be recognized by Pridemates and all of Kurusha. We present ourselves to our People and Our Khan, and crave that he task and test us, so that we may be proven worthy of the Kurushani Blood and Soul born within us, one and all."

Shen Dai Khan rose slowly from a reclining position to all four paws. His massive shadow fell over nearly all the group as the mammoth Cat and Leader of his People bowed to the Astreli Training Master. "SO MOTE IT BE!" he roared to the assembly. "Let them who would be seen upon Kurusha, and upon the Plain of Astrel come forward, one upon one to be tested and tasked!" Shen Dai Khan's words matched the Tradition with studied perfection. They had been spoken the same since uncounted ages past, when the young had to prove themselves strong enough to survive the harsh living their snow bound PrideRange could afford them.

Thus the ceremony began, with the youngest being called first to face the Khan and the Astreli. In bygone times it demanded a test of will. The young contestant would have to turn aside the mighty cat's gentle probe of his mind, and then ask a question usually testing his knowledge of Astreli and Kurushani traditions. Modern thought had softened hard Ancient Tradition, for those who faltered in days of yore were killed or driven away. Now failure to answer from the spirit was an embarrassment to Pride, Family, and Sensei. It would mean a harder year of re-training over the next seasons, and the tasking next year would be harsher and less informal.

As the first youth stepped forward beneath a see of eyes, Tradition too dictated the form of the asking, the form of the answer, and the form of the tasking if the answer was incorrect, or given without feeling.

"How shall this one be called among our People?" The mammoth Lion asked him gently.

"I am To'laka, first son of Ratef, of the Kamiyama, Oh Great Khan!" The Youth proclaimed himself in a strong, loud voice without weakness or waver.

"So shall you be known, Son of Astrel..As a first born of Kamiyama, your choice, Testing or Tasking?" The Khan asked.

"In the name of my Pride of Astrel, I demand Testing, oh Great Khan!" The youth said. He knew that if he broke gaze or looked away, he would be marked as weak.

Shen Dai Khan nodded. "Tell your Pridemates the Tradition of the Sun, To'laka." The elected chief asked without rancor.

"It is well, Oh Shen Dai Khan..!" he began, obeying the Tradition of respect for his elders and Pridemates. "Oral Tradition tells the Kurushani that the white star is our beacon. It is from her light that Kurusha claims life and calls forth the Pridefire that guides us Homeward from far away."

Slowly, The Khan Smiled, and then bowed to the youth, without breaking gaze with him. "Well Done, To'laka!" the Kurushani Leader said for all to hear. "Is there a challenge?" he asked the assembled crowd.

Absolute silence reigned for a full minute.

"So mote it be, your testing is passed. Grow and learn well To'laka, Pride of Astrel." he said seriously. The youngster and the Khan exchanged deep bows. Then the turned smartly and marched a few paces to the left, first in the form of a new rank and file that would grow in number as others passed their testing and tasking.

The ancient ceremony continued in the Traditional Way for nearly three hours, without a single pupil of Master Han's failing or faltering. At last the center file in the circle was reached. Shyia and K'a'lia's attention sharpened keenly as his time drew nigh.

As his moment came, the young Skiltaire stood forth, seeming not to see the multitude that stared at him. Once more Tradition was repeated.

"How shall you be known among our People?" The Khan asked.

"I am the second Son of Tal, of the Kamiyama, Oh Great Khan!" His youthful voice was clear and forceful, full of the spirit of the Tradition. "My name is not yet heard among the People." he responded.

K'a'lia and Shyia exchanged sudden and worried looks. He was within his right not to speak his name, if he had not been chosen, but both knew it was exceedingly rare for a youth not to have chosen before this day. K'a'lia gave Shyia a reassuring squeeze, as both listened anxiously for the next step in the ritual.

"It is in order, Second Son of Tal" the Khan replied. "What an Astreli calls himself is a grave matter, deserving the deepest spirit. You shall come before us again with your kin when your choice is made." The Kurushani leader's tone approved his thoughtfulness. But the other steps had to be observed.

"So mote it be.." The Khan went on, not missing a beat. "Shall your choice be Testing or Tasking?" The Khan asked.

There was a long, almost uncomfortable moment of silence.

"In the name of my Pride of Astrel, I ask both, oh Great Khan!" The youth said. After the long silence, his words shook the assembly like a thunderclap!

K'a'lia looked stunned at Shyia, whose young muzzle wore an expression of the deepest dread!

Shen Dai Khan's stately muzzle betrayed a slight trace of surprise. The young Skiltaire had taken a path open according to their Tradition, but unchosen by any within all but the eldest memory.

"According to our Tradition, I ask you to say this again, so there is no error." The elected chief asked without rancor.

"In the name of my Pride of Astrel, I ask both Testing and Tasking, oh Great Khan!" The youth repeated in a louder more resolute tone.

In the crowd, K'a'lia and Shyia pooled their waning strength to hold one another up as they looked and listened in disbelief!

The Khan's eyes flashed brilliant spears of fire. His regal attitude became even more serious. He spoke and sent his words to every mind within his range.

"Oh hear, Oh all Astrel! Before the Khan stands one who knows Tradition well!" He near to roared, for the crowd to hear and feel. "Whom has set our Way so well in your spirit, oh second son of Tal?" he asked.

"My Karakami, My Mother and My Sensei!" He replied on a send as nearly as powerful as his voice sounded.

"All have done well..According to our Traditions, they must have a voice in this. Present them to us, if you please!" The Leader of Kurusha asked cordially.

In the crowd, Shyia swooned audibly, and her body suddenly turned to water! K'a'lia caught her around the middle and held her up, even tho the elder Skiltaire also shook like a leaf!

The youth who called upon Tradition so well now obeyed it as well, bowing to the Khan's request, and then walking back slowly into the crowd. He took his Mother's paw in his right hand, and Shyia's shivering paw in his left. He gave it a gentle squeeze as he led his family across the field so that all of them could stand before the Khan and the Young Prince!

He bowed again and then spoke. "I present my Karakami, Daughter to my Mother's sister. As he led Shyia forward by two steps, he felt her clutch strongly at his powerful paw to remain on her feet. Both bowed together in greeting, waiting for the Khan to bow in return before all rose to share even gaze.

"And how are you called, My Dear?" The Khan asked easily.

"Shyia..Oh most Magnificent Khan of Khans" Shyia's speech was stern and formal, in the best Tradition.

The mammoth Cat smiled, his expression open and relaxed. "You may call me Shen Dai Khan, my shining one!"

The caramel brown Skiltaire could scarcely believe her ears. The Leader of the whole People had addressed her as an equal, and moreover as an intimate friend!

"May I present the hereditary Prince to our Shining friend?" Shen Dai Khan asked Shyia with a bow.

Her ears rang now and she could scarcely swallow. All she could do was nod weakly!

My Son, he sent strongly to both youngsters. I present to you Our noble Shyia, Karakami to the fine Young Skiltaire who keeps our Traditions so well.

Instantly, Shyia was paralyzed benignly beneath his deep brown gaze. She watched him move slowly, and then felt her mind overload as the Kurushani Prince nuzzled her warmly!

"Churp!"

Shyia let the natural sound escape her without meaning to, but without the power to pull it back! Prince and Khan looked on with broad and gentle smiles as Shyia blushed with mild embarrassment.

"Fair beauty deserves fair praise." Whispered young Ryokyo to the fetching Skiltaire as he was seated again.

Shyia's heart rocketed up thru her chest and straight into her brain ! She prayed she would not have a stroke!

"T-TH-ank you, Young Prince!" Shyia stammered aloud.

He used the moment to urge his mother to step forward. "Oh Great Khan, I present my mother, K'a'lia, of the Pride of Whitewater,Lifemate of Tal of Kamiyama."

The Kurushani Leader smiled warmly. They had met before, and the memory was a fond one. Shen Dai Khan had pronounced his friend Tal Lifemated some years before.

Greetings and Bright Dawn to you, K'a'lia!! How is Tal, our old friend? The Khan sent.

"He is well, and this day upon the Kamiyama, My Khan." Responded K'a'lia aloud, more as a courtesy to those around her than a lack of ability.

"It is well..His second son does him just Honor this day." The Khan replied. "Master Trainer Han, come before us, Please." The Khan added, looking at the tremendous Skiltaire who looked even more formidable in full armor as he moved as if the ancient plated iron weighed nothing at all.

"Loyalty and life to the Khan of Kurusha" Master Han said to the Khan with a supplicating bow.

"This youth, who is your pupil, son and Spirit Child.." He began addressing the trio, "Is within his rites to ask both Testing and Tasking. But you are his family and Pridemates. I would know what you feel." He said solemnly to the four of them. To his right, Shyia could see the fine fiery gleam in the Prince's eyes as he gave his whole attention to the drama unfolding before him.

"He is my Son, Son of Tal, and a Savage of Full Blood, this day to become grown.." K'a'lia began slowly. Her words carried a Mother's emotion and a Savage's fire. "If my Son wishes it, cast in his Father's mold as he is, so mote it be, if such is thine favor, Oh Khan." K'a'lia's words came from herself, as was what the Khan desired. No Tradition dictated her speech, only the love within her.

The Khan nodded, and his blue eyed gaze shifted easily to the Master Trainer. "Tell us, Han-Sensei, Has this one been a good student?"

"Among the young.." Master Han began, " None save the elders twice his age keep and hold our Traditions better." Master Han said. "Until the days past, I thought him weak of spirit and physique, but he has improved himself well of late." The Senior Teacher said evenly.

The Khan's deep, serious gaze swept the young Skiltaire's body once from head to tail. He did present a different figure from most of the young. His Lean, fluid, but well-muscled body looked as tho it fit with the fire he saw in the youthful Mustelid's eyes. The Khan's duty was to determine if the spirit inside was as well cast as the body without.

"Thanks only to My Karakami for the praise of Master Han, Oh Great Khan." the young rock said modestly.

"Ah, yes.." The Khan began, "And what then thinks the spirit mother of this fine young one?" the Kurushani Leader asked.

Shyia took a bold pace forward and clapped a forelimb as hard as she might across his strong shoulders and back. All her strength did not move him in the slightest! It was a demonstration not lost on the elder Kurushani.

Oh Great and Noble Khan.." She began with simply spoken grandeur. "I swear upon my Life and spirit, and that of the Pride if Astrel that before you stands no more a youth, but a Living Rock, chiseled from the Kamiyama. He shall accomplish with surpassing ease anything which is in him to do. I stake my life upon this rock." Shyia said with quiet grace.

Only when she fell silent did see every eye in the assembly upon her. But the most solemn and brightly lit belonged to her spirit child! Their whole soul were met up in their silent, deep and lasting embrace. It gave more eloquent testimony for both than any word or thought might provide.

Shen Dai Khan waited for the Karakami and the youth to part before speaking.

"You are rich beyond price, my young one. As rich as even the Prince. You have asked rightly and well, and I grant your request. By our Traditions, I must choose the testing, and you must set forth and accomplish your own Tasking and present proof of it to your peers and your Khan, know you and accept this Tradition?" Shen Dai Khan asked, making certain the brashness of youth had not triumphed over sound judgement.

"With all my Soul, and according to our Ways, I accept it, Oh Great Shen Dai Khan!" He answered.

"Then by the Honor of the Khan, So mote it be !" Shen Dai Khan spoke for all to hear and feel.

"Share with your Pridemates the legend of the Sacred Kamiyama." Shen Dai Khan tested.

"The Sacred Mountain is the Kurushani Soul." He began. The Kamiyama rose with Kurusha created around her. As she is high, so are our dreams and hopes, and so must the vision be of the Kurushani themselves. When we seek her summit only in our sight, the Climb that lays before us is made with Heart and paws light." The youth repeated the ancient chant of legend to intoned perfection. But it came not from his mind alone, in order to be correct, he knew the words had to be heard thru his muzzle and felt in his soul. There was a tense moment as he waited and felt those gathered around him.

"It is well felt!" The Khan of Kurusha spoke for all to hear. "He has felt the Sacred Mountain within himself!" he declared with a trace of awe in his stately voice and manner. "He is one with the Kamiyama! Is there a challenge??" The Khan asked his assembled Pridemates.

K'a'lia, Shyia and Shen Dai Khan shared confident glances. After such a heartfelt display, there could be no doubt, but the moment of challenge was also a part of his rite of passage, and had to be observed.

The Khan of the Kurushani was as shocked as his Pridemates a moment later when a flat white stone sailed thru the air to land between the young Skiltaire and the Khan!!

"I challenge!!" Came a defiant voice from the ranks of those who had passed their rite!

Shyia, the young Skiltaire and the Prince shared concerned looks. Once the words had been spoken Tradition overtook them all, and had to be answered according to the Astreli Way.

"Challenger, come forward among the People." Shen Dai Khan spoke out.

"I do bid a challenge to this one. He is not of the spirit!" Said a voice that came out of the half turned circle. Another of his peers stepped forward arrogantly and looked with contempt upon the Son of Tal. He stepped between Karakami and spirit child and spoke loudly, with an undisguised disgust.

Mother..Karakami..! The young Rock sent urgently. This one was of the company that did beat and pelt me with stones.

"This sniveling wet nose is no Astreli.. He is soft, and coddled..like a female!!" His detractor was the first Son of Ta'lem, whose family had spilled much blood during the dark times. His familiy's honor alone would have his complaint heard without contesting, until the proscribed moment in ritual. The young Skiltaire held his ground and tongue, but gave up his temper as his peer's tone became more scathing.

"Raised by females is he..Let him be as one!" Ta'lem's eldest scoffed. "Or let him prove himself a Male..In Personal combat.."

His reaction was wordless, and nothing short of explosive! The littlest Skiltaire snarled, a mighty, vicious, and visceral noise that sent a chill thru Shyia's marrow. His leap upon his challenger was deadly accurate and coldly precise. With a single violent body block and throw, the younger, stronger Skiltaire smashed his detractor to the ground, spinning him onto his chest. The young Warrior reached down, taking his fallen foe in a brutal crush and stepping across his opponent's spine. The slightest flex of his powerful jet black paws would literally break his foe in half!

In the next moment, a roar like the whirlwind bowled over both combatants and sent those in the throng reeling for cover.

"ENOUGH!!" Roared Shen Dai Khan! "Is this Astreli Honor and Chivalry?"

Instantly, Both combatants cowered before the mammoth Cat.

"Great Khan, I beg forgiveness.." The littlest Skiltaire began. The Khan's blazing eyes shunned him into stony silence before he dared speak another word.

"A challenge has been pronounced. Now, He who is challenged must answer in the Tasking. What say you, Son of Tal?"

"I say that as he and others here cast stones at me and did attack me as a host when I was but one, I shall answer him in the Tasking, that which is of mine own choosing, Oh Great Khan!"

"SPEAK IT!" Commanded the Ruler of the Kurushani.

"I Shall climb to the summit of the Kamiyama..!" He blurted out suddenly, "..And ask my Father's leave to be trained in the Ancient Ways!"

It was as if, for one moment in time, the entire planet stopped! It was as if the littlest Skiltaire could not believe what had come forth from within him! These words and the deed they promised could not be altered or taken back. He had spoken before the whole of his Pride. His fate was now one and the same with his words!

The entire thousand score of the Pride of Astrel looked upon the upstart youth in silent and amazing disbelief. Amid their mass of doubt and fear for him, three pairs of eyes and the spirits behind them remained centered and calm.

Shyia looked at him, her eyes gleaming like blue diamonds, the same way he had seen her look at him in the quarry...

K'a'lia's soft eyes were filled with a gentle love and everlasting pride that none but a mother could know.

And, to his own shock and amazement, the last admiring gaze came from the right of Shen Dai Khan!

"Who shall speak for this youth?" Shen Dai Khan demanded. Tradition demanded someone to whom proof of the deed would be given.

"I shall, My father!" Ryokyo said simply.

This time, all knew there could be no question. None would ever suppose to question the Honor of the popular Prince. If the deed was done, there would be no doubt of it.

"Know you this must be done alone, without aid or solace from any at all?" Questioned the Khan.

"I accept this, Oh Great Khan. And offer my own life as bond." the blue-grey Skiltaire answered in accordance with Traditions he knew and kept so well.

"So mote it be!!" The Khan Roared.

The littlest Skiltaire's fate was now sealed. Into his paws, he took his life, hope and the Honor of his family and Pride. The one moon Tradition gave him to prepare would become the most faithful and fated time of his young life.

The rest of the ceremony had been rendered anticlimactic. His was the only challenge of the day, and the manner and form of his answer had left the entire Pride of Astrel ablaze with wonder! As the Ancient Rite concluded and Shen Dai Khan prepared to depart for the Kamiyama that had been his home, the trio of Skiltaire felt a summons from the Khan touch their minds. As their Astreli Pridemates dispersed from the PrideGround, K'a'lia and Shyia led him to stand before the Khan again.

This time, the Pridemates were not bound by ceremony or station. Shen Dai Khan looked at the young Skiltaire, his eyes ablaze with Honor. "You bring honor to your Pride, Father, and Family.." He began. "You have this day proven yourself and your worth. If you wish it, I shall command that you be taught in the Ancient Savage Ways." The Leader offered with no degradation or shame.

A deep, pensive look passed over the young Skiltaire's muzzle. Then, after a moment's reflection, he shook his head resolutely.

I have been challenged, he sent graciously. I thank you for your praise, but what cut of Savage shall I become if I allow my enemies and friends see that others do my battles for me?

The huge Cat shook his head in proud understanding, then he spoke for his family to hear and feel.

"Tradition binds even I.." he began "I would climb the Kamiyama with you at my left paw upon any day. But now, I cannot aid you, tho it is my wish for your every success. I cannot aid you, but no Tradition Holds the Khan from barter with one of his Pridemates. I wish to make you a trade.." Shen Dai Khan paused, and turned to another of the huge Cats who were his entourage. From one backpack, he drew a double belt pouch and harness that was also a back pack in itself.

This is given you in barter, he sent, for the lesson in Honor you have written into Astreli legend this day.

The young blue-grey Skiltaire took it with quivering paws. "The trade is sound." he said, making the required response to conclude a trade.

"It is well then..Since the Young Prince has spoken for you, he shall remain among you for the next two moons. One to oversee your departure, the other to await your triumph."

The manner in which the Khan spoke filled everyfurry with awe. He had shown that in his mind that his young Pridemate would accomplish his goal!

The trio wandered away for a moment, to admire his latest trade and to give Khan and Prince a moment alone as Foster father and adopted son.

"We shall wait in high meadow, where we train the young, my son" Said the senior Cat.

"It is well, Father..About the young one?.." The Young Kurushani prince asked.

"Yes, My Son?" The Khan replied.

"None may help him during his climb.." He began, "But what of the coming down from the peak?"

Ryokyo's adopted Father smiled. "You are the Prince of all Kurushani, my son..You know our Traditions.." the parent answered sternly. "But that same Tradition tells that you may set your own, in the name of the People, if that is your wish." He added, as he walked away.

The Young Prince smiled, and sprinted after the trio of Skiltaire!

The days that followed became like none they had ever lived before. Rather than stand on the ceremony that was his birthright, the Young Prince became as if a forth member of the family. The young Skiltaire watched day after day as the Cat set him a silent example to follow. Each morning the Prince was up and dashing about in the pre-dawn twilite. His first act was always to rose the slumbering Skiltaire, and together the brace of males would go for an early morning romp into the treeline. Secretly at first, and then openly, Shyia would rise with them, and lay the morning cookfire while she waited for her Rock and the Prince to return from the timbres, each heavy laden with firewood. Shyia was sure after the third morning that an unspoken contest was being waged between the pair. Each morning the loads of fire branches would grow and grow until at the end of the first week, the pair had laid in enough spare wood for the winter to come if the volcanic vents that heated their homes capped unexpectedly.

Her greatest joy was not the tremendous pile of wood that the pair would collect, rather for her, the joy in it came after its collection. Three hours before their morning meal, the males would begin the labor of cutting and stripping the wood. She watched the machine like method the pair established with unabashed fascination. The outer bark on the native wood was thicker than birch bark, and was as tough as raw hide. The first step came as Shyia watched her young cousin wrestle with logs half a dozen times his size, laying them on a pair of skids longways before the Cat. He would then walk to the end of the log, and taking it in a bear hug grasp, roll the log over slowly as the Cat's razor-like claws spiral cut away the valuable bark without ruining its usefulness for crafts!

The next step also required eight paws. Once the fallen wood was stripped, the logs, some really more like broken sections of felled trees, would want cutting. When the young Skiltaire picked up a hatchet, the Kurushani Prince merely smiled. He flipped the last log the pair had barked off of one of the skids so it lay at a forty-five degree angle to the ground. He bid both Shyia and his young charge to stand away with a glance, and as both watched from a pace distant, the Young Prince tensed, and then sprang at and over the log, braking it cleanly into two sections with a blow from his paw at the apex of his leap!

The would-be mountain climber liked and copied the style of the movement as he set about work on the smaller branches using the skid on the opposite side. The Skiltaire's leap was different, as he used the mass of his body, jumping full force onto the propped up branch and allowing his heavy weight to break it in two! By the time the morning sky was washed with pink and blue-green, Shyia was nearly buried alive in kindling, and the meal that she cooked for the Males matched the admirable work they had done together!

They decided on a cross country race after their meal was done, and as Shyia cleared the dishes, the pair of males rocketed out of sight, matching young bodies and strides for strides at a pace that stole her breath away, and made her bones rattle.

She knew better than any what the Young Prince intended. Despite her Young Rock's newly crafted physical prowess, this would not be enough to prepare him for the nearly insurmountable task he had set himself. He had the strength, fire and the will, but it would require another to forge and temper the steel that Shyia had brought out of him! She was overwhelmed that the smithy that fate had chosen was already among the most renown Warriors of Kurusha! The Young Prince had set about proving himself from the time he could stand, in the best Kurushani Traditions. As she thought and then dreamed about what her cousin might become with his help, she some how seemed to recall that those Traditions also rumored that the Young Prince had also climbed a mountain when he was younger!

As the thought struck her, Shyia smiled a warm expression of thanks, and sent the feeling that went along with it to a certain Meadow, high up before the Kamiyama!

They were gone well past mid-day, and when they raced into view, both were a sight to see, spattered and caked from nose to tail alike with mud and loam! They spirited along side by side, challenging the wind and each other as they made for home, and the simmering food that waited them both!

Shyia raced out to meet them but with an all together different goal. She interposed herself between the fractious, dirty males and the food that was their prize. She stood as still and stern as a stone slab sprouted from the ground before them. It required both their combined strengths to halt one another without running into her head on!

"Hold!!" She bade them sternly, trying all the while to hold back her amusement at the sight of the sloppy pair before her!

"What is wrong, Karakami?" asked the young Skiltaire.

"Strangers may not pass upon the face of this land without leave." Said Shyia coolly.

But Karakami Shyia..he sent back surprised, It is I, your young Rock, and Prince Ryokyo!

You jest! She thought back at them, with a note of mock scorn. My Living Rock and the Prince of Our Whole People are a fine, proud and handsome pair.. She punctuated her thought by reaching out a paw and tracing a path thru the caked mud on the young Skiltaire's chest. She drew it back, looked at it for a long moment, and then shook the goop from her cocoa toned paw with disdain!

The pair who stand before me are wandering beggars to be sure! Her mind added.

"But Karakami!!..." The Skiltaire piped up in exasperation.

Shyia would hear none of it! She shook her head stiffly. "If you urchins of the soil would eat at my fire, High you to yonder stream and wash, else I shall eat my fill..and alone!' She snapped, trying her best to sound angry, and enjoying every moment of the confused, hurt and then indignant looks that the Males gave her!

Without another word, Shyia turned around and marched away, as much to disguise her urge to laugh as to phren anger.

The pair of frolicsome males were left standing speechless in the spaces of their shadows. Shyia turned and sat down just in time to see both trudging heavily toward the stream, like dejected children at bath time!!

Shyia had to fight to keep from howling with laughter, not so much at the sight of them, but at the thought of what the Khan might say, had he seen his son and Prince!

They trudged a short distance to the stream together. Heads and tails down. But as they saw and felt the icy, trickling water, their chore became cool and splashing fun as the crisp mountain water carried away layer after layer of the mud that had layered in their fur!!

Shyia kept the stew on a low simmer, fueling the fire with an occasional branch to keep the food warm until their return. More than an hour later the two padded slowly over a low hill, laughing and talking together as they approached their morning meal! Shyia looked up from the cookpot, and brightened at their approach!

As they stood and waited for Shyia to pronounce the stew ready, she looked up at them and smiled.

"While you were gone, two beggars appeared.." Shyia teased gently.

The two males looked at each other, and then back at Shyia with an evil smile shared between them. They shared a nod..

With a sudden swipe, the Kurushani Prince picked Shyia up in his mouth!! She was so startled that the wise female still held the stirring stick for the stew!!

"PUT me Down!!" She cried, in mock panic..Actually the Prince's soft hold on her was so gentle, it tickled! Yet, she made a show of trying to rap him on the nose with the stick as she struggled, with no real hope or wish of escape! Ryokyo looked at the young Skiltaire, whose muzzle had become a study in uncontrolled hysterics! He gasped for air and rolled on the ground helplessly as the Prince dangled her for a moment over the pot of stew, and let his head dip as if to drop her in!! Shyia's eyes grew to the size of tea saucers in a frantic heartbeat! But then he stopped where he stood, standing dead still, as his eyes sparkled with a sudden inspiration!

He managed to roll over, weak from lack of wind..Then he saw the Prince walking with a muzzlefull of his Karakami back toward the stream from which they had come! They had not taken three steps together before the young male realized the Royal intention! He had to fight to keep from falling over, and ordered his limp body to catch the pair as they walked back to the stream. This he had to see!

Shyia squirmed helplessly in the Cat's gentle grip. Inwardly, she was surprised that one so strong could be so gentle! He padded into the cold water of the stream, and plunged both his head and her muzzle into and beneath the chill water! By this time she was laughing so hard that she scarcely had a chance to draw a breath and hold it before she slid beneath the water!! Ryokyo released her, gripping her between his huge paws. Again, his touch soft and gentle rather than angry!! The shock of the icy water lasted only a moment, and it drove away the last vestiges of sleep that still floated around her senses!!

Now she was alive in the water, not thrashing or panicked but light and buoyant! Her mother was born of the woodlands, but where there were trees, there would be water to nurture them. Shyia's mother insisted that she climb and swim in equal measure since her youngest days. There was another splash into the water at her side, and as she looked around Shyia could see her cousin relishing their early morning swim as much as she or the Prince! For the tremendous Young Cat, full of smooth, sinuous muscle, the deepest part of the fast rush of water barely wet his forelegs beyond his paws. And yet, he was as wide open at this limited play as the Skiltaire themselves!! He would set up great waves to rush against the current of water with a sweep of his paws, leaving his mustelid friends to bob like animated corks in the fast swirling water now almost whitecapped with artificial waves!! The Skiltaire would stand off a safe distance and try to splash him with waves of water guided by flips of their paws and tails. Young Ryokyo would take the full brunt of every wave without flinching, and then with a flip of his paw send what seemed like a typhoon to douse them both!! Soon, they were all three soaked thru the fur to their skins! The exercise had served its purpose, and had given all three appetites as large as their Prince! As they emerged together from the water and three shook themselves dry as one, Shyia was shocked to see Ryokyo kneel gently before both of them, offering his broad back and wide shoulders to them both!

"I shall be Honored if you would ride back to breakfast with me." He said simply.

Shyia and her Rock exchanged glances filled to overflowing with surprise and wonder!

Their journey back to the cave was as swift and smooth as the young Cat was gentle and strong. Shyia choose a spot on his right shoulder, seated solidly on his back. The younger Skiltaire laid down, lost in the snow white fur, and took gentle pawfulls of his sprouting mane to keep from being blown away like a stray seed caught in his coat. Rather than recline for the short run across the land, Shyia remained standing gently on all fours. The vista of the hills sweeping by as the Prince proved his title once again would fill Shyia's dreams for moons to come!

The morning meal was warm , hardy, and welcome after their shared, bracing bath. During their romp, K'a'lia had heated the baking stones, and as the young trio ate a truly princely fill, the elder Skiltaire poured potion after portion of the rough whole grain dough onto the heated stones, producing a stack of their native flat bread almost her own height, that seemed to vanish like the morning mists before the four of them! Each piece laden with vegetable and meat stew, the bread itself became the common utensil, replacing the traditional chopsticks for eating.

Shyia had been careful in choosing her seat, directly across from the Young Prince, so she could admire him as they ate.

The young male began the conversation with a question that weighed heavily on his mind. He hoped the Prince, only a bit older than he might be able to answer.

"Please tell me about the Kamiyama, My Prince.." The young Savage asked respectfully.

"My name is Ryokyo, My Brother in Pride.." He answered simply .

The young Skiltaire smiled an easy smile at his well known informality. Instantly he had become another Astreli, just as close to the land as they were!

"I cannot tell you where to climb, or what trails to seek.." He began "But there is no fault in sharing my impressions of the peak with you, if you wish.." He said, half asking the question whose answer he had already felt by the time he had asked it.

"Please..Tell Us Prin--Ryokyo.." Shyia's voice was level, but K'a'lia smiled softly as she felt the slightly dreamy quality behind Shyia's request!!

The young Cat's eyes filled with a certain fond distance that could be read in his expression as well. "Have you been yet upon the Sacred Mountain?" Ryokyo asked an open question.

Only K'a'lia nodded. "Tal and I were Lifemated upon the Mountain.." Shyia's mother recalled fondly. "So much rugged beauty..Near the first key.." She added, stopping herself because she wasn't sure what not to say.

This time, it was Ryokyo who nodded fondly. "I know it well..There is a grato nearby.." This time it was the Prince who had said too much. He stopped tantalizingly short, and drew a deep breath before going on in his revery.

"New fallen snow every morning, tens of metres deep..Ice canyons and chasms so deep and wide none has ever found bottom and lived..Sheets of ancient ice and rock lifted from the very heart of our world eons ago..A hard skin, but a soft soul..Like Our People...She is our first mate.."

"They tell of green places amid the white.." Shyia spoke, her dreamy tone matching Ryokyo's. "You have been to the High Point where Father camps this day." He answered. There are many such higher up on the Sacred Mountain, but I can say no more. I shall say that you must know where, and how to look, in order to see and find them out." Ryokyo answered.

"How many not born there have climbed to the summit?" The young male asked, a sudden edge of seriousness to his voice.

"None." The Prince of the Kurushani answered simply.

K'a'lia and Shyia stopped both chewing and eating! They shared frozen expressions of horror as cold and distant as the peak they had dreamed about only a moment before. One single word had turned the dream into dread, and they were not in the least afraid to show it!

Shyia's cousin gobbled down another slice of bread, heavy with stew, scarcely stopping to chew. His expression remained unchanged.

"It is always well to do something first..How will I know when I have reached the summit..What proof will you need?" he asked, between gulps of water.

A distant and knowing smile was the Prince's only answer.

While the morning provided an unwelcome shock, they tried their best not to allow a paul of gloom fall over these important days. To their continued surprise, every nite of his visit, the young Prince took over the duty of providing for the family. This allowed the young Skiltaire to divert his attention and focus on the formidable task he had set himself. He began, as he always did, by finding himself a quiet place to think. Ironically, he found it in the quarry that he had come to hate and love so much.

Amid it's half hewn grandeur, he found that he could hear the distant echoes of his memory as he recalled each and every one of the Traditions to his mind and heart. The echo of his voice as he spoke them aloud, mingled with a thousand voices that were both real and not. He renewed each and every word to his voice searching for any scrap of knowledge that might help him, now or later.

The Kamiyama filled their Legendaria. The Mountain was far from myth, as any Astreli could swear, yet, all its lore seemed to paint a picture of mysticism and danger. The rocks that moved..Places on the ice flows that burned with intense blue flame that seemed to leap from the water of the melting ice..Contradiction and contrasts..Everything was different, and yet as any Astreli could tell you, the Kamiyama never changed at all..Only the Astreli who lived in its shadow changed..

He thought long and hard, thru a day and a nite without food or drink. Hidden away in the rock pit, it took the Cat's superior senses to call him forth and bid him to eat, for he could not climb if he was made weak by lack of food!

Grudgingly, he mounted the steps he had come to know so well. As the Cat and the Skiltaire walked slowly back toward the cave, the young mustelid decided to attempt a direct question, almost afraid of the answer he might get.

"There's a rhythm to it, isn't there?" He blurted out suddenly.

Young Ryokyo looked at him oddly. "To what..?" he asked evenly.

"The Kamiyama."

Again the young Cat smiled that wonderful, knowing, exasperating smile. "There is a rhythm to most all things and places." He answered.

This time, the young Skiltaire smiled back!

The days seemed to fill themselves, passing by in a blur of thought and deep concentration. His father knew the Sacred Mountain nearly as well as the Khan himself. At the end of the first week of preparation, he went to his mother and asked her permission to read his Father's Scrolls.

K'a'lia was at first hesitant, well aware of the Tradition against outside help. Once again, their prince served as arbiter. The collected knowledge of the guardians of the Kamiyama was, by Tradition, the property of all Kurushani. When the youth asked the Prince, he was almost knocked over by the ease with which Ryokyo gave his consent!

He was surprised to find not a wealth of maps, and charts as he had hoped, but entire pages of writing that sounded almost like the Traditions he had learned so well! But this body of work was pointed straight at the Sacred Mountain! From the first verse he read, a still felling inside him could tell the words had been set down by someone who had been deep in the Mountain's almost mystical rapture!

He fell upon them like some part of the Kamiyama had taken him over. Food slowed him down, and the excitement of the new set of Traditions swept away all thoughts of slumber. By nite, he would take the wood and iron cast spindles of paper to the quarry, carrying with him enough oil to fill his lamp to get him thru the dark hours.

The eerie light cast upon the white stones seemed to fill the stone pit with a light that was more than simple flame glow. He found the flickering flame seemed to take on an animation of it's own, rising from the lamp to lite the pit with what seemed a second sun that would linger well after the crisp cool of the morning twilite.

His second nite absorbed into the Scrolls brought him a special gift. For many seasons, he had learned the Traditions by hearing them whispered above him. Sweet stories with a purpose that helped the tormented young Skiltaire sleep. But as his paws swept lovingly over each and every leaf of the scroll, each re-copied with studied faithfulness as each older sheet wore thin, he seemed to sense the dedicated energy of the countless generations who had kept and added to these Scrolls that were a part of his Pride, Family and People. He came to feel the stylus in his paws, copying and matching each ancient stoke of wisdom to new paper. He could almost smell the time honored ink, and feel its tar-like weight on the end of the imaginary scribe's tool. He opened his mind to not only the words left by his ancestors and elders,but the sensations and memories that he sensed in each mark upon the paper. After a time, he discovered that every new leaf that layered the roll could pass before his eyes once, and he could stand and recite each passage with flaw or divergence from the ancient texts!

Gently, he swept up leaf after leaf, gazing at them in disbelief as each phrase found its way thru his eyes, and made itself a part of his soul!

Soon, a picture painted with words started to form in his mind. The Kamiyama had always been shrouded in a sort of dread mystique. But in the softness of the lamplite, the Symbol of the Kurushani seemed to cast another shadow all together. The lite he saw the Mountain in seemed to change from dread to distant beauty, from respect born of traces of fear to a sort of singular siren song of beauty and danger in equal measure.

So few had REALLY seen her and set down their words of her majesty..None save the Guardians whose words had entranced him so. In an instant, something far distant and as near as his soul met somewhere inside him.. He looked up from the scroll, and saw the pack the Khan had given him. It sat forlorn on a flat rock, ready and waiting for the moment..

This moment!!

He stepped forward, picking up the bulging pack as easily as he had any of the huge slabs of stone that had once seemed his curse turned blessing. He was still for a moment after he slid the buckles to fit his thick but sleek form.

Something inside him expected fanfare and great, long moments of fair thee well. Instead, there was the quiet sound of the waterfall, and the only thing he felt was a quiet sort of resolution as he sealed the scroll, put out the lamp, and walked quietly up the stone steps one at a time and away into the nite.

Shyia felt something touch her mind. The expression it left on the young Skiltaire's muzzle was born of both wonder and worry. It caught K'a'lia's attention, and she drew near her cousin.

What is it, My Bright One? she sent softly.

Our rock has gone his Way..Shyia sent back. He no longer holds forth in the stone pit, but stands in the shadow of the Kamiyama.

The elder and younger Skiltaire matched minds, and what Shyia felt poured across their mental link into his mother's mind. K'a'lia felt herself shiver with a mixture of worry and admiration. She was left alone in thought as Shyia turned and walked away.

"Where are you going?" K'a'lia asked aloud, not wanting to divert her mind from its task.

"I must waken Prince Ryokyo. He too ought know of this." Shyia said simply.

"I have not slept.." A strong young voice spoke from the adjoining cavern. The young Kurushani padded out of his chambre to stand for a moment with the Skiltaire.

"Oh, My Prince.." K'a'lia asked, "..Is there nothing we might do to aid him now?"

"Come with me, both of you." The young White Lion replied.

He led them both outside, into the chill nite air whose draft was warmed by the Pridefire's orange glow. Ryokyo stopped, and put out a paw which became a step, allowing both to sit on his back. In the distance the trio could see the deeper black mass of their Sacred Mountain. Without a word, three hearts and six eyes were one being as they watched, waited and hoped together!

He began the longest journey of his young life with an easy lope. The high meadow where his training began was as far removed from the cave as was the quarry. The nite sky was clear and began to fill with stars as he loped along the rolling ground that led into the foothills that sloped gently upward to the grassy plain beyond a narrow pass. He had been called here on many days with Master Han and his peers, but then the Mountain had been a backdrop, an inspiration for the young. It had worked almost too well, he thought.

Now the backdrop was his goal.

Five hundred feet above him as he climbed the steep. rocky slope, he could see the soft glow of a bonfire built on the meadow above him. The narrow passage of pointed, weathered rock seemed to funnel the nite wind down on him, and it made his muzzle and antennae tingle. As he surmounted to the meadow he had a vivid demonstration of why nature had gifted the Savages such a thick coat. He crossed into the grass where he had struggled to walk before, this time parting it like a sword blade's sweep. Amid the grass, he could see the Single Pridefire and the pavilion tent of the Khan who attended it. As he approached, Tradition again bound both the Savage Leader and the Skiltaire.

"Greetings Traveler!" Hailed the Khan in a loud voice.

He bowed low, but kept his eyes level as he answered. "Greetings to the Astreli Kurushani!" he replied in a lusty tone of voice.

"Where are you bound?" the Khan asked.

"The peak of my soul and the heart of our People." He answered again.

"It is well..I offer bread and tea." The mammoth Cat obeyed the wayfaring Tradition of the Kurushani. Any who crossed your path, friend or stranger was offered the basic staples of the Ancient Times.

"I shall accept, and offer praise to Our People of your name." His answer carried more than Tradition, for his walk to the high meadow had brought hunger back to him in soft pangs!

Once inside the pavilion, Tradition yielded to friendship and curiosity for the young Kurushani. His Khan was as dashing and imposing as all had said that he was, yet he held on air of his position. As the Skiltaire sat at the round metal table wrought from a captured enemy shield, he watched in awe as the stoneware tea service and the round loaf of heavy, black bread floated toward him without aid!

Now the youth understood something about Shen Dai Khan, power,and ability. None could deny the power in the Mammoth Cat. Simply the sight of him was eloquent testimonial. But it was not just the power of the position, it was power held and exercised by the individual with as much eloquence as the sight of him. Shen Dai Khan had written when he was younger that the greatest power came not with a roar but a whisper. The truth of it came home to the young Skiltaire.

Shen Dai Khan bowed to the youth. It was Tradition, but to see his Khan bow to him made him uneasy, and it showed on his muzzle. The Khan, still a young Cat at heart looked at him and smiled warmly as he poured the tea for them.

"How is my son?" he asked.

"Splendid!" was his almost absent minded reply. It came with a light in his eyes that Shen Dai Khan was well used to seeing.

"Then you favor the Young Prince?" The Ruler asked.

He was a bit taken aback. The question was normally asked of only fully grown Kurushani at the time of the Choosing. In asking it in the tone he had, the Khan revealed his choice to treat the youth not as a first born, or yearling, but as a fully bonded adult!!

"Yes..Oh Great Khan..He..brings our Pride and you great Honor." He answered, picking every word as truth from his heart. "He.."

"Speak it, My Pridemate"

"Ryokyo is also my friend, Oh Khan..So is my opinion coloured."

"It is well.." The Khan said with a smile. "A Khan must have friends he trusts. Without them, he rules over an empty domain." Ryokyo shall need many such in the years to come. And you shall, I feel, be first among them." He added as he broke the bread into large chunks with a swipe of his paw, and passed the plate to the young Skiltaire.

The pair of Astreli took equal size chunks of the sweet black crust and waited as Shen Dai Khan's masterful telekenetic gift poured the tea for both of them. His guest was the first to dip the bread into his drink, and offer the crust to his Khan, as the Kurushani leader reciprocated. Each took the other's offering, in an age old symbol of Pridebound sharing.

"You do your father well proud.." Complimented the Khan. He enjoyed watching the young Skiltaire blush! "Has he never seen you?" He asked.

"My Mother has sent him my image..Before Master Han and My Karakami began my training..." He said between sips and bites. "When I find him, I shall obtain his permission to be trained in the ancient Ways." The Skiltaire spoke with dash. In the middle of a bite of bread, the Khan stopped, his eyes shining.

The Khan nodded. He knew better than any that only success or death would quench the fire within the young adult.

"Prince Ryokyo will need proof that I have done what I set out to do..What can I bring back..What proof will he need??" he asked his leader.

The Khan smiled. That same knowing smile that Ryokyo had used. But this time, words came with it. "Proof of your becoming." he said wistfully.

He nodded slowly, part of him understanding, but most not at all. He sensed that this was the only answer he would get.

He ate his last portion of bread slowly, knowing that he might not see food for a long while or ever again. At length he was finished. He crossed his muzzle with a coarse, wet piece of cloth, and then bowed to the Khan in gratitude for more than bread and tea. The Kurushani Leader rose from his place, returned a deeper bow and then walked his young friend back outside the tent, and onto the soft grass of the high meadow.

"None may help you.." he reminded. "Not even your father.." he continued. "Whom you shall find camped upon the very summit of the Mountain..In a lodge we built together.." He said slowly, with a parting wink!

He stood frozen as if by the winter frost! "You...You have done it..and my father as well??" he practically shouted at the Lion as the Khan walked away without turning around.

"It is nearly dawn.."The Khan said nonchalantly. If you wish to reach the summit in daylite, you ought start now. When you return, your Family shall dine with us. Farewell."

A sudden soft gust of wind off of the mountain blew out his surprise like a snuffed candle. It didn't matter who had done it before. Success or failure. Now, it was his time.

The meadow where he stood was no goal at all, standing less than a tenth part of the sixty thousand foot obstacle that he had chosen to overcome. It rolled gently upward as he dashed along, ending in a distinct and sharp upsweep that funneled him into a second narrow pass. He found himself working for each stride now, as the pitch of the land beneath his paws seemed to rocket toward the vertical!

The grass had been replaced by overlapping slabs of dark grey rock, some as thick as his body was long! The geoscape seemed to be a patterned patchwork of time smoothed stones around the base of their Sacred mountain. Yet here and there, nature and her caprice broke the pattern, leaving huge sheets of stone, oddly balanced upon one another. The sight was perplexing and as he stopped to admire it, he could see that they were really interlaced, the bulk of one resting in some measure on the adjoining stone. While some of them looked tenuous, he chose the thickest pair and gave himself to a fluid leap onto the top of them, as he had so often in the stone pit. The timeless stones, meshed together as one by titanic forces he could scarcely imagine gave away nothing to his added weight. It was like tossing a pebble and hoping to break an iron shield.

The land of monoliths..He remembered from his fathers words as he surveyed the desolate looking landscape. The strange rock formations seemed to sit in a canyon all their own wrenched from the land that had thrown up the rocks. As he looked about, he could see the rocks formed small passageways between their bulk. Perhaps one or more of them led out and upward. But they also faced every point of the compass. Which would take him up, and which would lead him off of the steep slope in any direction, perhaps over some cliff, ending in one of the rock strewn crags below. He looked at the ground and the stones. They betrayed no traces of pawfalls nor any path to guide him. Atop the slab where he stood, a pawfull of gavel was all that remained of a smaller rock which capped the pair where he stood. He looked at the pebbles, and then at the height of the monoliths that seemed to bar his way. The first open pair faced north, and the ground slopped upward invitingly.

He turned toward them with a sweeping motion, scooping up and hurling a single small stone over the rock slabs. Instantly, he was still, his whole body tensed to listen..

To nothing!! The pebble tumbled off of the cliff face to fall far below, even beyond the Savage ears!

East came next, and that pebble flew between the stones to echo far in and hollow as it sailed into a lava vent that ended deep in the mountain. He shook his head. He was climbing the south face, so his steps had shown him that path lead only downward. He turned suddenly westward, flushed with victory that was overwhelmed a moment later by a sudden spear of caution. He could see the small space between the stones, but he had to be certain. A single mislaid paw in the weak morning twilite could end his journey with brutal suddenness. He paused, taking his sling from his pack and tucking a stone into the hide folds. His winding overhead snap put all the strength of his new body behind the small rock. It rocketed over the stone slabs to land with the ringing sound of rock upon rock! He paused long enough to pick up a pair of the pebbles and strike them together. He smiled as he heard the same ringing sound in miniature in his paws!

He walked quietly forward, toward the small opening between the slabs. It seemed at first as if the narrow passage between the stones was blocked by the mass of interlaced stones. But as he walked forward with the confidence of what he knew, he came to look at the stone slabs with different eyes. His vision seemed to shift as he gazed at the stones. He took one more step and then froze where he stood!

It was an illusion!! The passageway was open before him, only a slightly different shade than the surrounding slabs!! It required the motivation to step close enough to see thru the deceptive shadows cast off of the other rocks early in the morning! He smiled, and walked on, knowing now that the correct path would be open for a few brief moments every morning for those patient enough to look. An hour later, the sun would have been wrong, and nature's hidden pathway up the Kamiyama would have seemed to disappear from view.

He was tempted to stop and crane his neck looking up at the imposing peak that challenged him. He did not have to. The ground beneath his paws was rising fast, it's slope now palpable to his senses as he walked slowly upward. The Scrolls set down what every Astreli knew. The great mass of the mountain sat upon a plain from which nature and time had carved twin terraces. The Meadow was the herald of the first, at five- thousand feet. That was no challenge to any save the youngest, for the valley of Astrel was set at the same elevation. Any born there were used to the air and the altitude. Ages of run-off and rock slide had carved the valley of the monoliths on the ascending slope between the rising plains of ancient Volcanic rock. Once beyond them, the Skiltaire took a path that led sharply upward, each pawfall taking him higher now as well as closer to the imposing grey mountain.

The second terrace was still three thousand feet above him. That ledge was by their Tradition the beginning of both the Kamiyama and the mystique that surrounded it like the pink clouds of the morning. It was know to all as the High Point. It was where the first Khan had stood to proclaim the unity of the Kurushani. Many of his people would surmount the lofty height that overlooked their Valley to announce births or proclaim special events. The Legendaria said that it was also the burial place for Khans and heros. He had heard his father say once that part of the ashes of the five heros of Takateru had been scattered here in secret, and the spirits of the five Warriors still lived in secret seclusion, waiting for the day when the Kurushani would call upon them again.

He warmed to the folk tale as a youth, and even now as he stood watching the changing shadows upon High Point, he stood still for a moment, paying Homage to the idea if not the truth of the tale. He wondered as the ground challenged his every upward step what the Heros would think of their Home and People two generations after their sacrifice that had brought the People together. He put a paw on a single loose piece of shale, and the thin flat rock fractured beneath his weight, tumbling back down the slope. The sight of it breaking into pebbles on the huge rocks below snapped him out of his daydream. It was now full morning,and if the youth was to reach the one place on the peak where he could spend the nite to come without fear of freezing to death, he had more than twenty thousand feet to ascend before the sunset.

Daydreams, he told himself, were poor climbing tools. He put renewed vigor into the steps he now had to press his body into making.

The ground beneath his paws changed as well. The scattered black stones gave way to a time worn grey-black tone. No grass, nothing at all to mark the passage of his pawfalls. He stood for a moment, before a seemingly impassable face of rock. At first glace it seemed almost sheer, but as he reached out and touched the rock, he could feel the rough surface almost hidden by the colour of the rock.

The Scrolls set forth the Law that no one could use tools for the climb. The rope that he carried and the strength oh his paws would have to see him thru. He set himself and stepped closer. Reaching up, he found he could just manage to grasp the thin ledge of rock just above his head. He braced himself and pulled hard, worried for a moment the rock might give way..

It held, permitting him to climb easily onto the ledge that he had held onto a moment before! He fought back the continual temptation to look anywhere but at the face of the mountain. He found that he had to, in order to trace the gaps and cavities that ran thru the rocks. Standing there, with no easy or simple way to mount his next step, he was puzzled. For a long moment, it seems he would be halted where he stood. He noticed that he face of the stone was actually split between the two masses. The rift in the stones was as wide as his body and...

In a moment, he had a wild and dangerous idea. Rather than seek a way to climb on top of or over them, perhaps he might climb thru them!! Standing sideways to the face, he pulled down his head, and tucked his lean, wiry body into the crevice! The stones themselves were smooth, but he found that he could tense his body and maintain enough tension for his mustelid form to squirm and squeeze upward to the next place he could grasp freely! As he extricated himself from between the stones, he took a strong grip on an overhanging rock. He hung there a moment, trying to shake the loose dust and dirt from his coat. After a moment, he decided he was being more vain than practical. There would be places both above and below where he could wash, and if he didn't see them before sunset, something inside him said that he would be no more, clean or dirty.

He would permit himself only the briefest glance over his shoulder. Not to gauge his height, but to see and feel where the shadows fell on the mountain. He laughed as he came to realize that his quest was not only a mountain to be overcome, but shadows to be raced and beaten. Unless one could beat the changing cast of light and shadow, there was no way to overcome the mountain..

The rock he grasped was the point stone to an escarpment that led into a steep trail. To his relief, he found that the Kamiyama was not just sheer walls of stone. The Scrolls said as much, but as he fought to climb over them, he had wondered if his elders might not have exaggerated!!

He turned his mind back to the climb. He took two steps and stopped. The overhanging rock gave way to a small grato, a cavity in the rocks that sparkled like diamonds!!

Part of the Traditions that he had learned concerned the nature of stones. Kurushani loved their native world, so spending several weeks of time learning of the soil and rocks was not out of place. Now, the young Skiltaire stood before one of what the Scrolls called Hidden Treasures. They set forth that the Great Mountain was both monument and storehouse. Now, all the hours of study paid off in understanding as he understood and enjoyed the sight of the quartz deposit built and polished by endless ages of geological magic. His magic pouch was still empty. If fortune stood with him, perhaps he could claim for himself a piece of wonder!

His mind turned another leaf of those wonderful Scrolls that now seemed to live in his mind. Challenging the Mountain carried many responsibilities, but it also gave him certain rights. He could take anything he could carry away from the mountain, as long as no act of destruction was committed to claim it. He carried his hammer and fang chisel, but could not use them to break the rocks. He pulled his eyes away from the white, yellow and purple cascade of mineral salt. He looked at the ground at the floor of the grato. Perhaps some long forgotten tremor had..

There!!

Obeying the Law of Survival, he looked up first, to be sure that the cavern above him would not crash down upon him, and then, with cautious reverence, he stepped in toward his token. The intact crystal glowed with peach coloured fire, even in the subdued lite. As he stepped toward it, it seemed almost a transgression to lift the rhomboid of gem-like stone from the place it had held for so long. Yet, it seemed to call for him. He stood still for a moment, cementing the sight of it into his memory forever, and then reached out a black paw to pick it up. It was warm and smooth, just as he had been taught. Master Han's crystal was a nearly blinding piece of ice blue fire, so charged with natural energy that he and his peers could not hold it even for a moment, but passed it quickly from paw to paw as if it was a lava rock as their Sensei laughed at their surprise!

He turned slowly, stepping out of the grato, holding the glimmering piece of natural art in cupped paws. By the Law of the Mountain, it was now his to treasure! He opened the self made drawstring pouch that until now had hung limply around his neck, and tucked the quartz crystal inside it. As it settled back into his chest fur to move slightly as he did, the young Skiltaire noticed there was now a warm spot behind the crystal!

The rocky ground gave way to a steep trail that snaked around the grato and up the mountain.It was so steep and dusty that even his strong young paws had trouble finding and holding their stance as he tried to climb upward. As he worked at it, he could hear his breathing deepen for the first time, and before he had put a hundred feet of the trail below him, he was panting openly as he ascended.

His path was stopped by a wide mantle of rock across the narrow path ahead of him. The trail split into three paths each diverging in a different direction once they crossed the hard mound of rock that sat before him. Ryokyo's words came back to him now. Which ground trace he followed was a critical choice. He felt that more than one might lead up to the summit, still far beyond even his dream sight, but which was the hardest, easiest, and which one was the deadly one?

The rock bound shadows told him he had been upon the mountain for more than three of the twelve hours open to him before cold and dark cut his chances of surviving to less than nothing. He had made of himself no time table for his adventure, but within him, he felt that he ought be higher before now! He sat for a long, frustrating moment, each second of time tearing at him with a sense of desperation! Again, the Scrolls leapt to his mind.

Patience..he heard his father's voice in some of the words he had penned into the Scrolls. You cannot race with the Sacred Mountain. He reminded himself of the council of those who had been here before him. A few moments spent in wise reflection here might mean tens of minutes and perhaps his very life further up the Mountain.

He forced himself into a calm. The first passage of the ancient writing said that the Sacred Mountain could wait forever, and would never pass away. If the mountain could wait, he could also tarry a moment or two.

As thoughts whipped thru his mind, he also remembered the answer the Prince had given him. Perhaps the answer he sought lay not in the place he chose to walk, but in the way he walked it.

Again, the Days spent with Master Han and his peers repaid themselves. His Sensei and the Scrolls had taught him the beginnings of the place where he stood. His search for answers began there.

He mounted the crest of deep black pumice that had boiled from the heart of their homeworld eons before. Dark ages past had seen the Sacred Mountain begin as a volcano, and when forces beyond measure or imagination had turned their Kurusha upside down, this point upon which he stood had been the low point of the planet. Titanic forces had taken all the released energy in Kurusha's core and driven it upward now, it a cataclysmic blast whose focus and magnitude had left a ridge of high mountains in its wake, with only one point of release. That weak spot in the very being of their beloved Homeworld had ruptured with all the forces that had brought the planet to be. Gravity flux and nature had healed the great tear in the crust by forging the uprent plates and their surroundings into a mountain that planetary rotation and gravity had swept to towering heights before leaving the tortured planet to find its new center in an unstable orbit about its white sun.

The mantle upon which he stood was as black as his paws, an ancient scab of immense proportions where his planet had bled for thousands of centuries, before regaining balance with nature and its surroundings. The trails that led up the black rock face meandered off in three directions. He stepped over the rock to examine each in turn for some clue or proof of those who had come before him.

There was not one wit of difference between them. His nose could detect no scents.The ground was not scratched by claw, nor polished by pads. No cracks or flaws to telltale the passage of time itself. The Black stone seemed to mock him, silently defying his quest and all it stood for. He paced back and forth, anger building inside him at his own indecision. It came to a head in a deep growl born of his lack of knowledge. He sat down heavily upon the ground, trying to force himself to--

Wait! Perhaps this was both the source and the key to his puzzle. He was forcing his mind to work and his body to feel!! He sat still for a moment, and realized his mistake!

He laughed! Deeply and out loud, for the wind, the rocks and himself to hear! He had been so focused on his goal..The physical act of climbing was not important..Feeling was!! His own intensity had closed a part of himself to himself! The very Soul of the Savage was his instincts. He had been taught that he and his people had gambled all on their instincts, backed by whatever wisdom they could gain. His studies had given him the knowledge he needed, but the Scrolls held none of what only he might supply..

Instinct!!

He had the answer he needed. He turned, mounting to the highest point on the slope where he could still stand. He stood stili for a moment, let the wind gust over him softly, turned off his mind, and opened his senses. Before he could feel a way out of this place, he had to feel the place!

Stillness..But not desolation..

Wind whistling thru the rocks..

Insects wings..

Flowing water...

As his eyes remained closed, he felt the wisp of an airborne seed tickle across his nose..He never thought seeds could be blown this high..

He took a paw and scratched his claws gently against the stone that seemed older than time. He found himself wondering what something that old would feel and sound like under young paws. This, he thought, would be a sound only he could hear. A time, a place and a sound just for himself!

As he stood there, feeling the place where he was for the first time, he became aware that the Mountain, rather than being somehow removed from Nature by some mystical force was made even more a part of it by a greater and more natural one! The Great Mountain which surrounded him was a cradle of life and movement, not the distant and lonely place that so many had seen from a distance. He had asked about the rhythm that came with the place. Now, he understood the smile that had been his answer!

Only one who had felt his own instincts of the Mountain knew the answer! It was different for each one..As Different, he remembered now, as Han-Sensei had taught him that the Savages were!!

He opened his eyes and walked away from the place he had stood, and began by dragging a forepaw with slow, steady strokes over the black mantle. It was a slightly hollow, but deep scratching sound that seemed to come not from the surface, but from inside the rock itself. He stepped back onto the main trail and listened as his paws traced over the timeless stone. He repeated the ritual until the sound and the feeling of the rock would never leave him. When he felt the rock thruout himself, he stepped toward the tri- forked trail that lay open before him.

A small scratch and a moment to feel was all that was wanted. He chose the center trail. He did not know why. He had no wisdom, no logic at all. It just felt good!

The trail upward became steeper and steeper, until almost every forward step he took forced him to reach up nearly as much with his body. Now, climbing began in good earnest. This time, he decided to concentrate less on the mechanics of the climb. Instead, he took a moment to look with wonder upon the ridge of rocks that now became a wall whose apex was masked by clouds, and whose edges were white with new fallen snow!

Now, he felt the rocks as he grasped and tried to climb over them. He had felt their surface before, but this time, as paw met stone, it was not rocks that he sensed. Instead it was the sensation that the stone carried an energy that came from him and to him!

As he worked with what he both saw and felt, the geoscape seemed to change with his perception of it. He found and felt places among the stones where he could stand and grasp above his eyes without seeing them. The act of climbing changed as well. Each new and higher point he surveyed, he came to feel that he was not the Alien that his mind had made him up to be! He began to tell himself that he belonged here, and that what he had come to feel from the Mountain was a part of what he wanted to become. Soon, in his mind, he was not pulling himself desperately over barren rocks, racing time; he had come to his Mountain to discover a new part of himself, strange but somehow benevolent in its sensations, and energetic in its newness to him.

And yet, His Mountain still held out an allure to him mixed with a sudden dash of Nature's wonder. As he paused for the first time in hours to think about that other kind of time, he permitted himself a long look off of an overhanging rock, back down and out over his valley, stretched out in the shadow of the mountain, even in the full light of day. The sight held more thrill for him than just the view. Hours ago, he would have been sore afraid to even consider perching on some rock as small as this, and leaning far out to enjoy the view. Now, he did so with relish upon each and every stone he overcame! As he turned to continue his climb, he reached up boldly to grasp his next pawhold. A sudden spear of frozen cold made him reconsider his rash action! His next step upward was covered with snow!

He smiled, and dusted off his paws, letting the white ice crystals fall over the edge of the ledge.

So, he thought to himself, it has come.

His Training and the Scrolls told him the way he would climb above the snow line would have to be different. Slower, more deliberate, and more unforgiving. He would have to slow his climbing speed, and reduce his expectations of where sunset might find him. He could no longer climb without looking. Not once, but several times. A seemingly hard crust of snow and ice could hide chasms or canyons hundreds or thousands of feet deep.

Before moving up to the snow dusted rock, he stopped and looked down with a more critical eye. Unless his instincts were tragically wrong, he stood at twenty thousand feet, and the sun had passed noon. He had half again as far to climb before the sun crossed a quarter of the sky. Thirty thousand feet was the soonest he could hope to discover a volcanic vent turned cave that would give him shelter against the merciless nites exposed on the Mountain. In this, the Scrolls had been ominously clear. He who tried to fight the Mountain alone at nite would loose his life to cold so bitter and deep that no fur could stop it. There was another, unproven way to proof against the nite, but none had tried it. Master Han had spoken of it as a way to survive storms lower down, but his Teacher remained silent about the Mountain.

The sensation of snow under his paws was not new. Any Kurushani out of first fur knew and loved the fine white powder. Tradition taught the Mountain dwellers to revive the winter snow as the source of the spring water that made their valley green. It was also a survival tool, providing water when melted and in an odd way that he had learned shelter from the cold that came with it. Odd as it seemed, it was this same ally that in a tiny span of hours that would become a bitter cold and deadly foe.

He put these thoughts away, cleared his mind again and sought to feel the Mountain once more. What had begun as a moment of wonder had changed in that same moment into an indispensable tool he would have to use as surely as rope.

The irregular rock face continued, providing cautious paw holds and rests as he clung to the snow capped rocks. He found a new measure of his slow process. Every flat or slightly overhanging rock he felt had a fall of snow on its face. He would brush a forepaw over the stone, and gauge the depth of his grip by the amount of snow that fell from the rock onto his upturned muzzle. Most of the time it was a light dusting that did no more than tickle his whiskers and antennae. Such rocks were adequate as steps in an uneven climbing ladder, but he could never trust them with his full weight for long. One or two in his search produced near avalanches that threatened to sweep him off the rock face like a fallen snowflake. He also learned to his displeasure that the powdered water also hid stones, small and large, which had to be avoided just as large falls of snow. More than once, he saw small ice covered stones fall above or under him, tumbling downward, striking the face and falling out of sight. Every one was a stark and gentle reminder that he was only a pawfall away from becoming any other fallen rock.

He tried to fill his other mind with visions of what the summit of the Great Mountain would look and feel like. He caught himself thinking that it was still too far away, but before he could finish the thought, he had turned it on itself, instead saying aloud that it was becoming closer with each passing moment. Even tho he had tried not to, a part of himself was now keeping merciless account of how far he had come. That figuring part of his brain had taken two known figures, His body length and the height of the Mountain, and had performed a meaningless but somehow binding calculation. Now, as he seemed to inch upward with awful slowness, that figure loomed before his thinking mind, almost as large as the Mountain. It seemed to inch downward as he crawled and clawed upward, diminishing only in small increments every time his own mind subtracted another length of his body.

He took hard hold on another rock, twisting nimbly to avoid several feet of snow that fell from it at his touch. A sheet of ice as thick as his paw cracked loudly and cascaded downward in two pieces, reflecting the sunlight as they fell end over end toward a shattering fate on the rocks far below him. This wide, deep rock was part of a small ledge carved out of the Mountain face by ages of wind, snow and water. He pulled himself up, a labor which seemed to have become easier some how, a small recompense for the other arduous tasks he faced. He would have to lower his head, but could stand with surety and safety in this place for a moment or two.

In so doing, he chose not to take stock of his surroundings, or elevation as he had at every pause since his journey began. Rather, he chose to take stock of himself and his belongings now that his mind told him he had done three-fifths of his quest. His concentration on his physical tasks and then on the instinct that now led him had driven him to forget some practical points about the body he had brought with him.

Paws first..He held both of his forepaws out before his muzzle and turned them oddly so he could look at his pads. They ached slightly, but he expected that. He had also expected to find his pads and paw fur scratched and scuffed. He expected to see blood after this long and difficult a climb, but was surprised to find none, and to discover that the snow had an antithetic effect, leaving his paws slightly numb, but otherwise unharmed. He took to flexing them one after the other, until a warming rush of blood drove away the prickly cold. His paws were damp, and his next thought was to wipe some of the grey- black dust from his coat. It seemed to work for a moment, but with no snow to clean his paw, he found himself wiping dirty fur with a dirtier paw and making matters worse!

He shook himself a bit, letting the loose snow and small chunks of ice settled in his thick coat fall away. Smoothing his coat felt good, because it brushed out the cold air that had collected between follicles of his fur, and let a slow, warm body heat replace it. He knocked snow flakes from his muzzle and antennae with an almost playful swipe of his paw. As he finished, his stomach clawed at him in another, gentler, but equally insistent way. He began to scold and scorn himself for thinking and feeling so common a thing in such an extraordinary place, but again his practical side won out. This might be the only chance he got to eat before nitefall. If he was to remain active for any time after dark, eating ought to be the last of his problems. He felt an odd sensation as he reached for the harness clip over his heart that held his back and belt pack in place. He had forgotten he was wearing the useful gift from his friend and Khan!

Suddenly standing at twenty-five thousand feet, the slightly sheltered ledge seemed like his home cave, and that moment seemed like a New Year's day, filled with common but wonderful gifts!!

He opened the pack and delved deep inside it. As his paws touched the familiar objects he had put there only hours before, there was a strange mix of recalled familiarity added to a dash of excitement that came with re-discovery in time of need.

A pair of large Khalidi hides, each rolled many times and stuffed gently into the bulging pack rolled out first to greet him. He picked them up, hugged them close for a warm moment, and then set them aside, making sure no mis-step could send them falling away. The knife that his father had forged for him as a birthing gift fell to his paws next. He scolded himself mildly and paused to gently slide the black leather scabbard and the heavy,razor sharp blade it held onto his belt, where Tal had taught him to keep it, even while he visited or slept in any new or strange place. Getting to it as he ascended the Mountain could save his life!

Two shortened torch sticks were tucked along one side,for a moment he wished for a lamp, but knew the oil would have probably leaked long before now, and might have frozen stiff. No, the torches, soaked for days in oil and resin, were a better choice on the Mountain. They would burn almost too easily in the face of the combination of the abundant flint rock and the stoke of his knife. He had to plan for at least one night as a guest of nature. There was too much Mountain for even the Khan himself to climb in only a day.

His medicine pouch came next. Another familiar and somehow welcome sight. He undid the clasp and took another small drawstring bag from one of the many leather pockets. The herbs inside the bag were still green and soft, and it took no skill at all for the young Savage to select a sprig of a broadleaf plant. Gingerly, he took one leaf and tore it in half, pausing to put the rest away carefully before slipping the small green triangle under his tongue and sucking on it gently. It's sweet, slightly peppery oil was no replacement for food, but would help him stretch the simple faire he carried as far as he could. It would check his growing appetite for a time, until he could climb high enough to find the herbs and the breadfruit that the Scrolls told about. Though he had seen nothing yet, his ears and senses had told him that he was not alone on the mountain. His father and the other guardians lived upon the heights for season upon season, sometimes for years on end. His Father was the best hunter in all Astrel. He did not become to it by living on a lifeless rock. There was game both lower down and higher up. If it came to that, he might have the skill to track and kill a sagebird, or the snowhare. That would be his last refuge, only because on this ground, his prey would have the advantage.

The food he brought from what seemed another world was simple, yet chosen in part for his likes. The flat, broad slices of thin, coarse bread he carried were made with grain that he had milled himself while his Karakami Shyia built him up. A bag of dates, already peeled so that he could carry more of the fruit. Four pouches of nuts, a pawfull of these and a few dates were his average morning meal. Then, he looked oddly at a metal bottle with a strange cap on it. He lifted it, and found that it held only air! He blushed at his greenness, popped open his canteen and looked around him. He sniffed the large snowbank on one end of the ledge, tasting a pawfull of it to make sure it was pure and unspoiled. The water that trickled down his throat was sweet and clean. He resisted the temptation to eat snow, knowing it would only make him thirst harder. Instead, he shoveled what seemed a huge amount of it into his canteen. It was packed solid before he stopped, knowing that ten kilos of snow would yield one litre of water. Not half enough, but enough for now. He hung it on his belt, next to his knife, hoping that his mistake would remain between him and the Great Mountain forever! If his father or peers discovered it, he would become a joke for certain!

He repacked carefully, and allowed himself a spine popping stretch before sliding back into his harness. Daylight was on the wain now, the pearl-like sun sliding slowly toward the horizon. He had a bit more than two hours, before evening twilight would fall, the lead in to the nite that would see the character of this benign place change much for the worse. He had to be above this rocky face of the Mountain and into some shelter not long after sunset. The Scrolls called nite on the mountain as black and cold as the native volcanic rock. He stepped out onto the ledge, took a look back to make sure he had left no trace, and then pulled himself upward and away, wedging tightly in the rocks.

Pawholds came easily as his mind again turned him into part of the stone around him. Above him the places became flatter, and the stones more brittle. He learned to try each step twice. If it did not break after the second touch, he trusted it. More often than not, the stone seemed to crumble, at times, almost like old parchment under his strong, youthful paws. He grasped one stone that seemed to hold, but in mid climb it snapped loudly and he slid back down over the face of the rock, scrapping his head and muzzle over the rock before his hind paw caught on the edge of his previous step!

The young Skiltaire cursed, steadied himself with a deep breath, blessed the Mountain to forgive his temper, and began to climb resolutely upward again. He had pulled himself thru a dozen body lengths of deeper black stone, more and more of it seeming to crumble at his touch. He was relieved to feel another ledge or terrace above him, his one so deep that the full length of his forepaw could not feel the face of the rock. It felt smoother that the unforgiving stones that he seemed to wrestle, and there was no snow built up on the ground above him. He felt relaxed and fluid as he planted his hind paws in a notch between two rocks, and pulled himself up easily onto the higher ground.

He was so occupied with the climb that it took him almost a full second of laying sprawled out on the ground to see that there was no more cliff facing him! He looked around in breathless amazement! It was another terrace, just like those below the meadow and High Point. Against his better judgement, he sat up quickly and raced to the edge, allowing himself to peer over and down at where he had been for the first time. Only the height and distance lent the real perspective. He was more surprised to look down and see a thin, wispy cloud clinging near the face of the rock below!

He paused, and with a single claw began scratching litely on the rocks at his feet. There was the Trail to the meadow, he thought to himself, keeping the line he drew level. Then there was the meadow, he added its depth and altitude by canting the line up a bit and them making it flat again. Then up to High Point, as his trace repeated, taking him farther from ground level. The Crystal Grato was a bit higher, and spoken of in the Scrolls. He drew a soft "X" to mark its place on the ascending line. Then, the sheer face of the cliff after a short, hard climb. Now, he thought to himself..How high had he come? The snow line held the key. It had begun about halfway up the sheer mountain face. He drew another soft line across the width of his sectional trace. If he had come half again as high, he thought, moving his line of climb steeper yet, that put him....Where?

Here! He figured, lancing a claw down on the scratched map, and drawing another flat line for the terrace where he now stood. If the scale he had tried to keep was true to his inner feelings, then he stood at thirty thousand feet! Yet, he knew he was no map maker, and his trace as well as his feelings might be skew.

His journey half done had been hard won. Yet, there were still a few minutes of fading light at this elevation. His mind conflicted two thoughts. The Scrolls said that he ought to hold up here or above to abide the dawn. Another part of him said to climb on, and that part of him won a battle to look in the opposite direction. He gave up looking and thinking down, stepped away from the edge, and looked up at the second half of the steeply stacked peak.

Clouds that seemed thick enough to walk upon wrapped the upper reaches of the peak in a truly magnificent garment as white as the snow upon the peak. The cindered black rocks gave way to a grayish white stone that seemed in an odd way to cap this massive monument that his People held in deep trust. As he looked at it, he felt his stomach knot, but food was no remedy. As he held the sight in his eyes, he felt his feelings rise and gently overwhelm his thinking mind. In those feelings, he could feel another thing that the Scrolls had told. They said to him that he would not understand it until he saw it, and now a part of him did. He felt every synapse of his sending mind and every hair trigger of his motion sense fire! The young Skiltaire begin to quiver with a massive onrush of energy that no avalanche of rock or snow could ever hope to equal! It took his breath away with a force so gentle and explosive he found himself gasping and gulping for air! It demanded all the strength in his limber young body to twist himself, wrenching his seeing eyes away from the tableau of the mountain above him. Yet, even as he looked away and slumped weakly to the ground, the energy that radiated from the mountain top continued to resound thru his mind, crashing thru him as if he was a bell ringer trapped in a steeple at noon!

He lay there, for uncounted hours it seemed, convulsing on the ground, his limbs thrashing in a vain attempt to control themselves and react to what had blasted into his brain, and now seemed to burn and seer into his being! He did not fight it. He could not..He dared not..Part of him wanted it..And that part of him absorbed the blast, saving his sanity and his life!

The onslaught settled the question on climbing on. It took him a quarter hour to stand again, and as he did, it was upon newborn's paws. His whole body shook as if douched with an endless torrent of icy water, and yet, he felt slowly recharged, as if each of those minutes had been solid days and nites of food and slumber. He would use the remaining sun time to seek out his shelter for the nite. As he walked about slowly, his eyes slightly downcast to avoid risking the sight of the peak again. As he moved, his quivering body became aware of a gentle but persistent burning pain in his chest! He stopped where he stood and ordered his mind to check himself against what he felt. He reached up and put a paw over what seemed to be the kernel of fire in his chest. He was surprised when his softly glowing medicine bag gave the back of his paw a respectable shock!

Slowly, gingerly, he took the small hide pouch from around his neck. He looked oddly at the thick pouch, now overtaken almost completely with a soft, peach coloured aura! He prodded it softly, expecting to be burned in the iridescent fire. Instead, his curiosity was rewarded with an even larger pulse of current! He seized it gently and impulsively in both paws, and a sharp surge of power made even the naturally charged Skiltaire drop the pouch!

As he shook his paws gently, he recalled again the sensation he had felt from Master Han's piece of ice blue fire! It was the same, only ten fold more intense! He plucked up the pouch gingerly, almost fearing of it. He held it at paws length, watching the energy field swirl and flicker as it shimmered softly with power born of the Mountain!

He hesitated to loop the strap over his neck again. He loosened it slightly, making it longer, so it hung below his chest but not quite touching the ground between his forepaws as he walked slowly around the terrace.

It was tens of metres deep, and rather than ending in another sheer wall of timeless rock, its edge sloped upward gently following the face of the peak lost in the white clouds far above. The ground beyond was steep, but passable, layered all around about with glacial snowbanks so tremendous that it seemed a half of any of them could fill the Valley of Astrel to overflowing with snow and perpetual ice.

The Sacred Mountain had struck him hard. So hard that he still stood on yearling paws. He would climb no more this day, but satisfied his urge to explore by looking around the high, rock strewn terrace that was the gateway to the upper Mountain. His first task as the disk of the sun met the land was to find shelter. Two hours hence, this seemingly tranquil place would be transformed by nature into a wild, boiling crucible of ice storms and windblown snow. He felt the rising wind deflecting off of the rock face below. It ruffled the guardfur on his thick coat with a chilly finger.It was a forewarning of the inky nite where nothing left to the wind would survive. He turned and walked toward the body of the peak, a new urgency in his faltering steps.

This high place had no name, but was spoken of in the Scrolls. Caves as large entire hills were cut all through the timeless rock. A crude drawing told of three caves that merged to form a cavern at the very core of the Mountain. His danger was that he knew not which of them led to the inner place, and which slopped downward into sudden bottomless holes that were vents for the primeval volcanic heart of the Sacred Mountain. In a fashion, this was more fraught with peril that climbing up the rocks. If you trod on a stone that will not carry your weight, he thought, it gave way. Now, he stood on ground as solid as any he had ever known.Yet walk one length too far, and risk falling forever into the core of Kurusha.

There were a number of openings in the rocks of the mountain side. He walked carefully, feeling each of them as he walked closer. His sling would not save him this time. He would have to explore each possibility, slowly and carefully, with time against him The wind ruffled thru his coat again from the back, this time slightly colder than it had before. The air raced by him, seeming sucked inside the mammoth body of the peak..Then, he stopped, thinking about what he had just felt, and why! His answer hit him just as hard as the radiant energy that broadcast from the peak above him...

The Mountain's age old battle with weather, wind, and eruptions past had combined to drill and blast many open spaces into the high Kamiyama. Now, he knew! Those that drew in the air were the vents he sought to avoid! Twists and turns in the shafts between the inner connected caves would break the draw of the air, and the place before the cave he sought would know only still air!!!

He raced from opening to opening, pausing before any that might accommodate his head, for where his head went, he might be able to tuck in his body as well. As he vaulted over boulders and broken rocks on the terrace, he saw the top third of the white sun's disk begin to dip below the horizon. The shadows that hung and grew from the rocks extended slowly, as if bringing their share of the chill dark nite whose onset was closer than he liked to think about.

Cave after cave seemed to draw the very air from his lungs. The suction before a matched set of them was such that he had to fight hard, his claws scoring the rocks where he stood in order to keep from being drawn inside like the occasional icecicle that broke away from the cavern roof just inside the cave entrance.

He turned hard away from them, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw an oddly shaped oval rock, the size of a whole cave in the Valley below. His climb had showed him the strange shapes and dimensions wrought in rock by nature's carving fingers. Yet, as he took a whole stride backward to see the whole of the huge rock, the perspective told him that there was something different about this one at second glance. Forces that made the planet had tossed and broken these rocks like grains of sand on a beach. Rock falls and planet quakes had felled some, and he could tell from the rocks higher up that the fallen boulders had once been pieces of the higher rocks.

The Oval stone lay apart from any other, where all the other rocks seemed awash in a see of smaller company, many pieces of themselves worn away by the wind into a separate being. But the place where this odd one rested held no stone over the size of his paw, other than the oval parent stone. Then, there was the shape. Only with distance could he see that the rounded contours of the single rock resembled nothing so much as a long, thin, almost sculptured body laying down with a thin tail extending toward the face of the mountain. Curiously, he padded over to it, and matched the stance of his body and its's shape with that of the oddly shaped rock. He looked backwards, over his shoulder, along the length of his own tail. He thought he might be able to sight one cave, or opening. He swallowed hard when he saw only another pile of broken, dark rock fallen against and strewn around against the face of the rock.

Dark rock? he thought to himself..Dark rock..amid mostly light coloured stones??

He rose slowly and padded toward the spot, one step at a time. The rock fall he saw was set against the mountain side, as if the stones had fallen from some great high place. Yet, as far up as he could look, he saw only the snow clad ash coloured rocks. No, these had been put here. They were not native to the place! He grew more encouraged as he stepped closer and saw that most of the rocks were small, under the size of his own body. While several of the boulders were tens and hundreds of times his size, those might be passable, if he could remove the others..in time!

To the Skiltaire, who tore into the fallen rocks as if they were his last hope, it seemed like old times. These were not the carved hard to grasp slabs he had tossed around the Quarry as if they were paper. These were rude, unpolished rocks, and his strong black paws found them as easy to pluck up and toss away as so many of the nuts that Shyia had him pick! Yet, as the first pair of them sailed away, he halted himself in mid throw as one of the two struck a larger rock and shattered like thin pottery.

The Law and Traditions said that he was free to try to climb the Kamiyama, as was any of his People, as long as no tools were struck to the rock, and Nature was left undisturbed by their passage. He felt a sudden pang of deep guilt.

Was he breaking the Tradition by moving the rocks?

Again, he looked over the rock pile. From the manner that the stones lay piled without reason or symmetry, this had not been built. And the rocks..They had been put here. They were not native, not part of the natural stone that made this place. He thought of the matter deeply for a few seconds, there in the darkening stillness of the great peak.

He would compromise. He reached for the next stone, but instead of tossing it far afield, he simply moved it aside, dropping it at the base of the slide, and beginning, stone by stone, a new pile of stones, removed from the first only a bit!

He resolved himself to stop when he could discover his passage, or lack of one. He found he could become selective with the stones. Removing one large could let him move three smaller ones more easily, just as if the stones had become a giant heap of jackstraws!! His work was quick, for both his body and mind were limber together. He began an unsteady climb that seemed easy and fun in the face of half the Mountain below him. He had moved about two score of the stones when his paws reached out for another. He moved it aside, and instead of another stone, he was greeted by a small dark gap in the rock pile large enough to probe first with a paw, and then with a whole limb!

There was a cave here!!

Flushed with excitement, but remembering his promise to the Mountain, he quickly reshaped the rock slide by moving the stones, purposefully building with them, where nature had not. Soon, the small hole had widened to his body size, the top of the loose, unsteady rock slide re-enforced by the careful placement of the larger rocks. The inside of the cavern was far to dark to see, and his senses could detect no movement within his range.

He slid out of his pack, and took out one of the pair of torches that he carried. He held the fire stick in one paw while he drew his knife with the other. He shook out and laid upon the dark rock a brittle reddish piece of stone. The held the torch near the smaller stone had struck it sharply with the flat of his blade. Instantly a pair of orange yellow sparks flashed from the flint onto the torch. The oil soaked wood sizzled for a moment, sparked on its own and then leapt to flaming life!

He had little time to be pleased with his first fire. The amount of darkness the torch drove back from him was now very noticeable. It became even more so when he turned on the rock where he stood, and cast the flaming stick into the cave. He looked in after it, and amid the strong yellowish glow, could see the smooth, glasslike walls of the cave weakly reflect the torch light. The scent of long stilled but breathable air came to him from along the top of the cave as the warmth of the torch stirred the air inside the cavern!

He felt both elation and relief as he gathered his pack, and slid easily down from the now open rock fall and into the cave that would shelter him for the nite!

He was more pleased to discover that the rocks around the cave mouth still acted as a wind break. As he prepared to eat and sleep for the first, and he hoped only time on the Mountain outside of his Father's lodge, the rising icy wind began to howl as if it was some tormented living thing that held forth in the nite.

Inside the cave, he unpacked again, spreading not one, but both hides on the cave floor. He set the torch, cut in length to burn far into the nite, between two upright stones he took from outside his temporary home. The clean snow packed into his bottle was now bracing water, still slightly chill despite the passage of hours. Flat bread and hard corn sticks never tasted this way before, and he ate with new relish the common faire he had tasted so often before. As he lay on the soft, thick hide, struggling playfully to bite thru a corn stick as hard as the rocks that held his torch, his tired mind split in twain. One part thought of his Father, the other thought of three who waited below.

As he put up his food, and finished the last of his water, He wondered what Tal would send when the two were close enough to sense one another. He laid down on the soft hide, pulled the other hide over him, curled up fur in fur, and fell into a deep satisfying sleep, the edges of which were filled with images of the Mountain Crest and his father. The last sound to fill his ears before echoes of his father's voice was the howling wind as it passed hurricane force outside the cave..

Shyia was the first to feel it. her young, active mind gave her a moments grace over K'a'lia, who smiled warmly at the younger Skiltaire.

"The Mountain sleeps...and so we must." K'a'lia said gently.

Shyia made no effort to hide her disappointment. Her mind felt a familiar touch from below. You serve him best by resting and preparing for his return, Ryokyo sent.

K'a'lia saw Shyia nod, trying to hide a yawn. As the Pridefire that the females had kindled for the first time without their males continued to blaze brightly, Ryokyo padded toward the cave as Shyia and K'a'lia lay down gently on his back. The Prince of the Kurushani took a long, longing look at the mass of the mountain, cast in darkness, and then brought his hosts inside to the warm fire.

He awoke suddenly in deep darkness. He tried to go back to sleep, in the hides still wrapped snugly around him, but he could not. His head ached, and his ears rang like bells. A moment later, the throbbing pain grew from his heartbeat to a drumbeat in his head, steady, dull pain so intense it drove the breath from him and threatened to stop him from ever drawing another! He made it worse by trying to stand. Pain and vertigo swept his paws from under him, and he crashed to the floor of the cave with a heavy thud that hurt his forelegs and chest. His head seemed to weigh hundreds of pounds and it took all of his strength to sit up on all fours and raise his head slightly.

He was sick. The bitter taste of bile and half digested food drove up his throat, and bolted out of his muzzle and nose, as if fleeing whatever had gone so wrong inside him. It was as if his head was on fire from the inside, blazing like a dozen torches. Pure instinct seized him and he found himself half running and half crawling toward the mouth of the cave. He hoped to dive into a snowbank whose cold would extinguish the fire searing his brain. He remembered the withering blast of cold so profound that fur nor flesh could stand against it..Something greater than himself turned him around, and seemed to throw him back into the cave. The pain overwhelmed him, and the only thought he could think was that death would be welcome relief from the pain!

Shyia sat up screaming! Instantly, a send more powerful than she had ever felt wiped out the pain, and smashed her fear, sweeping it away like pieces of a black nitemare exposed to brilliant sunlite. K'a'lia lay tranquil and unmoving nearby in an almost hypnotic slumber.

I hold her thoughts. Ryokyo sent to Shyia on a band so broad that Shyia could think and feel nothing else.

Indeed, the bond between you is strong! Shall I shield you as well? The Kurushani Prince asked.

No, my Prince.. Shyia sent back a whisper compared to his roar of mental power. She sensed their mutual energy now held out whatever had touched her mind. I beg of you, she sent, tell me, does he live still?

Like a star, a nova brighter near than any sun. Ryokyo answered cryptically. Shyia's own heart had known that before the thought words were born in her mind.

Is there no way we can aid him? I have want to be near him! She asked from mind to mind.

In the subdued light, Shyia saw the Prince shake his head slowly. Aid him we cannot..He said with calm resolution. His sent answer was as final as his next thought.

He rose smoothly, and beckoned to Shyia to take her former place on his back. She leapt up without prompting. Now, the Prince sent to her again.

But Climb ourselves, we can! He sent to the worried Skiltaire. Are you willing?

Shyia's only answer was to grasp twin pawfulls of his coat with all her might, and sink herself into the young White Lion's snowy mane. Lead on, my Prince! she sent back on a burst of her own mental power!

The Prince of the Kurushani looked at K'a'lia once again, and with a surge of his own telepathic strength, left her immune from the agony her son felt. She would slumber without dreams, but in peace, until sunrise.

The two of them shot from the cave, the rocks of the Valley seemingly giving birth to a white lightning bolt that split the blackness of nite in the diminishing light of the Pridefires.

Morning light and a whisper of the cold wind told him that he was still alive, much to his surprise. Before he tried to rise, he braced himself, expecting the anvils that rang in his head to drive him insane. He stood again slowly, almost painfully. He expected to feel a spear lance thru his ears, but instead, he felt his balance return and his double vision fade and his eyes sharpen to clarity that seemed to rival the mountain at sunrise. He stood up full and strong, letting the breeze hit him square in the muzzle. He braced himself to be sick again, and felt only a hunger pang creep softly thru his belly. He resisted the temptation to eat, not knowing what the mountain held for him. It was the last of his food, and he wanted to save it.

He padded around on soft paws for a time, but as the light and shadow changed outside the cave, he came to know that every second he lingered was a second that he was separated from the peak and his father. The thought and image of the peak had pushed him up half a mountain, but now it was the thoughts of Tal that pulled at him as strongly as the energy that radiated from the mountain top.

His father was a ghost to him. He had never dared say so to his mother, but the only lasting sensation second son and father had ever shared was a moment in his dim past, when a dark, looming figure had held him for a time. He sensed the shared bonding, but had little chance to enjoy it. Soon he was gone, and the littlest Skiltaire was left with the mother and the Karakami who brought him up. He had learned less resentment and more understanding as he grew older and came to understand whom his absent father was, and the deep Tradition that forced their separation.

The Guardians of the Mountain. Master Han's teaching made them seem like another race. Yet, he was taught theirs was the same Savage blood that flowed in each one of his peers, and thru him as well. Perhaps Master Han had his reasons for never saying who or what his father was to the other in his group, but he could never reason why. K'a'lia spoke of his Duty infrequently, and spoke more often and lovingly of a departed Mate, and a Male that the young Skiltaire ought to emulate. He soon came to hunger for any scrap of information about him, and had worked since his youngest days to make some sort of picture of his absent father. As he mounted the steep but passable trail, he looked again at that incomplete image, and the steep ascent was made easier as he told himself that the missing knowledge his heart and mind hungered for waited above. So, he told himself, did the Skiltaire who he loved very much but had never seen. He climbed now not only for his Family, their honor, and his Khan, but for the missing part of himself as well.

Even if Tal would not give his consent for the Teaching of the Ancient Ways, perhaps, he thought to himself, he would gain something equally important.

He felt a sudden burst of warmth fill him, quite apart from the chill morning wind. He did not know where it came from, but as he climbed with new strength over some broken rocks, he had an idea. He had tried to send to his father from the Valley, without success. Part of him understood why when he felt the natural energy field of the mountain tear thru his body. It was so strong that he wondered if even the Khan and a dozen of his people could send or receive while on the Mountain.

He walked a few paces up the steep incline, bracing himself against a rock as solid as some of the blocks in the stone quarry. He looked slowly upward, fearing to see the peak as much for the sight of it as the prospect of having his mind torn out once more. If he fell from this place, that would end him, and he might never be found.

But this time, something was different. He looked up less steeply than before, taking in the elevation of the cloud wrapped peak a bit at a time, rather than all at once. Again, he expected to see colours, and have his head seem to explode. He waited, a dread moment, looked full and deep at the peak.

His ears popped..

He swallowed, inhaling deeply..

His body gave a sudden shiver, and was still. He was light headed and his body quivered a bit, more from his own expectations than from the effect. He felt himself, and realized that he shook not from the ill effects of the unique energy of the mountain, but in harmony with it!!

His young body had found a harmonic of the peak as the energy flowed thru him! He stopped his fear and found the will to let what he felt flow over himself from the inside. Instantly, the slight chill of the morning air faded from his coat, and the last vestiges of his ringing headache were snuffed out as if it had never been! He felt good again. Rested, his hunger forgotten, and a little bit warm!

He smiled a bit, laughing slightly to and at himself! What had caused him to be so afraid? He did not permit himself to become careless as he found and followed his twisting path up the steep mountain grade. One misplaced paw could still kill him, and he still had half of the Kamiyama to challenge him.

The ashen stone was of a different type than the black rock he had encountered below. No great projections, or scars, just a steady upward path of unbroken rock and ice coated snow that seemed to stretch upward forever. He would set his sight on one place he could see not far above him as he pulled and pushed himself upward over the inclined rock face. He found a new way of climbing, using his body like a spring after wedging tightly between a lower stone and a higher one. Rather then just pulling his body upward as dead weight using his strong forelimbs, his heavy hind legs became like a frog's. He sprang upward nimbly from pawhold to pawhold, using his forelimbs and strong black paws to catch himself if he slipped on the occasional snowdrift between what seemed to be mammoth plates of rock that made up the mountainside. This was a more intense climb, he thought. Below, the lay of the stones helped a climber, if he was careful. At this height, there was only snowbanks and smooth stone, broken by widely spaced outcrops of the same grayish white stone. Once or twice he gambled that solid stone lay beneath an oddly shaped snowbank. The penalty for loosing was a long, steep slide downward over the rocks he had climbed a second and third time. Yet, for all the scrapes and abrasions the ragged stones inflicted on him despite his thick coat, there was always a nearby pawfull of snow or piece of ice to salve the burning wounds.

He gained ground slowly, with a mixture of pain and fortitude. Once, he stopped to rest laying down only slightly as he straddled another outcropping of stone. His breathing was regular and strong. He seemed to have become used to the altitude. There was something special about this place. As he drew in deep breaths, he could taste water on his tongue. The air was bracing, and a fine mist hung close to the mountain side. He lingered as long as he dared, enjoying the welcome cool respite before he resumed his springing climb up the face of the rock. Another hour and thousand feet behind him, he was struck with a sudden fatigue. He found himself wishing for that cool place below him. He had the presence of mind to look back, and down at where he had been and felt a surprise. The ledge where he had paused was in the midst of a cloud!!

The Scrolls said that the Sacred Mountain defied time and space. For the first time, from what he felt was forty-five thousand feet, he understood the meaning of that cryptic passage. He felt momentary elation. Two thirds of his quest lay behind him. but in the next moment, he turned with new resolve to the third that lay ahead, thinking again and again as he climbed of who he would meet at his journey's end.

More and more, the rock face was covered now the ice encrusted snow so hard that he could walk on it like rock, if his claws would hold him. The geoscape turned completely white here and there, and the young Skiltaire came to realize another danger. Rocks and permafrost on the mountainside held back glacial snowbanks so heavy that someday they would win their struggle with the stones and cascade over the ground he climbed in a tide more destructive than any tidal wave. Now, he had to take greater care than before. One mis-step, one backslide on his part might break some of it free and cause the greatest of all mountain cataclysms--Avalanche!

Now, more than ever, he held quiet, not for fear of causing a slide, but instead listening against the wind for the telltale rumble, an ominous sound that meant nature, in her grand caprice had started one instead of he. If he began it, he would be it's first victim, and nothing after that would matter.

He swept the gloomy thought from his mind with a sudden urge to look at the stark but ruggedly beautiful panorama of the mountain. Again, he scolded himself. Feeling a place was as important as being there, and once again, he let his senses and instincts sweep control of him from his thinking mind.

As he mounted a rock,he stopped, held out a paw to find the face of the wind and turned full toward it. The wind seemed tame, almost benevolent after the violent shrieks and howls of the nite before. It had a light, slightly chill edge that felt good as it ruffed his stiff guardfur slightly. There were no animals within his range now, save himself. and yet the mixture of sound that his ears heard had not diminished. It had only changed composition, as if another conductor had picked up nature's baton.

The lightly blowing wind gushed, eddying behind his ears and filling them with what sounded like the laughter of the very young. There was a fine hissing sound as wind lifted loose snow on the ice pack to the heights of the mountain wind. Some of it, touched by the clouds that seemed to adorn the peak above, returned as tiny slivers of ice that made a unique sort of tinkling sound as they fell against the stones and shattered. And then, he noticed the sounds of himself. His breathing was deeper now, strong and slightly faster as his unique lungs worked to pull oxygen from the rich atmosphere that was becoming slightly thinner with each upward pace he took.

He found a special pleasure in the crunching sound his strong paws made as they seemed to pop thru the thin spots of the ice crust. A firm, solid but soft crunching sound that seemed to echo the rhythm of his walk. He had never told his Karakami, but it had been his paws that had finally convinced him that he could undertake and fulfill this unique quest. The moment he found himself able to break rocks with their solid, well muscled flexibility, he knew that if his mind could begin the climb, the body and paws that Shyia had gifted him would and could finish the undertaking.

How many had stood at this place before him, he wondered to himself. The Scrolls said that if you opened your instincts and feelings you could feel impressions of those who had come before you. They said that the Kamiyama changed one's sprint, and part of the Sacred Mountain's price for the changing was that part of your energy stayed always on the Kamiyama. He thought this fanciful and romantic until he stood upon the mountain. Now, he would swear to its truth to the last of his life. He cleared his mind and stilled himself until the only sound his ears could hear was the near and distant hammering that was his heart.

He let his mind stop bringing him the sounds and scents around him. He channeled his senses from a feedback to his brain into that part of himself that was his natural gift. Trying to send once before had made him light-headed and sick. Rather than trying to send thoughts, he found himself sending a simple sine wave form of mental power that was the harmonic of the Kamiyama around him. he sent it outward with no power save itself behind it, and wondered what his mind's eye might see..

They came in flashes, like sun rays over the horizon at dawn. Each lasted only a minuscule part of a second, but his mind and senses worked like a superb camera, freezing each impression like a woodcut image on his probing mind.

In the rocks..the after image of a young Lion, his slight but large figure recognizable to the Young Skiltaire.

Prince Ryokyo!

The young chosen Ruler of the people had been here, and judging by the image his senses captured, at an age only slightly greater than his own! The bashful monarch to be had evaded the question when asked, and now he knew why!

He decided to try something. Without pressing into the realm of conscious thought, he tried to exert a measure of control over the feeder wave that captured the images of the mountain's history. He allowed his own composite image of his father to filter into his seeking thoughts.

It began with painful slowness, exciting him so that it nearly forced his eyes wide with wonder. Then, in a moment, he was there, with such a three dimensional clarity that the sight and the feeling of his image might as well have been the avalanche he had sought to avoid!

It knocked him over, sweeping him away with a flash of energy more intense than the dawn.It was as if he had tried to seize the sun with his paws!

He forced his squinting eyes open, sat up and shook himself clear of the snowbank he had been blasted into. His whole body shook as if newborn!

He permitted himself a deep, and heavy exhale, the very air in his lungs seemingly turned to static electricity by the seer power of the image he had felt..!! The image..!! He shut his eyes again, desperately hoping to recall some fragment of it to add to his puzzle piece picture!!

The half breath bolted from his lungs..He staggered backwards and fell again, crumpled to the rocks, catatonic with utter disbelief!! The image he had treasured for so long was erased, and in its stead, at the slightest thought of him, there was something as real as his image of himself!!

He was...Huge!! More than half again as large as Master Han, the largest of his kind he had ever seen! Sleek blue-black shimmering fur with a mask of white about his muzzle and throat.. The glow of his pure crimson red stripe almost blinding in its incandescent intensity..Hazel eyes that shined like a volcanic glow, blazing with a spirit so utterly Savage that just the aura of the image cowed him instantly..He called it up again as it began to fade, half afraid to see him again. He stood still, breathless, and looked in awe at the image of the father he had yet to know.

"Get Up, My Son!! Savages bow before no one!" a hard, deep voice commanded him.

"Father!!??"

"Get up and Climb! The Sacred Mountain is yours, if you can proclaim it. I wait for you above."

Before he heard the last of his Father's words, all image of him was gone, and the young Savage was left with an empty space inside and the sad sound of the wind in his ears.

He wanted to cry!

And Shout for Joy!!

Shouts of joy and tears of anguish merged inside him, blocking any sound from his throat or muzzle.

He rose from the ground and looked up at the cloud bound peak above him. How many times had he run from the Meadow and back? Now, only twice this distance kept him from the summit and Tal!

He drew a deep breath, to help charge his lungs with the thin air, and then another and another, to charge his body and mind with something beyond electricity! He recalled the words of the Scrolls, echoed by his Father. The Kamiyama was his..The Sacred Mountain was his birthright..He was a Savage..An Astreli..His race had kept the Mountain forever, and always would!

He looked up at the invisible summit, couched in thick clouds and snarled..Growled....ROARED at the top of his voice as he bolted back up the rocks!!

"THIS MOUNTAIN IS MINE!!!" He Shouted. "MINE TO ME AND MY RACE! I CLAIM IT FOR THEM!!" He roared at the peak above as he vaulted over the mountain side, tens of feet at a time!

Surging toward the peak now, and gulping the air between shouts, he felt his head begin to buzz like a live honeycomb..

On he raced, shouting, roaring and snarling, trying with all his soul to be heard on the peak and across the Valley far below!!

His paws began to feel like iron in their weight, but his energy added measure for measure to his iron will as on and up he ran..

His breaths came in halves now, yet from somewhere inside him, he found air to continue his shout as he dashed over loose rocks and charged thru the white, misty bodies of snow laden clouds...

Up...Up..Up..! The roar in his ears matched the one in his voice now. He could draw no more, it seemed, of the thin air, so he cast his body into his fire to fuel himself...He felt burning pain sear each muscle..His limbs seemed broken..They refused to move, yet he threw himself ahead, upward still more and over the rocks..

His Father...

His Pride...

His People...

HIS Mountain..!!!!!

The fire consumed him, seeming to snuff him out like a candle flame..Suddenly, he was falling..Falling...upward, and forward..into blackness!!

The concussion of solid ground crashing against his body shocked him into consciousness. For a moment, he lay dead still, and tried to draw a breath.

It was if every fibre of his lungs were filled with red hot coals! He screamed..No roar of defiance, but of pure agony! Pain so profound, it snapped his eyes open wide..

He lay on cold white ground, oddly flattened for a Mountainside, and free of rocks. When a gnarled tree crossed his odd vision, he reasoned that his senses had given themselves up with the air. As he lay there, four blue-black paws appeared before his vision...

He looked up, his bright hazel eyes trying to focus. They were matched by another set very like his own.

"Away with Visions..My Father and the Mountain..Must reach the peak..." he said weakly, without Breath..

"So have you done, My fine son..So have you done!!"

The image of real fur and solid flesh reached downward to pluck him up from the ground of the summit! He barely felt the enormous Skiltaire press him close and gentle, handling his smaller Mustelid offspring as if he were scarcely more than a doll!

Suddenly, his hazy mind matched the moment from one his mind could barely recall..In less than one heartbeat, all the time between that moment and this ceased to have meaning!

Father? he sent weakly..Tal, my..

"Father!" he said the word aloud, in a profound whisper.

Instantly he snuggled deeply into the huge Adult male's shinney blue-black fur. To his delight, it almost seemed to swallow him alive! He felt the warmth and security of his Father near him as he slid off into the deepest, gentlest, sleep of his life!

Tal picked up his offspring delicately, as if the solid young male Skiltaire would fall to pieces under his paws. As Tal carried him back to the entrance tunnel not far distant, he looked down and silently marveled at his second son.

This, he thought to himself, was the runt?? What marvel had touched the offspring that both Tal and K'a'lia would die before the first full moon?

Now as he held his progeny, Tal paused to wonder at the marvel that the Mountain seemed to give to him. Their first born had died so young, and now it was as if the Mountain had propagated another to him!

It was never as if the weaker sibling had been unloved, but the loss of the eldest son among their people was seen as something of a stigma. Before Tal could influence his second born, the Call of the Mountain touched the Savage hunter, and he had been parted from them ten months out of the rolling year ever since that season so long ago...

Longer than he dreamed, by the look of the fine figure of young Savage he laid on a wooden platform bed and swathed in many layers of rugs, robes and hides. Tal put a paw to his son's forehead..

Ka'a'matchu..He thought...Altitude sickness..The elder smiled as he remembered his first weeks after volunteering to become a Guardian. He had staggered around the summit for days with the Khan, as his lungs acclimated to the thin but oxygen rich air. From a baked clay vessel beside the firepit, he took a sprig of plant with leaves as black as tar. He crumpled it casually into a fired clay cup, and ladled in some steaming water. He stirred the mix slightly, until the fresh water of the snowmelt took on an awful smell, and an inky color.

What Tal was about to do was a terrible way to greet his Son, but it was for his own good..

Tal pressed a paw gently bit firmly over the younger Skiltaire's nose. His Son's muzzle dropped open and he continued to breathe. Tal waited until the timing was right and poured the nasty herbal medicine down the young mustelid's throat all at once, massaging his son's throat, forcing him to swallow gently by pure reflex!

The Father finished his loving treachery, and then jumped back, remembering in turn the effect it had on a full grown adult, let alone it's natural havoc with anyfurry younger than he.

Six layers of hides, or six of iron could not hold him down! His youthful body bolted high off of the bed in a reflexive spasm of pure and absolute revulsion as a taste like coal tar found it's mark in his unsuspecting stomach!! At the apex of his flight, he coughed, gasping and dry heaving all at once, as the Mountain grown herb nearly seemed to kill before it cured!!

Tal vaulted forward again, catching his Son before he could crash to the bedstead again. He swept him up and over his sleek black shoulder in a basket catch. He gave his only son a deep, firm slap between the shoulder blades and the blue-grey male drew a single, deeply gasped breath..before going completely limp in his father's arms.

Tal set him down gently on his own two feet, and held him by the shoulders for a gentle shake. It brought the young Savage back to a blurred reality. Instantly, the young Son and the elder father collapsed into one another, no medicine except love affecting their mutual embrace!! In less time than it took for the pair to touch, their minds met in another far more intricate and closer embrace. Mind opened to mind, and across the thought link that was one shared palette of sensations and experiences, two and a half long years poured across at them in half as many seconds!

Tal held his son at out at shoulder length again, and let the practiced eyes of a pure predator sweep over the lean, well-muscled, and strong Skiltaire who was his heir. His eyes blazed with the kind of unspoken love and admiration that only Father and son might share!!

But before they could come to know one another again, Tradition bound both of them with an old, comfortable, rope, a little worn but still binding enough to be respected. Tal was the Guardian of the Sacred Kamiyama. According to Law, no one had any right to be here save the Khan, or one with his blessing. Tal had felt all that had come to his Son before this moment, and knew that his old friend and his Son shared the unique relationship he had always hopped that they would, in spite of his inability to be with them and plant the seeds. But Tradition broken was Tradition lost. The questions he was compelled to ask and his manner in their asking had been set and followed by twenty generations of his people since the first Astreli had set paws on the summit that was the height and crown of their land and planet.

"Why have you come, invader?!" Tal asked with a sudden, loud and visceral snarl in his deep, hard voice.

Seeing his mammoth Father in the full blossom of a Hunter's Savagery was enough to frighten the youth. He was terrified for a half a heartbeat, until he felt the spirit of his quest push it out of him with a mighty heave half a heartbeat later.

"I seek the peak of my soul and the heart of our People." He answered strongly, allowing the words of the Tradition to crush his momentary fear.

Upon hearing these words, Tal's manner changed slightly, but his attitude was still defensive. His son knew better than any that it was his Father's duty and pledge to rend to bits any who set paws on the summit without the Khan's permission.

"You seek the soul of the Kurushani People, say you.." the Guardian snapped quickly. "How shall you approve it?" he asked, eyeing his own son as if the next moment might make them mortal enemies.

His son knew that it might. If he could not prove himself worthy to be here, his own father would dispatch him as easily as the first Guardians who held the summit and the safety of the valley below from the hands of the enemy during the dark times.

"Oh Guardian.." he began, being sure to send as well as speak his thoughts. "I have stood before the Khan.."

Tal nodded, listening intently with hard eyes.

"..We ate of bread and tea.." he added.

The expression on Tal's muzzle was cast in stone. He had yet to hear the words he needed. He growled, low and menacing, the sound of it shook the younger mustelid thru his bones.

"I feel this Mountain in me...!" he blurted out in quick desperation. "It is mine!!" the smaller Skiltaire added, with a trace of defiance in his tone. His Posture changed, and he stood up to the Guardian.

"So say you??" Tal asked. "And how then stands Our Khan?"

He let all the impressions of the elected Ruler of his People flow quickly through his mind. Their sensations left him able to speak only one word.

"Serene.."

Tal eyed him once more, up and down, his burning eyes seeming to dissect the youth. They cut thru his flesh and fur and sank deeply into his soul. For a moment, both were still as if frozen by the mountain wind at this moment of destiny.

"It is well. Welcome. Your Quest is done in Pride. Welcome to the heart of our People."

It was then that the huge Skiltaire Hunter softened for a moment and added "Welcome Home, My Proud Son."

Tradition had been given its due, and Father and Son fell into a long and animated conversation made of both thoughts and words. The young Savage sent his elder the whole of his life since that fuzzy memory of days past.

The first hard days, and the beating..

His Training, partly at Shyia's paws..

The ceremony, and challenge, and his wish for the quest..

But the warmest sensations that Tal felt from his splendidly grown child were for his Mother, Karakami, Prince and Khan..

That was as it ought to be. His Son's emotions for the one who had helped raised him were particularly strong. He was surprised that the feeling did not extend as far for Han.

Tal reacted to the thought of the training Master's image with a swell of mental energy edged with proper respect for his station, but with a certain satirical overtone. Tal sent back a montage of vivid mental pictures that showed the pair were contemporaries and competitors who each shared points of envy with the other.

But Tal's thinking paused for a long moment as he heard his Son asking to undertake the Ancient Ways, and how his offspring had come to learn of them so well, nite after nite in his absents.

"So, my Son without name, you overtook The Mountain to prove of yourself, seek this one, and seek as well of the Ancient Ways?" Asked Tal as his Son's send ended with a warm burst of happiness at the sight of him.

"Yes, my Father." The son replied shortly, with the same taciturn manner that had won his People renown.

"My name is Tal..use it!!" The huge blue-black Skiltaire snapped, instantly banishing forever the wall that usually existed between father and infant son, and replacing it with a footing between adult and parent.

The youth's brain nearly exploded with questions for this
fantastic personality that was a part of him. As Tal set out bread and tea, and son ate with father for the first time, it was Tal's turn to send to his son.

His thought montage began with images of his mate. K'a'lia still held his heart and soul in spite of separation, time and distance, and the depth of the passion he felt for her surprised their offspring. The youngest of the family replied with a stream of images that helped bridge the days since their parting. Both males had been touched, and in turn shaped by her quiet, resolute strength and enduring love for them both in part and whole. Both knew that it was her fondest wish that they could again be a family united, but knowing that Pride came before all else, and admiring her mate, even while K'a'lia pined for him.

Later, there came the tens of questions a son asks of a father, each and every one, it seemed, held back until this moment to be recalled for the asking and answering. Priceless stories and legends flew from Tal's memory to his, as if he had known them always! They matched and magnified the stories that K'a'lia had whispered to him nite after nite. Each of them was recalled by him with a new meaning of depth detail and life!

They talked beyond the sun and far into the moonlite before pausing again long enough to eat or drink together. One of the Son's fondest wishes went unanswered however. Winter still held the mountain deep in it's grip, and there was little game to hunt at this altitude. If he would tempt the mountain during the peak's brief springtime, Tal promised to show him another world all together. Father and Son could hunt together then, paw beside paw, just as Tal had always hoped to do!

It was near to mid nite when Tal noticed the soft fire glowing from the pouch that his Son wore around his neck. He indicated it with a gesture and smiled.

"You have seen the grato, My Son?"

"Yes, Tal..Beautiful!!" he replied, his hazel eyes gleaming like twin stars.

May I see your crystal, Tal sent quietly.

The Hunter watched as his son took the pouch from around his neck with a touch of gentle reverence. As he placed it softly on the table in front of him, the rawhide strap relaxed, and the pursed pouch fell open, unveiling the soft peach quartz stone that seemed to have taken on a fiery soul of its own!!

The young Skiltaire could not hide his admiration and awe. His Father looked at his change of expression and smiled, nodding knowingly.

"You and the stone have felt the energy of the Mountain." Tal explained.

He shook his head, remembering how that same head had rung like a bell as the peak had shown him its power.

"You have come onto another place.." He went on. "Almost another world, but at the same time, the very soul of this one." Tal's hard, serious voice softened as he spoke of the Mountain that had become both his duty and his second home. He put his paw gently over his son's strong back. Come, he sent..Let us rest together. On the morrow, we shall get us down to the Valley again, and as we journey, I shall show you the wonders of the Kamiyama.

Us, my Father?? The younger sent back in surprise.

Yes, my Son. As Guardian, I may leave here to see those who have come here back to their homes. The peak is timeless. It can survive without me for a short while.

As his son leapt softly onto the bed where he had laid before, Tal moved to douse the oil lamp that brightened the room. As the room darkened, the Skiltaire could see the soft glow of the peach coloured stone whose fire would carry them softly thru the nite. Both fell into a gentle sleep with the colour of the stone in their eyes.

The nite was without the sound of the tortured wind. The peak was silent, but not desolate. This nite was full of warm fur and gentle touches as to his surprise, his huge father took him in a gentle and loving embrace as they slept side by side! It was something he had dreamed of forever! The only way the nite could be more perfect was if K'a'lia were there! He responded openly as he had the first instant they met, snuggling deeply and openly into the thick, soft blue-black fur. His greatest, gentlest reward was to hear his Father emit a soft, utterly contented "Chirp" as he and his son became a single mass of intertwined fur!

It was mildly ironic. As they slept together, the numerous hides that had wrapped him earlier lay aside in a pile, unused. Sixty thousand and more feet above the floor of the Valley in air and space that he had imagined as empty and cold, the littlest Skiltaire had never been warmer or more fulfilled.

The morning came not with the bright dawn that was greeting and Tradition in the Valley below, but with a soft glimmer of awareness as both mustelids stirred at the same moment, in spite of the lingering darkness surrounding the summit.

This time, it was the son who rose and lit the lamp as his father prepared their breakfast. This repast was not only their traditional black bread and tea but included nuts and sprigs of herbs that his parent selected carefully from a large clay jar beside the table. Tal took a large portion for himself, and left his offspring but little to breakfast upon. He smiled at his hurt expression.

"Before You can eat here, My Son, you must learn not to be sick. After you have eaten, I shall teach you to breathe." Tal said.

The confused look on his son's muzzle broadened Tal's infrequent smile. "When your father and he who would become Khan first became to the summit, the air hit us just as it did you. The air upon the Kamiyama is rich but thin. Come, I will show you as we share the sunrise."

The smaller of the pair ate his three nuts hungerly, fearing for a moment that sickness or his Father might steal them away again. Tal passed him a sprig of a broadleaf grass that smelled pungent. He drew back from it.

"Eat!" He father commanded.

Reticently, he took the tuft of grass and bit it off from between his father's black digits. It tasted like sour oranges!!

"The oil of Kamusha grass will steady your stomach. Remember it well."

Tal lead the way up the steep, narrow tunnel of the lodge, and waited for his son to join him on the summit. Dawn's white light seemed to still the wind which seemed to race unchecked over the rocks until shadow vanished from the peak. As the Guardian and his son emerged into the morning twilight, everything around them was serene and benign, as if the Kamiyama had paid them both tribute!

His head and spirit were in no condition a day ago for the young one to appreciate the panorama that now opened before his wondering hazel eyes. It was indeed enough to steal his breath away, but when his lungs felt as if they were ablaze a moment later, the sight and the sensation became terrifying!

Tal caught him by the scruff of the neck, and then took him firmly around the rib cage with his powerful forelimbs. His father squeezed gently forcing the half hearted mistaken breath from his son's lungs. A touch of pain helped him overcome his fear, and then Tal spoke to him gently and firmly.

"The air here is thin...You must breathe in a little at a time, all the time..You seek to gulp down the air...Now..Breathe in..slowly.."

Tal relaxed his vice like grip on his son's deep, well-muscled chest, and felt the lungs beneath it begin to fill with air again. For the youth, it seemed as if he was trapped underwater, breathing, or trying to, thru a bit of broken reed! He began to gulp again, but stopped himself almost before Tal's gentle squeeze scolded him. Instead of letting his feelings run wild over him, he focused on drawing a single, deep, steady breath that filled his craving lungs to capacity as his bloodstream and brain seemed to float in a sudden glut of oxygen! Behind him, holding him close and admiring the subtle strength of his son's body, Tal felt his rhythm change, his breaths falling into the same pattern that the Guardian had learned to live by. As his progeny fell into a steady, regular respiration, Tal relaxed his grip and let his son stand on his own again.

As Tal stood beside him, the Hunter could not help but notice the look of pure, simple wonder on his son's muzzle! Suddenly, it was as if he had breathed this way every moment of his life! He felt his own Ki rush up to meet him, there on the mountaintop, as if the sprint of his life energy had been the prize he had come to claim!

"Keep to this way of the breath my son.." Tal told him. "When you return to the valley below, you shall be able to draw more energy from one breath of thick air than others shall be able to gather in ten. Your strength and senses will grow strong here, and below, few shall be able to match you." The Guardian's teachings were more than words,for as the youth drew breath after slow full breath, it was as if his entire bloodstream was becoming a flow of electricity, changing one fluid for another in equal measure, but unequaled power! The young Skiltaire rocked back and forth slowly not from vertigo but from the mild euphoria as his lungs seemed now to pull air beyond oxygen into himself, filling his lungs and body more fully than he had ever dreamed possible!

It began as a small sound founded on the end of one breath,
built thru another and set loose upon the mountain top by the crescendo of a third. A low, guttural sound at first, it swept into something born somewhere deeper inside him than his lungs could ever reach. He felt every follicle of his coat seem to stand erect under the force of the sound born inside him! It was a living entity now, and it sought a place and time to be born from his muzzle. It found it's place in the beginning of his breath, and as the savage mountain climber let all the sensations of the Kamiyama become in himself, he marked the moment of renaissance within himself with a full bodied, roaring growl!

Standing beside him, His head canted upward, the Son missed the sight of the Father, his lush blue-black coat rising to stand on end as well, in a purely instinctual tribute to the Power of the sound, and the Young Guardian who had given it birth using the spirit of himself merged with the soul of the Sacred Mountain.

Miles below, as a pure white streak of strength seemed to catapult over the coarse black volcanic rocks. The sense of it reached his feeling before the echo touched his ears, Ryokyo stopped where he stood on the slanting rock, and took in the feeling like a thirsty traveler stopped at a well for drink. Above and behind him, still clinging to his snowy coat like a dark stickleburr, the breathless, dizzy young Skiltaire felt the young Great Cat tremble as if someone had rung his soul like a bell!

HE LIVES!! AND UPON THE SUMMIT HE STANDS!! Ryokyo sent to Shyia on a band of energy so broad that it took all of her natural gift to keep from being stunned by its power and modulation.

What now, My Prince? Shyia sent back, her mind snapped to a state of crystal clear awareness by both the power and content of the thought transmission. Shall we get us down, or can we meet them as they journey homeward? What says the Law? she asked mind to mind.

"The Law sets no conduct.." He spoke as all Astreli did when they spoke of the Law, out of respect for its venue. "Nor does Tradition restrict us, for or against." He said, with a pause. "So now, it is we who must write our own Tradition.." he said firmly. "What say you, Shining One?" The Kurushani Khan to be asked his friend.

"We shall climb onward, upward and come down together, My Prince!" Shyia said, with ringing affirmation in her voice.

"Bravo, My Fine Pridemate! The Chosen future ruler sent back strongly. Indeed, there is some of the Sacred Mountain in the Young One's kin, I will avow.

The Kurushani Samurai vaulted ahead, as if launched in part by the energy he had sensed and shared from above. Above and behind him, out of his sight but not his senses, Shyia swooned lightly, blushing like a dawn rose at the poetic complement she had won from him. She reset herself in his coat, her senses now sharp, alert and added to his as they seemed to flow together up the craggy mountainside as if upon airborne steps!

Father and Son Guardian were free to eat now, all fear and threat of becoming ill blasted away from the younger Skiltaire by the legendary energy of the Kamiyama. For a time, the pair had become true to their mustelid selves, gamboling and cavorting in the mountaintop's thick, snowy mantle before going back down into the lodge to satisfy a truly earned hunger. They sat and ate in silence, their muzzles filled with bread, tea, fruits, and nuts, all grown upon the Mountain and gathered in the brief weeks of lush, green spring that the peak knew each year. Their muzzles issued no sound, but their minds and hearts now shared a bridge that seemed as wide as a thousand cut trails. Across it, from Father to Son, and from Senior Guardian to Junior, there flowed rivers of thought, emotion and experiences in answer to the youth's endless thirst for knowledge of this place, his people, and the father he had only dreamed of a day ago.

It was not custom, nor habit, but the pair of Savages lingered over their meal as daylite replaced the deep darkness that wrapped the summit. Almost a brace of hours lapsed before Tal collected their plates and his son felt the Guardian's powerful mind turn to their journey down the Mountain. There were tasks to do before he could leave, even for the shortest span of time.

Tal beckoned his son near with a thought, and drew his attention near to a place in the floor of the lodge set with the hard ashen grey rocks from the peak below the summit. Within the small hearth, there burned b brilliant whitish blue fire that at first glance was hard to look at, but after one sight, the young Skiltaire could not have looked away for all of the planet beneath his paws. The single body of etherial flame seemed to have an animation and a sense of being all its own. Wordlessly awed, son turned and matched minds with father.

This crucible, and the fire it holds as burned upon this summit since the Dark Times, when Astreli paws first fell here. So high are we that we cannot kindle the Pridefire each nite, so this one we guard alight always. It burns of the gas within the Mountain, my Son, and Tradition sets forth that it burns as well with the spirit of those who tend and keep it.

Tal paused in his thoughts to take two large black stones from a small pile of them that lay in the corner. He weighed them carefully, judging and considering his choice of stones carefully. Satisfied with the pair he had selected, he held them out to his son with a single thought.

Here, see for yourself, my Son..Place these on either side of the flame.

Me, Tal??, his Son thought back. It is not my place to tend the flame. This deed is yours to do, my Father.

It is the place of every Kurushani Savage, My Son..And part of your birthrite. You break no law, or Tradition. I bid you do this out of my love for you. It is my rite. Tal sent to his heir.

The young Savage took the pair of slightly greasy stones from his Guardian father. He turned again, stones in paws, to look at the pulsating blue-white heart of the flame. For a moment, the practical side of him feared being burned, but a moment later, some part of his instincts overrode the other. He looked again at Tal, nodded his silent gratitude and reverently knelt before the hearth.

He took one stone in each paw, and slowly drew them near the base of the flame. He had told himself a moment before that some singed fur was a small price to pay for what his Father wished him to do. He felt the heat of the flame on his fur as he placed the stones at the base of the flame, but it was a gentle, almost benign heat, whose light grew softer and fuller as the flame touched the stones. Tal put a paw on his shoulder and drew him back so his son could watch what Tal knew would come next..

The flame flickered, and seemed for a moment to pass into a pure white colour, and then as it fed from the Stones the young Skiltaire had handled, the flame seemed to pass thru every colour in the spectrum before mixing them in delicate tones to flare for a moment, and than burn with a deep and energetic fire that was peach coloured!!

He looked suddenly at his father, and then downward, to the pouch that hung around his neck. It too glowed brightly, with a seed of the coulored fire, but with a heat that came form more than flame! Once more, Tal saw the awed look on his son's muzzle.

The Carbon Stones come from deep inside the Kamiyama, he sent to his Son, continuing the gentle Teaching that had gone on over their morning meal. Now the Flame shall burn for a score of days untended, because you have put your energy into it thru the stones.

Why with that colour, My father? Hie Son asked.

Tal answered, knowing full well his Son already knew.

"Did not Master Han Teach you that all Kurushani have a colour onto themselves, One that is theirs alone to fire?" Tal asked aloud.

His Son nodded.

"In tending the flame, you have put your own fire into the flame. The Colour the flame reflects is the colour of yourself." Tal explained.

His Son looked slowly back into the heart of his fire. The Flame no longer seemed to be something so etherial, but something that had found a place inside him, and then into the heath he had kindled. It was a part of him, and somehow, he carried its heat and light inside him like an old friend, rather than something beyond himself.

After a moment of reflection, Tal led him away.

"Never become so taken into thine own fire that you forget to share its light, My Son..Come, we must get us down this Mountain, and back home. You have a Challenge to answer." Tal said, as he selected a few of his belongings and but them into a pouch.

In a moment, he was ready, and turned to the tunnel to leave
without pomp or ceremony.

"Tal?" he asked of his Father as he turned to leave.

"Yes, My Son?"

For a long moment, the younger Skiltaire was unsure how to ask what he felt, so he allowed his thoughts to sublime, and sent them all to his parent to feel.

Yes, it is difficult to depart this place, even for a while. He sent back. As you now feel, this peak casts a magic all her own. You are under her spell, even as I continue to be. It is the fate of all who Guard this place, be it with their bodies, or their hearts. Come, we must get us down.

Pangs of regret shot thru him. Tal was both correct, and practical. And if his regret at leaving was so deep, how profound must his Father's be, after knowing the wonders of this place for whole years at a time?

"I am sorry, My Father..I thought only of myself."

Ahead of him in the ascending tunnel, Tal smiled, where his son could not see. He let the look and the feeling behind it stand as his unspoken answer.

Father and Son emerged from the lodge. The Younger trotted over to the edge of the peak, and paused at the edge of open space, trying to feel the best was to begin his climb down from this lofty ground. He gauged the grade with a paw, and found that it could be stood on if one leaned the way he wished to stand. He braced himself, turned around, and prepared to step backward down the Mountain side. Only as he set himself for the first step downward did he notice Tal, who made no move to join his offspring, and looked at the young Skiltaire oddly. The look alone was enough to stop him in mid-step.

"Are you not coming down with me, Tal?" He asked aloud.

"Why must the young always choose the hardest way?" Tal lamented aloud to the breeze on the peak.

"Is there another path, My Father?" the Son asked in reply.

"Climb down her face again if you will.." He answered back. "But fair choose to let me guide your steps, and I shall show you the Mountain you have not yet seen." Tal added quietly. Silent and embarrassed at his impulsiveness, he pulled himself awkwardly over the summit, where before he had run, and trotted slowly to his Father's side. "Lead me home, Oh Guardian of the Kamiyama.." He said slowly, evoking the words that Tradition again demanded he speak.

"It is well." Tal said in reply. "Follow, and I shall bring you Home." Spoke the Guardian as Tradition dictated. Tal walked with deliberate slowness to a small opening partly hidden by stones in the up sloping part of the summit. He moved the stones easily, revealing a passage barely large enough for one of his imposing size to pass thru. Yet, as his Son watched in open muzzled awe, the Huge Savage slid easily into the opening in the rocks and vanished from sight as if he had never been upon the peak!!

A moment later a powerful send that seemed to come from the heart of the rocks touched his wondering mind.

Follow Along, My Son, and when you have passed thru the opening, replace the stones as they were before!!

The Second Son of Tal followed on a burst of pleasure and sudden surprise so complete, he nearly forgot his father's bidding about the stones. He knew this was well, because those of Savage Blood left no evidence of their passage for anyone to see, if they could help it.

As he slipped thru what seemed to be solid rocks into a narrow, steeply sloping tunnel capped by two hollowed out stones, he found there was enough room to turn about and replace the camouflaging stones. No enemy to come upon the summit a moment later would have any knowledge of who had been there, or better, who might watch and see every movement, hidden well by the rocks that were not stones!

This time, their would be no question about which path was the correct one. The narrow ledge upon which he stood seemed to be...Seemed to be..he wondered with surprise..Chiseled out of the very rocks...Just like those in the quarry!!

The Young Savage had a quiet moment of satori, and then raced
along the narrow, sharply sloping path to stand a paw's width behind his Father, who loped ahead and way down the pitch black pathway as if the inside of the Mountain stood at full noon, while his son still gauged every pawfall carefully to avoid a misstep!

As young eyes grew used to the low light, he could see Tal ahead of him by a distance, but never out of his sight,or thoughts. The slope of the pathway seemed to twist and turn as it descended sharply with each step he took. After long hours of work and play on the quarry steps, the young Skiltaire found the path beneath his paws to be much their like, and with each body length he walked, he let instinct add to his confidence, and wipe away his apprehension. After some time of serpentine twisting and turning, the brazen youth dared to try to keep a pace with his elder as they trotted steadily down the inside of a Mountain!

As they came down together, here and there along the hidden trail, he could see the darkness broken by shafts of light as the pathway passed near and often branched into the ancient volcanic vents that now seemed to honeycomb the vast Kamiyama. Yet, his sharp, youthful senses also told him that not all of these passages were hospitable. More than one of those the Skiltaire trotted past had air flavored like brimstone, here, none could breathe, and just as the Scrolls forewarned, they only led out into space, and then forever downward, ending only in the fiery heart of the mystical Mountain that was their's to hold.

Some part of him tried again to keep a tally of his altitude, but held in the bosom of the rocks, away and apart from the sun and sky, his senses knew only a world shaded in grey. Perhaps, he thought to himself after a time, it did not matter so much how high or low he was. Perhaps, this too, like many things of the Kamiyama, was a state of mind and spirit. Numbers knew only counting, Master Han had said. What was in mind and spirit passed far beyond them. Now, he came to know this lesson well, and would never forget its value. He cast numbers into the slight dust stirred by his paws, and in their place, commanded his senses and instincts to go out from him as they had before and draw upon his open mind a picture of this new place he was in..

The warmth of it struck him first. After long hours on the face of the Mountain, and the bracing air of morning on the summit, he had grown well used to the chill but refreshing touch of the peak. Secreted now in a part of the Mountain's body, he was sheltered from the wind, and closer to her volcanic soul... No extremes of temperature told him of the core of molten rock this Mountain tapped, but a gentle heat, filtered thru countless layers of rock touched the pads on his paws as he moved with sure quickness along the narrow pawpath cut from the edge of the rock.

There were sounds too, even in this confined space. His ears tracked Tal now, just one body length ahead of him in the grey black darkness. His Pawfalls were light and quick for one of his size and strength! As he moved in the shadows, the Younger Skiltaire's mind painted him a second picture of what it would feel like to hunt with One of his Father's prowess, and he chilled with the excitement and promise the mental image brought him. The other sounds he heard came together in his ears, to form a simple but moving melody for him to move to as he loped along...

Pawfalls...Four to a beat.. Seemingly a counterpoint to Tal's, but not without syncopation....

His own Breathing..Stili lite, and deep, The way Tal had shown him..

The subtle, almost unhearable sound of his coat brushing on the walls of the tunnel..

And finally, the soft, persistent sound that filled a part of his hearing he had never seemed to use before..His own heartbeat, softly pulsating in his ears..!!!

He took another moment apart from himself, to see his own form, and to test it slightly as he moved with steady energy down the path ahead. He had never taken any moment to appraise himself..He had never paused to feel the fine body that his Karakami had crafted with such loving slavery. It was odd, but only now, in motion, and in the midst of the heart of the mountain did the young Skiltaire first allow himself to feel his own well-balanced strengths..

He had always been the smallest of his peers..K'a'lia had never held him back from anything accounting for his frailty, but he also knew that his Mother had passed many a worried hour because of what he lacked in size and stamina. Yet, both Mother and Son had taught one another early in life that a strong spirit built many bridges where there where rivers needed crossing. Suddenly, as he moved on in the shadows, his mind past over another experience..The one that had been the seeds of his changing under Shyia' s tutelage...

He had no want or will to fight back when his peers beat him.
The shock and surprise he felt as their blows rained down on him had never allowed him to feel their pain. He still could not, and bore his peers no malice, for this was not the Way of Pridemates, yet,there might soon come a time when others, who doubted what he had found within himself, might again try to drive him away..

How ought he answer??

Battle?? He recalled the stunned reaction of his Karakami at the sight of the body that she had forged for him...His Mother's reaction was one he had always dreamed of, but it was Tal's open moment of absolute wonder that convinced him that the change in him was both real and profound.

Tal's stature among their people was nearly that of a legend. K'a'lia had sent to him many times during her still, quiet moments with her frail son that much might be expected of him one day because he was his Father's only surviving heir. Now, her thoughts rang back to him like a bellwether, as his mind raced ahead of his body thinking about what fate held for him in the valley that was now his second home. Seeing the power and grace of his father, he had come to realize quietly that his was a fighting stock, as sure as he lived. While he had no hunger for battle, especially with his own, nor anything as useless as a thirst for vengeance, His heritage and Savage Blood had been poured into a Samurai kata, and if battle for his place in his own Pride be his lot, he ought not shrink away from it.

His mind had turned to the worst possible outcome, and he forced himself to think of the alternatives, first because they were far more pleasant, and second because he had been taught never to do anything without looking at all the sides to a task. Shyia had given him that, along with his true body.

He had made friends on this quest of his..Firstmost, his own Father was a part of him again, and coming down at his side from the Sacred Mountain would be of great help to him. One glance from Tal could melt any who opposed him like the snow in high summer. His father thought enough of him to bring him down from the peak once it was his prize. Who would oppose that wordless gesture that spoke so highly of him?

Then, there was Ryokyo. Prince of the Kurushani. How that title and more befit the kind, wise young at soul Cat who was as much beloved by all of Astrel as his own Father. The Prince Regal was he to whom the young Skiltaire would have to approve what he had done. Coupled with the oath of Tal of the Kamiyama, who in all Kurusha would doubt what had been done?

And there was the Khan..Shen Dai Khan..The Great Khan...Not a title claimed by the mammoth snow Cat, but one bestowed freely on the forward thinking Monarch by the whole Kurushani People for his Leadership example. The Pack and belt that he wore had passed thru his paws, and had seen his climb upward as a silent partner, holding bits of his life for him while his paws had been filled with stones. Shen Dai Khan would know, even if everyone else failed to see what could not be seen. The Khan, who had stood where he had would feel the Kamiyama in him. That was his best and most fervent resolve.

His thoughts had gone so deep and ranged so far, that it took a mild shock from his instincts to slow down what had become a flat out run down the ledge and tunnel. Ahead of him, Tal had stopped, and waited for his wool gathering offspring to lope down the ledge to the spot where he waited.

My Son..! Tal sent to him on a booming wave that helped his thoughts return to the present. Yes, Father?

Do not race with fate. Fate always wins in the end. To ease your mind, I would have you to see something.

Yes, Tal? sent the junior Skiltaire as he loped up to join his father where the tunnel widened a bit. Tal indicated a passage to the left with a glance. Follow me, he sent clearly, and in no wise stray from where I bid you walk. The ground we are upon is both beautiful and fatal in her ways.

The youth understood, and allowed his Father to take a two step lead as Tal lead him off of the main passageway. The tunnel they walked in was another outlet vent, carved thru the rock of the peak ages ago by fingers of lava that had run thru the mountain while it formed from her volcanic soul.

He heard the sounds of rushing water not far ahead, and felt the air fill with a very fine mist.He also tasted a new taste upon his tongue..It was flavoured like the soil, strong and heavy upon his tongue. It was then he saw the first blue flashes. At first he thought them mere reflections from some body of moving water beyond. That opinion fell a few paces later as Tal led him apiece down a narrow ledge and out onto an overhanging rock larger than the lodge dug into the summit far above. With a sweep of his paw, father bid the son to stand back from the edge, and to look down over it into the pool below..

The Scrolls had spoken of it only in veiled poetry that the youth had thought to be rapture of the Mountain. But as the young climber cast eyes on the pool alive with flame that seemed to reach from the midst of the waters in endless riddle of fire and water, living together as one.

What think you, My Son? Tal asked from mind to mind, sensing his son's amazement and wonder at the spectacle of nature.

Fire and water..Two ends of the same thing. How is this so, my Father?

Senior and junior looked down together from their perch as the Guardian shared one of the Kamiyama's timeless wonders with his son.

Tal directed his gaze to what seemed to be a never ending stream of bubbles rising thru the water."Do you scent this place?" he asked his son.

Yes, Tal...Like old leaves and grass fallen in the mud to rot..

"It is well." Tal answered, momentarily proud of his son's trust to his senses.

It is a gas, My Son, he sent in reply. It is as clear as the air, so you see it not, yet, it lingers upon the surface of these waters, also filled with the gas as it passes thru the liquid. The heat of this place fires the gas in the water, but the water also tames the fire, so the fire lasts only a moment to see...Water that burns, as was written in the Scrolls. Guard this sight well, my son, and never forget that even opposites can find harmony and life in nature's Way. We of the Savage Blood are like as to the flame, burning brightly, but never out of harmony with nature which flows around us as water. Do you learn, My Son? he sent finally.

Yes, My Father. I must flow as the water, while never fearing to hold the flame, for both are as one in the flowing, He sent to his father.

Tal looked at his progeny with shining eyes and bowed deeply as they stood together upon the great rock. Seeing Tal bow to him made the youth unsettled, but he returned the gesture without lowering his eyes to his father.

Hold this lesson well when you stand again before your peers, Tal sent to his son as both loped slowly back to the main passageway and continued their decent.

Below them and climbing apiece up the face of the Mountain, Ryokyo paused on a familiar ledge. Both instinct and scent told both the Cat and the young female that the native stones had been moved gently aside!

At this, Shyia brightened, knowing full well that her rock had passed this path hale and well, and by the traces, not half a day before! For his Karakami, a greater gift could not have come from the barter treasures of the Khan! Ryokyo's Savage senses could also scent the stale signs of his illness, but this he kept to himself. After this point, the Prince knew the young questing Skiltaire would begin to feel the raptures of the thinning air. His climb would be slower, as it had been for him, but the rocks of the peak were hard and left few traces for them to follow.

He stood and watched the intrepid female who had come with him. She tried to make a gallant show of not portraying her own labored breathing, but in the end, the Kurushani Prince took her gently aside.

"Come, my Shining One..I shall show you in what wise to breathe upon this Kamiyama of ours." Ryokyo said to Shyia without tone of reproach. He admired the young Girl's stamina and ferocity of purpose. Others would have cried out in desperation for air many thousands of feet below! Indeed, she had the Mountain in her! Shyia fell to the new rhythm as if she had been born to it every day of her life! The Kurushani Samurai watched and admired as a half dozen breaths seemed to recharge the female Skiltaire and bring out of her a new reserve of spirit and vitality. In less than a moment, she seemed to him to be the very flower of a Savage, despite her half blood! When Shyia pounced again gently upon his snowy back, it was with a resolution and fire that made the Samurai wonder who might lead whom up the second half of the peak!

Fired by her driving spirit and restored by his own respite, Ryokyo gathered himself fluidly and sprang up the sloping rock face as if both the Skiltaire and the Lion had been shot from a huge cannon in the Valley below!!

As they walked along the inside of the heart of the mountain, The young Skiltaire walked in silence, but never without wonder at his surroundings. The Scrolls had never spoken of some of the places Tal knew so well. Yet, there was one memory of his climb up that left him both pained and puzzled.

Tal knew his question before he asked it, and bid his son to remember the crystal that hung around his neck, a priceless souvenir of this treasure house of wonders.. Tal paused in his tunnel walking to turn on his son, and swear him to secrecy before leading him again off of the steep path.

You have become a far way, My Son.. Tal's send was quiet this time, almost solemn. What You shall see now is meant only for Guardian Eyes to see. You have opened yourself to the Mountain, now she shall reveal her deepest secret to he who holds so much of the Kamiyama within him. Stand ready, and walk with me, My Son.

As they made their way step by step along a narrowed passageway, the young Skiltaire felt his fathers mental energy grow to a frightening peak, almost beyond ant that he had dreamed possible. He was more shocked a moment later when he felt that awesome energy place itself in harmony with his own, their pair of minds summing to create one of matchless energy and sending power never before imagined! A moment later, Tal and his son stepped into the fullness of the crystal cavern, and it was as if a nova exploded against their combined consciousness!!

The blast of radiant energy from the peak caught Ryokyo in mid leap, and Shyia was terrified to feel the huge young Cat buckle to the sloping rocks a moment later, roaring with all his being in what seemed to be agony beyond endurance!! She was so overtaken with terror that the backblast of psyonic force that swept her from his back felt dull, almost merciful in its agony as it reduced her to a quivering mass that almost felt like seeping away into the rocky face of the Mountain!! She too writhed uncontrollably on the rocks, a thousand voices from her body and beyond it, each screaming its own profound level of suffering as their two minds were swept over by the freed energy of two million more!!

Within the crystal cavern, it seemed to the young Skiltaire as if his body had ceased to be...He reached out with his mind and felt Tal near to him. Rather than stand and fight the sweeping tide that flowed outward, Tal seemed to seize hold of his son's consciousness, submerging and subliming it with his own as both stopped resisting the energy, and instead became together yet another drop that flowed outward with the energy of their world..

Then, in a no less explosive moment, it seemed to be no more..Or was it they who had ceased to be..together..??

They stood together, as they had the moment before..Tal could feel the ringing in his son's ears, as surely as in his own..Yet, his son was both warm and solid as he held him in his embrace, where mind and body had sought instinctive refuge at the last instant...Or was it..the first??

Tal thought gently toward his cowering son, and embraced him warmly, banishing all of his fear in a moment. Father and Son held each other, their minds shared one and at equal with the other, and the years of separation gone past as if only a moment in time!

Now, the Son knew without being told that the crystalline rocks, baked, formed and purified by ages of heat and pressure before the cataclysm had found their resonance in the mental energy of those who had come onto the peak. Each of the crystals within the lattice that lined the cavern was a storehouse..Matching psyonic energy with them..took energy..finding the harmonics....released it...

Yes, my Son..Now you understand the secret of the Guardians of the Kamiyama. Tal's send felt at home in the young Savage's mind as if they were his own thoughts. For generations, all Kurushani have placed a part of their energy into this peak. All Kurushani may draw upon some part of it. We who guard this ground may tap into it's sum...Two of our Blood have never stood together in this place, my Son...Until this moment..

Is that the reason that All who Guard the peak are Skiltaire of Savage Blood, My Father?

Yes..It is true...None but our minds might channel so much power, My Son.

The junior Skiltaire was so overcome that he barely noticed Tal was carrying him like a newborn, cradled tightly in his forelimbs as they walked out of the shimmering cavern.

Tal set him down again on the ledge carved into the rocks outside the cave. As his son groomed himself and became centered again, he saw the young Skiltaire look oddly at the pouch that hung around his neck.

It glowed with enough fire to light the spot where they stood as if it were noon!

My Father? He sent to Tal.

Yes, My Son?

You teach that the heart of the mountain holds energy from all Kurushani? He asked mind to mind as he held the pouch turned lantern in his paw as if it were brittle.

That is so. Tal sent back with a slight nod.

His son looked at the pouch long and deep, as if considering the riddle of his own life. After a moment, he sprinted past his father, running along the ledge and back into the great crystal cavern! Tal moved to go after him, but after a step he held his place.

In a moment, His son was back at his side, and the pouch was nowhere to be seen!

You could have kept your prize, My Son..The Mountain would not have been diminished..It is your rite.. Tal sent to his offspring as the loped quickly away from the cavern.

"If the energy flows from all the People, no one save a Guardian has the right to claim a part for himself." His son told the Guardian. "My crystal can wait. When I am a Guardian, of all the People, It shall find me again. I can wait." The young Skiltaire added quietly.

Tal loped on in silence, ahead of his son, tears of joy
flowing freely down his muzzle as he ran ahead, so his son could not see.

As they loped downward, matching one another stride for stride now, in a joyous test of themselves, both Skiltaire felt their shared minds touch a pair of others! It was Tal who came to the sensation first, as his Guardian instincts bid him know that two more had come onto the Mountain. One mind, the Guardian had known since his youth, but the other, he had never felt before, and instinct made him bristle.

Intruder..! he sent to his son on a powerful bolt of mental energy.

Instantly, the younger Skiltaire matched minds and power with his elder, and sent his mind flashing toward the strange presence. When their combined minds touched, the youth practically exploded with happiness!! Young paws moved to restrain the elder Guardian, who had moved ahead in the tunnel, poised to attack the strange one he felt on the rocks outside a nearby vent...

"Hold, My Father!" The youth both said and sent on a strong note of urgency. "She who draws near is all but my own blood." He said.

Impulsively, The younger Skiltaire darted around his father in a dead run for the passage up thru the face of the rock..!!

Wait! My Son!! The power of his Father's send nearly blasted the young Samurai off of his paws! He froze just short of the opening and held as still as death. Tal came up behind him, taking a small pebble in his paw. He motioned his son to move, and tossed the pebble past him, out of the mouth of the opening.

"Look well over the edge, and watch the stone.." he told his Son.

It was a long, cautious stretch out of the short vent, but he did as his Father bid him do. He watched in morbid fascination as the falling stone cracked a large hole in the surface of the seemingly solid snow pack, sending huge shards of ice, tens of tons of snow and the unfortunate pebble plunging into an ancient chasm that seemed thousands of feet deep!

The young Skiltaire drew in his head with a loud gasp, and turned an openly frightened muzzle to his Father!

Upon the Mountain, Tal sent to him calmly, one must learn to hear and feel a second time. Come, they are not there, but upon this path.

Tal walked slowly up to his offspring, and led him gently away from near death, to the path the pair had shared before. "Come along, My Son.." He spoke flatly, as if it had never happened."Guardians ought not keep their Prince and their Kin on the Mountain alone." He said as Tal loped ahead by the stride, leaving his son walking away by the slow pace from the vivid lesson he had learned!

The young Skiltaire broke into an easy lope to catch up with Tal as he led them expertly thru an interconnecting maze of tunnels and vents hewn in the volcanic rock so long ago that not even the first Kurushani could remember it. As he raced along the passages, he tried with all his will to touch the mind of his Karakami, but the bow wave of energy from the peak miles above him seemed to swallow his sending impulses almost before they could leave his head. Now he understood why you had to be able to see the other before you could send on the Mountain.

After a time, he wondered what Shyia's reaction would be, and took the role of a playful hunter, allowing surprise to become his weapon. Why announce their coming? It would seem all the more magical if the Hunters simply appeared before them!!

Tal stopped in the tunnel just ahead, holding up his paw to slow down his son's wide open run. Tal had played this game as well, and indicated with a silent gesture that his son ought to take a short tunnel off to the left. His son nodded, and sprinted with pure mustelid stealth. When he stopped at the very edge of the opening in the rocky outcrop ahead, he used his senses to hear Shyia's soft pawfalls on the rocks below...

Off to the right, a quarter of the tunnel away, Tal could gauge far more than the younger of the pair. Two sets of breathing, both with mountain rhythm..A single,powerful set of four clawed paws bit deeply into the rocks with a familiar scratching sound..Tal could almost hear the brawny muscles of the Prince flex and gather as the Lion leapt over the rocks with a grace and ease that belied his monumental strength.

A moment later, he heard his friend pause in his climb...That same moment, both Skiltaire stood ready...!

The prince of the Kurushani stopped where he stood in the craggy depression, gauging the next set of target points for his easy leaps. He cast a glance up and back and felt Shyia's warm and sleek form pressed tightly into the thick fur of his coat, her head breaking the wind by tucking her head under the thick fall of his mane. This young female, he thought to himself was quite unlike any other he had ever met. She had guile and courage in legion amounts and had shown herself fearless in their use. She was to be admired. Perhaps, he thought to himself again after a moments rest, he might ask Shen Dai Khan to--

His thoughts were broken by two shapes that seemed to spring
suddenly from the surrounding rocks! For a split second, pure instinct told him to attack, but instinct gave way to reason as a pair of sends touched the Cat's sharp mind.

HOLD, INTRUDERS!! Boomed a like pair of thoughts across the rocks and into their minds!

Shyia sat bolt upright from where she lay!! No amount of time-space or energy could disguise one of the senders from her own mind!!

MY OWN ROCK--!! Her galaxy eating mind sent in all directions at once. The power of the emotion behind her send made even the Prince's powerful psyonic mind wince for a moment, before Shyia modulated the thought that beamed to a place high in the rocks, where the first shape was well camouflaged. But no amount of nature's cover could keep a loving Karakami from feeling a proud cousin as he stood his ground opposite another huge figure and beamed down at them with a smile and send that was pure elation and unrestrained joy!!

Shyia wanted to leap from the prince's back straight at him, like a living missile aimed high at the rocks above. She crushed out the impulse and set her eyes to seeking any path at all up the stones that would bring the two together! Her sharp mind worked fast, but her kin moved faster, hopscotching a path down the escarpment as if he had spent all of his young life in these very same stones! Before Shyia could move, and almost before she could think another thought at all, The littlest Skiltaire was springing and lofting downward toward her! He hit the rocks near where they stood with the power of a cannonball and the resilience of a living spring, who seemed to bounce off the rocks and onto Ryokyo's back in less than a heartbeat!!

Shyia was swept up in a powerful set of limbs and launched high into the sunlit afternoon as if she weighed less than nothing! The movement was so spontaneous and strong that Shyia could draw in no breath to shout her happiness and relief!!!

She was caught a moment later by those same young, black paws she had helped to forge and caught up in a gentle hug that challenged her thick ribs not to crack under a loving squeeze, accented by a loving bite on the neck as he held her close and snuggled deeply into her soft, brown coat!!

"Chirp!" both said and sent to one another in the same instant, in a greeting so loving and profound that it defied any definition save the pure affection the two shared.

They melded into one another then and there, embracing on the back of a Prince, as Tal watched contentedly!

"Do you know this one, My Prince?" Tal asked with typical deadpan humor.

The Prince of the Kurushani smiled just a bit. "Which one?" he asked Tal matter -of- fact!

Their reunion seemed to wipe away altitude, wind, and the gathering cold. The Kurushani Prince led the way, opening thought links with everyfurry with an ease a Skiltaire would envy. Even in this lofty place, their were Traditions to be observed. Ryokyo let the young Skiltaire take the lead, and as aunt and cousin broke their embrace, he turned Shyia to face his Father.

Tal of the Kamiyama, she felt him send to the tremendous, strikingly handsome figure before her, I present to you she who is my Dearest Karakami, Shyia-San.

Shyia looked up at Tal with a steady, proud, gaze that betrayed no sign of intimidation or fear. The Shining One had never met Tal, but had spent many nites with K'a'lia wherein she had thought of no one else. She bowed slightly her eyes never leaving his, nor blinking.

Inwardly, Shyia's impression of him was passing quietly from respect to awe. More than three times her size and more than that in her weight, she fell under his fiery eyes, and felt the power behind them. In one head to tail sweep, it was as if the hunter had plucked up her spirit, held it up to his gaze, seen everything about her that ever had been and put it back inside her. He stood still for a long moment..

Shyia knew the Tradition. Any who did not belong here were the Guardian's meat. She was strong, but even the merest tap from his forepaw, even without claws, could wipe her away like morning mist on the wind. She stood before him unafraid, unwavering, and steady.

Tal reached out suddenly, grasping her in his iron forelimbs, and lifting her from the ground as if she wasn't even the wind! Shyia braced to hear her bones cracking as her body crumpled like paper as she fell toward death! She was stunned beyond thought as the mammoth blue-black Skiltaire swept her into his grasp like a newborn, nuzzling her with a powerful gentleness made of nips and touches that were the usual greeting for members of one's blood family!

The sound of his greeting "Chirp" carried the power behind his voice and spirit, and the gentle and genuine admiration that Tal already felt for the female who had more than earned her name!

When Tal set her back upon her own paws a full minute later, Shyia was so dizzy that she had forgotten to breathe! It took a deep hug from her cousin to break the strong, but gentle spell that Tal had cast on her! Shyia issued a soul deep,utterly contented sigh, and became so limp that the littlest Skiltaire had to hold her up for another full minute before Shyia found her paws or her wits about her! In the interim, both Skiltaire witnessed, thru hazy eyes, the reunion of Pride and Guardian, and a pair of friends whose inter-relationship went far beyond, Titles, Traditions, or trappings and had come to honest friendship, joy and caring long before the pair of Pridemates had stood in this place. Tal sprang at the gargantuan young Cat, almost as if by pure reflex. Ryokyo didn't lower his forequarters to meet him. Tal had done this leaping embrace before, and the Prince's size, statue, and station were no barrier to the Guardian's Skills.

Shyia and her cousin watched in utter amazement as the Skiltaire and the White Lion met in a hug that became a headlock, and dissolved in the same motion into a gentle wrestling match between them, ten thousand feet up the side of a Mountain! Their Prince had size and strength, but Tal had quickness and the added bit of will. Hanging on around young Ryokyo's neck, Tal slid downward, across his friends strong chest and thick crest fur. He Took a gentle pawfull of the snowy white fur to hold himself steady, and once anchored in the Cat's undermane, went to ferocious but gentle work massaging the Lion's huge rib cage with three free paws at once, and adding the constant tickling brush of Tal's tail to his friend's underbelly!

The Skiltaire saw the Cat stop suddenly, shudder just once with deep pleasure, and then collapse reflexively, spread eagle on the rocks under the sensation of the Skiltaire's paws! They were surprised to hear their Prince issue a slightly submissive "CHIRP!" to his old friend before the Guardian allowed him to sit upright again, returning his affection with a soft nuzzle, and the same tone of sigh that Shyia had issued only moments before!

Tal bowed simply, as if nothing at all had happened, and then permitted himself the barest trace of a smile!

"Hail to the Chosen Prince of the Kurushani, My Kamiyama is your home." Tal added with a flourish of speech.

The conversation dissolved into a patter of speech and
thought fragments, sent and spoken from every mind at once to every mind at once! After a moment, Tal overrode everyone into a moment of stillness, then he spoke aloud.

"Wait! My Pridemates..!" He fairly shouted. "The Sun marks the afterday, and the moon is rising. We may talk for days around the Pridefire, but now we must get us down home to Astrel." he said with quiet resolution.

Ryokyo nodded, knowing the wisdom of his friend's words. There was only one question remaining. The Prince took charge, solving it without issue or dispute.

"Tal, You shall take your kin thru the hidden trail to High Point." he said simply.

"And what of you, my gallant Prince?" Shyia spoke up, showing her concern.

Ryokyo returned her anxious look with a warm and openly affectionate smile. "Worry not of me.." he began. "The hidden trail is much too small for the like of me. I shall climb myself down over her rocks again. My Father waits at High Point, and there is much to say and do before tomorrow."

There was a moment of silence. The reunion had been such a
moment, that all, including the young climber, had forgotten what had brought them to this Sacred place, or what would have to follow on the morrow if his seeming success was to become real victory. The calm realization, spoken without emotion helped the group touch their common goal once more with gentle but renewed dedication.

The young Skiltaire took his Karakami gently by the paw, and with a limb around her middle, embraced her gently.

"Come, My Sweet Karakami.." He said with gentle modesty. "Let me show you Our Mountain."

Both Tal and Ryokyo shared an unseen but knowing nod of approval as the youth lead the whole group toward the vent turned tunnel.

Ryokyo walked with them as far as he could, and as he saw Tal's tail disappear into an opening in the rocks that seemed to disappear a moment later, the Kurushani Prince turned, reversing directions and sprinted over the rocks as if he had chosen to fly back to the meadow below!

Within the rocky passageway, the trio of Skiltaire came to a quick decision mind to- mind. Their day had but a few hours left, and another nite on the bare Mountain, while not fatal, would be most unpleasant, even within the shelter of the rock heart of the mountain, for both males knew the wind howled like a wounded animal thru these very openings in the rock.

The Young One had much he wanted to say to her, and show as well, but the safety of visitors to the Mountain was their responsibility. There would soon come another day when aunt and cousin could come to the peak again. As the Scrolls said, the Mountain would wait...

He let Tal take the lead down the sloping tunnel, because he knew the trails. Shyia followed him in the center, so as not to get lost as her eyes grew used to the darkness. In this case, there was no harm in following a female, for the young Guardian knew that between them, her steps would be safe and sure. And for the one he loved so dear, the young Skiltaire would have it no other way!

They seem to race down the Mountain together as Shyia made an admirable showing of keeping pace with the seasoned hunter. The three of them dashed along the path with such aplomb that only after a long distance did the younger Skiltaire notice that the carved out passageway did not incline as sharply as before beneath his paws!

There was little sense of time, there within the heart of the Mountain, but it seemed scarcely a score of minutes to him before Tal reached back with his mind to call a halt to his two guests. Ahead of him the carved trail ended abruptly, slanting almost vertically upward into a short vent. Since he had seen it's like upon the peak, the younger of the Savages knew now that this one also ended in a stone that was not what it seemed to be!

But the Senior Savage had within him another reason. He sent a special, quiet thought probe to the mind of the young female as the trio stood and waited in the passageway.

What you now see, you must forget. Tal the Guardian sent to the young female. What you have seen is the preserve of those who first climb up the Sacred Mountain. You can tell no one save your blood kin of what you have done, and you must never speak of the Trail that has lead you here. This is Our Law. Do you understand?

Yes, Oh Guardian..I swear it! Shyia sent back with deep and silent solemnity. She knew that her alternative was death where she stood if she had not taken an oath of silence, and such would be her fate upon Kurusha if ever she revoked her promise in the future.

"It is well." Tal spoke. "Now, let us return home." As the Guardian of the Sacred Mountain spoke, he reached his body upward, and using strength that only a Guardian could muster, moved aside the ancient rock that capped the opening of the passageway!

Tal went up first, as was both his rite and duty. He stood on
the soft green grass of the meadow and helped Shyia to pull herself from the heart of the rocks. She had braced for the chill fingers of wind she had felt upon the mountain, but she was greeted by the slightly warm breeze that marked a quiet nite on the Meadow! Instantly, she was at one and at home! Together, the elders waited for the youngest member of their group.

He came up gently, cautiously from the opening as he had seen his father do before him! Indeed he seemed to be learning and growing with every moment. Tal and Shyia exchanged hopeful and happy glances, and Shyia sent her elder a mental picture of a butterfly emerging from a cocoon as his Son pulled himself unaided from the passageway, to stand beside his Father as if the young Skiltaire had undertaken no more difficult a task than an easy romp to the Meadow from his home cave!

Both Tal and Shyia looked at him with eyes brighter than Pridefires, their hearts and powerful minds too filled with emotion to speak or send. The young Skiltaire looked at his elders strangely for a moment, and then turned to replace the stone cap over the tunnel opening. He shook the dust from his paws and made a move to lope down the hillside. When his elders made no move to follow, only then did he pause to look at the transfixed pair.

"Father, Karakami, What is wrong? Have I broken some Tradition?" He asked, with a rising note of urgency.

After a long moment, and a difficult, hard swallow, Tal spoke
quietly to his Son.

"No, My Splendid Son, you have broken no Tradition. You have become one. It is the Savage Way to stand in silence when one sees a wonder."

Tal took him gently by the shoulders, and embraced him deeply and lovingly. As he was lost in his Father's tender embrace, Shyia too, draped herself over them, joining as one in the embrace, and began to cry softly!

"Females--" Said Tal to his Son, struggling to keep his voice from breaking.

"Y-Yes.." He replied softly, a waver in his young voice. "They are always so emotional..!"

The trio turned as a group, still locked in mutual embrace, and walked slowly down the hillside toward home.

The next dawn was brighter and warmer than any they had known. Their new day had really begun under the nite's silvered moonlite as the young Skiltaire had seen his parents reunited in a moment of joy that he swore someday to carve into stone for the whole of Kurusha to share!

So when the PrideGround torches blazed with full fire at mid-day and the Young Skiltaire walked into the circle to stand before his Pridemates and his Khan, another fire altogether brighter than the torches burned inside him.

Before they fulfilled the ancient rite, the Leader of the Kurushani People paid the youth the full tribute of a bow as he entered the circle and took his place before Shen Dai Khan.

"Hear Oh Astreli..!" The Leader began, both speaking for the group to hear and sending them at the same time into every heart and head within his range. "He who stands before us this day is by a Challenge marked. He has set before his people and Pridemates a quest, to prove that the challenge be false. Who here shall approve of his deed?" Shen Dai Khan asked of the full company.

After a moment, the assembled Astreli saw their chosen Prince rise from his place at his Khan's left paw, and step down from the dais, to turn and stand beside the young Skiltaire at his right side. The Prince looked back at the Khan and bowed deeply.

"I do, My Khan!" Prince Ryokyo said and sent for all to know and understand.

Shyia looked over from her favored place in the circle toward the assemblage of her cousin's peers. She relished their fallen expressions as their hopes of revenge were crushed out like a stray ember from a firepit. In one wonderful instant, that vain, malicious hope flicked and died! But her Cousin's victory was not yet complete. She looked back at the Khan as he looked at both of them, and spoke again.

"Do you acclaim on your life and honor that this Quest is fulfilled?"

"Yes, My Khan..Upon the Honor of all Kurusha, I so proclaim it. He who stands before you, Second Son of Tal, has become up to the Summit of the Sacred Mountain, as he swore before you to so do."

The future Khan paused in his answer, to allow a murmur of
awe to trickle thru the assembled Pride.

Shyia's joy broadened with her smile. Far better than any physical punishment, her rock's detractors were being crushed under the one avalanche even they could not escape.

Astreli Honor and Pride bound Tradition.

These hurt them now more than any physical blow, and they
were a thousand times more crushing.

"It is in Order." Spoke the Khan. "Is there any challenge to his standing?"

Shyia was tense for a moment. Even now, if any said nay, the only resolve would be battle.

Prince Ryokyo stepped back up to his place on the dais, so as not to intimidate ant challengers. His young friend would have to fight his own battle, if battle was his lot.

Shyia felt her stomach knot. For a long moment, there was no sound save the soft wind and the flickering flames of the torches. Toward the back of the assembled Pride, Shyia kept an even gaze on each of his peers.

Slowly, and one at a time, they came forward to look upon the fine, wild Savage who held his place before Khan and Pride...

..and each in turn bowed, dropped their eyes, turned and walked away!

On the far side of the circle, Shyia saw Tal and K'a'lia embrace and share a warm nuzzle and a proud look at the newest member of the Pride of Astrel!

But for the Young Skiltaire who stood forth, there was a more important matter.

"How shall you be called, Second Son of Tal?" Asked his Khan with an approving nod of his stately head.

"Oh Great Khan, I am born of the Stones upon the Sacred Mountain. And Those whom I love best have acclaimed me their Rock. My I become as Solid and Steady as the Kamiyama, Symbol of the People that I cherish, and remain as simple and Savage as the Stones from which I found a path to follow. I would that My Khan and all of Our People call me as what I am. Roci Stone."

"So mote it be!" Ordered the Khan. "You have fulfilled your quest, Roci-Sama. What can a Khan offer you from the heart of the People in Gratitude?" The Leader of the Kurushani asked.

His question was a shock and unexpected delight. A request such as this was usually given only to those who brought an extra measure of Honor to the Pride. He knew the Tradition, but never expected to apply it to his own wishes! True to his new name, he betrayed no emotion, but the thought pulse that touched Tal, K'a'lia, and Shyia in turn as they moved to the inside edge of the crowd to stand together made each of them tingle all over!!

Roci knew that he was entitled to whatever time he needed to consider his request. It could be any amount of goods of barter, any task or position he wished, or anything he could do for any of his Pridemates or kin..

For his kin..Yes!! he screamed to himself, suppressing his body's urge to quake at the delight that his thought brought to him! He took another moment, weighing each word as if his life hung in the balance, and then spoke, quietly and evenly, his wish to the Khan.

"My hope has two parts, Oh Khan.." He began slowly.

Shen Dai Khan nodded easily, listening intently with eyes agleam.

"For My Father, a time to be with his mate again. They have had less than a moon together since my birth. For my Mother, a Mate and A Guardian as well, and for myself, a Father, who may school me in the Ancient Ways of Our Savage People."

Roci looked over at his parents, and could see both of them deep in embrace as they struggled to hold back tears. Then he looked back in hope at His Khan.

"Master Han, Stand Forward!" called the Leader of the People.

The huge Skiltaire, once again resplendent in iron armor, helmet and bow, walked forward, stood before his Khan, and drew his katana holding it aloft in the ancient salute.

"Hail and long life to the one Khan." He repeated the ancient Astreli greeting, and then stood rock still, absolutely ready to carry out the will of his Khan.

"In fulfillment of the wish ye have heard spoken by Our Pridemate, we ask you to go onto the summit of the Sacred Mountain, There to abide for ten moons in Stewardship of our Kamiyama."

"Aye, My Great Khan..I swear it with my body, life and soul."

The gravity of what his Khan had done with such quick and commanding ease awed Roci to the soul. Yet, he was troubled, and moved to speak.

"I thank the Khan beyond price or measure of my spirit. But this is too much done. Who shall educate the young?" Roci asked in open wonder.

"You have spoken well, Roci-San. Can you call your Shining Karakami to stand before us?" The Khan asked his newest Pridemate. Slightly stunned and unsure what to do, Roci walked to the edge of the throng, and lead Shyia out by a paw so that the openly shocked female could stand with him before the Khan of all Kurusha!!

The mammoth Khan looked down and smiled warmly at the Skiltaire. Shyia felt a steadying, re-assuring finger of energy touch her mind. It helped to keep her from falling over!

"Master Tal shall assume the Training duty to our young. This is an Honorable Task, but a large one. He shall want of help from time to time. Will you assist him, for Our sake, Please?"

Shyia was absolutely speechless. The best she could manage was a dazed nod as Roci caught her around the middle!!

"It is well." said the Khan finally. "We should like to hear of you all from time to time as we tend affairs of the People. Know you have the favor and lasting Gratitude of the Khan.."

Shen Dai Khan paused in his words and cast an odd look at the Skiltaire. Shyia had steadied herself by locking eyes with Ryokyo! They were both beyond his hearing, so he sent a thought into their communal minds.

And, I believe, much for the better, the attraction of the Royal Prince!

Thought the Khan to the Skiltaire and his adopted son. After a moment, his father leaned gently into the Prince, lifting the haze, but not breaking the spell.

"Are you well, My Son?" The Khan asked with a trace of a smile.

"Very well indeed, My Father!" Prince Ryokyo replied. "Is there room at our Feast table for one more guest this evening, My Father?" The Kurushani Prince asked with a hopeful tone in his ringing voice.

"So mote it be, My Son..So mote it be!"

As the last of the shared images faded from his consciousness, Bill needed all his strength to bring his eyes open slowly, breaching the cocoon of warmth that had wrapped him gently.

Both Skiltaire looked at their Pridemate, sharing a moment of concern.

Bill's senses told him that he was ringing wet, both his shirt and the chair back drenched in perspiration, while his face was drawn tight with the traces of the tears that had flowed so easily. The Human could not see himself, and in that singular moment, did not care if the whole world saw him, nor what they would think if they did.

He was tired of body, for reasons he did not know, but the fire which blazed within his mind and heart seemed to dry and warm him all at once.

He spread his arms limply, in a gesture whose meaning was universal. Both Shyia and Roci sprang litely from the chair opposite, into Bill's lap! The venerable old chair protested with a slight squeak as the weight it bore more than doubled, but held firm as the Man wrapped an arm around each Skiltaire, gazing at both with a wonder the astronomer reserved for the stars!

The creak in his neck vanished under a gentle massage of paws, and after another moment of warm contentment, he looked at the aged clock over the gaudy brass lined front desk. Quarter to three..

He never looked at the time before their odyssey had begun, so he would never be able to gauge how much time had passed between them, and was left in silence, wondering if time, as he had known it until this evening, would ever pass between them again!

At length, He had an urge to pick them both up, but as he rose from his chair, he knew and respected Roci's feelings about being carried if he could walk. Now, Bill understood why. Shyia had no such feelings. She wrapped herself around his neck, and across his chest as he walked toward the elevator.

The Humans upstairs had given up on their "Furry Party" more than an hour before, and as Bill came into the dark and silent room to curl up in a secluded corner with Shyia, Roci, and the sweetest dream he would ever relive, Bill felt a sudden spike of pity for the Humans. Perhaps someday, he thought for Shyia and Roci to feel, these poor Humans would come to learn the real definition of "Furry Party"

(FIN)