Culture Shock
Swift leaned forward against Nightrunner’s back as the aging wolf took her over the sun-bleached rocks. The long-shanked ravvit was a slippery one, but Nightrunner was on the trail, and any moment now they would flush that hopper out into the sun.
“Swift!”
Puckernuts! Swift slowed Nightrunner to a prowl and cast a glance over her shoulder. Rayek appeared over the crest of the hill, visibly out of breath. Gasping, Rayek raced over the rocks towards her. Swift heaved a sigh and reluctantly tugged on Nightrunner’s fur.
“Swift! Have you no sense at all? The child–” he bent over to draw breath. “Have you completely forgotten about the child?”
She glanced down at her swelling breasts and stomach. Her cotton dress was stretched as tightly as her skin after her most recent weight gain. “Actually, lifemate, it completely escaped my mind. Thank you for reminding me.”
Rayek summoned a tight smile. Swift’s sarcasm was growing with her waistline. She was at most another eight-of-days away from labour, and his patience with his young lifemate’s ways was now wearing very thin.
Swift sighed. Even after two turns of the seasons, Rayek had many things to learn about Wolfriders. “Look. My mother rode on her Shadowsheen until the very day she gave birth. Nightrunner needs his exercise, and so do I. You know I can’t just sit around in shade for days on end, even if I am as fat as a zwoot.”
“But the child... suppose it came right now?”
“So? Honestly, Rayek, you Sun Folk fret too much. Cubs come when they come. My own mother was born under a tree, for Freefoot’s sake! Wolfriders have been having cubs inside their dens and out for years.”
“But this is my child!” Rayek exclaimed, exasperated.
Swift bit her lip. “Ah... yes, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.” She slipped off Nightrunner’s back. “You see... the day after you and I... on the Bridge of Destiny, well I guess it didn’t take, because the very next night I Recognized Skywise – so... um...”
A sudden flutter of his right eyelid was the only emotion Rayek showed. He stared at Swift for a moment, and then slowly began to smile. “Actually, this solves everything. You see, only three days ago I Recognized Leetah... and I didn’t know how to tell you, but–”
Swift chuckled. “Uh-huh...” she gave him a glare, then sidled up alongside him and wound her arms about his shoulders. “Leetah, huh?”
“Uh-huh.”
She kissed him lingeringly, then smiled against his lips. “I had you going for a moment there.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Yes, I did.”
“And if I say you did, will you come home?”
“Home to the giant upside-down clay pot?”
He kissed the upturned tip of her nose. “Yes, the giant clay pot.”
“All right, hop on.” She turned back to Nightrunner and climbed astride the gray wolf.
Rayek lingered on the rocks. “Uh... you know how well Nightrunner and I get along, Tam. I should probably return on foot.”
“Rayek, you zwoot’s ass! You’re exhausted. Even mountain lions get winded. Now climb on behind me. I promise we won’t be too rough. But if you’re still afraid of the wolves–”
Rayek flashed her an icy glare. “I can ride your jackal as well as anyone else.” He climbed astride Nightrunner and wrapped his arms about her, just above the swell of her belly. Swift gave Nightrunner a little nudge in the ribs. The wolf started home at a gentle pace, and gradually Swift felt the tension ease from his arms.
Swift slapped the side of Nightrunner’s neck and the wolf broke out into a full run. Rayek cried out in shock and hung on for dear life. Swift laughed loud, and her voice echoed off the rocks.
Leetah stormed up to the mouth of the Wolfrider caves, a Sun Folk couple and their young child in tow. “Oho, here she comes,” Treestump sighed. He glanced back into the cave. “Strongbow, Moonsbreath, they’re coming.”
Moonsbreath shared a glance with the archer, and they both rose from their tasks. They met Leetah and the Sun Folk at the cave mouth. Moonsbreath’s expression was vaguely penitential, but Strongbow glared defiantly at the Sun Folk.
“You know Seelah and Shendar,” Leetah growled. Moonsbreath nodded. The couple were typical Sun Folk. Shendar was a slight man with black hair bluntly cropped just below his earlobes. Seelah wore simple cotton garments and covered her braided hair with a straw hat much like her mother Minyah’s. Seelah carried their son Turin in her arms. Moonsbreath winced at the sight of the long red scar that ran the length of the five-year-old’s arm.
“Look what your wolf did to my son!” Shendar thundered. “Turin was playing with Woodlock’s daughter when the your wolf came running over. He was wrestling around with Newstar and Turin thought to try to pet him–”
“Her,” Moonsbreath said.
“What?”
“My wolf Mistmoth. She’s female.”
Shendar curled his lip back. “What does that matter? The point is your wolf turned around and sunk her teeth into my son’s arm. Look at that wound! My son was screaming for hours.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t heal the wound completely, Leetah,” Moonsbreath said. “Do you need Rain’s help?”
Leetah balled her fists. “I need no one’s help. I didn’t heal the scar because I wanted you to see just what your beast did to the boy.”
Strongbow raised an eyebrow. **Typical,** he sent.
He did not need to voice his thought. It was plain enough on his face. Leetah glared at him. “You dare judge me, archer, when you let your beasts run wild to attack the children of my village! And if you have something to say, do me the simple respect of speaking to me.”
“I don’t waste my time of ravvits,” Strongbow hissed, his voice raw.
“Look here,” Treestump spoke. “We’re very sorry about what happened, but what I want to know is where were you two when Mistmoth bit the child?”
“We were at work in the fields,” Seelah said. “I left Turin in my mother’s care. I didn’t think I needed to protect him every moment. You assured me that your mounts were tame.”
The three Wolfriders bristled. At length Moonsbreath licked her lips. “ ‘Tame’ is not a word we use. Our wolves’ hearts and minds are free. They keep to their own way. I’m very sorry that Mistmoth bit Turin, but she only acted on instinct. As I understand it, Turin seized the hair on Mistmoth’s neck and pulled quite sharply. She was caught by surprise and reacted as any wolf would; she lashed out with her teeth. If Turin was a wolf-pup, he would have received nothing more than a little bruise. Unfortunately, in the heat of the wolfsong, they cannot always made judge between a wolf and an elf.”
Shendar recoiled. “And you let your own children play with these... beasts?”
“They are not beasts,” Treestump said. “They are our friends... our bonds. Yes, our children learn to play with wolves. They learn the ways of bonding with wolves. And yes, now and then there is an accident.”
“An accident? Your wolf could have killed my son!”
“Mistmoth never would have seriously hurt your child.”
“Your definition of hurt seems to differ from ours,” Leetah said coldly.
“Look,” Treestump said. “We’ve said we’re very sorry. What more do you want from us?”
“We want you to keep your... your animals out of our village! This isn’t the first time this has happened. First Vurdah is bitten by Skywise’s wolf. Then one of your wolves killed Tanah’s pet cat. Your wolves destroy our gardens and harass our zwoots. And now they are preying on our children. We’ve all had enough. I don’t want to see any of your wolves inside our village bounds.”
Treestump shook his head. “And how are we supposed to do that when Rainsong and Woodlock live in a hut in the village – and now Rayek is building a hut for Swift and himself? Are they all supposed to leave their mounts in the hills?”
“That’s exactly what they are supposed to do.”
“Who are you to dictate to us?” Strongbow rasped. “We don’t take orders from shivering fawns.”
“This is useless,” Shendar said. “Where is your chief? We will take matters up with her.”
Strongbow rolled his eyes. **Would that we knew.**
Zhantee and his fellow clay-workers were hard at work putting the finishing glaze on the mud brick walls of the new hut as Rayek and Swift walked down the lane.
“Hello, Rayek,” Zhantee called. “Don’t worry, the hut should be all ready within another day or two.”
Swift leaned against Rayek’s shoulder. **Do we really have to live in a hut?**
Rayek’s slipped his arm around her waist. “I’m willing to put up with a lot, barbarian, but I will not have our kitling living out in the wilderness.”
“You lived out in the wilderness.”
“I’m not a newborn.”
“A newborn Wolfrider.”
**Mm, well, I’ll do my best to overlook that.**
“I heard that, you know.”
“At least my sending is improving.”
Rayek parted the heavy hide curtain and ushered Swift inside their darkened hut. The two had lived quite comfortably in their cave until Swift’s pregnancy began to show. Suddenly Rayek evolved into an archetypal Sun Villager, scorning the open winds in favour of circular walls and a roof. It had been all Swift could do just to keep fur blankets on their raised platform bed and deer hide instead of beads as a curtain.
“How are you feeling?” Rayek asked as he lit one of the little candles.
“My back hurts a little.”
“A massage?”
“No, I think I’ll just lie down. But if the cub starts kicking my bladder again I’ll need your help to get up again.” Swift eased herself down onto the bed. “Thank the High Ones you didn’t have them build a pit bed like some of the others have. I’d never get up. Oomph.”
Rayek hastened to her side and plumped a pillow for her. “I swear you’ve tripled in size since the last full moon.”
“Thanks, black-hair,” she drawled dryly.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d ask if you Wolfriders regularly have litters like your mounts.”
Swift stretched. “Mm, or four legs. I can’t tell half the time whether the cub is punching or kicking. Never seems to stop. We’ll have quite the little warrior on our hands, I think. Ohh... be born, be born. I don’t think I can stand to get much bigger. My skin just doesn’t have any more give left in it.”
Rayek stretched out on the bed next to you. “I hope the Wolfriders will forgive you for not checking in with them.”
“No, you don’t,” she teased. “You hope the elders will be furious, and you hope I’ll give them all a tongue-lashing and tell them that I’d throw them off the Bridge of Destiny before I’d miss on moment with you.”
“Have I been that unbearable, Tam?”
“Yes, you have,” she tapped her nose to his. “You’ve become positively insufferable lately, trying to convert me into a little Sun Folk maiden who stays up all day and sleeps through the night.”
“And you have been the most thick-headed barbarian, running around on your wolf or hunting bristle-boars down the gulches in the middle of the night. I had hoped that you would show a little more... restraint as motherhood approached.”
Swift sighed. “We could continue like this for days.”
“We have.” He rolled onto his back. “For days and days.”
“Recognition doesn’t solve everything, does it?”
“Not particularly.”
Swift smiled wryly. “At least we haven’t tried to kill each other for at least a year. I know it hasn’t been very easy for you, Rayek. But you can’t coddle me. You always said the reason you loved Leetah for so long was because she was the only woman had more substance than a handful of thistle-down. Well, Leetah is nothing compared to me.”
“And well I know it.”
She snuggled up against him. “You know I love you, Rayek. And I belong to you. But I belong to the Way as well.”
Rayek nodded reluctantly. The past two years had taught him that fact well. He could not hunt with the other Wolfriders if he chose to paralyze his prey with his gaze. He could not keep Swift if the tribe needed her. And if she wanted to go riding on Nightrunner, there was little he could do to stop her.
“Tell me the Way comes second, at least.”
“Of course.”
“So... if you had to choose between the Wolfriders and me...”
“Well, if you were the one who was asking, then obviously you’re not the elf I fell in love with...”
“But if Strongbow told you to leave me or give up the chief’s lock?”
“I’d beat him to nutmash and keep you both.” She kissed him lightly. **I know what you fear, Rayek. But the years of loneliness are over. You have me now, and the day will never come when I’ll ever be forced to choose between you and the tribe.**
Rayek smiled softly. “Perhaps I am a little... anxious.”
“Impending fatherhood?”
“More than likely.”
They lay together in the dim candlelight. A distant sending brushed across Swift’s awareness, rousing her. Rayek heard it too, though he could not make out the words.
“The tribe?”
“Another disaster, more than likely. Could you help me up?”
Rayek eased her out of bed. “I don’t suppose you could teach them some self-sufficiency?”
“Don’t really. Besides, I have to go again. Cursed cub.”
Skywise and Rayek sat by the horn of the Bridge of Destiny, watching the stars slowly appear in the sky. Skywise handed the hunter some dreamberries. “Relax. It will be a while. Leetah and the parents are howling for blood. I don’t think Swift will be able to make peace between the tribes for a while.”
Rayek popped a few berries in his mouth. “Mm. I can understand their anger. The desert jackals and the mountain lions threatened the villagers for years before I became their defender. And to our eyes wolves and jackals are nearly one and the same. And if Nightrunner ever takes a bite out of our cub... well... I can understand.”
Skywise chewed on his own dreamberries. “Mm... I just don’t know why the Sun Folk parents can’t take the time to teach their cubs a few manners. I’m sure Grandmother’s wolf wouldn’t have bitten the cub if he hadn’t caught her by surprise.”
“So, why did you bring me up here, silver-hair?”
Skywise pointed to the night sky. “I wanted your help. I’m been picking the star I want to give your and Swift’s cub. And I’ve pretty much decided that if it’s a girl she’ll have that star there.” He indicated a large blue star. “But if it’s a boy... well, I can’t decide. Either that little one there,” he pointed to a bright star that seemed to pulse red-and-yellow in short little bursts, “or that other one there, just below the Human Hunter,” he indicated a white star. “And I want to surprise Swift, so I thought I’d ask you which one you’d like.”
Rayek scrutinized the two stars. “I think... I prefer the red star.” He looked up. “What about that star there.” He pointed to a large white star near the Hub of the Great Star Wheel. “Does that one belong to anyone yet?”
“It sure does! That’s my mother’s star, so paws off.”
Rayek smiled wryly. “Fair enough. Actually, Skywise, I’m glad we could speak now. The child will be born within a few days... Blood of Eleven Chiefs, if I understand your custom.”
“Mm-hm.” Skywise chewed another dreamberry. “ ‘Xcept she.. or he, will be just called Blood of Chiefs until he or she actually takes on the chief’s lock.”
“Interesting. Your kind are somewhat more than barbarians sometimes. But as I was saying, my child will be the next Wolfrider chief. And I’m certain all the Wolfriders will be doing their best to teach the child all about... the... um... ‘Way.’ But... you are Swift’s soul-brother, and that means you will be the child’s uncle.”
Skywise smiled. “Aww. Uncle. Hey, you don’t know what that means, black-hair.”
“You’re a different sort of Wolfrider, Skywise. You look at the stars and wonder what it would be to soar among them as the High Ones did. You want to be something more than simply what you are. It is a gift most of the Sun Folk lack – and a gift most of your kin lack as well. I suppose what I am saying, Skywise is... I would appreciate it if you were to help my child grow up under your Way, as opposed to... say... Strongbow’s Way.”
Skywise chuckled. “I’ll do my best.”
The two sat silently for a moment longer, watching more stars appear in the sky. “You realize, of course,” Rayek said, “that I will be teaching the child to hate you.”
“Of course. And I’ll be doing my best to turn her against you.”
Rayek gave him a ghost of a smile. “Glad we understand each other.”
Swift lounged outside her new hut. A large awning had been erected for her to rest in the shade, and she struggled to get comfortable as Shenshen and Pike constantly readjusted her pillows. The midwife and the howlkeeper had become quite the sweet lovemates in the last few years, though they didn’t limit themselves to the one pairing.
“So did you finally reach an accord with Seelah and Shendar?” Shenshen asked.
“Finally,” Swift sighed. “The wolves will stay on the village outskirts during the daylight hours, at least. Your sister wasn’t all too happy, but then she seldom is these days.”
Shenshen snickered.
Pike yawned. “The two tribes really have been snapping like rival packs, haven’t they? Especially the elders.”
“Why?” Shenshen asked. “We’ve all been getting along so well the last two years. Why is everything making everyone so ill-mannered now?”
“It’s the baby. The Wolfriders are very anxious. It’s making them jumpy as deer in the rutting season. And those among the Sun Folk who have never quite understood us... well, I daresay they’re picking up on all the worries.”
“Why, Swift? Why are your people so nervous?”
Swift smiled at the midwife. She had come to view Shenshen as a good friend. She had been one of the first of the Sun Folk maidens to reach out to the Wolfriders, and now that Swift’s labour was imminent, she had come to the decision of letting Shenshen preside over the birth.
“It has to do with the nature of the Wolfriders, Shenshen. You must have heard by now that we are descended from Timmorn Yellow-Eyes, the son of a shapechanged High One, who first learned to bond with wolves.”
Shenshen nodded.
“We are all descended from Timmorn Yellow-Eyes, and because of that we all carry a few drops of wolfblood in our veins. This is why we can bond with our wolves, why we can see by night when you can’t and pick up scents that you can’t. You know how your folk weren’t sure at first whether we were really elves? Don’t feel bad; at first we weren’t certain you were elves either. We are of the same race, but our natures are different. And the Wolfriders – especially the elders – are worrying what nature my cub will have. Will it be a perfect mixture of both natures, or will it be more Sun Folk, and less Wolfrider?”
There was another matter intricately bound to the question of “nature”, one Swift did not feel comfortable discussing with the midwife. There was the matter of soulnames. Though Swift had done her best to keep it a secret, many of the Wolfriders knew or suspected that the Sun Folk – save Savah, perhaps – had no soulnames. They guarded their most private selves through sheer will; there was no special word-sound-concept blocking the doorway as with Wolfriders.
It had been a little hard for Swift at first. She had searched desperately for some hidden name inside Rayek’s psyche. For a Wolfrider to be without soulname was a nightmarish concept. But in time Swift had come to accept that Rayek was simply Rayek – albeit a far more... luminous Rayek than anyone else ever realized. She doubted the others would ever understand – not unless they in turn shared souls with one of the Sun Folk.
What if their cub had no secret name? What if Swift peered into her baby’s eyes and heard no sound calling back to her? She had come to appreciate the simplicity of Rayek’s silent nameless soul, but she feared to confront such silence in her own infant. And if it was silence she found, could she keep the secret from the others, or would her worried eyes betray her? The subject was so private no one spoke of it, but Swift knew everyone was secretly brooding on it.
Longbranch once told her long ago that the mother’s communion with her infant in the birthsong had begun during the days of the Hunt, those primarily lupine firstborns of Timmorn who were often incapable of melding with the growing Wolfriders. A lack of a soulname often meant a child was too much wolf to even find its place in the tribe. Sometimes it meant the child’s two natures were too poorly blended for the infant to even survive.
Could the Way really stretch to accommodate a Blood of Chiefs with a silent soul?
“Does it matter?” Shenshen’s question called her back to the Now.
“Not to me. But to some... I think it does. This will be the first child born of the joining of our tribes – I hope it isn’t the last. If the baby has no wolfblood... no wolf’s senses... I think it will be a little difficult for a few.” She shrugged. “I suppose some – Strongbow, Moonshade, One-Eye, Moonsbreath, even Eyes High... they are worried about losing the Way out here in the desert. I saw Moonshade give me such cold looks when I started wearing these cloth dresses. It didn’t matter to them that Ahnshen’s cloth feels better right now. It didn’t matter that Rainsong and Woodlock and even Eyes High herself are all wearing cloth as well. It matters that I am the chief, and I am dressing like a Sun Folk. And while Rain and Rainsong are quite content to sit back and let you deliver the baby, a few of the others are growling under their breaths.”
Shenshen shook her head. “I still don’t really understand.”
“Neither do I, really. But then I can’t really understand why Rayek is so intent on domesticating me. This hut, his running out to pull me home every time I sneak off to hunt–”
“He’s just being overprotective,” Shenshen said. “He likes to have everything under his control. And you Wolfrider maidens are like nothing any we’ve everseen. Hah – remember that time you wanted to test your skill at the Trial of Hand?”
Swift laughed. “I still don’t really understand what all the fuss was about.”
“Swift! You were pregnant! If you had fallen badly–”
“It was less than a moon-dance after we Recognized! The baby was so tiny I don’t even think it noticed. Besides, I didn’t fall, did I?”
“No, but Rayek couldn’t sit down without wincing for a good eight of days,” Pike chuckled.
Shenshen giggled. “You know, we’ve all seen such a different side of Rayek since you came here. I couldn’t imagine Rayek having a child two years ago. In fact, I always imagined that if he and Leetah Recognized, I’d feel sorry for the cub. But now... oh, don’t tell him this, either of you. But he is so sweet now! I can’t wait to see him holding that little one in his arms.”
“Ah!” Swift cried out. She shifted on the pillows.
“Kicking?”
“And punching. And clawing, and... ohhh. You’ll see, Shenshen. I’m going to give birth to some deranged monster with six legs.”
Shenshen sat up as she caught sight of Leetah heading towards the hut, flanked by Jarrah and Ingen. Leetah carried a full jar of water in her arms, while Rayek’s parents carried wrapped bundles. “Well, shade and sweet water, sister. What brings you by?”
“I thought I would walk the soon-to-be-grandparents over here and see how the child is doing.” Leetah glanced down at Swift. “How are those ankles, Swift? I do hope they haven’t swollen any more.”
“I’m fine, thank you, healer,” Swift hissed out.
Leetah set the water jug down. “I thought I might bring you a little extra for your own cistern. You have to keep up your thirst quenched in this heat... even if it will not help your figure.”
Subtle, Swift thought. “Mm... thanks for the concern. Jarrah, Ingen, I hope you don’t mind if I don’t rise to greet you.”
“Of course not,” Jarrah sat down next to Swift. “I remember how hard it was to get about when I was heavy with Rayek. Where is your mate, anyway?”
“Hunting. I have such a craving for quail, and as soon as he found out he was off again. I’m afraid he’ll be so tired by the time the baby comes that he won’t be able to enjoy the first few days.”
“Ah, I don’t think you need worry,” Ingen laughed. “He will summon all manner of strength if he must, but he won’t miss a minute. I’ve never seen him like this before. He is... possessed.”
“He will make a wonderful father,” Jarrah said. “Your kitl– your cub – will never lack for love.”
Leetah raised an eyebrow. “I’ve learned to be wary of such love.”
“Leetah!” Shenshen hissed. But Leetah continued as though she hadn’t heard.
“Rayek’s love is like a dark shadow... like a brush-fire. It is all consuming. I fear it will demand more strength than that child has. I fear he will wear himself trying to please his father.”
“Leetah!” Shenshen snapped. “Great Sun, sister, how can you–”
“It’s all right, Shenshen,” Swift held up her hand disarmingly. She smirked up at the healer. “Leetah is quite right. Rayek’s love is like fire. Many’s a time I’ve worn myself out trying to keep up.”
Pike chuckled. Shenshen hid her smile under her hand. Leetah clenched her fists, blew air out between her lips, then spun on her heel and stalked off. Shenshen and Pike erupted into laughter. Even Jarrah tittered a little.
“Ah, she needed that,” Shenshen said. “My sister’s been such a sour fig lately. I only hope she will return to normal once the kitling’s born.”
“Leetah is... a difficult tribemate sometimes,” Jarrah sighed. “She and Rayek were never well-matched. I’m glad to see Recognition found a better mate for my son. Ah, here, we brought you some gifts for you new home. Some new toys for the kitling,” she nodded to Ingen, and he reached down to hand Swift his bundle. But before Swift could unwrap it, Jarrah gleefully plunked her own bundle in Swift’s lap. “And I brought you a gift for your new home.”
“Oh... Jarrah...” Swift stammered as she pulled back the folds to reveal a multiple strings of enamelled beads. “It’s... such fine beadwork. I... I just don’t know how you do it. We Wolfriders never learned the knack for beads.”
“Here, Ingen, why don’t you put it up right now?” Jarrah said to her lifemate. “Now you don’t have to have that scratchy old deer hide in the doorway anymore.”
Swift forced a glowing smile.
“How soon do you think we can take that down without hurting their feelings?” Swift asked as she and Rayek lay in bed, staring at the beads rustling in the night breeze.
“Oh... I’m claim that the hide is warmer for the child, and we’ll take it down within a month. But who knows... you might come to enjoy it. I’ve never liked walking through those strings, but I’ve found the sound oddly... soothing.”
Swift found Grayling and Hansha just outside Hansha’s forge. Her half-brother and the metalworker had become inseparable over the last few years. She imagined it would not be too long before they become lifemates.
“Sister,” Grayling grinned. “How is it these days?”
“Fat and slow and miserable,” Swift sighed. She leaned against the edge of Hansha’s stone table. “How are the Wolfriders, Grayling? I haven’t seen much of them lately. Rayek’s very good at gently turning me to enjoy sleeping at night, and I haven’t been able to get around like I used to.”
Grayling shrugged. “They’re all waiting... gnawing on their nails.”
**Interesting how we call our tribemates “them”,** Swift sent. **Maybe Strongbow and Treestump have reason to be a little annoyed with me.**
**No one’s forgotten that you are our chief, sister. I think your condition excuses a lot.**
**I’m just a crazy dam fat with cub, eh? Well, whatever keeps a certain half-brother of yours off my back.** “Ah!” she cried out. “The cub’s kicking again. Here.” She took Grayling’s hand and put it to her stomach. “Feel that.”
“Hah! I remember you kicked just as hard a few days before you were born.”
“Mm, but it feels so high up. I’m a little worried that means the cub isn’t coming out for another eight-of-days. I swear, last night I had a dream that I’d be pregnant for five years and there’d be nothing the healers could do.”
Hansha chuckled.
**Did you try sending to the cub?** Grayling asked.
**Hah. That’s either nothing but a tall tale or I’ve got a child as stubborn as my lifemate.**
**Or as stubborn as its mother.**
Swift swatted at her brother. “I’ll forget you said that.” She stumbled a bit and Grayling held her up. “Sorry,” she sighed. “The ankles. And the cub. I can’t keep my balance half the time. I – ahh!” she clutched her belly.
“What? Another kick?”
A slow smile spread across Swift’s face. “It’s time,” she whispered. “Bless the High Ones, it’s finally time!” **Rayek!** she sent. **Rayek, you lazy zwoot! Get your rump over here!**
Grayling and Rayek helped Swift back to her hut, while Hansha raced to get Shenshen. By the time Swift was sitting up on her bed, the midwife arrived, carrying a basket of herbs and small clay pots. She quickly shooed Grayling out of the way, then bustled about the hut, filling little dishes with water and setting one of the dishes over a candle-flame to help heat it faster.
“Honestly, Shenshen,” Swift rolled her eyes. “Do you always fuss like this?”
“Bringing an elf child into the world is a little more complicated than whelping a wolf pup, Swift.”
“Well, I don’t see how,” Swift muttered under breath.
“You said you were going to behave yourself,” Rayek hissed in her ear.
“I am!”
Shenshen huffed. “Rayek?” she called, her voice dripping with a suspicious sweetness. “Can you come over here?”
Rayek glanced at the midwife, then down at his lifemate. A strange sort of sadness seemed to hang in his eyes. Then he bent his head and kissed her forehead lightly. “Be good,” he whispered. “I’ll return soon.”
“You’d better,” Swift muttered as she watched Rayek go off into the far corner and speak with Shenshen in hushed voices. Even with her wolf senses Swift could not quite make out their words. But then her concentration was not what it usually was. The gnawing discomfort grew as her labour steadily progressed. She wished the cub had waited until night time. It was too hot to give birth now. She wiped at her forehead and shifted on the bed to try and relieve her backache. When she looked up Rayek was slipping out the door. Probably Shenshen had forgotten some useless charm or herb back at her hut and was sending him to fetch it.
“Where is Rayek–” Swift began, but Shenshen was back at her side, wiping her forehead with a cool moist cloth.
“Don’t worry about at thing, Swift. I may have precious few opportunities to demonstrate my skills, but we’ve had a few little kitlings before you came here, and I promise I’m not out of practice. Now can you sit up a little more? I want to see how you’ve come along.”
Swift obligingly struggled against the pillow and shifted her weight forward. She didn’t see the point in Shenshen’s fussing – she already knew with her inner awareness that the cub was still some time away from birth – but she had decided to make the effort and honour the Sun Folk customs in this matter.
“Can I have some water?” she asked. “I’m dying of thirst.”
Shenshen quickly handed her a cup of cool water and Swift downed in one gulp. “Ohh, I envy all those mothers who have their cubs in the new-green and the death-sleep. It’s nice and cool and a little more–” she stopped herself. She was about to say “civilized.” High Ones, she had been spending too much time with the Sun Folk. The Wolfriders had never even heard the word until two years ago.
Time slowly passed and Swift’s contractions grew sharper. It would not be long.
“Where is Rayek?” she asked as she once again wiggled against the cushions to find a more comfortable position. “Whatever you sent him to get, you’d think he’d be back by now.”
“Back?” Shenshen frowned. “Why, Swift, Rayek isn’t coming back inside until the baby is delivered.”
“What?!”
“Why... it’s not his place to be in the way during a birth. Don’t you know that a child’s birth is an event for females only? This is about the female’s strength – the mother’s strength. Males are not allowed.”
“Dung to that!” Swift exclaimed. “You mean he’s waiting out there somewhere? Well you get him back in here right now!”
Shenshen put her hands on her hips and looked down her nose at the Wolfrider. “Swift, the very idea is... unfitting. It is undignified. We don’t–”
“Well, we Wolfriders do!” Swift snatched up New Moon from where it lay against the cushions. “And if you don’t get him in here this instant–” she whipped out the blade and held it up to Shenshen’s nose, “you’ll find breathing a little more difficult, pretty elf!”
Fear made Shenshen back away in submission. Then such raw indignation flashed across her face that she was the spitting image of Leetah. As she sputtered incoherently, she balled her fists and stalked for the door. Swift smiled smugly and weighed the naked sword in her hands, just in case Shenshen needed further incentive.
A moment later Rayek staggered into the darkened hut. “Swift?” he called from the shadows. **Tam?** Teetering on his feet, Rayek hesitantly approached his lifemate.
A torrent of relief washed over Swift, and she set her sword aside. Rayek hastened to her side, baffled beyond all words.
“I told her I’d slice her nose off if she wouldn’t get you.” She held out her hand and he took it. “We started this together, after all. I see no reason not to see it through together.”
Rayek laughed as he sank down at her side. “You are a barbarian!”
“It’s the Way!” She laughed, almost drunkenly, and clasped his hand tightly. “I was so intent on learning all your customs – it never occurred to me that Sun Folk fathers never attended the birth.”
“I never thought Wolfrider fathers did,” Rayek stammered. “It’s never done–”
“Well, it is now,” Swift grinned. “I’m not missing a moment of yelling at you for what you’ve gotten me into- ahh!” she crumpled forward.
“Shenshen!” Rayek cried. “Shenshen!”
“It’s time, is it?” Shenshen coolly sank back to her position at the foot of the bed. “I must say I’m tempted to let you deal with it yourself, Swift.”
“I’ve still got New Moon, beesweets!” Swift flashed her sharp canines.
“All right,” Shenshen said. “Lean forward. Bear down when you feel the urge to push.”
Rayek clumsily wiped Swift’s forehead with the damp cloth again. Swift squeezed his hand and he winced visibly.
**Tell me if I break a bone,** she teased.
Rayek shot her a glare and set his jaw.
“That’s it,” Shenshen encouraged. “Another push... just push, Swift.”
“What do you think I’m doing?!”
“I see the head... you’ve got a little black-hair... just one more now...”
Swift clenched her teeth and bore down. Shenshen gave a little cry of triumph as she caught the tiny infant. “A girl! You have a little girl!”
“A girl...” Rayek stammered.
Swift fell back against the wall of pillows, weeping with exertion and delight. She held out her hands for the baby. Again Shenshen frowned – perhaps the Sun Folk way was to clean the child and cut the birth-cord long before handing it to the mother. But rather than argue, Shenshen passed the girl to Swift, and Swift caught up her daughter in her arms.
“Ohh... she’s so tiny...” she breathed. “Something that tiny made me that big?!”
The baby screwed up her little face and let out a long lusty wail. After one single cry, the baby fell silent again, and slowly opened her eyes, blinking repeatedly.
“Ohh, she has your eyes,” Swift laughed. “And your skin.. and your hair – oh, isn’t she beautiful, Rayek?”
Rayek was speechless. Tears glittered in his eyes.
“Here,” Shenshen was already tying off the birth-cord. “Rayek, if you’re to be in my way, then be useful and wrap up your daughter. She can still catch a chill even in this heat.”
Rayek placed one of the fresh sheets of cotton over the child’s back and gently picked her up, rolling her over and bundling her arms and legs in the warm cloth. Swift eagerly held out her arms to take her daughter back again but Rayek was unwilling to relinquish her. He worked with a gentleness few had ever seen him display, carefully daubing at the baby’s face with the edge of the cloth, stroking back her wet hair, massaging the newborn’s tiny limbs.
Swift was smiling. Suddenly a puzzled look crossed her face. “Something’s not quite right.” She clutched her stomach. “There’s something... else.”
Shenshen rolled her eyes. “You still have to pass the afterbirth. Don’t worry –”
“No!” Swift pressed her hand to her lower abdomen, then reached out and caught Shenshen’s hand, pressing it to the same spot. “There’s something else!”
Shenshen’s face fell as she hurriedly felt along Swift’s skin. “Great Sun!”
“What?” Rayek cried. “What’s wrong?”
“Another one!” Shenshen cried out, at a loss. “There’s another baby!”
“What?!” Rayek turned to Swift. “In Yurek’s name – you are having a litter!”
“Shut up, black-hair,” she ground out between her teeth.
“All right, all right,” Shenshen said calmly. “Just breathe – both of you. It’ll be a little moment more. You still have to pass the afterbirth from the first one before the second one can come... then again – at this rate we don’t have that many moments after all. Swift, I need you sit up again.”
“Puckernuts,” Swift moaned. “Not again.”
“And Rayek, set your daughter down inside her little cradle. I may need some more hands.”
Rayek hesitated a moment, rooted to the spot. Then he got up from the edge of the bed and laid the baby in the softly-padded wicker basket. “Oh, this one doesn’t want to wait,” Shenshen cried. “Get ready to push, Swift.”
The first afterbirth passed quickly, and suddenly the second cub was already crowning. Swift clenched Rayek’s hand tight as the intense birth pangs gripped her, and the hunter wrapped his free arm about her shoulders.
“I see the head – hah, golden hair this time,” Shenshen laughed. “One more, Swift – bear down.”
Swift bit her lip and willed all her strength into the one final contraction. “Hah – I’ve got it,” Shenshen cried.
“Another girl?” Swift gasped. “A boy?”
Shenshen smiled as she held up the baby, as brown-skinned as Rayek, with a little fuzz of rich blond hair on his head. “Your daughter has a little brother.”
Swift let out a laugh. Rayek stammered something incomprehensible.
Shenshen handed the boy to Swift, and the chieftess clasped him to her breast. The midwife wiped her hands on a fresh cloth before she set to tying off the second birth-cord. “Is this another Wolfrider way?”
“No... this has never happened before – at least... never in our tribe’s memory. Perhaps in the distant past... when the High Ones still lived...” She stroked her son’s chubby cheek. “Wait until the Wolfriders learn about this!”
After both cubs were washed, warmed, and bundled up in cloths, Rayek and Shenshen took them outside to meet the tribe. Swift drank another long draught of cool water, then wrapped a woollen shawl over her shoulders. At length Rayek and Shenshen returned, and the midwife handed both bundles back to the Wolfrider chieftess.
“I’ll leave you two alone for a while,” Shenshen said. “Call if you need me.”
Swift bent her knees and propped her babies against her legs. She bent her head until her forehead touched theirs. Her mind reached out and touched theirs, and two little sending stars flashed deep in her awareness. In that one moment of the birthsong, she understood her cubs’ natures completely.
They had no wolfblood. But they had soulnames – such beautiful soulnames.
She smiled softly. A fitting compromise.
Rayek sat down at her side. “Will you let me hold one, at least?”
Swift flushed a little, and loosened her hold on the dark-haired girl. Rayek scooped her up and held her close. She was a perfect mirror of her father, with the same golden-brown skin, black-black hair and bright gold eyes.
“So... which one gets your chief’s lock?” Rayek asked.
Swift grinned. “I suppose it’s the firstborn. Hah! Can you imagine it? The next chief of the Wolfriders... a beautiful maiden who looks just like you! Strongbow will have a fit!”
“Not that the Wolfriders need worry about a new chief for a long time to come,” he added with a smile. “I expect you to keep your chief’s lock a lot longer than your forbearers did.”
Swift smiled down at her son. “And to think... I always feared any male cub of mine might take after Bearclaw...” She stroked a chubby golden cheek and the baby gurgled contentedly, before falling back into a light sleep.
**I don’t think any child could take less after that dark beast in your sending-pictures.** Rayek smiled fondly at his son. **He’s a little sunny-top, isn’t he?**
“Sunny, sunny sun-top...” Swift cooed. Suddenly her eyes lit up. “Suntop! What do you think, Rayek? Is that a respectable name for the great hunter’s son?”
“Even if it wasn’t, I doubt anything I could say would change your mind.” He reached over and touched the infant’s light hair. At his father’s touch the baby’s deep blue eyes flickered open. “He has your eyes,” Rayek whispered, entranced by the infant’s stare. “Suntop,” he nodded thoughtfully.
“Suntop,” Swift pronounced. “What do you think of that, cubling?”
Suntop yawned softly. He was already starting to fall back asleep. His sister, by contrast, was wide awake. She was as silent as ever – after that first cry she hadn’t uttered a sound. She gazed up at Rayek with what could only be described as a dreamy adoration..
Swift pounced on that sudden moment of domestic bliss. “Are you still convinced that we should move into this hut they’ve built for us?”
“No child of mine is going to live in a cave, at the mercy of the winds,” Rayek insisted. His voice softened. “My parents drove me out of my house with their apathy. I intend our kitlings to have a better childhood.”
“The great mountain lion really is a kitten at heart,” Swift smirked.
He shot her a cold glare. “Repeat a word of this outside these walls and I’ll tear out your throat.”
“You sound like a Wolfrider, bead-rattler,” she shot back with a teasing smile. She looked up at their daughter. “She needs a name. Suntop needs to know what to call his big sister, and the Wolfriders need to know what to call their future chieftess.”
“Oh... you pick a name for her, Tam. I can’t think of any Wolfrider names.”
“Then give her a Sun Folk name.”
“A Sun Folk name – for a future Wolfrider chieftess?”
Swift flashed him a wicked grin. “Why not?”
“No dirt-digger name could suit her,” he said, his voice filled with pride.
Swift smiled to herself. He was already smitten.
“Venka,” he decided at length.
“Venka,” Swift grinned delightedly. “Venka – that’s perfect. Suntop and Venka.”
Swift’s twenty-one packmates gathered on the rocks high above Sorrow’s End to meet the new Blood of Chiefs. Rayek held Suntop in his arms while Swift held little Venka. Skywise perched on the rocks at Swift’s feet, clearly itching to steal his new “niece” away from her.
“My daughter was first to greet this world,” Swift said. “And so she shall carry New Moon after me. Hers is a fine soulname, but the tribe may call her Venka.”
A murmur ran through the Wolfriders. They had not expected a Sun Folk name for their future chieftess. Before anyone could speak, Swift continued. “It seems only fitting, to symbolize the merger of two bloodlines, that the Blood of Eleven Chiefs carry a desert name.” She glanced over at her lifemate and second-born. “As for my son, I can already sense he will take a different path from his sister. And we have decided to name him Suntop.”
Shale and Eyes High chuckled. Treestump grinned. Newstar and Dart giggled.
Strongbow stepped forward cautiously. **Is his a Wolfrider’s soulname?** he asked.
Swift smiled softly. “Like Venka’s, his is a new manner of soulname, not quite Wolfrider, not quite Sun Folk.”
Moonshade bit her lip. “You mean, the cubs do not have the wolfblood?”
Rayek shot her a cold gaze. “No, they do not. They have only elf blood.”
“Suntop and Venka are Wolfriders,” Swift said quickly, before Rayek could provoke a brawl with Strongbow. “And they are Sun Folk as well.”
**But they do not carry Timmorn’s blood,** Strongbow growled silently.
**Yes, they do,** her sending touched them all. **His elf blood. All the memories carried in our elfin blood flows in their veins. And we shall raise these cubs to hear the wolfsong in their souls, if not in their blood. Let no one doubt these cubs are Blood of Chiefs.**
Treestump stepped forward. “Aye. Your cubs will show us a new depth of the Way. We will learn from them as they will learn from us.”
Nightrunner padded up alongside Rayek and lift his head to sniff his elf-friend’s new cub. Rayek stretched up on tiptoes, an expression of poorly-concealed horror. The Wolfriders burst out laughing, and Rayek scowled at them all.
Skywise began the howl as he leapt up from his rocky perch. The song rose from all the Wolfriders, and Swift tipped her head back to join in. The wolves, unseen in their shadows, added their own voices to the chorus. Swift paused briefly to glance over at Rayek.
**Feel free to join.**
**Barbaric!** he shot back with a wry smirk.
Swift laughed. She closed her eyes and howled for joy.
Elfquest copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. Elfquest, its logos, characters, situations, all related indicia, and their distinctive likenesses are trademarks of Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Some dialogue taken from Elfquest comics. All such dialogue copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Alternaverse characters and insanity copyright 2014 Jane Senese and Erin Roberts.