Story © Camio 2003

Prologue:

The lightning flashed and the thunder clapped, seeming unceremoniously loud to the villagers. Storms like these were rare in this region of the world. Never had such a cataclysmic storm battered a village as terrible as this. Many were frightened and anxious, thinking it was the god’s wrath raining down from the heavens to smite the lot of them. Others, the educated ones with a sense of their own history, pondered over millions of ancient manuscripts of prophecies written by thousands of different prophets over hundreds of years, trying to find a reason for the unusual ferocity of the storm.

In one of the small wooden huts placed throughout the village, a severe commotion was occurring, the smell of fear lingered in the air. However, this fear was not for the storm, but for the mother and child; the latter still in the womb. The maids ran to and fro bringing water and fresh blankets to the physicians helping the mother with the process of birth. A man stood in the corner, a man of strong importance. Waving a hand he ushered over a physician, "Focus on getting that child out of her alive!"

A look of shock passed over the sweaty face of the physician. He answered, "But sir! What about the girl?"

The man looked over at the body of the young girl. She was motionless, barely alive. "I don’t give a damn about some wench with no husband, I want that child alive!"

The physician mumbled under his breath and stalked back to the girl. As the physician told the others, a smile pursed over the lips of the man. ‘This is exactly as I had hoped! I get rid of that clingy bitch and come out with an heir. No one will ever know of this scandalous affair!’ The man laughed softly to himself. He continued watching as the physicians took their positions, prepare to force the birth, in turning killing the doomed girl. This process is used only by request, as the mother, after birth, will bleed out.

After the baby was born the physicians quickly cleaned him up and brought him to his dying mother. "What! What the Hell are you doing! Don’t put that babe into the arms of a heathen! Not even for one moment! I don’t give a damn if she’s dying or not!" the man screamed, "Give him to a wet nurse immediately!"

The physician holding the babe had a look of anguish as he passed the babe into the arms of a maid. "Wait!" gasped the voice of the girl, "Love! Please! Please let me hold our child once before I die. Please, I beg of you, my lor…"

The voice was cut off by a hard slap from the man, killing her instantly. The occupants stood motionless in the room, shocked by the outburst. The wind whistled loudly and the whispered words of the man could barely be heard over the storm, "Get moving!"

In a town, around fifteen miles from the human village lived the Ferinde, a race of humanoids resembling animals. The town was centered around the largest building, where the chieftain lived. He was a tiger, large, tall and respectable. A manuscript lay open on the table in front of him. "Why?" he moaned, "Why does this responsibility fall upon our town? The world is not ready for this; it is too young and frail."

The manuscript was ancient, seemingly older than the world. The paper was yellow and the ink smudged, but the writing was still legible:

A boy at the age of five will be bonded to four guardian animals: an otter, a vixen, a wolf, and a ferret. These animals, while not aging quite as normal animals, will watch over him as long as he lives. They will teach him everything he knows, no man will be in charge of this young boy. He shall walk the path of a lone warrior, a Ranger, a master of the wilderness and the beasts. Without friends to guide him, he will follow only his own instinct, the instinct nurtured into young by their animal parents. While acting upon his own judgment he will strike between both sides, be the balancing force between good and evil, man and beast. This boy shall be the Savior and only as a pure and innocent child shall he rise to meet this destiny. If some outside force intervenes with his life then everything will fail. Any hope this World once had will be lost. -The Prophecy

illmeratei: rogue animal, only animal that will attack Kae and only animal Kae will harm

"Kae!" a small voice screamed in my ear, "KAE! WAKE UP!"

I woke; startled at first, but then I realized it was only Fenna. Fenna was a black furred ferret that has been with me for as long as I could remember, along with Aneqk, the wolf, Falice, the vixen, and Larous, the otter. With no memory of anyone else in my life I adopted them as they adopted me; we were family. "Fenna! Why'd you wake me up so early?" I asked yawning deeply.

"It's good for you to wake up early," she giggled, emphasizing every word with a little hop.

"I don't believe you! What's wrong; tell me!" I demanded, stretching and scratching me long brown hair.

"’Tis nothing! Nothing's wrong. But…ummm..." she answered, "you have to come out and see for y'self!"

She hopped up and down once more before bounding out of the small cave to prance in the sunlight. I was wary of these scant morning hours, as bandits tended to be returning to their hideouts with their booty from the night before. Recently, however, their groups have been larger and cautious, almost a little bit paranoid. Or at least that was what I thought when I ever saw them jump as one of my animal companions broke a twig for the fun of it. I could take them in a fight if I had to, but there was no need since they were not stealing from me and were not worth the injury.

As I stepped out of the cave the sun struck my eyes leaving me temporarily blinded and I had to wait until the black, blue, and purple spots in front of my eyes cleared before I could continue walking. I felt a familiar weight upon my shoulder, and I whispered to her, "What is that you wanted to get me out of bed for?"

"Follow me!" she said as she climbed on top of my head and leaped off, hurrying into the distance with me running after her.

Fenna led me through the trees and bushes to the beach of the Great Lake. This lake was the northern end of my domain. We, the five us, spend most of our resting hours here, beside the endless lake. The lake is massive; on a clear afternoon you can see the dim outline of land across the silver water. In morning, however, nothing can be seen through the dense fog encrusted waters.

I squinted through the wisps of humid clouds rising from the water edge, looking for Fenna. Turning my eyes to the ground I knelt over the sandy floor and looked at the footprints. It was like a collage. While there were only five different varieties, there were still lots of prints left in the sand. I picked out Fenna's small ferret paw-prints and began following the more distinctive prints.

After following the trail east along the bank, I saw her prints stop. Then I smiled, ‘Ha! They thought they could trick me, but I know their little game.’

I moved my eyes along the ground and found a pair of prints that were almost as fresh as Fenna's. The web design told me it was Larous, and I scoffed at the idea of a ferret riding a mustelid. Following closely I slowly made my way along the tracks, this time turning to the south. An unmistakable surge of heat hit me as I breached the forest. The humidity stung my eyes and I began to sweat. I began to feel slightly intimidated by my surroundings. The tree canopy was dark and thick, and the fog has not abated yet. All I could do was follow the tracks.

As the fog began to clear, stood up to my full height and stretched. I did this often, but crouching for too long of a time can cause my back to get very stiff. From outside the gloom I heard a small cry. The cry was painful and hardly recognizable, "Falice!" I screamed and charge into the clearing.

I was worried, ‘Damn my stupidity, damn that weasel, Fenna, if she had only told me what was happening.’

The clearing was the only bright and sunny part in this forest. In the center of the clearing lay Falice on her side with Aneqk close beside her. Fenna and Larous were sitting on their own several feet from the pair. I dived down to Falice’s side and looked for her injury, but to my utter amazement there was not any. I could also hear Aneqk's low voice whispering to Falice, who was lying there panting. "What's wrong Falice?" I asked, moving my hand over to her head.

The vixen was too weak to move and just managed a response, "Nothing, Kae, it's over."

"Over! What's over! Please tell me what happened!" I cried, tears streaming down my face.

Larous waddled over to me and nuzzled my back, "Kae?"

I turned around and looked at him, "Yes?" I sniffled in response.

"It's all right. Ms. Falice has just given birth."

It took me a while to sort through what Larous had just told me. I was completely struck down by this turn of events. There had been little reason for me to believe Falice was pregnant, she never mentioned it to me, and it never became an issue. Her pregnancy did not in any way disturb the natural order of daily events. I thought of all the walks the five of us had gone on together; the talks we have had together. My tears, however, did not stop. I felt even worse when I had a feeling of jealousy. Jealous that she had never told me; never trusted me enough to tell me she was with child. Forgetting my feelings of jealousy I reached down and stroked her head fur. She seemed very tired and I could not blame her for not telling me. After all us animals are due to keep such secrets from friends, it’s only natural in order to protect our young. I stood up and looked down at the three of them, seeing her child for the first time; blind and deaf, with strange colorings for a vixen’s kit. Seeing the black colored fox kit I began to wonder whom the father was. Never had any of them told me of Falice going out of our territory to meet with a dog fox, and I had never noticed any other foxes in the area. Moving away from the mother and child I pulled Larous over to me, "Who is the father? I have never seen another fox around and definitely none with the colorings of Falice’s new born."

"Are those all the questions you are going to ask me, Kae?" he answered cryptically. "What about why there was only one, or why Aneqk is paying such close attention to the mother and child?"

I looked at him confusedly, I understood his question about that there was only one in her litter, but I did not understand the part about Aneqk and his role. Larous seemed to read my face and answered, "Falice is not a normal vixen, and while we may not be the most normal creatures out there she has more abnormalities. As you can see, Aneqk is paying quite a bit of attention to her; the reason for this is that they are mates. One of her many abnormalities is her ability to have a litter any time by any father canine. Because of this abnormality of her womb, she can only have one child in each litter."

My mouth opened wide, it had never occurred to me that Aneqk could possibly feel that kind of love for one of a species different from him. "Well… I guess that explains an awful lot. At least now I don’t have to worry about her mating with some seasonal dog fox."

"There is more to this birth than you can see, but I am unable to tell you what that is, the pair will tell you eventually, when I cannot see, but soon I can promise you, soon. Things are happening, the world is growing more dangerous, and there may be cause for us to leave. I believe they will tell you at that time," Larous answered and then waddled over and took a seat next to Fenna, watching the mother nurse her young.

Everything was strange to me, I had always thought Larous was a cryptic otter, but this was so much more puzzling than anything he had told me before. I understood that there was something different in the air, the smell of it, of some distant troubles that are traveling everywhere. There was also the number of rogues traveling around in groups instead of a single man or woman. As I thought deeply I became dizzy and I sat down at the edge of the clearing, only a couple of yards away from them. I dug into the grass with my toes, kicking up small rocks, and then I got an idea. Picking up a small pebble I threw it lightly at Fenna. The pebble bounced off her head and onto the ground. She whirled around and growled, trying to look as ferocious as possible, which only made me laugh. That seemed to really have an affect on her and she charged headlong into me. As she was a small ferret I did not move anywhere, but as she pounded on my chest I began to feel a bit of pain. "Okay, okay, I give up!" I whispered announcing my defeat.

"You’re damn right! You little runt! Why did you do that? It hurt!" she screamed in her little high pitch voice, rubbing her head, her black furred body jumping up and down.

"I had to get your attention some way. I could not have just yelled I would have disturbed Aneqk’s and Falice’s babe," I answered.

"Well… now you have my attention so you can tell me what it is you hit me on my head for!"

"I was wondering, since you were sitting there while Larous was talking to me, do you… umm… know what they name her?" I asked.

She answered in a small growl, "Well to be precise her is a him not a her. And they have not named him, and if they did they probably tell you first!"

I looked at her, satisfied, and laid down. "What are you doing now?" she asked climbing up my body to look at my face.

"If you must know, I am going back to sleep," I answered. "You woke me up to damn early and then ditched me by the lake. I am tired and would like to get some sleep!"

"All you ever do is sleep!" she retorted and jumped her way back to her spot avoiding my kicks aimed at her tail.

I awoke with the feeling of heat around me and the feeling of fur enveloped my body. There was still the feeling of anger around me, of unremembered wrath. Fenna lay on top of me curled around my neck, her shallow breath telling me she was deep in sleep, perhaps having a dream similar to mine. There was an unfamiliar weight upon my body, Falice’s cub lay on my chest, next to Falice and Aneqk, who were sleeping on either side of me; Larous was stretched across my legs. The heat around me reminded me of sleep and I felt rather tired again, soon I had slipped into a deeper sleep, void of dreams.

The rustle of fur awakened me; they were awake. My eyes began to open, encouraged by a loving tongue, cleaning the crust from my eyes. I had no idea of who could be doing it. When my eyes opened I could see a small pup prancing around my face, licking me every now and then. As I began to move the pup stopped and made ready to leap at me, growling quite menacingly for a day-old pup. "Falice! Control your devilish offspring!" I growled.

Falice laughed casually at her cub’s antics. "Come here, little one," she called.

The young pup leapt off my face making excited yips as he went to his mother. "Where has everyone gone?" I asked Falice.

"They’ve gone away hunting," she responded.

I laughed, "With Fenna riding on their backs, right?"

Falice did not respond; no laugh, no smile, I could sense something was wrong. "Falice, what’s wrong?"

"Something is happening, something," she whispered softly, "All of us are deeply involved in. We cannot escape this, it is what fate has depicted for us. I’ll lose him and you! These happenings can only mean destruction and death, and I can smell it. The odor lingers on the wind, everywhere the smell of death and disease. It chokes me! I love you both and could not bear to lose either of you!"

She began crying, whimpering loudly. "Falice," I answered, holding her head in my hand, "You needn’t worry about me. Your cub is more important; he needs to grow up, have a chance at living!"

"I don’t care about the cub!" she screamed, shocking me by her indifference to her cub, "He is not mine he is yours and Aneqk’s! He made love to me physically! But you made love to my heart and mind. I may love Aneqk as a lover, a ‘mate,’ but my heart is yours! I would give my life for you!"

She screamed the last few words, and yelped as her frightened cub kneaded her teat trying to find comfort within the warm milk of his mother. I pulled the cub away from her and offered him my finger to suck on. Falice fixed her eyes upon my own and I could see nothing but love behind the blue pupils. Her words had completely taken me aback. Not knowing what to say or do all I did was reach over to her and stroke her red fur. Her breathing was ragged from screaming and crying, and she looked really tired. "Falice…" I said, "rest."

She pushed her body with her hind legs until she had reached me, and then pulled herself up on to me. Licking me once lovingly, she laid down curled around my neck and the pup, and fell to sleep.