Chapter 12: End of a cycle: Fire.

Act 1: Cold morning.

I felt my heart burning, pulsing with heat, but oddly my skin felt cold even with the softness of the company I slept with. I opened my eyes, I had fallen asleep with my back pressed on a pile of giant rabbits, with one exposing a furred belly, and used her as a pillow.

The ceiling was an arch of sticks, logs, fiber rope and glue made of tree bark turned to tar, sap and now grinded boiled bones. It was an ugly ceiling but it was functional enough to keep the densely packed dirt insulating the house from the elements from dropping on us.

 As I was awake I felt my hand ruffle my living beds, as I smelled the room. It was of moist dirt, flowers and leaves. With a hint of sourness, one of the girl's must be sick or forgot to wash as I told them to do.

I sat up, my body bobbing as Axelia breathed deeply as her chest's contraction moved my comparatively light weight. I slid off her as she sleepingly scratched her belly. With quiet steps I left the one roomed, earthen covered sleeping house, the door was a fine mesh of dried fiber.

I was almost naked, my boar hide cloak long ago torn and worn out by my use, and the claws, teeth and beak of the beast's I hunted, I had turned what was left into a rug, I used to sleep on, before the girl's started wanting to sleep at my mound. 

My lower half was barely covered with a plant fiber cloth kilt, wrapped around my waist more than a dozen times, and held in place by simple wooden buttons and fiber rope. 

I felt the cold on my skin as the cold wind of the morning, rode up my groin teasing it, as it tried freezing my flesh but my burning blood stopped the cold from biting deeper. I started walking towards our water basins, and there I saw the new elders washing themselves, using the rainwater.

"Morning lake elders." I said to them as I approached one of the wooden rainwater basins, using a wooden bowl-scoop to gather some to splash my face, washing it and filling my mouth to gurgle. 

I took some salt on the side for my mouth and the soap made out fat, ash, sap, and fruit juice for scrubbing my steaming skin, as I bathed with the new elders.

"Sage?" One of the elders asked, confused, as she continued to scrub the fur of her long ears with bubbling soap.

"Is it odd for me to join you elders?" I was done with scrubbing my face and now I started on my chest and pits.

"It is, we asked the thorn elders but they didn't have the tradition of elders washing themselves early in the morning. . . or at all" I was curious why such a practice was developed, as I sat on a boulder as I washed my legs and groin.

"I'll wash your back for you Sage." An elder said as I felt her soft wet furred hand on my back.

"Thank you. I would make this a clan tradition." I said as I finished with my legs and looked towards their soap pink foaming and wetted furred silhouettes.

I saw that they're incredibly slim. Unlike the adult's with their thick hipped pear-like bodies, the elders had thinner hips, rectangular in human-like shape. Even though they were only in their 30s they looked like they were base-born humans in their 80s.

I gave a breath, as I used a bigger bucket with a handle to pour water on myself as it quickly turned to steam and I was clean. The other elders saw me and copied me, but unfortunately for them the foam was washed away but they were soaked there furr clinging to their skin tightly.

They moved away from the water basins and started shaking the water out of their fur, and it helped but they still dripped with water, much of their fur still clung to their skin, and many shook in the cold morning.

"Come on." I said to them as I motioned for them to follow me to a fire pit, that I restarted and added wood into.

The heat dried them faster than just standing around would have. "Next time you wash, make a fire first to dry near, if you don't want to grow sick."

"We would remember that Sage." They all nodded as one answered. Then a thought came as I asked them, as we sat on smoothed logs in front of a large blue flame inside a fire pit.

"Are you sure even all of you, the elders from the lake herd, wouldn't want a name?" I asked them as they told me like the elders of the thorn herd didn't want a name, as for some reason the concept had became very sacred.

"Like the elders of the thorn herd, we agree that we elders should be the last to not be named in our respective herds, so that everyone else would become one true family, after our passing and final duty." The oldest of the elders spoke this, her voice shook, and I felt her much, much weaker than the Elder-shaman before I gifted them my fire.

"I respect your choice but know that once my flame burns inside you elders, much like the elders of the thorn, you would become healthy again and would live a few cycles more." I told them as I looked into their dark green eyes.

They were silent as I spoke again. "We would hunt this afternoon, and we would do the Herd adoption ceremony, this night and with it your herd would join my clan, and with that we become one family."

They nodded. "We had already agreed, all we asked is for the clan to keep us safe." The eldest said her eyes, gazing into mine as I smiled, nodding contently. As I stood and left readying for the hunt but before that I went towards the wooden cages, with the surviving Small-wings.

Act 2 Domestication.

I looked towards the 2 by 2 by 2 meters cages of wood, of the bloodied bars of logs, and of the killer giant secretary-birds for now that I look at them closer it would be an insult to call them dumb giant chickens or large stock ugly ostrich, as I first had compared them too.

Yes they had small feathered wings, making them flightless, but they had long scaled earthy bare legs, with only the thighs being fattened and black feathered, with it's ends curved into sharpened cruel bloodried talons.

I smiled at them as they "CrawerrK!" on and on, cawing and trying to instill a fear in me, with their bloodied rotted breath, and avian roars it did not do anything, as I forced a torch I held to burn.

This cowed them, making them quiet. I looked at their red black eyes. "Is this curse a magical thing or some kind of disease like rabies?" I did not know but I had enough to try a few things.

My first thought was to try what I did to Vivi, but as I thought of that, I remembered how I did it last time. The conditions were different, these Small-wings were not able talk even after I tried for hours to make them talk not in avian chittering.

"You are here early, Sage, we're ready to help." I looked back and saw it was Vivi and two other warriors from the lake herd, all of them holding the catcher staves I asked the crafters to make for me. A long hollow pole with a thick rope lasso at one point and a reel at the other end.

"Thank you, now come, do your work as I enter." And they did what I asked them to do last night, as Vivi stabbed into a cage, the Small-wing dodging the trust but not the noose of the staff, as the rope tied itself around the neck of the bird.

The small-wing swung its beak and clawed at the cage as the warriors did the same at the bird's taloned feet. I entered as it was binded, it grew tired from both hunger and its struggles against its cage.

I placed my hand on its feathered head as I sat down, cross legged comfortably on the floor of dried wood chips and leaves. I felt the heat burning within my heart and made it burn greater as I remember my memories of love and comfort.

My times dating the station officers of the Federation fleet, of the young girls and mature women that were never been given the proper federation training or the genetic purification needed to become a true citizen of the federation of stars.

Of the times they led and impressed me with their tours of their home stations, of their jobs and of the things they did for fun, their love was endlessly given to me and the others of the ship I served on.

I missed those times. As my blue flames bursted from my chest, creating a fire that coated my skin, as I felt everything around me feeling like I was under water in a hot tub in the dark. 

My only feeling was the vibration of what I started naming as the core, I followed it and then when I was close I touched it feeling its rough cracked edges, of its softness once pressed with the lightest touch.

Unlike before I didn't try changing its pulsing chaotic vibrations to match the steady beating pulse of my sisters, and Vivi, rather I tried smoothing out the rough edges I felt with my hands, making the pointed rough blob into a smooth sphere.

The core's pulse changed unlike the chaotic random vibrations, a few moments ago, now it beated steadily with a different pattern of steady vibrations as I felt with my sisters and Vivi.

Satisfied I opened my eyes, and everything felt normal as I looked around and saw the entire wooden cage blackened by fire, and the floor of wooden chips and leaves, turned to charcoal dust.

I looked towards the small-wing, my hand still on her head, it had become smaller, her beak becoming rounder less pointed and the sharpness dulled, becoming better for crushing rather than cutting.

Their red and black feathers turned orange, brown and white. Their wings were still the same small with long feathers. Their talons bulking up, losing their sharpness, but becoming curved pointed.

She was unconscious, berthing steady with small puffs of orange flames coming out of her beak. "They were nut eaters?" I stood back and saw that the bird reminded me of a long legged parrot.

"Is this bird folk?" I asked Vivi and the warriors with her.

"I don't know." Vivi said. "I think I do." One of the warriors said I nodded to her to continue. "The elders tell stories, memories of the past generations, in our 5th generation a warrior had met a traveling bird-folks of Orange and brown feathers, they came from the north traded for wooden tools with nuts and knowledge of how to befriend their people."

She stopped after that, as her friend continued. "We lost the knowledge when the elders of the 8th generation died before sharing it." I nodded atleast now I have a clue, hopefully the small wings used to be a folk people before becoming predators.

Those were my thoughts as I patted the bird, fluffed her white feathered breast and thighs, she felt much like the goliath chickens I played with in one of the agricultural habitat-stations I visited once, and made moves on a bright eyed recruit. 

Wonder if Nicole figured out that all my recommendation can give her is a slot for academy retraining and not a proper chance to become a void officer. My smile fell then, but it appeared right back as the parrot-like bird opened her eyes.

"Hello there, how are you?" I asked gently, as I kept my soft stroking upon the avian's body.

"Squak!" The bird said as it tried to stand, with wobbly legs, its restraints were long removed.

"I'm a friend!" I said, my hand empty as I raised it towards the bird.

"Friend?" The avian chittered, in a confused manner, as its head and neck moved up and down looking at me all over.

I slowly grabbed a handful of wild berries from my snack pouch and then offered it on my open palm towards the bird-folk. "Yes, friend here a gift." I said gently.

The bird was cautious, but it bit down with her beaks, eating the handful of berries with small gulps. "Friend."

She said as she moved towards me closer and started rubbing her head and neck onto my chest. "Crewww~ Crewww~ Crewww~" she felt like a cat showing affection.

I patted her head and smiled. "Vivi, prepare the others, I think we will have more friends joining our clan."

Vivi nodded, as the rabbit-folk warriors looked shocked at my actions as they nevertheless prepared their catching staves, as the ropes were burnt off earlier.

Act 3 Talk.

Our second hunt as a clan, as we moved through the rotting leaf batted forest grounds, our step denting the piles naturally formed by the winds and others that moved through the forest.

Like before I moved as our bait, with a torch in hand while the other warriors moved silently around me in a rough circle. each with a spear with flaked stone as their tips, And a few with warbows they had yet to master using.

They were not far less than a hundred meters from me, wearing camouflage cloaks. "I don't think there's any near here, Lazir." Amber told me as she, Axelia and Vivi volunteered to try becoming bait.

I was shocked when they asked but I know of their concern and didn't want to be a hypocrite. "You don't hear anything? And you Vivi, Do you smell any predators?" 

She raised her fox like snout in the air breathing deeply. And then she shook her head. "Nothing, the closest I could smell is hours that way." 

She pointed east, where the woods would thin, and the trees would change to the common pine like trees, into more dark oak like fruiting trees. "I smell a small group, maybe a pack of Swift-tails, they seem to be hunting a long cold-fang."

"You mean a small pack of Weasel like predators hunting a Titan viper?" I said to her, I have been trying to rename the predators we hunt, trying to influence their language as the translations are sometimes odd.

"Weasel? Viper?" Amber and Axelia asked, confused with the new words.

I explained to them what a weasel was describing as cursed folks, or predators with short clawed limbs, large fanged heads, and slim bodies with long tails, and then I explained what a viper was.

"Yes, those are the ones I smelled, they fight and the weasels are winning." I thought about it, do we ambush them? We need the meat and after their fight one would be dead and the others would be exhausted. . . I would atleast honor my ancestors, those scavenging bastards.

"Lead Vivi, we will be hunting them. Axelia, Amber go and gather the others. will be hunting like the predators that used to hunt us." The two elites looked worried but nodded and gathered the others.

"How are you Vivi?" I asked as we walked, only the two of us going towards the scent she smelled.

"I'm not what I used to be Lazir, I am not what I was even before I and my kin were cursed, I used to be wrathful, Sadistic with violence but now, I'm more like these rabbit kin, that I and many of my pack used to feast upon as we travelled." She was confused and stressed.

"Do you not like your change? I can try to redo what I did to you Vivi, you just need to tell me." I told her, as I did not want to see a friend in such distress.

"Why?" She looked back to me, her face looking terrified rather than confused.

"I like what I am now, I like my new pack." Silence, and then she continued, a smile on her softer foxy fangs.

"But I am a little irked that I can't shapeshift like my new sisters, but it is fine, I'd rather not have it than be alone again." After that we were silent as the other caught up to us and we traveled in a loose square.