Slowly he answered, “Ratha, I did find some creatures on the sea coast that we might herd. They are strange, but they can be managed, and I think I know how.”
Carefully he described the seamares, including their shore-dwelling existence. “These water-beasts are larger than our dapplebacks and will provide more meat per cull. They have tusks, but they are clumsy on land.”
“These creatures do sound strange, Thakur,” Ratha said doubtfully after he had finished. “Fat, tusked dapplebacks with short legs and duck’s feet? And you say they swim in this great, wave-filled lake you found? How would we keep one from just swimming away if it didn’t want to be our meat?”
“How do we keep our herdbeasts from running away when we cull them? There are ways, especially when we work together.”
Ratha stared at her paws. “I suppose. But it sounds as if herding these creatures would cause a big change in the way our herders do things. And it might not work out.”
With a sharpness in his voice that betrayed a flicker of injured pride, he said, “Clan leader, I know we can live off these seamares because I have seen another doing it.”
Ratha’s whiskers bristled and her pupils expanded. She turned her head to stare at him. He looked uncomfortable, as if he had said more than he meant to. “One of our kind?”
“I don’t know who she is,” Thakur confessed. “She may come from among the fringes of the Un-Named who have bred with the clan. I tried to speak with her, but she doesn’t talk. At least not in the way that we do.”
He went on to describe the way the young stranger had blended into the seamare colony.
“A small number of us may be able to do the same thing,” he said. “Perhaps by watching her, we can learn.”
“She actually herds these duck-footed dapplebacks?” Ratha asked. “Are you sure you didn’t just see what you wanted to see, herding teacher? She could have been an Un-Named one passing among them. From what you say, she doesn’t sound as though she has the light in her eyes or the wit to understand herding.”
“I watched her fight off a crested sea eagle from a duck-footed foal. I also saw her swimming with the creatures and sharing their food. Whatever she is doing has a purpose. What’s more, the fact she has done it amazes me even more because she’s lame.” He described how the odd stranger got about on three legs, keeping one forepaw tucked against her chest.
Ratha eyed him. “You seem to have been taken with this bit of an Un-Named one.”
“Do you think I missed the mating season so much that I would consider taking an outside female?” Thakur flashed his teeth at her in irritation. “You and I, of any among the Named, should know the dangers of that!”
“I don’t seem to have to worry,” Ratha said, her voice turning bitter. “I know I won’t have cubs this year, even though the courting fever took me as it did the others. Perhaps it is better that I don’t, since I have all of the clan to look after.” She laid her nose on her paw for a minute and stared ahead into nothing. “I’m sorry, herding teacher. I didn’t mean that. Words can hurt more than claws sometimes.”
“Well, in any case, I wasn’t tempted,” Thakur said, still ruffled. “She wasn’t in heat. She also stank of wave-wallower dung and fish.”
Ratha pensively licked the back of a forepaw. She glanced at him from the corner of one eye. “I will come with you to the lake-of-waves, and you can show me these animals. But you’ll have to wait for a few days. We’re driving the beasts to another river tomorrow.”
“I was afraid you’d have to do that soon,” Thakur said. “So the nearby one has gone dry.”
“And I don’t know how long this new one can supply us.”
“Well, another good reason for going to see those duck-footed dapplebacks is that I found a spring near their beach.” He went on to describe the gush of water from the face of a shaded cliff so well that Ratha became uncomfortably aware of her dry tongue. The drought was progressing so rapidly that a reliable water source had become more important than new game animals.
“I’m interested in the spring,” Ratha said. “I’m thinking of moving our animals permanently to another place until this drought ends.”
Abruptly Thakur asked, “Will you need me on the next drive? If you would allow me to get a head start on the journey back to the lake-of-waves, I could take another look at the spring. It would also help me learn more about the creatures there.”
“And the odd one who lives among them.”
Thakur rolled onto his chest, his front paws spread out before him. “She has much to teach me, I think. Suppose you lead the first drive until the herders can manage alone. Then you and Fessran join me on the shore.”
“By ourselves?”
“Yes.”
“Why not bring others who are not needed to manage our own animals?”
“I’m afraid too many of us would scare our little sea-dappleback herder away. Let me go first, then the two of you. She might get used to me. Perhaps she can talk but was just too frightened.”
“Are you thinking of trying to bring her into the clan if she can speak?” Ratha asked. She knew Thakur could hear the wary edge in her voice. He too remembered what had happened when she had admitted an unknown stranger to the ranks of the Named.
“Let us run that trail when we find it,” said Thakur smoothly. “First I want to learn from her. If the question of clan admittance arises, you, as leader, will have to decide. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. If she can’t speak, how is she going to ask?” He crossed one paw over the other, the gesture ending his words.
“Well, she doesn’t sound as though she will be too clever for her own good, as Shongshar was,” Ratha growled. “All right, herding teacher. Your plan sounds like a good one.”
“Then I will leave again after I’ve eaten and rested,” he answered. “When you are ready, follow me.” He then told her the way to the shore and said he would leave scent-marks to guide her. He asked her to leave her own signs, once she got there, to tell him she’d arrived. She listened carefully, remembering his words.
Ratha got up as she spotted Fessran’s tan form jogging back toward her.
She turned to Thakur. “Hungry?”
She didn’t need an answer as the herding teacher scrambled to his feet, his belly growling.
Several days later, the Named and their herds were treading the way to another river that lay farther from clan ground. Dust swirled, kicked up by the feet of the lead three-horns. Ratha kept her eye on the gray-coated stag and the two herders to either side of him. If the Named could keep him moving steadily, the others would follow. They had gotten him away from the trickling remains of the first river after several attempts that nearly became fights. She thought she might have to order the stag culled, but that would cause the loss of a good sire and throw the herd into disarray.
She had delayed the decision to move their watering site as long as possible, but when the sluggish trickle in the river became stagnant and she found three-horns pawing the streambed to find water that wasn’t scummy or thick with mud, she knew they had to make the trek. It hadn’t been easy to get the animals organized and the herders ready. She glanced at the lead stag again.
Though the beast was cooperating now, a certain look in his eye, and the way he tossed his head, made Ratha wary. The two herders looked nervous, switching their tails with every step. They were strong but still young. How she wished she had brought Thakur after all, but he was far away on his journey to the coast.