Tarrin relaxed more and more as they moved towards the Cloud Spire, as any signs of a possible pursuit didn't materialize. Jenna had everything under control in Suld, Keritanima had everything under control in Dusgaard, and they had everything under control here. Things seemed to be going even better than he hoped they would, and he couldn't find any reason within himself not to relax just a little and enjoy the advantage of it while he could.
His little talk with Sarraya seemed to have had a major impact. She reverted to the Sarraya he remembered very quickly after that, full of witty remarks and sly comments, and she seemed to completely relax around Allia. Allia, to his surprise, warmed to the Faerie alot faster than he thought she would, and they began trading stories of the desert and Sarraya's colony. Allia, he knew, was trying to understand the Faerie, and she'd do that best by learning about her past. Sarraya was a very complicated little female, as Allia was finding out, alot more complicated than her shallow demeanor presented to the world. Her Faerie flightiness and impulsiveness waged a constant war against the intense discipline instilled in her by her Druidic training, and those two diametrically opposed traits gave her an unusual personality. She seemed flighty and scattered, but she was as sharp as a tack, possessed of a great intelligence and also having had a very thorough education. Sarraya knew things that people would never expect a Faerie to know, like the intricacies of human politics and a great deal of human history. Tarrin was very fond of her, for she was also a good, solid companion and she never made things boring. She was always full of surprises, be it a new dig on him or a new way to entertain herself in the monotony of travel across the scrub plain.
Such an example happened three days after he talked to Jenna. She had moved ahead of them as they stopped so Allia could get the sand out of her boots, and when they caught up with her, they were rather shocked to see her aggravating a lone juvenile inu. The reptillian raptor, only coming up to Tarrin's waist, snapped in frustration at the darting Faerie, trying to catch her as she weaved and buzzed around its head. Tarrin noticed that the animal had a rather long, half-healed gash on its flank, and it looked thin and a little bony. It was a rather handsome specimen, with sand-colored scales and a darker stripe on each flank and along its spine, starting at the end of its snout and ending at the tip of its tail. It also had small irregular stripes on its powerful back legs, running from hip to ankle. The coloration would break up its profile out in the scrub, making it harder to see.
"What are you doing?" Tarrin demanded in surprise as they stopped and looked around. That inu 's pack couldn't be far away, and the last thing they needed right now to was to be ambushed.
"Hold on," Sarraya said breathlessly, slipping aside as the inu again snapped shut its jaws, just barely missing her. "Would you hold still?" she demanded sharply at the animal, "you're ticking me off!" And to everyone's surprise, probably even the inu 's, it did just that. It recoiled from her in surprise, then stopped trying to eat her, standing there in its hunched posture, wickedly clawed forepaws tucked in under its chest.
"How did you do that?" Allia asked in surprise.
"I'm a Druid, you silly girl!" she told her with a grin. "Druids can command animals when it's needful. Hasn't Tarrin ever showed you that?"
Allia looked at Tarrin speculatively. "Don't look at me," he shrugged. "Nobody ever taught me that."
"You are so dense," she said scornfully. "It's not a spell, you dope! Animals can sense who we are. If you speak in a commanding voice, they'll obey you!"
Tarrin gave her a very hard, flat look. "You mean to tell me that all this time, you could have just ordered anything that may attack us to leave us alone?"
She grinned wickedly. "I didn't want to interrupt your fun," she teased.
"Even after that kajat bit off my leg?" he demanded hotly.
"It was too intent on eating us," she answered. "When they're like that, it's alot harder to get through to them. That's why this one didn't just stop the first time I told it to. Besides, I'm so tiny and it was so big, I think it had trouble hearing me. They have to hear us."
"What about the pack of inu?"
"They were trying to eat Denai, remember?" she said pointedly. "And I think she really ticked them off by killing a few members of their pack. I just said that when they're like that, it's hard to get through to them. Their predatory instincts have taken over." She looked at him. "And yes, we did tell you that, Tarrin. When we were in Shoran's Fork, remember?"
Tarrin looked back through his expanded memory, and found what she was talking about. When they were telling him about Druids, they remarked that no animal would attack a Druid. Now he understood why.
"Why didn't you teach me that?" he demanded.
"Because I'm really not sure if it will work for you," she answered honestly. "You're a Were-cat, Tarrin. You're a predator, and some animals won't trust a predator no matter how sweet you talk to them. That may have been a little dangerous, especially if you'd have tried to talk down a hungry kajat. Knowing you, that's the first thing you'd do," she snorted.
"Does it work for Triana?"
"Triana never does it," she answered. "She said she never tries to talk to a potential meal. It's bad manners, and it's not very sportsmanlike. That's also why she won't Conjure anything that isn't already dead."
Allia laughed, looking at Tarrin. "I guess that makes sense. I wouldn't like having a chat with a kajat, knowing it may decide to turn around and eat me."
Tarrin, however, was a little intrigued by the idea of it. He looked at the inu and drew himself up. She said all one had to do was speak in a commanding manner. Well, if it was one thing Tarrin had learned as his time as a Were-cat, it was how to be commanding. He looked the inu right in its sinister, amber reptillian eyes, his own implacable and steely. "Come here," he told it, pointing to the ground before him with a furred finger.
The animal seemed a bit torn. Tarrin could tell that his command had reached it, but just as Sarraya said, it seemed wary about obeying something that was obviously a predator.
"I'm not hunting you, you foolish cub," he chided it. "Come here."
Bolstered by that, the inu warily stepped towards him, its sleek head snapping back and forth between Allia and the Were-cat. It stepped up in front of Tarrin, craning its head almost straight up to look at him, its long, meaty tail out to give it balance.
"I've never seen a living one from so close before, at least in a relaxed state," Allia said in appreciation. "We respect the inu for its power and cunning, but they also have a certain grace and beauty about them."
"Only a Selani would think a big lizard was cute," Sarraya huffed.
Tarrin knelt by the inu and pushed it til it turned, presenting its wounded flank to him. It was a very nasty laceration, wide and deep, and it was starting to show signs of infection. From the size of the wound, Tarrin knew that it was caused by the claws of a kajat.
"A kajat did this," he noted.
"It probably killed the rest of its pack," Sarraya added. "Allia said that they do that."
" Kajat eat inu because it gives them a meal and also cuts down on competition," she nodded. "That, and inu are sometimes foolish. They'll continue to attack, even when they have no chance of winning. Only after the majority of the pack is killed will the survivors finally turn and run."
"I'd say that's exactly what happened here," Tarrin said. The inu probably wouldn't react too well to Sorcerer's healing, so he reached within, through the Cat, and touched the vast power of the All. His intent and image were simple and clear, something he had done many times before, and the All read his intent, saw his image, and responded as he desired. The wound on the animal's side began to heal unnaturally fast, before their very eyes, as Tarrin's prodding caused the animal's own healing ability to accelerate at an incredible rate, even as the All supplied the animal with the life energy it needed to undertake the task.