#remember that part in book II where Ruyak mentions the first time he did something

[keydekyie]

The Drover

When Ruyak was four years old, he did something he shouldn’t have.

1107 words, content warnings: horror, off-screen death, children doing very stupid things

Do NOT read this if you haven’t read book II yet!!! Just don’t! You’ve been warned!

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦

Sliuk stretched her arms before her, letting her claws dig into the cool soil. The summer breeze brought a fresh whiff of growing grass and warm sunlight, and she leaned her head back to take in the pleasant smells with her eyes closed. 

If only she could enjoy the peace for just a moment… but her brothers were already getting up to mischief.

“You’re not supposed to use your teeth. You’re supposed to pick it apart with your claws. You’ll get splinters in your mouth doing whatever that is.”

“Just let him try it, Renge.”

Sliuk cracked one eye open. Her three brothers were on the other side of the shady green meadow, fooling around beside the gurgling creek. The very youngest was hunched over and appeared to be gnawing on a fallen tree. 

“Don’t let Ruyak hurt himself,” Sliuk growled. “If he gets splinters, we’ll never hear the end of it.”

Ruyak popped his head up, eyes bright, and tried to say something around a mouthful of tree branches.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full, stupid,” Kadu snarled. When Ruyak just blinked at him, Kadu popped him on the back of the head, making the branches fall out of his mouth.

“Ow…” Ruyak grumbled sullenly.

“See?” Renge laughed. “Told you you’d get splinters.”

“It’s not splinters, Kadu hit me too hard!”

“No I didn’t.”

“Ruyak… Ruyak, stop biting it!”

Sliuk watched them a moment longer as they argued over how dissecting a tree was supposed to be done, then closed her eyes again. If she could trust her oldest brother Kadu not to get them all into trouble, she would have let herself take a nap, but someone had to make sure Kadu and Renge didn’t let little Ruyak bumble off a cliff or eat a rock or whatever. He was still hardly more than a baby, after all.

Then Renge said, “Do you smell that?”

Sliuk’s eyes flashed open as a sinking feeling settled in the pit of her stomach.

The three brothers had clustered around a spot a little downriver, sniffing curiously. Sliuk sprang to her feet and hurried over, pulled Ruyak away by one ankle, then pushed between Kadu and Renge to sniff the foliage herself.

“What is it?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Kadu replied. “I don’t think I’ve smelled it before.”

“Kinda smells like tur to me,” Renge offered.

Ruyak shoved himself between Sliuk’s front legs and thrust his face into the brush, taking an exaggerated sniff. “Yeah! Smells like tur to me.”

“You don’t know what tur smells like,” Renge argued.

“Yes I do!”

“No you don’t!”

While they were arguing, Sliuk was taking more careful sniffs of the trail. Suddenly, she snorted and straightened up, ears pinned. "Oh… I think I know what that is."

"What?" Kadu asked.

"I think it's wegs. A herd-- a drove-- of wegs."

"Wegs?"

"Fluffy little things, a lot like boars I think. They’re human livestock.”

Kadu’s face changed, eyes widening with interest. 

Renge cocked his head curiously. “Human livestock?”

“Yeah, the humans raise them for meat or fur or something,” Sliuk explained. “There’s usually a human tending them, a ‘drover.’ Sometimes they have roden with them, too.”

“So…” Kadu said cooly, “that means there’s a human on our territory.”

Renge gasped, “A human on our territory? Isn’t that-?”

Sliuk interrupted him, “We should go tell Mom and Dad.”

“No,” Kadu growled, “we can track it down ourselves.”

“We shouldn’t-”

“I’m twelve, I’m old enough to hunt on my own, and that makes me old enough to take you fools hunting with me.”

“But-”

“And I’m in charge, anyway. Let’s track it.”

“We’re going to find the human?” Ruyak chirped, looking excitedly between Kadu and Sliuk’s faces above him.

“No!” Sliuk snapped. “We’re going to find our parents, and they’ll deal with the human.”

Ruyak frowned in disappointment, but Kadu was stubborn. He was already stalking off after the weg trail, Renge close behind. Sliuk reached out preemptively to grab Ruyak by the scruff with her claws.

“If you want to be a squealer, you can go find Mom and Dad,” Kadu said, “but I’m going after it.”

 Sliuk huffed, “Fine, but Ruyak’s staying with me.”

“But I want to see a human!” Ruyak whined, gazing enviously after his brothers. 

“Maybe some other time.”

Ruyak squirmed, trying to wiggle out of Sliuk’s grip. “Come on…”

Sliuk started to drag him away, back towards the den. “I’m sorry, but-”

At that moment Ruyak rolled to the side, twisted his head, and sank his knife-sharp baby teeth into Sliuk’s forearm. Sliuk yelped and jerked back, letting Ruyak go. He immediately gamboled away. 

“God’s eyes, Ruyak!” Sliuk yelled after him, checking her arm. It wasn’t bleeding, thankfully. “That hurt!”

 “Sorry!” he threw over his shoulder before vanishing into the brush.

Sliuk stood there a moment, indecisive. If she ran to find their parents, any manner of nonsense could be accomplished by her brothers before she managed to catch up to them, and then Sliuk would be scolded for leaving them unsupervised. Then again, there was little she could honestly do to stop Kadu once he had his mind set, and of course if any trouble was made under her watch, Sliuk would be doubly blamed for it. 

Sliuk hesitated a moment longer, claws digging up clumps of grass in her agitation, then she sighed in defeat and followed the weg trail.

The scent was all mixed up with the boys’ scents. They’d made no effort at subtlety, and Sliuk hoped perhaps whatever was at the end of the trail had enough sense to flee at the sound of all the commotion.

The forest opened up into a great meadow, sprawling bright green with long summer grass all the way down into the bottom of a lush river valley. The weg drove-- a squealing collection of fluffy white creatures-- was fleeing across the fields and disappearing into the tall grass like seed heads dissolving into water. 

Just then, the sun passed behind an immense cloud, bathing the fields in shadow. 

Kadu and Renge were nearby, roaring with laughter, which was never a good sign. Sliuk loped over to them.

“I didn’t think… he’d really do it!” Renge gasped between giggles, rolling in the grass on his back.

Ruyak was sitting hunched between his two brothers with a very strange expression on his face. Ashen, confused, and oddly fearful, it was the kind of face Ruyak would wear having just eaten something he shouldn’t have.

“Please tell me that was a weg,” Sliuk groaned, stopping a few paces away.

Renge was too indisposed with laughter to answer, but Kadu had collected himself. “No,” he chuckled.

Sliuk’s heart dropped. “A rodi?”

“No,” said Kadu, “the drover.”