Free Paws and Planets by Candy Rae

dry, little water, no trees. It is all thin powdered
rock.”
    Tarmsei looked
at Kolyei and thought hard. His friend always had been the one of
their group who wanted to explore further and further away, always
wanting to run to and over just one more hill, to enter just one
more valley. He thrived on adventure.
    “You should be
a scout,” Tarmsei said at last. “I think you would be good at it
too.”
    “I like that
idea Tarmsei. I really do. After the battle I will ask Matvei.”
    All the tyro
fighters in the rear ryz were nervous about what was to come. Even
the confident Tarmsei was nervous and admitted it, which made
Kolyei feel much better. Training never prepared one for the real
thing, which was why the untried were in the rear ryz.
    Twelve suns
later, both Kolyei and Tarmsei knew all about battles. Kolyei felt
sick with the sights and sounds of injury and death.
    The Larg
kohorts had broken after a battle that had lasted from sun-up to
sun-down and had been defeated only at great cost. There was barely
a Lind still on his or her feet that didn’t have at least one hurt.
The healers were working overtime to save as many as they could,
but little could be done to mend those with deep bleeding gashes.
Howls and moans of pain could be heard all over the battlefield.
The Smaha root was being applied as fast as it could be brought
forward from the rear, which at least deadened the pain if it did
not stop the bleeding and the deaths.
    Two of Kolyei’s
sisters were dead. His mother Kayla was injured but the healers
assured Kolyei that she would live although she would never fight
in the ryz again. Tarmsei was in a state of shock, all but him of
his litter were dead and worse than that, his hero big brother
Tlsei had died during the final charge of the day.
    Kolyei
accompanied Matvei and others not so badly hurt in a patrol of the
battlefield, ensuring that no Larg remained alive.
    But I am
alive , Kolyei thought; I have survived my first
battle .
    Matvei stopped
and turned to look at Kolyei.
    “I have heard
good reports about you,” he said. “Join Ralei’s scouts for this sun
and the next. He hunts the Larg that got through the ryz.”
    “Me? A
scout?”
    Matvei’s
blue-striped muzzle wrinkled in tolerant amusement.
    “It no
sinecure, believe me Kolyei. There are not many scouts left capable
of running. This was a bad battle.”
    “But we won
Matvei, we won,” this from Tarmsei approaching at a limping trot.
He raised his head proudly. “This is our duty and as long as life
is within me, I will fight the Larg to keep our rtathlians
free.”
    “The Larg will
not be happy until all Lind are dead,” Matvei added, “they will be
back. You stay with me for now. You must learn how to cope with the
problems of the afterbattle. It will be good training for you if
you hope to lead a ryz in later seasons.”
    It was a much
depleted but proud Lindar that returned home to the domta.
    The seasons
moved on.
    Kolyei remained
with Ralei and the scouts, and Tarmsei was promoted to the front
ryz; his joy in the promotion diminished somewhat by his regret
that his brother and litter-mates were not there to see it.
    Despite their
different avocations, Kolyei and Tarmsei remained close
friends.
    The two were
twenty summers old when they volunteered to lead a wide patrol at
the eastern edge of the continent. Tarmsei enjoyed a change from
regular Lindar life. The patrol ran east, tails high with the
anticipation of a long run. They were all most surprised to see the
large herds of kura stampeding into the interior.
    “We’d better
investigate. It might be the Larg,” shouted Kolyei.
    “Where?”
answered Tarmsei.
    “At the other
side of the lian, the trees will give us cover.”
    The patrol
skirted round the frightened kura and ran on light paws through the
woods until they reached the wooded ridge that overlooked the coast
beside the island chain.
    What they found
there is another story.
     
     
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    THE