Free Shadows in the Cave by Caleb Fox Page A

with Aku. When he touched the feathers in his hair, they said, Trouble ahead.

 

    9
     
    Walking, Aku got oriented again. His father in front of him, their dog half a step behind him and just to his right—it all felt good. The Earth, at the fullest bloom of summer—all of this world felt new to him. Yesterday he had surrendered all that was above water, he had said good-bye. Twice in two days he had transformed himself into an owl, once saving his own life. Now every sight, the feel of the path under his moccasins, the sun on his skin, all of it felt like a hello. And if the father was distressed with the son right now, Shonan had helped save his life yesterday. That made Aku feel good.
    Aku liked people. All the different ways they were, the odd ways they did things, the peculiar ideas they held to (sometimes held fast to), the way they loved each other and disliked each other and had fun together and quarreled and baited each other and somehow made a bond—every bit of that pleased Aku. He couldn’t explain why.
    Some things grieved him. Having his mother die. Missing her every day. Shonan being gone hunting or fighting wars. Feeling like he had no real home.
    He liked going to see his great-grandmother Tsola at the Emerald Cavern. That felt like home, and Tsola was the one person who would understand the strange things that wenton in his head. But no one could live with her in the Cavern, no one could interfere with the sacred duties that occupied her life. She would help him develop his powers to the highest, as she did for every seer, but that was all.
    Well, I am what I am. And I am alone.
    If enemies hadn’t stolen his sister, and he didn’t have to walk until each muscle nattered to every other muscle about hurting, life would have been halfway decent.
    I am what I am.
    Aku remembered well the day he’d met the tribe’s Seer and Wounded Healer. He’d been ten, and his mother walked him up to the Emerald Cavern, Tsola’s home. Though his great-grandmother was the most respected person in the tribe, with several titles and powers, she was also extraordinarily old. The tribe’s Wounded Healers lived far past a hundred winters, and she was the oldest of them.
    Beside a low fire, Tsola poured them tea. His mother had told him that Tsola had lived in the Emerald Cavern so long she couldn’t see outdoors anymore—she lived entirely in these depths. “But she’ll see us coming with her special power.”
    After they sipped, his mother said, “He shows signs of the gift.”
    “Yes, I see that. You sometimes look beyond the appearance of the things of this world to what they truly are.”
    The ten-year-old nodded. He had always seen things invisible to other people, but he’d kept his mouth shut about it.
    “You also have your mother’s talent. You can change into the shape of another animal.”
    “That scares me,” Aku said. His hands shook.
    “It’s powerful,” said the old woman, “and it’s your nature. Every creature must follow its nature, or it destroys him.”
    She spoke casually, but the words petrified Aku. He was tongue-tied.
    “If you watch the animals, you will know which one you can become, or more than one.”
    Aku stared at his knees.
    “It’s not hard, for those who have the gift. Look at your feet and picture them as talons. Look at your arms, hold them out, and see them as wings.”
    Aku shuddered. His great-grandmother had guessed that he pictured himself as winged.
    The expression on her face changed. “When you’re older, when you want to know more, come to see me. I will help you.”
    He’d never been back.
    Now, following his father on the trail along Big River, he reminded himself: he was about to get a real home. Iona would give him one. Even if she didn’t have many relatives—just Oghi—it would be a real home because she would be there. In rhythm with his steps he daydreamed about her.
    Shonan’s voice interrupted his reverie. “There’s the trail.”
    They