I remained perched in the tree above the fire, my wings folded about me like a shell, their coloring blending somewhat into the trunk of the tree. I could hardly be invisible; my wings were the color of rust and probably would have announce my presence more but the sun still lay behind me through the leaves and my feathers were significantly darker than the russet of my fur or the white of my breast. Even the blue of my leathers might be more visible had I not wrapped my wings more fully around myself. Still, as long as I remained motionless, swaying only with the movements of the tree itself, I should remain unnoticed and as far as I could tell that mind had not discovered me.
I could sense puzzlement. It was well aware of my fire and could scent the meat roasting, but it couldn’t find the builder of the fire or find any trace beyond my offal pit buried a little to one side of where it now crouched. Clearly sentient and fully aware of self, as yet I couldn’t determine whether it was male or female nor what species it might belong to. While similar to the four-limbed creatures that kidnapped me, a deduction based as much upon the life forms of this world I’d already seen as well as what I saw in its mind, it was different enough that I wondered if it weren’t an entirely different species that might only look like those others. I could also sense that the aroma of roasting meat was stimulating feelings of hunger.
As wary as I was of it, it seemed even more wary. Rather than coming across the clearing directly to my fire, it started circling the edge of the clearing, staying always just within the trees, hoping to stay out of sight. Fortunately for me, where it had been concealed by underbrush at first, I was able to glimpse it as it moved from bush to tree to other concealment in the course of its reconnaissance.
Black hair cut close to the skull crowned a head like my kidnappers’, though the skin’s color was darker and of a hue not too different from the lightest of my feathers. Still, the flesh was pale by comparison to my primary feathers. As expected, I saw four limbs, two legs and two arms with an odd, shell-shaped ear on each side of the head and two dark eyes that peered from beneath black brows. The shape of the head was all wrong by Sauk and even Pardu standards, but intelligence was obvious in the way the eyes searched and the precision of the mind behind those eyes.
The clothing it wore consisted of several different-colored parts. Its legs were covered by some sort of coarse blue material darker than my leathers but thinner as well, though stiff in places and making a scraping noise that reached my sensitive ears even from this far away. Its torso, slender and covered with an apparently softer material that made no noise, led me to believe it was a male. The covering itself appeared torn at the shoulders and was colored in a strange geometrical pattern of reds, greys and black I later learned was called plaid. He also carried some kind of pack upon his back that did nothing to inhibit his movements and also served to disguise the relative brightness of his shirt with its brown leather color.
The only other thing I could really make out from this distance was the staff he carried, about as long as the Sauk herding wand cut from a sapling with its bark peeled off and rubbed to a satin finish. While I couldn’t make out any markings on it, if any, it bore a broad stain as though lovingly carried by its bearer for a long time. The top reached just above his head while the stain seemed to spread from where he now held it down to its midway point.
By the time he had half-circled the clearing, I’d decided to make my presence known in a manner I hoped would seem less threatening than my first encounter with his kind. As soon as I was sure he couldn’t see me behind the bole of the tree, I dropped soundlessly to the ground and slipped over beside the fire, taking the first haunch from where it hung and placing the second, raw one in its place. I then carefully seated myself in such a way that the daylight would reveal my presence without fully revealing my form to him. Taking my obsidian dagger, I sliced off a piece of the meat and began chewing at it while I waited for him to finish his circle.
I could sense his impatience as he completed the circle, now certain that whoever had lit the fire and laid the meat to roast over it couldn’t be in the vicinity. He doubted his tracking abilities, though, since there were no signs of any one of his kind and only dubious marks that looked something like a hunting beast that ran along the ground but yet differed in his mind. By the time he had returned to his starting point, he’d determined to better study the offal pit and the markings he’d found around it.
I continued eating, slowly for me since I neither wanted to startle him nor make myself sick by eating too fast. My hunger, while still great, didn’t need to force me into a foolish mistake when I could learn so much more by patience and observation. As a result, the patterns of his mind became more familiar and I was soon able to understand his thoughts as though they were my own. I watched his mind as he studied my tracks, deducing that a beast had been gutted and skinned but not the creature doing the job.
Very carefully I tried easing an image of my own paw into his vision of the track I’d left. While trying not to startle him, his reaction to the sudden image was instant and surprising as he suddenly leapt from where he knelt and vanished, crashing through a bush into concealment again. I could sense him shaking his head and trying to drive the memory of that too-real paw from his mind while at the same time trying to explain to himself what he’d seen. Even so, he worked hard at trying to detect what might had left such a track on the soil and within his mind. He tried hard to change the vision from the black paw I sent to the grey paw of the animal he expected.
But the memory remained strong and the image morphed from one beast to another, similar yet considered tame and harmless. Erect ears over a predatory face melted to hang to either side of an almost-silly puppyish face; a face not too different from a Sauk kit’s, yet fully grown, slobbering with drool and licking wildly upon its master’s own. I’d fully consumed another hand-sized chunk of meat before he was able to clear his mind and resume his study.
Before he emerged this time, he scanned the clearing, still expecting to see nothing by the fire and fully passing it in the course of his scan before realizing something had changed. Returning his gaze to the fireplace he discovered its builder and looked straight into my eyes. He knew in that instant that he’d been discovered. His mind worked to build an image around what he saw, but the poor quality of his vision compared to my own meant that, to him, I had to be one of his own kind and thus likely to be friendly, though not yet to be trusted. While I didn’t want to deceive him, I used my lightest touch to reinforce that image to encourage him into approaching nearer.
I remained motionless as he ventured into the clearing, his hands gripping the staff tightly as he prepared for fight or flight, though his image of flight amused me as I envisioned him crashing through the brush like an enraged bison. When he’d come halfway across towards the tree, I slowly arose and awaited him, my wings still tight around my body and thus still concealing my form, though parts of me became immediately obvious and caused him to pause.
His mind worked as he studied me, trying to relate what he saw to what he knew. My black-edged ears rising above my head again reminded him of the hunter he defined to himself as wolf. My body couldn’t be seen yet, but my hands and feet, though black furred, seemed to reinforce this image, but he couldn’t relate to a wolf standing upon hind paws and bearing hands not too different from his own. It wasn’t until my tail waved to one side as I instinctively moved it to maintain balance that it’s thick, russet colored brush changed his image from a large predator to a smaller creature that his mind called a fox. His visualization of the fox was enough like my own appearance that I gently reinforced that image and acknowledged it as my own, though I added wings to it as I slowly spread mine to full extension.
Fear flared through his mind as he realized what he saw. This was no member of his own kind! I watched as he fought to remain where he stood, his legs quivering in panic while his eyes remained locked to my own. I slipped my hand beneath my loincloth, scenting my fingers and bringing them up again, extending my hand forward with my palm down and fingers relaxed as I slowly padded forward, offering him formal greeting to my camp and giving him my scent so he could identify me.
At first he perceived me as a tod and brought out his own hand, though without scenting it as I had. However, as I came nearer he changed his vision, seeming to recognize me as female and subsequently changing how he held his hand and gently used it to lift my own before bending over to sniff it formally. I responded in kind, bending over enough to sniff at his hand before releasing it and rising erect again. All this time his mind roiled in fear and confusion, sending images of monsters and gods, beneficence and trickery all related to the beings he accorded to my kind. I could only be one of the Great Spirits. And he was afraid.
As gently as I could I sent feelings of peace and relaxation, stepping backwards to approach my fire and motioning for him to take a seat. Not a sound did I make nor any sudden movements as he slowly approached and set himself gingerly upon the ground, seating himself with his legs crossed in a posture he identified as both formal and comfortable, respectful and submissive to one he considered his superior. Taking my dagger, I cut a large piece from the haunch I’d been eating and offered it to him, then retreated back to take my own seat upon the ground and finish my meal.
