Step Into The Unknown

The steady rhythm of the mortar and pestle sang under his paw, grinding down the petals of a calendula flower into a powder when Aurielle’s voice. Paladin’s ears flicked back, but he gave a noise that said he was on his way, setting aside the mortar and pestle, which Kayode and Ime took over as Paladin padded after the glowing Spirit.

Whatever he was expecting from a visiting Nomad, it wasn’t the girl with markings like his own. He recognized Eramaya, of course. She’d engaged with him at the festival, and he’d helped her test a new flavor of alcohol. The rest of that night had faded into blank darkness, and he’d woken up with a splitting headache and no memory of what had happened.

He came to a stumbling halt, eyes locked. He didn’t have to ask Eramaya—he knew. Blood sings to blood, and the girl looking back at him with so much hope and trepidation was his blood. A yearling. She was half grown already.

His chest squeezed. Oh, he had no doubt that she’d grown up among love and care, never wanting for parenting – Nomads raised each other’s litters; when the real parent or parents were off gathering herbs or tending patients in settlements, the camp watched the children and kept them busy – but that was an entire year he’d missed.

Was she the only one who wanted to meet him? Were there more? Sons, daughters? Eramaya began to speak, and he listened intently, though his eyes never strayed from the eyes that looked so much like his mother’s. And he offered her a smile of encouragement. I may have been gone, never known you existed for the first year of your life, child of mine, but I mean to see you through to the end of my years if you’ll have me.

Please, have me.