4. Puddlepaws
(Start at the Beginning of the Novel)
Dindi
…formed a circle and shoved Dindi back and forth, finally pushing her into the dust. They laughed and flounced away.
The
dust tasted like dung. They were right. No one from Lost Swan Clan had
ever passed the test given during the year children disappeared for
Initiation rites. She could be taken for Initiation any day now, Dindi
thought. And all omens indicated she’d fail miserably. Like her mother.
And her grandmother. And every single person in her whole clan since the
days of the Lost Swan Clan’s great-mother.
Her
basket had fallen. A tiny meow and skritching came from inside. She
pulled her kitten out of the basket. His fur stood on end and he looked
outraged. She’d rescued the kitten from a grolwuf, a cat-eating goblin,
who had already devoured mama cat and the other kits. The little thing
had been snow white, eyes sticky shut, but since then his ears, nose,
paws and tail had darkened to black, as if he’d pranced in mud, so she’d
named him Puddlepaws. She petted and kissed him until his fur settled
and he purred to let her know the upset basket was forgiven.
The
purring kitten on her shoulder and the beauty of the day rinsed away
her gloom on the walk home. Rolling green hills stretched out in every
direction under a perfect blue sky marked only with the V of migrating
swans. Everything smelled fresh. The corn was shoulder high, while
inside the pale green husks, the kernels flushed deeper gold with each
passing day. Innumerable clouds of tiny willawisps hazed the fields like
sparkling mists. Maize sprites clambered nimbly to the tips of the
straight-backed stalks to wave at Dindi when she brushed by them. Pixies
of every color fluttered on luminous wings around her head, making her
dizzy. Puddlepaws batted at them.
“Wait up, Dindi,” called her cousin, Hadi, puffing behind her. “Aunt Sullana asked me to find you.”
He posed with his spear, in an attempt to look stern. Unseen by Hadi, a pixie banged the butt of Hadi’s dangling spear on his knee.
He posed with his spear, in an attempt to look stern. Unseen by Hadi, a pixie banged the butt of Hadi’s dangling spear on his knee.
“Ow.”
He dropped the spear and hopped about on one foot. He glowered
suspiciously at his spear when he picked it up, and then at Dindi.
“There aren’t any fae around, are there?”
“Hardly any,” Dindi assured him.
The
pixies laughed as he plowed right past them without seeing them. Most
people could not see the fae. Kittens could. Puddlepaws leaped from her
shoulder, trying to catch a pixie, missed, of course, and flipped in the
air before landing in the dirt.
“I’m not a wayward goat,” said Dindi. “I don’t need herding.”
“I’m
older than you and I’m the closest you have to a brother, so yes, I am
your keeper,” he said, brandishing his spear. “Once I pass Initiation,
and I am a Man, my duty will be to protect your honor from all who
threaten it—”
The mischievous purple pixie crouched at his feet, fiddling with…
* * *
TO BE CONTINUED
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