Alphande'

“You have not touched your meal claw of the southern tribe.” said Harfr as he stood over me. I took up the human hand and looked it over twice before dropping it back on the broad leaf we used as plates. The meat did smell appealing, tantalizing even, but every time I looked at it, it reminded me of my own claws. “Ah, it was said among our tribe that you of the south had some aversion to our natural food source.” He said sitting beside me. He took up the hand I’d cast down and bit off the little finger. I could hear the small bones being ground between his teeth. His silver-blue scales seemed to shimmer even brighter under the pale moon.

“Humans live in the north?”

“Yes, at least they used to. We hunted the last clan of them around ten and ten years ago. The last two by ten years have been difficult and the food was less palatable. We had to turn to white bears and silver wolves for meat. Both very tough regardless of cooking and got stuck between your teeth. The fight in subduing them was the most enjoyable part of the process. The white bears especially.” He said as he bit off two other fingers and spoke with food in his mouth. “One of their claws is as big as my hand.”

“Claw, not paw?” I asked intrigued.

“Sharp claw of bone, as long and thick as my hand and there were five claws for each of their five paws. That was only when we met up on the single headed types. The ones with two heads had nine— five at the back and four in front.”

“Those must pose a great challenge.” I said in awe and I watched him throw the last part of the meat in the air and caught it in his mouth.

“Challenge indeed. If a claw brought down a double headed white bear with only his axe and no help, he would get the choice of any attached or unattached female among his village and could go off to start a village of his own.”

“And the attached female would leave her nest mate, even if they had younglings?”

“Why not? It is a position of honour that they’d have moved to. Courage builds greater ties than love among us. Besides they can always have new younglings, with the superior blood of their new mate.”

“And the claw whose mate was taken?” I asked.

“What about him?”

“Does he not have a say in the matter?”

“He does.” He smiled. “But it would include fighting to the death with the bear slayer. A fight he would rather not have, when he could simply just buy another woman.”

“You have killed a white bear?”

He took lifted the smooth stone I had always seen him wear around his neck and held it up close for me to see. I followed the smooth outline until it curved into a sharp point. He leaned away and I rocked back down in my seat. “So you have taken someone’s woman then?”

“No, I have not taken any woman as yet. This I earned two moons before your trumpet called. I was busy setting up camp and was still rummaging through the choices being presented to me.” He smiled.

“The ways of the north are strange.” I said musingly.

“They are not ways of the north or ways of the south. They are ways of the Ulgana. The way we all were. It is your tribe that has changed. Your scales turned green to blend in with the background of this land and the parlaying you had with the humans has left you soft and almost spineless in battle. It is good that after the ages, you called us finally for help. If another century had passed, it would be shameful to see what you would have dwindled down to. Maybe even cross breeding with humans.”

“As spineless as you say we are, even us would not have sunken so low.”

“I would have hoped so,” he laughed. “Their females are ugly, no scales and then the hair that is kept long on the head. It is hard to find them appealing in anyway, well that is until you kill, skin and roast them with spices, especially the hip part, filled with fat keeps you licking your claws for days.” He said still laughing.

Evander had told me once that when I laughed I sounded like wind through trees. When Harfr laughed, it sounded more like fire burning them down. “You say that you want to learn to fight as we do Dominic, then you will have to eat as we do. Your limbs are young and strong, yet that strength would fail you pitted against the eldest of our tribe.” He started in a more serious tone. He flexed the thick corded muscles of his forearm as if to emphasize the point. “Do not shirk away from what you are.” He said handing me the leaf which had a pieces of the heart, stewed down with kidneys and liver on it. I took it from him and then I placed the leaf at my mouth allowing all the stew to slide in. He watched me encouragingly as I swallowed all of it.

“I still don’t like the taste of liver.” I said cleaning between my teeth and the sides of my jaws with my tongue.

“No one does. That’s why I ate the hand, it was the best part.” He said grinning. And I shook my head.

“The others are back.” I said pointing to the two claws that had stumbled into our poorly lit camp.

“One is missing and the others don’t look whole.” He said moving to where the claws were. I followed behind him eagerly.

“Where is Jarush?” he asked the two claws who were slumped over the fire drinking a concoction of hot blood and vanilla pods that was being forced into their hands.

“Jarush was killed and his body taken.” started one of them.

“Killed and taken by whom?” said Harfr as the scales around his neck stood up at the news.

“Humans. There was a party of ten by seven, soldiers but not the green clad ones of the pretender king. These were rebels. They met us at the mines. They were not expecting to see us and neither them us. We were out matched and we began our retreat, but Jarush was stubborn and he stayed behind. He had killed at least ten of them before he was struck from behind with a sword. I saw as his head fell. He died with honour, axe in hand.”

“And you are going to die the deaths of cowards.” The movement was swift, but in two strokes from his axe, the two claws who had returned, lay dead in front of us, split in two from the shoulder to the hip. Without wiping the blood from the blade, Harfr hitched it in his waist band. He looked at me once, murder and anger in his eyes.

“You never leave another claw unaided in battle.” He explained coldly. He took up the axe strapped on one of the dead claws waist and pushed it against my chest forcefully. I held on to it before it fell and severed a foot.

He turned to the others who had now surrounded us. “There is an army camped near the mines. It seems that our presence has been discovered and there is no longer a reason to hide. Send word to Au Valley that the time our true assault has come.” I saw two claws moving immediately from the group. “You start training tomorrow and it will not be simple. I have been too careless it seems and cowards spring up within my ranks. As of today I will no longer live among cowards and weaklings.” He said before leaving me with the others.