Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 46078 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46078 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
“The infants are not putting on weight as they should. The goat milk is slowing down their decline, but it is clearly not a complete substitute. I hope I can get them to an age where they can consume solid food, but I have my doubts. They could die, Azlan.”
“And that would be a pity, but Leonidas has an entire army at his disposal, and we are but four brothers and wounded, broken males. What would you have me do? Launch our meager forces at Shattered Gulch? Get us all killed?”
“No. Of course not.”
“If the babies die, it is not I who killed them,” he says. “Nor will it be your fault, or the fault of anybody here. It will be another of the many tragedies of Leonidas.”
Logically what he is saying makes sense, but emotionally I cannot bring myself to agree. He does not hold the babies when they suckle. He does not look down into their trusting but confused eyes when their little paws pad for a maternal pelt that is not there. Azlan is an alpha, and these are not his babies. He has not shown any hostility toward them, nor do I see him showing as much concern as I have regarding their welfare. Sometimes it is very hard to tell what Azlan thinks or feels, whether he is hiding softness, or if he does not have it at all.
I know one thing for sure. I will not allow the cubs who depend on me as they once depended on their stolen mothers to become casualties of Leonidas. I will do something about this.
9
Much further away than you might expect….
Ava
This feels like a bad idea.
It is possibly the worst idea I’ve ever had, and I accidentally sold myself at an illegal alien auction. I try not to let the uncertainty show on my face as I approach the looming stronghold of Leonidas.
I am no longer in the pride lands. I am hundreds, if not thousands of miles away, approaching what is apparently called either Shattered Gulch or The Den. I find myself here for reasons Azlan refuses to understand, and reasons I cannot ignore. I have not done much for anybody in my life, but I can do this.
I’ve learned that this place is called the Den because it is built into the side of a mountain. But that just makes it sound like a cave, and it is no cave. It is a fortress bordered by a mountain range with great gates at the entrance. I am still miles away, but I can already see them, carved in the shape of the face of a snarling Leonid, with great carved forelegs and paws extending out into the desert. It is a city with the vibes of a giant sculpture, and it portrays a kind of majesty I can barely stand.
I am intimidated, as I am meant to be. It is obvious that generations of Leonids have invested generations of effort in creating a general ambiance of majesty and terror.
It’s not going to stop me.
I am walking along a road that extends from those gates, a road that goes to, as far as I can tell, literally nowhere. I don’t know quite where the paving started, but the honeycomb-shaped rocks interlocked beneath my feet cannot possibly be an accident. This is a sign of construction left to go to ruin. Once upon a time, there were no doubt buildings outside the gates, maybe the city extended for miles into what is now wasteland. Now there is just this honeycomb path and a civilization living in retreat. Skol was going to teach me the history of the world, but we ran out of time.
As I walk, I have time to consider how I got here. This all started because I wanted to rid my farm of Growlers. That problem now seems laughably small. There’s a part of me that wishes I’d just been happy to shoot the Growlers. If I’d been prepared to cull them myself, I would not be here trying to save everyone else. My life was easier when it was just me, or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe my problems have always expanded to fit me. When I was young, my biggest problem was keeping the chickens out of the gardens. Then the Growlers ate the chickens, and they became my problem. Then I swapped the Growlers for a pride full of hungry babies.
At least I know they are taken care of in the short term. Some of the males have taken to nursemaiding the cubs, and a machine has been devised that milks and feeds the goats at the same time. I am not needed back at Pride Rock, which is good, because I am nowhere near that place anymore.
I found an unexpected ally in the effort to save the cubs, someone I didn’t expect to care. Kain. He transported me out here in his ship and left me with one simple instruction: walk toward the mountain.