read a sample of Little Claw of Azuni
The clean up finished early, so the Elders sent all
the cubs to the river to bathe. Sitting on a rock to
dry, Ragar asked her Cousin Koib to groom her back fur
while she nit-picked at Koib's tail. She and Koib
purred and mewed at the awkwardness of their slightly
older Cousin Urta, who was making a fool of himself
trying to impress one of the older maidens.
Koib whispered, "I wonder when Urta will be sent to
the ledges with the young males."
Ragar's eyes widened at the remark. She would miss
Urta in the children's den, but the male scent was
obvious on him. She'd noticed his play had roughened
and his growls sounded more serious lately. She nodded
wisely and flicked a flea out of Koib's tail fur.
"The Hunt pack is back!"
"Mother! Father." Ragar ran to the common area where
the Hunt pack was unloading dried meat strips and
skins. The returning heroes stopped frequently to hug
kits and touch noses respectfully to Elders.
Ragar rushed into the open arms of her mother who
howled a welcome song. Ragar felt very small and
precious in Mother's embrace. She melted as the gentle
warm tongue licked her face.
Ragar then tumbled into Father's arms before she
touched noses respectfully with each of her Aunts and
Uncles and grown Cousins. She returned to her parents
to pick at Mother's elegant tail.
Her parents glanced at one another before Father spoke
in a serious voice, "Ragar. We brought something from
the Hunt, something young and helpless and scared.
Something that you will need to take care of, and
teach and protect for a long time."
"Can you take that responsibility seriously?" Mother
asked.
Ragar stopped dancing at their feet. She stopped dead
in her tracks. Alive? A bird? A fawn? Maybe a
garhound's pup?
Father stepped aside. Ragar could only stand and stare
at the fragile creature who stood upright like it was
one of the People, but was too bald, ugly and thin-
skinned to be one of the People. It was clearly
terrified. It cringed and crouched down onto its
haunches, when Father pointed.
Father whispered into Ragar's right ear, one that
twitched in excitement. "It's a cub, a man-thing's
cub. They've starved and abused it. It's dumb, but
comes from a species that can learn sign language, so
I want you to teach it to speak to us so that it will
feel less scared. I'm glad to say that it is
housebroken. We already know that it can learn simple
tasks such as gathering firewood and feeding the fire.
Your Mother has taught it how to bathe itself.
I think it is very intelligent for a man-thing."
Father reached down to lift his daughter's chin so
that she could only see his gentle face and his
serious kind eyes. "This little creature is very
delicate, Ragar. Already Mother and I have both
accidentally scratched it bloody just handling it. You
older cubs could seriously hurt it, even kill it
without meaning to. Can you promise to take care of
it? Watch it while it is with the other cubs?
Remember to feed and train it? Keep it out of
trouble?"
Ragar nodded solemnly. Father looked deep into her
eyes, then bobbed his ears in a nod, before he led her
by the hand to the man-cub. Ragar forced herself to
appear calm. She knew dumb beasts could feel fear and
she could see this long-legged bald thing had begun
trembling at their approach. She saw two sets of claw
marks, one fresh down his leg and an older one healing
on his rib cage. No wonder he was scared of her and
Father.
She grew a little wary herself. "Does it bite?" she
asked doubtfully.
Father howled a laugh and shook his head. "No, his
teeth are way too small," Father purred.
"Maybe it still needs to be nursed, maybe those are
milk teeth?" she asked her father who again answered
in the negative.
As she walked around the wary little creature, she
asked, "How big do they get?"
Hukar held his hand up to his lower rib cage. She
nodded wisely as she continued toward the man-cub. He-
-it's a male man-thing. He! He watched her with blue-
black eyes through odd round pupils. As they
approached, he crouched down even more. He pulled his
arms around himself like he would hug himself.
Comforting himself? Ragar guessed that most likely he
was trying to become invisible.
He stank of fear. Ragar wanted to pet him, but she was
wise in the way of wild animals. Just as she did with
the occasional bird or rodent she had nursed back to
health, Ragar knew she must be slow with physical
contact.
Ragar reached one hand toward him, with her claws
retracted and placed the back of her hand to his nose
to sniff. To her surprise, he did not. Well, that tiny
flat nose does seem a little useless. Carefully, with
the back of that same hand Ragar stroked his face. It
was smooth and warm. She had half-expected a serpent's
coolness under her skin, but, no, his face was warm
and nice in its strange baldness.
At her touch, the little creature closed his eyes and
stopped breathing. Slowly, Ragar removed her hand and
the creature opened its eyes. There was confusion
there, but she could smell his fear blow away in the
breeze.
Ragar was pleased with his intelligence, so different
from a bird's wild mindless terror; so she repeated
the caress. This time his response was even more
rewarding, as the man-cub leaned into her hand
following the caress. "He likes it! Father! He likes
it."
Father purred. He walked away to do adult stuff like
report to the Elders who would discuss the Hunt all
afternoon and far into the night. Let them. Ragar had
more important things to do. She carefully petted and
stroked the little creature's head and shoulders, then
moved down to his trunk. When she felt his ribs, and
the thinness there, Ragar suddenly realized that he
might be hungry again. Father said he was starving.
Ragar put out her hand. The creature put his tiny
light brown paw into her palm. Small weak fingers
grasped hers. She saw that like his nose and his
teeth, his claws seemed only decoration, a mockery of
proper claws. With a chill, she realized just how
helpless this poor creature really was.
She led him toward the clan den, to the kitchen. The
rest of the clan's offspring gathered closer to watch
as she led her new pet. Seeing them, the poor little
thing moved closer to her. For protection?
Ragar placed her arm over his skinny shoulders and
growled a mild warning to the others. Everyone
stopped, to watch from a distance. She growled again
and the small crowd broke up.
Ragar continued to move him toward the kitchen, but
one of her Aunts barred the way. "Don't you dare bring
that nasty thing into our kitchen. I'll bring it
something. Keep it there." Her Auntie was not angry,
just firm.
Ragar sniffed her new pet and realized that yes; he
did need a bath. "Yes, but food first," she growled
rebelliously to her Aunt's retreating back. Under her
arm, she felt the man-cub tremble.
Auntie had frightened him? Ragar purred gently and
stroked his back. The trembling ended.
While they waited outside, Ragar turned to the man-cub
and said, "You need a name. How about 'Little Claw?'"
She pointed to the man-cub's bony chest and repeated
the word both verbally and in sign language. The poor
creature watched her actions in total incomprehension.
With both hands she shaped his tiny fingers into the
two gestures for "little" and for "claw." He repeated
the sign, then copied the gestures she made for her
own name, but she could tell that he lacked true
understanding.
Ragar growled, then patiently began to point to
different things and gave the signs for each. Little
Claw repeated them scrupulously. Then she stood back
and started to point to each item, 'rock', 'bush'
himself and then herself. He watched her, with his
head cocked in such a people-like manner that she
started to purr. He was so cute; like he was really
thinking.
Abruptly, the man-cub grimaced and showed her his
teeth. Ragar panicked and stepped back. He pointed to
the rock and signed the word 'rock'. Then he pointed
to the bush and signed it correctly.
She relaxed once she realized that he was not showing
his teeth in anger, but in excitement. When he pointed
to her and signed "Ragar", she howled with glee.
It was now Little Claw's turn to step back in panic.
She forced herself to calm down and petted his
shoulder. Again he showed her his teeth.
He's so ugly, he's cute, Ragar thought affectionately.
Just then, her Aunt returned with a hollowed out
wooden bowl of baby gruel. Ragar took it from her Aunt
with respectful thanks and made the gesture for 'come'
to Little Claw. Seeing the bowl, he sniffed twice
with his stubby nose then trotted behind her to a
corner in the rock-faced cliff. The two sat down.
Ragar picked up the spoon and slipped a mouthful
between his half-parted lips.
While he chewed, she signed, "Little Claw eat."
He signed back, and then she gave herself a bite and
signed, "Ragar eat."
Little Claw chewed thoughtfully for a minute or two,
then signed, "Little Claw eat."
Ragar thought he was confused, but suddenly howled as
she realized that he did truly understand. He wanted
another bite, in fact he asked for it, so she rewarded
him with two.
Then she put the spoon down in the bowl. She signed,
"Little Claw eat."
He spooned up a bite for himself. Then she signed,
"Ragar eat." Gravely, he fed her a bite. Together the
two emptied the bowl of gruel.
Ragar led her pet to the river. She squatted down on
the bank to clean the spoon and the bowl. Little Claw
took the utensils from her hands and carefully
finished cleaning up. The cub gaped at her new pet.
Man-things eat with utensils? Maybe they are not such
dumb animals. Maybe they're fit for more than just
carrying things in the noonday sun like a line of
stupid insects.
Ragar pointed to the shallows of the stream then
signed. "Little Claw bathe."
He showed his teeth as he slipped obediently into the
water, then looked up at her to ask, "Ragar bathe?"
She purred and joined him. Other cubs wandered up so
Ragar taught Little Claw Koib's name and those of her
three best friends. But they frightened him so that
he moved behind her.
Ragar explained to her Cousins how delicate he was.
She cautioned the rest to stay back. Gradually, Little
Claw was drawn out from his hiding place. He signed
their names and the children mewed with laughter at
the cleverness of Ragar's new pet.
Within a few minutes, Little Claw and the five little
girl cubs were tumbling and playing in the stream. One
by one, the rest of the cubs approached Ragar's pet to
be introduced. One by one, they slipped into the
stream to play with Little Claw.
