Firestone Hot Springs moontooth

Dutch gave a solemn nod. "A cat. A panther. A dark sidhe . A child-eater."

Dutch had not known those children. He'd been in the midst of his second summer, suddenly full of more strength and vigor than he knew what to do with. He related this to Chakliux, adding, "Where my brother comes from, they would say I was fulla rabbit. Too much kick. I came to a pack I had visited before — one with many daughters. They told us that the sidhe had taken two of their youngest, and before that, three at a neighboring pack. But it was on the coast, and the cat swam through the waters and walked through the salt, and none could track it.

"This pack's mother told me what she had told four more already: that anyone who provided information leading to Tendua's capture would be gifted rich meats and promises of future aid. And the one who brought that cat's head may lay with the woman Auk for her first season — the fiercest and most beautiful of her daughters. I was a whole warren, then!"

There was a nostalgic smile on his face. He dwelled on that moment for a few heartbeats before soldiering on:

"I set off. Valiant, too — but we split up, to better catch the scent. Days from the seaside pack, I met with two more bounty hunters — they said they had found the cat, and they were only doubling back to find one more to fight with. I went with them. We all thought, I think, of the babes that Auk might bear — and we knew that if the hunter-cat lived, they would always be in danger — not that she would have let any of us near her without its head! But the rut does strange things to a man's mind.

"We were quiet — we hoped to take the cat by surprise. I remember that one moment, we walked together, and the next I stared up at the canopy, feeling as if I'd been dropped from the sky. I heard another hunter scream, and then stop screaming — and the other yelling for someone — me, I suppose — to grab it's other paw. I leapt to my paws. The cat had one hunter held in its jaws by the scruff, already trying to get a better grip. The other hunter had it by the front paw, and while he tried to tear the cat off of his father, the man twisted to sink his own teeth into the cat's neck. I ran to them, grabbing the cat by its other paw. It began trying to run from us, then, and the hunter and I pried at it like pups playing with a hide — but so much more frightening. I could hear in the father's voice that he was in agony. I could hear the son crying through the flesh between his teeth. Things grew very confusing. We could not let go to get a better grip. It was a waiting game, to see if the cat bled out first or the father. Our jaws grew weak while it fought, and it shook us off one at a time, but never got us all off at once. I do not know how it happened, but in one such struggle, I was throw off, and when I came back again, I had its throat between my teeth. We rolled. It set its back legs against me to kick, and at the same time I wrenched back. I saw its throat shred like ribbons as it shook me off for the last time, and its blood like rain as it fell back, dead."

He picked up a paw and craned his neck, but he could not easily see his belly while he stood.

"I still have the scars — but I got off easily, compared to the father. He walked, eventually, but he never hunted again. The son carried his father back to the sea pack, and I carried Tendua's head. The sea queen's daughters treated our wounds. We both laid with Auk when it came time. But after this, I was known in that land as the panther. Auk says that the blood that I spilled will run through my children's veins."