He ran with the damned khiladri.

They were settled in an old house in Manorest that was specifically kept available for visitors from the city. Not that there was limited space; empty houses quietly collapsed in on themselves on every corner of the small town, stripped of everything that could be of use once their former inhabitants had moved on for whatever reason.[1] The room in which they sat was spartan, hard wooden chairs upon a hard wooden floor. All niceties had been removed.

Tala listened incredulously as Rial told her about his time with the pack in the mountains where he lived. Tala could barely process it. His words conjured imaged of the man running besides the beasts, dashing across snow-covered heights in pursuit of some terrified prey animal, relying not on speed but on intelligence.

“It’s formless,” he said, eyes glazed over in memory. “Each creature moves in unison with the other, adjusts its position in response to the howl, flows and shifts according to some unspoken plan. They lay traps, separate the weak from the strong, bring down creatures five times their size.”

“And they let you run with them?”

“Incorrect,” he blinked and coughed apprehensively. “Sorry, I mean… It’s not about ‘letting’ me do anything. It took years for the pack to consider me a natural part of the order of things, a facet of mountain life. I spent most of my time learning to survive long-term in the wild, and any free time I had was spent observing the khiladri.

“I learnt their movements, their habits, the way the pack spreads out like a web that can snap closed at the call of a single member. I discovered where they reared their cubs, how the young learned from each member of the pack, how in fact each cub was a cub of the pack, not of individuals. Then I had to learn how to predict their movements so that I could join the hunt. At the start it was easier to find their prey before them and simply wait.”

Tala looked sceptical.

“How could you do all this? I know you had years, but this sounds like something a hundred people couldn’t discover in a hundred suns. I can’t see how one man could follow the actions of so many khiladri.”

Rial smiled again.

“You see through to the core of things, don’t you? Just like your mother.”

Tala shifted in irritation at the mention of her mother, and Rial must have seen it.

“I’m sorry. But you’re right. I have a way of seeing things, at a distance. It was this ability to monitor the pack as a whole that allowed me to get as far as I did. I began by feeding it, by bringing it to prey food or luring prey to it. Eventually, a space was made for me within the group, though nothing like the khiladri themselves. I am more a… tool they can use, something they don’t understand but know increases their chances of survival.”

“Wait, wait, go back…” Tala wasn’t going to let that one passed. “You can ‘see things at a distance’? What does that mean?”

“I can’t tell you, I have to show you. And I will, I promise. Once we are back in the city I will show you.”

Tala fixed him with a cold stare.

“You are lucky,” she intoned slowly, “that I am a patient person, but I swear, you are going to have to start giving me straight answers soon or things are going to get more difficult for you.”

Rial was saved by voices outside, closing on the door which swung open heavily on its hinges. Rakthi led the way, with Karal and Hurstrom close behind.

“Everything’s here,” Rakthi said.

Rakthi and Hurstrom had had to escort a group of the townsfolk back through the forests to where they had sequestered the cart, unable to take the thing the entire way through the trees. Now all the goods had been carried to the town. They would switch what was not traded here to another cart and continue on.

Karal barged past Rakthi, eyes aflame. Tala didn’t need to hear his words to know what he had discovered.

“It’s rotten here,” he spat, suppressed fury coating every word. “They’ve hidden the worst of it, but it’s here. I saw at least three people hiding their eyes.”

“The sun is bright today, Karal,” said Rakthi, but it didn’t sound like even she was convinced by her words.

“It’s here,” insisted Karal, turning to Tala. “We need to find out where they’re getting it.”

“We will. It’s time to see the chief.”

[1] That reason was usually the same one.