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THE NAMING RITUAL80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9KlkAkN9Rh
Majara’s chest swelled with delight as her telepathic message spread like a fire through kindling.
“Today I will name my first two cubs. Assemble Leopardmura.”
The thrilled siblings bolted around the edge of the valley. “What will mommeo name us, big sister?”
“The anticipation is slaying me, little sister.”
“Don’t die yet. nameless Moon Bindings always ruin my year.” Leaping from the tall grass, the guests of honor took their places in the shadow of the family totem. The scent of burning incense seeped into the nostrils of the wooden remnant to awaken the spirits of the family’s most ferocious ancestors.
Maow arrived ahead of me, finding a vantage point on a high rock.
“Majara, the proud mommeo, will preside with Bekku, our chief. Kiisu, our Anjennou, will minister sacred ordinance.”
The satisfied mommeo began the ritual.
“Oh, Majestic One, we seek your blessing today as we christen these heroes. Grit and cunning in the face of the chimeragor merits the naming.”
With a protruded claw, she took the arm of her first offspring. Her face gleamed as she slit the youth’s wrist. Bright-red blood
drained down her soft coat.
The honored cub held back any sign of discomfort.
Majara grasped the Anjennou, inflicting the same wound.
All the while, Kiisu smiled as the cub bore the unsympathetic slash as though nothing happened. Decades passed since Kiisu’s mutilated hide stung from repeated clawing. With a glowing heart, the Innocent One pronounced the ancient benediction: “Let your prey be unaware, your fur be purified in their life-blood, and the face of the Leopard Goddess illuminate you.”
Nearby, Kita glanced at the scar on her arm as she recollected the chimeragor’s ceremony. As the daughter of an Anjennou, she drew her blood with authority to unite with him. In hindsight, she realized the risk if the chimeragor believed her a threat.
Majara, bound Kiisu to her first daughter with an arm-strap, letting their blood mingle.
“I name you, Sinnawar, for you helped prevented a war.”
The entire gathering bowed their heads in respect for Sinnawar’s feat as she grinned with ticklish delight.
Reenacting the same bloodstained rite, Majara raised her chin high.
“I vest you with the name, Kattur, after your ancestor. Esteemed on our family-pole she defeated the pterosaur, which tried to carry off one of her brood. The survivor, your namesake, propagated our blood line.”
The Madragora nodded in approval.
Bekku cupped her paws on her cub’s foreheads.
“Hold fast to your mākutu and thereby embrace your marrow. Let the feast begin.”
Sinnawar repeated her name to herself, forgetting all else for the moment. “I’m grown up.”
“Me too, sister. Perhaps our perkiness will catch up with our designations someday.”
“Who do you plan to attract when you jiggle them, Kattur?”
Kattur hid her reluctant thoughts. “I do not want her to think I am afraid. I’m just not ready.”
“As if you didn’t know.”
Sinnawar chomped a large bite out of her food.
“Delicious! Why do I savor this ostentaculus so much more?”
The elated teen reflected on her surroundings. “A marvelous day seasons our meal.”
Bekku clinched her teeth for a minute, then announced, louder than the others...80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNRnLd2DNQJ
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THE JOURNEY TO MĀKUTU AND BEYOND80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXtW3XXBVQm
With your new rights, you gain responsibility. Would you help us start a new home? Before you answer, chew on this thought. Past the rainbow in the sky, our scouts report vast herds.”
Sinnawar’s mind raced.
“The thought of leaving home diminishes the appeal of full leopardhood.”
Kattur cocked her legs as though she might spring into the distant tree line.
“Sounds like a splendid undertaking to me.” Out of nowhere, one sentry roared.
“The chimeragor charges!”
The frisky critter ran across the communal area batting his talisman with the sentries in tow.
“Here Bob, come to me boy, come.”
The prickly rascal occupied Sinnawar’s space, ready to frolic, rubbing her with affectionate purrs.
Debilitated for a moment by the afterimage of the rapid beast in their eyes, the tribe froze—except for Sinnawar. Boldness took root in her heart.
Snapping off a bone covered in sizzling tenderloin, she stuffed the hungry critter’s mouth like a Thanksgiving turkey.
Khatool slipped through the crowd in full mākutu.
Uncomfortable with her proximity to the gobbling chimeragor, Bekku’s stepped away and her expression fell, grim.
The spectacle inspired a moment of clarity for Sinnawar, who stepped beside Bob.
“The depth of our life measures the breadth of our prowess. Cast me into the unknown if my barbed terror may go along to protect me.”
An expectant silence blanketed the scene while Sinnawar expounded. “The certainty one day I will die, prevents me from believing anything in this life lasts forever. My mommeo birthed me with only my soul and these cute spots. By the grace of the Merciful One, I will depart with them both intact.”
With everyone’s eyes riveted on her, the emboldened feline postured humbly.
“All my short life I survived by reason. Bob taught me, the secret of emotional connections. This beast’s endearment is unconditional, not because I gave him leonip... Now I want to thrive. Besides, unpredictable exposure to an untamed territory will help me attain magnificence in the hunt.”
Sinnawar surveyed the changed faces surrounding her. “Let us flourish where love and a leonip ball combine into the most persuasive weapon in existence.”
Bekku leaped up to a high boulder.
“Your persuasion settles my decision. Sisters, take Bob and the Mandragal along.”
The calculating chieftain jumped down and mirrored me. “Finish as many lessons as you can from Maow. Three nights must witness your assimilation into our culture.”
Khatool stepped forward. “The young Mandragora will need my strength.”
Bekku raised her chin. “I couldn’t feel prouder of your selflessness. Go in peace, my old friend.”
“Also, the Mandagral will require an escort home. Otherwise, the undergrowth might seduce him into to her foliage and swallow him.”
Devotion stirred in Pushiri.
“Whether for his heart or mind, body or spirit, I will brighten his way.”
Gatta frowned at the scruffy, inconsistent, inappropriate discrepancy. “Count me in too.”
Bekku stepped closer to Gatta. “Brilliant, you and the countryside blend like birds and the trees.”
The tension dissipated like fog at sunrise. Maow beckoned me with a flick of her tail.
“Realization awaits you.”
Along the way, I relaxed, hearing the purr in her tranquil voice. “Why did Bekku describe the jungle like a dangerous lover?” The teen flashed a whimsical grin.
“Who, would blame the wilderness for consuming you? The idea crossed my mind to lure you into my bushes... Now, to answer your question, the rainforest, she lives.”
“Do you mean like the Golden Willows?”
“Awe, you understand a little.”
“I witnessed Kusing’s sensual antics with them. The incredible spectacle paved the way for many marvelous dreams.”
“Those bigender trees overwhelm their unsuspecting partners with bliss. The chance to end their tryst would require an Anjennou’s intercession, if once you sang their courting song.”
“Your intriguing, feral race blends a primitive way of life with a profound conscientiousness. What a divergence from nature! On Terradon Prime, most species display one or the other. Both ferocious and impassioned lives define your culture.”
“What a beautiful tribute.”
“Likewise, I adore the scenery from back here, Maow.”
“I got an eye full of you earlier, Mandagral.”
Our bouts of suggestive hinting came to a climax on her plush rug. Near midnight, her hot-blooded growls mellowed into a kitten- like purr.
Licking us both clean, my wayward tutor rationalized the late start on my familiarization.
“I’ll count the time we spent as a lesson.”
The compulsion to explore the wilderness seized my curiosity. “Tell me more about the seductive undergrowth.”
Taking care to avoid damaging an age-old parchment, Maow forced her nonchalance to the surface to cover the otherwise obvious uneasiness she harbored in anticipation of more pointed question she must not answer.
“This one contains the chronicle of Purkatti, the mother of healing. Famous now, she mastered the art of curation, combining rhyme and flora extracts. To perfect her talent, she searched for forty lunar cycles, mapping her journey. Without her famed efforts we would waste valuable time searching the primitive landscape.”
“Here’s where Purkatti recounted her travels.”
Like a child listening to a bedtime story, I awaited a heroic undertaking.80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOAnx5SlxuY
The wilderness schooled me in her unspoken poetry and unveiled the plants, which cure. Late on the twenty-first night on my excursion along the Zenhandua River a light captured my attention. The water sparkled with fiery grains of sand drifting on its surface, inviting me to their source.
In the form of a cherry-colored cylinder, the Fire God adorned himself with swirling starlight. One huge dragon-like eye penetrated every obstacle. A translucent environment channeled tiny beads of his essence. Each one reverberated in a calming harmony. Life surged through my veins as I drank from the stream.
On closer examination, the pigments of the fine-haired ferns changed with the melody. My curiosity revealed a fantastic discovery. The hairs inoculated me, curing a bleeding emblem of courage I earned while fighting a bushwhacking crocodilian.”
“Like incense, my prayer rose to the All-Powerful One, begging permission to take a few saplings. The strands of lights pulsated. The indigenous soil I gathered kept the roots safe. When I mimicked the God’s rhyme, their glow returned. Four more times along the way, they healed me.”80Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTXqzgWFogg
“Wow, how fascinating, Maow.”
“Shunra enlightened us. A certain prose and a wonderful panacea of elixirs enhance our ability to affect molecular regeneration. Thus, we heal like the Balm of Catriona.”
“What?”
“The Angel of Mercy dispensed a legendary ointment. This salve combines the collective capabilities of every remedy. Time never again revealed such heavenly favor to us once our healers developed their art.”
How does curation work?”
“The deities gifted our sacred rituals with the mystical rhythm and transforming imagery borne in their blessed poetry. These poems bear their perpetual presence, like a bright light, penetrating our soul until the trauma’s end. The passage of their rhymes through our consciousness rejuvenates our life force.”
“We are sentient creations, contrary to your predecessor’s opinion.”
“Tell me about him, Maow.”
“Overlook the fool, Mandagral.”
“Your pathway, as opposed to his, will take you to the Omnipotent Ones.”
“More deities rule here!”
“News of your intimate meeting with Mezuno Mezami the Provider mushroomed on the wind. Also, you shall behold the Terradon Goddess, Daichi No Megami the Creator. She reigns from her shrine. Moreover, we worship the Air Goddess, Sora No Megami the Redeemer. Head east to meet her in her temple. Most formidable, stands the embellished fortress of Hi Gami the Purifier, where Purkatti discovered him.”
With due diligence, I memorized every inch of the artistic map. “The fountain originates from the mountains, and circles the region thirty miles around, refreshing Effervescha’s Lake Verde.”
“Correct, Mandagral.”
Applying a delicate touch, she traced the river to the bottom left corner.
“Here, lies our newneyow’s destination.”
“What will the name of the new dwelling be?”
“Their leader will designate one fitting of the group.”
“Who will govern them?”
Maow sounded like a politician reciting a section of legislation: “Out of necessity, she surfaces, and we follow her. The one who takes charge will execute the hunt with prowess. The feathered flame, which alights in her, will warble an unending, wordless tune christened, Hope. With divine intervention, she will rise without fear and full of ecstasy from the blackest night.”
“Yes, I witnessed the story fire.”
“Our mommeo’s pass down these words. The accounts inspire our leader’s ascendance.”
Forgetting Maow’s proximity, my speculation overflowed. “Terradon Prime will never sink into political ambition.” Her thoughts froze as she scratched at her temple.
“Your ideas are foreign to me.”
Like a criminal caught in the act, a tingling swept up the back of my neck and across my face.
“As well they should. Granted, speculations are not of this world, but where they come from, I cannot recall. A wise person would forget them.”
“Come Mandagral, the unveiling begins. Kattur and Sinnawar will disrobe their primal instinct for all to witness.”Your story here...
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