Shadows

Between the idea and the act falls the shadow


Among the kaiila clan there is and always will be a controversy as to when it is best to begin saddle breaking a mount. Some say as long as 4 full envars before a kaiila is ready and some say as soon as a little over an envar. Had Me Too been the size of a grown man I would have said it was better to wait but the boy was small and his weight would not be more than the creature could hold comfortably. Both Orachu and the boy were chomping at the bit to ride ... yes the pun was intended. Still I was reluctant but it is so easy to get caught up in that youthful excitement and worn down by the constant please, please, please. I gave in. Keska did have to lean against my knees to keep me on the fence rail while Vao, who was far more experienced than I was in this area, took the lad in hand.

When Me Too mounted the gear on the kaiila I think we all held our breath .. waiting ... watching. I felt that sting along my lashes when he slid into the saddle as if he had been born there. The cheers that the men let out pierced my ears and made me laugh. My own little hands were thundering together.

After a few lazy paces in a circle to grow accustomed to each other I began to relax and enjoy the show. What I was not prepared for was the snap of heels in the stirrups to spur the kaiila into a run. I stood up on the rail trying to call him back and Keska tugging at the back of my chatka trying to get me to sit back down and ... chill. I was watching in horror as a jerk to the reins stood Orachu straight up on his hind legs and with the suddeness of the stop, the boy went sliding right off the back side of the beast flat onto his back. Strong hands had to press me to the rail to prevent me from jumping off and running out there.

Me Too lay motionless and there was nothing I could do about it ... not from here. Vao was calling to the other kaiila hands but Rusty had already leapt to his own kaiila and was tearing off across the plains leaving a pillar of dust snaking into the wind. When he arrived where the boy lay, he merely leaned down over the side of his beast to extend a hand to the child.

There was the boy I was caring for ... coming back to life from the dead, or it seemed that way from where I was anyway. He was holding out his own hand to be scooped up in front of the kaiila Master. Once settled in, the man re-created the exact same event. Rusty's beast stood just as Orachu had except that ... it was controlled instead of happenstance. Me Too's arms flew straight up to the sky with a cry of excited triumph and off they rode into the horizon. Orachu practiced the elongated stretch to the sky a few times himself before tagging along behind like an obedient little sleen pup, reins trailing off the pommel.

Keska's hands lessened their death grasp so that I could settle back on the rail trying to figure out what the ^%$# had just happened. Vao walked back over to where we were with one of those vulo eating grins of his even when I began going off about knowing that I shouldn't have allowed all of this as well as the new tirade of him letting the boy just ride off like that with the other Master. His voice was soothing and gentle much like the way I spoke to Me Too when I wanted him to learn something he had trouble understanding. Maybe it was the use of Me Too's favorite nickname for me that got my attention. "Lina ... there are some things you will never be able to teach him." The adrenaline rush and my own frustration had left me aggravated and I barked a retort. "What .. to be Tuchuk?" At first the man's laughter irritated me to no end though what he said left me pensively silent. "No little one, you have done well teaching him that. What you can never teach him ... is to be a man."