Feather by Susan Page Davis Page B

slit on a new beaded necklace. Three of the older men stepped forward and hung the leather thongs about the boys’ necks, and in that instant they became warriors of the Blens.
    Drumming began. Feasting and dancing would last well into the night. Denna, Riah, and the other young women rushed to fetch food and drink for the three being honored.
    Feather slipped away and took her blanket to a spot as far from the fires as she dared to go. The drumming and shouting went on for hours. It was not really singing, but a strident yelling of victory. At last Mik’s band found their bedrolls and things quieted down, though some of the other bands still reveled.
    “Feather?”
    She sat bolt upright. It was Tag’s urgent whisper.
    “Here.”
    He came toward her and stumbled over a root, landing in a heap beside her.
    “I couldn’t find you,” he said. “Are you all right?”
    “Yes, are you?”
    “Yes. I tripped, is all.”
    Feather chuckled. “I didn’t mean that. I meant . . . everything. Today. The cats.”
    “It was hard.” Tag settled beside her, and in the moonlight she saw that he carried his pack in his arms. “You really should be closer to the others.”
    “It was so noisy.”
    He nodded.
    “Are you really all right?” she asked.
    “I have some scratches. Cade took the worst of it. He got bitten and clawed badly, but they say he’ll recover.”
    “How did it happen?” Feather didn’t want to reveal the dread and terror she had lived with this day. His own ordeal had been much worse than hers.
    “We tried all morning to corner one of the cats, but they were too clever. By noon, we began to fear we might not make it. Then we watched two of the other fellows catch one. They chased it into a hollow place in the rocks. It nearly killed one of them, but they got the fur. We thought maybe we could get the same cat when they were done, but it got past us and streaked away.” Tag swallowed and took a deep breath. “Cade was thinking about giving up. It shocked me, and I told him we couldn’t do that. Vel said that if Cade wanted to quit, he should just go, but we were going to go on.”
    “So he stayed with you?”
    “Yes.”
    “What about the two boys who didn’t come back?” Feather asked in a small voice.
    Tag sighed and picked up a pebble, toying with it. “We saw one of them at late morning. The tall boy with the long hair.”
    Feather nodded.
    “He and his friends tried to subdue a female panther, and she mauled him. It was terrible. But it made me more determined than ever.”
    “What about the boy who came back to camp without the fur, then returned to the city after Temon shamed him?”
    Tag shrugged. “I don’t know. We saw no one else the last hour or two.” He fumbled with the straps on his pack and slid his hand inside. “I brought you something.”
    Feather held her breath. Excitement mounted as she waited. Tag seemed to be feeling around in the lumpy pack.
    “Ow.” He withdrew his hand quickly and smiled, holding out his gift. “Here. For you.”
    She took the stone he offered and held it up close to examine it.
    “It looks like a panther.”
    He nodded, grinning. “I found it in a cave. Well, a house, I suppose, but it was all in ruins. We found it not long before sunset, and we knew it was our best chance of passing the test. You see, it was a nest.”
    Feather blinked at him. “A bird’s nest?”
    “No, a cat’s nest. There were two panther kittens inside. Just as we were looking into the cave and asking each other what to do, the mother cat came screaming down from above us. She clawed at us. Cade was hurt badly, and we all fell back. She went straight to her babies, and we trapped her in there with them.”
    A small noise, like the cry Weave’s baby gave when he was hungry, startled Feather.
    “What was that?”
    Tag grinned with delight. “I will show you. You see, we got sticks, and with them and our ropes, we held the mother long enough to get the fur from her