Page 68 of All That Has Flown Beyond
“That’s not…I mean…” Ahmik looked at Amaya. She hadn’t been feral when she arrived at Garrow land, but she hadn’t asked permission either. What if he had run her out without a second thought? “How are we even supposed to negotiate with him?” Ahmik relented.
“Desperate people are easy to negotiate with. Just figure out what they want, and they’ll do a lot to get it. Your job is not to take advantage of that. My suggestion is that Amaya go meet with him, if she’s willing.”
“I—”
“No way,” Ahmik said, cutting Amaya off.
“And why not?” she snapped.
“It’s too dangerous. You—something could happen. I’ll meet with him.”
Kaiyo managed not to sigh. “What is the logic behind that decision, Ahmik? Why would you be a better candidate than Amaya to meet with him?”
“Because I’m Kephale!”
“So? And I don’t say that to challenge you. I genuinely want to know what the reasoning is behind thinking that being Kephale is enough of a reason to meet with him.”
“Because it’s my job to protect my pack.”
“And this is protecting your pack? There are a lot of ways to take care of your pack, and the smartest is to respect them enough to know when they are better suited to a task than you. Kephale literally meansheadin Greek, like you know. Not leader but literally a head on a body. It guides. It does not do everything. Right now, the meanderer is scared. Reactive. He needs to speak to someone who can keep their cool, understand their situation intimately, and negotiate with empathy. You literally have the perfect pack member to deal with this situation.”
Even Edu quieted down in the intervening silence. Ahmik looked at Kaiyo, and the pain on his face was obvious. His own desperate fears not to lose anything else. He turned to look at Amaya, taking in her uplifted chin, the stubborn look in her eyes.
“You need to be careful,” Ahmik said to Amaya, relenting. The tension in Amaya’s body eased fractionally. For once, she left the jokes behind.
“I will. I promise.”
Ahmik nodded, before looking around. “Okay, then. Let’s make a plan.”
**********
It would have been better to approach the meanderer when the moon was waning, but none of them wanted the meanderer loose and going feral during the approaching full moon.
With Amaya’s help, as well as with the traces the meanderer had left of himself on the animals he had hunted and left behind, Kaiyo’s divination ritual managed to find the cave the meanderer was squatting in. Amaya approached the open mouth of the cave and leaned against a tree casually. All around her, shadows were retreating to more compact forms as the dawn seeped gold into the sky.
“Yoo-hoo,” Amaya called. Ahmik, Thea, and Kaiyo watched, hidden between the trees with covered scents and heartbeats, triangulating Amaya and the cave in case she needed assistance.
Something shuffled in the darkness of the cave.
“I know you’re there, buddy. Why don’t you come out and say hi?” Amaya said. After a moment, a silhouette approached the cave entrance.
“Who are you?” a deep voice said, the edge of a growl to it. Amaya didn’t seem intimidated.
“My name is Amaya. I’m a member of the local pack. You know, the one that belongs to the land you’re trespassing on…?”
The figure hesitated before stepping out of the shadows. The man who appeared was tall, with a square chin and broad shoulders, but his frame seemed to have been decimated by malnutrition. His thin, ripped clothing hung like dirty rags, his hair matted, its colour camouflaged completely by the grime plastered on it.
His eyes, however, were the clearest sign of his desperation. Wide, wild, with the translucent, reflective quality of the half-moon shift, even though the rest of his features remained humanoid
“Wow,” Amaya said. “That is…quite the look you’ve got there. Autumn Hobo Couture?”
“What do you want? I’m not hurting anybody,” the man said.
“I don’t want anything. I’m here to offer you help.”
The man looked at her with clear suspicion. “Help? Help with what?”
“You tell me.”
