Chapter 18: A Scent of Danger
Whilst survival strategies were being crafted inside the guest house, the "traitor Mistral"—as Aeolus had dubbed him—was just appeasing his hunger with a small mouse. For dessert, he had been treated to about three tadpoles, caught with great skill by his athletic companion from a rather large puddle at the edge of the hillfort. Practically speaking, he was experiencing the most vital survival lesson of his life.
This nocturnal stroll alongside Arr was no mere flirtation among the shadows; it was an initiation into the secrets and logic of the circular hillfort—details that, seemingly trivial now, were to become essential in the arithmetic of their existence within this archaic society.
Arr padded like a wild feline, elegant and silent along the high earthen rampart and the palisade of oak logs, remaining just two paces ahead of Mistral. Now and then, she would turn her head to check whether the black cat was following, and if he could cope with the night raid. And follow her he did, utterly spellbound.
They climbed, they descended, they slipped through gaps, they leapt, and above all, they sniffed. They sniffed, and Mistral understood immediately that for Arr, this raid was far more than a romantic walk; to her, scent was the equivalent of reading monitors, seismometers, and motion sensors all at once.
In this age devoid of technology, the senses of these super-cats read everything.
From time to time, they caught sight of other shadows like themselves, slipping past just as silently. They greeted one another without a sound, merely inclining their heads. From the manner in which they did so, Mistral deduced that Arr must hold a high rank within this society of shadows.
"Arr, pssst, Arr! Let us stop for a moment so I can catch my breath!"
"As you wish, Mau," Arr replied. Mistral decided to keep this name without further protest; after all, it sounded like a code name or that of a wise Buddhist monk. "Let us stop over there, upon the rampart. Once you have rested, we can continue our walk along the wall."
The black cat nodded in agreement, and with two bounds, the pair found themselves up on the path atop the wall, beneath the white light of the moon which had just emerged from the clouds.
"Why are all your people so thin, Arr? What I saw yesterday during the spring equinox celebration left me speechless. I have never seen such thin people before!"
"It was a harsh winter, Mau. The people are enduring the spring hunger now, but they will recover. You see, they come alive anew alongside nature. In a few days from now, if they are fortunate, they will recover completely."
"But what about you all? You are in magnificent shape, as though you had never even been through winter. How? Explain it to me, for I do not understand!"
"Us? What do you mean, Mau? We hunt, we fish; an occasional bowl of milk received from the humans is by no means our staple food. The forest provides dormice, red squirrels, siskins, and all manner of other small birds. If times turn bad, we fish, though mostly just for sport. We match wits with the foxes, who are very cunning, but we are greatly advantaged by our ability to climb trees."
Mistral drank in every piece of information with his mouth agape, scarcely breathing.
"Take today’s storm as an example... the humans fled for shelter, but we remained outside beneath the eaves to record everything. The rodents abandon their flooded nests, the birds fall under the weight of the rain... it is written in the law of nature, Mau. I know not from what perverted world you hail, but amongst us, you would be forced to learn how to read. Look, Mau! What do you see?"
Mistral cast one glance towards the interior of the fort and another into the distance towards the forests and thickets.
"Do you see how the spiral architecture of the fort integrates into the topography of this place? I hope that over in your world, you have not forgotten this way of reading nature and respecting it, because if you have... you have likely come from a vanished world."
"Forgive me, Arr, but I understand nothing! How can you speak of respect for nature when you hunt, and fell trees for your hillforts?"
"We are guided by the wisdom of sufficiency, Mau!"
"Mon Dieu, what a great simpleton I feel. In all my life, I have never felt more foolish and... I cannot even ask Aeolus what the wisdom of sufficiency means," Mistral thought to himself, when he saw Arr arching her back as if struck by an electric current.
"What is it? Has something happened?"
"This does not smell good! We must warn the Rí! At dawn, we shall have visitors..."
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