Firstborn

Chapter 18 - Betrayal again

"Oh, why did you have to go and say that now? Hmm? It's going to be much harder for Meeru to deliver her promises." An unfamiliar voice came from behind Avi making him turn around.

Grey eyes locked on amber ones and confirmed one truth. The knife thrower and Una's Tawny was the same person. Avi checked to see if Rosetta recognised Tawny - a futile exercise - it was difficult to read snow leopard eyes. Two youths in combat outfits with rifles kneeled and flanked Rosetta's animal body. They pressed their rifles into her flesh to stop her from jerking her head about as she tried to use her canine teeth to get a grip on them. Her head bashing ended when another youth pulled a sack over her feline head.

"Get off ..." Avi didn't finish the sentence.

His hair was grabbed from behind and held, forcing his chin up.

Avi grunted, attacked the hand holding him, spun around and applied brute force on his assailant's shoulders and pushed him back.

"Call your boys off Tawny or..." Avi stood in a fighting pose as two other combat youths came forward.

Holding his hand in the air Tawny halted their progress.

"Tawny? Don't you know my real name? I thought Rosetta would have warned you about me. Then again she already had enough to explain, with her being your mother and a snow leopard all at the same time."

Rosetta swung her head violently.

"Well, it looks like I'm going to have to introduce myself. My name is ...no wait...I've changed my mind, I actually like Tawny. It matches my eyes. Meeru didn't tell me I was going to be dealing with a 'sensitive' boy."

Avi grunted.

Tawny's expressions hardened. "By the end of the night I guarantee you will learn and respect my actual name."

"Don't count on it."

Tawny just smiled.

Irked, Avi changed the subject. "Earlier you said Meeru wouldn't be able to keep her promises. Why would she make promises to you?"

"Because I wanted to join the Forced Blessed."

Meeru slipped out of the shadows and stood next to Tawny. She kissed him lightly on the cheek and whispered loudly, "You promised you wouldn't play with him."

Avi stared askance at Meeru. She wore a combat outfit identical to the girl in Tawny's act.

Stupefied, Avi blurted out. "So it really was you under a sheet, on the spinning wheel when he threw knives at you."

"Ah! You remember! Meeru thought she saw you that night."

"He could have killed you...how could you be so dumb?"

"It was all part of her training." Tawny held Meeru close to his side. "She wasn't being dumb. She was showing complete faith in my excellent marksmanship."

To make the point, he threw his knife above Avi's head. A fox bat that slept through the earlier exodus fell to the ground squirming with a knife in its belly. Crouched over the body, Tawny pushed the knife in further thus speeding the bat's death and casually carried on speaking, "Meeru didn't flinch and that's why she's alive and now standing in front of you. It's a necessary skill in the jungle and part of the training"

"It was just one night!" Meeru protested. She didn't expected to see respect in Avi's eyes but the reproach in them made her very uncomfortable.

Avi looked away from her in disgust and directed another question at Tawny. "Training for what exactly?"