Beinic Crisis

[Verdana]

Tollo couldn’t think straight, couldn’t do anything besides run. For a change Namod, ever lazy, languid Namod, ran too, and without complaint. Not without good reason. The Queens were back! There would be unpacking to do. Goods would have to be moved into storage. Just imagine! Fresh fruit and vegetables. Maybe they would have nuts. Maybe this year they found berries. Or eggs! Eggs that didn’t come from tuam. Part of Tollo knew that his excitement was misplaced. Only the high families, the Centrals, got access to those luxuries. But even seeing it, smelling it, having a hand in ensuring the survival of Bei, would be enough. Besides which, hands would be short. Perhaps he would have to care for the reeva. Tol didn’t mind that at all. He liked the sleek, hot creatures with their arrow-shaped heads and expressionless eyes. He liked their soft clicks of pleasure when rubbed just right. If he could move up the ranks, take a place in the Cages, he would be set for life. This was it. This was Tol’s big chance to prove himself. He would not miss it. He couldn’t.

Yasmina was talking. With unusual energy, he answered.
“The Queens have come back from the Harvest. They were late this year, so their haul should be good.” That was the optimistic interpretation; so much food that it took extra time to pack. The pessimistic interpretation was very different: so little food that they had stayed out long into Autumn to pick what they could. But that wasn’t possible. The party of Queens had been seven strong; the strongest that Bei had sent out in years. At their helm, proud Ganna and her rider Jalir. Tol had memorised their genealogy by heart. Ganna was out of Imm, who was just three generations off of the last of the Trues. They hadn’t seen a True for a century, but Ganna was close. Her colour was bold and her hide was tough. She was smart, too. Tollo had not gotten to meet her, but he had sat around and heard so many stories of her greatness from the other handlers that he felt as if he knew her.

The Queens! The Queens were back!

But all was not well at the Cages. Tollo was halfway in before he noticed. Everyone was rushing, yes. Everyone was active and shouting. But where was the merriment? Where was the celebration? Overseer Moana hurried past him, her face pale and drawn under her hood. A splash of something inky stained her shirt. It looked almost like -
Like -
Tol swallowed hard.
“Stay here,” he told his sister, and hurried forwards, reaching out to help. Thankfully, Overseer Dau saw him, and not a less patient, more conservative Overseer.
“Tollo!” she called. “You are needed by Central Block.” A terrible crash sounded, and a shrieking groan followed.
“You!” the Overseer snapped, pointing at Namod, “Bandages. Hurry! And you,” pointing at Yasmina, “Find Overseer Renhai. She has the green armband. She needs more women to console the reeva.” It was then that Tol truly noticed the reeva for the first time. They paced in their cages, knocking their tails against the bars. Women ran between them, stroking and gentling. This served to soothe the beasts for a moment, but when the women left, the reeva went straight back to pacing and smacking, and risked doing themselves a serious injury. Even worse, they risked breaking straight out of their cages and wreaking havoc.

“Go with her,” Tol urged his sister. At any other time, he would have found it funny. Yasmina got to be amongst the reeva, just as she had hoped and Tol had dreaded. How foolish his worries had been. Overseer Dau beckoned. Tol followed.
As soon as he entered Central Block, it was clear that something was not right. Twenty cages lined the walls. Twenty of the biggest, grandest, most ornate, warmest cages. The central fire pit burnt hot. The floor was warm. The air was muggy. Two men, sweating and panting, fanned it to keep the heat alive. Other people milled and shouted, running too and fro, carrying blanket-swaddled burdens with some great purpose. But something terribly amiss. The cages were empty. Their doors hung ajar. Where were the Queens? Where were the eight; seven plus the reserve?
A roar split the air. It was deep and cracked with age. That was Natara, the old Reserve Queen. A keening shriek sounded in answer, but it was not the healthy scream of a happy Queen. This was a pain sound. Tol knew it as well as he knew his own skin.

Overseer Dau was speaking.
 “She knew. She must have known. She started laying last night. We thought she had run dry. All reeva so far, no Queens. I am not surprised, at her age.”
“Where are the rest?”
Dau looked aggrieved.
“We don’t know! We just don’t know. Ganna won’t talk. She’s hurt. Badly hurt.”
“And Jalir? What of the riders?”
Overseer Dau’s grim, pale face told Tollo everything he needed to know.

A sudden, panicked cry went up.
“She is laying!”
“No,” breathed Tollo and Overseer Dau as one. Injured Queens only laid on the brink of their death, as a last desperate bid to spread their genes. Overseer Dau took off running, with Tol hot on her heels.
“No! Keep her warm, keep her alive! Pack her wounds! Pack them! And don’t let her die!”

[Startedraining]

Yasmina only half heard her brother's reply to her as she was pushed to the Cages. She was blinded by an intense warmth coming from the structure, and the commotion around it. She immediately began to sense that something was wrong, something completely and horrifyingly wrong. Yasmina grabbed at her brother's hand and said his name urgently, but she was cut off from the rest of her sentence by a heavy-set man urging her and Namod to get out of the way and find this and that.

"Find Overseer Renhai. She has the green armband..." she shouted, but what Yasmina heard was a mumble, everything was so loud and pressuring, she simply managed to nod.
"To with her," Tol had urged a minute ago, and Yasmina had been comforted by that. She broke away from him and Namod and rushed to the Cage center, seeking through everyone's figures for a green armband. Which green? What even was green? She struggled to remember seeing the color in the lights in the sky at night during winter, the ones that danced with the pinks and the white and orange. Like blue, but different.
She scanned the crowd as she approached and spotted the thick band around a slender arm.

"Overseer Rehai!" Yasmina yelled to get her attention, "Someone has sent me to help you, I don't know why, but it must have been urgent?" she ended with a question because she didn't know what she was doing. For the first time she was caught off guard, the one time she didn't know what to do. That scared her more than she would have ever admitted. She should've known.
The woman nodded, "You, my dear," she beckoned to Yasmina to come closer, "The Queen is laying, and she needs someone to console her. You look young and bright, let me tell you child that she is very weak right now. You need to be strong for her and help her lay," she grabbed Yas' and and touched the her own face, at her cheek bones, "Stroke her like this, it is most soothing for her. Look into her eye and whisper things to her, tell her something, a story maybe. She seeks comfort, give that to her."

Yasmina nodded fiercely, pulling away from the woman and hurrying into the cage the woman pointed her.
The smell that overcame her in the cage nearly made her turn around and run back out, it was raw and bitter, biting at her nose worse than even the frost this morning. She shook her head and squinted her eyes, making out a pale ivory shape. The Queen. She hurried to her side and touched her head, feeling the scales and... were those feathers? Tiny, shimmering feathers! Yasmina smiled down at them, and then glanced along the length of the creature, admiring the feathers. She looked into the old Queen's eyes, they were a bright hazel. Flecks of white and black were scattered among her irises, and suddenly Yasmina couldn't breathe. She had never seen such beautiful eyes.
Gently taking the head of the old girl into her hands and resting it on her lap, Yasmina began murmuring nonsense into her ears.
She hoped Tol would be here, soon.