“Okay, Lynna. Since you are joining our tribe, you have to contribute to it.”

Natalie walked up and down in front of me, like a general trying to inspire her troops. There were two problems with it, though.

First of all, Natalie wasn’t a general, she wasn’t even a fully trained guard yet. Secondly, I was the only “recruit” around.

It was the day after Talia had left, the day after I had found my mother for the first time in fourteen years. I had slept really well, cuddling in my mom’s arms. All evening long, she had told me what the schedule would be for my next couple of days.

In a week, she would hold the official joining ceremony, which would induct me into the tribe as an official member. It was followed by a grand celebration where my future life with the tribe would be blessed. And my parentage would be revealed, which would mean, I would be expected to be as great as my mother was.

Every year the tribe holds an election for chieftain. Usually, a single chieftain wouldn’t last longer than five years. My mother had been chieftain for ten years now, which was already a great sign of her popularity and prowess.

Before she became chieftain, she had been the tribe’s best huntress and now, she wanted me to follow her in her footsteps, pawsteps or whatever, not that our feet were paws, not completely anyway.

A hard bonk on my head refocused my attention back to Natalie, who was glaring at me.

“Focus! You want to become a huntress, yes? Have you ever shot a bow?”

I nodded. Of course I had, I was the best upcoming huntress in the human colony and that was without my superhuman strengths as a mutant.

“I’m a pro with the bow!” I exclaimed, to which Natalie had to giggle.

She was easily amused from what I knew of her so far, but she made really nice company that way.

“Well, then, greenhorn! Prove it!”

With a really graceful move, she threw a bow and a quiver of arrows at me, then she pointed at a target she had set up.

Although, I had never actually shot a bow with my new hands. While they were still hands, they were also paws, which meant a slightly reduced range of motion. For most activities, that was not noticable, but for archery, I surmised, it would.

Testing, I flexed my hand some. Not gonna lie, I felt good. My hands were absolutely powerful, but I did notice that I had lost some flexibility.

“Uh, Natalie.. How do you manage with these?”

I waved a hand at her.

In response, she tilted her head. 

“What do you mean? Do you not know how to use hands? Cuz, I know humans have hands and that would be super weird.”

“Yeah, but our hands are different, shorter, stubbier, bigger, more like paws, you know? I’m not sure I know how to properly use them, especially with archery.”

Natalie looked at me curiously.

“Give me your hand,” She ordered.

I did as she told me and I felt her fur connect with mine. Honestly, her fur felt nice on mine. She prodded and probed my fingers.

“Normal mute hands. You’ll be fine. Gotta let go of your human mindset. You’re a mute, a hunter. We don’t farm to survive, we hunt. We are literally made for this. Now stop complaining and just do it!”

Ouch, that hit hard. But, yeah, of course I was still thinking like a human. I hadn’t been a mute for my whole life, no, I had been one for less than half a week.

Grumbling, I grabbed the bow and sheathed an arrow into the string. It wasn’t too much harder, honestly, a bit more clunky, but I could work with it. I drew back and the string responded almost instantly and with such ease, I almost dropped the arrow in surprise.

“Oh, this feels nice,” I commented and then, I let go.

Smoothly, the bow snapped the string back, launching the arrow at the target. It hit right on the border of the inner circle.

“Huh. That wasn’t bad…”

Natalie snorted.

“And here I thought, your hands were too stubby for archery.”

Where did all her sarcasm come from? Not that I didn’t like it.

Sheepishly I rubbed the back of my head.

“Heh, well… I guess, I have pretty okay aim.”

Natalie bumped my shoulder.

“Well, then. You ready to hunt us some lunch?”

 

~~~~~~

 

I focused on the deerlope grazing ahead of me. Okay, ahead was a bit of a stretch. It was almost 500 meters away, but that was no issue for me anymore now. 

However, I wanted to try something out now. Overlooking the former park where the deerlope ate was a ten stories tall building that had already slightly tilted to one side.

Carefull, I dug my claws into the side of it and began climbing. I had to suppress a holler when I scaled the concrete wall as easily as I walked. Using my powerful legs to jump up and then clawing the side to get a hold I was on top of the building in under a minute.

Now I had a vantage point from which to shoot. And shoot I did, no hesitation. I knew I had trained months for a real hunt, but my new instincts and abilities just made it so much easier.

The arrow hit the deerlope right in the heart and it collapsed almost immediately.

 

Going back down the building wasn’t much more difficult either and soon I found myself stalking towards where I had slain my victim. It was actually surprising how little sound my paws made when walking. Natalie had been right, we were made to be hunters, not farmers.

“Nice shot.” 

I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked back to find Natalie behind me.

“You really are a natural with the bow. And the way you move, even with an unfamiliar body… I’m actually impressed.”

I shook my head. 

“My body might be unfamiliar, but it feels like home. It’s just… right.”

She wrapped her hands around me from the back.

“That sounds good. Just let go of your human side and embrace your mute side.”

Solemnly I nodded.

“I don’t really want to consider myself human anymore. Not after the last three days.”

I felt Natalie’s hand massaging my shoulders.

“I understand that, however, be careful, okay? Don’t let your disappointment grow into hatred. Humans can’t do much about their own nature. They are slow to change and even slower to trust. I imagine it can be hard trusting people when you can’t smell their intentions.” 

Natalie shrugged.

“I gotta get used to that stuff myself first. Still kinda weird I can do that, “ I admitted.

My new friend picked up the downed deerlope and shouldered it.

“Let’s get home. I want to show the tribe the result of your first hunt. Trust me, everyone will love you!”

At that, I felt my tail flick from side to side happily. This new, now fully grown, appendage was still foreign to me and it reacted to emotions just like my ears did. But I did have some measure of control over it and it strongly balanced me, especially when I ran or sprinted.

I wondered how long the body euphoria would last for until this mute body would become something I was used to. I wished that would never actually happen.

 

~~~~~~~

 

When we reached the gate again with my first catch, Blayne was guarding. He eyed the deerlope over Natalie’s shoulder and smiled. 

“Nice catch, Nat. You contributing to the feast tonight, then?”

Natalie shot him a cheeky smile. 

“Sure, but I didn’t actually catch it. Newbie did.”

Blayne first mustered the deerlope, then me, then the deerlope again and let out a whistle.

“Not bad for the first catch, newbie.” 

I still couldn’t help the sigh escaping me. I was gonna be called newbie until the joining ceremony and there was nothing I could do about it. It was just tradition.

“I did tell her I was a pro at this bow shooting thing,” I replied with a wink.

“Hah!” He planted his big paw forcefully on my back. “I’m happy to have you join us, newbie. I admit, when you came in, telling us you’ve been living with the humans for the last fourteen years, I feared it would take you years to adapt to wildlife living. Humans are too soft to live out here.”

I waved him off.

“I met some pretty hardcore humans.” I was one of them not long ago… But I didn’t tell him. No, it would stay a secret between me, Natalie and mom.

Natalie was right. I had been human once, yes, but never really. I had to learn to think less like a human, not think of myself as a human, because I wasn’t. Yes, it was still strange, but I knew it would take some time for me to fully adjust. To underline that point, my tail wagged twice behind me.

Blayne rolled his eyes.

“Sure. But in general, the average human has no idea how to survive out here.”

I couldn’t deny that one, so I just nodded.

“We’re gonna head in before this thing bleeds out, come Lyn!”

I grinned and followed Natalie into the village, waving goodbye to Blayne.

Mom wasn’t in her office today, but instead at the village plaza, coordinating for the festival tonight.

I so dearly wanted to run at her and hug her, but she had asked me not to confirm our familial relationship in public just yet. That would wait until the joining ceremony.

But Natalie could tell that I wanted to show my kill to her.

“Chieftain Naomi, Lynna and I are back from our hunt and we have a gift for tonight’s feast.”

She took a long look at me.

“It is also Lynna’s first catch. She detected and shot it all on her own.”

Her voice sounded almost proud. Weird.

Mom took a good, long, hard look at me and my prey, then nodded with a gentle, beaming smile.

“I knew you would be a great huntress.” 

She planted one of her soft paws on my shoulder and squeezed appreciatively.

“You will fit perfectly into our tribe.”

 

The feast that night was really fun. Lots of mutes slapped my shoulders to congratulate me on my first, successful hunt. Music and laughter filled the air and even with these completely unknown people, or mutes, I felt more at home than I had in the colony, despite school and classmates.

They were just fun to be around and I felt a weird kind of pressure that I hadn’t noticed had been at the back of my mind, just vanish. I felt loose, free and I continued to celebrate all through the evening and into the night.

 

~~~~~~

 

It had now been almost a week since I had found my mother and the tribe of mutes. Natalie and I were going hunting every day and every time, we brought something tasty back.

Today wasn’t much different. We had been tracking a pack of deerlopes yesterday and finally found a promising lead.

I sniffed the air with my sensitive nose and picked up the scent of several deerlopes around the area.

“I think we got it, Nat,” I whispered to my companion. She nodded and pointed straight ahead, to a grove of trees where, indeed, a pack of at least ten deerlopes were grazing.

Suddenly, as I prepared to move to a more advantageous spot, Natalie pulled me back and placed her hand tightly around my mouth.

I wanted to question her, but it turned out, I didn’t need to. Something smelled weird, really, really weird.

And then I saw it, or well, them. Another group of mutes were closing in on the herd of deerlopes. I focused hard on my vision and mustered the group of five that were sprinting at the deerlopes on all fours.

Wolves, they were wolves. That must have been why Natalie had stopped me. We were cats, they were dogs. Naturally, there would be some kind of conflict there. I’d ask her as soon as we were safe.

While the wolves were busy hunting down their prey, Natalie and I slowly creeped backwards until we were properly hidden behind a collapsed house.

She let out a relieved sigh while I still didn’t totally know how to react. My instincts told me not to mess with the wolves, but I was still curious as hell. See, that was another thing that had changed. My curiosity, which had already been pretty high, only went up with the change.

 

“Those were wolves, right?”

Natalie nodded. 

“Naomi ordered us specifically to not engage any canine tribe other than the vulpines.”

That struck me as weird.

“Why the exclusion for the foxes?”

Natalie smirked.

“Have you ever heard the human expression ‘catdog’ or ‘dogcat’? Usually they are joke references to foxes. They might be canines, but a much more feline in nature, so we get along pretty well. One of our neighbouring tribes is a vulpine tribe. We trade a lot, since they are pretty good artisans and we have a lot of great hunters. Most of our paper, pens and other utensils like building tools are made by the foxes. But the other dogs… especially the wolves…”

She shuddered,

“Are they that bad?”

She nodded.

“The wolves are the most cruel of all the mutes. They torture mutes just for fun, at least the tribes we or our trading partners have interacted with. The wolves have also been known to interact with the more predatory human colonies, capturing mutes and selling them to the humans for who knows what.” She shivered again and then sighed. “I wish we could just get rid of them somehow.”

 

Her last words rang around in my head the whole way home and I could smell the disappointment in Freya and Hector, the two guards assigned to the gate that day, as we returned empty handed. Hopefully other hunters were more successful, but I felt the shame of not contributing burn in me. This marked the first day since I had arrived here that I didn’t catch anything. Even though Natalie consoled me all the way back to my temporary shack, telling me that not catching anything was not an uncommon thing, especially if it meant confronting the wolves, it still stung. These mutes had accepted me, welcomed me into their midst and I wanted to repay them.

And I knew exactly how!

 

Behind the shack I was temporarily housed in until my joining ceremony tomorrow, I had laid the basis for a little growing area. Yes, we felines were hunters, not farmers, but this wasn’t a farm, not really anyway. There was one thing we cats loved, but could never get because the humans owned all the stock. But in my time in the greenhouse at my father’s I had found a plant with a juice that tasted exactly the same. I had planted a lot of these plants back here and now, I was harvesting the juice and filling it into a ceramic container. It smelled heavenly and I had to pull myself together not to flip and drink the whole stuff.

It was just enough for the whole tribe to have a cup of the white liquid and that made me entirely satisfied with myself. This was going to be my gift to them at the joining ceremony tomorrow.