After being tricked out of the Dreamtime, First divided First's self. Each of the parts that had been First was supposed to be equal, each having a certain measure of First's selfness, his hyenaness.
Something went wrong with the magic. Perhaps First was overreaching, perhaps the rules of this place we had been brought to were different. Whatever happened, there were some of us who received more of First than others.
They were Stalker, who had spots that blended perfectly with tall grass; Singer, who had a voice that would carry for ten miles; Bloodthroat, who more than any delighted in the kill; Burrower, who could make even the sickest pup thrive; Rememberer, gifted with a mind that once it latched on to something, could not let go; and Rememberer's pup Chosen, a pup-name signifying that Chosen had been selected to follow in Rememberer's footsteps.
Their wanderings took them closer and closer the tailless, and they began to study those that their power had been given to. They were hunted, but they were more clever by far than the tailless. Sometimes they would catch a tailless pup and play with it for a time before letting it go. One of these days, Burrower nudged the forepaw of the pup they had captured.
"These things are clever," said Burrower. "Look how they grasp! They shape things."
"Useless for running on," said Rememberer sourly. "Soft and useless."
Chosen was lying on its back in the shade. "I saw something. I saw a tailless using our power. It used those paws to shape the magic."
Rememberer growled. Chosen was going through a phase of keeping secrets for the pleasure of telling them when the information would be most useful. It was an irritating habit on the part of the pup. Chosen had the grace to look abashed at its parent's displeasure, at least. "It made the hot stuff," it offered in the way of an apology. "You know, the thing that eats."
"They call it fire," sniffed Burrower.
They talked of this, and Singer, Stalker, and Bloodthroat came back to them with a kill. They turned the tailless pup loose and ate. Afterwards, they fell to talking.
"If we had those paws, we could shape the power again. We could find their secrets and make them send us back to where we belong." Singer flicked its ears. "Perhaps we could get those paws?"
"And what? They do not run fast or far. We could not feed ourselves with those paws," said Rememberer. Rememberer was the largest of them, and its voice was usually enough to silence debate. But not tonight. Tonight the others talked of paws.
How to get the paws? They did not know. It was finally decided that paws alone were not enough. They would need the rest; the walking on two legs like a stork, the nearly-hairless bodies, the differentiation between those who bred and those who were bred, the strange noises they made, almost like language.
"We could," said Bloodthroat. "We are all pieces of First, and it is our hyenaness that determines who we are, not our bodies. We could take those bodies and place ourselves in them."
This, all except Rememberer decided, was a wonderful plan. Rememberer bowed to the will of the pack, and they searched for tailless whose bodies they could use.
The pups would be best, they decided. Pups were small and helpless; they were easily stolen. Over five days they stalked the nearest gathering of tailless, capturing one pup a day. They kept the pups with them, pretending friendliness, giving them a small share of the kill. They did not eat, but the pack ignored that.
Then they had five pups, and it was time. Bloodthroat and Singer lay down, a child pressed between them; Singer slipped its soul into the pup's body, and the pup's soul opened its eyes to find itself in Singer's powerful frame. It had worked!
Bloodthroat took his, then Stalker, then Burrower. One of the two last was pressed between Chosen and Rememberer, and Chosen licked the ear of the tailless pup fondly and then took its body.
Rememberer was the last. Rememberer had nobody to help keep the last pup still, and Rememberer was still doubting the wisdom of this course of action. It went to the last pup, older than the rest, who had simply been watching the goings-on without a whimper of complaint. Rememberer had liked this one the best of all of them and was almost sorry for what it was about to do to the tailless.
"Would you come to me, pup? Would you allow me to become you?" asked Rememberer, who did not expect a reply.
The pup met Rememberer's eyes. You do not become me. I will share.
Those words were not spoken in hyena, but Rememberer understood them nonetheless. Rememberer's tail slapped the ground in confusion. "What? But--"
There is space. We will become. The pup came over to Rememberer, and for the first time it noticed that the pup had something around its neck, something that shone in the sun. The pup touched Rememberer's face with its soft, clever paws, tracing each streak and scar. Then the pup lay beside Rememberer, matching their bodies as a pup will do to a parent.
The thing around the pup's neck touched Rememberer's side. Then the world was nothing but pain and the sickening sensation that Rememberer's body was being opened--
Rememberer woke. There was the thick smell of blood all around but Rememberer did not hurt. Rememberer lay and felt its body, and found with surprise that it was still a hyena. But within its body curled another form, and the soul of the pup was still there, floating nameless and unsurprised to find itself where it was.
I am Rememberer, said the hyena.
I am Rememberer too, said the pup.
When Rememberer opened its eyes, it found that the hyena bodies filled with tailless souls had wandered away, and the hyenas who were now tailless were huddled together. Rememberer saw that Bloodthroat and Singer were male, and Chosen and Burrower were female. Rememberer stood, and shook its head, and noted without surprise that it was wearing the thing that shone--a collar, whispered the tailless. A thing that signified ownership, a valued possession.
Rememberer faced its pack. "Mine did not work," it said. "But I will accompany you into the gathering of tailless. Chosen, I will walk with you. I will guide you, but the tailless must believe that I am yours."
Chosen nodded. They could all understand Rememberer, but they could not speak back, lacking tails.
So the four tailless hyenas and the one with the tail went into a human settlement. All but Rememberer eventually forgot who and what they were, and that was as it should have been.
There were pups, after a space of years, and then the pups had pups. Rememberer lived a very long time indeed, until one day a pup was learning how to shape the power that the tailless called magic. It called for a companion, and Rememberer answered. "You are Chosen now," said Rememberer. "I will be your eyes and ears, and you will shape the power with your paws. Together we will learn how to return us all to the Dreamtime."
And so it happened. And so Rememberer and Chosen have always been, parent to child, each supplying what the other cannot.
*****
After Usi finished his tale, Sitefnut gave him a long, measuring look. The two of them were in the garden of the doorknob, a small, lush space that was largely private. "And that was how the Rememberer and Chosen thing came into being? Do the others reoccur, too?"
They do, but only in part, in flickers. Mayet is mostly Burrower, some Stalker. From the sounds of things your daughter--Senit?--was much like Bloodthroat. Not the same souls, but the same roles. That is a difficult concept for the hyena mind to express. Who you are and what you are are inseparable to us.
"It certainly sounds that way." Sitefnut was silent for a space, looking up at the ceiling of the garden. "Tell me, Usi. How old are you?"
Usi glanced at her, and thumped his tail. Just over a century.
She blinked. A century? "You don't look nearly that old. Can you die of old age?"
No.
There was little laughter in his voice, and she frowned, sitting up. "How did you acquire your human form, then?"
He flicked his ears and looked away from her. I was born human. As was the one before me, and the one before him.
"Who was the one before you? Did you know him?" Sitefnut sensed she was getting closer to something that Usi didn't really want to talk about, and watched him shift positions, only his ears betraying agitation.
I called him to me just as you called me. He used the name Ay, and he was very reluctant to talk.
A great weight of suspicion pressed down on Sitefnut. "He was your familiar? Or you were his?"
I was his, just as you are mine. But darkness was in that one. I am glad that he has gone on. Usi finally glanced at her, and in those liquid brown eyes there was a heavy awareness, the weight of memory in that intelligent gaze.
"How long were you his familiar?" It seemed an innocent enough question.
Usi put his head down on the ground and closed his eyes. She could feel reluctance in him, and perhaps just a touch of dread. Not long. Less than a year, until I died.
She blinked. "You...died? You seem alive enough to me." But that suspicion still weighed on her, and unconsciously she clenched her fist.
I was killed. My soul transferred to the hyena body. Ay went to mine and broke his connection with Pack in so doing. He left. I was too stunned to stop him. There was pain behind those words, the speechless shock of betrayal, a fierce determination to do--something--
Sitefnut stared, speechless, unmoving. The implications of that statement spun in her mind. Slowly, she said, "Let me get this straight. You died...and became what you are, and the one you were a familiar to got your body and then walked away?" She swallowed. "And are you telling me that this is going to happen to *me* some day?"
Yes, the body changed to match the soul and he walked away, bond broken. Yes, it will happen to you as it did to me. He looked as frozen as she felt, and Sitefnut caught the edges of a great sorrow, a great tearing pain, a loss that also came as a relief, a release. And someday, you will answer a call, and it will all happen again.
"This has been happening again and again, over time? None of us are given a choice?"
You have a choice to answer the call of your familiar or not. But after a time, it gets lonely. Flashes of images, endless desert, singing alone to the moon. Joining packs, but finding the company stultifying simple after a time, and leaving once more. Occasional sojourns into villages, but the visits being all too short--and after a time, too heartbreaking to continue. And then hearing a call, and answering, hoping that it would not be another like Ay--
The images broke off and Sitefnut realized that Usi had not meant to share that with her, especially that last. She said, "What amazes me is that Ay walked away. I can't imagine, even after a familiar bond is broken, just...walking away like that. Perhaps you can, I don't know." She tried to imagine simply walking away from Usi, from someone so entangled with herself that they were more like one person than two. She couldn't grasp it. It would be like--abandoning a family. Or a pack...
Usi heaved a sigh. He needed the body, I would suspect.
She raised an eyebrow. "Is it likely that we're going to run into him? it's been, what...seventy years, or so."
There it was, that laughter again, the dark colors of Usi's bitter amusement. I am sure we will. He was the pharaoh Ay and a darker soul is hard to meet.
"Another pharaoh," she snorted. Thinking through the implications, she said, "So he knows about the hyenas, obviously. It's probably too much to hope for that he's not working with Menes."
I would bet that it is he that told Menes about us.
"Wait, wait." Sitefnut frowned. "Is Ay undead? You're not undead, but I guess if he took over your body....I never thought I would run into that question. There aren't a lot of edge cases with undead, usually."
My body would not last that long. It would still age even after being essentially resurrected. She felt his shrug. He has found a way to extend his life or become one like Menes.
"I'd guess the latter, myself."
Yes, more than likely. He was a hater, that one. Still that amusement, more bitter than Usi's laughter usually was. Sitefnut found herself being very glad that she and Usi, though different from one another, were still quite suited to each other.
"I can see why you were glad he went on. It can't have been too pleasant to be a familiar to him." She reached out in silent invitation, and Usi rose to come and sit by her, leaning against her legs.
It wasn't. We did things, horrible things and I couldn't stop him.
The question on Sitefnut's lips was, like what? Just in time, she choked back the question and closed her mouth, thinking better of it. She thought she probably didn't want to know what lengths Usi had been pushed to. Instead, she asked, "So...from what it sounds like, when your familiar dies, you have a choice, to move on or not. What happens if you choose not to?"
He glanced up at her. You will die and I will stay Usi.
"So, when I die, if you decide you're tired of being what you are, you get my body?" That question was a bit more blunt than she had meant. Must be getting tired.
Yes. In this case, not much of a choice.
She frowned at him, trying to decide how to interpret that. Finally, she said, "Well, I wouldn't want this body, either."
His laughter was back, this time without the bitter edge. Thankfully, it can be shaped. Such is the power of the collar.
"Ah, good to know." Without thought, she stroked the fine hair of the mane that spilled across his neck and in a line down his back.
He twisted his head to look up at her. But the collar is very two edged. Had I been an evil master, you would not be able to stop me. He flicked his ears. As I was unable to stop Ay.
"I think I'll thank my stars that you're not, then." That was fervent, almost a prayer. What if Usi had been evil, rather than the fundamentally good soul that he was? "So Sekath said that the magic flows along a bloodline. Are all the hyena-souled humans part of the same family?"
Yes. But over thousands of generations, that blood has dispersed among the population. Sekath would have to be very powerful to be able to even see that line.
She snorted. "Sekath's more than he appears, then? It figures. Nobody except me and Mayet are what they appear...and I'm having some doubts about us."
He is an old druid. If he is "the" druid, he could well be very powerful. He leaned more heavily on her legs, and she scratched him behind his ears meditatively.
"The druid? There's a special one out there?"
One that leads the order.
"Ah, right. If he's that powerful, I wonder why he'd be helping us. Strange." Her voice was quiet.
You have told me the story of how your companions met, Sekath being one of them. Has it occurred to you that you may not have survived that explosion?
Sitefnut blinked. "It is odd that we were the only survivors. If he's that powerful, he could have done a Raise Dead on all of us...." She felt her skin crawling at the thought. If she had been dead...
Yes. But why you, is the question?
"We were nothing but travelers who knew very little of each other. Sekath must know something we don't." Her skin was still crawling, alive with some nameless emotion. She shuddered. "We'll probably run into him again, won't we?"
She felt his mental shrug. I wouldn't think him far behind really.
"Another mystery, Usi." She sighed and shifted, willing her fear to calm itself. "It's a good thing I enjoy them." She grinned down at him. "Having the time of my life, really."
He was laughing at her, a welcome relief from his somber mood of the last few minutes. Good. Because I'm sure there are more where these come from.
She was laughing quietly, at herself, at the world, at the completely absurd situation she found herself in. She wondered if this was why hyenas laughed, because it was the only reasonable response to a world completely mad.
"We'll chase each of them down and tear their throats out, we will." Her voice was confident. "You'll see."
