Groggy and poorly rested, Idalia decided to do the one thing she did best—nap! Oh, she would be delighted to partake in the hunt, too! To train. To grow. To improve. How else would she compete with Hirohowl. With Bloombark. With those furless, ape-like Wanderans who stole her Papa.

  After her nap, she insisted to Mama to take her out for a prowl outside the pride. Mama twisted and turned, ignoring. Disinterested. Idalia lowered her head in disappointment, but understood. Mama was still sad about Papa's disappearance. Should she reveal the truth to Mama?

  But considering how Mama may react… she may attempt to attack Bloombark. Idalia shook her head. The flashes of memory reminded her that it would lead to a duel. The last duel she saw between pridemates… it had led to the exile of a Liorex and if it came to it. Bloombark might—

  Idalia shook her head again. She didn't like such thoughts. Instead, her head belly and mind ached with excitement, rumbling with the memories of the Wanderan's savory flavored meats that still enticed her mind. Heated like the glorious chicken leg. Delicious and warm.

  Her tummy rumbled. Immediately Mama got up, leaving for the fresh-kill pile. Mama returned, delivering and bestowing the bestest gift! A deerhorn's thigh! Idalia chowed on the rich, gamey meat, then, at her peripheral she spotted Pyra and Pyrokit binkying, zooming, and flopping at the center of the Mother's Den.

  They were enjoying themselves without her! Idalia bounced on her feet, kicked up dust, and started her day by play-tussling with Pyra and Pyrokit. She pounced, swiped, smacked, pawed at her buddies as they squealed inside the cavernous den. Circle circle circle. Paw paw paw. Pin. Nibble. Victory shriek!

  She had Pyrakit's ear between her teeth, triumphant, until Pyrokit tumbled onto her back, squishing her flat, and before she even knew it—boop! Nose to nose.

  They giggled. Loud. Joyful. Then broke apart, tails swishing.

  "You got me good, Pyro! Next time you won't be so successful!"

  "Haha! Sure, sure, Ida! Just know I'm about to get bigger than you." His fur puffed up like he'd swallowed the whole sky.

  Idalia gasped. Wait. Wait-wait. Without the fluff, he was taller. Just a little. Just enough. Her brain prickled. Scratched at itself with strange thinking.

  "Pyro! Pyra! Stand next to each other for me, please! I… I need to figure out why the inside of my head's itchy!"

  "What?"

  "Yeah, what he said, Idalia!"

  "Just do it! Trust me!"

  The twins exchanged a look. Shrug. Nod. They padded together, side by side, tails twitching. Idalia squinted, tilted her head, ogled, then her eyes blew wide with epiphany. Mind kaboom.

  "You're smaller than Pyro, Pyrakit!" She waved her paw dramatically, sparkles of smugness in her eyes.

  "No way!" Pyrakit growled, glaring daggers. "Stop eating too much, Pyro! You make me small!"

  Pyro swished his tail, lips twitching like he held back a laugh. "Meow? You eat more than I do, Pyra! You're one to meow an accusation!" They pranced in a bristly circle, puffball versus puffball.

  Idalia couldn't let them claw each other over nonsense. "Stop, you two! I'm not exactly sure why Pyro's bigger, but I think it… it has to do with how our Mama and Papa's are different in size. Yeah! That's it!"

  She pawed her temple, trying to pull fog into shape. Boy Liorex. Girl Liorex. Flashes, fuzzy. Then, bam. Runes. Odd, glowing, shimmering right before her eyes.

  [Knowledge Core [e]: 30 → 32%]

  "Whoa! More knowledge! Yay!"

  "Huh?"

  "What?"

  Pyro and Pyrakit blinked at each other, confused little beans. Idalia blinked back, wondering if maybe, maybe, they saw too.

  "Do you not see it? The runes. Floating. Right there." She traced her paw along the air where the crystallized symbols flickered, fading like morning mist.

  Pyro and Pyrakit tilted their heads, stared at her as if she'd sprouted another one.

  "What are you on about, Ida?"

  "Yeah, Ida, we see nothing. Are you pointing at a tiny bug or something?"

  The twins then collapsed into giggles, back to their frolicking chaos, while Idalia sat on her rump. Puzzled. Embarrassed. Just a little betrayed. Why only her? Why only runes for her eyes? There had to be a reason.

  Idalia squirmed on her rump, tail lashing like an impatient whip. The runes were gone now, poof, but the tingles in her skull remained. Itchy. Buzzing. Too loud and too quiet at the same time.

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  Knowledge. Runes. Secrets only for her? But also itchy. Brain-itchy. Why her and not them? She pawed at her forehead as if scratching the air would yank the answer loose. Nothing. Only more fog. Grrr.

  She needed to do something about it. She couldn't just sit and be normal like Pyro and Pyrakit, no, no, no! She was Idalia, future hunter of legends, conqueror of mysteries, smacker of noses, champion of ear-nibbles!

  She huffed, puffed, and flopped dramatically onto her side, rolling across the cavern floor until she smacked into Pyra's paw.

  "Ow! Ida!"

  "Oops! Sorry-not-sorry!" She snickered and leapt back onto her feet. "I'm practicing stealth rolls. Very advanced, very serious training."

  Pyrokit half-lidded his eyes, suspicious. "That didn't look like stealth."

  "It did too!" Idalia stomped her paw. "You just lack imagination!"

  Pyrakit giggled so hard her whiskers twitched, and she toppled into Pyro's side. The two of them became a wriggling knot of tails and fur, laughing at Idalia's expense.

  "Fine, fine, laugh at me, but you'll see," Idalia growled, puffing out her chest, trying to look taller than both of them. "I'll unlock all the runes! I'll become the best hunter, the fiercest claw, the smartest kitty-beast in the den!"

  "Uh-huh." Pyrokit swatted at a pebble with his paw, bored already.

  "No, really! I'll even outgrow Hirohowl and Bloombark. And then I'll find the ones who took Papa." Her voice dropped to a hiss, claws flexing against the stone.

  That shut them up. For a blink. For two. Their giggles faded into silence, replaced by the soft drip-drip of water deeper in the cave.

  Pyrakit's ears flattened. "You think you really can?"

  Idalia nodded with absolute certainty. "Of course! Why else would I see the runes? They're gifts. For me. From... from the world? Or the stars? Or maybe Papa himself!" She gasped, paws pressed to her cheeks. "Oh, what if it's a secret inheritance? Like a hidden power passed down!"

  Pyro's tail lashed. "Or maybe you bonked your head too hard while rolling."

  "Excuse me!" Idalia gasped, outraged fluff exploding all over her body. "My rolls are majestic and flawless! And my head is perfectly un-bonked!"

  Pyra and Pyro both burst out laughing again.

  Idalia leapt back to her feet, nearly tripping over her own paws, and yowled, "I'm going outside!"

  Pyro froze mid-prance. "Outside? Alone?"

  Pyrakit's ears shot up. "Ooooh, bad idea, Ida. Big bads out there! Bigger than you, bigger than us, bigger than everything!"

  "Bigger than your egos?" Idalia shot back, flicking her whiskers smugly.

  Both twins gasped, offended, puffing up in glorious synchronized drama. Perfect. She bolted past them while they were distracted, claws skittering on stone, and shot out of the den into the bright morning.

  The forest greeted her like a giant fuzzy blanket she couldn't escape from. Orange everywhere. Leaves whispering secrets. Bugs buzzing their tiny, annoying songs. Her chest swelled, paws tingled, and the itch in her skull bothered again. Louder.

  "Alright, forest," she growled at the trees, "show me your secrets!"

  Of course, the trees said nothing. Rude trees. She stomped forward anyway, ears swiveling for danger. She imagined herself taller than Pyro, faster than Pyrakit, fiercer than Hirohowl, smarter than Bloombark. Oh, yes, they would all gasp in awe at the incredible Idalia who uncovered the mysteries of the runes!

  A rustle.

  Her head snapped sideways. Her fur spiked. Enemy? Prey? Giant butterfly? She crouched low, tail flicking, ready to pounce.

  The bush trembled. Trembled again.

  Idalia hissed, "Show yourself, coward!"

  She leapt, and the bush exploded.

  Idalia slinked through the ferns, puffed her chest, prowled like a hunter of legends! Until the weirdest scent smacked her nose. Not prey. Not predator. Not Wanderan. Plants. Leaves. Flowers.

  Bitter roots. What? She wrinkled her muzzle. Plants were boring. You didn't chase them. They didn't squeal. They didn't bleed.

  She crept closer, belly low, ears twitching. And there she was. Quantumoon. The Omenhowl. The Shaman.

  All golden and silver feathers flashing soft-like. Too pristine, too smooth, too… shiny. She wasn't hunting deerhorns. She wasn't hunting razorbacks. She wasn't even sniffing out worms. No. She was sniffing mushrooms. Mushrooms! Paws careful in the dirt, muzzle close to leaves, plucking berries with delicate claws like she was playing a silly game.

  Idalia's jaw dropped. Then she snorted. Then she laughed. "What in all the stars are you doing? That's not hunting! That's—" she pawed at a patch of grass mockingly "—snoot-shoving dirt for weird leafy snacks!"

  Quantumoon didn't even blink. Didn't even flinch. Just straightened slowly, herbs dangling from her jaws, eyes calm and sharp and deep as endless water.

  Her voice cut like clean bone. "It is called foraging. Harvesting. Without me, little one, who would mend the broken legs when your denmates stumble? Who would cleanse the poison when a fang bites too deep? Who else would ease the fevers that strike your kin? Who else would soothe your mother when she birthed you?"

  Idalia froze. Tail twitching. Mouth still open, a retort half-ready. She wanted to laugh again, to say herbs don't win battles, to say claws fix everything, but the words tangled up in her throat.

  For a several blinks, she saw the twins… Pyro tumbling, Pyrakit squealing… and imagined them limp, hurt, burning with sickness. And then… she saw Papa. Papa taken. Papa gone. What if he needed herbs? What if only someone like Quantumoon could save him?

  Idalia's ears flattened. Her claws scraped at the soil.

  "…Still weird," she muttered, softer now. But the spark of mockery in her voice had fizzled. "Weird, but… maybe… useful?"

  Quantumoon's mouth curved, not quite a smile, but close enough. "You may laugh, wild kit. But you will remember."

  Idalia huffed, tossed her head, trying to look unimpressed, though her chest buzzed with the runes again, faintly glowing at the edge of her sight with knowledge. Threads of life. Foraging. Harvesting. Maybe… not boring after all.

  Her ears twitched. She shuffled her paws in the dirt. "I… I mean… well… I guess… maybe that's important too." Her tail swished furiously, betraying her embarrassment. "But hunting still sounds way cooler."

  Quantumoon circled her, silent as a drifting shadow. Sunlight shimmered across her golden-silver feathers, rippling like rivers. Idalia's chest tightened. The Shaman was beautiful, powerful, strange, everything Idalia couldn't understand.

  "Cool," Quantumoon repeated, a faint smile tugging at her muzzle. "Do not mistake noise for worth. A roar may terrify, but it cannot heal. A claw may rend, but it cannot mend. One day you will learn this."

  Idalia bristled. Her whiskers twitched, her nose wrinkled. "Hmph! I'll never need mending! I'll never get sick! I'll be the strongest ever! No scratches, no breaks, no nothing!"

  Quantumoon's eyes half-lidded, calm but sharp as talons. "Every creature bleeds, child. Even Alphas. Even Shamans."

  Idalia's tail curled around her paws. She looked down, pawing nervously at the dirt, but curiosity bubbled up anyway, unstoppable. Her voice dropped to a whisper, almost reverent, almost trembling.

  "Shaman… do you… see the runes too?"

  Quantumoon stilled. Her gaze sharpened. She bent closer. Her breath warm, her eyes hypnotic.

  "What runes, little one?"

  Idalia's chest thumped. She had blurted it, she had leapt off the cliff without knowing how to land. Her ears flattened. Her claws dug grooves into the soil.

  Oh stars! She had misspoken!

  Ida's Adventurous Alerts: We're on two genre rising stars and we've reached 100!

  How about a new schedule of updates for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday? I actually want to write more of Ida for the festive feel of Halloween. One of my favorite holidays. I have fond memories with my turtles and lizards where we used to get together and dress up.

  is also 6 chapters ahead. Feel free to check it out. Have a good one!