Maverick

“Praise SilverSides,” she answered, without looking up or slowing her work.

Okay, Mavvy, let ’ s turn on the charm.“Say, WhiteTail, can you believe that fight? We took four WalkingStones down and didn’t even get singed. I tell you, SilverSides must be watching over us for sure. ”

WhiteTail paused in her work long enough to fix Maverick with a strange look. “Do I know you?”

The question caught Maverick by surprise. “Well, no. I mean, er-”

WhiteTail’s ears went up, and she leaned in closer to sniff at Maverick. “Still, there’s something familiar about you. ” She sniffed again, and then her eyes narrowed just a hair. “Oh, I remember now. You were in the front row at the meeting, weren’t you?”

Okay, lad, there ’ s your opening!Maverick leaned back a bit, puffed his chest slightly, and gave her an easy smile. “As a matter of fact, I was. Fascinating sermon, simply fascinating. Your father is-”

“You were the one who kept jumping in early on the cheering, weren’t you?”

Oops.Maverick’s ears went flat. “Er, actually-”

WhiteTail set her knife aside, sat up alertly, and looked closely at Maverick. “Yes, I remember now. Did you know that I was watching you almost the entire time?”

Maverick’s ears popped up straight. “You were?”

WhiteTail turned back to the carcass, but not before shooting one last look of disgust at Maverick. “Did you really think that you were the first one to try to improve your status by loudly faking belief!”

“Fake? Look here, girl, I-” The argument died in his throat.

Face it, Mavvy old boy, she ’ s a very clever one, and she ’ s got you by the ears. You may as well try the truth.Maverick plopped down on his belly, crossed his forepaws, and laid his chin on his paws. “Okay, I admit it. Every pack I’ve ever met has their own kind of strangeness, and I thought this SilverSides business was just one more weird local custom. I’ve been on my own for over a year, and I’m getting really tired of being an outcast. Can you blame me for trying too hard to fit in?”

WhiteTail set her knife aside again and favored Maverick with a less enigmatic smile. “You get two points for honesty, stranger. Most fakers just protest louder when they’re caught. You’re the first one I’ve met who’s shown even a vestige of integrity.

“In return for that, I’ll give you a little confession of my own. I don’t believe, either. ” WhiteTail’s eyes narrowed, and she watched him closely, studying his reaction.

Well, Mavvy, this honest bit seems to be getting us somewhere. Let ’ s go with it.Maverick sat up, cocked his head sideways, raised one ear, and gave WhiteTail a bewildered look. “You don’t? But at the meeting you said-1 mean… ”

WhiteTail’s expression hardened. “Understand one thing, stranger. LifeCrier isn’t just the leader of PackHome, he’s my father, and I’ll do whatever it takes to protect him. That includes tricking him into leading a hunt when the pack is hungry. ” With a swiftness that surprised Maverick, WhiteTail suddenly snatched up her stone knife and set its point against his breastbone. “Or cutting your heart out and feeding it to the sharpfangs if you try your pious-believer act on him. Do I make myself clear?”

Gingerly, Maverick pushed the point aside. “Absolutely. ”

“Good. ” She dropped her guard and turned her attention back to the carcass. “Now either get lost or make yourself useful. Do you know anything about WalkingStone anatomy?”

Maverick followed her gaze down into the jumbled pale blue mess that was the inside of the WalkingStone’s chest cavity. Judging by color, there were at least six different kinds of veins, but the cavity was strangely bloodless and there was nothing that he could clearly identify as a heart. For that matter, he wasn’t even sure that he could tell the difference between organ and muscle. A lot of the cavity was filled with the oily blue gravel he’d been picking out of his teeth since the fight.

“No,” he finally admitted.

“Good. Here’s your chance to learn. Help me roll this thing over, will you?” With a grunt of exertion, WhiteTail started pushing at the corpse. Maverick helped her. Despite being legless and headless, the corpse was surprisingly heavy, but together they managed to get it flipped.

“Now, stranger-” She looked up sharply. “Say, what is your name, anyway?”

He hesitated a moment. Well, boy, just how far do we want to push this honesty business? “Maverick,” he said at last.

“Maverick? That’s an outcast name. Don’t you have a pack name?”

He looked away, and his tail started twitching in tight, nervous jerks. “Not any more. ”

WhiteTail gave him another appraising look and then shrugged. “Pay attention; I don’t like to repeat myself. ” She picked up her knife and turned to the corpse.

“Now,” WhiteTail began in a cool, formal voice, “the problem with hunting for WalkingStones is that there doesn’t seem to be anything inside them that we can eat. ” She dug her knife in between where the shoulder blades should have been-if the thing had had bones-and opened the carcass down the back. By this time it was no longer surprising to find that the WalkingStone had no spine.

“They have no liver,” WhiteTail continued. “No heart, no kidneys, and the muscles-well, you’ve already tried a leg. What did you think?”

Maverick grimaced at the memory. “I’d rather eat a stinktail. ”

WhiteTail nodded sagely. “A popular opinion. ” She caught Maverick’s eye and directed it to the WalkingStone’s shoulder area. “Another problem is that the WalkingStones don’t seem to have a proper skin. It’s impossible to tell where the skin ends and the muscle begins-which makes it really fu

“But there’s something else even more peculiar about the skin that I want you to see. Look there; what’s happening?”

Maverick got up on all fours and sniffed closely at the spot WhiteTail had indicated. “Why, it’s healing. ”

WhiteTail frowned helplessly. “This WalkingStone is dead, right? I mean, its front legs are over here, its back legs are-” she looked around the clearing a bit and gestured in the direction of a fallen log, “-over there, I think. And Mother knows where the head’s gotten to.

“But leave the skin alone for a few minutes, and wounds flow closed so fast you can watch it. Leave the organs alone long enough, and they melt down into this gritty blue stuff that’s indistinguishable from skin or muscle. ” WhiteTail dug the knife in again and extended the cut across the WalkingStone’s hip area.

“So far as we can tell, there are only two organs in a WalkingStone that don’t change shape. One is the brain. The other-” she plunged her forepaws into the wound and began groping around inside the body “-is usually right about-” a slightly startled look flashed across her face, and then resolved into a smile “-here!” With a sucking, popping sound, the corpse gave up the organ, and WhiteTail fell over backward with the recoil.

Maverick looked at the thing she’d gone to so much work to pull out. “ A giant egg?”

“That’s what it looks like, all right. ” WhiteTail got back on her feet, brushed some of the clinging blue grit off the thing, and then found her knife and tapped the egg a few times with the blade. “But it’s got the hardest shell that I have ever seen. “

Maverick wrinkled his nose in a deep frown. “Still, *an egg?”

“Interesting thought, isn’t it? That WalkingStones might be some kind of giant flyer? Although personally I think the shape and size is more like a sharpfang egg. ”

Maverick shook his head. “No. ”

WhiteTail tapped the egg with her knife again. “Agreed, sharpfang eggs are soft and leathery, while this one is as hard as a rock, and too small. Still-”