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Chapter 1 - Airy

My name is Airiphryone, and I am a daughter of the Rabbit people of Rikifur. My name is pronounced Air-rif-re-o-nay, at bit awkward I know. Being named after the first queen of Rikifur and the single most revered and important female of our kind makes it a hard name to live up to, but no one ever calls me that anyway. To family and my closest friends, I am "Airy". All others use my formal titles since I have to maintain my dignity and a certain distance from those around me out of respect for our ancestors and the divine right through which our family rules. To everyone else of Rikifur I am, therefore, "Princess" or "My Lady", for I am destined to be queen on the day of my father's death. I hope that the Great Maker is benevolent so that day may lie many years in the future, because I love my father, Eophus, the king. I can gladly wait for my turn. I have a tremendous responsibility of my own before then anyway.

What responsibility? To understand that you have to first realize that my birth disturbed many people. The first born of the king whether male or female inherits dominion and rules as king or queen upon the death of the current king. I am the only female first-born kit ever in our line. Ever. I guess that makes me unique, though some people have used unflattering terms such as 'anomalous' or 'unusual'. The even less kind said I was an 'aberration' or a 'freak'. The priests were aghast on the day I was born. Guess what? The priests are all males. Since the original founding of our dynasty by the bringer of steel, Jacynthopoles, there has been an unbroken succession of first-born males.

Rabbit males are lucky. The first-born male of the late king automatically rules as king. Though females are forbidden to rule directly, if the firstborn is female, like me, then there is an ancient though never before used rule that allows that upon my twentieth birthday I am authorized to choose the next king, who will also become my husband. Just short of being nineteen, I am but a single year away from my day of choosing. I can't say I am happy with being relegated to second place, but everyone knows a king cannot rule without consulting his queen and earning her approval. It's kind of a joint governing arrangement.

The head priest, or Great Algar, as he was called, was said to have become apoplectic upon receiving the news of my inconvenient gender. Old, conservative males don't seem to like change much. To compensate, they resort to overzealous enforcement of rules. Though of little concern to me when I was a child, now that I am older and have become a woman, their tedious rules make me secretly wish that the old fool had died of his apoplexy. Instead, he lived to grow even more ancient seemingly with the sole purpose to make my life miserable.

In addition to ruining my life with their tiresome rules, the priests constantly searched for unfavorable signs, portents and unusual occurrences that they tried to relate to my birth. Poor harvests, attacks by our neighbors, even strangely shaped clouds had been blamed on me. However, I shouldn't censure just the priests. They were not the only ones who spoke of strange omens and monumental changes as I grew up. Even my father, whom I dearly love, told me that my birth must have great meaning and that I was 'special' and 'extraordinary', his kind words to describe my unorthodox existence. My father thinks that I am destined to bring about some great change, but I cannot see it. Even so, if the Maker has made me the first-born for a purpose, I am determined to do whatever it takes to fulfill that destiny, whatever it is.

Prior to the day that changed my life and Rikifur forever, it had been a challenge just to live by the rules and up to the expectations imposed on me. My father's advice to me had always been supportive, encouraging me to be the best leader that I could for my people. As to my great purpose, he instructed me to let my conscience guide my actions and the future of Rikifur; advising that I would know what to do when the time came. Despite the sage advice of my father and the warnings of the priests, what happened to me and to Rikifur was beyond what even the most imaginative person could invent or the most blatant omen could have foretold.

Before I can recount that day and the astounding adventures that followed, you must come to know more about myself and my people. My place in Rikifur was an enormous responsibility that I had taken seriously all of my life and for which I had prepared every day for as long as I can remember. Even the duty of picking the future king is not a frivolous task to me. Having many suitors, just keeping track of their names has been a challenge. Some are young, many are much older than I am. They are not all handsome. Most come from powerful old families, but some have risen up from the most humble birth and proven themselves in battle or in other ways. Despite my longings to have a perfect companion for myself, I know that I must choose a buck who will be the king that our people needed. My advisors and tutors, of whom there have been many, told me I should not base my decision on how handsome, strong or charming I found a suitor. Do they still think me a naïve and infatuated child? I know my duty, and I am prepared to choose wisely. No fool will sit on the throne because of me. Still, I will never marry someone who does not love me. At least I got some agreement on this point. My favorite and wisest tutor, blind old Hylthgyne, taught me that a divided house cannot rule. King and queen must be united not just in purpose, but also in love for each other so that they can in turn love their people and serve them wisely. She urged me to let both my heart and mind guide me in my choice. Finding love, though was something for which the priest's rules left me woefully unprepared.

Why? Because with my awesome responsibility came both advantages and limitations upon my life. The benefits were incredible. I was allowed to train with the males as a fellow warrior and captain; something few other females were allowed to do. I escaped much of the drudgery of cooking, sewing, cleaning, and taking care of children. Instead, I learned to ride a horse, use the bow, spear, sword and shield and to fight with my hands and feet. I was taught to read and write and to lead others. History, law and mathematics were drilled into me. I learned these things to be wise and thus be able to choose the best ruler for Rikifur when I come of age. Yet most important of all, after I become queen, I will be taught our most closely guarded secret; the thing that made my people strong enough to drive from our lands our most hated enemies, the Cats and Wolves. This secret allowed our people to unite into a single kingdom called Rikifur. This secret is steel. Steel made us strong. None of the other furry races have it. With steel we killed or drove out our enemies, the Wolves and Cats, over the Earth Spine to the eastern lands.

As for the limitations, little was forbidden to me, but what was forbidden has been a difficult trial, for I am not allowed to mate with any male until I am wed to my king. This was the onerous curse that the priests and the Great Algar inflicted on me with their pious zeal. My king has to be my first and only lover. If I break this rule, I will immediately be denied my birthright and exiled from Rikifur, leaving the next in succession to take my place. Though I am fond of my brother Andre, who was second-born, I could not abide giving the kingdom over to him. He has always been a sickly child, and is probably the worst warrior in the Kingdom. Being a dreamer, a singer and a poet, he has never shown any inclination or ability to rule. He is oblivious to the wants and needs of others and often retreats into his own world of song and rhyme. Petulant and moody, he does not inspire others. He could not lead warriors into battle, stand in judgment of the accused, or settle disputes, or do any of the things a true king or queen needs to do. No. I have to persevere. Rikifur is dependent upon me, though the temptation is around me constantly and has been since puberty when I began to see the bucks in a new and interesting way.

Now it is true that many does in Rikifur remain virgins until their wedding day. This is customary, but the restrictions placed on me go far beyond normal custom. Ordinary does can meet with bucks in informal settings, even alone and unchaperoned. For me, any and all personal or intimate interaction with them was denied me once I flowered. Since that day, I have always had female chaperones at my side. They even sleep in the same room with me, and on especially cold winter nights the same bed. Despite having been selected and trained by those damn priests, my chaperones have been for the most part my best friends. Even friends can be irritating, though, when I can't be in the presence of a male who is not of my family without at least two chaperones being present. How am I ever to possibly learn about love if every encounter with a buck is a formal affair where all physical contact and conversation is scripted and prescribed, and we can't be alone together to say what we really feel? It's enormously frustrating. Trying to understand love by listening to the stories my chaperones tell of encounters with their lovers only makes it worse. Romantic and everlasting love is an important ingredient to the success of my impending decision, and it is the one subject of which I am completely ignorant. Ride a horse, wield a sword, command troops in battle, these things I can do, but ask me to recognize true love between a doe and a buck and I am like a child.

As I said before, I had many suitors. I like to think it was because I am beautiful, not just because I am the princess, and I suppose it is true, but it is often hard to tell if the bucks fawned over me because I was pretty or if they simply desired to be king. Would anyone have dared call me ugly if I was? Not directly, but I am sure I would have heard rumors if it had been true. I take after my mother in some ways and my father in others. I have my mother's red eyes. The curly tufts of red fur on top of my head and the short golden coat that covers the rest of my body comes from my father. No one is quite sure where the red stripe-like highlights of my golden coat came from, though. Never has their like been seen in our family. These stripes earned me the nickname "tigress" but no one but my rude brothers and sisters dared call me that to my face. All Rabbits hate Cats, and I certainly have never wanted to be associated with them in any way. Stripes are not common among Rabbits, so they are just more reasons for the priest to fret over ominous meanings. I try to ignore the stripes. I'm much more proud of my ears, which in our family, stand tall with no drooping or bent tips like much of the rest of our kind. Tall, straight ears are considered a very desirable trait and a mark of favor from the Maker.

Constant physical training has made me strong and athletic. I understand many bucks prefer wide hipped and large breasted does like some of my chaperones, but I favor what I have. I like being lean and fast, and my breasts are not so large that I cannot comfortably wear armor and fight. I am tall for a doe, just over five feet like my mother, but still short when compared to the bucks, which the Great Maker made much taller. The priests said this was to emphasize the differences between males and females, and they use this to justify the separation in labor and status between the sexes. Males are big and strong so that they can hunt and protect. Females are small so they can hide and raise the children. I am grateful that as a princess I am an exception.

Being heir to the throne, I am a captain in the Rikiguard, the name for our armed forces that protect Rikifur. On the day my life changed, my company had for the past three weeks been stationed at the lower pass over the Earth Spine to protect the workers that annually repair the Barrier, a wide, high wall that impedes passage of our enemies over the pass. Toiling alongside the Barrier garrison and a gang of builders, the warriors under my command were all male, some younger, some older, and all fit healthy specimens of our lupine race. It is a tantalizing pleasure to be around them. Of course, three of my youngest and fittest female chaperones travel with me when my company is away from the capitol on maneuvers, patrols or work duty like today. I never get a break.

Today is a sunny, early summer day with a sky of supreme, deep sapphire blue unmarred by a single cloud. That sky hangs over the lower pass, which is a defile in the western rim of a huge tilted bowl shaped plateau nearly ten miles in diameter. Rain and snowmelt that collects in that bowl has to drain somewhere, and the lower pass is the only exit. Those waters rush through a culvert under the Barrier with multiple layers of steel bars to keep our enemies from passing that way, though it would have been suicide to attempt that passage because of the tremendous volume and speed of the rushing water.

The upper pass is located in a similar, but wider canyon cutting across the eastern rim of the bowl and many thousands of feet higher in elevation. The edges of this bowl are cliffs nearly two thousand feet higher than the floor of the plateau, and beyond them to the north and south, jagged and insurmountable crests rise to impossible heights above where even clouds dare to go. Little grows at these elevations beyond lichen and a few hardy flowers that spring up in the path of the melting snow quickly going to seed and dying as the moisture retreats. The melting water from the retreating ice flows noisily over rocky steps and down narrow crevasses to fill the many shallow depressions in bedrock that are placid lakes serenely mirroring the sky. Pouring out the other end, the water continues its mad rush to the lower pass. Augmenting the stark and barren beauty to make it a truly alien landscape are the steam vents, boiling pools, warm springs and geysers that dot the face of the plateau. From the top of the barrier, the hot springs stand out even in the far distance with their bright orange to aquamarine colored rims. Geysers sometimes hundreds of feet high were erupting on nearly predictable schedules. A sulfurous odor drifted intermittently over the Barrier. It is a strange, yet beautiful landscape that is strategically important to my people.

We are here because the snow this high up in the mountains has finally retreated enough to allow us our annual access to the lower pass. In another month or so, the high pass itself will open allowing our enemies their annual entrance across the only known east west passage over the Earth Spine, a massive linear mountain range that stretches north and south to lands beyond all knowledge of my people. Rising so high that breathing is impossible nearly everywhere along the Earth Spine, the high pass is the only way across, and even it is a difficult and potentially deadly passage. Most of the year it is covered in deep snow and ice. Even with the snow diminished, but not wholly gone in late summer, the air at the high pass cannot support life for long. Anyone lingering at the pass will find themselves getting dizzy, sleepy and eventually dead. It is impossible to construct and guard a wall there. The low pass has been our next best defense, still surrounded by high, steep mountains and cliffs that make it difficult for our enemies to bypass.

Upon first arrival at the low pass, it is an effort to breathe, especially if you were exerting yourself like we had been doing to repair the wall. The air became more breathable each day we lingered, and we slowly got used to it, allowing more and more physical functionality. An army, however, trying to fight and climb the Barrier here would find itself tiring quickly while our archers easily rained arrows down from the battlements forty feet above. A few Cats and Wolves exceptionally good at climbing have managed to bypass the wall by scaling the dangerous cliffs and ridges that stretch north and south from the bluffs that form the walls of the round plateau. They make mischief and occasionally kill some of our kind, but they never do any lasting damage. The Barrier was not built to stop scouts and small raiding parties. It was built to stop an army, an army that has never come. If an army of Wolves or Cats ever does come and tries to conquer Rikifur, it will have had to throw itself upon a wall that is thirty feet thick at the base and tapered to ten feet thick at the top. Its center is crushed stone and the exterior is large angular rock pieced together with mortar to form a smooth, vertical, eastward facing surface. Stretching from one side of the pass to the other and abutting against steep cliffs, it is a daunting fortification. Behind the Barrier are buildings for storage, barracks, a mess hall, a stable and a smithy. The lack of trees growing this high denies enemies the materials needed to build ladders or siege engines, and bringing the equipment over the high pass would be a challenge indeed.

We have to constantly make ourselves ready for our foes if they ever try to come back, because every year the snow and Ice overwhelm the low pass Barrier in the winter. The ice relentlessly plucks and chips and spends its inexorable fury to tear down the Barrier. The rare large earthquakes also sometimes cause portions of the wall to collapse or cause rock avalanches that sometimes build convenient ramps for potential enemies to scale our wall. Each year we return to repair the Barrier and garrison it until the snow returns in early fall and closes the pass completely and keeps us safe for another winter. I am in charge of the repairs this year. It was part of my training so that I would better understand the Barrier's strategic importance and vulnerabilities before I become queen.

Being both a captain and a princess I was not expected to toil alongside the others, but instead to give orders and provide encouragement. In truth, I had been helping wherever I could, occasionally assisting with mixing mortar, fetching water or lifting stones until others rushed in to prevent me from dirtying my royal paws. I liked to lead by example, and I found that my warrior bucks were embarrassed if a female was seen doing more work or fighting better than them. The stronger and more expert that I became at doing a task, the harder they worked to surpass me. It was a game that they usually, but not always, won. In combat training, I sometimes won by using my small size and greater agility to my advantage. Even bucks a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier, had fallen in defeat before me on occasion much to their embarrassment. True, I had taken a lot of beatings, received many bruises and even a few fractured bones in return, but I have never been deterred or given up. They respect me for that. My father says that I am doing well, and that I am a born leader. His expectations and love keep me going to become the finest queen for my people, no matter how arduous the journey. Moving rocks and mixing mortar in the hot sun and thin mountain air was the most arduous task I could have imagined today. Everyone was hot, dirty and sweaty including me.

Repair of the Barrier was nearly complete. Just a few more hours would see it done and my company on its way back to the capitol. We had been working hard for weeks, and an extra effort was being put forth to finish it that morning. Many of the males had stripped down to their loincloths to avoid heat stroke, and their muscles flexed and rippled beneath the short fur that covered their bodies, mostly brown and gold with the odd black, gray, and white coats. Eager to return to the capitol, my chaperones had joined in to hasten the task's completion. Their physical efforts were trivial but seemed to have had a beneficial effect on the productivity of the males, who weren't subtle about jockeying to work as close to my chaperones as they could. Disapproving at first of my attendants also stripping down to the bare minimum acceptable level of clothing, I relented when it became obvious that the bucks were working harder trying to impress them. Clearly the males were enjoying the show whenever the does bent over to pick up rocks or shovel more mortar into the mixing pond. The physical exertion and sexual arousal filled the air with musk. Although the productivity had increased, I began to find myself too distracted to concentrate on the task at hand. Fantasizing about how it would be to command the more handsome of my warriors to bed me became a running monologue in my head. Certainly I had the power of command. Would they obey or would they fear the wrath of my father? Thinking that way was madness. I needed time alone to recover my wits. I was too close to my choosing day to risk everything on such a stupid whim. Hastily searching among the workers and troops, I found my first lieutenant and decided to put him in charge so I could retreat to a place to recover my senses.

"Druhy!" I shouted, hoping he didn't detect the desperate tone I sensed in my own voice.

The lieutenant was the tallest and handsomest of all the males present, and wore only his loincloth and his arm sash that marked his rank. Only great effort kept me from gaping at his body. Bent over with his back to me when I found him, I received an excellent view of his muscular thighs and taut buttocks. Maybe I should have found another less attractive officer, I thought too late. When he finished lifting the large stone he was handling and placed it in the basket that was connected by rope and pulley to the top of the Barrier, he turned and bent to one knee in front of me. Despite kneeling, his head was nearly even with mine perhaps a bit taller if his ears had not been bent forward in a show of respect and submission. His shiny golden coat was flawless and unbroken except for a white patch encompassing his chest and flat stomach. His eyes, like the sky above, were the most beautiful azure. It took all my self-control to not fall into those eyes.

"Yes, Princess. What is your command?", he said with a voice smooth and deep like calm water.

For you to take that cloth from around your loins and crush me against your chest, I thought, but cleared my throat instead and said, "Take command for a while. I am going to refresh myself from the heat by the lake."

"Shall I have your body guards and chaperones accompany you?"

I was thinking how much I wanted him to come with me by himslef, but instead I said, "No...uh, we need everyone to keep working on the Barrier and finish early today. It's a long way back to the capitol, and I want to take advantage of the long days and get as far down the mountains as we can before nightfall."

"As you wish, Captain." He rose and began shouting orders to the others to work faster, encouraging them with the prospect of returning home sooner. At the mention of home, an exultant shout rose from all but the garrison that had to stay the rest of the summer to defend the wall.

I walked alone the hundred yards or so to the small lake that filled a shallow bowl in the bedrock on the north side of the pass. I was in no danger there with the Barrier and my troops between me and any potential enemies. Besides, it was too early for even lone Cats or small groups of Wolves to have navigate the high pass and try to sneak around the Barrier. When my company first arrived at the Barrier escorting the garrison and builders, I sent scouts ahead to inspect the condition of the high pass. They reported what I already suspected, snow and ice was still blocking access. Our enemies never came this early. Despite those assurances, I carried my sword, spear and knife with me and continued to wear my armor. I would be naked without my battle gear, having trained, marched and fought with it for so long. Once I was back home safe at the capitol, I could set the armor aside and wear more comfortable clothes.

For a place that spent more than half the year under snow cover, the pass was surprisingly hot that day. The still surface of the lake mirrored my visage showing me my dusty and overheated face and sweat spiked fur. Some beauty I was. Lieutenant Druhy must have thought me a wreck. Sitting at the edge of the lake, I laid the spear across my lap. Kicking off my sandals and submerging my feet in the nearly ice-cold water was pure ecstasy as the heat and soreness drained out through my feet. Ripples spread out slowly and the mirror that was the lake began to sparkle and shimmer.

It was a serene spectacle that unexpectedly began to look amiss. At odds with the usual reflective behavior of waves, ripples seemed to spring up everywhere simultaneously across the lake, growing in intensity and frequency. A loud rumbling and roaring sound followed, quickly rising in volume until it was nearly deafening. The land then began to split and groan, and tilt beneath me. Stunned by the unreality of the moment, I was fastened in place. I was dimly aware of rocks rolling about and dust rising blocking out my view of the Barrier. Everything became chaotic and confused. Astonishingly, the lake rose up in front of me in defiance of nature and then rushed over me in a mighty surge of water sweeping me backwards towards the center of the pass. Boulders and enormous pieces of the cliffs were falling all about, and dimly through the roaring I thought I heard shouts and screams, until all sound was lost when the water rose over me and filled my ears.

Swimming against the torrential flood, I was helpless as I was swept northward in a place that just a few moments before had been flat and dry. Disoriented and bruised, I bounced painfully off boulders. Agonizing as it was to collide with them, the boulders saved my life. As I was swept between two large rocks, my spear bridged the gap between them. Underwater, but no longer being carried along by the mad current, I was afraid to let go lest I be further bounced among the boulders until I was drowned. I wondered how long I would be able to survive under water. If I stayed where I was, I risked running out of air before the water subsided. Though my mind tried to consider alternatives, there really weren't any. With the added weight of my chain link hauberk and limited plate armor, I doubt if I would have been able to swim to the surface anyway. The spear shaft bent but did not break. Thank the Maker that it was made of wood from the sturdy vesh tree. It could take much more force than the flood was applying before breaking. When hunting I had witnessed some of my warriors stop a charging boar with a spear made of vesh wood with the shaft bending almost ninety degrees without breaking. It is strange the things you think about when you are facing death, but for a moment all I could think about was the construction of my spear.

The rush of water seemed to go on ceaselessly, and my mind returned to wondering how long I could hold on before I lost consciousness. Could I last until all the water was gone? I felt doomed if I held on and doomed if I let go. Just as I thought I could hold my breath no longer, the last of the lake was passing me, and the water level dropped enough for me to crane my neck up above the water surface and take a deep, desperate breath. I tried to stand, but the ground was too slippery and still swirled about my legs with significant force. Falling instead, I lay gasping and retching water as the stream receded around me leaving me in a shallow pool between the two lifesaving boulders. When I finally had the strength to stand again, I looked backward in the direction the water had been flowing and saw just how close to death I had come. Not twenty feet beyond where I lay, the north side of the pass had fallen away in a huge broken chasm that now ran east to west along the defile that was the lower pass. At the bottom of the chasm lay broken rocks and the remains of the lake water seeping into fissures.

An eerie silence had descended over the pass. So dazed was I, that I didn't realize the lack of noise was because there was nothing and no one alive to make any noise. I could hear nothing. Was I deaf? A small stone bounced off rock as it rolled to the valley floor providing a calibration for the overall silence. Dust shrouded all but the closest objects. I barely recognized the terrain around myself. The chasm occupied what had been the floor of the pass. Much of the cliffs and ridges that surrounded the pass had collapsed burying everything except where I stood and part of the lakebed, which was now tilted upward away from me toward the south. Water would never pond there again. I worked my way through the dense drifting dust and rubble eastward to a towering pile of talus where I thought the Barrier should be, but it was hidden from me. At least I had thought it was hidden, but then a southwesterly breeze drove the dust away like the slow parting of a curtain that, to my horror, revealed that what I thought was a pile of talus was actually all that remained of the Barrier and all the buildings behind it. Well, at least half the wall was buried under rock. The other half had fallen away into the chasm with the rest of the northern half of the pass. My first thought was to hunt for survivors. I had to organize those where weren't badly injured to search for anyone trapped under the debris. Shouting out the names of my troops and anyone else who I knew by name, I began to search. Nobody answered. My voice echoing off the silent canyon walls and along the length of the canyon was the only response.

I have no idea how long I searched, but it probably wasn't as long as it had seemed in my state of lonely desperation. I found no trace of anyone, not even a tuft of fur. I am ashamed to say that I, the first princess and future queen of Rikifur, broke down and wept when I should have been strong and continuing to seek for survivors. The tears helped clear the dust from my eyes, but they did nothing to help me find my comrades. It was not the kind of thing a commander or a queen should do. My only consolation was that I knew the tears were for the dead and not pity for myself. Could they really all be dead? Everyone?_ _ I shouted _"_No!" in defiance and screamed blasphemy at the Maker,but the ruins only echoed back my own voice to mock me.

Still, I was not ready to give up. I was determined to keep searching as long as it took to find someone alive or dead. Surely someone must have survived. I couldn't have been the only one. As if in defiance of my resolve, the ground shook again for a few seconds, less violently than previously, but it scared me more somehow. A silent pause followed full of expectant menace that no sound could convey, as though the earth had taken a deep breath before a mighty shriek. Then a vast geyser of steam began rising from the newly formed chasm. Beginning far in the west, the steam advanced rapidly along the trace of the chasm eastward toward where I stood. It was as though all the waters that normally flowed through the pass had vaporized at once. To avoid being scalded by the onrushing geyser, I began to scramble up the rock ruble pile that now lay where the Barrier had once stood. As fast as I was climbing, I still felt the boiling heat behind me giving me incentive to keep moving. Pausing for breath atop the rubble pile I saw that the destruction had not extended farther to the east. If I descended the pile in that direction, I would reach the circular geothermal plateau and the path that led to the high pass, but east meant danger and death. I had no desire to go that way.

The Great Maker apparently felt otherwise. Who else's hand could wreak such destruction on the earth itself? The steam had been bad enough, but all hope fled from me when fire, smoke and liquid rock began to erupt in towering fountains progressing as the steam had from about a mile to the west towards my position at the eastern edge of the chasm. Huge volumes of orange and yellow, glowing molten rock ejected into the air. Lava flowed across the land in a slow but inexorable flood. A huge explosion blasted forth from the chasm sending a tall column of ash and pumice ridden debris thousands of feet up into the sky. The shock wave from the blast nearly knocked me off my feet. When the material began to rain down on me, some of it still burning, I was forced to retreat to the east towards the high pass. The heat became like the steel furnaces in Rikifur.

Much of my crossing over the plateau to the high pass was a frantic blur. At one point, having climbed higher to the east, I looked desperately to find a way around the cataclysm, still hoping to get back to the west, but the pass was full of smoke and fire that was spreading fast onto the plateau. Surely, I would have been incinerated if I tried to go back. I gazed homeward one last time towards my beloved Rikifur, only to see death and destruction between home and me. With great trepidation, I turned myself east again and ran.

Beyond all exhaustion I raced to escape the billowing inferno that was growing and expanding behind me. It didn't help that I was unprepared for the cold or the extreme elevation of the high pass. My sandals had washed away in the flood and the high pass was still covered in snow and ice. My feet though padded and fur covered were nonetheless numb, and with only my breeches, shirt, mail hauberk and surcoat to protect me, I might have frozen to death if the conflagration behind me had not begun to warm the land for miles around. Even so, I dared not stop and rest. Garments that had seemed so warm in the lower pass, barely gave me any protection beyond my own fur, which was short and ill-suited to this climate. The dampness of my clothes also did nothing to help keep me warm, but they did keep the hot or flaming debris that occasionally landed about me from setting me on fire. Even still, I found my head fur smoldering several times from flaming pumice.

Eventually, I found myself standing at the high pass itself. The climb had been nearly impossible, and I was left with no memory of how I accomplished it. Never in my life had I been this far to the east. Dizzy and nauseous, I fell to my knees in the snow and retched. Nothing but spit and acidic bile came up. It was said that only the Maker was allowed to breathe the air at the top of the mountains, and mortals who tried to climb above the high pass would die from trying to breathe air not meant for them. The atmosphere here was definitely not meant for me, and death was the only outcome if I stayed too long. Yet, I found my mind drifting again to dwell on trivial things that had nothing to do with my survival.

As far as the knowledge of my people extended, the high pass was the only place along the great Earth Spine where any of the peoples could safely pass over from west to east. From where I knelt ingloriously in the snow with a puddle of sickening sludge at my knees, the world spread out around me in amazing glory, despite much to the immediate west having been obscured by smoke and fire. The huge column of debris and ash rising from the wounded earth was now bending north and dropping its choking and flaming burden there. It did not escape me that a change in the wind from southwesterly to westerly would likely kill me faster than breathing the Maker's air. Yet I felt compelled to stay a moment and see as much as I could of the extent of my world for the first time.

No one in Rikifur knows how far the mountains extend to the north or south. Rumors and legend allege that they have an end in the icy north, but no tales of and end have ever come from the south. The impossibly high mountains that continue to rise higher beyond the pass blocked any view that I had to any direction except east or west. The Spine is a dangerous place, but it is also the barrier that helped to make my people safe. With the discovery of steel, my people had been able to destroy or drive off the Wolf and Cat folk who had preyed upon and tormented us for so long. Those we did not kill, we drove eastward over this very pass. The low pass Barrier that now lay in ruins was built to keep them there. Along our northern and southern borders there were no narrow places to build a single wall, but the threats were also less.

To the north, the fertile flatland forests of Rikifur are separated by a great river, called the Muur, from the wilder more hilly forests that wither to tundra and ultimately to a great wall of ice. In those wild and less fertile lands dwell the Fox and Bear people and the remnants of the Wolf people we drove out of Rikifur. Neither friends nor foes, we kept an uneasy peace with the Bears and Foxes.

The Bear people are loners who are indifferent to and disdainful of others. In many ways they are akin to the Cat people, yet without the violent predatory tendencies to fight the other peoples. Their isolation and lonely habitat seemed to make them tend towards philosophical and missionary pursuits. A few of them would, on rare occasion, come among the Rabbit folk of Rikifur and preach their strange version of the Great Maker, the creation and the ultimate plan for all the peoples. The Rabbit priests did not like them and called them heretics, but since these wandering philosophers had always been peaceful, they were tolerated by royal decree. I listened to one once, despite the warnings from my tutors, who didn't want my head filled with nonsense. She was an ancient and giant female, though it was difficult to tell her sex. Sows and boars looked much the same in size and general appearance, and their thick shaggy fur covered everything, so that even though they typically went about naked except for ponchos or other decorative shawl like covers usually made from seal or reindeer skin, you rarely had a clue regarding their gender. Wearing of dead animal parts was forbidden in Rikifur to Rabbit folk, but no one dared to challenge the few Bear folk who came among us. As I said, they were tolerated, just. Though ancient, her coat was a coppery bronze, with no trace of gray, and she spoke with a soft almost musical voice incongruous to her size. Sometimes she would stop her tales and chant in a strange and hauntingly familiar tongue that I could not understand, as if the language of Rikifur was not adequate to express her meaning. I remembered her because she claimed that there was more than one Great Maker, and that each of the peoples had been created by a separate Maker. Heretical as that idea was, she extended her blasphemy further to claim that some of the Makers were dead or gone and some still lived among us. She did not say this so plainly as I have, but in her tales and songs, this was the gist of the story she told. How could a Maker die? Why would a Maker live among us and not in Heaven? It made no sense. No wonder the priests didn't like the Bear folk.

We Rabbits believe in a single Great Maker who made all the people different in appearance yet equal in status and ability, but when some of the people like the Cat and Wolf people turned evil and began to war with and even eat the other folk, the Great Maker came back among his children to amend this evil. The Cat and Wolf people became strong and fierce as they fell into their wicked ways, and they grew sharp fangs and claws as they were twisted and deformed by their hate. The Maker went among the other peoples: Bear, Horse, Cattle, Fox and Rabbit and found the Rabbit folk to be the purest and hardest working of all the Maker's children. Thus the Maker blessed us with a special gift to counter evil. Two of my most distant known ancestors, the brave Jacynthopoles and wise Airiphryone, were given special knowledge from the Maker - the making of steel. Jacynthopoles perfected the process of hammering, folding and forging the metal, while Airiphryone first found the ingredients and the methods of blending them to make this wondrous substance. Jacynthopoles united the disorganized and fearful Rabbit clans and formed a great army. Steel changed us forever. Before steel there was endless ravaging and pillaging by the Wolves and Cats. My people were divided and helpless. With steel we made armor to protect our weaker bodies, and steel weapons made us stronger against the cruder blades of the predators. With their weapons of bone and obsidian, our ancient enemies could not stand against us. Wolves and Cats fled before us. We had found our strength at last with the blessing of the Maker. Once free from harm, Airiphryone proposed that all Rabbits unite under one common nation called Rikifur. Jacynthopoles, who had forged the first steel blade and led us to our greatest victories, became the first king. Airiphryone became his queen, and the succession of kings and queens that led to me was begun. The priests say the Maker selected Jacynthopoles and Airiphryone as his divine messengers on Earth. Hence, they and their descendants, including me, were to rule all of Rabbit kind by divine edict. If I was partly divine as the priests claimed, then why couldn't I breathe the Maker's air? I don't think that I am a heretic, but I also don't feel very divine.

The Fox people also lived to our north, and they were more secretive than the Bears. We traded with them, but they only allowed trade at special posts they set up that clearly weren't their homes. It was suspected that they crept and spied among our lands, but it was very rare they were ever caught, and they would never say what they had been doing in our lands when they were captured, always pretending they had just been lost. As if they were ever lost. We also suspect that they harbor some of the Wolves that had escaped us to the north, since they are cousin species after all, but we have never had enough proof to justify war against them. Instead, we keep fortified outposts along the river Muur and kept a defensive force alert and wary at all times. I have spent many boring reconnaissance missions along that border over the years that I have been a captain of the Rikiguard. It was there that I had my first taste of combat when a large Wolf raiding party surprised my patrol. I killed several Wolves myself despite my warriors trying to surround me and keep me as far from the enemy as possible. Respect for me among the skeptical males was washed away that day amid choruses of "Hail the warrior princess!". Though they Wolves were cunning enough to have plotted an ambush, we cut them down and slaughtered them like the mindless savage beasts they are. Strong and fierce, they are a worthy foe, but I would not regret wiping their kind out entirely, so steeped in hatred for them has been my upbringing.

Compared to the north, our southern border was even quieter. Where the forests gave way to the drier grasslands, the Horse people dwelt. There had never been war between the Horse and Rabbit people. Instead we traded and even lived together in mixed communities in the vague border lands where our territories met. There were misunderstandings and even feuds that led to killing between our peoples, but never war. For generations, Rikifur has tried to negotiate solid boundaries with the Horse people, but they are primitive wanderers who seem to have no concept of nations and ownership of land or of who had made them safe from the Wolves and the Cats. We did not stop hunting those enemies at our southern border, but drove them before us across the Horse people's lands all the way to the southern desert and pushed them there to die. You would think there would be some gratitude for that, but the Horse people did not seem to remember their history well or else they deliberately decided not include the triumph of the Rabbit people in their oral traditions.

As I thought about these familiar lands, I could only see tantalizing glimpses through the great smoking destruction in the west. Until today, what I have described covers my understanding and knowledge of the world. Farther west is the limitless ocean that forms our final border. Adventurous mariners sail up and down the coast and have even hinted at lush forested but peopleless lands again much farther to the south, but no one has ever sailed out across the ocean to guess at what if anything lies beyond the horizon. Those who did have never been seen again.

Despairing of ever returning home, I turned reluctantly to the east. I was only able to see down a few thousand feet because a solid blanket of white clouds stretched from the Earth Spine to the eastern horizon. All was veiled and made mysterious by an endless fluffy blanket, and no hint of what awaited me could I discern. That was my path if I chose to cling to life no matter how futile the hope. Into the unknown I had to advance. I wondered if perhaps this disaster would be good for my people by blocking the pass forever, and that the loss of one small princess was an insignificant price to pay for that gift from the Maker. Certainly no one could pass through the inferno as it was today. If only the lava and fire had been at the high pass instead, blocking completely all passage from the east. The Wolves still cross over this pass to reach the obsidian deposits in the plateau between the high and low passes. They still make their knives, arrows and spears from the black volcanic glass mounds that dot the flanks of the plateau. They still attack when they can, sneaking around our wall in small groups. Rabbit guards are sometimes found dead on the Barrier and no one ever saw the Wolf or Cat assassin. I hated them so deeply. Why couldn't they leave my people alone? If only I had the power and strength to march east and destroy them all.

To the west, all was fire and chaos. That way was certain death. I could not go back. To the east was the land ruled by foes that would show me no mercy. Death most likely awaited me there also. Was that my only choice? I could lie down and slowly fall asleep never to wake up. That is a choice open to me. Would that be so bad? I have no understanding of what will happen to me if I go east. Death, torture and being eaten alive are all my possible fates.

These thoughts and uncertainty were fueled by my increasing light-headedness, and I knew that if I lingered much longer, I would eventually collapse and, unable to move die. Why was this happening to me? Wasn't the mere occurrence of my birth a sign from the Great Maker that I was destined for greatness? How could it end this way with me descending into the east to perish? Only my most hated enemies inhabited that land. There had never even been rumor of Rabbit folk living east of the Earth Spine, so no friends awaited my arrival. If I began walking east, as I must to live, then I know I will be walking to my death. I can't believe this is what the Maker has in mind for me. It was all so pointless. There must be another purpose. The earth does not burst itself asunder for no reason. Was I a sacrifice to the Maker's will to seal the pass forever and keep my people safe? Should I have died in the fire, or was there some greater purpose served in dying in the east? These unanswered questions plagued my oxygen-starved mind.

I knew the end was near when my father appeared standing before me in his kingly raiment. Wearing a warm inviting smile, he spread his arms and invited me towards his comforting embrace, but I had not the strength nor the resolve to move, though my heart desired it greatly. Knowing that I was delusional did not stop me from talking to him.

"Father, help me, please," I begged with teardrops freezing to my furry cheeks.

"Be brave, my sweet little Princess, and get up. Your destiny awaits."

I was so tired and despondent. "Help me," I pleaded again.

"That is all the help that I am allowed to give you," he replied gently and with regret. "You must do the rest yourself."

"I can't. I don't know what to do. I'm afraid."

"Don't be, Airy. The Maker has plans for you. You are special. Your purpose now lies before you. You must get up, or all of your life will have been wasted, and the people of Rikifur will be the poorer for your loss."

His words consoled me and broke the fatalistic spell that had overcome me. I was not a coward, Maker damn it. Death was likely but not inevitable. My will hardened like steel at that moment more so than any other time in my life. Warrior training took control, and I decided that I would live a little longer. Perhaps I could take some of my enemies with me before I was killed. I am small, but I have the steel that my illustrious ancestors gave me both at my side in the form of my sword and in my spine in the form of my training. Whatever destiny awaited me, I would face it with courage as a captain of the Rikiguard. Even here in this place where no one could see me, I would not dishonor nor embarrass myself.

It was hard. It took all the strength I had, but I started moving again, downhill to the east. Father walked always in front of me just out of reach but offering encouragement. My feet hurt, which was good, though I could only think how much better it would be if they went completely numb. My muscles were tired and weak, and my head spun, yet breathing became a useful activity again as I lost elevation. The snow and ice eventually gave way to alpine meadows where riots of wildflowers sprung up to take advantage of the short summer. Meadows eventually gave way to sparse alpine forests, and it was here my father turned, gave me his blessing and disappeared. I wept at his absence even though my wits had returned and I knew that he had been an illusion. I was grateful for his assistance even if it had only been a delusion created from my memory and the love that I had kept inside myself.

I kept heading downward following a path created for and maintained by my enemies to access the pass. The earth continued to shake, sometimes hard enough to knock me off my feet. I descended into the clouds so nothing of the eruption was visible behind me. Once a great avalanche of rock and ice swept down a canyon from which I had only just ascended. I choked on the dust and wondered again whether I was lucky to be alive or if I would be better off if the avalanche had buried me. Though his apparition was gone, my father's soft voice in my head continued to give me the strength to continue.

I kept off the path when I could. I had no idea how often it was used. Avoiding Wolves and Cats was my paramount concern. Mountain sheep that I encountered were more nervous here than in the west. They feared me because they feared the Wolves and Cats, I reasoned. To them I was another two-legged hunter. If they had only known that the thought of eating meat other than fish was too repulsive for me to even contemplate, they might not have wasted their energy in pointless flight. Better to run than risk being dead, I suppose. I wondered, Could I learn from that? Should I run from danger or confront it directly?

I went as far as I could hoping to get below the damp and misty cloud layer. As the sun set behind the Spine, I realized I could go no farther and needed to make a shelter or risk freezing to death in my still damp clothes. I chopped branches from a fir tree with my sword headless of the fact that I was blunting its finely sharpened edge, and made a crude shelter to protect myself from the night and the cold that was sure to come. I slept fitfully bathed in the eerie red glow through the clouds of the destruction of my only way home. The night was bitterly cold, but the branches gave me some insulation from the ground and the air. When the shivering became too intolerable, I cut more branches until the weight of them on top of me was almost too much to tolerate. It felt better than freezing. The next day I was able to find some food by recognizing edible plants and berries that grew at similar elevations on the west side of the Spine, but there were also plants I didn't recognize, so I avoided them. Dying an agonizing death from poison, clutching my stomach as I vomited myself to death was surely worse than going hungry.

Late on the third day since the catastrophe in the pass, the clouds dispersed, and alpine forests yielded to taller firs and hardwoods growing by streams that all flowed down to the east in rilles that joined to form broader valleys that merged further downstream in succession as far as I could see before all was lost in the haze of the distance. How far the world went to the east, I couldn't say. Certainly past the horizon. So far, I had found no sign of any of my enemies other than the trail itself. I continued to keep off the trail but kept it in sight. This became harder as the forest thickened, but I preferred to go slow and back track occasionally than walk openly. The sun warmed me for the first time since my escape, and I felt my confidence and a tiny shred of hope returning. No enemies so far.

I was feeling fortunate until the pack attacked. They came upon me suddenly, trapping me in a clearing, surrounding me, leaving me nowhere to go but with my back against a large tree with no branches I could hope to reach and bark too smooth to climb. At first there was only one, but soon I could hear the movement of others in the brush at the edge of the clearing. Their leering, snarling faces were the first parts to enter the clearing from the undergrowth. Twelve, short legged, ugly, piebald, hunchbacked dog-like creatures with powerful jaws full of fangs slowly advanced on me. They must have had some dominance hierarchy, for one was clearly the leader while the others held back. Fortunately for me it charged alone. My spear, thrown with all the force I could muster hit is square in the chest and must have pierced its foul heart, for it died instantly without a sound. A second beast quickly charged and I was grateful for all the training in the martial arts that I had received since childhood. Unconsciously, my sword leapt from my scabbard into my hands and cut through the brute's leg and chest, felling it to the ground screaming in pain. In its spasm of death, its back claws raked across my thigh tearing through my breaches. I barely felt the pain, but blood oozed through the torn cloth. It's dying wails seemed to disturb the others, which milled about in confusion, but soon the smell of blood emboldened them. I knew they would charge again. I could only hope that they would continue in this pattern of single attacks and not charge as a group. There were still too many for me to fight at once.

When the maimed one stopped screaming and expired, the rest seemed to overcome their confusion and fear, and began spreading out in a semi-circle to attack me from several angles. They were clearly going to strike as a group now that there were no more leaders. I thought all was lost, and then to my dismay the situation got worse. My greatest fear was realized. A savage, snarling Wolf person leapt into the clearing howling like a four-legged wolf dripping saliva from his gaping jaws. He was horrible to behold with a patch covering one eye from beneath which fresh scars streaked across half his face. His teeth were elongated and sharp. His fur was matted and dirty with a base of black going mostly to silver. He was naked except for a loin cloth covered by a kilt like skirt made of leather. All muscle and snarling fury, he was a frightening apparition. I thought at first that the beasts must be his pets. No doubt he was using them to track and corner me. What a fool I was to have thought that I had a chance here. My time had come. I was certain that I was doomed. I only wished for him to come at me alone so that I could test his spear against my steel blade. I wanted that more than anything. Even if his pets tore me to pieces afterwards, I would die content if I could kill this monster.

Contrary to my assumption, instead of attacking me or ordering his pets to close in for the kill, he stabbed one with a spear just as the beasts charged me. There was no time to try to work out this puzzle. The Wolf's attack threw the beasts into confusion and broke up their charge. My warrior training took control again, as I fought the beasts that got past him. I had no spare attention to ponder the Wolf's odd behavior. Even with one beast dead by the Wolf's spear, there were still too many for me to overcome. I killed another easily with my sword, but that just allowed a second one to get past lunging for my neck. My steel gorget foiled its attempt to clamp its jaws about my throat as its teeth lost purchase on the smooth steel and failed to allow it to close those mighty jaws and suffocate me. The stench of its breath and body were awful, but that was the least of my worries as another one of the filthy beasts simultaneously bit my side. It couldn't puncture its teeth through my mail, but the force nearly broke a rib. I plunged my sword into its eye, and the weapon was wrenched from my grip as the flailing monster fell back crashing into the others, momentarily preventing them from pressing a coordinated attack. Frustrated that it could not gain purchase on my throat, the neck biter went for my arm, and was similarly foiled by my steel lower arm guard, which I deliberately shoved in its mouth so it could not bite the relatively unprotected flesh of my upper arm.

I was helpless as it thrashed its great sinewy neck, flinging me about like a child until I collided with something hard. My head must have hit the tree, because sparkling lights flashed across my field of vision, which was beginning to narrow. If this is to be my death, it is not as bad as I thought it would be. The pain was receding and my other senses with it. Only the creeping blackness and sounds were left to me, and a warm, sticky wet feeling across my face. Was I being eaten? I could not tell. I could not feel anything anymore. Before my vision failed completely, the scarred, one-eyed countenance of the Wolf beast loomed over me with his great red tongue hanging out as he breathed his steamy breath in my face. That was the last thing that I saw as the blackness engulfed me, and I thought how unfair the world was to have my last vision be something so horrible. Though I could not see him, I could hear the Wolf speaking words to me. It might have been a question. Did he expect me to answer? How absurd. I had no words but curses for him if I could speak. Then all was quiet as whatever he said slipped away like a dream upon waking, only I did not think I would ever wake from this dream.

[End of Chapter]