Soulmates Across Borders

Chapter 13

When Solí and Tokah arrived at the high nohonga, the kings of the wolf tribe and bear tribe were sitting together. It looked like they had just finished their breakfast. The bear king's giant bear stood in the corner, while Wuruhina, Solí's father's wolf, lay at his feet.

"So there you are. Why did you shun your wolf?" The wolf king's eyes bored into her, and she had to look away.

"We are disagreeing about something important which we can't discuss right now." She looked down at Pango, who slunk up to Wuruhina in a low posture and pushed his nose against hers in a friendly greeting. The she-wolf rubbed her cheek against Pango's, and then he sat down beside her.

"What's this important business you must discuss with us?" Solí asked.

"Hakah wants to bury his people in a full funeral ritual, but we don't have enough lilacs to send every single one of your wolf tribe's people to the Kohatu Stone." The bear king spoke in a loud rumbling voice while he frowned at Solí's father.

"It is a perfectly reasonable request to include everyone in the funeral," Solí's father said. "We are all mourning the deaths of our people."

"I disagree," Tokah said. Of course he does, Solí thought with a mental eye-roll. "It's not like the wolf queen died."

Pango and Wuruhina growled, long and low.

"Do not speak ill of my late wife," the wolf king said in a strong, threatening voice.

Solí's throat began to close up. She cleared her throat and said, "Speak not of what you don't understand." Tokah hadn't lost his mother. He had no idea what it felt like.

He couldn't understand the hole her death had left in Solí's life. The ache she had felt every night when she remembered that her mother wouldn't be there to put her to bed. The heavy sadness she felt every morning when she remembered that her mother wouldn't be there to greet her at breakfast. The devastating realization that her children wouldn't know their wolf grandmother.

Her brother and her baby sister were both gone, too. She barely remembered her baby sister, she had died when she was only a few moons old, but her brother had been so involved in her life. He had been there through so much of her training-while their father taught them how to swim, how to catch a fish, how to make an arrowhead, how to shoot a bow. He'd always been there with her, until he just suddenly wasn't.

Tears found their way down her cheeks.

Tokah didn't flinch. "I only meant that-"

"Tokah!" the bear king interrupted. He glared at his son.

"My apologies," Tokah said, his eyes on the ground. "I only meant-"

"That is enough!" the bear king roared. "These people have lost loved ones. You will not belittle what they are going through." He turned to Solí's father. "I understand that you are all mourning. That doesn't change the fact that we don't have the lilacs to send everyone."

If only they had the beastmen's power to grow plants. Solí had seen this ability first-hand in the past. Just yesterday, a beastman had regrown a tree that had died in the fire. The beastmen could grow plants in the blink of an eye.

This gave her an idea. What if she could ask her soulmate for help growing lilacs? He could certainly prove to her that he could be trusted if he would do this for her people. She could ask him tonight if he casted his strange astral dream sorcery again. She found herself hoping Aer'ehk would contact her, and then she frowned at herself. Did she really want to speak to a beastman?

Then she shook her head. Beastmen had taken so much from her. Now a beastman was taking her very life from her. She felt such thundering hatred for this whole situation that her ears roared.

But maybe she could acquire what her people needed right now. Maybe she could manipulate her soulmate into helping her.

"What if there was a way to get more lilacs?" Solí asked. Her secret idea made her look away as her face grew warm.

"What way are you proposing?" Her father gazed quizzically at her.

Maybe there was some other way to get lilacs. The wolf tribe people had other treaties with different tribes. Maybe she could convince the kings of other tribes to help her people.

"I will go around to all the villages of Väria and collect what they are willing to give us," she said.

Though she knew there wouldn't be enough unless every tribe across the entire nation of Väria agreed to give them what they could spare. She would have to ask her soulmate to grow the lilacs. If he could even grow them for her, she told herself, which he very well may not be able to do. And then there was always the possibility that he would refuse.

"Some of the tribes are outright hostile toward the wolf tribe," her father said with a frown. "I won't allow you to go by yourself."

Solí nodded at her feet. Before she could name someone she'd like to join her on her quest, the bear king said, "My son will escort you."

Solí tried hard to hide her sigh of disappointment. "I thank you for your help." She inclined her head at Tokah as she gazed down so she wouldn't roll her eyes in exasperation. Then she bowed to the bear king.

"I want to have the funeral before your wedding," Solí's father said. "While you work on collecting as much lilac as you can, I will create a list of people who will be invited to the funeral in the order of importance. We will take as many people as we can."

Solí nodded again. She gestured to Tokah. "We best prepare to leave, then."

Tokah practically glared at her, and she could tell that he didn't want to spend his day mist-traveling around the nation of Väria begging for lilacs from tribespeople who would likely refuse to help. He inclined his head in a curt nod and led the way out of the nohonga.

"Thank you, father," Solí said. "You won't be disappointed, I promise!"

Her father nodded at her, and she turned and followed Tokah out. She spotted him up ahead waiting for her, and she quickly caught up with him and followed him through the village.

"This is a fool's errand," he told her as they walked.

"It may be, but all my people should be able to go to the funerals. I'm willing to spend the next two days trying to find enough lilacs for everyone."

"This is a waste of my time!" He pulled out his sword and slashed at a bush.

"Then stay here. I can do this myself." She stopped walking.

"I can't go against my father's orders." He sheathed his sword and trudged on ahead. "Let's just get on with it. Come on; we need a map."

Solí followed him through his village to a nohonga that appeared to house their weapons of war. He spoke with a man inside and came back outside with a map drawn in clay paint on deer hide. They knelt with the map on the grass in front of them.

"The wolf tribe cooperates with the fox tribe of the riverlands, the otter tribe of the moonside ocean, the eagle tribe of the mountains and the horse tribe of the plainsland." Solí pointed to the icons for each tribe on the map as she listed off the tribes and their locations.

"The bear tribe has treaties with the snake tribe of the lowland lake, the coyote tribe of the highlands, the hawk tribe of the sunset ocean, and the panther tribe of the black river valley." Tokah pointed to all the locations as he named off the places.

"We're going to be very busy," Solí said as she stood up.

Tokah sighed heavily and stood as well, rolling the map up. "Let's get on with it then."

They headed to the storehouse of lilacs to begin their quest.

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1325 Words ~ 14461 Total