Harbingers

Blaze was known for being eccentric. It was sort of her defining trait, and some of that was to to be expected with a wide-mind, because they didn’t see the world exactly the same as everyone else. Playing with the friends of predators, however, pushed the limits of some in the herd.

"Mother, they are harbingers! They speak to the biters! The hookteeth follow their lead, and you have led them to our children! Have you already forgotten-"

The elder interrupted. Her daughter was becoming emotional.

"Be calm, Thistle, please. Of course I haven't forgotten. I loved her as much as you did. But... it was so long ago. When is the last time you even saw a hooktooth? I think.. I think they've all now gone away."

Blaze had not told anyone of the one she had seen the other day. It would only cause needless worry. It was the first in years, and near to death even before she found it. It seemed likely there were not many others left.

Thistle responded quickly. "Harbingers don't only talk to hookteeth. They know the cutter and the slayer, too, and don’t tell me the slayer isn’t still going strong out there after today! They work with all kinds of soul-takers. Just because they're so small doesn't change that they're biters too. Biters stick together to catch us!"

Blaze contemplated for a moment, mentally putting together her words in a way that she hoped the others would understand. It was now evening; the sun was setting behind the cloud cover and the night’s snow had just begun to fall in small, quiet flakes. She had been laying down on a bed of soft moss for several hours, resting her swollen leg, but now heaved herself onto her feet - she didn’t like being talked down to, especially by her own daughter.

A few of the others were listening in from around. Their herd was a very small one. All of the family could only find enough food if they stayed in littler groups versus past generations, but this was little even by modern standards. Besides her and Thistle, there was the young couple Rain and Sedge, and the quiet loner Hoarfrost, who had only recently joined. There were two children - Puffseed: Thistle’s son who was 4, and Breeze: Sedge and Rain’s daughter who was 5. Though herds met up at common grounds regularly enough, on a day to day basis it was just the seven of them.

At last, Blaze replied with an idea she had been muddling over for some time now to herself. She did not expect them to accept it readily. "Thistle, are we not biters to the mice? They are animal, not vegetable. They hide in the grass from us, yet we eat them to resolve the winter cravings. If we don't, we get sick. Especially now that the grasses are so bitter and dry that they provide so little to grow on."

"Mice don't have souls. They are just mice!". Thistle was becoming annoyed with her mother's "philosophy" - not for the first time, and probably not for the last.

"How do we know who really does and does not have a spirit? What if all of the stars' creatures are more alike than we want to believe?!" Blaze raised her own voice, not with uncontrolled emotion, but for all to hear around her in the snow. She carried on.

"The cutter and the slayer are biters, yes. And I got the wrong end of the slayer today for sure, but that was my own fault. I got myself stuck out alone and vulnerable. You cannot blame it for taking advantage. You’re going to think I am crazy-”

“That bird’s already flown, hasn’t it…”, muttered Hoarfrost from the back. Blaze glared, and he looked away.

“But I think that these biters have more to offer as our allies than as enemies. They can hurt us, for sure they can, but even so can other people in the family! So can ice on the lake or a rock falling on our heads. To live is to face potential dangers. We are not their natural prey, under more normal circumstances - they know we are strong together. And they both kill the razer, and the razer is our worst enemy. It takes over the world in its swarms, rutting up the grass so that the dirt is blown away on the winds, and good green grass replaced with more thorns! In addition it is a biter itself that will take on any creature that challenges it!”

She paused, taking a breath. Thistle started to speak but was interrupted. Blaze wasn’t finished.

"This “harbinger”...", she began to say, gesturing to Brighteye, standing quietly on a rock nearby with his brother. He didn't hear anything, but felt the rock vibrate occasionally as the herdbirds interacted. They were communicating with each other. And from their attention, focused equally between the stranger and himself, they were apparently talking about him. A bit unnerving.

"There is something different about it from the rest. It cares for the white one - the weak and the needy. Like the family. I have seen a lot of harbingers and have never seen them protect those that aren’t like themselves There is something behind its eyes that is like us. These harbingers did something… I don’t know exactly what, but something to save me from the slayer and the razers. I blacked out as they were coming at me and yet when I awoke all were gone, and these birds were beside me, like… well, like a mother protecting an ailing child. Like how we guard one another.

At last, Thistle got a word in.

“The harbingers protected you? How? Why would they do such a thing? They want us to meet Dusk, because they pick our bones!”

“Maybe they told the biters to leave?”, interjected little Breeze. She had been listening closely to her great aunt. “They talk to them, right? Well they maybe said… go away from her, she is a nice one!”. Puffseed giggled and agreed. "Yeah, she's too sweet to eat!"

“Harbingers wouldn’t do that kids. They only act to fill their stomachs. With us!”, Thistle went on, continuing to confront her mother and upset the children were being convinced already.

“That might well be true for most harbingers. But I don’t think these are “most harbingers”. Look at them. They’re all they seem to have - they don’t have a herd. I think they think I am theirs. ”, said Blaze, gesturing at them with a bit of a laugh. Suspecting it was his cue, Brighteye flew up onto her head, followed by Whitecrown. He sat down and preened his feathers; his brother followed suit.

“They could be tricking you. Lulling you to comfort, then leading something with big teeth to you when you don’t expect.”, retorted her daughter. “I don’t want you going out alone again. If you want to play with these birds here, with us around, then fine. I can’t stop you, Mom. But if it blows up in your trunk later… remember you got lucky today. We might not be able to get there in time next time. And I don’t want them alone with the children.”

Blaze listened, and stood quiet for a moment to think before she responded. She wanted to de-escalate the situation, but not to concede her beliefs.

“Thank you for looking out for me, Thistle. I know that my ideas can be outlandish. But I really think that these harbingers are special. I think they might even be able to help us; they’ve already helped me-”

“Why would they want to do that though? And what can they even do for us?”, Sedge spoke up. “Like… they’re tiny. If there really are just those two, what can they do?”

Blaze answered quickly. “Anyone can look around and see it - the world out there is changing. Nothing stays the same forever - nothing at all. Just look at the loss of our pastures in your lifetime, and try to imagine how different it was when I was a child and we hardly even knew what a razer was here. So maybe this is just the newest change. Maybe these harbingers are unhappy with their lot in life. Maybe we’re just better company than the biters. If we can make peace… maybe more will even follow suit. We could be at the brink of a shift of everything! What if biters didn’t bite any of us anymore? If we could all work against the slayer, we wouldn’t need to be enemies at all. Wouldn’t that be a nice world to live in?”

She caught her breath again, and carried on.

“And harbingers can fly. At the very last, we can use them as scouts to see what’s beyond our vision. I don’t… I don’t now for sure yet what they can do. But what if they could be the first step in a big plan that could even help us get rid of the razers once and for all?

Thistle stood facing her mother. She was not adamantly opposed to everything her mother suggested - she had good ideas before, and everything she said was to be considered. But she felt her mother was missing one major detail in her scheme.

"Then tell me, mom. What is your plan for when you and your new little carcass-picker friends magically defeat the razer. Will all of the bigger biters still respect you when you and your herd are all that's left of flesh and bone to choose from out in the snow?"

But that was a question to which Blaze didn't yet have an answer.