No Hands but My Own

Chapter 7 - Gathering

It had just grown dark when I finally had a chance to sit in my cabin to sharpen the wavy edge of my dagger. I had had to calm down my clan and send off messengers to every other clan. They carried a request for confirmation for an Assembly  tomorrow morning to discuss the impending war. As I fingered the edge of my newly-sharpened blade, I waited for all my warriors to return from post duty.

As it was, nearly all of my messengers had returned and had joined me in preparing our weaponry. We were now only waiting for Thenzon to return from the Miracony.

I grimaced to myself at my weakness -  it had taken me three times the time to walk from the edge of the Miracony territory back to camp compared to the time it was taking Thenzon; he had left this morning after the latest "Choosing" and was sure to be back soon. I suppose it's because I'm quite old for a member of our clan, let alone a Canium.

The padding of feet announced Thenzon's return to camp. Entering my lit hut, he joined us, panting a little from his run. He nodded confirmation and took a seat on one of the mats spread over the dirt - every clan was willing to join the Assembly tomorrow morning.

 "We're all here. Good." I glanced around the tent. "Most of you were still untrained the last time there was an Assembly. So I'm going to explain how this works. You must choose from among you two people. One is someone who can help defend me in case of lawless attacks and the other is to prove the strength of our clan should it be questioned. Understood?"

Everyone gave me a quick nod. "The two chosen by you must meet me in a few hours." I winced "We have to wear our traditional get ups."

"Did those even survive the attack?" Assadar asked, face screwed in distaste.

I sighed. "As a security measure, our traditional garb is buried in a secret place - they never were in camp. After all, we can't declare war without them."

"Not for a lack of trying to destroy them." Reliel muttered, "But they're so old they're practically indestructible."

Assadar questioned him "Did you try burning them?"

Reliel nodded solemnly.

"Surely ripping them...?" Shira interjected.

With a sigh, Reliel mournfully shook his head.

"Do we have to wear them?" Yishus pleaded.

I stood to leave - I could not be present to influence the decision of who was going to come with me to the Assembly.

"It is," I grimaced expressively, "non-negotiable."

As I left the warmth of the wooden hut, all I could hear were groans and complaints on how we were going to look so lame, so ugly, so strange. And though I secretly agreed with my warriors, I went out to fetch our freakishly well preserved costumes nevertheless.

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"They're even uglier than I remembered." Reliel muttered.

Our disgusted silence spoke volumes in the predawn darkness.

"Well," I said with a falsely bright voice, "let's get dressed!" I grabbed the biggest, most hideous pile of fur, taking the bullet for my team. Thenzon and Dilenkeh quickly reached out to the smallest of the three piles. Thenzon won. Dilenkeh scowled viciously as he grabbed his matted heap.

As he began to wrap the cloth around himself, Dilenkeh seemed to be muttering something about seniority and privileges. Mutually ignoring him, Thenzon and I also began to wrap the fabrics around our bodies. After a few movements, the fabric came alive and finished the job with perfect pleats and tight tucks.