Page 135 of Sun Warrior

“It’s part of the choosing process. When a Lynx picks his or her Companion, she bites her choice. Do you want to see?”

“Yes!” Danita leaned forward eagerly as Antreas rolled up his sleeve, exposing his right arm and the bite scar that was there, surrounded by a tattooed pattern of vines and leaves. “That looks like it hurt.”

“It did, but it didn’t kill me, and when it didn’t kill me that meant Bast and I were bonded for life,” Antreas said.

“You mean it could have killed you?” Danita was staring at the bite scar.

“If she’d rejected the den I built for us, yes. But Bast didn’t, so the venom in her bite changed me, made me stronger, faster, better—instead of killing me.”

“What about these vines and leaves?” Danita reached out and let her finger trace a vine.

“They were added later by an artist who is a priestess of our Great Stormshaker God. It’s representative of Bast and me—vines and leaves linking us together.”

“Stormshaker God? I don’t know about him,” Danita said.

“I can tell you, but it’s a long story, and it has to do with how Lynxes and humans first started bonding.”

“I’d love to hear it.” Danita settled more comfortably beside Bast, half leaning against the feline. “And Bast needs a nap. So, why not tell me?”

“Why not indeed?” Antreas muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing. Sure, I’ll tell you the story. Just let me know if you get bored.”

“Don’t be boring and I won’t get bored,” Danita said with a cheeky glance his way.

“I’ll do my best. Okay, so the story goes like this: In ancient times, when the sun storms raged throughout the world, destroying civilizationas they knew it, a small group of people escaped into the Rocky Mountains, trying to find respite from the sun and shelter from the storms. This group brought their cats with them.”

“Cats? You mean Lynxes, only they called them a different name?”

“No, I mean cats. It’s why it can be insulting to call me a cat man, or call Bast a cat.” Bast growled low in her throat, though she didn’t open her eyes. “Cats were a lot smaller and less powerful than Lynxes, and they lived in cities with their humans, and not in dens like Lynxes. They weren’t free, or partners with their Companions. Cats were pets.”

“Oh, okay. I understand. Go on.”

“So, this group of people fled to the mountains, with their cats.”

“Seems like a lot of effort when they’re fleeing for their lives, you know—to carry cats along with them. I mean, you said they were smaller, and pets. I’m guessing they couldn’t take care of themselves like Bast can.”

“You’re right, but the ancients loved their cats, just as the ancestors of the Tribe of the Trees refused to leave their dogs behind. So, they brought their cats. A great storm was raging, threatening to wash the group from the mountain trail, and somehow they found the entrance to a den. They ran in to take shelter, only to find a mother Lynx was giving birth to a litter of kittens. The Lynx mother was dehydrated and ill, barely able to give birth to the last of her kittens.

“The humans weren’t sure what to do. Most of them huddled near the entrance to the den, staying well away from the Lynx. But one of the women in the group had a mother cat who, not long before, had given birth to a litter of kittens, only to watch each of them die as they fled into the mountains. The woman felt such empathy for the Lynx that we believe the two of them formed the first of the Companion bonds.”

“Really? What happened next?”

“The woman helped the Lynx give birth to eight healthy kittens, and then the mother Lynx died.”

“No!” Danita said, causing Bast to grumble before relaxing back into sleep.

“Yes, but first the Lynx bit the woman, Marking her as her own, inserting her scent into the woman’s blood so that her kittens would know her.”

“Yeah, what about the babies?”

“The woman’s cat nursed them, raising them as her own,” Antreas said.

“That’s a sad but nice story,” Danita said.

“There’s more. The humans, the baby Lynxes, and the cats were trapped in the den—some say for four days, some for fourteen, and some even say for forty full days and nights. Whichever it was, the number four will always be sacred to Lynx people. During this time our God, the Great Stormshaker, pounded the mountains with lightning and sun storms, and something happened within that den—something happened within the Lynx babies, and the humans. When the humans emerged, they were forever changed, as were their children and their children’s children. They were bonded on a physical and mental level with the Lynx kittens. That was the first Chain.”