Chapter 11: Whispers of Legend
The mist had not yet lifted when Yue Lixue woke before the sun had crested over the horizon, her body tangled in the soft furs, and the scent of Korran still lingering nearby. For a long while, she simply listened. The quiet of early dawn in the Panther Village was different—more solemn, the sound of birds slowly awakening from the night and jungle waking and coming alive, for now the world was suspended between sleep and awakening.
The first light of dawn was barely a whisper, cool and silver as it spilled across the wooden planks of Korran's family dwelling. He was already gone, his side of the bed cold. She slipped from the bed, wrapping one of the woven cloaks around her shoulders. Korran was gone as had become habbit, likely tending to early duties with his father, brother, or joining hunting patrols.
She'd slept deeply, but not restfully—strange dreams had tugged at the edges of her mind. Dreams of moons and fire, of battles and longing, of blood that glowed silver and beasts with eyes like hers.
She sat up slowly, her beastmark tingling down her side and faintly beneath her breast and down her left side. It wasn't pain, exactly. More like a gentle vibration, like something deep inside her stirring in response to a distant call.
Drawn by instinct more than reason, she wrapped herself in a shawl made from woven furs from beast hunts and stepped out onto the elevated bridgeway. The village was still and quiet, save for the faint rustling of leaves and the gentle flapping of distant wings and a river trickling some where far enough away to be faint. She stepped outside into the cool hush of twilight morning, it was the first time she had felt so bold and not been plauged with headaches that she decided to take in the sight of the village still cloaked in morning mist. The purple-glowing lantern bugs were dim now, fluttering lazily in their cages, before long they would be being released with the rising sun.
She followed the upper paths westward, drawn toward a quiet overlook she hadn't ever been before or even consciously chosen—but somehow knew.
As she padded quietly but unsteadily across the bridgeways, she caught sight of a very few early risers—most of whom gave her quiet, reserved glances. Not hostile, but… uncertain. Curious. Wary.
She tried to ignore the knot tightening in her stomach.
It wasn't until she reached the elevated overlook near the western branch of the village that she realsed.
She wasn't alone.
Halika, an elder panther matron, stood at the edge of the platform, her silver mane braided with beads of bone and wood, her eyes half-lidded as she watched the horizon. Her expression didn't change as Yue Lixue approached.
A tall, old but regal silhouette framed by the first rays of rising light. At her side sat a much younger female panther—barely the age of a girl, a child—her younger eyes were sharp with curiosity, her arms wrapped around Halika's knees.
"I have heard much about your arrival already, snow-cat. It was a hunch but let us say that I knew you would come here. I am Halika, the Pather village's elder female," the lady introduced herself, her voice dry but not unkind.
Lixue hesitated. "Why?" It was all she could bring herself to utter.
"It is because females' beastmarks' sing at sunrise. We...those who carry it, even if faintly awakened… are always drawn to the quiet moments. Especially sunrise and sunset." She finally turned to look at Lixue fully. "You feel it, don't you, snow-cat?"
Yue Lixue nodded slowly. "I think so. It's like... I know something is about to happen. I feel it in my bones but I can't explain it."
"That's because it hasn't happened yet," Halika said. "But... it will. You are not just another outsider swept into our world. Something deeper brought you here snow-cat."
Lixue swallowed. "Do you think I'm a danger?"
Halika considered her for a long, quiet moment. "No. However, I do think that you are change and change is rarely peaceful."
A sudden gust of wind stirred the canopy, and the sound of rustling leaves filled the air like whispers. Lixue shivered, but not from the cold, pulling the cloak tighter around herself.
The beads and small bones adorned Halika's braids rattled in the breeze at that moment. Lixue noted that she carried a staff carved with runes older than what Lixue could read, although she couldn't read anything in the beastworld- this was the first time she had seen writing and it made her elated. If there was writing she could study, she would love to.
"You came, Moonborne," Halika said, her voice gravelly but calm. The wise village elder took a moment to allow her words to gain gravity. "I told Sira, my daughter, that you would come."
The younger panther beasr—Sira—tilted her head, studying Savannah with quiet awe, as if she were a story come to life. She was a young girl around ten, with panther ears, pale amber eyes but that beautiful dark bronze skin that was a feature of the Panther beasts. Her long etblack hair in two manageable braids.
Lixue stepped forward, unsure. Her head, for once not in pain, but whirling with information she so sought. "You knew I'd come here?" She couldn't help wonder how this Elder seemed more knowladge, approachable and Ironically more helpful than the village Shamen had been.
With a simple nod, Halika continued. "The moons call to their children. Especially those born under them. We pathers are considered born under the silver twin moon's shadow."
Lixue hesitated. "Is that what I am? Born under the moons shadow?"
With a calm grace, Halika studied her for a long moment, then turned her gaze back toward the horizon. "There was another. Long ago. We didn't have a name for her, not at first. We simply called her the Moonborne now."
Sira perked up. "Tell her the story, mum," she whispered. Her little eyes burning in the reflection the sunrise.
Stepping closer, Lixue's breath caught in her throat. She felt it—something vast and ancient stirring in the air. Just as Halika had said, like a storm forming on the edge of the world.
Halika's voice dropped lower, more rhythmic, as if she were reciting something passed down through generations.
Most likely, it was.
"She came during the Time of Twin Moons—when both silver and ringed moons rose together in the sky, but the ringed moon was bathed in beast blood and so too was the world. The legends say her hair shimmered like the silvermoon or midnight starlight, the descriptions change, and her beastmark burned brighter than fire in moonlight. She was the most beautiful beast that you could lay eyes on. The beast lords and kings of Beast cities fought wars over her. She raised cities from mountains and the jungle floors with only her voice… and destroyed them with a single tear."
"She took kings of the beastworld as mates, those beasts who forced themselve on her as a mate would befall horrid fates," Sira added eagerly, "and even temple priests of old times fell in love with her!"
Halika allowed herself a faint smile at her beloved and precious daughter. "Yes. It is said that even the gods quarreled over her. They say the Wolf God offered her the winds. The Tiger God offered her the sun. The Serpent God's laugh cured her of a poisoning so terrible and the Stag God wept and gave her silence... but none could keep her. Not even the gods. She vanished after a time… just as suddenly as she arrived."
"Some say she left children in every corner of the beastworld," Sira added in a hushed voice. "Warriors and shifters with glowing marks under moonlight - with the element of moonlight. It's unheard of, but its supposed to exist. That their bloodlines, her decendents that still whisper her name in their bones and bleed silver."
Yue Lixue swallowed, her heart pounding. "Why are you telling me this? You think I can raise and destroy cities or make gods steal sunlight and weap for me? When I can barely remember the faces of my family..."
Halika turned back to her, and this time her gaze was serious and her eyes held the weight of ages. "The other night at the tribe fire.... Sira and I sat close to Korran and you. Do you know your snow leopard beastmark on your side... that it glows when you sleep under moonlight? That is because your presence stirs the moons. The other village elders will soon see what I already know and feel, I will need to discuss this with them today— you... you are another Moonborne who walks among us... and she... you will be the most sought-after female in the beastworld. You will be in danger sooner or later and we cannot hide or shield you from it."
"The question is, if the old gods are even still alive and are finished grieving for the last moonborne," The young girl peeked out from behind her older monther, "...or are there new gods who will take interest in you, I wonder?"
Yue Lixue blinked, the weight of the words crashing into her like a tide. "That's not… I'm not special. I don't even... I barely know who I am."
"Neither did she," Halika said. "Not at first but power like yours, even if sleeping or dormant, doesn't wait for memory. It becomes legend with or without your say and permission."
Lixue turned to Sira, who was still watching her with wide, reverent eyes. "Is that what you think, Halika?" That Sira asked her mum quietly. "That she is really her?"
Halika nodded slowly. "I don't think. I know so."
---
That evening, unease simmered in the village. Whispers followed Lixue as she walked with Korran—curious, awed, fearful. She could feel it now: eyes on her, breaths held, quiet words exchanged behind palms.
"She selfishly burns meat, how unthinking!"
"She doesn't shift. Has anyone actually seen her beast form? What's wrong with that female that she doesn't shift?"
"She's strange but Korran likes her."
"The shaman hasn't spoken widely of any illness but he is giving the chiefs youngest son medicine for her
"She must be a very sickly female."
By the time the central fire was lit, even Korran felt it. Tension clung to the air like mist.
"I'm sorry," Lixue whispered, watching the purple lantern bugs dance. "I didn't mean to make things harder for us just by cooking some meat."
Korran reached for her hand. "You haven't. I suppose being from the snowy region it makes sense you would heat or burn meat but the others now feel how you're different in actions, Lixue. Many will talk but some don't know how to handle that."
"Maybe I don't either."
That night, as they sat beneath the stars, a scout arrived. Breathless. Eyes wide.
"Zevaris calls a tribe circle at dawn. The elders wish to speak with you and Yue Lixue alone and in private."
Korran stood slowly, his muscles taut. "Why?"
The scout hesitated. "They say… they've felt something shift and that shift has already occurred. Something old becuase they were all talking oddly."
Lixue looked toward the sky, where the silver moon gleamed, and the larger ringed moon had begun to rise behind it.
Two moons of the three, together in the sky.
She straightened her shoulders. Knowing that it was related to her conversation with Halika earlier that morning.
"Then I'll attend," she said. "It's time I knew the truth—even if I don't yet what my own truth is."
.