“Come,” I told him, straightening back up and continuing us along our way. Moments later, we were at the bookseller’s shop, where hide scrolls created by our peoples competed for space with the stiffly bound volumes created by the Star Gods and written in our language.
“He’s a little one, isn’t he?” Gragrowl, Hrapargh’s mate, asked by way of greeting. “Are they all this tiny?”
“All?” I queried. “The hunters came back with more like my Rah-bee?”
“Aye,” came the response. “All wrapped up in furs and it was late, so only the hunters who went and the healers have seen them. Well, and Ghrisk, I shouldn’t wonder.”
“Did they say how many?”
She shook her head. “No. Just that there were four, maybe five? Along with the dead bodies of a few Star Demons they also found.” She wrinkled her nose in disgust. “They should have left those for the grakal to find and eat. Foul beings!” she hissed.
Rah-bee had let go of my hand and was silently running his hand over the books on the shelves.
“Eez this uh liebrayr ree?” he asked.
“He knows what books are,” Gragrowl observed, watching him.
“Oh, he’s definitely from a civilized world,” I agreed. “One where he does not need to work hard, things are so easy. His hands and feet are incredibly soft.”
“Poor thing,” she said softly. “ He’s lucky the grak fell here and you found him.”
“Mmm,” I hummed in agreement. “I need a primer, so I can teach him our words.”
She smiled widely. “Excellent idea! I know just the one! My grandson has one just like it.”
“Cheebol has started school?”
She nodded emphatically. “He has! I cannot believe how quickly he has grown! It seems only yesterday he was a mewling kit in a basket. Though we won’t have long to miss those days, as my son and his mate are now expecting a kit of their own, and it’s due around the end of the Colorful Sky time.”
“A most auspicious time,” I observed, not knowing what else to say, as truly, a new cub was always a blessing, so there were no inauspicious times for them to be born. None that I could think of relative to the seasons, anyway.
“Indeed!” she said, rummaging through a stack of small, thin books stacked on a table in the corner. “Ah, here it is! It is a Star God book, so it’s not cheap, you know,” she said, turning, the slim volume held up in her hand.
“How much?” I asked, relieved that my traps had been full lately.
”Eight chits,” she said.
I stared at her. Eight chits? That was enough to trade for an entire hargral to roast!
”Don’t look at me like that,” she chided me. “It’s brand new. If it’s too much for you, I can look to see if I have a used copy…”
“Six,” I offered.
“Seven.”
“Five.”
“Five and two bits.”
Five was fair, I decided, and the two bits would be enough to trade in for a small cured hide to line a baby basket, so I could consider that almost as a gift.
“Five and two bits,” I agreed, reaching into the pouch at my waist to pull out the carved disks. She took them from me and handed over the primer. “Rah-bee, my mate, here.” He turned, hearing his name. I held the primer out to him.
“Fohr mee?” He said, looking at me quizzically.
I waggled the book at him. “For Rah-bee.”
He took it, opening it to see what was inside. His face lit up. “Ahr yooo goheng tuh teecsh mee tuh reed?”
