Chapter4

Early the next morning, just as the sky was barely brightening, Father and Mother packed their hide knapsacks, preparing to take Tago on a long trip. As Mother fastened a windbreaker cloak around Tago, she said softly, "Tago, we're going to stay at Grandpa's tribe for a couple of days. Grandma pickled your favorite rock-sheep meat for you."

Tago tugged at the corner of Mother's hide skirt, his ears drooping, and asked in a small voice, "Then... is Balen not coming?"

Mother's hands paused. She did not speak, but the tip of her tail stiffened. Father stood nearby with his brows furrowed, speaking up with some hesitation, "We are going to be away for two days, are we really not taking Balen? He's still crawling around in the nest, and his legs aren't healed yet. What if something happens to him alone in there?"

Mother's voice suddenly spiked, "He's ten years old, what could possibly happen? And have you forgotten? He's been off his medicine for a month now; his legs should have healed a long time ago! Sitting in that wheelchair every day for the past month—it's all an act! At such a young age, instead of learning anything good, he only learns how to lie!"

I stood beside them, my throat tightening with panic. "Mom, no... I'm not faking it. Even though I haven't taken the medicine, my legs are truly broken. I'm not lying..." But my voice was weightless, and they could not hear a thing.

Father sighed, a flash of worry crossing his eyes, but ultimately he did not argue further. Mother briskly slung her knapsack over her shoulder and pulled Tago toward the cave exit. Before leaving, Father turned back, grabbed two pieces of dried meat from the stone altar, wrapped them in leaves, and placed them by the door. He walked over to my doorway and gently tapped the wooden frame with his claws. "Balen, Mom and Dad are taking your brother to Grandpa's tribe for two days. You be a good boy at home by yourself. I left some dried meat by the door, and your aunt will come bring you food later. If your legs hurt, ask Auntie Rock-Sheep next door to pass a message, you hear me?"

Father wanted to leave a few more instructions, but Mother was already at the cave entrance, swishing her tail and urging, "Hurry up! If we leave any later, the sun will be brutal!" The heavy stone door of the cave rolled shut with a loud thud.

My soul followed them involuntarily, squeezing into their wooden cart hitched to a rock-horn beast. The wheels crunched along the gravel path. I lay at the back of the cart, watching the prairie outside the cave recede rapidly before my eyes.

For the past three years, Mother had hardly ever taken me out of the cave. The smell of the grass outside was wonderful; the wind blew against my face, leaving the tips of my ears comfortably cool.

Tago lay across Mother's lap. Under the sun warming his head mane, Mother stroked his ears slowly and rhythmically, carrying a tenderness on her face that I had never seen before. I watched that scene, my heart quivering with such intense envy. I wondered if she would pat my head like that if I had been obedient.

The cart traveled across the prairie for most of the day before finally arriving at Grandpa's tribe. Grandpa and Grandma were already waiting outside the tribal fence. Grandma, still chewing on a half piece of jerky, rushed forward the moment she saw the cart. Her eyes swept over the back seat of the cart, and her expression changed instantly. "Where is Balen? You didn't bring him again?"

Mother swung her knapsack and walked past the fence without looking back. "He didn't want to come."

I stood on the sidelines, waving my hands frantically in a panic. "No! Grandpa, Grandma, it's not that I didn't want to come!" But no one could hear me.

Grandma turned and chased after her, her voice rising an octave. "I see it's not that Balen didn't want to come; it's that you didn't want to bring him at all!" Mother did not talk back, simply heading straight into the den. Grandma followed close behind, firing off words like a rapid-fire cannon. "I know you resent Balen. When you were pregnant with him, you threw up everything you ate, and even the witch doctor couldn't do anything about it. You always felt like that cub was cursing you. Then, after he was born, he fussed and cried so much you couldn't sleep a wink every night, and you pinned all that misery right on his head."

"But you forgot, back then he was just a newborn cub who had barely opened his eyes and couldn't even suckle milk on his own. What could he possibly know? What could he know!"

Mother spun around abruptly, her eyes instantly snapping red, and yelled back at Grandma, "Then why was Tago so good when he was little! I birthed them both, but Tago was sensible from the start. He never cried in the middle of the night, he never caused any trouble! But what about Balen? Robbing bird nests at three, chasing rock-sheep calves at five, driving their whole families running all over the hillside! He was born to torture me!"

I stood frozen. It turned out that, from so early on, I had already been a menace in Mother's eyes.

As Mother spoke, heavy teardrops smashed down from her eyes. "They are both my cubs, how could I not care for him? I... I am just so angry... I am angry at myself for not teaching him right, and I am angry about why he just couldn't be like Tago..."

Grandpa and Grandma exchanged a glance and let out a long, heavy sigh. Father stepped up from behind, wrapping his claws around Mother's shoulders. His voice was muffled. "That's enough. We will teach him together from now on. Once Balen grows another two years, he'll understand things." Tago also ran over and grabbed Mother's hand, looking up as he said, "Don't cry, Mom. I'll teach Balen from now on. I'll definitely make him behave."

Mother squatted down and hugged Tago, burying her face into his mane, sniffing as she nodded.

And right at that very moment, the sound-stone at Father's waist suddenly lit up.

I shuddered violently.

Father grabbed the sound-stone, but before he could speak, Aunt's heart-wrenching scream tore through from the other end: "Brother! Brother, you all need to come back right now—Balen! Something happened to Balen—"