My paws thudded heavily on the game trail, sending puffs of dust up to catch in my once silky black coat. The heavy, mewing bundle that I held tight in my jaws thudded solidly against my chest. A rank odor rose from the dirty swaddling, reminding me that I had to get her to some kind of help and soon. When the Shadow Who Sits and Watches sent me to retrieve the girl-child, I had wondered why a feline should interpose herself in the affairs of man. The sight of the tiny babe lying helpless on the cold stone slab had been more than enough to convince me. The words of the Watcher hung heavy in my thoughts, "She is a special child who's destiny lies with the Hunters and holds us all in the balance. If you do not reclaim the girl, all of man kind will suffer and with them all those who stretch paw to ground in the Great Hunt." It seemed almost foolish that such a small defenseless scrap of life would be so important. My jaws had easily bruised her when I had first picked her up. Even when my cubs were first born they had been able to withstand my gentled jaws.

A bullet ricocheted off the rock just next to my head, shattering my thoughts as well as the rock and sending a splinter of stone to lodge in my shoulder. I rolled, curling inward to protect the precious cub from the flying fragments of flint.

"There he is!" the marksman shouted as I scrambled to my feet. Leave it to a human to mis-guess my sex! I bounded away dodging the furious fire that ripped the air around me. The cub squealed protest as I clawed my way into a tree. The wind changed suddenly bringing me information of the land before me. It was rank with human stink. I glanced back through the shifting leaves and saw that the gunmen were moving to surround the tree. I was stuck.

Unless . . . Placing the bundle in a crook of the tree I lifted my voice, screaming out my distress, hoping that one of the Hunters would hear and come to help.

"He's killing the kid!" one of the marksmen shouted in alarm.

"Then he is doing our work for us," an older man growled, cuffing the boy roughly. My lips curled with indignation. Kill a helpless cub! How could they even think of it? I settled on my branch to see what would develop. The blanket had rolled free of the cub. She waved her arms about making soft distressed noises. I recognized the sound as one my own cubs would make when they were hungry. Picking her up as gently as I could, I placed her next to my breast. She found the source of food quite readily. Fortunately for her I had just started to wean my own litter and so my milk was still running. I began to purr; it felt good to nurse again, even if it was only one girl-pup.

"What seems to be the trouble young Huntress?" an aged tom cat asked lazily scratching an ear. He lounged on the branch above me, his ample orange fur fading to white over most of his muzzle.

"What do you know of the Hunters, house pet," I hissed back, moving to protect the young one.

"About as much as you, human suckler," he replied, twisting his tail along the bark of the tree, reminding me this was his home, not mine.

"Have you come to help?"

"I help no humans."

"Then help a Huntress in need," I pleaded.

"How. You are completely surrounded on all sides. You are too heavy to travel the route I took and there is no way you could fight with that cub hindering you."

"Go down to the river and Hunt to the Shadows. Talk to the Watcher and tell him I am in trouble. Let him know I need his help."

The tom-cat scratched his ears carelessly. "What makes you think the Watcher will respond?"

"He will. Now go!" I snapped at the feline and watched him scurry away. House pets are always hard to deal with. They act like they own the world. The young cub had finished her meal, oblivious to the excitement around her and, as all young things do, she had slipped off into sleep. I envied her ignorance and naivete. Ignorance may not be bliss, but for a youngling it is a way of life.

It was almost a blink-nap later that help arrived, and it did so in a strange form. The humans had begun to pepper the tree with buck shot, attempting to scare me down or at least hurt the cub They succeeded only in reopening the wound on my shoulder. It had been the final volley that had decided me. I had to get out of there and fast or the cubbling would be hurt. I was just starting to make a plan to slip away when the orange tabby sat once again on my tree.

"Help is here. Wait for us."

With that cryptic remark he was gone. I gathered the cub into her blanket once again and took a firm hold of the corners. Then all hell broke loose. It had to be every house cat from here to the ocean that piled out of the trees and grasses and attacked the humans. From tabbies to siamese to flop eared short tailed whachama-call-its, every house cat I could ever think of drowned the humans with shear numbers. Bullets sliced through the air lodging in many of the small heroes. I paused, wishing I could help them, maybe lengthen their short lives.

"Go!" The orange tomcat spat, puffing up twice his size. "They die while you stand. Run!" So I ran, putting as many miles as possible between myself and the awful battle. It was only later that I realized how much more had gone on that night than I had seen. Many of the Hunters had been involved in the rescue of the youngling and many more had raised their songs to the moon that She might hear and pass it on to the Watcher. But that would be much later. For now I ran.

The rhythm of my breath rattled hoarsely in time to the beating drum of my heart and the cadence of my paws. The silent bundle swayed back and forth in a hypnotic tempo. The sibilant swish of the grasses as I passed gave a faint melody to my hunt. The night air was rich with the soft sounds of the night life that had no fear that my hunt might turn to them. They knew as only the little things knew how much swung in the balance of tonight. I stalked my quarry as it came into sight. Watched it slipping easily in and out of the shadows that surrounded the enigmatic temple of its domain. As always it stayed just out of the distance of my pounce. I slipped into the only room in the temple and laid the childling down. I stood in the center of the open place between the cold stone walls and faced the throne of dark onyx in which curled my quarry, a faintly cat shaped fog.

"I come in peaceful shadows," I cried out to the echoing walls.

A voice as thin as mist hissed softly from the depths of the chair. "ssso you do, young huntresss. have you brought what i asssked?"

I stood forward, pushing the blankets away from the cub. She pushed a chubby arm up and grabbed onto my whiskers. My tongue flicked out and bathed her tiny head. She cooed in delight. "Yes I have, Watcher."

"ssshe isss unharmed?"

My shoulder twinged. It would never be quite the same but the pain had ebbed quite a bit. "Yes, she is fine."

"Take her, raissse her, and bring her before me when ssshe isss a true panther. i give her a name, ssshe ssshall be known as Ssshalla, for ssshe isss alone."

I lifted my head, "So it shall be."

"asss it once wasss."

"So shall it always be." I lifted the cub and turned to leave, but something held me. I looked back over my sholder at the Silent Hunter, "Will it?"

"what wasss isss and what ssshall be once wasss, wissse you ssshall be."

"As you will it, Watcher."

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