Do not bow your head, Youngling, Coaxtl rumbled. You have done exceedingly well, as the Clodagh person will tell you, even as her messenger does. You have saved the furred and feathered ones from the men with the metal sticks, and the men with the metal sticks from the wrath of the Home. You have also saved these puny others from wandering unguided in lands which are unfamiliar to them and which they are unfit to travel. Clodagh is pleased with you. Then Coaxtl sighed. Even if we must return to the false caves of men.
‘Oh, Coaxtl! And you are so miserable…’
How can one be miserable when there are warm places to lie, food to eat, snow to roll in, and a youngling to lick into shape? Coaxtl interrupted her. One may prefer the inner chambers but wherever one sets one's paws they touch the Home. Coaxtl raised her head and lapped at a snowflake, the first of several now drifting from the sky. Ah! See you, Youngling? The Home, knowing that we sought snow and were prevented from reaching it, sends it to us. We are rewarded. You have brought honour to the pride and snow to us both. This is a good thing, yes?
Cita nodded, still uncertain. 'I can see that it's working out well. And it is a good thing to achieve honour even if I did it accidentally. Still, is it not better to achieve honour by being in the right place at the right time?’
Coaxtl blindsided her with a massive lick to her face. This is no time to ponder on the mysteries of life, Youngling. Now compose yourself for what sleep you may achieve with all this noise. The great clouded cat settled herself and curled about Cita's body when the girl obeyed. To Coaxtl's amusement, Cita slept, despite the snores that filled the air.
Having delivered its message, the orange cat had already disappeared.
When Cita opened her eyes again, the sky through the trees was ivory with snow and she was covered with a light coating of it. Coaxtl was not to be seen but her side where the cat had lain against her was still warm.
The people from the shuttle stirred restlessly under a thin blanket of snow.
One of the would-be huntsmen awoke with a start and reached for the weapon that wasn't there, and a moment later the head of a curly-coat appeared through the brush.
‘Clodagh!' Cita called with relief. And behind Clodagh were Uncle Seamus and three of the grown
Rourke cousins, leading what looked like every curly-coat in the village.
‘Coaxtl tells us you've been hunting, Aoifa Rourke,' Clodagh said. 'I hope you caught game enough to feed all of these while you were at it.’
Watching the newcomers trying to mount the curlies made Cita feel as though she was not the only one who was ignorant and clumsy. The woman Portia had to leave her scantily clad legs open to the snow while her short skirt rode up to her waist as she mounted, a detail not lost on the male Rourke cousins.
The men who came with metal sticks were angry when they found their sticks gone, especially when Coaxtl and Nanook appeared alongside the curlies to guide them.
‘I told you!' one of the men said to the other. 'Cats as big as horses! I told you. That's what that fellow said and it's true. Wouldn't that pelt make a magnificent rug?’
Coaxtl coughed and Clodagh said, 'No, Coaxtl, they're guests.’
‘Did it talk to you?' the third man said.
‘Oh, yes. Coaxtl and Nanook and the other track cats can be very eloquent, but sometimes not very nice.’
‘What did it say?' Brother Schist asked. Cita, who understood Coaxtl very well, thought that the cat had merely coughed.
But Clodagh said to the hunter, 'Coaxtl says your pelt is too thin and hairless to be good for much of anything.’
It took a long time to return to Kilcoole, what with having to make sure everyone stayed mounted. Poor curlies! Cita thought. She'd have to go and gather some of the late carrots from everyone's gardens to give them a treat after this.
‘Are you the mayor or the governor or whatever of this town we're going to?' the man who didn't like Portia asked Clodagh.
‘I'm Clodagh.’
‘Clodagh!' Portia stopped groaning. 'You're the one I wanted to speak to, then. The medicine woman, right?’
Clodagh shrugged.
‘Look, I'm prepared to make you an offer for your formulas and all the ingredients you can supply. That's just for now, of course, while we're in the development stage. Later on, when we've located the sources, we'll need to know the best places to set up our operations.’
‘Are you sick?' Clodagh asked.
‘No, of course not, though I'm getting sick of being on this stupid horse but…’
‘You are the planet's handmaiden!' Sister Igneous Rock screeched, interrupting Portia and scaring the horses. She jumped down from hers, and ran forward to Clodagh's curly-coat and grabbed Clodagh's hand in both of hers and began weeping over it. 'Oh, how I have longed to meet you since first we were given word of this miraculous place!’
‘When was that?' Clodagh asked.
‘About six weeks ago,' Brother Shale said. 'And believe me, since then Sister Igneous Rock has worked wonders forming our order. Why, she came straight away and told me and the others and we all knew at once that Petaybee was just what we'd been looking for. We had a little study group before, you know, about the evils of the universe and how to get back to what was natural and real - we tried talking to Terra, but it wasn't very responsive. Then, when Brother Granite told us about the Beneficence and how it caused ruin to the abominations wrought upon it by the Unworthy, well, we had to come and see for ourselves.’
‘When can we see the evidence of Petaybee's wrath, Mother Clodagh?' Brother Schist asked.
‘Scuse me,' Clodagh said with a snort. 'I don't have any kids.’
‘Please pardon our brother,' Sister Igneous Rock said. 'We mean that you are the spiritual mother of our order. Brother Granite told us of your wondrous bond with the Beneficence.’
‘What's that?’
‘I think they mean the planet, Clodagh,' Cita offered. People called it so many different things. The Shepherd Howling had reviled the planet and called it The Great Beast and said it was a man-eating monster, Coaxtl simply called it The Home, and Uncle Sean and Clodagh called it Petaybee, for the initials Pee, Tee, Bee which also stood for Powers That Be, the local name for Intergal, the Company which first settled the planet. Cita thought that, of all of the names, Coaxtl's made the most sense.
‘Why didn't they say so, then?' Clodagh asked. At once, all the white robes dismounted, loudly apologising and begging forgiveness, prostrating themselves on the ground so that Clodagh's curly-coat almost stepped on them. They were coated with another layer of snow by the time the Rourke cousins got them to their feet and onto their ponies again.
Clodagh just shook her head. 'Cheechakos,' she said.
‘What's that?' Cita asked. Her own Flock had many Spanish words and Asian words in their language, but here in Kilcoole, the people used some words in the old Irish tongue and some in the Inuit and Native American tongues of their ancestors.
‘A cheechako is a newcomer, child.’
‘Like me?’
‘No, because you're from Petaybee. You're used to the cold and all. A person is a cheechako until they've lived here from freeze-up to thaw. If they live through the winter, they know if they want to stay or go away.’
‘But the Beneficence helps you get through winters, doesn't it, Moth - Clodagh?' Sister Agate asked, a tad anxiously. 'It surely doesn't kill anyone. From what Brother Granite said, it provides for all!’
Clodagh rolled her eyes and said to Cita, 'This could be a real long winter.’
Sean Shongili was tempted to say 'Look what the cat's dragged in,' when Clodagh, Cita and the Rourkes, with curlies and feline in escort of the most recently landed visitors, stopped in front of Yana's cabin that afternoon.