10 Years: Then, Now, & Beyond

Nadim: What Remains

1. Cubhood

Before Nadim learned the value of waiting, he had a habit of deciding that noticing a problem meant he was responsible for solving it. As a cub, this occasionally produced questionable results.

He had been wandering near a shallow inlet when he noticed several small shore creatures gathered strangely along the waterline. They kept retreating whenever the tide crept forward, only to return moments later. Something was wrong. Young Nadim watched them repeat the behavior twice before deciding they were trapped.

He began relocating them. One by one, he carefully carried the creatures farther from the water and deposited them among the rocks. They immediately began crawling back. Nadim retrieved them. They returned. He retrieved them again.

By the fourth attempt, the entire situation had become deeply frustrating, "stay." The creature ignored him, Nadim blocked its path with one paw. It climbed over his toes. Only then did he notice what he had missed.

Tiny shapes moved beneath the shallow water. The creatures weren't trying to escape the tide at all. They were feeding whenever the water receded, following something Nadim couldn't see from where he had originally stood. He slowly lifted his paw, the creature continued toward the water.

Nadim sat there for a long while afterward, watching. Nothing had been wrong. He had seen behavior he didn't understand and filled the empty space with an explanation of his own. Worse, every time the creatures contradicted that explanation, he had assumed they were the ones behaving incorrectly.

Eventually, the tide changed. The little creatures scattered naturally along the shore, requiring absolutely nothing from him. Nadim followed the coastline home. He never told anyone about the afternoon. There was nothing particularly remarkable about a cub unsuccessfully attempting to rescue creatures that required no rescue.

Yet the memory remained. Years later, others would mistake his silence for certainty. They would come to him expecting answers and discover that Nadim often responded with questions instead. Few would ever know that some part of that patience had begun beside an inlet, with a stubborn cub repeatedly carrying perfectly capable creatures in the wrong direction.

2. The Best Memories

Nadim had witnessed moments others considered important. He remembered difficult seasons, decisions that changed Laut Berjambul, and individuals whose names younger generations knew only through stories.

Yet if asked for a favorite memory, his thoughts rarely went to any of them... they always went home. Once, after a particularly long journey, Nadim returned to Salamander Island near evening. No one had been expecting him. That was important.

There was no gathering waiting at the edge of the territory. No announcement passed through the pack. Nadim simply crossed familiar ground until voices began replacing the sounds of the island.

A pair of cubs spotted him first, "Nadim-Ji!" One nearly collided with him. The other immediately began explaining an argument involving a missing object, two contradictory witnesses, and an accusation Nadim suspected had grown substantially more dramatic during the telling.

He hadn't even reached the others yet. "Nadim-Ji, tell him I'm right."

"I don't know what happened."

"I just told you!"

"You told me what you believe happened."

The cub stared at him as Nadim continued walking. Behind them, someone laughed. Farther into the territory, nothing stopped because he had returned. Food was being shared. Someone was repairing something. Two pack members were discussing plans for the following morning. Another called a greeting without abandoning their work.

One of the older members shifted aside to make room for him, Nadim settled there. A portion of food was pushed toward him without anyone asking whether he wanted it. Conversation continued. Eventually somebody asked where he had been.

"Traveling," that answer earned several unimpressed looks. Nadim smiled and ate. Years later, pieces of that evening remained unusually clear. Not because anything happened, because nothing had to. He could leave. He could cross unfamiliar lands, disappear beyond the pack's ordinary reach, and return without ceremony.

Laut Berjambul simply made room for him again. For someone who remembered so much change, there was comfort in memories where the important thing was continuity. Home had not waited motionless for Nadim, it had continued living. And when he returned, there was still a place within it shaped naturally enough for him to sit down.

3. What the Future Holds

After parting from Aurik, Nadim found himself thinking about one of the questions that had followed the younger ketucari across Zolkanis, "what comes next?"

Aurik hadn't known. By the end of their travels together, he still hadn't known. That had ceased to be a problem, Nadim found that amusing. He had spent days encouraging Aurik to recognize that uncertainty did not demand immediate correction, only to realize he rarely applied the same question to himself.

What did he want next? Not Advisor Nadim, not the spiritual advisor of Laut Berjambul... Nadim. He considered it during the journey home. There were still places he wanted to see. Roads he had never taken. Changes beyond Salamander Island that he knew only through travelers' descriptions...

So he would travel. Eventually, he would return, that part mattered too.

He wanted to watch another generation of Laut Berjambul grow old enough to stop calling him Nadim-Ji and begin pretending they had never done so. He wanted today's uncertain trainees to become tomorrow's capable mentors. Perhaps some would eventually disagree with his advice. He hoped they would. Advice that could never be questioned wasn't guidance. It was obedience wearing prettier feathers.

Nadim wanted the pack to continue becoming something capable of surviving without relying upon the same individuals forever. Perhaps that was an unusual ambition for an advisor, to become less necessary. But Nadim found the thought comforting. There would always be someone who needed a quiet conversation. Someone uncertain of where they belonged. Someone standing where Aurik had stood, convinced that not knowing their destination meant they were lost. Nadim would help when their paths crossed, then he would let them leave.

Ahead of him, the familiar route toward home stretched onward. Nadim did not know how many more times he would depart along it, nor how many times he would return. He hoped there would be many. For now, that was enough of a future to look forward to.

________________________________________________

Aurik: Wherever the Current Leads

1. Cubhood

Aurik learned early that adults used the word missing differently than cubs did. To an adult, a missing cub was a problem. To Aurik, he knew exactly where he was.

He had discovered a narrow stream feeding into a pool between several rocks, and beneath one of those rocks was a gap. That gap obviously went somewhere. Aurik flattened himself against the wet stone and peered into it... dark... interesting.

He pushed his head inside. The opening widened beyond the entrance, revealing a shallow cavity where water trickled between smooth stones. Something pale rested at the bottom. Aurik stretched one paw toward it... too far.

He wriggled farther inside. His hind legs disappeared next. By the time distant voices began calling his name, Aurik had successfully reached the pale object and discovered it was a shell. Unfortunately, he had also discovered that reversing out of a narrow hole was considerably harder than entering one.

"Aurik!" He froze... there was a pause. "Aurik!"

He considered answering. Instead, he examined the shell. It had tiny ridges along one side, very nice. The calling grew closer Eventually a shadow blocked the entrance, two eyes appeared.

Aurik stared back, there was a long silence.

"What are you doing?"

"I found something."

"You're stuck."

Aurik considered his position, "no."

"Come out."

He tried, nothing happened, "...I might be a little stuck."

Getting him free required considerably more effort than discovering the shell had. Once extracted, Aurik was wet, muddy, and subjected to a lengthy explanation about why disappearing into holes without telling anyone was dangerous.

He listened... mostly... the shell remained clutched beneath one paw. Later, when nobody was looking, he returned to the stream. He did not crawl beneath the rock again, he had learned that lesson. Instead, he followed the water downstream to see where it went.

Years later, Aurik would explore flooded ruins, submerged caverns, forgotten structures, and places sensible ketucari might wisely leave alone. His methods improved. The question driving him rarely changed, "what's in there?"

2. The Best Memories

Aurik had trouble choosing favorite memories because most of them began with something he hadn't planned. Zolkanis was particularly troublesome. Was it seeing floating islands for the first time? Meeting a two-headed deity who somehow managed to give him two versions of the same advice? Being chased around an arena by Keerops? Getting tackled into the grass by Fleeting?

All excellent candidates. But when Aurik remembered the journey, one much quieter moment kept returning... Paschmahaa. He and Nadim had been following Kehn through Paschara, and Aurik had stopped yet again to inspect something.

He couldn't even remember what. Some piece of old stonework, probably. He remembered Nadim waiting, that was the strange part. Aurik was accustomed to traveling alone. Alone, he could stop whenever something caught his attention. Nobody sighed because he'd wandered off. Nobody asked when they were leaving. Traveling with someone usually meant compromise, yet Nadim had simply waited.

Later, after they had watched the Garochs and started back through Paschara, Nadim mentioned Zolkanis. Floating islands, salt flats, waterfalls, and cities. Aurik had asked if he minded company, Nadim had said no, that was it. Nothing dramatic.

At the time, Aurik hadn't even known that moment would matter. One destination had simply become another. Paschmahaa became Zolkanis. Kehn became Penny, then Igyera, Sonov, Atlas, and Fleeting. Quiet roads became ridiculous competitions and an arena full of angry Keerops.

Somewhere along the way, Aurik stopped worrying quite so much about what he was supposed to be doing. Perhaps that was why the memory stayed. Not because Nadim had shown him where to go, but because when Aurik had no idea where he was going, someone had simply allowed him to come along.

3. What the Future Holds

Aurik still didn't have a plan. This concerned him considerably less than it once had. He sat beside a stretch of water with his front paws submerged, watching tiny ripples distort the reflection of the sky.

There were things he knew. He liked water, he liked ruins, he liked finding places that made him wonder how they had gotten there, and he liked discovering things other ketucari had overlooked. Cooking had taught him something useful. Greheli had given him ways to reach places he otherwise couldn't.

Neither had answered the larger question, what was he supposed to do with all of it? Aurik lifted one paw from the water. Drops fell from his claws and vanished into the ripples below.

Maybe that was the wrong question. Igra had told him to notice what repeatedly caught his interest. Yera had offered the considerably simpler suggestion of chasing it. Nadim, annoyingly, had refused to give him an answer at all. Aurik was beginning to suspect all three had been right.

He wanted to see what lay beyond the places he already knew. Not simply visit them, but explore them. He wanted to know where rivers went, what waited beneath lakes, where old paths ended, and whether forgotten structures still existed beyond routes everyone else traveled.

Maybe he could start keeping track, not because he expected anyone else to care... a few notes routes, and landmarks. Places worth returning to, Aurik smiled faintly, that sounded dangerously close to a plan. He stood and shook water from his paws. There was no grand revelation waiting for him. No single destination had suddenly appeared in his mind.

He still didn't know exactly what his future looked like, but for the first time, he could see its shape. Water beneath his paws, unfamiliar country ahead, and something interesting just beyond where he had already looked.

Aurik started walking... eventually, he would need to decide where he was going. For now, he was much more interested in finding out where the path went.