You should have seen her!” Boon said to Seegen, Kasha’s father. “I think she actually jumped over my head to land on the back of that zenzen.”
Kasha smiled and shook her head. “I did what I had to do.”
“I worry that you take such risks,” Seegen said.
“Maybe so,” Kasha teased, “but everything I know about fighting tangs I learned from you!”
Boon feigned shock. “And I thought I had been your mentor!”
After the forage Kasha and Boon had cleaned up and then met again to go to Seegen’s home near the center of Leeandra, the city built high in the trees of the jungle. Boon and Kasha had been friends since childhood, and Kasha and her father both thought of Boon as a member of their family. Admittedly, sometimes Boon seemed like a pesky younger brother Kasha wished she never had, but those times were few and far between.
“I am proud of you.” Seegen leaned forward and brushed Kasha’s furred cheek with his. Kasha felt as if she were glowing inside. “Being a forager is a vital service. But a father cannot help but worry about a daughter.”
“It’s the tangs who need to worry about Kasha!” Boon said. “That was a brilliant idea, sending those two groups of gars in opposite directions. The tangs took the bait.”
Seegen looked at Kasha. “The gars were killed?”
Kasha shrugged. “Some were. Some usually are.”
“You chose to sacrifice the gars as a fighting strategy?” Seegen asked.
Kasha didn’t understand her father’s reaction. He knew what was required when foraging. Survival was never a sure thing for any of the participants—gar or klee. Kasha felt her fur bristle. “Gars are killed during forages. So are klees. Tangs do not discriminate. We’re all meat to them.”
Boon must have been surprised by Seegen’s question as well.
“Kasha’s quick thinking saved us—,” Boon began.
“And gars,” Kasha pointed out.
“And protected most of the harvest,” Boon finished.
“Yes, yes. That is all to the good,” Seegen said. “I suppose I am just always troubled by the bloodshed.”
“Tell it to the tangs,” Kasha said flatly. She tapped the table with her paw.
“I am sure you did what you thought was right,” Seegen said. “I know how seriously you take your work.”
Kasha nodded, but that flush of pleasure she’d felt only a moment before had evaporated.
“Hello?” A large, elderly klee entered the tree house. His long fur had turned gray with age, and he moved carefully.
“Yorn! Come in! You are just in time for dinner!” Seegen greeted his old friend.
“Funny, he seems to always arrive around this time,” Boon whispered to Kasha.
“Just like you,” Kasha teased. “Somehow you always appear in time for a meal!”
“Boon and Kasha were just telling me about today’s forage,” Seegen said.
“Ahhh,” Yorn said, taking a seat at the table. “Many losses?”
“Kasha kept down the casualties,” Boon said before Seegen or Kasha could respond. “Durgen was very impressed.”
“You do Leeandra a great service,” Yorn told Kasha. “But I would expect nothing less from Seegen’s daughter. Perhaps she, too, will have a seat on the council some day.”
Kasha looked at her father with excitement. “You’re going to be named to the Council of Klee?”
Seegen smiled. “Nothing is certain, but there has been some talk.”
“Be assured, Seegen,” Yorn said. “It will happen. Who is more deserving? Why, you practically built Leeandra all on your own. From hollowing out the enormous trees in order to build the elevators to designing the rail system that runs alongside the sky bridges.”
Seegen shook his head with a grin. “You give me too much credit.”
“He’s right,” Kasha said. “This is an honor that should have come to you ages ago.”
“I have been honored simply by the talk,” Seegen said. “From the beginning I believed in Leeandra. That is why I did all I could to help it grow and thrive. I still do. We have a great future ahead of us.”
“I believe in dinner,” Boon declared. “Dinner would be a great future.” His brown snout wrinkled as he sniffed. His whiskers twitched. “And from the smell of things, that future is now.”
“I’ll get the food,” Kasha said. “Or Boon may go tang on us!”
Boon growled and bared his teeth. He lunged for Kasha, but she neatly sidestepped him. Boon sprawled on the floor, laughing.
Kasha shook her head. Sometimes she wondered whether Boon was ever serious about anything! Still, he was a good friend, and she knew he would always have her back. And she knew he felt the same way about her.
“Come on, scary beast.” Kasha held out her paw to help Boon up.
“Yes,” Yorn said with a smile. “Let us old folks talk a bit. You two have too much energy for me. You’re tiring me out just watching you!”
Boon and Kasha padded out to the kitchen as Yorn was saying, “This council seat means that you could work to make some of those changes you have been talking about….”
“Do you really think he will get a seat on the council soon?” Kasha asked once they were in the kitchen.
Boon pulled plates from their shelves. “I think it’s a sure thing. Then you’ll be the daughter of a council leader.”
“A lot of good that will do me,” Kasha joked, putting roasted meat onto a large serving platter. “He will probably make things harder on me just to prove he’s not showing favoritism.”
“You’re probably right about that,” Boon said. “But you wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Kasha smiled. “True.” Her father’s integrity was one of the many qualities she admired. And she knew her own desire to earn her way, rather than having anything handed to her, was a quality of hers that made her father proud.
“Now that smells good!” Yorn declared as Kasha and Boon re-entered the room.
Kasha put the platter in the center of the table while Boon passed out the plates. Soon the heaping platter of meat had dwindled to just one slice.
Kasha’s amber eyes met Boon’s dark brown ones. Both whipped out their paws to swipe it, but Kasha was quicker. The tasty morsel was already in her mouth as Boon’s paw hit the platter.
“Mm-mm,” Kasha said. She licked her paws and grinned.
Boon laughed. “Those reflexes—it’s why I knew you would be great at wippen.”
Kasha’s eyes flicked to her father. He had objected when she joined the wippen team. It was still a sore point between them. Yorn looked uncomfortable. It was obvious he knew what her father’s position was on the game.
“This year’s tournament is going great!” Boon continued, obviously unaware of the discomfort at the table. “Coach Jorsa is really pleased with Kasha’s performance.”
“I wish you would reconsider, Kasha,” Seegen said.
Boon looked shocked. “But she’s so good! We’re sure to win with Kasha on our team! Why would you want her to quit?”
“My father thinks wippen is wrong,” Kasha said.
“How can a game be wrong?” Boon asked.
Seegen cleared his throat. “It is unfair to use the gars as expendable game equipment.”
“Klees can get injured as well,” Kasha argued.
“It is a traditional game,” Yorn pointed out. “My father was a coach back in the old times.”
“Just because something is as it always has been does not make it right,” Seegen said.
“The gar players are well fed and well cared for,” Kasha insisted. Why would her father not see that this wasn’t a problem?
“Boon agrees with me on this,” Kasha said. “Right, Boon?”
Boon stood to clear the dishes. “I…well…I…”
“And so does everyone else,” Kasha continued. “It is the way of things.”
“I thought I taught you better than that,” Seegen said.
Kasha stared at her father, stung. “Wh-What do you mean?”
“I raised you to think for yourself,” Seegen admonished her. “Not just take on the attitudes of those around you.”
“Of course I think for myself!” Kasha protested. How could her own father insult her this way? “If I did not, I would simply agree with you!”
Now Seegen smiled. “I suppose you are right. A less strong-minded person would parrot my opinion back to me. But I do wish you would think more about your positions. Question your own assumptions—and those held by others.”
Kasha swallowed. “I promise to keep a more open mind on the subject of gars and wippen,” she said finally. She didn’t really think she’d change her opinion, but she would at least consider her father’s point of view. “But will you keep an open mind too?”
Seegen placed his paw over Kasha’s. “Agreed. That is only fair.”
“So you will come to the game and cheer our team?” she asked.
“You must!” Boon exclaimed. “With Kasha on our side we have a shot at the championship this year!”
Seegen looked from Boon to Kasha. “I can see this means a lot to you.”
Kasha nodded. “It does.”
“Then I will be there, daughter. If it is important to you, it is important to me.”
“Excellent!” Boon said. “Yorn, you should come too. The more cheering us on from the stands the better.”
“I would not miss it!” Yorn said. “Not with both of you playing.”
Kasha felt better. She was sure when her father saw her play, he’d change his mind. She would prove to him that wippen was a grand sport—a game of honor and skill. She’d make him as proud of her performance on the wippen field as he was of her work as a forager.