Aalyan
No matter what else was going on in their lives, there was always a certainty: The Moon would come to fullness and call upon them to worship.
The last Full Moon had been rough for him, but when the leopard begged to be let out, Aalyan gave in anyway. He welcomed the animal’s inner peace; the leopard did not care about what was missing between its legs, just the strength returned to its muscles, the freedom from restricted clothing and the sharpness of its teeth on fresh meat it did not need to share until he was satisfied. He gave himself to the hunt, unperturbed by the dark coats of his fellow pack members as the Moon guided them through the night. They feasted and they drank and they played—fights that were not fights but very much meant something, establishing the hierarchies o
