Two full moons came and went. Mom finally started letting us help on the hunts, although only after the target was selected. Still, I was happy, soon we would be full members of the family and treated as pups no more. Janym was the best hunter out of us by far and Mom and Dad often praised him.
Xerio and I were a bit slower at learning but we were progressing well enough and earned our share of praise too.
When we weren't hunting I still spent most of the time training with the illusions, Mom or Dad often sat with me to watch. After I was able to create a perfect image without having to fix it afterward, Dad taught me to do the opposite; making things that were there appear as if they weren't there, this, he told me, I could use on myself as well to help me sneak around.
It was even harder than making illusions of something. If I made the bark disappear, then the wood was still there. It was a much larger scale than before. Dad told me that once I could hide the entire tree in a single try he would move me to the next step.
***
The rising sun was illuminating our game of play-hunt, Trumpet was the prey, and running, zigzagging, he tried to evade our teeth. We'd ran a couple of laps around the clearing already but were no closer to catching him still.
Lyara ran to cut him off as the six of us tried to force him to run in her direction by closing in from the side and rear.
"Not going to happen!" He managed to howl as Lyara got into position, he had to run there if he didn't want to be caught.
With a powerful kick strengthened by magic and a shower of dirt, moss, and grass he easily leaped over Lyara who tried to snap at him but with a single twist in the air he dodged.
Stumbling a little at the landing he splashed in the shallows of the river and followed up with a jump to the left where the receding river left gravely shore. From there he ran into the bushes on the other side of the river. We tried to adjust but there was no longer a way to chase him down.
"You win," Mom howled.
Trumpet emerged from the bushes, tail wagging with joy.
"Good grasp on that opening, simple and straightforward." Dad praised him when he rejoined the group.
"Lyara, you need to be prepared to intercept the prey at any angle, not just left or right. With boars, it's simpler, but deer can jump high even without magic. If you leave them with an opening like this then they will have it even easier than Trumpet." Mom stretched. "You're catching me now."
With a shower of dirt and moss, she broke into a sprint. Dad was the fastest to react and the game started anew.
***
Dad got bored quickly as Mom evaded us easily though she never managed to break off completely. He sat down to the side, only telling us how to proceed from time to time which made it harder for Mom.
Nevertheless, even with Dad's advice and the six of us working together Mom kept narrowly slipping away from us until she ended the game with noon approaching. It was hot summer, with the last rain being twenty days ago.
While we all drank Mom praised us for how well we did. The whole time she was seriously training us instead of it being a simple game, even Dad needed some time to figure that out. It wasn't unusual, but they always told us ahead of time.
"Then all those near misses?" I asked to confirm.
"Yes, you would have caught me there if I was playing normally. If I was a deer though, I would have nineteen chances for an easy escape, three of those before the first time you would have surely caught a normal deer."
"That's not that bad." Trumpet said.
"Not at all, that's why I'm proud of you." Mom let out an amused grunt.
"Don't start slacking on the hunts because of this though," Dad added.
Lyara and Trumpet jumped into the river to swim and cool down while the rest of us went to find a shady place to take a nap.
I only took two steps when I got startled. Out of nowhere, a figure appeared in the middle of the clearing. It stood on its rear legs, taller than Dad, its tail almost touching the ground, its front legs were weirdly shaped and looked very different from its rear legs. Its smell soon reached me, the smell of Caniro. On closer look even its fur resembled ours. What stood out the most about the creature was thin it was, there were bones lying about thicker than its limbs, and its abdomen couldn't have been thicker than my thigh. The fur on its body looked unhealthy and neglected.
"It's that day again, isn't it, Kanire," Mom said casually.
The creature, Kanire, turned around to face her, his head had the same shape as the rest of us, though it was smaller. He didn't respond, simply moved his head down and back up.
"When was the last time you ate? I will stop tolerating you visiting like this."
"Don't remember," Kanire replied casually. He sounded weary but respectful.
"So last time you were here..." Mom was very annoyed. "Lyara, Trumpet, catch some fish for Kanire while you're there," She howled behind her.
"No need," Kanire said.
In an instant, his body transformed. The starved look was nowhere to be seen, even his fur shone with a healthy luster. In the next moment, however, bone-deep wounds opened up all over his body, raw and bleeding. Mom looked unfazed and the rest of the family, including my littermates, didn't pay any attention to him, seeing that he wasn't a threat. I wanted to say something, but before I could move the wounds closed up as if they were never there in the first place, only a few streaks of blood left on his white stomach as a reminder that they were there.
"Happy now?" Kanire asked, with the same weary and uninterested attitude.
"I would be if you didn't explain it the first time you did this. You still need to eat."
"I explained this to you?"
"Back when Asher and I first took over the territory." Mom grunted, "But I know I can't hold you back, we'll bring you the food."
"Don't worry about that," He said, turned around, and started walking towards the valley.
"Mom? Who is that?" I asked.
"Kanire. He's the last of the first generation of our species."
"Did all of them look..."
"No, this is what he made himself look like after his partner died. He did something to himself by accident before that and now can't die even if he wants to. This was their territory before they let our family settle down here," Mom explained.
"Can I go talk to him?"
"You can try. He might not be willing though." Mom said and went to help Trumpet and Lyara with the fish hunting.