Traditions
There was the musky sweet smell of sandalwood and a warm brown arm draped itself over Lilith’s shoulder. Naomi slinked catlike beside her, perching herself on Lilith lap and taking a long sip of Lilith’s drink. This flirtation was for the benefit of the bars nearby patrons. Naomi nearly purred, craning her head around to gaze into Lilith’s dark brown eyes. Lilith couldn’t remember if she was trying to be forgettably unforgettable or unforgettably forgettable. Either way, it was Naomi’s way of blending in and it always made Lilith smile.
“What are you drinking?” Naomi asked looking dubiously at the glass she had just swallowed from.
“Ginger ale.” Lilith answered softly noting the looks the two of them were getting from the people at the bar. One guy across the bar was trying hard not to look like he was staring, but Lilith knew he was hoping to catch her and Naomi in a kiss. She blushed a little as Naomi “tsked” in disapproval.
“Sober this early in the day? At Least offer me a cigarette, love.” Naomi slid sultrily off Lilith’s lap. Lily pointed to the patch now covering the head of her salamander tattoo. Naomi looked at in puzzlement and then laughed. There was nothing sexy in Naomi’s laughter it was a purely joyous sound. Lilith laughed herself.
The bar crowd seemed to diminish in a fog til there was no one in the world but Naomi. She stopped laughing and sat on the stool beside Lilith, just as the man who had previously been sitting there suddenly had to go to the bathroom.
“I could feel your brood from across the state.” Naomi said taking a sip of the man’s beer. “Oh, that’s better." She set the amber filled glass down and licked the bits of foam from her upper lip.
“Do you ever want to give it all up?” Lilith asked allowing a little of the hurt she was feeling to leak into her voice.
“Are you in Love?” Naomi sat up now fully attentive. She pulled her thick black hair away from her ear, the silver bracelets slid subtly up and down as she moved. Thier voices were now tuned to the rhythm of the music. No one would hear them except another Hunter or a Wolf.
“Yes, but not in the way you think.” Lilith toyed with the thin red straw sticking out of her drink. “I had to move a cub from one pride to my own. It took a couple of days. The cub was too young to expose to traditions yet. I ended up having to drive. Too many coincidences and the cub would have noticed things.”
“I hate delivers almost as much as discoveries.” Naomi nodded she was relaxed now, more real, less sexy and sparkly. She was only able to do this with Lilith and those she trusted. “Every once in awhile I’ll recognize a face on a missing poster as one of my discoveries. I can’t help but feel sorry for the families left behind. Their greif is tangible...” she took another swig of the man’s beer. “But they’d be grieving just as hard when the change came on. Traditions protect everyone.” Her last words were the bible code of the Prides. Each Prides was different, except when regarding Traditions.
“But, what if they don’t?” Lilith asked suddenly. Naomi was her closest friend and rival. She respected Naomi’s skill in the hunt and the effect she had on those around her.
“What if they don’t?” Naomi echoed and then tilted her head a little. Lilith was a poet and philosopher among the hunters and always had a way of thinking in new and challenging ways. “What if the Traditions don’t protect everyone?” She was tempted to take another sip of what Lilith was drinking but then remembered it was sugar water. “Well, they protect the families.”
“Not all of us. how many more Wolves have we had to hunt down compared to the hunters in Granmary’s time?”
“Well, the world is already a swirling in the toilet bowl you know that.” Naomi laughed a little but was now concerned for her friend. “Why don’t we leave this place? Come back to my apartment and cuddle on the couch.” Lilith smiled. She loved Naomi just at that moment.
“For one you don’t have an apartment. And a cuddle is not a cure.” Lilith said with her tragic smile. “But I’m thinking of going against my Pride.” she confessed.
“Lilith...” for a moment Naomi could only look at her. This was the one subject that one never kidded about. “wha....why?”
“I met a little girl.” Lilith swallowed hard missing Sophie. “She was trapped in a little boys body.”
“Ok...” Naomi leaned in. “a what...a transgender kid...so?”
“Cub.” Lilith said and needed to say no more. Naomi blinked, finished the beer as the Bartender was putting down another and then took two more swallows before she looked back at Lilith.
“Lily thats not possible.” Naomi finally said. “The kid must have been messing with you.”
“Which would be a lie. And as I hunter it would make my skin itch. No, Naomi she was not lying. she was a little girl but not a kitten a cub.”
“But we’re not like them. I mean we can’t... I mean the boys got a wolf in him.” The beer wasn’t enough so naomi didn’t bother drinking anymore. “Lilith...oh my god. What did your Pride say?”
“Traditions.” Lilith nearly spat out. “What could they say. Granmary leads the Pride and she already decided that Soph was going to Peggy Houseman’s with the other Cubs there.”
“Well, atleast your Pride is taking the cub in.” Naomi said working hard to find a good point.
“She’s going to be stripped of her identity and forced to behave like the other boys.” Lilith’s voice was steady but full of controlled anger. Naomi had heard that Lilith hadn’t been discovered in time. She reached out with a warm brown hand and gave Lilith’s a supportive squeeze.
Lilith was pale in the bar lights, she had that irish look with the long black hair and porcelin skin but her eyes were deep brown and full of emotion right now. Naomi thought her idea of finding an apartment to cuddle in was still a good one.
“Maybe that will be good for her..er..the cub..you know. toughen him up so that he’s got some bite when the change comes.”
“Maybe.” Lilith said blandly, then she looked at Naomi with doubt and fear. “but what if she changes into a cat?” Neither of them said anything for a moment. Only Lilith would ever think such a thing.
“It’s not the way this works.” Naomi told herself as much as Lilith. “Tradition tells us, girls become cats, boys become wolves. Girls guard the spirit, boys guard the bone. When the change comes on him, if his body is the body of a boy, he’ll be a wolf.”
“And if She isn’t.” Lilith interrupted, “If she’s anything else, she’s an aberration. Then it becomes our duty as Hunters to protect the Traditions and destroy the aberration.”
“well...yeah.” Naomi agreed uncomfortably.
“How hypocritical is that? We are all aberrations. We are all freaks.”
“Lily if you go against the traditions I’ll have to hunt you.” Naomi said suddenly, her hushed voice full of desperation and fear.
“Omi if I have to kill Sophie in a couple of years, you’ll have to hunt me anyway.” Lilith hugged herself and fought the tears that had been haunting her since she left the little one back at Granmary’s. Naomi hugged Lilith almost savagely.
“We need to get really really drunk, in fact we need to infect a little bauchan revelry and get everyone around us drunk and dance till we puke and wake up god knows where with god knows who” Naomi said pulling Lilith off her stool. Some traditions were better than others.
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