Regi's Goddess, chapter 10 (Patreon)

The rest of the riders were still coordinating their search areas when Regi climbed the fence and used it to swing up onto Goddess’s Brown's back. “What are you doing on that beast?” Siger asked

“As you said, having a pebafri named after the Lady Divashi seems too significant to to ignore,” Regi said with more confidence than he felt. Most male pebafri were smaller than their female counterparts, even if they were more aggressive. Goddess’s Brown stamped his feet and swung his head about in search of a target for his horn, but unlike most males, he was huge—larger than all but one of the other pebafri in the corral.

“That is the thinking that caused me to be on an unstable pebafri when the outsider required assistance,” Siger said with frustration and perhaps self-hate coloring his tone. “This is my stable and I am telling you to get off that pebafri.”

Regi had never thrown his title about, not even when the other exalteds were being so utterly irrational that all he wanted to do was explain to them the depths of their stupidity. However, Regi stared straight at Siger with all the contempt he could muster. “I am an exalted. Are you suggesting that I am incapable of making my own interpretations of my god’sintentions?”

Siger opened his mouth, closed it, and then tilted his ears so far back that it was clear that he would've laid them against his skull were Kowri capable of doing so. “That pebafri is mine. I will not have my stable associated with the death of an exalted who was too foolish to understand that he had no business on an unbroken animal.”

“I am an exalted of the cold-weather temple. I have walked among the most dangerous animals on the Kowri worlds and they have seen me and acknowledged my god’s hand guiding me. I may claim, in the name of the cold-weather temple, any resources the gods directed me to claim.” Since Regi was not popular among the other exalteds, he was unsure at how they would feel about compensating Siger based on Regi's claim, but the calm with which Peaches watched this exchange convinced Regi that he was walking down the gods’ own path.

Either that, or the Lady Divashi had been distracted by some other grain of sand in the universe and she no longer watched. Regi had to hope that was not the case, although every exalted knew the gods were fickle with their attention. Some exalteds were abandoned for so long that the stain of their god’s touch faded, and with it the esteem of the sacred animals and their status. Gavd ship captains haunted the cold-weather temples both to prove their status and to place themselves in the line of their god’s sight. A boring exalted of Gavd quickly earned a demotion to a simple devotee who had once been touched, and god touches were common enough.

Regi assumed his life provided suitable entertainment, but there was no way for Regi to know if his god watched at any given time, unless the Lady Divashi guided his steps with her usual subtlety, leading to more broken bones. Regi picked up the reins and kicked Goddess’s Brown’s flanks. He burst into a lunging gait that made Peaches curse in her chittering voice and grab Regi's hair to keep from sliding down his back.

“I should go with you.” Steiger gathered up the reins of the largest of the pebafris remaining in the corral, a mare who was at least a hand-width taller than Goddess’s Brown. Regi might have accepted an offer of escort, but Goddess’s Brown muscles gathered in ominous warning.  Regi gripped the animal’s sides with his knees and held the front edge of the saddle just before Goddess’s Brown launched himself into the air and cleared most of the corral fence. He hit the top of rail causing the wood to crack with a sound like a percussion weapon before the pieces to clattered to the ground.

Regi was immediately concerned about whether the animal was injured, but Goddess’s Brown never broke stride. He careened down walkways while pedestrians frowned at Regi, no doubt disapproving of his choice to ride within town proper. Unfortunately, Regi had very little control. However, as minutes passed, Regi realized that he was not in immediate danger of falling off and breaking his neck. He gathered up the reins and pretended that he had some control. When Thrice Mountain was on his immediate left, Regi tried to rein the pebafri toward it, but Goddess’s Brown ignored him completely. If anything, he ran faster as he headed west.

“Lady Divashi, Lord Gavd, if this is merely an untamed pebafri who is unwilling to return to the trail where he saw another fall, please send me some sign or help me get off this creature's back, preferably without breaking any more bones that would make it impossible to do your work.” Regi kept his prayers soft so that others would not hear. For so long he had eschewed prayer so it felt impious to call on the gods now when he needed their assistance. However, he had little choice if he hoped to reach Dante in time.

Kowri worlds were not safe. One could walk through a town as long as one heeded the greed or malice of other Kowri, and those sins were more easily avoided than on a hundred other worlds Regi had visited. But outside the towns and cities and sprawling ports with their shipyards, Kowri worlds were filled with predators who maintained their dominion over the planet. Children were not encouraged to explore and when school-aged younglings learned biology and ecology, they went into these wilderness areas only under supervision.

Regi had his amylase and his weapon. He had no doubt Siger also carried both. But Dante had no weapon, no knowledge of local flora or fauna and while Dante clearly had an affinity for God's touched animals, showing enough skill on the pebafri that Siger had agreed to lead him on a trail, the animals on the home worlds were not gods-touched. They were killers who would defend their territories and their mates and their offspring with claw and fang.

Regi wondered if Dante was as prejudiced as other outsiders in fearing larger animals more than small. If so edvidas or gibuks would kill him before any predator had the opportunity.

Neither God answered his prayer, which could suggest that they guided the pebafri or that Regi had strayed so far from the path they had set out that the gods no longer watched him. Either meant that Regi was trapped until Goddess’s Brown slowed long enough for him to dismount without risking his bones.

After passing a tall house with balconies adorning the corners, Goddess’s Brown finally turned toward the wilderness. This was the most dense part of the local forest. The proximity of the cold-weather temple meant that the most poisonous and dangerous creatures were likely found in this sector. And while those creatures touched by a god was unlikely to kill without provocation, untouched animals would follow their brethren. Gavd might touch a pebafri, but her herd with their sharp hoofs and horns were as likely as not to follow her into the area.

Goddess Brown waded through hip-tall weeds before reaching the forest proper where shade strangled the worst of the undergrowth. The eerie cry of a vajroon cut the air, and the creature’s court answered until the undulating shrieks filled the air. Glorious. The situation grew worse with every turn, which is why Regi suspected the first blessing of the gods was well and truly at work.