Ursa's POV

"I will become stronger to be a worthy companion for you. From today, you are going to be my future partner." I declared with a frown and turned around to hide the pink on my cheeks. "I also hope that you become stronger. I will not admit a weakling as my partner." With that said, I headed back to the town.

"Huh?" Sirius whispered.

And that was how I set him aside. He had just rescued me from a madman, and I didn't think of a better opportunity to blurt that out.

My stomach was bothering me, and that made me very uneasy. It had always happened since that day... When I was a weak girl, I was learning to set traps for small animals. I had to tie a rope, but it was very tense.

The rope broke, and I fell. Soon, intense pain took over my face, and I began to cry.

"What happened?" Mom came to check with indifference on her face.

The rope had left a red mark on my cheek. It burned and hurt.

"She lacks strength," Dad commented with some annoyance.

Mom sighed and walked away to continue preparing other traps.

"Stand up, Ursa, that's nothing. You'll have worse injuries if you're not careful."

I rested the palm of my hand against my hurting cheek and closed my eyes, letting the last tears fall.

They were upset because I wasn't strong—a failure. I stood up and went to sit against a large rock. I could see the horizon, smoke coming out of some chimneys of the houses among the trees, and the people dedicated to agriculture.

Maybe that was an option, although it looked just as hard. Dad also took care of some cattle and other animals, but he didn't let me be around.

"Why are you crying?" someone asked, and I was startled.

I looked back, and a boy with green eyes was watching from the top of the rock. I had seen him before. He was the son of another huntress in the village.

"I don't cry. And it's not your business," I said, wiping my face.

He jumped down.

"It's okay. Sometimes, the rope is very hard."

I snorted.

"I need to be stronger, that's all." I frowned as I remembered something and became sad. "Dad once said he had wanted a boy, not a girl. I guess because you are a little stronger, and that is better. I would have liked to be a boy so that he would feel proud. The stars made a mistake with me."

He looked at me with some surprise, but then he smiled slightly, which was not usually seen among strangers. However, he did it. He smiled at me, giving me a warm feeling.

"Women are very important. The leaders always tell us we owe them our lives, that they are the basis of our existence, and that we must take care of them and treat them with respect," he said. I stayed looking into his eyes. "Don't Cry. Dad says women hunt better than men. You'll see. You'll be the best, and your father will be honored."

"Sirius," his mother called him.

"Yes," he answered immediately and looked at me again, maintaining his smile. "See you around."

He left, and I peeked out from behind the rock, feeling a slight heat now on both cheeks.

Sirius...

He had the name of a star. I was Ursa, the big bear, strong and powerful. I was named that because of my father's name, Merak, a star in the Ursa Major constellation.

Sirius' mother was Enif, a friend of Mom's. Even though Mom had gotten away from her for a while, sometimes she would talk to her again. They were both excellent huntresses, anyway. Maybe Sirius was right. I could be one of the best.

However, after a while, he stopped showing up often. I learned he would be trained to be a warrior for our people, which made me sad and disappointed me because I would no longer see him on hunts learning from his mother.

Little by little, I saw him change—his countenance, his joy. The warriors trained very hard from childhood; they learned to be savage, but I knew that deep down, he was still the same.

"Why do you look at Enif's son so much?" My mother asked awkwardly. "What have the old women told you about that? Stop being so obvious, at least, or put him aside once and for all as your future union so that others don't talk. The boy was a disgrace to his family, but I must admit that being a warrior, he's already cleaning that stain."

I felt humiliated that my mother exposed me like that while my father was at the table. Why was she saying so openly that he was considered a mistake?

I looked at them both in silence and noticed their tired faces and blonde hair, like mine, but with some grays already. The elders had told us that when parents left, we, as offspring, were to follow their path and honor that.

I had to act in favor of my future because they were already getting older.

I looked down, focusing on the lines of our solid wooden table.

"At no point did I say that I wouldn't ask him to be my future partner," I defended myself in a small voice.

Of course, I had thought about it. It was part of securing my future.

"You better. Because whatever you're feeling about him before him being your partner puts us to shame. A decent young lady doesn't have to look at a guy that much. It's pathetic. The old women are going to order you to stay away from him, and that would be known throughout the town."

"Our daughter has to take care of our honor," Dad added. "He is a warrior; his status is superior, so I am not against it; even so, I don't want you to follow him. I would prefer a young man who is less likely to die and leave you alone at any time."

The bad thing was that I couldn't help it, but I just had to be more discreet...

Unfortunately, sometimes I wasn't. They discovered or sniffed me nearby. Columbus, second in command after Orion, chief of warriors, usually made me leave when I was spying on Sirius.

When I brought the bread in the morning or went home after dropping off the prey at the market, Columbus would follow me.

I turned to look at him and stopped. I moved a few steps faster, and when I turned around, he was closer. His feline eyes were a somewhat dull green.

"Stop following me. I haven't been near Sirius or his training area," I complained.

"Young lady," he said with his heavy voice, "I must keep an eye on the people, especially the ladies. Humans could appear at any time."

"The ladies have a partner who takes care of them. And not all of us need escorting. Not me."

"Not everyone has a partner. I want to keep an eye on you. Many ask me to, and, as you know, we warriors rarely have a companion to care for, so there is no problem."

I understood I should feel privileged to have a warrior watching over me. Even my mother liked that, but sometimes I didn't feel comfortable, and I was afraid to say it and let everyone know I was the problem. I was a weird one.

I decided to ignore him. All he did was check on me sometimes. Nobody saw him badly. And it was true that humans were threatening us. In addition, the warriors were in constant danger.

Dad sometimes worked the cattle hides to get the leather, as he called it...

"Usually, the artisans and tailors are the ones who work with this," he commented, "but we can also do some things..."

He taught me how to make some clothes from this material; I made a leather bracelet and belt for carrying hunting items, like a pair of daggers. 

Although hunting was not my liking, working with materials like leather was. When Dad cut the pieces, I patiently waited to collect the small leftover pieces and take them away.

I locked myself in my room on a day off, which were days designated for rest. I didn't have to hunt, so I did my thing.

I cut the leather into strips, which increased its super-concentrated animal skin smell. Thanks to my good sense of smell, I could even tell where the skin had been hung to dry.

I took a small, long, sturdy metal to use like an awl, and a rock. I lay down on the ground with my tools and patiently began to hit the metal against the leather using the stone, thus leaving an engraving.

Butterflies, flowers, leaves, vines, and other nature designs. I was leaving the strips aside to continue with the next one.

I helped Mom with lunch, and then I came back. I worked all that day. In the afternoon, I made some ties to some and turned them into bracelets. I looked at them with pride and put them in my bag to go to the market.

I saw Symphony being scolded by her father, so I approached her after he left her sitting on a bench. He was one of the artisans to whom my father sold leather.

His daughter was small, with black hair and big blue eyes. She was a couple of years younger than me, but that didn't stop them from demanding perfection like everyone else.

"I see you have problems."

She snorted and crossed her arms. "Don't bother. I must practice in order to create better things, like my father."

"Unless..." I took the bracelets out of my bag. "You use these."

She was surprised. She tried to grab one, but I put them on the table.

"Hey...!"

"I can sell them to you," I tempted. "You can say that you made them, and you won't have any more problems with your father. Only while you learn to make them, of course."

"Bah," she crossed her arms again.

Then I sniffed... him.

"Ursa," Sirius peeked out, lifting the tent's fabric, surprising us both. He smiled. "Oh, I knew I had sniffed you nearby."

I growled and frowned at how his attitude made me feel. He quickened my heartbeat and warmed my cheeks. However, I saw Symphony out of the corner of my eye, and she looked at him as if she were seeing a dream.

Oh...

"How pretty," he murmured, looking at the bracelets.

"Want one?" said Symphony. "I made them, you know..."

"What?!" I reacted. "I made them!"

"That's not what you told me a while ago," she refuted. "I am the artisan, not you."

"You...!" I pushed her, and she screamed.

"Hey!" Sirius put his arm between her and me. "Ursa, why are you attacking your friend?"

I snorted and saw Symphony stick her tongue out, feeling protected behind him.

"I made them!"

"That's not true," she insisted.

"Ursa..." he scolded me.

I clenched the strap of my bag with my hands, feeling frustrated.

"Sirius, you dumb," I growled.

I huffed and stormed out.

Symphony had been my friend, but since I let her know I had my eyes on Sirius, she suddenly seemed to notice him, too. That's why Mom had been right when she told me not to tell other girls about my interests, at least until the union was agreed upon.

***

"I can smell them nearby," I warned.

I was running through the forest, the fresh morning wind blowing in my face. The dirt was still wet and smelled delicious. I wasn't in such a hurry for nothing, though. It was a competition.

The thin dirt path went up through the mountainous forest. We had good balance, so we didn't worry about the increasing height of the cliff on the side. Besides, there were enough trees in case something happened, and we could still run downhill.

"Let's go catch the male. He's the biggest!" said one of the brothers with different colored eyes. Green and blue.

Rigel and Deneb, 'repeated' brothers, as we called them. The stars were supposed to give you only one child, but there were cases in which they favored you with two or more at the same time, although the most common were two. That was good because there was a lot to work on, like now that we had to hunt.

"Ursa!" Deneb alerted me, but I could barely react to the big cat's attack.

We rolled, and I tossed the cougar to the side after a good swipe. It stood up and grunted, to which I responded with a ferocious hiss.

The Evolved people, especially we, the hunters, were beasts. Just one was the nightmare of any forest animal. The animal was not so big, so it was smart and retreated.

"Fast!" I ordered, and we continued running, although the wound the cougar made on my arm burned quite a bit.

When I was little, I was soon aware of my reality: I was an evolved person, the daughter of hunters, so I would be one, too. It was up to us to make sure everyone ate.

Although almost everyone learned to hunt, older people no longer did it, and it took up a lot of time in the day that could be used on other tasks. That's why we were very important.

Our little town was among the mountains, and beyond were the other humans—mean, troublesome, dangerous, and stubborn creatures.

Our older leaders always warned us about them and told us how evil they were. Our warriors were preparing to protect us from them and other threats, and others, like me, had to do our best in each of our roles for our people.

So, I had to be an excellent hunter to bring honor and recognition to my family.

We smelled the deer approaching, so we slowed down. We didn't want to scare them away with our footsteps, and the headwind helped us with the aroma.

"Do you need help?" a familiar voice asked.

We stopped dead, and the brothers smiled, looking at one of the branches of a tree.

"Sirius!" they said excitedly.

The boy with feline green eyes looked at us, maintaining his smug smile. I crossed my arms and snorted.

"We're fine. You are no longer a hunter." I turned to the brothers. "Let's go, or the others will beat us!"

We continued running, but Sirius joined us anyway. As always, it made me feel uneasy, and my heartbeat raced.

"Ursa!" Sirius pulled me away from the deer's path.

I reacted, coming out of my thoughts.

The male deers were not very docile; this one had jumped at us when it sniffed us. I had been the careless one for being distracted and having alerted the animal by stepping on a branch.

I growled and lunged. As a child, I didn't like the idea of ​​killing an animal, but as I grew up, I understood that it was the cycle of life. Luckily, today, we just had to catch it and tie it up to take him to the lead hunters. They were going to choose the three largest animals to make a feast.

We rarely bit to kill, especially if it was a large animal. Large mammalian animals, by nature, tended to smell very strong, and when you bit into them, they tasted exactly the same as they smelled.

The animal scratched the ground, snorting hard. I was with Sirius before it, challenging it with my eyes and the twins at its sides.

"There is no greater sign of respect than facing the animal hand to hand, allowing it to measure its strength with you and live if it manages to defeat you. Remember, you do not want to measure yourself against another predator. We don't want to lose valuable hunters for the town. Your people always come first."

The leaders always said those words. We faced a predator only in periods of scarcity, which luckily had been rare.

The animal lunged furiously, and so did we. I swung my weapon, which consisted of stones tied to the end of ropes, to throw it. It got tangled in the animal's front legs, which caused it to lose stability. I took the opportunity to launch myself and reduce it to the ground once and for all. I caught its neck in the struggle and swallowed dust, but didn't give way. The twins immediately grabbed its legs.

I mounted the animal, which was breathing heavily and exhausted, and pulled out more rope.

"Sorry, friend," I said breathlessly, "you have to give me the victory."

I looked up, and Sirius smiled at me with closed lips.

"Very good," he congratulated.

"Of course. I told you we didn't need you."

He nodded, smiling wider, which caused my cheeks to heat up. I looked away from him to continue securing the rope and huffed.

After dropping off the deer, a group of young people stopped us. They were Sun and other diggers. He was named after the Sunstone. His parents also had names of minerals, like his grandparents, Lazuli and Citrine, my mentors.

"Ursa, look. We found this thing in an old human garbage field," Sun said excitedly.

They dug not only for minerals but also for human things. The artisans repaired them, if possible, and put them into operation.

"It looks like something from their kitchens," Sirius told him.

Sirius knew a little more about humans because he was training to be a warrior. Sun had been interested in me as his future partner, but he stepped aside and did not challenge Sirius because he respected him.

The boy with honey-orange eyes smiled slightly at me.

"Maybe they'll give it to someone when they fix it. Oh! And look at this!" He showed me a chain. "Gold." The thing shone metallic yellow. "I know, I've sniffed it. They're going to be able to melt it down and make something nice."

"Oh. Wow..." Its color was wonderful, even if it was dirty.

***

I spun, raising my full skirt. I moved my shoulders to the beat of the drums and spun again, following the music. The large bonfire stood in front of the lake—a huge lake between the mountains where our town was.

The town celebrated, and some applauded demurely when I finished my dance. I approached the person I had done that dance for—my dad.

I bowed my head in respect.

"Happy day you arrived, Father." I looked at him with a slight smile, and he returned the gesture. "May the stars want you to stay with us for a long time," I continued with the devotion I grew up with, with which every person should address their father. "Without you, I wouldn't know what to do."

Just thinking about that, that everyone had an end, that he would not be eternal to me, made my heart shrink.

"My girl."

I surrounded his neck and placed my forehead against his for a few seconds. I was completely back on the ground, and he brought his hand to my face and then patted me on the head a couple of times to encourage me. His smile widened a little.

The animals had been cooked, and we were celebrating. It didn't last long, but we celebrated nature more than ourselves.

The twins took their future partners out to dance. They were daughters of ranchers. Adara and Galatea. They had been promised to join since they were ten years old.

I smiled at them barely, and then I felt someone standing beside me.

"Can we talk?" Sirius asked.

That seemed strange to me. We used to talk, but mainly because we were going to get together, and that was said to strengthen the future relationship. He often came to me to tell me his frustrations for not being as strong as a true blood warrior, that is, with warrior parents, or when I saw him arrive exhausted with a dull face after receiving an intense punishment for misbehaving or for not complying.

"Yes..." I whispered, feeling that there was something different in his face this time.

We went towards the trees. Although it was night, we could see quite well. "It's said that humans see everything black at night. How strange that would be." Sirius didn't answer, so I sighed. "We have to hurry," I reminded him. "It's not good for us to be alone for too long."

"Yeah. Well," he sighed. He looked down for a second and looked me in the eyes again.

His gaze was penetrating like a good predator, but he maintained a certain sweetness that I had known since I was a child. He was now an Evolved warrior—a man.

"So?" I said impatiently.

I didn't really mind spending all the time with him; however, out of honor, it was always better to hide the strange things we, the girls, felt for the boys. At least, that's what the old ladies told us.

"You know the time is coming." He pursed his lips. "You know I'm going to go with the humans." Yes, I knew it. I didn't feel good about him repeating it. "We've been promised to be together since we were fifteen, but..." He parted her lips but let out a silent sigh and continued. "It's better if you look for someone else." That fell on me like ice water. Maybe I wasn't hearing well. "You still have time. I don't even know if I will come back and..."

"What are you saying?" I blurted out. I gulped as he analyzed my expression. "I've been waiting for you while most of my classmates joined after school ended," I said with a little more courage, but somehow, I felt like the life I had hoped to have was suddenly shattering into pieces. "Even Mom asked, but since you are a warrior, we understood that we had to wait, and now you just say to find someone else?"

"It's just... I tried, believe me. I tried to get used to the idea that you're my partner. I tried to make this work, but, as I said, I don't know if I'm going to come back; it's better if..."

"No." I pointed at him with my index finger. "No. If you really wanted to, you would do everything possible to return. You would tell me to wait for you, that you are going to come back to join me. If you wanted to, you would find a way!"

He remained with his lips parted.

"I'm sorry. You're right, but... I don't understand you. You always act like you don't want me by your side. How do you still want to wait for me?" I began to shake my head, feeling my slight trembling from holding back tears, and he continued, "I didn't even make it to the Moon festival in time to dance with you and strengthen the union..."

"I will wait for you."

"Ursa..."

My inner voice told me that I shouldn't beg him or try to keep him because nothing would make him stay with me, and he would go with the humans, anyway.

Everyone was going to find out. Mom would get a good reason to criticize me, and the others would talk about this for weeks.

"How dare you mock my honor like that?"

Once again, he was left without knowing what to say.

"That's why I tell you now and not later. I don't want you to be alone, either."

"Go away." I crossed my arms and turned my back to him.

The lump in my throat already hurt. I swallowed again and realized he was gone.

I let out a silent gasp and began to breathe heavily. I looked around at the trees, the forest that no longer looked friendly but dead and meaningless.

Just like that, I had lost my dreams. The words that I wanted to say to him, what I wanted to confess, that I didn't do it on the advice of the old women, now I was not going to be able to say them because we were not going to join...

He was always curious about human culture. Maybe he was very tired of the town and its rules. Why did humans have to ruin everything? Sirius and the warriors wouldn't have to stand up for us if they weren't making trouble.

Humans. What was so interesting about that world? Nothing! And I would prove it.