Runaway Bride

Another of the reworks and associated web stories from the old site.

Iridna was excited! Today, the day of her sixteenth birthday, was her betrothal day. Today, A'haruna and his lion clan would come marching over the hills to the south and he would claim her. It had been arranged. Her father, the clan head man, had told her she'd been betrothed to the son of the most powerful clan - and that was the K'ranti, the lion clan.

Iridna strained to hear the thrilling chant of her betrothed's clan song. Soon all would be perfect, just as she and A'haruna had planned two years ago when he'd been initiated into his warrior clan.

Iridna's ears caught a faint chanting on the breeze. But it was from the north - not the east as she'd expected. There were no clans of the People to the north. Only the hated wizard clans. They practiced the dark arts in their disgusting mountain cave homes. Iridna held her breath. Maybe the river ford was running too strong. Perhaps they'd visited another clan along the way. Wedding marches that visited several villages of the People were not unheard of.

As the group approached, Iridna discovered, to her horror, that the chant was not the lion clan. How could her father do this to her?! She ran to the head man's hut.

"How could you? To the dark wizards? Why? Why me?" she shrieked knowing full well that women didn't speak in the council tent. The collective intake of breath marked the shock of this desecration of the council hut. Her father held up a hand.
"It is not your place daughter to question my selection of your husband. Nor is it your place to speak aloud here where only men may speak. Uglikak, the head man of the Cheetah tribe, has agreed to the marriage of his son, Shingkai, to you to seal the peace between the People and his tribe."
"I was -"
"Quiet! Once I excuse. Twice I invoke the ancient penalty," which, as Iridna well knew, was the removal of the tongue of the woman. Iridna screamed and ran from the hut. She'd marry no one rather than marry a filthy wizard.

She quickly packed her few belongings and ran from the village. The men on lookout assumed she was heading to greet the approaching clan. Instead Iridna turned south, south to the dry lands and the deserts beyond. For a full day she jogged until the dry savannah gave way to dry sand dunes. She'd join a caravan maybe, or one of the desert tribes, or -"

"So," came a cold hard voice behind her. "You'd rather die than bear my sons."
"I will have no wizard's bed," she shouted at him. "Go back to your cheetah and your mountains and your cold caves and leave me to my people." He merely shook his head slightly as if in agreement with some voice only he heard.
"If you'll not bear my sons," he hissed. "You'll bear the clan totem's sons." He pointed a strange staff in her direction. Iridna felt rather than saw the change. When it was done, she could no longer stand for her arms and legs were gone, replaced by those of a cheetah.
"Noooo!" she screamed.

He crossed the low dune to get closer and view his handiwork. At first she was unable to do much with her new body but something inside her drove her on. When he crested the dune and slid to within a few meters of her, she launched herself at him. Her new form made sure the Cheetah clan's future head man would be the last of his line.

Woman: Jonmann
Cheetah: Creative Commons