Rising From the Ashes: The Chronicles of Caymin by Caren J. Werlinger

“They raised me and taught me.”
    “How could badgers teach you?” Gai’s tone was challenging, but the others looked intrigued.
    Ash looked from him to Cíana to some of the others. A new feeling pricked at her, one she had never felt before and, forgetting for a moment that she was not going to call animals to her for Gai’s entertainment, she reached out. “Beanna? Are you awake?”
    The others looked from one to another, casting furtive glances behind them in the dark as Ash looked over their heads into the woods. Nothing happened for a moment, then a great flapping of wings and a loud caw signaled Beanna’s arrival. She landed on Ash’s shoulder.
    “What do you wish?”
    “They do not believe I can talk to you,” Ash said. Beanna tipped her head, looking at Ash with her bright, black eye. She then turned and looked at the other humans.
    “Do you want me to peck their eyes out?”
    Ash snorted. “No. That would not help them to like me.”
    Beanna hopped down from Ash’s shoulder and strutted around the fire pit, pausing a moment in front of each human, looking each in the eye before moving to the next. In front of Cíana, she said, “This one shows great promise.”
    Ash translated, and Cíana smiled, looking proudly around at the others.
    To Diarmit, Beanna said, “This one eats enough for three.” The others laughed raucously as Ash told the group what she had said.
    “So you have a trained crow,” Gai said.
    Beanna hopped onto his knee, and Ash was pleased to see him jump. “Tell this one I have seen him in the forest, practicing his magic. He knows of what I speak. Tell him the forest is restless and will not allow him to continue.”
    Ash repeated Beanna’s words as the crow flew back to her shoulder. Patches of scarlet rose in Gai’s pale cheeks.
    “What does that mean?” Cíana turned to him. “What is the bird talking about?”
    “It’s nothing,” Gai said, but he looked at Ash and Beanna shrewdly.
    “So that’s how the badgers taught you?” Méav asked. “You can talk to them?”
    Ash nodded, reaching up to stroke Beanna’s feathers. “Thank you.”
    The crow gave her ear a gentle tug with her beak and flew off into the night.
    The others looked at Ash with new respect. Cíana reached up and ran her hand over the short hair covering Ash’s head. “Did you keep it short when you lived with badgers?”
    “No,” Ash said, smiling. “I had no means of cutting it. I asked Enat to cut it for me.”
    “Ash?”
    They all jumped at the sound of Enat’s voice.
    “It’s time for us to leave.”
    Something in Enat’s tone made Ash feel she had done something wrong. In silence, she followed Enat back to their cottage.
    “Sit,” Enat said, indicating a stool near the hearth. She stirred the fire and took an adjacent stool. “What happened tonight?”
    Ash told her all that had occurred. She frowned in puzzlement. “I have never felt anything like what I felt when Gai did not believe me.”
    Enat watched her through narrowed eyes. “You were angry. I felt it.”
    “Angry?”
    “You were annoyed, displeased. You wanted to make him sorry for what he had said.”
    Ash looked at her, realizing Enat was right. “Yes. I had never felt that before.”
    “And you used your power, your ability to communicate to call a creature to you and prove him wrong.” Enat’s voice was gentle, but Ash hung her head in shame.
    “Yes.”
    Enat was quiet for a long time, staring into the flames. “Ash, you’ll be tempted many times to use your power to impress people, to make them fear you or like you. You may even be tempted to use it against others.” Ash opened her mouth to protest, but Enat held up a hand. “You must learn when to use your power and when not to. Animals like the badgers you lived with are simple creatures. They care for their own; they are hunter or hunted; they raise their young and send them out to raise more young. Humans are more complicated than that. We can choose