Ratha’s Challenge (The Fourth Book of The Named) Read Online Free PDF

puzzled.
    “I don’t know. They said things that made no sense. His replies only confused them and made them angry.”
    This surprised Ratha. Of all the Named, Thakur was the most sensitive and the least likely to commit a blunder that might offend a stranger.
    They trotted up to Fessran, who was sitting on a squirming Mishanti. Khushi touched noses with his mother, but seeing that she was preoccupied, kept his greeting short.
    Ratha told him to go back up to the cliff dens and get something to eat, for he looked hungry. At her words Khushi brightened and scampered back up the path. He was a good scout, Ratha thought. Even though he must have traveled a long way, he hadn’t eaten before he came down to the beach to find her.
    Fessran freed a rather flattened and rumpled Mishanti.
    “You keep blaming yourself for Thistle’s fits,” she said to Ratha when Khushi was gone, “but I think this little scamp here is another cause. He must drive Thistle a bit wild. I can handle him, but I’ve had much more experience raising litters than Thistle.”
    “She wanted to adopt him,” Ratha said.
    “I know, and she is keeping to the agreement we made, but I know that she has been tempted to do more than sit on him. One thing she definitely has from you is your temper.”
    Ratha grimaced at her friend’s bluntness. “She hasn’t bitten him yet.”
    “No. She’s the one who gets bitten. By that nightmare of hers.” Fessran put a paw on the cub, who had started to creep away, tempted by some gulls nearby. “I told her that if she felt she was going to lose her temper with him, she should come to me. And she has. Several times. But I can’t come to the beach as often, especially now in the rainy season. The Firekeepers need my help to keep the fires lit.”
    “She’s not a clan member, Fessran,” Ratha said in a low voice. “I can’t order her to do anything, even if I feel it is for her own good.”
    “Well, she should get away from this little mischief maker, at least for a while. Tell her that I’ll get someone to look after him so that you can take her to Thakur.”
    The tip of Ratha’s tail twitched in annoyance. “I can’t take her anywhere unless she chooses to go. I doubt if she will. She hates to leave the beach.”
    “Well, Thakur gave you quite a task, then, didn’t he,” said Fessran.
    “Just take care of Mishanti, Singe-whiskers.”
    Fessran grinned back. “Go chase a thistle, clan leader.”
    Leaving her friend with Mishanti, Ratha paced back along the beach to bring Thakur’s request to her daughter.
     
    * * *
     
    As Ratha approached Thistle’s pool, her steps began to slow. Thistle was not the only one with reasons to deny Thakur’s wish. Ratha herself was reluctant to take Thistle along.
    Suppose she falls into a fit and goes wild when Thakur is trying to talk to those new clan-cats. Surely he has thought of that problem. Why, then, does he want Thistle to come?
    Thistle also had some deep disagreements with the Named about such things as capturing new animals for the clan’s herds. What if she decided that face-tails as well as seamares should be left alone? Ratha remembered the trouble Thistle caused when she freed the seamares that the Named had captured.
    To her chagrin, Ratha had to admit that Thistle was right about seamares. The web-footed, horselike beasts would never have thrived if the Named had tried to treat them the same as their other herdbeasts. Seamares needed the freedom of the open ocean.
    Near the lagoon were several low dunes. Thistle was still in the lagoon. Ratha settled on the crest of the nearest dune, waiting for her to come out.
    She watched her daughter glide around the pool with easy strokes of paws and tail. All of the Named could swim if they had to, but Thistle appeared more at home in the water than on land. Ratha had seen Thistle follow the seamares when they plunged into the ocean.
    At last Thistle waded out of the lagoon and shook herself. She looked