Kira's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Kira smelled the blood before she heard the scream. Three gardens away, a woman labored to give birth, and the sound pulled Kira from her tea. She set down the cup. Her striped ears flattened. Every daughter born into her bloodline carried the cat goddess's curse, and Kira meant to break it before another girl paid for a sin made centuries ago. She climbed the roof to think. Her claws found the wood easy. Two blue falcons perched on the beam, the ones her grandmother had trained to carry messages across the valley. They watched Kira with sharp eyes. She watched them back, and envied how they lived without any curse at all. The midwife had sent a note that morning. A cousin's labor was cursed. The baby was a girl, and the family wanted Kira to come. They believed she could bless the child with her foresight. No one in her family had ever stopped the curse. They only passed it down. She wrote her answer fast. She would not bless the child and lie, but show empathy and assurance with her presence. The old shrine in the bamboo held the goddess's name carved in stone. Kira believed If a curse could be placed, it could be unplaced. Kira tied the note to the nearest falcon's leg. "Take this to the midwife," she told the bird. "Tell them I ride tonight." The falcon shrieked and dropped from the beam. Its mate followed. Kira watched both birds shrink into blue dots above the trees. Then she went down to pack hoping she could inspire hope and faith. Her senses made the packing quick. She heard the loose coin under the floorboard. She smelled the dried meat gone stale and left it behind. The curse gave her a tiger's body, a tiger's hunger, a tiger's nose. Her family feared these gifts. Kira had stopped fearing them long ago. She only wanted the choice of whether to pass them on. The scream three gardens away stopped. The baby cried instead, thin and new. A girl's cry. Kira's hands went still on the pack. The curse had landed on another child, exactly as she figured. She shouldered the pack and stepped outside. The falcons were gone over the ridge now, carrying her message. Kira thought to herself “A blessing only accepted the curse.”Kira wanted it gone. She began to walk. She looked toward the dark line of bamboo where the shrine awaited. The goddess curse carved in stone there. Tonight she stopped hiding from her families curse and started to think of ways to fight it.