Wind Cats

Overview

Wind cats are the slender spotted hunting cats of the open plateaus of the High Scars, and the fastest thing on the shelves. They hunt antelope and hares by day, take a kid or a lamb from the edge of a herd when they can, and leave people alone. The Orc kindreds admire them more than they fear them: a warning runner who brings news faster than anyone expected is praised for wind-cat legs.

Appearance

A wind cat stands about as high as a large dog at the shoulder, but it is built like nothing else on the shelves: a small round head, a deep narrow chest, a waist a hand could almost span, and very long, thin legs. Its coat is short and coarse, pale tawny scattered with small round black spots, and a black streak runs from the inner corner of each eye down the side of the muzzle like a dried tear. The long tail is spotted at the base and ringed black and white towards the tip, and it swings like a rudder when the cat turns at speed. A wind cat chirps like a bird to its cubs and purrs loudly; it cannot roar. At a walk it is all bones and angles. Running, it stretches flat and seems to fly.

Habitat and Range

They live on the high, open plateaus and thin grass between the escarpment faces, where there is room to run and a clear view. They keep away from the passes and ravines, where dun dogs and broken ground take their advantage away, and few come down the Shearline into the basins.

Behaviour and Temperament

A wind cat stalks to within a short distance of its prey, then sprints, faster than a galloping horse but only for a few hundred strides, trips the animal with a forepaw, and holds it by the throat. Then it must rest, panting, before it can eat, and dun dogs and vultures often drive it off its kill in that time. It is shy, nervous, and never fights for a kill against a pack. Females live alone with their cubs; males often keep company in pairs or threes of brothers.

Life Cycle

A female bears three to five cubs in long grass or a scrub thicket and moves them often. The cubs carry a long silver-grey mane along the back that fades as they grow, and they stay with her more than a year, learning to hunt. Few cubs survive the dogs. A wind cat lives eight to ten years.

Uses and Dangers

They take young stock from the herds in the calm months when the herds go highest, and kindreds keep watch for them on the open shelves. A wind cat can be driven off a kid by a shouting child; it has never been known to attack a person. Its spotted skin is prized as a cloak edge and as a gift between kindreds, and is hard to come by, because the cat is almost impossible to catch.

Lore and Belief

The kindreds say the wind cat is the wind of Rakhal the Storm-Caller given legs, and that the black tear lines on its face were left by the dust of his first storm. Runners touch a wind-cat claw before a long warning run. Herders say a wind cat seen watching a camp means the camp has grown slow.

A wind cat that takes from a camp's herd is hunted by its young men, and its claw is the first trophy many Orc hunters win.

Where It Appears

• Overview: Animals