Leopard 02 - Wild Rain

Santana in cold blood. He had no idea she had a human side. He would have been appalled at the idea of killing a woman.”
    “And because he didn’t know, that lessens his crime?”
    “How could it be a crime if he didn’t know what he’d done?”
    “He was poaching. The leopards are protected.”

    “It was still an animal to him, not a human. How can we teach our children otherwise, Rachael? We are a lethal species, with cunning and intelligence and gifts beyond the ordinary, but we also have the mood swings and temperaments of our animal cousins and that makes us far too dangerous without laws to guide us. What would you have us do? He was a hero to the young men. Where he went, they would follow.”
    “He didn’t obey you, that was his crime. He stood before you with his head unbowed and his shoulders straight ready to accept responsibility for his actions.”
    “Without remorse.”
    “The man killed his mother.”
    “And you believe an eye for eye is logical? Is justice? Where does it stop? Do we then carry on feud after feud until we no longer exist? Rio chose his path with full knowledge of the consequences and full knowledge that he was in the wrong.” Delgrotto pulled two bowls from the cupboard. “We spent a hundred years to try to convince our people we could not brand hunters and poachers as murderers. In one day, Rio Santana changed all that. Our people have been divided ever since.”
    “Because they see into his heart. They see what he does for them. For all of them. For you, for your grandson, for Joshua. Even the local tribesmen seek him out because they see into his heart and know he’s worthwhile. He’s extraordinary.” Rachael, in her frustration, wanted to shake the calm demeanor of the elder. How could he stand there and possibly think he was fit to deliver a judgment against Rio?
    She seethed with frustration and anger and she didn’t understand how Rio had accepted and lived with their blatantly unfair sentence.
    “The young men saw Rio as a leader, as a man with skills and the ability to take charge. Some of them followed him. They separated themselves from the village, living outside the protection of the community yet stayed involved. Rio committed murder on a human being. Whatever the circumstances, whatever the reasons, he hunted the man, using his skills as one of our people, and he deliberately took that man’s life. He not only put all of our lives in jeopardy from possible reprisal, from someone finding our species, but he put our very way of life in jeopardy. We have laws for reasons, Rachael. Should he have gone unpunished? Rio knew and accepted the laws of our society.”
    Rachael watched as the elder set the table and lit a candle as a centerpiece. She couldn’t quite leave the doorway and the night. Rio was a presence everywhere, but out in the darkness, he was in his element.
    She knew he was far from her, yet she still felt him. All the nights she woke to find him gone, or just returning, he had been running free, running in his other form. She longed to be at his side instead of debating an issue neither could resolve.
    “Come sit down and eat,” Delgrotto said kindly. “You have great courage, Rachael, and you protect those you love fiercely, just as Rio does. I’m grateful he found you. You’ve brought him happiness.”
    “He would have been happy if you hadn’t taken everything away from him.”
    “We spared his life. It was the only choice open to us. Banishment or death. No one wanted it, and no one was happy with the sentence, but we felt we had no choice. We spared his life and lived without him. We caught glimpses of his greatness, this son to our people. A born leader. We saw what it did to him. You can’t see what it did to us.”

    “I hope you don’t want me to feel sorry for you.” Rachael limped across the room to the table. She left the door wide open. There would be no sleeping until Rio returned safely and the sound of the rain soothed her ragged nerves and made her feel closer to him. Rio’s rain songs. The sound made him closer to her.
    “Not sorry for us. Perhaps understanding. We lost him and his mother. Banishment means he is dead to us. We can’t see him or speak to him, yet he gives his money to us for the preservation of the forest.”
    “How could you take it?”
    “If we can’t see him or speak to him, how could we return it?”
    “So you could see the money, just not the giver.”
    Delgrotto smiled at her