Gossip around the Weyr doesn't take long, but these rumors have made the weyrfolk nervous and the Weyrleaders making sure that riders and guards were set on extra patrols. This is how the story starts: It was a normal afternoon when F'yr was seen right after her early morning patrols dragging an ovine on a leash like a ceremonial sacrifice into the forest. Awhile later, said brownrider and Cenlia, the gardener working on the orchard, were rushed bareback on Zaruath straight to the Infirmary with scratches and bites. Piecing the story together from workers, they say that at first the ovine freaked out, attacking the girls, and then a feline came out of no where to kill the panicked animal, only to turn on the two girls. They tried to fight it off, bare hands, knives, and the mention of a shovel whacking the feline over the head repeatedly. Eventually F'yr's brown arrived just in time to kill the feline and rush everyone to get treated.
The extra patrols have recovered the animal, malnourished as it was, and have sent search parties to the Holds to talk about how the animal had gotten on the island… and if it is the only one. With the possibility of more starving felines likely smuggled and released in Ista, the Weyrleaders warn everyone to take extra precautions when traveling, and never to go alone.
