The Underneath

Ranger lovingly watches the kittens. He warns them to stay away from the Open, tells them stories, and sings a song for them every night. He promises to watch over them always.

The kittens’ mother begins to bring mice and small stakes, still alive, for the kittens to kill; she knows that they need to learn how to hunt.

Of all the snakes, the moccasin snake is the most dangerous. It has a mouth as white as cotton and jaws as strong as a trap.

The kittens see Gar Face shoot a rat. It’s a good reminder to stay out of the way of his gun—and to escape his detection by staying in the safety of the Underneath.

The beasts of enchantment can only don their human forms once. Grandmother knew this—but Night Song didn’t.

Puck, curious, wanders out of the Underneath into the open. He lies in the sun, loving how it feels on his tummy. He runs back to tell Sabine about the wonders of the Open but runs straight into Gar Face’s “terrible” hands.

The mother cat wakes up suddenly. She runs to the edge of the Underneath, and sees her son being held by Gar Face. She runs to help, but Gar Face grabs her as well.

Gar Face put both the bags in a sack, tied it up, and threw them in the bed of his truck. Ranger strained at his chain, howling. Eventually, his howls grow faint as Gar Face starts the truck and drives the cat and Puck away.

The truck stops. The cat hears water.

An illustration shows a man (Gar Face) holding a kitten (Puck) by the scruff, as Ranger barks at the end of his chain. In the foreground, a larger cat (Puck’s mother) crouches.

Puck is remorseful for going into the Open, but his mother insists that she shouldn’t have kept them in such a dangerous place. Sensing that she’s going to die, the cat tells her son to go back and find Sabine, his sister, and get away from Gar Face. She tells him that he must also break Ranger’s chain. Her words are cut off as the sack they’re in is thrown.

They land in the water. Puck’s mother tells him to swim. The sack starts to sink as the mother cat claws at the opening. Puck feels a push from behind; the sack comes open. He swims, sensing his mother urging him on. He doesn’t see a string of the sack wrap around her paw and hold her underwater, caught in mussel beds at the bottom of the creek.

The mother cat’s lungs fill with water. A voice comes to her, saying, “[S]ister, your baby is safe” (80). The voice takes the form of a hummingbird, which urges the cat to follow it. She regrets leaving her babies and Ranger—and regrets the huge burden she has placed on Puck.

The trees know that the hummingbird can fly between the land of the living and the dead. The hummingbird is looking for someone—someone she has been searching for a long time.

The people known as the Caddo used to live in the woods. The trees remember them; they crossed the Gulf of Mexico from South America and settled there. They learned how to live on the land. They lived on Little Sorrowful Creek, which is fed from a deep and ancient hole below the forest. The water that comes from this hole is salty; it’s said to be filled with tears. Puck contributes more tears to the creek when he sees that his mother isn’t behind him.

Below him, Grandmother reflects that she knows what losing someone is like. She reflects on the price to be paid for her loss.

Gar Face gets home and kicks Ranger brutally for not keeping cats out of the yard. Ranger returns to the Underneath and silently cries. Sabine licks his tears.

Sabine longs for her mother and brother, and she longs to make Ranger, who is devastated, feel better. She realizes that she must become the hunter and vows to leave the Underneath when it gets dark.

Grandmother Moccasin should have known about Hawk Man, who heard the singing of Night Song and who heard the Caddo singing. She should have known about him—but she didn’t.

Puck listens for his mama, his sister, and Ranger, but all he hears is loss and the running of the creek. Grandmother stews in her jar, also contemplating loss.

A thousand years ago, Hawk Man found the source of the beautiful music he had been hearing: Night Song. He watched her and marveled at her shimmery, blue-black scales. He became smitten with Night Song’s beauty. The other birds warned him to fly away, but he didn’t. He called into the night, expressing his longing for Night Song.

Night Song, no longer a snakelet, began to feel restless. She and her mother had always been inseparable, but after a time the forest felt small to her, and her mother’s stories felt monotonous.

Night Song began to slip away when her mother slept. One day, Night Song saw the handsome Hawk Man flying in the afternoon sun.

Alone in her dungeon, Grandmother reflects on Night Song’s betrayal.

When Hawk Man embraced Night Song, both took on human forms, and they left together. The watchful trees knew that Grandmother Moccasin would be angry and upset when she awoke. They stirred up the Zephyrs of Sleep to help the lovers slip away.

An illustration depicts a large snake, Grandmother Moccasin, dozing in a tree, while beneath, a human man and woman, embracing, walk away.

Puck briefly wonders if his mother was swept further downstream, but then he confronts the fact that he knows: He’ll never see her again. Puck finds a hollow in some tree roots and curls up in it, remembering his mother’s advice to stay in the Underneath and how he broke this rule. Puck misses his mother; far below him, Grandmother misses Night Song.

Grandmother Moccasin became angry and vengeful. Poison filled her mouth and she vowed to enact revenge on Hawk Man for taking Night Song from her. Her hunger was spurred by her anger; she hunted day and night and became enormous. The Alligator King urged her to find a way that wasn’t hatred, but she could not.

Gar Face found his old house one day when he was hunting with Ranger, before Ranger was shot. It has no running water and no electric light, just a simple cot and a place to hang the animal skins that Gar Face trades at the pub. From afar, the house appears to be sinking.

Sabine recalls seeing her brother leave the Underneath and lie in the sun. Just as she was about to call out to him, Gar Face grabbed him. Sabine remembers the heartbreaking way Ranger strained against his chain so hard that his fur was rubbed away and his neck was bleeding. Sabine reflects that she and Ranger must escape.

Puck is hungry and dirty. He tries to clean himself but is caked in river mud. He wishes he had paid more attention when their mother was teaching them how to hunt, as Sabine had. He has the hiccups and reflects that this makes it hard to sneak up on anything.

Hawk Man and Night Song traveled far and wide to find a place to settle, but they longed to find company among other humans. They returned to the forest and joined the Caddo, who welcomed them. Hawk Man and Night Song built a hut of branches and mud.