Ariel felt good about herself. Her bright, reddish-golden fur blazed in the bright noon sun. Her bright eyes, a lovely shade of downy green, seemed to have a fire lighted from within. She was intelligent. She was named.
Not only that, she was a Firekeeper. Firekeepers had been around for generations now, and nobody could really remember exactly who had been the first Firekeeper. Many assumed that it had been a female- There was an ongoing trend of females being better Firekeepers than males, and besides, only females could sing the Firesong, and Females had been the leaders of the Clan for quite a long time- longer than even the grayest of elders could remember. She kept up this gender-norm, tending to fires and singing with the Firekeeper Leader every night before they lit the fires in the Lairs and went to sleep.
Fire had brought such change to their world since that unknown female brought fire to the Clan. At once there had only been one Clan, and one Tribe; Now the Clan had split into many Clans due to overpopulation. They had started as friends, but they quickly recognized that they could not keep their herds seperate. Stallions would go to females in estrus no matter the herd, and females would be attracted to the masculine scent of a stallion ready to mount. There was simply no way around it.
So they had become enemies out of necessity. They had figured out a way to keep their two herds from merging: Every foal born was given a Mark. It was special to that Clan, and only that Clan could bear it. They slowly recieved names, just by the first leader of their Clan; The Argue Clan, the Fierli Clan, the Moori Clan, and the Kuiti Clan- the one that Ariel was in.
But some things had yet to change, and that was mating rituals. The feral actions of their predecessors was not as widely common as before, just as the Unnamed weren't quite as common. Now, it was mostly pleasure, a close bond-making action. The pain of mating wasn't so terrible now, just the mildest of stings the first time. So now Females in heat weren't so crazed, so eager. They now had more than one mating time a year. If a female didn't get pregnant once, the next mating time would roll around for her to try again- if she wished. Now, the females could resist the need to mate.
Ariel was good at resisting, and males were good at ignoring. She didn't want cubs, not yet. Most females didn't start having cubs until the age of 3 years old, which was eqivalent to around 20 human years. Ariel had gone into heat two times; But she had vowed to wait until she had gone through 5 Springs. Then, she would mate, and have her first litter... Her first lovely cubs.
"Ariel!" A sharp voice brought the red-pelted female out of her thoughts, and she turned, tilting her head.
There stood a heavyset gray male, with a handsome white underbelly and striking blue eyes like the sky itself. Few had these blue eyes, and they were heavily sought after in geneology. Nobody knew why they were blue, why they never turned a different color; But they were gorgeous to the females. Irresistable.
"Yes, Orion?" She loped over to her friend, her closest lairbrother. She had decided a long time ago that he would be the male to sire her first litter. He would be a good father.
"Could you get some more dry wood from around the edges of the territory? Pulling the dry twigs and logs away will cause more growth to spring up," Orion pointed out, snorting a little bit.
"Alright." Ariel smiled slightly at him, tongue lolling, and trotted away. Her body was lithe and lightweight; She could feel Orion's wandering eyes, tracing her every contour and convex. She loved his attention.
Eventually she made a point of staying at an effective pace, but still quite relaxed. As she traveled across the Kuiti Clan border that seperated them from the Unnamed territory, she sniffed around carefully, adding her scent to the varies of others that had been here.
She suddenly caught a pungeant scent permeating the air around a small grove of trees. At first she wondered what it could possibly be, but then she realized: It had to be an animal. Some sort of animal had defecated here, surely.
But as she rounded the corner between two trees, she let out a shriek as she was tackled over and dragged by the scruff into the brush nearby.
"Hey! Let me go!" She cried out, squirming in terror and anger. Who dared attacked a Firekeeper in her own territory? This was outrageous!
"No!" A thick, heavy, accented voice hit her ears. She recognized that. That was the accent of the Song Hearer Tribe.
She immediately flopped, lifeless, and he put her down, worrisome. But as she rejuvinated, the male Singer got antsy and started to circle her, baring long fangs that reached his jaw.
"What do you want from me?" Ariel snapped just before the male jumped upon her. His sheer weight supressed her cries as he settled his whole body over her.
"Animal," She growled, recognizing the posture instinctually, "You know no love, do you?"
"This one does not need love," The husky voice returned, grating against her ears, "This one only needs you!"
Ariel had never felt such shame in her life. The Song Hearers were a generally peaceful grouping, so why was this male forcing himself upon her? Surely something terribly wrong was going on. She didn't have much time to think about it, but the sudden release of a back-of-the-mind need caused her to be euphorically cooperative when he was finished with her. They sat apart, staring for a moment.
"Why couldn't you mate within your own Clan?!" Ariel suddenly exploded, ears pinning back. She had been waiting, waiting for that 5th Spring, waiting for Orion... "Why did you have to pick me?"
"No other females pick this one in his Clan," The male retorted, sounding equally as angry. "This one... Too weak. Too quiet. No female mates."
Ariel felt a twinge of sympathy. How worthless he must feel! "Well, I'm very sorry. But you could have asked for permission, first..." The gravity of the situation slowly eased its weight on her. She had just copulated with a male, and he had released within her body. She knew all too well what that meant.
"This one smelled the heat-scent," The male said almost hautily. "So this one was free to take the female."
"My name is Ariel!" She hissed angrily, pulling her ears back against her head. "... What's your name?"
"This one's call is Shadow-Hunter."
Ariel could see why. A strangely widespread color nowadays was black, almost obsidian black. But this tomcat was accented with hues of ginger and white, and his eyes were a striking amber.
"Well, if we had met on better terms... I would have said it was nice to meet you. Now, I really need to go back to the Clan Camp... They'll be needing my firewood-"
"No," Shadow-Hunter hissed. "Too many males there. Stay with Shadow-Hunter for while. Then go home."
Ariel was exhasperated. "Why?" She begged. "Shadow-Hunter, I'm sorry to tell you, but I can't have cubs! Even if my body goes into heat... My belly has never swollen. I'm barren."
Shadow-Hunter looked crestfallen. Then he looked angry. "No." He snarled, baring his long fangs. "No! Ariel will stay with Shadow-Hunter. Ariel's belly will swell up, or Ariel will die!"
Ariel backed away, whimpering. "Fine," She gasped, "Fine! But let me warm with Fire each night, at least. And let me dig a lair."
Shadow-Hunter grunted, pleased. "Yes. Ariel to female-job; Make lair, make warm. Shadow-Hunter do male-job; Fight, protect, provide. Yes."
Ariel was perplexed. "Okay." It wasn't possible that the Song Hearer could know of the Clan's ways of cooking their meat? Or did they do it, too? She would have to find out.