It was so silent in that hallway; so peaceful. The sound of the grinding gears finally priming into action echoed through the dark solitude loudly, stirring K'Shai awake. She pulled herself to her feet as the door opened into another small oval chamber with yet another door. A flicker of irritation stirred up as she shook her head slowly. Another door, another maze. Nothing simple or straightforward at all.
This door did not take an entire night to open, though. It opened before the other door behind her had even started to close. She took a deep, slow breath and stepped through into the chamber of the Ancients.
They were all seated, and they were watching her eagerly.
"You have prevailed." One of them said.
"Prevailed? You mean survived your attempt to kill me?" She snapped.
"What the hell was the point of that? Pointing in there, making face a hard meat. You know damned well that I've fought them before! I could have been killed! For what? So you had some entertainment? Is that what you do here? Just let people sit outside until they die, or make them come in here to kill them? Or was I supposed to learn some mystical lesson from all of that?"
She unleashed her fury over the entire situation.
"I don't even know why I came here! I did not come here to be killed!"
"And you were not," the middle-seated, bone-clad female interrupted.
"You harbor anger over a battle you won, why, K'Shai?" The Ancient on the root-throne asked.
Before she had a moment to even come up with a response, the Ancients all continued to take turns barraging her.
"You most certainly have fought the hard meat before, this we well know."
"And you survived."
"Just as you survived now."
"But you have not ended the fight. You have never ended the fight. The hard meat has always been with you, K'Shai."
K'Shai gaped her jaw, staring at the Ancients, not sure what to say in response at all.
"You have carried your demons with you all these years, never truly fighting them away, just as you refuse to fight them away now, even though you won over them and carry proof with you now."
She glanced down to the claw she had haphazardly tied to her armor, then shook her head and looked back to the Ancients.
"I don't… I don't understand what you want of me?"
"Why do you think some Yautja sit outside until they die of thirst or the icy weather?"
"What do you think they are searching for that makes them come to us?"
"Why do you think they are not worthy of entering, and thus await their death out of our doors?"
They continued on, not giving her time to formulate an answer, which was fine with her because she really did not have a good one.
"Why do you hunt as an Arbiter? Why do you continue still, even now, to prove or validate your position?"
"You hunt, you fight, you win, you prove."
"And when you are done, you continue to fight and prove. It never ends, does it?"
"Ends? What ends? Don't all Yautja prove themselves constantly?" She snapped suddenly.
"Perhaps some must." The weapon-throne Ancient said. "Does R'chnt?"
"Well… no, he doesn't he.."
"Does R'chnt harbor anger over kills he earned victory?" The root-throne Ancient interrupted.
"No," K'Shai stammered. "But… he's who he is. And I'm not that." She howled. "I have to do more, don't I? It doesn't get to end for me. And maybe I just can't anymore. I can't keep this going, I hurt, I'm tired, I'm just not Yautja, and you want me to prove myself by sticking me in a chamber alone with a kainde amedha, and that's supposed to do what exactly?"
She howled, screamed, and allowed tears to well up and fall over her eyelids without care.
"I don't know what I am, what I'm supposed to be! I was sent out to hunt humans down! Humans just like me, who joined the Yautja to hunt because maybe they thought it would be fun, or it was exciting and mysterious, or they were just young and stupid and dragged into something beyond what they wanted, I don't know."
"I fell in love with R'chnt, I was in awe of him, I still am. Who he is, what he is, but that doesn't mean that I… That I can keep doing this until what end? Get myself killed? For what? To show that I could be Yautja, which I'm not? Am I just supposed to go live in the mei'sa and be away from R'chnt for the rest of my life and raise youngsters? I have to fight and earn respect, but I don't want to keep on fighting. I am just …. Tired. I'm just… tired."
"K'Shai!" The female Ancient snapped and K'Shai suddenly felt like tucking her tail between her legs and skittering out of the room if she could. Especially when the Ancient Yautja slowly stood up and approached her.
"You must find peace, which you cannot find by constantly fighting all that there is around you and yourself in addition! You must accept that you have lived, accept that you are as you are, and accept your place and rank and live the life you choose to live."
"Or, you must leave it all behind and return to your home." The root-throned Ancient said, and he too, began to stand.
"You fight and fight, and yet what you need the most is to simply stop fighting. You can choose to live the mei'sa, you can choose to live with R'chnt. Why do you believe where you choose to live - or even how - matters so much to the Yautja? You are Blooded. You are
Honored." The weapon-throned Ancient added.
"I don't understand…" K'Shai whispered, looking between the three Ancients.
"That much is clear," the weapon-throne Ancient added as he stood.
"Come. We will help you to understand," he directed her, and the other two out of the chamber.
They walked through a corridor in silence, K'Shai shaking softly as she began to replay the last few minutes in her mind and suddenly felt even more guilty and ashamed as she had just unloaded years of pent up frustration and fatigue on three Ancient Yautja who were probably in some cryptic way only trying to help her. She imagined in their 1,000-plus year existence they had figured they had seen just about everything about they met a nearly pre-menopausal human woman who was angry and conflicted.
The thought made her smirk a little bit and she almost found the whole thing amusing until she stopped to think about what was next that the Ancients had in store for her. When they came to an ominous looking closed door and stopped, she swallowed and her thought stopped. She eyed the Ancients around her and the female spoke again.
"You have carried your demons with you, K'Shai. You have never left your own world, or the hard meat that infested it. You have held onto that memory all this time and allowed the very same feelings you experienced then continue to eat away at your heart and mind. You have now faced them again, conquered over them, and yet you must still learn to release your spirit." She said.
"You cannot live when your spirit is trapped." The root-throned male Ancient said.
"Do you believe R'chnt wanted you because he thought he could make you into a Yautja?" The Female asked to a lack of response of K'Shai, before she continued. "Or do you believe he simply wanted you, as you are, and taught you all that you need to know to survive in his life?"
Again, K'Shai did not respond.
"You are not Yautja. You are well aware of that, and believe it or not, so was R'chnt when he met you. He is still aware to this day."
K'Shai deflated, suddenly feeling rather like a child getting a good scolding.
"I don't know what I'm supposed to do?" She whispered finally.
"You must live as you are. Live with what you are, within yourself." The root-throned Ancient said.
The weapon Ancient continued. "You live as you are, accept that you are accepted, the fight you keep fighting will tear you apart, K'Shai.
It has already. Allow your offspring to live as what they are. And live."
"And what are my offspring exactly?" She asked a little defensively.
"They are as they are." The female responded cryptically.
"You destroying yourself in a constant fight does nothing to help them. You helped El'tude when he erred, and he has since grown from that."
"Your offspring," the root Ancient said, "are hunters or anything as they choose to be. They are neither Yautja nor Human, but they are Yautja and Human. They have been born and bred to have a place, and you have earned a place."
K'Shai shook her head and gaped her jaw as if she wanted to speak, but there were no words and still a lingering concern of what was on the other side of the door. Just then, the door was opened and she was back to the beautiful garden she had seen upon entering. She figured that was it, the Ancients were seeing her out of their palace, for she had too much of a peaceless spirit for them and they weren't wrong.
Instead however, of taking her on the straight path right back through the clear doors on the far end which led straight to the exit, they turned to the left, down a rather zig-zagged path which led deeper into and through the gardens and eventually found its way to another rock wall and door. The female Ancient guided her down a brief set of corridors and through doorways until they ended in a sleeping chamber with a private patio, soaking tub, and overlook of yet more gardens.
K'Shai glanced quizzically to the Ancient, somehow expecting some kind of lecture, or another challenge, not a beautiful, serene room right next to a gently trickling waterfall coming out of the mountain.
"Stay. Rest. You will find there is much you can seek here if only you look, K'Shai."
K'Shai did as she was told. She soaked in the tub, wandered the temple, watched the suns set, listened to the silence, and by all of the following morning she was anxious for something to do, some way to focus her thoughts, and also get back to R'chnt. The Ancients did not seem to approve of the idea of her leaving, which she sort of figured, so she took on their not quite suggestions about focusing herself, finding
her center and coming to an internal peace.
She grew more angry with each passing day. Angry that she was not finding inner peace, angry that the Ancients continued to insist that she would, and angry at herself for allowing her mind to continue on anxiously battling itself, fighting against that peace she heard so much about.
She found herself frequently wondering exactly what R'chnt did in the temple for so many rotations, as he did say he spent weeks there. K'Shai tried to occupy her time with futile attempts at meditation, self-assessment, and higher focus, and found herself growing ever more frustrated by her apparent inabilities. Even more so were the Ancients insistence that she could achieve whatever it was they kept telling her she could, and subdue her internal fire.
"This is impossible." She growled. "I've been here for weeks. I've done all you have said," she spoke to the three Ancients on their thrones.
They watched her quietly, and she tried to read their thoughts and intentions through their facial expressions as she spoke slowly and deeply.
"Whatever it is you think I can achieve here, I cannot. I don't even know what it is I am trying to do here."
They remained deathly silent for an awkwardly long moment.
"K'Shai," the female said finally. "You are correct."
She stopped in her tracks, mid-breath, and just froze and watched the Ancients stare at her with their nondescript expressions. It was nearly impossible to know what they were thinking and such a response was definitely not what K'Shai expected.
Eyeing them blankly, she shook her head, mouth gaped but no sound coming out. She was prodding them for more, but without speaking herself.
"What you need to do is not here in this temple. It is not in the Clan of the Kaunte D'areen. In fact, it is not even on this planet, K'Shai."
She clenched her jaw in silent thought and nodded softly after taking a brief moment to simply think and absorb what she had been told, and all she had experienced in the temple. It was not much longer after that before she had headed out and down the cliff side, all the way down to the lower temple grounds, where she found R'chnt and rejoined him with a mighty hug.
"Don't you want to know?" She said to him after settling in for a meal amongst the group.
"Know what?"
"What happened… what they said… what …" she started.
He cut her off. "K'Shai, you know it is for only you and the Ancients. You must take what you learned there and do what you have been guided to do."
"What if I wasn't guided to do anything… or at least anything I want to do?"
"I do not believe they failed to guide you, K'Shai. But what you do with their guidance….
well, that is upon you. Only you truly know in your heart what is the best action."
"Well, one thing I do know is that our young Sr'uch-de is going to be standing in his selection very soon and if we leave in the morning, we will make it back in time to see who takes him for his blooding hunt. It will be…. good... to spend a bit of time back at the Clan and figure things out. We can go to your hunting grounds, and just… I don't know… rest maybe. I could use some rest."
R'chnt nodded softly and in the morning, the pair made their way back the same route from which they came. They walked down the mountain trail, they rode the land vehicle back to the mighty city, they travelled across the water once again. The journey was long, but somehow oddly serene.
As they sped over the ocean, hovering just above the waves, K'Shai could see a group of whale-like creatures jumping in and out of the water in the distance. She watched them with a sense of ease while her mind still thought about all that had happened with the Ancients, and how much she wanted to discuss all of it with R'chnt and seek his thoughts and maybe clarification and yet more guidance, but she could not.
Did the Ancients really tell me to leave Yaut?
Such a thought played on her mind, but yet, it oddly somehow did not disturb her. She did not think they meant to leave Yaut to go on a hunt on some other world; she was quite certain they meant to return to Earth. But for how long, exactly? She could not be sure. Nothing they did truly suggested that they were telling her to pack her bags and go back to Earth, not permanently, anyway.
So, she decided simply that doing what she suggested to R'chnt was best; go back home, rest, wait for her youngest child to be selected with a Leader and train and earn his Blooding mark. That was the simplest plan; ignore everything that had happened through the entire next hunting season until Sr'uch-de returns from his Blooding.
It was a plan that worked fairly well, even though K'Shai kept her mind constantly occupied with thoughts of what transpired within the Ancients' temple.
She had tried on several occasions to talk to R'chnt about it. She tried asking him what the Ancients had said to him, hoping she could get him started into it and then add in her own experience. She even so much as trying to sneak in words about it after he was well relaxed post-mating, but he would stop her immediately over and over. Finally, she stopped trying to talk about it all the time and the thoughts simply sunk into her inner mind where they seemed to live and never leave.
K'Shai and R'chnt returned to his hunting estate and they continued to live between the jungles on hunts and the large home at the edge of the property. The days passed and K'Shai found other ways to distract herself from thoughts about Ancients and Earth and the Yautja Way.
Young Sr'uch-de had been selected first during his trial day and was well received by a capable Elite Leader named T'nuk-de. It was a good match, at least R'chnt had seemed to believe. K'Shai was grateful that all of her offspring had been selected by capable hunters and had their chance to be Blooded and accepted into the Yautja life far easier than she thought it would be for them.
A'ryin'di and El'tude spent little time on the homeworld during the hunting season, as typical for any hunter. They did not communicate with her, and the only way she had to even hope that they were still alive and hunting well was that she had not heard any news to the otherwise. No news is good news, after all. The same as usual with Sr'uch-de. K'Shai would know how his blooding hunt turned out when he returned back to the homeworld one way or another.
After two other offspring going through selections and blooding hunts, she would have thought that going through the third one would be at least easier, but yet somehow it was not. So much of K'Shai's time was spent keeping occupied in other ways, so she did not need to focus on what was happening with any of her offspring as the remainder of the hunting season passed.
Slowly, Clan ships started to return. Eager Blooded hunters who had survived their first or twentieth hunts and earn mates returned to the Clan to boast their injuries, trophies, and male endowments and win the interest of females. A'ryin'di was the first of their offspring to return and she greeted her mother with a respectful nod and a proud stature.
K'Shai resisted her natural urge to fling her arms around her only daughter's neck and welcome her back, and instead offered a Yautja greeting; a hand on the shoulder.
"A'ryin'di, you have hunted with Honor;" K'Shai offered her a proud greeting to her child.
"The hunting has been rewarding." She replied.
The two females headed off through the clan city, departing from R'chnt.
"Have my brothers returned?"
"No. Not yet I am still waiting for any word on Sr'uch-de's hunt, and I don't know when El'tude plans to return."
"I saw Sr'uch-de barely a week ago. I am surprised he has not yet returned."
K'Shai eyed her widely.
"You saw your brother? Where? How?"
A'ryin'di chuckled softly at her mother's unchanging excitement for her offspring.
"We connected on the hunting world Kuch'ar. He has received his Blooding mark. His pack was eager for another chance to hunt so they stopped there briefly. We had just finished our hunt."
K'Shai beamed.
"It's good to know that. Thank you. And what of you? Have you returned with your group just for a little while, or do you plan to take a mate?"
A'ryin'di huffed a bit.
"I am not sure yet. I supposed that depends on what males return from the hunt," she laughed softly.
K'Shai pressed her lips into a thin smile.
"Well, I am sure you will find one that's impressive enough. I have no doubts that both of your brothers will return and be able to take mates too."
"What of you, mother? Do you plan to hunt again soon?"
K'Shai raised her eyebrows and took in a long, slow breath. "Mmm... "she rumbled thoughtfully. "I'm not sure what we're going to do next season. I'm just eager to see all three of you together again… at least for a while."
It was days longer before Sr'uch-de's clan ship finally returned.
"K'Shai!" R'chnt growled with amusement. "You look as if you are standing on hot welds."
"I'm… am I?" She noticed she was fidgeting on the spot. "I wasn't even aware. I just am eager to see our youngest return, I suppose."
"Clearly," he purred deeply, standing tall and proud beside her.
He had just come off a sparring session and the late evening suns were glistening a thin layer of sweat all over his body, giving him almost a golden hue. She smiled softly, looking sideways up at him and then turning back towards the platform where hunters were arriving into the clan from the landing zones.
"Ah! There he is!" K'Shai announced sharply.
She had to take a long, deep breath to compose herself and keep control so she did not simply run over to him and squeeze him. No matter how many times she told herself to stop doing it, the need to hug was just too far ingrained into her nature to ever be shoved aside. She did of course, manage to pull together her Yautja composure and stride over casually to her offspring, with her mate at her side.
Much to her shock, it was Sr'uch-de who unabashedly reached down and hugged her, nearly smothering her with his mighty grip.
K'Shai eyed him widely as he straightened up, scanning his body for scars and wounds, of which she only saw three slight ones along his thigh. He noticed her looking at them and proudly pointed out how he gotten them.
"It was a ma'rtaunga that did this to me. The one I was hunting was clever. I never saw the other two coming from the sides. One of them was on me before I knew it."
He patted a satchel on his back.
"But, I got all them, mother. Father. It was exciting. How challenging such small creatures can be."
"Ah! Not like those giant bu'tai, no? Those slow, lumbering things… hardly a challenge," called a friend of Sr'uch-de in a teasing fashion as he strode over and plunked down a trophy satchel next to the group and nodded to both R'chnt and K'Shai.
"This is G'ru," Sr'uch-de introduced his friend and hunting companion who showed both R'chnt and K'Shai all the respect that a young freshly Blooded hunter should rightly show experienced hunters and respected elders.
"You hunted bu'tai on your Blooding hunt?" K'Shai questioned with surprise.
"We did," her youngest nodded in acknowledgement.
R'chnt dipped his head approvingly. "A worthy prey to earn the Mark upon."
"Yes, and I managed to hunt mine down without falling over a cliff!" Sr'uch-de said busting out in laughter and leaning into his friend with a teasing nudge.
K'Shai smiled softly. G'ru did not seem in the least bit embarrassed as he proudly showed off the long scrape down the entire left side of his body. His armor was ground into and etched, and his skin had healed in a lacy sort of fashion.
"Those rocks were quite the challenge!" He howled.
It was a little surprising to see a hunter so blatantly care-free about such a situation especially before two Yaujta of prestige, but the young hunter truly did not seem to mind at all. What he said next made K'Shai understand why.
"Well, at least with my bu'tai meat on my back and a Blooding mark on my head, I am ready to seek out F'arauch-de to start my engineering apprentice!"
G'ru looked right at R'chnt, as if he owed him some kind of further explanation.
"Not the Hunter's life for me!" He said in a subtly apologetic tone.
R'chnt nodded. "I have no doubts you will make a fine ship builder."
G'ru headed off after departing ways with his friend.
"Well, I'm sure you have matters to tend to," K'Shai started. "El'tude and A'ryin'di are both around somewhere as well."
"Good! I want to speak with them both," Sr'uch-de said.
"Mother, Father, I will see you both later!"
"... and he's off." K'Shai mumbled at the back of their youngest disappearing into the crowds of the clan square.
"K'Shai," R'chnt beckoned with a squeeze of her shoulder, "come, let us head to the soaking houses."
"I could use a nice hot soak myself," she nodded with a brimming smile.
The soak was nice. The mating it led into was even better. Getting to spend time with all three of her offspring, even if not necessarily all at once, was also wonderful to K'Shai who watched her progeny with pride as they told their stories, joked and sparred with friends, showed off to peers and rivals, and tried to woo mates.
El'tude, large and robust, was willing to take on anyone at all, and everyone seemed to quickly learn it. Smaller males gave him a wide berth while larger males that thought they could handle him kept him occupied for what seemed like endless hours of the day in sparring combats, not to the death of course, just to show off.
Each male that challenged El'tude was hoping they could win a mate by proving they could best him. Each male failed. It was clear that El'tude had inherited his sire's fighting abilities and intelligence. His size was another matter entirely. He certainly did not inherit that from his mother.
"Does he ever get tired?" K'Shai said after watching him spar for nearly an hour straight.
R'chnt tipped his head and looked at her then back to their son. "Let's hope not."
She smiled.
He looked over to the sidelines and commented, "He's definitely drawing attention of young females. He's also drawing the attention of some noteworthy Leaders."
"...and every male with an ego to prove himself," K'Shai added.
"Well, that's every male." R'chnt said quickly.
K'Shai bust out laughing. R'chnt drew his tusks back into an amused smile.
"Oh you're right about that."
"I imagine our son will have more than a few mates by the end of this breeding cycle."
"I hope so," K'Shai whispered with pride.
The days passed slowly and quickly at the same time. Before the breeding season had
ended, it was confirmed that El'tude had sired three offspring; a truly proud accomplishment for a hunter as young as he. K'Shai imagined that his size and strength had a lot to do with it, not to mention a bit of prestige being the only breeding age male with his particular bloodlines. It made K'Shai feel great pride that her offspring were faring so well, and in demand.
Although A'ryin'di made a choice not to breed this particular season, she did confirm to her mother that she had intentions on breeding at some point. She certainly had plenty of interest from highly honored, well bred males.
Sr'uch-de, having completed his Blooding trials, spent much of his home time training with his new pack and Leader, sparring and planning for another long hunt. She rarely saw him. Ironically, even though it was his elder siblings that she had deemed less likely to see, K'Shai and R'chnt were graced with frequent visits from both of them, while young Sr'uch-de kept himself occupied away from his parents' abode.
It was for this reason K'Shai was most surprised when A'ryin'di and El'tude arrived to their sire's hunting estate with fresh kills, drinks, and news that they had been requested to be present.
"You were?" K'Shai asked them, glancing with a pleased surprise at R'chnt.
"Some kind of surprise party?" She asked him teasingly.
"I know as little about this as you, my mate." He confirmed with a dismissive shrug.
"Really?"
"Wait, you didn't know? Did he not tell you?" A'ryin'di questioned.
"Did who tell us what?"
El'tude nodded towards the rear side of the home and K'Shai and R'chnt turned their heads to see their youngest child striding up to them with eagerness.
"Sr'uch-de!" His mother cried with happiness.
He greeted her with an enveloping hug and greeted his sire with a deep bow and strong shoulder squeeze.
"Good. We're all here!" He said promptly.
"We are. You did this?" K'Shai questioned.
"I thought we could all do with a bit of a meal together." Sr'uch-de said with a nod.
K'Shai smiled and watched her family interact, eat, talk, spar. She sat with a thin smile throughout much of the afternoon and night, saying very little. R'chnt eventually crept over to her, sitting down tightly next to her with a heavy arm extended over shoulders. She nestled into him and between his body warmth and the heat of the fire nearby, she felt warm and content.
"You seem distant, K'Shai…" he said.
"I just… it's really nice to have everyone here like this." She whispered.
"So surprising!" She added with a beaming smile and raised eyebrows. "There's just something so…. Familiar about this."
"As the time we spent hunting with A'ryin'di and El'tude when they were younger…" He said with a slightly confirming tone.
She shook her head softly. "No, not exactly, just … something else, I suppose. All of us together like this. It's just nice. I could live in this moment for ...oh, the rest of my life maybe."
She smiled deeply and tucked herself tightly into him, taking a moment to watch the heat ripples of the fire dance across the horizon under the moons.
In a short while, their three offspring made their way to the fire as well to sit, drink, and continue on reminiscing of their past hunts they had all experienced already.
"It has been a good hunt. Many good hunts," El'tude exclaimed.
"It had indeed," A'ryin'di confirmed.
All eyes looked towards Sr'uch-de as if they were waiting on him to agree with the popular opinion, but instead he looked back at all them and then his eyes settled on his mother.
"It has been an excellent hunting season," he did confirm. "And I am grateful for all of you taking time away from your business to join together like this. And now I'd like to ask you all for more of that time."
He was met with a curious silence.
"Breeding season has ended. Soon Leaders and young hunter and unblooded will venture out to begin the hunt once again. But I would propose a different adventure, for us all."
"Sr'uch-de, what do you have in mind?" A'ryin'di asked.
He tipped his head towards his sister and then to El'tude.
"As I had been hunting, I had also been given the opportunity to study and learn." He said. "I spent so much time between hunting worlds learning as much as I could. There were two elites in my pack that were willing to teach me more than what I learned at the mei'sa. They were eager to teach me, and also eager to learn about me. But they asked me questions I did not know the answers to."
K'Shai looked at him curiously and then to R'chtn with a slightly worried facial expression.
"So it made me think about my origins."
He paused. K'Shai glanced again to R'chnt, who seemed to simply be quietly processing the discussion. He did glance towards her as the discussion continued.
"When my siblings were younger, they were taught in different ways. I know this much, as I have heard all kinds of stories."
"Oh, I'm sure what you've heard isn't even half of it." K'Shai muttered with a nervous chuckle.
"It's true that A'ryin'di and El'tude were raised…. Differently… than you were.," K'Shai said with a hint of pride in that fact.
"What exactly are you planning," R'chnt finally spoke up, eyeing his youngest offspring.
Sr'uch-de bowed his head deeply as his sire questioned him, then looked to his siblings and mother.
"I was raised differently. I was raised as a Yautja. A proper Yautja." He said. "A'ryin'di and El'tude both speak, read, and write the human language as well as the Yautja language. They were taught different ways and I was not. And yet, none of us have seen or been to the homeworld that half of our heritage comes from."
K'Shai raised her eyebrows in alarm and eyed Sr'uch-de.
"You want to go to Earth?!" She gasped.
"Why not? I want to see where it is that you… that half of my heritage… comes from." Sr'uch-de said simply.
"I think it's an interesting idea." A'ryin'di added in quickly.
"We were taught many things about the human half of our bloodlines," El'tude said, as if simply thinking out loud. "In the mei'sa, we all learned and heard stories about the infestation, the war, why hunting on Earth is forbidden…"
"The others would look to us," A'ryin'di added quietly, "as if we somehow knew first hand all about it, or had some connection or deep knowledge of Earth."
"I experienced that too," Sr'uch-de said with an unexpected burst. "They were always curious about me, about us all; all of the other juveniles. But we did not know any more than we were told."
"And what do you expect to learn if you go to Earth?" R'chnt asked.
"How can we know until we go?" Sr'uch-de responded aptly cryptically.
All eyes turned to K'Shai who had been quietly listening to the conversation while filling her mind with rampant thoughts.
"The point you are making is valid." She said in response to silently questioning eyes all upon her. "I can understand that you might want to go see Earth, experience it for yourselves. But it is absolutely off limits …"
"For hunting!" El'tude interrupted.
"Not to just simply go so." A'ryin'di concluded.
"Especially not for you, mother." Sr'uch-de finalized.
She looked between her two elder offspring and then to R'chnt, and back to them again. "And neither of you knew what he had intended for tonight?"
They chuckled.
"No. But I do think it's a great idea." A'ryin'di responded.
"You taught us so much about our human heritage, while Sr'uch-de learned none of it." She continued.
Sr'uch-de looked at her and the tone in his voice changed. "Do you not want to return there, mother?"
She eyed him widely as if he himself were the embodiment of something she did not want to face. Suddenly her heart skipped several beats, her pulse jumped up and she felt her throat close. R'chnt clearly sensed the response, though she was not sure if her offspring picked up on it or not.
He shuffled to his fee saying, "This is something we must discuss," as he did so, and extended out a hand to his mate and offered her assistance up to her own feet.
"Stay. Hunt. Utilize the grounds as you wish." He said to their offspring and then they turned and headed inside, making their way up to the bedroom where K'Shai promptly and quietly plopped down on the edge of the bed and stared up at the moons far above.
"You do not wish to do this, K'Shai?" R'chnt asked softly as he slid onto the bed next to her.
She shrugged and eyed him. "I… just….I don't see the point. They are supposed to be Yautja. You were right. All along, you know. We raised El'tude and A'ryin'di wrong. We raised them the way I thought they should be raised, against the Yaujta way, and we…. I … was wrong. Look what it got me. And I'm surprised that it's Sr'uch-de that's the one that actually wants to go to Earth."
"Why?" He asked of her.
"Well… he was not raised with human ideals… he was encouraged to be a true Yautja, and that's exactly what he is. Why would he want to go to Earth?"
"Why would he not? Lineage is important to all Yautja. Lineage is what makes us. Understanding that lineage, knowing the blood that runs in you, that is part of being Yautja. You cannot deny their heritage… or even your own, K'Shai to make yourself more of something you are not."
She signed deeply and slowly.
"You know… you sound a lot like the Ancients." She mumbled quickly.
"That is an honor." He responded.
She formed a small smile from the corner of her lips and stood up, walked across the floor of their bed chambers and opened the bottom drawer of a dresser on the far wall.
The panel beeped softly as she tapped the button to pop the drawer open and she bent down to pick up the contents, but paused before doing so, studying the object before she grasped it.
She held up the small tracker, which was blinking. It was still receiving a signal of its counterpart homing device, planted in a pendant she had given away so long ago she had nearly forgotten about it all until the memories came flooding back to her.
Turning towards R'chnt with the tracker dangling off the short chain from her finger, she looked at him.
"It still works."