Imperial Guard – 005 Ethos of Solbrecht
Chapter 1 Schism
Author's note: I believe a fair warning is in order for this episode, which is the second part of a two-parter that began with 'Homestead'. Again I will dive deep into Mantrin culture. There will be fun moments, but also moments of grief, pain and graphic violence, hence the content rating. I'm going to kick things up a notch, although the full uncensored version will still be restricted to AO3.
This is the censored version of the story which tones down the 'intimacy' between characters. For the full uncensored version, you should visit my page on AO3 (Archive of Our Own).
Bear McCreary - Battlestar Galactica Season 1 - Main Title (US version): youtube /watch?v=pGeH6E2RIaQ
The galaxy isn't what you'd call a friendly place. Some situations require what I describe as special treatment. My crew and I have been selected to handle these cases in the name of the Emperor. For we serve the most powerful military organization in the quadrant: The Imperial Guard.
The blow to the back of his head came so unexpected, and with such force that it even dulled his reflexes. He managed to catch the brunt of his weight with his knees and elbows, yet couldn't prevent the side of his head from making rough contact with the wooden floor with a loud thud. Collapsing on the floor as what he guessed had to look like a lifeless sack of meat and bones, all he managed to bring out was an agonizing groan.
"Wait!" the same female voice rang in his ears as the image of large clawed feet on a rough wooden floor turned into a blur. "I believe Le'tan's parents would like to have a word with him."
Failing in his initial attempt to get up, Raeth felt how strong hands picked up his body under his armpits and twisted him on his back, cancelling out his own efforts. He was glad his tail found its way between his legs as whoever it was began to drag his body out of the room. He or she was breathing heavily, the wood creaking under the heavy steps of feet that had to carry about half his weight in addition to that of their owner. He heard Le'tan shouting in protest, but the sounds that should've been words held no meaning to him in his current state.
It didn't take long before he was dragged out of the building, the bright afternoon sun stinging with the ferocity of acid. Closing his eyes, he tried to focus on anything but his stomach feeling like it was doing somersaults, or the throbbing pain in the back of his head. Ashia's kind face. The bright smiles of Fran and Trynn. Yimeh's sweet smile. His parents. His crew. Somehow they were able to alleviate the physical pain and substitute it for a different feeling. Failure.
Can't… give up.
Without a drop of strength left in his muscles, he peeked through squinted eyes to watch what had to be his own legs being dragged over Solbrecht's grass-covered soil. The world around him looked like a spinning blur. Unable to resist, and unable to hold on to the here and now, he gave in as unconsciousness swallowed him.
Watching Raeth's body being dragged off by the largest of the bunch in horror, Le'tan prepared to receive the same treatment. But instead of a blow to the back of his head, like his superior received without any kind of compassion, rough hands grabbed his arms as the still nameless woman called it off.
"Just let him go! He did nothing wrong!"
Clacking her tongue, the woman shook her head as she stepped toward him, bringing her muzzle close to his as she stared deep into his eyes. She spoke in a calm tone of voice, though with an edge of resentment.
"You see, that's where we seem to have a difference of opinion. He is a traitor to his people, as much as you are."
"He is trying to save lives. Your lives! Did your hatred make all of you so blind that you can't even see that?"
"The abwot made her decision. But before your receive your punishment, your parents might want to see the person responsible for theirs." His stomach felt like it twisted itself into a knot the size of one of Solbrecht's moons. That which he had feared after making a successful escape, without considering every consequence of that action, had become reality. It was one of the reasons for his hesitation to return to his old home that he hadn't told Raeth or anyone else for that matter. "Wouldn't you like to see them? See what you've caused after you left?"
What happened next he did not anticipate. It was like a flame being ignited inside his chest, refusing to be controlled. It clouded all sense of reason as his muscles tensed, his teeth bared in a feral display of untamed rage.
"You filthy p'rats!" he roared.
The Mantrins holding him found themselves forced to put in a much greater effort of keeping him restrained, until the woman's hand raked across his muzzle, drawing blood as the unsheathed claws cut into his flesh.
"Don't take that tone with me! Now walk."
A little dazed, stumbling forward with uneasy steps as he was pushed in the back by one of the Mantrins trailing him, he followed the Sogowan Mantrinesse outside. Looking at his stained fingertips after touching the sore side of his muzzle, his breathing became shallow as his hearts started to beat like they wanted to escape through his throat. Caught in the grip of his own fear, he followed the woman's sweeping tail in a trance-like state, as his own dragged behind him.
He didn't even pay any attention to where she led him, the people around him going about their everyday lives. In the greater scheme of things, his own situation paled into insignificance compared to what he and Raeth wanted to protect. Wanted to achieve by coming here. But as the memories came back, his rational mind was clouded by the thought of all that had happened in his absence. He had put his old life behind him. Buried it to make a fresh start far away from all that threatened to turn him into someone he did not want to be. And now he was right back in the middle of it all.
His body feeling as if it was being controlled by someone else, he stopped walking when the woman leading him did, finding himself standing in front of one of the communal homes, its appearance as inconspicuous as all the others. He stared right into the shared living space, plenty of light coming in from all sides as every wall panel was in its open state to prevent heat from being trapped inside. The roof panels were kept closed to keep the direct heat of the sun from entering, the outside temperature having reached levels where his poetyo began to stick to his skin in a couple of places.
"He's here!" she called inside, while knocking on the wooden frame around the entrance.
Figuring they had learned of his return and were temporarily relieved of their duties, he heard himself gasp when his mother and father turned to face him and descended the two steps of stairs to ground level. Closing his mouth against the quivering of his jaw, he found the expressions on their faces to be distant, cold even. Dressed in somewhat worn poetyo, aside from their skin showing a bit more spots and wrinkles, it were their left ears, severed as if by knife a mere fingerbreadth above the base, that turned his whole inside into ice.
"You should not have come back," his father spoke in an emotionless voice, resting his arms on his thighs.
With his captors continuing to keep watch from a distance and Raeth no longer on his side, he had not felt so vulnerable and alone since his escape. He might as well be facing complete strangers the way his parents' cold, accusing eyes pierced right through him.
"We were only trying to prevent another massacre," he tried to explain himself.
His claws dug into his thighs as he squeezed them, almost to the point of drawing blood. It was a poor attempt to give him something else to focus on than the resentment he felt radiating from those he could no longer call family.
"Your responsibility to your family and your community should have come first. Have you been taught nothing at all?" his mother spoke in the same emotionless tone, that same resentment giving it an edge that made his skin crawl.
His mother never had the kindest face, but her expression was particularly venomous, the way she narrowed her triangular eyes to mere slits. Baring her uneven teeth, her short pointy fangs added to the effect.
"I didn't want to be a part of all this hatred anymore."
"Selfish," she rolled over his words without so much as blinking.
"I've learned that you are about to receive punishment," his father said coolly. "Do you accept this?"
It was not like he had an actual choice. Accepting punishment, in this case, meant that he would admit to his mistake and submit to judgment by the tribe, to keep his family's honor intact. The severed ears of his parents were a clear signal that they had already received punishment in his place. By accepting his own, he could spare them further retribution.
"Yes. Yes, I accept."
A nod was all he received in return, before both his parents turned their back on him with a flick of their tails as they stepped back into the house.
"Erseh? Ahmo? I'd like to ask for your forgiveness. I didn't mean for you or anyone else to get hurt. I am here now to prevent just that."
Looking over his shoulder, his father's face still refused to show any emotion. Neither did his mother's when she did the same. His voice sounded colder than the arctic winds of Hotor.
"You are not my son."
'Hang them', ambiguous as the term hanging was, could've meant a variety of things. Back in school, Raeth had learned that humans, in their remarkably violent past, sometimes hung people by a noose around their necks as punishment for a crime. This resulted in a rather quick release from their corporeal forms. A merciful death, that in his people's eyes was not considered punishment. In Solbrecht's traditional communities, 'hanging' meant being tied up by the wrists to a thick tree branch, or some Mantrin-made substitute, to be left at the mercy of the sun.
Solbrecht's sun had been called a murderer by many, including members of his own kind. Heatstroke was a common condition in midsummer and resulted in hundreds of deaths planetwide every solar cycle, despite cleverly designed residences and access to sufficient clean water, modern conveniences such as air-conditioning, cooling vests and ice cream, and the way his species had evolved to deal with the heat.
He was now going to find out how cruelly indifferent this source of light and warmth, that could as easily bring life, as well as take it, could be. Not many branches could hold the weight of an adult Mantrin without breaking, especially if said Mantrin used his or her strength to try and escape. The ones in charge of punishment at Le'tan's community had therefore built their own contraption for this purpose. Located close to the building where he and Le'tan had been locked up, they built something that looked like a swing set without the swings in the middle of a square patch of grass, surrounded by thick hedges of about three steps tall.
His ankles fitted with ropes attached to large boulders, to prevent him from trying to gain momentum to pull himself free, they tied him to the overhanging beam by his wrists in his dazed state, using thick ropes made from strong rough plant fibers. Regaining some form of consciousness, the ropes already chafed his wrists as the brunt of his considerable weight had been pulling on his arms.
Taking a look around, the hedges surrounded him on all sides, the ones in front of him overlapping with the exit of the square so no one could catch a glimpse inside from any angle without walking in. Having left only the bottom part of his poetyo on, the sun mercilessly burned on his skin already. A full day of this would turn him into a crisp before the evening.
He recognized only one of the three Mantrins that were with him from before. Another was still checking if all the knots had been tightly secured, while the third studied him from a distance until Nenaii walked in, her subordinates greeting her with a respectful nod. He did not expect to see the woman with the red flower on her breast again, yet she came to him with a look on her face that he interpreted as disappointment. Still, he could not suppress the anger he felt toward her as she stood before him with her hands on her upper knees.
"What happened to 'we're not savages'?" he growled, taking heavy breaths.
Gnawing on her lip, Nenaii flattened an ear as she pondered the question, her tail moving with short calm flicks behind her back.
"Yes, well there has to be some kind of punishment for runners and traitors, don't you agree?"
Raeth let out a strained chuckle, not even sure why he did. In his opinion, people who used the word 'traitor' always seemed to reserve it for those who didn't share their ideas. Those who dared to oppose them. This was another one of those cases.
"What part of me makes me a traitor? I came here, trying to save lives. You are willing to waste those of your own people to get your point across."
"Listen to me very carefully," she snarled, pointing a clawed finger. "You are not from around here. I recognize that accent of yours anywhere. You're from Sogowa Prime, aren't you? What do you know about what's happening on our world?"
He shook his head.
"You're wrong. I grew up here. For nineteen solar cycles I watched this world being torn apart by all this hatred. I came back, and nothing has changed!"
"Then you are a traitor!" she bit back. "You should've been here to support our cause. Our people have the right to live where they see fit, without interference from these aliens. This is our world!"
Somehow he enjoyed the confusion that crept along her face when he began to laugh. It was a laugh without much joy, but a laugh, nonetheless.
"You know, it's funny. But you almost sound like my own erseh."
Nenaii snorted, shaking off some of her confusion with a sigh.
"Then at least he did his best to raise his son well."
"You're from Wyr'Mo'Gwi, aren't you?"
She shrugged.
"I suppose you could say that. But we don't use that name anymore. Consider us, all of us fighting for this cause, 'the people'. It is our task to protect Solbrecht against those who cause harm to it, as it has always been. Until some of us became indifferent to our beliefs. Their minds tainted with the ideas of these aliens. These humans. Think about that."
With those words she turned her back on him and left together with all others, without so much as one more miserable look. He didn't know how long they were going to keep him hanging like this. They had not returned Le'tan to his side, which worried him. Because he was a former member of their community, he might receive a different kind of punishment.
It didn't take long before he was sweating profusely in the murdering heat that baked his skin like an oven. He watched the droplets fall from the tip of his muzzle. Felt it run in little streams down his back and chest, soaking his bottom poetyo. With every passing millicycle, and it couldn't have been that many already, he felt his thirst grow as his mouth turned dry. It almost made him want to lick up the sweat that ran over his lips, knowing its salty taste would only increase the thirst.
He felt like his brain, which was being cooked inside his aching skull, was about to give out when he heard a rustle of the hedges near the entrance. A small Sogowan Mantrinesse walked in, a curious look on her face as she studied him like a specimen in a zoo. She looked a bit scrawny for her species, though rather average in every other aspect, apart from her long tail.
"So you're the other one they found," she stated, drawing in closer as if to get a better look. Her face contorted in what looked like pity, though her voice did not quite reflect it. She almost sounded amused. "What's your name?"
Not sure what this was all about, and unable to think straight anyway, Raeth answered in a neutral tone.
"Raeth."
"I'm Maylii. Ow, you look thirsty. And you're sweating a lot. Would you like some water?"
He sighed.
"That would be nice, yes. Unless it's poisoned."
Maylii let out a dry laugh.
"Don't worry, it's not. Wait right here."
"It's not like I'm going anywhere in the meantime," he thought, wondering if this woman was even in her right mind.
Or maybe his own brain had already been steamed to the point of no longer being able to understand anyone or anything correctly. Wondering if what she was doing was even authorized, the large wooden bucket of water she returned with looked like a gift from Solbrecht's skies itself. Maylii smiled, holding up the bucket to a height where he was able to dip his whole head into it, which he almost did, the way he started gulping down the contents.
The cool crystal clear water seemed to refresh his entire body. Panting loudly, his chest heaving after removing his head from the bucket, he had drunk about a quarter of it, and it was the best thing he had ever tasted in his life. What Maylii did next he did not anticipate, throwing part of the contents over his chest. He groaned in relief, then continued to pant as it soaked his glowing skin. Walking around him she repeated the act, throwing the remainder of the water over his bare back and part of his legs. If he could've fallen on his knees to thank her, he would have.
"Myr… myrsya," he breathed.
"My pleasure," Maylii said joyfully, putting the bucket down. "Don't worry about wasting it. There's plenty more where that came from." Asking about the reason why she was doing all this did cross his mind, but the relief was so great he could do nothing but savor the moment. With the amount of water he drank he might even make it through the day. "You're quite handsome," Maylii remarked as she appeared before him again, her voice getting a lustful tone all of a sudden. "It's a good thing I came before you were all flaky and blistery. That sun will kill you slowly, but before it does you'll turn real ugly first."
Touching her hand to the wet skin of his thigh she walked over to his other side, sliding it up to his upper knee, then back to where it met his hip. When she began to rub the base of his tail, he couldn't help but purr at what should've been pleasure, yet his mind refused to give in to it completely.
"What're you doing?" he demanded to know.
Maylii seemed rather fascinated with the base of his tail, as well as his hips, which she started to massage with her hands as she drew closer to him, until she almost sat on top of his tail. Moving her hands up to his torso, she suddenly hugged herself against him, rubbing her cheek to his wet skin.
"You smell good," she whispered.
Curling her arms under his armpits she caressed her claws over his chest, their tips feeling like the tickle of feathers. Feeling the moist warmth of her breath as she breathed down his back, she repeated the act as she licked the water off his skin between his shoulder blades. Gasping at the chills it induced, recalling how Ashia used to do the same during their most intimate of moments, he was almost about to surrender to it. Almost. Until he realized this was not Ashia, but some crazy woman abusing his perilous and defenseless position to commit an immoral act. There was no way he could enjoy something like that at all.
"I would prefer it if you'd stop doing that," he said calmly, craning his neck to look over his shoulder past his tied up arm.
Instead of obeying, she purred with pleasure as she rose up on her legs and covered his back with her saliva as she continued to lick.
"I've never met a man like you," she drawled.
"I already have a mate. Now get off me!"
His harsh tone caused her to stop rubbing his chest, keeping her hands in place on top of the well-developed muscle. Feeling the tip of her muzzle prodding between his shoulder blades, he tried to shake her off.
"Why? You don't like me?" she asked with a girlish voice.
"I have a mate. Her name is Ashia."
For a few ticks he continued to feel the soft touch of her lips on his skin. The wetness of her tongue as she gave him one last lick before her voice turned poisonous.
"Then remember her face."
The claws resting on his chest turned from the touch of feather tips into piercing hot blades as they sunk deep into his flesh. Clenching his teeth as he sucked in his breath, he looked down to see rivers of blood form forked patterns over his chest and belly. A low growl began to rise from his throat and swelled into a deafening roar that startled a small flock of birds into leaving the branches of the nearest tree.
Had Maylii appeared to be a compassionate, though rather strange young woman at first sight, her transformation into the monster that now sat on his back twisted his stomach once more. Leaning over his shoulder, her added weight made his arms feel like they were being pulled out of their sockets. The demonic look in her eyes and sadistic tone of her voice were the finishing touches.
"We are going to kill every last human on our world," she hissed into his ear, her claws buried into his shoulders. "Solbrecht's soil will taste their blood and that of traitors like you."
"You're… insane," he growled through gritted teeth.
Letting herself slide down his back, he roared again as she dug her claws into it, drawing deep bleeding gashes on her way down to her feet.
"It is because of you," she panted. "Your fraternizing with their kind, that they come here to desecrate our world. Defile our sacred grounds."
"How do you even sleep at night?" Raeth groaned, feeling tiny streams crawl over his back and tail. With his head starting to drop he watched the grass turn redder with every drop. "Treating even your own people like this?"
"All traitors are to be punished and executed. I'll make sure that this is the last time you'll ever betray your own kind again."
Another earsplitting roar left his throat as she rammed her claws into his back. He was beginning to fear he would bleed to death before Solbrecht's sun could claim him if she kept this up. The grass below his feet looked like a nauseating carpet. With his back and chest feeling like they were on fire, the hedges in front of him turned into a green smudge, the ropes tying him to the overhead beam chafing his wrists as his legs started to shake.
Panting hoarsely, his jaws hurting from grinding his teeth together, he watched droplets of spittle fall from his mouth, together with the sweat that ran down his face in little streams. Maylii appeared in front of him, her claws dripping, her poetyo stained with tiny spots of red. Panting like a predator after chasing down its prey, her eyes held a sparkle of madness as she circled around him to study the results, a malicious grin plastered on her face.
The hedges near the entrance rustled, her ears and tail twitching as she turned her head toward them with a tug while doing a step back. Shaking his head in an attempt to lose his dizziness, Raeth watched in horror as he tried to focus on what had to be Le'tan, being escorted in by three Mantrins, recognizing only one of them by what had to be the red flower on her breast. Trudging toward him, the left shoulder of his chest poetyo stained dark red, Le'tan was held back by his captors, the command coming from Nenaii. Her face slowly turned into a combination of anger and disgust as she took in the scene in front of her.
"What is the meaning of this?" she bellowed, approaching Maylii at a threatening pace, her size compared to hers causing the smaller woman to recoil.
"Relax Nenaii," Maylii said rather casually, bowing down to wipe her hands on the grass. "I was just toying around a bit."
"This has nothing to do with toying around!" Nenaii shouted, her tail whipping the air with such ferocity that it distorted her balance. "This is indulging yourself in the pain of others!"
"What do you care anyway? You ordered for them to be punished, did you not?"
With a loud roar, Nenaii dashed toward the smaller Mantrinesse and grabbed her by her poetyo. Before Maylii even got the chance to resist, she found herself slammed against the ground by the stronger woman, a gargled scream escaping her mouth as Nenaii dug a knee under her ribs, one hand squeezing her throat.
"You disgust me!" she shouted in Maylii's face. Releasing her victim from her iron grip as she started to wheeze, Nenaii towered above her, planting her foot on Maylii's tail, digging her toe claws into it. "This is the second time you've pulled something like this! If I catch you doing anything like this again then so help me, I will kill you myself!"
Writhing in agony, Maylii didn't dare to retaliate, her hands grabbing at her pinned tail as her eyes bulged out of their sockets, her poetyo further stained with drops of blood oozing from one of Nenaii's nostrils.
Stepping off the tail, the expression on Nenaii's face softened, anger making room for confusion as she touched the back of her index finger to her nose, and stared at her own blood in fascination. Meanwhile, Maylii scrambled back on her feet with a groan, flinching as she swayed her tail to see if she could still walk.
"Now look what you made me do," Nenaii grunted, irritated after finding out that the red flower stuck between two strips of her chest poetyo had lost a few petals.
"F-Forgive my-"
"Get outta my sight!" Nenaii barked without looking at her, removing her flower and rolling its stem between her fingertips as her long pointy ears lowered in disappointment. Her eyes still narrowed to slits, she waited for the stumbling Maylii to disappear before she looked at him. Raeth could swear he saw a hint of remorse in her slanted almond-shaped eyes, though this did not translate into an apology. Not that it would make much sense. Heaving a sigh, she gestured at the empty space next to him with her beak. "Tie him up."
Squinting in an attempt to sharpen the image of Le'tan, his gasp became a cough as his crewman stood before him while his captors prepared the ropes for tying him to the thick overhead beam in the same fashion, as well as those for around his ankles for the set of boulders. His mouth slightly agape, his eyes dulled to the point of looking like those of a blind man, Le'tan didn't even seem aware that the greater part of his left ear was missing, leaving nothing but a stump, coagulated trails of red covering the side of his face.
Not long after that, he was tied up next to him, the top part of his poetyo piled in front of his feet, exposing his back and shoulders to the heat of day. Without a word their captors left, one of them being scolded for snickering by Nenaii as they disappeared behind the hedges.
"So this is it," Le'tan muttered with a hollow voice after a short while. "This is what's become of my home. My people. Revolutionaries, shedding the blood of everyone who opposes them. I'm sorry, Raeth."
"Don't be," he croaked, his throat feeling like it had been treated with sandpaper. "We agreed on this together. You didn't know this. Neither of us did. Let me be honest with you. This whole situation is scaring the living daylights out of me. What is about to transcend concerns us all."
The ropes creaked under Le'tan's attempt to shift his position to reduce his comfort. Without much luck, judging by his strained breathing and the soft groan that escaped his mouth.
"It's like they've gone mad."
Raeth sighed.
"No, they're driven by hatred. Which arguably makes it even worse." He coughed once, spitting on the ground in front of him to force the foul taste out of his mouth. "Though on a one to ten madness scale, I'd say Maylii is about a twelve."
With the sun continuing its relentless treatment, turning the blood that caked to his skin into an itching crust, his body started to feel numb as his mind began to concoct the worst possible outcome. I beg of you, Kirliya the Enlightened, do not let this happen to your children.
Salu and Moa
With the sun having reached its highest point, the second day at his brother's new home had so far been uneventful, despite the rough welcome the day before and the condition of his patient. Together with Moa, Salu had been able to stabilize Dahru's condition with what he had brought with him. With the fresh ingredients procured in record time by the members of the community, he was able to harness their powerful medicinal properties to fashion a medicine in the traditional spirit of the people he found himself in the middle of.
Having visited a number of such communities in his younger cycles, this one did not differ in any significant way from others in the region. He and Moa had changed clothes, the members of the community providing them with poetyo, as they had insisted on the first day that they would lose the human body coverings as well as making it very clear that it was forbidden to speak their tongue. Not that he minded the first with the current temperatures, the sweltering afternoon heat much more tolerable with the airy cloth wrappings, as they wandered the grounds around the village together.
"It almost feels like home," his companion said in a joyful tone as she inspected the claws of her right hand. Speeding ahead to make it to the cover of a nearby fruit-bearing tree, she leaned with her back against its trunk, taking a deep breath as she slumped against it. "We've been wearing nothing but our uniforms for so long."
"This is your standard attire back on Sogowa Prime, isn't it?" he asked, following her example by picking one of the oval orange fruits from the tree.
"Yep, although those of my tribe are a little less frugal," she replied while throwing her hair back. "We like to decorate them. Though this is still better than those human clothes, if you ask me." Bowing forward to prevent staining her poetyo, she bit into the succulent fruit with a soft groan of delight, its juice gulfing over her clawed hand. "Though I kinda liked my pink, what was it called, a blouse?" she asked, droplets of juice splattering from her mouth.
"Humans would say that you looked very lady-like," Salu said absent-mindedly, biting into his own fruit, then realizing his statement was not only complimentary, but rather flattering.
Hoping his skin already had a red tone from the humid heat, he averted her gaze, feeling his ears glow all of sudden. Clearing her mouth, Moa laughed in response.
"Myrsya. That's so nice of you to say. In this weather though, I still wouldn't want to wear anything but this." Biting into the fruit once more, juice dripping from the tip of her beak, she flicked an ear as she smiled while chewing. "Do you think humans could wear our poetyo? I'm sure they'd be more comfortable in this heat."
Taking another bite himself, Salu tried to picture a human woman in the same outfit as the girl standing right in front of him. Where it looked very natural on every member of his own species, humans, with their rather inflated sense of shame regarding their own appearance, would in his opinion look nothing less than ridiculous in the tan-colored cloth wrappings.
The part covering the chest and shoulders would look exactly the same, having more or less the appearance of a cropped sleeveless t-shirt composed of individual strips of cloth. The bottom part used the base of their tails to stay on, so it would have to be applied in a different way. On top of that it would cause abrasive discomfort between their legs and around the exposed private parts of their males.
"No, not really," he chuckled. Having eaten around the elongated seed in the middle of the fruit, Moa tossed it and licked the residual juice off of her fingers before bowing down to wipe her hand on the grass. After swatting at an insect that found itself attracted to the sweet scent, she stretched herself out as far as she could while yawning. In the meantime he had finished eating, letting his gaze wander over the village and the surrounding grounds until Moa decided to continue their stroll around the border by taking the lead.
They had decided to stick around for another day or two, to ensure Dahru would make a successful recovery. And so they had spent the major part of today observing and taking part in the tribe's daily activities, while checking up on their patient at regular intervals.
His brother's new home was a traditional community, like there were many others in this region. Despite a portion of its members coming from modern lives, they lived off the land like countless generations before them did, taking only what they needed to sustain themselves. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, apart from the harsh physical training during the hottest parts of the day. The members who had offered to search for the ingredients for Dahru's medicine had skipped training the day before, but now even his own brother and his mate took part in today's particularly grueling session.
"I don't get it," he thought out loud as they observed the return of a group of at least twenty trainees. Panting heavily from exhaustion, their poetyo drenched with sweat that gushed down their bodies in little streams, the group made their way to the lake to bathe and cool off. "The worst things that used to happen around here are epidemics and the occasional forest fire."
"Looks more like they're preparing to go to war," Moa remarked.
Having approached the lake, they watched the group enter the water while chattering amongst themselves, losing their poetyo and tossing the wet strips back on the shore after rinsing them out. Despite the weary looks on their faces, there was plenty of laughter and some of them appeared invigorated after their first splash, like it was all they needed to replenish their energy reserves.
Among a second returning group were Tyreann and Ailynn. Halting in front of them on their way to the lake, their chests heaving as they took heavy breaths, their faces showed nothing but satisfaction. Their poetyo soaked, the exposed parts of their bodies gleaming with sweat, their already impressive muscles bulged as the result of their workout.
"Whaddaya say? You wanna join us tomorrow?" Ailynn asked, a few drops of saliva falling from her bottom lip.
"Myrsya, but I'll pass," Salu answered, his nostrils pinching at the intense odor of sweat hanging around the both of them. He was more interested in their backs after Yuhwe's treatment on the day of their arrival. They had allowed him to tend to their wounds in the privacy of their communal home at the beginning of the evening, which in combination with their species' fast muscle repair and wound healing would ensure a quick recovery, provided they gave their bodies sufficient rest, which they hadn't been doing. "How're your backs holding up?"
"We're fine," his brother dismissed his worries. "I think it's bleeding a little, but we're gonna get some rest after we bathe."
"What're you training for?" Moa asked the burning question before Salu could.
"In case we need to defend ourselves," Tyreann answered, wiping the sweat off his brow with the palm of his hand. "The humans don't dare to show themselves around here anymore. But when they do we need to be prepared."
"Has that happened before?"
For that Tyreann looked at Ailynn, whose ears lowered in response, concern etching its lines at the corners of her muzzle.
"Not around here, fortunately. But we've heard disturbing rumors from our neighboring communities that some of them encountered humans armed with guns in the forests. We fear some of us have driven things too far and now the humans are retaliating."
"So that's what it's for," Tyreann closed the subject with an air of finality. "You wanna join us for a swim then?"
Looking at Moa, Salu noticed her ears jumped in response as she smiled.
"That doesn't sound too bad, actually," he answered for the both of them.
For the second time Moa and Salu shared a meeting circle with Tyreann and Ailynn during the evening meal. Where some preferred the privacy of the shared living space of their home, or even their own room, there were others who enjoyed the larger company of an entire group. The village bathed in torchlight and Solbrecht's two moons, one near full, the other a small sickle, shone bright in a clear sky, providing them with plenty of illumination. The bright flames of the four standing torches around their circle danced over their bodies and faces, changing skin colors and making it more difficult to determine the different races of some twenty other members of the community they shared the circle with.
This community, like many others in this region did not normally use fire for cooking and with temperature and humidity still at sweaty levels, they didn't need it for warmth either, so their meal consisted of fresh fish, strips of jerked simr meat as well as different sorts of fresh and dried fruits and raw vegetables. The strictly carnivorous Logri of the group sunk their teeth into raw fish and meat that the hunters and fishermen brought in earlier that day. The overall mood was joyous, the conversations light and even humorous on occasion. The loiskaa, a drink made from fermented loi berries, which grew plentiful in the surrounding area, contributed to this.
"I'm very grateful for what you're doing for us," Yunaii said as she munched on her food, which everyone was able to choose freely from a large number of gourds and wooden plates in the center of the circle. "Before you came, I thought he was going to die. He had gotten so weak."
"Dahru's responding very well to the treatment," Moa put her mind at ease for the umpteenth time since they met. "Don't worry. He'll pull through. He's been out of bed a few times today, if only to relieve himself." Giving her daughter, who sat between them on her knees, a little rub between her ears, the little girl's eyes flowed over with that same gratefulness when she looked at her. Leaving her food for what it was, the little Sogowan got up and wrapped her arms around her neck for a tight hug, almost knocking over her cup of loiskaa with her foot. "Your erseh will be all right, Ihka," Moa said warmly, touching her cheek to the girl's.
Rubbing her back and behind the base of one of her ears, she listened to her deep content purring in her right ear while answering with her own. After a short while Ihka let go, licking her cheek with a giggle. Rubbing the tip of her muzzle to the girl's, she laughed back.
"I like you, Moa."
"I like you too, Ihka. Shall we go see if your erseh would like some more food?"
"Yeah."
Watching Moa stand up and leave to follow the daughter of their patient to the separate house after fetching some more food from the gourds and plates, Salu gestured for Yunaii to join his side. Despite ensuring everyone that Dahru's condition wasn't contagious, they still decided to leave him there until he had fully recovered, with Yunaii taking temporary residence in one of the empty rooms instead of her regular home so she could be closer to her mate.
While she got up on her legs to grab some more food first, he looked at the source of the loud purring coming from his left, to find his brother and his mate basking in each other's arms. With Ailynn sitting in his lap, her tail draped over one of his legs, he had his arms wrapped around her as he moved from nuzzling in her neck to licking behind her ears, while his hands gingerly massaged her generously-sized breasts, his fingers further loosening the already untucked strips of her poetyo. Tyreann grinned back at him as he deeply breathed in her scent, gasping slightly as Ailynn stroked the inside of his thighs and reached further down.
"Shall we go?" Tyreann whispered, realizing they were slowly catching the attention of the others in the circle.
"Yes," she answered as she put his arms aside and rose back on her legs.
Salu caught a strong whiff of honey sweet pheromones reaching out to him as Ailynn's hand caressed his cheek. Laughing at him as she headed off with her mate, he watched them disappear through the entrance of their residence. Meanwhile Yunaii had joined his side, clearing her mouth when she noticed she had his attention.
"As for your earlier question. You'll have to ask Aiyee." She pointed at another young woman of her own Sogowan race, sitting two places away from them after Tyreann and Ailynn left. "She's our healer's assistant like Moa is yours. I believe you've already met."
"We did, yes."
Looking up, her ears jumping when she heard her name being called, Aiyee smiled before excusing herself from her current company. Aiyee was small for her race and a little pudgy, despite her still considerable muscle mass. Her short tail and leg segments contributed to her stocky build and her ears were disproportionately large and floppy, causing them to hang down a bit. She had a sweet smile and her slanted, somewhat narrowed eyes added to the kindness of her face.
"Hey," she greeted them as she sat down on her rump on Salu's left. "What's up?"
"Aiyee, are you comfortable in your current role as a healer's assistant? I got the impression from Kumah that you're having trouble adjusting."
"Nah, I'm okay with it," she replied, sipping from her cup of loiskaa that she brought with her. Stretching her flexible legs flat on the ground in front of her, her small tail rustled the grass with short flicks. "I came here about twelve seasons ago with my parents and older brother. I was a nurse at the hospital in Qhir'et before that."
"Really? Then you must've known my parents. Jal and Nirynn."
It brought him joy to see Aiyee smile upon hearing their names.
"Yes. Your erseh's such a kind-hearted hardworking man. And your ahmo guided me during my internship. We became good friends." The corners of her beak edged down in disappointment as she shook her head. "I didn't want to say goodbye to them, but we had to make our decision."
"Kumah told me your community's healer died of old age while still in the process of passing on his knowledge. Now Kumah's trying to teach you, but I understand he doesn't have that much experience either and there's no one else in your community who has."
Aiyee nodded. Slipping a pair of claws under the lowest strips of her chest poetyo to scratch, she put her cup down and sighed.
"Kumah studied to be a doctor when he still lived in the city. He's been able to help our sick and injured on several occasions, but he was still learning."
"Okay this is what I'm going to do. Tomorrow I'll teach you and Kumah some simple healing techniques for common ailments. You think you can spare some time for that?"
"That's so kind of you!" she said enthusiastically. "Myrsya. I can really tell you're a son of your parents."
Pretty sure he was blushing, given the way his ears and cheeks felt like they were glowing, he tried to hide it by taking another sip of loiskaa. Not long thereafter Moa and Ihka returned to their circle. Her prominent fangs bared and her tongue curling out as she yawned, Moa smacked her lips afterwards and took a weary breath.
"Salu? I think I'm gonna go to bed. Syneht khi sayft tyoti."
"All right, Moa. I'll join you in a few millicycles."
Although he followed swiftly on his promise to join Moa in one of the guest residences, he could not honor the promise to himself to catch some sleep. The bed, which was nothing more than a grass-stuffed mattress wrapped with poetyo fabric itched against every part of his body that came in contact with it to no end. Even without his body coverings, having kicked the thin cotton-like sheets aside, beads of sweat continued to form on his skin, despite the open wall panel near the head side of their beds.
A humid breeze brought little sense of relief as it stirred the thin curtain hanging in front of it, mosquitos occasionally buzzing against the semi-transparent veil that allowed the light of the two moons to shine through. He watched the pale rays fall on the tan-colored rug on the floor between the beds, embroidered with spiraling Preidogian welcome phrases. It allowed him to see Moa's resting figure in the other bed placed against the rough stone wall on the opposite side of the rectangular room. Apart from a pair of plain beige floor pillows, the shoulder bags they brought with them placed near them, the room was pretty much featureless.
Trying to match his own rhythm to Moa's light breathing, interrupted by her occasional soft snores, he had no idea how she managed to sleep under the thin covers, but it was a good guess that the bed and quarters weren't much different from hers back on Sogowa Prime. Plagued by disconcerting thoughts of not being allowed to leave when the time came, or what would become of Tyreann in this place that gave the impression they were preparing for civil war, he managed to drift off into a somewhat restless sleep.
Until he was jolted awake by what he imagined was a horrified scream, soon realizing it wasn't a dream, or at least none that he could remember. From the open wall panel came the sound of a high-pitched voice as well as yelling in Preidogian and something that sounded like a crying child. Feeling his hearts beat against the inside of his chest, the sudden rush of adrenaline coating his skin with a fresh layer of sweat, he looked at Moa, who apart from a snort continued her light breathing.
Perking his ears as he tried to separate the different voices from each other, to try and understand what was going on, the higher-pitched voice could only belong to a woman. What made his skin crawl from top to bottom was the language that was spoken as she pleaded for her life. Within ticks he was on his feet and hastily applying the lower part of his poetyo, a myriad of thoughts clouding his mind as a dozen different scenarios passed in front of his mind's eye.
With his poetyo looking like it could fall off his bottom at any time, hastened along by the continued sound of crying and yelling he pulled aside the curtain of the room with such force that he nearly ripped it off the rail on his way out. Dashing into the hallway, his toe claws deeply scratching the wooden floor as they sought grip, he jumped over the rug and floor pillows in the small shared living space to make it outside, to set his eyes on a brutal scene that could have been the nightmare he imagined it being.
Huddled in fear against the wall between two of the residences sat a human woman with her child in her arms, pleading for their lives. The body of a man, as far he could tell, laid in the grass in front of her. His arms and legs twitched weakly, the grass around his head having turned almost black in the light of the moons.
With timid steps Salu approached, biting his teeth to keep them from chattering, despite the very muggy night. The man gargled, blood pouring from a series of deep gashes in his throat. It was a miracle he was still alive and struggling. Salu's eyes fell upon the glitter of a blade the size of a hunting knife, lying in the grass next to the man's hand.
Three Mantrins were engaged in an argument amongst themselves, one of them, a Goureg by race, his slate-colored skin turned a pale gray by moonlight, clutched his leg with his left hand, the right one dripping with blood. Dark trails ran from a deep cut on the inside of his left thigh, painting spots all over his skin.
"You are such an idiot!" the Sogowan Mantrinesse snarled.
"That human yatcth attacked me!" he bit back. "You didn't think of searching for weapons either, did you?"
"We never should've brought them here in the first place!" she spat. "That was your idea!"
"Okay, okay. Let's calm down first," the small Amadre, and the only one armed with a spear, tried to keep them from attacking each other. "We couldn't have let them go. They knew the location of our village."
The three were so angry at each other and confused about what to do, that they didn't realize they had his attention, until he was but a few steps away from the body of the dying man. The human woman and her child were the only things Salu had eye for. Her mate's injuries looked fatal. He had almost stopped moving and there was no way for him to replenish the blood he had lost.
The woman's face was twisted in fear. Had she been pleading for her life and that of her child mere ticks ago, she now held her crying son's face pressed into her chest so he couldn't see what had happened to his father. Taking gasping breaths she was too scared to even cry when her eyes caught his gaze.
"What is this?" Salu heard himself ask, his own legs trembling in shock. He was pretty sure he recognized the Goureg from the night before during the meal. "What have you done?"
"Jhii!" the Goureg swore with a grunt, as he turned his head toward him with a tug. "Seems we have woken our guests. Just a small incident. Go back to bed. We'll take care of it."
"You killed that man!"
"We found them wandering around our village in the middle of the night. Probably got lost or something. Anyway, we can't let them tell on us."
"Too much information!" the Amadre interjected, pointing his spear as he turned to face Salu. "Go back to bed and let us handle it. Sorry about the noise."
"No!"
The Amadre's eyes flickered, his blunt teeth bared as his ears lowered on the back of his head.
"No?"
"What are you gonna do with them?"
The mother and her child were still huddled against the wall. Her blonde shoulder-length hair looked wet, as did the white blouse she wore on top of her blue jeans shorts. If they had really gotten lost during a walk through the forest, no matter how irresponsible at a time like this, they had spent a long time wandering about. The Hoyaanite deposits would have rendered any form of electronic navigation impossible and it was easy to get lost in the dark of night.
"Yeah, what are we gonna do with them?" the Goureg growled.
"I'm sick and tired of this," the female Sogowan hissed. "They're humans anyway." Before Salu could do anything she had turned around, making both his hearts skip a beat. Her teeth bared in a feral display, her claws flashed in the light of the moons. There were a pair of short screams. Streaks of dark red added a gleam to the rough stone wall of the building. Bodies hit the grass with a dull sound. What followed was a silence as if the whole planet suddenly held its breath, except for the heavy breathing of the woman who committed the act.
Too shocked to make a sound himself, or even notice that more people had woken up from the noise and come to see what was going on, Salu felt like his legs were about to give way beneath him. Her unsheathed claws covered in blood, the Mantrinesse stared at the result, her ears flattened, drool dripping from her mouth. "Remember Uhna'hir," she hissed.
"Murderer," Salu uttered, his bottom jaw quivering as the word crossed his lips.
Flicking an ear in his direction, she turned around, wiping her mouth at the shoulder of her poetyo.
"What did you say?"
"You people are murderers!" he shouted.
"We had a problem. I solved it," she said matter-of-factly. Licking her right hand with the tip of her tongue, she smacked as she tasted it with a fascinated look on her face. "You know, human blood doesn't even taste that different from ours."
"You're insane! You're all insane!"
"Shut your mouth!" the Amadre growled. "You're waking up the whole village." Turning toward his companions he nodded at the motionless bodies. "Now clean that up."
"I'm not touching that," the Goureg said with a disgusted look on his face.
"You two killed them! You'll make sure there's not a trace left!"
"Would you shut up and let everyone sleep!" one of the bystanders growled.
Unable to bear witness to this unspeakable act for much longer, Salu turned around, still having trouble comprehending what just happened. The slaughter of a family. The cruel indifference of those involved. Stumbling away from the scene as his stomach turned, his legs felt like they were made of rubber. He heard his name being called, but didn't even look to see who it was.
As his legs carried him toward a tree standing in between a group of three buildings, his stomach lurched violently, speeding up his staggering walk. Sweating like having a high fever, his hands crashed into the tree, his claws digging into its bark. Feeling like he had received a vicious kick in the gut, he handed over the contents of his stomach to Solbrecht's soil, part of it splattering over his feet, despite his wide stance.
He grimaced at the burning sensation in his throat, retching a couple more times at the sour stench that forced its way into his nostrils. Still leaning forward against the tree, he spat at the ground a few times in a poor attempt to lose the foul taste as it continued to torture his tongue. Taking deep gasping breaths, it took a while for his stomach to settle, but when it finally did, his eyes had filled up with tears.
Pushing himself away from the tree, he looked down at his hands, of which the claws were still unsheathed. They looked like nothing more than murder weapons to him in that single moment. Even Moa's voice couldn't shake him out of his shocked trance, until she put her hand on his shoulder.
"Salu?"
Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he turned around, his body shaking all over. He wasn't sure if she witnessed the actual act, but her flattened ears and the deeply concerned look on her face were reserved for him right now. She wore both parts of her poetyo, sloppily applied like his own, her hair worn loose and engulfing her shoulders like a shiny brown curtain.
"This is not how I remember our kind," he sobbed. "Murderers of innocent people. Children. This racial conflict is destroying everything. Everything." He shook his head. "What will become of Tyreann and Ailynn?"
Rising up a little on her legs, she wrapped her arms around his neck as she hugged herself tightly against him while he continued to fight back tears. Not a single word came over her lips. Not even when he rested his hand on her upper back. He would only realize until later that he had never received a hug from her before. Not even after her recovery on Hanaweya II. Right now he was merely appreciating the gesture, praying that the conflict would end, for the sake of everyone who called Solbrecht their home.
