"Ancestral women may have preferred intelligent, energetic men for their ability to hunt more effectively and provide their children with more meat. But I would suggest it was much more important that intelligent men tended to produce intelligent, energetic children more likely to survive and reproduce, whether or not their father stayed around. In other words, I think evolutionary psychology has put too much emphasis on male resources instead of male fitness in explaining women's sexual preferences."
― Geoffrey Miller, The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature
Twenty second Yuga, Yaksa calendar (Roughly 1623 C.E. Earth Date). Unknown planet around twin stars Arundhati and Vasishtha (Mizar and Alcor, Ursae Majoris).
Rava'an looked to the sky as soon as he stepped out of his ship; two suns appeared in zenith, a big, whitish-blue sun with a smaller red companion. Lower on the horizon, two more suns shone in a light blue color. Their combined glow was enough to make Rava'an squint.
The jungle was well lit and the blue light of the four stars made the vegetation grow disproportionately. Giant leaves that could hold the weight of a full grown male and trunks so wide, that a small house could be carved inside them, although this wasn't what Rava'an was here for, he was on a very different mission.
Not long ago, he had completed his rite of passage. Rava'an's people, the Yaksa, were hunters since immemorial times. Once they were a great civilization that spanned several worlds, but they were displaced after a great war with another rival race. Forced to be nomads of the stars, Rava'an's people adopted a quasi-tribal culture based on hunting, where only the strongest and boldest would be appointed leaders.
Rava'an was one of those, the fifth son of a clan leader. He was destined to undergo the rigorous tests that were required of him. He had already passed the first, stalking, hunting and collecting the skull of a warrior from a sentient race that inhabited the third planet of a yellow sun a few cycles of travel from this world. The Skull, now properly cleaned and polished, was exhibited on the small Tzompantli, or trophy case inside Rava'an's ship.
The next task brought him to this jungle planet in order to collect a very different Item. When he achieved the rank of Hunter, he also had won the right to choose a mate; for that, he had to collect a piece called Hectocotyli. Basically it was the ambulant sexual organ of a creature called Kṛmiḥ or the seven headed snake king.
The Krmih wasn´t a snake of course, it was a kind of amphibious cephalopod. The Hectocotyli was one of those specialized tentacles which transported the genetic material from the male to the female. The female was ten times larger and fiercer; she could tear apart even the largest Yaksa in seconds. Trying to steal the Hectocotyli from the female was therefore close to a suicide mission.
But it was not so easy as simply collecting the thing, in Yaksa culture; one could not present the Hectocotyli to a female and ask her to mate with him, the Hectocotyli was payment for the right to courtship, and later served to the female as the main dish after the mating ritual. Hectocotyli provided proteins and hormones necessary for a healthy offspring; Even with the rank of Hunter, the right to mate had to be earned… sometimes with blood.
For that, ceremonies called Swayamvara were celebrated, it was essentially a competition in which the female chose a generally difficult and life-threatening challenge, and only he who fulfilled it deserved to be the maiden's first descendant's father.
- o -
Two Solar cycles prior (Roughly 1620 C.E. Earth Date)
Rava'an met Anu'sha for first time after he had achieved the rank of Hunter in Saubha, the clan's capital city; Saubha was a gigantic ship which now rested under the surface of a shallow ocean, once belonged to a fierce warrior named Kamsa, it was shot down during a battle and crashed there ages ago, while Kamsa was beheaded by a Chakra, a disc weapon. Rava'an's clan established their capital city in the large ship's partially sunken wreckage.
Rava'an and his father were discussing the details of his previous –his first –hunt with a member of the council.
-"That last maneuver, the grace with which you used your blade was like a graceful dance: Clean and swift. You may have killed him, but he understood he was defeated and killed himself to save his honor. I haven't seen a hunt like that since the golden age." The veteran hunter said to the younger Yaksa before leaving the hall.
He bowed his head in respect, but his mind was elsewhere, with the female accompanying an Ancient hunter with multiple scars around his body and long, white dreadlocks.
- o -
Anu'sha was the daughter of one of the elders preceding the trials. Rava'an was heading for the Kehrite, the training arena. He went to the Kehrite to train on the eve of his first ritual hunt and stopped to watch two young females fighting, a crowd of younglings were cheering and raising their fists, obviously the fight was good, some even bet on it.
Anu'sha was there fighting with another fellow maiden Abhi'tha, whose name meant "fearless", another young female. Not as muscular as Anu'sha but she had a light brown skin with red mottling, she has short dreadlocks tied on a top-knot and two bronze rings hung from the skin folds of his jaws, an ancestral practice of his family.
Unlike the young male's often clumsy and brutish fights; Females' fighting style was graceful, almost a choreography. Anu'sha calculated each move and dealt the blows firmly, sending her opponent tumbling to the edge of the circle. As Abhi'tha struggled to stand up, Rava'an observed the young female in detail and asked one of the bystanders for her name. He recognized her as the elder Vahraya's youngest daughter.
He was captivated immediately, unable to look away from such beauty. As her name suggested she was beautiful, soft green-blue skin with dark blue geometric patterns and tailbone length, dark dreadlocks tied together with a strip of blue leather. In Yaksa culture, blue was a color associated with the gods. On top of that, her eyes were amber not yellow, the most common eye color among their people.
The Yaksa were a dimorphic species; males were different from females, although those differences were subtle. She had a slim, yet muscular body; her facial features were thin, her jaw less pronounced, her eye sockets were less sunken, lacking the male's facial quills. She had a slightly longer and thinner neck and her chest showed off small but firm breasts.
Abhi'tha launched herself against Anu'sha with the intention of knock her off the platform, using her body as a projectile, but Anu'sha was quick, dropped on her back and intercepted the attack, using her muscular legs and arms, propelled Abhi'tha through the air directly towards a wall where she bounced off and slammed to the floor, unconscious. Anu'sha, stood victorious and roared. In the eyes of the young Rava'an, the heat fired from her sweating body left it covered with reddish and orange tones that simulated estrus during sexual intercourse. Rava'an became excited, but before he could do anything about it, Anu'sha's companions carried her on their shoulders out of the Arena, heading towards the bathrooms were they would clean her up and she would enjoy a good victory meal.
- o -
Rava'an returned from his memories, On that occasion Anu'sha wore only a loincloth and her breast plates were tied with a leather strap, easing her movements, but now, in the council chamber, she wore the traditional dress for females that have reached sexual maturity but were not yet mated; it was made of a single piece of cloth spun from plants fibers and silk, a sign of her maidenhood, white with metallic golden breast and shoulder plates. Around her neck, she had ten golden rings. More the rings meant higher the status among the Yaksa.
He felt a rush of pheromones course through his body. He started to sweat, soaking his cloak in a slightly musky scent. It must've been strong because a baritone took him out of his reverie.
-"Better not set your standards too high, son. Yaksas carried away by their Zepha have found the black warrior sooner than they wished" Rava'an's father spoke. "Anu'sha's not an ordinary female; her Sire is an Elder and she is well known for her hard trials during the Swayamvara. You're not suited for that challenge yet, my inexperienced son."
-"Why not? I have achieved the rank of Hunter; I can choose whoever I want." Rava'an protested.
-"Others have tried to court Anu'sha… and died" His father told him "It is said that on the last Swayamvara, Four strong warriors wanted to court Anu'sha and she chose Dawon hunt, and the four suitors perished during the trial. They were strong, brave and experienced warriors... and they still failed. Since then, Anu'sha is also called Adi'ti –matchless, free and unbounded."
-"The Dawon? The sacred Lion?!" Rava'an exclaimed. "She may well have asked the skull of a Deva*!"
-"Or yours, in any case, you would be dead" His father sentenced. The two walked out of the council chambers towards their home, at the edge of Saubha, overlooking an archipelago that shone like an emerald in the blue sapphire sea.
Rava'an pondered about that for a long time, the same time it took the red giant star to disappear below the horizon. It was worth the risk, if he was successful he would have the most desirable female in the clan, if he failed, he would have one of the most honorable deaths and would be sung for ages in the family saga. While walking to his bedroom, he had decided to collect the Hectocotyli and ask for the chance to sire Anu'sha's –Aditi – firstborn.
- o –
This story was a conceived as a Challenge by AO3 user "iterations", who wanted a Yautja (Yaksa) sex story but not just a shallow plot. I made this following my own EU, as Rava'an is the Hunter in my previous story Predator: The Last Hunt.
*Deva: The Yaksa name for Engineers.