Chapter Two:

Through the thick smell of the blood of the caribou behind them, they could smell that the small female ooman was awakening. They didn't want to disturb her, but when she started to scream and kick, Nihkou'te flipped out, grunting and clicking with much interested and worry. He rushed back like a mother would to its suckling, and Akan'de stood back, watching as Nihkou'te had to take a step back – apparently, from the foot that came into view, she was kicking. She had kicked him in the chest, and the next one hit him square in the jaw. He turned around and hissed, lifting his mask and growling as he felt his broken mandable.

"Pa'uk!" Nihkou'te shouted, moving his madable carefully, before sliding his mask back over his face, and turning to the ooman. He grabbed the caribou and pulled it off of her, throwing it to the ground, before reaching down and slipping his hands under her arms, lifting her up like a child. He grumbled as he walked over to Akan'de, who was setting down the rope to the sled, already knowing his job. The ooman was forced into his arms, where she was coddled roughly. She didn't have any straps of sorts to tell her of her bad behavior, so instead he clicked his warning. The ooman didn't realize it was a warning.

Nihkou'te walked back to the caribou; it was almost his size, and the hole in its head meant that he couldn't use its skull as a trophy. It was all too bad – those horns would have done him some good, though they were very maliable compared to some of the components he knew of. He grabbed the large horns and pulled it up above his head, flopping it down in the sled with the blood it had shed and the kainde amedha head Akan'de owned. His chest swelled with jealousy, but walked back over to the ooman and his comrade. "You should feel lucky," he growled, coming up behind the ooman and pressing his chest against her back, "She didn't break your madable." He started to purr deeply, making the little ooman groan.

"It makes you look older. Wiser. The Yautja females back home will think it's impressive." Akan'de said with a smile behind his mask, but his tone was all the emotion Nihkou'te needed to see. He reached up and ran his tallons through her hair, soft and silky despite the blood, leaving them there started to purr as well, feeling the vibrations that the still-young blood was giving off and radiating through her. Now the vibrations bounced against each other, to her weak pyode amedha flesh and then through her organs.

Nihkou'te, seeing the interesting strings of hair, decided to pull out the hair tie – very bland, unlike his kind's hair bands (made up of string and bone and shiny trinkets), and made of some type of stretchy material – and wove his fingers into her hair as well, feeling the sticky scalp from the blood and the soft locks that went along with it. He purred louder at the feeling; nothing in his world felt this soft, especially on a female. Even her bloodied scalp felt softer than normal Yautja skin.

When the female became limp between them, now that they were fully statisfied from playing with her hair, Nihkou'te backed away and watched as Akan'de almost gracefully walked over to the bin and set her down, taking the blankets and throwing them over her, not stopping his incessant purring until she was settled. The caribou was now to her side, so it wasn't on top of her. He grabbed the skull and placed it on top of the caribou, out of the way of the little ooman.

"Crazy child-bearer," he said gruffly.

Her breathing was steady, but she wasn't quite asleep yet. Her mind activity was obviously spiking, watching a finger or a cheek twitch. He only watched her for a moment, and then head back to the rope, grabbing it and lifting it up again, pulling it slowly along with his walk. "You're possitive we're headed west?"

"As positive as I can be," Nihkou'te said, "My visor tells me that we are."

"My visor tells me we're going North," he said, looking over at his comrade; "Maybe you should let me take a look at your visor when we get to a civilization..."

"If we do," Nihkou'te now sounded worried this time around. If they were heading north, they were surely going to run into the ocean, and neither of them dealt with water very nicely. Back on their home planet, there were no such things as oceans. There were waist-deep lakes of pure, clean water that stretched for about an asa, and swamps and sand traps. No oceans. Nothing that went over their heads, or at least too far over their heads.

"Oh, just shut up, Nihkou'te."

They traveled along in silence for a while, until the ooman murmured something, that Akan'de recorded with his mask. "Thank you. Thank you so much," it said aloud. He repeated it, looking at Nihkou'te, who gave him a click of approval.

"You sound like an ooman, bhe'ru. Impressive."

"Hn."

More silence. Nihkou'te looked back at the female often, keeping an eye on her. He lifted his mask and started to massage his mandable, making him hiss and groan quietly. "She kicks hard, like a strong Yautja woman."

Then she screamed. Both of the Yautja men turned to see that she had spilled the red blood from the sled by tipping it on its side. The blood was surrounding her, steaming from the heat when it hit the ice, turning it a deep, close to red, pink color. Her eyes were glued to the kainde amedha head that had been placed next to her. When she realized she wasn't alone, the woman turned to the two Yaut men.

She was silent for a moment, looking them up and down; they started to purr, Nihkou'te closer to her, so he started to reach out slowly. "What the fuck?" she cried, feet kicking hopelessly against the slick ice.

They started speaking her language to her, since the purring obviously wasn't going to work anymore. "No! No, no, no!" Nihkou'te snapped, trying to scare her into submission, as Akan'de repeated the words she had said before. Her eyes went wide, her bloodied hair sticking to her face, body moving – or at least trying to – faster and faster away, away from them.

"Just shut up!" she snapped at the two, as Nihkou'te finally got into snatching range. He was getting frustrated; it reminded of him during the hunt for their Chiva. She kicked at the ice again, digging her heel into the ice once and pushing herself away far enough that the grey Yautja stumbled a little as he tried to grab her. With another step and a grab to her coat, he was growling and clicking his way to Paya's sancutary; "Pa'uk-de... C'jit, this is why I hate oomans!" He turned around and glared at his comrade. The lion fish colored Yaut man flicked his head, coaxing him over with his arms withdrawn a little, as he was willing to take the ooman.

"Paya... You're a fool for persuading me to let her come along," he growled, picking her up by her collar and walking over to the other Yautja. He was actually being quite gentle with her; but with her struggling, trying to get away by kicking the area around her, he had to hold on tighter.

Without a word,, Akan'de took her into his arms, making her wrap her legs around his waist, and holding her like a child. His clawed hand came up, and found her scalp and hair again, but instead of being gentle, he pushed her head into his neck, to stop her from whining any longer. He started to purr loudly, the deep rumble quite obviously making her go lax.

"And you ignore me," Nihkou'te said louder, eyes narrowing and puffing out his chest. He was ready to fight about this.

"Shut up, already," he hissed, glaring at Nihkou'te, glaring at the other before he started to purr again.

"Says the weak one! We should have left her!"

"Weak! Pauk-de! How dare you call me weak, you Unblood!"

The bickering continued between them, becoming worse and worse with language; Nihkou'te had raised his fist to Akan'de, only to be stopped by a smell that made him step back, it was so strong. Neither of them said a word, not even a sound. They knew what it was; the ooman had just gone into heat.

Akan'de didn't move. If the female didn't accept him, and he made a wrong move, there was a possibility that he would be maimed, or seriously injured; she was so close to his neck. So close to such a vital area.

"... Akan'de. Set her down," Nihkou'te warned. "She cannot hurt us, she's an ooman. An inferior race – you saw how that male treated her; she could not even hold up her own body."

With a gentle shove, he tried to force her off of him. She was attached thouroughly; the female wasn't coming off any time soon. Maybe this was the way that the oomans mated. He had never seen it, but he had heard stories from some of the a'suh'ssi'asas that passed through the clan ship, where the females rode the males like wild beasts in unfathomable places, and clung to them, also describing the smells. The way she held him, and the way she smelled was more than enough to convince him.

"Nihkou'te – shut your mouth! You know nothing of this race, and neither do I!" he snapped, glaring at him from the other side of his mask and clicking his mandables in warning. He wasn't proud of himself, getting the two into a"... We... we do as she pleases, for now."

"iWe?/i"Nihkou'te growled, stepping back, "What do you mean 'we'?"

"As in, we both..." Akan'de wasn't sure what they were supposed to do. As newly-blooded warriors, he could only think so much of what he could do with her. What ithey/i could do with her. His mandables adjusted to a frown. "Remove your mask. We will learn as we go."