Once again, this chapter does not reflect my views on anyone, just Jai Noo's. I am not Yuke-phobic, tentacle-phobic, or far more seriously androgyny-phobic (I couldn't find the proper term for that) or transphobic.

Jai Noo - Scoundrel

I'm like a peacock, you gotta let me fly!

To begin with, he was astounded by the size of this place. Not to say it was big by any definition of the word. If Alfitaria was home to thousands then Hot Creek was perhaps just brushing two hundred people, and only if you counted the pregnant women as two. As a result, it was incredibly difficult to find an acceptable catch, let alone a real hunny. Narrowing the lady-pool by age, tribe, looks, freedom…and the last was the most difficult to ascertain. Was that man standing next to that hunny because they were neighbors? friends? lovers? siblings? He'd learned to feel out the answers to his questions carefully. He was a Selkie, Strike One. No one liked it when a Selkie came sniffing out their business. He was also, dare he say it, strikingly handsome (gorgeous, even). Strike Two. Everyone hated beautiful people, particularly when they had the physique of a young god. And, of course, he was foreign, which was Strike Three. He was an unknown, and yet mysterious…possibly alluring.

Jai Noo winked at a young Clavat woman standing by the edge of the square, who smiled and winked back. Every good Selkie knew how to work a strikes crime system in their favor. Trailing behind Aaron and Ren, he appraised a few more lovelies and in turn, felt a few eyes appraise him. Hot Creek had a decent selection, but it was no Alfitaria.

He stood respectfully still throughout the rejuvenation ceremony and let his mind wander. For the most part it stayed firmly with the rest of the caravanners' minds, fixated on a lady named Hao Ri. He'd never met her, but the others occasionally talked about her, mostly Aaron and Ren. Her drawings littered the pages of their chronicle, some serious, some utterly whimsical. It was too bad, really. A fellow Selkie and an artsy type? Hah! Total freak in the sack.

When he wasn't being completely flippant about the whole thing, he could admit that being chosen to take the place of a fallen caravanner was not as complicated a process as one might assume. He'd only just met Raithen after the Yuke single-pawedly broke up a tavern fight and the next thing he knew he was a rookie caravanner. Digging latrines and chopping firewood and taking fighting lessons from each of the crew in turn (especially those of the female persuasion) were preferable to a lengthy visit to the Alfitaria Gaol. Not all had been fun and games though. Right away Sherrill had warned him off of Ren.

"Isn't that a little biased of you, Captain?" he'd asked as scornfully as possible. She'd snorted.

"I've seen your type before," and before he could object, "Male, female, Selkie, Yuke, I know when a predator sets sights on its prey. Now 'Little Ren' isn't so little, but she's not had her heart broken by the likes of you either. Let her go, Jai. Now's not the time or place for a quick romance."

She was right, of course. Captain Sherrill was always right, damn her. And he was serious about caravanning, so he took her advice and treated Ren as a little sister, with the occasional over the top flirtation to keep his hand in. That didn't stop him from flirting with Sherrill at every opportunity though, just to annoy her. For some reason she wasn't interested (though he'd never imagined it would be because of a Lilty woman) but he had to admit she had a sort of classic beauty to her. And when she'd sat down and interviewed him, right after Raithen had kidnapped him, all he could see were her sad eyes. She looked like she belonged in a painting, and, well, you just didn't fuck a painting.

Somehow in the past three months these total strangers had become his closest friends. As he traveled with them, laughed with them, fought with them, and guarded their backs, so they did with him. Seeing Hao Ri's drawings, listening to Aaron reminisce, watching the villagers become visibly emotional as the ceremony progressed, he wished he could have done all those things with her, too.

And, y'know, maybe taken a tumble with her behind the caravan.

Ceremonies, schmeremonies. The caravanners had done their duty, they were cleared for the evening. Unlike in Alfitaria, where they were paraded around the entire city and then trapped at the King's Ball long past midnight, the caravanners were free to do as they pleased. Sherrill immediately rejoined her wife and children (children? How on earth did they get a Yuke brat?) and Raithen followed her, exchanging a few words with the Lilty wife before moving onto his own group.

Ugh. Raithen's harem. Did they really have tentacles? He squinted a bit, trying to see past the fur and robes. It was possible. Aaron always gave incredibly accurate details on the monsters they encountered, Jai doubted he'd be wrong about this. Why would anyone want to be part of a Yuke harem? He supposed that, as a Yuke, they probably didn't get much of a choice in the matter. He felt a faint stab of pity for the male…female?...Yuke that just reached up to touch his Captain's face. Had he…she?…actually wanted to marry another Yuke?

Low-pitched, throaty feminine laughter caught his ear, his eyes followed eagerly. Out by the crystal, now cleared of people except for dancers, two young women danced. One of them he eyed and dismissed immediately. She was trying too hard, her dancing stiff and awkward, too considering of onlookers' opinions. But the girl next to her…now she was a natural.

The other girl was all smoothness and fun. She bent her body like it was a gentle caressing breeze, not a contraption built for an imagined gaze. She tilted her head back, and despite the ridiculous costume she wore, her laugh rang loud and clear. It was hers he had heard, hers he had been drawn to.

Dull grey Yuke costume or not (damned if he didn't love a daring woman, making a costume choice like that), this silly-natural-lovely dancing girl was the hunny he had to have tonight.