CHAPTER FOUR
"Hul'tah, K'Shai. Tau'epta."
K'Shai grimaced and huffed softly. Watch, then do.
Again and again he said, keeping his temper quite in check, which apparently the others in the group noticed, too, because she overheard their comments amongst themselves; something to the effect of not treating her like a Yautja, although she did not quite understand their point.
She was sure if she had heard them, he most certainly did too, but he carried on with his lesson, which had usurped the last several hours of the morning, ignoring them.
She woke up as dawn barely managed to peek between the rain clouds only to find him stark naked having a quiet conversation with W'rsa in the other room.
K'Shai tip toed down the hallway, dragging the bed sheet wrapped around her, drawing both their attention.
W'rsa, though he was on the other side of the small kitchenliving room, stepped back, edging himself as close to the fire escape window as possible, either in the hopes of blending in with the paint or making a hasty retreat, she was not sure, but he seemed visibly uncomfortable with his proximity to her, and she doubted it had anything to do with her loosely hidden nudity.
W'rsa was the only one in R'chnt's hunting pack that stood anywhere near as tall and muscular as he. Though R'chnt was still taller and larger, W'rsa stood about four inches shorter, and only barely noticeably less muscular, if at all.
R'chnt towered a foot or more over the others in his group, and was so tall himself, his head barely cleared the seven and half foot ceilings in the apartment. W'rsa was younger than R'chnt, but a well-aged and experienced warrior himself, older than the other hunters, save for R'chnt of course.
In fact, K'Shai had learned that at three hundred twenty years of age, W'rsa was on the tail end of Yautja "middle age", old enough to be in his prime, not quite old enough to start to turn gray with age himself.
He had immense respect for R'chnt and had been his student as an unblooded youngster, and had never left his side in all the time since. He was receiving daily, personal training from R'chnt, filling the unique and much coveted position of learning to become a leader himself from one of the best Leaders alive.
The best that K'Shai could understand it as it was explained to her by R'chnt and W'rsa, he was like an apprentice, bound to take R'chnt's place as Leader when such a time came.
W'rsa was not of R'chnt's bloodline. She was surprised to learn that it was very rare for any male to ever train, or really even associate with, his own offspring. She did not fully understand how it could be that the male and female genders lived separate lives, but R'chnt had explained that males sired offspring, females raised them and by the time an offspring was ready to begin its own training for the first hunt, it could be possible that his sire would have been killed on a hunt of his own.
K'Shai had wanted to learn more about the Yautja way, but it sounded so foreign she wanted to let it absorb in small pieces at a time.
W'rsa bowed immediately and backed away partially out of respect of R'chnt, partially out of respect for K'Shai, partially to convey he intended no challenge, and partially to separate himself further from her appealing scent.
K'Shai was quickly catching on to the changing scents of the Yautja h'dui'se, their musk, and it finally dawned on her that the Yautja were reacting to scents from her that she wasn't even aware she was emitting, yet it was certainly eliciting a response in them.
It had been so long since she had a real shower anyway, that she had sort of gone nose-numb to her own scent as it was. The thought that maybe that was why R'chnt was so interested in staying outside in the rain horrified her for a fleeting moment as she wondered exactly how sensitive Yautjan nasal systems were.
She knew that they had slits inside their upper gums that drew in scents into their sinuses, and she had come to understand that they could also, like a snake, taste scent in the air. The Yautja tongue, a forked appendage that was hidden in the back of the throat, could extend into their mouth and past their inner teeth, and was able to pick up scents K'Shai's dull senses would never detect.
The first time K'Shai slipped her tongue into R'chnt's mouth to meet his had caught him quite off guard. As far as unfamiliar sensations went, she had pressed him into discovering them all, and while he had clearly enjoyed his first experience with her lips around his erection, there were other sensations he simply was not keen on. She assumed perhaps it was because of how sensitive their tongues were.
Watching the way W'rsa backed away from her, putting more distance between himself and R'chnt, K'Shai couldn't help but to think it was a reaction to her scent more than the sight of her, as it had also become evident that Yautja lacked any level of modesty at all.
He reacted so quickly and automatically it was instinctual and so sharp it made her stop in her tracks. The Yautja were massive, fearsome, heavily armored, completely deadly, and here was one of the proudest examples of that ferocity that she had come to know, backing away in alarm from a sheet-draped naked nineteen year old human girl.
R'chnt had turned to acknowledge K'Shai's approach, sensing the dia-shui that W'rsa had picked up on; a specific type of scent that was saturated in sexual pheromones. It was one thing to be aware of them on him, but another thing entirely to taste them oozing from the female that entered the room.
W'rsa, appropriately indicating he did not intend a confrontation, backed away and clicked in nervous submission. R'chnt drew his tusks apart warily, but strode over to his mate, easing the tension that was making W'rsa stand as rigid as a metal rod.
"K'Shai," he said to her. "We shall train."
The sky had opened up on them all morning and she was cold. It was windy and they were fifty feet in the air on the roof top.
She had come to learn that the Yautja preferred high ground, had no fear of heights whatsoever, were able to climb any surface they could sink their talons on their hands and feet into, and also savored heat, thriving in high temperatures as their almost reptilian-esque skin would suggest, but apparently that did not mean they could not tolerate cold, wet, damp.
She was shivering as she lined herself up again to perform the same series of movements that R'chnt patiently showed her while the others in his group sparred, their spears and bladed staffs they called ki'cti-pa and dha'kte wrist blades clanging together over the sound of their rumbled conversations amongst themselves.
K'Shai tried hard to put as much focus and energy into her lesson as they were into their training, but as the wind rippled her wet clothes again and sent renewed shivers through her body, she wanted to simply run inside and tuck under the blankets until the weather improved.
It was obvious that enough days had passed to allow the group enough rest and recovery from their injuries that they were all getting prepared, eager, to return to the fight. Usually they only would hold out in camp for no more than two days, and it was already onto the morning of day four, but R'chnt did not seem prepared to tell his group to move any time soon and get on with the hunt. Still, they were preparing.
R'chnt extended his immense patience and waited for her to regroup her efforts and perform the maneuver again. The motions were slow and stretching.
He had her arcing her arms, shifting her weight and holding, pressing into slow motion lunges and dropping into sustained crouches.
It reminded her of the Yoga classes she took a couple times, and suddenly the most unusual image of a Yautja in Yoga tights jumped into her mind causing her fail to stifle a giggle. R'chnt reminded her to focus, again, in a slightly growled tone.
"Sei-i," K'Shai said with a nod, pressing her lips together and trying to focus back on the task at hand. "Sorry."
R'chnt growled. "H'chak-au h'ko, hu-eilk-Yautjan." Do not apologize, and speak Yautja.
She resisted the urge to apologize for apologizing and did a mental check to speak Yautjan when she had something to say. She was having a hard time thinking about much else but the cold running through her, and her words came easier in English, obviously.
Yautja did not have a word for an apology, it simply was not part of their language. The closest word to it was h'chak, a word she had learned meant mercy or forgiveness, and in the proper context of use, could be construed as an apologetic term. R'chnt reminded her that it had no place in her vocabulary.
He moved in closely to her, helping her by direct guidance on correcting flaws in her position that he made her hold for unusually long periods of time.
He put his large hands on her shoulders and he gripped firmly, supporting her as she shook under him, shifting her weight, arcing her back, settling her into what could easily be viewed as a suggestive position by onlookers.
Just when she thought he was never going to stop with the lessons despite the inclement weather, he leaned in close to her, putting his head right near hers, his grip tightening on her shoulders for a moment as though he was gauging her discomfort, and approved of her efforts, releasing her to stop.
She sighed with relief and turned to retreat indoors.
He knew she was freezing, shivering, and discontented, but he noticed how she kept looking to the others sparring around her, readying for the renewal of the hunt. She had not complained, though her h'dui'se told him she was most certainly miserable. He recalled his own training sessions under the violent tutelage of his own leader, so long ago.
K'vel-tar had been brutal and ferocious, but capable and wise, both on the hunt and towards his students. R'chnt could remember any one of hundreds of training sessions conducted in rain and mud, but it was the few hard lessons he endured in the cold of mountain peaks without even any btja-u'linja to warm him that had been the most difficult.
Yautja youth in training were permitted to wear old or damaged awu'asa other hunters had cast aside. Most leaders kept a stock of discarded armor pieces; their working mechanics removed, for their students.
Getting the armor was a fight in of itself. Everything about the way Yautja were trained was to ensure that the strongest and most capable were rewarded with the best equipment. Lesser youngsters or lesser bloodlines would likely not survive chiva and were not worth consideration or compassion.
To even attempt to help a friend get armor would certainly risk both the one too weak to get the reward, and the one foolish enough to hold himself back to help the other, being beaten by their peers or even their leader, possibly to death.
R'chnt, so young at the time that his tusks were mere nubs, had tackled over the others in his learning group to retrieve the very best armor scraps there were. He slept in his prizes, so proud of his first real trophy.
The armor was for some protection and allowed young hunters the first hints of familiarity with wearing it and moving in it. Naturally, the armor was non-functioning, and the net mesh that conducted heat was not present.
K'vel-tar, the proper leader he was, gave that no consideration when he sent his eight students into the mountains to track and kill a djh-orn beast as a group with their bare hands. Five of the students returned. Two had died of the cold before they had even found their target, the other fell from the cliff when the animal lashed its tail.
It was one of many times R'chnt's endurance and stamina were put to the test before he had ever earned his Blooding mark. He taught his students in the same way, to prepare them for the hunt, challenging their endurance, abilities, and blood lines at every opportunity, forcing the best of them to rise to the challenge and the weak and incapable to falter as the gods saw fit.
As he had improved as a leader from a half a life time ago, students that vied for a chance to train with him and earn his recognition became more select, better, and the challenges he pushed on them became equally greater.
There was no room in the Yautja way of a hunter for those too weak or incompetent to endure. Such Yautja were nothing more than 'asiegan, bound to spend their lives unblooded, unrecognized, deemed incapable, and condemned to serving other, better, accomplished, and stronger Yautja.
As he watched her small body shivering against the cold, her garments soaked, he felt a sense of pride in that, despite how much she no doubt wanted to, she did not complain or ask to stop. She endured on, displaying fortitude and strength he had come to know she had.
He was sure she thought what he was asking her to do, kv'var training exercises that were the very foundation of all that she must come to know, was probably his idea of slow motion torture as the rain pummeled down, but she did not complain.
He had waited for it, too. He assumed, as the others in his group muttered when they thought he could not hear, that she would break and ask for reprieve. Instead, to his own surprise, it was her determined endurance that made him break first and dismiss her with praise for her efforts.
He had overheard some of the others in his group mumble that had any of them lost their composure, failed to hold a position, or shiver so furiously during training as she had, he likely would have beaten them until they got it right.
K'Shai, though, was not Yautja. She was trying to be something that was against her very breeding and nature to be, and he was pleased with her performance. He watched her disappear down the stairs on the side of the building and turned to W'rsa
"She rests now. In the morning, it will be time." R'chnt informed W'rsa.
He did not sleep that night at all. He mated with her twice and watched her rest peacefully next to him, warm and content nestled into his body. He had set it in his mind what needed to be done, what action must be taken to assure her place and protection, and he had spoken to Neh'rti of it twice already.
The first conversation with the Clan Leader, a formidable female who was elder even to R'chnt, had involved quite a bit of overt disbelief on her part, followed quickly by a flare of her temper as she tried to gauge whether or not he was manufacturing some poor attempt at a joke before she cut off communication with him, issuing a slew of curses as she did.
R'chnt was not in the least bit surprised to hear from the others in his group that some of the elder council had contacted them within minutes to verify the rumors they had heard that their Leader had lost his mind.
When Neh'rti, contacted him again to discuss his request to bring a human that he had mated with back to the clan ship for introduction into the clan via Blooding ceremony, she was calmer. He had already prepared a long winded list of her accomplishments and his opinion of her, only to be informed rather briskly that she had heard enough from the other council members and he was to bring her to the ship.
When they reached the shuttle in the morning, through the barely lifted fog, K'Shai did not hide her enthusiasm for the experience of her first ride into space. He was sure her people had gone to the stars before, but she had informed him that only a very small number of her kind had been given the privilege.
He was not quite sure what privilege it was to go into space, but he found himself watching her with amusement as she eyed the stars, her own world, and all the other Yautja ships in orbit with wild wonder, pointing and vocalizing at everything she saw.
Once the shuttle was landed in the docking bay, he led her directly to the council hall and Neh'rti and the other eight members of the clan council, elders and arbitrators, six elders and two apprentices, filed into the room formally dressed.
K'Shai's uncontrolled nerves flooded his senses.
She stood quiet and tall as her attention was refocused from the trophies on the wall to the Yautja now silently scrutinizing her. K'Shai had been surveying one of the largest trophies in the room; a massive serpent that R'chnt had hunted single-handedly hundreds of years ago.
He brought the entire length of the thing, which he had stabbed no less than seven times in the raging ocean waters of a severe world that seemed to storm non-stop, back to the Clanship as a monument to his prowess, strength, and skill.
It secured his position as Leader and had marked the start of a new journey for him, though he was still young enough to have to work his way up through the ranks of Leadership as well.
Now as Neh'rti glared at K'Shai, R'chnt felt once again like a young hunter, bringing a new kind of trophy before the Clan, once again trying to secure a status, only this time not for himself. To say that K'Shai was frightened was an understatement.
She stood so close to him he could feel her elbow shaking against his hip, and he was sure that the others could smell the nervous h'dui'se seeping from her. Neh'rti was aware of his intentions to Blood her as his own student and her approval to bring K'Shai back to the ship was an unspoken acceptance of that request.
She would never offer up vocal approval of K'Shai, nor verbally grant him permission to bring her into the Clan, but allowing him to bring her this far was as close as it he would get.
For the longest time, Neh'rti said nothing. She moved around K'Shai, surveying her, circling her. R'chnt knew that Neh'rti would take her to evaluate her in her own way while he made the arrangements for the ceremony.
She dismissed R'chnt after what seemed like an eternity, and although he was concerned for K'Shai's well-being, he knew he had little choice but to leave her to the females. He hurried out of the chambers as directed, making a point to Neh'rti that he was trying not to rattle her temper.
It was hours before he saw K'Shai again.
She joined him, looking puzzled and still full of apprehension, in a cantina as he sat with others of his elder Leader peers, awaiting her return. The others were all curious about her, eager to see her, though they were doing a poor job of hiding their bewilderment over the entire situation.
When K'Shai entered the room, the few hunters that were idling over their meals at nearby tables all raised their heads and ended their conversations mid-word, their eyes locked on the alien. R'chnt and the others stood immediately and he headed to her casually, but purposefully.
Her wafting scent in the air would offer confusing signals to the others, unfamiliar with the association of her particular scents to her mood. She was agitated and nervous, he knew, and relieved when she saw him.
Her scent would convey her stressed status as fear and weakness; it was not the message he wanted the others to pick up on. He vaguely wondered how many hunters or crew or 'aseigan she had passed in the corridors.
Though she was female and had just come from the females' private sections of the ship, her lingering scent still put her at risk, even from a slave that might find himself brash enough to overtake her.
He flared his mandibles lightly as he approached K'Shai, displeased that Neh'rti would allow her to walk the corridors alone to find her way to him. Though he was impressed that she had found him, she was not yet trained in the Yautja way or ready to handle herself freely in the ship.
He was vaguely relieved that the ship was nearly empty now, as most of the hunters were on her world. Though between hunters stocking up on supplies for their groups, injured fighters taking advantage of a little break and taste of home and hundreds more of crew and slaves, there were plenty of threats to be found on the ship.
She was instantly relieved when he stood by her and, though he stayed wary of all around him, R'chnt felt more eased to elicit that response from her.
He introduced her to the elders as guided her to the chosen kehrite that would serve the purpose of the Blooding ceremony. The servants had already been directed to set up the necessary supplies and K'Shai and R'chnt entered to find the training arena filling with females and any curious and available hunter that had heard the news.
He glanced across to a far entrance and noticed two crew workers and four 'aseigan all staring into the large, oval room with wide expressions.
K'Shai took to the center of the room as he guided her, her musk still emanating nervousness, but noticeably more content in his presence. She stood between eight elders; R'chnt and four other males before her in a semicircle and Neh'tri and two other females staggered behind her.
As far as he was concerned, the Blooding ceremony was a mere formality; she had long since earned, and displayed, her scars and injuries that proved her mettle and ability and experience, but he seared the mark of his Clan into her forehead proudly. She winced at the pain but did not balk.
He had been reluctant to leave breeding marks on her because deliberately causing her pain was something he did not want to do, but there was no getting around that for the Blooding ceremony. He marked her as his student and she accepted the momentary sting of the branding without a fuss.
Her reaction to it, or lack thereof, would be scrutinized, and he chose not to forewarn her that it would hurt, because he did want her to appear more tense than she already was.
The Blooding would be a test of her strength and stoicism. What a Yautja could endure – pain, hardships, challenges – was always put to the test. Something as routine as a Blooding mark should never cause a warrior to flinch; it was a proud honor to have the mark of their Leader carved into the head of a youngster.
It was the symbol that the youngster would forever wear, proudly displaying that they had earned their place in the Clan. K'Shai accepted it with the same grace and honor he would expect of any Yautja; a look of trust in her eye as he cut into her flesh that only he recognized.
He had been questioned multiple times if he really did mate with her and he knew her lack of bite marks from his tusks were some of the cause of the disbelief that it was true. He kept silent on his thoughts about the pleasures she could provide, trying his best to avoid any jealousy that could put her in jeopardy.
After the Blooding ceremony, R'chnt guided K'Shai through the corridors to the temple where he would conduct another ritual with her.
It was a hardly recognized ancient custom, and when he stated his intentions to perform it before the other elders and council, they all had a brief discussion trying to recall when the last time it had even been formally observed. R'chnt thought it necessary, even beyond the Blooding mark, and made his point to the council who obliged, as it made no difference to them anyway.
Soon, they were seated on the floor amongst a circle of elders, council, and curious spectators once again. This time sharing drops of their own blood in a chalice as R'chnt bonded her to him by blood and himself to her.
They drank from the chalice as the ceremony continued and K'Shai, who eyed him with pride and peace, reached for his hand as she leaned in to kiss him.
Suddenly, R'chnt felt as though he has been electrocuted, and in his mind he entered into a state of aa'zu-dje. He saw fog; he saw K'Shai reaching for him. And just as soon as he did, he heard voices in the room around him calling to both of them. It was a curious thing; a vision from the gods, he knew.
He was sure the blood bond was consummated and the vision had been the gods' way of showing him that they were intended to share the Path as one. He thought nothing more on it by the time they had settled back into the shuttle for the return trip to Earth.
The shuttle had been filled with supplies by the 'aseigan while he attended to important matters, and K'Shai seemed distracted by the effects of the vision and her second trip into space. He changed the course of the shuttle to give her a brief tour of the sights, distracting her further from whatever seemed to be weighing on her mind.
He considered only briefly that perhaps she seemed so concerned because she was regretting making the blood bond when she slid into the command chair atop him, turning away from the view of the planet she called "Jupiter."
He stretched his body and his tusks as she kissed and touched him, groping him, and stirring him into full arousal. R'chnt groaned in pleasure as she eagerly unstrapped his belts and armor, an action she had put well into practice and had mastered.
She stroked her hands over his rapidly inflating erection and cooed and moaned as she felt him begin to drip while he growled an aroused purr. He could smell her wetness and readiness and another scent in the air from her that he had noticed days before, but did not recognize. He was still getting familiar with her ever changing scent.
K'Shai slid back off him, removed her own garments and requested him out of the chair with a thin smile. She crawled into the massive command chair, back against him, knees on the hard metal seat.
R'chnt stepped in behind her. She leaned forward, clamping her small hands around the back rest of the chair, shifting on the thin padding under her knees until she was more comfortable. He groaned and growled a multi-tonal rumble that bounced between a soothing purr of pleasure and an eager growl of anticipation until she was positioned to her liking and he grappled her hips, sliding himself into her easily.
He rounded his back over her, lowering his tusks to her shoulders and neck, tickling them teasingly as he smelled the sweet and enticing aroma that poured off her. She smelled entirely different to him, and although he could not quite place the scents exactly, for they were such a strange mixture of alien world and familiar Yautja musk, they aroused him.
Her body emanated a combination of her own aroused state and his musk, as if they blended together from somewhere deep within her and seeped through her pores as she groaned and huffed below him. He shut his eyes, feeling the entire length of her tract squeeze against him as he entered her and she bellowed.
R'chnt flexed his mandibles, clicking his tusks as he withdrew and pressed forward, tipping and flexing his hips, rocking over his feet, sliding through her tract slowly, allowing every sensitive inch of skin between them to share in the sensations.
She huffed and moaned under him, her delicate little body stretching and clenching in time to match his penetrations. He slid his shaft nearly completely out to the tip, rumbling in sheer delight at the tingling thrill that shot through his body and listening to her pant and groan as he slid himself back in.
She adjusted her position, rocking her hips just enough to allow him a deeper penetration and she moaned loudly, eeking out a whispered request for more between her huffing breaths. He quickened his thrusts, faster and harder with each forward press, watching her body heat rise to match his own as the both bellowed in ecstasy.
He gripped her body tightly, sliding his hands from her hips along her abdomen, settling them on her breasts, which elicited louder satisfied moans from her. He rubbed his tusks and cheeks against her soft skin, pressing his abdomen against her back as he covered her completely in his musk, letting her tender warmth tingle him to the core as he pumped her.
K'Shai, completely distracted from the stars and planets, ships, and any other concerns she had, panted and moaned in perfect rhythm with R'chnt's own chuffing breaths. He too had allowed any thoughts or concerns evacuate from his mind as he focused solely on the feeling of her body under him, around his shaft, wet, hot, trembling in delight, and full of pleasure until he filled her with his heated juices.
When they returned to the planet, the group resupplied, the shuttle returned to the jag'd'atoll under its own guidance, and K'Shai was returned to the safety of her own group as R'chnt departed ways so the hunt could continue.
They tracked scattered trails of the kainde amedha they hunted for days. While aboard the clan ship, R'chnt was at least able to personally check on the continued status of the hunt and confirmed what he had already suspected; that planet-wide, the hives were being eliminated so thoroughly, the remaining ones were farther and farther between.
The Yautja had been performing honorably and thoroughly, as they should, doing their species proud trying to correct the dishonor that had been cast upon them by bad blood. His one wish was that he could have found any of the cowards who had done this to the world, and present its head to K'Shai as a gift.
Whether or not any of the ones involved in this disgrace were even still alive, he did not know, though he had been tasked with killing some of the kin that shared the bloodlines with the disgraced ones.
He was available, and closest, to several who carried dishonored blood in their veins, so he had culled four adult males and three juvenile males from the gene pool.
Only females handled issues amongst females, and R'chnt had killed the juvenile males that had been expunged from the safety of the mei'sa where the females harbored them while they turned on two juvenile females that also shared the same blood. Killing his own, especially in such a manner, was little more than a massacre and it made R'chnt fill with detest that he had to do such a thing; there was no honor in the killing, but there was also only disgrace in the bloodlines, so the culling was for the benefit of the Yautja people.
As he led his group back after seven rotations of the sun of Earth from a completed hunt, he thought quietly about the dishonor that his own people were capable of, and how K'Shai, alien as though she was, still stood with honor at his side, surpassing anyone's expectation of her thus far.
He knew Neh'rti was sure that K'Shai would likely fail, but her willingness to allow the Blooding of an alien into the Clan demonstrated her trust in R'chnt's opinion that K'Shai would never cause such a dishonor or disgrace to her, to him, to the Clan.
He knew that she was simply not capable of such a thing anyway. Despite her tenacity to survive and her desire to learn and please him in a Yautja way, he knew K'Shai valued honor and respected life; qualities which the bad bloods who had done this to her world clearly lacked.
He greeted her, eager to return to her, after so many passed days and she delighted in seeing him. She smiled widely at the first sight of him; a stunned face amongst a camp full of stunned faces all turned in his direction as he rode to her atop an animal.
His group caught the beasts idly wandering through vacated streets. He did not know the human name for the creatures, but a similar beast inhabited Yaut, and R'chnt had learned, as all do in the mei'sa, to ride the j'kur.
He extended his arm and gripped her tightly, drawing her up onto the back of the animal, and catching her unusual scent as he did.
At first, he thought either it was stronger, or his absence from her for so many days made the n'dui'se more pronounced, then he realized there was a new life in her womb. She was pregnant; something he had only briefly pondered as a possibility, and dismissed it out of certainty that they were too different in nature to produce offspring.
It was obvious by the conversation that night before she fell asleep soothingly warmed in his arms, that she was delighted over her pregnancy, though she was nervous.
K'Shai was surprised that R'chnt recognized her condition the moment he helped her onto the horse. She didn't know how, but assumed it was his incredibly capable sense of smell that allowed it.
Later in the evening as they talked, he confirmed it was her scent that announced it, but also admitted he did not recognize the unfamiliar combination of human and Yautja n'dui'se, and confirmed her condition with a quick scan from his biohelmet, which he showed her.
She was amazed by the look of her own world, her own body, through the display in the helmet. What struck her as blurry constantly moving waves of color that she could barely discern and almost made her a little motion sick, were to him, a highly detailed scan that allowed him to see what human eyes could not.
She knew the Yautja had different visual acuity than humans, and the biohelmet merely amplified and accentuated their natural abilities. She gazed through the helmet for a long while, watching the little peanut-sized red dot in her belly in amazement.
It was impossible for her to tell that the little blob was actually a new life based on what she saw, but she watched in wonder all the same.
She knew before she had even pressed the little button to run the do-it-yourself test that morning that she was pregnant, the test was just a formality. She had worried about R'chnt while he was gone for so long, certain that he would not return; the blood filled images of her vision plaguing her mind.
R'chnt had shared the same vision, but he saw it differently. He did not see himself covered in what could only be his blood. He did not hear the odd voice echo that spoke to her of her strong heart. She feared it was his imminent death that the Yautja gods had showed her and though she was contented by his presence and rested comfortably against his healthy and warm body, she still feared for him, and now for the life inside her.
K'Shai needed him. She had blood bonded herself to him and she had linked not only her own life, but a new life, to him. She tried to put aside the fear she felt for his safety, and during his absence, she tried to put into practice the hunting skills he was teaching her.
She had gone deer hunting with three others at their request, hoping her new found abilities from her 'alien friend' would be put to good use.
She was infuriated with their inability to track in silence, and how they strode so heavily through the woods, scanning for deer when they felt like being quiet enough to do so, hoping to find one through luck.
She tried to correct them, hissing quiet warnings to them to be silent, but the outing seemed to have less to do with actual hunting than it did with a way to gossip and chatter out of earshot of the others.
She separated herself from the group, tracked by sight the way R'chnt had guided her, and returned to the group later that night with a doe, spear still sticking out through the chest.
She did not remove it because she was proud she managed to kill it with a single shot and without R'chnt there to pad her on the back, she at least wanted to display her growing skills to the very group she intended to feed.
They looked at her with surprise as she dragged the animal behind her. While Lewis and Carlos thanked her for the meal and her efforts, they also warned her she should not have left the group and should not go out alone.
She did not know her condition at that point, and would have thought twice if she had, but she would never have gotten a deer in the company she was with, and although she brought the group food and sat with them at the camp fire and ate, she never felt more outcast from them than before that night.
She knew full well what the humans said about the Yautja when they weren't around; what they called them. Big Bastards. Ugly fuckers. Fuck Face.
The very group, the very people that were protecting them, scouring the planet at a risk of their own annihilation, were the brunt of whispered insults and disrespect.
Of course, the humans respected – feared- the Yautja enough to keep their eyes diverted away whenever they were around, and willingly accept direction as the Yautja offered, but whenever they were out of sight and earshot from the human group, the disparaging comments would begin again.
They had their own names for R'chnt especially, and from the very beginning, had dubbed him Earl.
They never called him that name when they suspected he might be within earshot and as the months progressed, they stopped calling him it when she was around.She turned a deaf ear to the gossip about her, who would choose to be with the Big Ole' Gray Fucker.
The first person to call him that had a thick accent the words came out sounding more like Earl Gray, thus the name was born as an inside joke. As she sat chewing a meaty slice of her venison kill, she realized that the gossip and name calling had turned to outright fear of her too.
When she found out she was pregnant, she chose to share the new with Lewis and Carlos only, though Nancy picked up on "the glow" she said K'Shai was emanating. K'Shai had only found out the very morning R'chnt returned on the back of a giant draught horse.
The next day, she had more of a chance to talk to Nancy about motherhood, idly casting glances to Kelly as they discussed the possible differences between a human child and a Yautja hybrid.
By the following evening, she had told R'chnt that she had been feeling differently. Not sick, as was typical for humans, but stronger, like she was changing somehow, and credited it to the Yautja blood churning inside her womb.
As she pressed her lips against him once again and undressed him in a field near a pond where they made camp a short distance away from both groups, she demonstrated her vigor to him, urging him harder and faster, letting him get more aggressive in his penetrations as she huffed and bellowed her approval.
The following morning, she straddled him as he laid on his back and pleasured herself readily as he pumped her powerfully.
When a small group of humans found them, they approached with the same look of alarm that he had come to expect from the species, and amused himself with the thought of how oddly similar the look was to the very animals K'Shai called deer that they would hunt for meat.
It was just then that W'rsa had sent him a transmission from a human outpost being openly broadcasted and by nightfall, R'chnt was guiding K'Shai and her group on what would be the final stretch of the journey of the Yautja and humans together.
K'Shai was in child and as he discussed with her during the trek to the human encampment, he needed her to rejoin the females aboard the jag'd'atoll. It was proper. It was expected.
There were experienced mothers who could help K'Shai along, and she would be safer in the mei'sa that the females had aboard the ship to raise offspring away from the males. R'chnt, like every other male adult Yautja, knew nothing about child bearing or rearing.
It was not a necessary part of their lives and one that he was not involved in at all. K'Shai expressed a very different view on family groups than he was used to, though he had witnessed the human family connection many times during his time observing her group.
Males and females raised their offspring together until the child was of such an age to venture out on its own, if it did at all, he had learned.
The concept of such things made no sense at all, and for days while he watched K'Shai interact with her group, gaining knowledge from experienced mothers of her own kind while the tiny thing in her womb grew slowly and steadily, its little legs sometimes twitching so subtly she could not even feel the movement that he could see, he tried to watch the sires of the children in her group to see how they interacted, and how it benefitted the youth at all.
Yautja males had nothing to do with their own children and R'chnt was apprehensive at best about the idea of K'Shai's insistence that he would remain in his hybrid child's life. He wondered what the females would think of that, and doubted it would go over well, but K'Shai remained adamant in her gentle way.
She rested comfortably with him, made it clear to him that she needed him in both her and the offspring's life, and had absolutely no intention of raising the child in the mei'sa without him.
"Neh'rti will not like that at all, K'Shai." He warned her with a careful growl. "It is not the Yautja way."
"Well, Neh'rti has noticed that I am not Yautja." K'Shai said simply and left it at that before distracting him with her tongue against his skin, something she was quite capable of.
Her sexual desires had been slowly amplifying and the strong scent of her, which was becoming more Yautja-esque as the fetus in her abdomen grew, was causing a stir amongst the males. Yautja females preferred to stay in a group away from male interference after breeding; rarely were bred females ever alone in community areas, and certainly never alone in male company.
The infants were born outside of male observation, in the protection of the mei'sa where they would be raised until such a time that they were ready to prepare for their first hunt under the tutelage of an instructor; males with males, females with females.
The signals from females were always clear. When they were bred they were not available for mating again in their lifetime.
Mating was for reproduction, and although it was a pleasurable experience for any Yautja male, females did not extend themselves for pure pleasure, as K'Shai did so naturally. When they were fertile and ready to mate, females would drive males into a fury, and once bred, the female was finished for life.
Lucky males, strong enough to endure the rigors of the mating season challenges, would breed multiple times in a single season with several different females.
K'Shai was bred, but she was also ready for mating, and her conflicting scent was having the same effect on R'chnt as well as the others in his group. Though they were respectful enough of R'chnt to know their boundaries with her, some of the newest straggling Yautja additions they had picked up, from another clan, offered no such discrimination.
R'chnt could sense the trio of youngsters' Leader's musk, oozing with challenge to his authority. Though they were from another Clan, they were not rivals, and R'chnt issued a powerful blow again and again to the smug youngblood, to put him in his rightful place, at his feet.
The effect did not produce the intended result, and in the early morning after two rounds of wildly pleasurable mating in which K'Shai challenged R'chnt to physically wearing him out of his own sex drive, a high pitched shriek of one of the human offspring shattered the still air, and R'chnt knew immediately K'Shai was in grave danger.
He charged as quickly as he could towards the growing commotion as humans from the opposite end of the camp came running onto the scene, weapons at the ready.
The rest of his group followed sharply behind him, but stopped in their tracks in surprise, gauging the scene as it unfolded while R'chnt tore into the youngblood, who had only become Leader a few days earlier when his own Leader faltered, slamming him into the ground a dozen feet from K'Shai, who clattered to the ground in a bloody heap.
He paused long enough to notice W'rsa grab her up and get her to a safer distance before he turned on the youngster while his two companions, glued to the ground ten meters away, stood in horror, doing nothing.
The humans wielded their weapons, but held off the triggers while they shouted as the children shrieked and wailed. R'chnt was aware of it all. He could hear K'Shai's trembling sobs in between ragged breaths; the youngblood had gripped her so tightly he was crushing her chest and she was having difficulty breathing.
R'chnt slammed the disrespectful youngster again and again, drawing his spear and running it through his thighs one at a time; intended to kill him, but slowly, pointedly, ensuring his two companions knew what fate await them next.
Again and again R'chnt slammed the defiant youngster, breaking his jaw, cracking his skull, shattering ribs, drawing gushing bursts of blood, spreading it over a large circle between the humans and the Yautja, who all looked on in stunned and horrified silence. R'chnt was furious, but kept his focus sharp and clear, while the struggling youth filled with rage, bellowed like a brute, and clumsily flung himself forward again and again, fatiguing with each exertion as his life's blood poured from him.
He still managed to draw in enough breath to curse R'chnt and K'Shai; to call them both disgraces; to call the offspring he had intended to gut from her womb an abomination. He tried to incite R'chnt's temper enough to make him lose focus, never realizing that his temper was fully incited, but his focus would not fail him.
In a last desperate attempt, he changed attacks and lunged towards K'Shai after R'chnt had struck him hard enough to send him flying her general direction.
R'chnt bolted towards the coward as K'Shai bellowed out a howl that sounded nothing like her usually quiet-voiced human self could even make, and slammed the knife that had once been embedded through her own thigh, into his chin, the tip of it coming out the back of her attacker's skull.
There was a quiet that filled the air as even R'chnt came to a halt and gauged the situation in surprise. K'Shai trembled for a moment, one side of her body covered in deep red blood, the other dripping now with bright green fluids, then collapsed.
He and the medic Gr'tyun-de tended to her and her human companions likewise came to check on her condition. Her closest two friends approached R'chnt a short while later.
One of them that he knew was called Lewis, bravely confronting R'chnt. In any other possible situation, R'chnt would have taken the obvious anger and the biting tone as his other companions tried futilely to hold him back, as a direct challenge to his authority, but R'chnt held his ground and kept his weapons holstered.
The human had no weapon drawn and was expressing concern for the welfare of his friend, which R'chnt understood.
"I will protect K'Shai," R'chnt assured Lewis, backing him off as he donned the familiar surprised look on his face.
R'chnt was sure, positive, he had spoken the proper words correctly. He had been getting lessons in English from K'Shai just as she was learning Yautjan from him.
Lewis took a moment to gain his composure then responded, somewhat more calmly.
"Well, that does a hell of a lot of good if you're not around. What if you die? What happens to her? She's crazy about you. She loves you. She'll follow you to hell for Christ's sake. How are you going to protect her?"
Valid points, R'chnt thought, although some of the words the human spoke made no sense. Love? What was that? What was Hell? What was a Christ's sake? He would have to ask K'Shai about those things, he thought, but still, the human male named Lewis made noteworthy concerns, especially given K'Shai's pregnancy.
This was exactly why she needed to be returned to the Clan ship, to gestate, bear, and raise the offspring amongst the females as a proper Yautja.
Though, in the time he spent watching her and his child grow, learning about her customs and expectations when it came to raising a child, the idea of not seeing either of them again, not having her to mate with, not knowing the child she insisted he should, did not appeal to him at all.
He needed her as much as she needed him, and somehow, he had determined as she did, that they were just going to make it work, assuming he lived long enough to see the end of the war.
It was days later when they reached the destination, which K'Shai had said was a pick up point some distance from the safe camp.
Though the pick up point had been centered amid a cleared area, R'chnt's proximity alarm notified him and his group that one of the other groups working in the area had chased up a straggling hive and were in pursuit of several drones and their queen.
He warned K'Shai to clear the area and she urged new humans to safety. They protested and the delay had given the kainde amedha queen time to charge onto the scene with her offspring and wreak havoc.
In the fray, the very building they had gone to the top of for a better tactical vantage point, collapsed partially thanks to a combination of acid blood and furious weapon fire from two working teams of Yautja hunters, along with a few hastily lobbed human explosive capsule weapons.
K'Shai prompted R'chnt to help free trapped humans under some debris then he commanded her to get clear, drew his spear and darted off with the other two hunters beside him towards the queen.
He jumped onto the rooftop of a nearby building, tore across it and leapt into the air, aimed for the back of the massive creature.
A ground force of hunters shot and speared at the thing as she hissed her deadly shriek and whipped her tail furiously, slamming hunters out of her way.
R'chnt was aware of the sounds of shattering helmets, breaking bone. This queen bore scars on her lengthy ridged crown; signs of other attacks from other Yautja. The very length of her crown, the width of her head, the number of spines down her back, all spoke that this queen had developed long ago; perhaps even one of the first to spawn on this world.
She fought cleverly, savagely; displaying her sharp intelligence that allowed her to survive as long as she clearly had.
When he clattered to her back and gripped one of those spines for support, she reared back wildly, thoroughly distracted from the Yautja at her feet surrounding her. He noticed, barely, that she had small holes spattered throughout her sides and out her back, evidence of human attempts to bring her down.
This queen was as fearsome as they come, he knew immediately. He vaguely thought her skull would make a worthy trophy in his home.
She spun around, jumping off the ground, whipping wildly trying to stab the intruder upon her with her tail, shrieking a high pitched call to any of her drone offspring who were alive, urging them to come to her aide.
R'chnt received covering fire from the other hunters and raised his spear. He powered it down through the back of her skull and the animal's fearsome hissing turned immediately into a gurgled choke. Instead of dropping in shock, accepting her death, this creature bucked at the very notion that she could be killed.
She whipped around wildly, throwing him off balance. He grabbed onto his spear lodged in her skull for support and it yanked loose, sending him skidding down her back. He quickly, reactively, impaled her with his dah'kte blades on his right wrist, drawing a spray of acid that hit his hide and fizzed as it seared into him.
He pulled himself back up the twisting animal and aimed his spear again, lodging it for a second time at the back of her skull, pushing so hard it came out her upper jaw and pierced through her inner jaw before it lodged into her lower jaw, at a sharp angle just behind her teeth.
A shame he had to punch so many holes into the mighty thing's skull, but it would still be a worthwhile trophy. What a fearsome creature she was, he thought respectfully as she finally collapsed below him, striking the ground so resentfully hard it nearly unfooted him again.
He slid off the queen's side, checking her over carefully to ensure she was dead. Sometimes a creature, as cunning as this one, might try to get the better of him with a clever stunt. He paused, watched her and gauged her condition.
Convinced she was dead, he looked about to the rest of the two groups of hunters, who were scattered and strewn in bloody heaps throughout the street, slowly regathering through the smoke and dust from such constant weapons fire.
R'chnt rounded the fallen queen's mighty head, raised his chin and straightened his back. He was injured, but the acid from the kainde amedha blood was something Yautja were well resistant to. The blood that could kill any other form of life he ever knew, was actually working against itself on his skin, cauterizing the very wounds they created, keeping him from bleeding worse.
They would leave scars, he knew, but they would be proud scars he would wear with confidence. This was a worthy opponent.
He barely heard the hiss. He barely registered the gathering hunters before him jump into action. He barely felt pain. Suddenly his world went numb.
He felt out of place, not really sure what was happening. He thought he was flying and as the solid brick wall of a building he was quickly speeding towards approached, he only had the faintest idea what had happened.
His focus was lost, his vision blurred, he could barely breathe. He looked about through the smoke-filled street and saw K'Shai, screaming in a panic, running towards him, arms extended to him as she crouched down.
He knew what was happening. He was still on the Clan ship, in his vision during their blood bonding ceremony. This was what he had seen; K'Shai coming to him reaching for him through a cloud of smoke.
He must have imagined everything else, because he remembered this well. She was sobbing; she looked upset though he was not sure why. The blood bond was for her protection, so she would be safer.
He tried to speak to her, he tried to reach for her, but he was not sure he was making words, he was not sure he was moving. She was clearly speaking, wailing, but yet if she was making sound, he could not hear. She was touching him, he saw her hands on him, but he did not feel.
He tipped his head back and the world fell dark.