CHAPTER SEVEN
Still a bit dazed, R'chnt purred in agreement and K'Shai realized that he had drifted back off to sleep before she had even made it to the door of his chambers.
She paused to survey him, listening to a tell-tale grumble in his breathing that told her all she needed to know about his condition and as she left him to rest, she found herself wishing that she could lock his door from the outside without him being able to open it. She assumed it probably could lock and her eyes suddenly scanned the walls to the panel that controlled the door, as if she could figure out how to lock him in his own room.
Recalling that the foodstocks on R'chnt's ship were paltry at best, K'Shai decided on finding her way to one of the cantinas in the atoll, but first, she had to make a side stop and she was sure she could find the way.
She caught the attention of every single Yautja she passed and noticed how they reacted to her as she made her way through the nearly empty corridors. The 'aseigan glanced her way only for a split second before returning to their own business so sharply and jumpily she assumed they were reacting as if R'chnt was lingering in a nearby shadow, ready to pounce.
She passed a handful of worker Yautja, Blooded into the Clan, but not hunters, who also cleared out of her path. Though they did not nod their heads to her, they still moved aside and maintained a healthy respect and K'Shai started to realize why R'chnt had put her on display the way he had.
Several hunters did see her, and their reactions were far different than the lower castes of males. They gazed at her without any attempt to hide it as they rumbled to each other, stopping what they were doing to crane their necks or move to different locations just to see her better as she slowly stalked the corridors, working her way through her memory trying to find her destination.
When she rounded another corner, she recognized exactly where she was and made her way into the jurite, catching L'ruch's attention as soon as she entered.
A hunter was seated on the exam table, allowing L'ruch to seal a large injury to his arm. His battered biohelmet still covered in fluorescent green blood, was resting next to him. K'Shai noticed the fine details on the helmet, with sharply protruding horns along the edges of it, making it almost look like a kainde amedha queen head.
R'chnt had gone through at least three biohelmets in the time she had known him. His current one, still bloodied up as it was displayed on a mount in his armory, she thought suited him the most. It was sleek and dark bronze, almost black, and had tubework on the cheeks that housed wiring to the internal controls. Simple, functional, deadly.
K'Shai had noticed the variety of biohelmets so far with all the different hunters she had seen. Some were unadorned, just basic curved helmets that covered their heads like a perfectly fitted shell, while others were etched with writings or damage from fights, and adorned with ornamentation, ridges, or anything else that personally appealed to the hunter that wore it.
"What is that doing here?" K'Shai heard the hunter on the exam table grumble as he glared at her.
She tried to pretend she didn't hear the comment, and she wasn't sure how she should respond. Yautja were very attuned to not only body language, but also, she noticed, to eye contact.
One Yautja diverting his eyes to his feet to avoid eye contact with another was just as acceptable form of respect as a full bow, but K'Shai was only just beginning to learn that the depth of the respect depended upon the level of ranks between the two Yautja as well as gender.
Females seemed to be naturally higher ranked than males, and usually their gesture of respect was a subtle head nod without loss of eye contact, while males returned it with a deeper drop of their head and shifted eye contact.
The hunter stared at K'Shai as L'ruch half turned to glance at her when she entered. K'Shai wanted to drop her eyes to the ground just to avoid the almost painful gaze of his burning eyes.
Her immediate reaction, to submit to the hunter before her as if she were inferior, she immediately thought was probably not the appearance R'chnt was trying to convey with her, so she instead surveyed his battered body, looking at the wounds the healer was tending to as if they somehow concerned her, which served to allow her to directly look at him without making eye contact. It was a somewhere-in-between response that at least worked to her advantage.
She said nothing and neither did L'ruch. The hunter grumbled, grabbed his helmet up and shifted off the table to his feet, pushing his way passed L'ruch rather rudely, then pounding his way out of the room heavily, his clawed toes ticking the metal planks below them, but he diverted his eyes away from K'Shai as he passed her.
"R'chnt is teaching you well, I see." L'ruch said with a clearly pleased tone in his voice.
K'Shai turned to him with a satisfied grin, though she tried to actively settle her pounding heart.
"That's what I came to talk to you about." She said quietly.
"I see. You are concerned for him." L'ruch responded with a questioning tone hidden in a statement.
"Yes, I am." She sighed deeply, not really understanding the tone in L'ruch's voice, as if it was such a shock that she was worried about him.
She tiptoed closer to him and spoke in a whisper so softly she could ensure that L'ruch's assistants would not hear, as if the conversation they were having was a highly secretive subject. She did not quite know why but she realized that it was, and needed to be handled carefully.
"It's just that….He's…. well…he….uhhh…" she fumbled over her words.
"Is in pain, too stubborn to admit it, and ready to head off to the hunt again?" L'ruch filled in the blanks with a familiar distasteful snigger in his voice.
K'Shai smiled and nodded, relieved that L'ruch had put it so eloquently.
"As any proper hunter should be," L'ruch confirmed.
"Is there… maybe… anything I can do for him? Give him perhaps? For the pain? Or… maybe to keep him unconscious until he heals?"
She was not sure she was exactly kidding about the last part, but L'ruch seemed to understand her concerns and busied himself with retrieving supplies from a nearby cabinet. He turned back to her and handed her a syringe and pointed to lighted notches on the side of it.
"One dose at a time… if you can get him to take it."
"Thank you." She said to him with a grateful, deep head nod before she turned to leave. L'ruch returned the gesture, eyeing her with a hint of surprise that she had done so.
She stopped and considered L'ruch and what she had seen of him so far, from his behaviour and looks to how the hunters seemed to acknowledge him only briskly, pushing past him, like he wasn't worth their time. Even R'chnt had acted that way towards him, though L'ruch had aided in saving his life. She turned back to him.
"L'ruch, why is it that it seems like the hunters don't really…." She paused, trying to think of a way to articulate her thoughts without seeming rude.
She wasn't sure if the Yautja acted superior to L'ruch due to rank or because they really were simply embarrassed that they needed medical attention.
"Are they all stubborn…about …. Getting help?"
"The hunters are absolute in their power and skill. And with good reason. To them this in an inconvenience. An annoyance. They are doers, K'Shai. Not thinkers. They are proud of their scars, but they lack the patience for anything that does not involve hunting. Needing help, K'Shai, is considered a sign of weakness. Had the situation been any different, R'chnt would now be dead. This is all most unusual."
K'Shai eyed him worriedly, trying to process exactly what he meant.
"You mean, if not for me?"
L'ruch nodded a slow confirmation.
"I'm curious," K'Shai asked carefully, "about your chiva. You said hunting was not your Path. I don't really understand that? You are Blooded, but I thought only hunters were Blooded? I thought being Blooded proved strength?"
L'ruch seemed to both hold an admiration and distaste for the hunters and hunting. It was a curious thing to her. It seemed as if he wished he could have been a hunter, but yet he did pass the chiva, which means he did hunt.
"I was a thinker, K'Shai." L'ruch said simply.
"I survived chiva and earned my place in the Clan."
K'Shai presumed that there was a lot more involved in surviving the chiva training than she could realize and as she thought about her own experiences on Earth having been enough to have rightfully earned the Blooding mark in R'chnt's view, she thought maybe she had a good idea of how intense a young Yautja's training was before their own rite of passage came.
She nodded courteously again and turned to leave.
"K'Shai," L'ruch called to her softly and she glanced back at him. "I can see why he has taken such an interest in you."
She smiled softly and dismissed herself out of the door, turning down the next corridor and coming to a halt before Neh'rti and three other females who all turned away from conversation with a couple of male elders to survey her. Without any delay, Neh'rti demanded her join them and K'Shai felt little choice but to follow along obediently.
Neh'rti discussed her business with the two males she had been talking to and then led the other females and K'Shai through the corridors, questioning K'Shai in regards to when she planned to do as the Yautja way expected and join the females in the mei'sa, and again expressing chastising displeasure for her choice to remain with R'chnt.
The other three females were a little more curious about her and questioned her about her unusual alien ways and explained, in somewhat better detail than Neh'rti had, about the ways of the female Yautja as the group made their way through the corridors, down a lift, and along a lower level that K'Shai was sure she recognized.
"Well, R'chnt certainly has made you his nehpti. You are as devoted to him as an 'aseigan, only by choice it seems. You have been allowed to be Blooded into my Clan! Surely you will do that mark honor as R'chnt believes you will or you will find yourself cast into eta and hunted for your meat."
Neh'rti's ominous threat interrupted the conversation K'Shai was having and quickly silenced the other three females as well as herself.
She felt her skin prickle despite the sauna-like warmth of the lower level of the atoll, as if the air suddenly turned frigid. Neh'rti turned away from K'Shai and the others and strode into the leather shop in her shadow.
K'Shai quietly tiptoed in behind the group, suddenly feeling about as comfortable near Neh'rti as a kitten in front of a bear. She walked around the shop instead, surveying the animal pelts that were hanging from tanning racks and the many leather straps that were dangling overhead.
The skins she saw were widely varied, though a few were alarmingly recognizable and made her body shudder. She was absolutely certain two pelts nearby were from alligators or crocodiles, and one furry skin definitely appeared to look quite bear-ish; deep red blood still stained into its fur.
Other pelts were dramatically unlike anything she had ever seen. Most of them looked leathery, but a few pelts that were suspended from powerful looking hooks out of the ceiling looked stiff, as if the hides were metal. One of them had bony ridges giving it an ominous look despite the beautiful array of pastel colors that highlighted its otherwise pasty appearance.
K'Shai rounded a solid pillar that had bones drying off pegs as they dangled, and nearly walked into a Yautja working over a large pelt on a counter top that she hadn't even noticed since she was so busy gaping at everything else around her.
The Yautja barely bothered to look up and K'Shai turned her attention towards the hide he was working on with clearly intense concentration.
It was furry, at least, in patches, but she couldn't tell if it was a beast of Earth or elsewhere, though the color did seem to remind her of a deer. She watched the worker apply a white cream to the leather and allow it to sit for a moment before he scraped it away with a simple piece of wood that was honed to a point along one edge.
The hair was pulled away easily and the leather below looked smooth and supple. K'Shai stepped forward curiously and began scanning the counter top, surveying the tools and creams all around him as he carefully prepared the hide section by section.
"May I see this?" She asked, indicating to one of the jars of cream.
The worker stopped what he was doing and glanced from her to the cream and back again and gestured his head in a sideways nod, looking at her quizzically. His one upper mandible that was pricked in combination with a furrow in his brow was a definite and noticeable sort of "huh?" gaze.
She picked up the metal mug-sized jar of cream and pressed the edge of it to her face, sniffing softly as she investigated it.
The scent of the cream was sweet, like vanilla. It smelled appealing enough to eat, but she was quite sure it most likely was not edible. She rubbed a small amount of it onto the back of her hand. The lotion felt luxurious and silky, elegant.
As she whisked away the excess lotion and the fine hairs on the back of her hand were removed with it, she noticed the spot left behind felt smooth and nourished, as if the lotion also had an exfoliating effect.
K'Shai pressed her lips together into a simple smile as she suddenly thought about how someone on Earth could have made a fortune with such a wonderful smelling lotion that exfoliates, removes unwanted hair, and leaves behind a silky smooth feeling on the skin.
She recalled what seemed like a distant memory when she used to take showers that lasted an hour and meticulously tended to every detail of her appearance. She could recall having everything from fingernail brushes to loofas, in a variety of colors, and every imaginable type of lotion and hair care product possible.
It had been so long since she had clean hair or non-broken fingernails without dirt under them or luxurious lotions on her skin that the first opportunity to take a shower was a welcome treat, despite how incredibly hot the water was. After so long bathing in rain water or lakes, any hot water felt almost surreal.
The Yautja, she had come to know, were fastidious cleaners with rigorous bathing routines that matched their equally rigorous lifestyle.
They would get sweaty, bloody, and beaten up just during normal sparring, and as all things with Yautja were done in a communal way, there were hot pools throughout the jag'd'atoll, segregated by castes, but not genders, where Yautja would soak and cleanse and tend to their grooming habits.
There were even 'aseigan who tended to the bath houses and the Yautja who utilized them, who would oil hunters' tresses while they soaked.
It was an unusual thing for K'Shai, to try to adjust to the Yautja's completely nonexistent sense of modesty. In dramatic contrast to humans, especially human females, who were taught from as young as possible to always remain covered up, to never let anyone 'see' them, like somehow their natural form was something to be embarrassed over or ashamed of, the Yautja had no such belief.
She thought quickly to how L'ruch idly walked into the open shower area on her, talking casually, completely oblivious of her discomfort over him doing so while she was disrobed.
She was grateful that R'chnt was privileged enough to have his own private shower and soaking pool, because the idea of utilizing a community bath was awkward and uncomfortable to her, as was her first experience in a communal bathroom amongst the females in the mei'sa.
K'Shai nodded graciously to the Yautja still staring at her like she was crazy and noticed Neh'rti had finished her business and was looming in the doorway, apparently waiting for her with an equally quizzical look.
K'Shai suddenly felt like she was doing something wrong and wanted to rush over to Neh'rti like a child warily coming to her mother when called, afraid of being scolded for causing a delay. She fought that urge, and walked back to the females waiting on her slowly, as if her business was equally as important as whatever Neh'rti was up to.
"Such a strange creature," K'Shai heard one of the Yautja working on a hide rumble to the other. "Are all humans like that?"
"I have no idea," said the other. "I've only ever seen dead ones."
K'Shai ignored the comment as she returned to Neh'rti and the other females and strode with them down the corridor.
"What is a nehpti?" K'Shai asked finally of S'ridi, a young, but prominent female who was well on her way to become an arbritator; a coveted position she was being trained for by right of her bloodlines and her talents in tracking and fighting.
S'ridi was an intimidating female standing almost as tall as R'chnt. Her bold markings of deep reds, purples, and yellows were indicative of her young age, but from what K'Shai had been told, her skills with a blade were well beyond her years.
K'Shai had found S'ridi also to be curious about her, very intelligent, and seemed comfortable with being a sort of buffer between Neh'rti and herself, which she was grateful for.
Before S'ridi could answer, Neh'rti turned and balked at K'Shai with a tone that suggested she should know what the word meant.
"He made you his nehpti in the blood bond ceremony." She informed with a detested hiss to her voice.
K'Shai tried to process what she was being told, and why it was met with such a condescending tone as she drew her own conclusions on exactly what had taken place during the blood bond, which K'Shai associated with a similar human custom between a man and woman that was a celebrated and joyous occasion.
"He made you his property K'Shai. A possession by blood. He is connected to you as you are to him, and he will guard you as his own."
S'ridi informed her and Neh'rti rounded on K'Shai like she had done something horribly wrong.
"Female Yautja are strong, we are not possessions. To him, you are no different than a spear on his wall. And you seem to enjoy it. I can't imagine why. You do not need him to protect you. There is nothing he can do for you that you will not have done in the mei'sa as it should be. You are female."
Neh'rti flared her tusks over K'Shai, clearly agitated although K'Shai wasn't sure if she was trying to display agitation over her choice to remain by R'chnt's side, lack of understanding of K'Shai's nature, or displeasure that K'Shai had not yet taken to the mei'sa, or perhaps all of it combined.
"Humans have a similar custom, like the blood bond. I am honored by what R'chnt did. Deeply." She said in a whispered tone of surprise and a subtle bow her head and eyes, just for good measure.
Neh'rti withdrew, quizzically gazing at the small frame of a human that barely made eye level with her abdomen and K'Shai used the quiet moment to dismiss herself from the females. She nodded respectfully to the others, only realizing after she left that it was probably some kind of terrible insult to Neh'rti to turn her back on them.
By the time she had gotten out of view of the females, she was shaking worse than dying leaves on a windy day and felt flustered.
She hurried her way down the turns and curves of the corridors, up a lift, through more of the amber-lit maze of hallways, and nearly walked right into the back of the large, limping, one-eyed hunter from the cantina the day before.
K'Shai had just barely glanced one way while she was walking another and rounded a corner stopping suddenly before she collided with the hunter's spear collection he carried on his back. He spun around in surprise with a growl, which he stopped so abruptly when he eyed her that it actually made her more alarmed that he stopped.
The hunter backed away from her slightly, apprehensively, but instead of jumping and hurriedly scurrying out of her path like so many other workers and certainly the 'aseigan had, he stood there, looming, watching her, blocking her path and making her nervous.
"Sach'jal-be"?" He asked grittily if she was lost.
"Hko," K'Shai said, clearly rattled, but denying that she was lost.
She knew where she was headed, but as she turned to leave, she did so more slowly, keenly aware that the hunter, who was not much shorter than R'chnt, but appeared far bulkier due to the heavy armor he was wearing, had locked his eyes on her.
She felt her heart skip a few beats as she realized he began to tail her. Well, he had been heading that direction anyway, she figured.
K'Shai hoped maybe his business would have taken him through one of the several dozen doors she passed en route to the cantina.
He could have gone into three different kehrites, a weapons shop, armor fabrication, or even the bathroom she had passed which connected to one of the community bath houses, but as it was, the hulky hunter thumped along behind her, his limping gait clearly evident by the uneven sounds his talons made as they ticked along on the floor grates.
The cantina couldn't come soon enough. She was hopeful that she could dodge into it and get out from under the heated shadow of the large form following her.
Her shaking amplified when he turned into the cantina right behind her and she wondered if he was purposely looming behind her to frighten her. She knew her heart was pounding away in alarm, no doubt broadcasting her anxiety to him and every other Yautja she passed.
She was already on high alert after her showdown with Neh'rti. The last thing she needed was a hurly Yautja starting something with her while she had no idea what to do, and no R'chnt to protect her.
Neh'rti's words about not needing his protection chiseled away at her. She was supposed to be strong enough to handle herself without R'chnt casting his shadow over her. Suddenly she began to regret venturing out on her own and thought she should have just directed the 'aseigan to do her bidding through a communication panel from the K'ojol.
Spotting one 'aseigan wiping down a counter, keeping his eyes glued to the rag in his hand as three hunters hovering near him filled their platters K'Shai moved over to him, catching the attention of the hunters who all glanced at her, saw the big hunter lingering a dozen feet away and backed off.
The 'aseigan seemed to have no idea which way to turn as the moment suddenly turned tense, but K'Shai acknowledged him politely, which caused the hunters nearby to chuckle and say something amongst themselves that she only partially heard about not talking to 'aseigan that way.
The Yautja language did not have a word for a gracious request such as please, so although she tried to show as much respect as possible, she felt as though she was just bossing around an alien that, though scrawny and unmuscled, still stood more than a foot taller than her and had the natural instincts of a killer bred right into him, even if society had revoked his ability to become one.
She requested him to bring food back to the K'ojol for her, and pointed to everything she expected him to fill onto a tray; clearly enough to feed two. The 'aseigan stared blankly at her as if he was trying to figure out what she was, why she was speaking Yautjan, why she was ordering him in Yautjan, and working out if he really had to pay attention to her.
She became acutely, a little horrifically, aware that the four hunters looming nearby and most likely anyone else in the room, though she dared not turn her head to see if anyone else was present, were all watching her and the 'aseigan stare each other down.
K'Shai was absolutely certain by now that whatever h'dui'se she emanated to them that declared nervousness, she was probably saturated with. She could not, apparently, even get a slave to fill a tray of food and not even twenty minutes earlier, she had more than likely offended the Clan Leader, no doubt securing her death.
Unsure what to do exactly, K'Shai just continued to stare at the 'aseigan staring back at her, each one trying to work out what needed to happen next. The term "awkward silence" suddenly had an entirely new meaning to K'Shai.
"You heard the female!" The big hunter to K'Shai's right side suddenly barked in such a deep rumbling voice it made the 'aseigan jump and his spots turn pale in an instant.
K'Shai flinched at the junkyard dog growl of his voice and eyed the hunter up.
She realized she had unintentionally cast him an 'I was handling it' type of glare, but whether or not he had picked up on it she did not know. He did not acknowledge the look, nor did he say anything else, though he did cast a warning glare at the other three hunters who were sniggering over K'Shai's inability to properly command an 'aseigan.
Whether or not she had to, she waited for the 'aseigan to fill up the tray with the requested fruits, nuts, meats, and something that looked a bit like an eel. Her patience was quickly fraying, though.
He could not have filled the tray fast enough as far as she was concerned, she just wanted to get out of there and run back to R'chnt's ship, completely uncomfortable with all that had transpired.
Certain that all the Yautja now thought she was a fool and that Neh'rti was most definitely planning to behead her at her earliest opportunity, whenever it wasn't an inconvenience to her to extend herself to do so, K'Shai fretted the entire way back to R'chnt's hunt ship with a mug of hair removing lotion in one hand and a syringe of pain killers in the other and an 'aseigan in tow, carrying a tray of food, completely unaware of the display she was making by walking ten steps ahead of a bow-headed 'aseigan performing work for her.
Once he deposited the tray on the floor outside R'chnt's quarters, K'Shai nodded her gratitude to him for helping her bring the supplies there, and he appeared so stunned by her gesture that he actually shifted away from her with clear uncertainty.
Not knowing what condition R'chnt would be in when she opened the door, she waited until the 'aseigan was well out of sight before she depressed the door panel, holding her breath as she did, halfway wondering if R'chnt would even be inside.
She stepped through the threshold, past pegs that displayed shined toothy trophy skulls and glanced first to her left, to the sleeping chamber, to an empty bed. Her eyes scanned past the doorless frame to the bathroom and throughout the circular sitting room, past the massive viewing window that currently had a view of the plain bulkhead wall of the docking bay beyond it, and then to her right to R'chnt's personal sparring kehrite.
She pressed her lips together in a curious smile as she spotted him, kneeling and stationary in the middle of the circular space, between the two engraved pillars.
She quietly made her way over towards him, setting down the mug of lotion on a small table as she moved on. She lingered behind R'chnt, watching him in silence, holding her breath. R'chnt made no motion at all for a long moment.
Many times, K'Shai had seen him hold so still he looked like a statue; it was an impressive skill, although at the moment he did not even appear to be breathing. If he was not holding himself upright, she would have been alarmed.
He finally exhaled, making a soft clicking sound as he lowered his center of gravity and sat on his lower legs as he tipped his head in her direction.
"I didn't want to disturb you." She said softly. "Were you meditating or something?"
She crouched down next to him and R'chnt directed her silently to move in front of him, guiding her with one hand gripped over her as he carefully positioned her where he wanted, on her knees facing him.
"Do you feel alright?" She asked him as her eyes unconsciously dropped to the bruises and still healing wounds on his lower right abdomen.
R'chnt dipped his head softly. "Zazin," hie said. "I was focusing my thoughts."
He watched her, considering her position in this incredibly unusual situation. He knew he should be dead.
His injuries were severe and although his natural drive spurred him to return to the hunt, he had spent the last hour succumbing to the thought that his wounds were keeping him from his full ability and how that reflected on him and how K'Shai was responding to all of it.
She eyed him with concern, but showed nothing even close to contempt for his weakened state. She worried over his condition without suggesting he was incapable, though he had wrongfully assumed she had. She tended to him now, reaching to him with concern and a syringe of medication to dull the tremendous pain in his side, but he knew she was not trying to insult his ability or strength.
"I thought maybe you could use this. I know you're hurting. Please don't go back. Not yet."
He parted his upper tusks into a small smile and as she stroked his arm with one hand. He retrieved the syringe from her slowly, looking at it in consideration before he handed it back to her and nodded his gratitude. Without a word, she triggered the control on the device to dispense the amount of medication L'ruch had told her to give him and she injected it into his bicep then sank back down next to him surveying him quietly.
"Neh'rti is very insistent that I stay in the mei'sa." K'Shai informed him. "I just want to be with you. I don't understand what I am supposed to do there. I don't understand why it's so important I am away from you."
"Neh'rti is Clan Leader. She oversees all Clan business, and females and offspring are her main concern. She will expect me to return to the hunt and you to learn the ways that I cannot teach you."
K'Shai processed his words and questioned him.
"Female and male Yautja really have little to do with each other, don't they?"
"Females raise offspring and tend to matters of the mei'sa and the Clan." He said with a slight nod. His powerful voice, slightly raspy, was barely above a whisper. "Very few hunt. But all is different for you. I will teach you as a hunter. You will need to know."
"Why? Why must I need to know how to hunt? Am I supposed to hunt and be in the mei'sa? I don't understand…" K'Shai questioned him, staring intently at his deep golden eyes.
He said nothing, but waited. She was clearly still contemplating the matter, and he tried to figure out why. K'Shai was strong and capable, a proven fighter that simply needed more training to hone skills she denied she even had.
"What…what did L'ruch do?" She questioned quietly.
R'chnt tipped his head curiously.
"I do not understand, K'Shai?"
"I mean… he seems like… he envies the hunters, maybe regrets that he didn't become a hunter. But why couldn't he? He did hunt, right?" K'Shai questioned, trying to work it all out as coherently as possible.
"Hunting was not his Path, K'Shai. Each Yautja must follow the Path the gods set for them. Just as they have set my Path to you, and your Path is now with me."
"I don't understand, R'chnt. You say I must become a hunter, but yet there are Yautja, Blooded Yautja
that are not hunters. I don't understand what it means, hunting was not his Path. He said that, too. What does that mean? Why do you think hunting is my Path?"
"Your Path is with me, K'Shai. I will teach you. I will guide you. L'ruch was weak. You are not."
"Weak? He survived chiva. Isn't that proving your strength? He's Blooded and I am too."
R'chnt paused for a moment, clicking his tusks in consideration as he thought about his response. Was the human way really so different? He would have to try to learn more about human customs to better understand her logic, if such a thing was possible.
He imagined at the very least, learning more about the human ways might help him explain the Yautja ways in clarity she could understand.
"Strong enough to earn the mark of the Clan. Not strong enough to be a hunter," he said simply.
"L'ruch survived chiva by falling over a cliff." He added, and K'Shai eyed him widely.
"What?" She questioned with surprise.
R'cht tipped his head, nodding affirmation.
"During his hunt, K'Shai. His prey pursued him. He fought the beast and lost his footing. He tripped over his own spear. He fell over a cliff and the animal with him. He lived, his prey did not."
K'Shai stared at him blankly, drawing up a mental imagine of a young L'ruch hanging off a cliff as whatever it was he was hunting, or was hunting him, flipped over his shoulder and plummeted to its death.
She did not understand why such a thing made him unworthy of being a hunter, and so questioned R'chnt on the matter further.
"He was not a strong hunter. But, he earned his place in the Clan and he has proven himself a capable healer," R'chnt added after multiple attempts to explain the differences between a strong hunter and a lucky break.
"Hardly worthy of a Hunter's blood. L'ruch would never hold up to a female for breeding."
"Hold up to breeding?" K'Shai asked with a bit of a horrified gasp. What exactly was so challenging about mating, she wondered for a moment. "R'chnt, I think you are going to need to explain to me exactly what that means!"
"You will see," he answered uninformatively.
K'Shai knew R'chnt preferred few words, but he was also a capable story teller, with a clear flare for it. His lack of answer on the subject of Yautja breeding only made her more curious.
"Females are strong. Yautja and human, clearly." He said with a gentle touch of her chin.
"R'chnt, I don't think I have the strength you think…" K'Shai said with a quiet whisper, bowing her head, dropping eye contact, submitting before him.
He placed a taloned hand on her shoulder and squeezed softly, supportively.
"You have already proven you do."
K'Shai eyed him, shaking her head side to side slowly.
"I only did what I had to do."
"There is no difference, K'Shai. You are clever and determined, strong and capable. I have seen this myself."
"But none of this is what I wanted. I didn't want to do any of the things that I did. Things that Yautja enjoy and thrive on. That is not what humans do. It's just all do different."
R'chnt huffed a slow and careful breath and ticked his mandibles. He reached a hand to her cheek and cupped the entire side of her head in his palm, stroking her lightly.
"Your strength has been proven. You have earned the mark. Now, you will learn how to bring Honor to it."
"I don't understand, R'chnt. How am I supposed to learn to hunt from you if you go off to Earth? You could be killed. Am I supposed to just sit in the mei'sa and wait and hope you come back?"
"K'Shai, you do know it is a risk to all of us that we may die, but one that is part of our lives. We do not fight death the way humans do." R'chnt explained in a quiet tone.
"Well," K'Shai considered. "I think there's a lot that humans and Yautja do differently."
"There is." He agreed with a deep nod of his ridged head.
She paused for a moment and considered his position on the matter and dropped her eyes as she bit her lower lip slightly.
"R'chnt are you… are you angry that I saved your life?"
He remained silent, surveying her with his golden eyes. She continued on, knelt in front of him with her hands clamped around the solid muscles of his biceps, feeling his immense warmth.
"I just feel like everything is backwards. Yautja and humans are so different, but I… I did what I needed to do. I couldn't just let you die. I need you. The baby needs you. We had to try. W'rsa told me to leave you to the gods. He said it wasn't the Yautja way. Neh'rti seems like she doesn't know what to make of me. She just wants me to be away from you. I just… that isn't… this..."
She ran out of words for a moment, paused, and recollected her thoughts as her heart pounded away frantically.
"She called me your nehptu. Said I was no different to you than a spear on your trophy wall."
"K'Shai…" R'chnt rumbled finally.
"I have done all I can to protect you; to secure your place in the Clan. Neh'rti expects you to take that place and learn the ways of the females. You will need to return to the mei'sa, but I will remain here for now, until I am stronger. I will stay by your side, I will teach you what I can that you must know. I will help you adjust as best as I can. But I cannot teach you the female ways.
I am not angry, K'Shai. This is an unusual situation. I have only ever known one way. One Path. All hunters wish to die an honorable death, to hear the call of the great god Centanu and know they have followed his Path into Honor. I do not understand why your species fights the will of your gods so much, but I did not hear that call.
I only heard you.
You have made me realize there are other considerations in this life, beyond an honorable death. Yautja, females especially, do not think the same as you; as humans do. They will not see it the same way. They will think I am weak, but this injury will heal and I will be strong again. There will be challenges, but I will prove myself and in doing so, will protect you in that way as well.
You, K'Shai… you must learn to hunt. For you there will be no other way. You are a creature of two worlds now, as is the offspring you carry. You must walk the Path I know the Gods have laid beore you. I will teach you. It will take strength, and it will be difficult, but I will guide you through it."
K'Shai didn't know what to say. She tried to formulate a response, but she stumbled over her own thoughts and instead said nothing.
It was hard to process a way she barely understood. He seemed to realize that her mind needed focusing too, as he shifted his position again and directed her to mimic him.
He could see that she was trying to understand all that she had been told, though she looked more confused than earlier. Her scent reflected her uncertainty and anxiety.
R'chnt considered that as difficult it would be for him to re-prove himself while he remained on the Clan ship and away from his position as Leader, K'Shai was on a far more difficult path.
She looked at him with acceptance and trust that he was not accustomed to. She eyed him with a determined fire that instilled him with confidence that she would adjust to Yautja life and find her place.
He knew she had questions and as she shifted in her crouch before him, she looked impatient, so much like any young Yautja that was ready to tackle their moment of chiva without any real idea of what they would need to know besides the basics of being the strongest.
K'Shai, he knew, had a different kind of strength and a mentality that was backed up by a tempered wisdom far beyond the typical youth in training. She would learn, he knew. For now, she needed to focus her thoughts and begin to understand her own body and mind.
"I will show you," he said to her as he guided her, with a firm grip on her bare sides below the leather garments that covered her breasts, into the position he had been in when she walked in.