CHAPTER TEN
"K'Shai?" R'chnt muttered weakly as he righted himself.
She wasn't sure how long had passed, but she heard his voice and woke up with alertness, turning to him and surveying him. He was dazed and clearly pained, but he sat up and gathered himself, recalling everything that happened up until leaving the cantina.
She filled him in on the details, helped him to stand and as she walked with him, slowly towards the shower, she realized it had been more than twenty-six hours. She had not eaten and she was not sure if it was lack of food for so long or overwhelming amounts of stress and anxiety that had made her feel so suddenly light headed and dizzy upon standing.
Regardless, before stepping with R'chnt into the shower, she first odered an 'aseigan to bring them both food and send someone to clean the chambers. She realized only after she ended the communication on the computer console that, because she was keeping half an eye on R'chnt, who was holding on to the wall near the bathroom looking as though he was trying to keep the ship from falling over, she actually sounded rather bossy and curt in her request, which she had not intended.
Although she did notice the results getting consistently better, with prompt responses and quicker service to her requests. She assumed the 'aseigan were just used to being sharply commanded as opposed to politely requested.
After they were cleaned and fed and the blood from the furniture and floors had been removed, K'Shai and R'chnt sat together in the bed. He wrapped her in his arms as he sat upright, leaning his back against the wall, stroking her hair, throatily purring to her, trying to content her as he realized she was still quite stressed. Her scent changed dramatically when she was anxious and she shifted into worry and fear so easily, it was a scent he had become quite familiar with.
He silently thought about all that had happened and what she had done to save his life for the second time and let her beliefs on the matter absorb into him. While he was questioning the human way of seemingly fighting the will of their gods in any way possible, she was questioning the Yautja way of being what she said, 'too willing' to greet theirs.
It perplexed her, she had told him, how such strong and proud warriors would fight for their rightful Honor, yet seemed to lack the drive to fight for their right to live.
He silently considered how strange it seemed to him, that her species' way was to fight, in any and every way possible to live. It made them excellent prey, but he also generally considered such desperate fighting against the will of the paya to be a reflection of cowardly fear and weakness.
Now, twice, he was alive because of what he believed reflected weakness. K'Shai was most definitely fearful, he thought. She was afraid of him dying.
She was afraid of continuing on in her life, in the mei'sa as was proper for Yautja females, without him. She feared such things that he had never once considered could be anyone's way of life, it was so vastly different.
She had maintained to him that his presence alive in her life was quintessential to her and that she expected him to be a father to the child growing within her.
It was not normal for Yautja males to take part in anything to do with their offspring, but K'Shai not only could not understand that, she adamantly stuck to her customs that males and females reared their children together. He thought about it, realizing why the human method seemed to make sense for them.
He realized, as he held her while she drifted off to sleep against his slowly rising and falling chest, that he had been wrong about K'Shai. She was willing to fight to keep him alive because she needed him.
She was dependent on his protection and support. She was strong enough to fight aggressively simply because she was fearful. And yet, she believed Yautja to be confusing.
K'Shai did not want other females to be her support, or to help her raise the offspring. She had explained that human males were expected to provide for their mates and progeny. He did not quite understand what she meant when she talked about things called jobs and money, but understood enough to know that this was the way a human male provided his family with shelter, food, and security; the things expected of him by his mate.
He quietly pondered the differences between the human way and the Yautja way, as the 'aseigan returned to clear out the empty food tray in the living room and deposit another full one on the table next to the bed. He thought about her drive to protect him in her own way, to keep him alive.
The measures she took to save his life, not once, but twice. He knew she would do it again and again if necessary and it humbled him to see such a strong drive, not only for her own survival and her offspring's, but for his as well.
She viewed him as a protector something she could not live without, and while it was fear that encouraged that particular behavior, it also spurred strength of spirit in her that he had never seen before. He admitted to himself that he did not wish to die and leave her to navigate her life apart from him.
While he knew the possibility was very real and had already considered what would happen to her after he was gone, he found the thought of it disturbing. He knew of course that other males would fight for a chance to breed to her.
He knew W'rsa would be the first one to make such a stand, and also presumed K'tore-de might. He doubted, though, that most of the males who showed interest in her, wanted anything more than the chance to mate and continue on to breed other females as was the Yautja way.
They did not want to understand her, hold her in the quiet still of an empty space, or let her scent absord into them until it was part of their very blood. They certainly would not even consider the notion of raising offspring with her.
He pressed his face against her head, inhaled her scents, listened to her breath, watched the fetus within her fidget and flinch, it's tiny little fingers curled against its head. K'Shai was pressed against him with her head against his chest and one knee curled over his thighs, positioned on his good side, carefully avoiding any contact with the damage to his lower right side. Even in her sleep, she attempted to display her concern and awareness for him.
He considered how the injuries he endured were going to affect him going forward. For the first time in his life, he was thinking about the Path ahead, not just the Path before him now. She would need him to be there for her, always.
It was humbling to think of, and even more so when he admitted to himself that he needed her just as much. He was not accustomed to needing the companionship of another, but she had successfully managed to trigger something in him he had never even thought about, or imagined he was capable of.K'Shai's "demands" of him, though different than he was accustomed to, were not really extreme or that hard to understand once he thought about it.
She was only asking for his protection, security, company. She needed him to provide her with warmth and comfort, support and guidance, companionship and pleasure. She willingly left behind the only life she had ever known to join him and learn his ways and as he thought about it, he did not think he could have done the same.
Living with her, amongst the humans, trying to adjust to their ways; he doubted he could do it, yet she had managed to accomplish a healthy start into adjusting to Yautja life aboard the jag'd'atoll in a very short period of time, while still holding to certain beliefs of her own.
It was impressive. He thought about what he was told the day before by the other elders, about how many were impressed by her and curious about her. It made him realize that K'Shai would likely always need his protection.
He could teach her to spar, to fight, to hunt and hold her own against all manner of prey. She had already survived against the kainde amedha, something not even every Yautja was capable of. She was learning to live as a Yautja and she had done all of this in a short period of her young life but ultimately she would always rely on him to be there for her.
Protecting her by public display was one thing. It was setting the stage for her to live amongst the Yautja, but she needed more from him; more than he was accustomed to providing for anyone other than himself.
She needed his strength, his presence, his guidance, wisdom, tutelage, and ultimately she would trust his judgement entirely and follow him wherever he led, with more unquestioning devotion than any Yautja student under his charge.
K'Shai had lived less years than a young Yautja ready to undertake their first chiva. By comparison, it was hard for him to even believe that she was old enough to have done all that she had and be mature enough physically to be bred. She would live and die faster than a Yautja, and she learned faster than they did, too.
She had demonstrated great wisdom and unwavering solidity in her beliefs; attributes that Yautja ten times her years did not possess. Yet, for all of it, he knew she would never actually be Yautja. She was human and she would not ever be as strong or as powerful as a Yautja was, at least not physically.
He caressed her gently, wincing at the throbbing pain in his side and a powerful feeling in the pit of his stomach as he realized that she had strengths and powers that were far greater than any Yautja he knew.
She would always need him to care not only for her, but about her, and she was adamant and unwavering in her absolute desire that he serve as more than just a breeding mate to her; more than just a sire of her offspring.
What she needed and expected from him was not that hard to provide, but it would not be easy either. He knew there would be great challenges ahead. He even considered that she was challenging him in ways he never even envisioned, and how he lived up to those challenges were as crucial to her as life and death and honor.
He ran his hand across her body, along her abdomen and watched the fetus. He had already had more contact with this offspring than he had with any of his others and he found himself curiously envisioning what the child would turn into, what she would look like when born, and how she might bring his mothers' heritage honor within the Clan.
He realized K'Shai had put a wealth of trust into him, and it was up to him not to break or defy that trust; to respect it, and to humble himself enough to take on the challenges she expected of him.
She demonstrated her expectations of him over and over again, and did everything she felt she needed to do to ensure that he knew them and lived up to them. He realized he needed to trust her and her choices just as much, and allow himself to turn away from certain Yautja ways in very much the same manner in which she turned away from certain human ways in order to make this pairing work.
He wrapped his arms around her, deepening his purr, relaxing enough that his chest began to rumble its soothing sound, and he allowed it to overtake him while she slept against him as he continued to think.
She finally stirred, from hunger as she announced, and R'chnt offered her the tray sitting next to him as she questioned his condition, trying to assess how he was feeling.
"You did what was needed, K'Shai. I will be fine."
She smiled and tenderly caressed him, leaned in to him to kiss his cheek.
"Good. I'm glad. Just, please, take it slow. I really need you to heal, however long it takes. I really don't care if you miss the whole rest of the war. If you are worried about someone questioning your strength or position, I don't think after that fight anyone is going to."
He nodded.
"You are correct, K'Shai. There will always be challenges, always. Yautja positions are challenged every day, especially if one is viewed as too weak to hold it.
But to protect you, I have done what I must. The females will also provide protection. You will learn from them as you do me. You must, K'Shai."
"Yes." She muttered with a pause.
"I will. I have been learning a little bit from them already. I wasgoing to meet S'ridi and some of the others today but that's just going to wait. I don't want to leave you right now. Please tell me you're not planning to return to Earth?"
R'chnt spread his tusks in a small smile. "No K'Shai. I will remain here with you for a while longer."
K'Shai seemed thoroughly relieved at that, though she did as she stated and remained on the K'ojol with him as the days passed.
Once he was stronger, he continued on teaching her more from the ancient texts, which also doubled as a lesson on reading, speaking, and writing the Yautja language. She kept calling it difficult and complex and he continued to maintain that Earthly languages were too verbose and confusing.
"I guess we can keep saying that about each other's cultures forever, couldn't we? We really are very different aren't we?" She said through a thin smile.
R'chnt nodded, bowing his horned head in agreement. "Humans and Yautja are very different. We are unique."
K'Shai leaned into him, wrapping her arms around his neck in a tight embrace that made his body shudder with delight. The way she touched him, even something as simple as a kiss on his cheek, was so full of power that it sent a ripple through his body every time.
He came to find that he absolutely needed that contact from her. It thrilled him and aroused him and as he rumbled off a deep growl and laid back on the floor under her, she got the message quickly that he was feeling stronger and was definitely aroused.
She could feel him firming up against her thighs, under his loin cloth and she pressed her lips against his abdomen while she stroked a hand up his thigh and between his legs, inducing a deeper and deeper rumble from him as he stretched out below her and she continued to grope and caress him. She gripped his shaft.
She gripped his sac below. She stroked and caressed and pulled and squeezed and released, slowly, rhythmically, carefully; always stimulating him for pleasure, pushing his natural reluctance to be handled in that area farther and farther from his mind as only she could.
K'Shai removed his belt, freeing him completely from his garments as she straddled his thighs, then removed her own leather attire and shifted her body forward, raising up over him and slowly settling herself down over his erection as they both moaned in delight.
R'chnt tensed his body, shifting his hips forward as K'Shai lowered herself completely against him, swallowing the fullness of his hard, dripping rod before she shifted her body and began to work her hips, rising and falling, panting and moaning harder and louder with each exertion until he exploded inside of her. He echoed her high pitched shrieks of ecstasy with a deep harmony of growls.
They mated in the temple of the gods, something R'chnt took great pride in. They had directed his Path to her and he expressed his gratitude by savoring what he was given. He rose to his feet a short time later, his body still surging with lingering arousal that fueled him as he walked with K'Shai through the Clan ship.
K'Shai was learning, slowly and steadily. He was guiding her in the ways of the Path of the Hunter, and he was also taking on new capacities as a teacher of language and culture that he had never needed to teach before.
It was a new experience for him and he was pleased by the progress she was making within each day. Each time she walked with him through the Clan ship, her manner was beginning to change, along with her self-carriage, confidence, and understanding of the Yautja around her.
K'Shai was physically getting stronger every day, performing the exercises he guided her through better and better as her body grew fitter. She was gaining weight, toning muscle, eating well, and crediting much of her strength to the child within her. The offspring was healthy and well formed, and adding to her h'dui'se in ways she could not understand.
Slowly, as days turned into a week, then two, then three, the Yautja aboard the ship, from hunters that returned from the planet for supplies and medical care and brought news of the war and Earth that K'Shai eagerly listened to, to the workers who she interacted with over garments, lotions, oils, and anything else she desired, to the 'aseigan who took her orders and followed them, were all beginning to become more comfortable around her, and she with them.
Each time a new group of hunters appeared on the ship, they all gawked at her, curiously inspected her with wide eyes, carefully aware of how close they were to her, wary of R'chnt's noteable protectiveness. K'Shai grew accustomed to it, and did not seem to mind it and word had most definitely spread, as R'chnt had desired, that she was in all ways untouchable.
As K'Shai spent more and more time slowly acclimating to the mei'sa, which allowed R'chnt time to spar with his peers as his own strength improved, the females also provided her with a public announcement of her protection amongst them. They expected her to be treated like any bred female Yautja.
They also expected her to act like any other bred female Yautja, which K'Shai refused to do. She continually returned to R'chnt after a few hours, or a full day, amongst the females. Each time she did, she brought back with her complaints of how some of the females viewed her, most especially her grievances over Neh'rti.
R'chnt knew better than to press too much into Neh'rti's affairs but he was able to find out quite a different story than what K'Shai presented to him. He could not understand why she was so sure Neh'rti was planning her death and personally working single handedly to ensure K'Shai's misery.
"If she intended you harm, or found your presence in the Clan undesirable, she would have tended to the matter long ago." R'chnt assured her.
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" K'Shai bit back, unwarrantedly harshly.
"K'Shai!" R'chnt grumbled dismissively from his relaxed position next to her on the sofa in his chambers.
She always preferred to discuss these matters, as well as mostly any other personal topic, well out of sight and ear shot of anyone else. This behavior both perplexed and pleased R'chnt.
There were matters that were normally public display that K'Shai preferred to keep behind closed doors, but her desire to keep certain matters behind closed doors also predisposed K'Shai to a trait that R'chnt wished more Yautja possessed.
She never questioned him publically. She never discussed anything she did not understand, or anything he may have said or done that confused or troubled her in front of others.
She avoided making any kind of public display of frustration or uncertainty, which worked to both his advantage, as well as hers.
Publically, K'Shai was seen as strong and collected, and even when she unleashed her troubles over her adjustment to the females or any other matter to him in privacy, R'chnt still could only see her strengths.
The rest of the Clan aboard the ship saw her exactly as he saw her – intelligent, wary, constantly evaluating her situation and surroundings; the very same manners that any capable hunter should display. They saw her as a bit reserved, but not cowardly. She was quiet and perhaps timid, but not fearful or unwilling to hold her ground.
Her nature of thinking before she acted casted a stronger stature than many Yautja who preferred it the other way around.
Just as she once stared down an 'aseigan who failed to do her bidding as quickly as he should have, her ability to dominate by being unbudging was growing. She had learned when to, and most of all, when not to, drop her eyes in submission.
She complimented R'chnt well in so doing, because her very nature ensured that he was never directly questioned publically, which only etched his status that much stronger, and hers right along with it. K'Shai, though she seemed not to realize it, was gaining respect and earning her true place every day.
He felt proud knowing he could not have made a better choice in a mate.
"Neh'rti would not need to plan anything. Her intentions are clear. You are here. You are Blooded. You have been brought into the mei'sa."
K'Shai quieted down and thought about it more. She was frustrated by her continued experiences with Neh'rti and some of the other females. Not all of the ones who looked down upon her, insulted her and showed their blatant disrespect for her and her growing offspring were highly ranked.
It was infuriating to be constantly reminded by even the lowest of them that she was most definitely the outcast.
K'Shai was quite sure that Neh'rti quickly regretted her decision. The mighty Clan Leader had summed her up in less than a minute; probably less than a half a minute, she thought.
Since that first time they met, Neh'rti had never stopped prodding K'Shai, snidely commandeering over her, aggressively correcting her every time she tried to learn or do anything new or different. The problem was everything was new and different, so Neh'rti was constantly supplied with something else to critique viciously.
So maybe Neh'rti wasn't planning her death in a thousand different ways, she considered, as R'chnt had told her repeatedly as the weeks progressed. Maybe Neh'rti actually was trying to see K'Shai succeed, although succeed at what she couldn't be sure exactly.
Maybe it wasn't so much the education she was receiving, but the execution of the lesson plans, she considered. Then again, as she thought about it, she should probably avoid even thinking about the word execution in relation to Neh'rti all together.
She was trying to learn, trying to understand the female ways and trying to grow a better understanding of her own pregnancy and what Yautja childhood would look like for her growing baby.
Despite being constantly reminded that she was biologically not as capable of understanding, learning, or performing any of the concepts the females were exposing her to, she had learned much, not only from direct instruction, but also by absorbing the unspoken lessons.
It was overwhelming at how quickly the information was coming at her, and in drastically different ways between R'chnt and the males she had been getting to know versus the females in the mei'sa. R'chnt had told her before; several times in fact, that females and males lead very separate lives that were vastly un-intertwined.
They really only bothered with each other's businesses during breeding season or in matters that affected the Clan on the whole, which was a concept K'Shai had a very hard time understanding.
As she was told, when breeding season circled around, males put on quite the display to attract potential mates. She already had begun to understand the concept that all of their hunting, all of their attempts to challenge themselves and improve status was just as much to prove they were the best of the bunch between males as it was to impress females.
It was a curious thing, for someone so naturally driven to bring pleasure to her mate and bond to him for her life, to imagine how the female Yautja operated without that level of desire of commitment or devotion, but she was beginning to experience it first-hand.
The Yautja genders truly were separate from each other. K'Shai had once wondered if there were female 'aseigan at all and she quickly discovered there were. Even though they were slaves, they were still female and thus, they were also in the mei'sa; even they were protected from males.
The vast majority of female 'aseigan were kept dedicated to the mei'sa on the homeworld, which K'Shai had begun to learn about as well. Only a handful were aboard the ship and they were never allowed to leave the confines of the mei'sa.
Working castes, and of course the hunters, were the only females K'Shai had seen out on the ship itself, and even they rarely co-mingled with the males, though they had access to every location a male could go.
There were female healers, leather workers, apothecaries, weapons and armor makers, engineers and mechanics, and every other possible function necessary to support the clan, but even their shops or tasks were conducted separately than those performed by males.
There were entire levels of the Clan ship completely dedicated to only female workers, and female-only areas were strictly off limits to, and well avoided by, males.
Female 'aseigan in the ship-side mei'sa tended to the care of the den mother females and their offspring, and any needed supplies from the ship were either retrieved by willing workers or huntresses, or brought to a deposit area outside the constantly sealed mei'sa door by male 'aseigan.
They were considered almost as undesirable as eto by other females. K'Shai felt a little sick knowing that her position amongst most of the females was somewhere between the two castes, possibly even worse, she imagined, like she was such an outcast there simply was not a name for her caste.
Female Yautja that never proved themselves capable of attaining their chiva were considered so weak they were not even able to be around males of any caste. Unworthy of reproducing, they were artificially controlled against entering into breeding readiness via implants in their body so their undesirable genetics would not taint the strong bloodlines that the Clan valued.
This was at least, a more civilized practice than how females punished outcasted males that were deemed unworthy of breeding; severing gonads in a public display, being one of the most common forms of such punishment.
Only at the highest levels of the Clan, like the Clan council which consisted of elders and apprentices of both genders, did the two sexes ever really have much to do with each other, and all matters of the council were oversaw by Neh'rti.
Her decision was final, but she was not entirely closed minded. Neh'rti clearly cared for her Clan and concerned herself greatly with matters that directly affected the status of it on the whole, or the females in it.
K'Shai hadn't realized, but was later informed in bits and pieces through chatter from different females that were more open to her, that R'chnt's petition to bring K'Shai into the Clan became such a heated matter, the council spent a full rotation in their hall.
Most of the males were adamant against alien blood being brought into the Clan, and two of them had declared that both K'Shai and R'chnt should be executed. R'chnt had not been surprised by that news, especially, he had said, considering who was the most vocal for that decision, a grumpy elder named Ti-nyk that R'chnt had bested again and again for mates.
"Jealously," he had snarled with disinterest, seemingly unconcerned about it. "He would wish to have you as a mate for himself, but he is unworthy of you. He is happy to speak loudly when his belly is full and he has a mug of c'ntlip in his grasp, but fails again and again to put those words to good use. Ti-nyk has beseeched the council to have my head more than once…"
K'Shai eyed him widely, wondering how R'chnt could be so casual, almost amused, about such things. R'chnt continued.
"I have told him many times if he wants it, he can try to take it. Ti-nyk is very good at asking someone else to handle his matters, not so much handling them on his own."
"How did he become part of the council, then?" K'Shai wondered aloud. "Don't you have to be strong to prove yourself or something?"
"You are learning, K'Shai!" R'chnt chortled loudly, thoroughly amused by K'Shai's response. "Perhaps you should ask him that… to his face… in front of the council. I would enjoy seeing his response."
It obvious R'chnt has little respect for Ti-nyk, but he offered no further explanation.
"Well, if he's on the council, and he is speaking out against us… then what? Will he rally people to follow him? Will he be able to change Neh'rti's decision?"
R'chnt shook his head slowly, clicking his tusks together for emphasis.
"K'Shai, nothing changes Neh'rti's mind. She has accepted you. You have no reason to be anxious over opinions of cowards who speak behind closed doors. Neh'rti listened to all of the council's opinions on the matter, and discussed my actions with me at length."
"She did?" K'Shai asked in surprise.
"Of course."
"What did you tell her?"
R'chnt clicked deeply, reassuring K'Shai with a simple stroke of the side of her face. "I told her enough."
As he failed to elaborate any further on what exactly the discussion over bringing a human into the fold of the Clan entailed, and K'Shai's curiosity was peaked, she spent the next few days trying to pry information from the few females in the mei'sa that she talked with the most.
As K'Shai began to spend more and more time in the mei'sa, R'chnt continued to re-condition his body in preparation for a return to Earth. K'Shai developed something of a routine and had come to enjoy her time with the mothers aboard ship with newborns of their own. Supervising the young cubs and watching mothers handle their infants was a learning experience, even without direct instruction.
While she sat in a large, golden hued leathery chair eating diced chunks of fruit the size of her fist and strips of hearty meat as three females sat nearby, K'Shai managed to veer the conversation towards the direction she wanted it to go.
"Neh'rti's biggest consideration is the strength of the Clan, K'Shai. What do you think when she found out R'chnt, one of the strongest and most honored Elders of the Clan had taken a human mate?"
"I'm sure she was thinking about the possibility of you conceiving an offspring. And I have no doubt that the idea of killing the both of you crossed her mind."
K'Shai was certain of it, and not certain that thought had ever left Neh'rti's mind. She felt as though she had been accepted into the Clan under protest because of the possibility she could get pregnant by R'chnt.
Due to the loss of lives the Yautja were suffering, Neh'rti was curious at the very least to see the potential a hybrid could offer.
"Do you plan to have another? Assuming this one survives and is strong enough to be accepted by the Clan, of course?" One of the females questioned.
"You really can be bred multiple times?" Another asked K'Shai in unhidden surprise.
K'Shai kicked her legs under her butt as she shifted and sank back again into the oversized leather chair, casting a glance around the circular room, past golden-hued sitting furniture and bronzish metal cabinetry along the walls.
She glanced at two youngsters who were playing furiously with one another, growling and hissing as they bounced around the room under the supervision of three adults who were also looking towards K'Shai, apparently paying attention with high interest.
"I thought that was just a rumor spread by males curious enough to display their interests in mating with you," another female said with an unreserved tone of distaste.
K'Shai cast a wide-eyed glare at her, both annoyed by her tone and surprised by the suggestion that there were enough males who might have such an interest that such rumors could even be thought up. R'chnt's aggressive displays of protectiveness over her, she would have thought would have been enough to quell any such talk, but it seemed to be having the opposite effect.
She stammered out a quiet response to the female who questioned her, her tone suggesting there was simply no other way.
"Of course I can."
"So strange," the female said briskly. "It seems R'chnt has a wisdom we did not realize. You continue to mate with him while bred, and you can be re-bred."
"How many offspring can you have, K'Shai?" Another questioned.
K'Shai was glad to see curiosity from the females who were trying to acclimate to her, and she responded as best as she could in short concise answers, to avoid confusion.
"I'm not really sure," she said with a shrug. "As many as I can, I suppose. Some women only have two or three children. Some I've heard of having as many as ten or fifteen."
"At once?!" One of the females gasped in utter terror as she shifted her toddler into her lap, while others simply came to a complete stop and stared at her in slightly horrified wonder.
K'Shai's face flushed and she giggled lightly, for the briefest of moments relaxing amongst the group.
"No! Maybe two or three at once. I guess I've heard about women having six or seven at once, but that's very rare."
The females murmered their awestruck wonder at human reproduction for several minutes and K'Shai listened quietly. The thought of having more than a single offspring seemed so foreign to them that it confused K'Shai.
"Only animals have multiple offspring." K'Shai overheard one of them grumble.
"You mean Yautja never have more than one baby at a time? No one has ever had twins?" K'Shai asked with equal amounts of surprise in her tone, and trying sharply to turn the conversation back on the Yautja.
"More than one offspring at a time?" One of the older females in the room said with a gasping tone of disbelief. "We do not have more than one offspring at all."
K'Shai paused, and felt her heart jump a few beats as she tried to process what she was being told. "What?"
"You…you…. Can only have one baby?" She said with a surprised whisper.
"As female Yautja mature, we enter into breeding readiness, and cycle into breeding season." One of the younger females, nursing a suckling, explained.
K'Shai nodded. "It's the same for humans."
One of the older females added in, "As our female young mature, they are highly tempermental because of maturing hormones. Their pheromones can drive the males into a mating frenzy."
K'Shai thought that sounded fairly similar, too.
"Is that why there are no unblooded females on the atoll?"
One of the females nodded, another spoke. "Unblooded youngsters are on the homeworld, in the mei'sa where they belong. Separate from one another, so they are not driven by their urges to mate. Unblooded are not permitted to breed. They have proven nothing for the Clan. They remain in the mei'sa and they train.
Females train only with female hunt leaders. When they are Blooded and ready to breed, the best and strongest females can expect the strongest males to pursue them for mating. It is not desireable for freshly blooded males to mate at all, but still, some of our young females in a hurry to mate will select unproven sires.
Only males who are strong and proven as hunters make for the best sires. It assures strong blood in the Clan, K'Shai. You have selected a strong mate yourself, K'Shai."
"Of course males are always ready to mate." One female chuckled.
"Not all of them will," another said sternly.
"Never?" K'Shai responded with surprise.
"Would you prefer to breed with a young male who survived chiva, or an experienced hunter such as R'chnt who has proven himself strong and noble? Once a female has been bred, it is done for life. There are no others. Breeding with the strongest male helps ensure a strong offspring; a good addition to the bloodline."
That much certainly made sense, but the older female continued on.
"When breeding season occurs, the males will battle each other for mates. You will see. Dai-shui makes the males uncivilized. Females in season cannot focus on anything else; the males always making a show of themselves. Even the wisest of them parade around like fools!"
K'Shai smiled as she let her imagination run wild with what kind of events would occur during those times.
"Lesser males simply don't have the appeal, not for a strong female, anyway. It's best for the freshly Blooded females to select mates that have proven themselves. Freshly Blooded males have not proven themselves strong hunters or sires, but sometimes they get to take mates."
"And males mate with more than one female each season?" K'Shai questioned with interest, trying to piece together how it all worked.
"If they are daring enough to try!" One female trilled in laughter.
Some of the others sniggered along with her.
"They will all try to impress us. Perhaps even you, since you can be rebred. There may be some who may even challenge R'chnt for you. He will surely fight to the death over you. You clearly please him. And no doubt you have discovered R'chnt's stamina." One of them said.
"I'm surprised you can satisfy him. You keep him so pleasured and taken with you. You must have strong stamina, too." One added in with a biting tone.
The comment drew some rumbling throaty chortles from the females in the room and made K'Shai flush again.
"Males will fight each other for females? To the death?" K'Shai asked, ignoring the remarks, because they weren't exactly incorrect.
"Not always to the death, not if they are sensible. Unproven males should at least have the intelligence to know when to back down against a solid superior over a female." One explained. "But it can still be amusing to watch them fight!"
"Females will keep urging the fight, sometimes. Any proper female will challenge the male to prove his worth directly to her once he has bested other males for her." Another added.
K'Shai listened eagerly, curiously, having the most in-depth conversation with the Yautja about their mating customs since she had come aboard. She found it all a little hard to understand, but interesting, and the females in the room all certainly perked up with interest over the discussion.
"Females fight the males, too?" K'Shai echoed in surprise, mildly beginning to understand the breeding season.
"Yautja females are strong. Aggressive!" One said proudly.
"Sounds familiar." K'Shai said with a light chuckle.
"Humans are the same?" One of the younger females asked.
"Well, sort of, I suppose." K'Shai smirked. "I mean, yes, we can get pretty moody as we mature. Especially when we get our periods."
"What is that?" A simultaneous echo from three curious females resounded in the room.
K'Shai took a moment to gather her thoughts and explain, almost a little taken aback by the sudden spark of interest.
"Monthly?" One of the females immediately interjected. "Humans can be bred every month?"
"K'Shai, you will probably need to remain in the mei'sa too. Or constantly pregnant. Does R'chnt know what he is getting in to? He'll be up for a challenge in more ways than one."
The females all thought the subject was quite humorous, and K'Shai couldn't help but chuckle, too. "I think he does!"
"Your human males must always be satisfied." One of the younger females stated honestly and K'Shai pressed her lips together, raising her eyebrows dismissively.
"With so many available females all the time, your males must never fight. Do you even bother to seek strong males?" One female added a little harshly.
"Your people must not have crimes?" Another asked with a hint of surprise in her voice.
"You mean Yautja do?" K'Shai responded back in equal surprise.
It simply never occurred to her that a species as formidable as the Yautja, who valued killing, could have any type of actions deemed criminal, save perhaps for being viewed as weak. The only real criminal act she knew of was the one that had destroyed her planet.
"What kind of crimes?" She pressed further.
"It happens. Rarely, but it happens. Lesser males, not worthy of breeding if they lack strength and power like better hunters. Driven to mate in any way they can." One started.
"By attacking females?" K'Shai asked with forboding surprise and received a few nods.
The females told her they almost never concerned themselves with matters that involved males, except in the case of a sexually frustrated male attacking a female.
Rape was a matter handled exclusively by the females and the guilty male would find himself strung up in the center of the Clan city to be removed of his offending body parts and slowly and completely torn apart.
It sounded like a solid deterrent from such acts, K'Shai thought. What male would want to willingly risk eliciting such punishment? But K'Shai had been told that it had been known to happen; a lesser Yautja male attacking a weaker female 'aseigan who was sent out of the mei'sa, for example.
"That is why they are preventing from cycling into breeding season. They are too weak to defend themselves and bring honor to the Clan with their bloodlines." One older female seethed as two bow-headed 'aseigan worked nearby to clear off trays and bring new food and drink to the gathered females.
"You would do well to remain in the mei'sa at all times, the same as the 'aseigan. For your own protection." Another said with a tone of truly trying to offer help, but implying without subtrifuge that K'Shai was too weak to be out amongst the males.
"Oh no, K'Shai has intentions of remaining with R'chnt. She does not wish the share in the Yautja Way, just R'chnt's bed. Must be all that stamina." A looming voice interjected into the room and a hush fell.
K'Shai eyed Neh'rti striding, like a cat circling injured prey, around the perimeter of the room.
"That is the human way, isn't it, K'Shai?"
K'Shai barely heard any sounds over her own thundering heart. Neh'rti sent a shiver up her spine, but K'Shai collected herself and nodded politely, lowering her eyes.
"You take your place as nehptu seriously! You embrace qualities that no Yautja here find strong."
"Humans do raise their children together and share in each other's lives. That is strength." K'Shai said in a biting tone, and Neh'rti flared her tusks, adding in a deep rumble of displeasure.
"Females and male humans raise the offspring? Together?" One female, either uncaring or oblivious of the tense showdown between Neh'rti and K'Shai chimed in, catching K'Shai's attention, which gave her an excuse to break eye contact with the towering Clan Leader, who simply remained lingering in the back of the room.
"That's right."
"I can't imagine any male being capable of that!" One chortled heartily.
"And what does R'chnt think of having to raise offspring?" Another asked.
K'Shai lifted her eyebrows and huffed as she came up with an answer. "He's adjusting to the idea."
"The offspring is safest in the mei'sa, K'Shai, and it is proper. Is this child going to be human or Yautja? It cannot be both, K'Shai. And neither can you." Neh'rti grumbled with a warning.
Before K'Shai could respond, another added in her thoughts.
"K'Shai, it is completely unnatural to raise offspring out of the mei'sa. It is imperitive that the offspring learn the proper Way and prepare to become strong members of the Clan. The time it takes to develop each youth is long and crucial. You should think on this."
"This is how humans do things," she tried to explain. "I understand that males have nothing to do with their offspring. But R'chnt is ready for this. So am I."
"Males are not permitted to be around offspring, K'Shai. Why do you think Blooded males have no place in the mei'sa. They are male; they are not capable of raising offspring. They would likely get a child killed." One of the females questioned warningly.
"R'chnt would never hurt his own child." K'Shai defended adamantly. "Not even on accident. I trust him. I trust him with myself and I trust him with the baby."
"Imagine how small and weak she will be, K'Shai. That offspring will never be a true Yautja; it would be best protected in the mei'sa." Another female added.
Yet another chimed in, certain in her words, "K'Shai, you have proven your worth to R'chnt to earn the Blooding mark, but such a small and fragile little offspring? It will not survive outside of the mei'sa, especially on the homeworld. It is only half Yautja. Neh'rti knows and is trying make you understand. The child will die."
K'Shai gritted her teeth, agitated and annoyed.
Neh'rti flared her tusks with a displeased chuff.
"Well, we will see what happens over the next one hundred of your Earth years."
K'Shai looked at her in alarm.
"I don't understand?"
Neh'rti stopped scoffing and glanced at K'Shai quizzically, looking as though she was calculating math in her head. "Is that not how you call your ages? Years?"
"Yes, but… one hundred? It doesn't take a hundred years to grow up."
A quiet fell as the females paid close attention to the conversation and a realization dawned on all of them that the differences in child-rearing extended far beyond cultural views.
K'Shai, calculating in her head and turning to worry, glanced towards the two toddlers still play fighting against each other, toppling into one another in clumsy, uncoordinated, and rather adorable attacks. In her mind, the children were two years old at the very most.
They were disproportionate looking and pudgy, with little nubs barely showing for their tusks and tiny little white canines and incisors in their mouths. They were clearly toddlers.
"How old are they?" She asked their mothers standing nearby to confirm for herself that they were three, maybe four, years old at the most and get everyone to understand what each was talking about.
One mother glanced to her son and responded. "Outinde is nearly two dutach."
K'Shai was still learning the differences in the Yautja calendar, which she found as frustratingly confusing as their hieroglyphic style written language. Her verbal skills had grown enough to hold the conversation and she was sure she had understood the word correctly. She paused and did the math and gasped.
A dutach was the rough equivalent of about an Earth's decade. What K'Shai had thought of as typical toddlers had taken the human equivalent of at least eighteen years to grow. She looked at the rambunctious offspring in a horrified gaze which clearly perturbed their mothers as they both growled a defensive mumble.
K'Shai tried to collect her thoughts, still staring at two children who were nearly the same age as she in calendar years that had barely stopped suckling their mothers' teats and suddenly a wealth of new differences she never considered flowed into her mind.
"I don't… I don't understand… how…" She stammered for a moment and considered that she never really thought about R'chnt's age.
She knew he was around four-hundred and thirty Earth years based on what he told her, but she had always just assumed he was born so long ago and grew as a human did, and just simply lived longer. When she did the math better, she realized that R'chnt in Yautja years was around seventy, a solid Elder, well matured. She had never really thought that the time difference to that maturity would be so dramatic.
She had imagined her child would gestate for the nine Earth months she was familiar with, grow up to maturity in sixteen years, and continue on to train for the hunt under the guidance of a Leader. She imagined a normal childhood as humans know such things, with obvious conflicts of customs and beliefs. Suddenly, she felt queasy and sick to her stomach as she contemplated the circumstances of her pregnancy and looked to one mother with a growing belly.
"How long does Yautja pregnancy last?"
The response she was told calculated out to roughly five years as K'Shai knew the calendar.
By the time she barely returned to the K'ojol, on weak knees, she was so distressed she ran to the bathroom immediately and vomited over the sunken bowl in the floor that served as both a toilet and shower drain. R'chnt paced in agitation behind her, clearly equally distressed by her sudden onset of illness.
"I'm alright. I'll be OK," she assured him through her tears as she collapsed onto the wet shower floor once it had been rinsed.
"What is wrong, K'Shai? What has happened?"
She looked at him as he crouched before her. Unable to produce words to explain, she simply launched herself against him, wrapping her arms around his powerful shoulders and neck.
She ran her fingers through his heated tresses and pressed her cheek into his temple and shut her eyes. His facial quills lightly tickled her skin as she held him tightly and reorganized her thoughts, trying to stop her hands from shaking and the nauseous feeling from returning.
"I'm not even going to live long enough to see this baby grow up. None of them. I can have more babies than any female Yautja and I won't see any of them grow up." She sobbed once she had explained her day.
Once she was calmer the following day, she and R'chnt visited L'ruch. While R'chnt himself was not keen on receiving medical care from L'ruch, he was very much insistent on K'Shai receiving the care she needed.
Neh'rti preferred that K'Shai's pregnancy be managed by the female elder healer, but K'Shai just felt more comfortable with L'ruch. She liked his quirky and comical nature as opposed to the disgruntled and pushy nature of the female healer.
L'ruch reminded her that there was no base of reference for a hybrid offspring. "It will have characteristics of both genetic structures, K'Shai," he said.
"I can tell you right now, your offspring is healthy. It is growing much faster than a typical Yautja, but I see nothing inherently wrong. There was just no way to know what the child will be like or how quickly it will mature. If the fetus is growing faster than a pureblooded Yautja would, it is possible the child itself will mature faster, too."
The visit with L'ruch made her feel a little better about the future, at least for a while until K'Shai had returned to the mei'sa later that day and she brought up the discussion of her offspring to S'ridi, who was amongst several others.
"If it grows faster than a full blooded Yautja, it will probably die faster, too." One of the females concluded, drawing a scathing look from K'Shai.
"It will be as weak as its mother," one of the females scoffed with certainty. "Only strong females should be bred. That offspring is only half Yautja. It will only be half as strong. It probably will have weak flesh and grow tuskless!"
"It will not surive to chiva, K'Shai. Especially outside of the mei'sa. You are securing your child to become 'eta. What a proud mark on the Clan she will be."
"That's enough!" S'ridi barked.
K'Shai was agitated by the discussion, and suddenly felt even more angered that S'ridi was the one who had to step in to put an end to it.
The day's events had done nothing to quell the worry she felt over the reality of dying before her child had grown up and now she had other concerns drifting into her head as she sat lock-jawed on the large chair and sunk her teeth into a fruit just to give herself an excuse not to talk.
Living through chiva secured a Yautja's place in the Clan. If any Yautja failed to make it to their Blooding hunt, perhaps because they were too weak to be a worthy example of the species, they were assigned to become 'aseigan.
This could happen even as young as what a human would human would consider a five-year old child. Any female that passed chiva was considered strong and worthy to breed with; apparently every female except K'Shai or her offspring, she thought.
Females valued strength, in each other and in their mates. Because of the singular commitment on their part for child-rearing, females preferred only to breed with the most capable hunters and of course, strongest females garnered the strongest males.
Her child was not even born yet and she was suddenly wondering not only what she would look like, but how capable she would be as a Yautja and how her alien heritage might affect her standing.
The more she thought on it, from her own slowly developing sparring skills which were declared completely insufficient by mostly everyone who watched her, to the females constantly telling her she should remain locked up in the mei'sa like she was too feeble and weak to be out in the ship at all, K'Shai found herself questioning her own strength and growing uncertain that her genetics would ever be accepted, much less those of her hybrid child.
There were plenty of other females who stood behind Neh'rti's shadow, hissing and cursing at K'Shai and maintaining their Yautja superiority over her and that thing in her belly.
The mei'sa had once struck K'Shai as a comfortable community for females to rear their young together. She realized, the more she tried to adjust to life amongst the females, that the community was intended for Yautja females and only Yautja females. Humans and hybrids most definitely not welcome.
"That cannot be true, K'Shai," R'chnt corrected her gently without seeming the least bit aroused by her certainty that she was not welcome in the mei'sa as she explained her fears to him in the quiet darkness of his chambers on the K'ojol.
"I cannot fully speak on female matters, but you are doing well. I have heard many things from many hunters, both males and females. They are impressed with you."
"They are vicious." K'Shai said stalely. "They are condescending, domineering, and just… just… It's just frustrating. I'm trying so hard to understand what I am supposed to do."
"Clearly, you are doing it, even if you do not understand." R'chnt said without missing a beat.
K'Shai smirked at him and could not help but giggle.
"That doesn't really make me feel better you know."
She turned her eyes to her belly, which she stroked with a smile.
"She's going to be alright, though, right? I mean… so many of the females seem to despise the idea of a hybrid in the clan. I'm just worried about what is going to happen to her or to other children we have."
R'chnt clamped a large, taloned, strong hand over both of hers and her abdomen, purring gently as he shifted his body closer to hers.
"K'Shai, you think anxiously on things far beyond your control. Our offspring will be a valued member of the Clan, just as you will discover you are as well."
She accepted his assurances, even if she did not believe them.
"Although, I imagine," he added, "that they were quite surprised to hear you could be bred multiple times."
K'Shai smiled widely, giggling. "Oh, they were completely shocked."
She kissed him slowly, working her way down his jawline to just under his ear as he flattened his body against hers, pushing her backwards under him. She sprawled back on the sofa while he leveled out above her, nudging her with his tusks.
"You know, they keep saying something to me about breeding marks. I don't understand what they mean. I was thinking they meant stretch marks or something, but …"
"What is a stretch mark?" R'chnt asked, not understanding the occasional words of English K'Shai would use in place of Yautjan words she did not know.
He was surprised to hear her ask of breeding marks in a human term, though. Did human males also mark their mates in such a way? He hadn't realized and thought for a moment maybe he had avoiding doing something that was natural to both species. As she explained it further, though, it was most definitely not the same thing. R'chnt chuckled a bit as he discussed the difference.
"Why haven't you done it then?" K'Shai asked.
He gazed at her, stroking her face delicately and pulling his upper tusks apart into a smile. K'Shai whisked some of her hair away from her shoulder, exposing her neck and bare skin to him.
"It's OK. You can." She whispered. "Do you want to do it now?"
R'chnt purred, delighted by her offer, and immediately growing aroused by the soft sound of her voice and the scent she began to emanate, somewhere between nervous curiosity and apprehension.
He quietly extended his mandibles towards her skin, caressing his bony tusks against her smooth neck and shoulder, gliding the three inch long teeth at the end of his mandibles along her delicate sweet skin, as he ticked his upper tusks against the curves of her body. He let her enticing scent whisk into his sinuses as the sensation of her smooth skin tickled his weathered and firm manidbles, but never left a mark.
"Not now, K'Shai. Not now." He said quietly.
Her scent grew stronger as it wafted into him and he continued to stroke her body with his hands and tusks. He slid his fingers down both lengths of her body, across her thighs, between her legs, over her loin cloth, removing the buckle that held it on as he continued his way up her abdomen, across her breasts, watching her heave as she stretched out below him and arched her back, moaning and gasping as he stimulated her into ready acceptance.
In a single move, he carefully guided her off the sofa onto the floor and removed his own belt. His body had healed. He had returned to normal levels of sparring. He was strong and ready to retake his position at the head of his hunting pack again.
He had remained on the jag'd'atoll for K'Shai's sake as well as his own, but the time was upon him to return to the hunt. K'Shai was doing well, far better than she credited herself for, and the offspring was growing strong and healthy.
She stretched her knees apart. She consumed his shaft between her thighs as he slid into her. She moaned and dragged her delicate claws against his firm skin as she shut her eyes and felt him penetrate her, harder and harder, one hand gripped around her thigh, the other propping himself up over her on the floor.
He spread his tusks, dipped his head close towards her, caressed her face with his extended mandibles, allowing his heated skin to glide over hers as she howled below him, huffing in time with his powerful thrusts.
R'chnt's body surged, filling him with delight as he drew out K'Shai's orgasm. He could feel her throbbing against him; her tract swelling around his solid rod, locking him in place as he growled loudly, emptying himself into her with a tingling sensation that left him so relaxed he could barely sit upright afterwards.
He toppled backwards to the floor and K'Shai shifted around and laid into him, her small fingers twirling his fleshy tresses gently until they both fell asleep.