CHAPTER TWENTY
"What do you mean you're not going to see L'ruch?" K'Shai protested, dabbing up blood from R'chnt's injuries. "You got stabbed! And your shoulder is chewed apart like a dog toy! R'chnt, some of these wounds are deep."
"They are minor K'Shai. Some th'hdka will seal the wounds. They will be fine."
"Argh!" K'Shai exclaimed in exasperation. "I will never understand this… Yautja stupidity."
She applied the glowing blue gel-like ointment over his wounds, which hurt him further as it sizzled and sealed the gashes and punctures. In one single lathering the injuries would be cauterized, free of bacterial contaminants, stand no chance of infections, and filled in. They would scar, but eventually the skin would close over the sealing medication and the scars would minimalize.
Scars were a particular matter of pride to the Yautja; they told stories. Many hunters preferred to embellish their own stories with over-inflated soliloquies of self-promotion. R'chnt, K'Shai knew, preffered a much more dramatic approach to the stories his body had to tell; silence.
When he stood, tall and proud and composed, the look in his eyes spoke volumes about the history he had seen, the worlds he had been to, the prey he fought. The scars on his body were a silent testament to impressive victories he had triumphed. He chose not to embellish them with words, he merely backed up his skills with a powerful gaze, a threatening growl, and absolute prowess.
K'Shai silenced for a moment, contemplating his thick skin, richly adorned with a lattice dappling of faded spots and long healed scars. She slid the towel over the rippling texture of his skin as he quieted and huffed deeply and slowly, emitting a low growl that very nearly turned into a purr in the silence of their bed chambers.
A'ryin'di slept peacefully in the bassonette next to the bed while a breeze blew in gently through the window, carrying with it the scent of the flowering trees and fresh mists of the waterfall to which K'Shai was already becoming accustomed to. Another scent blew in as well, a tantalizing aroma of cooking meat from the fire pit on the stone patio.
"Narrok meat smells amazing," K'Shai said with a groan, realizing suddenly that she was hungry enough to eat the whole thing.
"It tastes excellent." R'chnt said with a deep self-satisfied purr.
"Do Yautja always eat narrok?" K'Shai questioned somewhat sarcastically.
"It is a well-earned delicacy tonight, K'Shai. For my mate, I will kill anyone who offends, and anything that will fill her belly and please her tongue."
K'Shai smiled thinly, pressing her lips together in a gracious gesture as she dropped her head slightly. She realized that she was actually blushing. She focused back on sapping up the blood from his body with the warm towel in her hands. She watched her own fingers work the slightly steamy damp cloth over his firm muscles.
Her fingers slid smoothly between the ripples between his abdominal muscles and the towel grew a little more yellowish-green with each stroke. He flexed his body, tightening and releasing; inhaling and exhaling; carefully watching her with his deep golden eyes that looked full of contentment.
He was unconcerned with his injuries, but he was clearly enjoying the feel of her fingers groping his body. K'Shai allowed the smell of the cooking meat to linger in her nostrils and the heat of his body to emanate through her own as she stroked his abdomen.
He shifted slightly, leaning back just a bit, propping himself up with his palms into the sleeping mat with elbows locked straight behind him, relaxing under the feel of her touch. He breathed slowly and heavily again, letting out a long exhale that waned into a light click.
She looked at him with a tight grin, twisting the corners of her lips slightly.
"Does that hurt?" She asked lightly as she stroked his muscular thigh, rubbing down another gash that had just cooled off from the cauterization cream.
R'chnt, instead of responding, simply slid playfully backwards, flattening out on the bed. He reached his mighty hands forward and grappled K'Shai's forearms, clicking deeply, rumbling in delight.
"You're in a good mood," K'Shai laughed lightly.
"It was a good fight," he responded easily.
She smiled and leaned against him, pressing her lips to his wide and strong chest, feeling the firmness of his muscles under her lips. She shut her eyes and smelled his skin, allowing the musky scent of his body to filter into her nostrils. It smelled enticing, almost sweet. S
he was far more sensitive to Yautja musk now than she was before she had been pregnant. The scent of his body thrilled her, drawing her press her lips into his chest over and over. She could feel him rumbling under her; felt his rod hardening.
R'chnt trilled and clicked, shifting his body excitedly, feeling her glide her delicate frame across his. He groped her arms, slid his talons across her fine skin along her shoulders and over her back. She pressed her lips against the scars of his body as he slid his hands across her own scars.
K'Shai had battled; she had earned her marks, just as much as she had earned the Blooding brand on her forehead. She was worth fighting for, killing for, and as she slid her hands between his legs and grappled his hardness, making him moan in anticipatory pleasure, filling him with thrilling sensations that only her alien skin and alien ways could induce in him, he spread his tusks widely, announcing aloud his delight with her.
K'Shai climbed onto him, straddling him and delicately unclasped his belt, removed the last of his coverings and gracefully swept away her own garments as she heaved and throbbed. Her body temperature rose, screaming to him that she was primed, wet, and ready for her first mating since giving birth.
The scent of her dai'shui filled his nasal passages and turned his body into a churning whirlwind as he purred loudly. K'Shai, panting and moaning, rocked her hips along his pelvis as he pumped and howled, spreading his tusks wide as he shut his eyes and tipped his head back.
Mating with her relaxed him. It was a completely opposite experience than he was used to, and soon, he knew she would discover that for herself.
She was gentle, thrilling, capable of brewing up intense arousal in him with her soft skin and delicate touch, and with her, he felt eased and able to relax and enjoy the experience, knowing she would not turn aggressive when she decided she was done.
She would become sleepy, peaceful, and want nothing more than contact with his heated bare skin. The differences between her human nature and his Yautja ways were immense, but she was unique and enticing.
Breeding season was nearing and already the females were beginning to flush with heat. Already the males were being enticed; preparing. The trials for position and rank were completed, but soon, very soon, an entirely new set of trials would begin.
He was not totally surprised that I'eilu-de had challenged him for her. He was far from the only one to be intrigued by her sweet scent and enticingly delicate body.
The fact that she could be re-bred over and over was now common knowledge, and R'chnt knew exactly what that meant for the upcoming breeding season.
K'Shai would be safest in the mei'sa, he knew, but she had refused multiple times to join the females. She wanted to be with him, making it known to him that she felt content and comfortable with him. Had he continued to insist that she join the mei'sa, at least until breeding season was complete, she could assume it was because he was unwilling, or unable, to protect her.
If she doubted his ability to protect her, so would others, which would cause more challenges than he already expected.
As the suns rose again, K'Shai was awoken by A'ryin'di trilling in an ever-strengthening voice, that she was in need of attention.
Once the baby was tended, K'Shai walked with R'chnt through the upper tier, into a temple and sat crossed-ankles on the ground amongst the elder and elite males.
Prayer and honor to the gods was a tightly woven part of the Yautja life, and each time K'Shai participated, she learned more and more, listening to the elders, including R'chnt, who served as spiritual guides, teach all Yautja.
Once the morning prayer was complete, R'chnt directed K'Shai towards one of the smaller kehrites. It was nestled in between the complex of mighty stone pyramid structures, in a little nook surrounded by flowering hanging vines and beautiful tall trees.
While the setting looked like something from a rain forest, the kehrite had all the beauty and coziness to it of a garden gazebo. Even the weathered bones that adorned its totem-like walls provided a stunning gothic beauty which contrasted so heavily to the beauty of the purple and white flowers that canopied the roof.
The kehrite, though smaller than the average sized sparring space, was still large enough to host a deadly dance between multiple combatants. K'Shai watched R'chnt with a suspicious grin as he took to the center of the small space.
She noticed that Yautja did mostly everyting in public view, especially sparring, and onlookers were already creeping onto ledges or even in trees nearby, perched on large limbs. Three other elders from the prayer group moved around the kehrite and sat on the ground to gaze at R'chnt from between the nearly picket-fence style pillars.
"Come, K'Shai. Begin as I have shown you." He said casually, completely unconcerned with the audience.
K'Shai stepped into the kehrite and took to the starting position he had taught her. She planted her feet, shoulder's width apart, firmly but lightly. She bent her knees to allow for support and flexibility.
She braced her back but prepared for a sudden series of moments. She thought about how she was supposed to accommodate opposite ends of body posture. Be rigid and braced and strong, but flexible, ready to move, and reflexive. It made little sense.
R'chnt moved into her, calling for the spar to begin. She dodged his advance and spun around him. He growled softly as he rotated on his heels and extended his arm towards her, which she ducked and jumped aside.
She continued to avoid his attacks and quickly grew more confident. She smiled happily as she slid away from him again and again, gliding around the kehrite easily. She drew a growl from him as she dodged his strikes and suddenly, she felt as though she was finally getting how to move, like it was all coming together.
R'chnt watched K'Shai move around the kehrite. It was obvious that what he had been teaching her had faded a bit from being out of practice.
She moved too quickly, too much like a skittish animal. She was trying to think her way through movements purely to avoid him. R'chnt focused on K'Shai, trying again to engage her to attack.
She dodged again, holding her breath in a harsh gasp as she slid around him. He growled in annoyance.
The elders looking on quickly grew unimpressed with the display.
"Well, she is a good mate at least," one of them jested.
"Have you taught her to attack or just run away?" The other said.
"It is clearly in their nature. She is very good at it." The third added to the others.
Without warning, he dodged at her, countering her evasive moves and grappled her with a growl. He wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace and held her in place.
"Whoa!" K'Shai yipped. "What? What's wrong?"
"What have they been teaching you in the mei'sa, K'Shai?" He growled in her ear. "This is not what I have taught you."
"What? I thought I was doing well." She retorted as he let her go and she turned to face him with a questioning gaze of surprise at his annoyance. She cast the elders a sneering gaze as R'chnt paced around her.
"I'm just trying to avoid being hit." She clarified. "I haven't had a good opening yet."
R'chnt paused and glanced at her, surveying her in a calculatory fashion.
She had plenty of 'good openings', she just merely avoided them at all costs. She was avoiding him, avoiding contact, and avoiding the nature of the spar; all things she had well been learning months before.
It was the nature of the females of the mei'sa to teach students to spar with aggressive and ferocious vigor.
Young and eager unblooded were prepared to join with a Leader and earn their mark after final training, and would take on the challenge with a certain dose of fearless brutality that was typical of the untrained.
It was also a common Yautja training practice that students learned through direct and immediate physical punishment when they have made an error. R'chnt himself was not only taught, but also did teach, in such ways.
To make an error warranted certain reprisal, from a bruising blow to the body or face to a broken limb depending on the severity of the spar. An error on the hunt of challenging prey would ensure the death of any Yautja.
It was paramount to learn to protect oneself within the far safer confines of the kehrite.
However, R'chnt knew, from many of own hunts of her kind, and from watching her and her people for months on their world, that K'Shai was very different.
He taught her slowly, carefully, trying to ensure that she learned to use her smaller size to her advantage. He learned quickly that she learned by sight, by demonstration, and by repetition. She had never shied away from his contact, but he also knew she understood he would not harm her.
Now, though, that knowledge, along with the skills he had been building in her, had seemed to fade away. She had lost trust in him, or worse; in herself.
He stepped back away from her and analyzed the situation.
"K'Shai, come to the center," he directed, while staying well away.
She moved into the middle of the kehrite readily. Upon his direction, she repeated the movements he had taught her. She performed them well without any interference, and suddenly looked entirely differently than the dancing escape artist she had been moments before.
She soon lost the hyper reactive fearfulness she was displaying, merely trying to escape his offenses. She quieted her mind, and her body went right along with it. She began to work her way through the patterns of the spar as if she was recalling them from somewhere lost in her memory.
Once she sunk into the rythym and feel of the training she had learned, she began to move with a powerful prowess. For the smallest moment of time, she seemed to tune out her surroundings and allowed the movements to flow from her easily.
The elders turned their eyes towards her again, and clenched their tusks in clear approval of what they saw. R'chnt spread his tusks slightly in a little grin and poised pridefully as he watched her.
When she was done, he nodded to her and she returned the gesture, accepting it as good praise; something he noted she responded far better to than painful reinforcement of errors. She offered him a self-satisfied smile.
"Again," he told her.
She repeated the entire pattern, better this time.
"Again," he requested softly a third time.
Once more, she worked her way around the arena, her body lathering into a sweat as she breathed in synch with the motions. He noticed her glance towards the baby, soundly sleeping in her basonnette which was clearly placed near the only entrance to the fighting space, in full view of both watchful parents.
R'chnt glanced towards his offspring, noting the connection between mother and child, the keen awareness that K'Shai maintained on the baby, and the offspring's own pacified restfulness under the heated suns of her home world.
He offered K'Shai an approving nod once she was done. She pulled herself back into a centered position and waited without moving, attentively watching him for the next direction.
He surveyed her as she stood, back tall, shoulders wide, feet firmly planted hip width's apart, supporting her. She was braced and ready, remaining spryly prepared to move away, spring into action, ready to defend herself or leave the arena as he directed.
She stood with more patience and composure and awareness than any Yautja student he had ever taught.
K'Shai would await a command, not presume to know the next step. She completed her routines without any hint of boastfulness or pride; she simply waited for his critique or direction without a word. She was, in many ways, an ideal student mainly because she lacked Yautja bullheadedness.
Suddenly, once she had stopped thinking, and just started doing, all that he had once begun teaching her flowed back into her. The very things she could not contemplate how to do, she was doing. The elders sitting outside the kehrite watched her keenly, very aware that K'Shai was now a completely different creature than she was when she first stepped into the arena.
R'chnt moved in again. He pressed in close to K'Shai, staring down at her past his long tusks and muscular chest. She kept still, but tipped her head slightly as he moved around her.
She did not eye him directly, nor lift her gaze to meet his at all; she merely surveyed him quietly from her own eye level. He circled her once, then again, tighter, pressing his body directly into hers. She did not budge.
Her heart rate had settled into a fast, but steady, beat. She was sweated up, but steady on her feet. Probably fatiguing, he thought, but clearly standing ready for whatever he would drive her to do next.
She did not shy away from his contact; quite the opposite. Before he revolved around her completely, she shifted her shoulder slightly into him in a subtle, but playful gesture.
Once he completed a second tighter circle of her, he stood squarely before her.
"K'Shai, again!"
Without hesistation, K'Shai restarted the entire pattern one more time. She glided her arms sideways, she spun and crouched and sidled laterally, and paced around the perimeter of the fighting space.
She pirouetted quickly into a spin and on the landing, R'chnt had pounced into her area, extended his arm and engaged her in jehdin jehdin. K'Shai immediately grasped his wrist, following through with the motion, and using his arm as leverage to help her swing behind him. She flipped, pressing her back into his back as she torqued past him and he attempted to flip her over his shoulders.
Performing the evasive maneuver beautifully, K'Shai dodged his counter attack and glided down on her feet next to him. She immediately dropped into a bent-kneed crouch as he spun into her and lunged towards her again.
Properly positioned, K'Shai continued through the motion and launched again, straight up, using her bent knees and the momentum of R'chnt's forearms to help her leap as if she was spring loaded.
She grappled tightly with both of her arms onto his armored right arm and landed firmly next to him, immediately launching her left arm into his abdomen, stopping just short of full contact, merely enough to get the point across. Had she been carrying a blade in her left hand, she would have gutted him.
Without any delay, the movements continued on. K'Shai and R'chnt danced around the arena to the intrigued satisfaction of their growing number of spectators, for a blissful moment, both fully engulfed in the spar.
Their paces matched, their hearts beated in tune to one another, their breathing synched up. Finally, R'chnt spun again, bringing himself near to the center of the arena. He extended his arms in a sideways swing towards K'Shai as he followed through with the circular motion from his powerful ankles.
K'Shai greeted the assault readily, properly. She twisted her body of the way of his swing, grappled his forearm again and spun behind him one more time, with a slightly different footing position. She latched her left leg behind his left calf and planted herself into a crouching position, half twisted behind him, half pulling him off balance using a leveraging method he had started to teach her.
R'chnt followed through completely with his turn and reached his right arm towards K'Shai, not fully giving in his position, though she was successfully putting enough strain on him it was hard to counter her assault and defend himself.
She reached for his arm, clearly in an attempt to stop his attack, while not forfeiting her control over his balance. Given the choice between pulling him down, and possibly losing her own footing with him, or surrendering her leverage on his balance, and focusing entirely on the right-handed swing attack he was driving into her, she chose to attempt to maintain her position and counter his attack.
With that, R'chnt gripped her quickly, around her body, and pulled himself free from her nearly downing attack. In a single move, he overpowered her effortlessly and dropped her onto her back on the well worn dusty ground under their feet.
K'Shai glanced up to him as he hovered over her with a simple smile spread on his tusks.
"Hey, I thought I was doing well." She grunted.
"You were," he said with a respectful nod. He extended an arm towards her, which she clasped readily as he helped her to stand.
"You had the advantage. You forfeited it to counter my attack." He said.
"Well, I thought…" she began, but let her words trail off as he tipped his head at her and ticked his tusks together.
"Against prey, K'Shai, do not give up your stronger position. A choice like that will get you killed."
"But if I tried to bring you down, I would have gotten hit, yes? Or I would have fallen with you. So either way, I am not going to win it."
R'chnt nodded, pleased to see that she was learning to see multiple alternate scenarios.
"It is better to risk injury with a strong position, than forfeit the advantage to try to avoid risk and die for it."
She cast him a thoughtful glance and dismissed herself as A'ryin'di trilled a high pitch call of hunger. While she sat cross-legged on the ground outside the pillars of the kehrite, she watched R'chnt continue to spar throughout the entire day. One by one, he squared off with each one of his new hunting pack. Training them had begun.
R'chnt was, K'Shai had already well knew, an excellent teacher. He taught her in an entirely different way than the females taught the offspring within the confines of the mei'sa. He was careful with her, patient, contemplative, and a little protective. He would halt his attacks before making physical contact with her, so as not to damage her skin.
He took her through repetitions and repetitions again and again if she needed in order to learn something new. He changed teaching methods to get her to understand a point she was stuck on. He treated her with a grace and kindness that was simply abnormal for a Yautja.
When he squared off with his newest hunters, or with his experienced hunters like W'rsa and Taroun-de, both of whom survived the Earth War, he was a completely different type of teacher. He was a Yautja Leader.
With them, he pushed them. Hard. K'Shai watched the first sparring session with jaw dropped wonder. R'chnt met each one of the ten hunters in his pack with the same aggression, the same stamina, the same power.
One by one, each of them worked their way around one of the larger kehrites, more centrally located between the complex of stone pyramid buildings, sparring hand to hand, and suffering bruises and tears of their flesh from impact with claws or stone pillars.
The spars were nearly as violent as the nau'chak-thwei'nk. R'chnt made no effort at all to stop his damaging blows from making contact with the skin of whichever opponent failed to successfully block him. The Yautja very much had a negative reinforcement method of training that rattled K'Shai to the core as she watched it in action again and again.
Yet, each hunter valued their experience. They bowed respectfully to R'chnt at the beginning and end of each spar, and they bore their bruises and blood smears without concern. They would heal, and the very next day, they would be right back at it, ready to show their Leader how much they had learned, or fail again at the risk of painful reprimand.
Each day was the same routine. The suns orbited the world on their two distinctly separate tracks. The higher sun was also the first to set and the first to rise, while the lower sun moved more slowly across a longer stretch of the sky, always hovering almost right near the horizon before it set. It barely dipped out of sight at night as it chased the high sun down past the horizon.
The equivalent of about four hours later, the higher sun was rising up and it was soon followed by the lower sun.
It was a dance that took some thirty-two hours to complete for a full rotation. True darkness never filled the sky, but the moons above were always visible, lightly veiled behind a hazy plume of heat and clouds that encased the alien planet.
The days could get quite humid, especially as storm clouds filled the skies, but often enough, the heat was tolerable, and K'Shai was slowly getting used to it. A'ryin'di, growing every day at an exponential rate, was clearly well adapted to the heat. Depsite fifty-percent of her genetic make-up being human, she was, in all appearances and ways, Yautja.
She shared the Yautja ability to thrive in the heat, and just as the adults sparred all day, training for hours in groups or pairs or against opponents made of air, without any heat-induced fatigue, A'ryin'di likewise never appeared uncomfortable in the triple-digit temperatures.
She was increasingly more demanding of attention, meals, and interaction with her parents, which K'Shai had come to expect. In the mei'sa aboard the atoll, she had certainly noticed how the few mothers aboard with sucklings rarely ever put them down. In many ways, the sucklings required far more attention than toddlers, even though they slept through a greater portion of the day.
K'Shai tended to her daughter with all the attention and wariness of any Yautja mother. R'chnt was pleased to see her managing her maternal duties so well, along with her continued training as a fighter and hunter. As the rotations passed, she slipped into a steady rhythm of spiritual training at first sun and sparring training thereafter.
Her particular schedule was amended to cater to her needs to eat and eliminate more often than a Yautja needed, as well as caring for A'ryin'di. K'Shai managed to do all of it with no complaints and an ever-impressive amount of skill.
She seemed most content when R'chnt held the offspring while reviewing her performing sparring techniques.
He did so readily, and while the sight of an elder male holding and caring for an offspring was incredibly unusual, it had become a certain level of the new normal. It eased K'Shai's wary concern for her child when she was in his arms, and allowed her to focus most clearly on her training. When he needed to step in, he set the baby down in her basonette well within site, for neither would dare leave her out of their covering gaze.
The males in his hunting pack all had not only accepted her, but clearly relished in the novelty of being part of the group that would hunt with the ooman. They watched her with interest when she succeeded at a spar, amusement when she failed, and gave her attention that bordered between healthy respect and mocking jest, though they kept themselves in check under R'chnt's scrutiny.
Each and every spar drew in heavy amount of spectators, and after just three rotations, he had changed venues entirely to a larger kehrite that was set in a massive circular courtyard between three buildings, just because it would accommodate the entire hunting pack for simultaneous training, while offering plenty of viewing for specators from the cantina and various overlooks all around. R'chnt managed to proudly put K'Shai on display while ignoring the spectators completely.
K'Shai watched him position her always in the very center of attention, while also acting as though the onlooking viewers were completely unimportant.
Rotation after rotation, he trained K'Shai along with the others in his pack. Each learned not only from him, but also from each other. Part of the training was, at least for the Yautja, basic conditioning to ensure they were always solidly fit and physically pepared for the hunts that their Leader would ultimately take them on.
For K'Shai, she found most of the training R'chnt put her through was a step-by-step process of improving her skill. He was an excellent teacher; methodical and dominant, though he was incredibly aggressive with his Yautja students.
He made no attempt at all to avoid drawing blood and when R'chnt sparred against any of his students in a one and one attack, everyone cleared to the perimeter just to watch; to gleam a bit of knowledge that he would not otherwise tell anyone; to learn just by seeing him do. For K'Shai, he handled her training differently.
He carefully worked with her, guiding her through her learning in a manner that drew in only gape-jawed looks of amazement from all who looked on. He was teaching the others how to work around her without ever directly telling anyone.
He supervised her diligently and handled her carefully, and allowed her whatever breaks or time necessary to tend to her own or the offspring's needs.
When K'Shai took a break from sparring with him, on the fourth rotation of the group training, she had looked around only to notice that everyone she could see was watching them.
She turned quickly to R'chnt eyeing him with a worriedly curious gaze, which he understood immediately.
"They are not used to me training in such a way." He said lightly to her as he cupped a taloned hand over her shoulder and ticked one upper mandible lightly in a small grin.
R'chnt would not strike her or harm her and she knew it. She also knew that the females lacked that restraint at all, and while she wanted to avoid training with them, she did very much want to try that much harder for R'chnt so as not to make it appear that she was too weak to be trained like any other Yautja. It was a complicated situation, she thought.
"And they all want to spar with you."
She eyed him widely again. "Why?" She questioned in a self-doubting tone.
Surely, there could be nothing special about sparring with her, she thought. Most of the time she could barely keep her feet moving properly in time with her hands.
"Valuable learning experience." R'chnt said simply.
"You move differently. Many of these hunters have never hunted humans. They are only used to sparring with other Yautja, and hunting animals."
K'Shai nodded in silent understanding, not ever having considered that her uniqueness amongst the aliens could be seen in such a way.
The days passed by in a blur of motions. Weeks of training had turned from a curious spectacle to commonplace routine. K'Shai, with each passing day felt herself growing not only stronger and more confident, but also more capable.
R'chnt pushed her right along with the rest of his group and the more he did, the more she was able to simply tune into what she was doing and forget about thinking her way through it all. Just as he had been tring to teach her, which she could not seem to consciously do.
Suddenly, she was pulled from her concentration during a spar with W'rsa one day by a loud bellow.
The entire group came to a sudden halt as one of the hunters suddenly crashed to the ground after a dry crackling sound that could only be the sound of shattering bone.
K'Shai turned towards the commotion as R'chnt stepped in and glared at the two students; one standing, the other catching his breath and cradling his left arm with bones visible from the forearm, sticking out glistening white and covered with dripping green blood that fluoresced.
K'Shai cringed and gritted her teeth together. W'rsa halted and watched, standing tall, and ticking his mandibles, clearly as annoyed as R'chnt that the sparring patterns had to be halted.
R'chnt stalked around his downed student, but offered no support of any kind. He did not kneel down to see if T'au-de had been badly injured. He did not offer his hand to help him up. He simply glared at all of still standing students and allowed his gaze to shrink T'au-de's opponent Nehrude by at least six inches before his deep golden eyes shifted towards K'Shai.
"Hunters will get injured on hunts." He began. "It is no dishonor. You will find strength and pride and glory in your own blood shed."
He paced slowly, methodically.
"But you do no honor at all to yourself or your Clan if you fail to pay attention to your opponent. All prey is deadly, respect it all. Respect even the prey who give their life purely to feed you. Who's trophies are worthless, but yet whose hides and bones adorn us while their meat feeds us. Respect the prey whose prize you seek, especially prey which will hunt you back. Never lose concentration on the prey before you. And never focus so intently on that prey you forget to pay attention to your surroundings as well. Even a kainde amehda will attack from behind."
T'au-de finally got up once R'chnt had paced his way well enough away to make him feel comfortable to do so. He said nothing and R'chnt merely offered a simple nod as he made his way out of the kehrite to seek medical attention. Nehrude poised rigidly, trying rather poorly, to hide a certain smug grin of self-pride at T'au-de's blood trail out of the kehrite.
"No honor comes from disobeying orders of your Leader, either." R'chnt scoffed with an annoyed growl. "You must learn to control yourself just as much as you need to learn to fight intelligently. Uncontrolled brute strength is meaningless. Learn to stop yourself from striking when you must, learn to control your own self."
Suddenly Nehrude deflated a little and K'Shai couldn't help but to press her lips together into a little grin.
"Again, we spar. Without the intent of serious harm to your opponent. We will all bear bruises and bleed. In the kehrite such mistakes will occur. On the hunt, you will die for those mistakes. Pay close mind to your own body and those around you."
"Ready." He paused, standing tall in the center of the kehrite. "Begin."
He pushed the Yautja in his pack for endless hours, waiting for any one of them to balk at the difficulty or complain of fatigue. He impressed upon each and every one of the hunters in his group that on a hunt, there was no room for failure. This was demonstrated frequently by the bruises and broken skin any of the Yautja received in return for failure to execute a move properly or to block an attack.
The Yautja in his pack and those who spectated spoke of him with absolute respect, and K'Shai had learned much more about R'chnt through stories of him that they told over a shared meal. She found the largest part of the training he put them all through was mostly how to teach them to all work together as a group.
Not only did they all need to learn each other's unusual quirks and grow to function as a single unit, they all also needed to learn how to operate with K'Shai in their midst.
R'chnt handled teaching the male Yautja of his group how to work alongside a female human carefully. He supervised diligently while allowing others to spar with her. There were times when he could teach her best by shadowing behind her, teacing her to move around and against another opponent.
Usually, he selected W'rsa for that particular sparring duty, feeling that W'rsa was the least likely to accidentally or otherwise slip up and strike her. The others were all slowly trying to learn how to function around a female a third their size and far more delicate, but most of them could barely control their own motions against each other.
Adding to that fact that K'Shai herself was still learning, R'chnt had deemed W'rsa most capable of partnering against her.
As more rotations passed, R'chnt guided K'Shai through ever increasingly difficult maneuvers, and as her abilities grew, so did her sparring interactions with him and his group.
By the time more than three weeks of rotations passed, K'Shai had advanced enough in her training to hold successful hand to hand spars at full speed against her opponents. She powered around her maneuvers confidently as R'chnt supervised all of his hunters. He paced around the kehrite while K'Shai and W'rsa worked on their techniques.
He kept close watch on her, but also stalked between other pairs of fighters, training, correcting, and showing the entire different movements.
K'Shai smiled widely as she came to a halt after finishing the exercise, along with the rest of the group. R'chnt overlooked the entire group, clearly satisfied with their abilities. Each hunter, paired off, displayed ever growing prowess, and all of them worked simultaneously, using the full floor space of the kehrite, creating quite the spectactle and drawing in more viewers.
"Again," he said simply, in his deep growling voice that echoed through the arena's space.
Without a word, the Yautja took up positions and began again. Each pair moved in synch, working their way around the kehrite flawlessly.
Under the dual suns of mid-day, surrounded by a combination of ancient looking pyramids and jungle trees, with dozens of curious spectators surveying them, the pairs of hunters worked fluidly, each focused on their own pair, and mindfully aware of the pairs surrounding them. Like a tightly choreographed ballet, the pairs danced within their own fighting circles, while simultaneously rotating around the kehrite.
K'Shai could feel W'rsa's power as he followed through with each strike. The heat billowing off his sweaty body hit her like a fire every time she sidled into him, danced around him, or launched herself past him by grappling a wrist, an arm, or even between his legs in one half slip-up movement that she twisted to her advantage.
She smiled thinly as the move confused W'rsa for just long enough to cause a delay in his retaliation. Gathering her mind quickly, she saw an opening and immediately focused on the next moment, certain she would manage to down the imposing force before her.
For the fleetest of moments, a micro second perhaps, she felt powerful and certain; confident and energized. She was Yautja.
She moved into position, eyeing W'rsa's clumsy half spin to catch up with what just happened as she pulled herself together quickly from her slip up. She clenched her jaws tightly and focused totally on her next move.
Readying to make her next attack, she rebalanced herself, shifting backwards slightly. Then suddenly, she felt immense pain and lost track of what was happening. She was flung backwards and hit the stone floor, barely able to focus. She heard roars and commotion and felt her body flush and tremble as the side of her face quickly heated up and a piercing sound shot through her ears and flooded out all other sounds.
R'chnt had looked back to K'Shai in time to see her fumble through what should have been a flip resulting in her landing on her feet. Instead, she landed incorrectly and her knee buckled, causing her to go down. Reacting quickly, displaying her ever growing prowess, K'Shai simply followed through with the buckling as if it was part of what she intended to have happen.
She had finally stopped constantly trying to think her way through her motions, and instead allow her reactions to come to her naturally. He looked on proudly, tusks pulled apart into a small smile as he watched her confuse W'rsa for the slightest moment as she darted smoothly between his legs and popped up behind him.
It was obvious that she was focused as she smiled thinly, clearly was proud of what she had done. She channeled her certainty that she was going to be victorious, and simultaneously, also had done something he had warned her about several times; tuning out her surroundings.
It was an easy and common mistake for young hunters; one that he had learned the hard way. The power of the moment when a hunter knows that victory is his is the same moment any hunter is at the weakest. K'Shai failed to notice she had crossed into the sparring space of the pair just behind her.
R'chnt moved in, but it had all happened so quickly and it was done. Utik'de whirred around against his opponent and as K'Shai stepped into his space and lost her awareness of her surroundings, she was completely unaware that his arm was swinging furiously towards her.
W'rsa collected himself and turned just in time, scanned the situation in a fraction of a second and before anyone could react, Utik'de's arm slammed into the side of K'Shai's head full force and sent her flying backwards.
Everyone halted as R'chnt bellowed a displeased roar. K'Shai was down and bleeding profusely, moaning vaguely and apparently unaware of what had happened.
W'rsa stood his ground, wanting to move in to check on K'Shai, but well aware R'chnt was moving in like a raging beast. R'chnt slammed Utik'de to the ground as he pushed past him to get to K'Shai.
K'Shai heard R'chnt bellow to her, jolting her back to attention. She was shaking furiously and that high pitched tone ringing in her ears simply would not stop.
"R'ch…." She gurgled through a mouthful of blood.
"Silence K'Shai. On your feet. You must stand."
She pressed her eyes closed again and raised her hands over her face, moaning as she coughed out spurts of blood. She heard his words, but was certain she could not do as he commanded. She shifted her body, but it only curled over on its side as she released a shrill wail as her face flooded with tears.
As the ringing in her ears died out, her mind focused on A'ryin'di, just a few meters away in her bassinette on an elevated platform, well out of the way from the hunters and the spectators, with four watchful females nearby.
The baby had stirred and K'Shai lolled her head towards her child, noticing the baby's legs and arms flailing as she awoke and announced her hunger. K'Shai suddenly lifted herself up, driven to answer the needs of her child.
She grappled R'chnt for support in forfeit of holding her face together. She could barely stand, barely focus, but she made a direct line for her baby, pulling R'chnt along with her, although he was clearly intending to take her a different direction.
She sat down next to as the females moved in while K'Shai tried feebly to grapple her child.
"K'Shai, come with us to the mei'sa. You need medical attention. The healer will…." Sri'di said briskly, but K'Shai raised her palm.
"I'll…" she started to rebut, but stopped when she realized she could not open her mouth. She moaned again painfully as she gripped her face, feeling it swell, throb, and flush with painful heat.
She could barely see out of her left eye and she was sure that she was going to black and blue after this one. She quieted down as blood ran out of her mouth and she swallowed with a grimace, and let R'chnt sort it out while she sat shaking next to A'ryin'di's bassonett.
"I will take her," he said with a deeply bowed head.
The females held their ground and allowed R'chnt to help K'Shai back up to her feet without a word in refute.
K'Shai walked alongside R'chnt, slumped into him for support. He carried A'ryin'di and sometime later she opened her eyes and saw he and L'ruch overlooking her. She did not remember even shutting her eyes, but she knew she was in L'ruch's jurite. She saw A'ryin'di resting just at the foot of the table she was on and focused in on L'ruch's words as R'chnt stood tall and listened.
"…fragile. Her jaw and skull were shattered." L'ruch hummed for a moment, the proudly stated, "I have mended it, and re-inserted three of her teeth."
"She lost four," R'chnt growled.
L'ruch withdrew slightly at the Leader's clear displeasure.
"I made the fourth from alloy, it will serve as a replacement."
R'chnt nodded, retracting a bit.
"She will heal, R'chnt, but it will take time. For her, she will not heal as quickly as a Yautja and she is more susceptible to pain than a Yautja, keep her on suppressants. Allow her to rest."
As she sat up, both heads turned towards her, neither having noticed she had returned to consciousness. K'Shai felt utterly dazed by everything that happened, but she had heard enough of her own condition.
She tried, slowly, to open her mouth, and it stretched, although painfully. She rubbed the left side of her face lightly and grimaced and whined as she shifted her legs over the side of the table and sat upright, groping her tongue over the metal implanted molar.
When she thought about advanced bionic implants, a tooth was not exactly what came to mind. It felt funny in her mouth, simply not natural. It just did not belong.
She bumped it several times with her tongue to see if it would budge out of place, but it did not. It also did not hurt. It just felt funny.
She composed herself and nodded to both Yautja. R'chnt approached her carefully, looking a bit uncertain as to how to proceed. She eyed him quietly and turned her attention towards A'ryin'di who woke up and lolled over.
K'Shai placed her hand on the baby's back as she started to belly crawl towards her mother. She was unable to smile, when she tried it just hurt too much, so she winced and moaned under her breath and scooped up her daughter.
"Come, K'Shai. Can you stand? I will guide you back home for some rest." R'chnt offered, extending a hand towards her.
Slowly, she shifted off the table, A'ryin'di comfortably gripped on her right side as she leaned into R'chnt and allowed him to escort her home. As they walked, the ground felt somehow soft, like it was moving with each step, as if she was walking over a giant mattress.
She wobbled and shifted, finding the experience disorienting. The heat from R'chnt's solid body soothed her, lulled her into a pacified state of sleepiness, which was aided by the effects of the drugs in her body to help mask the throbbing pain from her head.
She did not even remember getting all the way back across the Clan City from the worker's areas all the way up the cliffside pass to the top tier buildings, into R'chnt's living quarters and into the bedroom. She did not remember sitting on the bed, or tucking herself under the silky golden and red bed sheets.
R'chnt watched her fall asleep without even acknowledging him. The thought crossed his mind that perhaps she simply was too pained and too medicated to even really know what was going on. She slipped into the bed and dutifully nursed A'ryin'di; even as disoriented she was, her maternal drive and instinct to care for her offspring seemed to control her body without her knowledge.
After the suckling had her fill, and K'Shai had lolled over in a bruised heap for sleep, R'chnt picked up the child. He cleaned her and tended to her and carried her with him as she fell asleep in her arms while sitting under the lowering suns out on the terrace.
W'rsa appeared shortly after he had sat down, and in a short matter of time four other curious acquaintances filed onto his patio. Whoever had not witnessed what happened had certainly heard about it through the highly efficient grape vine. A few hunters that had come to know K'Shai well expressed their concerns for her well being.
"A hit like that could have killed her." One pointed out.
"The last two who laid hands on K'Shai both were punished. R'chnt, will you be killing Utik'de?" Another questioned with a grunt.
"No." He answered with a deep growl followed by a sigh. "This was a training accident. The error was K'Shai's. She stepped out of her circle, and she failed to pay attention to her surroundings. This is a hard lesson she will likely not repeat."
It was a difficult position to be in. He was not oblivious to the fact that she would likely get harmed during her training. She would likely suffer harm on a hunt, where he had far less control over what was happening, he knew. K'Shai would bear this lesson well and he could only hope she would learn from it and use it to prevent future accidents.
He silently concerned himself with the notion that she may become reluctant to spar again, but as heads turned away from him, he looked to the door to see K'Shai standing there watching them.
Her face was bruised heavily, swollen, and flushed with heat. She kept her jaw tightly clenched. She stood in the doorway between the kitchen area and the patio, swaying as if she had a hard time deciding if she wanted to step out and join them or remain inside. She nodded respectfully to all of the hunters staring back at her and braced her body tall, elevating her chin and standing firm over her ankles.
R'chnt could see that she was still wobbly and shaken. He stood and approached her and she eyed him widely. When he came within reach of her, she extended her hand to his and gripped one of his fingers tightly, nudging him to come with her back inside.
She returned with him into the bedroom, tenderly stroking her sleeping child as they walked past and she turned to stare out the window.
"K'Shai, you will rest. Once you are stronger, we will return to your training."
She turned and gazed at him, considering all that had transpired.
"I…think….tomorrow…." she said, speaking slowly and pained, "I will… go… to… the … mei'sa…."