For three days, K'Shai remained in the mei'sa, away from R'chnt completely. She tended to her own breeding wounds and usually kept in quiet solitude with A'ryin'di, although finally she stepped out into the pools with a few young females who were soaking in the heat of the waters under the heat of the suns.
K'Shai stripped nude without a second thought and sank into the hot-tub temperate waters, resting her head back on the stone slab side wall and groaning out a pleased and relaxed tone. A'ryin'di floated gently into the water resting in her mother's arms and immediately splashed at the surface, clicking happily.
"Will you be returning to your mate and to the hunt, K'Shai?" One of the young females asked suddenly. The implication was that either K'Shai was going to stay in the mei'sa or stay with R'chnt, not flip flop between the two.
K'Shai paused and tried to formulate a response. The fact was, she did not know at that very moment. She had a child to think about, and she had a mate that she wanted to please as well. She wanted to be by his side through everything, but she had not expected to be publically raped by him in some kind of display of ownership that she barely understood. None of the Yautja, either male nor female, seemed even remotely at all offended or angered by the display, which made it all even worse.
It was quite the opposite, actually, K'Shai thought quickly about the recent events. She felt embarrassed, confused, and angry, while the mass population of the entire planet, who all apparently know about the mating as she came to understand it over the last few days, were impressed by her and what had transpired. It was normal and appealing, and made a statement to everyone; a statement that K'Shai was trying to understand.
"I suppose so, I think. I mean.. yes.. yes, I'll continue my training and hunt again. I … I'm sure that's what…" she stammered through a half-witted response and the five soaking females around her all just sort of quizzically surveyed her, no doubt trying to understand the uncertainty she displayed.
"But A'ryin'di will remain here?" another questioned.
K'Shai gritted her teeth, not so subtly trying to display her annoyance with everyone telling her exactly how and where she should raise her child or live her life.
"I just…" K'Shai started to answer, but her attention was turned suddenly towards the massive sprawling grounds several stories below the pool deck.
Children began to file into the yard in rows, separated by genders and age range, they filed in neat uniform lines with well choreographed precision.
K'Shai edged her way to the other side of the pool so she could stand up a little straighter and get a more full view of what was going on some fifty feet below. The children stood quietly, like an army of well trained soldiers. They all looked proud, eager, and proper; like perfect little intergalactic hunting machines in the making. K'Shai couldn't help but notice how a few of them tried to casually glance to others around them and cast subtle gestures of sneers or pride to other students.
Several adult females, including three elders in addition to all of the younger matriarchs, strode slowly and casually between the rows and columns of students that filled the ground. It certainly appeared as if every Yautja who was able to walk were in attendance.
"What is happening?" K'Shai asked finally.
"K'Shai, today is kru-tka," one of the females responded.
She looked to the young females quizzically and tried to come up with a translation for the word. The only thing closest to that word she could put into her mind was judgment. She assumed by the very prescribed way the young Yautja presented themselves that this was some kind of graduation ceremony.
She watched curiously as the students stood silently and surveyed the matriarchs around them until Neh'rti appeared from one of the pyramids and stood tall on the deck off the back of it. Neh'rti almost looked regal, K'Shai had to admit. She was massive, proud, muscular and intimidating on an every day basis, and today she was donned in shimmering robes that glistened like waterfalls of gold with each movement she made. The little trinkets and beads and metal and gem adornments all over her hair, face, and garments glistened with catchlight as she paced like a proud lion surveying all that she commanded.
"Ju/pta," Neh'rti announced, calling the youngsters before her simply, children.
"Today marks a great day in your life as you know it. Today is kru-tka. Many of you have proven your worth to your bloodlines, your heritage, your Clan, and all Yautja. Many of you who stand before me will become worthy hunters, proud additions to your Clan, and strong breeders. You will produce another generation of strong and worthy hunters.
A few of you will no doubt become leaders yourself, you will continue on this Clan for centuries yet to come. Some of you will hunt and die, but you will do so knowing you have brought your Clan pride and honor. Most of you will earn your blooding marks, and today is that day in which those who are most
ready and most proven will move on to begin your hunter's path."
K'Shai watched in silence from far above while the students did not move, save for a few who noticeably stiffened their posture as if to present themselves in better standing to Neh'rti.
"Some of you," Neh'rti added with a growl of displeasure, "have failed to display worthiness of your Clan. You have been judged, and your training ends today. Your path before you is that of 'aseigan."
K'Shai gasped and her jaw dropped. Neh'rti strode around prominently, growling her final words as she continued.
"Unworthiness has no place in the Kaunte Dar'een Clan. As 'aseigan, you will live your life, fed and clothed by the Clan and the noble and proper hunters you will come to serve. But your bloodlines are dishonored, and your right to breed revoked. The Kaunte Dar'een Clan judges fairly and harshly for it is only the Clan and the Honor of its people that matter. Live to uphold Yautja honor, Yautja strength, and never stray from the path of a Hunter."
With that, Neh'rti fell silent and K'Shai hadn't even noticed that the matriarchs prowling through the organized lines of students had finally stopped. With a silent gesture from Neh'rti, seven of those females, each one flanked by two additional females in support, grabbed up a student they had stalked over to.
Immediately, surrounding youngsters scattered away, creating holes in the finely woven fabric of young and aspiring hunters. The students who had not been selected instantly resorted to scoffing, howling, and laughing at the young Yautja who were forceably being removed by the females.
Two of the youngsters being removed were skinny gangly little things that barely looked like they were the same size as a five-year old human child. They looked nothing like some of their more robust peers. Both were females, both howled and moaned in fear and embarrassment as they were whisked away. Of the other five that were taken away, three more were females, only two males, both equally as gangly looking teenage boys were removed.
The boys bore many scars and obvious broken jaws. One of them had hair that had clearly been cut off in chunks. K'Shai's jaw dropped and for a brief while, she was unable to formulate words. Finally, she turned to the females wading nearby, who only looked on with half-interest as none of them were yet mothers, so they had little connection to what was happening below.
"What happens to them? How can they be …. Just taken away like that?" K'Shai questioned sharply.
"They are lucky to be given the chance to live their lives." One exclaimed with a happy tone of excitement, as if somehow the children that were hauled away like garbage were just blessed with a great gift.
"I don't understand… they're just children. Some of them are so young. How can they be condemned unworthy when they are so young?" K'Shai rebutted.
"K'Shai, haven't you ever seen that one try to fight? It can barely stand straight. It is faulty and ill-bred."
K'Shai glanced down to one of the young females who held her head so low she hunched her back as she moved away under force with the other females around her. To be referred to simply as "it", completely unworthy of any recognition as a Yautja, from such a young age simply because their talents did not lie in fighting, beating, and killing other creatures; it was vile.
Suddenly, visions flashed through her head of her own children, half Yautja and half human, being deemed unworthy and being humiliated and taken away like criminals to be "granted" life as a slave, destined to be starved and beaten. Such a thing would not only traumatize the child, but disgrace R'chnt, his nobility, and his entire heritage.
"Hopefully it will at least make a decent 'asiegan." Another female scoffed with a chuckle and the others joined in on the joke.
K'Shai turned to them with burning eyes, clutching her infant against her breasts so tightly she might well have suffocated the baby and not even noticed.
"They are children. They didn't fail the Clan, the Clan failed them! It is our responsibility as females of the mei'sa… as mothers… to teach these children, not to do this to them."
The five females seemed a little stunned and unsure of why K'Shai reacted as she did. For a moment she was met with silence until one of them finally piped up and tried to rationalize.
"K'Shai… there is no need to invest in a poorly bred Yautja. They would not survive further training, and they certainly would never earn their Blooding mark."
She eyed the females angrily. "You don't know that. It isn't right to just… toss them away like that."
"Well, K'Shai, it isn't just as children that 'asiegan are made. Any hunter, even Blooded females, can be deemed unworthy if they fail to show Honor to the Clan."
K'Shai clenched her jaw at the shallowly-veiled threat and paused for a moment, making strong eye contact with the five females until each one in turn decided they had something else to look at. Once she received the response she wanted, K'Shai stood and turned and left the pool, disrobed and dripping wet and steaming with anger as she stormed through the corridors to her chambers, donned her clothing and headed back home to R'chnt.
She had at least both dried off and calmed down slightly by the time she made it from the transport out of the mei'sa all the way across town and up the massive cliffside and into the complex that included R'chnt's apartment-like home. A'ryin'di, uncaring of the events of the Clan, had long since fallen asleep and K'Shai immediately slipped quietly in to her bedroom to put the child safely in her bassinet for some rest.
Pausing for a moment to offer a small grin and a gentle stroke of the young Yautja's tusk-less fleshy cheeks, K'Shai considered the entire life before her daughter, and vaguely wondered if returning to Earth and raising her child there would be easier. She, at one time, thought that it was humans who were cruel and judgmental and fearful of change and outsiders and that Earth was not the place to raise a hybrid offspring, but suddenly, she was no longer sure of such things.
The Yautja delivered severe, uncompromising judgement and punishments. Their ways were simple; harsh and brutal; but simple. For them, it was black and white, with absolutely no gray at all. K'Shai was the anomaly; she was the grey, and now her child was exactly in the middle of it all. A'ryin'di would be judged fit or failure, as she already had been, before she even had any concept of what was going on. Right at birth, one of the first things Neh'rti said was the child was too weak and small just like her mother and would never survive.
She was being given a chance; a true chance, to grow as a Yautja only because of her father's solid breeding. The Yautja were curious, though K'Shai knew they were overall skeptical, to see if the hybrid baby could grow up to do anything useful. And as word had spread to every corner of the planet that K'Shai could be bred again and again, it led to the possibility of a whole flock of hybrid Yautja that would be judged in such ways.
K'Shai could feel herself shaking. Confused, angry, and uncertain, she just wanted to find R'chnt and feel his powerful arms around her. She looked about, suddenly realizing that she hadn't seen him at all and assumed he was out on the terrace below most likely sparring with friends. As she started through the house, she was surprised to hear voices from the patio, and she paused and held her breath; utlizing her slowly accrued Yautja training to noiselessly stalk her "prey", and eavesdrop.
"I had no idea she was so strong, R'chnt". K'tor-de said with a chuckle.
"You have certainly proven that she is a worthy mate," M'jyn added.
W'rsa listened in silence, drinking from his large spouted mug of c'ntlip and focusing mostly on the sharp peppery taste of it instead of the conversation.
R'chnt shifted in his large master's chair on the front patio and reached his large, clawed hand down to a tray next to him. He grumbled softly as he retrieved some tentacled h'ju and paused before popping the small delicacies into his mouth.
"I have proven that she is my mate. She is marked, she had been bred once and will be again. She bears my blood, and she is for no one else."
"And what if you were to die on a hunt?" K'tor-de questioned.
He clicked his tusks together in annoyance as he swallowed one handful of h'ju and reached for another helping.
"Is she to remain barren for the rest of her life, then? Is that your decree, too? You have proven well that she is a worthy Yautja, a strong mate, and can produce fine offspring."
M'jyn said softly, almost reluctantly, "I had heard about the breeding from several males. They were all intrigued by how strong she is. She truly is Yautja, isn't she?"
"It was a common thought that she is simply too fragile for you, that the upmost delicateness must be taken when breeding with her. Many wondered why you even want to mate with such a thing!"
The two elders chuckled together over the notion. R'chnt said nothing for a long enough while that it made the others silence and shift in their seat uncomfortably.
"K'Shai is far from weak or delicate." W'rsa finally added in with a grumble.
"And now everyone knows it!" K'tor-de said with a hint of satisfaction in his voice. "Which only makes her more desirable. She is unique, and not the frail thing that was assumed. She has been injured and returned to the fight, and was taken properly, as she should be. And can be bred again."
"Why don't more Yautja males take human female mates?" One of the other males echoed with a voice that bordered between sarcasm and seriousness.
"When I am gone, it will be for K'Shai to choose her next place." R'chnt said with a warning growl to the others.
"Females choose their mates. K'Shai is no different. Her fate is not chosen for her. She is not 'aseigan. She is Blooded. Let no one forget that. She has earned her marks, and her scars."
R'chnt clarified, then added with a direct glare towards K'tor-de. "Any fool who should think of challenging me for her will meet the same fate is I'eilun-de. And even if he managed to kill me, he would still have to contend with her! She will not be taken easily, and she is learning every day how to defend herself against Yautja. When I have completed her training, fending off a strong-headed, aroused male will not be a challenge for her."
"Of course, she has won much favor with the females, too, it seems. She will always have the mei'sa to remain in as well. Away from males that might wish to breed her against her will." M'jyn commented.
"Do the Yautja have no Honor anymore?" R'chnt spat. "We have Ways that Honorable hunters observe. What you speak of is for eto. Have you gone mad, M'jyn? Would you risk your Honor as well as your life to take a female that does not wish it?"
Silence followed in response, along with a few downward stares. Suddenly each of the elders before him found much interest in their toes. W'rsa continued to gaze over the brim of his mug, and said nothing even as the conversation continued on. It was nearly second-sunset before he stood and turned into the kitchen area to get another helping of meat and drink while the others continued in their conversation on the patio.
He allowed his mind to drift for a moment as he caught the scent in the air of R'chnt's home. He had barely even realized how he had gotten so accustomed to the appealing scent of K'Shai. It was sweet and enticing and somewhere between human and Yautja, not quite either, but a little of both. As he absent-mindedly cut his meat, he was barely aware of movement adjacent to him.
W'rsa stiffened with so much alertness there might have well been a kainde amedha queen stalking up behind him. K'Shai watched him, weary eyed from having just awaken from a rest after tending to A'ryin'di.
She eyed him widely, uncertain why he had reacted so rigidly to her presence. She craned her neck and noticed R'chnt and two others sitting on the patio having a discussion. She did not even question to herself what the topic of conversation was; that much was obvious and also explained W'rsa's reaction. In the four days since R'chnt had mated with her and marked her, there had been plenty of discussions about her from both sides of the literal fence.
The first morning after, she had tenderly withdrawn into the mei'sa and spent more than a full rotation tucked away with her child. It seemed the females' attitude towards her had changed instantly, and she was unaccustomed to being treated so Yautja. She had been well used to being the outcast; the not quite Yautja. K'Shai was the one who did things differently. Now, she was simply Yautja.
Somehow, although she barely understood it even though she had experienced it, what R'chnt had done to her had not just marked her as his mate or a piece of property of his, it had confirmed her status amongst the Clan and even more than that, amongst the females of the mei'sa. She would sit with them in a soaking bath on one of the terraces of the pyramids overlooking the grounds and jungles and the children four or five stories below, and no longer were females prodding her about her human nature or alien oddities.
Now, she was involved in typical female Yautja conversations and learning by way of those conversations about matters that females concerned themselves with; especially of selecting mates as breeding season began to come to a close. No one questioned her anymore when she left the mei'sa with her child and made her way all the way down the long red clay path on the hovering transport vehicle, through the Clan city and up the cliff to R'chnt's home.
In fact, as she made her journey in the middle of the following day, she noticed how 'asiegan jumped aside, Blooded males sidled out of her path and Blooded females nodded to her as they passed, acknowledging her presence at the very least. Her sealed over bite wounds rippled her skin in little white scars that gave her once beautifully laced tattoos a worn look, but they were prominent, and uncovered as her normal garments allowed her shoulders to be bare.
She had thought about putting on a neck collar and getting a full robe to wear to hide her shoulders; to hide R'chnt's marks through her skin. That was her immediate reaction, but as she thought on it more, and considered the females and their – everyone's- response to her bearing visible signs of R'chnt's dominance of her, she realized it was something very different than her perception of it all. He had taken her – claimed her – more aggressively than ever before; he fought with her as Yautja males do with their prospective mates.
She had wanted to get away, she had wanted to avoid embarassement and such complete exposure in front of onlookers. He had wanted to take her to display before all that she was powerful, strong, and could put up a worthy fight. He wanted to prove that she was Yautja. Less than one single rotation later, that was exactly how everyone was treating her.
What she had initially thought to cover up and hide as something she should be ashamed of, were status symbols intended to be pridefully displayed. What she viewed as an embarrassment was more like a rite of passage that was respected, and more to the point expected of any worthy, honorable Yautja female. What she protested against, was R'chnt trying to establish K'Shai as such a Yautja female.
What he had done succeeded and by the end of the second day, she had decided to bear her scars as she should, with pride. Scars were valued to the Yautja; they spoke louder than any stories could about the hunter who bore them. Scars were prized every bit as much as the trophies on the wall after a successful hunt.
Although some hunters, like R'chnt, preferred not to tell their own tales, there was still a tremendous sense of pride from each Yautja about their trophies, and just as much about their scars. In total contrast to human vanity, the Yautja did not seek to cover or hide their scars. They were proudly displayed and had a direct, and very positive, impact on both status within a hunting pack and the clan itself, as well as sexual appeal.
The more K'Shai thought on it, the more she took pride in her scars. She had already been scarred over her right ankle, left thigh and left shoulder from encounters on Earth with savage beasts of the human kind and aggressive Yautja that did not take kindly to her presence, along with the piercing claws and teeth of the hard meat that wished to drag her away to be cocooned and implanted.
She had already bore scars that were worthy, although she admittedly mostly forgot about them; relics of a life she no longer lived. Her new scars however, brought back the memories of the others and made her realize she had not placed enough emphasis on those scars and almost wanted to hide away what R'chnt had done to her, instead of displaying them proudly as any proper Yautja should.
She was proud of being R'chnt's. She defended his decision to make her his nehpti, and yet initially, she wanted to be ashamed of his marks branding her. She knew it was now, more than ever, time to be done with the human way of thinking; to rid herself of human notions of modesty and even morality. Most of all, in pursuit of her of ownYautjaness it was well past time to stop with the haunting nightmares of her past.
The scars on her body were the only thing that should remain of those events. No more would she listen to those shrieking calls and terrible hisses when she shut her eyes. She needed to be strong for A'ryin'di, for R'chnt, for the entire clan, for the scars that proved she was Yautja. The time had come.
"Something wrong, K'Shai?"
W'rsa's voice snapped her out of channeling her inner Yautja and considering the events of the past few days. She had meant to answer him back firmly, with a commanding voice to tell him by her growling undertone that he should mind his own business. She had meant to stand tall, shoulders back, chin high.
She looked him right in the eye, trying to produce a Yautja-esque glare that implied a blooded elite, even one such as himself, simply had no business talking out of turn to a Blooded and honored and marked and mated nepthi of R'chnt and Yautja mother as herself. She was certain, though, that she heard A'ryin'di tick and trill from the other room, and turned her shoulders and diverted her eyes from W'rsa as she glanced behind her down the hallway, listening quietly for more sounds.
In a moment, unsure if she had even heard the sounds in the first place, she turned back to W'rsa, who shifted his stance to face her more squarely. He cocked his head slightly, waiting in silence that matched her own, clearly holding for a response. K'Shai gaped her mouth softly, blankly trying to formulate words.
What was the response of a Blooded Yautja female such as herself expected to be to a male who asked her a question she didn't want to answer and spoke to her without invitation anyway?
She thought about it for a moment. Perhaps she was supposed to strike him? To growl at him and walk away? Maybe she wanted to adapt a far more-natural to her high pitched squeal of annoyance and tell him not to bother her. Even better, maybe a "nuttin'" response and sulking away. No, she thought – that was far from Yautja. That was not how Yautja female like her would act. She was not 'aseigan, after all.
Again she thought the she heard a sound, though this time it was not from A'ryin'di; that much she was sure. She turned again and listened, still not moving, instinctively holding her breath so she could listen better to the nothingness in the familiar, skull adorned corridor.
She hovered in the weapon and bone covered high archway between the hall and kitchen area, with her upper torso twisted away from W'rsa as she craned her chin over her shoulder and listened for her baby daughter's call. For a moment she heard nothing.
She stared into the darkness, listening to the quiet. She heard the deep rumbling voices of the males out on the patio still in conversation, and she allowed the sounds of the rest of the city to filter in on the breeze through the pane-less window above the kitchen counter area several meters behind her. She heard nothing from the dim corridor she stared down and for reasons she could not explain in the few awkward seconds that ticked by, hearing nothing caused her alarm. It made her skin prickle. Surely something was there.
K'Shai turned fully away from W'rsa as she held her breath and listened down the hallway, towards the small private sparring kehrite which was pitch black at the moment. As she listened hard enough, she was sure she heard a sound, but it was not from the bed chambers; not from the baby's cradle. Perhaps there was something else in the home. Perhaps A'ryin'di was in danger. They all could likely be in danger. Everything about this planet, K'Shai realized, was dangerous; the animals and its people, even poisonous plants. It was no place for a child; not even a Yautja child.
As she listened to the empty corridor, her mind tried to filter through her own thoughts and eliminate sounds that weren't really there; that she wasn't really hearing. She could feel her skin prickling, certain she could hear sounds.
W'rsa was barely twenty steps behind her; why was he not alarmed? Why did the group of hunters out on the patio not use their heightened Yautja senses to detect the danger she was certain was stalking them. What was that sound? She wondered as she swallowed softly, daring not to rattle her own saliva enough to block her hearing for even a moment.
She became aware after a moment that to her seemed like an eternity, that W'rsa was finally approaching. She glanced back around to him, turning warily away from the dark corridor to look at him with a sort of aren't you going to do something glare. W'rsa seemed completely oblivious to it. In fact, he did not seem aware or concerned about anything K'Shai just experienced. He approached her smoothly and calmly; casually and without regard for anything worrisome nearby.
"K'Shai," he said softly in a tone that could almost be construed as a purr; a dangerous thing considering he was just meters away from R'chnt.
"Your presence would honor us, if you would join us?" He said.
She eyed him warily in silence for a moment, scanning her own hazel human eyes back and forth between his deep set golden Yautja eyes. Such eyes were capable of burning like an angry fire, but for the moment, they were as tranquil as the setting Yautja suns broadcasting a rich golden sheen across the entire land.
"If your offspring is resting well, honor us by joining our discussion thwei'yin-kai."
She continued to eye him, her silence broken only by a soft gasp that he barely paid any attention to as he turned again and finished depositing a massive serving of meat onto his platter. She was surprised, shocked, taken aback by what he had called her. The name, the honor of the title he addressed her as; it was a word she had only heard actually verbally spoken her way less times than she could count on one hand so far. Thus far even R'chnt had not spoken it directly to her, but she certainly knew he referred to her as such. It was a title she did not feel justified in deserving. Not at all.
The Yautja had come to call her an honored huntress; and this had only happened in the few days since R'chnt's public breeding display. K'Shai thought about it for a moment. In a flicker of an instant her mind boiled in turmoil with different reactions she tried to sort through. She had been living with the Yautja now for nearly a year, and had know R'chnt for almost eighteen Earth months; did Earth months even matter, she thought.
Regardless, she had been separated from human kind throughout most of her pregnancy, the birth of her daughter, and now she was watching her baby grow from a planet an impossible distance from Earth. She was Yautja. She bore the marks and scars and tattoos and beads and brands to prove such. She had done everything necessary, and what she had not done herself, R'chnt had done for her.
She clenched her jaw, straightened her posture and tipped her chin proudly up as she settled her eyes onto W'rsa finally, the title thwei'yin-kai weighing on her mind. She certainly did not feel like an honored huntress. If she was so Yautja, so suddenly accepted and ready to take her place in Yautja society, why did she feel so small, human, and fearful? She decided in an instant that it was hardly Yautja-like behavior to be scared of shadows.
W'rsa was not alarmed by anything in the darkness of the corridor beyond the sleeping chamber. Nor should she be. She glanced to him again and proceeded to step forward towards, then past him, to a plate of fruit on the counter.
"Thwei'yin-kai?" W'rsa repeated, politely, and humbly prodding for a verbal response from K'Shai.
She glared at him, not certain in that flicker of a moment why she felt angry by the compliment; by the almost timid way he made his inquiry and request. The males out on the terrace chortled heartily at something humorous. The busy sounds of the city far below filtered up into the window opening on the warm breeze, and along with it came all the now-familiar once foreign scents of a world she belong to now that was not her home.
Suddenly, without any real warning or control, tears flooded from her eyes and in an instant, he face twisted and a howl of protest emananted from her.
"No! NO! W'rsa. I'm not thwei'yin-kai. I'm not Yautja!" She hollered and wailed as she broke down in hysterics. "I'm none of this. What am I becoming? I don't know what I am."
W'rsa stepped back in alarm and noticed in an instant movement from the outside terrace as the four males jumped up at the commotion. R'chtn bulldozed his way into the room glaring at W'rsa angrily, immediately prompting him to submit with an I didn't do anything look on his face.
K'Shai was on the floor, curled up with her knees in her chin sobbing.
"I can't do this… I can't do this…" she repeated continually over and over sometimes in Yautjan and sometimes in her own natuive tongue.
Her face was burning red from heat as it contorted and blue tears streaked over her cheeks forming wet spots on the floor. R'chnt evaluated the scene, trying to determine what had happened. She did not appear injured, as he did not see any blood. He knew such behavior from a human was generally in response to pain or fear. He had certainly seen K'Shai respond to both of those stimulii in such a way, only never to such an extreme.
In a short moment as he analyzed the situation, he made the determination that since she was not physically injured, as there was no blood or signs of trauma, and she certainly had no reason to feel fear, it must have been that W'rsa said or did something although whatever it was, he did seem just as surprised as the rest of them. Still, R'chnt growled and glared at W'rsa.
"What happened?" He commanded.
The resounding silence the followed was broken only by K'Shai's continued wailing.
A'ryin'di, clearly disturbed by her mother's commotion echoed a cry through the corridor as well. R'chnt glanced up from the curled up body of K'Shai for a moment, only to survey the hallway and the sleeping chamber, assuring himself that his offspring would be fine until he sorted out what was wrong with K'Shai.
He crouched down next to her and clamped a hand upon her shoulder.
"What is it, my K'Shai?"
She looked up at him and seemed to snap out of water hysterical trance it was that she had been lost in. She clenched her jaw tightly and shifted her body as she sat up and leaned against the cabinets behind her. Her eyes scanned the room, flickering between worry and anger as she surveyed the witnesses before her. R'chnt halfway glanced behind him and noticed that several of the others shuffled their way, bow-headedly out of the room and away from the angered glare of the female before them.
Only W'rsa and S'aruch-de remained. He looked to them, but said nothing and they remained equally as silent.
"I'm sorry," K'Shai mumbled as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "I don't know what's wrong with me."
"K'Shai," R'chnt said with a questioning trill, cocking his head slightly as he watched her curiously. "How can we fix this then?"
She looked at him wide-eyed. That was not the response she had expected, although she really did not know what response she would have expected. R'chnt was definitely a doer. If there was a problem, it was is in his nature to do something about it. She thought for a moment; just how can you fix a problem if you don't know what the problem is?
She lost herself for a long, silent while, in his golden eyes. They had endless depth, and as much subtle and dramatic beauty as the eyes of a cat. She followed a mazework of veins and prismatic speckles of various shades of gold, amber, yellow, and brown and black that created the shimmering heat-seeing pupils and irises of his calm and powerful eyes. Somehow, it was soothing to simply stare into them and not say a word.
Possibly, though the thought never really occurred to K'Shai, it could be construed as obstinance, defiance, or just generally rude to stare down an Elder such as R'chnt, but he did not move, blink, or respond in any way. He simply stared back while W'rsa and S'aruch-de silently surveyed the unusual situation from meters behind.
Finally tuning back in to what was happening immediately around her, K'Shai tipped her head towards the sleeping chambers. She locked in to A'ryin'di's disturbed cries and immediately, her maternal nature overrode anything else that was happening. Without a word, K'Shai stood and walked away from the three males, leaving them all quizzically staring amongst themselves as she tended to the offspring.
R'chnt turned to W'rsa with an unwarranted glare. He checked himself immediately upon W'rsa's withdrawing reaction to him. It was obvious by now that he had not intentionally caused K'Shai any harm or upset and was just as perplexed by what had transpired as the rest of them. R'chnt realized quickly, he should not have turned and postured so aggressively. Though he was angry and agitated by K'Shai's obvious unrest, he did at least recognize that W'rsa was not to blame, although he could not fathom what was.
"Leader, I did not…" W'rsa started with a deeply bowed head, clearly responding to R'chnt without him even asking a question.
R'chnt raised his palm, cutting off W'rsa's response.
"It is done. I will handle the matter. I will contact you again."
With that W'rsa bowed himself out of the room, eagerly. S'aruch-de spun on his heels and slowly stalked after him towards the door but halted before he left and eyed R'chnt carefully.
"Take care of her, R'chnt. She will always need you to protect her. No matter how strong she is, she is also fragile."
R'chnt eyed S'aruch-de with surprise. Such words were hardly the words of any typical Yautja. There was something more to S'aruch-de's experience on Earth than he was letting on, he suspected. The tone in his voice was careful and considerate, but also full of concern with enough certainly that it was clear his thoughts were from experience.
There was no time to get deeper into the matter right now, R'chnt decided. He turned and stalked away without a word, and entered the sleeping chambers to find K'Shai tightly cradling her baby. Both seemed content. K'Shai seemed half asleep, as if she exhausted herself from her outburst.
R'chnt slid onto the sleeping mat stealthily, though K'Shai did open her eyes with a deep inhale. She stayed silent as she shifted her position to allow him a more secure seat next to her and then dipped her head into his chest and shut her eyes again. A'ryin'di stopped suckling and looked up at him. He raised one mandible in a small grin as he watched his child in her mother's arms and then extended his own arms around both of them.
K'Shai leaned fully into R'chnt and groaned happily.
"The hard meat are gone, right?" She asked in a mumbled voice.
R'chnt paused for a moment, ticking his tusks as he pondered why she would ask such a thing. Surely she knew there were no hard meat on Yaut. She had been away from them for months; why would such a thing continue to plague her?
"Yes, K'Shai, all gone." He answered simply, in a factual monotone.
She drifted off for a moment, seemingly at ease by his reassurances, and pleasured by the heat of his body soothing her.
"R'chnt?" She muttered again.
He trilled inquisitivitely, inviting her to continue speaking without saying a word. She kept her eyes closed, shifted her head into his shoulder more firmly and stretched her jaw into a wide yawn.
"What am I?"
"Rest my K'Shai. You are safe." He responded softly, not sure how to answer that question at all.
She did not seem to hear his response. He held still and quiet, supporting A'ryin'di more than she was as he allowed both of them to incline against his body. He watched her in the quiet of the deep-blue night sky as the moons shone their light into the chambers while he pondered her unique situation.
Perhaps, he decided, K'Shai was in need of something different than he had been providing. Perhaps she needed more of something…. More training, more lessons, more exposure to the Yautja life so she could feel better, stronger, and more prepared. Then again, he thought after some consideration; perhaps what she needed was less.
As she slept soundly during the deepest hours of the night, the only time the Yautja sky would get anywhere near close to as dark as the Human world would get for most of the night, R'chnt pulled himself away from mother and baby, letting them sleep. He strode over to the computer console on the terrace, so he could have a brief conversation without disturbing his resting mate and daughter.
In a short while, upon his command, a transport vessel arrived outside of the housing unit. R'chnt waited until it was there and signaled his gauntlet beacon to announce its arrival before he returned to the sleeping chamber and collected his sleeping mate.
She was not aroused as he shuffled his hands under her body and pulled her up against his chest. Nor was she disturbed as he lifted A'ryin'di onto her and held them both against his body. The sounds echoing through the corridors of the housing unit from other Yautja sparring, talking, laughing, growling, or mating did not raise K'Shai from her slumber, nor did they bother the offspring. The breeze of the night air as he left the building, got on the transport and moved away cradling K'Shai did not cause her to wake.
Both of the females, in fact, slept the entire duration of the ride out of the clan city and all the way to nearly the edge of the Kaunte Dar'een's territory until the transport vessel had reached its destination. He disembarked from the platform of the vehicle and carried K'Shai into the building before him as the first sun began to light the sky with its pastel streaks of orange and pink that K'Shai adored so much. Still, she did not wake.
With behavior very unlike her, K'Shai remained sleeping through both sun rises. She slept through A'ryindi's cries for tending, and left the tasks of caring for her to R'chnt. She did not even wake as he positioned himself behind K'Shai so he could support the offspring against her while she nursed one meal, then two and finally a third.
R'chnt monitored his mate carefully. His concern grew as she did not awake throughout the entire stretch of the day. She continued to sleep through first sun down and by second sun down, he had already communicated his concerns to L'ruch, who suggested that so long as she was comfortable and with no obvious signs of pain, she should be allowed to sleep. While she did, R'chnt continued to attend to A'ryin'di pacing around the quiet of the room until the first sun had begun to hike over the horizon once again.