Day after day, the routine was quite the same. Wake from however restless a sleep her nightmares created, tend to A'ryin'di and herself, spar with R'chnt, then take to the jungle to train. The rotations passed smoothly, and K'Shai focused on her training. Rarely, W'rsa or S'aruch-de would join in on the training and sparring, which allowed K'Shai beneficial practice time well supervised by R'chnt.
"You are getting better, K'Shai." R'chnt acknowledged as she scaled back down the wall.
She had not gotten up very far yet, but each time up, she would go a little higher. She was grateful for R'chnt's support and guidance through the difficult training. He was always there, quite literally behind her, carrying A'ryin'di on his back, climbing the wall, and teaching K'Shai how to scale it. Sometimes he would climb directly over her, showing her each step of the way where exactly to put her hands and feet as she moved up shadowed under him, her back pressing into his belly.
It did not take more than two, maybe three, rotations before the going up part didn't seem so scary. She focused more on how to navigate the climb instead of how tall and intimidating the wall actually was. One maneuver at a time helped her focus on the task at hand, and not the overall stupidity of such a thing. It was always the coming down part that gave her trouble. This time around, however, she had scaled down successfully which was probably the first time.
She smiled proudly and glanced at the cliff as if she had personally willed it to cooperate with her and it finally listened, then nodded deeply in appreciation of R'chnt's positive remark.
"Come K'Shai, more training."
"Ohhh…" she groaned as she sat down on the ground with A'ryin'di. "I need a rest, really."
R'chnt growled disapprovingly. W'rsa and S'aruch-de both lingered nearby, but kept a careful distance.
"On a hunt, you cannot always rest when you want to."
K'Shai glared at him. "R'chnt! We aren't on a hunt. I just climbed a hundred feet up and down. I'm tired. I need to rest. Everything hurts. My back hurts, my arms hurt, my toes are sore… my stomach even hurts! I'm hungry. I am eating and resting right now. That is what I am doing."
R'chnt, clearly displeased by her response, paced around K'Shai and A'ryin'di, who quickly delved into sharing some fruits. K'Shai continued to grumble for a while longer, which did at the very least prompt R'chnt to give her a little time, though not as much as she wanted.
"Come now!" He announced the moment she appeared done eating and drinking her fill.
Glaring at him again she sighed and got up. "Can I pee first? Seriously, I need to pee."
"K'Shai!" R'chnt barked again.
"Alright! Alright!" She said with a little teasing curl to her lip.
"Hmmm.. K'Shai." Growled R'chnt.
She smirked again at him and moved into him, pressing her chin against his sternum and looking up at him with a coy smile, then pulled herself into seriousness.
"What is our next training exercise?"
He seemed immediately more pleased.
"You will be hunting."
K'Shai's eyes lit up.
"Perfect! I'm starving."
R'chnt shook his head.
"No, K'Shai. You are not hunting for food. You will be hunting other prey."
She frowned and asked for clarification and R'chnt tipped his head back to S'aruch-de and W'rsa, who had been patiently waiting the entire time.
"You want me to hunt them?" K'Shai said with a surprised and intrigued gasp.
"You have trained for many weeks in these jungles. You have been on the homeworld for many more weeks. You know the terrain. There will be no weapons and no armor. You are to hunt them. Find them if you can."
He nodded to them, and they returned the gesture, then cloaked and disappeared into the jungle.
"Hey, I thought you said no weapons or armor?" K'Shai instantly asked.
"I did. For you." R'chnt clarified further.
"Wait… I'm supposed to go find them without armor or anything to help? How do I even know where to begin?"
R'chnt pointed vaguely towards the path into the jungle.
"They headed that way."
"Oh right. Thanks. Very helpful." K'Shai said with a smirk. She immediately turned for A'ryin'di and eyed her, halfway wanting to move on to the jungle to hunt down the Yautja and halfway not wanting to leave her child.
R'chnt clearly picked up on the subtle motherly-pause.
"I will watch the offspring, K'Shai. Go. They are moving further and further with each step."
K'Shai nodded and then turned and trotted off into the jungle quickly, then slowed almost the moment the path took her between the trees.
Every single training exercise she had experienced, she realized suddenly, R'chnt had always been there. He guided her through hunting a deer on Earth, protected her in the deepest darkest depths of the hard meat hives. He had supported her and been there standing by her through every step of her training, and we he was not, it was probably because she was in the mei'sa, enduring their version of training, which also never really harmed her.
Suddenly, she was without R'chnt, and set on the path of two very experienced elite hunters. A harmless training session suddenly seemed completely overwhelming. Even the very path she stood on, regardless of how many times she had walked it, seemed unfamiliar. A thousand questions flooded her mind and as she slowly stalked forward, she realized she had no idea what to do.
For months, she had been getting trained. Trained by the females in the mei'sa. Trained in the ways of raising Yautja young. Trained to spar. Trained in the spirituality of the people. Trained in how to cook and prepare the alien foods. Trained to be Yautja, a hunter, a Blooded female. Trained, trained, trained, and now here she was suddenly put to the test for the first time, hunting down intelligent prey in a safe setting for a harmless exercise, and her heart would not stop pounding.
It pounded like that when she had entered a hard meat hive for the first… well, for every… time. It pounded like that when she first stood in the middle of a sparring arena with a full audience. When she first set foot into a shuttle to take her off Earth that first time. When she stood before Neh'rti and the clan council and every single other time she experienced something new. Her heart pounded so furiously hard she was quite sure it would give away her position.
Were S'aru'ch-de and W'rsa even going to hunt her back, or were they just hiding? She did not know. Would they stray far and make the hunt terribly difficult? Would they be on the ground or in the trees? Together or separate? Cloaked or visible? How could she find them? What if took all night? Into tomorrow? What about A'ryin'di? She had never been away from her baby for a full day like that.
If she could't find them in what she determined to be a reasonable amount of time, should she just return to the house empty handed? What even was a reasonable amount of time? An hour? Ten hours? Where should she even start? What would happen if she failed? Was R'chnt expecting her to actually find them and succeed?
Her mind rattled nearly as loudly as her heart and she was certain one of them would give her away. She walked and walked, half mindlessly, before she realized she had followed the curving path well into the jungle. She stopped and listened, trying her hardest to focus on her surroundings. To sense the air around her, pick up a scent, or somehow hear something that could even give her the slightest hint of where either of the Yautja she hunted had gone.
She imagined now that this is exactly the reason young Yautja were pushed so hard. This wasn't even a real hunt and it wasn't in unfamiliar territory, and yet, she was excited and nervous and afraid all at the same time. She was out in the jungle, for really the first time without R'chnt behind her. She suddenly found herself glancing back and surveying the path she had come down. Was he really not behind her? Was he watching, perhaps? Hiding up in the hundred-foot tall trees that surrounded her? So fully hidden behind the leaves that were larger than him that she could just not see him?
"Ok… you can do this." She whispered to herself, and tried to pull her thoughts back together.
If she had a helmet and armor on, she would have well been able to track down the heat signature, the bio-print, of the Yautja prey she sought. She would have at the very least been able to tell what direction they had gone after heading into the trees. As it was, she had nothing but her senses and the training she was receiving.
A practical application of all of her lessons suddenly made everything she was learning seem useless. She stared and stood and that was it. If R'chnt was out there watching her from some hidden place, she imagined he was probably wondering if she was ever going to move and get on with it. That was one lesson he taught her regularly – don't waste time.
So, with that, she decided to start heading west. It would not have made sense that the Yautja headed south, as K'Shai and R'chnt were standing there and she clearly saw them head north up the path. To the east were the barns for the ch'huk and the house eventually along with more jungle that ran clean out to the clan city. To the north was more vast stretches of jungle that went all the way to territories unknown as she had rarely traversed that way.
Of course, it was highly possible the prey she sought had gone off in any of those directions, or even started headed one way and looped back, maybe even climbing the north bank of the cliff wall behind her. Still, she decided to make a choice, with little evidence to go on, and stick to it. She turned off the beaten down path and headed into the jungle trees, eeking her way through them to the west, as the area was the most familiar to her and seemed like a suitable place to find a hiding Yautja anyway.
She stalked through the trees carefully, trying so hard to be as silent as possible that it seemed as if she stepped on every single twig and dry leaf in the jungle. She stepped tenderly over stones that inevitably moved and rattled into one another, and every time she did that, she huffed in exasperation, realized she was breathing so loudly any Yautja nearby, and ninety-percent of the birds and reptiles in the jungle, could most certainly hear. She tried to concentrate on stepping lightly and breathing even lighter, which in turn only made her breathe harder.
The entire adventure felt epically futile. She was certain she was not about to find either of the Yautja and would likely be noislily tracking through the jungle all night … or at least until something ended up eating her. Just as visions of the massive jaha slithering its way down a tree like a great white serpent and scooping her into its mouth, despite the fact that the fruit-eating creature had a mouth no bigger than her fist and didn't even eat meat in the first place, flooded into her head, she was certain she heard something.
Could it be? Had all of her presumptively aimless wandering actually taken her towards one of the hiding Yautja? The sound was a rattle; a taunting clicking of mandibles, perhaps. She barely heard it, it was surely far off in the distance. Far off enough to give her trouble pinpointing the location, but certainly not far enough away for a Yautja. She listened again and heard nothing but the normal hollers and wails of the creatures of the jungle.
She spied the trees all around her, carefully studying them, surveying them for movement, for any hint of anything she was looking for. She continued on, working her way between the trees, craning her neck up as high as she possibly could to see right up to the very tops of them as she walked under them and once again she heard the taunting sound and she stopped.
Trying to hone in her senses, K'Shai held as still as the trunk next to her, stopped breathing, and tried to even quiet her pounding heart if she could have. She scanned the trees over and over and over again to no avail. It was impossible to spot a Yautja through all of the jungle leaves, without having any idea where they were or if they even were there.
Feeling a little defeated at the failed prospect of finding what she sought, she stepped on again, making it a very short distance before she once again heard the sound taunting her. There was definitely a Yautja nearby for sure. She knew it. She was more sure than ever. As she continued on towards the sound, it grew a little louder and repeated more consistently. Perhaps, she thought, it was one of them giving her a little hint purposefully.
She followed the rooty and leaf-covered footing down a slight grade and as soon as the wide river came into view and earshot, her only way of detecting the sound she was on to had been subdued.
Damn. She thought silently, and continued walking along the grade, one foot propped up at an angle a little higher than the other as she stepped over the uneven terrain easily, taking at least some pride in her ability to navigate off the beaten path.
She tried to continue towards the sound and thought she could hear it a little more sometimes and then it would fade away again. She stopped and scanned the jungle over and over and then realized suddenly that the sound of the rattling was definitely coming from two different directions. She was sure she had found not one, but both of the prey she sought and they were both taunting her, using the sound of the river nearby to cover their positions and confuse her. And their tactic was working.
A little flicker of frustration welled up in her.
Surely this could possibly be this difficult? She felt as though she was practically standing right underneath the Yautja she sought and still couldn't find them. Any half-witted half-trained Yautja by now would have been at the very least able to spot one, if not both, of them and yet she could not. All the training she had received seemed so pointless at the moment; it was all lost on her. She was standing in the jungle staring aimlessly towards every direction and had no idea how to proceed.
Finally, just as her frustration was about to boil over, K'Shai heard the taunting rumbling sound once again. It was definitely coming from practically right above her head, although upon hearing it so clearly, it did sound quite a bit deeper than either Yautja's voice that she knew. Still, she looked and looked.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me?" She finally whispered in angry disbelief as her eyes focused on the source of the sound she had tracked.
It was no Yautja. It was a sloth-like nhu'na boring its way into a tree trunk to make a nest. Feeling ridiculous, truly at a loss, and completely defeated K'Shai spun around on the spot slowly, glancing up through every tree as if somehow that would make the Yautja she searched for appear.
Now what? She thought. Without R'chnt's direct guidance it was obvious to her that she was no tracker, no hunter, no Yautja. She sighed and stepped along the ridge, glancing once again up into the trees, and simultaneously failing to pay attention to the footing under her. Her foot slipped along a tree root, helped along by some slick leaves.
As she had been awkwardly angled along a ridge anyway, it took less than a fraction of a second before she was sliding down the embankment at a furious tumble. She groaned and howled as she toppled uncontrollably down the hill, final landing in a heap in the river water.
She promptly pulled herself together and rose to her knees, sweeping the mud, leaves, and blood off her thighs and elbows and grumbling under her breath the entire time, when she noticed a great swooping commotion in the woods around her. She looked up just to see S'aruch-de charging into her at full speed like an angry bull.
He did not have a weapon drawn, but he did not have to. The sight of his muscular body rampaging towards her from just an arm's reach away was enough to send her backwards again. Losing her footing, down she went a second time in what was truly an astounding display of how badly she could fail at a hunt.
K'Shai glanced up at S'aruch-de, who stopped just at the edge of the riverbank and watched her fumble back to her feet, and noticed W'rsa coming in casually, striding over slowly and easily.
"Well, I guess that didn't go as planned." K'Shai said with a grimace.
"You make too much sound, K'Shai." S'aruch-de stated quietly.
"Yea, well, it's not like I meant to fall. But hey, looks like I found both of you." She added in with a sarcastic tone of success.
"You were very close to locating us," S'aruch-de confirmed, not really getting the joke she had made.
"No I wasn't." She protested in self-annoyance immediately. "I heard a nhu'na. That's what I was tracking!"
"K'Shai," a familiar rumbling voice added to the conversation. She looked over and saw R'chnt stepping elegantly towards her, powerful and strong, with his bare chest and firm body, feet just in the water. He was a sight.
"On a hunt, your prey is not going to be hiding in a tree hoping to avoid you. If Yautja hunted such prey we would not be Yautja. Creatures that run and hide are merely for food. While you hunt, much like the hard meat you are experienced with, your prey will be thinking, moving, and hunting you back. You must be aware of your surroundings and what is happening in them at all times."
"I knew you were watching," she grumbled, feeling slightly embarrassed.
"Did you know where I was?" He asked immediately.
K'Shai bit her lip a little and remained quiet. No, she thought. She had no idea. Three Yautja in the jungle, every one of which she knew was there, and yet she could not find a single one. As R'chnt approached her, she had half a mind to just crawl back into the river and hide under any submerged rock she could find. Instead, she stood and sighed and shook her head slowly as R'chnt stopped and inspected her.
"I'm fine!" She growled, trying to appear somehow as if the whole thing had been intentional.
"Tomorrow," he said, "you will watch your surroundings, from above and below."
Of that, she was sure. She nodded obediently, and followed R'chnt as he indicated. The four of them started through the jungle and made their way to the house with little additional conversation until they had returned to the wide, manicured lawns before the mansion-like home.
"So, we do it again tomorrow?" K'Shai confirmed.
R'chnt nodded.
"Which part? The climb or the… erm…. hunt?" She asked.
"Both K'Shai. Both over and over along with your sparring. You are much improved on your spar training. You now need to learn how to hunt and think and navigate the terrain."
"Do you?" She started to ask and stopped mid thought, collected up A'ryin'di into her arms, and then thought again.
"I know I did terribly today, but I … I'm sure I can improve. I mean.. I will learn." She stated with certainty, and then questioned, "Right?"
"You are learning well, K'Shai. You have improved greatly and you make more mistakes, you will learn from them. You will be hunting proper prey not just for food, soon enough."
Supposing that his response was sufficient enough, K'Shai dismissed herself from the males for a long while to tend to herself and her daughter, eventually making her way back into the kitchen to get some food that the 'aseigan had brought out. She watched the trio of hunters for a moment, and briefly thought about joining them, but A'ryin'di was sleeping soundly in the bedroom and with the lovely cool breeze that found its way into the house for the night, K'Shai decided she didn't feel well and her daughter had the right idea.
In the morning, after the first sun had already risen, and so had A'ryin'di, K'Shai peeled herself out of the bedding with a grumble. She glanced about; the room was empty. No R'chnt, no A'ryin'di. She imagined they were both outside already, more than likely R'chnt was sparring already and his child was watching with amused interest. That had become a routine too. K'Shai slid out of the bed and took to her feet, immediately groaning and resting her hands on her hips, feeling nauseous.
"K'Shai!" R'chnt greeted her when she finally did appear in the courtyard off the stairs in the front of the house which actually faced the back of the property. "My mate. You rested well and long. I thought you would return to me for the night?"
"I didn't feel well… I don't feel well." She mumbled, sucking down a fruit to help soothe her aches and pains.
R'chnt clicked his tusks together softly in consideration.
"Where are the others? Oh, I don't have to go hunt them down or something do I? Not right now?" K'Shai asked.
Her remark elicited an amused chuckle from R'chnt. "Not yet. But come, we will spar," he said easily as he turned and headed towards the middle of the grass lawns.
"I'm pregnant," she blurted out, bringing him to a stop.
He turned back to face her and stood still and quiet. She stared at him as if waiting for an acknowledgement that he did not offer. K'Shai remained silent, and R'chnt moved in towards her, groping her cheek gently with his mighty palm and scanning her with his eyes. Obviously, he did not see evidence of her pregnancy with his bare eyes, for in a moment, he turned past her and reached for a helmet sitting on the edge of the stairwell.
"I know I am," K'Shai added fervently, with a tone that suggested she did not need to be scanned. "I can feel it. I didn't feel it when I was carrying her, but now I do. I just feel pregnant."
Without a response, R'chnt donned the biohelmet, connected it to his wrist gauntlet and scanned her.
"Indeed. My K'Shai," he confirmed and removed the helmet. "We must spar harder in that case."
She sighed deeply, clearly protesting without a word.
"Our training time will be limited, my mate."
"I understand. So, what do you want me to train on today?" She asked, and without much delay, R'chnt and K'Shai departed into the jungle for more training.
True to his word, not that K'Shai anticipated anything different, R'chnt trained her harder and harder each day for weeks' worth of rotation of the suns. There was limited time in which they travelled to the clan city, only twice, before her belly had grown to round to endure the physical stresses of climbing, running, jumping, sparring, spinning, ducking, and fighting.
Carefully supervising each and every lesson, R'chnt ensured that K'Shai received as much as training as possible, both physically and mentally. She found herself particularly challenged by "hunting" him, W'rsa, and S'aruch-de, all of whom equally enjoyed the break from actual hunting to explore their own creativity in sneaking about, setting up traps, luring the prey, and trying not to be discovered.
K'Shai enjoyed those training sessions the most, although sometimes, they resulted in hunting one of her intended prey for days, which was difficult and tiring. From time to time she returned back to the home, to R'chnt and A'ryin'di, covered in mud with lessons learned on how to improve the next time, and every once in a while, it was her "killed" prey that returned to the home to tell R'chnt of her witty ways of seeking them out.
With a round belly, sore feet, and a prideful grin on her lips, K'Shai walked through the clearing with her mate and daughter proudly as W'rsa and S'aruch-de trailed behind them. They made their way out of the jungle and through the clearing in front of the house until they were all seated with food and drink, discussing the latest training exercise well through the length of the night. K'Shai eventually fell asleep, but did not move from the chair beside R'chnt and remained as such until long after the first sun had risen and the other hunters and departed.
She groggily stretched and offered a flickering smile to R'chnt as she surveyed her surroundings and realized they were alone and how much time had passed.
"K'Shai, you should eat. We will leave soon." R'chnt informed her with a tone that implied they were leaving for longer than an afternoon.
"Leave?" She questioned sharply as she shifted A'ryin'di on her lap. "Where are we going?"
"We will continue your training, but not here."
K'Shai stared quizzically at him. What was wrong with training at his home, she wondered. Her training, she thought, had been going well. Why the need to leave?
"Well, where will that be?"
"You will see," he answered as vaguely as possible.
She gathered herself together while R'chnt waited patiently. K'Shai couldn't help but notice that sometime during the night while she was sleeping the 'aseigan had already packed up her essential belongings, anyting that R'chnt had told them to, so her training armor, various changes of garments, and select weapons, were already packed and waiting on a transport pad. R'chnt, K'Shai, and A'ryin-di left without those items, as they would be transported separately by the 'aseigan.
R'chnt led her on foot through a narrow path that entered the jungle on the opposite end of the house and the pair headed north for the entire length of the day until K'Shai had to stop for a rest. Once she and A'ryin'di had their needs met, they were all off again, walking so long and so far that the jungle had changed to fields, then forests, then rocks and fields of what looked like wheat-type grasses.
K'Shai had certainly never ventured so far away from the clan city, so far from R'chnt's home. He guided her carefully and confidentally through the terrain, stopping to hunt for food, drink water, find fruits, and rest as needed.
She sat on a rocky plateu, though not a terribly high one, overlooking the fields while she ate and tended to a very curious A'ryin'di who could barely sit still, she wanted to explore every inch of the new surroundings and chase every little living creature she could uproot.
"How far out of the clan territory are we, R'chnt?" K'Shai questioned curiously as her eyes surveyed the sparsly -rocky fields of tall grass.
The fields before her simply looked like they were on fire. The first sun had begun to descend towards the horizon and bathed the scenery in a hue of red and gold as it did, while the second sun, still well above the horizon, but burning less intense, caused a bluish white back glow to the sky. Where the colors of the two suns met, a purple streak stretched across every inch of the horizon that K'Shai could see. It was a stunning view which she made no pretense about taking in as R'chnt studied her once again taking in "the view".
K'Shai watched A'ryin'di explore the terrain while keeping her away from the edge of the field for the moment. The tall grasses, most of them taller than K'Shai and nearly as tall R'chnt, would make it easy to lose of A'ryin'di in them. The grass was brownish red at the base, and the stalks quickly turned through a gradient of every shade of orange, yellows, and burning reds in the color spectrum. Tipped slightly in white little leafy buds which swayed in the wind, it gave the effect at first glance, that the ground was on fire. She had never seen such terrain before. It was stunning and beautiful, yet also in a way barren and forboding.
"We have not left the clan's territory, K'Shai." He responded simply.
"Really? I thought… Just how far is the clan's reach?"
R'chnt chuckled softly. "K'Shai, the Kaunte Dar'een clan would not be the largest and most powerful of all Yautja clans if it had a small claim on the planet. The territory changes often, growing as lesser clans are killed off, conquered, or accepted by petition into our own. We do not lose lands. We grow."
K'Shai smiled at the unhidden pride in his words.
"And... where exactly are we going?"
He nodded rather vaguely towards a point in the distance and K'Shai turned and evaluated the terrain. Far off, beyond the blazing red fields was a cliff of equally red and sandy hues of rocks. From this distance she could not see what was noteworthy about it, or if the cliff was even the destination at all, or just a point along the way. Her feet were sore, and she was feeling far more queasy with baby number two growing in her than she was during her first pregnancy. She quietly hoped, as they started off on their trek again, that they would be soon reacing their destination. She really did not want to spend another night camping out in the jungle, and found herself suddenly wishing for the comforts of her bed and smooth sheets.
As they walked, the cliff that rose up to a great plateau came into clearer view, towering over the flaming fields of grass. It took until they were nearly on top of the rocky wall, having followed a slowly rising trail through the grass to the edge of the plateau, before K'Shai just barely noticed structures in the rocky embankments all around the flat top to the cliff. They blended perfectly well into the rocks themselves, by sheer design, and indeed, as she drew closer, she realized that there were doorways and windows carved right into the stone.
Training pillars donned a few areas just beyond the structures, and as R'chnt greeted fellow elder Yautja, who all gazed upon K'Shai and the hybrid offspring while neither of them paid any attention, she was too busy scanning in the ethereal beauty of what immediately looked like some kind of ancient training grounds.
Once introductions were made and the standard conversation ensued about K'Shai's alien nature and other curiosities, she was shown the way to a bed chamber by an elder female, leaving R'chnt in the company of a dozen or so elder males, who were still getting filled in on all the details.
"These are your chambers," the female directed.
She was old, definitely an elder, no doubt, but K'Shai noticed some odd things about her right away. She was not dressed like any elder female from the Clan she had ever seen. Her garments were drab and plain. The leather was frayed on some edges, and overall, it looked like it was made from poorly tanned hides that were haphazardly braided together. The gowns were long, though; covering all the way down to her toes, and despite their plan brownish-gray color and total lack of adornments, the female elder still gave off an intimidating air of power.
Her skin was noticeably lacking any scars that K'Shai could see besides the faded scar of the Clan's symbol cut into her forehead, at least, on her arms or face, for everything else was covered. And very much like L'ruch, K'Shai noticed that this female's tresses were also devoid of any beads or adornments, save for a few small bones. It was obvious that this female, like L'ruch, had spent her life pursuing things other than hunting after Blooding.
The room the elder female had led K'Shai to was very small. It was an oval and carved right out the cliff like a cave. It was very drab. The stone walls were pinkish brown, and the bed was large and comfortable, but there was nothing else in the room besides a bed and an armor table. There were two doorways, both of which lacked doors. One was the entry from the outside and the other, on the opposite end opened into what looked like a hallway, also carved out of stone. K'Shai got the immediate feeling that she was in a cave.
She nodded politely, but silently to the elder female, who turned to depart but seemed somehow stuck, suddenly; affixed on K'Shai and A'ryin'di, who immediately crawled away to inspect what little there was for her to inspect the moment K'Shai put her down.
K'Shai glanced at the elder with a quick, and unconscious, what are you looking at type of glare, which she immediately tried to rescind. It was obvious though, that not only did the female elder catch the look, she respected it.
"You carry another," she said, eyeing A'ryin'di quickly and glancing towards K'Shai's belly.
K'Shai immediately caught onto a hint of admiration and sadness in the tone and her face softened. She said nothing and the female elder had her fill of staring and left without another word.
"Come on," K'Shai said lightly to her child, who stared at her happily with her bright yellow eyes and scooted along, following with her mother, using her outstretched hand for leverage to pull herself upright.
K'Shai smiled. "You'll be walking in no time. How have you gotten so big already?"
The pair walked only to the end of the bed chamber, so K'Shai could evaluate her surroundings. She confirmed that indeed, the rear doorway led to an interior corridor. She glanced down the curving arc of the hallway both ways and noted a few other open doors on the same side of the curve as her own quarters; other sleeping chambers, she assumed, likewise without actual doors for any type of privacy.
She was curious to see if the inner corridor led to anything else deeper within the mountain side, but for the moment, she was too tired to bother with it. She and A'ryin'di laid upon the bed and K'Shai wiggled around trying to find a comfortable position. The bed was smaller and far less luxurious than she had grown accustomed to. She did not like it all. Having once gotten used to sleeping anywhere she possibly could, no matter if it was a concrete slab, she had figured any bedding would be better than none, but so far, this odd and ancient place with no privacy and hard matted bedding was simply not to her liking.
The sounds of belly-rumbling howls and A'ryin'di stirring suddenly caused K'Shai to look up and around, quickly assessing what was going on. There was a boisterous commotion from outside, but nothing terribly unprecedented for a gathering of jovial Yautja. K'Shai gathered herself and her daughter and soon found R'chnt amongst a group of hunters, young and elder alike, surrounding a large fire in the center of the open area between the cliff-side accommodations.
She felt a little like she had just walked into the medieval Yautja version of King Arthur's court, perhaps. The place, barren and rocky and shielded between curving walls of stone, felt so dramatically different than the comfortable accommodations she had gotten used to, like she was walking into an entirely new era.
Before she stepped out of the rather barren sleeping chambers, she noticed a pile of belongings neatly stacked along the wall and a standing rack for armor and weapons that had not been there before. While she was not pleased that 'aseigan had entered into the room while she was sleeping with A'ryin'di, she had gotten used to their coming and going like ghosts to get their job done. She still felt a flicker of wariness knowing they had been close to her and her daughter while she was not aware, although she presumed that R'chnt or someone else had been watching them.
With a total lack of doors for any kind of privacy, she presumed that she would have to get used to some errant guests coming through her chambers for the duration of the time they spent there. She was not pleased with that notion either, but she was pleased to find a lengthy leather cloak with long sleeves amongst her belongings and smiled softly, pleased that it had been packed. Considering the ambient temperature of Yaut was about the same as the surface of the sun, long sleeved anything seemed superfluous until now.
As she stepped out into the open air beyond the cave walls, she immediately noticed a couple of things. Firstly, the night was far darker here than it was in the clan city or even at R'chnt's country home. Those double suns and triple moons that seemed to always keep the sky at a warm shade of navy blue even in the middle of the night, did not appear to have the same effect in this part of the world.
The sky was dark; truly dark, and the moons glowed brilliantly, casting a white light onto the ancient-ruins looking temple, whenever they popped out between the clouds. The other thing she noticed when she found herself unconsciously pulling the collar of the robe she wore just a little bit tighter.
"Is it me," she said to R'chnt as she casually sidled in next to him and let A'ryin'di explore a little away from them, "or is it actually cold here?"
R'chnt nodded at her but said nothing.
"I thougth humans enjoy the cold temperatures," one of the elders amongst the group questioned without reservation.
K'Shai nodded and flared her eyebrows, "well, I just got used to the constantly hot temperatures."
She paused for a moment and felt the coolness of the air and glanced up to the truly black sky.
"The change will be nice. For as long as we are here anyway."
R'chnt knew she was asking him a question blanketed in a statement, and he understood. He had not afterall, stated much about his intentions, and he well knew that K'Shai preferred to have things explained in clearer terms. It gave her, he supposed, some kind of comfort, knowing what his plan was. She always did question what the day's training subject matter would be, or exactly what he wanted of her during each exercise.
K'Shai had grown in her training quite well, but she was still in need of so much more. The ever-present worry over what the days' plan would be, the lingering fears from her own mind of memories long gone that still kept her up at night; these were things that she needed to learn to overcome and conquer. She needed to learn to tackle life as it came to her, and be prepared for anything, move on from what was past, and focus only on the challenges she would face. She sat there next to him, a platter of food in her hand, to which she paid no attention at all.
He watched her gaze at him in silence, knowing full well she was waiting on answer to a question she never directly asked. He ticked an upper tusk, raising up slightly as he glanced sideways at her. With a silent understanding, K'Shai looked away and monitored A'ryin'di while delicately placing a fruit in her mouth. She knew he was telling her not to worry about the next day. She took the message clearly and instead spent much of the night in other discussions with the group, quietly wondering to herself what the following day would bring.