Just as he had said, R'chnt kept K'Shai busy training. When she did find a little free time away from training, A'ryin'di and El'tude kept her busy with being a mother. And in the small amounts of extra time she had, she found herself continually occupied with studies, in between sleeping whenever she could.
K'Shai sat, early one morning, on the same stone cliff slab that overlooked the pond where she would swim to cool off. Her hair was still dripping wet after she had emerged from a swim just a short while ago. The suns were lolling just above the horizon, so far off beyond the wilderness and jungles and trees with giant leaves, that they looked like fuzzy orbs glowing illustrious pastels throughout the whole sky gently blurred out behind the puffy, familiar looking white clouds, which despite the alien terrain and world, were absolutely no different than Earthly clouds.
She leaned back and sighed, propping her arms straight behind her, stretching her back, and taking a moment to massage her own neck before she felt R'chnt's mighty hands clamp down on her. She groaned a little under the pressure. It hurt, but it was much needed.
"You should sleep, K'Shai." He rumbled softly as he crouched down on the rocky overlook and continued to massage her just right until she was completely as ease.
He carried with him only a sp'jak, the thin hunting spear that he had first used with K'Shai to teach her to impale fish and deer. He put it down next to the rock, it was cleaned of all the blood of the earlier hunt. R'chnt had led the group, but stepped appropriately back to allow K'Shai and the six other Yautja to take on the task of hunting the prey.
He served on that hunt as teacher, observer, and back up in case he was needed. Ultimately, it was a hunt for the others, specifically for K'Shai, to learn. It was a test, she knew; one of many he had put her through over the last few weeks. He was evaluating her progress, which had leapt forward quickly ever since El'tude was born. It seemed to K'Shai that she was being pushed harder, but yet somehow, not hard enough, since she returned to training after a brief post-natal break. It also seemed rather apparent that R'chnt was gearing her up towards something; like leaving.
She felt like the challenges being given to her somehow had just fell into place and seemed easier than they were just a few months earlier. R'chnt knew what he was doing, K'Shai thought with a small smile as she leaned into him. He knew taking her to this quiet, ancient place would help reset her, refocus her, and it was a safe haven to have her children and learn and grow as a Yautja, safely and away from the stresses and pressures of the Clan life.
For as simple a life as the Yautja led, and as quiet as the Clan may have been in comparison to something like the hustle and bustle of Midtown Manhattan on any typical given day. The quiet smattering of several dozen Yautja was far easier to deal with than the Clan city's streets which sometimes were packed shoulder to shoulder full of Yautja all trying to be the one to get through first, and all convinced they deserved to be first to get through.
Yautja life was hard, complicated, and challenging; and the result of those challenges usually resulted in some form of public humiliation, public ritual, or public execution. Even though the Yautja had no use for doors, locks, closing windows, or anything that could provide privacy, K'Shai had finally felt like she was adjusting to life in the ancient tempel, just in time, she imagined, to return back to the Clan.
R'chnt stroked her shoulders and felt her wet hair, cooing softly in response to her cool skin.
"K'Shai, come closer… warm yourself by my skin."
"Oh, it feels so good. Oh, your skin is so warm," she groaned with delight as she plunged herself delicately into him, pressing into him as if she wanted him to just absorb her.
He watched her skin prickle and her body temperature, so cold at first, then warming, danced in a colorful spectrum before his eyes.
"How do you tolerate being so cold?" He asked with a rather rhetorical tone, but K'Shai smiled and responded all the same.
"Are you kidding? All that running around hunting all night. All night, mind you… I was so hot and sweaty, and dirty and bloody. Taking a swim like that to cool down was amazing. You should try it."
"K'Shai," R'chnt chuckled. "It is relaxing to soak in the hot pools, not that cold water."
She smiled, shut her eyes as she nestled into him a bit more and slowly shook her head in amusement.
"If I'm roasting hot, the last thing I want to do is jump into a steaming hot bath."
He sensed her tension break as she relaxed into him. It was an odd sensation that he somehow doubted he would ever really fully understand or get used to. It was completely foreign to him; the concept of a male and female being at ease around each other. K'Shai, in stark contrast to any female Yautja, lavished the chance to be alone with him. She relaxed around him and certainly only chose to mate when in private.
"Mmmmmm…" she groaned incoherently as she rested her eyes and soaked in his touch. "that feels so good."
She turned on him with a devilish grin and pressed her hands into his chest, pushing close to him as he wrapped his arms around her.
"We are alone for the moment, first time in… how long? It feels like weeks. Months maybe," she added playfully.
R'chnt grumbled a low chuckle. "K'Shai! It has been four rotations."
"Is that it?" She added flatly. "I can't believe we were gone all night anyway. I don't feel like sleeping right now. I feel like doing something else."
With that, she pushed forward into him. R'chnt allowed himself to fall backward under the energy of her thrust as he sensed her pheromones projecting her intentions directly into his nasal passages. She was aroused and ready and R'chnt was quick to indulge himself in her desires.
K'Shai was soon moaning and howling her pleasure feeling him deep inside her as he thrust and growled and moaned. Their voices rose up together through the mists of the morning, and announced their current status to any creature prowling within earshot. The moaning was an unquestionable indication of mating in progress, and R'chnt's rhythmic growling throughout was an unquestionable warning to anyone lurking too close not to disturb the pair.
As they laid together finally, sweaty and panting, K'Shai pressed into him without a word and was sound asleep faster than he had ever seen her fall asleep before. She had hunted well that night with him and the others. From before the setting of the suns the rotation before, all through the night, eight Yautja tracked through the jungle in search of their prey. It was a challenge for K'Shai, and she had performed well. She found her footing, found her senses, and without the use of awu'asa, had tracked the creature until it was nearly first sun up.
It was a group effort to bring the t'rinth down, but it was K'Shai who made the killing strike. He watched her now, still streaked in its blood where she wiped herself off unsuccessfully, sleeping quietly in his arms. She was ready. She was hunting with a quiet confidence and wariness that true hunters took years to adopt. Of course, she would need further refining; years of continued training hunting progressively more difficult prey to become a true champion hunter as he knew she would be. However, for a place to start, a time of readiness to begin to hunt, she had reached it.
R'chnt watched K'Shai sleep softly against him, content despite the heat emanating from him that completely defeated her intent of cooling down in the pond. Unlike her world, Yaut did not really see a winter. While some of the higher elevations did certainly see temperatures drop to a level he assumed K'Shai would feel most comfortable in since there was even snow accumulation, the terrains that he called home were about as cold as they were going to get.
He sat on the large rock slab and watched K'Shai's body cool off slowly and did not move so he did not disturb her. She had often expressed trouble with staying awake too long, or being disturbed from her sleep, such as when the offspring required suckling or needed her care. She had been awake all night and well into the morning and now she was clearly succumbing to fatigue while enjoying the moment away from the offspring. He wrapped his arms around her and simply waited, without moving.
He kept still and silent and on guard as K'Shai slept until long after the suns had reached and passed peak height. There was no rush to return to the training grounds. The meat from the night's hunt would be prepared later in the evening for roasting over the fires and there would be plenty to eat. Females that K'Shai had entrusted kept watch over the offspring and the day was still, quiet, calm and peaceful.
It was exactly the type of day, type of moment, that K'Shai would sit and watch and listen to if she were awake. Now, R'chnt found himself doing the exact same thing; watching but looking at nothing in particular. Hearing, but listening to nothing other than the constant calls and shrill cries of birds and insects throughout the terrain. He sat motionless, lulling himself into a sleepy state of relaxation.
"Hey…" A whisper finally caught his attention.
K'Shai stared at him with a simple smile, seemingly amused.
R'chnt took a moment to orientate himself. He looked around, eyes just a little wide in surprise. It was far later than it had been just a moment ago. He was sure he only shut his eyes for a fraction of a second.
K'Shai continued smiling as he looked about, clearly trying to process where the time had gone.
"I fell asleep!" He finally muttered with a hint of annoyance and embarrassment, as if he had been caught sleeping on the job, like he had failed in some duty somehow.
"It's OK, R'chnt!" K'Shai laughed softly as she stood and stretched. "Although I do think we should get back. I need to make sure the babies are alright."
"You know they are, K'Shai." He said quietly, almost in a whisper as if she wasn't really supposed to hear the response.
"Well, still… we should be getting back. It'll be dark soon enough anyway and I am starving! Don't we have some giant animal around here somewhere to cook up?" She joked lightly.
R'chnt ticked a mandible in amusement and gathered himself up. He briefly stopped to empty his bladder, following K'Shai's lead in that respect.
"K'Shai," he said pondering such a thing as they walked away.
"Yes?" She questioned lightly as she tiptoed lightly over the terrain.
"You are ready."
His response was direct and deliberate, as if he was simply responding to a chain of conversation they were already having. K'Shai glanced a look towards him and smiled appreciatively, knowing full well what he was talking about. However, his statement also carried with it the obvious implication that they would be leaving the training temple. She liked it there; it was quiet and peaceful and easy to learn and feel confident.
Suddenly the idea of leaving there, travelling all the way back to the Clan city with two offspring and reintegrating with the mei'sa, the hunting pack, and then finally heading off to the stars to hunt all seemed too overwhelming. She did not feel ready despite R'chnt's judgement.
"Well…" she started in contemplation, but quieted down and continued on her way through the narrow path between the trees towards the training grounds.
"However," R'chnt added in, then paused.
K'Shai felt a rush of relief sweep over her.
Her heart skipped a bit and her throat clamped a bit. Certainly he was about to say that she needed at least another good year before she was really ready, but it was good to know she was getting there anyway. Maybe he would suggest staying the temple through the next season or two. Or perhaps he was about to simply say he'd take her on a trip to some far away planet that was nothing but sand, palm trees, and beaches, and absolutely no creatures worthy of hunting at all so she could really relax before taking up a life of hunting things that could kill her in a single stroke.
She found herself suddenly envisioning dying in a variety of ways, from terrifying to rather comical. Methods of death from being dismembered by hordes of evil looking lizards to being zapped into oblivion by a creature with Medusa's gaze suddenly rattled through her mind in a fraction of a section. She suddenly realized that she was still waiting for R'chnt to continue on.
She stopped and turned to look at him and waited again.
"However what?" She finally demanded, curious to know where this conversation was headed.
"Our hunts will be far longer than usual," he added in with just a playful tone in his voice that made her crack a fleeting smile. "It will take a while for the hunting pack to get used to this new way."
She thought about it for a moment.
"Really? What new way?" She asked quickly.
"Stopping so frequently for you to urinate…."
With that, K'Shai burst out laughing.
She continued on just ahead of R'chnt on the trail back towards the training temple, laughing and joking with R'chnt about some of the purely biological differences that she had personally observed between Yautja and human beings.
The sun was well up in the sky by now; the overnight hunt long past, and even though there was still some distance back to the temple grounds, the smell of cooking meat that the Yautja were preparing over the ubiquitous bonfires, wafted through the jungle and filled her nostrils with a tempting offer.
Deciding to use the moment to add in yet another difference, she immediately blurted out a moaning praise of the smells.
"How can such a small creature need to eat so frequently?" R'chnt questioned smoothly in response. "As a bird, constantly searching for a new meal."
"Hey!" K'Shai scolded. "If I didn't eat so much, I wouldn't have to pee so much, so what fun would that be for the Yautja to deal with on the hunt?"
She finally drew out an amused chortle from R'chnt, and smiled widely.
"Ow!" She shrieked and turned to see what was stabbing her upper arm.
With a sharp jerk upward, K'Shai glanced along her tricep to find the source of the annoying thumb-tack feel into her tender skin and spotted a beautifully patterned blue, red, and yellow beetle firmly attached into her by its long stabbing mouth protrusion. With an annoyed grimace, she yanked the beetle off and flicked it away.
"What was that?" She asked of R'chnt.
"J/hcha, K'Shai. Harmless bug."
She wasn't exactly sure if J'hcha actually meant harmless bug, or if it was the specific name of that particular species of beetle, but she was definitely sure she could not pronounce the word. Certain words in the Yautja language were composed of throaty rumbles that a human simply could not produce; at least not without sounding like someone hocking a loogie with every breath.
"Well, it didn't feel so harmless." She retorted back as she rubbed her now beet red and tingling underarm area.
"K'Shai!" R'chnt grumbled in dismissive amusement.
She continued on the trail, still rubbing her now burning arm as he retorted back that she had recived far worse injuries on any given day sparring. She definitely did not appear to be listening, or care, about what he was talking about.
"Well, you know," she finally turned to him and retorted, "it isn't flow over the yellow oh… mmmmm…."
R'chnt paused and eyed K'Shai carefully. In a fraction of a second, she went from speaking nonsense to collapsed on the ground and convulsing. He jumped to her side in two strides and wrapped his arms around her as she throbbed and seizure; his hands and arms in capable of keeping her still. Her skin paled and her body heat began to rise immediately.
He scooped her up and darted down the jagged trail toward the training temple, leaping over downed trees, high roots, and rocks that threatened to interrupt his haste to get his mate to security.
By the time he had reached the temple, in far more record speed than he had ever needed to before, K'Shai was limp, sweating profusing, and merely moaning a gurgling sound. Her eyes were rolled back into her head and she was panting harder and faster than even he was.
He howled for the healer as he ran without stopping into their sleeping chambers and deposited K'Shai gently onto the sleeping mat. The entire population of the temple had been immediately alerted to a situation, and within moments, not only were the two female elder healers, and three adjunct healers hopping into action, but also A'ryin'di and El'tude both were escorted in a hurry into the sleeping chambers along with the females that had been keeping watch over them. Several others jammed the doorway and suddenly the room was entirely too cramped and lacking any airflow. Almost seemingly in response to that effect, K'Shai began gasping and convulsing, her body continually glowing brighter and brighter from heat radiating against the Yautja's sensitive eyes.
R'chnt emitted a displeased growl that conveyed his dissatisfaction with the number of curious people that had crammed into the room and without a spoken word, some of the extraneous onlookers cleared away. A number of others remained within visual range but kept themselves well out of the room.
The healers grappled K'Shai, undressing her and evaluating her quickly.
"What exactly has happened to her, R'chnt?" One of the healers asked, breaking the resounding silence in the room beyond K'Shai's gasping.
"She was bitten by j/hcha and within seconds had collapsed."
"J/hcha!" Another echoed quickly with a spittle of disbelief. "They are harmless! How can that be?"
The eldest female healer quietly evaluated her again and whispered softly, stopping all others in the room.
"Harmless perhaps to a Yautja."
"There is no creature on this planet that is harmed by that insect." The other healer rebutted.
"But K'Shai is not of this planet." The eldest added factually and turned to R'chnt with an accusatory glare, which caused him to drop his eyes respectfully to the elder female.
"She has been brought to a world that is not her own and forced to survive environments unnatural to her. Did she not fall ill once before from eating nu'ja that she had confused for a fruit of her own world?"
R'chnt nodded in affirmation. "It was a mistake she will not make again."
"Well, she is dying, R'chnt. She will have no more chances. She cannot survive off her own world. I cannot help her. I would advise you to bring her back to her own world, but she will likely die on the trip."
The female healer paused briefly, assessing R'chnt's displeased growl.
"This was not a mistake on her part," he rebutted quickly. "She has proven to everyone that she can survive and thrive. Under my guidance she has learned…"
He found himself puffing up his chest, standing a bit too rigidly, and defending her proven worthiness as well as his ability to teach her to survive. K'Shai had earned her place amongst the Yautja, but the room broke out in murmurs, growls, and strongly vocalized opinons.
Amongst the voices, one male elder broke through and overshadowed the rest.
"R'chnt, your training is undeniable. K'Shai has survived so well because of your guidance as well as your protection. This is not in question. Many are impressed with her. Many would even choose to have her as a mate if not for fearful respect of you.
But she is a frail and delicate creature that, no matter how much training she has, is not a Yautja. She is not meant to be on this world, and if something as harmless to a Yautja as a simple beetle can cause this, how will she fare when she encounters far more deadly animals and even plants on other worlds?"
A silence filled the room and R'chnt stewed for a moment, his head rushing with a flurry of thoughts. He watched her limp carcass overheating on the bed with healers surrounding her that knew nothing of human medicine and had no way to help her. He wanted to continue to defend all that she had accomplished, and felt wave of anger at the response to this one malady from Yautja who just hours before were praising her for a well-done hunt in which she made the killing strike.
Yautja truly were always challenging others, and seeing weakness in any form meant instant outing from the group, or hunting party, or simply from social acceptance. Weakness meant death, and usually brought dishonor first. R'chnt had simply accepted weakness as a fault that had no room for existence in a Yautja's life, and he was strong enough to ensure he never fell subject to its consequences.
He considered that he had never thought of K'Shai as weak or frail, perhaps more out of pride than of the actual physicality of it. In a physical sense, K'Shai was far weaker than a Yautja. Though he had taught her to survive, to hunt, to live; he suddenly realized with a sinking feeling that he had indeed arrogantly overlooked her physiological and even psychological needs which were vastly different than a Yautja.
Now she was dying and he and their two halfbreed offspring were unable to do anything but merely watch and sit by her side idly. He had done this to her by exposing her to elements that her body simply was not able to handle.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to him and he stepped forward and grabbed up K'Shai's body.
"I need L'ruch here now," he bellowed to anyone who would take the command and contact the only healer he knew of that had dealt with human care.
Without a word to anyone else, nor a question from others, R'chnt had scooped up K'Shai's heated body and hustled her out of the sleeping quarters, heading out of the training grounds and back along the trail, moving briskly, though not running. The crowd followed along with him, keeping a respectful distance, but silently following out of curiosity.
R'chnt did not speak, nor slow his pace all the way back along the very same trail that he had ran back down carrying K'Shai's body just a short while ago. He tracked the trail all the way back, glancing angrily at the spot where she collapsed as if it was personally guilty for her situation. He found himself scanning the trees around the area as if he might find the exact individual beetle that did this to her so he could squash it, slowly, between his finger tips. Those thoughts did not cause his feet to slow nor him to miss a step.
He continued on the path, well aware that a small flock of people, including females with A'ryin'di and El'tude in tow, were still following him, but he did not stop until he reached the edge of his destination.
"R'chnt? What do you intend to do?" One of the elders asked as he caught up first.
Standing just at the edge of the water of the pond, R'chnt stepped carefully in until K'Shai was well submerged in the cool water.
Far more suited to much more heated waters, R'chnt found the chill of the cool water uncomfortable. Though the cold season was already upon the world, to K'Shai, it was still too hot.
"She comes here to cool off. She finds the heat too much sometimes." He stated as the rest of the group caught up.
A'ryin'di, wanting to join her mother and father, immediately tried to jump into the pond and was yanked back by the female attending her, as if it was terrible danger for her. The water, R'chnt knew, would definitely be far too cold for a Yautja child so young, but given A'ryin'di's half human genealogy, he thought perhaps she would handle it better. Still, he preferred to keep her away, and th child wailed in protest.
"It may cool her until L'ruch arrives." He added.
"You have no idea how long it could be until he gets here. Your body will chill to a stop if you stay submerged with her," the elder female healer advised.
"Leave her in the water to cool; remain on the shore with your offspring," another added.
R'chnt ignored them both and continued to cradle K'Shai in the water.
"Let me know when L'ruch is on the way." He responded finally after a long pause.
It was not very long before he received that answer, although it would be hours before L'ruch actually arrived, since he was currently off world according to the message R'chnt was given.
"He will make haste, he assured. He said, for K'Shai, he will try."
So, R'chnt simply waited, holding K'Shai in silence, feeling her body tremble and shake. Keeping her soaking in the cool water was certainly doing the trick; her body temperature had fallen by a few degrees and she had stopped convulsing so violently. She was still unaware of her surroundings and unresponsive to him; he wondered if she knew he was there at all. None the less, he remained in the continually chilling water as the night came and the temperature dropped more.
The water cooled everything, including R'chnt's heat-sensitive body. He gritted his teeth and kept himself occupied against the chill running through his body by drilling out a soft sound that was halfway between a soothing purr for K'Shai's benefit and a disgruntled growl for the long exposure to the chilly waters.
R'chnt's eyes lolled closed, and he continually bounced between forcefully staying awake and drifting into a cold-induced coma. The only harsher experience he had ever had was during his own training as an eager unblooded. His Leader had made his entire hunting pack trek out into snow-covered mountains, with armor and weapons but no heat-conducting K'vel-tar, to keep his body warm.
He had watched two of his fellow students in training perish from the cold, after their bodies entered into a coma. The entire process had taken barely a full night, unprotected, unable to stay warm, in the deep snow on the mountain top. He knew he would not be submerged in the chilly water for so long that he would perish, though as he felt his body weakening, he felt a strong comparison between this experience and that one.
It was nearly first sun up before voices stirred and R'chnt's attention was drawn towards the shore of the pond behind him.
L'ruch approached and hummed in his usual manner, seemingly calm, interested and curious about what was happening before him, and detatchedly unaffected by the direness of the situation.
"Well…" he said with a pause to hum again and took a breath to proceed again, but R'chnt cut him off.
"We have been waiting!" R'chnt barked impatiently.
Although he was silently relieved that L'ruch had finally showed up, he would have preferred that he did so hours before. The thought did also occur to him that K'Shai, even after nearly the full night had passed, was still breathing.
"Of course, mighty Leader." L'ruch said in a withdrawn tone. "I returned as soon as I had received the message."
Not wanting to have R'chnt express his displeasure again, and also intrigued by the unusual situation, L'ruch questioned for information he already knew, but it was enough to distract R'chnt's focus back onto his mate and off of him.
"She was truly bitten by a j/hcha." His comment was more of a statement with a mere hint of a question, mostly rhetorical.
He kept his eyes focused solely on K'Shai, and squatted down near the water's edge, stretching his hands forward to inspect K'Shai, fully aware that the hulking elder Leader holding her tightly would only allow another male Yautja to put his hands on her due to the particulars of the situation. R'chnt growled a little louder, but L'ruch knew well enough by merely looking that the leader's tone was weak and his body was far colder than it should be.
Obviously, R'chnt had cradled K'Shai all night in the water, in the hopes of reducing her body termperature to something more normal for a human, while simultaneously managing to drop his own far lower than normal for a Yautja. How he was still even conscious at this point, L'ruch was not sure, but he quickly requested R'chnt remove K'Shai from the water do he could more fully evaluate her, which worked as a valid excuse to get the Leader out of the water before he slipped into unconsciousness himself.
"The j/hcha most certainly is not a poisonous creature to most life on Yaut, but of course, K'Shai's body reacts differently. She lacks a Yautja's natural resilience to disease, poisons, and heat." L'ruch educated, admittedly enjoying the opportunity to have a group of elders and respected Leaders silent in his presence listening to every word he had to say.
He caressed K'Shai's limp body, noting that she had no active site of inflammation; no obvious signs of distress. Her body temperature was even a little cooler than normal for her. L'ruch evaluated her in silence, only humming from time to time, and completely unaware of how long the group watching him stood in silence, apparently impatient for an answer.
R'chnt finally interrupted the moment with a sharp biting tone.
"What can you do?!"
L'ruch jumped at the sudden growling demand and took a moment to focus on giving the concerned Leader an answer.
"R'chnt," he said softly. "You have kept her alive by your actions. It was a smart thing to do. But I am unable to provide her with any help."
L'ruch dropped his ridged head softly, knowing full well he would likely receive an angry response; possibly even a beating or death. Instead, he was quite surprised when R'chnt merely questioned him in a mostly defeated tone full of sadness.
"What if I took her back to her own world?"
L'ruch hummed and looked at the Leader.
"She will likely die on the trip, but it is the best chance she may have."
After a pause of silence, L'ruch added in, "There is nothing to be done because we have no remedy to fix something that is not an issue to Yautja."
L'ruch noticed R'chnt's sorrowed stare which scanned from his dying mate to his offspring nearby, one sleeping in the arms of a female tending him, the other idly playing next to a few other females, bored and uninterested in the problems before her.
"K'Shai told me," R'chnt started, drawing L'ruch's attention back to him, "of something once on her world that I did not understand."
L'ruch hummed idly and tipped his head, waiting for an explanation without asking.
"She spoke of something humans receive to keep from getting ill. She spoke of it once. She called it a vash-keen I believe. I had never heard of such a thing. She asked if Yautja need such things, I told her no."
"Well, clearly," L'ruch added with a hum, "humans do."
R'chnt glared at him and L'ruch quickly diverted again, trying actively to avoid retaliation against his snarkiness.
Hunters rarely concern themselves with such things as disease process, medication, or medical intervention. Hunters rarely live long enough to need to concern themselves with such things and in general, L'ruch thought quickly, a hunter seeking medical attention for an injury, or worse – an illness- would be a great embarrassment and a sure sign of weakness.
Such things, if they were done at all, were done in secret, and very few healers even bothered to learn anything more complicated than fixing or replacing broken bones. All was different with K'Shai, and here, for easily the first time ever, was a Leader before him quietly asking for medical help and it was completely acceptable, and in a bitter irony, L'ruch had no help to provide.
"Since Yautja do not," he added quickly, to help clarify the point with a hum, "have a need to artificially fight illness, there is no such medication." He opened his medical kit and waved his hand quickly over a few vials.
"I can give her something to fight infection, but she has none. I can give her pain reducers or anesthetic, which she most certainly does not need. I have nothing to give her to fight whatever had happened from the bite of a bug that does not cause this reaction Yautja. I am sorry, R'chnt, truly."
R'chnt paused and then hovered over K'Shai as if about to scoop her up. He paused and look at L'ruch, considering all that happened quietly, and L'ruch as if reading his mind, answered a thought that had just begun forming.
"Her best chance is to take her back to her own world. I will come along if you desire, to assist in any way I can, perhaps keep her comfortable."
He hummed softly and factually informed R'chnt, "She will likely not survive, however."
R'chnt clicked his tusks together and suddenly an idea sprung into his head. His body must have been warming up slightly because he could feel his fingers and toes tingling; a senstation he was too numb to experience a short while ago. His mind suddenly jump started with inspiration and it made him feel alive and his head clearer.
"If Yautja," he asked excitedly, perking up, "do not need such medication because we are naturally unaffected by such things, then what K'Shai needs, is Yautja blood! That would cure her, yes?"
L'ruch paused and hummed, half surprised by the sudden excitement R'chnt exuded which was in stark contrast to his nearly freezing-into-unconsciousness behavior earlier, and half surprised by the mere suggestion of providing an alien with Yautja blood. Of course, he thought; K'Shai and R'chnt had managed to successfully produce two healthy halfbreed offspring, so perhaps the idea was not as ludicrous as it first sounded.
"Nothing like that has ever been done before," L'ruch responded after a moment of consideration.
R'chnt looked at K'Shai, his offspring with her and back to her again, then shook his head.
"Nothing like any of this has ever been done before. She is strong, and she has survived much already. Even making it through the night in this condition proves her strength. She just needs more."
"R'chnt," L'ruch advised, pacing slightly and raising a long, crooked-clawed finger at the notion while still considering it just out of an experimental curiosity sake. "She will likely die from such a thing."
He wanted to make sure this was clear in absolute terms, although he was very much interested in seeing what would happen by directly injecting an alien with Yautja blood. Still, it was wise idea to make very sure that the expectation was set truthfully low.
R'chnt thought quietly for only a brief moment before confirming, "She will certainly die if we do nothing, yes?"
L'ruch nodded with an almost gleeful hum in response.
With that, R'chnt offered himself up as a donor, and received some shocked whispers in retort.
"A Yautja giving blood to another to save a life? R'chnt, this is not how Yautja behave!"
"If you believe she is Yautja, then let her fate be to the Gods as is natural"
"It's obvious she was never meant to exist here."
R'chnt growled his response by way of a twisted glare, but he focused his energy on K'Shai.
L'ruch ignored the gaggle of nay-sayers as well and put his focus onto R'chnt, humming so frequently he could easily have been mistaken for making music. He dared not look R'chnt, nor anyone else in the eye. He did not want to convey his amusement at the wild situation before him. It was utterly and in every way unprecedented.
He was utterly curious to see the outcome of this entire event. While he figured for certain that unfortunately K'Shai would die from the transfusion, he could not deny that he was impressed with how resilient and adaptable she had proven to be thus far. She had been tough enough to endure childbirth twice and survive a variety of injuries.
He would never have imagined that a little frail human could have done so much, and he couldn't help but to think that he was in the minority for being impressed with all she had accomplished and survived thus far. Certainly, others were expecting her to die, and when she did, they would not have been surprised. They would use her death to illustrate their sentiment that she should never have been brought to the world in the first place. A future for R'chnt that included some form of banishment, or possibly even humiliation, slaughter, and expungement of his entire living bloodline seemed likely.
L'ruch withdrew the blood from R'chnt, considering the rocky future the next several days or weeks. He did not know if K'Shai would survive the day, or make it a week perhaps; dying slowly in an unconscious state, but he presumed in any case that it would be an interesting series of events to watch. He felt a slight combination of morbidly curious and just a hint of woeful regret that this situation would end in such a way.
R'chnt had always been an initimidating and vicious leader with a powerful position that he had earned through centuries of battle-scarred life. He had also trained many a young Yautja to hunt and earn their Blooding mark, doing the Clan honor and honoring his own bloodline and status right along with it. It was impossible for L'ruch to understand R'chnt's affinity for K'Shai beyond anything other than a curiosity, but whatever the elder Leader felt for K'Shai, he was willing to allow himself to be humiliated for it.
He remained silent with his eyes locked only on the syring now full of R'chnt's own glowing blood, then turned to K'Shai and found a suitable vein to deliver it. This was most definitely something he had little experience with, and as he briefly thought about it, he found himself humming in retort to the ludicrous thought of one Yautja providing his very own honored blood to save the life of another.
If the procedure did actually work, L'ruch worked, as he slowly injected the blood into K'Shai, the statement R'chnt will have made; that his blood was worthy to quite literally flow in her veins; that not only did she deserve to be a Blooded Hunter among the Yautja, but that she had earned the right to carry his blood.
There was definitely a part of him that wanted to see what would happen next if she were to survive, but the reality of it was simply that he believed she would not, and as he injected more and more of the syringe of blood into her, that assumption seemed to gain affirmation. K'Shai again began convulsing, throbbing and flailing on the ground accompanied by moans and gasping breaths. R'chnt became noticeably ruffled by the display, but he stayed silent. L'ruch had a momentary thought that the Leader might reach across his mate's twisting body and simply snap his head right off for doing this to her, but he remained eyes locked on the human hunter and continued emptying the syringe into her.
"Her body will either adapt to the blood or die." L'ruch said simply, followed by a hum of curious interest as he simply watched her convulse.
R'chnt looked between the two of them, at a loss for words. He never looked to his offspring or any of the onlookers gazing over the scene. For a long silent moment, R'chnt and L'ruch simply stared at K'Shai and watched and waited to see if she would overcome the cause of her current distress. She twisted and moaned and R'chnt offered only some support by gripping her arm tightly to keep it from flailing.
It was an unfortunate thing; to see K'Shai in such a state. He could feel her pulse slamming against his palm through her wrist as she writhed and arched her back on the ground, gasping and groaning with her eyes lolled back into her head.