"K'Shai… K'Shai…."
A voice awakened her slowly.
"Mmmmm….what?" She tried to open her eyes. Maybe she was dreaming, who knew.
"K'Shai, you must awake." R'chnt said with a chuckle under his breath.
"Ohhhhh… I'm comfortable! I actually feel well right now. It's so warm. I'm so sick of throwing up." She mumbled quasi-coherently and nestled back down into the satiny leather sheets.
"We are almost landed, K'Shai."
"What?! Like… home?"
He chuckled again seemingly completely amused as K'Shai pulled herself together and sat up.
"How long have I been asleep?!"
"Long enough, my mate." R'chnt said while he moved about the chambers gathering some equipment and donning armor..
"Well, I'm glad. I can see the children."
"Indeed," he responded. "You can rest more at home, or will you stay in the mei'sa?"
"No! I'll… I'm just… you know I'll just get dressed and go from there."
The walk to the town square was mostly quiet between the surviving hunters. R'chnt led the group of course, with W'rsa and K'Shai close behind. The rest of the group brought up the rear with a platform burdened down with the giant skull of one of the dragons, parading it through town for all to see. It was a silent way to boast and also pay tribute to the lost, while simultaneously drawing in interest from the crowd, which would lead to advancement in status and mates.
There was little concern over the loss of the others. They died on a hunt, doing what they were supposed to be doing. The prey was simply greater than they were. No one, K'Shai couldn't help by notice as she grew more angry as the day passed, really seemed to care about the details of how they died, just that it happened honorably. That was good enough.
R'chnt seemed to go out of his way to make extra certain everyone knew that Sa'ruch-de died with honor as if he was very much trying to help make K'Shai feel better. It was obvious he was trying and she did appreciate it. He also used that story as a way to avoid talking about his own injuries. R'chnt, like any other prideful hunter, preferred to let his injuries speak for themselves.
He was healed, back to full strength and power of body. His leg was well healed, but he definitely did have a limp on the left, and of course K'Shai knew how he sheltered his impalement injury to his right side, too.
Once she had made enough of a public appearance, she dismissed herself from R'chnt and the other hunters to continue on talking all night and probably into the following day about the hunt, and headed off for the mei'sa, passing by a glaring Neh'rti in the large public cantina, just around the curve from the massive public center stage of the Clan. She tried to pretend that the glare she received did not bother in the least, and hoped she displayed herself convincingly.
She couldn't help but feel like she just always had to be on high alert. She always had to display herself as something bigger than a Yautja. It was the same type of constant posturing that any Yautja had to put on every minute of their daily lives, so it was simply natural to them, but she had to do it twice, or maybe three times bigger and better. It was exhausting, she thought, and now she was trying to bring another child into the world and couldn't afford to be exhausted, not anymore.
As she found her place again in the mei'sa and watched her children greet her once, then practically ignore her, as they clearly found life with the Yautja perfectly natural. They retted her then disappeared back to their own groups, play fighting, play training, and running and wrestling, and even laughing. They were children, and regardless of species, children did as children did. They wrestled rough, and unless something really went wrong, they were not reprimanded for any of it.
She was glad to see her offspring blend in so well with children of similar age. It seemed like for the most part, the other full blood offspring seemed well adapted to their half-blood genetics, and they did not care. It was indeed only the mei'sa mothers, Neh'rti, and basically every other adult Blooded hunter, and perhaps some of the older children that were still of mei'sa age, that seemed to watch the aliens extra carefully, as if they had no business being there.
K'Shai couldn't help but feel like for her, it was all a show. She wondered when it would be that she might actually feel like she was part of the Yautja. If at all. There was not a situation, she imagined, that would actually make her Yautja in their eyes. S'ruch-de knew she was not Yautja well enough that he was willing to die just to protect her. She knew R'chnt would die to protect her, too. Protect, protect, protect… As if to signify to absolutely everyone that she was not Yautja and never would be, nor could be. She could produce offspring that mostly looked, and definitely mostly acted, like Yautja, but she just was not.
It was too much and too exhausting, keeping up rigid alertness of trying to ensure that she appeared to be Yautja all the time every minute of every hour while she was out in public eye. The only time she really felt like the pretense wasn't curtaining her was when she was hunting alone with R'chnt. Even in the mei'sa, she could not just relax with the other females. They were worse than the males. They eyed her up constantly, always judging her and her ability to fit into the life of a Yautja regardless of just how much she proved that she could. Worse yet, they were judging her offspring easily ten times harder.
Still, despite it all, it was good to be home. The children had not only simply adapted, but thrived, to life in the mei'sa. By the time half an afternoon passed, it was obvious that while the mei'sa matriarchs judged them harshly and pushed them all that much harder than full blooded Yaujta, the other children did not really see them as anything different. To the other younglings, A'ryin'di and El'tude were just Yautja children.
They were all in the same pit. Friends that would become competitors as they grew. There was no room in the mei'sa for any signs of weakness, or the matriarchs would cast you out and down to eto. The irony was that their obvious efforts to try to prove how the human half bloods were unworthy of being considered Yautja, all failed dramatically before their eyes.
Where they tried to embarrass the halfbreeds by catching them off guard with a question or situation that they thought might prove how incapable they were, both children simply jumped on the opportunity, tackling it headstrong like any Yautja could, only better. R'chnt and K'Shai had done something that no other Yautja parent had done. They had taken their children away from the mei'sa and raised them. El'tude and A'ryin'di were taught, and nurtured in a way similar to humans, far different from Yautja, and it showed that they had something the other children, even older ones than them, lacked completely.
In barely a week since K'Shai had returned, she felt reassured completely that her children were thriving. She was proud to see that her children were continuing on their own to keep up with their ability to read and write, because of course those skills were not deemed necessary in the mei'sa. What good was reading and writing going to do a hunter that couldn't survive their Blooding in the first place, after all? That was the mentality of the Yautja.
The pair would read stories that their mother had left for them, and K'Shai happily sat with her children listening to them read to show her how they've improved on their own, after most of the day's activities had ended, or before the start of each day.
"Mother, when will we get to hunt?" A'ryin'di questioned.
"You know that's not something you will learn in the mei'sa. Not until you are much older and have a Leader of your own."
"But you and father have taught us…"
"A'ryin'di, we've discussed this before. You are here to learn as a Yautja, you just have done more than any of the other children." K'Shai said half-scoldingly.
"Will your new offspring go hunt with you and father?" El'tu-de asked.
K'Shai shuddered a bit, simply hoping the next offspring just survived gestation, that would have been good enough.
"Perhaps when it is older too," K'Shai stated simply.
"Now El'tude, tell me more about this boy you mentioned before, son of O'gtha, yes?"
El'tude growled a bit, clearly perturbed by K'Shai bringing up the subject. He almost scoffed at her as if she had no business asking him such questions - in true Yautja fashion. In true concerned mother fashion, K'Shai continued to prod.
It was hardly any kind of secret that Yautja children were downright vicious to one another. While human children certainly had their own bully and victim structure, the Yautja amplified that to the nth degree. Only, in the world of the Yautja, it was all perfectly acceptable. Stronger children would overcome the weaker ones. That was the way.
The weaker children would likely either never succeed as hunters and become blooded members of the clan serving other purposes, or become eto. So long as the basic rules of the mei'sa were adhered to - males and females only intermingled while supervised by a matriarch, no weapons of any kind for any child, and fatal injuries were forbidden, fighting, bullying, and even broken bones, were all perfectly acceptable.
K'Shai had seen it all even in her time in the mei'sa. It concerned her, but she was not concerned about El'tude being injured or hurt. On the other hand, he seemed absolutely bullheaded about the subject, and so prideful and self-certain of his capabilities, she was concerned that he might do something alarming to the other child.
"Yes, he's the son of O'gtha." El'tude confirmed the boy's sire. "He is certain that because you are my mother, I will become eto."
"He's wrong, you know that?" K'Shai said, trying hard to control her heart from racing and give the children some kind of impression that she was concerned.
"Of course he's wrong!" I'm bigger than almost anyone my age, and stronger, and smarter. Much smarter."
"You are, El'tude. And if I recall the son of O'gtha is quite a bit older than you, yes?"
El'tude nodded. "He's the strongest of his clutch, but I am stronger! And bigger!"
"I know you are. But you are also smarter. You're now old enough and smart enough to know the three simple rules you must abide by."
He immediately backed down a bit, clearly deflated. "Yes, mother. Of course."
"Tell them to me," she prompted while A'ryin'di listened.
El'tude paused and looked around as if he was looking for an escape from the conversation.
A'ryin'di thumped him to get his attention back and K'Shai prodded again and again.
He repeated the rules like he was reading from a book, flat and disinterested.
"No weapons. No disobeying a matriarch. No kills until the Blooding Hunt."
K'Shai nodded with satisfaction, hoping the point was driven home.
"That's right. And you do understand just how important it is you abide by those rules, yes? Especially the both of you."
They children nodded and grumbled acknowledgement with all the same type of disinterested and somewhat annoyed agreement than any child that just had a good talking to from their parents would have done. K'Shai herself could remember giving those same responses.
The following day, K'Shai made sure she kept herself very near the son of O'gtha, just enough to make him clearly uncomfortable. He was stupid enough to make snide remarks about K'Shai within earshot of her, and she wanted very much to backhand him to the ground, but she knew that would open the door to retaliation on El'tude. Instead, she pretended that she was just a dumb human that was hard of hearing, as the brazen child had suggested to the others in his training clutch, which drew in a good chuckle.
She remained in the mei'sa for another few days just to make sure all was well enough before returning home to R'chnt, who had remained in the city waiting for her.
"I don't know R'chnt. Maybe we should just teach and Blood A'ryin'di and El'tude ourselves. A new offspring is on the way and we could teach all of them together."
"K'Shai! You are overthinking this again. They are in the mei'sa, and that's the best place for them to learn as Yautja. I do not understand how you can be so concerned that this boy will cause El'tude problems?"
K'Shai shook her head. "No, don't you see? El'tude is bigger than he is and he's younger. El'tude is huge. He's unusually big for a Yautja even twice his age. If this little… c'jit… keeps pestering El'tude…"
"You think our son that we have taught how to be a proper Yautja, is going to break the rules of the mei'sa and dishonor himself and us?"
R'chnt grumbled at the notion of that and K'Shai backed down. Either way this was going to end, she was sure, someone's pride was going to be severely injured at the very least.
"K'Shai, this is for the matriarchs. You can choose to remain in the mei'sa and watch over your son and this little c'jit should you choose. You do of course, have that entitlement as a female of Clan, and a female in child no less."
She nodded, subtly agreeing with his point, and feeling a whole lot like El'tude probably felt just a few days before when she had to talk sense into him. Now R'chnt, as he always did, did the same for her. She was in a unique situation. She was Blooded, female, a hunter, and being in child, she had every right to just remain in the mei'sa, if only she wasn't human and being in the mei'sa made her feel significantly less comfortable and happy than being stark naked in the huntship surrounded by male warriors.
Yet that was where she knew her children belonged.
She sighed and tried her best to bounce back and forth from the mei'sa and home while tending to her own needs and mental state as she worried about seeing this pregnancy through to term. She managed to put the worry behind after a few more days. Soaking in the hot baths helped quite a bit. It was soothing and relaxing and helped to heat away her bodily aches and the stress in her mind.
She finally felt relaxed enough to ease the constant state of alertness that she had to be in while in the city or the mei'sa. After another good long soak, K'Shai made her way, lightly clad in just a satiny robe that covered her body partially, out to the Yautja-sized chair on the patio. R'chnt and W'rsa were sparring down below in one of the keh'rites, having a bit of a playful show for the benefit of some young males who were eager to see two elites show off their abilities.
K'Shai watched the two of them dance around, jumping, crouching, spinning, and evading. It looked fierce, but she knew that every move they made was well controlled. Youngbloods and experienced hunters alike all watched, and that was rather the point. Males were constantly displaying themselves for other males, regardless of how much stature they had earned.
It was both eye-rollingly over masculine, and K'Shai was not the only female who felt that way, but it was also simultaneously educational and entertaining. It was free lessons without getting injured; it was a free exhibition to enjoy without the formality of the main sparring arena, and the risk of losing whatever it was one had gambled on by besting his opponent.
K'Shai watched the pair spar until they split off and sparred with others. In a while, several groups had split off to all spar in pairs, trios, and more, and occasionally one individual from one group would bounce to another group and continue on sparring from there.
After fatigue and boredom set in, K'Shai made her way into the bed chambers to get some rest, not overlooking how quiet the home seemed without the sounds of A'ryin'di and El'tude protesting going to sleep, or trying to fight just like their father. She massaged her sore belly, trying to ease some pains from the child within kicking or clawing or who knows what on her insides. It was a good pain, though. It was not the agony of something gone wrong, but the normal pains that came with a well developing fetus.
She quickly fell asleep and did not so much as budge at all until she felt a bump and another bump and a shuffle next to her and finally the sheets she was covered in get pulled away. She fought to get them back and writhed a bit in half-dazed protest of whatever was going on around her before she opened her eyes to find R'chnt millimeters from her, breathing heavy down the nape of her neck.
As K'Shai opened her eyes, she noticed that he was glistening in the moonlight pouring in through the window.
"You've been sparring this whole time?" She asked of him.
He purred a self-satisfied confirmation and K'Shai took a deep, long, slow breath.
"What hour even is it?"
She glanced over to the computer console and noticed it had been four hours since she fell asleep. It was the middle of the night and R'chnt, clearly, she realized as he mounted her erect and ready, was in no way at all close to being fatigued.
She groaned as he moved her into an accessible position and while she shoved him into comfortable positions around her sore belly, she did not completely push him away. She was surprisingly aroused, despite feeling swollen, sore, and groggy from sleep.
Yet, it just felt so good to feel him inside her and pleasure himself. It was goose-bump inducing pleasure to hear him growl and moan and in no way at all try to control the decibel level to avoid having the neighbors hear what was going on. R'chnt purposefully made sure anyone within earshot knew she was his and he enjoyed every moment of it.
Some were jealous of his constant access to a mate to pleasure himself with, and he knew it. Some were so jealous they made comments about going to the human world and taking a mate of their own, whether the female wanted to or not, at least that what was rumours would tell. R'chnt himself had never heard such comments, nor had any of the Clan Council, either directly or through proven fact. The speakers of such vile words would easily find themselves on the grand stage being sliced of their manhood as a reward for their very thoughts of dishonor.
R'chnt knew others were jealous and that was fine by him. Any one who dared to challenge him would meet humiliation or death if they tried to openly take K'Shai. Their silent eyes submitting to him and keeping their comments to themselves also secured his position just as much as anyone trying to openly challenge him did. By not challenging him, they accepted his status and power and position, and they also got to smell the air when K'Shai was around and let her pheromones work their way right down into their rods, in silence.
In the morning, the males of the living section, both young and elder, freshly blooded or aged with experience, got another dose of those pheromones all over him, emanating from her. Despite having bathed and groomed her skin and hair with lotions, oils, and soaps as she always did, there were just some smells K'Shai could not hide from the keen olfactory senses of a Yautja, and the scent of recent penetration and satisfaction, was one of them.
Even while in child, K'Shai still, so much unlike any female Yautja, wanted sexual pleasure, and provided them readily for R'chnt. He carried himself just a touch more upright on that particular morning as the pair made their way down to the cantina for some food, and it was well noticed.
They sat and ate and discussed thoughts on their minds and agendas for the day for a breif while before K'Shai brought up the mei'sa.
"Do you plan to go there today?"
"I think I will. It's been a little while since I made my presence known to El'tude and the son of O'gtha. He might do well with me lingering a few meters from him all day again." She said with a subtle laugh.
R'chnt chuckled.
"K'Shai you are certainly a mei'sa mother."
She huffed in amusement of the idea. She was, most definitely, anything but a mei'sa mother. She had no strength, interest or desire to monitor and reprimand the offspring of other Yautja. But when it came to her own children, she wanted her presence known and never forgotten.
"Well, when I was there last they seemed to be doing just fine. But all the same, I'll probably go check up on them and that situation."
"K'Shai, you worry entirely too much."
She grimaced at him but said nothing. He stood up to greet a trio of others that had approached while she vaguely thought that he did not worry enough, but that was a conversation for another time and another place, she thought.
Seeing that he was suddenly preoccupied now with other matters, K'Shai dismissed herself and returned to the home to prepare to go to the mei'sa. She donned another leather garment and grabbed up a small blade which she tucked into the layers, figuring it was hardly necessary but it was simple habit. Never go anywhere unarmed, that was the way of a Blooded hunter. If R'chnt was with her that counted as being armed, she thought with a little smile as she made her way out of the hallway and out of the door of the home and down to the ground level.
She headed casually through town, barely paying any attention to the hunters and 'aseigan and Blooded clan members all going about their way, some carrying freshly hunted meat still on the hoof with them, others bringing back trophies from a hunt for display, 'aseigan covered in blood-slashed marks to remind them of their low status. It was the Yautja way, and K'Shai walked by, through, and past it all without any real consideration.
The Yautja way was the Yautja way, and it was a tough and brutal one. The only thing she concerned herself with was surviving in it for herself and making sure her children knew how to survive in it as well. She was sure they could, and she knew they proved it every day. They were smarter than the typical Yautja child three times their age, and they were strong and bold. They were beyond capable of using all of that to their advantage and making themselves into honored members of the Clan, which was all that mattered.
K'Shai opened the gate controls to the mei'sa and walked the long way to the pyramids through the waving fields of tall grasses, past the flowing river, noticing the trees of the jungle in the distance near and far. Everything was in order, as it should be. The suns were shining down and the wild voices of excited children echoed up as they should be.
Just as she rounded onto the cobblestone entry path into the main pyramid structure, K'Shai's communication beacon beeped, and she glanced down to see that Neh'rti herself was calling her.
Oh this can't be good. She thought suddenly. No, this can't be good at all.
K'Shai picked up her pace a little bit, just enough to get her to where she needed to be sooner, but not quite enough to display any alarm or concern to the females that we were watching her with anticipation. And they were watching. K'Shai definitely noticed that. The matriarchs were scattering, both watching her while simultaneously trying to hide out of sight. That had never happened before and that could not indicate anything good was about to happen.
She made her way out of the main entry pyramid and started to walk through a connecting hallway into another part of the complex to try to find Neh'rti, when she noticed some commotion out of the corner of her eye and paused in her tracks. The open-air corridor allowed K'Shai to see a gathering of what looked like basically every child in the entire mei'sa filling the massive courtyard training area between the buildings of the complex. She could see Neh'rti pacing unhappily amidst the crowd and K'Shai's heart suddenly sank and her throat clogged up.
Though she did not know what was happening, she knew there was just no way it was anything good, especially if she was being called directly by Neh'rti, whom she actually ignored because she was headed to the mei'sa anyway, which K'Shai was sure did nothing to help whatever bad mood Neh'rti was in for whatever cause.
As she punched her way through children, some of whom barely moved out of the way while others jumped away like she was about to pounce on them, she felt sure whatever was happening involved one of her children, and she had a sinking feeling that it was El'tude. Not that she wanted to place unwarranted accusations or leap to assumptions, but all the same her heart started to race as she made her way to the front of the encircled mass of offspring.
Much to her relief, before she locked eyes on Neh'rti, she quickly noted that El'tude was on the opposing rim of the crowd, and A'ryin'di was not far off to his right, standing at the front of the crowd as well. Both of them were on their feet and looked just fine, so what was all the commotion about then?
Then, her eyes locked on something else, and K'Shai had to use all of her strength not to drop to the ground the moment she realized what she was looking at. Neh'rti glared at her in a typical accusatory fashion, only this time, instead of rebelling against the look with her own glare back, K'Shai submitted, stunned, trying to process what had happened and most of all - what would happen next.
She scanned the quiet gaggle of every child and matriarch in the entire mei'sa. She looked back to A'ryin'di, and then slowly, her eyes scanned up to El'tude. He was standing with his chin high, trying vaguely to hide that worried look in his eyes as the realization of what he had done seemed to hit him not long after his mother arrived.
The son of O'gtha, the typical Yautja bully that El'tude had vied with, lay dead at Neh'rti's own feet.
"K'Shai!" Neh'rti growled harshly. "That offspring of yours has defied every rule we have for unblooded. There is only one punishment!" She howled loudly, making sure to emphasize her words so the crowd knew that El'tude was some kind of abomination.
"Neh'rti," K'Shai whispered softly, trying to avoid eye contact and be as utterly submissive to the mighty, and angry, Clan Leader's authority as possible. K'Shai was not sure what to do in this situation. She wanted to message R'chnt immediately and find out what he would do, but not only was there no time, she also strongly assumed he would say such matters are in the hands of the females.
She reminded herself quickly that she was, afterall, one of those females. She had some authority to do something, but what, she had no idea. El'tude was about to be kicked from the mei'sa, disgraced and cast into an eto, which would of course cause the downfall of R'chnt's entire bloodline and position in the Clan, and more than likely cause them all to be either hunted down as trophies, or exiled - perhaps even back to Earth, which was a notion K'Shai did not want to entertain.
"Clan Leader," K'Shai spoke up again softly, now shaking as the entirety of what the next few minutes was about to bring started to hit her.
It also seemed to finally hit on both A'ryin'di and El'tude. A'ryin'di slinked back a bit into the females that had befriended her, who all sort of shuffled uncomfortably as if they suddenly were worried about being seen as too friendly towards her.
El'tude moved. He twitched and an ankle shifted, like he was about to step forward, perhaps do something else bull-headed and stupid. K'Shai immediately howled at him with more rage and anger than even most of the Yautja matriarchs bothered to muster in their most annoyed states. El'tude suddenly turned stark white and held motionless.
"May I speak with you, Neh'rti?" K'Shai finally questioned, turning her eyes back towards Neh'rti's general area, though being careful so as not to look directly at her.
K'Shai began stepping towards the main pyramid, as if Neh'rti had agreed to speak with her, and had agreed to do so out of the sight and earshot of everyone else. K'Shai walked forward, trembling, not really sure if she had any control or influence over the situation at the moment, but doing her best to act like she did. She parted the sea of younglings before her and tiptoed towards the pyramid.
She had no idea what she was going to do or say, so she walked carefully and slowly trying to use every second she could to come up with a plan, or at least some way to delay anything Neh'rti was about to do.
The pair entered the main hall of the pyramid, which suddenly seemed so ominous instead of beautiful, with the beams of light shining down from the open top levels, seeming more like spotlights putting K'Shai on the spot.
There was a definite awkward silence which Neh'rti very quickly and clearly lost patience for.
"Well, speak, K'Shai! You wished a word, you have one now."
K'Shai nodded. She had not come up with any solutions. There were few laws in the Yautja society structure, very few. The punishment for breaking most of them was either death or dishonor, or worse, dishonor and then death. This she knew well. It was a simple system, and for its simplicity it was easy to understand why none who valued their honor should ever break the rules.
"What… exactly happened?" K'Shai asked slowly, using every possible second to bide some time.
"Your offspring killed the son of O'gtha with his bare hands!" Neh'rti said, pacing like an enraged beast before K'Shai, looking half like she was about to pounce on her and maul her down in a fit of rage.
K'Shai held her ground and continued quietly and slowly.
"That offspring, he is older than El'tude, yes?"
"You know this K'Shai." Neh'rti said in irritation, clearly aware that this conversation had literally no point and was not going anywhere.
"El'tude is young. He is strong. Perhaps even stronger than normal for a youngster of his age. He is far larger for his age than he should be… El'tude I'm sure just…"
"K'Shai! Do not even attempt to presume this was some kind of accident. El'tude grappled the offspring of O'gtha, and did not release until his chest had been crushed. This was no accident."
"And the matriarchs failed to intervene before an offspring was killed? Failed to enforce the most basic of rule?"
Neh'rti howled in a fit of rage. K'Shai steadied her position. Her heart was pounding, and she had just insulted pretty much every matriarch in the mei'sa before Neh'rti. She probably was not going to come out of this situation alive, this much she knew. This matter truly was of concern to the females only.
"Your offspring.." Neh'rti started, but K'Shai interrupted with authority.
"Proved what a powerful Yautja he will be. He refused to continue to be insulted by that unblooded, and he proved before you and everyone else who would see, that he is destined to become a strong and capable member of the Clan. A Leader even."
"A Leader! K'Shai, El'tude must learn that a good Leader must follow the very rules he is expected to teach!"
K'Shai suddenly realized she had an opening. Did Neh'rti just confirm that El'tude had the makings of a Leader? Albeit with some very necessary self-control education in the future.
"He will learn those rules well after today. A point of proving his worth and value that he need not repeat, until he is to be Blooded." K'Shai added softly.
"He has learned from R'chnt and myself to hunt as a proper Yautja would. He participated in the killing and skinning and trophy harvesting of the Quatza-rij. He has done more in his few years than any of the other offspring do and learn in three times the years." K'Shai continued, hoping Neh'rti was slowly coming to agree with the obviousness that El'tude was indeed stronger and more powerful than any of the other full blooded Yautja his age.
Neh'rti quieted for a moment and her pacing slowed from rage-fueled to a more contemplative pace.
"K'Shai, you are correct of one thing. El'tude has learned from you and R'chnt. Away from the mei'sa, away from the proper Yautja teachings, with your ooman influence. I have no idea what you have been teaching him. Clearly that it's acceptable to disregard the rules of the Clan, use weapons before he is of age, and kill those who offend him."
"El'tude did not use a weapon to kill he who offended him. He used his bare hands…. To kill a bully larger and older than he. He can't help that he is simply so strong." K'Shai defended her muscle-bound son.
"No, he cannot. He is strong. He is perhaps even smarter than many of the males even twice his age. But he is not so smart as to abide by the rules of the Clan." Neh'rti continued, clearly coming to a conclusion.
"He learned that from you. From your desire to keep your offspring away from the mei'sa, away from the proper Yautja teachings and the way of the Yautja. You want to be amongst us, yet you pull away and worse - you pull your offspring away!"
K'Shai realized suddenly that Neh'rti was indeed heading to a point with this conversation and she definitely did not like where it was heading one bit.
"All Yautja… all of them… must learn there are consequences to their actions. Punishments to be endured for failure to abide by those rules. Those laws."
Neh'rti rounded on K'Shai and suddenly K'Shai felt like a scared little child. She wanted to withdraw from the burning stare of those fierce orange eyes as the mighty, gray haired Clan Leader towered over her by more than half a meter. She wanted to trembled and crumble to the ground, but she was frozen in place, and simply wrapped an arm unconsciously around her abdomen, cradling the unborn third in the half-breed line.
"You of course, want your offspring to prove his ultimate value to the Clan." Neh'rti stated. K'Shai was not sure if she should respond or not, so she remained quiet.
"So you, therefore must prove your commitment to the Clan. To the Yautja. Most of all, to the Yautja way."
K'Shai's eyes widened. She dared not ask what Neh'rti had in mind exactly to do such a thing, for there was no need. Neh'rti clearly took K'Shai's silence as acceptance and agreement. K'Shai stood on the spot, stunned. Too stunned to move, and Neh'rti paced off with power and called to a few of the matriarchs.
A crowd had suddenly gathered and two of the mei'sa females had appeared with leather bindings, which they promptly wrapped around K'Shai, binding her arms and neck like an animal needing to be led to the slaughter.
A'ryin'di and El'tude suddenly jumped forward as if to protest, but a stern silent glare from their mother was well interpreted and they remained silent.
"No," Neh'rti said directly to the two children. "You will attend. You will see, you will learn. Punishment must be laid for the one who had mistaught you. Females leave their offspring in the mei'sa for the singular reason of being trained to walk the Yautja Path, the Path of the Gods." Neh'rti turned to glare at K'Shai as she announced in a ferocious and reverberating voice that also oddly echoed a lecturing educational tone.
"If you turn your back on the Yautja Path, you are no Yautja. This is to redeem your Yautja way, you accept the punishment of your offenses."
Before long, Neh'rti was parading K'Shai, like a prized animal trapped on a hunting trip, through town, raising as much commotion as she possibly could with the presentation, all the way, very slowly through the Clan square up to the main stage.
Neh'rti remained quiet herself during the parade, she instead allowed the commotion to grow around her by keeping K'Shai well presented on the trip, chained up in disgrace. By the time she was brought to the main stage, she started to see many familiar faces in the crowd including a very stunned looking W'rsa.
When she stood upon the stage, trembling in her leather bindings, she scanned the howling rowdy crowd and it did not take long at all for R'chnt to appear, half frantic running to the edge of the stairs beside the stage where El'tude and A'ryin'di stood, staring up watching her mother bound to the horizontal rail above her head.
"What is happening!?" R'chnt howled directly at Neh'rti. "What is the meaning of this?"
Neh'rti took the opportunity to explain exactly what the meaning of the entire spectacle was and as soon as her growling rebounding voice started, the entire gaggle quieted.
"All Yautja, all honored Yautja, learn their Path, walk their Path, and keep honor in the eyes of the Gods. All honored Yautja accept the rules and laws of that Path, as they are God's rules. They are God's Laws. To become a Blooded Hunter and Honored Yautja is to embrace those laws, and Honor the Clan in all ways.
This...Yautja…." Neh'rti spat as if it was an offensive idea to call K'Shai a Yautja.
"Had defied those laws! She has adopted a path away from the God's and away from this Clan, and worse so, she has taught her children to do the same. El'tude, son of R'chnt and K'Shai has killed an unblooded in a moment of uncontrolled anger that would never have had happened had this female abided by the very laws and rules that all females must abide."
Neh'rti paced, prominently making her point with all the emphasis of a public speaker seeking support, but the crowd clearly had mixed feelings in response. Neh'rti did not care to hear the calls of protest that rang out, just as much as she did not care to hear the blood thirsty howls that echoed out as well. She unbounded from her hip, a long curled lash. A whip of slender leather and K'Shai huffed and held her breath.
The two other eldest matriarchs stood next to the Neh'rti and only moved slightly when their Clan Leader unbounded the whip.
"This female is in child, Neh'rti. Doing this puts the unborn in danger."
"As K'Shai should have been aware enough to know and not go off hunting with her born and unborn offspring." Neh'rti announced without concern.
K'Shai looked off to her right, to where R'chnt stood simply stunned. L'ruch had now moved in near to him, which only made K'Shai feel even worse - the healer who had tended to her over the years was ready and waiting. W'rsa stood there too, looking on at a complete loss, just behind R'chnt, smart enough to stay out of his way.
"Neh'rti! Do not do this!" R'chnt announced as he dared to step up onto the stage. "She is in child! This is against the Yautja Way!"
"Do not!" Neh'rti fired back at R'chnt as he clearly wobbled - for the first time in all the time K'Shai had known him, R'chnt was frazzled. "Speak to me of the Yautja Path! You brought this ooman here. You bred her. You took your offspring and your mate and taught them in ways that are not Yautja."
"Then I am the one that must endure whatever punishment the Clan Council has deemed. ME! Do not do this to a female in child!"
" In child!" Neh'rti spat. "With yet another half-breed! Another half blood that must learn the harsh lesson of the Yautja way! If your K'Shai wants so much to prove how Yautja she is, then she must learn as well that this is the Yautja way! Offspring belong in the mei'sa! This is a matter for females. Her punishment will ensure the lesson is well learned."
Neh'rti howled, drawing in echoing howl the crowd.
"The Yautja way is the only way. There is only one Path!" Neh'rti announced herself with a rage-filled voice and then turned to K'Shai.
"Neh'rti, this…" R'chnt started again, but this time W'rsa stepped within arm's reach and caught his attention with a soft pat on the back of his elbow.
K'Shai locked eyes on R'chnt for a moment and with a clenched jaw, she dropped her chin in a subtle nod, softly and assuredly. W'rsa tilted his head in acknowledgement. R'cht lowered his eyes in clear despair, but he withdrew.
K'Shai turned her gaze back to Neh'rti and eyed her dead set back right into the black holes that were Neh'rti's pupils, with a fear-filled and anger fueled glare that made Neh'rti soften for a moment. Somehow, that slight hesitance, that drop of the Clan Leader's eyes, for just a fraction of second, K'Shai found oddly comforting in a way. In the moment, K'Shai knew that even Neh'rti was questioning in her mind the validity of her next action.
She looked to R'chnt, and looked to her two children who were now near their father, though not on the stage like he was. She took some soft, deep breaths through her nose and eyed them all as Neh'rti rounded behind her.
The first lash hit her hard and K'Shai nearly bit her own tongue right out of her mouth. She was unprepared for the feel - the pain - the force. But then again, how could anyone really prepare for such a thing.
She braced her jaws so tightly for the next two hits that she was sure she cracked a molar. By the fifth lash, she might well have dislocated her jaw from clamping down so hard. While she could feel her back drip with warm liquid, and hear the splatter of blood hitting the ground behind her, by lash seven, she was tasting blood in her own mouth, having ground her teeth together so hard they were now mashing her cheeks apart as she struggled to breath and not bite her tongue.
Eight lashes, and she was no longer able to even remotely bare weight on her legs, so she dangled now with bent knees, fully hanging by her forearms from the beam above her head. On the ninth lash, she released a mouthful of blood and gurgled for air. On the tenth lash, everything went numb, and she was pretty sure she had dislocated both of her shoulders by hanging her weight from her wrists.
None of it, nothing, mattered. She was released and thumped to the ground, oblivious to anything else around her.