K'Shai made her way to R'chnt with questions burning on her mind. She felt woozy, sleepy, very much drugged. She noticed right away as she rolled out of bed slowly, that her wounds were sealed. As she studied herself in the mirror briefly, she could see the sealed scar lines. Nothing really hurt, but she assumed that - and the blurry vision she had- were accountable to whatever medication she was sure that L'ruch had pumped into her.
She turned again face front to observe her abdomen. She caressed her unborn offspring and immediately felt him moving. Though she didn't know for sure, this offspring did not feel the same in her womb as A'ryin'di did. This one was less aggressive, less demanding of punching holes in her uterus like it felt like A'ryin'di had wanted to for most of her pregnancy. El'tude was rough, but he never quite felt like he was biting into her and tearing her apart at the seams. That was much of a way of telling the gender of an offspring as she needed. The child was male, and of that she was sure.
He must have been sleeping, or else he was drugged too. She could feel soft surges, more like a gentle wane an ebb of a wave, than actual movement, but one thing she definitely knew was that the offspring had grown since the last time she looked at herself.
The last time she had her eyes open, she was barely showing any bump, and now one was obvious enough. Either the offspring had sprouted a good twenty percent overnight, or she had been out, under L'ruch's careful nursing care for at least two weeks. The idea that she had been possibly unconscious for so long was unnerving, but knowing that L'ruch, who had put his eccentric interest in her personal physiology to such good use over the years, had been there to watch over her, reassured her that not only was she fine, but the offspring would be fine as well.
As she found R'chnt, sure enough, L'ruch was there with him. She woke up immediately wondering one thing, and then another. As she squinted against the light of the suns when she found R'chnt, the third pressing matter came into her mind, along with a smile.
"I have three questions…" she announced to R'chnt as both he and L'ruch stood and turned to her, as if they were both surveying her, more than acknowledging her presence.
"How long have I been out? Where are El'tude and A'ryin'di….." she paused. "And why is it that everytime I end up hurt, we end up at the ocean?"
She pointed casually towards the beach and the Yautja-style palm trees and crystal clear water, and then smiled and gazed into the foam-capped waves and lost her thoughts for a moment until L'ruch whimpered in amusement and R'chnt chuckled and responded.
"You have been recovering for quite long enough, my K'Shai."
"And yet you need more rest," L'ruch added, waving a long, gnarled gray pointer finger in the air in an all-too-familiar reprimanding way. "You still are not healed, and you must…"
He stopped when K'Shai glared at him in a don't you dare continue sort of way. She knew that particular start to a conversation was going to inevitably include some comparison between Yautja healing and how her weak, soft, ooman body recovered, and she did not want to hear it. Immediately she flared up with anger- when was she finally to become Yautja in their eyes?
"El'tude and A'ryin'di are safe. They are in the mei'sa and no further incidents have happened that we have been alerted to." R'chnt informed her.
"Well, you are males. I need a communicator. I want to talk to Neh'rti." K'Shai demanded with a definite tone of anger.
"K'Shai, our offspring are safe, and where they must be to finish maturing and become Blooded. You ensured this would happen by your actions. Nothing else is needed on your part to ensure our offspring's survival. You must now focus on your own."
She raised an eyebrow. "And that's why you brought me here?"
He nodded deeply and she smiled.
K'Shai turned towards L'ruch, and respectfully bowed her head.
"Thank you for caring for the both of us. Will this offspring be alright?"
L'ruch perked up and hummed excitedly, like he was grateful suddenly be on her good side again and eager to answer her questions.
"The offspring will be quite fine, quiet fine, K'Shai. He will grow and emerge. The rest," he whimpered in a high pitch of self-amusement "will be up to you, of course."
K'Shai grimaced; not amused, though she did not acknowledge that he really had a point, and she had a lot to think about in that regard.
"So he is a male, then?"
L'ruch clicked in a high tone and followed it up with a whimper that almost sounded like a purr.
"It is indeed."
She turned to R'chnt and pondered for a moment.
"I'd like to call him S'ruch-de. If my mate has no objection?" She asked.
R'chnt nodded with a slight shrug to his shoulders as to the irrelevance of the question. It did not matter to him what she chose to name the offspring. K'Shai was adamant about naming children before they were born and proven worthy of surviving. Not that he thought any of his offspring would not survive and become Blooded, but the name was truly unimportant until that point.
"Then it's settled. S'ruch-de it is." She said with a pleased tone and then wandered off to get some food and sit near the shore with her feet in the water.
L'ruch eventually, as night fell, scanned her once again to ensure her health and attempted to give her another injection of something, she didn't know what, but she waved him away. She felt physically well enough, and she was pretty sure the offspring, though healthy, was in a drugged semi-coma, so whatever he was offering to her she did not want any more of.
"How much longer for this gestation?" She questioned.
L'ruch chirped, "Oh K'Shai, you know better than I do in such matters."
She smirked. Of course.
Months, for sure. But five? Seven? Hard to tell really. In the end, it was ultimately up to little S'ruch-de.
Once R'chnt and K'Shai had some quiet time, she leaned back into his arms, and he cradled her quietly, enjoying the moment.
"R'chnt…" K'Shai whispered just slightly above the sound of the waves. "S'ruch-de must be born in the mei'sa. I must not have it any other way. He will remain there with his older siblings and train as a Yautja."
"This is displeasing to you." R'chnt stated plainly, reading the tone in her voice with accuracy.
She immediately became agitated and went from comfortably sitting in the sand in the warm arms of her mate to pacing and practically kicking the tide waves as she did so.
"Of course that displeases me! A'ryin'di and El'tude have had an actual education! They know more than any Yautja even five times their age! They know more than Blooded warriors! Our new little S'ruch-de, he won't know how to even…. how to … read or write or anything about anything." She growled in agitation. "How is that good for any Yautja?"
"K'Shai… you seem to forget that this is the Yautja way. I was raised in the very same mei'sa as El'tude and A'ryin'di and eventually S'ruch-de."
She stopped in her tracks and suddenly felt like she lost all the air in her lungs. She became instantly deflated and sank down in the sand next to R'chnt, crawling in close to him attentively listening to what he had to say. In a way, she really had forgotten that this Yautja way she found so awful, was exactly how the honorable, wise, and intelligent warrior before her had been raised.
"And, the namesake of our new offspring was also raised in such a way. How does it honor S'ruch-de if our S'ruch-de is not allowed the chance to learn as a Yautja."
K'Shai shrunk down into her own shoulders and stared at the grains of sand on her knee that were catching the light of the moon.
"You're right," she said softly as she shook her head softly.
"I guess I just wanted A'ryin'di and El'tude to be raised the way I know how children are raised. As a family with their parents. They learned so much and are so smart, and I wanted them to be able to embrace that."
"And they very much have. But El'tude especially, must learn to also do as expected for an honorable Yautja. He made a mistake that will be unrepeated. You must also learn to embrace the Yautja way. This is something you have fought against and struggled with for all your time with me."
K'Shai pressed her lips together and swallowed softly as R'chnt caressed her face.
"This is the life you wished and accepted when you returned with me. Do you wish to change it? If you do not want to be as a Yautja, shall we return to Earth? Live on your old world?"
Her eyes lit up, and she widely stared at him.
"No! No!" She exclaimed with almost a slight franticness to her tone. "No, that is not what I want at all. I don't want you to abandon your Honored ways and go live on my broken world. There is no place for you there, and there is no place for A'ryin'di or El'tude or S'ruch-de there. That is not…. No. Just no."
She settled down, certain that she reaffirmed her point, even if not eloquently spoken. R'chnt sort of looked at her with almost what could be described as a confused puppy look, not the least bit lacking in an element of relief, clearly showing that running off to Earth and abandoning his four-hundred year history on Yaut, was not exactly the highest goal on his list of things to do.
Somehow, it just made sense that K'Shai left Earth to be with R'chnt and it would not have made sense the other way around. She could not properly explain why, and as she thought about it for a while sitting there on the beach with him, the reasons why returning to Earth was not a good choice were perfectly and completely clear in her mind, yet had she tried to open her mouth to define them, she knew she could not.
There seemed to be truly one course of action, and while she did not like it tremendously much, it was really the only way; and it gave her plenty to think about as her young new son, S'ruch-de gestated and grew and became immensely more strenuous to carry as the weeks turned into months and the birthing day came nearer.
"I suppose then," she said with a grunt as she heaved herself, stomach first, out of the deep and ridiculously oversized Yautja throne-sized chair on the front terrace of R'chnt's home away from the Clan city.
R'cht and L'ruch looked towards her silently. She had been given a clean bill of health, and so had unborn S'ruch-de who was now weeks, perhaps days, from birth.
"That it's well time I get to the mei'sa and do this properly." She said with a smirking tone of sarcasm.
"K'Shai!" R'chnt chuckled in dismissive amusement.
"Well," L'ruch chirped with that familiar rolling purr sound he made whenever he was amused, "it seems even a female finds the female ways dissatisfying. Of course, I am sure, K'Shai," he said with a deep, pointedly comical bow, "that you will no doubt strive to change them."
"Hah!" K'Shai blurted out loudly without a moment's hesitation, causing both males to audibly chortle.
She turned away from them after spending a bit of extra time parting ways with R'chnt, and found W'rsa quietly surveying the scene from the edge of the terrace, keeping a careful distance as he always seemed to do whenever she was near.
Before she had completely left the men to their own devices, W'rsa did perk up and ask something of her.
"When the child is bared, will you be returning to the Hunt with us?"
She shrugged and looked quickly from W'rsa to R'chnt, and could not help but to notice how L'ruch's eyes seemed to be bouncing between the tree of them like he was watching an intense game of triangle tennis.
"I really hadn't thought about it."
It was time, perhaps, she thought, to stop trying to plan for what needed to happen days, weeks, months into the future, in order to create a situation or vision of herself that she had expected to create, and just live for the day and see what happened next.
Nothing she had tried thus far, had, after all, produced anything even remotely close to the vision she once had for herself. She was not sure when, but she imagined it was probably around whip-lash number three, that she realized her naivety had maybe… maybe… finally left her.
The Yautja were neither glad she was there, nor proud of her presence. They would not help her flourish, nor nurture her human short-comings with care, as R'chnt just naturally seemed to somehow know how to do. In fact they expected more from her than any Yautja. They expected her to somehow be more than human but also more than even a Yautja.
With what seemed like an unattainable goal, K'Shai could only help but wonder just what exactly would come next. The only way she knew to find out, was to take one step at a time and see what happened, and as those steps took her to the mei'sa, belly heavy with child, there was a part of her that wanted to hang her head in some unnecessary shame, and tremble in fear for showing herself in the mei'sa again.
To Hell with that, she thought as she approached the gate, feeling anger rise up in her for reasons too numerous to identify. I earned my right to be here.
With that, she opened the gate to the mei'sa and strode through the grounds, taking a ground transport for the first time ever, down to the main pyramids. She walked through the main entry without really acknowledging anyone or anything, trying to channel that Yautja air of disinterest and arrogance combined with dominant power that everyone else always showed.
It seemed to work, too, because some of the females, especially some of the younger ones, moved out of her way if they saw her heading at them. Good. She thought angrily. The only that really put her mind at ease was a scene she soon found before her after making her way through much of the grounds.
There was her first born, A'ryin'di, beautifully and gracefully dancing and turning and whirring and dipping and jumping and bending and lunging, in perfect formation as she practiced her hand-to-hand combat against three opponents in a small circle within their marked sparring area. It was typical to train in groups of fours, from youth to Blooded hunters keeping in shape, this was proper Yautja training, and A'ryin'di clearly had grasped it brilliantly.
"She is doing quite well," said a gritty voice from behind K'Shai.
K'Shai felt the hairs on the back of her next rising up as Neh'rti's voice shot into her. Her words, though, were not spoken in anger or animonsity. She had a rather matriarchal tone like an old school marm pleased with a student's homework.
"She is. That pleases me greatly."
"I have no doubts, K'Shai, that A'ryin'di will be destined for great things. She is calculating, always, in her actions. She is smart, and determined."
Perhaps, K'Shai suddenly thought, that she was still under some influence of drugs from L'ruch, or maybe it was all the progesterone channeling through her bloodstream that was making her mind fuzzy. Surely she did not just hear the mighty and rigid Clan Leader actually compliment the half-breed spawn of the ooman she seemed to so greatly despise?
"That she is," K'Shai agreed placidly and turned back to watch her daughter continue to spar.
"And, where is El'tude?" She asked cooly.
Neh'rti nodded towards another pyramid far across the sprawling grounds, the building that served essentially as the male offspring's sit-down lesson area. He was in a lecture class, and K'Shai would not bother to interrupt even just to look at him from some window. She would see him later, perhaps at evening meal. In the interim, once she had her fill of watching A'ryin'di and taking some time to talk to her daughter briefly before she ran off to spar again, so much like any other child who just wanted to play with her friends.
K'Shai strode around the mei'sa, made her way to her chambers and settled in. As she walked the corridors, she did so with a commanding presence that she consciously tried to muster at all times. She went around her business like hers was the only important thing happening at that moment, and she made no gesture or mention of any events of the past at all; she simply carried on as normal, and by nightfall on day one, she already noticed her mei'sa experience was just inexplicably different.
At evening meal, she did find El'tude and took time to talk to him before he too ran off to be with his own friends.
"You have grown so much! You both did. You both are taller than me! El'tude, you were not this tall last I saw you!" K'Shai said, trying hard not to sound like a doting mother, but failing miserably. She couldn't help it. She was happy to see her children and suddenly she struggled to come with any good reason why she had not been back to the mei'sa to see them since… that day.
It seemed that it was good to just let them remain there as Yautja and do as Yautja children must do, for they had thrived. K'Shai had little doubt that their out-of-mei'sa family experience would have had much influence over their skills, but their Yautja blood just seemed to allow them to naturally exist in the very environment that K'Shai had found nearly unbearable.
As the days turned into weeks which became months, K'Shai watched her children with the same amount of attention and supervision that she was charged with watching all the children in whatever clutch she was watching. Sometimes she watched older offspring, including hers, while sometimes she watched much younger children. Occasionally, she was needed to simply hold a motherless suckling and allow it to nurse.
It felt somehow odd to allow a child not of her own womb, to suckle at the milk from her breasts, but there was plenty enough being produced, and for a few more days at least, K'Shai had no suckling of her own to feed. There was a soothing passiveness of sitting in a golden-hued lounge on red and gold furniture, comfortable and cushioned, simply watching sucklings nurse or sleep. It helped in some way to soothe her, and put thoughts of missing R'chnt out of her mind.
She hated that she had to remain in the mei'sa to have a proper Yautja childbirth, and now for S'ruch-de's sake, she had been missing R'chnt for months.
Soon, though, she had other thoughts to occupy her, for it was not very long before she was sitting there in that comfortably luxurious room nursing little S'ruch-de upon her breast instead of some other female's offspring they had abandoned. The birth was thankfully uneventful, and the only one done in the proper Yautja fashion; in the mei'sa, without R'chnt.
The fetus had grown properly, birthed properly, and was of good size for any proud Yautja offspring. He was smaller than El'tude, but bigger at birth than A'ryin'di. S'ruch-de was perfect in every way. His skin mottled with little yellow diamonds against a brownish-red base that almost looked burgundy. He had little deep green eyes which he opened and closed with each suckle. He was not a fussy baby at all; not aggressive at the teat like A'ryin'di, nor too overly demanding of feedings and attention like El'tude.
S'ruch-de, already days old, had not been removed from the mei'sa. Before long, K'Shai realized weeks had past and not only had R'chnt not seen his child in person, she had not seen him either. They communicated daily, and she showed him S'ruch-de through a screen, but she had not touched his skin or felt him near her in so long she had to fight a very distinct empty feeling within her as well.
She enjoyed watching all three of her children, and seeing how different they all were. Each one carried their own personality, strengths, and weaknesses. Even young S'ruch-de was already developing his own opinions on when and how he received attention. He made K'Shai smile as his little hands would push her breast away when he was simply not interested in a meal or how he would make little kitten-like grunting sounds as if practicing a fierce growl when he was not getting attention or feedings that he wanted.
A'ryin'di and El'tude trained daily, and were well ahead of any other Yautja youth even twice their age in terms of understanding and maturity. They were getting so well prepared for their first hunt that it was almost a bit alarming. They were so young, but K'Shai knew in just a year or two more, both of them would be nearly fully grown in size and ready for the first moment of their lives that counted the most - the Blooding Hunt.
Time passed very slowly in the mei'sa, with little to do other than watch the children and nurse sucklings, bathe in the hot tubs, and traverse the massive grounds. It was an incredible wonder to K'Shai how so many females chose to remain in the mei'sa after blooding.
Of course, the females that took up an apprenticeship in some kind of practice like medicine or engineering, had far more to do, and far more reason to leave the mei'sa, those that chose to simply to nurse offspring, breed, and keep the Clan alive through progeny, seemed entirely too content just sitting and soaking up the sun when they weren't teaching or supervising children.
The mei'sa did indeed a large number of females in it, of course, for they were home to the entire Clan's offspring. There was a constant need for supervision of the growing youth, but K'Shai felt restless. She had chosen to raise A'ryin'di and El'tude along with R'chnt outside of the mei'sa walls, and now that she spent nearly the first month of S'ruch-de's life inside those walls raising them as a proper Yautja, she suddenly did not regret her choices in how she raised her first two, despite the consequences that had resulted.
There was a thrill that came with hunting; with flying from world to world searching for prey and not really knowing if that hunt was going to be your last. There was a freedom outside the mei'sa walls, and experiences that simply did not exist within. The Yautja youngsters, each one of them, thought that they were the mightiest thing that had ever graced the planet's surface as they trained within the mei'sa walls and play hunted without weapons.
None of them, save for A'ryin'di and El'tude, had any idea how safe they all actually were inside the mei'sa; how well protected. Now S'ruch-de, too, would only know that safety and ignorance of what the universe is really like until he is thrown into it and expected to make a kill to earn his Blooding mark under whatever Leader takes him on. It seemed so strangely ironic to K'Shai, that a race that demanded so much of their youth, also kept them so heavily sheltered and protected for the first ten Yautja years of their lives- a lifetime that extended beyond normal human lifespan - before they ever even picked up a weapon.
"So you will not remain with your offpsring?" Neh'rti said to her flatly. "Here in the mei'sa where it is best."
K'Shai gritted her teeth, very much still at odds with what Neh'rti's idea of 'best' was.
"My offspring will remain in the mei'sa as is best for them. And proper. S'ruch-de will know nothing of the outside world, not even the Clan city beyond the walls until he is old enough to be Blooded. A'ryin'di and El'tude are learning so quickly and so well, I know soon their Blooding hunt will be at hand. But… I…" She paused, looking at her young son in her arms for a moment.
"I belong out there. As a Yautja. A Hunter."
Neh'rti accepted S'ruch-de into her own arms instead of having K'Shai pass him off to another young matriarch standing with her.
"I suppose you do," she said in a soft tone, once again for the briefest of moments surprising K'Shai with a sort of gentle look in her eye that conveyed understanding and empathy in a fraction of a second. It seemed so unlike Neh'rti.
K'Shai took a brief moment to say goodbye to both A'ryin'di and El'tude, wishing them well in their continued training and telling them she would no doubt continue hunting with their sire.
"I will return for your Blooding hunt. I know you both will succeed proudly."
With that, she turned and headed out of the mei'sa, less slowly than she had when she walked in now months before. She did not even tell R'chnt that she was leaving the mei'sa. She still had much to decide. She took her time also getting to R'chnt as well. It had been months since she had seen him, many long months that she had spent reflecting on things past, not the least of which were her own past mistakes, and how best to remedy them.
She made her way through the Clan city. The suns were getting higher in the sky as midday approached before she found R'chnt in the training area outside of his city home. He was in one of the training circles amidst a group of his hunters, now a few smaller than the last hunt they had all participated on, for R'chnt had not replenished his ranks with new hunters, which was odd. Most odd.
They were training, sparring in light-hearted pleasure, which meant there were only a few small injuries instead of all out blood-gushing wounds. Some young hunters sat in the nearby cantina watching the spar with amused interest. R'chnt strode around with elegance, looking like some kind of dashing swashbuckler from some movie K'Shai might have one seen long ago, armed with just a single sword and very little armor.
His wounds were apparent, but he did keep his sheltering of his old injured right side well hidden, and now too, the limp in his left leg from an improperly healed break that had been tended to in the field as best as he could. He hid that one less, though; in fact, K'Shai noticed how R'chnt seemed to play on that limp, and draw in his opponents, even some from another training circle that thought they were up to the challenge, making them believe he was getting tired.
One by one, as they noticed her approaching, the Yaujta stopped for a moment to stare. K'Shai was definitely used to that by now She always seemed to draw in attention, especially from fresh out of the mei'sa young bloods that had not ever even seen her in their lives.
She thought once, that she would never get used to feeling like some kind of alien spectacle, but as it turned out, not only had she gotten used to it, she rather liked it. It wasn't the worst thing ever to have the complete attention, curiosity, and respect of an entire group of hunters. Perhaps, she thought, if she could continue with that, she might actually feel like a Yautja.
R'chnt turned slowly and eyed her, then strode heavily towards her, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her up close into him, making sure everyone was paying attention when he did so.
She moved away from him, into the catina and with nothing more than a simple look, cleared a path to the food area so she could fill a plate, with R'chnt, W'rsa, and a few other curious acquaintances following close behind.
K'Shai did not speak as she got food, drink, and spotted a table where she chose to sit; pointedly making sure there were a couple of young males that appeared to be somewhat easily intimidated. She glared at them as she approached and while they stopped eating and turned towards her, they did not quite get the message, so K'Shai moved ight up to the edge of the table and slammed her mug down, splashing out some drink as she eyed the pair of youngbloods.
The point was taken, and the two abandoned the table, leaving their mugs and platters behind as they scurried away. K'Shai smirked and looked playfully to R'chnt who ticked his head sideways in amusement. She eyed W'rsa and couldn't help but notice that he looked just as pleased and entertained as R'chnt. K'Shai straightened her face quickly and sat down, allowing the males to join her, with R'chnt sitting so close to her their shoulders touched. He placed his mighty palm on her thigh and they took a few bites of food before anyone spoke.
"How long will you be staying with us, my K'Shai?" He asked.
She paused for a moment and felt her heart jump a bit at the question. "I'm not sure exactly."
R'chnt clicked his mandibles; clearly that was not the answer he was anticipating. She looked to him quickly then diverted her eyes back down to her plate.
"I… uh… I have a matter I'd like to attend to, R'chnt. If it goes the way I hope, I will likely not be back for a while. If it does not go the way I hope, then… well, I'm really not sure what happens then, actually."
She added a bit of a nervous laugh to try to smooth over her ambiguous statement, but R'chnt clearly did not accept it. He said nothing more, but the look he continued to give her throughout that meal, the entire rest of the afternoon, and into the night, told her everything she needed to know about what was going through his mind.
It was far after evening meal of freshly hunted kill that K'Shai and R'chnt disappeared
from the rest of the group and she jumped into him so hard she practically knocked him down before she tore his garments from his body and spent an extended amount of time simply brushing her hands across his body in every direction, followed by her lips.
"K'Shai," he said in a quiet tone. "What is it you are thinking? What are you planning to do?"
She smiled softly and completely avoided the question.
"Oh, R'chnt, never mind for now. It's been so long since I've gotten to put my hands on you. Let's enjoy this."
She distracted him in the most delightful of ways, and touched his entire body, kissing him and licking his skin, rubbing her hands across his chest, down his abdomen, and to his groin. It was good to feel his body heat, to feel him grow in her hands. She did miss his touch, his scent, his power. She wanted to enjoy every second of it for the moment and not think of anything else.
She moaned in delight as she felt him enter her. It was beyond just good to feel him. Just his touch, his scent in her nostrils, the feel of his powerful hands clamped onto her hip bones, the smoothness of his sweat-glistened skin; it was a need for her. She had missed him and yearned for him so much and she unleashed herself powerfully upon sucking up all he had to offer and filling a void that she so very much needed filled.
Morning came and after probably the best sleep she had in months, K'Shai felt well rested, charged up, and ready for more. She jumped upon him again much to his clear delight as he offered up a deep chortle and an erection to meet her pleasures.
She satiated herself all that she needed, and filled herself with his strong musk, juices, and taste in her mouth before she drifted back into a powerful sleep where she remained for the entire length of the day.
It was after first sunfall before she woke to an empty room and sidled her way over to the computer console carefully and cautiously as if she might be spotted. She slid over to the computer and punched up the information she wanted to see. She thought about sending a message, her finger hovered over the hail button, but she stopped and withdrew her hand. No, she thought, this was something to be done in person.
Just then, R'chnt filled the doorway and she looked up and smiled. She immediately moved away from the computer nonchalantly and greeted him.
"Mmm… I'm hungry, how about you?"
He nodded deeply. "Indeed. Come."
They went out to the terrace and ate for a while.
"K'Shai, we should return to my hunting grounds, yes?" He said to her, more of a strong suggestion than a question. He was definitely trying to get her to speak her intentions, but she did not give in.
"Not just yet, R'chnt. The Clan City is fine for now. Tell me of what you have been doing since I've been in the mei'sa. I will tell you of our son, S'ruch-de, he is strong and perfect. An ideal little Yautja," she spoke to him flatly, with a sort of emotional detachment that was so uncharacteristic for her, that he found himself concerned about it for a moment.
She was being evasive, nondescript; very much not like K'Shai.
"K'Shai," he said with a quiet rumble to his voice, then looked around at the table full of hunters he did not particularly want to have involved with the conversation he actually wanted to have.
"I have been well. Hunting and training with these gnu-tau." He chortled a bit and the others cheered and raised their mugs, embracing the jesting insult that R'chnt would only deliver to friends he knew best.
K'Shai smiled and the group turned to chatting about the last few months. Eventually when they had a little bit of quiet time, K'Shai did bring R'chnt up to speed about the affairs of their three children, but remained willfully quiet on any other matters. It was odd, and unusual for K'Shai, but then again, he thought, she had spent the last nearly full season in the mei'sa.
Perhaps that had something to do with her behaviour. She always came home differently from the mei'sa each and every time. THis time, she was less full of anger and anxiety, and more full of Yautjaness than usual. It was very different. For her.
He decided not to think on it too much, likely it would be something she would either work through or live with, but when she disappeared on him the following day, and ignored his communications, that was unusual. He could, of course, leave female business to females, and not mention it at all, or he could choose to try to pry out information from her if she was unwilling to divulge.
When she returned to him, she found him on the terrace overlooking the clan city, the training circles below. The raging river and falls were a little louder than normal today, or the activity below them a little quieter, K'Shai was not sure. R'chnt sat on his nearly throne-like chair, ever so suitable for a distinguished Hunter of his elite status as Elder.
She smiled as he tipped his head towards her.
"K'Shai, you have returned. Where have you been? What do you wish?" He asked as he reached for her hand, which she promptly gave him and slid onto his knee.
She smiled sleekly, pulling her shoulders straight and rigid as she gazed at him.
"I wish to hunt, of course." She said proudly and directly, with a raised eyebrow. "Are you hungry? I'm famished. Let's get this fire going and cook us a proper meal!"
K'Shai slid off his lap and pulled him along with her, out to the edge of the terrace to get the fire pit going and then disappeared inside, returning a short while later with a freshly skinned ker'taj she must have gotten while she was out.
The suns were setting, casting beautiful pastel hues across the skies and illuminating the fire they sat in front of as their meal cooked and R'chnt continued to delve into K'Shai's intentions.
"So, what is it that you intend to do? Shall we leave for a hunt tonight?" He asked of her.
"No R'chnt. Not tonight." K'Shai said simply, then after a pause, questioned him.
"Can I ask you something?" She said meekly, keeping her eyes purposefully on the cooking meat.
He nodded silently, waiting for her to at least lift her eyes to make some kind of contact with him.
"You…" she inhaled deeply, talking in a whisper. "You have hunted on far more worlds than you have taken me to. You have hunted on worlds with intelligent life."
"I have." He responded simply.
K'Shai pulled the cooked meat off the spit and busied herself preparing it for them, trying to convey a casual conversation, when she was prying him for information.
"What was it like? To hunt intelligent creatures, I mean?"
R'chnt growled and shifted a bit in his cross-legged position.
"It is the single most challenging thing any Yautja can do. Kainde amedha, even Quatza-rij, are truly dangerous and difficult prey. To hunt an animal that has enough awareness to plan a strategy of attack is truly incredible. But, K'Shai…" his voice deepened a bit into an almost threatening rumbling tone, but not quite enough to hide the bloodlust enjoyment running through his mind.
"To hunt a creature capable of as much thought as you…. One that fashions weapons, traps, gathers into groups to hunt you back. There is nothing quite like the challenge of hunting something that is taking on the challenge of becoming a hunter itself."
He looked at her, finding a hint of curiosity in her eyes. He supposed it was only natural, to be curious of such things, even for her. Any Yautja wishing to make a name for themselves would dream of the opportunity to hunt - and hopefully win - against prey that can actively hunt back, but few that get the chance actually survive.
"Many young hunters... well, even not so young," he added his thoughts into words, "dream of such chances. After they've hunted what they feel is enough and they believe they are ready for the challenge, they can take on hunting intelligent life if the Clan Council approves of their bid to do so."
K'Shai tipped her head and listened intently. She did not know the clan council had to approve a hunter for intelligent life.
"Why?" She asked.
"Why what?" R'chnt sought clarification.
K'Shai added with a slight shake to her head, "Why does the Council have to approve a hunter?"
"The hunting of intelligent prey is the highest challenge any hunter can take on. If all hunters who wished to hunt such prey could just run off and do so, not only would they likely die hunting before they are ready, but the possibility of our prey taking our equipment, our bodies; of hunters simply not respecting the rules of such encounters, is much higher."
K'Shai processed the conversation for a while, long into the night even. Long after R'chnt thought nothing more of their talk, K'Shai looked at him.
"What about Earth?"
He curiously looked at her. "What about it?"
K'Shai smirked. "Earlier you said that it's against Yautja hunting code to allow prey to take hunting equipment…." she paused. "But on Earth, surely many hunters died there? Many probably had their awu'asa and weapons taken by humans?"
R'chnt waved a hand in the air dismissively. "K'Shai you know hunters critically wounded must destroy themselves and…"
"Yes, I know that," she said cutting him off. "But do you think they all had that chance?"
"Hunting of humans is no longer allowed, K'Shai. It has been banned for eternity. Each Clan, even ours, would have remote detonated all that may have been left behind."
She nodded.
"What about those three females, what are their names again?"
He looked at her from across the fire as she slowly inched a bit closer to him.
"Which three?"
"Those three females, the bad blood hunters." She said vaguely.
"What of them?" R'chnt asked.
K'Shai pried for more information, trying to subdue a flicker of annoyance that R'chnt, always one of few words, would not freely offer up information without her having to ask every question directly.
"They hunt other Yautja, right? How did they get to do that? Did the council approve them to do that?"
"Of course." R'chnt said simply, provided no more details.
K'Shai sighed and tried again.
"How does a hunter have to prove worthy to do such things?" She asked.
R'chnt tipped his head again and said nothing for an awkward moment. He was trying to decide if her questions were nothing more than a natural curiosity a hunter may express when they've reached a certain point in their experiences, or if there was a point and direction to what she was asking. K'Shai simply eyed him and waited for a response.
"Is this why you chose to leave the mei'sa, K'Shai?" R'chnt asked during the course of their quiet conversation of such things, a small fire between them slowly roasting a rabbit-like ker'taj, just enough food for the two of them. Need not, take not.
"What do you mean?" She asked quizzically, diverting her eyes towards the trees as if to scan for threats, trying to hide the glare in her eyes from him.
"You know exactly of what I speak, K'Shai. You never felt comfortable with the females, or life in the mei'sa. Do you now wish to hunt Yautja instead of…."
"Instead of what?" K'Shai glared at him, unable to contain the burning inside her.
| "Is that what you want of me? To just what? Idle away my days in the mei'sa, making sure they all think I'm a weak, cowering little s'jit that you took some kind of…. pity on? Like I just could never manage to survive doing anything else amongst the Yautja?" She grunted bitterly.
"I've hunted plenty of creatures, and to what end? To be beaten and chastised?" She growled and flung her hands in the air as she spouted at him.
"Everyone accuses me of trying to completely change the Yautja way, but," she continued on shaking her head.
"No one seems to realize that I've done everything I can possibly do to live as a Yautja. It's just that wrong that I want us and our children to be a family together? That is the one thing I still..." she deflated. R'chnt tipped his head to one side and simply watched her idly. She eyed him back widely and fell silent, not really sure any point she was trying to make was made or mattered.
"K'Shai" he said with authority, yet she promptly interrupted.
"I know, I know," she dropped her chin and raised the heel of her palm to him. "I can't have it both ways. I just don't know what else I need to do to prove myself. Look what I've done so far, and nothing I do is right. Hunt. Don't. Stay in the mei'sa, don't. Leave the offspring there, take them with us. It's wrong no matter what. What else can I do?"
She humped down in a bit of defeat and prodded the fire for no reason with a poker rod.
"You must do nothing."
She looked across the fire to him with a quizzical glare iced in a flash of anger. Nothing?
He continued on.
"You live. You do what your heart drives you to do, as you have always done. There are consequences. There are rewards. We all must find our own Path simply by walking it. There is nothing wrong, with the offspring being in the mei'sa. That is the Yautja way. That is what you live, and what they must live."
Simple. Concise. R'chnt. She huffed a bit and smirked.
"Well, it's not like anyone is actually challenging you or expecting you to live up to their views of what you should be doing. Neh'rti will never approve of any choice I make. Not even after what she did to me."
"No one challenges me," R'chnt growled with a deep, confident tone. "Because they know they would lose. No one challenges you, K'Shai. Not in any way different than all Yautja are challenged to excel and grow."
She grew quiet and thought about it for a while until she fell asleep. When dawn's first light woke her, she opened her eyes and looked about. R'chnt was there, sound asleep next to her in his bed. He was breathing almost deep enough to be considered a snore, naked and peaceful looking. She pressed her lips together in a small grimace, eyed him, then slipped out of bed and went over to the computer console as silently as possible while R'chnt remained quite unconscious.
She tapped the keypad and found some information she needed; it was vague, but it would be enough she had hoped. She dressed and slid carefully back into R'chnt, disturbing him slightly so she could at least quietly whisper to him that she was headed out for the day. He groaned some sort of mumbling acknowledgement that he had at least heard her and she dismissed herself, only momentarily thinking how very unusual it was for him to be so heavily sleeping so late.
The computer had told her enough information of the general whereabouts of those she sought. At least they were currently on world. This is really stupid. This is a really really stupid thing to be doing. She thought about the stupidity of her actions as she continued right on doing them. She avoided checking the mei'sa, for there would be no reason to check there, and she very much wanted to stay away from them.
She did, however, check the many training grounds around the Clan City and into the outskirts of the territory as well, covering as much ground as possible with a land transport. Yes, she could very well have just sent a message, but this stupid thing was best done in person, she had decided. She asked a few people she knew, but no one seemed to be of much help.
Later in the day, nearly to first sunset, she finally returned to the Clan cantina for a bite to eat and sat quietly in a corner table, withdrawn from all the others around her. Some youngbloods looked over her way from time to time, but most avoided her. W'rsa eventually noticed her and awkwardly approached, asking politely for permission to sit, with no words, just a simple and respectful bow of his head.
She grimaced, not particularly in the mood for his company but nodded an authorization to have him sit with her all the same. He slid onto the bench near her and took a drink from his mug as casually as possible.
"Were you sparring with R'chnt?" She asked, noticing that he was rather sweaty from obvious training.
"R'chnt? No. I have not seen him most of the day. He was out earlier, but he did not stay long."
She grimaced. She had not heard from him at all, which was not that unusual. She thought nothing more of it.
W'rsa stayed rather quiet for an awkward moment and K'Shai finished up her plate.
"K'Shai…" he started.
"No. Don't." She cut him off immediately. "W'rsa, I just… you don't need to. Alright. Just don't."
Vague or clear and concise, she wasn't really sure. She stood and departed the awkwardness. Sitting alone with W'rsa, with R'chnt nowhere about was not exactly the best idea ever, for not only might it give W'rsa something more to think about, it certainly would give most of the other hunters something to talk about.
The Yaujta grapevine, she thought. Just as healthy and robust as any other.
She headed out of the cantina, rounding a turn around a corner and immediately noticed something was not quite right. The passage way between the buildings that led from the training circles and cantina between the male youngblood living complexes and towards an entry street into the city was disturbingly quiet. It was unusual for it to be so empty, no one was there at all. Not one single Yautja. She moved forward with a frown and idle thoughts in her mind.
Then, suddenly, she noticed movement from an entry way and she stopped dead in her tracks and took a deep long breath. Her heart jumped into racing gear without her permission and she tried as hard as she could to keep her composure though her nerves tingled her to her toes.
She was nervous the first time she went in front of the Clan Council, looking to be accepted into the Clan. For sure, that was intimidating; elders and Leaders of the Clan judging her and no doubt sadistically figuring she would surely fail and die pitifully. She was frightened when she and R'chnt encountered, and ultimately killed, the Quatza-rij while naked and protecting their children. She had a whole slew of emotions when R'chnt had been lost, presumed dead, and W'rsa made his stance clear to her. But this, this dark back alley encounter was easily a hundred times more terrifying.
"You have been searching for us. Asking questions."
K'Shai swallowed and remained quiet. Was she supposed to respond? What was the the proper expected action in this situation exactly?
Before her stood a mighty, seven and half foot tall Yautja huntress. She was powerful and ferocious for sure, with her head ridges pierced with gold chains connecting them that glistened in the sunlight. K'Shai had never been this close to one of the arbiters, let alone all three of them. The other two females came out of the shadows from somewhere K'Shai had never even noticed. She had not seen or smelled them or been aware of their presence at all until they were standing directly behind her. They were prime and perfect Yautja for sure, and K'Shai tried her best to make it appear as though she had been expecting them and was well aware she was now surrounded.
Whether or not that was actually working would remain to be seen, she figured. This is really stupid she thought again. There was no way this was going to work and her mind rushed with notions of certain death right there on the spot. She clenched her jaw and eyed the three females encircling her before turning back to the one who had spoken and making direct, but politely so in Yautja standards, eye contact.
"I was." She stated flatly, trying her hardest to make the simple words sounds as casual as possible and that she was in control and that she was not half terrified that she was going to be slain into pieces in a moment.
The one who spoke, the one wiht the chain jewelry adorning her ridges along the crown of her head stepped forward a bit. K'Shai held her ground, but dared not even so much as look as though she was going to reach for a weapon. The next thing that happened stunned her so much she almost forgot how to speak.
"Did you and R'chnt truly kill a Quatza-rij naked?"
K'Shai was dumbfounded for a moment. They...they… wanted to know about her? This was definitely not the turn of events she was expecting and once she recovered a bit from the surprise question she smiled and nodded her head sideways.
"We did. We really did." K'Shai responded simply.
"I am blood of R'chnt," another of the females, just off to K'Shai's right added with an almost chippering voice. "My mother was an offspring of R'chnt."
K'Shai smiled softly and gasped a bit in surprise.
"You're his grand daughter?" I'm honored to meet you. K'Shai dipped her head respectfully.
"What is your name?"
"I am L'tdi." R'chnt's grandchild said and then pointed to the other two.
Mara'di was the one with the crown jewelry, and S'nji'di, the third and youngest of the group, was also the tallest. It was a hard call to discern which one of them was more intimidating, but what was shocking to K'Shai was that they were all curious about her. The four of them headed into the cantina, making no small show of the fact that K'Shai was travelling with them as they cleared a path through wide eyed young males who pretty much leapt out of the way to avoid even so much as glaring eye contact with any of them.
They sat, ate, talked, and traded stories of hunts, and K'Shai listened as the three females discussed what they were doing during the Earth hunts. S'nji'di was still in the mei'sa, but she was curious to hear the others' tales, too, as she had rarely heard much about it from them.
K'Shai did notice at some point in the night that W'rsa had spotted her and looked towards them, but dared not approach. It was like there was a neon sign glowing above the four females that said "Don't you dare come near us." This made K'Shai both somewhat edgy and yet oddly self-satisfied as well.
"So," she asked when the timing was right, and directed the question mostly towards S'nji'di, being the youngest and obviously the newest addition to the trio of bad-blood hunters.
"How is it that you came to be part of the bad blood hunting group?"
"Our other was killed. S'nji'di was selected to replace her." L'tdi informed.
"Selected by whom? Does Neh'rti just assign another to replace one of your fallen?"
"You are very curious about hunting the bad bloods, aren't you K'Shai?" Mara'di questioned, but the words she spoke and the question she was truly asking, K'Shai knew, were very much not the same thing.
K'Shai turned to Mara'di carefully, not totally sure how to truly respond, and very much not sure just how much eye contact was going to be too much. She opted for direct and to the point, which seemed the most sensible.
"Yes." She said and paused, waiting for any kind of response from the three, of which she received none. So, she added in a question of her own.
"Have you ever had four in your pack?"
L'tdi and Mara'di exchanged a quick look and then turned back to K'Shai.
"The chosen mate of R'chnt wishes to hunt bad blood with us?" Mara'di said.
K'Shai was not sure if she was asking a question, stating a fact, or offering acceptance. In fact, she was not quite sure what was happening or what to do next; surely a bad position to be in for someone indeed hoping to do exactly what Mara'di had stated.
"And what does R'chnt say to this?" L'tdi asked.
K'Shai suddenly felt the urge to look around and see where R'chnt was exactly, like he might be approaching the table to find out just what in the hell his mate was doing with the three arbiters in the first place. She subdued the urge to cast her eyes about and growled apprehensively at the females.
"R'chnt does not make such decisions for me!"
She spoke so loud and so fiercely it stopped conversations at nearby tables and people looked over towards her. Considering there was absolutely no one at any of the adjacent tables directly surrounding the four females, K'Shai suddenly realized just how loud she had actually spoken.
"For that matter, neither does Neh'rti." She mumbled much quieter.
"Indeed." L'tdi said. "Nor should they."
"K'Shai, if you do wish to hunt the bad bloods with us, you may. There are no initiations you must go through, no ceremonies. Neh'rti does not assign who hunts with us, and certainly no male makes such decisions for females." L'tdi chuckled at the last statement and the other two joined her with that.
K'Shai nodded and tried to don a smile but her heart was racing in a half-panic and fear. What am I doing? R'chnt's going to be pissed. She raised her mug and got the three females to howl and cheer briefly.
"Spar with us in the morning." S'nji'di added. "We spar a lot." She spoke with a comical tone, like she was talking about taking an exercise class; like it was just all for fun.
"We do a lot of waiting." L'tdi added, which drew in another chuckle from the other two and also K'Shai.
"A lot of waiting for some fool to turn bad!"
That got the three of them howling with laughter. They were not at all what K'Shai expected. After another hour or so of cackling laughter, making jokes about hunters who turned against the clan, K'Shai returned home to R'chnt. She had been gone the entire day, through both sunsets and nearly clear on to sunrise.
It was the first time she had ever been away from his home that long, besides being in the mei'sa. She expected R'chnt to be angry, worried, waiting for her. Instead, she found him asleep in his chair in the Yautja equivalent of the living room, snoring so deeply it was so strange to see. He looked peaceful and content and also not at all the vision of him she had expected to come home to. Her eyes scanned him a bit and she absorbed details of him that she never quite noticed before.
The scars on his body, from the one he received on Earth so long ago now, to the ones he just most recently received during the dragon hunt somehow seemed more pronounced, more white. He had more white dapples all around his body, in fact. His hair was lacing with white all around the grey strands, looking a bit like some kind of pastel colored marbling. His whiskers were longer, his tusks were more yellow.
She tiptoed into the bedroom trying not to wake him and analyzed her own changed body in the mirror. So much was different. She could recall looking into a mirror in R'chnt's chambers on the Kojol once not long after she went to it from Earth.
She remembered seeing a weak, ribby, bruised and tired girl with darkly circled eyes and dirt from head to toe. She also remembered what she looked like lean, in good flesh, with hair freshly oiled with Yautjan treatments, and skin darkly tanned after finally being on the dual-sun world for just a short while.
She was different now too. She was more solid, her hair was longer, but so heavily braided with beads and adornments that she really did not remember what it felt like to have it loose and light. She had tattoos and scars and scars hidden by tattoos and tattoos hidden by scars now. Her eyes…. She stepped closer to the mirror to evaluate her eyes. They were so different. There was so much more behind the eyes that stared back at her that certainly was not there years before.
Then, another reflection joined her and she turned to look at R'chnt.
He lingered behind her, at a distance, not close enough to touch, but close enough that she could smell his musk.
"K'Shai," he said in a very unusually quiet whisper. "What are you doing?"