Part I:

RAKKA

continued

The asthurs stir at taking notice of the drells making way across the river boulders to the Behedin's bank and lift their arched necks to warn—with hissing ominous rattles—from the tebrises along their chests. Casnar watches the beasts warily as he steps out of the way for Ylyssus and Thane to step onto the cool dark grasses in the evening twilight. Fires dot this side of the bank, "…Where do I find this Bromthas."

"He will come to us," Ylyssus informs him—with an eye to the large asthurs, some asleep seemingly nearby. There are many Behedins either laying down for their own rest, or working on tools and weapons by the fires, or cooking and quietly talking amongst themselves. At one low fire two forms stir and rise.

"Casnar…It is possible the Behedin you will meet might kill you."

Casnar looks sideways at Thane, "…We're on the same wavelength."

They wait as the two figures approach.

"Let them speak first," Ylyssus suggests.

"Sered," Bromthas reveals by his voice, ( "…Why do you stand within reach of asthurs?…Come, don't be skittish, join us for a smoke by the fire, some food, and save yourself from an unpleasant bite…Asthurs are unpredictable—if one does not know their manners around them…" )

Casnar and Thane look at the viperish eyes slitting and showing red…The big heads lower into the top ends of S-shaped necks as these animals settle into their positions of repose, though a few continue to watch the drells standing five yards away.

( "How did you find such creatures," ) Casnar's words as well as Bromthas's are translated by Thane's omni-tool and delivered straight to a node within his teness, ( "…They are highly sought after, but dangerous to collect, much less train as you apparently have done…" ) He brings his gaze back to the Behedin.

The one next to him has his face covered so no one may recognize, or see, who listens...Ylyssus knows it is not Dolatrafas.

( "Asthur dwell in Bangal'roux," ) Bromthas explains, ( "…Behe has gifted these to us…" )

( "Behe gave you asthurs?…" ) Ylyssus blurts before Casnar shoots him a glare that tells him to stay quiet.

Thane looks on.

Bromthas turns a shoulder towards the fire, ( "…Let us sit and we will talk some more..." )

Across the river, with its surreal reflections of moonlight coming over the trees, Garrus, Grunt, and the burrells watch, tense, as Casnar, Ylyssus and Thane move with the two Behedins towards the fires.

"They took knives with them at least," Garrus says humbly.

"Better to have guns against things like that."

"The Behedins?"

"Those asthurs…Those Behedins aren't going to hurt them," Grunt rumbles, "…They could have done it when they were crossing."

Garrus sees truth in this. "That would have been a good time to do it..."

Tetonbaum and Kasumi walk down the bay ramp from the ship and take their seats on the bottom ledge of the ramp.

Plucking a blade of grass from the ground, the high th'ane sets this between his teeth to chew thoughtfully, wrapping an arm around his wife's shoulders next to him.

For a time they manage to find some comfort while they observe Casnar and the others adding themselves to the Behedins by the first of the fires lining the opposite side of the river. The moons above are at half-wane, which provides ample light to see by.

"You think they'll try to trap them?"

Tetonbaum shakes his head, patak catching her hair. "No, they would have done it, my little wife." He strokes her hair off his ridge and looks at the strands remaining on his fingers, "…Were they intent on capturing my brother, they would have done so at the easiest location…Just across the water, right as they land, and then the Behedins could swiftly move into the trees before we could catch them." He frees her hair. "The Behedins interest me…"

"Why is that?"

"If Rakka is cleansed as we have heard, the Behedins will no longer be needed there, for their protection of Drell and Drellahna against such beasts as wuliton and others," he gestures with his hand folding all but a finger at the coagulated mass of asthurs resting under the forest's overhanging branches, "…There are no places to travel to that are not fiercely protected by Morthwyl and Braith…Why they work for Cartira tells me they are preparing a move onto new hunting ground."

"You're not alarmed by their working with Cartira," Kasumi, recalling her encounters with the eldest brother in Nualavera…He seemed nice upfront, she thought.

"They are hunters," he ponders aloud with her, "…Not kidnappers…They work for whomever pays them, but if they do not capture Casnar, and the opportunities abound…It gives me to thinking…"

"Tell me, Teton," she nudges him after he goes quiet for too long. The stars in the heavens above begin to glisten in millions, and a few streaks go by as if drawn with lasers through the night coming so sneakily.

"…If they leave all they know of these borderlands, will they be able to adapt to a new land…With new game, and new challenges…"

He sets his lips together, and gazes down at her.

Kasumi feels in that look alone more love than she has ever experienced, even from Keiji.

"…It intrigues me for if I were to leave what I have come to learn, to know so well…Would I be able to adapt to that new beginning…with you."

She hugs him, binding him tightly with her thin arms. Kasumi pulls in the scent of his venom, caramel and sweet, "…I hope they succeed," she murmurs against him, then draws away, not letting go—only looking up at his eyes searchingly.

"Learning the Behedins' decision for their future may help me make my own…For us," he leans closer, eyes smiling, "…Maybe…there is hope for me, too, to migrate to new lands," he dares add, "…Far, far from Rakhana."

Kasumi's chest tightens, she does not know why…She ignores it and forces herself to relax. "I can handle us," she whispers urgently, pulling his chin to her face by her slender fingers, "…Let me take care of you, you relax finally…Instead of always looking out for your brothers, Tetonbaum Soterios…"

( "I love thee," ) he whispers in Rakhïken under the hull of the Ni S'pri and then partakes in a quiet, hopeful kiss with her.

Faces look from the fires. Hoods not drawn back. Dolatrafas watches the others as they approach the first setting of stones, blazing among these the warm fire and others sitting there, waiting…Food cooks amongst the lickings of the golden-red flames…

Quietly he steals off at seeing the hiriwa with the smooth golden crests, dauntlessly come to join with the elder, Bromthas, in the ring of Behedins on their mats. Casnar Soterios, with Ylyssus Tan'nanshul and the third drell he does not recognize, look menacing—he knows of Casnar's status and value to those who wish him captured and brought home for his own good…Word has been given, however, that such will not occur.

The alternative shall be, he thinks as he moves towards his father's fire, another setting down the bank from the first.

Ylyssus follows Thane and Casnar, who follows Bromthas, the second figure gone ahead of them…Closer now, one may see that figure in the lead is slighter, more slender, or not fitting the heavy furs about him.

Thane directs caution to that one and taps Casnar's side of his arm through his ba'tran to gesture at the first, (: …Be wary, there is something striking about the Behedin ahead of Bromthas, :) he sings in Silent Tongue.

Casnar spares a glance over Bromthas's big hunter's shoulder to the fur cloak and leather hood, (: …It is just another Behedin... :)

They sit once the elder Behedin stops and gestures to the mats about the stones encircling the fire. Several Behedins stand and move away, giving them space.

Casnar, Ylyssus, and Thane search all of the shadowed faces under the heavy hoods but get hardly more than a nose or a mouth as they skirt off to farther fires and leave them to sit. Meat and herbal perfumes are drifted from spits slanted among the stones towards the flames. Ylyssus realizes he is hungry, and accepts an offer of a surprise cut of meat from off one of the stripped pieces charring gently at the end of one of those spits. He bites into it, not thinking there could be poison as others have already taken from it.

His irises constrict with the darkness and fluctuation caused by the firelight.

Casnar declines the food, but at Ylyssus's enjoyment—as seen in the drell's eyes while he eats—he relents, and accepts another cut performed by one Behedin who remains, perhaps a chef or a drell who actually owns the meat and herbs cooking…He chews on the soft morsel cut by this Behedin tending the food and flames, and hums with approval.

It is wuliton...Thane declines completely until Casnar leans to him, (: …Eat…I forget sometimes it is a sign of good faith. We need to find Braith, so pretend to eat it if you have to. :)

Bromthas chuckles deeply from his swathe of chest, covered in small bones and trinkets from his hunting trips, tools among these, and they all look at him across the fire, "…That not need."

"You speak Common," Thane says, having accepted the cooked offering. He sets it into his cheek and admits to himself it is likely the best meat he has ever tasted, rare and smokey.

"One learns from listen."

Thane wonders, …To whom?

"…You here because I allow...Eat if wish and not fear bad food…These fire pure, are intentions tonight."

Casnar smiles, "…What are your intentions."

Dolatrafas is nowhere to be seen, Ylyssus thinks as he observes the Behedins around him…No sight of the gray silks on the drell nor the drell himself.

Bromthas moves one arm into the cloak over his body, reaching for something hidden.

Thane, Casnar and Ylyssus still, watching like a trio of hawks…Relief comes when Bromthas only removes a skin of leather and flicks apart the panels from the hide's contents, revealing a row of bedis. Casnar nods to Thane, "…You mind?…" He takes one and lights it from the fire.

"I do not smoke," Thane says this to Bromthas, "…But thank you."

The others each have their own...Casnar sets his bedi to his lips and pulls. He listens as Thane asks about the Behedin's learning Common Speech.

Dolatrafas sees the signal from his father Cuerikhl and gradually helps to collect what they need, and head to the woods with others moving away as if to sleep deeper in the cover of the forest, bringing their mats with them.

Bromthas informs them of the hunts with Behe before she lost her drellahna adoptee, Little Behe's name being invoked once again on the Kir's banks, "…Behe and I," he passes the bedi into his other hand and covers it with the first, thin streams of blue wisplike smoke passing through his gloves, "…led Behedins into Rakka, and we work together as team…"

He remembers fondly those years—hunting, relying on the pale-moon skin of his huntress, her black hair hidden in the hood he had sewn for her, carrying the knife he made, "…She learn our tongue, I learn hers…" His wizened eyes regard the three drells across from himself and the Behedin to his right, the one tending the meat to his left.

In all appearances it seems a peaceful and pleasant affair.

"…She prefer speak Drell language, make her close…"

The fire spits, sizzles with dripping meat fats.

Bromthas looks from Thane towards Ylyssus, done with his silent observing for Cuerikhl's offspring, the Behedin concludes, "…You know she be treat well—by all…Dolatrafas, Ylyssus Tan'nanshul." He has the former lover's attention. "You and Dolatrafas abhor each other," a slight growl, "…same reason…A zhienne both worship."

"He raped her."

"She allow."

"She had no choice," Ylyssus means no disrespect to Casnar as his sered places his hand on his shoulder to remind him, but continues to denounce such a reprieve from the elder Bromthas himself. "Aspah ordered her to keep all of the Behedin unharmed! Or he would torment me!…You knew that…You were close to her…"

Ylyssus still riles at the memory of Braith's head in the Behedin's lap, Bromthas's heavy hand in her hair, when she asked him for permission to travel with Little Behe, a newborn at the time…He had peeked when he had heard them come to the outer hall attached to the entryway, and a moment passed in which he grew curious why Braith did not come out…Seeing her kneeling so close to one with such control over her life—aside from Aspah…Bromthas never slept with her, as far as Ylyssus could tell, and would only take a drellahna for a wife…but he was a recluse whenever he returned to Mohouni and not summoned to join Aspah in the meal halls with his Behedins…

But those nights when Braith was clean, her hair let down, long, black and glossy…

Ylyssus forces the possibility far from his current of mind…

Bromthas has not had the privilege to really meet and hear the lover's side of what he experienced indirectly as a result of his relationship with Behe, and now regards the irate drell with calm, pensive understanding…

He pulls on his bedi, eyes unwavering from Ylyssus's own and lowers his hand, wetting his lips before he speaks. "Dolatrafas, new to Behedins," his Common is not perfect, but workable, "…She encourage—"

"I find that difficult to accept—" Ylyssus shorts on his next words as Bromthas raises two fingers.

"They work close when Dolatrafas first come with father, join, be Behedin…One not…" He nods his crests down and up as he agrees with what memory holds of Braith's and Dolatrafas's subtle flirtations in those days—touches, looks, comments and sharing of more than just juices on the Kir's bank, "…not thought any orhua ( bad blood ) between baht ( two )."

To hear this from Bromthas brings a pain into Ylyssus's eyes, and he avoids looking at Casnar nor Thane.

Bromthas educates them further on the truth of the relationship, knowing one of them will try and kill Cuerikhl's son unless more is divulged, "…Dolatrafas young, handsome, time to choose mate…Feelings for Behe beyond what okay for Behedin…He be punish…Behe not invite to lay with, over," he gestures to the opposite shore of the river with a tilt of his crests, "…but she not want Dolatrafas kuryl ( dead ) …Enough what make give…amends Behe." His gaze rests on Casnar, "…Dolatrafas impress with Behe, see Behe…mithra."

Casnar's eyes darken somewhat as he tilts his brow forward.

"…He taste, and know what do wrong, after we catch."

Casnar forces down the ire, "…You are speaking to me, not only at Ylyssus…You say this aloud for everyone's tenesses to hear," he can feel the effect of the bedi assuaging some of his anger but not wholly…He feels as though Bromthas has been playing a game with him of cards, and called Casnar's hand with regard to the dealing of Dolatrafas on the table felt, "…Dolatrafas must be held accountable…But that is not why we are here…I would like to find Braith Shepard…"

"…I want the woman you refer to as Behe."

The hood on the concealed Behedin beside Bromthas lifts.

A soft breath is heard...

Thane's eyes snap to the dark veil covering all features of face even with the light of the flames trying to reveal who is behind it…

That breath, the sound was too soft, too alien to be Drell or Drellahna.

Casnar and Ylyssus both have their eyes trained on the veil sewn into the top of the beaked-hood.

"Who is with you," Casnar demands.

Bromthas turns to the Behedin beside him, ( "…We have come upon the time," ) he says to this Behedin, ( "…Show yourself from those dirty furs," ) and he helps the Behedin remove the top layer of black fur, masking the scent that now drifts to them freely with the smells of the fire and food.

Casnar, Thane and Ylyssus straighten on their bottoms as a gloved hand—slender thinner fingers than the Behedin's—is joined by the other taking a pinch of the opposite side of the leather hood embroidered with fine stitchings of dark threads and small stones…

Carefully both hands slide the hood back, the veil slipping off the head with it.