- Thank you so much for reading along with this story, and the original story, AvP: Annihiliation. This sequel, Darkness & Light has been in my head for many years, and finally after a very long road, the last word has been written, and I couldn't be happier to share it with you. If you've enjoyed the journey of K'Shai & R'chnt the way I have, I'm sure you feel connected to them the way I do. Be warned, without spoiling the ending, it is not an easy read, but all stories must come to an end, and so must all lives...(trigger warning)
I do hope you enjoy this story, and I'm truly grateful for a chance to share it, and have it enjoyed. There will be a short epilogue.
"The dance of days, the dance of nights; the dance around fires where blades clashed and howls filled the air; this is the Path of the Yautja. This is the Hunter's dance, taking each warrior on the Honored Path before the Payas."
K'Shai read to enthralled children circled around her. Change came slowly. Not just in the mei'sa, but to all Yautja. The only ones that accepted change readily were those like the young children before her, for they knew no different. The children readily accepted their teachings and it helped now that so many generations had been taught before them. The youngest stock learned from the older pupils just by seeing, mimicking, and eavesdropping.
The change seeped into the Clan, little by little, and perhaps that was the best, healthiest, way for it to be done. Patience is such a scarce gift when you are young, but age wisely teaches it.
As K'Shai aged, and could no longer tell that her hair was ever once deep black, for it was all silver, she had begun to understand R'chnt more and more. She thought she knew him well when she was younger; not perhaps when they had first met, but after years together, after their first offspring were born; she knew him.
Now, thinking back, it really wasn't until age granted her gifts that she could have never possessed in her youth that she felt she had truly come to know him. What R'chnt knew of his own life, his own Clan; that had evolved over the years. There was a certain peace with that; a simple acceptance. The Clan Path was the Only Path. The way was the way, and all the struggles and successes and failures and victories, all came at the same price, really.
For R'chnt, his age had brought him so many gifts; respect, wisdom that not many Yautja ever live to achieve. It also brought to him that profound sense of peace and calmness, that confidence in the Gods and the stars and universe itself that K'Shai had always admired in him,
until she realized she too had come to understand such things.
Age had brought wisdom. It brought peace. It brought acceptance. Acceptance of the way things were; that the Gods had planned a path for each hunter from the beginning of their days and they had no choice or say in the matter but to walk it.
Age also brought upon things that K'shai rather preferred to hide or pretend wasn't there at all. It brought along with it all the regrets and heartaches of the previous many years. It also brought along the still very vivid living memory of injuries and learning lessons in the form of inflexibility, aching bones, joints that did not enjoy bending any further, a slower walk and wrinkled skin to match the gray hairs that had -sprouted up by the thousands in what felt like a single night.
"That was written by a former pupil who had grown up just as you, and struck out when the time came. She was Blooded and honored in the Clan and she is still very much an honored hunter. You will all walk your own Path. You will all have to answer the call of the Payas, and you will find your place in the Clan." She always liked to conclude her classes with some kind of insight into what pupils from years before were doing now; hoping to inspire those sitting cross legged before her to reach for their own ambitions.
She had learned that sometimes her teachings fell upon typical Yautja-ears; it was of no consequence and they were going to bull their way through life, kill those who stood in their way and etch their place in the Clan. There was nothing wrong with that; it was the Yautja way after all, and despite once having tried to do so, K'Shai would never now discourage any youngster from such a Path. If that was their calling, it was their calling.
But not all youngsters heard those battle cries so fiercely under their growing locks. Some of them displayed curiosity about life beyond the Blooding; about how life in the Clan City they had never even seen or been to worked, and what made all the things around them tick.
Some of those pupils needed to grasp more than fighting and killing; they needed to learn there was art, culture, sciences, engineering; and that those positions were not only many in the Clan, they were needed and more respected than hunters would give credit for.
It was easy for young, brutish, bully Yautja who knew beyond any doubt they were destined to be hunters to want to push around and fight with those they considered lesser brutes than they were. It was natural, it was normal. K'Shai never discouraged such things, nor did any of the other matriarchs.
They did prevent serious injury and put an end to such fights if things turned a dangerous direction, but all of the youngsters in the mei'sa, every single one of them, needed to undergo Blooding. Learning how to fight off bullies was part of their life and they would never succeed in the Blooding if they couldn't stand up to a scuffle. Still, even so, not every youngster would survive the Blooding hunt. It was known. It was accepted.
And that, was also the reason that most youths were never taught wasted efforts of art, history, culture even reading or writing before the Blooding.
Why spend all that time on someone who very well might end up killed on their first real outing away from the protection of the matriarchs?
K'Shai, who had never agreed with that mentality, had spent half a lifetime causing quite a stir when trying to educate the youths the way she saw fit to do. Eventually, though, especially after the last two decades or so that A'ryin'di had become Clan Leader, that slow change seeped into society.
K'Shai found that sometimes; just sometimes, a young student fought just a bit harder knowing that they could then advance into a position other than Hunting if they chose. Once in a while a former pupil would see K'Shai in the Clan City and speak with her.
Once in a while, a current student who most certainly showed prowess and desire to be a hunter after Blooding, still found great interest in learning about accomplishments of other hunters that didn't involve bringing home a trophy skull to show off.
It wouldn't be fair to say that all of the pupils that showed interest in other paths after Blooding were females, but by far, the majority of
them were. That was typical, too; it was natural. Still, she had plenty of male pupils that displayed aptness in sciences, engineering, even arts, and K'Shai had found her pace and place in how she implemented nurturing those skills.
She spent most of her days in the mei'sa, but at night she returned to R'chnt and remained with him. She had carved out plenty of time away from the mei'sa as well so she and R'chnt could stay at their home on the beach and watch the stars until they fell asleep with the sounds of the waves just a short distance away.
It was a delicate balance between being available as a mei'sa mother and guardian and enjoying her time with R'chnt when he was not himself busy on the Clan Council. Along with seven other members of the Council plus A'ryin'di herself, the nine heads of the Clan were frequently and often busy with negotiating daily Clan business.
R'chnt was an honored and well respected member of the mostly - Elder Council and he spent much of his time overseeing matters that affected the Clan from eto handling to engineering plans for new buildings or roads, all the way to matters of Honor that affected or offended the Clan kept him quite busy on a daily basis.
When he was not directly engaged in Clan Council business, he would often host hunts on the property. The hunters and kin that came would hunt through his jungles, spar, and enjoy food and drink often for days. It was lovely to have that kind of activity, especially when El'tude could join, or rarely, A'ryin'di.
It seemed to K'Shai that was almost rare that the pair had a truly quiet night to themselves. With only a shadow lingering of an eto trying to keep well out of sight, this night was practically perfect. Seasons rarely changed on the planet's surface, but occasionally a cool streak would fill the air in these lower elevations as it blew down from mountains so far away. The fire hit the chill with a crackle and made the perfect set up to fall asleep warm and content.
"Why do I feel like we do not do this often enough anymore?" K'Shai whispered to him from a groggy state as she pressed into him for a deeper snuggle.
They sat on the deck of their house, comfortably nestled into each other.
R'chnt in response purred deeply.
"Indeed," he responded, seeming more at peace than perhaps she had ever known him to be.
It took barely a few minutes after a solid meal before they both were sound asleep. It was only the cracking of the sun over the horizon that stirred K'Shai. The light filtered into her groggy eyes as she opened them wider and wider and noticed R'chnt sprawled across the chair, one leg dangling off as she pulled herself upright from on top of him.
It was hardly a comfortable position for either of them, but yet they had managed somehow to find sleep.
She silently watched R'chnt as the sun's dim peach color turned to gold and grew brighter and brighter. He looked completely, uncharacteristically peaceful. He almost always stirred when she got up before him. He would grumble to life and the first thing he would do was survey the immediate area looking for threats.
Sometimes, K'Shai wondered how the Yautja managed to ever sleep, as jumpy and alert as they always were; it was a trait that tried hard to rub off on K'Shai but one that she never really adopted.
It seemed that her desire for a peaceful deep sleep had been rubbing onto R'chnt over many long years, perhaps since they first met. There was something even more so about how deeply he slept on this golden morning. She leaned into him as his face seemed to take on an ethereal glow from the rich colors of the first sun up. K'Shai pressed her lips into his face, noticing that his skin had felt almost cold thanks to the breeze that continued to blow long past when the fire died out.
"Hey…" she whispered. "Good Morning."
He slowly stirred to consciousness with only a soft rumble. K'Shai pressed her lips to him again and again, and reached along his abdomen, feeling his skin from chest to waist and lower. He responded in turn, gripping her by the shoulders, pausing for a moment, and then shifting himself under her more comfortably, laying flat across the chair; head on one arm rest, calves on the other.
In moments, both were completely out of what little garments they had on in the first place. The cool breeze kept their quickly heating bodies at a comfortable temperature and quiet morning filled with sounds of their echoing howls of pleasure, outweighing even the gently whooshing waves.
Later, R'chnt found K'shai in the soaking pool and came to her with a curious grin.
"The hunters will be arriving later." He announced.
Another hunting party, another few days of sparring and libations and sweat and blood; exactly what such things were for.
"Will you stay or must you return to the mei'sa?" He said.
"Well, I might have been planning to go back to the mei'sa… I know our grandson wanted to display some of abilities to me. He's doing well. His younger brother is growing up quickly too, and the girls are just… well they're all wonderful…. It's really amazing to see." K'Shai responded eagerly, then pressed her lips together into a wide smile.
"But I do think perhaps this week would be best served by being here. Will El'tude be joining? Is he back from his hunt now?"
R'chnt nodded. "Yes, he will be joining us."
"W'rsa and A'tynd'a will be along soon. Nerudech will be here before the suns go down and sometime later, the rest will join including El'tude."
"Well then," K'Shai said brimming, "We had better get this place ready for a party."
Having the hunters over to spar, drink, and hunt had become nothing short of a regular occurrence whenever K'Shai and R'chnt were home and not in the Clan City, but this gathering felt a bit special for some reason.
Perhaps it was because almost everyone had managed to come, even El-tude who had been off world for so long, and A'ryin'di who was often heavily occupied. She had also brought news that she had indeed taken her first mate and would become a mother soon.
The news delighted K'Shai and made the entire gathering simply seem as if it had elevated naturally to all new high.
As is most often the case with hunts, even on world, they were not done in a single night. The hunters remained at the beach house for several rotations and each evening they would hunt. Each night they would return with their kills and a fire would be roaring to prepare the meat should they choose.
K'Shai ensured the eto kept the tables ready with fruits, dried meats, and plenty of drinks, but she did not participate in the hunting. R'chnt went out with the hunters and returned each late night proud of their kills and ready to eat. K'Shai spent her time, which passed entirely too quickly, mostly in talk with A'ryin'di and a handful of other females who arrived throughout most of the week.
The group, once all together, spent much of the night bellowing in laughter and song, and occasional sparring. K'Shai fell asleep every late morning at R'chnt's side, often sitting up leaning against him; it didn't matter how boisterous they all were. Occasionally everyone settled down for a quiet hour or two and R'chnt and she would slip into bed to find a few hours of sleep themselves.
It was early one morning when K'Shai opened her eyes and found R'chnt sound asleep next to her. She gently kissed him and surveyed him with her eyes. She had begun to get used to his deep sleep, and no longer quite could remember exactly when he had stopped being such an easily alarmed light sleeper.
He grumbled an unconscious response to her moving about, and she slid out of bed with a thin smile. She showered and dressed and headed towards the back balcony overlooking the grounds and the ocean. She noticed off to the side nearly a dozen hunters all also still apparently deeply sleeping after a night full of food, drink and other exertions and she eventually went down to them.
W'rsa was the only one up. He startled her a bit when she walked out of the house and found him sitting in one the large chairs on the front deck facing towards the jungle, the grounds, the fire, and the passed out hunters that circled it.
She offered him a small smile and gripped his hand in greeting.
"W'rsa," she whispered fondly. "It's been quite a hunt, hasn't it?"
She slid into a chair nearby and watched him sit up, nodding and offering a low pitched growl in agreement.
"K'Shai, indeed it has. Another season ends."
"What will you do for now?" She questioned casually.
"I may plan to remain on the homeworld for a while before I hunt again. I have not been into the mountains in the southern territory in some time."
"Ah, it's so cold!" She laughed and shut her eyes, listening to the sound of the ocean whooshing on the other side of the house.
"That's the sound I prefer. My warm soaking bath and the ocean," she smiled.
"R'chnt!" W'rsa bellowed as R'chnt appeared in the door. "And what of you? Shall we hunt this night?"
R'chnt moved onto the deck, surveyed his territory, looking mighty and proud as he did so, then slid into a chair near K'Shai.
"Tonight we reminisce of the hunts we've had. Tonight, we share stories by the fires and pay homage to our fallen kin and to the Payas that guide us."
The day was perfect; cool weather that suited K'Shai well, while most of the hunters chose to remain fairly close to the fire when they weren't sparring. K'Shai spent a short while in her soaking tub simply watching and listening to the ocean. El-tude and his sire shared in drink and stories and K'Shai had heard her name come up more than once. A'ryin'di stayed a while, and then departed later in the afternoon for the Clan City.
K'Shai rejoined the hunters, playfully trying to find out what stories about her had been brought up, and joined the group in echoing through the memories.
"We certainly do have crazy experiences, don't we? What incredible hunts we've all had." She laughed.
R'chnt nodded, the others as well.
"The Path of the Hunter." R'chnt toasted prominently and the others echoed.
After the suns set and the evening turned to night, A'ryin'di returned.
"A'ryin'di!" K'Shai beamed. "You're back! Come, sit! Have some meat."
A'ryin'di seated herself next to K'Shai, R'chnt, and El-tude.
"The matter which needed my attention was resolved quickly," she said. "I think I can leave the Clan to get by for another night," she chuckled.
"I'm glad you could come back." K'Shai welcomed her only daughter back.
Hours passed and while the group continued to regale one another with stories of their hunts, their prey, their experiences, K'Shai began to drift off. She eventually stood and dismissed herself back to their sleeping chamber for a bit of rest. R'chtn followed ensuite.
They continued to talk as they started to settle in for some rest. R'chnt sat on the edge of the bed slowly taking off parts of his garments, K'Shai disrobed as she walked around the room, putting a piece of clothing here and another there, adjusting her hair in the mirror and scanning over own scarred, and wrinkled body.
"Oh, how can I forget?" She responded to him when he continued on about one of the many hunts on Earth.
"I could hardly call those times hunts. It took me a long time to come to terms with the hard meat, R'chnt."
"Yes. The Ancients were wise." He responded.
She scuffed. "The Ancients traumatized me with what they did! I never understood it. Not then anyway. But eventually I did."
"You cannot hide from that which frightens you, the hunter must always be ready." He said coolly.
K'Shai nodded. "Yes. But the hunter in me has been quiet for a long time now."
She paused. "Teaching the youth in the mei'sa, watching our very own grandchildren begin their journey; that's been most rewarding to me over the years."
"I remember Luis once told me something." R'chnt said with a whisper.
K'Shai looked at him. She hadn't really realized Luis had ever spoken to any Yautja.
As if reading her mind, R'chnt said next, "I do believe he was quite terrified of me. As he should have been. But he cared about you very much and that's what brought him to me."
K'Shai paused and turned to R'chnt, listening intently.
"Well, what did he say?"
"He told me that you had been through hell and that if I loved you, I had damned well better take care of you."
K'Shai brimmed with a wide smile and approached R'chnt.
"I did not understand what he meant at the time, and I am still not sure I understand," he added.
K'Shai reached towards him and put a hand on his shoulder.
R'chnt glanced at her. "What he meant by that." He said simply.
"What… 'Hell'?" She asked as she surveyed him.
"No," R'chnt responded. "Love."
K'Shai burst into tears. R'chnt suddenly looked a little terrified, clearly concerned he had done something undesirable.
She threw herself into him, wrapping her arms around him as tightly as she possibly could.
"Well R'chnt," she said emotionally with tears in her eyes, "you have. You very much have."
He touched her gently and seemed content with her response.
"Good," he added as he rested back into the bed.
"R'chnt," K'Shai whispered as she started to snuggle in to him. "I love you."
He smiled with satisfaction.
"I love you too, K'Shai."
She pressed into him and felt his warmth, listening to his heart pounding. She wiped
away tears from her eyes and soon found herself sound asleep.
The early morning light all too soon enough filtered into the large open windows facing the ocean. The sounds of the sea filled K'Shai's ears with a tranquility and peace she couldn't explain. As she stirred into consciousness, she became very aware that she felt a bit cold. In response, she pulled the blankets up a bit tighter around her and then squirmed to find a more comfortable spot.
She pushed into R'chnt a bit deeper to fight the daylight and stay asleep just a bit longer, but something seemed amiss and her mind -awoke before her eyes could even focus.
K'Shai bumped into his side and hadn't heard his usual gurgled grumble in response. She noticed he hadn't readjusted his body or moved his arm. She noticed he too felt entirely too cool even with the breeze in the room.
Outside, the hunters were in various states of still sleeping or of starting their morning. Some of them were sitting up, eating food left over from the overnight festivities. A few were surveying the grounds, pondering the next hunt. W'rsa was on the chair on the deck along with two others. A'ryin'di was in the first floor of the house, sleeping in a chamber just off the kitchen. El-tude was already up, in the kehrite, working through slow and steady exercises.
K'Shai's screams of hysteria shattered the peaceful morning air and alerted all of the hunters to an alarming situation. Every one of them shot up with alertness, having been stirred by piercing screams and wails. A'ryin'di, El-tude, and W'rsa all shot up the stairs to the second floor in an instant, followed by several more of the hunters. The eto peered out from where they were tending to the needs of the house and grounds. For a moment, despite the mad running of the hunters towards K'Shai's shouting, everything simultaneously slowed to a crawl.
A'ryin'di was first into the sleeping chambers, followed in turn by the others who were so close behind her they were almost running into each other. They all stopped and stared at the scene before them.
K'Shai was sitting upright, wailing and crying hysterically as she cradled R'chnt. It took only a glance or two at best to understand the situation. R'chnt's was cool, lifeless, and still. K'Shai gripped into him so hard that both A'ryin'di and W'rsa worked to pull her away.
W'rsa pulled K'Shai away finally after some time and she slid in a heap onto the floor just at the foot of the bed, refusing to let go of R'chnt's hand for a while afterwards.
"K'Shai…" W'rsa tried to get her attention. He whispered at her several times before she even looked up.
She continued to sob and wail, and it was clear she was struggling to breath. She continued to hold R'chnt's hand and her other hand was pressed against her bare chest, gripping so tightly she might well have drawn blood.
Nothing seemed to be moving; time just stopped. There were definitely people in the room with her, but if they were talking, what they were saying simply did not register in K'Shai's mind. She saw W'rsa on the floor, sitting right in front of her, but was he talking to her? It did not matter. She continued to grasp R'chnt's rigid hand until someone had finally pried it right out of her grip.
How long had she been sitting there? How was it the Payas saw fit to take R'chnt away? It was unbearable. This couldn't have been happening.
The room moved, or so it seemed. Shadows of people coming and going faded in and out of K'Shai's eyes. She was quiet until they had moved R'chnt. They were taking him. They were taking him away from her. She howled and wailed and launched forward towards him, stopped by a pair of arms wrapped so tightly around her waist she lost her breath.
"K'Shai! K'Shai!" A voice cooed to her; a voice tried to comfort her that was not R'chnt's. It was W'rsa. In the doorway of the room she could see L'ruch. He turned from R'chnt to look at her as she collapsed back down on the floor sobbing.
News of what had transpired in the house that morning had already reached the Clan City long before R'chnt had even been moved outside. A transport was there to take him back to the City. K'Shai remained in W'rsa's grip on the floor of the sleeping chamber. He tried to pry her up; he tried to get her to move. She would not acknowledge he was even there, so he continued to try.
"K'Shai… your mate is gone. R'chnt has died. He lived an Honored life. We must take him and give him an honored funeral; he deserves it, and so do you." W'rsa tried to get any response from K'Shai.
She had been through funeral ceremonies before, after all. She had seen the celebratory way Honored Elders of the Clan were praised and sang about and had their ashes sent to the Payas. It was a proud time; a time of stories and blessings to the Payas.
"K'Shai.. You must come." W'rsa tried again, then turned to L'ruch looking quizzically.
L'ruch surveyed the situation and trilled.
"She has lost her whole world. He was not just her mate. R'chnt and K'Shai were bonded in a way deeper than we can possibly understand."
W'rsa seemed to understand and turned back to K'Shai. He gently touched her chin, pushed some of her hair back out of her eyes, brushed her cheek with his thumb.
"K'Shai, I will be your new world. I am here. I've always been here." He whispered.
She looked at him but said nothing, simply made eye contact with her wide, distant eyes. Even to W'rsa as he looked at her, it was obvious she looked lost, confused, angry, in pain. Her entire body was shaking, her skin flushed.
Slowly, shakily, he helped her to her feet to attempt to walk her out of the bed chambers. She wobbled and staggered, stumbling into him as he supported her. Suddenly she stopped. She gasped for air as if she had just been hit in the chest by a powerful sparring opponent and K'Shai collapsed.
She howled again; this time a different cry. She whimpered out as loud as she could as if pain was suddenly taking over her entire body and she laid back on the ground, clutching her breast. She gasped, panted, as if suddenly breathing had become an insurmountable task. Her body quickly broke out in a sweat.
L'ruch swooped in, analyzing clearly that K'Shai's heartbeat had been interrupted.
"What is happening to her?" W'rsa asked with alarm as El-tude and A'ryin'di both hovered over the scene.
L'ruch softly shook his head and looked about at the small crowd in the sleeping chambers.
"I'm not sure."
He returned to analyzing her and then deemed with shock and surprise.
"Her heart has stopped."
There was a silence in the chambers. There was a somber still that covered the house, the grounds, even the ocean seemed to lull to a halt. The eto of the house stayed well out of the way, but peered and ogled. A whisper drifted through the hunters in and out of the house. As R'chnt was loaded onto the transport, now his mate that all had been waiting for, was also loaded next to him as she belonged.
The silence followed the group into the Clan City, as communications had already been sent. When A'ryin'di stepped first off the transport platform, a still came over all who were near. Word spread quickly. R'chnt and K'Shai both were displayed as was traditional for honored members of the Clan, for the entire day until preparations for that night were made.
In the middle of the main kehrite; the single largest gathering place in the entire Clan City, a great pyre had been specially constructed that day by not eto; instead, each member of the Clan that chose to participate, placed a kiln. It was not a traditional location for a pyre, and not the typical way to build one; but nothing about R'chnt and K'Shai had been traditional after all.
The funeral ceremony lasted four days and four nights, and all of the Clan gathered throughout most of the ritual. The Honored Hunters before them were sent to greet the Payas together, with a fierce connection that would never be broken, not even beyond the realms of the physical world.
On the fifth morning there was ash.