Fuzzies

Useful info;



Pronunciations:



Veriea: Verr-ree-a(i)



Ver’ei’a: Veh-e-ah



Forenien: For-en-ee-en



Cartarea: Car-tar-ay



Vocabulary:



Kainde Amedha: hard meat/ xenomorph



Gaun-Thwei: night blood



Chiva: trial/ test



Setg’in kwei: tricky/ quick



Pyode Amedha: soft meat/ human (ooman)



Yeyinde: brave one



Pauk: fuck



Ell-osde c’jit: damn you



C’jit: damn/ shit/ general expletive



Pauk’de: fucking/ fucker



Hulij-bpe: crazy



Mei’hswei: brother (also use between close companions/clan mates)



Kerhite: training ground/training ring



Jehdin-jehdin: hand-to-hand combat (one-on-one)



Zazin: self-centered



Thwei’tek: blood bond (used to fuse strands of hair into dreadlocks)



M-di’h’dlak: no fear



Naxa: a kind of fruit from the Yautja home world



Thwei: blood



Sy’ua: wow/whoa (you get the idea)



Jehdin Jehdin: one on one/ hand to hand combat



Lou-dte kalei: child maker/female (usually a derogatory term)



Kantra: prayer



Ki’ct-pa: wrist blades



Awu’asa: armor



Cn’tlip: alcoholic drink



ki’its-pa: hunting spear



S’yuitde: shit (derogatory term)



Tbi: survivor



Paya: term of respect/ The Conquering One



U’sl-kwe: final rest/ death



Enjoy the story ; P



= Chapter 13 – Family. =



Veriea was surprised at just how much she could get for what she had.



The ship was going to be top of the line for its time; a miniature training vessel complete with keh’rite but customized with other luxuries, like a botanics area, decent fire power, specialized thrusters for maneuverability and a central trophy case. She had designed the lay out of the triple leveled ship herself, with help from Kainde’a’ke’a and was very please with what would be hers and Tbi’e’s home.



She grinned at the thought of Tbi’e.



Kainde’a’ke’a had quickly and efficiently made a device that would act as Tbi’e’s vocal cords but with the use of some modified neural links, she had also made it possible for him to control the volume and pitch as if it were his true voice. The only glitch was that his ‘voice’ sounded slightly electronic but that couldn’t be helped. The real problem had been that his vocal cords were under developed and couldn’t vibrate properly to make sound so an amplifier had been need to make the vibrations audible, which was the cause of the electronic lit to the noise. 3 days ago, with Veriea hovering close by, holding his tiny hand, a Healer had preformed the operation that gave Tbi’e his voice.



She smiled again.



His ‘first word’ had been ‘Red’ and he now refused to call her anything else.



It was hard for him to start learning the basics of speech so late in life, even though he understood the words but he was happily trying – and learning quickly – living up to his name and hanging in there. Kainde’a’ke’a was looking after him while she was out but they had spent that morning learning to say new words as she had dreadlocked his hair.



She brought her mind back to the present, to the male hunter who was in charge of the ship building operation.



“Do you think that it’s possible for it to be finished before mating season starts?” She asked.



“It would be my pleasure to see that it is.” The male purred.



Unh. She grimaced on the inside. Not was she was going for.



No doubt he knew her track record (for some reason every male she had encountered today had known that she had had a big fight with her ‘Promised’and had been pouring on the charm and showing off) and probably thought that she wanted a private place to take a mate, most likely hoping that being amiable would give him a good chance of being said mate.



Dammit. She was getting paranoid.



But she had heard rumors about there being bets on whether she would take a mate or not and if so, who it would be. What on Earth was it that made her the center of attention these days?



Unh. Mental head slap.



A hunt. If there was one thing a Warrior male loved more than a hunt, it was a hunt for a female; and she had just made herself prey again in, apparently, a very obvious way, and, apparently, was the hardest prey to catch. She cringed at the thought of it. It almost made her wish she hadn’t had a falling out with G’re’e’cha. At least he didn’t just see her as some conquest. Though, given what he had said, it was a little disturbing to think about what he did think of her.



Gods, she wished they’d just go away and mind their own business; there were plenty of things out there that were more interesting than her life, really there were. ((A/N: Had to put that in. :) But don’t take it literally, please)) Dammit, she was being paranoid again. Fame and infamy sucked.



“I’ll come back later and drop off the designs.” She said and quickly departed. Let the male have his fantasies; if it got her ship built faster she wasn’t going to complain.



“Ver’ei’a’ka’cha?” Someone called and she stiffened.



She knew that voice.



For a moment, the busy market place seemed to disappear and her anger kicked back with a vengeance as she saw him. G’re’e’cha. She resisted the urge to tear into him right there and then long enough to get a good look at him. He looked worn down, like he hadn’t slept much and a large bruise, a couple days old by the look of it, ringed his left eye. It looked painful and her fingers twitched with the urge to heal it.



She didn’t like to see him in pain; she certainly didn’t wish it on him. And with the bruise around his eye, he reminded her of Tbi’e, pulling at her heart strings. Tbi’e. She had briefly begun to think that maybe she could forgive him but his words floated through her mind.



Deformed.



Mutation.



Misfit.



She hadn’t asked to be what she was and neither had Tbi’e. Who was he to say those things about them? Oh, she knew his comments had been directed at the youngling, but that he could say them when she was so much like Tbi’e, when he was supposed to be her ‘Promised’; it spoke volumes about what he might really think about her. As worn and sorry as he looked now, how long might it be before he decided that he didn’t want a ‘deformed misfit’ for a mate?



She wasn’t about to lay down and play puppy; he had hurt her and she was going to make that hurt felt. And there was Tbi’e to consider too. G’re’e’cha wouldn’t want him but she was his mother now and if he didn’t accept Tbi’e, he didn’t accept her.



And it was better this way. She knew G're'echa was a good person, really, but he deserved better than her. This way, he wouldn't be forced to stay with her out of sense of duty once he found out; she wouldn't have to tell him, have to explain... She knew she would forgive him one day.



But it wasn’t today.



She looked at G’re’e’cha, making sure he knew she had seen him and then turned her back on him. The strength of the pain she felt from him made her wince. Veriea moved more quickly, in case he was following her; if it hurt this much to feel his pain from that far away, she didn’t want to experience it face to face.



The pain kept getting stronger and she started to run, heading for the outskirts. If he was going to confront her, she was going to make sure it wasn’t in public. And she didn’t want him to know exactly where she was staying or for Tbi’e to see it; the youngling didn’t need to see another confrontation between them.



Then she realized suddenly that the feelings weren’t coming from behind her but that she’d been getting closer to the source. It almost hurt more to realisze that he hadn't at least tried to follow her.



She turned to go back when she heard a mewling, whimpering sound and something about it tugged at her; someone or something near by was in terrible pain and her morals drove her to investigate. She pushed on towards the source, the pain growing sharper as she got closer, the force of it becoming so great that the pain began to manifest itself physically in her own body.



It was a raging pain in her abdomen, as if someone had torn out her insides and then stuffed the cavity with something hot and spiky, while even deeper down another pain burned, somehow familiar but in a way she could not recall. Her head hurt too, making her feel dizzy, the effect of the continuous pain through her Empathic link, but she continued forward.



The pain became full-fledged as she found the source.



In front of her, weak and obviously dying was the Beast. It was on its side, its breath heavily labored, quivering, its massive body covered in slashes, eerie blue blood and patches where fur was missing – it looked like it had had one hell of a battle. It raised its head to look at her, a growl of warning rumbling from its throat.



She of all people knew that any animal was at its most dangerous when wounded, that went double for wild ones, yet she could sense something, something that urged her to help this creature. She could not just ignore something so desperately in need.



Veriea approached it slowly, in full view, hands raised in a non-threatening way, projecting a feeling of calm towards it, all the while alert and ready incase it attacked. The Beast growled a bit but eventually calmed, letting her grudgingly approach. Now that Veriea was up close, she could see that this was the same creature she had rescued Tbi’e from; she recognized the scar on its face. She sighed.



Someone up there obviously found playing around with her life very amusing.



(A/N: ie. ME! ;P )



Still ever cautious, she examined the Beast’s wounds and knew there was nothing she could really do except give it a quick death; the damage was too extensive for her to completely heal with her magic. It would die, without a doubt.



A convulsion went through the Beast’s body and it roared in pain. That was when Veriea noticed that its wounds were not the only source of blood flow and there was a recognizable scent on the air, beneath all the blood.



It was a she and she was having contractions.



The damn thing was dying and giving birth at the same time. Now Veriea knew why it had backed off when she had confronted it; a small yautja was fair game but a full grown, creature, fierce, armed and ready for a fight, that was a danger to her unborn young, no matter how small and being obviously intelligent, it had made the decision to bow out – only to get torn up by some other threat.



But it had allowed her to approach it.



Perhaps, instead, it had sensed her maternal instincts – she couldn’t deny that seeing Tbi’e like that, so tiny and in danger had tugged hard at them – and had simply allowed a kindred mother figure to pass safely, now inducing a grudging, shaky bond of trust between them.



Whatever the reason, Veriea knew she was going to help the Beast as much as she could; the young deserved a chance to live.



Time blurred indistinctly as she acted midwife to the gigantic creature. She used her magic to heal what she could and to relieve the straining mother of pain, numbing the neural synapses for a time, conjuring small balls of fire to cauterize what wounds she could, stemming much of the blood flow, giving her and the unborn young as much time as possibly; until the time came for the first offspring to be born.



It tore at Veriea to see that helpless infant; the wounds had gone deeper than she had imagined, so deep that even the immense creature’s womb had been breached, the unborn kit’s amniotic sac shredded and its body mangled. Veriea found herself mourning the tiny life that had been cut so short, before it could even really begin but then the Beast roared in pain again and she hurried to attend her. That became the pattern.



Heal. Sooth. Deliver an infant.



Heal. Sooth. Deliver an infant.



She became so caked with the creature’s blood that it looked as though she had a second, blue skin over the first and then…it stopped.



Out of the 13 kits the Beast had birthed, 8 had been killed inside the womb, born dead, 3 others dying soon after, leaving only 2 surviving male offspring. Veriea had cleaned them up and laid them next to their mother to suckle, who was now emitting a deep thrumming purr in the lull of her pain, like a content mother cat. Or a lioness. A really big lioness.



For a moment Veriea simply stood there, quietly, observing the blind, furry kits in wonder. She wasn’t their mother but she had assisted them into this world and she felt satisfied with that at least; it was not something one got to do every day.



It occurred to her to wonder why she had never seen these creatures before, or even heard tell of them. Could it be that the yautja did not know of their existence? Even with their ability to disguise their body heat, surely something this big they would know about. When she’d described the Beast to Kainde’a’ke’a she had said didn’t know of any creature like that, but that the yautja did not know everything that resided in the vast jungles of their planet, the deepest parts were inaccessible, even for them, so any variety of creatures could reside there without their knowledge. But this was so close to the city, what was it doing here? And what could have injured it so?



Veriea snapped to attention as a roar ripped through the calm, ringing in her ears.



The Beast was in pain again, beside her, the kits made mewling, whimpering noises of distress, sensing the pain of their mother. Veriea laid her hands on the Beast to rid her of the pain and… nothing. Her magic had been exhausted. She could do no more to ease the creature’s suffering. Slowly she made her way to its head.



She knew what she had to do.



The Beast whimpered in pain and Veriea felt for her, the pain echoing within her own body. Veriea stroked her head gently and though the whimpering continued, it lessened, the mother soothed a little by the contact with the creature she had learned to trust the in the last few hours, for her young’s sake if nothing else, a kindred mother. There was no greater bond than that between mother and child and few understood just what a mother would go through, would do for their child. Veriea understood all to well and that was why she knew she had to do this.



As she continued to stroke her, Veriea located a soft part of its head at the base of its skull and unsheathed her ki’cti-pa their full length. The mother jerked and growled but Veriea remained calm and kept stroking soothingly; she knew it was empty threat anyway, the mother was too weak and it knew it.



“Easy, paya, “ She whispered in the Beast’s ear. The Beast could live for another few hours probably, but they would be filled with pain and she deserved better than that. Veriea brought her ki’cti-pa gently to rest on the soft spot. “M-di h’dhak, paya,” She whispered again, knowing it probably didn’t understand but would respond to her tone of voice. “Your young are in good hands and the end will be quick. Go to you u’sl-kwe paya, and know they are safe.”



With one sharp movement, it was over.



The Beast’s muscles went slack and its last breath sighed out of its lungs in a death rattle. “Run swift.” Veriea whispered, reciting an ancient forenien farewell, her voice catching in her throat.



How fitting that it was she who found this mother in need, that only two male kits survived, their colouring dark, their feline and canine qualities…That was a long time ago. She needed to focus on the present.



Thanking the gods that she had happened to have all of her gear on her, she removed a large collection vial and moved around the quickly cooling body. It seemed that all the heat it had been absorbing was now being released in one big rush, sending sweltering waves rolling off of it. She collected as much of the mother’s milk as she could, knowing that the kit’s continued survival would depend on her being able to either replicate it or find something as close as extra-terrestrially possible to nourish them until they were on solids.



Veriea scooped up the kits and secured them to her with a length of acid proof cord that was meant for holding trophies. The two kits didn’t protest at all, hanging sleepily around her shoulders, full and happy from their meal and comforted by the scent of their mother. It made her smile to feel their warm furry bodies against her skin, as if they were her own pups and she was carrying them home after a tiring day.



My ship designs are going to need some adjustments. She thought wryly.



She started back towards home, leaving the bodies to return to the earth and the Gia from which they had come. She smirked as the people she passed, warrior and civilian alike, stared at her blood covered skin, yet did not and could not see the two kits riding across her shoulders, who would undoubtedly cause a bigger stir; she almost wished to come across someone wearing a hunting mask just to see the reaction.



When she reached the stall it seemed to be empty so she assumed that Kainde’a’ke’a had needed to run an errand and had taken Tbi’e with her. She set the kits down in the hammock that had been put up for her and Tbi’e, as the youngling had insisted on sleeping in the same bunk, and then went about removing her gear.



“Red!”



Veriea started at the small, frightened cry and her ki’cti-pa shot out reflexively, ready to face the threat. What she found instead was Tbi’e, clinging to one of the hammock’s hanging supports, staring down, wide-eyed with fright at the two kits who were now squirming around. She chuckled, relaxing.



“They won’t hurt you, Tbi’e, their only babies. Come down here.” She said gently, reaching for him and he climbed down into her arms, keeping an eye on the kits.



“They like the thing that hurt me…” He whispered roughly in his electronic voice.



“Wait, you can see them?” She asked, forgetting to correct his grammar. He nodded and hid his face in her shoulder.



Maybe his eyes are a lot more different than we thought. She mused.



She had never thought to ask if his vision was any different given their startling colour. “They aren’t going to hurt you Tbi’e. They’re going to live with us. They’re…” She trailed off, thinking. Pets? No. “…Your new little brothers.” Tbi’e’s eyes went wide.



“Brothers? They got tails…” Veriea couldn’t help but laugh as she flicked her own tail up to tickle him.



“I’ve got a tail too, remember?” She pointed out as he giggled – or at least the yautja equivalent of a giggle – and then snuggled into her arms.



“Ok.” He yawned, his eyes fluttering closed.



“Come on, back into bed.” She said, placing him down in the hammock. “You’re still recovering from your operation and you need your rest.”



Tbi’e muttered something incoherent as she pulled the covers over his tiny form. The two kits squirmed and squeaked a bit but they quickly calmed as she settled them beside him.



“What are they?”



Veriea turned with an exhausted smile to Kainde’a’ke’a who was standing behind her, a mask on her face, looking over her shoulder at the kits.



“Off spring of the Beast I saved Tbi’e from, the same one in fact.” She recounted the events for her friend as she began removing her gear, cleaning it and herself of the blood and gore, before storing it away safely. Her friend shook her head, chuckling.



“You always seem to be in the middle of things, and getting wiped out by them; I was standing just over there by the hallway the entire time and you didn’t notice, even though you looked around.”



Veriea was a little embarrassed at that but the drain on her system, magical and emotional, was taking its toll and she couldn’t care too much about it at the moment.



“I attract it, I guess.” She shrugged and smiled softly. “My little family is growing.”



“You have a big heart, Ver’ei’a, another hunter would have simply walked away or put it out of its misery sooner. Of course, they wouldn’t have known it was about to bare but even if they did, they would not have done what you did.” She sighed and looked down at where she knew the kits were, nestled snugly against Tbi’e. “And now you have two of its offspring; it’s an amazing opportunity but are you sure you aren’t getting in over your head? You aleady have a youngling to care for...”



Verie sighed but it was a sound of content. Were she still forenien she would have possibly even more pups to look after - they had anywhere between 2 and 7 pups - so 3 was compartively a walk in the park. She was happy enough with the situation.



“I’ll take the punches as they come; it’s all I can do.”



End - Ch13