Fuzzies

= Chapter 15 – Maelstrom of Inner Chaos =



“Warrior Ver'ei'a'ka'cha?”



Veriea lifted her head slowly and saw a healer looking down at her.



“Is she alright?” She asked in barely a whisper. She had given her all to keep Kainde'a'ke'a' alive and was exhausted by the drain, physically, mentally and magically but she continued to force herself to stay awake; she had to know that her friends was alright.



Both Dusk and Midnight had fallen asleep ages ago, curled up on either side of her where she sat in the hall outside the infirmary, huddled against the wall. Both their fur was matted with blood form her wounds. Veriea had only spared enough magic to stem the blood flow, not fully heal them, her focus on Kainde'a'ke'a's well being, not her own.



The healer looked fidgety, not quite able to meet Veriea's eyes with her own as she looked at her with wide, hopeful eyes.



“We had to induce labor or the child would have died – a little female. She's half a rotation premature and will have to spend a few weeks in the infirmary, maybe a couple months, but she'll be fine.”



“And the mother? Kainde'a'ke'a?”



“She...bowed before the Black Warrior.” The healer answered hesitantly.



Veriea closed her eyes.



She had not done enough. Kainde'a'ke'a had passed from the land of the living, leaving behind a daughter and a Life Mate.



And it was her fault.



She should have acted sooner. Run faster. Fought harder. Should have been stronger. Should have been a better healer so that she could have saved Kainde'a'ke'a as well. How many mothers was she going to be too late to save? How many was she going to be too weak to heal, to have to watch die, with their blood on her hands? Too many already.



Would Kainde'a'ke'a have even been in danger if she, Veriea, had not stuck her nose where it didn't belong, aggravating those males in the first place all those rotations ago and continued to do so? She had been looking out for her friend but had she ultimately ensured her death at their hands? She raised her pleading eyes to the healer.



“Was she in pain...when she went?” She shook his head.



“We administered strong pain-numbers for the birth; she wouldn't have felt a thing.”



At least she did not suffer more...



Veriea began to get up to leave but the healer stopped her. “Wait, you need your injuries tended to.”



“I'm fine.” She ground out. “They aren't very deep.” She lied, standing fully, ignoring the pain as she did so and gathered up Dusk and Midnight, not caring about how strange her actions looked to the healer who couldn't see them. With a last nod in her direction Veriea left.



As she made her way out of the Healer Camp, every time she moved her twisted knee she bit deeper into her tongue to keep from crying out, her hand jolting with every step she took, already having blossomed into several foul-looking shades of colour. She deserved this pain; Kainde'a'ke'a had undoubtedly felt worse before her own late arrival. And even though she knew she was making her injuries worse by ignoring them like this, she – unlike Kainde'a'ke'a, she thought spitefully to herself – had the luxury of magical, almost instantaneous healing.



But would she have wanted you to beat yourself up like this? A tiny voice in her mind asked.



No. She answered herself. Kainde'a'ke'a wouldn't be that spiteful, wouldn't blame her.



She had been such a kind soul, despite the hand life had dealt her; she hadn't deserved to die, certainly not like that, at the hands of males like that. She wished so badly that she had hurt them more, made them suffer more, like Kainde'a'ke'a had suffered, made them truly regret having ever thought about doing what they had done.



But, she supposed, there wasn't much more she could have done to them; having both your arms and legs broken and your innards spilled around you, then left to slowly bleed to death as small forest creatures gnawed on you and your stomach acids slowly and agonizingly liquefied the rest of your organs was a hard punishment to improve on. In any case, they were dead now.



The ultimate irony and surprise was that one of them – Mal'e'ka'cha – had been Arbitrator Ker'e'aka's own offspring and he had first heard of Kainde'a'ke'a through blooded warrior as he complained of a “bad tempered Teki'ke'a' runt”. Just goes to show that genealogy wasn't everything. Veriea felt sorry for him though; he had lost both a son and a Life Mate on the same day and very nearly his daughter as well. She wouldn't be surprised if the Arbitrator blamed her for his loses.



She had reached the Construction Yard now and she rubbed her eyes, her body screaming out for rest, to lay down and sleep away the turmoil of her thoughts.



One of things that bothered Veriea most was that she couldn't cry for Kainde'a'ke'a.



She wanted to, no doubt about that, but yautja didn't cry; her brain still remembered how to cry, even produced that familiar prickling sensation behind her eyes but no amount of emotion or will could force a body to cry when it was physically incapable of producing tears. It felt wrong to her, that she could not shed tears for the female she had so recently claimed as mother, mentor and friend.



And the child left motherless.



Who would raise her? Care for her? Would her father? She knew that a child born from a Life Mate couple was different than those born of the usual mating season couplings but she wasn't sure exactly what responsibilities were tied to the parents in a case like this. Usually, if a child was orphaned or the mother was unable to care for it, it would be adopted by a related female or even an unrelated one if a female relative could not be found. There was always someone willing to take in a needing child and they were the future of the race, hence the law against abandonment. She would find out tomorrow and she would adopt the child herself if need be; one more would not be much trouble and she would be happy to see Kainde'a'ke'a's daughter cared for.



But for now, she had to return to The Silvashadow and Tbi'e.



Gods, how was she going to explain this to Tbi'e? She had been gone hours already, he was probably scared and worried already and now she had to tell him that Kainde'a'ke'a was dead. All the more reason to hurry back she supposed; there was nothing to be gained by putting it off.



The kits were awake and squirming by the time she had reached the ship so she set them down as she came to the descending ramp and they began to play around her feet as she punched in the entry access code.



What she saw when the doors opened made her blood run cold.



Pe'ci'e'cha was holding Tbi'e up in the air by the nape of his neck and looked for all the world as if he were about to hit him.



Veriea's nerves were shot and her inhibitions were already worn dangerously thin by the events of the night, so it was no surprise that what was left of her restraint was cut to hang by a single thread when she saw what appeared to be someone threatening one of the few things she truly loved. Her ki'cti-pa shot out to full length with a sickening snick and even though she only took one step inside cargo bay doors, her blood-stained form was more that merely intimidating.



“Put. Him. Down.” She ground out, her voice filled with the effort of clinging to that last strand of sanity, her eyes focused, of their own accord, on the twitching pulse in the male's neck.



To say the male was surprised at her appearance was an understatement and he did a poor job of trying to hide it.



“I caught this runt sneaking around your ship.” He said, trying to cover his fluster. “Claimed he was yours too.” He added with a more confident scoff, looking disgustedly at the struggling Tbi'e.



“He is.” She hissed, near losing it at his use of the word 'runt' but still struggling to keep her temper in check. “Put him down. Now.” Her words dripped with venom and the promise of painful things to come if not obeyed and it had the desired effect on the male.



Pe'ci'e'cha hastily put the youngling down and Tbi'e rushed to Veriea, flinging his arms around her legs tightly, reminiscent of the day she found him. The kits, unnoticed until now, were peering around from behind her and she could have sworn they were glaring at the male. Tbi'e was muttering incoherent things and Veriea whispered gently in his ear as she retracted her wrist blades, disengaged his hold and picked him up, resting him on her hip as she buried her face in his neck.



She was some what calmer now that she was holding him and she gave Pe'ci'e'cha a death glare. “So, what are you doing on my ship?” She asked acidly. “And more importantly; how did you get on it? I changed all of the codes on my first trip here this afternoon.”



“I noticed. What's the matter? Think someone will steal it straight out of the yard?” He chuckled.



Veriea tightened her hold on Tbi'e.



“I have a child to care for; this isn't a safe environment if someone can get in without my knowledge.”



“Safe? It's a pauk'de ship! Of course it's not safe for a youngling, especially one under a rotation old. You should be staying on planet for-”



“He's two.” She interrupted. “And he's a very intelligent two year old. He's safe here if it's secure and you didn't answer my question.”



They locked eyes for a moment before he finally looked away.



“Master Code. Every ship has one for the duration of the time they're in the construction yard and then get a new one when they move that's given to the Elders and Arbitrators of the owner's Clan. It's for emergencies.”



“And what was the emergency?”



“You said it was an emergency.” He smirked.



“That was hours ago.” She growled. “And you certainly didn't turn up with the others.”



He considered her for a moment and seemed to realize that his charm routine wasn't working.



“There are some extra fees for the early finish.” He said, trying a different tact.



“Didn't mention anything about those before hand.” She said evenly, realizing he was intent to get something out of this, either to bed her or scam her. “How much.”



He thought for a second.



“Thirty creds.” She couldn't stop the shock from showing on her face. He wasn't trying to scam her, he was trying to down right rob her! The male smiled. “If you don't have it, we can maybe work out an arrangement?”



Pauk'de little s'yuitde. Veriea thought vehemently as she stomped past him. Sure, she was paranoid but sometimes she really hated it when she was right.



30 creds was a fith of what the whole ship was worth. She had about 60 creds left over from all the jobs she'd been doing, about 20 of it in tradeable goods but she'd been planning on using that to stock the ships supplies and ending up 30 creds in the hole was not a thing to scoff at.



But she didn't have the choice of bartering with him right now. He was shooting fish in a barrel; he was going to get one or the other and there was only one thing she could stand to lose and still respect herself.



She pulled a bag from a secret compartment in the wall where she'd hidden it earlier, grabbed the 30 cred chips and slammed them into his waiting hand, though he seemed surprised that she had that much sitting around.



“There. Now get off my ship.” He grabbed her hand tightly before she could pull it away, not ready to call it quits yet.



“I've seen your etching. You could make back those creds in no time detailing ships for me, Double, triple it even..” Obviously he'd seen how much she had given up with those creds. He gentle stroked her hand with his thumb. “There could be other benefits as well.”



No way in Hell do I need the creds that badly. She thought.



As a general thing, she like the yautja, how they did things tended to make sense for the most part and they had an ingrained sense of honor. But in her experience it produced far to many pauk'de zazin males.



Why was it she mostly got to meet the bad eggs?



She growled.



“I came in here to see you threatening my son. You had come uninvited and unwelcome. You practically just robbed me of thirty creds, when I could probably report your ass to somebody but I let it slide. And now you expect me to jump at the offer to work for you? I'll say it again; get off my ship. I've already diced two zazin males tonight, I would love to make it three. Just give me one reason.”



He glared at her for a moment before releasing her hand and headed for the air lock. She blocked the key pad with her wrist computer for a moment. “Oh, and if you ever lay a hand on me or my son again, you will lose it. That's a promise.” She released control on the doors and Pe'ci'e'cha left without another word.



Veriea slumped down against the wall, Tbi'e still clinging to her and the kits jumped into her lap, making it rather crowded.



“Red?”



“Mm?”



“Do I have to call you mother now?” She laughed a little at the question.



“Not if you don't want to, kiddo.” Veriea sighed. She had to tell him now. “Tbi'e, Kainde'a'ke'a isn't coming back. Two bad bloods got her.”



Silence for a moment.



“I know.” He said softly and hugged closer to her.



There was nothing more to say.



End - Ch15



Ok I know it's a bit short but as the things said, nothing more to say. Hope you guys liked it and don't forget about the competition!