Fuzzies

Useful info;



Pronunciations:



Veriea: Verr-ree-a(i)



Forenien: For-en-ee-en



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



Pauk’de: fucking/ fucker



Enjoy the story ; P







= Chapter 3- Blooded =







They all stood, mandibles slack as they stared and Veriea had to bite back her lip to stop herself from laughing.



“What’s the matter? I thought you knew what human’s were?”



Elder Ka’e’aka snapped out of it first.



“Why didn’t you tell us you could shape shift?” He growled.



“You did not ask Elder.” She said softly, sensing he was angry but not sure why. “If this form is a problem I can change back. I only now just thought of it myself.”



“Are you really an ooman or the other creature?” He asked, his tone no longer friendly. She was a little angry that he was calling her a creature but she knew she should have thought about her actions more carefully; she was among an unknown culture, she should have taken into account they might not like shape shifters.



“The other ‘creature’ is called a forenien,” She answered, keeping her tone carefully respectful. “And that is what I am. This human form is simply an ability I inherited from my mother.” Ok, so not entirely truthful but she didn’t want to have to try and explain her whole life to them. Seeming satisfied with that answer the Elder nodded.



“Be warned Veriea, many of our kind have a dislike for oomans and would not think twice before attacking one, even a female, if they were to step out of line or annoy them. You would be no match for any warrior like that.”



Veriea sighed.



“Mmmm…Pride? Or will to live? Pride….will to live….” She looked thoughtful for a moment. “Stupid will to live.” She grumbled, changing back to her true form. “Ah well, that human form is too short anyway.” Veriea noticed that with that comment the tension left the room and some of the yautja even chuckled. She decided it was time to ask the big question. “Elder, I am grateful for all the help you and your kind have given me….but what now?”



For a moment silence was held. Then the Elder spoke.



“You are honorable and have passed the Kainde Amedha Chiva, though you were unprepared for it. Among our kind you now bear the rank of Young Blood. Even though you are not a yautja, because of your accomplishments, I ask that you join our Clan and hunt with us. It will not be easy for you; you are untrained and others of our kind may not accept you. You can choose now to go back but this will never again be offered. We will give you a mark to show that you are honorable and should any yautja cross your path, you will be treated as prey though most will not harm you if you show them the mark but by no means all. If you accept, there is no going back; you pledge loyalty to the Clan and the only way out is death.”



She didn’t hesitate to answer.



“I want to join you.”



The elder closed his eyes for a moment.



“Consider this carefully, yeyinde. This is not something to take lightly.”



Veriea closed her own eyes, her breath deepening. If only they knew how much she wanted this. She’d only just learned of their races existence in the universe but she already knew that this is where she wanted to be. This was the place where she could be accepted as she never had been anywhere else. She would fight for a place here if she had to. She could sense they were impressed slightly by her attitude, her composure, her triumph over the kainde amedha. These people praised honor and strength and bravery; all the virtues she herself held in high regard. She could be content here, cutting a niche for herself and maintaining it honorably even if it would be a tough road.



She opened her eyes.



“I wish to join your clan, Elder.” She said calmly.



The Elder nodded and motioned for one of the other males. He stepped forward and handed something black to the Elder, who then moved towards her.



“You have successfully completed the Kainde Amedha Chiva and so proved yourself a warrior. I mark you in the name of the Guan-Thwei Clan.”



He pressed the end of the black thing – which she now recognized as part of a claw from the black beast- against the side of her muzzle and burned horribly but she knew better than to move or make a noise as he traced 3 diagonal lines, parallel to each other and then a forth in the opposite direction, connecting them all together. “Uphold the honor of the Clan, until the Black Warrior takes you.”



He then turned to the others, laying a hand on her shoulder. “By my Blood flowing in her veins, I claim this Young Blood as my daughter. Do any oppose it?”



He what! Veriea thought, shocked.



A few of the yautja shifted a little but none spoke. He turned back to Veriea. “Do you accept, Young Blood?”



“I accept this honor, Elder.” She replied. I what! She thought to herself.



“Then it is done.” With a nod to the Elder, the other caped yautja filed out of the room. “Leave us.” He instructed to the healers and they too quickly disappeared.



“Why did you claim me as a daughter?” Veriea asked, causing the Elder to chuckle.



“Because if I had a daughter, I imagine she would be much like you. The young blood you saved, my son, is my only offspring. When I heard about how you saved him, I knew that you were not merely honorable prey.”



“What do you mean?”



The Elder sighed.



“After the birth of my son, many rotations ago, I became incapable of producing offspring. On a hunt soon after, my sire was injured. He returned to the ship barely alive and asked for me by name, which in itself was unusual because he had never acknowledged me before, being of a lower rank than he. He told me that the Black Warrior had shown him the future and that my child would come to me the day of my son’s Chiva, falling with the kainde amedha, in the shadow of their brother, only to rise again of my blood. Then he died. Until we received word of an incident during the Chiva I had forgotten his words. I saw you and doubted but you had saved my son and you needed blood; my curiosity won out. When you survived the transfusion, an inter-racial transfusion that under every logic shouldn’t have worked, that should have killed you, I couldn’t deny that you were the child my sire spoke of. And you accepted my claim.”



“I could sense that you wanted me to.” Veriea whispered. “I could feel your certainty that I would accept.” The Elder looked at her. “I’m an Empath; it means that I can sense others feelings and if the feeling is strong enough I end up sharing it. I knew that you wanted me to accept.” Why she had accepted still confused her, even if she understood the mechanics of it.



For a while neither of them said anything.



“Do you know who those other yautja were?” He asked. She shook her head. “They’re called Arbitrators. They are the law keepers of our race. They were here to judge you.”



“Judge me?”



“Judge your character, see if you were a threat. They came from the clan ship to see if you were worthy to become a warrior. They’d have killed you if they saw fit to but you did well, very well for one who knows nothing of our kind.”



Another silence fell.



“So where to from here?”



“Now that you are reasonably well and Blooded you are free to move about the ship until we rejoin the clan ship. You may have to report back here for check ups but so far it seems your species’ regenerative capabilities nearly rival our own. There are no spare living quarters as this is only a drop ship and we weren’t expecting to pick up a clan member so will be sharing with your new brother.” He chuckled as he saw her pained look. “Do not worry. He seemed anxious to meet you properly and will tell you all you need to know. When you are well enough, K’ar’e’cha, one of the warriors who helped you and the clan leader’s third in command, will begin your training. Do you feel well enough to move now?”



“Surprisingly, yes but would it be possible to get something to cover myself with first?”



“You are part of the clan now, you should show your scars with pride; they are proof of your battles and triumphs.”



“I have no problem with my scars, Elder. To put it bluntly, it’s my nipples I don’t want anyone to see.” She replied, straining hard to keep the bite out of her voice.



The Elder looked as though he had only just remembered her earlier outburst and she was sure she saw his cheeks darken a little. Yeah, that’s right. She thought irritably.



“Very well,” He said, doing a good job of acting indifferent. “I’m sure we can find something.”



They found an extra white healer’s coat, the sight of which still gave her the slight chills but she shrugged it on anyway and decided that she would just pretend it was a different colour. It was old, worn, thread bare and the Elder –for some reason- looked at it as though he’d rather burn it than let her wear it but as long as it covered her bare patch, was mildly content. Besides, it was that or use one of the bed sheets toga style and she preferred the creep coat personally.



The ship they were on was small so it was only a short walk but it was still long enough to attract several curious and inquiring gazes. By the time they reached the room, Veriea quite felt like simply hiding and had suppressed the instinctive urge to do so behind the Elder several times. They knocked and when no one answered the Elder showed her the code to open the door. He suggested she familiarize herself and wait for her ‘brother’, who was probably somewhere with his clan mates, and then left.



Now left alone and to her own devices Veriea felt uncomfortable in this strange room and found herself jumping for no reason at nothing. Standing upright had began to make her recently healed stomach muscles ache so she reverted to her preferred four-paws walk which was better for examining things anyway - not to mention snooping. After a while, something white caught her eye and the made her way over to it.



It was actually two white things.



They were longish and set on a high shelf halfway along the wall and she had to stand again to see them properly. As soon as she was at eye level with the objects, she realized that they were skulls. She lifted one down carefully and turned it around, running her fingertips over it, feeling the grooves, dips and flat planes of its surface which seemed so familiar. Then she realized; it was from the black beast. The skull of a kainde amedha.



“That’s the one you got.” Someone spoke, startling her so much she dropped the skull, sending it clattering to the floor.



CCCCCCC



Ma’e’ka’cha watched the creature intently as he walked towards her.



So this was his new ‘sister’? He hadn’t really had a chance to look at her properly before so now he took in the details person who had saved his life.



She was taller than him but only by a little now as he’d had a growth spurt since he had last come face to face with her – she had, after all, been unconscious for nearly a week and a half – and it was very unlikely that he wouldn’t have more, he thought smugly. Her arms and torso were both long and she seemed quite lean and too thin but that was to be expected after how long she’d spent recovering and she hadn’t exactly been in good shape when the hunting party had encountered her.



The majority of her fur was red, as far as he could tell, going by what he remembered seeing while wearing his hunting mask and comparing it to what he saw now, despite how ill-adapt his eyesight was for this task, a dark grey spread downward from near her eyes, over her narrow muzzle and swept down across her belly – or he assumed it did from the tufts of grey he could see through the gap in the healers coat she wore – all of it edged in a deep, earth brown. Her forearms were the same grey, giving her the appearance of wearing gauntlets with fluffy elbows, edged in brown also.



Her legs were oddly shaped, the calves being much shorter than the thighs and her black, brown trimmed feet were proportionately long with more fluffy bits at the ankles and ending unmistakable animal paws. Her large bushy tail flicked back and forth, nervously he imagined, its black tip quite eye-catching among the red and brown. A large cross-like marking graced her back, thin lines of grey, widening as they swept down the top of her tail, once again edged in brown which continued the length of her tail, meeting with the black tip. Her large, triangular ears were also black tipped and there was a bar of black across her eyes which ended in three large curls on either side of her face.



He could see the mark of the clan on her muzzle, a distinct pale raw pink against the dark grey but her eyes were more interesting. They were large and bright, very different from those of a yautja and they seemed to have two irises around their pupils; the inner a brilliant green and the outer a deep blue. She was fascinating if nothing else and though she looked weak, he knew she had strength in her slight form.



And strangely enough, he had instant liking for her.



He picked up the skull from the floor and handed it to her.



“I didn’t mean to startle you.” He said and then realized she probably didn’t understand him. But then she surprised him.



“Is this really the one I killed?” She asked in perfect yautjian.



“Yes, mine has a hole in the back of its skull.” He looked at her curiously. “Translator?”



She nodded.



That explained a lot. He should have known better than to think his sire would just hand her over to him without even being able to communicate; he didn’t speak ooman like him. She set the skull carefully back on the shelf, then turned and placed a hand on his shoulder.



“I am Veriea.”



So she knew that custom already. He thought about her name for a second. But he had better correct something before she got herself in trouble. He mirrored her gesture.



“I am Ma’e’ka’cha but you can’t introduce yourself like that.”



“Like what?” She asked, obviously confused.



Ma’e’ka’cha sighed.



“No only will no one be able to pronounce your name but now that you are the daughter of an Elder and a Blooded member on the clan, you must add the proper endings.” He explained.



“The Elder had no trouble saying my name….” Ma’e’ka’cha quirked one lower mandible, the yautja equivalent of grin.



“Not all yautja are as clever as our sire and I assure you, pronouncing your name would have hurt his throat terribly. Now, say your name again.”



She complied and watched as he moved his mandibles silently for a moment. “Ver’ei’a.” He pronounced and did the grin thing again.



“Ver’ei’a.” She repeated, trying to get her tongue around the new pronunciation of her name, which was surprisingly difficult.



(A/N: Didn't want to give it away in the begining...Pronunciation- Ver’ei’a: Veh-e-ah)



“Good. Now add “ka’cha” to the end of it.” He encouraged once she finally got it right.



“Ver’ei’a’ ka’cha.” She grimaced. “That’s one mouthful of a name.”



“Your friends will shorten it in time but for now it important for you to observe our customs. You can tell a lot from a name.”



“Like?” She prompted.



“Our names have a defined structure. The first part is what our mothers name us, followed by an “e” or “a” depending if we are male or female. Offspring of Clan Leaders and Elders have “ka” added as well. When we come of age we chose which path we wish to take and after completing a trail we are given our rank; “cha” for a Blooded Hunter or K’cha’ku, “ga” for I’ka’ga’ku, the Researchers, “de’a” for Chi’de’a, the Healers and “ke’a” for Teki’ke’a, the Tech Workers. If a Hunter becomes a Clan Leader their rank becomes “cha’ ka” and if one becomes an Elder their rank changes to “aka”. Understand?”



“Yep.” She nodded, thinking he sounded like some old fogy explaining the meaning of life. Come to think of it, she thought, how old is he anyway? Then quickly asked before she lost her nerve, “Question; how old are you?”



This took him by surprise.



“In our terms, I’m eleven rotations old. Why?”



“Do you know what that is in human years?”



“Roughly twenty-five.” He answered after a moments calculation. “Why?”



“Bugger. That makes you ‘big’ brother. I’m only nineteen in human years.” She pouted, while also thinking he was a damn tall 11 year old and Ma’e’ka’cha wasn’t sure why but the knowledge made him want to grin. A buzzer sounded from somewhere in the ship.



“The ships sleep cycle is starting.” He murmured.



“Can I have the hammock?” She asked, pointing to the hanging contraption that had been set up in one corner of the room.



“You want it?” He asked, surprised. He had thought she would want the bed.



“Yeah, sleeping in high places makes me feel…more comfortable.”



“By all means, take it.” Ma’e’ka’cha grinned.



This wasn’t going to be so bad after all.



End - Ch3



A/N: Well, now things will start heating up! Please review and tell me what you think!