Fuzzies

Useful info;



Pronunciations:



Veriea: Verr-ree-a(i)



Ver’ei’a: Veh-e-ah



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/ 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



Enjoy the story ; P







= Chapter 7 – Interesting… =







Veriea groaned as she opened her eyes just a crack, squinting against the brightness, wincing as the light stabbed painfully at the back of her eyes.



“How are you feeling?” A voice asked, accompanied by a blurry, familiar looking face.



“G’re’e’cha?” She mumbled and was rewarded with a chuckle.



“No but close. G’re’e’cha is one of my sons. He’s told me a lot about you.”



Veriea groaned again, remembering what G’re’e’cha had said about his mother.



“That means I’m in the infirmary again, doesn’t it?”



Another chuckle.



“Yes. It seems you’re making quite a habit of getting your belly sliced open, young blood. But you seem to have the healing capabilities to handle it; this one is barely more than a scar already.”



Something about that didn’t sit right in Veriea’s mind and she forced her body to sit upright and her vision to clear. Pushing away the blanket which was covering her, she looked down at her stomach, expecting to see the Healer’s words to be a drastic exaggeration but her description was accurate; what she remembered as being a gaping, bloody wound was now only a long puckered mark, slightly crusted with a blue flaking substance, which she assumed had been a healing gel of some sort from its scent, stretching from her stomach, near her left hip, diagonally all the way up her abs, her rib cage, stopping and then starting again on the underside of her right breast. It was practically already healed and it was only a little tender as she prodded it, trying to make sure it was real. It didn’t even register in her mind at the time that she was completely bare from the waist up. Her mind was too preoccupied with other things.



This was really off.



She clearly remembered seeing that her innards had been protruding – even if only a little bit – and that meant that the knife had severed several layers of protective membrane, muscle, sinew and skin; how could all that have healed so well and so fast? Something like this should take at least a few weeks to heal to this standard and she didn’t see anything else around her to indicate that she’d been here anywhere near that length of time.



“How long have I been here?” She asked, puzzled, still probing her new scar with wonder.



“A little over two sleep cycles.” The healer answered, a little too enthusiastically. “You missed the feasts; all the young blood parties are back and we’ll reach the Homeworld in a few hours…” The healer continued but Veriea had only heard one thing.



2 days.



How could she have healed so much in only 2 days?



It simply didn’t make sense.



How long had she taken to heal from the slice the kainde amedha had put in her belly? A week and a half Ma’e’ka’cha had said, and she had still need to heal the wound with her magic after that…”You’re a really interesting subject, Ver’ei’a’ka’cha.” The healer commented, interrupting her thoughts and not noticing Veriea flinch at the use of the word ‘subject’. “Since the last time you were examined, you’ve completely changed and not just in appearance, G’re’e’cha told me the story behind that. Your anatomy is almost identical to that of a yautja now, on the inside at least. I personally find it fascinating, having the power to change one’s form at will and the other abilities G’re’e’cha told me about.”



Veriea considered this female yautja speculatively. She looked very much like G’re’e’cha, if you ignored that she female, so it wasn’t too hard for her to see how she had confused them when she had first awoken and to Veriea, she sounded quite like a super intelligent, hyperactive adolescent, her interest easily captured, accompanied by an obvious yearning for knowledge and understanding.



She couldn’t resist grinning as she observed the female standing beside her bed, positively bursting with enthusiasm; she could see where G’re’e’cha got his personality from.



“It’s not as fun as it sounds,” Veriea answered truthfully. “And I haven’t been able to change since I started looking like this.” She shivered and dragged the sheet back up to cover herself, realizing with a blush her state of undress and that it was rather chilly in the room, which was odd as previously she had been thinking that the temperature of the ship had been rather too high for her comfort and the humidity stifling. “Is it just me or is it really cold in here?”



The healer looked delighted.



“AHA! I was right! You now have the same temperature tolerance as yautja! Since the blood transfusion, your body must have been changing more and more to that of a yautja; you haven’t even had trouble adjusting to our different atmosphere!”



Veriea figured she must have been right because she hadn’t even noticed, aside from the humidity, the difference in what she had believed to be the air she was breathing. She gave the female yautja a calculating look.



“Are you sure you’re a Chi’de’a? ‘Cause you sound like an I’ka’ga’ku on happy pills.”



No sooner had she said the words than she clamped her hands over her mouth, realizing what she had just said and to who. Shit.



But to her surprise (and immense relief) the female just trilled loudly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that.” Veriea apologized quickly.



“Ah, but you were thinking it. Unlike most yautja, I appreciate the honesty.” The female quirked her mandibles in a smile. “Many of my colleagues believe I should have taken that path as well but my place is in Healing. Though, I do dabble in the sciences and even a little in the tasks of the Teki’ke’a.”



The female handed Veriea her top, which appeared to have been mended. “You can put this back on now; the wound’s healed enough so that you won’t have to worry about the material sticking to it. The gel that’s left can be washed off easily but it’ll just peel off eventually anyway.”



As Veriea pulled the top over her head and adjusted it, with only a slight twinge from her abdominal muscles, the female yautja moved off, apparently returning the room to regular temperature as she felt the air around her becoming warmer. The female had a way of walking that reminded her strongly of the bustling of a nurse.



Veriea shook her head softly, grinning to herself, finding that she instinctively liked this female. And yet both Ma’e’ka’cha and G’re’e’cha had agreed that the females of the species were scarier and more dangerous.



Maybe it’s just from the male point of view? She thought. Then she remembered the females from the gardens and reconsidered.



“I just wish my translator had been off before I said something so stupid.” She sighed.



“You no longer have a translator.” The female said, moving back over to her, a gleam in her eyes.



Veriea was non-pulsed, staring at the healer, her eyes wide. No translator?



“What? How…?”



“How can we understand each other? You’re speaking yautjian.” The yautja bared no resemblance what-so-ever specie-wise but the female still somehow managed to look like the proverbial canary-filled feline.



She continued. “While we were putting you back together we had to remove the translator because it was interfering with our other equipment, which was strange; it’s our own technology after all. It seemed the device was working at a higher capacity than it was supposed to but soon after its removal, it returned to normal. It had the Teki’ke’a completely baffled.”



Her magic.



It had to be her magic.



It was the only thing she think of that might disrupt the normal processes of a piece of technology. Magic was after all, for the most part at least, energy. But that didn’t explain her sudden fluency in yautjian. How was it possible that she now knew this language without having actually learnt it? First her rapid healing and now this. Nothing was making sense, let alone conforming to the laws of nature.



“This doesn’t make any sense.” Veriea groaned, kneading her temples.



“No it doesn’t.” The female agreed.



“I think I might know what happened to the translator but I’m not one hundred percent sure. There’s still a lot about this stuff that I don’t understand.”



The healer looked at her expectantly and Veriea took a deep breath. “The stuff that I can do, the stuff G’re’e’cha told you about, is because I have a thing called ‘magic’. Basically, it’s like a kind of focused energy that can manipulate reality. Supposedly, as all living things conduct electricity – another form of energy – and already have a mild electrical current running through them at all times, all living things are meant to have some form of magic, only in most cases it’s dormant, inactive or they simply don’t know how to use or control it. Strength and ability varies from being to being – I’m particularly good at Healing magic – but it’s all still basically the same thing. Active magic, though, creates a higher voltage of electricity in the body; I think maybe the translator just kind of piggy-backed on that energy.”



“Piggy-backed?” The female repeated, confused. “I think you slipped into ooman tongue for a moment there.”



“Sorry. I think the translator was absorbing some of that energy from me – that would explain why it went back to normal after a while; it wasn’t getting that extra energy anymore. About me suddenly knowing how to speak yautjian, I’m as confused as you are.” Veriea quivered and shook her head a little. “C’jit. It feels so weird to be saying that in this language, as if ooman tongue is the foreign language to me.”



The healer looked at her, raising an eyebrow.



Then Veriea realized something. “Wait, did I just say ooman as ooman?” She let out a squeak and clapped her hands to her mouth. “Ah! I can’t say ooman properly! Oh, Gods, this is really weird.” Veriea groaned, drawing another bout of trilling laughter from the female yautja.



Just then, the door opened and a familiar, gold cloaked figure swept inside.



“Ah, Ver’ei’a, you’re awake already? Our healer’s done a good job of healing you?” The female asked, shaking her shoulder gently.



“Yes, a very good job, Thwei’a, thank you.” Veriea said, returning the gesture and smiling inwardly at the shocked look on the healer’s face.



The female Arbitrator quirked her mandibles in a soft smile.



“I’m glad you remember our agreement. I see they fixed your translator too; I heard they were having problem with it.”



“Um, I don’t actually have a translator anymore. It seems I’m now fluent in yautjian.” Veriea answered nervously, not sure what an Arbitrator might make of the strange events.



Thwei’a’aka raised an eyebrow.



“The work of this ‘magic’ Ma’e’ka’cha has told me about?” She asked.



“I honestly don’t know but I suppose it is a possibility. Since the blood transfusion my magic has been doing strange new things; I could have the gift of Tongues for all I know.” Both females looked at her, confused. “Picking up new languages quickly.” She elaborated.



“That’s an interesting gift…” Thwei’a’aka said thoughtfully.



“I thought the translator was quite convenient, actually. Amazing technology.”



Veriea was sure she saw the Arbitrator smile.



“Well, now that you seem to be healed, I’m sure your clan mates are waiting to see you again.”



“Yeah….” Veriea though of something. “What happened to Gav’e?”



Thwei’a’aka snarled.



“He died, dishonorably.” She said with obvious distaste.



“Oh. Well, thank you for your concern, Thwei’a.” She turned to the healer. “I just realized, I don’t know your name.”



“I am Kantra’a’de’a.” The female smiled. Veriea placed a hand on her shoulder.



“Thank you for watching over me, Kantra’a’de’a.”



“Go, find your friends. They’ll be pleased to know you’re well and so soon; they bothered me enough about it.” She answered with a laugh.



Veriea thumped a closed fist against her chest, a sign of respect she’d learned from Ma’e’ka’cha, and then left.



CCCCCCC



Kantra’a’de’a grinned at Thwei’a’aka.



“I need to encourage my boys to go after that one when mating season starts; just imagine the strong pups she’d produce. I really don’t understand why some are still so against letting strong fighters into the warrior cast, especially ones like her. Under two cycles to heal that great big gash – it would have laid most up for at least two weeks!”



Thwei’a’aka made a rude noise. “Oh, you’re just sore because your favorite is her ‘brother’. You do have other sons you know…”



“Only you could get away with voicing such delusions, Kantra’a’de’a.” The Arbitrator chuckled, shaking her head.



“You let her shorten your name.” Kantra’a’de’a pointed out.



“Go back to your tinkering, sister.” Thwei’a’aka smirked as she walked out the door.



CCCCCCC



Veriea was glad to return to her quarters but was disappointed to find them empty. She could have sworn she saw a couple of young bloods following her and thought she knew she was probably just imagining things, she wasn’t feeling up to confronting anyone, amorous or not.



The com-link behind her buzzed and she groaned inwardly.



She slammed a fist against the large red button, activating the link, glad that Ma’e’ka’cha had showed her how to use this before.



“Yeah?” She said, not bothering to present herself to the pin-sized camera or even look at the screen showing the feed from the other side.



“G’re’e’cha?” A voice inquired.



“G’re’e’cha isn’t here, Ma’e’ka’cha neither.”



Veriea could here a soft whispering filtering through the static, which sounded a lot like someone hissing; “what was the other guy’s name again?”



She had to grin. At least they weren’t looking for her.



“Ke’pt’e’cha?” The voice sounded uncertain and Veriea could not help but tease them.



“Guess again.” She said, mustering her best ‘evil’ tone of voice.



“C’jit.” The voice cursed, as if they had just realized something. “G’re’e’cha, if you’re playing games again…” A string of curses in a language she didn’t understand issued forth. “We’re here to talk about the pauk’de ship!” The speaker finished vehemently.



We? What ship?



Veriea decided the game wasn’t that fun anymore; besides – her interest was peaked.



“I told you, G’re’e’cha isn’t here. This is Ver’ei’a’ka’cha.” Veriea moved so that they would be able to see her and enjoyed their stunned looks on the view screen.



“Can we come in?” One of them asked after a moment.



“Only if you promise to teach me those swear words you used.” She saw them grin to each other.



“Sure.”



Veriea hit the door release. If they were going to swear at G’re’e’cha like that she figured they must know him. And they knew about this ship thing and she wanted that info.



They were both just over 8 feet, both a dark brown with black speckles and both had red strips on their crests. In fact, except for their scars, they were completely identical, right down to the brands on their brows marking them as members of the Guan-Thwei Clan.



Must be twins. Veriea thought as she watched them look her over. They both raised their eyebrows, silently asking. She knew what the question was; they weren’t the first to be surprised by her small stature in light of her recent victory.



“Looks can be deceiving.” She shrugged.



The one nearest to her was about to say something when someone behind them yelled.



“How did you get in here!”



Veriea recognized the voice and grinned.



“Hi, Ma’e.” She said cheerfully, waving at her brother.



“Ver’ei’a?” Another voice inquired and G’re’e’cha appeared from behind his friend.



“Hey, G’re’e’cha.”



“You’re healed already?” He asked in surprise.



“I’m standing here aren’t I?” G’re’e’cha growled. “Hey, you ask a stupid question, you’ll get a stupid answer; them’s the rules.”



“Ahem.” One of the unknown warriors coughed. “Are you going to introduce us, little brother?”



“Brother?” It was Veriea’s turn to be surprised. “I thought you said yautja don’t usually keep family ties?”



“Usually no. We’re just weird that way.” The other warrior grinned.



“Having met G’re’e’cha, I can easily believe that.”



“Hey!” G’re’e’cha protested.



“You thanked me the last time I called you weird.” Veriea smirked.



“Seeing as you’re too busy blubbering, we’ll introduce ourselves.” The first warrior cut his brother off before he could reply. He placed a heavy hand on her shoulder. “I’m H’ak’e’cha.” His twin laid his hand on her other shoulder.



“And I’m S’ak’e’cha. Everyone knows who you are after that challenge. I’ve never seen someone fight with half their guts hanging out.”



“Uh, thanks….I think…” She was quite sure she didn’t remember that.



“Are you two here about the ship?” Ma’e’ka’cha asked, interrupting the strange little world they had going. The twins nodded and let their hands drop away.



“What ship?” Veriea asked.



“In a few weeks we’ll be Blooded warriors and then we can choose to go off on our own and hunt independently of the clan.” Ma’e’ka’cha explained. We’ve been planning since before our Chiva to form a hunting party together but we need a ship of our own. H’ak’e’cha and S’ak’e’cha have found one but we’re a little short and we need to get some more things to trade for it. If you pitch in, there’s room for one more.”



“Sounds like a plan but I don’t know what I can contribute.” Veriea like this idea, being among friends while she fully adjusted to her new life and being away from the majority of those who would make her life harder; yes she liked this idea a lot.



“People will pay quite a bit for the kind of healing you can do,” G’re’e’cha said. “Nothing we have is so quick or painless.”



“Well, if you really think so, count me in.”



H’ak’e’cha clapped her approvingly on the back, smirking.



“That ship is going to be ours in no time.”



End-Chapter 7



A/N: I love those brothers - like three clowns in a row; lots of fun to be had here. Did anyone pick up the object hidden in their names? Oh, and more clues have been dropped, it’s up to you to pick them up. Hope you liked it and don’t forget to review!