by Zara Starr
I strode over to my satchel and extracted several roots—herbs I knew would be good for working things out of one’s belly—which was exactly what she needed. We needed to flush her system of the toxins as soon as possible, and though I knew both my mother’s and Julene’s help would be needed, I gritted my teeth at the idea.
I had been hopeful that I had found someone who could be my own mate, and as quickly as the hope had entered my heart and mind it had been stolen away from me—again!
I knew there was no choice given the circumstances but to prepare an elixir for her, so I set about doing so in haste.
The female weakly groaned as I brought the fluid over to after I had finished mixing it. She sniffed at the fluid and I knew instantly that she would hate it. The brine water was something all females hated, though I still didn’t fully understand why.
Brine water was much easier to obtain than sweet water was, and yet, most of the males I knew who had mates did their best to save their sweet water for the females in their lives.
I had a small vial of it myself but kept it for the same purpose—hopeful that someday I would meet a female to whom I could bestow the gift. I had never imagined it would be for the purpose of trying to keep her from perishing right in front of my eyes!
I remembered a lesson my mother had taught me long ago.
“It isn’t fair! Had I not been cut off by Maun, I would have gotten that stag, Mother!” I roared as I came stomping into the home cave.
“Arh, have you never realized that there will come many times when you are cut off by an unexpected interruption? And that sometimes, that interruption will be of such great importance that you will need to pay a great deal of attention in order to observe the proper lesson?”
“Why do you speak in riddles, Mother? I do not understand a single word of what you are saying!” I scowled.
“Because wisdom has not yet entered your mind, my son. You must realize that oftentimes we will be robbed of things simply because it is not yet our time to enjoy them,” she said.
“So, you are suggesting that I will never get the stag because Maun will always disrupt my aim?” I asked.
“No, I am saying there will be many times in life when you are presented with what appears to be a great opportunity, and you will be robbed of it. It is what you choose to do afterward that matters. Will you allow this robbery to keep you from ever gaining that which you wish for or will you learn and accept you cannot control all things and celebrate your victories when your time is due?”
“I understand now, Mother. Thank you for your instruction,” I said.
My mother was the only female I truly had any real interaction with. Nobody had any daughters in the tribe—a fact I still did not fully understand but I had heard enough about the clinovis to understand that the fungal disease had something to do with it.
Strangely, Ella had turned up pregnant soon after her triad ceremony—something that had made many of the elders both glad and somewhat apprehensive. My mother theorized that the female would bear the first daughter that had been born in ages.
As my eyes darted across to the female throwing up alongside me, I decided to give her the sweet water and knew my mother would approve of this act kindness I had bestowed upon her.
I walked over to the satchel and removed the vial, collecting the wooden cup and pouring it inside. I strode back over to the female and knelt down, pushing the cup up toward her lips.
She sniffed it and her expression seemed to shift suddenly as she began to lap up the water. She seemed to grow calmer as she finished off the water and I smiled back at her. Her expression immediately turned terrified as she glanced over my teeth and I closed my mouth quickly, feeling awkward and rejected again.
What was it with these females and their ability to continuously make me feel inferior? I didn’t even understand a single word they spoke and yet they still had the unrelenting ability to make me feel like I was foolish and stupid—a mere look was all it took!
I scoffed and bit into my lip. It was still dark and traveling in the darkness was even more dangerous than moving by the light of day. But as the female turned and began vomiting again I recognized it for what it was—she needed a healer’s help, help that I, unfortunately, could not give.
I walked back over to the fire and lifted the Guayana leaf, wrapping the food up inside it and stuffing it into my satchel. I began walking around the fire, collecting the wooden cup and all my other tools as the female lifted her head and weakly glanced back at me.
“What are you doing? What is wrong with me?” she asked.
I sighed. It honestly would be for the better because she clearly spoke the same tongue as Ella, which meant that Ella might be able to answer the many questions or statements she kept telling me. Questions and statements I had no way of knowing whether violent and hate-filled or honest and frightened.
Taking her back to the tribal cave promptly was my last resort.
I scoffed. No better time than now.
Four
Arh
After I finished breaking down my encampment, I walked over to the female and pointed at her.
“Stand up,” I said. She looked at me like I was crazy and I shook my head in annoyance. “Come on, stand up. I don’t want to carry you over my shoulder with that pesky animal of yours in my satchel and all my tools.”
She blinked back at me and I groaned. What good was it to even try to speak with her—she didn’t get a damn thing I said. I reached down and pulled on her binds, yanking her to her feet as she glared back at me.
“Hey, you don’t have to be so forceful you big, purple oaf!” the female growled at me.
From the tone of her voice, she wasn’t happy with my pulling her but she hadn’t listened when I kindly asked her to stand up. It wasn’t my fault that she forced me to turn to more barbaric tactics. Time was of the essence.
While she seemed to be showing some signs of doing better now I knew that the toxin would continue to work its way through her body, wreaking utter havoc on her systems in no time—it was what the beetle’s venom did!
It didn’t matter who you were, how big you were, or how smart you thought you were—the venom was potent and it brought down anyone who suffered a bite.
The female stood there as she silenced herself and I walked over to the satchel that contained her animal. I lifted it and placed it gently over my shoulder and bent down to lift up my torch.
I walked to the fire and lit the torch head and pointed toward the footpath that jutted out just in front of us. The female followed the direction of the light and gave a nod.
“Alright, I got it! Follow you down the dark ass path with only a freaking tiki torch for light—I got it.”
I shook my head, still not understanding a single word, and began walking ahead of her.
“Woof!”
“Hush, Tremor—we have to be quiet. I get the feeling that we are going into terrain no man has gone before,” the female said.
I wondered what she had said, but there was no point in that. I was surprised when the animal in the bag suddenly quieted at her words.
Did it somehow understand her? If so, how was that even possible?
Animals were not creatures that understood us. They were wild and we ate them. But we never kept them or trained them. Is that why the female was so defensive of the creature?
I had so many questions, questions I hoped would be set at bay when I returned to the tribal cave. I decided I would bring the female directly to my home cave and allow my mother to look her over before I brought her into the tribal cave, as Karr had done.
At least, in this way, I would have some control over who knew about the female’s existence. Hopefully, I would gain some ground with her before the other males came to court and call on her.
I knew they would, and it wouldn’t take long for them to recognize her for what she was, despite the obvious differences between her figure and the first female who had appeared.
I figured that my mother’s helper, Dey, would be available if she were already resting for the evening. He would also know what to do in order to keep the female from remaining sick.
As we began walking down the path I glanced back to make sure that she was close to me. The last thing I needed was for a leech to come out of the darkness and grab her from behind me.
I wouldn’t have even known she was gone if such a thing were to happen and losing her after I had just found her wasn’t a risk I was about to take. So, I paused and urged her to walk ahead of me.
She coughed slightly and I watched as she seemed to lose her balance and began to sway a bit. I stepped up and placed my hand at the small of her back, holding her in place so she wouldn’t fall in the middle of the trail.
She knelt over slightly and began coughing even more.
“Thank you,” she muttered.
I nodded, though I couldn’t really understand a word of it. The feeling she gave off was one of gratitude and I was sure that if I was about to fall face-first into the ground, I would have felt thankful too.
At least she was easy enough to understand by her body language, even if I couldn’t truly or adequately converse with her. A fact that really annoyed me and I meant to change as quickly as possible.
I didn’t understand a female’s complexities, but I did understand that communication had to be important. Being able to convey one’s feelings to another seemed rudimentary to me.
How else was I to have her for a mate if we could not even communicate the basic instincts each of us had?
I waited for her to collect herself and as she straightened up, I pushed her to continue forward.
“Alright, I’m going. I’m going,” she murmured.
From her movements, she was getting less and less agile and the roots that ran across the footpath seemed to cause her to stumble a bit every few steps.
“Are you alright?” I asked her as we stopped for at least the fifth time.
She looked back at me and shrugged. I pursed my lips and nodded toward her as my eyes met with hers. I lifted a brow, hoping she would understand that I wanted to ensure her safety first and foremost.
It was critical that she knew that—because if her heart spiked at all it could cause the toxins to rush through her system, making her that much sicker that much faster.
She gave a nod and turned to keep walking forward and I smiled slightly. It was impressive to see the drive and willpower of this female. She was wholly unlike Ella and completely empowered in who she was.
The female lifted her head and nodded and I wondered if she had actually understood anything I had said to her. In the flicker of the torchlight, I could have sworn I saw her lips twitch slightly as she began to smile slightly.
It was strange, she had canine teeth at the front of her mouth but the rest of her teeth seemed oddly square and flat—completely unlike mine. I wondered if she could only eat certain types of meats because of it.
She steadied herself and I decided to allow her to walk ahead of me, this way I could keep her from falling on her face should the toxin suddenly make her woozy again.
She coughed suddenly and I pursed my lips. She would fade quickly if we didn’t start moving faster and I knew it. I pushed her to step forward with a low grunt.
“Okay, I’m going. I’m going,” she murmured as she began walking forward.
I had ventured some distance from the tribal cave on purpose, but I was never so far that I couldn’t make it back within a day’s walking time—of that I was sure.
I pursed my lips and silently whispered a prayer to the deity of Eilahas; Lìkìso; our Creator-Mother.
I hoped that my planet wouldn’t rob me of the chance to have a mate after all the bad luck I’d had lately. It was really all I knew to do other than bring her to my mother as swiftly as our feet would carry us.
My eyes flickered over the bluish-yellow firelight as it licked at the outside of my mother’s home cave. I spotted Scar standing near the fire with a large piece of meat he was turning to roast. It smelled delightful, and it seemed the female noticed it immediately.
“Mm!” she said, her eyes widening as she inhaled the air.
Scar, hearing her speak up, turned and glanced in our direction.
“What do you have there?” Scar asked, his eyes instantly shifting to the female who stood alongside me.
I sighed, closing my eyes as I inhaled deeply. This was the moment I had been dreading. Of course, there would be at least one of them standing outside my mother’s cave at the exact moment I decided to drag her in—not that I had much choice.
One may have called it fortune’s folly because I felt that fortune was either making a joke of me or it had just made a huge mistake when it came to stakes in my favor. Who knew?
“Hello, Scar,” I began, opening my eyes. “Where is my mother?” I asked, avoiding his question entirely.
Scar smirked and nodded toward the cave.
“She’s inside, where she usually is at this time. I’m preparing a meal now,” Scar said. “Where did you find her?” he asked, not letting up on what he had seen—the female that I still didn’t know what to call.
“I kind of came across her in my camp,” I said.
Scar chuckled. “Yeah, right. And I just found the cure for clinovis,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Believe it or not, Scar—I don’t really give a damn. I will say this, she fights like a hunter and she suffered a bite from the dificia beetle during the fray.”
“Oh no, you need to get her in to Dey now,” he said, his eyes widening as he realized the severity of my situation.
“I know,” I muttered. “But she seems aroused by your food.”
“Aroused by my food—maybe that is just the start, eh?” Scar asked chuckling.
“I know that she is a ripe female, as was the one that Karr brought. But looking at them, they’re entirely different. How is this so?” I asked him.
“I wouldn’t know, but I should think it doesn’t matter. She doesn’t look sickly and thin like Karr’s female did,” Scar observed.
“Indeed, I can see that she appears to be in good health, but she also seems a little hungry. Do you think you could fix her some soup?” I asked.
Scar nodded.
“Yes, I can make a stew with the meat when it is finished. I shall begin boiling water and vegetables now,” Scar replied.
I nodded. “Perfect, now I will bring her to Dey,” I said.
I reached for the female’s binds and began dragging her toward the cave entrance.
“Wait! What? No, the food smells so good and I’m famished!” the female blurted out, her eyes staring back at Scar and the food he was preparing.
I chuckled and shook my head, forcing her to move forward as I approached the cave. I peeked my head inside as my eyes began to focus on the interior surroundings.
“Mother?” I called curiously.
The first face to turn my way was that of Dey, the elder brother to Dew—one of the males Ella had chosen for her triad, much to my dismay.
I bit into my lower lip slightly. Now wasn’t that time to be territorial and I knew it, but the natural hunter in me felt threatened already and it was all I knew to do to keep from laying down the rules for what was intended to be mine.
At least, if I had anything to do with influencing it, that was.
“What is this?” Dey asked, rising from where he had been seated as he worked on binding various herbs for my mother.
He was her helper for a reason, and I knew that in time he would become an elder because of his knowledge of cures that I didn’t even begin to fully comprehend.
True, my mother had taught me a few things for being out in the field but her level of wisdom was not for everyone. Dey was one of the few who possessed a natural talent for it.
“She has been bitten by a dificia beetle and has some marring and bruises—possibly a few lacerations, from an altercation with myself,”
I admitted.
“What?” Dey asked, his tone rising as he rushed past me—his eyes flickering over the female with great concern etched across his face.
Spotting the binds on her wrists, he glanced back at me as his mouth fell agape. “Why would you treat her like common cattle?” he asked, the anger in his eyes sparking as his tone lifted.
“Watch yourself, Dey. My mother’s favor does not guarantee you anything. I wager to say that should we need to fight, I will hand you your skull on a Guayana leaf. Do not test me,” I said.
“You should watch your tongue now, son,” Veruka’s voice broke in behind me as she stepped forward. “Now is not the time to make arguments within my home cave or amongst the brethren. How long ago was she bitten?” my mother demanded.
I scoffed and glanced toward Dey shaking my head as I looked back at my mother.
“Less than an hour ago, if I should guess,” I said.
“Has she begun to display symptoms?” Veruka inquired.
I sighed. “Somewhat, yes. She lost her balance on the footpath and began coughing too,” I said.
“Hm, well let’s get her more comfortable. I will need to check her over and I do not need any interruptions. So, go make yourself useful to Scar outside. Ask him to prepare tonic water with sweet water, no brine,” my mother commanded.
I sighed. This was the one female who I respected. I had known her my whole life, and now she was demanding that I abide by her words and join a half-assed hunter! Something she knew I hated.
“Very well, I’ll go,” I said, deciding it best not to argue with her as I turned to walk away.
My mother would save the female and then I could begin my courting process—and this one was one I was determined not to lose.
Dey
I watched as Arh strode out of the cave, dropping a stag skin satchel that seemed to move slightly. I perked a brow and scoffed in disbelief.
“Woof!”
Alarmed by the sound, I turned to look at Veruka. I was caught between concern with what the creature inside was, and why Arh had dropped it there.