Her Mantle Upon Your Shoulders: Part 4

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*This story is from Old Age Canon. Some of the lore may have changed. Author: WinterAnswer

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Previous: Her Mantle Upon Your Shoulders: Part 3 | Continued: Her Mantle Upon Your Shoulders: Part 5

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Sequel to "His Shadow Upon Your Fate."

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Akuna's knuckle knocked against the sand-battered planks of the door to the house before her.  It was her last stop for the day.  She required herself to check on the dwellers inside.

The shuffle of feet sounded from within and she waited.  "Who is it?" the muffled voice asked through the door, the question presented without any worry or care.

"It's Akuna, Rully.  Have time to talk?"

"About what?" the voice asked.

"About anything that might spark your interest," Akuna answered, annoyed with a hand on the hip her sword was on.  "Wouldn't hurt to talk to someone and come outside."

"Not outside.  You can come in though."  A latch sounded, a bolt pulled back to allow the door to swing inward and reveal the people inside.  Akuna couldn't help but give a light hiss of disgust at the female standing in front of her.

Rully's light blue fur was shaggy, looking to have gone unwashed for some time.  What was worse was much of it was flaking away from her body, leaving patches of naked gray skin up and down her arms and legs.  Her eyes showed a wariness, sickly even.  Her limbs hung weakly from her frame, thin with underfeeding.

Cradled to her chest was a cub, it's arms wrapped around her mother's neck.  The child looked to be more well-fed than her.  The same could be seen about the five others sitting inside on the packed earth that served as the home's floor.

"By Vilous, Rully!" Akuna hissed at the female.  "You have not been taking care of yourself!  You look sick!"

The former soldier merely shrugged at her observation.  "Nothing to worry over.  Since I don't possess a mirror, I'm not bothered by it.  Now, come in," she beckoned her inward.

The floor was covered by nothing more than several muddled carpets, a few chairs, and a table.  A black furnace sat off in a corner, unlit and cold.  It was cool in that home, considering it laid in shadow most of the day, cast by the huge body of rock that loomed over it.  Many homes had been built in that rock's shade which hid them from the sun's warmth.

"Here," Rully grabbed a chair for Akuna before retrieving one for herself, her child still held close to her bosom.  The other children gave half-second glances before returning their attention to the array of pebbles that laid before them.  A type of game, Akuna thought to herself, but wasn't sure.

"It wouldn't be too much work, perhaps, to make this place look more presentable," Akuna folded her arms across her chest, placing her rump in the chair.  "Sweep out some of the dirt, buy more carpets.  I would think after this home was donated to you, it would be better maintained.  I'm sure the children would appreciate better toys too."

She looked to Rully and the cub in her arms.  Both stared tiredly at her like the words had never been said.  Months ago, a few Shigus had found the home empty and once they gave news it had no owners, many in the Shigu camp were ready to claim it as their own.  It was preferable than lodging with twenty or so other families in one barrack.  But all had agreed to offer the house to Rully and her six cubs considering the tragedy that had marred them during the war campaign.

Their dwelling might have been crafted by hands whom never had built a home before, it's walls composed of old wooden planks of differing sizes and shapes.  It also seemed to lean at an angle from where it stood, but even Akuna knew it was a place to be grateful for, somewhere to shield yourself away from the merciless heat and sandy wind.  A place to cook and sleep in silence.  Somewhere that could be considered home in lands so foreign.

"Dirt would be swept back in if I swept it out," Rully groaned, breaking eye contact with Akuna to now stare at the dirt underneath her feet.  "No amount of carpets would change that.  And the children would lose their toys.  If not, they would break.  Better for them just to play with rocks.  You can always find more."

"Is it wise to have them sitting here all day, everyday?" Akuna now pressed.  "It's unhealthy for such young cubs to not be outside, running, playing.  It's in their spirits."

"Better they stay in here with me than be snatched up by bandits.  Taken away from me.  Better they stay here in my sights."

A heavy sigh turned into a rumbling growl in Akuna's throat, her displeasure rising at the sound of the former soldier's answers.  A silence fell upon them for a moment before Rully pushed it away.

"I dreamt of him again," she said, her gaze unfocused.  "He came home to us.  He was so happy to see us, all of us."  There was a twitch there, in her jaw.  Her eyes moved over her home, to her children, trying to avoid Akuna.

"Father," the cub in her arms said, playing with the hazy-blue locks of her mother's hair.

"Yes," Rully said, smiling.  "It was.  But...I always wake up and regret it.  I would think...that it would be better not to wake up at all.  None of us.  It would be better to sleep like Avow."

The child in her arms didn't react and neither did the five playing with their rocks, but Akuna's head cocked back in surprise at Rully's words.  Such must give talk like that often, she reckoned.

"You should give careful when speaking those words, Rully," she warned.  "They are dangerous and, not to mention, cowardly."

A smirk drew across her face, unscaved by her words.  "It would be nice though, better to dream of a better place than live in his shithole."

Again, Akuna winched at her statements.  "It would be better," her tone became deadly serious, "if you found distraction in work.  It would also be better if you were training your children like any mother would be doing.  Like I said before, I can do the latter if you allow them to exit this place."

"No," Rully snapped at her, her vision transforming into a glare.  "They have no reason to train.  Clan Shigu is no more."

"Quiet your tongue, Rully!  Damnit!  Your words could be heard as treason!"

"So," she craned her head forward, "my words are treasonous because they tell the truth? What do you train for, Akuna?  Do you train for the eventual slaughter that is destined for us once the Reonos come?  Who shall save us?  Us alone?"

"Us alone is more than enough to quash any resistance that might come our way!  We are Shigu!"

"Were, you mean!  Once!"  The children's attention were on the two females now, ears pulled back at the volume of their voices.  Even the little one Rully held curled in a tight ball of fear against her.  "The General is gone!  We are nothing without her!  I would rather sleep in death with my mate than live with the burden of our defeat!"

"Why do you succumb to the fear and lies the southerners wish you to see as truth?  The General carries on and is planning out our counterattack.  We still carry the responsibility of maintaining our honor as Shigu!"

Rully's head dove, a sigh escaping her while the tenseness in her limbs seemed to evaporate.  "I wonder if you would be this harsh if you had lost your mate like me.  Even your child."

The thoughts flashed and shot through Akuna's mind like sharp blades sheering soft flesh.  Quickly, she jumped up from her chair, hissing and ready to pounce at Rully with a good slap across her thin face.  But...she caught her anger before it could overtook her.  She rather not hurt the child, she reasoned to herself.

"Rully," she said, attempting to keep her teeth unseen, "for the sake of you, your children, and the honor of your dead mate, work.  Remember your duty.  Let the children train.  You can help us build, spar with the soldiers even.  We need every able body we can get.  Our future as warriors rests upon our shoulders."

"Without the General, there is no future," she simply stated, without any emotion, like she regarded it as fact.

Akuna swiftly turned her back to Rully in a frustrated snarl, no longer able to tolerate her company.  She made for the door, her breath hissing through her teeth.

"It's very obvious that you have abandoned your duties, Rully.  It's disgustingly childish and puts you at risk of execution."  Her fingers wrapped around the cold metal of the door latch, yanking it open to invite in the dusty southern air.  She waited for some reaction, a retort, but neither came.  She faced Rully again and all six of her cubs were now staring at her in the frame of their doorway.  "But, it would be shameful to see six of our own become motherless.  They must deal with being fatherless as it is."  Again, no reaction from Rully.  "I'll give you a few days to see if you change your mind.  Oh, and children?"  Their eyes pricked up at their mention.  "You do not require your mother's approval if you wish to train among my troops like real soldiers.  Wouldn't you rather be playing with swords and spears than rocks and dirt?"  She grinned, hoping maybe, one of their faces would lighten up at that given chance, but they only continued to cast their indifferent stares.

Finally, slamming the door back into it's slot, she left.  Her displeasure remained though, digging into her like a fiend's knife in her gut.

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This morning's broth served as this evening's dinner.  The pot in which it cooked in was scrapped clean with the day's deeds done.  Rupland watched as his mate and daughter drank down the majority of the meal.  Knowing the two, they would have forgotten about lunch during their daily tasks and play.

Brunka settled in easily, all her energy and eagerness stolen from today's activities and her mother's heavy duties.  Once finished with her meal, she curled on the bed in her room upstairs, not taking the time to cover herself.  If she did, she would have awoken in the middle of the night panting with the pads of her hands and feet slick with sweat.  Sheets were scarcely needed in such heat.  Her father softly closed the door into it's frame once he found the cub breathing soundly and well asleep.

He crossed the hallway and entered into the adjacent bedroom, toe claws clipping ever so slightly on the wooden floorboards.  He fully knew his mate would not have the same sleeping aura as his child.  Instead, he found her on her half of the bed, back propped against the wall.  A portion of her face was illuminated by the candle on the bed table to her right.  A dead bulb remained in it's socket in the middle of the ceiling.  Much of the house could have been powered by a steam engine found in a small cellar below the house.  Rupland was very interested in the metal contraption, learning it only required water and coal, but he was unable to actually understand how to make it come to life.  Akuna was unwilling to have a Nevrean practiced in the mechanical arts come over and teach him it's proper use.  She eyed the engine with suspicion and demanded it to remain cold and lifeless in it's cellar.

She gave a minute look at him before her eyes took on a blank stare again.  She chewed on her index claw, hints of anger forming on her brow.  Her tail twitched on the bed sheets between her legs.

"A bothersome day," Rupland remarked as he lowered himself to the bed next to her.  He pressed his back to the wall as well, turning his head to her.

"Why do you say that?" Akuna asked while she continued to nibble on the claw of her forefinger.

"It's that or you're picking the meat from your teeth with that claw of yours."  He grinned, trying to promote his mate to do the same.  Instead, she glared at him sternly as if he had offended her with an insult.  He even half-expected her to swing a quick slap at him.

"Well," he quickly said before she could raise her hand, "what's nipping at your hairs?"

Her gaze broke, her clawed finger descending to be wrapped under her opposite arm as both crossed her chest.

"Doubters," she simply stated.  "I'm surrounded by doubters and cowards."  The words appeared to sting her at their very pronunciation, wrinkles of irritation manifesting on the bridge of her muzzle.  "I presented a decent proposal to that Nevrean governor Acli and she didn't even consider it.  No opportunity to banter with her was given either."  She growled lowly.  "Bitch."

"What proposal?" Rupland leaned closer, leveling an ear at her to listen.  She relayed the course of business that happened earlier that day, about the Shigu's request for new weaponry.  Every word she gave was laced with displeasure, her expression souring with each passing moment.

"Ah, I see" Rupland said when she finished, but her anger remained, her chest heaving up and down.  "Sounds as if it could have gone better than it had."  He dug his forefinger claw into the bed sheets, piercing them to prod into the feathers that stuffed the mattress below.  Better than any bed filled with straw.  "But maybe it's for the best?"  His words treaded carefully, as if the ground between him and her was laid with fine needles.

"For the best?" she snapped the question at him.  "How could leaving us armless be for the best?  Are you actually taking that Nevrean's side?"

"No," he was quick to retort at her accusing tone.   "I have not.  I meant that perhaps it's better that we as Shigu should stop preparing solely for war now.  It has been more than a few years and we still have not received a war report from the high command.  Maybe it's better to move away from the idea that the war continues."

"And allow ourselves to become weak and thin like the southerners?" she again snapped at him with hissing vocals, her eyes burning with a rage that she kept reserved for foes.  "You might as well have asked me to grow a mane of their ugly fur."

She shot up from the sheets, hands wrapped into fists, and feet stomping upon the wooden panels of the floor.  "We haven't waited here after all this time in this sand pit of hellish heat to give up our oaths of loyalty now!"  She paced around the foot of the bed and Rupland could see the anger in her face flaring.  "Not now when any moment the General could walk into this town and give us new orders.  Even tomorrow we could receive note of her commands! "

"Hush!  The child!  Cool your wrathful tongue."  Rupland's back was off the wall now, straightened as if he were at attention.  "There is no reason to snap your jaws at me."

"No reason?" her eyes widened.  "When did such an idea of peace come to you?  Of all the soldiers here, I never believed my own mate would steer such words at me!"

"I only do so in hoping our child wouldn't have to arm herself and enter the killing fields!  She could be maimed and die!  She's our child and I hate the thought that she might be forced to stay fastened to her duty.  She is still so young."  His legs enclosed around him in a sitting position, his eyes linked with Akuna's.

"She is my own and I have trained her!  With that, she should rise to be a great warrior like me and become a high officer of our clan.  She will lead and raze all southern opposition before us.  She will have no fear of death within her mind when she is skinning Reonos!"

"But can she be more than a soldier?" he asked her, hands open to his question.  "What if she trains for nothing?  What if we find that our efforts are in vain and our duties are halted?  A soldier is only as good as the war she prepares for."

Akuna gave a snort at his words, hands placed firmly on her hips.  "And what?  She becomes a farmer like me from before?  Or like you as a street child, digging for your food in trash?"

Rupland winched back, his face scrunched in anger now.  "You wound me with your words, Akuna.  Why do you use my past against me like a knife?  Have I done the same to you?"

"I am just showing you her choices, my mate," she explained, harshly.  "It's difficult to farm here and you know you would never desire to see her straddling the streets, streaked with hunger and stealing her meals."  Her sentences were less enflamed, but they were now heavy with a sadness.  "War or no war, with the skills of the warrior she can survive.  War spreads and conflict breeds, and when it comes her way she will not be ill-prepared."

Rupland's head dove, their argument taking it's unphysical toll on his mind.  "I would not like to think she will have to fight for her life.  I would rather believe she could live without the threat of sword-strokes and arrow bolts."

"The General desires to conquer the southerners and their clans," Akuna stated the obviously known, an endeavor stated and restated over the years.  "She will do so and we are required to accompany her on the venture."  She walked along the side of the bed and settled herself down to lay against the mattress again.  "There is no need to worry," she assured him, her hostile display ending.  "Brunka will be a fine warrior with many kills to boast.  She will, doubtlessly."

Carefully, Rupland lessened the space between them, leaning to nuzzle against the fur of her neck with his muzzle.  She didn't pull away.  Instead, she gave a light purr to his gentle touch.  "I hope the days before us receive us well, especially for our daughter."

"She has the warrior's heart," Akuna's voice rumbled in his ear.  "She will make the days receive her."

A huffing laugh blew through Rupland's nose, but one that was not insulting to Akuna's statement.  He pressed against her and she did as well.  An arm came around him, strong and tight, pulling at him.  Before long, she too was nibbling at his hide, at his shoulder and around the neck.  Then came the kisses, their tongues wrestling around in each of their maws, careful with their teeth.  Nostrils flared at the smell of their arousal, of the heat rising in their loins, but before the lustful act could be commenced, Akuna separated for a moment.

"Get me my equipment," she smiled up at him and Rupland knew of what she meant.

"Must I?" he playfully groaned.  "You hit so hard and bruise me."

"I'll bruise you even worse if you don't bring it here now!"  And he was up, walking across the room to retrieve her "equipment" from the pile of her armor, sword, and fabric skirt.  He handed her the tool, her fingers wrapping around the leather handle of her thrashing rod.

"Come," she invited, tickling the top of the sheets where her mate had just been.  Just as Rupland's knees pressed to the mattress, a pain slapped across the side of his thigh.

"Damnit!" he laughingly hissed.  "That's already too hard!"

With a grin and a growl, she pounced on him, snagging him by the arm and pulling him to her chest.  Again came the rod and it's stinging power.  Rupland yelped again and Akuna smiled.  He knew she enjoyed each one she could pared.

###### =====================================================================

The sun rose, inviting it's heat and light.  Then came the wind to toss up the sand and dirt to beat upon the walls of houses and surfaces of rocks.  The townsfolk awoke, hopefully ready to brave the sun and it's heat, and the wind and how it turned specks of dust into annoyance.

Brunka hissed with pain again, Akuna's dismay growing with the child's lack of hardiness.  Still, Akuna knew, the weakness that laid underneath her hide would be beaten out of the cub by the end of their exercises.  Progress would be made today, she guaranteed herself.  The cub rose to her feet again and took on her fighting stance.  Once her mother had launched herself at her, she blocked and dodged her blows as valiantly as she could muster, but her mother was quick to find a space in her defense and take the breath from her with a good kick to her stomach.

Rupland gave sparse looks towards the sparing mother and cub, winching every so slightly when a hard hit or slam was donated to Brunka's small frame.  "Damn her," his whispers cut into the silence inside their home.  Always so rough, but he had to admit the child seemed sturdy enough to take the punishment.

Bowls of soup were waiting for them when they finished.  Rupland watched as his culinary work was quickly slurped and chewed down, the bowls licked clean of any drops that might have escaped their spoons.

"Lizard," Brunka remarked with a smile and her father was quick to mimic it.

"Yes," he said, noticing the distinct taste of the meat in the soup.  It had a softer texture, a heavier flavor too, but it was still very edible.  The grains served the mixture of broth well too.

Once the three had separated for their activities, Rupland set out towards the western gate of the city.  Yesterday, it had been a good choice to visit the eastern gate, giving him much work to do and coin to fill his pockets, but he decided the opposite entrance to Rellon needed to be searched for work as well.

While much of the traffic that funneled through the eastern gate was Nevreans hailing from the Tonzu mountains, carrying with them wood, metal, food, and tools, the western gate gave way to travelers from the gut of the Sailzane desert.  Wanderers and sellers carried spices and fabrics.  Silks, meats, and other luxuries that trickled from the sprawl of wonder that was Gold Ring.

The travelers would be tired, Rupland knew.  Few settlements were found on the beaten trail that lead through the desert to the humid forests of the lower peninsula, and Rellon remained a beacon of relief for many wary travelers that had braved the scorching dunes.

Not long after he first arrived, he snagged the interest of an Agundar female.  Her pale body was wrapped in green fabrics, her long skirt swaying in the dusty wind with her blond hair.

"Another hand wouldn't be bad," she said to him, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand to eye him while her wagon driver lead her cargo through the town.  "And bearing in mind my main hand is as lazy as grazing cattle, perhaps you can show her how real work is done, yes?  You'll certainly gain more coin by doing so."

"Yes, I am willing to do that," Rupland grinned at her, straddling alongside the first of her two wagons.

The Agundar's place of business was not far from the western gate, just up the road a few paces.  As the two wagons pulled up, a northerner came into the sunlight through the entrance of the shop.  Quickly, her eyes were trained on Rupland, squinting past the sun's glare as he approached the tailgate of a stationary wagon.

"Hurry, hurry, Ceil!  Hurry!" the Agundar female barked, dismounting the wagon.  "Big loads are waiting for you.  Lucky of you that I found more help.  Your delicate palms can go unscathed now!"

The northerner gave a slight snort at her employer's humor before meeting Rupland at the wagon's tailgate.

"Ah, familiar," the female examined him when she came within an arm's distance.  "I've seen you go up and down this road here before, have I not?"

"I would think so," Rupland said, providing a friendly grin.  "I take it most days to find work."

The female, Ceil, regarded him with a smile.  Other Agundars were preparing the cargo, letting down the tailgates and undoing the straps that held the crates down in the wagon's bed.  The two northerners began transferring the goods into the store, a minor clothing shop Rupland would observe as he entered.  Tunics, kilts, and breeches of thick leather, soft wool, and smooth silk were laid out and hung in display.  They came in a variety of colors and looked to be finely crafted.

Walking to the back of the store, an collection of buckets awaited in one room.  A washing station, he thought, but soon saw the splotches of color worn into the stone floor.

"So," Rupland started up with another crate in his hands and with Ceil at his shoulder, "you work here?"

"No, I'm the Agundar's pet," he answered in a smile.  "She keeps me well-fed and she grooms me well, but she becomes anger when I shit on her rugs.  I do it mostly out of spite."

Rupland gave a startled expression, taken back by the northerner's response and not quite sure to take her answer as valid.

"Of course, I work here!" she said to him while she cackled a laugh at his face.  "When the answer is obvious, don't ask stupid questions."

"Well," Rupland grinned back at her, "don't give such convincing answers."  That then started a series of questions and answers between the two.  How long have you been working here?  How is the labor?  The pay?  What squad did you serve in?  What was your rank?  They gloated over scars and Rupland told of how a Talyxian robbed him of his eye.  Much discussion had progressed before both wagons were emptied.

Ceil proved to be forthcoming female and a fine help once the crates enlarged to the point where both had to carry one into the shop.  Even more so, she was playful.  She tossed jokes and had pricked out a few hairs from Rupland's bottom as he stooped to handle a crate.  He smiled past the sharp pain in his rump, but he couldn't help feel faintly embarrassed by the flirtatious act.

Coins clicked from the female Agundar's hand and into Rupland's palm, twelve silver in all for his work.

"A fine job you did," she stated.  "You even seemed to get Ceil off her soft ass."  A long grin stretched out on her pale face, green eyes shooting over Rupland's shoulder at her northern assistant.

"Maybe we should keep him around then, yes?" Ceil then provided with a smile as well, slumping down on a box that creaked upon her weight.

"No," the Agundar quickly doused the question and Rupland's excitement.  Being a shop worker with stable pay would be a great blessing, Rupland knew.  There would be no need to trek from gate to gate, praying his services would be required.  "I have you already you and that's enough weight on my back," Agundar told Ceil.  "But..."  She then locked eyes with the northerner in front of her.  "It would be no hindrance if you came by every so often.  Yes?  The pay would be less, but it wouldn't hurt to have you in my pocket when work comes."

"I do come to this side of town often.  Not a far walk for me," Rupland happily replied back, allowing his silver runks to settle down into a jacket pocket.  Before he could make his way out the door, a swift hand slapped against his behind.

"Fair day and see you again," Ceil grinned darkly at him.  He returned the smile, not sure if the gesture was only motivating her overly friendly actions further.

The streets were still alive with caravans and travelers when he headed back to the western gate.  A Nevrean male cut through the bare, blue sky with open wings, sliding out of the air and landing somewhere on another road.  Why would she be motivated, he asked himself.  I had told her.  She knows I have a mate.  Quickly, he brushed his scattering thoughts aside, taking it as a welcoming nature of hers.  Besides that, Akuna would be most agitated with him if he came home with just twelve silver.

###### =====================================================================

Rupland's face had gained much recognition in consideration for the work he completed for the Agundar.  When he returned the next day to her shop, she appeared to be anticipating his arrival.  She invited him into the back and already her words were filling his ears with what needed to be done like her coin would be filling his pockets at the end of the day.

Even more so, the Agundar and her clothing shop gave Rupland a slight relief from the mundane monotony of lifting and transporting goods from a wagon to the backroom of a business.  Instead, Hasasa, he learned she was called, had him dye articles of fabric, turning whites to blues, reds, yellows, greens, and all in between.  He hung each piece on lines of wire to let the colors set.  He was also taught how to mix the dyes to give birth to other colors.  Curious, Rupland thought, how one would gain green from the mixture of blue and yellow.

Again, Ceil proved to be good company, providing conversation that devoured the hours.  Oddly, Rupland reckoned, she seemed particularly interested in his mateship with Akuna.

"Are you and your mate mated for life?" she asked.  She extracted a tunic from a pool of red dye after it had set, hands up to her wrist bathed in the crimson liquid.

"Uh, I would hope so," he told her, removing a pair of breeches from the green dye bucket.

"How is living with her?  Ever get weary of her?"  The drops of dye, like watery tears of blood, had ceased dripping from the tunic.  She clothespin the shoulders of the cloth to the drying wire as Rupland did the same with the breech's leggings.

His ears twitched with a confusion, taken back by the fellow northerner's prying questions.

"She's occasionally intolerable with her talk of war and her hunger for conflict," he relented, "but I'm certain she has her own grievances about me."

"Truly?  Like what?"  More fabrics were placed into the buckets, white devoured into ponds of color.

"Well, I would suppose she hates when I challenge her on the way she rears our child."

"Eh?" Ceil gave him a sidelong look, interest peeking.  "How so?  Is she hurting your cub?"

"Not out of malice, of course!" he explained.  "She's just rough with her, like all parents have to be, I would think.  Like soft feet traveling over a road of stones, she will become thick with resolve over time, as she has said to me before."  He gave a small smile.

"A little brutish, sounds to me.  Um, no offense towards your mate, of course," she quickly retracted.

"None to be received," he assured her, "but it's better for such words not to enter her ears.  She's more likely to respond first with a slap than with her tongue."

"And sex?" Ceil turned the subject over.  "Is it still fresh?"

A twitch reverberated through Rupland's jaw, again put off slightly by the female's forwardness considering they had just met a day ago.

"As much as it was the first time she pounded down upon me," he smiled widely, answering a forthright question with a forthright answer.  "But she's more playful now, it seems.  Likes me to play the role of a captured soldier while she pretends she is the enemy captain and forces herself upon me.  She likes to slap me raw with her thrashing rod too."  He couldn't help but give a snicker at his loose tongue.  "But why so meddlesome?  You enjoy listening to what causes others to become fast and hot?"

"I'm only curious for the reason you have a mate," she proclaimed, churning the fabrics about in their respective buckets.  "A female must know well of such a subject before looking for a mate of her own, yes?"

"I suppose," he gave.

"But if I were your female," she leaned close, her muzzle near to his, "I wouldn't require any tools or pretending play to help me become, like you say, fast and hot."  She giggled, puffing hot breaths to tickle the fur on his face.  He gave a laugh too, a quaint one, unsure how to feel about all this playful banter.

The look, he knew, was there.  While her hands were busy with work, her eyes gave hints of that look.  The gaze a female casts once she has honed on a male of her choosing.  A glance of desire.  Rupland was picked and he didn't know what to do about it.  He prayed it was just a tease of sorts, her trying to provide a sliver of temptation where it wasn't suppose to be.  If he was less of a faithful mate, he would had taken to Ceil's baiting words.  Even so, what she insisted started something up, something of a wild lust that could spellbound him if he wasn't careful.

He hoped it was only a temporary taunt of hers.  For now, Rupland, with his loins enticed, remained devotedly guarded.

###### ====================================================================

"Last night, we had three cargos come in through the east gate," Marn informed the others around him that were ignorant of such an occurrence, like Akuna.  "The merchants insisted nothing was in their wagon, but a search was given regardless of their words.  Less surprising to say is that weapons were discovered."

A group of young Nevreans dispersed once the foursome of sergal soldiery came their way, giving startled, yet annoyed eyes at the northerners.  Akuna would have given a flash of teeth towards them if her mind was not solely entwined in the dealings of the previous night.

"What types?" Akuna then asked.  "Guns?  Spears?  Swords?"

"The last two.  Had a few breastplates and leggings and belts with them, but otherwise it was a small cargo."

"Leaves of small gives hint to trees of large," she added.

The town's jailing greeted them with it's typical aroma of musk and waste.  Little pots of flower trimmings had been placed in the corners of the officer's lodgings to combat the stench.  It did little to help, Akuna though, taking a few rapid sniffs up her snout.

The drunkards and petty thieves looked from in between the bars of their cells when the sergal cluster funneled through the doorway, morning light pouring through the barred square holes in the opposite wall.

The patron, and his cargo hands, were found within the middle cell, ankles shackled to the wall like all the rest.  Their furs were less dirty than the other prisoners, their glances less uncaring after enduring only a night in this foul place .

"And these are the accused transporters," the prison guard told the Shigus.

Five southerners, Akuna saw.  Four males being the hands, and one female being the head merchant.  They sat in silence watching them, clothed in robes of yellow and brown.  Akuna gave a low growl that seemed to vibrate the stones of the cell, only desiring to provoke some fear in them.  Just a sliver of it.

"What force do you council with, southerners?" Akuna snarled at them, showing only hints of her teeth.  "Reonos?  Mercenaries?  We are certain it isn't us, otherwise we would be lining your pockets than them."

"We sell to those that can buy," the female spoke with a harsh tone.

"Ah, so to anyone," she condensed.  "Why did you lie to our sentries that you had nothing in your wagons?"

"Your guards misheard me," she placed her elbows on her raised knees.  "I meant there was nothing in my wagons, but weapons.  Nothing more."

"And where were you headed?" she then asked, arms crossed around her chest, foot claws scratching at the chilled stones under her feet.

"We were heading to Bualup," the southerner informed, her tail lashing at the air angrily.

"So, you sell to Reonos and other southern forces?"

"I sell to those that wish to arm themselves.  It's dangerous terrain here," she told them as if they were blind to such a fact.

"Then why not settle here for the day?  Sell to us northerners in the markets, or do you prefer to sell to your thin, blond-haired bastard breed?"

The female southerner hissed, looking away from the four Shigus with much disdain.  "Our main markets are in Bualup, not here.  If you would travel to Bualup then we would sell to you there."

"Quite a walk," Akuna said, her frown remaining.  "Are you of the Italak caravans?  I hear tell that the Italak caravans are good suppliers to the Reonos."

"I wouldn't know about them," the female replied.  "I'm just of a small family of traders."

"We'll see if your words stand when you're all put under more scrutiny," she then smiled.  "Guard, have them tied and handed over to us."

She waited, but the keys did not rattle like usual, the cell door was not pulled open and the prisoners hoisted up from the stony ground.  Instead, the guard stayed stationary where she stood.

"Sorry, ma'am," the Nevrean guard said, "but I have been ordered to not allow any prisoners be transferred to your hands."

"What?" Akuna asked with astonishment, sparking her anger.  "Who ordered you to-"

"Acli and her consorts, ma'am," she said with a snap.  "She has told me that we are to keep all prisoners of any sorts here, no matter the charge.  No matter your orders."

The female guard's further explanation only infuriated Akuna even more.  She much desired to snatch the cell keys from her belt and take the prisoners herself.  "And why would she give such a mandate?  Why?" she barked, looking down at the Nevrean female as she crowded her.

"She has her reasons," the Nevrean quickly retorted, the nervousness in her voice only hinted at.  "Reasons that remain with her, not me."

"Fool!" Akuna spat, her hand springing forward to grab at the metal collar of the Nevrean's armor.  She pulled her close, her muzzle just minor spaces from the guard's orange beak.  "Her reasons will hinder our methods of securing your town!  This southerner maybe supplying our enemies which in turn are your enemies as well.  They will not care who is northerner or Nevrean when they come to take your homes!"

The Nevrean guard grimaced, not sure if she should take more offense for Akuna's words or the smell of her breath that blew at her face.

"Our orders are sealed and my duties will be suspended if I break them," she told the large, northern female towering over her, anger flooding her expression.

"So your duties are more important than the wellbeing of your home?" she asked.

"I cannot go against the orders of my superiors," the Nevrean leered upward.  "Now, if you are done questioning these inmates," she designated the southerners beyond the steel bars that watched the heated exchange with stark interest, "I will have to ask all of you to leave."

Again, Akuna's primal animal struck at her, tempting her with violent images of the tethered and bloodied hide of the Nevrean.  She hadn't tasted Nevrean in so long, she remembered.  Flavorful flesh, she recalled.  But, with a heavy reluctance, Akuna released the guard with a disengaging shove and a deep growl.

Marn and the others were already moving past Akuna and the prisoner guard to reach the door.  Akuna broke the stare she was giving the Nevrean and looked sternly at the five southerners.  "Stay there.  We'll be back here soon," she sneered at them.

The female southerner merely glared at her, the workings of a smile on her lips.  "Forgive me if I don't trust your words, like you don't trust mine."

A large glob of spit launched from Akuna's mouth and hit the wall beside the female's ear.  Ashamed of her miss, she found the door and met her allies outside of the jailing.

"So, this is how our claws are clipped to stubs," Akzla said with accusing eyes on Akuna.  "All accredited to your reckless efforts, Akuna."

"Take your blame and shove it up your under tail!" she snarled at her, fur bristling with fury.

"Your blame is well-deserved after your show that day in front of Acli!"  She stood her ground in the street as Akuna closed in on her, Marn and Monx watching off to the side.  Neither had ever been bold enough to stop an argument between the two.  "I only wish you had been punished solely instead of the lot of us with you!"

"Isn't it strange, Akzla?" Akuna said lowly, contrary to her boiling anger that bubbled in her head.  "How quick Acli is to take away our powers, especially when we have southerners within our grasp.  Do you not smell even a hint of the unseen collaboration that is happening here?"

Akzla's next face only showed complete bewilderment.  "What unseen collaboration?!  Who?  Are you now accusing Acli of planning against us now?  The only smell that comes to my nose is the excrement that you are spilling on all our efforts!  You're the only one that sees these unseen collaborations!  No one else does!"

Akuna hastily turned away and started down the street, her rage still running rampant through her veins.  Her allies followed after her.  "We will take in those southerners for talks when they are released.  If they are not handed over to us within Rellon, we will take them outside of it's gates!"

"What?" Marn spoke up now.  "You mean capture them by force and bring them here?"

"Our questions will be asked in the desert," she said, going at a brisk walking pace that was near to running.  "And when we have our answers, Acli's attempts to have us made castrated will be all in vain!"  She now smiled past her anger, fingers clinging the stem of her spear hard.

"And you think we will go along with this plan?  We cannot risk to damage our reputation anymore than you have done already!"

"We cannot allow these southerners to slip from our claws.  And even after we're through with them, we will have three wagons full of weapons on our hands!  Just what we needed!"

"And that will be all the evidence Acli will need to evict us from her territory!" Monx then began to try to reason with her comrade.  "We cannot risk it, even for such an unimportant lead."

"I will decide if it's truly important or not once we have those southerners in our custody.  We will round up a few squads and surprise them on the trail!"

"No, you idiot!" Akzla's voice tore through the air.  She ran forward and cut off Akuna's path towards the Shigu campgrounds.  "We cannot risk it!  We cannot!  We have enough on our hands at the moment!"

"We cannot risk letting them go!" Akuna yelled, her course stalled.  "We have to find out what they know!"

"What would they know?  They are merchants!  Mere merchants!  The southerners are our enemies, but not all of them are in direct relation with the Reonos!  Especially these few!"

"You don't know that!"  The town crowd was having another show today, watching from afar while the sergals had their yelling match.

"Damnit, I do know!  Those desert hunters last week weren't assassins!  That one wanderer and his family were not scouts!  And that one selling books was not giving information about us in his manuscripts by code!  They were civilians, common people, nothing more!  But you're the only one that thought they were soldiers!  Spies!  I allowed you to work your way, but your failures have greatly outweighed your successes!"

Akuna broke eye contact with Akzla's enraged orbs, leering past her shoulder to the corner of the street.  At one end of the road came the sight of children sprinting in play.  Cubs, she realized.  Then, with further realization, she saw one was her cub.  Brunka chasing...a southerner.  Akuna's attention of Akzla's rant was cut off for a few brief seconds as her eyes traced her child's sprint at the blond-haired child, manes tossed by the wind.  She could see both of their long smiles, catch at the echo of their laughter before they disappeared past a building, gone to play elsewhere.

"Hey!" she heard someone say to her.  Then a hand slammed into her breastplate, resurrecting her memory.  "Are you deaf now?"

She met Akzla's angered gaze again, not sure what to say.  "Uh," she stammered, gaining back the subject of why the two were even arguing.  "Our squads.  We have to round up our squads and find them when they leave the city.  Even if they are not soldiers, we will take their weapons as our own."

Akuna tried to move around Akzla's current position, but was then stopped by an arm hooked around hers.

"No," Akzla said to her, "we will not be going after them."

"Fine.  Stay," she snorted out loud.  "I will have my own squads see to the effort."  She attempted to go forward, but Akzla's limb was still pulling at her even though it greatly oversized hers.

"No!  We will let this go!  They are nothing but commoners moving on their way!  We cannot have Acli think even less of us and our abilities if your actions are revealed to her."

"Do you wish to stop me yourself?" she leered at her fellow female.

"I will have Kusno disband you from your duties and relieve you of your rank if you do not comply!"  Her words were serious and threatening, Akuna knew.

"Kusno isn't here at the moment," she advised her.

"Then I will tell Acli myself of what you've done!" she yelled out, Akuna's expression becoming incredulous.  "I will not have you wrong us all by your insanity!"

"Ousting one of your own, Akzla?" Akuna stared at her now, less with anger and more with surprise.  "Why have you've dropped this low?"

"I am only acting for the safety of our clan!  By the way you're acting, I would think either you are the one planning against us Shigus or you have just gone utterly mad.  Which would you like me tell Acli as to why we have deemed you unfit to lead?"

She didn't answer at first.  Pulling her arm free from Akzla's, she growled lowly at the wary stares of her peers.  "Fine.  We'll allow these five to go.  But if tomorrow comes and the southerners are at the gates," she looked to Akzla directly, "I'll have your head given to them on a spear."

Her direction was still pointed toward the Shigu camp, but now her resolve was gone.  Instead, her worry was split.  What she had seen, her child and the southerner chasing one another, had disturbed her deeply.  Maybe even more distrubing to allow those five southerners go on their way unchallenged.

###### ======================================================================

Rupland had done well to go to the market and purchase a few more pounds of meat to add to the broth he had cooked up that morning.  More flavor for their tongues, more food to their stomachs.  Even so, Akuna caught at her mate's unspoken distraction.  She knew by the way he stared at his bowl of soup, muzzle pointed downward while his spoon carried the broth and chucks of pink meat to his mouth.  Usually, he would be looking at her, his child, looking to see if his culinary work had satisfied them.

His expression was not of sadness though, Akuna noticed, just a blank gaze, his attention turned to his mind's eye.  He could wait, Akuna thought to herself silently.  There was the child to question about her deeds today, and the untold offense she had enacted in front of her mother's eyes.

"Did you play well today, Brunka?" Akuna asked calmly without any suspicion in her voice.

The child nodded, her gray mane bouncing with her ears.  "It was fun today."

"Who did you play with?"  She wasn't known to ask her child such questions, but she allowed the cub to tell her all the details of the day, or simply lie to her.

"Jala and Meel," Brunka answered, gray eyes now finding her mother.  Niyi's and Budio's offspring.  Akuna regarded them as undisciplined, the result of their mother's unwillingness to effectively rear them.  She had invited them to train with the other Shigus, but she was more than certain that Niyi wouldn't allow them to do so.  Even so, it was comical to think of her reaction when her children came to ask her of the prospect of such.

"Anyone else?  Only those two?"  Akuna's spoon laid upon the table, her gaze turned solely towards her cub.  She saw the nervous blink Brunka relented.

"And a few new cubs," the child told her, her little tail twitching with the quiver that a mortally wounded soldier's body exhibits before death grips them wholly.

"Oh?  Who then?  What do they look like?"  She took a few sips of her broth with her bowl to her black lips.

"Uh, there was Cupn who has long black fur and a white belly.  And the other was Smela who had  dark purple fur with a white belly too."  Brunka wasn't eating anymore even though her bowl was still half-filled.  Her lies was wilting away, and Akuna was ready to strike at the true subject of the matter.

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" she asked, setting her bowl down now.  Empty.

Her child's ears showed a slight of twitch, a guilty tell.  "Who?" she asked, almost innocently.

"Maybe someone whose fur was of a lighter color?" she provided, seeing her mate cast a confused expression to her and his child.  "A blond-hair.  A southerner.  Would you know of any cub like that?"   She gave a piercing glare, her cub's ears dipping down with worry at her mother's accusation.

"Um, I...uh," she stuttered, shuffling nervously in her chair as her eyes went into a frenzy to search for the correct answer.  "I do-"

"I saw you, Brunka" her mother told her while her father looked on with vast confusion drawn across his face.  "I saw you chasing that southerner."

No longer was Brunka's fear hidden.  Now her tail lashed to and fro while her ears sank down.  "He wasn't a soldier!" she quickly advised her mother.  "He wasn't a Reono either!  He was just a cub like me!  He just wanted to play!"

"Then how in battle will you strike at them?" she learned forward.  "How can you fight without hesitation if you believe these blond-hairs to be your friends?!  How?!"

"He was just a cub!" Brunka repeated herself, hands now in front of her with her claws digging into the wood of the table.  "We just wanted to play."

"And how did you know if he wasn't tricking you or not?  Hmm?  Perhaps he wanted to lure you down a street with more southerners so they could beat you and your friends to death.  A southerner's head is full of trickery and plots!"

"But that didn't happen!  We just chased each other around and played swords with sticks!"

"And what if it did happen, Brunka?  You gambled with the lives of not only you, but your northern brethren too!"

"But nothing like that happened!"

"It could have!"

"Why?"

"Because all southerners are, at their core, animals!  They are nothing but beast that are a burden to the world.  That boy would have killed you and Jala and Meel without a second thought if he found the chance!"

"But he was my friend, mother!" she wept.  "We played together!"

"Not anymore!" Akuna stifled the cubs cries.  "You will stop playing with this southerner or any southerners!  I told you this before and over many times, Brunka!  Southerners are not to be trusted in the least!  Do you understand me?"

Tears were forming in the cub's eyes, her breath turning into sniffles.  All the while Rupland watched the two exchange heated words up and away from the table.  He knew well that it was best to stand from afar while the two females argued, especially a mother and her child.  Do not interfere, he told himself.

"I don't believe you, mother!" Brunka then blasted.  "I don't!"

With a spirited rage, Akuna then rose from her chair and Brunka mimicked her with a quickness and fright.  The chairs were thrown back as Akuna cocked back her right hand and whipped it across Brunka's short muzzle.  The cub gave a yelp of pain, tumbling down to the wooden floorboards.  Her eyes were squeezed shut while her breathes turned to whimpering sobs.  A few more slaps to the ears were given and her weeping grew stronger.

"You don't believe me?!" Akuna hovered over her, barking down into her child's ear as she curled up into a tight ball of fur.  "You'll believe me as true as the pain that you feel on your nose and ears right now!  You'll tell your little blond-haired friend to shove off and not play with him or any southerner again, or I'll flatten your nose with my hand!  But at this moment, you'll quash any disbelief you have in that little head of yours about what I say and get to your room so that you can sob yourself to sleep, you little bitch!"

At first, her child did not dare move.  Instead, she continued to lay their, curled up and shaking with both fright and tears.

"Well?" her mother barked at her.  "Move!  Don't just sit there like a gutted animal!  Run from my eyes before I shred your hide!"  With her mother's insistence, Brunka flowed to her feet and scampered to her room, tripping up the stairs to slam her door shut.  Both Akuna and Rupland could still hear her wailing cries on the second floor of the house.

"Gods damn, Akuna!" Rupland exclaimed in the far corner of the room, now feeling it safe to approach the table again.  "Must you be so damn harsh to her?  She's just a cub!"

"And cubs must learn to behave," Akuna reasoned, finding her chair and placing it back on it's feet to seat in it again.  "And soldiers must learn to follow the orders of a superior."  She grabbed after her spoon and began to finish the rest of her child's bowl.

"Don't act like she's just another soldier.  She's your daughter!"

"She is," Akuna admitted while she spooned mouthfuls of soup, "but she requires much tempering.  Like a blade.  She can not be associating with any blond-hairs while she is under my command."

"She is a child, Akuna," Rupland said, as if he was pleading.  "She doesn't see others in the same light as you do, either friend or foe.  Do you really believe that cub she was playing with was any threat to her?"

"Even if he wasn't," she locked her eyes with his, "she might build a sympathy for the blond-hairs.  For a warrior, there cannot be any sympathy in their heart, especially towards the bane of our war.  And do not question the way I nurse our child."  Her voice became hard with a deep seriousness, her gaze harsh towards her mate.  "You should understand," she took up her goblet of water for a drink, "considering the circumstance of our time."

"Circumstance?" Rupland asked with bewilderment.  "Can you not speak five words without giving mention of the war?  Can we live as we please without the sense of terror that you believe-"

"Drop it!" Akuna yelled out, slamming her tight fist on the tabletop.  Luckily, her soup was about gone, otherwise she might have made a mess of it.  "Keep your tongue bound or I'll be inclined to slap your snout as well!  Now shut it!"

Rupland's mouth ceased it's words.  Quietly, he found his seat and slowly sipped away at his broth, not willing to challenge his mate's authority.  He knew she would make good on her threats if she was forced to.

The rest of the couple's meal was spent in silence, their eyes pointed downward and into their bowls.  Akuna left the table first, taking refuge in their room.  For a moment, Rupland sat in his chair, staring at his mate's and child's bowls and spoons.  He would clean them, soaking them in cold water and wiping away the remains of their food.  While the now dirty water slipped down the drain of the sink, a tiny whirlpool manifesting before it dissipated away, Rupland could hear the muffled whimpers of his cub.

On his way to the room where his mate rested, he waited before his child's door.  His hand went for the brass knob, but it stopped before his fingers could grace it.  With a sigh, he continued to bed.

The inside of their room was already dark, Akuna on her side, but her breath was quiet.  If she was asleep, her breathing would be much louder.

"Sleep well, Akuna," Rupland said to his mate after he laid his body softly to the mattress.  She gave a single grunt, her back to him.  The room then settled into a deep silence, save the subdued clattering outside the town made during the nightly hours.  Rupland's worry and thoughts would not allow his eyes to shut.  He remained wake while his mate began her snoring song towards slumber.

When he was sure she was asleep, Rupland quietly rose from the sheets of the bed and exited into the hallway.  His footfall was slow and soft, but a few floorboards creaked under his weight.  He found Brunka's door, turned the knob, and slipped his head in through to her room.

His daughter's eyes were upon him, her tail twitching as she laid on the blue sheets of her bed.  "Awake as well, I see," Rupland said, opening the door fully to allow himself in.

"Does mother hate me now?" were the first words she spoke when he approached her bedside.

"What?"  Rupland was taken back by her question.  "No, a mother could never hate her own cub," he assured her, seating himself on the edge of her bed.  He began to stroke the fur of her mane.  So much like her mother's, he thought.  Both in color and in softness.  "She's angry, yes, but you should know that is usual for her."  He grinned, but Brunka was reluctant to show the same.

"I just wanted to play," she said, her voice cracking at the hints of sobs.  "The boy didn't hurt me.  He was nice."

"I'm sure that is true," her father said, his hand stroking at the side of her face where the fur was wet from tears.  "I'm sure he just wanted to play as well.  Your mother gets...She just takes to heart the tales we have been told for many ages.  The southerners are our ire and we are theirs."

"Do you hate them too?" she then asked, eyes glistening with the light that streamed through the window at the opposite wall.

"I'm more likely to hate those that strike at us with blades and guns," he told her, his tone more serious.  "I am bound by my oath to our clan, but I see little reason in hating cubs, northern or southern."

"Then you will let me play with that cub?" Brunka asked, her breath not baited.

"I don't believe my word will trump your mother's," Rupland said, scratching the top of his daughter's muzzle.  "Just keep your wits about you.  Be ready for any challenge.  Be strong.  Stay sharp like a blade.  And know your mother loves you, with all her heart."

"Not enough to not hurt me," she retorted, rubbing her swollen muzzle.

He toughed the spot where her nose swelled.  "She just doesn't like to use words when she has the choice.  Try to not follow her method.  Get a good night's sleep.  The day is waiting."  He leaned forward and the tips of their's muzzles touched.  A gesture of comfort.

Rupland lifted himself from the bed and made for the door, Brunka settling her head back to the mattress.

"Love you, father," came the words to Rupland's ears.  He could only smile, pulling the door with his exit.

"Love you as well, Brunka.  Sleep well," he said lastly, the door shutting.

###### =====================================================================

Akuna vented her frustration the next morning which was not to her student's advantage.  She volunteered to personally spar with more than a few that day and each displayed a certain amount of apprehensiveness towards her.  They would try, yes, she knew, she experienced, but none could actually bring her to the sands in submission.

She beat them raw, violently.  Throwing them about the ring of soldiers that watched and cringed at the pain she administered.  Some were quick to surrender, but she would not have that.  She wanted them to groan in pain.  No broken bones, but they would limp back to their friends once Akuna thought they had had enough.  Even then, she told them the reason they lost was because of their lack of skill and agility.

Brunka stood at the side while her mother took her time beating her students, wincing ever so often when she put enough force into her strikes.  The cub could see the malice in her eyes, the pleasure she received for the pain she passed out.

Akuna gave her child the occasional glance her way, a slight smile with it.  She wanted her message clear as glass as she pummeled another youth into the sands.

"Ah!" one male, by the name of Saku, proclaimed as his forearm shielded himself from one of Akuna's vicious kicks.  If he hadn't, her ankle would have impacted against the side of his head.  Even so, his block could not stop the majority of the force in the kick.  His face was saved, but his head received a good hit from the upper region of Akuna's ankle.

He toppled to the ground, laying there with his eyes squeezed shut in pain while he clinched his arm with the other.

"Ah!  Stop!" he pleaded, his feet kicking at the dirt.  "I'm hurt!  Oh, gods!  Please!  It hurts!  It hurts!  It hurts!"

"What hurts?" Akuna asked, annoyed that their sparring match was cut short.  "Your pride?"

"No!  My arm, damnit!  It's my arm!  It hurts!  It hurts so much!"

"Quiet your whimpering and get up!" she kicked at his rear.

"I can't!  My arm!  It hurts!"  Saku's yells became more feverous, his eyes turning watery with tears.

Akuna hovered over him, her other students crowding around at the side.  "Are you crying?" she asked with angry astonishment.

"Yes, I am!" Saku wept, still holding his arm tightly in furious pain.  "Please, it hurts."

"Damnit."  Crouching, Akuna attempted to persuaded the lad to let her see the arm.  "Let's make sure it truly is."  Saku allowed her to cradle his limb in her two large hands.  Swelling could already be seen and with a little poking and twisting, which resulted in Saku sobbing even more, it was decided the bone had been broken.  "Someone!  Take him to Apala!" she ordered, referring to one of the only two medics of the camp.  Another male lent a shoulder for Saku to hold onto while they strolled onward to brace the limb.

Akuna growled with irritation, one that was more aimed at herself than the lad.  He would be out healing for a week or so.  Her heart sunk at the thought that a soldier, an able-body, would be removed from training.  And she was the cause.

She gave another annoyed snarl at herself.  Only a week, she told herself.  But there were still many more to train here before her.

"Let's have another!" she yelled out to the crowd, but no one spoke up or came forward.  "Is there no one here who has any courage in their guts?" she barked at the stares around her.

A male appeared through the crowd and readied himself.  He was half her age, Akuna saw, his blue fur bright with color.

"Alright," she said and then, speedily struck at him.  Surprisingly, he didn't move.  Instead, the male took her punch with his muzzle.  He, like Saku before him, toppled to the ground.  Unlike him, this male's limbs were now limp, his eyes closed.

"Shit," she spat, now inspecting this one.  He was only unconscious she found out, but her exasperation persisted.  "Pull him off to the side.  Make sure he keeps breathing."  At that point, she found it wise for her underlings to spar with each other while she sulked off to the side.

###### =====================================================================

A third day!  By the gods up on high, they allowed him to work a third day!  It was rare for anyone to offer Rupland another day's pay, but today he was again at Hasasa's clothing shop, working at the assistance of his northerner sister, Ceil.

They dried and dyed, folded and cleaned.  It hadn't even been a week and Rupland was already memorizing the routine labor he was required to do at that shop.  Satisfyingly, it required little to no physical effort.  It didn't strain his bones or make his muscles tired.  The only shortcoming that seemed to be was that he had to scrub hard to remove the color and constant stench of the dyes from the fur of his hands and where drops had fallen.

"Hasasa wouldn't have any pairs of leather gloves, would she?" Rupland ventured, allowing the last few drops of blue dye to drip from a tunic.

"None that I have any knowledge of," Ceil answered, setting a pair of breeches into a pool of orange.  "Why do you ask?"

"I don't much like the thought that my fur is turning colors," he smiled and gained a hearty laugh from her.

"Just clean it everyday and it shouldn't trouble you much."

The Shigu soldier learned the lesson of stitching close the rips and tears of fabric.  He watched Ceil's long fingers as she looped the needle and thread through the cloth in demonstration.  Soon, she was watching him, giving advice at where he needed to improve.

The work did his mind well after the events of last night.  It tore at his heart to hear his cub weep, especially at the harm of his mate.  Akuna was hard on her, but there was no reason to hurt her for innocent play, even if it was with a southern cub.  He tried to piece together an argument to her if he must try and convince her there was no harm in letting Brunka play with blond-hairs.  Even so, he felt his preparation would be all for naught.  Akuna would not yield, even in the face of reason.  He was most sure of that.

A sigh flowed from his maw while he straightened all the wrinkles out of the clothes that hung from the wire.  His mate's regression was irritating him more day by day.

"With those muscles," he heard Ceil say to him, "I wouldn't think you would be that tired."

"Say again?" he asked, turning towards her with confusion.

"You sighed.  I heard.  Something bothersome?" she eyed him blankly, waiting for his answer.  Rupland could see a smudge of green dye on her cheek.

"You have something right here," he pointed to his own cheek.  "No, the other."

Her hand rose and touched the green spot.  She smiled.  "I know, but answer me.  What is bothering you?"

"Why do you say something is bothering me?" he acted coy, showing his own smile.

"The way your eyes move," she said.  "The way your lids hang over them.  Like they're tired.  What's making you tired?"

Rupland broke his gaze with her, his vision losing focus with recollection.

"Yes!  That's the look!" Ceil then laughed.  "You're doing it again!"

He gave an imitation smile, but relented an explanation.  "Just had a spat with my mate at home.  Something with the cub, but it's nothing to worry over."

"If it's nothing to worry over then why do you appear so wary?" Ceil asked.

"It just cuts me deep, I suppose," Rupland told her.

"And it was about the cub?" she then asked, head turned to him while she knelt at the dye buckets.

"Indeed," he answered, his own hands less animated with work.  His fingers swam softly in a pool of blue dye.  "She was caught playing with a southerner, and my daughter and I know full and well of how harshly my mate looks upon the southerners.  Be they cub or not."

"You have no qualms about your child playing with children of the other race?"

"Why should I?  They are children.  My mate's fears are unfounded.  Why should we live with fear in our hearts any longer than we have endured.  I am at my end with fear!"  Rupland's mouth filled with a growl, his tail whipping behind him.

"Your mate sounds to be deaf to good sense," Ceil told him, a little smile drawn on her face.  "Have you tried talking it out with her?"

"I have," Rupland replied, "but she is stubborn like a beast.  Her ears are deaf to all words except the ones in her head."

"Sounds as if she is a hardy female to live with, especially with a child," Ceil remarked, lifting a tunic out of a bucket of yellow.

"No," Rupland shook his head.  "She just rises my ire every now and then."

"Or maybe she is finding you to be too much trouble?" Ceil turned to look at him, hanging the yellowed tunic on the rack.  "Maybe she is beginning to question the mateship between you two?"

"What?"  His brow rose at the question, an old fear finding him and manifesting in the pit of his stomach.  The same fear from before, years ago when the courtship of him and Akuna was young.  He assumed his time was limited until she found a more suitable male than he.  Even after she told him she would be his mate, the fear hovered over him like a cloud.  She would find another, he thought, give it only time.  That was the reason why she had never shown him her dance of mateship.  It was the one act he prayed she would give him, making their bond true.  It was that, or she was truly embarrassed to allow him to see her dance.

"No," he finally said to Ceil, shaking his head about.  "She wouldn't even think of such!"  His words felt like a lie, a weak cry to shelter him from the truth.  He didn't want to think about it.  "She is my mate for life.  She wouldn't."

Ceil merely shrugged.  "Let us hope that is true," she said with a slight sadness, "but I would have no questions about our mateship if you and I were bonded.  You are a good male and those are as rare as jewels among rocks."

Rupland's ears twitched with a nervousness, the movement of his tail showing the same.  "Thank you for those words," he said to her, uncertain.  "They are...comforting."

"And true," Ceil added under a whisper behind his ear.

More clothes were dipped and dyed, cleaned and dried.  Rupland was sure to wash away the unnatural color that had been added to his hands, but a few drops of color remained defiant within the creases of his palm pads.  Conservations took on a less serious air with Ceil, and Rupland was thankful for that, but her kinds words still soothed him quietly.  He only prayed that Akuna thought the same of him.

It was past noon and both of the northerners were folding tunics and breeches alike when Hasasa motioned for the exit of her shop.  "I require a few things for myself," the Agundar female said to them, a green pack at her hip.  It's strap looped over her shoulder and down her torso.  "I shouldn't be long, but I expect to see more work done once I've returned.  Let that be known."  Her eyes found them and they locked.

"Yes, ma'am," Ceil said and Rupland mimicked.  Then Hasasa was gone, strolling outside and past the windows of her storefront.  Little time had elapsed before Ceil ceased her duties and made for the back of the shop.

"She always says that when she means she will be more than a few hours."  She laughed and beckoned Rupland to abandon folding tunics for a moment and join her.  He was reluctant, but nevertheless followed behind her.  In the back where the halls hid them away from the rays of the afternoon sun, Ceil approached a brickwork wall in another room.  Cabinets had been set into the stones and she opened up one of the small doors.

"Hasasa gives me a few brews once in every while when the week ends.  She considers it part of my wage which also involves food and coin.  It wouldn't hurt to share a bottle, would it?"

Her hands extracted two brown-glass bottles from the cabinet before it was shut closed again.  She handed one to Rupland and he dare not refuse.  He then remembered his thirst once he uncorked the bottle and took a good sip from it.  The instance the ale flowed to the back of his throat, it burned him.  The air was sucked from his lungs before he swallowed it all down.  A small cough escaped him as a shiver rolled up and down his spine and a warmth filled his belly.

"Damnation!" he exclaimed, looking to the bottle as if it had surprised him maliciously.  "It's a strong brew!"

"It is," Ceil giggled.  "Suppose I should have given you some warning before you drank.  The taste isn't what I call enjoyable, but it calms the nerves, doesn't it?"

"It does," he said, taking another sip.  His throat still convulsed but it was fully expected this time.  "Is this what Hasasa gives you in all the bottles?"

"It's the brew she prefers, so she assumed I would like it too."  She tilted her bottle down and her face scrunched at the strength of the brew.  She exhaled a breath, a smile forming on her expression.

The two of them found chairs to seat themselves in, the ale filling their bellies and adding to their already heated demeanor.  It grew smiles on their faces, provided laughs to their jokes, and relaxed the air between them.  Rupland could feel the brew burning within him, hazing his mind and making his posture slack.  Ceil was showing the same attitude, her laughs turning loud and long while her hands groped at him.  He didn't quite mind any of it, how her claws pricked at his skin, the way her tail whipped at his back while they sat side by side.  With time passing, she became more daring with her little touches.

A warm appendage found Rupland at his cheek, a wetness drawing across it.  She had licked him.  His head craned back.  "What was that for?" he giggled, wiping the wet side of his face with the back of his hand.

"You had something on your face," she told him, adding her laughter with his.

"Yes, my fur!"  Once his hand finished drying his cheek, her tongue attacked the side of his face again.  "Ah!  Why are you doing this?" he giggled again, attempting to dry his cheek.  Then, regardless of his wiping hand, her tongue continued to wet his face.  On the top of his muzzle, on his chin, and on...his lips.  After that, came her lips as well, joining with his.  Kissing them.  "What are you doing?" he asked her, frozen.

"Tasting you," she told him, her hands on his shoulders.  She was out of her chair now, her bottom finding rest in Rupland's lap.  She grounded herself onto his kilt in small, tense circles.  He knew she could feel him, his arousal peaking.

Rupland found his breath hurried, his limbs stalling while his fingers struggling to keep hold on the bottle in his hand.  Try as he may to turn his head about to escape her lips and tongue, she would find him with warm saliva.  "Please," he began, breathless, the throbbing in his heart matching that in his loins.  "Halt.  Stop!  I have a mate and you are not her."

"No, I am better than her," Ceil retorted, bucking her hips faster and faster which only encouraged his arousal to further it's strength.

"Don't!  I can't have this happen.  She is mine and I am hers.  Our bond does not permit this."

"It should," she laughed in his ear, "with all that talk of how she treats you.  With her thrashing rod and arguments.  She can't appreciate a male like you, how you can make a female shudder with your thrusts and stabs."

She lifted herself and her skirt up, showing her lower tongue to be profusely wet, even dripping.  She grabbed after his kilt, exposing his hard member.  She descended, pressing the tip into her, enveloping him in her warmth.

With his hands gripping her hips, he hoisted himself up and out of his chair to force them both to stand. At least, she could.  Rupland found his legs to be limb as noodles, the ale sapping away their life.  Ceil towered over him, his knees pushed to the cold stone floor.  Her hand was on atop his head and without a word, she pushed his mouth to her slit.  He tasted her, her juices, her lower tongue.  He wretched backwards, stumbling on his bottom.

She smiled, tongue wetting her lips while her eyes found his member.  "See," she waved at his pelvis.  "Your mouth is not to be trusted, but your loins are to be.  Come and satisfy me as I can satisfy you."

Rupland could feel himself shake, a fear growing in him, nothing like the panic he felt at the birth of a battle.  He could smell her arousal, like she could smell his.  The hunger inside, in his loins, was uncontrollable.

"I can't.  Akuna and I are bonded.  Our courtship is for life.  If I break that, it would be as if I broke all the oaths I have taken in my life."

Ceil gave a huff of a laugh at that, and then pounced at him, pinning his back to the floor.  "This is no oath, male.  You are breaking nothing, but ridding your appetite and finding pleasure where you dare seek it."

"I can't," he repeated himself.  "Our bond must remain true."

"And if you find she doesn't want the same?" she asked in his ear, her tone less lustful.

"So be it.  But I will not be the one to betray our mateship."

A growl rumbled in Rupland's ear, claw tips sinking into the hide of his neck.  "And what if we were to play it this way?" she began, her vocals harsh.  "If you dare to refuse, I will have Hasasa think you to be a pervious male.  Even more so, I'll give rumor you are a less than reputable worker.  Maybe one that will pickpocket the superior when her back is turned, yes?"

Rupland's eyes widened with dread, his breath caught in his throat.  "This is...very unbecoming of a female like you."

"And what kind of female am I?" she snarled at him, her own eyes agape.  "One that can be refused?  I'm not to be refused by any male!  Who are you to deny me!  Sit back and stop wobbling around!"

Again, like last time, she rose up and aligned the soft and fleshy parts of her crouch with his own.  She quickly sank him into her, but Rupland would not stay.  Placing his hands behind her knees, he flipped her up and backwards off him.  Before she could recover, he was at his feet.  Struggling to walk with the ale still taking it's effect, he found the door and ran through Hasasa's shop.  He flew through it's exit and hurried outside.  By then, his arousal had subsided.  It was replaced with a fear that spoiled in his stomach while he made his way home.

###### =====================================================================

The inside of the captains' quarters was humid, but otherwise tolerable when compared to the sweltering heat outside.  In here, the captains' let shed their plates of armor.  Their dry tongues could be made wet again with cups of warm water while each of them reviewed the day's dealings.  Or, on this day, plan out a way to overcome new obstacles.

Akuna watched her fellow captains' chatter as she slumped in her chair, a cup of water against her elbow with her arms across her chest.  She gave them all a leer while their gazes avoided her.  She could almost feel the undertone of their continued blame towards her after that altercation earlier today.  The other captains were not concerned any longer with what those southern merchants knew or their cargo.  They would be past Rellon's border now, lost to the sea of sand.  Instead, their conversations were filled with the proposals of turning Acli's outlook back in their favor.

Marn stood by a window, sunlight illuminating his fur.  He lapped slowly at his water, no doubt savoring it.  He breathed a quiet sigh, eyes full of assessment.  "We should have a few of our own help repair the walls," he suggested, referring to the stone wall that surrounded the entirety of the town.  "Have a few travel to the bodies of rock not far from here and chip a few large pieces to reinforce it.  How does that sound to your ears?"  Her turned his eyes away from the window and looked to Monx and Akzla.  Akuna wasn't sure if he actually desired an opinion from her as well.

"A fine idea," Akzla said, refilling her cup.  Water dispensed from a spigot stuck into a small barrel, filling it to the brim.  She dipped the tip of her muzzle into her cut and drank selfishly at the water.  "But she might regard to us just playing to our fears again."

"Then let's have them repair homes and houses around the town," Marn added another suggestion.  "We can spare a few workers."  He turned to the window again, most likely watching the soldiers busy with their drills.  They could trust their underlings to keep themselves in line without their constant observation.  "We can even use a few of the spare wood planks we haven't used.  Better now than to have them rot in the sun."

"That would do us a bit of good," Monx agreed, turning his cup in his hand.  "It would also do a few of our lazier comrades some good too.  We always see that Tapacik family outside their home.  Always sitting, never doing.  I have watched them grow fat sitting on their asses."

"You sure you can trust those bastards to do the work well?" Akzla asked him with a half-smile before she dipped her muzzle into her third cup of water.

"That might be true," Monx's expression grew with a smile of his own.  "If their work turns out to be less than satisfactory, we can charge them with disobeying our orders and have the lot executed.  It will be seen as a message for the rest."  Of course, he was joking.  His words provided a laugh to his comrades while Akuna sat by with her constant frown.  Contrary to her expression, she enjoyed the thought of that idea.  The whole of the camp could not tolerate the slack of a few.  She wondered if it would be better to have their decapitated heads on pikes, or have their bodies suspended by nooses?  Would the Tapaciks be required to build a drop for themselves too?

Akuna gave a small smile at that, her hand rising to her mouth to have her drink at her clay cup.

"Having our own volunteer as builders seems to be the best course of action," Akzla said.  "We can them assist the Nevreans in hopes of having Acli see us in a better source of light."

"Then we can all agree?" Monx circulated his gaze around the room from captain to captain.  All gave a soft nod.  They then turned their eyes to Akuna, who had until then had remained silent and still.

Her black lips grew tighter, fingers gripping her cup harder.  A grunt was given.  "Having the slothful provide some labor will do us and them well," she said.  "I despise to have the Tapaciks and other  reprobates remain so...unworthy."  She could see her fellow captains' gazes widen with surprise.  A happy surprise for them.

"Good, then," Akzla smiled widely, the tenseness in the air seemingly draining through the cracks in the walls.  "We'll have those few be burdened with work!"

"But," Akuna spoke up, leaning forward, "what of our armaments problem?  I hope you all haven't forgotten about that."

"We prefer we pay mind to more...immediate matters," Akzla said to her.

"That is settled now.  The slothful will work.  We can now discuss what is to become of the situation of our lack of proper weapons and armor.  What is our supposed course of action?"

The captains looked amongst themselves and traded glances.  Each of them seemed less certain of that line of business.  Akuna grew displeased with that.

"Shall I tell mine first?" she asked them and she began.  "We can volunteer some of our best smiths to the local blacksmith.  For their services, we can work an arrangement where they can be paid in metal and the use of their forge."

"And you think that will solve our problem?" Akzla asked with disbelief.  "You're thinking too small, Akuna.  It's impossible for one forge to create all the armor and weaponry for all our squads. "

"I wasn't finished, Akzla," she sneered at her comrade.  "That is just a portion of my plan.  We will also have all of our soldiers pool in their wages for those that are working.  We won't require their entire wages , but only a small portion of their runks.  With that we can purchase new materials and tools."

"And how much do you think our soldiers make, Akuna?" Akzla played naysayer to Akuna again.  "They're not paid a full hand of wages each day.  Even taking a small part of their coin from them could rouse their ire."

"Their ire would only show them to be defilers of their oath to the clan!" Akuna barked, wrinkles forming on the bridge of her muzzle.  "Tell them it is for the whole of us.  If one of us is heavy with thirst, then we shall be there to share our canteens."

Monx gave a half-hearted laugh.  "And this comes from the captain with a two-storied dwelling for just the three of her own.  I'm sure the few that still live and sleep in tents would appreciate the gesture of you offering them a floor of yours to sleep on."

"That was not what I was speaking about," Akuna growled lightly, the claws of her right hand digging into the hide of her knee.  "With a deposit of runks, we'll buy materials and the services of smiths more easily.  Our hardships will be lessened."

"What if we were to deconstruct the house?" Akzla started up, smiling and changing the subject of discussion which only irritated Akuna even more.  "We'll use all that wood and metal for weapons.  May not be much though at all, but that would create a supply."  Marn and the others gave a short laugh.

"Damnit!  Enough about the house!" Akuna spat out at her comrades.  She was ready to fling her cup at them, but she kept it in her firm grasp.  "We have something more important to discuss!  What of my plan, now?  Shall we arrange for our brethren to accumulate a portion of their wages?  If not, then what proposal do any of you have?"

The other captains gave a slight frown, trading glances with one another while sipping at their water.  Akzla sighed, looking toward the window where Marn stood.  She stared at the blue of the sky.  "We'll ask our troops for what little coin they have.  They know of our armament problem the most.  They're watching their blades rust and their steams break.  They will benefit by donating to us."

"And what of the others that refuse to train?" Akuna asked.

"We will ask them, firstly," Akzla answered.  "If they continue to refuse, we will ease into them a bit more...forcefully."

"Ask them?  Why not ease into them forcefully now?  If they are reluctant to aid us, they should be shunned.  The shame of excommunication will have them handing over all the coin they can spare."

"That might work on a few, but the majority will find no threat in such a shame.  We don't manifest the same fear in them like the General.  Besides that, we can't risk ostracizing our own.  We would become split.  You should know this, Akuna."

Akuna gave a grunt at that.  "I know our comrades' resolve have lessened with the passing of the years.  They've forgotten of the rush of conflict, the clash of blades, and the warmth of blood on their claws."  She gave a thoughtful look at the cup in her hand, at the water shivering inside.  Even she had difficulty recalling the feeling of those moments she had just described.  The wind brushing back her mane in her stride, the clatter of metal when she defended herself against a southerner, and the heat of enemy blood on her pads.  She could remember, but it had been so long ago.  She desired to change that.

Discussions between the captains continued, talk of plans and proposals while water slipped from their cups and down their gullets.  Each of them rotated taking breaks outside, pissing it out into the dirt at the side of their quarters.  Akuna would pay mind to her fellow captain's words and arrangements, but she was partly submerged in the regret that her memories of battle were so blurred with time.

###### =====================================================================

He had arrived home with the house empty.  Akuna was still with her captain friends and Brunka would still be playing in the streets of Rellon, maybe climbing rocks and looking out over the desert landscape with Budio's and Niyi's cubs.  He paced around the silent rooms, up and down the floors.  He sat in a chair in the kitchen, staring out the window over the sink.  He laid in his and Akuna's bed, but couldn't stay long before leaving.  He felt as if he dirtied the sheets.  That's when he felt it was time to bathe.

There was word many of the homes in Rellon had baths with automatic hot water.  That would be especially true of any Agundar homes.  But that was not the case for their home, Rupland knew.  Water stored outside in a metal container needed to be heated, the coals ignited with fire.  But even then, it would take some time for the water to simmer at a comfortable heat.  For Rupland, he couldn't wait.  It was a dire moment, he knew.  Ceil's scent needed to be washed away.  He reeked of her, ale, and the smell of sex.  He twisted the spout's brass handle and cold water spit forth into the white ceramic tub.  He had already taken off his clothes and settled himself inside the bathtub.  The cold water rose around him, over his legs and up his chest.

He dunked his head down into the water, scrubbing his mane well with his fingers.  Inside and behind his ears, between the fingers and toes, his tail and crotch.  Occasionally, he stuck himself with a clumsy finger claw.  The influence of the ale still lingered inside his stomach.  He took a gulp of dirty water, wrestled it around his mouth, and spitted back out into the pool around him.

Little strains of fur drifted upon the surface and inside the water.  Rupland watched their slow twirl around his body, but he didn't stay still for long.  Again, he scrubbed away at himself, praying that Akuna didn't have the nose to even catch a hint of ale or female on him.  His fur was washed five times over.

The last of the moisture in Rupland's fur was disappearing when Brunka came home.  She smelt of dust and sweat, her tongue hanging from her maw.  She didn't remark on her father's smell and Rupland took that as a good sign that he bathed well.  Even so, worry ate around inside his stomach and head.  The ale's power was wearing off, but that only seemed to increase his anxiety.

The kilt he wore was disposed of outside, drowning in a pale where their clothes were washed.  Rupland soon realized that his efforts of hiding this attempted affair would be in vain if Ceil keep her threat true.  Her words would spread, rumors would course through the town and into the encampment like blood in veins.  Soon, her words would find Akuna's ears.  Rupland knew at that moment there would be no more hiding what happened.  He had to speak true to his mate now before Ceil could tell her lies.  But even that simple act spoiled his innards.

He waited in the kitchen while Brunka showed him the rocks she had found while playing today.  There were shiny ones while others possessed interesting textures to them.  "Aren't they nice?" she smiled at him from across the table with blue orbs.

"Indeed, they are," he smiled, turning one over in between his fingers.

The fire was burning in it's hearth below the pot and Rupland was looking between that and the front door.  He slouched in his chair, but his limbs refused to stop shaking as did his tail.  Their dinner was nearly ready.  Then came sound of that brass knob turning, hinges creaking with the door opening.  It made Rupland jump, the sound and sight of her entering.  The door closed behind her and she was quick to remove her helmet from her head.  Her spear too was laid next to the door while her sword remained at her hip.

He waited and she found him, sitting there with the soup near to boiling in the fireplace.

"Welcome home," he said to her, now up and filling bowls full of soup.

"Yes, home," Akuna said lazily back to him while she made for their bedroom upstairs to peel off her armor.  As she did so, Rupland attempted to hide his immense fear at what she might do, how she would react.  He breathed deeply and tried to quarrel the shiver in his frame.  When Akuna returned, she was bare save her fur, like her daughter when she came to the table as well.

Rupland laid the bowls before them and not a second was spared before they were devouring their shares.  He watched, each one entranced while they shoveled the broth in.  He made a bowl for himself and sat with them.  Little conversation was initiated which was no strange occurrence with Akuna.  It was usual for Rupland to do such.

"How were Marn and the others?" he asked Akuna from across the table.  Rupland had encountered the male captain before and had talked with him a few times.  From what Rupland could see, he was a good male, relaxed, but devoid of any strong arrogance.

"As well as any other day," Akuna answered him, mouth full of broth.  She swallowed and spooned another helping.

"Was the day better than the last?" he watched her, his own soup turning cold.

"Only a small amount," she told him.  "We have much to do, but my captains are willing to do the work.  For the moment, at least."

"That sounds well."  Rupland found himself relaxing now, their talk soothing out his worries.  Brunka watched both of them sparsely, slurping at her soup loudly with her small hand clutching her spoon clumsily.  Once Rupland remembered his bowl, he began to eat.  He took small sips at the spoonfuls he raised to his mouth.  Slowly the soup began to disappear, but his mate and offspring were already on their second bowls once he was half-finished with his own.  The broth of his soup mixed with the nervousness of his stomach, but it feel good to get some food in there.  Once Akuna burped, and Brunka mimicked her with a belch of her own, he knew dinner was over and his confession needed to begin.

"Brunka," he gained the attention of his cub, "go up stairs.  Your mother and I require some privacy."  This also caught the attention of his mate, her ears pricking up with mild confusion.

"Why?" little Brunka asked, tilting her head to the side with the perplexity that any other child might display towards an odd command.

"Go," he simply answered, a bit more sternly.  "Our words do not concern you.  I need to talk to your mother.  Now, go.  Play with your toys a bit."  Brunka didn't need to be persuaded to play with her toys; feather-stuffed dolls bought cheaply from an old Nevrean female from the local market.  She would play with all three of them once she was up there, two sergals and a small Nevrean.  Rupland watched her ascend the stairs to her room and once she was out of sight, he turned back to Akuna.  He might have suspected the cub was just hiding on the landing of the stairs to eavesdrop, but it wouldn't matter if she knew now or not.  Any questions she had would certainly be answered by her mother tomorrow.  Akuna was not one to keep secrets.

"This is quite odd," Akuna told him, still seated in her chair at the table.  Rupland had already gathered their bowls and utensils and placed them in the sink.  He rather not have them used against him as weapons if she turned violent with what he had to say.

"I know," he said, keeping his distance from her.  "Something odd has happened today."

"What is it?" she asked, sounding certain his news was not good.

He looked away from her, eyes wandering around the kitchen.  He searched for the words that would help him, but none could be found.  He swallowed, taking in a breath.  All he could do was let the words flow.  "I have been working at an Agundar's shop at the west end of town," he began and was already shaking.  "It's a clothing shop and I help clean and dye her cloths.  She has an assistant named Ceil, a northern sister.  She has helped me throughout the past few days, but now...she has become...flirtatious."

Rupland found his mate's eyes again and he saw the anger already fuming there.  Her tail lashed to and fro, her hands curled into fists upon the dinner table.  "With you?" she asked.

Rupland nodded and continued.  "Today, she advanced on me, even though she knew you and I were mates.  She attempted to bed me.  When I refused, she threatened me.  She said...she would spread rumors around.  She would tell others I was untrustworthy.  If she did, I will not be able to find work.  I wouldn't be able to bring home our wages."

His arms crossed his chest, but his shaking was uncontrollable.  His breath was hurried, his stomach churning with terror.  "And?" he heard his mate ask.

"And what?"

"And once she had threatened you, did you accept her advances?  Did you allow her to mate you?"  Her words were laced with a fierceness and Rupland could hear a light scratching sound.  Her fists remained on the table, curled, but he then he knew her toe claws rasped against the wood underneath her.

"No," he said to her and he saw his answer brought some relief to his mate's tense frame.  "I refused her and came straight home.  But now...I fear she will keep to her word and spread slander against my name.  I don't know what I should do now.  I won't be..."

"Where is this female?" Akuna interrupted him.  Rupland was hesitant to answer her.  "Where is she?!"

"I...believe she lives with Hasasa, the Agundar, in the clothing shop."

"At the west side of town?"  Rupland answered with a nod.

Akuna was up and out of her chair now, making for the door with an enragement in her steps.  Quickly, Rupland was between her and the exit.

"Where are you going?" he asked although he knew the answer, his arms holding her back.

"To see that female," she hissed.  "Better to deal with her now than have her spreading her gossip."

Rupland blocked her path again when she attempted to move past him.  "What?  You're just going to go over to the shop and bash her head in?"

"Just?!" she barked, taking a step closer to him.  "Not just that, but a multitude of other bashings as well!  I'll bash her arms!  Bash her legs so she may never walk again!  I'll bash all her bones and cut her throat out!"

"That will not help us!" he screamed out, stamping his feet down upon the floorboards.  "People know you, Akuna!  They see you walk through the streets and know your face.  They'll learn that you're my mate!  Then different rumors will be born if you attack her!  They'll question why my mate pummeled another female in a shop I was working for!  Hasasa will make her own assumptions and let her own words run through Rellon!"

"Then what will you have me do?!" she hissed at his face, her hot breath blowing on his muzzle.  "Would you have me kill both her and the Agundar?!"

"No!  You can't!"

"It seems to be the only choice we have!  We require your wages and if she's threatening that, she is threatening all of us!  I need to deal with her."

At that moment, Rupland could see his words had pierced her stubbornness, her eyes becoming filled with focus.  This could become an incident of great interest and she didn't need the notice of Acli and her town guards.  The Agundar could make trouble for them if she made a fuss in public.  Better if Akuna made it a more private affair.

"I know of a way," she whispered, turning opposite of the door and heading upstairs.  Rupland stayed on the first floor in the kitchen, waiting with fear at what she might do.  Akuna returned clad in her armor, the sheath of her sword clacking against her side.

"What are you going to do?" he asked sheepishly, afraid of her answer.

"I am dealing with a whore like a whore should be dealt with."  Her words were thick with malice.

"Do...are you going to kill her?"

"That will be up to her."  She donned her helmet and found her spear.  "If she values her life, I will not be forced to rip out her throat."  She opened the door and walked into the darkening day.  The last sights of the sun were at the horizon.

"Akuna, don't..."  He was at her back, but he jumped when she turned back at him with a snap.

"Stay with the child," she demanded.  "I'll return when I am through."

"Akuna..."  He tried to move closer to her.

"Stay with the child!" she barked, her words echoing.  "See that she sleeps well.  Comfort her with the words that I will return before the sun does."  She walked away and down into the cobblestone roads, aiming towards the Shigu encampment.

###### =====================================================================

The other captains would not be required for this venture.  If they caught wind of what Akuna was planning, they would attempt to stop with whatever words or threats they could use.  Maybe even physical force if they were so inclined.  Instead, only two underlings would suit the situation, ones who would keep their words silent and their memories unrecalled if asked of what occurred this night by the other captains or the town watchers.
Both of the males hurried along at her back, one named Bulkno and the other Seno.  All three of the Shigus weaved through the streets with the night just beginning.  Traffic was lessening and windows were already alight with the glow of candles and light bulbs.  Akuna's legs were animated with a fury.  They were on a grand task and no time needed to be wasted.

When they happened upon the clothes shop at the westside of town, it's innards were already darkened.  Through the windows in the front, Akuna could spot a couple of rooms were still bright with light.  She desired to break apart the glass windows and drag this female outside herself.  A small part of her still lingered at the possibility that Rupland was telling a lie, but she soon snuffed out that thought.  Her mate would not lie to her.  If he did and was caught, she would dismember him by the tail, shove it down his throat and pull it out his asshole.

"Find the back of the shop," she told Bulkno.  "Wouldn't want her to leave abruptly through a back way."  The male complied, leaving out of sight around the right corner of the building.

Her hand knocked against the door hard, glass and wood rattling loudly.  She could see a small figure come into sight and approach the door:  Hasasa, the Agundar.  The female peered through the door's glass.  Carefully, she opened as far as the chain lock on the door allowed, eyes full of fear and questioning irritation.

"Yes?  May I assist you?" she asked of them, her body wrapped in a purple gown.  "The store is closed for the day if you must know."

"We are here for the arrest of a female sergal by the name of Ceil that might be living in your shop with you," Akuna said, her vocals strong and intimating.  "We are here to escort her for questioning."

"Questioning for what?" Hasasa asked, baffled.

"It's nothing of your concern, but it will be if you bar us from making our arrest," Akuna sneered, her annoyance the evermore evident in her voice.

The Agundar's eyes lost contact with theirs, her confusion rising.  "A moment," she finally said, turning her head towards the back of the store.  "Ceil!  I have a few Shigus here!  They need to speak with you!"

Peering through the crack in the door, Akuna could see inside the store.  Her ears picked up the tiny sounds of movement, pads pattering against stone as a shape larger than the Agundar moved into view.

"Yes, come on," Hasasa beckoned Ceil to come closer, annoyed at her hesitation.  She did so, northern features losing form as she moved out of the light and came closer to the front door.  The Agundar moved aside, allowing Akuna and Seno to see the feminine details and color of the northerner's face.  Akuna found this Ceil could be considering somewhat of a fine female which only urged her anger to become bolder.

Immediately, Akuna's hand flung through the crack in the door and grabbed after the fur of Ceil's throat.  Not a word been spoken, her rage taking flight the moment the female came within distance of her grasping arm.

The Agundar barked at her, the chain lock pulled taut with Akuna's arm through the door's crack.  Struggling, Ceil tried to move back and away from Akuna's hand, but her fingers were too tightly gripped.  Akuna pushed through the entrance, shattering the wood from where the chain lock held.  Tripping to the ground with Ceil's throat still in hand, she yelled for Seno just as Bulkno came back around.  "Bind her!"  Seno came with rope and bound Ceil's wrists.

"I know you!" Ceil yelled out with a choke, Akuna's hand still around her neck.  "I know you!  You're the captain!  His mate!"

"Have her muzzle bound as well," she told them and rope wrapped her jaws closed.  Akuna then realized the Agundar was still screaming at them.

"My damn door, you bastards!  You broke my damned lock!" the Agundar cursed, inspecting the damage Akuna had done.  The Shigus picked Ceil to her feet and Akuna released her grip.  "Where are you going?" Hasasa continued to bark as they lead themselves outside.  "Where is the coin that will pay for this lock?"

"Take it out of this female's wages," Akuna suggested with Bulkno and Seno in front of her, assisting Ceil with walking.  The Agundar was unwilling to argue any further and turned back to her shop.  But then Shigus' backs were greeted with a holler from down the streets.  By their shrill voices, Akuna was certain that they were Nevrean town guards.

"What are you three doing to this female?" a leather-clad Nevrean demanded an answer, hand held close to the pistol at her side.  Her partner, another female, looked at the Shigus with a weary eye.

"Taking her to the camp for questioning.  She is required there."  Neither Akuna nor her comrades lost any speed in their stride but the Nevreans followed behind.

"For what matter?  If she has committed a crime, she is better in our hands than yours," the female persisted.

"This is a northern matter and you have no say in it!" Akuna barked at the Nevreans, face full of fury with the white of her teeth showing.  "Keep to your own business!  Why should us northerners concern you?"

Both of the Nevrean guards had been startled, but nevertheless turned back the opposite way without another word.  Their hands kept to their holstered pistols.  Why would they care if a northerner killed another?  It would be one less for them to stress over.

Ceil had struggled slightly in the ropes around her wrists and snout in the little time it took them to travel to the Shigu camp.  Night guards watched them cross the dry grounds of their surrogate home and made not a word about it.  Akuna and her underlings found privacy away from preying eyes inside a small shack.  Inside were bags of grain, fruits and meats, ale and wine, stored away from the heat of the sun.

Bulkno and Seno placed Ceil in an empty corner of the shack and, with the request of their captain, removed the ropes from her muzzle.  They did not have to wait for her to speak.

"I know you!" she yelled out.  "I know you're his mate.  Rupland's mate!  He told me!"  Her words were shouted out more in fear than in anger.

Akuna motioned for her two comrades to play sentry outside, where Ceil's words might be muffled by the shack's wooden walls.  "I am," she assured her, looming over her in the darkness.  "And yet, that fact didn't stop you from advancing on my mate with the lust of a tramp!" Akuna growled, her muscles turning hard with anger.  At that point, she could no longer keep her rage detained.  Her fists rose up high and fell fast, pounding Ceil's head and back, chest and stomach.  The female retreated back into her corner, hands up to her face with the Shigu warrior thrashing her flesh.  "Well?" she barked.  "Am I right?!"  She gave no time for Ceil to answer, repeating her hammering blows again and again.  Once she had stopped, her breath was ragged and her knuckles burned.  Her fingertips feel warm and they were slick with blood.  Small cuts had been made on Ceil's muzzle and chest.  She was shaking now, fear most evident in her trembling.  She did not whimper which only irritated her captor.

"Answer me!" she bellowed out breathlessly.  "Am I right?  Am I?  You were so willing to talk of how pervious my mate was.  Said you would take your fibs and feed it around town.  I'll crush your throat before those lies can come through."

Ceil only trembled more, her breath as ragged as Akuna's.  Finally, her words came out like a child's whisper.  "You'll kill me.  I know what I did.  It was wrong, I know.  Ale makes...me...makes me bad.  I shouldn't drink...it, but...I do."

"I'd much rather rip out your tongue and eat it than kill you!" Akuna yelled back at her, roughly yanking at one of her ears.  "But that would be cruel.  I don't eat the flesh of my own brethren.  I'd much rather shove it up your cunt and into your stomach!"

"No, no," her head shook.  "No, please.  The ale.  I just have to stop drinking the ale.  Please, I wasn't going to do anything.  I wasn't about to say any lies to anyone."

"That's not what you told Rupland.  My mate and father to my cub.  He's a loyal male, I have no doubt he is.  That's what you'll say!  If I do hear you have spread any lies, I'll be sure to have you back here in this shack and skin you.  I'll wipe my backside with your fur."

"I won't say anything.  I won't say anything at all!" Ceil said to her, muzzle pointed downward submissively.

"Not only that, but you'll steer away from my mate.  You won't speak a word to him and if you see him, avert your eyes or I might be inclined to pluck them out of your skull and feed them to you like your tongue!"

"Yes, yes," her head now nodded.  "I will."

"And," she came closer, hand gripping her mane with claws scratching into her scalp.  A pathetic yelp blurted from Ceil's mouth, her eyes peeking open to see Akuna there, still towering over her, "if someone would ask you of your cuts and swells, even your little Agundar master, tell them nothing of this.  Just," she leaned in close, "keep your tongue silent."  She ended her words with one last, heavy kick across Ceil's jaw.

Akuna, Bulkno, and Seno watched Ceil stumble back into town, holding the side of her jaw with an empathic hand.  She moaned and limped towards Rellon's walls, her wounds still leaking red into her fur.  Akuna wasn't sure if she had broken the bones in her mouth or not, but it was a pleasant thought to believe she had.

Her two comrades gave their word that no mention of this nightly matter would cross their lips and into the ears of the other captains.  Even their own kin were not allowed to know.  She believed them with a strong trust and headed her own way home.  Her throat felt as sore as her hands.

###### ======================================================================

He waited by the door, sitting forward in the same chair in the kitchen.  He had not moved for some time.  Brunka came down at one instance to ask where her mother had taken off to and he assured her she would return within a few hours.  The child seemed satisfied with those words, shuffled up the stairs, and returned to her room.

He didn't expect her to come home so early.  He suspected that she would be out until the last shadows of night ran from the presence of the sun.  Her claws and pads were not muddled like he expected as well, her armor without grim or filmed with crimson.  Not a question was asked.  Simply, taking her helmet from her head, she said, "She is well.  Alive for the most part and I believe she will become mute for some time."

Just those words made Rupland's fur stand less upright and his tail flow less erratically.  Following her to their room, he did not speak, afraid that any voice could evoke her anger.  He watched her undress, armor pieces piling up in the corner of the room and her skirt falling from her hips.  He was afraid to say a word to her, ask her what had occurred.  There was no question it was no longer safe to work for Hasasa, to dye tunics and breeches.  Such a shame too.  It was a simpler job than lifting barrels and crates all through the morning and afternoon.

When she turned back to him and came to the bed, Rupland's belly fluttered with fear.  His nervousness then spiked when she didn't turn to lay on her side of the bed.  Instead, she came straight at him with grabbing hands.  She wetted him with a long tongue as they both tumbled to the sheets.  They were chest to chest, her hands groping, invading, stroking at the soft parts of him that soon turned hard.  She nipped at fur and the strap of his eyepatch with her teeth, stinging him with her claws.  She smelt of soil and sweat.  Quickly, she slid himself inside her.  Her hips churned and bucked wildly.  No words needed to be said with her fingers digging into his chest.  When they're eyes were not shut tight from pleasure, glances were traded while their breathes blow hotly at each other.  All night, she tugged and pulled at him, controlling where he laid and where she would mount him.  Her actions were clear from the start.  I am her male, Rupland knew as she bite at his hide again.  I am her male only.  He only hoped she would remain his female, and his only as well.  His worries were forgotten when pleasures flooded their minds and dampened their loins many times over.  Both could scarcely catch their breath once they were finished and fell softly into sleep.

###### ======================================================================

Akuna's head felt as clear as the sky today, the warm winds blowing through her fur briskly.  All through the day, she walked with a easiness in her gait and a light grin drawn across her face.  The captains and her soldiers took notice and were grateful she was less overbearing on this day.  Even Brunka was happy to find her mother to be more playful during their drills.

No mention of the previous night's dealings had been given and Akuna was the evermore relaxed for that.  Seno and Bulkno kept their oaths to her and the Agundar, Hasasa, most likely didn't make a fuss about her broken door lock.  The mental image of that pummeled female, Ceil, gave Akuna a happy look.  She hadn't seen her during their rounds through the town.  She likely hide from her in the back of the Agundar's store, out of sight, in fear.

With the day ending and the sun chasing after the night horizon, Akuna decided it may do some good to visit Rully again.  The heat from her fur cooled once she traveled through the shade of towering rock faces above, coming nearer to Rully's dwelling.  She hadn't seen any of her or her six cubs after the previous visit.  She prayed this time she could leave with a better disposition other than one of antagonizing revulsion.

At the first scratch of the door, no sound was heard inside.  The same occurred with a second and third scratch.  "Rully!" Akuna called after the female, but nothing again.  She began to believe she might be at the markets, her children playing silently inside until she returned.

Even so, the brass latch was tried and Akuna was allowed to enter through.  She also reckoned Rully would be asleep inside, curled around her children for an afternoon nap.  But, instead, she was found sitting in a chair there in the shadowed insides of her home.  She seemed startled by Akuna's sudden appearance, wide eyes watching her as if she were an intruding thief.

"Rully," Akuna said to her, walking closer to her.  "You're here.  Are you deaf?  I was at the door.  Didn't you hear me kn-"  Her voice caught in her throat, legs and back stiffening at the sight of red on Rully's hands.  It's scent invaded Akuna nostrils instantly.  Her left hand was tucked under her leg, the other placed shaking on her thigh.  "Rully," Akuna whispered, her gut tightening.  "What happened?"

The former soldier looked at her with guilt, eyes looking towards the front door.  "I thought I locked it," she said, her vocals deflated.

"Rully," Akuna gave her a warning tone, the scent of blood seemingly everywhere.  "What happened?"  She stared at the red around her hands, on her pads.

"Can't believe you found me like this," she began to say, her tail slashing at the air with a feverous twitch.
Akuna's eyes scanned the room and there was nothing to see other than the carpets and a dark pool accumulating upon the dirt floor.  That was the source of the scent, Akuna now knew.  Blood, dripping down through the cracks in the ceiling.

"Rully, where are your children?" she now asked, her eyes ablaze with astonishment.

"Now?" she gave a blank stare to the question.  "With their father."

Leaving Rully sitting there, Akuna bolted up the stairs and onto the second floor.  Her feet banged against wood as she found the children's room.  Inside that cool darkness, laid the shapes of six cubs.  The smell of blood hit her like a gust.  It made Akuna's stomach quiver.  Northern blood, leaking from their slit throats.

"Rully, you bitch!"  She rushed to the stairs again, downward.  She muttered curses under her breath.  "You bitch!  Why?  Why?"

Rully could not answer her questions now.  The blade was already across her neck, digging into her flesh deeply with blood gushing from the new wound.  That's what she was hiding under her leg, Akuna realized, watching Rully fall out of her chair.  Her legs spasm, her fingers clawing around the dirt floor, blood pooling around her head.  Her knife laid away from her grasp, a shining iron dagger.  Akuna stood frozen, watching while her eyes dimmed and her movements ceased.  All that remained now was the smell of blood, it's stench inescapable. Akuna's knuckle knocked against the sand-battered planks of the door to the house before her.  It was her last stop for the day.  She required herself to check on the dwellers inside.

The shuffle of feet sounded from within and she waited.  "Who is it?" the muffled voice asked through the door, the question presented without any worry or care.

"It's Akuna, Rully.  Have time to talk?"

"About what?" the voice asked.

"About anything that might spark your interest," Akuna answered, annoyed with a hand on the hip her sword was on.  "Wouldn't hurt to talk to someone and come outside."

"Not outside.  You can come in though."  A latch sounded, a bolt pulled back to allow the door to swing inward and reveal the people inside.  Akuna couldn't help but give a light hiss of disgust at the female standing in front of her.

Rully's light blue fur was shaggy, looking to have gone unwashed for some time.  What was worse was much of it was flaking away from her body, leaving patches of naked gray skin up and down her arms and legs.  Her eyes showed a wariness, sickly even.  Her limbs hung weakly from her frame, thin with underfeeding.

Cradled to her chest was a cub, it's arms wrapped around her mother's neck.  The child looked to be more well-fed than her.  The same could be seen about the five others sitting inside on the packed earth that served as the home's floor.

"By Vilous, Rully!" Akuna hissed at the female.  "You have not been taking care of yourself!  You look sick!"

The former soldier merely shrugged at her observation.  "Nothing to worry over.  Since I don't possess a mirror, I'm not bothered by it.  Now, come in," she beckoned her inward.

The floor was covered by nothing more than several muddled carpets, a few chairs, and a table.  A black furnace sat off in a corner, unlit and cold.  It was cool in that home, considering it laid in shadow most of the day, cast by the huge body of rock that loomed over it.  Many homes had been built in that rock's shade which hid them from the sun's warmth.

"Here," Rully grabbed a chair for Akuna before retrieving one for herself, her child still held close to her bosom.  The other children gave half-second glances before returning their attention to the array of pebbles that laid before them.  A type of game, Akuna thought to herself, but wasn't sure.

"It wouldn't be too much work, perhaps, to make this place look more presentable," Akuna folded her arms across her chest, placing her rump in the chair.  "Sweep out some of the dirt, buy more carpets.  I would think after this home was donated to you, it would be better maintained.  I'm sure the children would appreciate better toys too."

She looked to Rully and the cub in her arms.  Both stared tiredly at her like the words had never been said.  Months ago, a few Shigus had found the home empty and once they gave news it had no owners, many in the Shigu camp were ready to claim it as their own.  It was preferable than lodging with twenty or so other families in one barrack.  But all had agreed to offer the house to Rully and her six cubs considering the tragedy that had marred them during the war campaign.

Their dwelling might have been crafted by hands whom never had built a home before, it's walls composed of old wooden planks of differing sizes and shapes.  It also seemed to lean at an angle from where it stood, but even Akuna knew it was a place to be grateful for, somewhere to shield yourself away from the merciless heat and sandy wind.  A place to cook and sleep in silence.  Somewhere that could be considered home in lands so foreign.

"Dirt would be swept back in if I swept it out," Rully groaned, breaking eye contact with Akuna to now stare at the dirt underneath her feet.  "No amount of carpets would change that.  And the children would lose their toys.  If not, they would break.  Better for them just to play with rocks.  You can always find more."

"Is it wise to have them sitting here all day, everyday?" Akuna now pressed.  "It's unhealthy for such young cubs to not be outside, running, playing.  It's in their spirits."

"Better they stay in here with me than be snatched up by bandits.  Taken away from me.  Better they stay here in my sights."

A heavy sigh turned into a rumbling growl in Akuna's throat, her displeasure rising at the sound of the former soldier's answers.  A silence fell upon them for a moment before Rully pushed it away.

"I dreamt of him again," she said, her gaze unfocused.  "He came home to us.  He was so happy to see us, all of us."  There was a twitch there, in her jaw.  Her eyes moved over her home, to her children, trying to avoid Akuna.

"Father," the cub in her arms said, playing with the hazy-blue locks of her mother's hair.

"Yes," Rully said, smiling.  "It was.  But...I always wake up and regret it.  I would think...that it would be better not to wake up at all.  None of us.  It would be better to sleep like Avow."

The child in her arms didn't react and neither did the five playing with their rocks, but Akuna's head cocked back in surprise at Rully's words.  Such must give talk like that often, she reckoned.

"You should give careful when speaking those words, Rully," she warned.  "They are dangerous and, not to mention, cowardly."

A smirk drew across her face, unscaved by her words.  "It would be nice though, better to dream of a better place than live in his shithole."

Again, Akuna winched at her statements.  "It would be better," her tone became deadly serious, "if you found distraction in work.  It would also be better if you were training your children like any mother would be doing.  Like I said before, I can do the latter if you allow them to exit this place."

"No," Rully snapped at her, her vision transforming into a glare.  "They have no reason to train.  Clan Shigu is no more."

"Quiet your tongue, Rully!  Damnit!  Your words could be heard as treason!"

"So," she craned her head forward, "my words are treasonous because they tell the truth? What do you train for, Akuna?  Do you train for the eventual slaughter that is destined for us once the Reonos come?  Who shall save us?  Us alone?"

"Us alone is more than enough to quash any resistance that might come our way!  We are Shigu!"

"Were, you mean!  Once!"  The children's attention were on the two females now, ears pulled back at the volume of their voices.  Even the little one Rully held curled in a tight ball of fear against her.  "The General is gone!  We are nothing without her!  I would rather sleep in death with my mate than live with the burden of our defeat!"

"Why do you succumb to the fear and lies the southerners wish you to see as truth?  The General carries on and is planning out our counterattack.  We still carry the responsibility of maintaining our honor as Shigu!"

Rully's head dove, a sigh escaping her while the tenseness in her limbs seemed to evaporate.  "I wonder if you would be this harsh if you had lost your mate like me.  Even your child."

The thoughts flashed and shot through Akuna's mind like sharp blades sheering soft flesh.  Quickly, she jumped up from her chair, hissing and ready to pounce at Rully with a good slap across her thin face.  But...she caught her anger before it could overtook her.  She rather not hurt the child, she reasoned to herself.

"Rully," she said, attempting to keep her teeth unseen, "for the sake of you, your children, and the honor of your dead mate, work.  Remember your duty.  Let the children train.  You can help us build, spar with the soldiers even.  We need every able body we can get.  Our future as warriors rests upon our shoulders."

"Without the General, there is no future," she simply stated, without any emotion, like she regarded it as fact.

Akuna swiftly turned her back to Rully in a frustrated snarl, no longer able to tolerate her company.  She made for the door, her breath hissing through her teeth.

"It's very obvious that you have abandoned your duties, Rully.  It's disgustingly childish and puts you at risk of execution."  Her fingers wrapped around the cold metal of the door latch, yanking it open to invite in the dusty southern air.  She waited for some reaction, a retort, but neither came.  She faced Rully again and all six of her cubs were now staring at her in the frame of their doorway.  "But, it would be shameful to see six of our own become motherless.  They must deal with being fatherless as it is."  Again, no reaction from Rully.  "I'll give you a few days to see if you change your mind.  Oh, and children?"  Their eyes pricked up at their mention.  "You do not require your mother's approval if you wish to train among my troops like real soldiers.  Wouldn't you rather be playing with swords and spears than rocks and dirt?"  She grinned, hoping maybe, one of their faces would lighten up at that given chance, but they only continued to cast their indifferent stares.

Finally, slamming the door back into it's slot, she left.  Her displeasure remained though, digging into her like a fiend's knife in her gut.

###### ======================================================================

This morning's broth served as this evening's dinner.  The pot in which it cooked in was scrapped clean with the day's deeds done.  Rupland watched as his mate and daughter drank down the majority of the meal.  Knowing the two, they would have forgotten about lunch during their daily tasks and play.

Brunka settled in easily, all her energy and eagerness stolen from today's activities and her mother's heavy duties.  Once finished with her meal, she curled on the bed in her room upstairs, not taking the time to cover herself.  If she did, she would have awoken in the middle of the night panting with the pads of her hands and feet slick with sweat.  Sheets were scarcely needed in such heat.  Her father softly closed the door into it's frame once he found the cub breathing soundly and well asleep.

He crossed the hallway and entered into the adjacent bedroom, toe claws clipping ever so slightly on the wooden floorboards.  He fully knew his mate would not have the same sleeping aura as his child.  Instead, he found her on her half of the bed, back propped against the wall.  A portion of her face was illuminated by the candle on the bed table to her right.  A dead bulb remained in it's socket in the middle of the ceiling.  Much of the house could have been powered by a steam engine found in a small cellar below the house.  Rupland was very interested in the metal contraption, learning it only required water and coal, but he was unable to actually understand how to make it come to life.  Akuna was unwilling to have a Nevrean practiced in the mechanical arts come over and teach him it's proper use.  She eyed the engine with suspicion and demanded it to remain cold and lifeless in it's cellar.

She gave a minute look at him before her eyes took on a blank stare again.  She chewed on her index claw, hints of anger forming on her brow.  Her tail twitched on the bed sheets between her legs.

"A bothersome day," Rupland remarked as he lowered himself to the bed next to her.  He pressed his back to the wall as well, turning his head to her.

"Why do you say that?" Akuna asked while she continued to nibble on the claw of her forefinger.

"It's that or you're picking the meat from your teeth with that claw of yours."  He grinned, trying to promote his mate to do the same.  Instead, she glared at him sternly as if he had offended her with an insult.  He even half-expected her to swing a quick slap at him.

"Well," he quickly said before she could raise her hand, "what's nipping at your hairs?"

Her gaze broke, her clawed finger descending to be wrapped under her opposite arm as both crossed her chest.

"Doubters," she simply stated.  "I'm surrounded by doubters and cowards."  The words appeared to sting her at their very pronunciation, wrinkles of irritation manifesting on the bridge of her muzzle.  "I presented a decent proposal to that Nevrean governor Acli and she didn't even consider it.  No opportunity to banter with her was given either."  She growled lowly.  "Bitch."

"What proposal?" Rupland leaned closer, leveling an ear at her to listen.  She relayed the course of business that happened earlier that day, about the Shigu's request for new weaponry.  Every word she gave was laced with displeasure, her expression souring with each passing moment.

"Ah, I see" Rupland said when she finished, but her anger remained, her chest heaving up and down.  "Sounds as if it could have gone better than it had."  He dug his forefinger claw into the bed sheets, piercing them to prod into the feathers that stuffed the mattress below.  Better than any bed filled with straw.  "But maybe it's for the best?"  His words treaded carefully, as if the ground between him and her was laid with fine needles.

"For the best?" she snapped the question at him.  "How could leaving us armless be for the best?  Are you actually taking that Nevrean's side?"

"No," he was quick to retort at her accusing tone.   "I have not.  I meant that perhaps it's better that we as Shigu should stop preparing solely for war now.  It has been more than a few years and we still have not received a war report from the high command.  Maybe it's better to move away from the idea that the war continues."

"And allow ourselves to become weak and thin like the southerners?" she again snapped at him with hissing vocals, her eyes burning with a rage that she kept reserved for foes.  "You might as well have asked me to grow a mane of their ugly fur."

She shot up from the sheets, hands wrapped into fists, and feet stomping upon the wooden panels of the floor.  "We haven't waited here after all this time in this sand pit of hellish heat to give up our oaths of loyalty now!"  She paced around the foot of the bed and Rupland could see the anger in her face flaring.  "Not now when any moment the General could walk into this town and give us new orders.  Even tomorrow we could receive note of her commands! "

"Hush!  The child!  Cool your wrathful tongue."  Rupland's back was off the wall now, straightened as if he were at attention.  "There is no reason to snap your jaws at me."

"No reason?" her eyes widened.  "When did such an idea of peace come to you?  Of all the soldiers here, I never believed my own mate would steer such words at me!"

"I only do so in hoping our child wouldn't have to arm herself and enter the killing fields!  She could be maimed and die!  She's our child and I hate the thought that she might be forced to stay fastened to her duty.  She is still so young."  His legs enclosed around him in a sitting position, his eyes linked with Akuna's.

"She is my own and I have trained her!  With that, she should rise to be a great warrior like me and become a high officer of our clan.  She will lead and raze all southern opposition before us.  She will have no fear of death within her mind when she is skinning Reonos!"

"But can she be more than a soldier?" he asked her, hands open to his question.  "What if she trains for nothing?  What if we find that our efforts are in vain and our duties are halted?  A soldier is only as good as the war she prepares for."

Akuna gave a snort at his words, hands placed firmly on her hips.  "And what?  She becomes a farmer like me from before?  Or like you as a street child, digging for your food in trash?"

Rupland winched back, his face scrunched in anger now.  "You wound me with your words, Akuna.  Why do you use my past against me like a knife?  Have I done the same to you?"

"I am just showing you her choices, my mate," she explained, harshly.  "It's difficult to farm here and you know you would never desire to see her straddling the streets, streaked with hunger and stealing her meals."  Her sentences were less enflamed, but they were now heavy with a sadness.  "War or no war, with the skills of the warrior she can survive.  War spreads and conflict breeds, and when it comes her way she will not be ill-prepared."

Rupland's head dove, their argument taking it's unphysical toll on his mind.  "I would not like to think she will have to fight for her life.  I would rather believe she could live without the threat of sword-strokes and arrow bolts."

"The General desires to conquer the southerners and their clans," Akuna stated the obviously known, an endeavor stated and restated over the years.  "She will do so and we are required to accompany her on the venture."  She walked along the side of the bed and settled herself down to lay against the mattress again.  "There is no need to worry," she assured him, her hostile display ending.  "Brunka will be a fine warrior with many kills to boast.  She will, doubtlessly."

Carefully, Rupland lessened the space between them, leaning to nuzzle against the fur of her neck with his muzzle.  She didn't pull away.  Instead, she gave a light purr to his gentle touch.  "I hope the days before us receive us well, especially for our daughter."

"She has the warrior's heart," Akuna's voice rumbled in his ear.  "She will make the days receive her."

A huffing laugh blew through Rupland's nose, but one that was not insulting to Akuna's statement.  He pressed against her and she did as well.  An arm came around him, strong and tight, pulling at him.  Before long, she too was nibbling at his hide, at his shoulder and around the neck.  Then came the kisses, their tongues wrestling around in each of their maws, careful with their teeth.  Nostrils flared at the smell of their arousal, of the heat rising in their loins, but before the lustful act could be commenced, Akuna separated for a moment.

"Get me my equipment," she smiled up at him and Rupland knew of what she meant.

"Must I?" he playfully groaned.  "You hit so hard and bruise me."

"I'll bruise you even worse if you don't bring it here now!"  And he was up, walking across the room to retrieve her "equipment" from the pile of her armor, sword, and fabric skirt.  He handed her the tool, her fingers wrapping around the leather handle of her thrashing rod.

"Come," she invited, tickling the top of the sheets where her mate had just been.  Just as Rupland's knees pressed to the mattress, a pain slapped across the side of his thigh.

"Damnit!" he laughingly hissed.  "That's already too hard!"

With a grin and a growl, she pounced on him, snagging him by the arm and pulling him to her chest.  Again came the rod and it's stinging power.  Rupland yelped again and Akuna smiled.  He knew she enjoyed each one she could pared.

###### =====================================================================

The sun rose, inviting it's heat and light.  Then came the wind to toss up the sand and dirt to beat upon the walls of houses and surfaces of rocks.  The townsfolk awoke, hopefully ready to brave the sun and it's heat, and the wind and how it turned specks of dust into annoyance.

Brunka hissed with pain again, Akuna's dismay growing with the child's lack of hardiness.  Still, Akuna knew, the weakness that laid underneath her hide would be beaten out of the cub by the end of their exercises.  Progress would be made today, she guaranteed herself.  The cub rose to her feet again and took on her fighting stance.  Once her mother had launched herself at her, she blocked and dodged her blows as valiantly as she could muster, but her mother was quick to find a space in her defense and take the breath from her with a good kick to her stomach.

Rupland gave sparse looks towards the sparing mother and cub, winching every so slightly when a hard hit or slam was donated to Brunka's small frame.  "Damn her," his whispers cut into the silence inside their home.  Always so rough, but he had to admit the child seemed sturdy enough to take the punishment.

Bowls of soup were waiting for them when they finished.  Rupland watched as his culinary work was quickly slurped and chewed down, the bowls licked clean of any drops that might have escaped their spoons.

"Lizard," Brunka remarked with a smile and her father was quick to mimic it.

"Yes," he said, noticing the distinct taste of the meat in the soup.  It had a softer texture, a heavier flavor too, but it was still very edible.  The grains served the mixture of broth well too.

Once the three had separated for their activities, Rupland set out towards the western gate of the city.  Yesterday, it had been a good choice to visit the eastern gate, giving him much work to do and coin to fill his pockets, but he decided the opposite entrance to Rellon needed to be searched for work as well.

While much of the traffic that funneled through the eastern gate was Nevreans hailing from the Tonzu mountains, carrying with them wood, metal, food, and tools, the western gate gave way to travelers from the gut of the Sailzane desert.  Wanderers and sellers carried spices and fabrics.  Silks, meats, and other luxuries that trickled from the sprawl of wonder that was Gold Ring.

The travelers would be tired, Rupland knew.  Few settlements were found on the beaten trail that lead through the desert to the humid forests of the lower peninsula, and Rellon remained a beacon of relief for many wary travelers that had braved the scorching dunes.

Not long after he first arrived, he snagged the interest of an Agundar female.  Her pale body was wrapped in green fabrics, her long skirt swaying in the dusty wind with her blond hair.

"Another hand wouldn't be bad," she said to him, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand to eye him while her wagon driver lead her cargo through the town.  "And bearing in mind my main hand is as lazy as grazing cattle, perhaps you can show her how real work is done, yes?  You'll certainly gain more coin by doing so."

"Yes, I am willing to do that," Rupland grinned at her, straddling alongside the first of her two wagons.

The Agundar's place of business was not far from the western gate, just up the road a few paces.  As the two wagons pulled up, a northerner came into the sunlight through the entrance of the shop.  Quickly, her eyes were trained on Rupland, squinting past the sun's glare as he approached the tailgate of a stationary wagon.

"Hurry, hurry, Ceil!  Hurry!" the Agundar female barked, dismounting the wagon.  "Big loads are waiting for you.  Lucky of you that I found more help.  Your delicate palms can go unscathed now!"

The northerner gave a slight snort at her employer's humor before meeting Rupland at the wagon's tailgate.

"Ah, familiar," the female examined him when she came within an arm's distance.  "I've seen you go up and down this road here before, have I not?"

"I would think so," Rupland said, providing a friendly grin.  "I take it most days to find work."

The female, Ceil, regarded him with a smile.  Other Agundars were preparing the cargo, letting down the tailgates and undoing the straps that held the crates down in the wagon's bed.  The two northerners began transferring the goods into the store, a minor clothing shop Rupland would observe as he entered.  Tunics, kilts, and breeches of thick leather, soft wool, and smooth silk were laid out and hung in display.  They came in a variety of colors and looked to be finely crafted.

Walking to the back of the store, an collection of buckets awaited in one room.  A washing station, he thought, but soon saw the splotches of color worn into the stone floor.

"So," Rupland started up with another crate in his hands and with Ceil at his shoulder, "you work here?"

"No, I'm the Agundar's pet," he answered in a smile.  "She keeps me well-fed and she grooms me well, but she becomes anger when I shit on her rugs.  I do it mostly out of spite."

Rupland gave a startled expression, taken back by the northerner's response and not quite sure to take her answer as valid.

"Of course, I work here!" she said to him while she cackled a laugh at his face.  "When the answer is obvious, don't ask stupid questions."

"Well," Rupland grinned back at her, "don't give such convincing answers."  That then started a series of questions and answers between the two.  How long have you been working here?  How is the labor?  The pay?  What squad did you serve in?  What was your rank?  They gloated over scars and Rupland told of how a Talyxian robbed him of his eye.  Much discussion had progressed before both wagons were emptied.

Ceil proved to be forthcoming female and a fine help once the crates enlarged to the point where both had to carry one into the shop.  Even more so, she was playful.  She tossed jokes and had pricked out a few hairs from Rupland's bottom as he stooped to handle a crate.  He smiled past the sharp pain in his rump, but he couldn't help feel faintly embarrassed by the flirtatious act.

Coins clicked from the female Agundar's hand and into Rupland's palm, twelve silver in all for his work.

"A fine job you did," she stated.  "You even seemed to get Ceil off her soft ass."  A long grin stretched out on her pale face, green eyes shooting over Rupland's shoulder at her northern assistant.

"Maybe we should keep him around then, yes?" Ceil then provided with a smile as well, slumping down on a box that creaked upon her weight.

"No," the Agundar quickly doused the question and Rupland's excitement.  Being a shop worker with stable pay would be a great blessing, Rupland knew.  There would be no need to trek from gate to gate, praying his services would be required.  "I have you already you and that's enough weight on my back," Agundar told Ceil.  "But..."  She then locked eyes with the northerner in front of her.  "It would be no hindrance if you came by every so often.  Yes?  The pay would be less, but it wouldn't hurt to have you in my pocket when work comes."

"I do come to this side of town often.  Not a far walk for me," Rupland happily replied back, allowing his silver runks to settle down into a jacket pocket.  Before he could make his way out the door, a swift hand slapped against his behind.

"Fair day and see you again," Ceil grinned darkly at him.  He returned the smile, not sure if the gesture was only motivating her overly friendly actions further.

The streets were still alive with caravans and travelers when he headed back to the western gate.  A Nevrean male cut through the bare, blue sky with open wings, sliding out of the air and landing somewhere on another road.  Why would she be motivated, he asked himself.  I had told her.  She knows I have a mate.  Quickly, he brushed his scattering thoughts aside, taking it as a welcoming nature of hers.  Besides that, Akuna would be most agitated with him if he came home with just twelve silver.

###### =====================================================================

Rupland's face had gained much recognition in consideration for the work he completed for the Agundar.  When he returned the next day to her shop, she appeared to be anticipating his arrival.  She invited him into the back and already her words were filling his ears with what needed to be done like her coin would be filling his pockets at the end of the day.

Even more so, the Agundar and her clothing shop gave Rupland a slight relief from the mundane monotony of lifting and transporting goods from a wagon to the backroom of a business.  Instead, Hasasa, he learned she was called, had him dye articles of fabric, turning whites to blues, reds, yellows, greens, and all in between.  He hung each piece on lines of wire to let the colors set.  He was also taught how to mix the dyes to give birth to other colors.  Curious, Rupland thought, how one would gain green from the mixture of blue and yellow.

Again, Ceil proved to be good company, providing conversation that devoured the hours.  Oddly, Rupland reckoned, she seemed particularly interested in his mateship with Akuna.

"Are you and your mate mated for life?" she asked.  She extracted a tunic from a pool of red dye after it had set, hands up to her wrist bathed in the crimson liquid.

"Uh, I would hope so," he told her, removing a pair of breeches from the green dye bucket.

"How is living with her?  Ever get weary of her?"  The drops of dye, like watery tears of blood, had ceased dripping from the tunic.  She clothespin the shoulders of the cloth to the drying wire as Rupland did the same with the breech's leggings.

His ears twitched with a confusion, taken back by the fellow northerner's prying questions.

"She's occasionally intolerable with her talk of war and her hunger for conflict," he relented, "but I'm certain she has her own grievances about me."

"Truly?  Like what?"  More fabrics were placed into the buckets, white devoured into ponds of color.

"Well, I would suppose she hates when I challenge her on the way she rears our child."

"Eh?" Ceil gave him a sidelong look, interest peeking.  "How so?  Is she hurting your cub?"

"Not out of malice, of course!" he explained.  "She's just rough with her, like all parents have to be, I would think.  Like soft feet traveling over a road of stones, she will become thick with resolve over time, as she has said to me before."  He gave a small smile.

"A little brutish, sounds to me.  Um, no offense towards your mate, of course," she quickly retracted.

"None to be received," he assured her, "but it's better for such words not to enter her ears.  She's more likely to respond first with a slap than with her tongue."

"And sex?" Ceil turned the subject over.  "Is it still fresh?"

A twitch reverberated through Rupland's jaw, again put off slightly by the female's forwardness considering they had just met a day ago.

"As much as it was the first time she pounded down upon me," he smiled widely, answering a forthright question with a forthright answer.  "But she's more playful now, it seems.  Likes me to play the role of a captured soldier while she pretends she is the enemy captain and forces herself upon me.  She likes to slap me raw with her thrashing rod too."  He couldn't help but give a snicker at his loose tongue.  "But why so meddlesome?  You enjoy listening to what causes others to become fast and hot?"

"I'm only curious for the reason you have a mate," she proclaimed, churning the fabrics about in their respective buckets.  "A female must know well of such a subject before looking for a mate of her own, yes?"

"I suppose," he gave.

"But if I were your female," she leaned close, her muzzle near to his, "I wouldn't require any tools or pretending play to help me become, like you say, fast and hot."  She giggled, puffing hot breaths to tickle the fur on his face.  He gave a laugh too, a quaint one, unsure how to feel about all this playful banter.

The look, he knew, was there.  While her hands were busy with work, her eyes gave hints of that look.  The gaze a female casts once she has honed on a male of her choosing.  A glance of desire.  Rupland was picked and he didn't know what to do about it.  He prayed it was just a tease of sorts, her trying to provide a sliver of temptation where it wasn't suppose to be.  If he was less of a faithful mate, he would had taken to Ceil's baiting words.  Even so, what she insisted started something up, something of a wild lust that could spellbound him if he wasn't careful.

He hoped it was only a temporary taunt of hers.  For now, Rupland, with his loins enticed, remained devotedly guarded.

###### ====================================================================

"Last night, we had three cargos come in through the east gate," Marn informed the others around him that were ignorant of such an occurrence, like Akuna.  "The merchants insisted nothing was in their wagon, but a search was given regardless of their words.  Less surprising to say is that weapons were discovered."

A group of young Nevreans dispersed once the foursome of sergal soldiery came their way, giving startled, yet annoyed eyes at the northerners.  Akuna would have given a flash of teeth towards them if her mind was not solely entwined in the dealings of the previous night.

"What types?" Akuna then asked.  "Guns?  Spears?  Swords?"

"The last two.  Had a few breastplates and leggings and belts with them, but otherwise it was a small cargo."

"Leaves of small gives hint to trees of large," she added.

The town's jailing greeted them with it's typical aroma of musk and waste.  Little pots of flower trimmings had been placed in the corners of the officer's lodgings to combat the stench.  It did little to help, Akuna though, taking a few rapid sniffs up her snout.

The drunkards and petty thieves looked from in between the bars of their cells when the sergal cluster funneled through the doorway, morning light pouring through the barred square holes in the opposite wall.

The patron, and his cargo hands, were found within the middle cell, ankles shackled to the wall like all the rest.  Their furs were less dirty than the other prisoners, their glances less uncaring after enduring only a night in this foul place .

"And these are the accused transporters," the prison guard told the Shigus.

Five southerners, Akuna saw.  Four males being the hands, and one female being the head merchant.  They sat in silence watching them, clothed in robes of yellow and brown.  Akuna gave a low growl that seemed to vibrate the stones of the cell, only desiring to provoke some fear in them.  Just a sliver of it.

"What force do you council with, southerners?" Akuna snarled at them, showing only hints of her teeth.  "Reonos?  Mercenaries?  We are certain it isn't us, otherwise we would be lining your pockets than them."

"We sell to those that can buy," the female spoke with a harsh tone.

"Ah, so to anyone," she condensed.  "Why did you lie to our sentries that you had nothing in your wagons?"

"Your guards misheard me," she placed her elbows on her raised knees.  "I meant there was nothing in my wagons, but weapons.  Nothing more."

"And where were you headed?" she then asked, arms crossed around her chest, foot claws scratching at the chilled stones under her feet.

"We were heading to Bualup," the southerner informed, her tail lashing at the air angrily.

"So, you sell to Reonos and other southern forces?"

"I sell to those that wish to arm themselves.  It's dangerous terrain here," she told them as if they were blind to such a fact.

"Then why not settle here for the day?  Sell to us northerners in the markets, or do you prefer to sell to your thin, blond-haired bastard breed?"

The female southerner hissed, looking away from the four Shigus with much disdain.  "Our main markets are in Bualup, not here.  If you would travel to Bualup then we would sell to you there."

"Quite a walk," Akuna said, her frown remaining.  "Are you of the Italak caravans?  I hear tell that the Italak caravans are good suppliers to the Reonos."

"I wouldn't know about them," the female replied.  "I'm just of a small family of traders."

"We'll see if your words stand when you're all put under more scrutiny," she then smiled.  "Guard, have them tied and handed over to us."

She waited, but the keys did not rattle like usual, the cell door was not pulled open and the prisoners hoisted up from the stony ground.  Instead, the guard stayed stationary where she stood.

"Sorry, ma'am," the Nevrean guard said, "but I have been ordered to not allow any prisoners be transferred to your hands."

"What?" Akuna asked with astonishment, sparking her anger.  "Who ordered you to-"

"Acli and her consorts, ma'am," she said with a snap.  "She has told me that we are to keep all prisoners of any sorts here, no matter the charge.  No matter your orders."

The female guard's further explanation only infuriated Akuna even more.  She much desired to snatch the cell keys from her belt and take the prisoners herself.  "And why would she give such a mandate?  Why?" she barked, looking down at the Nevrean female as she crowded her.

"She has her reasons," the Nevrean quickly retorted, the nervousness in her voice only hinted at.  "Reasons that remain with her, not me."

"Fool!" Akuna spat, her hand springing forward to grab at the metal collar of the Nevrean's armor.  She pulled her close, her muzzle just minor spaces from the guard's orange beak.  "Her reasons will hinder our methods of securing your town!  This southerner maybe supplying our enemies which in turn are your enemies as well.  They will not care who is northerner or Nevrean when they come to take your homes!"

The Nevrean guard grimaced, not sure if she should take more offense for Akuna's words or the smell of her breath that blew at her face.

"Our orders are sealed and my duties will be suspended if I break them," she told the large, northern female towering over her, anger flooding her expression.

"So your duties are more important than the wellbeing of your home?" she asked.

"I cannot go against the orders of my superiors," the Nevrean leered upward.  "Now, if you are done questioning these inmates," she designated the southerners beyond the steel bars that watched the heated exchange with stark interest, "I will have to ask all of you to leave."

Again, Akuna's primal animal struck at her, tempting her with violent images of the tethered and bloodied hide of the Nevrean.  She hadn't tasted Nevrean in so long, she remembered.  Flavorful flesh, she recalled.  But, with a heavy reluctance, Akuna released the guard with a disengaging shove and a deep growl.

Marn and the others were already moving past Akuna and the prisoner guard to reach the door.  Akuna broke the stare she was giving the Nevrean and looked sternly at the five southerners.  "Stay there.  We'll be back here soon," she sneered at them.

The female southerner merely glared at her, the workings of a smile on her lips.  "Forgive me if I don't trust your words, like you don't trust mine."

A large glob of spit launched from Akuna's mouth and hit the wall beside the female's ear.  Ashamed of her miss, she found the door and met her allies outside of the jailing.

"So, this is how our claws are clipped to stubs," Akzla said with accusing eyes on Akuna.  "All accredited to your reckless efforts, Akuna."

"Take your blame and shove it up your under tail!" she snarled at her, fur bristling with fury.

"Your blame is well-deserved after your show that day in front of Acli!"  She stood her ground in the street as Akuna closed in on her, Marn and Monx watching off to the side.  Neither had ever been bold enough to stop an argument between the two.  "I only wish you had been punished solely instead of the lot of us with you!"

"Isn't it strange, Akzla?" Akuna said lowly, contrary to her boiling anger that bubbled in her head.  "How quick Acli is to take away our powers, especially when we have southerners within our grasp.  Do you not smell even a hint of the unseen collaboration that is happening here?"

Akzla's next face only showed complete bewilderment.  "What unseen collaboration?!  Who?  Are you now accusing Acli of planning against us now?  The only smell that comes to my nose is the excrement that you are spilling on all our efforts!  You're the only one that sees these unseen collaborations!  No one else does!"

Akuna hastily turned away and started down the street, her rage still running rampant through her veins.  Her allies followed after her.  "We will take in those southerners for talks when they are released.  If they are not handed over to us within Rellon, we will take them outside of it's gates!"

"What?" Marn spoke up now.  "You mean capture them by force and bring them here?"

"Our questions will be asked in the desert," she said, going at a brisk walking pace that was near to running.  "And when we have our answers, Acli's attempts to have us made castrated will be all in vain!"  She now smiled past her anger, fingers clinging the stem of her spear hard.

"And you think we will go along with this plan?  We cannot risk to damage our reputation anymore than you have done already!"

"We cannot allow these southerners to slip from our claws.  And even after we're through with them, we will have three wagons full of weapons on our hands!  Just what we needed!"

"And that will be all the evidence Acli will need to evict us from her territory!" Monx then began to try to reason with her comrade.  "We cannot risk it, even for such an unimportant lead."

"I will decide if it's truly important or not once we have those southerners in our custody.  We will round up a few squads and surprise them on the trail!"

"No, you idiot!" Akzla's voice tore through the air.  She ran forward and cut off Akuna's path towards the Shigu campgrounds.  "We cannot risk it!  We cannot!  We have enough on our hands at the moment!"

"We cannot risk letting them go!" Akuna yelled, her course stalled.  "We have to find out what they know!"

"What would they know?  They are merchants!  Mere merchants!  The southerners are our enemies, but not all of them are in direct relation with the Reonos!  Especially these few!"

"You don't know that!"  The town crowd was having another show today, watching from afar while the sergals had their yelling match.

"Damnit, I do know!  Those desert hunters last week weren't assassins!  That one wanderer and his family were not scouts!  And that one selling books was not giving information about us in his manuscripts by code!  They were civilians, common people, nothing more!  But you're the only one that thought they were soldiers!  Spies!  I allowed you to work your way, but your failures have greatly outweighed your successes!"

Akuna broke eye contact with Akzla's enraged orbs, leering past her shoulder to the corner of the street.  At one end of the road came the sight of children sprinting in play.  Cubs, she realized.  Then, with further realization, she saw one was her cub.  Brunka chasing...a southerner.  Akuna's attention of Akzla's rant was cut off for a few brief seconds as her eyes traced her child's sprint at the blond-haired child, manes tossed by the wind.  She could see both of their long smiles, catch at the echo of their laughter before they disappeared past a building, gone to play elsewhere.

"Hey!" she heard someone say to her.  Then a hand slammed into her breastplate, resurrecting her memory.  "Are you deaf now?"

She met Akzla's angered gaze again, not sure what to say.  "Uh," she stammered, gaining back the subject of why the two were even arguing.  "Our squads.  We have to round up our squads and find them when they leave the city.  Even if they are not soldiers, we will take their weapons as our own."

Akuna tried to move around Akzla's current position, but was then stopped by an arm hooked around hers.

"No," Akzla said to her, "we will not be going after them."

"Fine.  Stay," she snorted out loud.  "I will have my own squads see to the effort."  She attempted to go forward, but Akzla's limb was still pulling at her even though it greatly oversized hers.

"No!  We will let this go!  They are nothing but commoners moving on their way!  We cannot have Acli think even less of us and our abilities if your actions are revealed to her."

"Do you wish to stop me yourself?" she leered at her fellow female.

"I will have Kusno disband you from your duties and relieve you of your rank if you do not comply!"  Her words were serious and threatening, Akuna knew.

"Kusno isn't here at the moment," she advised her.

"Then I will tell Acli myself of what you've done!" she yelled out, Akuna's expression becoming incredulous.  "I will not have you wrong us all by your insanity!"

"Ousting one of your own, Akzla?" Akuna stared at her now, less with anger and more with surprise.  "Why have you've dropped this low?"

"I am only acting for the safety of our clan!  By the way you're acting, I would think either you are the one planning against us Shigus or you have just gone utterly mad.  Which would you like me tell Acli as to why we have deemed you unfit to lead?"

She didn't answer at first.  Pulling her arm free from Akzla's, she growled lowly at the wary stares of her peers.  "Fine.  We'll allow these five to go.  But if tomorrow comes and the southerners are at the gates," she looked to Akzla directly, "I'll have your head given to them on a spear."

Her direction was still pointed toward the Shigu camp, but now her resolve was gone.  Instead, her worry was split.  What she had seen, her child and the southerner chasing one another, had disturbed her deeply.  Maybe even more distrubing to allow those five southerners go on their way unchallenged.

###### ======================================================================

Rupland had done well to go to the market and purchase a few more pounds of meat to add to the broth he had cooked up that morning.  More flavor for their tongues, more food to their stomachs.  Even so, Akuna caught at her mate's unspoken distraction.  She knew by the way he stared at his bowl of soup, muzzle pointed downward while his spoon carried the broth and chucks of pink meat to his mouth.  Usually, he would be looking at her, his child, looking to see if his culinary work had satisfied them.

His expression was not of sadness though, Akuna noticed, just a blank gaze, his attention turned to his mind's eye.  He could wait, Akuna thought to herself silently.  There was the child to question about her deeds today, and the untold offense she had enacted in front of her mother's eyes.

"Did you play well today, Brunka?" Akuna asked calmly without any suspicion in her voice.

The child nodded, her gray mane bouncing with her ears.  "It was fun today."

"Who did you play with?"  She wasn't known to ask her child such questions, but she allowed the cub to tell her all the details of the day, or simply lie to her.

"Jala and Meel," Brunka answered, gray eyes now finding her mother.  Niyi's and Budio's offspring.  Akuna regarded them as undisciplined, the result of their mother's unwillingness to effectively rear them.  She had invited them to train with the other Shigus, but she was more than certain that Niyi wouldn't allow them to do so.  Even so, it was comical to think of her reaction when her children came to ask her of the prospect of such.

"Anyone else?  Only those two?"  Akuna's spoon laid upon the table, her gaze turned solely towards her cub.  She saw the nervous blink Brunka relented.

"And a few new cubs," the child told her, her little tail twitching with the quiver that a mortally wounded soldier's body exhibits before death grips them wholly.

"Oh?  Who then?  What do they look like?"  She took a few sips of her broth with her bowl to her black lips.

"Uh, there was Cupn who has long black fur and a white belly.  And the other was Smela who had  dark purple fur with a white belly too."  Brunka wasn't eating anymore even though her bowl was still half-filled.  Her lies was wilting away, and Akuna was ready to strike at the true subject of the matter.

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" she asked, setting her bowl down now.  Empty.

Her child's ears showed a slight of twitch, a guilty tell.  "Who?" she asked, almost innocently.

"Maybe someone whose fur was of a lighter color?" she provided, seeing her mate cast a confused expression to her and his child.  "A blond-hair.  A southerner.  Would you know of any cub like that?"   She gave a piercing glare, her cub's ears dipping down with worry at her mother's accusation.

"Um, I...uh," she stuttered, shuffling nervously in her chair as her eyes went into a frenzy to search for the correct answer.  "I do-"

"I saw you, Brunka" her mother told her while her father looked on with vast confusion drawn across his face.  "I saw you chasing that southerner."

No longer was Brunka's fear hidden.  Now her tail lashed to and fro while her ears sank down.  "He wasn't a soldier!" she quickly advised her mother.  "He wasn't a Reono either!  He was just a cub like me!  He just wanted to play!"

"Then how in battle will you strike at them?" she learned forward.  "How can you fight without hesitation if you believe these blond-hairs to be your friends?!  How?!"

"He was just a cub!" Brunka repeated herself, hands now in front of her with her claws digging into the wood of the table.  "We just wanted to play."

"And how did you know if he wasn't tricking you or not?  Hmm?  Perhaps he wanted to lure you down a street with more southerners so they could beat you and your friends to death.  A southerner's head is full of trickery and plots!"

"But that didn't happen!  We just chased each other around and played swords with sticks!"

"And what if it did happen, Brunka?  You gambled with the lives of not only you, but your northern brethren too!"

"But nothing like that happened!"

"It could have!"

"Why?"

"Because all southerners are, at their core, animals!  They are nothing but beast that are a burden to the world.  That boy would have killed you and Jala and Meel without a second thought if he found the chance!"

"But he was my friend, mother!" she wept.  "We played together!"

"Not anymore!" Akuna stifled the cubs cries.  "You will stop playing with this southerner or any southerners!  I told you this before and over many times, Brunka!  Southerners are not to be trusted in the least!  Do you understand me?"

Tears were forming in the cub's eyes, her breath turning into sniffles.  All the while Rupland watched the two exchange heated words up and away from the table.  He knew well that it was best to stand from afar while the two females argued, especially a mother and her child.  Do not interfere, he told himself.

"I don't believe you, mother!" Brunka then blasted.  "I don't!"

With a spirited rage, Akuna then rose from her chair and Brunka mimicked her with a quickness and fright.  The chairs were thrown back as Akuna cocked back her right hand and whipped it across Brunka's short muzzle.  The cub gave a yelp of pain, tumbling down to the wooden floorboards.  Her eyes were squeezed shut while her breathes turned to whimpering sobs.  A few more slaps to the ears were given and her weeping grew stronger.

"You don't believe me?!" Akuna hovered over her, barking down into her child's ear as she curled up into a tight ball of fur.  "You'll believe me as true as the pain that you feel on your nose and ears right now!  You'll tell your little blond-haired friend to shove off and not play with him or any southerner again, or I'll flatten your nose with my hand!  But at this moment, you'll quash any disbelief you have in that little head of yours about what I say and get to your room so that you can sob yourself to sleep, you little bitch!"

At first, her child did not dare move.  Instead, she continued to lay their, curled up and shaking with both fright and tears.

"Well?" her mother barked at her.  "Move!  Don't just sit there like a gutted animal!  Run from my eyes before I shred your hide!"  With her mother's insistence, Brunka flowed to her feet and scampered to her room, tripping up the stairs to slam her door shut.  Both Akuna and Rupland could still hear her wailing cries on the second floor of the house.

"Gods damn, Akuna!" Rupland exclaimed in the far corner of the room, now feeling it safe to approach the table again.  "Must you be so damn harsh to her?  She's just a cub!"

"And cubs must learn to behave," Akuna reasoned, finding her chair and placing it back on it's feet to seat in it again.  "And soldiers must learn to follow the orders of a superior."  She grabbed after her spoon and began to finish the rest of her child's bowl.

"Don't act like she's just another soldier.  She's your daughter!"

"She is," Akuna admitted while she spooned mouthfuls of soup, "but she requires much tempering.  Like a blade.  She can not be associating with any blond-hairs while she is under my command."

"She is a child, Akuna," Rupland said, as if he was pleading.  "She doesn't see others in the same light as you do, either friend or foe.  Do you really believe that cub she was playing with was any threat to her?"

"Even if he wasn't," she locked her eyes with his, "she might build a sympathy for the blond-hairs.  For a warrior, there cannot be any sympathy in their heart, especially towards the bane of our war.  And do not question the way I nurse our child."  Her voice became hard with a deep seriousness, her gaze harsh towards her mate.  "You should understand," she took up her goblet of water for a drink, "considering the circumstance of our time."

"Circumstance?" Rupland asked with bewilderment.  "Can you not speak five words without giving mention of the war?  Can we live as we please without the sense of terror that you believe-"

"Drop it!" Akuna yelled out, slamming her tight fist on the tabletop.  Luckily, her soup was about gone, otherwise she might have made a mess of it.  "Keep your tongue bound or I'll be inclined to slap your snout as well!  Now shut it!"

Rupland's mouth ceased it's words.  Quietly, he found his seat and slowly sipped away at his broth, not willing to challenge his mate's authority.  He knew she would make good on her threats if she was forced to.

The rest of the couple's meal was spent in silence, their eyes pointed downward and into their bowls.  Akuna left the table first, taking refuge in their room.  For a moment, Rupland sat in his chair, staring at his mate's and child's bowls and spoons.  He would clean them, soaking them in cold water and wiping away the remains of their food.  While the now dirty water slipped down the drain of the sink, a tiny whirlpool manifesting before it dissipated away, Rupland could hear the muffled whimpers of his cub.

On his way to the room where his mate rested, he waited before his child's door.  His hand went for the brass knob, but it stopped before his fingers could grace it.  With a sigh, he continued to bed.

The inside of their room was already dark, Akuna on her side, but her breath was quiet.  If she was asleep, her breathing would be much louder.

"Sleep well, Akuna," Rupland said to his mate after he laid his body softly to the mattress.  She gave a single grunt, her back to him.  The room then settled into a deep silence, save the subdued clattering outside the town made during the nightly hours.  Rupland's worry and thoughts would not allow his eyes to shut.  He remained wake while his mate began her snoring song towards slumber.

When he was sure she was asleep, Rupland quietly rose from the sheets of the bed and exited into the hallway.  His footfall was slow and soft, but a few floorboards creaked under his weight.  He found Brunka's door, turned the knob, and slipped his head in through to her room.

His daughter's eyes were upon him, her tail twitching as she laid on the blue sheets of her bed.  "Awake as well, I see," Rupland said, opening the door fully to allow himself in.

"Does mother hate me now?" were the first words she spoke when he approached her bedside.

"What?"  Rupland was taken back by her question.  "No, a mother could never hate her own cub," he assured her, seating himself on the edge of her bed.  He began to stroke the fur of her mane.  So much like her mother's, he thought.  Both in color and in softness.  "She's angry, yes, but you should know that is usual for her."  He grinned, but Brunka was reluctant to show the same.

"I just wanted to play," she said, her voice cracking at the hints of sobs.  "The boy didn't hurt me.  He was nice."

"I'm sure that is true," her father said, his hand stroking at the side of her face where the fur was wet from tears.  "I'm sure he just wanted to play as well.  Your mother gets...She just takes to heart the tales we have been told for many ages.  The southerners are our ire and we are theirs."

"Do you hate them too?" she then asked, eyes glistening with the light that streamed through the window at the opposite wall.

"I'm more likely to hate those that strike at us with blades and guns," he told her, his tone more serious.  "I am bound by my oath to our clan, but I see little reason in hating cubs, northern or southern."

"Then you will let me play with that cub?" Brunka asked, her breath not baited.

"I don't believe my word will trump your mother's," Rupland said, scratching the top of his daughter's muzzle.  "Just keep your wits about you.  Be ready for any challenge.  Be strong.  Stay sharp like a blade.  And know your mother loves you, with all her heart."

"Not enough to not hurt me," she retorted, rubbing her swollen muzzle.

He toughed the spot where her nose swelled.  "She just doesn't like to use words when she has the choice.  Try to not follow her method.  Get a good night's sleep.  The day is waiting."  He leaned forward and the tips of their's muzzles touched.  A gesture of comfort.

Rupland lifted himself from the bed and made for the door, Brunka settling her head back to the mattress.

"Love you, father," came the words to Rupland's ears.  He could only smile, pulling the door with his exit.

"Love you as well, Brunka.  Sleep well," he said lastly, the door shutting.

###### =====================================================================

Akuna vented her frustration the next morning which was not to her student's advantage.  She volunteered to personally spar with more than a few that day and each displayed a certain amount of apprehensiveness towards her.  They would try, yes, she knew, she experienced, but none could actually bring her to the sands in submission.

She beat them raw, violently.  Throwing them about the ring of soldiers that watched and cringed at the pain she administered.  Some were quick to surrender, but she would not have that.  She wanted them to groan in pain.  No broken bones, but they would limp back to their friends once Akuna thought they had had enough.  Even then, she told them the reason they lost was because of their lack of skill and agility.

Brunka stood at the side while her mother took her time beating her students, wincing ever so often when she put enough force into her strikes.  The cub could see the malice in her eyes, the pleasure she received for the pain she passed out.

Akuna gave her child the occasional glance her way, a slight smile with it.  She wanted her message clear as glass as she pummeled another youth into the sands.

"Ah!" one male, by the name of Saku, proclaimed as his forearm shielded himself from one of Akuna's vicious kicks.  If he hadn't, her ankle would have impacted against the side of his head.  Even so, his block could not stop the majority of the force in the kick.  His face was saved, but his head received a good hit from the upper region of Akuna's ankle.

He toppled to the ground, laying there with his eyes squeezed shut in pain while he clinched his arm with the other.

"Ah!  Stop!" he pleaded, his feet kicking at the dirt.  "I'm hurt!  Oh, gods!  Please!  It hurts!  It hurts!  It hurts!"

"What hurts?" Akuna asked, annoyed that their sparring match was cut short.  "Your pride?"

"No!  My arm, damnit!  It's my arm!  It hurts!  It hurts so much!"

"Quiet your whimpering and get up!" she kicked at his rear.

"I can't!  My arm!  It hurts!"  Saku's yells became more feverous, his eyes turning watery with tears.

Akuna hovered over him, her other students crowding around at the side.  "Are you crying?" she asked with angry astonishment.

"Yes, I am!" Saku wept, still holding his arm tightly in furious pain.  "Please, it hurts."

"Damnit."  Crouching, Akuna attempted to persuaded the lad to let her see the arm.  "Let's make sure it truly is."  Saku allowed her to cradle his limb in her two large hands.  Swelling could already be seen and with a little poking and twisting, which resulted in Saku sobbing even more, it was decided the bone had been broken.  "Someone!  Take him to Apala!" she ordered, referring to one of the only two medics of the camp.  Another male lent a shoulder for Saku to hold onto while they strolled onward to brace the limb.

Akuna growled with irritation, one that was more aimed at herself than the lad.  He would be out healing for a week or so.  Her heart sunk at the thought that a soldier, an able-body, would be removed from training.  And she was the cause.

She gave another annoyed snarl at herself.  Only a week, she told herself.  But there were still many more to train here before her.

"Let's have another!" she yelled out to the crowd, but no one spoke up or came forward.  "Is there no one here who has any courage in their guts?" she barked at the stares around her.

A male appeared through the crowd and readied himself.  He was half her age, Akuna saw, his blue fur bright with color.

"Alright," she said and then, speedily struck at him.  Surprisingly, he didn't move.  Instead, the male took her punch with his muzzle.  He, like Saku before him, toppled to the ground.  Unlike him, this male's limbs were now limp, his eyes closed.

"Shit," she spat, now inspecting this one.  He was only unconscious she found out, but her exasperation persisted.  "Pull him off to the side.  Make sure he keeps breathing."  At that point, she found it wise for her underlings to spar with each other while she sulked off to the side.

###### =====================================================================

A third day!  By the gods up on high, they allowed him to work a third day!  It was rare for anyone to offer Rupland another day's pay, but today he was again at Hasasa's clothing shop, working at the assistance of his northerner sister, Ceil.

They dried and dyed, folded and cleaned.  It hadn't even been a week and Rupland was already memorizing the routine labor he was required to do at that shop.  Satisfyingly, it required little to no physical effort.  It didn't strain his bones or make his muscles tired.  The only shortcoming that seemed to be was that he had to scrub hard to remove the color and constant stench of the dyes from the fur of his hands and where drops had fallen.

"Hasasa wouldn't have any pairs of leather gloves, would she?" Rupland ventured, allowing the last few drops of blue dye to drip from a tunic.

"None that I have any knowledge of," Ceil answered, setting a pair of breeches into a pool of orange.  "Why do you ask?"

"I don't much like the thought that my fur is turning colors," he smiled and gained a hearty laugh from her.

"Just clean it everyday and it shouldn't trouble you much."

The Shigu soldier learned the lesson of stitching close the rips and tears of fabric.  He watched Ceil's long fingers as she looped the needle and thread through the cloth in demonstration.  Soon, she was watching him, giving advice at where he needed to improve.

The work did his mind well after the events of last night.  It tore at his heart to hear his cub weep, especially at the harm of his mate.  Akuna was hard on her, but there was no reason to hurt her for innocent play, even if it was with a southern cub.  He tried to piece together an argument to her if he must try and convince her there was no harm in letting Brunka play with blond-hairs.  Even so, he felt his preparation would be all for naught.  Akuna would not yield, even in the face of reason.  He was most sure of that.

A sigh flowed from his maw while he straightened all the wrinkles out of the clothes that hung from the wire.  His mate's regression was irritating him more day by day.

"With those muscles," he heard Ceil say to him, "I wouldn't think you would be that tired."

"Say again?" he asked, turning towards her with confusion.

"You sighed.  I heard.  Something bothersome?" she eyed him blankly, waiting for his answer.  Rupland could see a smudge of green dye on her cheek.

"You have something right here," he pointed to his own cheek.  "No, the other."

Her hand rose and touched the green spot.  She smiled.  "I know, but answer me.  What is bothering you?"

"Why do you say something is bothering me?" he acted coy, showing his own smile.

"The way your eyes move," she said.  "The way your lids hang over them.  Like they're tired.  What's making you tired?"

Rupland broke his gaze with her, his vision losing focus with recollection.

"Yes!  That's the look!" Ceil then laughed.  "You're doing it again!"

He gave an imitation smile, but relented an explanation.  "Just had a spat with my mate at home.  Something with the cub, but it's nothing to worry over."

"If it's nothing to worry over then why do you appear so wary?" Ceil asked.

"It just cuts me deep, I suppose," Rupland told her.

"And it was about the cub?" she then asked, head turned to him while she knelt at the dye buckets.

"Indeed," he answered, his own hands less animated with work.  His fingers swam softly in a pool of blue dye.  "She was caught playing with a southerner, and my daughter and I know full and well of how harshly my mate looks upon the southerners.  Be they cub or not."

"You have no qualms about your child playing with children of the other race?"

"Why should I?  They are children.  My mate's fears are unfounded.  Why should we live with fear in our hearts any longer than we have endured.  I am at my end with fear!"  Rupland's mouth filled with a growl, his tail whipping behind him.

"Your mate sounds to be deaf to good sense," Ceil told him, a little smile drawn on her face.  "Have you tried talking it out with her?"

"I have," Rupland replied, "but she is stubborn like a beast.  Her ears are deaf to all words except the ones in her head."

"Sounds as if she is a hardy female to live with, especially with a child," Ceil remarked, lifting a tunic out of a bucket of yellow.

"No," Rupland shook his head.  "She just rises my ire every now and then."

"Or maybe she is finding you to be too much trouble?" Ceil turned to look at him, hanging the yellowed tunic on the rack.  "Maybe she is beginning to question the mateship between you two?"

"What?"  His brow rose at the question, an old fear finding him and manifesting in the pit of his stomach.  The same fear from before, years ago when the courtship of him and Akuna was young.  He assumed his time was limited until she found a more suitable male than he.  Even after she told him she would be his mate, the fear hovered over him like a cloud.  She would find another, he thought, give it only time.  That was the reason why she had never shown him her dance of mateship.  It was the one act he prayed she would give him, making their bond true.  It was that, or she was truly embarrassed to allow him to see her dance.

"No," he finally said to Ceil, shaking his head about.  "She wouldn't even think of such!"  His words felt like a lie, a weak cry to shelter him from the truth.  He didn't want to think about it.  "She is my mate for life.  She wouldn't."

Ceil merely shrugged.  "Let us hope that is true," she said with a slight sadness, "but I would have no questions about our mateship if you and I were bonded.  You are a good male and those are as rare as jewels among rocks."

Rupland's ears twitched with a nervousness, the movement of his tail showing the same.  "Thank you for those words," he said to her, uncertain.  "They are...comforting."

"And true," Ceil added under a whisper behind his ear.

More clothes were dipped and dyed, cleaned and dried.  Rupland was sure to wash away the unnatural color that had been added to his hands, but a few drops of color remained defiant within the creases of his palm pads.  Conservations took on a less serious air with Ceil, and Rupland was thankful for that, but her kinds words still soothed him quietly.  He only prayed that Akuna thought the same of him.

It was past noon and both of the northerners were folding tunics and breeches alike when Hasasa motioned for the exit of her shop.  "I require a few things for myself," the Agundar female said to them, a green pack at her hip.  It's strap looped over her shoulder and down her torso.  "I shouldn't be long, but I expect to see more work done once I've returned.  Let that be known."  Her eyes found them and they locked.

"Yes, ma'am," Ceil said and Rupland mimicked.  Then Hasasa was gone, strolling outside and past the windows of her storefront.  Little time had elapsed before Ceil ceased her duties and made for the back of the shop.

"She always says that when she means she will be more than a few hours."  She laughed and beckoned Rupland to abandon folding tunics for a moment and join her.  He was reluctant, but nevertheless followed behind her.  In the back where the halls hid them away from the rays of the afternoon sun, Ceil approached a brickwork wall in another room.  Cabinets had been set into the stones and she opened up one of the small doors.

"Hasasa gives me a few brews once in every while when the week ends.  She considers it part of my wage which also involves food and coin.  It wouldn't hurt to share a bottle, would it?"

Her hands extracted two brown-glass bottles from the cabinet before it was shut closed again.  She handed one to Rupland and he dare not refuse.  He then remembered his thirst once he uncorked the bottle and took a good sip from it.  The instance the ale flowed to the back of his throat, it burned him.  The air was sucked from his lungs before he swallowed it all down.  A small cough escaped him as a shiver rolled up and down his spine and a warmth filled his belly.

"Damnation!" he exclaimed, looking to the bottle as if it had surprised him maliciously.  "It's a strong brew!"

"It is," Ceil giggled.  "Suppose I should have given you some warning before you drank.  The taste isn't what I call enjoyable, but it calms the nerves, doesn't it?"

"It does," he said, taking another sip.  His throat still convulsed but it was fully expected this time.  "Is this what Hasasa gives you in all the bottles?"

"It's the brew she prefers, so she assumed I would like it too."  She tilted her bottle down and her face scrunched at the strength of the brew.  She exhaled a breath, a smile forming on her expression.

The two of them found chairs to seat themselves in, the ale filling their bellies and adding to their already heated demeanor.  It grew smiles on their faces, provided laughs to their jokes, and relaxed the air between them.  Rupland could feel the brew burning within him, hazing his mind and making his posture slack.  Ceil was showing the same attitude, her laughs turning loud and long while her hands groped at him.  He didn't quite mind any of it, how her claws pricked at his skin, the way her tail whipped at his back while they sat side by side.  With time passing, she became more daring with her little touches.

A warm appendage found Rupland at his cheek, a wetness drawing across it.  She had licked him.  His head craned back.  "What was that for?" he giggled, wiping the wet side of his face with the back of his hand.

"You had something on your face," she told him, adding her laughter with his.

"Yes, my fur!"  Once his hand finished drying his cheek, her tongue attacked the side of his face again.  "Ah!  Why are you doing this?" he giggled again, attempting to dry his cheek.  Then, regardless of his wiping hand, her tongue continued to wet his face.  On the top of his muzzle, on his chin, and on...his lips.  After that, came her lips as well, joining with his.  Kissing them.  "What are you doing?" he asked her, frozen.

"Tasting you," she told him, her hands on his shoulders.  She was out of her chair now, her bottom finding rest in Rupland's lap.  She grounded herself onto his kilt in small, tense circles.  He knew she could feel him, his arousal peaking.

Rupland found his breath hurried, his limbs stalling while his fingers struggling to keep hold on the bottle in his hand.  Try as he may to turn his head about to escape her lips and tongue, she would find him with warm saliva.  "Please," he began, breathless, the throbbing in his heart matching that in his loins.  "Halt.  Stop!  I have a mate and you are not her."

"No, I am better than her," Ceil retorted, bucking her hips faster and faster which only encouraged his arousal to further it's strength.

"Don't!  I can't have this happen.  She is mine and I am hers.  Our bond does not permit this."

"It should," she laughed in his ear, "with all that talk of how she treats you.  With her thrashing rod and arguments.  She can't appreciate a male like you, how you can make a female shudder with your thrusts and stabs."

She lifted herself and her skirt up, showing her lower tongue to be profusely wet, even dripping.  She grabbed after his kilt, exposing his hard member.  She descended, pressing the tip into her, enveloping him in her warmth.

With his hands gripping her hips, he hoisted himself up and out of his chair to force them both to stand. At least, she could.  Rupland found his legs to be limb as noodles, the ale sapping away their life.  Ceil towered over him, his knees pushed to the cold stone floor.  Her hand was on atop his head and without a word, she pushed his mouth to her slit.  He tasted her, her juices, her lower tongue.  He wretched backwards, stumbling on his bottom.

She smiled, tongue wetting her lips while her eyes found his member.  "See," she waved at his pelvis.  "Your mouth is not to be trusted, but your loins are to be.  Come and satisfy me as I can satisfy you."

Rupland could feel himself shake, a fear growing in him, nothing like the panic he felt at the birth of a battle.  He could smell her arousal, like she could smell his.  The hunger inside, in his loins, was uncontrollable.

"I can't.  Akuna and I are bonded.  Our courtship is for life.  If I break that, it would be as if I broke all the oaths I have taken in my life."

Ceil gave a huff of a laugh at that, and then pounced at him, pinning his back to the floor.  "This is no oath, male.  You are breaking nothing, but ridding your appetite and finding pleasure where you dare seek it."

"I can't," he repeated himself.  "Our bond must remain true."

"And if you find she doesn't want the same?" she asked in his ear, her tone less lustful.

"So be it.  But I will not be the one to betray our mateship."

A growl rumbled in Rupland's ear, claw tips sinking into the hide of his neck.  "And what if we were to play it this way?" she began, her vocals harsh.  "If you dare to refuse, I will have Hasasa think you to be a pervious male.  Even more so, I'll give rumor you are a less than reputable worker.  Maybe one that will pickpocket the superior when her back is turned, yes?"

Rupland's eyes widened with dread, his breath caught in his throat.  "This is...very unbecoming of a female like you."

"And what kind of female am I?" she snarled at him, her own eyes agape.  "One that can be refused?  I'm not to be refused by any male!  Who are you to deny me!  Sit back and stop wobbling around!"

Again, like last time, she rose up and aligned the soft and fleshy parts of her crouch with his own.  She quickly sank him into her, but Rupland would not stay.  Placing his hands behind her knees, he flipped her up and backwards off him.  Before she could recover, he was at his feet.  Struggling to walk with the ale still taking it's effect, he found the door and ran through Hasasa's shop.  He flew through it's exit and hurried outside.  By then, his arousal had subsided.  It was replaced with a fear that spoiled in his stomach while he made his way home.

###### =====================================================================

The inside of the captains' quarters was humid, but otherwise tolerable when compared to the sweltering heat outside.  In here, the captains' let shed their plates of armor.  Their dry tongues could be made wet again with cups of warm water while each of them reviewed the day's dealings.  Or, on this day, plan out a way to overcome new obstacles.

Akuna watched her fellow captains' chatter as she slumped in her chair, a cup of water against her elbow with her arms across her chest.  She gave them all a leer while their gazes avoided her.  She could almost feel the undertone of their continued blame towards her after that altercation earlier today.  The other captains were not concerned any longer with what those southern merchants knew or their cargo.  They would be past Rellon's border now, lost to the sea of sand.  Instead, their conversations were filled with the proposals of turning Acli's outlook back in their favor.

Marn stood by a window, sunlight illuminating his fur.  He lapped slowly at his water, no doubt savoring it.  He breathed a quiet sigh, eyes full of assessment.  "We should have a few of our own help repair the walls," he suggested, referring to the stone wall that surrounded the entirety of the town.  "Have a few travel to the bodies of rock not far from here and chip a few large pieces to reinforce it.  How does that sound to your ears?"  Her turned his eyes away from the window and looked to Monx and Akzla.  Akuna wasn't sure if he actually desired an opinion from her as well.

"A fine idea," Akzla said, refilling her cup.  Water dispensed from a spigot stuck into a small barrel, filling it to the brim.  She dipped the tip of her muzzle into her cut and drank selfishly at the water.  "But she might regard to us just playing to our fears again."

"Then let's have them repair homes and houses around the town," Marn added another suggestion.  "We can spare a few workers."  He turned to the window again, most likely watching the soldiers busy with their drills.  They could trust their underlings to keep themselves in line without their constant observation.  "We can even use a few of the spare wood planks we haven't used.  Better now than to have them rot in the sun."

"That would do us a bit of good," Monx agreed, turning his cup in his hand.  "It would also do a few of our lazier comrades some good too.  We always see that Tapacik family outside their home.  Always sitting, never doing.  I have watched them grow fat sitting on their asses."

"You sure you can trust those bastards to do the work well?" Akzla asked him with a half-smile before she dipped her muzzle into her third cup of water.

"That might be true," Monx's expression grew with a smile of his own.  "If their work turns out to be less than satisfactory, we can charge them with disobeying our orders and have the lot executed.  It will be seen as a message for the rest."  Of course, he was joking.  His words provided a laugh to his comrades while Akuna sat by with her constant frown.  Contrary to her expression, she enjoyed the thought of that idea.  The whole of the camp could not tolerate the slack of a few.  She wondered if it would be better to have their decapitated heads on pikes, or have their bodies suspended by nooses?  Would the Tapaciks be required to build a drop for themselves too?

Akuna gave a small smile at that, her hand rising to her mouth to have her drink at her clay cup.

"Having our own volunteer as builders seems to be the best course of action," Akzla said.  "We can them assist the Nevreans in hopes of having Acli see us in a better source of light."

"Then we can all agree?" Monx circulated his gaze around the room from captain to captain.  All gave a soft nod.  They then turned their eyes to Akuna, who had until then had remained silent and still.

Her black lips grew tighter, fingers gripping her cup harder.  A grunt was given.  "Having the slothful provide some labor will do us and them well," she said.  "I despise to have the Tapaciks and other  reprobates remain so...unworthy."  She could see her fellow captains' gazes widen with surprise.  A happy surprise for them.

"Good, then," Akzla smiled widely, the tenseness in the air seemingly draining through the cracks in the walls.  "We'll have those few be burdened with work!"

"But," Akuna spoke up, leaning forward, "what of our armaments problem?  I hope you all haven't forgotten about that."

"We prefer we pay mind to more...immediate matters," Akzla said to her.

"That is settled now.  The slothful will work.  We can now discuss what is to become of the situation of our lack of proper weapons and armor.  What is our supposed course of action?"

The captains looked amongst themselves and traded glances.  Each of them seemed less certain of that line of business.  Akuna grew displeased with that.

"Shall I tell mine first?" she asked them and she began.  "We can volunteer some of our best smiths to the local blacksmith.  For their services, we can work an arrangement where they can be paid in metal and the use of their forge."

"And you think that will solve our problem?" Akzla asked with disbelief.  "You're thinking too small, Akuna.  It's impossible for one forge to create all the armor and weaponry for all our squads. "

"I wasn't finished, Akzla," she sneered at her comrade.  "That is just a portion of my plan.  We will also have all of our soldiers pool in their wages for those that are working.  We won't require their entire wages , but only a small portion of their runks.  With that we can purchase new materials and tools."

"And how much do you think our soldiers make, Akuna?" Akzla played naysayer to Akuna again.  "They're not paid a full hand of wages each day.  Even taking a small part of their coin from them could rouse their ire."

"Their ire would only show them to be defilers of their oath to the clan!" Akuna barked, wrinkles forming on the bridge of her muzzle.  "Tell them it is for the whole of us.  If one of us is heavy with thirst, then we shall be there to share our canteens."

Monx gave a half-hearted laugh.  "And this comes from the captain with a two-storied dwelling for just the three of her own.  I'm sure the few that still live and sleep in tents would appreciate the gesture of you offering them a floor of yours to sleep on."

"That was not what I was speaking about," Akuna growled lightly, the claws of her right hand digging into the hide of her knee.  "With a deposit of runks, we'll buy materials and the services of smiths more easily.  Our hardships will be lessened."

"What if we were to deconstruct the house?" Akzla started up, smiling and changing the subject of discussion which only irritated Akuna even more.  "We'll use all that wood and metal for weapons.  May not be much though at all, but that would create a supply."  Marn and the others gave a short laugh.

"Damnit!  Enough about the house!" Akuna spat out at her comrades.  She was ready to fling her cup at them, but she kept it in her firm grasp.  "We have something more important to discuss!  What of my plan, now?  Shall we arrange for our brethren to accumulate a portion of their wages?  If not, then what proposal do any of you have?"

The other captains gave a slight frown, trading glances with one another while sipping at their water.  Akzla sighed, looking toward the window where Marn stood.  She stared at the blue of the sky.  "We'll ask our troops for what little coin they have.  They know of our armament problem the most.  They're watching their blades rust and their steams break.  They will benefit by donating to us."

"And what of the others that refuse to train?" Akuna asked.

"We will ask them, firstly," Akzla answered.  "If they continue to refuse, we will ease into them a bit more...forcefully."

"Ask them?  Why not ease into them forcefully now?  If they are reluctant to aid us, they should be shunned.  The shame of excommunication will have them handing over all the coin they can spare."

"That might work on a few, but the majority will find no threat in such a shame.  We don't manifest the same fear in them like the General.  Besides that, we can't risk ostracizing our own.  We would become split.  You should know this, Akuna."

Akuna gave a grunt at that.  "I know our comrades' resolve have lessened with the passing of the years.  They've forgotten of the rush of conflict, the clash of blades, and the warmth of blood on their claws."  She gave a thoughtful look at the cup in her hand, at the water shivering inside.  Even she had difficulty recalling the feeling of those moments she had just described.  The wind brushing back her mane in her stride, the clatter of metal when she defended herself against a southerner, and the heat of enemy blood on her pads.  She could remember, but it had been so long ago.  She desired to change that.

Discussions between the captains continued, talk of plans and proposals while water slipped from their cups and down their gullets.  Each of them rotated taking breaks outside, pissing it out into the dirt at the side of their quarters.  Akuna would pay mind to her fellow captain's words and arrangements, but she was partly submerged in the regret that her memories of battle were so blurred with time.

###### =====================================================================

He had arrived home with the house empty.  Akuna was still with her captain friends and Brunka would still be playing in the streets of Rellon, maybe climbing rocks and looking out over the desert landscape with Budio's and Niyi's cubs.  He paced around the silent rooms, up and down the floors.  He sat in a chair in the kitchen, staring out the window over the sink.  He laid in his and Akuna's bed, but couldn't stay long before leaving.  He felt as if he dirtied the sheets.  That's when he felt it was time to bathe.

There was word many of the homes in Rellon had baths with automatic hot water.  That would be especially true of any Agundar homes.  But that was not the case for their home, Rupland knew.  Water stored outside in a metal container needed to be heated, the coals ignited with fire.  But even then, it would take some time for the water to simmer at a comfortable heat.  For Rupland, he couldn't wait.  It was a dire moment, he knew.  Ceil's scent needed to be washed away.  He reeked of her, ale, and the smell of sex.  He twisted the spout's brass handle and cold water spit forth into the white ceramic tub.  He had already taken off his clothes and settled himself inside the bathtub.  The cold water rose around him, over his legs and up his chest.

He dunked his head down into the water, scrubbing his mane well with his fingers.  Inside and behind his ears, between the fingers and toes, his tail and crotch.  Occasionally, he stuck himself with a clumsy finger claw.  The influence of the ale still lingered inside his stomach.  He took a gulp of dirty water, wrestled it around his mouth, and spitted back out into the pool around him.

Little strains of fur drifted upon the surface and inside the water.  Rupland watched their slow twirl around his body, but he didn't stay still for long.  Again, he scrubbed away at himself, praying that Akuna didn't have the nose to even catch a hint of ale or female on him.  His fur was washed five times over.

The last of the moisture in Rupland's fur was disappearing when Brunka came home.  She smelt of dust and sweat, her tongue hanging from her maw.  She didn't remark on her father's smell and Rupland took that as a good sign that he bathed well.  Even so, worry ate around inside his stomach and head.  The ale's power was wearing off, but that only seemed to increase his anxiety.

The kilt he wore was disposed of outside, drowning in a pale where their clothes were washed.  Rupland soon realized that his efforts of hiding this attempted affair would be in vain if Ceil keep her threat true.  Her words would spread, rumors would course through the town and into the encampment like blood in veins.  Soon, her words would find Akuna's ears.  Rupland knew at that moment there would be no more hiding what happened.  He had to speak true to his mate now before Ceil could tell her lies.  But even that simple act spoiled his innards.

He waited in the kitchen while Brunka showed him the rocks she had found while playing today.  There were shiny ones while others possessed interesting textures to them.  "Aren't they nice?" she smiled at him from across the table with blue orbs.

"Indeed, they are," he smiled, turning one over in between his fingers.

The fire was burning in it's hearth below the pot and Rupland was looking between that and the front door.  He slouched in his chair, but his limbs refused to stop shaking as did his tail.  Their dinner was nearly ready.  Then came sound of that brass knob turning, hinges creaking with the door opening.  It made Rupland jump, the sound and sight of her entering.  The door closed behind her and she was quick to remove her helmet from her head.  Her spear too was laid next to the door while her sword remained at her hip.

He waited and she found him, sitting there with the soup near to boiling in the fireplace.

"Welcome home," he said to her, now up and filling bowls full of soup.

"Yes, home," Akuna said lazily back to him while she made for their bedroom upstairs to peel off her armor.  As she did so, Rupland attempted to hide his immense fear at what she might do, how she would react.  He breathed deeply and tried to quarrel the shiver in his frame.  When Akuna returned, she was bare save her fur, like her daughter when she came to the table as well.

Rupland laid the bowls before them and not a second was spared before they were devouring their shares.  He watched, each one entranced while they shoveled the broth in.  He made a bowl for himself and sat with them.  Little conversation was initiated which was no strange occurrence with Akuna.  It was usual for Rupland to do such.

"How were Marn and the others?" he asked Akuna from across the table.  Rupland had encountered the male captain before and had talked with him a few times.  From what Rupland could see, he was a good male, relaxed, but devoid of any strong arrogance.

"As well as any other day," Akuna answered him, mouth full of broth.  She swallowed and spooned another helping.

"Was the day better than the last?" he watched her, his own soup turning cold.

"Only a small amount," she told him.  "We have much to do, but my captains are willing to do the work.  For the moment, at least."

"That sounds well."  Rupland found himself relaxing now, their talk soothing out his worries.  Brunka watched both of them sparsely, slurping at her soup loudly with her small hand clutching her spoon clumsily.  Once Rupland remembered his bowl, he began to eat.  He took small sips at the spoonfuls he raised to his mouth.  Slowly the soup began to disappear, but his mate and offspring were already on their second bowls once he was half-finished with his own.  The broth of his soup mixed with the nervousness of his stomach, but it feel good to get some food in there.  Once Akuna burped, and Brunka mimicked her with a belch of her own, he knew dinner was over and his confession needed to begin.

"Brunka," he gained the attention of his cub, "go up stairs.  Your mother and I require some privacy."  This also caught the attention of his mate, her ears pricking up with mild confusion.

"Why?" little Brunka asked, tilting her head to the side with the perplexity that any other child might display towards an odd command.

"Go," he simply answered, a bit more sternly.  "Our words do not concern you.  I need to talk to your mother.  Now, go.  Play with your toys a bit."  Brunka didn't need to be persuaded to play with her toys; feather-stuffed dolls bought cheaply from an old Nevrean female from the local market.  She would play with all three of them once she was up there, two sergals and a small Nevrean.  Rupland watched her ascend the stairs to her room and once she was out of sight, he turned back to Akuna.  He might have suspected the cub was just hiding on the landing of the stairs to eavesdrop, but it wouldn't matter if she knew now or not.  Any questions she had would certainly be answered by her mother tomorrow.  Akuna was not one to keep secrets.

"This is quite odd," Akuna told him, still seated in her chair at the table.  Rupland had already gathered their bowls and utensils and placed them in the sink.  He rather not have them used against him as weapons if she turned violent with what he had to say.

"I know," he said, keeping his distance from her.  "Something odd has happened today."

"What is it?" she asked, sounding certain his news was not good.

He looked away from her, eyes wandering around the kitchen.  He searched for the words that would help him, but none could be found.  He swallowed, taking in a breath.  All he could do was let the words flow.  "I have been working at an Agundar's shop at the west end of town," he began and was already shaking.  "It's a clothing shop and I help clean and dye her cloths.  She has an assistant named Ceil, a northern sister.  She has helped me throughout the past few days, but now...she has become...flirtatious."

Rupland found his mate's eyes again and he saw the anger already fuming there.  Her tail lashed to and fro, her hands curled into fists upon the dinner table.  "With you?" she asked.

Rupland nodded and continued.  "Today, she advanced on me, even though she knew you and I were mates.  She attempted to bed me.  When I refused, she threatened me.  She said...she would spread rumors around.  She would tell others I was untrustworthy.  If she did, I will not be able to find work.  I wouldn't be able to bring home our wages."

His arms crossed his chest, but his shaking was uncontrollable.  His breath was hurried, his stomach churning with terror.  "And?" he heard his mate ask.

"And what?"

"And once she had threatened you, did you accept her advances?  Did you allow her to mate you?"  Her words were laced with a fierceness and Rupland could hear a light scratching sound.  Her fists remained on the table, curled, but he then he knew her toe claws rasped against the wood underneath her.

"No," he said to her and he saw his answer brought some relief to his mate's tense frame.  "I refused her and came straight home.  But now...I fear she will keep to her word and spread slander against my name.  I don't know what I should do now.  I won't be..."

"Where is this female?" Akuna interrupted him.  Rupland was hesitant to answer her.  "Where is she?!"

"I...believe she lives with Hasasa, the Agundar, in the clothing shop."

"At the west side of town?"  Rupland answered with a nod.

Akuna was up and out of her chair now, making for the door with an enragement in her steps.  Quickly, Rupland was between her and the exit.

"Where are you going?" he asked although he knew the answer, his arms holding her back.

"To see that female," she hissed.  "Better to deal with her now than have her spreading her gossip."

Rupland blocked her path again when she attempted to move past him.  "What?  You're just going to go over to the shop and bash her head in?"

"Just?!" she barked, taking a step closer to him.  "Not just that, but a multitude of other bashings as well!  I'll bash her arms!  Bash her legs so she may never walk again!  I'll bash all her bones and cut her throat out!"

"That will not help us!" he screamed out, stamping his feet down upon the floorboards.  "People know you, Akuna!  They see you walk through the streets and know your face.  They'll learn that you're my mate!  Then different rumors will be born if you attack her!  They'll question why my mate pummeled another female in a shop I was working for!  Hasasa will make her own assumptions and let her own words run through Rellon!"

"Then what will you have me do?!" she hissed at his face, her hot breath blowing on his muzzle.  "Would you have me kill both her and the Agundar?!"

"No!  You can't!"

"It seems to be the only choice we have!  We require your wages and if she's threatening that, she is threatening all of us!  I need to deal with her."

At that moment, Rupland could see his words had pierced her stubbornness, her eyes becoming filled with focus.  This could become an incident of great interest and she didn't need the notice of Acli and her town guards.  The Agundar could make trouble for them if she made a fuss in public.  Better if Akuna made it a more private affair.

"I know of a way," she whispered, turning opposite of the door and heading upstairs.  Rupland stayed on the first floor in the kitchen, waiting with fear at what she might do.  Akuna returned clad in her armor, the sheath of her sword clacking against her side.

"What are you going to do?" he asked sheepishly, afraid of her answer.

"I am dealing with a whore like a whore should be dealt with."  Her words were thick with malice.

"Do...are you going to kill her?"

"That will be up to her."  She donned her helmet and found her spear.  "If she values her life, I will not be forced to rip out her throat."  She opened the door and walked into the darkening day.  The last sights of the sun were at the horizon.

"Akuna, don't..."  He was at her back, but he jumped when she turned back at him with a snap.

"Stay with the child," she demanded.  "I'll return when I am through."

"Akuna..."  He tried to move closer to her.

"Stay with the child!" she barked, her words echoing.  "See that she sleeps well.  Comfort her with the words that I will return before the sun does."  She walked away and down into the cobblestone roads, aiming towards the Shigu encampment.

###### =====================================================================

The other captains would not be required for this venture.  If they caught wind of what Akuna was planning, they would attempt to stop with whatever words or threats they could use.  Maybe even physical force if they were so inclined.  Instead, only two underlings would suit the situation, ones who would keep their words silent and their memories unrecalled if asked of what occurred this night by the other captains or the town watchers.
Both of the males hurried along at her back, one named Bulkno and the other Seno.  All three of the Shigus weaved through the streets with the night just beginning.  Traffic was lessening and windows were already alight with the glow of candles and light bulbs.  Akuna's legs were animated with a fury.  They were on a grand task and no time needed to be wasted.

When they happened upon the clothes shop at the westside of town, it's innards were already darkened.  Through the windows in the front, Akuna could spot a couple of rooms were still bright with light.  She desired to break apart the glass windows and drag this female outside herself.  A small part of her still lingered at the possibility that Rupland was telling a lie, but she soon snuffed out that thought.  Her mate would not lie to her.  If he did and was caught, she would dismember him by the tail, shove it down his throat and pull it out his asshole.

"Find the back of the shop," she told Bulkno.  "Wouldn't want her to leave abruptly through a back way."  The male complied, leaving out of sight around the right corner of the building.

Her hand knocked against the door hard, glass and wood rattling loudly.  She could see a small figure come into sight and approach the door:  Hasasa, the Agundar.  The female peered through the door's glass.  Carefully, she opened as far as the chain lock on the door allowed, eyes full of fear and questioning irritation.

"Yes?  May I assist you?" she asked of them, her body wrapped in a purple gown.  "The store is closed for the day if you must know."

"We are here for the arrest of a female sergal by the name of Ceil that might be living in your shop with you," Akuna said, her vocals strong and intimating.  "We are here to escort her for questioning."

"Questioning for what?" Hasasa asked, baffled.

"It's nothing of your concern, but it will be if you bar us from making our arrest," Akuna sneered, her annoyance the evermore evident in her voice.

The Agundar's eyes lost contact with theirs, her confusion rising.  "A moment," she finally said, turning her head towards the back of the store.  "Ceil!  I have a few Shigus here!  They need to speak with you!"

Peering through the crack in the door, Akuna could see inside the store.  Her ears picked up the tiny sounds of movement, pads pattering against stone as a shape larger than the Agundar moved into view.

"Yes, come on," Hasasa beckoned Ceil to come closer, annoyed at her hesitation.  She did so, northern features losing form as she moved out of the light and came closer to the front door.  The Agundar moved aside, allowing Akuna and Seno to see the feminine details and color of the northerner's face.  Akuna found this Ceil could be considering somewhat of a fine female which only urged her anger to become bolder.

Immediately, Akuna's hand flung through the crack in the door and grabbed after the fur of Ceil's throat.  Not a word been spoken, her rage taking flight the moment the female came within distance of her grasping arm.

The Agundar barked at her, the chain lock pulled taut with Akuna's arm through the door's crack.  Struggling, Ceil tried to move back and away from Akuna's hand, but her fingers were too tightly gripped.  Akuna pushed through the entrance, shattering the wood from where the chain lock held.  Tripping to the ground with Ceil's throat still in hand, she yelled for Seno just as Bulkno came back around.  "Bind her!"  Seno came with rope and bound Ceil's wrists.

"I know you!" Ceil yelled out with a choke, Akuna's hand still around her neck.  "I know you!  You're the captain!  His mate!"

"Have her muzzle bound as well," she told them and rope wrapped her jaws closed.  Akuna then realized the Agundar was still screaming at them.

"My damn door, you bastards!  You broke my damned lock!" the Agundar cursed, inspecting the damage Akuna had done.  The Shigus picked Ceil to her feet and Akuna released her grip.  "Where are you going?" Hasasa continued to bark as they lead themselves outside.  "Where is the coin that will pay for this lock?"

"Take it out of this female's wages," Akuna suggested with Bulkno and Seno in front of her, assisting Ceil with walking.  The Agundar was unwilling to argue any further and turned back to her shop.  But then Shigus' backs were greeted with a holler from down the streets.  By their shrill voices, Akuna was certain that they were Nevrean town guards.

"What are you three doing to this female?" a leather-clad Nevrean demanded an answer, hand held close to the pistol at her side.  Her partner, another female, looked at the Shigus with a weary eye.

"Taking her to the camp for questioning.  She is required there."  Neither Akuna nor her comrades lost any speed in their stride but the Nevreans followed behind.

"For what matter?  If she has committed a crime, she is better in our hands than yours," the female persisted.

"This is a northern matter and you have no say in it!" Akuna barked at the Nevreans, face full of fury with the white of her teeth showing.  "Keep to your own business!  Why should us northerners concern you?"

Both of the Nevrean guards had been startled, but nevertheless turned back the opposite way without another word.  Their hands kept to their holstered pistols.  Why would they care if a northerner killed another?  It would be one less for them to stress over.

Ceil had struggled slightly in the ropes around her wrists and snout in the little time it took them to travel to the Shigu camp.  Night guards watched them cross the dry grounds of their surrogate home and made not a word about it.  Akuna and her underlings found privacy away from preying eyes inside a small shack.  Inside were bags of grain, fruits and meats, ale and wine, stored away from the heat of the sun.

Bulkno and Seno placed Ceil in an empty corner of the shack and, with the request of their captain, removed the ropes from her muzzle.  They did not have to wait for her to speak.

"I know you!" she yelled out.  "I know you're his mate.  Rupland's mate!  He told me!"  Her words were shouted out more in fear than in anger.

Akuna motioned for her two comrades to play sentry outside, where Ceil's words might be muffled by the shack's wooden walls.  "I am," she assured her, looming over her in the darkness.  "And yet, that fact didn't stop you from advancing on my mate with the lust of a tramp!" Akuna growled, her muscles turning hard with anger.  At that point, she could no longer keep her rage detained.  Her fists rose up high and fell fast, pounding Ceil's head and back, chest and stomach.  The female retreated back into her corner, hands up to her face with the Shigu warrior thrashing her flesh.  "Well?" she barked.  "Am I right?!"  She gave no time for Ceil to answer, repeating her hammering blows again and again.  Once she had stopped, her breath was ragged and her knuckles burned.  Her fingertips feel warm and they were slick with blood.  Small cuts had been made on Ceil's muzzle and chest.  She was shaking now, fear most evident in her trembling.  She did not whimper which only irritated her captor.

"Answer me!" she bellowed out breathlessly.  "Am I right?  Am I?  You were so willing to talk of how pervious my mate was.  Said you would take your fibs and feed it around town.  I'll crush your throat before those lies can come through."

Ceil only trembled more, her breath as ragged as Akuna's.  Finally, her words came out like a child's whisper.  "You'll kill me.  I know what I did.  It was wrong, I know.  Ale makes...me...makes me bad.  I shouldn't drink...it, but...I do."

"I'd much rather rip out your tongue and eat it than kill you!" Akuna yelled back at her, roughly yanking at one of her ears.  "But that would be cruel.  I don't eat the flesh of my own brethren.  I'd much rather shove it up your cunt and into your stomach!"

"No, no," her head shook.  "No, please.  The ale.  I just have to stop drinking the ale.  Please, I wasn't going to do anything.  I wasn't about to say any lies to anyone."

"That's not what you told Rupland.  My mate and father to my cub.  He's a loyal male, I have no doubt he is.  That's what you'll say!  If I do hear you have spread any lies, I'll be sure to have you back here in this shack and skin you.  I'll wipe my backside with your fur."

"I won't say anything.  I won't say anything at all!" Ceil said to her, muzzle pointed downward submissively.

"Not only that, but you'll steer away from my mate.  You won't speak a word to him and if you see him, avert your eyes or I might be inclined to pluck them out of your skull and feed them to you like your tongue!"

"Yes, yes," her head now nodded.  "I will."

"And," she came closer, hand gripping her mane with claws scratching into her scalp.  A pathetic yelp blurted from Ceil's mouth, her eyes peeking open to see Akuna there, still towering over her, "if someone would ask you of your cuts and swells, even your little Agundar master, tell them nothing of this.  Just," she leaned in close, "keep your tongue silent."  She ended her words with one last, heavy kick across Ceil's jaw.

Akuna, Bulkno, and Seno watched Ceil stumble back into town, holding the side of her jaw with an empathic hand.  She moaned and limped towards Rellon's walls, her wounds still leaking red into her fur.  Akuna wasn't sure if she had broken the bones in her mouth or not, but it was a pleasant thought to believe she had.

Her two comrades gave their word that no mention of this nightly matter would cross their lips and into the ears of the other captains.  Even their own kin were not allowed to know.  She believed them with a strong trust and headed her own way home.  Her throat felt as sore as her hands.

###### ======================================================================

He waited by the door, sitting forward in the same chair in the kitchen.  He had not moved for some time.  Brunka came down at one instance to ask where her mother had taken off to and he assured her she would return within a few hours.  The child seemed satisfied with those words, shuffled up the stairs, and returned to her room.

He didn't expect her to come home so early.  He suspected that she would be out until the last shadows of night ran from the presence of the sun.  Her claws and pads were not muddled like he expected as well, her armor without grim or filmed with crimson.  Not a question was asked.  Simply, taking her helmet from her head, she said, "She is well.  Alive for the most part and I believe she will become mute for some time."

Just those words made Rupland's fur stand less upright and his tail flow less erratically.  Following her to their room, he did not speak, afraid that any voice could evoke her anger.  He watched her undress, armor pieces piling up in the corner of the room and her skirt falling from her hips.  He was afraid to say a word to her, ask her what had occurred.  There was no question it was no longer safe to work for Hasasa, to dye tunics and breeches.  Such a shame too.  It was a simpler job than lifting barrels and crates all through the morning and afternoon.

When she turned back to him and came to the bed, Rupland's belly fluttered with fear.  His nervousness then spiked when she didn't turn to lay on her side of the bed.  Instead, she came straight at him with grabbing hands.  She wetted him with a long tongue as they both tumbled to the sheets.  They were chest to chest, her hands groping, invading, stroking at the soft parts of him that soon turned hard.  She nipped at fur and the strap of his eyepatch with her teeth, stinging him with her claws.  She smelt of soil and sweat.  Quickly, she slid himself inside her.  Her hips churned and bucked wildly.  No words needed to be said with her fingers digging into his chest.  When they're eyes were not shut tight from pleasure, glances were traded while their breathes blow hotly at each other.  All night, she tugged and pulled at him, controlling where he laid and where she would mount him.  Her actions were clear from the start.  I am her male, Rupland knew as she bite at his hide again.  I am her male only.  He only hoped she would remain his female, and his only as well.  His worries were forgotten when pleasures flooded their minds and dampened their loins many times over.  Both could scarcely catch their breath once they were finished and fell softly into sleep.

###### ======================================================================

Akuna's head felt as clear as the sky today, the warm winds blowing through her fur briskly.  All through the day, she walked with a easiness in her gait and a light grin drawn across her face.  The captains and her soldiers took notice and were grateful she was less overbearing on this day.  Even Brunka was happy to find her mother to be more playful during their drills.

No mention of the previous night's dealings had been given and Akuna was the evermore relaxed for that.  Seno and Bulkno kept their oaths to her and the Agundar, Hasasa, most likely didn't make a fuss about her broken door lock.  The mental image of that pummeled female, Ceil, gave Akuna a happy look.  She hadn't seen her during their rounds through the town.  She likely hide from her in the back of the Agundar's store, out of sight, in fear.

With the day ending and the sun chasing after the night horizon, Akuna decided it may do some good to visit Rully again.  The heat from her fur cooled once she traveled through the shade of towering rock faces above, coming nearer to Rully's dwelling.  She hadn't seen any of her or her six cubs after the previous visit.  She prayed this time she could leave with a better disposition other than one of antagonizing revulsion.

At the first scratch of the door, no sound was heard inside.  The same occurred with a second and third scratch.  "Rully!" Akuna called after the female, but nothing again.  She began to believe she might be at the markets, her children playing silently inside until she returned.

Even so, the brass latch was tried and Akuna was allowed to enter through.  She also reckoned Rully would be asleep inside, curled around her children for an afternoon nap.  But, instead, she was found sitting in a chair there in the shadowed insides of her home.  She seemed startled by Akuna's sudden appearance, wide eyes watching her as if she were an intruding thief.

"Rully," Akuna said to her, walking closer to her.  "You're here.  Are you deaf?  I was at the door.  Didn't you hear me kn-"  Her voice caught in her throat, legs and back stiffening at the sight of red on Rully's hands.  It's scent invaded Akuna nostrils instantly.  Her left hand was tucked under her leg, the other placed shaking on her thigh.  "Rully," Akuna whispered, her gut tightening.  "What happened?"

The former soldier looked at her with guilt, eyes looking towards the front door.  "I thought I locked it," she said, her vocals deflated.

"Rully," Akuna gave her a warning tone, the scent of blood seemingly everywhere.  "What happened?"  She stared at the red around her hands, on her pads.

"Can't believe you found me like this," she began to say, her tail slashing at the air with a feverous twitch.
Akuna's eyes scanned the room and there was nothing to see other than the carpets and a dark pool accumulating upon the dirt floor.  That was the source of the scent, Akuna now knew.  Blood, dripping down through the cracks in the ceiling.

"Rully, where are your children?" she now asked, her eyes ablaze with astonishment.

"Now?" she gave a blank stare to the question.  "With their father."

Leaving Rully sitting there, Akuna bolted up the stairs and onto the second floor.  Her feet banged against wood as she found the children's room.  Inside that cool darkness, laid the shapes of six cubs.  The smell of blood hit her like a gust.  It made Akuna's stomach quiver.  Northern blood, leaking from their slit throats.

"Rully, you bitch!"  She rushed to the stairs again, downward.  She muttered curses under her breath.  "You bitch!  Why?  Why?"

Rully could not answer her questions now.  The blade was already across her neck, digging into her flesh deeply with blood gushing from the new wound.  That's what she was hiding under her leg, Akuna realized, watching Rully fall out of her chair.  Her legs spasm, her fingers clawing around the dirt floor, blood pooling around her head.  Her knife laid away from her grasp, a shining iron dagger.  Akuna stood frozen, watching while her eyes dimmed and her movements ceased.  All that remained now was the smell of blood, it's stench inescapable.