The boys spent the morning squealing since I made the official announcement at first meal.

"Do you see her?" Raven Tide wagged his little tail, shouting to his brother from above the crowd of Zhaguai and razkurs.

The two insisted on being perched on mine and Eh'kt's shoulders to better scour the Hall of Bones, despite being assigned venerable seating.

"Red quills!" Crazy Wolf yelled. He was practically standing on my head as he lunged and pointed.

The crowd parted below and there she was.

I'd recognize her red and meridian blue-tipped mane anywhere.

Peleon stepped toward us. Her red scales glistened in the dim torchlight while the rest of her was dripping in radiant gold highlights.

She wore her best vertebra shawl and her favorite larrcat broach over her right armor-clad breast.

"Gamma!" Raven Tide scrambled down Eh'kt and ran to his forebearer.

I couldn't hear what she was saying to my pup over the rumbling crowd, but she greeted Raven Tide formally and took his hand when he guided her to our balcony.

"Greetings, Crazy Wolf," Peleon turned her gaze up at the excited pup on my shoulders, then lowered her golden eyes to me. "It is good to see you as well, my offspring... in person."

"Sit!" Crazy Wolf jabbed his little white claws into my chest as he climbed down, not bothering to notify me that he was changing positions. "We saved a seat for you!"

The twins perched themselves on either side of an empty section of bleachers, patting their hands for my bearer to sit between them.

It was alarming how easily they accepted Peleon's presence, even with the knowledge of what happened to my brother.

"Greetings, Honored Bearer," Eh'kt lowered his head respectfully as he moved over to make room on the opposite side of the boys.

"Well met, Eh'kt," my bearer dipped her head in regard. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you. Your tournament and Dread records are most impressive. I've made a point to monitor your progress since Shale first notified me you were to become his Adjutant."

"I am most honored," Eh'kt splayed his claws across his chest. It was cute how his gestures always instantly softened whenever he shifted into formal conversation.

I knew my choice in mates was still confusing for Peleon. Not because one was male and the other another species, but because there were three of us. She worried for me and loathed the notion of anything connected our lineage to being merely an expendable afterthought.

"Is that an U'la'ke stinger on your headdress?" Raven Tide leaned back to see all of Peleon's nine-foot stature with his little white bare feet dangling from the bench above the black concrete floor.

"Yes," Peleon answered. "It was a particularly stubborn vanguard stalker that took six days to take down."

"Can I touch your necklace?" Crazy Wolf reached out impulsively at the delicate bones woven together around my bearer's neck. "Are they human?"

"Do not put your claws on someone without their permission," I chided the boy.

Crazy Wolf quickly pulled his hand and slender quills away.

"It is alright, and yes, several humans," my bearer leaned down and held the carefully crafted jewelry forward for the pup to admire. "The bindings are made to endure the jostle of combat. It would be quite impressive if your small claws managed to do any harm."

Or perhaps she wished to test my pups' mixed-species physical strength.

Crazy Wolf ran his slender fingers over the network of bones and smiled.

Peleon's face remained placid, but the arch of her brow told me she was pleased to share the trinket with the boy.

Had it been me or Tharu, she would have forbidden it. Peleon never permitted us to touch her jewelry.

"Me too?!" Raven Tide leaned forward with urgency. Then he spun his head back as if to confirm he had consent from Eh'kt. "May I, Gamma?"

"Yes, you may," Peleon smiled, unmistakably more delighted by his adherence to manners than his curiosity.

"Dad," Crazy Wolf fidgeted his tail and curled his legs up to sit on his heels, then he tugged my arm and pointed his slender stacked horns on the sides of head. "Can I pierce my horns like Gamma Peleon when I'm Dreaded?"

"Those are tokens of victory in battle bestowed by the Council of Ancients," I pointed to the sharp shards of bone pierced along nearly all the jagged points of Peleon's large coiling horns. "She was a General long before either of us ever existed."

"This word," Peleon looked to me. "Gam-ma?"

"It's a razkur term of respect toward a revered matriarch in one's bloodline," I explained. There were many words of Menthla we incorporated into our family. The boys lived and traveled between Sahei and Menthla often, and every aspect of their lives was a seamless hybridization. It was only natural that our intimate terminology and daily language had adapted.

"If you wanted, Gamma," Raven Tide raised his chin proudly. "You could call us xios."

"It means, small thump who is near to me," Crazy Wolf added with his hand patting his chest, representing the beat of his heart.

She patted his head, and little white horn tips with an accepting nod. "I will keep this in mind, little one."

Peleon likely hated our divergence from the traditional, but this was my family. She had no say in how my triad ran it.

BOOMPH

The Hall of Bones entrance doors slammed shut.

"It's time!" Raven Tide chittered in excitement, with his long white ears high and alert.

Peleon's eye locked on to the twin's twitching ears and their little silver eyes flicking back and forth between her and the large pit arena below our balcony.

Did she have any idea how much these trusting young pups admired her?

They'd only just met her, but I could see it in their posture. Peleon's slightest utterance could redirect their entire world paradigm.

Once, long ago... I looked up to her in exactly the same way.

Beneath our balcony, the crowd hushed and wandered into the perimeter stadium seating. The flaming sconces lining the walls bloomed brighter and transitioned hue from orange to blue.

"Was it like this, Gamma?" Raven Tide turned up to his forebearer. "When you took the rite with Clan Celcho?"

"Very similar," Peleon spoke cooly to the pups. "There was lava lining the edge of my stadium, but volcanoes are more common on Oja Crux than on Sahei."

The black floor opened up to a round dirt-covered arena and unveiled the faint earthy scent of old bones and dried blood. Bleached bones lined the walls and ceiling. Like us, the collection of hollow eye sockets were locked forward and eager to witness the induction of a new Jahaa Elder.

"Mommy!" Crazy Wolf stood up and threw his head back in a half-squeak howl to the skull-covered ceiling when his mother walked out to the center of the arena.

My mate was dressed in her full red and black combat armor along with a few favored trophies.

Being a razkur, she never felt comfortable wearing a full breastplate, but she came to tolerate a lightweight red half-pauldron on her shoulder and upper chest.

She had her hass'ar skull-plate latched to her shoulder and her gauntlets and faulds armor were jet black, but she had recently upgraded into a pair of blood-red knee pads and shin guards.

For the rite, Mourning Crow was allowed one weapon. Obviously, she selected her trusted chain sickle.

Crazy Wolf unleashed three more caterwauling howls into the air and directly into my ears.

"You named your pup appropriately," my bearer commented brightly.

"I know," for this, I had to chuckle. Crazy Wolf had always been loud and prone to exuberant yowling. We knew his name within days after he ripped free of his pouch.

"Welcome, Jahaa!" Groon strut out across the central stage directly to our right. Today, he was the voice of Oru while our Supreme Leader was off world carrying out her Dread.

The crowd roared, and we all stood up.

"Today a venerated rises and dares to proclaim she is an Elder!" Groon wore a red cape and a full U'la'ke Liege headdress with its long stinger-tipped tail draped behind him as he cast his arms wide like a mystical shaman grasping into the warm air for spirits of the ancestors.

The twins were on their feet whooping and leaping in their seats along with the horde of Zhaguai and razkurs.

"Mourning Crow," Groon growled and let the clicks of his gravelly voice echo in the darkness. "Are you worthy?"

The pounding of enormous clawed feet stomped out and surrounded the razkur.

Mourning Crow stood alone in the center of the dark indoor stadium as a circle of thirty Elder Zhaguai, armed with white hot-tipped polearms, closed in around her.

Groon retrieved a thin metal pole from his belt and activated a switch on the handle. The flat far end began to heat up and glow red. It was the brand Mourning Crow required to complete the trial.

A soft orange beam of light lit up next to Groon. He placed the brand pole upright and let it hover just above the highest wall of the arena.

"Here is your glory, Sister!" Groon narrowed his eyes in wicked satisfaction. "It is yours if you can survive your predecessors."

The circle of Elders around Mourning Crow stepped forward and aimed their hot spear tip directly at her with a synchronous thump.

Tall blue flame pillars ignited all around the edge of the arena. They were each spaced out by a couple feet, but the heat produced would singe the skin of anyone standing too long in between.

The Elder circle constricted and Mourning Crow held her ground and composure.

"Mom is listening to their heartbeats and joints," Raven Tide sat down and proceeded to provide Peleon with an exclusive razkur play-by-play. "She'll respond to the tension in their feet first."

The audience quieted down, and most returned to their seats.

It was Mourning Crow's task to avoid the hot poker spears and make her way to the true brand on her own. Being burned by an Elder wasn't a disqualifier but she couldn't claim the insignia this century if tagged on the chest where the mark was meant to reside.

The Elders choreographed their movements, half launched forward while the other took a sharp back step, allowing the circle to shrink and force Mourning Crow's reaction.

I expected her to dodge but instead, she parried!

Mine and Eh'kt's eyes went wide with exhilaration. Our mate was operating on the offensive.

The thrusting spears clinked together and sizzled when the bright tips collided with metal.

"Push them back, Mommy!" Crazy Wolf was still on his feet and mimicking his mother's actions.

My mate had yet to extend the chain and instead chose to fight only with her sickle. Her speed was breathtaking. She was vastly outnumbered, yet her efficiency and power had the Elders scrambling to sustain their advantage.

"She does not move backward...?" Peleon muttered to herself, with her head leaning quizzically sideways.

"It's how she fights multiple slayers," Raven Tide was quick to explain. "Instead, she'll strafe and wear out their hands by rattling their weapons while conserving her energy and positioning the Elders where she wants them."

A large male with black armor seized several spears from the ground and began flinging them like javelins at Mourning Crow's head.

"See how she minds her weight?" Eh'kt leaned over to Raven Tide and pointed. "He's aiming for where he expects her. It's important that she doesn't give away where she is heading."

Mourning Crow snipped the ends off the incoming spears and tossed some of the still-warm ends at her opponents.

Then she got a neck hold on another male and exploited her momentum to toss his bulky body at her attacker, knocking both Elders to the ground.

"Which one is yours?" My bearer glanced at the boys while they were entranced by the combat.

"Both of them," my eyes darted sharply at her.

Peleon snapped her fangs shut, then reworded her question. "I meant, which one did you bear?"

In her communications with Mourning Crow, she had issued a conspicuously high number of questions pertaining to the boy's biological makeup.

Many Zhaguai of her generation were slow to accept the expansion of genetic augmentation even when all the science indicated it was the most effective means to allow desirable males to mate more frequently and with more partners without concern for inevitable inbreeding overtime.

Or perhaps she truly wished to understand...

"They are each a genetic combination of all three of us," I did my best not to growl under my breath. "But as to which pouch I bore, Crazy Wolf was within mine. His composition was already written. My task was to provide his sustenance and protection."

A hulking turquoise female in gold armor took point amongst the Elders and blocked the quickest route to the brand. She wore the emblems of a seasoned Master Reaver and gave quills signals to the others, instructing them to spread out and converge on her order.

"I know of this one," Peleon thrummed to the boys. "Her name is Du'sia. She has assisted many packs of Hollow Zhaguai in making penance for their wayward path."

The Master Reaver Du'sia unfurled a long interlocking whip. With a single sharp crack, the joints sparked alive, converting the deadly plasma weapon into a flaming crimson chain.

"That thing looks like it would really hurt!" Raven Tide's slender ears cringed under his quills.

The fire whip shot out and narrowly missed Mourning Crow's neck.

"Stay true to the code and the chain of command and you will never know its sting," Peleon consoled the pup, but in an affirmative, stolid tone.

Mourning Crow banked off a wide Zhaguai's back, then spun across the dirt floor and let the entire length of her chain sickle out.

Du'sia spun her whip in the air while Mourning Crow maintained her attack and crouched to charge. The chain sickle sailed wide in a low crescent arch, forcing Du'sia and a few others to leap over it, save one Elder who missed the jump and lost his foot.

"Hack'um to pieces!" Crazy Wolf bounced on his toes.

Mourning Crow danced across the arena, kicking her chain to build up speed and herding the Elder away from her objective.

Du'sia roared and cracked her whip, defacing the ground with a nasty smoldering scorch mark. She was done being toyed with and bounded at Mourning Crow before flipping over the razkur's head.

The Master Reaver glowered and planted her feet. Mourning Crow would have to defeat Du'sia first in order to advance her honor.

The whiptail shot out, and my mate's sickle clashed it away. Mourning Crow had upgraded her weapon three cycles ago and could swing her sickle with impunity now that the alloy was of a better grade and possessed a higher melting point.

She kept the whip in check, but Du'sia was driving Mourning Crow backward.

"It's a good thing she can't read razkur ears!" Raven Tide was clenched to his chair in anticipation.

My mate was cornered by Du'sia's whip, with her back nearly touching a blue fire pillar while the others coordinated and converged around her. Once again, they split up their advance, only this time the back line hunkered in preparation to leap up and over, and come down speartips first on Mourning Crow's head!

The twin's ears were sharp, up, and trained on their mother.

"Watch," Crazy Wolf shouted at Peleon as he pointed. "Mommy is about to wreck them, big time!"

Peleon crooked up a curious eyebrow. She didn't see it yet.

Undoubtedly, she believed the child was being boastful of his parent.

Watch bearer... My offspring speaks the truth!

The back line Elders pounced, and my mate dispatched her sickle.

It was a single devastating attack.

She caught the leg of a large Elder at the edge of the line with the weighted end of her chain and pulled his bulk to knock down his neighbors then she followed up with the sickle side whirling above, and snipped all the overhead incoming spears in half, leaving the aerial Elders to land on their brothers and sister in a groaning mound.

The crowd roared and my pups howled at the top of their lungs

None of the Elders could recuperate quickly enough before Mourning Crow made one final twirl and lobbed off Du'sia's whip-wielding left hand.

In an instant, my mate vaulted over Du'sia, ignoring the Reaver's curses, and then made her way up the tallest wall.

There, on the stage alone, Mourning Crow roared before all of Jahaa.

Then she seized what was hers, as I knew my mate would. She twirled the brand downward and pressed the glowing emblem to her chest, filling the room with the scent of raw burning razkur flesh.

.

.

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TRANSLATIONS:

U'la'ke/Abura = alien cat species that are mortal enemies of the Zhaguai. Have stinger tails with paralytic venom. Known as "The Felija" to humans. They live in large Prides. Lieges are the biggest, are both sexes, have large manes, and thirteen tails. AlSO: a sacred predatory species that shares a symbiotic relationship with the Razkurs.

Abura = a sacred alien cat species that is a specific strain of U'la'ke born on Menthla that shares a symbiotic relationship with the Razkurs.

...

Thank you for reading.

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~A. E. Shelly (a.k.a. Oloo)