Page 14 of Ragoru

She’d eyed him fearfully, but when he didn’t advance, she made as to sidestep him. He blocked her again, earning him a look of frustration on her flat face.

“Look, don’t make me zap you, furball.”

His head cocked. “I’m not Furhbal… I’m Vrishna,” he corrected.

She blinked at him and snorted, a faint sound of amusement warming him as she shook her head. “Yeah, okay. Look, Vrishna. I don’t want to hit you with this if I don’t have to. I don’t want to hurt you since you aren’t trying to hurt me right now—and the smell of burnt fur really doesn’t do it for me. So move aside so I can save Sabol’s hide,” she growled as her gaze focused back on the fighting males and winced in sympathy as Sabol got hit hard.

“Save him?” Vrishna chuffed merrily, but quieted when her eyes slid back to him warily as she took a step back.

His ears flattened. He didn’t want her to be afraid of him. Smaller and more delicate than Vrishna had imagined, and utterly vulnerable with her lack of claws and fur over any part of body except for her head where the red pelt coiled oddly, not to mention short on eyes and limbs in a manner similar to the Shining Ones, Vrishna’s heart melted a little at the sight of her, a protective feeling welling up inside of him. And, Great Mother, despite the sickening scent of her fear, she smelled wonderful. He dragged in deep breaths, flooding his senses with it. He longed to drag his tongue over her skin to experience every bit of her essence even as his fingers itched to groom out the sticks and leaves that clung to the tangled mess of the long, dark fur that fell from her head.

With a soft rumble in the back of his throat, he slowly eased his bulk closer to the female. Not so close that she would flee. He carefully maintained a safe distance before he crouched nearby, his eyes fastened on her. He knew it wasn’t very reassuring to one as small as her. Even crouching, he was still a little larger than the female. She continued to eye him warily in turn as she shuffled away from him, putting a little more distance between them. He cocked his head in curiosity as to the move but decided against closing the new gap that had formed. He knew it was a good decision when a little of the tension in her small body bled away, though her fear smell barely lessened as she turned her wide-eyed gaze back toward the Sabol and Vrishna, her jaw tightening as indecision warred on her face.

He was sympathetic. She wanted to help her mate, obviously. But Vrishna was large and obviously frightened her. And he was determined to keep her far from the fight. She understood that she was aware of that too from the speculative look she cast him. He grinned easily at her, trying not to show too much of his sharp teeth to remind her that she couldn’t slip past him.

Following the shift of her gaze, Vrishna grunted at the spectacle. It was no wonder that she was frightened. This was worse than he had anticipated. Neither Sabol nor Thral was yielding the smallest amount of ground as they delivered wicked bites and gouged at each other with swipes of their claws. Blood darkened their fur in several spots. That it wasn’t flowing freely conveyed that the wounds were more superficial than anything else with nothing deep enough to be potentially life threatening. He glanced back at the female and noticed the way she paled as she seemed to have caught notice of the blood.

He was overwhelmed with the desire to draw closer and gather her up in his arms but he knew that would be a bad idea. Her furtive glances in his direction made him well aware of the fact that she didn’t trust him to approach any closer. He coughed to get her attention, and her eyes snapped to his, their brown color so deep that he could barely make out her pupil. He tried a small smile, but when she didn’t respond to it other than to narrow her eyes, he knew it was going to take more than that. His throat worked uncomfortably. He had never spoken anything other than Ragii. Though the Shining Ones gave him the ability to understand words as they did with all the Ragoru, they communicated with them in no other language but Ragii. He had never needed to use the speaking function of the gift, though the Shining Ones had assured him that he possessed this capability.

“Don’t be afraid,” he rasped. “You do not need to rush to Sabol’s rescue. They don’t hurt each other.”

He growled in frustration when there was a sudden yelp as a hit scored, seemingly belying his words. She shot him a look of outright disbelief as her arm snapped out to them in an unmistakable gesture. Grunting in acknowledgment, he directed an annoyed glance toward the fighting dominants before correcting himself.

“They don’t hurt each other much,” he clarified gruffly. “There’ll be no lasting harm.”

Her eyes narrowed again, scrutinizing him. “This is stupid,” she bit out, the soft cadence of her voice working its way into him pleasurably despite the sharpness of her words. “The potential for serious injuries aside, I’m not a piece of meat to be fought over.”

His ears flicked, unconcerned. “It is what Ragoru do. A triad doesn’t fight amongst themselves for food, nor even with other triads for a mate unless a rogue male tries to steal the female they’ve mated with. A triad is family, but at first dominants always fight.” He winced when Sabol was sent careening into a tree. The male rebounded quickly and launched his counterattack but that looked like it hurt. “The Dark Fathers fashioned our nature this way,” he hastened to explain, “so that the female has the strongest males to protect her and lead the triad.”

The corners of her mouth and brow drew down into a severe frown as she directed a puzzled look toward the snarling males. She observed them silently for a time. As she did so, her arm lowered, a look of relief briefly crossing her face. She was likely seeing what he did that most of the blows were meant to put the other male in a submissive position. It was more a show of strength, determination, and stamina more than anything else. He pointed these things out to her quietly and her brows slowly raised as she absorbed it.

Finally, her gaze flicked back toward him. “You’re serious, aren’t you? They really aren’t trying to kill each other. This is actually part of how you form family groupings?” At his nod, her expression suddenly lightened, and she laughed softly. “Good thing. I’m not sure how much help I would’ve been after being dicked down for the better part of an hour.”

She peered at them again, this time with an expression of fascination, the shift coming so quickly that Vrishna was startled by it. “Incredible. So Sabol was right. He said that this could happen. I’m still not clear where that puts me,” she admitted.

He shook his head. “With us. Thral and I caught your scent and knew we wished you to be ours. Sabol is a strong male, a clever hunter, he will be a good addition to our triad from my memory of what I know of him. His temperament made this conflict unavoidable but once the lead is established, we will be yours.”

His sense of incredulity was pressed further when she sidestepped away from the fight and headed back to her bag. Her lightning stick became smaller, and she tossed it inside before she reached in and removed something containing numerous large leaves. She dropped to the ground, her legs folding as she sat and continued to dig in her bag further until she removed a bitter-smelling stick. With it she proceeded to make markings on one of the leaves as she observed the fight. He didn’t understand the markings but the lines that she began to mark together at one side slowly began to come together in small images of bodies in combat. He had never seen such a thing and crept closer to get a better look. As if sensing his nearness, her eyes snapped over to him again. Caught, his ears flattened submissive to her will, and he began to shuffle back to where he was.

The corner of her mouth twitched, and a sigh escaped from between her lips. “Oh, all right. You can come a little closer. A little,” she reminded him as he quickly moved in.

He dropped into a crouch at her reminder. He was now even closer than he’d been, close enough where her scent washed over him even more pleasantly. Her quiet chuckle lightened something within him, and he found himself smiling until his eyes fell on the leaf she held out to show him. His smile vanished completely, and his mouth parted with awe. Up close the details were finer, and he could see where she made little images of their various facial expressions as they snarled and snapped at each other. She had caught Thral’s fierceness and Sabol’s determination perfectly. Without thinking, he reached forward and lightly ran a claw along the bold line of Sabol’s muzzle. The sounds of the males fighting faded into the background as they didn’t truly warrant his concern and they were keeping their conflict far from the human.

“This is… I have never seen the like,” he murmured in awe.

She arched her brows at him, then smiled down at her work. “It’s not too bad, is it.” She pointed to some small markings that filled the side of the leaf. “I’ve written what you explained here, and my own observations.”

His own brows snapped up in understanding as he turned his attention from the detailed likeness of the males to the scattered markings arranged in lines. “These are words? You preserve your thoughts this way?” At her nod, he grew wistful. “My dam told me that we once had markings for Ragii, our language, and that there were those who create images from their thoughts with great skill. I never saw anything of the sort with my own eyes, not like this,” he said, as his eyes turned back to the lines of the Ragoru with admiration.

“What happened?”

His ears flicked. There was a note of sorrow in her voice, as if his people had lost something important, and while he was in awe of it he had never experienced such things so never had the feelings of loss. He had not thought of such things since he was young; it was only this human that brought those memories back now. It was merely something his dam had once told him when entertaining him with stories of their ancestors, something her own dam had told her.

“Our world began to die. We are not like humans or the Shining Ones. We are not comfortable living in such close confines. We are territorial by nature preferring the solitude of our triad to the company of others. When survival takes all of our time and attention, there is little room to miss anything else. I never missed it until now,” he added as he peered at her words.

“I could draw your likeness,” she offered, turning the leaf to reveal an unmarked one beneath it.

He shook his head, gesturing the scarred side of his face and ruined peripheral eye. “Save your leaves. I’m not as pretty as Thral and Sabol are.”

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