Chapter 5
J’Dran slowly walked into the jungle, a frown on his handsome face. What had that been about? Why had the human been so upset by his apology? He just didn’t understand these creatures! Somehow he suspected that that had not gone well at all. He decided to Change, to make the journey to his village much quicker. He shucked off his loincloth and let the Change take him, and soon a tall, beautiful leopard stood in the spot where J’Dran had just been. The creature stretched its spotted form, then loped off into the jungle with its clothing dangling from its jaws.
Z’sharan was writing busily on a scroll(his mate had taught him to read and write, and now he was recording the tales of his people for Avhonari’s benefit) when he saw a familiar leopard glide into the village. It Changed swiftly into his brother, and J’Dran stepped into his loincloth and fastened it at his waist. From his expression, Z’sharan garnered that the apology to Traggen had not gone well. He sighed as he rolled up the scroll. What havoc had his sibling caused this time? He dropped off the branch he was perched on and went over to talk to J’Dran.
“Brother,” he called, walking up to the other wereleopard. “How did it go?”
J’Dran shrugged. “I apologized to the human, just as you said I should. But while he accepted it, he didn’t seem very happy. I don’t understand why,” he added in confusion.
Z’sharan braced himself for the worst. “Tell me what happened,” he remarked in resignation.
J’Dran told him of the apology, and of Traggen’s reaction to it. When he came to the part where he’d casually mentioned that it had been Z’sharan who’d told him to apologize, he wanted to groan and slap a hand over his eyes. By the Spirits, how could his brother be so thick-headed! “J’Dran,” he growled, “You are an idiot.”
“What? Why?!” J’Dran yelped.
Z’sharan shook his head in despair. “You told the human cub that you only apologized because I told you to,” he replied grimly.
J’Dran looked alarmed. “But I didn’t! I…” he trailed off as he replayed the conversation with Traggen in his head. “Well, maybe I did,” he conceded uneasily. “That isn’t how I meant it, though.”
“I know that. But HE doesn’t. You’ve made it much worse. I would suggest,” Z’sharan went on with a long-suffering sigh, “That you stay away for a short time before trying again. He will be in no mood to listen to another apology from you right now.”
J’Dran’s shoulders lifted helplessly. “ I will do as you say,” he replied. “But I truly don’t understand humans, brother.”
“Clearly. But you’re young yet. You need time to mature and learn to understand these things. All I would suggest is that you be ready to study humans and try to comprehend them and their behavior, or otherwise not have anything to do with them at all. Those are your options, J’Dran. Think them over, and decide whether you want to be around the human or not. If you decide that you don’t want to have anything to do with the cub, then stay away from him altogether. It’s up to you, J’Dran. And I have faith that you’ll make the right decision for both you and Traggen, given time,” he touched his sibling’s shoulder, then left him standing there with a small, thoughtful frown on his face.
Traggen assumed a basic sword stance. “Like this, K’var,” he told the cub. He extended his wooden practice blade to an ‘en garde’ position. “Can you do that?”
“Yes!” the cub promptly imitated him, and Traggen wasn’t surprised that the boy’s stance was almost perfect. K’var was a quick learner, as well as being smart and flexible both. He was rapidly learning the basics of using a sword, and Traggen was confident that the cub would have absorbed most of what he needed to know by next year.
He ran K’var through a set of basic sword stances, and the cub imitated him easily each time. Traggen decided that he’d start to spar with K’var soon. The best way to learn anything was practice, practice, and more practice. There was no such thing as perfection, not really. And even if you attained that state, you’d STILL have to practice to stay perfect.
They were both sweating by the time that Traggen called the lesson to a halt for the day. “Let’s go and rest,” he told K’var.
The cub nodded, and they went over to sit down on the bench on the porch together. K’var of course wasn’t really tired, since he seemed to have boundless energy. But Traggen was still recovering, and his body ached pleasantly as he sat down. He pulled at the cotton shirt that he was wearing, to detach it from his sweat-slickened skin. His uncle had bought him some clothes that were more suited to the warm, muggy environment around here, but even those sometimes lay heavily on him when he’d been working out. But he couldn’t just wear a loincloth like K’var, since his pale skin would burn horribly if he did so. He had the remnants of a sunburn on his neck and upper shoulders to prove that, and Avhonari had sternly ordered him to wear not only a shirt that covered him but a woven straw hat as well to protect his head from the sun. Until he’d come here, Traggen hadn’t known that your scalp could get sunburned…
K’var suddenly sprang to his feet. “I’ll go and get us something to drink!” he called, darting away inside.
Traggen wiped at his brow with his forearm as he gazed off at the jungle. J’Dran had not made an appearance in weeks, not since he’d made that wretched excuse for an apology. While in some ways he was glad that the wereleopard had not shown his face around here again, in others his continued absence made Traggen feel rather melancholy. He wasn’t sure why. Damn it! He’d had enough of moping over that(admittedly gorgeous) irritating wereleopard! He needed to get laid, and there was no help for it. Tomorrow he’d go into the village and see if there were any likely candidates to warm his bed anywhere around. If there weren’t, he was shit out of luck. But what else was new? That had been his life since Avhonari had absconded with Z’sharan three years ago. Why should it change now?
K’var returned with two clay mugs full of cool well water. Traggen accepted his with thanks, drinking most of it right away. He was parched after all of that exercise. The cub plumped down on the bench next to him, drinking from his own mug. “Cousin Traggen?” he asked after a moment.
“Yes, K’var?”
“We’re all going to the village tomorrow with Father Z’sharan,” the cub told him. “Did you want to come too?”
Traggen paused at this question, thinking hard. While he wanted to see what a wereleopard village looked like, and he was curious about the jungle too, he didn’t think that he wanted to see J’Dran again. K’var interrupted his thoughts by saying eagerly: “Please come! I want to introduce you to my friends! They’ve never met another human besides my father. Please?”
Traggen’s lips twitched as he realized that K’var was eager to show him off and up his status with his friends. “All right,” he conceded. “If your fathers don’t mind, I’ll come with you tomorrow.”
K’var cheered. “They won’t mind!” he cried. “I’ll ask them!”
Traggen suspected that any doubts that his uncle or Z’sharan had would not stand up in the face of their son’s pleading. K’var could charm the birds out of the trees, and fortunately had no real idea about his power as he would have been a total, unmanageable brat if he had. He’d just have to buck up and get through the day tomorrow, and do his best to ignore J’Dran’s presence.
The jungle teemed with life. Traggen craned his neck as he carefully followed after Z’sharan and Avhonari down a narrow path through the abundant green foliage. His uncle had had him slather himself with a strong-smelling ointment that kept the bugs off their vulnerable skin, which was great since he could see swarms of them in the air everywhere he looked. Besides insects, he’d seen several small animals slipping through the bushes, as well as a magnificent snake wound around a branch. Z’sharan had warned him to stay away from that snake, as it would drop on him from above and crush him to death in its coils. Traggen made sure to avoid that tree assiduously, as that did not sound like a very nice way to die.
A monkey chattered away in the upper branches of a tree nearby, making him jump. He felt nervous, closed in by all this greenery and knowing that there were animals out there(including predators and poisonous snakes) that he couldn’t see but who could see him. He didn’t know how K’var could bounce along behind him without a care in the world, although since the cub had grown up in this environment of course he’d be acclimated to it. He nearly jumped out of his skin as something brushed his shoulder, but it turned out to be a hanging vine that he’d been passing under. He glowered at it and continued on, wondering grimly how much further they had to go.
About half an hour’s travel, as he found out. Finally they emerged out of the trees to find themselves in a large cleared space. The undergrowth had been cut away ruthlessly, leaving only the trees with wide spaces between them. A stream trickled down the center of this space, and Traggen saw a large firepit lined with stones not far away. And there were wereleopards – lots of them. Men, women and children moved through the village, although many of them stopped to gawk when they spied Traggen. He was only the second human to appear in their village, after all. He felt awkward and nervous under so many golden-eyed stares, and wished heartily that he’d found a gentle way to turn K’var down when the cub had begged him to come to the village today.
“Who’s this?” a voice asked, making Traggen jump again. He hadn’t heard anyone moving, but suddenly a young wereleopard was standing there looking at them curiously. He looked to be about fourteen summers old.
Z’sharan spoke up. “This is my mate’s sister’s cub, Traggen. Traggen, this is Y’nath.”
“Greetings, Y’Nath,” Traggen said politely.
“Another human?” the youngster looked Traggen over with interest. “You really can’t Change?” he said in disbelief.
“No, I’m afraid not,” Traggen said.
The wereleopard shook his head. “Poor humans,” he said pityingly.
Traggen’s lips twitched as he held in his laughter. Fortunately for him, other wereleopards approached them just then. Z’sharan made introductions, but he couldn’t keep all of their names straight. He stiffened suddenly when a small group of hunters emerged out of the jungle, and he saw J’Dran among them. He saw the way the wereleopard’s head came up and his golden eyes narrowed a little bit when he spied Traggen. All the other hunters showed curiosity about the gathering, too, and they all came over en masse to see what was going on. Fortunately for Traggen, J’Dran got pushed practically to the back of his little group. He found himself being looked over by a compact, muscular hunter who was (almost) as good-looking as J’Dran. The interest in the hunter’s eyes made him feel better. He smiled in what he hoped would be taken as a seductive manner at the hunter, ostentatiously not looking at the glowering wereleopard standing near the back of the group.
They all ended up sitting on a very large stump that would comfortably fit more than a dozen people. Many of the wereleopards had drifted away once the first interest in the new human wore off, but a small group remained. Among them were several of the young hunters, only one of them female. And she was curious about human lands and behavior more than in the human himself. After all, the wereleopards could smell when someone was interested in them sexually, and it hadn’t taken the females long to discover that Traggen wasn’t interested in their sex at all.
The males were all good-looking and muscular, and Traggen reveled in flirting with them openly. He still hadn’t spoken to J’Dran, who had moved over to talk to his brother with his back turned to Traggen. One of them, a strongly-built male named R’Vas, set his hand on Traggen’s thigh. When he gave the wereleopard a startled glance, R’Vas smiled toothily at him in a blatant invitation. “Human, we are very glad to ‘have’ you here,” he growled.
“Thank you,” Traggen replied , feeling rather breathless as that hand made small circles over the fabric of his cotton pants. He was practically salivating. It had been too long since anyone had touched him like this…
“R’Vas!” a voice barked, making the wereleopard look away from Traggen into J’Dran’s’ angry eyes. “Take your hand off of him!”
The hunter didn’t remove his hand. “Why should I?” he asked lazily.
J’Dran bared his teeth and stepped toward the hunter menacingly. “Because…he…is…MINE,” the wereleopard growled, his eyes beginning to glow. Traggen felt the hairs standing up on the back of his neck in gibbering terror. What was happening?
R’Vas abruptly removed his hand from Traggen’s thigh. “I didn’t know, J’Dran,” he said hurriedly. “I apologize for touching your mate.”
What? A baffled Traggen’s mouth fell open as J’Dran swept his eyes over the rest of the hunters gathered around Traggen. They all stood up and moved away, except for the female. She said coolly: “So you mark this male as your own?” she said, looking up into J’Dran’s eyes seriously.
He hesitated, then nodded slowly . “I do,” he said.
The female hunter nodded. “Heard and sealed,” she said. “The one called Traggen is your mate.”
“What?!” Traggen yelped aloud in protest. “I’m not his mate!” he pointed a finger at J’Dran, who said nothing.
“Yes, you are,” the female hunter replied. “He has marked you as his own.” She continued with finality.
“But I haven’t agreed to anything!” Traggen yelled. “I don’t want to be his mate!”
She shook her head. “Whether you have or not, none of our unmated males will approach you again. J’Dran considers you to be his mate, and they will not go against that whether you are his mate or not.”
Traggen jumped up and stalked toward J’Dran. He poked a finger into the wereleopard’s muscular chest. “You and I…” he snarled furiously, “Have to have a little talk, J’Dran! Right now,” he added ominously.
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J’Dran slowly walked into the jungle, a frown on his handsome face. What had that been about? Why had the human been so upset by his apology? He just didn’t understand these creatures! Somehow he suspected that that had not gone well at all. He decided to Change, to make the journey to his village much quicker. He shucked off his loincloth and let the Change take him, and soon a tall, beautiful leopard stood in the spot where J’Dran had just been. The creature stretched its spotted form, then loped off into the jungle with its clothing dangling from its jaws.
Z’sharan was writing busily on a scroll(his mate had taught him to read and write, and now he was recording the tales of his people for Avhonari’s benefit) when he saw a familiar leopard glide into the village. It Changed swiftly into his brother, and J’Dran stepped into his loincloth and fastened it at his waist. From his expression, Z’sharan garnered that the apology to Traggen had not gone well. He sighed as he rolled up the scroll. What havoc had his sibling caused this time? He dropped off the branch he was perched on and went over to talk to J’Dran.
“Brother,” he called, walking up to the other wereleopard. “How did it go?”
J’Dran shrugged. “I apologized to the human, just as you said I should. But while he accepted it, he didn’t seem very happy. I don’t understand why,” he added in confusion.
Z’sharan braced himself for the worst. “Tell me what happened,” he remarked in resignation.
J’Dran told him of the apology, and of Traggen’s reaction to it. When he came to the part where he’d casually mentioned that it had been Z’sharan who’d told him to apologize, he wanted to groan and slap a hand over his eyes. By the Spirits, how could his brother be so thick-headed! “J’Dran,” he growled, “You are an idiot.”
“What? Why?!” J’Dran yelped.
Z’sharan shook his head in despair. “You told the human cub that you only apologized because I told you to,” he replied grimly.
J’Dran looked alarmed. “But I didn’t! I…” he trailed off as he replayed the conversation with Traggen in his head. “Well, maybe I did,” he conceded uneasily. “That isn’t how I meant it, though.”
“I know that. But HE doesn’t. You’ve made it much worse. I would suggest,” Z’sharan went on with a long-suffering sigh, “That you stay away for a short time before trying again. He will be in no mood to listen to another apology from you right now.”
J’Dran’s shoulders lifted helplessly. “ I will do as you say,” he replied. “But I truly don’t understand humans, brother.”
“Clearly. But you’re young yet. You need time to mature and learn to understand these things. All I would suggest is that you be ready to study humans and try to comprehend them and their behavior, or otherwise not have anything to do with them at all. Those are your options, J’Dran. Think them over, and decide whether you want to be around the human or not. If you decide that you don’t want to have anything to do with the cub, then stay away from him altogether. It’s up to you, J’Dran. And I have faith that you’ll make the right decision for both you and Traggen, given time,” he touched his sibling’s shoulder, then left him standing there with a small, thoughtful frown on his face.
Traggen assumed a basic sword stance. “Like this, K’var,” he told the cub. He extended his wooden practice blade to an ‘en garde’ position. “Can you do that?”
“Yes!” the cub promptly imitated him, and Traggen wasn’t surprised that the boy’s stance was almost perfect. K’var was a quick learner, as well as being smart and flexible both. He was rapidly learning the basics of using a sword, and Traggen was confident that the cub would have absorbed most of what he needed to know by next year.
He ran K’var through a set of basic sword stances, and the cub imitated him easily each time. Traggen decided that he’d start to spar with K’var soon. The best way to learn anything was practice, practice, and more practice. There was no such thing as perfection, not really. And even if you attained that state, you’d STILL have to practice to stay perfect.
They were both sweating by the time that Traggen called the lesson to a halt for the day. “Let’s go and rest,” he told K’var.
The cub nodded, and they went over to sit down on the bench on the porch together. K’var of course wasn’t really tired, since he seemed to have boundless energy. But Traggen was still recovering, and his body ached pleasantly as he sat down. He pulled at the cotton shirt that he was wearing, to detach it from his sweat-slickened skin. His uncle had bought him some clothes that were more suited to the warm, muggy environment around here, but even those sometimes lay heavily on him when he’d been working out. But he couldn’t just wear a loincloth like K’var, since his pale skin would burn horribly if he did so. He had the remnants of a sunburn on his neck and upper shoulders to prove that, and Avhonari had sternly ordered him to wear not only a shirt that covered him but a woven straw hat as well to protect his head from the sun. Until he’d come here, Traggen hadn’t known that your scalp could get sunburned…
K’var suddenly sprang to his feet. “I’ll go and get us something to drink!” he called, darting away inside.
Traggen wiped at his brow with his forearm as he gazed off at the jungle. J’Dran had not made an appearance in weeks, not since he’d made that wretched excuse for an apology. While in some ways he was glad that the wereleopard had not shown his face around here again, in others his continued absence made Traggen feel rather melancholy. He wasn’t sure why. Damn it! He’d had enough of moping over that(admittedly gorgeous) irritating wereleopard! He needed to get laid, and there was no help for it. Tomorrow he’d go into the village and see if there were any likely candidates to warm his bed anywhere around. If there weren’t, he was shit out of luck. But what else was new? That had been his life since Avhonari had absconded with Z’sharan three years ago. Why should it change now?
K’var returned with two clay mugs full of cool well water. Traggen accepted his with thanks, drinking most of it right away. He was parched after all of that exercise. The cub plumped down on the bench next to him, drinking from his own mug. “Cousin Traggen?” he asked after a moment.
“Yes, K’var?”
“We’re all going to the village tomorrow with Father Z’sharan,” the cub told him. “Did you want to come too?”
Traggen paused at this question, thinking hard. While he wanted to see what a wereleopard village looked like, and he was curious about the jungle too, he didn’t think that he wanted to see J’Dran again. K’var interrupted his thoughts by saying eagerly: “Please come! I want to introduce you to my friends! They’ve never met another human besides my father. Please?”
Traggen’s lips twitched as he realized that K’var was eager to show him off and up his status with his friends. “All right,” he conceded. “If your fathers don’t mind, I’ll come with you tomorrow.”
K’var cheered. “They won’t mind!” he cried. “I’ll ask them!”
Traggen suspected that any doubts that his uncle or Z’sharan had would not stand up in the face of their son’s pleading. K’var could charm the birds out of the trees, and fortunately had no real idea about his power as he would have been a total, unmanageable brat if he had. He’d just have to buck up and get through the day tomorrow, and do his best to ignore J’Dran’s presence.
The jungle teemed with life. Traggen craned his neck as he carefully followed after Z’sharan and Avhonari down a narrow path through the abundant green foliage. His uncle had had him slather himself with a strong-smelling ointment that kept the bugs off their vulnerable skin, which was great since he could see swarms of them in the air everywhere he looked. Besides insects, he’d seen several small animals slipping through the bushes, as well as a magnificent snake wound around a branch. Z’sharan had warned him to stay away from that snake, as it would drop on him from above and crush him to death in its coils. Traggen made sure to avoid that tree assiduously, as that did not sound like a very nice way to die.
A monkey chattered away in the upper branches of a tree nearby, making him jump. He felt nervous, closed in by all this greenery and knowing that there were animals out there(including predators and poisonous snakes) that he couldn’t see but who could see him. He didn’t know how K’var could bounce along behind him without a care in the world, although since the cub had grown up in this environment of course he’d be acclimated to it. He nearly jumped out of his skin as something brushed his shoulder, but it turned out to be a hanging vine that he’d been passing under. He glowered at it and continued on, wondering grimly how much further they had to go.
About half an hour’s travel, as he found out. Finally they emerged out of the trees to find themselves in a large cleared space. The undergrowth had been cut away ruthlessly, leaving only the trees with wide spaces between them. A stream trickled down the center of this space, and Traggen saw a large firepit lined with stones not far away. And there were wereleopards – lots of them. Men, women and children moved through the village, although many of them stopped to gawk when they spied Traggen. He was only the second human to appear in their village, after all. He felt awkward and nervous under so many golden-eyed stares, and wished heartily that he’d found a gentle way to turn K’var down when the cub had begged him to come to the village today.
“Who’s this?” a voice asked, making Traggen jump again. He hadn’t heard anyone moving, but suddenly a young wereleopard was standing there looking at them curiously. He looked to be about fourteen summers old.
Z’sharan spoke up. “This is my mate’s sister’s cub, Traggen. Traggen, this is Y’nath.”
“Greetings, Y’Nath,” Traggen said politely.
“Another human?” the youngster looked Traggen over with interest. “You really can’t Change?” he said in disbelief.
“No, I’m afraid not,” Traggen said.
The wereleopard shook his head. “Poor humans,” he said pityingly.
Traggen’s lips twitched as he held in his laughter. Fortunately for him, other wereleopards approached them just then. Z’sharan made introductions, but he couldn’t keep all of their names straight. He stiffened suddenly when a small group of hunters emerged out of the jungle, and he saw J’Dran among them. He saw the way the wereleopard’s head came up and his golden eyes narrowed a little bit when he spied Traggen. All the other hunters showed curiosity about the gathering, too, and they all came over en masse to see what was going on. Fortunately for Traggen, J’Dran got pushed practically to the back of his little group. He found himself being looked over by a compact, muscular hunter who was (almost) as good-looking as J’Dran. The interest in the hunter’s eyes made him feel better. He smiled in what he hoped would be taken as a seductive manner at the hunter, ostentatiously not looking at the glowering wereleopard standing near the back of the group.
They all ended up sitting on a very large stump that would comfortably fit more than a dozen people. Many of the wereleopards had drifted away once the first interest in the new human wore off, but a small group remained. Among them were several of the young hunters, only one of them female. And she was curious about human lands and behavior more than in the human himself. After all, the wereleopards could smell when someone was interested in them sexually, and it hadn’t taken the females long to discover that Traggen wasn’t interested in their sex at all.
The males were all good-looking and muscular, and Traggen reveled in flirting with them openly. He still hadn’t spoken to J’Dran, who had moved over to talk to his brother with his back turned to Traggen. One of them, a strongly-built male named R’Vas, set his hand on Traggen’s thigh. When he gave the wereleopard a startled glance, R’Vas smiled toothily at him in a blatant invitation. “Human, we are very glad to ‘have’ you here,” he growled.
“Thank you,” Traggen replied , feeling rather breathless as that hand made small circles over the fabric of his cotton pants. He was practically salivating. It had been too long since anyone had touched him like this…
“R’Vas!” a voice barked, making the wereleopard look away from Traggen into J’Dran’s’ angry eyes. “Take your hand off of him!”
The hunter didn’t remove his hand. “Why should I?” he asked lazily.
J’Dran bared his teeth and stepped toward the hunter menacingly. “Because…he…is…MINE,” the wereleopard growled, his eyes beginning to glow. Traggen felt the hairs standing up on the back of his neck in gibbering terror. What was happening?
R’Vas abruptly removed his hand from Traggen’s thigh. “I didn’t know, J’Dran,” he said hurriedly. “I apologize for touching your mate.”
What? A baffled Traggen’s mouth fell open as J’Dran swept his eyes over the rest of the hunters gathered around Traggen. They all stood up and moved away, except for the female. She said coolly: “So you mark this male as your own?” she said, looking up into J’Dran’s eyes seriously.
He hesitated, then nodded slowly . “I do,” he said.
The female hunter nodded. “Heard and sealed,” she said. “The one called Traggen is your mate.”
“What?!” Traggen yelped aloud in protest. “I’m not his mate!” he pointed a finger at J’Dran, who said nothing.
“Yes, you are,” the female hunter replied. “He has marked you as his own.” She continued with finality.
“But I haven’t agreed to anything!” Traggen yelled. “I don’t want to be his mate!”
She shook her head. “Whether you have or not, none of our unmated males will approach you again. J’Dran considers you to be his mate, and they will not go against that whether you are his mate or not.”
Traggen jumped up and stalked toward J’Dran. He poked a finger into the wereleopard’s muscular chest. “You and I…” he snarled furiously, “Have to have a little talk, J’Dran! Right now,” he added ominously.
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