"You're going again, aren't you?" Riz asked from the chair she was set up on. I sighed at that and ran my fingers through my hair.
"I'm sorry Riz. I'll stay home with you tomorrow, okay?" I suggested with a weak smile as Tristan and Sky slipped on their coats and Momsy was in the kitchen cleaning up breakfast. Riz frowned and seemed to pout a bit before turning back to the television.
"Fine. Promise? Cause you haven't been a very good friend lately." She grumbled, not looking at us. I sighed and went over to hug her.
"I promise. I'll spend the whole day with you tomorrow and we can do whatever you want." I told her before letting go and heading for the door.
"See you later Momsy!" I called out as Tristan and Sky also said their goodbyes. We got into Tristan's truck and drove off into town. We stopped by Becky's and she slipped into the back with me.
"Alright. Let's go." She said a little excitedly. We were all excited and anxious to find out what the other village's response had been to the messenger, so Tristan went as fast as he could while still being careful. We parked on the normal road and almost ran to the cave; however Becky made us slow down so that Sky wouldn't over exert herself. We were to the village in record time and were surprised to see a group coming from the other side of the cave systems and the King and Queen sitting outside the igloo with much of the village around them. We did run for the village then and all sat down next to Faraf and Refre.
"What's going on?" I asked Sky after she had been talking to Faraf for a moment.
"The King of the rival village accepted the invitation and decided to come today. He has brought himself and twenty other unmated males. They are going to discuss a peace agreement and see if their mates are among the unmated females." Sky whispered excitedly. I felt like shouting out in joy but kept quiet as the group of males came into the main circle of the village.
"Yes!" I heard Becky hiss quietly in celebration as Tristan whispered what Sky had said to me. We all smiled as the King and his men started to pass us. I noticed the King pause for a moment and wondered what was happening before he continued on and bowed slightly to the King and Queen of our village. They in return stood up and bowed to him before offering him a place to sit and beginning to talk.
We all sat there and tried to listen and understand. Sky tried to keep up and explain everything as the conversation went along. Finally she said they came to the part about mates and the families of the unmated females went into their igloos to collect things that had the females' scents. Sky turned and talked to Faraf for a moment before he nodded and stood up silently. They both turned to Becky and Sky suddenly unwrapped Becky's scarf from around her neck.
"I'll take that and see you later. Technically you aren't supposed to be out of the family's hut during this." Sky smiled teasingly. Becky blinked before squealing as Faraf picked her up and took her into his family's hut.
"I almost forgot about that... Since she's not mated she's not even really supposed to be outside, is she?" I asked.
"Yep. It's bad luck to see before one or the other smells. And really they are supposed to ask the parents of the female to be formally introduced. You and I are special cases but I did have Faraf ask for Tristan." Sky explained.
"Will she be okay? You probably should have explained that to her." Tristan worried.
"Don't worry about it. Besides, since you are the male of our little 'family' you are supposed to go around and let all the males smell this." She said before handing Tristan Becky's scarf.
"You want me to go mate off my ex-fiancée?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Like I said, you are basically the head family member of our little 'family' so you have to." Sky responded with a shrug. Tristan sighed before standing up and going to copy what the other head of families were doing. Each of them had something with their daughter's or sister's, or whoever else was unmated, scent on it. They would pause at one of the visiting males and if the scent was that of one of the male's mate then they would go with the head of family to discuss their mate and formally ask to meet them. By the time it got to Tristan's turn to share Becky's scent, 15 out of the 21 men had found their mate.
Tristan stepped up and held it before the first male who sniffed it and then grumbled. This happened with the remaining men until he got to the King. The King practically snatched the scarf and rubbed it against his face. Tristan laughed and I helped Sky stand up so we could both go over to them.
Wow! Becky's the King of the other village's mate? This is amazing! Fate really is pulling us all together!
I thought with a smile as Sky and Tristan began to talk to the King about Becky. Tristan and the King had Sky translate for them as the King formally asked to meet Becky to discuss their mating. Tristan of course agreed and we all headed for Faraf's family igloo.
"This is crazy! Let me out!" I looked over at Sky as I heard Becky yelling from the door outside the igloo. We walked in to see Faraf blocking her way out.
"Becky? Why don't you sit down? Sorry about this. I probably should have explained it sooner." Sky started before getting Becky to sit down and explaining just what was going on.
"So you mean to tell me that you have basically already married me off?" Becky asked, looking pissed.
"No. This is more of setting you up on a supervised blind date." Sky shrugged, figuring that was the best she could do. "You don't have to mate him if you don't want to but I've already told you that they find their soul mates by smell and King Rau's nose says it's you."
"Okay... Fine. I'll meet him." Becky sighed, giving in. Sky smiled and motioned for Faraf to let the King in. Faraf nodded and called out and a few moments later King Rau walked in and locked eyes with Becky. The both stood mesmerized for a moment before the King came up and knelt down before here and whispered something in their language. Becky was blushing slightly at the way he was looking at her and then turned to Sky.
"What did he say?" she asked quietly.
"Well the direct translation is 'More beauty than the Fish Woman.'" Sky said with a giggle. "But that is in reference to their goddess and basically means you are the most beautiful thing he could ever imagine."
Becky blushed a little deeper and turned back to look into King Rau's expecting eyes.
"Tell him thank you and that he is rather beautiful too." She said softly with a slight smile. Sky chuckled and did so before Faraf offered for all of us to sit down and eat lunch.
''''''''''''''''''
"So why wasn't this Charles here when we sent for you?" Richards asked after Jess had explained that the man was going to be coming to the compound. Jess sighed and Nate sat up a bit, also curious about what had happened.
"Well. He is hurting right now and I think putting him around the tribe just upsets him. I think he also might be afraid of their anger." She finally admitted.
"Because he exposed them?" Nate asked, remembering the video of Charles and the halflings.
"No. Although that probably doesn't help things in his mind." Jess bit her lip.
"Then why? What's his story?" Richards inquired. Jess sighed again before adjusting Losy in her arms.
"Five and a half years ago, Shelly, Charles, my brother, another one of our friends and I went on a camping trip. I, in a clumsy and stupid moment, ran ahead and wasn't paying attention to the ground beneath me and fell down through a hole and into the cave systems that held the tribe. I fell practically into my mate's lap and he brought me back to his village before my friends could even pull out a rope to climb down. For about five years I lived with this tribe and learned their ways, fell in love with one of their princes and had his children. A couple months ago my mate found my friends wondering through the cave systems trying to find me.
Naturally he brought them back and they were shocked to find me living with a village of nekos that seemed to be pulled right out of an anime. Shelly and Eric's anthropology sides came out and they were interested right away and didn't want to leave. Kael got swept up by the fact that he had a nephew and soon he and Isaac found their mates. Charles, however, was never very happy there and wanted to leave.
His mate found him and I hoped that she could change his mind. Her name was Unari. She was my sister-in-law, the princess and first in line to run the tribe. I think maybe this was too much to put on Charles though, because he began to disappear after that, only returning for food and to sleep. We found out later that he was hiding out in the woods around the village, hiding from the tribe and from his mate. Then one day... that fateful day, he pulled Eric aside and told him he wanted to go home. We weren't forcing him to stay of course and we had been planning on talking to him about it since he had been dodging Unari, but he beat us to it. Eric asked him why and finally he admitted that the problem was that he did care for Unari but didn't think that he was her mate. He felt that because of their age difference and the fact that he didn't feel he could help her run the tribe without the power going to his head, that they weren't meant to be mates.
Finally Eric agreed that it might be best that Charles, Shelly and himself went home for at least a little while. Eric came to talk to me and was just telling me what Charles had said when we suddenly heard him cry out Unari's name... It sounded completely distraught and we ran towards it. By the time we got there, Charles, my mate and two others were gone... And all that was left was Unari's body.
