"Take Lady."
The command came as Kzakka stepped a single foot past the threshold of his home. It would have been easy to ignore, easy to continue on his way as if he simply hadn't heard, and he likely should have. Kaz
still hadn't learned to successfully argue with his mother, even in instances when he felt as though he had reason for his decisions, like this one.
His new janarim, Lady Katra, was the
smallest, most pitiful thing he'd ever seen. She was a creature from another land who could scarcely walk on her own. She was weak, scrawny, and mewling,
well beneath being a useful companion in any hunt. Katerin assured Kaz that once she was grown, she would be more fierce than any radaku, with scales as solid as stone. But she wasn't
now. Right now she was a pathetic, squishy, tiny burden who would serve as more reason for his sisters to scoff at him.
Halona knew this. His Alkidike mother knew that he wasn't keen on bringing such a displeasing creature anywhere near his temperamental sisters, and so before Kzakka could decide to ignore the command or flee before it became an issue, he stopped, scoffed, grunted, and tossed a glare over his shoulder. "I'm not gonna-"
"You will," Halona asserted immediately. "She is an infant unfamiliar with this territory, and if you are to be her master, you'll do your duty and acquaint her with her new surroundings. She was a gift that your mother had to travel and risk her safety to obtain after you
said you wanted a bond like I have with Natra. Are you ashamed of your mother's gift?"
Kaz's crimson glare scraped across the floor until it found and pinned on the fumbling bundle that was his new companion. Lady dug her claws into the woven fabric of a rug and smacked her tail to the floor when she looked at him. "No..." Kzakka muttered stiffly.
And unconvincingly.
"Take Lady."
And so he did. She was the messiest, most useless creature. She didn't follow where he walked, didn't come when she was called. The thing was an
embarrassment, as if he didn't already have enough to defend himself over. Kzakka settled her easily distracted mind by perching her atop his head, with her fore paws dangling down between his antenna, and her back paws crimping for purchase on either side of his neck. At least she wouldn't be much of a nuisance, so long as she kept quiet and held her grip...
Only rarely did anyone feel the need to say anything to him when they gathered together like this. If he felt particularly strongly about something, he'd speak up, himself, but since there was little going on besides clustering with friends and waiting, Kaz decided to not make a scene of himself.
Yet.
He scuffed the heel of his foot in the dirt, anxious to begin the actual 'activity' portion of the scout. Kzakka was accustomed to going alone, or being stuck in a group that essentially ignored him, which was
fine so long as he performed admirably enough despite that. He huffed. Lady's head turned, muscles bunching against Kaz's skin such that he could feel it. And the movement inspired him to look the same way.
Kzakka wouldn't have said he knew
everyone in the settlement. So many didn't even want to be in the same clearing as him that he'd hardly even had opportunity to see all the residents, let alone learn the details of their appearance or names or faces.
But the girl that stared back at him was distinctly unfamiliar in a way that he knew he's never come into contact with her even fleetingly. And she
was definitely staring.
Kaz's brows pinched, and his lips quirked down. "What're you lookin' at?" He demanded curtly, voice carrying from where he stood across the distance that the girl had managed to put between them.