Chapter Thirteen – The Mating
[New reader? If you would like to start at the beginning, click here.]
“Wake up,” Koja’so growled, slapping his cheek.
Ja’kh’redd growled at the little Vidos, coming to himself and glaring. He sat brooding on the top of the cliffs, crouched over like a gargoyle on the sandstone ridges above the living-caves, eyes unfocused as he stared into the distance thinking of kitten. It was a hot, bright blue day and the desert wind was warm and brisk. He should feel energized and alive, but he felt strangely dour. He’d felt grumpy for a week.
“Where are you? Out Hunting in your head? Look you idiot, the Mating!”
Ja’kh’redd looked down from his perch at the top of the Village Ravine, and saw the Chief come to the door of his cave. The aging Vidos spread his legs into a solid, ready stance, and looked out slowly at all of them, from one male to another, until his eyes came to rest on Ja’kh’redd. There they remained, a steady yellow glare, for Ja’kh’redd was the son of the former Chief, and everyone knew Ja’kh’redd had it in him to take the position back for his family.
In the Caves of the Elders, carved into the inside walls of the Great Cave where they were most defensible, every young male could hear the keening and howling of the females as the time of Mating took them all at once. This morning at dawn it had grown urgent, and they all knew it would begin, as soon as the Chief came to his door.
“Go! Before…”
It was too late. Uri’ako with three of his goons lit from his perch and flew toward the Chief. As if it were a signal, all of the young males broke and flew toward that cave that they believed they had a good shot at. Some of the more ambitious went up, some went down to the lesser caves, and every male who had females stood in the door of his cave prepared to defend his home.
“Why are you slow?!?” Koja’so howled in fury, the emotions of the Mating Time stirring him beyond rationality also. “Take the Village, idiot!” With one great heave, which was stronger than Ja’kh’redd thought he had in him, Koja’so shoved his large friend from the perch into the air, then leapt himself for the lowest cave, where the youngest females were kept, the same caves he’d tried for for three years.
Literally shoved into motion, Ja’kh’redd pulled his mind together, and flew determinedly for the Chief’s cave. Already, the older Vidos was engaged with Uri’ako, so Ja’kh’redd drew back to the side, to let them tussle. It was dishonorable to meet a Vidos in combat during Mating Time unless it was one-on-one.
This was not the playful scufflings of boyhood, but their most serious time.
The battle was fierce, and Uri’ako was strong, but stupid and mean. He quickly lost control of his temper, and was thrown from the Cave, followed by a great draconic hiss from its owner.
Ja’kh’redd immediately leapt in, smelling the musk of the Heated females, which only made him more wild. He tried to keep his head, but he’d never mated before, a great disadvantage to maintaining a clear mind for the fight.
Even so, Ja’kh’redd was an excellent fighter like his father had been before him. The old Chief knew this, and fought like a mother lion, roaring and hissing abundantly as they wrestled, biting, slapping at one another with wings, then suddenly collapsing into fists, claws, and biting. The row was vicious and remarkably loud, the females all voicing their angst and frustration to top it all off.
In all of the other caves, the others were doing the same thing. Over all of Vidos-land, the Mating was beginning; here a day later, here two days earlier, but by the end of the month, a new rank structure would be established from the Northsea to the deserts of Mohmast.
Ja’kh’redd was thrown down three times, but each time, he felt the old Chief wearying. The old Vidos had ruled well and long, as Vidos rule; with a loud voice, a great booming laugh, and much abuse to the younger males. Even so, he’d been a good Chief, and they all agreed that he’d remain a good Advisor, with or without females of his own.
As the day passed to a dusty cobalt twilight, then night, then to day, all order was forgotten for the Week of Mating, which became temporarily it’s own space and time. Anarchy ruled. Females mated whatever they could find, unless they were shrewish, in which case even the females pummeled prospective males and threw them out of their own cave. All was delightful, delicious chaos, every young male devising scheme after scheme to get into a cave and somehow father some eggs, even if another male ended up hatching them.
Early in the third day, after foolish brutish Uri’ako had tried for the Chief’s cave eight times and failed, Ja’kh’redd had finally gotten into the spirit of the season and was ready for his final assault. After the third or fourth day of all-out war the mating was basically established, and only a couple more days of crabby females and hissing off intruders would occur, until the females came out of Heat, and the Village re-organized itself for the new year.
Thus for Ja’kh’redd, it was really now or never. So far, the old Chief had held, to everyone’s surprise, though some of his underlings had fallen and been replaced. Everyone knew that if the old Chief could last the day, he might remain Chief for yet another year.
Ja’kh’redd rubbed his fists in sandy-powder from the dunes in the bottom of the canyon, rubbed it over his chest to make him slippery and gritty and hard to hold, stretched his muscles, and rubbed out his bruises. So far he’d been fighting and buffeted for three days and he was sore. Little Koja’so was even more sore, for he’d failed every attempt to get into a low cave so far, and had two more scars.
When Ja’kh’redd was ready, he took to wing, flying fast and furious for the Chieftain’s cave where he knew the old bat sat like a dragon just a few feet into the darkness where only his evil yellow eyes could be seen. Ja’kh’redd already had his plan of action established; he would toss out the Chief’s oldest female with him, for she was nearly his age, and everyone knew the Chief had a special adoration of her. Ja’kh’redd, unlike Uri’ako, would act from the softness of his belly and give the old man his old woman, to share a lower cave with until they both grew too old to mate. He would just keep the two younger, and perhaps take a new third from another cave. He had a couple pretty ones in mind, two of which had not yet been claimed.
Without landing, Ja’kh’redd tucked his wings and cannonballed, full-speed, right into the cave’s mouth and the Chief, who fell backward with an ‘ooomph!’ Immediately there were claws, hissing, snarling, wings slashing out everywhere as the two largest males in the village went at it with everything they had in them. He could feel the weakness in the older Vidos at once; the poor old Chief had just fought for three days and two nights solid, mating every hour to keep his females in his cave, and it showed. He just wasn’t as young as he used to be, when Ja’kh’redd was a cub.
Still, the Chief had some grit left to him, which had kept him his cave so far. He lifted Ja’kh’redd and slammed him into the wall until rubble fell, making the younger Vidos yelp as his wing sprained. Kicking out with toe-claws, he pushed the older male away and bounded after him, knocking him over in a ball of fury and pain. Twisting, grasping, grunting, their tails twined together and slapped like whips, trying to strain for every ounce of leverage. Finally, Ja’kh’redd fought the older male toward the entrance to the cave, and a look of desperation came into the older one’s eyes. He was losing… now… and he knew it.
Toe-claws grasped at the scarred landing-lip, hand-talons snagged the edge of the cave and refused to be dragged, as Ja’kh’redd finally shoved the old man toward open air. For one long, infinite moment, the two poised there, the old Chief on the edge of losing his life’s position, Ja’kh’redd on the verge of gaining his. Down below, as the tired fighting wound to a close, all who were able looked up to watch, and the Day of Mating paused. Even females, some of whom had snuck out of their cave and were causing havoc down in the canyon, looked up to see what would occur. Everything seemed to hold its breath. Then…
…it happened. The old Chief lost his grip, and with one fierce burst of strength, Ja’kh’redd ejected him from his own cave-mouth, to struggle for a moment in the air, before finally getting his wings under him, and gliding to an exhausted crash in a sand dune far below.
The Village howled, it cheered, it called Ja’kh’redd’s name. As long as he could hold the cave until the Heat was over, he’d become Chief until like the old one he could no longer fight off all comers. But at Ja’kh’redd’s age, that would not be for a long, long time.
Koja’so, especially, who had once again been unsuccessful thus far, went into hysterics of joy on his perch, howling again and again as his only friend took his place at the top of the chain. He beat his little chest, and did a war-dance where he stood, beside himself.
Furious, Mate-maddened males from all over the village flew at Ja’kh’redd, including bruised Uri’ako, to be beat back one by one. Wild howls, snarling, scars and blood came from the cave above, the topmost cave in the village, with the warmest mating sands. Uri’ako was thrown down twice, and the other males once, before they all realized that Ja’kh’redd wasn’t weak and wasn’t about to be removed today.
Worked up from the final battles, Ja’kh’redd entered the cave with gusto and didn’t have to go far. Smelling his young male musk, the three females had crept to the opening halfway. There Ja’kh’redd stopped, where he could still guard the entrance from foolish Uri’ako who might try it one last time. They hissed seductively and displayed themselves to him in a most unladylike fashion.
Under normal circumstances, the young Vidos would have been transported halfway to Heaven at the sight, and launched into his male rights with glee. Any other male would have. But seeing the raw display of sexuality simply stopped him cold. In fact, he was so startled by it, a great furious hiss escaped him by instinct, before he could think. Even after he could think, his mind wasn’t really working. He was running on pure instinct, and something just wasn’t right here.
The females all backed up in shock, then grew angry themselves. The oldest one, especially, was really furious at being treated with such indignity, and hissed back. But the younger two were simply confused, staring at him with pale yellow eyes, wondering what they’d done wrong.
Ja’kh’redd paced in the cave mouth, his guts all in turmoil, flipping over and squirming into knots. He’d never felt so uncomfortable in his life! He desired not at all to mate any of the females, not even the young ones he’d thought about taking from the lower caves. He wanted, more than anything, to just fly away now, out into the clean clear countryside, and clear his mind. Yet he knew that if he took to the sky now, two things would happen: first, he’d be attacked with deadly force by every single Village he flew over, as a Raiding male looking for another Village’s females. Second, Uri’ako would take the Cheif’s cave, and Ja’kh’redd would rather die than serve that oaf as Lord.
So he stayed, but he made one move: he grabbed the old woman, who hissed and fought almost as viciously as her previous mate, and brought her to the landing lip.
“Koja’so!” he bellowed.
Instantly his friend took to wing, flitting up to the Chief’s cave like a bat, fast and sleek. “Take this one and give her to Tuss’tan!” Now, the old man was just Tuss’tan, no longer Chief. “She is too old and withers my loins to look at her!” He joked, so that the whole canyon laughed as well, amazed by his expansive act of generosity. Some would whisper disapprovingly that it was the softness of his belly, but none would whisper it too loudly.
Uri’ako, being who he was, laughed rudely and snidely, and very loudly proclaimed in his jealousy, “he cannot handle three females! Only two!”
As soon as the old woman realized what was happening, she became as docile as a cow in Koja’so’s grip, confirming the rumor that she and the old one had a special alliance. She should have been furious that she was being demoted from Chieftess of the Village, but it seemed she was willing to leave that behind to belong to a lower station out of devotion to her man.
Tuss’tan, growling and hurt as he glowered on the sand-dune, was more than glad to snatch his female from Koja’so’s grip, snarling at the other males and making a grand show of taking a lower cave, kicking out it’s former inhabitant and his female, and making a new home for himself. Ja’kh’redd knew he’d be happy there, and that the Village had been well-ordered this year. Everything was as it should be, every cave would be correctly inhabited with tribesmen of the correct rank.
But still… he turned to the remainder of the old Chief’s females… and he could not bring himself to go in. He stood in the entrance of his new home, staring into the dark depths of the cavern, wondering what was wrong with him.
Ja’kh’redd had two fights going for the next few days, as the exhausted Vidos slowly wound down: the young fighters of the Village and Uri’ako, who tried two more times before he gave up for the year, and the two females, who did everything they could think of to lure him in, seduce him, then finally pin him down by violence. They did not succeed in any of their attempts, and finally the Heat came off of them in one night, and they sat blinking at him in bewilderment from the back of the cave, wondering what to do now.