Mari's Mistake - Ruby Dixon Page 0,1

three clan-brothers hunched over something in the sand, their heads bent. Are they…eating the long sail without me? Surely not. Scowling harder, I jog toward the shore. "You had better save me at least a mouthful," I call.

R'jaal sits up and turns toward me with an utterly radiant look on his face.

I have never seen my friend look so…happy. So full of joy. Not even when he defeats his rival K'thar in some silly challenge or another have I seen R'jaal's smile as bright as the twin suns. But on this day, he grins as if the oceans have opened their bounty up to him.

"Come and see her," he calls to me.

Her?

I jog a little faster, my feet finally breaking free of the water. I saunter up the beach, noticing that they kneel next to a tan creature of some kind. "What did you catch?"

"I told you. A female. MY female." R'jaal's voice is utterly proud and he gestures at the large form on the sand. "Come and see."

"Did you say a female?" I cannot believe my ears, but when S'bren gives me a wide-eyed look and M'tok cannot stop staring at the thing on the sand, I realize it must be true. I approach…

…and then drop to my knees in shock.

"A female," I murmur, stunned. "W-where did you get it?"

For a long moment, I cannot seem to believe this is true. A female…but she looks like no female I have ever seen before. Her skin is a warm shade of golden brown that does not match anything I am familiar with, and it makes me wonder what she is trying to camouflage to. Her mane is thick and dark, but full of waves and curls. There are no horns, no fur, no extra arms to mark her as one of Strong Arm Clan or Shadow Cat Clan. She has no tail and cannot be of Long Tail clan, but they are all dead.

Her face is small, her features unusual. She has dark brows, but her nose is tiny and she looks fragile all over. Her teats are swollen under the strange, heavy leathers she wears all over her body, and that fills me with disappointment for my friend. I point at them. "She is a nursing mother. She already has a mate."

"I do not think so," R'jaal says excitedly. He takes her small hand in his and pats it. "K'thar took the other one and she had even bigger teats than this one. And he resonated to her!"

"You let K'thar have one of the females?" M'tok is disgusted. "When we do not have mates for ourselves?"

"Did you not hear me when I said he resonated to her?" R'jaal counters irritably. He pats the thing's fingers again. "I cannot bring you home a mate that is resonating to another. I took this one and left the beach."

"How…" I ask, stunned. "How did you find this thing?"

"Look at her hand." S'bren pokes the female with a stick, then uses the end of the stick to lift her fingers. "She has five fingers.”

"And no fangs," R'jaal adds. "I do not think she is Outcast tribe. I do not know what she is."

He looks down at her with an expression of pure joy on his face, and I hate that I feel envy. I should be thrilled for R'jaal. He is a good friend and has tried very hard to lead the remnants of Tall Horn. He goes without food sometimes so the rest of us can eat. He is a good hunter and I am glad that he was with us that day that the world fell apart.

But I am…jealous.

He has found himself a female. He will not be alone. He has a companion. There is no such hope for myself, M'tok and S'bren.

"How did you find her?" S'bren asks. "Were there more?"

"Only two," R'jaal says. "There was a great black egg that washed up on the beach. I made it there the same time K'thar did."

"An egg?" S'bren's eyes are wide. "Since when do mates come out of eggs?"

R'jaal just shrugs, looking down at his prize. "I must resonate to her soon. I do not trust K'thar's hunters to leave us alone. They will try and take her when they see him with a mate and find out that I have one here. And if word spreads to Shadow Cat…"

I grunt. I have a friendly rivalry with U'dron there, but I will say nothing. U'dron is a good hunter, and we