Alright, chapter 29.

I will say that I was a tiny bit disappointed to see that so few of you commented ideas...

But then again, it's thanks to you guys that we've gotten to this point, so I digress. Still I will make a statement in the note at the end of the chapter, because I feel like I have to address a certain trend that I've seen from the comments.

The welcoming hug was one that was greatly appreciated; it felt nice, no, it felt good, to be with his friend once more.

Kyiv regarded him warmly, he grasped his shoulders in a friendly greeting and they exchanged pleasantries. Y'rall stood behind her mate, patiently waiting her turn before Mark noticed her and politely ended his talks with the arbitrator.

They shook hands, a thing that left him pleasantly surprised. Soon enough he was brought along the dwelling, passing several of the luxurious corridors.

He let his eyes rest on the various texts and murals carved into the stone walls, murals that depicted much of Yaut's history. Now he recalled taking long and leisurely stroll around the house, serving both as relaxing rest and as a chance to study and learn some more of the vast and rich culture.

'Man, this sure is a trip down memory lane...'

The mater pair led him to the nearest dining room, which was of course lavishly set up, befitting of hunters of their station and experience.

Mark excused himself for his state of dress, and his foul odor of sweat, but they shook it off and told him not to worry about it.

Soon enough, the food was brought, and Mark did feel his mouth water at the sight, and especially at the scent of such finely cooked cuisine. The first piece of meat that landed on his tongue sent an explosion of spices and aromas all across his taste buds, god, this was so much better than the high protein and vitamin meals on which he'd been feasting each and every single day for the past two years.

'This is beyond tasty, it's exquisite! Christ, those ration bars did seem to taste like shit no that I'm here...'

He tried to control his voracious appetite, but didn't quite succeed in doing so, as he requested a second, and sometimes even a third portion of nearly every plate.

By the end of it, he had eaten more than Kyiv, and had come dangerously close to matching Y'rall food consumption.

They were calmly chatting now, whilst slowly picking apart the dessert: a mixture of fruits sprinkled with a tiny bit of naxa juice. While it was still nowhere near as sweet as peanut butter or nutella, it was still a good contender, and obviously the healthiest choice out of the bunch.

He told them of his various hunts, sometimes chiming in and sharing their own stories of the same exotic creatures he had hunted. Kyiv looked proud to see that he specialized his skills around slaying serpents.

"So I assume this means that you've recovered from your mental perceptions and illusions, correct?" it was a question that was asked with good in mind, but Mark froze for a moment, the hissing and clawing sounds present in the background of his mind becoming louder and more pronounced.

'Fuck! Don't slip up!' he scolded himself, realizing that his scent had leaked out some stress and a twinge of fear as well. He masked it again and gave a smile, steadying his voice so that it seemed confident and collected. But even in doing so, he realized that the elite arbitrators saw through his facade, but they didn't comment on it.

"Well, this is a wonderful evening meal, but we've only talked about myself; what about you, what were the most interesting events that have happened whilst I was off world?" he quickly changed the subject, deflecting any kind of possible question.

"As members of the tribunal we oversee transactions that are in the clan's best interest. We second the honored matron's choices and advise her along with the high eldress and priestess." Mark leaned forward to grasp the cup and took a sip of the C'ntlip, enjoying the hot kick that it gave.

"Recently the clan has made acquisitions of new planets, that are to be colonized very soon. A couple of the ones with harsher living conditions will be used as game preserves." Y'rall continued, Mark nodding along.

"Our most recent pup has officially begun her training." his ears perked in interest, "Oh, yes, it's that one that the two of you conceived during the last mating season correct?" he also remembered that the children were not given names until they had been proven worthy enough to participate in the Chiva.

They nodded, obviously content and pleased of their offspring's progress.

"That does remind me, the next mating season is not too far away, have you found any potential mates?" Kyiv asked him, and for some bizarre reason even the other female seemed to be unnaturally interested in his answer.

'Sigh... what the hell!' "Jeez Kyiv, no, no of course not. And what do you mean it isn't too far away? That's three full years of waiting if my math is correct. You seem to forget that I process time very differently than you guys." the arbitrators chuckled at his playful jab.

"And I do believe we've already had this conversation a long time ago: I'm not going to go around spreading my seed like a man whore. I'll do that when I find another to call a wife, that'll stay with me not because of my prowess as a hunter."

The laughter died down a little, for all three knew that becoming life mates with another yautja was very rare. Kyiv and Y'rall were one, but they had coupled only recently and after many years of constant mating. Plus the two had already sired and neared plenty of sucklings with other partners.

They were aware of the differences between their two worlds, they could relate to each's position when faced with said differences, but some customs were truly alien to both of the parties.

"Ah, but thanks, really. The meal was wonderful; I've truly forgotten what it means to dine on quality food; those strips of meats from before were fantastic, coupled with a side of steamed vegetables... tremendous, truly." he complimented them for their offered hospitality, further touched by their proposition to host him for the night.

Soon, they were once again walking at a relatively slow pace, so to better help their digestion. It was there that Mark was brought to one of the guest quarters, still ridiculously furnished and decorated.

"The post next to the bed has a messenger, you will be able to contact the etas with it to obey and do all of your desires." he thanked them, and wished them a good night's rest.

First order of business was to go empty his gut of all the unused food, and after taking a long shit on the toilet, he made his way to the bath, intent on washing whatever filth he had on him.

The water was naturally pleasant to experience, and he soaked in the bath for a bit, simply sitting in the warm pool. It did make him uneasy, he could still hear the shrieking of the kiande amedha, constantly present in his subconscious.

Not long passed and he exited the bath, not caring too much for the water spilling on the tiled floor. The human quickly dried himself up with the fur towels present inside one of the many cabinets adorning the room.

After washing his teeth and scrubbing his tongue, he finally made his way to the large sleeping mattress. It was massive, could probably fit another six people of his size, eight if they really squeezed in. Laying down on it, he partially sank in the warm embrace of the bed.

This was infinitely softer than the bed he had in his ship, and it something bugged him about it...

He got back up and briefly paced up and down the ample room. Having decided on what to do, he grabbed a pair of blankets that were tucked in the berth, along with a pillow, and promptly laid down on the stone floor.

He shivered a little when his nude flesh made contact with the cool surface of the pavement, but he quickly adjusted to it, for it gave him a sense of belonging... the noises of the hive were still present but they were more tolerable now.

One of the twin suns of Yaut rose from the horizon, casting the night sky with rays of light, forming an orange tint.

Mark basked in it, for it did help remove the cold that was present in the second half of the day. He had barely slept a wink, but that wasn't too shocking for it had been like this ever since his return from the Chiva.

He was exercising, taking on his daily training, and he was slick with sweat, his muscles were aching. He had just finished his run of an hour, and his lungs were burning as a result. He had done nearly everything: cardio weight lifting, swimming, weapon training, hand to hand training, and so on and so forth.

The last thing he wanted to do before going to prepare for his meeting with the matriarch would be to duel with some of the guards.

And so duel he did, and he was proud to say that he won nearly every single match, except for the last one; it had ended in a draw. His last opponent was excellent with his wrist blades, indicating that he had achieved the rank of brawler, otherwise know as a master with the blades.

He was also the most senior of all the guards present in the dwelling so that meant experience would be on par.

Mark asked the guards if they could inform the elite arbitrators of his visit to the matron, and then went to prepare himself.

Mark patiently waited for the high matriarch to arrive. Strangely enough, he was made to wait in the throne room, instead, he was waiting in one of the many hallways that possessed an open view of the clan's city, along with the metropolises of the other neighboring clans.

It left him speechless, much like it had the first time he had witnessed such a view. His trained sensed and enhanced hearing allowed him to notice the silent footsteps that were calmly making their way towards his position. Had he still been fully human, he wouldn't have even realized that the matriarch now stood next to him, staring out from the balcony.

He gave her a bow, as per etiquette and she bid him to rise.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" "It is, honored matriarch." they stayed like that for a few minutes, and Mark didn't known if she was intentionally stalling to throw him off, if she was, then it was having a pretty good effect.

"The engineer you killed had already ambushed and killed many other worthy hunters. Their remains have been sent back to their respective clans as per tradition. You've been credited with the honorable action, and many of my fellow matrons wish to extend their thanks to you." he shifted slightly at her announcement, "Well, I simply fought to survive. You were the one to do the good deed, honored one."

Her masked face turned to look at him, and the marine lowered his gaze, "You are the only other hunter in the history of the clan to have obtained such a trophy, the first being Mhei r'ka-Guan, my niece." 'Right...'

"I must say that I am envious of your victory, the skull of an engineer is one the rarest there is." she turned around, black cape flowing behind her in a twirl.

"Come." she instructed and he followed.

And I'm done.

So, yes I'm back with this story. I reread a couple of chapters and realized that I didn't follow up on Kyiv and Y'rall going hanky panky with each other, so there goes the child. Another thing that I wanted to address was the fact nearly all the ideas that have been commented revolved around Mhei getting in trouble and Mark saving her. Now, I feel like I have o repeat this, but Mhei is a primal huntress, literally the highest status any yautja can hope to achieve (in my canon at least) as in she is the best of the best, there's literally no one else that's better at hunting and fighting other than the other primal hunters (seven in total including Mhei) so you can see why I don't want her failing a hunt. With that out of the way, please comment and vote.

Last thing, the reason for why I took a break from this was because I had gotten too burnt up with it, probably because I was really pushing myself to write a chapter every few days. During that period of time, I've started to wright a second story named Gods and mortals, you can check it out on my profile. I kindly ask you to go give it a look, I'm still trying to get it off the ground and get it to a high circulation like the human hunter. So again, please go check it out, vote, comment, constructive criticism are all wanted and needed, thank you for reading.

Updates for this book will be a bit slower now since I'm mainly focusing on the second story.

And I'm done with this long ass author's note. Until next time.