When he finally turned in, Admiral Henrich J. Absen slept very well indeed.
***
Trissk approached his and Klis’ cottage with the dead sheep over his shoulders. Meat, he thought, hot flesh as our ancestors ate. My first kill, courtesy of the Humans and their domestic animals. Its body rested on his new-grown mane. The ruff itched when he thought about it.
He looked at the blood on his paws, and was glad their Sekoi allies had built the cottage according to Ryss specifications, with running water inside and out for just this purpose. Licking oneself clean would do if necessary, but wasn’t really civilized. A hot soak sounded much better.
Klis stepped into the doorway and waved with one hand, the other on her belly. She was as svelte as ever, and had not begun to show her condition, though her time and his first glorification were past.
Trissk waved back, and was content. More than content; he was happy to be a pioneer of the new old ways, of a return to what the Humans called monandry. Enough males had been killed fighting that each young dam could choose a husband – an old word, revived from ancient writings – and for now, there would be harmony among the Ryss. The oldest males had agreed to leave breeding to the young.
Soon would come drugs and life code manipulation, he had been told, to restore the Ryss’ breeding to their natural, and also civilized, norms. The Blends among the Sekoi had given assurances that this would be a simple matter, given their skill at such biological tinkering.
While the old swallowed their objections, Trissk found himself able to accept the once-taboo ideas without difficulty, as it sealed his ties to Klis.
Trissk set the meat animal onto the flaying table. “Klis,” he called, “Rick and his mate – his wife – called Jill, have invited us to socialize with them tomorrow evening. They want to show the fearsome Ryss to their kits.”
She laughed. “I would be happy to visit your friend and meet his wife, though I hate their monkey-warren cities with their huts piled atop each other. Perhaps they can visit us in turn, here, where one can breathe.” Klis took a deep breath, as if to illustrate, and spread her paws wide.
“How soon you forget that you lived your whole life inside a cold ship little different from a Human city. Do not judge them for their species and proclivities. Do you know some of them keep an animal like a tiny moor-cat as a pet?” Trissk moved toward the outdoor shower, adjusting the controls.
“Then it is only right that we shall adopt a small primate.”
“Only if you want me to sleep outside.”
“As you wish. The bed is soft, and the ground is not, O hardened warrior.” She shrugged, insouciant, and then flounced inside.
Trissk snorted, and then stepped under the warm running water.
While drying off, he looked across the savannah toward the distant sprawling Human city of more than a million inhabitants. It was kind of them to allow Ryss to take of their flocks; perhaps sometime soon wild meat beasts would roam free nearby, and he could really hunt. For now, the sheep was enough.
A hundred hastily built cottages dotted the grassland around, in a loose group. In a few years, kits would play here, and the Ryss would build – rebuild – their civilization. With litters of three to five, it would not be too many generations before his people would outstrip even the fast-breeding Humans, not to mention the slow-growing Sekoi.
Trissk left the sheep and went to greet his wife properly; while the desperate urge to glorify was past, still he and Klis lay on their divan and basked in the summer sunlight that streamed through the south-facing window, marveling at warmth of the orange star. Soon enough he would see his kits born. Soon enough he would take his place alongside his new allies.
Soon enough, he would hunt Meme.
The End of Desolator
If you enjoyed this book, look for more by David VanDyke, at www.davidvandykeauthor.com.
By David VanDyke:
Plague Wars series:
The Eden Plague
The Demon Plagues
The Reaper Plague
The Orion Plague
Comes The Destroyer (Summer 2013)
Reaper's Run (Summer 2013)
Follow many of your favorite Plague Wars characters a hundred years into the future in the hard-hitting mil-sci-fi Stellar Conquest series.
Stellar Conquest series:
First Conquest (contained within the anthology Planetary Assault,
with B.V. Larson and Vaughn Heppner)
Desolator
(More to come)
Look for them at your favorite book provider or visit www.davidvandykeauthor.com
Desolator: Book 2 (Stellar Conquest) Page 22
