Date Point: 14Y 6M 2D AV
Great Father’s Cabinet, High Mountain Fortress, Northern Plains, Gao
Champion Gyotin, Clan Starmind
Gyotin found that the brisk air at this altitude made getting around just a bit less enjoyable than it might have at a younger age. The comparatively much warmer temperature of Folctha and his monastery made for much easier sitting and thinking on aged bones.
The Champions had assembled, as was their custom, in the room that had always been used for the Conclave, around the enormous ancient wooden table that had served them thus for millenia. Everyone was on time, for once, except…
“Where is the Great Father?” Gyotin asked the room. Looks were exchanged, then finally, Genshi of Whitecrest replied.
“He’s in his private gym at the moment. Working off some frustration, I believe he told Regaari. I’m sure he doesn’t intend to be late and will be in shortly.”
Gyotin duck-nodded. “While…while he is not here, there is something of some importance that I believe we need to discuss.”
Champion Goruu from Firefang was the first to reply. “Discussing something of importance without the Great Father could be taken many ways, Gyotin.”
Gyotin nodded again in agreement. “Indeed. In this case, however, what we need to discuss is the Great Father, and I think you of all of us can appreciate how doing that in front of him might turn out, yes?” Scattered chittering went around the room.
“We have a problem,” Gyotin started. “I’ve been hearing from several directions that the movement of the Clan of Females to Cimbrean and safety is having…an unfortunate effect. They’re becoming almost cloistered. It’s harder and harder to even see a Female, much less socially contact one, and the long-term effect on mating contracts is going to be catastrophic if something isn’t done.”
“That is a problem. What do you propose we do about it? They’ve moved with the Great Father’s full support. I don’t think any force in creation could change that course now,” asked Genshi, who was leaning back in his chair.
“A solution has presented itself. The Great Father, however, is resistant to it thus far.” Gyotin said. “He needs a mate. Not a mating contract—an actual mate in the old way, with everything that goes along with it, both as a Male and Female, and as the Great Father with the Clan of Females.”
A sussuruss went around the room, the Champions looking at each other. All had a mix of scandalized realization and grudging agreement.
“He will definitely not agree to that,” said Champion Reeko of Straightshield. “For one thing, the precedent he would set, with a monogamous female, could be catastrophic in our population ratio. The Clanless could easily conclude, correctly, that there would literally never again be a chance for them to mate and have cubs.”
“He’s also still Stoneback’s Stud-Prime,” Champion Fiin said. “Having a mate in the old way is directly opposed to everything about that. Why would he ever agree to it?”
“Because,” Gyotin said, “he’s already in love with her, and she with him. I received a message from Sister Naydra a few days ago. Apparently they correspond several times a day by message already, the subject has been raised, and thus far, he’s reportedly resisted for many of the same reasons already voiced here.” Genshi and Turan of Ironclaw were the only ones that weren’t visibly surprised, he noted.
“I think this is an opportunity to deal with several problems at once,” Gyotin continued into the silence. “For one, this deepens the ties between the Males and the Females—there are many, many examples of it in the Human literature, and yes, I know we aren’t Humans,” he held up a paw, “But the point is still a good one.”
Scattered agreement went around the room, and Gyotin kept speaking, warming to his subject. He’d thought about what he was going to say for several days. “For another, recall if you will that he is in this position because of all the Clans, the Females demanded it first. Symbolically, the Mother-Supreme submitting to him does not mean the same as it does from us, because the Great Father would never harm a Female, and all of us know it. Symbolically, submission from the Females requires something different.”
The agreement was much more universal at this point. Champion Loomi of Highmountain stood, stretching his spine and arms, then spoke.
“You are proposing something that hasn’t been done since Fyu’s time. He will almost certainly see this as taking away her independence and her connection to her Sisters, and he won’t be completely wrong about it.”
Gyotin acknowledged it with an ear-flick. “Indeed. And if it were a random Female that we were proposing to mate to him, I could not in good conscience support it on that alone. This is not, however, the situation we find ourselves in. Rest assured, Sister Naydra wants this, and so does he. She’s simply the only one that will admit it at the moment.”
The Great Father chose that particular moment to come stalking into the room, still obviously heated from his workout and not in the least bit de-frustrated. His sudden presence in the room put a halt to the conversation, and at the obvious interruption, he paused, then sat at the head of the table. The chair creaked in protest under him when he flomped into it.
“Well, don’ let me stop you all jawin,” he rumbled. “Gyotin, you clearly got a bone or somethin’ stuck in yer gullet, I can smell it on ya.”
Gyotin bowed; that was an apt statement from the Great Father. Now that the moment was actually here to put his plan into motion, he was more than a little nervous. When Daar prowled into the room he pulled with him a musk encompassing exactly what he had been doing and…well, Civilized pretensions aside, that kind of thing had an effect. Everyone felt subdued, and rightfully so.
He would never voice it, nobody would. But Daar was the unquestioned alpha of his people.
Gyotin screwed up his resolve and forged on, with a quick look around the room for support. “My Father, we were discussing a solution to a thorny bramble of problems. I fear…you will not enjoy the conversation.”
The only response was a deadpan look back at him. Finally, the Great Father growled, “Ain’t much I’ve enjoyed since this started, Gyotin. No reason ‘fer it to start now.”
That was an opening, and Gyotin struck for it.
“That is one of the problems. You are suffering, My Father, we can all see it. We can smell it, even Champion Yeego.”
Daar gave a small grumbling chitter at that; Yeego’s nose was hardly better than a Human’s and that small tease had become a part of the Champion’s camaraderie. Yeego himself pant-grinned just a little.
“I ain’t gonna deny it. But that’s what being the Great Father has always meant. Fyu wasn’t the first, an’ I won’t be the last.”
“He was the first to bear the title, but your meaning is understood. We disagree about your self-imposed suffering. Fyu understood this. He had confidants, more than a few. So must you.”
The Great Father bristled a little, and Gyotin’s heart went out to him.
”—Your feelings on this are virtually irrelevant, My Father. The Gao need you in balance. It is not just the Champions who have noticed. The public is beginning to talk. There is muted approval of such a thing, My Father. There is even a workhouse drama being written about you, according to Genshi. It’s likely to enter production soon.”
“What would you have me do, Gyotin?” Daar surged from his seat, which gave up entirely and toppled over backwards. “I hardly ever get ‘ta lift anymore! I ain’t had a solid brawl in damn near a month! How in the name of Fyu’s smelly balls am I gonna justify a consort?!”
The room went dead silent. Daar’s scent was now so overwhelming, Gyotin could smell nothing else. The Great Father growled and prowled over to Gyotin, who stood next to his own chair. Daar sniffed the air around Gyotin, then rose to his full commanding height.
“What ‘bout everyone else? Why the fuck am I special enough ‘ta warrant an institution we abolished a thousand years ago?!” He stood snarling over Gyotin, clearly ready to tear someone or something into bite-sized morsels. Gyotin took internal refuge in his Zen studies and remained outwardly unruffled.
“You are the Great Father and you suffer for us all. No one could possibly miss that fact.”
“I know I am. None of you let me forget it, not even fer a moment!!”
“Because our lives are in your unmatched paws, My Father. This is not ‘throne sniffing’ as you’ve said before. This is a matter of our survival.”
“I can’t take on a mate, Gyotin. I can’t, don’t you understand?? This ain’t somethin’ I’m just makin’ up! I can’t allow myself that!”
Gyotin reacted without thought, without impulse, and utterly out of necessity. He reached up and slapped Daar across his gigantic contorted face with an open paw, his claws pulled back in. If the room could have gotten any more silent as the echoes of their argument faded out, it would almost have been in stasis.
“You will fail as the Great Father, if you don’t allow yourself to also be Daar and love her like you’re meant to,” Gyotin said into the silence.
Daar stood, poleaxed, and reached up absently to feel his face where Gyotin had struck him. Abruptly, his face contorted, and he began keening in a truly awful howl that carried with it a sense of utter loss…loss of his people, his life before, his friends…
The Great Father pounced, scooped Gyotin up and…hugged, in desperation and pain. He squeezed so hard Gyotin felt something pop very painfully in his chest but that was of no concern at the moment. The Great Father needed this. He keened for a very long time into Gyotin’s fur like a cub feeling his first true hurt.
Abruptly, Gyotin felt another set of arms surround them, and another…and another. One Champion after another joined the standing hug-pile until they were all enfolded. They stood like that for several full minutes as Daar sobbed.
“We love you, Our Father.” Speaking was abject agony but Gyotin said it through a pained growl. “Your people love you. Please…”
Daar finally let him go, wheezing a little, and the group separated. Champion Novi of Openpaw laid a concerned paw on Gyotin’s back.
“I heard at least a pair of ribs shatter in there,” he said to Gyotin. “Let’s get you to the clinic.”
Gyotin looked to Daar, who nipped him affectionately on the nose—a gesture loaded with meanings of friendship, apologies, dominance, and more besides. “Go. I’m breakin’ everythin’ I wrap my paws around lately…”
Gyotin allowed himself to be led away, trying very hard not to wheeze while still within earshot of the massive Great Father. His stoicism lasted until he got around the corner, and Novi helped him hobble along.
“You realize you’re going to have to do something to make amends for striking him,” Novi said finally, as they got to the elevator.
Gyotin favored him with a an exhausted ear-wag of pain. “Yes. It’ll be about as much fun as this was, I have no doubt.”
Date Point: 14Y 6M 3D AV
Office of the Great Father, High Mountain Fortress, Northern Plains, Gao
Sister Naydra
Naydra hurtled up the eternal staircase, only just stopping herself from dropping to fourpaw. The message she’d received from the Great Fath…Daar… was simple, direct, and to the point, and she could no more have ignored it or put it off than she could have stopped her own heart from beating.
Naydra,
UYou wereereright. I needuyou. Come to me at High Mountaine.Daar
She was almost to his quarters, perhaps a floor or two below, when she heard the most awful noise. Daar, she knew, had a booming, carrying voice. Everyone knew that; all one had to do was watch a video of him to see how far his powerful bass voice would travel, and in person it was even more true. She also knew that Daar, unfortunately, liked to sing.
It wouldn’t have been so bad, if it was something he was even remotely good at, and if he didn’t have a tendency to break into basso profundo howls at inappropriate moments. No, the real tragedy was the way he went looking for the right notes and managed to find all of them except the right ones. That, in a way, was almost…impressive.
As she came up the final flight of stairs and around the corner, she began being able to make out words.
“oooowwooowowowoooooOOOOOOO DREEEEEEAAAAAAMWEAVAHOOOOOoooo… I believe yooooowoooo can get me through the niiiiiiiighhht owwwoooooooooOOOOOO….”
The Stoneback guards at the top of the stairs had a profound look of suffering on their normally-impassive faces, wincing visibly every time the massive voice within started a new verse. Naydra’s sensitive hearing also picked up the thump of a rollicking bass line under all of it from an unfamiliar instrument.
Definitely not Gaoian music…and probably not from a Gaoian music player, either, since their music art tended strongly to favor their hearing in higher ranges than, she was pretty sure, whatever this Human noise was.
Father Regaari’s desk sat empty, its usual occupant having undoubtedly taken the excuse of something far more important happening somewhere, anywhere else. The guards, however, were stuck where they were. Naydra favored them with a friendly set to her ears and made her way up the stairs the rest of the way.
“Go on in, Sister. He left orders with us that you, and only you, were to be allowed past this point, and for you to come in as soon as you got here,” one of them said.
“I’ll just see if I can get him to calm down a little, shall I?” Naydra asked. “How long has this been going on?”
“Since early morning, Sister. He came back from somewhere with Father Regaari helping him carry a bunch of boxy old human stuff that he got somewhere. Regaari left, and he spent the next couple of hours settin’ everything up, and then…well, this.”
“This ain’t as bad as the last stuff he was listenin’ to, though, Brother. If I hear that ‘Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive’ song one more time…” said the other guard. The first one grunted in agreement.
“Anyway. You best go in, Sister. He’s waitin’ for ya.”
Naydra gave the guards a grateful nod, and went in, closing the door behind her.
Date Point: 14Y 6M 3W 5D AV
Grand Commune, Tiritya Island, Cimbrean, The Far Reaches
Mother Ginai
The first to take up formal residence in the first excavated halls of the Grand Commune had had to be drawn by lottery. With so many wanting, needing entry, any kind of choice would have devolved quickly into arguing and wrangling over who needed it more. It was the only fair way.
“Fair”, Ginai decided, completely fucking sucked, using the Human terminology she’d learned a few weeks before even in her own head. That didn’t detract from the fact that it was the only way to do it ethically, but it still sucked, maybe more than anything that had ever sucked before.
The lottery “winners” and their associated cubs, got to move in, now that the first full level of the Grand Commune had been excavated. Below, the dig continued unabated, and above ground, buildings were already rising into the sky. Supplies flowed from multiple places on Earth and from Gao, and the first of several industrial desalination plants had been installed on the lowest level designated for it. Now, the diggers were digging in both directions at once, excavating at an unbelievable rate.
It was remarkable what could be accomplished with highly aggressive technical knowhow and a truly motivated bottomless source of labor. The latest addition had, at the Females’ insistence, been a factory complex for manufacturing cement, concrete, and rolling out construction-grade rebar steel. Some of their Human advisors had balked a little at that one, observing, correctly, that it was actually easier in some ways to simply jump the materials in, but the Females had stood their ground on it. This was to be a Female Commune, built by Females, using as much of their own labor, materials, and what a Human engineer had aptly called “sweat equity” as possible.
“Good morning!” she greeted the crowd. The rumbling of talk died out except for a few very excited cubs that kept having to be shushed by their Mothers.
“Just over six months ago, our world was attacked, our lives as we knew them utterly destroyed, and everything we knew upended. We discovered new friends,” she motioned to the group of Humans standing off to the side. “–and we discovered who our truest allies are. Through all of it, we’ve managed to preserve our people, our heritage, and our future.”
“This was not our world when we came here six months ago. I say we have well and truly made this corner of the universe our own, and from here, we will preserve the future of our people and the strength necessary to see the awful tasks before us through.”
“The task of our Males is well underway, with the creation of the Grand Army. We Females have a different task—to breed continuing strength, to teach the generations to come, and above all, to see to our own strength.”
“I welcome you all to our new home, the Grand Commune.”
~fin