Chapter 160: The Great Debate
"Of course not," said Da’kea, looking at the other three men confused. "The only time a Saalistaja female is interested in fur is after she conceives. They are, for the most part, nothing but a nuisance to the hunter. Most discard them, but if the hunter needs money for something, then he might decide to sell them."
I stood there, staring at the male I was starting to like, wondering where I went so wrong with him. "You discarded your furs?" I asked, no longer caring about all the secret doors or the discovery of a species never before seen by a human. If this male discarded his furs, we were going to have issues.
"No," replied Da’kea with a shake of his head. "I am one of the few that keep the nice ones. You have to realize that with the amount of hunting that we do if we keep all of the furs that he gathered, there would be no place to store them."
"So, you keep them," I repeated, making sure that I understood the most important matter. He had furs. I don’t care about the skeletons. As long as I could have more furs, then everything was fine.
"You are going to have to forgive him," said Midnight, gently rubbing the small of my back. "He will learn; you just have to give him time."
"I am sorry," added Da’kea. "But I seem to be missing something crucial."
"You really are. But let’s just be happy that none of them will be able to show her furs," sighed Ye’tab. "And here was me worried over nothing."
-----
I walked into the first kill room. According to Da’kea, the male that it belonged to was the highest-ranking male out of all of them on the ship, excluding Da’kea himself, of course. He was not only the second oldest, but he was also one of the most skilled hunters.
Apparently, kill rooms must be few in order of status, or else all hell would break out.
Looking around, I saw that the skull of the most prized kill was placed by itself on the middle table while the remaining skulls were strategically placed around them. The smaller skulls were still articulated to the spinal cord of the prey, while the bigger ones were displayed by themselves.
I felt Da’kea gently touch my back, letting me know that I had spent the appropriate amount of time in his kill room and could now move on to the next one. One thing that I didn’t appreciate was the fact that there were so many subtle nuances attached to the different levels of courtship amongst the Saalistaja.
If a female spent too little time in the kill room, then it was perceived as an insult to the male. If she spent too long, then it was indicating her interest in the male. The fact that it was a matter of seconds between the two consequences made me want to scream.
Instead of keeping a running count in my head of how long I had spent inside the room, I had just asked Da’kea to let me know when I should leave. Thankfully, he listened.
Not bothering to acknowledge the male who owned the kill room at all, I turned around and walked out. I had 24 more of these things left to get through before I could get back to my own nest... I mean, bed... and sleep, so I wanted to hurry up and just get this over and done with.
After the first kill room, each one started to look the exact same. They all had the same giant skull on the main display table. It looked like a cross between a saber-tooth tiger and a horse. At first, I thought it was a saber-tooth tiger and started to freak out.
That particular species died off on Earth 8,000-10,000 years ago. And if they were hunting saber tooth tigers, then their age was a lot more than the 100 years I was told. However, on closer inspection, it was clear that the skull was much more elongated than any feline I had come across, and started to calm down.
But there was one thing that was driving me crazy. I stopped for a moment between two kill rooms and pulled Da’kea down. "Have you hunted one of those things?" I whispered, not wanting to attract any more attention.
"I have when I was much younger. They are small enough that they are a suitable prey for our younger hunters," he said, bending down until he was almost folded in half.
I blinked at that statement. Considering the skull was the size of my torso, I didn’t really think that it counted as ’small’ prey. I shook my head, not letting my thoughts drift. "Not what I care about," I said bluntly. "Do you still have their fur?"
I had seen pictures of what a saber-tooth tiger might have looked like, and every time, they were huge with gorgeous fur. I wanted to see if that fur was what I was picturing in my head.
"I am afraid I don’t," he said, sounding genuinely sorry. However, sorry doesn’t fix the fact that he didn’t have the fur.
I nodded my head in understanding and walked into the last kill room. Once again, it was set up in the same way, but the kills were either much smaller, or he didn’t have as many of them. I looked around and saw a lot of open space... and a pile of furs in the corner on a table.
He must have been staring at me intently because as soon as my eyes landed on the furs, he stiffened up and immediately rushed over to them. "I am so sorry," he said softly, and I realized that because he was the last kill room, it meant that he was the youngest and least experienced hunter. "I was practicing how to properly skin prey and was planning on selling these furs at the next space station."
Now, I was not dumb. I knew that unless I was willing to consider him as a potential mate, I was not to interact with him on any level or show interest in his trophy displays. However, he had furs, which weren’t supposed to be in the kill room to begin with.
A great debate was raging inside of me. One half of me was wondering if should break my silence for the sake of seeing those furs while the other half pointed out that I was already up to my neck in chosen mates and I needed to keep my mouth shut so I didn’t give the dude false hope.
It was an all-out brawl between the two sides, and I just stared blankly at the furs, grateful that my helmet helped hide where exactly my eyes were drawn to.
"You desecrate your kill room by bringing furs into it," said Da’kea in a tone that I had never heard from him. It was harsh, like a parent raking their child over the coals for crashing the car into the garage. Not quite screaming or raising his voice, but really close. "Come," he said to me, his tone softening and becoming more respectful. "I am sorry you had to witness that."
I nodded my head, practically biting my tongue off just so I wouldn’t ask to see the furs. Da’kea seemed pissed that they were in that room, and I wasn’t going to open that can of worms out in public. However, I did want to know why he behaved like that once we got somewhere private.
Turning around, I left the final kill room and went back to where my other three men were waiting for me. My movements stiff.
Ye’tab quickly looked at me and opened the door to the outside corridor. I strolled through, not bothering to slow down for a moment.
"What happened?" growled GA as Da’kea caught up to us.
"There were furs in one of the rooms," replied Da’kea with a low growl of his own. "Let’s go to my quarters to speak."
The four of us quickly followed him, only to be stopped by a voice coming from behind us. "Why are you going to your quarters?" asked the male from the first kill room. I studied his fishnet body suit and the pieces of armor covering his chest. He was also wearing what looked like a loin cloth or something like that.
But the one thing that struck me was that I didn’t find him attractive at all.
I was getting worried that I had a preference for the Saalistaja species as a whole. After all, I had never really seen the faces of my males, so all I had to go on was their bodies and armor. However, as much as he might have the same type of body, if a bit leaner, as my males, I found him decidedly unattractive.
"What do you want, A’juth-Uath?" demanded Da’kea, sounding downright scary. Unfortunately, the other Saalistaja didn’t seem to have the same level of intelligence as I did. Shame that.
