GILLIAN
I’m not entirely sure how I got here, but I’m sharing a platter of snacks with three Sarkarnii females, and they’re swapping war stories about the times males have gone into rut for them.
“There was this one warrior…” Dyris chortles, reaching for one of the savory crackers and swiping it through a white colored dip which tastes alarmingly fishy. “He was adamant he was in the rut for me. You know the usual things, sweating, growling…”
“Attempting to mount you in his Sarkarnii form,” Dyanii adds, to which they all nod sagely.
“Attempting to mount me just about anywhere.” Dyris shakes her head and laughs. “Then when I reached into his pouch, what did I find?”
“No!” Dyoti’s eyes are huge. “It wasn’t?”
Dyris shakes her head. “He’d never been in rut before. He didn’t realize having a hard cock was part of it.”
“So, he wasn’t in rut?” I ask, somewhat confused.
“He had space pox,” Dyris says. The other two laugh so hard I think Dyanii is going to choke to death. “There are some symptoms the same, but it’s not the rut.”
“So, all that…all that…humping…and nothing to show for it?” Dyoti wipes at her eyes.
“Nothing at all.” Dyris laughs. “I nearly envenomated him, but then I took pity on him instead.”
“Should have envenomated him,” Dyanii says, her chest heaving. “Might have cured his space pox!”
The three of them are helpless with laughter, Dyoti on her back, her arms waving in the air.
I consider whether I could make a run for it. Then I have a pair of eyes staring at me.
“How did you meet your Sarkarnii?” Dyanii asks.
“I was fighting in a pit on a dusty planetoid, and he grabbed me.”
“For a wrestle?”
“To save me.”
“Did you need saving?”
“Probably not. But also I didn’t want to stay in the pit.” I shrug. “On balance, his intervention was appreciated.”
Dyoti stares at me for a while. “But he has danced for you, hasn’t he?”
“Danced?”
“The ceremony? The dance. A male in rut is expected to dance for his female,” Dyanii says. “He is in rut for you, we know.” She sniffs. “We can smell it.”
“He smells?”
“You both do,” Dyris says. “Mating pheromones. Makes other Sarkarnii stay away.” She offers me a plate with some sort of cheese. I take a slice.
“Didn’t work with you lot, did it?” I say wryly.
They exchange glances.
“I didn’t think we’d see another male after Deus left. We thought he’d gone forever,” Dyris says quietly. “He said he was going for help, for the rest of the fleet, but…” She gazes up intothe sky. “He didn’t return, not for a long time. When he did…” She swallows. “When he did, he said nothing about what was on the other continent. He was so broken finding his mate gone. We had no idea there were any Sarkarnii on this planet other than us.”
“For what it’s worth,” I say. “I am not condoning his behavior, but he lost his mind long before he came back here. I am so sorry he didn’t tell you what he had found.”
There are more pointed looks between the three Sarkarnii.
