[The Princes XV] [Son of Raven] Si opened his eyes and was disoriented for a few moments before his memories flooded back. He was still sitting in the small jump seat behind Lord Raven in the Needle Ship. Lord Raven had put Si into a slow sleep for the twelve week journey to Darai. The ship was just too small and sitting in the small seat without being able to move for twelve weeks would have been impossible for anyone, especially a nine year old. “Father, I think I’m going to throw up,” said Si before remembering Lord Raven was deaf now and couldn’t hear him. Si tried to forget about the slow sleep sickness by watching out the canopy. Twelve weeks had passed on Krat’ne Minor, his cousins would have called off the search for him by now; to his cousins he was dead. He closed his eyes and thought of nothing but all the pain he had endured. A new life, revenge, that was all that was left to him now. He would make his Uncle pay for the treachery. Si opened his eyes and Darai was visible out the right side of the ship and unlike the pale greens of Kitsune, the deep blues of Carina, or the white deserts of Krat’ne, Darai was a deep rich green with dark brown mountains and large lakes scattered around the planet. Si wondered how they were going to land if they couldn’t talk with Orbital Command and got his answer when he heard the distinctive sound of typing from the front of the cockpit. Ah, Lord Raven must be typing his responses to Orbital Command, thought Si. Si watched the traffic in orbit around Darai and wondered how nobody ran into each other, there weren’t even this many ships in orbit around Kitsune, the Capitol of the Empire. Every manner of ship was in orbit around Darai, even a Battle Carrier was in orbit being constructed. There was little doubt that the Daraians were the masters of everything that flew. The Needle ship waited it’s turn in line behind many other ships waiting for clearance to land. Si had a moment of fear when they passed a Battleship with the Wolf symbol of House Wolf on the side. Si craned around in his seat but Lord Raven didn’t seem concerned; Si still felt that everyone inside the Battleship was surely staring at him. Orbital Command must have finally given them clearance to land and Si watched as the ship descended for the planet. Si expected the re-entry plume of flame to surround the ship, but the fireball never came. Lord Raven banked the ship down and rolled the ship in an unusual pattern and they slipped into the atmosphere quietly. The reputation of the Daraian’s ability to fly was obviously well earned. They descended until the ship was perhaps two-thousand feet from the ground and shot off… well, Si didn’t know where. He didn’t know the directions of this planet yet but they were probably headed towards House Raven. A few minutes later four more Needle Ships arrived and took positions alongside their ship and escorted them the rest of the way. The ship angled down and Si looked for a landing field but couldn’t see one. He started to get worried they were going to crash into the ground. The ship slowed and came to a vertical hover and lowered into the ground. Si hadn’t been able to see the landing tunnels from the air. The ship rotated and descended through the tunnel and then they were in a large hanger bay. Si looked up and estimated the distance to the surface, perhaps two-hundred feet. Ground crews rushed to the ship and pushed it the rest of the way until they were parked next to a line of hundreds of Needle ships, all painted black and red with the symbol of House Raven on the side. Lord Raven raised the canopy and stood up and stretched, then looked back at Si already unbuckled and facing forward on the seat anxious to get out. “Listen to me,” said Lord Raven. “You can no longer use your name, you must chose a new name.” “I already have,” said Si. “I’m Master Fox.” “Very good,” replied Lord Raven. “You must never use your birth name again.” “Yes, father,” said Si. “Si is dead, he died on Krat’ne Minor in the wilderness.” Si closed his eyes, Fox, he was Fox, Si was gone, it was true, Si had tried, tried so very hard, but that life was gone now and could never come back. House Kitsune was dead, his father Emperor Tarin was dead, Lord Black was dead, Si was dead. He was Fox, Si was only some other boy he knew once but was now dead and gone, died on some distant unknown planet. “I’m ready, father,” said Fox. Lord Raven climbed down the ladder the maintenance crews pushed against the side of the Needle Ship and Fox followed. The hanger bay was full of children a few years older than Fox, gathered in groups around Needle Ships, or dismantled engines, or what Fox thought might be chalkboards with diagrams on them. Odd, thought Fox, that such an advanced species would still be using something so low-tech as a chalkboard. Fox followed behind Lord Raven and towards the entrance to a tunnel leading into the dark. As they passed the groups of children the instruction would stop and the children would kneel on the ground facing Lord Raven, their heads down and their hands flat on the ground. Lord Raven stopped at one of the groups and looked down at… Fox wasn’t sure if it was a boy or a girl, he couldn’t tell, but the Daraian had a collar around his or her neck. Slaves? wondered Fox, was slavery legal on this world? “Stand up boy,” said Lord Raven. Okay, it was boy, but how can you tell. Fox would have to figure it out quickly to avoid accidentally insulting someone. The boy stood and Lord Raven lashed out and struck the boy across the face. Fox forced himself not to react. “Who is your mate?” demanded Lord Raven. Another Daraian stood and faced Lord Raven. This one didn’t have a collar on. Fox scanned every feature closely; no collar, short hair-tail, and Lord Raven had said mate. This one must be a female. The one with the collar didn’t have a hair-tail. Maybe the female’s on this planet wore tails instead of males. Fox was suddenly very conscious of his own hair-tail that had grown back over the last two years. Fox inspected the other Daraian children, half of them were wearing collars and the other half without collars had a hair-tail. Okay, now I can identify which are male and which female. “Explain why his Talon dagger is worn incorrectly,” said Lord Raven. “No excuse, my Lord,” said the girl. “Five lashes,” ordered Lord Raven. The older Daraian with the group Fox guessed was the instructor handed a short pointing stick, no, Fox corrected himself realizing, it wasn’t a pointing stick, the instructor was handing her a lashing stick. The boy knelt on his hands and knees and the girl brought the lash down on the boy’s back five times; the boy didn’t make a sound. Si noticed something very odd then, the girls eyes looked as if she were about to cry. Fox realized the punishment wasn’t the boys, the lashes hadn’t really been that hard, probably just enough to sting enough to satisfy Lord Raven; the punishment was for the girl. Lord Raven turned away and continued towards the tunnels and Fox had to run to catch up. “What have you learned?” asked Lord Raven once they entered the tunnel. “You work in pairs, one boy and one girl,” said Fox quickly. “All the males are slaves and receive the punishment when a mistake is made; discipline is very strict here - but father, slavery is wrong.” “The males are not slaves,” explained Lord Raven. “You will learn the difference in time. For now, I’m impressed that you were able to figure out the difference between a Daraian male and female that quickly, most off-worlders can not.” “I lived as a Carinian for a year,” explained Fox. “We had to learn quickly how to identify between boys and girls.” “I see, then you are aware that not all species have their reproductive organs on the outside?” asked Lord Black. “Yea, I’m a mammal, Carinians are amphibian, it was never an issue,” said Fox. “We are similar to the Carinians in that they also have their reproductive organs inside,” explained Lord Black, “the difference being that the Carinians give live birth unlike the Daraians and Demonians that hatch from an egg. “I think I’m different than other Kitsune, father, I don’t have any problems with different species and different ways. Carina cured that in me and I don’t have any prejudice or false modesty anymore. “Well get back your modesty,” said Lord Raven. “Daraians do not have much experience with mammal species, you are to remain clothed at all times, you would not mean to but you could seriously frighten the Daraian hatchlings.” “I understand and respect your culture,” said Fox. Lord Raven stopped in front of a door. “There is one exception,” said Lord Raven. “All Ravens are given a mate when they are hatched, you will receive yours now, she has been trained to understand your physical differences.” “Wait, what? I don’t want a mate, I’m too young.” “Your species and ours are not compatible for reproduction,” Lord Raven assured the panicking boy. “Your mating is spiritual, not physical, you will never be expected to try and fertilize an egg.” “But… But… I…” Fox stammered and turned bright red. “You can not function as a Raven without a mate,” said Lord Raven. “The matter is settled.” Si dropped his head defeated. “Yes, father,” said Fox. Lord Raven opened the door and led Fox inside. Unlike the dark shadows of the other tunnels, this one was brightly lit and Daraian children were running around playing and laughing. “You have one hour to figure out which one is your intended mate,” explained Lord Raven. “When I return, there better be a collar around your neck and a female in front of you.” Lord Raven turned around and walked back out the door, shutting and locking it behind him. The lights dimmed until there were only shadows criss-crossing the room. The floor was covered with glowing circles with an engraving of a Raven in the center of each circle. The Daraian children jumped for the circles until they were all standing, sitting, or kneeling in a circle. Was this some kind of game? Fox decided to just try and make some friends and walked out to the center of the floor. “Hi, I’m Fox.” The Daraian children stared at him in utter amazement and then nearly every Daraian pulled a Talon dagger and rushed at him at one time. The pure hatred in their eyes burned into Fox and he knew this was no game, they intended to kill him. Fox kicked out at the first one and the Daraian crumpled on the ground. The next two rushed in the same as the first and Fox grabbed their wrists and twisted, he could hear the bones breaking. Their slow, thought Fox, I thought they would be fast, it’s almost like they are moving in slow motion. The next three tried to circle around him while another three rushed directly at him. Fox saw the move clearly and dropped to the stone floor and swept his leg in a circle and heard three legs break. Fox had never fought an off-worlder before and didn’t really understand what was happening. He had left Kitsune when he was only six and hadn’t come anywhere near completing his studies of combat. The universe had evolved the perfect killing machine with the Kitsune, and Fox was the end product of a very selective line of those perfect predators. From Fox’s eyes he saw the Daraians moving painfully slow towards him. Taking their daggers away was easy and sweeping the waves of attackers to the floor was nothing. What Fox didn’t know was a gland in his brain was excreting a chemical that sped his perceptions to blinding speeds. From the Daraian’s eyes they saw an immortal being moving at impossible speed and cutting them down without mercy, not that they would have given him any mercy. One of the Daraians got a lucky strike from the side and buried her dagger deep into Fox’s side. Fox roared with pain and struck out and the attacker fell to the ground lifeless. The lights came back on and the attackers stopped and sheathed their blades and stepped back. A tall Daraian in a flowing black gown trimmed in red walked across the room with another very large Daraian male and stopped in front of him. “You are injured,” said the woman but not offering any help. Fox tried to grab the dagger in his side but it was in an awkward place and he couldn’t get his hand around it. A girl that had not been involved in the attack and had stood against the far wall during the attack came over and placed a hand on Fox’s shoulder. “Should I pull it out cause it looks like it really hurts and I can do it quickly you won’t bleed to death will you I wouldn’t want you to bleed to death..." The tall woman held up a hand in annoyance for the girl to stop talking. The girl grabbed the dagger and pulled quickly; Fox shoved his hand in his mouth to keep from screaming. The tall woman and the girl watched in amazement as the wound healed itself. “So you really are immortal,” the woman said with interest, “but you can be hurt and feel pain.” “Why did they attack me?” shouted Fox. “I didn’t do anything to them.” “You are a predator,” said the woman. “Our species rose to dominate this world by always attacking in mass when a predator threatens us.” “I didn’t threaten anyone, and look,” shouted Fox pointing at the four dead bodies laying on the ground, “look what you’ve done!” “This is natural selection,” said the woman, “they attacked a predator and the weak were culled, this is as it should be. For every weak Daraian you cull, you make us stronger. We thank you for these honorable deaths.” Fox just stared at the woman with his mouth open. She was insane, they were all insane, Daraians were absolutely stark raving mad. No wonder his father had thought they were foul vile creatures. “You do not understand, do you?” asked the woman. “Our females can produce an egg every three months and we can’t stop it. Every three months our planet’s population increases by one third. Without natural selection we would over populate our world within two years.” Fox admitted to himself that there was some insane logic to that, but still. “I was told you wanted to be a Raven,” said the woman, “is that true or not.” “It’s true,” said Fox. “Will you accept our ways?” asked the woman. “Sure, why not,” said Fox still angry. “I’ll do my duty to help the planet survive and kill as many Ravens as you like.” The man next to the woman lashed out and Fox found himself on his back with the mans boot on his throat. “You may be more than a match for your own age group,” growled the man, “but if you…” Fox didn’t give the man a chance to finish and grabbed his foot and twisted. The man flipped to the side and Fox started to get up but the man turned in the air and came down on Fox hard. The sound of several of Fox’s ribs breaking was very loud. “As I was saying, lip off to the High Priestess again and I’ll break your ribs,” said the man. “Are we clear?” Fox gasped a yes the best he could. The High Priestess and the man turned and walked away; Fox lay on the stones gasping for breath. The girl that had helped him knelt down next to him and fastened a collar around his neck and then pulled her dagger and hovered over him glaring at anyone that thought to come near. “Your ribs will heal won’t they because if they didn’t heal you would be laying there for a long time and that probably wouldn’t be any good.” Fox stared at the strange girl and nodded his head just slightly. “Okay hurry up about it,” insisted the girl. “Oh and you’re my Zoomie now and I think I love you you are so cute.” “Who are you?” whispered Fox. “You’re mate silly boy silly boy we will be together forever and I’ll take care of you and you’ll take care of me and it will be great,” said the girl. “You’re insane,” breathed Fox. “I’m not the goofy Kitsune that everyone hates anyway that didn’t jump in a glow circle during Shadow Hour and challenged the whole clutch to fight no I’m not,” said the girl. “Stop,” begged Fox. “Do you always talk like that?” “Some people say I talk too much but they are just silly because if you don’t talk nobody will know what you need to say and there is lots of stuff to say that needs said.” Fox closed his eyes and tried not to listen to the girl chattering on. He was still laying on the ground when Lord Raven returned; bones took longer to heal than a simple puncture wound. “I see you have found Cissa,” said Lord Raven. “What are you doing down there?” The girls name must be Cissa, thought Fox, and I can see why she hasn’t found a mate yet, she won’t stop talking. “Oh yes, father, Cissa was just about to bake me a cake and I’ve made oodles of new friends.” Lord Raven looked at the blood on the ground and raised a brow, or so Fox thought that might be what he was doing, the burns gave the expression a gruesome cast. “Well then, Cissa,” said Lord Raven. “Bring your Zoomie, you will rotate weeks between the Raven Palace and here in the hatchlings tunnels.” Cissa jumped up and followed Lord Raven, leaving Fox laying on the ground. “I’ll be fine,” said Fox. “Don’t worry about me.” “Come on, love,” said Cissa. “Don’t call me love,” protested Fox. “I’m not your love and you’re not my mate.” Cissa ignored Fox’s complaints and walked on with Lord Raven. “Should I call you father now because Fox called you father and maybe that means you’re my father now even though I have a father but he sent me here to the Temple but I’m sure he misses me because I miss him too but it’s nice here and I’m making lots of friends well not really everyone acts weird when I’m around but that’s okay because I like them anyway unless of course I have to kill them but I don’t want to have to do that unless they want to kill me first what are we having for dinner because I’m really hungry I hope we have mashed potatoes because I really like mashed potatoes…” Fox grinned and bit his tongue not to laugh at Cissa talking to Lord Raven as she followed him. Cissa had found the perfect person to chatter on to; Lord Raven was deaf.