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Umen 1

It was a bright and sunny day and all was rather well with the world. He awoke to see the sun filtering through the dappling leaves of their makeshift camp. They had been asked to track down three feral radaku that had escaped an exotic critter market and had been roaming the coutryside ever since. The local authorities had been vexed and had reached out to him and he had accepted, taking his best wrangler with him. Rista's class had made her fast and she was quick minded as well, the perfect team mate. Ultear too should have come but he was otherwise engaged.

He awoke and began preparations for morning. Rista ermerged looking frazzled but he set her up with food and good camp coffee and soon they were packed and on the trail again. "They move fast these three, must be young." How all three had gotten away from the market was a mystery, the merchant had had shifty eyes and had not said.

Umen 2
Good hunters were quiet and that was what they were as they approached the beach where the tracks had led, a forested cove. He moved through and turned to see that Rista's mount was refusing to go through, shaking his head, digging in his heels and looking with an arched neck under the canopy of the low slung trees.
He gave the beast a face of concern and then looked underneath the branches as well as the animals so obviously was demanding that they do.

Dreighton rolled his eyes and told them with his body to look harder. Humans were so oblivious. He snorted and stiffened when Cletus asked him why he bothered. -She has an egg in there, it is our duty to inform the peoples. -

Cletus shook his head. -What would they do without us?- Humans were so hopeless and nearly helpless, no armor, no speed just dogged determination.

They must be close. Umen took a deep breath at the sight of the radaku gamboling in the sand. They looked so carefree racing in and out of the water an rolling with abandon in the sand. They were so close, but the janarim wouldn't move. He had thought they were better trained than this. Aw well he would work on that later. Too late though, the wind had shifted and the radaku closest to them a handsome gray and black fellow caught their scent and off went the pack, tearing off at top speed. Ugh.

Umen 3

Calmly he stood and watched her inspect the beast, he had taught her well, she was good at noticing issues and reading critter body language. Then he saw the beautific expression on her face and was immediately suspicious.

"What is it love, what has made you so very happy?" Of course exploring was a good time but this was more of a conundrum than a happy moment, or so he had thought. That janarim was sure behaving funnily.
Her eyes had glazed over there for a moment he was pretty sure. What would make both beast and women behave so? Unless...perhaps...the gift that their former owners had meant was...somehow being able to detect if a woman was with child and then signaling to that woman in whatever form was affective so that they would know too? That seemed like a complicated gift! It would explain the joyful expressions on Ushi and Sae's faces they had just welcomed two more kids into the world not long after they had given the beasts to them.

Umen 4

"Yes perhaps I will see if Ultear can come help me." His son was also talented and would be a good replacement for his wife on the radaku hunt. "Well at least we solved the mystery, at most more children! " He was so very very proud. He was going to be a dad. Of course the healer would know for sure but he was confident that was what this was the critter was proof and it all fit together.

He swung up on Cletus and followed after her as she started the ride back. It was a delicate period and she was not wrong to be somewhat cautious, if they had been something less savage than radaku she might have stayed but they did not know how well trained these were and thus they were a risk. He was not willing to take that risk and thankfully neither was she, so off home they went.

A twig snapped nearby and both janarim paused and listened. "Uh oh."

Umen 5

His heart raced and he hoped that the radaku were more trained then they looked. "It might be territorial behavior. They may have claimed this place in lieu of their home range back wherever they came from. This means they may be less trained, its not certain as even the most well trained when released usually reverts back to their old wild ways and it is somewhat instinctual for the pups raised entirely in captivity though those are less frequent." He had done his homework on all the animals that had ever passed through, they had had one or two radaku over the years. Not as many as at the beast ranch, that was also a good resource for animal behavior.

"Talking calmly will get us farther than not, for now it is a stand off. We just want past now but they have no way to know that we are no longer currently hunting them."

Umen 6

As they got further and further away he relaxed a bit, his heart coming back down to a normal beat. Hopefully they had threw their pursuers which theoretically should stay in the territory they were defending. He did still hear the occassional call.

"Not to alarm you Rista my love but I think they are following us from far back, hopefully not with any ill intent it could just be curiousity but they might pop back out at some point so stick close." He would be staying tightly close to her for protection. There was a lot going on today and he was slightly overstimulated at this point and this gave him a hawkish predatory appearance, he had to protect his mate at all costs. He dare not increase their speed in case it tripped the prey drive of the radaku following them. He took deep breaths and continued on toward home. This happened to be one of the scariest days of his life.

Umen 7

Low and behold they made it back to town and instead of heading straight home they stopped at the healer and found out that their scaley armored friend was absolutely accurate. Likely twins too from the sly look on the old bats face. Oh gods a child for each arm again. He was so delighted.

They headed home after that and ate an early dinner, heading to bed early. There were suspicious howls in the middle of the night, answered by the janarim patrolling outside. He woke the next morning early and after romancing his wife back into a stupor he stretched and inspected the view from their windows.

An unexpected view for there just beyond the janarim who stared balefully but non vocally at the three radaku lumps that were laying not far away.

"Why on earth?"

Umen 8

He sighed, "I expect you are right, I will get a hold of the market soon enough, I'll send one of those birds to them straight away and then wife." he said and he smoozled up to her and kissed her all over her face making her giggle madly. "The rest of the day will be spent celebrating our news, I suppose we should tell the kids to assemble later so we can tell them all in one fell swoop, I think Ultear is still in Matori..." Their eldest son tended to wander far to hone his craft and see what needed seeing. Around that age Umen had seen Rista and That had been that. Now look where he was, proud father to be, again. He grinned. Nothing could down his bright day.

"I do hope they don't expect exorbitant prices for those fleet footed furballs..they are escapees, the capture fee should cover the price of such miscreants." He was formulating his haggling while tickling his wife.