"Of the many species that make up the Empire, there are few that find themselves elevated above their peers. As noted earlier, equality between member species is considered an utmost priority, and is maintained by-

-Two species under such protections, are the advanced lagomorphic Jeht'ama and the primitive canine Makt'ama, natives of the desert rimworld of T'ama. Due to their unique evolutionary circumstances, interference with the two species' development is under strict limitations, and carefully guided by both F.A.I.T.H. and the Empire's Gaia Project."

Excerpt, On The Glory Of The Imperium, Chapter 4, "The Protections of Member Species"

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I stared down the scope across the desert sands. Far in the distance, my target sat in the shade of a rocky outcrop. Fine, I thought. I can wait. Hours passed, and the sands of the Great Wastes shifted as the sun rose ahead of me. I had a faint hope that the beast would be silhouetted against the rising sun, but my hopes were dashed as the beast moved with the shadows, keeping out of easy sight.

Then, suddenly, the moment came. A brief second where a furred head peaked out from the cover. No hesitation, no mercy. The sudden crack of my rifle stung my ears, and I watched the shot as it reached across the distance. Two seconds later, the rock exploded where the beasts head had been. A clean miss, but it had been close. If it had just held still for a moment longer...

A faint clatter pulled my attention away from my prey. Turning my head, I saw Ne'va laying next to me, sighting down the sights of her own rifle.

"I didn't get a good look at it, Ta'vu," she whispered. "What could you be hunting this close to our camp?"

"The kind that either doesn't know our camp is here," I explained. "Or the kind that doesn't know that it is prey."

Her eyes widened. "A Feral, this close to the camp?"

I understood her shock. When I had spotted the tracks, I had also been terrified. In my time among the tribe, I had only seen a Feral once, and it had torn through the camp, killing more than a few of us. But that was why I was out here, hunting it. "We can't let it find the camp. The hunters are still away, and there are too few of us left to fight even one of these things off. We need to kill it here, now, Ne'va."

She nodded, understanding the situation. "That explains why you left in a hurry, and why we are missing hunting wraps and a rifle. Your father thought you had wandered off, in search of the hunters, but I knew you too well. It's too close to your birthing ceremony for you to want to wander off, which meant-"

I hushed her, noticing the distant rock's shadow flicker again in my scope. "Keep your voice down. I think it can hear us." I took a quick sniff of the air, noticing the wind was coming down off the cliff behinds us. "Or it can smell us. Either way, not good."

Ne'va chuckled. "Yeah? Well, we can do something about it at least." She took off her cargo pack and grabbed a small can out of it. I watched as she coated herself with the scent covering spray.

We turned our attention back to the outcrop, and fell back onto ingrained habits, adjusting for the wind as the sands shifted below. Noon came and went, and as the shadows shifted, we saw our prey had moved behind the cover of the rocks, effectively preventing us from shooting it until it moved.

"Hey, i'll take watch, two hours. Eat something?" Ne'va was offering to take over the hunt, at least for a couple hours. Since there was nothing we could do until the Feral moved from cover, I decided to take her up on it. I shimmied back from the ledge, and reached into my pack for some dried meat.

"What's the plan, anyway," she asked. "The blood might attract more of the things."

"That's the plan," I replied. "I want to pin the corpse onto the canyon wall. They aren't entirely stupid. With any luck, the sight of one of their own butchered and put on display will put some fear into them."

She nodded. "Smart, but I think you give the beasts too much credit. They're just dumb beasts. Strong, deadly, sure, but I doubt they are that smart."

"Well, what do you propose? We can't let it live, and that means we need to kill it."

She looked up from her scope. "Sure, but I say we take the corpse into the desert, a day or so far out, and gut it. Maybe even see how close we can get to the Tower? The blood will draw every predatory for miles, and that will help draw some away from the camp."

I thought on it for a while, and eventually, she called me over. My turn on watch. "How about this," I asked. "We need to kill the thing first. Who ever gets the kill shot, gets to decide what we do. Sound like a deal?"

She nodded, and I took my place at the ledge, sighted in on the distant rocks.

Time passed, and soon the sun began to set. Eventually, Ne'va joined me, and we got ready to shoot the beast as it bolted from cover. I was worried the Feral might wait until the sun had set completely, but luckily, I was wrong. Without any warning, the beast dashed out from around the rocks and began sprinting on all fours toward our position on the cliff. I noted how it knew where we were, and guessed it had figured out where we were from the noise we had made, coupled with my own missed shot. I also noted with a start how fast the thing moved. It was almost too difficult to track, but Ne'va took a shot at it, causing it to dodge to the side. When it got back up, it shifted from a four-legged stance to a two-legged stance, slowing it enough for me to put a round right between its eyes. It stumbled a few more steps, before we both fired again, causing the beast to fall onto it's back. We waited, seeing if it would get back up, but after a minute of the dreadful beast laying there, we began to climb down the cliff.

The sun had set before we made it to the body, and up close, I shivered. The beast was massive, half again as tall as me, and bulked up to match. The worst part was how much it looked like one of us, the Makt'ama. That was why we called them Ferals. They looked like us, but they didn't think like us. They acted like animals, hunting solo, killing anything they saw, while we had the tribe. We were people, and they were beasts. I kept repeating that to myself, that they were not people, every time one of the tribe huntsmen declared they had killed a Feral. But I was surprised that I didn't have to tell myself that now. I had killed one. There it was, dead at my feet, but I felt nothing in particular about it. I wasn't numb, there was no regret, it was another prey that had tried to run, and failed.

Ne'va looked at the three ragged bullet holes in the Feral's head, shaking her own. "Two hits to one, your kill. We both missed once, but you hit twice, so you get the honor." She stood, and taking a bloody finger, made a mark upon my forehead. "The hunters recognize your skill, and this is your kill." She said, concluding the short ceremony.

"It would have killed me if you hadn't been there. It moved too fast for me. If you hadn't fired, I couldn't have gotten my own shot off, so don't sell you own contribution short. But in the end, that's the end of it." We stood for a moment, staring at the beast. "Come on then, lets hang it up."

After hanging the body up at the nearby canyon mouth, we made our way inside, back towards the camp. The sun was coming up by the time we made it, and the chief was waiting for me as we approached. He glanced at the mark upon my forehead and frowned. "My son, you should know better than to go off after a Feral on your own, especially so close to the ceremony." He turned to Ne'va. "You have my thanks for keeping my son safe, and I will honor any request you make tonight, but for now you should clean up, and return the gear you two took." Turning back to me, he said, "And you will have much work to do to prepare. Your choices today will determine our path, and the tribe looks forward to your birthing ceremony."

He turned and I gave my gear to Ne'va. She winked and rushed off, while I turned and followed my father. The day was spent performing various small ceremonies and rituals in preparation for the main event that night. I tried my best to give them my full attention, as I should, but my mind would often wander. Sometimes I thought about the Ferals, or Ne'va. I tried not to think about my brother, and how he would be absent from the ceremonies. I wondered what Ne'va thought about it.

My attention was most definitely not on a particularly unremarkable ritual, when a commotion caused me to turn. "The hunters are back," someone shouted. Within moments I was running towards the noise, already imagining what new and exciting foods they might have. But as I got closer, what I saw shocked me.

"Where did you find those?" I asked the party leader as he held his prizes by their long tails.

He seemed surprised to see me so upset, but quickly regained his composure. "We managed to find some small game out in the Wastes, but not much. On our way back, we found a group of Jeht'ama," he said, pointing to the mark on my forehead. "They were doing something where you hung up the Feral. Nice work by the way. They didn't even notice we were there until we had caught them."

I shuddered. "What were they doing? The Jeht'ama?"

Shaking his head, "I don't know and don't care. They're dumb animals, and now, they are food. It's a good thing we found them, or we wouldn't have had enough for the feast."

I felt sick, but kept my own misgivings to myself, letting the hunters celebrate their success. In private though, I worried. The other members of the tribe considered the Jeht'ama to be no better than the Ferals, but I knew better. I had hunted them before, and I knew they didn't act like other beasts. They moved in groups and covered themselves in clothes, like we did. But most of all, I believed the Jeht'ama had built the Tower, the colossal object that stretched into the sky. If I was right... But I had spoken about it before. I knew I was the only one with that belief, and I was smart enough to keep it to myself. Because the Jeht'ama looked nothing like us, the others thought they could not be people. They were small while we were big. They ate plants while we ate meat. To the others, the differences were too great. I knew I could not convince the tribe, at least not yet.

The rest of the day passed without any more major events, until the sun finally set. At last, it was time for the ceremony. Four of us had been born on that day, Me and my brother, Ne'va, and another male.

Ne'va was first, presenting a small totem. The shaman took it, and spoke to her for a moment. Finally, the shaman nodded, and marked the totem with a splash of red dye. "Ne'va has chosen to walk with the warriors and to protect the tribe. She has chosen as well, not to take a mate, and to let another choose her for themselves." I realized I had been holding my breath. I had worried might ask for me, that the night we had spent together might tarnish our friendship, but it seemed she was willing to let someone else take the first step. Ne'va took the totem, and walked to the chieftain, who also had some small words for her. Eventually, he stood. Taking the totem in his hands, he spoke. "Ne'va has requested to stand by the chieftain's side, to aid him in battle, and to protect him from all threats. And I find this to be acceptable. Ne'va will be the right hand of the chieftain, now, and until the day she can no longer serve." He sat down, still holding the totem, and gestured for her to stand beside him.

Next came the other male. When the shaman spoke this time, she marked the totem with green. "Ar'va has chosen to be a nurturer, to heal the sick and wounded, and to grow green things in the places where they refuse to grow. He has also chosen a mate." The new nurturer didn't have a request for the chief, so he took his totem and presented it to a girl, who happened to also be a nurturer. I was happy for him when she said yes, and she took the totem from him.

Finally, I approached the shaman, who seemed confused when I presented her with two totems. "Why do you carry two totems? You are but one person, are you not?"

"I carry the totem of my brother, for since he left one year ago, he cannot be here today. I bear his totem for him."

She nodded. "I accept his totem from your care," she said, taking it from me and putting it into a small pouch at her side. "Now, present me with yours." I did so, and she examined it. "I see the markings of the nurturers here, and of both the hunters and the warriors. All three have declared your fitness at their practices." She turned it over. "Perhaps you are not as skilled as those who master each of the crafts, but you have certainly impressed those who practice each, and that is good enough. But, I see you do not bear the gift of the mind sight. The Path of the Shaman is barred to you." She turned the totem over again. "And I see that you have succeeded in hunting a Feral," she noted, pointing to a mark in the totem. "I have seen enough. The Path of the Hunter or the Warrior is open to you, or the Nurturer. Or, if you so choose, I declare you fit to take your father's place on the path of the Chieftain." She carved a small icon into the totem then looked at me.

"Now you must decide. These are the paths set before you. Which will you choose to walk?" I saw on her face that she knew which path I would choose, but I had to think about it. There were four paths I could take, but everyone believed that I would take the path my father took. Was that what I wanted? And what of my brother? If I took my place at the head of the tribe, I would effectively be ousting my brother, if he ever returned. But as chieftain, I could change many things, hopefully for the better. I considered, and after a few moments I had made up my mind.

I was about to tell her my choice, when a sudden commotion made us both turn toward the crowd. Something was causing the gathered group to shout and yell. Finally, my father rose and bellowed, "Enough! What is so important that we should interrupt the birthing ceremony of my son?"

The crowd began to part, and suddenly I understood what could cause such a commotion. Members of the warrior group, even Ne'va had drawn their knives and were advancing upon the source of the commotion, but I waved them off. I had seen what it was, but I couldn't believe it. It have been so long, and he looked so different, but I recognized him immediately.

"Ta'nu? Brother?"