Xyma had a chuckle and brushed back her hair behind the ear, no longer having it in a bun she then walked up beside Gotten as the two were outside in front of the village. He stops there after doing a round of walking around the village taking a break before resuming to do another one.

“Finally, Gabriel has told you about it; I always wanted the man to let you know about it sooner. But still glad you were able to learn of it now.” Xyma took a glance at his face to see what expression was being made.

Anger is the facial expression they were-tiger woman is looking at a thing she doesn’t seem to be surprised about. A face like this wasn’t something she hadn't already thought of. How can this one not feel this way?

“Yes, but it is not only that blood flowing within me but also human is what I come to learn is mixed in,” Gonten says to her, still looking forward to the open horizon.

“Ah, so that's what you want to talk about, the human blood from your great-grandmother Veronica.”

“It is something I find conflicting within me when growing up after everything that was taken from me. Not swimming in our great kingdom, not being able to know my father, coming to learn what kind of man he was, and knowing my mother to only lose her later on.”

Gonten's two hands ball up as Xyma keeps close attention to his body language.

“I can understand your feelings about the loss, we from this village are those who also come to learn of the loss of that very eventful day. Yet it is not the topic we are discussing more so human blood in our kind.” Xyma says, seeming to not be much interested in the divine half of his blood, but more in the common blood of mortals.

“It bothers me greatly as I hold a much stronger feeling of hatred for the humans and yet not only myself, but those of the others in the village also carry their blood.”

Gonten turns around, moving a few steps towards the village to look at the huts of those living in them.

“Does anyone else in this village know of this? I mean, why is it that humans have hatred of their own against our kind? What for that we act like this to be some sort of a secret where no one wishes to speak of this or is it that no one here has a clue to their blood inside of us.” Gonten's voice is now starting to let out the rage be well known.

“It has been long forgotten in the past when our people started to accept this form of ours as another step to Change in evolving. Our history since the start of it all was recorded, but the part about humans being allowed to live came to be part of history never to be brought up again.”

“Why is that Xyma there is much unknown to me because I seek to know more from you since you are the other person from this village to have this same knowledge.”

Xyma signs to give some saying that some events in the past held great sorrow to many that have come and passed, leaving marks to not be forgotten.

“I was learning the ways of healing when my mother saw me able to know of it just like her mother did to her and so on from our family line. Right now, I know you should not be blind to my skin tone, it is that I and my daughter are the only ones in this village with brown skin.” Xyma starts talking about this matter. Gonten was lost on the reason for it as he could not see the meaning behind it.

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“I notice but never care about it; what reason are you starting to talk about your skin? How is this to give me answers to questions which are making trouble for me over here.”

“Well, those days, but back when I was younger, those the same age as me and those who were older saw differently. As I was pretty much an outcast among my kin not by the skin, but because of my father being human.”

“Your father was a human.”

Xyma, when facing him, takes a second to look up at the night sky, seeing the bright light of the moon shining and those of the little lights that can only be seen during the darkness.

“My mother didn't tell me anything a lot about my father. What reason did the woman have when there isn't a lot to say, only that he was a traveling mercenary working for some rich man from the Southlands, a home place the man himself was born in, given by the accent and skin tone? When I was born in the kingdom and grew up our people were not kind toward me, not by the skin I have gained from my father, but by the blood of a mortal human inside me.” Xyma tells him.

“That doesn’t seem fair, every other were-tiger also has the same blood as you and me here.”

“Yes, you're right about that Gonten, but as said before, the part of us with humans living among us in the past wasn’t kept. After that event, we no longer welcome humans for a long time until later again through the years and during the time of breeding when it didn’t matter much, the humans gave a helping hand in creating us in the way we are in the present.”

Gonten went quiet, thinking over more information he was gathering from her, while at the same time, Xyma seemed to get the idea to be something the young man hadn’t learned of yet.

“Gonten, let us put this subject for another time to talk about. There is a rather more serious matter to discuss here, and I have a feeling Gabriel did not talk about it with you when finally relieving the truth about you.” Xyam says.

“No, we didn’t talk about everything; there was something I had to know.”

“Yes, and I guess it would have to fall onto me to tell this, but with the other half of the blood in you being connected to the divine tiger god. You must understand being the third child of a late father to take the role your mother foresaw in a vision will require the very thing all of your family members had to do.”

“What do you mean Xyma?”

Xyma sighed again; this time, it sounded heavier than the last, letting Gonten understand that what he was about to hear was the thing he would not like. Watching as the lady healer of the village walks up to him and points a finger at him.

“If your two other siblings are to be alive till this day and one day you three can meet for the first time after so long. Then among yourself, only one could have the right to lead the people and to make the decision is by the traditional combat where each of you must go through for the people to see who is to be their true leader.” Xyma was getting serious right about now when talking about this with Gonten wanting nothing more than for him to take it as well seriously.

“Traditional combat? Xyma, why would I have to go through with my brothers myself yet to even meet and know? Besides, my mother had a vision about me becoming the one to lead our people back into our homelands.”

“Gonten, what your mother was bliss to have foreseen does not have rights to hold against what has been sealed in the ways for the ones who carry the great ones' blood. It was only to start as one child may be born into the bloodline that changes when your great-grandfather and great-grandmother have the first twins born, and once the two came of age, they had to combat each other.”

“Was this to death? Had one to die for there to be only there to be one left to be the leader of the whole race?”

Gonten had to ask this question, giving him a not-so-good taste in his mouth when it came out.

“Yes, death is one way for it to be settled; two others are by banishment or complete submission to acknowledge one and give up for the role, never to try taking it unless shame is brought upon them and the tiger god,” Xyma explains the ways for descendants of the tiger god to pick as the one to rule.

“I would not have to kill my brother when meeting them; what are the chances of two giving up the idea of the role? If need be, I would not mind myself to do so to not stain my hands with their blood as they are to be my siblings.”

“I had met the two boys when they were younger, and the kingdom was still standing. In my honesty, I don’t think either will give up banishment is also out of the question while leaving one way to end the matter between you three.”

Xyma, done with talking, takes it that the young Gonten had reached a limit of hearing as much as he needed tonight wanting to not push on further onto him. She placed a hand on his left shoulder and wanted to say a few more words before calling it an end.

“Take time to rest and think, let it be days pass before you are ready to learn much more, Gonten.” Xyma then patted his left shoulder and walked past him to enter back into the village to seek out her bed to lay for the rest of the night.

Gonten will take her advice, using a few days to put their mind to other things until ready to get another chance at learning more of this history.