-Ruufarrl-

"How long has it been since I have seen home? How long since I have seen the grand forests and smelled their bounty, since I have felt my own sun heat my fur and the winds blow through it? Most of that time was spent in space, in the measured and filtered life support systems of ships and stations. I had not realized just how homesick it made me until now, when I am so close to being home I feel as though I merely need to listen to hear the winds blow. Those other planets were nice, but they are not home."

The final leg of their trip had gone quickly. The ship was a standard passenger transport, so the amenities had been favorable and the company amenable. There were even four other Ruulothi returning home on the same ship. Three of them were labor workers returning home from a job, and the fourth was a Scholar. None of them were Bloodclaws and they all seemed to be centralized city folk, but they still gave Ruufarrl and Conrad the deference that was their due, even if they were confused at the presence of a Human. The rest of the travelers were all familiar enough with the Ruulothi that they had no problems being around them or going through their space.

All told this meant that they had no shortage of conversations waiting for them if they desired it.

Conrad had no issues integrating with anyone and freely spoke with the other passengers. He seemed to not feel as pressured to 'fit in' as they were essentially strangers in passing. Despite his willingness to mingle with the others over the course of the trip, Ruufarrl detected some sort of hesitation from the Human. "Likely a mix of trepidation and wariness. Worried about what is to come and who might be watching. All natural, given the circumstances. At least he is not jumping at shadows anymore."

Ruufarrl himself had spoken at length with the other Ruulothi about current events in and around Ruulothi space. Nothing seemed too amiss in that regard, though there were a couple of border conflicts in the Greater Community that may require their deployment. As for the rest, it wasn't so much what they said, but how they said it. They spoke of some things at home and abroad with a casual acceptance that would never have been seen a few years ago. It showed that certain factions had gained influence and general recognition. Not a good sign for his people in the times to come.

His mental clock continued to tick down. They were in the Home System now, and only mere days from their destination. He fought to control himself, but it was hard. There was much to do and scant little time to get it done in. He was getting impatient.

The Hunt Winds were shifting, and he did not like what he scented on them.

_________________________________________________________________________

-Conrad-

"Huh, so that is what a Ruulothi looks like when they get ants in their pants."

Ruuloth Prime, it turns out, is the GalCom designation for their home planet. They simply call it Ruuloth. The Prime was added when the Ruulothi joined the GalCom and adopted their planetary and navigational naming conventions. Which unimaginatively consisted of counting outward from the center of the named system, with Prime simply meaning a home world.

They stood on the Space Station, awaiting transport to the surface. Unlike in the other stations he had been in recently, this one did not have a viewing platform as it was considered to be a structural risk. Ruuloth had a set of small rings around it and was on the inner edge of an asteroid field. Space debris and rogue rocks and ice were a valid concern. Though the formations that gave them the hazards had also given the Ruulothi a vast bounty of infrastructure. It also had two very small, but mineral rich moons that fed that same infrastructure, though they were really little more than two super sized asteroids. They didn't even have the gravity or core to form themselves into a proper spherical shape.

The planet itself was one of two major celestial bodies that had been made habitable, Ruuloth and Verrdinaat. While Ruuloth was their home world, Verrdinaat was a terraformed and atmo-seeded large moon around another planet.

Verrdinaat orbited around a gaseous planet on the inner edge of their Habitable Belt, the next planet in from Ruuloth. This inner gas planet, Lonsiin, was too small to be considered a Jovian by Human standards, but it's gravity well, weather patterns, atmosphere and winds prevented it from being anything but a Gas Planet. Lonsiin was tilted away from the system's sun, absorbing and deflecting the radiation that would fry the inhabited moon, which orbited rapidly above the tilted "crown" of the planet. This congruence of circumstances meant that there was a permanent day and night on the poles of the moon and some wildly powerful electrical storms. Most of Verrdinaat's population lived underground because of this phenomenon. The buildings there still followed the Ruulothi customary architecture but were built to endure and draw the power surges of the lightning strikes away from the vitals of the structure.

There were, of course, other lunar and planetary colonies in system that required habitation domes, a fairly large Station City in the nearby asteroid belt, and at least six other star systems worth of planets and colonies. But they were not here for those planets or those colonies. They were here for Ruuloth, the home of the Ruulothi people and seat of their government.

Which he had yet to lay eyes on.

Right now what he was seeing was Ruufarrl pacing a path into the floor, hands behind his back and fidgeting.

It was an amusing enough sight, and it helped Conrad to get his mind off his own butterflies. But he kept his composure. They weren't only there for a pleasant visit, and he wasn't one to make light of that. It was nearly time for him to take the lead, so to speak. Nearly time to give humanity a shot at the Galactic stage. Nearly time to attempt to thwart the immortal ambitions of a Shadow Cabal with near infinite resources. Nearly time... for a funeral.

Every time he started to get ahead of himself he remembered that. They were also here to see off his dead friend, to return him home.

He looked over at the cargo crate for probably the tenth time since they had disembarked and Ruufarrl had started pacing, "Almost there, Kiiroth. You're nearly home. Just a few more minutes."

The other Ruulothi that had returned with them merely kept their distance. They didn't know him that well, so they weren't sure if he was prone to outbursts. Better to be safe than a potential target.

Eventually, their wait ended and they boarded the shuttle down. Rather, they boarded the small inter-system ferry ship, which then took them down to the surface as a part of its route.

Ruulothi Customs had started at the Space station, as soon as they exited the ship. The Customs Officer was the first Ruulothi that Conrad had seen that hadn't reacted in any way to his presence or honorific. He was simply a straight-laced professional that accepted the information that was given to him without judgement. The only thing of Conrad's that he raised an eyebrow at were his tools and parts kits. But after checking through them for anything hidden, he marked them off and moved on.

He had taken on a different mannerism when Ruufarrl admitted to having Kiiroth's remains in the cargo container. After verifying and streamlining the paperwork the Customs Officer had made a call and assured Ruufarrl that appropriate measures would be waiting them on the ground.

The trip down was far smoother than any other planetary entry he had been on thus far, likely due to the extra mass of the Ferry absorbing the vibrations and wind shear. This ship also had no windows or viewing ports. So, even though they had technically made landfall, he still had no idea what the place looked like.

The moment the ship touched down and the boarding light turned green the others in the ship stood up and filed out of the seating area. When Conrad made to do the same Ruufarrl held his arm out and motioned for him to stay seated. A few minutes later and they were airborne again.

Judging from the directional velocity and acceleration pattern they weren't going back to orbit, but were instead traveling to a different port on the same planet. It took them roughly an hour to touch down again, and this time Ruufarrl signaled that they would be leaving.

But instead of exiting the boarding ramp like before, they were escorted down into a cargo area to collect their things and then to a bay door in the back of the craft. Almost forgetting, Conrad activated the camera on the drone just as the lock clicked open and the door seal hissed.

The doors buzzed open with a soft whirring of gears and mechanisms, folding outward to let in warm orange light and dry air. As the heat from the day flooded in he saw Ruufarrl take in a deep breath before sighing in satisfaction. He looked to Conrad and gave him a nod, then turned and pushed the Grav-cart with their cargo out the door and into the daylight. Conrad took a final look around to ensure that they had collected everything and followed, getting his first glimpse of Ruuloth.

It was very... red.

In retrospect, he supposed that made sense. He had only ever seen one Ruulothi that didn't have some sort of Rust or Red color somewhere on them, and Loormar had been Black with a little bit of Tan. Still a camouflaging coat color if ever there was one. But he wasn't mentally prepared for the vast array of reds that he saw.

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Ruuloth seemed to be a planet that thrived on red in the was that Earth and N. Rios thrived on greens. The leaves and the grass, the bushes and ferns were all in some form a red hue. Some were darker than others, some had a little bit more of a different color such as orange or purple or splashes of green to give them highlights, but it was all beautiful in the same way that his own planet was. It actually reminded him of what a warm autumn would look like, with everything taking subtle golden orange highlights and reflections from the sun.

The sky was still blue with white clouds at least. Though unless something was chemically off with the atmosphere, that really wasn't likely to change.

As he looked out into the distance he saw copses of trees with light brown and gray trunks and wide, red canopies and tall roots that sheltered entire buildings. If they were to the scale that they appeared to be, they easily competed to be among the tallest trees mankind had found. They looked to him like some sort of giant mangrove, but without the swamp. The dirt that he could see was a dark, almost burnt orange color and the water in the river to his left reflected the orange/red of the silt and sand beneath it to create a purple on the edges that faded to the more recognizable blue that he was familiar with.

"There will be plenty of time for sightseeing, Conrad. Let's clear the pad so that they may return to their duties."

Conrad started from his reverie and chased after him, "Right, sorry."

"There is no need to apologize. This is the first world you have seen that does not follow the typical color pattern, correct?"

"It is. I didn't expect it to be so... I think the appropriate term is 'Strange, yet jarringly familiar'?"

Ruufarrl chuckled at this, "That it is."

He continued to lead them to the building at the edge of the pad. As they neared it and cleared the danger zone around the pad, the Ferry's engines spooled up again. Conrad turned to look and got his first view of the bird that had brought them down. It followed all the known rules of aerospace engineering and had a long, wide sweeping fuselage dotted with control thruster ports with wide, delta shaped wings. Its tail had a horizontal crossbar and an upper and lower swept fin on either side of a twin nacelle engine, and the nose had a collection of four more fins that he believed to be computer-controlled stabilizers of some sort. The shoulders of the wings had their own engine nacelles, which were currently pointing upwards while it sat on extremely fat wheeled landing gear.

As the engines spooled up he could see the exhaust ports flaring and shifting in direction as the pilot dialed up the thrust. Soon after it floated up on a heated cushion of air and slowly flew forward until it gained the momentum necessary to shift the wing nacelles into primary thrust, and then it simply took off and was gone from view in a few scant seconds.

After the ship left Conrad resumed following Ruufarrl, who did not seem to mind the brief delay and had watched with a mildly amused look on his face. Ruufarrl led them to the service building, and they were met by two clearly military or security Ruulothi exiting the building in what could only be described as a uniform.

Ruulothi in general did not wear much in the way of fabric, usually deigning to only wear short pants that fit their slightly digitigrade legs, mantles and some sort of utility harness that allowed them pockets and carrying capacity.

These two wore matching black pants with angled red piping, wide harnesses made with a strange looking red leather with filled holsters for a curved knife and short carbine that lay along their leg. Their harnesses also included a section across their chest that said several somethings in Ruulothi script, which looked like various claw marks vaguely reminiscent of ancient human languages written on clay tablets. On their forearms they wore what appeared to be armored bracers of some sort, which also both doubled as personal wrist-links and a head piece that looked as though it was designed for personal communication.

"Odd, no armor, outside of the bracers anyway. Come to think of it, I haven't really seen ANY security force wear recognizable armor like human police do. I wonder why that is? Is it too expensive or are weapons not that common? One would think that among the Ruulothi, weapons would be available, and they have their claws and teeth... Oh, wait. What was it he said about those that harm others? They get exiled to the worst parts of the planet? So, it must be a cultural thing then. Hmm, not sure what that really says about us though."

Ruufarrl spoke with them briefly and they waved another older Ruulothi out of the building. If it wasn't for the age and slight fading grays creeping in around his muzzle, he would have been the spitting image of Kiiroth. Conrad straightened as the newcomer nodded at Ruufarrl before looking down at the container with a mixture of emotions. He never said anything as he took the grav-cart from him and went away with the two guards. Two more Security types took their place after they re-entered the building.

Ruufarrl looked back at Conrad and sighed, "That was his father, Kiiyoor. They will take him to his family to prepare for the funeral, which will likely be on the Day of Remembrance in a couple of days. Don't let his silence get to you. Kiiroth was their only child, and they have been waiting a long time for him to come home… You will likely see another side of him the day after. For that is Founding Day, and it is a day of celebration."

“You have a Day of Mourning and a Day of Celebration right after one another?”

“We do. The Day of Remembrance is for all the tragedies from the year before. Founding Day is to celebrate the opportunities of the next year and the gifts and joys of the previous.”

He turned back to the guards briefly and tilted his head, one of them nodded to him and they both stepped sideways to allow them room to walk past. Ruufarrl waved his arm to Conrad, "But enough of that talk. Come, there are many more sights to see. We are a guest of the Clan while we stay here and will be afforded every opportunity to get the full experience."

He took a deep breath as he walked by the escorts and looked around once more at the scenery that wasn't blocked by the buildings surrounding the landing pad. "It is good to be home again."

___________________________________________________________________________

Their escorts led them through the complex surrounding the Shuttle Port, passing many Ruulothi, and a few other aliens, that were working on the premises. Their path eventually brought them to a vehicle garage where they were led to a waiting vehicle. Ruufarrl gave them a gesture of thanks and they turned and left them with their vehicle.

"Does everybody get an escort?"

"Everyone who lands at a Clan's Port, yes. It is just a way of verifying that they are who they said they were, double checking those they are with, and a sign of respect and station. Only those on Clan business are allowed to use a Clan's personal Port. All others must make use of the public Shuttle Ports in the cities."

"And this is ours for the trip? Or is it an automatic one like you spoke of before?"

"Yes to both. It is automated and has been provided for us for the duration of our stay. Given that you do not yet know the names of our destinations or our language, I will be providing the travel input, as you did for me on your world. Shall we?"

Ruufarrl waved his arm at the vehicle for him to enter. Thus far, everything that Conrad had seen had been at least passingly familiar as designs that adhered to the rules of physics more than that of aesthetics. This vehicle, now that they were getting to things that were more personal in nature, was the first departure from that ideal that he had seen.

The main body was an angular teardrop shape, wider in the front and narrower in the back with a stabilizing fin/landing strut jutting out the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the rear. A wing of some sort came out of the center of the nose and swept back to where the stabilizer fins started where it terminated against the main body. The wing was attached to the body for it's entirety, almost like a child's floatie ring. A large dual pane window was installed at the front of the craft, and two smaller windows ran down the sides of the craft, allowing the occupants the luxury of seeing all around them. Just behind the primary front windows was a gull wing style entry hatch on either side of the vehicle.

If anything, it reminded Conrad of a Horseshoe Crab or a Stingray. Not at all the kind of thing he had imagined that the Ruulothi would prefer. "But then again, it is a very practical and minimalist design. Those wings don't look like they'd do much, but I am sure there is some sort of safety or other type of tech that gives it function beyond its appearance."

He looked at the doors then paused, "I, uhh, I don't see an entry button."

Ruufarrl tilted his head in confusion and looked at the car himself. "Ah, right. You humans tend to make such things obvious and mechanical." He pointed at a small logo on the door, "There, it is a surface sensor that detects pressure, biometrics and the presence of a wrist terminal. Place your hand on it and key the terminal prompt."

Conrad followed the instructions tentatively. He wasn't entirely sure that it would work, but it did slowly make the connection to his own wrist-link. He was forced to stop again as the prompt came up in Ruulothi Dialect. Chuckling to himself at his own misstep, Ruufarrl stepped in and pointed to the correct icon, "That one. It says Uungar, which means Open."

He made mental note of the pattern of the character as he hit it, just in case. The door latch clicked, then hissed as the pressures equalized. Conrad stepped back as the door swung up and out revealing a six-seat cabin with one seat in front and back, and two on either side. Conrad got in and made himself comfortable. Each seat had its own five-point harness, so he hooked in while waiting for Ruufarrl to work the computer. A few short moments later and the car hummed to life, floated up off the ground and smoothly began to move forward.

It took only a few seconds to exit the garage through an open bay door, and then Conrad was swept back into his seat as the car pitched up to go over what looked to be a ridgeline on the far side of the Port. As the vehicle leveled out again Ruufarrl turned in his chair, leaned back and waved his arm at the windows, "Welcome, Conrad, to the Nightmane Clan Holds."

Conrad suddenly found himself very grateful for the abundance of viewing options.

The view of the other side of the ridge was... spectacular.

A deep forest swept from the base of the ridgeline out into the distance where it frayed out into fields. The river that he had seen before was now on his right, having come down a waterfall off the ridgeline. The forest stood on the other side of it as well and continued on as far as the eye could see in that direction.

Downriver a large town or small city could be seen, likely the Nightmane Clan Hold proper. The buildings designed in a way that emulates them having been built around the trunk of a tree, looking for all the world like giant circular treehouses made of a light tan stone and red canvas. Bracing spars flared out from the bottoms of the building core, and what looked like angular canvas wind covers stuck out from above the windows. Each of the buildings had spire like objects on top of them, though what these could be, Conrad had no idea. A few even had gardens or recreation areas on their roofs.

Each of the buildings looked as though they had other, slightly smaller buildings in their shadows, making the most of the dead space in between the raised cores of the buildings and the ground. Instead of the straight, segmented road plans that Conrad was familiar with, the roads here wound like snakes between and around the various buildings. Like paths worn into the forest floor. At the ground level were various parking zones, yards and gardens tucked in under the canopied buildings. A tributary of the river wound through a part of the town, small gardens and foot bridges looped over and around it.

Residences seemed to follow the same design layout as the other buildings, but they were often much smaller and tended to include far more personal touches that the commercial and business buildings with larger yard spaces.

It took Conrad a moment to key into it, but something seemed off about the whole thing, like something was missing from the picture. He thought about it as they flew, heading towards a cluster of buildings at the top of a hill. It wasn't until his wrist link flickered his bedtime alarm that it hit him. There was no advertising. No billboards, no neon lights or flashing signs or traffic lights. The town was clean of distractions, almost sanitized in its appearance now that he was paying attention to it. Then he realized that wasn't entirely the case. There were signs, but they were made to be obvious to ground traffic while blending in otherwise. Large poles with angular red canvas flags of Ruulothi script going down them stood in predetermined locations, giving the necessary directions to walkers and riders on the ground.

Ruufarrl interrupted his sightseeing with a soft question. "What do you think?"

"It looks so peaceful... and beautiful. But I am not sure I would be able to figure out your roads without a lot of practice. Your forests almost remind me of jungles, but it doesn't seem as though things get that wet here. Is this a mostly dry area?"

Ruufarrl gave him a knowing smile, "The roads would take some getting used to, considering you are used to mostly straight lines. But in all honesty, they are not that difficult to learn. Well, not if you can read the signs, at least. The weather is dry, yes. Most of the vegetation either stores its own water or steals from other sources. The trees' roots go very deep, into the underground aquifers. We also tap into them, to bring water up for our crops and gardens if there isn't a source available on the surface. It rains only a few times a year."

The car was slowing down now and looked to be coming in for a landing at the hilltop residences. Conrad looked out the window to see a collection of the recognizable guards and other figures on an open yard area in front of the buildings.

"Ahh, it looks as though my niece and her family are ready to meet us."

"Not your son and his family?"

Ruufarrl gave him a short sigh and a small smile, "No, the duties of a Clan Head are many, even more in this day and age. We will meet him at the ceremony for sure, and perhaps sooner if the winds blow our way, but I will not expect him. I installed a bedroom at the Hearing Hall during my tenure for a reason. It would be entirely too much to impose upon them as hosts. But, be prepared to talk. Naarviix is a glutton for new things. If you are not careful, she may spirit away your Portable Terminal when you are not looking. She loves learning new things so."

The car had landed and stopped, and Ruufarrl stood at the door.

"Are you ready?"