Stories of the SteelBlood Tribe [playthrough?]

[AdamantineChains]

Here I will show adventures of my nichelings from SteelBlood tribe - that is already estabilished on their island, but just as the times of stability came along, that made the room for our dear nichelings to live their days more according to their own rules rather than bare survival.
I will be sharing their stories from now on.

 

 

“Rein, Rein! Your parents have decided! You will take over their role as Alpha! They had found a suitable mate for you! “ Old white Sime chirped excitedly while still running towards the oldest of Alphas’ children, who, by the way didn’t seem to be all that thrilled to hear the news. Sime was surprised to find her favorite niece protectively curled over a bundle of bright yellow fur. She blinked.

“ Is that… that couldn’t possibly be… “ She begin, but Rein hissed aggressively at her:
“Shhh! Don’t yell, everybody will hear you! “  while curling her tail around her legs to furtherly hide the little baby.
The Baby however was feeling fidgety and it tried hard to get his muzzle out of mother’s fur – until it succeeded. And believe me, the sight of its face almost gave old aunt Sime a heart attack.
“Oh no, what happened to it? It doesn’t look well… where is his beak? This doesn’t look natural, he’ll die! How will he eat with this… thing on his face? “ There was a lot of questions Sime wanted to ask, but kept her voice down… she loved Rein as if she was her daughter and didn’t want to get her in trouble. But boy, this was sure to get Rein in trouble If her parents knew…

“Its father had face like that too and he was sure surviving… and alone, to mention that. It can’t be a lethal condition! “ Rein explained, a little calmer now seeing that her aunt wasn’t going to rat her out, but still, she was a bit angry at the mortified expression on Sime’s face.

“Was it this loner your uncles tried so hard to chase out last month? Oh poor dear… those ugly monsters can’t be trusted to… “

“Stop! He did not force me to anything! He was real nice and while he did look strange… we both wanted to have at least one child… since I knew there was a big possibility that parents would choose my younger siblings over me… and when new Alphas are chosen only they can have babies…”

“But you are the new Alpha… and what will become of this child? Parents want to see you right now. You can’t show it to them and expect them to accept it.”

“Then I won’t… I… I’ll go see my parents… could you watch him for a while?” – Rein’s voice softened into shy plea, nothing of the previous aggression remaining…
“Just tell me one thing Auntie…” – Rein started, turning towards the pathway leading to the royal nest

“Yes?”
“Is that future mate of mine… one of my little brothers?” Sime’s eyes saddened as she nodded. Rein looked at the ground…

“As I thought…” – She wasn’t fond of the idea…she always imagined she would find her own mate… and she found… but he couldn’t stay, otherwise males from the tribe would kill him… and maybe they did… but so long as parents were strong and ruled as Alphas, there was no going around it… she had to obey them… for the good of her beloved child, so she can feed it in safety of the tribe… even if they couldn’t know about him…

 

“Rein, you’re here, finally, what took you so long?” Said the big male by the royal nest – her father, Araka. Next to him was standing Inese, Rein’s mother with stunning black fur and darkest beak. Around the nest were her royal brothers and sisters – not royal for long, though, due to their tradition. Once a new alpha pair was chosen, which was about to happen – all the siblings would become workers.

But most importantly, there was a baby curled up in the nest. With unique grayish shade of his beak, it bore a striking resemblance to his father.

“This is Kirtanu, Rein” – said Araka “Your future mate as an alpha of this tribe.”

“He is… so tiny… father, this is still a baby, he could have been my son by now!” Rein was agitated. How dare they order her to think about being… future mates with this baby.

“Shush, dear” Murmured Inese, her voice gentler and less authoritative “I know he’s very young and it may seem weird to you… but he’s the strongest of our male children. It is the only guarantee that our tribe will stay heathy. Please understand. We only wish for you to have healthy children as an alpha. Tribe’s fate depends on it. You remember the stories about our ancestors on another island, right? How they almost succumbed to the plague because they risked breeding with weaker partners?” There was only concern in Inese’s voice. “If our ancestors didn’t flee the plague ridden land and create our traditions, our tribe would be gone long ago…”
Rein knew that her mother truly believed her words… it didn’t make her less angry about being betrothed to the baby, but she didn’t want to seem stubborn in such serious matter. She could disappoint her rigid father anytime, she didn’t care, but to see her mother sad due to her decisions… that would have been too much for her.

She didn’t have a choice. With a small nod she acknowledged her mother’s wish.
“I understand”

“Good thing” – Araka’s deep voice interrupted the exchange of words between Rein and her mother.

“Now it is your duty to care for little Kirtanu. Be his friend and I am sure he will be a good mate to you once he grows up.” – There was something about the dry way Araka said this that bothered Rein. But then again, that was the way of the tribe…

“As for you, my other children!” – Araka raised his voice
“Now it is time for you to grow up and find yourselves a job among the tribe. There is never too little food collectors! See what you can find so Kirtanu and Rein won’t have to worry about hunger when as future alphas they will be caring so our tribe will have a glorious future!

His two other teen sons seemed oddly excited for what was, according to Rein, quite a miserable life… without children, without mate… in a way, even though she weren’t glad about her parents’ choice, she felt lucky that she got to be the next Alpha after all… maybe when her parents retire she could even get the tribe to accept her firstborn son… Her sister on the side seemed a little sad. Reasonably though – she shared Rein’s desire for motherhood – but wasn’t so lucky. Rein made a promise to herself to talk about it with her sister… later.

Now as everyone was leaving for their duties… she stared at Kirtanu’s cute baby face… nothing like deformed snout of her own son. Kirtanu had every quality of a true SteelBlood. Shining yellow fur, beige mane starting to emerge on his head, sharp, healthy looking beak and strong paws… her mother may have been right after all… what if this is just… the best that can be for the future of the tribe?

But first things first. Her son, contrary to her future mate, was already able to walk reasonable distances… she couldn’t have him discovered by the tribe. Not when Araka was still leading it. She decided to ask aunt Sime a big favor. To care for her son. And get him away from the tribe, over the water. She promised to bring them tribe’s food rations every day.
Sime wasn’t sure at first… but she was already getting old… maybe she could grow older doing something more exciting than gathering berries? She was denied motherhood by tribe’s tradition – but she still could help caring for this child, as deformed as he is… maybe this could ease her restless maternal instincts?
So she agreed, and they went to cross the water. None of them ever seen what’s beyond the shore of their peninsula. Now they were about to see… but they had to wade across first.

After leaving her firstborn under Auntie Sime’s care, Rein took care to sneak them food every day… but she couldn’t interact much with her child, the tribe would notice if she was missing for too long. And one day… all she found was Sime’s body on the shore… old white SteelBlood clearly passed away in her sleep… she looked so peaceful. But for worse… young Arkeo, her only son, was nowhere to be seen! Has the blue bird taken him? No, he surely was big enough not to fall prey to it… but the rain washed out any scent of his… after searching the little island through and through, the only thing to do was to return to her tribe. Days were passing and Rein seemed sad, but no one noticed – everyone was busy with their own duties as workers. There was one creature who cared though. Young Kirtanu was maturing into a formidable young male, and has always seen Rein as his friend,  and hoped that they could be something more soon. After all, his father Araka used to tell him that they were meant to bring forward future generations of the tribe.
Every day he tried to cheer her up, but he had no idea why she was so down… but Rein appreciated his care… eventually she started to forget about her sadness, and decided that maybe this is what had to happen… for the good of tribe. And it would be best to just go along with her fate and become mother again, but to true SteelBlood children who would inherit the land after her… and no one would treathen them or look down on them…