The Family Trade

[Aafke Haran'jai]

Zanbar had always been home to her. She found her family here, she had her close ones here, it'd given her everything she owned, it had made her what she was today and for that and many more reasons, Aafke would never be as happy as she was in this planet, this was her place in the galaxy and it would always be. Sometimes she couldn't help but wonder what her home-world would be like. Aafke never got to know where she came from or what she was, apparently her kind had been shy in getting out of their planet, whichever it might be. It had troubled her during many years of her childhood, but today she could say it didn't matter any longer. She had been given something much better than whatever that world could have offered.

Today she would be hunting with her father, the one who had taken her into the clan and the man she loved more than anything in the whole universe. She'd grown very attached to the Ragithian man, the person who had every single droplet of her hard earned trust. In her eyes, her patterned green eyes, Volkan was every bit her father, for family was far more than what united just in the blood.

Aafke was waiting for him in their meeting point, on top of a mesa that looked onto one of the great plains of Zanbar, with an enormous woods standing behind it, the ones they would be visiting today for the hunt. She was concentrated, waiting to catch either the sound, smell or sight of her father but an enormous ball of fur and teeth had other plans. Hodayc rolled closer to her, putting just too much of his weight on one of her legs, eliciting a perfectly imitated growl from the Mahanaim that made the big Kad'uliik return to its original position and bump the shoulder of the woman with its wide muzzle, sending her a little bit off balance to what she responded with a slight smack on the neck of the feline. They seemed to be two siblings bickering rather than a master and a trained war beast.

[member="Volkan Haran'jai"]

 

[4ND-R0]

A loud thud was heard behind Aafke and her pet. A large, giant of man astride an equally large saber-cat. His armor was indeed the traditional beskar'gam of the Mandalorians, but adorned on it was bone, horns, and all manner of tribal trinkets from beasts. He dismounted from his cat, patting her snout. He was Volkan, chieftain of the Mandalorian clan of Haran'jai. He removed his helmet, bearing the face of an older man. His skin was tanned, his hair kept in the fashions of many, more primitive warriors. He moved over to the younger woman, chuckling as there was a bit of back and forth.

"Ad'ika." He said simply, his voice rumbling like thunder off the mountain, "I thought you and that beast would have come to an accord by now."

His own cat lumbered over to the younger of her kind, giving an almost parental snarl. Not too far fetched, for the old she-cat had born the cub-turned-adult that accompanied Volkan's daughter. He looked over into the horizon, out in the great woodland as the sun of Zanbar reached the point of when hunting would be right. He narrowed his eyes and nodded, looking to his daughter and nodding. He could see movement in the distance, a herd of wild game waiting to be picked for meat.

"Looks like we've got good pickings this day, daughter." He said, placing his helmet back on and readying himself, "Let's not waste the sunlight."

He saddled himself back upon his cat, and began making his way down the mesa, towards the woodland.

[member="Aafke Haran'jai"]

 

[Aafke Haran'jai]

Aafke smiled as soon as she could hear the sound of her father's and his Kad'uliik approaching her, sound was soon accompanied by the characteristic smell she recognized so easily by now and at last, the silhouette of Volkan and the female feline came into view. She quickly stood up, placing on of her hands on top of Hodayc's head.

"Su cuy'gar, buir" she greeted her father in Mando'a, her green eyes shimmering with recognition and admiration. She chuckled upon his next words, Hodayc and her were still adjusting some aspects of their relationship, something to be expected given the stubborn and clever nature of the Kad'uliik. However, now that his mother was there to keep him in place the enormous feline seemed to have been thrown back into the days of his infancy, for he sat next to the paws of its mother reaching for the same closeness he had kept when he was still a vulnerable cub.

Aafke's eyes followed the ones of her father, she could perfectly see what would become their prey that day and nodded approvingly. She reached down, picking up buy'ce but not putting it on yet seeing as how there would be no need for her helmet until they were nearer their hunting spot. Following the lead of her father and alor of her clan, Aafke swiftly mounted Hodayc, who followed the pace of the she-cat.

[member="Volkan Haran'jai"]