But it didn't really matter. He was used to being the first to do something. First to escape Rik-Vane. First to mate amongst his crew. Now, first to have a hybrid s’skree. He’d figure it out as he went along and address problems as he found or thought about them.
This was his female, his youngling, his future. A priceless treasure that he would use all of his power to protect, no matter what.
Epilogue - 10 years later…
Garnet
“Can’t catch me!”
Turning on the ball of her feet, Garnet swept her arm out, down low. The tips of her fingers just barely missed her daughter as she sprinted past.
“Ray! We don’t have time for this!” Garnet huffed, straightening her dress. The formal attire was, luckily, loose enough that she could move without issue to hunt her daughter down. But she didn't want to muss everything up. Especially not after all the effort she put into making herself look nice.
This was a big occasion. She wanted to look her best. More importantly, she wanted her daughter to look her best. But the little gremlin, wearing nothing but a robe towel, hood covering her lowered quills, was laughing as she ran away and hid in the privy.
Unfortunately, that just meant she ran straight into a trap.
Ray let out a squeal of shock, followed by more laughter. A moment later, dressed in his own finery, Tanin stepped out, the wiggly little girl in his arms.
“I don’t want to wear a dress!” She yelled, flopping back dramatically. “It’s sostuffy!”
“We offered you a suit like your father’s, but you said you wanted to match me,” Garnet reminded her. “And I’m wearing a dress. Sit and let your father shine your quills.”
Ray let out the most dramatic and drawn out groan possible, but she didn't resist as Tanin sat her down in front of Garnet’s vanity.
Garnet couldn’t shine her quills anymore. She had officially reached the age when they started to get sharp, which meant Garnet’s soft hands couldn’t run through them anymore without cutting herself. It was up to Tanin to do their maintenance now, as not only was his skin thicker, but his knuckle claws played double duty as handy blocks so they didn't stab his hand as he spread her quill oil down to her scalp.
“Why do I have to go anyway?” Ray pouted, smacking her thighs.
“Because this is a big ceremony for Uncle Alred, and he deserves everyone in the family to support him. Besides, all your cousins will be there. It’s not like you won’t have someone to hang out with.”
“But, like, it will beso boring,” Ray said, rolling her big, red eyes. Everything about her was so dramatic and theatrical. It was so completely opposite of her father, it was baffling.
It made Garnet wonder sometimes if this was how Tanin might have been. If Rik-Vane hadn’t hardened and shaped him into the male he was today – quiet, solemn, serious – would he be just as vibrant and excitable as Ray was now?
Garnet paused as she approached, Ray’s dress over her arm, shoes and accessories in her hands, and just stared at them.
Ray was a hybrid, and it was clearly marked upon her. Her skin wasn’t the same gray as her father’s, but nor was it the earthen tone of Garnet’s. It was somewhere in the middle, creating a new skin tone that was perfectly matched between them. She didn't have any skin lights, but those didn't appear until after puberty in s’skree anyway, so they weren’t due to appear yet. She had her father’s red eyes though, and the swirling marks on his skin were spread across her back and belly. She also had a body shape more similar to Garnet’s than a s’skree females. Where a s’skree would have very prominent, bony hips, Ray was developing more like Garnet. She was still too young to have proper curves, but she didn't have the hard bony points that a s’skree girl would have even at this age. But the biggest difference were her quills.
S’skree quills ranged from white to gray to silver. Ray’s were white only at the scalp where they were growing in. At their points, they were dark red, closer to Garnet’s hair color. It was an obvious mark signaling that she was a hybrid. The quills were just as sharp and dangerous as Tanin’s, but their colored tips were unique to Ray. And they were hard. Unbreakable like steel.
Tanin looked up from his task, catching her eye. He cocked his head, asking her what she was thinking without a word.
After ten years being mated, they could read each other easily. Tanin often didn't have to do more than give her a look and she knew what he wanted to say.
It had been a great ten years. Not all of it, of course. They had their ups and downs – some pretty far downs at times. But they were able to get through all of it together. And all those hardships, all those trials, had made them so many new friends, new allies, given them new opportunities.
Things were so different ten years ago.
Sometimes, she and Tanin talked about having another sling. But everything already seemed so perfect and complete, Garnet couldn’t imagine changing it. Maybe one day. Thanks to medical science in the Coalition, they were both likely to live to probably two hundred years old, and they could extend their fertility that entire time if they wished.
For now, though, she was happy with her family the way it was.
Closing the distance, she set Ray’s clothes down beside her. Tanin finished oiling her quills and patted her shoulder.
“Go get changed,” he ordered.
Ray let out another exaggerated sigh but didn’t run this time as she grabbed her clothes and trudged her way to the privy. The moment the door shut, Garnet broke out into giggles.
