Chapter Text
Chapter 11: Down The Cliff
“Lack of sex-specific contributions of non-trias sapiens to modern humans raises interesting questions about where in human evolution the distinction between betas, omegas, and alphas began (Sato et al, 2017). While we can make no assumptions about how these groups interacted, we can be certain there was substantial overlap for several thousand years.” Jade, Mara & Tano, Ahsoka "Revisiting the Interbreeding Theories of Early Human Population - A Systematic Review.”The Journal of Genetic Paleontology and Anthropology, vol 23, no.1, 2018, pp. 1-34
When Rey woke Kylo for the second watch, they didn't discuss what he'd said. Part of Rey wondered if he even remembered what he'd mumbled in his half-asleep state. She did. It echoed in her head as she went to sleep, but she didn't press. The middle of the night wasn't the time for this talk.
The start of their day was spent walking in mostly silence, but she didn't press there, either. She needed time to consider and think. Besides, there was always time for talking when they camped for the evening.
Kylo barely spoke seven words to her over the course of the morning. He silently offered to carry Hava or Alynn as they reached out to him, but otherwise he took his usual position at her side and trudged through the woods without any conversation.
Rey knew they'd need to talk eventually but wanted to save it for when they could settle down, and watch the kids.
Which is why she almost unsteadied her when she heard herself say: "Where do you think they are?"
Kylo hesitated for the space of the step but then shrugged, “I’m not sure, really. Probably near the desert lands by now. They don’t have to cross it, so at this point they should be okay.”
Rey was suddenly reminded of the lowskull tribe she’d seen on her way north and wondered if the two groups could keep the peace. Knowing Unkar, the tribe would likely hunker down in their cave, hidden except from knowledgeable travelers who knew how to recognize their tracks.
I wonder if the shadow packs have already swept through that land
Rey remembered the dark-skinned people she’d seen on her first travels north. Had they been related to the group that had attacked them? Their numbers had been small then, but maybe they’d joined forces with their cousins.
Kylo broke the silence this time: “What do we do if-”
“No,” Rey cut him off firmly, “we’re not discussing that. We’re not even-”
“Rey,” Kylo said, grabbing her hand to make her stop and look at him, “this was the herd I was born to. I don’t want to think about that either, but not discussing alternatives is foolish.”
Rey looked away from his face, eyes falling to their joined hands.
Kylo looked down, too, then back up at her. He didn’t move away, but the air was suddenly full of an anxious scent.
Finally, with excruciating slowness, Rey nodded. She pressed her lips together, trying to stifle her own anxiety, even as it fed on the smell. Whether it was him or her or the babies, she didn't know. All she knew is she had to be calm. Exhaling slowly, she nodded and started walking again for something to do., “Okay, if we beat them to Unkar’s cave system- for lack of a better word, what do we do?”
"You know the area better than I do," Kylo said, falling into step beside her, "what do you think?"
Rey turned over her memories of the area, trying to think of the safest ways along the wall, “I say we try to stay together and stay put for at least a month. The area is plentiful and, if they’re lost, they’ll know to follow the basin’s outer rim on the North Side until they see us.”
“After that, should we follow the basin wall south?”
Rey nodded “That may be the best plan. We’ll either find them or someone who they might have crossed paths with.”
“And… from there?”
Rey looked at Hava, who was absently peering around at the world over the side of tes sling. She didn’t want to linger on the idea of losing her entire family AGAIN, but she had to. She had to make herself face the potential truth.
“We either go until we find a herd or pack or stay put until one finds us.”
Kylo nods, “that’s what I was thinking."
Rey nodded back, but it was stiff. She couldn't hide the fear much more as the implication of what they were discussing, the potential loss she could be confronting in another few days, seemed to settle on her shoulders.
“I never thanked you,” Rey said finally. She took a deep breath, trying to keep her voice more neutral than she felt, but she knew Kylo could smell the awkwardness of the moment.
“For what?” Kylo asked, looking over at her.
“For saving my child.”
“It-” Kylo looked almost incredulous, “of course I saved him.”
“It’s- I didn’t think you wouldn’t try,” Rey corrected herself, “but you succeeded. You’re the reason Alynn is alive. There’s no way he could have rolled all the way down that hill without getting hurt. I can never repay that.”
“There’s nothing to repay,” Kylo promised, a sudden fierce edge to his voice. He sped up his pace, a sour note of agitation in his scent. Rey sped up too, glancing over at his face on occasion. His profile was a sudden and fierce reminder of the warrior Rey had seen by the cave.
“'Lo!” Hava protested from inside the sling, “Hey! 'Lo, you’re bumpy!”
Kylo blinked and looked down, then sighed and slowed his pace, “sorry, kid.”
“S’okay,” Hava mumbled, resting tes head back against Kylo’s chest. Te’d tended to do that now, even with Kylo. Rey wondered, distantly, if the alpha had realized her child was listening to his heartbeat.
“What’s wrong?” Rey finally asked. She purposefully kept her voice low and soothing, trying to keep her scent gentle and placating.
“You don’t owe me anything,” Kylo said stiffly. There was still agitation in his scent and he wouldn’t meet Rey’s eyes, “they’re babies. It’s… there’s no debt to be repaid.”
“Alphas take life debts all the time. A recognition of an incredible service owed. Mothers receive gifts in exchange for their alpha children. Alphas give gifts to the omegas who would gift them with the time of their heats.”
Rey pointed these out less to argue her original point (why argue with someone who DOESN’T want repayment for life debt?), but more to understand his reaction. By the traditions of the Threefold People, where was a debt, but Kylo seemed almost desperate to avoid any discussion of it.
“It’s different,” Kylo said.
“How?” Rey pressed.
“Because it is.” Kylo shot back firmly, finally meeting her eyes. The agitation had reached a place where she could practically taste it. Hava chirped and smacked tes mouth, clearly dissatisfied with the situation of tes surroundings. Underneath, though, Rey could smell something else, but couldn’t name it.
Kylo sighed, rubbing Hava’s back and taking a few steps forward to get them clear of the smell, “before you ask: I don’t know why it’s different, but it is. I… your children… I find myself tracking them. Even before, in the crowd, I always seemed to be watching one or the other. I just… when the- what did you call it? ‘Avalanche’?- the avalanche started, I grabbed Alynn because I had to. I couldn’t have left him any more than I could have cut off my own leg and I don’t. know. why.”
“Okay,” Rey said.
Kylo looked at her, “okay?”
“Okay,” Rey shrugged.
“An alpha is obsessed with your children and you say ‘okay’?”
“My children are obsessed with you. Even Hava, which shouldn’t really make any sense.”
Kylo laughed almost ruefully.
“You’re also not a normal alpha,” Rey adds, ”Maybe that explains it. Maybe your Mothers gave these children to me because you’d be able to care for them. Recognize them.”
Kylo looked at her for another long moment, raising an eyebrow, “I may not be like any alpha you know, but you’re not like any omega, either.”
“I dreamed of you. I listened to your heartbeat, felt your arms around me for a hundred nights after you left.”
Kylo just stared at her. He just stared with the hunger of someone starving. It should have scared her, but she had no answer for it. If she could, she’d crack open her rubs, let him break her like a honeycomb, eat his full, but she couldn't. There was no easing this. This could only be smothered, not fed.
“I looked for you, even on days I forgot to look. I see you in every horizon, hear you every time the children laugh.”
“Rey-”
Rey swallowed, “but it doesn’t matter.”
Now Kylo broke through, “It doesn’t matter?!”
“There’s no- I can’t- two years away from each other at a time? You even say you love too deeply for an alpha,” Rey pleaded.
“What else should I do? Distance didn’t work, obviously.”
“It might have,” Rey whispered, “with more time.”
“You’re the sun, Rey,” Kylo said emphatically, “take a plant out of the sun, it shrivels and dies.”
The moment stood between them like a shared ache.
“You’re right, though,” Kylo finally mumbled, “two years is unbearable.”
“We’ll find a way,” Rey suddenly blurted. The alternative, now that she even thinks it, is too much to bear. If she could somehow guarantee that she can see this face every two years, she’ll be able to survive.
“Two years,” Kylo murmured, reaching up to cup her cheek.
“Two years.”
The next days were the happiest and most peaceful they had been since being separated from their families. The arguments were fewer and the conversation was just, softer and easier. It seemed as though the unspoken tension, the weight both of them had been carrying around in the small of their backs had been set down. Because of that, the kids were also happier, too.
It was as peaceful as Rey could possibly be without the security of her herd. They were a pack of four, sure, but rey hadn't had so few eyes watching her back since she left Unkar. the entirely of her children's lives had been spent with mothers and other omegas and betas watching over them, always scanning the forest or watching the cave entrance or holding them.
Despite that keenly felt absence, she never hesitated to hand Alynn or Hava over to Kylo. He could carry both of them with ease, really, but Rey preferred carrying her babies over the heavy pack, so she always had at least one, if not both of them, although when Hava got particularly restless, te'd shove tes little palms into her back, grumpily mumbling about "walking with Lo" until Kylo came and scooped tem up.
One afternoon, Kylo literally did just that: he leaned over, mid-stride, and pulled Hava's sling off of Rey's shoulder and then onto his own in one fluid motion, practically drowning her a soothing scent she only ever associated with betas. It instantly soothed Hava and even put Alynn back to sleep. Rey, meanwhile, was torn: on the one hand, she wanted to curl up for a nap, on the other, she wanted to yank Kylo down by his shirtfront in a way she hadn't wanted to since her heat.
Displays of strength still work, apparently, Rey thought dully.
Kylo Snoke Ren really was strange. It wasn't just the gland and his general neediness, although that was definitely part of it. He had a way of perceiving and understanding the world that Rey had never encountered. More than once, he devised clever little ideas for protecting firewood, redistributing the weight in their packs, reinforcing their shoes, or entertaining the kids on the days when they stopped earlier in the afternoon.
He wasn't just strange, Rey decided. He was clever.
And he had a habit of smiling at her. Not just the slight smile she'd first noticed in the cave during that heat. This was a real and earnest smile that involved his entire face. It was almost dizzying.
One early morning, when they crossed a little creek that she hadn't encountered on her first journey north, he laughed at some joke she'd made and her entire body had grown warm. This wasn't the warmth of lust, either. It seemed to rush from her neck to her ears, then settled across her cheeks.
You're the sun, Rey.
So was he.
Oh, so was he.
They reached the edge of the forest late one evening and decided to camp in the shelter of the trees and take their chances on finding their way into the basin the next day. Kylo and Rey had hidden the two kids in a cave before they'd crept to the treeline, carefully watching the horizon to make sure they were in the right place.
"This is it," Rey promises, pointing to a stone formation less than a mile away, "I think that's where I came up."
"Good, now we just have to find out how to get down and hope no one kills us." Kylo mumbled.
Rey rolled her eyes, "if Unkar wanted to kill me, he would have done it years ago."
"That was before you invited a bunch of the people to his cave," was Kylo's only rebuttal, which Rey didn't even dignify with a response.
They settled into a little cave, tucking the two kids into the back.
After all that time traveling, both Hava and Alynn had naturally developed the habit of crawling to the farthest back wall, curled up on whatever fur or fabric had been put back there for them.
That night, they kept the fire small. The children fell asleep almost immediately, even after being held all day, but Rey found she couldn't sleep. Their conversation from yesterday still turned over in her mind. They would find a way to be together as often as possible. They'd make to with every moment they could muster.
Kylo sighed, laying back in the entrance of their little cave, able to see out if anything came looking. Normally, Rey would end up behind him, curled around the babies or else with her back to his. This time, though, she did something different. She stepped over Kylo and kneeled next to him, meeting his gaze steadily. He was watching her with a hungry wariness, like he couldn't decide whether to pull her closer or shove her back.
No, he wanted her closer.
You're the sun.
Rey lay down next to him, resting her head on his chest. His arm slid around her back, a little awkwardly at first, but still. Rey hadn't ever slept like this, that she could remember. In the winter, she'd often settle onto her side so she could huddle next to Finn or Rose or whoever was close to her, but otherwise she was the one acting like a headrest for her children. Kylo's hand felt so large that it could span her entire body. He absently rubbed his palm along her back, making it impossible to think of anything she could say or do in this moment. Every time she came anywhere close to gathering up her thoughts, he moved just slightly and it all went spilling out of her head again.
"Sleep, Rey," Kylo finally murmured, his voice a low rumble against her cheek. She nodded drowsily.
Distantly, the memory of a lifetime ago seemed to creep into the half-wakeful silence of the moment. In Rey's mind, she felt herself resting like this on someone else's chest, their heavily-freckled skin visible through her half-closed lids as they hummed and toyed with her hair. It wasn't her mother, Rey thought, but still someone she knew and who had loved her. Across all that time and space, Rey could smell a particularly warm, sweet, and honeyed scent rolling over her, soothing her off to sleep in a way she couldn't have fought without extreme difficulty.
If she'd been slightly more awake, then Rey Niima would have noticed that she wasn't just remembering the honeyed smell of soothing sleep, but was smelling it herself.
"You said getting up was pretty difficult, but I think getting down might actually kill one of us," Kylo said, looking down one of the cliff walls and to the ground far below.
"I think we'll have to find an easier way in and travel back here," Rey said, nodding her head, "if we keep against the wall, we'll find our way to Unkar pretty clearly, although it may not be very fast at all."
"How do you not know how fast it is to get out of here?" Kylo asked, raising an eyebrow, "that is something you should just... know about a place that you're living."
Rey shrugged, "I didn't leave until I did."
Kylo pressed his lips together, nodding almost sheepishly. He settled onto his stomach, looking down the sheer rock face as best as he could, “I see hand and foot holds all the way down, I think, but I don’t think it’ll be easy to do this with anything on our backs, either.”
“When I was going up, I’d leave my bag at a stopping place and lift it after me using a rope around my waist,” Rey said, shrugging, “what if we just lower stuff down? First the bags, then the children?”
“You trust the ropes with the children?” Kylo asked, rolling onto his back and sitting up away from the cliff face.
Rey chewed the inside of her cheek, “we either do that, strap one child to each of our chests and hope they don’t affect our balance.”
Kylo looked down again, the muscles in his cheek jumping, “if we do this, I want us to send the kids down before the packs, so the rope is fresher.”
Rey nodded. The alternative was going around the walls of the basin one way or the other, which could take days or weeks longer, if it was even possible. They might have to reach a sea before the cliffs flattened, or face treacherous terrain trying to get back here.
“I’ll go first,” Rey said immediately.
“No,” Kylo said, his head snapping up from where he was watching Alynn and Hava sit and chew on freshly-plucked blades of grass, “no way I’m sending you down first.”
Rey raised her eyebrows, “Oh, I am definitely going down first. But, I’ll have a rope around my waist and you’ll have the other end. You’re stronger, so you might be able to help me slow down so I can catch myself if I slip.”
Kylo sighed heavily. It was a good plan, which made him even more frustrated.
Rey kneeled down, “but you have to promise me that if your foot moves, even a finger's breadth, you’ll let me fall.”
“Rey-”
“If you cannot promise me that, then I’ll refuse to wear the rope at all,” Rey said emphatically, “if I fall and you fall after me, then those babies will be all alone. The herd won’t even find their skeletons.”
“Rey…” this time, his voice nearly cracked.
Rey’s hand jumped to Kylo’s cheek, making him meet her eyes, “promise me. Swear on your Mothers that you’ll protect my children.”
“I swear it,” Kylo said, his voice low, but resolute.
The climb down was worse than the climb up had been. So much worse
When Rey had been going up, she’d feared a single moment, a fall that would send her straight down, never to open her eyes again. This was more tortuous because she knew, if she fell, she’d leave her children without her.
Rey knew Kylo would care for them until he found another herd for them, but she had traces of memory of her Mother. Alynn and Hava wouldn’t even have that.
On top of that, climbing down was more difficult. She had the rope to help secure her, but she couldn’t see the hand and footholds well. She was going more by sensation and instinct than anything.
In theory, Kylo could just lower her down, but she didn’t want to strain the rope if she could help it. Part of her feared that, if she put any actual weight on it, it would snap and she wouldn’t be able to grab on. On the one occasion her foot slipped, only a little of her weight was held by Kylo, giving her the time she needed to resecure herself.
Rey didn’t allow herself to think of the absolute age that had to be passing. No. She had to just focus on her next step. The next foothold. The next handhold. The next body length of stone she had to survive.
Finally, Rey’s feet touched the ground. She sagged with relief, pressing her forehead to the stone, which had barely begun to warm with the days’ sun.
“I’m okay!” Rey called, looking up at Kylo. It was then that she realized the sun overhead hadn’t moved much. It had taken her almost no time at all, really, even though it had felt like half a day. She watched the rope slowly slink back up the rocks. Kylo waved to her and then turned away, disappearing.
Rey looked around, trying to spot any familiar landmarks. She had a rough idea of where Plutt’s cave system had to be from here and knew they could stay close to the ridge wall if they wanted to find it, but a familiar path would save time.
Her inspection was broken by a whistle overhead. Rey looked up and saw Kylo wave at her, one of the children in his arms. In the distance, she could hear the noises of worry and distress at being so near the uncertain edge.
Kylo probably stank of anxiety, too.
The chirps and whines sounded most like Alynn; Rey’s heart tightened at the thought of making her children so afraid. However, it was the safest way they could think of without taking weeks or even months.
When Kylo began to lower Alynn down, he let out an earnest shriek of fear, wails echoing off the rocks next to him.
A whimper tore from Rey’s throat. It felt like a piece of bone being dragged out of her, cutting her mouth as guilt tugged at her. She fidgeted for a moment, but forced herself to focus as Alynn was lowered closer and closer.
This didn’t feel as long as her climb down, but every moment was agony. The second she could, she let her fingertips settle on Alynn’s back and then head, pulling him immediately into her arms and shushing him. She rocked him back and forth, humming and purring and trying to soothe him with her scent as much as possible.
Rey held Alynn close as she saw Kylo disappear over the side. She breathed a few final kisses into his hair, then set him down under a bush.
Rey looked up at Kylo as he held Hava still. She saw his face for a moment, then nodded as he left Hava down. Hava responded to falling through the air more quietly than Alynn had, limiting tes responses to low squeaks and clicks.
Rey stood on the tops of her toes, arms above her head to gather tem into her arms. She cradled tem into her chest and neck, humming. She stares up at Kylo who is on the edge of the cliff now. She sees him point to the trees and the implication is clear: don’t look. She could barely see his facial features clearly, but she knew immediately what he wanted. If something went wrong, she couldn’t help him, but she could make sure the children didn’t see anything. The same thing she would have done. She nodded, stepping away and walking back to Alynn. She scooped both of them into her arms, settling her back against a tree and pulling them into her lap.
Rey rubbed their backs, humming and forcing herself to remain calm. Her scent would help to soothe them, if she could calm herself. The time passed so slowly it made her head hurt. She could hear little scuffles and the clattering of a stone that made her heart nearly stop, but still she rocked back and forth, humming still. She closed her eyes, listening desperately around her.
The wind brushed through the leaves, a soft sweeping overhead. Hava took snuffling, huffing breaths next to her ears, each one slower and deeper than the last. Alynn squirmed and squeaked here and there, frustrated at being kept in place, but Hava shifted in place, lifting one arm to wrap around Alynn’s shoulders, which made Alynn settle down and let Rey hold him.
A bird chirped in the distance, a full-throated and pompous little thing.
Rey strained her ears, even as she took deep, exaggerated breaths to keep her scent soothing and calm.
Was that the sound of a pebble skittering over rocks?
The bottom of a shoe scuffing the surface of the rockface?
The terrified gasp of an alpha falling down the cliffside?
“Rey.”
Rey’s eyes snapped open. Kylo was on the ground now, one hand still touching the cliff’s face, but he was safe. Both his feet were planted firmly. Rey lurched to her feet, ignoring Alynn’s squeak of protest.
Kylo was white as snow as he walked over to them stiffly, wordlessly pulling them into his arms. He swallowed, his scent soured by the fear pounding through all of them.
“We’re safe. We’re safe. I promise we’re safe,” Rey whispers. It sounds like a whine, but she doesn’t care. They’re safe. That's all that matters.
The walk along the wall of the basin was eerily uneventful. They moved quietly, both Hava and Alynn held tightly in someone’s arms. Rey and Kylo didn’t speak. It felt like the last day of her heat, when every heartbeat dragged on, but Rey knew if they said a word, the spell would break. The sun would finally rise, ending the night and the time they could spend together.
Rey stopped when she recognized the rocky formation in the distance.
So close,
She had a sinking suspicion it wouldn’t be a long walk, but having it happen was something else. All her hopes around her relationship with Unkar would come down to this. Kylo’s warm hand on her arm made her look up wordlessly. Her tears had formed like a stone in her throat, unshed but tight.
“What do you want to do?” Kylo asked.
“I’ll go first,” Rey says, nodding, “alone. Nothing except the hyena pelt. Between that and my face, it should be enough.”
Kylo attached the pelt at her shoulder. She’d have restricted movement of her non-dominant arm, but she wanted the distinctive spots to be visible. Rey looked up into Kylo’s face. She stood on her toes, kissing him. Kylo reached up and cupped her face, then let her lean down and kiss each baby on the head.
Rey exhaled slowly, “if I don’t come back in time, you take them and go.”
Kylo’s dark eyes roamed over her. The same unspoken plea hung in the air between them as it had the day she’d left him, but she could finally hear it: don’t go
Rey didn’t say, “I love you”. It was true, but she didn’t say it. If she said it now. It would be final. The implication would sound like ‘goodbye’, but it was real.
Rey walks away, climbing slowly up the boulders and formations that hadn’t changed since her early childhood. Her heart pounded as she considered how Unkar might respond. What might he say? Would he know her on sight or would she have to remind him? Would he treat her like a stranger and a threat?
Rey mentally rehearsed the proper greeting for a clan woman, even if she knew her pronunciation would be comically bad. She held her breath as she drew closer, then stopped when she began climbing over the rocks up to the cave. It wouldn’t do to pass out. She stopped to steady herself when she saw the cave entrance. It was dark, but she didn’t know if it was just because he was out for the day. Rey stepped up to the entrance to the cave. Her heart immediately froze within her chest.
The cave was cold. Quiet.
The impression on the center where Unkar had slept throughout the 9 winters and 10 summers of her early life was in disarray. Some of the furs had disappeared. Some had obviously been shredded. Others had been slept in, but by something smaller than Unkar. Rey’s eyes jumped from the fur to the scattered shards of white that lay beyond. Rey chewed the inside of her cheek, then turned to the entrance of the cave, calling out for Kylo. Her voice cracked, but she didn’t hesitate. Instead, she turned back to the cave, walking inside. She kept an eye out for movement, but she felt sure it was empty. She walked over to the white. She’d known what it would be when she saw the mix of shards and torn furs. She stepped over a skid of dark brown half ground into the floor of the cave, kneeling next to the furs and gently lifting them. Rey couldn’t exactly tell what had happened, specifically to cause it, but it was clear that Unkar Plutt was dead. Rey tenderly shifted his heavy fur clothing aside.
A soft squeak at the entrance of the cave made her look up.
Rey met Kylo’s eyes, tears running down her face, but she didn’t care. His eyes roamed over her face, glancing to the distance, then to her, and then to the back of the cave.
"It's Unkar." Rey finally said, lifting the skull into her lap. It had been cleaned, but left mostly intact, even if the rest of the body was gone. She idly assumed ants had gotten ahold of it along the way, or else it wouldn’t be so perfectly intact. The cave had been left mostly undisturbed, even if she knew without looking that Unkar’s food stores would be gone. Instinctively, she wondered what had happened. Kylo was moving on his feet, probably looking for fresh marks or uncleaned disturbances, but Rey couldn’t bring herself to help. She pressed her forehead to the skull's, a low moan in her throat.
Kylo crossed over to her and crouched next to her, "do we need to stay here? Or do we need to go elsewhere? I don't-"
"We'll stay," Rey said, shaking her head. She wiped her eyes, looking around, "We will put him somewhere where the animals can't touch him."
Kylo nodded.
Rey looked back down at Unkar’s skull, gently tracing her finger over the bone above where his eye had been, cupping the base with one hand. She stared down at the bone, polished a kind of too-bright white, even wrapped in the bedding. She gently tilted the skull, careful not to press too hard on the low top or the sides, always so much longer than her own skull. There was no damage that she could see that explained what had happened. No cracks or missing pieces that might give her answers as to why Unkar wasn’t here anymore.
The world was hard and cruel, but Unkar had been strong.
I am weakness
Unkar. Had been. Strong.
The hyena pelt disappeared from her shoulders, but Rey didn’t move. She gently traced the wide hope where Unkar’s nose should have been. He’d always been blind to the scents of her mood, but had been able to smell food and danger even better than her.
He must have been asleep, Rey thought, he must have been asleep or else he would have fought.
The rest of him had been cleaned by scavengers. The entire cycle of death seemed to have taken place and moved on. The ground was dry, free from any mold. Most of the other recognizable bones had been moved or broken. Only his skull, wrapped in the furs and tangled out of sight, had been spared by all but the smallest creatures. Ants and mold seemed to have taken all that was recognizable of this proud Man of the Heart of the Cave.
A warm hand touched Rey’s shoulder. When she brought her eyes up to meet Kylo’s, he gently cupped the back of her neck, “the kids are in a little gap. They’re on the wolf pelt and seem fine. What do you want to do next?”
“I don’t want anything to get at him,” Rey said immediately.
Kylo’s eyes seemed to roam over her face, but he didn’t react at the sudden thickness or desperation in her voice. He only nodded and asked: “where is a good place for that?”
“There’s a shelf I used to sleep on. Rock. We’ll- we’ll take one of the hyena pelts, put him there for now. We’ll dig a grave for him. Bury everything that’s his that- that belongs to The People. He’ll take it with him to the Land of his Ancestors.”
Kylo nodded, “got it.”
Rey and Kylo gathered up what of Unkar's bones that they could and laid them on one of the hyena pelts on the ledge Rey had slept on during her childhood. She took a deep breath, then turned to walk over to her children, pulling them into her lap and wrapping her arms around him. Probably sensing her distress, the children didn’t squeak or whine, but buried their faces in her tunic and neck. Kylo’s footsteps behind her became a soothing percussion, mimicking the general peace of her heartbeat. She kept her eyes closed, breathing in the soft, sleepy scent coming off of Hava’s hair. A quiet scrape behind her was her only warning that something might be wrong.
“Rey?” Kylo said calmly and purposefully.
Rey set her children down, slowly pivoting into a crouch and looking to the entrance of the cave.
Several lowskulls stood in the entryway of the cave, carrying their distinctive short spears. They were dressed for travel, but hadn’t greeted the cave yet, so they must have assumed it was unoccupied. Kylo stood, keeping himself still, eyes fixed on the largest of the lowskulls. Rey could practically feel his eyes cut to her on occasion, but she didn’t react to him. Instead, from her crouch, she put her first across her heart and reached her other hand up above her head. She hadn’t heard the female equivalent of the welcome of a lowskull to a cave, but she hoped it was close enough. She slowly enunciated in the lowskull language: “the cave is welcome to you all. The cave is welcome to me and to my-” Rey didn’t know the word for ‘family’ so she settled for: “my children.”
One of the lowskulls in the back of the ground grunted, nodding to Kylo with derision.
“He is a flatface,” Rey explained. The entire group seemed to look at her at once. It was ridiculous to say ‘he is a flatface’ when she was, by definition, also a flatface. “He is a flatface only.”
“You know the People,” one of the women said, stepping forward. She seemed to be the closest thing to a matriarch this group had, which filled Rey with some relief. She didn’t look directly at her, glancing down at first in deference. Unkar hadn’t ever met someone of a higher rank than him. He’d always been the welcomer or the elder to the handful of lowskull who had stopped by, so Rey decided to default to the politeness of her people.
“I know the People,” Rey repeated. She slowly stood and enunciated clearly, “Danger here? This was my heart?”
The lowskulls look at each other, then the matriarch’ eyes fell to the shelf behind them, “The man is gone.” She explained, “his markers were gone. The heart is empty.”
“When?” Rey asked. She gestured around the cave, “I was- He is,” Re broke off, unable to find the word for who Unkar was. Lowskulls were different from the Threefold people. They tended to parent in pairs within their little family groups, from what she’d gleaned from the conversations Unkar had had with his occasional lowskull visitors. They traced their lineages not just along their maternal lines, but among the alphas- no, the men their mothers had taken as mates. Although, even saying “men” wasn’t accurate. Lowskull women rarely took more than one mate at a time and often raised children with one man only. They had a word for that, Rey suddenly remembered. It was a specific lowskull word she’d heard, but she couldn’t remember it. Then she suddenly remembered. Unkar had met a woman who had shared the same mother with him. His sister had used a word for their shared parents as they exchanged memories: “he was my Papa.”
The group stared at her, a bunch of low eyebrows lowered even further. Rey broke off and shrugged helplessly. She chewed her lip, then swallowed and began again, “I was made here.”
She didn’t know the word for ‘growing up’, but she did know the word for making and crafting something. She’d been formed here, even if her mother had lived and died far away.
The women looked at those next to her, one of whom said something Rey couldn’t hear or understand very well.
“This is his heart,” the woman finally said, raising her hand and gesturing overhead, “his only heart. It will be your heart.”
Rey looked between then all, especially at a large man who had the same chin as Plutt, “is this the heart of any man or any woman?”
“He has no-” the woman broke off, then shrugged and switched to Rey’s mother tongue “herd. No herd. No pack.”
Rey blinked. She knew Unkar was alone and always wondered if there were any relatives around, but learning it was true was something very different.
The woman sighed, then raised her left hand, saying again in the Threefold language, “herds,” and then her right hand, “packs”, and then brought them together, lacing her fingers together and teaching Rey a new lowskull word: “clan”.
Rey had heard of groups of lowskulls described as clans before, but she had thought it was just a gathering, not a family group. Regardless, even if Unkar had living relatives, his clan was gone. Rey swallowed, tears welling in her eyes at the thought of anyone losing everyone they knew and then having to live such a long life without them.
The woman walked over, then lifted her hand to touch Rey’s cheek, looking at the tears. She tilted her head, then said in the language of the Threefold people: “you are his clan. Here is a new clan. Talk to me about my man of the heart of the cave.”
“He gave me this,” Rey said, gesturing to her hyena skin.
The woman looked back at their own belongings, which they’d taken from the cave. There were several hyena skins there, too.
“You are a clan of Hyena. You protected a Man of the People of the heart of the cave for many years. This cave is your heart. We will name it,” the woman said firmly, “you and yours will live in it.”