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Riddick was seated cross-legged in the shade of a large rock having a sip of water when he felt the vibrations. After having stuffed his canteen into his pack, he scrambled up onto the rock and surveyed the horizon. There was a dust cloud headed his way, one hopefully created by the hooves of the canids native to this planet. As he watched, the lithe figure of a dark haired woman crested the hill headed straight towards him. She glanced over her shoulder, no doubt at the creatures pursuing her, and paid for her inattention to the ground in front of her when she cried out in pain as she stepped on a loose rock and fell. The creatures bayed as they closed the distance, and when the woman fell to the ground a second time crying out in pain, Riddick launched himself into action. Jumping from the rock he rushed passed her, one of the ulaks he’d received from his mother in hand, and tackled the lead canid.The force knocked Riddick and the creature into the rest of its pack, sending them all to the ground. Riddick drove his ulak into the neck of the canid he’d tackled again and again until the creature stopped moving, then rolled away as some of the others tried to take a chunk out of him. He backed away from them, dripping ulak in hand, crouched and ready for the next attack.A very human sound of frustration reminded him of the woman’s presence and when he looked up he saw a canid trying to drag her away by the hem of her once white dress. One of the creatures launched itself at Riddick and he swatted it away as he dashed through the pack to deal with the one terrorising the woman. Riddick’s ulak slashed through air as the creature dodged his first attack but his boot made contact with its compact body, sending it flying into rock he’d perched on not too long ago. A canid snatched onto his other leg with its fangs, he could just feel the sharp points pressing into his skin, while others were trying to get close to attack as well. Riddick felt a tiny moment of panic, cut short by another cry of pain from the woman, and then sliced down with both ulaks on either side of the canid’s neck sending warm blood gushing everywhere. He grabbed a creature from the woman and tossed it aside, kicked another away, and let his instincts take over.---Riddick didn’t remember closing his eyes but when he opened them, the blinding light of the planet’s sun and the resulting pain caused him to quickly close them again. Grinning, he slowly opened one eye, only to squeeze it tight against the now too bright sun. Riddick somehow still had his pack, and rummaged through it until he found the goggles his father had helped him pick out, then slipped it onto his head and over his eyes.He was now an Alpha Furyan warrior!The purple hue to the world would take some getting used to but at least now he could open his eyes without being blinded. Riddick checked himself over for injuries but the worst was a gash across his right forearm that had long since stopped bleeding. None of his weapons were in their sheaths, so he looked around for them; there were a large number of canid bodies strewn around the large rock, and the woman lay unmoving in its shade. Weapons temporarily forgotten he made his way over to crouch at her side and discovered that she was not in fact a woman but a very beautiful man with hints of forest green in his brown eyes. “You saved me.” Riddick helped him sit up and offered his canteen of water. “What are you doing out here?”“Slavers.” Riddick growled, thinking of the hundreds of Furyan warriors lost to slavers, “Where are they?”“Dead.”“You are certain?” Riddick knew that even if they weren’t, they would be soon enough.The man looked him dead in the eye as he answered, “They are all dead.”“Okay then,” Riddick said, drinking the last of his water before slipping his canteen into his pack. “Are you hungry?”“No thank you. Why are you here?”Riddick grinned at the reminder of where he was, and why. “It’s going to be a long walk, I’ll tell you as we go.”“Go where?”Riddick met the curious glance and watched as it took in his goggles, “There’s a camp of my people not too far away; the Clan Chief will know what to do with you.”“Very well.” The other man made to push to his feet but dropped back with a grunt of pain. “It would seem I’ve injured my left foot.”Riddick reached for the hem of the man’s dress, “May I?”The man blushed prettily as he nodded. “The slavers thought there were only women when they grabbed us, and I refused to wear any of their clothes.”Riddick had a look at his left foot and found that his ankle was swollen and bruised , probably just a bad sprain. “You were not the only one taken?”“No, I don’t know how many in total, but there were only two of us on this ship.” Riddick tore off the bottom of his dress and used it to bind his ankle tightly. “Poor Vanya… They took their pleasure from her, until she turned it inwards… Made them afraid of me…” Riddick wondered if he was supposed to have heard all of that, not that he knew what to do with it. Instead he focused on the here and now, “I’m going to carry you.”“What?!? No!”Riddick raised an eyebrow at the other man, “Your ankle is badly sprained and you’re barefoot; you’ll slow us down.”Riddick busied himself with finding his blades, ignoring the man completely. When he’d found them all, he walked over and scooped him up into his arms. “Time to go, I want to be there before sunset.”The other man crossed his arms in front of his chest, elbow digging into Riddick’s side, and clenched his jaw.Riddick shrugged when he did not get a response, instead he put one foot before the other, headed towards the Furyan camp. “My name is Riddick, what is yours beautiful?”The man in his arms scoffed, although Riddick watched as he ducked his head to hide his blush. “I am Vaako.”“And where are you from Vaako?” Riddick adjusted his grip, causing Vaako to wrap his arms around his neck.“I was born on the third planet of Therus, but taken from the seventh.”“What were you doing there?” Vaako rested his head against Riddick’s shoulder, making himself comfortable. “Sep is uninhabited, so they built an academy there for those born with abilities.”Riddick hummed as he thought over Vaako’s words from earlier; ...until she turned it inwards… made them afraid of me… Why did she not turn it on them? Of course, unleashing anything inside of a ship in space was asking for trouble. Maybe that’s why Vaako had waited until they had landed on a planet? “Did you kill the slavers Vaako?”He’d walked no more than ten steps before he realised he had gotten no answer and that Vaako felt a little heavier; a glance down confirmed his thoughts, Vaako had fallen asleep.---“You couldn’t have waited for dark? Let your old man save some face?”Riddick chuckled at his father’s words as he came to a stop in the middle of the camp. “You’re the one that challenged me to be better.”“Aye that I did.” The Clan Chief stepped forward and clapped his son on his shoulder. “And what’s this, you’ve found yourself a prize too?”“He’s part of how I got my eyeshine.” Riddick said, adjusting Vaako’s weight. “Where’s Lekhan? Vaako sprained his ankle pretty badly.”The Clan Chief nodded at one of the other men who immediately ran off in search of their medic. “Where is your Vaako from?”Riddick felt his face heat up but ignored it. “Slavers stole him from the Therus System. I think he killed them.”“Vaako of Therus.” The Clan Chief brushed Vaako’s hair out of his face and leaned close to examine him. “Yes, he will make a lovely mate for you son.”“Father!” Riddick glared at the older man. “We are going to send him back to his people.”“First I am going to heal him,” a disgruntled voice said before an older Alpha Furyan shoved the Clan Chief out of the way. “Give him here boy! And come by later so I can check you over as well.” Lekhan stalked off with Vaako in his arms as if he weighed nothing.“So…” Ainem said, a wide grin on his face. “Can we talk about how Riddick beat the Clan Chief’s record by hours?”Chard growled at the other Alpha, earning laughter from the others, before breaking into chuckles himself. “All hail Riddick; my son and your future Clan Chief!”The roar that answered his words was heard by all of the other Alpha Furyan hopefuls.