"Why can't we get it out? I want to be with this little thing, to smell and taste and sleep with it. Why does it not move? It speaks nothing and its eyes are closed. Does it sleep? Will it sleep forever? This is not hopeless, I will free it, I will have it as my own," The leader thought.

They watched, they waited, they clawed and pulled and bit, but nothing would free the little thing from the pod. They grew tired, they grew angry and they began to nip at one another. How long had they tried? How long had they paced around it looking for a way in? It was frustrating, it was impossible....it was open?

The youngest and smallest had stepped on something, and the pod had made this noise and then whoosh.  Air had been released, and the lid opened ever so slowly to reveal the little thing inside. He smelled the little thing, and he felt sad because he knew that it was injured, something that he could barely make out when the lid was closed.

His thing, it needed to heal, to be repaired. He knew how they healed, but this little thing was different, and he did not know what to do for it. He sniffed and licked her face tenderly, whining, he lay his head upon her chest and cried.

"What is it doing?" Zeus asked from his vantage point he could not see what the animal was doing.

"It appears to be laying its head on her and whining," The pilot tells them. 

Winston and the pilot had slowly been moving towards Laurels pod. Their eyes carefully scanning the forest for other Pharents. They had gotten close enough to see Tahla sitting next to Yuri's pod, but it is then that they hear the beep beep beep of the pod as it prepares to open. The look of panic on her face as she glances behind her to the pod, and then at them. 

"What do I do," She asks.

"Nothing, just sit still." 

"If he wakes and sees." She starts.

"You," Winston begins, "You must stand up slowly, and when he starts to get up, you have to tell him calmly the situation."

"I don't think I can." 

"You must."

Yuri begins to hear things as the sleep slowly drifts away from his mind, the cloudy feeling starting to dissipate, he can hear his father talking and others. He is not sure who his father is talking to, and then it starts to come back to him, where he is and what they are doing. The pod door hisses and slowly opens, and as he starts to sit up, he hears a voice telling him to take it easy and not move quickly.

"What? What is going on?"

Tahla softly tells him, "We crashed, we think it might have been either debris or a meteor. Only three pods survived, yours, Laurels and your fathers. Of every crew member on board, only four of us survived the crash, pilot, co-pilot, Zeus and myself. The situation now, is that there is a pack of Pharents on top of Laurels pod, and the pod has just opened and one of them is inside."

"What?" Yuri tries to sit up quickly, but he is stopped by his fathers strong hand.

"Don't," Winston tells him, "They do not appear to want to harm her. From this point of view I can see the leader is.."

"What?"

"He is," Winston and the others watch as the leader lies down on top of Laurel, "I'll be damned, I think he is keeping her warm."

The littlest one of the pack wanders over, she can smell the thing that is inside the object, and it smells like the first thing. A male, she thinks as she approaches slowly, and the smell is fascinating. As she moves closer she sees the female of their kind slowly back away, which allows her to get closer to the now open pod. She likes what she is smelling, and it has traces of the female on it. 

She jumps up on the side of the pod, glances inside at the male and sees that he is bigger than the little thing in the other pod. She tilts her head and sniffs the air, then slowly moves her nose forward to sniff him. "Yes, yes this is agreeable, I like this smell," she thinks.  Her paws try to find purchase on the outside of the pod, and it takes a moment or two to get her nails to dig into the side, but once she has them dug in she climbs into the pod and sniffs some more.

"Mine," She tells the others with howls and barks, "He smells like that little thing over there, only that one is female."

She paces round upon his chest, spinning round and around until she lies down beside him, and places her head upon his shoulder. "He is cold, I must warm him up so that he does not die," She tells herself as she closes her eyes and snuggles in close.

"Uh, what the hell am I seeing here?" Zeus asks, "No one has EVER calmed, let alone tamed a Pharent. Yet, here, before my eyes...not one, not two, but five Pharents are..."

"Are what?" Winston growls at him. "Are accepting Laurel and Yuri? "

"It has happened before," The pilot interrupts, "Stories from our past about people who were accepted and tamed the great Pharents of old. I can recall at least four stories about the family from Anikala Island, who lived and ate and slept with the great beasts that lived there."

"I remember those stories too," Winston adds, "two of the family ended up being founding elders." 

"Dahaira and Setha?" Zeus asks.

"Yes," The pilot answers, "Their statue is in the great hall of learning and history. It is the Pharents that they lived with, that the our current elders have requested that our builders make, to ensure the truth of our ancestors. It is our past, and unlike some believe, I believe that it must be told and shared to all who are to come. "

Yuri was laying on his back looking straight up into the sky, and even though there is trees blocking some of the cloudy sky, he could clearly see a ship hovering not far over the treetops. He felt relief and also fear, fear that they had not gotten here fast enough, fear that the Pharent only wanted to devour the woman that he loves.

Men from the ship run into the area of the wreckage, many of them pause as they grasp what they are seeing, not knowing how to proceed. They begin to chatter amongst themselves and then as they were about to turn tail, five elders walk in to witness not only the wreckage, but the Pharents that had taken up positions on Yuri and Laurel.

"Dimitri," Elizabeta grasps for her husbands arm, " Look."

The elders and healers were in awe, there in the pods, were Pharents. A young medium sized male had joined the little female in Yuri's pod, hunkering down upon him to keep him warm from the chilly weather, since it had been a few hours since they had crashed upon the planet. Glancing over to Laurels pod, they could see a giant male, and two others were snuggled at her feet, and none of them offered to harm her. 

"This, this is remarkable!" One of the healers cries out. "They are as our elders of old, and yet.... SHE, she is not one of us!" He had shouted with enthusiasm, and walked swiftly and carefully towards the pods. As he gets closer, he bows and then gets upon his knees in prayer, "Oh great elders and Gods of old, great is thy mercy and thy care of all living things. Be thy love and graciousness in all things holy."

"Tak-ak-ah-la," all of the others say in unison.