Andaros fought to hold back whatever had attacked him. Even as he was crushed by the beast's weight, he held his other arm up, protecting himself as best he could, all the while receiving many smaller scratches from the beast's claws. He was so focused and busy defending himself from claws and teeth that he didn't get a good view of his attacker. Considering the current light, his task was already difficult without the additional distraction. It was that hour where everything was between light and darkness, and human eyes were not well adjusted to such light. He was literally fighting for his life, and couldn't even see his attacker.

This went on for several minutes, as he continued to acquire fearsome wounds, before Andaros heard a roar, and whatever was attacking him was bowled over. He turned to barely see Caera fighting another saberlion, wrestling against it, and openly battling with her claws.

-----

Caera had awoken from her nap to find Andaros missing. He had never been missing when she awoke before, so she panicked a bit. She found Reiya and Qora, and indicated her worried, and that Andaros was missing through the sign language they had been teaching him, or at least what she could use of it, before rushing off to follow his scent trail. She didn't bother with whether the women followed her, and rushed off following Andaros's scent. She had smelt a somewhat unfamiliar scent recently. Every instinct she had was warning her of danger towards the young man, and she didn't dare ignore those instincts.

As she rushed along she found that Andaros had wandered quite a ways from the manor. She heard Andaros cry out, and sped up even faster. Soon she found Andaros being attacked by another Mroa while trying his best to protect his vitals. His arms were covered in gashes, and she put on even more speed in her effort to protect her master. As she drew rapidly closer, she found she recognized the Mroa, it was one of the cubs her people had left in that copse of trees as a seed in case their efforts to procure food ended in disaster. He shared the characteristics of his parents, and it was quite easy for her to see he was part of her pride.

"YOU!'"

Caera was furious that one of her pride would dare harm her master, and launched herself angrily into the younger Mroa. Crashing into him, the two rolled quite a distance before they came up roaring, hissing, and sputtering at each other. The two traded blows, but Caera's age and overall better condition showed itself. The young male Mroa was obviously at a disadvantage, but Caera wasn't about to take it easy on him. He dared to touch her master, and Mroa took life debts VERY seriously.

Caera dominated the young Mroa, who's muscles were not nearly fully developed, and batted him around like a rag doll. Very soon she had the young Mroa down on the ground, and under her paws. Her nails dug into his shoulder, and glowered down at the young Mroa.

"Andaros!"

"My God, what happened to you?!"

Caera heard the two women cry out behind her as they saw the young human's condition. She was relieved that they had followed her, and, reassured that Reiya and Qora were there to tend to Andaros's wounds, she confronted the young Mroa she had pinned down.

"What did you think you were doing to MY master?!"

"Your master? How could you let a THING like that be your master?"

Caera angrily roared at the young fool. "I owe him a life debt, and here I find one of my own pride attacking him?! You have shamed me, and our entire pride!"

"Pride? PRIDE?! What would you know about the pride?! You abandoned us!"

"Little fool! Who do you think has been watching over you this whole time?! When I learned of the deaths of the others I was heartbroken, but I have a responsibility to my savior, and as a Mroa warrior I cannot set aside the safety of my master!"

"What are you talking about?!"

"Who do you think it was that was keeping all the big predators away from you cubs? I couldn't do much about you cubs during this time. I have to be with my master because of my duty, but I at least did that!"

"What good is that? You get to live in a nice safe place, but we have to live in a small copse of trees not knowing when some predator will come in that we can't defeat? It's all those snivelling cowards talk about! They're too afraid to even leave most of the time! All while you get to live in a nice safe place! Why can't we live there?! Why can't we be safe so I don't have to hear them snivelling?!"

"I've been trying to learn to communicate with my master and the others so I can do that, but no! You have to go attacking my master!"

"Caera, what's going on. Who is that," Andaros's voice gently spoke to her in a stutter.

Caera dreaded such a question, how was she supposed to tell him who they were to her when she had such a poor grasp of their sign language. It was then that she remembered a sign Andaros had recently learned. She wasn't very sure if he'd understand, but she raised one forepaw and did her best to sign the word family.

"He's family," Reiya's voice asked, her voice betraying both anger and confusion.

She simply nodded her head.

'Sorry,' she signed.

"Not your fault," Qora told her. "Did any others survive?"

Caera tapped her paw down eight times to indicate that eight others had survived.

"Eight more? I hope they're not like him, and won't attack Andaros," Qora said.

"Wait! . . . We're not gonna be bringing them here are we?! What if they attack us like this again?!"

"Calm down Reiya," Qora replied.

"I will not calm down!"

While the two were having their discussion, Andaros approached Caera, and the saberlion male she was holding down. Reiya patched up his arms while Caera was fighting, or more like beating the snot out of the younger Mroa, and thankfully there hadn't been any dangerous wounds, though his right arm was in pretty bad shape before Reiya patched it up. The arm wouldn't feel very comfortable for a good long while, but he'd survived the experience and being alive was always a good thing.

Despite being in pain, and a bit nervous after that attack, Andaros approached the young male Mroa and offered his hand for him to smell. Unfortunately, the guesture "fell on deaf ears," so to speak, and the young Mroa bit him. Andaros let out a cry of pain, and Caera roared angrily at the cub.

"Let my master go, you fool!" Caera raised her paws to attack, but Andaros styopped her with a sign from his other hand.

"It's fine Caera," Andaros told her while grimacing in pain and stuttering more than usual. "He's just scared," he told her while reaching out his hand and gently petting the young saberlion's head. "It's okay, I won't hurt you. There's no reason to be afraid," he cajoled the cub in a kindly manner as he continued to pet him.

Caera relaxxed as she saw the cub's jaws loosen their grip on her master. She was shocked to see tears flowing down the cub's cheeks.

-----

For his part, GrRrowRr was angry when the two-legs approached him, not reallizing the source of his anger. He bit him out of spite, angry that he was able to live here safely under the protection of whatever guarded this place and had scared off all the predators. He was entirely too surprised when the two-legs didn't become angry, and instead consoled him.

He truly had been too scared. His life was lived in constant fear since birth, and there had been no breaks from it at all. He hadn't even realized that he was afraid until this two-legs said something. He wanted to argue, but he was shocked to find tears forming in his eyes and streaming down from them. His jaw grew slack, and he soon pulled his mouth away, mewling pitifully as he cried for the first time.

-----

Andaros watched the cub crying, and gently consoled him while continuing to pet him. Caera herself couldn't help crying, and he gently petted her as well. It was a very strange sensation seeing the two big cats crying.

"Give me your hand."

Andaros was surprised to hear Reiya sigh from his side, and then instruct him. She quickly tended to his wounded hand as he continued absent-mindedly petting the two saberlions.

"Honestly, he just bit you, and you completely ignore it while consoling him. Think about yourself a bit," Reiya grumpily told him, "and about those of us who have to patch you up."

"S-s-s-sorry."

"Just don't make a habit out of it," Qora added in her two cents.

"Y-y-y-yes."

"Well, once I've patched you up, let's go get the rest of the cubs to safety," Reiya surprised him by saying.

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Qora replied. "Can you keep that cub under control Caera?"

Caera nodded happily, then began bathing the still crying cub.

-----

The group soon left to gather the cubs, completely forgetting about the stress test. Siri watched them leave by use of the test drone Andaros had made to test the control and hover systems he intended to use for the drones that would be built to tend the orchard in his place. The A.I. silently decided to run the stress test while they were away to gather the cubs they had decided to bring to the orchard. It appeared that Siri may not have to control a bunch of sentries sometime in the future, not that it minded. It was, of course, capable of controlling them with ease, but doing so with a large number of robots would entail using more power.

Using too much power would put a greater load on the power supply, and thus cause possible problems should a larger load be required than was being planned for. Of course, this wouldn't normally be an issue if basic household appliances were used, but in the case of advanced technologies. . . they could use much more power than one might expect. Even the type of generator that had originally been aboard the A.I.'s robot had it's limits, and overdrawing power could cause problems so it was best to be cautious.

She, if you will, waited until the masters were nearing the edge of the orchard before putting everything in motion, and beginning the power test.

-----

Andaros and his group made their way to the other cubs while joined by the one they had already met. He seemed down, but followed Caera without complaint, so none of them made any complaint either.

It took an hour to reach a small copse of trees. When they approached, the two saberlions called out to the cubs within. Caera sounded gentle, while the young male at first listened, and then angrily backed her up. It took some time, but eventually a female cub came out, nervously glancing at Andaros, Reiya, and Qora as she cautiously approached. Andaros knelt down and waited patiently with his unhurt hand forward as Caera gently coaxed her into approaching him.

The young female cautiously sniffed his hand, but grew nervous when he moved to pet her, flinching away from him. After a bit of gentle coaxing on his, and Caera's part, she finally let him touch her. He gently petted her, and she slowly warmed up to it. After some time, she was willing to let first Reiya, and then Qora, pet her as well. Slowly, the others joined them, first one at a time, but after a few more approached, a pair came, the final group was three at once. All told it had taken three hours for them to join the three, their litter-mate, and Caera.

After a bit of talking, they started to head back to the orchard. Caera being there to translate for the cubs helped a great deal, as she by this time understood them even better than she initially had. The cubs, for their part, were able to pick things up but, being as they were still immature, it helped to have Caera to speak for Andaros's side.

When they finally reached the orchard again, they had trouble once again. This time they had trouble getting the other eight cubs to enter into the orchard as they were terribly frightened of the place. It took another three hours to finally get them to enter the shelter of the trees.

"Guess it's too late for that stress test," Reiya said as they marched along.

"Seems to be the case, let's just get back to the manor for now."

Andaros didn't say anything as they walked along, his arm ached incessantly, and he didn't much feel like speaking during the walk. When they arrived, the cubs were spooked when Siri spoke.

"Welcome back, master, mistresses," the A.I. told them, "I see everything went well with retrieving the cubs. I took the liberty of running the stress test for you while you were gone. Everything checked out splendidly. The core was stable even under ten times the estimated maximum load based on our intended course of action, in regards to the intended security measures."

Qora, and Reiya both let out relieved sighs. "Thank you Siri," they said in chorus.

"You're welcome," Siri replied graciously. "The stress test ran for six hours, roughly twice what you intended master. There was very little flucuation in the power grid during this time, so there should be no issues. I took the liberty of recording the data so that you can review it yourself at a later time master Andaros."

"Thank you," Andaros signed.

"Your welcome, Master. Might I suggest having the work crew build a bit of a stable or kennel building for our saberlion friends? This will allow them to have something akin to a cave, or other form of shelter for them to rest within. It could provide a peaceful place to rest, away from any hustle and bustle within the manor, or the orchard," Siri explained, her voice spooking the young saberlions a bit. They looked around trying to find where the voice came from, to no avail.

"That sounds like it might be a wise idea," Reiya replied, ignoring the saberlions' confusion.

"I agree," Qora added, "though we shouldn't put any doors in unless they agree to it."

"We should have at least one kennel with a door," Reiya replied, "in case anyone needs to be put into timeout."

Strangly enough, Caera nodded heartily at Reiya's comment. She then glanced at the young male beside her. Thus, it was decided to have a building built to house the saberlions, and they continued into the manor. The young saberlions followed cautiously, only the young male GrRrowRr showed almost no fear among the new saberlions. Surprisingly, a young female seemed more curious than scared, although you could still see the fear in her posture. Andaros watched her look around with a mix of curiousity, excitement, and fear in every movement she made. It was actually quite amusing watching her looks of surprise as she looked at all kinds of things that were alien to her, and her species.

"Well, since everything seems to be in order, I'm going to go contact the others and have them come back into the safety of the orchard," Qora said, heading off.

"Well, let's get things straightened out with these nine cubs while she's getting the others," Reiya suggested, "We'll need some place to have them rest until we can arrange a shelter for them."

"B-b-b-basement," Andaros stated.

"You want them in the basement? What about the reactor?"

"I-i-i-it's c-c-c-closed o-o-o-off," Andaros informed her, "a-a-a-and l-l-l-locked."

"Fine, we'll have them in there for the time being. Can you keep your family under control, Caera?"

"I-i-i-it's a-a-a-a p-p-p-pride."

"What?"

"L-l-l-lion f-f-f-families a-a-a-are c-c-c-called p-p-p-prides," Andaros explained.

"Well, whatever they are, can you keep them in check," Reiya asked the lioness.

Caera answered with a nod, then gave some growls, and a few small roars, to her pride. After this, they followed Andaros down to the basement. There was a fairly small room that was not being used there. As for Andaros's workshop, even with his organization there was not much room there. It could fit a few lions if needed, but he would be unable to get any work done if more than two stayed there.

They got all the cubs settled, and Reiya went to arrange things while Andaros stayed with Caera and the cubs. They initially had been afraid of him, but after spending a bit of time in th basement with him, they took to him like a fish does to water. When Reiya finally returned, she was surprised to see Andaros sitting cross-legged with almost all of the cubs lying closely around him, and a large number of saber-lion heads lying in his lap or on his legs.

"How did you get them to accept you so quickly," Reiya asked.

Andaros simply pointed at Caera, while giving a helpless look. Reiya couldn't help breaking out into laughter seeing the intimidating "giant" helplessly sitting there surrounded by the cubs.

"Qora's back, but we'll have to delay the planning of the kennels for the moment," Reiya informed him, "you're kinda wrapped up right now."

Andaros groaned, and Reiya broke out into laughter once again.

-----

Caera lazily watched Reiya tease Andaros. Seeing the display, she was very glad to have met her master and his friends. Andaros may look very scary, and was quite strong, but he was the kindest being she had ever encountered. Even her cousin, who had earlier attacked him, had somehow become attached to him within a short time. Having heard the stories of what had happened to him back on his homeworld, Caera couldn't understand how his own people could treat him so.

Caera really couldn't understand humans, and their egocentricities. Even among her people it was known that first impressions couldn't be trusted, or so she thought. It was the heart that really mattered, only through observing how another acted towards others could you get a feel for how their personality worked. Only by observing how they treated others in trying times could one see what kind of being one truly was. Andaros had shown himself to be something not often seen on their world. She didn't have the word for it, but she knew he was something special.

At the same time, Caera was worried that his kindness was naive, and would get him killed quickly. The planet FS-48B-7468-43F was not a forgiving or safe world, it was the kind of world where you either kill, or be killed. Creatures like the saberlions, who were honorable, and somewhat personable, were in short supply on the world. Most of the time, these groups stuck to their own. Very rarely would any race on the planet support another race. It just wasn't common, and it was utterly unheard of for a member of any race native to the planet to forgive a member of another race for attacking them.

Caera had fully expected Andaros to demand the cub, who called himself GrRrowRr, be killed. She dreaded having to perform the act herself, but was still prepared to do so. However, Andaros's response had totally gone against all expectations.

After Andaros comforted the cub, she sternly warned him never to attack Andaros again, or she would kill him regardless of what Andaros asked, there would be no more chances. Surprisingly, he had agreed to what she said, and hadn't once tried to complain, or argue with her on the subject. The cub had made a complete turn around, and had excitedly explained how he wanted to protect the young man to the others. They, however, were very reluctant, and it took a lot of coaxing on Caera's part to get them to get them to even come out, let alone agree to help protect the young man. Of course, GrRrowRr's gruff response to their "cowardice" hadn't helped get the other cubs to listen.

Now, she would be surprised if she could pry them away from her master. Their attachment was mainly motivated by fear at this point, but they certainly warmed up to Andaros and his kindness very quickly. She hoped that over the course of the coming months the cubs would also come to trust, and wish to protect the young man as she did.

Still, Caera felt differently toward Andaros than any of the cubs likely ever would. To Caera, Andaros was mate material far more so than any of the cubs ever would be. For her species, Caera was a bit odd, to say the least, and Andaros matched the idea of an ideal mate she desired down to a T. Of course, there was the issue with him being of another species, but his mate, Qora, also was of a different species than himself, so she wasn't so certain this was an actually issue. She couldn't possibly be aware of the taboos against sleeping with beasts, no native of her planet could.

-----

It took two weeks to design and create "The Den" for the saberlions, Andaros suggested the name based on the name for the Old Earth term for such a place, and it somehow caught on. It was designed like one large cave with smaller caves situated off the main cave. The caves used ferrocrete to simulate rock, but each had a cushioned section of the cave that was similar to a pet bed, only on a much larger scale. Each of the individual sleeping caves had lighting that could be turned off or on by a registered roar from the lion assigned that cave. There were a large number of extra caves, so the pride would have room to grow when the cubs matured.

As for the maintenance drones, they had long since been fully assembled, and Siri was busy using them to maintain the orchard. A number of guard drones had been put together as well. They had the ability to operate on their own, but Siri could pass on instructions, and acted as a central control hub for them, while these drones were equipped with a number of weapon systems designed to scare off, or even kill the native wildlife if need be.

Another measure Andaros had put together was a dozen robots equipped with heavier weapons. They were designed to handle that Tyrano Supremus, and thus had much heavier duty weaponry. These robots were normally docked in bays within a separate building, where Andaros could maintain them, but could be launched at a moments notice to deal with the heftier threats of the planet.

Things settled down once everything was together, that is until one day two and a half months later when a shocking incident occurred.