Life was over for A'luet in the cruel flash of a jagged metallic bladed tail. It was night when he finally became aware of gasps of air. Thinking the monster was back; he cowered closer to the ground, only to realize it was he who was making the noise. Slowly he sat up, wheezing on the thick smell of blood, Yautja blood. Standing clumsily, he took the couple of steps back to camp and surveyed the damage that had been done. Female yautjas and children were slaughtered, green ichor dripping from their wounds.
Dazed, A'luet stumbled among the dead, searching for the one person who had mattered to him. He found her less than a few minutes after searching. Her wise and once beautiful face now ravaged and ripped in half. A'luet hit his knees next to his dead mother.
"Ma'da…" he whimpered, shaking her though deep down he knew it was no use. Nothing left for him; he sank to the ground and nuzzled as close as he could to her; shut his eyes and dreamed.
The air was alive with the children laughing and poking each other in a war. Illeya and the other female yautjas shook their heads and rolled their eyes. Near Illeya was her ten-season-old son, A'luet. Quiet and not as outgoing as the other children, he spent his time around his mother and the adults, preferring their maturity to the immaturity of the children.
Dac'shu, an older female nudged Illeya, "if your son is to win against a Kainde Amedha then he is going to have to toughen up Illeya."
Illeya glanced at the older woman and sighed, "I know." She turned to look at her son who was watching a flying insect on a branch.
"Perhaps it was wrong of you to mate with An'nu," Heth'rah sneered.
Illeya fixed the woman with an icy glare. "Ell-osde pauk, fuck you, A'luet is not a mistake and his father is honorable."
Heth'rah snorted, turning back to her work of mending her spear. Illeya returned to her own work, troubled. Was Heth'rah's comment really what the clan thought of her decision to mate with An'nu?
Annoyed, she thrust her own spear down and called A'luet, who came running immediately. "Tomorrow you and I will go out and hunt, you need to start learning."
His amber eyes swept to the women around his mother, some giving him encouraging smiles, others like Heth'rah, glaring. "Yes Ma'da."
"Good. Go." She gave him a little push away from the adults. "Go to the children."
He stood there, studying her like she was joking. He never associated with the children, mostly because he became the object of ridicule.
"Go." She repeated more forcefully.
His face crestfallen, he did as she asked, disappearing into the trees where Illeya and the others could hear the children practicing with sticks.
….
"Ah, look who it is," Dachande scoffed, "it's little A'luet." He shouldered his way past his two younger brothers to challenge A'luet himself.
"Leave me alone," A'luet muttered, trying to pass the older yautja. However Dachande wouldn't have it.
"Aw, you want me to leave you alone? Are you going to cry to Ma'dada, mommy?"
A'luet ignored Dachande and attempted to get around him, but he was blocked by the other children. Sick of the yautja's game already, he turned around and started to head back to camp.
"That's right you little S'luit-de, coward, you run back to ma'dada."
A'luet's face was burning as he walked, angry at himself he kicked a stick aside; only to be run into by Viv'n, a recently blooded female. Her mask was gone, giving A'luet a view of her wild-eyed look and fear.
"Viv'n?" He asked, reaching out to her.
She grabbed him in a vise grip. "Shut up, shut up…they can't know. They just can't."
"Know what?" He whispered, frightened by the normally friendly yautja.
Her green eyes trained on his amber ones. "It's inside me A'luet."
Realization crashed down on the young one. He yanked himself out of her grasp, putting distance between himself and her.
"I'll get Rhon'dah," he said. Rhon'dah was the clan's leader; she would know what to do. He turned and began to run, not before he heard the unmistakable sound of ribs cracking and then breaking. Frozen, he turned in time to see a chestburster rip itself free from Viv'n's chest, killing her gruesomely. The thing squealed and writhed on the ground, growing bigger by the second.
Stumbling backwards, A'luet tripped on a downed tree as the thing pulled its way towards him. Jumping to his feet, he blindly ran through the trees.
….
Cracking her neck, Illeya was just thinking about a dip in the nearby spring when she heard her son screaming her name.
"Ma'da, Ma'da!"
She lurched to her feet with A'luet running straight into her, his tiny body shaking hard.
"What is it? A'luet!" She held him away from her and shook him, "what's wrong?"
"Z'skvy-de, Viv'n…she had a chestburster."
Shock gripped Illeya for a moment before a throaty roar erupted from somewhere in the trees, yet not far from the camp.
"Chestburster? How in the name of Cetanu did Viv'n get a chestburster!" Heth'rah snarled.
"It doesn't matter now," Illeya snapped. "Call in the children!"
A female grabbed a horn and blew hard, signaling danger to the children still in the woods. A'luet could just see Dachande and the others running out of the treeline when a hybrid caught the unsuspecting male by the head, ripping it clean off his body.
Behind A'luet, Heth'rah let out a grieved cry of rage; grabbing her combi-stick she raced towards the hybrid.
"That's not the one," Aluet cried out, "that's not the one Ma'da."
Illeya grabbed her own weapon and her son, turning to run through the camp. A body hit them both, thrown to the ground, Illeya glanced down and saw Rhon'dah, dead from a puncture to the forehead. Stalking towards her and her son was a growing hybrid, clawing and raking the molting flesh off of it, to reveal its mature skin.
Illeya knew what had to be done. She turned while extending her stick and grabbed her son. "Run A'luet, run and don't look back."
"Mo Ma'da, no." A'luet held onto his mother's hand.
She shook him off with a growl. "Go A'luet, do not disobey me! GO." She shoved him,
Shaking, he ran with Illeya shoving her combi-stick into the hybrid's face as it darted after him.
…
He ran until he felt he couldn't run anymore, the roars from the camp were faded until he could heard nothing but the breeze and the trees swaying. Exhausted, he felt to his knees and passed out.