A NEW HUNTER:
THE DISCOVERY
By Legair
Disclaimer: I do not own the Predators, Aliens or Gargoyles concepts. I'm just borrowing them but the characters herein are mine. Nor am I receiving monetary gains of any kind. Reviews, suggestions are welcome, even complaints and criticisms are acceptable if they are constructive, of course. With that said, please read and enjoy.
PROLOGUE
The hive was established long ago when the Yautja's only Hard Meat seeding ship carrying a Hard Meat Queen and several eggs crash landed on a nearby planet. The Queen though mortally wounded was able to escape the ship. The Queen, knowing her time was at hand, searched among the hunters of her kind for a female host. Because the last egg she would lay would be more than a Queen. She would be a Queen of other Queens, but she needed a female host to ensure complete success. Finally she found the last unclaimed female host whose legs were damaged beneath a container and sacrificed the embryo carrier in favor of the queen egg she was already forming within her. After shoving the container to the side she drug the host over and secured her to the wall in her temporary lair and new dwelling for her offspring. Then she proceeded to lay her final egg as she felt death begin its creeping advance on her body. After laboring for hours the dying Queen laid her last egg and positioned it directly in front of the screeching and roaring host.
Hours later the Queen could hear the birth pangs of the last of her children. Ignoring their calls and blocking their attempts to find her, she observed them and knew that the new hive would be well prepared. There were sets of all the necessary classes; Runners, Drones, Warriors, Royal Guards, and the King. She sensed when the egg bloomed and felt the face hugger attach itself to the host and begin its only task, to impregnate the host.
The fading Queen knew when the embryo carrier died, its life purpose completed. The Queen knowing her time was fast approaching used the last of her strength to call the others, giving them a link to begin their travels to the newly established hive. Already confident that by the time they arrived the new Queen will have emerged from the host and begun to grow. As the old Queen died and her body stiffened in death she gave a last dying roar.
It was a roar against hunters foolish enough to try and hunt this new Queen. A roar declaring that their kind would live on even after her death.
GRIEF AND DISCOVERY
Centuries later and a star system away.
The weird spiny creature felt something wrong with its environment, the usual sounds of other creatures went silent. But as it peered around warily, it saw nothing. It took a suspicious half step backward and sideways. If someone had looked they would have seen an empty grove and the creature sniffing at the air. If that same someone had thought to look up they would have seen a shimmer in the air at the split crotch of a tree. And most would have dismissed it as a heat wave rising from the ground, until it was too late, as the creature found out as suddenly it was pinned to the ground and its life blood gushing out of its body.
With a nearly silent crackle of electricity the heat shimmer revealed itself to be a hunter. Upon a second look the hunter turned out to be female, the uncloaked huntress watched as the animal played out its death throes and died from the wound. 'Hah, Bre'ktrohl you are Kwei! Think you can fool me?' she thought to herself remembering her first time hunting the carnivorous animal, and she threw a nearby tree Naxa at the mortally wounded animal watching as it screeched and performed a thrashing motion sending its entire compliment of poisonous quills into everything nearby. Its movements were so great and violent that quite a few were sent flying into the air. The huntress had to duck as a few of them shot in her direction. When she looked up she saw that the Bre'ktrohl had stopped trashing and was now safe to approach. She pulled her spear out of the ground and grabbed it by the jaw and pulled it off the spear. She gave her weapon a sharp shake to get most of the blood off, then retracted and hooked it behind her.
As she crouched down to begin the skinning process she noticed it was still too quiet, usually when the hunter's have made their kill the normal rhythm of sounds and life continue. But this time it stayed quiet, as the huntress stood up she looked around. 'Something is wrong!' she thought when she looked up and saw smoke rising to the sky. She dropped her latest catch and raced off with feelings of apprehension. As the huntress ran back to the dwelling's she found others crowding around the area of her dwelling. With her mate away on a hunting trip a tendril of fear wormed its unfamiliar way into her heart.
"Oh Paya, let it be some fool Yautja that got himself killed by my dwelling." She pleaded as she pushed her way through the crowd heedless of who was in her way. She continued forward only to be met by her sibling who barred her way at the entrance of her burned dwelling.
"Move Mei'hswei, get out of my way!" the huntress growled at her in a panic, heedless of her sibling's rank in the clan since their sire's death.
"Cro'dei-tha, you do not want to enter your dwelling." Barked the High Elderess as she went to grab her sibling and steer her away.
"No!" Cro'dei-tha snarled flexing her lower mandible's in the face of her sibling. "This is my dwelling when my mate is away. And I will enter if I so see fit. Now move!" and with that she forced her way into the smoky dwelling only to stop dead in her tracks.
"NNNOOoo!"
The High Elderess closed her eyes and allowed her lower mandibles to hang limp. The next instant the body of a Ge'tah came flying out and moments later was followed by an enraged, grieving Cro'dei-tha, who was fully armed and armored. Everyone with sense immediately fled her sight knowing that if anyone stood in her path she would cut them down without a second's hesitation.
"Cro'dei-tha! Think about what you are doing. Our Honored Sire did not teach us to allow anger to cloud our judgement." The High Elderess stated calmly. The only one daring enough to block her siblings path, as half a dozen Ge'tah exited the burnt dwelling bearing the bodies of a young offspring barely out of puphood and another female.
"Rjet judgement, that H'ulij-bpe piece of excrement will be Thei-de by dawn. He murdered my first born and our cousin. Just for daring to enter my dwelling he deserves to die in the most painful of ways." Cro'dei-tha shrieked at the High Elderess drawing gasps from any yautja still in the area. No one has ever dared to talk back to the clan's High Elderessmuch less shriek. The last Warrior to dare talk back had been killed by her bare hands and the foolish male had been armed and armored which did not save him.
"I am well aware that he murdered your first born and our cousin. And for this loss I do grieve, and I will not deny your right to avenge your honor against the Ve'nde-thwei. But do so with a clear mind. Remember, just because they have lost all reason and honor does not mean that those without honor are not without wiles." The Elderess growled harshly.
"This assassination was designed to attack not only your honor but Setg'in-kre't and mine as well. He killed our family, Thei-de'ragt and your pup by Setg'in-kre't to show disrespect to our honor, to shame us, to goad us into acting without thought. To show that just because we are Yautja with power and authority, that we are not invulnerable. That we are as any other, and this is true, for no Yautja save Paya and the Guan-paya is truly invulnerable. I just ask that you do not go after him now when it is most likely a trap." The Elderess snarled back trying to make her sister see reason and most importantly to calm her down
"I don't care!" Cro'dei-tha snarled trying to sidestep the Clan's High Elderess only to be blocked again.
"Well I do. There are only three left of our sire's original line." The Elderess roared gripping her arm. "You have not heard, our Mei'hswei, Gre'atoh and Guan'dtou-di have fallen to assassination. But not before sending a double score of Ve'nde-thwei before them to meet Guan-paya. Their youngest offspring have been secured in my dwelling and the oldest warriors have been notified. Our sire's line is being killed off. I don't want you to die in a trap at the hands of a Ve'nde-thwei."
"Then stay out of my way and let me do what I must to correct this attack on our honor." Cro'dei-tha growled.
"No! Not now, but eventually I will." The Elderess temporized. "I swear to you on my own personal honor that you will be allowed to hunt this Ve'nde-thwei and any that align with him. But it will be at a time I decree."
"You swear, High Elderess?" Cro'dei-tha demanded with a hiss as she eyed her sibling.
"In thwei, I so swear now, here in front of these honored Yautja. And should I break this vow may all my accomplishments be stripped from me as well as my life." The Elderess swore as she drew her dagger and sliced her forearm. Eyeing the bleeding cut and the spectators around them Cro'dei-tha nodded with a sigh of acceptance.
"I can do no other than accept your vow High Elderess." She stated sullenly.
"Good. When I release you to your hunt, swear to me that you will not waver nor fail in your task" The High Elderess added.
"I so swear in thwei and on my honor." Cro'dei-tha swore as she cut her own forearm and ritually sealed the oath by gripping the forearm of her sibling mingling their blood. "High Elderess I ask your leave to go hunting on the Pyode Amedha planet. I cannot remain here and do nothing." Cro'dei-tha asked as she watched the High Elderess respectfully. "It is too much of a temptation for my grieving heart."
"Your request is granted, keep in touch Mei'hswei." The High Elderess told her as she nodded her head in understanding.
The next day Cro'dei-tha charted her ship to the Soft Meat hunting planet which was the fifth planetoid from the Sol system's main star. Her sister, Thei-deGuan the Clan's High Elderess had granted her special request, solitary hunting. In truth she had no choice, a grieving bearer was not someone any sane Yautja wanted to be around. At one moment they could be mourning then the next they would be plowing through a whole room of Yautja with no regards to rank, honor or sex. No, a bearer in mourning was a very dangerous female to be around, especially one who had been dishonored by Ve'nde-thwei. Cro'dei-tha left the piloting seat to prepare her sleeping pod for the two Dre'eks journey. After checking everything twice she entered her pod and dreamed of her vengeance.
Three Month's and a few hours later on Earth...
Cro'dei-tha stared at the darkening sky before shrieking her loss and fury when she heard something. Immediately cloaking herself she investigated the noise and found nothing, all she could hear was the sounds of human weapons fire hitting stone. She thought it was some human that had managed to see her and started shooting their puny weapons at her.
"When I find the Ooman that is shooting at me, I'm going to rip their spine out while they breathe." she growled. Jumping to the higher part of the roof for a better viewing vantage she found no heat signatures. All she saw was the halo like heat signatures fading from the stone ornaments. Still hearing the sounds of gunfire she looked to her left, switching vision modes from heat to motion, then from motion to x-ray.
"Nothing" then she looked right hitting heat mode again. "Noth...what the Cho't?!" She saw a red heat signature coming from the center of a stone statue. "Impossible!" She switched to motion and she saw cracks appearing in striations then switched to x-ray and saw a skeleton forming within the stone-figure. It was faint at first but as the sun disappeared below the horizon it became more defined. Switching back to heat she saw that the red heat bloom immediately burst into white internal fire. Stepping back unsure of what to expect Cro'dei-tha set her mask's imager and recorder to record for future study and watched as the heat bloom began to move throughout the body warming the rest that was giving off quickly fading shimmers of heat collected during the day. Then, with a swift movement the creature burst out of the stone skin with a mighty roar. Cro'dei-tha's eyes widened and her jaw opened as her mandibles flexed as wide as they could in shock as she watched it stretch. If she had not been crouched she would have fallen down from surprise and from the flying stone-chip debris.
'This creature is huge, nearly three Puads high!' There was no yautja she knew that tall, though she had heard stories of a few that reached that height, and it was more massive than any male she knew, even her own mate. As she took in the details of the stone-like creature come to life, Tail, wing structures, horns; not only on the head but on the knees and elbows, a tail, four fingers and three toes, her memory flashed to a time when she was just a pup and listening to her grandsire tell tales that he had heard when he was just a pup. And how he had found old recorded texts of creatures of stone that existed only at night and were very good hunting prey and were only hunted as a preview to the Hard Meat Trial. Even when her grandsire showed her and all her siblings the ancient recordings she still did not believe. After all they were only stories.
"But...those creatures are all extinct!" she hissed to herself. "According to the Ancient texts, humans hunted them and slaughtered them in their sleep. Long ago before her grandsire's time his clan had hunted these creatures in preparation for the Hard Meat Trial...these legendary Warriors of Stone were mostly a large and fierce species ranging from two to three meters in -height and in rare exceptions were no larger than the average human of a meter and a half. They had wings of various types and configurations some feathered, most not, various spikes and horns, all had claws and tails. They were intelligent, territorial, and as strong as any yautja and all of them were reported to be extremely fierce. And according to the still existing recorded histories they supposedly turned to stone during the day!" She'd scoffed at the legends believing that the warriors were merely suffering from delusions brought about from being in space too long. But now she believed! But she also knew that such beings were supposed to be extinct.
'There are NONE left! None have ever reported having seen a being such as this Paya-deTjau'ke' she thought in shock. But...there it was, in all its living glory. 'Wait...it's jumping off the building is it mad?' Then she saw it come right back up, it was gliding in the air! 'C'jit! That's right the ancient texts say they can glide through the air.' Cro'dei-tha sent a signal to her shuttle to begin sending everything she recorded in micro bursts of communication to the clan's High Elderess. As she watched the large warrior of stone seemed to float on a gust of wind and performed a myriad of aerial calisthenics designed to keep his wings in shape. Then she watched him perform a series of physical exercises and combat movements. Ending with a roar and smashing his fist through the center of a statue he had moved earlier to his exercise area.
'About Pauk'de time it's been a quarter of a planetary rotation. And yet with all that training and exercise his heat level stayed steady as if this was just a warm-up. Well, steady until he destroyed the Tjau'ke figure then it swelled, mainly from anger. By Paya I want to hunt him, he'd make a very excellent trophy.' She thought as she admired the thermal images the warrior of stone generated and switched to x-ray mode to view his skeletal structure again as she considered the additional honor it would bring her and her clan for having brought his skull as a trophy and then sighed. 'But if he's the last of his kind then it's forbidden.'
She watched as he finished his raw meal, wash the juices from his mouth and hands and take off into the sky as she followed jumping from rooftop to rooftop. It soon became clear he was not just wandering in circles but making sure he was not being followed.
"So he does have a destination in mind and is not simply wandering. Hah! You won't lose me so easily." She clicked to herself as she continued to play follow the leader.
She found herself crouched down on the building watching as the warrior of stone landed on one opposite hers and waited, soon a fat human female showed up. The warrior of stone and the female hugged one another.
"What is going on, they're from two very different species and yet they are showing displays of affection." 'I wonder, could they be mates?' She wondered as she increased the image zoom option and the sound to capture what was said on the recorder. She did not worry about what was said knowing that her sibling would contact one of the clans that had an human slave or servant and have that human act as a translator and then send back the translations later.
"Lilith, oh my love how have you been? Is everything okay?" she noticed the large warrior sounded anxious.
'He's so pitiful, just like my mate Setg'in-kre't trying to assure himself of my health after I've returned from a hunt.'Cro'dei-tha thought to herself as she remembered her mate.
"Relax we're fine nothing happened today, but are you sure the child will be born this week? I have a new job interview next month and they won't take a pregnant woman." Cro'dei-tha heard her say soothingly then watched as the two matched facial parts for several minutes until the female jerked back and held her stomach.
Increasing the zoom and sound as far as it would go Cro'dei-tha examined the female's abdomen. 'Well C'jit on me, she's not fat but with pup and the pup has the same triple beat as the Paya-Tjau'ke. How odd there is a shell like covering enclosing the child within her. I wonder if that is normal for either species.' She thought to herself as she studied the pair. As she observed the pair she noticed that the female's heat signature was nearly similar to her mates. And that her skeleton was denser than any human she had hunted before.
"Yes my love, tomorrow marks seven and a half months so the egg should come out sometime this week or. . ." he hesitated
"Or what?" the female demanded.
"Or the egg could stay within you for another six years." her large mate chuckled
"That's not funny Kizahra!!!! I barely tolerated not being able to work for this long. I absolutely refuse to stay home barefoot and pregnant for another six years with these aches and pains. You better pray that this child comes out soon or you won't get sex from me ever!" the female threatened poking a finger into the chest of the male as he hung his head.
"I'm sorry my love. And I pray to the Dragon that our child will come out soon. I don't think I can live without your favors." The male said using soothing tones.
"That's right you better pray or else you get nothing not even half-ways." She chuckled as she hugged her mate again. Then she added as an afterthought "You know it was those favors that got us in this situation, so as soon as this kid is out no more sex ever!"
"But, but that's not fair." The male gasped out in mock horror clutching his chest dramatically. Then dropped to his knees and spoke to her stomach.
"Listen little one you have to come out soon. You have turned your mother into a cruel and unjust woman." He spoke directly to her large stomach.
"Oh you silly thing, I don't think I could survive a night without those favors, so you have nothing to worry about." Laughed the female as she watched her mate talking to her stomach.
Later that night after having left the pair to their activities, and returning from a little light hunting she settled down to listen to the translations and couldn't help but burble in laughter.
"So even the mighty Paya-deTjau'ke is susceptible to the withholding of pleasures." She smiled as her mandibles tightened against her face and arched upward as she thought about how similar this human female seemed to be in comparison to yautja females. She was still smiling when she received a micro burst message from her sibling.
"Honored Huntress Cro'dei-tha, the Ooman female we have translating your recording's assures us that regular pregnant Ooman females such as L'lth do not have such shell like enclosures within them around the pup. She believes it is from the Paya-deTjau'ke K'za-rah. I have messaged every clan's High Elderess asking them to have all their record's searched for any mention of creatures that existed with similar descriptions as this Paya-deTjau'ke."
The next day came and Cro'dei-tha rushed to the human female's dwelling scanning the building looking for the familiar heat signature, hoping to see the laying of the egg produced from the mating of a warrior of stone and a human, but she sighed as she saw the female waddle along still looking fat.
"Perhaps the Ooman will have the egg come nightfall." She muttered to herself backing up to go do a little hunting as the female began to slowly look around the room in a suspicious manner.
Two days had passed by and the egg had still not made an appearance and the human female was seriously pissed off. Cro'dei-tha watched as one night in the midst of dinner the female suddenly heaped verbal abuse upon her mate. The next morning when she arrived clutching to the building side she had to duck her head as an ornament came crashing through the window nearly hitting her in the face. Cro'dei-tha watched shocked as the female literally upended the sitting and sleeping structure humans called a sofa bed while screaming with rage. She saw as the female jerked her head this way and that looking around.
"I know you're there, whoever or whatever you are and now is not the time. I am not in the mood for. . . your. . . watching. . . GAMES." The female shrieked.
'Perhaps it would be better if I moved back to the opposite dwelling.' She thought as she saw the female begin throwing things again and this time her hands wrapped around another ornament. A statuette she had watched the warrior carving from a block of wood. And soon enough out flew the ornament which Cro'dei-tha immediately caught as it came speeding out the window with the female shouting.
"Kizahra, I hate you. You did this to me!" The next moment Cro'dei-tha heard the female wailing as she realized she had thrown her mate's gift.
"NNOo! What have I done? I didn't mean it. Oh Kizahra will never forgive me."
'This is interesting' Cro'dei-tha thought as she studied the ornament. 'It looks like the Paya-Tjau'ke.' She watched as the female dressed herself and obviously went to search the streets below for remains of the ornament. The moment the female closed the door she carefully entered the dwelling through the broken window and placed the ornament onto the nearest table in the room. As soon as she exited the dwelling and leapt back to the opposite building the female came back in tears. Until she found the ornament on the table.
"Oh thank the god's. I don't know who you are but thank you."
Later that night Cro'dei-tha spotted the Paya-deTjau'keas he came winging his way to the window clinging to the wall before slowly entering and being berated by his mate until she began to gasp and clutch at her abdomen as she grimaced in pain.
"It's okay my love we were prepared for this." He was saying as he unfolded the bed and laid her in it and went about getting the warm water and clean cloths. Over the next several hours Cro'dei-tha watched as the female shouted what were obscenities at her mate while pushing the egg out of her body.
'If the birthing of pups for Oomans is anything like the birthing of pups for us yautja, she must be cursing him to every unimaginable and unspeakable agony in existence.' She thought chuckling to herself at the warrior's predicament. She paid closer attention when the winged warrior shouted out loud.
"By the Dragon it's an egg." He had carefully picked up the egg and was showing it to his mate.
"Does, does this mean the child will be a gargoyle? And will we have to wait ten years for he or she to hatch?" the female asked as she panted from the effort.
"I do not know, my love, this is new territory for the both of us. We should know in a few hours if it hardens like I remember eggs should. That may signify that the child is more gargoyle than human, but if it stays semi-soft then that could mean it is more human than gargoyle. But we will have to be very careful. I think it is a good time for you to describe to me what this ultrasound machine is so I can find one at the nearest hospital and bring it here and we can look after the egg." The male said as he gently placed the egg in a blanket laden basket and brought it closer to his mate.
"I don't like the thought of you stealing. And beside I'll be able to borrow one when I go for my yearly check up." The female yawned. "And I can tell you that laying an egg still hurts even if my body has become more like your female gargoyles. Feeling my hips and pelvic bone dislocating was an uncomfortable feeling. Are the females always this sore afterward?" asked the female before falling deep asleep.
'So this part of the myth of Paya-deTjau'ke is true. They do come from eggs.' She thought to herself then used her x-ray to look within the egg. 'Ah this little one looks like its bearer and has no wings or tail but looks to have some bone features of the sire.' Over the next week Cro'dei-tha watched as the human's health and sleek figure returned to what was normal as she began to exercise. Then one evening the female was talking quickly and excitedly to her mate who hugged her and kissed her.
'Obviously she was accepted for the job "as a pup guardian" the ooman translator told me she was attempting to be assigned to.' Cro'dei-tha mused.
"Kizahra when can we go back to sparring?" the female asked as they moved off to check the egg which had gotten a little firmer and was still as large as a watermelon but was still soft to the touch.
"When do you start your new job?" he asked inspecting the egg for any blemishes.
"They want me to start in two weeks." The female watched her mate. "Is everything alright?"she asked. Both Cro'dei-tha and the warrior noted the thread of concern in her voice.
"Everything is fine so far. And I think we can start the sparring the next night. We want you to be at your best, to impress them." He answered as he stood up and hugged the human female. When Cro'dei-tha managed to sneak into the dwelling during the day when the warrior was asleep and the female was at work, she found that it felt just like the egg of a Setj'in, kind of leathery and supple.
The next day she couldn't wait for the sun to set to see this hand-to-hand between the mates. When she got to the building rooftop opposite of them she expected to see mats and padding like the human translator told her, but what she saw was a battlefield. And for a moment she thought that things had gone terribly wrong, for the hand-to-hand seemed to have devolved into a full blown battle. She watched helplessly as they were fighting, which anyone could have mistaken, seeing as how when she found them the male had just gripped the leg of the tall female with his tail and viciously slammed her into the wall where she grunted in pain. She immediately launched herself back at the large male with a quick combination of punches and furious kicks which caused the big male to grunt in surprise. After a moment of watching there was a sound which she had learned to identify as the humans portable communications device calling for attention. After a while of continuous noise it stopped and then started again. Which brought the fighting pair to a sweaty halt and it was only then that she realized that they were simply having an incredibly violent hand-to-hand to tell from the bruises both sported. Surprisingly neither sported any major injuries, it seemed to Cro'dei-tha that their bodies had hardened themselves to the violent exercise, merely leaving them breathing heavy.
Intrigued she cautiously made her way closer, having learned that somehow the pair seemed able to sense when she was nearby, and amplified the sound on her recorder.
"Yeah. Adam this better be important, you know I don't like to be disturbed on my day off. And especially when I'm sparring." The female barked with hostility into the device radiating heat from her head indicating anger, obviously her mate discerned the same for he approached softly yet swiftly and twined his arms around her until she stiffened and quickly looked around. This promptly made the warrior look around warily, forcing Cro'dei-tha to freeze in her tracks and creep backwards behind the nearest cover. Exposing her head she continued to record.
"What happened to David, it's his work day? Oh, well tell them congratulations. Yeah ok Adam, when does he need me to watch Jason? Alright give me an hour to change and be on my way." The female turned off the device and turned to her mate.
"Beloved it's here again watching, whatever or whoever it is knows about you and more importantly about us and our egg." She said holding onto him.
"I know my love, I can feel it as well but I do not see it." He answered in return.
"I just can't pinpoint where it is watching from, when I look around I don't see anything all I see are shimmers of heat." The female said as she looked directly across the building rooftop in her direction. She saw the male suddenly straighten from the hug.
"What did you say?" the male asked as he slowly moved her behind him moving backwards into the building rooftop entrance.
"I just said that I see heat shimmers. Kizahra what's wrong, I've never seen you this pale before?" she asked as she tried unsuccessfully to talk to him face to face only to be thrust back behind him while he scanned the area more thoroughly. But by this time Cro'dei-tha was already on their building holding onto the antenna top
"Go back to your apartment, go to work and be safe." He told her. "I'll see you tonight to talk. I must think, there's something buried in my memory I need to dig out. Hide the egg before you leave, put it in the safe if you must." He said as he felt it was safe enough to turn to her and watch her retreat further into the building. Then he closed the flimsy entrance and took one last look around and leapt into the air and flew away.
Two nights later Cro'dei-tha found out that such hand to hand practices went on for hours after sunset and long into the night. And she found it interesting that they could take such punishing throws and bone jarring blows. She found her herself deep in thought. 'I wonder just how well they would fit into yautja society. They certainly were physical enough.'
Another week passed and Cro'dei-tha began to itch and strain at the restrictions, of monitoring only, placed on her by her clan's High Elderess.
"Pauk I want to see how good they really are, my skin burns with wanting to pit my strength and skill against theirs. And as disturbing as the thought is I know that if they were yautja, I would have already challenged the female to mating rights with the male." She grumbled to herself one day having already grown so accustomed to the winged warrior and the human female that their features no longer disturbed her. Then three days later everything went wrong as she began to find more human bodies than she was responsible for. If it were just strong males or the occasional strong female that would not have bothered her. What sent her warning signals was that the bodies were a large mixture of children, weak females and the elderly. She immediately sent a micro-burst communication of her suspicions. And went to watch over the warrior and his female mate. But she had run out of luck and arrived to witness as the warrior landed in an ambush, between a yautja holding his mate and another unseen collaborator. She immediately saw the triple targeting beam settle onto the back of the head of the warrior and immediately shot a bolt of energized plasma from her shoulder cannon at the concealed bad-blood killing the hidden accomplice far more quickly than he deserved. 'You have lived too long without honor as a Tarei'hasan, so now have you died without honor' she thought in satisfaction bringing a pause to the confrontation as she decloaked herself bringing a rattle of rage from the remaining bad-blood and a nod of thanks from the warrior Kizahra as they watched the hidden killer fall over in death.
Cro'dei-tha and Kizahra both gasped in horror as they watched the yautja spear the battered and defenseless female through the back with his gauntlet blades. And just carelessly toss her body as if she were a piece of garbage. She took a long look at the yautja male and saw that his mask's clan symbol identified him as a member of the Guan-kre'ta the only clan of bad-bloods. It only took her a moment to scan the female's body to check for life already knowing it was too late even before the murdering honorless scum spoke to insult her. She could see the heart beat but it was starting to slow and the body heat was also slowly fading away. Cro'dei-tha knew that within a handful of minutes this unique human would be dead and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
To Be Continued… in A New Hunter: The Collision.
Reviews, suggestions are welcome, even complaints and criticisms are acceptable if they are constructive, of course.
And remember, "Payas leitjin-de . . . Hma'mi-de".