It was hours before A'luet came to, his body aching from the hard ground. Sitting up slowly, he pulled his hand free from his mother's shoulder harness that had held her combi-stick. In his fitful sleep, he must have wrapped his fingers around it. Carefully so not to disturb her, he pulled her spear out from under her. Squeezing it in the right places, like she had shown him, made it shorten. It felt like stealing, taking it, but she was dead. And rightfully, it was his now. Under normal circumstances, according to the teachings, he had to earn his right to carry the combi-stick; but it was all he had left of her, that and memories.

"O'tello Ma'da, goodbye.." He bowed his head and then stood.

…

He felt like he was walking in circles. He didn't know where he was; he had never been this deep in the jungle. He was tired, hungry and thirsty. It wasn't long before his keen hearing picked up on something stalking him. With exhaustive realization he remembered that he didn't see the hybrids' bodies among the dead. They must have survived and now they are going to kill me.

Surprisingly, he wasn't afraid. His mother was dead, his clan, dead. He had nothing left. Slowly, he turned, his hand reaching for the combi-stick on his back. If he was going to die, then he was going to die fighting, like his mother.

There was nothing in the clearing that he could see; yet he still extended the spear, readying himself.

He felt his courage waver when it charged out from the brush, its metallic teeth gnashing and its claws hooked. Emboldened, he jabbed at it with the spear, missing. The hybrid backhanded him with its large claw, sending him clear across the clearing and into a tree.

Darkness threatening to take him over, he started to panic when the hybrid jumped at him. Letting out a frustrated cry, A'luet decided to take his chances and throw the spear at the creature. He hit it in the head, not fatally but enough to piss it off. It hit him again, this time in the chest, hard enough to feel his ribs crack. He was thrown backwards, landing on his back. It sprung forward, pushing him down, straddling him.

It opened its mouth impossibly wide, strings of saliva hitting A'luet in the face; its inner mouth coming out to kill him, impregnate him, he didn't know which.

As he opened his mouth to scream out, something shot the hybrid clean through its skull, its blood spraying A'luet. He flinched, expecting the blood to burn him but it didn't. Shock rendering him useless, he could only lay on the forest floor with the dead hybrid on him and watch as his savior came towards him, its plasma caster lowering behind its shoulder.

Too stunned to do anything, he let the darkness consume him.

….

A tough calloused hand grasped A'luet by the chin, tilting his head to the sides. Slowly he opened his eyes and blurrily focused on a figure hunched down next to him. The creature-a yautja A'luet noted by the long dreadlocks; let go of him and pulled its mask off.

"You awake kid?"

Swallowing, he nodded.

The yautja, a young male, snorted. "-The hell were you thinking?"

Shaking, A'luet sat up and glanced at the hybrid, dead next to him. Its head already separated from its grotesque body. The yautja noticed his look.

"Don't worry I took care of your dirty work."

"It's not my dirty work," A'luet snapped.

The yautja raised his brow, "oh? Forgive me, I'll just conveniently forget watching you attempt to give the abomination a hair cut."

A'luet gave the gash he had given the hybrid a glare. The yautja snorted again, "Come on, get up."

A'luet obeyed, getting to his feet. Standing he saw he barely reached the yautja's bicep. "Where's your clan?"

A'luet bowed his head, the memories of the slaughter coming back with a vengeances. Silently he shrugged.

The yautja clucked, annoyed. "I don't need this…C'jit!" He turned back to A'luet. "Come on, I'll take you back to my ship. We'll deal with this there." He picked up the head and started to walk away, but paused when A'luet didn't follow.

He watched, his eyes narrowed as the boy bent and picked up a combi-stick he had tossed aside.

"A bit young for that, don't you think?" He snipped.

The kid glared at him in response.

"Whatever, be prepared to have it confiscated once on the ship." The yautja walked off, not bothering to see if his charge followed.

…..

It was close to daybreak when a large ship finally came into view, seated on the edge of a large cliff. The ship was huge, for A'luet he could barely comprehend a machine being so big. He had always lived in the jungle; small huts and lean-tos were his MO. Two guards stood watch outside an open door. At seeing them emerge from the brush, they grinned.

"Kulak, about time you returned," one greeted.

"You owe me," the other one crowed, giving his partner a playful jab. "I told you a whole night he'd be gone…come on now."

Grumbling, the first yautja slapped several odd looking metal devices into his hand. "Don't tell anyone." Returning his attention to Kulak, his grin faltered a little. "That an abomination?"

"Yup." Kulak walked by the two male yautja who did double takes at seeing A'luet.

"Whose the runt?" A'luet heard one of them ask. Kulak didn't answer. The ship was made of metal and big, the deeper they went into the vessel the more crowded it got with yautja. Kulak took a sharp right and dumped the hybrid's head on to a table.

"I'll be back for that later," he said, clapping a fellow yautja on the shoulder. A'luet grimaced as the yautja peeled skin off the creature he was skinning. "Come on runt." He pushed A'luet none too gently out of the side cubicle.

Just when A'luet didn't think they could walk any further into the ship, Kulak stopped at a door. "Not a word," he shook him a little. "Not that you talk anyway," Kulak snorted and pushed the door open.

The cavern was large with high ceilings and a large atrium window overlooking the steep drop off of the cliff outside. At the window stood three large, well-built, yet clearly aged yautja.

"My Elders," Kulak dropped to his knee, bowing his head respectfully, with his left hand clenched in a fist over his chest.

Next to him, A'luet stood confused. No one had ever bowed in his clan. His had been one of the few that had operated as equal partners. Sure the children respected their elders, but it was nothing like this.

Kulak noticed the kid still standing and quickly yanked him down. "Bow your head before the Elders, you idiot," he hissed under his breath.

A'luet did so quickly.

Before them, a yautja who appeared older than the other two drew closer. "Rise Kulak."

Kulak obeyed, again dragging A'luet up with him.

"Whom may I ask is this?" The Elder came closer until A'luet could smell him.

"I found him-" Kulak paused, trying to find the words to describe what A'luet had been doing. He changed his explanation. "An abomination was on the loose my Elder, I took care of it easily because it was too busy with this D'jilk, child."

The Elder stiffed at hearing about the hybrid. "It's dead? You're sure?"

"Yes my Elder." Kulak puffed his chest out in pride. "I'm sure."

The Elder calmed and glanced at the other two who also relaxed. "Good." He returned his attention to A'luet and circled him slowly, reaching out and feeling his dreadlocks, studying his spots. "Now, what is your name?"

"A'luet." His voice was quiet, he felt like he hadn't talked in ages.

"Did the abomination separate you from your clan?"

A'luet found he couldn't answer. Numbly he just nodded.

"Then we will reunite you with your clan." The Elder turned to his fellow Elders. "Find Pho'e." He rested a hand on A'luet's thin shoulder. "He is our best tracker."

"Wait," A'luet blurted out as one of the Elders started to leave. "I lied. My clan is dead."

"Dead?"

"Yes, the hybrids, they killed them all."

"Hybrids?" Kulak snarled. "There's more than one of them and you didn't tell me!"

"Kulak, stay your temper," the Elder growled.

"No Elder, because of his silence, I probably led them right to us!"

The thought dawned on the old one's face. "Pauk," he grated.

"There were only two," A'luet quailed under the rising tension. Kulak was glaring at him.

"Let me go out Elder, I'll finish it off."

The Elder considered it, "mo Kulak. If these abominations killed an entire clan, a female clan, as much as the hunt excites us, now is not the time. We leave, ready the engines."

"But-"

"No Kulak," The Elder snapped. The young male shot A'luet a nasty look behind the old yautja's back. "Kulha, take A'luet to the bath, he's filthy."

The yautja came forward, sweeping A'luet into his outstretched arm. A'luet followed the Elder to the hull of the ship, passing many rooms; some of which had warring yautja. A'luet flinched as the sound of a body hit one of the doors they passed.

Kulha gave the door a dull once over. "Males will be males," he said kindly, "my mother used to tell me that all the time."

A'luet just looked at him.

Finally they reached the bath; as Kulha explained the works of the tubs A'luet found his attention drifting to a large glass door where a large gym like room was crowded with yautja all circled around two males fighting.

One yautja was coal colored, but the other was light greenish-yellow with odd reddish stripes lining his throat. A'luet watched in wonder as the yellowish male darted out of the way of the coal yautja, and quickly whacked his adversary with a large pole.

Kulha joined him at the door, interested in what had pulled the young one away. "Ah, J'mper is one of our best warriors…lost his bottom jaw to a Kainde Amedha. And the other is another one of our rising warriors, has just been blooded."

"Who is he?" A'luet asked, awed by the yautja's skill and precision.

"An'nu," The Elder studied the child's fixed expression before tapping him on the shoulder. "Best to get a bath, you are covered in mud. I'll take this for you."

Adrenaline shot through the young yautja as he felt the Elder's hand brush his for the combi-stick. "No," he pulled away. "I want to keep it."

Kulha watched him carefully. "It is not custom for a child to carry a combi-stick. You earn it."

"It was my mothers, it's mine."

Kulha twitched his mandibles, "very well, keep it for now. You will have to give it up soon."

Not trusting the Elder, A'luet took it with him into the bath area. Feeling the bruises as he stripped, he slid into the tub and tried to relax in the warm water, holding the combi-stick.

Sudden voices scared him as several yautja came into view, one bending down to start a bath near by.

A'luet recognized the coal yautja, J'mper and the other, An'nu among the group.

One yautja paused in the middle of removing his armor. "Didn't know we were running a day care center."

The group turned to see what he was talking about, their gazes landing on the skinny boy in the tub. J'mper said something to An'nu, his voice guttural due to his mouth injury.

"You lost D'jilk?" the same yautja who had cracked the day care joke, demanded.

A'luet wished the yautja would stop calling him that; he wasn't a child. A child implied the mewling babies the young mothers in his Clan had.

He shook his head.

The yautja grinned, sarcasm in his walk as he strode up to A'luet. "When D'jilki speak to those better, they speak up."

"Mo, no. I'm not lost," A'luet answered, wishing the yautja would go away. He was quickly becoming worse than Dachande had ever been.

"You sure?" The yautja crouched next to him; close enough to snort hard, making A'luet's dreads move. "Because you're in my tub. See?" the yautja slid a claw over a scratched name.

"Bak, leave him alone." An'nu sounded tired.

"Shut it An'nu, I'm a little busy teaching a brat a lesson about taking others possessions."

J'mper growled lowly in his throat.

Bak tilted his head, "where'd you get the combi-stick?"

"None of your business," A'luet snapped.

Bak froze, either stunned at his outburst or thinking up a new way to tantalize him. A'luet saw the other males suddenly take interest after Bak's mention of the spear. Bak grinned evilly.

"Bak!"

The yautja quickly turned around, his bullying demeanor cowed at the sight of the Elder. He dropped to his knees, as did the others.

"Don't you have slime to wash off?" The Elder came to a stop above A'luet, his powerful presence enough to make even him shake.

"Yes my Elder," Bak wasted no time scurrying back to his haven, among the other males.

The Elder fixed the group with a glower that told them clearly to back off. "Are you done A'luet?" His question much gentler than his previous growl at Bak.

A'luet nodded and pulled himself out of the tub, quickly donned his clothes and followed the Elder out.

…

"I don't see any major problems," Na'giest the ship's head medic murmured as he checked A'luet head to toe. In the shadows, the Elder-Zeke A'luet had learned his name was, waited.

"Attacked by a Kainde Amedha hybrid you said?"

Zeke nodded, "that is what Kulak relayed to me. A'luet, I understand it may be too soon, but we must know your story."

A'luet tightened his hand on the spear. "Two of the clan were impregnated, I watched the Z'skvy-de of one and ran back to camp. We were attacked. Our leader Rhon-dah was killed almost instantly-"

"Rhon-dah?" Na'giest sputtered. The medic closed his eyes, "pauk!"

Zeke closed his own eyes for a moment, "I am sorry Na'giest."

The medic only growled out a response, bending the edge of the metal exam table A'luet was sitting on. Uneasy, A'luet scooted away from him.

"Rhon-dah was Na'giest's sister," Zeke explained quietly as the medic left the room. "Please continue."

A'luet recounted how his mother had told him to run and how he returned hours later to find all the clan dead. He had wandered aimlessly, until he was attacked by one of the hybrids and then Kulak saved him.

Zeke nodded, his eyes landing on the spear. "It means a lot to you, doesn't it?"

A'luet didn't answer, expecting to fight with him too like he had Kulha.

"Don't worry, I won't separate you from it. It's all you have now."

The two looked up to see Na'giest return. "We ought to chose wisely where we place him Zeke, most the males onboard this ship would itch the chance to use him for their own strengthening."

Zeke nodded. "That's why I already know where I am putting him."

….

The door slid back into the wall, granting A'luet view of a spacious room where two males were tiding up. J'mper's ruined face brightened in interest as he thumped his bent over roommate. The roommate straightened, An'nu.

"J'mper, An'nu, I saw you already met A'luet earlier today. He is going to be bedding with you for now." Zeke held A'luet in place like he knew the boy wanted to bolt.

J'mper formed a few complex signs with his hands.

Zeke let go of A'luet, "J'mper is greeting you."

Shyly, A'luet shot the deformed yautja a quick glance. The yautja seemed to understand his uneasiness, signing at Zeke who smiled. "I know you'll take care of him." The Elder left, leaving A'luet with his new roommates.