A/N: Hello everyone, I hoped you enjoyed the updated first chapter. It's funny looking back on my writing style after so many years. Any who, here's chapter two.
Disclaimer: While the original characters are mine, I do not own the Alien or the Predator franchise. Oh woe is me.
It felt good to run on four legs once again, it had been way too long since our last hunt. And I got the feeling we wouldn't be doing anything like this again for a while. We all came to a halt near the edge of our land, the run having energized us.
"It's been too long," Dezi said, voicing what the rest of us had been feeling. Her cat-like features the very image of contentment. The normally petite brunette, was now larger than a draft horse. A mix of scales and fur covering her body in various shades of blue and green, her strange yellow eyes shimmering in amusement. Davin stood next to her, his serpentine body glimmering in the sunlight. He could easily pass for one of the Chinese dragons of lore with his bold red and yellow scales and horns on his head. Though not nearly as tall as the rest of us, he was just as fast, and could turn on a dime when needed. Nate had scouted ahead, looking very much so like a giant wolf, though the scales and horns sort of ruined the image. Then there was Talos, looking much like Dezi, though he managed to dwarf her in size. And while Dezi look more like a leopard, Talos resembled a lion, though the colors were off. He was more white, with dark red scales covering his legs and horns coming from his head. I looked much like Nate in appearance. His coat and scales in varying shades of gray while my own were black. My front legs reminded me of a dragons, while my hind were very much so canine. I also had horns about my ears as well and two in a row on my nose. The kicker was that I had wings, appendages that had appeared last year a shocker for all of us.
"So who's gonna explain to me what in the hell those things were?" Dezi asked after Nate had returned.
"Not it," I said, narrowing my eyes at them, "I've been explaining things and playing nice all damn morning, it's someone else turn damnit." Talos stepped forward and explained the situation to Dezi, her expression blank through the entire story.
"You're fucked." I couldn't help but snort at her words.
"In a nutshell yea." Nate shrugged, lifting his nose to the air.
"You guys smell that?" he asked suddenly cause us all to pause and lift our noses to the air.
"Seems that we've been followed," Davin growled, golden eyes narrowing into slits. I couldn't help but groan.
"They have almost a thousand acres to roam and yet they had to follow us."
"Mom did say that they like a challenge..." All of us turned to look at Talos questionably.
"When the hell did she say that?"
"I had asked her to elaborate more on the whole hunting thing with them. Seems that they are more like trophy hunters, but prefer a challenge when it comes to gaining them."
"You don't think they..."Dezi started, her fur ruffling in nervousness.
"It was what originally drew R'azaroc to mom. But he chose to get to know her instead of kill her. But they really are here with peaceful intent. According to mom, they are the equivalent of teenagers...so about the same age as us."
"Oh joy, as if you lot weren't bad enough, lets add four more into the mix," Nate teased.
"Should we invite them?" Dezi asked, glancing over at the cloaked yajuta.
"You wanna do the honor Sarin?"
"Not really, but it's not like you guys are gonna give me a choice in the manner now are you?" With a sigh, I trotted over to the tree I knew at least two of them were trying to hide.
"A word of advice, if you are trying to hide, next time sit down wind of the ones you are tracking not up."
Glyph was pissed, that much I could tell. But then again it was his own fault for sticking by me.
"You could have warned me that we were up wind of them," he snarled. I snorted, his shitty attitude might give him results with the others, but it wouldn't work on me.
"And you should have been paying attention. I knew what I was doing, not my fault you're fascinated by her." The snarl that followed had whom I assumed was Sarin calling up to us.
"If I'm interrupting something I can go. But since you are here, you are welcome to join us if you wish." Uncloaking, I jumped down from my spot landing in front of her.
"You're not interrupting anything, grumpy puss up there just doesn't like being found out at his own game."
"You speak English very well..." I shrugged.
"You never know when you might need it. All of us know it, we just prefer our own language."
"Good to know," she said with a snort, looking back up into the tree where Glyph still sat.
"Is he coming down or is he going to sulk the entire time. No point in acting like I cant see you."
"You can see him?" Not many beings could see past our camouflage.
"Davin can do something similar in spite of his bold coloration. But I can make out the fine details of your armor."
At this Glyph dropped his camouflage and left the tree.
"Well then shall we?"
I led the two yajuta back over to the group with the hopes that maybe this would be the start of a pleasant...whatever you wanted to call it.
"Dez, this is Chaos and Glyph, guys, Dezero," I introduced, sitting down beside Talos.
"Dezi or Dez, I wont answer you by the other."
"So what's the plan?" I asked after the brief into.
"We were thinking about maybe having a little bet," Davin started causing me to groan aloud.
"And at that, I'm gone," I started, making to move only to have Talos plant his foot on my tail.
"Oh no you don't, we need you for this one."
"I fucking hate you guys you know that right..."
"In English my darling sister," Nate singsonged.
"What's the wager?" Chaos asked, his excitement almost tangible.
"Well you see, Talos and Sarin are the two best hunters in our house. So we figured, our best hunters against yours. First pair to bring back a bear wins."
"Wins what exactly?" I found myself shivering at the sound of Glyph's before I couldn't even stop myself. All of the yajuta's voices were deep, and had almost growling qualities to them. But Glyph's... it was almost like the ground shook when he spoke. And it didn't help that he seemed to be pissed off about something. But today was only the first day, and I could understand being pissy after a long trip.
"I would say Sarin would cook for you guys for a week,"Nate started, grinning at the murderous expression on my face.
"EXCUSE ME?!"
"However, we would never hear the end of it...so..."
"Loser has to use to the forger to made the winners' trophy. It can be a weapon, whatever we want," Davin said, slinking around to sit next to me.
"Thanks," I mumbled. We watched as the two conversed, both appearing to be excited about our...well the guys suggestion.
"I don't know why you are so worried about this Sarin. It's just a friendly little wager."
"Because I'm antisocial, and care more about getting food in my stomach." I snorted, ignoring the look Talos was shooting me.
"We'll be fine..."
"You have yourselves a deal...on one condition," Chaos said, earning back all of our attention.
"And that would be?"
"You must hunt in your other form." I looked to Talos who nodded, and was shrinking himself back into his human guise. Shrugging I to began pushing myself back into my human guise, growling a little bit at the sting that always manages to follow the change.
"Is this satisfactory?" I asked, rolling my shoulders as last bit of my wings sunk beneath human skin.
I had expected her to argue out right, seeing as how she seemed more comfortable in her other form over her ooman one. And yet she seemed indifferent to whatever form she used.
"It would seem your plan back-fired Glyph. She obviously doesn't depend on her other form like you thought she did," Chaos snorted. When he wasn't living up to his namesake he was rather insightful, and often caught things others wouldn't. However I wished he would keep that insight to himself.
"We have a condition for you then as well," Talos said, glancing back over his shoulder at Sarin who was standing by a tree for some reason.
"And that would be?" The grin on his face had my eyes narrowing behind my mask.
"Jaws and claws only, no weapons allowed." I looked at them, not really convinced that they could even keep to the condition themselves. It would be easy enough for Chaos and I however.
"Deal." A loud cracking sound filled the air, drawing our attentions back to where Sarin was standing. The tree she was near now missing a fairly large chunk out of it.
"Come now boys, you didn't think we would ask for that if we didn't believe we could handle ourselves now did you?" And with that she swung her leg around, effortlessly knocking the tree to the ground.
"I think someone is in love,"Chaos joked causing me to snarl.
"You guys have an hour time limit. And in the event that you guys bring something back at the same time, the bigger bear will win."
"We are in agreeance then?" Talos asked, grinning as his sister joined him. For a moment I had to wonder exactly what did we just get ourselves into, but I found myself nodding. A feral grin spread across her lips, fangs that I hadn't noticed before shining in the light.
"Well then, good luck." And with that they simply disappeared before our eyes.
"Why do I get the feeling that this is going to be harder than we thought?"
"Admit it, you're having fun," Talos said as we made our way down to the river. About half of our time was up already, but I knew that the two yajuta hadn't made it back either.
"I'm having fun, there's nothing to admit though," I said with a shrug. It wasn't like I didn't want to get along with them, I'm just a bitch when I don't get enough sleep.
"I find that hard to believe Sarin. You've been in a shitty mood since you got back from being with Shadow."
"I have no idea what you are talking about," I said, trying hard not to sound offended. My time with Shadow had been brief, a tad bit confusing, and the "birthplace" of my newest appendages. I didn't know what that meant, but it sure was frustrating.
"The hell you don't Sarin..."
"Look, can we just drop it. We have a bet to win, unless you want to spend your day in the forge." Snorting he took off, seemingly to have caught scent of our prize. I caught up not long after, spotting the bear that we had been tracking not that long ago. I was a large male, clearly aged, but still strong and healthy and the perfect candidate for out little bet.
"Can this be lunch after this is all said and done? I don't about you, but I haven't eaten all day," I whispered, creeping my way closer to the large animal.
"Well that was the point of us originally coming out, gonna have to drag the fucker back home though." Nodding, I waited for Talos to get into position, keeping low and downwind of the animal in question. With one last curt nod Talos let out a loud roar, before leaping onto the back of the bear. Distracted, I let our a roar of my own and struck.
"Seems they know what they are doing," I said, glancing over a Glyph who had not to long ago finished tying up the bear we had found.
"They still have to kill theirs."
"By the sound of it, they have everything under control." Growling, he began dragging our catch back to the start. Rolling my eyes I made my way back to help him.
"Just admit it, you like her."
"I'm intrigued, nothing more...now drop it."
"Have I struck a nerve with you brother? She is quite the sight to behold," I laughed, ducking under the fist that was aimed towards my head.
"I hate you sometimes, you know that right?"
"So are you admitting it then?"
"I'm not admitting a damn thing, especially not to you. Now quit talking and pull."
We arrived back actually around the same time Sarin and Talos did, both looking like that had a little more trouble than we did with our kill. But the bear they had presented was easily the larger of the two.
"Had some trouble?" Talos grinned at my words, only causing Sarin to scowl.
"Thing put up a damn good fight, though Sarin had to finish the it off. I got tossed half way into bringing it down." At this I glanced over at Sarin who was clutching her stomach.
"You alright?"
"Been better," she snorted, waving away Davin as he wandered over to check on her.
"Well then, seems like you guys win."
"That's the way it looks. Now for some food, and oh look, two perfectly good slabs meat," Nate grinned.
"I'm not dragging this thing back," Glyph snarled.
"Who said anything about dragging?"
Dezi laid her hand on Talos and I's kill, disappearing with a grin, Davin doing the same with Chaos and Glyph's.
"You wanna go find the other two, we can get them home," I asked Nate who nodded and left without another word.
"Teleportation has it perks as you can see," Talos joked, clamping a hand down on Chaos' shoulder and disappearing with him. Sighing I made my way over to Glyph, who looked like he'd rather run himself through on his spear than have anything to do with me in spite of having his mask on.
"I don't bite, I promise," trying to placate the rather upset yajuta.
"No tricks female," he snarled, causing me to snort.
"You could always walk back you know," I challenged, closing the gap between us. Another growl escaped him, but he said nothing more as I placed a had on his arm, teleporting the two of us to the living room. He swayed a bit, causing me to firm my grasp on his arm.
"Sorry about that, I should've known that was going to feel a bit off to you. I'll give ya a warning the next time." I tried to keep my voice light and pleasant, but I could tell that I was only helping in pissing him off more. I was quick to move my hand from his skin, scratching the back of my neck in nervousness.
"There you are. We could use your help in here Sarin," Dezi said, snagging my arm and pulling me into the kitchen with her.
"Have fun?" my mother asked as I grabbed a knife from off the counter.
"She's gonna need her side stitched up when we get through," Talos called out causing me to groan.
"Really?"
"No, I'm fine, it's just a scratch, it will be healed in no time."
"You sure?"
"Positive." My mother gave me one more penetrating glance before leaving us to our task.
"You seemed to be getting along well with Glyph," Dezi whispered, causing me to bite back a laugh.
"I think you need to get your eyes checked girly."
"Oh come on, you cannot tell me that you don't find..."
"Find what Dez?" I snapped cutting her off. I was sore and hungry and in no mood for her mind games. She arched a brow at me, but said nothing more to me.
"So you went hunting?" Chaos I could see going along with the prospect, but the idea of Glyph agreeing was somewhat far fetch. And while he would never turn his back on a fellow yajuta, I had a hard time believing that he would go along with the bet.
"It was different. What exactly are they?"
"The oomans know them as demons, but I'm not sure what they call themselves." That was something I was going to have to ask Tanna at a later date.
"You could have warned us," Glyph growled, causing my own to rumble forth.
"You could have listened. I told you that they were not ooman, and I only know of Tanna's abilities, not her pups'"
"Told you so," Chaos snorted, leaving the room to join the others. It was going to be a hell of a long stay if they kept acting like this.
I felt a headache forming behind my eyes as I went back into the living room.
"Why do I get the feeling that this is going to be way harder than we originally thought?" I asked R'azaroc as I collapsed down onto the couch.
"Because you were the one who decided to have pups, and I refused to bring my own," he teased causing me to roll my eyes.
"Yes, but the gods managed to gift you with all girls," I grinned, laughing at the rather audible groan that had escaped him.
"How many is that now? Seven?"
"Eight...though there is word that I may be having a son on the way."
"Really now? And who is the lucky lady?" He, however, waved off my question. I couldn't bring myself to be upset by his dismissal. Honestly, once upon a time, I didn't think that we would reach this point in comradery that we shared. But time changes us all.
"I was surprised to learn that Glyph had taken part in their little bet. From what I understood, he would have rather gouge his eyes out than participate."
"According to his brother, he has a thing for your daughter...whether or not that is a good thing has yet to been seen." My brows shot to my hairline.
"Really? I get the feeling that fur is going to fly."
"An understatement Tanna, I promise you."
Well, chapter two has been updated. Not nearly as long as the first, but still pretty lengthy. I'm loving how these chapters are turning out. Well, onto the next. Happy reading!