The first thing Cathie noticed when she regained consciousness was the dry air. She opened her eyes slowly to find herself in an alien-like cell. Sitting up and rubbing her head, she tried to remember what had happened before she passed out. An image of the two creatures popped into her head and she gasped. Where did they go? Were they the ones who took her? Where was she, anyway?
"About time you woke up," a voice said.
The voice sounded familiar and Cathie spun around to find a young girl standing off in the back corner of the cell. The low lightening of the cell made it difficult to make out most of the girl's appearance, however it didn't help that she had positioned herself in the shadows so that most of her upper body just a dark outline.
"You're the girl from before, aren't you? You were the one who saved me."
The girl didn't answer, but took two steps forward, coming out of the shadows. She looked to be around sixteen or seventeen years old, wearing all black. Her black hair came down just past her shoulders. Cathie looked into her eyes and was absolutely shocked; her irises were the darkest blue Cathie had ever seen, so dark they almost looked black. She definitely wasn't a normal girl, that much was obvious, but what was it making her different? A couple minutes of silence went by before Cathie begin to feel uncomfortable under the girl's piercing gaze.
"Did you save me?" she asked again.
The girl gave a single nod.
"What's your name?"
"Ali," the girl replied.
"Cathie," Cathie said in return.
Ali cocked her head to the side and regarded her curiously. Cathie shrank under her gaze. "What a coincidence," Ali whispered.
"What do you mean?" Cathie asked, shaking.
"I saved a Cathie before and I saved you tonight. How often do you think that would happen?"
"You save people?"
"Yes."
"What happened to the other Cathie?"
"She was killed a long time ago."
"Oh," Cathie replied, not letting the fact that Ali said 'killed' escape her notice.
"Do you know what's going on?"
Cathie scanned her surroundings again, but she was just as confused as before. "No, I was hoping you would."
Ali walked past Cathie to the front of the cell. She grasped the bars tightly and spoke, "You're on a Yautja ship, most likely in route to their home planet."
"What's a Yautja?"
"A predatory alien race that hunt other species for sport."
"And what am I doing here?"
"Good question," Ali replied, spinning around to face at Cathie again, "Because as far as I can tell, there's nothing special about you."
Cathie grew uncomfortable as Ali stayed fixated on her, fearful that she would discover her secret. But before Ali can question Cathie further, her head spun to the front of the cage and she growled.
"Na'sval!"
Before Cathie could ask who Na'sval was, one of the creatures that had captured her came around the corner and moved toward the cell. Ali hissed and the creature stoped, regarding Ali carefully before stepping closer.
"Ali," it said.
"Wait, they can speak English?" Cathie asked.
"No," Ali answered, "Just Na'sval."
"What are you doing here?" Na'sval asked Ali.
"You mean you didn't know?" Ali snapped back, "I could have sworn you were in on it; how else would they know about me?"
"I had nothing to do with your capture," Na'sval answered.
"Yeah right," Ali said, "So how did they find me?"
"It must have been the Elder that had come to observe me."
"Elder?"
"I was marked as an Outsider after helping you escape and wasn't trusted among my people anymore."
"So the Elder thought it would be fun to capture me and take me to your godforsaken planet?"
"Yes," Na'sval answered, but Cathie noticed that he hesitated.
Clearly uncomfortable, Na'sval muttered something under his breath in a harsh language that Cathie didn't understand and walked away. Ali growled and moved away from the front of the cage.
"Um," Cathie started nervously, not wanting to be left in silence, "Tell me more about yourself. How do you know Na'sval, or whatever his name is?"
Ali didn't look at Cathie when she spoke. "I knew him because he helped me escape the last time."
"The last time?" Cathie asked.
"They've tried to capture me before," Ali explained, "I didn't think they'd be coming after me again, otherwise I wouldn't have been so careless."
"Why do they want you?" Cathie wanted to know.
"I'm pretty valuable to them," Ali stated, "I make the ultimate hunt."
"And what does that mean?"
"I don't think you want to know," Ali said and even though her back is to Cathie, she could tell that she was smiling.
"Why not?"
"Because it would be too much for your sensitive mind."
"What makes you think I have a sensitive mind?" Cathie demanded, angry.
Ali only shrugged. "Well then how about this, I will tell you about me, if you tell me about you."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Cathie said, growing uneasy.
"I think you do."
Nervous, Cathie only said, "I guess I will just respect your privacy."
Ali looked at Cathie over her shoulder. "And I'll respect yours, for now."
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Cathie insisted, but she couldn't make eye contact.
However, out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Ali was grinning.
