(sings) Schoooools out! For! Summer! Oh, how boring chemistry is… Now all I have to do is write a filthy diploma exam. And then, next September, I start my baking course… At 7:15 in the morning. Ick. But baking is good. I bought a scooter. It's so much fun. I put studs on my leather jacket and drive around like a dork. And I almost died the other day after finding myself on the wrong side of the road. Silly (read stupid) road repairmen replaced the worn centre line with a dotted white line. So I thought it was a one-way street, until the cars heading towards me corrected that assumption. OK, maybe I exaggerated a little, since they were a half-block away when I noticed, but still, I could have died! Enough rambling, read, review and enjoy!

Thwei-Tjau'ke- Bloodstone.

Nihkou'te- Tooth or tusk.

Guan-Thwei- Night-Blood.

Ki'its-pa- Retractable spear.

Setg'in-kwei- Tricky and quick.

Lou-dte kalei- Child-bearer, derogatory term.

C'jit- Damn.

Chapter Three

"There are lots of ways for someone smaller or weaker to overpower their opponent. It all depends on their knowledge of weak spots."

Lee grinned. "It sounds like you're reciting out of a textbook."

"Actually, those are Thwei-Tjau'ke's words. Now some sensitive spots on oomans and Yautja are different, of course, but many are the same. If someone confronts you, go for the crotch-"

"Geez, I knew that one!"

"-the eyes, the stomach, the joints and the throat." Matt continued on as if uninterrupted. "Just punch, poke, scratch and kick those places and get the hell away while they are incapacitated. Try not to hit someone in the mouth, because chances are that you'll do more damage to your hand that to them. If someone grabs you from behind, bite, kick and pinch everything in reach. Try digging your thumbnail into the spaces between the hand and wrist bones, or the bases of their nails. Kick their shins and kneecaps. Claw at their eyes. Eventually, something will have to work.

"This is just to get away. If you want to seriously incapacitate someone, or even kill them and you have no weapon, don't stop once you've landed a few blows. Kick their kneecaps as hard as you can, preferably from an angle. If you are lucky, you'll break or dislocate the kneecap and cripple them. If you hit an attacker in the throat hard enough, you'll crush their windpipe. That can kill. Don't just poke them in the eye; try and gouge them out. If you hit or kick someone in the head, don't go for the forehead. Go for the temple or the back of the skull. The forehead is one of the thickest parts of the cranium. Or, punch them in the nose hard enough to break it. If you follow up with another blow, push up and in. If you've done it right, you'll send splinters of bone into their brain, killing them." Celia watched, wide-eyed, as Matt demonstrated blows in midair and gestured to weak spots.

"Y'know, you're a real sick bastard." she commented, half in disgust, half in admiration.

"You have no idea." he replied with a smirk. Then, Matt pulled out a knife.

It was fairly small, about the length of her hand, with a broad, triangular blade.

"This is a good all-purpose knife. You can throw it, stab straight or down," He switched his grip accordingly, "cut and slash with it or punch with the butt end. Here." Her brother handed the blade to her. Lee carefully held it the same way as Matt now held its twin. He began demonstrating cuts, Lee mirroring them, slowly at first, but gradually picking up speed. Matt then told her to stop and repeat back all the sensitive spots and ways to hurt them. "And now, I want you to escape."

"Huh?"

"I'm going to grab you and I want to know if you can use the knowledge effectively. Use anything I told you today, as long as it is unarmed. I'm saving armed for later. This is the most important. Come on." Celia stood up and took a few steps away, feeling awkward and silly. Suddenly, Matt darted at her, grabbing his sister from behind and gripping one of her arms. The other went around her throat. Celia squeaked and struggled weakly.

Matt dropped her and scowled. "No, no! What did I just say? Pinch me! Use your nails! Do anything!"

"What if I hurt you badly?"

"You won't. I hardly think you, with all of five minutes of training, could beat me up." Matt lunged at her again, his expression dark and unnerving. He was rougher this time, twisting her arm up behind her back and lifting her off her feet. Lee squealed and struggled harder, following Matt's orders. She pinched his skin ferociously with her free hand, pounded her heels against his shins and twisted. "Come on!" her brother barked in her ear, "Fight me! Pretend I'm Terence trying to drag you off somewhere!"

…..

After a long time, Matt finally stopped making her practice breaking his grip, satisfied with the results. She still didn't want to hurt him, and hated doing it, but he made her. The evidence lay in the bloody half-moon depressions in his arms, red scratches and bruised shins. "Good enough." Matt said, nodding. "Ideally, you should be doing this everyday, as a kata, but as long as you have some idea of what to do… Anyways,tomorrow, I'll start teaching you knife fighting against an armed opponent, just the basics, nothing fancy. It'll be enough to get you out of a tight spot."

"Goody." Celia muttered.

…..

Matt would grab her randomly over the next two days, getting her used to surprises. When Thwei-Tjau'ke was not hobbling through the woods on one of his walks, he supplied more useful information for Lee through his halting translator. On the evening of the third day, Guan-Thwei and the rest of the Yautja returned. They were obviously successful, bearing skulls with them. Celia tried hard not to stare. Setg'in-kwei seemed to decide Celia was okay and spent time with her and Matt. They exchanged words of English and Yautian, giggling at the awful pronunciations. Gts-paik and Kant'jil remained aloof, rarely joining in their banter. Gts-paik still unnerved Setg'in-kwei, harassing him or simply staring at him for endless minutes until he flinched and moved away. Once the younger Yautja had gone to a nearby river to drink and try their hand at fishing with their bare hands. Setg'in-kwei returned dripping wet and in a foul temper.

"That lou-dte kalei pushed me in!" he snarled, removing weapons and armor, shaking the water out. He opened his sparking wrist gauntlet and glared. "Stupid thing is fried now! I will have to get Thwei-Tjau'ke to fix it and I am already in debt with him since I damaged my plasma caster! C'jit Gts-paik…" he fumed.

"She must like you." Matt said reasonably, prodding the dripping ki'its-pa.

"I cannot think why! I have never liked her! Why can't she find another male to pick on? Kant'jil likes her; they would be a perfect match because he is such a spineless, smarmy little subservient." Setg'in-kwei sighed and looked so morose Matt didn't have the heart to tease him further.

He patted his friend awkwardly on the shoulder. "Just open everything up and let it air dry. That usually helps."

Setg'in-kwei grunted non-commitally, but he did open everything up further, staring moodily at the wrist gauntlet. In the corner of his eye, Matt saw Gts-paik stride out of the forest, stripped of her armor and streaming water, having obviously gone swimming. With a jerk of her proud head, she shook her short dreadlocks away from her face and continued to the far side of the clearing, pleased with herself. Nihkou'te watched her go by openly, without the slightly submissive manner most males adopted. He was higher in status, but females had such sensitive tempers it was usually prudent to be cautious. But then, when was Nihkou'te ever cautious?

…..

Later the next day, Gts-paik emerged from the forest again, wearing the bare minimum of armor and no mask. Matt knew M'yin-de often did the same when hunting to even up the odds a bit. What was strange was that she was carrying a human skull and spine, covered in gore. Guan-Thwei noticed instantly as well.

"Where did you get that?" he asked as she began cleaning her trophy.

Popping a small piece of bloody meat in her mouth, she carefully chewed it, staring insolently at Matt and Guan-Thwei before replying, "From an ooman."

"Where?" Guan-Thwei asked again, a note of warning in his voice.

Gts-paik sighed and gestured with a mandible. "Over there. He was hunched in the bushes and did not see me until it was too late. I thought it would be good to kill him because he was very near the encampment." She shrugged. "He was not much of a challenge. He was weak."

Something about the young female's description triggered a warning alarm in Matt's brain.

"What sort of equipment did he have?"

"A flask of water, writing materials, a pack…" It sounded like a birdwatcher's gear. "Oh, and a rectangular box with a long tube sticking out of it."

"What? What was he wearing?"

"Long pants, long shirt, jacket, boots, hat… Is this somehow important?"

"Guan-Thwei," Matt said, "we have to find his body."