Dha-viath sat perched at the edge of the recessed pool in the bath chamber, unfastening and untwisting one long rope braid at a time. Having been sound asleep when placed in the stasis chamber, she didn't have the opportunity to wrap up her braids as she usually would have. That meant she was now about to spend a number of hours unbraiding then rubbing in a cleaning solution to get out the sticky, half-dried stasis compound that clung to her hair. Once clean, she'd spent more time still rubbing in the balm that kept her hair smooth and strong as she re-braided each strand.
Nracha-dte's thoughtful gesture had turned into a tedious task but she wasn't about to tell him. As she worked at the repetitive process, she mentally organized her duties. She had trophies that needed to be worked on but also in a few hours there were council responsibilities to attend to. The subject of humans prodded the back of her mind, though, much to her annoyance. Regret at having entertained the idea of hunting one was settling in as her thoughts couldn't seem to stay focused elsewhere. Dha-viath clenched and unclenched her teeth, further annoyed at Nracha-dte's accurate assessment regarding the whole matter.
There was much she couldn't or wouldn't remember about her life before the Yautja. Before…all she associated with it was bad…she'd been only a child, kept from others like herself by the individuals responsible for her. While so many things were unclear, she could remember the pain; it wasn't the pain in her body so much that stood out, she had endured it for so long, but the pain inside that had wrapped itself around her heart. She'd believed for so long that it was behind her, that it didn't matter anymore since she had been made anew with her new people, her new home, and a new life. But it still lingered inside her…the memory of seeking love and approval and being met with derision and violence.
Her recollection of humans was vastly different from what she had encountered on the hunt. The monsters that had haunted her dreams for a very long time were no longer things that could hurt her, they were not so big and strong anymore. She was bigger and stronger…and far more deadly than any human could ever hope to be.
Dha-viath had no memory of the transport wreck that killed everyone aboard but her. In her already jumbled timeline of events, there was nothing between looking out a window at the stars on her way to hell and waking up screaming in a different, unexpected, and inexplicable hell with her body and mind feeling as if they were being ripped apart. Yautja medicine did not typically involve anesthesia.
The release she experienced the first time she drove a blade into the heart of a creature as it tried to destroy her had been indescribable. She'd been left with nothing but her pain and the will to live in spite of it. She had not been broken and channeled everything that had been dammed up inside her into that first kill and with the creature's blood covering her, she was reborn. That was when she became Yautja.
Shedding her humanity had been one of the easiest choices she'd ever made, and as Nracha-dte called her Dha-viath for the first time and began her training, she felt at last that she was worth something. A deep-seated loathing for her people of origin had grown inside her. The species as a whole seemed like a disease and was spoken of usually in the terms of a plague being spread over the universe. They'd killed their homeworld and sought to find a new one, which in time would undoubtedly meet the same fate as Earth.
The humans she had hunted were so much weaker than expected. The fully matured ones were fit to harm their young and little else it seemed. It was satisfying to know just how much she had risen above them. Nevertheless, the thought of humans lingered in her mind. She wanted for nothing and lived a life of honor, a life she was proud of and found happiness in.
She stood and stretched when the braids were finally done, tossing them back over her shoulder. She adjusted her plain linen top and straightened out the loincloth draped about her hips. It always felt good to move freely without the weight of her armor and weapons.
Padding into the bed chamber barefoot, she started, letting out an expletive, when Nracha-dte suddenly appeared, a silent pillar of muscle watching her. She gave him a look daring him to chuckle at startling her. She was not easy to sneak up on.
"The council convenes later today." She told him offhandedly, putting her brush into its cabinet. "I am going to work on cleaning and mounting my trophies until then." She headed for the door, moving to step around the stolid, nearly eight-foot obstacle, but he put his arm out, stopping her. Dha-viath looked up, frowning.
"Though you declare no need for the matter to be addressed, your thoughts dwell on humans."
"How could they not?" She replied, not altogether devoid of bitterness. "I look at one every time I see myself in reflection. I am torn between the shame of having been amongst them once, and the pride I feel to have risen so high that I became Blooded." She let out a long breath. "And I am torn between the desire to never think of them again for as long as I live, and my unwanted, unbidden curiosity about whatever it is they do and what they are."
"Have you not considered satisfying your curiosity?" Nracha-dte's voice was quiet. "Your obsessive adoration of data and factual information alone should drive you to seek out answers, to know for certain everything about the humans."
"To what end? What if I get answers that only make this poisonous curiosity worse?" She didn't want to think about these things, she wanted to be free of the past, and perhaps she would have been had those humans not been on the planet where they were hunting.
"I have never known you to shrink in the face of a challenge, or to shy away from seeking out every piece of data, of investigating every possibility." He was right of course and Dha-viath sighed, very uncomfortable with the turmoil she was experiencing despite her best efforts to push it from her mind. He strolled to bed, sitting on the edge of it. It was a big platform of sorts, with four posters and a heavy frame that had soft, suede-like hangings. It had a padded mattress that wasn't especially soft, Yautja didn't concern themselves much with creature comforts. There were pillows, though, and usually a blanket of some sort, mostly at Dha-viath's request. When at home, she liked a somewhat softer sleeping surface. On the hunt they slept in trees or in caves without any comforts at all.
"I would prefer I had not seen them at all. I do not need such nonsense taking away from more important matters." She went to him, standing between his knees and watching his eyes, eyes she had been looking into for so very long. "I desire there to be no humanity left in me. It holds me back, it makes me weak…I have come too far to let what ultimately was a small portion of my life, most of which I cannot remember, stop me from moving forward."
"You are not weak, it will not stop you. But you must get your questions answered, your curiosity must be slaked, or you cannot know for certain where you belong." Nracha-dte slowly ran the tips of his fingers up the back of her leg.
"I belong here. I know it with absolute certainty and could never be amongst humans again for whatever reason." The idea was horrifying, but her focus was wavering. His hand had ascended to rest on her backside. "If I had just killed him, taken my trophy…I wouldn't even be thinking about this." Dha-viath took him by the klehvac, the Yautja equivalent to hair, with both hands close to his head and gave a tug. "You are distracting me." She whispered. His eyes gleamed with amusement and he pulled her closer. She tugged again, squeezing the strands and he closed his eyes; he liked that. "For so great a leader…a living legend, you are certainly swayed easily by pleasure." She moved to straddle one of his thighs, he wore little more than the scant leather around his hips.
"You are mistaken, you are the one swayed." He retorted with a click of amusement, then to illustrate his point he gripped her by the hips, pulling her against him so that she groaned. "It is not difficult to take your mind away from your concerns." He told her with playful smugness.
"Is that so?" She breathed and Nracha-dte bent, gently biting her neck, his mandibles stroking her. He flicked his tongue out to taste her skin and she groaned again; he knew what things pleased her the most. Dha-viath hadn't even noticed him undressing her, he was so deft with his hands.
"You are…very pliable, when…adequately stimulated." He went on. She shifted to straddle him entirely and, in that movement she had also taken in the full length of him so that he put his head back, letting out a shuddering breath. She knew as well as he did that he could not simply be her distraction without losing himself too. Her hips moved against him as she gripped his shoulders for leverage, pressing her forehead to his. Nracha-dte stroked her cheeks with his mandibles and tasted her lips until she opened for him, sucking gently on his tongue. His skin temperature was rising, and she could feel the tremble in his muscles as his need to move intensified. There would come a point where he couldn't stop himself even if he tried, and it was her favorite part of their coupling.
Nracha-dte flipped Dha-viath onto her back, moving hard, approaching his point of no return, breath coming fast. She moved her hips with him and it happened, his pupils dilated until his irises were thin slivers of yellow and he drove into her with maddeningly slow strokes. She squirmed beneath him, panting, trying to urge him with her hips to move faster. The effort was futile and her body simply matched his movements, the tension deep in her belly slowly beginning to coil tighter. Nracha-dte knew her body and how to elicit the desired response and so pressed tightly against her, the increased pressure brought her closer as her nails bit into his back. She moaned softly, and he watched her face. There was really no telling how long this stage would last, sometimes it was a long time and other times it didn't take long at all. She could feel him swell a bit more inside her and she couldn't hold back anymore as she reached her own release, her eyes squeezed shut, voice echoing around them. It was as though the spasm radiated through every muscle and she dug her nails into him.
He withdrew as Dha-viath lie there, chest heaving, and he turned her over; he wasn't done yet. She pushed herself up onto all fours and he took her from behind. His hand slid up the back of her thigh, claws trailing on her skin, up over her hip and the middle of her back until he was pushing down between her shoulder blades. With her chest pressed against the bed, Nracha-dte took her hard, her body becoming quickly overwhelmed with the sensation. The fabric was clutched in her fists, his breath coming faster as he thrust relentlessly, living up to his name. She came again, arching her back as it took her over.
Suddenly, he grabbed both her hips pulling her hard against him as he finished, pressing deep inside her, with a roar. He fell forward onto his hands, the sound of his heavy breathing over her. Dha-viath winced slightly, her body hypersensitive as she pulled away and turned over to look up at him, her own chest heaving. He slumped to one side and her entire body felt like she had no bones.
"Damn your distraction." She murmured. He gave a snort of amusement.
The bleached bone of the skull was smooth beneath Dha-viath's fingers as she slowly rubbed the polishing cloth over it, staring into the empty eye sockets. Her collection was vast, the tangible representation of her honor. There was no questioning her skill and worthiness once her trophies were looked upon. Any who would dare doubt her had to but glance at the centerpiece of her collection: the skull of the Queen. Each skull had been meticulously cleaned and polished, then engraved with the story of the kill, its planet, the species, and her name, then polished again before she put them in their places on her wall.
Yautja accepted the truth when presented with evidence, even if it was not a truth they liked, unlike humans. Humans would fight for false beliefs simply because they disliked the truth, which had ultimately resulted in Dha-viath's current circumstances. She had benefitted greatly from their ignorance and blindness to fact. She hated what had happened in her past, but was grateful for the life granted to her by that closed-minded stupidity.
As the time for the council's convening drew near, Dha-viath returned to the bedchamber to prepare. There was a dress code, after all, something originally enacted to maintain the anonymity of the councilmembers, but obviously her size, voice, and species gave away her identity. She wore an intricate metal headdress that mimicked the shape of a Yautja skull, which was very much like how the females adorned themselves usually. Over that was a floor-length, black, hooded garment with long sleeves. The hood came down, obscuring the eyes; the bodice was cut to fit her figure comfortably and the skirt was split up either hip. Dha-viath also wore special high heeled boots that made her taller and black leather gloves with long, clawed fingers, which they all wore. Lastly was a black face mask somewhat similar to a hunter's biomask in that it gave the wearer information about those present and obscured the wearer's identification, though also the eyes were illuminated red, which gave all the council members an ominous look.
There were thirteen members, all female, who voted on cases presented by the people, resolved disputes, oversaw other legal proceedings, and made the major governmental decisions for the district. A district was governed by an Overlord, in their case, Nracha-dte; The Overlord was elected by the council and could replace him if he failed to fulfill his duties. Councils were governed by Clan Law which the clan leader enforced. Clan Law was determined by a clan council which was comprised of one council member from each district. The highest authority was the Council of Ancients, comprised of males and females who had been alive for a very long time. They oversaw only the biggest issues, such as all-out war.
When Dha-viath was first voted onto the council some time after her Blooding, she'd stayed mostly silent as she learned the proceedings. Her usefulness was proven when they found she had memorized not only their District Laws, but all districts of the clan, and the districts of all neighboring clans, as well as Clan Law. Every time they were presented with cases involving other clans and districts, she added their laws to her collection. She also knew every interplanetary and space policy that involved the Yautja. Her knowledge encompassed more than simple recitation, she knew the loopholes and shortcuts, she knew what rules could bend and which could not, she often presented very appealing negotiations between conflicting parties. She was the council's diplomat, for all intents and purposes, and had even been called before the clan leaders on more than one occasion to help with inter-clan disputes, particularly those with conflicting laws.
Initially, having a human on the District Council was not a popular decision and the contention that resulted went on until the people began to experience the more desirable outcomes of their disputes. More and more individuals finally received win-win judgements that were within legal bounds and the more it happened, the greater her favor grew.
The council convened and the mei-jadhis, the sisters of the council, took their seats to begin going over the recent events before allowing the first claimants to present their cases. The bond between them transcended duty and friendship, it was a closeness and loyalty Dha-viath had at first believed she would never experience with them. Over time, as she proved herself worthy of the seat that they allowed her to have, she had truly become a sister of the council.