Here come the fourth chapter! New characters! And…
A lot of dialogue and inner monologues ! XD I hope you don't mind…

The next morning began with a sharp pain for Scar and a dislocated mandible for the Healer. The former had thought that the young male was too exhausted from his blood loss and wouldn't wake up during treatment, even without painkillers. Oh... He was SO wrong.

- C'jit, Pe-j'pi! - said the Healer with a groan as he tried to put his jaw back.

The Healer was a tall and broad yautja, with brown speckles on running along down his back, arms and legs. His black and dark brown dreadlocks were short, barely reaching his shoulders. A long, jagged burn scar ran from his right shoulder and acroos his chest. His eyes were dark red in color. He had complicated pattern on his head of the same color as his eyes.

The young hunter made a deep, angry growl, placing his palm on the now bleeding wound. Fortunately, it wasn't bleeding much.

- You, Healers, are masters in making mornings worse than they are... – Scar grumbled loudly, frowning.

The Healer flared his mandibles in anger. How dared this living corpse to be so rude, ignorant and ungrateful?!

- Watch your words! If it weren't for us you'd be dead by now.

Scar wanted to send healer in such unpleasant places, but he knew that this yautja was right. But Pe-j'pi wouldn't apologize, ever.

After snapping his poor mandible back into its socket, the Healer turned towards Pe-j'pi.

- Now, be so kind and try to restrain yourself from breaking my face, - he growled taking plate with blue gel from the table, next to Scar's bed.

Patient flared his mandibles and growled warning.

- Now, H'chak, be so kind and give me painkillers, so I would be able to TRY...

H'chak huffed and gave Scar an evil smirk.

- My my, the Tbi of the Queen's impalement can't put up with some pain without medicine? Who would have thought!

Pe-j'pi growled and lashed out at his tormentor, but missed because of his weakness and pain. Suddenly they heard the door hiss open and they turned their heads towards it.

- You're fighting again? Both blooded males, but you act like two days old sucklings, geez...

A white yautja entered the infirmary and made his way towards immature pair.

There was no doubt in who this male was. He was an albino, his skin completely white with some light green veins here and there. His long, white dreadlocks were tinged with a dark shade of green and even his eyes glittered emerald. Instead of speckles, he had many small, green tiger-like stripes.

Scar huffed. He didn't like being shamed. Especially, by an albino young blood.

- Very funny, Sidj'an-sur, - said H'chak. – You should show some respect. As you said, we ARE blooded. You are not.

The albino smirked and raised his hands, giving up.

- Okay okay, it's just funny to watch you two bicker.

H'chak and Pe-j'pi huffed at the same time and looked at each other. Sidj'an-sur snorted and burst into laughter. Seconds later the whole trio was laughing.

xXx

Scar finally got his painkillers, but with the way H'chak was poking and prodding him with every sharp object at his disposal made him think that he wasn't trying to heal his friend, but to kill him in some perverted way. When H'chak had applied a large amount of blue gel to his back wound and pushed down so hard that even the painkillers didn't help, Pe-j'pi snapped.

- Holy Paya, H'chak! Are you forcing me to become a Bad Blood or is it just a sadistic side of yours that decided to show up?! – Yautja growled, turning back towards the Healer and clicking fiercely.

Sidj'an-sur couldn't help giggling quietly. Yes, he wasn't blooded yet and should show respect for his now blooded friends, but… They were just too much fun. Anyway, the time for his Kainde Amedha Chiva would come soon.

In the meantime H'chak snorted and answered, making Scar turn green with rage.

- Is it THAT obvious? – The Healer burst into laughter, quieting only when he saw Pe-j'pi flexing his fists dangerously. – Sorry, I'm trying to push it deeper. The tnternal damage was a pain in the ass to repair and I'm just trying to make you heal faster. Also, you can expect to have an awesome pe-j'pi, Pe-j'pi.

The albino smirked slightly, finding this tautology somewhat funny. Scar, on the contrary, wasn't in the mood, so H'chak decided to change the subject.

- Anyway, what with that female ooman?

Pe-j'pi froze.

"Lex?"

- Why do you ask?

H'chak chuckled.

- Why?! WHY?! My friend, you MARKED an OOMAN! Moreover, you marked a FEMALE ooman! And every yautja knows that ooman females, in the opposite of yautja's females, are WEAKER than males! And from what I've seen, she wasn't masculine, like, at all.

Scar snorted, making irritated clicks.

- You forget that oomans wear far more clothes, than yautjas, - he said and cursed himself.

"Oh c'jit..."

H'chak's eyes started to burn with amusement and curiosity. Both Pe-j'pi and Sidj'an-sur knew what would happen next… And didn't like it.

- You saw her NAKED?!

- Holy Paya, NO! - "Pauk... when will I learn to think BEFORE opening my mouth?!" - I'm just stating a well-known fact. Maybe she has even more muscles than you under those clothes?

The Healer's mouth spread into wide evil grin,

- But you'd like to find out, wouldn't you, brother?

Sidj'an-sur made an ultimate facepalm.

- Paya... H'chak, is that THE ONLY thing that you care about right now?!

The Albino and Healer started to argue, moving their attention away from Pe-j'pi. The former remembered that small female ooman and what they'd gone through. He remembered how she, scared shitless, had followed him and even insulted him! He'd scented her fear, but she'd been determined. . So brave.

- She killed Kainde Amedha by her own hands, - he said slowly. - She stopped me from killing one of her comrades, impregnated with Kainde Amedha embryo. She killed him herself. And... She saved my life. Those were reasons why I marked her. I have no doubt that is was right decision. She saved my life once more after that. Are you satisfied now?

Scar's face was dead serious. H'chak nodded, losing all of his gaiety.

- Good. Are you done with my wounds? If yes,then leave me alone, both of you.

H'chak wanted to make some harsh statement, but Sidj'an-sur stopped him by putting his hand on his shoulder and shook his head.

- Let's go.

The Healer stood silent and after couple of seconds he nodded and left. With an exhausted growl, Scar laid himself back on his bed and stared into the orange celling of the infirmary, decorated with complex ornamentation. Breathing was slightly painful, but it didn't bother him at all. He had been through so much worse. THEY had been through so much worse. The warrior closed his eyes.

"I wonder what she's doing now? I doubt that Honorable Mor'Thilan was so kind as to give her a lift, so she probably was left there. Considering human physiology, the outside temperature and what was left from her clothes she'd freeze in next couple of hours for sure. It would be such a shame to have survived all of that only to die from hypothermia." - Pe-j'pi sighed, slowly raising his arm to touch the mark on his forehead and began rubbing it slightly. It was nearly healed, the small scar itching like . – "I wouldn't like her to die such a dishonorable death, but it can't be helped. She was not a perfect teammate, compared to my brothers, and wouldn't stand a chance without me."

He then smirked.

"C'jit,what am I saying? Like I had any chance myself without her. Sure, I would have survived longer than she would have, but I wouldn't be able to use that sled and would have been killed immediately by the drones or by the Queen if I wasn't lucky enough to get out before the explosion. And if I didn't survive, then the Queen would still be out and, after finding better place to settle, would begin to reproduce. My death would have been a dishonorable one."

Pe-j'pi froze, struck by a sudden realization. His mandibles began to tremble and then spread wide as the yautja male burst into the laughter, ignoring all the pain caused by it.

- Thank you, Lex… For saving my life… And my Honor. – said Scar with a smile.

He put his healthy arm behind his head and started to wonder what could have happened if she'd ended up on board. The warrior didn't consider it seriously, however.

"I guess it would have caused a great commotion, which would have been a lot of fun to watch".

With these thoughts Scar fell asleep.

xXx

- … Paya, why in the world can't he understand that I was only joking?! She's just an ooman! Did he develop feeling for her or what?!

H'chak was pissed beyond limits, preferring to whine to Sidj'an-sur instead of getting over it. The Albino was creating some device, using a blue holographic image rising from the table and some sort if stylus. The two males were in the unblooded's quarters, which was filled with various devices of unknown purpose. Well, he was an inventor after all. Not a mad scientist, but stilll.

- He's tired from his Chiva, you know? He lost, as you said yourself, a lot of blood, got his lungs and spine pierced. Moreover, he's lost all of his siblings. You can't even imagine how bad that hurts and neither can I, but I bet my guts that it hurts a lot.

The Healer went silent, think over the albino's words. The former continued to model some sort of oval capsule in front of him. He rubbed his right lower mandible thoughtfully and touched hologram in several places, then switched on something on the table and drew couple of lines. After that he pressed light green button on the table. The hologram started to tremble and became red with text above it: "Invalid configuration".

- C'jit… - Albino cursed softly and pushed more buttons on the table undoing his earlier manipulations.

H'chak looked at him, tilting his head in curiosity. His friend was again touching the capsule here and there, adding some details, switching various modes on and off.

- If I may ask, what are you doing THIS time, Sidj'an-sur?

Albino raised his hand, ordering to wait and pressed the green button once again. The capsule trembled, but this time it remained blue and the following text appeared "Valid configuration". Sidj'an-sur made a pleased purr, laying the stylus near the hologram and finally answered the Healer.

- I'm trying to make an implant that will give us the ability to see, when we want, in the Pyode Amdeha's spectrum without bio-masks. And I think I made a functional prototype.

H'chak huffed, surprised and disgusted.

- Why in the world did you do that? What's the point?! It's stupid and humiliating!

Sidj'an-sur rolled his eyes.

- Paya, help me to not kill this idiot… - He looked at the insulted Healer and answered. – Listen, our natural eyesight seems to be almost useless on the ooman's planet. We mostly see in infrared. I've seen records of other warriors, who landed on the Blue Planet and you know what I found? It seems that plenty of things that look the same to us in our spectrum look totally different in ooman's! For example, I've seen records of an female ooman with her cub. The female had two fruits in her hands that were totally identical. She said that one fruit was green and the second one was red! That's why I want to create such an implant. It would make hunting without our masks somewhat easier on Earth. And… I'd like to know how things look through their eyes.

H'chak sat still for a moment and started to laugh.

- You're insane. But I have to admit you have a point. Maybe it would be useful. But I think you're forgetting something. How will you know for sure, that you see in the right spectrum?
Albino smirked.

- How? I'll ask oomans of course! – Both yautjas burst into the laughter. – I'll figure it out somehow, don't worry.

- Hah, like I would. I'm not interested in such things. And I think I'll go, - H'chak said as he stood up and headed towards the exit. But before going, he looked back with devilish grin on his face and took the pose of an evil genius: fingers touching in front of his grinning face. – I need to come up with more tortures for my patient. Muhaha!

Sidj'an-sur snorted and burst into the hysterical laughter along with the leaving Healer. Albino hit the table with his head, choking from the laughter, his lung started to hurt. But he couldn't stop, it was just too hilarious!
Soon, he calmed, still giggling and whipping small tears of laughter. Albino looked at the hologram and started to think about what was next.

"H'chak is right. Finding out if the vision is correct will be an issue… If I only had an opportunity to study the living human. If the Elder brought that female with us… No, somehow I doubt she'd let me study her. Guess, I'll have to find out alone after I'm blooded and allowed to go on the hunt without someone else."

With these thoughts, Sidj'an-sur continued to perfect his creation…

Whew~! This chapter took me longer than I expected, but I'm damn happy with it! Also, I'm sure that Preds do not only hunt, but have other thing to do. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to build spaceships and etc. So here you meet our medic and engineer :3

And I've seen that in some fanfics yautjas see in the same spectrum as humans. Sure, I did some changes here and there, but I still try to stick to the canon. I re-watched the first Predator and Predators (2010). In both films preds seem to have some kind of thermal vision. So… to make it easier for me and for the yautjas I've decided to "invent' a device. I think it's a good idea.
I also met fic with the yautja albino having RED eyes, which is 100% incorrect, since mammal albinos have red eyes only because their BLOOD IS RED. Yautjas blood is GREEN and GLOWS. Sorry for this rant' but it's seemed to be pretty damn obvious...
What do you think?

Reviews please? =)

Vocabulary:

C'jit! - "Damn!", "Sh*t!", general expletive
H'chak - Mercy (Perfect name, huh? XD )
Pyode Amedha - Soft meat (human)
Tbi - survivor