It was huge, this room alone, and it couldn't have been any more than a sixteenth of the large ship, maybe. Yautja were everywhere within it, but most of them weren't standing up, they were lounging, sitting and talking to other yautja. Apparently not everyone on the ship had come to greet Jar-hidda. These yautja were just dressed in their kilts, a few who looked younger than them running around in just their loincloths. The walls around the room were carved with images, and not all of them about hunts, some was just of a specific yautja or other mandibled animals, possibly from their homeworld. But what more it was decorated in a way, with things sort of like curtains, green in color but that was probably an accident, that trailed down from the ceiling to just above the floor. That was it though, but it was something. This was apparently some place of relaxation.
Odd, she didn't think yautja knew how to relax.
Something caught her eye though, something that switched her feeling of awe to confused curiosity. There were things in the room, bipedal things that weren't yautja, and they were looking at her. She stared at them for a moment, trying to rationalize, looking at one that was grey-skinned, and had a head like an emaciated horse—.
"Human."
"Hannah."
Hannah turned her gaze to the two yautja, blinking back into focus. She became aware that some of the yautja in the huge space had pointed at Jar-hidda and were now looking with earnest, some leaning over to get a better angle. She kept hearing his name, and that same unknown word over and over again. However, once the two saw that they had her attention again they turned, almost simultaneously and began walking again. Hannah followed, glancing back once.
It seemed they were going on a sort of tour, the path taking them through the engine room, the barracks, the bathroom, the kitchen, the training room and a large pit where all the loin-clothed yautja were, these ones even more excited to see Jar-hidda than the other ones.
She was beginning to understand. Jar-hidda was like some kind of celebrity.
But while they were walking around, the leader had absolutely nothing to say about the ship. Instead the talk was about hunting and something to do with the younger yautja, a lot of numbers were being thrown out, and sizes. She pieced together what she thought the conversation was about, as Jar-hidda in turn also began to boast about recent hunts against dangerous prey, even holding up the skull to show as he spoke of one particular hunt.
Hannah remembered that one. It was her second, or maybe third, actual hunting trip with Jar-hidda, after he was done beating her up. He was teaching her the code of honor that all yautja hunted by; The Path. It was one that she didn't participate in, but rather Jar-hidda had stuck her in a tree where she could watch the whole thing transpire on the Savannah-like planet. The monster in question moved like a lion, a solitary hunter just like Jar-hidda, and the alien went after it with only his glaive, and when that was knocked out of his hands, his wristblades. But what had shaken her the most was that the monster had had a wounded leg, was limping slightly, and when Jar-hidda saw this, he had faced the monster, and taken his dagger to his own arm to lessen its usefulness.
She learned the yautja equivalent of a fair fight, to try to be on as equal ground with the prey as possible. It was important, the harder the hunt, the greater the glory at its completion, and glory was everything.
"How do you say the human's name again?"
"'Hannah.'"
"Han'ah."
Hannah looked up expectantly, glancing at Jar-hidda.
"You said you were teaching it, does it speak?"
"Yes, she's a quick learner," hopefully at some point in time the other yautja would understand the feminine pronoun Jar-hidda kept using meant that she was not an it.
"Say something Han'ah."
Hannah blinked, looked at Jar-hidda before looking back to Chul-yaun.
"Honored Chul-yaun," she began as was appropriate and bowed her head, keeping her hands poised for snapping, hoping she did it right, "what are the… people… the not-yautja in the large room?"
The leader, who had leaned down a bit to Hannah's level stood abruptly and looked at Jar-hidda who rattled.
"How long have you had it?"
"Not even a fraction of a season," he answered, "I've warned time and again that I've witnessed the speed that the humans advance at, that which had taken us thousands of seasons to develop takes them only one or two. They will be leaving their planet for farther travel within the century, make no mistake," Jar-hidda lifted his hand, undid the tubes and removed his mask, attaching it to his belt. He rattled in relief, no doubt enjoying being in a place where he could breathe normally without his mask, rather than catering to his much more fragile pet. She'd have to show him appreciation for that later.
Regardless, she understood that her question wasn't going to be answered. She furrowed her brow but didn't protest lowering her head again. Chul-yaun also removed his mask, and Hannah was able to see much more clearly their host. He definitely seemed aged, but she didn't want to assume. His dreadlocks were mottled grey, his skin was creamy colored and was almost covered in long quills. He had four mandibles, and the tusks on them were all carved. Unlike Jar-hidda, his upper jaw in his inner mouth had only four teeth instead of six, and he had amber-colored eyes.
"The ship is open as you please," the leader said, and Jar-hidda bowed, so Hannah kneeled. The leader laughed and walked away from Jar-hidda respectfully. Hannah watched him turn with a whirl of his red cape. She then looked slowly to Jar-hidda who took a heavy breath and glanced down at her.
"That was a lot of… talking I didn't understand."
"I know, start where you want," he said and they began walking.
"The ship's name."
"Resh'kama is an animal from our homeworld, a… water animal that swims and feeds off of anything smaller than it. Not much is bigger than it is. It has many teeth."
"It is a big ship."
Jar-hidda nodded and she noticed they were retracing their steps, but not going to the cockpit.
"This kind of Atoll is run by an entire clan who is almost entirely space-faring, hardly ever touching ground except to hunt."
"Space-faring?"
"Wandering, moving around all the time. But this kind of ship is the one where many clans will gather for a great hunt. So it must be large enough to house them. Chul-yaun's clan runs the ship."
"What is 'utoim-sumex'l?'"
Jar-hidda laughed his human laugh and shook his head, "nothing."
"The other yautja is much older."
"Yes, he is an elder, the brother of my friend, the one I came to Earth for."
"Is Earth Jhu'da-tjauke?"
"Yes, that is what we call it," Jar-hidda paused to bow to some yautja who walked past, and Hannah knelt, but they passed quickly enough, with acknowledging nods, that her knee had barely touched the ground before she stood back up.
"What is 'tjauke?'"
"Hard, strong dirt."
Hannah nodded. Water-rock, that's what they called Earth. She wondered how much water his planet had if they thought that describing Earth as a water planet was accurate.
The found themselves back in the large room and Hannah immediately pointed at the decorative curtains, "why don't you have those?"
Jar-hidda looked over and shook his head, flinging his dread-locks around, "I don't like them, they have no point."
"I like them, they're pretty."
Jar-hidda laughed. The other yautja were motioning, pointing and murmuring again. Jar-hidda didn't seem to pay them much mind, though he kept his shoulders squared and chest puffed impressively. It had to be a pain to walk around like that.
Hannah looked around and shifted her weight as she noticed they were almost being surrounded.
"Why did Chul-yaun attack me?"
"A test."
Hannah looked to Jar-hidda confused, "he wasn't upset?"
"No, I think he's interested, after all, one of your kind is an accepted member of his clan, maybe he wants to learn more before going to retrieve her," Hannah glanced again as two of the yautja came boldly forward. Jar-hidda did not bow to them, they bowed to him, Hannah in turn bowed when their salutation was done and the look they gave her, like she was some pile of something unsavory made her angry. But she calmed herself. Yautja didn't have many facial expressions, in fact she had only really seen Jar-hidda express about three or so. Emotion was displayed through sound mostly, with the clicking.
"Great Jar-hidda," interjected one, a greyer colored yautja than his companion who was creamy with dark spots. Both were in just loincloths, "we wish to hear the tale of your trophy," he looked pointedly at the skull under Jar-hidda's arm.
There was a roar and the young yautja suddenly retreated a few steps. An older yautja, maybe Jar-hidda's age stormed over, dressed in just a kilt and growled at them.
"Do not bother the great Jar-hidda with your idle mewlings and your stink. Know your place! Kneel before your better!"
The elder yautja hit one of the younger yautja so hard he started bleeding, the lining of his mouth cut by his tusk. Though the blow knocked him back a few steps and caused Hannah to flinch, he didn't seem entirely wounded by it, and dropped to his knee immediately along with his companion. Jar-hidda didn't react, and around them, only a few yautja, other younger ones, were looking over curiously watching what was going on.
Hannah was suddenly grateful that Jar-hidda hadn't been that rough on her during her crash course. Suddenly his hard back-hands seemed like light taps.
"We apologize with great shame, great Jar-hidda, for our disrespect," the older yautja huffed, gave a curt nod to Jar-hidda as if to say 'you're welcome,' and then stalked away, turning his back to the two young yautja. Hannah blinked, confused about how quickly the whole thing had transpired. Jar-hidda gave a click that Hannah had become familiar with and the two younger ones rose, the wounded one wiping away his blood on the back of his hand like it was nothing.
"I will gladly tell you the tale," Jar-hidda said and the two took him back to their circle of other young yautja, who eagerly awaited them. He sat down and put the skull in the middle. The young ones oogled and pointed but didn't touch, Hannah had learned recently that one never touches another's trophy without permission.
Jar-hidda began the tale, but this time, there was much more to it than what he had told to Chul-yaun. This was a campfire story, and Jar-hidda told it with flair.
"When we touched down upon the earth, I took my human out to show her the hunt and the Path," he began, and all the youngers quieted, "I hid her away in a tree where she could see but not be seen," he turned and touched his hand to the top of Hannah's head, brushing it down so that her long dark hair was pulled in front of her face. There was chirping laughter as she sat there like cousin it, turning to glare at Jar-hidda before putting her hair back in place.
"I began the hunt, armed only with my glaive and wristblades to match the pimchuk in battle. I tracked it across the hard earth," he bent, swathing his hand across the ground, "I could hear a fight, two pimchuk, not far away. I hid in the grass," Jar-hidda bent low and quieted, "there were two males, fighting for the land. I waited until one retreated in defeat. The stronger one remained, my prey," Jar-hidda spread his arms, showing the dominance of the reptilian monster, "but, he was wounded, a good bite to his leg from his rival, and he was limping," Jar-hidda gestured and held his arm, like it was wounded again.
Hannah jumped slightly at a rasping noise, as engrossed in this retelling of the hunt she had witnessed as the other yautja. She looked up and saw the grey horse-faced creature standing nearby. It had a pitcher in its three-fingered hands, of which it had four, and was making a hissing, chattering noise, but showed what it was meaning to say by lowering and offering the pitcher towards Jar-hidda.
Jar-hidda held a hand out as several of the yautja stood in outrage, possibly at the story being interrupted and clicked, holding out his hand. One of the smaller hands removed a sort of vase-like cup from a ring around its thin hips and poured a steaming red liquid into it before handing it to Jar-hidda. He clicked dismissively and it hurried away, pausing only for a second to glance at Hannah though six small all-black eyes, triangular-shaped claws tapping against the metal ground.
Hannah watched the creature go before turning to Jar-hidda, tapping his arm and repeating the question she had posed to Chul-yaun, "what are the not-yautja?"
She didn't get an answer immediately, as Jar-hidda was too busy roaring at a young yautja suddenly grabbing a fist-full of Hannah's hair screaming, "let Jar-hidda tell the story!" and completely dragging her out of her sitting position. Hannah grabbed at the hand in her hair before flipping herself around and punching the youngster, who was only slightly taller than her, right in the inner mouth, just as he was about to let go, terribly frightened at the sudden wrath of the green and purple yautja bearing down on him.
He howled in pain, holding his face and kicking. Hannah retracted her bloodied hand and scooted back to her seat by Jar-hidda's heels, waiting for another attack from one of the others but they instead moved away from their fellow who was grabbed by the neck and sat back up so that Jar-hidda could properly roar in his face.
"Do not hurt my human!" The younger yautja, who was now missing a tooth, possibly having swallowed it on accident, tapped compliance with his tusks and was dropped. He scrambled away backwards to a different location across from Jar-hidda rather than beside him and sat down, checking over his wounds. Hannah also eased back into a cross-legged position, concluded that the wounds on her knuckles were mere scratched and began licking them clean. Jar-hidda plopped back down like a mountain, folding his legs and huffing, visibly calming, if only slightly, before turning to Hannah.
"That is an eta, Hannah, they are conquered races, unworthy prey, who work for the yautja."
Hannah looked at him, in his face, wondering what he meant and piecing it together. After a moment she was able to gather together between what she saw and what she heard to understand that eta meant 'slave.'
With perhaps more calm than she should have felt she asked, "is that what I am?"
Jar-hidda was silent, staring at her, without even clicking to give away his thoughts. Before he could answer there was a sudden commotion, a clamor rose through the room. Jar-hidda turned to see what was going on, and Hannah saw that many yautja, old or young, was suddenly parting and dropping to their knees. Jar-hidda stood, only to face the appropriate direction and knelt, bowing low. Hannah immediately prostrated herself, unsure of what was going on, but seeing the clawed feet of an orange-ish yautja stop before them.
She dared look up and marveled at the sheer size of the yautja, its long dreads intricately adorned with gold clasps and chains, the lower-left tusk carved with a filigree design, wearing a sort of kilt that was made of an almost silken cloth with a long trailing front and back. It was covered in jewelry, not just the typical rings around its neck but chains spilling down its front and dangling from its neck. It had no top, and Hannah could see clearly that this yautja, orange and crème-colored with dark-blue stripes was female.
Hannah accidentally met the female's yellow eyes and planted her face to the ground again. She didn't understand what was going on, but heard Jar-hidda's name, and that 'utoim-sumex'l' word she didn't understand, from the massive yautja and he lifted his head.
"My room," said the female definitively with exaggerated clicks, "now."
Jar-hidda stood without question and Hannah shifted uncomfortably. The female turned her back to Jar-hidda, a sign that he did not retaliate to, and began walking away. Hannah stood abruptly, bewildered as Jar-hidda began moving forward without hesitation, leaving Hannah behind confused and concerned.
