· · · · · · ·
Ohtremnek understood the human cub had some expectations of a game, since once she found him (awfully easily) she expected him to track her. With his mask and speed that was easy enough, and boring, but he was interested in whether she'd pull off her speed a second time.
She did somehow. A third and fourth time too. She had the disadvantage of her limited sight, yet she always seemed to know where he'd gone.
By the fifth time, he was reconsidering whether the files were really wrong about how well humans smell. So next time it was his turn, he went by water to mask himself.
She found him as easily as before. That left him to consider whether maybe, just maybe, the sight of the gods was a real thing. Why not? She certainly seemed capable of spirit speech. He'd first noticed the feelings she projected whenever he tried to take something mechanic apart.
It was a myth of misfortune. In most cases the cursed one would turn a badblood; either by becoming a merciless warrior who grew bored with the code and began killing comrades, weakening them with his mind power, while others became weak and had too much mercy for their prey, eventually turning against their comrades as well in defense of prey. It was puzzling to say the least.
Stories of such badbloods told of demonic entities that made their voice sound in the head of others with the sound of thunder, driving them crazy. On a more scientific level there wasn't much, though hardmeat hives reportedly spoke in this tongue.
Opposed to those legends, the spirit speech of this human cub was gentle and no form of sound at all. It just came as plain knowledge, like a memory came to mind. He had to strain really hard to distinguish thoughts and feelings that she projected on him, impulses that he normally would wave away as random and ignore. Most of the messages came in feelings : positive, negative, approval, disapproval, curiosity, questioning and so on.
Now, she tapped him on the arm and made noises.
"What?" he said.
She took a few steps away from him, then turned to face him. Her direction was to the small cave where they had entered. He was fine with heading back, he had explored most of this water facility now and understood the basics. Well, as far as he could judge how much he understood. His guess had been right, the humans needed their water to be cleansed before drinking it. Why not, they were rather weak in performance, so their stomach probably was as well.
Her face changed a little, and her motions became hurried, but she wouldn't go without him.
He tried to focus on any impulses in his own thoughts, anything that didn't belong ...
Danger?
Right then, she broke into a run towards the entrance. Ohtremnek had no trouble keeping up and stopped her just as she was about to head into the cave that led up. He wanted her to try and give some indication as to what was going on, because he didn't notice anything down here that was danger.
She looked him in the eyes briefly, then a thought flashes through his head. Not here. The other clan ... she knew that?
He shot past her. The others might need him. But in the middle of the corridor, almost annoyed, he remember they sorta kinda had an agreement with the humans, and he had no idea where exactly the danger was. Where ever, he couldn't just leave the human cub here with his scent all over her, that might endanger her.
Grudgingly, he slid back down the rocky path, hauled the girl under his arm and invisibility cloak and sprinted back up.
· · · · · · ·
Karga'te wiped the blood from his visor. It hadn't quite gone as he had imagined. When faced with two blooded warriors while he had nothing but his wristblades and a spear, it had been a safe bet he'd go down. Off course, having walked into them put a bit of a dumper on the whole 'exciting last battle' thing, but it wasn't as if he'd planned on dying in honor or anything similar code worthy.
Yet he was alive.
His plans of tricking one of his attackers had gone rather awkward as Ghuran had showed up and joined in the hopeless battle. The fool probably had expected only one opponent, but this was a little too much to deal with fair and square.
Right now, he stared at the severed arm of one of them; Ghuran had had a lucky shot with one of their clumsy cut-nets. The owner of the arm was five meters or so away, being strapped in by Ghuran with said net. For once, it was good both of them were total klutzes at building their own nets.
A little bit further was the second one, unconscious. When Karga'te had been down, feigning unconsciousness and Ghuran in 'combat' with the other, that one had spotted an approaching human, which he'd picked up the throat to see whether it was a worthy kill. She'd produced a weapon from her sleeve and shot him to the knee. Karga'te had tackled him at that point.
He hadn't thought much of it, but something had to have been wrong with their masks since hey hadn't spotted the weapon she carried. That might've been the vital turning point, Nra'tex-ne already mentioned the so called cybersnake could so such things. Now he owed his life to a fake spirit, yay.
Pushing himself off the wall, he tried to think up what they should do now. The bodies couldn't remain here if they decided to kill them. The blood they could erase, but hiding an entire yautja body was another case. The Homeworld was very particular about not leaving anything for humans to find.
Ghuran finished tying up the other one and came over to him.
"That was fun, what now?"
Maybe Ghuran likes being hit on the head with blade hilts, Karga'te thought. That certainly would explain his often stupid behavior.
Mental voice again, telling him how he himself had walked into two...
Though all in all, this somewhat embarrassing outcome was better than being dragged back to a hostile ship, one that wasn't even that of his own clan.
Something behind him hit the ground and yelped. As both the yautja turned, they saw Ohtremnek on a ledge with one of the human cubs at his side; he had dropped her there and was now surveying the scene with mild interest.
"Need any help?" he thrilled.
· · · · · · ·
The situation could have been worse, Nra'tex-ne thought. Karga'te and Ghuran could have been captured, their hostess Bakarne killed.
The situation definitely could have been better though. He had no idea what to do with their captives. According to their captives, the opposing clan hadn't fired at the Nirevé ship unprovoked. There was talk of some kind of treachery. Sadly, the hunters had no intention on giving any details, insisting that the must already knew.
Bakarne spread a nervous scent, her hand was still on the weapon that Jarrod had given her. She had become a little more relaxed over the course of the afternoon, but now she was fully tensed again. Nra'tex-ne had tried to ensure her everything was alright, but the limited communication was no help.
Crazy as it seemed though, he was fairly certain this female possessed some sort of sight of the gods, allowing her to see straight through him. She seemed to have known something was wrong even before the scent of Karga'te's blood had blown down the hill; a scent she shouldn't be able to smell anyway. On top of that, Ohtremnek said her cub led him right to where the battle had taken place. For even Ohtremnek, whom Nra'tex-ne seriously suspected was a secret atheist, to suggest the supernatural worried him, but there were more immediate concerns.
On their first day in this house, already they had made things more difficult for the host. Nra'tex-ne felt a little guilty for it in regard to their hostess, spirit speaker or not. Bringing in prisoners was in no way polite, especially when visiting a house without prior invitation.
"There will be more," said Ohtremnek, snapping him out of his chain of thoughts.
Nra'tex-ne clattered his mandibles irritably. "Let's hope them finding us was a fluke."
"Probably, but they've been trailing us some time since we came at Carly's house. I caught some suspicious scent back then too," said Karga'te, pacing around slowly. "They might have told the others by now."
In the middle of the room were the two captive yautja on their knees, bleeding mostly from the cutting robes.
"Can't beat our tie-up tricks." Ghuran muttered as one of them tried to wrestle free again, taking a bit of pride in his skill with tying up.
From the halls came the younger humans' voices, softly talking to each other. The stench of blood filled the air, creating a sharp contrast to the calm chirping.
Nra'tex-ne would swear Bakarne kept an eye on Karga'te. She was tense around him in ways she wasn't with the others. What had she seen? Had Karga'te done something, again? He was no stranger to his brother behaving without honor, but he'd gotten better of the years ... at least within sight.
If she was a spirit speaker, maybe she caught something invisible to Nra'tex-ne.
Karga'te would be thinking about what to do just as much as Nra'tex-ne himself.
The past had been easy, hunt, defend honor, mate ... this wasn't simple. There was no clear honorable way to proceed. The Path lay in darkness and the Code had no guidance.
"We could place them under the Oath of Sharinma," he tried anyway.
"Why would they keep it? The Oath of Sharinma only exists within our clan," said Ohtremnek.
Sharp silence again, but not for long.
"Wait, Karga'te, why didn't you say something earlier? You said you smelled them before," Nra'tex-ne asked.
"I did. You said I had been smelling too much and sent Ohtremnek to scout."
Painful silence, this time.
One of the captive hunters clattered their mandibles. "Foolhardy, aren't you four? You're deserters and traitors of the Path! At least make up your mind on what you want."
Nra'tex-ne clenched his wrists at the accusation. In no way they were deserters. They were runaways, but not permanently. They'd submit themselves to their punishment once they had proven their point.
"That is not true, we are—"
"Justified? Ha. There was never anything truly honorable about the Nirevé tribe! You mess too much with the way of the hunt."
Nra'tex-ne wouldn't have lost his temper if it hadn't been so long without rest or food or proper medicine. He stood up from the couch and delivered a blow across the mandibles of the captured yautja, leaving a line of blood where his claws had scraped skin.
He shouldn't have done that, as the assaulted directly hit his head forward against Nra'tex-ne's injured leg. It caused him to tumble backward while the captive hunter laughed.
"I am Raun Tah, my companion is Zxuarde and you are Nra'tex-ne. We know you. We've heard of you when we were aboard, always sticking up for your badblood brother..." He paused at that word, waiting for a snarky reply, but instead Karga'te chuckled. He never interrupted his pace from one end to the room and back.
"If you are so strong, then why did we overcome you?" Karga'te rattled. "We weren't even good warriors. We're malnourished and incompetent. What does that say about you?"
The other hunter snarled. "You know you played dirty. You used weapons that we did not counter by honor. Those nets of yours, the dirty human with its trick and we couldn't see!"
Ghuran was about to bark something back, but Nra'tex-ne, on his feet again, silenced him.
"Enough words on this. You two, we have no knowledge of what happened aboard your ship. We do admit to running away from our clan, but it is for reason other than—" he started, trying his utmost best to remain calm.
"It just shows your general disloyalty," said Zxuarde.
It might have been one of those silent tense moments again, if it hadn't been for the low rumble in Nra'tex-ne's throat. Their hostess was present, so he deemed it not right to resort to a battle to settle the insults. Bakarne had previously shown discontent with random violence, he was pretty sure his previous outburst had already made a bad impression.
"This all means that if they walk, they talk," said Karga'te. "After all, why would you two not say anything? Honor is relative, right? Any oath we ask you to make wouldn't count anyway."
Raun Tah spread his mandibles, to roar or reply, but Karga'te decked him in the face before he got a sound out.
"I have a better idea." He walked past the two and then around to Raun Tah's back. "You should also know that we ran out of hardmeat on our home planet a while ago. None of my immediate ancestors were blooded by defeating one."
"How pathetic you are doesn't matter when you fought with tricks."
"Oh, but it does before the Black Warrior, right, brother?" Karga'te cast a look at Nra'tex-ne. Before anyone could stop him, Karga'te grabbed Zxuarde's dreadlocks, pulled his head back and extended his wristblades through his throat.
Nra'tex-ne lurched forward and pushed his brother to the ground, but it was too late. The body of the dead hunter remained upright for a few seconds, then slumped down.
Karga'te crawled up and created a distance between himself and his brother.
"Murderer..." Nra'tex-ne wanted to roar it out, but it sounded just too soft.
Karga'te threw him a daring look. He might've laughed had this been a lighter mood.
"You would have let them walk even if you knew they would betray us. They would have come and killed us and killed the rest of our clan. It's survival of the smartest now, brother. Didn't you see how honor is held high, or rather, low, at our ship right now? Only the primal rules continue to count." There was something so daring, so challenging in the his brother's eyes that Nra'tex-ne considered cutting of a mandible from that defiant face, just to teach him a lesson.
He didn't, because he knew that Karga'te had a point. Nataeloixren Mra had kept back medicine, these two hunters had planned to betray their position, kill them ... disgrace the name of Nirevé forever.
Still, it was murder. Killing an honorable yautja that could not defend was a great crime, regardless of the situation.
The door opened and Carly walking into the room. Her noises didn't make any sense to him, but it was clear she was addressing Nra'tex-ne. She pointed lightly at Karga'te, at the surviving hunter, her teeth flashing in a wide grin while pronouncing some word like :"Awsum" and some other things.
She agreed with his brother about the kill.
Karga'te figured the same. "See ... even the local wildlife says so. The rules do not count here anymore."
Nra'tex-ne was with his back at the other captured yautja, but smelled a hint of fear for death.
When Karga'te walked past him, he found that he didn't turn to stop him.
When the sound of wrist blades cutting through yautja skin reached his crest, he didn't move.
When the body hit the ground, he didn't turn to strike at his brother, regardless of the Code biting at the edges of his mind.
He and his allies, they were going to live past today.
He thought at the chaos that had been the ship and how he had seen some of the unblooded in the kehrite try to kill each other. He had told himself they weren't serious ... but they would have become if the female yautja had not stopped them. Had the Code really lost it's power now? Maybe it never existed in the first place ... no, he was not allowed to think that way.
· · · · · · ·
The stars crawled up the night sky, doing little to replace the fading sunlight. Still, she walked slowly. Today, she could afford to.
Melanie and Frank tried their best to scrub the bloodstains from the rocks without having to ignite flashlights. The bloodied sand they gathered in bags, because Mahad had scouting hunters could smell it.
Carly reached the top of the path. "Need any help?"
"No!" snapped Frank, though unable to hide that his nerves were turning over hours.
Carly shrugged. "Fine."
"You shouldn't be outside," said Melanie.
Frank climbed a little further upward along the trail while Melanie dropped a rock she was done with.
"What'd I do to get the cold shoulder, hmm?" Carly sat down on a large boulder on the edge and watched her feet dangle above the depth. "You guys are acting as if this is all my fault. That's annoying. All I said what that it would be better to have them dead. I know how things like this go, I've seen it all my life."
They just moved on without another world. It didn't matter that much to Carly whether they had heard, they'd probably not change their mind. She just didn't have anything better to say to deal with this all.
Someone else responded though. Carly almost fell off her rock as Bakarne suddenly stood next to her.
"You don't care for their opinion anyway," the woman said.
Carly shrugged, but was a little spooked by Bakarne's sudden appearance. The woman looked alien herself in the evening light.
"You didn't mind, did you?" Carly said. "You would have killed the one that attacked you up here if you'd have known how to deal with that gun. I asked Oihana."
The answer came in a short nod and, "Off course. I am not obliged to show any morals towards those whose morals are the perfect opposite of mine. If I would, it wouldn't be seen as moral anyway. That said, I didn't care they died, but I'd like these four we've got here not to adopt that attitude towards us."
"Did you come up here just to tell me that or for some other reason?"
"Did you come up here to see the sunset?"
Carly snorted with a laugh. "I came up here for some quiet time. Never would have thought I needed it, but after sitting still with my grandparents for two weeks... heh."
"There is your answer."
Bakarne seemed ready to move further up, following the small path through the cliffs, but Carly wasn't quite done yet. "You just leave your kid alone down there in the house?"
"Yes. The wild ones are out, scouting again. For good reason, I believe. Nra'tex-ne has his supposed honor and the worst Ohtremnek will do is cause another flood."
Carly laughed, Bakarne only smiled mildly. "Well then, evenin, misses Eir," Carly said, a hint of mockery in her voice.
"Good evening. And it's miss Eir."
As Bakarne went after Melanie and Frank, Carly had noticed the bags she had carried. Maybe she went to perform some sort of ritual? Whatever, she didn't quite care.
Now, Carly did look at the fading sunet. From the edge of the higher part of the city it was much clearer to see and there wasn't quite as much dirt in the air up here. It had been a long time since she had looked at the sky. It made her feel a little lonely, but that wasn't such a big deal either.
Or so she liked to tell herself. After a quarter of an hour, she had had enough quiet and went down again, almost falling another time as she stumbled in the darkness.
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