Author's Note: Hey guys and gals! Sorry about the wait! With school starting up again, it has been hard trying to fit in time to write. BUT, I managed! Thank you again for all the follows and reviews and favorites! Tell me what you think of the chapter, this one was harder to write for some reason. Anywho! here you are!

Enjoyxoxo

Words: Halkrath (The warrior's name/ Shadow); Kehrite (Training room, Arena)

Love & War 14

Imara POV

I use to love the quiet.

The serene feeling that would fill me as I walked alone through the jungle in the early morning, my body always felt so light. My soul never felt freer.

But now, that peaceful feeling was gone.

I mindlessly measured out each step I took down the long silent hall, my sandal covered feet making soft footfalls as I walked. Bhu'ja was behind me, a tall dark hulking presence as always. My week was up, all my training and practicing helping me to keep my nerve. The Matriarch had a special kehrite in mind for the battle. Bhu'ja wouldn't tell me much about it, only that it was vastly bigger than the ones we had practiced in before. I cast the thought aside as loud roars and cheers slowly filled the air, my approach slowing as we neared the doors to the kehrite. I didn't think anyone else would be here to watch us. Frowning, I raised my hand to the glowing square to open the door.

"No matter what you see, no matter what you hear-" Bhu'ja started in a low voice.

I nodded swiftly and stiffened my back defensively as the door slid up.

"It will be fine. I will win and we will be back home soon." I stated, cutting him off slightly in speech.

A low grunt was his reply to that.

Walking in, I felt my eyes grow wider with each step.

Row after row was filled with people. Males and females alike shouted and roared, bumping into each other in their apparent excitement. As we walked forward more people noticed our arrival, the crowd instantly going into an uproar.

"He is to fight her?! Stupid ooman! This will mark your death!"

"Look! She even has the mark, the warrior's mark! What kind of a joke is this?!"

"This will be over quickly. The ooman will not last even a minute in the circle with the Matriarch's choice of warrior."

I gritted my teeth as I ignored the snickering and glares from the alien crowd that surrounded me. My heart beat away wildly in my chest none the less though, the sound so loud I feared others would hear it. Once in the middle of the mat, which formed a circle with the sound of the crowd crackling the air around it, I turned my head to regard the Matriarch.

Her intense blue eyes were trained on me, a mixture of amusement and dark curiosity glimmering in their depths. Turning from her then, I looked behind her proud figure to the tall heavily muscled male shadowing her. Feeling eyes on him no doubt, the male looked up to stare back with blazing yellow eyes. Unlike Bhu'ja, whose eyes were a warm and rich gold, this male's eyes were emotionless and calculating.

And yet, like the snuffed remains of a fire, they burned with the slightest breeze.

The breeze, however, being the whispered words from the Matriarch. I narrowed my eyes on the pair suspiciously.

"What do you think it is that they are talking about?" I asked Bhu'ja in a low voice.

"Probably you." He answered with a low growl, his unease all to obvious.

Moving to stand beside me, Bhu'ja and I both faced the other pair in silence. When they broke apart, the Matriarch turned to the crowd and ordered them to silence themselves.

"My people! Today is a magnificent day, is it not? A truly marvelous day for a battle. Ooman, step forward." She commanded, reaching out a hand to me.

Swallowing quickly, I took careful steps toward her. Before I knew it I was standing beside her tall frame,

"My warrior! Halkrath! Come forward!" She stated, turning to the male.

He stepped up and walked until he was on the other side of the matriarch, stopping only then to gaze out at the crowd of people. They cheered and roared encouraging things to him, mostly things that ended with my utter demise.

A beating sound filled my ears then, as the Matriarch started to talk more. Though I tried in vain to clear my head and listen to what she was saying, the thundering boom only intensified. As the Matriarch turned from the crowd to the both of us, her bright eyes staring me down, I realized then what the booming sound was that beat so profoundly in my ears.

The drums of war.

The rhythmic thumping, one I had heard more times than I could count, were now beating for me. I blinked back tears, my heart suddenly so heavy. I felt so happy though, is if I had my whole tribe at my back to support me. I then looked up at the crowd and imagined my mother and sister and brother sitting there amongst them. Smiling down on me and cheering me on, Enzo making more noise than all of them put together.

I would win.

For my family, for Bhu'ja, I would win this.

"Pick your weapons!" The Matriarch stated loudly.

With the drums still beating away in my head, I nodded stiffly and reached down to the new belt holster Bhu'ja had made for me; my hunting knife laying snuggly against my hip and begging to be chosen.

I grasped the handle tightly in my hand, the blade shining eagerly. I looked around briefly for Bhu'ja, my eyes instantly recognizing the dark coloring of the yautja male as he stood off to the side away from the Matriarch and her guards. Turning back toward Halkrath, who had a sheathed combistick clutched in his massive paws, I squared my shoulders and tightened my grip.

"That's a mighty small knife you have there." Halkrath trilled, as he stalked toward me.

The sound of the drums was intensifying, my breath coming out in small pants as I felt the boisterous noise spread through my body.

"Worry about yourself." I muttered, watching through a slight haze of rampant thumping as the Matriarch held up her hands.

Then, it was quiet. An eerie sinking type of quiet, but quiet all the same.

They had stopped. The drums of war had stopped, signally the beginning of a battle.

"Fight!" She shouted, as one of her hands came down toward us and she stepped back to watch.

I only had time to turn my head before the end of an unsheathed combistick came speeding toward my chin. Ducking down, I quickly rolled out of the way and went into a low crouch with my knife glued inside my clenched fist. Slicing the back of his right leg around his calf, I quickly scurried away from him as he roared in pain. The cut wasn't deep enough though, I noticed, as I circled him. His face was bare, as were his arms and legs. In fact, the only armor on his body was the silver groin cup and the metal plating on his holster belt. I kept that in mind as I crept closer to him, his eyes burning into me angrily.

I ducked again when he took another swing at my head with his combistick, the sharp end whistling in the air as it glided toward me. I jabbed quickly at him with my knife, his thrusting swing creating the perfect opening. I managed to cut him again, this time in the side. Light green blood oozed from the wound, trailing down his waist to his narrow hips.

Jabbing again but missing my mark, I felt my vision swim when his elbow came down to strike the back of my head. Thrown to the ground from my own slack weight, I blinked up at him with watery eyes. With his expanded combistick held up in the air, I watched in utter stillness as he aimed it at my heart. I gasped then, rolling out of the way just as the blade came down to pierce the gray kehrite mat.

Kicking the combistick, I watched in mild relief as it rolled away from the both of us; much to Halkrath's misfortune. He let out a harsh hiss before grabbing me by the neck, lifting me up from the mat with ease only then to stare me in the eye. My feet dangled freely, the air in my lungs burning sharply. I narrowed my watering eyes as he spread his mandibles wide, and roared loudly.

"You are quite the annoyance to kill." He hissed, his breath hot against my face.

"The same could be said of you." I snarled back, "Do not underestimate me."

Lifting my knife then, I stabbed it as far and hard into his arm as I could. His grip on my throat instantly vanished then, his pain filled roar surrounding us both in the circle of the arena. The crowd went crazy then, some even looking as if they wanted to jump onto the mat to end the battle themselves.

"Finish her!"

"She is only an ooman female!"

"End her! Now!"

I ignored the growing anger and mild shock that seemed to waft from the crowd above us. Instead, I watched as Halkrath pulled the knife slowly from his arm, his yellow eyes never faltering from me. Tossing the knife aside, he began to stalk toward me with death clear as day written on his foreign face.

Making a dash for the discarded combistick, I crawled across the mat until I managed to envelope the handle in my hands just as Halkrath's rough paw encircled its way around my ankle. Lifting me once more into the air, only this time I was upside down, I gritted my teeth in frustration at my obvious lack of height. As the blood started to rush from my toes and feet and into my head, I gripped the handle of the weapon tightly and thrust it straight into his side. The new wound was only a few inches from the previous knife wound, only this time it was much more deadly.

Pulling the combistick out, I braced myself as his hold on my ankle was relieved and I came crashing to the ground head first at his blood stained feet.

He hissed and landed two solid kicks to my stomach, even when the rapid movement dealt him just as much pain. Gasping harshly, I greedily drank in large gulps of air as I clutched my stomach in pain. Turning my head, I caught a glance of my knife and quickly tried to make my way to it.

"Where do you think you're going?" Halkrath growled in a low voice from above me.

Kicking me again, so hard this time that I was sure a rib or two had cracked, I groaned as I rolled across the mat from the sheer power of the blow. Once I came to a stop I was surprised to feel my knife poking sharply against my lower back, and I quickly snuck it into my holster.

"You know, I have actually been most curious about you. 'The ooman female with the mark of the Ghost' is what they call you. I have even asked the matriarch about what she has planned for you." He trilled as he sank his taloned hand into my hair and pulled me clear off the floor by it. "You know what her reply was?"

I gritted my teeth in barely concealed agony and clawed aimlessly at his hand, his talons sinking slowly into my scalp with every second.

"She said she did not care what happened to you. In fact, she said she might as well eat you, as crude as it sounds." He chuckled, the sound disturbing and unsettling.

"Personally, I feel it's a waste. By ooman standards… you are quite attractive. Hmm, no wonder he's kept you around. Perhaps… she will let me keep you afterwards…" Halkrath purred, as he pulled me higher into the air with my hair still fisted in his palm. "After all, I think she's taken a liking to that mate of yours."

I glowered at him then. A truly hateful glare that would have made weaker men falter instantly.

The very idea…the two of them…I wouldn't allow it.

"You talk a lot. Too much in fact." I hissed as I reached with one hand down into the holster.

Pulling the knife out, I thrust the blade up under his chin. His yellow eyes widened in shock as the knife slide in further and further. A collective gasp from the crowd filled the room, shock and amazement written on every yautja face.

His hand slowly opened and I dropped to the mat, using all my strength to hold myself up. I watched in silence, spitting out blood onto the mat, as Halkrath sank to his knees before me.

"I will be needing this back." I whispered to him as I yanked the knife out, causing a steady flow of light green blood to slide down his naked chest. Soon, the mat was soaked in the stuff and Halkrath's death was a sure fact. A single loud roar filled the room, one I knew all too well as Bhu'ja, and it lead into a chorus of cheers and roars from the crowd.

They were truly amazed.

I turned then from Halkrath's body to face the Matriarch, her face a mixture of mild irritation and disappointment.

"I believe we have a very important matter to discuss." I said in a low voice, my deep honey eyes narrowing on her blue ones.

Her mandibles widened briefly before she thought on it for a second, then she rolled her eyes and tucked her mandibles back in. Turning from me, she started back toward the entrance of the grand kehrite.

"Yes…I suppose we do." She tossed over her shoulder.

I started to follow, but the pain in my stomach was becoming too much. The kicks from earlier had apparently done more damage than I thought they did. Sucking in a sharp breath and stiffening my spine, I continued to walk behind her with Bhu'ja trailing close behind me.

His taloned hand came up to wrap gently around my waist, "You fought with honor, like a true warrior. I am proud of you, Imara. You even ducked."

I rolled my eyes at his knowing smirk, his golden eyes succeeding in easing some of my pain- but not enough of it. Frowning deeply, I blinked when a few black spots started to appear in my vision.

Then, suddenly I felt my movements falter, my hands clutching at the metal walls desperate for purchase as my vision got darker and darker around the corners.

A loud beeping sound went off then. The sound as urgent as any I had ever heard before.

Bhu'ja cursed, "Imara? Imara! Look at me! Do not close your eyes!"

He muttered something else under his breath that I missed as he held tightly to me and ushered us into a room. I could faintly hear the Matriarch and Bhu'ja talking but I couldn't make any sense of it, the only thing I could truly understand was the noise.

"…tracker…need to return…need help…attacked…her fam-"

I tried to blink away the darkness enclosing around me, but it kept breaking through the barrier to cloud my mind. The words Bhu'ja kept saying swam around my head, surfacing for a second before going back under and becoming lost to me, until finally- I could put them together.

The beeping…it was the tracker.

My family…something happened.

And…that meant…I felt my heart drop so low I feared it'd be lost forever then, just as the darkness consumed me whole.

'My family…What was to become of them…?' I wondered dimly. The incessant beeping, my last memory.