Tawaya had a plan alright, it made Jake queasy, and he was disgusted, but she had stressed to him that he had to be strong for it to work, so he held it together.
As he walked deeper into the jungle, alone, Jake kept his eyes upwards, and straight ahead. Everywhere except down towards his hands.
Close to his chest he was carrying a very heavy and important, symbolic, item.
Tawaya had told him he was to walk straight, deeper into the jungle, and keep the item close to his body and not to lose it.
For the first little while Jake was 'okay' carrying it, but then he started to notice the actual weight of it
The weight, coupled with the awkward way he was holding it made the experience all the more unpleasant.
A human head weighs about ten pounds, give or take.
A severed Yautja head weighs closer to thirty.
Consciously Jake made efforts to not touch the bloody, wet, and gory, neck – hole.
But it kept slipping.
Jake stopped himself and looked up, sighing with disgust.
"Fuck… Fuck this…"
He tried readjusting his grip on the sides, taking hold of some of the tendril-dreadlocks, but as he did it slipped.
Awkwardly, like it was a watermelon, Jake tried to hold it close but it ended up continuing to slip.
He yelped loudly while he fumbling it.
Dully the head landed onto the leafy ground.
"Shit…"
After smacking the ground it made a half roll before stopping.
Tawaya had removed the mask from the Yautja before she cut it from the body, the whole time Jake was carrying it he was able to avoid eye contact with the dead creature.
But now, after it made its little half roll away, the staring, open, eyes of the male Yautja gazed upwards unblinkingly.
At this point Jake was actually desensitised enough, and had been coached by Tawaya enough that the gory, visceral, and genuinely horrifying fact that he was carrying a decapitated head, and was now picking it back up, wasn't bothering him that much.
He didn't really want to pick it up, but not because he was scared, or stressed, or anything like that; the fact was he was too numb and removed from himself to think that way.
He didn't want to pick it up because his arms were sore from carrying it. If it wasn't so fucked up it would have been comedic.
Begrudgingly Jake reminded himself that Tawaya's plan was entirely dependent on him delivering this head.
And so, aloud he responded to himself, and gave in, "Ugh, okay… Goddamn it."
Bending over the long haired boy looked from side to side as he picked up the head.
Flicking and blowing his bangs off his sweat covered face he made sure he could see and that he wouldn't lose his grip again.
When his hands had wrapped themselves enough dreadlock he exhaled and lifted the dead weight upwards.
He huffed and brought the head close to his abdomen, and after standing he resumed his course.
Before they parted Jake asked Tawaya what he was to do if he lost the direction, or footpath he was on. It takes just a few minutes of walking to become completely lost in a forest or jungle, and Jake was really hoping to avoid that.
So in response his imposing female Yautja assured Jake that he wouldn't get lost, all he had to do, she said, was continue walking downhill, and in a southern direction.
Even though Jake had absolutely no outdoor sense at all; he never camped, hiked, or anything, he was able to follow her simple instructions.
The incline was slight but Jake could tell that he was, indeed, still going downhill and thus still heading where he was supposed to go.
Though he was numb, and mentally distant from all the shock and stress the day had brought, Jake was pleasantly surprised in himself that he hadn't yet fucked up on this vacation too badly.
As his thoughts wandered briefly he remembered that Tawaya said she would be close to him.
They couldn't be together though; she'd have to stay cloaked and quiet for her plan to work.
But if anything were to happen, if they found the bad blood, or if the bad blood found Jake before they got to where they were going she would be able to jump in and insure Jake would be fine.
Though of course he really was hoping that wasn't going to happen.
Tawaya had told Jake that she had a pretty good idea where the bad-blood's ship was, and that's where the other bad-bloods would be.
Jake and Tawaya would get there, and with Jake's help as a distraction, and kind of as bait, Tawaya was going to be able to kill and finish off these insidious Yautja psychos.
Tawaya downplayed the danger Jake was in but she was fairly sure that his holding the decapitated head of the one bad-blood would indicate to the others that there was more going on than a simple display of the trophy.
Minutes of walking in quiet and the boy broke the ambience of the jungle once more.
"This is ridiculous…" Jake huffed.
But he shook his head and continued to heft the odd weight of his charge.
Though he was determined to see this through and finish it; come what may.
As the ground became rockier and less dirt and leafy Jake was determined not to lose his footing, he was not going to fuck up, he was not going to look like a fool, a loser, a weak little bitch.
And he was not going to trip on some rocks or anything again, especially not now.
So intently he looked downwards and watched his footing, carefully he moved himself amidst the uneven terrain and navigated the small rocks, the big ones, the rippling roots and gnarled claws of the jungle coming out from between the crevices.
Overhead the canopy was beginning to give way to a clearing.
Sunlight poured through in brilliant shafts, there's an odd visual sensation in dense jungles with the way that light interacts with dust and debris in the air. The result is that the light was visible in almost physical lines of yellow, ivory, and white.
As you would walk you almost got the desire to move around these shafts of light or else you might hit them. It's one of the most bizarre visual experiences that you never really notice.
Though, of course, if Jake hadn't of been so preoccupied with monitoring his footwork and then the play of the light around him he would have seen that he was no longer 'alone'.
Standing not too far away from Jake, at the edge of the illuminated clearing was the last Bad-Blood.
After he had cleared the rocks without dropping his cargo Jake had an involuntary smile on his face, though it withered away as soon as he saw the new Yautja.
Terror now welled in his chest, his heart beat quickly, and his body released some of the adrenaline it still had left.
His arms and legs grew light, and his primal monkey-brain was yelling at him to drop the head and run for it this time.
But he instead drew himself together. Taking a deep breath Jake took a few steps forward and held up the decapitated head.
Laying it onto the ground slowly and carefully Jake maintained sight of the large alien across from him.
It was motionless except for its breathing.
Like Tawaya and the dead Yautja the alien was ripped, a true model for a workout regime. Though unlike the other Yautja he was sparsely decorated and his chest was exposed; he had nothing adorning his bare shoulders, and instead of armour his upper body was completely nude.
He had two gauntlets, one on each wrist, and from his bottom half Jake could tell he was barely armed.
The Yautja's skin was marred by grisly scars, and his skin appeared rough and dry. Flakes of the scale-skin were coming off, on his pecs, his abdomen, his shoulders, and even his forearms.
The colour of his skin was spotty; while it was similar to Tawaya's but had paler tones and splotches of reddish circles. If Jake didn't know better he would have assumed they were burn marks.
His dreads were pulled back off its shoulders in an almost ponytail like display, and the mask was the most ornate one he had seen so far. It was a very dark metal, nothing like Tawaya's.
The design was rippled and looked very rough to the touch. It was all angled down from the crest on top to the mouth piece which had been twisted and melted into tentacle-like tendrils. It looked like metalwork inspired by Lovecraft's Cthulhu.
But the angle work of the mask was incredibly well done, if not for being absolutely terrifying Jake would have complemented the Yautja on just how cool and 'sick' the mask really was.
The final aspect of the mask which drew Jake's attention was the eyes. Unlike Tawaya's or the dead Yautja the 'eyes' were almost clear.
It was projected or something but rather than being a matte opaque colour it allowed the viewer to see the Yautja's eyes.
While the body language of the Yautja was 'calm' save for the regulated and steady breathing his eyes spoke one word;
Rage
The eyes were the same yellowish colour of Tawaya's but the black colour of the Yautja's skin around them gave him an added level of intensity.
His pupils were narrowed and focused on Jake with singular intent.
And after Jake had locked eyes with him he couldn't look away.
Like he had locked eyes with a bear or a jaguar Jake was now in trouble.
He rose from having placed the decapitated head on the ground and stood straight, waiting.
The Yautja finally broke eye contact with Jake and slowly lowered his gaze to view his fallen comrade's face.
The blank, cold, expression, of the head gave the Yautja's eyes no respite and instead he began blinking furiously.
When he looked back up at Jake he took a heavy, quick, lunge-like step forwards.
Jake's eyes went wide and he stepped backwards and brought his hands up in a defensive gesture reactively.
But as quickly as the Yautja moved he stopped himself. Straining intensely against himself he instead raised a hand and pointed at the head and then back to Jake.
Wordlessly demanding an explanation for the trophy brought before him.
Jake looked around the treeline behind the Yautja for any sign of Tawaya.
The boy's silence irritated the Yautja and he growled loudly.
Jake took in a sharp breath and returned his blue eyes to the Yautja in front of him
"I…"
He began, he took in another breath and tried to push out his chest.
"I killed him."
The Yautja's shoulders moved backwards and rolled as his body physically reacted to the diminutive, puny, human's words.
Jake pressed it, "I strangled him… and I…" he stopped, fear was gripping him so tightly he couldn't feel his own mouth as the words came out.
"I strangled him, and then I cut his head off…"
The Yautja's eyes began looking Jake over head to toe, over and over.
Then the Yautja took a step backwards.
His body language was almost saying 'that isn't possible'. His shoulders and chest was surprisingly expressive, and his whole form contorted itself in disbelief.
Finally the disbelief welled in the Yautja's body to the point that he finally shook his head from side to side.
His head ceased shaking and he finally spoke aloud; the voice was guttural. It was projected loudly from the mask and sounded… dark.
It was low, gurgling, and unbelievably alien. It made Tawaya sound eloquent and demure by comparison.
The sound was so bass-y that it drowned out the sound in between Jake and the Yautja.
"You?" he said. Jake's chin trembled at the sound.
"You… killed him?"
Jake nodded and verbally responded, challenging the creature.
"I did, I cut his fucking throat."
Readjusting his body the Yautja now stood pushing out his chest and shifting his weight to his back leg.
He did not like hearing the confidence or the rebellious tone of Jake's voice.
While Jake was still gripped by terror his voice had come out with something; powerful… despite his small size, despite the high pitch of his voice, despite everything.
And more than that, it was true, it wasn't an artificial boast or a bluff, and this truth was conveyed through Jake because he still couldn't believe it himself.
All of this the Yautja did not like at all and like a caged beast figuring out the fence the Yautja stared Jake down.
Analysing the young man and taking in the sight before him.
Then Jake saw it, in the corner of his eye behind the Yautja he could see Tawaya's shimmer melt out of the shadow.
Clearing his throat Jake spoke up, "What now?"
The Yautja raised its chin and looked down at him. The gesture was as if to non-verbally echo 'now?'
And Jake repeated, "Yeah, now? Aren't you going to do something?"
The Yautja clenched its fists and shifted its weight again.
Behind him Jake could see Tawaya getting closer to the target, silently creeping her way up to the Yautja.
"Maybe, you're going to realise something."
The Yautja looked down at the head again and back up at Jake.
Jake's heart was beating so fast by now.
"Maybe… you'll realise that this." Jake pointed both at himself and the head.
The Yautja furrowed his brow and narrowed his eyes, tensing his muscles and flexing his arms to loudly deploy his wrist blades.
Tawaya was just a few feet behind the Yautja now and lowered herself, like a leopard before the pounce.
"Was just a distraction…"
The Yautja was about to take a step forwards towards Jake but Tawaya stopped him.
She roared as loud as she could and wrapped her arm around the Yautja's neck, while bringing her blades to touch the supple skin of his throat.
He froze mid action.
Jake's eyes were wide, 'it worked… it actually fucking worked…'
Tawaya hissed and clicked while she held her pose, the male Yautja clicked and allowed a low rumbling laugh to leave his chest.
The male Yautja's eyes crinkled at the sides and he looked at Jake.
In response Jake confirmed "Yeah… me neither."
"What are you doing Tawaya? Fuckin… end it! Kill him!"
Instead the two Yautja began clicking and speaking to each other in their own language.
Jake's surprise and expression at the success of the ruse began to go away as he watched as the two aliens began talking.
"Tawaya?" his voice cracked in desperation and fear as he stood in disbelief.
"What the fuck are you two doing?! This isn't the fuckin UN!"
Regardless of his protests the two aliens continued their conversation, clicking, growling, and speaking in their strange dialect.
Eventually the male Yautja retracted his blades and relaxed his arms to his sides.
Tawaya pressed her blade and finished her sentence with a slight flick of the steel.
The bright green of the male's blood began to flow from the slice she had made in his skin.
He grunted and hissed at the pain but stood and took it.
Jake expected her to press the attack and deeply rend the Yautja's throat but instead she removed the blade from his skin.
Jake's eyes were manic, "What are you doing? What are you doing!" He continued to chant, while backing away from the head at his feet and the two aliens in front of him.
The male laughed and pointed towards Jake, speaking lowly.
Tawaya growled in response and kicked her knee into the back of the male's thigh.
He grumbled sharply and moved under her tight grip.
She brought the blade back to his skin and clicked and growled.
Jake didn't know what to think or how to react now. He was confused and at a loss.
He was trapped now as a helpless observer.
What they were saying was a mystery, and what Tawaya was going to do was unknown.
But then mid word the male elbowed Tawaya in the side. The sudden flurry of motion was surprising and Jake hadn't realised what had happened at first.
After elbowing Tawaya the male drew his blades again and moved to throw off her arm while attempting to avoid her blade.
Reeling from the hit to her side Tawaya moved her blade as fast as she could; she tried to slash his throat inflicting a lethal wound.
However as they were both moving the male's sudden motion had thrown the direction of her killing stroke off just enough.
Instead of slashing his windpipe and the main arteries and veins killing the Yautja her blade instead carved a deep, deep gash through the thick muscle.
He was able to get out of her grip and stumble forwards while Tawaya moved backwards from her own pain.
With one arm the male Yautja clutched at the grievous wound which was now pouring out blood.
Jake looked on horrified, stuttering as he motioned at the male "G-get him! T-Tawaya!"
Clutching her side with one arm she raised her other to impale the blade as deep as she could in the back of the male's chest.
Looking through his mask at Jake the male had raised his free hand and aimed his fist at him.
Jake watched Tawaya poising to strike and was about to cheer when he heard a metallic-pneumatic sound come from the male. The sound coincided with Jake stopping mid-word.
"Tawa-"
Jake felt like he had been winded, the air in his chest exhaled involuntarily and he felt strange warmth begin to quickly permeate through his shirt.
Tawaya growled and roared as she looked at Jake.
The male still clutching his throat fell forwards and was able to dodge Tawaya's blade, her eyes and attention now focused elsewhere.
With his opponent distracted the male struggled to his feet and simply began to run from the clearing.
Jake finally looked down to see, embedded in his chest, one of the Yautja's blades.
The warmth now soaking his shirt was his own blood.
The sight made his pale face lose expression and his fatigued legs finally gave out from under him as he stumbled backwards.
The feeling of the metal foreign object cut through his muscles caused every minute movement to hurt.
Then the pain truly set in.
Tawaya looked after the male but by now he had run out of sight and certainly out of her field of engagement.
Jake attempted to inhale to recover the air he had lost from the sudden punch-like impact of the ballistic blade, but it was exceptionally difficult.
He fell backwards onto the ground as if he was searching for a chair that was supposed to have been there.
When he collided with the ground he began dryly coughing with almost no air.
It was an uncomfortable wheeze-like sound, the one that corresponds to a punctured lung.
Though Jake didn't know that's what it was.
Tawaya threw herself towards Jake.
His eyes were now tinged with surprise, his body now in disbelief and shock at the sensations he was feeling.
As he attempted to breathe laboriously, only getting the smallest amount of air, he began to feel some wetness come up his throat as he began another round of coughing.
Some bright red blood began to leak out of his lips; it was thick, having been mixed with mucus from his lungs and spit from his mouth.
He tried taking a deep breath but he started to get caught in a trap of heaving and coughing in fear and desperation. It sounded like the hyperventilation that follows a tantrum, or a severe panic attack, but unlike those it was grisly sounding, as if he was both deflated and hollow at the same time.
Tawaya wrapped her bloody right arm around Jake's back and brought her left up to stop his hands.
In his desperation and delirium he brought his hands towards the blade, intent on pulling it out of his chest.
"No Little Jake! Do not!"
She clicked and began speaking in her language.
Now the blood in his throat was getting more copious and he had to cough more of it out.
"Look up, look at me Little Jake!"
His panic stricken eyes looked up towards Tawaya's mask and he tried coughing out words.
"Ta-Tawa-yah…" He coughed deeply and winced at the pain, screeching and reeling from the ripping feeling of his skin and muscles tearing.
Tawaya shook with emotion.
"Hang on Little Jake…"
With her right arm around his back she brought her left arm under his thighs and easily lifted him up.
Jake tried to nod in acknowledgement but his efforts were mostly being focused on being able to breathe.
Coughing loudly he limply leaned his head and body into Tawaya's chest as she rose to her feet.
"Hang on Little Jake!"
She began moving, as quickly as she dared and as she was able.
Mentally she was running through everything.
But at this point there was nothing to say aloud or to think, other than getting him out of here and to his own kind.
'To his people' she thought, 'He'll make it! That's all I can do, get him out of here to them…'
She looked forwards as she began running.
Jake's eyes fluttered as he continued coughing and making pained cries.
He held one hand against his diaphragm, putting pressure on it to try and get a good breath.
But with his other he pressed it against Tawaya's chest, tightly pressing his fingers into her skin.
He groaned and coughed, though he was panicked, and in an unbelievable amount of pain he tried to get Tawaya's attention.
She didn't slow her pace or look down at Jake, "It okay Little Jake!"
Making her way back the general direction they had come Tawaya noticed that this was the second time in a day she was running away from a fight.
But immediately her thoughts responded to her, 'for the right reasons'.
She had never had something selfless to motivate her before.
But she used it to move as best she could, despite her own injuries, despite her own exhaustion.
She kept moving, and kept climbing the slight uphill path back to the edge of the jungle.
Jake was still heaving and coughing in her arms, limply and barely alive, but alive...
Tawaya couldn't tell how far they had come, and how far there was still left to go but she was getting tired.
Many of her wounds began to open.
A horrible possibility began to become clearer.
Then she slowed her pace a little.
Then she slowed a lot.
She had to stop.
She wasn't going to make it.
Jake's coughing had stopped, and his hand had fallen from her chest into his lap.
He was breathing, but meekly, making pained sounds as he strained to take short and shallow breaths.
Tawaya looked around them, there was a small footpath worn into the jungle floor and she began to hopelessly follow it.
Slowly she made long strides down the small path.
In her chest she began to hum. It was a short song, a little lyrical memory she knew that pups enjoyed. She hoped that Jake would like it too.
Though she didn't look down to see his expression she could hear Jake cough and audibly wince as he tried to sigh.
Through the ambience of the birds and animals and over Tawaya's loud footsteps, she could hear running water.
Off the path to their side was a brook, coming from an underground source concealed by overgrowth and thick foliage.
Tawaya stopped humming.
She looked around her.
To their left was the brook, to their right was jungle. To their back was jungle. To their front was jungle. And above them was the oppressive canopy of the jungle.
Stopping her pace she readjusted Jake's weight in her arms and slowly turned to begin walking to the edge of the brook.
Jake's breathing had finally found a comfortable, small, rhythm.
Looking down at her human Tawaya felt nothing but pain in her own chest.
Beside the shallow running water she began to kneel.
Begrudgingly she laid Jake down in an upright sitting position against a hollowed tree stump.
As she did so it was with the care she would have shown a holy relic, or a spider web made of glass.
His wheezing was becoming weaker, though the rhythm he'd found stayed the same.
After he was out of her hands and leaning against the stump he looked up at her and wordlessly understood the situation.
He smirked and the blood smeared on his chin and mouth cracked, dripping down onto his neck and collar.
Weakly he raised a hand, wincing and struggling as he did so.
Pointing to her face, he struggled to form a word and finally managed "…off"
Though Tawaya had understood what he meant as soon as he pointed at her.
Unclicking and removing the mask the two met each other's eyes and shared earnest, pained, looks.
Tawaya furrowed her brow and emotionally grimaced as she looked down at her Little Jake.
Weakly Jake raised his open left hand towards Tawaya, making quiet sounds of pain as he did so.
Tawaya enveloped his small hand in hers and tightly held it.
Jake winced, and tried to smile.
Tawaya felt her chest drop and she began to actually weep. It was noiseless but her eyes began to grow wet. Her breathing became shallow and short and quietly a low moan began to escape her mouth.
The great big, scary, alien was crying.
Jake's eyes began to look downwards as his head lazily drooped, his lips curling in pain.
Over the sound of the water, Jake's very quiet breathing, and Tawaya's involuntary sobbing. Voices could be heard, faintly, in the distance.
Bringing her free hand to Jake's face she pushed his bangs from his eyes and helped lift his head with her hand under his chin.
He coughed again; his pale face was exhausted as he looked up.
Tawaya's eyes conveyed pain and guilt.
"Little Jake…" she began.
Her voice dropped and her breath left her, "I'm sorry…"
Jake moved slightly and he exhaled, wordlessly accepting her apology.
Distraught and wounded deeply, Tawaya leaned forward and pressed her brow against his, humming the same small song from earlier as she did.
She didn't know what else to do.
Leaning back she looked at Jake's eyes for the last time as his heavy lids closed.
She stopped mid-breath and pressed her fingers against his neck there was still a pulse but it was faint.
Again she heard the human voices in the distance.
They were close but she couldn't tell their proximity, nor was she in her top form to have been able to determine that anyway.
She had to do something though, and she looked away from her Little Jake towards the sounds, and she got an idea.
She reluctantly laid down his hand carefully in his lap and re-donned her mask.
After clicking on her wrist computer she looked upwards and took a breath.
When she yelled aloud her voice came through the mask mimicking Jake's.
She yelled as loud as she could in the voice of her human "Help!"
In the distance the human voices she'd heard quieted. She yelled a few more times, and then stopped, turning her ear to listen intently.
Finally after what felt like an eternity the voices in the distance started up again and began getting closer.
She yelled once more for good measure and then looked down at Jake.
Rising to her knees she took hold of his hand again and held it tightly.
Under her breath she struggled to get her words out, but eventually was able to whisper to her unconscious companion.
"I'm sorry Little Jake…"
The humans were getting closer.
Letting go of his hand she stood and began backing away from her human.
Flipping open her wrist computer Tawaya activated her camouflage, melting from view.
Clutching her side she began to slowly walk backwards away from the sound of the approaching humans, though she knew she had to leave, she couldn't take her eyes off Jake's still body.
Straining to lift herself upwards she climbed the base of a thick tree trunk and determined to watch her Jake from a far.
The voices became clearer as the sound of several humans approached.
Clutching her side tightly Tawaya focused on Jake and watched as many armed, uniformed men slowly encroached on the brook.
One of them announced something and then apprehensively approached Jake's body.
The men all looked around intently before taking up positions aimed in different directions around Jake.
One of them knelt by him and closely looked at him.
Tawaya felt hope rise up in her chest as she lowered herself to sit on the branch she was perched on.
"We will meet again Little Jake…"
She whispered to herself.
The toll of emotion, pain, injury, and exhaustion was enough and with the relief of seeing humans surround her Jake Tawaya allowed herself to look away and closed her eyes.
Leaning backwards into the tree she let out a heavy breath and let herself go for a moment.
'I'll rest…'
She nodded slightly, 'yes…'
'Just for a moment,' she paused, taking a breath, 'just for a moment…'
The end
Afterword:
Thank you to everyone, I hope you have enjoyed my little story; this will be the first 'work' I've ever actually finished so I hope that you will like or be okay with how it turned out. I didn't really have a plan when I started this story but I'm pretty pleased with what it ended up being, especially considering what it started out as, ha! But in all seriousness thank you again. I may, *may* write an epilogue or two but I kind of doubt it.
I apologise for any errors or grammatical issues, it's been a lot of work to do solo, though sometimes I've had some help; for which I will always be grateful.
So, from the bottom of my heart: Thank you!
-For the support, comments, views, kudos, favourites, et cetera.
As always: lots of love.
UPDATE 04/12/18: I probably should have put this here before but! I wrote a sequel for those who are interested:
It's called: An Emo and a Yautja II – The Sequel
Creative title I know…