I forgot to do this in the last chapter, but…
Disclaimer – I don't own Alien(s), Predator, AVP, or any other trademarked or copyright material. All that I own are my original story ideas and characters.
Now that that's out of the way…
Chapter 22
Despite the flames of determination that had arisen in her after hearing Kantra's speech, Grey made it her mission for the next few days after their return from the Great Temple, to stay inside Ijane's house as much as possible, save when she was training in the early mornings or doing chores that took her out into the backyard or just beyond the tree line.
By this point, the entire village knew what had heard all about the fiasco at the first plaiting ritual, and there was a slight differing of opinion on whether Grey should have been there, or whether she should have been called out so publically.
The vast majority of the adult females seemed to agree that if the priestesses hadn't wanted her there, they could at least have told Ijane and the others in private, or sent a communique to them once they were home. The ones whose sons had participated in the ritual-all of whom liked Grey a good deal-were appalled by the decision not to allow her to return for the rest of the months-long ritual and, had there been another temple anywhere near them who would have allowed the human to come and watch, they were heard to mutter to one another that they would have preferred to take their offspring there, instead.
"She's been training with them and watching them train for months now; she's earned a right to come and watch, at least!" one irate female was heard to grumble to her friend in the little marketplace.
"And she's always conducted herself very well; especially from what my oldest son has told me of ooman behavior." the friend agreed.
Still, even news that the majority of the village was on her side wasn't enough to make Grey face Nanku and the rest of the Unblooded males, whom Ijane had told her were beginning to irritate her with their daily inquiries about their ooman friend's whereabouts.
"I just can't, Ijane… I… I can't face them after what happened… It's supposed to be such an important ritual, after all, and I basically embarrassed them in front of the entire planet!" Grey said, after her caretaker had chased off a couple of Unblooded with a roar, about four days after the incident.
"KI'CTE!" Kantra roared, from where he'd been sitting in the corner sharpening one of his shuriken and listening to the two females' conversation.
Getting to his feet and clearing the distance between them in about four strides, he grabbed Grey by the back of her shirt and lifted her up to look him in the face.
"S'yuit-de! How dare you think to one day count yourself among the finest Hunters of the Yautja people, when you cannot even have a conversation with some Unblooded pups with barely enough dekna to stuff inside a loincloth! How would you fare against the Hard Meat, when you cannot even face an awkward encounter? I will not allow my name and reputation to be associated in any way with this kind of cowardice!" he snarled, his face so close that Grey could feel his hot breath on her own.
With this, he let her drop to the ground, where she landed in a crouch, and when she managed to stand up, she found herself being marched unceremoniously from the house by Kantra, who had grabbed her by the scruff of her neck once she'd managed to right herself.
Looking back over her shoulder, she could see that Ijane was as shocked by this display as she was, but was rapidly regaining her own composure and beginning to follow the pair of them, the expression on her face telling Grey that the Yautja was trying to figure out exactly when shit had went left here.
Once they were out a little past the front yard, Kantra made Grey stop, and immediately let out a roar that sent a multitude of the creatures that passed for birds there bursting from the nearby trees and taking flight, and had a number of the younger pups scurrying off to find their mothers, such was their fright at the sudden, terrible noise.
After all this time among the Yautja, Grey recognized the roar as one that was meant to bring others to the one making the sound; almost a challenge, but not quite. It seemed to work; because less than a minute later, every Unblooded male in the village, Nanku included, dropped whatever they were doing and ran to stand before the mighty Arbitrator who'd commanded their presence.
Kantra glared at all of them, and without needing any further hints, they got into a line so perfectly straight that it could have been drawn with a ruler, and none of them so much as clicked a tusk as they waited for the older male to speak.
"You have been attempting for several days to come and speak with Grey. She has been avoiding you. This…tension…has become irksome to me. If you all have enough time to bother Lady Ijane to see if your little friend cannot come out and play with you…" he said the last words in a mocking, almost baby-talking tone, pacing from one end of the line to the other…
"THEN YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY NOT CONCENTRATING ON YOUR TRAINING!" he roared, right into the face of the nearest male, and whether by coincidence or Kantra's own design, that male happened to be Nanku.
"That having been said, if you have something to say to or ask Grey, you will do it now, and get all of this over with before I decide to add a few of your skulls to my walls!" he said, continuing his pacing.
One of the Unblooded stepped forward, and Grey saw that it was V'kha, whose injuries from his ill-fated diving attempt were all healed, save for his broken arm, which was still in a sling.
"Speak, pup; I have much to do today, and listening to this sort of blather was not included in my plans!" Kantra barked, crossing his arms.
"We only wanted…to tell Grey that we…" he began, but seemed embarrassed at having to do this in front of everyone, which now included a number of the village pups and females…including a few of their mothers and siblings.
"SPEAK!" Kantra roared.
"We only wanted to tell Grey that we are on her side! We don't blame her for what happened!" V'kha finished, almost in one long breath, clearly not wanting to end up as another trophy on Kantra's wall.
A few of the other males clicked and growled their agreement, but as soon as Kantra flicked his eyes in their direction, they quieted down immediately.
"There! It is over! You can go back to your regular duties and training…" the Arbitrator said to Grey,
"…and the lot of you can stop making a nuisance of yourselves to my mother! Now, GO!"
At this last order, all of the males hurried away, soon followed by the females, and then the pups, who looked crestfallen now that the excitement was over.
"This foolishness is now over with. I expect that things will go back to the way they were before. I will still check on your progress, and occasionally I will come to see for myself how your training and education are going. I can see how what happened at the temple might have been…upsetting…but it is done with, and you will put it behind you. I expect no more of this indecisiveness, Grey; it is nothing but weakness, and I will not tolerate it." he said, in a tone that told Grey that the matter was settled.
"And Mother, I expect that you will no longer allow her to get away with this kind of behavior. You should have put an end to this before it even began." he said sternly, turning to go back into the house, followed by Ijane, who still looked like she didn't quite know what the hell was going on.
Grey began to follow the Yautja inside, but a soft clicking got her attention, and she looked around to see Nanku and V'kha peering around the side of one of the village's storage buildings, motioning for her to come over.
As she began to walk toward them, Grey hoped that they didn't think that she'd asked Kantra to intervene on her behalf, so that they wouldn't say anything too mean to her or anything; being a kiss-ass was severely frowned upon in this culture, after all…
"What the pauk was that?" Nanku asked, when she joined them, finding that the lot of them had apparently regrouped and were all standing there, waiting to confront her.
"I swear, I didn't ask him to do that-" she began, but V'kha cut her off mid-sentence.
"Then why did that just happen?" he asked, glaring at her.
"Well… I think my avoiding you the past few days…it kind of pissed him off. It's pretty easy to do, actually…" the human said, kicking at the dirt.
"Why were you avoiding us?" another of the males asked, crossing his arms as he looked at her.
"I couldn't face you guys after what happened…"
"But you must have heard that we sided with you on the matter?" Nanku said.
"We didn't know how you were doing, after all that… We wanted to check on you, you little fool!" V'kha said, and the rest of them muttered in agreement.
Grey was honestly touched by this information, and looked with fondness at her companions.
"When they challenged your right to be there, they challenged our honor, as well. They insulted one with whom we trained, and whom we call a friend!" a brown male with dark grey mottling and shoulder-length tendrils said, with a thump on his chest to emphasize his point.
"I still think the Arbitrator should have said something; he could have put a stop to all of that, had he wished to do so." one tall, reddish male said.
"He couldn't have done anything." Grey said, shaking her head.
"But he was even heard to say that you broke no laws by entering the temple!" V'kha pointed out, to mutters and clicks of agreement.
"Yeah, but they didn't break any by telling me to leave, either. They're completely within their rights to keep someone from entering the temple, if they feel they've got a good reason. Kantra told me that himself." Grey replied.
"But… But…!" Nanku said, trying to find some loophole…any argument, really.
"Look, they didn't cause me any harm, or even threaten me in any way. Now, if they'd tried to…I don't know…ritually sacrifice me or something, Kantra could have stepped in. As it stands, though, they didn't even really insult Kantra; so he can't get their asses for that, either. The only thing I can do is just move on…and the rest of you, too." the human said.
"And you're just going to let them treat you that way, and do nothing?" V'kha asked, incredulously.
Grey sighed, and explained.
"Ijane talked to me about it a couple of days ago. She said that it's not going to be the last time something like that happens, so I need to learn to deal with it the right way…" she said quietly.
"Well, Lady Ijane did tell me once that there are some fights one cannot win, and it would serve me well to know which ones they are before issuing a challenge… Perhaps it is best to, as you would say, let this one go…" Nanku admitted, though he didn't look happy about it.
"Yeah…" Grey said, looking towards Ijane's house for a moment, then turning back to them, a huge, wicked grin on her face.
"At least until I become a badass Huntress, and have so much honor and respect to my name that they'll all be begging me to grace their little temple with my presence every fucking year!" she almost shouted, to roars of approval and the raised fists of the Unblooded males.
k'cte – enough
s'yuit-de – pathetic/coward
dekna – the literal translation on the AVP wiki is "eye(s) or eyeball(s); but for the purposes of this story, I'm going to use at as a slang for testicles.