"The hunting has been ripe!" Mora'th-de exclaimed with a celebratory slamming down of a mug of c'ntlok on the massive galley table.
The others echoed his cheer. K'Shai sat quietly, raising her mug only in appropriate response but without the heartfelt enthusiasm.
It was true, the worlds they had searched for the last many months, deeper into to space than she had ever been, and even to new worlds the hunters had not been to, did provide with them enough off-ship time to burn off any pent up frustrations and energy, as well as good hunting, a meat locker full of enough edibles to get them just about all the way home, including harvested fruits and creatures of all sizes that had fallen victim to the hunting party for meat, bones, and trophies.
However, there was a burning ache in K'Shai and R'chnt had known it for months. He looked over to her, just to his right, and tipped his head, silently noting her lackluster response to the pride the hunters all felt for having tales to tell, bones to display, meat to fill their bellies, and scars to use to impress willing mates.
They reminisced about their hunts, and thought of the lost with honor, but that was it. S'ruch-de was honored. That was the end of it. There was no mourning, no remembering the dead with anything more than just honor.
There was no need, after all. Should they die with honor on the hunt, then why have any concern? It was death without honor, after all, that was the only thing of worrisome importance. The group of hunters held S'ruch-de in honored regard, and that was the extent of it. They honored him. They did not sit and drink over fond memories of him, nor discuss of him as though he was a cherished friend or even companion. He was honored. That was it. That was everything.
"I hate this," she muttered.
Hearing the hunters gloat, without a single remorseful regard for S'ruch-de one more time, was just too much. She clenched her jaws and tried to find anything else in the room to look at but the hunters.
"K'Shai! My mate.." R'chnt purred to her later in their chambers as she went to pass him by on the sitting area and head to bed.
He took her arm and pulled her in to him.
"What have you been carrying with you on all these hunts? Were they not satisfying? Dangerous enough? Good enough game?"
She smiled. How simple the thought process of a Yautja male, even one as wise as R'chnt. He lived for the moment. He did not reflect on the past, and he certainly did not miss it nor mourn it.
"The hunts were proper. As they should be. Very fulfilling."
He looked down to her arm, her bicep had received a deep gash on of them by an animal's talon. It tore her in a zig-zag across her upper left arm from shoulder to bicep and back out again around the back of the arm. It was not a pleasant injury, and it left behind a large scar, which in the Yaujta's eyes, was very pleasant.
R'chnt first surveyed her arm as if to assess simply that it had healed well, and then looked at her with pride and arousal. It was a sign of another victory. A sign that she had hunted, and survived. A sign that she was fierce just like a Yautja. To him, anyway. Her heart still ached for S'ruch-de. She knew no Yautja would ever sacrifice himself to save another Yautja on the hunt. It was very much each hunter on their own to their own fate. And yet, S'ruch-de saved her. And she knew without a doubt that R'chnt would willingly save her too.
All that, because she was not, after all, Yautja.
"Something has you so preoccupied, K'Shai. What is it?" R'chnt asked again.
She pressed her lips together and shook her head, casting it off as nothing and then, she started into R'chnt.
"Sa'ruch-de…. Is dead. He died protecting me. He did. He shouldn't have done that."
"He did what he thought was hono…"
"Don't!" K'Shai stopped him with a palm to his face. "Don't again. Really."
"I can't … not one more time."
With that, he squeezed her tightly pulling her into him closely purring loudly. Within seconds, his musk filled her nostrils; a natural scent that was always there yet somehow always seemed to grow so intense when he was aroused.
The feel of his hot body against hers before long made her completely forget about everything else around them, as R'chnt always seemed to manage to do. They returned to the chambers, and before long, there was a pile of leather garments on the floor next to them and K'Shai was propped on her knees hanging her forearms off the back of the Yautja-sized sofa, which conveniently enough also put her at the perfect height for his hard erection to penetrate her.
She moaned and howled as he grunted and huffed and dripped sweat and saliva on her back as he shoved her so hard at her howling for more he nearly topped the sofa over, causing wild laughter from her; a sound he had not heard in some time, he realized.
A long bath afterwards and a deep sleep left K'Shai looking and feeling more refreshed when she finally appeared in the galley for some food and found R'chnt and W'rsa deep in discussion over a star chart.
"Where are we going now?" She asked coyly as she slid next to R'chnt and surveyed the endless glowing lights on the map.
He smiled at her and she knew the Yautja hunting pack would be in for more good hunting. So long as they had blood in their veins, the hunters would do as their nature drove them to do. It was their Path, pure and simple, and each hunter followed it truly without question or regard, not only for others' lives, but their own.
K'Shai hunted with the pack as they visited three more worlds after their losses, and certainly the group had their bloodlust satiated for both food and sport. But there was a nagging in K'Shai's heart that she simply could not disregard.
Months into swapping from world to world had not yet chased the feelings away. The group murmured to themselves about the nearing end to the hunting season. Soon, the mating on Yaut would be richer than the hunts that they had survived. Yet, there was still time for more hunting; a need for it, as they were far enough way from their home that the food they still had would not last; and so they hunted.
"K'Shai… K'Shai?" R'chnt prompted her.
She sat quietly at the galley table, listening to the hunters gloat and bellow, satisfied with the hunts thus far, anticipating their trip back home, and yet also ready and willing for more.
She looked up from her meat and gave him a passive stare.
"This thing still sits with you, my mate." He said quietly, almost in a whisper. He gently touched her face and she forced a small smile with the corner of her lips.
She noticed W'rsa look towards them as if he was analyzing her carefully.
"What is this that has my K'Shai so sullen?" He tried again and she diverted her eyes away from him, as if suddenly highly interested in the partially inebriated group of hunters along the table and their boorish laughter.
She pressed her lips together and shook her head, trying to stifle her thoughts, but she could feel the volcano brewing in her. R'chnt must have seen it, too. He always seemed to know exactly how she was feeling and what she was thinking.
"You burn with thoughts, K'Shai. Share them with me now. Do you not wish to return home? Or are you longing for home?"
She looked him widely, gazing at him as if torn between either concept. She remained quiet and R'chnt simply awaited a response.
She pressed her lips together, sipped lightly from her mug and looked sideways at him as the room quieted down for a moment to pay attention.
"We should go back."
R'chnt paused. W'rsa noticeably fidgeted in his seat, turning his attention directly towards K'Shai without subterfuge.
"Back?" R'chnt questioned flatly, seeking clarity in what she meant exactly.
"We should go back to the planet where we lost S'ruch-de."
Suddenly, the room quieted a bit and more heads turned her way. She meant to whisper, but her voice just took on its own life as she eyed R'chnt fiercly.
"We owe him that. We should hunt another. For him."
She pressed her lips together and gave a little nod, more to her own mug than anything. The room grew very quiet for a moment and then filled with a rumble. Suddenly, one by one, the Yautja in the room slammed their metal chalices on the table repeatedly, finding a rhythm to which they quickly began growling a humming tune to. It was a battle song.
The Hunters knew exactly what it meant to return there, and together, the group unanimously, without actually speaking a word, agreed to accept whatever fate there was awaiting for them on that world.
R'chnt rose to his feet at the end of the table, and K'Shai, who not moved at all since suggesting it, looked up at him. For a brief moment, the song of bloodlust paused, and R'chnt raised his own heavy chalice and barked out a deep-throated hum to get them started back up. K'Shai smiled and jumped to her feet, raising her mug in time for them all to slam the heavy metal bases of them down onto the table in a single harmonious beat.
Before long, the ship was in range of the planet, and the excitement and tension aboard the ship was thick enough to see plainly and cut through. The hunters donned battle gear of such a heavy kind, it made them look more like medieval knights than anything else. The heavy armor suit that covered more of her body than typical hunting gear made it more difficult for K'Shai to move. She felt sluggish, like she was walking through deep sand.
Hardly a good idea, she thought, as she muttered about the armor while pacing their chambers as the planet grew bigger and bigger outside the window.
"I don't know that this heavy awu'asa is going to even matter, really. It's all about wits after all, isn't it?" She grumbled.
R'chnt called to her from the bathroom as he continued to prepare for the hunt.
"It is. And it is using your wits to properly prepare for the hunt at hand."
She smirked sideways at him as he came into view with a sleek smile across his mandibled face.
"Well don't you look incredible!" She gasped a little at the sight of him before her, covered nearly over every inch in armor from neck to toe that was wonderfully adorned with the Clan crest, and millwork the likes of which K'Shai had not yet seen in armor before.
"I've never seen this armor before." She smiled as she strode over to him and ran her hands all around him from chest to buttocks and back around, coursing her hand down his thigh and up his groin as he looked down upon her with a slim smile.
"Special hunts; special awu'asa." He said coolly and simply.
"Mmm… I see," K'Shai said lightly as she continued to spin around him slowly, keeping one hand on the smooth metal that covered him.
"I'm not planning on dying on this hunt, my mate." She whispered softly to him, still fondling the shiny armor.
"Nor am I." R'chnt purred, equally as coyly.
"Well, I can see that. With armor like this." Her fingers traced along the thigh shield, up to his belt.
"These attachments are new," she toyed with him, running her fingers along the clasps that secured the thigh shields until she unclicked them, feigning an accident. Step by step, she unlatched all of the armor that R'chnt had just donned, to the tune of him purring loudly as she laid him back into the bed and stroke him, licked him, and pumped her hips into him.
The ship was long landed and in waiting in a secure location far away from any known region where the beasts of the world were nesting. Figuring that the ship should be safe where it was, there was not much of a rush to leave their chambers, and the hunt would simply wait until its Leader was ready anyway. K'Shai took her time, savoring R'chnt as she felt him against her skin.
His body; his power; hands that covered most of her frame, that emanated so much heat and strength she knew one moment of inattentiveness and he could break her rib, arm, or neck; how they soothed her. His heated erection pumping into her; how it chased away her anxiety. His moaning; how it lulled her away from reality for a moment as she listened simply to the rhythm of him breathing and panting.
She pleasured herself and moaned in delight feeling him deep inside her as he thrust himself into her harder and harder, howling and building a sweat until he released himself and then collapsed into a heap of relaxation. She tiptoed away from him and bathed, lavishing herself in the silky lotions and wonderfully scented oils and conditioners on her skin and hair; knowing it would be days at the very least before she had a good cleanse again.
With nightfall on the planet, the Yautja finally set out. R'chnt carried her scent on him, sending a pheromone message to the rest of the hunters of what caused his delay in starting the hunt, as if there was any concern or question of such things anyway. The group walked and walked, through sunrise and sunset and sunrise again. They scanned and tracked and looked for every hint and sign of the creatures and by the end of seven sunrises, there was some uncertainty amongst the group.
"Perhaps they left this world," N'tul proprosed aloud.
Lot'kdte scoffed. "They can just fly through space, can they?"
N'tul shrugged. "It could be possible."
"All of them? Just gone? From one hunt?" Koo'ni-de questioned doubtfully.
"Well, they do show up on any of our scans, and the nest we did hunt is no longer active. That is all we know. The best conclusion is that we're simply not close to the creatures yet." Kor'aun-de added sensibly.
K'Shai listened quietly. They had set up camp for the night on a cliff still within sight of the sponge-like plateau that was the creature's former nesting area. Nearby, the river flowed briskly, but smoothly. The untouched mountains, the landscape, the sun casting beautiful hues of peach and rose across the golden-touched lands; it was all so surreally lovely. Though, it was cool and she found herself creeping closer and closer to both R'chnt and the fire.
They were on the hunt of some of the most unique and deadly creatures the Yautja had ever hunted, short of the kainde-amehda, although this hunt was indeed turning out to be a bit disappointing.
There could have been any reason why the animals had moved on from their nesting ground. Perhaps they just did so because of the season, or because they were nomadic, which meant the first time the Yautja had found them, was simply luck. She knew the hunters, though a bit deflated thus far, would not give up until their quarry had been located. They very well could be hunting this world for weeks. Maybe longer. Now, it was a matter of pride. One more of the beasts would fall to the hunters on this trip.
That night, storms drew in and the Yautja moved into shelter. The storm was violent, sending electricity across the sky nearly non stop for hours, and many times it connected with the very same rocks that they were hiding in.
"Maybe this is why they moved on? These rocks have so much metal in them, they must draw in the electrical current." K'Shai whispered.
"Perhaps. We will find them." R'chnt said softly into her ear, in a voice free and clear of concern.
They both did turn behind them upon hearing the start of a dripping sound, and noted that the roof above them had turned into a sieve. The rains were damaging the plateau above their heads so badly in just the course of a single night that it was suddenly obvious why the nesting grounds across the way were so spongy looking.
"This isn't good, R'chnt. The roof is likely to cave in on us." K'Shai said nervously as she rose to her feet.
Suddenly a bolt of lightning hit the roof of the cave so hard that the entire structure glowed blue for a moment and the rocks grew visibly hot.
"The rocks are conducting the electricity." Kor'aun-de, the third eldest of the group, pointed out unnecessarily as the entire group now stirred.
"Or… we're going to all get electrocuted!" K'Shai added concern.
"We must move deeper into the cavern," R'chnt announced and within a few moments, the group was moving into the tunnels before them, and at just the right moment, as it turned out. The very roof above where some of the hunters had been sleeping collapsed down into the cave just moments after the group cleared the area.
K'Shai looked to R'chnt in alarm, but he remained composed and unconcerned, turned and moved on. They went down, down, down, creeping through the tunnels quietly. K'Shai concentrated both on her footing and on the storm still raging far above and behind them. The sounds echoed through the chambers and occasionally, the rocks lit up behind them as they carried electricity, casting a rather amazing prism of colors through the tunnels.
K'Shai, from her secure position in the middle of the group, with R'chnt in front of her and W'rsa just behind him, strained to see the tunnels ahead around the two bodies blocking her path as the caves began to narrow. It was possible there was not going to be another exit, and once the storm passed, they would all have to simply turn around and go back out the way the came, but R'chnr and W'rsa were moving steadily, if slowly, forward.
Soon, they did stop and K'Shai pulled to a halt behind them. They both knelt down to survey the situation and K'Shai's eyes widened as she took in what was before them.
"Oh no." She whispered and ticked her head.
The river which flowed so beautifully at sunset below the cliffs, also apparently flowed through them. There was a narrow edge running along the river that in theory the Yautja could travel over, clinging to rocks that conducted current, while edging a river.
She stayed quiet, nervously awaiting R'chnt's decision. He looked back to the group, assessed their surroundings and the storm, the rocks carrying current, and the river before them.
"We will remain here until the storm passes," he said much to K'Shai's relief. "Go back up to the wider pass. Do not touch the walls."
They walked softly and carefully back the way they came, making their way just a short distance back along the tunnels when the group that was behind K'Shai, now in front of her, also stopped.
"Do you hear that?" She heard one of them say quickly, though she wasn't sure who.
Suddenly, the tunnels filled with howls of Yautja and flashing of weapons fire. K'Shai saw movement before them. It was large, very large, but what it was, she could not identify, she just saw big legs moving wildly and Yautja bodies getting tossed through the tunnels.
K'Shai weaponed up, and R'chnt and W'rsa moved into the tunnel just near her. For a moment, when the beast moved off the wall it was clinging to, she was finally able to see a clearer view of something incredible. It was something that looked like an insanely large grasshopper. It was crystal clear in color, but glowing a sort of blue, like it had absorbed the electrical current from the rocks and carried it with it. It had large mandibles on its jaws that could make any Yautja with size issues jealous, and it used them.
It grabbed onto whoever was nearest to it and attempted to bite into them with those massive, unfolding jaws, but in return, it took several hits with spears and two good plasma blasts to the face, which the creature also seemed to somehow absorb.
"That did not make it happy," K'Shai said as the three of them moved in with spears, each of them landing successful, though hardly severe, blows into the animal before it turned away from them towards the others attacking from the front side.
It reared up to strike those before with long, grasping claws on the end of long arms that unfolded out from under its glowing layers of shell shielding. It flared out its backside and then offered a giant kick with two of its four hind legs, causing the group behind it to scatter to avoid getting throttled
Kor'aun-de was not able to avoid the blow and he was flung right past the rest of them, landing with a splash in the river behind them.
K'Shai spun around and eyed R'chnt, with W'rsa just inches behind him. R'chnt howled and she whipped around.
The animal before them was glowing ever brighter when suddenly in an instant, it omitted an electrical surge that blasted through the cave and rang K'Shai's ears.
She wasn't sure what happened, but the next thing she new she was soaking wet. As she shook her head to get the pinging sound out of her brain, she began to look clearly around, noticing that half the group was floating now in the river and the walls of the cavern above them were continuing to glow and surge with the electrical storm.
Suddenly, it happened.
The cavern lit up and the surface of the water suddenly crackled. K'Shai huffed and gasped. There was no where to go, nothing to do. They were in a giant electrical conduit. She looked over to R'chnt, her eyes wide behind the emotionless mask.
Koo'ni-de took the full brunt of it. He was young, and had earned less awu'asa than some of his elders. With so much of his skin in contact with the water and electricity, burning Yautja meat suddenly filled the cavern. K'Shai began to swim, halfway brewing to panic. R'chnt swam to her and gripped her.
"K'Shai, come, now!" He moved her, keeping her in close contact with his armor. When another surge hit them all, the armor R'chnt was wearing absorbed the electricity. K'Shai felt her body tingle and surge, but the jolt was dissipated.
"W'rsa, take her!" R'chnt shoved K'Shai into his second, as W'rsa pulled himself free of the water far on the other side of the cavern.
K'Shai lunged up onto the rocks and turned back to see R'chnt turning away to assess what was happening with the animal back in the cavern and where the rest of his group was. The scene was chaotic. Three hunters were in the water, two on the shore, and the rest back in the other tunnel. The tunnels echoed with howling and roars and K'Shai turned to W'rsa.
"We need to get out of this chamber," she said to him as she darted past him and into a small hole that led through the wall.
It was too tight for W'rsa to fit through, and the plasma blasts that followed knocked K'Shai right out of the tunnel and onto the cliff face. She nearly lost her balance just as W'rsa's arm reached out to grab her. He yanked her to safety and pulled her down along the cliff side, shielding her as best as he could despite the pouring rain and mighty electrical storm.
"No, I'm not leaving without R'chnt! W'rsa where are you going!?" She howled, trying to wedge herself free of his grip.
"He said get you safe!" W'rsa yelled as he pulled her along the cliff ledge.
"No! NO paya'n'guk-de!" She cursed and whipped against him with a blow to his abdomen so hard, she jerked herself free of his clasp.
She moved back along the cliffside, with W'rsa in hot pursuit, calling to her, telling her he would take her to safety and rejoin the others soon. K'Shai was tired of Yautja going focusing on her safety. She was parted from R'chnt without knowing where he was or what was happening in the cavern. She had expected him to follow them both out, but he did not. What had happened to him?
She dodged back into the gaping hole of falling, glowing rock, and stood on the shore of the river. It finally seemed for the moment that the electrical storm was beginning to dissipate, though the rain was not even remotely letting up. The sound of just the rain falling on the rocks above echoed almost as loudly as the battle that was still raging beyond the river in the other tunnel.
Looking back and forth, K'Shai tried to spot R'chnt when W'rsa appeared in the cavern next to her and scanned the situation as well. Suddenly, R'chnt's booming voice echoed from the other tunnel. He had gone back, continued the fight; told W'rsa to get his mate to safety.
Without hesitation, K'Shai jumped right back into the river, narrowly missing W'rsa reaching grasp. She dove into the river and swam against the current as quickly as she could, though W'rsa soon caught up to her and half dragged her back to the other shore.
She did not stop.
"Let me go!" She growled at him and made her way to the shore and into the tunnel.
It was over by the time she got there. R'chnt, shining in his adorned armor, stood towering over the creature that was missing a head at his feet. He had a small trickle of bright green blood oozing out from a small space between his right thigh and shin guards and that was it. Before him, the rest of the hunters stood all looking quite pleased with themselves.
R'chnt turned to look at K'Shai, clearly satisfied with the hunt and his hunters.
"It was an honored kill!" He announced victoriously to the group before him, raising his spear. The others howled in delight and the cavern echoed with deafening sound.
He looked round to K'Shai and then back to the group.
"But this is not what we came for!" He growled. "Come!"
The group moved on; they would be back to collect their trophy. The hunt was not completed. They moved through the river again and out the other exit that W'rsa managed to create with his plasma blaster and soon found themselves traversing the top of the plateau again, in the pouring rain. Thankfully at least, K'Shai thought, the electrical storm had passed.
They remained very quiet as they travelled along the plateau high above the canyon. Quiet and careful. There were weak surfaces in the rocks that threatened to give way as they got too near and somewhere in the distance, animal calls echoed up, barely audible against the pounding rain.
The Yautja were definitely not alone, not at all. WIth the electrical storm passed, the forests around them were coming to life. Nocturnal beasts that cared not about the rain began to howl and grunt, announcing that like the Yautja, they were on the hunt.