Ch#2
I held an ice pack to my head where Jack had hit me with that rock as I was driving my transport truck. Next to my mini starcruser, my truck was my best transport. One of my hands was on the joystick maneuvering the large vehicle. We would soon be stopping for the evening. I had a long way to go before I would reach my destination.
Bree-pip-pip! Bree-pip-pip!
My dashboard-commlink blipped on. An image appeared on the holo-screen which was located on the left half of the windshield. The threateningly evil visage of a shadow creature appeared on screen. The bottom half of the creature's sinister visage was wrapped in a red sash and he wore a dark war helmet to which all of Aku's Admirable wore. This which covered most of his face, only left his piercing yellow cat like eyes to pear out watching every move like a hawk.
"It seems that you took quite a beating, Bounty Hunter," said the shadow creature as he referred to the ice pack I was holding to my head which hid the giant bruise I had there.
"Do you want Jack or not? I could simply deliver him to Aku and tell him what you were up to!" I snapped.
"I'm sorry, Bounty Hunter," said the creature sincerely as he gave a quick bow which made his elaborate head piece slide slightly forward on his head, "I assume you've captured Jack?"
"Yes. He's alive, just as you asked, Admirable Kurai," I replied.
"Good. You remember where to meet, don't you, Bounty Hunter?" Kurai asked.
"Yes. I do. But that's quite a fair distance from here. I'd say it would at least take a week or two to get there," I replied.
"If you can't make it, I'll send in another Hunter to come in and pick up the pieces for you," Kurai said slightly mockingly.
Despite the fact that Kurai was only joking, I dreaded the thought of having someone taking the merchandise for me because I couldn't handle it. Such jokes made me sick.
"You doubt me? If you do, you know I could have it arranged that I would come to kill you. You know very well who I am and what my Ki power is like," I said narrowing my eyes at the dark creature.
"I am yet again terribly sorry, dear Bounty Hunter. I best leave you on your way."
With that final notion left hanging in the air, the commlink blipped off. I sighed.
Why can't such a fool capture Jack himself and present it to Aku rather than me capturing Jack and giving him so he can present such a prize to Aku? I thought.
A bounty was a bounty. No matter how unpleasant the job was, it was still a job and a well-paying one at that. I checked the radar-map on the dark coloured dashboard. It was about time to quit for the evening and time to check up on the merchandise.
I searched for a place in the shadowy forest to park. I chose to go off-road to avoid anyone following me. I finally found a place dense with foliage to park. This hid my truck from view. I slowly came to a stop and pulled my keys out of the transmission. I shoved them in to one of my stiff leather pouches and hopped out of the vehicle. I walked around to the back to the cargo area and slid open the door. It wasn't much. It held a few electro-cages and a living area where I cooked, slept, and prepared for each of my jobs. The Samurai was in one of the electro-cages with the restraints around his wrists and legs still. He would be awake any minute now. I hopped up in to the back in to the cooking area to see what I had. I opened a few cuboards. Nothing.
It appears that I haven't really done any grocery shopping in a long time. I noted.
I looked around behind me. The samurai began to stir. I didn't have too much to worry about from him. He was in an electro-cage all bound together. All I had to worry about was Hunt Sabotagers trying to steal my quarry to get the bounty for themselves. So I quickly grabbed my crossbow and bolts and hopped out of the back of the truck. I locked up and prepared to hunt for my meal.
* * * *
I lay low in the dense foliage waiting for my prey to wander out on to the clearing. I leveled my crossbow and trained it on an albino deer who was quietly eating the fresh green grass. Albino deers were fairly common around here. There was no worry in endangering the species because it was in healthy enough numbers that Aku didn't have to place a protection law upon it. I wasn't really sure why Aku had certain animal protection laws but my theory was that these laws were in place for some greater purpose in Aku's evil plot.
My finger rested on the trigger waiting for the deer to wander right in to my cross hairs. The deer moved slowly forward and paused to sniff the air. It knew something was totally wrong. It was now or never. I pulled my finger back on the trigger. The bolt whizzed through the air and struck the deer in the side. The deer gave an ear splitting screech of pain and horror as my bolt pierced through its' skin and lodged itself in the deer's side. I pulled out another bolt and shot the deer again. The deer screeched again and fell to the soft earth below with a muffled thud. The deer twitched a little before dying in the grass. I got up and walked over to the deer. It was a nice kill for me. It should provide me enough meat for weeks. With my Ki, I begun to lift the albino deer off the ground and carry it with me.
This should be sufficient. I thought.
I walked back in to the foliage with the dead deer. I always regretted killing such beautiful things, that is if I could feel regret. I was much like a human machine. I had little emotions; The only emotions I had were extreme ones like anger. But even anger was a little dilute for me.
I was about to walk past a berry bush before I stopped and looked at the berries. I needed some vegetables in my diet or I would risk my health once again. I reached down to pick some berries. I knew for a fact that the berries were safe for me to eat. They were Knucked Berries and were very good for one's health and digestion. I picked at least ten berries before something poked me in the finger. I quickly looked at my finger. A small trickle of red dribbled off my finger. I then looked down at what poked me. It was the poisonous Tenunga Plant. Tenungas were a thorn plant of the sort with very fine thorns on their leaves and stem. Since the leaves of a Tenunga looked very similar to Knucked Berry bush leaves, it would be very easy to confuse the two and end up getting pricked by the Tenunga leaves and end up getting poisoned. The poison wasn't very dangerous. At best, if one should get poked by the fine thorns, you would experience fever, headache, weakness in the limbs and a few stomach-flu like symptoms. I cursed myself. I should have gone hungry for the evening! It was too late now.
At least the effects are temporary......
* * * *
I had set up a small campsite near the rear of my truck. I had also gathered some fire wood and created a small fire to keep myself warm and to cook my food. I wasn't going to attempt to cook my food yet because when I attempted to eat the berries I picked, they didn't stick with me very long due to the effects of the poison. So I chose to pull out my survival knife and carve a set of chopsticks from a set of small twigs that I found earlier. I also opened the back of the truck to let Jack have some fresh air at least (I wasn't quite inhuman to my merchandise unless I was payed to do it). Jack watched me quietly as I carved my chopsticks all the while I was getting weaker.
"So now that you have caught me, what do you plan to do?" The quiet samurai asked finally breaking the silence.
"Shut up, Jack. That's none of your business," I replied tonelessly.
The knife slipped and cut my finger. I swore loudly. I used my Ki to quickly heal the small wound. I veered around to see Jack in his electro-cage still. I glared at him angrily before I went back to carving my chopsticks. There was another long and awkward silence before Jack yet again broke the silence.
"You do not appear to be in good health. Perhaps you should seek some medical attention," Jack suggested.
"My health is none of your business, Jack. The poison will wear off. I'll be fine," I said rasing my tone a little bit with the annoying samurai.
"But you appear to be pale and weak. That is not a good sign," Jack persisted.
"That's none of your business, Jack. Now shut up!" I snapped.
It was a complete enigma why Aku wanted Jack so badly! The samurai was so highly annoying, Aku would fry him on the spot most likely. My head throbbed. I put my knife away and lay on my side and closed my eyes.
"You were using all your remaining strength to keep yourself up," Jack stated.
"Shut up, Samurai," I muttered.
I had no energy left to deal with him. Perhaps I should take Jack's advice and seek medical attention in the morning should my condition get any wor....... I started to drift off. I forced myself awake again so I could protect my quarry.
Perhaps a conversation with Jack?
No. That was out of the question. No doubt if I started talking to that stupid samurai that he wouldn't shut up and become greatly annoying or start convincing me to do things that I wouldn't normally do. I was too comfortable and tired so I began to drift off.
* * * *
I lay low in the dense foliage waiting for my prey to wander out on to the clearing. I leveled my crossbow and trained it on an albino deer who was quietly eating the fresh green grass. Albino deers were fairly common around here. There was no worry in endangering the species because it was in healthy enough numbers that Aku didn't have to place a protection law upon it. I wasn't really sure why Aku had certain animal protection laws but my theory was that these laws were in place for some greater purpose in Aku's evil plot.
My finger rested on the trigger waiting for the deer to wander right in to my cross hairs. The deer moved slowly forward and paused to sniff the air. It knew something was totally wrong. But something stopped me from pulling the trigger. I heard the crushing of dead vegetation and the cracking of twigs. It sounded like footsteps. I knew something was wrong. I looked around. There was nothing.
"Jack?" I called out to the creature that was supposedly walking towards me.
Yet there was no reply.
"Jack!" I called again.
Yet again there was no reply. Just the same footsteps moving a little more faster and some small chattering.
"Jack! You have better not be out of your cage!" I snarled.
Then I felt something cold and metallic poke me on the back of my neck. I spun around. There was nothing. I knew there was something horribly wrong.
My eyes snapped open. All I could see in front of me were furry little feet badly bandaged up in what appeared to be footwear. I looked up. What I saw wasn't a pleasant sight. I was looking up the pleated kilt of a furry—
"JABBERWOKIES!" I yelped as I sat right up.
There were thousands of the furry little creatures and they were ransacking the camp! Jabberwokies were basically junk-dealing creatures who understood very little English (Just enough to make a deal and to get more money hence the fact that their numeric system went by the multiples of eight) and preferred to get their "junk" from stupid travelers who didn't cover up and hide their supplies from these two foot tall terrors. I quickly picked up the nearest object closest to me (which were my chopsticks) and stood up.
"GET AWAY! THIS IS MY JUNK! NOT YOURS!" I shouted as I chased after these creatures with the pair of chopsticks.
The Jabberwokies screamed and yelped as I came towards them making jabbing motions at the Jabberwokies with my chopsticks menacingly. The Jabberwokies ran away screaming and dropping whatever they were carrying. Once all the Jabberwokies were gone. I crossed my arms and smiled. Jack, who was asleep at the time, had woken up briefly to see me chase all the Jabberwokies away. I looked around.
"Go to sleep, Jack. They were only Jabberwokies," I said with a sigh.
I heard more footsteps and the trees rustled a bit. I veered around. Nothing. I looked back at Jack in the electro-cage. He was fast asleep again. I heard the footsteps again. I looked around behind me.
"If it's another one of you little runts, I will kill you with my chopsticks or at least make sure you never collect 'junk' from me again!" I snapped.
But it wasn't a little Jabberwoky. A huge creature came crashing through the bushes. It was taller then seven feet and it's shaggy fur was caked with molds and fungus. It's long sharp fangs protruded from it's bear-like head and were covered in rot and decay and the creature itself smelt horrible. This was not a pleasant sight. The creature lumbered slowly toward me; Each bone crushing step came towards me. It's piercing yellow and red hungry gaze locked in my direction and I had forgotten my Katana in the front seat of my truck.
I held an ice pack to my head where Jack had hit me with that rock as I was driving my transport truck. Next to my mini starcruser, my truck was my best transport. One of my hands was on the joystick maneuvering the large vehicle. We would soon be stopping for the evening. I had a long way to go before I would reach my destination.
Bree-pip-pip! Bree-pip-pip!
My dashboard-commlink blipped on. An image appeared on the holo-screen which was located on the left half of the windshield. The threateningly evil visage of a shadow creature appeared on screen. The bottom half of the creature's sinister visage was wrapped in a red sash and he wore a dark war helmet to which all of Aku's Admirable wore. This which covered most of his face, only left his piercing yellow cat like eyes to pear out watching every move like a hawk.
"It seems that you took quite a beating, Bounty Hunter," said the shadow creature as he referred to the ice pack I was holding to my head which hid the giant bruise I had there.
"Do you want Jack or not? I could simply deliver him to Aku and tell him what you were up to!" I snapped.
"I'm sorry, Bounty Hunter," said the creature sincerely as he gave a quick bow which made his elaborate head piece slide slightly forward on his head, "I assume you've captured Jack?"
"Yes. He's alive, just as you asked, Admirable Kurai," I replied.
"Good. You remember where to meet, don't you, Bounty Hunter?" Kurai asked.
"Yes. I do. But that's quite a fair distance from here. I'd say it would at least take a week or two to get there," I replied.
"If you can't make it, I'll send in another Hunter to come in and pick up the pieces for you," Kurai said slightly mockingly.
Despite the fact that Kurai was only joking, I dreaded the thought of having someone taking the merchandise for me because I couldn't handle it. Such jokes made me sick.
"You doubt me? If you do, you know I could have it arranged that I would come to kill you. You know very well who I am and what my Ki power is like," I said narrowing my eyes at the dark creature.
"I am yet again terribly sorry, dear Bounty Hunter. I best leave you on your way."
With that final notion left hanging in the air, the commlink blipped off. I sighed.
Why can't such a fool capture Jack himself and present it to Aku rather than me capturing Jack and giving him so he can present such a prize to Aku? I thought.
A bounty was a bounty. No matter how unpleasant the job was, it was still a job and a well-paying one at that. I checked the radar-map on the dark coloured dashboard. It was about time to quit for the evening and time to check up on the merchandise.
I searched for a place in the shadowy forest to park. I chose to go off-road to avoid anyone following me. I finally found a place dense with foliage to park. This hid my truck from view. I slowly came to a stop and pulled my keys out of the transmission. I shoved them in to one of my stiff leather pouches and hopped out of the vehicle. I walked around to the back to the cargo area and slid open the door. It wasn't much. It held a few electro-cages and a living area where I cooked, slept, and prepared for each of my jobs. The Samurai was in one of the electro-cages with the restraints around his wrists and legs still. He would be awake any minute now. I hopped up in to the back in to the cooking area to see what I had. I opened a few cuboards. Nothing.
It appears that I haven't really done any grocery shopping in a long time. I noted.
I looked around behind me. The samurai began to stir. I didn't have too much to worry about from him. He was in an electro-cage all bound together. All I had to worry about was Hunt Sabotagers trying to steal my quarry to get the bounty for themselves. So I quickly grabbed my crossbow and bolts and hopped out of the back of the truck. I locked up and prepared to hunt for my meal.
* * * *
I lay low in the dense foliage waiting for my prey to wander out on to the clearing. I leveled my crossbow and trained it on an albino deer who was quietly eating the fresh green grass. Albino deers were fairly common around here. There was no worry in endangering the species because it was in healthy enough numbers that Aku didn't have to place a protection law upon it. I wasn't really sure why Aku had certain animal protection laws but my theory was that these laws were in place for some greater purpose in Aku's evil plot.
My finger rested on the trigger waiting for the deer to wander right in to my cross hairs. The deer moved slowly forward and paused to sniff the air. It knew something was totally wrong. It was now or never. I pulled my finger back on the trigger. The bolt whizzed through the air and struck the deer in the side. The deer gave an ear splitting screech of pain and horror as my bolt pierced through its' skin and lodged itself in the deer's side. I pulled out another bolt and shot the deer again. The deer screeched again and fell to the soft earth below with a muffled thud. The deer twitched a little before dying in the grass. I got up and walked over to the deer. It was a nice kill for me. It should provide me enough meat for weeks. With my Ki, I begun to lift the albino deer off the ground and carry it with me.
This should be sufficient. I thought.
I walked back in to the foliage with the dead deer. I always regretted killing such beautiful things, that is if I could feel regret. I was much like a human machine. I had little emotions; The only emotions I had were extreme ones like anger. But even anger was a little dilute for me.
I was about to walk past a berry bush before I stopped and looked at the berries. I needed some vegetables in my diet or I would risk my health once again. I reached down to pick some berries. I knew for a fact that the berries were safe for me to eat. They were Knucked Berries and were very good for one's health and digestion. I picked at least ten berries before something poked me in the finger. I quickly looked at my finger. A small trickle of red dribbled off my finger. I then looked down at what poked me. It was the poisonous Tenunga Plant. Tenungas were a thorn plant of the sort with very fine thorns on their leaves and stem. Since the leaves of a Tenunga looked very similar to Knucked Berry bush leaves, it would be very easy to confuse the two and end up getting pricked by the Tenunga leaves and end up getting poisoned. The poison wasn't very dangerous. At best, if one should get poked by the fine thorns, you would experience fever, headache, weakness in the limbs and a few stomach-flu like symptoms. I cursed myself. I should have gone hungry for the evening! It was too late now.
At least the effects are temporary......
* * * *
I had set up a small campsite near the rear of my truck. I had also gathered some fire wood and created a small fire to keep myself warm and to cook my food. I wasn't going to attempt to cook my food yet because when I attempted to eat the berries I picked, they didn't stick with me very long due to the effects of the poison. So I chose to pull out my survival knife and carve a set of chopsticks from a set of small twigs that I found earlier. I also opened the back of the truck to let Jack have some fresh air at least (I wasn't quite inhuman to my merchandise unless I was payed to do it). Jack watched me quietly as I carved my chopsticks all the while I was getting weaker.
"So now that you have caught me, what do you plan to do?" The quiet samurai asked finally breaking the silence.
"Shut up, Jack. That's none of your business," I replied tonelessly.
The knife slipped and cut my finger. I swore loudly. I used my Ki to quickly heal the small wound. I veered around to see Jack in his electro-cage still. I glared at him angrily before I went back to carving my chopsticks. There was another long and awkward silence before Jack yet again broke the silence.
"You do not appear to be in good health. Perhaps you should seek some medical attention," Jack suggested.
"My health is none of your business, Jack. The poison will wear off. I'll be fine," I said rasing my tone a little bit with the annoying samurai.
"But you appear to be pale and weak. That is not a good sign," Jack persisted.
"That's none of your business, Jack. Now shut up!" I snapped.
It was a complete enigma why Aku wanted Jack so badly! The samurai was so highly annoying, Aku would fry him on the spot most likely. My head throbbed. I put my knife away and lay on my side and closed my eyes.
"You were using all your remaining strength to keep yourself up," Jack stated.
"Shut up, Samurai," I muttered.
I had no energy left to deal with him. Perhaps I should take Jack's advice and seek medical attention in the morning should my condition get any wor....... I started to drift off. I forced myself awake again so I could protect my quarry.
Perhaps a conversation with Jack?
No. That was out of the question. No doubt if I started talking to that stupid samurai that he wouldn't shut up and become greatly annoying or start convincing me to do things that I wouldn't normally do. I was too comfortable and tired so I began to drift off.
* * * *
I lay low in the dense foliage waiting for my prey to wander out on to the clearing. I leveled my crossbow and trained it on an albino deer who was quietly eating the fresh green grass. Albino deers were fairly common around here. There was no worry in endangering the species because it was in healthy enough numbers that Aku didn't have to place a protection law upon it. I wasn't really sure why Aku had certain animal protection laws but my theory was that these laws were in place for some greater purpose in Aku's evil plot.
My finger rested on the trigger waiting for the deer to wander right in to my cross hairs. The deer moved slowly forward and paused to sniff the air. It knew something was totally wrong. But something stopped me from pulling the trigger. I heard the crushing of dead vegetation and the cracking of twigs. It sounded like footsteps. I knew something was wrong. I looked around. There was nothing.
"Jack?" I called out to the creature that was supposedly walking towards me.
Yet there was no reply.
"Jack!" I called again.
Yet again there was no reply. Just the same footsteps moving a little more faster and some small chattering.
"Jack! You have better not be out of your cage!" I snarled.
Then I felt something cold and metallic poke me on the back of my neck. I spun around. There was nothing. I knew there was something horribly wrong.
My eyes snapped open. All I could see in front of me were furry little feet badly bandaged up in what appeared to be footwear. I looked up. What I saw wasn't a pleasant sight. I was looking up the pleated kilt of a furry—
"JABBERWOKIES!" I yelped as I sat right up.
There were thousands of the furry little creatures and they were ransacking the camp! Jabberwokies were basically junk-dealing creatures who understood very little English (Just enough to make a deal and to get more money hence the fact that their numeric system went by the multiples of eight) and preferred to get their "junk" from stupid travelers who didn't cover up and hide their supplies from these two foot tall terrors. I quickly picked up the nearest object closest to me (which were my chopsticks) and stood up.
"GET AWAY! THIS IS MY JUNK! NOT YOURS!" I shouted as I chased after these creatures with the pair of chopsticks.
The Jabberwokies screamed and yelped as I came towards them making jabbing motions at the Jabberwokies with my chopsticks menacingly. The Jabberwokies ran away screaming and dropping whatever they were carrying. Once all the Jabberwokies were gone. I crossed my arms and smiled. Jack, who was asleep at the time, had woken up briefly to see me chase all the Jabberwokies away. I looked around.
"Go to sleep, Jack. They were only Jabberwokies," I said with a sigh.
I heard more footsteps and the trees rustled a bit. I veered around. Nothing. I looked back at Jack in the electro-cage. He was fast asleep again. I heard the footsteps again. I looked around behind me.
"If it's another one of you little runts, I will kill you with my chopsticks or at least make sure you never collect 'junk' from me again!" I snapped.
But it wasn't a little Jabberwoky. A huge creature came crashing through the bushes. It was taller then seven feet and it's shaggy fur was caked with molds and fungus. It's long sharp fangs protruded from it's bear-like head and were covered in rot and decay and the creature itself smelt horrible. This was not a pleasant sight. The creature lumbered slowly toward me; Each bone crushing step came towards me. It's piercing yellow and red hungry gaze locked in my direction and I had forgotten my Katana in the front seat of my truck.