Sunlight beat on the jungle canopy, like an invading army swarming up the battlements of a city. It was still morning, but even now the fierce heat was like a physical presence, the air already a sweltering, tropical soup. Tentacles of steam curled upwards from the marshy ground; writhing in the sultry shimmer, foretelling the scalding temperatures to come.
The hunter felt the insects bite and the sweat run down his back but he remained still and silent, poised on the tree branch. He did not wish to betray himself to his prey. Going unseen and unheard was necessary for any hunt but considering this particular quarry it was best to remain undetected if he valued his life.
They were called the Avissa {Pronunciation: 'Ah-VISS-Aah'} and they were one of the most challenging prey a warrior could pursue. Not quite so deadly as the kainde amedhe - they did not share a collective consciousness as the hard meat did - nevertheless, they were always to be found in numbers.
Just after dawn the hunter had sighted them for the first time, observing from a distance. Unlike the kainde amedha {Trans: "The hard meat". Pron: Kaynday Ar-MAY-deh} they were small and frail to look upon. Now that he saw them, he thought perhaps they could even be called beautiful, but it was important to remember that this beauty concealed a double threat.
First of all, it was known that the Avissa could release mood altering hormones into the air. Many species did this – even his own species on occasion used hormones – but they mostly used their hormones upon one another, but the Avissa used them on their prey and would-be predators alike. In fact, the former often became the latter.
Breathing in the Avissa's perfume made their victims confused and lethargic… that is, those not already mesmerised by their large, shimmering eyes. It was a clever defence mechanism for a species lacking in physical strength.
For those so unfortunate as to fall under their chemical enchantment, the Avissa had in store a surprise nastier still. Their fragile bodies secreted a cruel poison. If one of their whisper-thin stings pierced your skin and were left untreated, paralysis would swiftly follow. Leave the toxin untreated still longer and the body's soft tissues would begin to break down. By then the Avissa would have already moved in to feed.
And the worst thing, the most horrible thing of all, you would remain conscious of all that followed; able to feel your muscles and organs dissolve and your innards be slowly drained over a period perhaps lasting hours… or perhaps days. However long it took for your heart or your lungs to give out.
The Avissa had another name amongst the Rough Skulls. Both the species and their poison were known by the same title: 'Thei-De Nanth'e' {Pronunciation: 'Thay-du-nanth-THAY' Trans: 'The Living Death'}.
It was this baleful substance the hunter had come to seek; the Living Death was highly prized by yautja. A warrior need only dip a spear point or a dart tip in the venom to give himself a killing edge.
To retrieve the poison, a hunter must be cunning, skilled and subtle and these qualities the hunter knew he possessed. Since before dawn he had slogged through this swampy jungle, tracking the creatures. The trail had led to this cliff face, half the cliff was hidden by a screen of damp, overhanging vines. The other half was obscured by a waterfall that leapt down the rocks, a corona of rainbow spray hung over the clearing like a celestial gateway.
The hunter's current vantage point was hidden. He had been watching the Avissa come and go through the foliage until he was sure there must be an entrance behind the waterfall.
He guessed there must be natural cavities in the stone but the hanging vines and the cascading water made things… awkward. He would have to go in without knowing just how many enemies he was facing, but he could not turn back, not now. Not when he was so close.
A shadow landed silently on the branch next to him. The hunter froze… and turned. Another male stood there, a warrior who matched him in height, build, weaponry; in every respect.
Hot air crackled as they faced each other; so exactly, so evenly matched. Then the other hunter put his head on one side.
"Are you ready Brother?" He hissed.
The newcomer punched him lightly in the shoulder "Speak English, dumb-ass!"
They stared at each other for a second.
Then Selim {Pronunciation: 'Sel-LEEM'} returned the blow, punching his brother's shoulder.
"Speak Yautja, moron!" He grinned, showing sharp white fangs.
Neither brother resembled a child anymore. Though the brothers were just twelve years old, both had already grown taller and stronger than a human of the same age could ever hope to be. Their faces had lost the roundness of childhood; their jawbones spread wider, their brows had become heavier, their teeth sprouted longer and sharper. Each boy had grown a mane of tight plaits to brush his broadening shoulders.
Isaac grinned back at him, his faithful reflection "So what's the deal, brother?"
Selim looked at the cliff face again "I am not sure going into their den is the best plan…"
"What happened to 'Yautja do not know fear'?" Isaac's voice shifted into the exaggerated, throaty growl that Selim knew was Isaac's 'yautja warrior voice'. It was the voice his brother used when he was imitating – or more accurately, parodying - their Father (although never within his hearing, of course).
"I am not afraid," Selim replied calmly "I am considering whether there might be a better way in."
"What?!" Isaac burst out and then remembered where he was "What?" He hissed "You wanna chicken out? What'll we say to Father? He'll be unbearable!"
"Mei'Savir would not blame us – " {Mei'Savir – Translation "Sire" or "Father', Pron: 'May-SAV-irr'}
Isaac scowled "Easy for you to say, you're his favourite!"
"He always says you are the one with the killer instinct." Selim, holding onto his patience with his teeth.
"Come on, Sel. You're his firstborn!"
"Alright!" Selim snapped, lapsing into English himself "Alright Ize you win! Now put your mask on."
Isaac grinned silently and pulled on his visor. It was a metal mask; battered and scarred, looted during one of their raids on a rival clan ship. As outcasts from their father's clan neither of the brothers had a custom-made mask, but S'Kia had found faceplates small enough to fit them. Despite their humanoid mouths, the brothers' unusually broad jawbones and face shape meant that masks made for yautja juveniles could still fit their faces.
Selim wondered about the yautja they had belonged to, little more than children; doubtless slaughtered and taken as trophies. It always made him shudder to think about that.
He lifted the visor to his face, trying to forget where it had come from.
"Half yautja, half human – " Selim began.
"All badass!" Isaac laughed, finishing one of their fraternal sayings with his own brand of human slang. Selim laughed "Come Mei'hswei," He put a clawed hand on his brother's shoulder "Let us bring true death to the 'Living Death!"
{Mei'hswei – Translation "Brother" – literally my male sibling. Can also mean 'my ally' or 'my friend'.}
The brothers approached the cliff face cautiously, silently. Selim glanced around him, attuned to every sound as he knew his father would be. There were no longer any Avissa visible and that was strange. He pulled his ki'cti-pa {Trans. 'combi spear'}, knowing he made no noise as his blade slid from its sheath and yet inwardly he tensed, feeling something amiss. He felt uneasy, as if they were being watched but... he shook his head. Too late now for such cowardly vacillations.
Every nerve in his body tensed as he used the end of the combi-spear to push aside the curtain of vines. He had already switched to thermal vision, but the running water made it almost useless. No heat slowed anywhere whilst the sharp cold of the falls turned everything black and blue. It made Selim uneasy, that prey beasts should hide their lair with such cunning. He wondered if it could be mere coincidence.
The spray spattered their skin with tiny jewels as they stepped through into a large cavern. Smaller tunnels wound away in several directions, a dark warren.
Despite nullifying his heat vision, Selim was glad of the cool air down here. Rivulets of water ran down the walls, an endless symphony of water drip-drip-dripping onto smooth, dark stone.
Selim could see no sign of the Avissa or of any other thing living. He guessed the local wildlife gave this place a wide berth.
"Where are they?" Isaac breathed next to his ear.
Selim shook his head in silence. He could see nothing to indicate any creature had been here recently, no heat signatures "It is the waterfall," He thought "Cools their bodies and the rocks down quickly. It's almost as if they know we are hunting them."
He signalled to Isaac that they should take the largest tunnel, thinking at least they would have room to manoeuvre if an ambush came.
The grotto they walked into was lush and verdant; emerald moss sprouted luxuriantly from the ebony walls and curling vines hung from the ceiling .The whole place echoed with the tinkling music of water..
Then, a noise made his ears prick. At first, Selim thought he could hear someone crying, then the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. The voice was high pitched and thin, like the crying of a child. It made a wave of horror run through him "Not here," He thought "By my Father's dark Goddess, let it not be so!"
As they crept closer to the source of the sound, the tunnel gave out into a wide cavern. Water rushed down one wall into a deep, dark pool. In the middle of the chamber there was a shallow pit – a foot deep or so – and filled with more ferns; vivid green against the black, volcanic rock.
As they drew nearer, Selim realised the voice was not crying. Almost it was like singing or humming. There were no words he could decipher – only a meandering note that rose and fell - strange and tuneless.
Sunlight cascaded through a large hole in the roof of the cavern, spotlighting the creature as it sat on a rock in the middle of the pit, its back towards him.
The Avissa's skin glistened, translucent in the sunlight. Selim noticed how that the colour of its skin did not truly change, but instead reflected the light around it. Even as he realised this, the creature shifted position and its skin became subtly different, taking on the green of the moss.
The Avissa was humanoid in shape, with a body slim as an adolescent's. The head was crowned with a halo of long, flowing hair. It was an illusion, Selim knew. A part of him knew it was not really hair. From the way that hair that waved in the dead, still air it must be a growth of long, thin feelers, waving like a sea anemone in the current.
And there she sat, siren-like. Selim could not help but be fascinated by her rippling hair and her delicate, graceful limbs. In his eyes the Avissa seemed human – like a juvenile female.
He knew this was all illusion, it must be. His Father had told him; the Thei-De Nanth'e did not have two genders. Not like humans or yautja. This creature could not truly be a female but it did not stop him thinking of her as a 'she'. And now 'she' was crooning to herself in a weird atonal voice. Despite himself, Selim was drawn. From a distance, he could not help but imagine that this was a young, human girl, humming contentedly to herself in this sunlit grotto.
Selim holstered his plasma gun, but gripped the combi spear. He signalled to Isaac and they moved in on her, silently. He kept the spear pointed at her back, with its too-prominent ribs that jutted like knives.
Selim heard a whimper and suddenly he noticed another, darker shape on the floor at the Avissa's feet. Sprawled in front of her was some kind of animal. He hadn't noticed it before because it had been lying so utterly still.
The beast was large, powerfully built. In colour black – its velvet fur dappled to mimic the light and shade of the forest. Selim recognised it as an Oriande, a kind of jungle predator; shaped rather like a big cat of Earth, but larger in size. He could see its dagger fangs, glinting, useless. Its muscles twitched impotently under its sleek coat as it lay, powerless to resist a creature less than half its size.
Selim watched the Avissa bend forward to feed, unable to repress his shudder of repulsion as she began to drain the Oriande. He couldn't see exactly how she did it, but the creature's eyes told a tale of quiet agony.
"Harden your heart." He told himself "Its suffering will end with her death."
Then, as he levelled the ki'cti-pa, the Avissa turned. Her eyes reflected the light like fire flickering over the facets of a pair of great jewels. Then she gave a piercing squeal and struck out with her thin hands, slashing at his face. Selim tried to leap aside but she managed to catch him with a desperate swipe, knocking his mask off and sending it clattering down amidst the ferns. Now he could see her mouth; delicate lips pulled back to show needle teeth, smeared with bloody juices from the Oriande.
Selim danced backwards out of her reach as Isaac leapt forward, ready to defend his twin, but then something struck him in the back. Selim saw his brother stagger and drop his spear, then he swung around and realised that three more Avissa had emerged noiselessly from the tunnel behind them.
His gaze darted down to Isaac, lying on the floor clutching at his side. "Isaac! Get up!" He hissed, but his brother just lay there gasping and convulsing and he knew then that Isaac had been stung.
Selim leapt to the defence of his twin, standing over his stricken body, ready to protect him with his last drop of blood. He kept his spear raised and tried to keep all of his enemies in his field of vision. The Avissa watched in silence, heads ticking from side to side like insects. Adolescent though he was, Selim was physically larger and stronger than any of them. They hesitated to attack him head on - but he realised dimly they wouldn't need to; an insidious lethargy was stealing over him. His arms wanted to drop to his sides and the spear suddenly felt very heavy, it was all he could do to keep a grip on it. Four huge pairs of sparkling eyes returned his gaze, so fascinating.
"She knocked my mask off," He suddenly remembered "I must be breathing in their hormone intoxicant!"
Slowly, oh-so-slowly, the first Avissa began to move. He could tell her from the others by the red, wetness on her chin. As she floated towards him, her long elegant hands slid over each other and she began to hum, her voice wheedling its way into his head like a burrowing worm.
His gaze was dragged down her body, over her stomach and between her legs, to where her smooth abdomen was beginning to distend. Long it stretched, long and prehensile like the tail of a dragonfly, the puckered skin at its end parted and from it slid a long, black sting, glinting and wet.
Selim had to move, but somehow he couldn't snap himself out of this dreamlike state. Inside his head, he raged at himself but it was like everything was happening a long way off. He realised his spear had begun to drop and brought the point up again, aiming it at her midriff. He was dimly aware of two others flanking him on both sides, preparing to take him down.
"No!" He croaked as the first Avissa came closer, her long elegant hands washing each other in a compulsive motion.
"No," She chanted, mimicking his voice "No, no, no, no!" She sang - sang it back to him, the word becoming meaningless gibberish in her mouth as she repeated it without understanding. She drifted towards him, holding him with her iridescent gaze and Selim felt time slow down. The fog was descending on him...
Author's note:
So, I decided to start another story - I think I must be crazy! I hope you enjoyed this first chapter. I went back and put all the translations back in after I realised my footnotes didn't copy over! If you'd like to read more, please rate and review.