Next chapter... finally XD This one I do like, even though it's kinds slow and more of a filler and explainer than anything.

Oh, and here's the dictionary of 'Predator language'. Got the words of a site on the internet... 'The Predator' or something like that. They're in order of appreance, and some are explained in the story, so they're not here.

c'jit- damn
l'ulij-bpe- crazy
mei'hswei- brother
ell-osde- you (won't be used much)
Ooman- human
Jehdin Thei-de- (a name I made from words) One Death
awu'asa- armour
nian-de- hunt
gkei'moun- easy
dtai'k-de- fight
m-di h'dlak- No fear

(as always, I do not own Aliens, Predators, etc.)Well, enjoy the read

"Kwei, you c'jit l'ulij-bpe mei'hswei," chuckled the large, heavily armored Yautja warrior, gripping the smaller, obviously younger creature's shoulder, "What are ell-osde doing here, instead of preparing for the nian-de?"

The slightly smaller Yautja looked up, his unmasked face lowered slightly to show his submission to his much older brother. His skin was a pale color, almost like the meat of a young tree with the same slight green tint, and it was mottled with light brown, almost imperceptible spots. He shrugged.

"I am looking at the Ooman planet, Jehdin Thei-de," he said, "it is… interesting."

The tall Yautja growled softly.

"Interesting it may be," he snorted, "but you must have awu'asa to participate in the nian-de, mei'hswei. Come, Kwei, we can speak while you prepare."

The smaller Yautja nodded, and walked with the other silently through the fogged, luminescent halls of the ship. This was to be only his third hunt, including that of the Kainde Amedha Chiva. He remembered that first hunt fondly, for he had been the first of the young Yautja to kill one of the creatures, and so the first to become a Youngblood. He still wore the scar of the Kainde Amedha blood across his arms and middle, where the creature had flailed and struck a bloody stump against him. It was testimony to his win; an honorable thing meant to be worn proudly.

They reached the amour room, and Kwei quickly donned his equipment. He was hunting with more of the traditional gear and not much else, for he liked the added challenge of hunting without much technology. He merely had a simple spear, a curved sword known as an h'sai-de, and the traditional wristblades, or ki cti-pa.

"Take a throwing disk as well, mei'hswei," suggested Jehdin Thei-de, removing one of the circular devices from it's place on the wall, "Oomans are different from what you're used to, much more dangerous when cornered."

Kewi regarded the disk, and finally shook his head, refusing the offered weapon.

"I don't need an gkei'moun dtai'k-de, mei'hswei," he said, donning his mask and looking at the other Yautja, "I have m-di h'dlak."

I woke, feeling freer than I had ever thought I would be.

The barrel seemed cramped now, so I pulled myself out of it, realizing that I had grown during my sleep and would not be able to stay within the container any longer. I clicked and somehow saw my own foot. It was bony, almost like the insects that my host had occasionally seen and eaten, and at the end of it was a limb that looked almost like a human hand, except with claws and no 'thumb'.

Curious, I lifted my foot and nibbled it. Sudden pain made me pull back, and a few drops of green blood flew from the small injury on my leg. They hissed and sizzled as they hit the walls and floor. I investigated this, and saw that the blood was eating a hole through any substance that it had touched, almost like the human concept… 'Acid'.

The rest of the room seemed uninteresting, being merely a larger and more broken down version of the human lair. But there were other rooms that I could sense, and a strange, old scent that seemed both familiar and strange to me. I trotted, delighting in feeling my own limbs move, towards the far end of the room I was in, and 'saw' through a series of rapid clicks that the door, almost ruined as it was, was just slightly ajar. I nudged it open and continued down the stairs, using what I had learned from my host to walk down the steep steps safely.

In the room beyond, my 'sight' fell upon some strange shape. It was large… not as large as the barrel, but larger than my host had been, and it smelled of death and decay. I approached it warily, knowing that, though it was certainly dead, it might still be dangerous.

As I investigated, I relaxed. It was nothing, just a rotten and empty shell. It seemed a bit like an 'egg', something I had learned of while watching the humans cook meals. My host had often lingered around the humans at mealtime, hoping to gather an extra bit of food or scrap meat. This was obviously inedible, though, so, after snorting and poking the object with my tail, I let it be and wandered around the rest of the room.

There was something strange in the corner. It was like a blank space in my echolocation, a void where my sound waves wouldn't reach. Intrigued, I trotted up, thinking that perhaps it was just too far away for me, but I stopped suddenly in surprise when I had moved directly in front of the void.

It was a creature, something that, amazingly, I hadn't smelled or seen. I snarled, jumping back slightly and crouching, and the creature did the same. I must have surprised it. When we had sat like that for some time, I rose, seeing the other copy my actions, and approached.

We both raised one claw, reaching towards each other. My claw hit some sort of cold surface, and I saw a small crack rise from where I had touched. I pulled back, surprised, and sat. This was a puzzle, I knew, and one that I had to solve before I moved to investigate anything else.

As always, I thought back to my time with humans, the time when I had seen through cat's eyes. I knew that there had been something there, something that would answer my questions as the humans had answered much else with their ingenious ways.

Suddenly, a small memory surfaced, and I knew. It was my echolocation that had fooled me. The object, the one that had cracked, was merely reflecting me. I was the one on the other side…

"Hey, Diskette," crooned the girl, flaunting a new outfit and dancing around the room, "What do you think?"

The cat just purred, looking at the antics of his owner with a bored expression.

"Aw, you're no fun," laughed the girl. She stood in front of a large panel of glass, staring at an exact copy of herself on the other side, "Well, I look good in the mirror…"

The panel was a mirror, a reflective device. I had not recognized, and the reason why I couldn't see it was because my echolocation was being deflected to reflect whatever else was near it. It caused a blank space because of the double effect, unless something moved in front of it.

So, I saw myself. This was a perfect opportunity to study what I looked like, perhaps even determine exactly what I was. My head was large, domed and oblong, with a huge, flaring crest coming off the back of my skull. My body was long and lithe, insect-like, and set in a quadruped stance like my host had been. A long, bony tail extended from my rear, ending in a sharp blade.

I had explored enough. Though the image in the mirror was interesting, hunger began to gnaw at me. I was still growing, and needed as much food as I could find. Remembering the mangy cat that had been in the alley earlier, I trotted towards the stairs. Perhaps I could find it, and have a small meal before looking for something more… substantial.

It was the perfect hiding place for the ship, one that the humans, curious and widespread as they were, were very unlikely to discover. Water lapped around the ship's hull as it slid, barely powered, into the huge tunnel that seemed to be a sort of gigantic sewer.

The hunt would be commencing soon, and the warriors would split to take their own respective hunting grounds. They had only three weeks here, so it was important to attract the best and strongest prey. Kwei had the perfect spot planned, in a city not far from the landing area. He would hunt there, and he already had a method of finding the best trophies.

There was no speaking as the warriors left the landing area, for all were already lost in thought as to what skulls their wall would gain. Kwei immediately set off in the direction of his planned grounds, noticing with satisfaction that none of the others were heading in the same direction. He would have the city all to himself; it was just the way he liked it.

I looked up from the body of the stray tabby, the fresh meat dripping from my fangs and mixing with the prodigious amount of saliva that my mouth generated when hungry. There was something… something different in the air. Something was happening, I could sense it. It was then that I felt a small rumbling through my hypersensitive limbs, at the same time seeing a faint ripple of sound waves move across the sky far in the distance.

I had never seen something like this before… I was curious.

But I was also still hungry, and though the cat was a small meal, it was all I could get until my carapace hardened further. I swallowed the rest quickly, and, sending out small, hypersonic sound waves in all directions, I checked the surrounding area to make sure there were no threats. It was good that humans had a small hearing range; otherwise, any in the area would have heard my sound and come to investigate.

There was no one as far as I could hear. It seemed this area of the city was deserted.

I trotted cautiously into the open street, aware that this was the first time I had ever come out into a large space that had no cover. Instinctively, I was nervous, and I held to the shadows as much as I was able. A normal human wouldn't be able to see me unless I had to move into the light or dash across an open space, but I still felt as if there was danger all around me.

With good reason I was cautious. I heard the projectile as it sliced through the air, coming towards me with lethal speed. My hearing was my savior, for I whipped around just fast enough for the shot, fired from a high window of a deserted building, to graze my shoulder instead of impacting into my skull as the shooter had intended. Green blood spurted from the wound, and I screeched in pain. Upon leaping away, I heard another few shots, but they were half-hearted and erratic. Perhaps the shooter was delusional, or perhaps not a good shot.

This wasn't turning out to be the best trip.

The shadows comforted me as I cleaned my wound, trying to keep the blood from spilling too much on the clean white snow that covered the ground in the back alley. The cold was beginning to make me nauseous, as I wasn't used to such low temperatures and wasn't built for conserving heat. My recent meal seemed little more than a distant memory.

At that moment, the wind changed and I smelled something that made saliva drip from my mouth, pooling on the snow blow my lifted head. It was some sort of meat; cold and faint, but there. I could sense that there was a lot of it, as well. With a final, nervous click in the direction of the building, I stepped slowly out of hiding. There was no movement, so I scurried as fast as I was able towards the tantalizing scent, intent upon reaching my destination in as short a time as possible.

I stopped suddenly, halted by the sight of an object, half buried in a thick layer of white fluff that had been dislodged from its place by my foot. It was a small thing, barely worth considering, but what made me stop was the memory of the same types of things covering the girl's room, in which my host had spent the most of his time.

A… 'book'. I sniffed it, careful not to wet it with my saliva, and gently lifted the diminutive wad of paper with my gripping claws. I didn't really have any way to carry it… but I would try. I had learned, from my host, that books were much like music to humans, but in a silent way. They contained something called 'stories', things that had never happened, and some things that had. There were things that humans wished for and things that they despised. In the girl's words was the message that had made me pause; 'worlds are hidden in books, as long as you know how to read them'. I didn't know, exactly, but I could learn.

Perhaps I could find what they saw in it…

I curled my claws holding the book, and ran, slightly lopsided due to my closed claws, the remainder of the distance to my destination. It was a large building, with doors made of polished steel that was frosted in the frigid air. The smell was coming from a small pipe off the side of the wall, from which a thin vapor was drifting.

I pushed on a door, and growled when it didn't move. I hadn't come all this way to be daunted by such an obstacle! I pushed harder, feeling the door strain slightly under the force. It wasn't enough, though, and I didn't want to attract too much attention.

I focused on some strange projection on the side of the door… it seemed vaguely hook-like, but was obviously no hook. I pushed it, but it did little more than creak.

Again, I sat down, thinking the problem over. The door in my lair was no problem, not like this one. It opened at a push, and I would have expected this one to do so also. As I stared blankly at the cold steel that mocked my by its silence, I thought of what a human looked like. They had something that I really didn't have, hands, and used them for everything from eating to pushing strange buttons on unknown devices. What would a human do here?

Looking at it in a different light, a tentative answer established itself in my mind. A human's hands were good for gripping, and so they would grip the hook on the door. Perhaps that was all that was needed. With a soft growl, I heaved back so that I was standing precariously on my hind legs, and set one clawed foot so that it gripped the hook as best as it could.

I wasn't built for this position, and had to lean against the door for support. As soon as I did so, however, the hook rotated, making my claw slip off and sending me flying into the snow. I snarled, annoyed, but stopped when I saw the slightly ajar position of the steel door.

I had succeeded! Pausing to pick up the book from where I had accidentally flung it into the snow, I pushed the door open and entered the building.

Edited chapter! Fixed all the small stuff, like misspelled species names and whatnot.