At long last I have updated! Yay! Sorry for the wait, I have diploma exams now and they are long and unpleasant. I've mostly finished now, so expect more updates. I have also overcome my writer's block and finished X-13! I'll start updating that soon too. Enjoy and gimme lots of reviews!!!!
Pyode Amedha-Soft meat, human.
Pauk- Fuck.
Ki'cti-pa- Wristblades.
Ki'its-pa- Retractable spear.
Bakuub- Straight Spear.
Guan-Thwei- Night blood.
Thwei-Tjau'ke- Bloodstone.
Setg'in-kwei- Quick and sly.
Ki'cte- Enough.
Awu'asa- Full armor.
Naxa- A type of fruit.
Chapter 13
Matt and Thwei-Tjau'ke were loitering along the hallways of the ship, exchanging ideas about his mask and wrist gauntlet. They carefully avoided the subject of the self-destruct devices.
"What if you put the trigger for the plasma caster on the inside of the wrist so I can just bend my hand to reach it? It could just be a little piece of metal and you could fix the ki'cti-pa so the blades wouldn't extend when I flexed my hand."
"Hmmm… That might just work. I might do that on all the ki'cti-pa I make now-if it works. That would be easier than having the spare trigger on the wrist computer." They rounded the corner and saw three blooded warriors. They looked to be about the same age as Thwei-Tjau'ke, but did not have a welcoming look like he did.
"Hey! Pyode Amedha!" shouted one. "Why don't you train with us instead of the cripple? You'll just wind up like that if you listen to him!" Thwei-Tjau'ke's face hardened and rage flamed in his eyes. He stood taller and leaned less on his spear. He jutted out his chin and flared his lower mandibles slightly.
He hissed to Matt, "Don't listen to them. Let's go. They only want trouble." However, Thwei-Tjau'ke's eyes never left the new Yautja.
Another warrior smiled cruelly and sneered, "Poor old Thwei-Tjau'ke couldn't even kill himself after he was wounded. He dragged himself to the ship and begged us to take him with us becau-YARG! HURK!"
Thwei-Tjau'ke tackled the strange warrior with a cry of "LIAR!!!" He landed a good punch to the other Yautja's face before he was dragged off. The crippled warrior reached behind him and threw the grabber over his shoulder and into the one that was lying on the floor. He began kicking the offenders with his prosthetic leg while they struggled to sort themselves out. One reached out with both hands and grabbed his leg, twisting viciously. Thwei-Tjau'ke fell and began pounding on them as soon as he landed. Assorted yelps and curses came from the three fighting warriors. The two strange Yautja hit each other as often as they hit Thwei-Tjau'ke. Matt and the last warrior stood by helplessly, exchanging nervous glances.
"KI'CTE!" roared a new warrior, "ENOUGH!" Not only was this an Elder, this was a female Elder! She stomped over and kicked the fighters a couple times, when the fighting slowed, she reached in and dragged them apart by their dreadlocks. Thwei-Tjau'ke was in one hand and the strangers in the other. She pulled up remorselessly as she yelled, "What are you?!? Youngbloods?!? If you have a conflict, settle it in the kehrite, not in the halls! Thwei-Tjau'ke, I'm amazed that you let them provoke you into fighting! If I catch you fighting again, you'll have less status than a New Blood!" She snarled and threw them apart, stalking off with her cloak swirling. The strangers slowly got up, groaning at their wounds and tender scalps. They scurried away without so much as a backward glance.
Thwei-Tjau'ke pulled himself slowly to the wall and leaned against it. He straightened his leg and glared when it moved jerkily. He sighed, then grasped the limb around the thigh and twisted the whole thing off. It detached from a port set into his hip. Matt winced and shuddered as Thwei-Tjau'ke fiddled with his leg; there was something disturbing with being able to remove your own leg and hold it across your lap. Thwei-Tjau'ke finally finished and re-attached the limb. He got up slowly, holding his scarred side and leaning heavily on the wall. Thwei-Tjau'ke grimaced and stretched. Matt wordlessly handed him his spear, the crippled warrior took it gratefully.
"Thwei-Tjau'ke…" The warrior cocked his head to the side. "Can you teach me to fight like that? I think it would be important for me to learn to use my opponent's strength against them. Please? It'll come in handy, when-if I become a blooded warrior because I know that other warriors will want to challenge me to see if I'm as good as they are." Thwei-Tjau'ke stopped his slow, painful, limping walk and looked at Matt.
"You know that after today, when you pick up your armor, you'll be worked harder than ever before, right?"
"Yes." replied Matt.
"I will teach you if you survive. Fighting like that is no good against Hard Meat." Matt fidgeted for a moment after they continued walking.
"Um, why don't you hunt anymore if you can fight like that?"
"I'm not as fast as I used to be-at least for long stretches. I'm also a bit sloppy with this leg because the Hard Meat's blood destroyed a lot of nerves. The muscles on the damaged side are weaker and cramp easily." He sighed and added, "I tried to hunt again after I healed, but it was no use; I simply could not keep up with the rest of the hunters. I can still put other cocky warriors in their place though. Not an Elder or someone who knows how I fight, but Youngbloods and young warriors are easy. Enough talk. You have to pick up your armor and weapons." he added cryptically, "You must save your strength for later…"
…..
Matt stood in front of a large sheet of metal polished to mirror brightness for him. He didn't look like Matt anymore; he didn't even look human! He was dressed in all his armor and weapons. The mask hid his face, rendering him eerily anonymous. The large plates of armor accented his wide shoulders and muscles. He looked grim and spiky. Oh yes, this was definitely a change from the scrawny, underweight, gangly human that had snuck aboard a Yautja's ship so many months ago! He liked the change a lot! Matt reached around and pulled out various weapons to flourish and put back, getting used to their placement. Then Matt removed his mask, brushing a long, shaggy clump of hair back. He turned to the assembled Yautja.
"You like?" inquired Guan-Thwei.
"Yeah! This is so cool! Thank you, Thwei-Tjau'ke!"
The weapons-maker smiled slightly and replied, "I did not do all the work. M'yin-de made all the armor. I just did the technology."
All of a sudden, Bakuub strode into the room and barked, "M'aat-hew! Setg'in-kwei! In the kehrite NOW!" They yelped and glanced at Guan-Thwei and Thwei-Tjau'ke. Guan-Thwei raised his brow and gave them a look. They followed the female out and ran to keep up with her brisk pace.
"Get running laps. Now. Your training starts today."
Setg'in-kwei shot a grin at Matt and whined, "But we've been training for months! How come you're saying it starts now?"
Bakuub growled, "I should swat you for your insolence… Your hard training starts now; before this you have never worn all the armor and weapons. This time you will feel a difference. I want you to be able to fight as long and as well as you could before the full awu'asa. Longer. Go on!" They shrugged and started jogging around the arena.
Twenty minutes later, Matt was ready to die. Everything was relatively light, but it made a huge difference. Setg'in-kwei was not much better off either.
"I… have… slacked off… too… much!" gasped the Yautja.
"Uh-huh!" agreed Matt. Bakuub was wearing full gear as well and was still quite fresh, jogging effortlessly beside them.
"STOP!" she bellowed. Matt and Setg'in-kwei collapsed gratefully. "Oh no you don't! If you stop now you'll cool off too fast and cramp. Get up and start sparring!" They groaned and took out their ki'its-pa. Bakuub kept them running and fighting for what seemed like hours; she only let them rest for short and random periods of time. The most she ever let them rest was maybe ten minutes and the least about a minute. It was usually the latter. Eventually they were allowed to stop. Matt and Setg'in-kwei immediately split up to go to their respective rooms. Matt barely had the energy to remove and hang up his new armor before collapsing into unconsciousness.
…..
Matt woke to Guan-Thwei shaking him. He groaned and rolled over, gaining a cuff on the shoulder.
"What the pauk do you want?!?"
"Bakuub wants you up and dressed and ready for more training immediately." With that, Guan-Thwei turned on his heel and stalked out of the room. Matt got up, feeling like he had been hit repeatedly by a car. He pulled on his gear slowly and painfully and limped out. Matt refused to start training without eating anything, so he headed to the kitchens. There he found Setg'in-kwei scowling around at life in general as he chewed on a naxa. The Yautja tossed a naxa to Matt, who sat down as well.
"They don't pay us enough for this…" Matt muttered in English. Sometime later, as they worked their way through several more naxa, Bakuub herself came up.
"Get!" she snarled. Matt was about to chance a sarcastic remark, when he caught her expression. He dropped the half-eaten fruit and followed her out. Another Youngblood stood at the door and followed them.
The kehrite had five other Youngbloods ranged around it. Matt was very glad that there was another Yautja that was late. A couple other Youngbloods looked as tired and sore as they felt. Bakuub got them to split off into partners to practice fighting with ki'cti-pa after making them warm up. She didn't let them always use the same partners, but Matt found that he, Setg'in-kwei and another Yautja were usually not picked first. Matt was not a favored partner because he was an ooman, Setg'in-kwei because he was friends with an ooman and the other Yautja because he was undersized; the other was not taller than Matt's own 6'2 and was extremely twitchy, nervous and cringy from being harassed and picked on all his life. Matt was not fond of the other Yautja, whose name was Ni'il-este, but pitied him because he was so mistreated.
…..
Matt had convinced Setg'in-kwei to have additional training sessions and now wanted to include Ni'il-este. Setg'in-kwei was against this.
"Why can't we help him? He's the worst fighter I've ever seen! If he doesn't get some help soon, he'll never survive the Kainde Amedha Chiva!" Setg'in-kwei sighed and shook his head.
"M'aat-hew, Ni'il-este will not survive the Trial. He is inferior, a weakling. He should never have become a Youngblood. The Hard Meat Trial weeds out those who are too weak to survive. No matter what we do, he will die."
"It's not right to assign him his fate like that!"
"Help him if you want, I will not. He knows that he will die soon, I know, everyone knows and you know too, but your ooman stubbornness won't let you accept that! I don't understand why you have to help him. Leave me out of this!" Setg'in-kwei stalked off. Matt growled and went to find Ni'il-este.
