14 years later…
Unlike most children, Shadow matured extraordinarily fast. His physical maturity was that of a 16 year old, yet his mental maturity was that of an 18 year old. Even at such an age, Shadow was able to speak and understand the English language and the Yautja language, thanks to both his parents, Kiera and Dachande.
Dachande was very insistent that Shadow should learn the ways of the hunter, but kept him to the basics. Shadow far exceeded his father's expectations in all areas of his hunter background. He was very strong, fast, agile, and smart. By this time Shadow had started showing signs that he was going to have his own hunting style. He was extremely light on his feet, and it seemed as though he didn't touch the floor when he ran. His fighting was super fast and precise; he was able to battle around a target, coming within millimetres of contact between his targets.
Kiera ran outside into the backyard in a panic, her eyes wide and darting around the scenery. "Shadow, Shadow where are you".
Noticing the glimmer of Dachande sat on a chair in the corner of the patio. She ran up to him in a panic. "Where is Shadow? He hasn't been here all day; one of those mammolith things might have got him".
Still concentrating on something in the distance, Dachande said "Don't worry he is fine. He is meditating".
"What do you mean he is meditating, he has never meditated before. Where is he?" Kiera said flustered.
Pointing into the distance, Dachande said "I have got my eyes on him, not that he needs it. He is a very skilled and talented hunter. He is capable of looking after himself".
"If anything happens to him Dachande I'm holding you responsible, is that clear" Kiera said with a now angered face.
"Do not fear my mate, nothing shall happen to him" he said reassuring her.
Shadow was five feet nine inches tall, medium built in body mass. He had a very soft looking face, rounded chin, and his bluey and green eyes expressed his soft facial expressions. Following his Yautja traditions, he had grown his hair and Dachande had plated it into dreadlocks for him. Some of his locks of hair had some of Dachande's gold hair rings on them, to give him that sense of tradition.
As Kiera walked into the house, Dachande diverted his attention back to Shadow. As he did this he noticed a mammolith was stalking up to Shadow.
The mammolith is a wolf life creature that is as big as a bear. Its fur is long and matted and dusty red in colour. The mammolith's short fuse makes it a highly dangerous predator, easily able to kill a fully grown Yautja. Unless you have a powerful enough weapon you will die when confronted by one of these beasts.
Dachande let out a loud shriek to alert Shadow, but he was too far away to hear his father's cry. Dachande jumped from where he sat, grabbed his spear and ran in the direction of his pup. He was about 800 yards from his pup and the mammolith, when it went in for the attack. Completely aware of the situation, Shadow dove forward from his knelled position and rolled into a crouched fighting stance, and pulling his hunting knife from his knife sheath on his back. As the beast leaped towards Shadow, he dropped to one knee and rolled right; as he came up he stuck the knife into the side of the mammoliths head. The mammolith screamed in pain. When we withdrew his blade, he got up onto his feet and ran three paces forward and turned to face his enemy. He crouched again, awaiting the mammoliths next attack. The mammolith charged forwards as if to run his opponent into the ground. When it was about 3 feet away, Shadow dove forwards and to his left slightly. Just out of the way of the charging monstrosity. As he landed, he held the blade along his forearm, and penetrated the large beast's side, and let its momentum split it wide open. Blood sprayed everywhere from the large gash down the side of the mammolith, Shadow was covered in the mammoliths warm, bright blue blood. Turning around ready for the mammoliths next move he saw the beast fall to the floor dead. When he stood up he saw Dachande standing only a few meters from the carcase of the mammolith.
Amazed at what he had just seen, Dachande walked up to Shadow. He wiped the blood from Shadows face, to see that he was calm, not bothered at what had just happened. He just looked up at Dachande and smiled "Hi father. Are you here to help me take this home?"
"I saw the mammolith stalking up to you, and thought that it was going to kill you. I promised your mother that nothing would happen to you. So I came as quick as I could to help, but I notice you did not need it" Dachande said looking very confused.
Looking at the carcase of the beast Dachande said to Shadow "This is the biggest thing I have seen you kill. We shall take it home, cut the head off and clean it up. This shall be you first official solo kill of honour."
When they got back to the dwelling, Shadow ran to the door and called to his mother "Mom come and take a look at what I just killed".
"Did you kill another wild rabbit Shadow" she said laughing as she walked through the house.
"Think something a little bigger" he said looking at his kill.
Still laughing to herself she said "Ok. You killed a neighbour's dog or a wild pig".
She stopped at the back door and looked in amazement when she saw the mammolith lying in a heap outside the backdoor.
"wh…who killed this. You?" she turned to Dachande
Dachande just pointed to Shadow. "I was meditating and I heard a noise behind me to my right. So I jumped forwards and drew my knife. When I saw it was a mammolith I…I…I don't know, it was like my brain shut down and my body took control. When I realized what I had done father was standing there, praising me for my kill".
"Dachande what did I tell you? I said; if anything happens to him…"
Dachande interrupted her "He was amazing to watch. He measured every step, timed every strike. There was no point in the whole incident, which he was not in complete control. When I saw the beast stalking up to him, I ran there as fast as I could. When I got there he attacked the mammolith and was victorious"
Frustrated yet relieved Kiera walked over to the seat in the corner of the patio and sat down. Turning to Shadow she said "I am not happy with this Shadow, you know that. But you came out of it uninjured. And if this is true that you handled yourself with such skill, I cannot complain. But please try and be careful because you might not be so lucky next time ok".
"Ok mother. Sorry." Shadow Said as he lower his eyes.
Dachande clicked and agreed. Shadow turned and looked at his kill, then looked up to see his father holding a knife. "It is time that you learnt how to skin and preserve your trophies"
Shadow nodded looking back down at his prized mammolith. Dachande forced the beast onto its back, and spread its front and rear legs to expose its underside. Whilst cutting the mammolith down its middle, Dachande explained how to skin it correctly. "Cut from just under the neck, down the middle and to the tail. From where you rejected your blade, insert it back into the prey but this time using the side of the blade to part the skin from the flesh as so"
Watching with interest, Shadow nodded. Blue blood was seeping from the belly of the mammolith, and over Dachande's hands as he was cutting into the beast's body. "Once you have done this to both sides of the skin on the underbelly, you force it outwards and off of the carcase and cutting down the arms and legs of your prey. Once you have done this you want to take the head as a trophy, to show people your capabilities. Sometimes you take the spinal column too, depending on the prey. Some soft meat you take both head and spinal column, you will know if you should when you battle it" Dachande was saying whilst ripping the skin from the mammolith.
Dachande showed Shadow how to preserve the trophies he received from the kills that he made from his prey. After preserving the skull of the mammolith, shadow put the skull on his bedroom wall, and Kiera put the meat from the mammolith into the basement cooler ready for a meal that they as a family would have at a later date.
Later that day Dachande and Shadow where in the backyard. Shadow was knelt on the floor with his hands on his knees, listening to the teaching of his father Dachande. "When you face an opponent in a serious battle, you must learn that your opponent will say or do anything to make you angry. You must learn not to listen to the insults, as this will make you fight carelessly. And you will lose"
Shadow nodded taking in all his father was saying. "So my enemy will try to distract me whilst I fight them. So should I do the same to them?"
"Yes but use your insults strategically. If you dodge an attack your opponent uses or your opponent uses a poor technique then you insult them" Dachande said insistently.
Shadow nodded his head. "Go grab your staff. I am going to demonstrate what I mean"
Shadow jumped to his feet and ran inside the house, when he came running from the house; he had his wooden training staff ready to spa with his father. "Let's commence the training" Dachande said.
With no warning, Dachande used his training staff and swung at Shadows legs and sent him flying to the floor "You're not very good at this are you Shadow".
Shadow stood up, still looking calm he went in for the attack, only to have his legs swept from under him again "Surely you can do better than this Shadow, I thought you were a good fighter".
Shadow stood up again, this time he was mad. Swinging his wooden staff around, and going in for every attack possible. Once again Dachande took his legs out from underneath him "This is pathetic. I saw you kill a mammolith with easy this morning and you can't even touch me. You are no warrior".
As Shadow stood up again, Dachande noticed that Shadows eye colour had changed, from his greeny blue eyes to these now dark orangey red eyes. As Shadow went if for an attack, he stopped dead still and dropped his staff. He then fell to the floor and clenched at his chest, and started to scream in pain. Noticing that Shadow was not playing, he picked him up and ran to the dwelling. When he got inside he called for Kiera. When she got to them, Shadow stopped screaming and his body went limp. Thinking something was seriously wrong with him, Kiera checked his pulse. It was moderately fast but it was there and he was breathing. Dachande walked to Shadows room and put him onto his bed. "What happened?" Kiera asked worried.
"We were sparing, and his tripped him a few times. Demonstrating what taunting worked. After my forth time of tripping him, he got back up. But this time his eyes changed" Dachande replied.
"What do you mean his eyes changed?"
"They changed from green to red. He was enraged because I tripped him so many times. Then he stopped and fell to the floor screaming"
Kiera and Dachande stopped what they were saying when they heard a loud bang from Shadows room. When they opened the door. They found Shadow on the floor, clutching at his face. As he stood up, Kiera noticed that there was bright green blood seeping through Shadows fingers. When he removed his hands, she could see that the blood was coming from his nose. He had fallen off of the bed and hit his face on the floor. "How do you feel honey?" Kiera asked concerned.
"I feel confused. One minute I was outside being taught about taunting. Next thing I remember I fall off of my bed" Shadow said with a puzzled look on his face.
"You must have blacked out for a moment. Get some sleep; you have a surprise in the morning. You will need the energy. Go on get cleaned up and go to bed baby" Kiera said softly.
After Shadow went to bed, Dachande walked downstairs and into the basement of the house. He walked over to his little work station in the corner, and sat down on the stall by the desk. From the first draw on the left of the desk, Dachande pulled out a little tool kit. The tool kit consisted of a few screw drivers, a knife, a few racket parts and a hammer. Dachande unclipped his left wrist gauntlet and took it off, and placed it to his right on the desk. From the big draw at the bottom on the right, he pulled out a mini power supply and a circuit board. The circuit board had wires connecting different parts of the board to other parts, with dials and knobs all over it. Dachande connected the circuit board to the power supply, and pressed the switch to turn it on. There was a relatively loud whirl and the power pack hummed to life. Using a screw driver, Dachande opened his wrist gauntlet and connected a wire from the circuit board to a terminal inside his gauntlet. Pressing a series of touch pads in his gauntlet, he set up the distress signal. Twiddling some of the dials on the circuit board, he increased the signal output and input. He jumped off the stool when he felt someone grab his sides. When he turned around, he noticed that it was Kiera "You know that I don't like people creeping up on me, why did you do it" he said huskily.
"I did it to scare you my love. Are you still playing with that distress signal? You should just leave it on, when the power supply dies, we shall get a new one" Kiera said as she rubbed Dachande's sides
Dachande purred with enjoyment as Kiera was rubbing his body "Honey we have to speak about Shadow. Did you notice that he was bleeding green blood when he was in his room? Whenever I have seen him bleed, it has been red" Kiera said still playing with Dachande's body.
"Remember my mate, I have not known of any Human/Yautja hybrids, so I could be because of his teen years. His blood could be changing because of his age" Dachande said in reassurance.
"Perhaps you are right. But what about tomorrow, it shall be his first day in school. He has not really been in contact with any boys or girls his age before" Kiera said as she slowed her rubbing movement down.
"He will be fine. If anything bad were to happen he would come and tell us. Do you want to go to bed now my mate, you are looking very tired" Dachande asked as he turned to Kiera.
Kiera nodded. As she removed her hands from his sides, he swept her off of her feet and into his arms. Dachande walked up the stairs with Kiera in his arms. He walked into their room, mate in arms, he walked over to the side of the bed, and gently placed her down. Kiera took off her shirt and her shorts and walked into the bathroom. Whilst she was having a quick wash, Dachande took off his armour and weapons and placed them in the wardrobe. Now down to just his loin cloth, he lay on the bed waiting for Kiera to come out of the bathroom. When Kiera strolled out of the bathroom in just her bathrobe, Dachande let out a sexual growl. She sat on the edge of the bed and took the bathrobe off and slung it into the corner of the room. As he lay back onto the bed, Kiera shuffled over to him and put her arms around his large torso, and he wrapped his arm closet to her around her.