Res ipsa loquitur, sed quid in infernos dicit?
She couldn't keep her eyes off it. She was supposed to be making sure there was nothing hiding in the vent, as the Yautja dispatched the eggs and their lethal cargoes, but her gaze was drawn back time and again to where it laid on an unscathed section of concrete.
She hadn't even remembered putting it out of harm's way. One minute she'd cut through the kainde amedha's neck, the next she was firing plasma towards another. She wasn't sure how much her memories could be trusted though. She knew that they had been down here less than five minutes so far, but to her it felt like an hour or more. Regardless of her memory, however, there it sat. The question was, what the hell was she going to do with it?
She checked inside the vent as far as she could see, but came up with nothing beyond large puddles of the slime hard meat seemed to produce in copious amounts. She turned back and found the two Yautja standing behind her, the Second examining her. It pointed to her side, where blood was oozing from the cut the pyode amedha had managed to make at the start of the fight. She looked down, she hadn't even realized she was still bleeding, albeit slowly, so caught up in the exhilaration of the hunt and her confusion about it she had been.
She nodded to the second, and both the Yautja watched her curiously as she unclipped the medical kit from the small of her back, freeing it from her armor, and crouched. Quickly she opened the kit up, and selected a vial of the blue liquid. Appraising her wound, she was grateful that she wouldn't need the gel, and she pulled out one of the gauze pads she'd added to the kit herself. She tipped some of the blue liquid onto the pad, before, breathing slowly, she pressed it against the wound. She had to repeat the process three times to coat the length of her cut with the liquid, but she was proud that she only screamed once. She packed the kit away again, and was prepared to leave but the two Yautja hadn't moved. She looked suspiciously at them, their body language was almost awkward.
"What?", she asked eventually, exasperated. The Second turned and pointed to it. She looked down. The two Yautja looked at each other, and the hunter stepped forwards, reaching out a clawed hand to trace the scars kainde amedha talons has scored into the surface of her armor. It looked into the opaque lenses of her eyes in the mask, and growled, sounding tentative - almost as if worried it was prying.
"You believe you did not earn its head?" She returned the hunters gaze steadily, but her voice quavered noticeably.
"It fought well, it almost won. But I have no place to put a kainde amedha skull, and even if I did, I'm still only a human. It doesn't feel right to take trophies the same way Yautja do, it's like I'm trying to pretend to be something I'm not." She hoped she was making sense, and was rewarded by the hunter inclining its head and stepping back. She thought the matter was dropped, but the Second had other ideas.
"The Elder needs to be consulted on this, young blood." She was about to argue when the Second drew itself up. "Remove the traces of kainde amedha, retrieve the trophy, and we will find the others. We need to report on this incident regardless." She nodded in resignation, she knew the body language of a Yautja that had made its mind up well, there would be nothing she could say or do to change its mind at this stage.
Working back towards the stairwell, the three hunters dropped the "grenades" into the craters the alien blood had eaten away in the concrete, immolating the remains in cleansing plasma fire. When there was one hole left, they policed all the remains that had escaped destruction excepting it, managing to gather them all in the last crater where the Second triggered the device. Now all that remained were holes, which would be hard to explain away, but impossible for humans to begin to explain. It was considered evidence unavoidable but acceptable to remain.
She was looking at it, trying to figure out how she was going to carry it. It was almost as long as her torso was tall, and didn't come with convenient carrying handles. The hunter noticed her trying to decide what to do and walked over to her. Deferentially, it motioned to a spot on the side of her armor, and she pressed it curiously. A thin skein of fabric came from where she pressed, and she blinked. She had no idea that was there. Gently she pulled on the thread, and it unrolled from somewhere inside her armor. When she stopped pulling it, the end was cut automatically, leaving her with a foot of very thin yet incredibly strong cord in her hand. She looked at it stupidly for a second, then to the hunter, who was shaking with repressed laughter.
"Inside the back of your armor is a spool of that cord. It has many uses, but for the most part we use it to hang bodies. If you wish I can show you how to fashion it so you can carry the trophy?" She nodded gratefully, trying not to think about the "hanging bodies" part, as the hunter began drawing out several feet of cord.
"I don't suppose anyone considered handing out a manual with all of this stuff, did they?", she muttered darkly. The Second purred with laughter as it approached the two.
"Where would the challenge be in that?" She couldn't help but laugh.
The hunter wrapped one end of the cord around the front of the kainde amedha head, showing her a complicated knot that it used to cinch the cord tight to the flesh of the alien's skull, then made a series of figure eight loops from front to back, finishing off with another loop at the back of the head. When the hunter was finished, the head was secured, the slack between the two loops making a thicker bundle of cord.
She nodded her gratitude, and lifted the head up, putting the loop over one shoulder so the head hung down behind her crosswise. She shrugged a little to settle the weight, and the Second growled in approval.
"My cloak was destroyed in the fight. How am I supposed to get out of here unseen with an alien head hanging off my back?", she asked, lightly. The Second snorted.
"You were adept enough at ducking during the fight, you can use the skill to hide behind things or in the shadows until we reach the rooftops again." She winced, she'd hoped it had forgotten that. "Keep to the shadows, use the darkness. We shall scout for you, and warn you of anything that is coming." The second looked at her. "If a pyode amedha does see you, it will die. We can not permit our presence to be compromised." Her eyes widened behind the mask as the full import of that sunk in. They would kill a human just for seeing her? She was about to object when the Second warned her. "I suggest that you be adept with your stealth, young blood, if you do not wish that to become necessary."
The Second had understood her instinctive reaction to duck. It had trained many hunters and seen the same response in most all of them at the beginning, it knew that it would take practice for this human to trust herself enough to try to catch a returning throwing star. Whilst its words about her stealth sounded as if it was punishing her for forgetting the Elder's instructions on the matter, it had an ulterior motive in mind.
It had watched this human become reliant on the cloak, and did not want her to lose the skills she had developed long before she began using the armor. She had hunted stealthily before they had arrived, and she needed to rediscover those skills – the cloak might not always be an option for concealment. It determined, correctly, that its warning about those who saw her would die would add to her motivation. Despite its misgivings about this pyode amedha, it might be rewarding to train her after all.
-
She found as they jogged away from the building that resting her hand on the bottom of the loop as it hung by her left hip stopped the head from bouncing as they moved, and pretty soon became so accustomed to its presence she forgot it was there. They moved several miles along the industrial area border with the commercial district, and soon were able to make most of their travel along rooftops.
At that stage she breathed easier, the dire results of being seen focused her desire to be unseen very efficiently. Always in the back of her mind was the knowledge that if she slipped up, and someone saw her, they would quickly fall to the blades of the Yautja. She had no intentions of having such a death on her conscience. They had met little traffic, both Yautja giving her ample warning to be able to hide in doorways, behind cars or walls, or to duck into alleyways.
As they approached the rendezvous spot the Elder had selected, she scanned the area and started to tremble. She could see many cloaked Yautja already there, including the Elder, more than she had ever been around before in her life. She was treading on very dangerous ground now.
She saw the Yautja with the Elder tense as she came into view, keeping a wary eye on her as she got closer, but the Elder turned its cloak off and they followed suit. She came to a halt in front of the Elder, and as the Second and the hunter turned their cloaks off either side of her, she bowed her head, crossing her hands across her chest in that peculiar combination of mark of respect and combat stance she had adopted each time they had met.
The Elder returned her salute with an incline of its head, then crouched down. She joined the other Yautja in spreading out slightly before also crouching, creating the ritual circle around the Elder that Yautja formed when in a group discussion. The Elder looked to the Second, who stood and faced it.
"We entered the area with the eggs, Elder, but were attacked by many kainde amedha. We killed them, and destroyed both the remains and the eggs." The Elder nodded.
"Was there anything to tell you where the nest might be?" The Second growled a negative. The Elder snorted in disgust. "It seems all three parties tonight came across hard meat, although your group seems to have encountered the largest number." It turned to face her, but its question was for the Second.
"What of the human?" It asked, pointedly. The Second looked at her, then reached across to lift the kainde amedha head from her back and over her head, placing it on the ground in the center of the circle. There was an buzz of muttering from the gathered Yautja, but a glance around by the Second quickly silenced them all before it continued.
"The human hunted well, Elder. She took three kainde amedha, one with her --------", the translator still couldn't decide what that word was, "but two with blades alone. This one", it gestured to the head on the ground, "fought well, a challenge a Yautja would be proud of overcoming." The Elder nodded, as the hunter that had accompanied them spoke up.
"I would hunt with her again." She blinked in amazement. The blooded hunter had hardly said a word to her, or even about her, all night, yet here it was voicing its approval? The other Yautja present, except perhaps the Second and the Elder itself, seemed to be just as surprised.
"Why do you say that?" The Second dropped into a crouch as the hunter rose to address the circle.
"It would only be by observing her that I would be able to avoid surprises when hunting her, Elder. She is resourceful, to hunt her without observing her would be an error of complacency." The hunter turned slightly to face one of the Yautja in the circle, and she started as she recognized skin markings and trophy belt of the one it addressed - it was the Yautja that she had spoken to in the alleyway for calling her "merely human, nothing more than a prey animal". She might not understand the Yautja language well enough to not need the translator, but she'd heard the words in that phrase often enough that she'd understood what the hunter had said very well.
"To assume this human female is like other pyode amedha would likely result in falling to her", the hunter stated, simply. The Yautja she had spoken to growled loudly in denial and stood. After a moment, the hunter beside her crouched down, and she waited tensely.
"She is pyode amedha, prey. She is no threat to a Yautja except by her knowing of us. She should be hunted now, and the matter would be resolved." it growled and clicked angrily. From the other Yautja in the circle came growls of agreement, but she was surprised at how few. It seemed the opinion of the Elder, Second, and the blooded hunter beside her carried some weight in the judgment of most of the group. The loud-mouthed Yautja, emboldened somewhat by the show of support, even if scant, continued.
"Look at her, she wears our armor, carries our weapons, and dares to attend a Council with ..." The Elder cut it off sharply.
"She attends Council because she has hunted with us, and until the matter of the kainde amedha is resolved she is considered part of this group. She does not 'dare' to attend, she attends because I wish it. Her status after this hunt will be decided after the hunt." The Elder turned to her, cocking its head to one side in thought. It pointed down at the head of the hard meat she had returned with. "Her status during this hunt however needs to be addressed." She blinked.
"Oh no, no way you're going to ..." She didn't have time to complete the thought. The Elder motioned to the angry Yautja, which paused but crouched down before the Elder had to repeat the gesture. It turned, looking at each of the assembled Yautja.
"She is not Yautja, yet she has hunted kainde amedha and won. It is my decision that until the situation with the queen and the nest is resolved, this pyode amedha is to be respected for that accomplishment and her skills. She is to be considered blooded." The Yautja which had angrily objected earlier looked as if it was about to leap to its feet to object once more, but the Elder stared at it and it reconsidered.
Satisfied the hunter wasn't going to interrupt, the Elder turned to her and motioned for her to stand. She did so hesitantly, glancing around to try to penetrate the masks each of the Yautja wore to get some idea of what they thought of all this, but she was met only with impassive gray Yautja metal.
The Elder took a step forwards and crouched over the head she had brought back and examined it again. Growling to itself, it reached into the hard meat's mouth, grasping the inner mouth then pulling, hard, until it came loose from the head with an ugly crunch of separating gristle. The Elder held the semi-rigid kainde amedha flesh gingerly, then stepped towards her. She had to head this off.
"Elder, I cannot be blooded. I am pyode amedha, not Yautja." She had another thought. "Not to mention that the mark of a blooded hunter would be noticed by the prey, affecting my ability to hunt undetected." The Elder let out a laugh.
"You are correct in what you say, but I do not intend to mark you. Your status is only for as long as this hunt continues. Therefore, you will wear the mark on your armor only. Once the hunt is ended, the mark can be removed. Do you understand?" She thought it over, she hadn't considered such a thing. She nodded her head once, growling her assent as she did so. The Elder laughed again, and advanced towards her, holding the hard meat inner mouth part away from its body. As it reached her, it squeezed the flesh in its hand firmly, until a drop of the acidic blood of the kainde amedha beaded on the raw edge where the mouth had once been attached, and raised it up to her eye level.
"You have hunted kainde amedha. Wear this mark so others may know that you have proven yourself worthy. Let it be a reminder to you each day that you stand as a blooded hunter amongst Yautja, and earned that place." The Elder finished reciting what sounded like a ritual statement, then pressed a corner of the blood-coated end of the inner mouth against the forehead of her mask, drawing it across until acid-scorched into the resilient Yautja metal was the same symbol as it wore – two angled vertical lines, with a line horizontal near the top of them, forming a stylized italic "TT".
Satisfied, the Elder stepped back a pace, raised the grisly alien organ high, and roared. Without hesitation the Second and the hunter that had accompanied them sprang to their feet and roared their pleasure, and she was surprised to note that of the six remaining Yautja in the circle, five of them did the same. The only dissenting opinion was the Yautja who had argued against her, but that didn't surprise her. She was fairly certain that this Yautja was also the owner of the eyes that she remembered so clearly, even out of the haze she was in on board the ship before. It stood with the others, but that was all.
After the congratulatory roar had died down, the Yautja all crouched once more, except for herself, the Elder, and the Second who stood beside her. The Second gestured to the kainde amedha head lying on the ground.
"The young blood has said she is unable to take the trophy, Elder, that she has nowhere to place it in her nest." The Elder growled, a hint of frustration coming across in its tone. The hunter that had accompanied them spoke up again.
"I would be honored to place it in my trophy vault on the ship until the matter is resolved, Elder." The Second looked across her to the hunter, but must have changed its mind as it remained silent, turning instead back to face the Elder who was watching both of them with keen interest. It let out a low growling laugh.
"Very well. You can teach her how to clean it first." The Second laughed then, and it was the other hunter's turn to look across her but change its mind about what it was going to say.
She wasn't paying full attention to the interplay between the Yautja, she kept coming back to the one hunter who was adamantly opposed to her being part of this hunt, at least if she wasn't part of it as prey. She wasn't sure why it had taken such an irrational dislike to her, surely it had understood why she had warned it that first time they'd encountered each other? She had a sudden flash of insight, and lifted the fingertips of one hand to feel the scar on the forehead of her mask the Elder had marked into the metal there. She was blooded, and it wasn't! And even back at that first meeting, she had just killed two kainde amedha, when it had yet to kill even one yet. It was jealous?
Inwardly she shrugged. She wasn't going to let it bother her – she had an Elder waiting to hunt her, and she knew she had just taken a very large step towards being considered ready for that hunt to begin. An unblooded Yautja with a bruised ego was the least of her worries.
-
-
They moved quietly, surprisingly so for their seeming bulk. The only sound to give them away could have been the soft swishing of the black fabric wrapped tightly around their legs as they ran quietly towards their target, but even in the calm night air and stillness it was still impossible.
As they reached the door, they paused, readying themselves for their assault. The leader's eyes looked out from between the strips of cloth that enclosed his head, leaving only a band of skin coated in dark paste beneath visible from eye to water-soft-blue eye. Without a word or gesture, they were ready, and moved. One of them pulled the door open, quickly but not jerking, and the other three filed in at a run, balancing on the balls of soft-shoed feet.
The two men inside looked up in amazement, but barely registered they were under attack before they fell, one with three small metallic discs embedded deeply in his chest, the other twisting downwards, a thin line of blood beginning to seep through the rent in his clothing, and body, that traveled from one shoulder to the opposite hip. With care, two of the men caught the falling guard, a third taking hold of his slung shotgun, lowering it all to the ground gently.
Acting as one, the four figures in black started down the corridor that led deeper into the building, the three that had ensured the body didn't make noise enough to alarm the others reaching over their shoulders to draw long silvered swords, cousins to the one the fourth held and had used to cut into the guard. Reaching an intersection, the four split up into pairs, and began hunting their prey for the night.
One pair entered the fence's room, to find him with customers – three teenagers, two guys and a girl. They didn't hesitate as they ran past the teenagers, and all three fell before they even knew the black garbed men were in the room, wondering what had happened. The fence reached for the gun under the counter, but he was too slow, much too slow, as the blade of one of the attackers came down and impaled through his hand and into the counter beneath it. As he opened his mouth to scream in agony, the sword wielder drew a short dagger with his other hand then stepped around, plunging the blade into the back of the fence's neck until the tip cut through his adam's apple and windpipe to come out his throat at the front.
The fence dropped like a stone, and the man made as if to pull the knife out by the simple expedient of cutting sideways through the neck when his compatriot hissed a quiet note, and he caught himself, slowly pulling the blade back out instead. He pulled the sword blade clear of the counter, releasing the man's hand to fall limply to the ground by his side in a widening puddle of blood, then both men in black turned and left the room without a backwards glance.
The other pair headed quietly up the stairs, until they came out onto a landing with doors running down either side, groans of passion (or of pain) coming from behind many of them. Methodically, they began to work their way through the rooms, one either side of the corridor – opening the door quickly then running in, their blades falling once, twice in each room, a killing stroke each time. By the time they reached the end of the corridor, their dark clothes hid large bloodstains, their hands tinted scarlet in the pools of light from the overhead bulbs.
The assault of the four men was so sudden, so violent, and so efficiently executed, that still not one voice had been raised in alarm, nor had there been any sounds out of place. This was a necessary factor as the four of them met up once more before reaching their final objective.
Given warning, the occupants of the last room could make it impossible for them to complete their mission successfully, and worse, risked there being witnesses to their attack. Stalking silently down the corridor to their final objective, the leader reached into the folds of his clothing and pulled out a small flat object. One of the others produced a small spray can, and as they reached the door began to spray a thin bead of foam around the frame. When the bead was complete, he pressed a small box up against part of the rapidly solidifying foam and depressed a button, and they split up either side of the door.
The crack of the explosion deafened those inside the room that they didn't hear the crash of the door hitting the ground. Their silence was encouraged a second later as the leader tossed in the hockey-puck shaped device he'd produced, and it detonated adding more shock to their abused eardrums, as well as flash blinding them with the intensity of light that accompanied the blast. Bleeding from their ears, the hapless victims inside were no challenge for the attackers, and fell inside seconds to the razor honed edges of the attacker's swords.
They retraced their steps through each room, taking the small daggers they all carried and driving them through the back of the neck of their victims, before reaching into their mouths with pliers to wrench loose the incisors, placing them in bags each had for the purpose. They had left no-one alive, and by the time they had finished, all of the corpses had the same cut in the back of their necks, and were missing their incisors.
As quickly as it had started, the attack was over, the four men vanishing into the darkness of the street outside.
