Chapter 3

Betrayal and uncertainty

So, chapter three. I fear I will have to slow down at least a bit for a while. University exams and stuff like that. Anyway let's not annoy the public with my problems and let's immediately go to the story

As always I do not possess anything etcetera etcetera and I am not gaining a single penny from this.

Have a good reading.

Unknown planet, three hours after Aran's discussion with Lena

The external sensors of the ship flared into life, warning Aran that someone was coming near his vessel but this time the smuggler did not freaked out like the last time, because he immediately recognized the newcomers. They were Lena and the child, Raina. The child was positively glowering like a kid near an all you can eat buffet made of sweets while Lena was carrying on her back what looked like a decapitated deer of all creatures!

-How in the flying fuck is this possible?- asked Aran to himself -A deer? In an uncharted planet?- But such thoughts were quickly casted aside by Aran. He was not here for uncovering mysteries.

-Let's just go and greet them.-

The ship at this point was mostly repaired: the engines were fully functional, the deck clean and in pristine conditions and all the door controls again operational. The old lady, as Aran affectionally called his ship, was back in perfect shape and the analysis of her guest's blood was coming along nicely! Now he only needed to re ordinate all the scattered weapons and tools and to gain some time and deal with his new guests.

"Hello ladies!" Aran greeted them at the entrance of the ship with a huge smile plastered on his face "Glad you have finally made it and nice catch Lena! We will feast tonight!"

Lena simply acknowledged the compliment with a small nod but the child hugged Lena's arm in pride

"Mum is the best huntress of the island! Didn't you know stellar sir?" said Raina with a smile.

"Raina!" Lena scolded "It is rude to give nicknames to people, unless they are close friends. As I said his name is Aran." Aran laughed after hearing this small banter.

"No problem Lena!" quickly said Aran "Children will always be children and I am not offended. Come on, let's go inside. I have already repaired most of the ship; there are some little things here and there that I have to check but I am sure that tomorrow we will be able to depart for that Rabona you were talking about."

"Good" said Lena pleased by the notice "Then I will busy myself skinning and preparing the dinner that I have left out of your ship. I hope you do not mind roasted deer."

"I'm fine with that. Coming to you in a second!" replied Aran with a smile and resumed his work. After half an hour of work all his weapons, save a pistol on placed on his hip, were back on their respective lockers and well sealed and a delicious smell of cooked meat started invading the entire ship trough the external door. It was almost dusk once again when Aran finally went out from his ship, tired, sweaty but for the first time in days happy. The broken bodies of the four yomas had been dragged away by Lena and burned down in a bonfire some meters away from the ship, leaving only some purple stains on the terrain marking their passing. A large campfire surrounded by rocks had been prepared by Lena and Raina and large parts of the recently hunted deer were slowly roasting atop the roaring fire while his pelt hung near a home made wooden framework. The child, Raina, was playing with a piece of horn while Lena checked the meat once in a while and tended to her enormous sword with a sharpening stone. Next to them a small pile of dried wood was had been neatly stacked in a square, ready to be used during the night.

"Do you want to keep that pelt as a blanket?" Asked Aran while sitting near the campfire and waiting for the meat to be properly roasted.

"Yes, for Raina." simply answered Lena while tasting a morsel of the meat with her naked finger. How she managed to do it without burning her skin was a mystery for Aran.

"It is ready Aran." answered Lena after tearing a piece of it with a knife and giving it to Raina that happily started devouring.

"Take the piece you prefer."

"You are not eating?" asked a curious Aran. The girl simply smiled at him.

"You really have not any idea of what I truly am. Do not worry and just eat. I have already had my fill for today."

"But you have barely touched the deer!" replied an astonished Aran "You wanna make me believe that a simple taste is all you need?"

The girl sighted and stopped sharpening her sword

"Aran" said Lena with a quiet but commanding voice "Look at my eyes."

Aran did as ordered wondering what was the reason of such command. Not that he did mind looking at the girl's marvelous eyes, with their round pupils and golden irises….

wait, golden?

-What the hell?- thought Aran checking Lena's eyes and what he saw left him speechless: her once marvelous, human and silver eyes were now colored with a golden hue and possessed cat-like pupils. Veins started bulging near her face along with new muscles inside all her body. The transformation had occurred in less than a second and made Lena look more like one of the deranged creature previously killed rather than a normal girl but strangely the child did not looked scared in the slightest, only a bit annoyed.

"How….how...what are you Lena?" asked a flabbergasted Aran after finally rediscovering how to speak once again. The meat, at this point forgotten, laid down next to him at the mercy of the insects of the forest and for a second his hand grasped instinctively the butt of her pistol on his hip. Such fear however was unjustified, and the bestial transformation receded as fast as had emerged from the girl's face.

"Now you see?" said simply Lena at Aran without losing her composure after seeing the smuggler's reaction "People call me and my companions Claymore, in memory of our giant sword we use to hunt yoma and even worse creatures. This strength come from the fact that we Claymores have the flesh and the blood of a Yoma inside our bodies, something that make us tremendously powerful warrior but also totally change our bodies and souls. I can cut a tree with a single strike, move faster than a bird, eat a morsel of food and be filled for a day and regenerate lost limbs on a whim, but in exchange I have lost my humanity."

"This is not true!" cried Raina intervening in the discussion "We are not soulless monsters mum! You are not a soulless monster! Even the clergy and most of the people of Rabona now understand this, so why do you keep saying such ugly words mum?" The child was on the verge of tearing up and this prompted Lena to embrace her and whisper sweet words on her ears, giving Aran time to think. Judging by Lena's word her case was akin to medical manipulation. Someone had somehow found these creatures, these yomas, in this planet and discovered a way to mix them with normal human with interesting effect. It still did not explain the presence of fauna and flora native to Earth here of all places or the almost non existent level of technology but these were mere details at the moment.

"Are you the strongest one among your companions?" asked Aran prying information from her guest

"Me?" answered Lena "Oh no I am not! Not by a long shot! Do not get me wrong I am quite good when it comes to fighting, good enough to give the single-digit warriors a run for their money, but I still remain an average Claymore compared to many others. I cannot, for example, move so fast than everyone's eyes cannot catch you, or flying trough the battlefield without the need of wings. I Have a special ability, but right now it is unimportant. If you want more proofs, here" she lent him her enormous great sword. Aran tried to raise it but instead he almost tumbled down because of the enormous weight. Thankfully Lena was ready and quickly cached both him and the sword.

"It weight 20 kilograms at least and is quite difficult to use if you are not one of us."

"I see" reasoned Aran while catching his breath "And these abilities made you and your companions ill-received by the population?"

Lena's answer was a snort

"To put it very mildly Aran. I am surprised you are still here and not scared after knowing all of this."

"Well, I will lie to you by saying that I am not scared of you Lena" began answering Aran carefully measuring every word "But believe or not you are not the strangest thing I have seen in all my life. There are dozens of strange, bizarres creatures outside this island and this has educated me to not take everything for granted and also to accept, or at least trying to, other people for what they are. You are strange Lena, and dangerous, but I do not see you as the devil incarnate and, besides, I can defend myself better than you can think."

For once Aran was telling the whole truth: being a smuggler in the Terminus system meant that every single creature that he met, alien or otherwise, became at the smuggler's eyes a potential client or enemy (or merchandise some rare times) for him, no matter how hideous, brutal or insane they were. Why being racist or difficult when you can gain some credits after all?

The answer greatly pleased Lena that looked at Aran with surprised eyes. No one had ever talked to her in such a way, and she was relatively sure that his guest was not lying, at least not now.

"You are quite the openminded person Aran, is a shame that there are not many people like you. However right now we should focus on the meat before it overcook."

This phrase ratified the end of the discussion and both Raina and Aran wolfed down most of the meat all while Lena dried some of it for later and kept a watchful eyes for enemies. After a good half and our the deer had been thoroughly devoured and the fire almost burned out.

"Well, a better dinner than I though Lena. If you do not mind now I will re enter inside my ship and take a long nap. Wanna enter along with your daughter?"

"Thanks for the offer" politely answered Lena "But I saw only a single bed room during my exploration and I do not want to be a burden to you."

"Oh but this will not be a problem, I will simply sleep in the bed of the infirmary for this night."

-And find a way to subdue and wrap you in a nice package for T'Von in the meantime, my dear life saver.- concluded Aran in his mind

"If that is the case" then said Lena "Lead the way Aran, is your ship after all."

The trio went up and moved inside the ship, reaching after a brief walking Aran's bed room. For the entire stroll Raina admired the interior of the ship in marvel and asked non stop dozens of questions about his nature and how had it ben built, something that amused to no end Aran, and when they finally reached the bed room and Aran showed them how some systems like the lights worked both the girls looked at him as he was some sort of magician coming from the sky. Raina even started bouncing like a little kangaroo in pure glee.

"This is amazing mum!" said an amazed Raina "Smokeless lights, metal walls, a bed with silken blankets. I feel like a princess inside a castle!"

"It is quite luxurious." admitted Lena with a small grin "Thanks Aran. I will make sure to leave everything unspoiled."

"Do not worry about that" answered Aran with a shrug "Good night ladies, see you tomorrow." The smuggler left the two girl and went toward the infirmary. The last thing he heart from them was the voice of Raina asking if Lena could

"Buy the magic shiny light for her." followed by a sharp no!

-Children!- though Aran idly.

When the smuggler entered inside the infirmary he immediately closed the doors and activate trough his omni-tool a particular camera placed inside his bed room, making sure to be warned in case on of his guest decided to walk away without telling him. Satisfied with these precaution Aran started checking the analysis did by the computer. What he found was a confirmation of what Lena had said to him just one hour ago and the smuggler almost bounced with joy: Lena's blood showed various genetic mutations similar to ones that the young smuggler had seen inside some really fucked up Krogan warlords of the Blood Pact; increased cellular regrowth, increased strength, new particles never seen inside a normal human body and last but not least some kind of dark red viscous substance that flowed alongside with her blood and seemed to have the capability to force the blood to be pumped faster inside her body.

Whoever had made such a work inside Lena's body, judging only by this preliminary analysis of his quite weak computer, was a genius; or a mad man. Probably both.

-But this madness will save me- though Aran on cloud nine -Now how can I incapacitate her?-

This proved to be quite the challenge: Aran tried dozens of simulations in the course of two hours, trying every possible tranquilizer that he possessed inside his ship's storage room but every single one of them ended up literally devoured in less than ten seconds by an immune system even stronger than a krogan's one! Aran was not a biologist so he did not even tried to modify one of his tranquilizers substances, opting instead for using a poison and forcing the girl's body to stop somehow, even at the cost of killing her if necessary. After all Lena had just said to him that there were others like her in this planet so in case of the worst possible scenario he would have simply found another of this -Claymore- in that Rabona city she was talking about and brewed a plan to fetch another one.

After two other hours of long research Aran finally found what he was looking on: a particular toxin molecule fashioned by the Hanars and, luckily, in his possession. Aran had after all bought every single poison and tranquilizer even existent in the galaxy in preparation of such a task. The toxin was strong enough to be diffused trough air and he possessed enough of such substance to flood the entire ship whit it, something that Aran immediately decided to do after remembering how strong was Lena. Better be safe than sorry after all.

Aran looked at the watch and the camera installed inside his omni-tool, it was half past two a.m. and both her guests were deeply sleeping inside the room, Raina in the bed covered with blankets and Lena near one of the walls using her giant sword as a pillar and support for some reason. They were both unaware of his plans and Aran wanted to be sure it remained that way. Slowly, making sure to make no loud noise, Aran walked inside the engine room and clocked a button in his omni-tool. In response a panel of the room quickly and silently moved back to show a peculiar room impossible to find with conventional scans, his own storage hall where he stockpiled what he needed to smuggle. It was a small quadrangularly shaped room entirely covered in titanium and distorters, dimly illuminated and devoid of any furniture. Right now it was mostly empty, just some boxes filled with ammunitions and poisons in a corner and five cages placed in the center. They were standard cages used by batarian slavers, made with reinforced steel and barely able to contain a grown man. Inside each of them two pairs of manacles were ready to restrain whatever unlucky person ended up inside them in a vice grip and keep them pinned on the cage's floor. Aran quickly prepared one of said cages and took a gas mask and a five vials filled with a purple liquid, the toxin he wanted to use it. He then quickly went to the helm's room, the only one possessing an armored door that Lena was apparently unable to break open and sealed himself inside it.

Sweat was now copiously falling down from his face; he was about to finally be able to come back from T'Von, assuming that everything would have worked as intended, and maybe even became rich! That bastard of a Turian had told him that he would have handsomely payed him in case of success.

Aran opened the interface of the vital support and injected two of the vials full of toxins inside it.

"Warning, the substance just injected is highly dangerous. Proceed with circulation anyway?" said the computer's monotonous voice.

-Of course baby!- though Aran while putting on the gas mask. He clicked the button and the toxin immediately started flooding the ship. A second later he blocked every single door inside the ship.


Lena immediately opened her eyes in fear, all the cells of her body screaming at her that something wasn't right! For the Claymore it felt like she had closed her eyes just a moment ago; with her daughter so excited that almost refused to sleep and her own curiosity that made her remain awake for a big part of the night thinking about this Aran person that he had just met Lena found herself passing dozens of minutes reflecting about the recent events. There was something fishy in Aran, the way he refused to talk about how he managed to kill three yoma by himself and the strange glint that he spotted in his eyes when he thought she was not looking at him were quite strange and honestly disturbing. In another circumstances Lena would not have accepted his offer of sleeping inside his strange ship, but these were hardly normal circumstances and Lena reasoned that if the construct where she was currently sleeping was truly a ship (and after seeing all the marvel inside it she decided to be cautious about it) then she could not afford to lose Aran not even for a second. Besides when Lena offered him her great-sword she in truth did this just to check if Aran was stronger than he looked, an experiment that ended in a big no. He was a simple human, so what was his secret and how could he stop an experienced Claymore like her?

Lena went up immediately scanning the room in search of something amiss. The place was spotless, Raina was sleeping peacefully in the bed and the sword behind her. The only thing slightly out of place was the air, strangely thick.

-Maybe the air is now stale because there is not a single window inside this room?- though Lena slightly worried

-Maybe I should open the door just to be sure.-

The Claymore went toward the door but all of a sudden she tripped on her own leg and fall down flat on her face with an audible thud.

-What in the goddesses's name- Cursed Lena while trying to stand up again only to discover that her lung had just stopped working!

-Shit, shit, shit!- cried silently Lena in rage and pain – Poison! But I am Claymore for the goddesses's sake! I cannot be defeated by a simple poison!- The girl flooded her body with yoki in the desperate attempt to forcefully open her lungs and defeat the toxin that was killing her but to her astonishment despite increasing her yoki percentage to 40% her lungs remained firmly shut! Whatever poison was now flooding the room was able to bypass her yoki powers, albeit at a slow rate.

His body started becoming heavy and weak and strange black dots appeared on her eyesight. She was quickly becoming too weak to move, let alone fight back.

"No….i must not….fall asleep." she said in a weak, hoarse voice while desperately trying to use her arms as canes. With a titanic effort Lena managed to come back on her feet and reached the door with small, wobbling steps. The door was barely one meter away but for Lena felt as if they were hundreds. When he finally reached it shaky fingers tried desperately to open it, only to discover that said door was firmly shut! If she still had some doubts about Aran's treachery now there were none. The door had been left wide open before she went to sleep.

The poison had at this point invaded the room, blocking the view and shrouding the entire room with a heavy, green mist. Lena felt something stumbling down on the floor and a faint voice calling for her

"Mum" it was barely audible but it was clear who was the owner of the voice and this managed to let Lena enter in a frenzy.

"You will not kill my daughter you bastard." roared Lena with newfound strength. Without hesitation the girl reached the 70% of yoki power and started pummeling the steel door with every ounce of strength she got. The door buckled and groaned under the brutal pressure while the toxin fought against enormous quantities of yoki coupled with sheer stubbornness.

A particular heavy blow destroyed part of the external layer of the door along with most of Lena's left fist skin, showing dented metal and strange cables and Lena immediately grabbed the now partially broken door with both hands and started pulling with all the strength she possessed, making the metal groan and creak under the unexpected pressure. Thirty agonizing seconds passed before the door collapsed with an audible snap and fell down along with the now heavily mutated Claymore and an animalistic howl of joy erupted from the girl's tortured lung. Such howl was short lived when Lena noticed that the strange green mist had also invaded the corridor of the ship, meaning that all her effort had only allowed more poison to enter inside the room. That proved to be the last nail in the coffin for Lena, and the entirety of her body simply stopped working while the yoki previously recalled receded inside her soul, incapable to maintain the fight against the venom that was killing her lungs. Lena defiantly tried to crawl away from the corridor but the arms refused to respond.

"This….is the….end." whispered a defeated Lena "Raina….Anastasia….i'm….sorry."

After a last, raspy squeal Lena's body finally slumped down, her brain turned off. She had been defeated.


"Yes, fucking YES!" cried a super happy Aran inside the helm's room. The entire ordeal lasted less than three minutes, but they had been the longest minutes of Aran's life as long as the smuggler was concerned. The computer had estimated that Lena would have lasted for less than one minutes under the attack of so many toxic agents and would not have been able to move in any way, shape or form. Instead the girl had endured the attack on her lungs for three long minutes and somehow managed to utterly destroy the bed room door using only her bare fists! The cameras had recorded the face of the girl some seconds before collapsing down and Aran could genuinely say that the mutated aspect of Lena was one of the scariest things he had seen in his entire life! She appeared more similar to a raving beast than a human being. Thankfully she was now properly sedated but still alive, ready to be shipped away from this strange planet and brought back to T'Von in a nice package like a christmas gift, the poison had in fact managed only to make her faint without killing her; a testament of the girl's resistance.

Aran quickly vented outside of the ship the remaining poison still lingering inside the system and quickly went to the place where Lena had fainted. She quickly found her, lying powerless and beautiful near the broken remains of the door, barely breathing. The view of the girl that had saved him just one day ago in such a state almost managed to made him reconsider his idea of placing in one of the cage but Aran's callous brain quickly squashed this thought. It was too late to reconsider what he had done. Just a second before dragging the unconscious body of the Claymore toward her new cell Aran noticed something else: the child was also still alive; she was also barely breathing and in pain, but alive.

"Now what to do with her?" mused Aran. He could trow her out of the ship and leave her to die in the wilderness, practically condemning her to death. She could also shoot at her and be done with it. Both ideas were quickly dismissed when Aran remembered about the insane display of strength just showed by Lena and devised a way to keep her quiet during the travel. A way that involved the child.

Aran quickly dragged both the child and Lena inside his storage area and locked them inside two cages far away from each other. Heavy strap were placed in their ankles and wrists, making sure that escape was impossible for both of them and when Aran felt sure about his work he began modifying the cage where he had placed Raina. It was not a complicate modification, just placing a few cables here and here, and establishing a wi-fi connection with Lena's cage in such a way that if Lena would have tried to break the manacles holding her in place with her superior force a jolt of electricity would have it the child's body. If Lena really cared about that child as much as she shoved during these hours then she would not have dared to test the limit of this security measure.

After half an hour of diligent work Aran had finally finished securing both his new prisoners in the way he wanted, all without having any of them awakening. Their vitals were still stable though and that was all Aran cared right now.

-I did it!- kept repeating his over excited brain -I finally did it! I can go back to Omega and save my arse!-

He even took a bottle of whisky from his personal storage place before re entering inside the helm's room.

"Well, these were an interesting couple of days." said Aran before reaching the control panel of the helm "But now it is time to go. To you Aran!" he uncorked the bottle of whisky and drank a long sip from it "The luckiest bastard in the Terminus Systems!"

He then placed the bottle away from him and started the engine sequence of the ship, that answered his commands with a low and reassuring hum. He was ready to depart

"Farewell insane planet! Thanks for the gift!"

With a thunderous rumble the small ship activate its engines and slowly departed from the ground, scorching and destroying anything near its positions. For some, long seconds the ship remained still, kept flying just above the trees thanks to its potent thrusters; then after a loud and sudden roar the ship raised itself and flied with blinding speed toward the sky.

The only things left behind it were a burned out deer pelt, a big crater, some still-burning trees and patches of charred bushes. No one would have ever managed to guess what truly happened down here.

Inside Aran's ship. Some hours later

"Oh goddesses! My head!" groaned a very dazed and tired Lena. Foggy eyes tried to focus once again and tired limbs stretched themselves in a vain attempt to regain some form of sensibility...or at least they tried to do it and got stopped by a rattling sound and a force that pinned them in place.

"What the hell!" said a stupefied Lena, now totally awake and conscious. She tried once again to free her limbs from whatever was keeping them in place but once again failed and this time her dazed eyes noticed why: a pair of strong manacles were tightly wrapped around both her wrist; her ankles were suffering of the same problem effectively pinning her on the floor and, after taking a quickly look on her surrounding, Lena noticed that she was also looked inside a cage!

Memories of everything that had just happened crashed inside with the strength of raging bull: the meeting of Aran, the small chats, the offering of sleeping inside the ship, the green poison running throughout the ship…..she had been fooled and now she was a prisoner!

-Fucking bastard!- cursed Lena under her breath -I should have knocked him out and drag him to Rabona in the first place!-

Lena had never managed to discover this particular part of Aran's ship, so despite looking left and right (a rather difficult task considering that the manacles forced her to remain in a supine position) she did not managed to understand where she was; the lack of illumination did not helped her either. One thing that Lena noticed however was the fact that the room was slightly shuddering, as if moving throughout the sea or a very flat and smooth terrain. So Aran's construct was some kind of ship after all.

Lena was still trying to understand where she was when a small whimper stopped Lena's investigation, a child whimper coming from another cage far away from her. Lena's blood frozen on the spot: she knew that voice.

"Raina! Is that you?" cried a worried Lena while trying desperately to stand up as much as possible despite her current prediction.

"Mum….what is going on mum? Where are we? Why are we chained? Where is Mr Aran?! I am scared!" cried Raina clearly on the verge of tearing up. Lena snarled after hearing these words; now Aran had done it: kidnapping her was one thing, but kidnapping also her daughter and making her weep in fear was unacceptable!

-Aran, pray whatever cursed gods you believe that they kill you right now, because when I shall manage to free myself I will find you and I will make you regret being alive.- thought Lena with rage.

"Stay calm Raina, these chains cannot hold a Claymore like me. Soon I will be free and ready to assist you, just hold on!" said Lena with conviction. Her word managed to calm down Raina, albeit just barely. Lena on the other hand immediately started working on the chains that were keeping her down. Small quantities of yoki started flowing inside her veins, making them bulge and brim with power. Both wrist manacles started groaning when Lena's yoki infused wrists started applying pressure on the metal, and a small smile creeped on Lena's face; soon she would have been free from the manacles and ready to destroy the cage with her bare hands, the metal was already giving up. Just another push and

"Aaaaaahh!" screamed Raina in pure agony. Lena immediately stopped her work and looked at her daughter's direction in fear. What was going on?

"Raina! What is the matter? Please answer me!" asked a terrorized Lena

"The chain" answered Raina between agonizing breaths "The chains are hurting me!"

"What, how is this possible?!" asked to no one in particular a dismayed Lena. How could a chain actively hurt a person? It was impossible! Nothing short of witchcraft!

An ever more worried Lena started tugging the manacles with even greater strength, not caring with finesse and only wishing to be quickly free but just when the metal was again on the verge of breaking down Raina screamed once again, this time even more violently.

"Mum" said Raina inside her cage "The chains hurt me every time you force your bonds."

"You cannot be serious Raina, this is not possible!" replied a dismayed Lena

"But they are! Two times you tried to free yourself and two times the chains attacked me!"

Lena did not want to believe such a think, but the truth was that she knew nothing about Aran and this strange ship despite her research. Had not Aran said just some hours ago that he was much more dangerous than he looked? And if they were really inside a flying ship then maybe that bastard could also animate chains and order them to attack people.

-This mean that I cannot free myself, unless I want to put Raina's life on the line.- bitterly concluded Lena. Aran had really thought of everything.

"If what you say is true" said Lena with a broken voice "Then I cannot free myself Raina. I am sorry."

It was too much for the poor child that immediately had a meltdown and started crying without stop, a sound that broke Lena's heart in thousands of pieces.

"What will happen to us now mum? What are we gonna do?" asked a desperate Raina between sobs.

"I do not know" answered Lena with a hair's breath "By the twin goddesses I do not know."

So…..third chapter. I hope I have managed to satisfy even a single person with my story. For whoever is curios I decided to create my own Claymore because the known ones are

A: too strong or too weak (Seriously Miria at the end of the Manga is a one-man army while the most of the other of the latest generations are quite….pathetic, albeit with some notable exceptions like Anastasia)

B: they have their own characterization and this force me to follow a certain behavioral pattern. I am not so good at writing, especially in a foreign language. An OC grant me much more freedom.

Lena, for the record, is a defensive type and her special ability is….a surprise.

Hint: in a way is similar to Dauff's body