Chapter 16: Depth of Despair.
Tik eleth finished her writing after they'd had a delicious breakfast, it continued to surprise her just how well this male of hers could cook, this was one of the things that she wrote down in her diary, she was determined to get down every little thing that she learned about her beautiful male, then suddenly she noticed that Ack was dressed and was getting his weapons together, "Where are you going Ack?" she asked, he looked down at his hands which held the big projectile rifle before looking back at her,
"Well since when I was injured it was Tik hunt Ack rest, now you're injured it's Ack hunt Tik rest" he said smiling at her, immediately Tik went to get out of the bed and to get her amour, that was till two ooman hands planted themselves on her broad shoulders and Ack's rugged face appeared in front of hers,
"I can hunt!" she declared defiantly looking into his eyes only to be met with an equal measure of defiance in his,
"Of that I have no doubt my love, but you're also injured, you don't have to do everything yourself anymore, I am here now and we're a team, so today while you rest and get your strength back I'll go and hunt to get us some food" he said with a defiant tone in his voice. Tik eleth growled at Ack in a defiant tone but she also knew he was right and it would be nice to take a break for once, so reluctantly she gave in and relaxed herself, Ack nodded at her smiling, but before he managed to stand back up she grabbed his shirt and pulled him forwards forcefully.
Jack was caught off guard by the surprise kiss that Tik pulled him into and it kind of reminded him just how strong the alien huntress was when she easily pulled him off his feet and into her waiting mandibles. After they parted Tik gave him a devious smile, "Come back with a bounty Ack you will need your strength" she said in a seductive tone hinting at the fact she was going to want a reward for letting him get his own way, he sighed and smiled at her shaking his head,
"I'll always have the strength for you my love" he said causing Tik to purr and click her mandibles happily as she laid back down on the bed, looks like that was the right answer, but as he looked over at the large naked purring huntress who was looking at him with an evil look in her eyes he got the distinct feeling he was going to need quite a few of those lizards.
As Jack stalked through the jungle he thought to himself that it might have been a good idea to ask Tik where those lizards tended to be, "Nope I had to be the big rough tough male didn't I?" he said to himself with a soft laugh under his breath, but then his thoughts drifted to his alien huntress again and he smiled, he couldn't believe just how surreal this situation was, he'd been kidnapped by big pissed off alien big game hunters to be hunted on a faraway planet and here he was completely head over heels in love with one of their own species who they also happened to be hunting, he couldn't believe how easily he'd just given up his entire life, his world, his home and everyone he'd ever known just for the chance to live his life with this woman, but then his smile widened when he thought that she'd done exactly the same for him, no woman had ever given up so much as an episode of their favorite TV show for him before, so to have found one willing to give up her life, her clan and her family just to be with him felt like nothing he could have imagined and he felt the love for her bloom in his chest like a rose, then suddenly he heard a voice and he snapped back to reality, he got into a crouch and listened, the voice was coming from his right but he couldn't tell what it was saying and he turned to see a rather large set of bushes, grinning he crawled up to the bushes and peered stealthily through them.
Stood in a clearing was tall Yaujta male, he was stood looking up at the sun as the rays beat down on him, he was wearing a golden armor over his shoulders and chest, from the back of his armor a long white flowing cloak billowed in breeze, he was armed with a completely white spear and his hunting mask was white as well, he was majestic looking and Jack couldn't help but be in awe of the figure before him, then suddenly the male turned to look right at him.
For what felt like an eternity the two warriors stared at each other in silence, Jack was wondering if he'd been spotted in his bush camouflage, then the male held out a hand and pointed at him, "Come Jack" he said in a deep gravelly voice that for some reason seemed to echo around in Jack's head, before he knew what he was doing Jack had left the bush and was standing next to the male, he couldn't remember moving though, it was like his body was on auto pilot.
The male turned and walked into the jungle with Jack in pursuit, there were a billion questions firing around in his head, but for some reason his mouth refused to let him ask a single one of them, all he did was follow as the male walked through the jungle, but something he noticed both sparked his curiosity and freaked him out, that despite the male's heavy footfalls sounding he noticed that he wasn't leaving a single track.
They walked for miles through the jungle in silence, then suddenly they just stopped right next to a small cave which was almost completely hidden from view by vines and greenery, the male pulled the vines apart and gestured to Jack to enter, before he knew what he was doing Jack stepped inside and the male let the vines drop behind him, "I have been watching you since you arrived here Jack, you are a fierce warrior and an honorable man, I have observed your actions and peered inside your heart and I judge that you are a man worthy of my great granddaughters love despite the fact that her clan would now see her as a disgrace, as I admit I once would have, but I know now that this is small minded and wrong and I Tan sel eleth am a man who is able to admit when he is wrong, love is universal and powerful and no-one has the right to tell another that their love is wrong, it is not limited to just one species and I know that no matter what you would die to protect her, you can ask no greater sacrifice of a male of any race than to die for the one he loves, I also see the love that you have for her as it burns around you like a great fierce white flame, it's like the wings of a great Falmax dragon cloaking you, it gives you great strength and power as her love for you gives her the same, your aura's are perfectly in tune with each other to the point where you are perfectly in sync with the other and I see that you will stand together against every odd the universe can throw at you both, so I judge you worthy to receive my gifts and I ask that you continue to protect my great granddaughter and keep her safe as she is my legacy" the male said in his deep echo filled gravelly voice, suddenly the words great granddaughter whirled around in Jack's head and he spun around to face the male, only to find himself alone in the cave, he looked around franticly but there was no sign of him.
Jack had a creeping fear run down his neck here as he felt that something was totally not right, but at the same time he had an odd sensation in his mind as well, it was like a door that had been forced closed had now burst open and strange new feelings and emotions flooded his mind, but he couldn't tell where they were coming from, but what he could tell was that they were not human, it forced him to his knees as he endured the rush, images of battles and of warriors in great armor fighting mighty foes flooded his mind, then there was the feeling of betrayal and of great pain, warriors in white armor stabbed in the back by unseen foes but these foes held great significance, but there was one he could see, it was a large female warrior dressed all in black and for whoever the emotions belonged to she held great significance, there was a feeling of betrayal but also of love, there was a massive fight between the remaining white warriors and the female in black, then there was images of this cave of pain and finally of release.
Finally, the imagery stopped and Jack's mind cleared, he slowly got to his feet and he wobbled unsteadily, as he leaned on the wall for support something caught his eye, there was a glint further into the cave and he moved towards it, every step felt like lead like he was wounded himself, he wondered if this was what the person whose emotions he'd just felt had felt when they'd crawled I here, then he found himself looking down at the body of a long dead Yaujta male, dressed all in white.
Heart hammering in his chest Jack stood frozen to the spot as he stared at the dead body of the male, somehow rather than becoming a skeleton it seemed to have mummified itself, it was a perfect match for the male he'd met who claimed to be Tik's great grandfather, the armor, the cape the weapons right down to the scar on his left top mandible that Jack had noticed when he'd first seen him, but that meant that the male he'd met had been a… no this wasn't possible, but yet here he was.
Leaning down Jack looked at the male's equipment, it was old but in near enough perfect condition, he wore twin golden looking wrist blades, there was a heavy looking dark metal sword about the size of a claymore from earth's past, on his hip was one of those plasma caster's that Tik used, but it had been turned into some sort of large caliber pistol with a twist grip, suddenly a voice boomed in his head, "Take it all and may it serve you well" it said causing him to jump, then he following it's advice he picked up the plasma pistol and turned it over in his hands, the second that his hand closed around the massive grip the gun powered up and Yaujta lettering flowed down the top of it, it was almost like the gun was happy to have a new owner, then another two things caught his eye, there was a massive white ornate spear to the body's left and next to it was some sort of launcher with a wide flat muzzle, so hooking the plasma pistol in his belt he picked them both up, as he gripped the spear it suddenly retracted into itself and became much easier to transport, the other thing looked like some sort of dart launcher with a collapsible stock on it, as he flicked out the stock a glowing holographic scope popped up on it and as he looked through it he was surprised by the level of zoom, that was when Jack decided what to do, he would honor this fallen warrior by taking his equipment and using it as the fallen warrior wanted, to protect the one he loved, so reciting verses from the soldiers prayer Jack began to slowly and carefully remove the weapons and armor from the body.
As he left the cave now weighed down with all these new but ancient weapons and armor he was still getting emotions that weren't his own flooding into his head, but the most definable one was a sense of profound happiness.
As he began to walk back to the cave he noticed something of to his left, then he suddenly heard scurrying and he froze solid, crouching down he moved closer to the noise, there were a set of large bushes between him and the source of the noise, so slowly and deliberately he pushed into the bushes and peered through.
What greeted Jack was a small watering hole with what had to be about twenty of those lizards that Tik seemed to like lounging around it, he grinned at this, was it better to be good or lucky? Pulling his dagger out of its sheath he prepared to strike, he didn't want to have to waste ammunition on these guys as he got the feeling he was going to need every round when they finally squared against those bad bloods, so with a roar that Tik would have been proud of he launched himself into the area of the watering hole and began stabbing at the confused lizards before they had a chance to react.
"Ten…Eleven…Twelve" Jack said to himself as he strung the dead lizards together, the damn things had been so startled by this knife wielding madman that had come screaming out of the bushes that they panicked and most of them had ended up wither trapping themselves in blind panic or running into each other. Jack finished stringing his catch together before he stood up and hoisted them onto his shoulder, he was being seriously weighed down by all the weapons armor and lizards he was carrying, it was going to be a slow trip home but a worthy one, he grinned as he thought about the strength these lizards were going to give him and he got the feeling he was going to need it for Tik's reward, but then something caught his attention, a tree over to his right suddenly rustled for no reason. Turning to face it Jack frowned, there was no wind so there was no reason for it have moved like that, at first he thought it might have been one of the escaping lizards, that was until he saw a pair of very unnatural glowing eyes on a branch about halfway up, instantly he recognized those eyes, it was the fucker that shot him with the damn dart gun.
Slowly Jack moved to place his catch down, he didn't want to give the invisible hunter an inclination that he'd seen it, he couldn't use the new Yaujta weapons as they were secured to him as they wouldn't fall off and in the pack he'd taken from the body, so he slowly turned on the spot and placed the lizards down and began pretending to look around himself as if he was still searching for the noise source, then quick as a flash he turned and brought his M203 up into the shoulder and with a quick trigger pull sent a 40mm grenade right at the tree where the hunter was hidden.
Just before the grenade exploded blowing the tree into matchsticks a large shimmer jumped from it into another tree, Jack instantly flicked the M203 into full auto and sprayed the canopy where he'd seen the shape go, the rifle ripped the canopy apart as it thrashed and kicked in his hands, "DIE MOTHERFUCKER!" Jack roared as he fired, then as the rifle clicked dry he turned and sprinted full tilt into the jungle, but not in the direction of the cave, given that he knew that they were hunting Tik there was no way in hell he was going to lead them to the woman he loved, so he headed off in the opposite direction as he tried to reload on the run.
As he ran he could hear branches snapping and the impacts of something very heavy jumping from branch to branch in the canopy, Jack knew that he had to alert Tik to the danger but he couldn't risk going near the cave as it would draw them straight to her, as he ran an idea occurred to him and he flicked the M203 onto its harness on his left, then with his right he reached over his shoulder and drew the AS50 around into his hands, then he stopped running and turned, he fired off five rounds in the direction of the latest moving branch and the massive gun tore the tree apart, but more than that the report of the massive rifle firing would have been heard from miles away, then Jack turned and ran again switching back to the M203 and trying to reload the grenade launcher, the smoking shell bounced off the ground with a metallic ping as he opened the chamber, he slapped another into it and clicked it shut just in time to see a second shape moving on him from his left, with a quick spin her turned and while still running drew a bead and opened up in a series of bursts at the shape, this time he didn't miss and spurts of bright green liquid sprayed from the shape as well as an ear splitting roar, "Catch this cunt!" Jack said as he stopped just long enough to level the M203, the grenade hit the creature square in the chest and exploded with and ear splitting crack, it turned the creature into a cloud of green mist, unfortunately Jack didn't have time to celebrate his small win as he felt something impact into the back of his neck, his stop had been all the other bad blood had needed to draw a bead on him and hit him with a dart, reaching behind him Jack tore it from his neck, but it was too late as he felt his legs and arms turn to mush again, "Ahhh fuck" he said as he collapsed to the ground and again found himself staring up at a large black shape just before the world went black.
Tik eleth lay on their bed of furs, she was smiling at the ceiling day dreaming of what she was going to do to Ack when he undoubtablely returned from his victorious hunt, she purred at the thought of him submitting to her desires for him and a soft growl issued from her throat as she thought about running her hands over that hard ooman body of his. Suddenly a noise broke her nice day dream and Tik eleth sat up, it had sounded like a distant explosion of some kind, curiously she got up and quickly dressed herself in her coverings, then she went to the entrance to the cave and opened it. Outside she crouched on the ledge and listened carefully to the winds and noises of the jungle around her, then she heard something unmistakable, five loud booming cracks issued from somewhere off to her left and she turned, only one thing she'd ever heard made that noise, Ack's rifle.
Tik eleth charged back into the cave and grabbed her amour and her mask, these were swiftly followed by her weapons, there was no way Ack would need to use a weapon of that size to bring down shimmer lizards, if he had resorted to using that massive weapon he was in trouble, plus she also knew that he only ever used that thing at long distance and for him to fire it five times rapidly like that it was all wrong, that thing could be heard from just about anywhere in this jungle and she knew that as he knew that he knew that she knew that too, it had to be a signal of some kind, but all that she cared about was that he was in trouble and he needed her help.
Tik eleth charged through the jungle at top speed, she was using the thermal vision of her mask to try and locate any sign of her mate but so far it had turned up nothing, she was heading in the rough direction that his shots had come from, from up in the trees she had a good view but so far nothing had caught her eye, that was until she saw a rather large thermal bloom off to her right. Turning to look Tik spotted that the ground appeared to be littered with small thermal signatures all over the place but it was almost like a trail, she jumped down out of the tree and he leg twanged painfully as she landed but she ignored it, looking down one of the little thermal signatures was right at her feet so kneeling down she picked it up and inspected it, it was one of the shell casings that the new rifle Ack had found on one of the dead oomans, she clicked her mandibles thoughtfully at this, given the way they were trailing away from her he must have been firing on the run, quickly she followed the trail and it took her to a small watering hole, there she instantly found a string of twelve shimmer lizards strung together to be carried, she knew that this is where he'd started out, frustrated that she'd followed the trail in the wrong direction she turned and rapidly headed out the opposite way, when there was a rather large gap in the shell casing trail she was able to follow Ack's heavy foot prints in the dirt of the ground, given how deep they were and the spacing indicated that he was being chased here, but given there was no damage to the trees around here she didn't know what by, well that was until she found what had caused the explosion she'd heard.
Firstly, she found a large shell casing that looked like it had come from Ack's grenade launcher, only a few feet away was a rather large thermal bloom that when she turned her thermal vision off to inspect it made her blood instantly run cold, it was Yaujta blood.
Sprinting over to it Tik eleth found a scene of devastation and also a leg. Tik eleth straight away knew that it was the bad bloods, they'd come back early after all, she also figured out that Ack had managed to hit one of the bad bloods with a grenade in the chest and the resulting explosion had torn him into a million pieces painting the trees and bushes around the area with a coating of glowing Yaujta blood, she couldn't help but smile at this knowing that her courageous mate had brought down one of his attackers in a rather spectacular fashion, but where was he? Resuming her tracking Tik eleth eventually found five much larger shell cases, this must have been where he'd fired the massive weapon to signal to her, that's when she saw it and her heart instantly sank, dropping to her knees she picked up the small black dart and noticed ooman blood on the tip of it, "No…no….no….no….no…no…NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she roared to herself in utter heart wrenching despair as the reality sank in hard and fast, the bad bloods had captured her life mate.
After a few moments of self-pity and genuine fear the likes of which she'd never even imagined possible before, the anger kicked in. Standing up straight Tik eleth balled her massive fists so tightly that she snapped the metal dart in two in her hand, this was rage the likes of which she had never felt before, sure she'd been angry before, angry at her peers for rejecting her, angry at her parents for ignoring her, angry at her siblings for lording over her, angry at their whole stinking society for its stupid rules and regulations and blindness, but this, this was something completely different, this was the sort of rage that made every animal that was surrounding her watching her actions run if sheer terror including the six Calibri wolves that had been tracking her. She wasn't going to run from these bad bloods, they'd taken the one thing that meant more to her in this life than life itself, she was going to hunt the pauks down and make them pay for what they'd done, and so help her goddess if they'd hurt Ack, then the vengeance they would taste would be felt by their entire blood line, she would tear every single one them apart with her bare hands till there wasn't a shred of them big enough to identify, she was going to get her ooman life mate back if it meant she had to kill this entire planet to do it.
The rage fueled a determination, quickly scouting around the area she found two sets of tracks as well as some cut vines, obviously they tied Ack up and had taken him with them, for what purpose she didn't want to think about, but it couldn't have been anything good, maybe they'd seen them together and had taken him to get information on her, or maybe they were going to use him as bait to lure her out, this made her stop and think for a moment, this would be a rather effective plan to bring her to them, it was bad blood mentality to use living bait like that, but that's what gave her an edge here, if she knew their tactics, then she could use them against them to her own advantage. Looking down she could see the stupid pauks had left tracks all along the ground as they'd carried Ack away, for the first time in a very long time Tik eleth engaged her optical camouflage and took to the trees, her body shimmered like a ghost in the trees, from up here she could easily follow the tracks of these bastards and with a small short prayer to the goddess to look after her taken love she began to move through the trees, this time it would be they who didn't see her coming.