Chapter 24: His Mother's Son.
Ryan roared loudly as he squared off against the pack of Calibri wolves daring them to make the first move, they glowed deep red and bright yellow through his hunting mask as they circled him, he held his traditional staff with both hands in the way that him mother had showed him many times, his stance allowed him to move in any direction quickly depending on which of the cursed wolves struck first, it was the pack leader which was the largest of the five wolves circling him that jumped at him first, with a quick side step and a flourish Ryan slammed the sharp bladed end of the staff into the side of the jumping wolf's head killing it instantly, the next to spring forwards was the pack beta or second in command, this one met an equally swift end as he spun on the spot and twisted the staff with a quick flick of his wrists, the staff slammed into the wolf's jaws from underneath puncturing its skull and popping out of the top of its head, quick a quick yank he pulled the staff clear, he snarled at the three remaining wolves that were circling him, at the loss of both their alpha and their beta the other three figured out that they'd bitten off more than they could chew with this prey and as one they turned into the jungle and fled for their lives.
"Yeah you'd better run cowards!" Ryan yelled after the retreating wolves, then looking down at the two corpses at his feet he decided it would be prudent to take a trophy or two from their bodies, it was only right that their sacrifice be acknowledged as well as his victory, he took a tooth from both the alpha and from the beta and pocketed them, he looked around himself now at the foreboding jungle in every direction, he couldn't understand what the hell was going on, one minute he'd been in his bedroom with his sister then the next thing he knew he was falling from the sky attached to a parachute, it reminded him of the story that his father had told him of how he'd met their Matriarch.
He looked around himself, could this be the very same jungle in which they'd met? Did that mean that this was some sort of test? Then as he turned around trying to decide in which direction to head he got the shock of his life, there was a small game trail leading into the jungle and stood in the middle of it was an ooman female.
She had long blonde flowing hair and pinky white skin like his father, but she had the most beautiful green eyes he had ever seen.
She was wearing some sort of white flowing dress that seemed to billow around her despite their being no wind, she seemed to be in her mid-twenties and therefore a fair bit older than him, she smiled at him before beckoning him to come with her hand, Ryan stood there in total shock at this beautiful female beckoning him, he walked towards her slowly but as he did she faded from sight and he stopped and rubbed his eyes with his hands before looking again, instantly he spotted her again a bit further down the trail, this time he ran towards her faster as she seemed to be walking away from him down the trail, she wasn't even armed with so much as a stick to defend herself which in this place was utter suicide.
"Hey wait!" Ryan called as the woman disappeared again only to reappear further down the trail, he didn't know what the hell was happening here but something told him to follow this strange female, so he charged on towards her but every time he got close she would disappear only to pop up further ahead of him, he actually found himself beginning to enjoy the chase and it was almost becoming like a game to him seeing how close he could get to her each time before she disappeared, then after what felt like an hour of sprinting through the jungle the ooman female appeared right in front of him which caused him to slam on the brakes but it was too late and he held out his hands to protect himself from the collision but it never came she just disappeared like a puff of smoke in the breeze, but he still hit something solid and bounced off landing hard on his back.
When he stood up dusting himself down he turned and saw the ooman female silently giggling at him, "Well I'm glad you find that funny" he grumbled, then suddenly he heard another voice that sounded like it was laughing at him but he couldn't figure out where it was coming from, he looked around himself in confusion before returning his attention to the ooman female who was standing there looking at him with a happy smile on her face.
"That wasn't you was it?" he asked confused, she shook her head and then pointed upwards into the tree that he'd run into, he looked up but saw nothing, well not at first anyway, then he saw a shimmer on one of the branches above him, given that he didn't have a wrist comp he couldn't cycle through his mask's view modes and it was locked on thermal, so although he couldn't see the object in the tree properly he could see the two marks it was making on the tree limb on which it was perched, quickly he dropped into a fighting stance drawing his staff, "Who is there? Identify yourself!" he challenged never taking his eyes off the shimmer, which as soon as it realized it had been spotted jumped down from the tree causing the dirt and leaves where it landed to kick up slightly, glancing around himself to make sure he had room to fight Ryan began to circle his invisible opponent and judging by the hot spots on the ground where the creature's feet were planted he saw that they were in a stance as well, suddenly it spoke,
"Who are you?" it said in a soft growling voice, but not in his tongue, it was speaking in perfect Yaujta.
Ryan was surprised by this but his matriarch had taught him her native language singe he and his sister were pups so they both spoke, read and wrote it as well as she did, which was more than could be said for their father who still struggled with it at times which was a constant source of amusement for his matriarch, he found himself deciding whether or not to answer the figure, "I asked you a question and I demand an answer!" the figure snarled, but Ryan was sure that he heard a distinctly feminine tone in the voice despite the aggression, he was about to answer but a sudden roar to his left snapped his attention to that spot, out of the bushes a huge feline with massive tusk like teeth and six legs burst into the clearing, it was covered in bright red fur that made it look like it was on fire and it's jet black eyes filled Ryan with dread, he remembered his matriarch telling him about these creatures from her time on the world where she'd met his father, she had called it a fire tiger and they were supremely deadly opponents.
Ryan instantly switched his attention to the massive cat and while holding his staff in his left hand he used his right to reach behind himself, the massive cat began to circle him slowly and he moved with it never taking his eyes off the massive feline, it was easily three times his size and pauk knows how much heavier than him, it's huge claws at the ends of its massive paws were fully retracted and looked sharp enough to cleave through bone with ease, with a sudden flurry of speed and power it charged at him and jumped into a pounce, this was the move Ryan had been waiting for, with a sharp left roll Ryan used a move his matriarch had shown him and at the right moment sent his smart disc straight upwards and into its abdomen, he huge cat roared in pain and when it landed it spun on the spot and charged again, the move had injured it yes but it seemed to have pissed it off more than that, then as it charged it seemed to change direction at the last moment it swiped not at him but at the invisible creature to his left and the swipe contacted with a twang and a screech as the claws his the metal of armor, but the force was more than enough to knock the creature off its feet and send it flying into the underbrush, which instantly disabled its cloaking device, to his utter surprise what appeared to be a Yaujta with jet black skin bounced up out of the underbrush and roared loudly at the massive feline.
Ryan stared at the Yaujta for a moment before realizing that he was looking at a female, she was young probably only about his age but he could see that she was a bit taller than him, but her feminine curves and slender body gave her away, "What the pauk are you staring at! Keep your eyes on the pauking cat!" she yelled at him loud enough to snap him out of the trance he'd gone into, he shook his head and focused his attention back on the fire tiger,
"Right" he said retaking his fighting stance, the female Yaujta moved left so he decided to move right, now it was the cat that was trapped in between them, suddenly with a roar the female charged right at him and jumped with her twin wrist blades extended, she intended to get on the creatures back and surprise it, but that didn't work as the cat spun on the spot and swatted her to one side leaving three massive cuts on her stomach, she howled in pain and the cat instantly responded by slamming a massive paw down on her body pinning her down, the female fought and swung at it with her wrist blades but the cat dodged her attacks easily before grabbing her wrist in its mouth, it was about to bite down and crush her arm when suddenly the side of its head nearly exploded outwards, while all of its attention had been focused on the stricken female Ryan had got around it's blind side and had launched his staff right at the side of its head with all of his strength.
The hit was fatal and the massive cat released the female's arm and moved in a sort of drunken pirouette before falling flat on its side, after pulling his staff free from its head he clicked it back into its carrying form and he turned, then he approached the female who was still laid on her back but was now looking at him, he offered her a hand to pull her up, she looked at it for a moment and clicked her mandibles angrily that she'd had to be saved, but she accepted the hand and he pulled her to her feet, now that the cloak was deactivated and she was right next to him he could see the height difference, she was about half a foot taller than him, "A shared victory" he said which caused the female to snap her attention from the fallen cat to him, she was obviously angry about something,
"Shared? That was your victory, my failure caused it to almost kill me" she almost spat at him, he heard the embarrassment and rage in her voice he shook his head,
"Not true, if you hadn't distracted it like that then there's no way I'd have been able to get close enough to blind side it like that, so if you hadn't done what you did with that rush attack I'd have never been able to get close enough to land a killing blow, so therefore it was a joint effort and therefore the honor and victory is shared" he said with a defiant tone in his voice, she eyed him carefully under her mask and clicked her mandibles thoughtfully at this,
"Very well a shared victory it is then" she said, then she turned and looked at him, she noticed that he was looking at her stomach and she glanced down herself, there were three large wounds across her stomach where the cat's claws had sliced through her skin,
"We'd better treat those" he said, she nodded and reached behind her back and produced a small silver medical kit like the ones his matriarch had shown him, she moved over to the massive tree that she had been sat in before he ran into it, then she sat down and opened the kit, "You never did answer my question" she said looking up at him as she prepared her tools, he realized that she was talking about when she'd asked him who he was,
"I am Ryan unblooded hunter of the proud clan Mason" he said beating his fist against his chest plate proudly, the female clicked her mandibles as she heard his name, it was a very strange name and it certainly not Yaujta, she was not sure that she trusted this strange male but he had fought alongside her with honor and he had even shared his victory with her so at least he knew honor which spoke well of him, so she decided to repay that honor,
"Greetings Ryan, I am Shena Black Crest unblooded huntress of the Shadow Claw clan" she said.
After she'd patched herself up Shena stood up and looked at her new ally, he was strange for a Yaujta, while he looked Yaujta there were obvious differences, for one he didn't have normal dreadlocks like her, his seemed to be made from some sort of brown colored fur that was tied into dreadlocks, next was his skin, while it looked like Yaujta it seemed to be smooth rather than the rough texture that she knew, when he'd pulled her up from the floor the smoothness of his hand had surprised her, there was also a difference to the way his body was shaped in that his torso stood slightly broader than his hips giving his shoulders a slightly larger appearance, it was like he was a Yaujta but at the same time it was like he was something else completely, right at this moment he seemed to be looking for something around the clearing they were in, "What's wrong?" she asked looking at him, he turned to look at her,
"She's gone" he said, this confused Shena, there hadn't been anyone else with her when he'd charged straight into the clearing and had run into the tree, then as she was about to ask him he stopped and seemed to be focused on a spot off to their left, she turned to look but there was nothing there but as she looked her visor went screwy, she tapped it and it righted itself, but as she looked back at the spot he was looking at it went screwy again, popping the valves on the respirator she pulled the mask from her face and then looked at it, there didn't appear to be any damage to it, then she looked back at the spot Ryan was looking at again, there was nothing there but at the same time she got a very odd feeling looking at that spot.
Ryan spotted the ooman female on the far side of the clearing, he watched as she walked slowly across the clearing towards them, "Who are you? What do you want?" he asked,
"Who are you speaking to?" Shena's voice came from right beside him, he wasn't sure when she'd moved but she was now standing right next to his side looking where he was looking, he glanced at her then double took as he realized she was no longer wearing her mask and he saw her face for the first time, his eyes locked onto her face, her face was narrow and very feminine, her skin was as black as the night sky, on her forehead was a tattoo in white ink in the shape of a claw, her eyes were bright silver and shone like quicksilver in her head, she was the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen, "What?" she asked looking around herself nervously as if he's seen something sneaking up on her, he shook his head to clear it,
"Errr nothing, but the ooman female please tell me you see her" he said, turning back to look at her, she was now halfway across the clearing and still heading towards them,
"Ooman female? What ooman female!?" Shena said turning to look where he was pointing, but she could see nothing, she turned back to him again,
"Your mask must be malfunctioning, there's nothing there, take it off and check it" Shena said, Ryan looked back at the spot where the ooman female was stood as she walked towards them, but he did as Shana asked and removed his mask.
Shena's eyes widened as Ryan removed his mask, he was like no Yaujta she'd ever seen, he had mandibles and bright purple eyes, but his face was vastly different to a normal Yaujta in its structure, on his forehead he had a clan tattoo but it wasn't one she'd ever seen before, it looked like two crossed rifles with some sort of winged dagger between them and a wreath around them, he had high cheek bones and what looked large sharp looking teeth under his mandibles as well as some sort of fleshy coverings over his teeth, in fact she only saw his teeth when the fleshy things retracted as he hissed at the mask as he looked for damage, she blinked a couple of times as she looked at this strikingly beautiful male stood before her and for some reason her heart began to pound in her chest, what the pauk was happening to her?
Then he looked back to the spot where she'd been looking before, "Nope she's still there in fact she's right in front of us now like less than six foot away" he said pointing, she glanced to where he was pointing but still saw nothing but then as she looked back to him he moved like someone was about to touch him and then to her utter disbelief he went totally ridged and his eyes flashed from purple to a striking ice blue and then onto a sharp emerald green, then his eyes began to cycle through the colors rapidly while he was frozen solid, she reached out to touch him, "Ryan?" she asked but as her hand made contact she got an electric shock and she pulled it back quickly cradling it, then he collapsed unconscious in front of her, "Ryan!" she said dropping to his side and she picked him up into her arms but he was all floppy and limp, what the pauk had just happened to him?
As soon as the ooman female's hand touched his cheek Ryan's mind was flooded with images, it showed his father on a mountain with the female he'd seen, he saw the female die, he felt her love for his father and his father's intense pain at her death, then it showed him meeting his matriarch and the joy from both of them, then it moved to their birth and it showed them cradling two babies that must have been him and his sister and he felt the pure unbridled joy and happiness of both his father and his Matriarch, then it showed their lives in a rapid scroll and whirlwind of emotions from all of them, till it brought them up to the point where they'd been kidnapped by the bad bloods, so that's what had happened, they had been taken from their home by criminals to be used as prey to be hunted to cause their parents pain and sorrow, then he got a flash of his parents now armed to the teeth and on board a ship, he felt the rage and determination from the pair of them, they were coming for them and nothing was going to stop them, that's when his mind overloaded and the last words he heard were 'Your Aunty Sandy loves you both dearly and will always watch over you' then everything went black.