"A lion does not become king of the jungle hunting mice."
― Matshona Dhliwayo, Canadian author and philosopher.
Twenty second Yuga, Yaksa calendar (1623 C.E. Earth Date). Unknown planet around Vasishtha (Mizar) system.
Coral broke under Rava'an's feet, tiny crabs fled into their lairs; he was walking along the beach of an interior salt sea, where the Kṛmiḥ lived. It was mainly a sea creature, but during mating season they left the shallow waters for the palm tree shade. There, they assemble in great numbers to mate.
He saw tracks on the sand, indicating a Krmih had crawled from the sea towards the jungle. "Must be near" he thought. The Krmih usually hid in caves until midnight, when the males would assemble in a clearing and fight for a single female. After that, the winner put the Hectocotyli on the female and fled. The trick was to collect the Hectocotyli after the male had won but before the female has a chance to absorb it.
Rava'an climbed a tall, leafy tree with thick foliage and waited for midnight. The Krmih was not the only dangerous creature that inhabited the planet; the Yaksa had introduced all kinds of beasts and plants from other planets for ritual hunts. The Krmih was one of them, along with the rare and lethal Dawon. He settled on a thick branch and secured himself to it, then covered himself with a fur robe. While he waited, Rava'an's thoughts drifted to Anu'sha.
Of course he could ask for Abhi'tha instead, the reddish-brown female was also desirable and came from a high ranked family, but Anu'sha was unique, not only by her beauty and fierceness, something with her was infatuating, every male near her experienced a sexual arousal.
Remembering Anu'sha's fragrance made Rava'an's zepha harden. That feeling intensified when he began to fantasize about her white robe sliding down, revealing well-turned and strong shoulders, on which there wasn't a single bite scar yet. Paya, he wanted to sink his teeth into her unblemished skin...
The Yaksa males used their four jaws to cling tightly to the females during mating, if it weren't because their skin was thicker there, the female could get hurt. While experiencing unrestrained pleasure, the female could enter a euphoric state in which they could throw the male, hurting them seriously.
Rava'an found that he was stroking himself and his face contorted when imagined her wet Yoln squeeze his throbbing zepha. Warm fluid spurted over his leg. No, he would have to learn to control their impulses, if that happened during the act, he would not only be the laughing stock of the other young warriors, but of the elders too, since a Yaksa should be able to act cold headed and control their emotions under any circumstances, be it in war or love.
He cleaned himself up and fell asleep in the tree.
- o –
It was midnight and the usually quiet jungle was filled with the noise and calls from nocturnal animals. A long, high pitched scream woke Rava'an from his slumber: "Krmih mating call" he convinced himself. "It is time"
He checked his equipment, as it was a test, it was basic: the metal twin wrist-blades, shoulder medikit and body mesh, a leather loincloth and his mask not only used to balance the mixture of atmospheric gases but also as a HUD that showed the information on the ground and computer tracking system. The Vajra, a hot plasma cannon weapon traditionally used on the left shoulder by the Warrior caste, wasn't valid during the test. Neither was the Maya, a cloaking device. The creatures inhabiting this planet were mostly nocturnal and could see through it. His weapons of choice were a pair of feet and a half long scimitar like daggers that hung from a holster on his back.
He rose on the branch and jumped onto the ground, a myriad of bioluminescent insects rose in flight like a bright cloud of green, blue and yellow phosphorescent tones; the call repeated itself again, not far southward, Rava'an ran towards the location.
The jungle became thicker, wet branches hit Rava'an on the face, but the trail was clear, the calling sounded louder now. The tracking device on his mask detected multiple scents from Krmih ahead; Rava'an climbed onto a tree and proceeded jumping branch to branch. He heard multiple callings and the sound of wood being broken, after moving the foliage aside; he looked in amazement at the scene in front of him.
In a clearing, there were three of the creatures, all male, fighting. Rava'an didn't see any female, but it had to be near, waiting for the winner. One of the males was far larger than the other two, twice the size of an adult Yaksa, its seven tentacles were longer than two Yaksa placed one over the other. The creature's skin was though, pinkish with multiple bio-luminescent spots all over its body. It was perched on a large mossy basalt boulder and two of its tentacles wrapped around a tree as it ripped it out with the roots, and then swung it against the other two Krmih.
The smaller of the two took a direct hit and was thrown against another rock at the end of the clearing, his bioluminescent blood splashed on nearby leaves and logs. The other creature stood on two tentacles and roared, showing his jaws to his rival, a mouth like a worm full of crystalline fangs. To Rava'an the gesture seemed strangely familiar; it was the Yaksa way of inviting to fight hand to hand, the custom possibly derived from observing these dangerous beasts.
The larger creature roared in turn and descended from the rock, it charged its opponent and entwined tentacles, ready to bite and tear the other apart. The smaller octopus-like creature bit one of the tentacles off, the larger creature roared in rage, it wrapped its remaining tentacles around the creature's head and tried to crush it, the creature struggled to break free, but he couldn't, then the bigger one loosened his grip and threw it right to the place where Rava'an was perched.
Rava'an barely avoided being crushed by the creature, for a second it hanged from the branch, seemingly unconscious. Rava'an was unsure of what to do; there wasn't any specific rule about how to obtain the Hectocotyli, everyone just assumed it has to be fighting with the creature, but seeing how vicious the creature was, taking any advantage given would not break the Yaksa honor code, which forbids attacking any unconscious or unarmed prey.
Before the beast couldn't recover, he hastened to cut off the tentacle, but when he tried to use the wrist-blades, they shattered, the same happened with the scimitars. Rava'an cursed; of course it wouldn't be that easy. He imagined his father laughing at the naivety of his son.
The Krmih opened its eyes and using a tentacle, hit Rava'an on his chest, he fell to the ground. The creature leaped over him, meaning to tear him into pieces, but the Krmih had forgotten about its rival. The larger creature caught it midair and wrapped it with his tentacles and brought it close to his snout, a large black hole full of fangs, sharp like daggers that tore the head of the smaller male, rendering its tentacles lax and the triumphant creature proceeded to consume his rival.
Rava'an took the opportunity to escape before the male noticed and climbed back to the nearest tree, his arm was bleeding from a fracture that happened when he fell.
-"This will be more difficult than I've imagined, now I'm unarmed." He contemplated "How in the name of the black warrior am I going to kill that creature?"
Below, the Krmih kept eating, throwing pieces of his rival all over the place, a piece of tentacle fell on the branch near Rava'an. He took it and examined the half eaten piece of flesh; along with the phosphorescent orange liquid was a thick whitish liquid with a pungent odor.
-"Damn, the Hectocotyli." He exclaimed. That was the intended trophy, but he couldn't show up with that half-eaten piece of meat full of saliva and who knows what else to Anu'sha's ceremony.
Once the creature had finished its meal and was gone looking for the Female, Rava'an descended from the tree. He lit a small fire and used his medi-kit to tend to his wounds. After he ate some of the travel food, dried meat crushed with some berries and fashioned a couple of spears with the shards of his scimitars, he turned its attention to the piece of tentacle.
It tested I's hardness, trying to stab it with a sharpened hardwood branch, then with a shard of volcanic glass and one of the crystalline fangs left among the leftovers, without any success.
-"Think Rava'an, honor your name" He thought. He was named after an ancient king famous for his wisdom and cunning.
The attack came suddenly and without any warning. A beast twice his size lunged towards Rava'an from a thick branch above and landed on his back, throwing him to the ground, before the beast could bite his neck out; the Hunter flipped over and threw the beast off him. Despite its size and great strength, it was not very heavy.
It was a juvenile Dawon, attracted by the stench of death and the promise of an easy meal. Rava'an observed the beast in detail: It had feline body shape, quadruped, strong muscles and a long tail. The body had no hair, but it was like leather with grainy scales. I still didn't have the bright colors of an adult and the mane around its neck was only a bunch of quills.
But the head was other thing; it had four eyes, a maw filled with bone-crushing teeth and four mandibles equally filled with fangs. The Dawon was in fact, an old relative of the Yaksa, a living fossil from which the branch of humanoid hunters derived, millions of years ago.
The Dawon attacked again, jumping from side to side as he advanced. Rava'an waited until the last moment to dodge the attack, but it was not fast enough, a sweep of the left claw scratched his side. The three claws cut through the metal of his body mesh and part of the shoulder pad, green phosphorescent blood splashed the blue leaves.
Rava'an reached his spear and held it close to his body, the Dawon hesitated; its skin weren't as though as an adult's but it was still hard. It circled the hunter, waiting for a chance to attack. Rava'an never took his eyes off the beast.
-"Come on, you overgrown ball of meat. Attack!" he teased the predator. The Dawon roared in response, but continued circling him.
Slowly, the beast pushed Rava'an back more and more, until he stumbled upon a loose branch on the ground. The Dawon took advantage of that instant of distraction and attacked. The beast launched itself against the Yaksa and knocked him against the ground. Rava'an used the handle of his spear to avoid a lethal bite, but the Dawon was strong and the wood began to splinter.
He flexed his legs and placed them against the belly of the beast. He had to use all his strength to throw the animal back, the beast landed on its paws like a cat and attacked again. This time, the Hunter braced his spear against a rock and the creature's open maw fell directly on it, the spear pierced its throat and reached its brain. In a last attempt of killing Rava'an, the Dawon threw a couple of desperate blows sideways.
Finally, the large predator's body relaxed and the beast stared at him with glassy eyes and short breaths. Rava'an, covered in sweat and blood, shoved aside the beast and got up, proceeding to remove his mask. He wanted to face his prey but at that moment, the creature launched a final blow to Rava'an, cutting his face diagonally and leaving two bloody lines on his face.
- o -
Exhausted, he lied on the ground, took a deep breath and looked at the stars far above. He laughed, making a series of clicks with his mandibles. He had killed one of the mythic beasts! Of course, it wasn't an adult, but he had never heard of someone killing one of them, at least not someone as young and inexperienced as himself. The pain of the scars on his face didn't matter, the only thing that filled his mind at that moment was that he deserved Anu'sha... but there was still a piece to collect.
"But, how to pierce the Krmih's hard skin?" A moment of revelation came to his mind.
Unlike the metal used on his wrist-blades, the claws of the Dawon were made of an organic nano-carbon compound, sharper and deadlier –being even resistant to the tainted blood of an Aquabruamelu –another mythic beast though to have destroyed the Yaksa's three sacred cities.
After hauling the carcass between two large boulders, building a shelter there to protect himself, Rava'an lit a fire and used the left claws to cut the right paw, then he used it to skin the Dawon's body. He put some meat on the fire, and soon the delicious aroma of cooked meat reminded Rava'an that he was hungry.
Using a metal string from his threshed body mesh, he fastened two of the claws to his bracelet and tested it against one of the legs, hanging from the shelter's ceiling. It cut like a hot knife on grease; he replaced the spear tip with the last claw. Job done, he slept the rest of the night. The hunt would continue the next morning.
- o -
Hello again readers, I'll been busy but finally completed this chapter. Thanks to AO3 user "iterations" for beta reading and editing. Here's a glosary:
Yaksa: spirits of nature, how predators call themselves.
Yuga: Age.
Hectocotyli: Octopus sexual organ, a tentacle.
Krmih: a mythical creature, the seven headed snake king, in fact a kind of amphibious octopus.
Dawon: Sacred lion, another creature. Basically the T-rex like skull on the ship in Predator 2.
Zepha: penis
Yoln: vulva, vagina.