It's not my Beta reader's fault!
They had the chapter all reviewed and revised, like, not even 48 hours after I sent it to him... It was me, ALL ME! I am sorry D:
"What am I supposed to do with this?" Eris questioned as she held a questionable piece of meat with her hands. She was used to eating weird meats by now, but something looked seriously wrong with this one, worse than the blue one she had consumed.
"Eat it." Tichinde spoke through chews and swallows, holding a piece of food with his mandibles as he pressed the meat towards him to take another bite.
Something in Eris' mind knew that he wasn't asking her to eat it, he was demanding it. There had been something off with Tichinde the past couple of days, though she was completely clueless as to why. They had continued playing cat and mouse with each other so it wasn't a lack of that going around. She had been getting better, even recently making it to 17 minutes, which had her smiling from ear to ear. He seemed to be her support system, too, congratulating her on her wins; appearing genuinely happy that she was getting better. Whether it was because it meant more hunting time for him or not, she appreciated it.
Taking the greenish-black hunk of meat to her mouth, Eris darted eyes over to the Yautja who was staring heavily at her as he ate. She had noticed herself referring to him less as a Predator and more as a Yautja. Through his tough exterior, he had done nothing to harm her, and because of this it seemed she was humanizing him. Opening her mouth to take a bite of the substance, she let her teeth sink in until a chunk broke off into her mouth.
Holding it in her mouth a moment, she made a face of disgust at Tichinde before slowly chewing. Her eyes widened as soon as her teeth squished the meat and juices began to flow in her mouth. "What is this blessed meat of flavor?" Typically, she wouldn't speak with her mouth open, but seeing as he always did it with his odd-looking mouth, she figured it was alright. A Yautja with table manners, a funny thought.
"Zabin Amedha." Tichinde was uncertain how to describe to her what she was eating without her getting emotional. In his time with female oomans, he knew that they could be very picky eaters and might shut down if they knew exactly what they were consuming. He wasn't about to tell her that she was eating meat from, what an ooman would call, a space insect- especially because she liked it so much by the looks of it.
"Zabin Amedha… What's that mean though?" In all of their time together, it was rare for him to not tell her exactly what he meant when he spoke to her. Either way, the greenish-black meat she was eating was delicious! On Earth, green tint on meat meant that it was bad resulting in some sort of poisoning done to her body, but this was great!
"It means you eat it because it is food." Tichinde had been on edge the past couple of days, since leaving his favorite planet. He wasn't entirely sure what was causing his slump, but he wasn't too happy about it. He could tell that the ooman was catching on to whatever was going on with him. Maybe it was that he was used to being alone? He didn't feel like he needed a break from her, though. Even if he did, he was responsible for her now.; she was stuck with him. If he were to tire of her, she could not be traded or sold to another. Tichinde did not like to share his things.
"Snappy." She was all too comfortable with him and able to let her sarcasm flow. There was a difference between scared sarcasm and comfortable sarcasm. When she was taken by him and his species, she had to use Pike as a front for all that she did, it kept her alive. Being with Tichinde, though, she was showing him more and more of Eris and less Pike. Pike would still show up now and then, but it wasn't as frequent. Her sarcasm now was from the heart, to say the least. She was comfortable. He made her comfortable. "What's been up with you lately?"
Her question only confirmed to him that she was aware of his shortness. Had he not spent a large portion of his life with ooman females and learning to keep his composure around them, he would have already flown off the handle by now. Not at her, but at his frustration at not knowing why he was foul. If she weren't here, he would be able to rage all he wanted without concern of scaring her. She had opened up more to him, more than any ooman had done before, and he knew his temper would easily break that entire trust he had earned within an instant.
His upcoming hunt would definitely take the stress off of his plate. She would be on the ship and he would be able to be as animalistic as he felt. He could take his rage out on his prey, which would be a lot harder to conquer than what he had been fighting in the recent past. Completely letting go of all the fibers of his being, not having to worry about holding back. Jehdin, Jehdin. One on One with his prey.
"Want to play cat and mouse? I'll let you use your helmet." Another chunk of meat fell into her mouth as she continued to eat the strange, but wonderful, food in front of her. Her eyes never left Tichinde, though he had stopped looking at her. Being concerned for his feelings was a weird feeling for Eris. His silence meant that he was in deep thought, when normally he'd respond to whatever she asked within a fraction of a second.
Turning his eyes to look at her, he was surprised at her offer. She was willing to play their hunting game with him using his mask. Was this a way for her to cheer him up? What was the meaning of the offer? Grabbing the chunk of meat that his mandibles held, he placed it down onto the counter. "I accept your challenge." He was curious to see how she did without being able to see him.
"The rules still stand: no jump scares, okay?" thoughts of running into him while he was cloaked was still scary to her.
"Abilities still stand, I can smell fear." Tichinde retorted, as if he would have already forgotten the rules. Yep, he was definitely annoyed at something.
"Then this shall be a fast match." Taking one last bite of her meat, Eris waited for Tichinde to leave so she could start to hide. "Alright, go get ready and roar your invisible roar." Her heart beat quickly within her chest.
He could smell her fear already; he knew this wasn't going to be a long match. Scared oomans put off a slight odor when scared, making it easy to hunt them, especially when they were in the quarters of a ship where the air was contained. Without even using his mask, he could sense which way she had gone. Grabbing his mask before making his way to where he usually started, he counted to ten before filling the container with a loud roar.
Activating the cloaking mechanism on his helmet, Tichinde made his way through the ship to find her. Already he sensed where she was. He wasn't sure what it was about him being cloaked that scared her so; he hadn't been able to sense her this much since he first started hunting her on the ship. Even then, she was able to compose herself better than she was now. Sight was a huge factor for oomans, it seemed, not liking the unknown. No jump scares, okay? He kept playing in his head what she had said. When they had first started this and now, no jump scares.
Following her scent, he had her in his sights. She was ducking behind a pillar, poking her head around it looking for him. He could tell that she was trying to sense him, but couldn't. He had told her that he wasn't going to use the heat seeking feature on her, but that was only for finding her. Now that she was in his sights, he changed his vision.
Her heart was racing, her chest and head showing greater temperatures than normal. Inside the display of his mask he could view her heart rate spiking erratically. Watching her intake of breath, he could see that she was trying to compose herself.
He followed as she tried to find a new spot, which happened to be in his sleeping chambers. Usually, he would have already stopped to give her a break, but he wanted to see how she moved when he was cloaked. What were her patterns? He noticed that she walked on the pads of her feet, seeing the floor turn red in its wake. Never fully grabbing an object or wall, he could see just the tips of her fingers leaving trails on all that she touched. Long, well thought out strides controlled her movements as she went from room to room. It was interesting to study what this particular ooman did. Whenever he had fought oomans in the past, males, they were so much louder than she was being. Was this a simple trait of being a female instead of male prey?
A couple minutes went by until he finally decided to let her calm down. Activating the collar on his wrist gauntlet to bring it slowly to him, not allowing her to move a certain distance from her, he watched as she jumped at the motion. Uncloaking himself, he watched her turn around.
"Holy shit that was scary!" She felt like she could finally breathe again. Eris didn't like that game, not one bit. She had no idea where he was the whole time. Always putting her worst fear at the forefront of her mind, she continued to let it disrupt her thoughts and tactics. When she could see where he was, she could focus on a solution to evade detection. When he was invisible, all sense went out the window.
"I was not going to harm you, why were you so frightened?" He honestly expected more out of her, but knowing that oomans let their feelings control them, he wasn't surprised by the result. If anything, he at least got to see how she moved.
"I don't know, I just kept thinking that you were going to pop up out of nowhere or that I was going to run into you unknowingly." She wiped away the beads of sweat that formed on the back of her neck from nervousness. Heading to the bed, Eris grabbed the skin that Tichinde had gifted her and wrapped herself in it.
"You don't trust me or my word?" That's all Tichinde could think of. He had never done anything to harm her or make her do anything she didn't really want to do since he had obtained her. She was able to move freely on his ship, sleep in his bed by herself, and he had not laid a hand on her or punished her whatsoever. He had given her no reason not to trust him and he was offended.
"I guess I don't really trust anybody." She could see his stance change, more of a defensive one than she had seen him display before. Nervousness began to fill her as she began to play with the fur that engulfed her.
"You trust your oomans," He folded his arms across his chest. Yautja didn't do well with disrespect, no matter how much control in their patience they had. Though he knew that she didn't know she had disrespected him, but that didn't excuse it for him this time. "I have not done one thing to harm you, and I have kept all of my promises to you."
"I don't trust humans either." Eris couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes. She could feel the heat from his on her, burning into her skin. Something was definitely up with him and she had apparently done something wrong. He was right, he had done nothing to harm her since she had been aboard his ship, but that didn't mean that she could fully trust him.
"Put an ooman male in my position and you wouldn't have been scared."
"You're right, I would have been more terrified!" She loudly voiced to him as she whipped her head up to meet his.
More terrified of an ooman than a Yautja? Tichinde couldn't believe what she had just said. It made no sense to him. "I can do far more damage to you than an ooman male."
"But only an ooman male has harmed me." She mocked the way he spoke her language. "You haven't touched me." Eris was surprised in her actions. The whole thing with Nolan had happened a long time ago, she didn't know it still affected her this much. This whole time she hadn't thought about him, but because of him she couldn't trust men. In the beginning, he didn't lay a hand on her, but in the end it all came crashing down.
Tossing his head in a jerking motion, Tichinde's interest peaked in the conversation. Here he was, a Yautja male with exponentially more power than an ooman, yet an ooman male who was less animalistic than him couldn't hold his composure and struck a female? Ooman females were more emotional than both sexes of his species combined, but her emotions now seemed valid. "Was it for mating?"
"What the hell? Mating, really?" The corner of her lip twitched upward in disgust. Why the hell would he hit me for sex? What kind of question was that?
In his culture, Yautja females were known as superior and the act of striking one without the result of mating was unnatural to him. Yautja females had to be won over, a male had to prove his strength and worth to be able to have the rights to breed with her. Females on his planet were strong and would only let strong Yautja males that could handle them have the rights to pass down their bloodline. Weaker males didn't get such rights. If you wanted to expand your lineage, you had to earn it.
Tichinde wasn't too familiar with mating rituals of ooman females. He knew that they didn't like to be handled roughly, but he only thought that because of how strong his race was and the fact that they were taking them from their home. He was learning much about ooman customs, which apparently meant that a male ooman had initiated combat towards her.
"Why then?" His curiosity was apparent. Why would an ooman male strike a female if that wasn't their mating custom.
"I don't know," Eris sat down with her back against the wall, "He just wanted to hurt me because I… I don't know. He just did it." There was never a logical reason as to why a man would hurt a woman and Eris wasn't about to make one up for him. If she were to get in a fight and threw the first punch, she fully expected to get hit back regardless of the gender she was attacking. Nothing guaranteed her safety if she was going to hit someone, not even gender because not all men had the same beliefs to not hit a woman. This is why she didn't go around hitting people, not that she wanted to anyway. "He was my boyfriend and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him until he went off the deep end."
Oomans were monogamous for the most part, Tichinde knew, typically staying with one male for the rest of their lives after a ceremony was performed. If she had plans to mate with this ooman male for the rest of her life, he could see where the betrayal came from. He was still disrespected since he wasn't a pathetic ooman male who couldn't control himself and didn't like to be compared to as such, but her logic made more sense to him now.
"I am not an ooman male." He relaxed his once defensive stance at her. "I will not harm you."
Eris believed him. She didn't know what a Bad Blood really was, but this guy wasn't bad at all. She had no idea how he was labeled as such. Maybe a traumatic experience earlier in his life that he outgrew? When you were labeled a Bad Blood was that your status forever? It didn't matter, she knew that he meant it when he told her that he wouldn't harm her. Standing up, Eris made her way to Tichinde, maintaining eye contact until she reached him. Extending her hand to touch him, she slowly began to trace her fingertips on his skin when he didn't protest the touch. She hadn't touched him before, not thinking that he would ever let her or that she would ever want to.
After tracing his mottled markings for a couple of seconds, she brought herself in to hug him, wrapping her arms around his warm body. It was insane how warm he was. Whenever they were standing in a close proximity of each other, she just thought it was hot in the ship, she never pieced together that it was him that was radiating all of that heat.
Looking down at the ooman female, he was somehow alright with her embrace. He wasn't sure why she was showing this much affection towards him, but he wasn't about to push her away in her emotional state. Since becoming a Bad Blood, she was the first creature to not acknowledge him as such. Bringing one of his hands to touch her back to comfort her, he felt her body sink into him more.
The embrace was short lived.
Flashing red lights began to fill the ship as it started to rock back and forth. Trying to regain balance, Tichinde scooped up Pike as he ran to the control room to see what was going on. Was it a cluster of meteors hitting the ship? He was certain that the route he entered had a clear path to his hunting planet. This all made no sense.
Turning corner after corner with the ooman in his arms to get to the control room as fast as he could, Tichinde came to a complete stop. Warning alarms that indicated the ship was being breached started to blare causing Tichinde to whip his head towards the exit of his ship. It wasn't a meteor shower interfering with his ship, it was another Yautja ship.
Placing Pike down and pushing her behind him, he readied his stance to fight whoever was coming onboard. Grabbing his ki'its-pa, he pressed the button that activated it to full form. Holding the spear in his hand, he prepared for battle. He didn't know who was invading his ship, but he was prepared for a fight.
"Tichinde, it has been a long time." Large footsteps echoed through the halls against the sirens as the Yautja came forward to meet Tichinde.
"Dachande!" Tichinde yelled forth in disbelief as the Yautja came into sight. It couldn't be, he died on Ryushi! He saw his dead body after the explosion, pieces of metal jutting out of him. His blood was all over the ground, there was no way he was standing before him. It was because of him that Tichinde was labeled a Bad Blood.
When the explosion hit their ship, Tichinde was certain that their clan leader, Dachande, was dead. All of the Clan leaders on that ship had perished in the explosion, leaving Tichinde to lead the un-blooded Yautjas to victory. Trying to avenge who had killed their leaders, it wasn't seen that way to the higher council of Elite and Elder Yautja warriors. To them, they should have stayed put. It was a must to leave no evidence of their existence, but the oomans were right there and many Kainde Amedha lurked about. Had they not gone to kill the aliens, they would have bred until there was nothing left. The un-blooded wouldn't be able to take them all on, they would have all died!
Before the ship had exploded, the Yautja warriors had dropped several eggs onto Ryushi to prepare for the hunt. It was custom for the un-blooded warriors to kill a Kainde Amedha before they would be deemed Blooded. They were on their first Chiva and everything that could have gone wrong did.
Since Dachande had survived, it was viewed as Tichinde taking over the clan which was a betrayal on all counts. He knew he was in trouble, but now it had gotten so much worse. He had difficulties with Dachande in the past, challenging him at every turn, but that didn't mean he wanted him dead. If he did, he wanted it done by his own hands, not by an explosion caused by mere oomans.
"You didn't think I was dead, did you?" Dachande's guttural voice filled the air as he and two other Yautjas walked into the ship; one male and one female. "You took 9 of my un-blooded students and got them killed!" He barked at Tichinde as he remembered what he had witnessed on Ryushi.
"I thought you had died." He still couldn't believe that his old Clan leader was alive. Dachande was well respected and well ranked in the Yautja world. He had taken thousands of students on their first chiva to become blooded after training them, his success to failure ratio was astounding: 90% of the students that Dachande had trained succeeded in their chivas with only 10% failing or dying in the process.
"And yet here I am." He stepped forward, watching Tichinde get into a battle stance as he did so. "You didn't bother to check if I had a heartbeat. You just assumed I was dead by my wounds as you carried on with my students. I got to watch you steer them into the direction of an early death until Blooded Yautja came to the distress call the ship had sent out before it blew up." Stopping mere feet from his rival, he noticed something on Tichinde's forehead. "That's an interesting mark on your head." He referred to the crescent shaped scar. "Do you even know what that scar means?"
"It means I have killed Bad Bloods." Tichinde barked back, readying himself as he began to smell the fear come off of the ooman female behind him, trying to release his own musk to cover it up as she remained undetected thus far.
"Bad Blood or not, you like to kill your own kind, don't you?" Dachande couldn't believe he wore such a mark on his head.
"I wasn't trying to become a Bad Blood. I was trying to keep myself and 9 others alive. We had just released several Kainde Amedha eggs on that planet and they would have wrought havoc! All of the clan leaders were dead and I did what I had to do." He could feel the pent-up rage inside of him boil over.
"Is that what you were doing, because it looked to me like you were getting 9 students killed as you left the planet in an ooman vessel." It was one thing for a student to fail his chiva because of their own doing and a completely different situation when it was because of another Yautja.
""Ell-osde' pauk!" Tichinde spat at him, not wanting to hear anymore of his words.
Eris grabbed the skin that was still wrapped around her tighter as she heard Tichinde yell at the beings in front of him. She had no idea what they were saying. She picked up on Thei-de and Kainde Amedha, that was about it. So, something was dead and something was meat. Even with as much information as she had, which was clearly a ton, she couldn't figure anything out. Even on the slave ship she didn't hear the Yautja speak this much to each other, it was terrifying.
"What's that smell?" The female Yautja spoke up, stepping closer to Tichinde than Dachande was. "Fear. Ooman odor?"
"H'dlak." Eris could hear a voice softly speak, "Ooman H'dui'se?" Concern filled her as she knew what the word ooman meant. So far, she had been able to hide behind Tichinde this whole time, but now she was spotted. It looked like the training by playing cat and mouse didn't work for her, she was scared and she could see them. They knew she was here because they could smell her.
Poking her head from behind Tichinde, Eris met eyes with 3 Yautja warriors standing at the exit gate. A ramp led down their ship to join with theirs, walls enclosed around it as to not get sucked into the void that was space. They were fucked, she was fucked. She was about to die. "Tichinde, what's going on?" She surprisingly managed to speak.
"Stay quiet." Tichinde pushed her back behind him to hide her once more.
"You have an ooman female?" Dachande spoke as he met where his female counterpart was. "I had heard that you were into trafficking ooman females around the universe. I never pegged you to keep one yourself." He himself had never gotten into the whole ooman fad. He knew bits and pieces of their language, but not enough to own one.
"He just told her to be quiet, I wonder what he is hiding." The female spoke, laughing at the end of her sentence.
"I almost forgot that understand Ooman speak, Ki'dra." His comrade had spent many moons with the oomans, more than he ever hoped to. He didn't dislike ooman females, just what it did to Yautja males. "Enough chatting. You can either come with us or die where you stand."
"I'm only going to die if I go with you, so if this is where I shall perish, then so be it." Tichinde tightened his grip on his ki'its-pa, watching Dachande in front of him begin a battle stance. "Jehdin, Jehdin." He threw his spear to the ground, flexing his fingers into tight fists.
"No mercy, no fear." Dachande spoke as he gave his weapons to Ki'dra.
"M-di H'chak, M-di H'dlak." Eris heard the other male speak as she was pushed back when Tichinde flew forward to meet the other Yautja male. She couldn't believe what she was watching right now. She had remembered the fights back in the market ship, but this was different. She could tell that there was some sort of grudge between the two as they fought.
Loud roars filled the ship as the fight went on, the flashing red lights and sirens only intensifying the battle. Watching as Tichinde took hit after hit from the monstrous other Yautja made her sick to her stomach. He was taller than him, more rugged looking, too. His dreads had silver rings in them, which she hadn't seen before. His strikes were powerful, covering the metal walls with Tichinde's vibrant blood. "Tichinde!" She called out to him, but that was all she could do. It wasn't like he wasn't getting his own hits in, but they were few and far between the ones that the bigger Yautja was landing on him.
The fight that she had front row tickets too was more than scary for her. As her eyes couldn't tear themselves away from the fight, she had barely noticed that's he was being splattered with Tichinde's blood. Her whole body felt like it was on fire as the fight continued on. When she was first taken by Tichinde, she wanted nothing more than to see him get the shit beat out of him, but now that she knew and cared for him, this was unbearable.
Not knowing how long it had been, Eris was certain that she didn't blink the whole time. As the battle began to slow down, tears began to fill Eris' eyes as Tichinde fell to his knees. Keeping his torso up, she watched as Tichinde kept his head up, looking at his opponent. It was clear that he had been defeated, but he still remained strong in his demise.
It was then the walls started to echo with Tichinde's opponents laugh. He knew he had won, everyone there knew that he had won. Eris' eyes watched as the other Predator tightened his fist before doling out one final blow to Tichinde's skull, watching as his body went limp, crashing onto the floor. "Tichinde, no!"
Dropping the skin that once encased her, Eris scurried to be by his side, kneeling down beside Tichinde's body. As the neon blood began to form a large pool on the floor, she brought her eyes to look at the three Predators in front of her. "Why did you do this?" She yelled, tears warming her cheeks in a steady stream.
Ignoring her cries, Dachande wiped the blood from his opponent off of his forehead. He had been wanting to do that ever since that day on Ryushi. He watched as the ooman female cried over the now deceased Tichinde.
"My name is Eris, I never got to tell you that." She continued to cry, not knowing what she was going to do now. He had kept her alive, and now she was by herself. Looking up at the 3 Predators to give them a deathly glare, she noticed their backs towards her, leaving the ship. "No, wait!" she bolted up, catching them before they made it to the ramp that connected the ship. She wasn't happy with what they had just done, in fact she was pretty pissed, but they were her only means for survival now.
Activating the Sivk'va-tai on his shoulder, he pointed it at the girl. He had no idea what she was doing. "Thei-de ooman." He motioned her to back up, the 3 dots from his plasma caster pointing right on her forehead.
"You're killing me either way," Eris stopped a foot away from the Predator. She had recognized the red laser glow from when she was back on Earth and she knew that it was a gun. "If my options are to die on this ship after you leave me or to die now, then I choose now, but I will die trying to board your ship!" She stood firm, not knowing if he was like Tichinde and was able to understand her.
Looking over at Ki'dra, he noticed her mandibles twitch in amusement. "What did she say?" He asked, not knowing entirely what had transpired.
"She said that you are killing her either way. If she has a choice to die, it will be by trying to come with us." Ki'dra could respect the boldness of the ooman female in front of her. She had no personal quarrels with her kind, spending time with some of them back on their clan ship. They were interesting creatures to say the least.
Taking his sight from Ki'dra and placing it back onto the ooman, Dachande lowered his Sivk'va-tai. Stepping out of the way, he would allow her to enter his ship. They would take her back to the clan ship and then decide what to do with her from there. It wasn't her fault she was introduced to this world.
Darting her eyes back and forth between the two, not knowing what they had said, Eris knew that whatever the female Predator had done was letting her enter the ship. This was the first time she had seen a female; the difference was apparent. Taller, sleeker, more mottled patterns on her skin, she was a weird, beautiful creature. But now was not the time to marvel at her. She was grateful for whatever she had said, unless it was something that had to do with her being lunch.
As she walked forward to enter the ship, Eris came to a sudden stop. "Oh fuck!" She spoke as she felt the collar around her neck refuse to let her go up onto the ramp. Looking at the Predators that were in front of her already on the ship, she knew that unless she got Tichinde's wrist gauntlet that she wouldn't be entering their ship and would die on this one.
Turning her head over her shoulder to look at Tichinde's dead body, she didn't know how she was going to get the gauntlet off of his wrist. It was then that the staff he'd been holding was illuminated by the flashing red lights. Taking in a deep breath, Eris grabbed the spear while looking down at Tichinde. She didn't want to do it, but it was literally the only thing standing in the way of her living and dying. Not knowing how long the new Predators would wait for her, Eris brought the staff up above her head before she began chopping away at Tichinde's arm. "I'm so sorry!"
Vibrant green blood began to paint the walls, the fur blanket next to his body, and even Eris as she swung away. Once his arm was completely severed from his body, Eris threw the spear down and picked his arm up with one hand and the fur in the other. The arm was heavier than she was expecting, but she managed.
"I need this." She spoke to the Predators, who looked at her in utter confusion, as she boarded the ship with Tichinde's severed arm.
"Why did she do that?" Dachande had never seen an enslaved ooman act that way before. Most were meek creatures due to their situations, but this one just cut off the arm of her master. Had she not just cried at his defeat? Why would she show such emotion towards Tichinde and then turn around and chop his arm off? Ooman females, oomans in general, were too complex.
"I don't know, but whatever she did she's apparently sorry about it." Ki'dra's interest was also piqued as she followed the ooman into the ship. "Oh, and she also apparently needs his arm."
"Do you have any opinions on her?" Dachande was curious what Ki'dra thought about the ooman. She had spent more time with them than he had and didn't know if this was normal behavior. Back on their clan ship, Ki'dra was known to befriend the ooman slaves and warriors there.
"I think she's great." Ki'dra laughed at the actions the ooman had committed. The ooman was brutal, and Ki'dra liked it.
"I'm not sure about her. She seems emotionally impulsive." Pressing a button to call back the ramp to the ship and close the door, Dachande made it to his ship's control center to pull away. "You can put her in the confinement cell until we get to the clan ship. He began to pull the ship away from his deceased foe's, watching everything it once contained sucked out into the vacuum of space. Skins, equipment, weapons, everything that wasn't locked down was floating in space. Releasing one of his ship's bombs, Dachande quickly drove his ship away before the explosion went off, eliminating any evidence of the Yautja existence.
Taking the shoulder of the ooman in her hand, Ki'dra began to usher her into one of the holding cells. Looking down at the female as they walked, she wasn't sure what this specific ooman was made of. If she were to be going back to their clan ship, what would become of her? She didn't particularly care, but she did want to know more about her.
"Why take arm?" Ki'dra's English wasn't the best.
Tossing her head up and over her shoulder, Eris was surprised that she was speaking to her in her own language. After the conversations on the ship that they had just had, she didn't think any of them spoke it. "The collar around my neck is attached to it. It is set to where I can't get out of a certain range of it." She hoped that the female Predator would understand her.
"So, you cut off." Ki'dra stated. It made sense to her now, she needed to do it in order for her to survive. Lively one.
She sounded like a barbarian to her, but that was better than nothing. "Yes, so I cut it off."
"Skin?" The female Yautja looked at the ooman clutching to the pelt.
"Tichinde gave it to me." Eris tried not to shed a tear here, trying to let Pike take over.
Ki'dra didn't reply as they continued walking. It wasn't long until they finally made it to the cell after a couple of twists and turns. Leading the ooman in, Ki'dra grabbed the arm from her.
"Give that back!" Eris whipped around, reaching up towards Tichinde's severed arm. She looked like a kid reaching for a toy with the size difference.
Ignoring her, Ki'dra hit a couple buttons, swiping here and there on the panel until she released the gauntlet from the remains of the arm. "Dead arm, dead smell."
"Oh," Eris knew what she was talking about. Hauling a severed arm everywhere would indeed cause it to smell, which would be most unpleasant. "Thank you."
Holding the Gauntlet that was fresh from Tichinde's detached arm, Ki'dra began to deactivate the bomb that was within it. The bomb was there in case a Yautja lost a battle, being able to activate and destroy everything within a wide range, making sure no traces of their existence was left behind. Taking the dud gauntlet, the female Yautja grabbed Eris' arm, sliding it over her hand until it wrapped around her entire forearm. Closing it around her pale flesh, Ki'dra adjusted it to where it would fit and not slide off. Now that it wasn't a danger to them if the ooman accidently activated it, she could do as she pleased with it, and since it was tied to her collar, it might as well be on her arm. When they were on the clan ship, they would get the whole collar situation figured out since it was something she had never seen on an ooman before. To have it linked to the gauntlet, too, was an interesting feature.
Watching as the female placed the gauntlet on her arm, Eris couldn't help but lean more to the left with the new weight she was carrying on her arm. "Thank you." She was relieved that the gauntlet was on her forearm, it meant she wouldn't have to worry about getting far from it and being stranded.
"You stay here." Ki'dra stepped outside of the doorway, activating a glass door to prevent the ooman from getting out and exploring. "We go to clan ship now."
Nodding her head, there really wasn't much Eris could do at this point. Looking at her new surroundings, there wasn't much to it. The bed was a hole in the wall, nothing uncomfortable looking, but it wasn't like the hive-like bed that she became accustomed to. The room itself was just a tad bigger than her holding cell back on the slave ship with Alegra and Cara. Walking the short distance over to the bed, she took a seat.
Unwrapping the fur blanket in her hand, she began to trace the fur where Tichinde's blood had been spilled. Tears began to fill into her eyes as she clutched the fur in both of her hands, bringing it up to her face and crying within it. Tichinde had treated her well, even if she was his pet thing or whatever, he was good to her. He supplied food and water to her, kept her warm, kept her healthy, and not once harmed her in any form. He kept his word on everything, and now he was gone. All she had left of him was his gauntlet and the fur that he had given to her. She was happy she grabbed it before everything started to happen in the ship, not knowing how she would feel if she didn't have it anymore.
Taking the blanket away from her face, she wiped her nose with her right forearm trying to keep the fur in good condition. Gasping for air from her aggressive cry, she let her body fall on the cushion like bed, covering herself with the fur. This was the hardest she had cried since being taken, not even Pike would be able to calm her down. Her thoughts were all Eris, no words of encouragement from Pike appeared. Silence.
"What's going to happen to me?" She whispered out in between her cries. She hadn't felt this useless, helpless, in a long time. She was in space getting passed around and around to different Predators. Once she became content, everything would change. First with her friends, now with Tichinde. What was next? What if these Predators were good to her, too, and then she gets taken away from them? Would her entire life be just being passed from one Predator to another? She didn't know if she would be able to live that kind of life, but what choice did she have in it? She didn't want to kill herself, that was certain, but how was she going to survive this? How much more was she going to be able to take before she just withered away?
Questions overpowered her mind as her cries continued. If she didn't get it out now, it would only get worse by holding it in and having it burst out later, at least right now she was alone. She wanted to go home, but there was nothing for her to call home. She just wanted a place where she felt safe. Tichinde made her feel safe.
The visuals of Tichinde dying in front of her kept playing over and over in her mind. She was helpless, she couldn't help him even if she tried. There was nothing she could have done for him, and she only gained a little bit of solace knowing that Tichinde had known that she wouldn't have been able to help him. When her journey here first started, she never thought she'd be this upset about one of the beasts dying, but here she was crying for her lost friend. He was a good Yautja.
Taking in one last deep breath to let out a cry, the tears began to slow down. She could feel her eyes were swollen from how hard and how much she had cried. Knowing that she would cry later, Eris had to get everything out before she made it to the clan ship. For all she knew, another weird market would be on the clan ship that they were going to where she would be sold off again to God knows what. She had yet to be a mess in front of foreign Predators, she wasn't going to start now. She needed to stay strong since she had no idea what was going to happen to her. But for now, she was going to let herself feel pain.
Comments/Reviews are always appreciated and are a huge motivator!
I'm not going to make any promises on how soon I will post my next chapter since I am clearly a liar D:
I CAN'T BE TRUSTED!