hey guys! an update to this story was due a long time ago, i know

but i can't upload as often as i'd like to, not with the job taking most of my time and some personal stuff going on in my life right now

i hope you guys will understand and be patient with the updates orz thank you

*ps: feedback helps with this process, as they motivate me to write, so don't be shy and drop me some reviews!i love hearing from my readers, if there are any of you left!

She had never been in a war of any sort. She never knew war, only the hunt; even though, the yautja had been in several along the millions of rotations they had as a species. Their history was vast, lush and full of tales scribbled by ancients. She had been privy to those, in the form of anecdotes told by her surrogate-mother, she was such a passionate story-teller that her infancy had been filled with myths and legends and great battles; that had always been her favorite way to pass the time. So, as a pup, she had not seen war, she had only her imagination to serve her in the pursuit of seeing with her mind's eye.

But if this wasn't it, then she didn't know what it was.

Blood painted the ground in vicious entangles of weapons and limbs.

And among it all, there was an ooman female with child, huddled away in the bark of a humongous tree, clearly trying to hide. It appeared that Jac'in's pack found a band of badbloods in the forest, or the other way around, chasing a few humans that tripped some kind of land mines and were blown to bits, with the exception of the aforementioned female crying in distress while covering her swollen belly.

Or the other way around, the bad bloods found them first, perhaps even the humans ran into them and the two sides clashed. Kali'adah had no time to ask questions, she was simply thrust into battle, taking down the first bad blood she laid eyes on by throwing one of her chakrams and slashing his head clean off his shoulders. Marc'te roared next to her, charging in with his wrist blades out, followed closely by the others of their pack.

Ice blues took in the open field, finding the yautja female holding off three males at a time, sporting deep wounds, but not as bad as her adversaries. Jac'in was a seasoned warrior, by Paya, she was going to be fine. Just then, said female picked one of the males up effortlessly and hurled him over the other two's heads.

Taking that as a good sign, the human sprung into the chaos, retrieving her blade by yanking it out of the tree trunk where it had stopped after its slaughter, fresh green blood coating it generously. Almost immediately, she was colliding with the serrated blade of another bad blood trying to cut into her from behind, besting him in a matter of minutes and impaling her wrist blades through his eye, killing him instantly as his luminescent vital fluid dirtied her mask's cheek. What a good for nothing whelp, weak and pathetic.

She roared, disgusted by how dirty these bad bloods were fighting, there was no honor in attacking from the back.

More fell under her wrath, her 'awu'asa earning new dents and her flesh new scars. All by herself she made progress on the battlefield, amongst her kin, she felt like she belonged, slashing and tearing down the traitors relentlessly. She would bring Sir'ai pride in the form of trophies, showcasing her prowess once again.

The thought only served as fuel on her path, and then, in the heat of warriors colliding, she heard a high pitched ringing. A signal -what was it for? Flashing blue eye visors snapped to the pregnant ooman female who was no longer there. Did it have anything to do with -

"Pauk'de lou-dte kale!"

Before her masked face could turn to look at the one who had cried that in her direction, she was slammed into and sent crashing through foliage, outside of the clearing, where she tumbled into the trunk of a tree, the crack of her back making the female grunt in pain. The chakrams she had been holding in her hands had been knocked away on impact, rendering her vulnerable until her mind caught up with her body.

Her vision blurred momentarily, the nerves struck in a way that had her frame tremble with the aftershocks, her bare palms in the dirt as she tried to get her bearings, shaking her head in an attempt to stop the buzzing in her ears.

Surely that was no yautja.

Focusing her breathing into controlled inhales, Kali looked up towards the parting flora that slowly revealed the culprit. A large carnivorous -judging by the razor sharp teeth made to tear into meat -bipedal reptile, claws twitching as it held its front limbs close to its chest, beady eyes slitting to see her better when it approached and a vicious looking yautja male riding atop it. The creature's head was a skeletal dome structure, probably meant for attack that could break bones, which explained the force that threw her off her feet.

"Smell like yautja, move like yautja, but not yautja," the bad blood sneered, kicking the animal to close the distance in slow strides.

Instead of responding to the provocation, Kali'adah snorted and crouched, trying to determine if anything was broken and what the right course of action could be. This male could take her on no problem, especially with the creature at his disposal. His rank was unknown, as her mask stats showed over her visor, no number, no chip to scan, nothing.

She growled low in her throat, displeased. Perhaps he cut it out. He looked like a matured hunter if she went by the scars on his body. "More yautja than you," she finally retorted, muscles tensing, ready to move as she watched him intently.

The most unexpected thing happened, however. In spite of the insult, he only huffed and climbed off the reptilian creature, his bare feet against the floor of the forest making her jerk back with a warning snarl.

"Calm, female," he ordered, commandeering, as if he was in a position of authority. The tone did nothing to calm Kali though, she switched between sights, heart beat spiking up when he made a step closer and she finally saw him in her human vision. Big, burly, dark red like the sands of Yaut Prime's deserts, eyes like lava, dreads oily black, slithering down to his waist, cinched with only a loincloth and decorative skulls draped over the V of his hips.

Another step.

Her breathing came in faster, rising on her haunches. "Join my clan, sain'ja, there is use for you," he purred, another step closer. That did it.

She lunged.

Her wrist blades emerged to meet his own as she leaped out at him like an angry feline ready to tear down prey, the sound of metal against metal ringing through the noise of battle in the distance. With a terrifying roar, he swung her back, making her skid a few noks into the dirt before lurching back at him, clashing their blades again.

How dare this bad blood suggest such a traitorous act to her?! She bared her teeth behind the mask and the sharp edge of her wrist weapon, pushing with all her might against him, until her muscles trembled. "Ell-osde' pauk!" her blade slipped against his, the sound deafening as she forced him to follow the motion and leave himself open. The moment their blades lost contact, her leg came at his side in a powerful kick that pushed him back enough to stun him.

Another kick, aimed at his torso, had the male grunt and double over "Meet Cetanu, pauk'de zazin!" the next hit came with her wrist blade, meant to sever the tendons of his neck, but they only managed to impale his arm when he blocked and used the momentum to throw her off in a tumbling crash.

"Ki'cte!" he roared out, crouched, arms spread on each side.

This time, when she was about to crawl back to her feet, he gave her no space, he was onto her like a predator, a punch in the back of her neck slamming her down in the dirt again. She gasped with the impact. His hand bounded around her braided hair and yanked her up, before throwing her into a tree trunk with all his might.

Breath left her lungs, static buzzed in her ears, vision darkened at the corners and she could hear her own heart beating fast, blood rushing.

There was no reprieve. His hand came around her throat and pulled her up above the ground, slamming the back of her head against the solid wood she crashed into. Again. And again.

And again.

"C'jit-" blood splattered, skin broke. Her legs kicked out, hands clawing at his wrist uselessly.

She was a goner wasn't she? Consciousness barely held on by a thread -until, until a force knocked her assailant to the side and she was dropped to the taste of earth in her mouth. She barely realized she no longer had her mask on. Her head was fuzzy, she took lungfuls of air, wheezing as she struggled to crawl and look at what was happening.

A roar, familiar. Green. Marc'te?

Kali'adah grappled with losing focus as she sought to find her bearings, slowly, blinking, shaking her head, inhaling and exhaling fast. Blood suddenly splashed across the greenery underneath her fingers, luminous, green blood, making her gaze snap to the side, where she saw her hunt brother's frame standing with some effort, while the other yautja was not in sight.

She lost the battle soon after, seeing the leaf green calves of Marc'te advance towards her and darkness took over.

...

When she awoke next, she was atop a sturdy, large branch, high up in one of the goliath trees that grew on this planet, the big wide leaves, able to cover a fully grown yautja, serving as shroud from both rain and predators.

The gentle drizzle, dripping against said leaves, helped with bringing her to reality soothingly.

And the warmth of the body she was huddled against, did not go unnoticed as her vision adjusted to the darkness surrounding the jungle of the game preserve. Muscles ached, like the aftermath of a hunt that took too many cycles of observing, running and stalking.

The chest she was resting on rose and fell with the breathing of its owner, the scent of rain, mud and something familiar mingling together. Lazily, she blinked. Once. Twice, a few more times, until she was certain this was not a dream. The chill in the air was real, making her skin prickle.

"Awake?"

Undoubtedly, it was Marc'te, by the inflection in his speech. She grunted in affirmative, prompting the male to shift slightly as she uncoiled, limbs numb. Her mouth was dry, so when she managed to lift her head, she refrained from speaking, throat scratchy.

He looked as bad as she had imagined, one missing tusk, a broken arm, a deep wound on his side from wristblades, judging by the two punctures that bled through. He at least had the common sense to dress it up and apply the medical gel over it so he didn't bleed to death like a fool.

His bronze eyes met hers and held her gaze in slow blinks, until she had had enough and chose to inspect their surroundings. The tree they were situated on was high enough to give them complete camouflage from the outside, rain, potential threats and unwanted attention not a bother while they remained here. A large leaf above them had gathered water from the pour, the surplus dribbling down on both sides in slithering rivulets.

"Where?" she trilled, shifting against his side until she was sitting up, using his bent knee as leverage. "North. Safe," he drawled out after a moment in which he simply analyzed her.

The huntress' eyes narrowed, "Others? Where is the pack? Arbitrator Ye'sta?" she asked quickly, bristling. "With Cetanu. The rest, retreat," he growled, his head moving so that he glowered at a point far away, letting her know she was not the subject of the irritation in his tone.

They were defeated? Yautja did not retreat. Unless - "New orders?" she questioned further, tilting her head to the side and remembering the sound she had heard.

"Sei-i,"

Immediately, she rose her arm to access her wrist computer, only to realize it was damaged and she was missing her mask. Inquisitive blues searched his face, only to be met with his own damaged wrist computer and broken mask.

"C'jit!"

"C'jit."

The male slowly slid up against the trunk, at the base of the wide branch, where he dangled both legs over the sides, allowing her space to sit properly as well. Kali'adah mimicked his position and rubbed her neck, where that bad blood held her up. She tried to think of what to do in such a situation, hissing when her digits ran over a sore patch of skin.

A taloned hand reached out, so quietly that she almost missed it, and brushed the flesh of her collarbone, curiously and uncharacteristically gently for a big, bulky hunter. It stunned her into freezing completely still, aquamarines fixing him with a warning bare of her teeth.

"Hurt?"

The instinct to fight melted back into her tired muscles and she settled back, pushing his hand away with one of hers. "H'ko," and she had to remind herself how, once, those same hands tried to kill her in the kherite, how viciously those same eyes watched her, with the intent to destroy her.

"Maybe we can use components from both wrist computers to fix one," she suggested, glancing away with a furrow of her brow.

A second later, a wrist computer the size of her shin smacked her in the face.

And a cocky yautja trilled amused at the flare in temperature from her body, suggesting embarrassment and anger.

...

The four moons up in the pitch black sky offered enough light for the human female to work diligently on the intricacies of both their wrist computers. While she was busy with tinkering, Marc'te kept vigil. Because their devices had been damaged, their masks were rendered unusable and their cloaking technology ceased to work. Not like she had hers, anyway.

Kali'adah had been creative enough to use the items found in the med-kit incorporated into their armor, where their combi-stick also resided, at their back. While crude, the improvisation worked, she just needed time to figure out what needed stitching and make it into one wrist computer that they could use to at least track the rest of their comrades, along with finding out what their new orders were. Surely some ooman female could not be the reason. Besides, maybe she was just lost on this world, a bunch of lost travelers, stranded on this planet. Oomans could go through space now too, so it wasn't a stretch, was it?

"Do you think they found something worth changing our directives?"

Her sudden question had the yautja male's head snap in her direction. Instructions didn't change for nothing, something must have happened, something must have been uncovered that required them to regroup and take a different approach to the initial 'slaughter the bad blood clan' command they had. Something that she hoped, had nothing to do with finding ooman blood or an ooman female with child. Sure, their honor code said that they were not to hunt down females with pups, but it didn't say anything about looking after him like they were their responsibility. Yeah, Kali knew for sure this was not it, it couldn't be, it was too...worthless.

"Sei-i," came his simple reply.

The huntress grunted, aiming her gaze back at the wires beneath his wrist computer. His was less damaged and she salvaged some parts of hers to make up for it.

"We are almost out of medical gel. I hope this is worth it," she trilled, with a tonality that betrayed her irritation.

When the wrist computer came to life, blue light bathing her face, the male was quick to move closer across from her, his mandibles spread in surprise. "Learned tricks from engineers?" his gruff voice inquired, tilting his head to the side. Her cheeky expression, the way her face lit up with color, said enough. Embarrassed as she was, pride overtook the previous emotion and the female shifted, puffing out her chest and holding her chin up.

"Sei-i. Even from fools you can learn something valuable," she answered, absentmindedly smiling, an ooman gesture that she quit in a second when she realized she was doing it.

Their gazes met and she felt a lurch in her stomach at how intense his stare was.

Something primal flashed through his orbs, something that made her heart leap and her muscles to tense, something like Lar'ja.

"Let's find the others," she broke his spell, making him bristle but click his mandibles together in agreement. "Do you want to wear it?" she gestured to his arm, offering the gauntlet to him. The yautja took it without any other word and slipped it over his large forearm. It immediately tightened, altering its size so that it fit the wearer and lit up, syncing with his chip and his vital signs.

Talons pressed over it and a holographic map suddenly took form in blue shapes, a red triangle showing the location of the others and displaying their new directives in the yautjan language.

Kali'adah leaned closer to him, but before she could read it, he snatched his arm away and the image blinked out. "What? Why?" she made to grab his gauntlet, but he growled at her in warning.

"Follow."

What? Why didn't he let her read it? What was he hiding? Scowling, the female chose to let this go until they were with their own. She would find out everything she needed to know as soon as she found Jac'in. For now, they had a long trek to the camp their pack set up all the way over the mountain in the east. There was a sacrificial altar there, if her memory served her right, where they used to put animals and kainde amedha eggs for chivas.

Considering chivas haven't happened on this planet in a very long time, she was sure that nothing was there, other than a location where they could regroup and go over the new instructions, which often came from Yaut Prime.

"Let's go, then. By sunset we should arrive, otherwise, they will hunt us. They know we have spread about like headless urloks," Kali remarked, sitting straight and bringing her legs into a crouch.

And the simple fact was, she didn't want to die on this forsaken planet, gutted by a bad blood of all things. That would be insulting. To her and to her surrogate mother.

'awu'asa = armor

Pauk'de lou-dte kale! = fucking child-bearer!

sain'ja = warrior

Ell-osde' pauk! = fuck you!

pauk'de zazin = fucking bastard

cetanu/paya = yautjan deities of death/life

Ki'cte! = enough!

C'jit = shit

Sei-i = yes

urloks = birds native to Yaut Prime, similar to hens