On the ship again and on our way to Heichuru. This would be interesting if it turned out to be a dead end. A part of me was hoping it would be so I could go back and show those hookers a real nightmare. Fahu was sitting in the copilot chair reading a book. He liked to immerse himself in books when we're in space. He says it keeps him anchored to the world. Sure Fahu, whatever you say. All I have to do to anchor myself to the world is feel the scar on my stomach where I was disected. That brings reality back really fast.

Those freaking Yautja and their. . .Yautja-ness. I thought humans were bad about doing experiments on things they don't understand. I think they caught that disease from the Yautja back in the days of the first pyramids. While I was captive in their world I did do some reading.

The Yautja had found Earth a very long time ago and taught the humans a few things like how to build pyramids and how to worship things. Nothing ever mentioned this, but I have a feeling the Yautja taught humans how to be insufferable douche kits. All those weird rules and harsh punishments. Sacrifices, hunting, rites of passage. Humans had steered away from that in the last few hundred years, but that's because the Yautja stopped visiting in droves. Now they go there for a short hunt and attempt to not be seen. Great, good, groovy, whatever.

We landed on Heichuru and I donned my cold weather cloak. I know I have fur, but sometimes it just isn't enough. I pulled the hood up over my head and pulled my ears through the holes I had cut specifically for them. Fahu walked out a moment later wearing his coat.

"I hate snow planets."

"Me too."

"Don't you resemble an animal that lives in a snowy environment. The Lynx is designed for cold weather."

"I know, but I'm not totally a Lynx. I don't even know what I am. I could be part lizard for all I know."

He shook his head and sighed.

"You're a dork."

"I know."

We trekked throught the sparse trees a little ways until we came upon the entrance to a temple.

"Well, this place looks abandoned."

"Looks like it's been that way for quite some time."

"Yep. Let's go inside and see if there is any sign of this dumbass."

The entrance tunnel led underground. I never liked being under several tons of stone that had fallen into disarray. Makes me feel a little claustrophobic.

"Do you have the feeling that all this could cave in on our heads any moment now?"

I laughed.

"It's funny you should mention that, I. . ."

I heard a scuffling sound ahead of us and stopped walking. Fahu and I stood there listening for another sound. I motioned for us to keep walking. Neither one of us said anything and I tried to hear out footsteps, but I couldn't. I like being naturally stealthy. It's helpful at times. We entered a large room which branched out into about 20 different tunnels. There was a boot mark in the dust. I followed the trail with my eyes and saw that it led down a tunnel to our left. It was a shorter tunnel than all the others seemed to be.

I saw movement in the room ahead and ducked down. Fahu and I concealed ourselves behind a support pillar. I tuned my ears to the noises that were coming from the room ahead. It sounded like someone was pacing and muttering quietly to themselves. I peered around the pillar and saw a man walking back and forth in front of a large statue of some god I didn't know. I don't have time to learn and remember all the idols different races worship and pray to. There are billions after all.

I saw something on the alter in front of the statue. That must be the item we are here to retrieve. I slowly stood up and stalked towards the man. He was way too focused to notice me. I got close enough to hear what he was saying.

"Why isn't it working? I swear they said this was the place, this alter. God damnit. Fucking fuck! Shit!"

I can tell he likes expletives. It could just be that he doesn't have a large enough vocabulary to properly express himself without them. I've known many people like that. I pretended to be a person like that. I got close enough to grab the man by the throat but before I could a light shot out of a gem in the forehead of the statue and paralyzed me. The man wheeled around and looked at me.

"Of course! The sacrifice! How could I forget? The statue requires a sacrifice."

Sacrifice? After careful consideration I came to the conclusion I wasn't pleased with the thought of becoming a sacrifice to a statue. Especially since I didn't know what I was being sacrificed for. Maybe if I knew and approved of the reason then I wouldnt be so aggitated about it. Then again, maybe not. However, I have a feeling a mortal sacrifice is needed for this to work so I should be fine. I had a very bad thought just then. What if Fahu gets the bright idea to try and save me? He damn well better not.

Of course just then that's when I saw Fahu throw his fist at the man standing there gawking at me. I tried to yell at him to piss off and save himself, but I was really stuck. I wanted to scream as he threw his body at me and knocked me out of the path of the light beam. I tumbled to the ground and watched as Fahu was caught in the weird voodoo, or whatever it was, that the statue was doing. I was on my feet in a second, but Fahu didn't have a second. He had a look of serenity on his face as he imploded. I stopped dead in my tracks, but not so dead as Fahu. I fell to my knees right in front of the spot where he had been. There was nothing left of him. I heard a groan to my left and slowly turned my head to look at Philus.

I've never reached this magnitude of anger in my life. He was terrified of the look on my face and with good reason. I wasn't just going to kill him. I was going to destroy his very being. He started to crawl away from me as I walked forward. He went for a gun, but that's when I leapt on him. I landed on his back and dug my claws into his flesh. He yelled in pain and I dug in harder. I began his punishment by ripping the majority of the skin and muscle off his back. One of my claws caught a tendon and after I cut it one of his muscles detached and flopped over onto the ground. I rolled him over and looked into his eyes.

"Please. . .please don't. . ."

"Shut your fucking face!"

I grabbed his lower jaw and pulled it down so it was just flopping there. I didn't want to pull it all the way off yet, he needs to be alive for a little longer. Now all he could do was gurgle pathetically. I grabbed one of his arms and started to pull it away from the socket. I heard it pop out and thats when the flesh began to tear. His gurgling was even more agonized now. He killed my friend. The only one I had. I'm sick of losing friends to this kind of bullshit. To something that other people believe in and force upon others. That's why I lost Ya'uta. He was forced into a way of life and punished for thinking his could be different.

Philus' blood was pooling around him fast. I wanted to say so many things to him before I killed him, belittle him and insult his existence in every way possible, but I couldn't stand the thought of him breathing anymore. I punched him in the face over and over until I was punching through it to the ground. I stepped away from the mess I had made of him and looked at where I had last seen Fahu. The expression on his face was torturing me. He seemed like he was proud to die for my sake. Like he had proven himself by dying for me. I wanted to kill myself. He had already proven himself to me. I walked over to the alter and looked. There was an hourglass.

"All this for a fucking hourglass?"

I reached out to grab it. When my hand made contact with it I felt a wave of dizziness pass through me. I fell on my ass and then onto my back. I felt like my limbs were trying to tear themselves off. It felt like I was lying on the ground convulsing for hours. It finally stopped and I sat up shakily. That was extremely strange.

I was hesitant to touch the hourglass again, but I figured that was a one time thing. I picked it up and was content knowing I had been right. I have to get this back to Borgos and tell him that I'll never do anything for him again.

The flight back was very lonely. I didn't know what had happened to Fahu. I wondered what he was thinking in that last moment of his life. Did his thoughts match the look on his face? I felt a tear slide down my face. I didn't bother wiping it off. It was caught in my fur anyway. Why do mortals have to be so stupid and wreckless with their lives. It's like they can't appreciate living unless they know one day they are going to die, and they have to be retarded and kill themselves just to save someone that can't die. What the fuck is wrong with them?

"I just don't get it."

When I made it back to Meritos I was in a very bad mood. I landed my ship a little more roughly than I probably should have, I slammed things around before I walked off of it and I sulked all the way to Borgos' pavillion.

"Naui, you're back already?"

"Yeah, here's your thing."

I set it on the desk and he looked at it. I was still covered in blood and had bits of flesh hanging from my claws.

"I take it he didn't cooperate."

I didn't respond to that at all. One thing I hate when I'm in a mood like this is when people state the obvious.

"Where is Fahu?"

I slammed my fist down on the desk and roared. He recoiled and a couple of his men drew their guns.

"He's dead! He's fucking dead because you sent us on that stupid mission! We went on that stupid mission because I'm a fuckhead and think I always need more money! Greed is the real killer here!"

I fell into the chair and put my face in my hands. I managed to squeak out one more phrase.

"God damn it."

"Naui, I'm sorry. I didn't think there was any danger in this mission. Philus has never been known to kill before. If there is anything I can do to make it up to you. . ."

I shot a death glare at him and he reversed his path before he fell into quicksand.

"Here is your money."

One of his men put a briefcase in front of me and quickly withdrew from my reach.

"We're done here Borgos. I can't do business with you anymore."

He seemed surprised at that for a moment, but then I saw the look of understanding on his face.

"All right, if that is what you feel is right."

I stood up, after grabbing the breifcase, and turned around to go back to my ship.

"Thanks for doing business with Fahu and I for the last few years."

"It's been my pleasure."

I got onto my ship and threw the breifcase into the wall. It crashed into it, but didn't pop open. Damn sturdy locks. When I throw something I want it to break. I sat down in my chair and slammed my head into the control panel for about five minutes.

After I threw my fit I fired up the ship and headed out into deep, deep, space. I don't want anyone to find me.

I was as far out as I could go. My eyes were getting heavy. Finally, I couldn't keep them open anymore.

I woke up in a worse mood than I was in before. I wasn't going to get a reprieve from the guilt that was eating at me. What is it that I did to deserve all this tragedy in my life? I came to a decision to not blame myself. I'm not the one that died. It was Fahu. I'll just blame him for doing something to piss off life. He must have done something really bad to end up the way he did.

"Yeah right."

That isn't going to work for me. I have too much respect for him and I know that he was a good person. It was my fault that he was there. I had to drag him all over the universe when I could have just dropped him off somewhere and he would be fine right now instead of being just a memory. If I had walked around the side of that chamber instead of right into the middle of it that statue would have never been activated.

Once again I have ruined someone's life. I'm a life wrecker. I wonder if that's worse than a home wrecker. Probably. I'm such a shit.

After moping for a while I looked at my fuel gauge. It was very low. Even if I wanted to go anywhere I. . . .

That's when the control panel started beeping and the entire room lit up with emergency lights. My ears were bombarded with the emergency sirens a split second later. I looked out the window and saw a planet coming up fast. This isn't right. There aren't supposed to be planets out this far.

"Ah shit."

The ship started to plummet into the atmosphere and I couldn't do anything about it. The manual override wasn't working, nothing was working. Looks like I'm in for a rough landing. I strapped myself in and locked the chair in place so it wouldn't swivel about. I read the readout of the planet as fast as I could. It seemed that the air was mostly toxic and the majority of the land was swamps, marshes and mountains. Who the hell designed this place? Swamps, marshes and mountains? How the hell do mountains come into play? I heard a sound to my left and looked over. Sponge Guy was standing on the control panel. I grabbed him and put him in my lap.

"This is going to be a really rough landing."

I watched the ground rise up fast. I realized that the crash might just kill Sponge Guy, and possibly myself. As quickly as I could I unstrapped myself and headed to the door of the ship. I hit the button to open it. It opened about half a foot and then got stuck.

"Fuck!"

I looked out the window and then at Sponge Guy. If I time this right he'll be fine. I waited until we were a few feet from the ground and I tossed him out the opening. I didn't have time to wonder how bad the crash was going to be.