Chapter 17. Flashbacks
It was dark for only a few seconds, when Da'guande saw another flash! He tried to close his eyes, but it didn't work! He thought he saw a faint image in the light, and it was getting bigger! It grew so big that soon he was surrounded by it!
For a moment, he thought he was back in the darkness from before, but realized this place was dark green instead of pitch black. He also realized that he was under water, yet somehow breathing anyway! Suddenly, the walls began to close in, and the water drained! He began to scream as he was squeezed out of the dark room, and figured out what was happening! He was being born!
After being shoved out of that place, he was picked up by a healer! He looked at Da'guande for a few moments, and handed him to a male. This must be my father, he thought. The male glared at him for a very brief second, and screamed at the female who had just given birth!
"You bore me a runt!" He screeched!
Da'guande screamed at the sound!
"B-b-but he's our son!" She stammered.
"No runt ever came from me!" He screamed!
He carried Da'guande to the nearest window, and dangled him out of it! Da'guande looked down and saw he was on the top level of a two-story building!
"He's your own pup! How can you…"
The male pulled Da'guande back inside, and punched the female in the face!
"We'll make more! I'd suggest you don't ruin the next one, or I'll have to replace you for the third!"
"Yes sir." She did her best to speak with her broken mandible, and made bubbles in the blood and tears that soaked her face.
He nodded and threw Da'guande as hard as he could out the window!
He fell for several noks, and landed on his left shoulder! He cried for help, but nobody was there to help him! After an hour or two, freezing rain began to pour all over his tiny body! He reached out and used his arm to push himself away from the house! He was crawling!
It took about three hours, but he managed to crawl into a cave outside the village! He crawled as deep into the cave as he could, but soon passed out! He woke up several hours later, next to a large venom mole! It was female, for it had several pups drinking its milk. He crawled up to it and began to suck the milk too.
He lived this way for several months, but he soon became too big, and had to leave the cave during the day for food. He quickly learned the yautja language, and how to beg for money and food. Many showed pity on the toddler because his left arm was still hideously misshapen! He was fine with begging by day and living with his mole "mother" in her cave by night, until he was a teen and a new town elder was named.
His name was Ki its-pa, and was very vain. He decided that the homeless were poisoning the beauty of his village, and were all to be forced into concentration camps! Da'guande was furious at him, and so he decided to fashion a spear out of sticks and rocks. One night, Da'guande broke into Ki its-pa's home, and stabbed him in the back with the weapon he was named after!
He stole as many weapons as he could, along with all his money, and spent the rest of the night lying awake in the cave. The next morning, he arrived in the village to beg some more, hopping nobody would suspect him. He was shocked though, when he realized that the rumors about the killer were far from accusing a homeless teen with a bad arm!
He heard everything from "It was one of his hult'ahs, who killed him to run off with his mate!" to "It was the ghost of the great ooman hunter of hard meat, Ripple-eee! She showed him images of hard meat, until he lost his mind and killed himself!".
They all agreed on the name to refer to the assassination by, though. The knife in the night killing! He decided to leave the cave, and moved to a bigger village with a long river going down the middle, ending in many waterfalls going down the cliff on the southern side!
Many asked the name of the wealthy teen, but he had none! He decided to say to call him by thing he had only ever been called by before. Da'guande, knife in the night! He hired a healer named to look at his arm, and was satisfied to learn it could easily be fixed.
He soon befriended another teen named Yeyinde. Yeyindes father was a member of a very exclusive clan, known for only excepting the richest, most cold blooded hunters on the planet! Da'guande managed to join the clan, and got a large hut, along with several slave girls! Even though they were all still young girls, most of them were about his age. Including Pyode kwei.
She was always the most eager to serve him of any of the girls, and was the most beautiful. Over their many seasons together, he sold all the other girls to be alone with her, only to free her so he could become her mate!
One day he came home from a long hunt, and saw Pyode kwei crying naked in their bed!
"What happened here?" He asked.
"Y-Yeyinde! H-he, I, oh Paya!"
Da'guande instantly went into a fit of rage!
"WHERE DID HE GO!?!"
"Th-the waterfalls! He said something about going to the top of the far east waterfall!"
Da'guande ran out the door as quickly as he could, bringing his plasma caster and wrist blades with him! He finally saw his friend standing on the edge of the canyon, next to the farthest waterfall to the east of the cliff.
"What did you want to tell m…" The moment Yeyinde spoke, Da'guande fired the plasma caster through his leg! He screamed in anger, but Da'guande blew the second leg off anyway!
"You brought me here to kill me!?!" He asked as Da'guande ripped his arms off with the blades!
"Brought you here!?! I followed you here you piece of c'jit!"
"Pyode kwei, she…"
"DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK HER NAME!" Da'guande roared at his former friend!
"B-but she told me you wanted to meet me here!"
"AFTER YOU WERE DONE WITH HER!?!"
Yeyinde looked like he was about to respond, but Da'guande had enough of him! He stabbed Yeyinde in the stomach, and dropped his body off the edge of the waterfall on which they had been standing!
He walked back home to tell Pyode kwei the good news, but she was gone! He assumed she had just gone to get food, but after a few hours, he began to worry. He decided to go to the market to look for her. He went to get some money, but was shocked! It was all gone!
He gave it some deep thought, and realized what had been going on the whole time! She had faked her feelings for him the entire time! It was all a plot to get him to free her from slavery!
He put his weapons back on, and ran to the market! He searched the streets up and down for her, but didn't see anything! A traveling weapons salesman began pestering him.
"Hey there sir, how would you like a few quality items that will improve your trophy rate by twelve percent!" He said in a sly, cocky voice.
"How am I to know your weapons aren't stolen!?!" Da'guande snapped!
"How am I to know your weapons aren't stolen!?!" the young salesman said as he pointed at Da'guandes plasma caster.
He was on the verge of punching the salesman in the face, when Da'guande remembered that Pyode kwei had a mother living in a village near a large canyon!
"Oh c'jit! It's the hult'ahs!" the salesman said.
Sure enough, there were three hult'ahs walking their way! The two of them ran behind a large hut! The hult'ahs looked for them a bit longer, before they lost interest and walked away. The salesman thanked Da'guande, and ran away!
Da'guande ran as fast as he could to the canyon village, where he soon found the hut he was looking for! He listened in on Pyode kweis conversation.
"He probably knows where I am by now!"
"Pup, You can't try to run from him forever!"
The moment she spoke, Da'guande broke down the door and killed Pyode kweis mother with his plasma caster!
"No. You can't."
The poor girl screamed as he walked up to her and extended his wrist blades! He shed a single tear as he ended their romance!
The moment he walked out the door, he saw a filthy pup in young blood armor staring at him! He grabbed him and threatened him with death! The pup said his name was Steg'-in, and that he had been living in the canyon for countless seasons! Da'guande wasn't sure if he pitied Steg'-in, or if he was reminded of himself by the teen, but he let the poor pup stay with him.
He stayed with Da'guande for many years, as they hunted yautja as they pleased, while many others joined them!
Cetanu, a healer in training that was banished for failing to heal an elder's mate!
Kv'var, a jester that had poisoned his elder in the night.
Nan-de than gaun, a hunter that crashed his clan's ship on a planet full of hard meat.
Mesh'in'ga, a loyal servant to religious zealot who dumped him on the streets when he got too old to serve his master.
Hiju paya, a hult'ah that lost his job when a bad blood escaped behind his back.
Mo'thei-de, a hard meat expert that got a friend implanted with one so he could study the baby.
M-di h'dlak, an athlete that lost everything after getting injured in a tournament.
H'sai-de, the stolen weapon salesman that Da'guande had met on that fate full day.
And Nain-de, another runt that had grown up hidden in his Parents house.
One day, a group of hult'ahs found their home, and dragged them to the stadium for the worst bad blood! After the escape, they spent countless seasons going from planet to planet, hunting whatever they could, until Da'guande saw an odd moon-like object on the scanners.
He took off in the ship, outran the mothership, boarded the construct, hunted the oomans, and set his self-destruct device.
Then he saw the darkness again.
This time, it stayed dark.