Alone in the frozen wastelands, the days had turned into months, months into years. Time blurred and on the icy planet, it lost its meaning. Hunt or be hunted. Eat or starve; shelter or freeze. This was all that mattered now.
Nei'hin lay in the open icy plains staring up at his home planet which hung so close he could almost touch it. He was struggling to remember his brother's face. Everything that happened before arriving here felt like a dream. A howl in the distance sang through the night. He closed his eyes. He had forgotten how long he had been here. A chill started to set in and Nei'hin pulled his fur cloak in closer. Rising up, he headed towards his camp, a makeshift cavern. Reaching the cave, he stepped inside and the warmth radiated onto his face in stark contrast to the brewing cold outside. Hunger pangs gripped him and he rummaged through his store for some jerky before realising he was low on food and would need to hunt again. Nibbling on the last remnants of his meal, he checked his cache of makeshift weapons, happy that they looked ready for the hunt and laid down by the fire. Sleep took him as the ice storm started to rage outside.
At dawn, he rose and prepped for a hunt. His makeshift leather armour was starting to wear thin in spots but his spears were sharp. Tying his newly regrown hair back into a ponytail before covering his head with a hood, he stepped into the light of the soft rising sun. Still cold from the night before, it felt refreshing against the warmth of the cave. Nei'hin jogged off into the distance towards the rising sun where he had some moderate success in the past for fresh meat.
As he approached the area, he half burrowed himself into the snow to mask his scent and watched the herd of animals graze, looking for a suitable meal. His stomach growled with hunger. Yes, he had starved on some days when there was nothing to eat but ice.
The herd was suddenly started by something and ran into the distance. Nei'hin kept still. There were other creatures here on the planet that were more terrifying than him and could kill him if he was not careful. Slowly scanning the area, he saw the shimmer of a cloaked vessel as it started to land.
As it slowly uncloaked and landed, he suddenly had hope. Was his clan returning for him? Moving closer, he watched as three of the Yuatja walk out of the ship. Nei'hin instantly recognised their clan markings. They were traitors. Nei'hin hissed with frustration, not only had he lost his meal, he now had to deal with bad bloods.
Moving silently through the snow crags towards the hunters, he watched to see if there were more coming out of the ship. He watched as they fanned out, looking for something. One was now close enough for Nei'hin to see him properly. He was well armed but lightly armoured. Nei'hin would have to be precise to kill him without noise…. The bad blood walked further away from the other two and Nei'hin stealthily followed. Nei'hin watched the traiter survey the area. The wind had picked up and started to howl, the snow now obscuring the lone straggler giving Nei'hin room for to strike without being noticed. Slipping in quietly behind the bad blood, Nei'hin promptly shivved the traitor in the throat. It died quietly as its bright green blood softly gurgled out from the wound in its neck as he collapsed on to the snow.
Turning quickly to see where the other two was, he was satisfied that he was not noticed. Nei'hin ran quietly on the snow amongst the rocks towards the closes traitor before barrelling him onto the ground and despatching him in a similar method.
The third was gone. Nei'hin slowly scanned the area… the bastard had cloaked himself. Grabbing the mask of the dead bad blood, he put it on in time to see the third traitor hit him across the face with force sending Nei'hin flying backwards and knocking the mask clear. Staggering onto his feet, the cloaked traitor was somewhere…. He listened, the snow near him crunched softly and Nei'hin watched the foot prints in the snow approach him, he moved slowly over to the dead hunter, he needed a weapon.
The traitor was circling him, hoping to catch him off guard. Nei'hin pulled his bloody dagger clear from the dead traitor and stood straight, looking in the direction of the invisible Yuatja. Tightening his grasp on the handle of his knife, he was ready to strike.
The traitor realised that this lone hunter could see him in the snow and snorted angrily, "Pauk you, your skull is mine!"... Barrelling towards Nei'hin, his wrist blades raised.
Nei'hin slightly cocked his head slightly and stood his ground as the bad blood raced towards him. The wind had picked up and made the traitor's run more difficult as well as the rising snow. As the traitor was almost upon him, Nei'hin ducked under the predicted wide swing and swooped him up lifting him over his head before he pile driver him into the ground with a thud. He stepped in and stabbed the knife into the exposed flesh, the traitor roaring in pain…struggling… Nei'hin stabbed him once more; as bright green blood bubbled out and a ragged breathe escaped the traitor. Nei'hin stood and looked down on the traitor and his stomach grumbled in hunger. The traitor raised his hand in protest, the other hand holding in the flowing blood tainting the snow green as Nei'hin growled at him… "Im going to eat you, you pauker….you cost me my dinner!" The traitor was losing blood fast and struggling with consciousness.
"No!" A voice was heard behind him. Nei'hin whipped around and saw a younger Yuatja, his dreads not even long enough to touch his shoulders, trembling there with a small blade in his hands. Nei'hin glowered at him and slowly approached him. The youngster trembled and dropped the blade, "Please… please don't eat me.."
Nei'hin paused…"I won't eat you…. How many are in the ship?" The youngster began to sob…."just me …" Nei'hin swooped onto the youngster and carried him into the ship. Walking carefully through its hold with the youngster on his shoulder and finding that the ship was empty. He found the trophy room that had a cage set up in it and put the child in. Looking around, there were a lot of trophies on the wall…. Curiously all were of the black warrior… the xenomorph…known as the dragon to the clan….
Nei'hin looked at the youngster now sitting in the cage, "where did they get so many of the dragons?" The youngster trembled. "….We have another ship…. And we harvest the eggs and then hunt the dragon…"
"You are breeding dragons? Traitors! What worlds have you been infecting illegally?! There are rules!". Nei'hin banged the knife on the cage. The youngster scampered to the other side of the cage and began to whimper. Nei'hin needed to tell the clan. Who knew what worlds they were destroying?
Nei'hin went outside and found the traitor trying to crawl away, his wounds would kill him if untreated. Nei'hin wanted answers. He dragged him into the ship to the medical area; securing the traitor before treating his wounds. Nei'hin sighed and finally sedated him for the trip. He retrieved the other dead traitors and put them in the burial chamber of the ship. He removed their armour and weapons and started to clean them. His stomach growled in reminder that he needed to eat and made his way to the mess hall. Finding something to eat, he ate in front of the cage before handing the youngster something to eat. The youngster sat nervously and waited til Nei'hin had left the room before eating.
"Relax; I'm not going to eat you…" Nei'hin called out as he walked away.
Sitting inside the cockpit, he turned on the craft and checked the logs and found that the kid's information was correct and that the traitors did have a ship in one of the quadrants frequented by bad bloods. It was manned by a small crew and had a large dragon colony on it that was kept frozen and supplied on demand. He tried to access that ships computer to find if it was seeding planets with dragons but was denied access. He needed to get to the nest and purge it. The other traitors had to be brought to justice. He needed to alert his clan for permission to leave the planet otherwise he too would be traitor.
Nei'hin activated the ship's comms and sent a message out to his clan requesting for clearance to return and outlined his plan to destroy the nest and to bring the traitors to justice. He would need armor, weapons… more hunters… he would use the traitor's ship as a cover… the comms beeped as a message was received…
Return to clan ship…approved….co-ordinates as follows..
He entered the co-ordinates of the clan ship into the computer and started the engines. As they roared into life, Nei'hin watched the icy planet fall away as he soared through space. He suddenly missed the isolation. Setting the computer onto auto pilot, Nei'hin went to a nearby bedroom and slept as he suddenly felt tired as if the years had suddenly caught up on him.