She headed back south, through the trees, first on foot, then up into the branches. She was really feeling the day's ache in her body, objecting as she moved through the branches. More than once it caused her to falter and nearly fall back to the ground.
Finally she found an area to wait for Torodondodondo. The trees grew close together here, and the branches were full of leaves. She crawled up into them and stayed as still as possible. She waited. Five minutes passed. Then ten. She relented to her body's demands and found a more comfortable position in the tree, taking her weight off of her legs and arms, laying on the branch. Twenty minutes passed. Diwizama's brow furrowed, wondering where he was.
Then she heard thunder. She looked up and saw through the leaves that the sky had turned a dark grey. She stared at it until rain started to fall. It was deafening, the sound of countless drops of water striking the thick leaves of the jungle. Her shoulders sagged, only barely protected where she was, but not because it was bothersome to her. The Payas did not hunt in the rain. They were near blind, and it was cold for them.
Diwizama crawled back out of the tree, landing on the muddy ground and rubbing her arms, easing the soreness and rubbing the goosebumps. She looked around, then began to head further south. She knew a place near here that would be dry.
She was soaked within minutes, and there were times that she was sinking to her ankles in the mud. Torodondodondo would have had a much more difficult time than her, being much larger and heavier. He probably stayed to the trees though. She was too sore for that.
She stopped suddenly, hearing a soft growl and looked around. She drew her ba, knowing the sound of suffering animal, and knowing that they were often dangerous. Getting closer and closer she wondered what it could be, having not heard this noise before. Then she saw it; a pile of fur, sticking up in sharp points, side slowly rising and then lowering with a soft growling sound. It was the leopard, the mud around it stained red with blood.
Diwizama carefully moved over, extending her ba as she got closer. She walked around it, to where its head was and lowered the weapon. It was barely alive, its head sunk into the mud, mouth open slightly. If it knew she was there, it could not have responded. It was too far gone. She inhaled slowly and moved up, looking at the wounds over its body. She stayed far enough away that if life suddenly returned to the feline, it could not reach her. She lifted her spear and stabbed it easily into its heart. It choked for a single moment, then the last bit of air left its lungs and it was still.
She removed the spear and looked over the feline. She blinked once, bending down and grabbing its fur. She lifted it up onto her shoulder and moved it to be more under a tree. Without the knife, cleaning was difficult. She managed with the spear, though it was sloppy, using the tool for a purpose it was not meant for. She hoped, as she worked, that Torodondodondo had taken Mbia's knife from where she left it. She wouldn't want any humans to find it.
Tying the pelt full of meat with the Mbia's chord from around her waist, she lifted it all onto her shoulder, grimacing at the strain, and headed back north. She paused often to rest, though she never let the pelt touch the ground. Eventually she found what she was looking for, Torodondodondo's tracks sunk deep in the mud. It seemed he had come looking for her, before the weather forced him to seek shelter. She followed the trail he left in the ground and trees and eventually came upon the Paya. He was huddled under a small cave of earth, likely formed in a storm very much like this one but with more flooding. He had a small fire in front of him, keeping warm in the dropped temperature.
He stood up when she neared, stepping out into the rain and facing her, shoulders squared back. She looked over at him, waiting for an attack or for the three lights of his mask to be trained on her, but he did nothing. She stepped forward, carefully, waiting until she was near enough that he could grab her if he wanted. She moved the makeshift bag from her shoulder and set it down on the ground before him. She eased it open and pulled out the head of the leopard, setting it on top before backing away. It was his kill, his trophy.
He moved forward and she backed away. He took the head in one massive head and inspected it, then looked at her again. She stared straight at him, into the grey eyes of his mask. She did not wait for anything, she did not expect thanks. She left back into the forest, heading south, promising her body that it would be allowed to rest soon. The rain hadn't eased up by the time she arrived to a cave carved out of the earth. She moved in without fear, moving further back into the darkness until she could barely see. She paused and listened, inhaled the scents, then moved back outside.
She was sorely missing Mbia's knife, trying to coax a fire out of damp wood with the ba and a stone from within the cave. Every time she got sparks, they failed to catch onto the wood and would die. She rubbed and breathed on the wood to try to dry it, finally managing a fire after several tries. She pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, keeping warm by staying small. The firelight revealed nothing special about this cave; the walls were hard stone that had been worked with tools. The path was beaten solid, all the way to where the light couldn't reach.
This was the mine that her father had found with the clan. There were diamonds much further in, she knew. They were the form of currency that the Kure Iradandaanya could trade with the outside world for the things they needed, like the watch on her wrist. She checked it, making sure it still worked by making it flash and beep again. It had been through a lot in just a couple days, and most technology was fairly fragile. The watch had endured though, and that was what mattered to her.
She looked over at the cave and found that she could not see two feet beyond the sheets of rain coming down, and water was pouring down off the mouth of the cave in waves. It was possible that the cave would not be dry for very long, but she would make due if the water came in.
The world outside darkened, but the rain did not stop. She felt hungry, but she could ignore it. Often times, she would fail in hunts and go several days without meat, one night wouldn't kill her. She picked at her broken nails to even them out a bit more, then used a small coarse stone to shape them back to points. They ended up small, but they had the desired look to them and she tossed the stone down into the darkness. It clattered and echoed down deep within. Further on is where her father had led a Paya, forcing him into jedhin jedhin by taking away the space to be able to use his other weapons. She wouldn't have the chance to repeat that with Torodondodondo; the same trick did not work twice on a Paya.
Diwizama shifted and laid down on her side, wincing, but didn't move. There wasn't any part of her that didn't hurt, so turning over to find a comfortable position was pointless. She looked into the fire, remembering the last one that she had shared with her mother. She often felt alone, but now, in this cave especially, cold and sore, she was reminded of how she was the very last of her clan. Even if she survived, trying to find a mate would be difficult, as it had been in the previous years. The other tribes did not agree with what she was, and the rest of them were far too modern. She was one of few dying breeds; the world had stolen the culture out of nearly everyone else.
Her fingers lightly rubbed the ground as her mind wandered. She began to doze and imagine what her final moments would be like. Her mind whirled with glorious images of battle; bas clashing, sparks flying, blood covering her body, fighting with every last bit of strength, the last breath of air in her lungs in the light of a high sun. It would be a good death. Her heavy lids began to slowly close.
She jolted when she heard a noise and looked up. She didn't see anything at first but it had sounded like something crashing through the trees. A shape came forward in the rain. Broad shoulders parted the sheer veil of water that cascaded from the mouth of the cave. Diwizama quickly moved up, kneeling on one knee with her hand fisted on her chest. The Paya paused, looking her over then bent down and lightly put on the ground the skull of the river hog she had killed the previous day.
She looked at it, then at him, standing there watching silently, water dripping from the ends of his dreads. When she made no immediate movement, he backed away a small distance before turning.
"Master," she called to him and he paused, his wounded shoulder towards her. He gazed at her silently again, head slightly tilted, "Master… cold," cold was a word they knew well, it was the greatest complaint that her clan had learned from the masks of the fallen. She moved back, offering him the other side of her fire. He made only a slight movement of his head. He looked back out to the rain, staring at it for a long time, before turning and looking at her again. He stepped forward, moving closer to the fire and sat down. They both stayed two ba lengths away from each other.
After a moment in silence, Diwizama shifted to sit in a more comfortable position, but got a sudden look from Torodondodondo, so resumed kneeling with her arm to her chest. He slowly looked back at the fire and a minute passed. Diwizama could feel her bent leg beginning to cramp and she shifted to sit again, but he looked up sharply at her again. She pressed her teeth hard together, feeling the tickling sensation of her leg beginning to fall asleep. After a few minutes more of him staring at the fire she slowly moved to sit, being cautious, hoping he wouldn't see. His head jerked up at her again and she shot back up to kneeling.
He clicked rapidly and Diwizama gave him an incredulous look. He was laughing. He was teasing her. She pursed her lips and plopped down on the ground hard, which sent a jolt of pain up her body. She held her breath, then exhaled slowly. He tilted his head, the fire giving a beautiful luster to his mask. She eyed him, wondering what he was thinking, but also admiring him. He tilted his head in her direction and spoke. She almost missed what he said out of surprise.
"Speak again."
She blinked for a moment, then looked down wondering what to say, "bad bloods… hurt master… much?"
Torodondodondo didn't react at first, before giving a single shake of his head. She didn't think that they had. They had been humans, untrained in fighting the Payas. She had trained her whole life, and though she had only hunted twice, she knew far better than anyone what they could do, and what they could take.
Torodondodondo reached over, moving the hog skull closer to her, "yours," he said and she bowed before hooking an eye socket with her index finger and sliding it closer, moving it to her side of the fire. She eased back to her sitting position, stroking the brow of the hog before looking over at the Paya again. She could hardly believe she was sharing her fire with one of her gods. She could barely take her eyes off of him, staring except for when he noticed her, and she would look away. The fire had a beautiful effect on his pale skin, making the dark stripes even darker, and the pale parts orange, making him look very much like the tigers she had read about and seen pictures of in her books.
She studied him, the patterns on his skin, his hands resting on his knees, where she noticed another weapon like the wristblades was strapped against. She looked along his wounded chest, noted how it was healing, looked at the bluish-blackened wounds where they were cauterized. She looked at his dreads, the gold ornaments around them, and his crest. He was younger than she originally thought, maybe just a bit older than her by a decade or so.
He huffed and she flinched, realizing she was staring again and looked away, "what do you see?" he asked and she looked at him again.
"Great warrior," she answered, she knew he was being simple with his words on purpose, knowing that she had a very limited vocabulary, "skilled… young skilled," she hummed, racking her mind for the right word she needed. He rattled contemplatively. She gave up and her shoulders sag, clicking apologetically, and received a short single click in response. He was impressed with her nonetheless.
He didn't look away from her this time, his mask stayed fixed, facing her directly. She moved a small pile of wood around so that the damp sides faced the fire to dry.
"Name?" Diwizama looked at him and shook her head. Her name did not translate into the language of the Payas. They did not perceive color, nor could they see the moon. He shifted back, tilting his head but didn't push it. He looked back to the fire without offering his. Diwizama looked at him for a moment before moving one of the pieces of wood onto the fire and settling back, pulling her knees to her chest.
"Why do you hunt?"
The woman looked over at the Paya confused by his question for a moment. Her lips closed and she swallowed, "for honor. We chosen. The Payas hunt us, we make hunt… good for Payas. We hunt Payas back. We make best trophies. Payas honor us, we honor Payas. Honorable deaths."
Torodondodondo was very silent, and didn't move. Diwizama set her jaw, sitting straight up straight, "I proud to hunt you. I honored to die by you."
Torodondodondo lowered his head; it was a sign of acknowledgement that made Diwizama's heart sing.
"Rest, brave warrior, tomorrow, I will show you honor."
Diwizama felt so light, she was sure that she would never sleep but she lowered her head to him, then turned and laid down by the fire. She looked at the flames, watching the Paya move a piece of wood to it. She would serve out her purpose. She had been deemed worthy prey by Torodondodondo; he would give her an honorable death, or grant her another century of life.
She could not hold back the smile that parted her lips.