"And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes."

-Deuteronomy 6:8

Resi let out a deep breath, trying to calm and center himself. It would do no good if he got too worked up to catch anything. Walking along the street, Resi let the crowd carry him along. The plant was nowhere near as populated as the Coruscant or one of the other worlds like it in the core, but it had its share of large cities scattered across the world. At the moment the name of the world had slipped his mind, but it was of little import anyway. Resi didn't bother wasting time worrying about small matters like that. Only the Hunt mattered at the moment. He could almost taste the soup of his first prey. It would be easy to grab some random drifter, but to Resi that defeated the purpose of the Hunt. He had not trained for a hundred years just to pick off random strays.

The city he was wandering through seemed to be based nearly completely on tourism and pleasure. Few of the buildings were more than a few stories tall, and alleys and narrow gaps between the buildings were omnipresent. While the warm breezes seemed to tempt everyone into shedding as much clothing as possible. Stepping out of the flow of the crowd and into the modest cover of a doorstep, Resi pushed a few errant strands of black hair out of his face.

One of the holoprojectors nearby was set on a news channel, at the moment the reporter was taking about how some trading group had blockaded a minor Mid Rim planet out in the Trailing Sectors. Not that Resi cared for such things, that was on the far side of the galaxy. Still, it must have been a slow news day for that to be reported at all. Hopefully, that would mean that the locals would be relaxed.

His hand strayed down to his belt, and the small length of beads hanging there. It had been only a few weeks since he choose his name; a few weeks since he had talked to his friends. Resi sighs and steps back out into the flow, focusing on the past would not help him Hunt. After a while, he caught the scent of someone with a powerful soup. A few moments later and Resi had identified the owner of the scent as a moderately built man with a wild tangle of gray hair that was stumbling down the street.

Following the man at a distance, Resi watches as the man stumbles into one of the many alleys in this part of town. By this time the traffic on the streets seemed to be getting thinner, or at least moving toward a different part of the town. Slipping into the alley after the man, Resi caught sight of him again, still stumbling around and grumbling to himself. He seemed to be quite drunk, but his cloths marked him as someone who was definitely well off.

Focusing all his will into the word, Resi calls Stop to the man. Jerking in surprise, the man halts, seemingly unintentionally. Stalking toward the man, Resi feels his probosces slip out of the pouches in his cheeks. The man turns and looks rather surprised, he takes a step backward then another. Stop Resi calls again, forcing the man to once again halt his retreat. Once again looking shocked by the betrayal of his body, the man takes a step forward toward Resi. Yes, come to me Resi calls as the man starts stumbling forward. Distracted by the almost overpowering strength of the scent of the soup, Resi didn't notice the glint of metal that appeared in the hand of the man until it was already swinging toward his flesh.

The deadly hum betrayed the presence of a vibroblade. Jerking backward, Resi felt his face explode in pain as a line of fire was dragged across his cheeks and nose. The man was slightly shorter than Resi, and so the blade had been angled upward, biting into Resi s eyes beneath the surface. If Resi had been any slower, the blade would have taken off a good portion of his head.

Fleeing wildly from the loudly cursing man, Resi ran further into the alley, turning into alley after alley in order to hide from the man. Finding himself bumping into one of the many large metal bins that he had seen earlier, Resi pushed up the lid slightly and pulled himself into the stinking interior of the bin.

It was some time before Resi came back to his senses. As he lay in the filth of the waste bin, he slowly raised one of his hands to his face, feeling the revolting texture of open and still bleeding wound and sending another jolt of pain through his body. Pain, he was used to, however, even in the dead of night, he should have been able to see something of his surroundings, but he was lost in a sea of the blackest ink.

He lay there for some time yet, pondering the situation that he had managed to launch himself into. After a little more poking and prodding, Resi fully grasped the severity of his problem. His eyes were damaged, at best blinding him temporarily, at worse, permanently. His proboces where both seared clean off, and were unlikely to regrow, even taking into account the healing abilities of his people. His nose had been spilt open, and his sense of smell would probably be severely reduced in the future. And worst, His face had been carved nearly in two and he doubted he would be about to find any more pretty girls to keep him company.

Letting out a short chuckle at that last thought, he added one more item to the list, as a fresh burst of pain shot through him. And the wound was most likely infected from whatever this sludge was that he had been rolling around in. Wonderful, simply wonderful. Well, at the very least he wouldn't be bored for the next couple of days.

Letting out a sigh, resi sits up. And immediately lays back down as he slams his face into the metal lid of the bin. A few moments later, Resi decides that the best course of action would be to take things slowly.

After a few minutes of feeling around and getting his bearings, Resi noticed a slight glimmer that had escaped his attention before. Hopeful that his sight was beginning to return, Resi focused on the spot of light. Before long, the slight glimmer had gained resolution and clarity. Shifting and growing, the spot soon took the form of a man standing upright, and standing just outside the bin. Letting out a rather surprised shout, Resi bolted straight up.

"WHAT THE KRIFF?"

The man, who up to that point had been quite relaxed and relieving himself against the wall next to the bin, was treated to the rather unusual sight of a slime covered, blood-soaked, and screaming Thing rising up from the trash bin next to him. Promptly forgetting any previous business, the man decided that perhaps he should only relieve himself in designated locations from now on, and quickly left to go find one.

With the man having fled, Resi found himself once again blind. Wondering about this new turn of events, He half-dragged, half-stumbled out of the alley and back out into the main streets. It was not long after that that Resi found himself in an emergancy vehicle heading toward what he dearly hoped was somewhere with a large stock of painkillers.

Author Notes: Ok, bit of humour and some foreshadowing going on in this chapter. Next chapter, Resi figures some things out and gets some much needed medical help. Also, mind-bending drugs! YAY!

Also, thanks to my proofreaders (I just managed to get some). you make this much easier. :D