Xochiyotl frowned at the scent in her nostrils. Food. As if in whining protest, her stomach began to complain. Eyes shooting open, she sat up in the bed and huffed to herself. He was gone again. How dare she fall asleep on him? The girl bit her fingers, ignoring the pain each bite caused.

"Aaaarrgh!" Xochiyotl shouted at herself.

Another whine from her innards reminded her that she was painfully hungry. The teen stumbled to the table laden with food, saying her usual blessings to all of the Gods and Goddesses. She smiled, noticing she could walk with the slightest pain today. Shoving a large slab of bread in her mouth, Xochiyotl smiled, looking toward the forbidden door and wondering where the Amini was. Then she saw his note. Xochiyotl roared to herself after reading the simple message in his elegant script. How had he known how to write in her language? And why hadn't he woke her up?

Xochiyotl,

I must leave for the Hunt. Eat, wash, and do what you must to help yourself. The room behind the bed is forbidden and locked. I will return shortly.

Cit'lal-i

She slammed the note down, crumpling it. She huffed and sat in the overstuffed chair next to the small table with a puff. As Xochiyotl shoved another piece of bread in her mouth, she thought. He was tall, well built, and powerful. He obviously had rank and esteem. The Hunting temple was one of the strongest and highly esteemed temples of the great city. And she was his slave. The pride of being a personal slave to an Amini filled in her chest. Many males and females were personal slaves, most not treated nearly as well as she was. The girl shook her head in exhaustion. The rest of the day, she felt that little twinge of pride in her stomach when she would think of the Amini. However, even as the pride filled her chest, thoughts raged her mind. Why had he not been there when she had first come to see him? Why had he let the others get to her? He told her he would be there! He told her she could be his slave! Then, in the middle of drawing a bath for herself, the small Aztec teen stopped. She was asking herself these things? Since when had she been holy enough to ask things of an Amini? It was out of place! Xochiyotl resisted punishing herself, there were enough bruises on her arms and fingers to testify her homeliness. She lightly stepped into the warm water of the tub and relaxed. The bathing room was off the bedroom and had its own curtain to cover the doorway. Xochiyotl still marveled at everything in the temple. It was like a whole other world inside the walls of bone and rock. A grinding noise 25 minutes into her soaking bath made the teen gasp. She held still and quiet for minutes as shuffling sounded in the room only a cloth away from her. The small sounds ended a while later and the door shut again. Xochiyotl thanked all of the God's and Goddesses by name and then stood from the bath. Her fingers were pruny and she felt laden with water. She felt oddly at ease in this home, in what she could actually call a house. It was far away from the diminutive and degrading place she had grown up in. something about this place, even being alone was blissful.

Her next task was unthinkable. Help herself? She had eaten, bathed, and had clothed herself with what the other, who had obviously been a house cleaner, left on the bed… now what? Xochiyotl was pressed to find something to do. She was growing bored with the stillness of the stone temple. The noise was pleasant but unfamiliar to her ears. Millstones, traders talking and shouting, beasts giving off their usual roars, and the occasional child could be heard even all the way up in the temple. The Aztecs were loud. No wonder the Gods thought they were annoying! They never shut up! Xochiyotl leaned back in her comfortable chair and sighed. Her hair was still damp on the back of the seat and she could feel the pleasant coolness from the moisture. She thought about how she would usually be dusty, dirty from work by now, and almost dead from exhaustion. Then it hit her. Dust and dirt and all matter of unpleasant things. She could clean! There was no way the house cleaner had cleaned the room so quickly. Xochiyotl launched from her chair and to the bathroom as if she had sat on a Prickly Pear bush.

The room looked pleasant, but when Xochiyotl had piled every bit of furniture onto the bed, she could see the disgusting amounts of dirt and pollen on the floors and even on the furniture. Walking over to the wall, she pushed a section of brick and it bounced back to show a small cabinet. A broom, a mop and a large bucket, and a small bag of soap leaves showed. Grabbing the broom, Xochiytol closed the cabinet again and swept the dirty, grimy floor. Something about the motion felt right…

Cit'lal-i smiled giddily. These humans ran with speed and noise. They were easy to catch for him. The Hunter watched them cuddle in a circle in the middle of a field. He had never thought that to be too smart. One of the large sky snakes could vault down and catch them too easily. The human kind had so many natural predators that it was a wonder they still lived. At the thought of a sky snake, the Hunter flashed back to his first Hunt with one. The glory, the preteige the Hunter had been given for bringing down something so…dangerous and smart. That was what mattered. Danger.

They were intelligent to say the least. Their fiery scales glistened and their teeth and claws cut through his armor like a knife through water. And their roar was something to be heard. They could fly, spit smoke, and bring forth a torrent of rain in only hours. It was amazing. And deadly. The yautja usually stayed away from the beasts, only the bravest went for the creatures. And the humans in the area had not been the best of the species. But one of Cit'lal-i's first Hunts had been with a sky snake. It had vaulted out of the air, coiling and twisting and roaring in fury. He had been scared stiff and for that the great serpent had given the scar on his back and a talon from its right paw…

Cit'lal-i shook his head and growled to relieve himself of the annoying memory. It had not been him that had killed the creature, so why remember it? The Hunter crouched and sprang for the next reachable branch. He was roughly 30 feet in the air and didn't want the humans to know where he was right now. It wasn't like their horrid swords and useless magic could do him too much harm. Then another memory, one of his teachings, covered him again.

But in the far, far north they had found something different. Not a sky snake, nor a land beast. No, this was far more deadly and dangerous. The yautja had called them the Hard Meat. They were a bitch to kill. What with their black skin and roiling rows of teeth. They had two mouths and from both sprang thick goo and hisses of death. They were even deadly in death for their blood was of acid and melted anything upon contact. They were all things loathsome…

Again Cit'lal-i shook his head and hissed. He had to stay focused. The Hunter had the humans cornered and scared. He would show himself to them to show off his prowess to the other UnBloods watching right now. They would tell of his Hunt before the next sun set. Cit'lal-i smiled and fell from the tree above the human's heads. They jumped and shouted in their odd tongue to each other. The Amini simply pressed a button and showed himself as if out of thin air. Their reaction was priceless. They shouted and then went silent. He was a good four feet taller than them and a great deal heavier. It was almost a laugh to call them prey. But he did and stayed there in the same position for moments. Then one launched. The Hunter took a step forward and allowed the blade to scrape his chest plate harmlessly as he snatched the human by his throat and leveled his vision with the Hunter's. Humans never weighed more than a spear to him. Cit'lal-i growled and crushed the creature's neck with a single flex. His blood went everywhere and Cit'lal-i loved the feel of the warm liquid pouring. He took a step forward and went for more carnage. Blood soaked the grasses and meat, goo, and innards layered and glistened in the sun. The Amini sat among the death and pieces of flesh in blissful happiness. He had moved only after carnivores had moved in for a meal.

After the beautiful killing spree, Cit'lal-i sat underneath a Sakura tree, as his kind called it. His hands and skin on his arms were tinted red from the blood. But no new skulls lay at his feet. Not a single kill had been worthy of a place on his skull wall. The thought of his trophy room lead to the Aztec girl. He wondered what she was doing right now… The Hunter knew she had no idea that this place even existed, nor that there were so many other creatures like her and yet so different. Well, he thought, no one is exactly like her. A small breeze brought him back to a foggy reality. The air on this continent smelt of flowers and greenery. Cit'lal-i looked to his feet and saw a yellow flower waving in the dusk breeze. Gently as to not crush it, he picked the flower and held it to his mask. It had a light scent, but still sweet. Cit'lal-i searched the names of flowers that he knew and guessed this to be a Chrysanthemum. Not one of his favorite flowers, but a gentle one. For a second, the Hunter wondered if she would like to see what was outside of her kingdom. Most of the Aztecs he knew of did not like the thought of the world being so big. But maybe, since she was GLAD to be a slave, maybe he would order her to come with him on a Hunt. And maybe then he would show her the world she lived on. Cit'lal-i thought as the sun lowered itself into the horizon and painted a beautiful array of colors and shadows on the world. When it got dark, he returned to the ship and lay on his bed in the dark. Not bothering to turn the lights on or to take off his armor, the Hunter allowed the small girl, Xochiyotl, to creep into his thoughts once more. And he fell into a light sleep with her face in his mind.