Chapter 6
The sun had moved to the center of the sky by the time Umbra decided to move from the spot she was laying at. She rolled on to her back, her mask laid on the floor next to her. Tears still running from her eyes. She felt shame, sorrow, fear, but of all the feelings she felt shame was the one that gripped her most. She had let her one love get captured, possibly killed, she cried in pain but it wasn't from the disk that was lodged in her chest. The pain was from a heart breaking at the thought that I one she cared and loved most was going to die, she reached down to her wound and tore out the disk. She didn't scream she didn't do anything but lay there letting the blood flow from her chest. She knew that even in death, she would still find her mate.
Almost giving up on life she looked to where Ian's body had rested before the Hish took him away, she noticed something on the ground. She groaned limping to this object, it was a leaf and on this leaf was blood, and the blood was drawn on there 'find me' he must of written this before the Hish took him away. She gathered her strength going back to the cavern, to grab her kit. It only took a few minutes and a lot of pain to finally seal up her wound, and head out. Grabbing her mask she placed it on and set her visor to see if there was any contrails. She couldn't see any, sighed and changed the visor again. This time faint neon blue lines marked the sky, she set tracking and jumped into the trees following the faint lines.
Ian gasped, heavy deep breaths taking in as much air as he could. Looking to his right then left he could tell he was bound to a post of sorts, he looked down to his feet they too were bound to the post. He tried moving, but couldn't budge, he knew better than to try and keep moving around it would only tire him out more. I hope she got my note, jeez I hope she's alive, he thought looking at the ground. All he could do was worry about Umbra, not so much about himself. He tried to get a look at where he was being held, nothing looked like normal other than the huge fire that was going in the middle of the area he was in.
The heat coming from it wasn't too hot, but hot enough to cause sweating. As he looked around he could see other humans beheaded around the fire, there was even another yautja tied up to a post. This one was also beheaded and castrated by the looks of it. He quickly looked down and let out a sigh of relief, everything was where it was supposed to be. He kept looking around and saw that he was being held in some sort of camp, looking up he could see that the trees were covering the top. Only little bits of the night sky shown through.
From his left he heard heavy footsteps, he turned his head and watched the Hish come from the corner. A person draped over his right shoulder, when he threw this person to the ground Ian saw that this human was a female. Dirty matted blonde hair, and a light tan, when Ian looked over to the Hish he could see that he had new cuts on his leg, and arm. Ian stared at him while he examined the woman, her chest still moving still alive. The Hish then grabbed her head, turned it side to side, placed his hand on her chest then moved his other hand to the back of her neck. Ian didn't know what was happening but he couldn't take his eye off of what did happen.
As he pulled ripping mixed with popping came from her, in seconds her head and spine where in his hands. Ian threw up a little in his mouth as he watched her get mutilated, then the Hish walked over to a vat of steaming liquid. He dipped the head and spine in and in a few seconds pulled it out reveling a white skull and spine. The Hish trilled, set the bones down and looked over to Ian and started walking towards him, Ian stared at him right in the masks eye covers as he came towards him. Well this isn't going to be painless, he thought as it came up to him grabbing his shoulders and pulling him up to eye level on the post. "Knock me out before you tare my head off" Ian snarled, the Hish did nothing no sounds no movements, just stared at him. Ian not being stupid kept his mouth shut returning the stare. Then the Hish turned his back to Ian, and walked out. Ian let out a huge sigh of relief once it left, "that was scary as fuck" he breathed, looking to each side he tried to move his arms or hands to get out, but nothing worked. As time went by he tried everything to get himself out of this mess of ropes, he gave up and dropped his head. Picking it up once he heard footsteps and a presence standing before him, before he could completely pick his head up a fist hit him on the stomach.
Ian let out a cough, and finally looked up to who it was, it was the hunter that came in last to ruin the day "fuck you" Ian spat, to which he was met with another punch to his gut sending him into a coughing fit "once I'm out of here, your head is mine you fuck!" Ian yelled, this creature was enjoying the feistiness of Ian. So much so that he tried to see just how far he could go, letting his blades drop from his gauntlet he raised it to Ian's chest pressing the points against his skin. He slowly cut into Ian's chest looking him in the eye, Ian breathing harsh fully as the blades cut through his chest. The hunter being careful not to spill Ian's entrails didn't cut so deep once he got to his stomach.
"better off just killing me you piece of shit, because if I live I will kill you" Ian snarled, the hunter took the blade away from his skin, retracted them and lift its hand up with one finger risen he waved it back and forth. This motion irritated Ian "ooohh you son of a bitch!" Ian yelled, the hunter turned his back to him and walked out slowly. "Mother fucker! Second time one of these assholes walked out on me." He said to himself, then looked down to his chest. The blood was slowly pouring out of the gashes "you know I like to be wined then dined before I get fucked!" he yelled at the entrance to the room. Ian groaned and mumbled knowing there was nothing he could do.
After a few minutes the Hish came back in "ohh great jolly green fucking giant here to save the day!" he hissed at him. The Hish came up to him quickly and said something in his own tongue, grabbing Ian by the cheeks. "Just fucking kill me already" Ian said through squeezed cheeks. The Hish trilled, pulled something from his back and slapped over Ian's mouth. As he walked away he kept speaking his language, instead of leaving the room he walked over to the fire and stood there. He then reached to the right side of his mask and pulled on something making a hissing sound, then placed his hand on the mask pulling it off. He set it on a stand next to the fire, then looked over to Ian.
Ian couldn't help but let an ew escape through the thing that was covering his mouth. The Hish's skin was a green and light brown color he unlike all the others had no dreads. Down the middle of his head he had black spots that lined a crease in his forehead that ran from the tip of his skull down to the plate like brow he had. His eyes, or eye was black surrounding a yellow that had red in the center, his right eye and both mandibles on the right side were missing. A long scar ran down that side of his face, the mandibles on the left side though were what looked to be either broken or ground down. Around the crest of his head, like Umbra were plates that were a brown color. Jesus you're ugly, Ian thought looking at the Hish. The only thing the Hish seemed to be wearing was a half metal breast plate, a leather neck guard, some loin cloth metal mixture, and shin guards.
He didn't seem to care too much about being hurt as Ian could tell by all of his scars. As the time went on, all his new roommate did was sit there watching the fire blaze, Ian was starting to feel slightly dizzy as he looked down he could see that he lost a bit of blood. He exhaled, and figured if the Hish didn't kill him then the blood loss would. Ian either passed out or decided to sleep, either way he was out. The Hish walked up to him and heard him breathing, to that he went back to what he was doing. Standing there.
Umbra had be jumping around the treetops for hours, till she finally found a plume of smoke coming out of an area of trees. She got closer slowly and saw it was a camp of sorts, she was only about 200 yards away when her visor picked up a sound. Umbra carefully got closer, the sound was heard a little clearer the mask could pick up one word 'fucked' it went through different pitches and octaves till it matched "mate" her voice let out softly her heart jumped at joy knowing he was still breathing. For now, Umbra decided to get a better look at what she had to deal with circling around the camp. She knew for a fact that there were only two left. The camp was small, and easy to be found. She also found the ship resting in the brush camouflaged, she was able to sneak into the ship and tinker around with a few things.
After she was done she tried to find the entrance to this camp, only to find the one who knocked out Ian. Her chest filled with rage as she watched him scan the trees and floor, she perched herself high in the trees just above him. She knew that he couldn't see her, and that's exactly what she wanted, as she watched him she noticed he called out to more of the hunting beasts. Three in total, she knew this that going to be almost impossible, but she had to try, she had to save her mate.
As she circled around the camp more, she found traps set up every so many feet. The more and more she tried to get a feel for this place, the more her heart sank. There was no secret entrance, no other way than the front door. With all this running through her head, and doubt filling her chest she knew that either one of them, or both would die by the time everything was over. She huffed silently, and went back to above the hunter to see the mutts laying at his side. Each one of them appeared to be sleeping, this was her chance. As she scaled down the tree slowly trying not to make a sound, her feet had touched the floor softly.
For her size she was quite nimble, and very quiet. Taking her time she lined up her shoulder caster to the mutt on the left, the one on the right she pointed the hand caster to. It only took a few seconds to get everything lined up and fired, but she knew that once it happened she needed to commit. Two loud blasts came from both sides of her, the hounds heads exploded to nothing. Shocking the two awake, without knowing what happened the hunter tried running after her only to see nothing. Then he heard a thud and saw the hound writhing on the floor, the disk he threw at Umbra was dug into the back of its skull.
The hunter roared seeing his pets lay there dead, his anger fueled his rage as he circled around trying to find her. She watched him move around furiously, cheer had filled her chest knowing that she had won half of the battle with this bad blood. She then took three small darts from a pouch and threw two of them at the hunter, both hitting their mark; one at his lower back, the other in his right thigh. He yelled out trying to see where this new pain had come from, angrily he fired his caster wildly into the trees and anywhere he could aim. Umbra couldn't help but chuckle, as she watched her pray from afar fight back at nothing. Only a few more seconds, she thought to herself, those darts she made had small traces of poison on them from a plant she found along the way there.
The plant caused hallucinations, and if done too much could cause death. She didn't want him to die, not yet at least. She wanted to see him suffer, and fight wildly against nothing. Umbra got her wish as she watched him swing at trees and bushes. Knowing he was out of it she came closer to him trilling and making other sounds, seeing him jerk and move in fear. "You will feel pain, you will die with no honor. You will suffer" she spoke to him in their language, the hunter spun around quickly everything a mixture of colors and sounds. The hunter grabbed his head howling in pain, "You will have no rest after you die!" She roared at him running into him taking him to the ground, and forcefully removing his mask.
She looked down to him, his eyes filled with fear and franticly looking around trying to concentrate on one being. "Ones with no honor, do not have an honorable death" Umbra hissed at him, as she broke off his caster. It shot out one last bolt, missing its target before it was torn off. She then grabbed onto his mandibles ripping them off of his face, the pain and fear that gripped him made him lay there in shock as she slowly ripped away at his face. The blood was bubbling out of the rips in his face his mind was a mess, but before she gave him what he was begging for in his mind she slowly pushed the last dart she pulled out of pouch and pushed it into his neck.
She then grabbed his left arm in both hands, one hand on his bicep the other on his forearm. His arm squeezed tightly in her grasp she bent it backwards causing a nasty crack and rip. He screamed and tried to move, but she responded with a swift punch to the side of the head. Grabbing his other arm she broke it as well, a greenish clear color started coming from his mouth, death was almost upon him. She let out a deep laugh as she jumped into the trees watching her victim writhe on the floor. As she went back up into the trees, the Hish came out slowly looking at his partner as he foamed at the mouth, his body convulsing. The Hish looked up into the trees, without his mask he couldn't see very well, and Umbra held everything back to not blow his head off.
As she kept watching him, he walked up to his dying partner placed his foot on its head and pressed down with ease, its head caved in with ease. Umbra watched this happen, the whole time the Hish never took his eye off the trees in front of him, seeing this sent a shiver up her spine. Knowing that he had no qualms about killing anything, she only hopped that Ian was still alive. After a few seconds the Hish left the body, and returned into the camp. Umbra's feeling of accomplishment was gone in seconds, she knew she had to come up with a plan to kill this Hish, but she knew that easy part was done, the deadly part was going to happen now.
Ian tied up to the post had a giant grin under his mouth cover, knowing Umbra had killed the other hunter. The Hish walked in slowly, and looked over to Ian, he trilled grabbed his mask putting it on, and walked up to Ian removing his mouth piece to see he had a smile. The Hish simply put the mouth piece back onto him, walked around him and cut him loose. Being more than five feet to the ground, and having numb limbs Ian slammed into the hard dirt coughing out the mouth piece trying to catch his breath. Ian rolled onto his back groaning, and shaking his hands trying to get the feeling back into them. He looked up to the Hish who was just standing there watching him, not making any movements.
"Well thanks for at least cutting me down ass hat." Ian groaned as he tried to sit up, only to be met with a giant hand wrapped around his throat. As Ian was being lifted up he couldn't help but grip at the arm, the Hish lifted him high and with a bend of his arm threw Ian into the bushes to his left. The Hish threw him with so much force Ian crashed through the thick foliage and burst out the other side. Coughing, and trying to catch his breath he held his neck, and bent his head side to side causing him to crack his neck. He groaned, and tried to get to his feet, slowly he was finally able to stand just long enough to have a foot connect with his chest once again sending him further back.
As he hit the floor he knew something had broken in his chest, he could feel the sharp burning pain fill his chest. He laid there grabbing his chest and trying to breath, The Hish came up to him slowly removing his hands from his chest, then pressed a finger on it pushing slowly seeing exactly what ribs had been broken. Ian yelled in pain, Umbra cried to herself wanting to jump out and save him, but she couldn't be stupid she had to wait for an opening. Ian laid there legs trying to push away under a single finger of the Hish as he yelled in pain. The Hish looking up and the trees, knowing that any second she would come down to save her mate.
Umbra didn't give him the satisfaction of seeing her, she wasn't in front of him like he seemed to think. Umbra wasn't stupid she knew that he would use Ian as bait, she also set up her own bait as well. Making a heat spot on a tree a few hundred meters away from them just far enough to make a shape, but not close enough to make a complete outline. That was what the Hish was staring at as he moved his finger around the broken bones on Ian's chest, Ian was growling having enough of the pain punching at the Hish trying to get him to move don't be stupid, don't come down here! Ian screamed in his head.
Ian looked around for anything, a rock, a stick, something to help him out. Once he looked back to his right he could see a dart, that had blood on it he squinted then reached for it just barely being able to grab it, he felt another sharp pain of the Hish pushing his finger against the broken ribs. Ian yelled and quickly jammed the dart into the inside joint of the elbow of the Hish. He quickly looked down at his arm, and saw that Ian stuck him with one of the darts that had fallen out of the other hunter. Not pleased with this forced his hand down onto Ian's neck, only to be met with a pull. He turned his head to see he had a rope lassoed around his bicep, he pulled at it hard causing it to tighten more around his arm.
The Hish huffed, stood up and cut the line which quickly whistled back into the trees. Ian took this moment to run for a tree, and surprisingly he made it to one. Trying to breath slowly to keep the pain a low as possible he looked back to see the Hish was once again just standing there, then from its right a shot came from the bushes. The Hish tried to move quickly but was caught in a net that had burrowed its way into the ground. Umbra slowly came out of the bushes from behind the Hish walking up to him as the netting began to tighten around him. He watched her as she walked over to Ian checking to see if he was alright, Ian waved at her letting her know he was okay "don't worry about me, kill that son of a bitch." Ian barked, and when he did snapping sounds came from behind her, and the Hish stood up looking down at her, deep cuts were pressed into his skin from the tightening net.
He looked over to Umbra who was in a ready stance, and he spoke to her, his voice was deep but calm from what it sounded like. Umbra never moved as the Hish finally spoke, turned his back to them and walked away. "What the fuck are you doing? Kill him!" Ian yelled at her, she quickly placed her hand over his mouth, to which he pulled it away "you're just going to let him get away?" he spoke taking her hand looking up to her. "Wait" she said softly, Ian could hear something start up in the distance, and then saw the ship begin its exit from the planet.
They stood there and watched as it began to drift away from them, "guess we're going to be stuck here a while aren't we?" Ian asked, Umbra looked down to him and nodded "don't worry mate, we have each other." She said gently squeezing his hand. Ian sighed and looked over to her gripping his chest lightly "what did he tell you?" he asked "he said, we will die" she spoke looking down to Ian. A loud explosion, came from behind them, a mushroom cloud filled half of the sky, and parts of the ship came hurtling down to the ground. "You thought I let him get away mate, I smarter than you think" she said clicking her mandibles, Ian smiled "cleaver." As they walked away the cloud faded and the forest grew quiet, Umbra and Ian began their long walk back to their cavern. Back to some place they both could begin their healing.