Her name

Vraa'hn watched her from the shadows. She had that look in her eyes again, the look he admired so much. For something so small that look spoke volumes of the creature residing inside her soul. She had been downed twice; her frail skin was black and blue and she was bleeding from both her mouth and nose. Her opponent stood tall before her, unscratched. Vraa'hn forced himself to stay calm; she wouldn't allow him to interfere and to disrupt a duel, even if it were during training, was considered to be very rude, a crime even, given certain circumstances. He was snapped back to reality when she started moving, running quickly toward the un-blooded hunter with all her might. The look in her eyes never wavering; it was the look of a true warrior. She was soon within her opponent's reach and ducked under a wide swing, getting close was her only option.

Vraa'hn noticed that he held his breath and released it with an annoyed clicking of his mandibles. She lashed out, succeeding in hitting the un-blooded in the area of his kidney and when he swiped against her in turn she danced out of reach. Her adversary roared and Vraa'hn recognized finality when he saw it. Before he had the time to react the un-blooded yautja had lashed out at her and even though she almost avoided his attack by falling backward she still ended up pinned under her opponent's considerably larger bulk. The noise of something breaking felt painful in Vraa'hn's ears. When she didn't struggle the un-blooded got off her, the fight was over. From his hiding place Vraa'hn saw how her green eyes were glassed over, she was unconscious. He sighed and lowered his head, feeling hatred toward the un-blooded even though he knew that they were just training.

'My punishment', he thought and looked at the still form. 'Yeyinde.'

As the youngster's trainer, Mahwa, crouched down beside the still soft meat and muttered "Dhi'ki-de" under his breath, Vraa'hn thought back to the time he still considered her to be his punishment for sins once committed.

XxX

He sat in his cabin aboard the mother ship and watched the pink little creature. The ships medic had told him that it was female, as if he cared about that. The humiliation was total. The rumor of his sullied pride and punishment spread like a fire among the hunters. Already some yautja called him Lou-dte Kalei behind his back. Some even dared to do it to his face and he had to bear with it. The Elders had agreed with K'han that the soft meat pup were to be his punishment. He was stuck with it without knowing what to do. It had cried numerous times already, bringing him to the edge of his sanity. He didn't know how much more he could take, perhaps it had been better if they could just exile him and be done with it. The mocking glances he received were humiliating beyond words.

He stirred from his dark thoughts as the little creature before him started crying again. For something so incredibly small it certainly could make a lot of noise. What ever did it want now? He had just fed it so that could impossibly be what the ruckus was about.

"What do you want?" he growled at it but that didn't help the matter, the pup only screamed even worse, if that was physically possible for some with such small lungs.

All of a sudden he detected a rather unpleasant stench. Vraa'hn stared at the pup in disbelief.

"You've got to be kidding me", he murmured. "Oh for the love of Paya!"

While trying not to inhale the foul stench or think about what he was doing, Vraa'hn stripped the pup of its clothes and uncovered a rather nasty surprise that unfortunately had smeared off on the pup's legs and back. He would need to bathe it, no question about it. Discarding the disgusting piece of clothing into the garbage chute he set to work with bathing the creature. It was no easy task. Vraa'hn thought he would break it every time he touched its small and soft frame and the screaming didn't help either. Even when he was finished bathing it and had tucked the pup into its blankets it still screamed bloody murderer. It was unbearable and he had no means what so ever to deal with it. Balancing on the edge of sanity he turned to the pup and roared at it, letting lose all of his frustration and anger into one single, blood freezing combat roar.

The crying stopped. The pup looked at him with big, green eyes. It opened its mouth again and Vraa'hn was prepared for yet another scream, but what came instead surprised him. The pup giggled. Vraa'hn stared at it in disbelief.

"You thought that was funny, did you?" he growled and wondered for a brief second if the pup mocked him. "I'll show you funny!"

He roared again, higher this time, and brought his face close to the little creature.

The pup blinked in surprise. Some of Vraa'hn's saliva had landed on its round cheek. Then it actually laughed. A gurgling, wet sound that made Vraa'hn cringe inside. He sighed and watched the soft meat. It was no bigger than his palm and had soft, brown hair on its small head. The hands and feet were so tiny that it felt surreal to look at them.

"For something so ridiculously tiny you show a great deal of spunk", he muttered.

The pup crowed happily and reached its tiny paws to him. Vraa'hn hesitated before he held out his own had to it. The unbelievably small fingers cradled his index finger and then the pup did something totally unexpected. It brought Vraa'hn's finger to its mouth and tried to chew on it. Vraa'hn watched its fruitless attempt at fitting his finger into its tiny mouth with both chock and amazement.

"Are you trying to eat me?" he chuckled, all of a sudden not feeling so down anymore. "I'll have you know that I'm way above you in the food chain."

"Brlgh", the pup crowed and wet drool run down its round cheek and Vraa'hn actually chuckled.

"You soft meats are a rather disgusting kind, aren't you?"

The pup giggled again and then it yawned and before Vraa'hn knew it the little creature had gone out like a light. He watched it without finding the words to describe what he felt.

"Yeyinde", he murmured. "That'll be your name."

XxX

Yeyinde stirred in her sleep feeling the pain of several bruises and one broken arm. The bright lights of the infirmary greeted her coldly when she opened her eyes. She groaned and tried to sit up.

"That ass!" she cursed and thought about the fight. He hadn't played fair. None of them did. It was as if they enjoyed sending her to the infirmary.

She thought about Mahwa and felt how a sneer crept onto her face. Numerous of times when she had the advantage in a practice duel he would break it off, declaring it to be a draw. But whenever someone else had her broken and bleeding on the floor he would wait in the longest to call it quits. And then it was the fact that he always, always, paired her with older students with much longer fighting experience than she was as if her unconsciousness was his goal. Or perhaps her death, she wasn't sure.

"Yeyinde", a familiar voice said and she tried to smile as she turned around and faced Vraa'hn where he stood in the door to the infirmary. "I heard you were injured-"

"-again", she finished bitterly. "I'm sorry Vraa'hn Yau-th."

"It was an unfair duel Yeyinde", Vraa'hn retorted and came over to her side. "Duh-kwe'h are due to go on his first hunt soon, no-one in your age would be able to beat him."

"Mahwa knows that", Yeyinde mumbled and hated herself for sounding so pitiful.

Vraa'hn growled but didn't comment. Yeyinde sighed and fell back against the bunk.

"Remember that you are Yeyinde", Vraa'hn said after a while. "The brave one."

Yeyinde nodded and clenched her fists. Somehow she would show them. In one way or another she would come up with a technique that would work for someone her size. Somehow she would become stronger, faster and more skilled than any other yautja on this ship.

"Don't provoke Mahwa though", Vraa'hn said. "Somehow I think he enjoys hurting you."

Yeyinde laughed. "I don't think he enjoys hurting me as much as he enjoys humiliating me." She gave her guardian a thoughtful look. "Why can't you train me Yau-th?"

Vraa'hn shook his head and his long dreadlocks rattled against his armor as he did so.

"I can't Yeyinde since I can't stand hurting you and I would have to hurt you if I taught you", Vraa'hn said.

"I see."

"Come Yeyinde, I'll walk you back to your cabin, the medic said you'd be fine if you used some healing gel and stayed still for aproxmently two days."

She nodded and got off the bunk.

Yeyinde - ("Brave one")

Lou-dte Kalei - (child maker (female) and a male insult)

Pyode Amedha - (Soft meats, humans)

Yau-th – (guardian, someone who's family)

Pup - (child)