Yeyinde pt. 3

Giwa Ken Dai-ikkei

-//Be wary of your surroundings. Draw your right foot back in hiki ashi and assume hidari chudan gamae. Step forward with left mae chidori ashi, deliver left jodan choku zuki. Hold your right fist in front of your chest. Then deliver chudan gyaku zuki. Keep your left hand in front of your chest. \\-

Yeyinde stood in front of her mirror and read from the book on the floor. She kept doing the same movements over and over again; trying to memorize them. She was beyond happy, she was ecstatic.

Left jodan choku zuki

Right chudan zuki

She kept doing it, watching her blows in the mirror. Trying to imagine how they connected with an opponent. The tome was a collection of different moves and blows, designed to do damage beyond her wildest dreams, but it also had a lot of chapters on philosophy and healing. Yeyinde had glanced trough the whole book but it was far too extensive for her to read through from cover to cover in only one evening. She did, however, grasp the concept of it. The main goal for battle training, according to the book, was that soft subdued hard and that hard disrupted soft; meaning that the techniques described in the book were both soft and hard. Ranging from blows and kicks to locks and throws. There were even numerous chapters on weaponry and armed combat. Yeyinde decided to save that to later, she had a feeling that K'han would inform her when she was ready to move on to wrist blades, combi-sticks, smart-discs and the like.

'K'han.'

She couldn't believe it. Her yau-th's master had offered to train her; her, a lowly soft meat that never had been able to defeat a yautja in battle before, she wasn't even sure if she had showed any promise in combat. Vraa'hn had told her once that she had a warrior's spirit, but how did that help her when she was mercilessly beaten to a bloody pulp on the floor by the likes of Kwo-hn and Kul'vir? She made another jab at the mirror with her right fist, feeling a white hot stab of pain run through her body; her damned arm hadn't healed yet.

"Pauk", she breathed and sat down on the floor, resting her head against the edge of the bed.

She hadn't eaten anything except for breakfast today. Her stomach made a growling sound and she sighed. She had missed dinner and now it was too late anyway, the kitchens were closed. A headache was fast approaching and both her face and her arm hurt like pauk.

"Focus", she thought and stood up. "Just focus damn you."

She felt as though her own body was betraying her. For a brief second she wondered if other soft meats were as weak as she was, probably not since yautja hunted them, they must be worthy prey. She went over the battle stances in the first chapter again and again and again, over and over until her body was so tired that it refused to move. With a weak moan she sank to the floor. The last thought on her mind before she sank into the darkness was that she mustn't be late the morning after.

XxX

He stood outside of her door, wondering whether or not he should check on her. She wasn't a pup anymore and therefore not something he should worry about, but the mental image of her blooded and beaten form was etched on his retina in a way that disturbed him so much that he couldn't sleep.

'Paya be damned', he thought and entered the code to her door. It was a good thing she had agreed to share it with him.

He entered her narrow cabin and his gaze fell upon her where she lay on the floor.

"Yeyinde", he whispered and crouched down beside her. "What am I to do with you?"

He checked her motionless form with the body-scan, searching for injuries or sicknesses but found nothing except for the old injury in her arm and small signs of dehydration, but it was nothing that a glass of water couldn't fix. He cocked his head to the side and noticed the faint glow from recently applied healing gel on her neck. He couldn't recall her sustaining any injury there during this morning's practice duel. Careful not to disturb her sleep he moved closer and adjusted his visual frequency so that he could see what injuries the gel covered. What he saw was bruises in the shape of large fingers and shallow cuts from five claws.

He growled.

Someone had hurt her outside of training.

'Unforgivable', he thought and felt a strong urge to punish the responsible yautja.

He scooped her up in his arms, careful not to wake her but she didn't even stir in her sleep. He guessed that she was exhausted and wondered if she really had eaten properly. She shouldn't skip her meals; her thin body needed all the nourishment it could get. He made a mental note to tell her to feed herself properly.

"Really", he sighed. "One could think that you still are a pup and that I'm your mother."

'Lou-dte Kalei', came the unbidden thought and he felt a stab of anger, but not at her but at himself and the other yautja. He tucked her under the blanket and stood up. 'It's not your fault Yeyinde.'

XxX

She could make him roar with fury and then, moments later have him holding her and purr to her when she was upset. If she had been a handful when she was still a little pup that was unable to crawl, walk and run, then it was nothing compared to how she became when she had mastered those things. She was the strangest, most horrible thing that had ever happened to him and still he couldn't hold it against her. The feelings he had for her was scary, he felt as if he would suffocate if he didn't know that she was safe, someone her size could so easily be harmed and he knew from experience that her skin was ridiculously easily bruised.

Her elusive laugh was heard through the corridors of the ship. Vraa'hn groaned and followed it; he had to stop her before she ran into trouble. He wasn't really worried that a hunter would harm her if she encountered them, it would be a blemish on that hunter's pride. He was worried though that someone accidently would trample her since she was so small.

'Small or not', he thought. 'She sure can run!'

He came around a corner and was immediately attacked from below.

"Wahn!" she cooed and cradled his left leg with all her might.

He grimaced at her nickname of him. He really had to tech her to say it correctly.

"What are you doing Yeyinde?" he asked and picked her up in his arms. He could still be amazed at times over how small she really was.

She gave him an impish smile. "Hunting", she replied.

"Are you now?" he chuckled. "Well, did you catch anything?"

"You", she giggled.

"Me?" he couldn't hold down a laugh, the thought of her hunting him was ridiculous at best. "I don't think you realize your boundaries Yeyinde."

"I don't have any", she grumpily replied.

'Oh but you do little one', he thought with a sigh and she would realize just how many in just a few years time. The day when she would have to start training was fast approaching.

XxX

Vraa'hn closed her door and allowed the memories to flood him for a while. She really wasn't a pup anymore and he had never been more worried about her then he was now.

"I thought I'd find you here Vraa'hn", a voice said. Vraa'hn immediately sank down in a defensive stance. "Easy boy", the voice continued and Vraa'hn saw how the air further along shimmered a bit before a huge hunter became visible.

"K'han", he murmured and relaxed a bit. "What do you want?"

"Still no respect for your elders I see", K'han replied and came closer. "How is she?"

"Who?" Vraa'hn wondered and blinked in surprise at his teacher.

"Yeyinde", K'han said and stopped a few steps away.

Vraa'hn gave him a watchful stare. Why did K'han care about Yeyinde? He had never shown any interest before. "She's fine, but why do you care?"

"Earlier today I had to stop young Kwo-hn and Kul'vir from killing her", K'han simply replied and cocked his head a bit.

Vraa'hn felt how his blood ran both hot and cold on the same time. "Kill her?" he asked, anger barley restraint in his voice. So that's where her bruises on the neck came from. He would have to teach those two a lesson they would never forget.

"Yes", K'han replied calmly. "She's seriously lacking in skill."

Vraa'hn growled; he didn't like the way K'han spoke about Yeyinde. It wasn't her fault she had such a feeble body. She did her best considering the circumstances.

"What's it to you?"

"If she isn't taught properly she's going to die one of these days Vraa'hn", the older hunter murmured.

"She's doing her best", Vraa'hn said defensibly.

"No she's not", K'han growled. "She's not doing well at all. I saw her, she was lucky to come out of that scrape alive. You cannot protect her forever Vraa'hn, you're already slipping behind."

Vraa'hn growled and sank down a bit feeling white hot rage at the older yautjas words.

"Don't start that with me you pup!" K'han growled, flaring his mandibles. "You're not ready to fight me yet."

"Then what do you suggest I do with her?" Vraa'hn sneered.

"I don't need to suggest anything to you", K'han replied. "I've already suggested to her that I take over her training. Mahwa isn't fit for the task and you know it."

Vraa'hn stared slack-jawed at his master, wondering what the world had come to. How was it that numerous yautja pups had all but begged K'han to take them on without any luck and now Yeyinde, a soft meat, would be accepted? Vraa'hn remembered the day he had realized that Yeyinde needed a trainer; back then he had run around asking numerous of hunters to accept her, only to be turned down by each and every one of them. The thought of asking someone of K'han rank was out of question. So why did the older hunter agree?

"It's a challenge", K'han answered, as if he had read Vraa'hn's thoughts. "And I owe it to her."

"In that case", Vraa'hn breathed. "I'm delighted. Please take care of her."

K'han came all the way over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "You've grown Vraa'hn, I'm proud of you; you've accepted your punishment and turned it into something else, something valuable. I'll do my best to care for your unique results."

"Thank you Zah'zai."

"You may not believe it only by looking at her but she has promise", K'han said. "I'm sure that after only a couple of month's training she'll be able to face Kwo-hn and win. There is more to a warrior than size and strength, we yautja often tend to forget that."