Next chapter is now up! Here we will see Aurora's and Air'ik's first interaction with one another. We'll see how Aurora fairs in her new current situation and what she thinks about this strange intergalactic hunter. Enjoy :)

Yautja Speech- Italics

Yautja Human Speech- Bold

The female winced in pain as he continued to tend to her in the small med bay on his ship. But she still has yet to wake up. Which was probably for the best. It was a deep wound in her side. The bullet didn't push all the way through. So, he had to go through with the tricky task of extracting the bullet from her wound without making it worse.

He carefully dug one of his long claws into the bullet hole. She would wince and jerk a bit, but every time he looked to her, she was still out cold.

Air'ik let out a huff and shook his head.

"Why am I'm doing this again?" He mentally asked himself.

Probably because a small part of him for some reason didn't feel right leaving her there to bleed out on the sidewalk.

The good news is according to the scans, the bullet didn't hit anything vital. It was mainly lodged in muscle and tissue in her left side. If it did in fact hit something major, he's not sure he'd have been able to save her and then bringing her back here would've been for nothing.

After another minute, Air'ik was finally able to ease the small piece of metal out of her body. He took a moment to study it, before lightly tossing it aside on the medical table. Then he pulled some things out from his medical kit to clean out the wound.

Now came the fun part, cauterizing the wound. Something that any hunter doesn't look forward to because no matter how tough you are, it hurt like a bitch.

Air'ik placed one hand firmly on her side right beneath the wound. He then picked up the cauterizing agent with his other hand and quickly pressed it to the gaping hole. The sound of sizzling flesh filled the air. The ooman female's body jerked and a loud scream came shortly after. He kept his left hand on her lower side steady to keep her from wriggling around too much while he finished sealing up the wound.

Once he pulled the cauterizing agent away from her wound, he carefully placed her down on her back. She whimpered and groaned weakly while her head lazily flopped from side to side. Her eyes opened briefly before shutting, showing that she still wasn't fully conscious or coherent.

He stood over her, this is the first time he really got to see her this up close. Air'ik studied her features more closely. She had long soft dark hair and medium tanned skin. And from what little he saw of her eyes so far, they were light in color.

A sense of familiarity hit him as he continued to study the female. Under the smell of all the blood and sweat, he can still make out her own scent. It was still a sweet-smelling kind of scent. He started racking his mind trying to think of where he caught this familiar scent before on an individual.

The hunter didn't have to contemplate it for very long. Because he heard a loud gasp and the female's eyes shot open in alarm.

Aurora awoke with a start. She almost bolted up into a seated position. But what stopped her was a large form standing above her. The first thing her eyes met in the low-lit room was an eerily familiar mask staring down at her.

She laid there, frozen to the spot. The being above her lightly tilted his head to the side with a light clicking noise.

It took her a moment to find her voice.

"Who...who are you? And where am I." Aurora asked, her voice a bit shaky.

Air'ik debated if he should speak to her in her language. It wasn't normal for him to engage in any conversation with what he deemed his intended prey. But playing the silent card while she asked questions wouldn't really work either. So, just this once, he will talk.

"My ship. You were shot." He said in a clear gravelly voice.

Her eyes widened slightly at the deep guttural unearthly voice.

When she did this, another wave of familiarity hit him. Wide blue eyes filled with surprise and fright. A small ooman pup's blood-stained face.

His own eyes widened briefly behind his mask.

"No, it can't be!" His mind screamed.

But seeing this female up close, the features were quite similar. And if he does the math right, that pup would be grown by now. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard her speak again.

"Hey, hello? You still never told me who you are. I...I know I've seen you once before or...it may be someone else of your kind. But I know I saw your kind before. A very long time ago." Aurora said, her voice becoming less shaky and more confident the more she talked.

Aurora's gaze left his mask to check out the rest of him. Or at least as much of what she could see from her position on the large elevated metal table. His coloration and markings looked the same. But for all she knew, his kind could all have similar markings to him.

His interest may have peaked to her knowledge of him. But at the same time, he dreaded where this was going.

"Where and when?" He asks.

She leaned up on her elbows with a small hiss of pain, before turning her attention to him again.

"27yrs. ago. I was a little kid at the time. I was with my parents when..." Aurora trailed off. A slight lump formed in her throat at the horrific memory. She took a deep breath before continuing.

"A mugger approached us. He...he had a gun. And he...shot my parents. He would've shot me too, but something dropped down in front of me and stood between me and him. Next thing I see, were these long blades and the man being run through with them.

Then they turned and knelt down in front of me. And made this strange noise. They weren't there for very long though. Because as soon as we heard the sirens, they booked it on out of there. All I remember afterwards is them disappearing into thin air." She explained.

"Pauk! It is her!" He thought.

Air'ik took one small step back. As Aurora slowly sat up, wincing as she did from the pain in her side. Still never taking her eyes off of the strange being.

"You need to rest. I'll be back shortly." Was all he said, before turning and leaving.

The door to the med bay slid open to allow him out, before closing right behind him. He left pretty quickly before she could inquire anything more. Instead, Aurora sat there, feeling more puzzled now than before.

"That was strange. If I didn't know any better, he seemed to get more tense as I told him my story." She thought.

He must know something. He maybe a different being altogether. But so far from what she seen; his body language didn't seem all that much different than a human's.

To say Air'ik was not all that happy with how things turned out was an understatement. First, his hunt was botched by a couple of lowlifes who effectively wounded his intended prey. Now, he finds out that that same prey also happened to be the same pup he saved all those years ago from another lowlife that killed her parents and nearly killed her.

What the hell were the odds that this ooman female would end up being that very same pup? Or what he really should be asking is why does it matter? She's no longer a small helpless pup. She's an adult now and quite a formidable fighter. He was obligated to still hunt her if he sees fit.

But when he thinks of the idea of hunting her, the memory of her tiny blood-stained face filled with horror kept popping up. Like his subconscious kept telling him it was wrong to still pursue her.

Air'ik trudged down the hall until he came upon another sliding door that led into the kehrite. Hopefully, practicing his skills will help settle his nerves. He still doesn't understand where this unnecessary sentiment if that was what it was coming from.

He was not only an elite hunter, but a gifted warrior. He rose to the status of elite hunter earlier than most yautja his age. While it took many a few decades to reach that status, he managed to reach it only a few short years after his Chiva. Air'ik showed many of the Elders in his clan promise and potential, it's why he went up in the ranks to where he still is now.

And there was no room for sentiment or feelings in his duty as both an elite hunter and a yautja. Emotions was not exactly common among his race. They lived for the hunt, they thrived on it. It was the hunt and status that mattered. Only the most skilled and strong survived to deem themselves worthy to mate with yautja females and carry on their bloodline.

Air'ik pulled a spear from the weapon rack on the wall. He extended it and jumped into the risen platform in the middle of the room and started executing flawless moves with it.

Aurora was really starting to get fidgety. She's unsure how long she has been hold up in this room, but it certainly felt like a long while. And the strange being who said he would return shortly, has yet to do so.

After another few minutes of waiting around, she'd had enough.

"Fuck this." She muttered, before carefully hopping down from the large table.

Aurora hissed in pain again as the jump down jarred her side a bit. Once the pain lessened, she headed for the door. Hopefully, he didn't lock her in.

Thankfully, when she gotten close to the door, it did in fact slide open for her. She smiled slightly in relief and headed out into the hall.

She looked around in curiosity and amazement at her new surroundings. The hall was lit with a low light of sorts. The walls made up of a strange metal she hasn't seen before. And she noticed that it was very warm and humid in there and a fine mist coated the floor.

A small handful of doors dotted the hallway. Aurora became curious as to what was beyond those doors. And she wondered which one of them led off of the ship.

Hey, he may have saved her and patched her up. But who knows if there were ulterior motives behind it. Aurora doesn't think she was willing to stick around and find out. It may be best to just get the hell out of there while she still can't.

She still didn't see him anywhere. So, this may be her only shot to leave. One of these doors had to be an exit. And if she had to try each one to find out, than so be it.

When Aurora got to the first door in the hall which was to her left, she stood in front of it. Unlike the door to the med bay she just came out of, this door didn't budge. She looked around it and saw what looked to be a strange looking keypad next to it.

She extended her view further and noticed there were a few doors that looked to have those strange keypads next to them. Which didn't look good for her. For all she knew, the exit could be one of those doors, and if she in fact needed some kind of passcode to open said door, than she was screwed.

Aurora continued down the hall, looking to see if there was possibly a door without a keypad on it. Hope blossomed in her chest when she finally did notice one door at the far end of the hall right before it splits, didn't appear to have a keypad.

The young woman quickly made her way over to it. She stood in front of it and waited for it to open for her. Unfortunately, when it did, that hope was replaced with disappointment. Instead of it being an exit, it looked to be a utility closet of some sort with what could maybe be cleaning supplies in it.

"God fucking dammit!" She cursed under her breath, before stepping back and letting the door slide shut.

She turned away and came to a stop. The hallway split into two directions. Now she had to figure out whether to go left or right. From what she could see from her position, only a couple doors seemed to line the walls down both ways. And again, most of them looked to have those strange keypads next to them on the wall.

There was only one door down each way that didn't appear to have a keypad. Aurora looked from left to right, trying to figure out which one to try. Anxiety started to rise up in her, when she thought about the possibility of the creature being behind one of these doors. And that he could exit any of them at any time and spot her.

"I can only hope at this point that he could've possibly left the ship." She thought to herself.

Aurora made up her mind and turned right. She headed down to the one room she could see without a keypad. She held her breath, before stepping in front of the door.

After a couple moments, the heavy door slid open with a hiss. It opened to a larger space, only it was quite dark in there.

She pushed down any fears she had and cautiously stepped inside the room. The door slid close behind her and as soon as it did another dim low light turned on. And when it lit the spacious room, she gasped in horror.

Lining the walls on either side of the room was a rather large and morbid collection of what appeared to be various alien like skulls.

She found herself unconsciously moving further into the room. As her frightened eyes slowly scanned the walls, she noticed all of the skulls were a variety of different shapes and sizes.

The one that caught her eye though was a particularly large one on the wall near the farthest end of the room. As she approached it, she noticed it was so large that it took up nearly the whole wall and was the only one mounted there.

What looked to be the head near the bottom was kind of small but as it extended up it tapered and flared out into what looked to be a huge crown of a skull. It stretched several feet across as well as several feet tall. She could hardly imagine just how huge this creature was when it was alive. But it certainly had to be fucking huge!

It made her stop and think about who the fuck she was dealing with here. If he was strong and capable enough to bring down something of this size, then she could only begin to imagine what he could do to her.

Aurora started backpedaling away from the monstrous skull and had every intention of getting the fuck out of that room. But a few small oval shaped skulls on the wall to her far right caught the corner of her eye and made her stop.

She slowly turned her gaze fully to the skulls in question. And when she saw them, her heart rate sped up. On the wall, in two rows of three, was what were unmistakably human skulls!

Her face paled considerably, and her breathing became loud and labored. Her pants were so loud, that she barely heard the door sliding open behind her at the front of the room.

The only thing that drew her from her stupor was a low, yet loud predatory growl.

Aurora froze, and slowly turned to face the alien being. Even though he still dawned his mask, she could tell by his rigid posture and clenched fists, that he wasn't happy about her being in there.

A lone tear built up in her eye and slowly made its way down her cheek.

"What the hell are you!?" She practically sobbed.

"You are not supposed to be in here, ooman." He growled as he started to make his way towards the frightened young woman.

Her fight or flight instincts started to kick in. And once he was within a few feet of her, she surprised him by sharply going around him and bolted out of the room.

Air'ik wasn't expecting that. But it began to trigger his predatory instincts to pursue her and hunt her down. With a growl, he turned and stalked out of what was his trophy room.

He stepped out and looked around. He changed the vision in his mask again to look for her signature. Air'ik growled when he noticed her signature was down the other end of the hall in the one of the other rooms without a keypad. Which happened to be the kehrite.

His blood pulsed in excitement. She was right where he would have wanted her.

She quickly ducked into the one room she has yet to check down the hall. When she got in, she noticed it was another spacious room. With a large square platform in the center. And on one of the walls off to the side was a wall of various weapons.

The door at the front of the room slid open, revealing the last person she wanted to see. The hulking seven-and-a-half-foot behemoth stepped inside, and the door hissed shut behind him. Then he reached his left hand out to the side and waved it over a panel next to the door. It made a beeping sound and what sounded like a locking mechanism engaged.

Dread sunk into her stomach, when she realized she was now locked in with this psycho. A series of clicks emanated from him as he stalked towards her.

Aurora's breath quickened again, as she felt a wave of adrenaline rush through her. She rapidly looked around and backed into the high-rise platform behind her.

The petite woman quickly turned and hoisted herself up on to the platform. It wasn't easy considering the top of the surface was level with her neck. So, she really had to jump and heave herself up.

Amusement fluttered through his gaze as he watched the small female have a little trouble getting up into the sparring square that was almost as tall as her.

Once she was able to heave herself up though, she sprinted to the other end. That's when he rushed over and effortlessly jumped onto the risen platform with ease.

She was pretty fast. But not fast enough. Aurora had every intention of making it to the other end of the large platform and jumping off and going for one of the weapons on the back wall to protect herself with.

But the hunter closed in on her pretty fast. She heard his steady yet surprisingly light footsteps closing in behind her.

Aurora quickly stopped and whirled around to face him. With the adrenaline still running, she ignored the pain still blooming from her side. And quickly dove to her right when he lunged in to tackle her.

She clumsily landed on all fours. And as she turned to face him again. Before she was able to move out of the way again, he was upon her.

Air'ik plowed into the small female, taking her down to the ground.

Aurora was now pinned to the ground, with this large alien on top of her caging her in. In her panic she tried to force her knees up into his gut to put some space between them in hopes that she could squirm out from under him.

But when she tightened her core and tried to shift her hips and legs up, her side screamed in protest. And she dropped her hips back down with a pained gasp.

Another startled gasp left her when he wrapped his large, clawed hand around her throat and began to apply pressure.

"No...no please! Let me go!" She gasped.

More tears started to leak from her eyes as she peered into the dark tinted visors of his mask. Her terrified expression was mirrored in the lens.

"Please!" Aurora begged.

Another choked sob left her as he started constricting her throat even more.

"Please, Stop!" She choked out.

Just when her vision started to darken in the corner of her eyes, the pressure from her throat was gone. Aurora gasped for air and coughed, trying to greedily suck in as much oxygen as she could. Her hands came up to her chest and her watery eyes went back to the vacant look of his mask.

He stared into her face a moment longer. Before he finally backed off of her and stood back up. Aurora continued to lay there, too stunned to move. But she never took her eyes off of the hunter.

He stopped, why did he stop? He had her right where he wanted her. Yet, he didn't end her. Frustration began to bubble up inside him once more.

Air'ik let out a short but loud agitated bark. Before he sharply turned and stalked out of the kehrite. He needed to get out of there. He needed to go back out and find another good kill. Because right now, dealing with that female was starting to be a bit much for him.

Once he left the area and the door slid close behind him, Aurora turned onto her uninjured side, and began to silently cry.

What the hell had she gotten herself into? Better yet, why her? And what the fuck was up with this alien!? First, he saves her, then he advanced on her and seemed intent on killing her. Then, at the last moment, he pulls away, and stomps out of the room in what appeared to be agitation. Just what the fuck did he want with her!?

Looks like things have started out to be a pretty dangerous and rocky start for Aurora while at the same time, Air'ik seems to be warring with himself on what to do with her. More to come in the next chapter. Until Next Time ;)