"There was much internal bleeding; however, she is currently stable. The healers believe that, given some time and proper rest, she should survive her injuries."
"She will survive. She always has."
"Do you request anything else or any further information, High Elder?"
"Yes; as soon as the human female is capable of moving on her own, send her to meet with the Council without delay."
"Affirmative, Honorable High Elder."
The Elder broke off the communication with Adahy. Normally he would've spoken to her trainer or the healers, but Sain'ja seemed too troubled by the incident and he hadn't wished to disrupt the healers in their work. Battles against the Serpents always led to many wounded hunters, even some so beyond healing that they would never hunt again where it would've been more of a mercy to have allowed them to perish in combat. He hoped that wouldn't be the case here.
Having overheard the conversation, Arbitrator Megedagik brought a fist down hard upon one of the counters. Both Yautja stood in the Elder's chambers on the ship. After glaring down at the stone, he twisted around and looked at him, "I still don't see why you wish to keep that creature alive, even less why you would have faith in an Ooman's strength of will."
"You doubt her strong-mindedness?" the Elder asked, pouring two large cups of C'ntlip for the pair of them. After years in his position, he had mostly learned to ignore the hotheadedness of others and would remain calm in an argument; it would give him an advantage if the fight was taken to the kehrite and would often keep him from needing to challenge or being challenged by a stronger, higher in rank Yautja such as this Megedagik. Although he believed he could hold his own in such a fight, he knew that the Yautja standing before him was far more adept than he.
The Arbitrator clicked in thought, "I do not, but I also know that she is still a Pyode Amedha; a fact that many of your clan seem to have forgotten, including you."
"We have not forgotten," the Elder replied as he handed one glass over, "but no longer do we judge her by her species. We told you of her story, shown you all the recordings we possess, and you yourself have witnessed firsthand her skill… Has she not proven her worth to, if not you, than to at least this clan, whose own dealings- may I remind you- have never disgraced our race nor the Council of Ancients?"
"Few clans accept Pyode Amedhas to join them as hunters, and when they do, it is very rare. Yet your clan has not accepted one Ooman, but three, within just the past five decades. And this female, although a fair fighter, has shown her loyalty more than once to her own kind. Think; if she ever had to choose between you or another Ooman, who do you believe she would stand by?"
"For three years now she has devoted herself to my clan, and although she may feel otherwise, not once has she ever spoken against the hunting of her kind or interfered in a hunt. I believe her loyalty lies with those she trusts and believes is her duty to guard."
"Such as that pack she was with before she joined your clan? From the footage, she seemed quite distant from most of them- one she even tried to attack for disrespecting her."
"And you would not, had you been insulted as she had?"
"It would not be the same and you know it, Elder." Megedagik gulped down some of the C'ntlip, "That is why I intend to continue to test the female. When she is well, I shall challenge her, jehdin-jehdin."
Jehdin-jehdin; hand-to-hand combat. Dto-Raija was fierce in both nature and when sparring, but for her to face against Megedagik unarmed… chances of survival were impossible. Megedagik's very name was legendary among hunters. Most were surprised by his refusal to fight for a position on the Council of Ancients. "You are not to kill her, Arbitrator," the Elder stated, his hand curling dangerously into a fist and a low growl quietly forming in his throat, despite his efforts to hold it back.
"I'm appalled that you would assume that I would," the Arbitrator returned a growl of his own, "She is a Blooded huntress and has done me no ill-will, therefore, as honor demands, she shall not die by my hand." Finishing his drink, he placed it on the counter. Clicking his mandibles in regard, he gave the Elder a smug, knowing look, "Why, might I ask, would you be so concerned of her death? For the time I have known you, I have not seen you give many other Yautja warning before a spar unless you felt it was necessary. Could you be trying to protect her?"
"I have told you time and time again, Megedagik," the Elder abandoned using the Arbitrator's title, "the female Pyode Amedha is to be studied. Her "sixth sense" may not only help us hunt down Pyode Amedhas with the same abilities, but we may teach our own such a skill as well by learning from and observing her."
Knowing he had struck a nerve, the Arbitrator ignored the insult. He looked at one of the walls, decorated with trophies from past kills, "Tell me, High Elder, when again was the last time you went on a hunt to the Ooman world of Urth? I see few skulls of those creatures among your collection, which shocks me, considering you would've been able to kill many in your years."
"Get to the point, Arbitrator. My age has not left me a foolish, senile veteran of the hunt. I can see your thinly veiled suggestions."
"I suggest nothing, Elder… However, reports did say that, after an assignment taken there, you were never quite the same again. Now, I wouldn't know, but I'm beginning to wonder…"
The Elder stared viscously at the Megedagik. A tense silence filled the air before he waved him away, "You are dismissed, Arbitrator." Megedagik might've been of higher rank, but he was still a guest on board of the Jungle Hunter Clan's ship.
Nodding in assent, the Arbitrator turned to the door, but before he headed out, he said, "I shall see to it that the ship's current course includes the Ooman homeworld. Perhaps there would be best to test the female's loyalty… and maybe yours as well."
Only when the door sealed shut and when he was certain that the Megedagik had walked far enough away from it to be out of earshot did the Elder slam his fists down upon the counters and roar with rage. How the Arbitrator had even come by that information was a mystery. With the gods as witness, when he found the sneaking scum that told him it, he would sever their gonads and hang them on his wall!
Stressed and enraged by the turn of events and his lack of control in them, the Elder headed off to the kehrite in search of a good spar. There were plenty of young hunters on the ship, arrogant about their own strength and fighting abilities, that he could beat into submission. Perhaps even one up to his experience and proficiency would be interested in a challenge. And yet still, there was much to do; bodies of fallen brethren to pray over in ritual, overseeing the spars of others, a feast to attend in honor of the recent Kiande Amedha Chiva.
He began to calm down as he walked through the halls, warm fog twirling at his feet, his dark red cloak billowing behind him, and he remembered.
He had been a very young, overly eager hunter pack then, only recently Blooded and blind to his own faults and weaknesses. He had journeyed to the backwater planet, alone, to find a hunt brother that had gone missing. It wasn't at all surprising to discover his last known coordinates had been on Urth; reconnaissance had revealed that the Oomans from the eastern part of the planet had travelled west by sea, and had begun colonizing. This would've seen of no importance had it not been for the fact that they also engaged many tribal humans native to those lands in the process, the conflicts too tempting to ignore.
Bringing only his wristblades and Combistick to fight with, he journeyed to the backwater planet. He landed his small vessel without incident, and cloaked went out to inspect the area. Close to the shoreline, a large, poorly and hastily crafted, wooden wall circumferenced a small village. A scan determined that most of the humans were sound asleep inside their dwellings, but a handful of them walked around the perimeter. Some ways away, in a clearing surrounded by the forest, there was another village, but nothing like the former. There were wooden buildings, yes, but nothing like the others- very large with many Pyode Amedhas residing within them. There also was no barrier to separate them from their surroundings.
He searched through both camps in the pitch blackness of night, easily evading detection, and soon found that his hunt brother had fallen. His corpse was discovered in a small building, unusually well-guarded, but with only two rooms. In the first, stood only one armed male, who he had easily and efficiently dispatched by covering its mouth and stabbing it through the back. There, he found his brother's body lying on the ground- the Yautja in question was even younger and less experienced before death than he had been- and his assortment of weapons, armor, and supplies were strewn about on a table, clearly poked and fiddled with, but thankfully otherwise left alone. The Pyode Amedhas must have believed to have had plenty of time to study the equipment.
How unfortunate for them.
Still, he wondered, what was the need of so much security if they were only watching over a corpse? The only reason he could conjure up was that they didn't want the others of their kind to find out. His curiosity still unsated, he chose to check the other room as well.
The second chamber was much larger than the first, reeking of filth. In it, he found many of the tribal humans, linked together by their ankles in metal chains, hungry and fatigued. Similar restraints bound their wrists as well. A few males were among them, but they mainly consisted of females and offspring. For long silent until now, some began to whimper and huddle close together. Whispers of comforting words passed between adults and pups. Eyes widened in shock and fear, many of them stared wide-eyed and him, however, their gaze mostly fell over to the other human male's corpse, just within their site.
He was stunned when, weakened as they were, one female rose, stood in front of the rest as if she could protect them on her own, and got into the best fighting stance the chains would allow. Her eyes pierced fiercely at him in warning. The Yautja only huffed at her bravado and turned away to activate the explosives on the dead hunt brother's wrist gauntlet.
He would, in the future, put out of his mind how much she and Dto-Raija appeared the same.
He could feel her eyes still staring him down relentlessly. To a degree, it unnerved him, and he found himself looking back to make sure she wouldn't somehow come up with a weapon in her hands, free of chains, and attempt to attack him from behind. Not that he doubted his ability to kill her if she did. She was still standing there, unmoving as stone… And by doing so slowly earned his respect.
He paused before entering in the last code to the device, surprisingly questioning the honor in this. They were witnesses, yes, but knowingly sentencing pups and females to such a dishonorable death- one of quick, blazing pain, rather than in joyous combat- seemed somewhat wrong.
Increasing the amount of time before detonation, he activated the bomb. He approached the female, seeing her to be the more reasonable one in this circumstance, gave her a quick glance over, than took the chains binding her wrists and snapped them apart as if they were made of nothing more than parchment. Looking down, she seemed taken aback at this sudden sign of freedom; her intense expression turning to one of confusion. Huffing yet again, he handing her a small knife actually meant for skinning and gave a broad gesture to the others, tilting his head at her as if to say, 'get it?' The female, with a nod, got to work right away on freeing her comrades as well. The knife, made of a much stronger metal than any Urth element, cut through the chains easily.
After that, searching through the vast data in his bio mask, he gave her and the others one, simple order in their language; "Run."
And run they did, bursting through the nearest exit in something familiar to a stampede. The stunned Pyode Amedhas guarding the outside stood in numb shock for a moment before collecting their bearings and aiming their burners at their escaped prisoners. The Yautja, pulling free the Combistick from his waist, cut them down with ease. Their screams though tore through the village, alerting the others of there kind.
Perhaps freeing the tribal Pyode Amedhas hadn't been such a poor idea; they would make a good distraction as he took down a few more kills before the bomb could detonate.
However, as he slaughtered any human he came across capable of fighting, he again spotted the female from before. And she wasn't running. Instead, she stood just at the edge of the village, in front of the gates that had been torn down by so many frightful creatures flinging themselves upon it in an effort to escape. Her eyes gazed around at the chaos and, upon seeing women and children peek outside of their homes, raced again inside to them, calling for them to follow her despite their difficulties to fully understand what she was trying to say.
Humans and this thing they called compassion; it was ridiculous and disgusting! And here lied prove of it, for the female would most definitely get herself killed for her efforts. And yet somehow he could understand what she was trying to do- to save the lives of those who had done no harm and therefore deserved none in return.
Growing desperate, she began to tug on the arms of the mother. Maybe it was her panic that had spread from her to the others, or the instinctive feeling that something wasn't quite right, for they finally relented and followed at a brisk pace, bringing with them whoever would go.
A sudden pain hit his chest as a human male shot him with a burner and he roared. Growling low at his own stupidity for momentarily losing his concentration, he darted forward and pierced the male through the heart. Yet others saw the kill and fired, ducking behind anything nearby in order to reload. Some raced at him with blades. All were mowed down and slaughtered.
With fresh wounds covering his torso and time running out, he made his own exit. He didn't stop running until he heard the bomb go off, feeling the ground rumble beneath his feet and the air whip around him from its sheer power. The sight of it lit up the night sky in its direction almost as brightly as any day.
He paused to catch his breath and began seeing to his injuries, and always a roar of pain ripped through the forest as he pulled the still hot, slick with blood chunks of smoldered metal from his thick skin. His bellowing not only scared off whatever wildlife was in the area, but announced his location. Soon, a human, the same female as before, burst through the brush, only this time, she was alone. She froze at the sight of a few human heads with their spines still attached hooked around his waist, but took hold of the courage inside her. Whenever she neared him, he growled at her in warning and continued his self-healing. Eventually, she gave him a growl of her own in response, which only made him trill in laughter at the pathetic sound.
And so, seeing her as neither threat nor annoyance, he allowed her to approach him. When she was not even a nok away, she sank to her knees at his side and began saying words he recognized as appreciation and prayer. Perhaps she believed him to be some deity of her species? It would seem so, for when she was finished fawning over him, she pleaded for him to come with her for further thanks.
He had followed her to the second village he had come across. There, he found the story was already being told to their leader of his freeing of them and killing of their captures. Frankly, it all seemed very much exaggerated to him, but he would not say otherwise. Their words and his trophies had been more than enough proof of the event, and the leader soon ordered his followers to prepare a feast for their savior.
Naturally, he wouldn't turn it down.
There had been dancing, a fire, reenactments, and before the night was over, the leader had given one of his own trophies to the Yautja- a skull of a large, carnivorous animal that roamed the forest. The female, who had cleansed herself free of most of the grime and added a feather to decorate her mane of dark hair, had offered him shelter for the night in her dwelling, some ways off from the village. When questioned, she replied that she had no lifemate or children of her own, and had therefore chosen a life of solitude, providing for her people as something known as a shaman.
It was a small dome-shaped building, made of bark and young trees, but he managed to fit through the entrance and found there was room enough inside to accommodate the two of them, as long as he didn't stand to his full height. The female had brushed away the stones and other materials that would make up a fire pit and pulled many animal hides and pelts from a pile, spreading them across the ground. As he admired one of a particularly rich shade of brown, she raised it up to him in offering. It was only when the look of disappointment a pup might give when having thought he'd done well and then finding out otherwise appeared in her eyes that he accepted, although he doubted it had been pealed from any great beast.
Despite plans of the contrary, he found himself staying there with the female for many days. He enjoyed her pup-like fascination of the world and respected her bravery and honor, as well as her actions as a bearer toward human sucklings and pups of the other females. Her view of life and nature was… refreshing, he admitted, and he found himself enjoying little things that he had rarely taken notice of before. On the day he dubbed her Ki'tu-ka, "Strong Heart," to put a name to this creature, she had been elated. She was undeniably human in many ways, yes, but he could see the other sides of her as well.
It was as much a relationship as the one Sain'ja shared with Dto-Raija; one that could not be explained by any known hunter- only experienced by an odd chance of fate.
Thoughts had often roamed then of perhaps bringing her to the settlement as a pet. If her kind thought him a god, than surely there would be no retaliation, and his clan would see no fault there. Then again, could he really call her as something of a pet, or was she something more? An ally? A friend?
He would never know. For when a ship arrived by sea, transporting passengers unknowingly to a now decimated village, the Pyode Amedha struck at full force upon their tribal cousins to seek revenge, bringing heavy artillery, including cannons rolled into the fight by creatures called horses. A massive battle ensued between the two groups. As he fought against a large pack on his own, he heard Ki'tu-ka cry out. Looking away momentarily, he was stunned by her impressive force as she managed to ram straight into him, forcing him back.
"You fool! You missed!" a Pyode Amedha male cried out. He turned his gaze to see three of the humans surrounded by one of their cannons, which was currently aimed in his direction with steam billowing from it.
He returned his attention to the female to give his thanks, however… only a headless corpse lay upon the ground where she had stood. She had only come in the nick of time to save him, sacrificing herself in his place.
With newfound rage, he roared and attacked the males viciously. The ones nearest the cannons were the first to go for their cowardice- for hiding behind a machine rather than entering the fight themselves. He would not collect trophies from such pathetic beings. His fury sometimes blinded him, making him black out only to discover another dead, bloodied body in his grip a few seconds later, without knowing how exactly he had killed them.
The fight was won, but nothing could ever bring the female back. Nothing.
He had been there as they took care of their dead. He had stood in silent respect. And then, before Ki'tu-ka's body could be cremated, he ripped free a trophy from his belt and placed it carefully into one of her cold, frail hands.
He returned to the clan very soon afterwards.