Authors' note: Back again!

Warning: You know what to expect…ish.

Disclaimer: The planet and creatures are all mine and my sister's, Lex and Scar are not.

Haven

Lex rolled her eyes under her mask slightly as Scar insisted he carry her back through the trees because of her arm. At first Lex refused simply because she thought her arm would cause her no trouble jumping from branch to branch, but then Scar pointed out that if she fell she could be in a lot of trouble since she couldn't use both hands to catch herself. So reluctantly Lex let him pick her up and silently willed her arm to heal miraculously fast.

A few days later they arrived back at the crash site once more, Lex checked her arm. The gel had hardened over the cuts and increased the speed of recovery, but Scar thought that they should wait a little longer before she tried to use it, Lex agreed, and so they stayed at the crashed ship for a few days planning what thy were going to do for the science missions.

"Let's see…" Lex mused, "There's that Tattu'k creature I saw in the plains that we need to get a male and female pup-"

Scar cut her off, "-No. That was the River-dwellers, the Whahali, we need to catch an adult male Tattu'k for the clan."

"Whoops. Yeah, I got it." Lex leaned against the wall contemplatively, "So which do we go for first?"

"The river-dwellers are closer." Scar commented, and after a thoughtful pause added, "And we might run out of time looking for bank-dens that haven't been poached by the males, father said they could be cannibalistic, right?"

"Right." Lex nodded, she looked out a crack in the wall, it was getting dark out again, and both of them were tired, "We'll start looking for dens in the morning, alright."

Scar scooted closer to her, "Alright." He agreed wrapping and arm around her and pulled her close. Lex yawned and leaned against his chest, sleep took her quickly, but Scar remained awake for another few hours, listening to the sound of the alien world at night and wondering what he would be doing now, if he hadn't marked Lex as a hunter back in the pyramid which seemed like years ago...

When morning came Lex and Scar searched the river for any signs of dens, and found a few, some that appeared hadn't been used in a while, and some, recently used, but already abandoned…or cannibalized. They followed the river for hours, which turned into a day, and they were running out of trees, leading them to the plains before they finally found a nest of Whahali pups that were still there.

Not for long though. Lex saw movement in the water. A larger Whahali, Lex hoped perhaps it was their mother coming to feed them, but as the bigger creature came up the pups, seven in total, shrank back in fear, and the closest one was snapped up by the newcomer and swallowed in one gulp.

Lex jumped down, Scar called for her to come back, but Lex didn't listen. She drove her combi stick with as much force as she could muster into the giant Whahali's side which let out a scream of pain and turned on her angrily. Lex snarled at it and struck again, this time catching it in the face. She thought it would attack, try to catch her in its massive jaws, but the Whahali turned and fled back into the water, a single pup in its belly instead of the whole den as it had expected.

"Coward!" Lex shouted across the water.

For such a fierce looking beast Lex and perhaps the Yautja scientists were expecting it to put up a big fight. Instead these creatures appeared to be nothing more than fearful bullies looking for easy meals. "Leckz!" Scar called.

Lex turned to the den but didn't say anything to Scar. The pups gathered about her curiously and happily. They were at least smart enough to know when they had been rescued. "We need one male and one female," she muttered to herself looking at the swarm of pups and hoping they'd stay still long enough for her to figure out which one was which gender. Scar guarded the entrance to the den, making sure the male didn't come back, or another one didn't show up. Lex was amused by the young Whahali, they were just like dog puppies, bouncing around her and barking, practically saying 'Pick me! Pick me!'

The science division was going to be so disappointed.

At last Lex was able to discern male from female, and was left with the challenge of picking one of each from the six pups that remained. "Leckz!" Scar roared suddenly, "Here comes another one!"

In a rush, Lex grabbed the two in front of her, a male and female, they were small and light enough that she could carry them both, and rushed out of the den, Scar pointed her to the tree where she ducked in a hole between the roots, holding the Whahali pups protectively as Scar poised to attack if the Whahali in the water tried to threaten the den. However, when it surfaced, the pups barked happily instead of trying to hide deeper in the den. The Whahali snarled and Scar and snapped at him, fending him away, trying to protect the den. This was the pup's mother. Lex suddenly felt terrible about taking the two in her arms.

Scar pulled her up and pushed her back in the direction of the ship, probably noticing her hesitation and wanting to make sure she didn't change her mind. They were far enough from the den that Lex couldn't see it anymore if she looked back, but a sudden cry echoed through the trees, the Whahali mother mourning her lost children.

"I can't do this." Lex said when they got back to the ship the next morning after traveling all through the night. They gave the pups some dried meat from their provisions which the two were delighted to have.

"Leckz…"

"Its one thing to kill a creature for its skull, but kidnapping defenseless pups and-"

"Leckz" Scar roared and shook her shoulders, "Get a grip!" He snarled, using a term he'd heard her used once. "We are Yuatja! We are on a mating ritual, if we don't do this…" his growl became softer and trailed off and he pulled her into a tight embrace. Lex wrapped her arms around his waist; neither said anything for a long time.

At last Lex was able to speak "So… the plains now?"

Scar patted her back "The plains now."

Authors end note: Yeah, almost done with this arc and then we can get back into what I've actually had planned. Thank God.