Hey guys. This is One of a Kind. I'm at a loss for dialogue so lets just jump in.
I stood in the sacred pit on the world of Tarkesh. An ancient hunting planet. I remembered the previous night vividly. I remembered how Mikotso's mouth felt...
She was more of a reason to complete his trials. Only elites were allowed to marry. Live and die by the strongest.
I had his groin armor on and a loincloth over that. There was the metal shoulder pads over his left and right shoulders. Then I wore my hunting belt and and my mask. Then finally I had my wrist buckler and my claw sheaths. I clenched my fists and tested the blades. They extended to their full foot and a half and cleanly retracted.
"Are you ready youngblood?" The voice of the elite trainer shouted down.
"I am ready Elder." I responded. They were my elders and my superiors. In yautja society calling someone your elder was a sign of respect as it meant they lived and fought long enough and hard enough to make it to old age.
"Good. Leap up to the branch of the proving tree."
I gazed up at the large tree that towered above and out of the pit. I saw a large branch that was the same height as the exit to the sacred pit. It was an easier jump.
I kicked my legs off the ground using my toned leg muscles and grabbed the branch and did somersault like thing around it and landed on the branch.
"Good. Try these." He tossed me a plasma caster and I immediately strapped it to my shoulder whereas the elite had already thrown glass skull into the air to test my ability with the weapon.
Target Shot. Target. Shot. Target. Shot. One by one I blasted the skull apart with the caster. Not a single one fell into the pit below. Well, the fused shards did.
I've been training with a caster for years now but of-course, all of this is expected of a youngblood before he even enters the pit.
The elite nods and pulls out a Combi-stick quicker than most can see. For me, time slowed down. It extended to its full length of 5ft and he threw it straight at me. I extended my wrist blades and did a diagonal strike to transfer its momentum and then another to send it spiraling above me where I caught it in my right hand.
"Excellent. Most younglings struggle to stop it, Much less catch it. Now we begin the hunt. Prepare yourself!" He leaped back some hundred feet and there was a deep rumbling and the arena started expanding. Its Circumference expanded 100 feet and was again at the feet of the elite. Its obvious he'd been doing this a very long time.
"Release the Serpents!" The elite called and the other elites want up to ancient looking stone levers on the sides of the pit and once pulled to the opposite side,
2 doors in the pit opened and dark grey monstrosities exited hissing and swishing their blade like tail. I'd never seen a serpent before but i'd heard they were the ultimate prey as no other beast in the wide universe had killed more Yautja than the serpent Morphling. Hunting parties said the oomans unfortunate enough to try to fight them called them zeenoomorphc or something like that. Ooman tongue is primitive and without meaning. I'd never thought of myself as an ooman so i had no problem encouraging common opinion of them with everyone else.
The creatures circled each-other upon meeting and appeared to be sniffing each-other. Their hisses sounded like communication and I knew it was; I'd paid enough attention to the elders stories o know that... Along with the books written by the intellectuals of the Yautja. Hunting is cultural but there is more to society. I'm intelligent but a long time ago I came to realize that intelligence wouldn't get me anywhere with most. Mikotso admired it and found my memory of yautja history, maps and geography of various worlds, and the anatomical structure of many beasts useful on our hunting and exploration trips with Teal. Teal held a similar opinion.
But naturally I was at a loss in comparison with other Yautja physically so I trained much harder by hiking on worlds with 2 to 4 times th gravity of Yautja prime.
I tried 5 once and it took 3 elites to lift me off the ground, back into the ship, and reset most of my skeleton. But back to the serpents. In this dance they pounced on eachother and their tails wrapped around each-other and held each-others grisly clawed hands. Then they opened their mouths and their inner mouths caressed each-other.
I found this disgusting but remembered reading in a book that Serpents bonded socially through courtship but served no reproductive purpose as their young are parasitic and require the DNA of other creatures to fill in the gaps in their own strand to help them survive but if a serpent is impregnated by a serpent its similar to inbreeding nd the creature born is horrific and dangerous to all species. There was a station above the desert world of Cartuul that kept two serpents in captivity. One impregnated the other when breeding season came and the urge was unbearable for them. The beast spawned was larger than any serpent to date, other than the abominations of a serpent impregnating a yautja, and had longer claws and teeth and ate everything. But thankfully these monsters are infertile because that is guaranteed to be defect.
It killed its surviving parent and and broke out of containment by shattering through a foot of plasma resistant air clear glass (that when a ship crashes this glass atypically survives impact with little damage) and killed all aboard. The council was alerted and just had it detonated as the creature was too dangerous to crash the station on the planet and everyone aboard was dead anyway. Its obvious no yautja could kill it conventionally and save the station.
Then they rubbed on each-other and one broke and sniffed the air. It looked at me as I let to the ground and alerted its partner and they screeched at me. I extended my wrist blades and roared in challenge. The smaller male charged me and it was easy to dispatch him as he tried to pounce on me and I stuck both my hands blades in his chest and ripped him in half. He screamed in pain and his cries of pain made me smirk a little. It was funny somehow.
The female screamed in grief and spat a sizzling tar at me. I side stepped the goo and it sizzled through the thick metal like bark of the tree trunk behind me. It slashed at me with its sharp had talons and it clawed me. They raked across my chest and I roared in pain. I grabbed her arm and hacked it off in one slash from my blades and she screamed as her acid blood spilled out. When it touched my skin it stung but it was a good sting. I smirked again at the monstrosities pain. Then I grabbed her snout holding her jaw shut and I looked into her ocular plate. I saw fear. As is expected but there was also... pain... emotional pain, not just physical. There appeared to be a pleading for me to just kill her. Something in me faltered and my grip loosened but she didn't try to escape. I brushed away my doubt and extended my left hand claws into her skull and into her brain, instantly killing her.
I dropped her lifeless corpse and backed way in horror of what I saw in her plate a moment ago.
"Excellent. You have done well. Leap out of the pit. You have completed your trials and have earned the title of elite and you will be branded as such."
I shook my head to clear it and squatted and stored energy for the jump. I closed my eyes and lept up. I cleanly landed on the edge of the pit walked up to the elite.
He nodded and walked towards a burning circle similar to that which blacksmiths use. He pulled out a flaming rod with the design of a flaming yautja skull on the end glowing red.
"This will mark you as elite. As you advance trough the ranks of yautja society then brands will be added to this one. Brace yourself. It will hurt as this is your last test."
I nodded and braced myself for pain. He approached my front and raised the rod.
"1.2." Then he thrust its at my chest and it seared my flesh. I wasn't prepared as I waited for three instead of being prepared entirely and I grit my teeth and clenched my fists. It was all I could do not to scream. After what seemed like an eternity he pulled it away and there was a searing patch of black flesh over my heart in the shape of a flaming yautja skull. I touched the mark and immediately regretted it as it felt like the brand was still there when touched.
"You are no longer a youngblood. A youngblood died in that pit and an elite leaped out. Welcome brother." He extended an arm an I met him. We grabbed each-others elbows and shook. We released.
"Your ship is out side this temple. Your trials have completed." I thanked him for overseeing me and left the temple in great pride. Little did I know my life was about to change. Eternally...
There's chapter 2 guys. 3 when I have time. Thank you everyone for your patience. Happy new year everyone.