The break, the time away from the Clan, the mei'sa, all of it; even inclusive of the nearly fatal experience with the Quatza-rij, was exactly what K'Shai needed. She felt stronger, refreshed, and had almost allowed herself to forget about the stresses and trials of life amongst the Yautja. When it was only her, R'chnt and the offspring, it was different; it was wonderful. Together, they taught and reared their young, giving them an education they could never possibly receive in the mei'sa.
But, that did not seem to matter at all to them as they eyed the Clean City once again upon their return. El'tude and A'ryin'di lit up excitedly and darted forward down the path as they drew closer and closer to the city; each brimming with eagerness and getting down their versions of how each on was responsible for the death of the Rij and they had the hide to prove it.
R'chnt carried with him the bulk of the skin of the head of the beast, which would be transformed into helmets for all four of them. It would be R'chnt's third Rij helmet; a commemorative trophy of the triumph over the beast. This one, he told them several times during the walk back; would be the most treasured. No Yautja would ever think to purposely attack a Quatza-Rij while naked.
K'Shai could hear the pride in R'chnt's voice as he revisited the experience over and over during the journey back. No sooner did the group enter the boundaries of the city than they were already being eyed, cheered, and greeted as if they were some kind of returning heroes coming home from battle.
"I guess everyone knows by now…" K'Shai said flatly, more in a statement than a question.
"Indeed."
They had camped that night over the body of the Quatza-rij with the trio of hunters that had been pursuing it. Instead of being displeased that R'chnt and K'Shai had stolen their kill, the young hunters were something like star-struck that the elder and his alien mate had killed it while naked. Clearly it had not taken long for them spread the word back to the Clan what had happened.
"Armored now, I see. How unexciting." A voice bounded out from behind them.
K'Shai and R'chnt, both half smiling already as the familiar voice greeted them, turned. R'chnt raised his left hand and prepared to clamp it down in greeting onto the right shoulder of the Yautja before him.
"Hello W'rsa," K'Shai said simply, looking about to see where her children had run off to.
They were chasing each other, play-hunting one another, bounding around with seemingly endless energy, as R'chnt, W'rsa and K'Shai began to walk on towards the city. The children continued to play and bounce between the three adults all the way through waves of stunned, whispering, onlookers all the way into the main square of the city, where K'Shai immediately noticed that the gaze of the spectators seemed rather torn between them and something else.
As they walked closer and closer into the square, the bodies of Yautja were so tightly packed shoulder to shoulder, she could not see above them. They were grunting, cheering, jeering, and making shrill sounds that were a Yautja version of heckling. Whatever was happening on the stage, she thought, was definitely bringing out a flare of emotion from the spectating crowd. She had never even seen the square so heavily crowded, and certainly not to the point where she could not see above or between the bodies.
Oh to be two feet taller, she thought with a displeased grimace on her face as she glanced down to El'tude and A'ryin'di who, for now at least, were also struggling from the same height deficiency. Of course they would not have to deal with that issue for very long.
"R'chnt, what is going on?" K'Shai asked finally of someone who could actually see.
"Punishment," he growled with a prideful tone.
"Come offspring, come." K'Shai beckoned, tugging on El'tude's wrist a bit to get his attention as brother and sister struggled on their tippy toes to try to see what was happening.
K'Shai led them away from R'chnt, who finally noticed they were leaving. He watched them carefully, realizing where they were heading to, and then turned back his attention to the stage and casually continued to move closer, trailing a bit behind K'Shai.
She took the children through the winged side of the spectators, demanding people move out of her way with all the authority of a female Yautja; and much to her surprise, most of them moved with haste upon realizing who was asking. Some of the younger Yautja jumped away so quickly she might have well been shooting plasma at them.
Apparently word about killing a Quatza-rij while nude was worth the near-death experience if, in turn it gave her a little bit of respect or fear to the Clan. She soon found her way to higher ground off the side of the stage and had a much clearer view, with her offspring standing in front of her so they could see as well. K'Shai did not notice that R'chnt had filed down next to them through the crowd. She was watching the activity near the stage carefully.
It was not Neh'rti that drew her attention. It was not even the naked male Yautja with slash marks through his chest, back, thighs, and a broken mandible, on his knees in chains bleeding all over the stage floor that captivated her, though it clearly did the crowd. Whoever the male was, it was obvious he had done something very bad, and was hunted down as a criminal - a bad blood.
It was a hard thing for K'Shai to really process; the idea of a bad blood. Perhaps it was because the Yautja had so few things that even counted as crimes, there were almost no criminals. If one was stupid enough to cross a Yautja and commit what would be a crime, he would probably get killed anyway, so there was not much intrigue about the idea of dishonoring oneself or lineage. Such a strongly honor bound race as they were, crime was not really even a thought process Yautja even had.
Most of the problems were amongst the eto, and even then, the Blooded Hunters certainly did not bother themselves at all with the misdoings of eto. That was a duty for their supervisors; the Blooded Clan members who oversee the eto in what whatever way they see fit.
Also, ever since the Earth War, the Yautja seemed to have a certain new sense of unity and purpose. They attributed their massive losses to a great honorable hunt, and they attributed the banning of hunting on Earth to their prideful spirit and honorable senses to do what is right. The Yautja, for years, had all seemed to just feel even more assured of themselves and their glory and power over all the creatures in the universe.
They were in charge- in charge of the fate of other worlds, in charge of the lives and deaths of other species, and in charge of themselves and their own power and honor. It provided them with an almost annoying sense of self-assured perfection; but it also made them strictly attuned to their sense of Honor.
What could a Yautja who strived for honor possibly do to cause such a dishonor? K'Shai looked around and thought about R'chnt for a moment. Taking an alien mate was very much at the top of the list for one of those top criminal offenses just a few years ago.
K'Shai could just barely see under the blood spatter that this burly Yautja was indeed Blooded. He had trained with a leader, hunted under him, and proved his worth and honor to the Clan and his own lineage; declaring himself worthy of the Kaunte Dar'een, and all the history of honor that comes with it. To be chained up, strapped down, and bloodied, he had committed an offense so great that he had not only dishonored himself and his bloodline, but he had caused the Arbitrators to hunt him down like a tju-ka and drag him back before the Clan to be further punished.
It was the arbitrators that had affixed K'Shai's attention. They were there, idling at the opposite side of the stage, one standing up on it, while the other two were lingering just below, casually waiting on their Clean Leader to continue to display their prize. The three powerful females that K'Shai had seen a handful of times before this looked more intimidating than ever. With their chains and adornments and piercings, and busting muscles, straight backs, and clenched mandibles, these females looked like the epitome of what a female Yautja should be.
K'Shai could not help but notice that while she stared almost unblinkingly at them, no one else in the crowd dared to even so much as hint a peek at them without just cause. These females were nothing to mess with; they were killers of killers, and the respect they commanded far surpassed fear.
"You, hd-ju thwei-kul," Neh'rti announced, calling the captive Yautja an honorless bad blood unworthy of a name or recognition of his lineage or Clan, "are a dishonor. You are worse than eto. You are a disgrace. You will remain here," she proudly announced as she checked that his chains were in place, "to die slowly, to remind this Clan," Neh'rti howled with gusto, "what dishonor is!"
The spectators howled and cheered. The Yautja on the stage looked like he very much wanted to turn himself invisible, or at least have a blade in hand so he could give himself a quick death.
"He will be left there to consider his disgrace, until he dies of starvation and thirst, or simply of humiliation," R'chnt said to the offspring. "This is what dishonor gets you. This is what happens to Yautja to turn away from the Path."
"What did he do, do you know?" K'Shai asked.
Her eyes were still fixated mostly on the powerful trio of females at the far end of the stage, but she watched both their prize on his knees bleeding in front of the entire Clan, and R'chnt out of her peripherals.
"No, but he was hunted down for it like the phu'tja he is."
K'Shai found herself suddenly looking at the offspring, as if somehow R'chnt's severe language was something offensive to them. It was an odd feeling that she should shield them from the realities of their own world, whether spoken or before their eyes, yet the urge was there. She wanted to gather her children up and hustle them off so they might not be exposed to such things, but yet, just a day before, they were skinning the largest kill that most Blooded Yautja could ever hope to claim as their own.
She knew the urges were something that rose up in her from somewhere long ago and forgotten, but found their way up in her for the moment. She silenced them and continued to stand and gawk at the ceremony on the stage while the crowd continued to howl their support of what was going on. Most of them, she figured, had no idea what the guilty party was even guilty of, she imagined.
They just wanted to see blood and they were seeing plenty of it as Neh'rti struck the downed victim again and again with a thin blade at the end of a staff. Its purpose was to inflict damage without killing, and it did that quite well. Green blood oozed all over the stage platform and puddled up around the victim that shed it.
"Did you hear that K'Shai?" R'chnt called to her with a proud chuckle in his voice.
She had not been paying the least bit of attention to him at all. She glanced up to him and noticed he was surrounded now by W'rsa, Kor'aun-de and several other elders, some she knew others she could not recall their names or if she had even seen them before.
On stage, Neh'rti and two other elder females were clearly turning their prize over, pulling his shackles until he was oriented the way they wanted him. They were about to do something, she was not sure what. Perhaps they were going to gut him; maybe start skinning him. Whatever it was, she assumed the goal was that he would live through the experience to be further humiliated until death, as R'chnt had stated.
She almost felt pity for the Yautja up there. Whatever he had done surely, after all, could not have been bad enough to warrant such brutal torture before a miserable death. The bleeding Yautja began to wail. His voice rose up in a single long whine that did not let up. He was in agony, perhaps fully embarrassed, and fully repentant of his crimes by this point; she imagined anyone would be should they have to be tortured in such a way to fit the crime.
"That honorless beast! Did you hear what they said he did?" R'chnt questioned once K'Shai's eyes finally set upon him.
She shook her head in silence.
"He attacked two female unblooded. He climbed over the mei'sa wall like a drunken fool, and the first pair of fresh young females he found, he beat to the ground and pleasured himself in them."
K'Shai's heart skipped several beats. Any sense of sympathy she might have been slowly developing suddenly were overridden by anger, and reflections of the past. Suddenly she felt her body tense and almost without thinking and in pure reaction, she reached out and gripped A'ryin'di's hand tugging on it so she followed.
"Come A'ryin'di. You must learn."
She brought A'ryin'di to the foot of the stage, walking there with a purpose that ensured other Yautja blocking her path moved aside. On stage, two elder females held the chains of their victim while Neh'rti had cut off the violator's garments fully and exposed him to the Clan, the Gods, and the fine blade of punishment that was soon impaled into his hanging endowments and began to slice.
He howled miserably and loudly as blood and parts of his once so prized genitalia hit the stage with a sloppy dull thud.
"No one, no one, must ever touch you that you do not wish. You," K'Shai told her daughter as she dropped to one knee before her to look at her more directly, "You are female Yautja, do you understand? Do you know what that means?"
A'ryin'di looked reluctantly at her mother before turning again to look at the stage, as her mother nodded her attention back that way before she continued speaking.
"You are a Hunter. You are a warrior. You have already killed a Quatza-rij and have the trophies to show it. You will never be touched by any unworthy male, or you will kill them. You will hunt… like them," she nodded towards the three arbitrator still watching with pleasure at the far end of the stage.
A'ryin'di drew her tiny little tusks at the tip of her mandibles back into a smile and K'Shai offered her a reassuring pat and turned again towards the stage, regaining her feet. She did not notice R'chnt staring curiously at the two of them a few dozen meters behind them. She did, however, very much notice Neh'rti watch her and her daughter for a moment after she was totally finished mutilating the arbritators' prize for all to see.
K'Shai found herself vaguely wondering if the cheering and bellowing crowd actually understood the point of what had transpired and got the message, or if they were just blood thirsty and happy to see someone other than themselves shed it in a public spectacle.
"You've been very quiet, K'Shai." R'chnt said curiously. "It's been hours. Are you unwell?"
"No," K'Shai said, taking a sip from the mug before her. She looked around off the balcony of R'chnt's home in the city. It had been so long since she was there, she had almost forgotten how very different the views were from there as opposed to his home in the hunting grounds. A'ryin'di and El'tude were off exploring, but still well within sight and safe enough.
Hunters were sparring in the training circles far below and far above in the training towers that rose above the housing complex. K'Shai thought about the last time she was all the way up on one of those towers; with their open twisting staircases and open sides, there was absolutely nothing from keeping someone from losing their footing - or being thrown from the training circle- and plummeting several dozen feet at least onto the solid granite structures below.
"I was thinking, that's all." She turned to R'chnt and looked at him; really looked at him for the first time in nearly the whole day.
He was sitting spread-legged and nearly nude in the mighty Yautja-sized chair on the balcony. It was more like a mighty ruler presiding in a throne over-looking the lands before him than a man at home relaxing. R'chnt rarely relaxed come to think of it.
It took her touch, her kiss, massaging his powerful muscles with firm pressure, rubbing his groin, making him erect, to bring him to an enticing combination of both completely relaxed and yet eagerly tense at the same time, which is exactly where she soon found him after crawling into his lap and removing all of his garments.
He howled in delight, drawing in unnoticed attention from other hunters on their balconies scattered around the housing complex. Neither K'Shai nor R'chnt, for the moment cared or noticed. R'chnt remained somewhat slouched sideways in the great chair with his mate on his heated thigh for quite some time afterwards It was not even until the children returned to the home that K'Shai moved at all. She had found some rest, which was something he could tell she clearly needed. She seemed rather tense all day and, it seemed less and less frequent that she relaxed at all.
He had barely realized how much like a female Yautja she had become. He had simply focused on training her as such, and watching her become so much like a Yautja that it took a quiet moment seeing her relax and feeling her gentle touch to realize that she was once a timid, frightened little thing, curious and eager to reach out and touch him; curious to learn and experience, and so fearful of dying.
Now, she watched proper punishment on stage with an equal exuberance as any of the Yautja looking on from the crowd. K'Shai was something different now. It was good to feel her relaxed in his arms. She seemed like she was somehow just more comfortable now than she had been in months; perhaps years.
When the children returned they roused her from her sleep with their high-pitched voices bickering. Immediately, K'Shai turned into the mother she was and intervened with her children, trying to ascertain why they were fighting, reprimanding them for doing so, and inspecting the scrapes and cuts that both children returned home with before hustling them off to get cleaned up.
He could hear her repeating that it was time for them to rest despite their protests, and finally forcing them into their sleeping chambers.
She returned to the balcony some time later with a silky robe on and mugs of drinks filling her hands and offered one to him.
"Are they asleep now?"
"Finally!" She said with exasperation in her voice. "I had to put A'ryin'di in our chambers, because they just won't stop fighting."
"I see. Well, where should we sleep?" He asked lightly.
K'Shai raised a corner of her mouth into a little smile and shrugged. "Out here, I guess," she whispered as she climbed back onto his lap.
"Do you feel better?" He asked of her.
"What do you mean?"
He did not respond. He just stared at her with his deep yellow eyes and she inferred from his silent gaze what it was he was talking about.
"I'm fine, R'chnt. Really. I'm fine. I was just thinking that maybe… maybe we should go off world hunting again. The children can go back to the mei'sa. They need to learn to be Yautja."
"They have been learning to be Yautja, K'Shai." R'chnt said with a rumble.
She nodded. "I know, I know. They've learned so much from you. In fact, I have too. We killed a Quatza-riij naked! I just think… there's things they need to learn in the mei'sa, surrounded by other children their size and age, that maybe they can't learn from us. And I guess I feel ready to hunt,"she said with a deep, excited inhale as she slapped her hands together in front of her body and smiled.
"Well!" R'chnt exclaimed enthusiastically. "My huntress has deemed it so. It must be done."
She smiled widely and pushed on R'chnt's chest as he tried to stand up from the chair, prepared to summon his hunting party; E'jul, Mora'th-de, Lot'kdte, S'ruch-de, H'bpe-gk'de, N'tul, Koo'ni-de ; Kor'aun-de and M'jniir-de, and W'rsa; all of them. She held him down and pressed herself into him.
There was something different about it all now. The air felt different. R'chnt's body felt different. The scent in the air felt different. She felt different. She was ready for this; for all of it.
"You seem ready too," she smiled over a raised mug across the table. "We are ready!" The hunters had convened. The ship was rounding on the planet. The training had gone well. It was a new world, weeks away from home, from the children. She did not allow the thought that she had not checked in on the well being of her children to cross her mind.
They were in the mei'sa. They were in the safest, healthiest place for them. They were Yautja, and she damned well was too, even if she had human-looking skin. She howled and raised her mug higher with the rest of the group, as the excitement filled the air so quickly she could smell it. She paused for a moment to look at her skin; her once pale and weak skin, now so darkly tanned and tattooed she was sure she did not even remember what being human even looked like.
It didn't matter.
"K'Shai?" R'chnt said once, then twice, then again with a nudge to her arm she was studying.
She raised her eyebrows and made eye contact with him.
"Dreaming of the victory, K'Shai?" Sar'uch-de chuckled, clearly having noticed her unfocused gaze.
She glanced at him, and then back to R'chnt, who suggested that they return to their chambers in the hours before they reached the hunting world.
It was hard to rest. R'chnt laid still and quiet in the satiny sheets of the platform bed, while she paced the circular living room area and looked out the windows every few seconds.
"Feels like we are going so slowly. I'm sure that same star there hasn't moved in hours."
"K'Shai!" R'chnt bellowed with an amused chuckle. "Why are you so anxious? Come. Rest with me. We can bathe. Let the hot water relax you."
She tipped her head sideways with a raised eyebrow. That did actually sound kind of nice. A hot soak to relax. Why was she so tense? Was it excitement? Eagerness? Was she just going stir crazy over the long weeks on board the ship doing nothing but training and flying and sleeping and mating?
She considered it all as she slid in the hot bath with her mate cooing softly next to her. She was barely focused on him at all, while he nudged his mandibles into the nook of her neck. She felt him caress her hair, gently moving his talons through down to her scalp, sending tingling sensations through her body. She shut her eyes for a moment and felt him cover her completely; laying her back just enough on the ledge in the water that she could breathe while still accommodating his erection.
He pleasured himself in her, howling with excitement and ecstasy while her gaze remained distant. He did not notice; she positioned herself so he could easily finish. He withdrew with a purr; she remained motionless, and did not make a sound.
Thoughts danced in her mind; thoughts that she could not control or make go away despite how hard she might have tried. The thoughts had been continuing with her throughout the long ride. They kept on her mind day and night. Images danced through her mind that she tried to quell, but couldn't.
They stayed with her while she armored up. They stayed with her while she walked off the ship. They were with her while she tracked prey with the group all night and into the first day on the world.
When the group split into three packs, still her mind focused on images and thoughts within it. When the warm blood of their first kill splashed onto her skin, and her skin tingled in goosebumps, and she howled and cheered and dined with the hunters, still the thoughts and images remained in her eyes.
On the stage in the center of the city, there he was - a Yautja criminal. A hunted prey that had done something so horrible, he was deemed unworthy of honor, heritage, bloodright, even the very endowments he was born with. And behind him; behind Neh'rti herself - were the three mighty arbitrator huntresses that had taken him.
They were fierce. They were powerful. If there were any beings that defined what being Yautja was; it was them.
She kept thinking about them as she hunted down her second kill, this one on her own. The week flew past on the planet, and after she struck her third prey, collecting another trophy for her wall, she still thought about those arbitrators.
"K'Shai?" R'chnt once again attracted her attention. "You are staring into those hollow eyes as if you are looking for something. Are you expecting it to stare back at you?"
She looked at the skull she was holding in her hands.
"Oh, it is staring back at me. It's staring in to me."
R'chnt nodded. "It is a worthy trophy for sure. You are hunting very well."
She glanced up to him with a grateful smile, not totally ignoring the fact that he almost sounded a little surprised she was doing as well as she was. The prey was deadly, no doubt. But she was, Yautja. She might not have been two meters tall and muscular and fierce looking, she didn't have neon glowing green blood in her veins, at least not by natural occurrence, but she was still Yautja.
She halfway wondered if any of it would be enough. She could tattoo her body, she could mate and breed and birth half-bloods. She could take trophies and live by the Yautja rules and religion and honor and rites. But her offspring would always be halfbloods. She would never really be Yautja. Would they?
What chances did A'ryin'di and El'tude really have of truly being Yautja when born from a mother that could never measure up no matter what. Or was there something that she could do to measure up? Was hunting on this world with this group of Elites against such a deadly prey under strenuous conditions really enough?
Or was there something more?
She groaned and her attention snapped back into the celebratory campfire as the hunters discussed their plans for the next leg of the expedition.
"These canyons to the South, not far from the ocean," R'chnt said as he pointed towards the holo-map being displayed for everyone to see. "They could harbor excellent prey. We will head there in the morning. The journey should take perhaps three sun falls."
He looked to K'Shai, who seemed thoroughly disgusted as she hunched forward and cradled her arms around herself.
"Are you ready for that?" He asked of her quite directly.
"Of course I'm ready," she snapped at him.
How dare he question her readiness, she thought. What was he trying to imply? If he questioned her abilities and readiness to just do the things that Yautja do, then how could anyone else not question her Yautja-ness?
When it came time to rest, she groaned again, and rolled away from R'chnt. He did not seem to pay it any mind. When dawn came, she was up and ready before anyone else in the group. She walked as quickly as she could, trying to make sure her strides were equal to theirs, out pacing any of them whenever she could. She pushed through fatigue, trying not to stop as often for food, elimination, or sleep.
R'chnt was the one, it seemed, who after two times suggesting they rest, had fatigued enough to simply stop. She had insisted she could keep going, but the group halted and rested.
The first rest was quiet, and the group picked up to move just after the middle of the night. They walked well through dawn and came to rest again shortly before mid-day, and this time around, the silence was so much so that it seemed even the birds around them were too afraid to make a peep to break it. Such was the travel for the next sun falls and rises until they had reached their destination.
The conditions were difficult. The terrain was rocky and steep. The sun was burning. The prey they stalked was unknown to them. Yautja weren't really Yautja after all unless of course they were hunting new prey on new worlds no one had ever been to. So this group- were all Yautja.
The single file line treaded across a narrow ledge high up on a cliff. When she held her breath and tried to focus out the sounds of her own feet crackling along the harsh gravel, she could just about hear the ocean waves, though it was miles away.
The pass, if you could even call it that, circled around the side of the mountain and as she rounded it, fifth in the line, she could see the many caverns and stopped and gasped for a moment.
The gray walls looked like some kind of giant sponge of solid rock, with holes everywhere, some shallow and obvious, some with depths unperceivable. Waterfalls that glistened blueish purple ran through many of the caverns. Though none of them were ferocious falls, they all pooled together to form a lake underneath the entire structure that glistened sunlight up through all the holes in the rock, making the whole thing shine in to a prism of colors.
It was absolutely gorgeous, and for a brief moment, K'Shai had almost totally forgotten about the thoughts that plagued her, or the pain her side, and maybe, just maybe, even the purpose of why they had even come to this world. The moment was brief, though. Very brief. Despite how stealthy the Yautja had travelled, lightly stepping, and moving downward of the wind blow, cloaked, and high up on the ledge, their presence had not at all gone unnoticed.
The moment they rounded the turn to get into full view of the massive stone sponge, more than a dozen creatures took to the air howling and shrieking. Once the alarm was rung, dozens more followed suit.
The creatures were scaly and colorful, gleaming in the sunlight being refracted everywhere. They had long tails ending in what looked rather like spiked clubs. They had long legs that, all four, seemed interconnected with a weaving webwork of flesh that they used to power through the air. Dragons… My God, we've found dragons.
The Yautja all burst into action at once, charging forward to meet their enraged prey who were wasting no time charging right back at them. The animals dived down, snapping at the hunters with their sharp, excessively long teeth that stuck out over their upper and lower lips. Somehow their mouths managed to open wide enough to clear their own teeth just fine.
Well at least they don't seem to be able to breath fire. Yet. K'Shai thought to herself as she rolled out of the way of a clawed-grab from a back leg. The animals had four long limbs and when one of them landed not far from her, she saw how quickly the creature bolted like a mad bear at the hunter before him.
E'jul was equally quick on his feet. He dodged the creatures' mighty strike and slammed his own spear into the beast's side. The animal howled and reared up, whipping its powerful wings. It quickly shot off the ground with so much power that it sent the spear back down to the ground with enough force to lodge itself tip-first into the rock. E'jul had a brief pause in his advance while he tried to retrieve the spear, and it was a pause that was entirely too long.
Before she could shriek a word, nor anyone else nearby could howl, another dragon flew into E'jul and knocked him clean down, gashing him open from thigh to ribcage. Green blood poured out and E'jul howled, rolled over and leapt up, trying again.
R'chnt quickly moved nearer to K'Shai and paid careful attention to staying just off to her left. W'rsa moved into a triangular position just to her right. Behind her, moved in Mara'th-de, and S'ruch-de. On the perimeter, the others remained, and somehow, through the chaos of the hordes of attacking creatures, the Yautja had formed an appropriate defensive position.
The only problem was that they were losing ground. The dragons knew it, too. The Yautja were slowly, step by step, attack and defense, being pushed right off the edge of the massive rock structure. Far below was a lake, and K'Shai found herself quickly decided just how survivable that jump, or fall more like it, would actually be. Were there dragons in the water? Rocks?
Though the glistening water shimmered a very inviting prism of blues and purples, and under other conditions it would be truly wonderful to simply jump in for a swim. This however, was most definitely not one of those situations, and she was certain a fall into that water would be death for sure.
Not that the Yautja ever really cared about dying - just that they did so with honor. To die here, now, against creatures the likes of which they had never seen before, would be a true honor. K'Shai was not necessarily feeling eager for such an end. The Yautja all fought well; determined to take trophies or die trying. Judging by the amount of Yautja blood being poured, and lack of silver-hued dragon blood hitting the ground, it seemed the latter was more than likely.
Still, the formation held. Armed with spears, wrist blades, swords, and bladed staffs, the group felt the rush of true sport. K'Shai briefly thought that she would not have minded having a plasma caster right about now, but even she could not help but give in to the adrenaline flowing through her veins.
It was most definitely a rush. She was not quite sure whether it was a rush of intense pride or intense fear, but regardless, it was definitely a rush.
Suddenly there was a great shriek in the air above them. Some of the hunters turned their heads up. K'Shai glanced up just in time to notice one of the dragons come crashing down dangerously close. It slammed into the ground like a torpedo; badly injured. For a moment, it scattered anyone close by to avoid being crushed, and the animal retracted with a howl, tucking its tail around it and balling up like a cornered cat, clearly ready to lash out. Before it could, the Yautja that were able, lashed out first.
K'Shai was not in a position to head towards the animal, but she saw half a dozen others, including R'chnt do so. The other attacking creatures were keeping her, and the small group of holdouts busy enough, but soon they withdrew their attack for a moment and took to a higher elevation, howling with nonstop intensity, circling like buzzards. They were regrouping, perhaps, but certainly not withdrawing.
K'Shai spun around and held her breath for a moment as she surveyed the site before her. No one was visible around the very still dragon, just a massive pool of blood - silver and glowing green both pooling together, running along with the narrow little waterfalls down the next hole in the surface.
The dragon looked dead. It was still and its heat signature was levelling off; an indication that warm blood was no longer flowing through its body. Suddenly, there was movement.
The hunters on the far side of the downed dragon were beginning to appear. R'chnt stood up and K'Shai found herself sighing with relief and quickly joining him.
"Have they given up, do you think? They know they've been beaten?" K'Shai said wishfully, knowing his answer before he even spoke.
"Oh, not a chance, K'Shai. They are calling for help."
W'rsa moved near to them, with S'ruch-de right behind him, and the others quickly filing in during the awkward pause.
"We shall press on!" An eager Lot'kdte howled, urging on the fight despite his gaping wound.
K'Shai looked around at the group - almost all of them were injured to some degree. E'jul lingered in the back weakly, definitely looking like he did not want to press on, Yautja honor be damned. Even R'chnt had a small gash on his bicep, which he ignored while he surveyed the situation. K'Shai knew that he knew any second the dragons, with reinforcements, were going to launch a second attack. The display they were currently doing far above their heads was more than likely to both mourn their fallen one and await their recruits.
She peeled her eyes away from the flying formation and back to R'chnt. For a moment, the group held still, waiting a response from their leader. Eagerly, Lot'kdte tried again.
"There must be more beasts underneath in these caves! Let us find them, and send them all fleeing away!" He tried to rouse up the younger four in the group.
"You don't really think they are fleeing, do you?" W'rsa snapped at the young hunter.
"They are getting their second fire. They are drawing in others with their calls. The attack is iminent." S'ruch-de educated, to scoffs from Lot'kdte, who clearly did not want to hear it.
"So I suppose you think the hunt is done, kuj-nul'eth?"
"Enough!" W'rsa bellowed while R'chnt remained silent.
K'Shai shook her head. Lot'kdte was pouring blood from a gash on his arm, and had insulted Sar'uch-de for having been injured on the hunt. The irony was totally lost on him.
S'ruch-de could not have cared in the least about being insulted. Experience ensured he would not get his hide in a twist over the way a juvenile acted when riled up.
"We are not here to hunt this entire clutch of beasts to extinction, you know. We have our trophy." S'ruch-de added.
R'chnt turned and looked at K'Shai as she winced in pain and spun around on the spot, trying coyly to hide it. She turned back and glanced at him, and even through the helmets covering both their eyes she knew he could practically see the look on her face, and likewise she could see the look in his eyes.
She knew he knew. He had been through it enough with her. She knew. He knew. There was nothing left to hide. She was pregnant, and in the worst situation she could ever be in in such a condition.
"This beast will feed us all. We will return with the ship and take our trophy and prize." R'chnt announced.
Despite an unveiled huff of indignation from E'jul, the group nodded in agreement. This was a hunt after all, and hunt they had. They had plenty of meat, and a prized trophy that no one back home would believe until they saw it.
The dragons however, clearly heard and understood that their invaders were planning to leave, and they changed the rules. All of them immediately started spiraling downward towards the Yautja like a cyclone, and K'Shai noticed as she prepared to be attacked, that dozens, hundreds easily, of others were joining into the cyclone. Reinforcements had arrived. The sun was practically blotted out for a moment. The attack was on.
The Yautja scattered into guarded, defensive positions. It all was happening in a whirlwind. K'Shai felt sick to her stomach, and she was not sure exactly if it was from the new life inside, or the impending death they were all about to face. She was not sure of anything at the moment; not where anyone else was, not what was happening, not who was injured, alive, or otherwise.
She just fought. She attacked anything that came her way and she tried to evade attack and injury, which ultimately she became very aware had turned into something more like dodging and running for cover instead of actual fighting.
As she bolted for a treeline for some cover to stop the creatures from assaulting her - or at least slow them down - she did notice at least H'bpe-gk'de who sounded like he was cursing.
She wasn't sure if he was cursing at her, or at the dragons, or both, but she definitely heard the gooey thud sound of his arm getting broken and torn right off his body. She vaguely saw S'ruch-de and R'chnt fighting off to her left, and she was sure she heard them yelling to her as she ran deeper into the forest.
What were they saying? Run? Fight? Stay? Live? Die? She couldn't be sure.
She let her feet simply carry her, and her staff keep the creatures at bay if they slammed through the treeline; which thankfully they did not see highly inclined to do; not when a half a dozen trespassers were out in the easy to access wide open anyway.
Once again, she was sure she heard R'chnt howl something, possibly to her, but the shriek of a winged beast overhead swooping right towards him overshadowed anything he might have said. Suddenly, she heard it. There was a crackling sound that was absolutely recognizable. It was an electricity that was filling the air, and the wailing moan that accompanied it told the tale of what was happening without her looking.
None the less, she found herself turning back to have a look at just what was happening behind her. H'bpe-gk'de. The arm he still had left was the one with his detonator mounted. Oh my God, she thought. He's detonating.
Before she could even finish her train of thought, she heard a blast, felt a shockwave and felt herself getting clunked into and slammed into the ground a few dozen feet away; the tree broke her trajectory and she gasped upon impact, her shoulder felt as if it snapped in two under the pressure of her armor being pushed down into it.
She felt warm and tingly and weak and it was hurting to breathe. She was definitely bleeding, and she was pinned between a tree and something on top of her. As she tried to focus her mind and gasp for air she realized she was pinned under a body, though she wasn't sure what or who's.
She tried to shove the weight off her, but could not budge it. It was heavy and as she tried to assess the situation more, she realized it was S'ruch-de. He was on top of her; protectively. He withdrew from her, somewhat aware that he was suffocating her, perhaps, but she used her one good arm to help push him away all the same.
When she looked around, she realized where there once trees, was now a field of burnt out ashes. There was cinder ash falling all around like snow, and there was pure silence. It was surreal looking around and watching Yautja forms slowly emerge through the dust cloud that blocked every sensor her visor was capable was.
"R'chnt!" She finally coughed with some blood. "Where is R'chnt?"
S'ruch-de turned towards the last place he had scene R'chnt fighting, and as he shifted his back towards K'Shai, she gasped. He had been burned so badly across his back that his armor had melted. He was bleeding profusely, looking rather like he had been dragged at a high speed across pavement. His armor was white hot and the only thing that really stood out in her helmeted view.
"K'Shai," S'ruch-de muttered. "You…. safe…" He whispered weakly.
R'chnt suddenly appeared, bleeding from the head, missing a helmet, with a deep gash down his arm and across his chest. He eyed up S'ruch-de with a clearly ungrateful "what the hell are you doing near K'Shai" type of look, but he said nothing.
He simply leaned into K'Shai and evaluated her.
"Can you walk?" He asked.
She nodded slowly. "I think so. I think… yea… yea I can walk."
She responded as she tried to get her bearings. She couldn't move her left arm and she could barely breathe, but she could damned well walk and she was going to. To say that this hunt had gotten out of control was an understatement for sure and she was ready to be done. R'chnt knew as well as she, that she was in child. It was not a good idea to be doing what they were doing in that condition.
S'ruch-de and R'chnt flanked K'Shai, who led the way into the trees with a pace she did not realize she could even do. The howling of the dragons behind her, the ash cloud of dust, the scent of blood and death, and dragon defecation; it was all more than enough at this point.
"Go! K'Shai, Go!"
R'chnt and S'ruch-de both echoed their warning at the same time as she heard the great crashing sound above her at the same time. She did not have to look up much to see three shadows growing above her. Dark, furious creatures with clawed legs and angry beak-like faces crashing right through the trees, hell bent on catching any and every Yautja invader they can, had targeted them.
As she picked up speed, K'Shai just barely noticed W'rsa dn Kar'aun-de moving swiftly through the trees in the smoky distant. They were evading and attacking. She paused only briefly to notice R'chnt and S'ruch-de both also evade and attack. They both dove towards the nearest of the dragons, armed with their spears and both managed to land blows which gave the animal reason to think twice about its current actions.
The first beast retreated and another replaced in almost immediately, practically landing in the strong tree tops far above the Yautja's heads as it extended its neck and legs as far as it could possibly could to try to reach its targets.
R'chnt' and S'ruch-de, both elders, elites, experienced hunters, capable killers, were well matched in their attacks. They simultaneously attacked and evaded in perfect harmony without a single word, or even really looking at each other. For a moment, as they attacked, both in protection of K'Shai, it looked like they were simply a single extension of the same body.
K'Shai found herself simply watching, stunned. She idled loosely in her tracks, stopped somewhere between fleeing and fighting, too amazed to even really process what was happening before her eyes. She had seen them practice and spar plenty of times, but this was different. This was true fighting as a team, the way Yautja should aspire to. Both of them dancing in synchronization; it was mesmerizing to watch.
The dragons seemed to be impressed enough with the attack to think twice and twice more about continuing, and suddenly, a great flapping rose up as the landed dragon, and the one circling just above it, took off and flew away, leaving a valued opening for the trio of hunters to continue on their way towards the ship.
Perhaps, K'Shai thought, the Yautja had reached far enough away from the animals' territory that they did not feel threatened any more. She couldn't be sure, but it was clear that the fight was letting up for whatever reason. It was getting easier to see as the group moved farther away from the dust and ash of the explosion. The beasts seemed to be less ired, and the hunters slowly began to regroup and assess who was alive.
It turned out, K'Shai soon saw, that H'bpe-gk'de had been the only fatality.
"Brash. Stupid."
That was R'chnt's comments on the subject, and that was it. End of conversation.
K'Shai raised an eyebrow, and thought no more on it. Youngbloods do as youngbloods do,and each hunter makes their own choices; even if their choices affect the others in the group. K'Shai had learned that much already. Listen to your leader, but when you have a moment to think on your own, do whatever you want anyway. That seemed to be the Yautja way most of all - the unspoken way.
"Well, we're all here anyway."
"Indeed." R'chnt acknowledged.
W'rsa began striding towards them as the formation of the pack slowly returned to proper construction. There was a moment - just a brief moment - that the hunters could relax, and then, it was gone. The tree line cleared and the river was visible just ahead in the ravine. K'Shai eyed the ravine from where they stood all the way to the horizon as far as she could see. The ship was some distance away, but not far from the ravine.
As soon as she and R'chnt, W'rsa, and S'ruch-de cleared the tree line, the dragons swarmed again. They had shot up from the ravine, like they had been planning the attack the whole time. K'Shai readied herself for the attack. She stood her ground between R'chnt, Wr'sa, and S'ruch-de, the four of them baring their weapons and growling their acceptance of what was to come.
It all happened so fast, K'Shai barely had time to really figure out what was happening and then, suddenly, there was nothing. She saw R'chnt and W'rsa jump in formation just past her, both of them landing right on each wing of one of the creatures, while S'ruch-de attempted to spear at its underbelly while it was distracted. K'Shai leapt forward, spear in hand to match the attack on the other side of the animal.
"No! K'Shai! Do not!" S'ruch-de warned in alarm and jumped in front of her to stop her from moving forward.
"What!? Get out of…" She howled in anger, but noticed the animal above them howling in agony as R'chnt and W'rsa had driven their spears through its wings a half a dozen times already.
The animal attempted take off, clumsily and painfully flapping its wings so furiously, it was bringing up a dirt storm with it. It whipped around in a circle, and suddenly its mighty tail, lined with scales along three rows, had slammed into S'ruch-de with a wet thud.
He slammed into her and they both were sent backwards. K'Shai could feel warm, green fluid covering her. Though she wasn't sure that she was truly harmed, she noticed immediately that S'ruch-de had nearly been gutted. He was gagging on his own blood before her as he toppled down and looked up at her.
"You must…. Live...safe… K'Shai...human…." he said weakly.
R'chnt and W'rsa were still on their attack and she glanced to them only briefly enough to be unsure if they had seen what had happened at all.
The animal whirred around again, and jumped up, balancing its body on its tail like a gigantic winged kangaroo, as it tried to get a little air under its wings. It slammed down hard again, quickly, and its aim was exact.
K'Shai drew back quickly in alarm, trying to avoid being clawed by the creature, but S'ruch-de, barely alive as it was, could not. He was speared by two of the mighty talons of the animal and it jumped up again, shaking slightly and unfooting W'rsa, who came slamming off one side, abandoning his spear into the creature's wing. The animal leapt and found the air it needed to take off.
It moved up into the sky with R'chnt still on its back. He ran along the animal's back down the tail, scaling down the ridges of it like he was climbing down a mountain side, and jumped down at the most opportune moment above a tree. R'chnt free fell about thirty meters and landed with a precise crash into a lush tree top.
K'Shai could see R'chnt watching the injured beast depart; with a flacid and lifeless S'ruch-de in its clutches.
As R'chnt returned to the ground and rejoined his mate, K'Shai remained silent, simply watching the fading distant shadow of S'ruch-de being carried off. She eyed R'chnt, who had glanced towards S'ruch-de's winged carrier for a moment and then surveyed the storm of beasts around them, scanning for the hunters in his party.
It did not take long for E'jul and Mora'th-de to rejoin them. The creatures were moving off. From what K'Shai could briefly tell by a quick head count, N'tul, Lot'kdte, Koo'ni-de, and M'jnir-de were were not present. Had they been killed? Fallen into the ravine? Took off hunting one of the prey? Carried off on their backs like R'chnt had nearly been?
She did not know right now, nor did she particularly care. Her heart ached for S'ruch-de, and she was tired, bloody, exhausted, and sore. She just wanted to go back to the ship and soak in a hot shower for a good few hours and get back home to her children. She wanted to try to bring this third child successfully into existence.
K'Shai gripped R'chnt's had tightly, and he in turn, pulled her in just a little tighter to him. The remaining group walked back to the ship, the entire time R'chnt kept K'Shai nestled in his side. He could feel her trembling. He tried to support her so the remaining hunters would not perceive it.
She said nothing, and if it not for moving her feet along with his, it was hard to even know K'Shai was aware at all. She seemed completely distant, lost somehow. It wasn't until the ship was sight, or more so what was surrounding it came into sight, that K'Shai seemed to become alert at all.
The group stopped for a moment to pause and assess the situation. The ship was right where they left it, in a field full of tall grass. The grass was swaying gently in the breeze, and against the purplish skies and puffy iridescent looking clouds, K'Shai thought it looked almost surreal.
Surrounding the ship, dining on those tall grasses, was a literal herd, dozens and dozens of what looked rather like thirty pound guinea pigs. They had small legs, humped furry bodies, big round ears that looked adorably too large for their heads, and small buck teeth just peeking out from under their velvety lips.
The animals could have seemed to care less that the Yautja were moving towards them. They moved very slowly through the grass, clearly far more interested in plucking each stalk clean than they were of potential predators looking to feed on them. They were clearly not the most survival inclined creatures. K'Shai had wandered right up to one, she might as well have tried to pet it like some kind of odd dog.
She watched the animal graze, and only looked up when she heard a squishing sound. Indeed, the creatures were most definitely a much needed source of meat, and the Yautja were not going to miss the opportunity to stock up the kitchen storages.
K'Shai sighed. R'chnt approached her with one of the animals slung over its shoulder.
"Come, K'Shai. You should rest."
She started towards him, glancing down to the overgrown Guinea pig near her and then to the one slung over her mate's shoulder. The meal it would provide was certainly well needed, but there were a hundred more grazing in a large circle all around the ship.
"What about all of them?" She asked of R'chnt, waving her hand across the field of harmless, clearly helpless, and obviously not too intelligent creatures.
R'chnt tipped his head in a Yautja version of shrugging one's shoulders.
"Creatures too unintelligent to move from the path of flames are hardly worth any concern, K'Shai. They are meals, only."
The animals would all be incinerated to a crisp when the ship took off.
"No. That just… isn't right. We need to move them." She said to R'chnt after some deliberation, causing some of the other hunters to perk up into the conversation, looking a little confused.
The Yautja had begun piling their kills into the cargo hold, and R'chnt sighed.
"K'Shai…."
She protested angrily. She was tired, and sore, and wanted to leave, but not incinerate a hundred or so harmless creatures needlessly.
"There's been enough death today."
It took some doing, but a small team of puzzled Yautja finally managed to move the creatures, sometimes literally picking them up and physically displacing them, before the ship was finally ready to take off.
While the hunters were working, Koo'ni-de and M'jnir-de showed up, carrying a trophy of teeth from one of the dragons with them, and looking utterly perplexed by what was going on with the herding situation.
K'Shai slid out of her bloody armor, and into the hot shower, moaning to herself as she felt the blood and dirt run off into the drain.
The hunters were returning heading off, less than they were when they had left, but not at a loss of their lust for the hunt. There was still plenty of hunting season left before they would return home to find willing mates; fresh females right out of the mei'sa with their blooding marks still wet on their foreheads, perhaps.
It was the only thing on their mind, not the losses. Not the injuries they all endured. For K'Shai, thoughts of home made her only think of her offspring and how she did miss them.
Like any mother, she hoped they were doing well. She thought about opening a link to the mei'sa just to speak to them, but more than likely that would humiliate them too much, for it was not what any sane Yaujta mother would do. And K'Shai knew she always had to be Yautja no matter what.