Naru strips the beast of its metal mask and takes in the details. It’s nothing like bone mask of the first beast she fought. It’s much heavier, and when Naru places it over her head, it doesn’t active anything at all. She cannot work it, and doesn’t have time to figure out how to when she suddenly hears the shrieking roar of one of the other two beasts close by.
Naru huffs quietly, and quickly goes back to her other findings instead.
The wrist blade she takes from the beast’s corpse is just about light enough for her as she straps it to her own wrist and yanks up her tomahawk. The sword she finds strapped to it’s back when she manages to roll it over onto it’s front is also much too large for her to carry. Though, she does try to, she can barely lift its weight.
Naru huffs, a little disappointed at not being able to take such a powerful weapon with her. With any luck, she thinks, she’ll slay the other two beasts and be able to take all of their weapons and gadgets. But for now, she must stay away from her people. Though, being their leader means they’ll soon come looking for her, which means, she’ll need to slay the beasts by sunrise.
Naru takes on her new mission with more ease than makes her feel at ease with herself. It’s a fucked up little paradox in her mind that she’s been struggling with for over a decade now, and it’s truly absurd to her when she has so much responsibility already, but she finally feels like she has a purpose again after so long. She loves her children with everything she has, but soon, they will be grown and looking for their own families and life to start without her.
Naru takes a deep breath, takes a moment to check she can work these new wrist daggers, and then, turns to give the beast one last look as she tells it, “This is as far as you go. No more. This is it.”
At the sound of another closer shriek, Naru dips into her pocket for some more orange totsiyaa, knowing in her battle she’s already burned it out of her blood. She quickly crushes the petals and shoves them into her mouth before taking off in the direction of the shrieks.
...
He takes off after her. He’s staying as close to her as he can without her actually noticing him. He shouldn’t need to worry about that, but his dhi’ke-de learns quickly, he remembers that well. How expertly she adapts under pressure. Seemingly, the more pressure, the more expertly she does. She’s no different than his kind. No different from him.
Even The Elders themselves have seen that.
His dhi’ke-de is the first ever ooman to defeat a hish-qu-ten. To defeat one of his kind is seen as the greatest honour in their culture. And The Elders respect her defeat of him especially, so much so that they have sent him to give her The Warrior’s Mark.
But the ic’jits (bad bloods), he hadn’t anticipated being here. He’s still wondering whether or not to make a call to The Elders and ask them just what the fuck is going on. They never mentioned the ic’jits, but Elders being Elders, they are supposed to know all things, are they not?
Then again, he’s lucky he’s even been given this second chance. He’s not technically afraid of pushing his luck, he’s just not stupid enough to...yet.
He shimmers behind the tree just feet from her when she suddenly halts. He stares, watching her with intrigue and some anticipated excitement. He still remembers the way she slaughtered those male oomans in their own camp site. He still remembers watching her cover herself in their blood as she swept through them. She was sloppy, but overly efficient, and he remembers how watching her kill made his cock rapidly harder than he can ever remember it being in his entire life.
He pulls back just enough to keep the shimmer of his cloak reflecting any moonlight as she swirls around and glares into the darkness. She’s staring right at him. She doesn’t see him, but he knows she feels him, feels something. Her instincts are still as sharp as a blade. He’s both impressed and weirdly proud. And if he could smirk in the way that oomans do, he would, while he backs away silently and begins to climb just as silently up the tree.
Though, when he hears the ic’jits approaching, his body stiffens on full alert, ready to step in and exterminate them, just like any other good Arbitrator would do. But for the moment, he’s more than happy to see what else his little dhi’ke-de can do.
...
Naru takes a small step closer, but pauses with a doubtful frown when she no longer feels the strange presence. The hairs on the back of her neck are not even flinching, which confuses her all the more. She turns around and is about to take off again when she hears the sound of clicking right behind her.
Naru tips her head up to the moonlight again, takes a deep breath, and then, slowly turns to face the metal-faced beast. Unfortunately, it’s the biggest one, seemingly the leader of the three. She sees it pause just a few meters away, sees the beast’s head tilt downwards. She follows it’s line of sight and ends up looking at the wrist daggers on her wrist. She smirks up at him and chirps, “Kill you nicely, hm?”
Paya glares at her through his mask. “What have you done to my mei’hswei [brother]?! Pauk! You pauking ooman whore!”
Naru tilts her head as she listens to the beast let out a series of outraged clicks and shrieks. “You cry worse than a babe. Kill me nicely now, baby beast.”
Paya instantly translates her words and is stepping forward menacingly. “Baby?! I am Paya, the very God of all hish-qu-ten, reincarnated!”
...
He’s rolling his eyes hard at that one. This idiot “Paya” is so very lucky this hish-qu-ten sitting in the tree spying on him isn’t one of the religious crazy bastards. Or else, Paya would be being sent back home to his afterlife Goddom for such blasphemy.
In fact, one wrong move against his dhi’ke-de, and this hish-qu-ten is going to kill this newly self proclaimed God anyway.
Or maybe he’ll just do it for fun anyway...
Yes, and then, he’ll offer the skull of this so-called Paya right up to his dhi’ke-de. Right before he gives her The Warrior’s Mark.
Her spawnlings make his ask of her now rather difficult, but not entirely impossible. Another thing he hadn’t anticipated and will have to call and ask The Elders about.
Or maybe he won’t...
(Coming from her, they’d make fine warriors, too...)
“Sorry. I don’t speak the language of the dead.”
His thoughts are put on hold at the careless and rather taunting tone of his dhi’ke-de, and of course, he smirks (with his eyes, the way his kind do), and even has to hold onto a chortle.
She lifts her wrist, and he almost hisses at her carelessness, but then, she seems to predict the hish-qu-ten lunging straight for her. She pulls her wrist back, instead, going for the primitive little weapon tucked to her belt. She swings the weapon up instead of forward, and he’s watching both impressed and highly aroused as she hauls herself up high enough to wrap her legs around the hish-qu-ten’s head.
She tries to rip the mask free, but is grabbed by the hair and thrown to the dirt. His eyes never leave her as he shimmies slowly back down the tree to watch her up close. He tries not to get too lost in watching her just in case the other hish-qu-ten notices him.
She is exactly how he remembered and so much more now that she’s a warrior full-grown in every sense of the word. Before where she stumbled through her lucky moves, now she is all grace and confidence in every single movement she makes. Her eyes are always flitting around, taking in surroundings and looking for escape or makeshift armour or weaponry. She is calculated and wary in her age now. She is not just a warrior of her body, but now of her mind, too.
She is everything he would look for in his own kind. Only, he is probably the only one of his kind (by personal choice) to have never settled for a long-term mate. He has had many mating sessions in his time, has sired many offspring and even has many grand-offspring and great grands. He has done his duty as all his kind must do to ensure their kind not only survive, but stay on top of the food and kill chain.
Until he felt something inside of his soul, not just his loins, growing hot and hard for his little ooman dhi’ke-de, has he ever even felt a flicker of any of the kind before in his entire existence. (All he really knows is death and battle and blood, so much blood, all the time.)
And it’s true, he doesn’t believe much in Paya, but why is it then when he closes his eyes to slumber, all he can hear is his Goddess calling out to him before he wakes up still in his dreams to see his ooman dhi’ke-de standing there waiting for him? And he still hasn’t been able to get to the part of the dream where he finds out if she’s waiting to kill him all over again, or waiting for him to...
Paya, he has no clue, but he really does hope.
He watches as she scrambles back while the hish-qu-ten stalks forward. She picks up a rock and tosses it at the beast for a distraction as she digs into her pocket for more of that pleasant scented flower. She gobbles it down and watches the beast turn its head as it easily dodges the rock.
Paya laughs, jeering and taunting her and not caring if she understands or not (it won’t matter, because she’ll be dead in a few moments.) He glances at her, shakes his head as he tells her, “Now I know why The Dead One likes you so much. You’re like a fun little pet. But you have spirit, I will give you that at least, little zabin [insect].” He turns to glance at the rock, while he tells her, “You’re little plant does not work. Your body will light up the inside of my mask until your very last breath.” He lifts a hand without looking at her and fires off one of his blades from his wrist band.
She screams and he flinches and tries with all his willpower not to just lose his temper right in that moment. The blade is lodged in her tiny belly, going clean through and literally nailing her to the tree she’s slumped back against.
Pauk this cunt Paya and pauk Paya the Goddess herself! He is not letting that go. Not now, not ever.
The game is over.
It’s his turn now.
...
Naru grits her teeth, already feeling herself weakening and shaking from the rapid blood loss. But thankfully, with the orange totsiyaa, her blood loss is slower, giving her some time. Time to do what, she has no fucking clue. She takes shallow slow breaths, keeping herself calm, keeping her body calm.
She watches the beast turn it’s back on her as it walks slowly over to pick up the stone she threw at it. She breathes through the searing pain and the dizziness, trying with all her might to lift her now numb arm, the weight of the wrist blades proving too much for her right now.
Paya is crouched down, absentmindedly staring at the rock in his hand when a wonderfully brilliant thought suddenly springs to his mind. He smiles wickedly to himself, now wishing sorely that she understood his words when he says, “I think I will have some fun with you instead. Before I use you as bait for The Dead One.” He snarls angrily over his shoulder at her as he adds, “Consider it payback for whatever state I find you’ve left my mei’hswei in.”
...
He almost laughs at that, because–fun?
Oh, he will show Paya what he thinks is fun...
The idiot hish-qu-ten chuckles to himself when his little dhi’ke-de tries to swallow a groan and ends up choking over nearly inhaling her own blood.
He finally moves in, his eyes flickering to dhi’ke-de one last time, only to see her looking right up at him as he towers over the idiot hish-qu-ten. She sees him. He’s frozen for a split second, both very slightly afraid of the last trauma she inflicted upon him, and very much aroused by the way she stares up at him with no ounce of fear. Nor does she even stare at him with anger. It’s just a blank kind of surprise.
He doesn’t know what to make of that.
Expect, maybe he should, because his kind probably all look the same to her.
Only...that doesn’t explain the different way she looks at him and the way she looks back at the hish-qu-ten, like she’s slightly sympathetic towards the idiot, but also rather smug when he sees that small tug of her pyode little lips.
He tears his eyes from her, even when she can’t see him behind his cloak (nor would she see his face behind the mask) as he feels his cock twitch. Those deep big round eyes of hers are just as dark and delicious as he remembers, too.
This idiot Paya tosses the rock back to the ground before slowly rising up to his full height. And for a moment, he notices nothing. Until he glances upwards and sees the faintest shimmer of moonlight reflecting off of something curved...and large...and much taller than him. His head slowly tips back and under his mask, he sucks in a sharp breath and takes a small but clearly alarmed step back.
He doesn’t even deem this idiot worthy of the title of ic'jit. And being one is no honour at all. He almost feels disappointed in the kill he’s about to make. Almost, because he still technically has yet to make a gift for his dhi’ke-de, and this idiot’s skull will do just nicely.
The little hish-qu-ten finally senses him there, and finally, he reveals himself to them both. He hears his little dhi’ke-de suck in a breath at the sight of him, but he doesn’t stop to look at her again. His hand is already shooting out and wrapping tightly around the smaller hish-qu-ten. He lets him struggle against his hold, own hands clawing at his wrist as he slowly hauls him up to dangle in the air before him.
And when the idiot hish-qu-ten reaches out to attack, he uses his free hand to latch on his wrist and snap it in half. He waits for the hish-qu-ten’s howls of pain to pass, and tearing the mask away from him, he tosses it carelessly aside before hauling him in close and tauntingly murmuring the words, “Pyode amedha. [Soft meat.]”
Paya glares at The Dead One as he snarls back, “Ell-osde’ pauk! [Fuck you!] And your pauking ooman whore! You’re BOTH ui’stbis! [abominations!]”
He loses any amusement, his eyes narrowing as he tightens his hold and leans in to lowly growl out his next two words, “Thei-de amedha. [Dead meat.]”
He doesn’t waste any more time then as he grabs his retractable sword from his belt. He hauls the little hish-qu-ten up higher, holding his kill up in the moonlight for his little dhi’ke-de to see as he brings his blade down and makes a clean slice.
...
Naru’s eyes widen in shock at the mere brutality as she watches the beast fall to the ground from the waist down, it’s other half still dangling in the clutches of–could it really be mupitz??
She doesn’t know if she should be worried or not. Right now, she’s technically not a threat, but she doesn’t know how long he’s been watching. Maybe he’s just here for the others like him.
She can only hope while she’s still wounded and probably fucking dying. And as much as the orange totsiyaa is helping her from not bleeding out faster, it not longer seems to work in concealing her from any of the beasts.
Her heart is beginning to pound, unfortunately making her bleed a tiny bit faster then as he drops the top half of the smaller beast’s now limp corpse to the ground at his side. And when he turns to finally look at her through that identical skull mask of his, she automatically tries to move and hisses loudly while clutching the metal sticking out of her. She grits her teeth, keeping her eyes on him and tries to stay as calm as possible when he finally begins to stalk slowly over to her.
Naru’s breathing is rapid and dodgy and as he stops in front of her and slowly crouches down to face her. She automatically presses herself back into the tree she’s pinned against anyway. She holds her breath just so he won’t hear how ragged it is when he slowly leans his masked face closer to hers. He seems to be staring at her as his shoulders twitch and he sways very slightly from side-by-side, his head never budging as it stays faced to hers.
She lets out that breath when he finally leans back and turns his attention to something else. She watches him grab something from his belt. A small metal box. She frowns, curious, until he opens it and her eyes widen when she sees the needles and some small glass vials containing fuck knows what.
He seems to consider her reaction, because he pauses, looks back at her and holds up his other hand slowly. She frowns, pausing her panic when he motions taking in a deep breath.
Suddenly, her brain disconnects to her mouth in the heat of the madness that has followed her tonight as she blurts out, “Do I have to kill you again?!”
She wants to know why he’s here. Why he’s helping her right now. Why he isn’t attacking her. Why he isn’t trying to kill her. And how he’s even still alive.
She doesn’t know how, but she knows it’s him.
He even has the same markings going down both his arms.
He ignores her for the moment as he digs into the box for the needle and a vial. She watches him stick the needle into the lid of the vail and scoffs at his ignorance, but it turns into a sharp gasp when he sticks the needle into her belly without warning.
“Hey!” Naru snaps slapping his hand away.
He pauses, this time, staring at her and chortling softly.
Naru blinks, taken aback by his blatant amusement.
Not just a beast then...
Naru opens her mouth to speak again, but suddenly feels a numbing tingling sensation slowly spreading across her body and into her wound. “Oh...” It’s a little more intense than orange totsiyaa, but it certainly makes the pain go away in an instant. She blinks up at him and for the first time ever, offers him a small smile as she says, “Thank you.”
She doesn’t know how much he understands her, but she thinks he gives a tiny little nod as he places the small box down on the ground beside him. She stares with intrigue, then, quickly, alarm when he slowly reaches out to wrap his hands around the blade sticking out of her. He doesn’t leave her time to protest as he quickly snaps the blade in half without very little effort at all. She blinks again, unsure of why that stirs something deep inside her, even halfway to death as she is right now.
Again, he doesn’t give her warning or chance to argue as he suddenly reaches forward and places both his huge hands over either side of her waist. His thumbs are delicately pressed to the sides of her bloody stomach, keeping pressure there as he tugs her forward. She lets out a loud gasp and shuddering breath from the sensations of the blade being pulled from her back, but otherwise, whatever he shot her up with works better than any herb or medicine she’s ever heard of.
Her hands automatically latch onto his thick wrists as he sets her down to sit on the ground in front of him. He tugs one of his wrists gently free, letting her latch both hands onto his other arm as he reaches for his med-box again.
Naru takes a few deep breaths to scare away the dizziness again before finally asking him, “Why are you here, mupitz?”
...
There is it.
That name again.
And that question he was waiting for.
The name, he still recognises as a sign of amusement and recognition, even without the tiny ounce of affection he once heard in it for those briefest of moments.
The question, he will deal with when she’s in better shape to receive the mark from him.
He gives himself a moment to come up with something, to even think of a way to communicate any words at all. Meanwhile, he’s smirking to himself under his mask as he injects her with the healing agents and she hisses and glares up at him for not warning her again.
Finally, when he’s sure she’s annoyed enough by his lack of communication, he huffs quickly, lifts a hand to tap at his mask to make her pay attention and then...
“...just a mouse, baba, it’s not gonna hurt you...”
Of course, her eyes widen in horror and her pulse quickens, and then, the fire quickly comes back to her eyes and she glares and roars out her next words, “Have you been stalking my children?!”
Stalking and trying to kill her is one thing, but her children are off fucking limits to even the Gods themselves.
He bows his head a tiny bit, narrows his shoulders as he loops the last part of her voice on his recorder; “...not gonna hurt you...”
She blinks, huffs and looks surprised for a moment. Then, she’s glaring at him again, but she’s less angry and more reasonable as she says, “You’re not gonna hurt my children...” She nods when he gives a clear nod. “OK... Then...”
She looks at him in question, and he knows she’s wondering if that includes her, too.
He chortles lightly. His little dhi’ke-de is far too paranoid. Surely he’s proven he isn’t here to harm her. He glances down to her wounds, highly pleased to see her pyode flesh stitching itself neatly back together.
He reaches out and lightly flicks the tip of her tiny nose, pulling his hand away with a scoff when she slaps at it.
...
Naru leans in closer and looks at him properly. He stares back at her, unmoving. She chuckles lightly, pulling back and staring with some amazement when asking, “How are you here? How are you alive again?”
And if not to kill her for revenge of killing him in the first place, then seriously, why is he here?
“...gonna hurt you...”
“What??” Naru’s panic falls short when she realises he was just warning her before he lifts her up to his chest and jars her wound. She grits her teeth to keep from whimpering, her hands automatically reaching for support over one of his thick locks. He hisses loudly and she lets it slip from her hand with wide eyes of shock. “S-Sorry...” She mumbles, heart racing in horror and a little fear and—
Oh...
He’s staring down at her. And no, she can’t see his face behind the mask. But she feels the low rumbling growl beneath her that doesn’t manage to reach her insensitive human ears.
Naru’s eyes widen a tiny bit more as her heart skips to a slower pace and her cheeks heat up as she feels his arms tighten around her, his claws scraping lightly over her clothing making her shiver even then.
...
He takes a deep and silent breath to steady the burning desire he has for his little dhi’ke-de, turns his eyes front and begins to walk her back to his ship.
He will have to return for his gift. But for now, he must help his dhi’ke-de.