AVP: Outcasts

Tia'ja was excited. No, she was more than excited; she was living her life on a knife's edge and it thrilled her to the core! Her heart was beating faster with each passing moment, her breath escaping her lips in quick gasps. The hunting party from her clan had landed only a few hours ago on this humid jungle planet for a Hunt. The Yautja Half-Breed named amoung her tribe as Tia'ja, ran as fast as she could, seemingly with abandon, towards the hive she knew was just a short distance ahead. Tia'ja had but one agenda this day; a kill worthy enough for a trophy to prove she was a true member of her clan and not merely an outcast.

Little Fighter felt the calm she usually felt before a fight. Her breathing was slow and rhythmic; her steps quiet and measured. The Ooman woman known amoung her clan as Little Fighter was well aware of her preys' location and she moved towards their hive with surgical precision. Garv, her Yautja husband, was moving around to flank the hive as were a handful of other males. Little Fighter tried not to think too much of her lover, for she knew he would face down any threat before him. Today she thought only of herself. Battle stances and fighting katas rehearsed almost subconsciously in the back corners of her mind. Little Fighter only had one concern; emerging from the hive with a trophy that would prove again her worth to the clan; prove that she wasn't just an Ooman and that her heart was Yautja. To prove once and for all that she was no outcast.

The hive was much more frightening inside than Tia'ja had been prepared for. She couldn't afford to think like that. Not today. She moved further in, down another side tunnel. She had not seen a sign of anything having been here at all. No wait...something on the floor... Tia'ja leaned close to inspect the shiney metallic object lying upon the dank floor and realized it was a broken wrist blade! It was oddly designed and clearly not from her clan. Tia'ja was fairly certain her clanmates were the only ones here, so where had this come fr...wait! Something was stalking her from behind. Tia'ja turned to face this new arrival. She had to change her visor settings to see clearly...it wasn't showing up right. Maybe her mask was malfunctioning? She removed her mask quickly. Her heart immediately leaped to her throat and she gasped aloud...

Little Fighter could see signs of passage outside and in the tunnels of a Yautja. What were they doing over here? They had decided to split up and take each of the five entrance tunnels separately so what was this about? She decided to proceed cautiously; those prints did not belong to anyone large enough to have been with her party. Little Fighter decided to change her visor settings to allow normal vision for her Ooman and Yautja eyes just in case. She followed the prints around another turn in the tunnels to a side tunnel leading deeper into the hive. Stalking ahead quietly, she came out of the bend a mere 10 meters behind an oddly short female Yautja! Something was different about her that little Fighter couldn't quite place until the girl turned around; her face appeared Ooman! This Yautja girl was a hybrid! Some other clan had taken an Ooman into their midst? Was this girl even part of a clan? So many questions raced through Little Fighter's head all at once in an instant, but were abrubtly cut off when she realized the hybrid girl had caught sight of her. The girl gasped aloud...a gasp that quickly turned into a hiss...

Tia'ja's breath escaped in a hiss between her Ooman teeth, a hiss that grew much louder...so much so that she realized it was not coming from herself. A hard meat crawled out of the wall just above Tia'ja and leaped at her so quickly that she didn't even have time to react!

Little Fighter knew this young girl was in dire trouble when she was completely caught offguard by the drone leaping headlong at her. Little Fighter didn't have time to question this hybrid girl's reasons for being here. She knew her enemy, and it was the black death! Little Fighter closed the distance between them impossibly fast and threw her spear at close range, into the drone's skull. The drone screeched and fell behind its intended prey, flailing on the ground before dying. Tia'ja reached down and retracted the telescoping spear before turning to face Little Fighter. The sounds of hissing filled their ears from every direction. It seemed the hard meat Queen knew they were coming and lured them into an ambush. The Queen thought she had made the hunters the hunted. She was sorely mistaken.

Tia'ja held out the spear for Little Fighter to reclaim, and in that instant, a look of understanding passed between them; if they were to make it alive, they were going to have to make it out together.

Little Fighter represented the Ooman mother Tia'ja had always loved and respected. She moved with expert precision and skill, and seemed to be protecting Tia'ja, just as her own mother would. She knew from the ornamentation on her armor that this Ooman was special, like her mother, and Tia'ja would protect her from these foolish hard meats.

Tia'ja was the embodiment of Little Fighter's dreams. A child born of a Yautja and Ooman coupling. She saw in Tia'ja the child she knew she and Garv would one day have, and she knew this girl was special. She would protect her with her life.

They were getting out of here alive!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Her signal is over in this direction," Fire Blood announces to the small party of hunters.

Garv glances around, worry evident in his posture. "She had better be alright," he says.

Their group comes over a small hill and find Little Fighter waving in their direction, a small Yautja-human hybrid girl sitting on the ground next to her. Their armor is tattered and strewn haphazardly across the ground, and the girls are propped up on dead hard meat trophies as though they were lounge furniture.

Garv runs to Little Fighter and sweeps her up into his arms, squeezing her in a loving hug. "Are you alright? Did you get hurt at all?" Garv asks, as he checks her over.

"Garv it's okay, I'm fine! Put me down already!" Little Fighter laughs and smiles at her only love. "This young girl with me is Tia'ja. I wouldn't have made it out of there without her help, " she says.

Tia'ja flushes and says, "I wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for your mate. She's being modest." She and Little Fighter look at each other with a glance that says more than words could at that moment, like a shared secret, and they laugh aloud.

The males exchange confused looks and Garv makes a coughing sound from his throat, the equivilant of a grunting chuckle. "I believe that is your clan awaiting you up on the hill, Tia'ja," he says as he points towards a tall, battle-hardened warrior at the hed of a small hunting party.

"Goodbye, Tia'ja. I truly hope we can meet again," Little Fighter says with a smile, as she wraps her arms about Tia'ja.

"I would really like that," Tia'ja says as she returns Little Fighter's embrace. "Farewell, Little Fighter!"

-Fin

Tia'ja is (c)
Little Fighter is (c)
Artwork (c) me, duh!