The Tracker

Cal stood a few feet away, his blue eyes bright. He was just as handsome, if not more so, then she remembered.



Nix took a step toward him, her hand reaching out. She shouldn’t feel cold in this place. She shouldn’t feel pain like the unfaltering blaze of fire in her shoulder that seemed to be only getting worse. Her body shouldn’t be shaking from weakness. The drops of sweat that trickled from her face and down the soiled Semper Fi shirt shouldn’t be there.



No, in this place of beautiful brightness, where her perfect husband stood smiling, it should be painless. Pure, happy, and as beautiful as she hoped it would be. But it wasn’t. She felt all of it. She felt her knees buckle as she stepped forward; felt the cold, hard floor on her knees. Felt the sweat prickle on her skin and sting her eyes.



Instead of loving words and hellos, all that left her trembling lips were pleas for help. Pleas to make the pain stop, and tears that had so long needed to come forth.



All Cal did was stand there, his face falling when she couldn’t come nearer to the light where he stood. His fingers twitched against his leg as if he yearned to reach for her as well, but he did not.



Nix sank to the floor, desperate to reach him. She just knew that the moment she touched her husband, the light would touch her and everything would be better. Peace would finally fill her. She would be able to hold her son again, smell his sweet hair and whisper to him that she loved him. They would never be separated again



If she could just go a little farther…









Li’ct-ha walked silently down the corridor that led to the quarantine chambers. He stopped in front of Nix’s room and took a deep breath. The soft tinkle of the surgical instruments he stole were too loud in his ears. Zazin was in another meeting with the Elders, and couldn’t help him. He would have to treat the wound himself.



He opened the door and stepped in. The human female was curled into a ball on the floor, shaking even more badly then earlier that morning. The furs were pulled to her eyes, which were clenched so tightly closed that it looked almost painful. She did not take notice of the door opening. She was mumbling something under her breath, something that sounded like ‘K’al’.



He trilled softly at her to get her attention. She did not move.



Li’ct-ha knelt down, rearranging her onto her back. The woman still didn’t give any sign of consciousness, and her eyes remained tightly closed as if concentrating on something. The darkness in the room did not help anything. Her body was too hot, with a sheen of sweat upon it.



The young predator allowed himself a look at her as he had in the forest. The shirt had crawled up a little, revealing a flat stomach and a navel much like the Yautja had, though hers was more defined like the rest of her kind. With the lightest of touches, he allowed the pads of his fingers run over her abdomen. He could feel her heart beat through the thin membrane of human skin. It stumbled erratically, the beat too furious and hard, as if it was trying to work far harder then it should have to. He placed his mask over his face and switched the sights so that he could see her body internally.



“Cal…Please…” she whispered through clenched teeth, her hand flexing. Li’ct-ha moved the shirt out of the way of the wound and pressed his fingers to it. It blazed under his fingertips. The center was hard as a rock and she hissed at the pressure applied to it, her body jerking under the touch. The infection was a deep, opaque red-yellow color in his sights.



Li’ct-ha moved his hand and produced a syringe from the small knapsack at his side. It was the smallest one he had been able to find, used on sucklings when they contracted any sort of illness from the hunters’ escapades on the numerous planets.



Finding the large vein he saw in the Nix’s arm, he pressed the small needle into the flesh and released the fluid. Nix grew still, her body no longer shaking violently. She released a quiet breath and a small smile touched the corner of her lips.



Li’ct-ha felt for her heartbeat again, watching the muscle pulse. It had calmed considerably, but far too much for his liking. Still erratic, it was now weakly pumping as if it would give out any moment. He thought that perhaps he had given her too much.



Deciding that the quicker the wound was treated the better, he grabbed the small blade and pressed it into the crudely closed hole. Yellow-green, rancid-smelling liquid poured out thickly, dropping soundlessly onto the floor.



The Young Blood’s eyes narrowed at the smell. He took a small bottle from the pouch and opened it, pouring the oil-like red contents into the cut. The effects were instantaneous. The infection hissed and sputtered, steam rising from it. When it cleared, the injury was as it had been before the first treatment, with the exception of the dead flesh that had begun to decay around the abscess.



He carefully cut the dead flesh out and poured more of the oily liquid into it.



There, nestled and nearly hidden within a layer of muscle, was a large sliver of bone that Zazin had missed in his haste to cauterize it. Li’ct-ha nearly missed it, himself. With a nervous trill, he picked it out and searched for anything else until he was positive the wound was completely clean.



He pressed a button on another device and it shifted into a bowl. He poured the rest of the bags contents created the cauterizing blue antiseptic gel. He knew how much pain it had caused the Ooman woman before, and he was glad that she was unconscious this time.









Just a little farther…Cal was so close! With a huff of overexertion, Nix collapsed onto the misty floor, trying to catch her breath and gain more strength. Why did he not talk to her? Why couldn’t he tell her that she was so close and that she could do it?



Nix saw a flickering shadow in the bright light out of the corner of her head. She painstakingly turned her head to see it and recognized a familiar, short figure.



“Sam…” she cried weakly, trying to stretch her hand out again.



“Mommy!” the little boy called, his face breaking into a worried expression.



The little boy jumped forward, arms open, and with a relieved sob, Nix pulled the little boy into an embrace, burying her face in his dark hair.



The pain and weakness receded abruptly. She shifted into a sitting position, holding her sweet son on her lap, caressing his hair.



“I love you so much, mommy! I missed you!” Sam said, his small arms wrapped around her neck.



“I love you too honey. I’ll never leave you again…”









Li’ct-ha set the bowl aside and examined his work. The hole was closed and all that remained was healing. He placed his hand on her stomach and looked at her heart.



It was unmoving.



Growling, he pressed his large head against her chest, ignoring the firm breasts that he had been imagining so often lately. Perhaps there was something wrong with his mask. He heard nothing.



Nix’s heart was silent.



Li’ct-ha let out a surprised roar and scooped the woman up, rushing from the room. Even if he had to hold a wrist blade to Vonre to get her to start Nix’s heart again, he would do it. Unfortunately, the obstinate female was in the council chambers. He knew that it could mean dishonor to barge in on the meeting, and the clan of the Blooded Spear was not known for their mercy or understanding.



His footfalls were like thunder in the corridors. The Young Blood did not stop when he reached the doors. Instead, with a solid kick, they shot open and he came to a stop in the center of the room. Zazin stared at him, mandibles twitching at the interruption until he saw the lifeless form in his arms.



“Her heart has stopped! We must do something! Anything! Where is Vonre?”



Ignoring the sudden onslaught of enraged bellowing, the Young Blood set the woman down on the floor carefully, feeling for Nix’s pulse again. No luck.



“Space it with the trash. There is no reason to bring prey back to life when it is meant to die by our hands anyway.” Zazin heard from one of the Elders. However, there were several angry murmers at the comment from a group of strange Yautja that the Young Blood had never seen before.



It was only after a moment of being in the room that Li’ct-ha noticed these, a separate clan with a different mark; a long vertical slash on the bottom, and another slightly diagonal slash above it.











Though they had never met with anyone from this particular clan, Zazin knew it very well. Nearly seven human years before, one of the Elder’s sons went with two others to the icy continent on the bottom of earth for the Kiande Amedha Chiva. All three had been killed, the son being the final one, but not before the son had marked a human woman. The Elder had given her his combi-stick, and they had left the planet. He had heard something else about the clan, however. He just couldn’t remember what it was.



“Let me through.”



Through a clustering of these strange Yautja, a dark-skinned black-haired woman with the clan symbol on her cheek appeared, donned in the standard basic armor and thermal netting.



Blade had not noticed the Ooman woman at all; she had been hidden by the clan the entire time.



“Who are you?” Blade asked, planting his feet firmly in front of where Nix was lying.



“Alexa Woods. Call me Lex.”



Angry muttering from the elders sounded as the dark-skinned woman approached Nix.



Setting her spear upon the floor, Lex knelt down beside her and felt for her pulse. When she felt nothing, she tilted Nix’s head back and opened her mouth, leaning down to administer CPR.



The Yautja, even those that did not approve of the Humans, watched, intrigued, at the scene. Few had ever seen a human perform such an act to revive another, especially a stranger. From their own experiences, most humans had no care for their peers, and in a situation where lives were in danger, their own lives were more important then the lives of others.



Blade looked at Li’ct-ha. The young predator was breathing quickly, the eyes of his mask fixed on the two women. His body was tense, fists clenched.



The older Yautja lifted his hand and placed it on his shoulder. He had a feeling that the younger one, despite how much Blade liked the Ooman woman, would be more distraught then himself if Nix remained dead.









Nix got to her feet and grinned at Cal. Her husband lifted his hand and touched her face.



“Hello Beautiful.” He whispered. His smile was sad.



“Shut up and kiss me, you.” She leaned forward and kissed him, her chest aching at his touch. It felt so wonderful, even just his fingertips on her arms. They pulled away from each other when Sam told them to ‘stop being gross’.



“I hate your hair.” Cal said bluntly, his hand passing over the short red fuzz on Nix’s head. Nix closed her eyes, smirking.



“I know you do. You always loved my hair. That’s why I cut it,” she said, looking up at him. “I missed the way you used to play with it every morning to wake me up. I couldn’t…I couldn’t stand it.”



Cal kissed her forehead. As he pulled away, something behind Nix caught his eye and his eyebrows drew together.



Nix turned to look and saw the female Predator that had visited her room, her skin gleaming white luminescence in the light. A mark Nix never noticed before glowed gold on her face mask, a kind of curled, curving line with a single slash at the bottom and a smaller line at the end of that.



She was holding a golden spear this time and Nix could see the subtle glinting of gold in the intricate designs of her white armor.



The female walked to her, looked at Cal and Sam for a long while, then turned her golden-mirrored gaze on Nix.



Sam suddenly wrapped his arms tightly around his mother’s leg.



“No! You can’t take her! She belongs with us!” he yelled from below, his young face twisted in anger. Cal’s grip on Nix’s arm tightened too, albeit briefly, before he let go. Nix looked at him, hurt slowly crossing her face.



“Let your mother go, Sam. She’s still needed in life.” He said.



Sam continued to cling to her leg.



“NO! I need her! WE need her! It’s not fair!” he cried. Nix was shaking her head.



“I don’t want to leave.” She told the huntress, her hands reaching down to hold Sam.



The tall female was silent. She looked at Cal. The man, a tortured look upon his face, started to pry his wife’s fingers from their son.



“No!” Nix yelled, back away. Sam held fast to her. Finally, the Huntress growled low in her throat, a strangely offensive sound coming from something so alienly beautiful, and grabbed Nix by the forearm.



The pressure of Sam holding her leg disappeared along with the light, and Nix let out a grieved cry, air filling her lungs sharply and her body falling into a wave of pain that she had hoped never to feel again, the worst of it, centered in her head.



************





There you go! Another chapter! Let me know if you like it!



Thanks for reading.



To see Blade’s Clan symbol, go here:



http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bloodedspearclansymboljq6.jpg



To see Paya’s symbol, go here:



http://img231.imageshack.us/my.php?image=payamarkbg5.jpg


As always, find updates on chapters and quite possibly subtle clues about the next chapter at firesblood.blogspot.com