Rage boiled in my guts. We’d allowed the off-worlders onto Trangor to lessen the burden on us controlling the Flayer rampage during birthing season. Instead, they had brought greater danger to our doorstep. Despite the Zamorian’s shameless tactics to make us kill the beasts on his behalf, he’d had the good sense of staying outside of our hallowed grounds. After the intriguing little human had confronted him about it, he had left.
Or so we thought.
As soon as the proximity detectors went off, confirming an off-worlder had trespassed, we jumped onto our Drayshans to go confront the perpetrator. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on him. I would take great pleasure in hearing his bones being crushed beneath my tail.
To my shock, as we closed in on the trespasser’s location—far too close to where our females were teaching our young to swim—a familiar delicate scent, laced with fear, settled on my tongue.
It can’t be…
And yet, there she was, sitting on her speeder. Nearby, the savaged corpses of two Flayers. My brain froze with horror at the thought of executing a female… this female. Why did she do this? Why would she trespass when she’d been so respectful throughout the day?
But even as we closed the distance with her, the sight of Mandha and five other Warriors racing towards our location took me aback.
What are they doing here?
“Intruder!” Raskier shouted, as his Drayshan barreled down on the female.
“Wait! It’s not what you think!” the female shouted back in Universal. She dismounted from her speeder and raised her palms, head bowed, in what I assumed to be a submissive stance. “Your females were being attacked! I came to help!”
My heart leapt upon hearing her words. Yes, our females and offspring had been nearby. Based on her earlier behavior, it would make sense for this to have been the reason for her trespass.
But she has trespassed, nonetheless. The rules are clear.
We stopped our mounts near her. Between my Hunters and Mandha’s, the female found herself completely surrounded. I unwrapped my tail from my Drayshan’s hind horn, and slipped down the recess on its back, the others imitating me. The female swallowed hard and stared at us, wide-eyed, as we moved in. I hated the scent of her fear.
“I swear, I only came here to protect your people. This wasn’t for the hunt,” the female continued with a somewhat trembling voice. “I didn’t even claim them! That mother and her child wouldn’t have made it. Those two Flayers killed their pet, sent him crashing against a tree over there,” she added, pointing to the northwest. “And then they started chasing after the little one. So yes, I broke the rule and deliberately trespassed. But there was no other choice. I couldn’t let them die!”
“She speaks the truth,” Mandha said. “The females rushed to the village to call for help. The beasts were after my mate and child.”
“Salha?!” I exclaimed.
“Yes. They are shaken, but fine,” Mandha said.
“You see?” the human said, hope blossoming in her golden eyes, the color of honey, and a slightly paler shade than her brown skin. “I meant no offense and no disrespect. I just wanted to help. I’m a hunter. I knew I could save them.”
“Be that as it may, she has trespassed,” Raskier said. “The rules are the rules.”
Although prone to kill first and ask questions later, Raskier turned to look at me with a questioning look. Every other eye turned to me.
“Yes, the rules are the rules,” I conceded.
“Are you serious?” the female exclaimed, her gaze flicking through each of our faces before settling on mine. “You want to punish me for saving your people? For saving his mate?”
“If we wanted to kill you for this, you would already be dead,” I said in a neutral tone. “But you have trespassed. Extenuating circumstances or not, letting you go without repercussions will create a dangerous precedent with potentially serious consequences. This is a decision for the Elders to make. You will surrender your weapons and follow us peacefully to the village.”
She opened and closed her mouth a few times, as if looking for the words to argue. I gave her a stern look, making it clear this wasn’t open for discussion. Her shoulders slouched, defeated. She began removing her belt, handing it over with the crossbolt on her back and the weapons pouch hanging below her speeder’s handles. Raskier and Mandha took them.
“We will not shackle you, and allow you to travel on your own speeder,” I said calmly. “But try to flee and things will become a lot less pleasant.”
“I’m not going to run. If that had been my intention, I would have already done it,” she replied stiffly. “I’m not a bad person.”
Pride and something akin to anger had seeped into her voice, replacing her fear. That rekindled the fascination she had awakened in me. Our females didn’t battle. They’d laugh at us for even suggesting they could try to hunt. I’d observed this delicate human on a few occasions throughout the day. She’d impressed me with her efficiency, working around her limitations to make reasonably clean kills, nothing like the butchery she’d made of these two Flayers.
“And if I believed you were, things would be going down quite differently,” I said.
Without waiting for her to respond, I turned to my Drayshan, Dagas. Using one of the three short and recurved bone spikes on its side as support, I hoisted myself into the recess on its back, lying on my stomach and wrapping my tail around his hind horn. Thanks to its shorter back legs, we were lying at a 30-degree angle on the beast, its flat head giving us a clear view ahead. I closed my hands around two of the horns protruding from the sides of its neck before casting a glance at the female.
That seemed to snap her out of the daze she’d appeared to have fallen into while observing me mount. She got onto her own transportation and quietly followed as we raced home.
A million troubling thoughts went off in my mind. The female didn’t deserve to die, especially not after saving my brother’s mate and child. When she’d stumbled upon the first Flayer we’d killed, I’d wondered if she’d been the Zamorian’s acolyte. However, her surprise and then hesitation at claiming it had been genuine. With our camouflage, she hadn’t seen us watching her. But it wasn’t until she’d shown herself after observing us performing that kill, then congratulating us for it, that she truly piqued my curiosity.
Although I’d derived a malicious glee at watching her unknowingly ‘steal’ the Zamorian’s would-be kills, that hadn’t been the main reason I’d dragged that dead Flayer out of the restricted area so that she could claim it. If I were honest with myself, I’d wanted an excuse to see her up-close and talk to her—not that I’d done much of the latter. I’d been too busy taking in her appearance and tasting her scent.
Of all the species visiting us, hers had the most in common with ours. Although our females didn’t have prominent breasts like humans, they had the same slender and delicate upper-body constitution. She had harmonious features and was pleasant to the eyes. A hood instead of the black, curly hair on her head would have made her stunning. Like all the members of her species that I’d seen up to now, she wore far too much body covering. I could only see the golden-brown skin on her face and the back of her hands. She was otherwise hidden by dark leather that stuck closely to her sensuous curves, even her legs. Had she been Ordosian, the color of her scales—based on her skin coloration—would have been breathtaking.
And a tail instead of those weird legs would have made her perfect.
However, all those wandering thoughts faded, my insides twisting with worry as the trees parted to reveal the village. I flicked my tongue out a couple of times, tasting the human’s growing fear. It had dampened during our journey here, but now, her fate would be decided.
The tribe had gathered on the square, the three Elders waiting by the statue of Isshaya, the Great Goddess, who watched over our people. The crowd parted, moving to the sides of the square to make way for us. I stopped my mount on the grassy area a couple of meters away from the stone-paved square. To my relief, the human imitated me. She dismounted at the same time I did, her worried gaze weighing heavily on me. For some irrational reason, I wanted to go to her, take her hand, and tell her all would be well.
I firmly intended for all to be well. She’d saved the life of my nephew and mating-sister. A blood debt had been incurred. My brother and I would see it repaid. I gestured for her to follow me. She complied, her eyes nervously flicking this way and that, looking at the crowd gathered around us. I couldn’t begin to imagine how intimidating this had to be for her. On top of examining her closely, as most of my people had never seen a human in the flesh, everyone was flicking their tongues at her to get additional information. While that was normal for me, I wondered how she perceived it.
Sahla pushed forward to be in front of the crowd, her hand resting on the shoulder of little Eicu. The youngling had only seen five summers, and yet he was already quite the handful.
We stopped a couple of meters in front of the Elders.
“Elder Krathi,” I said, bowing my head to the female in the middle, effectively the leader of our tribe, “Elder Jyotha,” I said, repeating the gesture towards the female on her right, and second in command, “Elder Iskal, I said, saluting the male on her left.
The human cast a nervous glance towards me the minute I started talking, then also bowed her head to each of the Elders when I did: a sensible and clever gesture that didn’t go unnoticed.
“Great Hunter Szaro, you’ve brought back the intruder alive and unbound,” Elder Krathi responded in Universal, her gaze locked on the female.
The human shuddered and cast a panicked look towards me. Thankfully, she held her tongue. The factual and calm voice the Elder spoke with gave me hope Sahla’s report of being saved by the human had predisposed the Elder to a more peaceful resolution.
“We have,” I replied in a firm and stoic tone. “As my brother’s mate likely already related to you, the human trespassed in order to save her life and that of her offspring Eicu. We have observed the human female throughout the day. Not once had she violated our edict until she saw two of ours in distress. As no greed or ill-intent motivated this offense, we felt it better to submit the case to your wisdom.”
“We have indeed heard of the rescue,” Elder Krathi said. “Tell me human, did your Federation not warn you of the consequences for trespassing?”
“Serena… my name is Serena, Elder Krathi,” the female said nervously. “And yes, they warned us, which is why I respected your rules until I could no longer. Leaving a mother and her young child to die when I possess the skill to save them would have been morally wrong.”
I didn’t know whether to be impressed or cringe at her ‘correcting’ the Elder by giving her name. And yet, that boldness held the same inexplicable appeal I’d felt when she’d congratulated us earlier. However, the polite tone of her voice, and her correctly remembering Elder Krathi’s name and pronouncing it flawlessly, earned her some favor with our leader.
“Even at the cost of your life?” the Elder insisted.
“It shouldn’t be one or the other,” the human… Serena countered, a sliver of outrage seeping into her voice. “Would you have preferred I’d left them to die?”
“Of course not,” Elder Krathi said with a dismissive gesture of the hand.
“And yet, I’ve been brought before you to be punished for doing the right thing,” Serena argued.
“You’ve been brought before us to see if there’s any way you can be spared,” Elder Krathi replied, her tone hardening.
“Why does it have to be such a big deal?” Serena asked, clearly confused. “Why can’t you just let me go?”
“Because the other off-worlders that have come here with you for the First Hunt have been pushing, testing how far they can go, and how much they can get away with,” Elder Jyotha said in a gentle voice. “The Zamorian luring Flayers to our borders for our males to do the work on his behalf is only one of the many offenses the other participants have perpetrated so far.”
“But I have nothing to do with that!” Serena justly argued.
“You don’t,” Elder Iskal conceded. “However, regardless of your altruistic reasons, you committed the most grievous one. The map that the Federation provided you also includes a tracker that allows them AND us to know where a hunter has been. The minute you crossed into the forbidden lands, we were warned at the same time they were. By now, everyone at your base camp is aware that one of the hunters has violated the primordial rule. How we respond to that will impact how much bolder they may become.”
“But my reasons for doing so—”
“Will only open the door for every trespasser to pretend they, too, had selfless reasons to do so,” Elder Krathi interrupted, gently but firmly. “We do not wish you harm… Serena. But we have greater things to take into consideration for the good of our people as a whole. Any resolution to this situation will need to be a deterrent to others.”
“Elder Krathi,” Mandha intervened, even as I opened my mouth to argue as well, “A blood debt has been incurred. Two of them as a matter of fact,” my brother added, gesturing at his son and mate. “There must be an acceptable solution for the human, Serena.”
“We understand your situation, Hunter Mandha,” Elder Krathi said. “The decision will not be made today. Serena is to be detained until we have discussed the situation with the representative of the United Planets Organization who will be here in the morning.”
“You have reached out to the UPO?” Serena asked, stunned but her face filled with hope.
“No, Serena. You did through your Federation,” the Elder replied.
“I did?” Serena asked, with a confused expression. Then she froze. Her face jerked towards the camera on her shoulder as understanding dawned on her. “Right… I guess I did.”
“It was wise to record your actions,” Elder Krathi continued. “Let us hope for a good resolution.”
