Predator: Huntress - Alpha

Chapter 17

"You know that Rakkah will want to speak with you about this after his current meeting with all the rest of the hunters?" Ahzma informed her as she wiped down Noko's little hands with a cleaning cloth.

Squinting from the sun, Justice twirled the yautjan spear she stole from Koga's stash idly in her hand as she nodded. "Mmm, I figured as much, but your husband will just have to wait until after our practice and after my scans with Ravki," she said looking over to Okaj who stood patiently on the other end of the clearing. "Ok Okaj, call yours to you."

All the heads of the older hounds turned towards Okaj from behind their kennel as she spoke the familiar command. Justice smirked as she watched the tiny, pup hound burst from its sitting position a few yards away and lope playfully across the open clearing towards Okaj.

"I still can't believe a yautja on Ojibwe would attack you when you were with your child just because of an old grudge," Ember argued as she bounced and played with Larsa on her lap.

Earlier when she got to Koga's kennels, Justice had recounted the events of yesterday to the women and watched as shock etched across each of their faces. She had explained her theory that the hunter who attacked her was most likely the hunter she had hunted years ago.

"Pride is all the yautja run off of," Justice said as she motioned for Nyla to call her pup to her. "I should have known when I saw him that day in the throne room this would be a problem. But I thought if I said nothing about him to anyone, we could both forget about it," she said with a sigh.

"And you don't know his name?"

Justice shook her head. An exchange of names wasn't really something she was going for when she stalked and captured the hunter that day years ago. He was young and so was she, they had played cat and mouse with each other in silent understanding. He would no doubt kill her if he caught her and she--well she did something worse, she left him strung up by his legs in that tree as she walked away with a victorious laugh. Her callous hubris from that day it seems had finally caught up with her.

"So Jarak is..." Ahzma let the words linger in the air as she looked at her in question.

"Jarak stayed out all night only sending me a message this morning that he thinks the hunter left the planet and is searching through the take-offs that happened through the night; since there is no real need for permission or documentation to leave Ojibwe there are a number of them to go through."

Both women nodded at that.

"But you haven't told anyone what the hunter looks like," Ember looked at her in confusion. "Wouldn't that make the search easier for Jarak?"

"Well, that's the problem," Justice said giving them both a guilty smile as she fidgeted with the spear in her hand. "I did not capture an image of the yautja that day I hunted him nor when I saw him in the throne room. I did try to describe him to Jarak, but it did little to help. The hunter's armor was plain and non-descript and he has no discernable markings or coloring to his skin to really set him apart, not like Jarak or Akur. I honestly don't know who he is. But Jarak didn't seem to care, he blames himself for not asking about the hunter before like Tyrn has been doing from day one. But I don't see why. Jarak is not the type of yautja that enjoys hearing of others dishonor or failings."

Both women nodded and Justice could see their minds working as they tried to brainstorm on how to solve the problem.

Running the pad of her thumb along the spear's hidden switch she retracted the blades on each end until it was short enough to put it through the belt loop of her shorts.

Clapping her hands together she rubbed them together and gave the three little girls a wicked grin. "Ok today we will use the dummy target."

All three girls' faces lit up even though Justice was positive they had no clue what she was referring to. Walking over to the storage shed that sat next to the big kennel of hounds, Justice felt the snuffles and puffs of breath against her arm and legs as the bigger hounds moved towards the end to where she stood. Casting a narrowed gaze over her shoulder, she gave a reproachful look to Okaj when she spotted the girl letting one of the bigger hounds lick her tiny hand. Catching her gaze, Okaj immediately snatched her hand away from the big hound with a guilty look.