The Hunter's Song

19: Hunt (Eh'kt)

"I will skin you alive!" Shale's war axe split the air next to my head.

I kicked off a nearby tree trunk and let gravity carry me down and away from the giant red Forged warrior. The rain made the jungle slick and cooled everything between us. Like all Zhaguai, Shale was born with a row of heat sensing pits running along his lower lip.

Undoubtedly, my body heat was burning bright in the darkness.

I leapt on the first large vine I touched and bounded further away. This was my initiation to become an Adjutant to a High Council member. Shale was hunting me and it was my task to survive till sunrise.

Oru performed this same ritual when she ascended to the supreme leader of Sahei. However, it was Shale who challenged her for the honor after her previous Adjutant died on a distant battlefield. High Council members often have their Adjutants chosen for them and this was our only opportunity to reject the pairing.

The rules were simple. I must not be subdued or killed before dawn, weapons were limited to one melee armament of our choosing, no phantom blinds, and most importantly, I was not allowed to win.

Shale hurled a sharpened long branch like a javelin at my chest as he charged in my direction.

Shit, he's fast. I had to keep moving.

The makeshift pole sank deep into one of the many oversized carnivorous sundews plant clusters scattered throughout the jungle floor and seconds later another javelin sailed after.

This wasn't the showdown I craved, but it had my heart pumping and Shale was operating at full fury.

"How fares your mate?" Shale shouted from the darkness, hot on my trail and gaining speed.

"Elated!" I called back, zig-zagging through the snarled jungle to keep him from pinpointing my location. "She completes her training on Hitce. I expect her return any day and then she undergoes her Dread Rite."

It pained me to separate from Mourning Crow's company, but our parting had been amiable in the extreme.

She was in unprecedented high spirits throughout the days leading up to her journey and the prospect of escorting her Abura, Shadow's Reach, to his new home had her singing nonstop, even while we mated. Which we did a great deal of!

Mourning Crow rode me on and off whenever I got too near or when she claimed to have a craving for my 'tight, slappable ass', as she often called it.

The satisfied ache still lingered between my thighs and it was a real struggle voiding my thoughts of the morning of her departure when she surprised me in bed with her mouth and throat.

A third javelin crashed into my path, impaling a thick tree trunk along with a small nest hidden amongst the bark and leaves. Warm yoke dripped from the smashed ball of twigs and my mind raced to Mourning Crow facing her own crucible against the many beasts housed on the untouched Jahaa protected wilderness planet of Hitce while carrying our child.

No. I shook my quills and veered my course. It wasn't a male's place to control a female. Especially while she was pregnant.

I used the jutting make-shift javelin as footing and lept up the massive tree. At least the wet leaves would mask some of my heat.

"Hitce," Shale clicked in the distance. "Groon trained me there in my final days. The inhabitants are diverse. It will serve her well."

I crawled around the tree, putting the trunk between my body and Shale's voice.

That's right... This was a fight I knew how to win. I trained and researched everything there was to know about Shale.

His bearer was Peleon of Clan Celcho on Prime. She was a member of the Council of Ancients. His sire was Baaso of Clan Jahaa. It was a Joust pairing, but the two were long-standing friends. Shale was raised and trained by both parents and alternated worlds with each incoming cycle. The Forged, long before he earned the official rank, was naturally skilled and took to battle as quickly as a newborn colt masters walking.