Shale arranged for a shuttle to drop me off on the U'la'ke pride planet an hour before sunset, near an area where the orbital scans registered a spike in feline foot traffic. U'la'ke preferred hunting in the dark and Shale's strategists calculated it was the perfect time frame to expedite an encounter with the roving sentries.
From the decay of the city ruins and the partial regrowth of the native vegetation, the science crew calculated that the U'la'ke conquest occurred one to two cycles ago. All sentient and bestial life had been absorbed into the pride colony.
The rubble that remained reminded me of Aegis Point, an independent trading hub in the southern desert of my homeland. The city rose from the ruins of another long-forgotten advanced metropolis. However, this alien cityscape, unlike any on Menthla, was striated with several winding waterways streaming under tarnished pedestrian bridges.
On the surface, the planet appeared to be a dead wasteland, but my ears indicated a vast tunnel system below, swarming with life.
"They are near," Shale's rumbled in my ear through my modified Hass'ar skull-plate.
"I can smell them," I raised my nose and took a slow inhale.
Their scent differed from Shadow's Reach, more briny and tart. I pondered if each pride colony came in different flavors and what transcendent aroma the future Abura might radiate.
Dark shapes skittered throughout the city skyline.
The U'la'ke were just as powerful as the ancient ballads described. Eh'kt often spoke of the creature's malleability and ferocity, enabling them to thrive on any planet by siphoning DNA from native lifeforms, but witnessing their true might firsthand was breathtaking. This pride truly was worthy of Jahaa.
I stepped forward, ignoring the lingering itch left over from my missing pouch. It was empty as the microscopic embryo hadn't yet migrated.
Miscarriages and aborted pregnancies were common on Menthla, thus why we evolved a safe means to expedite the process. Terrain too volatile, resources too limited, no viable male to transfer to for the remainder of the gestation? Just peel and toss.
I encountered numerous species that would view our ways as heartless and barbaric. They never understood it was our body's way of minimizing suffering.
Conception takes three, which meant creating new was rarely a spur-of-the-moment event. Losing a youngling was an awful thing. I hated seeing the flap of skin half hanging off me and had there been a way to save it, I would have taken any and all opportunities.
But there wasn't so my body preserved what it could and concluded the tragedy quickly and safely.
A grouping of U'la'ke scouts gathered on the outskirts of the surrounding shadows. I could hear the dull rub of their sleek armored plating and their graceful stinger-tipped tails swishing in anticipation.
They were hesitant and aware that I was something different.
Sorry to disappoint, I'm only a messenger.
For weeks, I racked my brain over what opening song even approached a suitable greeting. Oru mandated that all aspects of this endeavor uphold the high standards of Jahaa and I'd been content to yield the majority of that dilemma over onto Shale. Besides, I had a bigger problem. What melody in existence was worthy of Menthla?
The U'la'ke were circling now, creeping in closer to better understand my scent.
Everything about them was perfection.
And here I was about to request their Liege to give up a precious daughter to some random razkur who couldn't even keep her own unborn child alive for more than a couple of weeks.
YOU ARE READING
The Hunter's Song
Science FictionIn winning, she lost everything. Mourning Crow was kidnapped and forced her to compete in a 1000yr deathmatch. She won, but at the cost of everyone she loved. Now she's free and simply a lonesome musician, traveling the universe, hunting the monster...
