Baaul: A Change of Heart

Chapter 4: The Hunt Begins

Baaul ran his claws over the slight mark on the jungle floor. It was unusual for Yautja to travel on the ground. They naturally were attracted to the trees for the height advantage and easy traveling. This Bad Blood clearly favored the earth.

He chittered as he cocked his head to look up at the surrounding trees to see if there were signs of more than one. No. This one was alone at least for this area of the forest. His tracks were roughly 37 inches apart making this Bad Blood roughly 7'5 which wasn't much larger than himself. Though judging by the impressions, this Yautja was injured some time ago given the way he seemed to favor his left leg.

He raised his eyes to pan through his masks filters until he could clearly see the tracks in the soil. They were leading up into the center of the forest. He glanced at the ooman city behind him knowing he was roughly three days behind the Bad Blood if he continued this pace.

Baaul launched himself into the trees to increase his pace after the Bad Blood. What was this male doing on Earth? The ooman males he had hunted were all from violent packs with little organization. Traditionally, when hunting oomans that wasn't abnormal. The more violent they were usually meant more challenge and honor with kills. What wasn't normal was this male wasn't displaying his dead trophies with honor. No...what he found in that ooman city warehouse, he was...eating them and experimenting on them. There were a few oomans that had been dismembered and sewn together on different bodies.

One thing was certain. This Bad Blood was mad and he needed to be put down. Once he did, he'd find the male's ship and look into where he had traveled. It is unlikely that this was a one time perversion for ooman flesh. There was a small notification in his mask from Xai'an. He had received Baaul's findings only a couple hours earlier and gave his permission to continue as planned.

He had figured as much. It's why he continued pursuit without having to wait for further instructions. Xai'an and he went way back, though it hadn't always been a respectable relationship. Xai'an was half Bad Blood. Not like the outcast that Baaul was likely chasing. No Xai'an was a special breed of Yautja that were larger, faster, more aggressive. The reason they were Bad Bloods from birth was because they did not honor Yautja hunting codes. Due to their aggressive nature, they often killed whatever they chose and many times that included Clan Leaders with no intent to lead the colony. They also liked causing problems in back water planets like earth by bringing attention to life beyond. Oomans especially on Earth did not take that knowledge well.

Xai'an had been the start of the change for the stereotype that all Bad Bloods were bad, which was no easy feat. Not only was he the most decorated Yautja in the universe, he was also the most loyal. So loyal in fact that the Elders themselves plotted to force Xai'an to see how far the former clan leader had become because they knew he'd never believe them otherwise. Now the Yautja race was thriving better than ever before under his rule.

Baaul used to hate him, thinking that his Bad Blood nature was the only thing giving him an advantage. After being sent to help him take care of a nest of unauthorized Kiande Amedha, Baaul got to see just how natural of a leader he was and never once taking the bait that he was trying so hard to lay out. That had impressed him, but what had impressed him more was the relationship between him and his ooman mate. She had been willing to die to save him and if an ooman could see worth in a totally different species... then he should be seeing it of his own kind.

Being a strategist beyond hunting was usually frowned upon in the Yautja race, but Baaul had been born small and even fully grown was still considered very small next to his brothers and especially next to Xai'an. He had always had to use his head far more than others in order to become and stay a hunter. The only one who ever recognized his skills at first glance had been Xai'an. Others had to learn the hard way.

There was a snap some 400 feet ahead, forcing Baaul to slow down to avoid running into something he wasn't prepared for. Flipping to his infrared, he saw a small cluster of oomans pointing down at the ground. Another ooman slaughter judging by the color and shape. At least this one was still intact.

He zoomed in at the equipment in their hands, recognizing them as weapons. Though they were primitive to his shoulder cannons, they could still kill a Yautja if not careful. As his translator picked up their words he discovered that the ooman male they were looking at had been missing for over six hours.

Silently he remained in his perch in the tree until he was sure there would be no other oomans to spot him. Yautja cloaking made one practically invisible but that was diminished with movement. There were four oomans in this search party and he was willing to bet their camp away from the ooman city wasn't far. He was also confident that the Bad Blood had not stayed around to toy with them, otherwise he would have been creative with his kill displays like last time. There had been evidence of him staying there for three or four days while he experimented. He couldn't be positive that it would be a pattern but he was pretty confident in the assumption.

The Bad Blood was making his way slowly into the center of the forest though he wasn't entirely sure why unless his ship was hidden there. He seemed to have a purpose in his direction at least.

Baaul only stayed a few moments longer for his mask to pick up a few more ooman words since they all seemed to speak different languages. It was never a bad thing to save as much of the ooman languages as he could. Since there were so many he knew that he wouldn't understand most of it. Though he had gotten pretty decent with English due to Xai'an's mate, he still didn't like speaking it and this language was vastly different than English. His mask told him it was a dialect of 'Spanish'. Apparently, there were many.

When he was sure he wouldn't be seen, he turned to follow the trail of the Bad Blood. By now the Earth's sun was starting to set, casting a rainbow of warm hues over the sky. Wildlife was starting to really pick up because like in Yautja Prime, the predatory animals were dusk and dawn hunters. Though he was sure this little island didn't have any large predators for him to worry about, the insects and birds crying out did.

He had been traveling for several minutes at a brisk pace when something caught his eye. He stopped to look up at a building. One that hadn't been in his mask map, meaning it had recently been built. A brief scan with his thermal and he saw through the glass windows that there were dozens of oomans. They appeared to be in no distress which was enough for him to dismiss the location as a source of interest for the Bad Blood. At least for now. He made sure to scan the building and add it to his map just in case.

He pressed on after his mission.