Baaul: A Change of Heart

Chapter 12: This Was Not The Plan

Baaul had finished lying his traps hours ago. They surrounded the ooman facility. Though they were only monitoring traps, so he would be alerted to movement the AI system recognized as Yautja. He would pull the spine from that filthy Bad Blood himself so he could mount his skull in his trophy room. 

He sat in camouflage outside the ooman, Renee’s, room. The tree he was perched on was high enough to see most of the building, but still had a visual of her. During the hours he waited, he watched her movements inside. He could tell when she was doing something that she wasn’t particularly happy about because her body flushed with irritation, particularly in her ears and face. Otherwise, it seemed her mind was distracted from her activities The only activity where she seemed truly at peace was when she had been lying on a table as another ooman rubbed hot rocks over her back. Odd ooman practices.

He allowed himself to enter a state of rest, where he was still conscious of everything around him, but was relaxed enough to recover any stamina lost during the several days he had been awake. He remained that way until he heard Renee yelling in her room. Immediately, he dropped down to her window, ready to send his blade into the Bad Blood that had somehow managed to get beyond his traps, but stopped when he realized she was yelling at the male ooman that contacted her through the primitive ooman communication device.

He gathered that the reason she was here in this facility was because she was an honorable warrior of sorts. She hunted someone and punished for going beyond another’s approval of her hunt. He chittered when she explained what her prey had been guilty of and it sent a fire of anger in him. Her hunt had been one of justice and revenge against a male preying on their youngling. Oomans were disgusting, vile creatures, and just like he had already known, they turned on each other, even if the one they were turning on was righteous.

Her anger was so explosive that when she slammed her tiny fist down on the table, the ooman male who seemed to be a servant of some kind was visibly shook. This male was easily twice her size, and yet he was afraid of her wrath. He respected that.

Finally, when she was alone, she turned and tossed her communication device against the glass. She was so angry that he half expected it to shatter the glass, but it shattered the device instead. He released his camouflage, standing before her and realized that he was waiting for her to invite him in. This was an honorable ooman. He wasn’t sure why he was so confident in that, but she was.

When she saw him, she smiled and her shoulders sagged with a relief that he didn’t quite understand, but it pleased him to see it anyway. The little ooman rushed to turn off all of her lights before she approached the glass and gently pressed her hand against it. “Well? Are you going to come in?”

Baaul gave her a small nod and used his dematerializer to allow him access. She took a few steps back, not because she feared him, but because she was giving him room. She didn’t seem to fear him at all. In fact, she seemed happy to see him. As if she had been waiting all day for this moment. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

“So did you find him yet?” Renee asked, still smiling up at him. When he cocked his head at her, he noticed her face started to heat. Was she angry at him for not catching the Bad Blood yet?

Using his mask, he answered her. “No.”

There was only a slight sag in her shoulders of disappointment. “Oh…then why are you here? Not that I’m complaining-”

He pointed to the busted device on her floor as she started to ramble. Her eyes followed the motion and she placed her hand over her face. Baaul had seen Z do this motion a time or two and he knew it was either to hide anger, shame, or some other negative ooman emotion. Of which one she was experiencing, he didn’t know.