Invictis: Eaternum Five

Chapter 3

"The Auriga were a proud race of hominids to whom honor, virtue and valor in most cases meant more than life. There were twenty-one clans that were constantly cycling between war and peace. Hatred was not the motivation for battle, but honor, the winning of valor and the savor of battle. These surged in their veins when the clans clashed."

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A dark figure moved silently through the underbrush with each footfall tracing the steps of his prey. In spite of his considerable skill, he knew this hunt would be more difficult than he had ever undertaken before. This time it was no beast that he stalked, but a man and not just any man. Is his prey aware he is being hunted? Would it end in a fight to the death? With a target as enigmatic as this, you never could be sure.

He stopped, held his breath and listened deeply to the forest for a few moments straining to hear above his elevated heart rate. His target was about fifty feet ahead of him ... this really is too easy, he thought.

He would stalk around and flank him seizing him with his bare hands. He imagined grasping the man's neck from behind with one forearm and bracing the back of his head with his other and squeezing with all his might. He grinned as he imagined the rippling of the other man's muscles under his, ... struggling so hard, ... clawing and grasping vainly to hold on to his fleeting breath only to have it slip away and feel the strength of muscles give way to a slack and lifeless weight.

He moved remarkably quickly through the vegetation without a sound. In the darkness, he couldn't be sure what his target was doing, but he was going to make his move and strike soon. He circled around and came at the man from the opposite way he had come. He inched his way nearer and nearer until he was merely a few feet from his target and silently sprung out from the darkness. It would be over in an instant, his prey was now his.

Right as he felt the man's flesh under his hand he heard a resounding THWACK! Something with a the grip of a titan lay hold of his leg and jerked it so hard the world became a blur of shadows and starlight. Dozens of sinuous vines wrapped themselves around his wrists and ankles suspending him spread eagle as if presenting him before their master.

"Ha ha ha!" his prey laughed heartily. "Pleiades, you should know better than to try to sneak up on me in the forest."

"Hamal! You get me down from here now! Aaaargh!" He could already feel the neurotoxins starting to seep in through a thousand tiny pin pricks in his skin. "Come on, man!" He pleaded with genuine panic creeping into his voice.

"And if I hadn't stopped you, what were you going to do ... my friend?" The last words he spoke slowly in a deep voice with a fiendish grin on his face. With a flick of his hand the trap was released and Pleiades fell to the ground with a thud and a grunt.

"You'll be fine in a few hours." Hamal said as he turned back to his fire leaving his brother a crumpled twitching heap on the forest floor.

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Long before he opened his eyes he could hear that ominous beep that had haunted his dreams as it had once before. With a sudden panic he desperately fought for a breath that refused to come, he struggled to break free of his unconsciousness and open his eyes. Flee! A voice in his head shrieked.

After what seemed like hours of panic-stricken struggling against the darkness of unconsciousness, he finally awoke. He found himself restrained securely to what appeared to be a hospital bed. The room was bright and he was not alone. A woman stood beside his bed fiddling with some equipment of some sort that he was connected to.

"Well hello there, how are you feeling this morning?" She asked him in a voice that was entirely too chipper for his splitting headache.

He was exhausted. His muscles ached as if he had been physically swimming in that terrible sea all night long. His mouth was dry and eyes burned hot and his head throbbed in time with his heart.