Episode Twenty Seven - A Life for a Life
Chapter Song Suggestion "The Colony by Surgeryhead"
*note : all dialogues like so {example} are spoken from the predator's perspective
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THE PAST | Eira
She couldn't take it anymore — the silent accusations. No one dared to voice it aloud but, everyone blamed her for the Chieftain and Chieftess's death. Her brother reminded her everyday with his hostility and her other siblings treated her courteously as if she were a piece of thread about to snap.
It was her fault they were dead.
Her fault…she should have died instead.
After months of cold treatment and hateful stares, her young mind shattered and she stole away into the forest to cry. For days and nights, she didn't return home. Everyone hated her, and she no longer felt as if she belonged. Home no longer existed.
It was then an idea formed in her head.
If she could avenge her parents' death, maybe they would forgive her and things would return to normal again. Yes, it was worth a try. Collecting her belongings, she fled into the dead of night. Only not a week had gone by before she encountered a whole other problem.
She had fallen asleep after a tiring day and forgotten to put out the campfire.
S-N-A-P!
"Well, well, look what we have here." A masculine voice startled her awake.
Glancing up from her pallet, a scream lodged in her throat at the sight of three men staring down at her, like wolves stumbling upon a prey.
The tallest one smiled wickedly. "Grab her, boys."
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PRESENT DAY
She abandoned the hover bike at a distance and hiked down the craggy rocks to the isolated bay. Serpent's Bay was named solely because it represented an old era cobra head that flared into a serpentine torso connected to the Boiling Sea. Eira didn't know much about this place, and there were no signs of life or activity. The wind was rather strong, making waves across the waters.
Searching for shelter, she sat and waited, falling asleep to the gentle lull of soft waves. It wasn't long before a shower of rubble woke her up. Tilting her head back, every single muscle in her body was paralyzed by a magnitude of emotions she had kept bottled for years – the pain, sorrow, rage, and loss bombarded her. Unwilling tears pricked her eyes.
She watched the pair of clawtails coming closer. Though she hadn't expected to find two tails today, the guilt of causing her parents' death flowed through her, stronger than ever. For more than a decade, she had trained in her own blood, sweat and tears.
Finally! The day for retribution was here.
Digging for her gas mask, she slipped it over her head and contained her overdue resentment. This predator had costed her – her parents, her brother's trust, and her home. Everything she ever cared about was obliterated in an instance of recklessness. And she had never wronged this creature, had never even been in its way. Why did it attack them that day? Was it hunger that drove it to desperation? But her parents' corpses hadn't been eaten, left to rot under the blazing sun after the clawtail had killed them. It never made sense to Eira and no one else bothered to realize this bizarre fact.
Her eyes tracked the pair making their way across the sand. It was a couple. The one in front, was smaller – a male. The larger one must be the female, and it was unmistakably pregnant. Both were a beautiful shimmering shade of luminous green and blue underneath grey scales. Known as the most beautiful and deadliest predator to mankind, the clawtail resembled an old era sabre-tooth tiger with an umbrella frill neck and a split double tail.
It was the only mammal in existence with bioluminescence capabilities. And a poisonous one, thus the reason for her mask. If Eira were to inhale its lethal toxin, it would paralyze her from the waist down. That was how it had taken her experienced hunter parents off guard.
Suddenly, the female clawtail lifted its muzzle into the air, scenting Eira. Its massive head twisted in her direction, and she wasn't disappointed. The female clawtail was genetically the better hunter. In a blink of an eye, Eira aimed and fired at the smaller male, hitting it right in the shoulder. It roared and stumbled into the sand, alarming the female.
{Human. Enemy.}
"That's right, bitch. I am your motherfucking enemy," Eira muttered and unclipped the gas bomb she had swiped from Kaiser's lab. Hurling it across, she felt a stab of satisfaction when a cloud of yellow tinged gas exploded around the pair. Concocted from predator toxins, it would subdue the clawtails' senses, especially their sense of smell.
Unsheathing her long blade strapped to her back, Eira charged and swung. The female clawtail nimbly dodged while the male recovered enough to pounce and clamp down on her weapon. Strong canines grinded into steel, though not hard enough to break but, enough to stop her. She realized it was buying time for its mate to escape. Redoubling her efforts, she raised the huntress and fired her arrows endlessly. There was no way she was letting the female clawtail escape after years of hunting this creature.
The male clawtail growled in warning and swiped at her with its keratin barbed tails, drawing blood.
{I am your opponent.}
Eira was so close she realized the predator stood at her eye level. If this was her first time seeing one, she would have been scared witless but as it turned out, only hatred registered. Visceral fear didn't exist in the face of pain and loss this creature's mate had caused her. She glared into its glowing, amber eyes. "You are not the one I am hunting, clawtail. If you insist on protecting your mate, then I won't hesitate to kill you."
The predator paused, intelligent eyes regarding her with surprise.
{You can understand what I am saying?}
"And so can you. Leesi. Now, move."
It bit down harder on her blade, determination shining clearly from its gaze.
{I must protect my mate. Our pup will be born this eve.}
Eira didn't wish to know, didn't want to feel sympathy. She deliberately turned a deaf ear to its appeal. "Your mate killed my mother and father without remorse. I want her to feel the same pain that I felt."
An angry reverberating growl. {Humans attacked her first.}
She had heard enough. Her heart wouldn't be swayed. Discarding her sword, she grabbed her hand knives and stabbed the clawtail. The predator roared aggressively and slammed into her, sending her tumbling headlong in the sand. Ignoring the radiating burn, she rose fluidly to her feet and charged again.
Despite its injury, the clawtail brimmed with unspent energy, demonstrating its agility and stamina when she chased it around the bay. Using the surrounding rocks and boulders, it jumped and leaped to evade before retaliating. Eira read the calculating judgement in its eyes, sometimes reacting too late when it bit down onto her sword arm. Flesh and bone succumbed to the inevitable pressure and strength of its jaws.
"Argh!" she cried, punching its large head with her uninjured arm to dislodge its sharp fangs. "Fuck! Let go, you oversized cat!"
The clawtail threw its weight upon her and Eira fell backwards, landing with a jolting thud. "Ouch!" She flinched when her head smacked the thankfully soft sand. Blood from her forearm dripped onto her mask, painting her bloody. Her bone was crushed, tendons and muscles shredded as it attempted to tear off her arm. Frantically, Eira grappled to fire her arrows into its skull, but the damned predator read her mind and unfurled its neck frill, blocking her view. Left without a choice, she aimed for its lower torso.
Disbelief and a hint of panic shot through her when it wouldn't budge.
{Must protect my mate.}
Her constipated expression smoothened as understanding dawned that this clawtail was no different than her younger self, desperately trying to protect its family. The only disparity was how it might win because it was a full-grown male, not a helpless cub.
"Like hell I'm going down like this!" she shouted, ripping off her gas mask to sink her teeth into its soft, velvety frill, ripping out a chunk. Spitting it out, she repeated the action until the clawtail was forced to release her, forcibly rubbing its head into the ground to wipe away the burning pain. "How do you like that? Not so fun when it's your own flesh being torn off, huh?"
Completely drained, Eira rolled over and stood on trembling legs. Her chest heaved erratically from exertion, pieces of her matted hair blocking her vision.
Suddenly, they both heard it – the ferocious war cry of the female clawtail. It pricked Eira's nape and set her teeth on edge. Wielding the huntress, Eira released two arrowheads into the male clawtail's skull before she was violently tackled to the ground. The force of it unhinged her mouth dragging a horrendous shriek of pain from her lungs.
Piercing agony seared her sides as the female clawtail clamped down hard with its mighty jaws, swallowing up half of Eira's torso. Pressure bloomed from her gut, spiking up her throat and bursting from her mouth in a torrent of blood. Eira's broken arm dangled uselessly at her side, her energy waning.
{You killed my mate!} Heated fury was aimed at her.
"Y-yeah?" Eira noted sarcastically. "Qakk. We're finally even. You k-killed my parents."
{Humans are weak. You shouldn't have been able to kill one of us. You are not human.}
"How n-nice…of you to notice."
{Humans cannot understand us. Why can you?}
Eira latched onto its apparent confusion, grabbing the hidden knife at her calf. With a mighty roar, she thrusted the blade into the clawtail's eye and stabbed repeatedly. Speckles of luminescent blood splattered her face. "Oof!" She was dropped onto her tailbone. Feeling for the egg-shaped grenade on her belt, Eira pulled the pin and shoved it down the clawtail's throat.
{If I die, then you will die with me.}
"Fuck!"
The clawtail trapped her arm between its unrelenting jaws. Heart flailing in her ribcage, Eira fought with the desperation of a trapped animal. "Let go!" Aiming the huntress at her grotesque arm of mangled bones and flesh, she shot it off, uncaring that it would leave her disfigured. The adrenaline rushing through her veins helped to bury the pain. Eira wasn't sure she would survive this at all.
In slow motion, the recoil thrusted her away just as a bright light encompassed the clawtail's mouth and then –
KA-BOOM!
Solid chunks of brain matter and gore flew in all directions, piling upon the sand and splashing into the retreating waves. Thrown onto her back, Eira was disconnected from her senses. She was breathing but, she couldn't feel the air flowing in or out. Her eyes were open but, she saw nothing. White noise filled her head but, it barely registered. Blood welled in her mouth but, she tasted nothing.
{S-save...my cub…}
That listless voice echoed in the recesses of her mind.
Eira's revenge was completed. Two lives for two…or would that be three? But why did she feel so empty? Forcing herself, she scanned the bay with hazy vision. Had it already gotten so late? Rays of sunlight were sinking over the horizon, and it was the only reason she caught the soft, glowing object near the shoreline. What the hell was that?
Crawling on one arm, she compelled her fatigue muscles to move, edging close enough to reach out and scoop up the glowing object against her chest.
It was…warm.
Taking a peek, she realized it wasn't an object but…a baby clawtail – a helpless cub. No longer able to move, Eira laid in the water, staring at the little glowing miracle that was…
Soft…and cuddly…
And absolutely…not…adorable…at all…
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Lars urged Aeolus to bank to the right before they landed on the blood-soaked sand of Serpent's Bay. From miles away, he had heard the thunderous explosion and knew he had to get there — fast. "Are we too late, Aeolus?" Fear fisted around his heart. "Find her."
While the Gryphon tracked Eira's location, Lars absorbed the aftermath of what had been a brutal and sadistic battle. Everywhere he looked, blood tainted it. His gaze skated over a disfigured heap of flesh he assumed used to be a clawtail. In his military career, he had never encountered one and to think…Eira had killed two of them with her own hands.
He wondered what went through her mind as she fought. This fighting style didn't suit her, it bespoke of rage and murderous intent. It also proved to him how serious she was on getting her revenge. He glanced at the other clawtail, still whole but very much dead.
Aeolus's unnerving screech had him striding to the shoreline. "What is it, Aeolus?"
Browns drawn together; Lars followed the Gryphon's gaze out to sea. A hunter by nature, Aeolus was perceptive, and he trusted his predator partner. Something was out there. Suddenly, a luminous white glow radiated from the ocean. Before he knew it, Lars was trudging chest deep and swimming towards the strange light. Sucking in his breath, he dove under and kicked his legs.
Lars nearly choked at the sight of Eira floating near the ocean bed, her long hair fanning around her like a veil of pink seaweed. And what the hell was that thing attached to her chest? It was the source of the glow. Was she alive? Her face appeared too lifeless and ghoulish for his liking.
Catching her hand, he hauled her close and kicked to the surface. Gasping, he called out for Aeolus who brought them safely back to shore. Ignoring the chilly breeze, Lars turned Eira around and roughly shook her cold body. "Eira! Can you hear me?"
His stomach curdled at the sight of her missing arm. "Oh, Eira."
Even if she were alive, she would be forever handicapped, and Ataxia had no use for a damaged kill hunter. They would either put her down or force her to serve out her years as a facilitator. The knot in his chest tightened to the point he hadn't noticed the gentle rise and fall of her breathing.
And then she gasped, her eyes peeling wide open.
"What the fuck!" Lars couldn't believe what he was seeing. Her eyes were glowing like two beacons in the night. He shielded his eyes with an arm, unable to see a speck of her irises or pupils. "What the hell is happening?"