Exploring

The thick and purple forest was still but the few soft calls of weary birds were echoing, chiming that there was something afoot but uncertain where it would be. Caution was aroused from every direction and slowly did life resume to normal. The yautja hunters were only noticed by the birds whose warning calls made the animals hide. A tricky way to hunt in this alien forest.
The hunters were on the hunt for game but also that of creatures worthy of their time, even if a Bad Blood showed up, it would be fun to hunt him down.
Icli especially would have fun. The tall and dark Judge still butchered every Bad Blood he met because of what they did to his first wife and sons, because of how they killed his nephew's parents.
He wanted to kill every last one of them, but no matter how many were killed, more would take their place. It was almost an endless battle since even Bad Bloods knew how to breed. Inhaling he took in the various scents the forest area provided for them, there was flowers that were strong scented in the area, perfect for birds and insects.
They didn't wear their mask because the third 'scout' told them it was useless. The air was breathable and the birds would warn them in case of danger.
The huntress behind them was practically a child in confront of the ancient Judge and the Elite guard captain who accepted to follow him on that alien planet, but she was a great scientist and healer and could be really useful... if they didn't lose her among the bushes!
Mikir looked around with her pearl eyes, surely memorizing every single detail she saw and putting it aside. Her skin was of a light grey and Icli still rolled his icy eyes thinking that she had to wear a solar protection on her dainty skin. The dark Bear didn't comment, but he probably agreed with the Judge that scientists should stay in a laboratory and let the explorer explore.
Mikir was glad to have these two brutes with her, their kills would allow her to study the creatures and whatever else they found... if they didn't tread on all the interesting specimens! She did miss her mother who was great in every scientific work she did, and she did miss her mate who was able to make her calm face smile, but he was on a mission himself by their elder.
Icli looked back at her as she was watching a bug crawling along the branch of which she was perched on. Faster than a snake she caught the bug with her tweezers and put the animal in a small container for alive specimens. She would study it once back at the spaceship.
Bear sighed. "Are you going to catch every creature you see? You'll finish the containers soon."
"Not at all." The huntress unfazed replied with a shrug, showing him a bag full with empty containers of different size.
"She'll collect every single one here to learn its secrets." Icli said as Bear sighed before spotting a creature in the trees watching them curiously before going back to eating its meal of a tasty piece of fruit that was once part of the tree it rested in. "We're not catching animals either."
"This is really a fruitful day." Mikir contradicted him as she bowed to extract a small plant she found interesting and put it in a container. She quickly wrote something on her wristpad and added to the file a photo of the plant.
Bear stayed with her while Icli moved to another tree and soon tossed back a red fruit with green around the top of it, to the Elite who looked at it before handing it to Mikir who looked at the fruit. "Run a test to see if we can eat it."
They expected to see the strange scientist touching the fruit, looking at it with a giant magnifying lens or doing only Paya knows what strange test. Instead she looked at it through her mask -a mask she removed the same moment their test told them the air wasn't poisonous- and then took a bite.
The males looked astonished while she chewed and then swallowed.
"Mhm... the next time choose one less green."
Bear brushed his face while Icli held in a chuckle.
A good start for a new world and they nodded while Icli huffed collecting another and tossed it Bear before collecting one for himself. That little animal was still watching them while eating its own fruit before letting the rest fall to the ground to lick its fingers clean. "Are you curious about the neighbor?"
"I'm always curious." Mikir cold said, eating calm her fruit. Besides hunting, the youngling was here to do research on this new world, to enjoy studying the new creatures and plants that grew here while Icli and Bear hunted the dangerous predator on the plant, so far they hadn't found it.
"Mhm... interesting."
They hurried to reach the huntress and then their shoulders dropped a bit because she was talking about a plant.
"Look, it drips something with a sweet scent and attracts bugs. I think it's a carnivore plant."
"I've seen some bigger than a hunter once before." Icli said watching the plant before checking their surroundings. "It's fascinating how these plants work."
"At least none of the kind you saw are here." Bear explained.
Meantime Mikir was checking a drop of the strange fluid with his wristpad and then moved carefully to uproot the plant. More she wanted to learn, never stopping to understand the various way things were, even when something fell onto her head seeing a core of the fruit they were eating. Slowly she looked up seeing that creature again who was smug watching her with deep brown eyes before giving a strange face at her. Mikir raised a brow and slowly made the half chewed fruit roll close to the creature. Those warm eyes made her think to her father's.
Ears flicking slightly, it watched her before rubbing its face with a hand as it slowly moved closer to see the fruit she was tossing away, another snack for it to have as it snatched it quickly and bounded up a few branches. She admired its eyes and those clawed feet that helped it stay in place.
"Psss." She whispered, trying to draw the attention of the two hunters, since she saw that interesting creature.
"Another strange plant? Maybe even a  mushroom?" Bear tease her while he was studying the small bugs climbing the trunk of the tree they rested on. With his attention to her, she slowly pointed to the animal close to her, already it was coming back to see if she had more to give.
"Give me your fruit." She whispered, moving slowly her hand.
He handed it to her as he watched her carefully hold it as the creature perked seeing the fruit before lowering down a bit, cautious. "What are you doing?"
"Shh. I found something." She whispered, moving a bit away from the fruit so the animal would have to leave the thick underbrush to eat it.
The two watched as the animal moved closer, carefully keeping its eyes on them before gazing at the fruit, would she catch it or win its trust over so to study it?
It sniffed the fruit and quickly ate it, before jumping in the underbush again.
"Aw." Mikir said, disappointed.
"You'll have to keep giving it treats in order to win the trust." Icli told the two as Mikir was going to have to get more fruit and maybe something to fascinate it into coming closer.
But they could attract less kind animals if they hold still like that.
With that thought in mind, Icli had them moving, they had to hunt after all. Marking this location on her map, they were off searching for dangerous game, to study and hunt.

Soon Mikir was yawning, a bit tired for the long travel on the spaceship and then in the thick jungle.
All those purple leaves, grass and bushes against a light green sky gave her a slight headache. She missed her homeworld jungle, green with a simple blue sky.
They had to make camp eventually and Icli was keeping them going. Arriving to a small creek, they rested for a moment, this allowed her to test the water for safety and see what game was along this.
They had to stuff the ship with a lot of Mikir's 'preys' while she started dissecting one in the camp.
Relaxing, Icli was sharpening his blades while watching Mikir time and time again while Bear had gone to collect some wild fruits for them to eat, all of which were approve by their little scientist.
Mikir yawned again and commented, as she was still working: "I hope you'll find some meat, all this exploring makes me hungry."
"Bear is hunting so don't worry." Icli reminded her before tossing a branch into the fire while he was making sure it got perfect for their meat, they had no idea of the large predators that lived in this area of the planet.
The planet was still unknown and just few yautja groups started exploring it. A few reported back of many creatures, many predators and those that were herbivores were mostly hidden or in trees, out of reach of those creatures. They hadn't yet seen a predator besides the insects. They were really annoying and kept trying to pierce their skin to suck their blood. Those horrible things could carry unknown bacteria and/or viruses, they did carry antibiotics but this world was still fairly new to many hunters. Hence why they were on this unique hunt.
Icli noticed something strange. "Why insects are not attacking you?"
It was absurd, she was the one with the most delicate skin he had even seen!
She shrugged. "My mother gave me every week small poisons doses when I became adult. I guess my taste and my scent are not appetizing for insects and predators anymore."
That was insane! She could have died! But... her mother Dama did that, and her father Wulf'sahr the same. They were both far from Icli's sanity standards. And now their strange daughter became his son's mate.
"Does my son know it?"
She looked up at him, raising her brows for that inappropriate curiosity. "He knows that. And I give him an antidote every time he... forgets it."
The Judge frowned. How was it possible, how his young son could forget about-
Oh.
Icli blushed, cause he just learnt something he should ignore about his own offspring. Mi'kah liked biting during the mating.
Mikir finished dissecting and preparing slides and stretched a bit. "Mhm... who said that intelligence works are less tiring than physic ones?"
He felt grateful she changed matter.
"You study so much that your mind is trying to catch up." Icli said as he leaned back a bit watching their campfire. "Did you learn anything new or not?" He was curious.
"I can't study molecules with the tools I have in a camp, but I can tell these plants and animals have similar cells structure to Yautja Prime's creatures. We could try to study them and see if we can produce drugs and if they can be useful for agriculture."
"Noted." The Judge nodded before seeing Bear returning with the fruit and joined the pair once again. "See anything?"
"A few large beasts, I do believe I've found what the top predator here is. Found large tracks in the soil, bipedal, possibly as tall as the trees."
Icli looked at the huge and tall trees and commented: "Not good news then."
It would be great hunting those creatures once they knew that planet a bit, but it would be much better if they caught one or two and dragged them on a planet they knew well and could use as game preserve. Maybe they could find a nesting area, or catch a younger one. But it would be better to have larger prey once they knew what it looked like.
"I didn't see it, only the tracks and marks against the trees of which it stalked past." Icli admitted.
"We can just hope to be far from their hunting territory, I don't wish to become a snack. I have a family to take care of." Bear annoyed said as he kept roasting the meat.
The Judge raised a brow. He had a family to take care of too. "Once we locate one, we can set up a tracker on it and see where it goes, otherwise we'll have to hunt it down and kill it. I know our young friend here will want to study the beast."
Bear rolled his golden eyes. "She would be able to live inside the animal corpse just to see how bacteria and mushroom devour it with time."
That made the older hunter laugh before clicking in amusement. "If only, I'm sure she'll want to bring one back home, alive so she could clone it and study it while it's alive and learn every detail of the massive beast."
"We haven't much space onboard if she keeps gathering everything. We can't carry dangerous animals with us, you know we have authorization just for dead animals or very small plants and beasts."
Icli chuckled more and nodded, "I know, but I can't imagine carrying one of those beasts along, we'll need a far larger ship for that task. Like one of the high elders of great clans."
Indeed their scout spaceship wasn't good for the task, and soon they'll have to stop Mikir since the scientist kept finding 'something interesting' every few steps. Jeez, worse than a kid surrounded by treats. Sometimes they both forgot that she was barely a pup.
They needed to make sure that there wasn't too many to make their ship too heavy, the scout ship was only meant for recon and small hunts, but at this rate they would be unable to get off the ground. Times like this they should have gotten a larger ship.
Or many ships, Icli thought ironically, because just one ship wasn't enough for the scientist.
"Maybe she needs so much space because she is tiny and wants to balance." Bear commented as if he could read the Judge's mind.
A microscope flied towards him and the guard hurried to bow while it landed noisily on the grass.
"Ops. I'm sorry, it fell from my hands." Mikir calm said.
"Don't be breaking the equipment we have." Icli told the young one as he shook his head, "It's not like we can make another one appear out of thin air!" That he laughed and watched the meat. "Mhm."
Mikir moved to gather the microscope, ignoring Bear annoyed glancing at her and calmly she sat close to the fire. "So, are we going to eat soon or..."
"Yes, shortly. I take it that the microscope is not damaged?" Icli asked as she looked at it and set it aside, thankfully it wasn't but if so she had a spare in the ship. "Ah."
"How much longer do we have to stay for?" She questioned.
"A week or more."
Bear stiffened when saw her silver eyes shining. "Don't get too excited now. You can't gather a specimen of everything, we really haven't enough space."
Mikir pouted. Jeez, worse than a child, Icli thought.
"Maybe next time we'll bring a larger ship, then you can fulfill your heart's content." Icli said looking at her and smiled as she could only daydream that day, every sample she could collect from every single organism she could find.
Being a scientist was like being a predator, but she collected her preys rather than eat them.
The next wasn't much different, course they were visited again by that creature from before as it was watching them from the trees and eating fruit at the same time. This time, however, it wasn't alone. Mikir shivered and frowned as she ate the meat.
Icli thought she just felt cold, but Bear knew that shiver and frowned. Her mother Dama too acted like that.
"What is it, Mikir?"
"I feel something is staring at us."

Icli was looking up at the trees and saw the heat signatures of those creatures in the trees, watching curiously while having their own breakfast. "Seems your little 'companion' returned with others." He stated but they were also flicking their ears about, not a sound was heard in the woods.
Bear tensed because they didn't know if those creatures were harmless, but Mikir was already on her feet, leaving some fruits on the ground not far.
Course, when the creatures started to move, did Bear get a bit more uneasy till he knew the one on the ground. "Isn't that the same one from before?" He asked as Mikir hushed him.
"Don't agitate and talk in a whisper." She ordered, not even looking at him as she kept leaving the fruits around the borders of the camp.
Bear instead didn't look happy at all. He was uneasy with these creatures, for all they knew it could be a distraction for more to steal their things or lead a bigger predator to them. Course, the little scientist was enjoying seeing the bolder one collecting a fruit before sniffing it over.
"Mikir..." he hissed when she even outstretched her arm to offer it a fruit.
If this little creature attacked, he was going to have to react fast. He watched like a vicious predator, ready to kill the prey before him. Sniffing the air, the creature made a strange churring noise while moving closer.
"Good little one, come a bit closer..." she hummed as the animal approached.

Its eyes watched her with full caution before reaching out. Mikir noted it had two thumbs and four fingers, perfect for grasping things and not letting it go.
"Mikir..." This time Icli called her, tensed since all of sudden many of those animals were staring at them.
And the female stayed vigilant feeling that hand taking hold of the fruit in her own, it was a brave little thing with caution in those eyes, she could tell those clawed feet were used as protection as well as climbing trees.
Bear was so tensed that his arms were shaking a bit. He wanted so much holding his spear right now. "Do you think they are intelligent?" He asked in a whisper to the Judge.
"Possibly but it's hard to tell right now..." Icli whispered back while the creature churred more and sniffed the fruit, taking a seat it started eating the fruit while watching the huntress.
Bear didn't know if he had to hope those things were intelligent or not, actually. Both the options could be dangerous.
When the creature retreated away a little bit, a smaller one came out and it soon had the fruit and retreated back into the trees, the rest were still a bit silent but soon were greatly still. The ground was shaking.
"But what the fuck is that, an earthquake?" Bear exclaimed as the trees trembled and the animals hurried to leave.
Mikir got up and ran to her tent, gathering the most important things in a bag in case they had to leave the camp.
"I do believe I know what it is..." Icli whispered as his mask had picked up a new signature moving through the forest, massive and dangerous. "Cloak and hide, we must not be seen."
Bear hurried to obey and jumped over a fallen tree to hide behind it while Mikir was fiddling with her mask.
"Come on, come on..." the dark Judge hissed since the youngling was wasting time. Finally she wore the mask but had barely the time to hide under a tree without cloaking that the creature came in the clearing.
It was vicious looking, thick rows of teeth hidden within that scarred up face, massive short horns jutted from the ridge above the eyes that searched for prey and movement. Those yellow eyes searched while it sniffed the air for anything interested but snarled smelling the smoke of the campfire. Inflating its throat a bit it make a call, one that made the hunters cringe due to the loudness of it. A moment later two smaller versions of the giant came around and hissed seeing the dying fire. It was a parent and these two its offspring. One of the smaller ones leaned against a tree and rubbed itself against it while clawing the bark with those skinny arms.
The young Yautja noted of unique feathers on the elbows and that on the base of their tail, thick skinned and dark colored of various tones of earth yet their feathers were vibrant colors and the parent had white markings on its face to give the effect of warpaint. That's when she noticed it was a male parent, as it was marking its territory.
"Oh no. I really hope he's not going to..." Bear whispered when the beast raised a leg.
Instead he did it.

Mikir luckily was wearing the mask or she could drown while the beast was 'marking' the tree behind which she was hiding.
Icli was so astonished that Bear almost chuckled, but luckily the huntress didn't move and didn't say a word. In a way, she could collect the urine sample and use it as a means of protection from these beasts, course, that's if she could regain her humility after these beasts left.
When the beast finished, he clawed the ground a little and looked at his offspring that were sniffing around the area. Growling he soon moved away as they followed after him.
Bear's shoulders were shaking a bit but luckily he was wearing the mask to hide his amused expression as they moved to join Mikir. She simply gathered a bottle and squeezed her top on it.
"Not a word or I'll cut your manhood while you sleep." She calm said while Bear was huffing like a bellows.
They had a first experience with the tallest beast in the forest, and it had two offspring with him, better yet, Mikir had a sample of the beast and a memory that'll never go away either. "We better get you clean, I'm sure that doesn't smell pleasant." Icli said as they were not going to remove their masks for a while.
Bear chuckled and a moment later Mikir approached... and hugged him tightly.
"Pauk! Get off!"
"Why, I want just to make you feel loved!"
Their older friend was chuckling as Bear was getting wet himself. "Alright you two, we best clean up, we have a while of safety from it returning lest we have another to come around."
After they were all clean again Mikir was studying her sample gathered so 'easily' while Bear was careful and avoided her before she could take revenge on him again.
He certainly didn't want to smell of that stench again, he could only imagine what it smelled like and had a feeling it was something he's faint from. Thankfully it didn't mark their ship up either or they'd be stinking all the way back to Yautja Prime.
"Don't even mention this episode. To anyone. Never." Bear threatened the Judge, since he knew that the tall guy became a slowpoke when he saw his wife Tineira.
"I can't make promises, when you get as old as I, you tend to talk about interesting times." He chuckled before relaxing once again, "Where were we before we were suddenly interrupted?"
"We were asking Mikir to stop attracting strange animals with food!"
"Ah yes, well, I doubt they're still around." He chuckled before gazing over at her as she was studying her new sample but she did want those creatures who loved fruit to return.

Soon it was night and Mikir insisted to sleep onboard the spaceship. She didn't look scared. Actually Bear suspected that she didn't want to leave her precious samples alone.
"She thinks we are going to throw her stuff out while she sleeps." Bear grunted as he put another heavy box inside the ship.
"It's only natural for a scientist to think and feel like that, precious samples for study are important." Icli said carrying another crate that held food samples. "We still have yet to hunt down the beast, we must do that soon before we leave."
"Alright, alright... but I suspect we'll have to content of alien rats equivalent since we haven't space for anything bigger."
"I have a feeling she'll want tissue samples and other things from it once we killed it." Icli said as Bear could only imagine the issues if they tried to put the skull in the ship.
"I can hear you!" Mikir made them startle when they turned and saw she was right behind them.
"It is true, you know." Icli stated as she huffed watching the pair.
"Just get those containers inside and I might let you keep your manhood." She growled.
Bear huffed and when the healer was inside he commented: "In my opinion she is too obsessed by manhood. I still wonder how your son Mi'kah can tolerate to have that little psycho around his favorite anatomic part!"
"She might be the reason he wants so much attention, she knows more about it than we think we do!" Icli suggested as Bear had to take that into consideration since she and Dama, plus Andy, were healers. They had to know all the details. But the thought of Dama interested on sex was just... creepy!
Brrr. Bear thought with a shiver. He considered Mikir almost like a little niece since he grew affectionate to Dama, but the little grey healers were damn disturbing sometimes.
"I would never wish to mate with someone who can tell me all the venereal diseases names and symptoms in alphabetic order!"
Icli was laughing while they loaded the ship up, it was so good getting a laugh in now and again but they had to be serious with having their hunt and research completed, they had limited time after all.
"Ouch! My poor foot!"
"It's not my fault if you are awkward, Bear."
"It's your fault if I can't walk without impacting in one of your damn cases, Mikir!"
"Will you two behave for the hour!" Icli roared at them as the pair looked at him but froze when the ground shook.

"Shh.." Moving silently to the cockpit, the elder hunter looking outside as there in view was one of those beasts from before, sniffing around and looked at their ship.
Mikir smirked and hid behind a box because she didn't wish to be devoured... or weakened again.
"Seems we need to hunt after all." Icli growled as he watched the beast snarl and move towards them. "Bear, Mikir, we have a prey to hunt. If we fail in killing it before it reaches the ship, we'll be stranded here for a while."
And all her samples would be in danger. Mikir determined nodded and started fiddling with a box set on a table while Bear frowned and checked his guns and blades.
Icli was already heading outside, this was their time to get the biggest predator here. Once outside he made sure his plasma cannon was ready, cloaking her ran to one of the trees and roared, drawing the beasts attention to the strange noise.
The creature stared at the tiny creature who dared to stand in his territory with no fear. He started moving threatening, ready to devour that intruder when a spear suddenly sank into his neck.
Hissing loudly, the beast clawed at its neck before turning to see who just had attacked it and snarled darkly seeing another tiny creature and avoided the second weapon that was thrown, it had no idea it was a smart disk till it came back cutting through its thick hide of its neck.
The beast roared, enraged. Icli jumped away before a huge tail hit the ground. The second hunter ran in another direction and took aim with his gun. The beast couldn't chase two at the same time and went after the closest one, Icli. The old Judge was expecting that and would allow it to try and catch him. Bear snarled firing his gun making the large beast hiss and turn towards him as he watched its jaws shake, it was unhinging the lower jaw.
Oh Paya, that thing could swallow a whole yautja now.
Bear startled and hurried to bow and jump away before those mandibles sprang to crush him, but with that move he made the beast head move away from the Judge viewfinder.
Where the pauk was Mikir?!? They needed another hunter to aim for a weak spot, surely the flesh under its jaw was soft for the blade. Those clawed feet dug into the ground as it rushed after Bear, aiming to devour him or tear him apart. The poor beast fell to keep its sight on the area around it and the hunters were thankful for nature to have a dead tree to have fallen years before in the area. For this caused the great beast to trip and fall down, it was almost comical if it weren't a life and death situation.
Icli exclaimed: "Bear, attack from left while I'll be on the right!"
But the animal fell in that moment and the noise covered his words. The Judge jumped away with a curse and took aim while the creature got up and roared at him.
Before he could shoot the beast blinked and looked almost... stunned.
A moment later the Judge looked astonished when the creature landed heavily on the ground close to him and stopped moving.
Bit what...
Uncertain what had happened, a few things came to his mind and many of which was that the beast injured itself badly and the body just gave out... the last idea was that of their littlest companion happening to take advantage of this and kill it. But how? They didn't see her around and which weapon did she use?
"No signs of life." Icli whispered seeing his readings through the mask was showing that the animal was dead.
Bear came closer and removed the mask, frowning. "Did you kill it?"
"I don't think it's thank to me..." Icli frowned and brushed his neck. Then noticed something. "What is that?"
Bear looked at it and carefully removed the item from the leathery skin of their kill.
It was small, shining and thin. A sort of thin but long needle, stuck into the left naris.
"Don't touch the tip."
He startled and looked at the tiny huntress behind him. "Mikir, what..."
"One of the plants I gathered contains a toxin which can block all the muscles, heart included." The tiny huntress said with a shrug.
Bear startled and almost let the needle drop. "And when you were going to tell us?!?"
"I found so many interesting things here, but you didn't wish to listen to me. Butcher it fast and keep the organs intact. I want to dissect them and verify the poisons effects while we come back home." She happily said as she moved to the ship.
She was carrying such a dangerous toxin and used it on the beast that could have killed them, let alone Bear could have accidentally cut his finger on the tip and die!
"Good Paya." Icli huffed and looked at Bear. "At least we were out of the way of it, we better interrogate her next time she collects samples."
Bear swallowed hard and nodded in agreement.

Having completed their amazing hunt, and with new trophy in hand, they were ready to head back and show off their prize to their family, friends and clan. Course, Icli would have to show photos to his clan and his curious wife.
Bear pouted watching the window from his seat as Icli was driving. There were so many boxes around them that they had to be careful and not agitate too much their arms or head since the samples invaded even the pilot room.
"The next travel no women!" He grunted as Icli tried to not laugh.
It was simply absurd, two big and skilled hunters with not even a single skull while their tiny healer filled half spaceship with her kill.
And she seemed much more interested on studying the beast brain. Probably once at home she would remember about the insects and the mushrooms, while the giant kill would be put aside like a 'lucky experiment' with poisons.
"Life sucks." Bear sighed while Mikir was happily studying the next slide.