I X T I L ' S . H U N T S
Growth Quest: Not all who hide are weak
words: 2025
Quote:
Ixtil learns the hard way to not underestimate earthlings or overestimate herself. In this quest she begins to identify with a male yealian that she hurt earlier, and can understand him a bit from the lengths he went to to get revenge. She comes to realize her arrogance and thoughts are incorrect and learns that she must respect earthlings for they are not weak cowards.
Note on the yealian: in MBFF she and Ai hunt down 3 yealians and kill 2 of them. One gets away. That is this yealain. It happened about a month and a half ago IC-ly. So the
Mental growth: learns to respect others... even if she will still kill them she doesn't think them all that worthless now.
It began innocently enough. Confidence in herself, newfound skills in weaponry from her new teacher, success in her recent hunts. Why would she think that today would be any different? It was a quiet day, the sky overcast and promising rain later with a cool wind blowing through the jungle and whistling through the tunnels where Ixtil had made her home. A quiet day for an over confident young woman to go out hunting and learn that every action has a consequence and that not all who hide are weak.
She slunk through her home tunnels out into the jungle; scaling up some vines to wiggle out of a hole in the ground like some bug monster. At her side were her new blades; already bloodied though she had cleaned them long since her last hunting of earthlings. She smiled at that memory; it was a good one! The only marr upon it being the escape of the last smallest Yealian… But she wasn’t concerned about it; the Yealians were weak cowards only fit to be hunted! Like all earthlings they weren’t worth the space of land they took and had no use other than hunting them. But they were slippery critters…. So perhaps I should see if there are anymore to hunt near here? She thought to herself with a cruel smirk; maybe see if there were better challenges out there? Since the last ones went down so fast!
She did not think that a Yealian could fight; despite the fact that they had weapons, to her they were unthreatening. After all, she was an Alkidike! Taller, better, faster… and earthlings could simply not compete! Despite evidence to the contrary; the traps she’d seen Yealians set for animals, the skills of other earthlings at the ‘war’ where the Matron had failed to lead them to victory, the rumors of some Alkidikes dying to Yealians; Ixtil did not think them dangerous nor a worthy challenge. She was arrogant and cocky and a teenager… she did not think bad things would happen to her since she was obviously so much better than others…. And that thinking was about to get her killed.
Ixtil ventured further into the jungle than she had gone before; powered by her overweening confidence she didn’t keep as wary and eye out as she should have. Instead she followed the trail signs; someone had been through here recently. Tracks very much like those she had followed with Ai.. except now there was only one of them. A Yealian! She grinned and stepped forward when she heard a ‘click.’ She dove to the side and heard the whistle of a few darts as they flew by where she just had been. Her hand brushed against a rope.. Not quite hidden as well as it should have been. Her eyes narrowed; someone had almost gotten her with that trap! She scowled and crept forward more cautiously, finally paying attention to her surroundings.
TIme slowed to a crawl as she kept having to avoid more and more traps… why were there so many traps! She stopped as it dawned upon her; this was a large trap… someone was herding her in a direction with these not too hidden but still dangerous traps. She growled and looked at the pit trap she was standing by. Knowing this… if she jumped it to try and get out she’d be running into more traps. But she’d be damned if she followed the clear trail into a trap! She was the hunter here! She was not prey to be herded!
Ixtil put up her swords and dashed the other direction, towards a tall tree with vines; she would use the tree’s to get out! Yealians were earthlings; they didn’t like trees-----
She ducked as her antennae sensed movement from behind and an arrow flew by her shoulder and hit the ground in front of her. It’d come from above! Someone was using the trees! Was it another Alkidike? If so they were about to find out that she did not like to be played with! She ducked around the tree and started climbing; using the vines to help her dodge the arrows that came in.
“Aisha rot you.” She hissed in her people’s tongue. As an arrow skimmed her bicep and drew blood. But finally she was up in the tree… where there were still traps. She glared at the snare she had barely missed putting her hand in too. Is that how they were going to play?
She ran along the branches and jumped to another tree, trying to pinpoint the archer’s position from the arrow's trajectory so she could exact bloody vengeance for this humiliation of being lead into a trap filled area.
Jumping over trip lines, dodging snares, triggering dart traps and barely dodging them, nearly falling off the thinner branches, Ixtil slowly circled her way towards the archer. All the while the archer kept firing… and moving about: leading her further into the trapped area. Ixtil knew it as the traps kept getting more and more. I will kill you; she thought her face locked into a furious grimace: Alkidike or Earthling you are so dead!
“Spirits grant my vengeance.” She heard whispered before a twang. It was all that saved her life.
She dove to the side, away from the voice and clenched her teeth against the cry of pain as the arrow hit. She looked and saw the arrow embedded in her calf then glared up at the figure half hidden by the foliage and snarled.
“You gotta earn that vengeance, crystal crawler.” She growled up through clenched teeth as the Yealian readied another arrow. “No spirits going to help you.” Vengeance? Why would he? …. Oh…..
She rolled off the branch and grabbed a vine to slow her fall. It was the one who’d escaped! The one she and Ai hadn’t managed to kill on their earthling hunt. And he’d grown up! Blight the coward! Except he wasn’t a coward was he? A coward would have hidden and never gone out again. He’d come back… he’d set this up. He’d known she’d be here. He’d stalked her, figured her out…. And she hadn’t noticed.
Something like that trap set up had to have taken a while! Which meant she’d been prey for …. Well at least a month, maybe longer since it’d been awhile since she’d killed his friends with Ai.
As she hobbled away, she dodged around the trees and traps. With a leg that couldn’t work at 100% she wouldn’t be able to get at an archer.. Not when he had range and mobility on her.
I have to get to the tunnels! In the dark, in the twisting tunnels she could get him. But would he follow? She shoved aside the burning anger, the shame... The twinge of fear. She would live and learn from this! Then she’d come back and kill him! And any other friends he had.
She wasn’t sure how long she hobbled, how far she’d traveled. She was far too preoccupied in going from cover to cover, avoiding the traps until there were no more, and dodging the arrows that came when he got a clear shot at her. Always moving away from the descending sun. The east was where the Alkidikes were. To the east she would be safer.
Her leg felt like it was on fire, but she ignore the pain: she needed to move, to stop would kill her. It wasn’t until she realized her blood was leaving a trail for him to follow she knew she needed to at least stop a bit. She barely managed to duck under a fallen tree in time as an arrow whipped by her shoulder. Her dark eyes darted about; she knew this area! Knew this tree and that rock protruding over there, knew it was near one of her tunnel entrances. Her mind quickly reorientated itself. She was in her home area; she could escape.
But what of the Yealain? She hadn’t been going fast, couldn’t move fast. Where was he? She held still and listened, antennae quivering as she focused on her pursuer. If he had stalked her all along than he would know this area too… but how well do they know the tunnels? I haven’t seen tracks of earthlings in there, so did he never venture into the dark? She chewed on her cheek, unhappy with the swirl of nerves and lack of confidence. No sound…. Wait! No… that wasn’t the sound of an earthling, that was a keldari’s scales against the tree trunk nearby.
Lovely, she hissed inside her mind. While she waited for a sound, she pulled out the arrow and hissed in pain. She’d worry about poisons later… for now she needed to bandage it and get to safety. She took her knife to her pants, taking off on leg to make a bandage for her calf. She took a deep breath and prepared for one last dash: then she would be in the dark and safe.
An arrow hit the tree next to her head and she dashed forward; he’d have to take some time to reload… The entrance was near… just beyond those trees! Her leg wavered and she knew it wasn’t going to be able to take much more pushing. She tucked and rolled, dodging behind a tree as arrows landed behind her.. And one in front of her.
Aisha blight him, his family, his friends…. And those fake spirits of his! She growled as she stared at the opening.. So close.. Yet so far.
She looked around: she needed something large to use as a shield. A leaf wouldn’t do.. too thin… she sighed and knew it wouldn’t work. She’d have to trust to luck and Aisha to get her to that cave opening in time. She faked a movement and grinned as an arrow landed. Then she ran.. Well hobbled but fast enough she managed to make it.
Once in the darkness she heaved a sigh of relief and hobbled further inside, using one of her swords as a cane.
She sat waiting around the bend for a while, waiting to see if he would follow her in and give her a chance to attack him. As she sat she realized something. He was… rather like her. He had set a trap, stalked his prey and did his best to kill it. She did that all the time. Perhaps… perhaps they weren’t so weak after all. Perhaps she’d been wrong…
She shook her head: no. It wasn’t a perhaps: they were stronger than she had given them credit for. A thing she had thought weak, useless, and a coward had run away from the first fight. And then practiced, learned, and gotten stronger. A weakling did not do that. A weakling simply hide or fled and did not try to improve themselves. A coward would not come back to hunt and try to kill the one who had scared him. A useless person would simply have told others and let them deal with it… This one was not useless.
And as she sat there, in the deepening darkness as the sun set outside. She came to realize this was true for Alkidikes. Not all of them were strong. Was not the Matron weak? Were not some of her fellow extremists weaklings who refused to better themselves and try again? Simply content to sit and live here without ever trying to do more? Be more than exiled losers? And if all Alkidikes were not strong and proud and true warriors…. Than were not all Earthlings more than the weak useless beings she had thought them to be?
She took a deep breath and sighed. She… she hated to admit it but it was true. And in her arrogance she had thought all Alkidikes better than Earthlings. Had thought herself better. But today had proved otherwise. And to make sure she was strong.. She needed to recover.. Needed to get better… needed to be stronger so that no one ever again made her the prey!
