- Joined
- Jul 31, 2018
- Messages
- 38
- Awards
- 2
- Essence
- €8,174
- Coin
- ₡9,000
- Tokens
- 5
- World
- Erde Nona
- Profile
- Click Here
Liv is grateful that she has her harness to propel her across the desert, the metal arms allowing her to navigate over a mixture of rocky terrain and burning sand without causing damage to herself. To say that she has a good idea of where she’s headed would be a bold-faced lie, but she’s pretty unwilling to admit that to herself right now, pressing onward through a wall of searing heat with Hakkasan’s map clenched tightly between her fingers.
“The being you’re looking for is a yautja,” the Argonian accountant had said to her before she’d left Karim, indicating the drawing sketched loosely beside the map: a fearsome creature with flared mandibles and a scaly visage. “You might have heard of them— a people of hunters, the yautja live off-planet, but frequently visit Mesa Roja to hunt a particular quarry for sport... creatures brought in from Inverxe, bred and released underground for... training purposes.”
“Training purposes?” Liv asked, her brows furrowing in confusion.
Hakkasan nodded. “Yes. The youngest of them practice their craft within ruins deep beneath the sand, where their prey wander in the dark. Now, at least one yautja has been spotted near the site of their underground training area. If you can find this base, you will undoubtedly encounter the yautja, and whatever technology they have brought with them—“
“Claim whatever you like,” Grandmother Cottonmouth hissed suddenly, the length of her body sinking back into the water with a soundless splash. “Return to this place afterward, and fulfill our agreement... Hakkasan will direct you out.”
And that, as they say, was that.
Sighing in frustration after looking fruitlessly at the map once more, Liv slows to a stop as a mountainous outcropping of boulders comes into view up ahead, the very same she’d made camp beside so long ago. The four arms holding her aloft relax and retreat beneath her outermost layer of clothing, the mechanical appendages gently lowering their creator to the ground. Maybe she’s due for a rest.
Just as she begins to walk forward, however, a harsh, jarring screech—distinctly inhuman in its rage—meets her ears, echoing eerily over the empty sands. Hair prickling up on the back of her neck, Liv creeps nearer to the boulder-sized hunks of rock, crouching down to hide from view.
With the utmost delicacy, she peers around the edge.
An impressively large winged beast crouches on the other side, scaly face twisted into a snarl and showcasing a set of jaws lined with wickedly-sharp teeth. A long, barbed tail arches out from the dragonoid creature’s spine like a cord of thick rope, the muscles of their body appearing simultaneously toned and jagged, almost skeletal. Eyes the color of burning torches glare at a point somewhere on the rock a few feet to the right of Liv’s head, absolutely focused in their hatred.
Curious to see the target of this winged reptile’s ire, Liv follows their line of sight, gaining an eyeful of the pulverized, bloody remains of some poor desert creature splattered against the mountainside, nothing more than a Rorschach blot of red and cracked bone. Cringing in disgust, she looks back toward the beast— only to find two blazing orange-yellow eyes staring right back at her, heated and murderously intent.
Ducking down behind the large hunk of red sandstone, Liv allows her mechanical limbs to flourish outward from under her lab coat, the inflated arms encircling her body in a protective cage. Just as she readies herself for a fight, powerful gusts of air whoosh around her, sand and dust whipping up in a reddish, choking cloud.
Although the lenses of her goggles are obscured by a curtain of gritty dirt, Liv can just barely see as two massive, spiky shadows fan out across the sands— the jagged silhouette of wings.
There is a loud thunk as the dragonoid creature lands atop the rock she has taken shelter against, powerful vibrations rocking through the ground under her feet and sending pebbles skittering down over her shoulders and head. The chilling sound of talons scraping over stone has her hunching down further, her crouched form still hidden in the rock’s shade. The lights of the harness strapped to her frame blink reassuringly in the dark, the green and black metal glinting dimly despite her best wishes to blend into her surroundings.
A long, thin skull—much like a pterodactyl‘s, come to think of it— leans out, tilting this way and that as the dragon’s amber eyes scour the terrain and sky for any sign of her. The creature’s shadow hangs dangerously over Liv’s head with all the dangerousness of a guillotine, a set of fearsome jaws glinting in the harsh sun. Specks of gore and shining viscera dribble down, the coppery smell of blood stinking up the air and making Liv want to retch.
For a long, frightening moment, the creature holds still, hovering overhead like some kind of demented gargoyle and sniffing intermittently at the air. From her position underneath, Liv can see every bump and ridge that lines the creature’s purplish-grey hide, the spiky horns attached to their scalp and facial plates.
The dragon’s head angles slowly downward, eyes bright and feral as their pupils contract to tiny, slitted points. Something like a smirk curves the beast’s elongated maw, twisted and strange around a jaw chock-full of teeth.
Liv bares her teeth in kind, her weaponized appendages flexing outward to make herself appear bigger. This is obviously a much stronger opponent than the Le-matya, and she doesn’t expect she’ll come out of this battle quite so unscathed— or perhaps at all— but that doesn’t mean she’s about to back down without a fight.
There’s something else, though. Past all the animalistic fervor, there seems to be... genuine intelligence behind the creature’s gaze. Something beyond the bare bones sentience one might find in other beasts.
This is encouraging. Liv decides to be encouraged, damn it.
“Hey there,” she says, grinning crookedly and stupidly aware of how tiny she is in comparison to this massive... thing. “My goodness, you are positively tremendous. Very fearsome! Er, I don’t suppose we can forget all about this, go our separate ways?”
“The being you’re looking for is a yautja,” the Argonian accountant had said to her before she’d left Karim, indicating the drawing sketched loosely beside the map: a fearsome creature with flared mandibles and a scaly visage. “You might have heard of them— a people of hunters, the yautja live off-planet, but frequently visit Mesa Roja to hunt a particular quarry for sport... creatures brought in from Inverxe, bred and released underground for... training purposes.”
“Training purposes?” Liv asked, her brows furrowing in confusion.
Hakkasan nodded. “Yes. The youngest of them practice their craft within ruins deep beneath the sand, where their prey wander in the dark. Now, at least one yautja has been spotted near the site of their underground training area. If you can find this base, you will undoubtedly encounter the yautja, and whatever technology they have brought with them—“
“Claim whatever you like,” Grandmother Cottonmouth hissed suddenly, the length of her body sinking back into the water with a soundless splash. “Return to this place afterward, and fulfill our agreement... Hakkasan will direct you out.”
And that, as they say, was that.
Sighing in frustration after looking fruitlessly at the map once more, Liv slows to a stop as a mountainous outcropping of boulders comes into view up ahead, the very same she’d made camp beside so long ago. The four arms holding her aloft relax and retreat beneath her outermost layer of clothing, the mechanical appendages gently lowering their creator to the ground. Maybe she’s due for a rest.
Just as she begins to walk forward, however, a harsh, jarring screech—distinctly inhuman in its rage—meets her ears, echoing eerily over the empty sands. Hair prickling up on the back of her neck, Liv creeps nearer to the boulder-sized hunks of rock, crouching down to hide from view.
With the utmost delicacy, she peers around the edge.
An impressively large winged beast crouches on the other side, scaly face twisted into a snarl and showcasing a set of jaws lined with wickedly-sharp teeth. A long, barbed tail arches out from the dragonoid creature’s spine like a cord of thick rope, the muscles of their body appearing simultaneously toned and jagged, almost skeletal. Eyes the color of burning torches glare at a point somewhere on the rock a few feet to the right of Liv’s head, absolutely focused in their hatred.
Curious to see the target of this winged reptile’s ire, Liv follows their line of sight, gaining an eyeful of the pulverized, bloody remains of some poor desert creature splattered against the mountainside, nothing more than a Rorschach blot of red and cracked bone. Cringing in disgust, she looks back toward the beast— only to find two blazing orange-yellow eyes staring right back at her, heated and murderously intent.
Ducking down behind the large hunk of red sandstone, Liv allows her mechanical limbs to flourish outward from under her lab coat, the inflated arms encircling her body in a protective cage. Just as she readies herself for a fight, powerful gusts of air whoosh around her, sand and dust whipping up in a reddish, choking cloud.
Although the lenses of her goggles are obscured by a curtain of gritty dirt, Liv can just barely see as two massive, spiky shadows fan out across the sands— the jagged silhouette of wings.
There is a loud thunk as the dragonoid creature lands atop the rock she has taken shelter against, powerful vibrations rocking through the ground under her feet and sending pebbles skittering down over her shoulders and head. The chilling sound of talons scraping over stone has her hunching down further, her crouched form still hidden in the rock’s shade. The lights of the harness strapped to her frame blink reassuringly in the dark, the green and black metal glinting dimly despite her best wishes to blend into her surroundings.
A long, thin skull—much like a pterodactyl‘s, come to think of it— leans out, tilting this way and that as the dragon’s amber eyes scour the terrain and sky for any sign of her. The creature’s shadow hangs dangerously over Liv’s head with all the dangerousness of a guillotine, a set of fearsome jaws glinting in the harsh sun. Specks of gore and shining viscera dribble down, the coppery smell of blood stinking up the air and making Liv want to retch.
For a long, frightening moment, the creature holds still, hovering overhead like some kind of demented gargoyle and sniffing intermittently at the air. From her position underneath, Liv can see every bump and ridge that lines the creature’s purplish-grey hide, the spiky horns attached to their scalp and facial plates.
The dragon’s head angles slowly downward, eyes bright and feral as their pupils contract to tiny, slitted points. Something like a smirk curves the beast’s elongated maw, twisted and strange around a jaw chock-full of teeth.
Liv bares her teeth in kind, her weaponized appendages flexing outward to make herself appear bigger. This is obviously a much stronger opponent than the Le-matya, and she doesn’t expect she’ll come out of this battle quite so unscathed— or perhaps at all— but that doesn’t mean she’s about to back down without a fight.
There’s something else, though. Past all the animalistic fervor, there seems to be... genuine intelligence behind the creature’s gaze. Something beyond the bare bones sentience one might find in other beasts.
This is encouraging. Liv decides to be encouraged, damn it.
“Hey there,” she says, grinning crookedly and stupidly aware of how tiny she is in comparison to this massive... thing. “My goodness, you are positively tremendous. Very fearsome! Er, I don’t suppose we can forget all about this, go our separate ways?”