AVP Prey 22

Dachande opened his eyes at the sound of the yautja death cry and growled softly. Tichinde. And he pursued the creature, the ooman whose smell had become familiar. The desperate ooman ran to the table in front of Dachande's resting place and snatched at a burner clumsily. Tichinde towered over it in classic pose, ready to deliver the death blow to the panicked ooman. The ooman who had nurtured him through the dark, what could have been his final moments until dhi'ki-de.

Dachande lifted one of his arms. The strap holding it snapped. He thrust his talon forward and caught the staff right below the blade. Tichinde's head jerked up in surprise. The ooman fell to the ground. With a quick shove, Dachande rammed the staff upward and knocked Tichinde backward. Tichinde jumped up and popped his wrist forward, extended the double bladed ki'cti-pa toward Dachande.

The Leader growled in fury. Tichinde would raise a weapon against him? Had he lost his memory? Dachande freed his other arm easily and struggled, tried to leap. His lower body was still bound Tichinde jumped to meet him, ki'cti-pa raised to slash.-pg.162 chpt.21

Then it was that Tichinde clattered his mandibles and slowly got to his feet. Dachande's anger flared. The s'yuit-de! He would die! Dachande jumped past the ooman and whacked Tichinde's skull. The blow knocked the student to the ground.
Tichinde said nothing, but scrabbled at the pouch on his belt. Dachande snatched the sack from the idiot yautja and held it up.

Trophies.

Ooman trophies.

His rage was blinding. Tichinde had Hunted with no supervision and had Hunted ooman! Dachande lifted the yautja by his tresses, the fury boosting his strength. He could smell his own musk, hot and heavy with the desire to kill. He raised one fist and smashed Tichinde in the mouth. Tichinde tried to pull away, responded with a weak blow to Dachande's gut. Dachande howled in his face, a shriek of pure disgust and outrage. He struck again. Tichinde was his student, once. He had broken the rules of the Hunt. There was only so much slack Dachande could give him, even as a Leader. Now the rope must be pulled taut. Now, Tichinde must be destroyed.

It was the law.

It was a matter of honor.-pg.166 chpt.21

Noguchi watched in amazement as the two huge warriors fought. The broken-tusked "patient" was the more skillful-and was winning easily. Myriad half thoughts ran through her mind. The patient was grateful, the other was with the killers, the broken tusk was better, older, brighter.-pg.167 chpt.22

Dachande didn't want to spend too much time on Tichinde, much as he felt the idiot deserved to die slowly. He had to find the other yautja, if there were any. Find out what was going on, how he had come to this state. It did not feel good, what had happened. Tichinde fell again. His tresses were matted with thwei, two of his mandibles broken and crushed against his worthless, dying skin. Any fight the student had in him had fled. He tried to crawl away. The sight of the yautja slowly inching from his Leader was infuriating. The kwei would die as an animal, a coward, rather than go out like a warrior.

Dachande waited no longer. He snatched Tichinde's bladed staff from the floor and raised it over his head, aimed it at the base of his student's upper spine. Brought the sharp blade down Shiiink! Dachande jerked the blade from the body in a patter of blood and then spit on the corpse. The Leader donned the kwei's armor and took his weapons; he left the bandage on his chest. There was some pain there, perhaps the dressing would help. After a second's hesitation, he pulled the recording loop from Tichinde's chest; there might be a use for it later. Armed and ready, with a fire in his gut that screamed for justice, Dachande stepped into the dark night to find his other students.-pg.170 chpt.22