TW for canon typical violence. Not proof read
You sat hunched over a microscope, messing with the dials. You studied the same plant cells, nothing was different, you were getting no where. You felt your shoulder sag as you sighed, lifting your head as you rubbed your eyes.
The air in the tent was humid, and you were missing air conditioning. About three weeks ago, you were selected for to be brought along on a 'research' project.
You weren't dumb, the heavy military presence tipped you off that this wasn't fully research based. You had befriended the sergeant, it was rather unexpected, his friendship. It occurred in the second week out here, he randomly started conversation, and ever since you've gotten some small bits of information.
Apparently, the government has detected an unknown power source in the jungle. In order for the public not to find out, they disguised it as a research project. They had dogs to hunt whatever this thing was down for gods sake. The sergeant, Peter, even let you sit in on meetings you weren't allowed in. You never took him up on the invitations, always finding something else to do.
You leaned back in your chair, you back cracking. You glanced at your notes, zero progress. You stood and shuffled to your little cot. God how you missed your bed. You slumped onto the cot, and closed your eyes. You intended to only nap an hour or too, but you had slept at least four or five hours.
Waking up to a dark tent and loud drunken laughter. You'd think the soldiers would be more alert since they were hunting something.
Your tongue felt like a desert, and you got up. Exiting your tent you could see the fire, a few soldiers were around it, the rest were off in bigger tents.
You eventually made your way to get some food, which always seemed to be made of actual dirt. You got a small plate for yourself, and a big plate that you hauled full of meat. You've come to watch over the dogs in the camp, since they're usually chained to one spot. No one plays with them, no one but you. The three dogs have even started to obey your commands more than their actual 'owners'.
Since the soldiers get piss drunk early in the night, they often forget that they have dogs to feed. And since you didn't know where there actual food was, you just brought them the dry meat from the mess hall tents.
The big dogs were happy to see you, whining and pushing their noses into you. You laughed and gave them all a decent portion of meat, before sitting down in the dirt by them.
The jungle air still held that humid feeling, though it was better at night. You adjusted your seating a bit, eating slowly as you stared off into space. It wasn't until the dogs start booping you with their noses that you blinked back to reality.
You smiled, humming quietly as you gave them lots of love. At some point while you pet the dogs you had turned your back to the jungle, a stupid mistake you've been warned about. But everything seemed peaceful, too peaceful...
One of the dogs heads suddenly snapped behind you, sniffing quickly before it's hackles raised. The hair in the back of your neck raised, and you got shivers suddenly. Just as you started to look behind you one of the dogs growled lowly, before barking and tugging on its chain. The other two dogs followed, weaving around you and barking into the darkness. You instinctively stood, scanning the dark shapes of the foliage quickly. Though you couldn't see anything, the dogs kept going crazy.
It wasn't until Peter and a few other soldiers came running over with guns, did the dogs finally get back under control.
"What's going on here?" Peter asked, staring at you, then glancing at the dogs.
"I was just petting them, and then they started going crazy. I think they heard something that spooked them." You say, watching Peter eye some left over meat on the ground.
"Yes. The um, the soldiers forget a lot so I just bring them some extra meat from the mess hall tent." You admitted quietly, a little bashfully. Peter stared at you silently, before nodding. He turned back to his men, and spoke.
"That thing was here. Get a team out now to find it, it can't have gone far. And don't miss a night feeding the dogs." He hissed the last bit, and walked off. The soldier nodded and within 10 minutes, a team had left with the dogs to hunt the thing.
You had settled back into your tent, a cold chill ran down your spine. The thing the government was here to hunt, was there. With you, right behind you. You didn't even hear it...
Sleep didn't come easy that night.
The early morning light woke up early as usual, the small cot made you back knot up like always. You were able to steal an hour or two longer of sleep until loud cheers woke you up again.
You assume the team was back, and with how everyone was cheering, maybe they caught a leopard. But your tired mind pieced together people saying "look at that thing" and "what is that?". You pulled yourself out of sleep and made yourself look decent before exiting your tent.
The moment you stepped out you spotted a crowd all gathered around something. The Sargent, Peter, spotted you with a proud smile on his stoic face.
"Y/n, come see what we've been hunting." He called, beckoning you over. You weaved your way around the crowd, making your way next to Peter. Your eyes landed on the beast almost instantly, its dark green and brown colors stood out on the slab it was chained too.
You gawked at the strange alien, from its dreads down to its claws. This thing was a powerhouse of a being, how the hell did they manage to sedate it?
Peter watched you smugly as you examined the Yautja, patting your shoulder before keeping his hand on it.
"Impressive huh?" He said, and you just looked at him. "Don't worry about this thing, we've got a nice containment cell for him." Peter said, before giving loud orders to soldiers all around.
You watched as they got the yautja into a kinda cramped metal cage, it reminded you of those circus cages. The yautja was chained at the wrists, and left there to wake up.
You caught wind of news that the project would head back in a week tops. And then the excitement dwindled the rest of the day, you were curious about the weapons and tech the yautja was stripped of, but you stayed clear. Preparing in case some idiot tried to mess with one, which you know one would.
When the yautja woke back up he caused quite the stir, roaring and tugging at the chains so loudly you swore you could hear it miles out.
He only went silent when some soldier came around to make him quiet. You didn't know what they did, but the roar sounded pained.
You didn't get much sleep, between the alien sounds occasionally being emitted and the anxiety that you'd have to get up and help someone. You woke up a lot later in the day than you wanted, and headed outside. The heat already felt suffocating, but you wanted to see the yautja.
Despite the fear you had, you were curious. Dreadfully so. The moment you rounded around to the cage, he emitted a low growl that almost vibrated the air. You stopped in your tracks, and made eye contact.
You felt that shiver run down your spine like that night with the dogs the moment you did, the bright yellow eyes were intense and unforgiving. They reminded you of a hawk, now that you think about it.
The growling stopped, but he was watching you so closely, you swear you could feel the little knives he wished to throw at you.
The moment you shuffled close to the cage he tried to lunge at you, but the chains snapped taunt and snagged him back. You jumped back a bit, and for a moment the only thing you both did was stare at one another.
You observed his appearance, curious about him. Your expression twisted a bit when you saw how tight those chains were on him. He gave a growl at your pitying look, and you looked back at his eyes. You gave a him another look, getting just a little closer to the cage.
There was a loud unsheathing noise, followed by a loud scream. Your head whipped around to the sounds, and the yautja did too. You looked back to the yautja when let out deep chuckles, a sinister glow in his eyes. You cracked a small smile at the chuckles, surprised and intrigued by the display.
"Y/n!" You heard someone call out, obviously your needed to fix whatever injury that had been caused. You gave the yautja one last look, before you hurried off. You kept replying the scene over and over in your head, becoming increasingly intrigued.
Later that night, out of habit, you grabbed extra meat for the dogs. But when you came to them you saw that they had food. You smiled, but now had a plate full a meat without anything to give it too.
You bit your cheek before looking over to where the yautja was. Slowly, and very carefully, you slid over there. You know that feeding this thing, or attempting too would piss someone off. So best to stay hidden.
You heard the signature growl when you got close, but you could hardly see him in the cage. You slowly approached the cage, thinking about how you were to go about feeding him. He had just enough chain length to maybe reach out in front of him, just barely. You picked up one of the meats, thinking you could quick reach in and drop it. Easy right? Wrong.
The moment your fingers passed those bars, your wrist was engulfed in his hand, and he yanked you towards him.
You were so scared you didn't even make a sound, you just closed your eyes. You expected some sort of pain, thinking he was gonna bite you. But instead you just felt hot air blow against your skin, before you were let go and the meat was snatched from your hand.
You immediately withdrew your hand like he scalded you, the spot where he grabbed you was warm from the tight grip. You looked into the darkness of his cage when you heard sounds of eating, and as you sat there stunned, processing the tinge of happiness that he was eating.
Again, although more hesitantly, you picked up more meat and put your hand through the bars. The meat was again snatched away, but at least you weren't man handled into the bars.
You kept this up until the plate was empty, then you just sat there quietly, picking at your own food. You could feel him watching you, the silence was only broken by drunken laughter.
You looked down at your arm, thinking you might get a bruise, which was something you didn't want at all. You heard a deep voice emit from the cage, it was a mix of an unknown language and clicks. Once again, he surprised you.
You tried to mimic what he said back, but he just huffed at you. You could almost feel his disappointment.
"Your voice is kinda scary." You say, knowing you wouldn't get an answer. "Everything about you is, I assume that's what you're going for right?" You asked, getting another response you couldn't understand. You hummed quietly, you would've stayed longer, but soldiers doing rounds forced you to flee. You came around to visit him in the morning, and your blood ran cold. The yautja had little burns all around his arms, and even had some on his legs.
Immediately medic mindset came in and you hurried around to the cage side closest to his arms. He growled angrily, hissing and clicking.
You made no attempt to reach in, you were just looking at the burns. Which you identified as electrical burns, which you had cream for...
You left and came back with the ointment. Carefully sitting beside his cage, you showed him the cream. He seemed confused, obviously, human lady showing him a plastic tube with random letters on it doesnt help him. You pointed to the marks, then to the cream. Hoping to get some understanding settled.
"It's helps, I'll show you." You say gently, reaching your hand into the cage and holding your hand open. He glared at you, giving a low and angry response in his language, before shoving his arm into your hand. It was awkward applying the cream on the burns, since you had to smush your body into the cage bars to do it. The yautja even chuckled at your squished face, which earned him a glare.
Of course this couldn't go smoothly because just as you finished, Peter came around the corner. He looked appalled that you had your hands in the cage, and hurried towards you. You pulled yourself away before he could get the idea to pull you away himself.
"What on earth are you doing?! Do you not understand how dangerous that thing is!" Peter hissed at you, pointing at the yautja, who growled in turn.
"I was helping him, he had electrical burns." You say quickly, hoping not to get into trouble. Peter glared at you, then at the ointment you held.
"I'm sure it deserved it. Why are you helping it in the first place?" Peter asked, glaring at the yautja again.
You couldn't just say it's because your curious and maybe formed a small trust with the yautja since he let you help him and feed him.
"I uh...your giving him to the government right? Wouldn't you want him in the best shape?" You asked, spinning your actions around on peters own wants. That always seemed to get you out of things. Peter narrowed his eyes, but nodded after a moment.
"I suppose you're right. Don't put your hands in there anymore." Peter said, before dismissing you. You glanced at the yautja before leaving, giving him a small smile.
That night, again, you came back with food for him. It was the same as the night before, minus the harsh grabbing. You could sense that he appreciated the food, even if he growled a bit. Kinda like an angry cat.
You chuckled at your analogy and the Yautja tilted his head. He said something, and you replied.
"You act like an angry cat, that's why I laughed."
It fell silent between you both again, and you just continued eating. Oddly at ease around him.
The more the week progressed, the more you spent time with the yautja. You pointed to his scars, showing off the small ones you obtained over the years. His were clearly more jagged and definitely caused in battles, most of yours were just accidents.
Obviously, your closeness with the yautja didn't go unnoticed for very long. Peter, tried keeping you away. He tried explaining that you shouldn't get close to it. That he was dangerous.
The constant warnings grew tiring, but your concern built as you overheard what the government planned on doing with the yautja. Tests, experiments, then finally, autopsy. You almost felt sick, he was more than a rat, he was incredibly intelligent, anyone could see that.
Friday felt like an impending death, Sunday and he'd be shipped away, you couldn't do anything. He noticed your quieter mood, and made a few clicks while you tapped your pencil relentlessly on your notebook.
"They're going to hurt you, going to do bad things. I can't do anything to help." You say, glaring in the direction of the camp, your angry glare softening into a troubled look. The yautja made a few more clicks and then said something in his language.
You looked back at him, looking a bit more determined. You glanced at his chains, you had no idea where the key could be. You clicked your tongue a few times, biting your lip before you scampered into the jungle.
You found a decent sized rock, you even struggled to lift it. You carried it to the edge of the clearing, close enough you could run to it. You walked back over to the yautja, now more focused on the lock to his cage. You definitely couldn't break that with a rock.
You had little light left to work with, and it wasn't like you could sneak around inside peters tent. Peter's tent. That's got to be where the key is! You smiled a bit, and made a gesture to the yautja before ducking away.
The warm sunset painted the tents in pretty orange shades, everyone had started eating and drinking. Perfect, no one would be around. Finding the key was actually a lot easier than you expected, you had the idea that you'd need to check under desk drawers or find a code to a lock box. Peter's had just kept it inside his desk drawer, easy.
You left through the back of the tent after pocketing the key, the darkened sky making your path obstructed. But you made due, having memorized the paths. When you got back to the cage, Peter stood there. He was holding your notebook, and the yautja didn't look happy at all.
"I see you still haven't made much progress with your plant studies." Peter said, watching you as you approached apprehensively.
"Well, I couldn't really wonder to far from camp so I wasn't expecting much." You say, glancing at the yautja.
"I could pull a few strings, get you a nice seat in a research lab in the government." Peter said, handing your notebook back. Your brows raised, and you looked shocked.
"I can't ask you to do that, I mean that's a crazy favor for someone you met like 3 weeks ago." You chuckled awkwardly, already knowing what this was about.
Peter starred at you calmly for a moment. "Can I be blunt, y/n?" Peter asked, and you were mentally preparing for what he was going to say.
"Sure." You say, trying not to visibly cringe.
"I may have met you only a few weeks ago, but I feel like I have this connection with you."
"Oh...what makes you say that?" You asked, chuckling awkwardly.
"I've seen how you act around me, your kinder to me then most." Peter said, taking your hand in his and you couldn't help but roll your eyes.
"Peter I think you got some signals confused. I don't feel the same." You say, pulling your hand back before he snatched it roughly again. The yautja hissed angrily at Peter's action, and pulled against his chains again.
Peter's head snapped to the yautja, glaring at his actions, as did the yautja back. You were able to pull away then, glaring at Peter as you stepped back a bit.
Peter glowered at you, before pointing a thick finger at you.
"You made a stupid mistake." He hissed, before stalking back into the camp. You stood there frozen for a moment, before barring your teeth and letting out an angry grumble. How dare he assume you liked him, all because you were nice? Was he five?
You were so annoyed that you weren't thinking all to clearly when you took out the key and unlocked the cage. Your action only registering when you swung the door open.
The air felt heavy then, your hair on the back of your neck standing, your body instinctively reacting to being in the presence of a predator. The yautja gave a few clicks, it sounded impressed. Or maybe surprised.
You took a few steps back, glancing at the camp. If you set his free he'd likely kill everyone, even you. You glanced at him, you didn't want him to be experimented on. Fuck it. This empathy will be the death of you.
You rushed over to the rock, the yautja sensing your plan getting into a more prepared position. You hauled the rock over and stepped into the cage, dropping the rock in front of him.
"I'm sorry.." you whisper, watching him grab the rock and break the chains. You cringed at how loud the sounds were. You stepped out of the cage as he finally freed himself, his large imposing figure towering over you.
You suddenly felt like you made a mistake, but when you expected to be tore apart, he just reached out and pushed you aside. Heading for the camp.
Your heart leapt, and you dashed in front of him, shaking your head quickly and sticking your hands out in front of you. His rough skin felt strange on your hands, and you couldn't help but stare. He still was a mystery you were learning.
He growled at you, pushing against your hands. You growled back, immediately feeling embarrassed. Your cheeks burned as he growled deeper, the vibrations reaching your hands.
Your both interrupted when a few soldiers came running over, a little drunkenly might you add. You whipped your head back as their flashlights lit you both up. At first they paused in shock, processing what they were seeing as they raised the lights.
The yautja growled menacingly and the men howled. You were shoved to the ground as bullets flew, you hands covering your ears as chaos started up.
You started crawling away from the scene as screams of pain and roars of anger mixed in a bone chilling symphony. While you hurried around the camp, trying to get some things before you either fled or hid, you haven't decided. Your hurrying led you back to the main spot in camp, and you stopped at you watched the yautja, now fully clad in his gear, tearing through people.
The scene was almost surreal, the high flames danced around and made the spilled blood look black. So caught up in the gruesome scene before you, that you didn't notice Peter approaching. He pointed a gun to your neck, crushing you into him with his arm. The yautja just finished killing another person, when Peter yelled.
"Hey!" He screamed. The yautja head immediately snapped to you both, the mask obscuring his expressions. Your heart raced so hard you could hear your heart beat more than anything else.
Without even giving a chance for anything to happen, Peter shot you in the stomach.
The pain was hot and white. Your abdomen bloomed with warmth and pain all at once. You were shoved to the ground, shock and adrenaline being the only things to keep you semi conscious. Though when you felt another body land beside you, your eyes jerked towards it.
Peter's head was all mangled with blades, his eyes wide and shot. You felt your whole body get rolled over, and another burning pain seered your flesh. You let out a pained cry, trying and failing to pushing away whatever was causing the pain. You body had enough as you were lifted up, and you promptly blacked out.
You woke up god knows how much later, your side aching. Your groaned, blindingly moving around to try an ease the pain.
You felt fur, which was odd. Your eyes snapped open, finding yourself in a metal room. You pushed yourself to sit up, the pain in your gut flaring back up.
You let out a whine, but forced yourself to stay up. Sweat laced your brows, but you didn't feel hot. When you got the stomach to stand, you shuffled to the door. The door slid open when you got near, but it wasn't because of you, it was the yautja.
You paused, leaning against the cool wall as you watched him through your hair. He stared at you for a long moment, before speaking is native language.
"You have an infection." The translator in his mask crackled to life, making you jump in alarm before relaxing.
"How do you know?" You asked quietly, though your appearance probably gave it away.
"A scan," The translator cracked. "I am tka'newt." He said, nodding his head slightly.
"Tka'newt...glad to have a name to the face," You chuckled a bit, wincing a little. "I'm y/n." You say, gripping the wall.
"I know, the other oomans used your name a lot." Tka'newt's said, before walking over to you.
"You mean 'human'?" You asked, not protesting when he made you sit back down.
"Yes. I need to check your wound." Tka'newt said, lifting your shirt up a bit to check the freshly cauterized bullet wound. The flesh was charred and looked crunchy, it made your stomach churn.
"I will get you ointments. Do you wish to stay here?" Tka'newt asked, tilting his head slightly.
"Uh..would I be alone?" You asked, and he nodded.
"Then no, I don't wish to stay here." You say, and Tka'newt spoke again.
"Sorta." You say, and then you were promptly picked up. You bit back a cry, the motion hurt but it subsided. Tka'newt set you in what you assume was a cockpit, there was controls everywhere, and the windows were wide and you could stare out into space.
You didn't noticed that Tka'newt left you were so mesmerized by the stars. It really was fascinating to see how close to were to you. When Tka'newt returned and knelt down in front of you, lifting your shirt again.
"Why did you save me?" You asked before wincing, the cool ointment stung before numbing the spot.
"You saved me, and showed bravery. You could be a strong warrior." He said, and you looked troubled.
"Then a healer. My tribe will teach you." Tka'newt said, setting the ointment to the side.
"Your tribe.." you mumble, the realization of your situation falling heavy on your shoulders.
"Yes. Perhaps you could hunt with the predadogs. You work well with animals, I have saw." Tka'newt said, getting up and situating himself in the main cockpit seat.
"Where are we going...?" You asked, feeling anxious.
"Yautja prime, my home planet."
"Planet..." you mumbled, holding your head in your hands. "This is actually happening." You say, and Tka'newt looked back to you.
"Yes." He said, before facing forward again. It was silent for a while, and you looked to the window above you. The stars reflected in your eyes, and for once, you know what it feels like to sleep amongst the stars.
When it came time to leave the ship, your anxiety was reaching new heights. Tka'newt stood beside you at the door, and as the ship opened to a whole new world, you found yourself overwhelmingly anxious, yet excited about this new experience.
