Trying To Get By Ch. 01

She knew what she looked like.

She opened the locker, almost shaking her head and then wondering at the commonality of the gesture. The components went on, one after another until at last, she stood at the door, pulling her helmet on, and checking the displays against what her gauntlet told her was there.

Clearing her mind, or at least trying to as best she could, she tried to basically send a gentle call on the wind.

Nothing came at first.

She opened the door and then closed it after herself, turning to walk down the tunnel toward the frozen lake. She stepped through the illusion of the cliff which hid the tunnel entrance a few minutes later and turned right to make her way up. When she was just inside the woods at the back of the ridge, she heard and felt some anguish in her mind and tried to settle on it, sending back a concerned query after a time. The way that these things went, one's emotion played a large part in the clarity and range of the thoughts.

The anguished thoughts ceased instantly, replaced now by worry.

"Who are you?" came to her after a moment.

So H'Yan-Ah began to answer, quietly and slowly, trying to learn what she could without frightening the one at the other end of the connection.

"I heard of one who might need help," she sent, "one who would suffer in a cold place when it is not needed. I am not from here in some ways, though I was birthed here. From what I saw this day as I looked at you, I can guess that you are like me in that way. So I ... I can offer food and a warm place if you need it on this awful night."

Irianni got up from where she'd been sitting on the floor of her little shelter and crept slowly and silently toward the wall. Peeking out between the pine boughs and their needles, she saw only the nearest of the other trees and maybe the edge of the clearing through the rippling translucent wall of blowing snow. Even so, she was afraid to make a single sound.

Earlier, for about an hour after settling into her little shelter, Irianni had felt a little warmth. The boughs kept much of the wind out and insulated by the boughs and the snow, the slight body heat which escaped through her clothing could accumulate to a small degree, making her feel a bit warmer. But the temperature had fallen markedly outside – and the wind was now fairly screaming, so even as sheltered as she'd been, it was much colder where she was now.

H'Yan-Ah's next thought almost caused Irianni to jump until she realised that the stillness of the place remained undisturbed as she heard, "Are you one who ran from the village? Did the people there chase you, or did you leave before that could happen?"

H'Yan-Ah began to walk slowly through the fierce wind, seeking with her mind as she went. The cold was not a great bother to her in her armour, but then she wasn't someone who liked and maybe needed heat.

Irianni wondered for a moment, thinking over what more she might lose – other than her life. It wasn't even a small pile when she thought of it that way. "I left first. Those ones will not wait long before their courage grows. They never do, no matter where I go. I could kill them, but what for? Then they would hunt for me even more.

"Who are you?" she asked again. "The one on the lake?"

"I am," Irianni heard. "I was returning from a hunt for food. I destroyed a watcher. They look for me sometimes ... ones like me and you, not from here. They look at their own kind more than anything, wondering what the people might be plotting. Watching them.

"When they think of it, they try to watch for me."

Irianni thought, "I saw. The ball fell into the town burning. Did you mean for that? Did you want that to happen?"

There was silence for a moment and Irianni listened to the wind outside.

"I did not know," the voice in her head told her. "It was not my plan. I wanted only that I was not found by them. Was it ... bad there?"

Irianni said, "I could not tell for certain. I could not see more than it looked to me to have landed there. A good thing that I left there this day. Anyway, I hate the suits there, the men. There are women among them, but the men are the hardest."

"I know," H'Yan-Ah sent, "They are all the same, even in a place like that. The suits often call to the others if they think they have found someone ... different. Then more of them come.

"Men like that, I hate. Men like that, they killed my father. They took him from me.

"I heard also that others were harmed before some distance away and a time ago – a family. I wanted to help when I heard of it but it was weeks after that I heard. I only had my father all of my life until he was killed. People who do these things should die, friend."

As H'Yan-Ah came slowly and steadily closer through the woods, she learned from their conversation that she'd been more correct than she'd even hoped.

This "fire demon" was really another traveller who was the hybrid child of a last survivor of a craft from another world – just as she was herself – a hybrid half-human, but never having a hope of fitting in. She'd never met one of the kind that the other one said that she was, but H'Yan-Ah had read about them from entries in her vessel's database because some of her guesses had turned out to be correct. They were not terribly strong, but they had quick minds and possessed some ... combustive abilities.

"Are you are imprisoned where you are? Are you trapped?" She'd asked. "Or only hiding from the cold wind?"

There was a long pause then until finally, Irianni spoke in a whispered thought, "I am hiding ... from the wind and the cold. I have nowhere that is safe for me any longer. The people ... they began to talk ... of me. Of how I am different.

"I could not see where you were today on the lake, not clearly.

"I ... I was taught by my mother to watch for and fear ones who come in ways which cannot be seen. She spoke ... of a people like that. ... Not from here.

"She said they always killed when they came to her world. There was war once and many died.

"I - I am afraid.

"Afraid of you. You were about to kill me as I watched."

"It was not so," she heard in her mind, "It might give little comfort, but I was only preparing to kill you, thinking that you were a human from the town at first. I thought you were one of the ones who look for me sometimes, but I saw after a moment that you are not one of them, not by your clothing and not by the things that I saw about you."

"I saw the red lines," Irianni thought, "I know what they are for."

"You are correct in your guess," she heard, "but you did not see what happened after you ran. I switched them off and went to my home. I have no want to harm one who does not wish it upon me and I had no reason to chase you."

Irianni moved her head away from the wooden boughs of her hiding place. She moved back as quietly as she could, trying to hide behind the thick pillar of the tree trunk itself and she pressed her cheek against the cold, rough bark of it as she tried to peer out between the boughs, "I am the last one, after all of my family and the rest were killed," the thought in H'Yan-Ah's head moaned softly. "I was born here, but I am always alone."

"It has not been quite the same way for me," H'Yan-Ah replied, "not like what it must have been for you. I have a home where I live. At least I can protect myself there.

"Let us keep talking so that I can find you and maybe I can help you. It is what I want to do and I am alone also.

A thought came to her then and she looked down for a moment, "And ..." H'Yan-Ah sighed to herself, " And ... I should tell you something.

"I might be one like you are thinking of, I do not know for certain. I think that my father was one like that. I was birthed here but far away. My mother was a human. I do not look much like my father's kind – I do not think. I am also not as large."

There was a long pause then. H'Yan-Ah knew why and she cursed herself a little for saying anything, but she was only being honest. As far as she knew, her father's kind was widely known for just the sort of reasons that the one hidden out here had mentioned.

She wasn't one of them, but she wore the armour and had the shape as well as a fair bit of the size.

"I have come because you might need some aid," she thought, "I offer it if you do and even if it is not needed, I have a warmer place to be than you and I would share. I know that you are what I saw – what you said to me, half-human.

"I am the same, half-human. We have at least that much in common. Please do not hold your mind so silent to me. It makes me think that you are ill or worse. I wish to help, so I am not hiding myself now. You can see me if I can get close enough through this storm."

"You told that you hunted this day," Irianni said in H'Yan-Ah's mind.

"I did," H'Yan-Ah replied. "I have food enough and much to spare for the winter. I do not need to hunt for a time now. Who wants to hunt in something like this? The animals have far too much sense to be out in this."

Again a long pause as H'Yan-Ah walked slowly on through the night, listening in her mind, sensing Irianni's uncertainty and using what she felt to give her directional clues.

"Tell of your hunt," she heard.

"Not much to say of it," H'Yan-Ah answered, "I have learned of some of the game here. I found a male, a fair-sized one. He was young. The young ones are easier. It is the older ones who have grown wise and know better how to hide. I have enough food, though a little more would not have hurt in case the winter runs long this year."

Irianni squeezed her eyes shut, thinking about the death of a young male so that he could be food for this monster and fearing for her life now.

Two hundred and eighty-three meters away near a stand of pines, H'Yan-Ah stopped because she felt it and wondered why there was confusion and more fear.

"I felt some luck to have found that one," H'Yan-Ah said, sensing the fear more clearly and wanting to brush it aside. "He had a good set of horns for his young age. I have wanted horns like that for a time. I make my own weapons when I can and the horn will make me a fine grip for a hunting blade that I will begin on soon."

"You ... you hunt with a - a sword?" Irianni asked, "Why?"

"I am a good hunter," H'Yan-Ah replied, "My father's kind can get close without being seen. I can do it also. But his weapons, most of them, they are good more for war than to hunt with. I could have shot him, my buck today, and I would have ruined the horns and most of the meat.

"I never knew my mother. She died birthing me. But my father loved her very much and he taught me and showed me her way – as she taught it to him.

"It is my hope that I will have some horn left over for adding to my mother's bow. That bow is almost all that I have of her."

"You hunt with a bow also?" Irianni asked. Her kind had not used bows for generations upon generations, but she knew what such things were and how they were used.

"Of course," H'Yan-Ah said, her voice taking on an amused tone, "Less smoke and fire to hunting then.

"To me, it is important that I hunt to live, but I do not want for any creature to suffer. I do it quickly and take all that I can carry and use, wanting to waste nothing of the life that I took. It was my mother's way. Sometimes, I even take the hooves."

The wind dropped off for almost a quarter of a minute then. At least it didn't pick up as much snow and for a moment, one could see a fair distance. Irianni almost sighed out her relief to hear the part about hooves – before she gasped softly and her heart was in her throat once more.

She saw a dark shape moving slowly out there in the wind for a moment. It was a shape that her mother's kind had learned to fear long ago, easily recognisable even as it wavered in and out of her sight because of the way that the moaning wind began again and moved the snow out there. The shape was gone again in an instant, masked and hidden by the flying snow, but from her vantage point, she'd seen that it was headed right for her hiding place.

While she'd been able to see it, Irianni couldn't look away, didn't dare to even blink as she looked at the powerful shape out there and the way that the wind whipped the long, thick and heavy tendrils of hair around that head.

Irianni had never seen anyone like that before, but there was enough of a racial memory in her to evoke an almost visceral sense of fear.

"Please tell me where you are if you know," H'Yan-Ah thought, "I begin to worry for you in this cold."

There was no reply, but H'Yan-Ah was able to pull a fairly strong sense of direction from the fear. She began to stride quickly off that way.

"Irianni, my name is," hidden one thought after thinking of how she still missed her mother, "and I think that you must be one like I have been told to fear more than anything else. I have horns on my head, little ones."

H'Yan-Ah froze then, remembering the detail that she'd seen in her weapon's sight picture, "I do not wish to frighten you. I saw you today on the ridge. I do not want your horns. I would never want - "

"You said that you wanted the horns," Irianni said, the fear in her mind coming through the connection again.

H'Yan-Ah shook her head as she began to walk again. She was not far now and sent her thought as she went, "Irianni, I was hunting for food.

"I do not covet a creature's horns. I would use the horns of the buck that I killed to make my mother's bow a little better in her memory but that was not why I hunted him. I am not the kind of hunter who seeks trophies. I want no trophies, only what I need.

"I killed a deer – the people call them deer. You are not food to my kind."

She looked around the dark woods, sensing with her helmet's systems. It didn't take her long to know that there was a warm body almost in front of her within perhaps twenty feet. She felt sad, already knowing somehow that she'd failed.

"I do not want to harm you. I offer food and a warm, safe place to rest and sleep out of this coldness and the screaming wind. This is no place for you, Irianni. I can endure this more easily between us, yet I feel the way that you are cold even inside your hiding place.

"Look, my name is H'Yan-Ah," the hunter sent, making it sound as it was spoken, though she had not heard it since her father had gone. "Can you think of my name for me? I have not heard it in so long."

Irianni sighed inaudibly and thought of the name, "Hyannah." There was a slight pause and then, "I think that it is a good name."

From where she stood in the darkness, H'Yan-Ah smiled, "Thank you, Irianni. It has never sounded better to me. I have not heard it since my father passed.

"I am very near to you now, I think – or there is another buck here who has found a way to make himself a home under a tree. I wish now that I had the idea to bring some hot food for you. If you feel fear of me, then I will go if you wish. I will not force you to come out of there and I will not try to drag you out. I want ..."

She groaned and Irianni heard it across the distance between them even with the wind. "I have never had a single friend in my life. Always, it was what I wanted more than anything. That is what I would want if I could have it, Irianni, not your life or skin. Not your horns.

"I am a hunter as I have said. I am like my father and also like my mother. Both of them hunted. I can hunt anything, I believe.

"But I cannot hunt for a friend," H'Yan-Ah sent a little tiredly as her shoulders sagged, "I do not even know the proper way to begin a thing like that."

She turned away slowly, "I will bring you food early in the day. I say it so that you know beforehand. I will come just as I am now, so that you can see me. You may stay there or climb one of these trees and watch me come, I will not look. I will not even speak. You can run away before I come, if you wish. I will not track you."

She looked out at the forest from where she stood facing away, "From what I know, it will get much colder this night. It is my very strong hope that you can live through to the morning."

Irianni looked out through a thin gap in the boughs. She saw the dark outline – even darker than the night, it seemed to her eyes. At first, she felt a quivering rush of fear, but it passed as she had the thought that she felt no malice or sense of menace out there. She saw the armour, the plates and the angles over the hardness of it.

But she also saw a feminine shape in that hard-edged armour and the hunter carried no weapon in her hands. She turned around and Irianni saw those eyes; dull and businesslike, purposeful and almost blank.

She also saw the swell of breasts under the plating and the curve of hips.

"Listen Irianni," H'Yan-Ah said in her mind, "I have a cloak, a human cloak. I will leave it for you. I will place it in between some branches so that it does not blow away. Take it after I am gone. Wear it and put the hood up as far over your head as you can and I hope that it keeps you a little warmer. And be sure to cover your feet so that they do not freeze."

She pulled a folded cloth bundle from where it was wedged into her belt and leaned down, getting to her knees to push some of the material of the cloak through an opening between the boughs that she could see. Irianni held her breath, shaking a little in fear as she watched.

The hunter stood up after that and turned to go.

"Why do you give it?" Irianni asked, "You do not know me, H'Yan-Ah."

"That does not matter," H'Yan-Ah said sadly, "I do not want you to die here in the cold."

"Why did you not wear it?" Irianni asked, wondering if there was something wrong with the thing or if it was some sort of trap.

"I do not need it, dressed as I am," H'Yan-Ah replied, "And it is a little small for me now. I do not wish to tear the seams by putting it on, since it is old. But it is warm as I remember from when I could wear it. I brought it for you to keep you warm as we walked to my home."

She sighed, "There is nothing wrong with it. I use it more as a pillow when I sleep sometimes. From seeing you, I guessed that your shoulders are not as wide as mine and I know that you need something to make you a little warmer if you stay here tonight."

Irianni felt something warm in H'Yan-Ah's thoughts and then felt foolish for her suspicions, "H'Yan-Ah?" She took the cloak and put it over and around her shoulders.

"Here, Irianni," came the reply after a moment.

Irianni almost hung onto one of the boughs as she looked out, "I - I thank you for the cloak. It makes me feel better already. Are you alright without it?"

"I am," H'Yan-Ah replied quietly. "This night bothers me little. The weather, I mean."

"You were right. You were very close to me," Irianni began, " I ... guess that you must have known this."

She watched as H'Yan-Ah nodded, "I knew. If not for the cold, it is probably better this way. I am not pretty. I would probably be seen by you as ugly, I do not know as I have had no one to tell me how I look. I do not set a price on something like this, what I did. I just ..."

"I want to say that I do not look as you might think – I mean, not as you would see me at first, I do not look like this. I use it as a way to hide and to get close enough to kill without sound. Tonight, I wear it more to keep me from freezing as well.

"You – you are ... Death?" Irianni whispered in her thought uncertainly.

The dark shape chuckled softly as she turned her head to look back, "No, I am a girl who chooses her words badly.

"I only look this way so that I might not be seen easily by most and to stay warm myself. I would not kill you."

Irianni looked, but saw no features in the face there before her other than the dull-looking eyes which seemed to be able to see her and regard her for a moment before she realised that they were only parts of a helmet.