{"sf1_id":90221,"sf2_id":"znJ5NLqm","title":"Canopy pt. 1/3","author":"Solaris Omega","words":2100,"posted_at":"2009-06-10T01:58:00.000Z","tags":["Fantasy","Plot Development","Violence (Not In Yiff)"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/90221-canopy-pt-1-3","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/znJ5NLqm","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/8e/ef/8eefc878-254d-4ff4-a2a3-4ff89d67762e","description":"#1 of Canopy","content":"\\*Mind you ths is the first story like this I've done, so, I hope you like it.\\*  \nThis story and those succeeding it (c) - Solaris Omega  \n  \n  \nCanopy  \nLuscious green leaves,  \nSwaying gently in the breeze.  \nConcealing beneath.  \n  \n  \nCanopy  \n  \nHe had been following her for two days now. She hadn't lost the trail, and neither of them was going to give up.  \nThey get payed well, being mercenaries, but that's ONLY if they catch who they're after, so they weren't going to give up any time soon.  \nHe was the official Bounty Hunter; she was his tracker. She wasn't easy to hire, half the reward was hers if this was done. Being an honest Hunter, she would still get her pay the equivalent of half the bounty, even if it came from his pocket.  \n  \nMordukai was the second-greatest bounty hunter in the land, and being a Kilrathi gave him an awe-inspiring presence. The towering anthro-liger wore camouflage-fatigues and had weapons strapped in enough places so he was just able to still have full mobility of his joints. The weapons that seemed to appear on his body most often were shuriken throwing knives, darts, and machetes.  \nGale was a persistent tracker with a reputation for success; her mammalian features deserved credit for that. The young Acinon vixen didn't need such an arsenal as her Kilrathi employer, and so had only a short-blade katana sheathed on her back and poison concealed in the locket on her bracelet. A whip, rope and a strange Hook-Launcher was linked to her belt. A sash ran behind her neck and under her shoulders, while it crossed over her breasts at the front. A harness strapped a loincloth between her legs and around her hips; the loosely worn style had faded quickly because of the unnecessary display, and her hypnotic tail rocked side to side like a pendulum.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; \"Stop looking at me like that\"  \n\"Like what?\"  \nShe knew he had been watching her tail, and where it met her back, with a curiosity not often noticed in a Kilrathi.  \n\"If we're gonna be working together for who-knows-how-long, you'd better quit staring at my ass. Even if you are an employer, I'm not for the taking in how you're looking at me.\"  \n\"I'm not staring at your ass, I must've been looking in that direction when I started thinking.\"  \n\"Thinking about what, exactly?\"  \n\"If I chose my tracker wisely.\"  \nHe eyed her shoulders.  \n\"Oh, is THAT what you're thinking? When a Kilrathi stares at some chick's butt for an hour, it means he's thinking if he chose right?\"  \n\"I look at all my trackers the same.\"  \nShe looked over her shoulder with an awkward look on her face.  \n\"So, if you hire a guy- \"  \n\"You know what I mean. Now keep your focus on the job. We've already started. There's no turning back. I'll protect you, as the hunting law states, and you will keep tracking. That's all that's important now.\"  \nShe looked ahead, her black hair flowing wildly in the breeze behind her. He returned his gaze to her smooth shoulders, then slowly moved his focus further down to the small of her back and resumed his thoughts  \nAnd she stopped walking. If they weren't the three metres apart, they would have collided.  \nShe turned, \"We should stay here for the night; in the trees. There's a stream just past those bushes, well for drinking and bathing, the latter being the more unlikely choice, and these vines could make decent rope for traps, or even a warning. Or we could keep walking and loose strength. \"  \nHe had quickly averted his gaze to the path ahead, and then to her face before she spoke.  \n\"So,\" she continued, \"what's the decision?\"  \nHe returned the glare. \"Stay the night. Eat. Sleep.\"  \nShe nodded. Good.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; He had the first watch, and the longest watch. Kilrathi don't need anywhere near as much sleep as most other creatures, and Acinons wake just before dawn, giving her the time to wake up, and him more than enough time to sleep.  \nHe sat on a large branch just beneath the leaves at the top of the tree, the same branch on which Gale was sleeping silently. He listened to every sound. His ears continued to change angle to hear from every direction. His eyes seemed to glow in the absence of light; those eyes could single out insects from the surrounding trees.  \nThen he seemed to notice one sound stand out from the rest, as his ears angled behind him. Gale's steady breathing, and something else... he knew what it was and suddenly jumped off the branch, slamming into the wyvern from head-on.  \nThe roar woke Gale, who almost fell off the branch, and she saw the massive dragon being tackled by the miniscule Kilrathi. But size didn't matter in this case, as she watched the wyvern take her employer higher above the treetops.  \nMordukai thrashed violently against the wyvern's jaws, he slammed his ‘Iron-Knuckles' into the dragon's eye, and even had a machete lodged behind its ear, but it still didn't drop him. So, as a last attempt, he taunted the dragon into fitting his legs into its mouth with the rest of his body.  \nIt didn't see any harm coming from a meal offering an easy digestion, but were it smarter, it would have bitten down sooner.  \nThe Kilrathi with his legs craned into positioned against it's jaws, he thrust his legs straight, snapping the wyvern's jaws past their natural degree of motion, and crushed the roof of its mouth back into its brain.  \nHe knew there was still the problem of being a hundred feet in the air.  \nHe seemed to hang in the air for a short eternity, before dropping to the earth.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; It was just after dawn when she found the crumpled dragon squashed like a broken accordion on the rocks.  \nHer hand hadn't left her mouth since she saw the wyvern plummet to the earth, both from the shock of seeing a bounty hunter get eaten by a dragon, and then finding the dead dragon's body smashed up on this rockslide.  \nShe prospected the area for anything of his: a weapon, torn clothing.... a limb. But there wasn't anything. The only blood here was dark red, and Kilrathi blood was fluorescent orange.  \nThen, she heard a deep groaning, and she turned to see the dragon awkwardly trying to get up, even though it was horrifically and honestly dead. See soon banished the idea when she heard the unmistakable growl of a frustrated liger, and suddenly, the wyvern was sent flying from the mighty kick that could only come from a Kilrathi.  \nGale watched in awe as the dragon's corpse ploughed into distant trees at the end of the slide. She then returned her gaze to the stumbling figure.  \nHe was alive!  \nShe ran over to him and embraced him, shortly before she realised what she was doing, plus the fact he was drenched with wyvern blood.  \nShe was about to regret it and leave the embrace when he returned it.  \nShe was barely up to his chest in height, her arms only reached halfway around his waist.  \nThey stood there for a few minutes, just standing there. After a while, she lowered her arms and stepped back from him, looking from his blood-soaked body to hers, which now too had some of the red mess that transferred during the hug.  \nIt was on their clothes and skin.  \n\"Shit.\" They said in unison.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; She looked back up to him, grinning, \"I think it's about time to get a move on, eh?\" and biting her lip.  \n\"Well, in this case, being drenched in dragon blood isn't quite the smartest way to travel,\" he answered.  \n  \nWhen they reached the water's edge, she watched him discard his clothes, throw them onto a rock next to the water, then step into the water to clean himself thoroughly. She mimicked his motions in discarding the clothes and throwing them and bathing, but she couldn't reach the middle of her back, and apparently, neither could he.  \nAfter expressing the frustration with several grunts, she turned to see him fruitlessly reaching for his back, and she waded over to him.  \nHe heard her arrival, but didn't react until she splashed water onto his back and began to massage the stains off.  \n\"I didn't ask for-\"  \n\"You insinuated it enough.\" She answered, her eyes trained on his back.  \n  \nWhen she was finished she turned around and returned to her efforts. HELP.  \nHe turned and placed one hand on her back, his thumb easily filled the space between her shoulder blades, and began earnestly rubbing.  \nShe closed her eyes and enjoyed the coarse massage.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; He finished abruptly and she turned to him slowly.  \n\"It's gone. There wasn't much there.\" He assured her.  \n\"It was starting to feel good.\"  \nHe put a finger to her lips, his ears twitching in every direction until they focused on a point on the riverbank.  \nHe shoved her out of the way and lunged for his weapons, swinging out a bladeless shuriken. The moment it left his hand, three sickle-shaped blades stabbed out of the circumference a split second before it sliced clean through the chest of the wolf and followed into the one behind it.  \nStained with the wolf blood, it sought its targets within striking range, and angled itself to fly through more targets.  \nMordukai leapt out of the water, landed on the bank, and tensed every muscle in his body, his hairs standing on end in an instant throwing the water off his body, and he started to hurriedly pull on his clothes and weapons.  \nGale crawled out after him to her clothes.  \n  \nHe had his Iron-Knuckles around his fingers and she was pulling on her boots when, with a whistle, the shuriken flew back to its owner.  \nHe heard its return and threw a hand up to catch it. It stopped as soon as his fingers hooked around the centre, the spinning blades vanishing in that instant.  \n\"What the hell is that?\"  \nHe eyed the shuriken, admiring it, \"Smart Disc. Handy when you're caught off-guard or escaping.\"  \n\"Uh-huh,\" she nodded, clasping her harness around her hips.  \nHe looked at her before sliding the shuriken back into its pouch after cleaning it.  \n\"I bet with all this action, you're having second thoughts about your employment.\"  \nShe returned his gaze coolly.  \n\"No. I'm glad you hired me.\"  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; They were back on the trail. This time they were side-by-side. It had only been four days and they had killed a wyvern, a pack of wolves, and they were still only a third of the way to the canyon in which dwelled the one their bounty was upon.  \nMordukai now wore a dragon-tooth pendant, as a trophy, and Gale had a wyvern-hide gorget (shoulder pad), also a trophy.  \n  \nHe hired a tracker in full knowledge of the Hunter's Pact, that once a tracker is hired, the employer must protect the tracker from all threats and dangers, while the tracker bestows their skill to find the bounty hunter's target. But to him, protecting her didn't seem so much a rule anymore.  \nAfter watching her each night, acting sentry, he had grown fond of having her around. They found the wyvern's corpse at the end of the rockslide, which was in their path, but with a generous amount of the flesh missing.  \nIt must have been wolves.  \n  \nThey didn't see any harm in feasting as well. They carved out their own portion of the meat, large juicy hunks of muscle, and with very rich taste.  \nGale uttered a word and left the tree line, and returned a short while later with a small wooden drum half filled with salt.  \n\"It'll keep if we put it in here. Good meat shouldn't be just left around.\"  \nHe nodded in agreement. \"Correction: VERY good meat.\" He grinned.  \n\"We could save it for after this bounty, we're coming into a lot of money, we could celebrate.\"  \n\"Or we could sell it, get even more money. Dragon hide alone sells well. The meat would be even better.\"  \nShe looked at him, and continued to pack the meat into the salt.  \n\"Okay. How about we keep some, and sell the rest? The meat will make us stronger. And the hide will make good armour.\"  \nHe shrugged then nodded at that.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Now with a significantly heavier coin satchel, and salted dragon meat in a box, they made their course and continued on their way.  \n  \n\n"}