Leather Wings in The Sky (IndoWriter/PhoenixRising82)

[Novellasaurus]

Time had not passed quickly for him.​

The travel time itself was about seven diebus since his departure, and it would be another dimidium hora until he was within orbit of his destination. It felt longer than what he knew, as if he had spent millennia hovering at a constant speed through the theoretically endless vacuum of space. There weren't any environmental changes to even know that he was any closer than what he started with. His vessel, The Casus III, maintained its steady vibrational noise as it moved; a sort of baritone humming noise you would only notice after some time aboard the ship. There was no change in balance, in how the floor kept him firmly rooted to it. The artificially supplied oxygen never changed its temperature in response to where he was making progress, and the windows did little more than show him a giant black canvas sprinkled with all sorts of multicolored lights. He would be very interested in viewing the minuscule spheres of packed gas were he but a mere puer, a tiny thing fascinated with everything his father pointed out to him in the sky. As it was, the stars and anything else space had to offer only held his interest for a diebus or two. Perhaps even now.

Anguis turned away from the darkened view after a while, returning to the expansive table just behind him. In the last dimidium hora of his time, he went over the things he gathered up in the holographic files. His blue reptilian eyes scanned across the first file he brought to play--one of the few documents of The Great Ophidian Library that had record of the planet Denu, the green and blue ball of mud a few planets from a healthy sun. Within the published journal lay the research on everything the planet had to offer: it's many resources, current age, Flora, Fauna and other subjects useless to his goal. The only helpful information he needed took up half the journal itself and covered the topic of his own goal: The local intelligent life on the planet.

They never were given a name by his people, only because the locals named themselves 'Humans'. While they were an intelligent species with a growing ability to invent new concepts and tools, the warm-blooded primates were saecula behind Ophidians in technology and knowledge. They weren't anywhere near developing decent flight for their own planet, let alone to travel to other planets (he doubted they even considered the thought of other life forms in the universe). Anguis pitied them in their lack of knowledge, but it was not his mission nor place to go about boosting their technological feats. His true motive revolved around the ever-growing ways of his people's society, and what they deemed to be important. It was only some saecula ago that the concept of 'the hunt' and 'a prize' was born to his kind. Ophidians in that age grew to enjoy the thrill of finding living beings off the planet, to hunt them down in unique ways and bring them back as a symbol of their cunning and skill. Somehow, the thing that had once been a mere sport to them slowly grew into a societal practice--the only true way of symbolizing their rank in the world. It was only a short while the idea of The Hunt became written law, and that somehow being against the idea of randomly abducting creatures for no scientific reason was abominable. Anguis reluctantly fled to the stars to appease the worried remarks of his peers, to find some rare prize and get those he liked less to stop threatening him with Exile.

There were many uses for a prize from the hunt, as many had pointed out. Most of the Ophidians he knew killed what they caught to use the flesh for food and the skin for clothing uses. Anguis didn't think that humans looked the least bit appetizing, so he wasn't planning on being the first to eat one. Some Ophidians just sold their prizes to the highest bidder and made their living as Prime Hunters. Needless to say, Anguis had no intention of doing this more than once. Other Ophidians put their prizes to grueling work around their living quarters or back-breaking construction work in public places, especially the larger specimens. Anguis wasn't opposed to a little forced help, but he was used to lonely work either way. And a few Ophidians, much to the confusion of other Hunter types, used their prizes for rather...exoticneeds. Anguis admittedly found the female portion of the human race visually appealing, with some detailed recordings of them proving more attractive than others. There were accounts of multicolored hair choices, flesh being appropriately placed with all the right curvatures and an all around attractive aura to males. The idea of a mate with actual warmth running through her veins wasn't a bad mental image, especially in the event that he ever traveled anywhere cold.

But if he did fancy that thought, it would be much later. He only really agreed to this expensive journey in hopes of being one of the few Ophidians to have scientific documents of humans published. Anguis would capture the lesser-known gender, a female, and document everything he could about them. His plans for the capture itself was slightly more complicated--his reasoning for leaving his ship in orbit. If he made a big show out of landing and capturing one of their own, the humans might retaliate against him somehow or just flee before he could even catch one. Technologically limited as they were, he was too smart to underestimate any race he knew little about. He already had extensive imagery from drones concerning how the males of the planet dressed and looked, and the ship designed the clothes accordingly. After reviewing the documents once more, he made his way to the front of the ship just as it slowed itself into stationary orbit.

The planet was rather impressive to look at up close, with it's blue and green features shimmering in the glow of the sun. Oceans far bigger than his own planet were bordered by continents and white atmospheric shapes. Given the way the planet was turned, his targeted area would be nearing a nightly phase soon. Anguis was pleased; a night setting would make it harder for others to notice him while he went about with his plans. The Ophidian perked up as a buzzing noise briefly sounded through the ship. His human attire was finished now.

His scalely green skin began to melt together on command, casually starting to resemble the hairless caucasian skin of a human. His hair, which shockingly resembled the animals known as snakes, hissed softly before camouflaging into a head of jet black hair. Even his reptilian gaze grew into regular human pupils and his nose grew out of it's slant. He left the front of the ship to make a beeline for where his finished disguise would be. "Casus, prepare for the departure. I want you ready to take me back up when I'm finished."

The electronic ghost of the ship responded immediately. "Depart Protocols engaged."

It's time to go hunting.

 

[PhoenixRising82]

She had been tasked with watching the young woman and if she was being honest, she hated the Elders for it. This was not her lot in life. She had not trained for years with the Calidaria just to babysit some neonate on her first foray into the darkness.

She herself had been thrust into it on her own. In the dark. She’d adapted. She’d learned and she’d become one of the best. Twenty years of training. About eighty more implementing said training and here she was, following the little tart into Xanadu because the girl couldn’t let go of her human bonds.

She’d tried redirecting the brat off to Styx, at least then she herself would be comfortable on their own turf but the girl was having none of it. She wanted something bright and loud, not ‘that dark and drab old suck pot’. Ariyana cringed and leveled a dark glare on the girl as they stood outside the club, waiting for entry.

She could feel the pounding of the music beneath her boots. The music split through her skull already, even buffered by the thick walls of the building that housed the atrocity. She could smell the sweet, yet sour scent of sweaty humans as they flailed around on the dance floor. It grew stronger each time the door opened to allow someone in or out.

”This is a bad idea, Nadia.”

She growled at the girl. She had to resist the urge to break the little brats wrist as the girl waved her hand back at Ari.

”Oh poo, you’re just....old.”

Nadia quipped over her shoulder with a fluff of her hair and a side glance at the older woman, her lips curling into a smirk.

An expression that Ariyana had to will herself not to smack right off the girls face.

”Older, wiser and more experienced than you, child. You’re asking for trouble here. And if you keep up your shit, I’ll drag you away by that precious hair of yours.”

Nadia cowed briefly before the bouncer whistled at the pair of them to get their attention and ushered them through the door and into the neon hell.

”Yay! Come dance, Ari!?”

Nadia’s voice pierced Ariyana’s ears, as if she needed to speak louder for her to hear over the cacophony of raving music.

”Stop yelling. And no, I’m not dancing. You stay where I can see you.”

The raven haired woman told Nadia bluntly as she turned on the heels of her boots and found a table nearby.