End of the Beginning - Ulloriaq

"You expected this?!" Ulloriaq snapped, bristling. She could feel blood rush to her neck scales and knew that they would be flushing red. She took a deep breath which was audible as a series of quick sniffs and forced her heart rate to slow.

"No." Ilippa Nuk replied, looking away into the distance his eyes unfocused. The short answer surprised Ulloriaq, and she waited for him to elaborate. When he did not, she was about to demand an explanation, but sensing her irritation he raised a claw to prevent her.

When he still didn't reply, Ulloriaq began to scan the room in annoyance, her neck jerking as she looked about. She was a trained Piniarsar, one of the best in the Urix military, but this situation angered her. If it affected her this much, she could only imagine how the regular soldiers were reacting, those who had little grasp of Nalun.

"This one did not expect it," the Ilippa finally said at length. He brought his snout up to look at Ulloriaq, his red eyes seeming to pierce her. Suddenly she felt ashamed that she was behaving like an Ipping and her long training kicked in.

She closed her eyes, shutting out the world and brought her thoughts to peace. In her mind she saw a beautiful landscape, tall palm-like trees waved softly in the wind. Her heartbeat slowed even more and beat to the tune of those trees, slowly, softly, gently.

"We feared it, but did not expect it," Ilippa Nuk said softly, bringing Ulloriaq out of her meditation.

She opened her eyes and saw that she had unconsciously sat down, her legs crossed over each other and arms folded over her chest.

"Now that you are settled, we can decide what best to do next," he continued, smiling at her.

"Best thing you can do," an unfamilar voice barked over the crash of a door being kicked in.

"Is die, Pytho," the uniformed Gervian finished.

A flash of light sparked from his raised pistol, slashing through Ilippa Nuk's head. The gun moved and a second later there was a twinge of pain in Ulloriaq's shoulder.

The shot shocked her, but instead of agony she felt a familiar and welcome serenity.

Ulloriaq gazed about the room, unperturbed by the commotion. She saw her commander fall back in slow motion, blood still spraying slowly outward from his ruined skull.

She should have felt anger or even sadness. Instead she felt pleasure. Her gaze then settled on the assailant.

The Gervian frowned seeing his shot missing it's target and the gun once again began to move.

Almost lazily, Ulloriaq rose to her feet with claws outstretched.

She crossed the space between them in a single bound. His eyes widened in surprise and his mouth opened to utter a soundless scream as his throat was ripped open by her strike.

by Gareth Kay