The Nature of Predators - The Sacrifice (1/?) (Patreon)

Memory transcription subject: Kippe, Yulpa Predator Catcher

Date [standardized human time]: March 4, 2137

Nature was transactional, requiring death in exchange for the preservation of our lives. The Spirit of Life was the arm of justice; the blackened heart of a hunter, pierced in a holy sacrificial ritual, gave our deity the bargaining power to spare us from beast and famine. Predators represented the highest tier of killing, so bringing one scoundrel down was what allowed our society to ascend into prosperity. The deadlier the predator was, the more time and favor its life could buy us. That left sapient hunters as the priesthood’s most coveted prize.

For years, predator catchers had sought to capture an Arxur, coveting the renown that feat would bring. Those attempts were always rebuffed, since the task meant waltzing into infested territory outnumbered; it was nothing like corralling a beast in our homeworld’s rainforest. However, the new sapient hunters proved easier to lure into the open. Millions of humans could be found mingling with herbivores or sailing their starships through Federation space, a prize out there for the taking. The opportunity to capture a Terran screamed out to me, setting my plan in motion. After drawing a male to a secluded spot, I’d caught it unaware with a tranquilizer dart.

The final task was to shove its body into a cage with wheels, seal the padlock, and exert myself enough to push it onto my ship. When I arrived back at our homeworld, Grenelka, and advertised the weekend sacrifice, the reception had been off the charts. The faithful turned out for every ritual, but this time, every seat was purchased within an hour of going live. Yulpa citizens traveled from across the globe to see a sapient predator’s undoing, helped by widespread disdain for the Terrans. We hadn’t participated in the extermination fleet because the priesthood saw an opportunity to capture a sustaining population first—enough to bargain with the Spirit of Life for eternity!

Local priests helped me wheel the demon into the arena’s basement, before it stirred; I’d checked it for weapons, and decided to leave its pelts on when I didn’t find any blades beneath. The last thing I needed, after all that effort, was for it to freeze overnight, before it was scheduled to perish. From what I knew about humans, it wouldn’t die without water in a single day. Its comfort wasn’t our goal, since regardless of its sapience, the Spirit of Life would be enticed by its suffering. I was eager for the honor of carrying the fatal spear, meant for the heart. I’d used resonance imaging technology to ensure that the anatomical diagram I located from the Galactic Institute of Medicine was correct. The exalted task of spilling its blood, in front of roaring thousands, was mine! I was fueled by giddy adrenaline, as night rolled into the glorious morning.

Hopefully it wakes up long enough for a conversation before its execution. It’s slumbered longer than I anticipated.

“Ugh.” The creature’s head rose with a disoriented groan, as it studied its surroundings with despicable eyes. It pawed at the Yulpa-made shock collar I’d placed around its neck, a contraption meant for the strategic capture of such beasts. “What the fuck? Where am I…who…what are you? What do you want with me?”

“What I want is to sacrifice you to the Spirit of Life, out in the arena.” I grabbed a spear with my tongue, angling it at the human’s cage. Its hands were wrapped around the bars, rattling the door. “I don’t have to tell you, but I want you to know you’ve been captured by a Yulpa, predator. You were bested.”

“This is psychotic! You have to let me out; I’m fucking sapient.”

“You’re calling my religion ‘psychotic?’”

“It involves kidnapping people by tricking them, and executing them in some public spectacle? Locking me in a cage…this is insane! What did I ever do to you? I was just trying to fucking help you.”

“You could’ve just killed me, but I knew you’d take the bait of weak prey, dangled in front of your nose. You thought you could capture me, and nobody would ever know you had taken a wounded sapient as cattle. I’m speaking to you now because you’re sapient, and I want you to spend your last hour knowing the anguish that is coming.”

The Terran’s lean form huddled against the bars, showing off the massive muscles rippling in its arms. I was proud of myself for capturing a prime specimen of murderous physique, since slaying the deadliest human possible would grant us optimal fortunes. The predator had displayed signs of fright when it surveyed the unfamiliar sights, but its anxious behavior became more overt as I explained my plans for it. The telltale growling register was still present, but its voice was climbing to an almost hysteric pitch. The human’s chest rose and fell in accelerating intervals, before it backed away from the bars and curled into a ball.

“This can’t be happening! I don’t want to…die to some random aliens as some offering to your sadistic god. I don’t even know anything about the Yulpa—how could I have meant to hurt you? Please, just let me out…you don’t have to do this,” it pleaded.

I stamped a striped hindleg on the ground. “Your braying is ineffectual. Finally, we have a predator that can understand what is coming; that feels a higher level of distress. I’m guarding you personally, and there’s other security everywhere…you have nowhere to run. We’d prefer not to shoot you up with a paralytic agent, since we want the crowd to see you squirm. I hope you’ll come willingly…it’ll be quicker for you.”

“This sounds like a fucking bloodsport! Just…think about what you’re doing. You’re knowingly trying to inflict s-suffering…” The predator’s voice wobbled, as water swelled in its eyes. It was scared shitless, and struggling to formulate deceptive arguments for why it should be released. “How can that make you feel good? You’re practically grinning, you sick fuck!”

“Because I’m going to be famous for bringing you in. The first sapient predator to have its blood spilled into the holy grate!”

“Listen, we don’t need to focus on the gory details. I don’t feel so good. Can I have some water?”

“Absolutely not. You probably don’t want to know what comes next, and that’s why I’ll spell out every detail—so you can envision it, demon. There are twelve spears…three for each of your limbs, to pin them to the boards. Then, we’ll hold your fingertips over the sacred flames, and you’ll try to thrash…deepening the spears. Your screams will echo through the arena, captured by a sea of microphones and cameras; our acoustics are perfect. Only well past the point where you look at me, begging for me to end it, will I plunge the Spear of Fatality into your heart.”

The Earthling looked shell-shocked, its eye whites bulging. “Holy fuck. Just kill me. That’s…torture.”

“And you don’t have long, predator. My name is Kippe, and I want you to think about that name in your final moments. Which are coming soon. Can you hear the roar of the crowd?”

“No, please…we can put this off. Not yet! Rot in hell, Kippe, you sick, droopy-tongued assfucker! I’d tear out your heart, but you don’t have one, you mon—”

I left the terrified human to scream to its heart’s content, as I padded down the tunnel toward the arena to check that the sacrifice was ready. Standing room only seats had been created anywhere that the priests could shove room, and the crowd was delighted for the spectacle about to unfold. I could see the other Yulpa spearmen doing routines with their weapons, trying to ramp up the off-the-charts fervor. The Priestess of Execution flicked her ears as she saw me; I studied the shock trigger in my paws, knowing I should use it regardless of the beast’s compliance. The audience was going to lap this ritual up, and I couldn’t wait for the applause when I brought the Terran out. Chants of “Make It Scream” filled the amphitheater, echoing off the walls with enthusiasm.

All the beasts I’ve wrangled in search of glory, wanting to go down in history, led up to this one. Every Yulpa that captures a Terran going forward will have followed my example. They said it was suicide—impossible to bring in a sapient, but I’ve done it!

Culee, the Priestess of Execution, snapped me out of my stupor. “I want the beast brought here. Since it’s a special occasion, I’m thinking we should interview it before its execution. It’ll put words to the just screams that’ll tumble from its tainted lips.”

“It’s just going to beg for its life and call us monsters, like it did with me,” I grumbled. “Humans love painting themselves as the victims, and this’ll already give them enough of that with the weaker herbivores.”

“Then we’ll interrogate it under duress, so it can’t think of manipulative words through the pain. Let’s brand the symbol of the Spirit of Life into its neck, the way the Arxur do to cattle.”

“Won’t it just scream, Priestess?”

“Even if it does, we want to humiliate and degrade these champions of murder as long as possible. We’ll prompt it to speak, before we stop scalding its skin; this’ll be a wonderful test of how much pain those human vermin can endure. We need to establish baselines for when we start up a captive population: fitting for what they’ve done to us prey.”

“Your words have logic behind them, and I won’t complain about prolonging this one’s suffering. I’m glad to see that everything is in order.”

“This is a momentous occasion, Kippe; you’re the one who’s actualized the highest dream of our faith. Your honors and riches will be tremendous, on account of the debt you’ve paid for us to the Spirit. I’ll let you give a speech once the beast breathes its last.”

My ears perked up. “I have so much to say to inspire future predator catchers! All of the risks are worth it, when you see the darkest creatures in the universe, soiling themselves and screaming until their voices are hoarse as they’re ripped apart. Brought to their knees and entirely beholden to the ones they terrorize—”

“I can feel your excitement, but save it for the speech. The crowd will feed off of your energy. Look at the celebration you’ve brought to Grenelka; the whole planet stands with you. Go fetch the hunter, and let’s get under way.”

I stiffened. “I’d like to leave it to stew on its fate for a little longer.”

“The audience is antsy, and clamoring for blood. If we don’t show them the human soon, they’ll go bring it out. The masses aren’t famed for their patience.”

While I was disappointed I couldn’t savor the greatest sacrifice in Yulpa history, I was eager to bask in the public’s ovation. The human had at least simmered in its dread for some time, rather than being herded out as soon as it woke up. All of its physical prowess didn’t mean much with a shock collar affixed to its neck and a cage keeping it from prowling about on its lanky legs. The stupid creature had walked itself into my trap, unable to resist its cruel inclinations. Now, it was time to find out how much higher its growling register could go under primal panic. I strode off to complete my task, waving my thin tail as I vanished down the tunnel.

Where other prey animals feared the gaze of a predator, I relished the small distinctions in how they squealed or reacted. Pain was the great equalizer of the universe, a sign of the Spirit’s intrinsic balance; the Priestess could be onto something with her interrogation methods.  Blinding agony would activate the survival features coded into the deepest, primordial recesses of its mind. It wouldn’t be able to conceal its instincts beneath a veneer of civility! Rather than painting humanity as victims, this could expose the predatory tendencies they’d worked to hide. I’d seen a glimpse of that when the creature threatened me, as its panic elevated and it forgot its lines.

Maybe if we ask it what humanity wants to do to the Venlil, it’ll speak the truth! The conscious processes that govern its deceit will be down.

Several spearmen joined me to help with escorting the beast; together, we turned back into the central room where the predator had been kept. My prehensile tongue unfurled from around my weapon, which clattered to the floor when my mouth fell open in disbelief. The door to the human’s cage was ajar, with a padlock that had definitely been sealed lying unclasped on the ground. My frantic paws rushed to see if the predator, somehow, swiped my key in transit—it was still fixed to my belt. Inexplicably, the Terran’s prison had been breached in the minutes I’d been away, and was empty before my eyes. The hunter was nowhere to be seen.

A thought occurred to me as I clasped the shock controls, and I jabbed the button to activate an electric field. That should’ve stopped it in its tracks, but instead, I saw the indicator light strobe on the floor, right in front of its cage. The beast had also pried the band from its neck on its escape, likely knowing what it was because of the “Marcel” incident. I held the key for the shock device too, though it hadn’t posed any trouble for the captive. My legs quivered with horror, realizing that the greatest moment of my life had been ruined. It didn’t seem possible that a brute could be so slippery and cunning, especially with so little time.

How had it not alerted the security contingent, spread out between it and any of the exits? The human had to be somewhere nearby, maybe even still inside; a binocular eyed freak couldn’t get far unnoticed! If it managed to reach the outdoors, it presented an immense hazard to public safety, loose on my planet after being provoked. I had to either capture it to be slaughtered in its rightful place, or put it down to prevent it from going on a rampage. For the sake of my own glory, I preferred the idea of bringing it in. It would be difficult to cut my losses, and start all over in search of a new Terran victim. The first issue was finding it, but I could seek the public’s help in tracking it. The predator had no way of getting off-world, and wouldn’t exactly blend in with native lifeforms.

“The human escaped. Alert the Priestess, and get tips from the public! I’ll follow its trail, figure out where it’s been and where it’s going. Can’t be that different from any other beast,” I barked.

Yulpa scampered off in different directions, as we set off to sweep the building for signs of the escaped predator. With security on high alert, it really wouldn’t slip our perimeter…assuming it wasn’t already on the run in the streets, somehow. The Terran had no chance of surviving on our world, outnumbered by billions of us; its demise was inevitable, and I could still salvage this acquisition. If I managed to bring this human back in alive, I’d make it my personal mission that it suffered tenfold for the hassle. Whether I had to put it down in the wild or not, I wanted to be the one to end its miserable existence. The Spirit of Life demanded the blood of life-takers, and I would see that debt was paid in some capacity.

Next

A/N - Something new begins! We learn about some of the craziest, most brutal cultists in the galaxy, who ritually sacrifices predators...and a predator catcher who sees the coveted opportunity to get her paws on a sapient. It's unclear at this time how the human was captured, aside from being lured in somehow, and how he escaped in the few minutes Kippe spent checking in with the Priestess in the arena. What do you think the human thought, waking up in a cage and being told his grisly fate? Will he be able to evade the Yulpa...and how do you think he got loose in the first place?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting! Next chapter is from the human's POV, so questions will be answered about who he is and how he got here.