"You're right." she sighed as she continued cleaning the trophy before adding "Of course you are. I guess I'm just bitter over my treatment in that castle." And with that she silently finished cleaning the trophy and showed it to him. With his seal of approval she placed it back in its place and followed him to what appeared to be a dining room.

Taking the offered seat she looked up at him as he described what little food he had on the ship. Watching the sequence of buttons he pushed she then saw a small pile of cubes rise out of the table. "Nutrition cubes, huh?" she asked rhetorically, before picking one up and sticking it into her mouth. "Not the best tasting are they?" she asked him before saying "If you choose to bring me something from your next hunt I would love some fruit. I could even make use of the seeds of a plant."

Picking up another cube she said "That is only if you're willing to get it, of course." She then returned her attention to the cubes on the table popping one in her mouth every few seconds as she waited for him to speak again.

Fruit ... I will keep an eye out. Yautja had never really paid much attention to other races diets. He had studied most aspects about all races he considered prey, but diet was not one of those. It served no purpose in the hunt, and as such was not worth noticing. And since Kali males were carnivores he had never considered plants as a source of food. But Kali females did, and as such he understood the concept of fruit. It wouldn't be too hard to identify some fruit and grab some on the next planet they landed at.

When you are finished I will show you how to clean my equipment, and once I am sure you know how what you choose to spend your time on is your choice. Just be aware that I would prefer the trophies to be cleaned at least once every twenty four hours, and my equipment clean before the start of the next hunt.

"Thank you." She responded quickly, before returning her attention back to the diminishing pile of nutrition cubes. The request was not completely for food as she really could do many interesting things with a single seed, but he did not need to know that yet. 4...3...2...1 she counted to herself as the pile diminished further standing up finally before popping the last cube into her mouth.

"Ok. So lets get to that equipment." she said and waited for him to lead the way. She may have seemed strangely chipper at having to work for some 'man' she hardly knew but one could likely put that off as happiness at being free once again. Motivation is a hard thing to figure out in a girl, especially one as cunning as Ayame but for now he would have to accept the face value of her words. At least until he understood her better, that is.

For his part Yautja did not care what motivated Ayame that much. He suspected she had a survival instinct, with the sole exception of hive organised races most species did. That instinct would drive her to do whatever she had to to survive. She probably had more complicated reasons than that, but he would discover those in time.

When Ayame popped the last cube into her mouth and stood up Yautja turned and led the way to a room similar to the one he had given her as quarters. Once inside he quickly stripped off his various pieces of equipment with the sole exception of his mesh bodysuit and his mask. Each weapon or armour plating had a indent in the wall designed to hold it in a suspended animation field. The moment it was placed in the field the weapon was 'locked' open. His gauntlet blades shot out, and his spear fully extended. Until a unlock code was transmitted from his mask they would remain like that, and the various other weapons he had would be useless.

Pressing a button another panel retracted from the wall and it revealed another cloth similar to the one used to clean the trophies. This particular demonstration took significantly longer, as unlike the skulls Yautja had to clean every single piece of equipment to show Ayame the tricks to ensuring that each piece of equipment was clean. The cloth seemed to soak up everything in a single wipe, which made the business much faster than it should have been. Even the blood dried on his gauntlets and spear was cleaned away in a single wipe.

Once he was done he looked at Ayame. Did you catch all of what I just showed you?

His equipment room was quite like the one she was given as quarters and as soon as he began the demonstration she watched carefully, not wanting to miss a moment as he began stripping off the weapons and armor and placing them into their spots on the wall. The wall seemed to keep them in suspended animation as he began showing her little 'tricks' to make sure each item was clean and ready for the next hunt.

"Yeah. I got it." She stopped for a moment as she looked at each of the items and asked "Should I go clean the rest of the trophies now? Since it looks like your equipment is pretty clean from the demonstration."

If you want. As long as it gets done once every twenty-four hours I don't care when it actually gets done. As long as that is done you are free to do as you wish and move wherever you want in the ship. The only exception is my quarters, which are off limits for your sake. Yautja needed to maintain some place he could safely remove his mask, some place he could eat and breath without the pheromones taking over and making him take something without earning it first.

With that done he replaced the cloth and walked out. Moving through his ship he watched Ayame through the camera's uplinking to his mask as he made his way to his own quarters. Once their he locked the door behind him and removed his mask. As his sense of smell returned he took deep breaths before pressing a few buttons to summon his own meal, a combination of nutrition cubes and some raw meat from a being he had hunted down. He continued to watch Ayame on a security camera display as he ate however.

"Ok. I will go do it now then so I don't have to worry about it till tomorrow. And thanks for the warning." she told him quickly. And with that she left him making her way through the ship back to the trophy room. Having not noticed the cameras she worked to clean the trophies in peace quickly finishing one trophy after another. By the time Yautja had finished his meal she was almost finished, cleaning the last few trophies before heading back to her room.

Once there she spread the chiladoh pelt on the floor sitting on top of it to keep her bare skin off the cold metal floor. Placing her hands on her stomach she focused what little energy she could access to that point, trying to break the seal and restore her powers. But to Yautja it would only look like a small red glow was emanating from her body as her sealed energy struggled against the seal's power.

The fact Ayame had not noticed the cameras was not surprising. Without his mask even Yautja could not see them, and he knew exactly where each camera was. Even with the mask it was only because they provided an uplink feed could it locate them. Like the exterior weapons and defences the interior security systems were all concealed so that they would not be noticed, until it was far to late. As long as Yautja was careful Ayame would never realise he could, and probably would, be watching her for most of her stay.

As for her job cleaning the trophies, Yautja was impressed. He had slowed down his meal to watch her, but even so she cleaned hundreds of trophies fairly quickly, and she had cleaned each trophy completely. She learnt quickly, and Yautja idly wondered just how long it would take him to get used to the luxury of having her aboard, and how long it would take to break the habits that would form as a result. But that was a concern for later, for now he simply watched, curious as to how she choose to spend her time.

Yautja watched as Ayame returned to her room and placed the pelt he had given her on the floor. Once it was spread across the floor she sat down on it and seemed to meditate for some purpose. The cameras obviously had the same sensors that his mask did, and it automatically overlayed strange energies flowing around, and in some cases through, Ayame's body. Yautja was intrigued by this, but his interest soon wore thin. The let down of a hunt honour had forced him to abandon, the energy he had spent getting in and out of the fortress, and the strain of having to continue wearing his mask aboard ship had all frayed at his usually unwavering patience. Removing his mesh he placed it in its proper wall indent and settled down on his bed before closing his eyes and letting sleep claim him.

As the time rolled by, long after Yautja had gone to sleep, Ayame finally stopped what she was doing. With a short nod and a pleased expression about her progress she laid back resting her head on the soft fur of the chiladoh fur. The seal tattoo was noticeably smaller and happily she could feel her strength already starting to return. She was no where near one hundred percent however, that would take her at least a few more days if not longer but she thought it would be enough for today.

Rolling over she pulled the edge of the pelt over to cover her, prefering the expanse of the floor to the small sterile maintence bed. And with her days work done she soon drifted off to sleep resting herself for the day to come and thinking of what would happen in their days together.

When Yautja's body felt fully rested his eyes flickered open and he rose quickly out of the bed, scanning the room as he did so. An old habit that served him well when he was in the middle of a long hunt and needed to rest on planet-side, and one he didn't bother trying to break when he was aboard the Shadow Stalker. He glanced over to the security monitor and saw Ayame wrapped up in the pelt on the floor. Moving quickly he pulled his mesh bodysuit over him and replaced his mask.

Once that was done he moved through the ship towards the cockpit. Settling down in the command chair he started a long range scan of any nearby, well relatively nearby, planets or possible hunting grounds. Unusually he also put in a filter, only worlds that had naturally edible fruits. Unknown to her the ship board computer had scanned Ayame's biology and could identify for him if she would find something edible or not.

Of course it also had to house something worth hunting, or something he could later turn into a hunt such as a slaver base he could use as bait for some ADD agents. That condition would significantly cut down the number of worlds he would visit, and even with the powerful sensors aboard the Shadow Stalker ensure that it would take hours to locate a proper world.

Sleeping late after her long night Ayame woke up long after Yautja, sitting up with the pelt still wrapped around her and stretching her back. Yawning she stood up and after leaving the pelt behind she made her way to the dining room, getting some water and a small serving of the tiresome nutrition cubes. Slowly she ate taking the time to wake up before even thinking of her work to do for today.

She wasn't a morning person, that much would be obvious if Yautja was watching her from the monitors. Even if he wasn't his mask would surely tell him that it was taking her quite awhile to finish her 'breakfast'. But she worked fast so a slow start could be easily forgiven.

Yautja's mask did inform him that Ayame was awake. But while he noted that she seemed sluggish after waking up he filed it down to a psychological preference. A curious trait that would be considered a weakness by a Kali hunter, never less it was a fairly common trait. Many species, and sentient individuals, were slow to properly wake up. As for her work Yautja did not truly care when she choose to do it, as long as it was done. He was far more interested in the three possible hunts he had determined. Three jungle worlds, his favourite hunting terrain, one with a sentient species that seemed to resemble a giant lizard, while the other two had particularly dangerous predators. One was a huge beast that could rip trees straight out of the ground, while the other was stealthy, quiet, fast, and vicious. All three possibilities were predators, and all had an equal share of danger.

As he considered he pulled up the various displays of fauna on each of the world, and after reviewing the differences in plant life chose to hunt the huge beast. The world it was on had a larger amount of edible fruits for Ayame, and that would give her a much greater variety. With his hunt decided he set the course for the planet and started to move through the ship towards the dining room.

Reaching it he looked inside to see Ayame still sluggishly eating some nutrition cubes with a glass of water next to her. In four hours I will be starting my next hunt. When we land I can give you a visor that has a record of everything it has determined you can eat on the world I will be hunting on, if you want to find some things to eat yourself. If not you will have to wait until I finish my hunt and I will find some on my way back to the Shadow Stalker with the trophy.

The visor he intended to offer her was designed for a Kali female, and as such would fit Ayame well. After all, the two shared similar structure and facial features. Which was why he was so interested in her, and in humans.

Yawning as Yautja walked into the room, Ayame was only able to half-heartedly listen as he told her about his next hunt. "Okay." she told him popping a cube into her mouth and chasing it with a drink of water before adding "Yeah, I'll use the visor. Would save you some carrying on the way back if I got some things myself."

With the pile of nutrition cubes gone by now she finished the glass of water in one gulp and stood up. "Well we've got four hours so I might as well go clean the trophies now. Won't hurt to get it done early."

Yautja simply nodded and walked out of the dining room. He had to go assemble a visor, and that took time. Most of the electronics were made via a machine, but a few key components had to be made by hand. Not out of any technical reason, but out of tradition. A mask, and by extension a visor, were very powerful pieces of equipment, and not ones that were made lightly. Even if it was just to lend it, Yautja had been hesitant to provide Ayame with one. But he had seen no alternative other than gathering everything himself. And Yautja was a predator, not a herbivore, or some omnivore. To his eyes such beings were prey, and by the very act of gathering plants they proved that simple fact. It proved that they had to hunt something which could not run away, could not hide and could not fight back.

Constructing the visor would take the better part of two hours, and once it was built he would have to give it to Ayame to get used to it. He had designed it himself, and had limited a significant portion of the functions. But it still had vision and audio enhancers, and getting used to those was tricky. The sooner Ayame could start, the higher the chance she would be able to use the visor safely.

With that in mind he set the machine to work and started constructing the components that had to be hand made.

Following him out of the dining room Ayame then turned away towards the trophy room, walking quickly so she could be sure that she would have enough time to finish cleaning before Yautja's next hunt began. And as he began work on making the mask so she began her work on cleaning the trophies thinking all the while of what they would find on this planet.

Maybe his computers have told him and maybe not, but she was not just some herbivore. Her kind ate meat but her request for fruit would serve her for more then just food it would also give her seeds to use for many other purposes. Letting the thoughts drift away she concentrated her mind on the trophies making sure each of them were clean before moving through rack after rack.