Posted by PK on November 12, 2002 at 16:45:49:
Sajida experienced the usual sensations as she got into costume for the run. Getting into
costume wasn't a complicated procedure, it only involved taking her clothes off, putting on
the running shoes, strapping the sheathed knife to her thigh and slipping into the straps of the
light field backpack containing rations and a small water bottle. She didn't bother with the
map and compass she was entitled to, she had been here before. She didn't bother with the
standard doeskin halter either, the weather was warm enough and if it hadn't been she might
as well have chosen jeans and a jacket. Her small breasts didn't need support. Being naked
on a run kept her alert, that was the theory, that and the fact that she'd done it this way every
other time and survived, by the skin of her teeth a couple of times.
Or, she thought, by the grace of Alanna. So, she asked herself again, why am I doing this?
A stern looking woman put her head around the door. "Out front for the viewing. Let the dog
see the rabbit."
If she heard that one more time, Sajida thought, she'd swing for the old bat. "You should
know better than that by now," she said. "I'm no rabbit."
Leo was waiting outside. The hunter was dressed in practical clothes: army surplus camos
with the usual kit. He greeted Sajida with a friendly smile. "Hi there," he said cheerily. "Ready
to go? Oh, sorry, manners." He offered a hand. "I'm Leo."
"Sajida. Charmed, I'm sure," Sajida said in cultured RP English with a hint of Jane Austen.
She took the hand and shook it briefly, surveying her opponent. He wasn't bad looking at all.
Blonde, early thirties at a guess. Quite well built, not too heavy. Hunt gear and outfit
functional looking. Possibly dangerous. She let him get a good look at her.
What Leo saw was a naked young woman with light brown skin, black hair and fine features
suggesting Indian ancestry. Her pubic hair was neat, possibly trimmed. She wasn't big, but
she looked fit, her toned musculature suggesting a dancer or a gymnast. She didn't look
scared at all. Spit muffin? That didn't seem right, somehow.
"If you don't mind my asking," he ventured, "Why are you doing this? The fee you asked for
wasn't much. You're..." he paused. "Well, frankly, better than I expected. You could get more
than that."
Sajida smiled enigmatically, or so she hoped. "Thanks," she said. "Why are you?"
"Sorry?"
"Why do you want to hunt me? What will you do if you catch me?"
Leo looked slightly embarrassed. Does one have to say these things? He shrugged. "Well, I'll
eat you of course."
"Fuck me first?" Sajida inquired bluntly, her accent reverting to plain Yorkshire.
"Not unless you want to," Leo said, now on firmer ground. "Never seen the point, myself." It
was true enough, sex with an unresponsive partner had never struck him as fun.
Sajida nodded. Approval? "Caught many girls?" She asked casually.
"Two," Leo admitted. "Only one on a blood hunt."
"Poor old you," Sajida said sympathetically. Irony?
Leo looked bemused. "So, why are you...?"
"Oh, same as you."
"?"
Sajida smiled thinly. "If I catch you, I'll eat you."
Leo was taken aback for a second, but he tried to feign nonchalance. The girl didn't seem to
be joking. "Really?" he managed at last, keeping his tone light. "You do that a lot?" Eat men,
he meant.
Sajida gave a faint, dismissive shrug. "I wouldn't say that. I've had my moments, though.
Well, nice chatting but I can't stand around all day. I'd best be off." She turned to go, briefly
turning her head back to say "Watch thissen, lad, " over her shoulder. Then she trotted off up
the hill to the woods.
Leo stared after her for a while, half entranced by the sight of her neat, enticing buttocks and
half stunned by what she had said. He did notice that she moved easily. He didn't move until
she disappeared into the trees.
Back in the lounge, Leo considered taking a stiff drink. He ordered a whisky from the bar and
then sat at a table staring at it.
"Problem, old son?"
"Um? Oh, hi Dave. No, not really.."
Dave settled comfortably into the seat opposite to him. "Got yourself another runner, eh?
Lucky sod. Live one?"
Hardly likely I'd be chasing a dead one, Leo thought inanely. Of course, Dave was asking if
the hunt was for high stakes, not just a fun run. "Yes," he said, absently.
"Double lucky sod. What's she like?"
Leo described Sajida briefly. "Spirited," he added. "Said she'd eat ME if she caught me." He
smiled wryly, sharing a joke.
Dave frowned. "What was her name?" he asked seriously. Leo told him.
"Oh," Dave said. "Better watch yourself, then."
Leo looked up from his glass. "You mean she wasn't kidding? You're not having me on, are
you?" Seeing Dave's guarded expression, he pressed. "Come on, out with it."
Dave took a pull at his beer and shrugged. "You know runners don't have to give accounts.
There are stories, though."
Leo finally took a sip of his own drink. It burned his tongue. "Don't make me drag it out of
you," he said with half-mocking menace.
"All right. Well, for one thing, she's done a few live runs for the money. Survived, obviously.
One of them involved Amanda Blake. It was a group job. Two of the hunters didn't come
back. Rumour has it that this girl killed one of them, maybe both. Of course, some people
say Blake did it all. There was an inquiry behind closed doors, but nobody was held to
account."
"The hunters, any good?"
Dave nodded. "Jack Harper. They say he was castrated post mortem. The other, Vicki
something, don't know much about her. Big girl. She got cooked."
"Anything else I should know?" Leo inquired sardonically.
"Well, this Sajida - don't know her second name - might have had something to do with
another one. Maybe two. Records withheld by request. That's all I know, really. I'm sure more
than half of it's just rumour, you know how stories get exaggerated."
"I'm sure," Leo echoed. Nobody had told him. Of course, he didn't hang around the lodge
much when he wasn't actually hunting. He had heard about a couple of hunters getting the
worst of it, but he hadn't paid too much attention. It didn't happen often but it did happen.
"Was she the one who got Ed?" He'd heard about that, at least.
"Don't believe so. That was somebody else, I think. Double hunt. Blake was involved
somehow. Elaine? No...well, I think they knew each other. Anyway, no great loss. Ed was a
right arsehole."
Elaine and Amanda? Or Amanda and Sajida? All three?
"Hey Dave," somebody said. "Thought I heard you yarning. You live here now?"
"Very funny," Dave said. The newcomer sat down uninvited. Leo saw a rangy blonde woman
in her late thirties, dressed in worn denims and a battered leather jacket. "Kate, Leo. Leo,
Kate."
"So, you're hunting The Vixen?" Kate inquired.
"The Vixen?" Jesus wept. Had he really heard the capital letters? She had a sobriquet? He
could see it in headlines: "The Vixen kills again!"
"Just a nickname," Kate said. "Brown skinned girl from Yorkshire? Cider?"
"You know her?"
"Not 'Cider'," Kate mused. "Indian name. Sy-EE-da. That's it. Yes. Well, no, not really.
Hunted her a couple of weeks ago. Just a practice run, thank God."
"Didn't catch her?" Leo inquired hopefully.
"Thought I had," Kate admitted. "And then..." She shook her head.
Sajida stopped to rest. All right. This was the time to run through all the standard doubts and
soul-searching questions, when she had nothing urgent to do. Why WAS she still doing this?
It had only started as a way to pick up some money. She'd survived a few hunts as a paid
runner by the sensible method of staying clear of trouble. The group hunt was supposed to
have been her last.
Then she'd done something stupid. She'd got involved in something that shouldn't have been
any of her business and she'd risked her life to save another runner. She'd killed a man to do
it. She didn't regret that at all, the man had been trying to kill a defenceless woman. Then
she'd done something even sillier. She'd attacked Amanda Blake to save the same woman
again. She'd lost, of course, but she'd survived.
Sajida closed her eyes and breathed. The sounds and scents of the woodland flooded in. She
had an odd sense that Alanna was with her. The idea was absurd, she didn't hold with any of
that mystical, superstitious, new age bullshit. She was a no-nonsense, hard-headed
Northerner. Why was she really doing this? Guilt? Because she hadn't tried to stop Amanda
hunting Alanna again? Ridiculous. How could she have? The score between them was even,
anyhow.
She drew her knife. Not the standard issue, it was her own, given to her by her grandfather
who had served in the War. Fighting the Japanese in Burma. For King and country.
"She was standing behind me with her knife poking my kidneys," Kate said. "Gave me a
start, I can tell you."
"I imagine it would," Leo said woodenly. Suddenly it seemed that hunters were an
endangered species. "Won't be many of us left if this goes on," he said, trying for humour. It
didn't sound funny to him.
Kate laughed anyway. "No fun without risk, eh? Good thing, if you ask me. Won't be so many
of those yuppie warrior wannabees cluttering up the place if they think it's really dangerous."
Leo had nothing to say to that. He looked at his watch. Not long now.
Sajida hadn't slept well for the whole week after the group hunt with Amanda. She couldn't
stop thinking of Alanna's being under a virtual death sentence. However many times she told
herself that Alanna would be dead now anyway if she hadn't saved her it never quite went
away. What could she have done? Well, she could have offered to run in Alanna's place. It
was no use kidding herself that she hadn't done that because Amanda wouldn't accept the
substitution. That might be true, but it wasn't the real reason. The real reason was that
Amanda would probably kill her if she did. Sajida had risked her life for Alanna twice already,
she was under no obligation to do it again. Why should she die for someone she hardly
knew? "It is a far, far better thing I do..". Sentimental crap. Logically, she knew she was right.
It still rankled. She knew that Amanda had played fairly by her own terms, and she could
respect that in theory. She still wanted to kill her. She also knew that she couldn't beat the
Huntress. It had been tried. In her own mind, she had grown a fantasy of herself as an
avenger. She would need practice to do it, of course.
Not long now. Out into the woods, where there be Tygers. Leo seriously considered going
home. He would lose by default, Sajida would get her fee without contest. Of course, he'd
never hunt again. Everybody would know he had chickened out.
Okay, think it through. Stories are stories. The girl may have killed hunters before. They had
most likely underestimated her. Take care. Don't blunder into an ambush. Catch her if you
can, if not then just get through it. Survive. What were his assets? He had the bow so he
should stay clear of close quarters unless he could see her. Hand to hand he'd be able to
outmatch her, he was bigger and stronger.
He looked at the treeline. Funny how perspective changes. Every shadow now meant
danger. Maybe Kate was right. Had he got the balls to go for it? Why did he want to, anyway?
"Oh, one more thing," Kate had said, just as he was leaving. "She's invisible."
Some time ago:
"You have to admit, you'd look good on a spit," Amanda said, and then smirked. "I'm a poet
and I didn't know it...."
Sajida couldn't resist smiling, but she gave it a severe and ironic twist. She wasn't here to
make friends with the killer, she was here to arrange a duel. To kill her.
Besides, the same thought had occurred to her. She hadn't been able to avoid thinking about
it, because that's exactly what would happen to her if she lost.
"Let's stick to the point," she said, immediately suppressing the urge to smile again at the
unintentional double entendre. "The terms..."
"Are agreeable," Amanda said agreeably. How else? "One on one. You against me. A
stalking game. Yes?"
"Yes. Equal weapons. Or rights to weapons..."
"Whatever. Both of us hunters covers it."
Sajida nodded. "Details later, to be agreed. But basically..."
"You kill me or I kill you. Got it. I'm very good at basics. Do you mind if I ask why?"
"You killed Alanna."
"And ate her. Yes. So?"
"She was my friend."
"I rather liked her myself," Amanda said. "Another round?"
"Pint of Old Peculier."
"Are you challenging me?" Amanda enquired.
"Yes," Sajida said. "I suppose you could put it like that."
"You do realise what that entails?"
"Yes," Sajida said.
"I'll rip your belly open and devour your steaming entrails before your eyes...."
"Or something similar," Sajida said. "Yes, I get the gist of it."
"Or possibly stew you."
"IF you catch me. Easier said than done."
"Boil you and serve you with mint sauce?"
"Oh, spare me. Anything but that." Sajida yawned, not at all theatrically.
"What are you going to do with me if you win?" Amanda mugged owlishly, her expression as
serious as only the seriously drunk can manage.
"Kill you," Sajida said amicably.
Amanda nodded. "Sounds fair, I'd do the same. "Eat me?"
She caught the expression on Sajida's face before she did.
Discontinuity.
Sajida had awoken in a hot sweat. Only a dream, she knew. Two days later she found out
that Alanna had survived. What bothered her was that she had taken both roles in the
dream. She didn't think Amanda ever got as drunk as Sajida/Amanda had in the dream.
Amanda wouldn't have gloated about ripping her guts out. The 'mint sauce' bit was a
reference to Asterix the Gaul. All very obvious. Freud would have loved it. At least, he might
have if he'd had a sense of humour.
Had he got the balls to go for it? Well, if he had he might not have them much longer. The
Vixen ate men. Muck or nettles time. There were only two choices: go out and tackle the
most dangerous opponent he'd ever faced or turn tail. A life and death decision; it was worth
at least thinking about for a minute. Why did he want to hunt her? Well, that was simple
enough. He wanted to eat her. It was a fetish, an erotic urge he'd had for so long he'd given
up trying to question it. The thought of devouring a beautiful woman had always excited him.
He enjoyed hunting even when he didn't catch the quarry, even when it wasn't for keeps. Just
the idea of it aroused him. Even now he wanted to catch Sajida, kill her and eat her. Did that
make him a psychopath? He had long ago accepted the fact that it made him different, but a
fantasy is just a fantasy. At least, it had been until he'd done it for real. It had disturbed him
but not enough to deter him; he knew he'd do it again if he could.
To catch and eat Sajida he'd have to accept that she might do the same to him. He closed
his eyes and visualised her.
A naked young woman with light brown skin, black hair and fine features . Pubic hair neatly
trimmed. Not big, but nicely muscled. Dancer's legs. Definitely edible. She'd look wonderful
turning on a spit. If she'd been harmless he'd have gone for her without a second thought.
He'd eaten Kirsten. So...
He'd eat Sajida. Be nice if she'd fuck him first. He imagined her limber legs wrapped around
his back, her face ecstatic just before....
"Watch thissen, lass, " he told the air in passable Yorkshire. "I'm coming." He set out for the
waiting woods.
"That's a tenner," Dave said.
Kate paid up. "Fair enough. I really thought he'd be too spooked."
"How much of that were you making up?" Dave wanted to know.
"None of it," Kate said. "Well, almost none. Some of it was anecdotal." She shrugged.
"Nobody really knows what happened."
"She really...?"
"As far as I know, yes. She's a boojum. A killer."
"Knife in your back? That bit?"
"Oh, that was all true. I didn't see her coming."
Dave bought another round out of his winnings. "Would you do it?"
"I'd fuck her any day", Kate sipped her wine. "But hunt her for real?" She smiled and shook
her head slowly. "You've got to be kidding. I'm not here for heroics."
"Another bet?"
"Say on, MacDuff."
"You think she'll get him?"
Kate considered. "Fifty quid says she survives."
"Not fair." Dave wasn't that drunk. "She only has to avoid him to do that."
"Okay, fifty says if they meet, she wins. If they don't, we're even."
Dave thought about it. "The 'invisible' bit?" he hedged.
"I didn't see her coming," Kate said again. "That's invisible enough for me."
Sajida did, in point of fact, know how to be invisible. There was nothing mystical about it as
far as she was concerned. She'd seen 'The Emerald Forest' and, while she'd quite enjoyed it,
had concluded that only a bunch of stone-age jungle bunnies could make such a big deal of
it. There was no such thing as physical invisibility, you just avoided attracting attention. Adopt
the colour of your surroundings, break up your outline. Don't wear red in a forest or black in
the snow. Be still if you think you might be seen. So much for ninja mystique. Humans see
far better than most animals, but they tend to overlook what doesn't stand out. They hear and
smell too. Don't wear cologne or make too much noise. It really was elementary, the army
jungle camouflage kit worked on the same principle. Be alert, she thought. The world needs
more lerts.
Amanda had told stories at their last encounter about her match with another woman who
had used mud and plants to the same effect. At the time, Sajida hadn't felt the need for the
technique, but she'd added it to her armoury. Would it be useful against Leo? What might be
useful was a pointed stick. She knew how Alanna had survived: she'd killed some arsehole
called Ed with one. She'd used it as a pike. There were other ways. She wanted a BIG stick,
one that could be used as a quarterstaff, but with a point on the end. She had a sharp knife
and there were plenty of trees.
Leo entered the woods. Not a sight or sound of his quarry, that was to be expected. He had
seen the direction she had taken, but it wasn't likely he could track her. He'd try anyway, but
not expect too much. If the stories were true it would be more important to watch out for an
ambush. He could live with not catching Sajida, he certainly couldn't live with her catching
him. What were his advantages? A bow, useful at distance, fuck all use at close quarters.
He'd been through that before, but it bore thinking about. What would her strategy be?
Lure him. Trick him. He had to stay alert. Take nothing at face value. Anything untoward was
a potential threat.
He turned and fumbled for the bow at a sudden sound. Across a small clearing, he saw a fox
stop and stare at him. The animal froze for one moment and disappeared into the
undergrowth. His heart raced. The idea that the fox was one of the Vixen's familars was
absurd and he knew it, but the thought crossed his mind anyway. This just wouldn't do.
Leo stopped for a breath. Okay, he thought. Clever vixen. Really dangerous, yes, she
probably is, accept that, get over it.
Sajida had always loved going to the market square. The market in Doncaster was, she knew
for a fact, the best in the world. Always changing but always fundamentally the same. It was
the heart of her town. You could go to buy anything, clothes, meat and game, fish fresh from
the sea, books, exotic spices, cheeses...anything. You could chat with the stallholders or just
watch people going by. In the summer there were street parties and festivals. You could eat a
plate of fresh mussels, pies, fish and chips a street away and watch jazz bands play off the
back of a truck. You could walk into any of a dozen pubs and have a beer in a minute or two.
Today it was lost on her. Today, Alanna was out there being hunted and killed. She couldn't
enjoy herself. All she wanted to do was get it over with, find out if Alanna had by some
unlikely chance survived.
The White Swan on Frenchgate wasn't far away. Sajida gave in to temptation. She got
pissed as a rat. The next day she spent recovering from a blinding hangover and working up
the courage to phone the number she'd got from Alanna after the hunt party and never used.
She didn't expect an answer.
Somebody picked up the phone. Beat.
"Hello?"
"Alanna?" Sajida's heart skipped again.
"Yes?"
"It's me...um...Sajida."
"Oh.....oh....yes, sorry. Should have guessed, you sound a bit different on the phone. Nice to
hear from you. How are you?"
"Not s' bad, thanks." Yorkshire for anything from good health to terminal disease. Sajida
considered asking the same - "Ha's thissen?" - but what she said was "You made it, then."
"Barely," Alanna said, a hint of a rueful smile in her voice. "But yes. I'm fine."
Obviously. "Sorry I didn't call before," Sajida said miserably.
"That's okay," Alanna said. "I didn't expect it. It really is nice of you to call."
"I didn't know what to say," Sajida said. Alanna's pleasant voice recalled her face. Her
kindness and quiet courage.
"That's all right," Alanna said. "I couldn't blame you. I wouldn't either. Know, I mean. What to
say."
"I should have done something," Sajida said.
"There was nothing you could do," Alanna said. "Nothing you could have done."
"I could have helped. I could have tried..."
"And got yourself killed? I'm glad you didn't. Anyway, you did help."
"Right. By sitting on my arse and letting you.."
"Sye, you saved my life. Once. One and a half times? How many more times do you need?
Besides, I knew you were with me."
"With you?"
"On the hunt."
"You're losing me."
"It's a long story and you won't believe any of it. I know you don't....well....look, let's talk later.
I'm going back to bed."
Sajida had the big stick just about the way she wanted it, or at least as nearly as she could
with the tools and time she had. Adherents of the fashionable oriental martials arts tend to
overlook that fact that the art of hitting people with sticks or pointy things, or indeed nothing
at all, has been well known in Britain for a very long time. A Saxon sword was at least as well
made as the Japanese equivalent it predated and quarterstaff fighting was Kendo with balls.
She would have a good chance against Leo with the stick against his knife, he had the iron
edge and the muscle but she had the reach and the clout. The bow was another matter.
She'd have to avoid letting get a clear shot. He didn't look as useless as some of the hunters
she'd seen, he might know how to use it. Time to move out of range.
Leo picked up Sajida's trail not once but several times. It teased him, giving clues and then
disappearing. There was a reason for that which became obvious the third time it happened
and he'd had to cast around to pick up the trail again.
Okay, he thought, looking up. She can climb. She's using the trees. Think. She's lighter than
me and has a better power to weight ratio. Can't follow her up there. Thinking back, he
reviewed her physique. Yes, she'd be good in the treetops, but she couldn't skip from tree to
tree when he was close. She wasn't an elf, she couldn't do that without making the branches
move and that would be a giveaway. She couldn't move as fast as on the ground, she'd be a
target if he was in range.
Of course, she'd know that. Why? Because she'd survived so far. And because he couldn't
afford to assume that she didn't. That way lay Sajida having his balls for dinner. It was an
odd thought. It might really happen. Odder yet, the idea sent a shiver through his ruder
chakras that might be interpreted as excitement.