Siphon

Dant gathered her wits, shrugging a sore shoulder and wiping blood from her temple with the heel of one hand. She smiled wryly across the damp clearing at the shimmering darkness that marked the position of her foe. That was twice they'd landed a blow. Strictly speaking, unforgivable.

The morning wetness of the air filled her lungs as she breathed heavily with the exertion of the fight. It tasted of loam, the deep, earthy flavor of a thousand childhood days among the trees. She studied the tilt and subtle shift of the shimmer across the clearing, knowing that her own shielded figure would be difficult to analyze through the light haze that hung in the pre-dawn air. She continued to breathe heavily, deliberately working to keep her blood oxygenated. The tooth-sac hanging against her chest shifted uncomfortably as she continued to suck in the forest air in heaving gulps. With any luck her assailant would think her weak and truly winded from the sound.

With a sudden burst of activity she lunged forward, churning dirt and last years decaying leaves into the air with the motion. Her hand pulled up against her chin as she sighted toward the shimmer of the other shield. She thought perhaps she had caught them unawares, due to the halting manner in which they returned the charge. As they approached each other in the clearing, acting more on instinct than any ability to judge, Dant's hand flickered forward like the tongue of a snake. Her shield flipped out of existence for the instant her rad-knife touched it, and she lunged desperately for the center-of-mass on her still unseen opponent. Her thrust glided harmlessly off of the dark mass of their barrier and in a blink her hand withdrew behind her own. Her speed was quick enough this time as the cudgel they responded with glanced off of her re-formed shield. Another empty exchange.

As they swung at each other Dant perceived a sluggishness, a hint of hesitation in the attack of her opponent, which had been so fast as to wound her twice just moments ago. As Dant moved to run past the shielded figure it seemed to stagger, and their shields clipped each other. Dant was thrown through the air, tumbling across the deep green clearing before her momentum was arrested by a tree. She slid to the ground with a grunt as her shield, weakened, failed to absorb the full impact of the hit, sliding into the sparse underbrush with bark falling around her. Leaves caught in her hair as she scrambled back to her feet, looking across the clearing to where the other figure had come to rest.

Their shield was damaged, as hers was. It would take several minutes for either of them to fully recharge, and in the mean time Dant wanted a look at the person who had struck her in combat. As they stood she was able to see a slender frame, not dissimilar to her own, though their shoulders were framed with nearly silver hair to contrast her own black. The figure turned, and finally Dant was able to lock her piercing emerald eyes with it.

The face that returned her gaze was much older, wrinkled around eyes still rapt with alert energy of a deepening forest green, but even framed with silver locks as it was, the face was unmistakably her own.

Dant breathed in sharply. On her very first hunt, she had found one of them. A Siphon, and beyond even that, it was her Siphon. Hundreds of square kilometers, this forest, and with maybe one or two Siphons for each person that crossed its borders. Young people were rarely able to return with any trophies at all on their first trip, usually just grateful to return alive. Adults could go their entire life and never cross paths with their own Siphon, and yet here she was. Alert, alive, somewhat bruised but still more than capable of closing with this creature, about to make a trophy of her own essence. And all on her very first hunt.

"Oh gods no," Dant heard the Siphon breath into the stillness of the morning air. "no it can't be."

"But it is," Dant replied, grinning. She felt the emptiness of the tooth-sac against her ribs, anticipating its fill.

"No, no no," the Siphon replied, desperation apparent in its voice, "You don't understand. Dant, you can't understand."

"I only need to understand one thing, Siphon," Dant spat, raising her hand to her chin, "the soul which you feed off is mine, and I'm going to reclaim it."

"That's not real," the Siphon said wearily, raising its cudgel to defend itself. Dant could read exhaustion in the movement, while adrenaline coursed through her own body.

Dant didn't bother replying to the Siphon's words, focusing instead on her next strike. With both of their shields weakened this would likely be the last exchange. Whoever landed the right blow here would be the victor. They circled each other for a time, tracing the perimeter of the misty clearing with caution.

"Don't do this, Dant," the Siphon made one more attempt at begging, "I'm not what you think I am. They've been lying to you your whole life."

With another sudden burst of activity Dant leapt forward. The look of desperate surprise on the Siphon's face made it clear who was the superior hunter. It barely managed to raise its cudgel in a poor attempt at defense before Dant's hand shot out, her knife stabbing through the damaged shield and into the Siphon's chest. The creature fell to the forest floor, gurgling on its own fluids, as Dant deactivated her shield and knelt beside it. Triumph filled her breast, watching her first kill drown on the dirt before her, desperately trying to draw a final breath. Its deep green eyes slowly began to glaze, and before a heartbeat fully fled the creature's chest, Dant lifted its shoulders up, letting the listless head flop aside to expose the hearty arteries of the neck.

She bent over the dying figure and with a tooth sharpened to a blade sliced the neck open. Her tongue guided the implant tube from her cheek until it touched the creatures skin. The instant it detected blood it came to life, following the liquid into the cut and drawing its warmth down the edge of Dant's throat. Dant felt the pulse of the implant as it drew the blood in, keenly aware of the warmth spreading against her chest where her right breast had been cut away and the tooth-sac now slowly filled.

Her very first kill, and a wicked Siphon at that. Everybody back home couldn't help but be impressed.