Vengeance

The woman reminded him of the timid marmosets. Unlike the monkeys, she was out of her element. He let her get quite close, and, with the faintest of sighs, shifted, alerting her to his presence.

She spoke hesitantly at first, telling her story. Ten years ago, her grandmother stood in the village, defiant, glaring. The father laughed, but the son returned that night, drunk and angry. The old woman, pushed down, didn't get up.

For an instant, he wished savagely that he'd twisted his blades when the man charged him, offered him a slower, more agonizing journey to the darkness for the son who hadn't changed.

She held her palm out, revealing a pendant coiled, sparkling in the moonlight. Her grandmother's. Tell her, she whispered. Tell her he is dead. She can rest now.
He hesitated, unwilling to deceive her, but to be known was death. Better the villagers believed the spirit myth.
Her dark eyes reflected the moonlight. "Please."
His fingers barely brushed her skin as he lifted the pendant. He slid it over his own head without displacing his hood, and settled it around his neck, where it lay, cold, beneath the edge of his shell.

Her errand complete, she didn't look back. From the trees, a bird called its lonely song into the empty night.

A/N: Sorry, guys, it's been a while. And yes, I'm going out of order. And I went over the 200 word limit a little on this one. Well, I'm writing again. Doing my best to be more consistent. To get my groove back. Real life has really smacked me around the past couple years. It's taken my muse a while to start fighting back.

This one's set in the 2k7 movie-verse.