Hin'tui: The Hotel Mariposa Predator

Name: Hin'tui
Species: Yautja
Sex: Male
Role: Lone hunter seeking to restore his clan's honor
Known for: Xenomorph hunt at the Hotel Mariposa
Setting: Hotel Mariposa, New England (Gorath Pun'tila)
First appearance: Aliens vs. Predators: Ultimate Prey, "The Hotel Mariposa" (2022)
Status: Alive, left Earth by ship
Weapons: Cloak, wristblades, sword
Confirmed kills: None shown. He wounded the adult Xenomorph that Carol killed.

Hin'tui was a male Yautja in David Barnett's The Hotel Mariposa, published in Aliens vs. Predators: Ultimate Prey in 2022. He came to a closed hotel in New England to hunt Xenomorphs and bury the shame on his clan after his mother was sent on a desert long walk. He spared the pregnant Carol, used her as bait, saved her from the adult Xenomorph, and let her strike the killing blow with his sword. He then went back inside for the corpse and the eggs and left by ship.

Biography

Waiting At Gorath Pun'tila

The Hotel Mariposa was built in a bowl of land in New England over a scar from the sixteenth century. The scar was left by a crashed ship, not a meteor, and its failing ship, with a cargo of Xenomorph eggs, was still buried under the hotel. The drive folded the halls, changed room numbers, and turned a smashed window back into brick. The Yautja called the ground Gorath Pun'tila, the place where nothing is as it seems. Hin'tui had waited there for two days for a hatching to line up with human hosts.

He already carried two trophies when he reached the hotel. His reason for the hunt was family honor. His mother had been sent on a desert long walk, and Hin'tui hunted to bury that shame on his clan. He came alone to Gorath Pun'tila, the ground his people treated as a place where nothing could be trusted to stay the same. The Xenomorphs that would hatch from the human hosts in the hotel were the prey he meant to take home to answer for her.

Hunting With Human Bait

Carol, Cade, and Ben locked themselves into the closed hotel to film a Halloween special of American Spook-Chasers. Ben said hands came out of a toilet and grabbed his face, and by morning his chest had been torn open from the inside by a Chestburster. The ship's damaged gravity drive kept Carol and Cade from finding a way out. The two of them were left inside the hotel with the hatching Hin'tui had waited for. He stayed hidden under his cloak while the crew searched the halls.

Hin'tui then dropped the cloak and showed himself to Cade on purpose, using him as bait. An adult Xenomorph found Cade in a utility room and ripped his face off. The hunter did not save him. Ben was already dead, so Carol was now the last of the three crew members still alive in the hotel. Hin'tui had used both men in his hunt, Ben as a host for the hatching and Cade as bait to bring the adult Xenomorph out into the open where he could fight it.

Sparing Carol

When the Xenomorph turned on Carol, Hin'tui would not let it kill a pregnant woman. Carol jammed a mop into its mouth, and he cut off its tail. He still used her as bait, setting her running through the halls to draw the creature out. When it attacked again he overpowered it, and once it lay dying he offered her his sword. Carol used it to kill the adult Xenomorph, protecting a child she had not known she was carrying. Ben and Cade were dead, and Carol and Hin'tui were the only two left alive when the fight in the hotel ended.

Leaving The Hotel

Hin'tui and Carol reached the sunlit forecourt of the hotel together. The buried drive thrummed, and the two of them shared a vision of both their mothers before the images faded. He then went back inside for the Xenomorph's corpse and the eggs still under the hotel. Carol took the key to the crew's station wagon and decided to vanish rather than go home. Beyond the trees she saw a ship lift off on a column of fire, and Ben and Cade were left dead in the hotel behind her.

Appearance And Weapons

Few physical details were given for Hin'tui beyond his cloak and the two trophies he already carried. He came armed only with his wristblades and a sword, to test his skill in close combat, and he gave the sword to Carol for the final blow. No shoulder cannon, mask, or clan name was described for him. The ship Carol saw lift off on a column of fire beyond the trees was not described in any detail. He went back into the hotel for the dead Xenomorph and the eggs still under it before that ship left.

Behind The Scenes

The Hotel Mariposa was written by David Barnett for the 2022 Titan Books anthology edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt and Jonathan Maberry. It mixed a ghost-hunting television setup with an Alien hatching and a lone hunter. The buried ship's gravity drive explained the haunted-hotel effects, from folding halls to the shared vision of the two mothers. The story tied the hunter and Carol together through their mothers. His mother's shame drove his hunt, and Carol's new child drove her to kill the Xenomorph after he refused to let it kill her. His refusal to let a pregnant woman die matched the wider Yautja honor code.

Conclusion

Hin'tui was the hunter who waited two days at the Hotel Mariposa for Xenomorphs to hatch in human hosts. He hunted to bury the shame his mother had brought on his clan. He used Cade as bait, spared the pregnant Carol, cut the tail from the adult Xenomorph, and handed her his sword for the kill. After a shared vision of their mothers, he went back for the corpse and the eggs and left Earth by ship, with Carol watching from beyond the trees.