Yuahro: The Second Predator Who Hunted Dutch
Yuahro was a Youngblood Yautja in Bryan Thomas Schmidt's Aftermath, published in Predator: Eyes of the Demon in 2022. In September 1987 he made his first solo hunt in Pisgah National Forest, near Mount Mitchell in North Carolina, after Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer survived the Jungle Hunter in Val Verde. Dutch wounded him with a Remington 700 and a knife. His father T'an'tath extracted him alive after the hunter ship opened fire on OWLF teams.
First Solo Hunt
Yuahro came from a line of honored hunters, with no bad bloods in that family record. His unnamed mother worried because he was younger than most who went out alone. T'an'tath treated that youth as family blood and sent him anyway. The mountain woods were picked to keep him away from people. Humans were the harder test, and T'an'tath judged him not ready for that prey.
Other clans used different blooding rites. For his clan, a pile of animal trophies would have been enough to mark him as a full hunter when his father came back the following night. He had hunted those slopes for two days and nights. The cold forced Yuahro to sleep on his shuttle instead of in the trees. Mesh netting on his limbs did not hold the heat.
Pisgah, September 1987
Dutch was at Mountain Home, the VA hospital in Johnson City, Tennessee, after the Val Verde hunt. He had radiation sickness from the Jungle Hunter's device. Blond Peter Keyes of the OWLF and his aide Garber wanted that first hunter treated as salvage, and Dutch would not. On 12 September 1987 he taped a statement as insurance against the same government that had sent his team in.
News from Pisgah National Forest, an hour or two south near Asheville and Mount Mitchell, reported a bear and a mountain lion skinned, skulls and spines taken, and no shells on the ground. Dutch faked a food outburst, choked an orderly long enough to drop him, and left the man alive in the bathtub with a hoarded tranquilizer. He took keys, ID, and a uniform, then left the locked ward.
Diner talk pointed him at Mount Mitchell. He took an unlocked pickup with a scoped Remington 700 and keys above the visor. On the mountain he found clawed prints, broken branches, a bear carcass, and a skinned boar hung from a tree. Green blood on the bark showed the boar had wounded the hunter.
Fight With Dutch
Overnight Yuahro added three smaller animals and two medium ones, including a fighting dog and a tusked animal that gored his thigh. He sealed that wound and wore the scar. A large brown cat stalked him from the branches. He dropped his cloak so the cat could see him, then killed it with wristblades after it tore his forearm and scratched his chest. He wanted harder prey than those animals, against his father's warning.
Dutch reached the clearing while Yuahro and a bobcat were on the ground. Federal voices and a chopper passed overhead. Yuahro cut the bobcat's throat, then tore the spine and skull free. Dutch shot him in the shoulder, then in the thigh. Yuahro dropped the trophy and ran at him. Blue bursts from the shoulder cannon set trees and brush on fire as Dutch pulled back.
They closed with Dutch's hunting knife against the wristblades, and green blood showed where the knife hit. Yuahro cut Dutch's forearm, then cloaked again on the slope. After Dutch refused to fight a hidden target, Yuahro dropped the cloak. A fallen branch hit him in the face, and Dutch buried the knife in a shoulder. Yuahro ripped the blade out, threw it aside, punched Dutch in the stomach, and cut him across the chest. Keyes wanted both men alive, and teams with M24s moved into position.
Extraction
T'an'tath's ship came in over the mountain and opened fire. Agent Pereira died when a blast opened his chest. The federal chopper nearly went down. Yuahro broke off the ground fight and ran for the ramp. Dutch threw the knife at his back. T'an'tath knocked it aside with a caster shot, then both hunters fired together. Dutch boarded Keyes's chopper under that fire, then stepped off the skids as it lifted. Yuahro went up the ramp wounded and alive. The ship left firing warning bursts as it cleared the field.
Appearance And Weapons
From the ground, Yuahro looked far larger than a man, with a mesh harness, armor, and a bio-mask that kept the bobcat off his throat. He hunted cloaked, dropped the shroud so the cat could see him, then used it again when he ran for the ship. Green blood ran from the rifle hits and from the boar gouge in his thigh. He had sealed that earlier wound himself. His main ranged weapon was the shoulder cannon that fired blue plasma. Up close he used wristblades. He hung animal trophies on his chest and waist, and he took the bobcat's spine and skull in one pull before Dutch's first shot.
Confirmed Kills
Every named kill on this hunt was an animal. No human death in Aftermath is shown as Yuahro's.
- Named humans: 0. Agent Pereira was killed by T'an'tath's ship, not by Yuahro.
- Trail and news carcasses: a bear and a mountain lion, skinned, with skulls and spines taken.
- Yuahro's own trophies: a large cat, an antlered animal, a fighting dog, a tusked boar that gored his thigh, and a bobcat.
- Overnight count: three smaller animals and two medium ones, including the dog and the boar.
T'an'tath had told him to stay off humans, and the site was chosen so he could do that. The fight with Dutch was the first time that rule broke down, and Yuahro left without a human trophy.
Conclusion
Yuahro was the Youngblood who made his first solo hunt in Pisgah National Forest in September 1987, after Dutch had survived the Jungle Hunter. Dutch wounded him with the Remington and a knife. T'an'tath extracted him alive, and he left Earth without a human kill.
Appearances
- Predator: Eyes of the Demon, "Aftermath" by Bryan Thomas Schmidt (2022)
Tag Categories: Individual Predators | Predators From The Novels | Historical Predator Hunts | Predator Lore
