Unexpected Encounter [Ask]

[Jiang Winters]

It was starting to get late, and Samanya was beginning to feel sleepy. After spending a couple hours at a dingy hospital getting her wound treated, the young cathar departed the hospital and started making her way to an air bus station. Luckily, she was in a higher level of Coruscant now, and while still far below the glistening upper levels of the city, the level was fairly well-lit and safe, so she was no longer worried about getting jumped by thugs like the ones who had attacked and wounded her in the lower levels.

Granted, the level was safer, but there were still plenty of scruffy-looking spacers and a few vagabounds kicking around. It was simply that most everyone was armed, and the bandits and gangs of the lower levels didn't dare press their luck with the rowdy groups of pilots wandering between clubs. The most she had to worry about was someone trying to press their luck with her - something she was certainly not in the mood for anymore.

She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her cargo pants as she shivered slightly, the cold Coruscant wind nipping at the cathar's body. She still hadn't grown accustomed to the chilly night air of the city-world, and it didn't help that her physiology was more suited towards savanna and jungle worlds.

After walking for what felt like hours - in reality only half an hour - she saw the air bus station up ahead. She'd take it to another station closer to the hideout, then walk the rest of the way back to her home with the Crew. Little did she know, a most unexpected encounter was imminent.

 

[Gambler]

As usual, the cold wind of Coruscant dusted up against Feron's graying fur, sending slight goosebumps up along his mocha skin. The large, Cathar breathed a shivering sigh and continued on, limping slightly on his right leg. A few passersby looked up at the obviously trained warrior and looked away when they saw the scars that littered his arms and chest. And Feron was growling lowly under his breath at his luck. Sometimes a few coherent phrases were understandable, but mostly they were the unchanging litany "I need to find Kam... I... need... to... Kam.... Kam...." His words were soft and pitched so low that not even a bith would be able to understand him, but the way walked and the look in his obsidian eyes was unmistakable.

He passed by quite a few large buildings on his way up and once a man tried to stop him. The fool even grabbed onto his arm and demanded a toll. One heavy right cross dropped the idiot to the ground and barring his unpolished phrik claws calmed the man's temper a bit and even lightened his skin a few shades. In all truth, Feron didn't really know what was happening. He felt like he was hallucinating and that everything was moving both in first person and in third person. Not even his thoughts made any sense, but he clung to the same thought desperately: find Kam. That was the last thing left in his life.

As he turned another corner he slammed roughly into another person, but this one was different than the others. Instead of going to the ground, this person, another Cathar, actually hit Feron's scarred leg, sending tremors of pain through the former slave's body. He was about to growl out a curse and rip the throat out of whoever hit him when he saw the eyes of the person who hit him. Confusion darted across his mind as he saw the reflection of his friend. "Kam?" He asked, his voice thin and wavering as he stooped down low, defeated.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Samanya shivered again as she kept walking. She just wanted to get home, take a hot shower, and crawl into her bunk and sleep for twelve hours straight. That was the extent of her ambition, now that her hopes of a relaxing night had been shot down... Rather literally, now that she thought about it.

The station wasn't terribly far ahead anymore; she could even see the ugly gray shoebox-like airbus docked up ahead. She took her hands out of her pockets and kicked up her pace to a light jog, her boots making rhythmic click-clacks against the hard duracrete street as she moved along at a speedy clip... Up until a massive, dark-furred cathar rounded a corner, harshly ramming into her as she moved. She yelped and stumbled, her boot smacking the cathar's injured leg as she was knocked out of his way.

"Hey!" She growled, whirling around and glaring at the individual who had hit her, her sapphire blue eyes slightly narrowed as she stared up at the much taller, much more massive feline male... Who, for some very strange reason, called her by the pet name her mother had often used for her father. Kam.

"Kam?" She asked, slightly quirking her head as her gaze softened, a baffled expression working its way across her soft facial features - an expression that was very similar to the bamboozled expression that appeared on her father's face whenever he was confused. "Uhm , no, I'm not 'Kam'. My name's Samanya. Samanya Nadiyya Mohatu."

It was strange, this cathar looked familiar. Her father used to have an old 2-d picture of a dark-furred cathar teen in his office, back on Balmorra. That teen looked rather like this man. Maybe they were one and the same? Or maybe that brandy she had drunk was having delayed effects, despite the detox drugs she had taken at the hospital that were supposed to have flushed the final traces of alcohol from her system.

"Who are you?" The young woman finally asked, planting her hands on her hips as she locked gazes with the older cathar, patiently awaiting some sort of insightful clue as to who he was.

 

[Gambler]

"Nadiyya...." Feron repeated, his gaze going soft. Nadiyya was Kam's mother and the closest thing Feron ever had to a family besides the drunk hunter he had to call a "father. At first the obsidian furred Cathar thought it merely coincidence until he recalled everything about Kam he had held dear. Every expression and twitch of the eye he had thought about in his slavery. The only thing he could hold on to was the friend he had betrayed to save his own life. "You... I... Nadiyya was... my...." He couldn't continue as buried emotions and memories came back to haunt him.

"I... am Feron... Feron Nial. Kam... Nadiyya's son... was... is my friend. We knew each other.... twenty years ago?" He asked, not so sure about how long he had been in slavery. He thought that it was twenty years, but how could one be sure when such a lapse in time occurred? Feron wouldn't have been surprised if fifty years had gone by had he not desperately tried to count away the days during his slavery. He blinked twice and looked down at the young Cathar before he could think of a way to continue. She was so much like Kam that he had a hard time thinking of her as... what did she say her name was? Samanya? But what was that Mohatu she ended with? Kam's name was always Jamall Hakim.

He cocked his head to the side quizzically as if that would reveal some hidden insight. Shed some light on this new mystery. For a moment it seemed as if he was younger without the weight of a second slavery or betraying his dearest friend. For a moment he felt like the hunter that had walked the surface of Balmorra with such surety and grace, defying all dangers and all but taunting the predators to take a try at him. And then the moment passed and his eyes unfocused, moisture beginning to form on them. But he didn't shed a tear.

With that clinging ghost of his former self reappearing, Feron felt a new confidence. Maybe he had found something. The purpose to his life, finding Kam, might not be all that was out there. And then he slumped again, hopelessly. "Who was your father? Do you know Hakim?"

 

[Jiang Winters]

Samanya didn't know much about her middle name, only that it had belonged to the mother of her father. He was very reluctant to speak of her, probably to avoid digging up any painful memories left of her, as she had apparently been murdered.

She folded her hands together in front of her, lightly rubbing them together to keep her fingers from getting cold as she gazed up at the muscular cathar, now identified as Feron Nial, watching the expressions playing out upon the dark-furred male's face. She couldn't help but feel sympathy for him; he seemed very much so like another of the galaxy's innumerable lost souls.

The way he spoke and how his expression had softened when she spoke her middle name told her that the name Nadiyya held significance for him. Perhaps he had known her father's mother at some point in the past? Were that not enough of a clue, his next phrase was certainly a give-away. Apparently, Feron Nial knew someone named Kam - presumably her father - twenty years ago. The way he spoke was slightly hard to follow, but she managed.

Samanya furrowed her brow as she started fitting together the pieces of the puzzle, only partly paying attention to the emotions playing out across Feron's face as she thought, only to be interrupted when he spoke again, questioning her on who her father was.

"My father is Jamall Kamua Mohatu of Balmorra." She replied automatically, picking her head up and slightly cocking her head to the side as she once again met Feron's gaze. "He... Used to go by the name 'Hakim'... I think? He didn't speak much of those days, he seemed to want to just bury them and move on."

 

[Gambler]

At first Feron didn't know what to think. He was speechless at what he just learned. This young Cathar was... Kam's daughter? He blinked once, trying to sort out what that could entail. "Then you are Kam's daughter. Maybe he told you about me. Feron. I was his friend when he grew up on Balmorra and when he joined the Free Trade Alliance," He said, rapidly coming back to himself. Now that he new who he was talking to and that he might yet get a chance to meet his old fried, Feron's confidence and grace began to return. He stood up straighter and a new light played in his eyes. Deadly confidence rather than the brooding despair it was a few seconds ago. Kam is alive. I did not fail, He thought, knowing that he didn't betray his friend and that by sacrificing himself to the slavers Kam was able to get away without probably ever realizing what happened.

"I left your father twenty years ago shortly after we were reunited by the Free Trade Alliance. At first I didn't recognize him, but then we shared stories and he came to learn of my... my... slavery," He stuttered the last word as if unable to speak that unspoken truth: he had been a slave. Twice in a single life where most people either die the first time or are never slaves except in mind. At that moment in time Feron truly wished for a mirror and a comb to fix his appearance to the neat, sleek look he used to wear so proudly. He ran a phrik clawed hand tenaciously through his mane, wondering how much he would have to cut to get it back to normal.

And then that thought ended with a gust of chilling wind that brushed against his bare chest, reminding him exactly how cold it was and that he was only wearing silken pants and boots without a shirt in this cold weather. He shivered slightly at the sensation but otherwise he looked much better than he had a few moments ago. "Tell me, where is Kam now? I need to see him and explain things. I need to make right what I had so long ago screwed up so terribly."

 

[Jiang Winters]

Samanya listened closely as the cathar, Feron, spoke. So, this man had known her father? But what was this... 'Free Trade Alliance' he spoke of? Her father had been an independent freighter pilot, nothing more, nothing less. Though her mother had hinted at him being involved in a few less-than-legal activities. But he had never been involved with smuggling or with any 'Alliance' as far as she knew... But then again, her father had to have earned his fighting prowess - both in the cockpit of his ship, the Tien, and on the ground - somewhere, and the life of a smuggler would have certainly given her father those skills.

And Feron Nial had also been a slave, it seemed. She shuddered at the prospect; while she was young and pretty, making her a favorite plaything of her owners, Nial seemed very strong and also very dangerous if provoked. It was likely that whoever had owned him had worked him to the bone, and then some. Though granted, there were some times that she thought being worked to the brink of death was a more more merciful thing than being a toy for some depraved slaver. At the very least, it was less humiliating.

She forced those thoughts from her mind as Feron questioned her on her father's location. "Believe me, if I knew where he was, I'd tell you. But I haven't seen my father, or any of my family, for just over four years now. You see, I was... Kidnapped when I was sixteen. Taken by slavers. I only earned my freedom a short while ago. I've tried to get in touch with my father since I was freed, but the comms number I have for the family house doesn't work anymore."

Samanya managed to work up a very Kam-like apologetic smile as she shrugged. "I don't know what else to tell you. I can give you the address of where we lived, but if the comms number has changed, then there's a fair chance my family's moved. I'd search for them myself, but I barely have two hundred and fifty credits to my name. I could get to Balmorra, but I couldn't come back, and at least if I stay on Coruscant, I'm guaranteed shelter and pay, so long as I stick with my current job."

 

[Gambler]

Feron started to feel a kinship of sorts to Samanya as he heard that she too had been taken by slavers at a young age. He wanted to ask her how she escaped so quickly when he had been a slave for over thirty years, but he similarly didn't want to bring up such lurid memories. He knew from experience what scars slavery left on the mind. He was still dealing with his recent one. Shaking that thought from his mind, Feron sized the younger Cathar up and actually looked at her for the first time. Her eyes were different than Kam's, as was her size, but she moved like him. Yet she was unmistakably different than his long time friend.

"That is alright. I never expected to find Kam anyway. I thought he had died on Kuar when the slavers came for easy prey. But I guess the sacrifice of my leg and my freedom wasn't in vain and Kam actually escaped. Probably forgetting all about his friend for the last twenty years," He said, something dark and hidden behind those words. If one knew Feron (which Samanya didn't) he or she would recognize that something troubled him. If that person didn't know Feron, he or she would think he wanted to hurt his old friend.

Memories flashed back, held at bay by the remembrance of a whip digging into his flesh. Whenever he tried to think of how he was caught the memory came with a double edged knife. He would smile as he remembered Kira, the daughter of the crazed captain yet grimace as that memory was tore away with another one of pain and suffering. And this time, before he could do either, another thought crossed his mind for the first time: Kam had a daughter? Kam?!

"Who is your father married to? It would take some woman to hold down that man. I remember even from our days on Balmorra that he always wanted to try something new. I also remember what he kept under the bed on the Tien..." He laughed deeply at that. Oh yes, he definitely remembered those "pictures" Kam had offered to show him. Evanescent as a candle in an icy gale, Feron immediately switched trains of thought. "And if you need help with work... I could always help you out. Anything for the daughter of my closest friend."

 

[Jiang Winters]

Samanya felt some concern well up as Feron spoke of what had happened to separate him from her father. She felt like there was something dark tucked inside his final words... Did he want to harm her father for leaving him behind on the planet he spoke of, Kuar? She shivered at the thought; this cathar was very powerfully built, if something on the raggedy and unkempt side. He could seriously injure - or worse, kill - her father before anyone could intervene.

But before she could speak up to try to defend her father's actions - which it was probably good that she didn't have a chance, as she had no idea how to defend his actions - Feron jumped topics, asking who her father had married, and and then even offering to help her with her work.

"My dad married Naiya Swift. She's an archaeologist, and an explorer. She's a very, very strong woman, but she's also really fun and kind. Dad always told me I looked - and occasionally acted - just like my mother." Samanya began, as she fondly recalled her mother. The way she smiled and laughed, how she was quietly confident and intelligent, how she could spend hours and hours trying to figure out a puzzle, and the way she tended to chase her father around the kitchen with a frying pan whilst threatening bodily harm on him if he didn't take out the garbage, the way both of them would laugh over every chase...

Samanya laughed softly as she recalled one of the more epic frying-pan-chases, which had ended with her father getting bopped on the head after splashing water all over Naiya. Her parents really could be just a couple of big kids at times... She wondered if her kidnapping had dulled that fun-loving aspect both mother and father had shared.

She reluctantly pushed those thoughts away, as she addressed the cathar's offer. "To... Tell you the truth I'm working in a profession that my father wouldn't be proud of. I work as a soldier for the Sontrebren Crew, a... Gang or mafia, for lack of a better description." She admitted. "I'm not really sure if you'd want to help with that. But if you do, that's great."

 

[Gambler]

Feron shrugged as if it didn't really matter. And indeed, to him it didn't matter where Samanya worked. The mere fact that she was a lifeline to Kam earned her his respect and loyalty. To a degree at least. The rest she was going to have to earn. But, Feron admitted, if she was anything like her father then she would come to earn that final degree of unspoken respect and loyalty in no time. "I do not mind though that is a dangerous profession you work," He commented absently, running a clawed hand across his cheek where he felt the two inch scar dragging down from his eye. He didn't know why he touched the scar at that moment, but he did it without truly thinking.

"Very dangerous and your father wouldn't approve. But then again, he is the one that joined the Free Trade Alliance as a smuggler and was supposed to train me in that profession once I escaped slavery the first time," He all but laughed. "I could tell you a hundred stories about your father though I don't think you would like to hear some of them. He is a good man from what I recall, and I hope he hasn't changed much over the years. Have you not had any contact with him since your kidnapping? The Kam I remember would have been heartbroken and searched until he found you.

 

[Jiang Winters]

"My father... Was a smuggler?" Samanya repeated. "Wow. Guess that explains a lot." She chuckled mostly to herself, as she thrust her hands back into the pockets of her cargo pants, before speaking up again. "No, I haven't seen or heard from my father - or any member of my family - in four years. I know my dad is stubborn, but there's only so much one man can do, especially in a place as large as the Republic. Realistically, he couldn't search for me for very long. That was something I had to come to terms with while I was a slave."

The cathar then paused and lightly bit her lower lip as she thought. "Actually, erm... That's not quite true. I did... Sort of see one member of my family a couple weeks ago. My twin brother, Jamall. Not see, as in, see him with my own eyes, but... I felt him. Through the force. It was very brief, though, so I don't know whether I imagined it or if I actually sensed him." She smiled sheepishly and shook her head briefly. "I probably imagined it, because I haven't felt it again since." She added in.

The cathar woman stole a glance over her shoulder at the airbus station, then turned her gaze back to Feron as she took her hands out of her pockets and turned slightly, to start walking to the airbus. "C'mon, let's take the airbus. We can talk more on the way to where I live."

 

[Gambler]

Now that just about everything was literally on the table, Feron felt an odd sensation. Not joy or despair, nor any median in between the two. Just... realism and the pragmatism life forces on a person. "Yes, your father was a smuggler for a while. Apparently ever since he got off Balmorra when his father killed Nadiyya and almost turned him to the 'dark side'. I don't truly care about the Force, personally. Nor do I care about justice or fairness since if the universe was fair and just I would never have been a slave, Nadiyya would never have been killed and I wouldn't have been abandoned at birth to be raised by an abusive drunk," Feron retorted in a vitriolic tone though the acid in his tone was obviously not directed at Samanya but rather at his personal inner demons.

"Ah... yes, we should get out of this wind. You might catch a chill," He said almost sternly, another gust of wind sending goosebumps along his bared chest, showing his bravado for what it was.

 

[Jiang Winters]

"And we wouldn't want that, would we?" Samanya replied in an upbeat tone, as she gestured for him to follow as she started to walk on. He had given her a lot to think about regarding her father. And he had created a lot of questions for her to ask her father... Unfortunately, those queries would have to wait until she could find him. If she could find him.

It didn't take long to reach the airbus station and board the docked bus. Luckily, the airbus was relatively empty, and so it wasn't hard for Samanya to find a private seat near the back of the long, rectangular bus. She sat down on the left side of the bus and scooted over to the window seat, then patted the seat beside her, inviting Feron to sit down. If her father had counted him among his friends, than he was probably someone she could trust to a fair degree.

"It won't take long to get to my place. Twenty or thirty minutes, tops." She explained, as the bus shuddered when its engines fired up and it left the station, flying along to its destination.

 

[Gambler]

Feron sat down and tried to relax. His arm draped over the back of the seat, a massive paw coming to rest right in front of some Twi'lek's face. The alien started to complain, but Feron turned his head and narrowed his eyes, stifling any unvoiced complaint. His legs splayed out in front of him widely and under another seat where his feet sat inches apart. Even sitting as he was the large panther-like Cathar didn't slouch. His back was slightly stiff and his head forward as if he was uncomfortable. And indeed he was. Generally speaking, Feron didn't trust the driver not to take him someplace... unpleasant as was his past experienced. At least this time I'm not in chains, He reflected silently.

After a while he turned his head slightly to look down at Samanya. Still a few moments passed before he said anything. It seemed like he was deciding exactly what to say or how to phrase his words. "Twenty to thirty minutes? Where do you live that I would have to ride such an atrocity for such a length of time?" He asked curtly, obsidian eyes boring deeply into crystalline blue orbs.

[OOC: Sorry for the short reply. Listening to "Remedy" -Seether, not much inspiration for writing lol]

 

[Jiang Winters]

Samanya interlaced her fingers behind her head and crossed one leg over the other as she made herself comfortable in the seat, while watching out of the corner of her eye as Feron tried to get comfortable in the seat. He was just like this one Kasa Horansi - a tiger-like feline creature- she had sat besides once. The poor male just couldn't get comfortable, and it didn't help that the seat's back wasn't designed to accommodate his tail or his sheer physical size.

As Feron addressed her, Samanya glanced up at him, ears perking slightly as he spoke. "Well, if you don't like flying, you can always jump out and walk." She replied in a joking tone, smirking briefly before piping up again and saying, "I live a pretty good distance from where we met. About... Seventy kilometers. Its too far to walk, the air bus is the quickest and cheapest way - not to mention safest - way to travel." She explained.

 

[Gambler]

Feron could have laughed when Samanya mentioned "safe". As far as the large Cathar was concerned, nothing was truly "safe" and yet at the same time he wasn't worried about anyone trying to stop him. For, truly, who would want to rob a large, feral looking vagabond who didn't appear to have a credit to his name? But he merely shrugged and sat back further, the bottom of his shoulder blades coming to rest on the top of the seat.

"Still, it is quite a while to be traversing alone. What do you do for your... ah... 'mafia' that requires you to come so far away from your home? Usually such work is just smuggling drugs or illicit weapons across town or killing some fool who didn't pay his rent," Feron said in a condescending tone, leaving no question on his opinion about the criminals Samanya called allies. In his opinion, criminals ranked close to mercenaries: untrustworthy and not worth the time to spit in their direction much less the conflict they always elicited from everyone.

 

[Jiang Winters]

"Oh, we do a lot more than just little things like that." Samanya replied, closing her eyes as she relaxed to try to make the journey go by faster. "But most of the time, I don't have to do much on Coruscant. So far everything I've had to do is off-world. I'll explain it all later, I promise. But right now I'm absolutely exhausted; getting shot and chased around the lower levels tends to do that to me. I doubt I'd give you a good explanation of... Well, anything really. Once we get there, though, if you want to sign on, I'll try to explain everything in full" She added in.

[ooc: Sorry it's short.]

 

[Gambler]

The time went by quite silently after that. Well, besides from the whrr of the airbus's engine and the talk of the moderately spaced passengers. Feron crossed his arms over his massive chest and closed his eyes, relaxing into a sleep like state. But he wasn't asleep. Instead he was caught up in reflecting upon his own memories. Holding to what he remembered of his former life and his best friend was childish, but it was all that he had left. If he gave up on that then he would have to admit that the slavers broke him. And he would never do that. Partly because his pride wouldn't allow him to do so. Partly because the humiliation was already great enough without that added bonus. But mostly it was because that was all he had left. If he gave up on that then he might as well be dead.

Every time he looked back at his life he realized just how much he missed. If he had selfishly flown off in the Tien and left Kam on the surface then he could have settled down, married and had children like his friend had. But he would never have been able to live with the knowledge that he abandoned his best friend though. Everything would be different. Samanya wouldn't be alive. Feron wouldn't carry a new set of scars. Twenty years of his life wouldn't have been wasted serving some pathetic, worthless master on some world he never actually learned the name of. Everything would be different, though not necessarily in a good way.

Time began to pass by in short intervals though Feron didn't pay it any attention. Scenery filtered through the windows showing grandiose skyscrapers and large buildings that seemed to loom overhead like specters in the fading light. Eventually the airbus stopped again, waking Feron from his trance. He thought this was probably Samanya's stop, so he turned to the younger Cathar. "Is this your stop?" He asked briefly.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Unlike Feron, Samanya managed to fall asleep during the trip. A nice, pleasant, dreamless sleep. A sleep that lasted nowhere near as long as she would have liked, however, as all too soon the airbus shuddered and jolted as it slowed to a stop and docked. As if that had not been enough of a wake-up call, Feron's voice reached her sensitive feline ears a moment later.

The cathar yawned and stretched out, arching her back and purring slightly for a brief moment before blinking and glancing outside, seemingly forgetting that Feron had spoken to her as she stood up and declared, "This is our stop. C'mon, let's get off this thing before it does something silly, like exploding." With that, she stood up and slipped right around Feron, standing in the corridor as she waited for him to get back to his feet and follow her off the airbus.

 

[Gambler]

"Yeah, we wouldn't want that now would we? That would make finding your father a little harder for me," Feron quipped back automatically as if to say he would survive an explosion. And indeed he probably would considering the fact that his life was driven by one purpose: to make amends for past stupidity. Standing up, Feron followed Samanya off of the airbus, his large feet tapping soundlessly across the metallic ground. Some of the passengers looked up with startled glances as they felt Feron brush past them since they couldn't hear him coming. Before he stepped off of the bus he shuddered once, preparing himself for the forgotten chill air outside.

[OOC: Sorry again for the short post, but I don't have much to work with... want to speed this up and just say we walk to Samanya's house so we have more to work with?]