Ask Beauty and the Beast

[Hlodovic Volsung]

The wind on the mountain range of Ord Mantell whipped harshly against Hlodovic's face, it caused a visible shiver to ripple down the Cathar's body. In response, he pulled the fur cloak that was draped over his shoulders more tightly about himself in order to shield himself from the chill. His eyes surveyed the valley beneath their camp, he looked for any signs of a potential attack. The engineers that Hlodovic, Asena, and a young Padawan known as Maura Starwalk had been assigned to protect had warned the trio of Jedi that they would never see the assault from the Ynx Boys coming. Hlodovic knew they were right, he felt the Light urging his caution and he heeded it's warnings.

Hlodovic eventually resigned himself to the nothingness that was the passes below him and with a weary sigh, he turned from the ledge and began the slow trek back to the campsite. The crunch of deep snow beneath his boots was barely audible over the howling of the wind on the mountain and it took him more than a handful of minutes to return to the camp. He wondered if the Padawans would be awake yet, but with the dawn barely breaking behind him, the massive Cathar decided that it didn't really matter. Instead of rousing the pair, Hlodovic took a seat by the slowly dying campfire, closed his eyes, and began to focus on the Light, hoping to find more guidance on the task before them.

Hlodovic and the pair of Padawans had been sent to protect these engineers as they tirelessly worked to reactivate a pair of planetary defense cannons from a group of nomadic raiders known as the Ynx Boys. The last two days had been silent so far, an easy yet unenviable task. However, this morning Hlodovic was feeling uneasy and overly cautious. It was as if something was causing his instincts to screaming warning claxons in his mind and nothing he could do would calm them.

He took a deep breath.

"Trust your instincts."

The words echoed in his mind. Somehow he knew, today would be the day.

@lizziie @HoneyMagpie

 

[Maura Starwalk]

"HONK, mi mi miii... HONK, mi mi miii..."

Maura was, of course, still sound asleep, and she'd shifted herself into an awkward position that craned her neck and caused the kid to obnoxiously snore with every deep breath. It was a good sleep though, despite the frankly uncomfortable sleeping arrangement she and Asena had. The kid could sleep anywhere though - the floor, the ground, in a tree - nothing could keep the girl from her precious slumber.

"HONK, mi mi mmmmm... what time is it?" A final snore marked Maura relenting to the waking world. Dawn broke through the tent and let a line of sunlight fall right on her sleepy eyes. "Is it morning?" She would ask this of Asena, regardless of whether the Nautolan was awake or not (she wouldn't notice), before stretching out as far as she could without getting up.

Slowly, as she woke up, Maura remembered where she was and why she was there. "I'm on a mission!" Sheepishly, she admitted to herself how clueless she always was when she woke up in the morning. "Where is Master Volsung?"

The Cathar was kind of a stick in the mud in her opinion, but he was so professional and calm and Jedi-like that Maura couldn't help but admire him a little bit. "I bet he went out on patrol!"

"Master Volsung!" Maura's called out the man's name as she burst from the tent, her hair unbrushed and unruly, and her robes hastily thrown on. "Did you see anything this morning?" She wanted some action!

The kid scrambled over to sit next to him by the fire and immediately began to recount a dream she had. "I had a crazy dream last night and you were in it! Asena too! And me! You were a giant and you were fighting these like, snow-men! And Asena and I were trying to fight them too, but we had to dodge your feet because they were very big and you kept accidentally almost stepping on us."

tags: @Apollyon @HoneyMagpie

 

[Hlodovic Volsung]

The silence Hlodovic had been enjoying was shattered by a flurry of tent flaps, robes, and rainbow hair. "Maura." The young girl's chaotic nature initially tested Hlodovic's patience. However, after some time, he had come to appreciate the light hearted charm she brought to the mission. One of his eyes peeled open as he glanced at the Padawan, a small smile appeared on his lips.

"And good morning to you Padawan Starwalk." He said in reply to her greeting as she scrambled down next to him by the fire. "I did not see anything this morning." He replied with a small chuckle.

Then he reached back into a storage crate behind him and pulled a small box from it. As Maura began to explain her dream to him, Hlodovic opened the small storage crate and pulled from it a single fleshy fruit. As the Padawan began to recount her strange dream to him, Hlodovic set to carefully peeling the fruit with one of his claws. Once he had a sliced peeled, Hlodovic offered it to the Maura. Once the young Padawan had finished recanting her dream to him, Hlodovic would finally respond.

"It sounds to me that the Light was speaking with you Maura." He calmly replied, his gaze softened as he spoke. "Perhaps the Ynx Boys will show their face today." He continued, as he attempted to divine the young girl's dream. "Where is your lightsaber?" He asked calmly.

 

[Maura Starwalk]

"Aw, nothing? Really? Not even snow?" Maura giggled and then went right into the story of her dream. She didn't notice Hlodovic peeling the fruit until she finished, and she was pleasantly surprised by the offering.

"Wow! Thanks!" The padawan accepted the gift with outstretched hands in her palms, then promptly stuffed the entirety of it into her mouth and began to chew as fast and furiously as she could. "Really?" she asked, her words barely understandable between the chewing. "I hope the light spoke to me! That's so cool!"

It would be nice if they finally found these 'Ynx Boys' soon though. As cool and exciting as this whole adventure was, she was getting tired of the bleak, snowy days spent entertaining herself or practicing her skills. There were only so many different types of snowmen she could come up with! She'd done Jedi, Sith, Mandalorians, men, women, fat snowmen, skinny snowmen, dogs, lothcats... even fish! She even tried to make ones that looked vaguely like her master (@Valen Pelora) and Zayn (@Altaris). Vaguely.

"My lightsaber? Uhh..." The kid dipped her hands down to her pockets as she swallowed the rest of the fruit. She didn't find the saber there, which meant it was probably in the tent. "In the tent," she answered after a moment. Maura then quickly turned, outreached her hands, and felt around in the Force for her saber. Her eyebrows tensed together in concentration until the saber came flying through the tent flaps and into her hand.

"...and now in my hand!" The kid erupted into a fit of giggles.

tag: @Apollyon

 

[Hlodovic Volsung]

Hlodovic couldn't help but chuckle at the young Padawan's initial questioning, it rippled from his throat as a deep feline purr. His eyes twinkled in both amusement and mirth at the Padawan's energy, she reminded him of his youth, before the Jedi. Hlodovic allowed himself a moment to reminisce about his boyhood on Cathar, about his hometree, his parents, and the life he left behind. He dismissed these thoughts with a series of sudden blinks, his lighthearted expression faded slightly as Maura stuffed the fruit into her mouth and scrambled back into the tent to find her lightsaber.

While she was gone, Hlodovic gazed around their camp's perimeter, it was surrounded by diminutive snowmen of different shapes, silhouettes, and likenesses but all came up to about Hlodovic's waist. Maura was a creative girl, spirited as well and that was perfectly clear as he examined her creations. There were a few that Hlodovic was able to recognize particularly an individual snowman with pointed feline ears and what he assumed was meant to be a more stern expression, it was meant to be him.

"An accurate depiction." Hlodovic thought, that small smile returning to his face.

When Maura's hand burst through the tent flap, hilt in hand, that smile turned into a grin and as she came out giggling at her own jokes and accomplishment, Hlodovic joined her. After a moment of laughter, the Cathar Jedi attempted to compose himself to the best of his abilities and rose to his feet. He shook the snow that had built up on his shoulders, freeing it from the animal fur cloak that adorned them and returned his gaze to Maura.

"Come Padawan Starwalk." He stated in a calm tone. "We must head to the installation site, the engineers should be reporting to work soon and they will need our protection." He continued.

After this, Hlodovic would begin to walk away from the camp, he wouldn't stop to glance back to ensure Maura was following him, the expectation was that she would keep pace with him. However, as they passed by the snowmen, Hlodovic would point to one of her creations that had downwards pointing sticks for hair.

"Is that meant to be Padawan Asena?" He asked with a tone of humor in his voice.

 

[Maura Starwalk]

"Yeah!" Maura answer, excited that Hlodovic was able to recognize her attempt to represent Asena's tendrils. "I couldn't get the snow to stay in place for her head tails, so I used tricks!" Maura kept pace with the knight without much trouble, as despite her lack of a long stride, she moved quite quickly. The kid had a lot of energy, after all. "I hope she feels better soon. She was still sleeping when I got up."

They walked for a little longer while Maura chatted about random nothings, like how she used the Force to lift the heavy snowballs on top of each other, or how she wished she was fire proof so she could play in the campfire.

Eventually, though, she circled back around to the various questions she had floating in her head.

"So why do the- uhh... Boys want to stop the engineers from fixing the big guns anyways? Don't the big gun protect them too?"

They were getting closer to the site now, and Maura could see the snow-topped weapons not too far off in the distance. She was excited to meet the engineers too, though she'd been asked not to bother them with too many questions. "Too many questions, not no questions at all," she reminded herself.

tag: @Apollyon

 

[Hlodovic Volsung]

As the pair of Jedi made their way to the installation, Hlodovic half listened to the young Padawan. Some of her wishes and comments caused Hlodovic to literally pause for half a second, particularly the desire to not burn to play in campfires. Hlodovic looked down at Maura and blinked three times in rapid succession, he was absolutely stunned.

"Wait." He he interrupted her. "What?" The question was one born of sheer shock.

Once the he had gotten over the shock of the comment, Hlodovic shook his head a couple of times and continued their drudging pace through the snow. His shocked reply didn't slow Maura's mindless slew of topics, comments, and questions that Maura jumped to and from; she did this, from Hlodovic's perspective, without inhaling at all. It caused the Cathar to wonder if she was able to talk while inhaling or if she had an extra set of lungs that simply allowed her to keep on communicating. Eventually, the installation brought a reprieve, or so he thought. Instead, Maura had another question that was actually valid to the mission.

Hlodovic turned to face Maura, his expression was somber. "Because the nomads believe that these guns are on their land." He stated. "They attack and kill anyone who comes here, they take the supplies and disappear back to their homes." He continued. "They do not understand why we are doing this and I do not believe they want to." He explained in a tone that matched his expression. "Because of this, we must do whatever it takes to protect these men and this world." He said with an element of finality to his explanation.

"Come Maura, the Engineers await our arrival." He instructed. "Stay close to me."

 

[Maura Starwalk]

"Yeah! If I couldn't get burned I could stand in the middle of the fire pit, grab two sticks, then wave my arms around like one of those wack-wavy-arm-flailing-inflatable-tube-men!" Maura clarified.

Hlodovic answered her answer, but his explanation only brought more questions from the padawan. "But why don't they understand? Why don't they want to? Why can't we just make them understand?" She didn't get it. "Cause like, that's kinda stupid. Oh!" Maura reached up and excitedly tugged on the Jedi knight's sleeve. "Wait, why don't we try to talk to them? I'm really good at talking! Do you think we could try to talk to them? Please?"

Maura began bouncing up and down as she walked, her hands still pulling at Hlodovic's robes. It was only once the building came into view that she let go to stare out at the ice-covered, gun-topped building. She could spot a group of men standing outside, some of them smoking what looked like cigarra. They waved when they spotted the two Jedi trudging their way through the snow toward them.

"HAIII! WE'RE HERE!" She began wildly waving to the men, who laughed amongst themselves as the pair approached.

"Y'all the Jedi 'ere to keep us alive n' well?" asked one of the workers. Maura gave him a vigorous nod, and he responded first by putting out his cigarra. "Well, alrighty then. We'll get things up n' runnin'."

tag: @Apollyon

 

[Hlodovic Volsung]

Hlodovic immediately regretted even daring to ask Maura why she wanted to be fireproof. He stared at the young Padawan, a mixture of horror and dumbstruck awe plastered clearly across his face. Hlodovic opened his mouth to repeat the same pair of questions he had just moments before but caught them before they ever left his mouth. Instead, he just shook his head in disbelief and trudged onward to the base of the orbital gun emplacement.

Hlodovic's grimace deepened when Maura asked more questions about the Ynx Boys, she didn't understand and part of Hlodovic didn't expect her to. It was easy to recognize Maura's innocence. Hlodovic wasn't sure if she had been sheltered and kept away from the ongoing war with the Sith or if her outlook was simple naivete. Regardless, Hlodovic decided now, with the engineers so close would not be the time answer the Padawan's questions. Instead, the Cathar Jedi continued forward, his head didn't turn to address Maura when he spoke.

"Maura, I know you don't understand and that is okay." He explained. "I promise to answer your questions and try my best to explain why once we are done speaking to the engineers." He continued. "However, if the time does come and these raiders do attack I need you to promise me something, okay?" He asked turning his head to face Maura. "Is something were to happen to me on this mission, I need you to promise me that you will do what you must to protect the engineers." He stated. "Can you do this for me?" He asked his feline features softening.

Regardless of how Maura responded, Hlodovic would turn his attention back to the growing installation in the distance. After some time, Maura would begin to wave and announce their presence to the engineers. Hlodovic could hear the distant laughter at how animated the Padawan's greeting was, it caused Hlodovic to smirk in turn. When the pair got closer and the engineer addressed the pair, Hlodovic gave a single nod and extended his hand in reply.

"Indeed." He stated in a pleasant yet even tone. "I am Jedi Knight Hlodovic Volsung and this is Padawan Maura Starwalk." Hlodovic said, introducing himself and Maura in turn.

When the man put out his cigarra and stood to his feet, Hlodovic would take a half step backwards, allowing the man to pass more easily.

"But of course." He replied. "After you."

 

[Maura Starwalk]

Maura was not entirely pleased with Hlodovic avoiding - or choosing not to answer - her incessant stream of why's. She grumbled to herself when he went about the typical 'I don't expect you to understand' spiel adults loved to repeat, but she decided against being difficult. "Yes Master Volsung..."

The Cathar Jedi really hadn't done anything worthy of Maura's grumpy reaction, but the girl wasn't known for being the most logical.

Once they were introduced and ushered inside, Maura's sour expression was quickly replaced by one of awe. Big eyes eagerly searched every inch of the interior, drinking in the intricacies of the mechanisms inside the big gun tower. On the outside, the gun has been really cool looking, but on the inside it was super interesting.

"What does that do?" she asked as she pointed toward a big mechanism further back into the building.

"That's where they put in the bullets," the man answered with a solemn nod. "Is wunna the thing we gotta fix up, 'long with a buncha other sh- stuff." The man caught himself before he cursed, clearing his throat as he did. "Er, most of our work is done inside. Probably best if y'all wait outside and keep 'em from comin' in."

"Okie dokie!" Maura chirped, turned around on a dime, and marched right back out the door into the snow.

tag: @Apollyon

 

[Hlodovic Volsung]

Hlodovic followed the pair into the building silently, he had chosen to ignore Maura's earlier agitated response to his statement. Instead of fully entering the building, Hlodovic would simply stand in the doorway, his eyes looking around the building as opposed to gawking at the internal machinery. He was looking for any other points of entry that he should be aware of while he planned the defense. He saw none that were immediate concerns to him.

Hlodovic stepped to the side, allowing Maura to pass him by once she was done speaking with the engineer. He gave the man a gentle nod before following the young Padawan out into the weather. Once back out in the cold, Hlodovic would analyze his surroundings, trying to find a way to reinforce the defenses of the platform and the building itself. He would spot several boulders and larger rocks scattered throughout the snow covered yard.

"Maura, come here please." He called to the young Padawan. "I have an idea for you to practice what you've learned and help make this place a little more defensible." He explained. "How's about we have a competition, who ever can use the Force to pull the most of those big rocks from the snow and stack them into a wall on the outside of the building, wins." He continued. "And if you win Maura, I'll convince our pilot to let you ride as his co-pilot. What do you say?" He finished, giving Maura a playful grin.

@lizziie

 

[Maura Starwalk]

"A competition?" Oh heck yeah! Hlodovic was going down! "You're on!"

Maura immediately turned her attention to the big rocks he had pointed out to her. She rolled her shoulders, straightened her back, and immediately focused her attention on the biggest rock she could see in the pile. The padawan focused on the Force, the Force around the rock, and the tether between it and herself. Her eyebrows furrowed inward and her arms tensed, but despite her strain and concentration, the padawan could not get the rock to budge.

"Dang it!" The padawan abandoned the massive rock for a much smaller one. She moved both of her hands in tandem with the boulder, twisting her body as she lifted the rock up out of the snow and over closer to the pair. The rock was deposited off to her left, and she quickly got back to work moving more over. Focusing on the smaller ones seemed to be a much better idea than testing her limits as the padawan was able to get several of the objects in place.

"Ha! How you like them boulders?" Maura grinned with a puffed out chest as she turned to see how Hlodovic was faring.

-​

roll 1: 8/20 for the biggest rock
roll 2: 16/20 for success in moving smaller rocks

tag: @Apollyon