Reunited [Invite]

[Gambler]

Cold, bitter air passed over Feron's obsidian furred face. His cat like eyes blinked once as he watched the towering skyscrapers as speeders passed by them. His bared torso felt the bite of the wind on his sleek mane while he stood there like a brooding statue. Feron Nial, a cathar warrior and former slave who had just escaped slavery and searched for the Free Trade Alliance. And his friend. He had heard a rumor that Kam, or Hakim as he was now called, was part of the Alliance and that he could contact his friend through one of the Master Smugglers in charge there. He was supposed to meet one here.

Feron stood on top of a slightly smaller skyscraper. The master Smuggler was to land here and meet up with Feron. Any minute now. The cold wind wouldn't have been so bad had the surrounding buildings not turned the landing pad into a shadowed grotto surrounded in chilling cold. Normally Feron wouldn't mind the cold, but today he was agitated that he still had to wait before being reunited with his friend. A friend he hadn't seen for... has it truly been over ten years?

He shook his head slightly before returning to his vigilant watch of the skies. Any minute now he would see... a black shape started to slow down and stay stationary in the air as it lowered itself to the platform. The Smuggler's vessel. His wait was over.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Hakim didn't normally do this sort of thing, meeting a completely new contact in a relatively isolated area without having any time to check the contact's background to ensure that he wasn't a Government Agent. Usually, it was a low-ranking Alliance Member who did that sort of thing, with about half a dozen Marines from the Fleet Security Force watching over the meet.

But after reviewing the request for a meeting posted at the Alliance Dispatch Office on Coruscant, Hakim found himself unable to say 'no' to the meeting.

The Cathar Smuggler was jolted from his thoughts when his vessel, the Tien, ran into a bit of turbulence and shook briefly, then sailed right through the disturbance and continuing on it's course to the landing pad nestled between several taller buildings.

Hakim watched silently as the ship's autopilot brought the vessel in for a gentle landing. The converted patrol craft hovered briefly above the pad, then it's landing struts descended from concealed bays in her belly as the ship settled down onto the platform. Before the engines even had a chance to completly spin down, Hakim was up and out of the pilot's seat, moving at a rapid pace towards the main cargo bay doors at the back of his vessel.

He popped the bay doors, which slowly hinged down to form a sort of ramp, then took a few steps down the ramp once it had touched the durasteel surface of the landing pad. The Cathar was immediately greeted with a icy gust of wind that blasted across the pad, but he didn't mind it. He had more important matters to deal with than a inhospitable breeze.

 

[Gambler]

Feron's breath caught as he looked upon the dark furred face of a man he once knew. The face of Hakim. A silent gasp of air passed quickly through his muzzle. He had finally found Kam. Finally after years of slavery and depression he found his only true friend. "K-kam?" He whispered quietly. So quietly that his words weren't audible even to the sensitive ears of a cathar. The wind whisped his words way unheard into the myrid of noises that surrounded them.

"I am Feron Nial. Cathar warrior and smuggler. Some might say that I'm good with tools, but I know only what my friend taught me almost ten years ago. And then I was taken as a slave. Now I here," he smiled a ghost of a smile. "Has it truly been ten years since I've last seen you, Kam? Ten years since your father returned and your mother was..." he growled, his claws clenching tightly. He stopped there, seemingly at a loss for words.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Hakim's heart froze for a beat in his chest when his eyes fell upon a familiar black-furred face, one he had known from Balmorra, when he was a teenager. His muzzle was slightly agape and his eyes widened a hair, as a expression of surprise worked it's way onto his features, only to quickly be replaced by one of the smuggler's trademark smiles.

The cathar smuggler's ears perked up as Feron spoke. He walked down the ramp and closer to Feron as his closest friend continued to speak, and came to a halt in front of him just as Nial mentioned the return of Hakim's father, a subject that caused Kam's smile to falter.

"Yes. It's been ten years since that night." He replied quietly, his arms hanging at his sides as he spoke. "But that topic can wait for another time, Fer." Kam changed the subject in hopes of avoiding a fairly painful topic, his smile reappearing as he walked closer to Fer, and reached out with a single hand which he placed on Fer's shoulder. "Anyways; it's great to see you again. C'mon, let's go inside, out of the wind. I have about a million questions for you."

 

[Gambler]

"Yeah, that would be a good idea. This wind is cold even for me," Feron said jokingly though his tone was mostly blank. The only emotion on his face was his obsidian eyes. They flared avidly with joy for the first time in many, many years. Actually, ten years, point of fact. The last time he had felt that emotion had been the day before Nadiyya had been killed by Kam's father... ever since then his life sucked far too much for any thought other than survival to cross his mind.

"Kam..." he began, hesitating briefly as he made his way to stand in front of his old friend. "I... I would have saved her if I could.. I... I visited Nadiyya a few times in my self imposed exile. Every time I couldn't bear to be away from reality I went to her grave quietly. She was your mother in blood, but she was the closest thing I had to any parental figure... I loved her as much as you." he dragged on as if pained to hear the words cross his lips.

"Maybe we should head down into the bar for a few drinks. We can probably get a secluded table where we can recall our pasts and weave tales of our adventures. I didn't do much that I'm proud about, but I will tell you what I can if you wish..." he trailed off uneasily. He wasn't used to talking to anyone with so many words strung together at once. Most people would rather try to kill him or capture him then speak to him.

"Right down here," he finished, turning to a shadowy staircase that obviously led down to the bar. His loose black silk pants fluttered in the wind as he silently strode to the door ahead of Kam. He stopped with his hands on the door knob and waited for a response from Kam. A single syllable. Something...

 

[Jiang Winters]

Hakim stood quietly as he listened to his longtime friend speak, his dark blue eyes carefully studying Feron's expression and obsidian orbs.

As Feron spoke of Kam's mother, the smuggler's expression saddened somewhat. He could tell that Nadiyya's murder had hurt Feron just as badly as it had hurt himself. As tempting as it was to speak his thoughts on what Fer had said, he remained silent as his friend changed subjects, and suggested that they go down into the bar below and trade stories over drinks, then turned and indicated the staircase down to the bar and began moving towards it.

Hakim paused for only a moment to seal his ship's bay door, then he caught up with Feron, falling into step right behind his friend as the stairway looked too narrow to walk beside him. As Fer stopped with hands upon the doorknob, Kam decided it was time to speak up.

"Drinks are on me tonight, Fer." He paused for a moment, then added in, "And... About mom... Feron, there was nothing you could have done to save her." Kam said softly. He didn't want Fer to feel as though there was any guilt to be felt over Nadiyya's murder. No, if there was anyone aside from Sunil that Hakim blamed for his mother's death, it was himself. He should have shot sooner, should have moved faster, should have see what Sunil was going to do. But he didn't, and his mother was gone.

 

[Gambler]

Feron nodded sadly. He knew that there was nothing he could have done. He wasn't even remotely close to the only people he loved. But still he couldn't help but feel responsible for what had happened. "Sunil wouldn't have been able to touch her if I had been there... not at the time at least... but I was hunting. Hunting with Villam. Hunting just for the pleasure of it as I had done every full moon." he growled deeply in his throat. His eyes closed as the painful memories he had buried while in slavery came up again. He remembered seeing Nadiyya's lifeless eyes staring up accusingly at him as he walked into the house hours after the deed had been done.

"You... you can chose our seat..." he said sedately while he walked down the stairs. His padded feet tapped silently against the cold stone. The only noise was the slight tick of his black nail like claws on his padded feet as he stepped from stair to stair. No light was available except the dim shimmer of lamplight at the bottom. But that was more than enough light for Feron to see by. He reached the bottom of the stairs a few seconds ahead of Kam and paused, motioning for Kam to get ahead of him and chose their seats.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Hakim sighed quietly as Fer growled. "I know, Fer. I know. And I wish to the gods that our roles had been reversed for that day." He murmured under his breath, so quietly that not even Feron's keen hearing could have picked up his words. In his mind, Feron was right. It was likely that if his friend had been staying over that night, that he would have been able to slay Sunil before Nadiyya had come to any harm. But Fer was on his usual hunt with Villam.
Nevertheless, Kam couldn't place any blame on Fer for not being there that night. How could he have known that Sunil was going to pop up? How could anyone have known?

The rubber soles of Kam's combat boots rhythmically stamped against the stairs as he walked past Fer and into the bar, idly rubbing the back of his neck with one hand as he walked. It took the cathar only a few moments to find a private-looking booth, then make his way over to it and settle onto one of the bench seats of the booth. "Y'know, I think this is the first time we've had alcohol together since that night I sneaked a bottle of Brandy out of my teachers desk and we split it." He commented in a humorous tone, in an attempt to lighten the mood of the conversation and change the subject. Again.

 

[Gambler]

Feron felt himself grin for the first time in ten years. The slow smile spread across his face in genuine humor that actually touched his eyes. His black orbs glimmered and shone as he sat down. A new mood started to seep over the two cathar. Closeness. Feron felt himself falling back into the routine he and Kam used to have. His barriers and walls started dropping as he looked across at his friend. Then the drinks arrived. Picking his up, Feron sipped it slowly before placing it down with a satisfied sigh.

"Yeah. And I also remember how Mr. Zieger got mad and 'accidentally' blew up your project after you finished it. But mostly I remember our hunts. You had an interesting way of hunting back then. You would bring your machines and drones as well as whatever weapons you could make. I swear, you scared away more animals than I could have possibly spotted in a week the first time you clamored through the forest dragging that large blaster cannon with you." he laughed lightly. His dark, dank mood was momentarily lifted as he talked to his friend and sipped on his bitter ale.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Hakim had been taking a sip of his drink, a Corellian Ale, when Feron replied to his previous comment. Kam burst into laughter as the memory of his first hunt was drudged up by Fer, a wide grin crossing his muzzle as he set down his drink and replied. "Yeah, I recall that. I also remember that when I finally did get a kill, that overpowered toy I brought blew that hapless animal nearly in two, and reduced most of the meat on it to solid carbon. That was definetly not my proudest moment." He chuckled.

"But at least I did get somewhat better after that first hunt. I think that was because you made me leave behind all my gear except for a old bolt-action slug rifle and a hunting knife, though." Kam added in, taking a short sip of his drink immediatly after he finished speaking.

 

[Gambler]

Another grin settled on Feron's muzzle as he dredged up another memory. "I remember how you tried to sneak some of your overpowered 'toys' to that hunt as well. That didn't go well for either of us... I still have the scar to prove that you weren't the best shot even when you didn't think I was looking." he laughed. The easy camaraderie between the two was priceless. Taking another sip of his bitter sweet ale, Feron decided to talk about another of their countless adventures.

"Too bad I can't play the part of the flawless hunter and man," he sighed. "Do you remember Zhylia? The huntress? She was in your mechanics class? Yeah, you probably do..." he trailed off as if too embarrassed to continue. He coughed once and cleared his throat. "Romance isn't my strong point." he said simply.

Now that had been one thing that went over horribly for Feron. He had asked her to hunt with him after numerous jabs and remarks on Kam's behalf. And then he blotched the entire thing. So entranced on her during the hunt with Kam and Zhylia that he forgot to watch their backs. A gizka knocked him over while he stared at Zhylia. He still hadn't lived down the shame of that as he said that her eyes looked like the pools of mud he was sitting in...

 

[Jiang Winters]

An embaressed smile appeared on Kam's muzzle as Feron spoke again, this time of his attempt to bring along one of his gizmos along on that hunt. A gizmo that had failed in a spectacular fashion when Kam touched it off. "I felt really stupid after that. Remember how I wouldn't shut up with the apologies on the way home?" He chuckled, just moments before Fer spoke about another of their exploits.

His smile widened into a grin as he remembered the stunning huntress that Feron spoke of, the same one he had tried to set Fer up with. And unfortunatly, the same huntress who had gotten to watch Fer get run over while he was admiring her fine build. Seeing Fer laying in that mudhole was still among Hakim's most comical memories, and one of his fondest, though he had made it a point never to allow Feron to know that.

"Yeah, I remember that. Not one of your proudest moments, and from what I recall of that slap she gave me later that day, it wasn't one of my finest days either." He laughed.

 

[Gambler]

"Yeah... I felt like an idiot after that. And I remember how she told all of her friends about what had happened. I was avoided-for what? A year?-and made fun of for the most part. At least until I beat that one guy up when he decided to call me 'gizka bait' to my face," he laughed at that memory. It had felt so good when he threw that guy out of the window of the school Kam went to when he went to pick him up for another hunting lesson.

"So, what have you been doing lately? I'm curious to know what happened after... the... uh... after the investigation. You were gone by the time I came back from my exile. Where did you go? I heard you were in Balmorina last but those were mere rumors. Where did you go and how did you end up working for the Free Trade Alliance?" he asked, somewhat seriously. He hesitated when mentioning his mother's murder, but he had to know where his friend had went.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Hakim grinned as Fer mentioned the blockhead who had been stupid enough to call the cathar warrior 'Gizka bait'. He still remembered the beautiful scream that ensued after the fellow went flying out the window, fell two stories, and landed softly in a pile of manure that the school had had delivered to as part of the test of the machine shop class's plow designs.

Feron then changed the subject, which Hakim didn't really mind. The smuggler listened closely as Fer asked where he went, and Kam replied the moment his friend stopped speaking.

"After the investigation ended and I found out that I had killed my own father, I sort of... Lost it. I couldn't live anywhere near our old stomping grounds anymore, so I took off for a small town clear on the other side of Balmorra, and erased as much of my paper trail as I could, so that the Jedi Order and the Police couldn't try to track me down. Once I got to my new apartment, I started working at getting myself off-world. I bought a junked patrol craft for literally fifty credits, fixed her up with salvaged or otherwise inexpensive parts, and when I finally had a working craft two years later, I made plans to leave Balmorra, for good. I sent a message to your place a week before I left, but I never got a answer, so... I just took off. I made a quick stop at our old stomping grounds to see if I could find you, but when I couldn't, I just headed off into space." Kam began, placing his glass upon the table as he spoke. He paused for a few moments so that Fer could take in what he had said, then he continued with his story.

"My story after that is pretty boring. I ended up working for myself as a independent freighter pilot. I worked that angle for a few years, moving both legal cargoes and some contraband, and then I bumped into a guy who worked for the Alliance about a year back. He talked me into signing up, and I've been working for them ever since. That's... Pretty much it, other than a run-in with a few interesting folks and some dead-end romances here and there." He finished. Hakim folded his arms over his chest and sat up a little straighter, then asked, "So, what about you, Fer? What's happened to my closest friend since I ran away?"

 

[Gambler]

Feron paused for a moment as reality hit him hard. Because of his self imposed exile he missed the only message his friend had sent him. If he had taken it in a grieved like a normal person they would both be back on Balmorra right now. Nothing spectacular, but it was what he had hoped he could return to for years. He realized how much he messed up but didn't dwell on it. He learned long ago that the past can only hurt you.

"My story isn't anything like that. The day Nadiyya was buried... I saw her. Her lifeless eyes accused me of not being there to save her. I mourned for her more than I could possibly conceive of at the time. You are the only person who understands what I pain I went through then. She was the closest thing to a mother to me. The only person I loved unconditionally besides you my friend. And I wasn't there to save her. I blamed myself and ran into the forest with only my belt knife and phrik made claws that I wear to this day. For almost a year I stayed there, killing new things everyday. I killed several rancor and other powerful beasts. In truth, I was seeking death. I wanted to die. There was nothing left for me. You disappeared and Nadiyya was dead. Nothing left for me. Villam was there, but soon I would have to challenge him for the rights of homage and living rights. Instead I exiled myself. I wasn't at my house when you signaled in. I was in the forest." he paused there, unwilling to go on. He had never told anyone what had happened after this. Never had he told anyone this much even.

"I... I searched for you. I left the village alone and headed out to find you. People warned me about slavers in the wilderness, but I ignored them. Just my luck though. Because I ignored the wisdom of others I encountered a group of twelve slavers. I wasn't able to kill a single one. They overpowered and outnumbered me. Finally after a lengthy fight I was captured. And sold into slavery for the next ten years..." he stopped there, truly unwilling to go on.

"I have no wish to recount the tortures and other humilities I went through in that ten years. But I will tell you this. The only thing that kept me alive were the memories we shared and those of Nadiyya. Without those I wouldn't have been able to survive these, he pointed down to the faint scar on his stomach. Turning around, Feron showed Kam the multitude of whip scars along his back as he lowered the crimson sash slightly. And then he stopped. Not another word greeted him as he finished off his mug of ale.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Hamim's expression fell into one of sorrow as Feron shared his past. How he had dealt with his grief, how he had been in the forest when Kam called in... And how he had been captured by slavers. Hearing that was like a solid punch to the gut for Hakim, to hear that his closest friend had been a slave for a decade. Kam honestly didn't think he could hear anything worse, but Fer proved him wrong as he continued to spoke, then, displayed the horrific array of scars etched into his flesh.

"Oh gods... Fer, I... I'm sorry." The cathar smuggler muttered, his ears laying back against his skull as he spoke. "And to think I spent ten years gallavanting around the Galaxy enjoying my life, while you were stuck in a hole somewhere and... And subjected to torments I don't even want to imagine." He fell silent there, not wanting to push the subject -which he was certain was a extremely touchy one for Fer- in any way.

A heavy sigh slipped from Kam's muzzle as he shook his head, staring down at his lap for a few moments to collect himself. "Forgive me, Feron... I should have never left the settlement without you." Hakim said quietly, as he returned his stare to Fer's face, locking gazes with his fellow cathar.

 

[Gambler]

"It... it is all in the past. I have learned long ago that dwelling on the past can only bring you more harm when you need to keep your strength and morale up for the next days events. But suffice to say that I lived and killed the slavers in a rebellion and escaped. Actually, I came to find you after hearing a stray signal from a ship mentioning the Free Trade Alliance and a cathar named Hakim. I pieced it together and decided to search for you. And here we are." Feron said absently. Already his bleak and dark mood returned. His sedated appearance was replaced by something hard... powerful... dark.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Hakim sighed inwardly as Feron's trademark bleak mood returned. It was inevitable, and really, Kam didn't mind it's return. It was part of who Fer was, after all. "Indeed, here we are. I'm glad you found me, Fer; I've missed you." He replied, picking his glass of Ale back up and knocking back a bit.

"Anyways, I'm curious. What are you going to do now?" Kam asked, fiddling with the half-empty glass as he spoke. "If you're in need of a place to stay, I have an apartment on Coruscant you can use. If it's work you need... I can get you into the Free Trade Alliance. I'm not sure how happy you'll be moving shipments of cargo, but... At least it's work, and it pays well."

 

[Gambler]

Feron grimaced slightly. "Moving things? I was told that this was an alliance of Smugglers not some trading company. Assassination and fighting are more... my style." he huffed out a long sigh. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to join up with Kam... what was he thinking? Of course he should join up with his friend. Why else had he lived through countless tortures and other horrors while being treated like a feral animal?

"I... I don't know if I should join you. I'm a hunter. A killer. Not a trader. I'm better with my claws then I am with a ship. Probably not your first choice for a trader. But I'll join in if only to stay by your side, Kam." he said slowly and quietly. His words filled the air for a moment. They dragged down on the air and made a palpable aura of depression around for an instant.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Hakim smiled faintly as he spoke up in a equally quiet, but cheerful tone. "I know you're a hunter, Fer. And I'm not sure if being a smuggler for the Alliance would be the sort of work you'd be happy with, but... How about if you decide you don't like the work, I'll go to the Bounty Hunter's Guild with you, or wherever else you want to go?" Kam offered. He valued Fer's friendship over his position in the Alliance, and just as Feron was willing to join the Alliance simply to be at his side, Kam was willing to pursue Fer's job interests to stay with his friend.