Ask Threshing Table

[Shaw Amaris]

"What is it doing?" Shaw started to ask as it began smearing its mucus across the unhatched eggs in great blobs. Then he raised a hand. "You know what? Never mind. I don't wanna know." Some things were just better left to the unknown. This was definitely one of those things.

At Elidan's answer the teenager would drag the still unconscious poachers over to one of the mounts and heave them across the creature's back until they were stable enough to ride. He had worked up a sweat by the time he climbed atop his own mount, and the combination of body odor mixing with were-worm mucus was, to put it mildly, extremely unpleasant.

Eventually the group would deviate from the were-worm carved tunnels and enter something more human. It was smaller, cruder, cut into the earth by machinery. This was how the poachers had made the trek back and forth between the were-worm tunnels and the surface. It sloped gradually upward until it came out in the middle of a field. The surface. The glorious surface. Shaw breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully all this fresh air would help cover up how badly he smelled.

When Elidan and Shaw had descended into the tunnels the sun had been setting. Now it was rising. It was a new day, and hopefully the worst of this assignment was behind them.

"You know we've done nothing illegal, right?" the animal handler snapped, mostly talking to Elidan. "There's no laws about poaching worm eggs. The local don't even believe they exist. They think they're just a story." @LouJoVi

 

[Elidan]

Elidan saw Shaw dragging the criminals toward the mounts and noticed that the boy was struggling with it. The half-Annfyn frowned, thinking that he probably had sounded a bit demanding and insensitive by making the Padawan think that he should carry those people alone.

Obviously Elidan wasn’t going to stand that. He approached Shaw and helped him put the criminals in one of the creature’s backs. Even with them working together, it took some time for them to tie them in the bolotaur’s saddle. They were only able to do that because the half-Annfyn brought another rope.

He was pretty sure that these two would have an incredible pain in their back when they woke up. The position that they were tied in the bolotaur wasn’t very comfortable.

With that solved, they mounted the bolotaurs. For a time, the animals walked through the tunnels carved by the were-worms. However, these tunnels soon changed to smaller ones, which were obviously artificial. After seeing how many of these existed, the half-Annfyn immediately concluded that the theft of eggs was happening for a long time.

When they reached the surface, the first sun rays were appearing in the horizon, announcing the dawn of a new day. Took a deep breath and closed his eyes, basking himself in the gentleness of the matutine breeze that was blowing. It was good to be back above the ground, he really didn't want to repeat that experience.

His relaxing moment was interrupted by the voice of one of the criminals. Elidan immediately stared at them. “Tell that to the villagers that nearly had their towns swallowed by your action. Now, I want to know where your hideout is and where you are hiding the eggs.” he said with a cold voice.

The half-Annfyn wasn’t going to be nice anymore.

@throwitintothefire

 

[Shaw Amaris]

The animal handler just rolled her eyes. "Save me the same old sanctimonious speech. I've heard it before. You wizards are all the same." She tossed her hair back and stared off toward a village on the horizon.

It was just a spec of dust in the distance, but Shaw thought he could see repulsorcrafts moving. At least they had surfaced near civilization. On a planet as vast and empty as Mindor it was a lucky break. Or maybe luck had nothing to do with it. Maybe that was where the poachers based their operations. Too on the nose?

"We weren't the ones that swallowed up entire cities. That was your little friend back there that you were playing patty cake with. You're the one that attacked us, remember? Way I see it you could be looking at a class action lawsuit!" Shaw made a face and looked around. Good luck finding a lawyer around here. "We're just trying to make an honest buck. We're just—"

"I'll tell you where the rest of the eggs are," Trenton's small voice interrupted from the back. Shaw swiveled around to stare at the man. Trenton had locked eyes with Elidan. "So long as you promise to let me go. Right here, right now—before we reach that village." @LouJoVi

 

[Elidan]

Elidan stared at the two criminals with disgust. The worms only attacked the villages because these people were stealing their eggs. Their inconsequential actions caused the death of hundreds of individuals, and they show no remorse for what they had done. It was infuriating.

The half-Annfyn listened to Trenton’s bargain and contemplated on using telepathy to find the answers. The human seemed to be weak minded, it would allow Elidan to easily enter his mind and find the answers without hurting him in the process. However, he turned to look at Shaw.

It would be the easy way, but he wasn’t going to be a good example for the Padawan. It would show that he could achieve things by invading the privacy of others, which Elidan really didn’t want to teach to Shaw. Even more because the wrong use of telepathy could cause damage to others.

He massaged the bridge of his nose, before turning to Trenton. “Fine. We’ll do that, but she’ll be coming with us.” Elidan pointed at the woman. The villagers still deserved an answer and she wasn’t being helpful, thus not deserved to be set free. The half-Annfyn stopped the bolotaur and waited for the human to tell everything.

@throwitintothefire

 

[Shaw Amaris]

"SNAKE!" the animal handler screeched, the first display of any real emotion on her part. She leapt from her mount with the intention of wailing on Trenton, bound hands outstretched and balled into fists that she brought down repeatedly on his legs. Then, if neither of the Jedi jumped in to intervene, she would attempt to drag the other poacher down from his mount to fight on her level.

Trenton didn't look like he wanted to fight, yowling after two or three strikes and trying to push her off with his foot. "Get off me!" he yelled back. "Just cause I have the sense to know what's good for me—"

She wasn't interested in anything he had to say. "Dirty rotten snitch!" she spat, and the pair struggled. "Don't you say a word!"

While all this was going on Shaw leaned over to the mount beside him and dug through the pockets of the unconscious leader sprawled across its back. He didn't want Elidan to see him digging through the poacher's pockets because it didn't seem like something the Jedi Knight would approve of. It was a few seconds before the teenager's fingers brushed against something plastic. A dataphone. He pulled it out and stuffed it into his own pocket. He didn't consider it necessarily stealing because he wasn't going to use it for himself. He had an idea he wanted to follow up on later, to see if he could figure out who they were selling the eggs to offworld. Besides, if the locals were really going to be as unforgiving as Elidan implied they would be, would the dude really need it anyway?

If Elidan managed to break up the fight and save Trenton, through labored breaths he would say, "We store the eggs in a cave just a few miles from here to the east." He wiped some sweat from his brow with his bound hands. "There's gotta be a hundred in there right now. Took us forever to haul em all up." Anxious to make his getaway now more than ever, he would add, "Got a map? I can mark it for you." @LouJoVi

 

[Elidan]

Elidan watched the woman get mad with the man, to the point of trying to attack him even being tied. The half-Annfyn wasn’t surprised with it, though. It was obvious that she wasn’t going to accept that her partner in crime was going to spill the location of the eggs.

Sighing, the half-Annfyn used the Force to move them away from each other before the fight could become a real one. He immobilized the woman, while leaving the man free to talk about the location of the eggs. Elidan really didn’t like doing it, leaving her incapable of even struggling. However, she proved to be violent and they didn't have much time.

The were-worms could attack another village unless they gave the eggs back.

While the man talked, Elidan used the Force to focus on him. The Knight could feel that what Trenton was saying was true. When a map was mentioned, the half-Annfyn opened his bag and pulled a map from inside it. He obviously had put one of those there, since he was prepared for all possible emergencies, including getting lost in the plains.

He offered the map and Trenton immediately marked the location here. Once he finished, Elidan freed him from the ropes. “A deal is a deal.” he said, while watching the human do what he wanted. Regarding the woman, a pair of hovercrafts were approaching from a nearby village. They would deal with her.

Elidan had been so distracted by this situation that he didn’t notice Shaw picking something from the leader’s pocket.

@throwitintothefire

 

[Shaw Amaris]

"We would usually stash the eggs in town for a couple days," Trenton continued to explain, feeling a lot more bold now that all of his poaching companions were incapacitated in one way or another. "Then stow them inside the cave until we could schedule a pickup." He looked around. "Not exactly a bustling spaceport around here, you know what I mean?" He smiled at Elidan like they were sharing a joke with each other, remembered they were not friends or anything remotely close to the word, and then went back to explaining. "Guess those crawlers could smell the eggs in the village or something. I don't know. Just know they started swallowing towns whole out of nowhere a few months back. Freaked everybody out."

As soon as the cave's location was marked on the map and the ropes were removed from his wrists, Trenton was mounted and riding off into the distance like a cowboy at the end of an old western holodrama. Except there was no sunset, and Trenton was no hero. He was more like a really pathetic secondary villain that managed to escape justice and get a semi-happy ending. He didn't even bother to say goodbye or thank you or happy trails or anything like that. Just rode away and slowly disappeared, lost amongst the immense fields of Mindor.

At least the Jedi had what they had come for, and the local authorities had what they had come for. Once Elidan had explained the situation to them and they had hauled the poachers back to town, Elidan and Shaw were left alone with their borrowed mounts. "Sooooo," Shaw said, running a hand over his fade. "What do we do now? Head for the cave?"

 

[Elidan]

Trenton told them every detail of the operation that they were doing and confirmed Elidan's hypothesis that the poachers were really hiding the eggs in the villages. They were really dumb to not think that the worms would be able to locate their young, even if they were on the surface. These animals are completely blind, it was obvious that they would navigate through their world with other senses. Including smell.

Elidan stared at the man after he said his joke with a face that showed how funny he thought that it was. The half-Annfyn didn’t think that there was anything funny regarding what these people had done. They separated animals from their offspring and killed innocent villagers in the process. All of them should be in jail.

Before Elidan could change his mind regarding their agreement, Trenton had marked the caved location in the map and walked away with a bolotaur. The half-Annfyn stared at the human disappearing in the distance and wondered if the other know that there was no village in that direction for several kilometers.

Well, he would discover it at some point.

After giving the remaining criminals to the local authorities, the two Jedi were left alone to decide what they should do next. “Yes, we need to pick these eggs and give them back to their parents or the villages will continue being attacked.” he said, before mounting back in the bolotaur. “Once we finish it, we are going back to the village from yesterday. We'll need a long bath to take all that mucus out. I heard that it can solidify like cement if staying too long under the sun.” the last part was a joke. Elidan wondered if Shaw would notice the playfulness on his voice.

@throwitintothefire

 

[Shaw Amaris]

"For real?" Shaw asked, tone rising in pitch ever so slightly. If they were walking time casts, shouldn't a bath be their first priority? Shaw wanted to see the little mucus eggs returned to their mothers as much as the next guy, but he didn't want to end up a crusty lawn ornament out in the middle of nowhere.

"Shouldn't we, you know, go take a bath now?" he continued, hoping to change the very conscientious Elidan's mind, "Before we turn into..." Then he looked over at Elidan and caught the playful expression on his face. The teenager breathed a sigh of relief. "Bruh you really had me going." Even without threat of becoming a lawn ornament a hot shower sounded like the best thing in the galaxy right about now.

The cave was right where Trenton had marked it on the map. Its mouth was set at the bottom of a small, sheltered valley hidden by lots of overgrown grass. It was the perfect place to hide the eggs. Off the beaten path, secluded, with only one way in and one way out. Shaw wondered why the were-worms hadn't been able to smell the eggs here?

Dismounting, he took the first few steps across the threshold of the cave's entrance. It was pure luck that he happened to look down and notice a thin wire stretched along the width of the opening. "Booby trap?" he asked Elidan.

avoid traps 13/20

 

[Elidan]

”Uhum.” Elidan muttered, while Shaw started to question if they shouldn’t take a shower now. The half-Annfyn wondered if he was being mean with the Padawan by making up that story. Maybe he should compensate the boy later, even if the faces that he was making were funny.

By this point it was being difficult for him to stay serious.

The half-Annfyn bite his lips while trying to suffocate his laugh, but some chuckles started to escape. Wehn Shaw finally noticed that it had been a prank, Elidan burst into laughter. “Yes, I got you.” he said, after his laugh finally calmed down. “Sorry. I couldn’t resist. To compensate for your stress, I'll buy you an ice cream when we go back to civilization.”

Then, the half-Annfyn's stomach complained. “I think that lunch would be better.” they haven't eaten since yesterday. “With ice cream as dessert.”

After some time, the two Jedi arrived at the cave. Elidan felt relieved with it. A part of him thought that there would be nothing in these places. Well, there Was a chance that the eggs weren’t inside it, but the fact that they found the caves increased the chances of everything that Trenton said being true.

Elidan dismounted shortly after Shaw, but rushed to where the Padawan was when he heard the boy talk about traps. “Yeah, it seems so.” the half-Annfyn said, while studying the wire in the opening. “We can jump through it.” he had no idea of how to disarm it, with jumping being the best chance that they had to avoid it.

He went first, jumping over the wire. When nothing happened, Elidan gestured for Shaw to come after him. After giving more steps inside the cave, the half-Annfyn was assaulted by a strong smell that brought tears to his eyes. It seemed to be perfume and the entire place had been soaked by it. It was exactly like an old lady perfume and was present in the same suffocating quantity.

“I wonder if it's what made the were-worms not find their eggs.” he said, while looking around the cave. There were some boxes in a corner that reminded him from an incubator, perhaps the eggs were inside them.

@throwitintothefire

 

[Shaw Amaris]

Hey, Shaw never turned down free ice cream. Or a free meal, either one. He grinned over at Elidan. Even with all of the gross stuff they had been subjected to, from taking a swim in literal were-worm mucus to getting licked all over the face by the mounts, Shaw was still glad he had been sent on this assignment with Elidan.

The Jedi Knight was very chill. Very laid back and open to Shaw's ideas. Not just anyone would allow a seventeen year old boy with no prior experience and absolutely no form of piloting license to drive a speeder bike. He was pretty conscientious, but he also knew how to have a laugh and make things a little less serious when it was appropriate. He liked Elidan. He liked Elidan a lot.

The booby trap was as easy as stepping over it. The real danger was the smell. Shaw choked and spluttered, eyes watering mercilessly as he doubled over and started hacking. How was Elidan still standing up? "What is that??" the teenager managed to wheeze. This assignment was just one disgusting turn after another.

Whatever it was, "Let's just get out of here asap." Wandering over to one of the boxes with Elidan, the Jedi would open one to take a look inside. They were incubators alright. There were two eggs nestled securely inside each box. "Looks like we found the eggs," Shaw's nasally voice spoke up. He was pinching his nose and breathing through his mouth. He looked at Elidan. "Now what do we do?" @LouJoVi

 

[Elidan]

”No idea, but reminds me of Master Gertraldes’ perfume.” the old Duro Jedi used to have a perfume that was like this one and she was a perfect example of an old lady, even carrying sweets inside her bag. However, she never used that amount. It was so sweet that Elidan felt that he would have diabetes simply by smelling it.

He wondered how the poachers could work in a place that smelled this way. The only explanation was they wear masks.

Shaw had the right idea and Elidan followed him toward the boxes. They were, indeed, incubators that were being used to maintain the eggs warm for them to be sold. The half-Annfyn studied the boxes, and concluded that they were small enough to be loaded in the bolotaurs. Since there were only six of them, the Jedi could carry three in their mounts.

“We need to bring these boxes to one of the holes.” he explained, while picking one of the boxes. “Once away from that sickly smell, the parents will be able to find them.” the Annfyn sneezed. The smell was starting to affect his allergies, even if he never knew that he was allergic before.

Who could say that an old lady perfume could be a deadly weapon?

@throwitintothefire

 

[Shaw Amaris]

You mean to say there was a walking, talking Jedi Master that smelled like that?? Shaw shivered at the thought. "Remind me never to get assigned to that guy," he muttered under his breath, just low enough that Elidan hopefully wouldn't hear.

Carrying the boxes back and forth between the cave and the bolotaurs was a pain. Shaw tried to hold his breath unless he was outside, but the smell still got to him. His eyes were watering, and he was beginning to wonder if the rancid air had burned away some of his nose hairs.

After that it was pretty uneventful, transporting the incubators to the nearest opening in the earth, unboxing the eggs, and waiting for their moms to come pick them up from school. Was it kind of disappointing that the highlight of this last leg of the mission was that awful smell? Maybe a little bit, but it was probably for the best. Both Jedi had been up all night and were exhausted. Shaw didn't think he had it in him to outrun, outfight, or outlast any more poachers or were-worms or anything else for that matter. He was so tired that a ya-ya fly might knock him over.

They would wait for the worm from the comfort of their bolotaurs, a safe distance away. Just to make sure the eggs were safely returned to their kin. Kin? Did worms really have kin? There was a rumbling that shook the ground and startled the mounts. Looks like Elidan had been right. The were-worms had smelled their eggs. @LouJoVi

 

[Elidan]

Unfortunately for Shaw, Elidan was able to hear his comment with his keen hearing, an ability that he inherited from his Annfyn side. “She is a Librarian in Sernpidal. You only need to be concerned if they end up putting you to help with the archives.” the half-Annfyn smirked, once again playing with the Padawan.

The process of carrying the boxes wasn’t pleasant. They went from the fresh air from outside to the unbearable perfume that filled the interior of the cave. It was a torture, with Elidan wanting to stay outside. Unfortunately, they had to save the eggs and the rest of the villages from the worms.

Once they had loaded all the eggs, the two Jedi transported the incubators to one of the holes and left the eggs near the entrance. They waited some meters away, expecting the parents to appear and pick their offspring. When the ground started to shake, Elidan knew that the worms finally found them.

A worm emerged from the hole, approaching the eggs. Its head hovered over them for a time before several tentacles around its mouth started to grab their offspring with the same care that a sentient being picks their children in the lap. Once all of them were safe, the animal disappeared inside the hole.

“Well, we finished.” Elidan said, once the rumbling on the ground stopped. “Good job, Shaw.” he smiled at the Padawan, before climbing back at the bolotaur. “We should go back to the village and have a good shower. Then we have lunch with ice cream. I promised you it.” then, they would ride their mounts toward the horizon. It was a good end for this mission.

/End Thread

@throwitintothefire