Ask You Sent A What?!

[Tazlen Axil]

To say that Tazlen was displeased to be here was an understatement. He drew the short straw and was stuck on a planet to sway some locals to ally with the Jedi so the Order could have access to some very necessary resources. The catch was that the locals were extremely wary of lightsabers, seeing them as the weapons of ungodly forces. Tazlen couldn’t blame them - sabers were terrifying things regardless of who wielded one. He also knew the locals were suffering from attacks by bandits. Hopefully clearing out the problem would win some favors.

He parked his ship far from the village, not wanting to startle anyone with the sudden appearance of advanced technology. Tazlen stifled a yawn as he pulled up his datapad to look at what Knight would be joining him. He had no idea that the request labeling system had been flipped from rank to going by names instead. He had simply typed in ‘K’ and let autofill do the rest as usual to randomize who was sent with him. Tazlen stared vacantly at the name in the datapad.

Kieran.

What the fuck rank was Kieran? Tazlen squinted as he continued to stare, with slow horror realizing it was, in fact, a name. His gaze shifted to the right.

Padawan.

Padawan.

“NO!” Tazlen exclaimed out loud. The absolute last thing he wanted to deal with was a padawan. Especially on what would be a difficult mission. He was in absolutely no mood to do any teaching. The Jedi paced around, letting out a stream of expletives. Tazlen spotted the other Jedi arriving and quickly put the datapad away and cleaned up his expression. He managed a pained smile that was a half step above looking like constipation.

This was going to be a disaster.

@Malon

 

[Kieran Nomar]

Kieran had arrived just in time to hear the outburst. He was also offended by the directive. A Knight? He had been assigned a master. A master on the Jedi Council, no less, and this was to be his first lesson as an apprenticed Padawan? Did she have no time for him — to pawn him off on someone who couldn't seem to decide what he wanted his hair color to be? The fact that the Knight was also an Anfynn was to add salt to his wound. It seemed the Council was determined to stick him with any Anfynn that was not his master.

The second the two of them noticed each other, they both put on the stony facade of a welcome. Though it was anyone's guess who was doing it worse. Kieran was barely trying to look contended — at least the other, Tazlen, he'd seen the name on a datapad with his assignment on it, was attempting a smile. He was absolutely going to hate every second of this.

"Hi," he managed, figuring he should at least offer some sort of greeting. "I'm Kieran Nomar. Padawan learner." And you parked as far from civilization as humanly possible. Something else came out of his mouth, thankfully. "Let me guess," he said, nodding towards the ship. "The locals don't like technology." Which meant he was out his lightsaber, his comlink, and his datapad. Great. "And we're meant to mediate a crisis they're facing — likely against people who are using technology — without ours." He grunted. "If the Council wanted to get rid of me that badly, there are plenty of sarlaacs sitting around that the Hutts aren't using."

The last comment he made under his breath, but surely Tazlen's Anfynn ears would pick it up. He didn't much care, though. They were both probably coming out of this maimed anyways. @Sreeya

 

[Tazlen Axil]

“Tazlen Axil,” He said, “Usually go by Taz,” He quirked a brow, “And I too have read the mission log,” He responded dryly after Kieran relayed it to him. He started walking with a slightly amused grin, “Trust me, when the Council is pissed at you, they send you to do the most boring busywork banthashit.”

There was nothing but rolling hills ahead of them and a dirt path leading towards the village. Mountains and rivers could be made out in the distance. If it weren’t for the miserable mission they had to endure, Tazlen would have taken time to simply lounge around and enjoy the beautiful day and scenery.

“So, how’d you land a Councilor as your master?” He asked, curious. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for Councilors or even the Grandmaster herself to take on students, but it certainly didn’t happen all the time, “Hopefully she’s not a hardass,” He mused. Tazlen didn’t have a great track record with Councilors, often butting heads with them.

@Malon

 

[Kieran Nomar]

Tazlen — Taz — was well-informed. Kieran hated well-informed Knights. He never figured out how they learned everything they learned, but however they did it, they were always quick to flex it on him. He scowled. "Not sure, to be honest," he said, folding his arms behind his head as they walked. "Probably to keep an eye on me, but that's just my personal conspiracy theory."

And probably the right one too. Kieran wanted to be a good Jedi like the ones he had learned about back at the temple, but trouble seemed to follow him wherever he went. The temple had been so strict and he didn't like feeling boxed in. He thought being assigned a master and going on missions would change that. Clearly he had been wrong.

They crested a particularly tall hill with a good view of the valley unspooling below them, the village nestled in its bosom, and the towering mountains miles behind it. He kept talking while he surveyed the view. "She's like any other master, I guess. Speaks in riddles. A lot of what she says goes over my head. Hard addicted to caffeine. Probably going to end up that way myself if I keep getting missions like these."

He liked her—he did—but he couldn't tell if she liked him. Not yet.

"What would a bunch of pirates want with a village like that?" he pondered, changing the subject. The village hardly looked special. The river splitting it in two spilled out of one of the distant mountains. Some of the villagers were upstream, mere dots on the horizon, but Kieran thought he could see them kneeling down near the river's edge, sifting the water's contents with some sort of bowl shaped tool. "Surely these people don't have anything pirates could want."

@Sreeya

 

[Tazlen Axil]

“Why would they wanna keep an eye on you?” He asked with a quirked brow. His gaze flicked up and down, “You seem about as interesting as whitebread to me,” Tazlen grinned.

His ears swiveled and turned as the woodland creatures all around them chirped. Tazlen followed Kieran’s gaze towards the river and where he could see some of the villagers. His vision was sharper and he could make out the finer details, but it was clear the two Jedi were unnoticed still.

“They raid for the food and aurodium,” Tazlen explained, “It’s the main thing this village can sometimes export. The mining camps get hit the hardest. There are also other critical resources that the Jedi need to access - hence us coming here…but protecting the people is the ultimate cause,” He mentioned as he looked at Kieran, “Don’t consider it the means to an end just because the mission doesn’t spell it out.”

He kept walking towards the village, coming up near a grumpy looking woman feeding some chickens. Before he could even open his mouth, the woman glared at him, “Whatcha want, knifeears?” She snapped before her gaze flicked over to Kieran, “We ain’t got enough food to feed no brats so crik off,” She went back to feeding chickens.

Tazlen blinked a few times before exchanging glances with Kieran.

“M’am,” He said, “We’re the Jedi that were sent-”

He watched as the woman picked up a rake and brandished it threateningly at them, “We don’t want no strangers!!”

Tazlen took a few steps back and stared wide eyed. He rubbed his temples, “This is gonna be a lot tougher than I expected..” He sighed, glancing at his Padawan companion, “Perhaps the bandits will give us a kinder greeting?”

@Malon

 

[Kieran Nomar]

"Yeah, well you're not exactly making me quiver with excitement either, cowlick," Kieran grumbled, following along behind his older companion.

Tazlen might hold a higher rank than him, but Kieran wasn't about to hear it suggested that he wasn't worth keeping an eye on. He had once set an entire triage of training droids loose on a bunch of fellow Padawans on accident during an unsanctioned training session. The Council had more than enough reason to be worried what he might get up to.

The rebuke they suffered from the village woman was expected. Even when they were wanted, the Jedi weren't wanted. "Doesn't really matter if we can't use our lightsabers," Kieran responded. "If we could, I'd say we should just go find them. Seems to be the quickest way to put this all to bed."

Shortcuts always have a price.

The words of one of his Youngling instructors immediately leapt to mind. He hated that he remembered the lesson. He had never really taken it to heart; but given the limitations placed upon them, he didn't really see another option. Diplomacy would have to prevail. He took a moment to scan the village again now that they were closer.

"You said the bandits raid here for food and aurodium, yeah?" Kieran asked Taz, crooking one brow at the older Jedi. "Well there's certainly one way to find out where they are."

He nudged his head in the direction of a cart some villagers were filling with goods. One second inspection, there were three carts in aline. A merchant caravan of sorts. "And the most certain way to get yourselves killed."

Kieran turned. The voice was deeper and came from an older man, perhaps the woman's husband, who had seemingly materialized out of thin air. "You kids look even less armed than our merchants. The bandits you're after come on metal horses that move faster than the eye can track. They wear masks and have weapons that can tear and rip and rend flesh from bone."

Kieran looked back at Taz, a grin now accompanying his raised brow. "Well, that does sound promising, don't it?" @Sreeya

 

[Tazlen Axil]

The man gave a disturbed look at Kieran’s sarcastic response to his description of the horrible bandits. Taz rolled his eyes, “My buddy here is quite the thrillseeker,” He said as his gaze flicked to Kieran and then back to the man, “Can you point us to them? We will investigate so no villagers need to take that risk and you don’t have to have us strangers in your village.”

The man looked past the two and towards the grouchy woman from earlier, “Don’t take what she said too hard… she lost both her children. One to bandits,” He said before his gaze lingered on the two of them, “The other wanted to go be a Jedi,” The pain in his voice was heavy, “It’s just us, their family, that get left behind to collect the pieces,” The man sighed before he started walking away after writing in some directions for them.

Tazlen said nothing, watching after him for a moment. He glanced back at Kieran, considering the man’s words. He looked distracted, his thoughts far away and back to his homeworld. In the end, he focused back on the mission, “It’s gonna be rocky terrain to get to the bandits,” Tazlen said as he looked towards some hills and mountains where they had their base set up.

“We can go on foot or…” His gaze panned over towards a pen of blurrg. None of them looked friendly.

@Malon

 

[Kieran Nomar]

Kieran had heard nothing after the words 'wanted to go be a Jedi.' His eyes lingered on the bitter old woman, his heart suddenly soft and heavy for her. She looked nothing like his mother. She was older, and grief had carved a hardness into her features that his mother never possessed.

She might look like that now, he thought. If she's alive.

The Jedi had taught him not to linger on his loss. A Jedi must control their emotion and linger not on attachments. Love could be a powerful path to the light side; but the ache of loss was a cold anchor to the dark. And yet they had never taught him how to deal with that grief. Meditate, they said, clear your mind, let go your fear. Easy platitudes for those who could no longer remember their families, or had never had them at all. But for Kieran, the ten year old boy he'd been then, the eighteen year old man he was now—the task seemed impossible.

What frightened him most, looking at the old woman a last time, was that the years had worn away the image of his mother. He was even starting to forget her voice, the voices of his father and siblings. They were far away echoes now, and in a few years, they would be gone too. He was only startled from his past by the suggestion that they ride on blurrgs. He shook his head and took a sidelong look at the animals, then back at the merchant caravan getting ready to pull away from the village and onto their destination.

"The walking faces will do," he said, trying to force some pep into his voice so his long stare would not be noticed. "It'll help us keep up with the caravan."

The man they had been talking to huffed, clearly annoyed that they had chosen to ignore his advice. "Fine. You take one each. Most of the bandit attacks happen once the caravans hit the foothills; but it's never the same each time. We have no idea where their camps are."

"Leave that to us," Kieran said. "No more sons will get lost because of them. Or because of us."

He selected his blurrg and spent the next several minutes saddling it. The creature bucked at him when he mounted, but he stroked its head and let the Force flow out of him and into it, soothing its mind. This was going to be a long journey.

@Sreeya

 

[Tazlen Axil]

He took the time to watch Kieran struggle with the blurrg, finding the sight rather entertaining. Of course, that was before it was his turn. Somehow, he had even worse luck than the padawan. At some point, he slid right off the awkwardly shaped beast, tumbling down past its tail and plopping down in the mud. He narrowly avoided getting stomped on, rolling to the side before he managed to finally calm the beast enough to mount it.

By the time they got going, Taz’s back was mudstained, and he had a grumpy expression etched on his face. The blurrg growled at each other, making the Jedi go slightly zig-zagged along their path. Through it, Taz noticed that Kieran was quiet and withdrawn into his thoughts. He had been like that since the man from earlier remarked about the woman’s children.

“Thoughts of your family?” He asked quietly as he looked at the Padawan. It wasn’t a topic that was often broached among Jedi - their lives before the Order. It almost felt forbidden to talk about it, even though it wasn’t explicitly prohibited. Out here, the council wasn’t around to judge them either way.

@Malon

 

[Kieran Nomar]

Kieran did not like thinking about his family. Or talking about them. Mostly. He had spent the last eight years being told such attachments were to be let go of. That it could lead him down a darker path. So, he often became grumpy whenever he was asked. But this time there were no instructors around to scold him. Sure, Taz was his senior, but he was about as far away from the disposition of the masters Kieran knew as the Rimworlds were from the Core.

"My mother," he confessed with some trepidation. "That woman reminded me of her. At least... I think she does. To be honest, as the years go on, my memories become less precise. My family are mostly just shades now and disembodied voices."

Edgy. He could almost hear his own Master say the word. She said that about him a lot, come to think of it.

They were still a fair ways behind the caravan, but Kieran could just barely make out their tail. He pretended to keep his head on a swivel, his senses stretched out, but he was distracted in truth. The bandits could jump them now and he wouldn't see them coming.

"You're Firrerreo, right?" he observed, desperate to get the conversation off of himself. "Did you become a Jedi before or after—" He trailed off because there really wasn't a tactful way of asking someone how they'd survived the genocide of their homeworld—assuming, in fact, that was where Taz was born. The galaxy was a big place, after all.

@Sreeya