A Hunter's Curiosity

[Verana]

Verana let in a deep breath once the beast ducked away and out of the clearing. To say that she had been terrified was most likely a bit of an understatement, but it was okay to be afraid. Especially when you were staring down a beast three times your size in a show of dominance, and winning. By all accounts, Vera had deserved every inhale that she had claimed for herself.

“I did not think that was going to work.” She said and let out a relieved laughter. “Oh wow.”

She turned around to look over at Naya.

“You okay?” The smile on Vera’s lips spread from side to side. “Holy feth, I did not expect that to fething work!”

She let out another ecstatic exhale.

“We should be fine for now.”

 

[Naya Everos]

Finally, the spear started to shake inside's Naya's hands.

"How-... what-..." Laughter did not come as easily to her. But utter relief did! The shaking picked up, in a healthy sort of way, movement returning to her stiff limbs. "You are crazy!" She exclaimed, relaxing from her defense position. "You could of been eaten! You should of been eaten! How in the world are we not eaten!" She peeled forward, poking at the bushes to make sure they were right and truly empty.

A bark sounded from the distance, circled around them and at their packs. It moved further away at a great pace. Naya shook her head, turning back to face the woman in disbelief.

"How did you do that?" She implored, her troubles forgotten in the face of her the woman's achievement.

 

[Verana]

Verana ran her hand through her hair, that disbelieving grin still right there on her lips.

"The force." She said and took a final breath to steady herself. "I can talk to animals, in a way. They listen to me, just as I listen to them. I feel what they feel."

A guilty frown, the lingering side-effect of empathy, set upon her lips.

"This one wasn't looking to eat. It was looking for something. Something it had lost. For animals, I find that usually means it has lost a child."

 

[Naya Everos]

"That what-" She stalled, her face paling ever so slightly. Previous angers returned, flaring more life inside of her limbs. "Oh not you too! How many of you are there out here? Did he send you after me? Because I'm not going back with you!" She exclaimed, her smoke-damaged vocal cords cracking at the misuse. She wheezed and coughed before rebounding her efforts.

"I am going home. Because it is still there and I have to help them, okay? I have to try. I. have. To!" Another little pulse of the force shock waved off of her, highly sensitive to her emotions once it had been awakened inside of her.

She squeaked in shock, jolting back as the spear cracked in her hand.

 

[Verana]

"Coming back? What?" Vera exclaimed and seemed genuinely confused. "I have been tracking this beast through these forests for days now. I am not stopping you from going home, what are you talking about?"

"Naya, calm down!" The girl said as a shockwave rippled in the force. "Please, I have no idea what you are talking about."

 

[Naya Everos]

Her shaking had turned unnatural again, distress emanating from her. She wrapped her arms around herself, struggling to catch her breath. Oh not again. She couldn't- breathe- again.

She sunk to her knees, gasping for breath. If she just squeezed herself tight enough, her arms could hold her together. Like glue. And she wouldn't have to deal with the grief and the anger or the empty future with no direction to walk towards but a burnt-down home. And if she didn't have to think of these things, maybe she could catch her breath. If she could just breath it could all be okay.

So she squeezed and squeezed, her fingers digging into her sides and her knuckles going white. "I have- to- help them," she wheezed, grasping at attempts to think through the sheer panic that had flared inside of her and operate normally.

 

[Verana]

The surge of panic anxiety, the sheer flood of emotion that washed over Vera was nearly enough to overwhelm her. Her own breathing began to shiver and shake as she too began to panic trying to find a way to help Naya. Nothing came to mind. All things considered they only just met. Vera had to dig within instead then and hope that it worked. In situations like these there was only the one thing that she would have wanted or that would have helped.

"And you can." Vera whispered as she knelt down on bot her knees to wrap Naya in a hug. "But first you need to calm down."

"We both need you to calm down."

"Please."

 

[Naya Everos]

She could? She can. She can help them, she can. The words rippled through her, an unexpected balm to the panic that had seized her. She abruptly understood where it had come from-- a feeling of helplessness so slimy it shook her to her core. She wasn't held hostage now, nor was she confined to a hospital bed. She could act. She could breath.

She hitched and shuddered, turning into the arms that had wrapped around her and clung to them. It was the first bit of comfort she had been given since the raid. The last Jedi hadn't supplied more than a monotone 'move past it'. The arms were warm and kind and enabling. Naya took in shaky breaths against the girl's shoulder, her light-headedness slowly fading. The panic ebbed. For the first time, the moment around her felt real. And she accepted the reality of her situation with resigned exhaustion.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, awkwardly releasing the stranger from her clinging grasp. "I'm sorry, I'm so out of control. I don't even know you."

 

[Verana]

Vera chuckled.

"When I first started 'blooming' so to speak, I took on the emotion of every single being around me." She said and gave Naya an assuring pat on her shoulder before she rose up from the ground. "The nerf, the vermin, the cats. Living on a farm combined with a hunting lodge made things very interesting. Which is not to mention what it feels like every time I shoot an animal."

She paused for a second.

"It's why I try not to shoot an animal unless I know that I intend on using the remains for something. Nothing goes to waste that way. I make it fast for them, and for me."

"Now, it seems like you are experiencing some form of... Shockwave?" Vera smiled at her... Well, she wanted to say friend. "Shockwave? How long have you been doing that?"

 

[Naya Everos]

"I haven't been-" She caught her words, her brows furrowing. She had thought that had been Vera and Hal all those times. Not her. Well except for the moment with her father... they had been alone... A fog had descended upon her waking hours, making it easy for events to twist and realities to meld. But Vera's words struck a ring of truth, and some of the confusion began to clear from inside of her.

"...When I tried to save -... Since yesterday, I think... Time is... blurry. ...I'm doing that? But I woulda thought... It was you. I don't use the force," she told Vera firmly. "We don't do that here."

 

[Verana]

There it was, Naya was confused and Vera was entirely the wrong person to tell her how to deal with it. For Vera it was a matter of mindfulness and meditation, but that alone was a concept she wasn’t all that able to really tell others how to do. Close your eyes and try to focus on breathing? There was more to it.

“The force is everywhere.” Vera said with as much calm she could muster. “Some people rely on it without knowing, others are more attuned to it than that. You seem to be somewhere in between.”

Vera glanced over towards the fire and the meats.

“Maybe we could talk about it over food?” She said and rose to her feet. “Don’t want to risk the Peltshredder coming back, eh?”

 

[Naya Everos]

Naya swallowed hard, a healthy kind of shock hitting her. Well. You know, healthy in the sense that she was feeling overwhelmed instead of checking out all together.

She gave a numb nod, finding no reason to disagree. While she wasn’t hungry, she knew she did need to eat. The meat was getting cold and Vera was perfectly sound to suggest they get rid of it before it attracted more pray.

Naya didn’t have a proper weapon for that kinda stuff. She also didn’t want Vera to leave just yet. She also needed to eat.

“Yeah. Let’s eat,” she croaked, going back to the space they had sat before.

She served Vera a few of the sticks in silence, twirling one in her hand before she found the words to speak again.

“But we don’t do that stuff here. Really. It’s forbidden amongst my people. No one is capable of it.”

 

[Verana]

Vera had heard mention of this kind of behavior in some of the less ‘developed’ cultures of the galaxy. Hadn’t read it herself, force know she couldn’t, but through conversation she had come to understand that in some parts of the galaxy there was a fear of the force. From a hunter’s perspective and with the fear it had brought her as a child she could certainly understand why. Awakening wasn’t very comfortable if you had no way of knowing what it was.

Stick in hand Vera sank her teeth into the meat. Burnt in some places and cold on the surface. It beat raw food, but only just about. Not that she would complain, food was survival and that was what she specialized in.

“Like I said, It’s something everyone does. I think.” Vera said amidst her chewing. “The masters around the temple know more about this than I do, I am just an apprentice.”

And in truth she had never been one for reading too deep into things. At its base the essentials of the code was “don’t be an ass.” Which suited Vera just fine.

“Where I’m from we have a very small sect of people who devote their lives to this.” Vera said, assuming Naya would understand she meant the force. “I believe they called it farseeing, the ability to… Well, not see far physically but ‘metaphysically.’ They could sort of peer into time and space to try and predict the future.”

She looked at Naya and raised her brow.

“Did your tribe really not have anything like that? No… Shamans, or… Witches?”

 

[Naya Everos]

"No," Naya responded, unable to help the sharp edge to her tone. She heard it as it came out though and bit her lip, a small edge of guilt bubbling up.

"You really aren't from around her," she noted, her tone softer. She took a deep breath, swallowing the lump of meat in her mouth. It went down like a rock, the girl without an appetite. "This planet has a long history with the sith. They've fought their wars here, off planet and on. The north and south use to oppose each other, and they used their power to destroy whatever stood in their way."

"We don't stand for people like that. And as far as we're concerned, jedi are no different."

We. We... there was no more we. Only her. Her gut churned, threatening to upend what she had managed to get down. She didn't look at the girl, aware that her opinion was a direct insult to what she was. Still, she explained anyway, not meeting her gaze.

"The force is bad. I don't want it in me."

 

[Verana]

There was a moment when Vera blinked. Should have figured the Sith played into it somehow, it seemed as if they always did. The girl couldn’t deny her inherent bias against the Sith in comparison to the Jedi, but that would do her practice with the Kiaran Peacekeepers — the farseeing sect from her homeworld — a big dishonor. Vera herself had Imperial roots that could be traced back to workers in the Empire under the Purple Teens. No wait, Paper Teams? The big one that nearly killed the Jedi dead.

A frown did spread on her lips though at the situation as it unfolded. It was hard not to feel like a zealot when you had to tell others about the righteousness of your particular fight in a struggle. In the end Vera did truly believe the Jedi were better than the alternative, but that didn’t mean she would pretend not to understand the seat Naya was in, at least to some extent.

“I… Guess not everyone feels the same on this topic.” She said and focused on her food. “Not sure what I can really tell you. The force does flow through you, but most distinctly also with you.”

“I’m sorry, friend. I really don’t know what to say.”

 

[Naya Everos]

She didn’t know either.

Naya let a silence take back over her, her mind whirling against the delivered news. So much of her resisted it, it was hard to work out and process what could possibly be done next to fix this predicament too. Everything was in shambles, even the question of her morality. All she could do was give a limp shrug and stare at the fire in silence, letting the girl eat in peace.

One thing was for certain, this was the second time she was saved by a jedi. No doubt that peltshreader would have come to make a meal of her if Vera had simply moved on from her camp before.

She dug into the mossy ground with her stick, her voice tight as she dared to ask, “Canyouliftbigstuffwithit?”

 

[Verana]

In a sense the silence was welcome. Vera needed time to think and so did Naya. She felt the other girl try to come to terms with the news. Her life had been flipped upside down in a matter of days, and Vera had to ask if it was right of her to do so when she didn’t have the answers needed to find a true measure of stability from hearing such news.

Then out of nowhere a bunched up string of words was uttered into the clearing. Vera raised her head to look at her friend with a confused look across her face.

“I… What?” She said and blinked before she realized what the other girl had asked. “Oh, right! Yes!”

So there was some form of familiarity with the force, then? If no-one had been in contact with a user of the force for a long time in her tribe it wouldn’t strike her as one of those questions one would ask. Then again, given the Sith and Jedi scars perhaps that was something told to the children of their world as a form of precautionary tale.

Regardless, another warm smile spread on Vera’s lips as she cleared her throat, closed her eyes and reached out for a small boulder on the outskirts of the camp. Her hand raised towards it she looked to struggle for a bit before finally the stone began to shake itself loose from its hole in the ground. It took awhile for it to leave the ground but before long it would start to hover above the ground.

However, not for long. After a few seconds Vera let the boulder go with an exhausted groan.

 

[Naya Everos]

Naya watched on with wide, fearful eyes. She recognized the fear that had been in her fathers eyes in that moment, but that mattered very little now. What would he say if he had survived to respond afterwards? Well he had said one thing. 'No.' It didn't take much imagination to expand his response further.

She swallowed hard, looking back to the dirt and digging at it a little harder.

"Does it hurt?" She asked, pushing the final image of her father's face out of her mind. The fog swallowed it, enveloping the stinging ache until it was a merely a dull throb she could exist besides.

"Using it?" She cleared her throat, her healing voice cracking under all this use. She had many problems, many things she couldn't possibly find the answer for, but the presence of her new... friend...? No, all her friends were dead.

The presence of this jedi had solved a few of the smaller needs pressing against her. Whether or not her village would approve, she couldn't help but to reach out for a bit more of the jedi's company. "You see, the huts back home... And I..." The words caught, the request for help unspoken.

 

[Verana]

“No.” Vera said and continued with catching her breath. “But I still have to carry the boulder. The bigger, the more tiring it is.”

Vera withdrew her canteen from her belt to take a hearty swig before she put it back again and wiped the remains on her sleeve. Naya struggled to ask for help and Vera gave her a warm smile despite understanding the severity of the unspoken request. It most likely took a lot out of Naya to ask in the first place.

“Of course.” She said and got up to place her hand at Naya’s shoulder. “But only if you think you would be able to handle that. I’ve, uh…” Vera said and drifted off into a memory. She had seen a man torn not in two but five different entrail-strewn piles inside a small library. She liked to think it had a way of numbing her pain, but she knew it wouldn’t. Still, Naya needed the help. Wouldn’t be a Jedi if she said no to that.

“I’ve seen it before.” Vera said and finished where she had left off. “If you are ready to face it again, then I will be there.”

 

[Naya Everos]

Naya curled inwards a little bit at the thought. She wasn't ready. No way in hell could she ever be ready for that. But she needed to. She needed to see, she needed to know-- "I have to try," she croaked.

Someone might have survived, though a tight feeling in her gut told her that even if they had, they'd likely be lost once they could make the rest of the journey there. For the first time she cursed at the previous Jedi's attempt to save her. No matter what she did now, it would be too late.

Even though he had promised her otherwise. She had to do it for herself.

She gave Vera a tight nod and said nothing more on it. She cleared her throat again, reminded how desperately thirsty she was by the girl's own flask. She nudged her remaining sticks towards her, standing. "You finish. I'll see about finding those plants. ... They make good tea too. You'd like it."