A remote world, full of swamps

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel nodded at the request - which seemed trivial in comparison to what she had received. "Listen, why don't you come onboard and have a look around my ship. I know I have rechargeable power cells and limb hinges. But you might see something else that takes your eye and that you hadn't considered."

The small hold on Sorel's ship was full of oddments - mostly ship and droid parts - but some generally needed items - including medical supplies, a variety of electronic equipment (that included discrete surveillance devices that looked like actual bugs) and more mundane things like candles, tents, bedding, sheets of material. She'd never sold the stuff but gave it away when it was needed by someone who either couldn't afford it, had great need or had done her a kindness.

[member="Kiara"]

 

[Kiara]

Being the suspicious one she was, the woman instantly began to squint her eyes. She's trying to kill me now, after I told her what she needed to know? "Who is to say this is not a trap, young Jedi? Are you still seeking out to kill me?" She had a firm scowl on her face now. It was evident she had clear trust issues, even if she met the person before.

Though seeking through various junk for goods was not a very bad idea, not a bad one at all.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel opened her arms by way of a symbol that she was hiding nothing. "I know you can sense deception. Listen to your heart, listen to the Force. You must know I speak the truth." She gently removed her Master's saber from its hilt and handed it to her, butt-end first. "Take this from me for now, as a measure of my honesty. Return it when you leave my ship. Right now, you have a weapon, I do not. I trust you, please, search your emotions to trust me back."

[member="Kiara"]

 

[Kiara]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

Kiara didn't move to take the weapon, but instead just stared at Sorel. After a while she looked about quickly. "Let's go then, let's hurry up and get this over with." She still felt scared of what could happen with the two in the same ship, and this time it was beginning to become more obvious.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel realised that her mysterious host would not take the saber - so there was a small element of trust there - but her words and demeanour suggested it was fragile at best. Words were cheap and Sorel needed to prove through her deeds that she was as good as her speeches were.

She led the way back to her ship and once there, opened the ramp that led into the cargo bay. It was full of containers - most marked with what they contained. Despite the hostile environment, Sorel kept the ramp open, giving her host the option of a quick exit if she felt the need. "Feel free to rummage. There's nothing you can't have, literally, help yourself."

[member="Kiara"]

 

[Kiara]

The hermit walked into the ship, and after looking at the containers, began to tap and study the floors and walls curiously. Well, she did mention letting her have anything... Perhaps this flooring was not as valuable as the young lady once imagined. She flipped her eyes to various droid parts - and with a bit of a bounce, began to search through them.

Piece after piece items fell to the ground, waiting to be picked up. For some strange reason she also dropped a piece of a common engine - with it a few headlights of a common speeder. "I think I would like these. Without further ado, let us get to whatever training it seems you would like."

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel flushed. "Please, take these items, they are a small reward for your help and hospitality when you needed to offer neither. But please do not think I offered them in return for anything. There is no debt on either side. You helped me and I hopefully am helping you. If you wish to offer training, I would be foolish to refuse but did not expect it, nor plan for it. Please believe me."

[member="Kiara"]

 

[Kiara]

The woman gently picked up the parts in her arms, trying to cram them all into one full trip back home without ending up loosing anything. "Well that's what I'm offering, so if you want some training from me that probably won't help I can provide it," she babbled on, heading to her hut off the ship.

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel picked up all the bits that her host couldn't carry and the ones she dropped along the way. "I'm right behind you," she said as they walked back to the woman's hut. "And let's be honest, I'm a Jedi. Any training is beneficial and learning is part of the Code after all. So anything you can help me with will be gratefully received - believe me."

[member="Kiara"]

 

[Kiara]

"That's not what the last two said when I was done with them." Soon returning to the hut to throw down the items in random order, the old woman who lived in the swamps seemed a little less miracle now than she ever did before. "How natural do you want it?"

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel's face remained impassive, unsure what to make of the woman. Eccentric was how she wanted her to be, so she reacted on that basis.

"I'm not entirely sure of the question - so I'll leave the answer in your hands. I'm sure you know best." And with that she sighed softly, wondering what she had let herself in for - yet eager to find out more.

[member="Kiara"]

 

[Kiara]

"Very well... Let me see." She went quiet as she thought, then she stood and walked back out into the wild - only taking her staff with her. "Come, follow me please." She said in a quick tone, though nothing of her voice was a demand or a comment. It simply was - sometimes.

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel placed the items she'd been carrying down as carefully as she could. There wasn't a huge amount of room and she didn't want to squash anything, but given her host was already heading out of the door, she did the best she could and then followed her.

"I'm right behind you."

[member="Kiara"]

 

[Kiara]

The woman soon came to a sudden stop in front of an old camplace, two pots of clay and the death of a fire long gone. "What can you tell
me about this scene little Jedi?"

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel followed and took in the scene but was surprised at the question. This was not what she was expecting. Willing to say what she saw and not overthink, she spoke quickly and confidently.

"A campfire. Long extinguished. Two pots and nothing else. If the users of the pots had left under normal circumstances, they would have taken their pots with them. Which suggests they left in a hurry or they were taken away themselves. Of course it could be one person and two pots."

She then searched the site for footprints, signs of a struggle or even drag marks.

[member="Kiara"]

 

[Kiara]

Most of the marks were long covered by rainfall and dirt wash up, but it was a simple pair of two feet when it was seen. Two feet and two sandles, the same the hermit left in her very footstep. "I suppose that's right. Now make the Force out of it," she said. It may have been a trick, maybe not, only time and reason could tell with this one.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

As Sorel examined the scene further, she realised there was only one set of foot-prints and they appeared to belong to the woman standing beside her. It did not make a huge amount of sense, so Sorel kept an open mind as to the meaning.

But when the woman asked her to make the Force out of it, she frowned, her brows knitting. "I do not understand. I cannot make the Force. It exists all around us and in us and every living being. I can access it and ask it to help me to perform certain tasks. But I do not understand exactly what you would wish me to do."

[member="Kiara"]

 

[Kiara]

"Perhaps it's because you're stupid," the hermit from the swamps spoke as she sat herself down cross legged in the dirt, next to the washed away fireplace which once roared with life and flames. "I can make the Force. I can kill, and use their dead remains to make the Force." Her hands gently folded onto two pieces of damp wood, which she threw into the watery ashes that claimed the border of the rocks surrounding it.

"Some people cannot, some people do it without even trying. Even a laser bolt has the Force signature in it. How do machines make those?" She quietly snapped a piece of wood in half. "They kill and combine, such as when we die we may be dissolved into the ground to become nothingness, and everything. So go ahead, make the Force."

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel could not fault the woman for her honesty. She certainly said things as she saw them. But her words did not make the request any easier.

“For me, the Force is an energy field. It connects us – but I cannot create it, only draw upon it. So maybe I am stupid.” Her voice was calm and not confrontational, and instead was merely stating the facts as she saw them. “I cannot create the Force from dead remains. On death they join the Force, I cannot interfere with that process. In fact, I’m not sure I want to.”

“But I am curious as to how you do it.”

[member="Kiara"]

 

[Kiara]

"Simple," Kiara started, staring at the muddy grounds that held her footsteps. "but just showing you everything would make me a generous no-good witch wagglin'. I suppose just this one time though, never hurt." With the two sticks she snapped in half, she began to rub one into the other in a spinning motion, while her feet held it and her other hand went to grab dried leaves, protected from the moist weather. Within only a few moments she had created smoke, and with the dried crumpled leaves catching onto the burning remains, a small fire was created.

Without waiting, she carefully laid the fuel down and began to pile sticks on top of it. "With a dead twig, and a few of it's leaves, I have created life." She spoke, waving her hand over the gently trickling flames before blowing on it gently. "And with," she said with another blow. "only some of my own life," she continued, speaking in between her soft breaths to the flames, "I make it grow into something new."

| [member="Sorel Crieff"] |