Backwater Hunting

[Uriel]

The wonderful thing about being a Brother-Sergeant of the Inquisition, a trusted one, was that testing new products was part of his purview. He was sent out to collect the brand new technology, test it furiously for all of its intents and purposes, and then report back to the Lord Inquisitor as to his findings. Some of these had already been tested, of course, but there were other toys provided by the Abregado-Rae Guild of Hammers, in conjunction with Firemane. They were the primary provider of the Inquisition's high-tech toys, and with good reason: their huge-recoil weapons provided plenty of firepower in their quest to vanquish the Sith.

Therefore, Uriel had travelled to Kaeshana to pick up some neat toys: one, the new shatter-repeater called an assault cannon, and what ARGH and Firemane were marketing as a long-range sniper anti-armour bolter. He'd paid for some test rounds in their firing ranges, then promptly skipped out - telling them he was headed out into the jungle, of course - to properly stress-test the weapon under actual conditions.

The big blue hulking soldier made his way through the jungles, mud tracking on the soles of his powered armour. Every step was a squelching mess, brown tainting pure azure as it bogged him down ever so slightly. With the added power of his armour, he could heft both incredibly heavy weapons - one strapped to his back, the other cradled in his arms - and not feel too much slowing him down.

But it'd be nice to find something out here. Maybe something to hunt. Something to test.

Probably get splatted ridiculously with the high-power boltguns, but still.

[member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"]

 

[Galina Kerrigan-Alcori]

It seemed Uriel would not be the only one out in the forest today. Galina was out stalking soundlessly as she moved through the forest with bare feet. A simple hand crafted bow in right hand, her arrows held in her left hand. There was a quiver upon her back holding more. For it was far more efficient to have arrows in the draw hand, rather than having to draw and string them from a quiver.

The young redhead needed the practice, as it was something she just couldn't get in the Villa. It was one thing to shoot against stationary targets, but something else to have to stalk prey and shoot at moving live targets. She just didn't expect to have company in the forest. Though there was something coming her way, large, noisy. And quite frankly so much so that she could have killed it without even looking.

Quickly and with little effort the young woman flung the bow over her shoulder and swung up into a nearby tree. Once there she perched herself on the lower limb and pulled her bow from her shoulder and quickly strung an arrow aiming for the mess of noise that was coming her way. Waiting, she pulled the bow string tight waiting to see if it was needed or not. No words, just waiting. It all depended what came out of the clearing, human, Eldorai or animal. At least she held the high ground.

[member="Uriel"]

 

[Uriel]

Uriel switched his vision to thermal, purely out of reflex. It was a habit when trekking through thick overgrowth like this, for the reduction in vision almost mandated being able to see in different spectrums. Undoubtedly, there was something out here. There had to be. Places like this tended to have all kinds of huntable material - and, frankly, with all the noise he was making, whatever heard him was probably going to run away quickly. Nearly one hundred and fifty kilograms of powered armour was enough to terrify anything.

Then he saw it - high up in the trees. Thermal was a great replacement for not-so-keen eyes; the burst of red splashed against green and blue was unmistakeable. You couldn't quite hide body heat like you camouflaged against scenery from visible light.

The sniper bolter raised, devastating enough to penetrate almost any kind of infantry armour at a whim. It was overkill for absolutely anything out here, truthfully - but this wasn't a combat test, it was a stress and efficiency test. Being able to snap-fire against fast-moving targets was a critical part of what he wanted.

He realised, right before his power-armoured finger caressed the trigger, that the shape was human. It wasn't that of an animal.

"You, up in the tree!" he called, rifle still raised. "Show yourself!"


[member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"]

 

[Galina Kerrigan-Alcori]

Galina shuffled in her position as she watched the creature in the power armor appeared below her, for a moment she just tightened the bow string a little further, uncertain if he was friend or foe. Finally she relaxed slightly. She held other weapons if need be. "Low-er you-r wea-pon and I will." Her Basic still left much to be desired but it had come a long way since she was marooned on the arctic island alone, fighting to survive each and every day. At least most of what she spoke was easily understandable enough. "You human, like me. Means y-ou here for El-do-rai, or Fire-mane." Or are quantum tunneling sith ... But that thought didn't need to be spoken aloud.


"You s-scared off my prey, just so y-y-ou know." There was a little hint of anger in her words. With a huff she shifted on her perch waiting for him to make the first move, to instill a tentative trust between them. Arrows were shifted back into her hand, as she shuffled the bow into a comfortable position for her, though she didn't string an arrow in this instance. Vivid red hair tamed into a neat ponytail to keep it back from her face, and simply camouflage tank top with pants to match. Things that were actually a luxury these days given it wasn't that long ago that she was making her clothing from what ever furs she could obtain. For now she simply waited. She didn't like the idea of giving up something that felt safe for the relative unknowns that lay below. Until she was a little more certain that he wouldn't hurt her, Galina wasn't moving.

[member="Uriel"]

 

[Uriel]

Slowly, carefully, the weapon left its brace against Uriel's shoulder, the longarm bolter's muzzle pointing down in an arc traced slowly like the accusatory finger being lowered after slanderous falsehood. His shoulders sagged slightly, the titanic soldier realising that this was not something he could hurt. or wanted to, for that matter. A poor young woman who wasn't a soldier. No, he wasn't going to shoot her any time soon.

"Who are you?" he asked, insistently; her statements went unanswered though not ignored. He knew he was an intimidating presence to both wildlife and sentients alike, in contrast to the little slip of woman in front of him. He was the only one who should have been out here - this was mostly hunting land in civilized territory.

So what gave? Who was she?

[member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"]

 

[Galina Kerrigan-Alcori]

Finally Galina shifted her bow into her draw hand and swung down the tree with relative ease until she came to a stop on the lowest branch. Feeling this was visible enough and counted for 'show yourself'. Keen blue-grey eyes searching him over, taking in every last detail. "Galina Kerrigan-Alcori." The redhead had heard her new last name repeated enough times for it to be one of the few things she could pronounce with ease. She wasn't just a nobody out here, she was the adopted daughters of Tegaea Alcori and Siobhan Kerrigan, the heads of Firemane. Though the story of her adoption was a most interesting one.

Situating herself on the lowest branch, she cocked her head curiously to the side. "And, who are y-ou?" She'd never seen armor quite like his. Well in fact, she'd actually seen very little armor at all. Galina had yet to even venture off Kaeshana, and still for the most part stayed closed to the Villa of her parents. Warfare, wasn't something she got into. Not when her homeworld far from here, was always tangled in a centuries old brutal civil war. Here, peaceful and simpler things occupied her time. Though, she still got out for the occasional hunt, to keep her skills with her bow.

[member="Uriel"]

 

[Uriel]

It was such a dichotomy, two totally opposite people meeting for the first time; the high-tech, crack-trained soldier who had seen an eternity of war and its horrors against the One Sith, contrasted with the jungle girl whose command of language was tentative and her skill with technology utterly low. Yet, she was the heiress of a technological empire so vast that it was impossible to overlook her pedigree.

"Galina Kerrigan-Alcori," Uriel repeated, the long-range boltgun returning to the mag-plate on his back, held in place so that he would not need to carry it. "I am Uriel, Inquisitor of the Omega Protectorate."

He knew the name. Of course he did. This was the scion of Firemane, of Siobhan Kerrigan and Tegaea Alcori. How she was the heir to the weapons empire was simply unknown. She looked passingly like neither of them, after all.

His curiosity got the better of him, as it was likely not supposed to.

"And you are the... daughter, of Siobhan and Tegaea, then?"

 

[Galina Kerrigan-Alcori]

With one hand she hung onto her bow, using her other hand to swing nimbly to the forest floor without so much as a sound before stepping forward boldly. She knew enough to know the Omega Protectorate were allies with Kaeshana, so he could theoretically be trusted. At least enough that she didn't need to hide in the tree any longer.

She bowed her head slightly, a manner of her greeting, "Uri-el," before a soft smile spread across her lips, "Plea-sure to meet y-ou."

This question she knew was coming, most people did ask for she was no blood relation. "Ad-dopted daug-hter, yes." Galina had come to expect this more and more. "Long story." The young woman added. Unlike him, she hadn't put her bow away and kept it and three arrows out, held in her hand. For the forest was a dangerous place, the redhead knew all too well of the dangers on Kaeshana. "Siobhan res-cued me, from an island here. Alone for eight years." It was the simplest explanation for how she had come into the care of Siobhan and Tegaea.

[member="Uriel"]

 

[Uriel]

Ah, an adopted daughter. That made a lot more sense to the towering warrior, who could merely piece together what parts of the puzzle were made available to him. The leaders of Firemane rescued her, brought her under their care and looked after her. Presumably they had some interest in her beyond simple curiosity; something about her, likely. That was what interested the Inquisitor more than anything. What was it about this girl, beyond her striking features and red hair? You didn't adopt someone just because they were attractive.

Unlike Galina, Uriel was confident in his skills in combat; trained not only as a shooter but in the devastating martial arts of the Inquisition which are currently unspecified but I'm sure I'll get into later, he could likely fight whatever came along. His attention still on his new conversation companion, that would hopefully not become necessary.

"I see," Uriel said. He liked saying that, apparently. It was just a thing. "So I take it you are hunting out here. For food or sport? And... why a primitive bow?"

The big man's hands went behind his back, folded like a military parade rest. Old habits died hard.

[member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"]

 

[Galina Kerrigan-Alcori]

She nodded, "Yes, hunting for sport. I think what it's called here." Pausing a moment she thought about his question. Then realized she couldn't speak the answer, but she was certain she could write it. "One second. I write better than speak. Basic not my first lan-guage." As if that wasn't obvious enough. Reaching into her pocket the redhead retrieved a small data pad and started typing. It took her a moment but she had a reply for him as she offered the datapad to him.

I just trying to keep up the skills I needed to survive. Technology gets you, only so far. Ammo runs out, power packs fade. Sometimes, all you have is what is around you. If you can take that... Know how to survive with just your hands, and tools you can come by and make, you handle anything life can throw at you.

Wise words for a teenager, well technically young adult. It was a simple idea, though one that came with profound impacts. Galina wouldn't rely on technology alone. Though she could manage to use a little of it. She'd gotten far enough without it and wasn't about to lean on technology when it came to things like this. Primitive survival skills were extremely important to her, for good reason.

I survived with nothing but bow, and crude knife for eight years, on my own, isolated from all. I hunt with bow, because it saved me. It I made when I crashed on Kaeshana. It kept me alive. I do not want to lose those skills that let me survive all those years alone.

"You can speak re-ply to me, as long as it slow I under-stand most." She spoke, just letting him know that sometimes she didn't always have the ability to speak a reply but she could write it. Galina understood far more than she could speak, as well as able to write a lot more than she could ever appropriately speak.

[member="Uriel"]

 

[Uriel]

Using a datapad in powered armour was never a recommended idea. Not only would Uriel likely break it just by poking it, the armour lacked the perfect manual dexterity to use it for fine things like typing quickly. Therefore, he opted to speak. His speech was usually slow and fluent, like a powerful avenging angel descending from the heavens, not riddled with contractions and jargon - unless it was military speak for fellow soldiers. Therefore, for Galina, it shouldn't have been too much difficulty to understand him. Hopefully.

"I do not just rely on my guns and armour," the soldier explained. "When you are without a gun, use your knife. When you are without your knife, use your fists. And if you must tear the very heart from your enemy's chest with your bare hands, so be it."

They weren't so different. Survival of the fittest.

"You would make a very good soldier, you know," Uriel said, a slight smile falling across his lips as he finally removed his helmet to reveal his weathered face. It, too, was mag-locked to his armour, no longer necesssary when he was talking to someone and not trying to hunt sport. His steely-grey eyes looked towards Galina as he considered her words, her skills and talents.

She intrigued him.

"You have a talent for surviving. That's something we all need. Have you ever considered it?"

[member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"]

 

[Galina Kerrigan-Alcori]

Galina listened to him, nodding after a while. It seemed that beyond their obvious external differences, they weren't all that different when you got down to it. "Exactly." Her lips curving into a smile. "Had nothing on the island, but burnt out ship. Just had to make do." The girl left out the part where both her parents were killed in said crash. "Still I made it." Against all odds she made it and survived in a situation few others would have. And even in that isolation, she still kept her head, and her sanity.

The redhead chuckled softly,"May-be so." The thought of being a soldier, fighting in wars. It wasn't something that had crossed her mind in a very long time. Not since she was back on Sigma.

A sigh came, "Yes, though forced on me. No choice but to fight to sur-vive, or die. Dy-ing not option." Her brow furrowed together for a moment as she thought about it. "No, I have not. G-grew up in cen-tury old civil war on Sigma. Not sure I want to go through that again." Her thoughts drifted back to both her older sister and brother going off to war and never coming home. Both perished. It was the entire reason her parents took her and fled Sigma in search of a better life for their remaining child.

"I prob-ably need-d to learn s-skill with new wea-pons and t-tech. To de-fend me, from what is out there." Learning the hard way the need for such skills was not what she wanted. The last thing Galina wanted was to be forced into a situation where she was suddenly thrust into needed technology and advanced weapons but not knowing the first thing about them. There was also a need to learn about the tech of Firemane, if she was to one day step into the shoes of her mothers, she was going to need to learn a hell of a lot.

[member="Uriel"]

 

[Uriel]

That brought a momentary pause to the high-tech, high-power warrior; he hadn't considered the fact that this young lady could have already been forced through the opporessive hell that was warfare. Uriel had a taste and a mindset for it - mostly because he had survived the Inquisition's training. It had a high mortality rate for a reason: their enemies were so brutal that the training involved in fighting them had to be ridiculously intense.

Uriel folded his arms, eyes settling on Galina's for a moment; she had obviously seen a lot before coming to Kaeshana. This place wasn't entirely a harsh environment; it meant that she could look after herself and relax, unwind after the terrible horrors that were her past.

He had no words for how terrible things were for her, other than to shake his head quietly. Probably best to change the subject.

"I am surprised they didn't teach you more about Firemane's bolters," Uriel said. "I swear my life by Firemane technology almost every day. Have you ever used them?" And it was true. Bolters and bolt pistols formed the most common weapons employed by the Inquisition, followed by MandalTech's force weapons for engaging in melee combat. Then add the menagerie of high-tech, high-power heavy weapons - which did include the heavy bolter - and you had an arsenal dedicated to killing Force-users.

Oh, that'll be fun to address later...

 

[Galina Kerrigan-Alcori]

She gave a small shrug, "Studies more i-impor-tant, to c-catch what I miss, to mothers." Galina knew they felt that was far more important than anything else at the moment. And there was time for other things like learning about Firemane and the company in general later. She needed to catch up her education first and foremost.

"Just h-handle blas-ster. Do not much like." Truth be told the weapon just felt strange to her. Different. But then again, she'd spent eight years with nothing but a bow. It was bound to be weird for her to say the least. "Bolters, no. I have not." She'd seen them in practice, with Siobhan on the shooting range, but beyond that she'd never handled a weapon of that caliber.

Saw Siobhan on the range with them, beyond that no. I've never handled one or even touched one for that matter. I recall turning ten on Sigma and being handed what is called a 'slug thrower' here. Have only really worked with things that are relatively primitive compared to planets here. Typed into the datapad as she once more offered it to him.

@Uriel

 

[Uriel]

Well, that was fair. Uriel had a fairly normal upbringing himself-

Oh, snap, we're opening the classified dossier right now. Character development, man. It's FINALLY here. Only took me eight threads to get this far.

Uriel was pretty normal, as far as childhoods went. Sure, he was a street rat in terms of the poverty line; poor parents, rough neighbourhood. Fondor wasn't an entirely forgiving place like that; if you worked sheet metal in the shipyards, you weren't exactly a fancy worker with enough pay. He grew up with his father and knew his mother only until about age seven, when she left him for a richer husband. So, Uriel was mostly a hood kid, going out, scrounging what he could for his dad, looking after each other. Dad would bring home the paycheck, Uriel would get in enough trouble to get some money in fighting rings but not enough trouble to bring the law down on him. Then it was off to the military when he was old enough, to be less financial burden on his dad. With his fighting skills and prowess, it was enough to get him into the Pyre - and then into the Protectorate when they changed. Their special forces program was enough to draft him... and from there, the Inquisition.

Uriel wasn't his real name, either - but he didn't remember his real name. All of this was ancient history, for him. This was all drilled out of him by the Inquisition. The old persona ceased to be and he became Uriel, Brother-Sergeant.

But none of that mattered to him any more.

"I do not blame you. This armour increases my strength and allows me to handle that recoil one-handed. It is not an easy weapon for a first-timer."

But a child soldier from the age of ten? That was not right. Uriel offered her what was a soft smile for him.

"It is unfortunate you were exposed to war so young. I know its horrors. I am sorry you had to go through them."

[member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"]

 

[Galina Kerrigan-Alcori]

It explained a bit of her survival skills. Her life, had never been easy, never been simple. The sad thing was, she was one of the fortunate few who escaped the brutality of the civil war, her parents determined to save their last child from certain death. Though they would perish in their efforts, they did succeed in a manner of speaking. Galina had survived.

"I s-see." She spoke, curiously as she stepped around him briefly, looking rather inquisitively at the powersuit. "Inter-resting, very inter-resting. Little s-strange, but inter-resting." Such technology still felt incredibly foreign to her.

A soft nod came, her minds drifting back to the first moments she ever experienced shots fired at her, the little redhead was barely seven. Racing through what was left of the open market near her home, trying to escape supporters of the Mages. Ricocheted bullet had grazed her shoulder then. She still carried the scar to this day. Reaching up she found herself rubbing at the same irritating place on her shoulder, "T-thank y-ou." Speaking quietly. Before she took her datapad and once more typed a reply into it for him.

Was too young to really understand what was happening back then. Everything happened quickly.

That was the nature of wars like that, forcing children to grow up far too fast.

Biological parents, took me away few months after rebels forced me into their army. Spent all money we had to get a ship to run blockade. They did not want me to perish like my siblings. It's how I ended up here. They gave their lives to see me live.

She barely managed a sad frown at those words, too many things had already hardened her in ways she wasn't even really aware of. At the same time Galina was past mourning for her parents, and the siblings she never knew. Gone before she could even recall them. The years marooned here, had given her enough time to mourn those losses. "Was n-never easy. But life better now. Better here." She said as she smiled a little and attempted to push the terrible memories away. That's all the were now, just memories. Painful none the less, but the war was gone. It was gone the moment escaped the blockade and transitioned into hyperspace.

[member="Uriel"]

 

[Uriel]

It was such a different story. The lone survivor of a family entrenched in a brutal war so primitive that it claimed more lives than it saved even for Galactic standards. So punishing that families were torn to opposite ends of the Galaxy just to ensure survival. That was the kind of thing you never wished to see. Uriel fought to protect the innocent from annihilation, the avenging angel; but this? This was not acceptable.

For the first time in what felt like forever, emotions cracked through the outer shell of the brutal conquering Inquisitor; for the vast majority of his time, all he studied was the path of warfare. He did not spend his downtime with many people; it was always cleaning his armour and being rushed across the Galaxy from one deployment to another. From Alderaan to Belsavis to Kaltes, all in a very short amount of time, there was little chance to really be with people. It so happened that one of the first people that Uriel encountered was enough to break through that durasteel shell.

With as much tenderness as a cold, unfeeling metal hand could muster, he placed a hand on Galina's shoulder - careful not to squeeze for obvious reasons - the same one that she had already rubbed. It was a symbolic gesture of support. Something he did not do lately for any barring his battle-brothers, for evident reasons; his heart was with them for eternity, inextricably linked to his fellow Inquisitors, to those of his squad and his Company.

He read her words carefully, read them twice - and then looked up to her.

"I am glad that you survived," he said. "I am glad you were found and given another chance. You deserve that much, certainly. I shall not dredge up more unpleasant memories for you, however."

It was strange. Emotions like this had been a rarity in his life. Contrary to popular belief, Inquisition training did not block out emotional ranges. They still felt like normal people. Some chose to shut those emotions out in order to survive and cope with the harshness of their training and the battles that followed; Uriel was one such person.

Why now, then?

"So why a bow?" he asked, gesturing to the weapon still in her hand.

[member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"]

 

[Galina Kerrigan-Alcori]

The nature of planets far outside of known space, such wars, raiding and other horrible activities were just the norm. It was the life Galina had been born into and only now she was discovering there was a life outside of war. As hard as it might seem to believe, at eighteen she'd already seen more of war and death than most people do in their lifetimes. She certainly wasn't unchanged by it either. The girl still suffered from nightmares and a mild form of post traumatic stress disorder from all the events she had gone through already.

She smiled a little brighter at the simple gesture, even if it was a little strange to keep a metal hand upon her shoulder. It was the thought behind the gesture that brought the smile.

"As am I." Incredibly thankful for the fragile gift of life, and that stars favored her when the ship crashed onto Kaeshana, killing her parents but sparing her. If not for her early life being the hell that it was, she would never have had the skills to survive. It gave the young woman a keen perspective on life as a whole, knowing any

Truth be told, I have not spoken much about it. It makes it a little better to talk about it. It makes it feel real, when all has felt like both nightmare and dream. Sometimes, I just need to know it's real and not a dream.

She typed and showed to him once more.

Then she looked to her bow. She ran a hand across the wood, fingers tracing every detail of the weapon, from personal carvings in the bow's grip, in her native language. She waited for him to read her words, before taking to the datapad to type out what she felt on the matter.

A bow is personal. From the crafting, to the carvings given. It is silent and simple in nature. One has to be close enough to their prey to see them, watch them, to know them. And know your shot will kill the first time. Takes talent, skill. There's an elegance to it, any one can pick up a gun and shoot it. It takes time, practice and effort to learn a bow. And each is different. No two exactly alike. Each has their own personality, be that from the material they were crafted from to the what is used for the string. It takes time to get to know them each, how they feel against you, how they aim and shoot. Effort to learn the subtle art of using one efficiently.

I like the way it feels in my hands, against my skin. I enjoy the way it makes my entire body work to use, my hands, my shoulders and back as I draw it back. The arrow, there is something about the soft noise against my ear that it makes as I release it. There isn't another weapon out there like it. There are millions of reasons why I like a bow, but it has to be because they are akin to a person in the way you get to know them. It's a personal weapon, still handcrafted and not made on a production line. I guess I like being different as well. No one chooses a weapon like this, in this part of space.

[member="Uriel"]

 

[Uriel]

That was certainly poetic, far more than he could muster. Not that Uriel was not an unintelligent man by any means; he simply wasn't one for poetry. He spoke eloquently, yes. But eloquence did not necessarily lend itself to a poetic nature. Uriel was not a poet-warrior of old, able to wield nobility in the same way he carried a sword, unable to draw brush strokes both ink and sanguine. He was little better than a trained killer, a brutal murderer, a spirit bent on conquest and annihilation until destruction claimed himself.

They were an interesting contrast, Galina and Uriel. Both unwilling to look to the past, only considering their future; both different in their own ways, both coming through their mental trauma. Both honed as weapons from the beginning until the bitter end.

The differences from there were stark. Their approaches, their methods, their mindsets; the towering hulking giant versus the little slip of a silent hunter. Both approached combat vastly differently. Both were conditioned to think along different lines.

It intrigued him, just a little.

He considered the words upon the datapad. He read them once, then again; he drunk deep from the wellspring of insight, trying to get more than a read on just the text before him but the woman who had penned those words. By the end of his second reading he was staring into her eyes and not to her diatribe.

"I prefer my bolter," Uriel said. "It is a weapon I share with my brothers. It binds us, that were are clad in blue and carry the same weapon unless necessity dictates. We are the best in the Galaxy. We use the best weaponry. It represents us, a reminder that we are meant to be perfect in all areas of warfare. Its destructive power is immense for a mass-produced infantry weapon. The recoil is intense - too intense for most. We handle it with ease."

He looked at her bow, then offered her a quiet smile. "They all may be simple metal printed one after the other in a factory. But each of them is ours. There are many like it, but they are ours. We respect them as unique. They are our lives on the battlefield. Though, I will not argue with your point. It is certainly unique on a planet that makes destructive grenade rifles."

[member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"]

 

[Galina Kerrigan-Alcori]

Galina waited patiently as he read the words she'd written him. Even she aware of the stark contrasts they made. She a forest hunter by necessity, a child soldier by force. He a combat vet, a highly trained soldier, by choice. Both lives so different, but each had their crossovers and events that were similar in nature. The redhead smiled brightly in return.

When he finished she slowly translated his words in her mind into Sigmanese. "I t-think, I under-stand. Ex-ce-pt broth-ers? Your s-sib-lings?" She didn't understand that in the sense of things. While he may have meant soldiers in arms, brothers. Her only understanding of the word came as siblings, blood relatives. "Y-ou like me, have y-ou-r own rea-sonss for loving the wea-pon. Bow was life-blood for long time, some-time still is. And bolter is y-our-s?"

"Have y-ou ever s-shot a bow?" She asked, wondering. So few had in this part of space. Part of her wanted to share her love for the weapon with him, with anyone really.

She didn't get to hear his answer as something in her mind, in her body sensed danger coming. Little did she know, this was an early manifestation of the Force. A brush of leafs, she heard ever so soft. In less than half a heartbeat she had her bow up, an arrow strung an a shot fired into a nearby tree behind Uriel, before the large feline-like creature could spring upon them.

A howl echoed through the forest as she with almost unnatural speed already had a second arrow strung and released it into the large cat like creature as it made its attempt at a leap, with what little life was still in the animal. As it limped towards the pair, she was already drawing her third arrow, annoyed with herself for not bringing the animal down on the first shot. Though she could see, the first arrow had landed exceptionally close to the creatures heart.

[member="Uriel"]