Private Big Cats

[Colette]

The leaf shifted under the pressure of her finger and thumb. The surface of the midrib was dry save for the bloodied tip, covered in the life blood of their quarry. The aggression of the local wildlife had been on the rise lately. Usually that didn't say much for the animals that lived on Dxun, but as it turned out there was a limit even for these kinds of predator when the line crossed from ordinary to extraordinary.

There was a trail of deep footprints and another bloodied shrub up ahead. Whatever had injured this beast had done its job well, but most likely not well enough.

"We're getting close." Colette said, her eyes squinting as she set her focus on the next shrubbery with intense focus as she kept an ear out for anything out of the ordinary. Anything that would potentially try and ambush them. "Gharzr pawprints. Poison. Big, claws like razors."

She pushed her hand against her knee and shuffled the rifle over her shoulder once she stood.

"Stalks prey, usually. This one, not so much. Something is making it desperate, acting out."

Lily Decoria

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Dxun
Attire: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Cross guard Lightsaber, Hydrangea Moonblade (Concealed)
Tag: Colette

Being able to work on a mission with her friend was a pleasant surprise for Lily, she had a lot of fun when Colette came to Jakku where they sparred and caught up. Now they were working together on Dxun, the moon that was a polar opposite to Jakku. A location that she definitely figured was much more Colette's preferred environment. The fellow Padawan was a big fan of nature and hated places like Coruscant or ships.

Watching her friend work was a delight. While Lily was a capable fighter and skilled in combat, she was not a natural tracker or hunter, she was not someone who would fight or kill animals either, that didn't appeal to her either. However, the situation on Dxun seemed beyond the normal and it was at a point where support of the Jedi was needed. The moon was connected to the Force in many ways and there was even a Sith tomb here. Lily's eyes scanned over the tell tale signs that Colette was noting on the creature they were currently stalking.

"Anything hinting at what could have triggered the beast?" Lily asked in a whisper, hoping they could find an answer before they had to contend with the beasts around here. Her gaze kept an eye out for any dangers nearby, the description from Colette on the beast did not sound fun to her, poison and claws were not a good combination for the type of fighter she was.

 

[Colette]

Lily Decoria

Colette's tongue shifted, her brows furrowed, and with a few more steps she crawled her way over to the next bloodied bush.

"No idea." She muttered and let out a frustrated 'hmm'. "Nothing in the blood. At least from what I can tell by looking at it at least. But if you look at the pawprints," Colette pointed at the four-pronged print in the nearby dirt. "One paw is pushing deeper into the earth, meaning it is wounded and afraid."

"Judging by the amount of blood, they were either hit with a bad shot or something stabbed it in self-defense…"

A loud roar bellowed in the distance. Colette grabbed Lily's shoulder to pull her down or at the very least keep her low. The call was unmistakingly feral. The kid could basically feel the spittle from the beast's roar blanket the ground beneath it.

"Sense anything in the force?" Colette asked Lily and tried to reach out herself. All she could feel was the beast in the distance. "I can sense our friend, but… Something feels… Off?"

"I can't detect any other life nearby."

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Dxun
Attire: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Cross guard Lightsaber, Hydrangea Moonblade (Concealed)
Tag: Colette

Lily followed Colette's lead as she crawled to the next bush, Lily was more crouch walking since the idea of crawling in the dirt did not appeal to the Echani noble.

Listening on the explanation, Lily made a mental note of the signs that Colette had found, knowing these things seemed important survival training that could help her out some day. "Could it be another animal attacking the injured one? Could be aggressive animals riling each other up?" Lily knew they were here about increased attacks towards humanoid populations but it could be also the animals were attacking one another more often than they usually did.

She kept low when Colette put her hand on Lily's shoulder, she placed a reassuring hand on the forearm of Colette's arm. Looking her friend in the eye and offering a reassuring smile that they would be fine. Lily would handle anything if things got rough.

"Hm..." Lily paused and listened to the Force. It wasn't something she was well versed in doing and she wasn't naturally gifted in understanding the subtle meanings of the Force either. However a chill sent shivers down her spine. "I feel... cold... intensely cold... like when fighting Sith." Lily attempted to describe, "but it isn't a Sith, at least there aren't any reports of Sith here."

 

[Colette]

Lily Decoria

Dirt and Colette were like two peas in a pod. The girl and the laundromatic were basically best acquaintances at this point. It wasn't her fault that crawling through dirt on her knees (but not hands) was a perfectly fine way to get ahead. The clothes on her back were made of treated textiles. She was the epitome of function over form in nature, but Lily already knew that.

"No." Colette answered with an unintended curtness to her voice at Lily's question. "This beast has been here for too long for that. If there was an intruder there would be waves of anger in the air. All I can feel is fear."

Fear, and that coldness now that Lily had mentioned it. Colette squinted and began to look around them.

"No detected sith activity at least." She said and grumbled. "No, this is too… Small?"

"Think about it. If you wanted your enemy to waste resources, you would want to cause as big of a problem as possible, right? More resources here, less resources on the frontlines."

"Unless, we are just nipping it at the bud, of course…" Colette disappeared in thought for a moment longer.

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Dxun
Attire: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Cross guard Lightsaber, Hydrangea Moonblade (Concealed)
Tag: Colette

"Fear..." It seemed a strange emotion to be coming from a predator but she knew that no one knew much more about nature than Colette did. The woman seemed to live and breathe the natural environment that they were living in.

Nodding her head, "cause disruption and chaos to swoop in and clean things up to look the hero in comparison to a floundering predecessor." Lily mentioned, it was an approach politicians took when they campaigned for the leadership roles. Lily could see the Sith taking such a route to save having to fight monsters in the field like some of the Jedi Masters in the NJO.

"We can only hope that this is something we can nip in the bud." Lily mentioned as she moved forward, "something smaller... could it be a single person? Maybe using the Force to manipulate the behaviours of the beasts?" She knew that was something that people could do with the Force. She personally had no experience with the power so did not know how it would look.

 

[Colette]

Lily Decoria

Colette nodded and took a hunched but determined step forward, like a predator stalking ever closer to their prey.

"We should have felt it if someone was using the force…" Colette muttered in no small part to herself. "Keep your head down and your eyes peeled."

Up ahead there was a small clearing and Colette did not trust it in the slightest. Too open, too exposed, exactly the type of place a predator would run and gun someone at. Except this particular predator seemed to keep itself squarely in the center of it with a panicked shuffle at all directions almost as if it was expecting to be attacked.

"It's hurt." Colette said and pointed at the creature. "There's something jammed into it's pelvis, see it?"

"Poisoned, maybe? Know of any poisons that would make someone act out like that?"

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Dxun
Attire: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Cross guard Lightsaber, Hydrangea Moonblade (Concealed)
Tag: Colette

"Depends, people can sometimes hide themselves well. Jedi Shadows can sneak around without a Force User realising." Lily pointed out, she was still a Padawan so she had no doubt that there were always going to be those more experienced who could do things with the Force that she would not have even thought about.

Seeing the creature in the clearing, Lily followed Colette's lead in how to handle the creature. Lily's instincts were to just put the creature out of its misery, especially since it would be the safer option for the pair. However, she did not wish to act rashly without giving Colette time to think of an alternative.

"Sith use poisons, but then so do mercenaries and a lot of dangerous criminals. Poisons can make people do a lot of things, it would be hard to tell without extracting some poison and testing it." Lily whispered to Colette, "it also means that if it is a poison, we need to figure out what poison it is to see if there is an antidote to use. And then, we have to discuss the possibility of there not being a cure. Since that could change how we approach things."

Some poisons could not be cured, it was a sad fate but it was something that Lily needed to mention so the blow would be gentler further down the line if that was the issue they faced.

 

[Colette]

Lily Decoria

Felt weird for someone to cloak themselves just to poison or injure an animal. If this was a person who could approach an animal without being seen, there was no reason to stick around just to take care of whoever came to fix your sabotage. If anything it would make the most sense to bail as soon as possible to leave the creature to its fate and for the sabotage to slowly unfurl. Leave no trace, clear yourself of any potential accusations.

While there was wisdom in Lily's caution, Colette didn't take it fully to heart. She kept her knee to the ground and looked around and to her it seemed that other than the big hulking kitty cat the coast was clear.

"We're not killing the creature." Colette muttered back at Lily and shook her head. "They deserve their life just as much as anyone else."

She scooched closer to the clearing to truly hone in on the object embedded in the creature's hindleg.

"That… Thing is part of it. Do you think we could, I don't know, pull it out with the force?"

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Dxun
Attire: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Cross guard Lightsaber, Hydrangea Moonblade (Concealed)
Tag: Colette

"Colette, I am not saying that it should be our first option." Lily stated, still wishing to be cautious with this topic, "but if our options are force the animal to suffer till it eventually dies with no chance of recovery, or putting it out of its misery. I know I would not want to live in constant torture, and I am sure you wouldn't either." Lily wasn't trying to approach this as the creature was less deserving of life, but that it deserved a dignified death if the alternative was a life of misery and pain.

Moving forward with Colette, she spotted the object, she looked and tilted her head.

"It's possible but the creature is in pain and removing it would keep it on edge. I could remove the object if you can soothe it afterwards?" Lily mentioned, wanting to work together on this and willing to demonstrate she wanted to give this creature a good life as much as Colette did.