Dark Dunes

[Seo Linn]

Very suddenly the front room was almost silent. Even her younger sisters had stopped in their lesson and looked between Mereel and Aodhan. Her father set down the news he had apparently been reading and lifted an eyebrow at his grandson. The glance did not make him back down though and he almost had a small smirk on his face. The visible reaction of Mereel had not gone unnoticed by him or anybody else in the room.

Aodhan was intentionally pushing his buttons and maybe wanting to draw him out into a fight. This was his home, his ground and his mother. One thing could be said about him, he wasn't jealous. He wanted Mereel to prove himself worthy and this was how he decided to go about it.

"They hunt in packs and starved ones are vicious."

His eyes looked him over​ from head to toe again like they had the night before and back up to meeting his gaze. Gold eyes met his brown and he took a step closer. Standing only an inch or two shorter than Mereel, he still tried to appear like he was looking down on him.

"I don't think you can do it. Wetlander."

That was enough for Seo​ and she stood up to her face the two of them. Now that was enough to get a reaction from Aodhan. Not appearing at all sorry for his words, he took a step away, made a fraction of an apologetic bow and stalked out of the room to go outside.

"I have no idea what has gotten into him. I'm sorry, Mereel."

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

He had forgotten that Lorrdian's communicated through signs and gestures, but he didn't feel at all embarrassed when the room went quiet.

As Aodhan stepped closer to him, he didn't budge an inch and his eyes remained locked on the boy's. While it was clear to him that Seo's son was trying to provoke him, he couldn't help but clinch his fist again when Seo's son challenged his competence and ability.

However; the 'wetlander' insult had flipped an entirely different switch in his mind. Due to his Mandalorian upbringing, an insult challenging his integrity or bravery would have likely sent him over the edge, but an insult about being from a planet that wasn't a desolate wasteland? That insult only served to bring him back into reality.

His shoulders relaxed an inch and the smirk on his face faded into a blank expression. He was dealing with a boy who had only ever grown up on one planet, not aggressive spacers who had drowned their reasoning with a bottle. There was also the small detail that Aodhan was Seo's son, so slugging out their issues wasn't a legitimate option.

The situation being what it was, he said and did nothing in response to the boy's comments. He pried his eyes away from Aodhan only after he left the room and allowed himself to look at Seo.

He bit his tongue before he could say that the exchange was still better than anything he had had with his own family, "It's alright. Looks like I'm locked into my hunting trip now though."

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

After Aodhan left, the sound in the room slowly returned as the girls went back to their lesson. Seo did not rejoin them and remained standing to talk to Mereel. Her father made a small motion before going back to his reading. Taking a hold of Mereel's arm, she would lead him into the kitchen and away from the rest of her family.

That small motion from her father had suggested this and she followed it.

"I have done what I can for him, but sometimes I just done understand. What he did today, it isn't like him."

In an almost absentminded way, she gathered what was needed to make caf and put some to brewing for them.

"What he did say about the starving anoobas is accurate. They are vicious at that stage and quite deadly. You might be underestimating them or maybe just not aware of what they are like. Yes, it seems you are in line to go hunting. If nothing else, but to try and prove him wrong. I will come."

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel let Seo lead him out of the room without a fuss. As she dragged him out of the room, he was entirely convinced that he was about to get an earful for not doing his part to disarm the tension of the situation.

He was taken aback when Seo started off in an apologetic manner. Breathing out a short sigh of relief, Mereel leaned up against a kitchen counter as he listened to her.

He had to chew over the first part of what she said for a minute, but when she mentioned coming with him on hunt he knew what his thoughts on that were immediately, "Oh, absolutely not. I'll take you hunting with me some other time if that's something you want to do, but not this time. Aodhan challenged me, not us. If you come with, your son is either going to hate me or hold me in utter contempt."

Mustering all of the confidence that he had, he let it saturate his voice, "I promise that I'll be fine, I've hunted far deadlier animals in far deadlier places - my Dxun comment wasn't a joke. Only the criminally insane go hunting on Dxun, Seo."

Getting that out of the way had given him some time to think over the first bit of what she said, and he wasn't looking forward to addressing it. His tone became slightly frustrated as he was forced to empathize with Seo's son, "And what's not to get? Aodhan doesn't have a father and .."

Mereel bit down on his lip hard. It was the first time he had acknowledged the child's father, and since he wasn't naive, Seo had made it quite clear to him how she had gotten pregnant. His stomach sank as he realized that his current course for the conversation was going to throw her under the bus for not staying around to raise her illegitimate and likely at the time entirely unwanted son.

Trying to avoid hurting her feelings as much as possible, he changed course slightly,"Look, I'm not going to pretend that I understand all of your family issues, because the only family I had was my father. I don't really know what his thought process is, but if you two are close at all, he's probably just upset that I'm taking time away from the already little time that the two of you have together."

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

She poured herself some caf and a cup for him. Taking a drink of it, she listened to what he said about how Aodhan would view him. It was either a phase of life Seo missed out on totally or it had never crossed her mind. At a guess it was the first.

"He might, but I would rather have you safe than harmed. It also seems he already doesn't like you."

At the mention of a lack of a father, her eyes flashed for a moment, but she didn't say anything. There was a reason Aodhan didn't have his father. She tilted her chin up slightly and looked at Mereel as he spoke. Suddenly not in the mood for that caf anymore, she pushed the cup away.

"Aodhan stays here because I can not provide for him properly. As you said, he has no father. My father and mother agreed to raise him in the ways of our people. Until either he is old enough to choose his life on his own or I can provide for him, he will remain here with them. I do what I can."

As much as Mereel couldn't understand the relationship of her family, she couldn't his either. How a child and parent couldn't get along was beyond her.

"I think you would be foolish to go out alone here. Let me go with you."

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel graciously accepted the cup of caf she had poured for him. He had a feeling he was going to need it, or perhaps a stronger drink, sooner rather than later.

A small smile formed on his face when she displayed concern for his personal safety, but it didn't stay there long. He may not have been able to read or perform the hand signals of the people of Lorrd, but he could easily tell that he had rubbed Seo the wrong way when he brought up the father. A spark in the eyes and no longer wanting to drink - entirely understandable responses. Responses that made a large part of him regret even bringing it up.

He hid his guilt-imbued frown with a long sip from his cup of caf. He drank longer than he should have, allowing the drink to burn the roof of his mouth just to buy himself a few more seconds in an attempt to regain his composure.

"I never questioned your ability to provide for him. If it sounded like I did, I wasn't trying to."

With what Aodhan's father had done to Seo, it was honestly miraculous to him that she had still found a way to love the child. But beyond that the woman was actually upset because she thought he had called into question her ability to provide for her son. Or maybe he wasn't reading deep enough into it, maybe she was really only upset because he had brought up the father. He couldn't tell which it was, and he wouldn't find out unless he asked her, but he really didn't want to do that. More importantly, he really didn't need to do that, not right now anyway. He just had to stick to the issue: Aodhan didn't like him. That was the only thing that he thought they needed to discuss and resolve at the moment.

Feeling incredibly out of his element, Mereel began combing the ice cold fingers of his left hand through his hair,"I don't think I can find the right words to explain this.. not exactly, so just hear me out for a second."

"Aodhan doesn't like me right now, but if I let you help me in this, I think it's far less likely to ever change. He'll just see me as the guy that his mom has to step in and do the heavy lifting for."

He just noticed that she had also raised her chin at him, but he didn't let it distract him, "And why are you worried about me going out alone all of the sudden? I'm confident in my own ability, and that's what matters, right?"

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

It was true he hadn't attempted to question her ability on parenting and that changed a small amount of how she reacted once he pointed it out. The issues now were more or less him going hunting alone on a world where he wasn't familiar and her son.

Patience had been bred into her. So Seo gave him the time he needed to collect his thought and put them into words. Eventually she reached out again to pick up her caf and sipped at it.

While she was still upset, what Mereel was saying made sense. Due to what Aodhan had said, he didn't feel Mereel could do a hunt on his own. In a way Seo agreed with him. He might have hunting skills, but he had never been to Lorrd and it had its own dangers.

"I an stay at the camp. This way if you get into trouble, you won't be too far away. Just call out."

Raising a hand to her he​ad she indicated the telepathy skill. When he asked about why she suddenly was so concerned about him, she looked away for just a moment and back at him.

"I would hope the reason is obvious. Your confidence might be your downfall."

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel flashed a small smile as he saw her drink again.

Her request to stay in camp wasn't at all unreasonable, and in reality if she wanted to go with him he really only had one surefire way to stop her.

"I'm only so confident because I've done it so much."

His small smile turned into a broad smirk, "And besides that, I know I can't die out there. If I did you'll end up with a far less charming man with a hand that doesn't need pre-heated. The force wouldn't let that happen."

The smirk faded, and he took another sip from the cup of caf.

He made his voice as sincere as he could make it,"I appreciate your concern, but I still don't think you should come with. I think you should just take it easy and spend some time with Aodhan. Just doing that will probably calm him down more than anything I can do."

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

"How often have you hunted a pack of starving anoobas?"

There was very little emotion in her tone when she asked that, but Seo did want to know the answer. ​She shook her head at his comment about being confident and would have repeated her previous words, but she felt it would be pointless.

"Who says I would wind up with anybody else?"

She could have continued that thought, but changed her mind. In some ways, Seo was still short on her words and the last part of her thought would have come out poorly. It would be an unfair comparison and she didn't want to do that to Mereel.

"After he stormed out like he did...I'm not sure he's going to want to see me again so soon."

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel sighed and drained the rest of his caf. It seemed that he had finally met someone equally as stubborn as him, if not more so. Not only that, but he had promptly fallen in love with her.

Still, his own stubborness got in the way of him initially conceding, "I've hunted anooba two less times than I've hunted krayts, one less time than I've hunted rancor, one less time than I've hunted zakkeg, and countless less times than I've hunted sentients."

The last part came out sounding caustic, and had been entirely unessecary. Actually, now that he had said it, all of it felt unessecary, but he couldn't take it back, not right now anyway. He could only move on.

A tinge of shame colored itself across his cheeks, and his eyes drifted to the floor.

"You would wind up with someone else. You're not exactly the reacher in our relationship."

It was an honest answer to a serious question that had been asked because he had said a joke. He didn't know what the hell was going on, but if this was what civilians had to deal with every day, he didn't know how they lived.

But he knew how they felt now, and he knew that he didn't want to argue with Seo anymore. "I'm sorry. If you want to come, come."

And with that he had given up on trying to please Aodhan over trying to please Seo, there really wasn't any point in doing it.

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

To say that Seo was stubborn was putting it nicely. She was more like a bull and when she decided on something, she stuck with her opinion. Not exactly in a laughing mood, when Mereel admitted he had done very little hunting of anoobas, she wore a tiny half smile. Giving almost no reaction to his comment about hunting sentients, she nodded very slightly.

Even if it had been said in irritation from the tone of his voice, she felt it was accurate. Everybody had a past and it made them who they were. It was an aspect of his life they had yet to explore and Seo made a mental note of this. They still had so much to learn about each other yet and all it took was time.

Shaking her head when he said she would find another, it was something she didn't think would have happened. Very few wanted to take on the potential responsibility of a child that wasn't their own. However, she gave no voice to this and just denied the possibility of another person.

When he apologized and said she could come, her eyes lit up and she gave him a smile.

"I promise to stay at the camp. Somebody needs to hold the fort down and if you run into any issues, I'm just a call away."

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel rolled his eyes as she shook her head, but he didn't say anything. He didn't want to get out of one argument just to throw himself right into another one - one that would be entirely pointless to have.

Seeing her smile though helped him feel better about being the one to budge first in their little argument, and he couldn't help but brandish a small smile himself.

Normally, since she was already coming with, he would have just asked her to come along so that they didn't have to set up a temporary camp, but there was still the slight problem of Aodhan. If he was going after a pack, he fully expected to take a few licks no matter how clever he was in the execution. He didn't have his armor's arsenal to quickly dispatch a charging group, and if Seo came with him, there was a chance she would get a few scratches too.

Although he wasn't prioritizing Aodhan's happiness above Seo's, he didn't want to make the boy angrier by getting Seo hurt the night after she got home. "And I expect the same from you. If anything comes at you while you're in the camp, just send me the signal and I'll come running. Literally. It'll probably be a bit of a jog but I'll come right back."

He felt a faint rumbling in his gut, "We should probably eat something before we go though. Otherwise I might lose control trying to take a bite out of an anooba."

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

"Of course."

It was all Seo said in agreement to her staying at the camp. A compromise had been reached for this and that is more than she expected. The actual hunting would be done by him and she would be close enough to help if he needed it. With the small agreement made, she turned her attention to fixing something for breakfast and gathered up some food for the trip.

"Careful they don't take a bite out of you."

A small quip to him for ​his, a little more show of her humor and the quick food was done.

"Here you go."

Handing Mereel his share, she also ate hers and thought about what else she needed to bring.
​
[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

With all of the planning of who would be where out of the way, Mereel felt much more at ease. As a result his thoughts moved onto other matters, like planning for the trip and trying to figure out how exactly he would initiate paying Seo back for earlier.

In hindsight he should've asked Seo if she wanted help with the meal prep, but he had been putting considerable thought into the latter of the two aforementioned matters, and Seo had finished making their breakfast surprisingly fast.

At least he thought he had come up with a few possible ideas by the time she handed him his plate. But as usual it would still be a little while before he could enact any of them.

It was close to being actual advice, but her joke got a small smile out of him,"If they do I'll try not to lose anything too important."

The meal may have been quick to prepare but he still took his time to enjoy it, "Good to know that good cooking runs in the family."

"I probably should've told you this before you got it all together, but I was a little caught up in thought. I've already brought some foodstuffs in my backpack if you just want to use that."

Even if she still wanted to take what she had gotten together he would still need to bring his pack. He had a few things in it that could help him set up camp, and also his disassembled rifle which he would need to put back together for the trip.

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

The smell of the food brought her little sisters in and they were begging like puppies and circling like vultures. Handing them small portions of the food, Seo shooed them back out of the room with a bit of laughter.

"I'm not as good as my mom, but do well enough. Still alive aren't I?"

​It really had been pretty simple faire for food. Something made quickly and was filling though. He offered to use what he had brought in his pack and she nodded slightly and shrugged her shoulders.

"I can take a look at it. If it's nothing more than nutrition bars and stuff of that nature, then we will use what I put together and have that for back up. Extra never hurts and there are times when it's needed."

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel watched on in amusement as Seo's sisters flocked around her to get some of the food she had prepared. Her family had made him envious the day before, and he still felt a residual trace of that as she shooed her younger sisters from the room.

He had family too, somewhere out there in the stars, but it was nothing like this. His mother had died giving birth to him, and he had effectively burned the last of his bridges with his father when he had declared the man dar'buir. He only recently discovered that he had a sister, who was somewhere out there, lost in the stars. He should've been looking for her, but he wasn't.

Instead he had dug himself into another family before looking after his own. He wasn't sure why it didn't make him feel guilty, but he wouldn't try to unpack that right now. He just gave Seo a grin, "Thank the force for that."

The grin was wiped off of his face in an instant and replaced by a mock frown, "No need to look. You guessed it on the first try."

And then the grin came back, although this time a thousand times more cocky, "We won't be needing it, since things always go right on my hunting trips. But I'll bring it along anyway, if only because my rifle's tucked in there.

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

She was entirely aware of the need to help find his missing sister. It was something she was supposed to be helping with, but had felt the need to see her own family before that adventure happened. What happened on Carida and after had brought that need within her into focus. Soon they would be dealing with that aspect of his life. Right now they had only the present and this hunting trip.

When he said he had only brought bars, Seo accepted the answer with grace and a knowing reaction. They were good for emergency, but not much beyond that. She herself even carried some in her pack, but wasn't going to admit that to Mereel.

Giving him a shake of her head, she returned that smile with one of her own.

"For some reason, I don't think that is what happens all the time."

Gathering up the food, she went to find her bag and grabbed some canteens as well. The water would be limited, but hopefully they could find an oasis to set camp up at.
​
"Ready? I just need to tell my parents and which direction we are heading. Hopefully we both won't need rescued."

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

His smug expression changed to a genuine smile when she called him out on saying that his hunting trips always went well. The opposite was often the case, but he had always come out on top, and that was good enough for him. He didn't need to make any other preparations - everything he could've possibly needed to survive in the desert for at least three days was already crammed tight in his backpack.

He didn't admit it to her yet though. He knew he wouldn't scare her off by telling her any of the stories that he had of unfortunate events occurring during his trips, he just wanted to save them to have something fun to talk about by campfire later.

Mereel shrugged the heavy backpack on his shoulders, "Ready. Think I'll try to fit in a little more next time though - pack for a full vacation."

"Tell them we're going west. West is best."

It was an adage common to hunters on Glacies Domum. The wampa caves to the East of the planet's main city had been entirely eradicated following a wampa stampede into the fledgling city more than a century ago, and ever since Eiyldn City's security forces prevented any wampas from resettling. If you were a hunter in Eiyldn City, you had to look to the West, North, or East to find any wampa dwellings relatively near the city.

"Not like we'll need rescuing though. Like I said, one way or another things always go right during my hunts."

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

"The next time I don't think we will go hunting. I mean this trip is rather unexpected."

Leaving the kitchen, she walked over to her father​. Squatting down, she whispered a quick, quiet conversation with him and he pointed to the closet. Giving him a kiss and hug, she did the same to her mom and got something from said closet. With almost a practiced movement, Mereel would soon see a long rifle on her back that fit nicely snugged up next to her pack.

Just before they walked out, her father called something and tossed Seo a few coins in a bag.

"Get him better fitting pants."

Catching it before it hit the floor, she pocketed them and ushered Mereel out.

"We better get you better fitting pants."

Chuckling a little, Seo​ would start the walk to the speeder. The town wasn't very big, but they were going hunting after so it made sense to just start on the speeder.

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel didn't raise protest when she said that she didn't think they would be hunting next time. If they did, he certainly hoped that their trip wasn't under the circumstances that their present expedition had.

He followed her out of the kitchen but lingered by the door as she went and talked to her father and mother.

Both of his eyebrows raised in surprise as Seo pulled the long rifle from the closet. She slung the weapon over her back like a natural, and he thought that it certainly looked right at home with the rest of her outfit.

He began grinning from ear to ear, "For someone who views blasters as 'uncivilized', you wear that well."

A little red came into his cheeks when her father threw the bag of coins at her and told her to get him some looser pants, but it quickly subsided during their walk to the speeder.

For a brief half-second, he wondered where Aodhan went. He brushed it out of his mind as he powered the speeder back up,"I don't think you wear that rifle as well as I wear these pants though."

[member="Seo Linn"]