Green, blue, grey... red? [Laira]

[Nima Tann]

In the outskirts of Alderaan, on the way towards a small settlement with big problems.

It all started as a normal day, waking up early, Nima brought Ice to a nearby forest to exercise, did her daily meditation listening to the sounds of the river nearby and birds chirping up the trees, gave the wolf some food, played with the twins a bit and then checked her datapad to see if there was something she could help with. Scrolling through, it was then a message caught her attention. It was sent recently, coming from the Firemane HQ in Alderaan. She knew that Alderaan and Firemane has been in business deals together, and were friendly with each other.

The message contained a distress signal, coming from a settlement in the outskirts of the planet. There wasn’t much information other than that a bunch of people went missing overnight, but it was enough to investigate it further, since suddenly vanishing people were never a good sign. And then here she was, watching the beautiful scenery of green, blue and grey mixing together from the window of a Firemane transport going up the mountain path. Cold, calm and in harmony. Just like a painting. Somewhere Nima could see herself enjoying a vacation.

But of course, no matter how much she wanted to enjoy the view for a while, she was reminded of the reason why she was here once the settlement came into sight. A mission, she thought. Not for vacation. The woman could lose herself in colors quite easily, so she had to stop herself before that. Sighing, she checked her equipment. Alas, work came first.

“I can sense the disturbance in the air. Let’s not add more by showing up with an armored vehicle. Bring me close by, I’ll walk from there.” She said to the officer. With a nod, the officer did what she asked and stopped nearby the entrance. Opening the door, the Twi’lek got out of the car, and once more, turned to her.

“Wait for me around here.” She said. “Might need a lift later.” And thus, started moving towards the settlement. The calm aura of the planet didn’t visit here, it seemed. People were passing by quickly and carelessly, some of them bumped into her, she could hear some people shouting and arguing with each other. Overall, the scene was quite chaotic. Since by just looking around wouldn't help her at all, she decided to stop one of them, an old man, and start investigating. The old man looked like he was about to explode, shaking and completely red.

“I am Nima, coming from Firemane. We got your distress signal, what’s the situation?” She asked with a calm tone, and with other hand, concentrated on the man’s mind to calm him down a bit.

[member="Laira Darkhold"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Laira's day had been planned to spend with Caleb Panteer around the Mountain Palace, the two of them spending more time together and getting to know one another. The dark skinned boy had become trust-worthy and was in on the upcoming transition, and willing to keep that secret for the Princess. Furthermore the two of them had agreed to continue seeing one another throughout the Princess's travels whenever possible.

For the midday activities Laira had convinced the young man to accompany her to a small village where they could shop artisan wares first hand, look at antiques and compare them, the Princess enjoyed nick-knacks and souvenirs. And clothes, but Caleb was at least getting a lot of closeness and having her rest upon him for his stoic attitude as he accompanied the princess through her shopping spree, even footing the bill.

Some time during their escapades with one another Laira received a message that there had been numerous disappearances from a nearby village and that Firemane was offering its assistance in the investigation, closest Ranger to the village was Laira Darkhold who was being pinged to respond and link up with them. "Don't worry, it won't be too long I'm sure. Look at it like this, you get out of having to go shopping with me and worst case we postpone our afternoon at the beach until tomorrow and I'll make it up to you." She was pulling on more functional boots at his speeder, grey eyes shining as she smiled at her companion.

The dark-skinned young man smiled back, brushing his long brown locks away from his face. He was on the tall side, athletic frame, and handsome often wearing a rainbow gem earring on one ear as his only accessory. "Yeah, you say that but I know I'll have to make this up too. I don't mind though." He stood over her as she changed, dipping his head low for Laira to reach up and give him a soft kiss.

"Thank you for being so understanding, you could always come with." She asked, running her hand through his hair.

"I could, but I don't think I'm much of the investigating type. Text me when you get free and we can meet at the coast, I'll wear those trunks you like." He grinned and kissed her cheek as he got out of her way.

"Mmmm, the red ones." Laira grinned wider, blushing as she slipped around Caleb and onto a speeder bike. She hated having to continuously cut their time together short, but he understood. Caleb was surprisingly understanding about most of her antics and other responsibilities, which was both good and bad. This was as good as their relationship was ever going to get, which to be fair was her most successful one but was a far cry from what she wanted. Seemed to be a little underwhelming for him as well, but they were both attractive enough to put up with each other for a time. Eventually one of them would need more than this.

Laira waved at Caleb and took off on the speeder bike towards the village, tearing across the open plains and sparse forests. She zipped across the region until her GPS showed a little blip from a Firemane Vehicle.

//Ranger Darkhold in bound to Firemane Position. One operative, female, red hair on a speeder bike.//​

The message was simple, just enough to let them know what to look for as she pulled up to their armored vehicle. "Hiya, I'm the Ranger, Laira Darkhold." She shouted over the sound of her engine as she drifted to a stop alongside the vehicle. The Firemane forces waved their hands, pointing and directing her into the town. She nodded and dismounted the bike, jogging off into the small village after the operative Firemane had sent in.

[member="Nima Tann"]

 

[Nima Tann]

Fortunately, her little mind trickery managed to calm the old man down a bit, at least enough for him to focus on Nima’s presence. A few seconds passed with silence as his skin color turned back to normal and breaths slowed down. Finally he spoke, confusion could be sensed from his tone.

“What... who are you? What have you done to my head?” The man asked, clearly disturbed by the fact that he wasn’t able to express how he felt at the moment. It was a rude thing to do, that’s for sure, but Nima didn’t have another solution, as she had to find something before it was too late.

“I apologize. Nima Tann, from Firemane. I’m here to help you, but I need some answers.” She answered calmly, then added. “We got a distress signal from here about people disappearing, correct? Can you tell me anything about that?”

“You came for that? Oh thank god! Please, you have to find her!” With the glimmer of hope in his eyes, he once more started talking. “Yes, yes. My granddaughter. Our village organises a fair anually, and it always would be very crowded this time of year.” This explained all the shouting and movement. “My granddaughter came to visit me just as usual, and we went to browse the stalls together. I was distracted by something, and she suddenly disappeared into the crowd. I didn’t think much about it since she always did this, and we would get together afterwards. And... and...” His breath started getting faster once more, it was getting difficult to control.

“And? I understand your pain, but what you tell me will help me find her quicker. Push youself just a little more, please.” She said to get him back on track, her tone was encouraging, and her mental grip tightened a bit, just to hopefully find out more about the kidnapping.

“Yes, yes. I understand.” He said, and continued. “Hours passed. She didn’t come to where we usually meet up. I decided to look around. It was still very crowded when I started searching for her. I looked everywhere, asked everyone, but she was nowhere to be found. Then I heard about all the others who lost their sons and daughters as well.” Tears started forming in his eyes.

“Your granddaughter. How old w... is she?” Nima asked, and then added. “Has anything like this happened before?”

“She’s... She’s in her teens.” The old man answered shakily. Nima didn’t want to hold him any longer, as it was getting a bit cruel for her liking. And it seemed the old man didn’t know much anyway. “And no. We have never had this problem before. What if... I... I can’t continue... Find her... please... I beg of you.” Tears started falling down his cheeks. It was then Nima let go of his mind, knowing that the interrogation was over.

“Thank you for your assistance. I promise I’ll find and bring her back, okay?” Nima said, trying to sound as encouraging as possible.

“Thank you... thank you..” Exhausted by the interrogation, the old man muttered and left the scene. As he left, Nima’s face dropped. Never make promises that you can’t keep, a wise someone said. This didn’t look good, not good at all.

A crowded fair. Her only lead.

Beep, beep.

Huh, her holocomm was beeping. She activated it and started speaking. Perhaps it was good news.

“Yes?”

“Master Tann. A Ranger Laira Darkhold, has just entered the village and is probably coming your way. She’s a redhead.” Nima could just sense the wink, and rolled her eyes.

“Thank you for informing me, Leyla.” She answered and then closed the call. [member="Laira Darkhold"]... The name was familiar to her. In any case, more help would be always appreciated.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The redhead jogged into the village, which surprisingly had been one of the places she and Caleb had planned to visit while their festival was going on, but had lost track of time while they wandered through the mountain country's manny villages and hamlets. She'd never visited this particular village, but it looked positively adorable as she jogged through the streets looking for a purple twi'lek.

Alderaan was a bit of a melting pot, primarily human, but it was hard to miss a purple Twi'lek working for Firemane in a crowd, just like her bright crimson locks made her stand out however there were a ton of colorful outfits and objects about. Enough that the redhead got a little distracted and had to chit chat on her way, even looking at some of the wares while she searched for the Firemane Twi'lek.

It took a few minutes longer than she would have liked before she found who she was looking for. "Hiya! I'm Laira, with the Ranger Corps." She said with a higher tone than she might normally speak, letting a little of her excitement bleed into her conversation. 'What kind of information did you get about the situation?" Something about kidnapped kids, she had no idea that the pretty redhead perfectly fit the victim profile.

[member="Nima Tann"]

 

[Nima Tann]

Just as she was about to leave for the fair and ask around more, a voice coming from behind caught her attention. Turning back, she saw a young woman who happened to have red hair approaching. She excitedly introduced herself as Laira, with the Ranger Corps. Fitting every description, Nima deduced that she was the reinforcement that Leyla informed her about. 'You are a teen yourself...' was Nima's first impression after seeing her, but of course, in this day and age, how old a person was pretty much lost its importance. Realising that she was staring at her, which she hoped wasn't too rude, she cleared her throat and started speaking.

"Oh, hello." Nima said, putting a smile on her face. "I'm Nima, from Firemane." She extended her hand for a handshake. Then, after the introductions were over, it was the time to talk about business. She started explaining after a sigh. "Not so much, I'm afraid. I only had the chance to talk to a relative of one of the victims. A girl in her teens visits her grandfather for the fair, suddenly disappears in the crowd and is missing since. I was also informed that the other victims are children as well. No suspects, but I think what we are dealing with is a dangerous organization." After a pause, she continued. "That's all the information I have. I am planning to visit the fair and look for some clues. Would you like to join me?"

[member="Laira Darkhold"]