Miss Me?

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

While she wandered away Kurt had already moved to his backpack, a slight sting on his behind from the smack of her hand. He dug through the front pockets of his pack, searching for something. His hand eventually pulled free, in his palm were half a dozen tiny metal slivers.

They were pieces of The Messa or rather, pieces of the hyperdrive.

Though his ship was the fastest in the galaxy it was often...well, falling apart. That meant that The Messa required constant fixing and maintenance. A big part of that was the hyperdrive, an experimental thing that he and Kaile had practically built on their own. The small metal pieces in his palm were burnt out pieces of that hyperdrive, formerly radioactive micro-fuel rods that allowed the hyperdrive to handle massive boosts of power when the ship made the initial jump. Why had he taken them out here? To serve as hooks of course.

"Thank you, darling." Kurt said as he planted a kiss on her cheek.

The Fishing line was quickly uncurled, placed in small increments along the shore and quickly tied around the small bent hooks that he created from the flimsy metal pieces until he had five fishing lines, each one perfectly simple and relatively straightforward.

"Fish." He said as he pulled one of the lines off the ground. "Aren't really that smart. They like a certain few things and generally don't have the intelligence to recognize what those certain things actually look like. More often than not when they see something that might be what they want, they go after it."

The Courier stepped over to his, cupping the small piece of metal and fishing line into his palms and wandering towards Jamie. When she looked in inside of his palms she would see a soft green glow, the metal piece giving off a soft sort of pulsing light. "We'll set these out once it's night time, in a place where there's a bit of a current. The Fish will see the glow and the move of the metal and try to eat it, when they do...well, we'll have dinner."

Simple really, and effective.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Welcome!" She replied, watching Kurt begin to unravel the fishing line, while carefully segmenting it into individual lengths with an attached makeshift hook.

"What are those metal shards from? And why are they glowing?" There was a spark of curiosity in her voice. Jamie had seen glowing lures before, but they had generally looked something like a small fish, or a worm, a grub, or something similar. These looked more like parts off of a speeder or something that Kurt was carrying around for some strange reason. Perhaps a memento from his pod-racer or something? She wasn't entirely certain.

"Well, alright. We might have to go a bit further out with the boat, unless there is a small stream or something deep enough for the fish to swim through somewhere further inward on the island." There was an unlikely chance of being able to catch a fish in the small cove they had docked the boat in, so by Jamie's guess, she figured they would have to find either a stream or something that cut through the island, or take the boat a ways out and fish from that.

"Should we start a fire pit before it gets dark? I think after that we should pretty much be able to relax."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"They're pieces of The Messa's hyperdrive." Kurt explained to her as he slowly bundled up the small fishing lures. "They're technically radioactive, though not enough to hurt you or even penetrate your skin, that's why they give off the glow. I took them with me cause I was going to see If I could sell them for scrap, sometimes junkers like to take them and try to refurbish them."

It was a practice that didn't actually have any benefit, in fact it was illegal in most places because once the rods were used up, they were used up. Yet when one was as poor as Kurt they didn't really care about those particular details, all they cared about was getting a little bit of extra money. That might have seemed sad to some, but for him it was simply another day of life, another way that he had learned to live. He looked at her and smiled, tying the fishing lines so the five lures would be able to fit into his bag. "Let's look for a stream. I bet the island has something and while we looked we can find wood and maybe a few coconuts."

He'd be surprised if the island didn't have coconuts.

The fishing lures were slipped back into his bag, which was in turn thrown onto his back. A hand then jutted out for Jamie to take so the two of them could set off to explore the island that they had chosen as their home for the next three days.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Oh, I see! Well that's one way to improvise I guess, good idea!" If Kurt hadn't thought to use the hyperdrive shards at lures, they would very likely end up losing a few more hours going back to the shore to find rods and equipment. She just hoped that the glowing makeshift lures would attract the fish enough to bite, lest they go hungry, a terrible sounding prospect. "Stream sounds good. Will give us a chance to explore a bit too."

"Oooh and coconuts sound great!" The girl took Kurt's hand, then realized she'd left her pack on the beach still. "Let me just grab my backpack before we go. I want to take the camera with us, I can probably fit a few things in it, if we find anything to use." Quickly she broke away from the man and picked up the bag by the shoulder straps and slipped her arms within each gap to pull it up on her back before returning to Kurt, intertwining her fingers with his once again as they headed off the beach and deeper into the island.

Using her free hand Jamie covered her forehead, looking up to the empty sky, not a single cloud in sight. The sun hung high above, the time was somewhere around midday. That meant they likely had plenty of time to explore, locate water, and gather some wood for a fire long before night fell on the horizon. The mossy surface beneath the girl's bare feet felt divine, having left the confines of her shoes back on the pier at shore. The air was fresh and salty, the wind providing a cool sea breeze as it brushed through the trees. Jamie looked over at Kurt for only a moment, a warm smile on her face as she happily walked hand in hand with him through the flora.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Kurt began to tug Jamie along.
The island, from the map, had appeared to be a massive crescent, a beach surrounded it on all sides and then there was a forest which obscured most of the center of the island. Neither the map, nor their small circle around the island had really been very telling of what was inside of that jungle, though if Kurt had to guess he supposed that it would be much the same as one would find on any island. They stepped off the beach, the ground growing harder, more compact as they moved into the thin jungle, an immediate stream of heat hitting them.

"So you never told me." Kurt said squeezing her hand gently and pulling her along. "How is your training going?"

They had never much talked about that, not because he hadn't cared, but because Kurt had acted as an escape for her, often speaking about the things he did and the adventures that he had while delivering packages. She would laugh and smile, then share an anecdote from her past. He had never minded it, but after learning more about the Force from Kaile he was honestly curious about all the things that Jamie had learned.

In the distance Kurt could swear he could hear the sound of bubbling water.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Stepping over a toppled tree that had likely been felled due to a storm of sorts she realized he hadn't much asked about that before. It caught her a bit off guard at first.

"It's going well." She started, "A lot better than when I started, though I guess if that weren't the case I would be pretty hopeless as a student." A hand raised and pushed away a broken branch from their path. "Every day I feel like I am just a little better than the day before. I can run a bit further, stand against Keira a bit longer in a duel, do a little more with the Force I could than before."

The girl lifted her free hand, offering Kurt a demonstration of her work. Tugging on his hand for the pilot to stop she turned back to the large downed tree that they had just passed a few moments prior. A second or two of silence would be broken by the creaking and shifting of soil beneath the tree as it slowly rose from the ground. Twisting her hand a bit the tree began to slowly rotate, floating toward the side and out of their path, should they return in the same direction later. Her hand lowered, releasing the tree into the dirt before turning back to Kurt and pulling him back along the path they were headed.

"Better than before?" She smiled, it was more rhetorical than anything. Obviously it was slightly better than struggling to lift a lamp. This time it was nearly with ease.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Kurt let out a loud, impressed whistle. He'd always thought her capable, always thought that she would go on to do great things. There had been no doubt in his mind from the moment that he had seen her lift that lamp. It was wonderful to see her succeeding, more so because of the confidence that it allowed her to carry. A wide smile pulled at his lips as the tree was deposited into the ground once more, his hand interlacing with hers once again as he was pulled onto the trail once more.

"I'm proud of you." Kurt told her as he fell into step alongside her.

The sound of rushing water got slightly louder.

"How much longer do you think you'll be on Cartao?" Kurt tried to be subtle about it, but it was obvious that he was likely asking for selfish reasons. "For training, I mean."

There likely wasn't a need to clarify that, but he was still a bit nervous. Kurt didn't want to rush her, but he did dream of spending more time with her. He was greedy in that way, the fact that he wanted her, more of her. Even when he had her for the next three days Kurt couldn't help but think into the future, to a point in time where he could be with her even more. She had called him selfish once, and she had been entirely correct, though perhaps she wouldn't mind it when it came to this.

As they moved along the jungle Birds began to chirp, the wind picked up slightly, and the sounds of nature began to reach towards them.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The blonde's face was practically glowing with Kurt's praise. "Thanks!" Finally she began to hear the slow rush of water up ahead. A bit of a clearing in the trees that she spotted would likely be the sight of the stream, parting the growth of plants and trees between the two shores. "Well, I'm not sure really." She gave a slow shrug of her shoulders as they continued towards the sound. "There's still a lot I don't know, and lifting a few objects here and there is hardly impressive in the long run. I'm still only mildly adequate with a lightsaber, and even less so with the Force." There was quite a bit of difference between the sport of fencing and the reality of saber dueling. So much so that she hadn't truly taken into account the full jist of it.

"Keira is trying to work on getting me out of my old habits that simply do not apply to saber dueling, and are in fact dangerous to practice. So I still have a ways to go, but she says I'm getting better all the time."

Despite the sound of her voice and the disappointment behind not being near ready to leave the tutelage of her master in the near future, she was still happy with at least seeing progress in her studying and practicing.

"But at least the better I get, the more chances like this I'll have to spend some time away." Jamie decided to add in that last bit, slightly afraid that he might get frustrated with her answer, to help ease that frustration. Quickly she made it a point to direct the attention to the rather large stream that split the island by about twelve or so feet of rushing water.

"Hey look! Water!"

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

To say that he wasn't disappointed would have have been a lie, but he understood the need for patience. Jamie needed to learn everything, or mostly everything, before she could leave Cartao and Keira. He knew that, it wasn't like basic training where they took you and then threw you into combat six months later. The force was infinitely strong and powerful capable of bending reality itself, something like that...something like that needed time and understanding.

It didn't make it any easier though.

"It's alright." Kurt said to reassure her, seeing the hint of fear in her eye at telling him what she had. His hand squeezed hers, though his attention was quickly drawn away by her excited exclamation. His eyes popped open and suddenly his attention was drawn away from their earlier conversation and towards the bubbling stream that Jamie pointed her finger towards.

He followed the point of her finger, eyes setting on the stream as he let out another whistle. He hadn't expected something of that size, in fact he had thought something much smaller would appear. His hand wrapped tighter around Jamie's and he dragged her with towards the edge of the water. Almost immediately he saw a host of fish swim away from the edge of the bank of water, scattering as they saw the two humans. A wide smile pulled at his lips, his gaze following the river up and further into the island.

"Look." Kurt said as he was the one to point this time. At the top of the river saw a small cove, a large pool of water housed within a cadre of rocks. "I bet it starts underground."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Seeing the fish along the shore suddenly scare and swim off elicited a small giggle from Jamie. Her hand swept over the running water, a slight cackle to her voice. "One of youuuuuuu will be in my belly soon!"

Squatting down the blonde peered into the crystal blue water, a reflection of her upper body gazing back at her as a fish or two would swim back with some semblance of curiosity before scurrying off further down the stream. It looked deep enough, maybe seven or eight feet, but it was difficult to tell for certain. While it wasn't rapids, there was certainly enough speed in the wake to cause a bit of mist to splash over the bank. With a smile she dipped her hand into the warm water. It felt just the same as the ocean water, but perhaps a tad cooler given the shade of the trees from the sun above.

"Well, it looks like we've found the fish. Now we just need -" Her eyes caught sight of a few small branches that looked to belong to a rather dead tree that was still somehow standing among the others. "Ah-ha!" She said with a smile, pointing Kurt to the tree. "That tree should be dry enough to burn quite easily. I can get it to topple over. Just have to find a way to divide it into smaller logs." Jamie was confident enough that she could extract the tree from the soil, but wasn't quite sure what to do with it afterwards.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

She was thinking ahead.

Kurt smiled at that, for some reason it made him rather happy to see. His mind began to set to work on the same problem, a small smile pulling at his lips. "Didn't take your lightsaber?"

She had told him the day that Keira and she had first begun to use the weapons, Jamie had been so ecstatic over the holo-call that Kurt had barely been able to understand her. It had been amusing, and also a mark in her training, something that she had been extremely proud of. The memory brought a smile to his face just as he crouched down and retrieved the fishing lures from his backpack. There was an assortment of rocks and other things to tie the other hands to, and slowly he began to work at setting up his traps.

"If the tree is dry enough." Kurt began as he hooked one of the lures into the water. "We can split it with brute force."

He eyed some of the rocks on the river bank, seeing that a few of them were quite sharp with honed edges.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Hm?" Take my lightsa?- Ohhhhh. She shook her head at Kurt.

"No. I don't have a lightsaber of my own yet. The one I use with Keira is just a training saber, and it's not mine." It was likely that Kurt wouldn't really know the difference between the training weapon and the real thing, especially given that there really wasn't anything inherently different, save for the difference in power levels. "It prevents me from accidentally cutting off my hand, or anyone elses for that matter. I don't carry it though aside from training."

Standing a ways away from Kurt, and positioned in the opposite direction she closed her eyes, her hands extending outward as she drew in a slow, deep breath. Something that was laying loose on the ground was far easier to lift and manipulate than something that, while dead, was still rooted in the surface of Spira. A few moments of shaking hands and arms would begin to bare results as the snapping of root after root would give way to the trunk's release from the dirt beneath. After a minute, though what felt like eternity the girl finally dislodged the trunk from the soil, lifting it a few inches from the ground before slowly lowering it safely between a number of other standing trees.

"Annnnnnd there." She said finally, a relieved breath escaping her lips as she opened her eyes and lowered her trembling hands.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Kurt could have sworn the entire earth shook in that moment, the tree cracking in place and lifting into the air making a loud enough racket that it caused about three dozen birds to escape from the tree tops and fly off into the sky. He watched the swarm for a moment, then finished placing the last of the fish hooks within the water. He smiled for a moment, then wandered over towards Jamie, slipping an arm around her and kissing her neck.

"Good Job." By the tone of his voice it was clear that Kurt was impressed.

He'd never quite seen a feat like that, with or without the force that was difficult enough to do. There was a sense of pride in his chest at seeing her do something like that, especially since the last time they had been together she had had trouble enough with the lamp. His arm tightened around her stomach as a thought entered his mind, a inkling of fear. The idea was dispelled quickly, his confidence returning as his fingers gently grazed across her stomach.

"Now." His lips pressed against her neck. "What do you think? Try to strip the bark first or make an ax from one of these rocks?"

The ideas were a bit rough around the edges, but they didn't exactly have the fanciest tools available to them. The latter was simple enough to do, and with the remaining fishing line it was entirely possible.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie offered Kurt a small nod of the head. It was clear through her body language that the girl was a bit exhausted from the task, though she made effort not to show it in its' entirety. Casting her eyes over towards the rocks that Kurt had signaled her to, then back to the tree she bit her lip, losing herself in silent contemplation for a few moments while she thought. To her making the tools necessary was more important first, if even possible.

"We should probably see if we can even make smaller logs before we bother stripping all the bark off and potentially wasting a lot of time."

Stripping the bark from the tree only to find out after all that work that they wouldn't be able to turn the wood into logs at the end of the day would be incredibly frustrating and an abundant waste of time, time they would have spent doing basically anything else. "Yea, let's start with trying to make something to cut the tree up with."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

He nuzzled her neck. "Alright."

They would need tow things. A stick large enough to act as a handle, and a flat rock that wouldn't shatter on impact.

That might have seemed simple, but the force that the rock would endure would be quite harsh. It wasn't necessarily about the sharpness of the rock itself, not at all actually, but more about being able to hand the impact. Slowly he unlaced himself from Jamie, pulling away and walking over towards the river bank. Luckily they had quite a large selection, and slowly he began to look over the veritable mountain of stones that sat at the edge of the river.

"Look for something we can use as a handle." Kurt said. "Preferably something thick."

That way the impact of the blow wouldn't reverberate as hard through the handle. Kurt mused as he picked up several rocks, each of them somewhat flat and carved to the shape they would need. He inspected them, realizing that with a bit of work one of them would be perfect.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Okay." She said, flashing a smile towards Kurt as she set to her task.

Jamie then began to meander around looking along the ground for something that might be useful enough to withstand being used as an axe handle. Unfortunately what was at their disposal was rather limited. Other rocks, small sticks, some roots that had grown through the soil that had a bit of thickness to them, but would hardly budge by her attempts to extract them.

"There's not much in the way of a handle really." Bending over she brushed her hand over a decent sized branch, about four inches around and seven inches long. It wasn't much, but then again there wasn't anything quite perfect for the situation. Turning back and returning to Kurt she held out her hand, the piece of wood was stripped of bark, felt solid but wasn't overly long, meaning the swing of the rock wouldn't be nearly as far as if it were a long handle. "It's not much, but it's all I can really find around here."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"It'll do." Kurt said as he wandered over to a small clearing next to the tree, his hand patting the ground next to him. "Now..."

The courier trailed off as he took the largest of the rocks and placed it on the ground at an angle, taking a smaller one in his other palm and striking the edge of the first rock. He did this once, twice, then over and over again until pieces of the larger rock began to flake away from it, small sections at first, then more and more as he slowly began to whittle away the large rock into the face of an ax. He smiled slightly as more and more of the rock was chipped away.

"We have a blade." Kurt held up the large stone face for Jamie to see.

It wasn't anything impressive, at least not by most standards, but it would work well enough for their purposes.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The girl clapped, looking at Kurt's handy work. "That's fantastic!"

Now they had a handle and a blade, but the real question was whether or not it was sharp enough to chop a tree into logs. Sure, they could likely get a few out of it, but would it remain sharp to cut through the entire thing? Enough to serve them three days worth of fire? That was the real question, or problem, depending on how things went. Jamie was optimistic, and she certainly believed that her love was resourceful, but they were after all, limited on what they could do alone on an island for tools and such.

"Suppose we could use some of the fishing line to tie the stone and handle together? But do you think it will hold well enough to cut the wood with?"

Of all the times a lightsaber would be useful. The time it would save making a dozen or two quick slashes and they could continue about their day. Jamie frowned a bit, thinking about if she were simply further along in her training and had a weapon she could actually be of some use here. Instead, most of what she could do was gather things and pass them to Kurt to do. She didn't feel much like she was helping in any sort of important way.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Kurt shrugged. Honestly he didn't quite know. The stone that he had picked seem hardy enough to keep and edge, and if not? Well they might have to chip away at it again to get it sharp. Either way striking at the wood wouldn't be all that important edge wise, all they needed was enough force to chip away at the bark and cut into the dry wood. It helped that the tree had likely been dead for some time. Placing the rock against the stick and wrapping the fishing wire around it Kurt shifted slightly, looking up at her.

"We won't know until we try." Kurt told her. "Though, we have a good chance."

The handle that she had picked out was a good one, sturdy enough and well formed that it would make for good striking. "Okay..."

The Courier said as he finished tying.

"I guess we got nothing to do but try." Slowly Kurt pushed himself to his feet, gently grabbing onto Jamie's hip and giving her a small kiss on the lips before he moved over towards the Log. He rechecked the fishing line one more time, making sure the knot was nice and tight. He offered her a small glance, seeing the encouraging smile on her face. A slight shift, a flex of his muscles, and Kurt brought down the makeshift ax against the broken log.

There was a loud thunk and the ax found its way buried nearly halfway into the dead wood, the log splitting quite well under the force of the blow.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

A few steps away Jamie watched as Kurt drove the makeshift axe down into the bark of the tree, splitting wood deep through its' core with a resounding crack. The impact itself was loud enough to make the blonde flinch where she had been standing. The proceeding silence from the strike became much more prominent immediately following the first cut.

"Well, I guess we know it works at least." Jamie brushed her hand against his back as she passed by him, kissing him on the cheek. "How long you think it will take to divide this up?"

As she spoke she began to slide the backpack from her shoulders, placing it gently on to the mossy ground beneath her as she dug through the items within, removing her camera once more. "Hey" She'd whisper quietly. Once Kurt turned to face her she would press her lips against his in a feisty manner, her thumb pressing down against the shutter button to take another picture. "Cute!" The blonde exclaimed, satisfied with the outcome.

"Is there anything I can do to help besides annoy you with silly pictures? I feel somewhat useless right now."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]