Miss Me?

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

He mused for a second. "Bit of a wild life expert are we?"

Kurt rather liked that. It was an area that he wasn't at all knowledgeable in, mostly because all Tatooine had in the way of natural fruit came from Cactus' and the farms that Arceneau Trade had set up in greenhouses. Kurt growing up had never really eaten much fruit, it was part of the reason why he liked it so much. Things like fresh apples and strawberries were treats for him, not often enjoyed delights that he only got to eat perhaps once or twice a year when he was a child.

Of course even now they were difficult to find.

"I'll try not to eat anything too sappy." Kurt said with a smirk as he moved towards the fire, low embers still burning within the small pit that Jamie had managed to craft the night before. They really had created a nice little camp here, comfortable enough that it would last for days. "I hope it doesn't rain."

He mused out loud, more to himself then to Jamie.

The tropics were always unpredictable with weather, and he'd rather not get caught out.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Not an expert, no. But outside of Theed, Naboo is really sprawling with endless flora. Growing up I spent most of my free time exploring. More than once I found myself getting sick from trying things here and there to see what they tasted like." She laughed, recalling the memories in her mind. "Eventually you learn what to eat, and what to avoid." Fixing her hair while she spoke, her hands tussled about within the locks of golden hair. "One time when I was following a river that was about 25 feet across with a fast rapid, I found a number of bushes along the shore that had grown presumably due to the soft, rich soil and constant supply of fresh water." Taking one of the bands from her wrist she tied her hair off in the back so that it was up and away from her neck.

"I decided that because they were close to a source of fresh water, and that animals likely fed off of them frequently that they would be safe to eat. I'll never forget the bright green skin on them. The light practically shined off the skin of these berries they were so bright. I picked a few, examined them for just a moment, enough to make sure they hadn't been spoiled by bugs before I tossed a handful into my mouth. They were some of the sweetest tasting fruit I've ever had, at least at first." She smirked, the potentially deadly situation now being a humorous memory. "Minutes later I began to feel as though my airway was being restricted, my mouth got really dry and I found it harder and harder to breathe. Next thing i know I am waking up in the grass, it's pitch black out, and I've no idea how to get back home in the dark. Ended up spending the night outside, alone, and scared beyond anything I could have imagined."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

A part of him wanted to laugh, but he managed to keep his lips thinned and his amusement to himself. Instead he simply watched her, the smile spreading across her face and the memory flowing through her. It was clear that the memory wasn't exactly a pleasant one, but Jamie seemed to derive a sort of joy from it, perhaps at the accomplishment of surviving, or perhaps just because of how silly she had been. Kurt smiled slightly and reached out to touch her, wrapping his fingers onto her hips and pulling her close.

"Well." He began, a smile on his face. "Apparently you managed to survive."

He didn't imagine Naboo to be very dangerous, but then again he didn't imagine most places to be very dangerous. "Fight a wild Gundark?"

The joke came without thought.

Gundark's weren't exactly common in the galaxy, Kurt had only ever seen one in a zoo, but the term was popular on Tatooine. The Hutts often used them for arena matches, apparently the beasts were rather fierce and protective of their territory. Kurt couldn't imagine anyone fighting one of the hulking beasts.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Is that a trick question? Like when you asked about me being a pilot?" She said, her eyes staring him down, as if attempting to peer into his soul for the answer. "Are you trying to con me into saying yes so that I am forced to come up with some elaborate story to amuse you with for a few minutes about how I fought this terrible creature?" Jamie mused, a light humm coming from her closed lips. "Nope, the only things I've ever fought are people, usually with protective gear on and a pointy stick in hand."

Sticking her tongue out the blonde placed her hands atop of his. "Should we get going? We're wasting daylight y'know."

Turning back she grabbed her pack and threw it over one shoulder, hanging onto it with that hand while pulling on Kurt with her free one.

"Grab the coconut, we can eat it on the way once we get in the boat."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

He chuckled slightly, then slowly scooped up one of the smaller coconuts as he was being pulled along by Jamie. There was a slight glint of mischief in his eye, thought for now he kept his trap shut and his feet in front of him. There was a time for jokes, and then there was a time for admiring your girls perfect rear end.

"We'll have to find a safe place to cross over." The distance between the two islands wasn't great, but they would still have to ford water. "I think we can find a sand bank or something similar, they should be all around the island."

Should be easy.

Should.

There were always surprises to expected, especially when one considered the tropics. "South side of the island I think."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Reaching the edge of the shore the blonde allowed the pack to fall from shoulder to hand, tossing it up and over into the back of the boat so that it wouldn't get wet while she climbed on board. Placing both hands on the edge of the hull she pressed down and lifted herself up, swinging both legs over the side and letting her body flop down on to the floor. Sitting up she gave a silly smile to Kurt before crawling her way to the passenger's seat. At her feet were her sunglasses that she'd left from the day prior which she promptly scooped up and slid over her eyes.

"Ah! That's better." Her legs shifted, one on top of the other, resting her feet on top of the dash in front of her, allowing her to lean back more comfortably.

"South side it is, captain! Let's go find us some excitement! Maybe buried treasure or ancient artifacts or something!"

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

He smiled.

With the way that the past few months had gone for him he wouldn't be too surprised if they discovered ancient artifacts of even treasure of some sort, it had been just his luck after all. He shifted slightly and pulled himself onto the boat after the Jamie. His feet touched down against the white plasteel his body turning towards the controls as he surveyed the edge of the island for a moment. He tried to determine the best path they could take, quickly realizing that it probably would have been easier if they had a speeder of some sort.

A shake of his head dispelled the thought.

"Captain now is it?" Kurt said with a grin. "What does that make you?"

Three steps and he was at the controls, the boats engines flipping on and growing into a low rumble. There was a slight shift, Kurt pulling the chain of the anchor up and out of the water. There was a clatter of chains, and a moment later they began to slowly drift within the cove.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"That makes me your prestigious passenger that you'd like to pamper and impress!" She said with glee and a bit of a giggle. "How's that sound!?" Jamie lowered her hand into the crystal clear water and allowed it to drag along as the boat floated out into the cove, the warm water surrounding her extremity all the while she kept her eyes looking down to see the fish that swam towards the surface, curious of the mysterious thing floating along above them.

As the engines whirred and Kurt began to take control of the boat more Jamie lifted her hand and sat back once again. Her eyes shifted to look over at him, though her head remained facing forward so not to be blatantly obvious that she was looking at him. A smile would form on her face that would make her look away and up to the sky for a moment. "You know as a kid I used to look up at the sky and wonder how many worlds were still out there that nobody had discovered yet. Whole civilizations living in blissful ignorance of the vast majority of space, ignorant of our existence as we are of theirs."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"I think I already pamper you." Kurt said as he pushed the throttle of the boat forward and began to take them out of the cove. The crystal blue waters of Spira began to break apart in their wake, splashing up against the plasteel hull and sending a light sprinkle of water onto Kurt and Jamie. The pilot took a deep breath, letting his lungs fill with the sea air as they passed out of the cove and slowly took a left around the southern tip of their island and headed towards it's twin.

When she spoke again he couldn't help but smile.

"There's thousands, millions." His head turned up to look at the sky for a moment. "Probably more."

"You could spent a thousand years going from world to world, exploring and looking at each and every single one and you wouldn't even be able to see a tenth of a tenth of them. Half of the planets in the galaxy haven't even been discovered on a telescope, much less been visited. The entire Unknown regions still has whole civilizations we've never even dreamed of." Kurt had often thought about that as well, exactly what the galaxy held and what mysteries were still to be discovered.

"Not to mention the Rishi Maze." The Maze was one of the companion galaxies that floated around their own, an enigma that few had visited.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Maybe some day we should go look for a new planet, see what it has on its' surface, discover what there is to see." Her imagination was a vibrant one when it came to thinking up what could be on new worlds. The plant life, the species of animals, and even what the alien life might look like, as well as whether or not they would be friendly or hostile to their arrival. "Maybe get a little bit of fame for putting a new planet on the navigation charts, who knows." That part she didn't really care about, Jamie was more interested in seeing what the galaxy still kept hidden from the masses and exploring the unknown. There was an allure to finding something undiscovered and diving into its' secrets.

"Maybe once I'm done on Cartao." So many plans were starting to be made for when she finished her time with Keira, and had become more experienced with the Force, enough to defend and protect herself, and Kurt if need be, not that he seemed to need her protection. After all, he'd made it this far on his own, save for Kaile.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

He smiled slightly, half turning back towards her. "That's easier to do then you might think."

The galaxy was literally filled with planets, and half of them weren't named or cataloged simply because there were so many. Of course there were organizations that did catalog planets as a job, but there were billions and billions of worlds out there, and most of them were lifeless rocks without atmosphere or anything of the sort, the difficult truly came when one tried to find worlds like this, like Spira, paradises that simply sat in the middle of an empty void. There weren't many Spira's.

"Just jump to a random region of space, break out the scanners and discover the nearest star systems." Kurt told her as he pushed the boat around the southern tip of the island, guiding the vessel around the edge of the land and towards their neighbor inlet. "The trouble is finding a world you can actually walk on without dying."

He'd found plenty of lifeless rocks. "Or one that isn't populated by smugglers and pirates. Some uncharted worlds are nests for crime simply because no one's cared to write about them. Have to be careful about those."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie wiggled her eyebrows with a bit of devious excitement. "Pirates and smugglers you say? Treasures? Trinkets and artifacts?" The girl raised her hand and pressed the back of her palm against her forehead as if she were about to faint. "Oh, Kurt! Let's scour the corners of the galaxy, the deepest, darkest corners for riches!" Even if finding a planet wasn't exactly as difficult or glorious as she thought, the idea, even as unrealistic or silly as it sounded, of swindling pirates and smugglers was enticing. She was still in a place where she had no real goals or causes. Excitement and adventure was mysterious and new to her. The only real calling she felt thus far was to become something akin to a Jedi without an Order. That didn't mean there wasn't room for braving the unknown.

"We could do it I think." She said with a confident nod. "You got the piloting chops and the ability to spin a tale." Another nod. "And I'll have the Force!" A single moment of pause before she finally added, "And the looks, of course! It'll be fun!"

The sunblock that had been left in the boat was quickly pulled from the small container that sat between the two, Jamie wasn't going to risk burning further with another bright, hot, and sunny day. Popping the tab off the top the blonde squeezed a bit of the lotion and began to rub it along her neck, face, stomach, arms, and legs.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Kurt let out a chuckle. Exploring the galaxy? He wouldn't mind that so much. It would make no money, and finding treasure...well that was almost as unlikely as finding a bunker filled to the brim with weapons. Still, the idea of it was at least a bit appealing. He mused for a moment more, his fingers twitching slightly as he brought the boat around the edge of the other island, slowly coasting slower to the beaches as a massive jungle covered mountain came into view.

"Maybe." He said finally.

There was a part of him that loved the idea of being an explorer, of passing through the galaxy one planet at a time.

"We'd need a bigger ship." Kurt mused out loud. "The Messa is hardly meant for galactic exploration."

The vessel was fast, fastest in the galaxy, but it really wasn't meant for extended trips, the fuel containment alone would be a problem if one traveled for more than three or four days away from a trade station. No, exploring like what Jamie talked about would need a much bigger ship with it's own reactor.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"A bigger ship huh?" Jamie pondered the idea. Kurt had spent so much time and likely credits on retrofitting his ship that he clearly cared quite a bit for that simply abandoning it to explore seemed somewhat of a forced sacrifice for him to give up for her. It was his one thing and taking that away, even if he wouldn't admit it, would likely cause some tension between the two, or at worst, resentment for it. That was hardly something she wanted to instigate. "Well, we'll see what the future brings. Who knows, maybe you'll find a way to make it the fastest ship and able to travel further!"

As the blonde looked up at the island before her a starry-eyed look of bewilderment hit her. It was far larger than the one the pair had setup camp at, and looked to have an incredibly high mountain peak. If the two planned on climbing that, it would hardly be a single day excursion. Even in the kind of shape she was, nature presented quite the challenge here. "That...Is huge!" She said finally, pointing to the mountain.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Those two are kind of on the opposite spe-" Kurt was interrupted as the island came into full view. He couldn't help but silently agree with Jamie as he watched the mountain rise before them. It was huge, big enough that exploring it would likely two or three days. He frowned for a moment, scratching his head and wondering if they could actually do this with the time that they had left. His head shook from side to side as he quickly decided that it didn't matter.

"Yeah." Kurt finally said. "lets find a place to put the boat."

He wanted to be closer to shore, just in case.

The engine began to slow down, lifting out of the water slightly as they slowed so they could get more clearance within the small bay that the Pilot had pulled them into. He took them closer and closer to shore, moving them until they were about a dozen meters away. As soon as he found the spot suitable he pulled the anchor from its place and threw it into the water with a massive splash, splattering himself, and Jamie, with spots of cool water.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The girl flinched as droplets of water splashed against her legs, arms, waist, and cheeks. A small chirp of surprise abruptly came from her as she glared over at Kurt. "Did you really need to throw it like a game of spaceball? Something wrong with just lowering it like a normal human being?" The girl shook her head and rubbed her arms free of the water. It wasn't that she didn't want to get wet. No, obviously they would have to wade through the water to get to shore first, but scattered water droplets splashing her always sent shivers down her body and felt generally uncomfortable. Her eyes still glaring in a partly closed squint she poked out her tongue towards him, before standing up in the boat.

"Let's get going, you bantha." The blonde leaned down, scooping up her backpack and slipping her arms into the straps, her thumbs wrapping tightly around the front to hold the bag in place before scooting herself overboard and lowering into the warm ocean water within the bay. The water was about waist deep where Kurt had anchored them, and the soft, wet sand beneath her feet made her smile as she waited for him to join her.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"More of a Krayt Dragon, really." Kurt said more to himself than to her, a small smirk spreading on his lips.

He jumped over the side of the boat, though this time he pressed himself off of the edge slightly so that instead of creating a massive splash, he only made a little one. The water, even here in the shade of the great mountain was as warm as a bath. The sand beneath him gave way for a moment, half exploding into a cloud. He smiled again, curling his toes and then facing Jamie who shared a similar expression on her lips. His hand extended towards her, fingers gently lacing between her own as they made their way to the beach.

They reached the white sands in no time, Kurt watching the edges of the beach for any movement before they moved any further onto the island. Part of him was still stuck in the thought that this place wasn't exactly empty, mostly because of it's size and foliage. "Lets watch for anything living, Nexu like this kind of terrain."

Nexu liked pretty much any place that was warm and contained a bit of foliage, nasty little things.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Are they native here?" Jamie had never seen a Nexu before, at least not in person. Her schooling had taught her about them, and she was familiar with what they looked like, but wasn't sure what planets they inhabited. Many species had been captured and released on other worlds though, so it was certainly possible. Nexu were far from being small, so spotting them would be rather simple, with the exception being once they got into the dense jungle and away from the beach. High grass and thick foliage would make seeing waiting predators infinitely more difficult. That was likely what Kurt was worried about.

"I'm sure we'll be fine!" She said with naive confidence. "What's the worst that could happen? We have to shoo away a big kitty?"

Jamie looked around at their surroundings. "Looks a lot like the other island, but so much bigger." That meant more to see to her. "Think anyone lives out here? Secluded away from the rest of civilization to live a quiet life alone? Nothing but paradise and solitude."

Everything was quiet, save for the crashing of waves on the beach and the chirping of birds up in the canopies of the trees looming above the two. The morning was beginning to heat up as the sun climbed higher in the sky, the clear blue granting no shade to the world below.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Kurt shook his head. "No they aren't native, but Nexu are pretty much all over the galaxy now. Some rich guy buys a pair, they get loose and in a couple of months you have a sustainable population. Those things can be found anywhere, from Belsavis to Hoth."

He'd encountered them more than once on a delivery, feral things they were.

Nexu tended to see pretty much everything as a snack of some sort. They could tear apart and pretty much each whatever they wanted if they put their mind to it. Sharp claws and sharper teeth made them into apex predators, and he wouldn't really be surprised if they lived on this island and many others, it was the perfect environment for them, as long as they had something to eat and survive off of. Kurt stretched slightly, limbering himself up for the walk.

"I doubt anyone would live out here full time." He mused for a moment. "But maybe we'll stumble upon someones vacation home."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Seems like a rather dangerous and stupid pet to have. You can't tame those things!" Some folks had too many credits than they knew what to do with. That generally lead to poor decisions, some worse than others. People always wanted things they shouldn't, or couldn't have. When money buys anything, dangerous creatures wound up as collectables.

"Nexu or not, we'll be alright. Let's get going. No time to waste!" The girl pulled at Kurt's hand when he finished stretching as she started heading to the treeline leading into the jungle. "We'll just have to be careful, more so than I was yesterday at least." Her ankle was still sore, and was hardly in any condition to do any vigorous running, but that was something to deal with later if it were necessary. Jamie didn't want to worry Kurt, or for him to call off the adventure for the day on the off chance something might happen.

"I remembered my camera too!" She said happily. "There's sure to be lots to see here."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]