Private Shivers

[Xian Xiao]

The young woman might have been chasing a dream when she hired a transport to take her to the wildest world she had ever heard of—a place where the animals were super cute but deadly. The girl also sought a pet to practice using the Force on—something many might not approve of, but Xian didn't care. She would heal them in the end, and they wouldn't be hurt anymore at all. What better place to find a creature than on a planet with animals nobody would want?

Climbing off the ship after it landed, she pulled up the hood of her coat and headed outside. Even though she had spent a few years on Kashyyyk, she was still shocked at how green a world could be. With her jaw about to hit the ground, she turned several times, looking at nearby scenery.

Just as she finished one final spin, she almost bumped into somebody.

"So sorry."

Blushing furiously, the former Jedi wanted nothing more than to disappear.

Vulpesen

 

[Vulpesen]

Vulpesen danced out of the way of the girl, his feet spinning him away with a near dancers grace. "No, pardon me," he replied, his tail flicking as he looked down at the young woman. He'd been out on a simple stroll through his planet's spaceports, no goal in mind than to observe the people that he ruled over on a daily basis. Though, it was readily apparent that he had stopped doing that and had instead began to get lost in his own world of thought. Apparently, his idle ideations had been severe enough for him to nearly bowl over some poor lass coming out of his spaceport.

Halting in place, he tilted his head, noting the embarrassed look on the girl, but also a few things that were missing. There were no golden eyes, clawed fingers, and no tail. At her apparent age, it was possible that she was a late bloomer, unready for the trials... but something felt off. No, there was something far more likely than her being a Zorren literally wasting away their younger years. "You're not from here, are you? I wonder what brings an outsider to Veradune."

Xian Xiao

 

[Xian Xiao]

Glaring at the ground in embarrassment, she slowly looked up at the man she had almost run into. Starting at his feet, she moved on up, stopping at his tail and again when her eyes reached his. Attempting to take another step back, she was startled by them.

Shaking her head silently, the young woman still looked like she wanted to disappear. After a few more moments, she found her voice. If he reached out with the Force or was trying to feel for her emotions, he might sense some form of guilt within her.

"Nature."

It wasn't entirely a lie, just a very grey answer to his question.

Vulpesen

 

[Vulpesen]

Vulpesen smiled broadly at her answer. Given the sudden and random nature of their meeting, he figured it would be rude to try and probe into her for more information. This woman was, after all, a stranger and it wouldn't do for the Valde to start accosting the minds of random visitors to his planet. "A good a reason as any around here. Though, you should be careful if you go beyond the walls. The Wilds of Veradune are as beautiful as they are dangerous. You might want to enlist a guide to help you get through, unless you feel like becoming a snack to one of the local teradin trees."

Vulpesen himself had been shocked the first time he had seen one of the aforementioned trees snatch someone up into their branches. Thankfully, that man had already been a corpse, and one that he had felled in the heat of battle. Still, seeing a tree gobble up a person like it was a hungry rancor tended to stick with a person. What's more, with Veradune's new influx of tourists, hunters, and visitors, he'd heard more than a few tales of visitors meeting similar fates. And that didn't even count those that were killed by a pythros gas cloud, a zipher's acid spray, or a gairthix's nasty electrical shock.

Xian Xiao

 

[Xian Xiao]

When he spoke, she relaxed, but the guilt did not entirely disappear. Xian listened to what he had to say and slightly lowered her eyebrows. Not feeling like becoming a snack, she looked up at Vulpesen again.

"I can use the Force and bend the elements. There's no way I will become a snack."

To demonstrate her skills, she lifted the ground under his feet and made it into a small mound.

"See? What could go wrong?"

Vulpesen

 

[Vulpesen]

What could go wrong? No sooner than the words had finished leaving the woman's mouth had Vulpesen thought of a host of horrible ways for the unprepared to meet their end. Attempting to pet a pythros, spooking a herd of arlusks, getting to close to an elmury, or tripping into a cave filled with Doruvir. "I sincerely hope your talents extend to more than making a hill. Even skilled wilders have found themselves in the belly of some beast or another around here. Afterall, not all threats are immediately obvious. I suppose the worst that could happen depends on your definition. Would you prefer to die by bleeding from every orifice, or having the marrow sucked form your spine?"

Xian Xiao

 

[Xian Xiao]

Even though Xian was almost an adult and might be considered one by many cultures, she was still a teenager. She felt like this man was treating her as a child and questioning her ability to take care of herself.

"Look, Mister...I've been on my own since I was a toddler. A woman took me to Coruscant and dropped me off at an orphanage as if one of those government-run places would give a damn about kids. I can take care of myself."

As she spoke, a storm cloud started forming above his head. When she finished, rain started pattering his hair, and lightning might even have started shocking his ears.

"There's more where that came from, too."

Crossing her arms across her chest, the small woman looked at him defiantly and with a challenge in her eyes.

Vulpesen