Wake Up

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

Turning to him, the petite blonde gave him a grateful rub of his arm. Along with a smack on his butt.

"I may be old, big guy, but I can still use my legs." a crinkle under the scarf indicated that she was smirking. "You didn't complain about them earlier."

They were a pair of lugs, that was for sure. Both very silly. None the less, they also worked well together.

The dust storm was beginning to wane, so it was a little bit easier to discern the landscape. A few scraggly bushes of sage, a few taller ones that had the appearance of trees, if slightly spikey.

"I wonder how much rain they get here. The storm bands I saw coming in meant that they were rather prevalent."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"I doubt the storms ever reach them." From the look of their surroundings it would seem they didn't get much rain at all.

He glanced back towards the distant horizon.

"See those mountains?" He pointed towards the waning light in the distance, she would be able to see the silhouettes of two tall peaks, though they were barely noticeable to even Soliae's eyes. "I think they'll block most of the incoming storms."

An unfortunate truth. "Leaving only dust and sand on this side."

A hard way to live to be sure.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Makes one wonder how much do they even produce in food?" deserts such as these could be brutal to grow anything green. It was a struggle just to get water for oneself let along for a crop. Concern rose upon Kira's brow and had Soliael seen it; he'd likely recognize the stirrings of do-gooders building.

"Wonder if they do moisture farming like on Tatooine?" it was possible. They wouldn't know until they were closer to the village. A tilt of her head and the Jedi Master gently probed out with the Force.

The Force was everywhere. In every living thing, even if mere remnants were left of the dead. All became one with it. Just pressing with the Force allowed the blonde to sense life. Ahh.

A soft smile returned to her.

There was a significant presence under the ground that she could sense. Life always finds a way.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"Greenhouses maybe." He glanced back towards the distance mountains briefly.

"There's only one sun here, so the environment isn't as harsh as Tatooine." The little desert world had long since been one of the worst places to live. That wasn't an opinion, but more of an objective fact. Raising anything, human, plant, animal, on Tatooine was a difficult process. The weather was hard and the people reflected that more than a little bit. Soliael had visited the world more than once, and each time he'd always found it somewhat miserable. That being said though, it was better than mustafar. "Maybe there's an underground river."

He shrugged.

"They must have built their village here for some reason." It seemed to him that the wiser choice would have been to place it on the other side of the mountains, but he wasn't about to question these people after never even having met them.

Slowly Soliael and Kira approached the village, the feint haze of buildings appearing on the horizon.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Fair." Kira said in reply. Eyes squinting through the goggles, she brought her handup over her eyes so as she could get a close look. Off in the distance she caught some sort of spike like protrusions. For a second they reminded her of termite mounds.

"Guess it would be rather awkward if the locals were, well..." her head swung over towards her husband. At two meters in height, he was rather big. Towering really. Standing beside him made her appear like a child.

"Shorter than me." or maybe had far too many appendages that they really didn't blend in.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

He frowned.

Honestly Soliael hadn't even really considered that thought. There were so many planets in the normal galaxy that were populated by humanoids that he hadn't even really thought of aliens. That wasn't too odd really, Humans had colonized the galaxy to such a degree that even worlds where most alien species were from had some sort of Human presence on them. He frowned for a moment and looked down at his wife, considering her words.

"Well." He began quietly. "We don't have a 'sexy bug' costume back on the ship...so I guess we'll just have to say we're distant travelers."

There was after all a decent chance that whatever this little village was had encountered off-worlders before. The very fact that they had a shield generator that The Freya's sensors could identify spoke to that fact at the very least.

"Wing it." He said with a shrug as they drew ever closely, the buildings becoming a bit more clear even within the dark.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

A sexy bug costume?!

Her snort and laugh followed. Good thing she had the scarf to make sure that the grit and sand didn't slip right in. She had quite the hyena laugh as it was.

"I .. can't even fantom how a bug can be sexy." she added, shaking her head. The thought was rather hilarious. Yet the more Kira considered it, the more devious her eyes seemed to glint.

"Maybe I'll get one. You can tell me just how sexy of a bug I am." another snicker. Another gust of wind blew some strands of her hair from under her cowl, but with that came the settling of the dust. The shapes in the distance began to take a firm form. They were curvy, as if made to flow along with the constant barrage of the dust storms.

And thankfully didn't appear to be miniature in size.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"Pretty easy." He told her as they wandered closer to the window. "Get you some antenna."

Soliael lifted his hand and made as though he were about to flick an invisible antenna on top of her head.

"A scaly shirt that has a window for your breasts." His fingers slowly lowered and very gently slid down between the curves of her chest, dipping into her cleavage for half a second before he quickly withdrew and faced back towards the approaching village. "Easy."

Soliael insisted as he looked ahead, seeing that no one was even outside though lamps seemed to illuminate the streets. "Maybe you can do a little mating dance."

He shrugged.

"I think you can pull it off." The words came as they stepped from desert onto more compacted dirt, a clear sign that someone had tried to build a road.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Antenna?? What like a hairband?" Kira's muffled voice would cry out. A narrowing of her eyes followed as she took in her husband's suggestions.

"Wait a minute..." she began, spinning on her heel as she began a backward walk.

"You sound as if you've done such a thing before." there came the discerning mock glower.

"You seem to know a little bit TOO well on just what would be sexy bug attire." the compact dirt at least would ensure she wouldn't trip over her self.

Well, with nine toes and how klutzy Kira naturally was, perhaps that was still quite a risk.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"No." He told her honestly.

Bugs weren't exactly his thing, neither were costumes really. That was something Kira had introduced in their marriage, surprisingly. Though it was true that throughout his lifetime Soliael had been rather...generous, when it came to the amount of love he'd spread to others, this particular subject wasn't something he was versed in.

"I'm just a genius." He contended. "Do you not want a boob window in your costume?"

He asked her. "We can have windows to show off other parts."

The former false gods eyes darted low, then he leaned to the right slightly, peering at her backside.

"Whatever you want, we already got you a tail so this won't be that big of a deal." He smirked at her.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Quiet you!" a light punch went for his bicep. The brat. "You are lucky you are cute." she added, the blonde peering out into the settlement. Pourstone type buildings were everywhere. Some were situated low into the ground, suggesting making use of the protection of the underground.

No one in sight yet, but that was likely due to the dust storm.

"See anything?" she inquired, panning her gaze around. Indeed, off to the right she could recognize the familiar water vaper moisture collector.

"Well, no bugs." at least so far. Everything was relatively humanoid sized.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"You're the one that brought it up." He told her quietly as he stuck his head around the corner. "We'll just stick with Fox then."

Before Kira could answer Soliael walked forward.

Most of the lights within the village were still on, though a few of the bulbs had clearly burned out. He frowned for a moment as he peeked his head around a nearby corner, his eyes slowly passing over half a dozen different buildings until he found what he was looking for. "There."

The former False God pointed down the street.

"That's an Inn." Or what passed for one in a place like this.

The building was a bit bigger than the others, three stories instead of the others which hung around just one. It was also wider and a sign depicting some sort of four legged animal hung outside of it.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Yeah, yeah..." Kira gave a mock scoff only to follow with a curious cant of her head. She couldn't quite narrow down what the four legged creature on the sign, but where identifiable characteristics were tossed to the side, a type of script followed in blocky letters under it.

The only issue being that the language was Huttese.

"Is that, Huttesse?" great, that didn't bode well. If the language of trade was Huttesse, that only meant one thing -- Hutts. And odds were, that meant that there was a reason for a need for it as a trade language, that there was a Hutt somewhere around here. With the increase in pirate activity, it all started to make sense.

They were dealing with Hutts.

Or at least, on this world.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

Soliael didn't jump to the same immediate conclusion as his wife, not because he was any smarter than her but because he knew Huttese was actually a rather popular language in more civilized parts of the Galaxy. Their own Galaxy anyway.

The Hutts had once ruled their own Empire after all, one than in its heyday had been quite extensive. ”Yep.”

He confirmed quietly.

The language didn't necessarily mean there was a hutt nearby, just that there had once been a hutt here and that was the language these people spoke. Either way it wasn't a big deal, Soliael spoke fluent Huttese after all and thus communication wouldn't be an issue.

Benefit of once being the God of knowledge.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

Kira brought her hand up, pushing aside the door and going inside. No music played, so it was rather quiet. Yet there was stirring and the sounds of people moving about. The door gave a creek as the tiny blonde came in. It was rather dark, only dim lighting inside.

That first glimpse inside nailed it.

"Well... no bugs." Kira added low enough for her husband to hear. Kira's lips gave a twist upward. Nope, no bugs.

Just Dugs.

The entire cantina was full of dug patrons.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"Huh." Well that had been sort of unexpected.

Dug's weren't exactly a common species in the galaxy, actually they were pretty rare. Usually they stuck to their homeworld or the outer rim, some had immigrated to Tatooine a while ago, but most of the time you didn't actually see the Aliens all that often unless you really looked for them. He frowned for a moment, and then looked around the room. A few of the patrons were staring at them, though none of them seemed too perplexed, a sign that they at least recognized humans.

Soliael slowly leaned over to Kira, whispering to her. "You're going to have to act like my servant. Dug's don't understand the concept of marriage and they'll attack us if they think I'm weak."

That was not true at all, but Kira might not know that.

"It'll have to extend to later tonight too, they'll be listening." Again, not true at all, but before Kira could object Soliael walked towards the bar in the room, immediately breaking his voice into near perfect Huttese. "Greetings friend!"

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

That slow time lapse sped up real quick at the sudden shift of expression from Sol's wife at his sudden revelation of having to pretend to be his slave. Wait, what?!! Good thing her face was shrouded behind the scarf and the goggles. There was little she could do to object, seeing how Devin had strode forward booming in Huteese. He was right, Kira didn't know much about Dug culture. He could very well have been telling the truth. The problem being that he slipped so easily into saying it that it would be hard to disbelieve them.

That and being on a new planet meant that they were trying to blend in.

"Oh you are gonna pay for that."she murmured, her voice muffled as she walked along beside him. One of the larger Dugs came waddlomg towards him,his whiskers swaying.

"What do you want stranger?" He asked Sol in huttese.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

The Dug spoke back to him in Huttese. A small smile crossed his lips, had Kira not noticed the sign outside he'd likely have just used basic. He didn't speak Dug too, so huttese was easier than anything else. For a moment he regarded the Alien, then continued.

"My Servant and I have been traveling for some nights." The Dug looked at him as he spoke, glancing at Kira, and then slowly nodded as if in understanding. Soliael was making some very liberal guesses, but the reactions he'd gotten thus far likely meant there was a human colony somewhere on this world and that these Dug's encountered them every now and again.

"So you are form Buril?"

Soliael nodded. "Aye."

The Dug nodded, though this time there was a solemness to it.

"Shame what happened there. I suppose we can accommodate you for one or two nights."

Soliael frowned as the Dug turned away from him, the former False God glancing towards his wife for a moment. Shame? There must have been an incident, and quite recently too. Pirates maybe? That seemed like the most likely option.

 

[Kira Talith]

Wait, what incident? Kira followed along Devin's little game; at least for now. Her attention had shifted towards what the Dug had said. While Kira had an ear for the language, there were still a few words that required her to pay closer attention. The reading of lips also helped.

The desire rose to ask a question, but if there was one thing the blonde Jedi Master had learned when it came to playing a role, is that one had to make it believeable.

And right now, Devin had decided to make this a Master's bid.

"There were more before you. A family. " the Dug continued, leading them towards the rear of the cantina.

Perhaps someone that they could ask more questions of?

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"Running from the pirates?" Soliael took a complete shot in the dark. The guess might utterly screw them over, or it would get them all the information they'd need. Of course Soliael gambled on the fact that he was exceptionally lucky. After all he had a gorgeous wife and four beautiful kids, it only stood to reason that he was the luckiest man alive.

The Dug looked back for a second, Soliael's heart skipped a beat, and then the alien nodded.

"Aye."

Soliael let out a sigh of relief that he hoped would be mistaken for sympathy. "Yeah. They did a number on us."

The Dug patted Soliael's arm as if in consoloation.

"At least you still have your servant. Come, let me show you to your room. Unfortunately there is only one available, but she can stay in the barn if you like?"

For a brief moment Soliael considered it, but ultimately decided against it. "No. This one is rather dear to me."