Private Welcome to the Jungle

[Jared Starchaser]

Being a vagabond really made it so Jared didn’t need to know where he was going, he just went with the flow. Maybe something his father had taught him and his sister. Kaia would hate this, but not the wandering through the Force. The Force User was more than happy to be on the planet, and feeling the sheer amount of life around here. A grin found its way to his features as he followed Valery.

“It is, so many worlds out along the Rim have something thats off with them. But this one? Full of life.” And full of her presence in the Force. He didn’t mind that as much as he feared he was going to.

Call it intimidation, he figured. The Jensaarai-Witch-Jedi was all of a number of things but he wasn’t his father in the Force. His father had such a determined and focused presence.

“Its how I do it, when I’m looking for where I need to end up, in the Force.” He laughed. Looking around, Jared found himself a flat surface and laid his lightsaber on the ground. Finding a kneeling position, he reached into the vest he wore, and pulled out a small satchel of corals and other stones, items to help him focus the Force.

“Find where the holocron calls to…” He said to himself as much as her, whispering.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

The Vagrant Sunrise

​

Outfit: Jungle outfit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Jared Starchaser

"Just don't celebrate too early. It's full of life, but it could still be full of trouble as well." She flashed him a smirk and watched when he stopped. He pulled out his lightsaber, as well as a few other items, and began to lay them out on a flat piece of jungle ground. With her arms crossed in front of her chest and her head tilted, she looked at it all, "Almost looks like you're making a compass with your lightsaber there," Valery mused with a chuckle.

In reality, she supposed he was using the crystal as a focusing point of some kind.

"Let's see if it guides us anywhere." Valery went quiet after that, allowing him his focus while her own presence extended. Usually, she was quite careful and kept it at bay, for fear of potential enemies feeling her from afar. Out here and near Jared, however, she felt at ease letting the world know where she was.

Perhaps her presence and the currents it sent through the Force could help him navigate.

"Do you feel anything?"

 

[Jared Starchaser]

There really was something about this Jedi Master. Beyond her looks too. She probably heard the fact that was was a looker from everyone, maybe even from his father. But she had this personality that just looked at the galaxy as it was and saw fun in it. Something he wasn’t capable of doing most days. He saw it as it was, saw people under duress, and was constantly trying to better everyone’s experience with life. “Yeah, lots of life can mean lots of predators. Good thing I’m a hunter.” Or used to be, when the ORC was a thing. Hunter of the Rim… As he looked up from where he had his gear splayed about. “Ish? Tricks I’ve learned from various Force traditions to use items as a focus.”

And what better than the lightsaber her built when he was barely a teen? The casing marked and scared, not rusted, but definitely had seen better days.

The saber, and a few of the rocks, including the shimmering blue corals, almost a pearlescent blue, lifted and began moving. He was seeking out the biggest connection to the Force, the brightest spot. It was clearly Valery, but there was something more, something older, beyond… His lightsaber and the other items had found a small movement, wiggling into a direction somewhat north of where they were.

“Its a ways off but in that direction…” He pointed as he stood up, grabbing his saber before it fell to the ground.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

The Vagrant Sunrise

​

Outfit: Jungle outfit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Jared Starchaser

"I was... sort of a hunter, too." A Jedi Shadow, so she hunted Sith and dangerous artifacts, rather than animals. But a lot of the skills were the same, she imagined. Either way, between the two of them, some jungle predators weren't really going to be a serious threat. They just needed to remain focused and never underestimate mother nature.

No hard task for a woman who had grown up inside a Jungle.

"Well, it's very neat," Valery said with a chuckle. "I know some skills others might find odd or mysterious, but I haven't really seen anything like this, or that teleportation thing you tried." As experienced and powerful as she was, Valery knew there was always so much more to learn about the Force.

The Path of a Jedi, was that of an eternal student.

After some time of being focused, Jared managed to pick up on something. Valery turned in that direction, focused her senses and nodded along thoughtfully. There was was something there, but she couldn't quite figure out what it'd be. So, once more, it was time to head into the unknown and explore, and she was in excellent company for that.

"I'll lead the way," Valery said, that same smirk on her lips while she walked ahead a step or two. "If we're stuck out here for long, we'll need to find some shelter, too. Just in case we need to spend a night in the Jungle."

 

[Jared Starchaser]

“Were you, for the Jedi? Dad was… is a sentinel. But I don’t think he counts that as being a hunter. More a wall between the people and the Sith. It made him have a different take and approach to fighting the darkness. A harder approach.” Something Jared found great ease in. He was that Jedi turned Jensaarai most times. But maybe it was just all Sentinel?

“Back during the Sullust Alliance, my father brought in many other traditions to the typical Jedi approach. It helped all of us learn more. Who have you learned from?” Maybe Valery wasn’t as hard line Jedi as he supposed. Or she was smart enough to know that the other groups out there could and would help the Jedi fight their wars.

Was he going to follow her to a war? Possibly.

But he knew he was definitely going to follow her here. “Lead on, Master Noble.” He smirked, outwardly but more to himself. “And dont worry about a shelter, I can find that easily.” He turned back to his BD unit, Hopper. “Stay with the ship, but keep an eye out and the comms on.”

Then he turned and followed.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

The Vagrant Sunrise

​

Outfit: Jungle outfit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Jared Starchaser

"I was a Jedi Shadow," Valery said with a dip of her head. "Before my time in stasis, I was a Shadow within an Enclave with far more extreme views against the Dark Side. I... was very much a hunter." A very good one at that, but she didn't really like thinking too much about those days. She had changed a lot because of the people around her post-stasis, and she much preferred to focus her thoughts on that.

That, or the conversation with her current company.

"Well, I first learned exclusively from the Jedi. But only a few years ago, I ended up helping the Aing-Tii right before the Sith invaded them. I learned from them and helped them fight and evacuate." Sadly, too many of them couldn't be saved. "But I'd say I'm otherwise a very typical Jedi. I've learned and mastered some uncommon or very complex things, but I did learn them from within the Jedi."

From learning how to phase as a Jedi Shadow, to learning how to sever people from the Force when she became the Grandmaster of her old Enclave. Then, at the height of the Second Great Hyperspace War, she had mastered the Wall of Light to end the war.

"Where did you learn all of your skills?" Valery asked while she continued to lead the way. She had a feeling they'd need shelter by the end of the day, considering how vast jungles were, and how easy it was to get lost if you walked too quickly. They needed to take their time, and quite frankly, she didn't mind the idea of staying longer at all.

Jared had proven to be very good company.

 

[Jared Starchaser]

See, learning more about Valery was smart. They did have a bit in common. Sort of. He was a Jedi Sentinel once upon a time but he also had a handling on the dark side and Force powers his father swore not to use. That made the son equally stronger and more dangerous. More concerning to have on a battlefield. "Sometimes even the Jedi need the ones who can strike at the darkness." And not just Jedi, but all sides of a fight. His father opted, nowadays, to find alternative solutions than a fight. Jared did understand and attempt for those solutions.

"My father ran with a dangerous circle before you met him. Dark Jedi, Sith-adjacent. Didn't get bogged into the schooling of the Sith but did with their powers. Took my mother and one of my aunts to get him out of that vicious circle. Only for me and Kaia to learn some of the dark side but in a much more… shall we say pragmatic way. Since then I've been working on the Jensaarai schooling. Dark for Light Reasons."

And that got confusing for sure.

"And I've learned here and there. Veino Garn taught me some of the Jensaarai, some Warden of the Sky tactics from their stories, and a contact in one of the Witch clans gave me a few spells. Don't have one for this though…" He looked up at the rock wall. Going to be a climb.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit: Jungle outfit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Jared Starchaser

"They do, but methods are important," Valery said before she sighed. "I can't say I'm proud of just how extreme I was when I served my old Enclave as a Jedi Shadow. Even if we were very effective." She had changed a lot since then, though, so she didn't mind being open about it. Everybody changed, and she certainly felt like she made steps forward in life. In more ways than one as well. She could fight the Darkness without letting it consume her own heart.

Valery then turned to him to listen and flashed a smirk.

"You know, all those years ago, I would have probably attacked you for even experimenting at all." She still wasn't fond of it, and she'd never do it herself, but Jared was living evidence that the world wasn't so black and white. So, rather than slap him for what he learned, she cautiously accepted his choice.

People were allowed to be different.

"...great, climbing." She could perhaps try-

No, she wasn't going to do that. There was something fun about climbing their way up together, and she wasn't going to ruin that now. "I don't suppose you brought some rope and tools to make it a safer climb?"

 

[Jared Starchaser]

Could never fault someone for being extreme. His father, for all his flaws in Jared’s eyes, was still his prime example of what it meant to be a Jedi. “Extreme makes it so another doesn’t have to be. Allows us to protect the innocents from the storms outside their control.” Jedi had a job to fight for those who couldn’t fight for themselves. His father let the Force and the Light fuel his old war campaigns. And it worked. To a degree. He did become short sighted, something Jared hoped to never become.

As she indicated that she may have attacked him back in her heyday, that brought a grin from Jared. “Now that would have been a sight.” The two of them, both in very similar veins of defending the Light, but with different approaches to dogma? A good fight indeed.

“No rope. Do have an ascension gun, though. Maybe better than trying out a skill the witches taught me, lest you attack me at the top of the cliff.” He grinned as he dug into his bag and pulled out the ascension gun. “Ladies first?”

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit: Jungle outfit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Jared Starchaser

"That's true, but a line has to be drawn somewhere." She didn't believe that the end justified the means. Jedi Shadows were rather extreme as they were, but her Enclave made them even more intense. They toed the line of the Dark Side, the very thing they were actively hunting to destroy.

But that was in the past now.

"You almost sound excited at the idea of me attacking you." Valery chuckled and turned her head to look up into his eyes. While she didn't admit it out loud, the idea of a fight with him was quite exciting. At least, as long as it wasn't a serious battle where only one of them would be left standing.

A spar sounded much better.

Upon reaching the cliffs, Valery considered their options and nodded in agreement, "Let's use the gun and climb up. If we were to fall, we'd be fine." She figured that if he knew complex skills like the one he had already shown her, he could break his fall with the Force as well. If not, she could always catch him with Telekinesis.

"Sure, I'll go first." She flashed a wink and waited for him to use the ascension gun before she very slowly began to climb her way up. She needed to be careful even if they'd survive the fall, and she certainly wasn't in a rush. "The view from up here is great, huh?" Valery asked along the way up.

 

[Jared Starchaser]

There was always a place to draw lines. Jared was like his father, he knew it sometimes, but he didn’t always draw the right line. There were some ends he would go to with whatever means. But even Jared, a bit more aggressive of a hunter and warrior than his father, still wouldn’t go to some Dark Side or Sith centric group. Jensaarai was about as on the line as he got.

“I mean, being able to try our skills out against each other? As long as no one goes for the kill shout and we stop before maiming each other, it really can’t be more than just some fun.” He offered a troublesome grin.

Stepping up to the cliff side, he fired the ascension gun, getting a solid clamp on a rock at the top. He did have a point in his mind that he wanted to use one of the teleporting spells he learned, but with her going first? He could run with that. As he followed her up the rope, he nodded. A much better view, oh yes. Looking at her as she spoke, he could see a great handful of what made it better. “Definitely. Much better from this vantage than on the ground.”

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit: Jungle outfit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Jared Starchaser

Fun, huh?

Valery smirked and kept that in mind as she began her climb up. In truth, she loved the thrill of a good spar or training session. Whether it was to learn or try something new or to just practice things she had already mastered against someone who would do the same, it didn't matter. She loved training for both the mental and physical benefits and the sheer fun she could get out of the moment with an interesting training partner.

Jared was certainly someone she'd love to train with.

"Right?" Valery asked with a knowing smirk, as her eyes shifted down to him and then back across the horizon. Jungles had a way of making her feel alive, and whatever planet they were on now, it already had that same effect on her. So much so, that about 3/4th of the way up, Valery decided to stop for a moment.

Just to enjoy the view and the feeling of the wind blowing through her hair.

"I have a feeling we're not going to make it before the sun starts going down. We really shouldn't walk through the Jungle at night, so maybe we look for shelter? That gives us some daylight to collect wood for a fire and such, too."

 

[Jared Starchaser]

He really wanted room to run with his new skills. Jensaarai skills were always Jedi adjacent. Just with a bit more edge and style to them. Stealth, hiding his presence, making illusions… And a bit of lightning. The witch spells, creating ice, the tentacle trick he learned for trapping foes, moving like lightning in a storm, those he’d love to try. And sparring with a Jedi Master at the level of Valery? That would probably satisfy that craving and itch.

And a training spar match would make it so he was much more lethal.

As he continued the climb, he would turn to face up for a moment. Enjoying that view before taking a look further into the jungle.

“We have no idea how far we have to travel. Find a source of water and we can set up camp there I figure.” He was in agreement. “Next place that looks good.”

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit: Jungle outfit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Jared Starchaser

"I think I might know just the place..." Valery grinned to herself and climbed the rest of the way up. She pulled herself over the edge and turned around to wait for Jared. But while she waited for him to join her, Valery's senses were already focused on the sound up ahead. They didn't just need water — they ideally needed running water, and the advantage they had up on these cliffs, was that nature provided just that in abundance.

She heard a waterfall.

"Look," Valery continued as she started to walk towards the sound. "A waterfall would be a good place to set camp." She had a simple tent inside her backpack they could put up, but sometimes there were caves or other forms of shelter to be found near and around waterfalls as well.

"I'd love to wash up a little, too. These Jungles..." Well, they certainly made her sweat. Especially after climbing her way up the cliffs to get here.

 

[Jared Starchaser]

She knew the place? The Jensaarai-Witch-Jedi-thing climbed up after her, not hurrying too much but once she made the summit he did put a bit of speed in his climb. He could have tried to teleport, but he didn’t want to run the risk of it yet, he needed a few more lessons. And witches were good for a few other lessons, and Force knew he needed it. As he got up, he surveyed where they were.

This world was one of abundance. He liked that.

The Force was here in droves, the dark, the light, the balance of wild and untamed. He could appreciate that. It read like him in the Force. It was a good feeling. Following behind her, he had his hand loose and near his holster, looking for his pistol, in case. The sound, it was all natural. It was the waterfalls. He saw them before, but the cliffs continued up. If they were to find a place to settle, perhaps they’d luck out and find a cave.

He didn’t tend to come with tents, he went full on native.

“A waterfall would be good. Running water, a place to freshen up, and sound to probably keep us off the radar of anything that’d want to fight us.”

Smiling as he kept up with her, he looked around. "Can check to see if we have any natural cover..."

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit: Jungle outfit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Jared Starchaser

Valery nodded and looked over her shoulder at Jared with a smirk, "Some clean, running water will be useful, and I do like not getting disturbed by jungle predators at night." With only two people, it'd nit be easy to set up a watch at night, but if they found a cave close to the waterfall, they wouldn't really need to stay up.

The water would offer them privacy and protection from the wild.

"If you go look for some cover, I'll see if I can find a good spot by the falls. Maybe clean myself up a bit." She smiled and looked at him again to see if he was okay with the plan.

He could wash up after her.

 

[Jared Starchaser]

Normally he was a leader in events like this. He didn’t work well in a team. Jared Starchaser, unlike his father was a loner. The fact that he was experimenting with using a Defender light corvette and not a combination of his E-Wing and something smaller, like a Skipray, was evident that he was trying. But even now he was having a hard time taking the lead here. “Running water helps. And a cave, for watches. I should have probably taken Hopper with us.” The droid was good at keeping an eye on things.

Explorer droids typically were. So were the little probe droids, like the one his sister had.

“That works for me. I should be able to find you.” He smirked. Jared was a Force tracker, and with a Jedi like Valery? She’d be hard to miss.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit: Jungle outfit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Jared Starchaser

"It'll be alright. If we find good shelter here, we might not need a watch." She smirked back and stepped over some fallen branches to head towards the water. She had spare clothes, even a towel, and she doubted that anything would come find her all the way up these cliffs. Fighting a predator without wearing any clothes wouldn't exactly be ideal, and she wouldn't be able to run back for help either.

But the chances of that happening were low enough.

Soon enough, Valery found herself a safe stretch of space and changed out of her clothes to start washing up. This wasn't a luxury vacation, so she went about it quickly and dried herself off again. The water was fairly cold, and she hated anything cold.

<You got something already?> Valery decided to ask telepathically, while she started getting dressed again. She had lost all sense of time, so she had no idea how long it had been.

But it couldn't have been that long, right?

 

[Jared Starchaser]

On the hunt. That was where he really belong. All his training pushed him. To keep hunting. To keep seeking. To keep learning. His father had tried that life style but circumstances demanded he become the Jedi Marshal he was, the Sentinel of Sullust. Only recently was he a Wayseeker from both the New Jedi Order and the Silver Jedi Order.

But to the matter at hand. Finding a shelter and not needing a watch would be good. The two could pick each others brains. Maybe he could interest her in a game of sabacc. Always good to have a deck when traveling. Even if one was on a jungle planet. Far from anywhere that had a need for credits.

As he found a cave, he reached out to her in the Force. A form of remote sensing and realized just quite where she was. And how she was. Pulling his Force attention away he sent a blast of a blinding light into the cave working on understanding who was in here.

No one. Good. Home for the night and little to no chance of interruption.

<Found a place. How's the water?> Even if this reach out showed images. A bed in a cave for comfort even if it wasn't the case. And her bare back in front of the water for his second question. The image lasted only a second before it changed to a few flashes of calm water versus predator filled water.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit: Jungle outfit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Jared Starchaser

An image flashed into her mind. Valery stopped what she was doing, blinked, and focused on it for a moment. Jared showed her an illuminated cave through the Force. Shelter for the night, safely hidden to avoid unwanted trouble. It'd allow them a night of rest and comfort, even in a most dangerous jungle. Then, he asked a question about the water, and Valery quickly turned and raised her arms to cover her chest.

All he saw was a bare back and perhaps some reddened ears.

<Cold, but it's great with how hot it is outside.> Valery waited for the mental images to fade, then quickly got herself dressed to avoid anything too awkward. Once she was ready, she made her way to the cave and approached him quietly. Her hair was still a bit wet and clung to her body and face, but she felt most refreshed.

"Do you want to go for a swim yourself? I can set up here."