Wind in My Sails

[Adder]

Adder squinted at the younger woman. Seemed to be a tinge of sadness to those words, but she didn’t prod. That, she could understand. Girl’d been fighting her whole life, introduced to war at an age where most kids still played Space Invaders on their dataloggers.

“You’ll learn,” she said eventually, pushing past the last few encroaching ferns with a grunt. Sweet, sweet sea air. Adder let out a tired sigh and spread her arms to let the breeze cool off her heated body. And her sticky clothes. And her burning feet.

Force, she hated nature.

“Being good at other stuff I mean,” she added after a few long moments luxuriating in the wind. “The teaching’s a good start.”


[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

Aela smiled. She was hopeful that Adder was right. It was important to her that she learn more about the force, the deeper spiritual teaching, the abilities to do good and not just fight.

"I've always wanted to heal." The Jedi Master admitted quietly.

She had a fond memory of visiting one of the Jedi Healers back on Sullust. The woman had been named Avalore, and she had saved Aela from a wound that likely would have become infected. The healing itself hadn't really been all that pleasant, but the short conversation she'd had with Avalore was enough to leave a lasting impression on her. The idea of saving people, not just pulling them from danger but helping them survive mortal wounds?

It was appealing to her. "Not sure I have the talent."

Sometimes the force was just like any other gift, some people could do certain things and others couldn't.

 

[Adder]

“Oh, come on,” Adder laughed, green eyes gleaming oddly in the sun. That’s cybernetics for ya. They worked well enough, but for that money, they didn’t look quite right.

“You got space magic on your side, Aela. You can do whatever you wanna if you put yer mind to it.” She shrugged, then gestured with her head towards the bald top of the cliff waiting ahead. “Besides – talent’s overrated. You get better with practice.”

She started towards the top, thankful for the rock under her boots. Wasn’t quite duracrete yet, but still better footing than the slippery leaves of the jungle.

“I’ve known plenty of people who were fethin’ A at some things. They just couldn’t be arsed to work hard enough. One of ‘em’s a janitor now. Could’ve been a star singer if he wanted.”

The rest… well, the rest were all dead. Coruscant had seen one war too many, and few of her old friends could handle a blaster.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

She smiled at the thought, noting that Adder was still resting up even after all of this time. She briefly glanced up the cliffside to see how much they still had left to go, noting that they'd have to climb another mile or so before they reached the top.

Plus it got quite steep. "I will certainly try."

It was the truth. She intended to read all the books she could about healing, practice, and do whatever else she could, but sometimes the force just didn't work that way. There was either a mental block, or some Jedi were just incapable of performing certain techniques. It was something that was common among the Sith as well, something Aela only knew because more than once she'd read of it in a scroll or holocron where a Sith was incapable of doing some grand feat.

"Sometimes however Talent does count." She pointed out. "Like in piloting."

She offered Adder a small smirk. "Can't get better at that with practice."

Well, she couldn't.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

“That’s bantha poodoo and you know it,” Adder shot back, side-eyeing the younger woman. “Ain’t no thing like a curse – ‘specially nothing you’d inherit.” The redhead snorted, sweeping her unruly hair back over her shoulder. She’d have to cut it again soon.

“I betcha if you stopped thinking you can’t do it, you’d learn.” A beat, a huff of heavy breath – damn this mountain – then Adder added. “I could teach you, if you want.”

Was there a hint of smugness in her voice? Good thing her smirk was hidden behind the curtain of crimson hair.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

"No." Aela suddenly sounded very stern. It was of course natural for Adder not to believe her, after all the idea of it was extremely silly, but Aela had experienced it herself more than once. When she had been a Teen she'd tried to pilot speeders, including bikes, but it had always ended the same. She'd always crashed and hurt herself, one time she had even accidentally hurt her mother.

The memory wasn't a pleasant one.

"I know it sounds silly." She said with a slight wave of her hand. "But it's true. I can't do it, my brother and Sister can't, even my Father can't."

She shrugged. "Every time we try, even if we know how to pilot, something just happens."

The worst part of it was they didn't even know why. Perhaps it was random chance, perhaps it had to do something with Aela's grandfather, either way no one in the family really knew. Since her grandmother wasn't afflicted with the problem she knew it had to come from her grandfathers side, but that was about it.

 

[Adder]

Her brow furrowed again. “You ever try flying something with one of those… ah,” she raked her memory for the word. There was a soldier who’d joined them on a boarding operation against some First Order vessel… Raph something. Adder frowned.

“Watchamacallit… voidstone? If it’s a space magic curse, maybe you can, dunno. Suppress it?”

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

"Oh." Now there was an idea. Aela hadn't ever actually thought of doing something like that. For some reason the thought had never even actually occurred to her before. Maybe it was because the force was such an intrinsic part of her that giving it up, even for a few hours, was just wholly unnatural. She frowned for a moment and considered Adder, glancing at the other woman as if deep in thought. The idea was definitely a good one.

Though there were drawbacks.

"No I haven't thought of that." She admitted openly. "But, if I did then I wouldn't be able to use the force either."

That wasn't necessarily the most horrible thing. Adder went her entire life without using the force, though there was one glaring issue she wanted to point out. "For force users it can be incredibly painful to be cut off from the force."

She was used to pain, but weary.

"Maybe we'll have to try it." If they could find some voidstone.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

A small smile pulled at her lips as she watched Aela’s expression go from surprise to confusion to curiosity. Made her feel a shade less useless – reminded her that she could do things, too.

“Why’s it painful?” Adder asked after a beat, carefully picking her way over the jagged rocks. The salt water had eroded them into a harsh mess of angles and crannies – easy to sprain your ankle with one wrong step. “Most folks are forceless and it don’t hurt us none.”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

Aela frowned for a moment. "It's not being without the force that hurts."

She thought for a moment about how she could explain this to Adder. The idea itself wasn't all that difficult of course, just the opposite, but it was hard to articulate to someone who couldn't actually use the force. A Jedi or even a Sith would have been able to understand but Adder? Well she didn't know what having the force was like, what it allowed you to do and what it allowed you to see. She frowned for a few more seconds and then slowly began to explain.

"It's...when it comes back that it hurts." Aela pointed to her head. "Imagine the force is like another sense...mixed with an appendage."

"No wait...better...imagine being left without a sense of smell, touch, taste, sight or hearing." She nodded.

This analogy worked better.

"That's what being without the force is like for a force user, except obviously we still have all of those senses. We can work with it, but there's a reason Ysalimir put us so off base, we experience life without the force the same as you but it's so different, It's like being drunk." She continued to explain. "Now imagine you were deprived of those senses, but all at once everything just suddenly crashed in on you. The sound of birds chirping, the taste of what you last ate, the sight of the sunset, the smell of nearby flowers. All of it just popping back into place all of a sudden."

This was really the best explanation she could give. "It would be shocking, painful to suddenly have all of that just explode."

Excellent practice for the younglings. "So it's not being rendered without the force that hurts, it's gaining it back."

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

On instinct, Adder rubbed her eye as Aela talked – a small sigh hitched in her chest. Even after near-on twenty years, she still forgot sometimes. Used to be… ah. Didn’t matter now.

“So…” the redhead spoke a minute after her friend finished her explanation. “I mean. I don’t think I can imagine that? Not really.” She shrugged, lips pulling into a wry smile. “I was blind once, I guess. And I wished I couldn’t feel jack way more times than that.”

Adder chuckled, waving her cybernetic arm.

“Is that why fighting the One Sith Vong was such a queen?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

"No that's different." Aela said with a shrug.

The Yuuzhan Vong were an entirely different problem, albeit something that she and a few others had eventually managed to solve with the rediscovering of Vongsense. The technique itself was dangerous in a way, but had it's uses when fighting force dead enemies.

"Yuuzhan Vong lost their ability to touch the force, or rather...they were ejected from it a long time ago. Some were returned to it, others weren't." This probably sounded very silly. "The fact that they're outside of it...well lets just say the force doesn't touch them like it does you or me."

It was complicated. "There's a way to make it effect them, but no one really knew about it for a long time until right around the Galactic Alliance was created."

The Vong hadn't really been a threat, not for years before the Gulag Plague.

 

[Adder]

She tried. She really did. But the difference between ‘gone’ and ‘removed’ and ‘returned’... Adder blinked, rubbing her brow. Things went so far over her head they might as well have been—

The redhead stopped. And stared.

“Woah.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper, green eyes wide. Unwittingly, she zoomed in on the massive creature sailing above them. “Aela, is that… is that a Titavian?”

There wasn’t really a need for it, but she pointed her finger at the animal parting the clouds, violet against the stark white.
[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

In almost an instant Aela snapped to attention.

Her eyes focused on where Adder was pointing her finger and her face broke out into a bright sunbeam of a smile. Her expression grew wide, and the young woman nearly bounced up and down with joy, her grin spreading from ear to ear. "YES!"

She shouted, glancing down at Adder for a moment before her gaze flew back to the Titavian within the sky.

The creature roamed within the clouds once more, then slowly ducked low and began to head towards the cliffside straight above them. It dipped for just a moment and then disappeared from view, cut off from sight by the mountain itself. Aela's elation was clear as she followed the creatures path, stepping forward to begin their climb once more.

"Come on." She motioned eagerly to Adder. "We have to get close."

There was still a chance this wasn't going to work like she wanted to, she'd never been as good at this as her sister or grandmother, but she could try.

 

[Adder]

Couldn’t help but mirror Aela’s ear to ear grin. Couldn’t remember if she’d ever seen her smiling like this, either. Couldn’t find it in her to suppress the tinge of warmth in her chest – though she did curb the instinct to hug her.

They weren’t out of the woods yet.

“You’re, ah, speeding up, Aela,” Adder complained between breaths as the Jedi picked up the pace. They nearly flew over the rest of the slope, boots kicking up dust and gravel as the bit into the cliffside.

The blonde crested the hill first, but the cop wasn’t far behind her. Even though her ribs ached with the lack of air and her throat felt raw from the chill, Adder forgot all about that at the sight before her.

A flock of the giant birds nesting on the edges of the peaks, massive wings folded to rest at their side. Some were sleeping, others picking their feathers clean of dirt; still others were snuggled together, while their neighbors chirped and squawked.

Didn’t look like they’d noticed the pair yet. It was only a matter of time, though.


[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

There was eight birds in all, most of them busy with themselves. A few were still children, something Aela was able to tell from their general size. She half leaned over the edge and glanced down at them, frowning for a moment before realizing that the largest of the flock was perched by himself on the edge of the cliff face just below.

In all honesty Aela didn't actually know all that much about Titavians, at least not in detail, no one did. What she did know however was that the creatures could be incredibly territorial, and thus dangerous. The first thing they would have to do is establish they were not a threat, and the easiest way to do that was just to sit down and do nothing. The prospect wasn't exactly an appealing one, especially when the largest of these birds had a wingspawn several times that of an X-wing. "Sit over there."

Aela motioned to Adder.

"Don't move." They had to do this carefully. "Really, don't move."

She couldn't stress that enough. Anything they did might well piss off these Titavians, and once they did that their lives would get a lot worse. The Jedi Master glanced once more at the Titavians below, then slowly backed up and sat herself down.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

“Uh.” Adder squawked as Aela roused her from wonder. Red hair swept around as she turned to look at the blonde, green eyes wide and unblinking. “Sit?” she echoed, uncertain.

But the Jedi was already sitting down herself, so it obviously wasn’t a joke. Brow furrowed, Adder picked out her own spot of relatively unjagged rock. Honestly, after that trek, it was a massive relief to finally give her legs a rest.

“Why are we doing this, Aela?” Adder asked after a few moments of blissful relaxation.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

The force flooded into her. "So we can leave."

That was really the best answer she could muster at that point. Animal friendship, or beast control or really whatever you wanted to call it wasn't something that came very easily to her. When she was a child she had imagined flying on Drexl's and running with Nexu, but those sorts of things had always taken time, practice, and training. The Animals she had worked with had always been trained from birth, not suddenly coaxed with the force.

She could do the latter of course, but it was difficult.

"I need to...talk to the Titavians." That was the easiest way of putting it. "Convince them we're not a threat and that we need help."

Aela took in a breath. "So just...sit still."

While she tried to do the impossible.

 

[Adder]

So Adder sat still. And looked at Aela. And at the Titavians. And then her feet, and arms, and fingers. And the clouds. The sea. The Titavians. Aela.

Aela.

The redhead found herself watching her friend as she meditated. Orange eyes closed, blonde hair tangled from salt and wind, features relaxed.

Her own furrowed, and Adder quickly pulled her gaze away. Dangerous to be caught staring like that.

So Adder sat still, and looked nowhere at all.


[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

The force extended from her, unthinking, unbound, unleashed. She didn't aim to hurt, she didn't aim to harm, she only sought to speak.

It was an idea that was actually quite difficult, mostly because she sought to speak with creatures who had no true concept of what speaking actually was. Yet Aela still reached out, the force flooded from her in waves and droves. Her grasp extended out and up, her mind reaching, and then gently grazing against that of the Titavian below. She felt fear, she felt confidence, she felt...power. In an instant she was snapped back to the memory of her trip here almost ten years ago.

The journey she had taken then, the flight that she and the Titavian had shared.

Memories flooded into her mind, and quickly they flooded through the thin bond she had formed with the creature below. A second passed, then another, and then in the snap of a finger the creature suddenly spread its wings and dove from the cliffs. The great Titavian swooped low for just one heartbeat and then suddenly turned. It dashed up and into the air, catching a gust of wind and suddenly spinning up into the sky above them. It's great wings flapped once, twice, and then suddenly it came crashing onto the ground before Adder and Aela.

It landed upon it's feet, grand claws digging into the earth as though it were anchoring itself.