Wind in My Sails

[Adder]

Adder’s expression fell, shoulders sagging. Their chances were shet – ‘bout as likely as flying a freighter into a Death Star and escaping alive.

The fire hissed sparks as she prodded it with a stick. Her inorganic eyes flickered in the orange light, flames reflecting in the hooded green orbs. Still, the redhead perked up when [member="Aela Talith"] spoke again.

“Your tattoo?” Her brow furrowed. “What’s a tattoo gonna do?”

She twisted her body to look in the direction the Jedi had pointed out. One perk to having cybernetic eyes – dark didn’t bother her none. The jagged outline of the cliff stood clear against the backdrop of the night sky, by far the tallest point on the island.

“Yeah. Lighting a pyre there could help.”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

"My Tattoo isn't made with regular ink." This was one of those things that became rather difficult to explain to someone who wasn't a force user or used to dealing with force users. In all honesty the concept had been rather difficult for her to grasp. Yet Micah had ingeniously crafted the ink, and as far as she knew it worked.

"It has a connection to the force." She told Adder. "If I touch it and 'spike' it with the force my father will be able to sense it."

Even a galaxy away.

Still, it wasn't really a solution that Aela wanted to rely on. Right now they weren't standing at deaths door or anything and it'd be pretty embarrassing to call her father here and then the next day find out they were actually right next to a gungan city or some type of trade depot. The embarrassment of that would be something she couldn't quite handle. Better to live on the island for a few days and wait to see what happens, at least that way they could spot everything around them first.

"Or look for a Titavian nest." She said it with a smile.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Aela’s explanation did little to smooth out the furrow in her brow. Adder chewed on her inner cheek. “So… like a Forcey quantum entanglement? Huh. Neat.” The redhead shot her a meek grin over the fire.

“I reckon that’s some kinda bird? Titavian?” Her expertise lay in wires and circuitry and the fine mechanics of a hyperdrive or a navicomputer. Show her two trees though, and Adder couldn’t tell them apart – much less tell you their names.

“How’s a bird gonna help?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

"They have a wingspan of eighty meters." On average anyway, Aela had seen some bigger and some smaller.

She shrugged.

"One of them could easily carry both of us." Pretty easily too. Aela remembered the one she had tamed here before, it could have probably carried half a village on its back, not to mention the massive claws. "Just a matter of..."

She trailed off, not entirely sure how she should word her explanation. The force was a difficult things at time, and using it to control or befriend a creature was incredibly difficult. She frowned for a few seconds and then looked at her friend. "Being friendly enough."

That was suitable enough for now.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Her mouth formed a little ‘o’.

“Holy feth, haha. That’s crazy.” Adder laughed, straightening on her log. “Didn’t know birds that big even existed. Wow.”

“Friendly? How do you befriend something so huge?” Her eyes grew wider as she imagined the massive beast. Eighty meters. Nuts.

“Are they like, sentient or something?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

Aela shook her head.

”Not quite.” The Jedi Master said plainly. Explaining this sort of thing made her think back to the argument she and Adder had just had. A frown pulled at the young Jedi's lips and for a moment she considered lying, but in the end she figured the truth would be best.

”One can sort of…” She trailed off for just a moment. ”Talk to them with the force.”

It wasn't really a conversation of course, not like two sentient creatures speaking, but it was a way to communicate ones intentions. Her sister was much better at it than she was, but Aela had managed it with a Titavian before.

”Its difficult with them because they're so large, but I can do it.” In theory anyway.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Her tongue burned with a remark, but Adder swallowed it, quick and violent. No more.

“Is it… okay? For them?” She couldn’t ignore it. But she could choose her words better, not just spit out whatever her stupid brain thought of on the spot. That ain’t never turned out well.

“You’re not forcing them or anything?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

"No." She shook her head.

That was something that she had actually been concerned with as well when her grandmother had first taught her. The Sith harmed the creatured that they tamed, forced them to obey and bent their minds, her own method was much kinder.

"I'm not forcing them to do anything." She told Adder. "It's more..."

Aela frowned for a moment, trying to think of the proper verbiage. "It's more like I'm showing them my intention. That I want to be a friend but that I need them to help me."

She shrugged.

"Usually once they understand they're more than willing to help." Perhaps animals were kinder that way.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

“Oh.”

Adder hung her head, shoving away a new wave of anger. It made her feel so… inadequate. She couldn’t understand it. She never would – these things Aela could do, just with the power of her mind. Why her? Why not everyone? Why not nobody?

“That makes sense,” the redhead muttered at the fire. Staring at the flickering flames, Adder was reminded just how much less she was. She couldn’t dive into the sea and hold her breath forever and talk to Gungans. She couldn’t make light out of thin air to guide her at night. She couldn’t rip trees from the soil and she couldn’t talk to giant birds and she couldn’t do jack shet.

Her nostrils flared as she stabbed her stick into the embers, swallowing the ache in her throat. It's not fair.

“I’m going to sleep.”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

Aela lingered for a moment. "Okay."

She was not entirely ignorant of how Adder felt, just the force alone allowed her to take a small sample of her friends emotion. She could feel the slight rip of anger, the scent of envy. It was there, not obvious, but perhaps because they were the only two sentient beings on the island it was more...plain. She frowned for a moment.

Was she supposed to say something.

"Goodnight." Aela finally stated.

It was the only thing she could really think of. There was nothing else to say, not if she didn't want to dive back into the topic they had screamed at one another about. The Jedi Master figured it was best to let sleeping dogs lie. In time things would fix themselves, at least she hoped.

This wasn't really something shewas good at.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Back ache.

That’s what woke her up. Fethin’ back ache. Her spine creaked and cracked as she got up, stretching with a groan. The horizon was draining from blue to yellow-gray, but the sun was still sleeping with the fishes.

Adder dragged herself upright from the log, feeling every damn bone in her body. You’re getting old, Traficit.

Glancing over the ashes of their campfire, she saw that Aela was already gone. Probably getting them breakfast. Or felling trees— no, she couldn’t hear anything from the jungle. Sea, then.

Gingerly, the redhead picked her way over the dunes to the shore, jacket wrapped ‘round her shoulders to ward off the cold of a dawning day.

“Morning,” she called out, voice breaking from sleep.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

Aela was standing half in the water already, watching the waves with a small grimace on her face.

She had an inkling that there would be no Gungan City out there within the corals. She didn't know why, but she simply felt as though it would eb so. Perhaps the force was trying to tell her, or perhaps she was just being a tad pessimistic about the whole thing. She frowned, then heard Adder call out to her.

One of the waves lapped against her knees. "Morning."

The Jedi Master stated simply.

"I'm going to see if the city is there." She stated simply. "The tide is low, I figured it would be best if I went soon."

Before the ocean became a bit rougher.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

“Okay,” Adder gave her a shallow nod, wrapping her arms around herself. Until the sun came up, the sand and wind and sea made for breezy chill. The redhead tucked her head between her shoulders and plopped down on a nearby rock.

“I’ll try to catch us some breakfast I think,” she offered with a slight smile, pushing strands of hair out of her eyes. “Be safe… please?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

Aela nodded.

There wasn't really much danger beyond the giant fish, and as long as she was aware of her surroundings she would at the very least be able to use the force to defend herself. She frowned for a moment however, thinking about all the monsters that lay beneath the surface of the oceans of Naboo. A few of them were...large. Her head shook. "I'll be fine."

The Jedi Master told Adder as she slowly stepped further into the waters.

She took a breath, the force flooding into her before she dove into a part of the corals that simply seemed to drop off. The water was cooler as she swam further out, accelerated by smaller pushes of the force. Her eyes stung as she peered about, her lips thinning as she slowly swam. Aela had no idea how long she remained under, perhaps ten, perhaps twenty minutes. Yet she swam deep enough and far enough that she was certain nothing sat around them.

No glowing cities, no underwater bubbles, nothing.

A few moments later she came back to the surface, a deep breath flowing from her lungs.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

She’d gone to retrieve their makeshift harpoons from yesterday when Aela dove in. By the time the blonde pierced the surface again, Adder was standing in the shallows with a string of flopping fish cast over her shoulder.

A large silverback that’d been circling her legs scurried away at the commotion, and the redhead dropped the spear to her side.

“Hey,” she greeted the dripping Jedi. Wading closer to the woman, Adder offered her a hand. “Any luck down there?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

The force made someone stronger, faster, it gave them better vitality and everything one needed to do just a little bit more. It did not however turn you into some kind of superhuman that would never get tired. This was obvious as Aela dragged herself back onto shore with Adders help.

She was tired, out of breath, and clearly disappointed.

”No.” There was an unpleasant note to her tone, almost as though she were mad at herself. It wasn't Aelas fault that nothing was down there, but she still found herself more than a little bit annoyed that she had found absolutely nothing.

”Nothing.” She stated with a frown. ”I couldn't even find our ship.”

Probably because the creature had eaten it.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

“Well, there’s still the huge bird thing, right?”

Adder was content to let her hand linger on Aela’s. Content, also, to avoid analyzing why.

“And the stuff we had on the ship’d be useless by now.” Salt water corroded things quickly, and way out here, the underwater population was quite diverse. The redhead was pretty sure those supplies were long gone.

“Come on. Let’s get this breakfast together and we’ll figure out what to do next.” She glanced up at the taller woman. “Besides, you look like you could use a breather.”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

She sat there for a moment. "The Titavians might not even nest here."

In truth it was a long shot that there was even anything at all up there. She certainly hoped there was, mostly because if there wasn't they were well and truly karked. A small frown pulled at her lips, her head slowly shaking almost as if she were dumbfounded by everything.

Oddly enough she had somehow convinced herself there was something down there.

"Yeah." She said quietly, taking in another deep breath. "Maybe some water."

They could crack open some of the coconuts for that.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]


Her only response was a shallow shrug of the shoulders.

Adder tried very hard to not think about what they might find on that cliff. Preparing the breakfast let her focus on nothing but the squirming fish in her grasp as she got out her knife. One quick stab, and the animal fell still, ready to be cut open and stuck above the glowing embers.

“I got it,” she spoke over her shoulder. “You just… relax, yeah?”

Soon enough, four fish were cooking above the fire, each speared on its stick. The redhead ambled over to the coconuts they’d picked up when Aela had been cutting down trees. A few definite slashes with a knife removed the excess green meat, revealing the fleshy cap. Adder stuck the point of her blade through, twisting it in her grasp a few times to make a decent hole.

Standing, she offered the first coconut to Aela and went back to prepare one for herself.

“You see anything interesting down there?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

"Coral." She stated with the complexity of a thousand suns. "Some fish."

There was no denying that Naboo was truly beautiful. There was something about this place that caused a certain serenity. Even out here in the middle of nowhere Aela couldn't help but feel...calm. Perhaps that was her necklace though. She frowned for a moment and glanced at the small pontite lens, then took a sip from the coconut.

"The ocean goes deep on Naboo." She explained.

"The entire planet isn't solid, it's honeycombed." Jamie had explained it to her once. "In theory you could go right through the middle of the planet."

Though you'd need a submersible or some sort to withstand the pressure.