Wind in My Sails

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]


[SIZE=11pt]Her eyebrows climbed her forehead. “Really? Wicked.” She gnawed her cheek in thought for a few moments as she sipped on the fresh coconut milk. “How does that even [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]work, though? What about the planet’s core?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Confusion furrowed her brow as Adder stood to retrieve the fish, offering two to the Jedi.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Plopping back down on her log, the redhead attacked the meat like a lifeline. Last time she felt this starved was on a three-day speedchase through undeclared hyperlanes in the far Outer rim. Sleepless, foodless three days.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]She shuddered at the memory, humming her delight around a warm mouthful.[/SIZE]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

Aela shrugged.

"No idea." That was certainly the truth. Aela wasn't smart but she wasn't exactly a professor or anything of the sort. She only had the knowledge she'd read in in books and what she'd been taught. Planetary make up wasn't exactly a subject that she had been taught. "I know its pretty plasma heavy."

Maybe she'd have to ask Jamie.

A sigh pulled from her lips as she considered what they would have to do next. Climbing the cliffs seemed about the only option they had left, besides plain luck anyway. A small smile touched her face for just a few seconds, though why she couldn't really say. "I have a good feeling about the Titavians."

Maybe she was fooling herself.

"We'll find something to get us back home." She told Adder. "Then book a spa day in Theed."

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

She nearly choked around her bite as she burst out laughing. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Adder shot the blonde an incredulous look. “You? A spa?”

The image in her head was hilarious enough to make her forget this forceforsaken island they were stuck on, or the fact that her clothes stuck to her back from sweat and heat.

“Have you ever… you know, met a titavian before?” If the redhead sounded unsure it was because she was terrified. The only things she could fly – and, far as she was concerned, people were meant to fly – were ships, speeders, and the like.

Not… overgrown birds the size of a freighter.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

"Naboo was one of my first trips off world from Borleias." At least the first one that she had taken by herself. She remembered it all rather well, the joy the week had brought her. She smiled for a moment, sitting in her nostalgia before she continued on. "Unlike a lot of people I didn't really care about Theed or the plains or any of that sort of thing."

It had all been rather boring for her at the time.

Now of course she saw the beauty in the architecture, the way the people here treated one another. It had its own sort of charm that couldn't really be explained or talked about except for by the people who lived among it every day. Naboo was a very unique thing in the galaxy, something she would gladly admit. "I came for the Titavians."

A small smile touched her lips.

"Took me three days to find a nest, two to get close." It was a hard climb.

"They're not aggressive unless threatened." She explained. "As long as you don't charge at them you can get pretty close even without the force."

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Wrapping her arms around her legs, Adder perched her shoulder on her knees and listened to Aela talk. It was such a vast difference from the grim lines of her face when the Jedi had led them into battle on Coruscant – firm, determined, flint and stone.

This was nowhere near it. Her eyes lit up as she talked of it – of bonding with creatures and gaining their trust. Of connections.

Her own lips reflected the blonde’s smile as she swayed back and forth on her log.

“And your drexl?” When Adder had last seen him, he barely reached past her waist if standing, but a quick holonet search back when had revealed that the beasts could easily dwarf some shuttles. Nowhere near titavian-sized, but…

“How big is he now?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

She considered the question a moment.

In the time that Adder had last seen Malfegor the Drexl had become something of a giant. He was hardly the largest of his kin that had ever lived, but he was large enough now that he easily dwarfed Aela. The creature had fought with her on Lujo, and had done supremely well in his duties there.

She frowned. ”Probably twenty meters...ish. I haven't measured.”

He was now large enough that transporting him was somewhat of an issue.

Luckily her parents didn't mind the Drexl staying at home on Borleias. He spent most of his days hunting large fish and sometime the imported bantha on the mainland. He was happy, and probably the biggest thing on her home world.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

“Couldn’t you call him instead?” Adder was only half-joking. Like she knew how Forcey quantum entanglement worked.

“Like… instead of your dad?” She prodded the dirt with her food for a few beats, nibbling the last of the meat from her fish. “Think he remembers me?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

”The force isn't infinite.” Aela explained with a shrug. ”Some people can use telepathy and the like to communicate at great distances, but usually they have to be bonded through the force itself or just supremely talented.”

Aela had never really experienced that, mostly because her mind had always been something shed protected. The most shed ever leaned towards telepathy had been during a fight against two Sith with Jamie, and that had been enhanced by the bracelet around her wrist.

”It's not really one of my talents. She paused for a moment in thought. Perhaps a great deal of anger from Adder came from the fact that she had a lack of understanding in the force.

Aela considered this, then continued.

”Even if I could call him it wouldn't do us much good, Drexl can't travel through space.” Unfortunately. Otherwise shed never step foot on a starship again. ”He remembers you though, he remembers everyone.”

Drexl were smarter than most people could, or wanted to imagine.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

“Oh,” Adder deflated again, brow furrowing. Still chewing at her lip, the redhead stood up and snuffed out the remaining embers.

“So I guess our best bet are the birds?” she asked as she strapped the knife to her belt and hefted the jacket over her shoulders – not to ward off the cold this time, but to avoid matching the color of her skin to her hair.

She burned about as easily as dry twigs.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

Aela shrugged, glancing around.

"It's not like we can't survive here." She reminded Adder. "There's worse places to be stranded."

That was most certainly true, they were on a tropical island surrounded by beauty that could really only be found on a dozen paradise worlds. Despite their current...circumstances, things weren't really all that bad. They had food, shelter, even fresh water.

"The Titavians would be nice though." She admitted with a small smile.

She glanced towards the mountain ridge, her eyes narrowing as if in hope of seeing one of the massive avian.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

She scrunched up her nose, eyeing Aela with suspicious green eyes. “For you, maybe, islander. I’m already missing my hyrospanner.” Adder was only half-joking.

“You wanna head up?” It was still early, but most of the path would lead them through the jungle, providing ample cover from the scorching midday sun. “It’s going to be… a while.” The redhead, being a pilot and all, had a solid grasp of gauging distances.

The cliff was ‘too far’.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

She frowned for a moment.

Aela supposed the earlier they started the faster they would be there, plus if they found nothing they'd still have to travel all the way back here. She didn't really fancy the idea of having to walk all the way back here in the dark, even with the force that would be somewhat dangerous. So far they hadn't encountered any animals, but spiders, snakes, and other vermin tended to be at least somewhat nocturnal.

Best not to tempt fate. "Alright, lets go."

For a moment the Jedi Master stayed sitting, but a second later she pushed herself up to her feet, her lips thinning. She shot a glance towards the cliff, shaking her head for just a second as she gave a silent prayer to whatever deity was watching over them.

They needed to find something up there, something that could help.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Gathering her belongings took all of two steps and a stretch on her tiptoes – too proud to ask Aela for help – as she reached up to a hanging branch to pick up the rest of her clothing. If they indeed found any kind of bird up there, Adder wanted to have everything she had (left) on her.

Maybe, if luck was on their side, they’d be leaving this damn island before nightfall.

Still, best not hold out hope. With a frown fixed on her face, the redhead pushed on through the encroaching underbrush.

“Tell me something,” she spoke at length, glance flitting to the blonde. “What’s the Academy gonna be like?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

It wasn't a subject that Aela had honestly given much thought.

"Calm." That was really what she wanted above everything else. She didn't want the chaos of the battlefield. Aela wasn't expecting there to be order everywhere of course, they were talking about teaching younglings, but she didn't want the absolutely clutter of...anything about to happen. She wanted predictability, she wanted something that she could look forward to during the day.

"It won't be big." She went on. "Dorms, a few training chambers, communications hall."

Aela didn't really have a say in the architecture, but she knew well enough what it would look like when it was done. She had seen the designs and plans, holoprints mostly though a few of them had been placed on flimsy. She smiled at the memory, the observations she had made.

A shrug rolled over her shoulder. "I'll probably try to live somewhere out in the city."

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Adder bit back a laugh at the image of Aela trying to tame a screaming horde of children. Using the Force. And tiny glowsticks. Tears prickled her eyes, and she finally gave up.

“You? In the city?” The redhead poked her in the ribs with a pointy elbow. “Can you survive that, nature girl?”

The forest around them grew denser as they pushed uphill. Dunes were slowly replaced with solid soil, and her boots tangled into ever thicker underbrush.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

"City is a bit of a misnomer really." Wroosti wasn't Coruscant or Nar Shaddaa. The only city the planet had was tiny in comparison to most urban sprawls, and from what she had heard there was still a massive amount of parks and open space.

She didn't mind living in a city, not really anyway as long as she was surrounded by nice things. Her problem had always been the filth, the dejected people that she couldn't help and everything around her that seemed almost oppressive. Wroosti wasn't like that though, compared to other planets in the galaxy it was still small, almost tiny, part of the reason it had been picked in the first place. There was less likely to be trouble when the only thing of note was a small jedi Temple.

Perfect training ground really. "Besides I can afford something with enough space."

Or rather, her parents could.

"Won't be bad." She said. "Especially since I'll be going to the Temple ever day."

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

“Ah, I see,” Adder nodded, a smile curling her lips. “Kicking Sith ass pays well then? ‘Cause I never got that memo.”

Though the cop was joking, there was a hint of bitterness to her tone. She’d never had much in the way of credits or possessions. Not growing up, and certainly not as an adult. Worked hard for it, too, but there never seemed to be enough. Plenty of her years on the road saw her skipping meals and wearing the same clothes for days in a row.

The redhead expelled a sigh, pushing another branch out of the way. “You know any of the other Jedi there?” Not that Adder did – they rarely kept company with mechanics and pilots – but it would be good to know Aela would have a friend there.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

She smiled slightly, though she could hear the slight hint of bitterness in Adder's tone.

Money wasn't really something she'd ever had to think about while she was a child, or an adult. She'd always had enough to feed herself, and most of the time people had looked after her. She supposed it was a little bit different now, that she would have to rely more on the wealth of her family...but it wasn't something she exactly wanted to talk about either. A frown pulled at her lips for just a brief second before she continued to speak, glossing over Adder's comment.

"No." Aela said shaking her head.

"It's a new Temple..." She trailed off. "New people."

That wasn't to mention that Aela didn't really know any Jedi. Sure she knew their names, spoke with them every now and again, but she didn't exactly have a whole lot of friends. Among the Order there was really only one person that Aela would ever call a friend, and that was Jacen.

He was teaching now too, but not on Wroosti. "Part of the appeal though I suppose, none of them will know me for what I am...was."

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Vines and shrubbery grabbed at her legs, and Adder stomped it down with a vengeance. The deeper they wandered into the jungle, the more her hackles raised. Every other stride she could swear she felt some bug crawling on her arm or her leg or somewhere, and it was all so damn humid—

“Clean slate,” she nodded. Maybe she couldn’t understand everything that Aela did – most things, really, were beyond her comprehension – but this, she knew. The need to get away, to start somewhere new and unknown.

She reached over, squeezing her shoulder for a brief second before a tree separated them.

“Nothing wrong with who you were, Aela,” Adder murmured, flicking her eyes from the dense growth ahead to the blonde beside her.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

She shrugged.

"I'm not ashamed." Aela said with a glance back towards Adder. Perhaps the older woman thought that she was running away from her past, but it wasn't like that. Aela was proud of what she had done, what she had accomplished, it was just time for a new chapter.

Time for a new her.

"I know what I did I had to do." She paused. "I'm proud."

Was she? It was a question that she had posed to Jacen before, on that cruise ship...and she hadn't been able to answer. Certainly they'd saved a lot of lives, thousands, probably millions, but at times she questioned whether she had been too aggressive, to heavy handed. "It's just time for me to move on."

Another shrug rolled over her shoulders.

"I don't want to be the vanguard anymore." That was enough for her.