WriteHaven

Tatooine, past the far outskirts of Mos Eisley.
Approximately 249 ABY.
(Continued, shortly after here.)

In the Trandoshan bounty hunter's tiny passenger room which Zhi was apparently making use of for the time being, the young Jedi healer and surgeon checked one more time on the sleeping Jaxon and made sure the teen was comfortably laid on the lower bunk with a light blanket. Jaxon's system had been trying to recover and acclimate to metallic bone patches, polymer fillers, and grafted synthskin and muscle replacements for a month. If they'd been anywhere like an inner rim hospital, the replacement work might have mostly been good enough — but not in a cantina clinic on Tatooine; and not for a guardian whose life depended on strength and mobility.

Fortunately, Zhi was very good at his work. It wasn't lost on the consular Jedi knight that the Force had set them together at this point in time. Zhi had put Jaxon's system through a 180 degree shift, removing nearly everything foreign, and starting over from scratch with the bone and muscle rebuilding a few hours ago. Everything was healed with no visible traces beside the flat brown scars that joined the rest of Jaxon's collection. Jaxon would be fine. He'd need a little time and to put some work into strengthening, but for now the only thing the younger Jedi needed was to sleep a few hours and let his nerves get reacclimated.

Zhi left a cup of water on the ledge next to the bunk, along with a message chip he'd gotten their friendly host to supply him with. He'd recorded the message a few minutes ago while Sskveesh had grumped away to do something in the cockpit area.

::Jaxon... Hey, good morning. You needed the rest, and I realized we needed to not lose the time. If you haven't already gotten up yet, you can. Just don't tear anything. This is Sskveesh's ship. He told me its name a day or two ago, but uh, I think he shot me with a stun rifle right after that. It's a bit hazy. I took him on the day trip with me. I don't expect we will be gone more than a night. If you're awake and it hits forty hours, then you can consider worrying a little. There is a kitchen and a refresher. I found some clothes in the drawers. I have a suspicion that he's currently trapping the engine, but other than that breathe easy. I trust him for what he is. Please pause and wait for us. I understand if you need to do something different, but I'll be back with you soon. We both need so many answers. Thank you. Be safe.::

Satisfied enough, Zhi found his way back to the freighter's main area off the cockpit and located Sskveesh.

“Thank you, Sskveesh. We can go now. Are you sure we are near where I asked you?”

Sskveesh had a headache.

The day had actually been going fairly according to plan. They had found their target with little to no fanfare, stabilized his physical condition enough for transport, and the bounty hunter had even managed to set off a few smoke bombs in the casino floor in a nondescript manner. The following few seconds had been blissful chaos, as greedy hands surged forward to grab chips and make a run for it. Players, dealers, pit bosses...all were swallowed up in the smoke and mania. While security ushered people out of the casino to rage angrily demanding their lost wealth be returned, Sskveesh had led the trio out and away.

However, just as the Trandoshan had figured the job was over and all the hard work was finished, Zhi had stopped suddenly in the middle of the desert and decided they needed to go, as he had put it, 'that way.' Sskveesh was livid that not only were they about to go traipsing about in the sands of Tatooine once more but also that they had to return to the ship and move it first. Mos Eisley and the other port cities weren't exactly ideal places to stash a half-dead warrior, and at least before the cave had provided some manner of protection from the elements and the scavenging Jawas. The new landing zone was far too exposed for his liking, but at least there was a cliff-face to shelter against some of the damage of the wind.

Once Zhi had wheeled his patient off for some other examination or healing procedure, Sskveesh had begrudgingly moved the ship to this new hellhole, if only to prevent him from having to waltz across the Dune Sea and die of dehydration on another absurd excursion into the sands. Surviving once was incredibly lucky. Trying to go for two was suicidal. He spent his time checking his rifle until he heard the cockpit doors open behind him. He then heard Zhi's question before turning to face the lanky man.

"Do banthass defecate in the dessert?"

He narrowed his eyes, knowing deep in his heart that Zhi meant no ill will from his question, but the Trandoshan anger was building up and the poor Jedi was the only living thing around to accept his sarcasm.

"Tell me again exactly why we're here. And DON'T ssay that you have another feeling that 'ssomething iss out there.' I don't like being kept in the dark."

Sskveesh wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 05, 2023 9:44 pm

He narrowed his eyes, knowing deep in his heart that Zhi meant no ill will from his question, but the Trandoshan anger was building up and the poor Jedi was the only living thing around to accept his sarcasm.

"Tell me again exactly why we're here. And DON'T ssay that you have another feeling that 'ssomething iss out there.' I don't like being kept in the dark."

“Me either,” the thin healer replied with a dry wisp of a smile. The Trandoshan might not have been the most appreciative of Zhi’s mild humor, but Zhi seemed just as content to keep sharing it with him as Sskveesh did to keep up his grumbling sarcasm.

Zhi folded himself into a cockpit seat a for long enough to rub some of the soreness from his neck. The Force was endless, but physically dealing with Jaxon’s injuries had been draining for a body two days removed from a decade in carbonite after two years of scarcity. He briefly considered nudging the fatigue acids from his muscles to fade the ache away, but a shortcut wouldn’t have served him now any more than it would help Jaxon over the next weeks. Some healing just took time.

Unfortunately, the others might not have any time; so Zhi rationed his the best he could. The lanky healer had given up the pretense that his eyes were doing him any good for the moment. He wrapped a clean bandage around them to keep the grit away, and shrugged back into the hooded desert shirt.

* * *
“If you can get to Onderon,” his mother had set her garden trowel down to say aloud in her quiet-casual way. “What are your resources?”

“Safe house in Iziz!” Nomi chirped in instantly as she made another of her flips off the bar, pleased with her landing. “South…east from that place?”

“The big square.” Pax corrected her, making the most of his twenty minute seniority. “Downhill from there, with the well.”

“Yolahn Square,” Zhi supplied in his usual matter of fact tone while he worked at connecting colored squares in a puzzle. "Three streets downhill from the yellow tower."

“Yes,” Kaytren told all of them. “Three streets down and near the bridge. The stones in the well are placed more vertically than the others. Anywhere: what if you want help from a Mando'ade?”

“Ask them to play Cub'ikad!” Nomi had been dying to practice.

“Try to figure out which clan they hate first,” Pax offered with a grin.

“The Beviins are a reasonable bet if you don't have time,”, Zhi suggested.

“Sounds like you have strategies,” their mother agreed with a twitch of a smile. “Let it never happen, but if you're brought to some Sith den. Which names?”

“Stormcrow, Reverance, Vashen.” the nine year olds recited unanimously.

Kaytren leaned over to kiss Pax’s head, probably just because he was sitting the closest to her. “Good. Western Rim, if you can get to Tatooine?”

* * *

The calm young Knight stood up in the cockpit and settled his borrowed satchel on his shoulder. Assuming that Sskveesh was right and that Zhi had communicated well enough, they were a few clicks east of the Ugurra formations in the Crescent north of Mos Isla. This should be right.

“We’re paying a visit to a family tie, if they’re still living. It won’t be any less productive than Alex was, and maybe better. We should get a headstart on Jaxon before he wakes up and has too much time on his hands. Thank you, Sskveesh.”

Sskveesh narrowed his eyes as he glared daggers towards the blind compatriot. Zhi's humor was making him angry. Trandoshans were always rumored to be quick to anger, and the fact that he was furthering that stereotype made him even angrier. He opened his mouth to snap back, before suddenly letting loose a sigh. Frustratingly he rubbed his scaly temple with clawed fingers.

"Your humor iss dryer than the ssandss."

Don't get emotional. Focus on the task at hand. Mind your surroundings. Ignore unnecessary detail. These were but a few of the tips drilled into him by his mother. This was simply a hunt: no more, no less. The only difference was that the target was a mystery. Fortunately, the bounty hunter had the advantage of being familiar with this particular area. The further they went into the wastes, the less options they had to encounter something sentient that would want to talk to them. He scoffed at the mention of the Jedi they left behind.

"I am not worried about him. He can have ass much time ass he wantss. He'll never get the Sskahra's Smile to even grin without me."

He didn't trust the half-dead 'guest' at all, but Sskveesh had left nothing to chance. He had scrapped the engine with intentional sabotage, and the injured Jaxxon would have no means of getting from where he had stowed the ship to a shipyard for replacement parts without succumbing to the twin suns. The Trandoshan also felt confident there would be no radio transmissions for help, since the patient was being searched for by assassins. Thinking of the harsh conditions his ship was in only made him feel better that he was almost completely covered from head to toe in cloth. Despite being reptilian, even cold-blooded creatures were no match for Tatooine's twin suns. Sskveesh suddenly began to veer off west in a tangent from the direction they were heading, pointing at the outer edge of some large dunes.

"We head thiss way now."

Hooded and layered from the suns as he was, Zhi didn't have to avoid grinning at what the odds assured him was an impressively infuriated glare. The thin Panathan in his twenties continued trudging carefully through the sand for some time, occupying his mind with his adaptations to his heat regulation, and some of the oldest memories in his childhood. He wasn't worried about Jaxon. The younger Jedi would be fine. He would probably be waiting for them when they came back. If Jaxon did happen to set out on his own before then, Zhi felt comfortable that at least Qareth's padawan had the best chance of staying alive and whole that he could give him for now.

“Yes. We…. do head this way, I think.” He agreed much later, musing about the first of his two companions. “There is a small canyon past the dunes… If we’re met, please don’t shoot anyone right away.”

Sskveesh shook his head.

"There iss no 'think' about it. Thiss iss the way we go. If we don't, then I will be forsced to sstart sshooting. That sside of the Cresscent iss a territory of the ssand apess."

It was out of the way but also the safest bet. Sand apes, also known as sand beasts, liked to live submerged under the ground and full adults could rip limbs off with incredible ease. The bounty hunter could probably stake out their presence and navigate a path given enough time, but that would mean higher chances of dehydrating under the burden of the twin suns. In the end, taking the longer route avoiding the lee of the dunes was the most efficient option.

The Trandoshan stopped and pulled a flask of water from off his belt again, taking another drink. He held it out to Zhi. The Jedi may have been annoying him but he wasn't about to drag any corpses back to his ship. They needed to continue to hydrate to avoid the heat. Unfortunately, there was no water refreshing enough in the galaxy to cool off Sskveesh's sarcasm.

"Your family tie livess near the canyon? Are they a canyon krayt?"

He pulled out a pair of binoculars and scouted out the path towards the area. There were no signs of any predators nearby, and no evidence of any kind of bandits waiting to try and impose any 'desert tolls.' He doubted these days this would really be a threat considering it was not a bustling hive of activity these days. However, there was no reason not to be cautious. Life on this desert planet was strictly about one thing: survival. The fate of every living creature hung precariously on the edge of a vibroblade over the chasm of certain death, and one small step could plunge you into oblivion at any moment. One had to respect the environment and respect their own strengths and weaknesses. The world did not appeal to Sskveesh terribly much, but perhaps it was this bizarre introspective challenge that caused HIM to like it so much...

The Trandoshan realized he had been internally monologuing, and continued on their way again.

"I really don't know who you exspect to find out here... You are ssure thiss is where they live?"

“I’m fairly sure they are not. Though… they may have canyon pets, I suppose. I never asked for much detail about that.”

Zhi accepted the water canteen and allowed himself a small mouthful, then just carried it and mused quietly over his own thoughts while they trekked the long way around the dunes.

More than just the usual acerbity he'd come to associate with Sskveesh in their short time together, there was something almost possessive about the hunter’s behavior the further North they’d come. By the time they’d crossed East past the dunes, the Trandoshan's mannerisms had sharpened to a biting sort of insight about their situation. Zhi might have felt sure of it sooner if his strengths had been a closer match to the empaths in his family. The pattern became distinct on its own soon enough though.

He let his path drift back beside Sskveesh eventually. The young Panathan man took a second sip of the water and returned the flask to his companion. Zhi's eyes were covered from the gritty wind by the wrapped strip of bandage, but his calm voice and expression were quietly candid.

“An old warrior and his people lived here for many years. He was not a Jedi, but they are family. He was gifted, and his tribe was strong. I could tell you more, but maybe you know something else already. Does it mean anything to you, Sskveeh?”

The Trandoshan halted in his tracks. It would seem that the Jedi had seen right through him, and not with the eyes that had so recently been carbonite blinded. Clearly he had given up too much information by how they were maneuvering, but getting through the dunes safely had a much higher priority than keeping secrets from his ward. He supposed that the Jedi could have simply forced the information out of him using the Force anyway, so there wouldn't be much point in trying to keep it hidden.

"I ssuposse you could ssay that."

He continued along, the wisps of sand not bothering his scaly face as much as the glaring brightness from the suns above.

"I've spent much time along thesse canyon wallss and duness. Training. Trying to hone my sskillss. I have a fairly good idea of all creaturess in thiss area, both feral and rational. If you are ssearching for tribal landss, then that narrowss thingss down conssiderably."

Now that the Tooka was out of the bag, there was no reason to be as cautious. There was only one area around that could even qualify as the haven that Zhi sought out. The bounty hunter did some mental math, glancing upwards briefly to consider the position of the twin gods of heat floating above them, and clicked his tongue to try and smother a sigh.

"You sseek Sstormcrow."

The Trandoshan glanced back and met his traveling partner's gaze.

"We can make it before ssundown if we hurry. Fear not. I will navigate uss there ssafely and sswiftly."

With that, Sskveesh snapped his head back and doubled his pace, eager to put this part of the journey behind him.