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A Familiar Stranger Among Sand and Sea -Scherezade deWinter

Pash Tafo

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P
Location: Maramere, Karthakk System, CIS space, Outer Rim

The Silver Jedi had recently broken up a small slave ring run by some daring but ill-prepared Trandoshans. One of the rescued slaves was a Mere boy, far from his home in the Outer Rim. Pash had volunteered to return the youngster to his homeworld. While the Silvers were welcoming and generous to the wayward Matukai warrior, Pash found it difficult to fit in with the Jedi. He spent a majority of his time away from the Silver Temple on Kashyyyk, performing various tasks and missions for the order.

Fitting the passenger seat back into the The Skull, Pash loaded the orange-furred aquatic Mere boy into the modified Y-Wing and headed for CIS space in the Outer Rim. Word had already spread over the Holonet of the CIS's defeat of the pirates who held sway over the Maramere, ensuring a safe return of the young native that had been sold into slavery.

Having communicated with the planet once hitting the system, Pash had been directed to land on one of the mountainous land masses. Pash brought the small ship down on a landing pad, a small party of Mere waiting to meet him, including two anxious looking parents.

Within moments, the family was reunited and swept away for long awaited time together. Pash was given gracious thanks by a local oficial, with the promise of fuel for his ship and gifts for the Silver Jedi. But the Matukai Adept only sought a place to relax after his journey.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
Frakking Maramere. Scherezade hated this planet. It hadn't even been a month since she was here last, working undercover to secure the ease of the Confederacy in removing the threat of the pirates. It had taken three days of pretending to be someone else, three days of serving as a food wench for those pirates before the CIS had made its move, three days before she contaminated their drinking water with laxatives that caused the pirates runny shyts and ensured the resistance met was tiny in comparison to what it could have been. And then the Confederacy had just accepted their surrender, without demanding anything else.

It had infuriated her to no ends. In return she had lashed out, killing all those who had surrendered and were in the fortress' control room. But their rolling heads had done little to calm the spitfire down, and she left the planet grumbling and unhappy.

And now here she was again, because a small splinter of pirates or their equally useless loved ones or whatever it was had decided it was a great time to come back and try to take back what they were stupid enough to think was theirs. And since Scherezade deWinter did not belong to any specific government branch, which meant she had no out right job and title, her schedule was deemed open enough to send her there to take care of it.

She was so pissed off about it that she hadn't even looked at the intelligence she was given. It was all sitting in a small pad shoved into her pocket. Her ship had felt like a prison so the first thing she did was jump out of it as soon as she had landed, and then found herself a bench on. She was armed to the teeth beneath her clothes, dressed to make her look like a young and regular teenager; shorts, a long sleeved hoodie, and... Well, combat boots. She never went anywhere without them. But underneath those not so many layers of fabric, instead of armor, were dozens of knives stashed away - her favorite weapon.

Arms crossed across her chest, she just sat there and glared at her surroundings. Let them think she was an angsty teenager, she didn't care. Once the rage would pass, she would go do her stupid mission, and then run back to Ryloth, hopefully into the arms of a certain wolf. But first, she had to calm down. Because if she couldn't, the collateral damage would be too great, and she might get into trouble again.


[member="Pash Tafo"]
 

Pash Tafo

Guest
P
Having conducted the niceties with the Mere leaders on behave of the SJO and stashed their gifts in his ship, Pash took some time to wander the town. It clung to the foot of a mountain and ran up to the beach. A brisk sea breeze tugged at his Matukai robes and unruly mane. The collapsed wan-shen was slung across his back, the broad head sheathed in bantha hide. A vibroblade remained tucked in his boot.

Pash would find a place to stay for the night, and hopefully a secluded site to exercise and practice his rituals with enough room to fully wield his Force-imbued pole arm.

While the majority of people he passed were native Mere, there were a few Mon Cals, Neimoidians and a Twi'lek. Pash saw no humans, until he passed a bench near a tiny park. He noticed a young woman seated there, arms crossed over her chest. Only after the wind shifted and blew her long hair out of her face did Pash see her face. Glowering jade eyes shifted under her delicate brows, her features a mix of a pout and a menacing glare, as if to warn passersby to keep on moving.

But Pash paused, because he knew that face. It had been several months since he was on Coruscant, but he remembered the teenager who thought he was her father and made a scene. They ended up talking for a bit before parting ways that day. It was Scherezade.

The man bent a bit to get a better look at the girl. "Scherezade?" Pash asked inquisitively, her grimace giving him cause to address her cautiously. It was definitely her. "Hey, what are you doing here?"

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
Her guard was down, and that would've usually been bad, only that in this case the person to catch her unguarded was not one of the pirates she'd been sent to dispose of, but someone she had not seen in months - [member="Pash Tafo"].

They had met on Coruscant when she was still learning how to even control her body. She had little notion of the time as to what friendly (or any) relationships were, could barely swing a sword, and her control on the Force had been pathetically weak.

Not that she was not very strong; indeed, the young Sithling was still considered an apprentice, but one that was deeply bloodied. Thousands had found their end by her hand, and beneath her clothes, the scars of endless battles adorned her skin. It was only by pure circumstance that none of it rose above the collar of her shirt. Most of her enemies thought that arms and stomachs were a better place to stab, cut, or try to wring inside parts out of.

But now, the surprise was more than enough to cause all her anger to vanish as though it had never been htere, her eyes big as she fought the very first instinct to see the man as her father. She knew, logically, that he was not. And whereas a few months ago she'd needed more than a few moments to get over it, now a mere second was enough before her mouth spread into a warm smile and she jumped off the bench, her arms wrapping around him. If his robes weren't too thick, he would've been able to physically feel just how many weapons were hiding beneath the seemingly innocent girl, but she didn't care.

"Pash!" she almost screamed, hugging him even tighter before letting go, her voice as light and sweet as it had always been, even when she explained her planned actions: "I'm here to kill some people. What are you doing here?"
 

Pash Tafo

Guest
P
Pash saw the moment of uncertainty, a fleeting notion that the man before her was her father, before her brain reminded her of the truth. In the blink of an eye, recognition swept across Scherezade's face as well, replacing her dour features with a grin. His arms wrapped around her slight figure as she embraced him. The young woman was nearly as tall as he, something he had not noticed as much on Coruscant. She was a girl on the cusp of womanhood, noticeable as they hugged. But what Pash found more interesting was the array of objects she had concealed beneath her sweat shirt. He was no stranger to weapons, or the concealment of them. Flat, hard, the length of them betrayed the items as knives.

The Matukai was truly happy to see Scherezade. He thought of her often since they met, wondering if she was alright. Seems he didn't have to worry about her being so helpless, seeing she could be armed. Pash laughed at her sudden embrace, and after a warm, firm hug, released her enough to hold her by her upper arms and look her over. She still held that innocent glow to her face, her emerald eyes large as she answered him in her charming feminine voice.

She was there to kill people.

As astute as the Matukai Adept was, Pash had to pause to overcome the seeming contradiction. Sweet young girl, hidden knives, killing. His brows knit in confusion and he gently guided Scherezade back to the bench to sit, settling next to her.

Pash's voice lowered slightly. Who was she there to kill? The CIS had not fully eradicated the pirates from the planet, he had read, and a group of them was beginning to threaten the Mere again. Was Scherezade involved? Was she with the Confederacy? Was she a pirate? Was she an assassin? While his brain turned the situation over in his head, his practiced body remained calm and at ease.

"I was returning a boy who had been sold into slavery." Pash answered, as if it were nothing, more intent of an explanation from the girl. "The last person I expected to see was you." He added, smiling again at the young woman. "Now," he continued, as if part of a perfectly normal conversation, "...who are you here to kill?"

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
Working with the CIS had taught the girl not to scoff at mentions of freeing slaves. They were vehemently against slavery, a notion that the young deWinter thought was silly. Slaves were resources. You put food into them, and got free labor in return. From any business point of view, they were great. But not everyone thought the same as she did.

Then Pash said that he was surprised to see her. She nodded, mirroring the same sentiments. So much had happened since the last time they'd seen each other that she hadn't even had the time to think about the meeting. How gullible she was at the time was a subject that usually brought her cheeks to redden.

"Some pirates or something," she answered with an indifferent shrug, "we got the pirates to surrender last time the CIS were here and now there's this or other stupid splinter group that thinks they can reclaim the area. But this time I got sent alone."

The grump had returned to her face, "they decided that since I don't hold an official government branch position, my schedule was open enough," and then that grump vanished again, turning into one of the biggest smiles ever, "but I do enough damage to be enough, regardless of the numbers that are here."



[member="Pash Tafo"]
 

Pash Tafo

Guest
P
A chill ran along Pash's spine as Scherezade spoke. Her voice was the same, her language much like any other teen in the galaxy, but the things she said did not align with the girl's youthful appearance, or the memory of the young woman he had watch pour a dozen shots of creamer in a cup and drink them. She seemed to be something else as well.

Pash surmised Scherezade worked for the Confederacy and had participated in the first expulsion of the pirates. That alone indicated she was not just a kid, but trained in some role. The knives began to make since. When you send a single individual to deal with a group of adversaries, you either wanted that individual dead, or that individual was capable of great destruction. She spoke so casually of killing.

"They sent you alone, to repel an entire band of pirates?" The Matukai asked. "Scherezade, there is a lot about you I don't know, isn't there?" In spite of the unexpected things she said, Pash still saw her as the girl on the street on Coruscant, the one who looked to him, if only for a few moments, as a father. If she were a warrior, they would have more in common than he thought.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
Scherezade nodded when [member="Pash Tafo"] asked if they'd sent her alone. And then nodded again with a childish giggle when he mentioned that he didn't know much about her at all.

Because he truly did not. Few people really did, and even among the Confederacy she was some sort of wild card, sometimes doing nothing, sometimes doing so much that certain diplomatic actions had to happen in order to avoid actual damage beyond her body count. But even if he had known (almost) everything about her when they had met that first time, it wouldn't have mattered - it had been months. People changed. And she was no longer fresh out of her pebble prison.

"And I don't really know a lot about you either," she added, and let her aura flare up through the Force, searching forward and- there it was. "I didn't even think to check if you're a Force Sensitive last time we met. But here you are, and here I am, and the Force leaves very little to what some people bother to call luck."

With that she jumped from the bench again, and held her arm out to him, "would you like to join my perilous quest, Pash? I can't assure your safety, but I can promise a lot of entertainment! Last time I made thousands of pirates unable to fight by contaminating their drinking supplies with laxatives and then I locked the doors to all the toilets. It was wonderful!"
 

Pash Tafo

Guest
P
With the sudden revelations about Scherezade unraveling before him, Pash was not surprised to learn the woman was familiar with the Force, enough to detect his weak connection. She made a point, the Force worked its will, and for the two of them to meet again on a planet neither called home smacked of the Force's handiwork. "Yes, I think our meeting is more than a coincidence."

Pash could not help but laugh when Scherezade boasted of incapacitating a thousand pirates with laxatives. A clever ploy indeed, one worthy of more than a mere soldier. The girl evolved in the man's perception moment by moment then, as he learned about the true Scherezade. She was still the young woman of which he had quickly become fond, but certainly not just a kid. Pash was intrigued, to say the least.

He looked up at her when she bounded to her feet, her arm held out to him. With it came an invitation into her world, into her mission, where one could see the true nature of the fresh-faced girl. Pash couldn't say no. Evicting pirates was a worthy cause, and to do it at the side of his young friend proved too tempting to resist.

Pash's hand reached out and he stood as well. "It would be my honor, Miss deWinter." He replied with a grin and a faux bow. "I could use the exercise!"

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
Scherezade giggled when he bowed, and returned a faux curtsy in return. Now she had a partner for the dealing with the pirates, maybe this mission would be less dreadful and less boring than she'd initially thought it would be.

"Let's see..." she mumbled, retrieving the datapad from her pocket. She couldn't be bothered to use it before, but Pash's addition had upped her motivation by quite a lot, not to mention that a certain Lupine who was maybe waiting for her return to Ryloth was also a great reason to wanna get this done.

"You've got to be krakking kidding me!" Scherezade suddenly said, her voice a mixture of anger and surprise. She looked at Pash, blinked, and looked at her datapad again. "I think there's some mix up," she mumbled, "this isn't something for one person. Or maybe even two."

She sighed, flicking the datapad shut, and returned it to her pocket. She was most definitely going to read on up on her mission before leaving to perform it next time.

"So, ever heard of the Invisible Island? It's in the Haunted Straits. And apparently, that's where our pirates are hiding out," she grumped. It was so stupid. It was... A challenge!

Suddenly her face lit up again.

"We're going to slay ghosts and kill pirates and make it back home before lunch," she beamed at Pash, and then turned around and started walking, hoping he'd follow. There wasn't much time if she wanted her schedule right. "My plan is to get in, set everything on fire, kill whoever tries to escape, and call it a day." Collateral damage. Her forte. "So unless you have credits for a speeder, it's about a two hour walk in this direction."


[member="Pash Tafo"]
 

Pash Tafo

Guest
P
Pash eyed Scherezade as she scrolled through her datapad. Something didn't sit well with the girl as she reviewed her mission brief, apparently looking for the first time at the details. For a moment, the cavalier spirit of the lively young woman was dampened, and her companion watched quizzically as she stuffed the datapad back into her pocket.

"What is it?" Pash asked, curious as to what had soured her mood so suddenly.

The explanation only partially helped the Matukai warrior. He was not familiar with Maramere lore, but names like Invisible Island and Haunted Straits didn't bode well for any thinking of visiting either.

"No, never heard of either." He answered her, folding his arms over his chest as he waited for an explanation.

Then, like the sun slipping from behind a cloud, Scherezade's troubled features disappeared, replaced by a more determined, confident glow. It seemed their foes, the pirates, chose to hide in a place that would deter many from seeking them. A place hard to find and clouded with superstition. Scherezade didn't seem deterred in the least.

And she was off, Pash's long stride quickly catching up with the ambitious teen. Scherezade boasted a plan to wreak havoc on the pirate base and end their threat in time for an afternoon meal. Pash hid a smile, while his curiosity about the mysterious girl continued to grow. Would he have to protect the over-anxious woman, or was she truly the killing-machine she claimed to be? In any case, Pash found the purpose of the mission worth getting involved, though he truly had no idea what Scherezade was getting him into.

"Alright, you're the boss." He added, glancing down to the woman.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
"I'm the boss!" Scherezade echoed his statement. It rolled strangely on her tongue, but she savored the taste of it anyway. No one had ever said she was the boss before. Usually it more more things in the vein of stop doing that or why do you think you can do that or please please please stop doing that.

It was going to be a long walk. Scherezade didn't know what Pash's abilities were and if she could convince him to go for speed. Then again, she wasn't sure using the Force to enhance their speed was the wisest choice. Without knowing the exact numbers or what they were going before reaching the pirates, they might have the need of their full strength.

"Tell me about you," she said, glancing at him with a smile. Her walking speed never decreased, but it wasn't exactly slow either. "Where are you from? What do you do? Do you know who your parent are? Do you wear matching socks?"

She giggled at her own last question. If they couldn't crack a few jokes along the way, the journey was not worth having.


[member="Pash Tafo"]
 

Pash Tafo

Guest
P
Pash realized he may live to regret suggesting that Scherezade was the boss, but it was her mission after all. The Confederacy must have had enough confidence in her to toss her at the band of pirates, though her strategy revealed so far seemed to lack, well...strategy.

They moved on, neither slacking in their gate. Pash's disciplined physical training would keep his pace brisk for a long time. With the help of the Force, even further. When Scherezade unleashed a barrage of questions, he laughed. Seemed like they had plenty of time to kill, so Pash would satisfy her curiosity.

"For starters, I do wear matching socks, but I don't go by color, I go by thickness." He teased her with the flash of a smile.

"I am Lothalian, but we traveled a lot growing up. My parents were masters of Matukai, and trained me as well, until I became an Adept too." Where to go from there, Pash wasn't sure. Tragedy marked a stretch of his life, only recently seeing light again after a long period of darkness.

"Right now, I work with the Silver Jedi Order. I am no Jedi, and the Matukai way of the Force is different, but they were willing to take me in when I needed someplace to go." He shrugged, looking out over the Maramere land and seascape. "I was raised to fight for what was right and to help others. So, that's what I do." He added, before looked to Scherezade.

"How about you? Other than your dad's name, and what your parent's look like, I don't know a thing about you." Pash coaxed the girl to share as well.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
"Matukai?" Scherezade asked, the surprise very evident in her voice, "I thought you guys went extint thousands of years ago."

She... Had not exactly been educated on the matter. The impression in her mind regarding the Matukai was the memory of her grandmother, who did not know they still existed. She also had a few memories of wiping Matukai out, but they weren't Scherezade's deeds or memories, and she tossed them aside. There was no point in saying hey my grandma found a few of you and killed them because she was bored.

The Jedi parts mattered less. Scherezade had her own firm opinions about what Jedi were, stood for, and did, but Pash saying he wasn't one was enough to not give her a reason to voice them. She completely understood the need to be within a group, even if the group's ideals did not line up with your own. After all, she was a Sith by birth and upbringing, and yet her place, for the moment, was with the Confederacy. But she had her reasons too. Peace wasn't one of those reasons.

"My parents were a Sith Warrior and a Sith Sorceress," she gave him her own story, "I was born in a secret planet almost no one knows about somewhere in the unknown regions. When the Gulag came, my grandmother kidnapped me and imprisoned me in a pebble and separated me from my parents and my twin brother, claiming she was saving me. I was a year, maybe a year and a half years old. That was over five hundred years ago."

Scherezade stopped talking. And stopped walking. What the-

She wasn't usually open about her story. There were only a handful of people who knew its full extent, whereas she let others believe she was just a crazy teenager, a loose canon.

Well, she was a loose canon, but that was besides the point. But hey, the words were out and she couldn't take them back, so she figured she might as well finish the Cliff's Notes version of it.

"Then a few months ago, the Nightmother of the Mandragora found the pebble on Ryloth and freed me, and here I am!" she said, moving her arms in a ta-daaaaa sort of way.
[member="Pash Tafo"]
 

Pash Tafo

Guest
P
When his companion voiced her surprise at his mention of Matukai, Pash laughed. "You would think we were extinct. But the discipline still exists in very small pockets around the galaxy, with no effort or desire to form a formal group."

They continued on, Scherezade answering his question and finding himself the one feeling surprise. Or rather shock. A chill ran along his spine at the girl's revelation. She was a five hundred year old child of the Sith. Pash realized they had both stopped walking. He looked to Scherezade, who still appeared like a typical teenager. She was anything but. He and his parents and Tara had fought Sith. They drew their power from the Dark Side, in polar opposition to the tenants of the Matukai, which was to employ the Force and train to repel the Dark Side.

But Pash was also one to judge a person on their own merit. Scherezade was not raised among the Sith, nor did she claim to embrace their doctrine. As far as he could see, the girl sought to right wrongs.

He looked to her. "Mandragora..." Pash's knowledge was limited on that subject, though he believed them to be sorceress'. "Is it through their practices that you use the Force?" He asked, wary but not alarmed by the strange nature of his friend.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
"Sometimes," Scherezade answered with a shrug. They had to keep walking, seeing the pirates wouldn't take care of themselves. She renewed the walk, through at a slower pace than earlier. They had reached an interesting point in the conversation.

She didn't know what to make of his reaction. Obviously, he wasn't overly thrilled. But hadn't tried to kill her yet, nor did he seem enclined to turn on his heel and run way, so maybe not all was lost.

"I want to kill my grandmother for stealing any semblance of a life I might have had with my family," she admitted, "but she was right about some things. Both she and my mother traveled to Dathomir and learned a lot from the Witches there. They had a firm grasp of a bunch of abilities with the Force, and didn't limit themselves to anything that would make them better. My mom went totally crazy with it, becoming a Sorceress, Necromancer, Seer, and Beastmaster."

She smiled then. "I haven't met her yet, not since. Well, not since I've been released from the pebble a few months ago. I only have my grandmother's imprint on what she was like. But I think we would have loved each other. She loved children and she seems like the kind to have put an effort in her children's education. I'd definitely be better off if I had her earlier on in my life. And my dad too, of course."

But he hadn't asked for another history or what-if's from her. He'd asked where she drew her powers from. "I just draw my power," she admitted, "I don't think too much about where it comes from. But my own training covers Witch spells, Force Powers, and the Darkside." she said it with such casualty, knowing there was nothing wrong with it.



[member="Pash Tafo"]
 

Pash Tafo

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P
Hearing Scherezade speak of her mother made Pash think of his own. At least he knew his mother, his friend had been taken from her before she had even one memory of her. Family was important and he felt for Scherezade. Pash missed his parents, he was close to them. They raised him and trained him. They too were gone.

Scherezade left off speaking of her mother and described for him the nature of her powers. It was an eclectic cocktail, spells and Force and the Darkside. Pash found a conflict arise. He had been taught of the danger of the Darkside, and actively sought to repel it with daily ritual and meditation. The Matukai warrior's only encounter with Darksiders were those who were adversaries, involved in some nefarious deed. But Scherezade was not like those enemies. Other than an apparent violent tendency, she was cheerful, friendly and had fought to free others from oppression. Pash had a fondness for Scherezade. It would be a dilemma that began to bring his own perceptions into question.

"So, you are a few months out of confinement in your...pebble, and you have no family? Who do you have?" Pash asked as the moved briskly towards their destination. Someone had to introduce her to Mandragora, to help her kick off her new life.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
Scherezade was oblivious to the conflict that arose within Pash. As far as she was concerned, there was no reason for there to even be a conflict. Aunt Brumhilda had been a Jedi and her conflicts with the rest of the family were not because of that. Cousin Merlin was a Jedi and he had no conflict with the rest of the family, except for his dad. It didn't really matter what her upbringing was or where she drew her power from. Not to her. To her enemies, it was an entirely different matter, and Pash was nowhere near being her enemy.

He asked about who she had.

"I found an aunt and a few cousins," she answered, "but it's not a close relationship. They had their lives before I came around ad still have it. Katrine, the Mandragora Nightmother, took me on as her Ward. She said it was sort of like adoption so I guess I'm part of her Lupine family now, but still..."

She was connected by blood and adoption to many people.

In her day to day live, she was connected to almost no one.

"I'm mostly alone," she finally admitted, "day by day sort of a thing."


[member="Pash Tafo"]
 

Pash Tafo

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Pash nodded, as if understanding her sentiment. They truly were an unlikely pair, from very different backgrounds and ideologies. But the woman's last statement resonated with Pash.

"I know the feeling." He added. In that they were much alike. They were mostly alone.

The Matukai warrior had to admit Scherezade may have been the most unusual person he had ever met, she definitely had the strangest story. He was finding himself becoming entangled in it, as they headed to fulfill her mission.

Pash reached behind him and slid the collapsed wan-shen from is back, the shaft suddenly expanded to full length, the broad, single-edge head flashing in the sun. "So, what else do you know about these pirates? Do you really plan on just charging in, setting the place on fire and begin stabbing? We don't have time to feed them laxatives this time." He smirked at Scherezade, teasing her about the unorthodox way she rendered the pirates helpless before.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]
 
The Sithling's eyes widened at the sight of the wan-shen, her entire focus on the weapon for the moment. It was a pretty weapon. Very pretty. Wouldn't fit her fighting style, since she preferred close range and maximum damage, but she knew how to appreciate something good when it came to weaponry. And she didn't mention that she began to calculate how to shield from something like that. It wasn't a plan against Pash anyway - she merely knew that if one person had it, another one might as well. Her mind was full of a million different plans on destroying a million different type of enemies, as well as planets.

In other words, Scherezade was a firm believe in the saying of Knowledge is Power.

But Pash had spoken, and in her admiration of the weapon, she had not paid attention. She replayed his words in her mind. "They're just pirates," she said with a shrug, "no extra intel. No clue what they're up to. Their numbers. Their resources. Just sort of a go there and kill them sort of things. And fire burns, so unless they're droids, it's super effective. I'm not really good with finesse anyway, I'm more of a maximum damage kind of girl."

Her speech had come with a careless shrug. It was true. More than once she had been told she must be more mindful, more careful. But when it came to opportunities in which she could go for collateral damage, she'd never understood reasons not to. These weren't her people, this wasn't a planet she cared about, so why be careful? Either way, fire was fun.

[member="Pash Tafo"]
 

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