Be Vewwy, Vewwy Quiet... We're Hunting Rancors!

[Tehkyram]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXqPNlng6uI​

Objective: Find a Landing Zone
Allies: [member="Thesh"]

The Phi-Class Dropship's engines hummed as it skimmed over the megaflora that made up the Jungle of Felucia. Natives and wildlife alike scattered at the sound, fleeing to some degree of safety. They knew instinctively that whatever the dropship was carrying, it wouldn't be good.

They were remarkably right.

The inside of the dropship was mostly empty: no walkers, no soldiers. It had been almost entirely cleaned out. There was only the operating crew, and two passengers total: the massive brute of an Acolyte known only as Tehkyram, and the younger acolyte sent to supervise him. And even then, they were riding in the cockpit. Tehkyram was standing still, meditating intensely.

"So," the pilot asked. "You boys hunting rancors? Don't get too much of that out here."

Tehkyram said nothing. Instead, he revisited his master's edict. This was the beginning of his ascension into knighthood, his trial by fire.

"Go to the jungles of Felucia. Surrender your lightsaber and, with no weapons but whatever you make yourself, track down a rancor and murder it. Slay the beast, and bring its carcass, refrigerated, back to me as proof."

A simple task, not particularly demanding. But the cruelty of Darth Amortem often times laid in the subtle details. And as he undertook his quest, Tehkyram could appreciate the many layers of pain his Master had embedded into it. For staters, his monitor was a young boy, a meek specimen that recoiled upon sight of Tehkyram's presence. His success or failure depended entirely on the boy: should he die, the test would automatically be considered a failure. How was something so fragile able to survive on a planet like Felucia? And indeed, Felucia itself was the second cruelty. There was something fundamentally hostile about the planet. It teemed with life in great abundance, but it was as if every living atom of the planet rejected the Sith. There was an unshakable feeling of wrongness, like the planet was demanding he leave. Of course, that only provoked him even further.

The hostile feeling began to fade to a minor nuisance. Tehkyram's eyes opened. "Land here," he suddenly ordered the pilot. It was the first time that he had spoken in quite a while. Certainly he had not spoken since meeting the servant boy. Then again, Tehkyram was not particularly talkative. The pilot complied upon hearing the Karkarodon's menacing voice, and set the dropship down in a nearby clearing.

"Okay boys, you know the drill. Activate the homing beacon, and we'll come back and get you ASAP. Now good luck, hope you boys find a rancor before one finds you!" The pilot chuckled as Tehkyram exited the vessel alongside his new servant. How amusing: he spent most of his life as a slave, and most of his apprenticeship as a personal aide. Now he finally had one of his own, and couldn't stand it.

The moment the two cleared the dropship and allowed it to take off, Tehkyram removed his lightsaber from his belt. "Boy." he coldly announced, turning to hand his saber off to his proctor. "Stay with me at all times. Obey my every command. Do not call for escape until either I have perished, or I have slain a Rancor. Do you understand?"

 

[Lief]

This was madness.

Complete and utter madness.

And yet Thesh had not balked at the orders given to him. Though he may have turned as green in the face as his craven underbelly, though he might have reeled at the sight of the Karkarodon Acolyte, he knew better than to defy a direct command. He wore just the robes given to him by his Master on his arrival to Bastion, 'neath which simple training garments lay. Nothing inherently protective, at least not where the likes of Rancors and poisonous spores were concerned, though he did have his electroblade - whatever good that would do him. He didn't much think that the Rancor would feel, much less mind, the shocking sensation it could deliver.

Still, the presence of it against his back was a welcome one. It did nothing for his appearance, of course, the tiny stature of Thesh - especially when placed beside so large a creature as the Acolyte - made it so that nothing could truly make him appear menacing or prepped for battle. If anything it was almost comical to look at.

The journey over from Bastion wasn't necessarily longer than he minded, he was used to much worse conditions than the cockpit of a ship, but it did give him enough time to read Studies of the Force back to front twice, his Basic Dictionary open to one side on the floor where he presently sat. He had come a long ways when it came to reading, he enjoyed the freedom to learn once more and finishing a book was immensely gratifying. Still there remained plenty of words and phrases he did not yet understand.

At this point, the Dictionary went virtually everywhere with him. And as such he was grateful that it was pocket-sized.

Just as he reached for his canteen of water, the voice of the pilot rang through the cockpit. Almost immediately he packed up the two books, set them to one side in one of the small cabinets built into the wall meant for personal effects, and gave the man his full attention. The whole action took less than a few seconds, and to most would have been rather unnerving. There had been no hesitation, no reluctance, he had simply done it.

Beyond the viewing port, Felucia flashed by. It was a strange, stagnant sight. Plenty of yellows and purples dotted the landscape, making the whole place appear sickly. As though it had corruption which needed to be cut out. Mushrooms and bio-luminescent plants tore through the sky, far taller than they had any right to be, and from where he now stood he could see various lifeforms fleeing into the shroom forests.

Thesh had never seen anything like it.

As they came in to land, and their instructions were given, the boy remained just as silent as he had the entire journey. He could not help but feel sorry for the pilot, who had tried to engage them both in conversation on several occasions, but being that he hadn't even spoken with the Acolyte yet he found himself wholly incapable of responding.

That was until the two were out in the open air.

"Yes, Sir, of course Sir."

There was no room for disobedience or error, he knew his task and he would carry it out to the fullest. At least, until such a time as he was incapable. Which might not take too long, all things considered, a fact he didn't want to dwell upon too much.

[member="Tehkyram"]

 

[Tehkyram]

Objective: Develop a plan of action.
Allies: [member=Thesh]

The first thing to do, of course, was to orient himself. To that end, Tehkyram looked at the mushrooms surrounding the clearance. After singling out the tallest one, he shed his robes in favor of a more freeing outfit of simple shorts. He leapt up onto the mushroom, gripping the trunk as he shimmied up it. There was something liberating about climbing the mushroom, like he was back on Dxun with a saw on his back, looking for tree limbs to trim. He let go of the trunk to jump up onto the underside of the mushroom proper, which he then climbed over to the edge. From there, it was just a simple matter of pulling himself up to get on top of it.

He looked out over the horizon. Almost immediately he saw taller mushrooms in the distance, alongside large spiraling stacks of polyps and massive flowers. It was a diverse rainbow of life. How abhorrent. Indeed, there was too much life for him to detect his prey through smell. No, he could hardly distinguish any one scent: too many fragrances and smells from too many different plants. It was infuriating. No, he would have to rely on his sense of sight. Which was fine enough, he supposed. Just from the sky could tell where north was, that there were roughly four to five hours until sunset, that there was little chance of rain in the immediate future, and that the winds were blowing west. These were all starting points, he supposed.

Climbing down, Tehkyram turned to the boy to issue his next set of orders. "We move east, to let the wind carry our scents against us. Keep your eyes peeled at all times for opportunity. Ideally we can come across a settlement of some sorts and raid it for supplies, but should we not be so fortunate, then look out for a rock to fashion into a weapon and for an edible-looking creature to use it on. Keep your wits about you boy, Rancors are far from the only predator on this planet."

 

[Lief]

Nothing else was said before the behemoth of an acolyte made his way over to one of the towering mushrooms and began to climb it.

From his place on the ground Thesh could only watch, with a mixture of both awe and horror, as he scampered up the trunk-like stem of the fungi and clung to its underbelly, somehow finding a way onto its cap. The boy felt dizzy just watching him, vertigo practically kicking in when he shifted his head up further to keep his sights on him, and all the while he was mentally begging, praying, that nothing bad happen.

After all, it would have been his fault in a way. Or that was how he had been made to feel when first given the task.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the acolyte was back on solid - well, slightly squishy due to the mycelium covering - ground. He approached the boy, and explained their plan of action. When he mentioned fashioning a weapon, however, Thesh reached up to touch the hilt of his electroblade and frowned, more so to himself than to Tehk.

"Was I not supposed to bring this, Sir?" Swallowing down his concern, he looked to his feet, "I didn't realize."

His Master had insisted he take it with him, knowing the dangers posed on Felucia, but if that defeated the point of the task at hand then he would simply have to set it down and leave a beacon to find it with once they were done.

[member="Tehkyram"]

 

[Tehkyram]

Objective: Head east.
Allies: [member=Thesh]

An electro-blade. It could be useful, Tehkyram supposed. "No, it is good. My master designed my trial for me to suffer, not for you. If your master willed you to bring the blade, then it is permissible. If he did not..." Tehkyram thought about it as he retrieved his robe, then flashed a predatory grin. "The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently." It was a quote from Darth Bane's work that his master had instilled in him early on, one that his Master had taught him was a guiding principle of the Dark Side. He took his robe wrapped and tied it around his waist rather than actually donning it. He preferred the exposure to the heat. "Use the blade for yourself. In line with my master's will, I shall still rely on whatever weapons I can forge for myself, even if I have to tear out my teeth to do so."

Gesturing for the boy to follow him, Tehkyram moved through the fungus to the East. "We move towards the east because the wind blows to the west," he explained as he strode through the foilage, swatting a wayward vine, "We want to be downwind from our prey: their smell will come to us before ours comes to them. Though at the same time, if we pass by it by chance, our scent will be carried downwind to lure the beast in."

 

[Lief]

As he stood there in the seconds it took Tehk to respond, Thesh relayed the monologue and subsequent actions he'd been privy to back on Kruskan with Tsis and slowly but surely lifted his head up. It wasn't quite as self-sure an action as the Sith had tried to instill in him, especially not considering he was technically around a peer and not a superior if they were going by rank rather than experience, but it was something. Even now, after all that had happened since, he could not quite shake the lessons Tsis had tried to teach him.

"Good," he said, with a slightly more confident tone, when the acolyte informed him that the weapon was fair game, "Then I shall keep it, for now." Who knew, maybe at some point in their adventure he'd decide to challenge himself all the more. Not that doing so would have been a very wise idea, given it was a rancor they were hunting not some smaller beast. Thesh had yet to even really prove himself when it came to combat. No, bringing it had been a wise decision.

"Do your teeth grow back?" he asked, without really even thinking about it, his mind shifting back to a passage he had read in the Encyclopedia Galactica regarding Selachimorpha. A big word, one he still could not pronounce, yet he had enjoyed the look of it regardless and the contents held within its passages. Maybe Tehk only looked like a shark, though, maybe that question was insensitive. "Sorry, you don't have to answer that."

Putting one foot in front of the other, rather than in his mouth, he hurried to keep up with the longer stride of the acolyte and listened to his explanation. "How do you know which way is east?" he asked, "If there's no wind, I mean."

He was full of questions today, it seemed, but what was the point in learning half of something?

[member="Tehkyram"]

 

[Tehkyram]

Objective: Keep heading east.
Allies: [member=Thesh]

In reference to his teeth, Tehkyram nodded. Regrowing teeth was standard for Karkarodons. He used to dread chipping or snapping a tooth, since the process of growing another one was long and painful. Of course, thanks to his Sith training, the "long" part was no longer an issue, and so he no longer feared ripping a tooth out if needed. It was useful. He smacked another vine out of the way. This was going to be an annoyance. He could tell. Fine by him. The angrier he got, the easier it would be to kill a Rancor when he found it.

The other question, however, deserved a proper response. "Felucia is a warm Jungle planet, much like the moon of Dxun where I grew up. Under such conditions, it rotates from east to west. This means that the Sun rises in the east, and sets in the west. With those two directions, I can identify the others. And from there, I can also identify which direction the wind is blowing." A fly buzzed near his ear. He let it buzz for a little while, focusing on the noise. Then, in a swift, sudden motion charged with fury, he snatched the fly out from the air and crushed it in his palm. "Your discomfort and unfamiliarity with this environment suggests that you come from a more urban environment. Though you were reading a standard dictionary on the way here, suggesting illiteracy. The two combinations suggest a background of poverty. And your fear..." He took a deep sniff. "You are reeking of fear. Yes, you come from poverty and perhaps infirm health. You fear me, you fear your surroundings, you fear everything. A poor street urchin, a forgotten wretch of society." He chuckled. "The Dark Side flows strong through someone like you. There is great potential."

A third vine brushed up against his face. He snapped at it with his teeth, and tore it down with his mouth, before spitting it out onto the ground and crushing it underneath his feet.

 

[Lief]

Much to the boys surprise, his companion nodded in response to his unintentionally insensitive question which only left him with a dozen new ones he wouldn't dare voice. There was still so much he did not know about this Galaxy they called home, and those within it. The more he saw, the more he wanted to find out. Were there species that looked like other creatures? Something as silly and pure as a rabbit, perhaps? Or regular old fish?

He scratched at the side of his head, through his untamed curls, at that thought, before glancing to his right in order to listen to what the man had to say about directions. Part way through he looked up to the sky to watch the sun but he couldn't even see it move even a little bit. Maybe it took more than a few seconds of watching, however, to figure out its direction. Something for him to practice.

"Which way does Bastion rotate?" he asked, given that the world was one he spent the most time on. It would make sense for him to practice there, especially. "I think it would be useful to learn..."

What came next, however, had the boy noticeably uncomfortable, when Tehk began to pick apart the pieces of his life. Funnily enough back on Ession they had not been that poor. Sure the boys had needed to work but the fact they had nicer jobs put them more in the central sphere of existence when compared to most. Poverty hadn't really struck him until after the attack, when he'd gone from being a happy son and brother to a possession.

He was about to state as much, to defend himself - though it wasn't as though the alternative explanation was any better - right up until the moment that the final two statements were made. There was potential? Potential within him?

First Tsis had seen him as more than the pathetic slave he was, urged him to break those chains on his path toward becoming a Sith, and now this?

The boy blinked, following just behind the Acolyte as he tore down the vines which got in their way. He wanted to say something in response, something strong and respectable, but instead he merely dwelt upon it all while keeping a watch on their surroundings.

After all, their purpose here was not to chinwag. It was to seek out a rancor.

A few solid moments passed before he finally turned back to Tehk. "I hope to prove you right," he said, tone a little bolder than it had been prior, with small hints of confidence running beneath, "I hope to prove the rest of them wrong."

He had been sent to his Master as an unfairly weighted test. They expected the man to fail in his tuition. For the boy to falter, to perish or worse. And while he had been inclined toward such a fate to begin with, his life having meant so little to him at that point, the more he did, the further away from his status as a slave he got, the more he felt the fires within ignite.

The more the boy wanted to live. Nay, thrive.

[member="Tehkyram"]

 

[Tehkyram]

Objective: Be positive, at least for the boy's sake.
Allies: [member=Thesh]

Tehkyram said nothing as to Bastion's rotation. He had never been to Bastion. No need to suggest any sort of weakness when he's already asserted himself as a mentor figure. Better to give an illusion of competence. He focused on carrying out his role in the boy's development. That was what was best for the Sith. "A good truism to remember," he intoned. "No one can doubt you or question you once their throat has been cut." Ah, so many delightful memories from his master's estate, the feeling of his life finally obtaining form and shape and purpose. What a grand time that was, his reign of terror on Amortem's would be apprentices! What beauty there was in the blood that spilled as he butchered them in their sleep! "One cannot truly grow as a Sith without a passion for destruction. Think of that which you despise, that which wronged you, that which frustrates you. Focus your efforts towards its utter and total destruction. No compromise, no compassion. A Sith must become a iridescent killing machine motivated by pure burning wrath. Desentience yourself and embrace the bloodshed. Then, you will find that nothing can stop you."

Instinct made Tehkyram twitch. He perked up his snout and sniffed. Then he turned to look over his shoulder. Yes, he could feel it. He could smell it faintly, and he could sense it. "Something has picked up our scent. It is following us," he told the boy. "We will keep moving east until we find a suitable ambush spot."

 

[Lief]

Perhaps that was something he'd have to research on his own time. [member="Darth Maliphant"] would definitely know, so maybe when he got back to Bastion he could ask.

Tehk's words had him contemplating his place among it all, the Sith, the Galaxy, the Force that bound them all. He was so adjusted to being kept under thumb, that the very notion of him having power enough to end someone based on their negative views or doubt was mindboggling to say the least.

The kid hadn't even taken a life before, not that most his age had, in fact even destroying a droid back on Kruskan had been mentally exhausting for him and there it had been life or death. How could one such as he, craven and weak, ever embody what it was to be a Sith?

True, his chains had already begun to crumble and break. Tsis was largely to blame for that, though he supposed that somewhere deep inside Thesh had the drive to do better, to be more, because he'd stared death in the eye that day on Kruskan, he could have been free, he could have embraced the void as his life was choked from him.

Instead he had fought.

Fought for his life. Fought to survive. Fought to break the chains, and take his first step toward Sithly ascension.

Thesh blinked, and glanced around himself. Though he did not see anything he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck begin to prickle as the Force alerted him to .. something. A shift in the wind, perhaps. His companion, however, had a much better notion of what exactly it was. They were being followed.

Instinct had him reach for his weapon, though he refrained from pulling it free in that moment as much as he wanted to. It would be an unnecessary burden on their travels, it would make more noise than their general movements. But just touching its handle proved enough to steel his nerves.

"Okay," the boy said, "East it is."

[member="Tehkyram"]

 

[Tehkyram]

Objective: Lure your pursuer into an ambush
Allies: [member=Thesh]

Tehkyram doubted that whatever was following him and the boy was a Rancor. It didn't smell like one. But that being said, it wasn't particularly terrifying. There was no beast that he feared, not anymore at least. After all, if he was a beast what did he have to fear from his peers? They were no different than him. He proceeded confidently through the jungle, looking for a vantage point. Said vantage point came in the form of a suitably high mushroom, one that could theoretically tower over a rancor.

"Stay, boy," he commanded. "Ready the blade and make yourself visible."

And with only that order, he began to climb the stalk of the mushroom. Better to leave the boy as bait than rely on him to be the trap. The boy was too small, too frail, too cowardly. All of these things made him ideal prey. If any beast was seeking Tehkyram out, it would be to challenge him for dominance. Indeed, that may be how he would lure a rancor out: he noted the idea for later. But back on track, the child would be a delightful snack for any monster in the jungle.

Ascending to the top of the mushroom, he crouched down and looked out. Ah, there was their follower. An Acklay.

(x)

Not a rancor, but it didn't have to be. Indeed, it worked out quite well that this predator would descend on Tehkyram and his assistant. It was delightful indeed. Tehkyram watched as the Acklay began to home in on its now stationary target, hopefully staying in place...

 

[Lief]

They wound their way through the spore jungle, the boy following the man, until such a time as it was deemed prudent to stop.

Thesh was in no position to defy Tehk, so when he was told to stay put and gather his blade that was precisely what the boy did. He pulled the electroblade free from its place upon his back and held it in both hands to steady the tremors which worked their way through his body. He wasn't stupid, of course, he knew the moment that Tehk shimmied up the mushroom stalk that he was playing the role of bait.

And while he didn't like it, this wasn't his rodeo.

Stay.

He'd been told to stay.

Yet as that great beast rounded on his position the boy found those instructions to be not only ludicrous but borderline impossible to carry out. He trembled on the spot, staring right up at it. The beast seemed to stare at him, though more so than the boy himself he stared at the electroblade which hummed and pulsated with a current. The type of current the acklay was prone to picking up on through its silphum.

It wasn't until that moment, when his mouth opened to call for his companion, that the boy realized he had no clue what his fellow Acolyte's name was. As such his attempt to call out was stifled before it really began, a breathy sound escaping his throat as the beast crept closer.

He held tight to the blade, focused through the Force, and waited for the right moment. Because if the acolyte did not descend in time, the only thing that lay between Thesh and a very early grave was the blade in his hand, and the metaphysical energy which swept through all things.

[member="Tehkyram"]

 

[Tehkyram]

Objective: Rip and tear
Allies: [member=Thesh]

The Acklay had hesitated. Perhaps it was because of the boy's power, or perhaps the beast was just stupid. Either way, that was its fatal mistake. Tehkyram's massive form came crashing down from atop the mushroom, landing on the back of the beast. He could feel his feet landing on a hard, thick shell, just beneath the skin. It didn't feel like bone, so the beast had to be an arthropod. That usually meant a soft underbelly. Perhaps he should have taken the low ground? No, too late to worry about that now. Better to force the creature on its back.

The beast thrashed wildly in an effort to get Tehkyram off of its back. At the very least, it meant he had successfully distracted the creature from the boy. That was good. Tehkyram leapt to the side, not down on the ground, but on the upper section of the beast's leg. As he predicted, the leg snapped under his body weight as it crashed to the ground, the exoskeleton unable to resist the pressure. The leg went limp as the creature howled in pain. Of course, as a hexapede, the Acklay wouldn't be immobilized by the blow.

But Tehkyram didn't want to immobilize the beast. He wanted to kill it.

Having rolled off the crushed leg, Tehkyram then grabbed the broken lower leg. With the upper part broken, the beast couldn't move it anymore. But because of the thick outer skin, the leg was still technically attached to the body. The enemy's anatomy was often times a powerful weapon to use against it. Tehkyram grappled the limp leg and let out a feral, beastial roar of his own. Then, feeling his muscles go ablaze with arcane might, he swung the beast up and over his head, falling onto his back as the Acklay came crashing down to the ground.

From there, it was easy enough to scramble up on top of the exposed underbelly. The hard part would be killing the damn thing. Unfortunately, the suplex didn't crack the creature's leg, and so there were still five more powerful limbs to account for. But Tehkyram knew exactly what to do. As the five claws reached up and inwards toward him, he reached out with the force, throwing his arms to the side and grabbing each claw, holding it in place. Now the beast was exposed, crippled, and ready for the kill.

"NOW, BOY!" Tehkyram bellowed. "STRIKE AT HIS HEAD, FINISH HIM!"

 

[Lief]

______________________________________________________________​

​

Felucia, The Outer Rim Territories // Spore Fields​

Battling Acklay // With [member="Tehkyram"]​

♫ // Buried Underground​

But I'll Keep Coming​

______________________________________________________________​

​

As the beast inched closer, curiosity seemingly fueling its approach, Thesh could feel the panic rising within his chest.

Being as close as he was he could practically smell the beast on the air, in fact when it exhaled he could feel it billow through his hair. It hung over him, and the boy looked up and locked eyes with it. Both boy and beast seemed mesmerized.

Yet it provided the perfect cover for the ambush. Even if it had not been intentional.

The behemoth that was his fellow acolyte tumbled down from his place atop the mushroom cap, and figuring that meant he could break form the child stepped back. Funnily enough he loosened his grip of the blade to just one hand, the other rising slightly as he channeled the Force through his person. He had begun to feel far more comfortable with that metaphysical energy than he did the blade, though not for Odona's lack of trying when it came to teaching him his forms.

Simple fact of the matter was, he was drawn to the occult. It interested him, and he hungered for more.

For the most part the boy observed, sword braced, Force swelling, while he focused his energies. The acolyte seemed to have a very good grasp of the situation, yet Thesh could not help but wonder how he would have fared had he not been quite so towering and muscular. He packed quite a powerful punch in his present state.

The air around them seemed to hum for a moment, before it became rather stagnant. That breeze which had carried their scent upon it stilled, yet further afield it still seemed to affect the swaying spore trees and mycellium filled grass. At its core was the child, his jaw locked tense.

His focus did not stop him from pouncing when the time came, however. That energy he'd built up remained locked around them, and with one solid step forward he swung the blade down and directly aimed for the beasts gargantuan head, the electroblade puncturing through the socket of its eye to ensure it missed the somewhat tougher exoskeleton.

Even so, a sickening crunch could be heard as it tore through the very edges of the socket.

 

[Tehkyram]

Objective: Arm yourself.
Allies: [member=Thesh]

As the boy removed the head of the beast, Tehkyram could feel its limbs go limp. He released his grip, letting the five legs fall to the ground loosely. Stepping off of the body, he walked over to the boy. "Well done," he commended him. "But there is far more work to do. This carcass can give us arms, bait, and even nourishment. But here is not a suitable place to make camp. Go and find a clearing, not too far from some water. Trust the force and your instincts. Look for the gap."

With that cryptic order out of the way, Tehkyram got to work preparing the tools of his hunt. The first tool he'd need was a knife. To that end, he opted to rip a tooth out from the severed head of the Acklay- it was certainly large enough to fit the bill. From there, he used the knife to remove the bone-like plate that formed in the back of the head: that would be a good shield. Next were the claws: again, despite being an arthropod, the claws of the Acklay were remarkably bone-like in how solid and dense they were. With some vines and sticks, they would make good heads for greatspears, excellent weapons for hunting Rancors.

The vines were easy to find: there were plenty of vines on felucia, dripping from the caps of the mushrooms. The sticks were considerably harder: some mushroom stalks were thin and long enough, but those were hard to find, and even harder to cut. But in only an hour and a half, Tehkyram had forged himself a shield and some spears. The remaining half hour, he determined, was getting kindling for an eventual fire. He hadn't thought of telling the boy to do that, and so he deemed it necessary to do on his own.

 

[Lief]

______________________________________________________________​

​

Felucia, The Outer Rim Territories // Spore Fields​

Hunting Down A Camp // With [member="Tehkyram"]​

♫ // Buried Underground​

But I'll Keep Coming​

______________________________________________________________​

​

Panting from the excursion, the boy slowly released the blade from inside the creature's head and all at once the air around them returned to motion. Tendrils of deep red hair flittered on the breeze, obscuring his vision for brief periods of time, all the while the gooey blood of the creature seemed to seep forth, and drip down his electroblade.

At first Thesh could not tear his eyes away from it. There was a morbid curiosity locked within his gaze, his head tilted slowly to the left, and it wasn't until the Acolyte spoke that he snapped his head up and seemed to gather his thoughts back to the present.

"A camp?" he reiterated, before slowly nodding his head. "Yes, Sir, I'll find the right spot."

With the stipulations in mind, Thesh cleaned his blade off on the grass before returning it to its spot on his back. Then, with one brief glance back at Tehk, he set off in the same direction they'd been trekking in prior to the acklay's appearance. Alert, cautious, focused on the whims of the Force as it heightened his senses and brought into play all of the various lifeforms stacked around them, he pressed on by himself, distinctly aware of the fact that he was alone.

The landscape barely seemed to change. Some of the mushroom caps lay on taller stalks than others, every now and then he saw little red-caps that he swore were moving, and the occasional creature crossed his path that seemed more skittish and frightened of him than he was of it.

Onward, and onward, he trudged, without ever changing directions. And then he spotted it, well... He heard it first. The tender rush of water. It was enough to give him a second burst of energy, and as he came upon the clearing the stream of water fed through he let out a long sigh.

Thesh had set up many campsites in his life, often for men and women far fussier than he was. They expected perfection, for structures to have been set up, and firewood collected and used to create flames, food to be caught, water gathered. Well, Thesh didn't have most of the things they'd have liked. But Thesh was also not one to care about such things as the perfect shelter. He glanced around, spotting an area that seemed rather well covered by the natural caps overhead, and sheltered on three sides by mossy rocks.

With a nod of his head, the boy set about seeking something which could be ignited, and would hopefully burn for a relatively long time, hoping to have the camp set up, or most of the way done, by the time Tehk caught up with him.

Besides, Thesh wasn't the kind of kid who liked to be idle... That would leave him alone with just his thoughts.

 

[Tehkyram]

Objective: Seek out the boy.
Allies: [member=Thesh]

It was another half hour before Tehkyram realized that the boy would not be returning, and he would have to seek him out. Was it a failure on his part to specify that the boy should return? Or did something happen to him? Tehkyram sniffed the air, reaching out with the force to feel for the boy. No, he was still alive. That mixture of fear and apprehensiveness was remarkably distinct in how foreign it was to the surrounding environment. Tracking a beast often meant looking for disruptions and breaks. The boy, whose name Tehkyram had already forgotten, was a disruption to the environment. He'd be much easier to track.

And so Tehkyram planted his spears in the carcass of the Acklay and started dragging the corpse towards the boy's scent. By the time he reached the clearing by the river, it was nearing dusk. Having reached the camp, he released the carcass and withdrew the spears, which he embedded into the ground around him. They would be useful for later. "I have kindling for a fire should you need it."

 

[Lief]

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Felucia, The Outer Rim Territories // Spore Fields​

Setting Up Camp // With [member="Tehkyram"]​

♫ // Buried Underground​

But I'll Keep Coming​

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In the time between Thesh first finding the camp, and his fellow Acolyte discovering him there, much had been done.

Plenty of firewood and other burnable material had been collected into a pile, water had been fetched from the stream in the husks of some sort of hard-shelled fruit or nut - Thesh couldn't tell which - and a few items he knew were edible had been gathered and now lay beside the little alcove which would provide shelter from both the elements and the wind which would otherwise be carrying their scent.

The emergence of Tehk had the boy realize he'd perhaps taken a little too long setting things up.

"I lost track of time," he admitted, biting the inside of his lip somewhat sheepishly. "I'm sorry." That the man had brought kindling with him was very much a blessing, as Thesh had yet to find anything that was really suitable for such. A lot of the more fibrous material in his vicinity was a little more sodden than he'd have liked.

"Thank you." He stepped over to take some of the kindling, and then knelt beside the pile of logs in order to grab a few. Soon enough there'd be a fire burning, which would provide a little more warmth as well as a source of heat for them to sort out food with.

"How long before we have to press on?" he asked, glancing to the acklay and the spears which had been dumped in the clearing. Hopefully the felled beast would not attract too much attention, many creatures could smell a carcass from miles away and he suspected that some of those were existing on Felucia.

 

[Tehkyram]

Objective: Prepare the food.
Allies: [member=Thesh]

To Tehkyram's pleasant surprise, much of the camp had already been prepared. There was a good deal of potential in the boy, it seemed. A fire was started, and some of the Acklay's meat, which Tehkyram had forcibly ripped out from the body, was boiling over the fire. As he cooked, he addressed the boy's concerns. "Hopefully we should not have to," he explained. "Rancors are attracted to the smell of rotting flesh, and there is still plenty of meat on the body. With any luck, a suitable specimen will be drawn to us, and I will have slain it by sunrise tomorrow."

He watched the meat boil, using his sense of smell to determine when it was ready. He had never cooked Acklay meat before, but they were no different than any other arthropod, their meat was best boiled. As he did, he addressed the boy. Best to make small talk to pass the time, he supposed. "What I guessed at earlier, about your background. How true was it?"

 

[Lief]

"Huh."

In that moment, Thesh was glad he'd picked somewhere with a natural shelter. While he likely would not be able to sleep, in the event that a storm struck or simple showers they'd be able to get out of the worst of it. The boy had set up the fire to one side, surrounded by rocks and featuring three key areas through which to control the general heat of the fire itself. After all, it wouldn't do to scold anything else they might cook that did not need to be boiled, such as the root vegetables he'd gathered which were being grilled over top. One zone for the 'grill', one for the acklay meat to boil, and the last a true fire producing the hot 'coals' to fuel the other two.

He gave a slight nod of his head, and then settled down beside the contraption.

"Sounds like a smart way to do it," he finally said, after glancing over the fire and checking on the vegetables. "Walking until we find one will be exhausting, and make it so it's more likely to take us down." Expending unnecessary energy when you knew there'd be a genuine fight to be had didn't make sense, and if the rancor would already be drawn to the rotting acklay? Well, then why not use that to their advantage. The Acolyte was clever, that much was for certain.

When his question came, however, the boy could only frown and look away.

"Only partly," he confessed, with a shrug, "I wasn't an urchin, I had a family before the war came and tore it apart. The Empire took me, for the longest time" - most of his life, if he was being honest, at this point - "I worked as a slave." Worked... That would imply there was pay and benefits and freedoms. Pah. "At least, until they found out I was Sensitive. I've had to catch up on learning, that's why the dictionary's with me."

He should have felt shame, but honestly he had come so far since landing in [member="Darth Maliphant"] 's lap that the tiny bit of pride within overshadowed that. He played with a strand of grass, then turned and used the Force to shuffle around a few of the coals, to keep an even temperature under the makeshift grill, somewhat distractedly.

[member="Tehkyram"]