Private Big Cats

[Colette]

The leaf shifted under the pressure of her finger and thumb. The surface of the midrib was dry save for the bloodied tip, covered in the life blood of their quarry. The aggression of the local wildlife had been on the rise lately. Usually that didn't say much for the animals that lived on Dxun, but as it turned out there was a limit even for these kinds of predator when the line crossed from ordinary to extraordinary.

There was a trail of deep footprints and another bloodied shrub up ahead. Whatever had injured this beast had done its job well, but most likely not well enough.

"We're getting close." Colette said, her eyes squinting as she set her focus on the next shrubbery with intense focus as she kept an ear out for anything out of the ordinary. Anything that would potentially try and ambush them. "Gharzr pawprints. Poison. Big, claws like razors."

She pushed her hand against her knee and shuffled the rifle over her shoulder once she stood.

"Stalks prey, usually. This one, not so much. Something is making it desperate, acting out."

Lily Decoria

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Dxun
Attire: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Cross guard Lightsaber, Hydrangea Moonblade (Concealed)
Tag: Colette

Being able to work on a mission with her friend was a pleasant surprise for Lily, she had a lot of fun when Colette came to Jakku where they sparred and caught up. Now they were working together on Dxun, the moon that was a polar opposite to Jakku. A location that she definitely figured was much more Colette's preferred environment. The fellow Padawan was a big fan of nature and hated places like Coruscant or ships.

Watching her friend work was a delight. While Lily was a capable fighter and skilled in combat, she was not a natural tracker or hunter, she was not someone who would fight or kill animals either, that didn't appeal to her either. However, the situation on Dxun seemed beyond the normal and it was at a point where support of the Jedi was needed. The moon was connected to the Force in many ways and there was even a Sith tomb here. Lily's eyes scanned over the tell tale signs that Colette was noting on the creature they were currently stalking.

"Anything hinting at what could have triggered the beast?" Lily asked in a whisper, hoping they could find an answer before they had to contend with the beasts around here. Her gaze kept an eye out for any dangers nearby, the description from Colette on the beast did not sound fun to her, poison and claws were not a good combination for the type of fighter she was.

 

[Colette]

Lily Decoria

Colette's tongue shifted, her brows furrowed, and with a few more steps she crawled her way over to the next bloodied bush.

"No idea." She muttered and let out a frustrated 'hmm'. "Nothing in the blood. At least from what I can tell by looking at it at least. But if you look at the pawprints," Colette pointed at the four-pronged print in the nearby dirt. "One paw is pushing deeper into the earth, meaning it is wounded and afraid."

"Judging by the amount of blood, they were either hit with a bad shot or something stabbed it in self-defense…"

A loud roar bellowed in the distance. Colette grabbed Lily's shoulder to pull her down or at the very least keep her low. The call was unmistakingly feral. The kid could basically feel the spittle from the beast's roar blanket the ground beneath it.

"Sense anything in the force?" Colette asked Lily and tried to reach out herself. All she could feel was the beast in the distance. "I can sense our friend, but… Something feels… Off?"

"I can't detect any other life nearby."

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Dxun
Attire: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Cross guard Lightsaber, Hydrangea Moonblade (Concealed)
Tag: Colette

Lily followed Colette's lead as she crawled to the next bush, Lily was more crouch walking since the idea of crawling in the dirt did not appeal to the Echani noble.

Listening on the explanation, Lily made a mental note of the signs that Colette had found, knowing these things seemed important survival training that could help her out some day. "Could it be another animal attacking the injured one? Could be aggressive animals riling each other up?" Lily knew they were here about increased attacks towards humanoid populations but it could be also the animals were attacking one another more often than they usually did.

She kept low when Colette put her hand on Lily's shoulder, she placed a reassuring hand on the forearm of Colette's arm. Looking her friend in the eye and offering a reassuring smile that they would be fine. Lily would handle anything if things got rough.

"Hm..." Lily paused and listened to the Force. It wasn't something she was well versed in doing and she wasn't naturally gifted in understanding the subtle meanings of the Force either. However a chill sent shivers down her spine. "I feel... cold... intensely cold... like when fighting Sith." Lily attempted to describe, "but it isn't a Sith, at least there aren't any reports of Sith here."

 

[Colette]

Lily Decoria

Dirt and Colette were like two peas in a pod. The girl and the laundromatic were basically best acquaintances at this point. It wasn't her fault that crawling through dirt on her knees (but not hands) was a perfectly fine way to get ahead. The clothes on her back were made of treated textiles. She was the epitome of function over form in nature, but Lily already knew that.

"No." Colette answered with an unintended curtness to her voice at Lily's question. "This beast has been here for too long for that. If there was an intruder there would be waves of anger in the air. All I can feel is fear."

Fear, and that coldness now that Lily had mentioned it. Colette squinted and began to look around them.

"No detected sith activity at least." She said and grumbled. "No, this is too… Small?"

"Think about it. If you wanted your enemy to waste resources, you would want to cause as big of a problem as possible, right? More resources here, less resources on the frontlines."

"Unless, we are just nipping it at the bud, of course…" Colette disappeared in thought for a moment longer.

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Dxun
Attire: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Cross guard Lightsaber, Hydrangea Moonblade (Concealed)
Tag: Colette

"Fear..." It seemed a strange emotion to be coming from a predator but she knew that no one knew much more about nature than Colette did. The woman seemed to live and breathe the natural environment that they were living in.

Nodding her head, "cause disruption and chaos to swoop in and clean things up to look the hero in comparison to a floundering predecessor." Lily mentioned, it was an approach politicians took when they campaigned for the leadership roles. Lily could see the Sith taking such a route to save having to fight monsters in the field like some of the Jedi Masters in the NJO.

"We can only hope that this is something we can nip in the bud." Lily mentioned as she moved forward, "something smaller... could it be a single person? Maybe using the Force to manipulate the behaviours of the beasts?" She knew that was something that people could do with the Force. She personally had no experience with the power so did not know how it would look.

 

[Colette]

Lily Decoria

Colette nodded and took a hunched but determined step forward, like a predator stalking ever closer to their prey.

"We should have felt it if someone was using the force…" Colette muttered in no small part to herself. "Keep your head down and your eyes peeled."

Up ahead there was a small clearing and Colette did not trust it in the slightest. Too open, too exposed, exactly the type of place a predator would run and gun someone at. Except this particular predator seemed to keep itself squarely in the center of it with a panicked shuffle at all directions almost as if it was expecting to be attacked.

"It's hurt." Colette said and pointed at the creature. "There's something jammed into it's pelvis, see it?"

"Poisoned, maybe? Know of any poisons that would make someone act out like that?"

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Dxun
Attire: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Cross guard Lightsaber, Hydrangea Moonblade (Concealed)
Tag: Colette

"Depends, people can sometimes hide themselves well. Jedi Shadows can sneak around without a Force User realising." Lily pointed out, she was still a Padawan so she had no doubt that there were always going to be those more experienced who could do things with the Force that she would not have even thought about.

Seeing the creature in the clearing, Lily followed Colette's lead in how to handle the creature. Lily's instincts were to just put the creature out of its misery, especially since it would be the safer option for the pair. However, she did not wish to act rashly without giving Colette time to think of an alternative.

"Sith use poisons, but then so do mercenaries and a lot of dangerous criminals. Poisons can make people do a lot of things, it would be hard to tell without extracting some poison and testing it." Lily whispered to Colette, "it also means that if it is a poison, we need to figure out what poison it is to see if there is an antidote to use. And then, we have to discuss the possibility of there not being a cure. Since that could change how we approach things."

Some poisons could not be cured, it was a sad fate but it was something that Lily needed to mention so the blow would be gentler further down the line if that was the issue they faced.

 

[Colette]

Lily Decoria

Felt weird for someone to cloak themselves just to poison or injure an animal. If this was a person who could approach an animal without being seen, there was no reason to stick around just to take care of whoever came to fix your sabotage. If anything it would make the most sense to bail as soon as possible to leave the creature to its fate and for the sabotage to slowly unfurl. Leave no trace, clear yourself of any potential accusations.

While there was wisdom in Lily's caution, Colette didn't take it fully to heart. She kept her knee to the ground and looked around and to her it seemed that other than the big hulking kitty cat the coast was clear.

"We're not killing the creature." Colette muttered back at Lily and shook her head. "They deserve their life just as much as anyone else."

She scooched closer to the clearing to truly hone in on the object embedded in the creature's hindleg.

"That… Thing is part of it. Do you think we could, I don't know, pull it out with the force?"

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Dxun
Attire: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Cross guard Lightsaber, Hydrangea Moonblade (Concealed)
Tag: Colette

"Colette, I am not saying that it should be our first option." Lily stated, still wishing to be cautious with this topic, "but if our options are force the animal to suffer till it eventually dies with no chance of recovery, or putting it out of its misery. I know I would not want to live in constant torture, and I am sure you wouldn't either." Lily wasn't trying to approach this as the creature was less deserving of life, but that it deserved a dignified death if the alternative was a life of misery and pain.

Moving forward with Colette, she spotted the object, she looked and tilted her head.

"It's possible but the creature is in pain and removing it would keep it on edge. I could remove the object if you can soothe it afterwards?" Lily mentioned, wanting to work together on this and willing to demonstrate she wanted to give this creature a good life as much as Colette did.

 

[Colette]

Lily Decoria

Her tongue poked out for a moment. Colette looked at the panicked beast and contemplated their next move carefully before she eventually gave Lily a slow nod.

"You be ready to ease it out and I'll try to calm it down." She motioned her hand behind her back for Lily to stay put. "You stay here."

Colette got into position right at the edge of the clearing.

"Pull when you're ready."

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Dxun
Attire: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Cross guard Lightsaber, Hydrangea Moonblade (Concealed)
Tag: Colette

With the tongue poking out, Lily wasn't sure if Colette wanted to press her point on not killing the animal or not. However, she said nothing and just gave a slow nod. Lily nodded her head back. Not seeking to press her point either, things would happen as they did and there was nothing either of them could do to change that fate.

Lily just hoped it went favourably like they both wished to go. Staying put, she watched as Colette got into position and Lily nodded her head. Lily shifted a little forward to get a better view of the object so she could cleanly grab that instead of the creature and accidentally harm them. Her hand reaching forward, Lily breathed in deeply and thought about the object, closing a hand around it to grab it.

"Pulling now." She called to Colette as she began to pull the object out of the creature slowly. Carefully. She didn't wish to rush the job and cause more harm to creature if she rushed this.

 

[Colette]

Lily Decoria

The roar of a wounded warrior bellowed in the clearing once the final piece of the shard let go of its grip on the big cat's hip. If these creatures could cry and shed tears, this would have been the moment when despite its best attempts the barriers would come crumbling down.

With the pain gone it finally let itself collapse onto the floor, exhausted from the near-constant pain. A high-pitched whine and groan rumbled and tore at its throat as it struggled to stand. Colette took her first step into the open and the reaction was immediate: terror, anger, and fear.

"Hey. No, big guy. We're here to help." She said and slowly raised her hands in front of her. The cat tried to swipe at her but the energy just wasn't there. Colette kept a respectable distance and beckoned at Lily to come closer. "Hey, you can come out now. It's safe."

-ish.

The big cat shook as it tried to stand. The last few pangs of humiliation, the last few drops of pride pushing it to at least try and stand for this meeting.

But it failed again.

It's breathing grew labored. Colette began her approach to gently place her hand on the creature's stomach and give it a gentle brush of her hand.

"It doesn't trust us, and it shouldn't. We have until it recovers to get that wound checked out. Bring that bacta with you?"

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Dxun
Attire: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Cross guard Lightsaber, Hydrangea Moonblade (Concealed)
Tag: Colette

Lily heard the big cat let out the noise that filled the surrounding area. A noise that was likely bring the attention of other creatures and Dxun was not know for having kind, or sweet animals. There was likely something out there that would take this roar as an opportunity to hunt. Lily felt sure of that but she was not going to leave the animal injured and unable to protect itself.

Grabbing the bacta, she threw it over to Colette. Figuring that Colette would have a better chance to apply it since she was already closer with the creature and creating a bond. "Can't you use the Force to create a bond with the beast to ensure that it feels some trust with us? Could also help us figure out what is going on here?" Lily had seen others bond with creatures in the Jedi Order and she figured that Colette would be an expert in that style of Force power since it could be used for situations like this and help nature in defending themselves better, as well as keeping one in tune with nature.

Moving to the shard that had embedded in the creature, Lily decided to inspect to see what it was and if this would offer any insight on what they were potentially dealing with here. Was this from a trap? A poacher? Or something more sinister going on.

 

[Colette]

Lily Decoria

"No." It was a simple answer and just what Colette said. "When you heal a scorpion, you don't defang its tail."

The bacta can opened with a schlock as the vacuum sealed canister. Colette dipped her fingers into it to apply a small dose around the immediate area of the wound. The beast growled for a moment before it went back to lying down and accepting treatment.

"To use the force would be to force this creature to do something it wouldn't otherwise want." Colette continued. "It doesn't trust us now, but it's too tired to struggle. It needs to catch its breath which gives us just a few moments of calm before it turns on us."

Animals were predictable in that sense. The need to rest was universal. The need to feed was universal. If these two were ever in danger of going unfulfilled it caused people and creatures alike to push past their healthy limits to find it. This creature, however, had already pushed long past that.

"What was that thing?" Colette asked as she looked over her shoulder back at Lily before going back to applying the bacta properly around the wound.

Problem was that it was hard to even tell what the item was. It looked like a knife, but it also looked like some kind of sculpture thing. Unwieldy for a weapon, but not for rituals. It had inscriptions on it in some kind of runes or alphabet that Colette did not recognize or know how to read: sith runes.

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Dxun
Attire: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Cross guard Lightsaber, Hydrangea Moonblade (Concealed)
Tag: Colette

"Actually, I think people do defang scorpions when caring for them?" Lily countered, she figured it would not change Colette's mind but ensuring an animal would not attack them, that had to be considered. "It isn't a permanent change in the creature's behaviour, it is just ensuring the creature will not strike out at us."

However, Colette seemed stubborn on this path of not using their powers, their skills to ensure that nature was in tune with them. That they were safe longer than the simple time period that they would be for now.

Looking over the blade, the ruins, the sensations in the Force that came from such a tool. Lily breathed in deeply and looked up to Colette when she approached. "Well..." Looking back at the blade, "I think it is a Sith artefact." Lily stated tracing her fingers over the ruins. "These seem to be similar ruins to Sith ruins I have seen before."

Making no mention that they were carved into her body by Carnifex. Nor that she had seen them alone, when attempting to destroy an ancient Sith artefact that the Sith Lord had uncovered.

"We have a Sith connection with this. But, there is... I think there is more to this than simply a Sith warrior attacking creatures." Lily mentioned, she knew few things in life were that simple.

 

[Colette]

Lily Decoria

Colette squinted for just a moment once Lily fired back, not that the Echani would see it through the distance and the hair that blocked the mean side eye she was being served until the conversation moved on.

"Sith artifact…" Colette muttered as she emptied the rest of the bacta onto the cat's wound, put the empty container in her bag, and slowly began to back away. It was hard to tell through the fact that the cat was about thrice their size, but it seemed to appreciate the effort. At least Colette liked to imagine it did.

The creature let out a sigh and slowly tried to get up again. It didn't manage yet, but it already seemed to move its leg a whole lot better. Arguably that was worse for Colette and Lily, but not unless either of them did something stupid to rile it up. At this point it would most likely just want to find a place to feel safe in and sleep, not so much hunt.

At least that was what it's… Aura said? It was always hard to tell, but there was just something there in the force saying things about it. What it was feeling, what it was experiencing, the same way a sapient, fully aware creature would unknowingly project its emotions into the aether for someone sensitive in the force to understand. Maybe Lily could sense it, maybe she couldn't, but the animal was very much there for Colette.

"Sith make a habit of creating weapons that injure big animals?" Colette frowned as she approached Lily ever so slowly.

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Dxun
Attire: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Cross guard Lightsaber, Hydrangea Moonblade (Concealed)
Tag: Colette

Even without seeing the squinting side eye, Lily could feel it through the Force and it was clear in the body language of Colette that she was not pleased with Lily's counterpoint. She had not intended anything by it. Just demonstrating that the safety of people was something to consider when interacting with dangerous animals and that doing things that held no lasting harm would not be terrible.

However, Colette did not seem to wish to hear her point and continued as if nothing had been said. Lily just hoped if she ended up being mauled to death by the big cat, that Colette would appreciate that Lily might have had a point.

Seeing the creature move and shift, Lily breathed in deeply and waited for the inevitable fate to pounce at her and start attacking. However, nothing happened and Lily let out a relieved sigh, she was aiming to upset the beast but she also knew that animals tended to lash out with cause or reason. Something that people did as well.

Though she was not attuned in the Force to read the connection being made between Colette and the beast. Though if she had, she would have pointed out that Colette was already impacting nature and changing things with the Force, just being unaware of such feats.

"They make Sithspawn from animals... Could be related to that? Make them too weak to resist and then corrupt them into horrific beasts?" Lily suggested, she had no real understanding of how Sithspawn worked but she assumed it was something like that. "However, I don't think they would be so careless to leave an animal wounded and alone. That would not help them."

 

[Colette]

Lily Decoria

Sithspawn. Colette knew of them, even interacted with one - Katherine. It was worse than corruption, it was a twisting of nature that went beyond merely fixing something that needed to be fixed. She didn't hate the twisted creature as much as the one who had twisted it to begin with. A beast couldn't help its nature, and if someone changed your very nature with the Force then that wasn't on you - that was on them.

"Maybe it escaped." Colette muttered. "Could be that they were about to do it, and this one managed to get away."

Colette continued to back off from the creature and into the shrubs and trees of the forest, motioning for Lily to get low as they back deeper into the shadow.

"Not sure if we should call in a crew for that or not."

"We're not sure they are here, and if they are - we're not equipped to take it out ourselves."

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Dxun
Attire: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Cross guard Lightsaber, Hydrangea Moonblade (Concealed)
Tag: Colette

Lily shrugged her shoulders, there wasn't much information to make a call how the creature got hurt. "Maybe, but it could also not be the Sith making Sithspawn. The creature could have discovered some more lost ruins and gotten itself hurt by accident." Dxun was a jungle and a lot of stuff had been reclaimed by nature so Lily wasn't sure that everything that had once been here had been catalogued and recorded in historical records.

"I think it might be best to do some recon, figure out where this came from. Whether it is an active Sith site or we detect more Sith presence when we get closer to the site, then report it. Currently, we don't have a lot of information and we don't know how dangerous where this blade came is." Lily pointed out. The more information they had, the better it would be for the NJO to then assess on the amount of support Colette and Lily needed.

Looking around, "problem is, I don't know where we need to head to begin figuring out where this came from..." Lily mentioned.