Private By Night And By Dayark

[Cotan Sar'andor]

Dayark, Uninhabited Forest

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Dayark was certainly lovely this time of year. Lovely if you liked rice paddys, rolling plains, or better yet, empty swamp-forests filled to bursting with all sorts of plants and animals and gigantic mud pits. Sure, the plants were great and interesting, many of the brightly-coloured animals that had never even been officially catalogued on any galactic scale made for quite an interesting sight...but the mud was intolerable, especially for someone who wore shoes rather than boots.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Cotan was no great fan of the area of Dayark he'd found thus far.

"Alright, I think we're out of the swamp, or at least the worst of it, finally," he called out to the woman a short ways behind him, from where he sat on a clean log, rinsing mud off of one of his shoes. His ship was landed a few miles away, on the other side of the swamp, as the forest had been too dense for him to find a decent landing space where he wanted to. Probably for the best, it wouldn't be very nice if the thing had ended up sinking into the muck. No doubt the astromech aboard would never let him hear the end of it.

He turned, looking over to where Asha Vynea was studying some thing or another that she had found, and rolled his eyes. "Could you be a little less enthusastic about all this?" he asked, a mock-petulant tone to his voice. It didn't help that it was his idea anyways, trying to find decent places to stockpile materials and safeguard people out of the eyes of any potential invading groups into the outback. He should've just gone straight to the dark side of the moon instead of bothering with the wet and humid day side. The gas giant it orbited would make a better view than the cloudy sky, anyways.

"I'm miserable over here, and you're getting all excited over some flowers."

 

[Asha Sar'andor]

"It's not the flower I'm excited by" she stated plainly, as he moped and complained and rinsed off his shoes. Asha, as always, wore her boots, so she didn't have to worry so much. There was a decent amount of mud on her trousers though, even with the ends of them tucked into her boots, but oh well. She'd live.​

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Cotan? She wondered if he'd get out of this place in one piece. She grinned.​

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"There's a little lizard, 'bout the size of my pinkie... It's so cute."​

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Though her hand itched to reach for her journal, she deflatedly decided against it knowing just how much Cotan wanted away from the mud. So with a pout she turned from the little fella, hoping she'd find more of them along the way, and approached him on his log.​

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"You can't complain when you choose the spot, love," she informed him with a humoured tone, clearly not at all serious as she reached out to muss his hair playfully. Then she took up her water skin, took a long drink from within, and offered it out to him. "To drink. Not for your shoes."​

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Cotan Sar'andor ​

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"My shoes will be fine, assuming I don't lose them in this muck," he grumbled a bit irritably. "I don't understand how you can enjoy wearing boots like that. They're impossible to walk in." Were they truly? No, no they weren't, but Cotan had never been able to stand walking around in anything that constrained his ankles, tightened in at the sides of his feet, or had a built-up heel. About the only thing preventing him from going barefoot was that he hated having the muck on himself even more than on his shoes or pant legs.

Ceasing his grumbling for a moment, though, he did take a short drink from the waterskin before passing it back. Then he looked over the shoe he'd been working on with a critical eye, before shaking his head with a sigh. "It'll have to do," he muttered, pulling it back on his foot. There'd still be a bit more slime and grime in their future, but now that they were out of the worst of it, he had wanted to keep from having his feet caked in slowly-drying dirt for the rest of their search.

That sort of inconvenience might have driven him insane.

He sprung back from the stream he sat by, onto some of the more solid ground he could find. Stretching out one hand, his sword sprung into it from where he'd leaned it beside one of the trees, and he fastened it back to his belt. "You know, there used to be a nice, dry path back out here," he said, a bit of annoyance still present in his voice beyond just the joking he'd been doing. "But after the coalition disappeared, a group of pirates managed to come and cause some problems here. Blasted up a lot of the rice fields, rerouted a ton of the rivers and all. And now, look, fourteen years later and what was a nice, dry forest has turned into a full-blown swamp."

It was even hard to tell whether he was more indignant with the pirates or the change in environment. But, he sighed and shook his head again; nothing much he could do to change it.

"Alright, let's get moving again. There should be a gutted old Marauder in a few kilometers, that they turned into a bunker deep in the forest. That's the main thing I want to reach here, see if it's still in one piece—or even above ground—and if any of what's stored by it is still in a useful state."

Asha Vynea

 

[Asha Sar'andor]

"You mean, how can I walk around with built in ankle support?" she asked him, raising a brow in surprise, "They're a game changer, I'm telling you. Best thing for long hikes..." Truth be told though Asha also preferred to be more freed up than that where possible. Sandals, or a lack of shoes entirely. In places like this though?​

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Well, boots were a necessity.​

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As he spoke about the change in environment, Asha couldn't help but frown sympathetically. Her eyes lingered upon the sword, perhaps with a bit more fascination present than usual - not that he was likely to notice given that he was trying to find a nice path through the swampy ground - and she wondered for a moment how it felt to hold a true blade again. It had been far too long...​

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Shaken from her thoughts, she sighed.​

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"It is a shame" she agreed, wholeheartedly, "Man often doesn't realize just how much damage a small action can do, especially where nature is concerned. A change in the ecosphere even... I wonder which creatures were forced to migrate away, and which seized the opportunity to spread further afield." That earlier lizard, perhaps? Or some of the flies which seemed to incessantly nip at her skin.​

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Cotan changed the subject to the task at hand, so she finished making her way toward him, much less concerned about stepping in muck so long as the ground had some semblance of weight to it, and once by his side she slowed to match his pace. Reached out to take one of his hands, to squeeze it encouragingly.​

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"Just think about the shower you can have when we get back to your ship" she stated. It still irked her some that the vessel had no name, no true name that was, but what could she do about that? It wasn't her ship.​

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Cotan Sar'andor​

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

Cotan let her take his hand, as he picked his way around the dryest spots he could find. At least he was glad to be without that overly-restraining ankle imprisonment she spoke of. If he'd had that he might be having more trouble planting his feet so exactly. Of course, at her next words...he glanced over at her, a mischievous smile taking the place of the grumbling he'd just been doing.

"Trying to get our minds on the same thing?" he asked, an obvious challenge in his tone. "That shower might be cramped with two of us, but I'm sure we could make it work..."

Asha Vynea

 

[Asha Sar'andor]

He was quiet in forging the way forward, at least until she made mention of the 'fresher. Asha shook her head, but a grin of her own had clearly formed.​

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"Hey, I didn't say it" she stated, raising her free hand as though surrendering, "But, I mean, that is one way not to fight over who gets to clean off first..."​

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Damnit. She could feel her cheeks betraying her again, that same hot blush burning bright for all to see. One day she'd learn to suppress it. Clearly not today though. She pressed on alongside him, keeping her eyes open for any sign of the bunker he'd spoken of.​

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Good place for one, in truth. Who wanted to plod their way through this?​

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Well... Asha didn't mind. But clearly, judging by Cotan, some people really, really did...​

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Cotan Sar'andor ​

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"What can I say, Asha, I've gotten good at figuring out how you think," he replied, still stepping a bit awkwardly between the drier spots—not that that did anything to lessen the smirk that grew on his face. "It's just too easy to read your mind these days." As much as he'd like to watch her face grow redder and redder, however, he didn't really have the opportunity, given what he was actually trying to keep an eye out for, and the potential that it would prove quite hard to find.

At least they shouldn't have too much farther to go. "Just make sure to let me know if you see anything obviously made of metal, alright?" he said, still peering into the forest. Almost uselessly. "Or...I don't know, it's a forest. If you spot a dead body we'll probably need to take care of that too. Bog mummies would be a mile back, though, so if we find any in here they won't be nearly as pretty to look at."

Asha Vynea

 

[Asha Sar'andor]

A quiet 'hmph' was the only response to his initial comments, before she turned her sights back to their surroundings. Truth be told though her focus was more on the Force than it was the physical world around them. If it was hidden in overgrown undergrowth, chances of spotting it by sight alone was slim. But sensing a hunk of metal amidst the Living Force? Yeah, that was easier.​

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"How many more drops are you planning on?" she inquired as she scanned this way and that and tried not to lose her boots to the mud. They were tied pretty tight but that didn't stop the terrain from trying its best to suction them off now did it?​

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His mention of undead beings in the bog had her snap her head toward him. "Wait, bog mummies..?" Yeah that didn't exactly sound like fun, though if they could put such creatures to rest then surely they should. Nobody deserved to be forced to live on past their prime, it was... unnatural.​

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Whatever else she might have said was caught on her tongue though as she sensed something strange in the distance. "Can you feel that? I think we're close" she said, eyes narrowing in the direction they were headed.​

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With any luck, it wouldn't be filled with these bodies he'd spoken of.​

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Cotan Sar'andor ​

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"There'll still be a few after this, but nothing out of the Outback. With what's going on, I can't afford to range too far abroad unless it's really important." Not to mention that it would defeat the purpose of preparing the Kathol Outback specifically if he was to go poking around far outside of it. He just had to find whatever old caches and bunkers he could, get people to start refurbishing them for use again, make sure everything was well-prepared to resist an invasion if it came down to it. Given what the Maw alone was capable of bringing to bear, they'd need it.

As for what she said next, however...

"Wait, Asha, I just meant..." he turned and gave her an odd, somewhat confused look. Did she really think he meant that some spontaneous undead creatures were wandering around in the swamp behind them? "Just...mummified bodies. In the bog. Mummified because of the bog." Surely, surely she had to be messing with him. He'd never known her to be given to flights of fancy quite like that before. He shook his head, closing his eyes and reaching out with his other senses to see if he could find what she mentioned.

Something strange indeed, compared to the rest of the area; a void in the otherwise overgrown space. "That might be what we're looking for," he confirmed after a moment. "Keep your eyes peeled. I don't want anything taking us by surprise." He'd be doing the same, of course, but two heads were often better than one. Hand on the hilt of his sword, he quickened his pace, leading the way towards whatever it was they had found.

Asha Vynea