Mistress or Murderess; Ray meets Fabula

[Lorraei]

The Forest Moon of Endor.
With [member="Fabula Caromed"]

By the light of the heavens, this place was beautiful. Trees that touched the heavens stretched endlessly in every direction. Wildlife fluttered through the canopy and raced amongst the massive roots. Abundant nutrients and unchecked life flourished in this far corner of the galaxy. It was peaceful here. Quite.

It had been hours since Lorraei had left his ship. How many didn't matter to him and he hadn't bothered trying to keep track. He had come here after hearing a story about the incredible forest, and he had failed to imagined just how immense the trees would be. He had been lost in exploration for a lifetime, or so it seemed. He had hoped to find the creatures known as Ewoks but none had shown themselves. Ray couldn't blame them really, he wouldn't approach a lone wanderer in the deserts of his home world, Tatooine. Why should the natives here come out for the sake of his curiosity?

Lorraei stood atop a log, the largest he had ever seen. The climb had taken some real work, a few bursts of Speed and some tricky hand holds he had carved into the wood himself. But the majesty of the wooded moon was beginning to fade. He came, he saw, that was about it really. One couldn't conquer nature, you could only observe. He had and now it was time to leave.

"May as well make a game of it." He mused aloud. Pulling back the sleeve on his left arm, Ray shut off his Browncoat Datalogger. The device had mapped his journey thus far and could easily be used to find his way back to his ship, but where was the fun in that? Instead he would rely on his memory. Retracing his steps in a place overflowing with landmarks should be comparatively simple to traveling across the endless sands of Tatooine.

Loosening his brilliant red and purple over robes, Lorraei swung down from the log. After a few strides, his pace began to increase. A jog building into a run, the occasional burst of Speed quickening his journey. His robes flowing out behind him like a cloak, exposing his black undershirt of armor weave. He wasn't strong enough to keep the bursts for long. Then again, he wasn't in much of a hurry.

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Fabula had been bedridden for weeks - important plural - since the Netherworld...thing. A single day without exercise left her unsettled, but two weeks without being able to fight anything had made her borderline unstable. The moment she felt her tendons straining rather than tearing when she moved, the Witchknight had dropped a message to Lynn that she was "going out for a while," hopped in the Pilgrim, and got the hell out of Taris. She needed to go see something new, fight something she hadn't before, and maybe take a trophy for the first time in centuries.

A little program on her datapad had selected the habitable forest moon of Endor from a long and comprehensive list of planets that, apparently, the Wanderer had used to find new places to explore. Endor was on that list, which meant it was interesting enough to merit a visit, and she hadn't been there yet. As her ship barreled through hyperspace, Fabula found herself practically giddy with anticipation. She was finally getting to be herself again. She didn't have to worry about things like healing or learning the culture of her newly-embraced people. Chaos was a distant memory. It was just her, the stars, and whatever fate had in store for her.

When her ship touched down on a cliffside overlooking a gorgeous forest waterfall, Fabula rushed down the Bloody Pilgrim's boarding ramp so fast that she almost forgot her jacket. The Witchknight took a long, deep breath of Endor's air, closing her eyes to take in the sounds and the smells of the moon rather than just the sites. Here. This was where she belonged. On the frontier, with the birds chirping in the distance, the sound of gurgling water, and the smell of wet foliage. This was her own personal little beauty of a world...

And she simply couldn't wait to find something to savagely eviscerate.

Locking up her ship through her datapad, Fabula pulled up the information she'd scrounged up during the ride. According to her myriad libraries of geographic documentaries, Endor's apex predator was something called a gorax, apparently a semisentient hairy ogre that could grow to staggering sizes. She could think of nothing better to test her newly recovered and empowered body against. Maybe she'd flash-freeze a severed toe for a souvenir, or break out its teeth to make a pretty bone necklace. So many things she could do now that she had her strength back! She forged ahead into the treeline, intent on picking a fight with the biggest, meanest critter she could stumble across.
[member="Lorraei"]

 

[Lorraei]

Lorraei staggered to a halt. Turning in place, he scanned what little of the sky he could see through the dense foliage. Was that ship engines? Hours of exploration had been uninterrupted by sentient life of any kind. Now, rather suddenly, he heard a ship. How bizarre?

Powering up his Datalogger, Ray brought up a map of the area. "I know there was high ground here somewhere." A poor habit, talking to oneself, but it helped him think. His eyes turned east where he had seen a cliff and waterfalls from a distance. "They will have landed by then but maybe I can pick out where they land."

He burst into motion once more. Curiosity eating away at him. Who would come this far into the wilds? Well apart from odd desert dwelling folk like himself. No one else seemed to care about the untamed places of the galaxy anymore. Lorraei speed through the undergrowth, drawing in the Force as he went. No longer did he use it's energy to hasten his travel, the ship would be out of sight regardless. Instead he brought his mind into a carefully balanced focus, extending his senses to the woods around him.

For a time nothing changed. All was well in the deep forests of the moon. Lorraei slowed his pace, the fine hair on the back of his neck stood on end. "What the frell..." He came to a stop, scanning the trees ahead cautiously. A seven inch long throwing spike dropped out of his sleeve, settling into a firm, practiced grip. Something was out there. Something he had never felt before. He tried to convince himself it was native wildlife, some predator he had failed to read about. Lorraei forced his heart rate under control, and reached out again with his Senses.

[member="Fabula Caromed"]