Monster See, Monster Do

[Keirra]

UTAPAU
Plains beyond Pau City

Balthazar’s forked tongue flicked out, tasting the air around him, seeking a trail. The hunt had been dire, moreso since Kierra had been taken, but he persevered all the same. Powerful legs drove him forward across the desert, long tail trailing in the sand behind him. He was hungry, and tired but he could not stop. The dwarf krayt had to find her, had to find the girl he had bonded with so long ago.

Another flick of the tongue and he could taste smoke, a campfire perhaps? He sauntered in its direction, tasting constantly seeking more information. Then he caught it, the scent of blood...and fear. With a burst of speed he pushed forward beneath the stars.

*

She’d been waiting so very long for them to make a mistake. They always made mistakes. If she was quiet and complacent enough, they always began to pity her, to try and feed her. They should never have let her out of the cage, nor should they have removed the bonds. She could have attributed the mistake to sheer stupidity, but who would have expected a teenage girl to be able to do what she had done?

She licked the blood from her fingers, watching the other two pull themselves together after the shock of seeing her rip the rodian's throat out, scrambling for weapons as she bent to collect a knife from the still gurgling rodian's belt. She tested the blades edge, examining it in her hand, like the human and the gamorrean were not something to be concerned with.

“I like this knife.” she announced, feeling Balthazar draw closer, his excitement becoming her own. The gamorrean made some squealing noises at the human who was pale with shock, levelling a blaster at her head.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

[member="Keirra"]

Red was walking across the desert plains of Utapau when he came across the campsite. There was a very simple reason why he was out in the middle of nowhere. He was hunting a band of pirates that had become too troublesome and that were wanted dead or alive. Red choose dead. He killed them all, as they were terrorizing people. He had chosen to take the job, without pay. It surprised his clients, sure, but they accepted those terms, unsurprisingly. He didn't need to bring evidence of their death or capture, he just sent the coordinates of their camp, where the bodies were located. Then, he left, as he didn't need to stick around for payment.

Red came up on the camp site, and he was surprised. From what he could see, a rodian, a human, and a gamorrean had taken a teenage girl captive. Then, they let her out to eat, possibly, or she broke out, and she instantly murdered the rodian, and now the human and gamorrean were scrambling for weapons. There was something off about the girl, and he didn't need to use the Force to figure that out. She had this strange aura around her. If Red was one of the three that captured her, he wouldn't have captured her. It was just pure idiocy.

Then, the human raised a blaster at her head. Red decided it was time to make his presence known. He moved out of his position quickly. He raised his blaster rifle and fired on the human. The bolt zipped through the air, and hit the human right in the head. The human dropped, dead. He aimed at the gamorrean, moving towards the campsite slowly. "If I were you, I would run." He told the gamorrean. "You have five seconds." Red warned the gamorrean.

 

[Txon Taronyu]

[member="Subject 73 Red"] [member="Keirra"]

It had been many years since Txon Taronyu had seen a good battle. Ever since he had fled his master's stronghold, blood on his claws and rage in his heart as he ran, defeated, from what should have been a glorious victory, he had longed for a chance to recover his honor. Since that day he had practiced and trained and learned, listening to the holojournals that were the last vestiges of his teacher. He had learned much in those long days. He'd even learned how to fly his shuttle, finally being able to take over from the droid that had controlled it previously.

Even so, there was only so much that could be learned from holojournals and memorized drills. He needed more; more knowledge, more teaching, more learning. He needed more power. He was still not the warrior he wanted to be, and he needed to become that warrior. He had to.

He'd landed on Utapau in an attempt to reconnect with his past; perhaps the spirits of the Ancients would speak to him more when his feet were in mud and his eyes were filled with stars. On the second or third day of his travels across the plains, he'd scented a pack of humanoids moving quickly. Intrigued, he'd tracked them, eventually locating their camp. He was going to simply observe, he had no reason to do anything else, but then he'd seen the person-female, he guessed, and young too-in the cage. His eyes narrowed and his fangs tingled. He hated cages.

He'd left his robes and lightsaber in the shuttle, being dressed only in his training briefs, but no Anatasi is truly without a weapon. He'd began stalking quickly, hiding amongst the tall grass as he moved silently closer. Then the woman burst free, slaying one of her captors with the barest of efforts. After that, Txon didn't see anything but the target in front of him. With the speed of a predator and the precision of a hunter he raced forward, lunging at the giant pig-like beast that he'd have to look up in his master's database at some later date. He plowed into the pig-man, a meteor of claws and muscle, and took him straight to the ground.

There was no reason for a kill, the fight was not honorable nor glorious, so Txon contented himself with simply pounding the pig-man senseless. When he lay motionless on the ground, drooling from the corner of his big pig mouth, Txon stood, brushing dirt from his skin.

"Not a bad fight," he said in Basic, still heavily accented but much improved since the first time he had spoken it, "If a bit quick."

 

[Keirra]

The blaster fire didn’t seem to bother her, in fact she eyes the body of the human with mild disappointment. She’d imagined all manner of terrible things to do to him and now he was incapable of feeling any of it. The gamorrean let out a squeal of panic, and turned to run, only to be attacked by someone else. Who were these people!?

Kierra stamped her foot in the sand in annoyance. “Ugh, you ruined everything.” she complained, turning to her would be rescuers. “I had such plans.” she looked at the unconscious gamorrean at orange skinned humanoid.

“BALTHAZAR!” she shouted, hearing the dwarf krayt dragons feet in the sand, glowering at him as he sauntered towards her. “You took too long.” she snapped at him. Still she knelt before the beast and hugged him tightly before gesturing towards the gamorrean. “Eat up my sweet. That one is still fresh.”

[member="Subject 73 Red"] [member="Txon Taronyu"]

 

[Subject 73 Red]

[member="Keirra"] [member="Txon Taronyu"]

Red slightly tilted his head. So, she wanted to kill them herself, huh? Red was used to people not being grateful for help. True, she probably could have handled them herself, but Red decided to act, and so did the other person that showed up, completely pounding the gamorrean and taking him out.

"Sorry ma'am," Red told her. "I noticed that you had a little issue, and I decided to be of assistance. I was going to leave the gamorrean for your imagination and revenge, but someone got to him first."

Strange, she seemed to have some sort of connection with the krayt dragon. Interesting.

"Meh, I've had better." Red told the newcomer when he said that it was not a bad fight.

 

[Txon Taronyu]

@Keirra @Subject 73 Red

Txon shrugged off the woman's criticisms, it was her right to be frustrated at being denied a kill. Txon had seen a situation and had reacted, nothing more. Though now that he was limbered up, he wished there were more things to fight. When the strange beast trotted up Txon hissed, his natural instincts reacting to the presence of another predator, but he calmed as the animal did not seem hostile. When the woman walked right up to it and embraced it Txon found himself impressed. To tame such a beast showed great strength of will and spirit.

"Indeed," Txon replied to the man with the rifle, "It has been many moons since I faced a worthy enemy." He continued to watch the beast as the woman interacted with it.

"Quite a magnificent creature," he commented.

 

[Keirra]

Kierra tried to recall the lessons the Elder had taught her about gratitude, biting her lower lip in thought. She bowed her head. “I appreciate the assistance, needed or not.” After all, what were they to know. She settled down in the sand next to the body of the rodian, the stolen knife carving away at him. She popped small morsels of meat in her mouth, delighting in the taste, forgetting, momentarily she had company.

The orange skinned one spoke and Kierra paused, a sliver of flesh halfway to her mouth. “Balthazar is not a creature.” she said softly, watching him eat with vigor, tearing the gamorrean limb from limb. “He is a prince, trapped in the body of a beast by a curse.” The lizard stopped eating, meeting Kierra’s green eyed gaze and she smiled. “We have been together for a long time.”

She shrugged and went back to eating. “If you two want a challenge, there is a slaver market in Pau city. I’ve long thought of roasting the ringmaster but there are a few too many for little me.”

[member="Txon Taronyu"][member="Subject 73 Red"]

 

[Subject 73 Red]

[member="Keirra"] [member="Txon Taronyu"]

Red looked at the krayt dragon as the girl described him. A prince trapped in the creature by a curse? That sounded... strange. Could it be that the girl had some sort of mental illness, making her believe that? It didn't seem likely. Besides, the krayt dragon did seem to have a sort of intelligence to it.

He then turned to the girl, watching her eat the raw flesh from the rodian. Sure, she was probably hungry and hadn't had a lot to eat in a while. And, true, she did seem to associate herself with animals than she did other sentient lifeforms. But still, eating raw flesh probably wasn't the healthiest option. "I can... ah- cook that for you if you want me to. Eating raw flesh can give you major health problems and illnesses." Red offered.

Red sat down in the sand, relaxing for a moment. He took off his helmet and set it down next to him. His red hair a stark contrast to the near-colorless landscape around them, and even seemed brighter in the sunlight. His red eyes seemed to scan the environment around them, examining everything.

Then, the girl spoke about taking down a slave market. Red was interested. "Sure, I'll help you." He nodded.

"Right- er- I'm Red." Red said, introducing himself. He didn't know much about "courtesy" and "manners" and other social skills normal people found appealing, but it seemed like these two were on the same page as him on that aspect.

 

[Txon Taronyu]

[member="Keirra"] [member="Subject 73 Red"]

Txon wrinkled his nose slightly when the beast-not to mention the girl-started eating the dead bodies raw. Descended from predators he may be, but not even his people treated the dead like this. The dead were to be respected, no matter who they were. Still, they weren't his people, nor was this woman, . The woman's story about the beast actually being a prince, or something, trapped in a beast's body intrigued the Anatasi, but he filed it away under yet another thing the people of the galaxy did that he did not understand.

He perked up when the woman mentioned a slaver camp. Hm, that could be interesting.

"I will fight with you," he said. The Anatasi, walking gingerly around the two beasts currently devouring the corpses on the floor, rummaged around in the dead men's other gear for a moment and located another knife. He tested it out for a moment, and though it was no where near his lightsaber, it was a good enough weapon for his purposes. Most Anatasi didn't train with lightsabers after all.

"My name is Txon," he said, "But it has been many moons since I was called by that name."

 

[Keirra]

Kierra enjoyed the uncomfortable reactions to her feeding, though she cocked her head at the one who offered to cook her food. Health problems? She snorted derisively. Health problems were for those who did not have the stomach for it. She’d been eating the hearts and flesh of her enemies raw since...well as long as she could remember. She eyed him as he sat down, revealing a tangle of vividly red hair and a name. Red.

“How original.” she commented, with the barest hint of sarcasm. She half expected the other one to say his name was orange, watching him pick a weapon from the dead. This one spoke strangely, like he was some noble that had been trapped in a time warp. “You are both very strange, but…” she scanned them both, sucking blood from her fingers as she did. “You will do nicely.”

If you can’t do something yourself, find someone expendable who can do it for you. And these two were most definitely expendable. She stopped craving flesh, and stared at the rodian for a long moment, before putting out his eyes. “You will walk the valleys of death blind and in agony.” she whispered “and all will mock you.”

Balthazar had had his fill and moved to her, nudging her arm as he drew close. Kierra lifted it, embracing him. “He imagined such terrible things for me. I promised I would consume him. Just like I will that Slave Master. Bastards.” There was something terrible in her eyes, for a fleeting moment, she was not a teenage girl, but a demon consumed with hatred and rage. “He is the last one, then we can go home.” she placed a kiss on the top of the beast's head, then recalled she had company.

“Come.” she said finally, getting to her feet. “I will tell you of the place on the way.” She held a finger to the wind, picked a direction and began walking, her bare feet sinking slightly in the sand, the dwarf krayt dragon at her heels.

[member="Subject 73 Red"] [member="Txon Taronyu"]

 

[Subject 73 Red]

[member="Keirra"] [member="Txon Taronyu"]

Red watched the girl. Something seemed... off about her. Then, she commented on his name. ​"Well, I didn't choose it. The scientists that created me did. And they choose the simplest name, as there were a lot of us." He told her.

The krayt dragon walked over to her. She called it... Balthazar, Red believed. Strange, there did seem to be some sort of intelligence in the creature. Then, suddenly, Red noticed something about her. In her eye, Red could see a look of pure hatred, one of a monster. Red reached for his lightsaber on his belt, but stopped himself. She didn't seem to be a threat, at least, not yet.

Then, she stood up, and told them to follow her. Red grabbed his helmet and stood up. "Lead the way." He said. He followed after her.

 

[Txon Taronyu]

[member="Keirra"] [member="Subject 73 Red"]

If Red had a feeling that there was something off about the girl, Txon knew there was. Anatasi learned from birth to pick up on non-verbal cues; gestures, looks, and postures were a second language to them. Txon had seen the girl's attitude amongst his own people, it was the attitude of a hunter and a fighter, but there was something very different about it. Anatasi hunted and fought for survival and for glory; this woman fought for blood. Txon's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, as if he were a predator sizing up a potential rival in the pack.

But, for now, there was no reason for hostility. If she turned on them, Txon would be ready. He had faced great challenges on his path to becoming a man; this woman and her lizard would be just one more. For now, Txon stood stoic while the woman finished her meal, then began following in her footsteps as she walked away. As he followed, Txon practiced his levitation, bouncing and spinning the knife in the air above his hand.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Keirra @Txon Taronyu

Red followed after the girl. Both of the people with him seemed not normal. Then again, Red himself wasn't normal. So they were all in the same boat. But there was something else about the others. Red was a Jedi, but the others, they felt dark, darker than him. Sure, he wasn't the best of Jedi, or the most peaceful, as he was bred for combat and killing, but he believed in doing good. But these two, they believed in killing, and that the strongest survive. Interesting. He still followed after them.