Private River's Whispers

[Ishida Ashina]

NABOO | SOLLEU RIVER​

"Mmm... sheesa got da hum, yeah, but only 'round da Solleu bend. Engine gets spooked if da water too deep. You crasha once, you get used to it."

"We will not be crashing." Ishida muttered, eyes fixed on the flickering diagnostic readout. Its battery display pulsed with the kind of unreliability that suggested maybe power, probably a death ride down river. She didn't like technology in a well-maintained form, she absolutely abhorred the sight of the algae-ridden, potmarked vehicle that she stared at now. It looked like it had been dragged from the bottom of the riverbed and half-heartedly dressed before being put back into service. Ishida circled it twice, arms crossed, reading its scars like battlefield's blueprint. It had dings in the hull, algae crusting around the stabilizers, a wobble in the left intake she was sure the Gungan noticed and hoped that they, his new customers, didn't.

She didn't like it.

Meanwhile, Castian chatted easily with the Gungan trader, catering for what seemed more for the sake of performance than price. When the price was settled, the Gungan got friendly.

"So," he said, voice sloshing somewhere between curiosity and amusement. "Yousa not just passin' through, eh? Lookin' for somethin' more… permanent?"

Ishida rolled her eyes and the Gungan tapped a clawed finger against the datapad, muttering something about how "serious faces spook good luck" then pointed off toward the soft blue haze of distant cliffs. The river bent that way. The air shimmered.

"Try da Chasm of Solleu. You take da humbug. Leave her full and clean or I charge ya double. If she hums right for you, maybe you find somethin' down there worth singin' about."

"Why the Chasm?"

"Old place," he said. "Deep deeeeeeeep breath of Naboo. Wind go in, truth come out. She hums what you hide."

Ishida's brows ticked downward and she made a noise of disgruntlement at the back of her throat.

"Still—Solleu nice anyway," he added. "Even if you don't like da whispers."

He handed off the keys and disappeared into the beaded shadows of his shop.

 

[Castian Vero]

Ishida Ashina

Castian was his usual bubbly self, chattering away with the Gungan trader, while also studying the vehicle. Where Ishida was seeing problems and issues, Cast was seeing opportunities.

"Oh, but I bet this 'un can go real fast, if we put our hearts to it..." Cast chittered while kneeling down and looking at it up close. The warm interested display seemed to do wonders with the Gungan. Which set his tongue loose and offered them a direction to travel towards first. Cast bounced back up to his feet with a grin as he watched the native walk back to his shop.

Then he turned towards Ishida.

"See! I told you. A few smiles, some interested questions and they already treat us as neighbors." His arm looped around Ishida's shoulders while he looked at the little boat-shaped thing.

"Let's get this one in the water and make sure we don't drown, yeah?" He kissed the top of her head and immediately went to get busy with it. Soon enough the dinghy was in the water and Cast was balancing on top of it like he was born in the river. He extended his hand to her, to help her inside, even though they both knew she didn't need his help.

Cast liked to offer anyway.

 

[Ishida Ashina]

Neighbours. A shudder coursed through her involuntarily and passed through the weight of his casual arm sling. None of her previous domiciles had neighbours. What benefit was there to more people in less space? It seemed pitched as a good thing, wherein fact it seemed the exact opposite.

She afforded no response while Castian took the lead figuring out if the water vehicle would sink immediately or not, and much to her relief (or actually, despair? If it sunk, this trip would be over), it did not.

One foot slid to the edge of the little vehicle and she reminded herself to accept the hand when offered. Something she'd been working on since Inosuke's return to her life.

The vehicle wobbled, clearly imbalanced with one of the intakes that verged on faulty, and Ishida grimaced. The display did not falter however, even though Ishida convinced herself that the battery would instantly die the moment they started puttering away from the shore. Just more suspense for later, she supposed. Something to look forward to.

"The map he gave," she plugged the route into her personal datapad, not trusting the display of the little boat, "It's a really long route. Although," she squinted. "There doesn't seem to be a shorter one. Solleu in, Solleu out."

Tilting the screen toward Castian, she edged away from the driver's seat. "You're driving, by the way. I accept no responsibility for this charming and neighbourly bucket of bolts."

---

Castian Vero

 

[Castian Vero]

He squeezed her hand reassuringly. It was clear that this was outside of the realm of comfort for her. Every fiber of her being was resisting this and yet... Here she was. For him? For them both?

Castian wasn't sure but he was grateful of her effort regardless. He didn't underline it though, didn't draw specific attention to it.

Instead his presence just warmed against hers.

Ever lasting, always present, that bond that had been forged over time.

"No, but that's a good thing." Castian pointed out patiently as he drew the map up and projected it between them. He took the wheel and started the vehicle right after that.

"It means we can take in the view. Come on, you can't tell me all of this isn't gorgeous."

Cast was used to Dantooine. Grass as far as the eye could meet and farmland. This was a whole new thing entirely.

"You know we don't actually have to have neighbors. We can just build high and put up a warning sigh."

A smirk there as his hand twitched and an illusion settled above them. She'd feel the trademark of his force use. Confident and free in it's application.

Currently it was crafting a warning sign in the air.

Stay away.The dog won't bite, but the lady of the house just might.

"How's that?" Tone and glance at her full of mischief.

Ishida Ashina

 

[Ishida Ashina]

"True." Ishida conceded, letting her eyes wander the shoreline. Rich, green, lush beyond measure. The planet boasted a health of soil and sunshine. And when she closed her eyes, she felt the life teeming around them. Natural, earthy, and growing. Alive with the kind of energy that she felt convinced when she opened her eyes new saplings would sprout on demand.

"I can't tell you it isn't gorgeous." When she opened her eyes, her gaze settled contentedly on him in the way that shifted the object of their discussion from the riverside to him.

"Mhm. Up high, with a good vantage point of —" she stopped mid sentence to look at the way the air changed shape and became thick with language.

No matter how badly she wanted to keep her stone-faced composure, the unnatural need to laugh poked through the cracks. Just once. Like a cough. The thin line betwixt her lips curved upward ever so slightly and a single brow arched. She gave him a pointed look to accompany her wry grin.

"We're getting a dog?"

---

Castian Vero​

 

[Castian Vero]

It was the little things that made Castian keep trying. Just the little wry smile, just the laugh obfuscated as a cough. These were the things that Cast lived for. And why he kept coaxing out more. He enjoyed how stoic and harsh she was. It was... attractive. But he also enjoyed the little cracks he made in her composure and drew out the woman behind the cold warrior.

Both were good in their own way.

"Mm, I don't know, probably not if I am being realistic. We don't know how often we will be here." And it would be cruel to keep a dog and then not be here that often. Even if they took a droid to take care of their needs when they weren't here.

"But whoever is reading the sign won't know there is no dog."

His fingers waggled as he leaned in to steal a little kiss.

"They will only know there is a gorgeous woman who might bite them if they misbehave." Purred softly against her lips.

Ishida Ashina

 

[Ishida Ashina]

Maybe one day, when they felt their quest complete, they'd get an animal companion. Ishida tended to prefer animals over humans. They were more predictable, easier to read and served purpose.

She thought about this while he closed in, and he was so swift, that she didn't have time to close her eyes. A year or so ago, that would have sent off dread alarms in her system; that someone could come in and out of her personal space so undetected. Today, not only was he undetected, he was craved.

"Oh you," she smirked at his boyish flirtation, warming under the slight vibration passing from his pillowy mouth to hers. "You should keep your eyes on the river. This boat's prone to crashing, remember?"

Castian Vero

 

[Castian Vero]

It was a good thing that Ishida warned him about it. She probably meant it in a playful way, but she also knew how he could get in these sort of moments. Head in the cloud and just... away, only focused on the here and now, not considering what was around them. It was a wonder that he had been a Master Sergeant in the Imperial Order before this. A hardened soldier, even. But in some ways it made sense too. He had worked so long to neutralize his connection to the Force. The moment he had opened himself up to it... the whole world started to light up for him.

"Oh, feth!" Eyes wide as he quickly turned around and steadied the controls of the boat. Right in time too, because they would have ran aground if Cast had spend a few more moments being a lovey-dovey fool. "My fault. I just can't help it sometimes." A smirk over his shoulder to her. He didn't elaborate on what he couldn't help. Because Ishida would know exactly what he was talking about anyway.

As they ran down the river the mountains green came up out of the mist.

"Gods, telling you, the views here are karking crazy. We could explore this world for years and probably find new things to enjoy."

Voice a bit dreamy, eyes vacant as they stared off to the distance. The moment of stress already forgotten and back to the dream world of possibilities for Castian.

Ishida Ashina

 

[Ishida Ashina]

The grin that cracked her stony face was toothsome when she caught herself against the side of the boat. The river's current was fast, but not violent. Castian quickly righted their path by the time she herself got her compusure back and swanned up to his side, looping an arm around his and resting her head on his bicep.

"You said that about Coruscant once too, I remember." Ishida sounded nostalgic, farway. It was one of the things she found so interesting about Castian — that he could land on any rock in the galaxy and be content to explore what it had to offer. And he always invited her to be interested as well. To take time to settle, resonate, dwell.

He approached nearly everything with such stark difference to her that it forced her to pause and consider.

"Would you have left Dantooine if you'd never been conscripted? Or spent your whole life learning about your homeworld instead?"

---

Castian Vero

 

[Castian Vero]

He didn't immediately respond, partially because he was content with her next to him and the river in front of them as the mountain loomed above them. It was a picture worth savoring.

Then-

"I would have had to leave Dantooine at some point..." Leaning down to nuzzles at her temple. "To find my way to you."

It might have sounded sappy and slick, but she knew him well enough to know he was serious about it. Castian believed in the way of the Force in a way that had little to do with prophecy. Instead he simply believed things worked out the way they ought to because of the Force.

The Force weaves as it will.

"Do you ever wish you got to stay on Atrisia? Without the harshness. Just... To explore your world without all the baggage."

Ishida Ashina

 

[Ishida Ashina]

Her eyes closed, and she nestled in with a small sound of contentment. It was an exercise of futility to think about the would haves and should haves and what-could-have-beens — but Castian did it well in a way that ended in a singular constant: them.

Several beats passed, and the gentle spray of the river kept her cool despite the afternoon sun that hung high in the sky. Above the motor's sound, she could hear gentle beckons of local flora tweeting, humming, otherwise noisemaking. Sounds she did not know, but could get used to.

Absently, her hands skimmed up over his back, scratching over the grooves that could be felt through his clothes.

"Atrisia is beautiful," she said quietly, wist weaving its way through her low tone. "The winters are bright, the springs are pink and soft...I did love it. So, yes, I suppose so.

I never thought of it as a place to stay after I learned the truth about my brother." Her life would have been so different if she'd simply become heir to Ashina Clan. She'd be a merciless warlord. Which..probably wasn't too dichotomous from today, but she'd be lonely.

"And I don't think of it as one now, either. Not for us."

Somehow her brother and Henna made it work. But they were so...not like Castian in any which way.

A few seconds of silence passed before she extended a manicured finger.

"Look, there. The first turn, hm?" She glanced back at the map they'd left projected up and tracked the destination backward. "Take a..right and.." she squinted again, comparing the map to reality.

Ahead of them, a herd of tan, long-necked mammals gathered to obfuscate the pathway, enjoying the drink. There were maybe ten falumpasets compeltely unbothered and in their way.

---

Castian Vero

 

[Castian Vero]

Ishida Ashina

Getting around the herd animals ended up as easy as Castian creating an illusion of some birds floating around them. It caused a distraction that made him slowly draw away, opening a path for them to continue on. He secured the ship and patted it on the hull. "Good ship, you really served us well and I hope will continue to do so!"

Only the mischievous glint in his eye and the feint impression of a smirk suggested to Ish that he was, in fact, messing around with her just a little bit.

It was farm land around them. Above them a large mountain loomed into the sky. It still had an archway carved right through it, allowing people to travel underneath it. Perhaps that was before starships became so common place they allowed people quick travel via the sky.

"Damn, those Naboo people know how to build." He said with a whistle as he watched it quietly for a moment. "Can you imagine growing up here, among the rolling grass and mountains?" No wonder Naboo was considered by some to be a cultural epicenter of the Galaxy. Just growing up here was an inspiration for beauty.

"How about a home carved into a mountain?" As if inspired by the archway carved by the people of Naboo. "Nice and high. Safe and sturdy."

 

[Ishida Ashina]

"Easy on the love affair with the humbug." Ishida warned Castian, amusedly watching the one way exchange between man and machine. Though, if anyone could charm something inanimate to life through conversation alone; jt would be Castian.

"You really can talk to anything." Her head shook subtly, motioned by disbelief and awe. Though, if she were being introspective, sometimes she didn't have much to offer in the conversation department; much like the humbug. But Castian still chattered away.

Soft and loamy underfoot, Ishida tread the riverbed without managing to get a drop of wet on her silk hem. Green stretched out in every direction, melting into harsher grey tones where grass met stone.

"Mm." Ishida agreed, marvelling in silence. The rockface stretched up hundreds of feet, before arching in a way that looked natural but showed the smoothness of human intervention.

Such a spectacle wouldn't exist on Atrisia. The earthquakes were too frequent to encourage anyone to much building with rocks. And something carved into the environment was the opposite of the Hall of the Sun, where it had been pointedly carved out of the earth to stand proud and obvious.

"I like that idea," she murmured and glided to his side. Her neck craned to observe the full stretch of the unnaturally beautiful curve. "As a project and an outcome. Different from anything we've ever had before."

Two steps forward, she lifted the hem of her robe to tread through a tiny stream and to more grass.

"Let's explore further. I don’t like being so near the riverbank. More discretion is better.”

---

Castian Vero