Private Solem Night, Empty Belly

[Saer Lorian]

He was starting to think that following the sketchy memories of camping in some remote place had been a bad idea. Of course this realization did not get the supplies before him turned into a meal.

He flopped into the grass beside what should have been a campfire. He just didn't have the strength to bother now. Used to, calling a simple flame had been easy, but if the trail of smoke fading in the air was any sign, it spoke of failure.

His stomach snarled at him and he sat up with a groan opening the can and deciding cold soup it would be. Oh how far I have fallen. He thought with scorn, staring at the half empty can with disgust.

He looked like a beggar, which sadly he had become. A scant couple weeks had passed since he'd been dropped into the middle of a city being torn apart by unleashed spirits. Being discharged and given free passage to anywhere, he had thought useful.

However, his dismal meal sat like a lump in his stomach. To make matters worse, the civilization he was downwind of made him weak with further hunger. Someone was cooking a meal and whatever it was was a far cry from what he had stolen from the back of a supply vehicle.

Stealing a meal gnawed at his pride a fair bit, but he hadn’t had any other choice. He’d been starving and he was quickly coming to learn that something was very strange with his new circumstances. Just what? He wasn’t really in a position to explore, but something was very off indeed. He finished the soup, grabbed another can, it wasn’t long before the meagre four cans and jerky were gone.

He laid back in the grass with a soft groan, he still felt hollow. He needed more food, but that wasn’t going to happen. He wrapped himself tighter in the thin jacket and pillowed his head on his arm. No, tonight was indeed going to be quite miserable.

Abaigeal E'ron

 

[Abaigeal E'ron]

Solem was not far from Anoat. The trip uneventful. Yet in her hours of travel her meditation had proved to be fruitful. A speck in the wilder galaxy, a fading light flickering before finally burning bright and extinguishing.

But what brought her here was the force, a calling. Someone was in trouble and she was had answered the call and came to Solem. She was guided to a remote place out from G'ai Solem the main city, Abaigeal travelled by speeder across the rocky terrain toward her destination, not far from Kandaas, the only point of interest on this planet. That was not much to be excited about, it was only a cave with somewhat of a history about bounty hunters. Not something she cared about. The closer she got, the more clear the direction, and the signature through the force grew in strength.

Dejected, angry hungry fear, a heady cocktail of emotions and thoughts.

Nothing familiar about the being, in this galaxy simply one in millions but the force had other ideas. She was just its vessel on this day and in time maybe the reasoning would become clear. The bike passed Kandaas, she gave it a fleeting glance and push forward. The sound of her bike echoing off the stone walls as it rimmed the side of the mountain and enter the valley. They would hear her coming before she came into sight and Abaigeal was ready for anything.

Friend or foe was yet to be determined.



Saer Lorian

 

[Saer Lorian]

“Give us your food and fire!”

The shout startled him and he struggled to sit up, unfortunately the shouter had closed the distance and blinding pain sent him sprawling back to the ground from the hard kick to his ribs. Another to his stomach saw the lump that was his meal, splattering on the grass as he gagged and coughed.

Pain, Humiliation and deeper rage filled him. He staggered to his feet and barely managed to drudge the punch even as a second person ran at him. He danced away clumsily from pain, bringing his hands up to deflect another punch. They were trying to herd him away, in fact, the second person was already rummaging through the trash that were his ‘things’.

He saw a punch coming, ducking under and dragging the man down by grabbing with both hands around his neck. More blows followed, but he was blinded with pain tinged rage. Hunger rose up too and the next instant as they hit the ground, warmth flooded his body. The less grungy beggar under him seized up and made a choking sound. Anyone other than himself who could would sense incredible paralyzing pain followed swiftly by painfully growing weakness before a breath later, a life being snuffed out.

Saer barely had time to register his attacker had fallen limp as the other shouted and started kicking him. He grabbed the offending leg and dragged him off balance before flinging himself on top of him, grabbing his hair and smashing his head into the ground.This time the paralyzing pain was brief, as the back of his head caved in from a rock hidden in the grass. When the speeder’s lights hit his face Sae reacted by lifting an arm to shield his face, just as horror hit.

He looked down at the bodies, then his hands and pushed himself away, scrabbling backwards. He suddenly felt sick to his stomach, but at least there was nothing to worry about now, the greenery got the unwelcome tribute. A fragment of a fight came to mind, a fight of equals, but this? He stared at the bodies with shame. This had been base murder and for what? Trash. Didn’t matter that they had attacked him, he had still killed them.

His racing mind also seized on the fact that he felt far better than he had since his arrival back to flesh. In fact, he felt as good as he had in the Nether. This realization only made him feel more sick to his stomach. What was going on?

Inspection of the bodies would show these two beggars had better clothing and looked cleaner than the one that they had attacked. Probably by beating others away from what they wanted, but again, this was not a comfort. He stared at the speeder wondering if he was about to be arrested. He wouldn’t fight it of course, it only seemed right to him after all, had the short fight drawn that kind of attention? I don’t care… I’ll have a roof over my head, a shower and clean clothes. Maybe this is why so many people break laws. There is an upside… Stars I am that pathetic...

Abaigeal E'ron

 

[Abaigeal E'ron]

There was a sudden peak in emotion coming from the connection in the force. Abaigeal pushed forward, urging her speeder bike to the limit. Something bad was about to happen, her force senses tingling, growing more alarmed with every passing second. Eventually, she turned the corner to find a sight of not one, but three men.

Two of which were laying on the ground. Their life essence leaving their bodies to become one with the force.

The man caught in the lights of her speeder, stood confused, dismayed at what just transpired. What he had done. What little of the camp site was left, if there had been much to it to begin with, was strewn all around them place. It was clear there had been a fight. To the death it seemed.

Was this self-defence? Or was this man that stood, the attacker.

Abaigeal pulled to a stop, and jumped off her ride, with her saber in hand ready for anything.

“What happened here?”, she approached with caution, her force abilities reaching out around the surroundings, picking up on anything in the immediate area. They were alone.

The man before her so sullen, his skin pale with lack of food, lack of sleep and dirty from a life of hardship. What had brought him here was anyone’s guess, but one thing Abbie did know.

He was a master in the force. His signature strong, powerful and skilled. She held the force at the ready, if this situation came to a fight, she was more than ready and more than skilled enough to fight.

“Who are you?”.


Saer Lorian

 

[Saer Lorian]

His inky black eyes turned to her as she strode up. The lightsaber in her hand gave him pause. When he spoke, despite the inner turmoil, his voice was calm. “I was bemoaning my fate and choking down a poor meal when these two attacked me. There wasn’t much time for thought as one took me by surprise and started to kick me, the other rummaged around for anything valuable, which I do not have. As I was dealing with the first, the other came at me after he was dispatched and well… You see the result.”

His accent was crisp, clear and utterly Imperial. Some places in the galaxy still held the old world Imperial mark and, if his aristocratic diction was any hint, marked him from Kuat. However somehow his accent was purerer. Wholly out of time with the modern Kuat accent. More, why hadn’t he sensed these two coming? He was incredibly weak, for all that she had noticed his potential. To make matters worse, his Force aura was strange.

He’d been a Sith once, likely his first initiation with the Force. Except that he didn’t have any signatures of corruption. His aura was more ‘grey’ in flavor, like a faded cloak that currently lay in tatters around his shoulders. His aura wasn’t a stark challenge, but muted. If another his rank and power were standing next to him, he would seem the weaker of the two. However this simply meant his was the hidden danger in the dark compared to more vibrant powers. He sighed softly and turned to her. “I assume your arrival means that you will be turning me over to the authorities? I won’t make excuses nor protest… I did kill these men, so. Do as you must.” He gave her a wry smirk. “At least this means I will be able to shower.”

And he was mocking himself. He just didn’t seem like the sort you’d find in a situation like this. He carried himself upright and carefully, the clothing on his person was ill suited to him and in poor condition. It was as if she were seeing a ‘riches to rags’ situation, right in front of her eyes. Except he had been trying to make the best of the situation. “Who am I? Good question…” He remarked thoughtfully. “My name however is Saer Lorian. And you miss?”

And he was respectful and polite to boot.

Abaigeal E'ron

 

[Abaigeal E'ron]

"Move over there by that rock and sit down on the ground", she indicated with the hilt of her saber. Abaigeal moved closer to the bodies, by the way they were killed, it indicated desperation on lorian part. They were not killed with a weapon, but brute force by hand and a bit of luck. The evidence around the site indicated a robbery gone wrong, and their was nothing through the force to tell her he was lying. But he would be practiced at it, skilled at concealing the truth, tired or not.

Moving over to the stuff strewn on the ground, "I am the authorities, so you will be coming with me", she was still puzzled why the force had guided her to this place, to this man but patience would reveal the answers she trusted. Abaigeal looked him over, their was a hint of grace about the man, and his attire which had seen better days were made from threads that no common person could afford. He could have stolen them of course, but they seemed to fit well, as if tailored to his form.

"You are not from around here are you?". She picked through the things looking for anything that might give her an idea of who or what this guy was. Apart from a few trinkets and discarded food, their was nothing of note. All she had was his words. At least he was polite.

"Abaigeal E'ron, Jedi". She stood up and approached him. "I will take you into custody, you will stay at the Temple on Anoat until we can get this mess sorted .. and yes you can have a shower", she raised her arm and contacted her ship to come to her current location and they could transport out.

"So how did you get out here?".


Saer Lorian

 

[Saer Lorian]

He moved to where she indicated, but because the rock was both tall enough and flat enough, he sat down on it instead. He watched her examine the bodies and the mess that had been his camp impassively. The evidence was clear to see, but he had a strong feeling she didn’t believe it nor him despite the lack of falsehood on his part.

When she made the comment about ‘not being from around here’ he chuckled softly and smiled at that, but didn’t answer as it seemed rhetorical. It was true in quite a wide sense, but keeping quiet as she did what she felt she needed seemed to be the wisest course of action.

He didn’t fidget or give any of the usual signs someone guilty might give in a circumstance like this. He was calm, his gaze never missing a single one of her movements. Despite the intensity of his focus, he didn’t oggle or in any manner seem rude. In fact, his focus was quite impassive, he saw her as who she was, but didn’t focus on any particular aspect. It was simply her movements that caught his attention, reading her in a similar fashion the way an Echani might. While he probably didn’t read a whole story from her, he certainly missed nothing and didn’t seem to notice he was doing this.

When she mentioned that she was a Jedi and an authority, his expression went blank. As if the term ‘Jedi’ had no meaning to him. In fact, he had no idea what she was talking about. The name Jedi rang a bell, but nothing was forthcoming and it being attached to the word ‘authority’ had a dissonance to it, as if what she was acting as was counter to the vague brush the name Jedi brought. He stood up with a frown, the first hint of suspicion. “Why do I have a feeling that you aren’t as you are supposed to be? It feels wrong somehow. I don’t know what a Jedi is, but yet I feel as if you being an ‘authority’ under that title is wrong somehow.”

So he decided to say something instead of just willingly following her. For all that he had been passive and compliant, his instincts were solid enough. It might be strange to her to meet a man who claimed no knowledge of the Jedi, yet in the same hand knowing her current role was not that which was traditionally the role of the Jedi Order. More, that he was willing to heed the instinct to question, to pause and to tell her of his suspicions. Her question about how he got out here however was easily enough given, despite his reluctance. “I am a survivor of the tragedy on Genosis.”

She might detect the hint that this was both true and not, not that he was lying, but that there was more to the story. However he didn’t trust her, which was why he gave her the simplified answer. “How I got here is that they pitched me from the triage once I was mobile, shipped me off to where they were sticking the refugees. Anyone who was willing to take their chances somewhere else was allowed free passage and the ship I took, was headed here as the furthest stop on it’s route.”

He could have stayed in the camp, but it was too much for him at that time. The temporary shelters gave little privacy and he frankly didn’t want to hear the miseries and complaints of his neighbors. However, in hindsight he should have just endured the mass cloud of misery.

Abaigeal E'ron