Padawan Menace
The young boy gave a loud gasp as his head came up from out of the water.
This swamp was too mucky to breathe! Dog-paddling along the surface, the Nautolan shook his head vigorously as he tried to dislodge the mud and gunk that was now clogging and irritating the gills along either side of his cranial head-tails. There was also a Niathal-class shuttle, still bearing Levantine markings, that was slowly sinking into the briny waters behind where the small youngling had popped up.
He was pretty sure that wasn't his fault. The crash, that is. For starters, Zak didn't really know how to fly. He knew some of the basics, but he was nine. Maybe it had been a pilot droid error, or maybe whatever adult was ostensibly supposed to be supervising him had fallen asleep at the wheel. Possibly after indulging in the copious amounts of alcohol that would be required to maintain sanity in the event one was trapped inside a interstellar shuttle with a hyperactive nine year old for the time required to transit the galaxy back and forth.
Paddling to the water's edge, the youngling pulled himself up on the river bank and knelt on his knees coughing up a mixture of mud and mucus as he swept like he had swamp gunk in his lungs and gills still.
It figured that the planet he'd crash on would be the one water world in the whole galaxy that a Nautolan couldn't breathe. It was like a river of salt, silt... and he was pretty sure he'd swam past a couple of decomposing creatures in there as well.
After another minute, the boy sniffled and rose up so that he was standing on his knees. A rather unbecoming dribble of snot was hanging from his nose, which he wiped at with the back of his arm. He was plastered in moss, muck, and mud, which dripped off of his slight form as he got to his feet. Reaching his hands up, the boy tried to gently wring out his gills -- which felt like he had bits of sandpaper stuck in there.
He never said this, and I mean never, but he could really use a bath right now.
Bare feet sank into the mud, as the boy turned and looked back at the sinking frame of the shuttle as it slid beneath the water. Great. He didn't even know what planet he was on! He'd been taking a nap after participating in a youngling tournament at the Jedi Temple on Sullust when, suddenly, everything had turned into a roller coaster.
And not the fun kind of roller coaster, either. He'd thrown up. Maybe twice. And, part of the muck adorning him might actually have been some of that.
He still had Riptide, which was made for being submersed in water. But, as the boy reached into the pockets of his Jet Robes, he pulled out a fistful of mud. In the middle of which was his HoloBoy Advanced. Now, the portable gaming device was water resistant. But it wasn't water proof. To preserve the internal electronics, the device had shut down as a safety precaution and he probably wouldn't be able to get it working again until it had dried out.
Lurching forward, the child sneezed. Sniffling, he rubbed his nose with a sweep of his arm again as he straightened back up and started looking around.
"Hello?"
[member="Kiara"] | [member="Abaigeal E'ron"]