Private Two Tribes | Kaska

[Auteme]

Kaska Arden ​

The grasslands gave way to tall pines but the path continued deeper into the forest. Auteme, of course, wished she had more time to study the native fauna that had formed the trail they were following. Species that lived in or migrated through multiple habitats were fascinating. There was the possibility that it was formed by the natives; it marked the border of the claimed lands of the Y'viu and Grakt clans, but it could also be an evolution on the part of the animals -- here, the locals tended to want to fight each other rather than hunt for food.

Thracior was unlike many Core Worlds given its lack of development and ever-warring warlords. Yet since their induction into the Galactic Alliance, they'd begun to make themselves more open to outsiders -- and, through the Jedi's influence, a little more peaceful. Oddly enough, Auteme had become a somewhat popular figure for her role in defeating the witches that had held so much sway over the Hnsi and Tantt. Nothing quite like TRAA, but it was something. Thracior was a small planet. Word spread quickly. Auteme became the de facto negotiator and 'Jedi Helper' of the planet.

Skip a year and the situation that arose was nearly the same -- two bordering tribes looking for peace, but unable to come to it alone. They demanded a sign be brought to them from the gods. By sign, they meant an artifact from a temple hidden in the forest; by gods, they apparently meant a Jedi had to go get it for them.

Remembering the last time she'd come to Thracior, she decided to bring a friend. She knew everyone in the New Jedi Order, some better than others. A nice long walk seemed like the perfect opportunity to become friends with Kaska. Auteme went and found herself a rock to sit on at the edge of the forest.

"Are you hungry? I brought snacks," she said, starting to rummage around in her bag.

 

[Kaska Arden]

Auteme

"Hm?" Despite standing less than a few feet away, the reply was surprisingly distant as the Nyriaan woman found herself distracted by their surroundings, her head shifting almost gratefully to face the unseasonably chill breeze that had started to wind its way in from the north. Taking delight in the way it rustled and whipped its way through the canopy of leaves that spread out above them. After spending the last six months and change almost exclusively beneath the weight of artificial gravity, subsisting on stale air recycled countless times over, it felt good to be planet side and out in the open once again - even if the change in gravity made her movements feel exaggerated and heavy.

"Depends," Kaska added almost absently, dragging those dark amber eyes away from the wonders of an living, breathing ecosystem in favour of her current companion. Unlike her, the Shield of the Jedi didn't seem to have any trouble adjusting to the local gravity. If anything she seemed fairly at home here. "Are we talking trail mix or those sithspit Jedi nutri-bars? Because if so, I am telling you now, I am happy to walk back to the ship here and now."

Her nose wrinkled at the mere thought. They might have contained all the necessary components to tick all the dietary requirements needed for a growing Jedi, but whoever had cooked those monstrous little bars up clearly was in league with the Dark Lord himself. Despite her words and misgivings, however, it didn't stop her holding out a hand. Food was food at the end of the day. Even if it barely met that descriptor.

"So, after we find this trinket, I am guessing you want me to be the muscle for this little..." She made a vague, rolling gesture with the same outstretched as she tried to find the right word to describe their current mission, lips quirking into a lopsided smile that seemed to match the tone of her voice. The faint traces of an accent gave away that she wasn't a native speaker, further reinforced by a habitual avoidance of using contractions as she spoke. "Ah, diplomatic envoy? Keep them in line while you do the talking?"

If the Nyriaan woman was offended by the notion she was just here to add a touch more physical clout to the proceedings, it certainly didn't show. On the contrary, after spending close to a decade in the shadow of Sardun, a man with a fairly well earned reputation, she wasn't too surprised when people applied it to his former padawan. If this had been his mission, he would have likely sought out the biggest, ugliest and meanest warriors both sides had at their disposal and made a point of trouncing them mercilessly until the prospect of peace didn't sound quite as bad. Or made her do it for him.

Thankfully, Auteme was no Michael Sardun, and this mission seemed to be more scavenger hunt than arduous peace talk. And while a dusty temple sounded about as exciting as those bland nutri-bars, it would actually be... refreshing to try and solve a dispute from a less aggressive starting point for a change. If nothing else it offered her a chance to connect with her fellow Jedi.

"The Hnsi and the Tantt," she paused as waiting for Auteme to correct her pronunciation of the tribe names before pressing on, "Less than a year since you were here last, and they are already at each other's throats once more? What is so different this time? What is so special about this..."

And another pause and another awkward beat. The sudden realization she hadn't actually paid attention to the robed priest that had beseeched them to find the artifact dawning on her in that very moment. Something about a glowing orb? Or was it a vase? The man's thick, coarse accent had made it difficult for her to comprehend a full third of the discussion. She opted just to avoid it altogether. "...Ah, thing we are looking for again?"

 

[Auteme]

Kaska Arden
​

Auteme instead produced a muja fruit and handed it to Kaska. It was far too fresh, like she was hiding a mini-fridge in her bag. She produced a second for herself and chewed as Kaska asked her questions. Hopefully she'd listen to Auteme more than the holy man who'd given them their quest.

"The Grakt and Y'viu clans," she began with a subtle correction, "Want us to find a supposedly magic goblet. It's a symbol of peace and unity to drink from the same cup. Slightly unhygienic, but I think I get it. Legends say that it is always brought by a stranger; a third party with their best interests in mind. That's us.

"As for the negotiations themselves -- I don't think we'll need to do too much. They're sending us to get it, after all, right? It's just a gesture to get things started; I think they'll arrive at peace on their own. We're just giving them a little help." She smiled. As 'muscled' as Kaska was, Auteme thought that sort of thing was rarely necessary. Intimidation, even if it was just to get someone to listen, wasn't her style. "This is a good first step, anyways. A little time and effort and the warlords of Thracior will be well on their way to peace, then true government and entering the galactic stage. Respecting their customs is the least we can do."

Her eyes wandered to the forest. Respecting those customs might end up being rather difficult -- the woods quickly became dense, and the goblet supposedly rested on an island at the center of a large lake deep in the forest. And who knew what they might encounter there? She was glad someone was there to supplement her lackluster muscles, just in case.

"I don't know how far we'll need to go, but it should be at the end of this path." She hopped to her feet. "Shall we?"

 

[Kaska Arden]

Auteme

Grakt and Y'viu. She mouthed the unfamiliar words silently to herself while Auteme continued to elaborate their part in this peace talks, attempting to engrave them on her tongue as much as her mind. A slip up like that was acceptable when it was just the two of them, but the last thing she needed was to accidentally cause strife by referring to the clans by the wrong name later on. Conflict resolution was the aim here. There was no need to spark the former while attempting the latter.

It was sounding incredibly tenuous enough already.

"And you believe this will be enough to placate them? Peace is usually more expensive than a shiny cup in my experience." She rolled the muja down the length her forearm as she spoke, extending her arm at the last second to cause it to bounce upwards as it reached her elbow, catching it a second later as it began to plummet backdown. A soft sound of self-satisfaction rumbled in the back of her throat. Her gait might have felt unwieldy in this gravity, but at least her reflexes didn't seem affected in any meaningful way. "The chains of hatred are..."

That lopsided expression dimmed a touch as her smirk took on an almost forlorn appearance. The Nyriaanan's eyes now purposefully fixed on the path before them. "Always the hardest to break. Some scars run deeper than what words and fancy gestures can erase alone, no? And from what the old man said, what little I could understand, the tribes in this region have accumulated a lot of scar tissue."

She paused, almost as if she was about to continue, her mouth opening to say something further only for her demeanor to abruptly shift. The words cut off in their infancy as the Jedi instead took a messy bite out of her fruit. A hand absently coming up to cup her chin as the sticky sweet juices threaten to spill forth.

"We should get a move on," she agreed between mouthfuls, "we're burning daylight and I have a feeling these woods are not nearly as pretty in the dark."

In fact, it was clear now that the woods were becoming less managed and tamed by the meter. Already the path up ahead was starting to become an overgrown, tangled mess of thick pockets of brush and thorny looking tree branches. From the odd patterns and placement, it seemed that someone had made a valiant attempt at keeping them at bay once upon a time, but it seemed no one had made the journey in quite a while. At least that meant they were on the right course, at least.

Overgrown thicket or not, there was also an easy solution that would see them through the worst of it.

"This would go a lot faster if you had a lightsaber, you know."

 

[Auteme]

Kaska Arden
​

"We could also, probably, you know, go through without disturbing the plants," she said, picking her way through the undergrowth and still-sizzling plants. She patted down the ones that looked a little too hot. Forest fires were no joke, and the people of Thracior didn't exactly have the means to fight them effectively. It was like Auteme facing any Sith with a lightsaber.

"I know they've hurt a lot, and I know there's hatred, and all that. But I think they'll forgive each other-" She nicked her foot on a root and almost tripped, but managed to catch herself on a nearby tree trunk. "I- I think they'll forgive each other," she continued. "I don't know, I just- I'm optimistic. They asked us here, and that's a start, for sure. Scars are just superficial. And, you know. I'm a healer. It's what I do."

But she didn't know. She just didn't want to project strength for the sake of peace. A foundation of power and strength was, oddly, the weakest. Lasting peace was just a matter of reminding people that cooperation was always possible. So, she'd cooperate with Kaska-

"SNAKE!" She squeaked, almost jumping out of her shoes. Instead she jumped normally and ended up falling into the underbrush. The snake, that most dangerous of noodles, had mottled grey-green scales, and seemed very intent on Auteme -- though it was still two meters away, and not yet baring its fangs.

 

[Kaska Arden]

Auteme

"Judging from how quick they seem to have grown, we are doing the surrounding vegetation a favor by keeping these in check" Kaska replied, neatly cutting a section out from a particularly gnarled and spikey branch with two quick strikes. The way ahead was quickly looking less like a forest path, more like a jungle thicket due to the choking vines. She was by no means expert on botany, but she doubted such fast and excessive growth was good for the local area. If anything these vines seemed as invasive as they were pervasive.

There was also something about them made her skin crawl, but she wasn't about to admit that to the Shield of the Jedi.

The lightsaber hesitated mid-swing, frown lines appearing on her face for a moment before she shrugged, pushing the feeling down and completed the motion. Another section of the overgrowth landing at her feet a second later. Covering her lapse with a simple shrug of her shoulders, "Besides, we are on a time limit here, no? Finding another path might take hours, even days that those peace talks do not have."

That sounded reasonable, right? Certainly more so than 'these plants give me the spooks.'

A girlish, high pitched squeal caught Kaska off guard before she could really think it over further, the Jedi knight spinning on her heel, saber falling into an opening stance of Niman, blade at the ready to fend off an attacker that was...

Harmlessly slithering past the pair without sparing them a second glance, if anything it seemed to be almost purposefully avoiding making eye contact with the pair as it rushed off into the underbrush. It was hard to know which of the three was more embarrassed by the whole affair.

"..." She lowered the lightsaber and relaxed her stance. Her freckled cheeks feeling as warm as her blade in that instance. Her gaze fixing Auteme with a sidelong glance, a mixture of amusement and genuine curiosity lurking in those dark eyes, matching the lopsided smirk that gradually blossomed into view. "You... You do not get out much, do you? Beyond the city or the temple, when was the last time you were actually in the field and not dodging Sith attacks?"

 

[Auteme]

Kaska Arden
​

"It was looking at me," she said as it slithered away, not looking at her. Auteme straightened and did her best to regain her composure. Not that it was a competition, but she was pretty sure she'd been the most embarrassed of the three of them. Kaska seemed like too much of a badass to be afraid of snakes.

"Well- I try not to go out looking for fights. I just- I'm better at talking to people. And snakes are VERY dangerous. I'm good with things! I get out. All the time. I get out." She spoke like she was more trying to convince herself than Kaska. She got out, but not nearly as much as she'd like, and too often it was more 'dodging Sith attacks' than anything else. She preferred when she traveled to places with much less danger.

"Let's- let's keep going," she said, dusting herself off. With a kind of nervous glance, she asked Kaska to continue her work cutting through the forest.