Unexpected Meetings

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

He sort of had been waiting for an invitation.

It had seemed rather rude and presumptuous to just crawl under the blanket with her, especially since she still wasn’t wearing any pants. Val might have been forward with jokes, but actually following through was quite a big difference. He moved quickly towards the pack, digging around for a few moments until he found the thermal blanket. There were also some other things that he made note of, like the small heat lamp.

He drew that out as well and placed it next to her, taking the other blanket and gently laying it on the ground so that they could use it as a very thin mattress, that way no heat would be lost from their bodies when they were laying on the ground. Taheera seemed to get the message, scooting onto the makeshift mattress before gently lifting the blanket.

With another shiver Val quickly joined her.

His skin was cold to the touch, lips partially blue. It was clear that he had been more than a little cold and that her invitation had come at just the right time for him not to freeze to death. Val offered her a smile as he slipped beneath the blanket, though he gave off another shiver as a gust of wind pressed through the cave.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

Arm brushed against his. "Stars, you're freezing. You should've put me closer to the cave entrance."

She eased in closer to his side, mindful of the blaster wound on her leg. Thankfully, more of her vision was coming back. Fingers reached out and brushed along his arm, back and forth to try and get the blood flowing. Bare leg brushed against his.

"Any better?"

He'd warm up soon, hopefully. Eyelids closed but she was still awake, listening.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

A lot of people thought the most dangerous thing in the wilds were the animals, they were wrong. It wasn’t the Vornskr that got you, it wasn’t the Nexu or the Krayt Dragon, it was the weather. The biting cold, the blistering heat, the sheer winds, it didn’t matter what, but it was always the weather. Either you froze to death or ran out of water. The wilds were dangerous, but it wasn’t because of the animals, more often than not they would only come after you were already a corpse.

”A little.” Val admitted as she scooted closer to him, hands gently rubbing his arms, leg sliding atop his. For a moment he considered something. Warmth was quickly pooling beneath the blanket, though it was clear that even that likely wouldn’t be enough. The wind was strong tonight.

Slowly, Val reached out.

A cold hand would settle on Taheera’s hip, fingers very gently pressing against her skin as her own palm attempted to warm him. He was careful of the blaster wound, knowing full well that even the tiniest bump up against it would be enough to cause her to shrivel in pain. He’d felt those wounds before, more than once in fact.

Gently however, he tugged her closer. "I think I can speed things up though."

Cold lips would press against the warmth of hers, an interesting contrast of sensations.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

Closed lids fluttered open. Lips froze. She certainly wasn't expecting that. Or to kiss him back. But she did.

His fingers at her hip were icy pricks in her skin and it was hard for her not to jerk away on instinct. A warm hand came up to cup his jawline as she finished kissing him. Warm breath left her mouth in tiny puffs of air against his face as she eased back.

"Hey. I told you not to try anything." She smiled and kissed him again. A hand gently cupped his jawline. His lips weren't so cold anymore.

Was she crazy?

Probably.

But she was tired and so was he, so she knew this wouldn't last too much longer. They both needed sleep. And her body needed to heal. In the meantime, kissing would never hurt anyone. It was a happy distraction to an otherwise miserable day.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

”Couldn’t resist.” Val said as he pulled back just slightly, lingering just by her lips for a moment before quietly whispering. ”Your underwear was too cute.”

That wasn’t really true, though the flowers had reminded him of a particular variety found in the fields back home.

His lips broke into a smile, and he kissed her once more, this time with a little bit more vigor than before. He could feel warmth returning to him, the cold winds that swept through the cave were forgotten, his wounds were left behind, and the trouble of a pirate army drifted away into some unknown mist. Perhaps a simple distraction was all they needed.

Val’s hand slowly slipped beneath her shirt, sliding to the small of her back to pull her against himself, his thumb gently massaging her spine.

Their troubles were, for the moment, forgotten.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

"That's the spot," she murmured against him, a smile still on her lips. "Maybe I'll test out your skills with foot massages later." Leg sprawled carefully over his torso, mindful of her bandage. Withdrawing from his lips, she let her head rest against the spot of where the curve of his neck met shoulder. Her body rose and fell with the rhythm of his breathing.

"You do make a slightly more comfortable mattress than the cave floor, though." With one hand tangled in his undone man bun and the other against his chest, she fell asleep.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

Dawn came, and surprisingly Val found himself in a world of warmth rather that freezing cold. Taheera had fallen asleep on top of him, her hand still tangled in his hair, fingers gently curled right against his scalp.

His own hands rested upon her, one on the small of her back with fingers sprawling just above her buttox, the other wrapped gently around her upper body, as if half-way through the night she had nearly fallen off of him and he’d caught her. The shirt she had worn was pulled almost all the way up so their skin touched, warmth emanating between the two.

The blanket was tugged tight around and over them, keeping in the warmth. There was no sun outside the sky in the cave, instead they would find a dreary, and likely rainy morning. Clouds covered the entirety of the valley.

”I need some clothes.” He said to himself quietly.

Before he moved however he slowly looked down at Taheera, checking whether or not she was still asleep. He half couldn’t help himself, fingers gently brushing against her skin.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

Eyelids fluttered open slowly at the deep rumbling of his voice. Beneath the blankets it was almost steamy. Leg shifted gingerly against Val. If the bacta patch was taken off, there would just be a small red line beneath. Her body healed unusually fast. The benefits of being a healer and the genes of whoever her original was.

"Morning," she yawned against him and smiled. Hour-glass shape shifted on top of him. The rain finally reached her ears. Head lifted to look at the entrance.

"I can see it - the rain. I think my vision is back to normal."

Thank the stars. She slowly sat up, perched over him. "There should be a shirt large enough for you in my bag. Somewhere."

Critical gaze washed across his chest and broad shoulders.

"Still, it might be a little small."

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

It would surprise him if anything she brought fit him properly. By his own admission, he was a very large man. It wasn’t something that he could really help of course, and finding clothes that fit him properly was a difficulty that he had lived with for nearly one hundred and twenty years. He of course had his own clothes, but they were all back at the village in the little room that he had rented.

In hindsight, he should have told Taheera to go there.

A frown pulled at his lips, but he slowly shook it. The pirates were doubtlessly still patrolling the forests below, and there was bound to be a Houk or another large Alien species running around with them, he would just have to steal...borrow some of their clothes. A simple shirt would do for now, though by the looks of the weather it would get wet quickly.

”It’ll be cold today.” He said quietly. ”Hope you brought extra pants too.”

Her other ones were little more than rags at this point.

For a moment Val considered their situation, how they were lying beneath the blankets, and then cast a glance towards the backpack. His eyes wandered towards her, she didn’t appear ready to move just yet, and in truth he couldn’t blame her. Val looked up at her, and smiled. ”I’ll get the shirt...right after this.”

He slowly sat up, hands sliding onto her hips and then lower, pulling her closer into a deep kiss.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

She laughed, his touch tickling. Hands found the sides of his bearded jaw and she kissed him back, deeply. Knees knocked against his sides. Fabric of her shirt slipped back down to where it was meant to be. The top blanket slipped down to her waist.

"Okay," she breathed against him and leaned back. "I need to get on some pants." A rogue-ish grin cracked on her lips. She gave him another peck on the lips before her hands fell to his shoulders and she stood. Rummaging through the pack, she threw the shirt at him. It was white. Then she found a black pair of pants and began shimmying them on.

"The jedi guardians gave me a set of coordinates. We'll need to make it there within the next standard day. I already told my friend, at the clinic." Hips wiggled and the pants came up to her waist. "Unless you have a ship stashed around here?"

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

He watched her with a smile on his face, one that likely wasn't going to go any time soon.

Val said simply. "No ship."

He couldn't even fly one of those. It was one of the greater mysteries of his lifetime, one hundred and twenty years in this galaxy and he'd never bothered to learn how to fly a starship. In truth he'd never really needed to...there was always a freighter, always a cargo-ship to take him where he needed to go. Ships were also expensive, and he had neither the money nor the know how to actually fix one, so again...why bother? He gave a mental shrug. "We need to be careful."

He turned serious.

"There's a lot more of them than I thought." That posed a problem. "If your friends are bringing a ship...the pirates will know about it."

It went without saying that if the pirates managed to capture the coming Jedi...not good.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

Kneeling down, she began to pack the bag, folding the blankets from the night before. Grabbing a nutrition bar, she tossed one to Val, then took out her own, wolfing it down. Healing always made her famished. Next came the water.

"I'll warn them. But that's all we got. I don't have a ship either."

Taheera also couldn't fly. She and Val might not make it off the world alive. Or free.

Pack straps slid on over her toned-arms. "What other choice do we have? The villagers are now refugees and they'll need an exit. I plan on getting them off-world safely. No matter what."

She leveled him with that same stubborn look of hers.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

He hadn't actually thought of getting the villagers off world, mostly because...well he'd never had the resources to do anything like that. Even in the Planetary Defense Forces they had always been short on everything, food, weapons, ships. It had been hell fighting pirates, they had always been outnumbered. He caught the protein bar, frowning slightly and looking at the back of it. He read the ingredients and then his frown deepened, head shaking.

"Can't eat it." Val tossed the bar back, sending it sailing through the air and back into the pack.

That was the answer he gave in regards to the now refugees, that and a small smile. He wasn't going to argue the point of getting the villagers out, that would have been foolish. He cared about them in some odd way. Val wasn't a hero, but he certainly didn't want to see those people get turned into slaves. The only place that he differed from her line of thought was simple, there was no way he was leaving this world with the pirates still holding those mines.

"How many Jedi are coming?" He asked. "Exactly I mean."

Perhaps he could convince them to help with more than just evacuation. "And are they all as gorgeous as you?"

He couldn't help himself.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

She frowned when he mentioned not being able to eat the bar. "Why not?" Footsteps carried her to the lip of the cave. The rain had lightened up. She fished a rope out of her pack. Still better to be safe than sorry. Fingers began working a harness around her waist, much like the one Val had used to carry her up when she was unconscious.

"Not that many can come. I didn't know there were that many pirates when I called in my original report. And there...aren't that many jedi left on this side of the verse. Well, anywhere in the verse."

Sure there were a lot of gray-types. But not that many jedi. And even with the semi-jedi, force users weren't that prolific even though it may feel like that to others at times.

"We'd be lucky if we got a dozen. I'm not saying we can't take the mines back from the pirates. But my first priority is getting the people out. Maybe if we got more reinforcements we could get them later. Unless you happen to know a group of people that'd be willing to help?"

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

Not anymore. Perhaps a few decades ago he could have called in someone, a few someones in fact, but now? All his friends were dead. Long dead.

"I'm allergic." He answered her question about the bar.

The shirt that she had thrown to him was slipped over his head, stretched as he tried to pull it over his chest. He frowned as it half got stuck, though managed to pull it on all the way with a bit of a struggle. Luckily the fabric stretched slightly, though the sleeves dug in under this arms. Val looked down and let out a sigh, perhaps he could take something from the pirates on their way, it would certainly fit better than this and he needed a jacket anyway.

"I have no one unfortunately." Val said as he rose to his feet. "Your Jedi will have to do."

He agreed that freeing the village came first, but if the pirates managed to hold onto that Aurodium then the problems in this area would become much...much worse. With the Aurodium the pirates would have money, and money bought weapons, and weapons created empires. He'd seen it more than once. The short term mattered, yes, but the long-term usually yielded much worse results. If they saved one village but lost a dozen planets because of it?

Well that math was easy.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

She snorted at the shirt clearly too small. Face quickly turned back to the entrance, eyes lit with mirth. Taking one end of the rope, she tied it to a rock feature in the cave. Hands made sure the knot was doubly secure around her waist. Then, she turned and slipped over the edge.

The rain was a light mist now, not so bad.

They'd have to figure things out further when the jedi got here. First they had to get to the village and look for stragglers. Then they had to get to the coordinates which weren't that far from the village. Then. Who knew?

Even though tied in, she moved cautiously, making sure to spot her descent. Lightsaber hilt dangled off her right hip.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

Val looked around the cave for a moment. In a weird way he would miss this cave. It had served as a pretty good home. He'd stayed in worse places over the years, a lot worse. There had been no Mynocks here, no womp-rats, and the night before they'd finally managed to stay warm. He smiled slightly and then wandered towards the entrance, watching the rope grow taught as she slowly began to descend towards the ground. For a moment Val watched Taheera, ensuring that she was safe.

He let another few seconds pass, then walked towards the other end of the cave's exit, he didn't want to crash into her.

The mist speckled against him as he looked up towards the sky, the clouds growing darker and darker by the moment. Val frowned as he peered toward the mountains, looking in the direction of the pirate camp. His head shook from side to side, as if he was ruing the day that was ahead of them. Without another second of hesitation he moved forward, taking a single step to the edge of the cliff and then jumping.

Val drifted through the air for a seamless moment, falling past Taheera and then landing on the ground with a solid thud.

As soon as she landed he looked up at Taheera, waiting patiently.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

"Alright Mister Manbun, not all of us can fly," she called down with a troubled smirk on her face. Seriously, who was this guy?! He had force-user type physical capabilities but he was allergic to nutrition bars and couldn't eat vegetables. And yet, his hands were as smooth as butter.

Seriously.

She made it down without incident. Feet hit the ground and she undid the rope. A hand wiped the accumulating mist from her face. Fingers went back to side-braid her chestnut hair. It would make things easier and keep it out of her way. "We need to go to the village and look for stragglers. The coordinates are in a farmer's field just beyond that." She began walking down the path toward the side of the river.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

"Good." He said stretching slightly. "I can get my own clothes."

That was something to look forward to at the very least. This shirt did not fit at all, and within a few minutes it would be soaked through. His eyes wandered over towards her, then slowly back towards the forest. There were still the pirates to worry about, though he figured if they evacuated the village then they wouldn't need any distractions. This game was getting dangerous however. The Pirates had a veritable army on their side, and as of yet they hadn't really used it.

That made him nervous. "Come on, lets get going."

He walked over to her and slipped his fingers through the loop of the backpack.

"Let me take this." There was no real opportunity for her to say no. "And I can't fly. I just fall really well."

Val took the backpack from her shoulders and slipped it onto his own, smiling at her and then immediately turning to walk away from her. It would take them the better half of a day to make it back to the village, and if the Pirates found them they would need to run. He could run faster than her even with the pack, and there was no need to slow her down with extra weight.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

"Well, falling can be a talent." She rolled her shoulders as he took the pack. "Thanks." She quickly caught up to his side, booted feet slipping slightly on the mud and rocks from this morning's and last night's downpour. A rumble of thunder rolled across the sky.

Myrtle-ellipses looked up.

"Hopefully we'll get to the village before the skies open up. And before the pirates make a move." She had a light jacket on. She flipped the hoodie over her head and zipped it up, hands cramming inside the pockets. They walked for some time in relative silence. There was a clearing up ahead. It was the same clearing where the statue was and where they had been ambushed two days before.

This time it was quiet. Still, they stuck to the trees, not risking the open. Before long, they found themselves within the outskirt of the town, the village's small buildings and alleyways, taking the place of the trees. It was a ghost town. But something definitely felt off.

She gazed at the empty windows, head remaining on a swivel. "Where's your room?"