Post by nezuminokage on Jul 29, 2011 14:03:54 GMT -5
As miserable as the hot Tatooine day was, the night was almost pleasant. Almost. The fact was that no place was anything less than miserable for a homeless desert rat in the city. Ryth sighed softly, what choice did she have in the matter? After being abandoned by the crew of Sith’s Folly, the small girl had no one to turn to and nowhere to go. So she did what could to use the skills she had learned from the pirates. While pick pocketing and minor theft was not glorious it made her enough money to live off of on most days.
Tonight Ryth had found a mark that would bring in more money than she could imagine. Real silver, she had seen silver hanging from his belt hidden just out of the normal view. With all the stealth she could muster Ryth had followed the strangely robed man half the night. He was searching for something, though what she could only imagine; it seemed to Ryth that she wouldn’t be getting much sleep. But just when she thought that she would never catch a break the man stopped and started down an alley way that would seem a dead end to a grown man such as him. Ryth, however, knew the truth. Womp Rat alley was a place that every child knew was a safe escape. A very narrow passage led off from the end but was not wide enough for any human sized adult.
Ryth followed silently as he entered the alley and walked down to the seemingly dead end. When the Nautolan man stopped just a few feet from Ryth’s escape hole she decided to act. The girl burst from her cover in a flurry and grabbed at where she knew the silver to be. Caught off guard the man stumbled and stepped just in front of her escape. No, Ryth realized as she looked at her silver prize, he had stepped right in front of it completely on purpose. Reviewing it in her mind, he had started that movement before she had even moved.
“This is curious,” the Nautolan’s voice cut through her thoughts “how did you actually manage to get that?” Ryth, cursing herself for falling into the Sith’s trap, thought through her options in the blink of eye and accepted that her only was out was through the Sith she had just stolen the lightsaber of. Well, she consoled herself, at least he doesn’t have this and she looked at the hilt examining it for a switch. She knew her time would be very short, but maybe if she could distract him… “My movement should have put me out of your arm’s reach.” The Sith spoke with a gentle calmness, his tone almost amused.
The Sith was right, of course, she hadn’t gotten close enough to actually grab it, she had never intended to. Ryth had learned to speak to objects and make them listen to her. Only small things, but it was often enough to have the desired effect. She could make small objects come to her over a short distance, she could hear the problems with electronic devices, and had once shoved a fully grown man over without touching him. Ryth had no idea how or why such things worked in complete defiance of gravity, but she knew that such things existed so she had never questioned it.
“What is your name young one?” A smile crossed the man’s face as he looked at her with fascination. What ever his game was, Ryth had no intentions of playing. She focused and without
quite realizing what was happening found the blade in her hand to be extended; the lightsaber blazed with a beautiful purple hue. Truly, the whole thing was a work of art, but Ryth didn’t have time to admire it and so the petite human held the weapon in front of her as she had seen the arena fighters do with their swords. With a laugh the Nautolan commented “even more curious.”
---
Kurs Janta was truly intrigued by this girl who had not only used the force to pull his lightsaber from his belt after tracking him for several hours, nearly undetectably even to his trained jedi senses, but had now managed to trigger his lightsaber. Kurs had built the blade with the switch on the inside making it unusable but to those with enough force to activate it telekinetically. The idea was not his originally, but it was still a lovely bit of ingenuity that he was proud of.
Without any warning the girl leapt at him, lightsaber first, in what he presumed a desperate attempt to move him out from in front of the rabbit hole behind him. Smiling he brought out his master’s blade and without leaving his spot deflected her attack quite easily. Her disbelief was easily read, and not unexpected, what surprised Kurs was the fact that despite a failed attack she still held the blade as though to spring again.
The jedi looked into the girl’s eyes and finally realized why; he saw, for the first time, what had driven the entire evening’s events. Desperation. This girl wasn’t just poor, she was defenseless and hungry, this child suffered at the hands of this city and was now facing yet another life or death scenario. Deactivating his blade Kurs raised his arms in surrender. “My name is Kurs Janta, I am a jedi and I will not harm you.”
---
Ryth watched the man carefully, he sounded sincere but she had been betrayed before. How many girls had been tricked by ‘nice men just looking to talk?’ Yet, she couldn’t help but feel that he really didn’t want to harm her… It was a feeling, or a sound just out of hearing, that spoke to her. “Then what do you want?” Her voice came out significantly less confident than she had attempted at, and the action of talking made her remember how dry her throat was. Ryth thought back on the last time she had managed to drink any water, yesterday? Maybe? A fight such as this would drain what little she had if it managed to make her sweat, but then, so would running…
“I wanted to know why you were following me,” Kurs Janta replied. He sounded honest, and her gut told her that it was the truth. Despite her better judgment Ryth deactivate the lightsaber and lowered the hilt to her side. She was terrified of what might happen next, but she knew that this fight was useless. Ryth would never manage to outrun him, and she would probably be killed before she got halfway into the other alley. Survival would depend on playing this scene out as best she could. This was going to be the most nerve wracking game of pazaak she had ever played…
With thoughts of numbers clearing her head Ryth suddenly felt something in the air, a sound that was sharp and full of danger. Acting on instincts honed by years of dodging death, the girl jumped and rolled to her right while a stun stick came down where she had just been. So focused on the confrontation with the robed man who called himself a jedi, Ryth had neglected the rest of the world and cursed herself immensely for it. From her new spot just a few feet in front of her escape route she watched the Nautolan move out with the blue blade and cut down her attacker. Ryth smiled wickedly.
---
Kurs Janta sliced through the man who had attacked the girl then began deflect blaster bolts as three gunmen leapt out of the shadows firing wildly. The jedi quickly dispatched of the men then breathed deeply. He turned back to look for the child and discovered that she was nowhere to be found… The Nautolan cursed and felt out with the force for his lightsaber. It was a number of meters away, and running. Kurs shook his and muttered “after all, I love chasing little girls through the streets of Mos Eisley.”
---
Ryth ducked through several alleys on her desperate flight, the whole while neglecting to pay any attention to which section of town she was in. Several Gamorreans watched her run past and laughed at her foolishness. It wasn’t until she saw the body, either dead or drunk, of an Aqualish that Ryth started to wonder where she was. She could feel hungry eyes leering at her from the darkness, and heard movement from just beyond her field of vision. Ryth didn’t need her intuition to tell her that this was not going to end well, and yet she found herself whispering sullenly “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”
---
The jedi leapt from the top of building to the top of building as he hurried after the girl with his lightsaber. She was headed into a very bad section of Mos Eisley and he was both worried about her and the kinds of hands his lightsaber would pass into. One way or another things were bound to get messy. Having jumped over a particularly large gap Kurs declared with little grace that he had hoped to sleep at least once on this trip.
---
A low vulgar chuckle echoed from just out of sight, and with it came a voice filled with grit and malice “It would seem that tonight is going to be my lucky night boys. Just look at this sweet piece of flesh that’s fallen into my lap!” A burly human stepped out from the shadows and glared at her hungrily. Ryth met the man’s eyes and was disgusted; hatred and lust filled his dark orbs. She knew that look, she knew what eyes like that wanted.
In times like this where most girls feel fear and despair, Ryth felt the burn of white hot fury. This fury filled her, this fury fueled her, and this fury brought words to her tongue that were not proper for a young lady. Ryth let loose a series of vulgarities ranging seven languages but that anything but a brain dead nerf would understand and even the nerf would get the general gist. Anger replaced the lust in the man’s eyes and without a second thought the man brought his massive fist down at the insolent girl.
---
Kurs Janta heard an ear piercing scream echo over the area as he leapt down into a ringed courtyard thinking that it was too late. The jedi was astounded when he saw not only the figure of the girl standing over a body, but in her hand was his lightsaber activated. The scream, he realized after surveying the area, had come from the man who now lay holding what was left of his arm. Not the stump, to the Nautolan’s surprise, but the actual severed arm itself. Without thinking about the seriousness of the situation Kurs started laughing at the sight.
It was only then that the girl turned to face him; as she did so a pair of humans jumped her. One man smashed the back of her head knocking her cold then the other casually threw her over his shoulder. The lightsaber fell to the ground, but neither man saw any sense in grabbing for it, or trying to retrieve their companion who was now unconscious. It all happened so quickly that Kurs barely had time to make it halfway to them before the pair was darting into the night. Coming up with a few vulgarities of his own the Nautolan started to run, pulling the lost saber into his hand as he passed. Despite the pace set by the humans, Kurs quickly closed in on them. Using the force he pulled at their feet and smiled as they fell flat on their faces. “Time to get you somewhere safe” the jedi commented as he pulled the girl from the man‘s grasp. The human started to object but the flash of a purple blade sent both of the men scurrying off.
---
When Ryth awoke she found herself in a great deal of pain and in a fairly small, but well lit room. She sat up and discovered that her head was what hurt the most, but beyond that she had only minor scrapes and scratches, though she guessed there would be a fair amount of bruising as well. More importantly, however, she was alive, wasn’t restrained in anyway and was completely dressed which is always a relief when awaking in a strange location. “You’re up I see.” Swiveling her head Ryth saw the Nautolan from earlier was speaking. “I was hoping you would rouse before I was forced to depart.” Once again she sensed that he spoke out of kindness and concern. Ryth had no idea why, but she felt that she could trust him. After all, if he had been the reason she had been knocked out then he had done a horrid job of taking advantage of her unconsciousness. If he wasn’t then he had invariably saved her from a far worse fate.
“My name is Ryth,” she said, smiling. “You said yours was Curse?”
The Nautolan returned her smile “Kurs, Kurs Janta.”
“A pleasure.” Ryth replied with a slight bow of her head. She immediately regretted the last motion and with a moan cupped her hands to her forehead. “So what do you plan to do with me?” Ryth asked, both out of curiosity and the general human desire to know one’s fate.
Kurs looked out the window, then back to Ryth. “If you want I will take you away from here, to somewhere safe where you won’t have to steal to survive.” Disbelief poured through her brain, but even if it was a lie… “Ryth,” the jedi interrupted her thoughts “I believe that freedom is the right of all sentient beings. As such, I want you to have the freedom to choose your own fate. It may not seem like much, but it is all I can offer you.”
Ryth felt the tears begin to well in her eyes; freedom was the one thing she had always wished for. With every breath it was the one thing she had truly desired and now to be offered it so bluntly? “You’ll take me in your ship? To where?” It was all she could do to keep from bursting into tears.
---
Kurs thought for a moment, it was not something he had thought of yet. He would have loved to have taken her back to the order, but she was far too old. If nothing else, Kurs thought, Katarn could watch her for a time. The Katarn family owed Kurs Janta big time, maybe he could call in a favor. Deciding to play the gambit he replied “I know some people on Corellia that would watch over you until we find a family to adopt you.”
Then Ryth asked a question that Kurs had never seen coming, the idea of which would haunted him for years after. “Kurs,” Ryth started with a look of deep concern “what is a family?” The jedi could see clearly that she was being serious; the word was simply not in her vocabulary.
With a hand extended and grin on his face Kurs Janta replied “Come with me to Corellia and I’ll show you.”
---
Ryth took his hand as followed him and for the first time she looked at the rising Tatooine sun and thought of how beautiful it was and how much she hoped she would never see it again.
Tonight Ryth had found a mark that would bring in more money than she could imagine. Real silver, she had seen silver hanging from his belt hidden just out of the normal view. With all the stealth she could muster Ryth had followed the strangely robed man half the night. He was searching for something, though what she could only imagine; it seemed to Ryth that she wouldn’t be getting much sleep. But just when she thought that she would never catch a break the man stopped and started down an alley way that would seem a dead end to a grown man such as him. Ryth, however, knew the truth. Womp Rat alley was a place that every child knew was a safe escape. A very narrow passage led off from the end but was not wide enough for any human sized adult.
Ryth followed silently as he entered the alley and walked down to the seemingly dead end. When the Nautolan man stopped just a few feet from Ryth’s escape hole she decided to act. The girl burst from her cover in a flurry and grabbed at where she knew the silver to be. Caught off guard the man stumbled and stepped just in front of her escape. No, Ryth realized as she looked at her silver prize, he had stepped right in front of it completely on purpose. Reviewing it in her mind, he had started that movement before she had even moved.
“This is curious,” the Nautolan’s voice cut through her thoughts “how did you actually manage to get that?” Ryth, cursing herself for falling into the Sith’s trap, thought through her options in the blink of eye and accepted that her only was out was through the Sith she had just stolen the lightsaber of. Well, she consoled herself, at least he doesn’t have this and she looked at the hilt examining it for a switch. She knew her time would be very short, but maybe if she could distract him… “My movement should have put me out of your arm’s reach.” The Sith spoke with a gentle calmness, his tone almost amused.
The Sith was right, of course, she hadn’t gotten close enough to actually grab it, she had never intended to. Ryth had learned to speak to objects and make them listen to her. Only small things, but it was often enough to have the desired effect. She could make small objects come to her over a short distance, she could hear the problems with electronic devices, and had once shoved a fully grown man over without touching him. Ryth had no idea how or why such things worked in complete defiance of gravity, but she knew that such things existed so she had never questioned it.
“What is your name young one?” A smile crossed the man’s face as he looked at her with fascination. What ever his game was, Ryth had no intentions of playing. She focused and without
quite realizing what was happening found the blade in her hand to be extended; the lightsaber blazed with a beautiful purple hue. Truly, the whole thing was a work of art, but Ryth didn’t have time to admire it and so the petite human held the weapon in front of her as she had seen the arena fighters do with their swords. With a laugh the Nautolan commented “even more curious.”
---
Kurs Janta was truly intrigued by this girl who had not only used the force to pull his lightsaber from his belt after tracking him for several hours, nearly undetectably even to his trained jedi senses, but had now managed to trigger his lightsaber. Kurs had built the blade with the switch on the inside making it unusable but to those with enough force to activate it telekinetically. The idea was not his originally, but it was still a lovely bit of ingenuity that he was proud of.
Without any warning the girl leapt at him, lightsaber first, in what he presumed a desperate attempt to move him out from in front of the rabbit hole behind him. Smiling he brought out his master’s blade and without leaving his spot deflected her attack quite easily. Her disbelief was easily read, and not unexpected, what surprised Kurs was the fact that despite a failed attack she still held the blade as though to spring again.
The jedi looked into the girl’s eyes and finally realized why; he saw, for the first time, what had driven the entire evening’s events. Desperation. This girl wasn’t just poor, she was defenseless and hungry, this child suffered at the hands of this city and was now facing yet another life or death scenario. Deactivating his blade Kurs raised his arms in surrender. “My name is Kurs Janta, I am a jedi and I will not harm you.”
---
Ryth watched the man carefully, he sounded sincere but she had been betrayed before. How many girls had been tricked by ‘nice men just looking to talk?’ Yet, she couldn’t help but feel that he really didn’t want to harm her… It was a feeling, or a sound just out of hearing, that spoke to her. “Then what do you want?” Her voice came out significantly less confident than she had attempted at, and the action of talking made her remember how dry her throat was. Ryth thought back on the last time she had managed to drink any water, yesterday? Maybe? A fight such as this would drain what little she had if it managed to make her sweat, but then, so would running…
“I wanted to know why you were following me,” Kurs Janta replied. He sounded honest, and her gut told her that it was the truth. Despite her better judgment Ryth deactivate the lightsaber and lowered the hilt to her side. She was terrified of what might happen next, but she knew that this fight was useless. Ryth would never manage to outrun him, and she would probably be killed before she got halfway into the other alley. Survival would depend on playing this scene out as best she could. This was going to be the most nerve wracking game of pazaak she had ever played…
With thoughts of numbers clearing her head Ryth suddenly felt something in the air, a sound that was sharp and full of danger. Acting on instincts honed by years of dodging death, the girl jumped and rolled to her right while a stun stick came down where she had just been. So focused on the confrontation with the robed man who called himself a jedi, Ryth had neglected the rest of the world and cursed herself immensely for it. From her new spot just a few feet in front of her escape route she watched the Nautolan move out with the blue blade and cut down her attacker. Ryth smiled wickedly.
---
Kurs Janta sliced through the man who had attacked the girl then began deflect blaster bolts as three gunmen leapt out of the shadows firing wildly. The jedi quickly dispatched of the men then breathed deeply. He turned back to look for the child and discovered that she was nowhere to be found… The Nautolan cursed and felt out with the force for his lightsaber. It was a number of meters away, and running. Kurs shook his and muttered “after all, I love chasing little girls through the streets of Mos Eisley.”
---
Ryth ducked through several alleys on her desperate flight, the whole while neglecting to pay any attention to which section of town she was in. Several Gamorreans watched her run past and laughed at her foolishness. It wasn’t until she saw the body, either dead or drunk, of an Aqualish that Ryth started to wonder where she was. She could feel hungry eyes leering at her from the darkness, and heard movement from just beyond her field of vision. Ryth didn’t need her intuition to tell her that this was not going to end well, and yet she found herself whispering sullenly “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”
---
The jedi leapt from the top of building to the top of building as he hurried after the girl with his lightsaber. She was headed into a very bad section of Mos Eisley and he was both worried about her and the kinds of hands his lightsaber would pass into. One way or another things were bound to get messy. Having jumped over a particularly large gap Kurs declared with little grace that he had hoped to sleep at least once on this trip.
---
A low vulgar chuckle echoed from just out of sight, and with it came a voice filled with grit and malice “It would seem that tonight is going to be my lucky night boys. Just look at this sweet piece of flesh that’s fallen into my lap!” A burly human stepped out from the shadows and glared at her hungrily. Ryth met the man’s eyes and was disgusted; hatred and lust filled his dark orbs. She knew that look, she knew what eyes like that wanted.
In times like this where most girls feel fear and despair, Ryth felt the burn of white hot fury. This fury filled her, this fury fueled her, and this fury brought words to her tongue that were not proper for a young lady. Ryth let loose a series of vulgarities ranging seven languages but that anything but a brain dead nerf would understand and even the nerf would get the general gist. Anger replaced the lust in the man’s eyes and without a second thought the man brought his massive fist down at the insolent girl.
---
Kurs Janta heard an ear piercing scream echo over the area as he leapt down into a ringed courtyard thinking that it was too late. The jedi was astounded when he saw not only the figure of the girl standing over a body, but in her hand was his lightsaber activated. The scream, he realized after surveying the area, had come from the man who now lay holding what was left of his arm. Not the stump, to the Nautolan’s surprise, but the actual severed arm itself. Without thinking about the seriousness of the situation Kurs started laughing at the sight.
It was only then that the girl turned to face him; as she did so a pair of humans jumped her. One man smashed the back of her head knocking her cold then the other casually threw her over his shoulder. The lightsaber fell to the ground, but neither man saw any sense in grabbing for it, or trying to retrieve their companion who was now unconscious. It all happened so quickly that Kurs barely had time to make it halfway to them before the pair was darting into the night. Coming up with a few vulgarities of his own the Nautolan started to run, pulling the lost saber into his hand as he passed. Despite the pace set by the humans, Kurs quickly closed in on them. Using the force he pulled at their feet and smiled as they fell flat on their faces. “Time to get you somewhere safe” the jedi commented as he pulled the girl from the man‘s grasp. The human started to object but the flash of a purple blade sent both of the men scurrying off.
---
When Ryth awoke she found herself in a great deal of pain and in a fairly small, but well lit room. She sat up and discovered that her head was what hurt the most, but beyond that she had only minor scrapes and scratches, though she guessed there would be a fair amount of bruising as well. More importantly, however, she was alive, wasn’t restrained in anyway and was completely dressed which is always a relief when awaking in a strange location. “You’re up I see.” Swiveling her head Ryth saw the Nautolan from earlier was speaking. “I was hoping you would rouse before I was forced to depart.” Once again she sensed that he spoke out of kindness and concern. Ryth had no idea why, but she felt that she could trust him. After all, if he had been the reason she had been knocked out then he had done a horrid job of taking advantage of her unconsciousness. If he wasn’t then he had invariably saved her from a far worse fate.
“My name is Ryth,” she said, smiling. “You said yours was Curse?”
The Nautolan returned her smile “Kurs, Kurs Janta.”
“A pleasure.” Ryth replied with a slight bow of her head. She immediately regretted the last motion and with a moan cupped her hands to her forehead. “So what do you plan to do with me?” Ryth asked, both out of curiosity and the general human desire to know one’s fate.
Kurs looked out the window, then back to Ryth. “If you want I will take you away from here, to somewhere safe where you won’t have to steal to survive.” Disbelief poured through her brain, but even if it was a lie… “Ryth,” the jedi interrupted her thoughts “I believe that freedom is the right of all sentient beings. As such, I want you to have the freedom to choose your own fate. It may not seem like much, but it is all I can offer you.”
Ryth felt the tears begin to well in her eyes; freedom was the one thing she had always wished for. With every breath it was the one thing she had truly desired and now to be offered it so bluntly? “You’ll take me in your ship? To where?” It was all she could do to keep from bursting into tears.
---
Kurs thought for a moment, it was not something he had thought of yet. He would have loved to have taken her back to the order, but she was far too old. If nothing else, Kurs thought, Katarn could watch her for a time. The Katarn family owed Kurs Janta big time, maybe he could call in a favor. Deciding to play the gambit he replied “I know some people on Corellia that would watch over you until we find a family to adopt you.”
Then Ryth asked a question that Kurs had never seen coming, the idea of which would haunted him for years after. “Kurs,” Ryth started with a look of deep concern “what is a family?” The jedi could see clearly that she was being serious; the word was simply not in her vocabulary.
With a hand extended and grin on his face Kurs Janta replied “Come with me to Corellia and I’ll show you.”
---
Ryth took his hand as followed him and for the first time she looked at the rising Tatooine sun and thought of how beautiful it was and how much she hoped she would never see it again.