The day Jin-Jeri aided Simass in retrieving a medical herb for their ill mother, Tha-Tha's shriveled red face glistened with uncapped euphoria at the sight of her young adult son who she hadn't seen in months. The two held each other close and shared tales of their lives in the time they'd been apart. Stories like the besting of Jin-Jeri's superior, Slax, or his time as a cadet. They conversed further as Simass rubbed her mother down with a medical salve created from Treeman's Herb to treat her amphibious skin from the flare-up of a degenerative disease.
"Now Mossa," Simass said playfully, "Don't go thinkin' yousa bein' a Jedi or somethin' just 'cause yousa feelin' better." Tha-Thachuckleda great gust of air from her old lungs.
"If only, Simmy," indulged Tha-Tha. "A jedi could do so much for us all." Jin remained quiet during the exchange; he knew almost nothing about the Jedi. He had heard legends from Simass who seemed fascinated, as well as some of the other slaves. He remembered epics he had been told about the valiant Jedi Order of the Republic who vanquished the tyrannical Sith Empire. He also recalled tales of the war between the Elders and the Naboo in which the Jedi helped turn the tide. He often wondered how such a peace-loving class of warrior could allow something as heinous as slavery to be enforced with impunity. The Jedi were renowned and beloved throughout the galaxy, and yet they failed to visit the Gungans. He never lost the hypocrisy of their message. Butto see a Jedi,he pondered,that would be something.
A pale blue-ish reptile marched into the infirmary and stomped her foot onto the cracked wooden floor to grab the attention of the gungans inside.
"All of those able to walk will report to General Kazith outside in three minutes," she instructed with a slithering tone, "We return to the capital tonight."
Jin-Jeri and Simass carried their mother from the creaky wooden cot in which she laid, and led her out of the washed-out stone building. The sun shined brightly upon Lianorm's wet, muddy pathways. Gungans from every hut and tent toward the village center. Strolling through the tall grass around the perimeter of the path, they picked up the echo of two defiant gungans. The screams in reaction to the subsequent shocks resonated throughout the small swamp town. Simass and Tha-Tha gazed at each other in speculation. They thought for certain they recognized the source of one voice.
"Could it be?" Tha-Tha suggested with a hopeful gleam in her eye. Jin-Jeri expressed his utter ignorance with the shrug of his shoulders. The group briskly adjusted their pace in the voice's direction. They crossed a worn wooden bridge hung over a thick, murky creek. Jin-Jeri and Simass held their arms in a shield-inspired formation to tread through the ocean of their gungan peers. When they reached the source, Tha-Tha's face lit up in an aura of delight. In her vision stood a hunched over man with smooth, moist, faded purple skin and whiskers protruding from his upper lip. He had somber blue eyes sat upon wrinkly stalks, from which hung a leather cover that rested on the top of his head.
The man wept for another in his group, a younger, orange-skinned amphibian who was crouching in pain and favoring his arm. Looming over him was an Elder slaver with a firm grip on his whip. The slaver commanded the young man to his feet with a threatening roar.
Tha-Tha enthralled the older man with her gaze. He faced the other gungan for but a moment to assess his condition, then fixed his sight back onto Tha-Tha. The intensity in his body coolly relaxed as the shimmer in his eye magnified. Tha-Tha initially followed suit, but a familiar passion bellowed from within her. Her relief converted into wrath.
"Yousa samp, intolli, wappi kussi!"Tha-Tha berated the man in their native tongue. Her anger beamed out across the group. The outburst intrigued even the slavers. The man staggered back, mouth agape, before bursting into all-out laughter.
"Youdoremember me," the man cracked up. Tha-Tha relented her expression but resumed her brooding in silence.Binku, she thought. She never considered the possibility that she'd lay eyes on her husband again. Seventeen years had gone by, and yet she sensed that not much had changed.And the boy. You brought him back to me after all this time.The prospect of reuniting with her firstborn was a bittersweet one. She couldn't deny her rapture at the boy's return, but at what cost? She would never invite slavery unto one of her own, even if it meant she had to let them go forever.
"Alright, that's enough," proclaimed an approaching Colonel Sarth, with an air of dread surrounding him. His dense, droning resonance sparked an immediate response from soldier, slaver, and slave alike. "I hope you all enjoyed your nice, brief vacation out here in the swamp, but now we march for the capital. You may have noticed there are some fresh faces among you. Monitor them and guide them when they need it. Prepare yourselves for the long road ahead." Halford was just shy of a daylong march from Lianorm. Because of the wild and unstable environment of the path in between, the journey required a nonstop trek in order to minimize potential danger. Sarth was never too fond of the voyage, but for a different reason. He felt his place was on the battlefield, commanding his troops and claiming victory in the name of the gods. He didn't find himself an appropriate chaperone, as he was all too aware of his aloof and threatening demeanor. Still, he never complained about an order. No matter the inconvenience, his unmatched loyalty to tradition prevailed.
Sarth led three of his men in front of the formation while the remaining Elder soldiers flanked the gungans. He waved his hand up and forward, and the squad began marching. Jin-Jeri pondered in extreme intrigue over his mother's encounter. His curiosity got the better of him, and he softy nudged her shoulder. She glanced back at him, and without speaking, he directed her attention to the purple-ish wrinkled man. Tha-Tha twinkled a smile at her son and repositioned her head, facing forward. Jin knew what that meant.All in due time.
The enraged sun emitted a wave of intense heat unto all life in the swamp. Humidity radiated across the wetlands' luxuriant verdure. A few of the Elders hung their helmets from a strap on their belts, while several gungans emulated their actions with their own leather head guards. Groans from the pedestrian caravan were all but muted by the swamp's symphonic, wild ambience. Dozens of miniature, white, furry primates scattered through the lush trees.
Jin-Jeri found it difficult to maintain focus and guided his line of sight practically everywhere but the trail in front of him. He scanned his eyes across the entire group, analyzing the facial and body language of his peers. He noticed the older gungan that strode with a bubbly confidence.What an odd guy,he gossiped to himself. This man had just suffered enslavement and separation from his home. What could he have been so happy about? More to the point, how did he know Jin's mother? The suspense was enough to drown the young soldier. He then diverted his attention to the old man's sulking younger associate, who glared intently at the ground in front of him, consumed by another world. He deliberated over the relation between the two gungans, but decided not to force conclusions. He was certain he would learn more about them in time. The thought almost excited him. Of course, slavery was something he believed nobody deserved to endure, but he acknowledged that a new companion or two would help curb his loneliness.
Jin's vision hobbled from the two and eventually caught a gazing gungan woman. She towered over most of the group at roughly two metres high, only second in height among the marching gungans to the impressively tall Simass. Jin couldn't take his eyes off of her rough, burly stature. She appeared adept in combat, possibly more than the others from her tribe. Her muscle bound figure captivated the scrappy, young man, who merely envisaged a potential spar between the two.
The Gungan considered how he could break the ice with such an imposing presence. He struggled with social interactions, particularly while mesmerized by the party in question. As if by instinct, she could sense his anxiety, and provided him one tiny yet crucial bit of information via a slight whisper and the methodical manipulation of her lips.
"Miera," she signaled. His heartbeat fluttered as he further ruminated over the meaning.Surely that's her name,he concluded. He attempted to return the favor with a gesturing of his own name, but the slaver marching beside him took notice of his distraction, and drove an elbow to the Gungan's side, nearly bringing him to his knees. Despite the assault, Jin never took his eyes off of his newfound crush. He understood he had found someone truly special, though he didn't yet know to what extent. His ringing imagination brought him back to the earlier voiceless advice he received from his mother.All in due time.