Last time: Oppie and Sasha narrowly survived a flash flood.

Now: It's the third day and they have company.

Chapter 14- The First Bounty Hunter

"Hey Op, I've got a question," Sasha asked as she and Oppie walked along through the forests the next morning.

When the sun started peeking through the canopy, Sasha woke Oppie and they cleaned up their camp after sharing a quick ration pack before continuing their journey through the forests of Myrkr towards higher ground. They were both still tired from the day before, but they knew they had no time to sleep in or rest when there was still the threat of the bounty hunters out there. They had to keep moving. And so far, they had been on the move for a couple of hours that the morning sun was now high enough to start warming up the day.

"What's that?" He asked.

Sasha smirked. "If you had to choose, which would you rather have; cybernetic limbs or become a full cyborg like General Grievous?" She asked.

Oppie considered for a moment. "If I went General Grievous, would I get the extra arms and the ability to walk like a spider?"

"Oh definitely," Sasha said with a chuckle.

Oppie thought for a moment longer. "Am I a terrible person that I would almost lean towards Grievous, just because then I could mess with… certain people in the family in spider mode?"

Sasha laughed at that. "No, that would be awesome and terrifying. You'd only be a terrible person if you also did what Grievous did during the Clone Wars while as a cyborg."

"Hmmm…" Oppie thought. "Tempting as it is, I'd prefer cybernetic limbs, I suppose. What about you?"

"Me? I was actually leaning towards cybernetics too," Sasha admitted. "I mean it would be awesome to have two extra limbs and run around all spider-like, but I'd rather lose an arm or a leg and get a cool new one over my whole body having to be replaced with cybernetics."

"Yeah, kinda my thought." Oppie agreed. "So question, would you rather lose the Force for a week, or have to have some of our brother's famous chili?"

"Umm…" Sasha thought for a moment as that was a tough one. "Honestly, I'm not sure. I mean even though I don't have the Force now, I miss it and would rather have it than not. But if it's the chili then I'd rather not have the Force than deal with my stomach trying to kill me. So that's a tough one if I'm being honest," she said then paused for a moment more. "You know what, my answer right now is the chili. But if you asked me a week ago, I would have said the Force."

"Huh." Oppie replied, that wasn't the answer he would have expected.

"What about you?" Sasha asked.

"I guess it depends on the circumstances, but if all I'm doing is relaxing at home, I'd have given up the Force for a week." He answered. "Honestly if you have the chili, that means you won't be in a state to be able to use the Force for a week anyway." He mused wryly.

Sasha sighed. "I guess you have a point, but if-"

Her sentence was cut off when a blaster bolt flew right past her left ear and impacted with the tree before them. It was so close when it flew by that she could actually feel the heat off of it. Sasha skidded to a stop, frozen in place as her heart thudded in her chest as she tried to digest what just happened. If she had just been a couple centimeters to the left, that shot would have killed her.

Oppie grabbed Sasha and pulled her aside, towards a tree they could take cover behind. Another series of shots went off as Oppie pulled her away. Sasha, still in a state of shock, was still trying to register what was happening as they ducked behind a nearby tree. The bolts followed them as they took cover. Once Sasha was in cover, Oppie brandished his spear and ran to another tree towards whoever was shooting at them, bounding to the next closest tree trunk.

Sasha recovered once he left and pulled out her own spear. She carefully peeked out from behind the tree. The blasts were still coming and only at her. It was almost as if the shooter didn't notice Oppie had left. She quickly ducked back behind the tree as she avoided another couple blasts that got too close and looked over to Oppie.

"Can you see the shooter?" Sasha asked. "I can't get a good angle on them."

Oppie looked around the tree, and made the same observation that Sasha had, that he was being ignored. He ducked his head back behind the tree. "Yeah." He answered, slightly confused. He was able to see the shooter moving through the tree line and entering the clearing as he continued to fire at Sasha. As he appeared from the shadows, it became clear that it was a Weequay that was responsible.

"Is it one of the hunters?" Sasha asked as another bolt zipped by, breaking off bark near her shoulder. She quickly recoiled back before she turned back and huffed in annoyance at that.

"Well he sure isn't a rescue party." Oppie observed. He ducked around his tree and tried to bound forward to the next, trying to work his way forward so he could get in a position to use his spear.

"Stop hiding ya Jedi brats," The Weequay called out as he continued to shoot at Sasha. "I'm not gonna kill ya. I just wanna get my money. So be a good 'lil Jedi and come out."

Sasha shot an unconvinced glance at Oppie before risking to look at the hunter once again. This time she was able to see that it was a Weequay before another shot pinging off the tree, causing her to jump away as splinters flew.

Oppie bound to another tree, trying to get on the Weequay's flank. The hunter didn't seem to notice. Oppie chanced a glance around the tree and looked at him a little incredulously before ducking back. Trying not to be overconfident, Oppie stepped out and ran to the next tree, working his way closer to the hunter.

"Come on Jedi, stop hiding,'' The Weequay said, annoyed. "This is getting borin'. I thought ya Jedi were supposed to be a challenge. Or are ya just cowards?" He laughed at that before he unloaded another series of shots at Sasha.

Sasha cringed as more shots came. Oh, if only she had her lightsaber right now. And what was worse was that the bolts were actually cutting through the tree. If she didn't move quickly, she was going to lose cover or get squished by a falling tree. Chancing it, Sasha leapt for another tree nearby to take cover.

"There ya are," The hunter said as he switched out his energy pack and aimed at her.

The blasts followed her and nearly grazed her as she took cover behind another tree trunk. Sasha rested against the trunk, gathering her breath in annoyance. "Come on, Op," she mumbled under her breath.

Oppie sprinted forward and raised the makeshift spear, brandishing it more like a bo staff than a spear as he defaulted to his lightsaber training. Suddenly, the Weequay turned and pulled another blaster on Oppie, his finger resting on the trigger as if ready to fire.

Oppie rolled to the side to keep his momentum going, and came up, trying to bash the Weequay across the legs. The hunter cursed as he had fired just as Oppie had dodged, and he narrowly dodged the swing to his legs. He stumbled back before turning both blasters onto Oppie and firing off a couple of rounds.

Sasha, who had noticed the firing at her stop, risked a glance around to see the Weequay turn his attention to Oppie. She gripped her spear tightly in her hand before quietly moving from her hiding spot, taking the advantage of the distraction.

Oppie came up and kept moving, trying to stay ahead of the blaster bolts. He used the reach of the spear to try hitting his hands, to try to misdirect the blasters as he tried to close the final distance. The Weequay brought one of his hands away in time but the other got hit with the spear, knocking the blaster from his grip. He cursed under his breath as he shook his hand out before attempting to try and knock the spear away with his other hand while it still held his second blaster. Spinning the spear around like a lightsaber, Oppie spun through and swung the spear like a lightsaber with a two handed grip, aiming for the hunter's head. The Weequay didn't have time to react and took the hit across the jawline. He staggered back, spitting blood as the spear connected with his face. He turned back to Oppie with a glare and raised his blaster at him.

However, before he could fire it, Sasha ran up behind him as stealthy as she could and swung her spear around, smacking him in the back. The Weequay tumbled forward and barely kept his footing. He then turned and looked between the two Jedi who stood on either side of him. He laughed for a second.

"Nice try," he said as he fired at Oppie while simultaneously pulling a knife and threw it at Sasha.

Sasha froze for a brief second before she did anything as she watched the knife leave his hand in slow motion, expecting her Jedi reflexes to kick in which they didn't. She would have to react on her own this time. Reacting as fast as she could, she attempted to dodge away from the knife, but without the Force to help her move faster that was easier said than done.

Oppie dodged the blaster shots by trying to rush in front of Sasha, and he hit the knife, the blade slicing along his upper left arm as it was knocked out of the way and bounced off into the forest. Oppie's momentum sent him to the forest floor, and he scrambled to get back up before the hunter could react. The Weequay didn't expect that, and neither did Sasha. But Sasha reacted first. She took her staff and swung at the hunters head before he could attack Oppie. The spear connected with his temple and he tumbled to the forest floor, unconscious.

Sasha stood there, breathing heavy for a moment before she turned her attention to Oppie.

"Are you okay?" She asked him as she stared at the cut.

"Yeah, just a graze." Oppie said, shrugging off the laceration. It wasn't too deep. He was breathing heavily from the fight.

Sasha looked over at the hunter then back at Oppie. "What should we do with him?" She asked after a moment, a slight shake to her voice.

Oppie considered for a moment. A dark part of him thought of killing the man, but he couldn't do that to someone defenseless as he was. Even if he had just been trying to kill them, and probably wouldn't have shown the same compassion. It suddenly struck him that if Kyr or Cien were here, they probably could have, and would have eliminated him as a threat.

"Take everything useful and we'll leave him." Oppie said coldly.

Sasha nodded before going over to loot the man. She first stopped and picked up the fallen knife and the discarded blaster. She grimaced at the sight of Oppie's blood on the knife, but quickly wiped it off on the grassy floor before sheathing it into her boot. She then grabbed the blaster and slotted it into her empty holster. The weight and presence of it there felt oddly comforting. While she did that, Oppie went over to inspect what else the man had on him. He found four blaster energy packs, a few ration bars, and a busted commlink which could be used for something. Those were the only useful items on him. Oppie holstered the blaster the Weequay had been holding after he pocketed the other items or stored them into his bag. Sasha walked back over a moment later. As she approached, she shifted her pack around so she could grab the medkit.

"Let me see your arm," she said as she started pulling the kit out of her bag.

Oppie rolled up his sleeve and let her take a look. Sasha furrowed her brow at the sight of it. She set the kit down and opened it up. She pulled out an antiseptic wipe and cleaned the wound. "How many of those wipes do we have?" He asked, hating to waste it as he flinched from the stinging sensation.

"Umm…" Sasha finished cleaning it and turned back to the kit. She counted how many they had left before grabbing a large bandage to patch it. "It looks like we have about a dozen left," she said as she applied the bandage to his arm. "We should probably ration those too." She then looked at the bandage. "How's that?"

"Good, thank you." He said, flexing his arm a little and the cut burned his arm. "Admit, I never realized how much we use the Force to focus and ignore pain too." He added a little sheepishly.

"Yeah, I guess we really do rely on it for a lot of stuff," Sasha agreed as she packed up the medkit.

As she said that, in the distance was a loud set of howls. Sasha tensed up at that. Oppie looked up and around as well.

"We should get going." Oppie said.

Sasha nodded in agreement. She stuffed the medkit back into her pack and pulled it back onto her back. She then looked around. "The mountains were this way, right?" She asked as she pointed at the direction they were originally walking towards which thankfully was the opposite way of the howling.

"Yep." Oppie hefted his pack and started moving. He cast a somewhat worried glance back at the unconscious bounty hunter.

Sasha followed after him. She too looked at the hunter one last time, feeling bad for leaving him behind. But if that howling meant anything, it was probably best that they kept moving as they were a more likely target for the creature responsible for that howl than this guy. She then turned and hurried after Op.

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