It was early morning in this part of the planet, and the town of Tuppset, where they had landed, was only just coming to life. If possible, the Temple tried to schedule departures so that there would be little time lag. It had worked well this time.
"I propose I find a bakery and buy us some bread rolls or something," Lakhri said.
Eeth raised his eyebrows. "You have just had breakfast," he pointed out.
"Yeah, but it wasn't very satisfying," retorted Lakhri. "Besides, you don't need six people to unload the shuttles. And we will need provisions if we are going to spend our day in the swamps with the goyts."
"You are right about the provisions," said Eeth. "Go and buy some, then, provided you can find an open shop. You might take Kaden. He can help you carry."
Drex nodded at Kaden to go ahead. Lakhri had been correct; they needed to unload their two cargo shuttles now and they did not need six persons for that.
"Oh so you take the muscle to get food, and leave the rest of us to unload, typical," Raven teased her Jedi brother as he led Kaden from their ship.
"Hey, what do you call all of this over here?" Flynt said in a mock indignant tone and gestured to his torso. He pulled up his tunic revealing a lean, albeit toned, ectomorph frame. "Bow before my glory."
Raven poked him in the stomach with her finger, causing Flynt to deflate.
Not much muscle power was actually needed to unload the shuttles. While Lakhri and Kaden were off finding food, the rest of the team packed the gear they thought they might need for today onto the shuttles. Then Eeth gave Flynt and Raven permission to fly the two shuttles out through the cargo hatch. They would use them to bring the goyts to the ship, but possibly not as early as today; they might need to find out more about these animals and their needs first. On the other hand, there was no time to lose. Goyts were shot by settlers on a daily basis whenever they strayed from the swamps, and since a big drainage project at the Eastern side of the swamps was taking away large stretches of land every week, that happened more and more often.
An hour later they were done and Lakhri and Kaden had returned with several bags of buns and pastries. Eeth locked the ship and gathered the small team around himself. "We are flying to the centre of the swamp, hoping we will find a place to land somewhere," said Eeth. "Raven, we are relying on you. Tell us what to do and what to look out for. Our aim is to find out as much as we can about the goyts and to start taking them to the ship as soon as you decide that we can do so safely. The sooner we start, the more we will be able to save from settlers. On the other hand, we need to be sure that we can feed them and keep them alive and well on our ship before we bring them there. Lakhri, Drex and Raven, you take the first shuttle. I will take the second with Flynt and Kaden. Any questions?" He was mixing the teams on purpose; he wanted them to get to know each other better, plus all padawans would benefit from working with Jedi other than their own masters.
"No, master." and "No, Sir," both Raven and Flynt replied respectively.
Kaden shook his head; he had no questions, but the expression on his face at hearing that he would be riding with Eeth was momentarily cautious. Two reasons: first and foremost, he was his master's eyes, and although the man did not at all require his apprentice's sight to function, Kaden did not like being separated from him. Secondly, Kaden and Eeth had a history. He was twelve and a half years old when Eeth had first met him, with less than six months to go until his chances of becoming a padawan were taken from him. He had been enrolled in the man's senior initiates' advanced saber class due to his skill with a lightsaber; that skill had been untamed, though, and threatened to take a dark turn without the proper training. Eeth had picked up on that almost immediately and set himself to finding him a master. Kaden had also earned himself memorable punishments from the man over the past few years, twice during those classes and again when he and Drex had worked together with Eeth and Raven in the Tchennik sector. It wasn't that Eeth was any harsher than his own master. Drex did not hesitate to rain down a shower of hell on his ass when it was called for, but there was something about the Councillors rigid demeanour that unnerved Kaden. He hid it well, schooling his features, and followed Eeth and Flynt to the shuttle.
"Shall I drive?" he offered, but his gaze locked on Flynt who had not bothered to hide his smirk of amusement.
"I've been taking various piloting lessons since I was thirteen," he announced a little arrogantly. It was true, after all. Drex was blind, hence Kaden had been enrolled as soon as practical to increase their usefulness to the Order.
Flynt held up both hands in a placating gesture, but it was decidedly patronising if you asked Kaden. He wasn't sure what to make of the ridiculously tall teenager. He was a smart ass, a trait Kaden could appreciate but did not himself possess.
"I know you are able to drive," Eeth replied without condescension. He was aware that Drex depended on his padawans to drive him and therefore had them learn the skill early, and he had seen in Kaden's file that he had passed his exams. "However," Eeth continued, "you are underage to do so on this continent. And so is Flynt, incidentally." He gave his grandpadawan a look that was designed to wipe the smirk off his face and motioned for them to get into the speeder.
Flynt took Eeth's glare and comment on the chin; not much bothered the teen these days, although he was at that awkward stage of adolescence where he wasn't yet an adult, but neither was he a child. It could be infuriating, and something that Lakhri addressed with a consistency that grated on the teenager; such nonsense had no place in the life of a Jedi, he knew. He sprang into the passenger seat, leaving the back seat for Kaden, and started skimming through the onboard maps. Of course, where they landed would be Raven's call so they could do little more than follow at this point.
Meanwhile, Lakhri said: "Raven, I'd let you drive, but I think it would be better if you focussed on finding us a landing spot with a maximum number of goyts in the vicinity. So you'd better take the passenger seat."
Drex nodded his agreement to this instruction and got into the back.
Raven sat where she was told to and closed her eyes, Lakhri had been correct; this was going to require quite an effort on her part if they wanted to do this efficiently. "That way," she told Lakhri, having gotten a clear sense of the goyts' collective minds. Yes, collective. Apparently, they could communicate with each other, to a limited extent, as their Force presences were linked. That might prove problematic, she passed on to the others, reminding them to keep an eye out for physical signs. Her lessons with animal expert Drkai Luthan had taught her that relying on her abilities alone could blind her to the obvious, so she opened her eyes as their shuttle took off and searched for signs that might help them learn more.
It became clear that there was a large population residing here. She spotted fur stuck in the bark of many tree trunks, and when Lakhri pointed up, the girl raised both brows. How the Force they had gotten up that high, she did not know. The smell, too, was something else. Their droppings smelt acrid; it was gross.
While Flynt had his tunic pulled up over his nose, Kaden was toughing it out. The boy's eyes watered, but he didn't care. "Grandmaster, was that you?" Flynt joked, although his jibe was cut off as a flash of dirty, white fur caught his peripheral vision.
"Stop," Raven called, her eyes closing once again. "Our presence is scaring them. They're going to take off into the farmlands if we go any further. They're semi-intelligent, but from what I can sense this might be akin to looking after a bunch of three-year-old initiates."
Eeth and Lakhri heeded Raven's warning. They stopped their shuttles and had them hovering in mid-air while they looked for a place to land. This was not exactly easy, given that this was a huge swamp and that the goyts were only able to live here due to being very light and rather small - something that could not be said for their shuttles. Finally, they found a place that seemed large and stable enough to hold one shuttle, but probably not both. Maybe this was for the better; one shuttle, holding a person who might be able to soothe the goyts to some extent, would scare them off less than two of them. Eeth conveyed this to Raven through their bond, asking her to have Lakhri land in the place he had identified.
"I will double back," he told Flynt and Kaden. "When we have found a place to land our shuttle, we will need to come here on foot, which might turn out to be rather hard. How we are going to collect the goyts under these conditions I do not know yet, but we will have to find a way."
Neither do I! Flynt thought. There were a lot of them and they were like very agile, erratic toddlers! They were going to have their work cut out for them on this one.
"Land over there," Raven announced, passing on Eeth's instructions to Lakhri.
When they touched down, one of the shuttle supports immediately began to sink, and Lakhri had to pull up fast to readjust their positioning; the patch was the only semi-solid land around that would support their shuttle's weight but apparently it was not without its quirks.
The moment their shuttle was more or less grounded, Raven vaulted from the passenger seat and crouched low, her gaze deliberately aimed at the mud. Ew, it really smelled. Drkai had told her that many herbivore animals were intimidated by eye contact and a submissive pose would gain her far more than force ever would. She remained on the sinking ground for a long time before the first goyt stuck its nose out from behind a tree trunk. Raven was doing her best to convey that they meant no harm and that they were here to ultimately save them from those that wished to eradicate them. The longer she sat there, the more goyts appeared until their shuttle was surrounded. Unfortunately, their confidence, thanks to Raven's presence, made them brazen. Two of the biggest jumped on the ship, eager to explore this strange shiny object that had appeared from nowhere.
Eeth, in the meanwhile, had trouble finding another place to land. Flynt and Kaden reached out with their senses, too, but they had no success either. In the end, they had to settle for the edge of the swamp that was closest to where the three others had landed, but getting there would still mean quite some walk. Through the swamps. "The next time, we will only take one shuttle, I think," said Eeth. "Or we will try to catch goyts walking inwards from the edge of the swamp."
He could sense that Raven was busy focussing on the goyts, so he pulled out his comlink and called Lakhri to inform him of their status. "We will need at least an hour to reach you, possibly more," he said. "There was simply no place to land, not without going further into the swamp which Raven feared might scare the goyts away. Tell Raven to start doing her job and not to wait for us. We will try to gather as much information as we can on the way."
"Alright," said Lakhri. He then told Raven what Eeth had said while Drex was gently persuading the goyts from actually entering the shuttle and climbing onto the backseat.
"Look out for traces of the goyts," Eeth said to Kaden and Flynt in the meanwhile. "We are especially interested in their dietary habits. Look for half-eaten leaves, grass, that kind of thing. Whatever we find, we will analyse. We will also take some of their dung and analyse it."
"Super," Flynt said with false jollity. "That can be your job," he added, clapping Kaden on the back.
"I'm not going to be the official goyt shit collector."
"But you'd be so good at it. Besides, you're the closest to the ground."
Kaden frowned at that logic. "Not happening."
"Oh, it so happening." Flynt countered, enjoying razzing the boy a bit.
"Is not."
"Is too."
"IS NOT!"
"IS TOO!"
"Keep it up, and I'll fry your ass with Force lightning." Kaden threatened.
This comment drew a grin from Flynt. Raven had told him how Kaden struggled with his temper and that Drex had him on a tight leash when it came to his anger. "You do that and Drex will fry your ass with something else. I bet I know who will be sorrier."
"Shut up and do your job," Kaden said without heat, and kicked a knob of goyt poo at Flynt's pant leg, unwittingly starting what was destined to turn into a shit fight, both metaphorically and literally.
Eeth, who had momentarily been busy scouting ahead for a path through the swamp, returned at this point. He had overheard the argument, and he was not happy with it. "Stop it, both of you," he said sharply, causing both boys to turn and face him. "Flynt, you have no business goading your fellow padawan. You are old enough by far to know better than that." Eeth took off his backpack and took out a container with different compartments, each with its own spoon-like contraption. "You collect dung samples," he told Flynt in a tone of voice that brooked no objection. "A different one to each compartment, without mixing them up. Kaden, you, being closer to the ground, look for traces of grass or herbs they have eaten. I will check the trees. And we all need to watch our step while we walk."
Given that neither Flynt nor Kaden wanted to risk pissing off Eeth, Kaden refrained from gloating at Flynt's job, and Flynt restricted his displeasure at his task to a frown. He accepted the container and scored the first sample off his trouser leg courtesy of Kaden; the kid was going down for that one, but he would need to bide his time.
Meanwhile, Raven was having more success with the goyts. Their collective awareness meant that if the lead animals felt safe, the rest tended to follow suit, so it was that the apprentice focused her attention on those she pegged as the leaders. It was a good tactic, and it worked. "Open the hatch," Raven called to Lakhri, curious to see how they reacted to the strange mechanical sounds. The sound of their opening hatch sent them all scuttling, and it took the padawan another hour to coax them back. She sensed Eeth approaching and stood. Her brow quirked as she noticed that Flynt's pant leg was splattered in poo, and, uh! Kaden too sported a large splotch, although it was right in the middle of his back. She had to work to cover her amusement. "They should be malleable in a day or so," she told Eeth as he approached, and dusted off her tunic.
"Alright. Keep on working," Eeth told her. "The rest of us find out as much as we can about their dietary habits, what they do, where they sleep and so forth, preferably without scaring them off. Maybe we should split up."
While Flynt exchanged a few words with Raven, Eeth told Lakhri quietly: "You should talk to your padawan on occasion about working with younger team members and treating them with respect. Flynt has not exactly been doing that with Kaden. Making fun of Kaden and provoking him is not helpful."
Lakhri sighed and nodded. "Yeah, he'd do that, wouldn't he? Alright. I'll talk to him." He rose and called: "Flynt, c'mon! Let's head off east and see what we can find."
Seeing that they were each dividing off into pairs as opposed to singular as she'd first assumed, Raven automatically moved to Eeth's side and waited. When he didn't make to move, she looked up, her large grey eyes meeting his dark gaze. It took her a moment, but soon she realised that he wanted her to take the lead in this aspect of their mission so she stepped forward and lead them north, a long line of goyts in tow. Apparently, they liked her.
Flynt walked to his master's side, hands behind his back, and waited for instructions. He looked down, seeing only the top of Lakhri's slightly tousled brown hair. He sensed that something was slightly off, although he wasn't sure.
Lakhri ran a hand through his curls as he usually did when he was trying to decide how to approach a topic. He finally decided to be blunt about it. "Eeth was not quite happy with how you got along with Kaden," he said to Flynt as they made their way along a path between glistening pools of water. "What happened?"
"For real?" The teen looked a little surprised at hearing that, but was wary all the same; Lakhri might be easy-going, but if he fucked up, the man would fuck him up in kind. "We were just funning, honest. Or," the teen scratched his head. "At least I was… I didn't mean any harm, we were just having a little fun, you know?"
"Him being younger than you, and the youngest of our mission team," Lakhri replied. He thought he had an idea what had been going on, and he had to agree with Eeth: This had better stop. "If you were 'funning', and he was not, what does that tell you about the kind of fun you were having?" he inquired.
Flynt ran a hand through his hair, not wanting to answer that. "I really was just messing with him," he pressed. "I'll knock it off.' He looked down at his master, a genuine expression on his face.
"Please do," replied Lakhri. "Because messing with a considerably younger padawan can turn into bullying quite fast. Since Kaden is most likely the type who will strike back if pushed too hard, we will end up with a situation that won't make this mission any easier. And don't think for a moment that I won't hold you responsible if that happens."
Lakhri knew what he was talking about; letting others provoke him into un-Jedi-like reactions, mostly by making fun of his small size, had been a constant issue with him when he had been a junior padawan. He knew that Eeth had been right to correct this type of behaviour, but he could also relate to how Kaden must be feeling when being goaded by Flynt.
The threat was acknowledged, and the teen now felt a little guilty. "I'll back off. I really was just trying to lighten him up a bit," he said sincerely. Their poo war had been taken in good grace, or so he thought, but then again, Flynt was not the best at judging such things. Being held responsible for complicating their mission, however, was another matter and he scratched at the back of his head nervously as they continued to walk. Much to Flynt's relief, at that moment they came across a well-worn track that was slightly elevated from the swampy mush. "They must come this way often. I wonder what it leads to, if anything?" Flynt thought aloud.
"Let's find out," said Lakhri and smiled at Flynt, showing him that he was done telling him off. It turned out that this track led to a hillock that allowed them to see just how little was left of the swamps. After a kilometre, at most, the drainage ditches started, and they could see farmers on speeder bikes controlling the fields. There was no fencing; apparently, the farmers thought it cheaper to just shoot those goyts that strayed into their territory. "That," said Lakhri solemnly, "explains the urgency."
"It does," Flynt agreed, his expression serious. Like the others, he didn't like that the goyts' lives were given zero value. "Let's see what's on the other side," he suggested. After receiving a nod, he led the way. They found several muddy pools that smelled worse than Flynt could describe, but more importantly, a large increase of what Raven had suggested might be the goyts' preferred food source. It was a bush with red berries, and apparently, it liked to grow in the most inhospitable of conditions, at least to humanoids. Flynt had his tunic up over his nose so only his eyes were visible. "I will be forced to rename them if this keeps up," he thought aloud, his voice partially muffled thanks to his tunic.
While Flynt was busy gagging, Kaden was knee deep in his own misfortune. "Argh. This sucks. I'm going to need new boots if this keeps up," he stated, having failed to detect the false ground in time. The boy's pants were drenched and mud covered from the knee down.
Drex was moving across the swamp with far greater ease than Kaden because it was a lot easier to sense the best path through the Force than it was to see it; often, what looked like solid ground was only grass covering pools of water. "I think," Drex said to Kaden, "we are nearing the centre of the swamp. There are a lot of goyts in the bushes ahead of us. Are there any trees that will hold your weight and allow you to watch without disturbing them?"
Kade looked around and spotted something that might be thick enough to hold his weight. "Possibly, but not the two of us." Drex was a good head taller than Kaden and weighed a bit more, although that was fast changing as the boy continued to bulk out. He tested the limb, doing his best not to scare the goyts off, then jumped up. Drex had found a spot close-by, and between the two of them, they both observed what was going on, Kaden with his eyes and Drex through his sense of the Force.
"They like bright colours and heat. We found a group of them resting in what I assume is their sleeping area. And thankfully, the stinky mud is not a requirement for their survival. Wherever we choose will need to have bodies of water, though. Not that they'll have much luck with water here if we don't move them soon," Raven told the group when they had reassembled several hours later.
Flynt nodded. "We saw as much from a hill. There isn't a lot left now, the farmers have all but taken over."
"I watched a family group for a while. They glow when they interact, but they also use it as a defence mechanism to camouflage themselves when threatened. Also, their fur either flattens down or stands on end to better melt into their environment," Kaden contributed. He had worked that out when he'd snapped a twig in the tree he'd been perching on, startling the group.
"Cool to be them," said Flynt.
Raven ran a hand across her face, inadvertently scraping a line of muck across her forehead. "There are a couple of planets relatively close by that would work for them, but it will still be a trip of a few days."
"I hope they smell better than this one," Flynt commented.
Raven nodded. "Any place would be hard-pressed to outshine this stench. In any case, we can go over the options when we get back to the ship."
"Speaking of which, can we go soon? I'm wasting away here," Kaden interjected.
"Yes, we may return to the ship," said Eeth. "Raven, do you want to take the first batch of goyts now? If you do, at least two of us will have to walk back to the speeder I brought. If you do not, you can take all of us in the back and drop me off where I landed the other speeder. I will leave the decision up to you. The goyts are our priority."
"Let's start tomorrow. We should try to minimise the amount of time the goyts spend locked in our cargo bay, or we might end up neck-deep in their muck. The journey to even the nearest of the planets on our list will take three days, which will make cleaning up after them a full-time job as it is."
"Unless the cargo bay has a self-cleaning function. We can hope," said Kaden.
Flynt raised his hands in mock surrender. "Don't look at me, I was already made 'head poo boy' today," he told them all, shooting his grandmaster a dirty look.
"We are all going to have to share in that," Eeth said calmly, rising from where he had been sitting. "The ship has cleaning droids and waste disposal facilities, but we will still need to do a lot of manual work."
"How long will it take us to collect all the goyts?" Kaden asked, looking at each master, and then to Raven.
"Well, we can probably squeeze in twenty goyts per shuttle at best, but so far we have only found one landing place within the swamps. I can find them through the Force, but getting them to the ship is going to be a lot of work, especially as I'm the only one who can more or less persuade them to follow. It could take a few days which would mean that some of the goyts will be locked in our cargo bay for up to six days."
Flynt wrinkled his nose but otherwise remained silent. The idea of being in a ship with those smelly critters didn't exactly thrill him.
"We will simply try to do our best to be as fast as possible," Eeth said. "If we make an effort and everything goes well, we might manage in two days. If not – well, it will take as long as it takes."
He motioned for all of them to get into the shuttle. "Raven, you keep the goyts away while we take off," he said. "Lakhri, you drive. I will get into the cargo area with Kaden. Drop me off at the place where I landed the other shuttle." That left Drex and Flynt to take the back seat.
Raven did as bade, although it didn't require much of an effort since the moment their engines powered up, the goyts closest scuttled into the undergrowth. She was silent on the trip back, her expression contemplative. She had the planet of Lucia in mind as it best suited their requirements, but she had yet to make a final decision. Raven would need to do that, as well as decide on their best course of action, soon. This level of responsibility on a mission was new to her, and she did not want to mess it up.
Lakhri dropped Eeth off at the second shuttle, and then he dropped Drex and Kaden off near the main street because Drex, who seemed to be the only one besides Eeth who looked more or less presentable, had proposed to buy dinner for them. Kaden did not look quite as presentable, which Lakhri had helpfully pointed out to Drex, but he would be able to read shop signs to his master.
An hour later, they were all showered, had changed into clean clothes and assembled in the galley where a stack of hot flat pies with various toppings was waiting for them.
"Seems to be popular with locals," Drex said. "It's definitely edible for humans and Zabrak since these are among the people Kaden saw at the restaurant, so I assume it is, essentially, a variant of Corellian pizza." He did not worry about his own stomach; Hrakians could digest most anything.
"Where are we bringing the goyts, anyway?" asked Lakhri in between two bites of Barslaa's variant of pizza. "Do you have a preference, Raven?"
In response, Raven turned the datapad that she had brought to the table so that the others could see the planet she had chosen, and then she verbalised for Drex. "Lucia. It's got a diverse range of unique-looking flora and fauna." She tapped the screen and images of brightly coloured, rubber-like pitcher plants began scrolling. "When the sun shines on this planet, the environment actually glitters. I think the goyts will like that; they appear to be fascinated by anything bright and colourful. The landscape fits well also. The climate is almost identical to the one here, and it has large areas of fetid swampland. There are fungal forests, too, which I'd like to explore; the animals in that area are not found anywhere else in the galaxy."
"What about food?" asked Kaden while taking his third pie.
Raven turned the screen, tapped in a search and moments later spun it back around. "Vast," she said, that one word summing up the multitude of flora found on Lucia. "We have no way of knowing for sure if the goyts will eat these plants. We need to go off observation, and I for one believe they will eat just about anything. My left boot tends to agree with me."
"In that case, I hope they don't start eating the ship," Flynt added.
"That," said Raven, "is a likely possibility. We're going to have to keep an eye on them."
Kaden stopped eating for long enough to comment. "They can't do much damage in the cargo bay unless they somehow get into the overhead wiring."
"Yes, that would be a pain in the ass. I dare say that even the most agile of them will struggle to pull that off. Still, it's something we need to watch for," she agreed. Raven looked to the three masters and asked: "What do you think?"
None of the masters had any objections to Raven's assessment.
"That will be three days of flight time, then," said Lakhri, "after we have collected all the goyts, that is, which will take two or three days. I suggest we turn in early and – although I hate to say it – make an early start tomorrow."
"Yes, that would be reasonable," said Eeth. "Raven, you should get some rest. You have done a lot of Force work and you will need to do a lot more of it tomorrow."
"Yes, Master," Raven replied. She hadn't realised it until then, but she was a bit tired from all the Force work.
Flynt and Kaden looked at each other, but it was Flynt who spoke up. "I wanted to head into Tuppset and take a look around…" he hedged, giving his master a hopeful look.
"Me too," Kaden added, jumping on the bandwagon.
Raven perked up at that. She wouldn't mind going either. Unfortunately, whether or not Eeth would allow it given her fatigue remained a mystery. She decided to wait and see if the others got permission and go from there.
Lakhri shrugged. He had seen the town that morning; it was not a particularly big or dangerous place, especially when one was used to Coruscant, and had a number of nice places to eat and drink that were not too rowdy. Apparently, it also had a red-light district that was quite a bit shadier, but that was at the other side of town.
"I'm alright with that," he said, "as long as you stay in the main street and its side streets up to market square and are back by half past ten. And stay clear from establishments that you're underage to enter, obviously."
Drex considered Kaden's request a few seconds longer. Kaden was two years younger than Flynt; but he was raising him to be independent and self-reliant and he had seen a lot more of Coruscant than most other padawans his age. "I'll allow you to go," Drex finally told Kaden, "if Flynt consents to taking you and staying with you."
"Ten thirty and mind the brat, you got it," Flynt confirmed. He gave his master a smile that was all teeth.
Kaden too was grateful, but he did aim a glare at Flynt for referring to him as a brat. Drex had always been liberal when it came to exploration, although he generally accompanied him. "Thanks! I'll stick with Flynt," the younger boy repeated. Sticking together was not exactly difficult, and it would ultimately be more fun having someone to share the experience with.
"Master, can I go, please?" Raven hedged. "I'll mind all brats," was tacked on the end, earning her a smirk from Flynt and an eye roll from Kaden.
Eeth thought about this, but only briefly. Raven was nineteen, after all, and he was giving her some leeway where her free time was concerned. At the same time, she was clearly tired and would need her mental focus tomorrow. However, leaving her behind when the boys, who were both younger than her, were allowed to go would not exactly go over well. "You may," he conceded, "but only for as long as you are up to it. Mind your energy reserves. We will all depend on you tomorrow and you will need to be well-rested."
"Yes, Master," she replied. Raven didn't plan to stay out as long as the others. She had to be ready for tomorrow, after all.
As it turned out, Raven stayed with Flynt and Kaden for just over an hour. Then, when she had been unable to conceal her yawns, she decided to head back to the ship. She was starting to feel the strain and knew that to push it further would leave her at less than her best tomorrow. "Night, you two. Don't forget to keep up our ethnographic observations." 'Ethnographic observations' in this case was a code word for people-watching; some of the beings here were exceptionally 'colourful', or so Flynt had described them.
As ordered, Flynt kept an eye on Kaden, not letting the boy out of his sight during their evening, and had them return to the ship with five minutes to spare. Upon entering the ship, Flynt sought out Lakhri, while Kaden found Drex. Both had enjoyed the night and were looking forward to exploring more the following evening. And there was more to see, a lot more! They had come across a few establishments after Raven left that they planned to look at in more detail.
None of the masters had any complaints about their apprentices that night; they had been home in time and seemed to have behaved themselves.
"I might go out tomorrow night as well," said Lakhri. "If the goyts let us. But I won't go with Flynt. He'd just be embarrassed to have his master babysitting him."
Drex smiled. "He would," he agreed. "Are the places in this town any good, then?"
"The steak restaurant at the market square sure looked like it," replied Lakhri.
"If one person is enough to look after the goyts," Eeth said, "you can both go tomorrow night. I can mind the ship while you are gone."
"Thanks," said Lakhri. "We will be here for a few days anyway. We could switch. Or we'll bring you a steak."
Eeth gave him a small smile. "We will see how it turns out," he said.
