Chapter 6

Mud

Ahsoka and I decided the message was worth investigating, although I would describe it more as "humoring," similar to what Ahsoka said earlier. After all, it was a message written in blood telling to walk into a fog laced jungle where all kinds of parasites and creatures lurk. I'm nervous enough to feel my bones rattle, but Ahsoka is surprisingly stoic about the whole ordeal. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she had been here before. Wait, I don't know any better. She could've lived here for all I know. I notified my team of our current goal and instructed Gidget to keep working on the ship. She got over our little spiff, by the way. She's 13 years old.

No vehicle for us, we aren't that lucky. The ship is still in disarray, and we decided against using cattle. I don't know why we did, but we did. So, we're just gonna hoof it, so to speak. Half way into our trek, we decided hoofing it was as bad an idea as they come. For one thing, we had a hell of a time trying to walking through all the muck and mud. We both expressed our fortune on having thought to wear boots on this particular day. Second of all, the bugs (or any other various species of God knows what) were constantly annoying us. Another factor I failed to take into consideration happened when we wandered onto something that looked like a road, but it was actually vegetation worn down by constantly being run over. I completely forgot it was Podracing season for Malastare. I remembered because I used to constantly bet on races here. I was actually pretty good at it, something I got from my dad.

Don't think I ever told you about my dad. Two things I remember about him: He was a hell of a gambler and a bit of a womanizer. You think those two traits spell a bad family? Wrong. Fucking love my dad. As soon as I turned 12, we'd drunk together and have some wicked fun. He taught me to shoot my first blaster at 13 and taught me the art of gambling the next day. My dad's fucking awesome. I know I got the gambling thing from him, but I was never good at the womanizing thing. Truth be told, I didn't lose my virginity until I was 22.

Where was I? It was podracing season here and we were walking on one of the tracks. I had a feeling they were gonna come down the track any second now and slash us to bits and pieces, but then I remembered that the Empire banned Podracing from all sectors. Damn them. One of the reasons I took up bounty hunting was because I couldn't make money off of podracing anymore. Life's a bitch like that.

"This is getting so unbearable." I hear Ahsoka complain next to me, interrupting my seemingly endless train of thought. She's using her saber to cut though a thick sheet of vines. By now the mud was literally up to our waist.

"I know. It's like trying to walk though a giant fat kid." That crack wasn't meant to be a joke, but I still heard Ahsoka snicker at it. I laughed a bit myself as we finally got out of the mud, but it ends as soon as I feel something move in my boot. Despite myself, I scream and jump around, trying to get whatever it is out. Ahsoka, alarmed, pulls her saber and gets ready to fight. Thankfully, I managed to reach in and pull it out. It's just a small creature that looks like a mix between a leech and a mudskipper. I honestly feel kind of stupid for freaking out about it. I hold it up to my face and smirk.

"You're not so bad, aren't you? You little—"Next thing I know I see a quick flash of light and a second later I'm holding one part of a bisected creature in my hand. The very next second I drop it, and recoil back seeing Ahsoka's lightsaber just put back at her side.

"What the hell was that about?"

"What you were just holding in commonly known as a Mud Maggot, which are an extremely rare type of parasite only found on Malastare at night. They can inject a deadly neurotoxin known as Saxitoxin that can cause paralysis on your entire body, including your respiratory system. If that were to bite you, you would be stone dead in exactly 17 seconds." She told me this while so calm and stoic that I bet she could sense the rising fear in me that would soon reach a boiling point. That thing could've killed me in seconds, and I held it inches away from my face.

I don't believe this. I survive 2 wars, 3 riots, being imprisoned by the Empire, being shot at countless times (Actually being hit a couple times), a savage beating by bikers, falling of a Coruscant skyscraper and pissing off an emotionally unstable Jedi; And the one thing that even comes close to killing me is a fucking worm! An extremely rare worm that only comes out at night on one particular planet!

"…And you'd think someone in your profession would be a little more cautious of the area around them." I was so busy whining in my head, I barely noticed Ahsoka was still talking. I regained my composure and spoke up, interrupting her.

"Thanks." That was all I said while trying to regain my composure. She smiled, indicating that it was all she wanted.

"Please be more careful. I don't want to be the one to tell Gidget her only father figure was killed by a worm."

I suppose I ought to thank her for the fact that she cares but I'm not going to. I just agree with her. "Let's just clean this mud off" I say.

"I guess that's what we're looking for." I pointed out about a rather small village and surrounded by fog, It was the picture of places people should NOT go into, but we're going to do it anyway, curiosity be praised and caution be damned. I won't lie, though. I'm a bit nervous. Sure, I can kill people for a profit, but fog-laced villages are a big no-no for me.

"You know, you can wait out here if you want to." I hear Ahsoka say. I can just as easily hear the taunting in her voice as well. Damn it, she knows.

"Nah, I'll join you. You could probably use someone to look after your back. Who knows what's in there? Thieves, bandits and whatnot ready to ambush." A small intermission of silence passes before she talks.

"Do you have a spare blaster I can borrow?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Well, with what you said when we were back at the outpost, we don't know if it's the Empire or not. If it is, and they find out I'm a Jedi, it's not gonna go over well for me or you, especially me. Do you have any idea what they'll do if they manage to catch either one of us?"

"I see your point." With that I hand her one I hung on the left side of my belt. She attaches it to her belt and hides the saber in her boot. "You know how to use it right?" I ask.

"Of course I do! You think that just because I'm a girl we can't use blasters? We proved that myth wrong a long time ago."

"N-no! It's just I always thought that Jedi favor lightsabers over blasters."

"We do, but there are times where we have to resort to using them in certain situations. It always helps to be prepared, especially if you're in charge of keeping peace in the galaxy. In fact, I was one of the best shots among my peers."

"Of course you were. It has nothing to do with being a girl. I know that. You're strong, and a confident women. Why'd you bring that up anyway?"

"I ran into a situation like that before with a new recruit who acted a bit like you. He made a smart-ass remark about me not knowing how to handle a blaster."

"What'd you do?"

"I beat him up. Bare-handedly. Like I did with you. His bones were nothing but bits and pieces by the time he learned his lesson." I cringed at those words before I carefully chose my next thing to say

"Well, don't you worry. Brutus Bane ain't sexist. Sexy, maybe, but not sexist. If I had a girl like you, you'd be making most of the decisions in the relationship and I can respect that" She stared at me for a couple seconds after that last sentence.

"What?" I asked.

"If you had a girl like me, we'd being living in an alternate universe where… Wookies spoke English and the Empire was actually loved by the people it ruled over." I'm not going to argue with that one, because she's sort of right. I'm not going to give her the satisfaction of knowing that though. After our delightful conversation we move on to the village.

Honestly, the inside doesn't do much justice to the house either. It's just as run-down and decrepit as the outside. There are signs, however, that people is living here. Candles are lit and there are mutilated corpses of different species lying on nearby tables, gutted out for their meat and hide. While it may sound like a savage's den, it's not too imposing. Simply, looks like someone moved in here quite recently. I could be right on the fact that bandits (or most likely pirates) live here. Although why they're on Malastare, I have no idea. Nothing to scavenge for but mud and methane.

Careful as to not wake anyone that could be in here, we creep our way though outside of eyesight. Hiding behind a tent made of some kind of animal hide, I pull out my knife to cut a small hole through the fabric and peek inside. Men lying on a bed with a dog on the floor next to them are the sights I'm greeted with. I try to expand the tear a bit to get a better view of anything within the tent, when the dog's ears perk up and his eyes open. After knocking off the sleep almost instantly, he quickly catches sight of me and growls, teeth bared.

Fearing the owners of said dog may awaken as well, I fall back to regroup with Ahsoka. Before we get the chance to meet, the dogs start barking, waking everyone in the whole dang camp. In just a matter of moments, the camp is swarming of people looking for intruders.

Sneaking away would have been futile due to the entire surrounding area being an open field before the tree line. We could start a fight but then we'd have to kill them and I'm itching for answers on why they laid that outpost to waste. So, I end up doing the most logical (By logical I mean sensible, not intelligent. This was NOT a smart move by any means) and come out of hiding.

"Okay, okay, you caught me." Hands in the air I stepped out of my hiding spot and, as expected, everyone set their weapon sights on me. Unexpectedly, they didn't fire.

"Who're you?" A big, burly guy growled out. Looks like a Feeorin.

"Bane. Brutus Bane."

"The Bounty Hunter?" He pointed out

"Yep."

"But I thought his skin was blue?"

"Brutus Bane. You know, the Space Dogs?"

"Oh yeah. I've heard of them." With a nod of his head, two of his men moved up to me and searched me. Taking my blaster and my combat knife.

"So, I assume you're the boss 'round here?" I questioned the big man. Seriously, that guy must have been taller than Scope.

"Yeah. So?"

"Just curious." She took the signal and within 3 seconds after I spoke she had the boss man in a headlock with a blaster pointed at his temple. His men immediately turned to shoot, although some kept on me, only to be stopped by a frantic boss.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" He yelled, being that his body completely covered any hope of hitting Ahsoka.

"Yeah, I wouldn't shoot. Chances are your gonna miss me and hit him, and that'll be the last mistake you'll ever make." Her voice was so sinister that it was hard to tell if she was bluffing.

"How about we work out a truce?" I say to the boys and girls. They look at me undecided but reluctant, then turn to their boss. He slowly nods affirmative and they lower their weapons. Upon being sure I was out of harm's way, I signaled to Ahsoka to keep her end of the deal. She did so by releasing her hold and lowering the blaster.

It all went well so far, and I thought we could work this out nice and peacefully. Sadly, that wasn't meant to be. Almost instantly after Ahsoka pushed the boss man out of her reach, I caught sight of something in the air, speeding towards Ahsoka's position, a rusty but still razor-sharp vibro-axe over its head. The Tortuga Jedi sensed it and barely managed to jump out of the way before it stabbed the ground. After it landed I could see it a trifle more clearly. The figure was a little shorter than Ahsoka, but much more agile and strong enough to swing that vibro-axe as if it were a bat made of plastic. Couldn't see it's face very well, though.

It quickly, yet fiercely, pulled the weapon out of the muck and swung it 180, knocking Ahsoka's blaster out of her hand. Followed after the spin was a hard kick to her mid-section, stumbling her and finally knocking her down. The finishing blow, a full swing to the neck which would have decapitated her instantly, stopped mere inches from her neck after the boss yelled "WAIT!"

"Calm down, kiddo. We got us a truce goin' on. Put it down."

"But—"

"Now."

"She tried to kill you! They can't kill you! Not allowed to kill you!" She glares back at Ahsoka and pushes the blade into her neck, drawing blood. "You will not kill!" The voice was clearly feminine, shaking and sounded awfully young.

"I'm alive, aren't I?" He said, sympathetic. More sympathetic than I ever expected a big guy like him to ever sound. He spoke softly and cautiously, like talking to a kid having a violent tantrum. "We'll be fine. Put the axe away and calm down."

"NO! They hate us. They all hate us. Well, I'll show them how much I hate them!" With that, she raised the Vibro-axe into the air. Before finishing her strike, Ahsoka swept the girl off her feet with a kick of her own, before flipping back onto hers and pulling the saber out of her boot. The girl just as quickly followed suit after regaining her posture and stood a fighting stance, but all the fight left her eyes upon looking at Ahsoka once more. Instead, they filled with curiosity and stared at her lit saber.

"A lightsaber?" Her frail-sounding voice spoke, increasing with intensity with each coming sentence. "You have a lightsaber? No, regular people don't deserve lightsabers! Only special people!"

"Special?" A perplexed Ahsoka quipped. "You mean Jedi?"

"No! Special! Are you special? You don't appear to be…"

"I am a Jedi, if that's what you're asking." She lowered her saber, but only slightly, as the Girl lowered her weapon.

"But they're dead. All dead. I saw it all myself. All no more, because they killed them. The first of many victims for them. Last to live, but first to die before the New Order. The New Order ended it all. " She put a lot of emphasis on the word New Order, and reaped the ground with her axe with each time she said it.

"You mean the Empire? I know. I was there, too. I saw my friends cut down by-" She looked like she was about say something, but another thing seems to have caught her interest. "You were there? Are you… a Jedi?"

"You're not listening." She said, irritated. "No more Jedi. What's left is not Jedi, but simply different. Different and special. I'm different. I'm special. My name is Karelia."

This chapter was particarly difficult to write. See, I had it all planned out, and I had written most of it. A virus screwed my computer, though, and I had to clean it. I forgot to move my work to a different folder and lost all of it. When I had gone to write it again, it bugged me because it looked so clichéd and unoriginal. So I did it again, entirely from scratch, and I'm much happier with this result.

Just so you know, I got the name Karelia from the song Ghost of Karelia by Mastodon. Turns out, Karelia is a small area of land between Finland and Russia. Wicked.

Thanks for reading. Review if you've got the time. Don't steal anything on your way out.