Chapter Title: Abandoned

Series Title: Unlikely Brothers

Ages in this chapter: Tanner (16) Dashen (22)

POV: Tanner

Chapter Summary: The boys visit an old park that served as a lifetime of memories before the Separatist army destroyed it several years before the Jedi Purge.


"What is this place, Dash?" I said, as we wandered. "I don't sense any life here, at least not people." Reaching into the Force, while I wasn't an advanced user with my lack of intense training past the age of nine, I could feel life and usually see an essence around it. Those things we'd learned as initiates, but would have been perfected as apprentices. My abilities, for animals at least, had always been a step ahead of my age-mates. Master Ayden had told me that I possessed a unique ability with animal kinship. A talent some Jedi never mastered, even if most had some ability. Animals liked me and in turn I could sense them easier within the Force than I could people.

I thought this ability quite amazing.

Dash just thought I was weird.

"There are no people here, but animals yeah. So, you and your weirdo invisible magic can keep them away from me, please. I can't afford to have any more bite scars visible. One more and I may start frightening children."

He was exaggerating, of course. It was his way and at this point in our lives, I was used to it.

"There are animals here," I said to him, "but that doesn't answer my question about this place. You've been here before, haven't you?"

Dash nodded thoughtfully. "Long ago when I was small. When Kossi was alive and very young. This place was a huge park. A vacation spot. Away from chaos of the cities, near the lake, clean water, peaceful surroundings. Word is the Separatists landed here and blasted the hell out of it. No one knows why. Either to kill something or to just blow off their hateful steam. For whatever reason, they didn't try and claim the planet, but they left this in their wake. My family and I came here for vacation a few times. I would have been eleven that final year we came. Kossi would have been six. My folks died not long after that last trip. I tried to bring Kossi back here the following year, since it was just the two of us, but too many painful memories for us both."

"You never talk much about your parents."

"I don't. Hard enough talking about Kossi. One day, maybe. Don't take offense, Mouse. It's just part of my past that I try and keep pushed down to keep me from falling apart."

I shrugged. "It's okay. It's too bad this place is destroyed and abandoned. No one ever tried to rebuild?"

Dashen went to the edge of the lake. Weeds and long grasses coated the shoreline, but he waded through to stand on an old wooden platform that had somehow survived the Empire's destruction. From shore it reached out a distance into the sparkling green lake.

"I heard rumors," he said, "About one of Colton's rivals trying to turn this into something. It's about all they were, rumors. That was a couple years ago. Too bad it can't at least be cleaned up, if nothing else." Watching the shallow waves as he skipped a stone across the water surface, I tread carefully. This place was more important to Dash than he let on. More than just a vacation place for he and his family. But I didn't push too much. He'd tell me more if he wanted.

There was a ruffling of leaves nearby. I reached out. A critter was heading our way. Wait, no. Scratch that and make it plural. Critters.

"Tanner, whatever the hell is coming up behind us, if it's an animal here to bite me..."

"You fret too much, Dash. No wonder they like to chew on you."

The creatures pushed through the tall grasses to reveal themselves. A lot of themselves. Thirty or so of them to be accurate.

"Oh, they're Scurriers." I said with a surprised voice. "Look at them all, an entire pack."

"They look like two-legged rodents with horns."

I smiled. "They are. Good guess."

"Just call it like I see it, little brother. I assume they are human-flesh eaters, should I just hold my arms out for them to feast?"

"You're an idiot."

"Truth."

"Scurriers are rodents, the male have the curled horns, the females have straight. They're scavengers mostly. Probably why they live here. Not much in the way of predators and plenty of foliage and insects to feast on. They don't eat people, so stop thinking it."

He didn't believe me as he stepped behind my smaller frame for... protection? My brave big brother. Tall, strong, fast, smart-mouthed... scared of a few bug-eating rodents. Dashen never failed to make me laugh.

"Stop laughing, Tanner. Why are they all staring at me like that? Little creepy eyes and tiny claw hands."

"They're harmless, Dash," I rolled my eyes and shook my head, then sat down cross-legged on the platform. "Look." I held out a hand, palm up, a non-threatening gesture. "They're relatively peaceful unless you provoke them. Come here, little one."

"Don't talk to it, damn it. Oh, wait, I forgot. It's your thing."

"Sit down, Dash and stop being threatening. Down on their level they're less likely to frighten." My free hand motioned for him to sit just behind me, to the right. The largest of the Scurriers took hesitant steps toward my palmed hand. The horns were strait. It was the pack's highest ranking female. "It's the matriarch of the pack. She's in charge. The bravest. If we pass her test, they'll all trust us. Well, they'll trust me, but suppose that there's always that outside possibly that they have mutated into meat eaters and will devour you."

Dashen pushed a hand into my shoulder. "Don't kid like that, Mouse. I mean it. You may have this kinship with all things four and two legged, but those same creatures generally have a hate for me, so tell them I'm a good guy."

"Come here, girl. There you go." The matriarch reached my hand and sniffed at my fingers. "I can't actually tell them you are good, Dash. I don't speak rodent."

"You don't speak Eeopie or Bantha either, but those things seem to understand you."

He'd never get it. The truth of the Force and how it works with all living things. I'd tried to explain to him in the past, but he has this block in his mind where he just doesn't want to get it. It wasn't something he could ever utilize, he'd said, so why bother learning the functions of it. Made sense, but sometimes he exhausted me with feigned ignorance. Dashen wasn't stupid, but he had a tendency to be lazy with things he couldn't understand or didn't want to understand. He was well versed on things he had to know for his life and work and wasn't into learning about things he didn't need. I loved learning. Dash loved not worrying about learning. Still, we worked well together.

"I use the Force to communicate, not in words, but in feelings. If you get an animal to trust you to a certain point, they'll really do whatever you want as long as they don't feel a threat. I am not a threat. You, well..."

"I'm just sitting here minding my own business with sixty sets of rodent eyes staring me down. You think that maybe I am the one that should feel threatened."

As the female continued to sniff my palm, she reached out a small clawed hand to tap my knee. It didn't mean anything that I could sense, but it wasn't a threat either. I relaxed completely and she sat on her haunches in front of me, head cocked, eyes curious.

"Hold out your palm, Dash. Just like I did."

Hesitation. But he trusted me. His hand went out and the Scurrier stretched her long nose toward it. The nose twitched, sensing something different from him than she did from me. I tried to calm her fears. I used words, but it was the feeling behind the verbalization that she would react to.

"It's all right, girl. We aren't here to hurt you. Just to visit. We won't bother you much longer."

"You're talking to them, Tanner."

"To let them feel the words, not hear them. There. Look, Dash. She's almost touching your hand. Don't make any sudden movements."

"If I draw back nothing but knuckles, you and I are going to have a serious discussion, little brother. She's looking like she wants to chomp my fingers off."

"Come on, Dash. Stop thinking negative. She can pick up on those vibes. Think good thoughts."

The rodent scented toward Dash, but stopped short of allowing a touch. He moved one inch to the right and she drew back, sending a signal to her pack to take cover. They all scattered in the blink of an eye. Vanished. Including the matriarch.

Well... that just happened.

"Not my fault," Dashen said to me, standing and staring off into the nearby grasses. "They're fast little buggers. Gone, just like that."

I shrugged, upright now next to my brother. "At least they didn't eat any parts of your body."

Continuing our tour around the area, we walked in and out of forsaken buildings and cabins. Once a place of happiness, now just existing in place and time with only memories to hold it together.

In the distance, the other side of the lake, there was a peculiar set of trees. Dashen's stride increased and he hurried toward them. Pointing. Smiling. There was an old frayed rope tied to the largest of the trees. A worn and rotting piece of flat wood entwined at the bottom of the rope. There was clear emotion I could sense as he reached out and stroked it gently with his fingers.

"This. I can't believe it's still here. Kossi loved this stupid thing. It's a swing. Or it was. Go high enough and it flies right over the water and you can leap off. My parents wouldn't let Kossi jump into the water from the swing, he was too young, but he would laugh his butt off watching me do it. That kid could light up a planet with his laugh."

His face turned away from me and an arm went up and across his eyes. I let it be. A good memory, if a painful one.

"I swear, Tanner, I hate that this place is in ruins. It deserves so much better."

The five trees in the clump all melded together at the top, I noticed as I lifted my eyes to the skyline. Strange trees, they were. The only ones in the park that had green leaves tinged with vibrant red. Beautiful. Just like this place once was. Just like it's memories.

"Dash," I nudged. "Maybe we should talk to Colton. If there's any chance this can be salvaged and returned to something that people can enjoy again. Maybe not what it was, but cleaned up, made safe and beautiful. People would come spend the day, I know they would. Could even put a new rope swing. You know, there's a lot of dark in the galaxy. A dab of light sure wouldn't be a bad thing."

Touching the swing again before wandering toward the small beach area, Dashen sat cross legged on the rough sand. I could see him thinking. Remembering. Then thinking again. When I eventually sat down next to him, he said to me curiously, "Do you really think he'd take us seriously? I mean, he's not exactly the park-going type."

"True, but he's got a soft spot in there that we can sometimes manipulate. You and me. Maybe we could convince him. You have a lot of memories with this place, I'm sure there are others with similar."

"I don't know, Mouse. Seems like a long shot."

"Our lives are long shots, Dash. The worst he can say is no."

"The worst he can say is hell no, and give us an hour long lecture about why he said hell no."

I smiled. It was true. Colton was that and more at times. But it was worth a chance. Dashen had done so much for me over these years, if I could convince Colton to bring this place back to life... maybe future memories those family vacations wouldn't be quite as difficult.

We spent another two hours wandering and sitting and talking... and he remembering. I'd decided that with or with out his help, I'd ask Colton about all of this. If he said no, so be it.

To my and Dashen's surprise, he didn't say no. In fact, he didn't even hesitate to say yes. In reality, it was more in the way of, the plan was already in action and had been for a while. It was actually a team effort from he and his rival, Rosina, to rejuvenate the park. It was a large piece of land that fell outside both of their territories. Neutral ground if you will. And more so, as with Dashen, they both had a history with the place. Did I have any clue what those histories were? No. Did I ask? No. I was smart enough to know better. But upon knowing the good news, I did plaster a huge stupid smile on my face, hugged Colton and Dashen and then pushed for more details. I didn't get them, and was officially told to 'stay the hell out of the middle of everything while they worked it out.'

I did get to rename the park though. Actually, I saw the names that Colton and Rosina had come up with and felt embarrassed for them. So, I was tasked with it. Colton smacked a data-pad in my hand and said I had an hour to come up with that name along with an idea for a sign.

Didn't take me an hour. Didn't take me five minutes. "Scurrier Park." I spouted to them both. It's wasn't often you saw Colton and Rosina in one place without them trying to strangle the other, so this was momentous. Perhaps not as momentous as the crazy looks I got from the two criminal masterminds, but it was the

first thing that jumped into my mind. The Scurriers had made the abandoned grounds a permanent home, so there was that. Then there were those few minutes that me, Dash, and those same critters had spent together which turned out to be a creation of our own personal memory. Not nearly the same, but a pleasant memory to go right alongside those that Dashen shared with his lost brother, Kossi. Apparently, according to Dash, Kossi would have absolutely loved naming the park after a pack of rodents.

So, on more than one level, the name seemed perfect.

And it was.


END