Missing in Action

[Kella]

They were called the 'Kurtzen'.

But really, that was cheating, as Rusty had known that beforehand. So far, he hadn't been able to make much of their language.

Which was really quite a problem, seeing that both he and Naavechi were hogtied. It was rather embarassing, actually, as Rusty prided himself on being, you know, a clawed-and-beaked quadruped of rather strong proportions.

It was incredibly surprising just how strong vines could be.

Now, they hadn't walked into the trap completely unawares. Rusty had noticed the odd, too-regular pattern of the leaf litter below, just a moment before the net had snapped up around them.

Naavechi assured him whether or not he'd actually had the realization, it had come at a time to be utterly useless.

She could be so very comforting.

Rusty sighed, drawing the wary eyes of the closest Kurtzen.

"I'm quite securely fastened, Thank you," he said. They stared at him blankly. Naavechi snorted with amusement.

Rusty picked one to stare at. This one had slightly palish skin. They were all hairless, vaguely reptilian in appearance, with the odd knobbish growths on their skulls. The Kurtzen met Rusty's eyes defiantly for a moment, then he faltered, and then he suddenly turned and walked off.

The Graarl grinned. At this point in time, he wasn't so much fearing for his life, as simply bored. The Kurtzen were feeding them. And allowing them the necessary sanitary breaks. But they generally just left them cornered in the shallow alcove of a cliff face, hog tied and supervised.

If Rusty was reading body language properly, then the leaders of the... tribe, he supposed it was, were attempting to decide what to do with them.

The inherent irony, was that Rusty and Naavechi had spent most of their respective lives in a culture not so different from this one. Rusty was more inclined to think that the conversations were rational and quite sentient, as opposed to discussions on sacrificing the aliens to the fire gods.

They were probably doing some very logical deliberating as to how to handle the trespassers. If not for the language barrier, or even if not for the hog-tying, they'd probably be great friends by now.

Rusty sighed again. He had an impeccable affinity for languages, being a Graarl, but even he couldn't work miracles with forty-eight hours of hushed whispers. They Kurtzen simply weren't speaking much around the prisoners, and they appeared to have no interest whatsoever in speaking Basic.

He'd managed to pick up a couple of recurring phrases, but based on the expressions and syntax that accompanied them, Rusty was pretty sure they were insults.

Naavechi had borne a thoughtful expression for quite some time, and finally relinquished the idea she'd been chewing on.

"I am reasonably sure they are going to attempt to kill us," she said, matter-of-factly.

"Yup."

[Rugs]

"I told you something went wrong."

Tsubasa was crouched over a disturbed patch of ground in the wilderness, giving Ifrit--his draconic, robotic companion--a rather pointed look. The ground was covered in footprints and leaves had been thrown about in unnatural ways. The biggest clue was the claw marks, really. Fortunately for the members of his little party, Tsu remembered what her strange reptilian partner's feet looked like; he'd seen the prints he left in the soft ground on their previous expedition together as well.

There were a few other signs. Vines that hanging limply over branches, where they'd likely been part of a trap. It looked like the natives had been careful to keep the trap hidden before it was sprung. Once it was, who cared? It's not like they knew there'd be a Matukai coming to find his missing employer several dozen hours later.

Well, here he was.

"But Tsubasa, Naavechi did say that she would contact you if something came up." Ifrit's claws clacked softly on Tsubasa's metal pualdrons as he made a short flight from one shoulder to the other.

"She also said," Tsubasa answered flatly, "that she'd check in every 12 hours." The Epicanthix wasn't one to sniff, but he gave the droid a rather pointed one as he stood up. "She hasn't checked in in nearly two days. I think something went wrong."

Ifrit looked at the ground from his perch on Tsu's shoulder, then at Tsubasa. Then the ground again. His holographic wings, made in the image of a dragon's, shifted color from the usual red to a thoughtful lavender.

"I can admit that the evidence does seem to point to a mishap occuring."

Tsubasa nearly threw his hands up. "Finally making progress with you." He snorted a laugh and shook his head, eyeing the familiar with a mix of annoyance and amusement. "Never knew a droid to be stubborn."

Then again, he'd never known a droid to be a semi-crazed pyromaniac before he met Ifrit, either.

"Come on, Ifrit. Help me follow these tracks so we can find them. I got a feelin' that time's of the essence, as the saying goes."

~~~~~~~~

Sometime later, Tsubasa as in the camp. The sun was beginning to get low, and the sky was slowly gaining an orange tint; it'd taken a while to find the place, and even longer to move slowly through it without getting detected.

He'd managed, so far.

They'd find him eventually, of course. Tsu could sneak when he really wanted to, but stealth wasn't really one of the core tenants of the Matukai. He just hoped to at least see if he could see Naavechi and Rusty before he was caught. Being able to point to his friends and say some terrible misunderstanding had happened was much preferred to having to carve his way through the camp, assuming the natives proved hostile.

Or letting Ifrit use his chemical. Force help them all if things came to that.

The hope was that it wouldn't, though. Tsu had given the droid rather stern instructions that he wasn't to light a thing on fire unless he was told to. Out in the wilderness, a fire that spread out of control could lead to hundreds of thousands of square miles of forest ruined; that would weigh quite heavily on the nature-loving Matukai's conscience.

"Tsubasa," Ifrit whispered into Tsu's ear. He was hunched over predatorily, with his wings pressed close against his back. "I see them. To the right, in that alcove."

Tsu followed the droid's visual instructions, and spotted them.

Or rather, spotted part of Rusty. Some of the Kurtzen were standing in the way, talking about something in their strange language. They were also doing a very good job of inadvertently blocking Naavechi from view.

Well if Rusty's there, she's got to be. I hope she is.

How to proceed?

A few moments of deliberation passed, and Tsubasa began to move. He left his cover, hiding behind a large rock, and quickly darted to a scraggly bush. He was exposing himself, yes. Which meant he'd probably be seen. But with luck, his employer and her giant flying bodyguard would at least notice him.

And... Well, then he'd figure out what to do from there.

[Kella]

"Hm, things may be looking up after all," Rusty said, utterly casual. Then, in Nihrani, so as to avoid an possibility of being overhead, "Tsu's here."

"Really?" Naavechi smiled widely, "Where?"

"Stop looking so excited, you're going to tip them off."

Naavechi nodded at Rusty, and set about turning her grin into a grimace, but it was a very foreign feeling. It wasn't just that Nihrani rarely altered their expressions, it was that it was usually considered morally wrong. But certain adaptations were necessary to surviving in the galaxy at large, which was a very different place than Astrum V.

"That's better," Rusty said. "Something moved over there, and then I got a good look as it ducked behind a bush and it was Tsu. He also had that metal friend of his."

"Do you think he's here to rescue us?"

"No, he's probably here to sample the Natives' mushroom soup. I hear it's phenominal."

"What a-- oh, you're kidding again, aren't you?"

Rusty sighed. He watched the Kurtzen carefully, but none of them seemed to have noticed, as they were so intently focused on their prisoners.

Probably because something was about to happen. The largest, beefiest Kurtzen emerged from behind the others, and with threatening expressions and sharp, short words, hauled up the prisoners by their hog-ties and began to haul them closer to the center of the... settlement, Rusty supposed it could be called.

Naavechi's eyes darted around, glossy and black and giving nothing away. Despite her lovely, upside-down, backwards view, she knew they were approaching a crowd because of the murmers. Well, this was going to get interesting. And it had better -- Naavechi would not appreciate enduring this level of discomfort, being hauled around by her wrists and ankles, for something anti-climactic.

They reached the center of the settlement, and Naavechi saw Kurtzen all around, with rather excited looks on their faces. She and Rusty were roughly dropped.

"You are a horrible person," Naavechi said matter-of-factly, to the Kurtzen that had been holding her wrists. He utterly ignored her. She bit her lip, and attempted to manuever herself so she could actually see Rusty. She was met with a very large, very pointy spearhead suddenly invading the area directly in front of her face.

So no moving. Right.

The Kurtzen that she and rusty had concluded to be in charge began speaking, earning varied reactions from the crowd.

Naavechi wasn't the best at reading expressions, being spoiled by a race whose temperament was literally written all over their faces, so she wasn't sure if the crowd looked bloodthirsty or just normally excited.

She didn't really want to find out.

[Rugs]

Tsubasa settled into his hidden vantage point and peeked out around the edge to see what was going on. As fortune, or lack thereof, would have it, as soon as he made it to what he thought was a good position, the Kurtzen decided it was time to get Naavechi and Rusty and haul them off to the center of their little village. Settlement. Whatever it was.

"Figures," he muttered in annoyance. At least he knew Naavechi was in the vicinity. That had to count for something, right?

Sighing, Tsubasa made a quick visual sweep of the area around him. Most of the Natives were moving or had already moved toward the center of the settlement. If I have a credit to wager, it's for whatever they're planning with Naavechi and Rusty. Easy bets were lovely things sometimes.

Fortunately, the concentrated mass of Kurtzen around the middle of the settlement meant the perimeter, where Tsu was, was rather sparsely populated. Their inglorious precession bringing his employer and her flying companion to the center of the building gave their eyes something to hold onto, which in turn gave Tsubasa more freedom to skulk around.

"Come on, Ifrit, we're moving," Tsu whispered to his droid as he forsake his scraggly little bush to go hide behind a hovel near the edge of the village.

"But Tsubasa, I'm riding on your shoulde-"

"Shut up, you know what I mean."

Tsubasa pressed his back against the side of the hut, making sure there weren't any stray Kurtzen in the vicinity. Once he was relatively certain of the security of his position, dared poking his head out for a moment to see what was going on.

The edge of the settlement was a bit higher than the center. The settlement as a whole was spread over a broad, shallow bowl-shaped depression. Whether natural or something the Kurtzen had done intentionally, Tsu didn't know. There were more important things to worry about.

Like the big Native with a spear jammed into Naavechi's face.

The crowd was starting to get rowdy. At least they weren't hiding their intentions.

Tsubasa pulled his head back from around the corner, lest he be spotted and rubbed his temples. Of course Naavechi and Rusty had to go and get themselves captured by the hostile natives. Why couldn't it be some peaceful seafaring tribe, or at least an indifferent pack of nomads?

"So much for an easy job..." He sighed, trying to think. Obviously, he wasn't getting paid if something happened to the two of them. Though at this juncture, he was more concerned with getting them all out in one piece than about how many credits he could get out of Naavechi.

But how? Waltzing out into the crowd and politely asking to have his employer back while saying the whole situation had been a big, silly misunderstanding didn't really strike him as a viable option. He didn't even know if they could speak Basic, or if whatever tongue they spoke was one Ifrit could translate for him.

Ifrit.

Maybe he couldn't go out and negotiate with them, not at first. But maybe... Maybe we can scare them a bit.

It was risky. Tsu didn't know for sure how they would react to what he had in mind, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

"Alright, Ifrit," he started quietly, looking at his metal friend, "I've got a plan. I can't get out there yet. Too many people in the way. But you're smaller than me. You can sneak up there. Get their attention. Maybe that'll spook 'em enough to keep their attention away from our friends and give me a chance to work my way up there." Tsu glanced up at the roof of the hovel. Maybe he could go over the crowd and get to the middle of the settlement that way. He'd figure something out.

"Understood, Tsubasa. Leave it to me."

"I am. And Ifrit... please try not set anything on fire."

Ifrit's wings flushed a very deep red for a moment--Tsubasa had come to recognize that as something of a grin from the droid--and then he took off, climbing into the sky while Tsu pondered his own options.

------

None of the Kurtzen thought to look skyward for any incoming threats. And so it was simple for Ifrit to make a few quick circles overhead while he processed what might be the best course of action. Distract, Tsubasa said. Spook them. Draw their attention.

Really, he'd been given a lot of options. Even if he couldn't set anything on fire. Yet, anyway.

In the end, he decided to be dramatic. His holographic wings folded as his dropped himself into a dive. He streaked through the air, glinting in the sunlight, and pulled out of his dive just in time to come thudding down right onto the shaft of the spear the Kurtzen was holding in front of Naavechi's face.

Needless to say, that got the Kurtzen's attention. So much that he took a surprised step back, getting the spear further away from Naavechi. Gasps and sounds of shock spread through the crowd.

Ifrit knew he was the center of attention now. So he spread his wings, forcing their color to pitch black. Smoke to match poured from his open mouth, and he screeched loudly, sounding like the little dragon he was made to look like.

Hopefully that would give Tsubasa all the time he needed.