Tatters My Precious(open)

[Foxfire]

Wind twisted and swirled upon a freshly plowed field. The golden grains of a bread fruit had been collected for the early spring by mechanical harvesters. Only the far fringe of the fields were left on touched by them. Now a odd collection of animals and birds were feasting upon the remnats of the grain. Though a group were staying clear of another stranger creature, Halc Greimer.


Being pushed around again by the eddies of the force, Halc has found himself here in the quiet wind swept fields. Bent over on all fours he ate the grain as the other beasts. Eyes glassy and void of their usual hyper emotions. The past few weeks for him had been trying and hard on this poor aleena. Persude by sith military he ran through the very core hopping tranports like rocks in a river.


Finally ending on Bakura where a quiet calm had drawn the insane being to break from his normal eat and run. The local agri-corp gave Halc trouble to the point that they once had him bound and in mid-transport. He was in pain due to being dragged from the calming fields. They were going to drug him but his mind snapped before their medic could get that calming shot into a smallish vein. A force scream assulted their ears and racked their mind. A quick thinking soilder kicked the little alien out and away from the transport. Halc landed hard and rolled to a stop before breaking his bonds and ran back to the calm fields. The transport only lost two of it's crew for their effort.


Now Halc void of emotion and of his waking mind grazed among the common beast. Moving to a farther past plowed area he found a plant of size with it's roots protruding from the ground. A small rabit-like creature was nibbling on the top most of the root. Halc's mind was at this time returning. He looked and spoke three words.......


Tatters, My Precious!

[Captain Kalmar]

The sun was shining on the young Kiffar’s face and she was enjoying it immensely. Anté liked to travel on small, comfortable and not very frequented paths and now that she was on her way through the countryside again, she felt the warm embrace of peace settling on her mind. The long, vast area of the ploughed fields seemed to go to infinity and at that moment Anté wished it did. She could walk the paths along the deep furrows in the ground, smell the soil in the afternoon breeze, feel the warm rays of the sun in her back – and she felt as if she could walk them forever and ever, until the end of time.

Yet, everything ended, but at that moment Anté didn’t allow that thought to come to her. She was holding a buckle from her master’s robe, originally smooth, now a little scratched from the travelling in Anté’s bag. The memories it once allowed Anté to read were long gone, replaced by memories of her journeys, but the buckle itself still reminded her of the old times. They were, however, calming and assuring now, not sorrowful as usually and Anté turned the buckle towards the sun, projecting the reflections on the ground and laughing like a little girl.

What small things sometimes please one’s heart!

Suddenly she thought she has heard a voice. Anté stopped her little games and turned her head towards the edge of the field, where the remaining grains were eaten by all kinds of Bakuran fauna and aside from them she saw a tiny creature, the only one that looked like it could have been the source of the speech.

A child?

The sunshine disabled her from seeing the creature more clearly and as she stared at it, shielding her sight from the intense light, she realized that whatever it was she was watching, it could also be watching her. And not everybody could stand someone gazing at them for a long time. Anté raised her hand a little and waved.

‘Hello?’

[Foxfire]

Enjoying the view of the massive root is when he noticed that the animals had removed their focus upon him. A quiet part of him stretched out in the force all unknowing to him in the fullest sense of the meaning. Slowly turning for he could feel a being not far behind him. The being seemed a bit odd to him but it's just like that with him for everything seemed odd, strange, and new. Yet this is Halc after all a worm ridden bantha burger with a side of deep fried hutt eggs would have been normal for him.

As he stared at the female which is feelings told him, he heard a noise not unlike that of eating. Those same feelings told him that an some one or some thing was at his tatter. In a blur he spun with force speed and a sharpened blast of force power, the small cute very fuzzy rabbit-like creature went poof in a explosion of dust and fur. The remaining creatures bolted from the area leaving Halc with his prize an exposed root nearly the same size as he was.

Jumping upon the tatter as if it was a escaping prey Halc turned back to glare at the female being.

With a death grip upon the tatter root......What you want? Get your owns tatter. My precious! Also why do you feel odd like master and the stiffed robe ones who talks about us?

Halc could feel the force flow with in this being but his mind was having trouble focusing upon both the new comer and the tatter.

[Captain Kalmar]

Anté just decided to walk towards the little creature in the field, when the explosion went off. Fur and dirt flying in the air, Anté gave out a cry and threw herself against the ground. No, this probably isn’t just some child! In fear that she might be the next target she shielded her head (later realizing it probably wouldn’t help her either) and dug her face into the soft ground.

What you want? Get your owns tatter. My precious! Also why do you feel odd like master and the stiffed robe ones who talks about us?

When the creature spoke, Anté raised her head again. She wasn’t quite sure what it was talking about, but the good thing was that if it wanted to harm her, it would probably do so first and talk afterwards. She could finally look at it more closely, finding it was aleena, grasping a large root sticking from the ground. She has met a few aleenas on her travels and they mostly did act strangely, but what she felt from this particular one was more than just strange behaviour. Its eyes had the look of someone who might not be completely aware of what he’s doing.

‘It’s all right! It’s all right! I don’t want to take your... tatter, okay?’ Anté raised her hands in a gesture of surrender. Then she kneeled and brushed the dirt from her clothes and hair, the sudden scare turning into a rather funny event for her. ‘You scared me, you know.’ Anté smiled and started searching the ground, taking several of the things that fell from her pockets when she tried to hide, including the buckle she was playing with a moment before. Now let’s hope this little creature has no more surprises up its sleeve.

[Foxfire]

Halc was truly worried for his fine root. Food for him had became his only saving comfort in these darkened days. Even her comforting words were not helping to ease his hunger pains and erase the memories. Halc looked around for others who would take his root. Finding none he shifted his grip to one a bit looser.


Watching the female gather her small items he noted a smallish item, a buckle. His mind wrapped it's self around the item in question. He could feel the calming flow from it. This simple buckle had more of an effect upon the state of calm than this now marred root. Gathering his strength in his muscles and in the force Halc hauled the root from the ground. Breathing heavily he dragged the root over to the female. Setting it down he looked at the pocket where the buckle was now hidden, then at the being before him.


Looking at her face and markings........Those are false. Are you hidding too? Wanna trade?


His good nature was growing by leaps and bounds when he was ever near those of light. Lately he was becoming a mirror of the verse around him. Good for good and cold evil for the swallowing darkness. Yet here and now Halc was at his best, with a warm smile a open heart and child-like eyes.

[Captain Kalmar]

The creature seemed to have incredible strength compared to its stature and Anté already started to suspect that there was more into the aleena than could be seen. Despite its strange behaviour she had a feeling of familiarity, feeling that reminded her even closer of Master Lau’ran. The little aleena stood opposite to her, holding tightly the enormous root it dragged from the soil and she couldn’t help but to stare at it in amazement. Its questions immediately alerted her.

‘False?’ She touched the corner of her right eye where the green line was crossing it, uncertain of what the aleena meant by that. ‘No, they are real, I have them since... always.’ And I’m not lying. At least not entirely. ‘And no, I’m not hiding.’ She smiled, but wasn’t sure it made her words sound credible. She didn’t like the fact that he seemed to be aware of things that were happening to her and that worried her. ‘I walk, I travel between systems, that’s all I do. Why should you be hiding?’ Anté asked, truly interested why anyone would search for this certainly unique but otherwise chaotic and strange creature.

Seeing him looking at the pocket where she just hid the buckle she figured out that was the object to which the ‘Wanna trade?’ remark belonged. She took it out and studying its shapes and lines she looked into the almost childish eyes of the aleena and said: ‘No, I can’t give you this. It was a present and it means a lot to me.’ A lot more than anyone can imagine, I think. But something told her that the understanding of the one standing next to her was far deeper than she thought. She reached out in the Force and what she felt was the same chaos she felt before... but strong and powerful, as if he was... a Jedi!

[Foxfire]

Hearing her say that she walked between systems gave him a warm feeling but at the same time he could not fully understand why. For many of his past memories were being blocked by a small part of his mind darkened evil thought of painful events were like phantoms to Halc. Though when she spoke again about the item that caught his eye he glossed over the No thank you part and only heard that it was special and a present. This peaked his intrest because he too had a special item, some thing he never let go.

Looking down he found himself fondling the light saber that was hidden within a deep pocket in the ratty clothes that he was wearing. Taking it out he looked at it closer and with a gentle hand caressed it. Letting his child-like fingers gracefully glide over the switch buttons. The saber held good memories, yet his mind still wanted to block and hinder those fowled thoughts of his master's death. Slowly by slowly his eyes glossed over and his mind shut down. Rocking back and forth on the root he murmured an Aleenian lollaby. His small hands opened and the saber fell from them to plop on to the dirt and roll over to Ante there to come to rest while it's owner's mind took a slight vacation from it's self.

[Captain Kalmar]

Anté watched the small being in front of her search in its pockets, when it finally took out an object so well known to her. A lightsaber. He sang and cradled the weapon almost with love until it dropped onto the ground and rolled to Anté’s feet.

‘That is a…!’ Anté reached with her hand for it and the moment her fingertips touched its surface her head was flooded with pictures and sounds. Memories. Actions. Feelings, emotions. They all were hidden in the depths of that elegant weapon and they were bombarding her mind and didn’t want to stop. It didn’t happen often to her that the memories stored in an object would come to her without her focus, but this time it was as if they were screaming at her, forcing her to see.

She wanted to let go of it, but her fingers held the hilt tightly, out of her control. Lightsabers were personal weapons and as such they held so many images it was almost too much to bear. And they weren’t just some images. They were fragments of travels and laughter, sunny fields and favourable winds, but between them it was darkness and sorrow and madness. Anté gave out a scream and her fingers finally loosened their grip on the weapon.

She held her head in her hands, her face twisted as if in pain and she was unable to speak, her throat only giving out quick, shallow breathing and muted sobs. She looked at her hands for a moment and then turned at the aleena sitting on the root.

‘I never... I never wanted to... I... I...’

She pressed her fingers against her brows and tried to calm herself down. Her heart was galloping as if it was to jump out of her chest and she was trembling. Anté was trying to purge her mind of what she just saw. Master Lau’ran warned her this could happen if she was not careful about her skills, but she never encountered such a shock before. Of course, she often learned things she didn’t want to know, but this was far more than she ever wanted to see or remember. Her sleep was certainly not to be calm for several days.

‘What was that?’ She asked the aleena as if she expected him to understand what just happened to her and felt tears coming into her eyes. If this was only an image of the duality this little creature was experiencing, she no longer wondered about its strange behaviour.

[Foxfire]

A cinseter smile reaped upon Halc's face as his eye lids cracked open to reveal the shine of the red glow of Halc's twisted evil side. The two side have always vied for control over the body of Halc Greimer and on this day the dark side of Halc's mind rose first.

In a high pitched crackling voice that flowed with force fear Halc spoke to the unwarry and brused female Ante.

Aaawwww, . . . . does it hurt my loverly? Is it in pains? The weak of mind are always the first to suffer. N' so you shall. You shall see what this one went through for being so honorable and leaning on the light side of the force.

The wicked side slide off the root and walked over to Ante. He let the ragged robes that they were wearing to graze her had. Yes these clothes were the same ones that Halc had worn all the while since his breaking at the hand of the Dark Jedi doctor. Within these clothes were hidden the visions of the torcher and the day he saw the dismembered body of his master floating in a vertical tank like some specimen.

The wicked side poured the force fear from him like a river washing over every one and every thing. Letting the force and the memories of the dead imbue the darkness that they still held onto. While the memories and the fear flowed it also reached out to touch the mind of this one searching for a foot hold to drive this memories further into her mind. The twisted side had to deal with these thing so why not every body else they came across. Reaching down and touching her hand he thought this too would further the connection and together she too would become a broken toy just like him.

[Captain Kalmar]

This no longer was just pain. It was torture. Not expecting the aleena to make another move, she was unprepared when the torn robe touched her hand. She didn’t understand why that was happening, but her mind was suddenly facing a new wave of terrors. She didn’t have to focus to read the images like usually, they just flowed as if they wanted to be seen. The little creature forced her to see, touching her mind and flooding it with such memories Anté thought she will die of fear - dark passageways, the aleena’s own suffering, fall into madness and the dreadful, gruesome image of a woman’s body ripped into pieces, floating in a large tube of glass. He had a bond with that one. Did he love her? Did he care about her? Or was it him who did this to her? That was the final impulse.

Anté stood up from the ground in one swift movement, not even realizing she is screaming and burying her nails into the skin on her face. She was scared beyond imagination and she felt her thoughts slipping away from her, protesting against her attempts to focus and strengthening the natural reflex urging her to flee.

‘Enough, enoooough!!!’

Using all of her mental strength to prevent her natural ability from making her lose her mind she extended one of her hands and attempted to force push her tormentor as far away as her limited skills allowed her to.

Just please make it stop, make it stop, please...

[Foxfire]

The wicked side laughed and cackled as it enjoyed the pain it was causing. Yet ass Ante started to cry and scream a crack started to open with in his mind and the light side started to seep out. Both minds were protesting the twisted side in knowing what was about to happen and the young females. The strength of the light side was growing stronger but not enough to fully take over. This was so until Ante hit Halc with a wave of light side power. The wave moved Halc's body some few feet but it also let the gap widen within his mind the force fear faltured and the illiusions faded. The two minds were joining Halc's to the other. The light within him was overcoming the darkness and it was showing in Halc's eyes. Now instead of the blood red they were shining a blue white.

With the two beings separated by distance and Halc's mind no longer dark the calming side of him began soothing the female's mind and body.

I am sorry for the pain of our past. I was not strong enough to fend off the darkness that is until you decided that in the light you wanted to dwell. The darkness is in both of us. If it wasn't then it would not could not affect us in the manner that it does. With your help the darkness with in this body will be very weak for quite some time.

The pains of this body and this mind have been great the loss of his family and his master being alone in the wide verse that this is has allowed the darkness to have a greater hold upon this one. Take this ones example as a warning. Confront the darkness with a mind set within the light and the darkness shall flee before your path.

So as to have the greater hold upon this body I must leave for now but as a warning do not ask two things: one the death of his master, two the death of his family. Calm and happiness with good food with keep this ones mind whole and true to the light side of the force.

With that the body of Halc went limp like a rag doll falling backward and biffing the loose dirt raising a smallish cloud of dust.

Less than a minute later Halc awoke with a smile. Getting up he moved over to the root between them and said......

Would like some tatters my love?

[Captain Kalmar]

The Force moved the aleena away from her reach and as soon as the ragged robes stopped touching Anté’s bare skin, she started to take control over herself again. The images still oscillated before her eyes, terrifying, disturbing and painful as if she has lived through them herself, but there no longer were any new ones coming. She laid herself on one side, breathing deeply, calming down, when the suddenly soft and friendly voice reached her. Total opposite of the dreadful darkness she experienced a moment before, the voice did more than her own focus on keeping herself under control, silencing her, healing the wounds that opened in her mind when she saw the terrors the poor creature had to go through.

She knew the aleena was split within, but only now she realized to what extent. As if there were two souls inside of him, the absolute good and absolute evil which could only coexist if the mind they shared was clouded by the shroud of madness. Anté looked into the aleena’s eyes, now the colour of pale blue afternoon skies and she tried to imagine the difficulties that must be meeting such a person in the everyday world. Out on the plains he could scare off animals and dig for roots, but could he ever come to the cities? Did he even want to? Did the Force just drag him through the paths of the worlds, stumbling on the edge of utter darkness and utter light? There was so much about the nature of the Force and sentient mind that Anté didn’t understand and she felt confused. However, she was no longer afraid and when the aleena spoke to her again, she felt like she gained her mental balance and was capable of acting kindly even to someone, who caused her immense pain only a moment ago. What stands before me is not the same person that hurt me. Yet when she closed her eyes, she could still see the distorted image of the tortured woman. And I thought my life was difficult.

Still careful, she recalled the words the aleena’s better part told her and started searching through her bag, her hand emerging with a slightly wrinkled, but still good looking fruit. ‘No tatters for me, thank you. But maybe you would like this fruit?’ She didn’t even know the name of the fruit, but she has been living on them since her arrival to Bakura. Finding them rich in flavour she hoped it might be the first step towards keeping the little creature calm and friendly.

[Foxfire]

The words of "no tatter did at first make him sad but when Ante pulled out the fruit Halc knew then and there why she did not want the bland root. Halc could feel the ripeness of the fruit his mouth watered as he walked closer to her and took the fruit. his little hand made the fruit look big. As he opened his mouth a bit as sound of shear pleasure rose from it.

Tasting the over ripe sweetness of the fruit sent Halc spinning. It had been forever since he found something as such. Stomping his feet in happiness he giggled and chrubiled. Suddenly stopping he turned back to Ante and offered the fruit back Yet a part of him wanted the fruit and parting with it made a conflict within him. In a flash of inspriation he reached into one of his many pockets and tossed out upon the ground before them a few metal dolls with multi-joints. Moving back to the tatter he climbed back on top Turning he had the fruit hanging out one side of his mouth and both the juices and his own saliva was creeping out and running down his chin. Sitting down and not wiping his mouth he closed his eyes for a short bit.

The Force stirred slowly with in the air around them and the dolls before them shuttered and came alive. An unheard voice spoke from the very wind that seemed to stir about......A long time ago in a galaxie far far away...... Halc made the dolls replay a recent melo drama that they liked for Ante.

[Captain Kalmar]

Anté watched her little companion’s dance over the given fruit and had to wonder. Such happiness in such tortured mind. He did act wildly and was ruled by impulses given in the moment and Anté could observe his sudden stops when he had to decide what he was about to do. Despite his slightly uncivilized manners, now that the dark side no longer possessed him, the aleena seemed to be a friendly, entertaining little fellow. Anté watched his small play with the metal dolls with interest, her pale cheeks slowly turning more healthy colour and her lips widening in a smile. She might have been adult now, she might have been helping the control of prison colonies and might have been travelling through distant places of the galaxy, but despite everything she has done and seen, such little demonstrations of pure good will to entertain made her feel like small girl again.

When the dolls stopped their play, Anté clapped her hands to show the aleena her appreciation of his skills. She tried herself to raise one of the little metal dolls, but its movements couldn’t be compared to the little creature’s ones when doing his performance.
‘I was never good at precision work.’ Anté said as if apologizing. It was true that since her parting with Master Lau’ran she used her telekinetic powers mostly for lifting heavy loads or for simple actions that could ease her everyday life and she rarely ever found the time to practice anything else. Looking thoughtfully at the aleena Anté suddenly realized he might know something about Master Lau’ran. Of course that Jedi didn’t know all the other Jedi in the galaxy, but there was always a chance. She decided the aleena should be trusted, despite his tendencies to fall into states of fury and madness.
‘My Master was always a little worried about that. Have you ever met Master Entarh Lau’ran?’ She looked at her companion with hope in her eyes. Even though she has told herself to stop searching for Lau’ran’s fate, she could never abandon the idea completely. She was determined not to tell the aleena about Lau’ran’s death, minding that it might lead him to think about his own master’s death, but maybe he could give her some information that could lead her closer to the solution of what truly happened to Lau’ran.

[Foxfire]

(occ-sorry for the rush job it hard to muse Halc 24/7 let alone for an hour.)

Halc turn his attention to Ante as she clapped happily at his melo-drama. He felt very happy again and listened as she spoke about her use in the force which he blanked stared-blinked at. When the name Entarh Lau’ran was mentioned his left eye twitched. It was of coures unknown to the little aleena but the Dark side saw an opening. Halc's hands rumaged through his pockets. Out fell dried bones scraps of food wrapping and four holo-disks along with an over sized player for even an aleen.

One of the disks bounced off his foot he started to look down at the disk as a jade flute pipper started it's evening song set. The birds chirpping quickly drew his attention and broke the dark side's hold upon Halc physical being. Running off some distance Halc began to dance marrily to the song birds chirpping leaving Ante and the holo player. The disks included what information he had gleened from the jedi libary and vids of missions him and his master Millyann went on.