Endor

[Matlalihuitl]

Umwak didn't move far away from the jedi but he hid behind a nearby bush. he stuck his head out of the bush and looked at both jedi.
"Now there are two of these strange creatures?" Umwak asked himself. Umwak came out of the bush, looking like if he was a four legged creature. He puffed up his fur as he near the Y-eskii-ill jedi. Then back on two legs, so he can look into the jedi's face. Suddenly another shock came on him from the collar, this time more painful than the last. Umwak moved back once more and hid behind the bush once more. the collar had hurt him very well that it made him whimper and draw a few tears.

[attomemhuhvoo]

Happy to find another jedi, albiet a human one, Atto trotted through the damp ferns toward the odd- eyed human male.
The young y-eskii-ill had never been formally introduced to Ashen Wraith, but from appearance, he knew right away who the man was. And little did the boy know, master Skywalker HAD sent master Nootkul and his young charge to 'keep tabs' on him, so to speak.

All Atto was informed of on in this 'mission', was that the ewoks had a mounting concern about dark doings on their world. Strange things, that even the most clairvoyant ewok shaman's couldn't decipher.

Atto came forward, slightly embarrassed. He had after all, ..lost his master. Though the padawan was still rough around the edges , Atto just knew the human would think him ignorant. Most humans that he encountered did feel that way about his people. Ah well, what was one more?

He bowed respectfully, and rainwater dribbled in long rivulets down the front of his oiled leather shirt.

"Ashen Wraith? It is good to see another jedi face out here. Tell me..." The boy looked down , nervously kicking the ground with a hoof toe, "Do you know the whereabouts of master Nootkul? Last I remember, we were walking through the forest conversing about that 'death star' that was destroyed twenty years ago. Next thing I remember, I'm waking up in the bottom of a ravine with a bump on my head. I can only assume it was foul play! Have you seen anything..out of the ordinary?"

Atto's eyes trailed to the side where he saw the shaggy, green furred head peeking out timidly from behind a nearby bush. A dulok! Magic luck!! Atto had wanted to see a dulok very badly, but master Nootkul had told him that they were not very accepting of strangers in their territories, and could attack even if unprovoked.

"Hello there dulok! What are you doing behind that bush?"

Perhaps Wraith was in the process of interrogating the being when Atto stumbled upon them. The dulok certainly looked scared, ears twitching, muzzle curled into a small snarl. Scared or not, he knew that duloks possesed sharp teeth and even sharper claws. When backed into a corner....

Atto would be mindful.

"He's in pain..." He turned his attention back to Ashen Wraith.

"The collar is hurting him. Who would do such a thing?"

[Matlalihuitl]

Umwak heard the other jedi's hello as he cried behind the bush. He looked over at the jedi and walked over to Atto. Tears and rain came down Umwak's face, washing off the yellow markings on his face.
"Hello, I'm Umwak." said Umwak as he wipped the tears from his eyes. He looked at both jedi and sat on the ground, head down. Again another shock from the collar, more worse then the next. Umwak's eyes grew large, drool dangling down his mouth, he began to dig through a part of his arm, with a strange marking that was burned into his flesh.
"Please help me." he cried.

[wraith]

He guessed as much. Luke had sent Nooktul to keep an eye on him. But the information Atto revealed made him even more cautious. "No..No I have not sensed, seen, or heard from him.." This was bad..if he couldn't since Nooktul on this planet it could only mean he was dead..or offplanet by some means. His eyes closed in an attempt to try and find him. But the dark presence about them kept his mind from finding anything but small traces.

His eyes came back open as Atto introduced himself to Umwak.

"He's in pain..The collar is hurting him. Who would do such a thing?"

Atto asked. "Slavers I'm assuming..or someone on this planet who was stupid enough to think of him as an animal.." Though admitedly that might have been an all too easy mistake to make on first seeing a dulok..or ewok for that matter.

"Please help me. Umwak cryed as Ashen noticed the mark under the fur of his arm. No question about it now..Someone was trying to make a slave of this Dulok...perhaps of many of the duloks. He started toward him and placed his hand on her shoulder "Relax." he spoke as softly as he could over the storm. Looking over the collar that was causing him pain. He touched over the collar's outside and looked to it's pattern and design. There was always the danger that if he removed it..it might activate some kind of defense measure to kill the slave or whoever removed it..but perhaps..he could trigger the unlocking mechanism through the force.

He placed his index and middle finger together and against the slave collar "Hold still Umwak.." he said to him again as he reached into the machine with the force. No machine produced a force signature..but the force did flow through them..just like the Yuuzhan Vong..whom he did not try to think about now..As he found the central processing unit. He calmed his mind to the circuits and wire inside of the machine. He concentrated through the thunder overhead. There! His eyes opened as the collar unlocked. Ashen took the device from Umwak's neck and looked it over. "Who put this on you Umwak?"

[Matlalihuitl]

Umwak felt the collar come off his neck, finally relieved and happy. But the question was one that Umwak had not remembered in a long time, or a least that was what it felt like. Umwak looked towards Ashen and looked grabbed the collar to look at it.
"I don't remember much, but all i remember were these monsters in white armor with black markings on them. They came to our swamp and killed some of our troops, but they grabbed and took me away inside a strange box." Umwak said as he rubbed his head.

[Blue but beautiful]

Rain continued to pour down in torrents and Nia Shul began to wonder if this would be considered as tainting herself some. Some had been accused of such for lesser acts. But she could hardly help the weather.
A sour expression on her face, Nia Shul decided that as she was adorned with the living second skin of an Ooglith Masquer, that this could not be the case, and to question her intentions here was just as bad as if she had actually been tainting herself.

She had been about to utter a curse when up ahead, she heard voices.
Silently slinking back into the shadows cast by several old trees, she waited, watching, listening.
Nia Shul had known indeed that there was a village in this direction, she had been asked to find such locations and try to anticipate weather or not the infidels that dwelt in there 'built things' could be easily overcome.
From what she had seen so far of the inhabitants of endor, the task would be a simple one. Primitive in their ways, these infidels had showed that they could perhaps be worthy in some respect, they lived in harmony with the nature around them after all. The use of machines here was few and far between. And yet they were content to allow machines here and decided to live in these built things.
The two canceled each other out, as far as she was concerned, they would not make worthy sacrifices.


"Please help me." The green furred being was begging, it filled Nia Shul with loathing and she repressed an urge to shiver.

What caught her eye next was who accompanied the strange primitive creature. Eyes narrowing, she remained perfectly still as realization hit her harder than a plasma bolt.
The other two were not of this world, certainly. And it was something about the way they carried themselves that was as unmistakable as the swords of light that they might have had clipped to their utility belts.
Jeedai.

[Matlalihuitl]

Umwak saw the the other stranger staring at them. Umwak felt even more frightened than before and this time he ran up a nearby tree once more and stayed there. Now with the collar off his neck, he felt more free from before, but memories began to come back to him. He only sighed and whimpered a bit more as the rain fell upon him, while the memories of these monters began to haunt him.

[attomemhuhvoo]

Atto's gray eyes met Wraith's green and blue.

They didn't have to turn, they knew she was there, even before the dulok made a frightened mad dash to the nearest tree. Atto sent out questing waves of the force, feeling the tendrils weave about the body of the intruder until the image that bounced back to his mind was that of a human female. She seemed ordinary enough but..... what was it? And why was she just walking around this forest alone? Why were any of them for that matter?

The makings of a bar joke started forming in his mind.

A y-eskii-ill, two humans and a dulok walk into a forest........

The strange woman made no agressive move, and although something didn't 'feel' quite right about her, Atto wouldn't either. Best to keep the situation calm. She could play their game, they would play hers. The boy spoke to the other jedi through the force.

"Wraith, what does the force tell you of this...should we give her the warm welcome? Or approach with a differant angle?"

[wraith]

(Sorry to disappoint you Atto but there's no way a jedi can feel a Yuuzhan Vong. Anakin Solo the sole exception because he found some kind of focusing crystal/living thing. Blue back me up on this you Yuuzhan expert you.XP j/k)

Monsters in white armor with black markings..That sounded like only one group of people..but that had been a long time ago..Had this dulok been wearing this collar all that time; since the destruction of the second death star? He did not know but felt sorry for Umwak just the same..

He felt Atto's tenseness as he too suddenly felt eyes upon him. He turned his gaze to meet Atto's then turned to look in the direction he felt them on him. It was almost second sense at this point in his life and what he sensed from her he did not like..or rather what he did not sense from her.

"Wraith, what does the force tell you of this...should we give her the warm welcome? Or approach with a different angle?"

Run. he replied back to him through the force. Parting his robe to call his lightsaber to his hand. Though he did not activate it immediately he stared ahead at the Yuuzhan Vong in disguise.

[attomemhuhvoo]

Appreciate your concern Wraith, but nowhere in my post did I say that Atto could feel that she is a Yuuzan Vong. I think its safe to say that jedi or not, people might get a strange vibe from a lone woman walking through a forest. She could be a slaver or poacher for all he knows. Your character seems to sense something awry with her too though right?

____________________________________________________


Atto heeded Wraith's command and ran, straight to the tree where the frightened dulok still cowered in the bower of it's branches. He rounded the great trunk and hid on the other side, squatting down with his tail resting against the tree's cold exposed roots.

"What are you doing?? He may need your help ! A lot of good you will do him behind this tree!!" Atto chastized himself for being an inexperienced padawan. He had never even seen a real fight, except for the ones he had gotten into on his homeworld.

He looked up and noticed the ruby eyes of the dulok peering down at him from a opening in a large leaf cluster. Rising to his feet again, he embraced the tree in a wide armed hug and started to pull himself up. His feet clumsily dug at the bark. Y-eskii-ill were not tree climbers, they were sure footed on rock and hills and desert sand, but a tree was not a blue-tail's forte!

Using the force, he rappelled the ancient timber and came to a rest on a branch near Umwak. Peeking through his own leafy blind, Atto studied the jedi and the strange woman. They appeared to be approaching one another calmly enough.

"Humans..." Was all he said to Umwak with a small growl in his throat.

[Blue but beautiful]

(OOC: Indeed, Yuuzhan Vong can't be sensed through the force, at least at this point in time, but I would think that they could be tracked by the sheer fact that everything around them would be able to be sensed, and the reactions of the wildlife around them too. Kind of like seeing everything surrounding a vast nothingness if that makes sense?)


Firstly, Nia Shul had been certain she had not been seen, that said...the Jeedai seemed alerted to her presence the moment that the strange green-furred creature back peddled into the forest, taking the strange looking Jeedai with it.
She had not the time to wonder if those strange creatures were more sentient than she had originally thought, the other Jeedai was fast approaching, lightsabre at the ready.

Resigning herself to the fact that she had been seen, she cursed herself inwardly before stepping out of the shadows before anyone reached her, seemingly content in the fact that nothing was untoward here. Her cover had not been blown yet, had it?

As calmly as she could, she glanced up and met the Jeedai's stare with a gaze that betrayed no ill intent, regardless of what she actually intended to do about this situation. A live Jeedai was indeed a prize that could escalate her to a higher standing if she managed to pull off a capture. Failing that, death would come swiftly to this one.

While not as well armoured or adept in combat as a warrior might have been, Nia Shul had her little tricks and moments. This might just turn out to be one.

[Matlalihuitl]

Umwak jumped down the tree, in front of Atto and grabbed the young jedi.
"Quickly now, up the tree. You'll be safe there, hopefully." he said. Umwak quickly pulled out a large stone knife that he hid under the tree. He walked in front of Ashen and pointed the knife at the stranger. Umwak knew that he can easily be killed, as he had when he challenged the monsters. But Umwak felt that since this jedi freed him from pain, then he would help the jedi escape or fight. "Who are you strange one." Umwak growled.

[Blue but beautiful]

Nia Shul's rather innocent expression, soured somewhat at the arrival of the strange green creature again. He stank of damp-fur and spoke in worse accented basic than her own. Still, he had the gall to come out here and threaten her. She would hold off however, no sense in messing this situation up anymore than it had been already.
In fact, if the Jeedai bought her story, things would be looking up.

She held her hands up in a rather submissive gesture, " What are you doing?! I meant no harm!" she protested in a small attempt to get the creature to drop his weapon.

It would matter little if the Dulok took a stab at her anyway, from what she had seen, they were hardly experienced in combat, half of them seemed to bungle catching their own food! The very thought made Nia Shul resist the urge to roll her eyes at this pitiful attempt of a threat.

" My ship, it crashed a distance from here, I was merely going on ahead of the others, looking for help." she motioned behind her, generalizing with gestures. " really, I meant no harm."

Pitiful, really pitiful. And it made her cringe inwardly, a motion she hoped the Ooglith masquer would disguise accordingly.
Trying to read the expression on the strange green-furred creatures face, was about as hard as it was trying to Gage how the jeedai would take this.
Either way, she was ready.

[Matlalihuitl]

Umwak heard the creature's plead, guilty he dropped his weapon and walked towards her.
"I'm sorry, I meant no harm." he said as he bowed deeply at her feet. He got up and grabbed her hand and kissed it. "It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Umwak."

[wraith]

" My ship, it crashed a distance from here, I was merely going on ahead of the others, looking for help really, I meant no harm."

That was a good one..and now Umwak was kissing her hand nice..This could turn into a very bad situation very fast but he decided to keep his cool. This may not have been the only yuuzhan vong on this planet after all.

Atto play dumb for now. If we're lucky she'll try and lure us into a trap where the rest of her group is situated he spoke to him through the force and then spoke

"Uhm sorry...we're just a little jumpy from the weather..Natives don't help either.." he gave a look to Umwak hoping he knew he meant no offense "My name is Ashen Wraith, thenervous padawan is Attomemhuhvoo, and this dulok is named Umwak. Atto and I are here on searching for the lost scouts from Salfar's. You said your ship crashed nearby. We'll offer any assistance we can." That's right play the diplomat for now..