Crash Landing

[Keira Zale]

Keira got next to no sleep. She kept tossing and turning, and she screamed a few times when she saw a centipede or some other critters crawling by her face. The fire died at some point, and she was shivering in her sleep whenever she got some of it.

By the time he mentioned something, Keira felt miserable. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, grumbling incoherently for a moment. Her hair was a mess, and her back and neck hurt a lot. How did people do that whole camping thing and, more importantly, why did they do it voluntarily? Keira grimaced at the thought.

She rose to stand and dusted herself off, “I sure hope it’s today,” She said grumpily, “I don’t think I can take another evening of sleeping out on the ground,” Keira was clearly in a bad mood, her cheery demeanor completely gone.

Instead of moving, she paused and looked uncomfortable for a moment. She bit her lip and cleared her throat, “Um, can you look away? I’m gonna go over there and um..” Her face became red. There was really not much cover for her to hide behind to go pee, and she hoped he caught the hint to look away. Keira avoided looking at him as she shuffled a hilarious distance away to relieve herself.

Narir would be left alone for a moment to enjoy the sounds of nature. Within moments, he would hear a shrill scream from where Keira had gone. He had the choice to turn around or not after she explicitly made it clear he needed to face the other direction. If he did look, he’d see Keira running towards him with her arms flailing. It was a wonder she had managed to pull her underwear up.

“THERE ARE THINGS CHASING ME! WE HAVE TO GO NOW!” Keira shrieked as she promptly tripped over a root and fell face first into the ground. Behind her were two rapidly approaching Strill. Keira’s choice of place to relieve herself ended up being near a nest, and she incurred the wrath of the parents.

 

[Narir Solus]

It took Narir a minute to figure out what she was talking about, but that awkward look on her face and the slight blush were... oh... yeah, that. He nodded and turned around the other direction, looking up toward the sky. The sun was rising, and the animals were waking up for the day. It was such a peaceful and relaxing day if only they weren't stranded here in the middle of nowhere. At least it seemed that he and the Chancellor had...

He heard a screeching sound, and turned immediately, gun out and ready. He had no idea what was over there, and he realized it was probably just a bug like last night with the centipede. He only drew his pistols out of habit, but then he saw Keira running around the tree with flailing arms. He frowned in confusion but a moment later he saw why.

Oh shab, he thought to himself. His pistols came up, and he fired. Those strill were spry, though. It dodged his shot by leaping to the side, but the other one wasn't so lucky. The shot struck home, but it kept coming after a spin. A single shot from his medium pistol wasn't enough to kill these attack dogs. It sizzled through the greasy flesh and caused a yelp.

The heavy pistol fired and managed to blast the other creature down. It seemed that the first - injured - creature began limping backward, snarling and growling. It seemed to be looking specifically at Keira. It really didn't seem to like her.

Both pistols fired again, and the thing was down. It was clear the Mandalorian had more than a bit of experience as a gunslinger. Narir glanced over to Keira.

Are you alright? he asked, not breaking his aim with his pistols. He barely waited for an answer before pushing on toward the nest. There weren't signs of any more adults, but at the nest he found a litter of six baby strill.

Shab, he said, slipping the pistols back in their holsters. He didn't want to shoot the baby strill or leave them to die. He looked back toward Keira, who he could guess wasn't going to be eager to come back to the nest. He put his hand out and waved her over.

Do you need a guard-strill? Or six? he asked. She probably would have thought it was a joke, but he was being deadly serious on the topic. They were deadly creatures, and many Mandalorians trained them as such. If he didn't have a badger he probably would have wanted one for himself.

We can come back for them once we reach camp, he said, already pulling out his datapad and marking the location before bending down and picking up one of the pups and handing it to Keira, whether she wanted it or not. It was both ugly and adorable all at the same time, and it immediately seemed as if it wanted to cling to the young Chancellor. Some people said that strill were excellent judges of character, and this one was ready to snuggle right up to the Chancellor forever.

 

[Keira Zale]

Keira uselessly remained on the ground as the action began. She curled up and burst into tears, terrified beyond belief as she heard the blaster bolts and the roars of the creatures. It was a wonder that she wasn’t dead.

She looked up when things were quiet, the Mandalorian asking if she were okay before casually walking right past her. Did any of these men know how to be a gentleman?! Keira grumbled in response before peeling herself off the ground, dusting herself off. She walked back towards where he went, not intending to go further from him this time.

However, she was met with the sight of some very ugly looking ‘babies’. Keira couldn’t tell if he were joking or not, but he remained silent. Her eyes being on him meant she didn’t notice when he all but shoved one of the things into her arms. Keira looked down and shrieked as the thing attempted to cuddle, dropping it on the ground. The baby strill was entirely unfazed by this, curling up near her ankle instead.

“What do you mean we? I’m not coming back for these insects, that’s all you,” She hissed at Narir, more than a little irritated at this turn of events. Keira took a twig out of her hair, along with a few leaves, “Can we please keep going?”

She was fuming, and she desperately needed a bath and food, feeling weak from hunger. Keira kept plodding along as they walked towards the camp. After a moment, she began to hear some rustling, and she turned to look - the entire group of strill babies were marching in line to follow them. Keira rolled her eyes and shook her head, “I hope your camp can double as a daycare.”