Lead by Song

[Holli Harper]

Holli Harper had considered the sie of the galaxy many times in her youth.

The absolute vastness of it all, and yet filled with bright and shining lives, and such beautiful wonders beyond imagination. It saddened her that her people preferred their tribal life. Preferred to remain ever anchored despite the very nature of flight within them.

Yet she too might have remained among them.

If it weren't for the gems.

They called to her, sang to her, reached out to her no matter how far. It was their song that had opened her mind to the freedom that awaited. It was their soothing melody that had lead her here.

And still she found more of them, shining in a multitude of colours, and each adding to the song in their own way.

They had brought her to Dxun. To the little one that breathed in tandem with its elder brother, sharing its air.

Not the end, but another beginning.

Thanking the pilot profusely, she stepped off the shuttle and down onto the jungle soil, looking around in wonder even after she was left alone.

After much too long, she reached gently into the inner pockets of her scarf and found the first, the gem that had started it all.

To it, she sang a single note and then spoke;
"You have shown me much, and yet there is still more," she said in wonder. "Whither next shall I go?"

 

[Aurora Blackwood]

The jungle was hot, sweaty, and teaming with life. Dxun mirrored the world it orbited. A smaller more inhospitable version of Onderon. Aurora’s head titled skyward as she made her way towards the edge of the spaceport. Dxun was large for a moon but small for a planet. Yet, it had nearly brought the fledgling Rebellion to its knees. The jungle moon was home to a particularly ambitious and violent cell. A cell that had been cut off since the bombing on Dantooine. It was the cell on Dxun that had recklessly assaulted the Imperial shipyard on Corellia.

Their foolishness had almost destroyed everything before it could barely begin. It was a gift the Republica believed the assault merely overzealous pirates. The cell had been excised from the Rebellion after that mistake. That did not stop Aurora from wishing to investigate the idiots herself. She loathed to include such volatile actors in the growing Resistance but they could not afford to wholesale remove any faction. They needed all the help they could get.

She deeply disliked venturing so far into the Inner rim but she was just one in a sea of billions. Her Force signature was suppressed, and her mental walls erected high. She was nothing to those around her. Another vagrant unable to afford the opulence of Onderon. Aurora would spend as little time on the steamy moon as possible. Find the cell, determine just how much of a risk they were, and leave. Easy. Simple. Of course, nothing ever worked as she planed.

Even with her walls secure she could feel the pull. Any Force user worth their salt knew the pull of kyber. The crystals called to those they chose. Aurora felt pulled by a chorus of voices. She had to physically fight the urge to spin around. Instead, she slowly turned until her eyes fell on a strange avian humanoid. A crease wrinkled her brow. A species she did not know, but the kyber undeniable rested with the young child. One deep breath. She approached slowly, her hood drawn. Her voice was no more than a whisper behind the girl. “Where did you get the crystals?” Such wide eyed innocence did not belong to the Empire, but the girl could not possible understand the danger they were in. @umbra

 

[Holli Harper]

The heat, it seemed, did nothing for the girl - that in spite of the many layers of clothing that she wore. Certainly, she was an oddity, a being completely out of place with her surroundings.

Aurora's voice may have been little more than a whisper, but the reaction it brought from the young girl was far less subdued; jumping almost five feet into the air with a loud chirp of surprise. She looked about all over the place, her eyes managing to dart everywhere that Aurora wasn't until she regained her cool and turned around.

Despite the wings, she had the face of a tomboyish human girl, with pale skin, blue eyes, and fluffy white hair. Her eyes, gentle and curious, regarded Aurora with surprise and curiousity and yet without fear or anger.

"You must forgive me my... embarrassing surprise, miss, for I had not been expecting to meet with anyone here," the girl said, her voice a melody - each syllable a note, and every sentence a phrase.

She regarded Aurora a few seconds longer, considering her question, opening her mouth and closing it as if looking for words she did not have.

"I find them. Wherever I go, they call out to me. Once they are in my possession, they guide me, hither and thither, as if they are looking for something. I complain not, for I have seen much beauty on this journey that I would not otherwise," she explained.

"It occurs to me," she continued, "That you know something of these? Do they - do they perhaps call to you also?"

@Aurora Blackwood

 

[Aurora Blackwood]

What. The. Kriff. Aurora fought to keep her hands still and not smack herself in the forehead. Why did the Force punish her this way? Just one single time she wanted things to go normally. Instead, this child leapt into the air drawing all kinds of unwanted attention. She was being tested. Yes, that would be the only explanation for all of this, or she was cursed. Aurora was beginning to think more and more the latter was true. Her voice was a harsh whisper when she spoke. “Keep your voice down.” By the Force. “You have no idea what you are talking about.”

Oh, the crystals called to her, but she was not about to share that little piece of information. Kyber called to Jedi. To those Force sensitives who would not bleed them dry. They were not sentient. At least not in a way that was truly understood. Aurora was certain some of their knowledge of the kyber crystals had been lost. There was more to them than a simple calling. It didn’t matter, now was not the time for such musing.

She grabbed the child’s shoulder and pulled her towards an alleyway. “Come on.” Kriff, this all looked incredibly suspicious. “We are on Dxun.” She gestured all around them. “In heart of the Imperial Republica. They would like every much to take every single one of those little shiny objects from you.” Aurora kept her voice pitched low. “And they would not care what happens to you.” The galaxy was filled with children who apparently needed her help, and she was destined to run into every single one of them. “Is there somewhere you can go? Somewhere safe?” Aurora dreaded the answer she was almost certain to get. Her eyes had never stopped moving. This place was not safe. Certainly, not safe after that display. They needed to remove themselves from the public view. “I’m Scarlett by the way.” @umbra

 

[Holli Harper]

A child she was, if not in stature, then at least in temperament. Whence had she came? It was as if she had no concept of danger at all. Holli listened to everything that Scarlett with a smile of resigned bewilderment, her eyes utterly empty of understanding of the problems she was attracting like flies.

"Well of course," she whispered, while somehow retaining the same level of volume. "The Aria don't keep records, so I've had to research all by myself."

She looked a little too proud about that, even puffed up a little. Oh to be young and have a head filled with straw.

As Scarlett lead her away, Holli followed - matching pace with a disturbing accuracy and bobbing her head about with each step.

Listening to Scarlett's explanation, she looked about the world around her. It was so very different from her home, where all was either beaches or plains, or the great chasms from which they pulled their treasures near endlessly. This place was thick with trees, the ground uneven and broken with roots and mulch. There was life around her, she could hear the chirping of insects, and much more. How wonderful! Usually, teaming with life meant other people, but this was pure nature.

Her wonder was stopped in his tracks, the moment Scarlett spoke of the Imperial Republica.

"Take them?" She whispered, truly this time, her head snapping to Scarlett rather harshly.

Such a thing was inconceivable to her - treasure was nigh onto sacred; it was not taken, it was found, earned, or given freely. To take that which was not one's own, that was... evil!

"How could they?" She added, her voice filled with complete and utter surprise.

Her own question, however, was cut across by Scarlett's own question.

"Safe?" She uttered in return. "I have not come across this term before. Besides, I think... Rather, I feel as though this is where I am needed to be."

@Valen Pelora

 

[Aurora Blackwood]

She was talking to a brick wall. She mentally slapped herself. No. She was speaking to a very very young child who knew no better. Aurora was jaded, jagged, and ever skeptical. She wasn’t born that way and neither was this child. She did wonder for a moment how the kid got here and where the kriff were her parents. The kid didn’t have the look of an orphan.

Somewhere in the back of her mind the Force whispered. Oh no, she is not mine. Finally, something she said seemed to sink in. The thought of losing the crystal seems to startle the child. It was clear the young avian still didn’t know what they truly were. Aurora fought the urge to sigh. Be patient.

“Look kid, if I don’t tell you this the galaxy will.” Was she really about to mother half the galaxy? “We are in the very heart of a place where people want to take those crystals. The center of terrible evil.” She kept her voice low, trying to use words the girl might understand. “We need to get somewhere they are not. Safe.” Aurora shook her head slowly. “This is most certainly not where you need to be.” That much was terribly true. “But you and I need to have a very long talk.” She grabbed her arm again. “Come on.” Aurora sort of knew where she was headed.

The rebel safe house in the spaceport was supposed to be on the edge of town. Just before the jungle butted up to the walls. It was almost certainly a dump, but she’d take that over whispering angrily in the street. She tried to guide them as quickly as possible to the safe house. The sooner those crystals were out of the air, the sooner the knot in her stomach would untwist. @umbra

 

[Holli Harper]

The woman was nervous, jumpy, and secretive. Yet Holli felt still that this woman was a good person - not that she needed a reason to follow along. There was just so much more to see, after all. So much more to do.

She had chosen to travel for this very reason. Her people were so content to fly round and round Kolthis, but not Holli. After all, would she have found most of her collection had she not left? There was just so, so much she had to do.

So she allowed Aurora to lead her away, giggling a little as she took the tip of her wing in her hand. Holli's feather's were soft and smooth as silk. She was also light, fragile even. Pulling her along was almost akin to holding a balloon on a string - only the barest of resistance.

"I truly disagree. I was lead here, to this place," Holli spoke. "I'm meant to be here. I'm supposed to meet you."

Of all the air-headed things that she had said, this she spoke with utter conviction - a certainty that had lacked in her before.

"Talking's good, I'd be happy to," she added with a smile.

@Valen Pelora

 

[Aurora Blackwood]

Aurora finally let out a puff of frustration. The kid just wasn’t getting it. “I’m sure you were kid, and I’m going to look this great when I’m one hundred and fifty.” She hadn’t yet sensed it. Her concern and the sing-songy pull of the kyber made it difficult. The young child was Force sensitive, and thick headed Aurora was missing it. Well, there were bigger fish to fry for the moment. The Morellian Jedi Master quickly lead them through the streets. She eventually stumbled upon the hovel that passed for a safe house. She punched in the code Val had given her and bought the child in. By the Force, this place had certainly seen better days. Dust and dirt covered just about everything. This is what happened when a cell earned the wrath of Commander Hugo.

Aurora rounded on the child. “Listen first, then tell me your name, and why the kriff you think your supposed to be here.” She tried to keep her voice as gentle as possible. “You are carrying something of great value to the Empire.” She assumed they were relatively safe here. “Those crystals you value are used by the Sith to make their Lightsabers. They will do awful, terrible things to have them.” She raised her hand for a moment. “I know child that much of this does not make sense. I do not expect you to understand but please believe me when I say you cannot stay here.” She needed to get them somewhere even safer.

“These people who want the crystals, they will hurt you.” A part of her wanted to reach out in the Force. To feel where they might go. Too dangerous. “You have to leave, we have to leave.” Aurora certainly was not going to let the kid fend for herself. No, whatever happened next she was responsible. @umbra