Ask Ossus Public Library

[Cavalry]

The Crimson Dawn was always looking for curious artifacts that once belonged to space wizards. Cav couldn’t understand the obsession, especially as he believed they were all made up and myth anyway. However, the promise of credits was very real, and he was determined to earn some cash even if that meant chasing fairytales.

He had punched quite a few people to squeeze out intel that led him to this planet. Apparently a long time ago, there was a temple of sorts that could potentially house a plethora of artifacts his guild would find valuable. Cav landed only a few hours prior, and he was dressed in his usual Mandalorian beskar’gam.

He looked Mandalorian by appearance, but he had long since abandoned the ideals. Cav enjoyed being a criminal far more, and he left his clan and old life far behind. He made no money hiding like a rat, and this new life was far more profitable.

Cav pulled up a datapad that had a preloaded map that guided him through the forests. He had no signal or way to use his comms, but he generally had a good sense of direction. Cav loved to work alone, and he was in his element walking through a forest alone.

According to the map, the alleged location was nearby. He was expecting to find some ruins that were remnants of a temple, but it would likely be buried under a lot of foliage.

 

[Larana Basai]

The forests had long since reclaimed the ruined temple, moss and vines lay thick over the long untrodden floor, their only purpose to soak in the seasons rain. Sections of the once prominent stone walls crumbled into non-existence while others still peeked out from behind the heavy foliage. What little remained were the artifacts of lives lived and abandoned, but their echoes in the force still seemed to speak as loud as the day they had left. There was an unspoken peace to be found here, and a beauty only the forests of Ossus knew how to paint.

Larana sat with her back to one of the pillars, hands in her lap and eyes closed. She counted each breath as she took them, attempting to lose herself in the force; to draw upon the energies that still surrounded the now buried Jedi Temple. However, it was difficult for her to hold her focus, even here as any sort of distant noise quickly drew her attention away from the ruins and deeper into the forests that surrounded them. There was so much about Ossus that was unfamiliar to her and as much as she wanted to leave and explore, it was important that she didn't.

Master Ris had sent her here in the hope that she would be able to focus on meditation, to learn to speak with the force in the way that her peer, Kalen, did. He could lose himself in it, but she'd never found it to be as easy as he did and that frustrated her. Larana just wasn't meant to sit still, but if she couldn't master enough patience to learn to, then she'd never amount to anything as a Jedi Knight.

She huffed in frustration, leaning her head back and closing her eyes so that she could try again. In counting her breath, she focused on the sound of the wind as it passed through the trees, thick with leaves, letting them speak to her in a way nature only knew how. It reminded her of her home back on Andara and her adventures alone in the woods near their home. It even smelled the same, but just as it had happened so many times before, just as she was feeling herself slip into a state of calm, something else drew her attention.

Her eyes shot to the figure that tracked through the trees in the distance and before she knew it, she found herself crouched beneath one of the crumbled walls. Her heart beat in her chest so fiercely that she was afraid even he might be able to hear it, but Larana didn't move. Instead, she stayed watching him through a crack in the stones, hoping that he'd turn the other way.

 

[Cavalry]

Cav, on the other hand, had no qualms with using a vibroblade to mercilessly cut through all the foliage in his way. Flowers, plants, probably some small woodland animals all were sliced and diced as he cleared himself a path to this alleged location. He was losing patience quick and wanted to get this over with.

Believing himself to be entirely alone, he had no qualms with all the noise he was making. Cav sliced neatly through a beautiful flower bush before coming out into a clearing. He could see some ruins ahead, and he couldn’t help but grin beneath the helmet.

Cav loudly plodded through the grass, stepping on everything in his path as he intended to ransack the ruins and find what he needed. He half toyed with the idea of using some demolition charges to blow the place sky high and then see if anything was buried underneath.

He began to kick and move bits of stone apart, entirely focused on his work. Cav sighed and began to look around, catching a faint glimpse of a heat signature on his HUD. The very small sliver of heat didn’t tell him anything, and he assumed it was an animal of some sort.

“Get out here,”He called out to the ‘animal’, whistling a few times, and drawing out his blaster to shoot after he saw what it was.

 

[Larana Basai]

It seemed that, despite her best efforts to remain hidden, Larana had been spotted by the unfamiliar man. Her heart sank into the pit of her stomach and she mulled over the most appropriate way to approach him, or escape him, without taking a blaster bolt to the chest. He seemed impatient enough, by the way he flattened the foliage to create a path, that she was certain he wouldn't hesitate to flatten her too. It didn't matter his reasons, he didn't seem the kind of man to appreciate unwanted company. He already had his blaster drawn and she felt her hand slip to her hilt, silently hoping that the hours she had spent with the trainer droid would prove useful here.

Larana took a deep breath, hesitating for a moment before she slowly stood from her cover to face him. In her right hand, hidden behind the crumbled stone pillar, she held her hilt in a ready position to defend herself if he decided to attack, though she hoped to avoid any form of conflict. While his specific armor was unfamiliar to her, his size and stature told her that she would be lucky to escape him in the event he tried to take her out. Larana was just a student of the Jedi Order, nowhere near ready to traverse the stars on her own or hold her own in battle; she had only hoped to meditate here in peace.

"Please, sir. I am no animal." Her blue eyes focused intently upon him, trying her best to read him, though he face was covered by his mask.

 

[Cavalry]

Cav didn’t bother lowering the blaster, though he was more than a little surprised to find an actual person out here. He mentally kicked himself for making all that noise - if she wanted to kill him she would have heard him coming from a mile away. There was a moment of silence after she announced herself, and he couldn’t see any immediate cause for concern.

“Then why are you hiding like a rat?” He called out, still not lowering the gun, “Come out all the way and let me see your hands,” He commanded, not entirely trusting her. Cav knew that this was a ‘Jedi artifact’ that he was after, and he couldn’t imagine who else would come out here but someone hunting the same thing.

But Jedi were just a myth, right? She had to be some sort of thief like him, or she was simply lost. He looked around and didn’t pick up any other signatures on his HUD, but he wasn’t entirely convinced.

“Is there anyone else here?” He asked, still glancing around, “It won’t be pretty if you lie now,” He warned. Cav was more than a little alarmed, and he was known for being a bit trigger happy with his weapons.

 

[Larana Basai]

Larana felt her heart race in her chest, her attention focused on the barrel of his blaster as he continued to aim it at her. It seemed she had startled him just as much as he had startled her, but she wasn't as inclined to threaten him as it was her intention to avoid conflict if at all necessary. Cav was much taller than her and held a fair amount of muscle in comparison to her thin frame; she could try and hold him off, but doubted her abilities even more so now that they may be tested in an uncontrolled environment. It was easy to deactivate a trainer droid when she had run out of stamina, but that didn't work in situations such as this. Her nerves built in the pit of her stomach, but she tried her best not to let them be known to him.

"You started me, is all." She admitted, taking a deep breath and raising her hands above the barrier so that he could see she did not hold a weapon. Larana made sure to move slow as she stepped out from behind the crumbled stone pillar, hoping not to startle him into pulling the trigger as she'd have little time to react at this point and, being that she was still a Padawan learner, she was slow in her responses.

"Listen, I have no reason to lie to you. Please lower your blaster as I am the only one here." She raised both of her hands slowly, though the hilt of her lightsaber dangled in plain view on her belt.