Ask Ajan Kloss The Law of the Jungle

Cavo Bresk

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He threw another bundle of firewood into the hungrily snapping flames, sending a plume of smoke and sparks tumbling into the air. His focus flitted between them as they danced ever higher into the sky, melding with the evening light and finally vanishing. Far away on a distant horizon, the Sun was setting in an even more brilliant display, painting the sky with bold strokes of gold, amber and twilit blue.

The jungle sprawled at the base of the cliff before him. He had come here at the request of a Knight; it seemed that several other Padawans had had trouble with overly aggressive animals, and being unable to defend themselves, they had returned to the temple with fairly serious cuts and scrapes. The price of choosing this place as home and in a way, a blessing. Those Padawans had another experience behind them now, another hill that they had climbed over. The greatest lesson they could be taught was that no challenge however daunting or terrifying was unassailable.

Cavo's attention was drawn away from the thought as a clump of leaves rustled behind him. The branch he had chosen as his weapon was quickly in his hands, ready and waiting for whatever it was to come barreling out of the bush. Whatever creature it had been made no such advance but that did nothing to relieve the young Padawan's anxiety. Night thickened, shadows deepened, and the darkness drew itself close around his circle of firelight.

@murdercharls @Turtleneck

 

Achendaur

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Some time before Cavo's settling, a ship had descended into the wild that preceded the Jedi temple, up from the heavens and down some few miles before where the wise and goodwilled made their stay. Its landing was quick and swiftly executed, planted into a small clearing where the ground was not too soft but so the foliage kept a natural shroud over the peculiar intruder's vessel. It could be said that whoever came had loitered for some time, and knew exactly when they wanted to begin their operations.

As the fire churned and the forestry embraced the coming night, a sleepy quietus took hold around where the young man assumed guard. There are some few moments when the rustling of before would repeat, if just in another singular position around where Cavo made watch. The most alarming sound would have been a shifting of small stones, as if one had been thrown and collided with another, farther on toward his left where the light of flame did not reach so well.

Nothing revealed itself from that way, either a product of the wind or the meddlesome business of a small beast or rodent who stumbled over a pebble patch. But-- looking to the far right would reveal a man in a mask, who quite comfortably stood along the edge of Cavo Bresk's camp clearing, again where the fire struggled to reach. Adorned in a manner of robery and a hood, with a wooden skull-like covering over his features painted to some dull shade of gold, it made him imposing enough to throw a common man off-guard; at the very least, with help from his sudden and silent appearance. From this, it was apparent that he was quite bold.

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"Did they, cast you out," the man inquired, the stylized covering that obscured him adding some harsh depth to an already low and rippling voice, "or did they send you here, to learn or something about 'balance' in the muck and blood of the jungle?" He kept his distance, only staying close enough so that the remnants of heat could whisper his way, but the man did not budge so that the outerlying shadow kept him and any possible movements hidden.

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Cavo Bresk

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His legs snapped upright, branch in-hand as the voice whispered between the trees. The gold mask shimmered dully in the firelight. Amber ripples played across the pitted surface, whilst the hollows turned to blood red embers that glowed maliciously. The presumably thrown rock had done little to startle him, used as he was to the sounds of the forest. Too many times he had bolted upright at the sound of snapped twig only to find that some tiny, inoffensive critter had been bumbling merrily through the undergrowth.

"I-I've nothing of interest to you." The words didn't seem adequate but they were all he had. Seeing that the stranger had brandished no weapon of their own, he relaxed a little, letting the branch's far end droop towards the ground. Whatever Achendaur had asked him was forgotten beneath his fright. "But you can sit by the fire if you're just passing through. If you're on a pilgrimage to the temple, I'd especially advise that you wait; nasty things've been prowling round these parts." Putting the fire between himself and Achendaur, Cavo retreats to seat himself in the lush grass once again. Some small animal had been placed over the fire, stuck through with a stick. You could just begin to smell the skin beginning to crackle and blacken.


 

Achendaur

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Upon Cavo's invitation, the man in the mask broke his seclusive stillness to approach the fire across from the other. As he knelt before the flame, his cloak shifted to reveal that the hilt of some weapon protruded from his belt. Indeed, he was armed, but did not seem to arrive for violence.

Achendaur spoke again as he fiddled with the bindings of the mask. "No pilgrimage. I came here to rummage around Jedi dwellings to understand where kyber crystals are found. I don't suppose you'll be of assistance?"

At this, he settled further down to rest on his rear as he further procured a smaller, strung-up rodent creature, dead, and bound to a stick; rudimentary hunting, by the looks of it. Achendaur took some time fiddling with the catch as he continued. "I scarcely believed that the Jedi even settled here, and now you speak of temples. Only ruins, I thought. Space is a little isolated," he explained. Soon, he pulled the mask free from his features, and set it aside to begin roasting his catch in the flame.

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Cavo Bresk

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"It was ruined once, but no longer." Cavo took his own catch from the flames and picked at it, nibbling pieces of meat with obvious concentration, his eyes staring at Achendaur. Their lower halves blazed with reflected light. "Many Jedi seek the same knowledge you do. Ever since Ilum..." The padawan had never seen what had become of Ilum. Perhaps the light that distant star emitted had touched him, illuminated him from the inside with it's memory, but he had never beheld it's true glory. He felt it's heat only in the words of old stories and older holocrons that recounted the many Gatherings that had taken place there.

The Sun was lower now, shrouding the vista before them in ever deepening darkness. Where the cliff had promised daydreams and beauty, now, the howling winds that rushed below it offered only dread filled thoughts. Cavo stared into it unperturbed, munching on his catch all the while.


 

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"Then you suggest my coming here was for nothing?" Pale eyes flick upward and pin on Cavo as he slowly pulled his catch-stick back, his hands occupied with tearing a fresh piece of cooked meat free from the form. Achendaur seemed unattentative of the deepening darkness of their surroundings. Whether the food was too much distraction, or if he did not care for the dangers of night, was unclear.

"Why are you trapped out here, in this ... wild? Are you a pilgrimage you spoke of? Or are you snooping just as I am?"

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Cavo Bresk

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"Haha, oh no. The animals have turned against us. One too many padawans have stepped on a nest or tripped over a burrow or torn down a tree for practice." His tone was calm and somewhat fatherly. Even coming from a world such as Dantooine, he could remember learning the ways of the wild and his own stumbling blocks.

"Most of the Knights caution them but they continue to disturb the wilderness all the same. They're mostly from city worlds. Not used to dealing with furry things with teeth and enough anger to tear your heart out if you look at them the wrong way. Nearly lost my foot to a, scaly something or other. Just yesterday. Scurried up and suddenly," he explains, one hand holding his stick, the other, miming the aforementioned teeth, "Huge teeth, white as anything, like big knives. Got out of there fast."

"You from a wilder world or a city, a desert?"
Again, his attention fixed itself on Achendaur, eyes blinking only sparingly.


 

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The question kept him silent for a moment, the pause of which was conveniently excused by his bite of the cooked rodent. He spoke after swallowing, keeping a keen eye on Cavo all the while. "Migratory. The, old man, he was not used to settling one place. It made him paranoid." After another tear and swallow of tender flesh from his catch, he spoke further. "So you are either running from such beasts or you are hunting them. Do men with mystical power and saber-fury not have the sense to clear this place themselves, securing it?"

He soon set the finished remains of the poor creature aside to fiddle with his belt until he revealed a longer-handled lightsaber, cold without a powersource. "Do you have one of these-- these, swords?"

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Cavo Bresk

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His attention is immediately drawn to the revealed saber-hilt, though his eyes betray no hint of surprise. Soon he is peering away into the darkness once again whilst he gnaws on what remains of his food.

"Cutting down the forest would only reveal greater threats deeper in. Destroying such a beautiful place would be a poor choice at the best of times, certainly not the option I would choose. In all likelihood, we'd just stir up another lot of angry jungle-dwellers, putting us right back where we started. It is better to observe our problems and solve them simply." A silence descended upon the camp, lingering for a few moments before Cavo finished, "There is no chaos, there is harmony."


 

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With the stringey creature nearly cleaned off, he thought it appropriate to toss the still corpse-bound branch off to the side in divorce of responsibility for it; might as well leave the marrow for the beasts. "Beasts by default rule what they roam. They rule this place, this unseemly gaggle of damp brush and vine and moss. They will propagate, as is their nature, and then find the jungle has no room as it once did, and they shall see your temple with their dumb animal eyes and crave its taking, if only for base and thoughtless intentions. Four-legged conquerers. They wish to eat you, old boy ... I would not pour such fond thought into it."

Achendaur sets the powerless lightsaber aside, to rest near the flame as though to warm it rather than to keep it at his belt. He maintained a fixation on the fire; and it warded from his mind thoughts of unease that the dark wild around them would easily summon. "Always found that thought-process peculiar. Great and terrible acts of bloodthirst and destruction no-doubt transpire elsewhere, upon some other planet, where the natives are still barbarian and use fire to burn down entire woodlands to scourge their more bestial enemies. They do not care ... such an act is their victory."

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Cavo Bresk

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"It is simply the Jedi way - not to interfere. I do not put so much thought into it as you do. All I know is that there are practical benefits to our focus. We could direct our energy to clearing the forest. To fighting with the wildlife who will remain dumb," a pause and a chuckle, "no matter what we do. Or, we could direct our energy to saving the wounded. Healing those with the capacity for more, for love and growth. The latter calls more to the Light in us, and so that is where we go, listening for the Force."

"Your thoughts are valid. There is not some flaw to them. Not one that I can see at the least. But you are speaking with a padawan learner rather than a master. Perhaps they would have more to say."
Here, he pauses, and looks up at the stars that have now begun to peer down at them from the abyssal flank of the night. A great beast breathing the air of eternity. Her skin patterned with white marks, a beautiful pelt, spiraling and flowing across the sky. From somewhere deep within Cavo, new words came to him.

"I am just a soldier in a peaceful land."


 

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"Then we are on equal terms," Achendaur told the other as he remained comfortably knelt before the flame. "And we are little different in our circumstances. The Old Man who taught me what I know, he left me to my lonesome to figure out how to assume control of this power, and give life to this sword. I'm sure you will need to find life for your own sword, soon." With a deep exhalation through his nostrils, the oddfellow directed his attention to studying the grim golden mask cradled in his gloved hands.

When Achendaur spoke again, his pale eyes were pinned solely upon the fire, reflecting from them in some manner the churning shades of amber. "I've a ship, and supplies ... hyperdrive fuel. Some. Enough to go somewhere far away where I could find something strong enough to rouse this weapon from sleep. Don't know where exactly, though - which is why I came here. Your masters and your temple should know, if they would have me."

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Cavo Bresk

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The thought was tempting. To be like them, to have a saber of my own, to stand shoulder to shoulder with the defenders of the people ready for when the darkness returns - as surely, it must. The stories drew him out of himself more than anything. And here, there was a chance to begin on a journey away from the safety of the order into territory even more unknown than this jungle. He had been here four years now, and the offer to suddenly be free of this familiarity resonated with some deeper part of him. A need not necessarily for freedom, but for the joy of living.

"There are surely places to be found in the archives. Places I could discover were I to look. But, you..." Questions did not bubble to the surface of his thoughts. He knew that he must probe deeper but he had never been a detective, never pried into matters. His gaze across the flames intensified and became a stare, a glower. His discomfort continued to evade his attempts to translate it into words. "I've no need of a weapon yet. And you, could have any blaster you choose."


 

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A low, rippling chuckle departed the hood that overshadowed much of his features. Tucking the golden mask into his cloak, Achendaur soon takes his lifeless lightsaber into his hands once again-- both firmly clasped around the longer handle of the weapon. He held it before the fire, as if to ensure it were comfortable in the warmth. "I do not share your hesitation," Achendaur broke his silence boldly, his gaze narrowing upon the younger other. "When I was told to take this... empty thing, I was tasked to find its source of life on my own. The Old Man would not guide me that far ... shackles laid upon me until adulthood were broken, and as such he disappeared as to force me to fulfill this duty. I have waited a decade for this moment in time, since my tenth year of life. I've ... bled and suffered, for this soulless sword, knowing that the sight of its blade would tell me what I must do next."

Achendaur slowly leaned forward, his tone becoming sharper and prying. "Do you trust that you will find your way here, in this yolk? Or will your destiny be seen through the light of your own saber?"

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Cavo Bresk

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"For all the Jedi-babble about the saber being the heart of the Jedi - if you have no heart to begin with, it won't give you one. If you have no purpose without the blade, you won't discover one within it. Finding purpose in weapons is the way of the Sith. Perhaps that is what you are. A nascent dark-sider waiting to spread their wings and terrorize the galaxy." Achendaur might feel a sudden disturbance in the Force, a crease of the invisible fabric that blankets the jungle. The buzz of alien insects subsides, leaving only the sound of the crackling fire, which suddenly seems dwarfed by a greater, deeper silence.

"You cannot tempt me with talk of destiny," he continues, standing up cautiously, "Nor talk of this 'yoke'. The Jedi have placed no yoke on my back. None at all. Without them, I would still be burdened by my thoughts."


 

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Pale eyes under the shadow of the hood watched Cavos as he spoke and rose, his stare sharp and calm and keen of his tension, of which could be felt in the very air. A hand rose- his left- to brush the hood back and reveal himself and his full head of hair, bearing the echo of shades of red that settled at auburn. Achendaur remained in place, comfortable before the flame. He did not rise to match the other's caution at all.

"And what if that were true? Why, I was warned about this," He claimed, smoothly breaking his silence. "Warned of points in time in which destiny itself would provoke another, division in the Force. Had I come here with darkness in the heart, to meet you, who hails as pupil of the old Jedi ways, it would only be cause of another story. Just like the others. Another war could begin right here, at this fire ... had I come to scourge you. Alas."

He began to stand all at once, tucking the lightsaber into his belt and from his belt he pulled the mask. "The Old Man said, don't play sides that aren't set by you. Why would I waste my time coming to this jungle realm, where the wise and knowledgeable squat inside of musty temples and spend their time maneuvering around the wildlife, when I could instead find these darksiders you speak of, and gain what I desire from them?"

He gestures toward the fire as the mask was set back over his features, and his hood pulled over his head. "Now, I reckon I'll leave you to think. Obtain knowledge on where the crystals reside and we may work together. Fear what I could be, instead of what I am, and you will force me to look elsewhere."
 

Cavo Bresk

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The moment passes as quickly as it arrived, and soon Cavo is sat staring into the flames once again whilst the jungle sings a renewed song of a thousand tiny voices. His expression does not betray his confusion, the odd feeling that has been plaguing him ever since this stranger stepped out from the shadows. He speaks without looking up.

"I'll shepherd you. I'd find some Knights from the Order to appraise you but, they'd just turn you away. And I have a feeling you've no wish to learn anything from them. So, if I do accompany you, you will listen to me. You will listen to the one Knight I trust, who will be accompanying us. I will convince them. Somehow." Night broods all about the camp. Strange shapes writhe in the shadows. The padawan's duty would soon be at hand. "Leave me to my work, but remember, do not leave Ajan Kloss."


 

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The silence sustains their tension for as long as Cavo went without speaking, where with a statuesque stillness Achendaur waited for the padawan's final decision on the matter. The man in the mask came to slowly bow himself in some theatric expression of gratitude, one hand settling upon his chest as the other extended leftward. "Your word is the law, my new friend."

As his left hand came to return to his side, it instead reaches for his shoddily painted mask and then deftly flicks it into the fire once it was pulled from his features. An offering- granted to the fire, perhaps in honor of young Bresk's agreeable nature. The fire briefly rose as the article quickly came to scorch and crackle. "To defying destiny," he vowed lowly, with some ripple of dry humor. "Build a fire here again, in this very spot in which we have met, and you will find me coming around once more."

At that, he turned to leave as silent as he came. Achendaur's shape soon disappeared amidst shadowy brush and tree-trunks, leaving Cavo to what else dwells in the night.

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