Dantooine

[Kakuto Ryu]

Kakuto Ryu emerged from a cell in the deepest level underneath the temple, a dim and dusty untrafficked subbasement. He still wasn't sure if he was dreaming or just hallucinating in the dark, but in either case he planned to make the most of the opportunity. Down the hall he heard the chittering and squeaks of a large arachnoid. He contemplated his options carefully. He could either try to escape from inside the temple, where he was likely to encounter Jedi and be killed or worse, be placed back in that cell; or he could try figure out how the beast got into the temple and use its route to get back outside. At his disposal he had nothing, the rags he wore and his fist--and only one fist at that. He inched down the hall slowly to try to see what manner of creature awaited him. He peeked around a corner and saw it shuffling in the dark. It was Kinrath--a large 4 legged insect with one big digging arm. Not an especially fearsome beast, but one that lived in hives. To get outside, he would surely have to cross paths with many of them. Even so, it seemed like a better bet than facing down a bunch of Jedi.

 

He began to worry that they would be coming for him if he waited too long. Surely the Jedi would be notified of the failure of his prison cell and come to investigate. Without the force he would have no way to sense their approach. There was precious little time to plan. Abruptly he heard the kinrath begin to shuffle down the hall. He didn't think it had seen him, but after a decade in a cell with no shower it most certainly smelled him. Ryu held up his hand and prepared to engage it. As soon as it peeked around the corner he grabbed it by its sharp digging claw and lunged at its head, sinking his teeth into its neck. It squealed with hostility, thrashing its arm to try to stab him. It had a hard exoskeleton, but with great determination and a small amount of fear he might have his journey end at the hand of such a humiliating foe, he managed to bite through its neck and tear the creature's head off with his teeth. 

Ryu spat out the insect's head and bitter disgusting blood, more than a little disappointed that his prey didn't taste good. After a decade with bland synthetic paste to eat, a steak was high on his list of priorities. It would have to wait though. When the kinrath stopped twitching he put his foot on its digging arm and tore off its claw. It wasn't much of a weapon, but it was better than nothing.

Tracing the path of the kinrath back to where he had seen it initially he found a large hole in the wall, an entrance path into a pitch dark cave. Evidently the creature had burrowed straight into the temple. He noted a torn cable sticking out of the wall where it had come through, suggesting this was what caused the door to his cell to open. For a moment he almost felt bad that he had bitten the head off of what was actually his savior. Perhaps if it had not tried to stab him he would have left it for the Jedi to deal with.

 

He felt a bit of dread at the prospect of groping blindly in a cave that, for all he knew, could be miles in length before he reached the surface. Still, it seemed like a better option than fighting his way through Jedi with a kinrath claw. Reluctantly he entered the cave and began slowly feeling his way along walls, his severed kinrath claw raised--ready to stab the next one he encountered in the face.

"At least I won't have to kill the next one with my teeth."

Edited May 30, 2020 by Kakuto Ryu

[Kakuto Ryu]

Ryu inched onward through the darkness for what seemed like hours, freezing when he heard noise, in constant anticipation of Kinrath attacks. Had run into two more since he entered the cave, taking a few claws to his chest and knees before he was able to blindly grapple and stab them to death. He could feel blood trickling down his left leg from where he'd been gouged. Passing around a corner, he noticed a dim light ahead. He approached slowly, concerned that it may be the glow of a lightsaber, but was relieved to instead find a cavern illuminated by glowing crystal formations and bioluminescent moss. He breathed a sigh of relief and approached the cavern. On one edge there was a small pool of water, and several Kinrath eggs. He approached a redi/pink crystal and hacked at the base of the shard with is severed kinrath claw until it broke off. He shoved the crystal into his waist band so that it may serve as a dim lantern.

He could now see the blood that was running down his leg. He walked over to the edge of the small subterranean steam, washing off the blood and packing the wound with mud to prevent it from bleeding further. It was deep but the pain wasn't severe. He was more concerned that the Jedi would follow the trail he was leaving behind than he was for the wound itself.

Strange... he pondered, I would have expected the Jedi to be catching up with me by now. I must be better at spelunking than I had thought I was.

 

Ryu stood and began to head for the nearest exit to the cavern. He hadn't gotten very far before he heard the crunch of an egg under his feet, along with the angry shriek of a kinrath in the distance. He muttered a slew of curses as he wiped the gooey contents of the egg no the floor. Then, raising up his severed claw, he waited for the Kinrath to come into his reach.When each came close enough, he slammed the severed claw downward into each of their heads, dispatching them very quickly. It was a  lot easier to stab the insects when he could see where their heads were. Ryu pressed forward, disappearing into another path opposite of where he'd come in.  With the new crystal lighting his way, Ryu continued into the depths of the earth.

[Kakuto Ryu]

Ryu trudged on through the cavern, heading up a steep slope. The crystal made his progress faster, but what guided him now was smell. Mixed in with the damp cave air, he smelled grass, and better, the air was moving now. He was close. Around the next bend, he saw light, and with a growing sense of urgency he began to run forward until at long last he felt the light touch his skin. Immediately after passing through the mouth of the cave he fell to his knees in pure bliss.

He saw the setting sun ahead of him, the open endless sky above him, and felt overpowered by its beauty. The cool wind blew across his skin and filled his nostrils with fresh air. He raised his hands into the sky, reveling in the glory of freedom, and stayed in that very spot for nearly 20 minutes. It was such a relief to see sunlight again, to be out from under a roof again. In that moment he became certain that he would bite off his own tongue and bleed out before he'd spend another day in that cage. He would accept only freedom or death from this moment forward.

----

A stray nerf grazed idly in the tall grass, lifting it's head to look around upon hearing a shuffle. After a few moments it lowered its head and resumed chewing the dense grass that covered Dantooine. It heard a second shuffle, and raised its head to look around with a mild but noticeable sense of anxiety. When it heard and saw nothing more, it tried to continue feeding, when suddenly Ryu leapt up from the grass and landed on its back, jabbing it in the neck with his Kinrath Claw. The beast thrashed, but bled out quickly from the wound on its neck. When it stopped moving, Ryu grabbed it by the horns hauled it off into a clearing by a stream, where he had started a fire using primitive methods. He eviscerated the creature clumsily with kinrath claw then suspended some of its meat above the fire. He smashed the creature's skull on a rock then took a horn to replace his claw. While he waited for the slab of meat to cook, he went over to the water, taking a drink and then stopping to look at his own reflection. He barely recognized the filthy hobo that stared back at him. His beard was huge and bushy, his hair was extremely long, matted and unkempt, and his body was covered in dirt and blood. He decided to wash off some of the filth while he waited, and climbed into the stream. He let the current of the river do the work, just staring up at the sky until the stars appeared.

 

When he was done he sat down on the nerf pelt and tamped out his fire with a rock, afraid he would be detected but unwilling to do anything more until he ate. He took his charred hunk of nerf flesh by an exposed bone and bit into it. It was, by far, the most delicious thing he'd ever tasted.

Edited June 9, 2020 by Kakuto Ryu

[Kakuto Ryu]

Ryu's ears rang with the sound of the stun blaster, adrenaline pumping and cold sweat forming on his skin. On impulse he dove into the grass, keeping his body low to the ground to try to obscure himself in the brush. He didn't see who fired, but he saw the stun blast go skyward--a clear signal that it was a warning shot and not meant to hit him. He was overwhelmed with indecision. Was it a Jedi, or maybe just some farmer? Perhaps somebody looking for the Nerf he'd slain. If they meant to kill him or throw him back in the cell, a stun blaster and a warning shot didn't seem like a good start. His instinct was to run, but abandoning the spoils of his hunt seemed unappealing. He tried to peek out through the grass to see who was coming, but he couldn't make out anyone in the darkness. He settled on attempting diplomacy.

"What do you want? Go away! This is my Nerf. You can't have any! It's terrible anyway, you wouldn't want it!" Ryu shouted to the unknown person approaching, then whispered to his meat slab, "I didn't mean that, you're wonderful"

Ryu's attempt at negotiating sounded a lot more crazy and desperate when he heard it out loud. His voice was course and raspy from disuse.  He began to crawl slowly, through the brush, toward the river. He was prepared to make a run for it based on what he heard in response, or as soon as he heard an approach.

Edited June 17, 2020 by Kakuto Ryu

[Kakuto Ryu]

Ryu's blood ran cold at a the figures stepped out into the open, the sight of the lightsaber filling him with terror and dread. He was certain now. They were Jedi--or at least one of them was. His instinct was to run as fast as he could, but in his heart he knew he was unlikely to be able to evade pursuit for very long. The second person spoke up, affirming his desire to have part of Ryu's nerf. Though his heart screamed for him to run, he decided to continue leaning on the art of diplomacy.

After a few moments of Shuffling in the grass, Ryu popped up into view with a large slab of bloody uncooked beef in hand. With a heavy groan he launched the still warm mass of flesh toward Genesis's head. Despite having only one arm to throw it with, the meat sailed through the air with alarming speed and accuracy. Without waiting to see where it landed, he dove back into the grass.

"Here! That's all you get though! No more! I'm not going back to the dark place! It's... Too... damn dark! You can't make me! Take my meat like you took everything else! There's Nothing left!"

[Kakuto Ryu]

Ryu was confused by the actions of his pursuers. Despite efforts to allay his fears, he was still deeply distrustful of their words. When the female disarmed herself, he wondered if it was a ruse. Even so, without a ranged weapon it seemed unlikely that she would able to attack him if he left his cover. Grudgingly he decided to stand up, revealing his sorry state. He looked like a ghost in the moonlight, his skin, hair, and eye in varied shades of gray. His flesh was a tapestry of scars, telling a story of violence that spanned hundreds of encounters. He was thin, emaciated from only intermittently eating what was provided for him in the cell. One of his arms was missing, a dark gray mechanical socket indicating that there had once been a cybernetic arm attached. His face was largely hidden behind the wild unkempt hair and bushy grey beard, his one glittering silver eye peeking out from the mess.

 

No Longer hiding, he studied the two before him. The boy seemed unimposing, looking like a fairly average spacer. He could see the lightsaber on his hip, but Ryu's intuition was that he hadn't a lot of experience with it. The woman concerned him more. Her gaze was stern, her stance told him that she had seen many battles. Even disarmed, she could be a a threat if she meant to be one. Looking in her pale green eyes, he sensed something... familiar. His muddled memory could not place what it was though. He had some slight inclinations of his past, but he knew only what had come back to him in the hallucinations he experienced from his cell.

"I..." Ryu began to speak but trialed off, hesitating. "I am lost. I think my memory has been tampered with, and I do not recall how I came to be here. I'm not even sure what planet this is. What..."

Ryu trailed off again, taking a few steps forward from the dense grass.

"If you don't intend to kill me or to put me back in that cell, what is it you want from me? Why have you followed me, and what do you intend to do now that you've caught me? "

[Kakuto Ryu]

Ryu cautiously took the canteen from Armiena. He wasn't sure if he believed they would not turn on him, but after such a long isolation he was more in need of companionship than he was willing to to admit--even to himself. He took a sip from the canteen, then after a moment contemplation, a second much longer drink, half emptying the canteen before passing it back. As the boy rekindled the fire he decided to take a seat. Ryu listened intently as he spoke, ruminating on the boy's glib explanations of where he was, and why they had followed him. He sat in cold silence for several moments following his line of questions, apparently lost in though.

"My plans do not extend far beyond this moment. I'm hoping to find some new clothes and a replacement for my arm. I was planning to tear one off the next droid I encounter, though in this wilderness I don't expect that would happen any time soon. If it is true that I'm not being pursued by anyone but you, then I suspect my past is quite lost. I don't know where I came from, and you who came after me when I escaped that prison don't seem to know why I was there either. I have no direction other than away from that cell."

Ryu stared into the fire. A few remaining ants from the Canteen were crawling on his arm, but as he he watched the flame he did not seem to notice them.

Do you remember anything related to your past?

The words stirred up what little recollection he had within him, horrific visions of an endless war on all that lived. He could hear the screams of countless dying men and women, and in the fire he saw entire worlds burning. He did not really understand what it all meant, when or where he was remembering, but he had a dreadful sense that the violence that haunted him was his own doing. He felt sickened by the notion that this carnage was all that laid behind him, guilty that he was likely the cause of immeasurable suffering but lacked any sense of why it had happened, or what had driven him to do it. He knew that despite Armiena's condemnation of his imprisonment, the words of the baleful specter that had haunted his cell were most assuredly correct. He did deserve it. He had earned that suffering and much more.

The ants were biting into his flesh now, sharp mandibles tearing away minute hunks of his flesh. He remained motionless, his eye still fixed on the flame. He opened his mouth to speak, but still took several moments before he found the words. He considered denying that he knew anything at all, sure that any admission of truth would change the Jedi's minds about their desire to chat. Yet, a sense of penitence drove him to admit what little could form into a coherent thought.

"All I know is that my name is Ryu. Kakuto Ryu. And your mercy is most certainly wasted on me."

[Kakuto Ryu]

Ryu let out the laugh that Armiena had imagined Darex trying to stifle. He had considered standing up to defend himself after he'd admitted his name, anticipating that his insistence that he was unworthy of mercy might convince her to put him out of his misery, but remained passive. Now he was glad he did, as her body language told him clearly that she was fully prepared to strike. She recognized him, knew more about him that he knew about himself. Just the sound of his name seemed to expose her fighting instincts. She was prepared to fight him, but at the same time, offer him a place as their traveling companion. The contradiction struck him as absurd, and he couldn't help but chuckle.

"And where would we go? I wonder about you, Miss Armiena Draygo, despite your criticisms of the Jedi, you seem to know a lot about their history, their thoughts, and how they will likely respond to my existence. Combined with your lightsaber, the Jedi here apparently sending you after me first, and your friend here addressing you as master, I'm led to believe that my assumption that you are yourself a Jedi was not likely far from the mark."

Ryu glanced down at the ants gnawing at his arm. Having only one hand, he tried to remove them by swinging his arm, but they held tight. He tried rubbing his arm on the grass but only a few came loose. Annoyed, he decided to hold his arm in the flame. Some burnt off and rest were driven up to his shoulder, where he was able to pinch them between his fingers and flick them into the fire.

"So if what you're saying is that I can either be pursued by the Jedi indefinitely, or come with you and face them directly, then the choice is clear. I will go with you willingly. Running forever doesn't sound that appealing. As long as you're not going to shepherd me into another cage, I'd rather face my fate head on."

Ryu tore off a fresh slab of Nerf and took a bite. Then, speaking with his mouth full, he digressed.

"Unless you're some kind of Jedi outcast yourself and you mean to say you know someplace we won't be followed, in which case I'm fine with that too."

[Kakuto Ryu]

Ryu laid down in the dirt to stare up at the stars. After so long in total sensory isolation this much stimulus was not going to permit him to sleep. He was able to use the opportunity to relax though, feeling comfort in the idea that if the woman wasn't willing to kill him outright, that same instinct would probably prevent her from letting him get torn apart by Kath Hounds in the night.

"My instinct tells me that this petition to the Jedi Grandmaster will not end well no matter how polite you are. But I will go with you to try. If anything, it'll be worth it to meet the one who would pursue me face to face. One day of running away from you and I'm already pretty sick of it. Running doesn't seem to agree with me."

Ryu closed his eyes and listened to the sound of the fire, and the insects chirping in the brush around him, contemplating  Draygo's proposition. He wondered what would become of the person he upon reconstructing the person he was, how it would change him, and whether it would be worth it. Draygo seemed to know more about him than he did himself, and though he was tempted to have her explain what she knew, he felt a strange apprehension about the the idea. Perhaps he would be better off not knowing. At least for now, he decided it should wait.