Cathar

[Durose Roshan]

Coming out of hyperspace, the blue and green gem flashed a few quick glints as the angle of the ship's approach made the sunlight appear as if it was dancing across the edges of the planet's atmosphere. Inside the hijacked YT-2400, the Traitor's Gambit, Durose slowly made his way to the cockpit as he felt the ship lunge out of hyperspace and begin to drift.

 

This is it. Let’s get this over with already.

 

Hitting the comms, Ro contacted Dhon as he entered atmo. The unkept Cathar had Ro’s face but a dirty, roughly trimmed mane and two braided strands of mane hair that extended down from his chin on each side. He was what some might call an outdoorsman or what others might consider “wild.” Dhon sneered as he spoke to Ro over the comms.

“I’m where we agreed upon, Ro. This better be worth my time! I dropped a hunt for you. And it was a good hunt. No. A great hunt!”

Ro rolled his eyes. He sighed before replying.

 

“It’s always a great hunt, Dhon. Did you bring what I asked?”

“I even dug the plot.”

 

Those words caught Ro by surprise. He angrily glared at Dhon.

 

“You have no right--”

 

“Save it, Watcher! You have no right! This is my domain! Cathar is mine. And here you are handing out blood bonds and oaths and all this willy nilly and expecting all us to respect them? But I have no right?”

 

“I’m not getting into this with you right now,” Ro roared back. “You know exactly what I mean, you--”

 

The transmission abruptly cut out before Ro could finish his sentence. The response didn’t surprise him coming from Dhon. It still irritated him all the same. But to be fair, Dhon didn’t probably deserve to be the subject of Ro’s ire. It was just easier to ignore the pain he was feeling right now by finding someone or something to be mad at instead.

Planet-side, Roshan carried the body to the ancestral burial pit of his home city. Located at the base of the massive city-tree, Dhon stood there casually waiting. He began ribbing Ro the moment he was within earshot.

 

“So this is what all the fuss was about? Kind of ugly if you ask me.”

 

Ro glared at Dhon as reached the edge of the hole and he held the body over it. Staring down into the darkness, he said a few traditional Cathar blessings and retold stories of this Rose’s deeds, both honorable and dishonorable. Then dropping the body into the pit, he finished with another final blessing.

 

“May your soul be blessed with rest and become one with the Circle of the Force and the city-tree of our ancestors. May your physical body and your remaining life force provide this tree and the generations of Cathar to come the strength to live their life in the manner that you once did. Our bond has been fulfilled but you will not been forgotten.”

 

"So says we all."

 

Cutting his hand, Ro allowed some of his blood to drip down towards the body below. Then nodding to Dhon, the two of them began to fill back in the 2 meter hole with dirt.

“Was she really worth all that?”

 

“She was my Soo’Gah’Wee,” Ro growled. “So yes, Dhon. Yes! She deserved every bit of this ceremony and probably better than she got, too!”

 

Dhon laughed, “Your ritual blessings are a little rusty, bud. That ending was especially rough.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

“I’m just saying,” Dhon shrugged as he shoveled another pile of dirt into the burial pit. “It was pretty sappy, too, bud. But if she was your Soo’Gah’Wee then she must have earned it. We may not be totally alike, but I like to think that we both know what something like that means to Dhonarr and to us.”

 

“Yeah,” Ro replies with a somber note as his eyes drop down towards the pit.

 

“It was a mistake, bud. Humans are too soft and squishy for us. Especially to waste your time mating with.”

 

“We weren’t... we didn’t.”

 

“Ha! Sure you didn’t, bud? I seen the way you look at her even now. I might spend most of my time in the Vast Veldt but I wasn’t cloned yesterday, Ro.”

 

“I’m done with this conversation.”

 

Nodding, Dhon and Ro continued shoveling in silence. When they were done, the two proceeded to head back towards the ship. 

 

“So, Watcher. I’ve waited long enough. Are we going to talk about this offer of yours or what? I didn’t cut short a great hunt just to meet up with you, help you bury some human female, and shoot the breeze.” 

 

Standing at the ramp of the Traitor’s Gambit, Ro finally replied, “I have a deal to offer you. I know you’ve been left behind to watch over, mum. But I need a favor.”

 

“What kind of favor,” Dhon responded as he eyed him skeptically.

 

“I need a co-pilot to Nar Shadda and then delivery of a helmet to its owner on Tatooine.”

 

“Oh? And what’s in it for me?”

 

“Do this and this ship and its droid are yours.”

 

“What’s the catch?” Dhon frowned.

 

“I’ll have to get a new registry for the ship.”

 

“From Watcher to thief?” Dhon laughed. “The Link going bankrupt under your watchful leadership?”

 

“The Link and Coruscant are gone.”

 

Dhon had a witty response already ready to come out but Ro’s words caused him to pause. He gave Ro a confused look before responding.

 

“What do you mean gone?”

 

“Like dead and gone. Destroyed. Massacred,” Ro replied angrily. “Like while you were out here playing wildness tracker billions of people were being murdered by crazed fanatics who believed they were some sort of second coming of the Mandalorian savages of old.”

 

“Wow. You don’t say,” Dhon comments rather casually. “I would have never guessed that. So your cash cow kinda went belly up then?”

 

“You are missing the point, Dhon. Do we have a deal or not?”

 

Dhon laughed. He then patted Ro on the shoulder as he stepped onto the ramp and past Ro.

 

“Whatever you say, bud. But after I fulfill my end of the deal, whatever I do with this ship is my business.”

 

“Deal.”

 

Dhon turns back and smiles, “Then we have ourselves a plan, bud. Times a wastin’. We got a den of scum and villainy to visit.”

((Off to Nar Shadda))
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