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Chapter Fifty Nine Dingy,
duracrete lined alleys as far as the eye can see, strewn with any manner of
shops, bars and front room establishments; this is where you find the people who
do not necessarily want to be found. And this is where Meesahran finds herself
tonight. Dressed
once more in her plain flightsuit and tattered blue jacket, her hair pulled back
into its braid and a rough hewn cap upon her head, she makes her way through the
streets of the Trade District’s seedier side. This is the underbelly of the
Core, where the average consumer never goes, and where no respectable business
man would dare tread (but has at least one representative always nearby). Where
every backroom deal is brokered, where every secret told is done so at a price,
where every deed done also comes to a toll. And this is where she is looking for
her friend. As
she rounds one corner, a pair of Hoojibs skitter across her path, no doubt
looking for some kind of mischief to get into, and get paid for. Satisfied that
she is not a good mark, they disappear from sight, but she is still aware of
them. On the opposite corner stands a lone Duro, hawking his wares from a cart,
but they are of no interest to Meesahran and so she moves on. She needs to get
past the traveler trade, and delve deeper into this dark world of the Core. Back
to where the real work is done; the taverns. After
fighting through a parade of con artists and back alley peddlers, Meesahran
finally makes it to the part of the Trader’s District she’s been looking for
since she set out from Sanctuary. Each one has it’s own name, and Meesahran
nearly grew up on Treasure Ship Row in Coronet City, but here in the Core, this
area is just a bit more treacherous, if only because the stakes are so much
higher at the center of all trade in the galaxy. Maybe that is why they call it
Smuggler’s Graveyard. As
Meesahran comes to the entry of her third tavern for the day, The Trader’s
Tomb, she gets a tingling sensation along the back of her neck. As she peers
into the doorway, she can make out the figure of a slender man at the bar, and
on either side of him sits a Rodian male and a scruffy looking human male. They
both seem to be eying the slender man who is thoroughly engrossed in the drink
on the bar before him. Deciding
to slip in relatively unnoticed and enjoy the show that she is certain is about
to commence, Meesahran quietly takes a seat in the back of the tavern. Just as
the server gets to her table, she can see that the Rodian has started to jostle
against the slender man at the bar. She quickly dismisses the server by slipping
her a few coins for the water she puts down on the table, and then notices that
the human on the other side of the man turns to face him for nudging him. Before
a split second has passed, the slender man has pushed the arm of the human male
away and has now slammed his head into the bar with a ferocious thud. And as the
Rodian bumps into the man once more, he grabs the being’s arm and wrenches it
around to bring the alien’s head right next to his face. She cannot hear the
words passed between them, but she does see the Rodian pull something from his
jacket with his free arm and put it onto the bar, just before the slender man
launches the Rodian end over end away from the bar. Both men scramble to their
feet and hightail it out of the tavern. The
other patrons of The Trader’s Tomb barely pay this display any attention. Only
the others at the bar make notice of the scene, by moving casually away from the
man still standing with his drink. Meesahran decides that she should end her fun
and approach the man at the bar. Reaching
the bar and sliding down to stand next to the slender man, she can see that he
is nursing a bottle of Corellian Whiskey on the bar before him. Shouldering up
next to the man, she nods to the bartender, who comes up to her, “Wha’cha
want?” She
throws down some money on the bar for the man, “Water… And some privacy.”
The man slaps down a glass of water and scoops up the money before shuffling off
to the other end of the bar, away from the two standing there in silence. She
takes a long, slow drink from her glass, and firmly sets it back on the bar,
waiting a few more moments before breaking the stoic silence of the patron
beside her. “So, is this a celebration, or a funeral?” The
man takes another shot from his glass and then refills his glass from the bottle
in front of him. He waits a few more moments before answering his new guest.
“If I wanted to talk, I wouldn’t be here… Get lost.” Still
looking straight ahead, “Yeah, well, since when did I ever care about what you
wanted… Besides, maybe I needed a break from all that peace and
contentment.” “Yeah,
whatever…” And he throws back another shot. She
turns around and takes a good look around the tavern, “Nice place you found
here… Got a real friendly feeling going on.” Shaking
his head as he proceeds to pour another shot from the bottle, “Do you ever
give up?” She
looks at the chronometer on her wrist, then up in the air, “Nope, not yet,
anyway.” The
man is forced to let out a short chuckle. “Mees, you oughta consider changing
career paths… You’d make an excellent strong arm for one of those criminal
types.” “Yeah,
but you’re the only one that’s any fun to torture like this.” She
keeps staring straight ahead as Jae turns to look at her face for the first time
since he felt her presence enter the tavern. “You’re not gonna give up,
huh?” She
finally turns to meet his gaze, “Not likely.” He
chuckles again, and then hangs his head in defeat, “All right, then I guess we
better get this over with.” He then nods in the direction of a booth in the
back and they both move towards it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Settling
into the back booth, Jae is visibly uncomfortable with his current situation,
but he also knows that Meesahran will not be easily pushed off, and so he
hunkers down to weather another storm. When the server leaves a pitcher of water
on the table, Meesahran slips her a few coins and they are once again alone. Jae
continues to stare into the bottle of whiskey in front of him when Meesahran
finally breaks their deadly silence, “So, you gonna sulk all night, or are you
gonna talk?” Inhaling
sharply, Jae answers on the exhale, “What’s there to talk about Mees?” She
leans back in the booth, throwing her legs up on the bench as she turns around,
“Plenty… How much more top speed can tweak out of
The Burn with that new drive motivator Nija put
in there? Or where you can get a decent nerf steak around here? Or how about
that dress Xana wore last night?… There’s lots of stuff we could talk
about.” Shaking
his head, trying hard not to crack a smile at his dear friend’s humorous
attempt at getting him to lighten up, Jae struggles to hold back his emotions.
“Not really interested.” Crossing
her legs atop the bench and folding her arms across her chest, Meesahran
continues, “Okay then… What would you like to talk about?” “Nothing…”
And he takes another slug of the whiskey, this time straight from the bottle. She
spins around in her seat, plants her hands on the table top and stares directly
into his face, “Then why don’t we talk about what an incredible bantha’s
ass you’re being right now?!” Wincing
at her words, he simply replies, “What of it?” Pushing
back from the table, Meesahran looks back at him in shock, “Well, maybe you
have changed more than I thought… ‘Cause the Jae I knew would never have
been this put down when he had so much goin’ for him.” This
time it is Jae’s turn to be shocked, but it also is his turn to be angry as
well, “What have I got, Mees? A cobbled together fighter? No family? No career
or future? A friend who cringes whenever I come near her?… Oh yeah, and to top
it all off, I got my ass smeared across the deck by an old man… That’s worth
the price of admission right there, huh?!” His anger brought up to a fevered
pitch with each word escaping his mouth, Jae is in utter shock when Meesahran
starts laughing out loud. She is laughing so hard that her face is turning red,
and so is Jae’s, but not from laughter. “What the frag is so damn funny?!” Choking
back her guffaws, she simply states, “YOU!” and begins laughing anew. Her
laughter finally begins to subside and she speaks again, “Oh man, I haven’t
laughed like that in a long time!” Still
agitated, but now somewhat ashamed as well, Jae asks, “Yeah? So what’s so
funny?” “Sorry,
I just couldn’t help it… Are you really sitting in here getting all bleary
eyed because of that last fall?” She is wiping the tears from her eyes as she
speaks. “What
else?” Jae asks incredulously, “That old man made me look like a
guerfel! I just barely outran him, and when we
fought… I thought for sure any moment a buzzer was gonna go off and they were
gonna tell me to go back to nursery school or something.” Meesahran,
still chuckling, responds, “And you think that because you couldn’t beat
him, that you failed, right?” “Well,
yeah, I mean-…” A realization suddenly hits Jae-Lee Reklaw, “You mean,
that’s not what it means?” Meesahran
begins to laugh outloud once more, “Of course not, Hutt brain!” Trying to
calm her laughter before speaking again, Meesahran takes a drink from her glass
of water, and Jae, deciding that perhaps he needs a clearer head, pours himself
a glass as well. “In fact, I believe the words from my Uncle’s lips were,
‘I can’t believe the little whelp nearly had me a few times there.’ He was
very impressed with your agility and speed, too.” Wiping
the beads of water away from his lip with his sleeve, Jae just says,
“Really?” Sitting
back in the booth once more, Meesahran settles back in, “Yeah, and you know…
You’re only the second person to beat him to the fighting area.” His
jaw hanging slack for moment, Jae thinks about what his friend has just revealed
to him. “And NO ONE has ever beaten him one on one… Well, not for a very
long time anyway.” Sitting
in silence for while, the only sounds coming from the other patrons of the
tavern, and the occasional sip from their water glasses, Jae reviews everything
in his head that occurred on this day. When he finally reaches his conversation
with Meesahran, he is left with two very important questions. “So, what
exactly does this mean?” “Well,
I guess it means you need to decide if this is what you really want… And
then…” “Then
what?” He asks excitedly. “Accept
a Master.” Her words sound almost grave to Jae, and it forces him to ask what
she means by them. “Accept
a Master? That sounds so… I don’t know, dire?” She
nods her head, “It is… It means that you must accept his or her instruction,
above all else… And at your age, and with your experience, that could well be
the hardest thing you’ve ever done… Trusting in someone else’s judgment
implicitly, without question… You think you can do that?” Jae
thinks about her statement a moment, and deep in his heart, though he knows it
will be difficult, he knows this is the right path for him… For the first time
in his life, he feels like he really is on a path, and everything about it feels
right. When he thought his chances at following this path were crushed with his
skull on that floor it was devastating to him. Not just because it would take
him away from Mees, or even the whole thing with Xana, but because he knew this
is what his father had meant for him to do. This was where he belonged, and he
was so sure that it was slipping from his grasp. And now, now that he knows it
is still there, it is more precious to him than his own life. He would and will
do anything to fulfill this destiny placed before him. And with that
realization, a smile begins to spread across his formerly somber face, and the
alcohol he had previously consumed seemed to be disappearing from his body, and
all the emotions he had been burying deep down in his soul were bubbling at the
surface. Jae-Lee Reklaw was truly happy at this moment, and he finally felt like
he was home.
Creator: PtrsonsZOO (Jennifer)
*SPECIAL NOTE: Due to circumstances beyond our control, the rest of the story will be written by PtrsonsZOO (Jennifer)
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