The Way of the Primitive

[Ndonsa]

Ndonsa walked slowly down the road, an unconscious woman slung across her shoulders much as she would carry a deer, her paw holding onto one of the dangling arms. Her spear was in her free paw, and a lightsaber was clipped to her pants, swinging back and forth with every step. As she got closer to the buildings the Kufu became aware of a growing swell of attention directed toward her as she walked.

She stopped, shifting the body, and then started again, the sun beating down on her burden as people started to approach her.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya backed away from the deadlock in a furious shuffling of feet. Jamis had reach and strength on her, and he could better attain leverage if her momentum was halted. Instead Draiya paced him in a nimble bit of footwork. She inverted the grip on one of her shoto sabers, changing her stance and facing periodically to not let him settle on how to address her assault. When at last she struck, she charged low to get the other padawan to commit to his own defense, locking her blades as she met his own before quickly deflecting his full-sized lightsaber inward. She had aims to run her inverted blade against his neck to force his yield, but in a surprise, he sent her sprawling to the ground with a blast of force kinetics. Off balance due to her own attempt to deny him the ability to parry, Draiya fell backwards, at the last minute tucking her chin to her chest so that she fell against her shoulder and across her back. Momentum did the rest, and she rolled back to her feet, digging in and ready to pounce. She did so immediately, sailing into the air in a somersault as she twirled both blades to dazzling effect.

[Jamis Kerr]

Two quick shuffle-steps and one sidestep sent him out of the immediate path of Draiya's incoming assault. Jamis caught one of her blades on his own though, a swatting strike meant to shift the balance of her aerial maneuver. He followed with a quick side-slash that she deflected with her other saber before landing on her feet.

So far their spar was rather fast paced, but each combatant played safely enough. They were each matched on height at least, and while he did have reach on her, she had a certain quickness that he couldn't match. Which just meant that he had to wear her down with brute strength.

He came at her again, his saber coming around in a wide arc before flipping about and locking once more against her shoto blades. They stood there, pushing against one another in some bizarre bid for control.

And then something caught his eye, and Jamis sent his gaze up. Over and past her, someone was coming into the camp with...

He made a confused face, and nearly forgot himself as Draiya shifted her stance and broke the lock. At the last minute he deflected her strike while moving back and lowering his own blade. With his free hand, he pointed past his dueling partner.

"What's she... "

Ndonsa was a familiar enough sight, and Ndonsa carrying in some killed animal for the mess hall's cooks was even more familiar.

But, Ndonsa carrying in another person?

"She's got a... a lady on her shoulders."

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Forget about it Jamis! I wrote the rulebook of dirty tricks! Draiya's defiant face wasn't fooled by his attempt to divert her attention and she rared back to lay a haymaker, when she caught sight of what was in her peripheral vision. Surprise suddenly bloomed on her face and Draiya lost her footing, falling on her butt in the dirt. Sabers switched off, she gawked at the sight of Ndonsa carrying a person like a side of killed venison.

I KNEW IT! SHE'S A CANNIBAL came the immediate thought. Draiya frowned, her expression turning introspective. Wait, it's not cannibalism if it's another species. That seemed to calm her until she thought about it another second. She's still eating humans, that isn't cool!

Scrabbling to her feet, her eyes were big as saucers as she watched the Kufu approach, seemingly calm as a sip of water.

[Ndonsa]

Draiya and Jamis stared at her as she walked nearer, her burden causing each footstep to be more solid than usual. Still, she was in good physical shape and was not feeling tired despite the trek down the hills. Ndonsa was going to walk past the other padawans, but then she stopped.

"Do you know who is in charge of the Ally-ants men? This one is... a sneak," she decided on the word at the last minute. "Or a Council Jedi will do, I think. Maybe better," she mused, the female across her shoulders slipping a bit until she adjusted the weight.

[Jamis Kerr]

His saber extinguished, and Jamis gave the Kufu a wary look as his eye momentarily tracked to Draiya. She seemed as shocked as he was. Finally he looked back to Ndonsa.

"Don't know about the Alliance- "

His eyes caught sight of the saber at her belt. It was strange; not like any saber he'd ever seen. The one Ndonsa had clipped on had a simple metal cross-guard where every other one he'd seen did not.

The second part of her question went unanswered, as he blurted out a question of his own.

"Where'd you get that?"

[Draiya Naaianeya]

There was no way Ndonsa had made a lightsaber, much less one that kuu'ai. Draiya looked from the crossguard handle, then up to the unconscious woman she didn't recognize. A perplexed look was plain on her face as she played with a loose strand of hair from her ponytail that had fallen down.

"I bet she's a Sith spy!"

[Ndonsa]

"She may be," Ndonsa agreed. The young ones were too easily distracted. "The saber was hers." She already thought of it as her own - she had taken it from an enemy after besting them in combat. Of course it was hers.

She shifted her weight to the other leg. "I will continue. Thank you," she said a little stiffly, as they hadn't been helpful at all.

[Anbira Hicchoru]

"Ndonsa?"

Anbira emerged from the meditation tent nearby as he adjorned his current training class. The padawans scattered, or would have, if they weren't now rubbernecking at the sight of the Kufu woman with the human on her back in a fireman's carry. He quickened his pace to her, concern on his face. His padawan was steadfastly earnest in all things, and he expected that she would not delay in her explanation.

[Jamis Kerr]

The sound of Knight Hicchoru's questioning call to the Kufu cut through anything he might've wanted to interject with. He gave a look to Draiya, a silent agreement that her guess was probably the right one. Then his gaze tracked back to Ndonsa and her 'catch'.

He couldn't help himself; he really couldn't. After all, the only times something came back on Ndonsa's shoulders was when they were fixing to have fresh meat on that night's menu.

"I think she figures we're gonna eat a lady for dinner tonight!"

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya didn't say anything initially, but the fact that Jamis was echoing what she initially thought made her make a gross-out face. She could imagine Ndonsa cracking open a femur and baying at the moon while slurping out the sweet insides.

"No, I think I'll just stick with the usual Padawan grruel if that's okay."

[Ndonsa]

Ndonsa's ears tinged pink, but she walked away from the young ones, toward her master, Anbira. He sounded concerned - perhaps he thought she was going to eat this sneak as well. Maybe she should, if she was to be blamed for it anyway.

"I found her in the jungle, sneaking. She had..." Ndonsa's voice trailed off as she searched for the word. "Bine-ocks. She attacked me when I followed her." She turned so the female's rump was closest to Anbira's face. "She has ID in pants."

[Anbira Hicchoru]

Anbira creatively backed onto his heels to apply some amount of appropriate personal space as Ndonsa presented the prisoners' buttocks the way a fishmonger might sell haddock. Shuffling back a few more steps, he put his hands up, mindful not to put his hands on. His Padawan wasn't facing him to see his expression, so he adopted a diplomatic tone.

"I...believe you, Ndonsa. I'm sure there's a more, ahem, discrete way to identify this stranger."

Suddenly, he remembered the (now thankfully) empty meditation tent.

"Bring her in here, please."

Ndonsa turned to see where "here" was, nearly slapping Anbira in the groin with dangling legs.

[Jamis Kerr]

Never one to pass up an opportunity to be in the middle of the next big piece of gossip (especially if it ended up being that Ndonsa really did eat people), Jamis clipped his now-extinguished saber to his belt before trotting after Knight Hicchoru and his padawan. Course, didn't mean he couldn't try to inject a little bit of helpfulness - not to mention a possible saving grace for the Kufu's 'catch of the day'.

""If she asks for salt and pepper don't give her any!"

[Draiya Naaianeya]

With her spar effectively quashed in the face of grisly intrigues, Draiya likewise put her blades away and hopped-to in hot pursuit. A squirrel which had been previously rummaging for foraged tree nuts on the ground moments before soon scampered after her, running up the back of one of her trousers' legs before hitching a ride on the back of her jacket. She rolled her eyes at Jamis' jokestering, but there had to be a story worth hearing about on this one.

After all, even though there were no such thing as Fey'dann maneaters, that didn't make little human girls nervous when visiting the rural steppes.

[Ndonsa]

Ndonsa turned her head and stared at Jamis, the sternest look she could create. Studying under the old shaman she had learned very forceful glares. Then she followed Anbira into the tent, lowering her captive to the ground with a thump. Onto the mediation pillows, of course.

"Here, the ID," she said, crouching down and digging in the female's pockets until she found it. A small hard chip came out as well, the kind people stuck in their screens and got information from. Ndonsa tossed the ID at Anbira.

[Anbira Hicchoru]

"Jamis."

Anbira glanced coolly at the Padawan in a calm but no-nonsense way. Now wasn't the time for jokes. Ndonsa tossed him the ID placard and he steadied it with the force before clasping a thumb and forefinger at it's corner for inspection. The face on the photo matched the unconscious woman. The badge seemed to be a legitimate Alliance Contract ID card, with the name "Bree Merisen" printed in bold font beneath the official heading. Anbira turned the ID over a few times. It seemed the genuine article.

"This seems to be in order." Even as he said it, Anbira knew that he wasn't an expert on the matter, and he'd need to defer to other sets of eyes to be certain. It certainly didn't look like a fake to him, though.

Pocketing the ID, the Jedi Hermit moved to a small table where a carafe of water rested near a row of drinking glasses. He filled one, approaching Ndonsa as he knelt beside her.

"We should wake her. I wouldn't put much faith in an ID alone."

[Ndonsa]

Ndonsa shrugged, picking up a cup of water some padawan had left behind and pouring it on the woman's face.

[Farran Esrimoure]

It was like being dragged, kicking and screaming, out of the most blessed of dreams. Hells if she could remember it, but she knew it'd been wondrous. It had been perfect... until the waking world grabbed hold of the scruff of her neck and jerked her away. It pulled her along after it, up the long tunnel that led away from her subconscious. She yelled, cried out, raged against it, but it was unyielding as it deposited her roughly on a smattering of pillows, inside a tent.

At least, that was the first thing that registered as Farran surged upward. The second was a little bit more annoying, and as she swiped a hand across her face to wipe away the water, the blonde grumbled out a string of garbled gibberish.

She blinked up at the padfoot, then slowly turned her head to look at another; a man.

And in that moment she moved, a sudden motion as she scrambled up, intent on escape.

[Anbira Hicchoru]

Bree Merisen got three good strides before the fourth foot pumped air. She continued to sprint a few more strides, even as an invisible force kept her lifted an inch from the ground and glided her back into the tent. Anbira's hand held before her casually as he again pulled the ID. The innocent rarely run.

"Miss Merisen?"

The Blonde woman was put back on her feet, but Anbira's hand didn't stray far from her as he shook his head to discourage a future flight.

"I wouldn't advise that at present."