Sat Aug 21, 2010 7:21 am by Avarath
Avarath had had a vision, not a vision from the Force mind you, but one that had kick started her into a mind frame that the galaxy was going to know of her race. This stemmed from spite and heartache after her exile from her home planet of Gaeren.
Up until now, the only mention of Gaeren had been in the Archives of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant... er before it was destroyed by the Galactic Empires forces in a convoluted mix of guile and subterfuge. But that was another story. Even still, the planet had always been called Thallassa, never Gaeren. Gaeren was the name the Calnennore, previously Thallassans, had called their home.
To Ava's people, Basic couldn't cover the immensity of their culture's words. So they let the Jedi, Gryffen Greydrake, fashion his own name for his discovery into some archaic form of Basic that meant "Sea." While the world may have boasted two large continents, the majority of the planet was ocean, and this seemed fitting to Gryffen. Had the so called Thallassans cared any about the names the galaxy gave them, they would have thought it too simple. While lifestyle on Thallassa was simple, names were not.
Names were something that told you who a person was and what they would become. The entire essence of a person could be held in a name. Perhaps one reason Thallassans never revealed their true names to anyone outside their race. There were trust issues there standing in between them.
Whether or not Basic could hold the concepts of Lalambe, the complex language of the Calnennore until just recently called Thallassans, Ava was set on showing the galaxy her true nature, that which should have been the true nature of all her people. At least Ava had that set in her mind.
Avarath, if you took her name in Lalambe, was a curse really. Something that meant "unwholesome child" or "rowdy rodder." It had been a nickname from her master Jings. Nenyave'do Jings had never thought that such a play on words would ever impact the child, but names do mean a lot to the Calnennore. There was a point in time where the bright and high rising Nenya Villy Roamaine ceased to be and Avarath, a far darker personification rose up seeking to conquer the world for her people. In all reality, she wanted to conquer for herself but needed enough rationalization to keep thinking like a Calnennore. And Force users are by far the best self rationalizers in the galaxy.
Three primarily sentient races shared Gaeren as a homeworld. All three had evolved together, but only the Calnennore sought to branch out into the galaxy and beyond. The Delphi people, were happy in their watery homes untouched by the Force, mammalian and very much looking like a beluga whale crossed with a frog. While the Delphi retained both legs and arms, they were very weak. The Calnennore liked to think of them as distant relations that chose a simpler path in life, but without the Joy of being touched by the Force.
The Circumanka on the other hand, were a saurian species that ranged across the large temperate continent, Verdutaurin. These creatures had no love for the water and held contempt for the Calnennore. Circumanka had never met the Delphi, but they would probably not approve of them if they did. Most strife and struggle rose up between the Circumanka and the Calnennore. Because the Circumanka wanted the land all to themselves, they were not so willing to share with the Calnennore who were explorers and coastal dwellers.
The two cultures clashed time and again. For the longest time the Calnennore had thought these creatures to be only semi-sentient. Their elaborate ambushes and traps soon made it apparent that they were more than semi-sentient however. The Circumanka could not speak Lalambe and the Calnennore had no understanding of the hissing and guttural speech of these lizards. Sending emissaries and diplomats to speak to them was almost useless. In the end it was the task of the Nenya to go. Several talented Force users held an empathy, understanding of others. Together, with more easily tempered Circumanka, they came up with a form of sign language and pictograms both cultures could use in understanding.
Avarath, when still Nenya had been a part of these missions. While she herself held no talent for bestial communication, she had at one point held a fierce sword and a tenacious habit for winning battle. She was a guardian. But as negotiations turned into further understanding, Avarath became impatient. It seemed these creatures were unyielding in their terms.
One day, there had been enough negotiation, and Avarath turned from brilliant student and warrior to fallen bane of both peoples. She slew the Circumanka present first, then her own people who tried to stop her. Covered in her own blood as well as theirs, she left the carcasses to be discovered and ventured off into the forests. Her plot was to slaughter as many Circumanka as she could, then rally her brethren in the coastal cities to take back what lands should be theirs. For with the Force and their physical prowess, conquerers of both the sea and the land, they should be the rulers of the planet.
It was a spring board plot of course. If Ava had not been stopped, sooner or later she would have tried for the entire galaxy if she could manage. As a Burdel, or fallen Nenya, Ava was not so brilliant. Insanity often plagued her and she made rash decisions that caused her to be captured. Subdued, she tried to plead to the councils, but in all walks of life, she was guilty, dangerous and merely acting. Nenyave'do Jings was heartbroken to see his apprentice dragged away from their home and into the far reaches of the galaxy.
Thyferra of all places. The bacta capital of the Republic. It was like their backbone. But to the Calnennore, a place where death would come on fast if one did not watch the plants on the planet. The Flora was deadly. The life saving oils of the galaxy were poison to them. But, no one suffered on this venture, at least not from anaphylaxis. Ava however, dug her own tomb and lay down, chained into a bed of rock and Amber lilies from Gaeren. The flowers sent her into a deep sleep, and the Nenyave charged with bringing her to her exile sent her into a Force hibernation, where dreams and wakefullness would escape her for ages.
They buried her and returned home, hoping that with the time of ages, she would never waken to darken the galaxy with such power as she had shown on Gaeren. But awaken she would one day. And if she could escape the depths of the tomb, they hoped the Force would have returned her sanity.
Events had played out far from such hopes. Avarath strolled into the spaceport of Xozhixi with her cadre of Thyferrans and one strung out human. Ava's dreams of grander would not be fulfilled anytime soon, but she needed to get away from that dark temple for a while.
Vizziq, was perhaps the only creature in the galaxy now familiarized with Calnennore physiology and anatomy well enough to help with healing processes. Avarath had been a pincushion for his research. He carried a few notes with him as well as attending physicians. The human, had been one Avarath had poisoned some time ago at the Giant Boob. One stealing from the till. He had survived most of the poison, but his brain was practically gone as far as complex thought process went. She thought he might serve some purpose as she dragged him across the tarmac.
It was a small band and she was going to find a ship for them. A hole they could station themselves in until she felt Leto return. She needed him, whether she wanted to accept it or not right now. There was much about this dark persona she did not understand. And she wanted nothing to do with that wimpy lightside. To Avarath, Villy Roamaine was long dead. The pleas she heard in the nether regions of her mind were simply echoes of that person. The new voices, voices from the darkness were the ones she wanted to understand and keep from truly driving her mad.
With all this in mind, she dropped the human so that he might drool on the floor, flicked out her fin blades and ventured up the ramp of an occupied light freighter. The Mon Calamari design was soothing to her, and on board there would be plenty to eat.
She paced past a giant freezer in the cargo bay smiling to herself as her claws extended out. This ship was to carry bacta. She could smell the thick liquid in the air, remnants of the last voyage. No new cargo had been placed in the hold yet. But the Mon Calamari scent was strong, they were here or just recently left.
The entourage remained outside the ship waiting for the hunt to be over. While Vizziq enjoyed the pay that Avarath offered him, he wanted nothing to do with her brand of death. He simply remained outside the ship. He would not warn her if the squid faces returned, he knew she preferred surprises.
But the crew was all here and accounted for. The pilot had been in the cockpit with his first mate. The duo was no trouble as she stabbed both through the chest with her lightsabers simultaneously. They had flopped about for a moment before dying, but die they did with little fight from her ambush. The fish, though large, were easy to drag from the seats. She pulled them along behind her, sabers back on her belt but a hooked claw through each eyeball of the Mon Cals.
She would have giggled if silence were not necessary. There were still four crew asleep in the cabin. They would wait while she placed the captain and co-pilot into that large freezer. Snacks for later. A noise though alerted her to a presence after she finished placing meals for the next few days in the trunk. Her body rippled out of sight as she blended into the hold. Ah! Young sweet flesh. So the ones in the cabin were not crew, but passengers. A crippled child wobbled into the cargo bay. Obviously looking for some one. The blood, dripped from the fish heads, had obviously disturbed him, but not enough to rouse attention from other adults.
Ava maneuvered herself in behind the child, reaching around him to cover his mouth and insert her fingers deep into the creatures gills. The muffled noise and struggle lasted only minutes as her fingers wriggled past barbs and gripped hold to rip with a sucking sound. The Mon Cal's eyes rolled back in his head while he shuddered from the shock. Ava only smiled as she tossed the body on top of the trunk and licked the blood from her fingers.
There were still, at most, three fish to fry. As she crept back to the bunk room, there was a tingle from that long gone fool Villy, but only so much of a tingle as to cause pause at the door. Ava pressed into the silence closing the door behind her.
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Vizziq looked over the damage in the bunk room. Linens and feathers lay strewn and shredded across the room. Had the insectile Thyferran been blessed with eyebrows, they would have been raised at Ava. Instead he nervously brushed at his antennae as he looked at the Calnennore covered in the red/black blood of the Mon Calamari.
=Vizziq=
"Where'd you put them all?"
Ava showed no bulge in the middle, indicating that she had reserved her meal time for later. All he received was a coy smile as she stood and left the room. Vizziq sighed wondering how he got himself into these things.
