Hindsight (s'Ilancy)

[Arya Ravenwing]

There was a rattle down the corridor, and the black haired woman groaned as she opened her eyes. Her neck was stiff, her back was out of place from sitting all night, and her muscles all ached in chorus. The smuggler straightened slowly, swinging her feet off the stone bench she had been resting on.

Her bare feet touched the ground, and brushed against something furry that skittered away. Arya jerked her feet back up with surprising quickness.

The rattle came closer, and she looked around her cell, taking in the mold smeared stone walls and the secure iron bars that separated her from freedom. And her partner. s'Ilancy had been dragged off in another direction, bleeding from her forehead. Gamorreans weren't known for being gentle.

They were known for being disgustingly odiforus, and by the smell creeping up the dank passageway, there were two or three heading in her direction. Arya sat back against the wall, her hair clinging to her forehead. They were underground, but the humidity was high enough to make life miserable, even in these cool underground cells.

Nasha the Hutt was in her last stage of life...having undergone the change that made the crime lord into a crime lordess. He was small potatoes, or, excuse me, she was, in the grand scheme of things. Arya's lips tightened as she thought about the Hutt, the mother-to-be. They were disgusting usually, but when they were pregnant they were more so.

Grunting came up the corridor, and a banging sound. They were hitting the bars with something as they came up towards her cell. When the three Gamorrean guards arrived, she saw it was a stun baton one of them had been trailing along the cell fronts. They spoke to each other in a garbled form of Huttese, and then a light was shone inside her cell, blinding her.

Arya threw up an arm, trying to shade her eyes. "Where is s'Ilancy? Frell that, where are my boots?!" The smuggler hollered at the Gamorreans, who hooted with laughter. She got to her feet, disregarding the life forms on the floor of her cell, and stalked towards the door. "You open this right now and we'll see who's laughing! I demand to see Nasha. This was all a misunderstanding!"

The light was flicked off and her eyes frantically dilated, trying to see in the sudden darkness. There was a chortle near at hand, and then suddenly she was drenched with water, the force of the hose they'd turned on her sending her flying backwards to the far wall. Arya spluttered and cursed, slipping back to the ground as she attempted to regain her footing.

Then the water was turned off and a bowl of 'food' was thrown at her. Arya shouted after the Gamorreans, her voice echoing down the stone passageways. But she was alone. There weren't even any other prisoners in this wing. Where is s'Il?

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

One cell over and across, Arya's shouts had woken s'Il, and the Lupine opened a single eye in annoyance. A hand went up to her forehead; the bleeding had stopped thankfully, and she let out a groan, rolling to her side. Unlike her partner, s'Il had simply fallen into a corner, in too much of a drunken stupor to drag herself up onto the stone 'cot' that was connected to the back wall.

She sat up. Another groan, though this time it was more of a 'gawd how'd I get here' groan. Her ribs were sore, her shoulders ached, hell, even her hair hurt. And the mud caked beneath her fingernails didn't help matters any either. Scootching up against the stone wall, she brushed sweaty bangs from her face and proceeded to methodically pick out the muck from her fingernails. Odd. Same with her toenails -

"Hey! Who the frak took my boots - and my frakkin' socks?!!"

Arya yelled again.

With a grumble, s'Il lumbered to her feet, grabbing hold of the mildew and slime covered bars - just in time to have a stun baton rapped across her fingers as the Gamorreans made their way through the center corridor splitting cell rows. She heard a garbled snicker exchanged between the two, and bristled.

"Hey! Come back and say that to my face you overstuffed roasters!!"

"I demand to see Nasha. This was all a misunderstanding!"

"Oh shut up, Ary-"

The same hose that'd drenched Arya was turned on s'Il, and she was thrown back, stumbling to keep a foothold on the slick stone flooring. As it was, she fell to one knee, doing her best to keep from losing what all forms of dignity she had left. The hose was turned off, and just as with her partner, she was tossed a bowl of slop.

"You've got to be kidding me," was her only grumbled response as the Gamorreans laughed to themselves on their way back from where thay came.

She stared at the gruel for a minute before slowly getting up, and with a groan, addressed her cellmate.

"Way to go, Bomquisha."

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya was poking the lumpy liquid with a finger, trying to work up the hunger needed to try tasting it. It was no use. She would never be that hungry. The smuggler tossed it into a corner, and the rodent-like creatures that claimed her cell as their home scurried out of the corners to claim that, as well.

"Way to go, Bomquisha."

Arya stopped rubbing her neck with her fingers, and looked up. "s'Il? Where the frell are you?" She got to her feet, bare toes squishing in the muddy water that coated the floor of her cell, and peered up through the slime encrusted bars. "I want you to know this was all your fault!"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

"I'm across and one cell down from you. And this was most certainly not my fault."

s'Il'd kicked the bowl away, refusing to even look at what it held, and also picked her way across the now wet cell to the bars, grabbing hold and using them as leverage to keep her footing. She could barely make out Arya's face in the dim light. She looked just as ragged as s'Il herself did.

"Besides. I'm not the one who said 'Oh, don't worry s'Il, it'll be fun! I swear!" Her voice had taken on a mimicced tone, trying to match Arya's tone of voice.

Though of course she wasn't too sure if Arya had said that; for all she knew, she could've been the one who said it. But still. Why lay the blame on yourself when there was someone else in the slammer with you?

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya tested how far she could stick her arm through the bars, but it wasn't far enough to wrap her fingers around s'Ilancy's neck. "It was supposed to be an easy enough job. You said so yourself. If you hadn't of been drinking so much last night..." Arya's knuckles tightened around the bars as she tried to control her temper. Ah, frell that.

"Do you even remember what happened last night?! I swear, I've never seen anyone drink so much Chandrilan vodka in my life." Arya tried to rattle the bars, but they were sunk solidly into the ground.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Her own arm reached out and made a grab for Arya's outstretched hand, intending to return tit for tat. Of course the distance was just a little too much, so she was relegated to simply glaring at her partner.

"You forgot the Bothan tequila and whiskey," she taunted proudly.

"Anyways, how was I supposed to know you drink at bachelorette parties and not baby showers?!

"I've never been to a baby shower."

[Arya Ravenwing]

"Well I haven't either, but that really isn't the point here, now is it?" Arya resigned herself to only shaking her fist at s'Ilancy, and then flopped to the ground. She sat with her knees pulled up, back against the wall facing s'Il's cell, hands gripping her short black hair. "I thought we were in trouble but I didn't think trying to carry you and fight off ten guards was going to be such a problem." Arya liberally applied sarcasm to her tone, and then tried to pull out her hair again.

"The real question isn't how we got here, it's how are we getting out? Any good ideas? Not just ideas mind you, good ones." She peered across at her partner in crime, even as she heard the approach of someone a bit quieter than a Gamorrean. Nasha's majordormo, perhaps? "Time is of the essence, of course..."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

s'Il remained standing, eyeing Arya as the other woman sat. Fight off ten guards while carrying me?! Her eyes narrowed. "You didn't carry me, I was perfectly able to defend myself last night - "

A flash; a brief memory of swinging a bottle of some unidentified liquor at somone's head; a Gamorrean? Or maybe another of Nasha's lackeys? Hell, it was still fuzzy. She did remember throwing something... what was that???

With a shake of her head, the Lupine brought herself back to the present situation, and her head turned to look in the direction of the noise. Her eyes dilated as if on command, but still she had trouble making out the form that approached. Arya spoke again, saying something about an idea on how to get out of their current predicament, then added the disclaimer of a good idea...

"Oh please, there's no such thing when we do a job together; you should've figured that out by now -

"Hey!!" she yelled to the stranger, turning her attentions from Arya to what she considered much more pressing matters, "how bout my boots?!!"

[Arya Ravenwing]

There was a slight buzzing sound almost beyond the edge of sound that made s'Il look at the ceiling. As she did so, Arya got to her feet, still soaking wet. The lights imbedded in the middle of the hallway's ceiling flickered on, bathing their situation with unforgiving harshness. Arya blinked, eyes watering as they adjusted. The shape between their cells took on a solid outline, and she made out the four horned head of an Elomin.

He turned towards her first. "Ms. Ravenwing, Nasha was quite surprised to see you again. After the last job we sent you on, we really didn't think you'd be around anymore."

Arya clenched her teeth together, and then retorted, "Well, if I wasn't such a good pilot, that Republic interdictor would have gotten me when all your spice was still on board. Anyway, that was like ... four years ago. Nasha's still sore about that?" She spoke confidently, but the smuggler knew that venting a load of spice was always bad news - and Hutts have long memories.

The Elomin majordormo was holding his robes out of the muck on the floor. "Nasha has not forgotten, and this recent debacle in her main hall has certainly left you in a rather bad spot." His Basic was perfect, only slightly accented. He probably did long division for fun. Alon Gaet had that sort of look about him.

"Alon, buddy..." Arya sighed, "Look, for old times sake, lets just put this behind us. Simple misunderstanding, really. I mean, surprises are just that! Surprises! How could anyone have known..."

"That does not excuse what she said." Alon turned to look at s'Il, who looked vaguely confused as she tried to remember what she'd said. "You are both sentanced to death." He walked in a circle and came back to Arya's cell, brushing her fingers with his own. She yanked her hands back, and folded her arms across her breasts.

"I just wanted to come down and tell you the good news, myself." The Elomin smiled at Arya, and then started walking away.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

s'Il rolled her eyes then, giving up on trying to figure out what she could have possibly said. Nasha's majordomo was sickeningly proper; she wanted to just reach out and trip him up as he made his way closer, but refrained for the moment. She had to think. What did she say? It couldn't have been that bad... or could it have been? Hell, if a Hutt took offense to it...

Her metallic eyes took on a far away look as her mind worked in overdrive; assessing not only the current situation but last nights... activities.

Still nothing. Too much of a haze. There were bits and pieces coming back slowly, but it was too choppy and she was having trouble deciphering what'd really happened. Too many random things kept popping up... and the mud! It drove her crazy to know that somehow mud had gotten caked not only under her fingernails, but her toes too! Her toes!!! With a hmph her eyes refocused, and she stood on her toes, looking over at Arya.

Hope she still has that little holdout blaster...

The Elomin's booted feet were almost within reach, and s'Il shifted her gaze upwards. He sneered down at her as their eyes met, and she smiled right back up at him.

And that's when her arm shot out, strong fingers grasping his ankle and pulling towards her. As the majordomo fell, utterly unprepared for her actions, she called to Arya.

"Hey!! Gimme that holdout blaster of yours!"

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya felt like smacking her forehead. "I gave it to you last night. You were so drunk you threw it at the mother to be, or don't you remember?" She shouted, "Oh yeah that's right! You were too drunk to remember anything!" The smuggler sank back down the the floor where she sat on a squeaky furry creature.

It squeaked, and she grunted, shifting to let it run away. Alon Gaet got to his feet, muddy water soaking into his robes. "On top of that, Ms. s'Ilancy, you were both throroughly searched before being put in the cells. Nasha has quite the bump on her head from last night...she wants you two to remember your deaths...for a very short amount of time.

"However, we'll all enjoy it a great deal more than you will, I imagine. I will be seeing you later." The Elomin took his leave, steering clear of s'Il's door. Arya was surprised he hadn't taken action against s'Il, but then that one was always surprising her. However, sending back a few Gamorreans to rough them up wouldn't surprise her either.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

A look of dawning remembrance crossed s'Il's features, and she completely ignored Gaet. as he spoke. So that's what she'd thrown. She laughed. It'd been a perfectly good idea, given that the thing didn't even shoot; or did it? She couldn't even remember if she'd changed the night before; if she did, that'd at least explain why the Elomin hadn't retaliated in any way.

She watched as Gaet disappeared, tightening her hold on the grimey bars. It didn't do much good, but hell. They were something to hold on to. Bare feet doing their best to stay out of the mud, she turned her gaze to Arya. She'd said she'd done jobs for Nasha in the past, but dumping a load of spice?!

This was a perfect way to shift the blame back to Arya, and s'Il took full advantage of the fact.

"Way to go, Ari - you really sunk us this time. Even I know Hutts don't forget things. Especially if it's a vented spice load."

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya grumbled something about Nasha feeling forgiving at the time, and then blurted, "Anyway, you were the one who said no one was going to be home last night. No one important you said. I trusted that you did your homework. And now here we are, soon to be dead."

She felt chilled to the bone, and distinctly uncomfortable, her black tank and pants clinging in odd places. She could hear what sounded like a group of Weequays and Gamorreans coming down the dank passageway. What now? "Anyway, Nasha didn't even put a bounty on my head. I thought he'd...well she now, anyway she'd said that she understood. I mean, everyone gets boarded.

"But our antics last night must have triggered that memory, and now she's not feeling so forgiving. Woman's perrogative, y'know, changing your mind." Arya stood to her feet as a horrible looking alien came into view.

The Weequay had his topknot braided into tens of tiny braids, and tied up at the top of his head. His face was scarred and he leered at Arya. "You'll be coming with us."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

s'Il only glowered, and with a sour face, once more reached out through the bars to try and lay a hand on Arya. Of course she pulled it back as soon as the sound of more visitors reached her ears. Funny; everything was so potent to her senses...

uh oh...

She had changed; there was no other reason for her senses to be so acute...

"Crap."

She took a step back then, as one of the Gamorreans walked by, deliberately swinging a stun baton in her face... he snorted something which made his companions chuckle to themselves, and s'Il's hackles were up in less than two seconds. There was nothing she could do though, and so relegated herself to simply harping on her partner.

They'd get out of this anyway. Or at least s'Il knew they would. Arya on the other hand was such a pessimist at times...

And then the Weequay spoke to the other woman. Reaching out, the Lupine once more grabbed at the bars, her expression sickly sweet and her voice utterly sarcastic.

"Say hi to your boyfriend for me!"

[Arya Ravenwing]

A second Weequay turned towards s'Ilancy and jabbed his stun baton through the bars, slamming it against her side. The art thief spasmed once and hit the floor with a splash as all of her muscles on that side contracted at once. Arya shouted angrily, and slammed her hands against the bars. "Hey! Hey! Stop that!"

She grumbled, "If anyone's gonna kill her it's gonna be me."

The Weequay in front of her grinned. "Yeah." He jerked his head towards her and two of his fellows leveled their blasters at her. "Hands." He looked pointedly at her hands, and she reluctantly stuck them through the bars, seeing s'Ilancy's door being opened. A sniggering Gamorrean slapped a pair of stun cuffs on her, and then pushed her hands back through the bars.

Lok was struggling to get back to her feet as her door was opened, but a blaster against her temple made her pause, and a matching set of cuffs soon decorated her wrists. They kept the blaster at her head, although Arya was shoved out of her cell without that formality. They didn't want Lok the beast to emerge, it was clear.

For that matter, either did Arya. Of course, last night seeing a drunken vornskyr stumble around before it had been whacked in the head with a pike had been interesting enough. Once s'Il was unconscious once more she had reverted back to her human form. Arya cursed as they were both pushed and pulled up the passageway, slowly making their way up to the surface. Or...the roof. Or...frell, it didn't really matter.

She kept her eyes peeled for an escape route, but held onto only a tiny hope that getting free in the middle of the detention area was going to be a step in the right direction.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

"Thanks partner," she grumbled, the blaster still trained on her temple. "I love you too."

As they were led (well, more along the lines of being shoved and prodded) through the narrow corridor, s'Il couldn't help but cast small glances around her; she'd never been to Nasha's palace, though it wasn't a surprise she'd ended up in the dungeon; she usually did anyway when visitting Hutts. Unless she was killing for them, then that was a different.

Of course that opened a whole other can of worms that she'd rather have forgotten, and a part of her wondered if Nasha kept up with the other clans; specifically the clan that s'Il had robbed blind. Gawd she hoped not.

"Boy would that be awkward," she mumbled aloud.

Another shove from one of the Weequays sent her stumbling, and she whirled on her assailent, bringing her fists up in retaliation... and yelped as the stun current swept through her arms. Arya growled something along the lines of 'serves you right', but a jab from one of the Gamorreans sent her forward also, stumbling closer to the door.

Her comment didn't go unheard though, and through the lingering shock, s'Il turned glaring metallic eyes on her partner.

"Serves me right? I'd like to see you say that to my face you little goody-two-shoes. If I remember correctly (and of course she didn't), you're the one who thought it'd be this brilliant idea to give Nasha her own frakkin' corusca-gem tiara to her for a baby shower gift!"

Hopefully Arya would get the hint and snap back. If not, then s'Il would just drive her down into the still wet mud caking the prison floor; that'd get her riled up.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya held up her cuffed wrists and flipped s'Il a rude gesture. "I think we have more important things to worry about, bitc-!" The lead Weequay cuffed her before she could finish, sending her reeling into the wall, just as another one dragged s'Ilancy out of the door and into what appeared to be sunlight.

A ragged cheer went up as the two women were dragged from the detention area into what appeared to be an arena. Arya glared at it through glazed eyes, her head ringing from the blow she'd received. The stun cuffs were making her arms tingle uncomfortably, and she paused, trying to get a grasp on their surroundings.

A well placed boot to the middle of her back sent her stumbling forward, and she slipped on some mud and fell face forward into.... elbow deep slime. It was only elbow deep because she'd put her hands out to stop her fall, only when they'd reached the 'ground' they kept going. Arya coughed and spluttered as a Gamorrean grabbed her hair and pulled her up to her feet. There was a ho ho ho and she found herself facing towards Nasha in all of her primeval sliminess.

"Hotuu su naata, con paagu su Raavenweeng." We meet again, on my terms, Ravenwing. Motherhood looked good on the Hutt. She was practically glowing. Arya felt like throwing up, but she was too angry.

[Adjerban the Interloper]

I was the designated event piniatta, somehow ending up on this hellhole a few days prior. As usual, I managed to kill/stab/wound/insult the wrong being. As an outspoken indivudual, it was my duty to let them know what they were doing wrong. I still don't know their name. It might have been beaten out of me. I'm not really sure anymore.

Still, at least I was hanging above mud this time. It smelled funny, but it didn't burn, or have really evil things in it. All in all, not bad.

You're in big trouble when you're redundant mentally. Fortunately, I was above worring about that, much in the same way I am currently above, worrying about the mud. Or not.

And then my day brightend.

"I'd like to thank the maker for females, especially hot ones." I half muttered. It was my little way of counting my blessings. I smiled at the two women.

"G'afterwhatever, ladies. My name is Adjerban, and I'll be your host this, uh, timespan. On the right we have mud and thick walls. On the left we have mud and thick walls. If I can get you anything, please, let me know. I'll be hanging around all day."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

s'Il hated mud. With a passion. And so when she'd been unceremoniously dumped into the arena, she let loose a string of curses that would've made even Silus blush. As it was, it didn't help her situation any, and rolling onto her back, only succeeded in getting the slime all up the back of her once grey tank; her trousers weren't any better off, and she cursed again as strong arms hauled her up and planted her on her feet.

She blinked painfully, her eyes trying to adjust to the rapid change in light, and for the moment she was blind.

And then the Hutt spoke, addressing Arya.

s'Il stood silently, still trying to adjust when the voice of someone else interrupted her thoughts. She turned her head, and through narrowed eyes made out someone - suspended... ? over the mud... ?

Canting her head to regard the stranger, her nostrils flared as she took in the scents around her... and almost dry heaved. The stench was nearly overpowering, and it felt like she'd just gotten a form of blunt force trauma to her olfactory senses. As it was, she gagged.

Misery was starting to creep into the Lupine's body; she was being assualted by the smell all around her, her bare feet were... gods she didn't even want to think of the mud she stood in...

She was dirty.

[Arya Ravenwing]

A morrt squiggled in the mud between Arya's toes, and she made a concentrated effort not to shift her feet. Gamorreans seemed to attract the flatworms, and the mud now seemed to have its fair share of wiggly creatures. She raised her cuffed hands carefully, and shaded her eyes, looking up to where Nasha reclined on her gravsled.

A dinged up but shiny protocol droid (not Threepio thank the gods, he was still somewhere on her ship) tottered to the wall, and looked over it at the two condemned women. It's tinny voice echoed in her ears. "The mighty and just Nasha the Hutt commands that you both die for your audacious crimes against her." A cheer went up and Arya looked around, seeing the jeering and leering motley crew of humanoids and aliens that were packing the stands.

"Furthermore, she also commands that you...oh my..." The droid backed away, and s'Ilancy's attention was caught as a painting was brought out. "...commands that you die in full sight of that which you came here to steal." The lurid landscape of one of Endor's moons was placed behind Nasha, and Arya chuckled.

"Too bad that isn't what we were really after." She spoke defiantly, even as her stun cuffs were taken off. Then...wait a minute. What was that off to the side?

A humanoid male was staked out and suspended seven feet off the ground. What the hell? As if reading her mind, the droid continued, "That interloper will be dealt with according to his crimes. After you die.

"However! Nasha in her great mercy has deemed that only one of you sould die. So you will fight each other to the death, and the survivor will be freed." The droid backed away, disappearing behind the bulk of the Hutt, who leaned forward in anticipation.

s'Ilancy rubbed her wrists when her cuffs were taken off, and the two women stared at each other for a moment. Weequay and Gamorrean's lined the walls of the pit, all armed with force pikes and blasters. The Weequay who had removed their stun cuffs retreated throught he door they'd arrived through, and sealed it behind him. There was no way out.

Arya narrowed her eyes, and lunged at s'Il, her bare feet slipping in the shin deep mud. "This is all your fault!"

[Adjerban the Interloper]

They switched ropes, this time dipping the top of my head in the mud. My ears squished into the mud. I.. had mud. Coating my ears.

The sensation was beyond digusting. Even with the women, who were going to kill each other (bared boobies ahoy!), my day had just gotten considerably worse. Tounge good mud bad.

"YEAH, WELL IT DOESN'T CHANGE THE FACT KERLACK WAS CHEATING AT SABBAC!"

Then they dunked me. I can hold my breath for about ten minutes, so its no big deal, but being upside-down complicates things. They pulled me back up

"...is all your fault!" I coughed and sputtered for show. Got to keep them on their toes.

"Girls, take your shirts off! You'll be harder to grip."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She'd reacted swftly when Arya had charged her, planting her feet and bracing herself for the steaming hovertrain that was her partner. This is gonna be interesting...

And then Arya barreled into her, railroading the Lupine, her shoulder hitting low into s'Il's gut as both women collided. Stumbling backwards through the muck, sh doubled over; not only in pain but to aldo wrap her arms around Arya's midsection, and flexing both stamch muscle and arms, s'Il heaved upwards, hauling the other woman upwards and hefting her up over her shoulder. And then she fell backwards, piledriving Arya as she herself fell flat on her back into the mud. Again.

"Girls, take your shirts off! You'll be harder to grip."

She growled at the cry from the other captive, but the guy had a point, Still. She wasn't about to start stripping quite yet. Although... Arya had always insisted on taking point...

Rolling away, s'Il grabbed a handful of the other woman's tank, roughly pulling it over her partner's head and taking it with her as she got to her hands and knees, sputtering out a mouthful of mud.

"My fault?!" she snapped back, tossing Arya's shirt off to the side, "You're the one who begged me to do this with you!!!"

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya kept her lips tightly sealed against the disgusting mud, hardly noticing that she was now going bare breasted. Mud covered her body nearly head to toe...there was only a slight patch on her face where she'd quickly wiped it free of her eyes.

The smuggler was barely aware of the jeers from the crowd as they jostled the walls high above the pair (no...trio...) pushing for a better vantage point. She heard a cat call coming from the long eared male who was dangling just above her, but blocked it out, focusing her frustration on the soon-to-be-unfortunate s'Ilancy. Arya lunged forward, hands slick with mud grabbing the edge of her partner's shirt.

s'Il went one way, she went the other, and the shirt tore. It did not, however, tear completely, and Lok found herself being dragged backwards by it, until Arya could grab her long hair with her other hand. Arya tightened her grip, and swung s'Ilancy around, straddling her. "Begged is a rather strong word, dontcha think?" She put her hands on the other woman's shoulders and dunked her into the mud.

[Adjerban the Interloper]

Wow. I win. As nasty as the mud was, it was worth the price of admission for this.

"Ok guys, you can kill me now."

I looked up at the scum operating the rope controls.

"Seriously. When this is over, you can go ahead and kill me." I grinned, a row of off-white staring up at them. They were going to kill me anyway, but for some reason, this always caught them off balance. I guess I was a different brand of maniac. Or something.

"Hey... miss. Could you untie me?"

"I know a way out." I whispered as she washing-machined the blonde a few times.

[Threepio]

There was a sound of high pitched breathing next to the droid, and he turned his photoreceptors towards the sound. "Mistress Jina, please calm down. Getting excited will not make things better."

"They were s'posed to be back last night!" The frantic red headed human child was tugging on Threepio's arm, dragging the droid to the cockpit. "An' they're not and they're not here, an' instead they're here!" The droid looked through the cockpit transparisteel viewindow.

"Ah! No! Not Gamorreans! No, anything but those vile creatures! Ahh!" Threepio threw up his arms and sat in the co-pilot's seat. "Make them go away!"

"Threepio!" Jina was practically hopping up and down next to his chair. "We have to get away! They're coming right here!"

"Here? Oh no! We're doomed." Why the last time those horrid creatures had gotten their hands on him he'd ended up enslaved to a Hutt! And here they were, on a Hutt planet of all things, and it was all well and good for Mistress Arya to say it would all be okay, she wasn't here where it obviously wasn't all okay and they were about to become food for the dump fires!

"Threepio I need you to help me!" Jina pleaded, climbing into the pilot's chair determinedly. She started flipping switches, and Threepio almost completely lost it.

"Mistress Jina I must insist you cease at once! The odds of survival if you take this ship off the ground are nine hundred thousand to one!"

"Never tell me the odds!" Jina threw the ship's autodefenses on, and the Weequays who were trying to shortcircuit the hatch were soon greasy smears on the duracrete. The Gamorreans who were in front of the ship started grunting excitedly and running forward. Threepio would have hidden under his chair if he could have folded up small enough. As it was, his photoreceptors watched in programmed horror as the Wing of the Raven was assaulted.

A swoop swung into view, and started peppering the viewport with splashy blasterfire. "Shields! Shields!" Threepio threw up his arms to block the sight of their certain doom.

"We're on the ground still! Threepio! Help me!" Jina stood on the pilot's seat to reach the furthest controls as the ship finished the preflight warmup.

"Mistress Jina I am not a pilot, but I will do my best." Threepio looked at the console just as the forward cannon activated and blew up the swoop with a few well aimed shots. "Oh my!"

"Okay when I say, you have to turn off ...the 'pulsors and turn on the lights!" Jina frowned. "I think."

If he'd had a chance he would have objected, but the six year old human was pulling up on the yoke, getting the hefty freighter off the ground. "Are we going to orbit then?"

"We hafta wait for Arya's signal!" A few switches switched without anyone touching them. Threepio decided not to mention it. He'd seen Master Luke do that before. The ship cleared the duracrete and soared lopsidedly over a building and into what appeared to be a crack between two rusted out skycrapers. It wasn't Nar Shadda, but it wasn't far from it.

Threepio would have closed his eyes but he didn't have that option. "Oh dear watch out!" He reached forward and activated the shields just in time to bounce them off a building.

White-lipped with concentration, Jina Jade struggled to reach the foot yokes as she held onto the pilot's chair with both hands. The ship yawed, veering its nose downwards.

Threepio wished he was deactivated. What had he done to deserve this?!

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She hated mud. Hated it when it covered her body and dried beneath her fingernails. She also hated the taste. It was utterly disgusting. Not that she could really do anything about it, as Arya sat on her and repeatedly shoved her head into the muck. She struggled under the other woman's weight, slowly trying to gain a hold of some sort, and reaching a blind hand behind her, grabbed a hold of Arya bangs, pulling down hard.

She was rewarded with a yelp, and continued to tug until her partner rolled off, and rising to her knees, s'Il lunged at Arya, knocking her back into the mud. Holding the other woman down, she pulled her ripped shirt away; it was only getting in the way as it was, and tossed it at the hanging man. She didn't even look to see if it'd hit him, instead she went right back to shoving Arya as deep into the mud as she could.

"How's that taste? You like it?"

[Arya Ravenwing]

The smuggler came up spitting mud, morrts, and obscenities. "Frelling dre,n you stupid bitch! You owe me a new frelling shirt! And a vacation."

s'Ilancy, with great satisfaction, dunked her down into the mud once more. Arya struggled with the hold of the mud against her legs, and lifted one free, kneeing s'Il hard in the back. It jarred her enough that Arya was able to get her hands on Lok's stomach and push her over and off of her.

Both criminals came up swinging. Arya got a good one in on s'Il's chin, but the art thief caught her on her cheekbone, splitting it wide open. Arya stumbled from the blow, and ran smack into the dangling male, as his handlers tried desperately to raise him before collision.

Too late.

Arya snagged a hand in his ropes, and was yanked clear of the mud with him. She found herself face to face with his crotch as she wrapped her legs around his midsection. He was saying something but she tried to ignore him. She started climbing up him, trying to reach the pulleys.

[Adjerban the Interloper]

"Mmgmfnfnnfffffffme." Her shoes dug into my sides, and it hurt.

What was she up to now? In the meantime, I was just going to hang around. Harr.

"Its springtime, for Zimler and Marnany,
Marland is happy and gay.
We're marching to a faster pace,
Look out, here comes the master race."

I sung terribly off key, but whatever.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

"Oh no you don't you little snake," s'Il growled, slogging her way to where Arya and the hanging man... wel, hung... over the mud, and bunching her leg muscles, she leapt up, wrapping her arm around her partner's waist.

Hauling herself up as the handlers lifted the trio higher, she held on tightly, her cheek mashed into the other woman's shoulder blade.

"Don't make me kick your butt and give you brain damage," she growled once more, swinging her legs up to wrap around the top of Arya's, which were subsequently wrapped around the stranger's waist.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya grunted as s'Il clung on behind her, and made sure her hand was tightly wrapped up in the male's ankle ropes. Her partner was only holding onto her, and that...was a bad idea.

Arya kicked her legs free of the singing criminal as s'Il swung hers up, and lashed out with her bare feet on Lok's thighs and knees. s'Il found herself only holding onto Arya's torso, which was slippery with mud. With barely a cry the blonde slipped off and fell.

The smuggler resumed climbing, her wrist hurting from being caught in the ropes. The strange male still sang. Horribly off key, too. Arya stood on the soles of his feet, they'd allowed him to keep his boots, and grabbed the ropes right where they ran on top of the pulley. Not a closed one, good.

She braced herself mentally, and noticed that Lok hadn't fallen all the way down. The bedraggled blonde was furiously climbing up the male towards Arya's feet. The more weight the better. Arya grabbed the rope as well as she could and leapt off to the side.

The ropes creaked and jumped off the pulley, sending the trio plummeting towards the thick mud.

[Adjerban the Interloper]

Normally, having an attractive woman on top of me is the highlight of a week (or month, depending on how crappy the last place was). In this case, I was smooshed into the mud with most of the wind knocked of out me.

For those of you who haven't noticed, my hands and feet are tied.

I writhed like a dying fish and brought my head out of the mud. I took a nice lungful of air.

"FRELL YOU. BOTH OF YOU CAN GET FRELLED! You just mmfnn" *blorp* The blonde dunked me. Peachy.

I came up again. "...screwed our chances for getting out of here."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Oddly enough, she'd landed atop the pointy-eared fellow, and his cries only elicited an annoyed growl from s'Il as she dunked his head into the mud to shut him up before going after Arya once more. She stood, wading her way to where the brunette had fallen, her metallic eyes flashing.

Bending down, her hands closed on the other woman's ankle, and pulling up, began dragging Arya backwards through the mud. s'Il stepped over 'Pointy-Ear', still dragging Arya, and summarily pulled her right across the top of the unfortunate man caught in the middle of their little knock-down drag-out.

"Your comin' with me, you bitch," she said through gritted teeth, heading for the far side of the muck-filled arena.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya had her hand still wrapped around the rope, and s'Il was brought up sharply as it went taut, falling backwards into the mud once more. The smuggler fought her way free from underneath Lok, and used the rope to pull herself back up to her feet.

She scrambled over and next to the long eared being, feeling slightly sorry that he'd landed face down. She had more important things to do than turn him over, however. Like...avoid s'Il. Arya threw herself to the right as Loklorien came diving at her back, missing cleanly. Her hand wrapped itself around a pulley, yanking it away from the frame that had tumbled into the arena.

It was leaning awkwardly inside, providing a way out of the high walls if one were nimble enough. Or fast enough. Some Weequays were already trying to get the frame demolished completely. Not so fast. Arya sighted quickly, and then threw the pulley like a discus. It zinged forward through the humid air, and hit Nasha between the eyes. The Hutt toppled over backwards, like an avalanche that hadn't made up its mind yet.

She yanked on the rope once more, gathering up the slack and then dove to the side, taking the legs out of the Weequay lackeys on the top of the wall. Three of them fell into the arena, hitting the mud with a squelch, at least one of them bringing a heavy blaster rifle with him.

[Adjerban the Interloper]

The mud was mercifully squishy. Initially. After that, the feeling of it being forced where it didn't belong was overwhelmingly disgusting.

Fortunately, I had someone to take my anger out on. One of the Weequay thugs had landed close to me, and he looked more disoriented. He stared to get up, but I kicked him back down.

"It would be nice if someone would untie me..." It was hoping for too much at this point.

I elected (hah!) to sit in the mud. Not like I was doing a lot of good otherwise.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Missing Arya cleanly, s'Il fell face-first into the muck, coming up to sputter out a string of insults... and mud. It was everywhere, and the Lupine couldn't supress her gag reflex as she rose to her knees, dry heaving and spitting gunk from her mouth. It was beyond disgusting; beyond foul; it was absolutely intolerable. No doubt Arya would never let her live it down - of course s'Il would only afford her partner the same courteousy.

But now, the raven-haired smuggler had provided an escape route, and s'Il was more than willing to take it. Out of her peripheral vision, she saw 'Pointy-Ear' kick a weequay down, and gave a grim smile of her own as she surged to her feet, sprinting the short distance to where the guard with the blaster rifle had fallen. He was still somewhat disoriented, which made it easier to knock him back ino the mud, a bare foot mushing his face into the muck as the Lupine wrestled the rifle from his grasp.

Wrenching the weapon free from his hands, s'Il savagely kicked his temple, knocing him out before bringing the firearm around, aimed at another of the fallen weequay...

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya snatched up a piece of broken scaffolding and smashed in the head of the Weequay that Pointy-Ears had kicked. Above her the crowd was coming to terms with what appeared to be the death of Nasha the Hutt, and it was getting ugly. A blaster bolt sizzled into the mud just behind Arya, and she twisted away, falling against the pointy-eared guy as her hand ripped something away from the body of the Weequay she'd laid out.

The other prisoner and she got tangled up for a moment as the aim upstairs improved. There was a breathless moment and then the male felt his hands loosen. Arya cut through the bonds easily with the vibroblade she'd nicked off the Weequay, giving the guy at least a chance at life. "s'Il!" The smuggler slogged to her feet, finding a blaster in the mud and abandoning the 'blade. The fallen scaffolding looked like their only way out of the death pit.

Too bad Weequay's don't carry personal shields. Maybe the doors? But they only led down into the dungeons. Krasst. Arya picked off a trigger happy Gamorrean with two shots, and tried to zig-zag to make herself a bad target.

[Threepio]

If he could have white knuckled the arms of the seat, Threepio would have been. Jina was making a very rude gesture out the viewscreen at a ship she'd just cut in front of, something she'd learned from Mistress Arya no doubt. They'd managed to level off and were avoiding the major fly lanes by simply flying ...through... them all. As in, across. As in...certain death.

As in - "Oh nooo!" They narrowly missed plowing into the side of a garbage scow. "Mistress Jina, please, allow me to fly!"

She looked scared still, but determined. "Okay Threepio." Jina let go of the yoke and sat back as the droid summoned his programmed courage and took control from the co-pilot's position. He wasn't meant for this sort of thing! Why, it was aging him prematurely.

Unfortunately as he leveled off the Wing of the Raven and checked the sensors he found there was a ship aft with a weapons lock on them. Too startled to think Threepio let his rudimentary flight programming take over, and the ship (which was extremely large to be flying between buildings) jinked starboard, accelerating past a speeder that was caught in a salvo of blaster fire and exploded.

The Chevette77 burned through the atmosphere as it climbed for orbit, passing over an arena that Jina leaned over to look down at. She waved. Threepio tried not to think about what he was doing, and just let his programming do its job.

[Adjerban the Interloper]

I fell over again, luckly enough. A blaster bolt singed the metal I had just be occluding.

Where was that blade... I dunked my now free hands into the mud, tenderly feeling around while blaster bolts sizzled into the muck.

Victory! I managed to stab myself by moving too fast, but I now had the means to free my feet. And I did.

"Can you all hold your breath for at least a minute?" I called over the clamor of blaster fire.

"If not, you're frelled!" I ran-stumbled over to a wonderful set of buttons. If I was right, this green one would flush us out.

"HOLD YOUR BREATH!"

I smacked the button with my elbow. Nothing happened.

"Nevermind, we're frelled anyway."

Well, that was it. Time for the big sleep. The uber-nap. Join the stars in the sky, yada yada yada.

I raised my fists to the air, and decided to let the bastards know what I thought of them. Two fingers faced upwards.

"You all couldn't hit the broad side of a dreadnaught!"

"No, THE DEATH STAR!"

Then someone shot me in the shoulder and I passed out.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

s'Il looked over at her partner as Arya shouted her name, and was immediately rewarded with an unexpected broadside from one of the Weequays, knocking her newfound rifle one way, and herself and her assailent the other. Momentarily caught off guard, the Lupine smashed into the muck beneath the alien's bulk, writhing her body in abject disgust while trying her best to extricate her body out from underneath her attacker's.

It seemed to be no use, as the Weequay's size and strength played a deciding role in who won the little wrestling match, and s'Il growled at the alien as he pinned her shoulders down with his knees, his hands none too gentle as they made sure she wouldn't go anywhere.

The guard sneered down at his new captive, then froze, rooted to his spot as the body beneath him shifted, changing. It grew, and the face he stared at narrowed, canines growing and becoming sharp points as silver fur spread lkike wildfire over the body beneath him. It was like some horror flick he'd seen the other night, as the woman under him transformed into a snarling, vicious, hellbent... vornskr...

Laying on her back still, s'Il gave the Weequay a toothy (albeit quite unsettling) smile before lunging her neck muscles upward and biting the alien's head clean off.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya was trying to climb up the broken scaffolding when a shadow flitted over the arena. Looking up she saw a ship flying pretty low... oh gods no, Threepio I am going to take you apart piece by piece and grind the pieces into dust. A well placed, or poorly aimed, blaster bolt hit the wood in front of her, and she fell off, splinters flying every which way.

Her cheek stung, and she floundered around for a bit in the deep mud. Pointy-Ear got nailed in the shoulder and he collapsed like a flan. s'Il was, oh krasst, wolfing down a Weequay as the ground started to shift and move underneath them. Arya caught the sound of water rushing somewhere near, and then -

And then they were flushed out. Literally.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She'd stumbled up to all four paws as the Weequay toppled; quite headless, from atop her and into the mud. Her jaws were covered in blood, the alien's head still clenched in the toothy maw, and a few drops of blood fell from exposed teeth to sploosh lightly into the muck. Legs unsteady for a moment, she stood for a few moments before dropping the head into the mud and running a long tongue over her teeth and gums.

Tastes like chicken...

Of course everything did, but that thought was soon pushed away as the ground beneath her began to rumble, growing in intensity...

Oh lord, I swear -

Almost immediately she headed for Arya, but before she could reach her partner the ground seemed to bottom out, and she stumbled down into the muck, caking her silver pelt with grime...

- if i have to -

... and with a sickening sucking sensation, she was pulled downwards, on a direct collision course with Arya...

- shower one more time -

... as she and the rest of those unfortunate enough to be in the arena were flushed...

- in Arya's fresher...

... out.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya had the presence of mind to hyperventilate her lungs before a wall of filthy water crashed over her, and the bottom of the world dropped out from underneath her. s'Ilancy crashed into her, heavy paws knocking the blaster from her hands. The smuggler dug her hands into the thick pelt, anchoring herself to her partner as mud, water, Weequays, and morrts swirled down an enormous drain into an underground canal.

The canal fed the swampy hot springs that Nasha bathed in daily. It was, in a word, disgusting. Arya was knocked away from s'Il when they hit the surface of the water, the last of her air escaping in a cloud of bubbles. Her feet nearly touched the thick mud that coated the bottom of the canal, something brushing against her legs and almost ensnaring her far from the surface. With a mighty kick, Arya broke the surface with a wild gasp, arms splashing around as she tried to get her bearings. The current wasn't fast, but it was already carrying all the flotsam, smugglers and thieves included, away from the drain far above them.

Arya grimaced as a headless body bumped against her, and saw s'Il doggy paddling a little ways ahead of her. She swam up to her, black hair clinging wetly to her forehead. "I'm open for ideas, you know." The wolf looked at her sideways, and showed it's teeth. Arya motioned ahead with her eyes. "If my guess is right, this is going to take us to Nasha's private pool. If you thought the arena was bad..."

[Adjerban the Interloper]

Airairairairairair.Gonnadieeeeeaaairneedair.Airair airair.

I grabbed onto something, trying to pull myself up. It gave out. Arya yelped, but I couldn't hear her, down in the dren. My lungs burned like Tatooine's twin suns.

It was as if billions of tiny voices cried out for oxygen. Each of my little lung cells were having hell. Everything went black then. No, I mean more black. And then white, with the searing pain.

Hi, I'm the sector of Adjerban's logical, rational mind. While that doesn't mean much, I've been keeping him alive for the past twenty seconds by not breathing. Hey whats tha... THUNKOh dear.

My lungs tried to suck the thick muck in, only manging to fill my nose and mouth before the process was aborted. Arya's hair was free.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

At Arya's words, the Lupine once more began to furiously paddle her way anywhere but where the current was taking them - which meant fighting her way back upstream. Her task was made doubly hard as she felt Arya suddenly cling to her pelt with two tight, white-knuckled and grimy fists, and with a yelp, the vorsnkr was pulled down farther into the mucky water. Something was dragging Arya deeper, and Arya in turn was dragging s'Il down with her.

A gurgled whine escaped her curled lips, and she heaved herself upwards as best she could. Her tail brushed against the other woman's leg, and as she pulled her bulk up, she felt Arya coming with her. Thankfully.

And then another hand - with a vicelike grip, grasped her tail - pulling sharply, and she let out a yowl that seemed to echo all around them. If she had been able to talk, she would have cursed up a blue streak that she had no doubts Arya would add to. As it was, in her current state of body, she managed the only monosyllybalistic word she could as she continued to struggle her way upstream with the two bodies clinging to her...

"... hhfuugggg... "

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya kicked out wildly, connecting solidly with whatever it was that had grabbed a handful of her hair, and came spluttering back up to the surface. "What the frell!?" Dashing the watery muck from her eyes, she looked around wildly, and tightened her grip in s'Il's fur as the Lupine suddenly dipped lower in the 'water.'

Arya caught sight of something pale in the murk, and dipped her hand down, grabbing a handful of hair and ear and hauling Pointy Ears to the surface. He seemed to be unconscious, but his body reacted to the air by expelling copious amounts of muck from his mouth. "Krasst, you frelling bastard, I should just let you go."

But she didn't. Cursing her soft heartedness, Arya let go of s'Il, and got Pointy Ear's in a rescue position, her arm around his head and shoulders as she turned on her back. The Lupine made better time upstream, now that she was freed of her cargo. They were almost to a row of large sewage pipes, all dumping crud into the river of slime.

[Adjerban the Interloper]

I rolled over and threw up, which nearly took me off the pipe. After I made sure my stomach was empty, I sat and took a good look at where I was.

"Frellll..." I muttered, and burped--which tasted terrible. Hooraaaay bile. I looked over at Arya, and the critter next to her. A vonskr, or something similar looking. I wasn't going to ask until I felt better.

My left arm failed to help my right move my hair out of my face. Fascinating. I had been shot, or at least I remembered dimly. Everything smelled terrible. Vomiting some more seemed like a good idea, so I dry heaved a few times.

"What happend?"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Paws trying to gain a purchase on the piping, the vornskr whined a little before finally clumsily hoisting her water-logged from upwards and flopping across a pipe. She shook her head, trying to rid her fur of the filth matting it down. Small chunkc of brine were sent in a few directions, and one small bit even tagged Arya on the back of her head. s'Il gave the other woman an apologetic glance, letting out a i[]hhmmppphhhh[/i] as she tried to get a better hold on her makeshift perch.

This is so emberassing, she thought miserably before turning to look at the new addition to their party. Oh great. It was Pointy Ears. So he was the sod who'd grabbed hold of her tail.

Scootching forward just a bit, she edged her way as close as she could get to him as he finished retching - and craning her neck, she sniffed him lightly. He smelled funny.

She blinked, then pulled away just a tad...

... and sneezed right in his face.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya pulled herself to her feet, her pants sticking wetly to her legs, and carefully squeezed the muck out of her hair. Then she noticed something. It wouldn't bother s'Il until she reverted to her human shape...but... The smuggler crossed her arms in front of her chest, and then gave up, crouching beside the bedraggled Pointy Ears.

"I think we got flushed out of the arena. They'll be sending guards down here to search for bodies, but they'll be looking downstream. Not up here." Arya pushed s'Il's inquiring nose away from the miserable looking male. "You ever been here before? Got any ideas on a way out besides just following these pipes?"

[Adjerban the Interloper]

"Frell! Since when do you have a vonskr!?" The Vonskr seemed to grin slightly. This was stacking up to rank up there with the worst days of my life. That is quite an achievement.

"No. Didn't even get the name of the planet before I got into a fight with the Hutt's favorite snivlebag."

"I reccomend not waking up with terrible hangover. It makes you forget the important questions. Anyway..." I trailed off, the headache taking over.

"I'd ask for some painkillers, but with all the muck we were in, I don't think you could pay me to take it. Right. Sewers. The design is familiar, seen this kinda setup a few different places. Course, the layout flows with geography, so I dunno where we would end up."

It occoured to me Blackhair's pretty blonde friend wasn't with us anymore.

"Hey, what happend to the blonde with the great butt?"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

With a satisfied look bordering on smugness sent to Arya, the Lupine wagged her whiplike tail. She was mindfull of the tip, however, so its motions remained fairly minute. Wandering eyes were cast at Arya and the stranger, and then at their environment and surroundings before an exasperated hurfff filled the stale, musky air. For now, the best thing to do was nothing.

In any event, yellow orbs again went to Pointy-Ears, and curious about him, the vornskr edged forward once more, this time sniffing at one of his pointed ears.

Even through the muck covering him, she could smell his scent - it was... different.

And maybe to see what he'd do, or even maybe as a sign of acceptance - it was pretty much how he interpreted it - she began nibbling gently on the tip of his ear.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Blonde with the great butt. Hmph. Men are so predictable. "I'd explain, but it would take too long. All right, I don't really care what you do, but we're going to follow these pipes. And we're on Nal Hutta, in Nasha the Hutt's private sewers."

Arya forgot to offer him a hand up, and just turned around and started walking along the pipes. It stank....bad. Worse than the arena. "You know, s'Il, this is still all your fault. And if Jina and Threepio crash my ship I think I'm going to have to throttle all three of you."

[Adjerban the Interloper]

I just about melted between the pipes. Despite the grime, the dry heaves, the crappy situation, and ohhhhhhhhhhh goooooodnesss yesssssss.

"mmmmmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh..." it came out as a mellow, protracted sigh. If I were a hound of some sort, my back leg would be scratching at nothing.

"Whoever trained you did not give you enough treats." If this thing was the blonde woman, she obviously understood that, with all of life's crap, being uptight about sexuality was stupid.

This was the next best thing. I nearly shuddered out of my clothes, metaphorically speaking. Arya began to walk away.

"Nal Hutta... Nal Hutta... frelllll. Uhhh you!" I called after Arya, who was only a few meters away. "What part of Nal Hutta?" No wonder I was in such a rotten mood. Nal Hutta was one of the slug pits of the galaxy. I had a theory that, deep down, the Hutts wanted everyone to be slimy and fat and disgusting. Therefore they attempted to force their lifestyle on everyone else. It had been thirty years since I had been on Nal Hutta and I hated every damned second of it.

This wasn't much of an improvement.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Paying attention to Arya, s'Il didn't notice if Pointy-Ears was enjoying himself - she just simply kept nibbling at the tip of his ear, her eyes idly wandering about in a sense of blissful ignorance.

With a hurff, the vornskr gave the ear one last little nibble before pulling back to carefully get her bearings atop the grimey piping. All thoughts of who was at fault were instantly put on the backburner as she did her best to stay balanced. Slowly, beginning to inch along, the Lupine began to gingerly start after Arya.

Passing by Pointy-Ears, she afforded him a tawny look that seemed to say "get your tucus in gear, bud", before continuing on.

Letting out a low groan, she made a series of grumbles and gibberish that in any other situation might have been considered 'cute'. Directed at Arya though, she knew the other woman would construe it as complaining, which was spot on, as basically all she had to respond with was her version of "don't you lay the blame on me you little hussy, I did nothing to get us in this situation - and dont you even try to throttle me, cause id hate to have to hurt your pride."

[Arya Ravenwing]

s'Il was making noises that sounded whiny. Arya studiously ignored them, studying the pipes beneath her feet. There were two relatively good sized metallic pipes side by side, which made for pretty good footing. Unfortunately they were corroded and covered with an unhealthy layer of slimy mold, which made walking a bit tricky.

She didn't even have her boots. Or her blaster. Or her shirt, for that matter. Arya turned partially around to answer Pointy Ear's question. "We're in the nice part of town. Which means it's the dirtiest and grossest here."

She continued forward, toes curling into the deep green mold as she kept her balance fairly easily. A sudden thought struck her and she stuck her hand in a muddy pocket and fished around for a bit. "Krasst!" She stopped in her tracks, let loose a stream of curses that would have blistered the paint off a house, and then threw her hands up in the air.

Making a rude gesture at whoever might be in the levels above them she shouted, "You had to take my frelling commlink too, didn't you!"

[Adjerban the Interloper]

Arya seemed to have missed the point, but I followed anyway. There was no point in rotting on a smelly sewer pipe.

"Blackhair, I just said I might know where we are, if you can tell me what part of Nar Shadda we're in. The 'nice part of town' means dick. The whole place is a slimehole." I hit a slimy patch as I finished my peice, and nearly fell off the pipe. After steadying myself, I glared at the back of Arya's head.

dy'want help or not, you miserable wench?

[Arya Ravenwing]

"Nal Hutta, and we're in the D'jaala sector, just south of the public arena." She kept walking forward.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Another grumble escaped the Lupine's lips as s'Il took a careful step forward, following after Arya slowly. Things just couldn't get any worse, and placing a paw gingerly on the pipe, she tested it before daring to put any weight down. It held.

Looking back over her shoulder at Pointy-Ears, the beast let out a snort before her ears perked up... a noise...

She sniffed the air...

There - mingling in wich the stench of rot and filth was something new - and the faintest of muffled voices reached her ears before s'Il knelt low, slowly lowering her bulk against the pipes as her lips curled back to expose bared fangs.

[Adjerban the Interloper]

The vonskr beat me to it.

"Yeah, I hear it too." My voice was barely above a whisper. I wished I had some sort of weaponry on me, but that had been confiscated by the Hutt's twinks.

Arya would quite likely be in deep dren if she didn't slow down and listen. It was also quite likely that her hearing wasn't anywhere near as acute as mine or the furball's.

"Blech." I mumbled as a dug gunk from my ear in an attempt to hear better.

What were we going to do? We were dirty, tired, and unarmed. I briefly looked back into the river of sludge, and wondered if my sense of self preservation was strong enough to get me back in there.

[Arya Ravenwing]

There was a tremor in the piping that didn't come from behind her, and Arya instantly went on alert. She stopped walking, and crouched down, balancing on the tips of her fingers and the balls of her feet. Ah...frack. And now - faint noises were echoing off the sewer walls.

She looked back at her filthy companions and then back towards where she'd just been heading. Possibilities ran through her head, and the smuggler carefully leaned over the edge, looking underneath the pipes. There were about six inches of clearance between the piping and the sewage.

Up ahead them ... actually, Arya didn't want to find out who was poking around up there. The chances of taking a dump crew by surprise was high, but if it was a contingent of fully armed Weequays then the fugitives were in deep dren.

Ha ha, we're already in deep dren. Arya looked back and glared at s'Ilancy, wishing they could confer about their next course of action. Dipping into the slime and moving upstream hand over hand underneath the pipes was last on her list of options.

But then, it was also the only option she could think of.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

The Lupine caught the look she'd been given, and dipped her head just a little to look down into the sludge below. Fowl. ab - krasst, memory - absolutely fowl.

It was time to change back, and she knew it. She was starting to lose her sentience, and that was just another thing to go wrong that didn't need to happen. And so, lowering her body as close to the piping as she could get, s'Il let out a breath between pointed teeth, willing herself to change back - to revert.

The process was a little tricky, as she had to maintain some sort of footing on the pipes, and her body reformed itself with an otherworldly sigh. Muscles shifted over changing bone, and the Lupine hurrfed as her joint snapped back into place. Her tail was gone, as was the sopping fur and snarling muzzle of teeth.

Crouching completely nude, s'Il looked up to Arya then, her eyes now once more their normal metallic sheen. She looked down into the sludge, then back to Arya.

"Please don't tell me you're thinking we should actually go back in there."

[Adjerban the Interloper]

"I'm not seeing a lot of options."

I looked back into the muck and shrugged. Sure, it was nasty, but so was dying.

"There are worse things. We could be back in that pit."

I crouched down and somewhat slid-slorped into the disgusting sludge. I found a bracket to grab onto underneat the piping.

A minute later, the pipes above us clanged with footsteps. With my ears pressed against the metal, it was too loud. I winced with each foot impact.

"Only five of em" I wispered after a minute.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya nodded, agreeing with the alien, her mouth closed tightly against the muck. The current pulled against her body, and her fingers were already starting to cramp from holding onto the brackets that laced the pipes side by side. s'Ilancy looked miserable, but she had followed the other two into the mud after a second's hesitation.

She manuevered around until she was facing the other two, getting a firmer grip under the piping. "They'll be back this way when they don't find anything. If they're looking for us." Her whispered words matched Pointy Ear's tone. Perhaps if they moved further upstream under the pipes, they would be able to find the entry point that the searchers had used.

There they might be able to catch them by surprise... Arya fished behind her for another handhold, found one, and pulled her body upstream, still facing her companions downstream.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Gingerly following Arya, s'Il groped for any handhold she could find that wasn't too slick and slippery, slowly making progress. The sludge that came up to her neck was neigh-on unbearable, but she remained stoic, concentrating on the task at hand. Like Pointy-Ears, the noise filtered through the piping was seemingly augmented, and she cringed slightly everytime a footfall travelled through to her ears.

She could only imagine the absolute filth and grime atttaching itself to her body, but did her best to shut the thought out - Diego would have had a fit in this garbage, she thought idly to herself, and with a quiet sigh, she whispered.

"I get first shower after we get out of here."

[Adjerban the Interloper]

"Not if there is room for two." I wanted so desperately to wink at the shapechanger.

Aside from supressing my gag reflex, the experince was pretty dull. Sure, pulling myself through muck wasn't pleasant, but it beat having your skin peeled off and hot sauce poured on it. That was one time I was glad to wake up somewhere else.

"Ravenhead, where is this lovely ship of yours?"

[Threepio]

"Oh my!" Threepio had finally lost their pursuit, and was pulling into orbit. "Now, Mistress Jina, we will just wait here behind something until Mistress Arya calls for us."

Jina was jumping up and down on the pilot's seat, restraints off. "We made it we made it we made it!"

Threepio emitted an eletronic sigh. "Unfortunately, as I once heard, 'it is not over yet.'" He pulled on the co-pilot controls, no longer wondering how the small human kept her balance, and negotiated the small orbiting field of space junk. Looking for a good place to hide didn't take long, and soon they were just another drifting piece of space debris.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya scowled into the murky darkness ahead of her, and answered, "My ship should be in orbit, waiting for me to contact it." A few more moments passed, pulling themselves hand over hand through the sludge. A slightly different sound, like wind passing over an opening, and then a breath of fresher air reached her belaugered nostrils.

"We're at the door they used." Arya looked back and whispered, "Let me know when you hear the footsteps coming back this way." She carefully pulled her body out of the muck and slithered onto the pipelines, trying not to vibrate them anymore than was necessary.

There was some light coming into the sewer from the circular door, and she inched up towards it, waiting for the guard who must have been left behind. A shadow creased the patch of light, and she leapt towards it, but to the side, grabbing for what must have been the Gamorrean's vibroaxe.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Like a miserable, wet cat scrambling out of water, the Lupine clawed her way up, whining about wanting a shower and how unfair it was that Arya got to go first. Slithering up onto the piping, she slid her bare feet beneath her, intent on following close behind Arya. s'Il launched herself forward - inadvertantly into the other woman, and sent the both of them out into the bright daylight.

Pointy-Ears could take his time getting out, but s'Il was dirty. She hated being dirty. she hated mud, especially. And now, she was covered in it. She would have dry-heaved if a movement from the corner of her eye hadn't caught her attention, and whipping her body around, brought her hands up to catch the handle of the vibroaxe that swung at her and Arya.

Though it was no Gamorrean that was on the other end, glaring down at her as the two grasped the handle - neither wiling to relent.

It was Nasha's Majordomo.

The Elomin.

And for the life of her, even though she was staring up into his face with a surprised look on her features, she couldn't remember his name.

[Arya Ravenwing]

It happened almost too fast to keep track of it all, s'Ilancy pounded up behind her and knocked her off balance as she leapt forward into what she could now see was daylight. Arya oofed as she struggled to regain her balance, her grab for the vibroaxe missing completely as she was spun around.

s'Ilancy was left holding the load, but the Lupine's strength was up to the task. Arya looked at the Elomin, and his eyes tracked to hers, hate radiating from his every pore. "Alon, you frelling piece of Hutt dren, what are you doing?"

He spoke through clenched sharp teeth as he strained to push the end of the axe into s'Il's shoulder. "Exterminating vermin." Like a mad mathmatitian, he kicked up one foot, caught the naked Lupine square in the chest, and knocked her off of the axe handle.

Arya ducked as he made a wild, enthusiastic swing at her head, and backed up, giving Alon Gaet and his vibroaxe a respectful distance. "Do you even know how to use that?" He'd always seemed more like a file clerk, certainly not a warrior. But there was something about the way his attacks came...

The smuggler jumped to the side, narrowly missing decapitation again, and rolled out of reach for the moment. His erratic swings were too...calculated. He was trying to lull her into thinking he didn't know what he was doing. Alon stepped up, causing her to nearly fall off of the cement walkway into the surrounding swampland. "s'Il! I could use some help here!" Arya evaded another attack, and looked for an opening...anything to get in and get that axe away from him.

[Adjerban the Interloper]

I wanted so very badly to blow this popsicle stand. A shower, for the Coreworlds, a shower! Unfortunately, this lackey was standing between me and a shower. Maybe I could shower with the blonde. Hrm.

Short on weaponry and any clever ideas, I rushed Alon.

Hey universe.
SUP.
I think the axe is trying to make love to my neck.
OH?
Yeah. I think there could be a problem with that.
I SEE. I CAN’T HELP YOU WITH THIS ONE, SORRY.
Well, take care then.
SEE YOU AROUND. TRY TO KEEP YOUR HEAD ON STRAIGHT.

I frowned as the blade approached my neck. I had ducked, but Alon had cleverly anticipated such a thing. In short, I was screwed.

I’m not sure what happened next, but it was rather mind-bending. I don’t recommend looking at the infinite universe for any length of time, in any amount of detail simultaneously. It gives you a headache.

I found myself behind Alon, which made for wonderful timing to get clocked by the vibroaxe’s long pole.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

The first look to pass over her face was a very brief instance of confusion. Then came the lancing pain that drove into her mind, and the Lupine brought her hands up to clutch her head, curling in on herself. Skin suddenly hot to the touch, s'Il let out a groan as her body began it's instinctive change from cognisant human to stark raving beast.

Someone had used the force.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Pointy Ears was in one place...and then he was in another. A calculated swing of the vibroaxe missed the smuggler, and the handle smacked the pointy eared alien in the head.

Arya took advantage of Alon's momentary surprise and tackled him to the ground, the axe spinning away from them as she grabbed the Elomin's head and cracked it on the filthy duracrete.

[Adjerban the Interloper]

I was reeling from the blow. The axe was swung with the intent of death. It had been moving fast.

There is a complex forumla derived by some twisted being oh, three centuries prior that calculates pain. Factors include heat, friction, temperature, species, type of nervous system and about thirty other variables. When I first read the formula, it gave me a headache a three point headache on a scale of 100. This headache was in the high 40s.

Symptoms include blurred vision, mild naseua, unnatural pain, minor skull damage, bruising and not staying on your feet. Doctors do not reccomend Violently Swung Metal Pole Upside the Head in any dosage.

I did not, contrary to the cliche, hit the ground like a sack of anything. No, I hit the ground like a flimsy speeder tumbling end over end, crashing spectacularly with the doors (arms) open.

I landed on my back or legs. I'm not sure which. I know I landed, but only because gravity was in play. I break laws, but gravity isn't one of them I've gotten away with.

I opted for the "lay dazed on the floor at the end of the flight" package, and all sales were final.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Knees hitting the filth-covered arena floor, s'Il hunched forward until her forehead touched the grimy, slime-encrusted ground. Her body jerked, spasming in uncontrollable motions as her hands shot out, scratching at the mud ins near-convulsions.

Her skin was hot to the touch, and she reared back, head turned towards the sky and her mouth open in a silent cry. As she sat there, on her knees and noiselessly screaming, her face began to change. Her whole head began narrowing, and her teeth began growing... sharpening to vicious fangs.

And then she lurched forward once more, her body in the throes of an agonising transformation brought on by her one weakness; the one drawback to her physiological make-up...

... the Force.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya smacked Alon's head into the duracrete twice more, to make sure he wasn't going to get up and come after them - at least, not any time soon. "s'Il see if you can get Pointy Ears up and let's get out of here. We're outside the main complex, but we might still have a wall or two to scale. ...s'Ilancy, are you listening to me?"

The smuggler turned around to berate her silent companion, and felt her mouth drop open. "Oh frell, not again." She got off of the prone Elomin's chest, and slowly got to her feet. "If you're going to do that, can you at least warn me next time?"

Arya bent over their new friend, and gave him a cursory examination. He seemed to be okay, just had a knot on his head the size of a mynock egg. She pried one of his eyelids back, and saw that his pupils were still dilating. "C'mon, you didn't even give us your name yet." She gently slapped his cheek, trying to get him conscious once more.

[Adjerban the Interloper]

One eye stared out. It swirled and twitched seemingly at random. I was underwater with the disco. After a minute, my body found the good sense to groan.

"Mrrmmmmmmmrrrrrrffffffp." My body tends to recover before my senses. One of my arms flailed around, mostly of it's own motivation. I grabbed Arya's forearm while my senses floated in an ink-water pool and Les Claypool jammed on bass.

"gofrntndafnurnckgcafnrnntgsejkjknngn." Arya slapped me again. Lovely woman.

"Cafgnnt. Sfeeh." Both of my eyes were open now, dialating in and out, but since they were on strike from my brain, I couldn't have told you anything about em.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Joints cracked, popping from their normal places within her body as her whole form shuddered. She Arched her back up as muscles could be seen shifting; morphing themselves into a new form, and s'Il let out a gutteral cry - a sound that should not have come from her body. Pitching forward once more, her frame jerked as her new skeletal structure began to take shape, and the last of her bones thwocked into place as tendons, ligaments, and musculature alike settled.

A thick main of silver fur had sprouted, growing like wildfire over her body as massive paws (once slender hands), hit the ground solidly.

Standing tall, the beast glared left and right, her whip-like tail lashing right and left as her olfactory senses went into overdrive. There was a Force-thing here, and she would find it.

[Arya Ravenwing]

The smuggler waved her hands in front of Pointy Ears' eyes, but they did not focus or change other than the wild dilating. "Stop mumbling. If you have something to say, speak up." She hauled him to his feet, holding him upright with one of his arms over her shoulder. Her other arm held him securely around his back and under his right arm.

"C'mon doggy, let's go. You frelling got us into this mess." She still hadn't turned to look at s'Ilancy. Watching the change had made her queasy the only time she'd witnessed it. She didn't suspect that the easy going Lupine from earlier was practically gone.

Arya stepped forward, encouraging Pointy Ears to do the same. "C'mon, guy, one foot at a time, and hurry it up." She half dragged him as she walked away from the Lupine at her back.

[Adjerban the Interloper]

"Snofofabish." s'Ilancy howled.
I stopped. That needed to be said again.
"Snofofabish. Frellin frellin frell." My vision was starting to come back. White spots dotted everything, and I think my tear ducts were making vasoline.

Arya was dragging me along, and frankly, I could think of worse places to be.

"Hallo." I managed. Feel had started to come back to my limbs. I looked like a toy being forced to walk, or a bipedal droid with a malfunctioning motivator.

I was doing the robot! Yeah... I don't think robots get headaches.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Golden orbs of hate had locked onto the retreating pair, and the vornskr dipped low, her muscles tensing for the jump. She tested the air, her olfactory senses picking out the receding force ambience.

A snarl, then a twitch of her tail.

And then the leap. It didn't really matter who she trounced - she'd get the both of them anyway. Even if only one had used the force, it wouldn't matter. She wasn't discriminatory in the least. Especially when in the state of mind she now currently held.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya unexpectedly dove to the side, pulling Pointy Ears down with her. He landed rather awkwardly on top of her, and without a shirt on... he was literally getting an eyefull. The stun bolt that had been heading their way radiated out and just missed them.

s'Ilancy was not so lucky. Jumping to catch up, the stupid canine had gotten herself zapped. Arya struggled to get out from underneath Pointy Ears, scrambling to try to get to some cover before the mish-mash of enforcers made it completely around the corner. One Weequay guard was almost on top of them, adjusting his blaster. He seemed to be as surprised to see them as they were him, and was switching his blaster to kill.

The art thief wasn't completely out, in her vornskyr form it was really hard to knock her unconscious. Thankfully, they weren't far from Alon's dead body, and even closer to the vibroaxe that he'd dropped.

Arya disengaged from the male, finally, and picked up the axe. As she turned around the Weequay was taking aim at them once more, and there was the unmistakable sound of Gamorreans coming up behind him. With an almost feral cry, the smuggler thumbed the ultrasonic axe on, and whipped it into the air.

It spun over the prone alien and sliced the Weequay neatly in two. Well, if by neatly you meant "guts and blood went everywhere." A lightsaber cut this was not. The blaster bolt he'd managed to squeeze off caught her left leg, creasing a line of fire across the side of it.

[Adjerban the Interloper]

Under normal circumstance. Wait. That's a load right there. I can't remember the last time I had a normal circumstance. So the abnormal is normal. Anyway, despite the lousy timing, boobs are always apreciated. They were blurry and my motor functions were still sorting themselves, but hey.

Who doesn't like boobs? I digress. We were under attack, again.

The Weequay's blaster hit the floor, along with a generous splash of vitae. Not surprising why the Gammoreans fancied the brutal weapons. His friend seemed to be having issues coping with reality, and Arya seemed to have issues with walking.

It was time to save the day, so I did what all good anti-heros do: I rolled over. This put me closer to the blaster, and I shot the shocked friend. I figure I was doing the guy a favor.

"Frell my head frellin' hurts."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

The blast had knocked her back, and she skidded across the grimy, muck-covered ground. Rolling to a stop, the huge beast simply lay dazed, stars in her vision. But the object of her desire hadn't been forgotten, and once more her yellow eyes narrowed to evil slits as her lips curled back in a snarl.

The vornskr lumbered to her feet, shook herself, and crouched low. She started forward then, stalking toward Pointy Ears with ears laid back and tail twitching. Saliva covered her teeth to give them a glistening sheen, and her pelt - though completely mud-covered - rippled over tensed muscles.

She could still feel the fading vibrations that the use of the force had caused, and they still very much drove her insane.

Her pace quickened then to a swift skip-like gait, and then to an all out dash.

And Pointy Ears just happened to be the unlucky body at the finish line.

[Arya Ravenwing]

"Good shot, Pointy. Gotta name before we die horribly at the end of a - ?"

Arya's head whipped around as her partner struggled up to her four feet. "Glad to see someone's unhurt. You know that if you hadn't been completely drunk we wouldn't have gotten caught in the first place..." she limped over to where the vibroaxe was stuck into the ground and pulled it out, "and trying to dance a jig on the dias afterwards was a terrible diversion."

She paid little attention as s'Il started moving around again, her eyes focused on the end of the little alleyway they'd found themselves in. What looked to be four Gamorreans were peering in, wondering where their Weequays had gotten to. The smuggler made her way towards them. "Hey! Hey, we've had some trouble... your friends need help back here. I think they fell into the sewer... ah da noonta vanu..?"

While keeping her eyes forward she muttered over her shoulder, "And I'm frelling getting the first shower."

[Adjerban the Interloper]

This wasn't going to end well. While Arya was explaining things to our new Gammorean pals, blondie had taken a severe liking to me. I think it was the "love you to death" sort. She didn't want to be my druidess, she wanted my red water. One hundred and twenty pounds of teeth, muscle and fury pounded down the duracrete.

And she had such a cute behind. This wasn't a good way to continue our relationship, but I liked the girl a lot. I bet she was a real animal. In the sack.

Yeah. I flicked the blaster to stun, and let loose.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

The salvo hit her dead on, and the beast went down, skidding first on her knees before tumbling end over end as momentum sent her still onward. Blackness enveloped her field of vision as stun bolts pounded into her body, and the vornskr threw up gunk and mud as she rolled forward.

She finally came to rest not three feet from Pointy Ears - out cold.

And with unconsciousness came reversion once again, leaving s'Il laying on the ground in the alleyway - stark naked - like a drunk at the Priole Danna Festival .

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya held the vibroaxe loosely at her side, ready to be flicked up and into action, while trying to make it look non-threatening at the same time. The Gammorreans crammed themselves two abreast into the alley that comfortably held them in singe file, and started hustling towards the smuggler. There was the sound of something behind her, but she was too wrapped up in her plan to pay attention.

She grinned suddenly, and swept her body to the side to reveal -

- s'Ilancy, nude, and unconscious. Arya's jaw dropped in disbelief. What happened to the snarling and spitting vornskyr that should have had her back!? The Gamorreans didn't pause, although a few fell back, caught up on protruding rocks in the walls. Arya set her mouth into a firm line, and spun the vibroaxe up and gripped it with both hands.

zuppazuppazuppazuppa. Three pigs fell squealing into the dirt and mud of the alleyway. Pointy Ears gave her a weak salute and re-aimed the blaster as she turned forward and bashed aside a pike and gutted the fourth as it was trying to climb out from underneath a fallen companion. zupp. Another wounded Gamorrean sagged, breathing it's last.

Arya deactivated the axe, and leaned it on the ground, using it as a makeshift crutch. "Thanks."

[Adjerban the Interloper]

What a bunch of crap. I swear to god.

That pretty much summed up the past three days. How I get myself into such messes, I'll always know. Bastards cheatin' at cards and getting caught. Swear to god.

I grunted, because I was picking up blondie from the ground. It was odd-- I was in better physical shape than either of the lasses. Better shape in the sense I was pretty much unharmed.

"Sure, sure. You have a boat so we can sail off this rock? I haven't needed a shower like this since I was stuck on some sulfur atmosphered swamp hole. And what's with your blonde friend? She was tryin' to eat me." I mussed s'Il's hair since I had her over a shoulder.

"she's all cute 'n squishy now." I stated simply, following a limping Arya.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya laughed a bit hoarsely. "I frelling have no idea why she was trying to eat you. Or if she was." She was at the end of the alleyway, and edged around the wall, peeking out into the main street. Ha! Not a main street, because it was too narrow. Another alley?

The smuggler looked at the sky, eyeballing the sun and figuring out which direction to do. It seemed to be tilting down one side of the sky dome, and so she turned to go the other direction: east. Pointy Ears followed her out into the new alley, which led to another one...

"As far as cute and squishy..." Arya looked across at him, and his burden. "Be sure you tell her that when she wakes up. If she wakes up."

She'd forgotten what a rabbit warren the poor district was. They passed hole in the wall rat catcher huts, families of starving, three eyed aliens, and various other poor folk. They generally would have blended into their surroundings, except for the fact that whenever they turned a corner to a different alley, the citizens who were out quickly made their way inside.

Behind them, in streets they'd passed, beings poured back into the streets. Arya didn't feel self conscious about being half naked, and she certainly didn't think that anyone cared that Pointy Ears was carrying around a fully naked woman... A single scream rose above the crumbling walls behind them, and then another one. She looked at her conscious companion, wincing as she took a moment to stop and lean on the axe handle again.. "We're being followed. I think that this opens up into marshland about a klick from here... But we're going to have to hurry."

[Adjerban the Interloper]

One of the nice things about Nal Hutta is that a half-naked muddy woman on your shoulder doesn't draw any attraction. Bemused, I patted s'Il's bottom.

"I've seen that look before. I was the lunch special. Geezee." I referenced the poor quarter.
"I forgot what a mess this place was. No one runs an opressive regime quite like a Hutt."

Our progress seemed to be to be darting alley to alley, and the indistinct cloudy sky didn't lend itself directionally.
"That blow killed my sense of direction. You have any idea where we're goin?" I knew we were in trouble with the occasional shriek behind us. My ears were a liablity.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Metallic eye opened marginally, providing little use to their owner. Thrown over Pointy Ears' shoulder, s'Il groggily roused herself as a mumbled groan escaped her lips.

"Mmmrrhhh."

As ungainly a perch as his shoulder may have been, at the moment it was the most comfortable she could think of in her addled state of mind, and the Lupine let out an incoherent sigh. The pat on her bum registered vaguely, and s'Il returned tit for tat, her own hand tiredly patting Pointy Ears' rear.

[Arya Ravenwing]

"North by northwest, away from the city center towards open marshland, as I said." Arya gritted her teeth against the pain in her leg and started picking up the pace. "If you need help carrying that dead weight, lemme know."

The sounds of pursuit were distant, but they were still there. Using the axe as a crutch she could make pretty good time, but she wasn't willing to leave s'Il helpless on the back of a man neither of them knew. Not that the Lupine couldn't take care of herself.

Arya looked over her shoulder to make sure Pointy Ears was coming up behind her. "Hey, you gotta name?"

[Adjerban the Interloper]

"Nah, you're limping, and your buddy, she's cute." Arya could move well enough anyway.

"Adjerban. You?" I said. S'Il's weight wasn't bothering me in the least. I hoped that Ravenwing knew where the hell she was going. If the marshland was marginally cleaner than the sewer, it was the right choice.