Kelpwine Sunrise [D3 EM - CLOSED]

[Garth Wayne Ulgo]

"Well th' guy who rented it to me said they're easy enough to ride." Garth explained to his guest as he looked at the beast lying on the grass ready to be mounted. "An' th' saddle has two seats wi' safety harnesses, so we should be fine, 'sides, trust in the Force, yeah?"

[Tethys Carrack]

"Oh, I do," Tethys says, mouth curving in a subtle smile that also crinkles the corners of her eyes a little. "Besides, if you wanted to get me killed, you've had plenty of better chances over the years."

She fixes the creature with a curious gaze, her head tilted a little to one side. "Ah... so how do we begin?"

((Is it a thranta, or...?))

[Garth Wayne Ulgo]

Garth notices the crinkling of Tethys's eyes, he had seen her smiles before, she was free and generous with them after all, but he recognized the significance of that little extra, or he thought he did. "Maybe, but ye've been clever 'nuff t' avoid all mah cookin so far." He joked back.

The large grey thranta looked at the two humans with a curious expression as they bantered back and forth.

Garth extends a hand to Tethys to help her up, showing her where he was instructed to place his feet when mounting and how to fasten the harness.

"Then tab a int' slot b, an' that should keep ya nice n' safe." He finishes, before securing a bulky package in front of his seat and settling in himself.

[Tethys Carrack]

"Oh, is that why your Aznuri friends are always so eager to handle the food?" Tethys chuckles. "How kind of them to protect me."

This is her first thranta, but at least it's not her first time mounting up on an organic riding-animal, and the creature's placid nature glows through the Force (besides being rather apparent to anyone's mundane senses), so she swings aboard with quiet self-assurance and not too much scrambling for the right spot to put her feet.

"Every other planet I've visited where people use all animals for transport has been a new colony, or a poor world," she comments as her long fingers work the various clasps and sliders of the safety harness. "Alderaan's the first place I've seen with so much wealth that they've come all the way back around to it from the other side."

[Garth Wayne Ulgo]

"Well, ah only poisoned that one guy once, ah coulda' sworn ah used the right mushrooms though..." Garth replies, his words trailing off as he grunted with the effort of getting their beast ready for flight.


As the beast rises gracefully and effortlessly into the air, Garth turns his head and raises his voice against the wind that flows around them. "Apparently it's a ecological thing, pr'tect th' natural planet. They do have some more modern transport, all tricked out t' be less impactful t' th' 'vironment."

Garth guided the creature up higher into the sky, allowing for a remarkable view of the surrounds of Panteer lands. Thankfully the thranta didn't need much controlling, just a gentle nudge for course correction every now and then as the sun started to crest over the horizon.

[Tethys Carrack]

"You're lucky you have other skills, that's all I'll say," Tethys informs him. Spine straight, she sways a little in the saddle as the thranta gains altitude but otherwise holds herself calmly steady.

"Mm. This is much quieter than an open speeder, too. No engines, just wind." She has to project her voice too--a bit more than Garth, even, since the same headwind that helps carry his voice back to her ears continues on to whip her words downstream and away from him.

As the molten edge of the single sun appears along the planetary horizon, though, she falls quiet and more still.

[Garth Wayne Ulgo]

The wind made conversation difficult, and Tethys seemed enraptured by the sunrise, so Garth was content to let her bask in the moment and it's warming rays as he concentrated on guiding them to their destination.

The ride was swift and they were in the air for about a half hour when the lake city of Aldera came into view.

"Almost there," Garth called over his shoulder, the serene look on Tethys's face speaking volumes.

[Tethys Carrack]

"Oh." Garth will feel Tethys's weight shift in the saddle as she leans slightly sideways for a better sight of the caldera lake and its islands. "The planetary capital? I've only seen it in holos." The words are a bit terse--of necessity, thanks to the wind--but her dark eyes are filled with pleasure at the lovely view.

[Garth Wayne Ulgo]

Garth started guiding the thranta down on its descent. "Y' know fer a planet this size, an' this preserved," Garth says, the wind abating as the great beast they rode slowed. "They sure lack fer seas an' oceans of any real size. These lakes were th' closest ah could find within a decent distance."

The thranta glided to a smooth-ish landing and Garth turned in his saddle to look at Tethys. "Ah know y' don' get home as much as ye'd like, an' ah remember ye said how y' used t' enjoy watching the sunrise over the waters of Dac. This probably pales in comparison, but ah hope it's still somethin'." He smoothly dismounts and offers the Jedi a hand, if she needs it.

[Tethys Carrack]

"It doesn't pale at all--it's just different." After a thoughtful pause, Tethys adds, "And very fine on its own terms."

She doesn't really need help getting down, but completely ignoring Garth's outstretched hand seems... discourteous. She settles for resting her cool fingers lightly on his as she dismounts, even if she doesn't actually transfer any weight to him.

"Onderon's not an oceanic world either, is it," she reflects. "What do you miss about it, when you do? Or if you do."

[Garth Wayne Ulgo]

"We all miss somethin' about our homes, assumin' we had a happy homelife, I guess. Fer me it was th' people more'n the place though. But tha's what the holo's for right? We chat every now an' again, ah tease Brianna fer marryin' mah ol' mechanic we all meet up every year, t' remember Jak." Garth's voice cracks a little on speaking about his brother, before shaking it off, mentally and physically.

"But," he continues as he unloads a small basket from the thranta. "Pa still blames me, so it's always a li'l tense at those reunions."

[Tethys Carrack]

While Garth unloads his cargo, Tethys has been undoing and re-doing the band holding her locs behind her head. The style turns out to have been more practical than most, for thranta-riding (though still less so than Garth's short-clipped cut), but the wind still managed to loosen the twist a bit. It only takes a a moment or two for her long fingers to set all back to rights.

"I'm sorry." Tethys's brows knit for a moment in sympathy. "Out of your control, but that still sounds... hard."

[Garth Wayne Ulgo]

Garth smiles shallowly, it was a sentiment he often received from the few people who knew that story. From someone he respected, it seemed less of a platitude and more authentic though.

"It is, but ah bear the burden. Would be worse fer th' others if ah stayed away." A sigh escapes his lips as he watches Tethys's fingers swiftly resecure her hair.

His hands were no less busy, as he unloaded a blanket, a few bottles and a few wooden containers of food.

[Tethys Carrack]

"In all this time, we never talked very much about your family. Or mine, I suppose." The line between Tethys's brows takes a while to un-knit. "It's a complicated enough subject within the Jedi Order. You choose to set your own rules... I doubt that's any simpler."

She gives her hairband a last tug and adds, in a crisper tone, "Can I carry any of those?"

[Garth Wayne Ulgo]

Garth grinned cheekily as he laid out the blanket near the edge of the lake. "Sure," he answered, gesturing to the wine bottles and cups as he settled down opening one of the baskets to reveal a sampling of imported seafood from Dac.

"Ah never wanted t' pry, but ah must confess ah am curious about how bein' called t' serve affected yer family unit." Garth asked as he patted the blanket.

[Tethys Carrack]

Tethys gathers up the remaining bottles and other articles, raising an eyebrow at the labels.

"In a sense, I think my leaving with the order made things less complicated for them." There's a complex fondness in her light alto voice and the curve of her lips as she joins Garth on the blanket. "Both of us were very young castaways, both brought up in rural settlements... but your Onderon is a mostly Human world, isn't it? Dac isn't." Cross-legged, she smooths her loose trousers lightly with her palms. "The Carracks are very kind people. They cared for me as much as any biological family could have. Now that I'm older, though, I realize how difficult it must have been for them, trying to plan for the future for a Human child."

She shakes her head a little. "The Order certainly resolved that problem."

[Garth Wayne Ulgo]

"It is," Garth replied to Tethys's comment about Onderon's population while listening to the rest of her tale, and observing her tics. The pitch of her voice, and the twitch of her lips speaking volumes to those who knew how to listen. "Means ah were more'n less a regular citizen."

Taking liberties he filled two cups with kelpwine and passed one to Tethys. "It makes one wonder why y' were placed on Dac though don't it? Grateful as ah am fer the way yer future developed fr'm there."

[Tethys Carrack]

"Not so much placed there as never removed." She shrugs with one shoulder as she reaches across to take the cup from Garth's hand.

"Quite a lot of ships and escape pods came down all one time, back then. Solar flare incident, and it was also the middle of the war, of course.... I picked up the story in bits and pieces over the years, but I think the recovery can't have been very organized. Emergency services must have had all they could do just to retrieve all the survivors and dangerous debris. I suppose by the time they got around to deciding what to do about the castaways who lived..." she smiles softly. "Knowing Uncle Basz, by then he was probably already attached. I don't really remember much from that long ago, though."

She holds the cup up to the rosy sunrise light glowing along the horizon, appraising the murky color of its contents with an appreciative look in her eye. "Wherever did you find all this, Garth?"

[Garth Wayne Ulgo]

Garth, far from the connoisseur that Tethys was, lifted his cup as well but with different intentions than judging the quality.

"Let's jus' say that there's a few importer's a' the spaceport, but were it not fer the festival, t'woulda been out o' mah price range."

He lifts his cup to catch the morning rays. "T' Uncle Basz. Fer raisin' one o' the noblest individuals ah know."

[Tethys Carrack]

"Well... thank you." She smiles. "To Uncle Basz. As good a parent as any child could ask for, amphibious or not."

She sips her kelpwine with evident pleasure. If Garth hasn't had it before, it might be an acquired taste.

"And to a generous friend, whose family must have done something right too."

---
Whoa, I did not know seaweed wine was an actual thing it's possible to make, but apparently it is...