Noventa - A Star Wars Story

She watched Tew go. She did feel kind of bad to see her leave without a story... but Quinn was also glad *she* wasn't the story. She turned back to Aislea.

"Well, just wanted to apologize again, really. No business."

"Fair enough. And I'll keep what you've said in mind. But news doesn't wait for danger to subside, in its own weird way."

Looking away from Aislea finally, Tew glanced at Quinn, "...anyways, it seems like Quinn here wants to talk to you, and I interrupted things. So I'll take my leave; I may be nosy, but I know private business when I see it."

She gave Quinn a smile, before looking at both of the them, bowing her head a little, and exiting.

/eksit

"You implied it rather heavily Stranger," she said, pulling back a little and cradling her right arm. "And I'm just standin' here to keep folks like you, who don't rightly know anything about that forest from wandering in and getting themselves killed. I don't intend to offend anyone, little grumpy from the tooth that sunk in my arm is all. Still, I heard plenty of strangers like you say something similar and promptly march off into that forest alone. Never came out. One is too many and I've seen a few."

"She kind of does. But she's not wrong."

A small snort, "No one said I was confident, or that I was just going to march right in there."

Tew paused, and shook her head, "You know, you play the part of a grumpy rural local really good, you know that?"

"Walk in there with confidence built like that, you won't walk back out alive. You even realize how prepared for walkin' in there you have to be?" she asked, leveling off her gaze at the woman. Laying her hands out flat on the counter she leaned in towards her a little bit to add more gravity to her words. "If you're gonna go in there, find someone who knows the place and can carry your weight. Only way you'll come back out alive."

"I see."

Tew put away her note pad and pen as she talked, "As to what I'm looking for... I suppose I won't know until I find it. If there really is nothing but some thick trees and hungry beasts, then so be it. Like I said, the story gives me a hunch there's more to it than that. So I'll just have to go exploring, aware of the danger or not. I mean, I've reported from war zones before, so can't be too much worse."

"I don't know what you hope to find miss," Aislea chimed in, "but maybe you city folk just aren't accustomed to the fact that dangerous animals live all around us. Sure, we've got the protections we've got today but when you start wanderin' into their territory you're just asking for trouble. Afraid there's not much of a story for you there, if you're after something... new," she shrugged.

"Right... right."

Why was *everyone* getting on her case? Some even without knowing they were!

"The town grew up around the tavern, hm...?"

Tew mused a bit before turning to look at Quinn, "Maybe a pitch black forest filled with killer beasts isn't news to you, Miss Quinn, but I smell a story. And questions are the best way to test out a hunch like that. Certainly better than diving in blind."

"Why are you so interested in the forest anyhow," Quinn asked to draw some of the pressure off Aislea... making no mention of her own previous interest in the forest.

"Some farms out that way," she indicated the direction with her left hand. "Plenty of folk need a place to come and live, eat their meals. They came here. My mother set up this tavern here back when she was my age to warn people off from the forest and give them a place to stay for when they changed their minds, people have been coming here ever since."

"I keep up the effort, and the tavern. It's nothing glamorous but it keeps folk alive."

"I see."

Tew mused a bit.

"...does the town make much of a living off the forest despite that then? Like with logging or more foolhardy people wanting to see it as a tourist spot? Or do people decide to live around here for a different reason?"

"Forest is just that dense," she said, looking the woman over with a curved brow. Shaking her head she shifted so she could move her arm some.

"No light? Is that some sort of dark side of the Force mumbo jumbo sort of thing, or is the forest just that dense?"

So far it sounded more normal than she'd hoped for; Just some dark forest with its proverbial wolves. But maybe there was more to it than that?

"Yes," she said with a nod toward Tew when she checked to make sure what her name was...

...and then the conversation turned to the forest and its dangers... and Quinn got quiet, looking away.

There was a joke in there that Tewzada wasn't aware of but Aislea could only grin when the woman said that, glancing to Quinn as she did. "You're right about that stranger, and I can say through no false information that walking into that forest alone without knowing what you're getting into is good to get yourself dead."

"I've spent a couple years here warnin' folks off from just walking in there on a whim. Knew it was dangerous. Wasn't till recently I got a taste of just how dangerous. Predators hunt that forest and they're attuned to it. For us, the light of the sun drops off just a bit of the ways inside, completely. Going in there you'd need some way to see but take anything that emits light and," she shrugged, "you ever seen how fast predators run to something like that? Bugs to a lantern. I wouldn't go in there without a full team, and even then I'd do whatever it is you're lookin' for and get out quick."

"Hello there again Miss... Quinn, wasn't it?"

She gave her a brief smile before turning to the other woman, "Ah, I don't know about my friend here, but I was actually here to ask about that forest, you know? It doesn't seem the best idea to just wander into the wilderness without a map or information or such."

"I... I wanted to apologize," she said, looking at the arm.

Then she realized Aislea was talking to two people, and she looked over to her side.

Oh, crap. Reporter.

She too forced a smile. "Oh, hello."

Aislea went to wave in the new stranger but her wound reminded her better of it, gripping her arm for a moment as she forced a smile. "Greetings Stranger," she said to the Twi'lek girl as she approached. Glancing to Quinn, "What can I do you both for?"