Star Wars: Werrin the Wonderer

Ian had been caught up in the turning tides; his reality now a fantasy, so he had completely forgotten about the mundane. His stomach grumbled again, louder.

"He, he... It seems you need to eat, do you have any food?" Illus asked and Ian paled, "I hadn't even thought about it, ugh." he said. "You best go back to the caves then, the one with the hooded fellows, perhaps they have food there," Illus recommended.

"Sounds like a plan," Ian replied.

---

Back at the Junker village, Jent had woken-up.

"Ughh, my head," Jent said, rubbing his temples. "Every bloody morning," he groaned, sitting upright on the couch he had slept on. He got to his newly refurbished feet and searched through the house looking for Ian.

After looking inside and outside of his small shack, he sat back down on the couch and scratched his head "where has that little scallywag gone?" Jent wasn't worried, the village's entrances were guarded, so Ian couldn't have wandered too far, right?

There was a knock on Jent's door. Thump, thump, thump. He got up and opened it. "You found him?" he asked before fully opening the door, thinking that maybe one of the guards had picked up Ian.

"F-f-found him, Sir Jent you already knew?" It was Nu'bar, still quivering from the night before, his eyes blackened by the dark circles of sleeplessness. "Already knew what?" Jent asked, confused. "It's Werrin, he's disappeared Sir," Nu'bar answered.

"That fu*king idiot!" Jent roared, knowing that Werrin had snuck off to slay whatever it was that had killed the guards.

Jent grabbed the Beskad and his mask and ran out. "Sir, what am I supposed to do now?" Nu'bar called out from behind, still standing at the door.

"The off-worlder has run off too, go look for him, I will deal with Werrin." Jent replied, emphasizing the words 'deal with'.

Jent made his way to the refuge tunnel where the killer had burrowed in. If Werrin was going to kill that thing he would have to track it down first, and if Jent was going to stop him, he would have to do the same; follow the tracks.

He put on his mask, leaving the village, and walking up the refuge tunnel Jent saw what remained of the killer's burrow. It had collapsed and whether that was out of natural instability or if it had purposefully been sealed off by the guard, Jent didn't know.

"The long way it is then," Jent murmured to himself.

Werrin wasn't dumb enough to make his way through a collapsing tunnel, so Jent hoped to pick up his tracks up top. When he reached the refuge he was greeted by the masked faces of the outpost's new guards.

"Has Werrin been through," Jent asked. "Err... no, no he hasn't," one of the new guards stammered out in reply. Jent sighed, "I'll take that as a yes then."

The doorless frame that Jent had broken into, was now blocked off by a set of oxidized, copper green, cabinets, "Help me shift this," he told a guard, "Um, Mr Jent are you sure you should be going out, there's a killer on the loose after all?" The guard replied. "Yes I'm sure, are you going to help or not?" Jent snapped back.

"Err... are you absolutely certain."

Jent was infuriated, Werrin's little lackeys were stalling for him. "Im telling you now, if Werrin dies out there, which is a real possibility, you won't even have to worry about me coming after you, the Doc will get to you first. That kind old man, who's probably taught all of you at one point or another, will cut off your limbs, cauterize the stumps, and leave you out in the acid-rain... Naked!" The guards flinched at the gory scene that Jent portrayed and grew deathly pale.

"Sorry Sir!" they shouted in unison and quickly helped Jent move the makeshift barricade.

Jent stepped out and outside it appeared to be snowing; with gently cascading white flecks falling from the sky."Sh*t," Jent grunted and reaching out with a metallic hand, he plucked a piece of floating ash from the air. "An ash storm, just great... I better hurry," Jent grumped.

On the ground, there was a mishmash of bootprints, Jent looked around for Werrins' and it didn't take him long to find them. It was the only set of prints heading north; an area that had long been looted clean and also just so happened to be the direction the killer's tunnel had been dug in.