Clone Wars Underground: Chapter 27
Anali marked the bottles carefully. She knew full well what could transpire if anything were mis-marked in an apothecary shop. Some of the herbs were extremely potent and harmful if used in the wrong way. She enjoyed her job, even if it was a front. It reminded her of what her father used to say. Make everything work for you. Meedi was in the back, pruning plants and laying the clippings out to dry in the Ho’din fashion. Meedi was a Caamasi woman who came to Moltok to learn the advanced ways of the Ho’din apothecary. She apprenticed herself to a senior botanist and never left. Now she ran her own shop in Petiol. Anali was her only assistant and learning all she could from the Caamasi master apothecary.
Two men and a boy came though the door. Meedi came to the front, ready to greet her customers.
Anali looked up and knew exactly who stood before her. She had seen those faces before. They were the faces of the man who killed her brother. In a fraction of a second she leveled a small, slender blaster at the foremost of the men.
“Clones.” She snarled quietly.
Fives and Brix put their hands up to show that they weren’t armed.
“Anali!” Meedi was shocked. She had never seen Anali with a weapon, let alone one aimed straight at her customers.
“Back up, Meedi. I can handle this test-tube trash.” Anali’s voice never lost its venom.
“Whoa, whoa. Hold on. We’re just here for some medicine.” Fives reasoned. Ellia sent him to get a list of things she needed for the clinic. Brix assessed the situation. He was certain at his angle behind Fives that he could reach his blaster and stun the girl before she knew what happened. He waited for the call, but Fives didn’t give it.
“Not here. Get out.” Anali kept her eyes locked on the two clones.
Fives nodded and they left, passing a Ho’din customer in the entrance as they exited.
When they were gone, she lowered her weapon. “Sorry Meedi. Those meat droids are the reason I’m an orphan.”
“Those ones?” Meedi smoothed her fur.
Anali pressed her lips together in an annoyed line. Another customer entered the cramped shop.
“Hello Fawnjoy.” Meedi greeted the Ho’din customer.
“Good to see you, Meedi.” She returned and then focused on Anali. “How are you, dear?”
The blaster disappeared and Anali sighed. “Alright. But we have enemy intruders.”
“Were they wearing uniforms?” The ho’din asked gently.
“No.”
“Were they with an invasion force?”
“No.” Anali replied a little calmer.
“Anali, things are changing.” Fawnjoy looked her up and down, trying to assess how agitated she was. “Why don’t you come over to my place this evening?”
“Okay.” Anali agreed after some hesitation. She noticed the bottles of herbs she had been sorting and gathered them up. She nodded to the others and went to the back.
“Thank you, Fawn.” Meedi said when the young woman was out of earshot.
“Too many lost souls.” Fawnjoy replied.
“You do what you can.”
“Thank you for giving her a job.”
“I should be thanking you for introducing her, my goods have never been so organized.”
“We are in Seppie territory.” Brix muttered almost inaudibly, checking his weapons again. It was a habit that some might see as obsessive. Brix thought of it as “being ready at all times”.
“Former Sep territory.” Fives corrected. Although they may need to resort to disguises in the future.
“Did either of you notice the look the Ho’din gave me when we left?” Cet asked. “She almost stopped to ask me something. It was like she knew who I was.”
Both men shrugged.
“Oh, I guess Maaka’s observation training is really paying off for me!” Cet’s triumphant smile could almost be felt. Fives rolled his eyes. He almost opened his mouth but thought the better of it. Back in his ARC trooper days, thoughts rolled off his lips as if they were oiled with drive lubricant. Instead, he patted Cet on the head.
“Nice work, Kid.” Fives sighed internally. Kid? Blaster bolts, I’m becoming more and more like Rex.
Moltok – Carpet District
There were others at Fawnjoy’s home. She attracted people, strays. Anali knew all of them. They were like a family. She helped herself to the sweet cakes on the counter. Fawn always had something for her guests. They were having a meeting tonight. The host was currently speaking to the holo of an older Ho’din before the meeting began.
“The Wasting One is coming.” The holo told her.
“This could be more danger than we can handle.” Fawnjoy sounded exhausted. Anali knew she was very busy all the time.
“Are you having second thoughts?”
“No, but I do have a few ideas. I’ll talk to you later.” The tiny holo disappeared. Fawn put the projector in her pocket and joined her guests. She was gentle but distant. Anali guessed that at one time she had a twinkle in her eye, but there was a sadness that laced into words and actions. Anali knew something about that. She felt sad when she lost her parents and brother, but that sadness had hardened into something else. Fawn wasn’t hardened at all, she was soft and sad. Anali knew that no matter what, she would be there for Fawn.
“It would seem we have some new guests on Moltok.” Fawnjoy told everyone.
“Are’t there already tons of beings moving to the planet?” Someone asked.
“An elderly gentleman with a Twi’lek son. Someone who is master of a particular family.”
“Adopted?” A few others laughed.
Fawnjoy smiled. They all knew that Ho’din were unable to have children with any other species in the known galaxy. “And some humans.” She paused and looked to Anali. “Clones.”
Fierfek! Those copied fleshbags who came to the shop were with a Ho’din garden master? Anali’s face was like stone.
“This is the family with lands connected to the Northern Sage.” Fawn explained simply. Anali knew the story. There were two legendary beings, the Northern Sage and the Wasting One. While one represented growth and prosperity, the other was a harbinger of decay and death. She knew that the legend began about the time a disease nearly wiped out all the Ho’din. When she first came to Moltok she noticed that there were far more off-worlders than native Ho’din. Even the Makurth population was decreasing. Could it be the fault of this Wasting One? Was it slowly decaying the native population? Anali knew what it was like to lose family. She knew Fawnjoy was losing much more than that, she was losing her entire race. The government was not helping. they were strict followers of the Dinante F’lir, a religion that controlled Ho’din births. She pledged that she would help Fawn find another solution, but basing their actions on a myth hardly seemed logical.
“What’s the plan?” A deep green Makurth asked.
“Before he came back, we were just going to check out the rumors for ourselves, scanning the whole northern halo. Now, we will need to be more cautious. We need to know where to look before we go in. We can’t just randomly scan the whole halo.”
“I can find that spot.” Anali interjected. Fawnjoy didn’t ask how. She knew that Anali had connections. She merely nodded her head in the human woman’s direction.
The meeting broke down into private conversations between guests and Fawnjoy walked over to join her human friend.
“How are you doing this evening?” The taller woman asked. Fawn’s vine-like hair tubes were a vibrant magenta. She wore yellow flowers in them. Her long, thin arms were hidden under a loosely woven green shall.
“The last thing that we need to deal with are clones. They’re going to get in the way, and if you’re thinking of allying yourself with this master gardener who employs washed-up Republic clone troopers, I think it’s a bad idea. There’s no way that they could be connected to Moltok or what we’re looking for.” Anali went straight to what was bothering her.
“You don’t have to be friends, but we do have to get along with them just until the true dinante is restored.” She placed a hand on Anali’s shoulder. “You can sit this out, if you like.”
“No. It’s fine.” Anali grumbled. “But I might shoot one of them before this is over.”
Fawn knew the feeling. She dealt with her own dose of betrayal and anger. It was never easy to lose family.
Fawnjoy turned to the rest of her guests. They were mostly Ho’din, two Makurth, and Anali, the only human. “Friends. Our people are dying. While we die, our children are sacrificed by our own government. Their laws were made to preserve the plant-heritage of the Ho’din, but this is not the true way of nature.”
Anali knew of the Ho’din tradition of government approved births. She knew that any Ho’din couple that didn’t follow the tradition with the approval of the government would have their child taken away.
“Two years ago, my mate and I had a child.” Fawnjoy said softly. All conversations stopped. They seemed to know what was coming. “The government took her and threw her off the city platforms into the deep forest because we didn’t follow the appropriate ritual. They murdered my child. Meanwhile, our native population continues to decrease.”
A timid-looking Ho’din spoke up. “But they were just following the Dinante F’lir, were they not? Any child born without the plant ritual is unholy.”
“The F’lir, yes. But what is Dinante? Is it not the way of nature itself? We are descended from plants, but we cannot naturally reproduce as plants do, not without a laboratory. Maybe that was a punishment for the sins of our race, but artificially trying to regain our previous state is not natural either. Does having children in a lab sound like the Dinante to you? Does it sound like the natural way? I say that Dinante dictates that we live our lives as we are now, not as the plants that we wish we were.”
“That’s against everything the government teaches.”
“Yes, but the government is also not Dinante itself.”
The room was silent. Fawnjoy wasn’t just suggesting rebellion, she was speaking heresy against the religion accepted by the entire race. Anali didn’t understand how the Northern Sage and the Wasting One were connected to all of this, but Fawnjoy was determined. The Wasting One was a frightful tale of wither and decay. It was said that the creature was always in a state of death and that it needed to eat the living to survive. It was created when the Ho’din cut down their forests and unleashed a terrible sickness that nearly decimated their entire race. If it were up to Anali, she would unleash it on the intruders, the Empire and the clones alike. The High Master Gardener was a deeper matter. High Master Balen’wa would have been the Ho’din who threw Fawn’s child into the depths of the forest. Fawn wanted to stop him and Anali could see an easy way of doing that. Overthrowing a government by taking out one corrupt leader happened on more worlds than people actually realized. Fawn, however, was challenging a religious practice in place for thousands of years. Any child born outside of the Dinante Fli’R’s specific rules was killed. Even the one who were never found out seemed to disappear after a while. Was it the Wasting One come to get vengeance for not following the Fli’R? Anali sighed mentally. By now the informal meeting of Fawnjoy’s little band was drawing to a close.
“We’ve got work to do.” Fawnjoy closed and everyone disbanded. Fawnjoy came up to Anali as she was leaving.
“Be careful.” She cautioned. She had no idea what Anali’s plan was to get the location of the Norhtern Sage.
“Trust me Fawn. I can do this. Besides, I know right where to look.”
“But you know what will happen if you get caught.” The magenta tubes on her head seemed to stiffen a little.
“I’ll be okay, Fawn. Don’t worry.” Anali tried her best to reassure the other woman.
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