theattic | PSL: SPACE HOSS

Maurice ignored Ferus as he tried to ask Google for help two more times. Eventually he gave up and tucked the pad away in his saddlebag.

"You're right." He looked around again. He couldn't hear any vehicles or smell anything beyond burnt spacepod to tell him where civilization was. "I dunno." His head was pounding and he knew if he was going to be galumphing through a forest, it was going to make it worse. "But what choice do I have?"

"You can stay here and I can come back", he said easily enough, because that was another option and one he'd already considered. "I don't have a lot of supplies with me. I'd have to be gone a while."

It was tricky to balance this, because of course he'd help someone who had just crashlanded in what he more or less considered his own back yard, but he didn't want to call more attention than necessary to said back yard. Eyeing the pod behind Maurice and the smoke surrounding it, he grimaced faintly as he thought of what that might mean, too.

At least they were reasonably far from the secret path.

Maurice took his turn to think. He could try to crawl back into the pod where at least there was padding and rest...but what if the pod had a built in self-destruct. It had a built in opening mechanism after all. There was also the issue of was this guy even a doctor?

His tail swished as he thought.

"Let's give walking a shot...and thanks, by the way."

"I like to think that if I was lucky enough to crash land, someone would give me a hand."

Ferus shot him a quick smile and started walking, stepping over a thick root and onto the soft ground. He wasn't worried about the small fires from the pod, given the wetness in the soil and how scattered they were, but he still took another look at the craft before he kept going.

The path would get increasingly more thin and winding, he knew. At least he had a good idea on where he was. He'd been here more than enough time to orient himself in a way most people never had.

It might get troublesome with four legs and two more appendages, he thought, taking another look at Maurice.

"I'm Ferus."

Ferus was right.

As long as he'd been a six-limbed abomination, he'd been on a ship with slick floors and wide hallways. There was a Nature Deck but it looked like a perfectly manicured park complete with tiny lake and sailboats. Even the strange woods they had gone camping in were sparse enough for the enormous robots to maneuver around in.

Here, Maurice was not so lucky. Briars tugged at his fur and scratched his knees and he had to duck several times, hands on his throbbing noggin. He really hoped his earring wouldn't catch on anything. He would have taken it off but after being electrocuted too many times by Chop Shop, it had fused shut. The mud sucked at his hooves and after about ten minutes the cheap colorful coverings were all gone.

"Hi, Ferus," he said a little lamely as he eyed the underbrush and found himself worrying what water moccasins on other planets were like. "I'm Maurice...and I guess I am pretty lucky, huh! The pod didn't explode and I wasn't instantly picked up by the government the second I popped out."

Maurice stopped walking. His ears slowly rotated so that they pointed straight back.

"Am I?"

Eyes narrowing slightly, Ferus shot a quick look back at Maurice as he led the way through. That kind of comment deserved a double take. Any kind of comment like that did. Because the government - the Empire ...

"I'm not with them", he said a little flatly after a second, then kept making his way ahead. The ground turned more solid and more dry. The chirps of birds became more common, as well as one or two rustles of the underbush that made headway even more difficult.

There were days he'd much rather stay out here than go back to see the Imperial presence all over his city. His planet. His home.

But you had to be careful in what you said and to whom, these days, so he didn't say much more, not just then.

For a long moment, the Sagittarian did not follow. THAT WAS THE EXACT KIND OF THING A GOVERNMENT PERSON WOULD SAY.

But he was being left behind and his hip was starting to hurt.

"Well...okay...but if you've got any plans to stick me in some test tube or cut me open and film it, I'd make other plans."

Ferus would hear the creature's footfalls following him again, but from further back.

Turning around and stopping, Ferus crossed his arms and fixed Maurice with a scowl.

"Why the kriff would I want to do that?"

Sure, Maurice was a new species as far as he'd seen, but even if Ferus had felt inclined to be morally questionable at best, he wouldn't have first extended a hand.

"If you don't trust me, you're free to leave. I'm not going to stop you."

One of his ears twitched.

Kriff? He tucked that away for later.

"Well..." Maurice pawed at the earth and lowered his gaze to Ferus's blaster. "That's what the government on Earth does to weird-lookin' guys that fall out of the sky. Or we think so. It's never really happened."

Shaking his head, Ferus turned to keep going, but he was keeping an eye on Maurice over his shoulder.

"Well, we don't do that here. Or at least the Empire hasn't thought of it yet. As far as I know."

There was still a little hint of warning there, but Ferus wasn't interested in holding a grudge. Besides, like he'd said, he wouldn't stop Maurice if he tried to leave. That just wouldn't keep him from thinking it was a dumb move.

"Where is this Earth of yours, anyway? Outer Rim?"

"The Empire," Maurice echoed as if it were a word he wasn't used to saying. He really wasn't. Empire belonged in history class. "Well...let's hope they don't."

His hand wandered back up to his head after being clenched at his withers into a fist. Ow, his head.

"I dunno how t' tell you, man. I don't think my solar system has a name." He didn't even know he was in the right dimension either. His stomachs started hurting at the thought of that. He was so far from home. Good grief. "Earth, Pluto, Mars, Jupiter...uh. Uranus. Neptune. There's one I always forget...Earth's the only one wit life."

Somewhat surprised, Ferus threw another look over his shoulder at Maurice, an eyebrow raised. Those were names he didn't recognise at all. And even if systems weren't named, they usually had at least a numerical designation.

"Alright", he said, as he went on ahead, spotting the speeder in the far distance and stepping easily over a particularly big root that wound its way partway up the ground. He didn't like repeating himself, more because he didn't wnat Maurice to think that Ferus thought he was dumb or something, but he did anyway. "But where's that in the galaxy? It's not anywhere near the Core, right?"

"Um..." He paused to watch the huge insect that buzzed overhead. Did he really want to go into alternate dimensions with this guy so soon after meeting him? A forehoof caught on the root Ferus skillfully stepped over and he nearly went sprawling. "I can't...I couldn't tell you. Would...you believe me if I told you that up until just a little while ago, we thought we were the only ones out here?"

He gave the two-legger an anxious smile.

Turning his head to give Maurice another puzzled look, he took the next two steps backwards.

"When you're sentient and have a spaceworthy craft? Not really."

Because ... no, not really. But Maurice seemed genuinely confused about the situation, and Ferus figured that there was no point pressing him on something he might not be able to answer - honestly, he was concussed anyway - so after another short stare he shook his head and turned around, gripping a low-hanging branch to help himself over another particularly big root.

"But alright, we'll deal with that later." He gestured ahead. "Speeder's right there."

Okay, Maurice really should have expected a reaction like that. He blinked rapidly and started following again.

"I was abducted, dude."

Did they say dude in space? Was he going to have to explain 80s earth slang? The Sagittarian's thoughts were interrupted when the speeder appeared. Maurice's ears stood up and an enormous grin replaced his perpetually worried frown. Oh man! Oh wow! That thing looked so cool! And super non-horse friendly but it was still so cool!

Maurice finally did trip over that last big root but his spirits couldn't be dampened in the presence of what was a legit space bike. Something occurred to him as he picked himself up.

"I'm an alien, huh?"

Again. Again Maurice needed a Look.

"... yes?" Ferus tried, just a touch uncertainly, because Maurice was throwing him for all kinds of loops. "You're not really human, at any rate."

At least that much was clear, for all the other confusions: that while Maurice was at least partially humanoid, he was definitely not human. Ferus, however, very much was, as were most Bellassans, and that made such things as speeders easy to maneuver.

For whatever Maurice was, they still had a problem.

Coming up to the speeder and digging through the small compartment, he picked up a small bottle of water, called a "here" and tossed it Maurice's way.

"Yes I am!"

Maurice's face changed to clearly show that he'd only just realized what he'd said as soon as the words left his mouth. He then made another face that suggested he wished he could breathe those words back in because his life had become one long story after another and suddenly he was so tired.

"Nevermind."

He caught the water and stared down at it dumbly. He remembered water. It was what people who couldn't find alcohol drank. He fumbled with the lid before turning it up. His stupid oversized body soaked it up like a sponge. It was hardly a swallow but it was cool in his throat and grounding. Water was everywhere, no matter the 'verse.

How poetic.

Oh, his head.

"Thanks. For all of this, by the way."

"It's not a problem", Ferus said easily, neatly hiding the one remaining projector while Maurice was occupied with the water - while at the same time taking quick stock to confirm that nope, he really didn't have anything here that would help this apparently-a-human out other than that.

Securing the blaster at the back of the speeder, he straightened up and pushed a hand through his hand, thinking.

The speeder wouldn't hold Maurice and any real craft wouldn't be able to land here anyway, so ...

"This would've been a lot easier if you'd crashed anywhere else", he said, not accusingly, just stating, and double-checked the fuel levels. "We have a medcenter in the city but we're a while out. I have a friend I could check with, maybe ... I don't suppose you're up to walking much more?"

"I'll remember that next time." Maurice rolled his eyes but it was obvious he didn't take anything Ferus said as an insult. It actually felt good to joke. But then the seriousness of them being out in the space boonies settled back in again.

"I wanna try."

He squared both sets of shoulders and steadied himself on his hooves.

"Let's go."

Shooting Maurice a quick grin in both encouragement and approval, Ferus climbed into the speeder and keyed up the controls. He kept the speeder at a slow pace as it glided forward, and once both Maurice and him were a few paces from that one clearing, he picked up his comlink to make a call, holding the small device by his mouth.

"Hey Wil", he said, lightly enough, navigating through the trees surrounding them but keeping an eye on Maurice, wanting to be sure he wouldn't hurt himself. With a concussion, you might easily miss some of those treacherous roots. "How far out are you from the Tangle? ... yes. Right. ... it was a pod, Wil. Our guest is a little beat up. ... No, nothing like that. Alright. ... yes. Thanks."

Pocketing the comlink, he slowed the speeder to fall back next to Maurice. "We'll get a ride from the edge. It's not too far."

Maurice was completely ready for the speeder to lift up and move. He'd seen things like it in countless sci-fi flicks, but his horsebrain was not ready. Once it booted up, the newcomer let out a little animal shriek and danced away several impressive paces before he got control of himself again.

He was just gonna...hope Ferus didn't see that.

By the time Ferus joined him at his pace, Maurice had already missed the conversation. He turned his ears toward him and brushed his mane out of his face.

"Good! Ahah, good." He had a thought and eyed the speeder. "What kind of ride? Does it have wheels?"

PSL: SPACE HOSS

COAST TO COAST

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