Fishgirl Out of Water

Posted on Tue Sep 25th, 2012 @ 3:08am by Berry
Edited on on Tue Sep 25th, 2012 @ 12:25pm

3,198 words; about a 16 minute read

Chapter: Chapter I: Web of Fate
Location: Nar Shadda
Timeline: Day 1

OLD

Berry yelped and swam to the edge of the tank, scrabbling up the side and splashing back into the water. “Nooo, don’tclosedon’tclose!” She tried to use some fish as maybe steps, but they were nowhere to be found. She fell back into the water with a sigh as the tank closed. At least the water was fresh. She lowered her face in the water and made some bubbles as she pouted.

NEW

Berry floated on her back, staring up at the dark lid of the tank. Her skin was as wrinkly as a dried sea grape, but luckily it didn’t peel so much. The grey fish swam around her, interest having waned after three days with the part Aquar. Their tail motions were a bit listless, and a couple dead ones floated in the corner.

She had lost count of her backstrokes, but it was around a high thousand before she lost interest and started counting how fast she could swim wall to wall. And she was out of snacks. She sighed.

Suddenly the tank began to shake. No, the whole was shaking. Were they landing? Eventually everything quieted. Berry quickly righted herself and swam to the edge, brown eyes wide.

Sure enough, the lid slowly started to slide open. Berry was so happy she would’ve danced if she wasn’t treading water. Then she heard voices and paused in her stupid attempt to dance, the waters quietly sloshing against the tank wall.

“How fresh are they?” a male being growled, almost accusatorily.

“Pretty fresh.”

“ ‘Pretty?’ Boss Grogga ain’t gonna accept ‘pretty.’ He special ordered these ‘cause of their freshosity, so they gotta be the best of the best, or yer out!”

The sound of some kind of metal door opening reached her ears, and the conversation sounded clearer.

“It wasn’t my fault we forgot the fish food!”

The gruffer being began to mock the other. “ ‘Wasn’t my fault, wah wah wah.’ Just get in there and get the weaker fish out for the moon cantinas. I ain’t gonna get punished for your idiotnessy.”

The ship’s cargo doors slid open as well, and Berry could smell fresh air. Well, air that was fresher than ship air. Her nose wrinkled. This new air kind of stunk. Big time.

Berry inhaled for the longest time and dove into the water, reaching the poopy bottom. She curled herself into a small ball, her shoes resting on the floor. Before she started to inevitably float to the top, she raised her arms to point her hands above her, then pushed off the floor of the tank.

She had rehearsed this many times, always stopping short of the lid (being smushed to the top was not a way to ensure survival). Thus, she knew she had to overshoot to get to the edge of the tank.

Which was why Berry shouldn’t have been surprised when she rocketed out of the water and sailed over the edge. But she was anyway, brown eyes wide in surprise as she saw her target fly under her. She also briefly glimpsed the also-surprised looks of the two talking beings. They looked weird.

The moon’s gravity quickly took hold of her, and Berry instinctively braced herself for a roll across the floor. She quickly leapt to her feet and ran out of the cargo ship, wet hair slapping her back. She was freeeeee!!!

She ran a bit more before raising her hands and leaping around, a stupid grin on her face. “I MADE IT!!!” But to where, exactly? As she squeezed the water out of her hair she suddenly began violently coughing, her brows knit in confusion. This air sucked! She wiped at her mouth and almost pouted as she plodded along, a small squelch sounding with every step.

Whether it was night or day was hard to tell. There were glittering lights everywhere in the sky above her, but even the sky was hard to find. Enormous buildings rose all around her, some seeming taller than volcanoes and disappearing from view in the sky. She was on some kind of…street, and all around her were flashing lights and masses of beings.

Berry squinted, her eyes unused to the high amounts of light. There was a perpetual layer of grime under her feet, a dirty brown that coated everything around her. Everyone was so loud, and they looked so funny! A person walked by with floaty thingies on his head, and Berry quickly spun around to stare, her mouth hanging open stupidly. Whoa. And over there! She spun again. She’d never seen a droid so tall!

“Get out o’the way!!” something snarled as it shoved into her.

Berry stumbled back, blinking in surprise. Then a smile began to form on her face, growing wider and wider. She wasn’t on Coruscant, but she wasn’t on Velusia, either. Success!!

She held onto the straps of her bagpack, a happy smile on her face as she skipped through the crowded street.

“You there!”

Berry committed her first major error for a tourist and made eye contact with a hawker.

The hawker, a grubby looking small man-thing, quickly rushed to her with some weird blobby thing in his hands. “Guaranteed to explode upon impact!”

The part-Aquar grinned amusedly, chuckling. “No thanks.”

The hawker blinked. “Ah, a pretty girl!” He tossed the blob aside and reached into his pocket. “Here, what about this?” He held out something that looked like a bracelet, twinkling and flashing.

Berry smiled widely, captivated by the sparkling lights. “How much?”

Now the hawker had calmed, acting casual. “Hmmm, how about…fifty credits.” The blob quivered at his feet, still whole.

Berry wracked her brain. Trinkets like these cost about fifteen shells on Velusia…and considering she was given less credits than she gave shells, that meant a credit was worth more than a shell. So fifty credits was…a lot! She gave the hawker a small frown, looking very serious. Her decision to buy this would have to be determined by one of the most important questions in the galaxy. “Can I eat it?”

“What?” The hawker looked very confused. “No, you can’t, you wear it!” Then he paused, hurriedly adding, “Yes, you can! You can eat anything if you set your mind to it!”

Berry burst into laughter. “You’re right! But man…it hurts on the way out.” She shook her head at the hawker. “Sorry, I won’t buy it.” Then she turned and walked on, feeling a small wave of heat at her back as the blob finally exploded, much to the hawker’s dismay.

She walked around a bit more, turning into alleys that frequently became dead ends. They didn’t twist and turn too much for her to get lost…until now.

Berry kept turning where the alley went, walking without a care. It was nice out here. Sure, there was a ton more garbage, but it wasn’t so loud. It also wasn’t too bright out here, her shadows starting to meld with the actual darkness of streets. But as the minutes wore on, Berry realized she didn’t know where she was going. How was she going to get to Coruscant? No, more importantly: where was her next meal going to be?

“Help! Someone help!”

Berry paused in her steps, head turning toward the direction of the voice. Then she started running toward it, turning the corner.

A diminuitive female near-Human lay sprawled on the ground, clutching her side as blood seeped from it. A larger Rodian male stood over her, brandishing a vibroblade. He looked up at the sound of Berry, his dark eyes even darker in these shadows.

Berry paused in her steps, brows lowered slightly as she looked seriously at him. “Hey. You stay away from her.”

He scoffed, almost laughing. “Make me!”

Berry smiled, chuckling. “You asked.” Then she ran forward and grabbed and his arm and leg, turning him in such a way that he flew across the alley junction and away from the hurt female.

Berry’s speed took the Rodian by surprise, but now he was no longer in a playing mood. He stood, growling. “You’ve made the biggest mistake of your life!”

At that, the part-Aquar simply smiled. “Nah, I made that last year.”

The Rodian ran toward her, vibroblade brandished. The hum grew suddenly loud and soft as he stabbed at her, making slicing motions in the air.

Berry just stood there, smiling in disbelief. “Um, I’m over here.”

The man growled anew, turning where she had reappeared.

Berry laughed as she dodged his attacks. “You can just leave now!”

As he stabbed where her head was, Berry swooped in under his arm and punched once into his torso. Everything always slowed for her during combat. Like how even right now she could feel the fiber of his clothes under her hands as he flew out from under her and back into the metal wall.

Berry straightened and brushed her hands off, smiling at her good work. “Please stay down. It’ll only make things easier.”

Then she heard a humming behind her. As she glanced behind her she could glimpse the near-Human female standing behind her and a vibroblade sailing into the air.

Berry yelped and dodged that one, too. She frowned at the woman. “That one almost hit me. Your aim is really bad.”

Then suddenly the Rodian screamed in pain, and a quick look confirmed that the vibroblade had taken a chunk out of the side of his leg. The hostile woman’s eyes suddenly widened, and she ran off.

“Hey, that woman wasn’t hurt so bad after all,” Berry remarked before jogging over to the Rodian.

“Get away from me!” he snarled as he struggled to stand. Green blood poured from his thigh, and he sagged against the metal wall. He gave her a glare as best as he could with those pitch black wide eyes, antennae waving frantically. “Well, are you gonna finish me off or what?”

Berry raised an eyebrow at him, very confused. “I didn’t do that to you, so why should I finish you off?”

“They’re gonna kill me anyway, with my leg half gone…” he mumbled dramatically to himself, now having resigned to sit there as his blood joined the city grime.

Berry’s eyebrows shot up as she ripped off a piece of her tunic. “Hm? Who’s going to?”

“My gang, of course!” the Rodian bit back.

“Oh. They don’t sound very nice.” Berry knelt by him and wrapped her tunic around his leg, making sure it was tight but not too tight around his wound. The seagrass immediately became soaked in blood, so Berry added more pieces of tunic, compressing the wound.

“What are you doin’??” he asked defensively.

She grinned down at him. “Taking you to the healer!” She sat in front of him, her back to his front, grabbed his arms over her shoulders, and then stood, the Rodian now slung across her back as if she was giving a ride to a child. She hunched over a little so his legs didn’t drag.

The man was too much in shock both at the wound and the gesture to say anything for a few seconds as she trodded along. Then finally: “Where are you takin’ me?? HEY, put me down!!”

Berry laughed. “If I put you down, you won’t be able to walk and then you’ll be killed. Hey, which way is it to the healer?”

“Why should I tell you?”

“Because you’re hurt.”

There was a pause. “…make a left.”

Berry turned right.

“Your other left!”

She fluidly made a circle and jogged down her other left.

“You know I could kill you right now,” he told her, doing his best to be menacing despite the pain.

Berry shook her head. “I’d know it before you’d even try." She grinned back at him. "And I can beat you, so you better watch out.”

“I bet you’re just kidnapping me,” he mumbled. Beat him up one moment and take him to the healer’s the next? Preposterous! “And they charge more than just a leg at the medcenter. Got any money on you??”

Berry laughed as if it was stupid not to have money. “Of course!”

“Should’ve been ours,” he continued to mumble. “You smell like fish. Damn fishgirl…”

They eventually made it to the medcenter, which was a dingy building that didn’t even look that clean. Berry’s steps slowed.

“Just dump me here to die,” the Rodian demanded of her for the umpteenth time.

“I won’t do that! We’re almost here!”

“We ARE here.”

“Oh.” Berry looked around for a door and pushed against a panel. It creakily slid open, and Berry walked inside.

It was pretty crowded with all these hurt people, and the smells were funky. Must be from the different types of blood exposed to the air here. Berry looked around for some kind of official-looking person and found a droid perched behind a desk off to the side.

“Hi!” She waved her hands in front of the droid.

It creaked to life, head swiveling towards her. “State your business.”

Berry craned her neck to look at the Rodian’s leg. “Uh…really bad leg wound?”

“Five hundred credits.”

“Whaaaat?!” The Rodian exclaimed. “That’s insane! I could get all the painkillers I wanted from an off-the-street medic for less!”

The droid’s dim eyes seemed to focus on the Rodian as it replied, “Mortality rates at such a place is more than double ours.” It leaned toward the man, almost challengingly. “We have a med droid.”

Berry grinned. “See? That’s worth it! Here, let’s see how much money I have…” She took off her belt and opened a couple pockets, dumping some credits onto the desk.

The droid didn’t hesitate even one nanosceond as it scooped up all the money, leaving behind a dead beetle. “Come with me.”

Berry smiled excitedly, popping the beetle in her mouth before jogging after the droid. “See? This’ll work!” The Rodian was oddly quiet. Alive, but quiet. Maybe it hit him that he was actually going to be treated, or he was just tired. Berry didn’t know, but as she walked she asked the droid, “Why didn’t we have to wait like the other people?”

“A wound such as his requires immediate attention. You also had enough credits to avoid the wait.”

“How much?”

“Fifty.”

Berry smiled in relief. “Well, that was lucky.”

They were led into a less crowded room with tables popped up in random places. “Wait here.” The droid zoomed out.

Berry smiled and turned around. “Here, watch out.” She gently placed him on the table, then turned around to help his head down.

The Rodian shrugged her off, looking the other direction. He had grown pretty quiet, and so Berry sat down on the grimy floor. She eyed a weird dried pool of something and scooted away from it. She glanced back and saw the bottom of her tunic also had some dried green, and Berry laughed. “Hey look, you got some blood on me! Now I’ve got two colors of greens on my tunic.”

Berry smiled amusedly around her, seemingly at nothing, as there were just dingy walls around them. She folded her arms behind her head, slouched a bit, and closed her eyes.

The next time she opened her eyes, there was a strange white wall in front of her. Berry jumped to her feet, brown eyes wide. “Green guy! Where are you?!”

“I’m right here,” came a growl from the other side of the wall.

Berry was so relieved she even punched the wall. It fluffed from her hand, and she soon realized it was a cloth-like substance. There was the Rodian, laying on the table as before. Berry untangled her hand from the curtain and smiled at him. “Hey! Your leg’s better!”

The man finally turned his head, gazing at her with those unreadable eyes. “Yeah, but I can’t move for a bit.”

Berry made a fist, smiling grimly. “Then I’ll protect you.”

His antennae started to freak out as he asked her, tone slightly hostile, “Why?? Why would you do this?? I’m just going to get up and go back to what I was doin’—connin’ saps like you! So why help me?”

Berry tilted her head, frowning in confusion. “Huh? What’s conning?” She shrugged, ignoring the questions she didn’t know and answering what she did. “I’m helping you because you’re hurt. It feels bad, and I don’t like it when people feel bad.” She sat on the table, legs swinging.

The Rodian sighed at such nonsense. “Yeah, but what if people feeling bad makes me feel better?”

The part-Aquar’s legs stopped swinging. Berry looked over at the Rodian, brows lowered as she smiled faintly at him. “Then I’ll stop you.” Her semi-serious expression dissipated as she grinned widely at him. “Which you know I can do, so watch out!”

The Rodian looked away, a bit miffed. “What if you can’t?”

Berry smiled at him as if the answer was obvious. “Then I’ll die trying.”

He glanced at her. “You’re…not afraid of dying, are you?”

She grinned. “Nope.”

He sighed. “That answers it…”

Suddenly her stomach growled, and Berry clutched it with a worried look. “Hey, do you know where I can find some food?”

“AH HA!” the Rodian exclaimed triumphantly. “I KNEW you were going to demand something in return!”

Berry pouted at him. “No, I’m not! Just tell me where it is and I’ll go to it without your help.”

She felt that he was giving her a look that everyone does when they don’t believe her. His voice told her that, too. “You couldn’t have made it here without my help.”

She shrugged. “I can at least try.”

The Rodian gazed at her for a few moments, calculating. This girl was obviously not ordinary, and she seemed easily swayed. With what was the question, but he’d leave that to the smarter people in his gang. It was worth a try…and then maybe they could overlook his pathetic wound by a fellow member. “Fine. I know this cantina we can go to. The food’s better than the patrons, at least.”

Berry nodded, smiling. “Good! Food’s more important, anyway.”

“Not if you value your life,” he mumbled. “C’mon, I can feel my leg now.”

Berry sprang to her feet and held out her arms. “I can hold you—”

“NO MORE HOLDING.”

TBC

((OOC Hanh: Sorry for the last half, I rushed it since I have to leave for an exam soon. And I have no idea how much is too much in terms of credits for services, so that's just me making things up. Anyway, onwards, men!))

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