Author's Note: Thanks to everyone for all the support! You've been great with inspiring me, and I am highly appreciative of your input. If you have any tips writing tips, please feel free to comment.
As always, I continue to hope that I am doing justice to the spirit of Star Wars as well the respective authors and characters from which I borrow. Again, I gratefully accept constructive criticism as a means to help me develop my skills further as a writer.
Mandalorian (Mando'a) words
Ika (EE-kah): diminutive suffix written as 'ika - also added to a name as a very familiar or childhood form, e.g, Ord'ika - Little Ordo
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Chapter 18
The other squads had called us the Reject Squad practically from the moment the Kaminoans had released us from our incubation pods. They couldn't understand how we could argue and fight amongst ourselves so consistently. I guess when you're told you're a reject often enough, at some point you begin to believe it. I can't say when exactly it happened, but we realized that if we were going to be considered rejects, then we would be sure to use it to our advantage. It didn't take us long to learn how to bend the rules and show our superiors they were wrong. More importantly, we specialized in proving how our superiors were wrong.
RC-1168 "Dusty" reminiscing about his time in the GAR
Tochin Moon III, 784 Days ABG
Tearing off another remnant of meat from the carcass of the Fang-bird, Mouse decided that their impromptu cuisine was just far too precious to waste. He picked up a RubyFruit slice and placed both the meat and the fruit in his mouth, chewing thoughtfully.
Les'ika had wanted to make a sauce or at least a paste for them to dip the meat in, but they had no way to mash the fruit and no bowl to contain it within so they sliced up the large berries instead and ate them in conjunction with the Fang-bird.
It was the best they could do to contain the wild taste of the meat, but Mouse could think of far less appetizing foods to eat and was glad to have the flightless avian instead.
As for the Fang-bird, their only resource was to build a spit and set a fire beneath it.
Unfortunately, it was a long and tedious task because they needed to rotate the bird every few minutes to keep it from burning, and what none of them really calculated was that it took nearly four hours to get the bird roasted thoroughly and cooked fully.
Still, Mouse decided that four hours was a short time to wait for a meal, as opposed to running our of ration cubes and resorting to eating bark and insects. He would do what he needed to survive , he doubted that Les'ika would survive on a meal like that.
So, at least they would have their ration cubes last just that much longer. Thinking that it was best that they saved their ration cubes for emergencies, Mouse came to the conclusion that he would take it upon himself to hunt regularly at every opportunity he could.
Even though he and his brothers had no problems living off the land, it was fairly obvious that the princess never had such an experience.
In fact, Mouse had to stop himself from chuckling earlier as he watched Les'ika try to carefully tear off a small section of the bird with her fingers.
She tried to be delicate and polite, pinching the meat as though it was something she hadn't ever done before in her life, and he could see that she was just wishing she had access to eating utensils.
It was at that point, Dusty tore into the breast of the bird and and handed her a large chunk of the meat.
She had taken it graciously and apologized for being excessively disciplined with her manners. Dusty simply nudged her shoulder gently with his knuckles and explained to her the difference between civilized eating and surviving eating.
And, the difference merely was whether she wanted to die of hunger with her fingers still clean oe live satisfied with a bit of food under her nails. She had no other response but a bashful smile, and even that had loosened a smile out of Gath.
Strangely, Mouse noted, Jas was unusually quiet and withdrawn during the entire exchange, and he knew that could only mean one thing: Jas had buried himself within because something was bothering him.
It wasn't the first time Jas had done this, but Mouse was never one to pry and had decided that it wasn't his business to ask questions.
His brother needed some time to clear his head, then it was for the better. If he was distracted too much, it could lead to disaster, and that was something he decided they didn't need.
Taking another bite of the Fang-bir's meat, Mouse found his attention on the sun dropper deeper over the tree line and knew that night was moving in quickly.
The blush tint of the evening was swiftly giving way to darkness that would cover the forest, and he still had to get the carcass buried soon so that it wouldn't attract any unnecessary attention from the local wildlife.
It would be extremely amateurish of them to be torn apart alive in the middle of the night because of some animal seeking the remnants of a meal.
Mouse gave the Fang-bird's meat a final once over, content that they had cleaned it well enough and there was only minimal waste. The animal's sacrifice had not been pointless, as even killing it was to prevent further endangerment to the princess.
Mouse decided that he had to get moving and take the carcass for a decent walk to be buried, but his curiosity was suddenly piqued when Les'ika picked up one of the half-dozen large, thin sticks she had gathered earlier and skewered a large-sized RubyFruit onto the tip of the stick.
Before Mouse could question it, dusty asked, "What are you doing?"
The princess continued with her work, using each of the remaining five sticks to stab more of the RubyFruit. When she was done, she had skewered pieces of fruit and a large pile of untouched fruit awaiting their seeming execution.
"I thought the least I could do for everything you've done for me was make dessert. It's not much, but it's one way I could thank you," she explained as her eyes came around to each of them.
Dusty noted, though, that her moved quickest past Jas than they had the rest of them. He glanced over at his brother, aware of how Jas was exhibiting the rigidity of a soldier who took his mission seriously.
He actually made Gath seem easy-going, and that was not an easy feat to accomplish.
"Ma'am, it's not necessary," Gath said, shaking his head. "We're just following orders."
Arlesse sighed as she brought one of the skewers to the fire and set it carefully in the flame. She could only think of that poor soldier who gave his life for her and how she never had the chance to thank him. "I made the mistake once of not offering my gratitude when I should have. I won't allow that to happen again."
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Star Wars Republic Commando: Knight of Honor ✓
Fanfiction[COMPLETED AND EDITING] A fairy tale-esque story of a chivalrous clone and a sheltered princess. Clones learn loyalty, honor, obedience, and sacrifice-not kindness, not compassion, not humanity, and... not love. An elite clone commando of the Grand...
