The Palatinaean trod lightly upon the Gungan-travelled walkways of the underwater city. So marvelous were the sights that the young man often caught himself gawking at one grand creature of the deep or another that swam past the corridor through which he traversed to an adjoining node. His surroundings did much to distract from the official purpose of his visit, though, trade negotiations were of little to no excitement to the hybrid. Not for the first time, he caught guards fixing him with a firm glare as they strode by on their routine patrol, electropoles held stifly at their sides. He paid them no mind. The Human, on the other hand…Quejo fell into step at Mune’s side.
“Impressive city, isn’t it,” Mune asked softly.
The Human grunted a non committal response. They continued to walk side-by-side through the corridor. Within moments, they stepped through another portal and into the adjacent hub. “You looked about to fall asleep at the trade negotiations, Palatinaean.”
The hybrid grinned sheepishly, “Boredom does that.”
“Undisciplined…” the Human muttered under his breath.
The Arcanist chuckled lightly, his right ear giving a soft twitch in the other man’s direction. Mune made a mental note of the confidence the other man held himself with. His grin became something more impish in nature. He slowed his pace to glance out into the deep gloom of the lake outside the safety of the node within which they resided. “Undisciplined has nothing to do with it. These talks are a waste of time, do you not agree?”
Quejo slowed to a halt himself a few paces from the other man. He turned stiffly to follow the strange hybrid’s gaze. “Agree or not…”
“See! You agree!” Mune exclaimed in delight.
“That is not what I was going to say,” Quejo corrected with the subtlest note of annoyance.
“I do have an idea about fending off the boredom.”
Quejo’s brow rose quizzically. He waited for Mune to elaborate but the younger man only turned to offer a wide grin and a wink. Logically, he figured there to be next to no chance of the Arcanist actually trying something with Gungan citizens milling about. They walked past in a near constant stream about their daily business while these two strangers had what could be construed as a perfectly genial conversation. It changed near instantly when Mune was nearly upon him, and only Quejo’s military background told him to watch out for one such reaction. The hybrid had not drawn his weapon, he realized and so he did not draw his own in that moment. Mune collided with him and together they hit the ground. The air rushed out of Q’s lungs upon impact.
Mune sat upright, sitting on the other man’s stomach as though just horsing around and they were two children. A wicked gleam shone in Mune’s ruby eyes, “Lets play.”
Quejo drew one of his DX-2s from its holster. Mune had already thrown himself sideways and rolled back to his feet. The Colonel stared at the Seer vanishing into the crowd of confused onlookers. “Trouble making little…” He stopped mid complaint. He found the absence of his medallion and realized quickly what had happened. “Just to get me to chase you huh… sneaky.” He hurried to his feet and shoved his way into the Gungan foot traffic.
Mune kept his pace to half. He had no desire to lose the Human, only to rile him up further. No military man wanted to sit around and talk all day, he told himself. Mune wove between a small group of chattering Gungans. They looked after him in some confusion, their conversation rudely interrupted. They were only more disgruntled as a human came charging between them to close with the fox eared young man.
Quejo levelled his DX-2 at the Arcanist and demanded firmly, “Return the medallion.”
Mune turned and opened his mouth to speak. The blaster shot rent the air. The hybrid saw it coming and only just reacted quickly enough. The fabric of his cloak sizzled and smoke wisped about. “Was that necessary?” Mune asked meekly.
“Return my property, now.” Q kept his voice level, and stern.
Mune straightened and fixed the other man with a firm gaze of his own. “Come get it.”
