Chapter Text
Jaster looked up from his comm when the pings started to get more frequent, heading in that direction. “His tracker is this way. It damn well better still be attached to my ad.”
His voice was a hoarse growl, sounding more like his shifted form than that of a human. He could feel his voice box trying to reform so it could properly snarl. He was mad .
Someone took his pup. His youngest pup. Someone he trusted to keep Jango safe while Jaster and Arla were away. He wasn’t even supposed to stay with Jango the whole time, just drop in and make sure he was eating and sleeping.
But instead, he’d come back from Sundari to a frantic message from Kal that he couldn’t find Jango, and that Montross was nowhere to be found either.
Montross had come back, without Jaster’s pup, and had been questioned about it.
Montross hadn’t expected anyone to notice Jango missing so soon. He’d not had time to leave the system yet.
The only saving grace was that the slavers Montross had worked with, weren’t competent enough to keep Jango as a trained adult Mandalorian.
Which is why they were on a moon that circled Krownest, a little jungle planet with not many towns.
Arla darted past Jaster, fully shifted to her border collie form, frantic to get her annoying vod’ika at home and safe, where she needed him to be.
Jaster said it’s what made her a good heir, her need to keep her people together and safe was intense, and she was a major influence to getting New Mandalorians to side with them, instead of putting them in the same category as Death Watch.
And now, her vod’ika, her little light and annoying puppy, was missing.
Jaster followed. They were out with Myles and Kal, but Kal was the only other one shifted. Myles wasn’t exactly… fast, in his shifted form. Kal, on the other hand, had been darting through the trees higher up, trying to spot the youngest pup. He and Arla seemed to narrow in on the clearing that Jango’s beacon had been active in for probably a day before they’d narrowed it down.
If Jango’s tracker had been stationary for this long… Jaster could only hope his ad was struggling to walk, or maybe unconscious… because he couldn’t fathom worse. Not now, maybe not ever.
Jaster was genuinely shocked, when Arla, trying to narrow down Jango’s hiding spot, stopped. And then sneezed. Violently.
She shook once, and put her nose back down, trying to catch Jango’s scent again, and gave another violent sneeze.
Jaster sighed, realizing some verde must have been covering the area in scent blockers so they could hunt there. “Bad scent trail, hold, Arl’ika. Jango! Jan’ika, I know you’re in the area, can you give me some noise, bubba?”
Kal landed on Myles’s outstretched arm, gently gripping the vambrace so as not to cut him, but cocked his head to the side to listen. He had better ears in his hawk form.
Jaster sighed. “Come on, Jan’ika, give me that voice Buir wants to hear so bad?”
All their hearts were breaking, and a lot of that was how sad Jaster sounded.
But, it worked, there was a light rustling noise from across the clearing, and Jaster was nearly weak as he heard that voice.
The husky voice. Loud and mocking and a little annoying because Jango had always been such a talker and better at making human sounds as a dog than Jaster and Arla. And it was the best voice Jaster had ever heard.
Arla darted towards the other side the clearing, and they realized why they couldn’t spot Jango in it. He’d managed to hide himself in a dead tree base, and was rather deep inside of it. Arla was already trying to worm her way inside when the rest got there.
Arla let out a yelp, pulling back, and Jaster thought she’d sneeze again for a moment, but when he looked at her muzzle, there were red lines coming out, and little dots of blood on her nose. Ossik.
Jaster got down next to her, gently pushing her out of the way as he moved to try and see what had got her. Maybe a thorn, maybe a non shifting animal… and ended up finding a weak looking Jango, curled up and blinking at him a few times. Jaster frowned, looking around for what got Arla, since Jango wouldn’t snap at his ori’vod, and likely didn’t have the energy to try.
Arla shifted back to human behind him, accepting Myles handing her a coverall dress, and pushing away his hands when he tried to put bacta on her cuts that curled across her face. Small, but powerful. “Something’s in there with him. Tiny.”
Jaster looked in again, and his eyes went wide. “Ossik, kitten shifter. An ik’aad, I think?”
Myles balked. “Seriously?”
Jaster nodded, looking at the kitten who gave a fierce hiss, sharp little fangs and claws all out.
Jango seemed to muster up the energy to move again, but it was towards the kitten, giving him a pointed nudge with his muzzle, and then scruffing the startled kitten with his teeth. Jaster snorted. “Thank you, Jan’ika.” He accepted a leather glove from Myles, pulling it over his fingerless ones, and then the wrap Myles had brought with them, starting to put it on over his armor. He’d have to carry Jango at the least, being the biggest one there. He didn’t take off his chest plate like he might have, since those little kitten claws could do some real damage to his chest. “Is this why you managed to escape so fast, Jango? You had to keep the ik’aad safe?”
Jango have a little huff, and Jaster nodded. Arla pulled on another falconry glove from Myles, taking Kal so Myles could get down and help Jaster pull Jango and the kitten out of the dead tree.
Jango whined a little when he was pulled out, and Jaster could already see the dark bruising under Jango’s fur, and the broken back leg.
Jango had probably planned to stay till his ribs were good enough that he only had to limp along without using that leg, but they had gotten to him in time. Jaster leaned in, pressing his forehead to Jango’s, and went back. They were just lucky Jango was still young enough to be a leggy adolescent. Barely forty pounds soaking wet, and still small enough to be in Jaster’s arms.
Because, as much as he’d do it if Jango had needed him to, carrying Jango on his back would put the hissy kitten at the back of his neck, and all his instincts just didn’t like the idea of that.
Jango set the kitten down when he was out of the tree, and Jaster held his breath for a moment, but the kitten seemed to realize Jango trusted them, and sat down on Myles’s left boot, barely big enough to cover the whole toe of it.
Up close, they looked like a wild cat, markings up his head and rounded ears. But they were just so little. Myles stilled, clearly trying not to coo over the vicious little thing, but Arla didn’t succeed. She let out a few soft noises of awe at the kitten, burying her pink face in Kal’s plumage when Myles gave her an amused look, who just cackled once in a mixture of amusement and pleasure at finally finding Jango.
Myles lowered a gentle hand to the kitten, his massive purple palm bigger than the kitten’s whole body curled up as they were, and gently scooped them. The kitten grumbled, but allowed Myles to gently inspect him while Arla gave up Kal so she could help get Jango’s body into the sling on Jaster’s chest without hurting him more than necessary.
“They look a little bruised up, but no open wounds, and I don’t feel any broken bones.”
The kitten rumbled at him a little. They’d have to have a bacta soak with Jango on the way back to Mandalore, but their injuries were minor in comparison, they’d probably sit with a bacta pump around their chest for an hour at most.
“They? I know you’re not a mammal, but checking their parts isn’t that hard.”
Myles looked at Arla, started. The woman was wearing nothing more than the full body slip he’d handed her, and it made her look years younger than she was. It made Myles remember when she and Jango had first come to stay with Jaster. They’d been his litter, and Arla had been the one that latched onto Myles while he babysat her. He looked back at the kitten. “What do you mean? They have both sets of parts.”
Jaster paused, looking over at the kitten, before going back to gently arranging Jango’s limbs. Jango had grumbled, but the most comfortable position for him right now was on his back, while his chest and ribs were bruised like they were. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
Jaster nodded. “Alright. Some species’s genitals translate to their shifted form, or the other way around. Like, translating their genitals is the expectation, not unusual. Some people can even control aspects like that, like a puppy who can’t keep their ears humanoid.”
Jango huffed at that, even as Jaster grinned at him. Jango had had trouble keeping his tail and ears humanoid for a few years after they came to Manda’yaim. He’d often used it to pester Jaster into petting him and giving him attention when Jaster needed to do flimsiwork, but Jaster couldn’t blame him. He’d been too cute to say no to.
Myles flushed blue, spreading over his cheeks as Jaster mentioned it, and Jaster wondered if he’d played with the idea himself. He ignored it for the moment. “So, he’s not human?”
Jaster shrugged, getting up from the ground with Jango safely on his chest. “I think there are some sub species that have both sets. Alright, hand him over. He’ll be safe in the sling against Jango’s side.”
Both kitten and husky were smushed together in the sling, and Jaster started out after Arla, before pausing. “Arl’ika, you don’t have shoes on. You could hurt yourself.”
Arla sighed, and stripped off the long dress, handing it back to Myles. “Fine. I can find our way back to the ship faster if we follow my nose.” She transformed back into the herding dog they all loved, nose to the ground as she followed their original path back.
***
Mij had rather begrudgingly left them to find Jango and bring him back, after they’d found the other four victims the hauler had been carrying. They’d been rather cautious about him at first, but Trasi had managed to get a few giggles out of the older woman, making them relax enough for him to check over.
They’d been in a different area than Jango and the other they mentioned. Those hadn’t been cargo, so much as special pick-ups. Which is why they’d been separated when the two of them had managed to down their ship and Jango had gone missing.
“Another… do you know what shifter type they were?”
Mory, the quietest one, the one Mij had flagged as needing inpatient care for a few days before she could be moved to the housing for rehabilitation near the palace, sort of gave him an odd look, like she still wasn’t sure of his intentions.
Mij didn’t blame her, considering how bad of shape she’d been in. She was probably the youngest, though not exactly underage. But she had a lot of signs of being a crew favorite , which was enough to make Trasi wrap her in the warmest shock blanket she’d found. The other women, a Twi’lek and a Mirilan, had turned down a blanket, saying they felt too warm out here.
“A kitten, I think. I don’t know how old he is, just that he was supposed to go inner rim, I think to some politician. They buy outer rim exotics, sometimes. Use those collars that trap you in your other form, so no one realizes you own a person. It’s… I never saw him. But they said he’d pay higher than even a prince.”
Mij sighed, looking at the virus riddled manifest on a burner data pad. “That seems to be on what we’ve got from their records that hadn’t been scrambled. Unknown what species, but they did a pick up a couple weeks ago.”
Mory nodded. She’d also been the only woman not born into slavery, so while she showed caution, she had none of the ingrained subservience of the others. “Probably. There was yelling in the ship when they did their last stop. One of the men was pissed that something mauled his hand. The captain… didn’t let him near me that day because he said they couldn’t afford that sort of damage to product. Their haul was too small to risk any of us.”
She looked away, letting Trasi rub her arms in sympathy while she swallowed. Trasi, a good veterinarian level baar’ur, was an older pantoran, never interested in partners, and having been focused on her work for years.
She looked like she might be considering adoption, though.
“I’m sorry that happened to you all.”
Mory gave a little shrug, clearly trying not to think about it. “It happens. I have those pheromones that make people want to be near me. You two likely only care cause I’m the only one that has them.”
Trasi snorted. “Not true, ad’ika. I don’t have a sense of smell.”
Mij cocked his head behind his buy’ce. “I can’t smell much of anything right now behind my helmet either.”
Good. Mij could handle the less traumatized of the two while Trasi discovered a late-life need to have an ad all of a sudden.
He was just wrapping one of the women’s arms, the Twi’lek giving him wide eyes as he used actual bacta on her, something that made him angry and sad all at once, when Jaster’s little hunting party got back.
With their lost little heir, thankfully.
Jaster was carrying the grumbling husky in a sling, which made Mij’s heart ache. Jango was only ever that quiet about being handled when he was too tired or sick to yell at someone.
Jango was a husky , his natural instinct was to yell about something. He was a loud little bastard when given half a chance.
And he was distressingly quiet right now. Trasi gave Mory a soft smile, and gently moved her to sit between the other women, who eagerly started pointing out that Mij was using real bacta on them, and moved to pull a stretcher from the shuttle.
“Sitrep, Alor?”
Myles let Kal and Arla loose into the shuttle so they could transform and change, and started helping Jaster work the sling off without moving Jango much. “Back right leg is broken for sure, chest looks like he’s taken a few kicks, but doesn’t initially seem to have breaks. Not only that, he’s picked up an ik’aad.”
Trasi paused, scanner out and ready, and moved to pull back the sling enough to check inside.
The kitten seemed to have calmed a bit since his attack on the intruders to their nest, but gave her a heavy side eye as she reached in to gently scoop him, only needing one hand to do it.
“Manda, but they’re little .”
Resii, the Twi’lek, perked up a little. “Oh, that’s the special pick up that they did a few weeks ago! He’s smaller than I thought he’d be.”
Myles raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure it’s a he?”
Resii averted her eyes a bit, till Mij gave her an encouraging smile. He’d gone a ways to gaining her and Killi’s trust with using actual supplies on them. “The masters said he’s a he. They said that’s why Mory was still their favorite. Don’t like boys like that, I think. Um… I think one of them didn’t much care, but then he shifted and was too little to even try that sort of thing.”
Myles could feel himself going pale. He helped Jaster pull the sling off, getting Jango on the stretcher with an annoyed kitten next to him. Jaster was looking worriedly frantic. Adults touching ade was one thing, but… an ik’aad was…
“He’s… it was the… the size, not… not his age?”
Resii slowly got a stressed look on her face as she realized she didn’t know what Jaster was asking her. She gave a frantic look at Myles, and he softened a little, chest feeling tight. “Did any of you see him before he shifted? He must have been really small. Do you all know that the masters are dead?”
Killi gave a gentle snarl in the back of her throat, and she had small fangs. She was a very rare purple Mirilan, and they were starting to put together that their crew was picking up rarities.
Lower quantity, higher prices for rarities.
“Dead. Fully dead. Your little prince mauled them.”
Trasi took a good look at Jango’s muzzle in the light of the ships, cringing. “He’s got blood in his teeth, Arla, cyar’ika, can you get a sterilizer while you’re in there?”
There was a noise from the shuttle. “Got it, Si. Does Jan’ika need the sterilized bacta?”
“I can’t find any open wounds, and his only break was his back leg, he should be fine with medical grade.”
Mory spoke, looking a little dazed as Mij wrapped her arms in bacta and Rasii used a sterilizer on her cuts. “I saw him once, before he shifted. He has red hair, and he’s short, for his age, I think. I don’t think he’s been eating right. Mama would have-“ she took a small, painful breath, and Trasi knew it must have been a memory of her loss. “Mama would have said he was seven good meals past due.”
Jaster frowned, taking the bacta wrap they’d need to put on Jango’s chest before it would penetrate his fur. He’d throw a fit if they had to shave him there. Kal had another one, a tiny one. More of a cocoon used for ik’aad, unsure if they’d need it. “How old do you think he is?”
Mory sighed, a little tired as she started to sag into Rasii. Mij had given her a pain killer, non-sedative, but clearly, lessening the pain was enough to relax her. “Um… eleven or twelve? Maybe a bit older if he’s not been eating.”
Jaster -and the others- looked back to the lethargic kitten with newer eyes. “I’d assumed he was a cheetah cub.”
Trasi let Arla work on her brother’s chest now that she’d stabilized the back leg, and gently lifted the cub again, looking him over before she’d use the scanner on him. “Bit too filled out to be a cheetah, if one was this size. His hair is already a bit less ik’aad fuzz, bit more kitten type. Whatever his species is, if this is an adolescent, he won’t get as big as a house cat, even.”
“Seriously? I didn’t know there were lesser cats that stayed that small?”
She nodded, gently petting behind those rounded ears as he shoved his face into her hand. Good scritches were good scritches, no matter your size. She smiled a little. “He’s less feral, at least. Arl’ika, did he get you across the face?”
Arla pouted. “I want to be mad, since he’s so little, but he was protecting Jango. He’s fierce.”
Jaster snorted, and Trasi gave the kitten back to him so Kal could help get him wrapped up and bandaged to keep the bacta in. She had to fix Jango’s leg.
***
Obi-Wan has had a few rough weeks. A lot of them really.
He hasn’t been in his human form since Xanatos dragged him from the mines. He said he had to get rid of him before Master Jinn figured out where he might be.
He’d considered that he could fight better as a human, but one of the crew members had given such bad feelings in the force. Lust and hunger had made Obi-Wan all but sick, retreating to his other form so he was too little to touch like that.
Sometimes a tiny form was useful. Unfortunately, they’d put him in a smaller cage after that. It would have likely broken bones to change in that form.
Obi-Wan woke with a startle, looking around nervously as he realized he was somewhere new.
He’d spent the past few days in the clearing with Jango, the one that smelled so strong of blockers no one could tell they were around. He’d had to use the force to pull Jango into the tree with him, but Jango was too out of it to realize what was going on.
His little head popped up, and he merped in alarm at the feeling of a hand. He looked back to see the man that had carried them, Jaster. He was giving him a concerned look, and he had a something in his hands. Obi-a wan squinted, and realized it was fur wipes.
Right. His chest and tummy was covered in bacta. He was in a bacta sling while he slept. Jango was probably still in a bacta sling now.
“Hey now, tu’ika, it’s time to get you out of the sling and I figured you’d like your fur cleaned up a bit. You’re a bit dirty from being out in the forest.”
That was being kind. Obi-Wan hadn’t been washed since before the mines. They’d had minimal water to clean up their worst of their problems in the mines. A month and a half without a shower. It was really gross.
He perked up a little, reaching out a tentative feel to the man, who blinked in surprise at him. Jaster smiled. “Hello, little one. I guess this will be easier knowing you’re stars touched. You’ll be able to feel that I don’t want to hurt you, right?”
Obi-Wan gave a little nod, mewing. He really wanted to be washed up now. He sent thoughts of that towards the man. Washgrosspleasegrimy ~
Jaster smiled at him. “Of course, tu’ika. By the time we get back to Manda’yaim, you should feel good enough to get up and stretch, maybe we can get you in a proper bath then. For now, let’s get that fur all clean.”
Obi-Wan was exhausted and sore, but he let himself go limp, knowing the adult humanoid would be strong enough to get him out of the sling. It was exactly as it sounded like. A waterproof sling with a dipped area with a small bacta gel layer. It was thinner than normal bacta gel, so it could get through the fur, but not thin enough to use a tank or dipping bath.
Trasi had been kind enough to put small towels in the front and back of the sling, after checking on his paws, so he had a grippy place to put them, and a little pillow that hung over the edge of the front so he could rest his head.
It had been, unfortunately, not a new sensation. He’s had a few tumbles in the crèche that had led to being in the bacta slings before.
Trasi had mentioned that Jango was going to have to sit in a bacta bath for an hour or two after they got back to Mandalore, since his chest bruises would be healed enough that they could risk him sitting up without too much pain.
Jaster had big gentle hands that felt good on Obi-Wan’s sides as he scooped him into a towel. It was no bigger than a hand towel, but it was practically a bath towel on a kitten of Obi-Wan’s size.
Those big big hands were so gentle as he started to rub off moisture. They had to get him dry before they could use the wipes.
Obi-Wan couldn’t help himself, starting to purr a little after a bit. He mewed when Jaster chuckled at him, not quite offended, but the other force sensitive didn’t seem to take it that way anyways.
“I bet that’s nice. A comfy little guy. Hey, you are a boy, right? If you aren’t, it’s better to correct me now. I don’t mean any offense by it.”
Obi-Wan chirped with a little nod. BoyHeTheyRarelyShe~
Jaster nodded. “Ahh, thank you, little one. I’m not sure what humanoid subspecies has both genital types and a concept of gender fluidity; but your choices will be accepted with us.”
Obi-Wan considered that for a moment, wondering if it was okay that he tell the man. But… if he didn’t, and they used the wrong food or medical treatments for him, it could have changing effects on his body. Plus, the common allergens that he shared with his species… StewjoniStewjon
Jaster hummed, looking far off for a moment. “Huh. That’s… a bit outside the Mandalorian empire. I guess that explains why they were in the area. Can I have a name? So we know who to return you to?”
There was no one to return him to. Not in the Jedi that sent him away; and not on the planet that called him a demon. If he told the man his name, Jaster could likely track him back to the Jedi, and either they’d hate him, or try and send him back. Mandalorians were known to be good bounty hunters. It meant they could track people down.
Nonamenofamilynoplace~ backtotheriverIwent~
Jaster went still for a moment. A long moment.
Long enough that there was a whine from Obi-Wan as he shoved his little head into the man’s hand, trying to smother himself in the cloth. Jaster let out a deep sigh, and started to finish getting the bacta out of little toes and from under Obi-Wan’s rump. Obi-Wan couldn’t even bring himself to be embarrassed, just excited for the idea of being clean.
“You don’t have to stay in a place that names you nasade, tu’ika. We can keep calling you cub or tu’ika till you find a name that works. Tu’ika means little tooka. I know you aren’t a tooka, of course, but it’s the closest word Mandalorians have for small cubs, in translation, anyways. If someone calls you that, it’s meant as an informal name. Like ad, which means child.” The man started to ramble a bit about some words in their language, Mando’a, he said it was called, while he gently cleaned the kitten.
“Can you tell me what species you are, tu’ika? You’re so small for an older child.”
Rustyspottedcat~ justturnedthirteen~
Jaster nodded, filing that name away for later, but clearly not knowing what breed that was off the top of his head. “Concord dawn is where my children and I came from.” Obi-Wan let him talk while the man started to gently clean his face with a wipe, not exactly liking it, but willing to sit still to feel clean. “Most of the humanoids born there tend to be dogs. We lived in harmony with the strill there. They have excellent breeding programs for the strill, we’d farm and stay together with them. I’m a livestock guardian, so I went on to work with the journeyman protectors there. It felt right, to protect the people.”
Notnow?~
“No, I… I live on Manda’yaim now. The Empire’s Capital. I protect more people from there. Brought Jango and Arla when I left, of course. I wasn’t going to leave them behind, even if they hated me for a bit there.”
Formoving?~
Jaster flushed, suddenly focusing very hard on cleaning Obi-Wan’s little paws. “They… they’re adopted. They were just mad that their parents weren’t there anymore. They never actually hated me for anything serious. Children with their lives changed… Jango was so little. Arla too, but she’d been a leggy little one at that point, but Jango? He was so small. Alright, you’re all clean, tu’ika.”
Obi-Wan was set down on the table. There were extra medical cots, but Trasi had said he was too little to be safe in one of them. He’d been set up on a medical tray with raised edges and padding inside. He couldn’t complain, since it was perfect size for him.
But still. AlonewantholdingJango?~
Jaster frowned, looking over at Jango on a full cot. He was still in husky form, sleeping while the bacta worked on his body.
Obi-Wan didn’t blame him. He’d had to give most of his hunting catches to Jango for the past few days. It wasn’t that bad, since Obi-Wan was one of the best feline hunters out there, it just meant he had to keep going out to find more lizards and rodents for Jango and him.
Jango didn’t like the lizards. Obi-Wan had thought they’d been very tasty. He’d tried to catch some roaches and crickets for Jango instead, but Jango had nearly thrown those back up.
He’d accepted the yummy lizards that were abundant in the forest after that. Jango should have been pleased, really. They were good meaty protein with lots of juicy insides.
But he’d eaten them without complaint after that.
Jaster hummed. “He’s still in his sling.”
Headisout~ pleaseheswarm~
Jaster snorted. “As long as you aren’t going to climb into that sling with him. Would be rather sticky.”
Obi-Wan sent bursts of happythankyou towards Jaster, who scooped the cleaner kitten back up to bring over to Jango. He set Obi-Wan down on the cot, who decided to walk back and forth across the edge so he could get some of his stiffness out, and then came back to Jango.
He wormed his way under the husky’s thick neck fur, making the husky grunt, opening an eye to look down at him, and shift his head a bit to get Obi-Wan in a better position.
Obi-Wan sighed, slumping down into the soft blankets below Jango’s warmth, starting to knead at the bedspread as the purring started up again.
This was better. He was safe with his husky close by where he could protect Jango if anything happened. He’s been protecting him for days now, anyways.