Chapter Text
Echoes of Elm
The warm sunlight cut through the branches of the starfruit trees. Jace Lazarus wiped his brow as he gathered some of his crops. His red hair stuck to his sweaty forehead as he picked up the basket of fruit.
“Mr. Jace!” A teen solari boy ran over. “We’re done watering the trees.”
The human looked at the boy and the other teens he’d hired on to help him out during harvest time. The young oozoid boy and greeble girl by the fence waited expectedly, watching them.
Jace laughed a little before reaching into his pocket and pulling out some notes. “Here you go. And you can all take home some starfruit for your families.”
The boy grabbed the notes and ran back to the others. They all waved, “Thank you Mr. Jace!”
He watched them gather some starfruit and scamper back toward their homes.
~~~
Renn Gorma walked along the shoreline outside the town of Basara, keeping his icy blue eyes peeled for anything strange. Thankfully, he hadn’t seen a pirate vessel or a monster in weeks. They’d been doing a great job of keeping this place safe.
In the last two years since they’d arrived on Xenar, they’d made this place their home, and it had grown.
The word of five hedge knights protecting the village drew people to them. The village had nearly doubled in size since they arrived, and it was all because of their actions.
But they wouldn’t be in Basara forever, so Renn had been training up a small militia here.
But not today. Today he was on patrol.
“Renn!” He looked over at a small pier and saw the village leader, an old flambego man waved him over.
The young solari man sighed. “Good afternoon, Mr. Dalemans.”
The old man smiled at him and patted a small basket. “Caught some extra fish today for you kids.”
“There was no need for that.”
“Boy, you five take such good care of all of us, let us take care of you. Take the basket before I throw it at you.”
Rolling his eyes, Renn picked up the basket with a light smile. “Thank you.”
“You’re quite welcome.”
~~~
“Give me a lift, Varus.”
Varus Vullo knelt down, allowing the Tekal woman, Qiri Almrher, to sit on his shoulder, as he stood back up. She grabbed the edge of a house roof before standing up on the Nilari’s shoulders.
“How bad is it?”
Qiri looked down at the human family standing nearby. “Looks like the fire did a bit of damage to the roof, but nothing we can’t fix.” Her eyes glanced up to the sky. “We’ll be done before the next rainstorm.”
Watching as she pulled herself onto the roof, Varus called up. “I’ll be up there in a minute. Want me to grab anything?”
“No. Right now we need to get the burned wood off the house.”
“Alright.” Turning, Varus found himself suddenly faced with a ladder. Looking down, he saw the small dalmatian Laika boy who followed them around holding it, the ladder wobbling before the Nilari took it. “Thank you.”
The boy’s ears perked up and his tail wagged. “Can I help, Mr. Varus?”
“We’ll let you know.”
“But you’re not coming up here.” Qiri called down.
“Awww!”
~~~
“I won’t hear it.”
Mylo Erinia laughed under his breath, shaking his head. “I won’t hear it either.” Walking up to the woman running the vegetable stall, he took her hand and pressed a few notes into it. “I’m grateful for your kindness, but please, let me pay for it.”
She laughed. “You’ll never let me give you food for free, will you.”
“Not a chance.” He grinned before picking up his bag of groceries. “Hearth Mother bless you.”
“The Hearth Mother bless you as well.”
The young Clawderan man made his way through the marketplace, crossing off items on his list. A few times, he reached into his own bag and handed some homemade cuppin’ cakes to people around him. He’d spent the last two years trying to recreate the recipe that he and his friends enjoyed so much.
“Mr. Mylo! Mr. Mylo!” Two little Clawderan children came running over toward him.
Mylo knelt down to them as they ran over. “Good afternoon you two. Would you like a cuppin’ cake?”
“Always! But that’s not why we’re here!”
“Oh?”
“Yeah! A pretty ship landed nearby!”
“It’s the nicest ship I’ve ever seen!”
He handed the two a cuppin’ cake before asking. “What kind of ship?”
“I don’t know.”
One of the children grabbed his hand, and pulled him forward, toward the landing pad. Reaching the pad, Mylo saw a small but obviously expensive starship. It looked like it could potentially hold four or five people.
Nearby, talking to the portmaster, stood a group of four people Mylo had never seen before.
He could hear the portmaster say. “Honestly, you should talk to someone from Palm Squadron. They are more skilled than we are, one of them specifically is very good with ships.”
A female Raizo with red skin looked confused. “Palm Squadron? What is that?”
“Oh, they’re a group of hedge knights. They have been helping around town for a few years now.” The portmaster glanced over, noticing Mylo. “Oh! There’s one of them now! Mylo, over here!”
Walking over, the young man nodded to the four. Another Raizo woman, this one with purple skin, stood behind the speaker. Beside them stood a Zorbrak and a Stardust human man. “Hello there, how may I help you?”
“You’re one of these Palm Squadron people?”
“Yes. Name’s Mylo. What are your names?”
“I’m Danica,” said the purple-skinned Raizo, “buggy over there is Uffe, and the scrawny one is Narayana.”
The first Raizo woman looked over at the ship nearby. “Captain Augusta. We were trying to get home, and our ship started to sputter. Do you know a good mechanic?”
“I do. She’s busy right now, but she might be able to come take a look tomorrow.”
The human nodded. “How much will it cost us?”
“We don’t need notes. If we can help, then we will.”
“You serious?”
“Yeah.”
The other Raizo woman laughed. “Well, that is quite generous of you.”
The portmaster nodded. “That’s just how they are.”
“Well,” hoisting up his groceries again, Mylo gave them all a smile, “I need to get home and get working on supper. I’m sure I’ll see you around tomorrow. Have a good day.”
As he walked away, the human looked to his companions. “Well, looks like landing here was fortunate after all. I told you the Dealer was on our side.”
“Guess you were right, Narayana.”
As they walked down the small streets, toward the inn the portmaster told them about, one of their group fell behind slightly. “Uffe, something wrong?”
The Zorbrak tapped his chin. “No. But… did that guy seem familiar to you?”
“Who? The hedge knight?”
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen his face before, but I can’t recall where.”
Danica rolled her eyes. “I think you’ve been stuck in space too long. Where would you have seen a random hedge knight before?”
“That’s the thing!” Uffe sighed. “I can’t remember. But I’m almost certain I’ve seen him before.”
~~~
“Welcome home!” Mylo waved as the rest of Palm Squadron arrived back at their bungalow.
He’d arrived home about the same time as Renn, who’d given him some fish for supper.
“Smells good!” Jace grinned as he set down some starfruit. “I was able to sell some of our crop today.”
“How much did you make?” Renn asked.
The human handed a pouch to the solari, who began to count the notes inside. “Looks good.”
Qiri and Varus parked the truck and walked over. “We were able to fix up the Klasson house.”
“Oh yeah, their house caught fire. I know no one was hurt.” Jace took a drink of water. “Was the damage bad?”
“Just some roof damage. Mrs. Klasson was able to put the fire out before it did too much damage.” Qiri plopped beside him, giving him a nod as he handed her a glass of water.
Varus sat beside Renn. “How was patrol today?”
“Quiet, but I did get some fish from Mr. Daelmans.”
“He’s really nice.”
“I like him.” Qiri smiled. “Sometimes village leaders suck, but he’s pretty great.”
“Yeah, he is.”
“How was your day, Mylo.”
The young Clawderan poke the fire he was using to cook. “I ran into some guests in town.”
“Guests?”
“Yeah, some guys came in on a really nice ship.” He stood back up. “Seems like they had engine trouble and had to land here.”
Qiri nodded. “I can take a look in the morning. Did they give you any details about the problems they were having?”
“They used the word ‘sputtering’.”
“Oh that’s probably something simple. Should take me an hour.”
Renn smirked. “Really? Thought it would be less than that. Losing your touch?”
“Gorma, I know where you sleep!”
~~~
The small inn and tavern, the Waterspout, began to wind down for the night. At one table sat the four visitors to Basara, quietly eating and drinking.
The Flambego tavern owner sauntered over, smiling softly. “Is there anything else I can get for all of you?”
“I think we’re good.” Captain Augusta lifted her cup, a soft smile on her face.
“Let me know if there’s anything you need.”
“Actually!” Uffe took a swig of his drink, clumsily turning around in his chair. “Can you tell us about the hedge knights? That Mylo guy was real nice.”
The woman smiled. “Oh! Palm Squadron are lovely people. They came about two years ago and rescued Basara from pirates. They’ve been here ever since.”
“How long ago was that?”
“About two years ago.” The tavern owner walked back over the table.
“How many others are there? We just met Mylo.”
“There are five of them.”
“Really?” The human took another drink, eyebrow raised. “Only five?”
The owner nodded. “Yeah: Mylo, Jace, Varus, Renn, and Qiri.”
Uffe paused, and this time, so did Danica. “Wait, say that again?”
“Um, their names are Mylo, Jace, Varus, Renn, and Qiri…”
Danica slowly put her cup down. “Interesting. Um, what do they look like? They’re supposed to help fix our ship tomorrow. It’ll be good to know so that we can recognize them.”
“Sure…”
As the owner began to describe them, each of the four at the table felt the information click into place.
Captain Augusta glanced across her crew before smiling at the Flambego. “Thank you so much, Miss.”
“No problem.”
Waiting until she stepped away, Uffe leaned in close. “I knew it! I knew he looked familiar!”
“But there’s no way!”
“Hang on.” Danica pulled out a datapad and typed for a moment. As she searched, her eyes widened. “By Agathos…”
They all looked at the datapad, at a fancy official obituary.
And the faces of Elm Squadron.
“That’s absolutely the man we saw today.”
“But they’re supposed to be dead!”
“How does no one here seem to know who they are?”
“This isn’t the Empire.” Augusta picked up the datapad. “Actually, it’s so far away, the chances of them being found are slim.”
Narayana grinned. “Then the Dealer really is on our side.”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you kidding me!? The heroes of the Empire are sitting here, being do-gooders and drinking margaritas on the beach. How many notes do you think the Empire would pay if we told them the legendary Elm Squadron was alive?”
Danica looked at the picture again. “What about the fifth person, the Tekal?”
“They probably picked up a friend somewhere, and she may not even know who they are. She’s not our concern, but these four are.”
“But we’re no fighters. How can we take down five hedge knights, especially if they are these four?”
…
“Maybe we don’t have to.”
~~~
Before midday the next day, Qiri stepped off the strangers’ ship. The portmaster knew her well, so he merely pointed her to the ship she needed to fix and let her get to work.
And it did take her less than an hour.
Eat your heart out, Renn.
She smirked before wiping her hands and nodding to the portmaster.
The four owners of the ship hadn’t arrived yet, so she decided to wait, just to make sure that they were satisfied with her work.
And why wouldn’t they be?
As she waited, she walked over to a ship off to the side. On the side of the ship, she saw the words ‘Rook of Honor’. Jace picked the name when they’d pooled their money to buy the ship.
While they didn’t plan on leaving Xenar anytime soon, it would be good to have a way off. Anytime they’d have free time, Palm Squadron would come and work on the ship.
They’d only been able to buy it because it was a piece of junk at the time.
However, with a bit of hard work, it was ready to go anytime.
Hopefully, they wouldn’t need it.
After an hour, she saw a group of four come toward the landing pad. As they spoke to the portmaster, he pointed in her direction.
Three of the group went toward the ship, while one, the human, came toward her. “Hi there! Name’s Narayana, and you must be Qiri.”
“I am.”
“I heard you were able to fix our engine.”
“It wasn’t that hard.” She leaned on her own ship. “You had a loose part, and you needed to refill some fluid. Honestly, whoever did your last routine inspection should’ve caught it because it’s been there a while.”
The man laughed. “You serious?”
“Dead serious. My advice, find a new mechanic to do your inspections because any rookie would’ve been able to find that issue. Or figure out how to fix your own ship.”
Narayana averted his eyes. “Heh… yeah, we probably should. But regardless, thanks for the help.”
“It was nothing.”
“Oh, I had a question.”
“Yes?”
“Your friends, the other hedge knights, how well do you know them?”
…
Qiri’s head tilted to the side as she fixed this man with her gaze. “Pretty well. Why do you ask?”
“Oh, no reason. Honestly, it’s kind of stupid, but the Clawderan looked like someone we once knew back in the day. He was also named Mylo. And this may be a long shot, but his full name wouldn’t be Mylo Erinia, would it?”