Even at this time of night, the docks were still busy. Which made sense, Luna thought, since Nautolans had greater than normal light sensitive eyes, since they lived mostly underwater. It was at that point that she realised what exactly this mission entailed, something that hadn't really occurred to her before. The Nautolans lived underwater - which meant that she would have to go down there, too. For some reason she had expected land based dwellings...for an aquatic species. Smart, Luna.
She approached one Nautolan woman, picked at random. 'Excuse me,' she said, bobbing her head politely. I'm hoping to reach a friend's village and someone in town said I might find help here.'
A blank stare met her.
'Are you familiar with clan Fenndy? Do you know where they live?'
Another blank stare, then the Nautolan returned to her work.
'Thank you for your time,' she nodded politely, then wandered off to find another, only to be met with more blank stares. No, not quite blank. Guarded, wary, watching. She suddenly saw themselves as the Nautolans saw them: three offworlders, dirty, muddied and, though they had taken pains to hide it, most probably armed. Two humans, obviously military trained, and one Twi'lek, an anomaly but not exactly automatically to be counted as a friend, or an ally. She thought on the bartender's words, realising that these Nautolans must have seen other humans come through here, leading stormtroopers, taking their kin. Suddenly their unfriendliness made sense.
Something touched her back, and she tensed for a moment, before realising it was Cora's hand. Luna looked down at her, noticed her half closed eyes. She was looking off to the shore, where one Nautolan man was untangling fishing nets. He was little more than a silhouette in the moonlight, a dark shape blocking the light from the rippling waves beyond, and probably wouldn't have seen him if Cora hadn't pointed him out.
Luna waved the others to stay there, and she made her way to him, alone.
'Hi,' she said, studiously aiming for somewhere between friendly and neutral, unassuming, unexpectant, just being there. That was how Face had taught her to appear. Whether or not she succeeded was yet to be seen.
The Nautolan gave her one brief glance, then went back to his nets.
'You know Clan Fenndy,' she said it more as a statment than a question.
The Nautolan said nothing, just took out a knife to slice a bit of netting, then splicing the rope back together.
If this had been any other person, Luna would have walked away already. But Cora all but told her to talk to him, so she stayed. 'I had a friend. Her name was Zatt Fenndy. She was a good friend to me. She was,' she smiled in remembering, 'painfully quiet. You'd hardly notice her even if she was standing next to you. But she was sweet, and kind, and had amazing tastes in music. And determined to do right by her family. I've come to do right by her family, too.'
More silence. More twisting and untangling of netting. And then: 'was?'
'She's dead,' she replied simply, the words twisting her stomach. 'We've brought her body back home, to feed the reef,' she hesitated over her next words, but sensed they were the right ones to say. 'And to get her parents back.'
That stopped him. For the first time he looked her fully in the face, the stars reflecting in his large, dark eyes. 'Thank you. She...we've missed her. It would be good to have her back. Bring her tomorrow, and I'll take you to what's left of the Elders.'
'You're clan Fenndy?' she asked, before she could stop herself.
The fisher tensed. 'She was my niece. She,' he stopped himself before he could go on. 'Come back tomorrow,' he said gruffly. 'Same time.'
