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Chapter 6 - Logan

Logan woke up having made significant progress backwards. At first, he presumed that he'd fallen asleep here at the foot of the first mountain, and that his horrible journey and encounter with a demon had all been some twisted, overly realistic nightmare.

That was the point when Jyn had the brilliant idea of shoving their face right in front of Logan's. The sight of Jyn's brilliant white pupils and deep crimson irises surrounded by a darkness that could rival the void of space immediately forced Logan's brain to register that it had been real, and that said demon was right here. It did not occur to Logan, who immediately began screaming and trying to get away, that this "demon" may have been the one to carry him out of the mountains. Nor did it occur to him that Jyn was significantly shorter than him - a mere five feet compared to Logan's near seven - and had thus tied him into a bundle (being careful not to break any bones in the process, as humans were significantly less flexible than Chlorans. They knew from experience.) and had him in their pack in order to make the job easier. If it had, Logan would have calmed down much sooner, because the reason he wasn't moving would not have solidified itself inside his mind as having been that a demon had eaten his arms and legs.

Eventually, he stoped screaming and writhing and otherwise panicking and resolved himself to the fate that he expected. At least he didn't feel pain from the wounds where his limbs had been. It was almost like they were still there! Finally, it dawned on him. They were still there, he was just tied up. He thought that frankly, that was a pretty reasonable response from the demon. He had been quite rude by screaming in it's face. Twice.

"Are you done?"

The voice was… unexpected, to say the least. Logan had generally expected demons to sound more menacing, more gruff and evil and loud. Instead, the voice was rather soft. It's pitch was androgynous and it seemed to resonate slightly with the air.

"Probably?" He replied, quite timidly. "Are you going to eat me?"

Jyn blinked. This was a new development. They hadn't exactly expected that one.

"I wasn't planning on it."

"Then yes, I think I'm done."

Suddenly, the rope that was binding Logan seemed to fade away as if by magic. In fact, it was magic of a sort.

This is where the last major difference between Chlorans and the majority of other species finally becomes relevant. You see, most of the varied number of sentient races that had come to evolve on Vicosma could access some form of magical or otherwise mystical power, and most of these powers were available to everyone. However, for the sake of survival and generally wanting to be more special than everyone else, each one had their own unique abilities that could be utilized with enough training in their ways. The ability Chlorans had developed was a limited control of light. This is, of course, a gross oversimplification of how the ability works. The Chlorans could undergo a process where - instead of being taken in and used for photosynthesis - sunlight can be stored in the body and used for other means, most notably the formation of hard light forms. With enough training, the body could split the processes of photosynthesis and the storing of sunlight for later use, reducing the amount of solar energy given for both uses. This smaller storage capability made that process extremely rare among the Chlorans. In fact, only one family still knew how to do it. It just so happened that said family was Jyn's.

As the hardlight rope evaporated, Logan could feel his blood beginning to circulate faster and more easily. He hopped to his feet, quickly becoming aware of the fact that he towered over his so called "demon".

"So," He began. "What are you exactly?"

"Are you stupid?"

Logan gave a rather indignant face in response.

"No! I'm just… ignorant!" He exclaimed, almost proudly.

"Ok then," responded Jyn. "Guess that explains all the screaming…"

"Sorry."

"I understand now. I'm a Chloran. Functionally, we're pretty much the same glad you humans! Except all the ways that we, well, aren't."

"Such as?" Logan was rather curious now. He had heard of Chlorans, but they tended to avoided his home town - the city of Mukk, (which had in fact been named as a joke, but was now a proud city with residents who were quiet proud of the name) which was located in the ankle swamps of Vicosma's left leg, only a few days walk from their current location at it's left heel - as the swamps thick canopy tended to drown out direct sunlight, which Chlorans were quite fond of.

"Well, our eyes are significantly different."

"I had noticed."

"And we can form hardlight structures."

"That explains the ropes…"

"Not really sure what else." Jyn was rather tired of explaining to this human. They knew there were quite a lot of subtler differences between the species, and what most of them were, but after being screamed at for a not insignificant period of time they were rather tired, and wanted something things explained to them.

"Who are you?" They ventured. "What were you doing in the mountains?"

So, Logan introduced himself. He explained that he came from Mukk, hence his inexperience with Chlorans, and that he had been given an important message to take to the village. As for what that message was, he couldn't remember. It was likely that it had been jostled out of his head when Jyn tackled him and he knocked himself out on the mountain roads. He distinctly remembered that he had been chosen for the sole reason that out of all the couriers in Mukk, he was supposed to be the best at the magics. Even, he bragged to Jyn, knowing the human special ability. Jyn was not impressed, but pretended to be in order to please his ego. Logan continued, explaining that he had no idea why his mastery of magic was so important, but that he had left as soon as he could. The thing is, he forgot to buy a map. He also forgot to check for one until he was already in the mountains and proceeded to get lost trying to find the way out. This lead to many wrong turns and the rapid depletion of his small food and water supply. It was shortly after he had run out completely that Jyn had found him. This time, Jyn was legitimately impressed. For such a massive failure of navigation, Logan had actually made it quite far into the mountains - Jyn having found him about halfway to the village - and may have made it there in tact, under the right circumstances.

"Now, uh… what's your name?" Logan asked.

"Jyn." Replied Jyn.

"Now Jyn," He began again. "I really must be going. I need to get back to Mukk on the double." Logan turned and began to walk away.

"Can I come with you?" Jyn was rather excited at the idea. Logan was not.

"Pardon?" He paused mid step.

"Can I come with you?" Jyn repeated.

What had originally been a step turned, rather smoothly, into a pivot. Logan walked back to Jyn, looked them in the eyes, and responded surprisingly firmly for a cowardly person like himself.

"No."

"Why not?"

"There's no sunlight! Don't you guys hate that?" Besides, no one in Mukk even knows what a Chloran looks like! They'll all think you're a demon, like I did!"

"And? None of that bothers me."

*It bothers me* Logan thought.

"Look, I said no and I'm… probably… older than you, so that's that. How old are you anyways?"

"Seventeen."

"Nineteen. I win, so turn around and go home."

Then, without even looking to see if Jyn obeyed, he turned around and started walking.