Six Eighty Six

Somewhere in the Northern Kremisphere

Her eyes opened at the sound of a gunshot and her hands automatically went to the holstered DX-13 blasters on her nightstand.

Aurra Sing listened carefully for return fire or shouting. All she heard was a couple more shots.

"Ed's just practicing." the Palliduvan mused as she brushed a strand of auburn hair out of her green eyes with a long fingered hand.

For a few minutes, Aurra simply lay there, tossing the mental coin on whether to get up or go back to sleep. Settling on getting up, the Palliduvan pushed the covers off and swung her legs over the edge of the bed, her auburn hair hanging haphazardly down her back and over her shoulders.

Clothing wise, Aurra was wearing a red, sleeveless suit that showed off her slender form. She also had orange strips of cloth tied around her upper arms and wrists. The latter hid sharpened pins that were perfect for picking locks or getting out of sticky situations.

After grabbing her holsters off the nightstand, Aurra turned around and left her room, heading into the bathroom just down the hall.

As she let the shower water run through her hair, Aurra thought about how nice it would be to have someone to wash her hair for her.

Some years back, when she had been in a relationship with the Weequay pirate Hondo Ohnaka, she had been able to get him to do it. However, since it had taken a large amount of browbeating, Aurra had determined after a few times that it simply wasn't worth the effort.

"I wonder if Ed would do it if I asked him?"

She figured he probably would, even if they were what was known on Earth as friends with benefits.

In any case, the Palliduvan got herself cleaned up and dried off. Back in her room, Aurra put on an orange suit and a brown vest and belted on her blasters. After tying her hair back into a large ponytail, Aurra spent the next few minutes braiding and putting beads onto a few strands.

Heading down the hall, Aurra glanced at the last door on her left. It was currently closed. Mel, the girlfriend of Ed's younger brother Al, was likely painting in her studio.

In the months she had rented out the guest room, Aurra had never been able to figure out the human female. Then again, she supposed that there wasn't much common ground between an artist and a bounty hunter.

Going downstairs and into the kitchen of the rural home, Aurra poured and heated herself a cup of caf and made a sandwich out of the numerous deli meats in the fridge.

After finishing breakfast- more like lunch at that particular hour- Aurra put her plate in the dishwasher and went into the mud room in the south end of the Roberts home where she put on a pair of brown boots.

Going outside through the garage, Aurra glanced down at Ed firing his Glock 19 at a target. She knew he wasn't doing it for the fun of it, he was doing it because it was required of him.

They called it the Archer Law, after an ancient practice on the island known as Great Britain. Since every able bodied man was part of the various local militias across Wario Land, they had to demonstrate that they were good shots and submit five targets a month.

As far as Aurra was concerned, the Galactic Empire at the height of its power would have been hard pressed to invade the area, let alone the actual potential invaders.

Indeed, the main talk in the taverns and newspapers was that if World War 3 broke out between the American-led NATO and the Russian-led Vladivostok Pact, it could well mean that the Northern Kremisphere would have to choose a side.