It paid well for a warrior to be constantly aware of what was about him, and nothing accomplished that better than a direct and discerning gaze.

A crackling garble at Terrin's wrist broke her brief reverie, and her thoughts were driven back to the words her adoptive father had spoken to her mere moments ago. Her fair brow wrinkled as she thought; then an idea came to her.

"F-father," she said, tripping a little over the unfamiliar use of the word, yet relishing the glow coming over Terrin's face as she spoke it. Letting a smile grace her face, she nodded toward the warrior.

"He is Sith," she spoke the obvious. Then she turned a little sideways and pointed toward the hole.

"And so is he; perhaps through the device which you wear the one can tell the other of that which he needs to survive until we can somehow free him and Mother?"

[ 11-27-2006 12:56 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by JhinDarra ]

--------------------

Terrin raised the wristcomm to his lips. "Hey Galen, I need you to put Panthar on the comm. Darra suggested that we have him tell the warrior, in Sith, exactly what it is you need. That'll cut out the signing and pantomining routine, and it sure will help the warrior contribute his thoughts some more on how we can get you all out of there."

--------------------

Put Panthar on the comm. Now that's rich, since the comm was on Panthar, so to speak, and he's been the one to manipulate it all along...

But what the hey.

"Hey Panthar, you heard him. You're in a Sith body there, and somehow you've been able to read Sith things, remember? So dig back deep into your body's racial memories, pal, and tell our warrior dude upstairs what we're going to be needing."

I shut up with that, dropping my grip about the wrist attached to his device-holding hand, now putting all efforts toward trying to yank him from his prison by tugging on his other arm alone.

"Y'know, hurt or not, you could give a gal a hand there, Big Red," I grunted between yanks, now beginning to grumble a bit with the rising suspicion that the big red guy wasn't simply unable to help me help him, but was feigning immobility out of some perverse orneriness on his part.

"C'mon!" The words slid out from between my clenched teeth.

"Surely your entire body isn't plastered to this damned rock! For the love of Khaandon's lil green worrts, push or something!"

Without thinking I raised one foot and planted it upon the stone behind him for leverage... where it promptly sunk deep into some kind of nasty goo. Grimacing, I attempted to jerk it back, only to discover to my horror that now I too was stuck...

"Oh... HELL!"

--------------------

"Kriffing hell!" Jasyn grumbled towards Matt. "How much more of this are we going to have to deal with? I mean, hasn't anybody back on Khar Delba realized we have been gone entirely too long!? What good is an alliance with All users if they never come to your aid when you need them?"

Matt simply shrugged in response, and kept on walking through the muck. Thus far, the terrain appeared to remain mostly the same...

...swamp, swamp, and more swamp.

"Damn, we could use a map or something," Jasyn then growled. Matt cut his eyes sideways, and rolled them. At length, Jasyn noted with disgust that the thickness of the grass seemed to be increasing, and as well as the number of trees. He could just envision what type of critters might be lurking within those trees, too. Still, the ground beneath them was growing a bit more solid, which Jasyn took as a good sign. He looked down at the ground a bit to confirm what his feet were already telling him...

...and was forced to an abrupt halt as he ran smack into Matt's back.

"Hey!!!" he growled, looking up to see red hair and a bit of Degobah sky in his line of vision...

...along with the glimmerings of the something that had prompted Matt to stop to begin with: a small little freighter tucked away in the trees, fairly gleaming except for a hint of swamp-grass and vines here or there on its bulkhead.

"Whoa!" Jasyn exclaimed, raising his wristcomm to his lips, "Boss, I think we may be enroute to some higher ground, if we're not already there. We've yet to find caves of any type...

...but we've certainly found somethiung. There's a small freighter here, and I'm betting it's what Stargazer used to get from Tatooine to here. I think we're gonna check'er out, see what's on board, and get some information on this planet and some supplies while we're at it..."

[ 11-27-2006 11:58 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

--------------------

But there was nothing. Feeling as close to frustration as a Jedi could without crossing an unforseen dark line, Shawn resigned himself to taking a break to think, and closed down his lightsaber. He sat down on the ground, crossing his legs, and simply closing his eyes, partially in exhaustion and partially in meditation. If it weren't for the presence of the Force with him, Shawn would have felt utterly lost.

And even though he was pretty certain that he was just that, something deep within reminded him that he wasn't without resources. He was a Jedi after all, and he did have a connection to every single living thing via the Force, despite how far away from them he was, or how near to them he was.

And it was this particular thought which caused him to pause from his meditation, his eyes snapping open.

You are connected to ALL living things, and there ARE living things here, Shawn, whether they are highly sentient or not, he thought to himself. And one of those living things brought you to this place, so it stands to reason that if one living thing knows the way around here...

...others do as well.

Settling upon this thought, Shawn came to a conclusion as to a possible line of action, albeit a gamble. Many of the creatures here were agressive, but they did have one thing he needed.
They knew the lay of the land.

If he could somehow manage to get the aid of one such creature, perhaps he could stop what he regarded as a fairly futile hunt and peck strategy for one entailing some true knowledge of the planet, and of this cave.

It was definitely worth a shot. If Obi-Wan Kenobi could utilize the living Force to seek the help of a fairly agressive creature, so could he. Closing his eyes once more, Shawn tapped into the Force, and immediately could sense the overwhelming life on the planet. Focusing in upon the life he could feel closest to him, and not particularly the most sentient of them all, Shawn sent a call out for help through the Force, hoping to stir the interest of any life form nearby that might in turn be able to help guide him saefly away and out of his natural prison...

--------------------

There existed Life, and That Which Is, and it's wonderfully unique and blessedly serendipitous universal connection to it/themselves.

Within the nearby jungles, there arose a might uproar. Beasts and flying things of every kind set up a chattering racket, calling out to each other, the action an instinctive one in response to sudden awareness that a particular portion of itself was in danger. Lifeforms took to the air, to the canopy, crawled down from trees to slog through the swamps; within the murky waters swamp slugs and dragonsnakes roiled and darted, not knowing what it was exactly that prompted them to do so, indeed not really having the ability to ponder upon such a thing, but simply and somehow forced into blind swimming, seeking.

Something with a modicum of intelligence heeded the call more closely. Squeaking and banking, its wings a black and tiny silhouette against the green of the towering canopy, the nightbat soared hither and yon, sending forth its sonar call, arrowing impeccably upward and outward until it finally left the canopy and teeming jungles far below.

Directly in front of it rose the enormous scarp of one of many mesas. But one from which the impelling call had arisen.

The nightbat arrowed directly ahead, banked upward, flittered back and forth until it finally located that which it had been seeking: a tiny crack in the face of the rock itself. It shot into the darkness cleanly and swiftly, using its sonar to guide it, twisting and turning, hither and yon, every so often its wingtips brushing the sides as the crack narrowed impossibly, only to fly more freely as it widened. At length it banked downward, and after a bit flew straight once again, following the call, working its way through the cracks and crevices, winding passageways and corridors, impossibly making its way without finding a single dead end.

But it was a nightbat, with sonar; this was its unique talent in the Dagoban animal kingdom.

It seemed an extraordinarily lengthy period of time had passed before quite suddenly it shot out of a thin opening in the rock and into what was, in comparison to its tiny body, an immense and pitch black chamber.

Swooping and flitting, it responded to the call, announcing its presence with the utterance of a series of high-pitched squeaks.

[ 11-29-2006 10:36 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

--------------------

Lost, he thought out, knowing the word would not carry through the Force but rather the emotions that were tied to it.

Then, knowing he needed to see just what had come to his aid, Shawn reached for the hilt of his lightsaber, felt for the activation switch...

...and then paused, not wanting to alarm whatever had responded to his call and frighten it away.

Blind, he thought, stretching out to the creature's Force-essence. No harm.

Then, without any other motion other than that of his thumb on the activation switch, Shawn's lightsaber came to glowing life, casting just enough light in the darkness for him to see the nightbat above him.

Hmmmm. A bat, who probably had sonar.

Shawn's eyes defocused in thought. Obviously, he wasn't going to be able to follow the nightbat out the way that it had come into this place, but the bat would be able to easily find its own way out again as it had found its way in.

Others searching, not finding, he then thought to the creature, uncertain of just what the bat was actually understanding, placing as much urgency behind his thoughts as possible. Need to find them...

--------------------

There it sat, waiting and quietly meeping into the darkness.

--------------------

A knife-- something to use for both protection and to cut things, although what they could possibly find in a cave that a mere knife would penetrate, she hadn't a clue. Perhaps there were other uses for it that she hadn't considered.

Pursing her lips, she thought on.

Something to-- carry light in? As well as something to use as a canteen.

Casting a look about herself, she began hunting through the nearby swamp grasses, slowly approaching the riotous growth which surrounded the edge of the bog itself. She had hoped to find some kind of gourd or large nut or something which could be used as a carrier, but to no avail.

Frowning, she returned to the tree where the warrior stood, cocking her head a little as she appraised him and his weaponry.

A glimmer of an idea struck her then.

"Father, could this somehow be put to use?" she asked, turning toward Terrin with the question as she pointed to the warriors metal, and very reflective, shield.

[ 11-27-2006 05:47 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by JhinDarra ]

--------------------

...and would amplify the glow nicely. Come to think of it, maybe the warrior's whetstone might be more helpful in getting the substance off the walls of the cavern rather than a knife; whatever is glowing might not do so anymore if it has to be living and is cut off with a knife."

He paused at that, now pursing his own lips in thought. "If Jasyn were still here, I'm almost positive he still has a flask he keeps...

...stuff in. But that's no good here. Can you think of anything useful to carry water in, I can't at the moment."

[ 11-27-2006 03:19 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

--------------------

"No, all I can think of being any possible use to Mother I just cannot find. M- I mean, Aunt Jharmeen once told me she lived here on Dagobah; in order to simply eat she would have to have some sort of utensils, wouldn't she? But I can't imagine what she could have found to use; I too am coming up blank."

She paused a moment, chewing her lip.

"The men have found a freighter; perhaps there might be something useful inside that they would bring back for us to drop down to Mother and Panthar," she reflected quietly, still mentally casting about in yet another attempt to come up with an idea which might provide them with a more immediate return.

--------------------

“OWWWW!” he yelled. He reached out with his hand and found Galen’s leg. Patting it to make sure it was human and not some other strange beast, he exhaled a little easier.

“Sorry,” he groaned, the fatigue showing in his words. “I think I may have fallen asleep there. What are you, um, doing?”

Panthar felt the need for sleep return, and let his head fall backwards to look up. He could not see Galen, but he could see a soft blue glow in the near distance.

“Hey,” he sighed. “I had a dream, a beautiful angel told me to talk to the warrior, in Sith. I think that's a good idea, don't you?”

He clicked the button on the link, wincing as a new pain shot up his arm.

“We need help,” he said in Sith. “Knife, water, fire, light, anything!”

[ 11-27-2006 05:42 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Panthar Dantares ]

--------------------

Standing before him, he reached to the bag he carried at his waist and removed it. Opening it, he then took hold of Terrin's hands, cupped them together and dumped the contents therein:

A flint and steel. A small, strangely shaped bit of extremely hard and incredibly strong wire. A tinier blade than the one he carried in its sheath next to where he carried the bag, this one being only about 7 centimeters in length. A convex lens. Some strange bits of dried something or other which defied definition but looked as if they had been living once upon a time. Some odd looking round things that looked like blue pills. And a length of hollow metal tubing.

...but at the moment, he was going to take whatever was offered for all that it was worth. Nodding to the warrior in thanks, Terrin took the proffered bag, started to tie it to the vine-rope they had used to lower Galen into the hole...

...then paused, turning back to the warrior. Galen had said the rope wasn't quite long enough, and he wanted to make sure the contents of that bag made it down safely to her and Panthar. Knowing he could probably get his point across without any translation, Terrin pointed back towards the rope, then to the gnarltree.

--------------------

...and understand the cue now forming in his mind should they reach a point where Shawn could go no further, and only the bat could. Carefully rising to his feet, the bat still perched upon his shoulder, Shawn took no further steps, but instead sent his SOS call once more through the Force, this time directly to the nightbat, once more channeling feelings and emotions into a single word that conveyed what he was wanting to do:

Out.

--------------------

At least he thought that was what Terrin was concerned about.

--------------------

...consulting with the warrior about this, he seems to feel that I should just let the bag go down the hole on its own. So be on the lookout; I'm sending it down, now."

Saying nothing further than that, Terrin lowered himself back to the ground next to the hole, moved the bag into it, and did exactly what it seemed the warrior felt he should do: let it go.

--------------------

--------------------

A little snick informed me that Panthar had probably flipped his comm back to transmit; I sighed again and after pushing down the thought that the damned bag was more than likely going to get stuck on its way down, I spoke up.

"Did you tie the bag to the vine in case it gets caught?"

All I could do was cross my fingers there in the dark, still stuck like a fly in a web, smooshed up against Panthar. I wasn't sure but that I heard a little snort coming from him at the words I spoke; grunting, I whapped some unseen portion of his body with my elbow and went back to the task of freeing myself from the wall.

--------------------

--------------------

Haa haa haa, fat chance! snorted a devil on Terrin's shoulder.

Terrin tried his best to ignore said demon, and just hoped like all hell that the bag was as charmed as the warrior seemed to think.

--------------------

"All right; well, I haven't heard anything hit bottom here yet, so I've got to believe the bag is wedged somewhere," I finally spoke up, elbowing Panthar again to remind him to hit transmit.

"I hope you're still holding onto that vine; if we can get free, maybe Panthar can hold me up to find the end. If I can manage that, I'm sure that with you anchoring one end I'll be able to yank the vine around and hopefully dislodge the bag."

I closed my latest offering with yet another sigh.

It never rains but it pours, right ol girl? I thought, giving my foot another vicious yank. My frustration must have proved to be the straw breaking the proverbial ronto's back, for with an awful schloop my foot suddenly gooed free.

Of course I wasn't the least bit prepared for this, and once more found myself sitting on the floor of the chamber, shaking the stars from my vision.

--------------------

For even the youngest apprentice to his clan knew that the safest way to lower something down a hole was indeed to lower it; the warrior snorted again, shaking his head at Terrin... and then at himself.