Without hesitation, Shayla took a step inside the portal...

...her heart searching for answers that her mind was well aware of. Knowing that others would follow her, Shayla took a few more steps into the swampland, the canopied bed nearby seeming as though it somehow belonged where it was. Instinctively, Shayla stretched out with the Force...

...and was impacted with the very essence of the place. The essence of life in all its facets, of simplicity and ebb and flow.

Shayla closed her eyes. Something of this place both comforted her and discomforted her at the same time. Momentarily, she opened her eyes, the white spiders which had been crawling up and down some nearby trees now drawing her attention.

And in the midst of all this life and death, they continue on and on, as if it has no effect on them...?

She closed her eyes again, her very soul caught into the strange power of this otherwise simplistic place.

"Do you feel it?" Shayla now queried quietly to whomever might follow, her thoughts now drawn to wonder just why Jharmeen had been drawn to this place, as was Yoda once upon a time.

There was something about this place...

A chill raced up and down Shayla's spine, a sudden sense of hope tingling in her nerves.

"Life..." she then whispered quietly, the single word meaning far more to her than perhaps it ever had before...

Phalomir motioned for Panthar to go through the portal, and waited as Panthar shoved Thoran through and followed. Phalomir glanced at the others still in the room, then entered the portal with Jharmeen in his arms.

The air was as he remembered from the night before. A light mist rose from the ground in places, and the call of a bird welcomed them. The others were taking in the strange wonder of the place, allowing Phalomir to go directly to the bed that was still near in place near the tree of spiders. He moved back the canopy and placed Jharmeen gently on the bed. He placed his hand on her forehead as if hoping to find a sign of life, but there was none.

“Rest, my love,” he said quietly. He stood and began to straighten the linen around her. He unwrinkled her gown and moved a pillow to rest under her head. Her beauty was manifest, even in death, marred only by her silent stillness. Phalomir closed the canopy and stepped back.

He called forth his magicks, his energies heightened as the tattoo of entitlement on his face blazed forth with the power of the Dark Lord of Armorers. Mixing his magick with his love, he worked the energies into the bed itself, strengthening its physical form and weaving into it the protection of a vault. The canopy itself hardened, and the entire bed now formed a solid impenetrable seal around Jharmeen’s body.

Phalomir knelt, the damp ground cool upon his knee. He supported himself with his hand, and even as the footfalls of the others came from behind him he let his head drop to rest upon his arm. He was exhausted.

Phalomir’s head picked up slightly at that, and Thoran stepped back.

Magick, sheer magick. There was no other word to put to it.

One moment we were all grouped amidst cold stones and dim light and gloomy atmosphere. The next, surrounded by life so buoyantly expressive as to bring instinctive, responsive joy into even Phalomir's burdened soul.

Only it didn't seem to be happening.

Frowning a little I yanked myself away from the wonder of this place, releasing Terrin's hand to walk over to where the Sith Lord knelt upon the rich, swampy ground. Before him stood a strange sort of fortress, one looking remarkably like a bed. I could only assume that he had laid Jharmeen's body inside to protect her while we went about the business of trying to reconnect her spirit with it.

I stood behind him a moment, catching the tail end of the brief words he had spoken. Watched quietly as Thoran tried to cheer him up only to then walk off a little distance. Waited a moment or two longer to give him a a little more time to grieve.

Then gave him a solid boot in the hiney.

"Hey, yeah buddy, we are going to fight the battles we can, and win them, dammit. The key word in that statement, in case you haven't been paying attention to yourself, is we; you're not the only one involved in this now. But you're one of the two or three here with the most power to make what we need to accomplish happen, and it sure as there's Treasure on Roon ain't gonna happen if you don't buck up and act like a Sith!

"So get your act together and give us some direction here! What's on the agenda now?"

Not quite certain if he had paid me any attention, I booted his hiney one more time, just for good measure.

“Gotcha,” he said.

He smiled, his strange private joke beating down the sorrow that had been filling him. His eyes danced with the sudden relief, and gave away the joy that being in this grove brought him. This was where he and Jharmeen had begun their new life, and this is where she would be safe until her life was restored.

Tell the truth, it was good to see him coming back to his old self. What's a near miss or two on a broken face in return?

I smiled, nodding my head to one side.

"He's just over there--"

Then my eyes widened, for something behind Phalomir's back was happening. Something unusual to say the very least, unusual enough to shut me up in mid-sentence, and that's saying a lot.

My jaw hung stupidly open and I gawked, my gaze glued to Jharmeen's nest-like bed, too shocked to even move.

"Wow," was all I could manage in a tiny, drawn-out whisper.

Or, the reverse...

A strange, subliminal humming suddenly breaks out. It is not of this clearing, nor of this region, nor even of so mundane a thing as this planet. It's source lies otherwhere, everywhere and nowhere.

All coalesced into a single point.

And from that point a string is plucked, harmonics phase together in the plane of the celestial, crying out, seeking answers, answers to which a reply is obediently returned. The singularity manifests itself; upon a tiny mote of green, miniscule motes of white now crawl from their lofty places in myriads, thousands of millions, beyond count. Down and down they come, marching in unhearing cadence with each other, all tied, all one, all the point itself being forced to move in response to the motions of motes who Would Be None.

Intriguing.

The spiders came in droves, like army ants, from every gnarl-tree within a kilometer's distance, millions and millions of tiny bodies all operating as if via a single mind. The swarmed into the clearing, forcing the strange bipeds back, out, away; their intentions unerring they made for the fortress Phalomir had built, scrambling as one up and around and over it.

There they settled, their tiny legs linked, their little bodies centimeters thick, forming a living, protective mat over every cubic millimeter of the once soft and live-giving bed.

Reality blinked for a fraction; and a pair of chrome-shot ultraviolet Eyes materialized against the writhing mat of spiders.

"Point," He/She/It said, following that unexpected statement with, "You are beyond the Game now, you know."

As Jasyn crossed the portal and stepped into the swamps of Degobah, he scowled.

Ugggh, a swamp...

But, before he could state his lack of happiness with the locale, he froze in his tracks, his commrade having to stop suddenly behind him so as not to slam right into him.

Jasyn's eyes widened, looking at the scene of the canopied bed covered in white spiders.

A power she knew well, for a healer she was.

You are beyond the game, now, you know...

Shayla blinked, her eyes falling closed once more. "There is hope," Shayla said calmly. "I have the feeling her death was not part of the Game, but rather was brought on by something most unnatural. Life can be returned to her, somehow..."

Her eyes snapped open then, and Shayla looked Thoran straight in the eye, the look in her own extremely intense. "Exactly what were you made to do...

...and how do you intend to rectify it?"

“All right,” he said. “There’s one of my concerns out the window. I was a little worried about having to deal with That Which Is, when I did That Which I Did or That Which I Need To Do…”

He cleared his throat and half-smiled.

“All right, no more stalling.” He shifted uncomfortable on his feet, looked absently at the mound of white spiders and shook his head in awe.

“For the past several hundred -- maybe thousand, I don’t know -- years, I’ve been working for the being you have come to know as the Master. Well, ‘working for’ isn’t exactly the right term, because we used to have a partnership, and it dissolved into more of a slavery. He doesn’t call himself ‘master’ for nothing, you know. Well, he needed me, more to point he needed my power. I’m a mage, of sorts. Nothing so powerful as to be in line for the Dark Lordship or anything, but I have my abilities. You’ve seen them, I specialize in the spirit. Not just mine, but others as well.”

Thoran glanced at Phalomir, and could tell that the Dark Lord’s blood was beginning to boil.

“So, anyway, about the Master,” he hurried. “He had me out on a job, one where my spirit was sent off to do something nasty and vile, and then kidnapped my body. I was forced to do a lot of badness for him, and the strangest thing yet was the setup I arranged for Phalomir. More on that another time, because right now I need to confess something worse and explain why I am here.”

He shifted again, not sure what would happen to him, but needing to go on.

“So, I’ve been trying to free myself from the Master, but with no luck. Until, that is, I’m stuck inside of Phal again, and he is being tortured in the Darker Realms, and is unconscious a lot. I take over sometimes, and I meet this little imp who hangs out there in the Dark Hall, a special little guy. We start to talking, and he takes a liking to me. He is also bound to the Master, but in a different way, and would like nothing more than to see his downfall.”

“All right, now the meat of the story. I was sent into Graysith, after Phal was rescued. When they were, um, touching, I transferred myself into her. She was too, um, distracted to notice. Then I went to work, under the orders of the Master, and um… I, um… I made her spirit separate itself from her body. The Master was waiting, and he snatched it away.”

He closed his eyes, waiting for the wallup.

“But there’s more,” he said, clenching his teeth and his eyes shut, still waiting to be pummeled.

He inhaled deeply.

“So I killed Graysith, sort of. But I tagged along for the ride, you see. The Master was in such a hurry to catch her freed spirit that he didn’t notice me clinging to it. Then when we were sucked into the Darker Realms, I let go and tumbled away. I didn’t know if the imp could find me, but he did, and he brought me to the place where the Master had hidden my body. Once that was located, it was a simple matter to jump back into it. The imp opened up a portal into K’eel Doba, and then I searched the temple until I found you all.”

Thoran raised his eyebrows.

"I think he's actually giving us the truth here," I said.

"I mean, why on earth would he confess to what he just did--"

Then it hit me. My eyes widened as Thoran's words sunk into my hot little brain. Before I really knew what I was doing I had stomped up to him and, reaching up, grabbed myself a handful of Sith robes.

Ok, so I couldn't haul him down to my level. But I sure as hell could haul myself up to his.

"Ok, buddy, so we've all played Father Superior or whatever to your confession," I gritted out between my teeth. My grip on his clothing tightened.

"You killed my sister, but buddy, you bet your sweet hindquarters you're gonna put her back the way you found her.

"Just like you did with Terrin-- or you're gonna have to deal with me."

Still holding onto him I nodded at Terrin, then fell into a dangerous silence.

Thoran looked at Phalomir.

“There’s just one little thing however…”

Thoran shifted uncomfortably again.

“There is some kind of power within her, and I’m not sure what it is exactly. I mean, it might be related to her All abilities, or it might be something completely different, but the image I got was that of a— a— beast. There’s just no other way to describe it. I saw it once before, when I jumped into her briefly back on the ship… but, anyway, that was a pain to get around, and I’m not sure if I can handle it myself again. What I mean is that we can’t bring her body to her spirit, so we will have to bring her spirit back here. That means we need a vessel, and I don’t think I am strong enough to contain that beastie thing if it decides to wake up while I’m putting her back. We need someone with a really strong will, and maybe some powerful energies, too.”

She was one with the Force, and quite simply a part of the Force. She felt very much a small part of All That Is, as they all were.

But her eyes snapped to alertness at Thoran's final words.

Phalomir walked to where Galen still held Thoran by the robes.

Thoran winked at Galen, then turned to Phalomir, dragging Galen with him as he moved.

"Oh great, see?" I nodded at Thoran.

"I knew there was a catch."

With that I stalked back the few steps I had backed off and raised up on my tiptoes in front of him. This time I didn't give him the pleasure of grabbing onto his robes.

The creep--

"No dice, buddy," I spat, pinning him with the darkest look I could manage.

"We sneak into the Darker Realms, we snatch Sissypoops, we cart her spirit back here and you reunite her with her own loving self again.

My suggestion is that we get Jharmeen's body to a safe location and determine who could carry her spirit, now. And while I'm clearly not the most knowledgable about these things, I'd assume we want someone who is not so emotionally connected to Jharmeen," he observed, glancing to Phalomir then Shayla, "while still being very powerful."

He paused a moment. "But, first things first, let's get going. If we don't take Jharmeen's body to this hidden location Shayla mentioned, and we can't get her to Aelvedaar, do we have any other alternatives?"

“They’re so cute when they pretend to be smart,” he said. Turning back to Galen, his face became very serious.

“What I am saying is that there is no way we will be able to sneak in there and grab sissypoops without killing the Master. Maybe before, yeah, but now that he has become one with the Dark Hall, it will be impossible. The second we step foot in there, he’ll know. Look, he thinks that he’s doing you a favor by taking away the distraction of keeping her safe from Roan. I don’t know what the heck he wants to focus on, but by running there to grab her spirit will really piss him off.”

Thoran locked his hands behind his back.

"Finger thingy?" I repeated, perhaps sounding a bit stupid but not really caring at the moment.

I scowled, and took one threatening step toward him, ignoring Terrin tightening his grip on my arm.

"You seem to know so much, how about spreading a little bit of that wealth around?" I asked, jutting my chin out defiantly but softening that gesture with a sideways toss of my head, one meant to encompass the others and thus indicate that I was not the only one interested in scrutinizing any other pearls of wisdom he might be willing or able to drop into our midst.

“That device was last seen, by me anyway, with Jharmeen's daughter. She is the bitch of Roan, and may have given to him by now. And even if we had it, it is far too dangerous for any of us to wield. It… talks to you. It shows you great things, a bright and powerful future, and it is very… persuasive.”

Phalomir frowned further.

“But it did allow Jharmeen to use my powers along with her own, and destroy a demon hoard. I hate to admit it, but with that kind of power… if we could control it somehow…"

...which she is either hording or perhaps gave to her father...

... and we are just going to let her or Roan have it, cause it's dangerous and talks and is persuasive? Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this picture?"

Pausing a moment at that, Terrin turned his blue eyes to Phalomir. "Look, I know you are going through a hard time, and I don't want to seem callous, cause I know what it's like. But we have the chance to bring Jharmeen back, and you'd be damned if you didn't do everything in your power to get her back, if for nothing else than you love her. And if doing so requires risks...

...so be it. But let's take a stand and do something, or all that Jharmeen fought for could be lost to Roan, the Master, or ShaRhylla. Perhaps to all of them. You said the Finger helped Jharmeen channel your power and combine it with her own to wipe out a horde of demons, and she was obviously able to use the Finger without it in turn controlling her. One thing is clear...

...we need to take the Finger from ShaRhylla if she has it, and it was last seen with her. So, unless there is another way to get into the Darker Realms and to Jharmeen's spirit, I think step one is decided...

"It has been spoken that this body must be protected," he opened carefully, his hands folded, his manner calm, every aspect of his being in complete opposition to the feelings raging inside him. It hurt to refer to the mortal remains of the Chosen Daughter as "this body," but it was the only way he could manage to speak of it without falling apart completely.

This Sith Lord loves the lady for who she is... but does he love her as I do, and as does my Father, for what she has done for us all?

Giving himself a mental shake, he continued on.

"I do not have the skill yet to create a chronotic shield about this bower, but I can do this."

Closing his eyes, he tilted his head forward, one hand snaking out, the other reaching to the soil. His body shuddered, his head made a curious half-coiling movement, like that of a cat rubbing up against the leg of the person it owned.

Immediately there arose a group of greenlings, young plants which completely surrounded the bed. They grew swiftly and were soon revealed to be young gnarl-trees. Upward they grew, reaching to the Dagoban sky, growing so closely together that their limbs and branches and roots entwined with each others' until at last the coccooned bed was hidden away in a combined growth of one gigantic tree.

Aeylmaar heaved a sigh, then relaxed. His amber eyes opened.

"If we need to discover the whereabouts of this Finger of R'lous, there are two options open to us. One, we can return to Phrinnchatka and go to the Revealer in the Great Library, or--"

He paused, gulping a little, as if fighting back an inner pain.

Phalomir looked at everyone in turn as he spoke. He stopped on Terrin.

“Having felt the power of the Finger of R’lous, I agree that we could use it to defeat the Master, and regardless it must not be in the hands of either ShaRhylla or Roan. Let us find it, retrieve it, use it to rescue Jharmeen’s spirit, and then rid ourselves of the Master. Aeylmaar, if you would…”

A blast of cool air shot into the humidity of Dagobah, condensing the air immediately about the portal, creating a tiny rain shower there.

"Shall we?" he said simply, then stepped forward and into the shimmering waterfall he had created.

The thin garments Phalomir wore were not suited for the sudden change in climate, and his eyes widened at both the sight of the snow flying around him and the sudden chill that blasted his body. He turned to see the others following through, each with the same surprised look.

“I had thought we might have entered inside the temple”, shouted Phalomir over the wind. “But any portal in a storm.”

He looked around, and through the flying snow made out what appeared to be a wall. He followed the wall with his eyes until he saw a familiar set of large double doors, barely visible in the flying snow. He smiled, memories of the Temple of Sorcerers coming back to him. It was in this temple he remembered serving as Dark Lord, however true those memories may be.

“Well, you were not too far off the mark,” he said. “Come, let us make our way inside before we freeze.”

Phalomir started towards the doors, assuming the others would follow.

Regardless of what Thoran did for him, he was still having trouble trusting him. After all, he sure liked to rub what he knew and what he had done into everyone's faces, and he had...

Terrin conciously made himself focus his thoughts elsewhere, and took Galen by the hand, motioning for Matt and Jasyn to follow along. Matt came along agreeably as did a nearby Shawn Petrolu, and Jasyn fell in step, grumbling about something or other. And though Terrin couldn't feel it himself--this Sith flightsuits really were wonderful--he could have sworn he heard Jasyn complaining about the cold.

Cold? It hadn't been that cold on Khar Delba near to the Temple since...

...well, since before the Sith were brought back he supposed.

Stating as much to Galen, Terrin stepped through the portal cautiously...

(((OCC: Follow Terrin, Galen, Matt, Jasyn, and Shawn to My Enemy, My Ally in the Jedi Praxeum/Sith Temple forums.

Still, she was having difficulty leaving Jharmeen's body behind here. The wind seemed ot answer her in a whisper, with reassurance.

LIfe, like that on Kor'isan, seemed to thrive here...

Feeling a hand on her shoulder, Shayla looked up momentarily.

"She'll be safe here," Erik spoke quietly.

Shayla cocked her head thoughtfully, her eyes distant. "She should be. This place just breathes life. Still..."

She trailed, he squeezed her shoulder once more in reassurance. "Let's go and see just what steps we may take to bring her back," Erik interjected.

Nodding, Shayla took a few steps back, and felt Erik step away from her, beginning to step through the portal himself.

Pausing a moment longer, Shayla spoke, to no apparent physical source, but to something none the less. "Take care of her," she whispered. "And if this is indeed a card played that is beyond the game, as I believe it is...

...please help us know what to do to right the wrong and restore Life."

Saying nothing other than that, Shayla then stepped through the portal into less-than-desirable conditions on Khar Delba, a shiver surfacing from deep inside the Force to encompass her Force senses as she stepped through.

Having slipped off into a meditative state, one which would only be broken by a but a couple of events, Shayla slowly became aware of proximity indicators announcing the imminent arrival at their destination. Moving from the floor where she had been sitting cross-legged and inspecting her black flightsuit and weapons belt--sans any weapon whatsoever--Shayla found a closet and felt about in it a bit til at length she was satisfied with what she found: a soft, gray-ish cloak with a hood.

Good enough to keep her somewhat less visible to the eyes.

Wrapping it about herself, Shayla headed to the cabin of the freighter and made the proper, graceful reversion of the ship her priority. In but a few minutes she had achieved orbit around Degobah, keenly sensing the Life thriving below.

We have arrived, my Sister, she thought, a smiling crossing her lips. Although I know where your body rests, I dare not land too close to it for fear of attracting...

...unwanted attention. Soon, what has been taken from you will be restored.

And then we will have revenge.

Won't they all be so very suprised at what is to come, my Dear Sister?

Then, reaching for the navboard, Shayla deftly keyed in the commands which would begin the landing cycle of the freighter. Noting with great pleasure how sleek and quiet the newer ship was in this process, Shayla's piloting skills helped her complete the necessary procedures for landing fairly quietly. The skies above Degobah were dimming even as the freighter touched down on the surface of the planet and the engines began to cool.

Shayla rose from the pilot's chair, pulled the hood of the robe she now wore over her head, and departed the freighter altogether, her senses keenly attuned to the thriving life that still chirped and cooed and rustled in the dusk as she quietly made way to the place she knew Jharmeen's body rested.

We are not far, my Sister. Not far at all...

...but yet there was more to that vision, and Shayla knew it.

Again the image of many red-skinned Sith, their looks sad and pleading, drifted into her mind’s eye. Amongst those Sith a singular tattooed Sith, the one from all her previous visions, stepped forward, all the others fading behind him as her vision from the Mount played out once more. Unconsciously, her mind’s eye shifted to the tattoo he bore...

...and she noted that the tattoo which, in her most recent vision had been a strange admixture of the tattoos of all three clans, had returned to the mark of the Sorcerers as it had been all times previous to the last.

Shayla pursed her lips and continued on in the swamps, her mind and heart full and receptive to what the will of the Force, and indeed the will of something much more than just that very small portion of All That Was and Is, continued to speak to her.

She may not have been able to access the All any longer, but that did not mean Shayla Stargazer was not well aware of it.

And then it was that, once more, the words spoken by the Sith Sorcerer, the words that were once muffled, turned to something very real and very clear.

She needs you.

She needs you. It is your True Potential...

But It is Not the End to all Things, but rather the Beginning. For in every Final Realization and Understanding, a new Beginning thus emerges.

And with nothing more than this, Shayla’s mind cleared completely and she became one with All That Was, a single mote succumbing to What Was. And, in this instance, What Should Be rather than that which was Beyond the Game. As she approached the place where Jharmeen lay, Shayla could sense the magicks that Aelvedaar was conjuring to remove Jharmeen’s physical body from the white spiders that had been protecting her. So wrapped up was he in the task he was undertaking, and so quiet was she in her approach, the Dark Lord of the Sorcerer’s was not, at least initially, aware of Shayla’s presence. Perhaps he would be, but that would not stop her. She stretched out to that link she had with Jharmeen...

...and realized with a jolt that the Link which she relied upon was with Jharmeen’s spirit, and not with her physical body.

But this would not stop her from getting Jharmeen’s spirit back into her body where it belonged either. She had come too far, and they would succeed.

Again Shayla pursed her lips, her greeny-blue eyes growing vague as she sought within for the answer to the dilemma now presented to her.

Think of the Big Picture, something within her whispered. You are but a very small part of All That Is. You cannot do this alone...

...nor should you dare try, least you over-estimate your own importance. But do not be mistaken. While you cannot do it alone, this does not mean you do not have the Potential to make it happen...

Shayla blinked at this new realization. Instead of defeat creeping into her soul, as perhaps it once would have, strength flooded into her mind, her heart, and her very soul instead.

Reliance on the abilities of others termed Sentient would not solve this dilemma. You need them not, not if you are to be successful here. But in the Big Picture of All That Is, there is yet more, for even the white spiders have responded to its Beck and Call to protect Jharmeen.

White spiders....

Suddenly the Answer surfaced, and Shayla’s attentions turned back to where Dark Lord Aelvedaar was still struggling to conjure up magicks and the All Force enough to remove them from Jharmeen’s body. Did he realize why it was that he still struggled?

Shayla did. He would not succeed in removing them. Not while there was yet a purpose for them being present as they were, protecting Jharmeen’s body in the very Web of Life Itself....

Life. There indeed was something about this place, as Shayla had suspected when they had left the body here to begin with.

Again, Shayla stretched out with the Force, reaching not for Jharmeen’s body, nor for the mind of the Dark Lord. Instead, she stretched for those small, seemingly insignificant beings which encircled Jharmeen’s body, knowing that the white spiders could hear the Will of the All, as well as Its Call.

And with the guidance of All That Is and Was, they would know exactly what to do...

Again and yet again....

Upon the sleeping body of Jharmeen Jhin'Dar Q'utaro, the tiny white spiders pause in their milling. Seem to consider.

Turn...

...and rising up on their last two pairs of legs wave fangs and pedipalps threateningly at the Lord of the Sorcerers now rearing back in surprise before them. His molten eyes widen, for innately he seems to understand that it was not by his machinations the tiny things have moved...

...nor, indeed, was it in reply to the message sent out by the young, hidden woman. At least not directly.

Unbeknownst to Shayla, it was the simple proximity of the spirit she harbored to the body ahead. The tendril she sent merely awakens the spiders to sense what is coming, the darkness carried within that tendril releasing that which has been within them all along...

They rear further, and in one sudden mass exodus depart from the body they hide, now bearing down inexorably upon the Sith sorcerer. He cries out, scrambles to his feet, his form covered by them as they scurry over him entirely, biting and hiding and crawling and seeking his innermost, tenderest Self.

A sudden rift in the fabric of time and space. A hot wind is carried therein; he staggers back and back, flailing and fighting, striving for quiet, to concentrate, to remove the spiders from his being that he might then reach the quiet body.

He is forced into the rift, whether created by him or another, and is gone, the Portal snapping closed in his wake.

Behind him, the spiders have entirely exited the body they covered, now turn, waving their pedipalps, showing their dripping fangs, tiny, glittering eyes seeking out the next one who would come to take...

It is time. It is time.

But sensing the delicateness of the entire Whole, Shayla dared not step forward foolishly and impulsively, knowing as well what that in turn might cause.

For somehow the spiders too, knew that it was time. Somehow, if not by their own understanding, they were playing a pivotal part of All That Was and Is. If the Game was to be set back in proper balance...

...it would not be the mere thoughts and actions of one or many small pawns. It would be at the Behest of the Grand Spectrum of the All.

Believing this with every fiber of her being, Shayla did not move...

...at least not physically. Likewise, she did not reliquish the tendril of her essence she had touched the white spiders with. For Jharmeen's spirit was the one with the All-Important Link to the All, and her spirit would know the place it belonged.

Unconciously, however, Shayla now stepped forward only minimally, in anticipation.

We are here, my Sister, and All That Is is with Us. Indeed, it is a part of us and we are a part of All That it Is as well.

A planet of Death as well, for one could not exist without the other.

Indeed.

Her smile deepened with understanding, an understanding which actually transcended that of her Teacher, for in this case it was the student who had the firmer hold upon both sides of the coin, who knew from personal experience the calm assurance of that which sentients term Good, and the sweet victory held in that they perceive as Evil.

Her mentor always had struggled with this, as powerful a Lord of the Sith that he was...

Her attention was drawn from her reveries by the actions of the spiders, which were now turning en masse toward Shayla, now stepping forth from where she had been hiding.

Graysith's smile only deepened further.

She understood now, how clear it all was. This tiny gift had she been given by the enigmatic That Whis Is, when he/she/it had faced them back upon the ancient Sith warship.

Life always seeks life; life always seeks to express itself, for this is the very soul of the Universe: the utter expression of itself. Those who set the paradigms, however, knew the inherent fault in this; thus it was that in death, the living essence of the universe had to depart from its physicality, to sit in a holding pen, if you will, to await further use in the great game of Everything That Is.

Every now and again, however, someone manages to slip through the cracks; witness the simple reinsertion of one tiny human mote into his physical form once again. Little did those present at the time know that their feeble machinations were not the reason why this occurred; it would occur millions and millions of times if certain checks and balances weren't enforced. Thus does the Spirit depart in death, the flesh decay, all returning to All to be utilized once more, somewhere in the vast eternity called the Future.

It was, after all, a rather rare occurence when both soul and body were preserved in their entirety...

"Do not fear the spiders, my Sister," came Graysith's musical whisper.

"Let them do as they will..."

And Shayla knew this, as she likewise knew that to over-estimate her importance in this matter would do little other than show her to be one who understood nothing. For regardless of what she percieved of herself, things would Be as the Should Be in All That Is and Was...

...or else they would be beyond the Game.

Not acceptable.

Instead of the possible fear for her own life that most others would have in this circumstance, Shayla chose instead to simply accept what was.

The white spiders were the key to all of this, Shayla knew that very deeply within her soul. Thus, if she truly believed that...

...then she would have to trust, and give herself over as a tiny thread in that Wonderful Tapestry to therefore do her part.

Greater Love hath no one than this...

Shayla began to step forward calmly, with certainty, each one of her steps increasing in confidence as the spiders began to come...

And how amazing it was that, in a moment many would perceive as something dark and odious, in which Life was threatened...

...she saw the other side of the coin. For in this moment, Life would be Preserved, and even Restored as well...

Shayla continued to move towards Jharmeen Jhin'Dar Qu'taro's resting body, the white spiders swarming to her as she likewise stretched out to them and became what she knew she was...

Her violet eyes flew open, blinked away the remnants of darkness... and she sat up, wondering where she was.

In a flash of memory, all returned. Her eyes cut to the side; again, a painful intake of air, this time piercingly so for the constriction of her chest.

Shayla...

Stumbling, she was suddenly on her knees beside her, the white spiders now flowing away into the dimness of the Dagoban swamp. A cold zephyr blew through the grove, which suddenly lit up in ultraviolet splendor for the pain of her grief.

"NO!" she cried out, her restored Glyph igniting the very air.

Now, leaping to her feet. Marching about the grove, angered, knowing what Was, but not knowing how to reach he/she/it.

"Take me. I am yours!" she cried aloud without saying a word, knowing the true meaning of the words as she spoke them. Indeed was she but a part of It All; once true understanding of this comes into focus, then does one's position in the Grand Scheme Of Things.

"Take me; do not take this one! Or--"

A sudden, sly flash of insight.

"The Game is afoot. You allowed my return, you know WHY; the Game is indeed afoot--

"--and I need this one to complete the Play!"

Now coming to a halt, she fists her hands, staring upward and outward, knowing it is not the canopy of the gnarl-trees that she sees, but something far different which now slowly begins to coalesce...

The seem to blink in wonder. A basso voice crashes, the sound a distant thunder.

"You are You," it observes, relatively calmly. Though all that exists is that pair of gigantic orbs, they now tilt a bit, as if some great hoary head was cocking in speculation.

"Yet... this is You as well..."

Before it's immensity, a flame-headed mote stands firm, dares to nod, but speaks nothing further. Indeed the time has passed for so shallow a means of communication as mere words; the great Eyes blink, and suddenly something reaches forth from them, connecting with the Glyph emblazoned upon Jharmeen's forehead.

It does not take, for it respects well the apparent homage to Itself presented by this one impossible sigil. And through it it's answering tendril bursts, now rampaging through Jharmeen's mind like a wanton rancor, a stampeding bantha which tramples hither and yon, seeking image after image after image.

It finds the time She had taught the one laying in so silent a repose... and seems to nod again with a touch of selfishness. Not often do any come who not only recognize It, but who they are, and what part they play...

Not to mention the means by which they go about doing this.

He/she/it pulls back; the grove now resounds with another blast of thunder, this one faintly reminescent of distant laughter.

"Once again, point. The Game must be played to conclusion... and your words are Truth.

"It is so."

...she was a part of the Grand Spectrum, All That Was...

...but only for a few brief moments before Shayla's motionless body moved as she suddenly gasped for air as though she had been holding her breath for minutes. And in that breath, pain ensued, and Shayla's mind was able to recall what had just transpired.

The white spiders? Where are they...?

Now her eyelids fluttered, a few times without successfully opening, but at last succeeding. Shayla's greeny-blue eyes sought something.

Or rather, someone.

A single word which she gasped gave her a name.

"Jharmeen?"

Shayla struggled to get up, ignoring the pain, ignoring the need for restoration for the moment.

Caring about One, and One only.

And sensing her there, in flesh and blood.

Shayla's greeny-blues lifted to meet her violet pair, joy spilling forth in waves without so much as a word even truly needed to convey it.

"Jharmeen..."

"Shayla!" she cried out as tears of joy spilled from her eyes, her arms snaking out to gather up her friend and sister and adept into a hug only one restored to life by the life given by the other could give. For a long moment there was no need for words; the scowling shadows of the gnarl-tree grove seemed to snarl, backing away from the tenderness of the moment, yet hanging about as if still connected to the pair now rejoicing with one another. Unseen eyes blinked and glared, unheard voices whispered mocking words--

It was the dimming light of day, the distant sigh of the wind, the cry of something inherent to Dagobah which made this planet the one place in the entire Universe where an ancient Jedi Master had come to learn.

At length Jharmeen pulled back, held Shayla out at arm's length. Now she raked her with a more discerning gaze.

"You are injured--" she began softly, not needing to say anything else, knowing how and why the one dearest and most faithful to her throughout it all, throughout it all and everything, had come by those heinous marks, knowing what she had given up, knowing as well that Shayla knew she knew this. So she merely pulled her to herself again, gave her a loving kiss on her forehead, and with a simple flicker of her talents began to mend flesh to flesh, to reunite the tiny ends of capillaries, to massage away the purple bruises which covered Shayla like a plague.

She smiled against the warm skin of the forehead beneath her lips.

...and realizing that more than simply the Force was with her.

If Terrin Danner had been brought back to life sane, and without the mental distress that had been inflicted upon him just prior to his death...

...then it was so now as well.

Stretching out then to her sister with a link bound with not just simply the Force, but Something Much Greater, Shayla began to assist in her own healing, her proclivity towards doing so enhanced further by the All.

At length she pulled back from Jharmeen, her greeny-blue eyes suddenly firey, and determined. "What shall we do first, my dear Sister?"

"Let me show you something," she said, rising smoothly to her feet, her arm now reaching down and assisting Shayla to her own, then to move with easy grace to place itself about the younger woman's shoulder. Turning her, she indicated that Shayla should look...

...more deeply into the shadows, where once again the forms of Lords Aelvedaar, Recinis, Roan and Darth Wicked stood in a half-circle. Only they were not alone; this time they were joined by the shimmering image of Erik, and Terrin Danner as well.

Behind them, another shade wavered, worbled with the fabric of Allness, striving to make itself known...

...but could not do so.

Unheeding, Graysith pointed to the others, who smiled sweetly back in turn.

"Come," she whispered then, taking Shayla by the hand, drawing her at first toward the ring of men, who steadfastly faced them in turn. Their hands were carefully hidden behind their backs, one and all.

"What do you feel, now, this very instant?" Graysith crooned, whispering a sweet caress into Shayla's ear. Knowing the answer would come, she hurried her onward, now drawing her around and back behind the figures who strove to circle to keep facing them but were not quite quick enough to do so.

Once again, myriad weapons were revealed, ranging from Darth Wicked's magickal amulets to Recinis's flashing sword to an extremely lethal looking blaster held in Erik's hands.

"Now what do you feel, my Sister?"

Before Shayla could answer, Graysith placed a slender finger across her lips.

"Remember," she sighed into her ear, and then drew her out and away from the grove. For a moment she stood before it, contemplating it quietly while all about them the swamps rang with the cries of life and death. Then she turned to Shayla.

"It would do no good to rush willy-nilly, after undergoing what we have," she stated.

"Here, follow me now."

Dropping Shayla's hand, she proceeded away from the grove, flitting with silent grace through marsh and swamp, mud and mangrove. At length she came upon a wholly unexpected sight: a tiny mud and wattle hut, the one she had created to be her home during her self-imposed exile on Dagobah.

"Let us regain our strength here, and discuss... things, before we go off to our certain victory, my sister. I am most interested to hear of your reaction to the vision we shared within the grove."

Smiling, she turned and entered the hut, hearing the light footfall of Shayla as the young woman followed suit.

Recalled even more certainly her statements about the immensity of what the images were indeed portraying; what Life had offered to her, the Chosen Daughter of the Sith.

So what was it offered to you in the images within your own vision, Shayla Stargazer?

Two sides to every coin, and Power and Love are diametrically opposed to one another.

And a Balance is needed here.

Shayla's greeny-blues turned somewhat more vague, and another memory whispered within the shadows of her mind.

Your true Potential has just Begun.

Shayla understood. She had only thought that she had understood Jharmeen's vision before, but she hadn't...

...not quite. It was not that those who offered Graysith love also had other agendas...

...although they might very well have them. It was something much greater that was to be seen and understood here in this moment; a Choice needed to be made.

"In All That Is, we must choose Love or Power as our pathway..."

Shayla trailed, her eyes darkening slightly. "Where there is great love,there must be great darkness as well...

...and balance must exist."

"Yes," she said as she moved about, tidying here, seeking there.

"But only to an extent."

Stopping then, she turned and pinned Shayla's gaze with her own. For a long moment she merely remained quiet, contemplating the young Adept, speculating upon how she would put across what she wanted to say in a manner the Adept would not merely understand, but feel down to every last cell in her body.

"What one terms as a dictator assumes power within a system," she stated abruptly.

"Do you consider this a good thing, or an evil thing? Does the power he holds spring from the deep love you mentioned, or it's opposite. And--"

She cocked her head, gave Shayla and even more piercing look.

"What is the true opposite of deep love, my Adept?"

Shayla now paused, her eyes growing vague, her mind deep in thought.

Where indeed...?

She refocused her gaze on Jharmeen. The words that were to come from her lips would have made many cringe, had they been present to hear them. "Most dictators strive to come to power out of their great Hatred of something although they may, or may not, seek to come to power to protect that which they love from that which they greatly Hate. Anakin Skywalker, for example, strove to gain power to stop the threat of the Jedi he came to hate, hoping in that move to save the one that he Loved. But the Emperor, whose leadership was notorious for its iron grip on the Empire and whose Hatred of the Jedi and anyone who would stop him was a palpable thing..."

She trailed, biting her lip. "Master of the Dark Side that he was, he had little love of anything. And when Darth Vader's own wife stood in his way..."

Shayla's look then blackened slightly, her thoughts straying, but only slightly. "You know, if the Jedi were truly honest with themselves, they need the hatred of something in order to defeat great darkness as well. They think in such truly small terms..."

Frowning darkly at that, Shayla fell silent for a moment. "They are fools to have such a narrow-minded view."

"Do not dismiss the Jedi so lightly, my dear young Adept," she admonished gently.

"For while it is true that they touch but a mere morsel of the Greater Whole into which we delve, their abilities come to them in more... natural a manner.

"We on the other hand must constantly and consistently maintain our understanding, so as to truly plumb the mysterious and beautiful depths of the All."

Now she paused in her tidying to settle down upon the carpet of thorny-pips. Patting a spot next to her, she indicated that Shayla take a seat as well. The young adept followed suit, staring into Graysith's violet eyes with her own greeny-blue ones.

"I posit to you, my dear Sister,that the true opposite of Love is not Hatred, as so many suspect... but the true lust for Power. One can, as you so eloquently put it, hate out of love, or for it's sake; they are not opposite, but elemental parts of a whole."

She paused there, staring deeply into Shayla's eyes, reading her every nuance of body language, eyespeak, striving to emplace within her very brain that which she herself knew so very well to be True.

"So many do not understand this relationship, my adept. The two are paired, hand in hand; the true opposition to them is what is actually at the very heart of many belief systems:

"Apathy."

She turned away then, blinking into the cold stones of the hardened mud fireplace she had built. Remnants of logs not quite completely charred lay within, covered with riotous growth; with a silent apology, she jerked her head fractionally, setting a happy little fire to blazing in the hearth.

She turned back to Shayla.

"And from apathy there in turn springs the greatest Beast of all... Power. And the lust for it."

Another quiet pause ensued, one filled only by the snappy crackle of the dancing fire. It sent warmth into the little hut, gradually lessening the humidity within until at length the air was more bearable, easier to breath.

She smiled, but this time with a touch of darkness flickering about her features.

"Apathy-- so terrible a thing. To actually care not for anything... or anyone..."

Her eyes, having found root in the flames before her, cut sideways to Shayla, slyly, like a predator sizing up an opponent.

"Only by understanding this can one truly devote oneself to the acquisition of power, my dear Sister.

"And only with power can one fill the Void left in the absence of love."

Her eyes closed briefly as upon her lids there now came the image of the gnarl-tree grove: all who had professed to love her, all who had betrayed her. Yet another smile flickered softly about her hardening features as she once again observed the images of Erik and Terrin;

How had they betrayed Shayla? Indeed they must have, in one manner or another, for otherwise their images would not have been present in that place of revelation...

The words rang out in Shayla's mental eardrum, trying to grab her attention, to scream for attention, to wave red flags desperately. But another line of logic was growing within her psyche to counter that desperation.

A truly powerful leader makes decisions based on his or her own convictions regarding what is best. Caring about what others think of him or her can mar the process...

Turning then to Jharmeen, Shayla stated as much. Pausing then, her greeny-blue eyes grew distant, and she added a final addendum. "One must draw faith from within, and from no one else, in order to truly be strong..."

"Yes-ss-sss..." she whispered at length, her voice low and musical and filled with terrible meaning. Once again she cut her eyes to Shayla, who stood there filled, undoubtedly, with the kind of security one gets when one is quite certain one has obtained the Final Answer.

Graysith merely smiled, well recalling how she had once stood thus before a particular turquoise-eyed Darth.

Such a long ways since then, so great a distance...

"But, knowing in one's mind is a far different thing than understanding with one's gut, or one's heart."

She paused a moment to let that sink in.

"I once asked this of you, Shayla. You failed.

"If asked again, should the situation arise, what would it be you would do, I wonder..."

With that she rose gracefully to her feet, nodding to Shayla as she then headed for the door.

"I grow hungry; it is time to hunt."

...for perhaps she had at that, Shayla followed after Graysith, noting her hunger as well. But first she spoke the conclusion to her thoughts to her Sister in two short, damning statements. "Indeed I failed you. They know far, far too much."

Her eyes then growing dark as the sky before a storm, Shayla Stargazer smoothly walked out into the swamps of Degobah, her senses stretching out and sensing the ongoing Life and Death therein.

On the hunt without so much as a weapon...

...but then, who needed such toys?

Stretching out even more with the Force then, Shayla tapped in to the small life-signatures nearby, sensing their proximity by the strength of their life force within her senses...

She so easily made connection, before my people returned--

A mental pause, eyes wide with a surprise that quickly segued into contentment.

Yes. My people; I am of them now, more surely than the blood which connects me with humanity, she thought, momentarily side-tracked. Then, a quick shake of her head, and she continued her former line of thought, moving quickly yet gracefully through the swamp.

She so easily made the initial connection... but she has so far to go before ability may grow.

I remember it myself, all too clearly--

Another sidetrack: her time with Wicked, then on her own for his sake. Her perceived strength, her ferocity, the tunnel vision by which she was almost completely derailed...

Thank Khaandon I found the balance. I do hope she will do so as well.

A small rustle ahead of her brought her to a halt, one hand out to stop Shayla. The young woman came up beside her, stared curiously ahead toward the single white spider which was sitting beneath a gnarl tree all by itself.

"Watch, my Adept," Graysith almost crooned, her eyes bright and blazing as she pinned them on the tiny creature. It seemed to pay them no mind whatsoever, but remained in the place it was. Every so often it turned in place, as if rotating about an invisible axis, its long legs reaching out to scrabble against the undergrowth as if searching for something.

At length it stopped, apparently satisfied. Now it hunkered down a bit, its legs poised as it crouched, then with eye-blinking suddenness it leapt straight up into the air. All eight legs drew themselves together as it rose upward, tightening one against the other until the tiny creature appeared to be a round white ball on a sharply pointed stick. In this strange fashion it rose directly upward...

...and then fell to the soil, the legs tightening together yet further as if preparing for impact. That impact did come, the legs burying full-length into the soil, the body of the spider coming to a rest on top. It wiggled once, twice...

...then ceased to move altogether. No trick of the shadows in the swamp, its color deepened, turning grayish green. A tiny tendril poked upward from the body of the spider, which now looked about as much like a spider as did a mushroom, and waved about. Sensing an area of lesser foliage, it writhed upward toward it, seeking the sun.

Graysith smiled.

"It takes life to beget life, and in the begetting, dies," she announced, nodding toward the little thing. She cut a look to Shayla, peered at her intently.

"This is one importance that you already know, my Adept, which is good."

Not saying anything further, she continued moving through the swamp, gathering up mushrooms and other edible fungi, pausing at the water's edge to handily scoop up tiny wriggling things, continuing to glean from the great field of Life which indeed was nothing more the the very embodiment of the planet itself.

This, along with Graysith's final statment, swirled in the depths of Shayla's mind, offering itself up as food for thought.

You did give your life for her, and for some great and unknown reason in the grandness of the Game, you were spared...

Shayla blinked at this realization, offering up thanks to whatever beings were there to hear it. Then, joining Graysith in collecting mushrooms and other small creatures for food, she spoke once again.

"I love you as the Sister I never had," Shayla said, feeling the words were somehow necessary. "I would give my life for you time and time again."

Glancing down at what was in her hands, Shayla then made a single query. "How shall we now make food of this?"

Falling silent at that, Shayla waited a quiet moment, knowing that what was given in the most simple of ways was what should be taken. The use of abilities without true reason was foolish, after all...

...so she began to get up to find some wood for a fire....

...and then froze.

Dinner. As that bastard child had once proposed to dine with Graysith...

Shayla blinked, her look darkening and justified suspicion creeping into her features. She then spoke, her words seemingly random.

In relation to the thoughts in her mind, they were anything but. "My Sister...

...something has just returned to my recollection," she stated. "The boy, the one who was deceived by Lord Roan, the one who stole the Finger..."

She paused, her look growing even more dark. "He was with your daughter on K'eel Doba; I saw him there with her shortly before you...

...were killed. Your daughter seemed to imply she had taken him as consort, and she acted as though she knew me not...."

Trailing, Shayla's eyes defocused, and a sudden thought crossed her mind. "Would Dark Lord Roan dare try to rule the Sith from the dead through the two of them?"

She paused then, her greeny-blues snapping alert, her look fierce and determined. "The boy...

...he is not strong enough, and not worthy to be a ruler of the Sith. He is merely a pawn..."

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Unseen by the greeny-blue pair behind her, her own violet eyes now narrowed, darkening to umber, filling with a fiery red that in turn cindered down to a deep and rich mahogany. The Glyph on her forehead strained to burst forth in splendor equally fiery; drawing in a deep breath at last, she held its fury back, forcing it inward that it might amplify her own.

"None have the ability to rule the Sith, none save Lord Roan!" she finally hissed, the words spoken in a whisper soft as down, fierce as a rancor's wrath. Whirling, she took a step toward Shayla, ignoring how the young woman took a reflexive step back, and paced away from the water's edge. Out into the swamplands she went, following no trail but one seen only by her own eyes, the foodstuffs trailing from her hands as she moved. At length she stopped, and turned back to Shayla.

Suddenly, in complete odds with her former behavior, she sighed. The Glyph ravened down the electromagnetic scale until once again it was a soft and gently glowing blue.

"Lord Roan had the strength not only to unite the Sith but to lead them as well. This was something of which we would speak, back before the Sith had returned, back when we-- when he and I--"

She trailed to a halt. Her face was totally expressionless. The Glyph ravened.

"But he lied to me as well. He did not tell me of-- of Kreesha."

Her voice now took on a hint of sneer, a bit of snarl, like a tigress just before it pounces. She straightened, drew in another breath.

"I defeated her in Challenge to Entitlement; from that day forth Lord Roan would have nothing more to do with me. Lord Recinis had already left, I already had seen the true wisdom in the abandonment of this insipid thing called love..."

Another brief pause. Swallow.

"But even with the strange relationship we then had, I knew this was what the Sith truly needed. Strong leadership, under one ruler. One Dark Lord, one Dark Lady.

"But he was killed..."

A shudder in earnest rippled through her body as the memory of that day rushed with white-hot vividness through her mind. Gathering her composure, she continued on, her voice now taking on the tone a teacher takes when patiently explaining something to someone. Whether that tone was for Shayla's benefit or her own, she really couldn't say.

"The Warriors have already pulled away from the Triumvirate. The Dark Lord of the Armorers is too new to the title, has yet to prove himself--"

If he ever shall, she amended silently to herself.

"The Warriors are ready to be As One, and would fight in civil war if such were needed. Only now Lord Roan is dead."

Again she turned away from Shayla, contemplating the swampland stretching out before her. It gurgled and whispered wet things into the humid air, sending out secrets of its own to those canny enough to pause and listen.

Graysith did not. She continued on.

"I believe what you say is correct, as do I agree that he is trying from the Realms of Death to yet hold the reins over the Sith. But he had no one else with whom to discuss such strategy; taking the boy unto his own House is a serious error indeed.

"And if he is aligned with my daughter, nothing good for the Sith can come from it. I know this lad; traitorous blood runs through his veins. For is he not descended from the Sith Assassins? Those who would be used betwixt one Sith and his brother?"

A swift cock of her head allowed her to gaze at Shayla from the corner of one eye.

"The Sith need unity, they need leadership. They are accustomed to the Triumvirate; they shall have Three... but not of Three Houses.

"Three Ladies, with the power of the All; this is who and what shall finally bring peace to them, Shayla.

"And nothing and no one is going to stand in my way... in our way.

"No one."

Her decisions.

Considering this thought, Shayla cocked her head, her own mind wandering to those whom she had allowed to play part in weighing the worth of her actions in the past.

Terrin...he had never trusted her, never opened up to her..

...and eventually turned against her.

Shawn...he was busy with his Jedi learning and teaching, too busy to be concerned with the fate of his sister.

And Erik...

...now where was he? And when had he ever been strong enough to stand in the gap and fight for her on his own? She had always been the one, in the end, to be strong. Not him; he lacked conviction...

Shayla's greeny-blues snapped alert once more, and she came to Graysith, her greeny-blues locking on her violet pair, the look in her eyes once more determined. "I will help you in whatever way I can so that the three can rule. Your daughter, she is in place as a leader on K'eel Doba already. But JhinDarra..."

Shayla trailed, her greeny-blue eyes deepening. "She remains on Tatooine, where I left..."

She paused once more, her greeny-blues darkening to the depths of a sea sky before a storm, Where I left all of them..."

Graysith let the word slide out of her mouth as a swamp-slug slides from its putrid hole, letting the fires within her Glyph and her heart bank somewhat. Her eyes glittering in the dim light, she turned back to Shayla.

"A strange place for all to be; tell me who was of the party you abandoned, and why was it that they were there?"

Indeed it would have been a simple matter for the Chosen Daughter to reach out as she had done in the past, to link her mind to that of her Adept's in order to gain this information.

...and Erik and my brother there," she said the latter two with disgust in her voice, noting that yet once again they had not made any noticeable attempt to come after her, at least not immediately.

These actions proved quite alot.

"The Dark Lord was going to Degobah to try to get your body so that Thoran could transport your soul back inside."

"It would seem the task was accomplished without his assistance," she quipped lightly before falling into another silence. All about them the life of Dagobah chirruped and gurgled and mewled, so far removed along the spectrum of Life from the heat-stricken ball of rock which was Tatooine.

"Tatooine," she then repeated, reaching a fingertip upward to lightly play at her lips.

"Why would Lord Aelvedaar have taken you there? Why not just lead all here to where my body was so very well protected? It makes no sense; perhaps there was something on Tatooine he wished for you to discover?

"Were you left in Mos Eisley, a place where all could easily be gathered into one group yet lost amidst the crowd?"

...but then it disaopated just as quickly. "We were left in what appeared to be the dune sea with no shelter or food whatsoever. I don't now where we were in relation to Mos Eisley or any other civilization on the planet, but wherever we were there was no signs of sentient life anywhere close by. Why he did not take us to Degobah with him...

...I do not know. How very strange that he would leave us all there totally defenseless, considering I habored your spirit within my body..."

The thundercloud resurfaced at that final statement...

It is good. She harbors this, and finally, at long last, she does not run from it...

"The Dark Lord does nothing without a purpose, this I have come to know from my history with him. Perhaps he wished to be certain my spirit was safe from prying eyes, for who would think to hunt for it in the wastes of Tatooine. Or--"

She paused briefly.

"Perhaps he too has something to hide. As do so many..."

Once more she let her words dwindle into the background, her brows knitting as she thought. Then--

"All will be revealed in its time, my dear; come, let us sup and then return to my rightful place in K'eel Doba. And as for the others, why... in time they will more than likely seek us there, don't you think?"

She paused, her greeny-blue eyes growing deep and dark. "Let them make the first move, for they will not find exactly what they seek."

Quieting a moment at that, a flash of something bolted in that thundercloud found deep in her eyes...

Ahh, my dear Adept, she mused to herself as she made her way, trudging along mud encrusted paths left by one Dagoban lifeform or another, slogging through the occasional bog.

How eager she is, how she yearns to let loose the darkness which resides within her, which has lurked there for far longer than she realizes.

But I know. I can sense it.

A branch hung before her, wet and dripping with moisture and sap. She merely moved a finger and it rose briefly upward, as if ferried there upon the wings of an unfelt wind.

This she must control, she mused further, and now let another smile whisper along her lips. For well indeed did she recall her earlier days, fresh from her receipt of the Glyph, the awesome powers of the All yet a promise. How fierce she had been, confronting Darth Wicked, slashing unthinking at those she perceived to be opposed to him, ever seeking to please him.

Indeed, I was lucky to have grasped the All, acting thus. Lord Aelvedaar was a good Teacher; I pray I can be as well to Shayla.

The image of her little home rose from the dim shadows; still remaining silent she entered and went directly to the mud and clay hearth she had fashioned. Sinking to her knees, she peered inside the pot she had made so long ago. A scent of decay wafted to her nostrils.

Wincing, she removed the pot and held it out to Shayla.

The Master stepped through the portal, followed quickly by Panthar. He stopped and looked about, ready to slam shut the doorway back to the Temple of the Sorcerers at the first sign of aggression from the white spiders. Panthar stood motionless behind him, sensing the apprehension.

But life carried on in the grove, and the spiders busied about their work as if nothing else in the universe mattered. After a moment, the Master turned his head and whispered to Panthar.

“It’s close,” he sighed. “It looks a lot like the spot where we left her body, but it’s not the same. I mean, there is a grove of those weird trees like I remember, and those little white bugs, but out there in that clearing, there should be a mound or something where Gray was placed. This looks smooth, like nothing ever happened here.”

Panthar looked more, studying the trees and the moist ground. He moved, much to the dismay of the Master, closer to the clearing. The spiders continued to ignore them. Panthar stumbled on a root that had grown from the ground.

“What’s this?” he said, bending down to pick up a small piece of cloth entangled in the root. “This is the same color as the Aelvedaar’s robes.”

Panthar’s eyes widened and he turned to face the clearing once again. Not one sign remained of the grave. He stood motionless for a moment then turned back to the Master.

So much for patience.

Erik moved towards the portal, nearly knocking over the Master as he did so...

...then standing frozen as Panthar made a few observations, ending with the damning fact that the area was clear, including the disappearance of Jharmeen's body.

Erik eyed the Master and Panthar, his thoughts spinning again. "None of this information helps us find my wife," he observed, his brown eyes growing distant. "The spiders were to protect Jharmeen's body, this Shayla was certain of. Lord Aelvedaar apparently was attacked by the spiders...

...so perhaps they saw him as some sort of threat."

He paused, shaking his head, his eyes still distant. "Something moved Jharmeen's body from here, and her spirit was in Shayla's head. So the question still remains...

...where are Shayla and the Dark Lady?"

Once she felt the pot was sufficiently clean, Shayla then filled it full of water, standing once more. She began heading back for Graysith's mud hut, but found herself pausing momentarily at the entrance to the cave where she had seen Erik, Terrin Danner, and the strange not-quite-figure only a little while before. Shayla cocked her head slightly, considering, wondering just what, if anything, prompted her to stop now. A new vision then flashed before her eyes, one not a product of the the cave directly, but very real in her mind's eye nonetheless:

An image of Erik and Shawn, each holding a lightsaber, each unmoving, their eyes unreadable.

Oh, now really? Shayla thought darkly to herself. Very well, then.

Clearing her mind of these thoughts, Shayla looked towards the cave a moment longer, pursing her lips...

Without a word, Shawn stepped through the portal directly behind the Master, Panthar, and Erik, where they all stood looking at the spot where Jharmeen's body should have been.

"They are both safe, here on this planet," he said softly and without preamble as the others turned to look at him. Erik's brown eyes widened, and he opened his mouth, starting to say something Shawn was certain he knew already. Shawn raised a hand at that, hoping the other would wait to hear him out...

...and would hear his logic as well. "Shayla blasted half of us, left Tatooine, and now she is here with Jharmeen...

...whose seems to be alive...

...alive...!

...and safe." He paused at this, eyeing Erik and leveling an eeriely calm greeny-blue gaze at him. "You know Shayla's independence, and you know her convictions. She's here for a reason, Erik, even if the reason is no more than one of her own. Recall her last actions, her words...

...and what you know deep in your head. She would not want you moving abruptly in upon her space, and the woman she loves as a Sister has somehow come back from the dead. Dare you move in suddenly on something that might be nothing more than a reunion, at the risk of causing her to distance from you?"

He then looked to the Master and Panthar. "Lord Aelvedaar is still weak, and could use your abilities, and perhaps mine as well. We need him to complete this puzzle, and should not rush into this."

He paused, his words still hushed, yet very urgent. "Come back with me. We can ascertain what is occurring safely via Aeylmaar's abilities. The time for a direct interaction with Jharmeen or Shayla should be spared for a time when we know exactly what has occurred here."

...but then she swore she could hear something very distinct, very noticeable.

Voices, whispering. Familiar ones.

Pausing at that, Shayla's eyes darkened, and she balled a fist.

How dare they come here, after being told to leave her. And at that, how did they manage to find them here? All links had been severed...

Her eyes darkened further, and for a long moment, she stood unmoving. She was tempted to stretch out and ascertain just who was there...

...but she was certain of at least one of the party. Well, actaully, two. She knew her brother's voice quite well...

...and for a brief moment, she thought of lashing out immediately, angrily. How dare they come here!

But then, logic began worming into her thoughts. Who cared that they were here? What they were doing was of little concern, until what they were doing came into the path of what she and her dear Sister were planning. To rush into anything without proper guidance at this point would be foolish. So, taking a care not to seek out with the Force and touch any of the minds now lurking, Shayla began to move quietly and quickly once more, back towards the mud hut. As she did so, she was almost certain she heard a familiar voice begin to call her name in the distance, but she heeded it not. Instead, she entered the hut, coming to a halt in front of Graysith, who was busy tidying the place...

...and immediately told her of what she knew. "They are here," she growled. "Although I know not for certain who, for I did not risk compromising our position with my Force abilities, I know I heard Shawn's voice, and I believe Erik is here to..."

She trailed, her look darkening further, "...retrieve me as well," she said, her look smouldering. "What shall we do, my Sister?"

What had she been mulling over mere moments before, after all?

--she carefully laid down the Tooth of S'slan, which she had been using to prepare the foodstuffs they had gathered, although her hand still made contact with its curving, hand-fitting hilt.

"There are times when a good offense is a strategic defense, my dear," she said then, lifting up the blade and beginning to chop and skin once more. Laying it aside for a moment, she then reached with her bare hand and tore out the entrails of the animal she was in the process of gutting, letting the blood fly where it might.

"And the best defense is knowing what those who may oppose us might be up to."

Holding the blade to her mouth she licked the remnants of blood and gore from it, turning now to face Shayla openly.

"I think you should return to where they are and pay heed to what they say, taking a care not to be discovered. Of course, should they find you, it would be but a matter of a moment for me to retrieve you here...

"...although that is not something I wish to divulge to them. It is better that they are left with suspicions, if that is indeed all they carry with them; this is something you must determine, my dear.

"Also, should they find you, it would be good... practice for you, in how you handle the matter. But remember, I am with you always."

With nothing further than that, Shayla stepped back out of the hut, quietly, keeping herself disconnected from either of the two persons she believed might be present...

...and headed right back in the direction where she believed them to be, taking care to approach not from her original path through the gnarltrees, but instead through an altogether roundabout path where she circled the swamps before heading back towards the place where she knew they were, coming in from the opposite direction from where she had initially left them, deeply hoping that they would not suspect her return...

...and pondering that perhaps they had indeed already seen her once.

...but he froze. Although the sight of her was still blocked by trees, Erik knew the figure well, every angle and curve...

...and she stood frozen as well, as if she knew someone was there too. Instictively he stretched out with the Force towards her, heedless to the others, longing to gain her attention...

...but instead she began to move, her stride quick and purposeful.

"Shayla!" he called, stepping out to follow her, to stop her.

He just couldn't lose her. Not like Khar Delba. Not again...

And Erik was about to blast the option of stealth into oblivion with one more step.

Shawn grabbed the back of his brother-in-law's flightsuit, dragging him to an unceremonious halt.

"She's angry," Shawn observed even as Erik whirled around to face him, his brown eyes glaring laser bolts.

"We don't have enough information to go blasting in. And aside from that, how will you show Shayla that you trust her if you go blasting in behind her when she is clearly unharmed?"

Shawn paused at this, and Erik at least seemed to calm a moment to consider his words. The Jedi intended to take that moment and use it for all that it was worth. "Aeylmaar can help us figure out what is going on here," he reiterated. "And that we most certainly do need to know before we do anything."

Shawn again trailed, nodding towards the beckoning portal, looking between Panthar, the Master, and Erik...

...the latter who had begun shaking his head adamantly, likewise looking from person to person as well.

She smiled to herself, let that smile connect with Shayla.

What is it they do and say, my dear? she purred silkily as in the confines of her little mud hut she calmly continued to prepare their dinner.

...and darkly.

They wish to know what has happened here. They saw me, before, and Shawn interprets my anger. Erik states he cannot simply leave me here...

...yet he hesitates.[i]

She paused, her thoughts growing darker. [i]He always hesitates...

Then she turned her attentions back to the discussion at hand. Shawn speaks of Aeylmaar assiting them in determining what has happened here, and urges Erik to show his trust by not blasting in behind me...

...but Erik seems to struggle with this.

...but at the moment, they have made no mention of you.

Pausing at that, Shayla thought back to all that she had heard, just to be certain. But when I fist heard Shawn's voice, he spoke of the both of us being alive, here in reunion.

The time approaches. She is going to have to choose... she thought to herself, blocking that revelation from Shayla as easily as one would swat a gnat.

Truly choose, for as yet she has not. For I feel the anger in her now, oh so very clearly, and it is not flaring within her heart entirely for my sake.

Her eyes still closed then, she sent reply along the Link she maintained with Shayla's mind.

I'm afraid this bodes ill for us, my dear. For although they know of our presence here, they do not seek us out. By your own observations, they hesitate. It is said that faint heart ne'er won fair maid, my dear; by this hesitation they only show a mistrust of us, an unwillingness to confront us openly.

They prove themselves to be ones who would prevent us from reaching our goal; be wary, my dear. And in all things, remember to always look at every situation in the light of the Greater Good.

At times some must fall that others might live.

He paused, hesitating once more, raking a hand through his dark brown hair...

...and letting it slide down the back of his neck, down his side, and to his blaster. He flicked it out, set for stun, and in one smooth motion and shot every single one of his companions down.

After all, he knew that Shawn would do nothing but stop him, and he didn't have time to find out if the Master or Panthar would do so as well.

He just had to get to Shayla. He had to know the truth. No more speculation, no more standing around.

Whirling on his heel at that, Erik headed off in the direction Shayla had taken, totally unaware that she was not all that far behind him.

...and realized just where Erik was heading.

Oh no. No, no, no.

I believe Erik is heading for the hut, my Sister, Shayla related, realizing that he indeed did not realize she was behind him.

I will not allow this, she then thought to Graysith. I will not let him bring any harm to you. After all, he has already shot down the others, although I believe he may have only stunned them...

Moving quickly from her hiding place then, Shayla opened up to the Force and stretched out for the one mind of Erik Kartan. Even as he turned in recognition of her Force-signature, she reached to the awareness center of his mind, finding a particular point within...

...and acted upon it just so in order for him to fall unconcious with her very own talents, left in an unnatural sleep. As he fell to the ground limply, she let Graysith know of the action she had taken...

While should the need ever arise, and we find ourselves needing to sequester ourselves upon this planet once again we in theory have its entirety in which to disappear--

--I find myself not wishing to depart from this hut. For too much may be alluded to regarding myself by one who is canny, not to mention the fact that I have grown somewhat fond of this place.

She paused a hair's-breadth longer, then--

...and the others, for that matter...

...from finding the hut. The only thing she could reasonably think of for the moment, her abilities considered, was to manipulate herself a Force cage for all of them. As far as she could tell Panthar, the Master, Shawn, and Erik were the only ones she would have to deal with, but...

Frowning, she stretched out to Graysith again.

If others should come, all they will find will be a spot on the face of this swamp world, she sent back.

A dark smile crossed Shayla's features at that, and she stretched out to Graysith once more. It shall be done.

Then, knowing the task now at hand would take quite some time, Shayla stretched out to the two Sith and her brother, niggling their sleep centers as well so that they would continue to be unconscious for several hours. Then, taking her time and using the force to telekentically move Erik, she seperated him from all the others, deep in the swamps of Degobah, several kilometers from all the others. Resting his limp body on the ground, then, Shayla looked about their new surroundings, pondering the situation a bit...

...and stretched out to move some of the existing tree branches around his form, twisting them and turning them until at length she was satisfied that he was neatly encarcerated in the branch-formed prison...

...making certain to relieve him of his blaster as well, placing it on her weapons belt. She eyed him darkly then.

You acted...

...and yet you acted too late. It is done.

Then, leaving him unconscious and imprisioned, Shayla hurried back to the mud hut, and to Graysith, and darkness settling in her heart.

It is done.

She has taken the first step...

Knowing they now had a few simple moments left to them, she ladled hot stew into two bowls, placed the bowls on the floor-- for she had never made any other stick of furniture for her hut save for the rustic little bed, and that was really more of a pile of mosses and other greenery than a real bed-- and settling herself cross-legged in front of one awaited the arrival of her Adept.

We shall sup and refresh ourselves, she thought to herself as with graceful fingers she plucked a bit of cooked meat from her stew and began to nibble upon it.

And then we shall return to K'eel Doba, and to our conjoined destinies.

Her musings were cut short by Shayla's sudden and rather breathless arrival. She had a darkly smug smile upon her face, like a sandcat who has eaten the womprat.

Graysith merely smiled and motioned that she seat herself.

"Now, my dear, tell me all that happened. I am most interested in your thoughts as to why our erstwhile friends were so unwilling to come forth to us, choosing rather to lag behind in the shadows, like a rancor before it pounces."

"My... brother probably thinks I've taken a turn for the worst, and has apparently been working hard to convince everyone else of that," she growled. "This is no surprise on his part, really...

...but I'm somewhat suprised he was so successful."

She paused, taking another bite. "They are all fools...

...and apparently have forgotten of what is in store for this entire galaxy, and what evilness truly awaits us."

Again, Shayla's look darkened for a moment longer. "I've been there after all, as have you..."

Thoran, silent in the shadows of the fountain, waited for the Master to announce what was happening. But nothing came, nothing but the faint muffled sound of a blaster…

Thoran’s eyes widened, and he rushed to the portal, stopping to peer within it. He saw the Master, Panthar, and the jedi sprawled on the ground, and blinked when he saw the floating body of Erik flying through the air away from the site. Giving an inquisitive look, he turned his head to the nearest person.

“Um,” he said, searching for words. “Something happened…”

He darted through the portal and into the Dagobah swamp beyond it.

He checked Shawn, who was closest, and saw he was breathing. The same with Panthar and the Master. He looked up to the spot he saw Erik flying away, and saw nothing now. Quietly he stood and walked into the marshy jungle, in that direction.

He looked around and saw nothing in the air, but a few more steps and a glance at the ground revealed a single footprint. It was a boot, but it was small.

Shayla? he thought. Improbable, but I’m beginning to believe anything is possible.

He walked quietly on the soft ground, taking his time. He was rewarded with another small footprint, then moved more quickly as the trail was becoming more clear in the swampy soil. He walked for several minutes, moving quietly through the dankness, then heard a small snap somewhere before him. He stopped, and his keen Sith eyesight caught the movement of someone in the shadows far ahead.

He stayed behind, following along for what seemed like an eternity, then waited as his quarry stopped and the sound of moving branches and leaves wafted over the air. The person then moved off, much more quickly, into a different direction.

Thoran waited, then moved into the area where the person had stopped. Here was a small clearing surrounded by towering gnarl trees, but inside was only the dark ground, grass, and a smaller strangely shaped grove of…

Branches?

He walked cautiously to the strange arrangement, then realize it was not natural. With a great difficulty he pushed one of the branches enough to peer beyond it, and saw in the darkness the still form of Erik. He was breathing, but very unconscious.

At length she spoke up, tossing the remainder of the root upon the thorny-pip carpet, where it was immdediately snatched up by a tiny creature who had wandered in, following the scent of food.

"So now it would seem we are to be approached more than warily," she mused, licking her fingers before fishing another bit of food from her bowl. In the shadows beyond those cast by the flickering fire, the tiny animal perked up its ears. Smiling, she tossed it another piece before taking one for herself.

"You say nothing of your husband, of your feelings toward him as well as his toward you. Have you grown, then?"

She trailed, her eyes defocusing, her mind wandering. But you know what he feels cannot play a part in the actions you must now take, don't you? After all he does not understand, and cannot see...

She redirected her gaze on Graysith. "I left him in a cage made of twisting branches, and niggled his sleep center so that he will not be waking up, not without assistance. And, considering I left him quite a ways from here..."

She paused, her look darkening. "He will not be found easily and will not be able to trace where I went any longer. He may pursue me further, although he does not know who caused his current predicament...

...but this matters not. He will not get in the way of what we are going to do should he make a move to jepordize anything."

She paused, taking a breath, her eyes darkening. "He will not get in the way, or I will do whatever must be done. The Greater Good depends upon it."

"This is good to hear," she allowed, relaxing back upon one elbow once more. Once again her fingers dipped daintily into her bowl; once again, tiny rustles came from the shadows as the little animal crept closer to her, hunger in its eyes.

"One cannot ride two rontos at one time, after all."

I do not yet believe she truly understands, for her words still have the heat of passion conveying them. But, this is something only time will reveal.

Smiling a secret little smile, she tossed another morsel of food to the tiny creature, and then devoted herself to finishing her own meal.

A female voice, that was clear. He could not make out the words, but he was certain it was a female, perhaps Shayla. He breathed slow and steady, letting his body relax and become still, blending in with the surrounding foliage as best he could.

He tuned his keen ears to the hut and waited, listening.

Another female voice, this time lower. Perhaps Graysith, from the tone. He listened more, still not able to hear to words themselves but more confident of the identity of the women.

Enough! Thoran turned silently to make his way quietly through the woods once again. He stopped suddenly, face to face with a small, yet vicious looking beast hanging upside down from an overhead tree branch. It let loose a shrill snarl, and Thoran yelped, ducking just in time to avoid the sharp teeth as they slashed towards his face.

He let loose with a bit of Sith magick, catching the beast with a blast of sleep, and it fell to the ground before him.

Thoran winced at the sharp claws and teeth, thankful that he was not severely injured by this thing. But his fears turned quickly to another problem...

He debated a breif second, then decided that running would be futile. He instead turned to face the hut and leaned against a tree.

She hurried outside, paused a moment in front of the doorway, then began a swift circling of the hut, her eyes piercing the growing darkness and gloom. It didn't take long to spot the figure leaning with seeming insouciance against a nearby fungus-encrusted tree.

Graysith held up a hand to prevent Shayla from speaking, then turned back to the stranger. Her eyes glittered as the fungus seemed to creep toward him, it's movement a strangely hungry one.

"You may wish to remove yourself from that tree, stranger," she said sweetly, although the tone of her voice did not come close to touching her eyes.

“I—“ he began. “Forgive my intrusion. I come as a friend, to find you both, to see if you are, well, all right. Everyone is worried, and concerned. If there is anything I or anyone can do for you—“

Careful, there. Something happened to Aelvedaar here, and you can pretty well bet that one or both of these ladies are involved somehow. And then there is Erik... OK, I don’t know if this is really true, but here goes…

“And, I thought you should know, Lord Aelvedaar is seriously injured and may not recover. Both he and Phalomir were desperately trying to rescue your spirit, and things have -- happened. The fate of both rely on his recovery.”

"You know of these people, then?" she queried, cocking her head a touch to one side. "May I inquire as to what has happened, to send you here here in such a rush, apparently seeking my aid?"

“More than your aid,” he said. “There are many who care about both of you, who are desperately worried. We all went searching for you, to undo a terrible wrong. I don’t know much you, um, remember, but there was a great unjustness done to you. You were assassinated, sort of. Your spirit was detached from your body, and then stolen and hidden away in the Darker Realms. Everyone – Phal, Galen, Panthar, um, Darra, Jasyn, Matt, Erik… they all went to rescue you. I was there because of my ability to – well, to deal with spirits. Aelvedaar and Phal made a little place here on Dagobah for your body to be safe, and off we went. We got your spirit back, housed inside of Shayla. Then as we waited somewhere else for Aelvedaar to get your body out, that’s when things seemed to, um, go wrong.”

Thoran forced a smile,

It slurped to a shuddering close behind him, leaving the two women in nothing but the silence of the chattering swamp.

"Come Shayla, I believe we have outstayed our welcome here," Graysith spoke up as once again she reached out to rip open another Portal in the weft of all that is. It shimmered to life in front of them, and from its other end Graysith could clearly see the opulence of her suites in the Temple of Warriors.

"Come, my dear," she said, and stepped through, leaving the Portal open only long enough that her Adept and Sister might follow.

...and she didn't even turn back to consider what, or whom, she was leaving behind.

“Well, crap,” he said. “Wasn’t that convenient? It’s all right, old buddy, keep yourself together. You’ve been here before, all those times you annoyed the Master. After all, you’ve become a creature of Darker Realms, just do what you always have done and portal back there.”

Thoran shot his hands out, reaching for the energies acquired from the Darkness.

But nothing happened.

He cocked an eyebrow, and tried again. Still nothing happened.

“Oh no…” he said, dejectedly. “I guess this is a good thing, but rather inconvenient at the moment. I’ll have to do this the old fashioned way.”

Thoran began moving his legs, traveling in no particular direction. But the key to finding a doorway out of the Elseness was to keep moving, never stopping. He was tuned to the subtle powers of portals, and though it seemed an eternity, for all comparison it did not take long to find that invisibly shimmering power that signaled a doorway.

“There are probably people still wandering these realms,” he said. “People left here to rot by those who use the power as a toy, or a weapon. If only they knew what I do.”

He pressed his hand into the air, touching the faint vibrations of power. It disappeared into nothingness. The temperature beyond was not hot, but not cold. With a deep breath and a shrug Thoran walked through.

Satisfied that both employees were ready to go, Terrin headed for the portal, took a glance into it, took a few steps inside...

...and almost immediately froze in his tracks. "Oh, kriffing hell..." he muttered, turning back towards the two EE employees not far behind here. "Get in here, we have people who are down..."

As he followed in behind Matt Stanza, Jasyn Lancaster and his comrade didn't have to go very far to find Terrin stooping over the listless forms of Shawn Petrolu, Panthar Dantares...

...and even the Master. Frowning, Jasyn joined Terrin, quickly assessing the vitals of all as best as he could.

"Well, everyone appears to be breathing, and Petrolu still has a heartbeat," he said, noting that perhaps Terrin had already determined this himself. "I see no evidence of physical injury on any of them though...

...so I'm not sure what happened. Maybe they've been stunned, but all things considered, I don't know if we have enough information to assume that."

Even as he said this, Terrin nodded, as if agreeing. Finishing up his inspection of the the three, Jasyn turned back to Terrin to say something...

...and these three are our best links at the moment."

Standing, Terrin brushed off his flightsuit just a bit, then turned to his men. "Let's get these guys back to safety."

Even as Terrin finished this statement, Matt and Jasyn began working together to move Shawn back through the portal. Two more trips later, and the Master and Panthar were safely back in the Inner Sactum of Lord Aelvedaar. Glancing about the swamps of Degobah just a bit further then, Terrin tried to determine if anyone else was around...

...but to no avail. Deciding then that they needed to prepare themselves to search the area more adequately before continuing, Terrin turned back to the portal behind his employees, who had already stepped through...

...hoping as he did so that one of the three would be waking up soon to provide them some guidance has to just what might have happened to either Thoran or Kartan.

As Shawn stepped into the swamps, taking care to pause and sense outward with the Force, he heard quiet rustles immediately behind him, indicating that someone had followed. He turned to look at Matt Stanza.

"Erik is thatway," he observed softly, pointing in a particular direction. "We should be careful...

...a small creature moving about the swamp here or there, something crawling up a tree to hide, the soft noises of the swamp waters themselves.

But nothing unusual whatsoever.

Matt kept his eyes and ears open, and kept watching the Jedi's back. He didn't know how far away Erik was, but he knew that they very much needed to get to him and back quickly, as the Jedi had said, just in case anyone became aware of their presence on the planet...

...the help is greatly appreciated. You needn't have risked yourself as you have chosen to, should things get ugly here. Erik is still not responsive, and I'm hoping this is only because he too has been placed into an unnatural sleep."

Pausing at that, the Jedi frowned, and began to move once more, his steps measured and careful even though the ground beneath both he and Matt Stanza yeilded barely audible footsteps. As he continued forward, Shawn's greeny-blue eyes darkened ever the slightest. "Sometimes I worry about Erik. I don't know what he'd do...

...if Shayla ever turned completely away from him."

The Jedi fell silent at this, actually closing his eyes a moment in a move that actually hinted at some hurt. "I don't know if she realizes just how much she is loved...

...and I don't know if he truly realizes just what an independent streak runs through her."

Sighing softly at that, Shawn didn't say anything further for a while...

...and Matt Stanza allowed him the moments to think quietly and collect himself. Shawn turned a greeny-blue look his way. "We have a ways yet, but we do grow much closer. Still, I sense a great deal of life ahead...

..and perhaps not all of it is friendly. Wherever Erik has been placed, he was placed there not only for him to be difficult to be found, I'm afraid...

The bogs, steeped in the sultry, still air of Dagobah, steamed. The ground heaved and roiled, as though buoyed up by some unseen current, providing the unwary traveler with a most difficult path to traverse. All about, gigantic gnarl-trees dripped mossy tears, respiring into the stifling air, adding more moisture, completely blocking whatever wisp of breeze that might have happened along to bring a touch of relief.

Within this green inferno, hidden pools and ponds and lakes lay beneath a deceptive mat of plantlife, completely covered with broad pads of leaves and curling, twining tendrils and great, purple flowers. That mat bumped up here and there, indicating the passage of one beast or another that went along its way, seeking to fulfill its destiny upon the Circle of Life and Death that was Dagobah.

It was such a hidden bog the two men were now passing by, one which suddenly exploded as an immense and heavily clawed dragonsnake reared up from the depths, clutching out at them with a roar as it lunged out of its hidden lair in an attempt to capture them...

...and disappeared in the grasp of the creature and into the bog well before Shawn could recover from its appearance in time to save Matt from the creature, at least not immediately.

Shawn's greeny-blue eyes widened, and he sensed out with the Force, easily able to hone in on Matt's alertness and struggle, but uncertain as to just what to do to stop the creature. Healer though he was with the same skills as his sister, he did not know enough about this particular creature's physiology in order to place it in any sort of sleeping state. Nor did he try to immediately attack it with his lightsaber...

...not while he could not yet see it or Matt Stanza. Still, he could sense the creature with the Force as he could Matt, and he was well aware that the creature intended to make a quick snack of his companion. This would not do; Shawn knew he had to move fast.

Gaging the presence of the agressive creature then, Shawn made himself one with the Force, knowing the dragonsnake was just below the surface, clearly still intending to do with him what it was planning to do with Matt once it was finished with him. Locking onto the snake's signature in the Force, Shawn leapt from his position and directly into the bog, jumping atop the large creature. In one swift motion he turned his lightsaber blade down and parallel to his body, and thrust it into the snake, who roared in anger and protest. Still, Shawn succeeded in that which he intended, and the snake released Matt Stanza in shock...

..and turned its now angrily searching claws upon him...

To no avail; Shawn was placed in an awkward position, just behind the great beast's shoulderblades. It's arms were too short to reach him, it's neck too long. Roaring its outrage, it reared up as high as it could go, its chest butting Matt who was now trying to swim away from it and sending him soaring into the air about thirty feet.

...and he only had so long before he would need to come up for air, Jedi breathing techniques or not. And the water, murky as it was, provided him absolutely no vision of where the creature was in front of him.

All he had was the Force, and his lightsaber.

The dragonsnake, initially thrashing in anger, suddenly grew very still. Shawn knew the creature was laying in wait, preparing to make an attack...

...so he was ready when the creature roared straight up from the depths of the bog below him. He managed to swim away from the initial lunge, but he didn't accurately account for the animal's short arms and could only approximate how close he was to them through the Force.

One single arm, bearing sharp claws, reached out and grabbed Shawn by the leg, dragging him downward. His lightsaber too far away from the animal to make contact with its body, Shawn knew he only had a few moments to do something to save himself.

The Force itself was his only plausible answer.

Reaching out with it, Shawn stretched out for those inanimate rocks surrouding the bog, becoming one with them and with the Force. Though the rocks he was able to pull to himself and towards the creature were not the largest ones, Shawn was able to bring them down upon the dragonsnake with enough Force that they impacted its head squarely. The animal roared within the depths of the swamp, causing the waters to stir as it thrashed once more in anger.

Its grip on Shawn tighted, and its claws pierced deeply into the flesh of his leg...

...but in the same motion the creature pulled Shawn closer in to itself, probably intending to make short work of him. Placing his lighsaber perpendicular to his body and straight out from it as he felt himself being pulled closer and closer to its mouth, Shawn waited til he was just close enough...

...and he lunged the blade forward and to the side, effectively beheading the dragonsnake.

That thrashing suddenly stopped, pinpointed by a shrill and quickly truncated death-cry.

All was momentarily still in the darkness; then the great form lunged upward with a roar in its breast and rage in those blazing, yellow eyes. There is nothing so fearful or more feared than a rampaging mother, intent on protecting her offspring.

It didn't take long until she was close to the spot where her offspring had died. It's blood ignited the fires within her to nuclear proportions; roaring openly now, sending huge bubbles of air and saliva shooting surfaceward, claws outstretched and murder in her heart, she shot rapidly upward toward the Jedi who was yet making his way toward more solid ground.

And he also knew his lightsaber was now back in his holster, but not necessarily unusable. He could have easily called upon the Force to pull the weapon from his belt, ignite it, and attack the mother dragonsnake without ever placing his hand on the hilt of the weapon. The problem was that, murky as the waters of the bog were, he couldn't be certain where her head was, or where he was in relation to her head. Logic told him that she had probably taken him with an appendage close to her head and mouth, but he wasn't willing to take a risk on something he was uncertain of.

Still, he again had little time. He hadn't had the few moments of recovery he needed to take a deep breath for Jedi breathing techniques. He hadn't had the few moments to know where his attacker was coming from, or her exact position. All he knew for certain was that she had him in her grasp...

...and her grasp was tightening.

Stretching out with his abilities, Shawn called upon the Living Force to connect himself with the mother dragonsnake. Although her senses were primal, he still very clearly felt her anger and anguish. He used the now-established connection he had with her mind to channel what was truly a deeply felt empathy for the loss of the other...

...and sent out calming waves of the Force at the same time. He didn't fight back, and didn't even squirm in her grasp, actually sending a sense of regret her way that he truly did feel.

And in that moment, he also stretched out with the Living Force to use a Jedi animal-calming techique.

Then another string of her spawn's blood, caught up in the bow-wake she was creating, found its way into her nostrils.

Her mouth gaped open in an underwater roar, and her grip clamped into a vise, completely surrounding Shawn's body, her digits overlapping as she abruptly flailed her tail once more, turning sharply and beginning to angle downward in a steep descent.

Soon they had travelled far into the bog, far past the last feeble rays of sunlight which managed to penetrate through the plant-mat above. Her claws squeezed tighter and tighter; yet, still assailed by Shawn's calming influences, she did not shove him immediately into her mouth.

So she carried him along, down and down, the pressure slowly becoming greater, Shawn finding it more and more difficult to hold his breath.

Suddenly she angled upward, and with a roar broke surface. The only way this could be ascertained was the fact that there was air here, in this little hidden underwater cavern. Indeed, this was her lair; unable to kill Shawn but unwilling to free him, she seemed to come to some sort of compromise, for it was here that she finally flung him.

...but he didn't know if he had the time or not to try to heal those wounds, intially considering fleeing. But Shawn also knew he was deep within the waters of the swamp, far away from the surface, so escaping would require him to replenish his strength. Which meant, all things considered, he would probably do better to remain still and breath, channeling some Force energy into his wounds to at least numb any pain or discomfort.

...only to be grabbed and pulled back down into the murky waters. He'd long since given up the idea of attacking the creature on his own; he was lacking any sort of weapon and, considering the Jedi was having a difficult time with the the dragonsnake, he knew he certainly was no match. And although he really hated the idea of leaving Shawn to what may possibly be a very grim fate, Matt knew he couldn't help the Jedi by staying close by.

So he took off running through the Degobah swamps, knowing the only plausible source of help that he could seek waited just beyond the still-yawning portal. Matt lost all track of time, refusing to think of his aching legs or the injuries that had been inflicted upon his own person by the dragonsake. He just hoped he could get to help before it was too late...

...and the portal finally came into view. Matt headed for it, increasing his hurried speed, and skidding into it much to the surprise of the others and to the suprise of one of the last individuals in the universe he would have expected to see in that room...

(((OCC: Follow Matt back into Silence of the Lambs in the Jedi Praxeum and Sith Temple forums and see who he finds when he returns...)))

By all appearances he was in a cave. Furthermore, he was in a cave not filled with water, but instead filled with air. Murky, but breathable air. So if there was air in this cavern and he'd come to be in it through water...

...the air had to be coming from the surface, somehow.

Although Degobah was swarming with life, there were a couple of Force-signatures he could lock on to in order to guide him back to the surface instead of away from it. The only drawback was that the cave could go on for quite some time before it went to the surface, if at all. And there were no garantees that the opening which the air was coming through was a large one, although he could work at making a crack larger with his lightsaber, although that involved great risk. And getting to the surface through the cave could be more than just merely difficult in and of itself.

Dangerous, in fact.

But Shawn was not totally blind in this. He did have Erik's Force-signature already ingrained in his mind for tracking purposes...

...and he could still sense it, out there, regardless of the fact he was deep within the waters. While someone might eventually be able to find him, Shawn didn't care too much for relying on anyone else to resolve his troubles, and he didn't know if they would make it in time. So, getting back to his feet, water dripping from his robes and to the cavern "floor," Shawn sensed outward, as he had previously on the surface of Degobah. He could still sense Erik, and he knew he was still some distance away...

Panthar, on the other side of the portal, motioned turned to Matt and the Sith guards and sorcerer.

“Well then,” he said. “We’d better be off.”

Panthar tossed the fruit up and caught it again, taking a bite out of it as he did so. He walked through the portal and turned, waiting for the others to follow.

As Terrin stepped back into the Degobah swamps, his mind began puzzling of just how they were going to find Shawn. Granted, Matt had an idea of where Shawn had been seen last...

...but bogs and swamps were big, particularly when a big something-or-other has taken you under. They could use the hunt and peck strategy, but Terrin didn't think they had time for that, and he didn't care for it much either.

"I wonder if the guards will be able to track Shawn somehow?" Terrin queried. "I mean, we were all relying on Shawn's tracking ability to find Erik, but whose tracking ability are we going to..."

He trailed a moment at this as something occurred to him. "Shawn said Erik was unconcious, but on the planet some distance away from the portal. Maybe it'd be easier to find Erik first, then have him lead us to Shawn?"

“That’s probably the place to start,” he said. “As for those guys…”

Panthar watched the two guards spread out and begin to scour the area. They looked on the ground, inspected twigs and branches, and prodded soil and rocks. The robed Sith stood near the portal, holding a stick up sideways in front of his face. Panthar shrugged and turned to Terrin.

“Well,” he said. “The guards seem to be making themselves useful. More than I can say for the guy with the—“

The robed Sith let out a shrill call, and the stick burst into flames on each end. The guards all stopped and stood still, watching the flame. The fire danced on the stick, growing brighter with each passing second, then seemed to rise upon an unfelt breeze until the two blazes touched in mid-air above the sorcerer’s hand. At that point, they blew forward to the left and stretched out a few feet before the Sith.

The guards fell to either side of the sorcerer, who began walking forward into the swampy woods. One guard looked to Panthar and beckoned with a twist of his head.

“I, um, think they want us to follow,” said Panthar. “Should we go with the nice strange red people?”

"Lead on, General Solo!" I announced, grinning like someone close to Cheshire-mad as I moved off in Panthar's wake, dragging Terrin along for the ride as I did so.

...nor did he know how long it would take her to realize that he was gone. Or how long it would take her to find him. He was hoping that he would find a way to escape before she did return...

...but, he found himself stuck as he came to a huge underground lake of water...

...water which was eeriely glowing from some light source above. Shawn looked up at that, only to find a very small hole in the far corner of the cavern, a hole through which light...

...and air, consequently...

...was flowing. Also from the ceiling came tangled and gnarled roots of trees from the surface, trees whose roots were seeking substance from the waters below. While most had found this, some were still in the process of growing towards the water.

While this discovery was interesting enough, Shawn knew it would do little to get him out of his current predicament. He frowned to himself, poundering the plausibility of continuing on by swimming through the waters. Perhaps this was not the best of ideas, for he could only find his way to an even more precarious predicament...

...but he was stuck regardless. For if he tried to escape back the way he had come again, and the dragonsnake returned....

Sighing to himself, Shawn figured he might as well try. After all, he was lost anyway...

So he spoke up, uncertain as to whether or not his words were needed. But he would at least let everyone else know where they probably were, even if the Sith needed no such information.

"I'm almost certain this is where the creature took Shawn under," he spoke up, frowning a bit. "He'd just come back up when the thing took him back down, and that's when I headed for help."

"Vrsvj upti vjsyyrt. gpt yjod pmr lped lmpe pg ejsy jr d[rsld." he murmured quietly in High Sith. The guards bowed their heads in brief acquiescence and turned to survey their surroundings then, while the sorcerer busied himself once again with his stick. Holding it between both hands, he uttered another multi-syllabic cry, and buried it halfway into the moist Dagoban soil. Walking thrice aboout it, windershins, he then yanked it from the ground; whirling quickly before not so much as one speck of muck should drip from the laden stick, he thrust it into the nearby bog.

An eerie purple and green flame rose from the waters, then another, another, and yet another. The four flames rose and stretched, writhing and twisting and braiding themselves into myriad designs before finally melding into a brilliant incandescent flash.

As everyone's dazzled eyes gradually returned to normal, it was to see a brilliant green flame now reaching forth from the bog, touching the end of the stick the sorcerer yet held aloft, to fly from it and arrow off into the surrounding shadows.

"I wonder if they are following what might be Shawn's trail or if they are simply following events that occurred, somehow."

He paused a moment longer, then shrugged. "We should leave them to their methods, and keep up with them, I suppose. But I wonder if there is something we can do to help. I mean, if anything, we could be looking for Erik while they are looking for Shawn, but we don't have any way to track..."

He trailed at that, a sudden flash of an idea grabbing his attention. Perhaps it was too obvious. Probably so. But he had to throw it out. "Shawn and Erik both wear a commlink," he observed. "And on this planet, there should be little in the way of technology, so if one of us sent a comm out with a 'send message of receipt' code..."

He again paused, pursing his lips. "And on that note, knowing that Shayla got here...

...there is also a good chance she had to use a ship to get here. I don't know if we could somehow locate her ship if there is indeed one here...

...but sending a communication out is at least worth a shot, I think. Unfortunately, I'm short a commlink...

Jasyn quieted a moment at that, then, hearing no objections, he raised his commlink to his lips, opened a wide-range general frequency, and keyed is commlink to indicate when the message was received. "Test," he said simply, sending the message away and leaving the frequency open for the receipt bounce-back and any reply.

About a standard second later a receipt indicator came through. "Whoa," he said in suprise, frowning a bit, "Either there is something really high-tech on this planet that receives messages very very clearly...

...or something very nearby us just received the message, I'd say possibly within no more than a kilometer radius."

He paused. "Maybe this is just a wee tad too convenient?"

"Yeah, and this is all one big ol' holo-image... of course it's got to be a commlink! The question is, whose?"

I shot our little party a look which rapidly melted into concern; then continued to follow the marching Sith, who were a bit of distance ahead of us.

He still had no clue as to what the sorcerer was doing, but the guards seemed to trust in his powers. So he left the others to lag behind as they saw fit and kept in pace with the Sith.

He felt a pulse in his pocket, and, making a perplexed face, reached in with his hand. He pulled out a small device that resembled an ice cream cone. A small light on a button was blinking, and the whole device was vibrating softly. Twitching his nose, he puzzled for a moment then remembered acquiring this item in the armory of the Temple of Armorers. He pushed in the button and heard a voice say “Test”.

“Well,” he said to himself. “That’s interesting.”

He noticed the button he had pushed had a symbol on it which in High Sith symbolized the ear. Another button, one of many, had a symbol that symbolized the tongue. Shrugging, he pushed that button.

...and quickly saw Panthar just ahead of him, still holding something that looked very similar to a comlink to his lips.

Panthar. That was who the voice that had just come through his comlink sounded like.

"Hey, give the guy a break!" I snorted, ducking and for once successfully avoiding yet another swat of wet leaves. That Terrin hadn't managed to avoid the same was obvious by the string of low curses which began sounding at my back.

"He can't help it if that thing is just the Sith equivalent of a commlink; way to go, Red!"

I hastened a little faster, leaving Terrin and coming up to Panthar's side, which wasn't easy considering the length of his legs and the shortness of my stature.

"You just couldn't go and find a nice weapon or some magickal doo-hickey now, could you? Oh no, you have to go and find a silly commlink--"

My words were nipped in the bud when from somewhere up ahead there suddenly came the sounds of a galactic battle breaking out. Yowls and snarls and splashing noises, interspersed with cries both low and high pitched broke the monotony of the swamps; cutting Panthar and then Terrin a worried look I took to flight.

Or at least I tried; dang, but the muck just grabbed at one's feet and tried to make itself at home there.

It didn't take long before I came upon the cause of all the commotion... or rather, it's aftermath: the sight of one lone Sith warrior, obviously shaken, hopping mad, who was stalking the perimeter of the nearby bog.

As to the other warrior, and more importantly the sorcerer, there wasn't so much as the tiniest of clues to indicate where they had gone or what had happened to them.

...but then inspiration struck. "Hey, Panthar," he said, recalling Jasyn's earlier annoyance. "Maybe we can make some use of your discovery. After all, if it's the Sith equivelent of a commlink...

...I'm betting that if we use it someone on Khar Delba might answer us."

Pausing at that, Terrin then surveyed the area, one more thought entering his mind. "And maybe we'd all better take a few steps back from the bog. I don't want anyone else getting hurt, and we're gonna need all the minds we can get to figure out what to do to save the warrior, the Sith, Shawn, and Erik."

Before he even finished stating just that, Terrin reached out and pulled Galen back from the bog a bit, simultaneously motioning to the boys, Panthar, and the Sith that they should do the same...

...hoping that the Sith would trust him and not suspect his motions to mean that he was planning to leave his commrades behind.

“What happened?” asked Panthar, in Sith. He could read and write fluently, but his understanding of the verbal pronunciation was rudimentary at best and the Sith warrior had to let the words sink in before he responded.

Panthar turned to the closest person, which happened to be Galen.

Matt's frown deepened. "You might ask if he knows what the sorceror was following...

...and you might want to try to use that comm to get help as suggested...

...because the only other alternative is for us to split up unless someone comes up with a better idea. And we could try exactly what Jasyn suggested...

...turn that Sith comm device off and try for a receipt again. Shawn had an EE commlink, and I'm positive Erik had a commlink as well. Of course, there's a bit of hunt and peck in that strategy so...

Dang, but I hope I'm not developing an allergy to all the green stuff on this blasted boggy planet! I scowled to myself before raising my voice in reply.

"Umm... if you've got a comm-link, and they've got comm-links... well, why don't you just call 'em up and see what the scoop is?"

I shrugged, looking around at everybody, who suddenly had the most embarrassed looks upon their faces.

“Hey,” he said. “This thing is multi-functional. This button here has the symbol for life on it.”

Like the curious scientist he was, he pressed it. The dome end of the device lit up in a light blue haze, and several red blips appeared inside the dome. It resembled a three-dimensional hologram, enclosed within the clear dome. Several red blips were gathered near the center, while one large blip was moving away with great speed until it vanished off the edge of the image.

“Hmm,” he said. “I wonder if this is a life-sign scanner. Oh well, where’s the comm.-link button…?”

Panthar pausd, then looked back to Galen.

Sometimes you just can't see the forest for the trees!

"Hey!" I exclaimed, taking a step back and casting a quick glance about at our little party. When I turned back to the device the big blip had entirely disappeared.

I leaned forward, squinting a little as I counted.

"Seems there's one more blip there than we have here, if that thingy really is a life sign scanner," I commented, raising back up to look with greater trepidation at the still waters nearby.

Dang, but that disappearing blip had been a gi-normous one!

"And assuming, of course, that we're the blips."

Just what the hell was out there?

One thing was certain; he didn't want to see anyone else here hurt, and he sure hoped that the missing members of their party were allright. But Galen's suggestion about just sending out a comm for Shawn and Erik was the best idea he'd heard so far.

Wasn't she the one always talking about Occam's Razor and all? Damn, she was right...

He had his own suggestions to add to hers. "Hey, if Shawn has an EE commlink, there's an EE frequency that is secured enough that only persons with an EE commlink should be able to pick it up. Furthermore, Kartan might have a Stargazer Corp. commlink frequency...

...and if he does, I know the main frequency for those too, since I was the one to help set them up. Even if Shawn or Erik don't reply..."

He paused, frowning darkly at the unspoken implications to that, "...if they receive either message we should at least be able to start working on the trajectory based on the clarity of the signal, as already suggested."

As he stated this, Terrin glanced towards the all-too-still waters. His frown darkened further. Then he looked towards Panthar. "If that thing is a life-sign indicator, we could use it in tandem with a commlink trajectory to guide our way...

...and we'd better do so and get moving. I have a really bad feeling about that extra, huge blip you picking up..."

Even as he said this, Terrin trailed and he glanced towards the device Panthar held just as a fast-moving, huge red blip reappeared on its screen. Simultaneously, the nearby bog waters began to stir...

...and before he could conciously think about it Terrin took hold of Galen's arm and hauled her back further. "Everybody get back!" he yelled unnecessarily, for even as he said this others were moving back as well. He still glanced around to be certain everyone was doing just that...

...and realized that while they were all moving back from whatever-it-was, they still stuck out like a sore thumb. "Get down!" he then called, stepping back a bit further and dropping to the ground along with Galen, his blue eyes never leaving the water. From its depths sprang a large, serptine creature that growled, raring up angrily and protesting at being disturbed by anyone or anything...

...and in yet another heartbeat, it disappeared back into the waters, seeing no immediate threat nearby, missing the humans and Sith now laying prone on the ground.

Terrin gulped, and eyed Jasyn. "You know the EE frequency," he then said, quietly, then shifting slightly to look at Matt, "The Stargazer frequency is..." He trailed a brief moment, thinking, biting his lip in thought. Then he gave a fequency number. Finally he looked over to Panthar. "Keep an eye on that thing, and see if we get anymore signals..."

He trailed, unable to keep from looking at it himself and noting with great wariness that all had fallen silent once again...

...and one final thought grabbing his attention as he looked at Galen worriedly. His blue eyes widened at the thought. "Hey, could your Sith belt help hide all of us while we continue our search?"

"Well," I began, frowning both at the tenacity of the plant material and muck which stuck to me like glue, as well as in remembering a particular time when Sorben and I had used my belt to escape from Gravin Dark and his goonies. I pulled a long, gooey green string from my shoulder, scowled at it, and after several attempts managed to flick it away. It landed nearby with a moist sounding glurrp.

"The device bends light around the wearer and so will make us invisible, but it won't do a thing about our scent, or whatever sounds we might make. Maybe we don't have to worry too much about that nasty canasta's sense of smell; seems it could have easily sniffed us out a moment ago, but it didn't. So I'd wager it doesn't hunt by smell; hmmm."

I paused a moment as I began staring off into middle space, thinking aloud.

"You'd think that's what would have attracted it to us, but really, I can't imagine the thing to be a sight hunter. I mean, just look at that water."

Focusing again, I gestured toward the bog, distancing myself from it even further as I did so, as if the mere movement of my arm might make the creature come leering up out of the inky waters at us once again.

"No way can anyone or anything see more than a couple centimeters at the most in that gunk! So I'd guess it's vision is pretty poor in general. Now if we did use the belt we'd be making it absolutely positive that the thing couldn't see us, if it does come back again, which wouldn't surprise me, but it wouldn't do diddly-squat about masking our scent or the noise we make."

I stopped again, chewed my lip a little worriedly as another thought struck me.

"You know, water's a great conductor of sound; I bet it hunts by sound, or maybe it even homes in on the natural electricity our bodies give off. I don't know anything that can mask that..."

Other than just being dead--!

“It’s moving away again,” he whispered loudly. “I think that big blip was definitely it!”

After the blip once again vanished, he turned the device over in his hands, trying to read more of the buttons.

“Hey,” he said to himself. “I think this button will scan all available com frequencies… and this one reverses it, possibly for broadcast. I wonder…”

Panthar pressed both buttons. The domed screen went dark, and a small red light pulsed on the other tip of the cone.

What he didn't expect was the momentary, but very short and low, click of his wristcomm. Opening his eyes, Shawn arched an eyebrow at the device. He had no idea if this could be a fluke of some sort or not, but he did know that Matt was, at least at one point, somewhere on Degobah. Perhaps Matt was trying to achieve contact.

Or maybe not. Still, Shawn figured he might as well try to respond. Knowing that what he said probably wouldn't make it back to any other possible comm device because he hadn't received anything understandable on his end, Shawn decided to keep it short.

"Shawn Petrolu," he said into the wristcomm's mic succintly, dropping his hand then to his lap and closing his eyes once more as he tried to relax and rejuvenate for his continued search, keenly aware of just how difficult, if not impossible, it would be for anyone to find him in his current location...

-awn pe- o

Panthar looked at the device, then to Galen.

“Was that what I think? But why is it so broken like that?” he asked. He lifted the cone to his mouth and pushed the button.

“Shawn, if you can hear me, this is Panthar. Repeat, this is Panthar. Are you there? Where are you?”

He paused, glancing over towards Galen. "This has already been pointed out, of course, and it's reliable. So let's go with it, before we lose someone else."

Jasyn's frown darkened at this. But then it lightened as he made a final addendum. "Unless, of course, we are going to see if that device of yours can do something in regards to tracking the signal it receives, Panthar..."

Of course!

"Hey, I bet he is underneath us! In a cave!" I proffered excitedly, taking several involuntary steps forward even as my mind shot back to those days when we had stayed in the underground warrens on Sullust. Then logic, contrary little beastie that it could be at times, raised itself upright and began to play devil's advocate.

"I mean," I went on a bit more slowly now, my steps now beginning to slow as well. "If that's even possible here. With all this swamp and bog; I mean, I know most planets have to have some kind of rocky crust, and I'm sure Dagobah does too, but how deep would that rock be down below our feet? Assuming that there are even caves in it to begin with..."

On that floundering note I stopped, looking around at everybody as various and sundry light-bulbs began to slowly flicker on over their heads. Then I simply turned my gaze to the display in Panthar's hands, and willed that my suggestion would have some worth.

"Presupposing that Panthar's device gets a signal when its message is received that gives us at least a general idea of where the message is being received along with a definite indication of when it is received...."

He trailed a moment, still considering. "If we knew how long it takes Shawn to receive the message, and then sent a message from Panthar's device to one of our own comlink's and timed how long it takes for the message to send..."

"I dunno," I finally said, the words coming slowly even as my mind raced furiously to remember what little Dad had taught Jharmeen and I about seismology. Not that she ever took it to heart, and not that I really got into it all that much myself; for the most part I was more interested in and therefore tended to remember more of anything he taught us having to do with astronomy.

But physics is physics after all, isn't it ol' girl...?

I jerked my focus back to my immediate surroundings, a little bit embarrassed to find everyone staring at me as if waiting for the penultimate words of wisdom to drip from my lips. Sniffing, I scratched my head before finally marshalling my thoughts enough to go on.

"Triangulation is all very good, but in order for it to work right we have to use three different comm-links. Not only that, but they'd all have to be pretty far spaced from each other; on the order of hundreds of miles, I'd think, for us to be able to figure out anything meaningful. I mean, if we're too close together we'd be timing in microseconds; without a droid or bot to assist us, I don't think that's something we could handle."

Faces fell at that, and someone stifled a quiet groan of frustration.

"Besides," I went on --

What the hell. In for a credit, go for the crown...

"Besides, what good is it going to do us even if we do discover how far beneath the surface he is? He's still down there, or at least we think so, and we're still up here."

I plopped to my hiney and glared at the soil as if that look alone would coerce it into opening up obediently at our feet. It remained solid of course, well... at least as solid as one can call the boggy swampland we found ourselves immersed in. My glare quickened and suddenly focused on a nearby rock; without thinking, I grabbed it and gave it a vicious toss.

Imagine my surprise when, descending, it disappeared behind some razor-grass without so much as an inkling of a splash. In fact, there didn't seem to be a thud or any kind of noise whatsoever that would indicate it had come to earth.

I shot to my feet, and gave everyone an inquisitive glance, then hurried in the direction where I had tossed the rock.

"Start looking, guys!" I exclaimed, now allowing a modicum of excitement to tinge my voice as hope began a quiet upward march throughout my being.

“So,” he called out, stepping backwards to look at the ground again. “What exactly are we looking f-”

The twigs beneath him began to snap, and before his brain could signal his feet to move or his mouth to scream, he began his descent into darkness. Panthar finally let out a yell as his head vanished into the ground, his ears filled with both his own scream and the snap of ripping wood as his heavy Sith body fell through the matt of vegetation and into unknown underground depths.

Panthar fell for several yards before the hole funneled and he came to a sudden stop, stuck like a cork in a damp bottleneck.

My feet were moving even as the expletive burst from my lips, dragging me through razor-grass and water-weed, dipping down into altogether too squishy soil before the ground beneath them suddenly seemed to firm. I came to an abrupt, slippery halt then, unable to see the exact perimeter of the hole I knew was gaping there in front of me but knowing it was there by the position of the surrounding plantlife, which seemed to curve inward and eerily downward.

Not to mention the swath of trampled plantstuff which plainly showed Panthar's track into the unknown beneath our feet.

Getting carefully down on my belly, I slithered the final few centimeters to the actual edge of the hidden hole and peered carefully into its depths. Nothing greeted my eyes except murky darkness, but my ears were immediately assailed by another loudly bellowed "Hey!" as my head was clearly silhouetted against the Dagoban canopy above. I grinned with relief; anyone who could bellow like an enraged ronto couldn't be injured.

Well, maybe just his big fat ol' pride...

"Hang on, Red!" I hollered down before scooching backward to safer ground and rising to my feet. By this time the others had gathered there; I turned to them with a sigh of comingled relief and concern.

"He's down some sort of crack in the rock," I announced unnecessarily with a wave of my hand behind me.

"But this, in a weird way, is maybe a good thing; since he appears to be down in a dry crack, that leads me to believe that the water table here is low, and that probably means that there is really a cave nearby. Probably right below us; I don't know how to reach it, though. I mean, apparently this crack isn't going to be the way any of us get down farther, assuming of course that it widens below where Panthar is stuck.

"But before we can decide what to do in tht arena, we're going to have to get him out. Somehow."

Perplexed, I frowned and scratched my head. Then I returned to the hole, lowered myself to my belly again, slithered forward and stuck my face over the edge again.

"We're working on it, Red!" I shouted down, trying to put a big ol' cheerful smile into my voice.

"Meanwhile, can you feel anything beneath your feet? I mean, where and how are you stuck, exactly? Can you brace against the rock and climb back out?"

Bracing myself, I shot a careful look over my shoulder.

Pausing at that, his eyes defocused a bit, and he considered the minimal possibilities. After all, they weren't anywhere near any sort of sentient life, weren't anywhere they oculd get any sort of supplies. They were just stuck here, in the grand nature of an entirely too-alive swampland, covered with trees.

Hmmm, trees.

I nodded vigorously to cover up my immediate and non-too polite reaction.

"Great idea; why don't you go off with the guys here and make a good rope; I'll stay here and make certain Red doesn't get himself into any more trouble than he already has."

With that I returned to the hole, and lowered myself carefully to my belly once more.

"We're gonna maka a rope to yank you out with, pal!" I hollered into the echoing darkness.

"Hang on, this shouldn't take too long--!"

At least I hope it doesn't!

"How the hell are we going to get a limb off that thing? It's a pretty thick tree," he growled.

But again, an idea came to mind as he looked around the others as if to ask their thoughts. His brown eyes landed on the rather sharp spear of the one remaining warrior.

The one remaining warrior who probably didn't speak a lick of Basic. And their translator was in the hole.

Grrrr.

He stepped up a little closer to the Sith, and spoke anyway, somewhat loudly, as if that would help his meaning get across. "We need your spear to cut a limb," he said, pointing to the weapon.

The Sith merely looked perplexed. Jasyn began to point as he spoke. "We need your spear," he then repeated, pointing to the object, "To help him," he continued, pointing now to the direction of the hole where Panthar had fallen, "Get out," he finished, pointing then to the large branch he was planning to use and then back towards Panthar as if to convey the idea that they needed what was on the tree to help the guy below.

Giving Jasyn a studied look, he first approached the hole Galen was laying in front of and peered carefully down. Although it was too dark for him to make visual affirmation as to Panthar's condition, the fact that that he was still letting forth an occasional bellow told the warrior two things:

He was still alive and apparently unharmed. And, by the fact that the bellows didn't seem to be lessening any in intensity, that he appeared to be lodged in one particular position beneath their feet, at least not moving downward any further.

Nodding his horned head, the warrior turned and returned swiftly to Jasyn. The human looked at him carefully, obviously struggling to supplant his look of suspicion with one of growing hope. The warrior merely bowed his head briefly in Jasyn's direction, brandished his spear, and headed toward a nearby, vine-festooned gnarltree. It didn't take him long to shimmy up the heavily textured trunk of the massive tree, and come to the first of several thick branches that extruded from the branching trunk. Moving along the branch which was closest to the ground, perhaps twenty feet above Jasyn's head, he lowered himself to straddle it and began to saw vigorously at the looping vine with the point of his spear. Then he got to his feet, moved several meters farther down the branch, and repeated this.

Now sliding his spear into it's carrying sling upon his back, he balanced himself on the branch, grasped the limb with all his bared toes and the vine with both clawed hands, and pulled. Muscles corded and bunched along his back and neck and arms, and soon great droplets of sweat began to bead upon his brow. In spite of the incredible Sith strength he possessed, it took him fifteen minutes before the first of myriad tiny, binding tendrils the vine had put out began to break their stubborn hold upon the tree.

But once the hold began to break, the rest came relatively quickly. Soon a great mass of vine came crashing down into the boggy soil, where it continued to loop and writhe as if angered at being toppled from its perch.

Still on his feet twenty feet up the tree, the warrior made certain he had captured Jasyn's attention before he pointed to the vine, pointed farther along the branch, shrugged expansively, then sat down upon his lofty perch to wait.

He wasn't certain. After all, it looked like they had enough vines now to get to Panthar...

...but then, did they?

"Don't go anywhere, Red!" I hollered down, wincing as I scooched backward and clambered to my feet once again. It was then, while I was brushing off the remnants of the greenstuff that was adhered to me, that Jasyn voiced a query, something about the Sith and a vine. Still bent over from the waist, I cocked an ear and eye in his direction, then cast a quick glance toward the warrior.

That goodly fellow merely remained sitting, still as a statue, up in the tree where he had clambered.

I eyed Jasyn once again, raised myself upright, and shrugged.

"Search me," I offered my two cent's worth.

"I wasn't really paying attention, sorry."

That being said, I returned to the task of cleaning my frontside up as best I could.

...so let's find out if we do."

He paused, nodding towards the hole where Panthar had disappeared, his eyes on Jasyn and Matt. "Let's send some vine down and see if Panthar can reach."

At this, Matt and Jasyn and Terrin took hold of the vine, worked it to untangle its masses, and began pulling it towards the hole. The vine was a rather tangled and complicated mass; it took quite some time to get it untangled enough so that it would reach the hole and then have some left over to begin running it down into its depths where Panthar was stuck.

"Hey Panthar," Terrin then said, "We're going to start working some of this vine that's been cut down your way. I don't know if you can see anything or if you'll just have to feel around for it, but we need to know if we've got enough vine to get down to you, so holler if you see it or feel it and let us know if you can reach it, ok?"

As Terrin finished speaking, they began working the length of the vine down towards Panthar.

After a few moments he could see the vine above him, inching towards his hand. He reached up, stretching for the vine, but it was still a foot or more above him. He relaxed and waited for the vine to continue.

And waited.

The vine did not move again. He blew out a frustrated puff of air and called upwards.

“Hey! Got any more vine? It’s just out of reach!”

While he waited for an answer he tried moving his feet to make the numbness leave. He could wiggle his toes, but that was it. There was still no answer from above, and as he drew in a breath to call again, he felt a strange wetness on his leg. It was as if a mound of sticky mud had fallen on the back of his leg, but it then began to move downward and around until his whole thigh was covered in a cold sticky wetness. In a heartbeat the pressure on his leg increased tremendously and he felt his leg being pulled downward. He felt the rest of him begin to move, and he dug his claws into the ground around him. It was to no avail, and through a blanket of pain he was soon continuing his descent into the hole, aided by whatever had grabbed him.

He trailed a moment, something occurring to him, his eyes widening. Still looking at Matt and Jasyn, he continued with, "Get down," he then said, realizing htat perhaps the extra length it took the vine to reach them standing would be enough to help it totally reach Panthar if they got down on the ground. Without saying anything futher, Terrin did just that and the other two men followed suit. Terrin hoped the slack in the vine would be enough...

The warrior leaned forward a little, slitting his eyes as he focused. Sith vision far outranked that of a mere human: though Panthar was lost in a darkness too deep for human eyes to pierce the warrior could clearly make out the outline of the slipping fellow Sith. Deeper yet, something moved in a dank and noisome manner.

The warrior didn't hesitate. Bracing himself, he whipped his spear back and sent it winging down into the darkness.

The fact that it found its mark was evident by a peculiarly wet-sounding schluppt that came wafting up from the crack in the earth...

A low painful growl escape his throat, and as he called upwards a begrudging thanks, the thing below him began to slip downward, letting Panthar fall through after it. He slid backwards through the now wider – and slippery with goo – tunnel and into the darkness.

Panthar slid for what seemed like an eternity, rocks and dirt scratching their way into his skin. Picking up more and more speed he finally slid out into an open area, falling roughly 10 meters into the open air before falling onto a large squishy pile of tentacles.

He was cut in too many places to count, caked with dirt and slime, and entangled in the now sticky arms of the creature that dragged him down initially. It appeared dead now, if not from the spear then from the large Sith landing on top of it. But just was he now?

"Oh, hell, what is that?" he said in alarm, his teeth clenched with the effort he was expending holding the vine as low to the ground as he could.

"Panthar?" he then called.

No response.

"Oh, hell," Terrin growled again, now worried. He shifted to look to the side where the Sith warrior was practically straddling Galen. "He's gone further down, hasn't he?" he queried towards the Sith, nodding slightly to indicate the opening.

Then a thought occurred to him. "Hey, Jas, comm out and see if he can hear us, and if he's injured, ok?"

Then he fell into a dark and gloomy silence.

That spear of his had gone whizzing by entirely too close to my face for my liking, and now he stood over me like Ozymandias or something, in another day and life. I didn't particularly care for the fact that he was wearing warrior's tunic and armor, either; whether or not he had underclothing beneath them was something I was in all together too likely a position to discern, and Khaandon knows I wasn't the least bit interested in that. So I just lay where I was, wishing the big guy would move away from me, and called down into the darkness again.

"You okay, Red?"

Scarcely had I voiced the words when there came sounds of distant scrabbling, a longh silence, and then what sounded like a howl of either pain, fear or frustration.

...that sounded like a faint, angry scream. Pausing, he raised an eyebrow...

...and wondered if perhaps he was starting to hear things. But, as he stretched out with the Force, Shawn could feel something, perhaps closer by than he would have anticipated.

Could someone else be stuck down here too, somehow? he wondered. Reaching for his commlink again, he spoke into it. "This is Shawn Petrolu," he said, "Is anyone there?"

"Panthar, are you ok?" I called down louder yet before pulling my face out of the hole and turning it to one side. Careful to avoid directing my eyes anywhere that remotely suggested upward, I called out to the others.

"Has anyone heard anything? He's not answering; I think that he either can't hear me, or he's hurt, or--"

I stopped with that, unwilling to think of the rest of that sentence, and returned to the hole once again.

Then he heard his commlink click briefly, but for the barest of seconds.

He pulled it back toward his lips.

"Panthar?!?" he screamed into it, as if screaming into the communciations device would make its signal heard.

"Shawn tha...bett..be...ou!" came the message, the voice sounding very familar.

"It's me," he responded through his wristcomm then, now stretching out with the Force to search for any familar sentient mind nearby. He found it, and took a brief pause to identify it.

Terrin didn't figure the warrior would need much indication to figure out what they were planning to do, but just in case he pointed towards the "vine-rope" and then back towards the gnarltree. And as he stood there waiting, he couldn't help but hear the demon that popped up on his shoulder to indicate that they didn't necessarily have very long to do this.

Who knows what the kriffing hell is down there...

But he didn't dare speak a word of these thoughts to anyone...

Jerking his eyes toward the gesticulating Terrin, the warrior studied him a brief moment before giving his horned head an even briefer shake. Then he bent down and took up a section of the vines in his hands.

Rising upright, he grunted and snarled, huge bunching muscles cording on his neck and shoulders and upper arms once again as he lent every ounce of his not inconsiderable strengh to the task of separating the vine. After about fifteen minutes of sweating his efforts were rewarded as the vine began to unravel into two parts.

From there it didn't take long before he had unraveled it's entire length to then tie two ends together. Nodding with satisfaction, he turned toward Terrin and held out one end of the rope, the other end which he threw over the lip of the crevice.

Then, as bold as you please, he returned to the position where he had straddled the prostrate Galen, and sent another smile in her direction.

“I’m in a hole, I was pulled down here by a nasty slimy thing that is dead now – I fell on it. I can’t really move though…”

It was true. The sticky mess on the creature had been slowly thickening with the thing’s death, and was now becoming a thick glue that held Panthar’s body and legs to the tentacles.

Then he pointed to Jasyn, and then Matt, and shook the end of the rope towards them as well.

This odd and seeming meaningless ritual was ended as the warrior backed slowly up to the lip of the crevice once again. Nodding his head toward a wide-eyed Galen, not a hint of humor in his own gleaming fuschia eyes, he then pointed toward the portion of the rope that disappeared into the darkness below their feet.

"Uh-oh," I muttered as I took the tiniest of sidling steps toward the hole. Then I stopped, shot the warrior a gleaming smile and tilted my head towards Terrin again.

"I think he wants me to go down that hole after Big Red, and I believe he's under the impression that you guys are gonna hold the end of the rope for me--"

I gulped, my gleaming smile growing a tad wee tarnished at the rather unsavory mental image of me slithering down who knew how far into what looked to me to be complete darkness, a darkness punctuated upon occasion by a distant whoop or holler coming from Red. Then I realized the remainder of the unspoken communication the warrior was striving to send to me.

Holding my arms out to either side, I let the remnants of my smile fade and looked down toward my toes.

"I think he thinks I'm the only one small enough to skinny on down there without incident, seeing as how Red had gotten himself stuck you know, and only unstuck because--"

Once again I nipped my words in the proverbial bud, now turning a somewhat disbelieving gaze at the warrior.

That worthy merely continued to stare at me with all the intensity of a starving rancor.

...there were more than likely more something-or-others down there. And letting the person nearest and dearest to him skinny down that hole on her own, well...

...even considering the Sith warrior's excellent aim, he just didn't like it.

"Logical or not, the idea of sending you down there into gods know what, even with his good aim, and your skill at getting through the worst of situations, well..."

He trailed, worry clouding his eyes, "...it really worries me. I'm willing to go down there myself; I'm certain the guys could hold the rope without me and then pull me and Panthar back up. And we know he'll stand gaurd and shoot anything that might...

... emerge from below," he continued, nodding towards the warrior. "Panthar is a really big guy, I'm sure I wouldn't get stuck going down like he did. The warrior's idea does make sense in that Panthar might be a strain to pull up from below, however...

...keep your eyes peeled and let me know if and when you can see it."

Saying nothing futher than that, Shawn reached for his lightsaber, removed it from his belt once more, and pressed the activation button. A brillant green blade burst into life, and Shawn began using its light and his Force senses to head in the direction of Panthar's Force essence.

I wrinkled my nose, considering. Then I backed away from the lip a couple steps.

"I dunno, Terrin," I began thoughtfully.

"We can't be positive that just because Panthar is bigger than you that the passage is big enough to let you get through without getting stuck as well--"

Or me, too! came the unwilling appendix to that. I shuddered, shoved the thought away, and went on.

"That's something I don't want to risk; Khaandon knows we're going to have a devil of a time getting him out without having to possibly worry about you as well."

Once again I sidled to the hole, paused at the lip. Beside me the warrior nodded approvingly, then tilted his horns downward.

I sighed in resignation.

"If anyone is going to go down there and see if he needs any immediate assistance, I think it's got to be me. I'm the smallest, and you guys are big enough to haul me out of there in a hurry if need be."

Now I moved quickly to Terrin, paused before him and looked up into his blue, blue eyes.

"Don't worry," I said softly, reaching a hand up to lightly touch his cheek.

"I'll be all right, and if something nasty happens I trust you guys will be more than able to get me out of it. Besides, I have the invisibility device, which might help at least a little should a worse case scenario develop."

With that I rose up on tiptoe, gave him a little kiss, and turned back to the hole. There I took up the vine, and wound it around my body to rappel down. A final look in the warrior's brilliant eyes told me he approved of the methodology I was employing; taking a deep breath I took that first stomach-dropping step and began letting myself down into the unknown...

The passage was a mess. Light quickly dimmed as, coming to a rocky projection only tens of meters down, the majority of it was blocked by the natural convolutions of the crack. I couldn't help wincing, thinking of Panthar's hulking body being smashed down in this place where indeed my unspoken fears seemed to be proven correct: at times the passage was scarcely wider than me, and again, twisting and turning, covered with rocky protuberances.

After a bit, though, it got better. So to speak... for that's when I encountered the slime Panthar had hollered up about. At least the going was a bit faster... too fast, in fact, for now my feet couldn't find purchase against the rock. I had no other choice at this point but to rappel freely, dangling at the end of the vine like a gleeberfly caught in a web, hoping like hell the vine would hold.

Of course it's gonna hold, you silly goose! I admonished myself as I continued down.

You saw how hard it was for the warrior to unravel it! It's plenty strong!

Yeah, came the devilish response. But whose to say the guy knows how to tie a square knot?

Forcing such pleasantries aside I gritted my teeth and continued downward, bumping and scraping against the wall here, wriggling against the sticky goo there, until finally I realized I was quite literally at the end of my rope.

There was nothing more I could do.

"Hey Red!" I called down into the dark.

"I'm coming, and I hope your Sithy ears are as good as the warrior's eyes, 'cuz I have to drop now and I sure as Khaandon made lil green worrts hope you can catch me!"

With that I forced myself to release the vine...

...and came to an immediate, bone-jarring stop an estimated six feet below. The fact that I was in the proximity of the big guy was evident by the feel of slimy clothing against my body. Groping in the dark, I found him, patted upward until I found his chest -- at least I think it was his chest! -- and placed my hands on it.

"Hey Big Guy, how's it going?" I said with forced bravado. Even with him standing there for moral support, I could simply feel that this wasn't the best of situations that I had ever placed myself in. My little inborn warning system was waving red flags for all it was worth...

...and my uncomfortable hunch was more than justified not long thereafter when, making myself move away from Red, I began to carefully determine where I was by the old hunt n' pat method. Moving carefully, hands waving in front of me, I crept through the darkness, the knowledge that Red was right there being the only thing giving me enough courage to do so. Eventually I hit paydirt, er, rock that is; and after following this around for a bit I made two startling discoveries:

1. There was a tiny opening, scarcely big enough to place my hand inside but hopefully long, as it accepted my in-thrust arm clear up to my shoulder without my hand meeting any resistance...

2. There was a BIG opening, possibly the entrance to a tunnel, one from which there wafted a stench terrible enough to make me quickly back-pedal, slipping and nearly falling flat on my hiney on the goo which was puddled in front of it and, presumably, puddled inside as well.

I moved carefully around, waving my hands again, not knowing where in Hell's Seven Circles I was until I bumped into Panthar once more.

"Well, there's a small opening and a big ol' tunnel going somewhere; I really don't think we should go into that tunnel since it smells like reptile to me.

"But sheesh, Big Guy, that crevice getting down here was hardly big enough for me to get through; how the hell are we gonna get you out of here?"

Placing my hands on his chest again to find moral support in the simple act of touching, I waited, wincing to myself at the thought of what he had endured in the process of simply getting here to this spot where he was.

“I appreciate the support, there, Li’l Red, but maybe right there isn’t the best place to put your hand… owwwwwwwwww!”

He shifted slightly, still sticking to the tentacles.

“And watch yourself, this gooey slimy mess all over this thing is turning into something like glue, I’m waiting for a sudden burst of energy to pull myself free from it. Right now I’m sorta content to sit, because, well, it really hurts to try to move.”

Panthar wiggled the device he held in his hand.

“But I have spoken to Shawn, through crackles. He’s down here somewhere, I just don’t know how far away or through how many levels of creepy crawly tunnels and tight openings and slimy lairs of who-knows-what. He said he’s trying to find me, and he’s got a light saber so maybe he can cut through some rock. Just hope he doesn’t bring anything tumbling down around him.”

Panthar shut his eyes, wincing again.

“By the way,” he said, opening his eyes. “Is it me or is the wall glowing? I keep seeing little blue dots on the walls, they blink in and out, I think, but it could be my eyes…. Like that!”

"Ummm... er..." I finally stammered, still keeping in physical contact with Panthar in spite of the gunk which coated him.

"I don't see any blinking blue d--"

The word ended in a quick gasp of indrawn breath as suddenly there appeared from the blackness something that looked like a tiny galaxy. Myriad blue dots, each one infinitesimally small, suddenly appeared off to one side of where we were -- I can only presume they were attached to a nearby wall since I really couldn't actually see the rock -- and after a short time began brightening visibly. They reached what my astronomer father would have decided was a +4 magnitude, just enough to make out fairly well, before dimming and disappearing once more.

Absolute silence swelled in the absolute darkness they left in their wake. It seemed years had dragged heavily over our heads before I managed to open my mouth and speak.

"Jasyn..." he started, looking back over his shoulder slightly.

Jasyn didn't need any further prompting. He reached for his commlink and keyed in an open frequency.

"Hey," he said, "they haven't forgotten about us."

He pushed the button on the device and spoke into it.

"Yeah, she's here. I'd say she's a sight for sore eyes, but one, I don't want to make ol' Terrin jealous, and two, I can't see her because it's so dark down here! I heard Shawn, though, I think he is somewhere fairly close, but there must be a lot of rock between us because he still crackles."

He looked in the dark where he last heard Galen's voice.

"Yeah," I said, then felt around until I found one of his arms. Patting along it, I soon came to his hand; luckily it was the one holding the communication device. Pulling it to what I hoped was the vicinity of my invisible nose, I spoke up in a loud voice.

"Hi Terrin, guys; look, I got down here ok, but the vine wasn't quite long enough. I had to jump the last part; I'd guess it was about six feet too short.

"Anyway, now the end is dangling up over our heads somewhere in the dark; I guess Panthar could reach it once he gets unstuck--

"Oh yeah, he says he's stuck in some kind of slime, but I'm not too worried about him not being able to free himself. What does concern me a little is that I explored a bit, and found a tunnel leading to who knows where. It's got a bunch of goo in front of it, kinda like the stuff that's all over Panthar, I think, and it stinks to all hell and gone.

"Oh yeah, I also found another little opening; it's at least longer than my arm, but unfortunately about the same diameter. I doubt we'd be able to get through it, or that if Shawn would be able to come to us through that passage.

"It looks like the only opening which might go somewhere might also be occupied by something, unless that's the something the warrior killed.

"Oh yeah, if anyone thinks they're gonna come on down here to join us, which would be nice, think real hard. That crevice was hell's own brand of agony coming through; I think the only reason Big Red made it all the way down was a combination of being pulled by something strong and determined, and the slime he got coated with.

"But there is still some on the walls. Anyway, I really don't think Panthar's gonna be able to get back up the same way he came down; the only way out of this little hole that we're in now is that one tunnel."

I paused for breath, chewing my cheek in consternation.

Shawn raised his wristcomm to his lips. "Hey, Panthar, I'm still moving...

...but I was wondering...

...can you tell anything about your surroundings?" He paused at that, waiting for Panthar to respond...

Shawn cocked a brow curiously, then responded. "Well, that's not a lot to go on, but I'm still working on it. Judging from the fact I could hear you when you fell, there is either a fissure where the sound of your voice travelled through or we are in the same level of tunnels. What the actual likelyhood of that is I don't know...

...and if it is a likelyhood, be on the look out. Some reptilian creature drug me down here through the waters and dumped me, then left. I don't know when he or she will be back, or if there are any other entrances for the creature to emerge from. I'm going to take the larger of the two passageways here; if your Force sense seems to start getting further away, I'm going to turn back. This is going to be a hunt and peck strategy, but right now I haven't gotten anything better.

He paused at that, pursing his lips, pondering Panthar's other statements. "And aside from a whole lot of tunnel and cave and rock...

...sorry, no elevators, not in this passageway. But..."

He paused once more, considering. "Speaking of elevators, however, there is a possibility, dating back to the days when Anakin Skywalker used to cut holes through roofs and jump up into them. It'll take a lot of time, but I can use my lightsaber to cut a hole up, from this layer of the underground, presuming the rock has no cortosis in it. I don't seem to think so, considering the rock has a particular hue and shine. It's worth a shot, unless anyone else has any better ideas."

And then he opened the commlink frequency back to Panthar and Galen. "I don't know if your positioning device is showing that I'm any closer to you, but I'm definitely closer to something."

“Flowing water? I don’t hear any hear, but that doesn’t mean it’s not between you and us. And it might explain why the tentacles beastie chose here as its lair, if there is water nearby.”

Pathar kept the button depressed and looked towards Galen again.

"If you are subject to pure darkness for six weeks the optic nerve will degenerate and you will become blind..."

I couldn't help shuddering a little as I forced that voice to shut the hell up. Then, guided by the only mote of light in this otherwise absolute darkness, I leaned toward the communication device still wrapped up in Panthar's huge paw.

"Umm, no," I repeated, then paused for a moment. All was silent save for the sounds of our breathing and the pounding of our beating hearts.

Then, as if from somewhere far, far away, I heard it. It wasn't a flow by any means, but it was definitely related to it:

The sound of steady dripping.

"Hey Shawn, I hear something like a leaky faucet, only I'm not sure where it's coming from. It is rather dark in here, you know; I can't see a thing except for the little blip on Panthar's comm, so it's a little bit disorienting."

The thought of a leaky faucet teased a niggling shadow of memory from somewhere back in my brain, something I had learned from Dad, who often dragged Jharmeen and I into this cave system or that seeking ancient treasures. Disgusted that I couldn't quite put a finger on it, I let go of Panthar's arm and plopped to the stone beneath us. Nothing; digging my fingers in the hair on both sides of my face I concentrated as hard as I could...

...and then let out a deep breath, closed my eyes, let my head fall back, tried to loosen up...

The shadow solidified. My eyes popped open, even though from my position I couldn't see a damned thing, except maybe for that weird blue glow which was beginning to form on the wall...

I blinked, strained to see it better, then shook myself back into a more disciplined frame of mind. I could investigate the blue glow in a moment or two; now was the time to offer anything I could that might help the others get us out of our predicament.

"Hey Panthar, Shawn; listen up." I paused for a quick breath, then burst out with my remembrance.

"My dad was a scientist, and he taught me something about caves and how they form. I mean, I'm no expert and neither was he, but he did know about and taught me the basics.

"Long story short: caves form when there is pressure that cracks the rock, and water from nearby sources percolates into those cracks, widening them and hollowing them out. There's some chemical processing going on as well, that I really don't remember much of and it wouldn't be useful to us now anyway. But the thing is this:

"Water always seeks base level. If Shawn was taken down through the swamp and then dumped where there was air, then he must be somewhere above water level! Caves can be big suckers; the cracks and crannies can go on for miles and miles, and a lot of the time what causes the cracks is the ground uplifting by natural forces.

"Guys, I think that Shawn isn't below us, but somewhere far away and more than likely higher than we are. I mean, we're practically next to the bog where the waterdragon was, right? That must be base level; Panthar, Shawn, see if you can contact anyone aboveground and ask them if they can find any higher ground out there.

"Particularly rock; I'm betting there's a big ol' plateau not too awfully far, and the cave system extends to that, and Shawn is somewhere out there--"

I cut myself off with that, for the words suddenly evoked a mental image of how terribly, terribly ginormous this system must be...

...not to mention how terribly, terribly tiny we all were by comparison.

...but last I heard what I thought was anything from them, I didn't get a very good signal. I've gone up a couple of layers wherever I am, however...

...so maybe..."

He paused a moment, pursing his lips in thought. "Hey, I have a standard issue Eagle Enterprises commlink that Aaron Barnes gave me when I went off looking for you all," he observed. "Right now we're all communicating via a standard frequency, but this particular commlink is set up to tap into some secured Eagle Enterprises frequencies as well. Now, I don't know if there is any way this could help us all find each other somehow...

...but I think I'm fairly certain it will help me contact anyone with an EE commlink more easily, and hopefully more so now that I'm up a couple of levels. Let me try...give me just a minute."

With that, Shawn reached down to the commlink to access a secured frequency, then sent a message out.

...and Shawn, he assumed. He wasn't really picking the Jedi up very well on the standard frequency everyone else was using, but occasionally he could hear a word here or there. He wondered just how in the kriffing hell they were going to get Galen and Panthar back, and furthermore how they were ever going to find Shawn...

...but then Galen's suggestion that perhaps Shawn was above water level caught his attention.

"Hey, we're all still here, listening in," Jasyn said into his commlink, "Matt and I will go have a look and see if we can find any higher ground. If we find anything, I'll let you know. In the meantime, I think a couple of people are going to stay here by the hole and wait with a commlink as well, should anyone get any further ideas.

In the meantime, hang in there..."

He trailed, standing and pursing his lips, brushing off swamp grass as he did so, "And maybe we can think of a way to get you guys some light down there in the meantime, somehow. It'd be so much more helpful if you could see...anything."

Even as Jasyn said just that, Matt Stanza joined him, handing over a wrist comm to one of the two remaining parties at the hole where both Galen and Panthar had gone down. Terrin, still holding on to the vine that they had made a rope, accepted it with a nod, his own blue eyes deep with thought and concern.

"Just make sure you guys keep in touch!" I hollered, hoping they'd hear me.

"And if you could drop anything in the way of supplies: a knife, a rope, something we could use as a canteen to carry water in, anything you can think of that you might be able to cobble together that would fit down an opening hardly wider than I am would be greatly appreciated!"

Light, Galen; light. We need light, they mentioned light, where have I seen light...

....

Of course, the glowing blue walls!

Excited by the possibility I scrambled to my feet and scuffled over to where the blue glow yet was. Joyously enough, it was even beginning to strengthen a little. Catching my lip between my teeth I got up close and personal with it, nearly literally sticking my nose smack dab against it.

It appeared to be a strange kind of lifeform, like a licken or fungus, which coated the rocky chamber we found oruselves in.

Bioluminescence...!

I turned and scuffled back in what I hoped was the way I had come, my arms outstretched and waving madly about until at length one of them whapped up against Panther. He grunted a little; poor guy must be sore as a hungry rancor, after what he'd gone through.

But now was not the time for molly-coddling. I leaned toward the mote of light which revealed the communication device and cutting a sharp request to Panthar that he put it on transmit, I hollered out as distinctly as I could.

"Guys, there's this weird glowing blue stuff down here. If you can find something like a jar or anything like that, and something I could scrape it off the rock with, I think I can fashion us a nice little lantern."

As they moved away he turned and cast an inquiring look at Terrin, cocking his head a little and peering at him from beneath his lowering brows. Then, as nothing else exciting seemed to be happening, and no one appeared to be needing his services any longer, he went back to the gnarltree and sat cross-legged on the ground before it. Once seated he lay his spear and then knife carefully on the ground before him, along with his whetstone, getting everything ready to sharpen his weaponry. The shield he carried slung upon his back was becoming unwieldy, so he took that off and laid it on the swampgrasses next to his other weapons.

Her face was a study in concentration as she approached Terrin. She knew there was some kind of power within her, a power which at odd times would burst out from her in wondrous glory. But a power over which she had yet absolutely no control; sensing that it erupted in response to her emotions, she now strove to keep herself as close to Jedi-calm as she could.

"Escuse me," she whispered as she stopped behind Terrin, reaching out now to tap him tentatively upon his shoulder.

"Is there anything I can help you with? I don't want to just stand here while Mother--"

Terrin arched an eyebrow then, eyeing the knife the warrior had laid out.

Hmmm, well there is one supply that is needed.

As for a jar or a water cateen or something to that effect, Terrin didn't see that the warrior had anything in particular that would serve well in that regard...

Terrin's thoughts were then cut short as Darra tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to look at her, listening to what she had to say, and considering.

"Well," he started in reply, "I'm going to somehow have to communicate to the warrior that Ga-" he paused, not quite used to this, "That your Mother needs his knife. She also needs a jar to make a latern from, and a water canteen."

He paused, furrowng his brows a bit as he once more considered the warrior's weapons, particularly his shield on its sling. "I don't know if we could somehow use the warrior's shield and sling as some sort of container to carry light or water...

...but I can't think of anything else at the moment."

Pausing at that, Terrin then spoke into the commlink. "Galen, I'm going to throw down the vine we used as a rope for you right now...

...and we're working on some of the other things you need. The warrior has a knife, but we're going to have to communicate to him somehow that you need it. Hang in there, we're working on it now."

At that, Terrin stood, looking back towards Darra. "I'm going to try to wake him and ask for his knife; I really don't want to take him by surprise or appear to be trying to steal any of his things. I might need your help to get across to him what I need, however; signing back and forth is difficult."

Saying nothing more than that, Terrin turned towards the sleeping warrior...

...and really not liking the idea of coming up on him in his sleep. Still, he knew now wasn't the time for hesitance, so he approached the warrior, came to his side, and very carefully laid a hand on his shoulder as if to stir him.

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?"

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...

"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..."

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.

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.

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.

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.

...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."

"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.

“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!”

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...

...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:

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."

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?"

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

"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.

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.

Kriffing hell, you should have gone with your first instinct, he chastised himself.

"I'm sorry, love," he replied over the commlink, his disgust with himself radiating through his words, "But yes, I'm still holding on to the vine up here. I'm wondering if maybe we can work the bag free if, gods forbid, you can't get to it."