PART 1
Meditation
Alone.
Quiet.
This is how Verbal prefers it when he is deep in meditation, healing his wounds from the events of the day.
Energy from the world around him flows through his body, regenerating his strength and helping him to focus his mind. Anyone who would pass by at a moment such as this and see what is happening would run screaming into the wild. Verbal sits on his knees with his head bowed, horns like those of a demon protruding from his skull. Wounds that most doctors would have trouble healing seem to just close on their own as if they never existed, leaving only bloody splotches as evidence that anything was ever wrong.
He is one of the few left of his kind. Those trained to hunt and kill the Jedi with only their bare hands. Once one has mastered the arts of the Ancient Teras Kasi he is nearly untouchable in combat and can withstand almost any force without protection.
Verbal had almost been outmatched earlier in the day when he stumbled upon a Krayt Dragon. He now curses himself about being careless; he had barely escaped with his life. His mind had been places it should not been while traveling in the wild. On her, the woman he pined for but knew he would never have.
"A Jedi knows no love," he whispers to himself, "Nor does the Teras Kasi."
"Focus," he tells himself. "Concentrate on healing, thoughts like these will only lead to more pain and suffering."
A tear rolls down his cheek as he focuses his channeled energy throughout his entire being. One would think that in this state he was vulnerable, open to an attack that he would never see coming. A chance to strike him dead with a single blow perhaps? It had been tried in the past, and the attacker quickly discovered how wrong he had been.
In this state Verbal can sense everything around him, he almost becomes one with his immediate surroundings. The plants, water, and air all around him become his eyes, ears and nose while meditating. He can even feel the presence of the creature that now watches him from under a low hanging branch. He knows the creature is preparing to make a meal out of him, yet he continues his meditation, unmoving.
The creature begins silently moving from his hiding spot low on its haunches, like a cat about to pounce on a mouse. Its lips part into a fierce manical grin showing long discolored fangs and teeth. The creature leaps at its prey with a howl that would make many a man's blood run cold.
When the creature lands on the opposite side of Verbal it is dead. Its neck snapped in mid air and done so quickly the creature never knew what had happened. Verbal is still on his knees with his body only slightly twisted at the waist, head up, and arms still raised into the empty air where the creature's neck had just been in his hands.
"A mistake you will never have the chance to make again," he told the lifeless beast as he settled back into his meditative position.
She runs through his thoughts again. She is the one part of his mind he has less and less control over lately and that causes a deep aching in his heart. An aching that will surely never subside.
"Concern-" he begins to tell himself but is cut off by the sounds of screaming in the distance. He listens intently for anything else. He hears more screaming from many men, women, and children.
"A village under attack?" he asks himself, "But who would-" A sound carries to his ear bringing him the answer to that last question, the electrical crackle of a light saber.
"A Jedi." He whispers as the edge of his lips crease into a grin.