The dew slowly rolled off the leaves at the same speed he was moving. The world around him slowed to a trickle of movement. The sounds became magnified and elongated in the expansive forest. His feet allowed the friction of the wood and dead leaves in the dirt to overpower his movement and he came to a stop. A sinister grin spreading across his grizzled chin as his dark eyes scanned the wooden structure of a home in front of him, the way a lustful man would look upon a woman.
He pulled at his cloak, checking its position to ensure that his scarred face would stay hidden from view. It had been many years since he had been in this forest, looking at the house, hearing the creak of the steps as his boot applied pressure to their frame. The cottage seemed to scream in helplessness with each noise from his weight upon the old boards.
Bone thin features pressed themselves against a dusty window to peer in with dark, beady eyes. Glaring and penetrating the safety of the walls.
A family was preparing dinner. The wife was cooking something, a creature that once frolicked in blissful ignorance of things like guns in the very forest he darkened outside the window. Two small children played together in a moment of peace, while a father read and half watched them from his comfortable perch.
The dark man gave the scene little attention, it wasn't the people that mattered to him. They were as useful as a coat rack, just objects in the way of his real prize. He could feel the frustration swelling in him as he continued to scan the objects looking, searching.
The glint of something on the mantel above the fireplace sent a shot of excitement, which was quickly controlled, through his body. Gripping the metallic cylinder at his waist, slowly he detached it and felt anticipation as the same sinister grin cracked his countenance once again.
-~~~-
Ayme came ripping out of her dream. Her face was flushed and sweat started to pour from her exhausted pores. She had always had vivid dreams, they just typically involved her as a main character. This one seemed focused on some man. A man with a lightsaber.
She rolled out of her cot in her spartan room on Lopen. Her eyes took several minutes to focus on the blinking light emanating from her terminal screen. Her throat longed for a cup of caf but she allowed curiosity to get the better of her.
A familiar figure filled her screen. "Hey sleepy head, about time you answered your comm. Where the hell are you anyways? The comm signature is completely...just weird."
Ayme winced a bit at the question but maintained her composure, smiling at the woman on the screen. "Hey Jae. I told you, they sent me to the middle of no where this time. I should be back on Tadath soon, almost done...gathering intel. Anyways, I didn't hear the comm cause I had one of my dreams, yanno how I get."
"You want to talk about the dream? Seems like it was a bad one." Ayme eyes slowly scanned Jaenna's face.
She wanted to talk to Jaenna about her dream, but she couldn't. Regardless of the complication that was the two womens relationship, anything jedi related was strictly forbidden. Even if it was just a dream, Ayme knew better than to put Jaenna at risk by saying something. "Same ol' stuff. I'm fine, anyone in trouble yet?"
"Actually, our guys haven't reported in yet this morning. They could just be drunk off their ass as usual, but I figured I'd check it out."
Ayme nodded, "okay, good." Her eyes wondered around the room until they fell on a crude map of the place in her dreams she had managed to cobble together since the dark man had appeared in her head. Something about the surrounding woods caught her eye. She hadn't been able to get the planet or cottage out of her mind, and she needed to focus. One location particularity sparked her interest today.
"I need to get some caf, my brain requires a jolt to wake it up today."
"What? Who are you and what did you do with Havock?" Jaenna chuckled as she spoke.
Ayme crossed her arms, a fingernail running across her chin absently as she made eye contact with the auburn haired woman.
Jaenna tentatively continued. "It's fine, I'll check in with you later after I kick some swabbie's behind for making me do work on my day off." Her eyes were still skeptical, Ayme knew that she didn't believe her but she took the exit provided and smiled at the screen in a vein attempt at reassurance before she signed off.
With a long sigh, Ayme collected her things and put on her robes. These dreams were not getting any better so it was time to talk to Kami and get permission to leave for a short trip and check them out.
-~~~-
The overgrowth in the woods cast an eerie shadow as the light from the morning sun filtered through the branches and leaves. The underbrush seemed thicker than she remembered in her dream. The cottage, on the other hand, was frighteningly similar.
Upon closer inspection there was some wear on the wooden walls from time. The door creaked as it gently swung in the wind permitted to approach by the vast sentinel of trees. Her hand grasped it tightly and pushed it open as far as the debris would permit her.
Although on the outside the home looked livable, inside told a different tale. Small pieces of furniture was all that remained strewn amongst the dust and bugs. Ayme could see where pictures used to adorn the walls based on the shape of the discoloration. It would seem that some local gangs used the cottage as a place to get away, or at least they had left their mark from where they had at one time.
Ayme focused, using the techniques she knew to quiet her mind and see what she needed to know. Something was drawing her to this place, she needed to understand what. Her feet moved without conscious thought, slowly. Out of all the chaos a single object caught her eye.
It was mostly obscured by the floorboards and what she thought may have once been part of a mattress. She bent over and started to move the broken pieces aside in a daze. The shape of a large creature cast in a metallic material was wedged half way under the floor. All the sharp edges had worn away and small parts were broken off entirely.
The figure had a snout and long neck, with wings and an impressive tail. The claws were outstretched in front of the robust body, as if they should have held something precious, yet now they clasped nothing.
Something about the figure was familiar, Ayme felt she had seen it before even though she had no memory or name for the object. She crossed her legs and sat in the center of the disaster of a home attempting to find answers to questions she hadn't even thought of yet.
"How do you always get yourself into these things? You could have gone with Jae, but no you just had to go play in the blasted woods." Ayme muttered uselessly to herself.
She took a deep breath and held it for a moment, when she released the air from her lungs she let out all of her conflicting thoughts. Her mind settled and she was able to touch the Force with her fledgling abilities. It started as a flicker, barely even enough energy to sustain a flame. She pushed outward from there gathering sensations from the wood, the mortar, the latches, then beyond to the trees and moss. All the energy was precarious, teetering on collapsing at any moment. She used her frustration to strengthen the field, then had to close her eyes as the world around her suddenly overwhelmed her in a bright light.
-~~~-
"Capra, stop playing so rough with your sister." Kesla watched his children play as was the routine for their family. At least it gave him the chance to rest and see something joyful after hours of labor in the gem mine.
He heard an exasperated sigh from the kitchen and knew he'd done something wrong, and he was about to learn in detail how horrible a thing it was. "Kesla, I've told you several times to move that horrid thing when the children are playing. It's going to hurt them one of these days."
He rolled his eyes, "yes Greta." He stood cursing his sore muscles quietly as not to incur more wrath from the woman he loved. His large hands wrapped around the creature that had been his father's before him. He knew very little about it, other than his father always called it a 'drake' and made it clear that the statue and especially the gem was to be protected.
Kesla smirked as he wondered how many meals his family could purchase with the sale of the orange crystal. Shaking his head, he placed the heavy object on the mantle above the fireplace.
The door burst open making Kesla jump at the noise. It took his brain a moment to even process what was happening. The children screamed stirring his priorities. The father yanked them by the collar physically directing them back towards the kitchen, and the safety of their pan wielding mother. The sight would have made him chuckle if not for the dark cloaked man standing in his door frame.
The dark man held a glowing weapon in his hand with a meter long energy blade of some sort. Kesla had never seen such a thing and started to wonder if it was merely a light source, until it ripped through his wall on its trajectory towards his head.
He dove, bowling through the caf table his uncle had built for them and slamming into the couch. He could hear his family scream, which prompted him to scramble to his feet. They had no weapons in the house, they rarely had callers much less intruders. Kesla remembered the figure he had just been holding as his eyes scanned the room frantically. His feet started to run towards the mantel then stuttered to a stop.
The dark man stood there, still holding the glowing stick in his right hand, and the figure in his left. "Your family crest." The voice was barely a whisper, it sounded more like a hiss. "You peasants don't even know what you use as a paperweight do you?"
Kesla could just see the mans lips as he spoke, the grin that spread across his pale face send shivers down his spine. Somehow Kesla got the impression the man noticed his fear, and enjoyed it. The whole situation was surreal and creepy.
"I wish I could let you leave this place." The dark man placed the drake back on the mantel then ripped the crystal from the stone creatures talons. "I have been lacking in fun lately though, so...run."
-~~~-
Ayme came out of her trance with a start. She blinked several times trying to adjust her eyes to the current surroundings. Fifty, maybe more, years had passed since that night she had witnessed. Her hands gently ran over the bumps and scars along the figure.
She stood on unsteady legs. Noticing how bright it was outside. Nearly half the day hand come and gone while she was lost in the past. She needed to get back to the hanger before she had to explain why she was gone so long.
Ayme wasn't sure why, but she felt a connection to the figure. She couldn't leave it behind, it seemed to her that it had been imprisoned in the crumbling structure long enough. As she walked back through the woods she couldn't get the images out of her head, or the sinking suspicion the things she learned would come back to haunt her soon.