Disclaimer- I do not own Star Wars in any way. I only own my OC's and the plot of this chapter.
Chapter 3- Black, White, and Red
Shibaan
I was stuck in a cell and bored out of my mind. The wound on my leg wasn't feeling very good either. It still swelled from time to time, since I didn't have anything to disinfect it. The infection would probably poison my blood stream in about two more days.
Well that is a comforting thought…
I sighed and looked out the window I had smashed. I saw we had stopped… and there was something moving in the distance. It looked like it was wearing red. It was looking at me too… There was a reflection of light of a metal thing coming from it. I recognized the pattern immediately. The message was…
Shibaan is that you…Shibaan is that you…Shibaan is that you…
The message repeated three more times and stopped, the person was waiting for an answer. I looked around to see if I could find anything reflective. I saw nothing, but then I noticed the glass at my feet.
That will do… I guess. I thought as I bent down to pick it up.
The glass shard was about the size of my palm. I angled it as best I could toward the sun and replied…
That depends who you are… That depends who you are…
I only replied twice because I knew that the person was watching and would decipher it quickly. I was right to the reply back to me was…
It's me Red Pelt.
I was relieved to see the message. It was a good friend of my, Edeme. I called her Red Pelt or Red for short because of her distinctive red fur.
Edeme is that you... It is me Shibaan…
Prove it. What do I call you?
You call me Shadow!
Ok good it is you… Hold on I'm coming over…
I dropped the shard. I could hardly believe it! Out of everyone in my clan and Bear clan Edeme had found me! Edeme was part of Crow Clan; they are a good clan despite the image that the name puts in your head. Edeme suddenly popped up in front of me.
"How did you get past the guards?" I asked her "you couldn't have snuck past all of them…"
"Honestly, I decapitated them all. It doesn't take much to send their heads rolling."
"Oh… so where is your clan and is Hyena Clan still here?"
"They are out in the forest, we wanted to hang out here for a while, you know, and maybe steal a droid ship or something and no. Hyena Clan isn't here, they were but not now. At least none that I can smell or see."
"Ok good to know, so are you for the Republic?"
"No not exactly, we are sort of neutral at the moment. We want to see the intentions of each side."
"Well, in any case it is good to see you again. I need you to do me a favor though."
"You name it and it is as good as done."
"Ok, you remember Kyrea, right?"
"Yeah, I know Snow. You two have only done, like, a billion favors for me."
I gave a quick chuckle; "I need you to give her a message. I need you to tell her where this camp is and to…please come get me…" My leg started to ache. I tried to ignore it and keep up with the conversation.
"Ok, will do. Do you need anything? You look kind of pale now that I look at you."
"No, just get Kyrea and I should be fine. No offence she is a better medic than the both of us."
"Yeah, your right. Ok I'm off, I'll see you later."
"Be careful Red."
"Will do Shadow."
I watched Red run back in the direction she had come. Even though she had just left, I was starting to feel lonely and bored all over again. I hoped she found Snow soon. I couldn't think of anything else to do so I just slumped down, sat, and started to wait.
Edeme (a.k.a Red)
I was trying to sniff out Kyrea, just as Shibaan had told me. I honestly looked up to both Shibaan and Kyrea and I tried to do exactly what they said. If I ever let them down in any way I would die of shame. (Yeah, that's how much I look up to them.) I came to a clearing, changing into my wolf form, I began to sniff around. I was up wind so I couldn't smell anything, I changed to downwind so that the wind blew in my face so that I could "read" the tale the wind told. I found Kyrea's scent. I started to follow it.
This might take a while. The scent is a bit stale… I suspect a two-hour run. I hope she isn't going at a fast pace.
I smelled other scents along with hers.
She must be traveling with others.
The scents smelled human, so I knew that she hadn't been captured by droids. I broke into a run, with the thought of rescuing Shibaan.
Rex
I was leading General Skywalker to the spot where the droid camp might possibly be. This new girl, Snow, I was a bit wary. We had just met her and she is supposed to be an elite warrior in a group of other elite warriors. If she was a spy and her information was true, the 501st was not up against good odds; even with the help of Jedi. I took a quick look behind me, Snow and Ahsoka were talking.
I turned to General Skywalker; "Sir, should we trust this, Snow, girl?"
"I'm not entirely sure, honestly. If she is an ally then she could be a good one."
General Kenobi stepped in; "Yes, but what if she isn't an ally, if she is telling us the truth about her and her people's military experiences then they could be a serious threat."
General Skywalker nodded his head in agreement. Turning his head toward Ahsoka and Snow, he gave a small grin.
"Ahsoka could use some girl time, after all Master, she is around us and the men all the time. I think some time with another girl could do her some good."
"Yes, I guess you're right Anakin. Just as a precaution, however, I'm going to ask Cody to ask one of the men to keep an eye on her."
General Kenobi turned and left to go find Cody.
"Rex, can you ask one of the men to keep an eye on Snow as well. We don't want Kenobi's man to have all the fun of spying do we? I will lead the way from here while you go."
"No sir, I know just the man for the job." I turned to go find someone for the job. I didn't know who I wanted to choose for this mission, but I would figure it out.
Hardcase? No he's not the sneaking type… Jessie? No, we need him here. Fives?... I think that would work… If Echo wants to go with him then by all means he can do it.
I headed to where Fives was. On the way there though I almost bumped into Cody; "Are you finding someone to spy too?"
"Yeah, you too huh…"
"Who have you chosen?"
"I thought Waxer would be good for this. He can make friends with pretty much whomever. Boil would probably tag along with him. So two guys, one girl, pretty good odds if a fight should go out." Who have you chosen?"
"Me? Oh, I chose Fives, for pretty much the same reason you chose Waxer. He is a good man and he has a buddy."
"So four against one in a fight. That seems a bit out of the girls favor."
"Yeah, but don't forget that this girl supposedly has expert military training."
"I know. Well let's go and get those men shall we?"
With Cody in the lead I followed him.
Kyrea (a.k.a Snow)
Ahsoka and I were getting along pretty well. I admired her achievements at the Jedi temple where she had trained. She admired mine as well, so we kind of admired each other's fighting ability. She looked at me in a funny way, like she wanted to ask a question but was embarrassed to.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Oh… umm. I was wondering…" she stuttered and slowed and mumbled something even I couldn't hear (Yeah, even my wolf ears didn't hear)
"What? It's ok; I mean your question won't really be offending me if that is what you are worried about."
"Ok, how… how many wars, exactly, have you been in?"
I thought a moment. "I have been in four wars."
"Really!"
"Yes really."
"Have… have you ever killed a person…not a droid, but a real person?"
"Yes… unfortunately."
"Oh, sorry I hope I didn't-"
"No its ok, I admire that you are asking. I don't mind your curiosity."
"Thanks."
"So, Ahsoka, can I ask you some questions now?"
"Yeah sure."
"Ok, well first off why aren't Jedi allowed to have attachments?"
"Well, having attachment is supposed to lead you to the dark side. You know because you can get angry, beyond control, or jealous."
"… I guess that makes sense… so the Jedi are afraid that if they have attachments they will be concurred my emotions?"
"Yeah, that's the basics I think."
"Well, what if you learn to control your emotion. It is hard, but it is possible."
"Then… I'm not sure… I never thought about it that hard before…"
We walked on a little longer. We had walked for what I thought had been four hours.
I turned to Ahsoka; "How far are we from this camp now?"
"I don't know, maybe another hour."
"I thought this valley was only four miles away…"
"Well… nobody said that four miles is easy to walk."
"True. How long did it take for you to get there?"
"It only took two hours, but that was because the scouting party was small."
"Ok."
I looked up at the sky; it looked like it was about five o'clock. When we had set off it must have been around twelve or one…"
I heard a howl coming from the east. It was a short high-pitched howl but it sounded familiar. I turned to the east. Ahsoka looked puzzled.
"What kind of animal makes that noise?"
"Shhhhhh!" I said. I listened again and this time I got the message.
"Kyrea, Kyrea where are you. Shibaan sent me to find you and I have lost the scent. I hope you are close, where are you, where are you?"
I looked over to Ahsoka and back to the direction of the howl. By that time Ahsoka looked a bit scared, but curious. The generals had looked back at us to, as well as all the soldiers. I couldn't help it; I had to answer the message. I turned into my wolf form and howled back a reply.
Ahsoka
Snow changed right before my eyes. First she was a girl then she was a white… something. It didn't look like any animal I had seen. I couldn't help but gasp. I heard others coming from some of the clones. Snow then did howled back to what ever had howled in the first place. It was a long mix of low and high pitches. After she had done that she remained in her… form and waited. A reply came back. Snow's ears moved forward, as if to capture the sound. After this howl though the form gave a soft snarl; the thing morphed back into Snow.
"I know where my friend and the camp are. We are going the right way just one more mile then we turn east. That will get us to the camp within an hour."
"What was that… what did you just do?"
"I turned into a wolf a white wolf."
"Wolf? I haven't seen one of those until now."
"My friend can turn into a wolf like me too. The only problem is, is that she has been captured. That's what my other friend just told me now."
"What color is your friend?"
"Which one, the one that howled now, or the one who got captured?"
"Both I guess."
"Well, the one who howled to me now, her pelt is red. My friend who is captured her pelt is black. We are a sort of yin and yang of each other if you get what I am saying. Anyway, my red pelted friend said that we are close camp and that she will meet us there."
"Oh, ok."
Snow turned and walked to my master Skyguy. I walked with her, I was surprised that I wasn't scared. I was actually pretty amazed.
"Well that was…interesting…" My master said, having the face that says Mind Blown!
Snow gave a small smile and repeated what she had just told me.
"Okay, can we trust this Red?"
"With your life… well at least that's how much I trust her."
Master Kenobi joined the conversation; "Let's take a small squad from here. It will take less time to get there."
"Agreed." My master said and went off, probably to go find Rex.
I looked at Snow, she nodded at me and we went off to… actually I guess we walked around and waited.
Shibaan
I was still waiting… it had been like what… almost what felt like another two or three hours!
Just be patience 'baan... Fine.
I was sitting and my leg was starting to cramp up. I needed to get up. I tried to slowly lift myself up but no matter how slowly, carefully, or quickly got up, my infected leg hurt like hell. When was Edeme going to be back with Kyrea and the Republic? I walked in a circle three times to exercise my leg and to keep me from going insane with boredom. After the three "laps" I had tired myself out. (I know it sound weak and all but you try having an infected leg, stabbing it, and then walking around after an hour or two!) I pondered what Edeme had said before she left. She hadn't met any Hyena Clan members… where were they? They couldn't have left… they had me and… and what? Were they planning to use me as bait?
I hope that's not the case…
I thought about it a bit more. I looked up at the window, it was night. I didn't normally feel tired (you know… wolf thing…) this time I felt tired. My eyelids felt like one hundred pounds. I eventually drifted off to sleep.
*about an hour later*
I hear something… is that a motor… a… speeder! If that is Hyena Clan then that means… No, don't think about that.
I heard the speeders stop, several blaster shots and then foot-steps. Muffled voices came with those foot-steps. The door to the cell started to open. I got up quickly despite the pain. I crouched ready to spring. Someone looked into the door; "Hey Shadow!"
Kyrea
"Hey Shadow!" After saying that I was promptly tackled and I felt light cuffs on my face.
"Don't ever scare me like that again!"
"What did you want me to do, give you a secret knock or something?"
"… That would have been nice…"
Shibaan got off of me and helped me up. She took one look at General Skywalker, General Kenobi, Ahsoka, Rex, and Cody and looked at me. I nodded and her eyes got wide. She opened up her mouth to say something but we heard a giggly, evil laugh.
"So *hyena laugh* they did come after all!" *another hyena laugh*
I looked around and saw at least twenty eyes looking at us. I looked back at Shibaan and that was when I noticed that her leg was injured… and infected. We didn't have time to think about it now though the "Hyenas" where getting closer.
"This is your black pelt friend right?" Ahsoka asked, despite all the evil people gathering in front of us.
"Yep. Oh and Ahsoka this is Hyena Clan. You might want to get your light-saber out."
Ahsoka ignited her light saber at the same time Kenobi and Skywalker did. Rex and Cody stood with them, blasters at the ready.
"Hey, um, Snow?" Shibaan was looking at me.
"Yeah?"
"Can you give me a dagger or something? Mine kinda got taken."
"Sure." I unhooked a tomahawk from my leg and tossed it to her. She gave it a twirl.
"Yep this will do; thanks."
The crowd of Hyena's was getting closer. They didn't take out their weapons like I had expected but they turned into their Hyena forms. I looked over at Shibaan.
"Well my friend, it looks like they don't want to play with toys. They want to skip straight to the party."
"Good enough for me."
We both went into our forms.
Ahsoka
I saw Snow and her friend go into their forms. I got what Snow had said about the Yin and Yang thing. Snow's wolf had a white coat. Her friend had a black coat. I know that Snow had said it was black but I didn't know that it was black as in pitch black. You could barely see her. The coats had a striking difference.
"Well, what do you know," my master said. I looked beside me where he was standing. "It looks like Snow wasn't kidding about the size of this clan. If her info is right this is barely half of them. I don't see their leader though."
"What does their leader look like?" I asked, this was part of the information I had missed and forgot to ask about.
"Well according to Snow he is bigger than all the others and his right ear has a tear in it. I don't see him here."
Another figure came out of the bush it had a red pelt but, on its stomach and inside of its legs it was white. The face was white with red on it, so it looked like the red-figure was wearing a mask. I looked where Snow was standing. In front of us were three angry wolves, snarling in our defense.
Look at that… Black, White, and Red.
Sorry it took me forever to finally post this. I had Finals and I have to study for them and all. Grr… But anyway since I am on Winter Break, finally, I should be able to post more sooner! BTW for Edeme, her coat is red on her back and on the top side of her tail but her under sides are all white, same with her face. R&R Please.
