Hello! Lilliwyn is here again with another update for her story. I even updated in less than two months! Yay!
This is my first chapter that has ever been posted with a fight scene in it, so if you have any comments on how I did or how I can do better, feel free to leave a review. Your thoughts are very welcome!
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic I or II. This is merely a story that takes place in that universe.
The Ebon Hawk swooped down into the planet's atmosphere as Carth looked for a place to land. After a minute or two of looking, he found a clearing which he decided was a fantastic place to land the ship. Carth gently landed the Ebon Hawk in the clearing and set her onto the ground.
A couple of minutes after they landed, Carth, Vatani, Bastila, and Atton made their way off of the loading ramp and onto the grassy ground. They took a couple moments to take in their surroundings, and then turned to Vatani for her decision on where to go.
"Um, I think that I and Revan have seen the Sith hunting in the forest over there before," she answered meekly.
Everybody looked at the forest Vatani spoke of. It was very overgrown with old trees and brush, and it seemed that there wasn't much sunlight that was reaching the floor. It looked like a perfect, shady place for the Sith to search for food.
"Lead the way for us then, Vatani," Carth commanded. Vatani nodded in acknowledgment and started to walk towards the forest.
They felt a considerable temperature drop as they stepped under the trees' shadows. As they continued further into the forest, the light became more scarce and the air became colder from its absence. Regardless of this, they pressed on and continued to search for any signs of the monsters.
"Do you smell that?" Carth asked after what seemed to be a long while of searching. The stench of death was in the air, and it wasn't long until the party found a dead animal that was laid under a tree. The party's faces paled as they laid their eyes upon the Sith's victim. Vatani covered her nose with a handkerchief to help cover up the smell and went to observe the corpse.
"The Sith have been here," Vatani stated. "They seem to have a strange lust for blood. This animal's blood has been drained from its body, and its heart has been ripped from its chest. The poor thing didn't stand a chance."
"That's very encouraging," Atton added sarcastically with a chuckle. The Exile glared at him as if she was scolding him with her gaze.
"The corpse seems to be only a day old. The Sith shouldn't be too far from here."
"You haven't seen them do this to people yet, have you, Vatani?" Bastila asked, her eyes unmoving from the dead animal.
"No, Bastila," Vatani answered. "I'm afraid they aren't as..." the Jedi paused as if she was trying to find a suitable word, "...merciful with their captives." Bastila nodded as she lifted her gaze elsewhere and started to rub her temples. Vatani's answer didn't seem to comfort anybody, and Carth appeared to be becoming more restless.
"This way." Vatani indicated a direction in front of them and the team set off.
Carth became more edgy as they went on. If the Sith were that brutal with an animal, then what would they do to a person? He then wished that he hadn't seen the dead animal or heard what Vatani said about the Sith. He began to fear even more for Revan's life.
A rustling in a bush several feet from Carth drew him away from his thoughts. He looked around to see if any of his crew mates had heard it too, but they just continued on, either unheeding or not hearing the suspicious noise which came from the bush.
Carth decided to investigate what made the noise and went to look around the bush. At first he didn't see anything, but after a couple moments of careful observation he found a small, reptilian animal hidden under some of the bush's leaves. When the animal saw Carth staring at him with a baffled look on his face, he tamely walked up to the pilot and cooed.
"What are you doing here?" Carth exclaimed in surprise as he gazed down at the gizka. The little creature replied with a shrill squeal and stepped up onto Carth's shoe.
The way that the gizka was behaving was very strange, Carth thought, especially since he was obviously wild and had never seen Carth before. The color of the animal's eyes was a very bright gray. This unnerved Carth a little since he had never seen a gizka with eyes that color before.
"I'm sorry, little guy, but my crew mates are leaving me behind." He pointed at the advancing party that hadn't seemed to have noticed Carth's discovery. "Plus, no offense, but I haven't had very good experiences with creatures like you." He almost shuddered when he remembered the little delivery they had one day on Tatooine when they were under Revan's command on the Ebon Hawk.
Once Carth had finished speaking, the gizka's head and tail lowered as if he truly understood what Carth had said to him. The creature had a look of utter disappointment on his face as he turned on his heels and headed back to the bush. Carth furrowed his brow and shook his head at the strange sight, but then turned around and went to catch up with his teammates.
"Did you all see that gizka back there?" Carth said in-between breaths after he ran to catch the others.
"Gizka? What is a gizka doing here?" Vatani asked with a perplexed look on her face.
"You tell me," Carth stated. "I have never seen a gizka act like that one did before now."
"What do you mean, Carth?" Bastila asked. She, along with Atton, became curious and drew closer to hear what Carth was about to say.
"He seemed to be tame and friendly," the pilot started, "and it was almost as if he could understand what I said to him."
"What color were his eyes, Carth?" Vatani asked at length.
"Gray. Why do you ask?"
The Exile paled as she heard his answer. She pulled her unlit lightsaber out of its holster and ignited it.
"I'd suggest that you draw your weapon," Vatani said as the light from her purple blade lit up her face, "It seems that we may have company."
"What do you mean-" Carth started until he was quickly hushed by Vatani.
Then, as if on cue, deep, incoherent grunts came from further down the path that the party recently came from. Atton and Bastila ignited their lightsabers while Carth pulled out his blaster. There they waited, silently and breathlessly, for the monster to strike.
There was not a noise to be heard for a couple moments. The team stood still, as the hunter became the hunted, and waited to see what their predator was about to do.
"Watch out!" Bastila screamed as a spiked, clear disk came flying rapidly out of the bushes. Everybody ducked as the disk boomeranged over their heads and back to its owner. A tall, see-through, wraith-like being rose from the bushes to catch his disk with one of its four tentacles. Carth's eyes grew wide when he saw what stood before them and started to shoot at his target. While he did so, the Jedi rushed at the Sith and did their best to stab at it with their sabers.
Bastila, Atton and Carth watched in horror as the Sith's four tentacles turned into beams of searing, red light. It had turned its tentacles into lightsabers! It was more than a match for the three assailing Jedi as it parried all of their blows with ease. It was quick, and its' footwork (if you could call it that since Sith don't have feet) moved rapidly to avoid the Jedis' attacks and the beams that came from Carth's blaster. The times when Carth would actually hit the monster never seemed to hurt it very much.
The Jedi jumped back as the Sith started to spin around and flail its lightsabers towards them. Red light filled the air as it did so. Carth was able to get a few shots at the Sith, but it seemed to only annoy it. The Sith stopped spinning and threw its clear disk at the unexpecting pilot. Carth quickly rolled out of the way to avoid it as the disk flew in his direction.
Finally, Atton saw a hole in the Sith's defense and struck the beast at its torso. Clear gel-like goo spurted out of the Sith's wound as it backed up towards a tree with an ear-splitting scream. The Sith's knees went weak and it sat against a tree as its breathing slowed.
Vatani turned her saber off and strode towards the dying creature.
"Where is your ship, Sith?"
It didn't answer.
"I said, where is your ship?" Vatani ignited her saber and held it at her side for a little motivation for the Sith to answer her.
The creature weakly pointed towards the west where the forest had continued to grow darker. Vatani nodded an acknowledgment and turned towards her teammates as the creature drew its last breaths.
"I'm sorry that I didn't explain the deceitful ways of the Sith more before we landed here," Vatani walked back over to the Sith and kicked its corpse to make sure that it was dead. "The Sith are shape shifters. They normally do this to trick their prey into thinking that they are harmless. That's why the gizka acted so friendly to you, Carth." The pilot shuddered as he imagined the dead being when he stepped onto his shoe earlier that day in the form of the gizka.
"Always look at the eyes. Their bright, gray eyes should give them away." The party nodded as Vatani finished.
"Well, let's continue on, shall we?" The Exile pointed at a barely visable path that laid before them.
The weary party bravely walked further into the forest and did their best to not think of the monsters which they were chasing.
I'd just like to thank all of the people who have reviewed the previous chapters of my fic. I appreciate your feedback and support of my work! Thank you!