Chapter 8
"A disturbance?", Jaz mused as he poured a glass of water. "I did not know if a Jedi would sense the disturbance below."
Caloc leaned forward, swirling the liquid in his own glass around in a lazy circle. "What disturbance? What is happening here?"
"It must be something big for one of our scribes to send us.", Lozzan frowned from where she sat on one of the wicker chairs.
Jaz stared at them. These two were young. He could see that. For some reason, they both had long braids hanging over their shoulders, and they wore a small insignia on their belts, one he didn't recognise. As he had previously noticed, they were obviously padawans. However, they seemed confident in themselves, which was enough for him.
"The locals have been farming these lands for decades.", he began, gesturing to the massive plots behind him, "We used to just be harvesters, but now we have fields of nysillin, shadowpaw, groot, even villi. The men still work the mines, but we have droids who mind those fields. We have been fine for months. We have more business than ever, and we just uncovered a new section of caverns. But now the harvesters are being attacked by the fauna. The Radd are hunting us, and the council has been forced to send our local security down to protect the workers."
"Is it only the Radd?", Caloc asked.
Jaz shook his head, "No. The crawler worms have gotten more aggressive as well. They bore out tunnels close to those that already exist in hopes of a cave in. We have lost twenty of my clearers that way."
"Clearers?", Lozzan raised her hand, "What are they?"
"Clearer's scout ahead of the main party to search for webs, rocks or minerals.", Jaz took a deep draught from his glass, "If there are any precious minerals, we need to remove them. Normally we sell them to the Hutts."
Caloc rubbed his fingers over his forehead, tapping the ridge of his nose in thought. Something didn't add up. "How long have these attacks been happening?"
"About two weeks now. Why do you…"
A loud wailing cry filled the air, like the sound of an air siren or a gallen bird with the flu. Both padawan's leapt to their feet, weapons materializing in their hands, thus far left unignited. Lozzan turned to Jaz. "What was that?"
The Kalleran stared at her with fear in his eyes. "I don't understand. They never come this close to the surface."
"That was a worm?", Caloc asked. He had never heard anything like it before.
Jaz nodded. "We hear them in the tunnels all the time. But never are they able to be heard up here."
The cry silenced as suddenly as it had arrived, and Caloc realised his commlink was blinking rapidly at him. He snatched it from his belt and brought it to his lips. "Yes?"
"Caloc!", His Master asked, her voice crackling over the comms. "Are you alright? We felt a tremor."
"We are fine, Master.", he answered, "But if I were you, I'd hurry up and get here. We have a lot to talk about."
There were legends on Menach of the times before the fire. Of when the planet was lush and full of life. Of a time before the great Terattyki, a great Sith war beast who was responsible for the current state of the planet. It was said that her handler, the Sith known as Darth Slaith, had released her on the populace, and the resulting battle had split the word, forcing the magma to seep onto the surface. The trees had withered, and the water steamed, until the almost inhospitable landscape remained.
Caloc had held onto that legend throughout his training, using it as motivation to keep moving, to avenge his planet, to stop the Sith from returning. But now, as he stared at the image before him, he felt only a deep pit in his stomach. Before him was the only recorded image of a crawler worm. It was blurred, dust and dirt clouding the image. All that could be seen was a row of pointed teeth, and a thick hide. It was a monstrous creature that was far larger than any he had faced before.
"What of the Radd?", Tia asked. He was standing near the window, surveying the village around them. It was four hours since the crawlers attack, and the Jedi had regrouped in one of the spare buildings to review what Jaz had told them. The town had an unfortunate number of empty houses at the moment.
"The Radd are getting far more aggravated than usual, Master.", Lozzan answered. "There are many harvesters disappearing."
Stass had her own personal holocron out now, a map hovering around the ancient device. "Can you see the pattern, my padawan?"
Tia turned to glare at her, "Pattern? What pattern? This is an attack!"
Caloc ignored the Chagrian's outburst and leant to study the map the Devaronian harvesters had drawn up for them upon their return from the Forgotten Lands. The caves were definitely numerous. The harvesting grounds expanded across more than a dozen different caverns. The attack zones were circled in green. The padawan's eyes narrowed as he studied the green scratches.
"They seem to be all in the newest section of caves.", he traced the lines carefully, then tapped in the centre of the attacks, "But not here. They seem to be stopping the workers from proceeding to this area."
"Agreed.", Stass answered. "So that is where we must go."
"Very well.", Tia studied the map. "So, we leave for the Forgotten Lands tomorrow."
Sorry for being so quiet these paste few weeks. The good news is that I have almost completed this short story. Only a few more chapter to go. Hope you enjoy. Next week gets real crazy.
Sincerely,
Phil
