Satine coughed and gasped as she tried to let air back into her lungs. There was a ringing in her ears and she felt something warm dripping down the side of her head. Her body wretched as she tried to cough out all the sand and dust she'd somehow swallowed and inhaled during her fall. She looked around, dazed, unable to see anything but a tiny patch of starlight a very far distance away, somehow, however, she had survived.
Satine clenched her fists, checking for broken bones, only to feel harsh, warm material between her fingers and that was when the ringing in her ears stopped to reveal a voice.
"Not that it isn't immensely comfortable having a bloodied woman with a smoker's cough sitting on me, but could you please get off ?" Obi-Wan's voice instantly caused the daze to vanish and her mind cleared just enough to remember that Obi-Wan had grabbed her with his, surprisingly, stronger-than-they-looked, arms, and it was most likely thanks to him that she had survived such a fall.
"Duchess!" He gasped."I'd like to breathe now!"
And that's when it dawned on her that she was sitting on his chest. As if she'd been electrocuted she shot to her feet but almost stumbled on the uneven ground as she did so. Obi-Wan grabbed her wrist with lightning reflexes and forced her to kneel on the ground with a look that warned her not to even try to move or else she'd be saving herself next time. Unfortunately, in the darkness the effect was minimal.
Obi-Wan coughed and wheezed slightly as he tried to regain his bearings, it was only thanks to his use of the Force that he and the duchess had survived but the effort had left him exhausted and drained. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he realised they had fallen so deep into the tunnel system that there was no possible way, even with the Force, that they could climb out. In a moment of panic Obi-Wan patted his belt where, to his relief his lightsaber was still attached. His master would never forgive him if he'd lost it.
Gaining a little more energy from the find he looked at Satine's barely visible shape.
"Let's agree that you never shoot a blaster again, okay?" He sighed.
"Yeah, tried it, done it, brought a cave raining down on us." She agreed, "And most likely buried my sister and men in the process."
"There's still a chance they survived." Obi-Wan tried to console but he was too tired to even try to see into the Force.
"You should have saved my sister, not me." Satine wanted to yell but the exertion caused her to cough painfully, her ribs filling her with pain at the action.
"My mission is to keep you safe." Obi-wan reminded her, asking the Force for patience. "And, like I said, she may have survived."
Satine let out a shaky breath not even the eldest of her guards had been this adamant of the rules and their job.
"We only did because you used your magic." Satine sighed again, looking up at the little piece of sky she could see, straining her ears for any sign of life but all she could hear was her own heartbeat and Obi-Wan as he tried to steady his breathing.
"Force." He corrected, as, with a little struggle, he balanced on his weary feet and stood. "And it would all have been for nought if we just die down here."
"But we've no idea where to go." Satine warned, "I assure you, none of my men ever mapped this deep into the maze."
"When lost." Obi-Wan began, unhooking his lightsaber and igniting it, allowing its light to illuminate the small area around them, casting deep, unflattering shadows over Satine's face and to reveal a seemingly intact tunnel before them. "The only way must be the right way."
And with that Obi-Wan began to lead the way into the tunnels. Before Satine could follow she looked up at the stars one more time, unsure when she'd see them again and sent a prayer that both her sisters were still alive, somewhere.
" The only way must be the right way ." She repeated in a hushed, mocking voice after several minutes traveling through the unfamiliar tunnel. "Such splendid words of wisdom from the Padawan."
"Hey!" He growled looking at the source of both their unease. "How was I supposed to know that thing survived?"
The Nydak was slumped against the wall of the tunnel Satine and Obi-Wan had chosen to follow. By some demonic miracle it too had survived the fall and had had enough energy to crawl into the tunnel where it, presumably, collapsed from exhaustion and its injuries.
"Well, what should we do now? Lop off its head?" Satine hissed, straining her eyes to look at the sleeping creature in the poor light of Obi-Wan's lightsaber.
"We? Don't you mean me?" Obi-Wan hissed back. "And for a pacifist you can have rather violent ideas at times."
"It's useless being a pacifist if you get eaten alive."
"Well, I'll be honest with you, I do not have the strength to fight that thing, even above ground he was a tough one…"
"So we just walked past?"
"And hope we don't wake it."
And so the weary duo began to slowly walk towards the Nydak which, with each breath, let out a belch-like snore. They took each step with care, Obi-Wan leading the way with his lightsaber as they drew ever closer to the monster. Each step they made, each crunching of the sand beneath their feet, caused the pair to hold their breaths as they watched to see if the creature would finally awake.
It was slow, tedious work that went against their every instinct to run past the Nydak at full speed but, such careless movements, would have surely brought their travels in the tunnels to a swift end. They walked as silently as they could past the Nydak's scarred head, one of its tasks must have broken off during the fall.
"It's going to be a tight squeeze." Admitted Obi-Wan as the creature shifted slightly narrowing their path even more.
"I know I'm small but not t hat small." Satine scowled, seeing that the monster was taking up the full width of the tunnel.
"We can probably jump it." Obi-Wan observed, eyeing the creature as he calculated his chances.
"What!?" She hissed, "We'd never make it over it! We'd land on it and wake it for sure!"
"Have faith in the Force, Duchess" Obi-Wan said mysteriously.
"Faith? In magics?"
"Well it's got us this far." And, being honest to herself, Satine couldn't argue with that. Obi-Wan retracted his lightsaber and carefully, making sure it was securely attached to his belt, he knelt on one knee, hands palm up behind him.
"W-what are you doing?" Satine whispered.
"Well, you can't use the Force so I'll have to jump while carrying you."
"I'm the duchess of Mandalore…"
"And you'll be Nydak food if you don't hurry." Obi-Wan hissed, rolling his eyes and asking the Force to give him patience.
Satine hesitated for a moment, was it even possible for Obi-Wan to make such a jump whilst carrying her? But then she also thought it impossible to survive the fall they just had. So, grudgingly, she put her slender hands around Obi-Wan's neck and allowed him to put his hands under her thighs as he stood, steadying his grip on the ground as he prepared to jump. Satine knew that he was being serious at that moment as he made no comment on her weight.
Instead he took multiple breaths before running and leaping, allowing the Force to fill the balls of his feet and push him forward. Satine held her breath as they jumped through the air, disbelief filling her as he landed across the creature without even a stagger.
"I-I can't believe you actually did it!" She gasped, remembering to keep her voice low as Obi-Wan gently lowered her to her feet.
"Trust me Duchess, that's only one of my many skills." Obi-Wan, on the other hand, excited at actually succeeding, had forgotten to keep his voice low.
The creature gave a low, irked grumble as it turned, the pair just able to see the glint of its eyes as they opened and turned to look at them.
"Well stealth doesn't seem to be one of them!" Satine scolded, backing away from the creature.
"Less scolding and more running!" Yelled Obi-Wan, igniting his lightsaber and running through the tunnel, Satine on his heels, as the creature growled and began to pursue them, obviously remembering the pain the lightsaber had inflicted not so long before.
They frantically scrambled away from the monster, stumbling over rocks and gravel as the creature's roars echoed within the tunnel, warning them that it was getting ever closer. Obi-Wan's mind was racing, what were the chances of him winning a fight against the Nydak? It's tough skin had already proven it would take multiple slices of the lightsaber to penetrate and he could feel exhaustion spreading from his core. Since the fall, he had been running on adrenaline, his mind and body pumped up to not feel the pain that must have been there. The Force was a mysterious thing but he was still only human.
Even Satine could tell that weariness was falling over the Padawan, although his pace was still steady, his breath was coming out far less even and he held his lightsaber with a firmer grip. They had to find a way to escape this monster or else they'd be its next meal. As they ran, it took much of their energy just to see the tunnel ahead of them in the blue light of the lightsaber but it looked long and never ending and they had long given up trying to decipher the direction they were heading for the time being, the Nydak was their biggest priority.
Satine reacted before she could even fully consider how badly things could have gone wrong. Her father had always told her to consider all possibilities but, between the possibility of escape and their likelihood of getting devoured she took the chance. An indent further up in the tunnel had caught her attention, it was lower and narrower than the passage they were running in, far too small for the Nydak to pass through- if it were a tunnel at all.
But that was the gamble Satine played as she crossed behind Obi-Wan, grabbing at his wrist to pull him into the side tunnel. He quickly saw what she saw and deviated his direction. It was a tight squeeze, the two having to painfully slow their pace as they squeeze through, but Satine stumbled back as the passage widened enough for her to turn and pull at Obi-Wan's hand, forcing him through the gap that was slightly tighter for him and causing him to stagger onto her as he fell in, reigniting his lightsaber to face the opening. The Nydak roared in outrage as it pushed at the tunnel's narrow opening with its task, but even its large, meaty hand couldn't make it very far in, it claws scratching at the walls in frustration.
Obi-Wan and Satine were heavily panting, slowly reversing away from the Nydak, preying that the tunnel's entrance would not give way. After many, agonisingly long minutes of staring at the struggling creature, Obi-Wan lowered his lightsaber, slightly.
"I think we should be safe."
"For now." Sighed Satine, her back sliding against the cave walls that felt slightly chilled after the sprint they'd just had.
"We should head further in." Obi-Wan warned, "The Nydak isn't going to budge from there."
"Good." Sighed Satine, as she examined her bruised hands. "It can be helpful for once and act as a guard, it will scare off any more creatures that may try to reach us from that side."
"But…" Began Obi-Wan, looking between the Nydak and the continuation of the tunnel they had just entered. He didn't like the idea of staying in one place for too long and, in all honesty, he wanted to find his master, he'd know what to do in a situation like this.
"Sit down, Padawan Kenobi." Satine ordered with as much force as she could muster. "We must at least give ourselves time to catch our breath." She continued, lifting her hand to her temple where the injury she'd received during the fall had reopened. She had wondered if Obi-Wan was okay, he had received the full brunt of the impact but, if he were in pain, he said nothing.
"You are right." Agreed Obi-Wan, too exhausted to even pretend to grudgingly agree. "I got a feeling we will be running a lot for the time being."
And another chapter done! Thanks so much for reading and hope you enjoyed the chapter. Feel free to drop a review and next update will be Friday :D