Witches And Monsters.
To say things were tense would be an understatement. After all the time they spent running, the three young women was found by Inquisitor Camilla and the deadly bounty hunter Boba Fett. After a lossing battle against the two lethal foes, they managed to escape, brining Lock and Bernadetta with them. They felt bad that Lock had lost his buisiness and home, because they brought their troubles right to his door step. And now, the empire would know about them, so they couldn't really open business elswhere.
"Lock... we are so sorry. This is all our fault" Lyn apologized.
Lock sighed and shook his head "I knew the empire would've found us sooner or later. It was never a matter of if, only when. No one can hide from them forever".
"But where do we go now?" Lucina asked.
"Coming out of hyper space now" Severa said as they dropped out of hyper space and saw a large planet, lit red by its central star.
Lucina was almost pulled in by the sight of the planet... and she could sense the dark side was very strong down there. Like the entire planet was forged by the dark side itself. Maybe it was. Lyn had worried eyes when she saw it, making it clear she knew exactly what planet this was.
"Dathomir..." She whispered.
Lucina looked at her "You know this place?".
"I... I have never been here myself... but my master was... she did not have a pleasant experience" Lyn answered.
"I remember, when she came back from this place, she meditated for a whole day, like she was trying to purge herself of the darkness this planet left on her" Lock said, remembering how shaken Ayra was when she returned from Dathomir.
"So what do you know about this place?" Severa asked.
"Only what my master told me. Dathomir, nicknamed the Rancor planet. It's a remote, neutral planet. It has numerous continents that are overrun with vegetation, forests, and swamp lands. The dark side of the Force has an immensely strong presence on Dathomir, which allowed for the nurturing of many malevolent Force wielders native to the planet" Lyn explained.
"What kind of force wielders?" Lucina asked.
"My master didn't give me the details. But she said the women of the planet used the force in a way she had never seen before. Like it wasn't even natural. And they called themselves... the Nightsisters" Lyn answered.
"Is the empire here?" Severa asked.
"No, for some reason Dathomir is often considered to be of limit by the empire. Maybe the darkness and unnatural power makes even the empire think twice about coming here" Lock said.
"Then it's time to land" Severa declared.
"What!? Didn't you hear a word we said?" Lyn asked in shock.
"The only part I cared about is the part where the empire don't like coming here. This could be the only place for us to hide, and I take strange ladies over the empire any day" Severa said as she began heading down to the planet.
"Severa, this planet could drive a jedi master insane" Lyn reminded.
"Then it's a good thing we are not here to stay. We will just hide here until things calms down. Now sit you butt down" Severa ordered.
Lyn sighed in defeat, knowing this was Severa's ship so she was in charge. Soon they landed on the planet after finding a clearing. Lucina headed outside and looked at their surroundings. She could feel the dark side all around her... almost as if it was talking to her. She could tell why Lyn was nervous about being here. This sure wasn't a place Lucina would ever concidder staying at if she had the choice.
"This place is horrifying" Bernadetta said while shaking a little "Do we have to stay here?".
"Just for a little bit. We will leave soon, I promise" Severa assured.
"Not soon enough if you ask me. Every second we spend here, we risk falling to the madness that consumes this whole planet" Lyn said, making no effort to hide her discomfort.
They returned inside the ship and despite their situation, they decided to get some sleep. But during the night Lucina woke up when she heard whispers. She looked around and saw her friends were still in an uneasy sleep and non of them were talking in their sleep. Still Lucina could hear it. It was faint but it was there. She got up and slowly snuck past her sleeping friends and walked outside. She could hear the whispers, and she knew what she was doing would be dangerous, but her stupid curiosity pressured her to explore.
Keeping her light saber close to her hand, Lucina headed out in to the dark unknown terain. She could feel eyes everywhere, likely the wildlife, and Lucina had a feeling the wild life was not very peaceful. Still she kept walking until she heard voices. She hid and peeked out of her cover and was a little surprised by what she saw. Zabraks, she knew about that race. Zabraks were a near-human carnivorous species native to the planet Iridonia. So why was a tribe of them here on Dathomir.
Lucina remained in hiding, she had heard Zabraks are strong warriors, and she wanted to avoid a fight if she could. The Zabraks walked past her hiding place, but thankfully non of them noticed her. She mildly hear what they were talking about, but they did make it sound like a nightsister was in the area. Maybe it would be best for Lucina to head back to the ship, she had pushed her luck far enough. She waited for the Zabraks to leave, and was about to head back.
But she suddenly heard heavy footsteps, followed by a growl. Lucina looked up and saw... a Rancor. A large semi-sentient reptilian carnivores, standing around five meters tall, with their long arms, immense jaws, and armored hides, they were formidable predators. Lucina took a few steps back, reaching for her lightsaber, just incase the large beast decided to attack her. To her surprise the beast didn't attack, which confused her since Rancors do tend to be rather aggressive sometimes. Soon a woman's voice was heard.
"Don't mind him, little girl. He gets a little tense when he meet new people" Lucina looked up and saw a woman with long brown hair standing on the Rancor's head.
"Who are you?" Lucina asked.
"The name is Tharja" The woman said as she made the Rancor lean down enough for her to jump of it "Now what brings a little girl like you to this dark place?".
"I didn't have a choice. The empire was hunting me and this is one of the few planets they don't visit" Lucina answered.
Tharja was silent for a moment before raising her hand, and suddenly Lucina's lightsaber was pulled from her belt and in to Tharja's hand. She turned it on and inspected it for a bit. Lucina was shocked, how did she manage to snatch her lightsaber so easily?
"I see... so you are a jedi. Good thing I was the one who found you. Had the Nightbrothers caught you, they would be cooking you over an fire by now" Tharja said.
"While I prefer to avoid a fight, I believe I could handle them if they attacked me" Lucina said.
Tharja shook her head as she turned of the lightsaber and threw it back to Lucina "I can tell you are crafty. But even a jedi would be hard pressed to defeat an entire tribe of Nightbrothers. Come with me, I will bring you to my home".
"I can't, I need to get back to my friends" Lucina said, before she felt a strong chill down her spine when she heard a roar echoing through the area.
Thraja chuckled "Trust me little girl. You would never make it back to your ship with him out there".
"Him?" Lucina asked before the raor was heard again.
"Let's just say the rancors are not the most dangerous creatures you can meet out here. And it will take more than a little lightsaber to handle him. If he finds you, you die, simple as that" Tharja said before taking Lucina's hand and pulling her on to the rancor.
"What is it?" Lucina demanded.
"I will tell you once it's safe. Even my friend here wouldn't be able to defeat him" Tharja said as she motioned the rancor to head home. The large beast stood up and began to walk away.
Lucina was annoyed but then she noticed something in the distance... she couldn't see clearly but she could tell it was a large beast, easily matching or even surpassing the Rancor in size. She could also see some spikes. She had no idea what that creature was, but even from here she could tell it would be smarter to avoid it. As she was traveling with Tharja, she decided to ask something that had been on her mind.
"Hey Tharja... are you a Nightsister?" Lucina asked.
"Well, I guess yes and no. I wasn't born here, but the Nightsisters did raise me and taught me their ways. Quite the honor, given they rarely if ever allow outsiders to learn their magic. Guess they make an expectation if they find you as a baby" Tharja answered.
"But they use the dark side right? Aren't they evil?" Lucina asked.
Thraja couldn't help but to laugh a little "Oh the typical blindness of jedi. Seeing the galaxy in and he force as black and white. Never even once conciderring that good and evil is not exclusive" to one side of the force. No wonder their order fell, they were so stupid".
"What are you trying to say?" Lucina asked.
"Good and evil all depends on the view point of the individual person. What's great kindness to some could be pure evil to others. We think the Empire are evil, but they don't see themselves that way. To them, we are the villains that needs to be destroyed" Tharja explained.
"Oh... I can kind of see where you are coming from" Lucina admitted.
"That said, I am neither good or evil. I just look after myself" Tharja said.
"Then why are you helping me?" Lucina asked.
"Simple, I think you are cute, and I couldn't let such a cutie die to the great beast" Tharja said with a wink.
Had Severa been here, she would've snapped Tharja's neck for that. Lucina blushed a little "I see, well thank you anyway".
"Oh you can thank me once we get to my home" Tharja said.
"Don't expect a great reward" Lucina said, wanting to make it clear she was not interested.
"We will see little one. We will see" Tharja said with a creepy chuckle.
Maybe Lucina should've tried her luck with the beast after all. Tharja was certainly blunt and made no efforts to hide what she wanted. She was certainly creepy, yet convincing. Lucina wondered what she had gotten herself in to by allowing her curiosity to get the better of her. But there wasn't anything she could do about it now. If she tried to leave, she might not find her way her way back to her ship in time so she had no other choice but to let Tharja help her for now. She had no idea what would happen, or if this strange woman wanted with her, or what she was planing. But there was one thing Lucina knew without a shadow of a doupt.
Severa was going to kill her when they see each other again. Yup, Lucina was fully convinced her life would end by the hands of her angry girlfriend.
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Tell me what you think.
