Quest
Death. Pain. Tears. Go back . . . go back, child. To run is to live, to flee is to thrive. Don't go any further. You have brought them far enough. They will die. You can live. Go. A windless voice screamed these words in his head and Jar Jar moaned softly, his body trying to twist away from tearing, seeking claws. There was no escape. A hand closed around his throat, forcing him to gasp for air. He looked up. A corpse bent over him, hands locked around his throat, and rotted face distorting and twisting while the world spun in circles.
With a cry of terror, Jar Jar struggled even harder than before to get away from the dream. Hands were on him and cool water suddenly broke through the heat of fear. His eyes snapped open and met Alexis' blue-grey irises.
Wordlessly, she held him and whispered to him soothingly until his trembling had subsided. It wasn't the first time he'd been having these nightmares. They had started ever since Kad's running off three days ago. He hadn't come back to claim or steal equipment. Hali wondered, but was accepting of the possibility that Kad had decided the Dmonai wasn't worth the trouble after all. Jar Jar had not been sorry to see him go, except for the nightmares that had taken Kad's place at the core of the Gungan's fears.
"You allright?" Alexis asked, after the Gungan had shakily taken a few sips from the canteen.
"Fine. Bad dreamin, dat's all."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Her hand was on his arm. She was so compassionate. Jar Jar couldn't bear to think how danger ahead might result in her death. Go back, please, he almost begged her.
"No," he said, determined not to be afraid. Maybe his dreams weren't omens. Maybe he was just being a coward. He managed a grin. "Member wat my spake about dat ova-active imaginay-tion? Dat's all 'tis."
"If you're sure of it, then I am. I'll be right beside you, Jar Jar. No worries." Alexis laid down on her side and pulled her blanket up to her shoulders. O3T, off in the distance, stated that it was three hours until sunrise and that all was well. From underneath the blanket, Alexis told O3T, rather primly, that it could be three hours to kaadu-mating season for all she cared and to shut the hell up. Jar Jar couldn't help a fond smile.
"No worries, Lexi, sur."
It was a long time before Jar Jar could sleep again, and while he waited, it was all he could do to keep from worrying.
"Wesa here."
Jar Jar surveyed the foilage-shaded path before them. It was almost dusk and now they stood before the border to the heart of the Keyla swamps. As he remembered, he saw the bleached skulls of small animals littered amidst nests of vines. The sinking sun's rays lit upon the rusted and gleaming portions of ancient spears of Gungan warfare.
He swallowed uneasily. Whoever had set these traps had not been vying to catch small animals. They'd been trying to kill intruders. The bones were only here as warning, not because the area was neglected. He wondered what unsprung traps waited ahead.
"Well . . . are we going?" asked Alexis, gently.
"Yes . . . jus, ah , gimme a minute. Yousa all gotta kno da danger dat lay ahead o' us. Any false steps an . . ." Jar Jar drew a line across his neck to make a point.
"What was your suggestion about sending somebody ahead to cut a clear path?" mused Hali.
"No no. Notta goot idea. Dat sombotty die, mebbe."
"Who says it has to be somebody?" Alexis nodded towards O3T who was busy rattling off the scientific names for surrounding plant forms. Everyone else looked at O3T. O3T stopped right in the middle of analyzing a blumbush and stared at everyone else.
"I think we've just found a good reason for bringing you along," Alexis informed the droid.
O3T gave a nervous whistle as he started wheeling forward. Ten paces behind him followed Jar Jar, Alexis, Hali, and Mik. They had left the kaadus and camping equipment with Li and Don. The kaadus would've been impossible to take along since they were carrying so much. With all the possible traps and sinkholes ahead, it was almost certain one of them would be injured or killed.
Hali, Alexis and Mik carried some necessary field equipment which wasn't too heavy since they knew they needed to travel lightly through such dangerous grounds. Jar Jar carried a few things as well and mainly kept his attention on the droid, looking for anything it's wheels might uncover as it brushed aside leaves and twigs.
As the hours passed, O3T sprung leg-clamps with wicked-looking metal teeth that otherwise might've been unseen. Once the droid fell into a pit and they had to pull it out, all the while listening to its wheedling and frantic beeps when its hold on the rope began to slip. Jar Jar had peered down into the pit and had been horrified to report the sight of pikes lining the bottom and sides of the pit wall. If O3T had been a person instead of a droid, the act of pulling him up would've torn him to ribbons. To prove a point, even though it was metal, there were deep gouges in O3T's coverpaint.
"Oh great, he'll never let us hear the end of this," muttered Lexi, trying to lighten the mood. One look into her eyes and Jar Jar could tell she was as nervous as he was.
As they pressed on through the swamps, Jar Jar's eyes darted from treetop to treetop and from sky to concealing shrubbery. His eyes never stayed in one place. It seemed that he was looking not only for traps, but for unseen attackers.
Alexis could feel the tension rising like heat from the Gungan's body. She moved up beside him and linked her arm with his in her usual gesture of comradreship. His golden eyes flickered in her direction and her heart constricted when she saw the extent of his fear. It was fear that she saw, but not for himself alone.
Alexis didn't know how she knew, but at that very odd moment, she had no doubt that Jar Jar vaulued her life as much or possibly more than his own. No-one had ever looked at her like that before in all her life; not her father - not any man she had ever known except perhaps her mother, although she couldn't remember.
She opened her mouth to say something - anything - to relieve the haunting fright in his eyes, when suddenly, his fears were proven to be well accounted for.
O3T screamed an alarm before he was knocked out of the way like a twig by the giant rotting log that looked was strung on thick rope. Swinging toward them like the pendulum of a doomsday clock, the juggernaut was jagged at the approaching end and had once been the trunk of a zaela tree as thick as one of the palace towers in Theed.
Jar Jar flung Hali and Alexis to the ground and lay flat between them, his arm over Alexis to ensure that she would keep down. Behind them, Mik cursed and also flung himself to the ground. The log passed over them, the ropes audibly straining with the weight of holding up the swinging obstacle. Beside her, Alexis heard Jar Jar whimper and then scream. The log went as far as the ropes would allow it to go, then began to swing back.
As soon as it had completely passed over their heads, Hali grabbed his blaster and aimed for the ropes. The third and fourth shot cut through their marks and the log went sailing backwards with the momentum of its swing, crashing through ferns, zaela saplings, and undergrowth, stirring up small animals which raced away panicked disorder, shrieking in alarm.
Jar Jar grit his teeth and brought his legs underneath him. Alexis saw his arm - the same one thrown over her shoulders to shield her - bloodied and embedded with splintered wood. The log's jagged end had gotten him pretty badly. Alexis wanted to cry, but instead she reached for Jar Jar's arm to see what she could do. Mik came up beside her with a medical kit.
"He'll be allright, as soon as we get him cleaned up. No bones appear to be broken, but there's a chance he may have dislocated his shoulder." Mik pulled the fabric away from the Gungan's shoulder and gently touched it. Jar Jar made no sound of pain. He applied more pressure, and felt around, searching for any signs of dislocation or fracture. "Well, it appears he's alright, except for his arm. Now for these splinters. It's going to take some time getting the smaller ones out - they're imbedded completely."
Jar Jar squeezed his eyes shut as they set to work. Alexis reached out and gave his haillu a stroke. "It'll be okay," she assured him.
"No." Jar Jar shook his head, looking almost angry. "Yousa coulda been dead. My shoudn' have taken yousa here. Wat if da Temple doesn' exist? Wesa all dyin for nuttin."
Alexis blinked, surprised.
"An my not leavin dis swamp without all o yous bahind mesa. Les go back."
"No," Hali's voice rang out.
"But-" Jar Jar started.
"No," Hali repeated, his voice edged with steel. "We are going ahead. With or without you. But we are not going back without that technology. Kad was after something there. Something that we can take back with us and if its the source of the Keyla's technology, perhaps it can benefit polluted worlds. He called it the Dmonai."
"De only ting dat is out der is death an blood. Dis 'Damoni' ting, tis worth dyin for? Tis worth Lexi o Mik o mesa dyin for?" Jar Jar argued.
Hali sighed. "It is there choice as always, if they want to follow me into this danger, just like it was your choice. Did you make the wrong decision, Jar Jar? If you did, then turn back. But don't ask me to follow you away from something that could save lives and change the world for better."
Jar Jar shook his head. "Yousa havin a noble raison, but dat raison sur not gonna jus-tafy wat's gonna happin ta us or yousan if wesa keep walkin on into dese traps. Mebbe nex time, wesa nut gonna be so lucky."
"I'm well aware of the risks. It's getting dark. We'll continue on after your wounds are treated, then break camp. Is that allright with everyone?" Hali asked, looking meaningfully at Jar Jar. The Gungan sighed, but made no protest and wallowed silently in misery as Alexis and Mik worked on his arm. "I'm going to see if I can find O3T. He's probably either shut down or most predictably, wheeling out of this place as fast as he can go. I'll be back in less than a half-hour. I won't go far." Hali strode off and was lost to sight in the shadows.
"Ten minutes until morning. Ten minutes until sunset. Ten minutes until three seconds until five hours until six days until seven weeks--"
"Shut down."
O3T rattled and then obeyed Hali's order. Hali sighed. "I don't think he's going to be of much use to us any longer. The blow severly disrupted his rational configuration. All his wiring is completely shot to hell. We may have to leave him here."
Alexis rested her head on her knees as she looked over O3T's dented, mud-covered form. "I never in a million years thought I'd be saying this, but I feel sorry for the annoying little booger."
"Mesa too. If wesa leave his out heres, hesa mebbe get stolen or crunched or sometin."
"Well, if you want to carry him till we get to the Temple, that's okay with me." said Mik, returning with fresh water. He handed one of the canteens to Alexis who took a sip, then passed it to Jar Jar.
"On secon thot, no. Mebbe hesa betta off heresa. I wonda how wesa gonna get past all da traps."
"We'll just have to be extra careful," said Hali. "Are you sure you're going to stay with us, Jar Jar?"
"Yes. My sowwy about bafore--" Jar Jar began. Hali held up a hand.
"Don't aplogize. It's allright. I appreciate your concern for us. We should continue on now. Let's get a few more hours of travel done while there is still some light in the sky."
They gathered up their gear and set off, walking further on into the dregs of the swamp. O3T's figure leaned forlorn and inanimate against a zaela tree, growing smaller and smaller in the distance until it was out of sight completely. Mist swirled around their feet, hiding any signs of their passage, and any signs of hidden traps. Jar Jar did not like it one bit. Now they were trusting fate alone to guide their steps.
"Lexi . . . mesa not liken dis, one bit."
"Neither do I," she confided. "But we've come this far. Maybe we'll make it through this just fine."
There was a whir of ropes and rustling in the leafy branches overhead. Hali and the others looked up sharply as a dark something descended fast upon them. It stopped with a jerk as the rope reached its limit. Alexis shuddered in revulsion as her lantern light swept across the bloated features of Kad's corpse. Kad swung to and fro as if in a light breeze. Mik swallowed, then staggered away, sick. Jar Jar turned away, refusing to look at the bloody thing hanging by its feet just ten inches away from him. He saw Alexis' shoulders beginning to shake and went over to her. She choked back a sob and buried her face in his chest.
"Shh, Lexi . . . " Unsure what to do, Jar Jar gave her a hug. His body was stiff with fear and he looked off into the distance behind them.It could have been her. She could have walked into that trap and she could be dead and swinging there right now. Gods . . . what if . . .
With a calmness he did not know he possessed, Hali reached out and stopped the corpse from swinging.