Dark Shadows

Nelkf had to shut her eyes as the dusty wind whipped into her face. Bits of sand stung her cheeks and bit into her lips. She licked out her tongue and tasted blood. That wasn't a good sign. "How far is it to Anchorhead?"

"Too far," Jax replied.

"Then where are we going?"

Jax nodded towards Cail's swoop. "Don't ask me. Talk to that genius."

Nelkf considered it, but as she was about to say something, Cail called out. "There it is! The Not-so Great Pit of Carkoon. Get ready to jump on the count of three."

Nelkf looked ahead of them at what she had thought was a trick of the suns on the sand. At a second glance, it proved to be a gaping pit yawning in the desert. Suddenly, Nelkf realized that there was just one thing wrong with Cail's plan. "Guys, I can't…"

"One..." Cail began.

Nelkf tried to tell them. "Cail, no, I don't-"

"Two.." he cut her off. The mouth of the pit was very close now, wide and ready for them to slip in.

"Guys, no!" she shrieked.

"Three!" Cail hollered. "Jump ship!"

Nelkf felt Jax grab her wrist and yank her off the swoop as he jumped. She fell into the sands along side him, and instinctively dug down just enough to be out of sight.

Nelkf heard a muffled explosion as the two swoops tumbled into the pit. Voices hollered out orders, and she was able to pick up enough to know that the goons thought they were now dead. Apparently, they hadn't seen Jax or Cail bail off of their swoops, or her be pulled along. So, she concluded, those two must have had enough intelligence to hide under the sand too.

A few moments later, the voices subsided and Nelkf could hear the speeders move away. Brushing the sand first from her face and eyes, she sat up and looked around her. Jax and Cail were doing likewise.

"We were lucky that time," Jax observed. "I hope they don't show up again. I've just about had it with these stupid Imps chasing us halfway across the Galaxy."

Nelkf sighed. Jax really didn't know the half of it. Glancing around her, she saw some dark clouds forming around the horizon. The speeders had gone in the opposite direction. She was able to tell that that meant something, but Sklinths were not long-term thinkers and she couldn't tell what.

Apparently Cail saw the clouds too. "Uh-oh. Sandstorms."

"Great, Cail," muttered Jax. "You had to get us stranded out here in the Dune Sea with no way back right before a sandstorm."

Cail shrugged. "Guess I didn't think of that."

"You're never thinking," Nelkf snapped, "are you?"

Cail grinned sheepishly and shrugged. Nelkf found herself debating whether or not to kill him.

Jax seemed to notice her tensing for a killing jump, and put his hand on her shoulder. Nelkf immediately calmed herself down, but didn't seem too happy about it. Jax suddenly got an idea. Well, more of a thought on an idea, really. "Hey Cail," he began, "you wouldn't've made us jump into the sand in the middle of nowhere without an idea of where we would go later, right?"

"Huh?" Cail blinked a moment, then snapped his fingers. "Oh, yeah!" he exclaimed with a laugh, "I forgot! There's caves around here."

Nelkf looked puzzled. "Caves?" she said, beginning to doubt Cail's sanity. "In the sand?"

"There aren't any caves around here," Jax pointed out. "If there are, the sandstorms collapse them by the time you get to them."

Cail shook his head. "No, you don't understand. What crashed around here about thirteen years ago?"

"The sail barge?" Nelkf yelped in surprise. "Jabba's sail barge?" Everyone and anyone knew what had befallen the Hutt crimelord, and who had been the cause of it.

Jax, too, was equally amazed. He shook his head in disbelief. "No way. The Jawas would've snapped up all the scraps in an instant."

Cail again shrugged. "I don't know what happened," he said coolly. "I wasn't even old enough to care that it happened, but the Jawas didn't take much. Maybe they were scared off, but the wreck is still here."

"How do you know?"

He laughed. "I just came across it accidentally. Actually, I sort of fell across it. Literally."

Nelkf glanced around herself again. Nothing but sand as far as she could see. Sand, and the nearing storm clouds. "I don't see it."

Cail rolled his eyes. "Well, that's because it's under the sand. You have to look for it."

Jax stood up and brushed the sand off his shirt. "Come on, Nel. Let's start looking."

"Hey, be careful guys," Cail advised, "The openings are hidden."

Nelkf shook her head. Careful wasn't something she was good at. She wondered exactly why Sklinths were so terrible at thinking for long periods of time. It was quite annoying, it made her race seem stupid. But they were far from that! Well, Nelkf would learn to overcome that setback. She had overcome her race's shortcomings before. It might take a while, but she would learn how to think for long periods of time by herself.

What annoyed her most was that no matter how hard she tried, Basic mathematics were just abstract to her. She couldn't solve Basic math problems-even the easiest ones. Even more humiliating, she could not learn the numbers in the Basic language. Why did Cail have to start a countdown to the jump? I was almost a spot on the bottom of that pit. If Jax weren't there to save me....

Suddenly, the ground gave way under Nelkf's feet and she found herself tumbling downward under the sand. She could hear Jax's voice calling her name as the darkness surrounded her.