Dark Shadows

Nelkf hit the floor of the cave on her side and had to blink a few times before her blood started to circulate again. The eerie green light from her eyes filled the cavern around her, and she could see metal girders arching to the surface. Surprisingly, the surface was not as far away as the fall had made it feel. Jax's face peered down at her through the opening in the sand.

"Nelkf, are you okay?" he asked.

Nelkf nodded, not sure if he could see her in the dark, but sure he could see her glowing green eyes. "Yeah, I think so."

Cail's head, too, was soon glancing down at her. "Hi, Nel," he called, "guess what?"

I'm not in a mood to play guessing games. She thought angrily. "What?" she growled, anger residing on the edge of her voice.

"You found the caves."

She frowned in disgust. "Thank you for that observation, Cail. Now will you please get me out of here?"

"Hold on a minute," Jax told her. Soon he was out of view. Nelkf leaned against the cavern walls. Yeah, where am I going to go anyway, Jax?

A minute later Cail threw something down to her. She caught it in her hands, but could not for the life of her figure out what it was. In any case, it was far too small to help her out. She threw it to the floor angrily and snarled up at him. "Stop throwing junk at me and give me a hand, you dip!"

A moment later, Cail was climbing down the girders into the cave with her. "It's not junk," he told her, "it's my luma, and we'll need it. So don't throw it across the cave. We've got to stay here for a bit."

"Where did Jax go?" she demanded.

"He's coming," Cail assured her, picking up his luma from the cave floor. "He dropped his luma in the sand, he needs to find it."

Nelkf sniffed. "Good luck," she muttered. All the dunes looked alike, and the sand was so powdery that it would've covered anything left there in a matter of seconds. Anyway, Jax couldn't stay out that long with a sandstorm on the way.

As Nelkf suspected, a moment later Jax climbed down into the caves too. "The sandstorm's getting closer," he told them. "We'll have to stay here until It blows over."

"That's fine with me," Cail said cheerfully. "I like the caves."

"I'd like It better if I could see," commented Jax. Obviously he hadn't been able to find his luma. Nelkf had figured that.

"Not a problem," Cail switched on his luma and flicked it on and off in Jax's eyes. "See?" He waved the luma around, making sure his friend was completely annoyed with him. Nelkf snickered at Jax's expense.

Jax swatted at the light, knocking it to the ground. "I would 'see' if you didn't make me see spots."

Cail grinned. "Well, now you're seeing red."

"I see you spattered on the dark side of a canyon wall is what I see," Jax said, balling a fist and looking like he was going to hit Cail.

"Guys, stop being stupid!" Nelkf snapped. "We're still in the same amount of trouble as we were before."

Cail looked puzzled. "Who's acting?" Cail wanted to know.

Jax ignored Cail and turned his attention to Nelkf. "What do you mean, Nel?" he asked.

"I mean," Nelkf said, gesturing around them, "this place will keep us safe from the sandstorm, but what about after that? The way we came in'll be all covered up. And even if we dig our way out, we'll never make it across the desert. I may not live here, but I do know that if the heat and dehydration don't get to you, the Sand People will."

"We're not in trouble," Cail said with a shrug.

Nelkf stared at him in disbelief. "What? Not in trouble?"

Jax was equally confused. "What are you talking about, Cail?"

"I don't know about getting out of the caves after the storm, but I've got a speeder stashed in here," he explained. "it could use some fixing up though, I wouldn't know that I'd trust it to get us out of here now."

Nelkf nodded in approval. "Not bad for a glitbiter," she muttered.

Cail narrowed his eyes at her. "I'll ignore that remark, thanks."

"How bad is the speeder?" Jax asked, interrupting the forming argument.

Cail gave him a totally blank look. "I have no idea. It looks battered, but that might just be the outside."

"I guess I need to see it," Jax decided, "but I think I can fix it up. If it's not too bad. Where is it?"

Cail shrugged. "I don't really remember," he said slowly, "but I know it's in the lower caves."

Nelkf walked to one of the many tunnels leading in to the lower caves and shook her head. There were so many, how could they ever hope to find the one that held the speeder?

A noise suddenly alerted Nelkf. It was some sort of hissing sound, perhaps mechanical, perhaps not. It was not like anything she had ever heard before. Maybe it was a sound that was common on Tatooine, but she knew that just the same, she should alert Jax and Cail to the sound. She whistled to them and they both turned around. "Guys, do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Jax asked her.

"That dripping sound of your brain draining through the hole in your head," Cail said jokingly.

"We don't hear anything, Nel," Jax finished, ignoring Cail's interruption.

Nelkf raised a finger to her lips in a signal for silence. "Listen," she said softly.

Jax and Cail listened, and sure enough, they could hear the hissing, humming sound from deep in the caves. Jax shook his head. "What is that?"

Cail shrugged hopefully. "The wind, maybe?"

Nelkf shook her head at him. "The wind howls, not hums, Cail."

Jax shrugged. "Maybe it's a sleeping bantha," he suggested.

"Or a kryt dragon."

The trio shuddered at the thought. A kryt dragon would have them all for breakfast, lunch and dinner if that was indeed what was dwelling in the cave. Nelkf looked up at the ceiling, wishing she could see the sun god. Hey, Necho, you listening? I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, and I hate you. She glanced down at the gash on her hand that was now clogged with the desert's grit. Licking out her tongue, she cleaned the wound, spitting the blood and sand out on the cave floor. I guess I should get that covered soon or it'll get infected, she decided. That would be the smart thing to do. But then again, who said Sklinths were smart?

Cail slipped his blaster out of his pocket and switched it to 'kill'. "Well, I guess the only way we'll find out what it is is to go down there and see."

Jax, too, set his blaster off safety. Nodding seriously, he said; "Yeah, I guess you're right. We won't be able to find the speeder if we don't go looking."

Nelkf blinked in surprise. What, are these two related? Do they both share the same lack of common sense? It was true. Jax and Cail both seemed to share the dame total (and sometimes dangerous) capriciousness. If anyone was going to keep them from marching head-on into their doom, it was going to wind up being her. "No, guys. We could get some better weapons and explore the caves then," But the two were already sneaking into the darkness despite Nelkf's urging not to. She tried to plead with them. They were the only people she could really trust at this point as friends, and she didn't want them to be eaten alive! Who would? "Come on! Live a long life! Please?"

But Jax was already gone, and the last bit of Cail's luma was just disappearing. Nelkf sighed and stared off in the direction they had taken. "Well, I'm not following you," she said stubbornly. Nelkf stood there only a moment more, then sighed in disgust at her own weakness and ran off down the tunnel after her friends.