Luke was shaken out of his healing trance by a pair of firm arms. Blinking both eyes (his swollen eye's condition had improved during his trance), he looked up into Mara Jade's face. Now that was a sight he wouldn't mind waking up to every day...
He gave himself a mental kick. He needed to get his mind off his hormones and onto the problem that was sure to face him as soon as he left the cell. Most of his tormenting pains were gone, and his ankle was feeling better, though it wasn't doing as well as he would have liked. He also still had a few rogue pains that insisted on shooting through his body at random intervals.
Mara Jade spoke and snapped Luke out of his reverie. "Up, farmboy."
She got to her feet and backed up beside Darth Vader, who instructed her, "Leave us."
The Emperor's Hand nodded, and, with a last concerned glance at Luke, she left the room.
The Jedi struggled to his feet, his ankle feeling like it was going to crack in two.
"Follow me," Vader ordered, striding out of the room, the door opening in front of him with a slight hiss.
Luke did as he said, hobbling along behind him. He placed very little weight on his hurt ankle. He had overestimated his healing capabilities.
"What this time?" Luke inquired, throwing a sideways glance at his father.
"You will see," was the only reply he got.
After more hurried limping through seemingly endless corridors, they finally came upon a door that Darth Vader entered.
Luke followed, and after he passed through the doorframe, he stopped and gasped. The room was huge.
Swallowing, he looked up...and up...and up...
If he squinted really hard, he thought he could see the ceiling...But that might just have been the distorted shadows playing tricks with his mind.
Reluctantly, he brought back his gaze to the enormous cage that no doubt contained the inevitable beast whose main thoughts were its next meal. Calling the cage "enormous" didn't even begin to describe its true height.
The cage bars were incredibly thick, and he could practically feel heat from the large amount of electricity that was undoubtedly coursing through it to prevent the creature from escaping and going on a rampage.
Luke's blue eyes tried to pierce through the darkness that hid this particular monster, much like the shadows that had obscured his vision of the other beast, but he couldn't even see the end of the room.
The room was almost as wide as it was long, but, being in the middle of its width, Luke could see at least a fuzzy glimpse of what appeared to be the wall on both sides of him.
Straining his ears, he could hear deep, ragged breathing coming from the far side of the cage.
Darth Vader walked up to the cage, punched in a code, then used the Force to dump Luke inside.
"Remember, if you surrender, the pain will stop."
Even the cruel Dark Lord was a little uneasy about sending the boy into a cage with the ultimate Deh'th'tu'thouw form. But the Emperor had insisted, and as Vader did not have a death-wish, he knew he had best comply.
And so, here he was, standing by as a spectator and hoping against hope that this creature wouldn't finish off his son.
Luke didn't answer Vader, and he didn't even bother trying out the sturdiness of the bars. He was stuck inside until either he or the beast died. There was no other way around it.
But he wasn't about to go looking for it and wake it up, even if he did want to see what it looked like. It probably had a monstrous appetite and would swallow him in one gulp without a second thought.
He contemplated sitting down in a corner, but then he decided he would need freedom of movement if the beast suddenly woke up.
He heard—and felt—a low rumble that shook the floor. He looked down at the metal ground under him insecurely, as if it would cave in at any instant.
A long yawn assaulted Luke's eardrums. Judging from the noise, the beast must have been bigger than he'd imagined.
He could hear a metallic clacking against the floor, and he assumed that it was the Deh'th'tu'thouw stretching its undoubtedly clawed limbs.
It snuffled loudly, and then it was quiet.
After a moment in which Luke's apprehension grew, a screeching howl came from it that chilled Luke's blood. It was a disturbing sound that no creature in the galaxy had a right to make. He noted distantly to himself that the beast's scream probably often froze its prey into place with fear.
As this thought occurred to Luke, he abruptly dove to the side, causing the creature to ram into the cage's bars. It let out a moan of pain as the electricity punished it for its clumsiness.
During the brief lack of attention that it was giving him, Luke managed to get his first good look at it.
It was long-haired, to say the least. Its body basically resembled a big, furry, purple sabercat. It had a bright orange face and a large warped red nose. Its green whiskers jutted out at various angles, giving it an almost comical look...Almost.
It looked like it could have fit an entire squadron of X-wings into its mouth, and its glistening sharp fangs would have had no problem in crushing the metal.
Luke was barely a blip against its pointed claws, and he wasn't about to be taken down by them.
Sith, it must cost a fortune to keep this thing fed...
Unless that was where they sent all the Rebel prisoners that they no longer had any use for...
The thought made him sick.
Throwing all disturbing thoughts to the wind, Luke ran to the far side of the cage as fast as his injured leg would let him go.
The Deh'th'tu'thouw's tail lashed angrily at him, but only the very tip of it hit him. Yet even the glancing blow that the tail gave him was enough to send him flying and smashing into the floor.
His jaw hit the floor hard, and he thought he heard a crack somewhere within. The impact of his body with the ground caused him to bounce up a little, and his nose met the floor.
Carefully testing his jaw, he spat out a piece of tooth that he'd somehow chipped off of one of his canines. Blood from his nose streamed down his face, and he cautiously moved his left arm.
It was broken.
He tested his other body parts and found that his ankle was in a condition much worse than previously, and his right wrist was sprained where he hit it in his fall. Great.
Luke's frustrated observation happened in a manner of seconds, and the beast swiftly got over its initial surprise at being mildly electrocuted and let out a blood-curdling scream.
He'd always thought the Krayt Dragon howl was bad. But it was merely a whisper of annoyance and brought very little fear when it was compared to this.
Trying not to let the beast's loud noise-making get to him, Luke hurried to his merely bruised foot and lightly applied weight to his not-so-lucky leg.
He hissed in pain and wiped some of the blood off of his face with his right arm. His left arm dangled uselessly at his side.
Move now! his subconscious warned him.
He complied and sprang forward, rolling to the side.
Get a grip on yourself. Curiosity killed the sabercat you know...Try to stop its heartbeat! part of Luke's mind instructed him.
And we all know how well that worked out last time, now don't we? another side sneered.
While his inner voices fought, he continued his attempts to dodge the Deh'th'tu'thouw that was now leaping right towards him. For all his effort and forced agony, he was still given a very long and deep gash along his midsection.
Crying out in pain, he fell to the ground, holding his side. Moaning, he looked down...and immediately wished he hadn't.
Blood was seeping from his middle down his legs like a scarlet river. He thought he could actually see at least three of his ribs—though his imagination was probably making it a lot worse than it actually was—and when he glanced at the floor he could have sworn he saw a few chunks of his own skin.
Seeing the condition that his body was in made him hurt even more, and he wrenched his eyes shut in pain.
He needed to kill the beast now...Before it killed him.
Wondering why he hadn't tried it earlier instead of waiting to catch a glimpse of the creature, he reached out to the Force and tried to concentrate on finding his heart.
Well...He found it...But there was a slight problem...
The creature had three krething hearts!
Luke groaned. Just another problem to add to his constantly growing list.
It had three stomachs, too...
Forget about which part of its digestive system you're going to end up going to and move your lazy butt out of its way before it stomps you flatter than an unarmed slaver on Kashyyyk!
Luke mentally berated himself for not killing the thing while it was still asleep, and he tried to roll away from it.
A wise green alien had once said: "Do or do not, there is not try." In this case, there certainly wasn't a try.
His attempt at escape failed, and the Deh'th'tu'thouw scooped him up in a clawed paw. It licked its jowls hungrily and gave him a toothy, taunting grin.
The groaning Jedi tried to struggle, but he was held as tight between the beast's paws as a bug would be in a wampa's hands. If there were a type of bug that could actually survive on Hoth...
The feline-like creature flexed its paw, squeezing terribly tight against Luke's ribcage. Now, he had at least two cracked ribs.
A dozen plans flashed through Luke's mind...all of them useless.
Darth Vader was unable to see what was happening, as they were far into the shadows and out of his line of vision, but he was able to use the Force to give him a partial picture.
What he could discern from it was not good.
Kreth! he cursed. I knew I should have refused to let the Emperor subject my son to this...
He could only hope that his boy was as strong as Palpatine thought he was...
Strength was something Luke definitely wished he had an incredible amount of, but anything he could do to the furry creature would just be a minor annoyance to it.
It was bringing its arm up to its gaping jaw, and Luke got a clear view of a huge cavern of teeth. Saying a silent prayer, he tried digging his nails into its pawpad, but the creature merely made an inquisitive purrl and continued its paw's ascent towards its open mouth.
What a way to go out, Luke thought. Luke Skywalker, slayer of rancors, survivor of wampa and dianoga attacks, eaten by an overgrown pussycat.
The last thing he saw was the Deh'th'tu'thouw's saliva slickened fangs.
And then it all went black.