Was it the sound of the harshly screeching voices that had caused Anakin to run, or had the fall of many feet on cold stone alerted him to the peril long before that? Perhaps even he did not know. He had been warned, however, regardless of the means, and was running his hardest down a labyrinth of corridors with which he was entirely unfamiliar.
The floor of the hall sloped mildly down, but it ran for so long, around twists and turns and under interior balconies and stone bridges connecting upper passages, that Anakin realized that he must be quite deep under the palace grounds indeed. And, inexplicably, his pursuers seemed to be gaining on him; at any rate, their movements became louder and louder.
He came into an area where the smooth stone and marble that had made up the walls and floor disappeared and were replaced with rough black stone veined with red. There were no blocks or seams; it had evidently been excavated directly from the planet's interior. The ceiling was still quite high, though there were no longer any balconies. The hall seemed to spread into the darkness beyond, as if it expanded into a cavern.
As he passed over the threshold separating the two parts of the palace, Anakin froze. He cocked an ear, but his observation had been correct. There was no longer either sound or sign of his pursuers.
As Anakin peered into the gloom of the hewn stone cave, reluctance and dread seemed to overtake him. He weighed his options for a long moment, standing perfectly still in the oppressively dead air, but finally prudence won out and he elected to retreat.
Slowly, scarcely daring to breathe, he turned around.
The marble hall was nowhere to be seen. All that lay before him was a rough stone wall.
He shivered, horrified, and turned back around and peered into the inky blackness beyond. The hair on the back of his neck prickled. Straining his eyes against the murk, he seemed to see two large eyes peering back at him.
Suppressing his fear by sheer strength of will, Anakin slowly, softly, stealthily made his way forward, into the shadows of the deep darkness beyond. He though he saw some great shape in the looming menacingly from the blackness, but it could merely have been his fear and the complete absence of light joining forces against him.
As Anakin edged along the wall, he felt a sudden whistling of air and then a burst of fiery pain as something tore through his left arm, leaving a gaping, bleeding hole. He cried out in pain.
Throwing his hands up to shield his face, Anakin channeled the Force through his palm so that light shone from his open hand, making the cavern dimly visible. A monstrous creature towered above him, snorting angrily, blinking in annoyance from the sudden light.
At first glance, Anakin thought it was a Reek. As it swung its powerful jaws down toward him, it reminded him of a Rancor. But as four hands with double rows of claws descended upon him, he realized that it was neither.
He dove out of the way and rolled, wincing as his bleeding arm scraped against the ground, barely escaping the creature's vicious slash. Its head snapped around to face him... And then another head, jaws dripping with slimy drool, followed. The monster rose slightly and Anakin could see that four muscular legs complemented the four powerful arms.
Anakin turned and ran as hard as he could. The creature leapt to its eight limbs and went bounding after the Jedi, closing the distance between them rapidly with each pounding stride. The cavern floor shook, hurling Anakin into the air, as all its arms and legs came down together.
As Anakin scrambled to his feet, rocks began to cascade from the walls and ceiling, set loose by the creature's powerful impacts. Anakin cursed and dodged a great falling boulder twice his size, barely avoiding it in time. And then the creature was upon him.
It swung one of its mighty arms, sending him crashing, dazed, against a wall. Leaping over to him, it swung its heads toward him and slowly lowered them, sniffing at him with twin sets of nostrils. Its right jaws opened, revealing a row of razor-sharp teeth. And then a second mouth opened inside the first.
Anakin screamed in horror, and then in pain as hundreds of sharp teeth pierced his flesh and swung him into the air.
