Chapter 14

The sleepy haze engulfing Luke began to recede allowing reality to come crashing back in. Mara's voice drifted into his ears, and he dimly realized that she was talking softly to someone. Slowly he cracked open his eyes. The light stung him at first, but his pupils adjusted. He was surprised to see Annaïse sitting with Mara at the entrance of the hollowed tree. He noted the fire and the blankets and guessed who had brought them. The muscles throughout his body were stiff and sore from the exertions of the previous night, causing him to groan as he sat up.

Mara looked up at him with a worried frown. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I just went ten rounds with an angry Wookiee," he ruefully joked, but the circles under his eyes and the lines in his face betrayed how exhausted he still was. He tenderly rubbed the bruise on his jaw and added, "Actually, that's probably not far from the truth."

A barrage of emotions flashed at him from Mara, but she threw up her barriers before he could analyze them. Events from the previous evening gradually came back to him, and he wondered how much Mara had seen. He pushed those thoughts aside. He couldn't deal with that at the moment. First, they needed to regroup, then worry about the possible ramifications of who he'd seen.

"Thank you for the fire and blankets," Luke said turning to Annaïse. "But how did you find us?"

"She guessed," Mara interrupted. "She brought us some food, too."

Mara crawled over to Luke with a piece of bread. Though she tried to be careful, she couldn't help but knock her ankle around. She clenched her teeth against the pain, but Luke wasn't fooled.

"You're hurt!" he exclaimed. Despite his own screaming muscles, he moved over to her. "Let me look at it."

"I'm fine," she insisted. "I probably just sprained my ankle."

She began to crawl back over to the fire, but Luke placed a firm hand on her leg.

"Keep still," he commanded.

Mara complied, she had no choice. Luke reached over and pulled her foot gently toward him. His face was grim as he inspected the swollen ankle and crusted blood on the bottom of her feet. Cuts of all sizes criss-crossed down her legs and arms. He tried to hide the wave of guilt that swept over him. She was hurt because of him, because she saved his life.

He poked at a spot above her ankle bone. "Does this hurt?"

"Well, it doesn't feel spectacular," she retorted tartly. "But it's manageable."

"This?" he asked poking another spot.

"Fine, now are you-OW!" she cried and glared at him.

"I think you might have fractured it."

"You think?" she spat trying to control the shooting pains in her ankle.

"I forgot what you're like without your caf in the morning," Luke grunted. "I'm not exactly a healer, but I think I can speed up the healing process with the Force."

Mara slouched against the tree wall. "Go right ahead, Dr. Skywalker," she said with a wave of her hand.

She watched as his eyes closed and his hand ran up and down her lower leg barely even touching the skin. Immediately some of the pain began to ebb.

"You'll be all right. I've sped up your body's ability to heal, but you will have to stay off of it for at least a day."

"Yeah, right. I don't expect to stay in Ugly Tree Hotel another night. We'll just have to find a way to put a splint on it and hobble out of here."

Luke gave her a dubious look, but let it go. Instead he took up the piece of bread she had offered to him and bit into it ravenously.

"Do you even have a stomach left after last night?" Mara snorted. "I thought I saw you leave it behind a few trees."

Luke reddened. "Yeah, um, thank you - again. You always seem to be getting me out of trouble."

She gave him a small smile before turning to Annaïse, who had been silently watching the exchange. "So how about those clothes?"

"You might want to wash before you change," Annaïse suggested passing her a backpack that looked much too big for her shoulders. "There's a small stream less than a kilometer from here."

Mara made a face. "Great, more water. What I wouldn't give for a nice, dry sonic shower." Well, at least I'll be clean, she thought.

"At least you'll be clean," Annaïse echoed.

Luke caught Mara looking at her sharply. He had heard Mara's thought too and wondered if the girl was Force-sensitive. It would explain how she found them so easily. He stretched out tentatively with the Force. He brushed something within her, but it was unlike anything he had felt before with the students at the Jedi Academy. What he felt was more like a distortion of the Force. He shrugged it off. Perhaps Annaïse was just not very powerful, or he maybe was still feeling the after effects of the spice.

Mara dug around in the pack and pulled out a pair of black boots. Grunting and biting her lips against the pain, she pulled one boot onto her foot, the other foot still too swollen to fit inside the other. She struggled to her feet, slung the pack over her shoulders and limped two steps before sagging against the wall. Luke shook his head half in exasperation and half in admiration. He summoned his own strength, took the pack from her and wrapped her arm over his shoulder.

"You helped me last night," he said firmly before she could object. "Now let me help you."

"You couldn't support a baby nerf, Farmboy," she argued. "You're still too weak."

"I'll manage." Luke was surprised that she didn't offer any other arguments.

"Follow me," Annaïse said. "I'll show you the way."

Slowly, they climbed up the small rise onto the broken road. The sun was still low in the sky, and it's rays reflected off the wet leaves making the forest seem to glitter. The storm had left the forest feeling clean and new, and the birds could be heard singing from their nests high in the trees. The air still held its morning crispness, but the sun was rapidly warming the fugitives.

A short way down the road, they came upon an ancient village that had degenerated to mostly rubble. A few of the buildings remained standing, but their roofs were missing entire sections and the walls were badly damaged. The road ended at the foot a large mound. Broken steps led up to what looked like a temple, a dome halved open and chipping at the edges.

"Do you know who used to live here?" Luke asked.

Annaïse shrugged. "No one really knows. Some of the natives that Guru captured sometimes speak of a lost tribe of witches and sorcerers. They say they practiced black magic and defied the gods. The gods became angry and destroyed the village."

Luke was fascinated. He wondered if maybe they had been Force-sensitives. Many primitive peoples had mistaken the Force for a type of witchcraft in the past.

"Do think there were witches here?" Luke asked.

"Perhaps, but there are many abandoned ruins on the island," Annaïse replied. "These people may have been attacked by another tribe, or disease or natural disaster."

"I hate to interrupt the archeology lesson," Mara interrupted, "but we should get cleaned up and get a move on. We don't know how long until Guru's men catch up with us."

Luke nodded his agreement, and Annaïse showed them down a small, muddy trail between two huts that led to the creek.

"Just give me a yell through the Force, and I'll come help you back up the trail," he said helping Mara onto a large rock on the bank..

"I don't need a human crutch," Mara retorted testily.

Luke simply shook his head. It was pointless to argue with her, so he turned to Annaïse. "When she's ready, come get me."

The girl nodded and smiled.

"I don't need a babysitter, Skywalker," Mara growled.

"No, but we need you at 100% if we are going to defeat Guru and Ca - catch the dark Jedi." Luke caught himself in time, and he hoped Mara didn't notice his slight stammer. He would have to tell Mara eventually about seeing Callista, but he just wasn't ready to talk to her about it yet.

"I'll go wash up downstream," he informed her. He pulled his clothes out of the backpack and he wandered off.

Mara placed her bundle on a dry rock and peeled the remains of her outfit gently from her body. She couldn't be happier to get rid of it. The creek was narrower and shallower than the river from the night before. A cluster of rocks trapped the cold water in a small pool. Mara lowered herself into the makeshift bathtub and gasped as the cold water made her skin prickle and her nipples tighten uncomfortably. She willed her body to get used to the cold and reclined against a smooth rock. She washed away the mud and make-up, wincing as her hands grazed her cuts. Feeling a pair of violet eyes on her, she began to feel self-conscious and glanced over at Annaïse, who was quietly sitting on a rock and staring at her.

"What are you looking at?" she inquired a bit more sharply than she intended.

Annaïse seemed unfazed by her tone. "Your cuts. They may get infected."

"Yeah, well, I'll put some bacta patches on them when I get back to my ship."

Annaïse hopped off the rock and disappeared in the trees.

Mara was never sure what to make of this new friend. She was a mystery, this one. Sometimes she seemed like a small child, with a child's fears, thoughts and dreams. At other times she seemed as wise as an old woman with an entire lifetime behind her. They really didn't know much about her, and any attempts to dig into her past had resulted in a quick change of subject. Mystery or not, this girl had helped Luke and her twice now, and Mara felt indebted to her for that.

Annaïse emerged a few minutes later with a hand full of thick leaves. Mara had finished her bath and was sitting on a rock pulling a clean pair of pants and a tank top from the backpack.

"Let me see your cuts," Annaïse ordered.

Mara frowned at her. She was tired of everyone treating her like an invalid. But she held her tongue and complied.

"This will help them heal quicker and fight off infection," she informed her. She broke the thick green leaves in half and squeezed its jelly-like substance onto her hands. She tenderly rubbed it over the cuts on Mara's arms, legs and feet. Mara expected the medicine to sting and was surprised when she only felt a cool numbness.

"You know, we could stay in one of the huts until tomorrow," Annaïse proposed. "It would give you time to heal." Just the mention of immobility made Mara squirm uncomfortably. She opened her mouth to protest, but Annaïse cut her off. "You need take care of Luke anyway."

Mara snorted and began to dress. "He's fine. You saw him. As long as he has the Force, Skywalker can take care of himself. Believe me, he's got a knack for getting himself into trouble, and he's well-practiced at getting himself out of it."

"He's still weak even if he won't admit it. And he would've died last night if not for you. You saved his life."

Mara shifted uncomfortably. "He would've found a way back to shore. And he's out of danger now - of the poison anyway."

"Only if you stay with him. You draw strength from each other. Everyone needs help sometimes," Annaïse said wisely. "Even Jedi Masters and Master Traders."

* * * * *

Luke stood knee deep in the freezing water and furiously scrubbed away the dirt that clung determinedly to his skin. He shivered each time he splashed water on himself. He couldn't even feel his feet anymore. So at the earliest possible moment he hopped out of the water and pulled on his pants and tunic. Reaching out to Mara with the Force, he only felt mild relaxation emanating from her. I guess she isn't done with her bath yet. Seizing the opportunity, he walked back to the ancient temple they had passed earlier.

First, he walked around the entire base of the mound. The gray stones were pockmarked from centuries of weather and neglect, but in some spots, Luke could still see where at one time the stones had presented a surface so smooth, it could have been mistaken for duristeel. The surface sloped upward with a gradual curve that formed a plateau at the top for the temple. The only access to the temple would have been the now broken stair way in the center of the front side of the mound.

Luke climbed the tall, narrow stairs. He experienced a slight case of vertigo as each step seemed to slope backwards throwing him slightly off-balance. His pulse was racing when he reached the top, and he had to pause for breath before continuing. Not a pleasant sensation when he was used to scaling large hills without breaking a sweat.

Inside the temple dome was a row of six flat boulders arranged in a semi-circle opening out to the entrance. Luke surmised that the Force-sensitives or the ancient priests probably sat around the circle praying to their gods or passing tribal laws.

Luke wandered farther into the dome where writing had been etched into the wall. Most of the writing was in pictographs and complete gibberish to him. Half way through his examination, a symbol caught his eye. He brushed away the moss and peered closer, his eyes growing wider as realization dawned on him. He ran his fingers over the symbol to convince himself that he wasn't hallucinating. The symbol matched that on the amulet that Mara had sold to Guru.

Now Luke was confused. He and Mara had been certain that the artifacts had just been a ruse to lure them to the planet. What would the odds be that Callista had actually found the final resting place of the Guardians of Light? He shook his head. It was almost impossible, but then the Force rarely made perfect sense.

Luke sat down on the top step and gazed through the treetops. The remains of the desolated village spread out below him. A wave of sadness swept over him at the thought of Callista. Had that really been Callista, or had his mind played a trick on him? If that really was Callista, then the identity of the dark Jedi was obvious. He took a deep breath. If she really had turned to the darkside, then he would just have to show her the way back to the light.

He reached out with Force trying to touch any residual signature that Force-sensitives had lived here. What he felt was not the distant presence of a lost civilization, but a single dark mind searching him out and several menacing ones closing in fast. In the distance, he could barely hear approaching the speeders. His eyes flew open, and he ran down the steps. He had to get to Mara and Annaïse before Guru's men found them.

* * * * *

Mara had just finished checking the charge on her hold-out blaster when a jolt from her danger-sense flashed through her. Pulling out her lightsabre, she reached out with her senses to find the danger. She detected Luke right away, and he was running toward them in a state of anxiety. Not far off she could hear the approaching speeders.

"Come on," she said sharply to Annaïse. "We need to get out of here."

Mara stood, temporarily forgetting about her ankle. Swearing under her breath, she forced the pain away and hobbled up the bank toward the village and Luke. Annaïse gathered up the backpack and forgotten boot and followed her.

Luke came into view before they had gotten even half way to the village, his face flushed from sprinting.

"We can't go that way," he informed them. "They are almost to the village, and they'll see us."

"How did they find us so fast?" Mara demanded of no one in particular.

"They probably found the path that you cut last night," Annaïse replied.

Mara smacked her forehead and groaned. "Then they've probably already found the tree and fire, so they know we're in the area."

"We'll just have to hide among the trees," Luke responded.

"You go on ahead," Annaïse urged. "I'll lead them away from you."

Before either Luke or Mara could stop her, she tossed Mara her boot and dashed off toward the village. Luke turned as if to go after her, but Mara held him back.

"She obviously knows these forests pretty well," she assured him. "She'll be all right. But we won't be if we get caught, and neither will the Jedi academy if we can't destroy that lab."

Luke obviously didn't like it, but he acquiesced. He slipped his arm around her for support, and they ran back down the path.

"We should cross the creek to confuse any trackers they might have brought," he said.

Mara nodded and took a step toward the water. She had to suppress a startled squeak as she found her self unceremoniously swept up into Luke's arms.

"Put me down," she hissed in exasperation. "This is no time to be gallant."

"This is no time to lose time," Luke panted trying not to slip on hidden rocks.

Mara furrowed her brow. She could tell he was struggling slightly, so instead of fighting him, she lent him some of her Force strength. Immediately, he breathing became more regular and his movements quicker. He threw her a glance of surprise mixed with something else, but she looked away.

Once across the creek, Luke ran with Mara still in his arms through the trees until they came to a rocky cliff about ten meters high.

"We'll hide up there," he stated. Using the Force, he lifted them up to the ledge and then masked their presence in the Force from the dark Jedi. They laid flat on their bellies and peered over the ledge to watch for Guru's men.