13. The Hole
Weirdly enough, Tass didn't notice that she was very hot, or even that she was very thirsty, until almost half an hour had passed. Her brother had completely taken over her thoughts now. She was incredibly worried. Maybe he wasn't here. Maybe this had been a stupid idea. Maybe she'd never actually see him again. This was an impossible thought for her to handle. She just couldn't accept it.
"Tass, I'm sweaty," she heard Faith, who was lagging behind, complain.
"What do you expect her to do about it?" Dekabyn said testily. He'd taken his shirt off. Tass didn't want to look at him with his shirt off, because who knew what he'd think about her looking at him with his shirt off and enjoying the sight, but somehow she couldn't help herself.
"I want to go back and sit in the ship," Faith said.
"Go on, then," Dekabyn said. "Don't get lost."
"Couldn't you just stay with us, Faith?" Tass said quietly. "We might need you."
Faith didn't actually seem to have much intention of turning back. She just looked completely exhausted and terrified, although Tass was sure she wasn't nearly as exhausted or terrified as she seemed. Myabe she just wanted attention. Or something.
She was beginning to notice the heat now, though.
"I hate it here," Faith moaned under her breath. "You'd have to be mad to live here, or even come here..."
Dekabyn grabbed her by the shoulders. "Listen, you idiot," he hissed. "Stop saying things so loudly. Some of the people around here won't hestiate to hurt you just because you've got a pretty face, all right?"
Tass wasn't listening to them anymore. She wasn't sure what she was trying to listen to.
She was standing on the same ground that people like Luke and Anakin Skywalker had walked on...surely she could think of something, but then again she wasn't a Jedi, and presumably she didn't really have much of a destiny...
"Just keep walking, okay, Faith?" Dekabyn said. "It's not that hard, unless you make things difficult, which you seem determined to."
"Stop picking on me!" Faith said, in a desperate whiny voice. Tass suddenly started walking quickly away from her.
"Where are you going, Tass?" Dekabyn yelled urgently after her.
"I'm trying to get an idea!" she yelled back, and she kept walking, walking, walking...the others ran to keep up with her...and then she found it. Or thought she did.
It was an arena of sorts. She could see the stands...they'd fallen into disrepair, were slowly turning to dust. No-one had been in here for ages...
"Oh no, not more sand!" she heard Faith moan from behind her. Faith really was becoming annoying now, she thought. She looked up, and realised what the arena was for...she could just make out the word Podracers, scratched into a sign. Podracing. She wondered what it must have been like, all those hundreds of years ago...she wished she belonged to that time, instead, things would have been easier...
She realised she wasn't worrying about Nerra anymore, and then she realised why.
She could hear him.
"HELP! Anyone! Just help!"
Dekabyn stared around in amazment. "That's..."
"Nerra!" Tass yelled, and she started running into the sand, jumping over rocks, causing a minor dust storm as she tried to locate the voice...
...and then she nearly fell down a hole.
She dropped to her knees, Dekabyn and Faith next to her, and looked downwards. There was a gaping hole in the ground, it went so far down she could barely see the bottom...but she could see it, and Nerra was down there.
"...Tass?" came the voice from the hole, and she noticed how dizzy and frightened and tired her brother sounded. "Tass?"
"Nerra, it's me!" Tass yelled, almost overcome with relief. "Are you alright?"
"Not really," he answered.
"We'll get you out of there, okay? Nerra!"
But he'd gone quiet.
"He must have fainted," Faith said. It was the first sensible thing she'd said all day.
"We'd better get help," Dekabyn said, and he got up right then and there and begun to run. Faith ran after him.
"I'll stay here..." Tass yelled after them, but only Dekabyn seemed to hear her. He nodded and then was gone.
Seconds turned into minutes, and minutes into a quarter of a hour. Tass really did think she was going to be sick when she heard Nerra's voice again.
"Tass?"
"Yes, Nerra?" she called.
"It's really you..." He sounded amazed. "I thought I was dreaming...Tass..."
"It's okay," she answered. "It's okay. How long have you been down there...?"
"I don't know," he answered giddily. "I had some water...I brought it with me...and some food, but most of it's gone, and I think I broke my ankle, and stars I'm so glad you're here, Tass..."
Suddenly, she heard Dekabyn's voice. "Tass!" he was yelling. "Tass!"
"Yeah?" she yelled back. "Are you alright?" She was, once again, overcome with relief. There was another yell then, it was Faith.
"We found someone to help..."
Three people were running towards her now: Dekabyn, Faith, and a man who she'd never seen before in her life.
"Who's this?"
The man said nothing, despite the fact Tass was smiling in relief.
"Some guy we found." Dekabyn said thoughtfully.
"I have some rope." the man said. Tass couldn't place his accent. He produced a whole length of rope from his pocket, handed it to her, and began to walk away.
"Hey, wait a minute," Dekabyn called after him. The man stopped. He looked at Dekabyn thoughtfully, but Tass had no time to ponder this. "Nerra?" she yelled.
"Yeah?"
"Grab onto the rope, okay? Can you do that?" She flung the rope down.
"I think so."
"Good."
Dekabyn and Faith came to help her pull the rope, but the man just stood there, off to one side.
"Still alright, Nerra?"
"Yeah..."
They were nearly there...
"Okay, Nerra, we've almost..."
There was a snap, and it took Tass almost a second to realise that the rope had broken. But he that time something had happened...the air had shifted, she had felt something...oh no, no, he couldn't fall back down there, he might get hurt even worse...no, he couldn't...
But he was coming out of the hole now. Flying out of the hole. Being lifted out of the hole...Tass turned around, and Faith was doing it, her eyes wide open, concentrating with all her might...
Nerra landed safely on the ground next to Tass. For a long while there was silence, complete silence, as everyone tried to work out exactly what had happened...then Tass felt herself being crushed in a hug.
"Thank you, Tass, thank you so much..." Nerra was saying. She hugged him back. "It's okay, I'm glad you're alright..."
Faith burst into hysterical tears.
"What're you...doing that for?" Nerra asked, suddenly giddy as where he was seemed to actually hit him. "You just saved me..."
"I know!" Faith sniffed. She ran her hand over her face. "That was just...I don't want it."
Dekabyn viewed all this with a sort of bemused coolness.
"Faith, please be quiet. You did something good, okay? You've got nothing to be crying about." This, predictably, didn't help her. Nerra shook Dekabyn's hand awkwardly, obviously not quite sure what to say to him. The man who Dekabyn and Faith had found remained rooted to the spot as no-one approached him, and Tass suddenly realised...he seemed familiar.
Clearly he seemed familiar to Dekabyn as well, because he suddenly said "Hey, you, I want to talk to you..."
The man looked at him, seemily unsure where to go or what to do. They looked at each other, and then Dekabyn said to him "You have nowhere to go, do you?"
"No." the man said.
Dekabyn turned to the others. "Tass, Faith, Nerra, if you don't mind...the ship can sit five people, I think he should come with us."
Tass nodded her agreement...she didn't know what was going on, but she had her brother back and her friends safe and that was all that mattered. Faith looked slightly more unhappy.
"He's a bit creepy," she said.
"But I came to help you," the man suddenly spoke up.
Faith nodded. "Well..." he said, and then started crying again.
"It was you who...did that, I take it." the man said, looking at her strangly.
"Yeah..."
"Force powers."
"Yeah."
They returned to the ship. Tass personally felt happier and more relieved than she'd ever felt in her life, but she knew the others weren't feeling the same way. Dekabyn lent her his comlink, and she phoned her parents...she got as far as "I found him," and then they started crying. She began to feel tired...exactly what they'd done was starting to catch up with her now. Faith had stopped her complaining, but was still sniffing loudly as she took the controls of the ship. Dekabyn said nothing to the man who was now sitting behind him, and the man said nothing to him either.
"Do you mind if I go to sleep, Tass?" Nerra said in a whisper. His voice was going now; after all, he'd spent many days yelling for help.
"Of course I don't mind," she whispered back.
The flight home was pretty much uneventful. Tass slept too. Faith didn't...in fact, she no longer seemed so afraid of flying, although she was certainly afraid of something else, Tass thought.
Almost as soon as they landed, the minor mystery got solved.
