Chapter 14

Keldu couldn't help but scream as Lexoc and Jesbra both tumbled downward and were engulfed by the vines that covered the deadly pit. She heard Lexoc and Jesbra scream as well as both Nerca and Oliso shout. Her own throat vibrated with the word.

"No!" they yelled.

Keldu was tempted to drop down after them and have the same fate, but instead a voice in her mind told her that Lexoc and Jesbra would be all right, and that she ought to keep moving. Keldu continued swinging, following Nerca and Oliso's already rapidly moving figures.

Keldu dropped to the ground louder than she usually would have, but her upset mind deprived her of her usual Jedi silence. She ran her fastest to the pit's edge, ready to dive in, but Nerca's arm shot out to prevent her.

"Let me go!" Keldu snapped at Nerca. "We have to go after them!"

"No, stop," Nerca said, still holding, eyes staring downward but not really looking. "Feel. Their presences are gone."

"What do you mean 'gone'?" Keldu retorted still struggling to break free.

"Gone," Oliso's eyes closed, "their presences are not there. Not dead, just gone."

"What?" Keldu asked turning to face them.

"Close your eyes, feel, and see," Nerca said, her eyes still staring at the place where Lexoc and Jesbra had fallen, now recovered by vines.

Keldu sighed and closed her eyes, reaching for the connection between her and her friends. She felt Nerca and Oliso beside her, but the connection between Keldu, Jesbra and Lexoc was gone. They weren't dead; Keldu would know if that happened, their presence was just … gone. As Nerca and Oliso had said.

As if the vines had pulled their one-of-a-kind presences from their friends, or someone else was using the Force to cloak them from Keldu, Nerca and Oliso.

Keldu truly hoped that it wasn't the latter. That could mean that the Sith were alive as the Jedi Council had feared.

Keldu opened her eyes and unsheathed her lightsaber. The blue blade hissed to life and was joined by the purple shaft of light that was Nerca's and the green blade of Oliso's lightsaber. All three lightsabers began to slice through the mat of vines to the pit below at a lightning pace.

Keldu was the first to jump down.

She landed softly in the dark mud, and trudged forward looking for Lexoc and Jesbra. The mud swirled halfway up to Keldu's knees, and she left trails in the goo behind her that soon covered themselves over. Nerca and Oliso landed behind her and began walking toward her.

Not much light filtered through the trees then through the vine mat high over Keldu's head, but the mud was extremely warm. The walls were made of a drier mud that also radiated heat. It was peculiar, almost like being in an oven, only milder.

Keldu could see that even though from above the hole which Lexoc and Jesbra had fallen through looked recovered, the under side wasn't. She ran to the spot where they must've fallen, flinging mud that was joined by mud being flung from Oliso's and Nerca's boots. Reaching it, Keldu knelt to examine the ground.

There was an indent in the mud where they had fallen… but no Lexoc or Jesbra and no trail from the place. They were just gone.

Keldu closed her eyes, reaching with the Force to search the pit. She felt the dark ripples of deceit and death flow from all of the cave's walls, from the thick vine mat over head, and the mushy floor. She felt the power of both Nerca and Oliso's presences beside her; she felt a tiny, faint, every so small twinge of Lexoc's and Jesbra's presences in the impression in the mud, but nowhere else. She felt a strange strong, emotional heat coming from everywhere, but she couldn't identify its source or meaning.

Keldu opened her eyes wanting to scream again. There was no way to find them.

She turned to the others and was about to tell of her feelings when Nerca's eyes opened, wide and as fear-filled as Keldu had ever seen them.

"What?" Oliso asked softly. "What is it?"

Nerca just covered her face in her hands, her dark golden hair falling all over. Her head began shaking back and forth a muffled, "No, no, no!" escaping.

"What?" again from Oliso.

Keldu laid a hand on Nerca's shoulder, asking softly, "What is it, Nerca? Tell us."

This time, Nerca removed her hands and lifted her head in defiance of any fear. "There is no fear" was clearly printed on her face as she said, "I know where they are."

"Where?" Keldu asked, startled that Nerca had picked up something and she hadn't.

"The Mettranaloovye," Nerca said, shaking slightly. Then she stopped herself and stood up straight. "The Mettranaloovye have them."

"But… how?" Oliso asked. "They're just gone."

"I just know. That feeling." Nerca started slowly shaking her head again.

"What feeling?" Keldu asked.

"Like an immense emotional heat, it's the feeling of their presence."

Keldu didn't question Nerca's knowledge of the Mettranaloovye, she just didn't see how they could have taken Lexoc and Jesbra so quickly then wiped out their presence. She voiced her thoughts. "How?"

"I don't know."

Keldu turned away for a moment, pushing away the impossible odds and the impossibility of their disappearance. For a moment, she just tried to feel the connection between her and her missing friends. She reached out and spoke.

I will find you, Lexoc, Jesbra, she silently vowed. Some how, some way, I will find you. Know that and believe it.