The next afternoon Danni Quee stands at the rear of her class, as they watch a documentary on Agamarian tsavrips. On occasion, she looks at the box sitting on a desk short distance away, the one containing the larval stage of the Mogwai.
She frowns for a second, as she wonders just what will come out of the box when the cocoon opens. Then shaking her head slightly, she once more focuses on the documentary and wonders just how boring tsavrips can be.
Finally the class is over, and Danni stands around talking to the various students. As the last one leaves, she closes the door, and walks back to the box holding the cocoon. With a flick of her rest, she yanks off the sheet that she was using to cover the box, and sees the cocoon opened wide.
She grabs her comlink and punches in Jacen's frequency. As he answers, she tells him to hurry up and get here, and that the cocoon has opened. Shutting off the comlink, she starts looking under the desks, trying to find the Mogwai.
A large crash causes her to stand up, and she looks towards the back corner of the room. A flicker of movement, and she sees a pan settling on the floor. She walks to that corner, and looks around. Swiftly opening a cabinet, she only sees lab supplies. She closes the cabinet and turns around to look at the room again.
Another flicker of movement attracts her attention, and she starts walking that way. "Hey, where are you? Come on out."
As she nears the far side of the wall, she sees a flicker of movement in the corner of her eye, and she turns that way, just in time to see a desk topple over. She takes a step in that direction, and feels something brush up against her leg. Letting out an instinctive scream, she jumps back.
Looking down she doesn't see anything on the floor by her leg. Then she becomes aware of a burning in her calf. Lifting her foot to one of the chairs, she notices the rip in her pants. On closer inspection she sees the three ragged scratches in her leg.
Putting her leg down, she looks around the room once more. As her back turns away from her desk, a paperweight flies from that side of the room and hits the back of her head, sending her sprawling onto two of the desks.
She lifts herself up, and gingerly touches the back of her head where she was struck. Pulling her fingers around her face, she sees them covered with blood. Her eyes narrow. "Okay little one that hurt."
Getting back up, she walks towards her desk. As she arrives at the front of it, she sees a grayish-green scaled, tri-fingered hand reach out from beneath the desk and grab a piece of fruit from her desk.
She takes a step closer, and then flinches as the fruit comes flying back from beneath the desk, splattering on the ceiling, and starting to drip back onto the desk.
A gravely voice comes from the shadows. "Yuck."
Danni hesitantly takes a step that way. "You're not still mad about that little pin prick are you?"
As she walks around behind the desk, there's a scuffle of movement. She peers into the darkness but does not see anything. Pushing the chair out of she gets on her hands and knees.
As she looks into that darkness, she finally sees a pair of sickly yellow eyes that appear to be glowing with an internal light. Something about those eyes cause the breath to catch in her throat and triggers an instinctive flee reaction. The cold knot in the pit of her stomach almost makes her get off her knees and leave the room to wait for Jacen to arrive.
Unfortunately for Danni, she does not often listen to her internal promptings. Instead of running, she holds out her hand, in an open palm gesture, trying to coax the animal from its hiding place.
She inches her hand a little closer to the animal, and then her screams reverberate in the sound-proofed classroom. Tears spring to her eyes at the fire in her arms and she yanks on it, trying to escape from the animal hiding under her desk.
As she tugs, the thing holds tight, and she pulls once more with all her might, and with a shock of extreme pain, she is backpedaling away from the desk. As her back presses against the wall, she raises her hand to look at it, noticing the teeth marks through the blood.
A scraping noise attracts her attention and she looks up, to see the creature slowly crawling out of the hole beneath the desk. Her eyes widen, as the animal comes into a patch of light, it is covered in gray-green scales, with a wide head, and a mouth stretching the width of the head.
A mouth filled with rows of sharp, pointed carnivorous teeth.
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Jacen is pushing the speeder he is driving to the limits of his skills. While he is not the pilot of a caliber of his sister or younger brother, he is still a Solo and a Skywalker. He threads the speeder between the lines of traffic, ignoring the mundane things of driving a speeder such as traffic laws or common courtesy.
Finally arriving at the proper building of the university, he cuts power, allowing the speeder to skid to a stop. While the speeder is still sliding, Jacen jumps from the machine, and touches the Force to allow him to land and enter the building at a run.
He skids to a stop in front of Danni's classroom. He opens the door and steps into the darkened room. Frowning her looks around and feels worry start to gnaw at his stomach as he doesn't see Danni anywhere. At a brisk step, he walks back to her office and opens the door. Seeing no one in there he closes the door, and turning around pulls out his comm. He quickly enters Danni's frequency, and hears a chirping in one of the corners of the room.
Turning that way, a frown appears on his face. He slowly walks towards the sound of the chirping comlink. As he clears the desk, he sees Danni propped up against the wall, parts of her chewed away, and claw and teeth marks decorating her body. He rushes to her side, and kneels down, touching a finger to her neck.
He looks around the room again, and frowns once more as nothing is there. Then turning back to Danni, he shuts off his comlink. When he stands and turns back to the desk, he sees the creature standing there watching him. Jacen looks at the thing, and reaches out with the Force, feeling that primal hate and hunger. After a second of probing in the Force, Jacen's spirits sink as he recognizes what type of creature it is, or rather what type of creature it used to be.
Jacen takes a hesitant step to the left, and the gremlin launches itself into the air, its claws outstretched and aimed at Jacen's face. Reacting instinctively, he ignites his saber, and slashes through the animal. As both pieces fall at his feet, he quickly steps back as the thing starts bubbling and melting. Before long, all that is left is a pool of yellowish slime.
Then suddenly he remembers the fifteen cocoons still sitting in the living room of his home. Reaching once more for his comlink he quickly calls his mother. When there is no answer, he calls Anakin. As it beeps the fact that no one is there, he rushes back out of the building, heading towards his speeder, a deep sense of dread settling over him.