Last time: The first hunter found them and they fought him.

Now: Sasha and Oppie run into more trouble.

Chapter 15- Vornskr Attack

The can of beer crushed under his grip as Von stared at the monitors showing the Jedi's progress with a scowl. He had enjoyed the few highlight moments from the past couple of days with the Vornskr and the flash flood. But when he noticed that one of his hunters had caught up to them, he grabbed a snack and a few beers to truly watch the show. He didn't care how early it was to drink, this was going to be worth it.

But the Jedi had managed to take down the former pirate with ease. Hell, they even did it with sticks in their hands. That frustrated him as he wanted a show. Well, so much for that. He tossed the empty can aside as he leaned back in his chair.

"G3, send one of those other droids to go pick up Tanda," Von ordered his protocol droid who loomed nearby. "And bring me another beer."

"Yes sir," The droid said before shuffling away.

He watched the droid go before looking back at the monitors. There was still plenty of day left and there were still four hunters who could put on a show for him. He smirked as he produced a cheroot from his silver case and popped it into his mouth. He was a patient man… sometimes.

Why did the bounty hunter attack her initially? Why did he ignore Oppie at first? Was that all part of his plan? Did he not realize Oppie had moved from cover to cover? Or was it something else entirely? Those questions fogged Sasha's mind as they walked along. After hearing the howling, they moved as quickly as they could to get away from the defeated and unconscious bounty hunter as they were sure a worse predator was on its way. But they had been walking in a long silence for the last couple hours as Sasha walked in a bit of a daze. Her mind kept circling back around to what happened that she didn't even realize that she was slowing her own pace and wasn't walking alongside Oppie anymore.

Oppie slowed, realizing she wasn't close behind him. "Sasha?" He asked, looking back at her.

Sasha came out of her daze and looked at him. "Hmm? What's up?" She replied back.

"Everything okay?" He asked.

"Oh uh…" Sasha hesitated for a moment as she gathered her thoughts. "I just keep thinking about what happened with the bounty hunter. Did it seem strange at all to you how he faced us? Or am I just overthinking things?" She asked, a bit unsure.

"A bit?" Oppie answered. "I was surprised at how single minded he seemed to be, but I wasn't going to complain about him making it easier to take him out."

"I guess," Sasha said. "I just found it strange he kept firing at me even when you were moving around."

"That…" He paused, "it surprised me a little too. Maybe whatever information they have on us said you were stronger in the Force and a bigger threat." He said a little ruefully.

"Maybe," she said with a slight snort. "I guess it's too late to go back and ask him."

"Probably." Oppie said. "I mean, we can if you really want."

Sasha rolled her eyes at him as she smirked. "I'd like to keep going, thank you very much." Suddenly a loud howl echoed through the forest as if several kilometers behind them. Sasha turned to look from the direction they came from. "Op, you don't think that's the same howl we heard earlier?"

"Does it matter?" He asked, looking at her worriedly.

"No," Sasha said with a firm shake of her head.

"Let's go." Oppie suggested as he started picking up his pace, and unholstered his newly acquired blaster.

"Okay," Sasha agreed as she did the same with her new blaster as she started jogging after him.

They moved through the forest at a faster pace as they were sure whatever owned that howl was getting closer and closer. Pushing through bushes and ducking past low hanging branches, they moved as quickly as they could. After about five or so minutes, the sound of heavy breathing and running was heard approaching from behind them. Risking a glance back as they moved, Sasha gasped as she noticed three vornskrs quickly approaching them.

"Run!" Sasha yelled out as she fired a few warning shots at the hounds that went wide due to her running and shooting at the same time. She then picked up the pace more and ran as fast as she could.

Oppie looked over his shoulder and fired a few bolts off as well, to the same effect as Sasha. He picked up the pace, running alongside her. As they ran along, the vornskrs were keeping up with them. In fact, they were closing the distance. One got close enough to try and bite at Oppie's heels, only to miss by centimeters. Another disappeared into the woods as if it had given up the chase. The third rushed up a fallen log that lay across another tree at a sharp enough angle that the vornskr was able to use it to get to higher ground to pounce down on Sasha and Oppie from above. Sasha noticed it coming for them, fired off a wide shot while simultaneously pushing Oppie out of the way before it could land on them. The vornskr growled at them as they quickly steadied themselves. Oppie then pulled Sasha back into running, firing off more blaster bolts at the vornskrs.

The one that had tried to bite at Oppie's heels caught one of the bolts in the side and slowed its chase, but didn't give up on pursuing them just yet. The one that tried to pounce at them managed to keep a close distance between them, trying every now and again to bite or nip at them only to miss. Sasha fired at it with her blaster, hoping it would back off, but to no avail. However, she was able to land a good clean shot on the one that had fallen back. This time when the shot hit, the already injured one skidded to the dirt, dead. Only one left to deal with now.

Oppie swung his makeshift spear around, trying to hit the creature like a club to try stunning it. It faltered as the blow struck, slightly, giving Oppie enough time to bring his blaster up and shoot it at point blank range. The creature fell, and for good measure Oppie shot it once more. He turned, looking around. "Wasn't there a third one?"

"I thought so," Sasha answered as she looked around, wishing for the Force to sense where it was. "Where did it go?"

As if on cue, the vornskr that had disappeared earlier on in the chase suddenly appeared before them and lunged at Sasha. Before she had a chance to react, she was knocked to the ground as the creature pinned her to the earth. It tried clawing at her and biting her, but Sasha dodged it's paws and jaw as best she could. Some swipes were just too close for comfort. She then tried to use her spear to leverage it off of her, but due to how she was pinned under it it didn't work. Instead, it's right paw batted the spear way when she tried to use it against the beast, causing it to roll off to the side. She then tried to bring the blaster up to fire at it from close range, but before she had a chance to move her arm, its left paw slammed down on her right shoulder, holding it in a tight grip. She released a pained scream as she felt its claws dig into her, breaking skin. Then something sharp and lethal looking appeared from the tuft of hair at the end of its tail, slowly arching as if to sting her.

Before it had that chance, Oppie leveled his blaster and shot it twice in the chest. It yelped at the shots and fell to the side, next to Sasha. It laid there whimpering for a moment before dying beside her. Sasha looked at it in horror as she breathed heavily. She then slammed her eyes closed and cursed at the burning pain in her shoulder. After a moment, she carefully sat up pressing her left hand to the wound. Her shoulder felt wet with blood. She grimaced at that.

"Are you okay?" Oppie asked frantically, skidding to her side, looking at the bloody wound on her shoulder.

Sasha didn't answer at first as she wasn't quite sure how bad it was despite the pain she was in. Instead, she looked down at her shoulder and carefully moved her hand away for a second. Her entire shoulder was turning crimson as blood soaked her jacket and top. She gaped at the sight of it. As she stared, her vision dotted slightly at that as if she was about to go into shock. Blinking a few times to clear her vision, she pressed her left hand back, trying to apply as much pressure to the injury before shock took over. "I'll be okay," she breathed out.

"Let me see your pack." Oppie said, worriedly.

"Op, I"m fine," Sasha said, trying to brush it off. "It's just a scratch."

Oppie just looked at her. "Let me dress that."

Sasha tensed at that. She knew he was right, she just didn't want him to know how bad it was. Sasha nodded after a moment. She carefully shrugged off one strap before pulling off the other with a sharp hiss as she winced in pain. She took a steadying breath before handing him the pack. She then pulled the collar of her jacket and shirt away enough to reveal the wound fully. She paled at the sight of it as the blood trailed down from her shoulder.

Oppie swallowed when he saw the depth of the gashes, there was a trail of four claw marks, and at least one looked deep enough it may have hit bone. He blanched a little, worried, as he pulled out the meager first aid they had. He undid several of the disinfectant wipes and tried to clean the wound as best he could. Sasha winced at how much it stung as he cleared a good portion of the blood. Oppie undid his bottle of water, the clean water he had rather than the as-yet unboiled river water they had refilled the larger canteens with yesterday before the flood. He poured it over the wounds, trying to clean them, and then he disinfected them with another pass of the wipes. Sasha bit back a yelp at the water and wipes as she grimaced. Oppie then opened the gauze wrap they had, and wrapped her shoulder tightly. She tried her best to not wince when he did that.

Once it was done, Sasha released a shaky breath as she lowered her chin to her chest as she trembled slightly from the aching pain in her shoulder. The pain was excruciating, but she had to fight through it. She had to if they were to survive out here. She bit back tears that were threatening to escape due to the pain as she tried to compose herself.

"Thanks," she managed to squeeze out after a moment.

"You're welcome." Oppie said worriedly. "When we set up a camp we might want to cauterize that, it's pretty deep."

Sasha nodded. "Okay," she said, then looked at the dead vornskr. She shuddered before looking away. "We should go."

"Yeah." Oppie said, getting to his feet and slinging Sasha's pack over his shoulder.

Sasha watched him do that out of the corner of her eye and was ready to protest it as she could still carry her own pack, but she knew that he wouldn't budge even if she tried. She carefully pushed herself to her feet, wincing at her shoulder. She then adjusted her shirt and jacket so they covered the freshly wrapped wound. She then holstered her blaster with a grimace. Once she was done with that, she rested her left hand on her shoulder before looking to Oppie. "Alright, ready when you are."

Oppie nodded and set out, keeping his blaster in his hand. Sasha swiped her spear from where it was discarded on the forest floor and followed after him.

Cien knocked on the door of the meditation room, where Viran had secreted himself away for the day to give them privacy. It was near nighttime according to the ship's clock and everyone was turning in. Scamp and Kyr were in the cockpit, Nova and Kelce were relaxing in the Shadow Runners lounge and were using the bunk room. Cien was worried about Viran though, her own recent experiences with when Kyr had been taken were fresh in her mind. She waited for Viran to answer her knock.

"Come in," Viran's voice answered from the otherside of the door.

Cien opened the door. "Hi, I just wanted to see if you need anything?"

Viran looked up from where he sat against the wall with one of the meditation cushions under him. He had the datapad in his hands. "Oh, um, no. I think I'm okay," he said simply. "Thanks for asking."

Cien just nodded. "Found anything interesting?" She asked.

"Aside from this guy and potentially whoever hired him being a sadistic creep, no," Viran answered quietly. "Nothing new at least."

She nodded again and looked at him for a second. "Are you okay?" She asked quietly.

Viran sighed and set the datapad down. "I'm alright. I just wish we had more answers to all of this."

She leaned against the doorway and wasn't quite sure what to say. She looked around the room and smiled slightly. "Did you ever come in here before Kyr remodeled this room?"

"No, never," Viran said, shaking his head. "Sasha told me it was… different."

"It was." She said absently. "I remember that night we went to go face Dracul, I went and hid myself in here from everyone because the darkness of the room was a strange comfort to me, after you had all been so nice." She said quietly, "Sasha came and talked to me, though, and we became friends from that conversation." She said, not really quite sure why, mostly just because she was thinking of Sasha. "Hopefully we'll get the answers we need in two days when we arrive." She said.

"Yeah, hopefully," he agreed absently. He then looked up at Cien again. "Hey, thanks for checking on me through all of this."

She nodded. "That's my job now, as elder sister." She said slightly, teasing him. She absently realized she was doing something she had picked up from Oppie, to try to make Viran smile.

Viran chuckled at that, the teasing working. "Thanks," he said. He then sat there for a moment before getting up and walking over to her. Once he was closer, he pulled her into a hug. "I'm sorry. I just… I need this right now."

She hesitated for a split second in slight surprise before hugging him back tightly. "If you need anything let us know. We're here for you. You're not alone, Viran."

"I will," Viran said before pulling away. "Thank you, sis." He added with a small smile.

"No problem little brother, have a good night." She said with a slight smile before stepping away, and then making her way back into the ship to her room with Kyr.

Sasha slowly trudged behind Oppie as they continued to make their way. After the vornskr attack, they didn't run into anything else. No other bounty hunters that wanted to kill them or vicious predators that wanted to make the two of them their next meal. But as the day slowly turned to evening, Sasha was feeling the fatigue wearing on her as her wounded shoulder ached. The blinding pain from earlier had faded. Now there was just a numb pain that lingered. What she wouldn't give for some bacta right now.

The only upside to the day was that as the day got later and later, they noticed that they were starting to enter into more hilled areas. Meaning, they were getting closer to the mountains. As they walked along, slowly losing the light, they entered into a clearing that had a small cave-like shelter made from fallen trees and erosion that was nestled into the side of a hill.

"Let's make camp here." Oppie suggested, looking at Sasha worriedly.

"Yeah," Sasha said as she nodded while looking around the clearing, avoiding meeting his gaze. She then walked over and took a seat on the ground just at the opening to the strange alcove in the hill with a sigh. Wincing, she carefully rested back against the side of the hill.

"I'm going to go gather some firewood, I'll be back in a second." Oppie said, moving out back into the forest to try to find some dry kindling.

"Okay, be careful," Sasha advised as she watched him go.

"I will." He said, calling over his shoulder as he disappeared into the forest.

Once Oppie was out of sight, Sasha looked down at her shoulder. She could see that the claws had ripped through her jacket and the white of the gauze was peeking through. Actually it wasn't white anymore. Carefully, she shrugged off her jacket and pulled the collar back on her top to see the wrapping. During their time walking, the blood had slowly seeped through the gauze causing it to slowly turn a dark reddish brown color. Letting go of her shirt collar, Sasha rested her head back and looked up with a pained groan. She pressed her left palm that was still dry with blood and dirt to her forehead where the makeshift bandage from two days ago still remained as she tried to fight back tears. She hated this. She hated feeling like this and being in this situation. And a small part of her feared that things were only to get worse. She remained in that position until she heard rustling from the bushes nearby. She tensed as she reached for her new blaster.

Oppie stepped out with a small bundle of mostly dry wood and twigs. "How are you feeling?" He asked as he dropped the bundle near where he was going to make the fire.

Sasha relaxed when she saw it was him and glanced back to her shoulder before responding. "I'm alright."

Oppie nodded and set about making the small fire. The alcove gave them some shelter, and would hopefully keep the fire from being too visible. Either way they needed to boil the water and some new bandages. Using a blaster energy pack and a trick he had picked up from the clones, he was able to get a fire going in short order, and he put both their canteens in the fire with the lids off. He settled back next to Sasha, who only was slowly nibbling on a ration bar she had pulled out to try and have while he made the fire.

"Can you hand me the knife?" Oppie asked.

Sasha nodded and reached down to her boot where she had sheathed the knife she had taken from the bounty hunter. She pulled it out and held it out to him, the hilt towards him. "Here," she said. "What are you going to use this for?"

He took the knife from her hand. "We should probably have more bandages." He said as he unzipped his jacket and cut some strips from the lower section of his shirt, the sharp knife making quick work of it. "I'll boil these in a moment once we can reserve some for drinking water." He looked at her, "do you want to try cauterizing your shoulder wound? You know more about medical stuff than I do." He asked tentatively.

"I…" She hesitated for a second. "I think we should or else it could get infected. And besides, I can handle a few small scars," she said, trying to make light of the situation.

Oppie grimaced, and nodded. He hated having to do this. "Okay, maybe use the pocket knife for it since it's already kind of a bad knife?" He suggested.

"Yeah, alright," Sasha agreed as she reached into her belt and produced the pocket knife. She stared at it for a second then at her shoulder. She then looked to Oppie and held the knife out to him. "Are you going to be okay doing this?" She asked him.

"Yeah." He said with a sigh. He took the knife, wiped the blade down with another disinfectant wipe, and moved back to the fire to heat the blade.

As he did that, Sasha set aside the ration bar before reaching up and started removing the blood soaked gauze. She grimaced when she saw the wounds again, this time a bit more clearly. She dropped the discarded wrappings next to her and shifted her seated position until she was sitting up a little straighter. Once she was ready, she gathered her jacket with her left hand and waited, nervously.

Oppie looked back at her once the blade was heated. "Ready?" He asked.

Sasha swallowed. "No, but… we need to do it," she said reluctantly. "And we don't have anything to dull the pain, so I'll just have to make do." She rolled up the left sleeve of her jacket and placed it into her mouth. "Okay," she said, muffled, as she closed her eyes in anticipation or because she didn't want to watch. Both were reasonable.

Oppe moved back with a grimace. He used the last of his clean drinking water to clean the wound one last time, and used the other side of the disinfectant wipe to clean the wound site as best he could. "I'm sorry." He said quietly, then he applied the heated blade to where he could see it still bleeding. Sasha bit down onto her jacket as she tried to suppress a scream. It didn't work. A muffled scream escaped with each press of the blade. Oppie applied the blade in a few quick intervals, trying to close the wound as best he could. After three applications he moved back and closed his eyes. "Are you okay?" He asked.

Sasha didn't answer him. She barely even heard him ask it as her senses blurred. The pain was beyond excruciating. She felt a few tears trail down her cheeks when he had placed the blade one last time. And as soon as he was finished, she felt numb all over. Her mouth dropped open to let the jacket fall out as she felt all of her strength leave her body and she started to fall forward.

Oppie threw his hand out and caught her. "I'm sorry." He said quietly as he caught her in a pseudo hug.

"It's okay," Sasha barely said over a whisper as she leaned heavily against him. "Thank you… for doing that." She breathed out as her breathing was ragged.

He didn't respond to that as he held her, and he had to concentrate very deeply on his Jedi teachings to not visualize all the ways he might want to end this Signa person that put them in this situation.

"We should… we should probably re-wrap the wound," Sasha said after a long moment, having not moved an inch. Her body still felt too numb to move.

"I will, just relax for a second, take your time." He said quietly.

"Okay," Sasha said. She rested against him for a bit longer before she finally felt strong enough to move. She carefully pulled away after about ten or so minutes. She looked down at the now cauterized wound. Reaching up, she delicately ran her fingers across the still warm skin near the claw marks. Her hand shook as she did that. After a moment, she dropped her hand and looked away.

He looked through the first aid and took out the large adhesive bandage, applying it gently over the top of the claw marks.

"Thanks," Sasha said quietly as she adjusted her shirt over the bandage.

Oppie just nodded, and moved back to take the canteens off the fire now that the water was sanitized. "If you want to rest I can stay up and watch."

"Are you sure?" Sasha asked, looking at him. "I'm willing to take the first watch tonight."

"No, it's okay, just rest." He said.

Sasha nodded. "Can you hand me my pack?" She asked as she rested back against the hill again.

"Sure." Oppie said, moving over and grabbing her pack, passing it over to her.

"Thanks," she said as she grabbed the pack. Opening it up, she pulled out the blanket and wrapped it as best as she could with only one good arm around herself. It worked okay. She tried fixing it before giving up on it and carefully lying down onto her left side. "Good night, Oppie," she said, sounding exhausted.

"'Night." Oppie said, looking at her worriedly. The water was cooling off now so he quietly started transferring it, and to reboil the remainder for the bandage strips he had cut. All the while, he watched Sasha with a look of concern, and hoped that their family would find them soon.

Tanda sat there for hours, bored and waiting for Von to come pick him up. When he woke up after being knocked out, he noticed that his weapons were gone. His personalized commlink was missing. And his rations were taken. He knew that the Jedi whelps were responsible for all of that. That pissed him off to no end that they just knocked him out, looted him, and left him to die in the woods. He thought his old pirate boss was cruel, this was almost next level. Thankfully, Von had said that if they had found themselves in a situation such as this then he would send someone to pick them up and bring them back to the temple so he could then ship them off this rock. Well, so much for getting that million credits now. He considered trying to go after the Jedi and getting his revenge, but after being beaten by them with sticks was enough for him to call it quits. That was shameful enough.

Thankfully, the Jedi did not take his lucky canteen that was still full of ale. So he sat, resting against a tree, drinking his woes away as he waited for Von's pick up. But as the day turned to night, he started to wonder if Von was even coming to get him. He was sure that Von saw what happened as he had hidden cameras everywhere. He saw the monitors back at the temple when the other bounty hunters and himself got the full debrief. So where was he? Was he trying to locate him or track his location or something? He wasn't sure. And even if he wanted to walk all the way back, his stead that he acquired was long gone and that he was just stuck there with no sense of direction back to the base. So all he could do was wait.

Suddenly a rustling sound came from his left. He looked over and smirked.

"About damn time, Von," Tanda said as he screwed the cap to his canteen closed.

However, neither Von nor his droids stepped out of the woodwork. Instead two beasts that looked hungrier than the gundarks on Vancor snarled at him as they approached. He immediately scrambled to his feet in a drunken stupor.

"Hey, easy there beasties," Tanda said gently. "I mean ya no harm."

One of the hounds barked before lunging forward. Tanda screamed only to have it echo through the night.

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