Chapter 5
The thing that woke her from a death-like slumber was the sounds of branches breaking somewhere near her position.
Her eyes snapped open and, as adrenaline rushed through her veins to wake her up and prepare her for a fight, Kai heard what sounded like voices arguing in a language that she didn't understand. But she did recognize it from when she borrowed those creatures from that farm.
It was then that she realized that she was out in the open.
Oh, kriff!
Moving into action as quietly as she could, Kai gathered up what she could, kicking dirt over the still-smoking remains of the long-dead fire. Once she was finished, the young teen didn't hesitate to dive back into the water, trying to avoid to make a splash.
It didn't work, unfortunately, but by the time the men wandered over to investigate, she was already down at the very bottom of the stream.
Kai didn't hear the men speaking, as only their faces looming over the stream, broken by the rippling of the surface. She held her breath, not for the purpose of trying not to drown but in anticipation. Slung over their shoulders, the men were clutching primitive looking blaster rifles. And there was no doubt in her mind that they wouldn't hesitate to use them if provoked or startled.
She was cursing herself for not bringing her lightsaber.
Kai tried not to breath, as that would release bubbles that would alert the men to her presence under the surface. After a while of sitting there, fear like nothing she has ever felt in a long time coursed through, the men finally got bored and lumbered off. But Kai didn't float upward until she had mentally counted to twenty. Then, she kicked off the bottom and cautiously breeching the surface, stopping just below her nose.
The teen scanned the area surrounding the pond, looking at the shadowed part, trying to discern whether or not they were deeper than normal.
It was another fifteen minutes before Kai cautiously made her way back towards the grass and hauled herself upward. Cursing at the fact that her clothes were now wet and it was going to take hours to dry them, Kai stood and gathered her things off before taking off in the direction of her starfighter. She tried to be as quiet as possible, but urgency took precedence over sneakiness. At one point, a branch snagged her face, opening a shallow cut that bled a bit.
But still she ran.
She didn't know how, maybe in her frenzied state to get back to some semblance of safety and secrecy, but Kai found herself getting turned around and closer to the men than she dared to get. With a Force jump that her master would be proud of, Kai leapt into the tree at the slight movement of one of the younger men. She managed to clamber up past the branches and into the leaves before he could spot her.
Kai held her breath as she watched the three men look around, some using the periscope mounted on their weapons to look at the distance better. Her heart stopped when one glanced her way, but focusing on a small twig, Kai made a clenching motion with her fist. The twig snapped under the unseen pressure of the Force, the men's heads swiveling in the direction of the noise. Almost instantly they ran off, leaving Kai to leap down, gather herself for a second and spot a familiar sight of the 'x' before following her little trial of breadcrumbs.
There was a relief that came over her when the teen spotted the cave that hid her starfighter, still hidden behind large, fallen branches. Kai quickly dashed behind the cover and waited. She sat down with her lightsaber clutched loosely in her hand, ready to defend herself if it came down to it. But as the adrenaline faded, Kai slumped a bit into a sort-of-relaxed stage.
She didn't dare move from the spot though.
Those men were still out there.
Kai stayed there for the rest of the day in the cave, fearful of what would happen if she stepped outside and was spotted by those men. To pass the time, and in order not to go crazy, she started to fiddle with her fighter, which as she started to work on it, revealed some massive damage. She didn't know if she could fix even the minor damage with what little tools and supplies she had stored in the back compartment, but she sure as Hell wasn't going to try.
"This is an interesting place, don't you think?" she asked the destroyed, charred remains of her astromech. The droid was too far damaged, even for a normal droid technician. And as Kai examined it, she could see that a plasma bolt had hit the droid's central processing unit, essentially frying it. But she needed something to talk to so she didn't go crazy.
Though, maybe the fact that she was talking to a now inanimate object was proof that she was crazy.
"I mean, it's feels like a regular planet. And it has humans, though I don't think they speak Basic, which will make communication with them difficult. But, I mean, I don't want to anyone whose swinging around a gun wildly." She sighed as she unbolted a screw that would give her access to the ship's engine. If she got the engine going and flying mechanisms, then she really didn't have worry about the charred paint. "I hope I get out of here soon. I don't want there to be a search party and I definitely don't want to get shot."
She could only imagine that the droid would say something along the lines of, Well, no one wants to get shot.
That made her chuckle.
And caused her to worry about her sanity.
"I know that." She grunted as the last bolt popped out, the panel giving way and falling to the ground. "Aha! Yes!"
But as she examined the engine, her hopes fell. Many wires were burned away, the engine itself still smoking from the crash even though it had been a couple of days. Kai couldn't help a wince that appeared on her face as she looked at the cooling system of the engine, the durable plastic smoking and cracked open.
"Kriffing hell!" She whispered as she carefully touched the container that held the coolant. Kai hissed when the still all-too hot plastic. "Ow! Damn that's hot!"
While she was blowing her fingers off, Kai tried to come up with an idea to mend the plastic that was meant to keep her engine cool and to keep her fighter from exploding in a fiery ball of death.
Kai sighed. "Looks like I'm going to have to make some sort of nonflammable, all-natural sealant. Fun."
Her eyes glanced over to the mouth of the cave, where the sun set fire to the bright colors on the trees. Kai blinked.
It was….it was rather beautiful.
Far too beautiful to stay inside this damp cave for the rest of the day. Enough time had passed that she figured the men would be gone by now.
Sighing heavily through her nose, Kai stood up and after hooking her saber onto her belt, the teen decided that she would take a walk or something. There was really nothing she could do for her fighter that would take weeks to fix.
Maybe it would be more prudent to fix the long-rang communications and the tracker instead of wasting time on the uselessly ruined engine.
Kai stood and, after leaping over the branches, made her way towards a fast rushing river that she had found on her first exploration. It wasn't a good place to bath or to swim, as the current was too strong, even for her kind. There was a chance that she could get carried far from the forest and somewhere where she would be far too exposed.
And Kai hoped to stay hidden as long as possible.
But the river was a good place to just sit and relax. And after the day she had, Kai needed something to do.
Though, as she approached the river, the sound of the rushing water wasn't the only noise that she could hear. There was the sound of laughing children.
Kai climbed a tree that bordered the river. Her dark green skin wouldn't camouflage easily with the bright red and orange leaves that surrounded her, but she figured that she was high enough that the children wouldn't spot her if they chose to look up. Also, it would make a good place to leap into action if the children got swept away by the river.
When she positioned herself in a better spot, Kai watched the small group of children play in a shallower part of the river, where the pull of the current was less extreme. They were young, maybe a few years younger than Kai herself. The two boys had their pants legs rolled up to just while the one girl of the group had the hem of her skirt in her hands. The boys, obviously, were bringing mud up from the bottom of the river bed, patting them down and then tossing them at each other. They were relatively coated in dirt, which means that they had been there for a suitable amount of time.
And while Kai had better things to do then acting like a creeper and watching the kids, something held her interest.
Maybe she wanted to see how real children acted when they weren't under the threat of war or when they weren't taken from their parents to be raised by an order of warrior monks.
Or maybe there was a scientific interest, to observe how people on other planets acted when visitors from another world weren't watching them closely.
Kai didn't know. Something kept her from leaving, from moving on because if they spotted her, then they would run. They would scream to their parents about a monster.
Their parents would return in full force with weapons and they would search every inch of the woods for her. And when they found her…
There would be no mercy.
But the Force nudged at her, telling her that something bad would happen if she didn't stay to intervene. So, Kai waited with tense muscles, trusting her instincts and the Force. But nothing seemed to be amiss. The kids were having a good time, the girl squealing when a mud pie flew too close to her patterned skirt and white shirt, but otherwise it was a playful squeal.
Kai found herself lounging in the tree like a jungle cat warming in the late afternoon sun. She was on her belly, well hidden, with her hands crossed in front of her and her chin resting on top of them. The teen was content, laughing at the three kids as they laughed at themselves and their own shenanigans. Although, as one of the boys, maybe a year older than the other two, started to make his way towards the deeper area of the river, the mood took a massive left turn. Kai sat up, suddenly alert and ready to pounce. Her heart was thundering as the boy stumbled, but he didn't lose his balance yet. The others had noticed their friend wandered off into the more dangerous part of the river, where the current was starting to threaten to sweep him away.
They started to call out to him.
"Jacob!" the girl shouted worriedly. "Mamal senek non ta gaul taex faal!"
The older boy turned back and waved the girl down. "I menaal kainau."
Whatever the boy said caused the girl to just huff, sticking her hips out and giving him a disappointed look. Kai watched, her heart pounding.
Go back to the shallows, Kai urged mentally. She sat herself up straight, positioning herself so that she was standing up, ready to dive into the water at a dizzying height. Don't be an idiot and go back to the shallows.
Her heart was pounding as the boy lost his balance again, but this time he was carried away by the current. Kai was moving the instant the boy's head went under. The girl and boy had the same reaction as she did, although they didn't dive head first into the water.
The girl ordered the boy to do something. He nodded and dashed off in the direction opposite of the river while the girl followed perpendicular with the stream, shouting for the boy who went under.
Kai didn't hesitate to launch herself off the large tree branch, diving head first into the (thankfully) deep stream. She immediately caught the current and swam with it, using all of her natural prowess to catch up to the boy.
She could see him.
He was just up ahead, struggling to keep his head above the water but wasn't succeeding. He was getting tired, that much was clear by the fact that every time he went under it took him a bit longer to resurface. Kai kicked herself forward, catching the boy underneath his arms and hauling him upward.
The boy was limp.
Fear fueling her actions, Kai made it to shore. She carried the boy bridal-style as she walked a little way from the river. Though she wasn't affected by being underwater, she was trying to catch her breath from the excitement. Taking her mind off the what just happened, Kai set the boy down and began to resuscitate him.
Kai could hear the little girl getting closer and closer to here. She wanted to be nothing more than a faceless guardian angel.
"Jacob!" the girl shouted. "Jacob! Jacob, warlauk alu mayla?"
Come on kid, don't quit on me. Kai blew air into his lungs and started to pump again. He wasn't revived by the time the girl came, as Kai heard her gasp in shock. Briefly flicking her eyes upward, she took in the girl, breathless, sweaty and all cut up from running through the branches, before going back down to the boy who had gone dangerously pal.
"You won't take this one, you son of a bitch." She muttered, tears prickling behind her eyes as she remembered a Twi'lek child that she couldn't save. The Twi'lek had been caught in the middle of a battle and had a building collapse on him, trapping him in a pool. Kai had jumped to save him almost immediately, but couldn't resuscitate him in time.
He had died. Because of her.
Kai wouldn't let Death have this one. Never another child if she could help it.
With one more exchange of air and ten more pumps, the boy's color returned. A moment later, much to Kai's and the girl's relief, he sat up, vomiting the water he had swallowed while fighting for his life.
"Oh, Jacob!" the girl exclaimed as she launched herself forward to hug the boy. She sat there, rocking the boy, comforting and berating him at the same time while Kai fought to steady her hands. Never once in her years as a soldier did her hands ever shake.
So why do they shake now?
"Tankal owul."
Kai glanced up to see the two staring down at her. But with no fear in their eyes or swirling around them. "I'm sorry?"
"Tankal owul." The girl said slowly.
Kai smiled softly. "You're welcome."
"Jacob! Elise!"
The sounds of footsteps heading their way and the very adult sounding voices shouting, getting closer and closer to them, Kai stood up and shakily made her way back towards the river. She would have to go back downstream, which would be too hard to do since she was going to be going against the current.
Shit.
"PAPA! DON DELLA OLVEAR CHEEL!"
Kai was panicked now. And it was probably showing on her face because when the little girl turned back, the smile on her face died and she cocked her head questioningly.
"Wella vekal?"
A man's face appeared a moment later. Kai's heart stopped when she spotted the riffle that was suddenly pointed at her.
Time slowed down.
The girl shouted something in the negative when the gun went off with an ear-shattering BANG!
Kai, in an act of instinct, used the Force to stop most of the tiny shells that exploded from the muzzle. The majority of them were directed to the area around her while one lucky one (for the man that fired the weapon of course) clipped her in her shoulder. She fell backward, barely registering the pain as she scrambled to her feet.
Adrenaline was pumping through her for the third time that day as she, without thinking leapt into the river as the man fired off another shot. She fought the current, which was difficult to do, but her fight-or-flight instincts kicked in so that she was able to find her way back to the area where she started.
Kai crawled onto the bank and collapsed.
That's when the pain started. And boy howdy did it hurt like a bitch.
"AAAARRGGH!" She screamed. Kai clutched her bleeding shoulder, knowing that time was of the essence when it came to dressing a wound before infection set in.
And without too much medical supplies and being alone would definitely work against her.
Kai sat up and without hesitation, she tore off a strip of her fabric and tied off the bleeding wound. She could feel the small ball buried in her shoulder, but she would need to get back to the ship where she had her spare tweezers.
"Oh, this is going to hurt like a bitch!" Kai muttered as she stood, shaking from head to toe. Her stomach turned when she brought her hand her face and she saw the blood.
Kai was a soldier through and through.
She had seen men torn apart by explosions; their limbs scattered around the place as though they were nothing but rag dolls torn apart by a child. She had seen the battlefield multiple times; had seen the damage it could cause to both civilians and soldiers alike. Most of the time, Kai was lucky enough to escape with the minimum of scrapes and bruises.
Looks like her luck has run out.
Kai sobbed as she shuffled her way back to the cave. Every inch of her was shaking uncontrollably.
Shock. Her mind told her distantly.
Somehow, Kai made it back to her cave and collapsed in front of it. The last thought that happened to cross her mind was that she needed to hide in case those men came looking for her to finish the job before everything went dark.