CHAPTER IX – INSIDE THE MOUNTAIN

As Mina and Kei walked deeper into the tunnel, the darkness became thicker. It sucked the air and light out of everything and they had to use the Force to augment their breathing and their lightsabers cast no light at all. They stopped for a moment, making sure to clear their minds and calm their spirits. Kei removed some small green leaves from a pouch on his belt. He crushed them in his hand and stuck them in his mouth. He grabbed a few more leaves, crushed them and gave them to Mina, feeling for her in the dark. In a few seconds, they were able to breathe normally.

"Kote Leaves", Kei said telepathically. "It's a sacred plant on my home world, used as medicine for extreme altitudes and travelling underwater. It wears out after a while and I don't have much left. Let's move". Mina was grateful for the medicine and they both began to feel out against the walls. The tunnel seemed endless and had sharp turns, inclines and areas they had to carefully climb, all in the thick suffocating darkness. They reached out with the Force and felt a concentration of life all around them, though the tunnel felt silent and dead.

After about an hour of travelling through the nightmarish maze, they ran out of Kote leaves and the darkness was not letting up. As they stopped for a moment, they realized that their boots felt wet and a strange odor began to penetrate the air. Kei leaned against the wall of the tunnel, focusing his breathing. As he leaned on it, the tunnel bucked slightly and then lurched.

As they had travelled through the endless tunnel, it had crossed the minds of both warriors that they might have entered the innards of a large creature. They took a few more steps and realized they could no longer breathe. The tunnel began to quake violently and contract. They were nearly crushed. Kei and Mina quickly ignited their lightsabers and slashed into the walls on either side of them, creating a full circle.

The walls opened up into a large red and pinkish area. Their lungs filled with air once again and they fell onto a wide moist floor that felt soft under their feet. The lighting in the room they were in changed brightness with each step they took. They had a clear slimy substance all over them. The warriors looked up to look at the area they fell out of and realized that the "tunnel" they had been walking in this whole time was actually the intestines of an immense creature. They took a look around and it appeared that they were somewhere inside the creature's body.

As their eyes adjusted to the strange light, they noticed that the terrain around them was all made up of moist lumps and pulsing veins. A bolt of electricity shot from one of the lumps toward them and Kei blocked it with his saber. They moved as one further up the large chamber of flesh and electricity chased them violently. They blocked and cut through soft slimy flesh, blood and gore covering their clothes.

The electricity began to come down from up top, so they hacked away to their side, more gore raining down on them. The room shook wildly as they cut away, Sliding through layers of fat and flesh. The electricity didn't follow into the hole they made, but they were constantly pressed by the space they were hacking. Just as they felt like they were going out run out of air, they felt their blades cut through stone and they spilled out onto a ledge far up on the mountain.

They clutched onto the edge for dear life. They were covered in gore and it was hard to keep their grip on the slick rocks. They realized that they had indeed made it to the other side of the mountain, but they were way higher up than they needed to be. Nothing could survive the fall. As they contemplated their next move, the mountain shook violently and the rock wall they were clinging to exploded. The giant creature they had been inside of burst through the side of the mountain and revealed its giant form.

The massive reptilian creature pushed its bloated body out from inside the mountain. It opened its huge jaws and swallowed Kei, Mina and much of the debris flying around them. It roared and sent plumes of pinkish smoke flying into the air, electricity crackling across its gargantuan body. The two warriors were like mere insects in proportion to its size.

Kei and Mina tumbled down the beast's throat, which was so massive; there was nowhere to cling to. Giant pink clouds of smoke came from the creature's innards. The smoke clouded all of their senses. Mina was flung into the side of the giant throat and she used the opportunity to begin attempting to slice her way out with her lightsaber. She was able to create a small opening and crawled through it, boring with her blades until she reached the outside. Kei was nowhere to be found. The pink smoke continued to cloud her senses and she couldn't feel his presence.

As the creature made its way out of the mountain, a second, even larger creature of the same species began crawling out from inside the mountain and bit into one of the lizard's tails. The creatures were covered in blue scales and had black nails and teeth. They had no visible eyes and each one had two long tails. The larger of the two blew out plumes of green smoke. The smaller reptile let out a screech and tried to escape, but its tail was shredded. The larger creature pushed its way out of the mountain and the ground trembled.

Mina hung from one side of her double-bladed saber, the other side stuck into the hide of the massive beast. The blade began to slide and spark at it cut down the side of the creature's massive neck. She felt the mountain quaking, but could not see what was causing it due to the massive lizard's body blocking her view. Its body lurched and slid and let out a horrible sound. That's when she saw the larger monster beginning to make its way out of the mountain. Its gigantic body was causing everything to shake and it was biting into the creature she was on.

The creature she was on swung its neck around to defend itself and sunk its teeth into the other monster, tearing one of its front arms off. The lurching of its head almost threw Mina off it, but she used the momentum to jump higher up onto the creature. She climbed as quickly and as high as she could, but she was losing stamina. As she took one last huge leap into the air, the larger of the two creatures let out a massive electrical charge, causing the other creature's head to partially explode.

Mina's hearing went blank. The creatures locked onto each other in brutal battle and part of the mountain began to crumble. Mina found herself being flung through the air, her world a mass of blood, gore and stone. Another massive wave of electricity caused by the monsters hit somewhere near where she was tumbling and her thoughts suddenly shifted to Kei. She felt him somewhere near. Another wave of electricity hit, causing more gore to rain down and everything went black.