Plo Koon watched from the hut's window as the villagers assembled around the campfire. The day's assigned hunters had just arrived back a quarter hour earlier with their prey. While the adults skinned and prepaired the three impaled, ungulate animals, farther away at the villageborder, the children were playing around the pile, watched by the elders, who were prepairing the thimiars.

The Togruta were mostly nomads, born predators and exclusively carnivorous, and as such, they usually prefered rare meat. If they were on the move, they didn't bother with bigger animals, nor did they organised hunting groups. After they encamped for night, the young adults left and caught as much of the uncountable rodents inhabiting their planet, as much their respective family needed for dinner, and during the next day. However, if they settled down somewhere for a longer period, they normally fried their meal, but they still left it so much underdone, most species wouldn't really count it cooked at all. They didn't domesticate animals, nor did they store food for more than one day. If the prey seemed to lessen, they simply moved to new hunting grounds.

As Plo watched the peaceful scene, he couldn't help, but feel the twinge of fear. He had a feeling something terrible was going to happen. Since his fighter had broken down very early during his pursuit after Sul's descending shuttle, he didn't have a clue, whether she had been able to land, or if the ship had been destroyed beforehand. And if she had managed to save the ship, where did she arrive? If only he was able call for help from the Council, or at least inform Shili's goverment…Unfortunately, the village was thousands of miles away from the nearest town, and the villagers did't have neither a transmitter, nor any kind of vehicles, with the exception of a few handbarrows.

„Koh-toh-yah, Littleone." he said when senced the presence of the same child from earlier, as she tried to peep in, through the slightly openned door. Hearing his voice must have scared the girl for a moment, because she quickly shut the door close, just to open it a second later, and tuck her head in. She was a curious little girl, and she was trying her best to hide the small, mischievous smile, playing around her mouth. She was small, even for her age, a few inches below three-feet. She had rusty coloured skin, with two pairs of symmetrical white stripes on her face: one pair was wriggling on the middle of her forehead, snakeing down to and all the way along on her eyebrowbones, and another pair, shaped like arrowheads, one on both her cheeks. She also had two romb shaped white dots, one on both sides of her forehead, positioned between the two wings of the stripes. Her headtails barely reached down to her eyebrow bone, while her horns were nothing more, than tiny bulbs on the top of her head. Despite his worries, Plo had to smile, as he watched the toddler enter, everslowly, ready to run, should he make a move. When he looked in the child's big, gazing, blue eyes, he found it really hard to believe what he had been told about her. He tried to sence her through the Force, and he froze when he touched her Force-shape. Ordinarly, the waves of the Force simply flew through a being, who –depending on his or her potetial and experience- had the ability, to manipulate those waves to one degree or another. But this child…Plo could only compare her Force-presence to the pulsation of a neutronstar. She drew the Force in, spun it around, let the whirling vortex flew through and spin all-around her, and then let it return to it's normal flows. Except the waves she caught were distorted from their original currents. Not just that, but it was almost like the thing in the center of vortex, was trying to isolate, and contain itself from the rest of the Force, by the whirling it created in it...

Flashback

„How can you be so sure? What were those two signs?" Plo asked Nikana „According to the legend the first sign would have been the recognation Shili's four servant spirits. But the legend says nothing concrete about who would they be? So how can you know?" the Togruta just smiled

„We hadn't known either, who those spirits are, before Anakta was born. Shili has many servants, some you'd never guess to be. But in the moment Anakta's mother died, following her delivery, four of them showed up. The fires in the village –even the smallest ones- flashed up to thirty feet, with sapphire flames. The water erupted from the brooklet and from all containers into a waterspout of the same size, and it glowed with red light. The earth shook, and a lone cliff emerged from the ground, sparkling from all the ores, the earth could possibly contain. A twister emerged, and whirled in one place, sending chains of lightning up to the sky, thundering like thousand other storms combined. Hearing the riot, they caused between the villagers, weran out from the hut, with the newborn on my arms. She cried up. Her face glowed up. The four phenomena changed their shapes, they became like giant Togruta. They bowed towards Anakta, and dissappeared. There is no doupt about it. They were Shili's strongest servants Aû, Ilié, Zána and Næy: the spirits of fire, water, earth and wind."

End Flashback

The girl reached his berth, and looked up to him quizzically. Her undisguised curiosity made Plo smile behind his mask.

„So, what is it you wish, child?" the girl replied with a line of thrills, and pointed on his mask and googles. Plo guessed she wanted to know why is he wearing them. However, before Plo could answer, Nikana stepped in:

„Anakta! Plo Juinan inenphii-zilia. Zilida moo taunna!" the girl's smile turned into a peevish grimace, but spun around and ran out without arguing. When she left, Nikana switched back to Basic:

„Sorry about that, Master Plo. Our children tend to be even more curious, than other people's."

„It's all right. Who's been raising her?"

„I have. Well, since my mother died, a year after her birth, that is. She is almost like my own. Why do you ask?"

„I've examined her presence in the Force. She's special, no doupt about it. Perhaps…" he let the sentence hang unfinished in the air. Nikana understood.

„You'd like to take her with you? To raise her as a Jedi?" she almost sounded to be begging.

„I…don't know, yet. I said she's special. But I'm not sure she's meant to become Jedi. Her Force-shape is not at all like a Force-sensitive's. Did she do anything less unusual, since the seconf sign? Since… she stopped that wild fire two years ago? Like moving objects with her mind, or reading the thoughts of others?" Nikana stepped next to him, and looked out of the window. Anakta was playing with the other children.

„Yes. After she stopped the fire, for two months, she could lift objects and other Togruta up from the ground, without touching, or even looking at them. But then it faded away. This ability of her's, had never shown up before that time, and hasn't since then either. However, her sences are rivaling our best hunters. They always did. I know this much: she wasn't born to live here with us, as an average Togruta. If she's the Linarali, she shouldn't stay here. Even the legend says: she'd leave her home with a warrior, who'll take her to a place, where she'll meet her destiny." Plo could see tears in her eyes.

„But you don't want it to happen, right?" Nikana looked at him.

„As I said: she's like my own daughter. I know she isn't, and that she has something important to do. But it doesn't make me feel any better, when I think about her leaving. However, if she has to, I'll handle it. I'm more worried about the villagers' reaction. I don't think they'd like the idea. They deify her. I doupt they'd leave her departure without harsh words at the very least." Plo sighed:

„For now, you don't have to worry about that. I won't be able to travel for weeks, at the best. And even after I've healed up, it would be hard to leave with my ship being a wrackage."

„There's another village, not too far away from here. A quick-legged, healthy Togruta adult, who can run whole day long, could get there in fifteen days. They've a transmitter there. I've already dispatched a messanger, to deliver the message. With the transmitter, they could call Cover City, which is about ten-thouasnd miles away from here, from where they could inform the Jedi Order, about your being here. I also told him to warn the Jedi about those beasts you're so worried about."

„Fifteen rotations, until they receive the message. That's equal to about seventeen standard days, and another six, until the rescue team arrives- assuming the messenger won't be killed by Sul or her terentateks. Or another beast, that dwells on these savannas." Plo thought desparetly.

The door openned, and a young male entered. He called Nikana there. They spoke for a few minutes, then he handed over something to her and left. Nikana turned around, with Plo's lightsaber in her hand.

„He had found it, between what's left from your ship." she said, and gave it back to the Jedi. Plo didn't have to try, and ignite it. He could see, it was broken. „This is getting worse by the minute."

Night fell down to the small village. Most of it's inhabitants were already asleep, with the exception of the unusually high number of guards. After Nikana explained the situation to the adults, they decided to stricken the protection of the village. The guards were armed with about a dozen blasters, vibroaxes and other junky weapons the village had. Most of the weaponry must had been centuries old, but –through some miracle- they still operated. The only modern weapons they had, were two blaster riffles, which had been bought by a man, when he had been in Cover City a few years prior. They also had more „traditional" weapons: spears, bows and aroows.

Plo Koon was awake as well. He was trying to repair his lightsaber, with parts the villagers brought to him, from the remains of his fighter. Fortunately, the Crystal didn't break in the lightsaber, that gave him some hope. The Kel Dor was heavily concentrating to his work, he didn't let his worries, nor the pain in his right arm and chest, to disturb him. He didn't pay attention to the spreading numbness in his left upperarm, where the poison from the terentatek's scratche entered his body. Now, that the weak antidote's effect wore off, the venom started eat away his nerves and muscles. Nikana's herbals barely could slow it down. But he didn't care. There was too much at stake. Finally, after hours of intense work, he was ready. Plo had no doupt about that, he would have to replace his ligthsaber, once he'd had gotten back to the Temple, but for the time being, at least that damaged, old one worked. Plo relaxed his stiff muscles, after the long, tiring labor.

The night was silent. In fact, taking to account, that they were in the middle of a savanna, with rich wildlife, it was too silent. Plo extended the reach of his Force-sences, but he couldn't feel anything suspicious. Still, the twinge in his heart told him otherwise. He stood up, and turned around:

„I had a feeling you've survived." he said. Sul was standing in front of him. Her once beautiful face was distorted beyond recognition. Her left eye stared blidly into the distance, while the skin around it was horribly burnt. Her right montral missed it's top half, and her head-tails were full of fresh and deep scars. Her righ arm was hanging spasticly, while her left knee was barely supporting her. Both were visibly broken. Her cloathes soaked in her blood. Her facial expression, spasmodic breathing and the feverish look in her one remaining eye, left little doupt: she was dying.

„Where are your pets? I thought you wanted to use them to track down Force-sensitives." Plo asked.

„They died, just as you planned it, Master." she replied. She compressed so much hate, disgust and disdain in the last word, that it made Plo shiver. However he answered calmly:

„I did what I had to. I'm sorry, Sul. Your fall to the Dark Side, is without doupt my failure as a teacher. Now, you'll have to pay the price, for my mistakes." he ignited his ligthsaber. Then he gripped Sul through the Force, and threw her out of the hut. He went after her. She didn't try to hide or evade the meeting. She drew her weapon too, holding it in her left. They clashed. And she was laughing. After a few pairies Plo broke through her defense, and impaled her on his lightsaber.

But Sul only laughed, and tried to strike the surprised Kel Dor. Plo cautiously evaded, trying not to overstrain his injured body. Thinking her last attack had been her final, he turned to her, being sure about that she was already on the ground. But Sul laughed maniacly, and ambushed him again. Her broken right arm trusted forward, she Force pushed Plo with unimagineable strength, slamming him into a tree. The Jedi Master groaned as he felt another couple of his ribs break. And Sul was closing by to him, laughing on that dry, joyless tone. Somewhere in the darkness, a blaster barked up. Red jets of light struck Sul. But she just laughed and continued to walk towards her Master. One clear, twang, and a long arrow hit Sul's skull across. But she did't stop, only laughed histerically.

„What kind of Black Arts is this?" Plo asked. Terror clenched his hearth. In this minute dozens of ten feet tall monsters, armed with gigantic claws and tusks stepped out from the darkness, and into the light of the village's campfires. Sul snickered.

„Have I forgotten to mention, that I had found Darth Sion's Holocron?" Plo paled.

„You didn't…" he said deningly. Sul laughed, but now that Plo was listening closely, he realised it was more of a powerless scream of endless agony.

„I sure did. No matter what would you do, I won't die." she reached up, and with a sickening plop, she pulled the arrow out of her head. She stepped to Plo, and whispered menacingly:

„You can't kill me, because I'm already dead." she pointed on the terentateks „And so are they…"

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