(Rumblings in the Dark)
Areeva and I had been working for hours to help the citizens of Kalikori village, the sun had long since set and still we had not heard from Master Denai, the sky was dark and the torches at the edge of the village burned bright. I could sense the Twi'leks terror, at night was when the flesh raiders became vicious, even with me Areeva standing next to me and her lightsabers couldn't calm them. The flesh raiders cries rose up loud and violent in the distance. Strangely, the Twi'leks seemed more worried about us than the monsters in the woods.
"Areeva am I crazy, or do they not want us here." I said. Areeva sighed at looked at the ground for a bit.
"Master Denai said not to say anything..." She started, "There is a creature hunting us, in the last month several Jedi have gone missing, Padawans, Knights, even Master Kael, at some point during the night. Every night it is like darkness wakes up and starts hunting us; we can feel it even in the temple, it's this primal sort hunger and we have no idea what it is or where it could be."
"So they're afraid we are going to attract this creature." It suddenly made sense; in the daylight they wanted our help but a night we posed a greater threat than the flesh raiders. "Areeva, if this creature comes for us I have no way to defend myself."
I had no lightsaber, and I had only channeled the force on Iridonia when I was consumed by the rage and desire to save my brother. Areeva agreed to teach me enough to be able to defend myself even though she risked getting in trouble with her master, and for the next hour we sat in the middle of Kalikori and Areeva taught me how to awaken the force within myself.
"You're a quick study; pretty soon you'll be training along with the best of us." Areeva's lips twitched up into a half smile, as the boulders I had levitated around us began to swirl. I was starting to get the hang of this force thing after all. Suddenly Areeva stopped smiling; she got this terrified look on her face as if something had just gone terribly wrong. Then I felt it. I was as if all the energy had been sucked out of my body and only this gnawing hungry remained, an insatiable black pit the seeked to devour me.
"Its awake." Those fear soaked words were the only ones to leave Areeva's mouth. Her holocomm began to beep rapidly, and she quickly pulled it out of her pocket, It was Master Denai, "Areeva, you and Kradok must…. to the temp… before the te…" the comm shorted out.
"She wants us to return to the temple, we should hurry before we bring this beast upon my people." We went back to the taxi, but Areeva was unable to get it going, and while she was busy cursing the machine and trying to get it to work I noticed something altogether unsettling, "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Areeva said to me exasperatedly, she was angry. "No flesh raider cries." There was no noise everything seemed perfectly still and calm, with terror lurking in the shadows. Areeva's face became contorted with fear as if some dark realization crept into her mind. "It's coming… for us."
"I have to lure it away from my people, return to the temple, I'll join you as soon as I'm sure I've led it away." I tried to reason with her but she would hear none of and with that Areeva used the force and raced off into the distance, with only one problem. I had never been to the temple and had no idea where it was or how to get there. All the twi'leks had disappeared into their huts and there was no way they'd answer for me. I was going to have to find my own way to the temple.
I began to follow a path up a hill; it made sense to me that the Jedi academy would be at the top of mountain, sort of like a fortress, but as soon as I saw misshapen huts and rotting meat hanging from hooks I realized I'd gone the wrong way and was in the heart of flesh raider territory so I hurried along another path that led me through a forest and up against a waterfall I sensed that if I turned around and went the other way I'd find what I was looking for and the darkness seemed to have abated, but as I turned around a creature leapt down from the mountain side blocking my path. It was a large white monstrosity with a shield-like head with horns and teeth like pikes, its hands were enormous claws and its eyes were an endless, shapeless void that were staring directly at me.
I ran. I could hear its stomping along behind me and bellowing with rage, it was on my train following me into a cave above the waterfall; it was so dark I couldn't see where I was going but I was somehow able to navigate the pathways through the cavern. The creature was having trouble keeping up I could hear it running into walls and hitting its head on the lower overhangs. I emerged on the edge of a cliff, I couldn't see the bottom but I could hear rapids rushing below, I turned to see if I could run along the cliff side but the creature emerged from behind me, It was enraged, drool poured down from the edges of its mouth. I had no choice. I jumped off the edge of the cliff and fell into the rapids below.
I hit the water hard, doing my best to ignore the pain and remain calm all while keeping my head above water; the rapids took me under the mountain. It was impossible to see anything. Something in the water grabbed me, fearing it was the beast I tried to fight it off, but it overpowered me and swung me on its back and began to swim against the current, I could feel the scales on its skin as I swam, not out into the open but up a different path up into the dark, gradually I began to see a light, not a natural light, torches, lots of them ablaze in alcove up ahead.
I was then thrown up onto damp land; I turned around to help pull my rescuer from the water when something struck me from behind. I fell to the ground, a blinding pain emerging from the back of my head. I could hear them arguing over me in a language that sounded like gargling, one of them grabbed the back of my clothes, lifted my chest up off the ground and began to drag me deeper into the cave. Darkness crept in from the corner of my eyes, as I slipped into unconsciousness.