TRIALS PART 2: THE FOUR PADAWANS

Ganner Slarwalker

Haruun Kal

Two days later

The thing I remember most about Haruun Kal itself is the rain. Of course, the planet had more than one state of weather, but from when we landed until we left, it was a torrent. I was sent there along with three other Padawans to find an ancient temple and overcome the dangers inside. Accompanying me were Yula Ardinn, a female yellow Zabrak about a year younger than me, Bail Malakath, a stocky human male around three years older, and Tyrral Thraxton, a slender, male Miraluka.

I vaguely knew Yula as a pupil of a friend of Jason's, but I had no recollection of the others. Thus, I spent most of my time on the way there talking to her about the Trials, while Bail and Tyrral seemed content to be alone. Yula told me about the Trials she still faced?Flesh and Skill?and those of Bail, who she knew a little (Spirit and Insight). She didn't know anything about Tyrral, though, and it seemed he wanted to keep it that way.

Finally, I felt the impact of the surface, and we all rose. The four of us walked off the shuttle into the rainy jungle a few miles out from the temple (it was the closest place we could land). Yula spoke up first.

"Do you feel that?"

I looked into the Force, and felt the others do the same. Something was in the jungle, practically intangible. I couldn't sense an affiliation for either the Light Side nor the Dark. Whatever it was, it was almost certainly within the temple.

"What is that?" Bail wondered.

"Only one way to find out," I replied.

We made our way through the jungle until we reached a clearing and the temple was visible. It was made of faded yellow bricks and stood tall, seemingly unaffected by the rain it must have endured for generations. We stood there for a moment, taking it all in. The pure Force energy was almost overwhelming here and whatever this temple was, it was undoubtedly a place of great power. And it was calling me, trying to pull me in. The four of us exchanged looks, and together we entered.

The first room we entered was mostly barren, with doors leading into other rooms on each wall. In the center, however, was a small shrine with a blue pyramid-shaped device on it- a Holocron. Being the only one of us with much experience using Holocrons, Bail walked up to activate it. It projected an elderly Krevaaki.

"Hello," he said. "I am Bodo Baas. Bodo Baas knows all probable futures, from his time until a time lost in mists and shadows... I can help you."

We all had enough knowledge of the Jedi Order's history to know who he was.

"This isn't his holocron, though..." Yula stated, confused.

"You'll find this temple is more than capable of producing that which would seem...Improbable. However, at any rate, you didn't come hear to talk to an old man, I hope. Let's begin, shall we?"

The temple began to rumble around us, as though we were in an earthquake, and the door behind us closed.

"First, you must be divided into teams... How fortunate, a perfect quartet. The Guardian, the Shadow, the Sentinel, the Sage. " He pointed at Bail, then Tyrral, then me, then Yula.

"The teams shall be the Shadow and the Sentinel, and the Guardian and the Sage." I stood with Tyrral as Yula walked past me towards Bail. The walls to our left and right slid upwards to reveal dark, seemingly endless corridors.

"Let the Trials begin."

Bail and Yula walked off into the distance, and Tyrral and I began down our side. We walked in silence for an indistinguishable amount of time in the dimly lit corridor, waiting for our test to reveal itself. Tyrral seemed content to keep to himself, as did I.

We continued on until we reached a circular room, like an arena. Another door slid close behind us, leaving our only chance of escaping in front of us. From the ceiling, a large droid dropped. It landed on its feet, with an electrostaff in its hands. As I activated and raised my saber, dozens others fell from around me in a similar manner, with a varying assortment of weapons. As Tyrral began to reach into his bag for some sort of contraption we backed up towards each other. As one, they all closed in to attack. It didn't seem like Tyrral was going to be contributing much, so without really thinking I took it upon myself to take them all on in defense of him. "Whatever you're doing, do it fast," I warned him. The first came, and I struck it down with ease. Then two, then three, and so on. The onslaught of droids was much more than I had anticipated, and I felt myself getting cut and taking hits that would be bruises down the line, with no sign of the attack stopping. Slowly my senses all faded, leaving only the will to fight, and as I watched a blue pulse stop all the droids in their tracks, even that went.

Yula Ardinn

"Not gonna lie, I expected the Trials to be a lot more interesting than this." Bail simply wouldn't shut up. We walked through the torchlit walls, slowly turning green with the mosses of the jungle they had been in for so long.

"Paitence is a virtue," I reminded him.

"Yeah, but it's not exactly one of our Trials. Where are the obstaces? The enemies? The puzzles?"

Almost on cue, something slowly crawled out of the shadows in the distance. It was roughly my height. Lightly growling, with the light shining off its scales, I quickly identified it from my studies as an akk dog. They were native to this world. All I had to do was look it in the eye, and out of respect it would ignore me. As more crept out from behind it, I locked eyes with it. Immediately, behind me, Bail's lightsaber snapped to life. "Don't!" I yelled, but it was already too late. Ignoring me, the pack ran towards him. "Now this is more like it!"

He entered the frenzy, slashing away only to quickly realize the armor of akk dogs could handle lightsabers quite easily. Instead, he let out a large burst in the Force, pushing the dogs away from him on all sides. I took advantage of this moment to run to him and tackle him, causing his lightsaber to deactivate.

"What the-"

"Shhh! Look into its eyes!"

He stared at the dog, and it stared back, and they held this gaze for a minute. At the end, it let out a long howl and followed the others back into the shadows whence they came. After sitting there a moment in silence, Bail remarked, "Ya know, you could've told me that sooner."

Tyrral Thraxton

Panting and sore from fighting off robots, I laid Ganner down on the ground to catch my breath, holding my green lightsaber in one hand. The pulse bomb had taken out all the Magnaguards in the room, but as I pressed forward, more that were seemingly unaffected had occasionally leapt out from the shadows to attack me. Now, as I stoo here for a moment, everything was silent.

"A thousand Jedi died cursing Darth Desolus."

I turned around to view the source of the voice: an armor-clad Pau'an with a shield.

"Now you too will-"

I charged straight at him with the Force, knocking him off balance and making him drop the shield. Our lightsabers met as I went in for another strike, and he easily overpowered me, knocking me back several feet next to Ganner. He raised his saber high above his head and sent it crashing down in a vicious slash, which I barely held back with my saber, putting us into another saber lock. He pushed, bringing my own blade closer and closer to my neck. Just as I couldn't take anymore, Ganner suddenly got up, activated his own green blade and impaled him. WIth a face of pure shock, Desolus blew away into shadows.

Ganner grabbed my and helped me up.

"Even?" He asked.

"Even." I replied.

We proceeded through a doorway into the final chamber.

Another hologram of Bodo Baas awaited us eagerly. "Welcome," he greeted us. "I believe the others will be with us shortly."

"Looks like we did it," Ganner commented.

"Indeed," Baas replied, "But-" Baas was cut off by a series of booms in the distance getting louder by the second.

BOOM

BOOM

BOOM

BOOM

Bail crashed through the walls almost 45 degrees to the right of the doorway. A tall, black-robed and hooded figure with a red lightsaber leapt after him with Yula in tow. Ganner quickly Force pushed him out of the way. He skidded back a few feet and looked up, darkness still covering all but one bright yellow eye.

"More than one..." His deep voice muttered. Bail got up, and Yula caught up to us, and we all stood with our sabers ignited facing him.

"I can see the headlines now- four Padawans gone missing on their first mission to a Temple in the Mid Rim." He taunted us.

"Five," Baas replied. He drew a saber, and with a flash, he was no longer a hologram of the Jedi Master. As the disguise disappeared, he was revealed to be Qorbin. He activated his turquoise lightsaber.

"Can you take four Padawans and a Jedi Master?"

"I have before."

"Not this one."

The yellow eye scanned us up and down, deciding whether or not to attack. Finally, the hooded figure turned and walked back into the shadows.