The Most Dangerous Game
by RushlightPart 5
They sheltered that night in a shallow cave at the base of the peak. There was an underground river there, flowing sluggishly from the darkness out into the light, its low music echoing deep within the cavern. The fading sunlight cast a brassy tint on the dark stone of the cave's entrance, as if it were a halo of fire sealing them off from the outside world.
It was a pleasant illusion. Obi-Wan had had quite enough of Bealial's wildlife today and had no desire to encounter any more of it tonight. He still could not banish the image of his Master facing down the three maraken from his mind. He had a feeling it would haunt his dreams for a long time to come.
"Peace, Padawan."
Qui-Gon's quiet voice pulled him away from his musings, and he looked up into the older man's bearded face with a smile, pulling his knees up to his chest and resting his chin on them. "I can't help it, Master," he admitted as Qui-Gon moved to sit next to him. "You could have died."
"As could any of us. At any time." Qui-Gon pulled open the side of his robe, and Obi-Wan gratefully leaned into it, sighing happily as its soft warmth was folded around him. "Do not dwell on the past. Focus your energies on the present, and let the future take care of itself." It was a familiar lesson, and one which Obi-Wan struggled with often.
"Yes, Master." Obi-Wan closed his eyes and willed himself to let go of the fear that still echoed in him, allowing himself to enjoy the nearness of the man that he loved.
Around them, darkness was settling into the cave with the suddenness of a waiting assassin. Jerjenna and Ahkkara were outside guarding the entrance, while Karn slept in preparation to take the second sentry shift. Dr. Markham was rooting through their belongings in an attempt to scrape together enough food for the evening meal. Crispin was busy preparing a small fire by the river's edge, chasing the shadows away.
It was delicious to have water to wash in after the long day's march, although it did not provide the privacy of the pool they had bathed in the previous night. The memory made Obi-Wan smile. It had been an unexpected joy to find pleasure in the midst of so much horror, made even more poignant by its spontaneity.
Qui-Gon picked up on his student's thoughts and pressed a warm kiss to the younger man's ear, rumbling low in his chest. "I'll ask you to keep such thoughts to yourself, Padawan," he said with a growl, nipping playfully at the tempting lobe just a fraction of an inch away from his lips. "We'll hardly be able to give into such urges tonight, will we?"
Obi-Wan leaned further into his Master's embrace, chuckling softly. "That depends entirely on how discreet we can be..."
"Trollop." The accusation was filled with amused affection, and Qui-Gon rubbed his face lovingly against Obi-Wan's, tightening his arms around the warm body curled up against him.
They ate a warm dinner of vegetable stew flavored with herbs. Conversation was stilted between the weary members of the traveling party, although they all seemed to appreciate each other's company here in the uncertain dark. Dr. Markham used water from the river to clean out the wound in Crispin's leg, after which Qui-Gon examined it thoroughly with the Force and chased away the beginnings of any infection. Obi-Wan helped Dr. Markham insert the bacta implants and then bandaged the limb up firmly. By morning, Crispin should have almost full use of his leg again, at least temporarily.
Fortunately, Jerjenna's arm wound was not nearly so serious. Obi-Wan spared a thought for her as he cleaned up the last of the first aid supplies and received an answering rush of affection in reply. She felt cool and calm, as she nearly always did, and he took comfort from this, knowing that she would alert him and Qui-Gon immediately if there were any predators in the area. It was Karn's suggestion that the Jedi share responsibility for defense tonight. Apparently seeing them in action had convinced him that his charges were not helpless encumbrances to be coddled.
Qui-Gon had already bedded down in the curl of his robe, far back at the edge of the fire's light. He was scheduled to take second sentry shift with Karn, and he was desperately tired from the day's activities. Obi-Wan could feel the fatigue pulsing at the periphery of his thoughts, even as the man drifted off into a fitful slumber. He was tempted to join his Master, but he wouldn't be taking his shift until a few hours before dawn and so had a little time to relax before the need for sleep claimed him.
He noticed that Dr. Markham had also foregone the need for sleep. The scientist was sitting at the edge of the river, staring raptly into the flames of their small campfire. The orange glow colored his face in an odd light, reflecting in the deep orbs of his eyes. Behind him, the river surged darkly, almost a living thing in its endless quest for the valley below.
Obi-Wan moved to sit beside him, pulling the edges of his robe tighter around his body. As warm as this part of the planet became during the day, its nights were uncomfortably cool, especially up here in the mountains.
"Everything all right, Doctor?" It had to be asked; the man looked completely withdrawn, as if he were staring into his own atonement flame.
Dr. Markham blinked owlishly, startled. Apparently, he hadn't even heard Obi-Wan approach. He relaxed after a moment, but the troubled look did not fade from his features. "This is our last night before we reach Alpha Lab," he said quietly, his voice pitched low so as not to wake the others.
"Yes." Obi-Wan nodded solemnly. "We're making good time."
But Dr. Markham shook his head, clearly distressed. "I've never come this way at this time of year. Usually the thorne have migrated west to follow the herds, and it's a fairly clear hike to the village."
The thorne again. Obi-Wan felt a slow shiver of fear work its way through him, but he shoved it aside resolutely. "Surely there's some way we can sneak past them."
The scientist's eyes were haunted as he turned to look at Obi-Wan. "Luck, maybe. Other than that, I don't see any way to get through to the lab."
This admission shocked the young Jedi more than he cared to acknowledge. "What are you saying? That we're all going to die?"
Dr. Markham said nothing, and his eyes slid back to stare into the fire. After a moment, he whispered, "There's always a chance."
Not for the first time, Obi-Wan wished for an armored transport, complete with phase disruptor rifles that could blow Bealial's fauna out of existence when the need arose. It was a fleeting fantasy, however - he remembered all too well the holovid footage of the earliest settlers' attempts to use such devices. He could still remember the sound of claws ripping through tortured metal, peeling back the layers like flesh and exposing the screaming life within. Even independently generated forceshields were ineffective; their battery packs never lasted very long, and then the monsters were waiting. And any attempt to land a vessel outside of the cities unfailingly alerted every predator within a twenty-mile radius.
No, stealth was the only way. It frustrated Obi-Wan because he preferred to face his enemies openly. This slinking about in the shadows unnerved him, and he felt that he might almost welcome the chance to face some of these creatures in open battle.
"Get some sleep, Doctor," he urged, deciding at once to follow his own advice. He stood and laid a comforting hand on Markham's shoulder, then made his way to where his Master slept. Wearily, he spread himself out against Qui-Gon's lanky bulk and used his robe to cover them both. In sleep, Qui-Gon's arms moved around him, pulling him close. Obi-Wan snuggled back against that warm body and closed his eyes, breathing out deeply and trying to release his fears to the Force.
Even so, it was a long time before he fell asleep.
Morning dawned cold and grey, the clouds hanging low in the sky as if they meant to smother the paltry life that struggled for existence below. Obi-Wan greeted it stoically, although inside he shivered. His turn at sentry duty had passed uneventfully, and he had spent the time discussing alternatives with Crispin. It was an interesting mental exercise, planning for the road ahead, but in the end it solved nothing.
They ate a quick, cold breakfast and then started out at once. It was Qui-Gon who urged them on to the greatest possible speed, no doubt prompted by the thought of the lives that were slipping away with each passing hour on Rualyn. He seemed to take personal responsibility for each of them, an attitude that Obi-Wan was well familiar with. Qui-Gon would push himself and those with him to the very edge in an effort to twist fate to his advantage, and would very probably succeed, but he would berate himself for the loss of life that would still inevitably occur.
It was something that Obi-Wan sometimes had trouble accepting -not that he didn't feel for the citizens of Rualyn, because he did - but because he was somewhat more impassive in his perception of the Living Force. He would do his best to accomplish his mission, but he lacked the personal connection to it that Qui-Gon had.
As Dr. Markham had promised, the path up the mountain from this point was fairly effortless compared to the terrain they had traveled thus far. The trees grew thicker together here than they had in the valley, coating the ground in ever-present shadow, and this made the travelers wary as they made their way forward. A chill breeze moved through the drying leaves, cooling the sweat on their skin, and the sky when they glimpsed it was an ominous steel-grey.
It was not yet mid-afternoon when Dr. Markham called an unscheduled halt and motioned that they all gather around. He had grown more and more subdued the further they progressed up the mountain, and now there was a wild cast to his pale eyes as he faced them. His voice was even as he spoke, however.
"This is it," he told them quietly, darting quick glances around him at the surrounding foliage. "We're about two hours away from Alpha Lab. Your ship could have landed anywhere this side of the mountain, but if the crew's still alive, that's where they'll be." His voice grew even lower as he continued, "This is thorne country. Stay close together, and try to be as quiet as you can. These animals hunt by scent, but it won't hurt to be cautious."
Obi-Wan clearly heard the words not spoken: it probably wouldn't matter either way, but why not give it a shot? He wasn't quite sure whether to be irritated or horrified by the scientist's defeatist attitude.
They moved onward. Karn and Qui-Gon took the point position, Ahkkara and Jerjenna the rear. That left Obi-Wan in the middle with Crispin and Dr. Markham. He found his senses abnormally acute as he scanned the dense forest to either side, almost obscenely aware of the rough scrape of his tunic across his sweat-limned chest, the swish of his robe around his legs, the rustling crunch his boots made as they moved through the grass. His hand ached for the comforting weight of his lightsaber, and he gave into the impulse to reach for it, although he did not ignite it.
A couple of hours brought them to the outer edge of the town that the initial settlers of Bealial had constructed to live in while working at the lab, before the annual migrations had brought the thorne right to their doorstep. There were no walls - they had been easy prey to the predators that stalked these woods. The buildings looked empty; the jungle had grown up to and in some places over them, as if it sought to erase all traces of the interlopers who had dared to challenge its supremacy. The yawning, black doorways looked like the entrances to caves. Neither the Jedi nor their companions chose to go inside.
There were signs that the crew of the *Minuba* had been here recently. One door had been forced open. There was a scrap of cloth in Medcorps blue hanging off of a prickered vine. The wall and ground outside one building was stained dark with blood. The sight made Obi-Wan's blood run cold. If the thorne had been here that recently...
The silence was broken by a harsh scream. Obi-Wan turned in time to see Karn slide down a slope to a narrow alley between buildings below; something had hold of his leg. Obi-Wan tensed to run after him, but then Qui-Gon's arms closed over him, holding him fast. "Look," the bigger man hissed in his ear.
The thorne were emerging like wraiths from the jungle. Obi-Wan stared, his heart pounding, unable to count them all. They were four-legged, almost cat-like in their demeanor, covered in a thick coating of long, rust-colored fur. Tall ears cupped and twitched as they observed their prey, long muzzles lifting to scent the air as they moved in ghost-like silence through the foliage. Even as he watched, a few of them drew back into a hind-legged stand, proving that they were capable of bipedal movement as well. Obi-Wan was hypnotized by their slitted eyes, the slow, snake-like movements of their heads. This was Death incarnate come to claim them.
Jerjenna surged forward at the Outrider leader's anguished cry, but Dr. Markham's hands clamped over her arms with bruising force, stopping her dead in her tracks. She whirled on him furiously, but he only shook his head impassively. "You'll never reach him," was all he said. His voice sounded hollow.
Now she noticed the creatures emerging out of the forest around them. They were oddly beautiful, in the way that a poisonous flower would be beautiful, all deadly grace and softness overlying the iron-hard strength of their hunger beneath. It awed her that she had not heard them approach - there were so many of them.
Then Karn screamed again, and the spell was broken. She twisted in Markham's grasp, but he refused to let her go. Furious, she swung her elbow up across his jaw, and he gasped in pain, releasing her convulsively. Ignoring Qui-Gon's mental order to keep still, she jumped forward down the slope and landed on top of the nine-foot-tall monster that was eating Karn alive. It shrugged her off, but she managed to keep hold of her staff as she hit the ground. Without pausing, she used the momentum of her roll to swing upwards, putting her entire weight behind the blow, and caught the creature upside the head. It squealed and went down.
It was up again before she could blink, and she reached instinctively for the small hunting knife that was sheathed at her thigh. When the thorne came at her, she lashed out, catching it across the top of one forepaw. It danced back hurriedly, eyeing her with a new caution - this unassuming-looking creature had claws.
The others scrambled down to where she was, Ahkkara and Crispin pulling Karn back into the center of their protective huddle. The thorne were all around them now in a loose semi-circle, the hill shielding their backs, but there were still more of the thorne peering down from the top of the slope. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan both had their lightsabers out, standing at each other's backs behind her to form the points of their usual fighting triangle.
/That was foolish, Padawan,"/ Qui-Gon admonished, without taking his eyes from the animals around them.
Jerjenna was in no mood for his lectures. /I saved his life, Master./
/I'm not contesting that, Jerjenna. But I would have preferred to make a concentrated effort./
Behind the glacial disapproval of those words, she sensed the feelings that lay beneath them, and it warmed her. He really did care about her. For some reason, this realization surprised her.
"Why do they not attack?" Karn's voice was ragged where he lay on the ground behind them, Crispin and Ahkkara standing protectively to either side, weapons in hand.
Even as he spoke, the one that Jerjenna had hit snapped at another thorne that got too close. "This one's the alpha female," Dr. Markham said slowly, his voice hesitant as he thought it through. "Jerjenna challenged her; she won't let the others attack until she does."
"So if Jeri kills her, they'll let us go?" Obi-Wan said hopefully.
"No. They'll just dissolve into anarchy, and we'll all die horrible, bloody deaths. If Jerjenna loses, we still die." Dr. Markham shrugged. "I told you the game would be over if we ran into them." His voice was regretful, but with a curious lack of fear. Jerjenna struggled to follow his example and somehow exist outside of her own wild terror.
It was like being back on Eoai, only this time she was the one cornered by the night's creatures, and all of those deaths that she had heard screaming their way into eternity were now hers. Her tunics clung to her in a thick sheen of sweat, and her staff felt huge and cumbersome in her hands. There was no way she could fight these things. There was no way in the galaxy she could possibly hope to win against them.
Then she felt a dual touch of love and warmth and confidence, enfolding her, supporting her when she would otherwise have fallen. She felt tears sting her eyes as she accepted it, returned it, and focused on the mental embrace of the two men who meant more to her than anything else in the world. She could feel both of them, here with her in her mind. One tall and sharp, a sheathed blade of unsurpassable beauty and light, teacher, mentor, father. The second presence was warmer, brighter, more fire and less air, but no less beautiful for the youthful passion that burned within it.
And she loved them both. That she should come to this realization here, now, when none of them would ever be able to see where it might have led them, was both horrible and sad.
/Have faith, Padawan,/ Qui-Gon sent to her in mild rebuke. His thoughts as they stroked through her were full of love and trust, an acknowledgment of everything that she was, and even more importantly, acceptance of it. Light and dark, good and bad, he knew every part of the mystery that was Jerjenna Jaken and loved her all the same. She was humbled by it.
/A presentiment, Master?/ she couldn't help but ask.
/There's always a chance./ Obi-Wan's mental voice was vaguely amused. He sounded as if he were quoting somebody.
Then the thorne attacked, driving all other thoughts from her mind. She barely managed to react in time, despite her readiness, dodging the creature's snapping jaws and grabbing hold of the shaggy fur around its neck to hold the lethal head away from her body, by necessity letting her staff fall gracelessly to the ground. The beast bucked under her, trying to dislodge her grip, but she sank her fingers as deeply into its undercoat as she could, curling them like claws, too terrified to let go because it would mean facing those biting jaws. She screamed in pure terror of those teeth as she wrapped her body around its head. The beast reared back on its hind legs, stretching to its full nine-foot height, and the earth swam dizzyingly under Jerjenna's head. Her weight finally overbalanced the thing, and they both went down in the dirt.
The tableau was broken, and the rest of the thorne moved in for the attack. Weapons fire rang out in a violent display of flashing muzzle fire, illuminating the half-light under the trees with a wicked red glow, crossed by the hissing blue and green slash of lightsabers. One of the thorne screamed, then another, but whenever one went down three more rose to take its place.
Jerjenna's attention was focused entirely on the writhing, thrashing creature beneath her. It finally managed to dislodge her, but she went flying out of immediate reach. She hit the ground with bruising force but didn't stop to think about it, rolling to her feet and then continuing the motion to run for her life. The thorne would be right behind her, she knew, though she didn't dare stop to look. Three more steps, and she jumped to catch the edge of a roof on one of the buildings, pulling herself up. The thorne, even closer than she'd imagined, was caught by surprise and crashed into the wall of the building before Jerjenna's feet cleared the edge. The tactic only bought her a second, but she used it to scramble in through an upstairs window. The thorne was right behind her, but it was too large to fit through the window. It howled in frustration.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10