By now, another half an hour later, panic had taken over my senses, and I had to do everything in my power to suppress it. Around me, the jungle was too quiet, the air felt too heavy, and the Force, which should have been smooth, had changed, becoming just another thick, sluggish thing that pulled at my focus instead of sharpening it.
Or was it another creation of the panic that wanted to consume? It could be both... No. I had to control my mind! So, I forced myself to close my eyes.
"Focus."
I dropped to one knee, pressing my hand into the mossy earth, trying to feel and anchor myself into reality. It looked like it was working because my breathing slowed as I kept exhaling. One, two, three... I recalled the grounding techniques Master Ben taught me as a child, how to isolate the influx of emotions, be it mine or others, box it, and set it aside. Right then, I was trying to look at it as if fear is information, not a command. I shouldn't let my body follow its path.
"Come on, Kael," I exhaled through my nose, reaching inward. "Think," I whispered to myself. "There is a reason behind what is happening. Find your way back..."
The last place I remembered clearly was the ridge near the glade, where the moss began to glow. I had walked northeast... I thought. Maybe.
"Where was I?" I wanted to ask while I opened my eyes.
The jungle hadn't changed, or it had changed, but I couldn't recall how. That was the most troubling.
There was no sense of direction in my head. By now, the vines twisted upward unnaturally, and the roots of trees began forming paths that led nowhere. As if they were trying to make me lose even more. I tried using the Force to orient myself once again, to draw a thread toward either my Master, HK, or anybody, but it was like pushing into syrup, and instead of guiding me, it was bogging me down.
"Damn..." There was no guidance in the Force anymore; there was just misleading assurance if I let it get hold of me. "Or am I paranoid?"
This was why I slowly began panicking again. I couldn't be sure. Not even in myself!
Still, I can't just sit down and cry, waiting for someone to come and get me... So, I stood and began moving, step by step. I went left, then right, avoiding the twisted roots, looking for landmarks that repeated, counting steps, and leaving shallow scratches on the bark when I passed. It was the best I could do, but I was unsure if those marks could even stay and not be wiped away with... whatever it was that place had in store for me.
Time lost all meaning. My trek through this hot, humid jungle felt like it took hours. My legs ached, my breathing was hard, and my body sweated under my robes, making me thirstier with every passing second. Once, I found a still pool, and with how parched I was, I drank from it, hoping it was safe. It tasted clean and somewhat cool... but I didn't trust that either in the back of my head.
Eventually, the jungle thinned enough for light to filter down. It was... close to sunset. I stood on a shallow rise of stone, overlooking what could generously be called a clearing. Wherever our landing spot was, I somehow managed to totally miss it and end up... who knows where.
It was empty, of course. There was no ship, no camp, or ruins. No one was there.
"Okay," I muttered. "We do it the hard way."
I moved to the edge of the clearing and knelt again. I began setting up the smallest perimeter possible. I placed three field markers from my belt, forming a triangle. It was not much, but it was enough for a safety net if I had to camp here. I was just about to activate the shelter capsule when I heard it again.
A voice... a whisper. It was different now, as it had some kind of urgency. It was like the feeling of someone else, thoughts maybe. But it was muffled and jumbled. But it was the feeling of a presence. Trying to focus on it, I could tell that its owner was cautious, and then whoever it was... noticed my presence. I turned toward the direction it came from, somewhere in the northwest, maybe. Whoever it was, I wanted to see it, so without really thinking about it, I stepped silently into the ferns.
I moved slowly, one hand resting on the hilt of my saber. Being back under the canopy of the trees, the jungle darkened... and... Then, I saw it.
There it was. A figure, moving between the trees.
At first, it was just a silhouette, vaguely humanoid, but something about its posture, stance, and limbs felt off. Not because they moved unnaturally, but because of the posture and the small twitches. Somehow, it reminded me of something. I was about to recall what it was when the snap-hiss of a lightsaber igniting cut through the air, throwing all my thoughts into disarray. When I saw the red blade in the jungle's darkness, my instincts and fear took over.
My own saber was in my hand before I thought about it, the familiar hum of the pinkish-blue blade casting an opposing array of light against the moss. We were facing each other now, measuring the distance and the possibilities...
Looking at it, this... thing was cloaked in shadow, a faceless creature, the red blade held low in a reverse grip.
"Stop!" I stepped forward. "Identify yourself!" I tried to call out, pushing down my fear, remembering that we were here with Vestara's people. Could it be someone she sneaked on the ship? Maybe... Or someone came down to look for us? Once again... maybe.
But there was no answer. Not verbally, at least, but it did attack me.
The first strike was high, an overhead swing, then a sudden flip into a low horizontal sweep. I blocked both, sidestepping, my feet pivoting into the familiar dance of my Makashi's form. My saber flowed with minimal effort, redirecting each aggressive slash as I tried to get a feeling for my opponent's style before devising a method to disarm him. Or her.
Whoever this was, they moved fast. Aggressive but controlled.
I recognized the form after the fourth exchange: Ataru.
My opponent moved with flips, spin kicks, and strikes from above and below in quick succession. Its motion was both graceful and wild, a perfect juxtaposition bordering on recklessness at times. The hallmarks of Form IV... familiar hallmarks, in fact. There was a certain skill and precision, and my defense against it wasn't improvised. It felt... natural. It knew this form. I could see what would come next.
Strike. Parry. Lunge.
I twisted, deflected, and cut low. My own Makashi movements gave me an economy of motion, conserving my energy while expandingon my opponents. With that, I stepped out of range again and again, redirecting rather than clashing.
Strike. Parry. Lunge.
Again...
The figure pressed on, having the same type of rhythm against me as I had against... her?
And then, it ignited a second saber. A second red saber... My eyes widened as the fight intensified.
Now, my opponent came at me like a berserker, the sabers slicing in arcs of twin blades, one from each side, spinning and cutting from angles that forced me to retreat in a great hurry. Still, it felt so, so familiar... It wasn't hard to adapt at all, extending my reach, adjusting my footwork, and narrowing my profile in just a few strikes.
Once again, I was feeling like I knew what would come next. I lunged, parried, then twisted low and swept one saber away—just as the second came from above, forcing me to spin aside.
Then it finally clicked.
A flick of the wrist, a spin of the heel, followed by a strike from a left-handed upward cut. I had seen this movie before... I knew it. My saber locked against hers, and in that moment, I felt it as clearly as I could, not through the Force, but in muscle memory, in the tilt of the hips, in the drop of the shoulder.
"Vila?" I asked, but the figure didn't stop.
Well... not immediately, but something changed. The strikes came slower this time around, more probing than attacking, less committed... Hesitant.
"Vila—it's me!" I shouted, breaking our next saber lock and stepping back.
But the red sabers came again, still, not as fast and not as precise. I don't know if she could hear me... or sense me. But maybe she also realized something. Was it really her? Now, I wasn't sure what I was looking at.
The face was still in shadow, a distorted mess, just like her body, but the stance... the posture... It was Vila, alright.
A memory of our constant sparring was like second nature. The two of us sparred in the Temple's training fields enough, laughing between feints and light taps. I knew her footwork, her timing, and her lekku's twitch. I could recognize it even if I were blind.
And this was all of it. I wasn't just fighting someone who resembled her; I was sure of that. I was fighting her.
Or... something that wanted me to think I was.
No. Enough doubting of my thoughts! I had to trust my gut feeling because that may be my true connection to the Force... not... not what this place had in store for me. Also, I think, even if she couldn't hear me, seeing me as I was seeing her now... She had to realize the same thing.
So, lowering my saber, I backed away. Of course, I didn't extinguish the blade; I just held it defensively. The figure mirrored me just the same, breathing hard, shoulders rising and falling... something twitching.
"Say something," I said.
Then, another twitch, and one blade disengaged. Then the other. Without waiting, I did the same, retracting my blade, looking at her shaded figure, trying to see through the dark.
For a long moment, we stood there in silence, sabers disengaged, the jungle surrounding us. I didn't move; I just tried to reach out to her. But I couldn't connect... However, I could hear her breath... It was ragged, fast, and, of all things, familiar.
Her shadowy figure shifted just then, her head tilting as if she, too, were trying to see me clearly. I was now convinced she saw me as I saw her... something weird. Distorted. We both had to be still surrounded by that strange haze, the lingering remnants of the illusion… but something was cracking in it. I could sense it dissipating.
"Vila," I said again, softer now, reaching out with one hand.
She flinched, just barely, but I saw it, a twitch in her lekku and then a half-step forward.
"It's me," I added, "Kael."
Then, slowly, I took a step forward. I kept my saber down while my mind raced and tried to dissuade me from what I was doing. What if I was wrong? What if this was another trick? What if stepping forward meant the difference between clarity and disaster? What if she kills me?
No. Enough already!
I trusted her, and that was the key. We'd fought side by side many times. We trained together since we were kids... I knew how she moved, how she thought. She would recognize me. She had to. Stop making me doubt myself!
Another step.
Finally, the distortion rippled like smoke being blown away in a sudden gust of wind. I blinked as the blackness peeled away in big strips, falling from her shoulders, her lekku, her face, until there she was.
Vila.
She was sweating, panting, pale, and looking panicked, but she was indeed herself. Just like that, I exhaled, and my knees almost gave out from the sudden release of tension. Of course, she looked at me like I was a ghost—her eyes were wide, and her lips were quivering.
And then, without another word, she ran at me.
Without igniting her sabers. She just… sprinted the last few steps and slammed into me, arms wrapping tightly around my chest, burying her face into the crook of my shoulder. With a surprise, my saber fell from my hand, hitting the mossy ground with a dull clunk.
I froze for a second, then wrapped my arms around her in return, feeling she was... scared... She was shaking. So was I... This place put fear in both of us, and I could guess the type of panic she had to experience. I went through it, too.
"I thought—" she began, but her voice broke.
"I know," I whispered back, fingers tightening against her back. "It's alright."
She clung to me like I was the only solid thing left in the world, and maybe, for a moment, I was. For sure, it felt like that... Just like she was for me. I didn't care that our robes were soaked with sweat and dirt or that my legs still trembled from the fight and my own fears; all that mattered was that we weren't alone anymore.
The jungle was still wrong, and the Force felt twisted, for sure. But this... this was real. Her heartbeat against mine, the weight of her arms around me, the way she drew in a shaky breath that turned into a quiet laugh, just at the edge of sobbing, as she finally pushed away to look up at my face.
"I almost…" she said, feeling me with her fingers, checking for injuries, "I thought I killed you."
"Hey, am I that weak?" I chuckled, stroking her face once. "Please, you are not that good at fighting!"
"Hmph..." She pulled back fully, eyes searching my face, smiling. "You looked horrible in black. Red saber doesn't really fit you, you know."
"Same!" I nodded, hearing that she saw me as I did her. "Good thing we sparred a lot, eh?"
"Exactly," she nodded, but one hand was still holding my robes. "I also noticed the issue there. You parried like you always do, using the same pivot... Same footwork."
We stood in silence for another few breaths, the oppressive heat of the jungle returning, but somehow, it felt less overwhelming now.
"Hey..." She wiped her eyes quickly. "Don't tell anyone... okay?"
"What? That I almost won?" I smirked. That earned a small laugh from her.
"That too... And that I was afraid. I should be a Jedi..."
"Relax," I said finally, reaching down to grab my saber and clip it back to my belt while still holding her hand. "I was panicking, too." She simply stood there, nodding, brushing her damp lekku back over her shoulders as we turned back toward the trees. "Haahh... Let's go... We should find a place to camp and rest. Then... we can decide what to do next."