Chapter 27

293 17 2
                                    

"I guess they call them the Shadowlands for a reason," Venar said, stepping off the wooden elevator platform. The two Wookiee guards snorted at them as they stepped off before ascending up into the canopy, leaving the two Jedi behind.

Down in the Shadowlands, perpetual darkness loomed. Even during the daytime, the thick tangle of branches and vines and leaves drowned the light before it reached the forest floor. The only light that did reach was only about as luminous as a moon might be. The heavy fog only added to the eerie atmosphere.

"This is a big planet," Venar said, "how are we supposed to find this Wookiee? How do we know we're even in the right area of the Shadowlands?"

"Trust the Force," Bastila said. "Let it guide you."

"See the problem is I sense a lot of things in the Force right now," he said. "A lot of hungry things."

"I sense them too," she said. "We must be vigilant."

"So..." Venar began as they started walking through the forest. "Are we gonna talk about..."

"No."

"But we should-"

"It was a mistake!"

"Are we really gonna do this?"

"Do what?" She asked.

"Go through this whole song and dance where we tiptoe around the problem instead of acknowledging it?"

"What's there to acknowledge?"

"Bastila," he sighed. "Please. We both know. We can both sense it."

"I- I can't," she said firmly. "I can't defy the Jedi Code. I made an oath."

"We talked about this already!"

"And I've changed my mind!"

"Just like that?!"

"Yes! Just like that!"

"You know what I'm sick of-"

A high-pitched scream pierced the air as several wryyyschokk spiders leapt down from some branches overhead and surrounded them.

They ignited their lightsabers instantly, the hiss and crack of the blades a reply to the hissing of the spiders. Their yellow and blue blades illuminated their foes in an eerie glow.

Venar counted four spiders, each roughly the size of a bantha. Two of them were spinning a thick ball of sticky webs with their front legs.

Thwip! Bastila and Venar backflipped out of the way moments before the ground they were standing on was plastered with the sticky webbing. Venar swung his lightsaber with a quick precise arc towards the nearest spider, removing two of it's legs.

He sensed the other spider leaping at him a moment too late, however, and was pinned to the ground beneath the massive creature. It's mandibles snapped inches from his face.

Bastila pushed the two spiders closing in on her back with the Force and sent her lightsaber whirling towards the spider pinning down Venar. The twin yellow blades spun through the air cutting through the wryyyschokk, ending it's life.

Venar pushed the carcass off of him with the Force and sprung back up to his feet, wiping some of the insect's green gooey blood from his arm. Bastila was now surrounded by the remaining three wryyyschokks. She held her lightsaber out in front of her in a defensive stance.

Just before Venar could act, a green whirling light came arcing through the air cutting through the nearest wryyyschokk. The green light retreated back into the hand of a shadowy figure that was leaping down into the battle from above. He landed with a powerful Force shockwave that knocked the other spiders back.

STAR WARS: Knights of the Old RepublicWhere stories live. Discover now