The Varactyl Squadron Commander (A Star Wars: The Clone Wars Fan-Fiction)

Chapter Fifty-Three

From how thin and spindly the Tokep was in stature, the four expected to see the twig of a creature be thrown off its feet by the giant Eletai's antler-like tusks. The enormous beast sprinted at a speed that caught the soldiers by surprise and headed straight for the ghostly being, bowed its head to ram the Tokep's body as everyone watched, stunned from moving or thinking or even breathing. In seconds, the Eletai had crossed the grotto and was only yards away when the Tokep hissed and lifted its hands as if to protect itself.

The Eletai didn't stand a chance.

Before the elephant could react, the Tokep tied its fingers around its tusks and its slithering legs grew rigid, digging deep into the ground and holding the Eletai where she stood. There was no budging on the worm-like entity's part. The Tokep was not to be trifled with, and the alpha as well as the surrounding Eletai began to realize the horrifying truth when their eyes caught sight of two more pairs of white fingers sliding into view. They didn't stand a chance.

Caught in a sudden war of strength, the slimy creature let out a shrill scream that echoed throughout the jungle and shook the trees to their very core. The sound of bone shattering pierced the air like a knife as the Eletai's left tusk was ripped from its mouth, then plunged deep into the side of the beast's skull. The rest of the herd screamed in fear and bounded into the jungle as fast as their legs would carry them. It was then that the Tokep leaned its gaping cavity against the limp beast's neck and began to feed, sucking the blood from the dead animal.

"Run," Molindi was the first to snap out of her stupor and yanked Rex's arm before doing the same to Axel. Her voice started out low in hopes of not drawing attention to themselves, but when the rest of the herd began to stampede in the opposite direction into the jungle, there was no way they were getting out of this one unscathed. They were out of their league even by Molindi's standards. Hell, by anyone and any living thing's standards. "Move! Now!"

They didn't have to be told twice; the three men did as she said and raced in the same direction as the remaining Eletai with the woman trailing behind. That is...

...until another blast of despair burst from one of the babies behind them.

In an instant, Molindi slammed so hard on the brakes that her ankles hurt and the toes of her boots dug into the dirt. As she paused, watching the clones and the Jedi run away, she knew that her humanity was going to be the death of her someday.

May as well be today.

***

It had been a few hours since the hounds first scoured the spies' bedrooms and recovered enough strands of hair for the ritual, as well as some drops of blood from the suite upstairs, and nearly all the ingredients for the spell had been collected. The hair, some herbs from the palace's forbidden garden, the heart and brain of a pig, as well as some incantations from Agnacia's spell book.

In all her years as Dooku's apprentice, Ventress had never seen this sort of thing before. She knew that she'd been born on a witch-infested planet filled with all sorts of dark sorcery, but nothing in her faintest memory had anything to do with magic or spells. It felt strange and foreign, yet familiar and comforting all at the same time. Like a bad dream turned good or a good dream turned bad, there was something abut it all she just couldn't get a handle on in a way that felt normal to the sith.

"The spell is almost finished," Agnacia spoke to her sister as Queen Asemdi and Ventress stood outside the woman's personal work shop. The fiery red glow that had filled the room behind her had been replaced by a dull black light and the liquid-obsidian-looking mass swirled in circles on its own as a fire beneath the pot boiled and broiled the mixture. "It will take six more hours before-"