Northern Yarcu

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Rakin howled in pain as he was hit from behind. Not that Ayar's body weighed as much as---or was any more massive than----a skinny Anaran adolescent's, but the mutated Kievet sported a full set of claws and teeth---both of which latched onto the vulnerable skin of his neck! Growling sounds feeled his ears. Muttering a curse, he reversed the direction of the blade in his hand, intent on driving its sharp point into his attacker's face. Before it could make contact, though, the weapon was inexplicably wrenched from his grip---seemingly as of its own accord---to fall harmlessly to the ground at his feet.

{{ What the Prairie? }}

The younger Hunter didn't have time to ponder how he could possibly have been so clumsy as to drop his own knife, before he felt his opponent's press against his jugular.

Matek was smiling at him like a Rapar that had just downed a deer. He barely felt it as the smaller of his rival's 'kin' hurriedly plucked the brownish Kievet from his back, hauling it over to his bearded companion's side.

"You could naugh have won alone, Matek!" Rakin spat, knowing he was already dead. The two Rules for Challenge stated only that other *Unaken* could not be called into the conflict: there were no provisions against using animals as allies in what was essentiially a no-holds-barred battle. The other rule was that only the Challenger or the Challenged could walk away.

"Goodbye, Rakin," the winner said pleasantly, as he slipped his blade into the other's back, stepping smoothly aside as the loser gasped and fell to the floor. Matek ignored the cursing directed at him as he glared at each of the Unaken in the room, the silence punctured only by the pain-filled swearing of his former challenger linking Matek's name to every insulting epithet in the Unaken vocabulary, and the soft growls coming from Nick. "Anyone else care to be Director?"

The Hunter's muttered uneasily amidst themselves, avoiding Matek's hard gaze. Everyone had fully expected him to kill his opponent. Instead, he had permanently crippled Rakin by puncturing a lung. Not a motal wound, but one the proud Unaken would never fully recover from. As a cripple, he would be reduced to the lowest status within the Clan for the rest of his life---a fate, for them, deemed worse than death. Though disabling your opponent instead of killing him did not *technically* mean breaking the Second Rule of Challenge, Rakin's fate was not a common outcome. Their Director had just shown that he was perfectly willing to forego allowing his enemies any honor whatsoever. Matek had not only ended the threat of Rakin, he had given the rest of his Clan something to think about: Was Challenging for the Directorship of the Hunter's worth the risk of more than death?

Pohl smirked as the subdued Northern Hunters silently filed out of the building---two of Rakin's family carrying their still cursing relative away.

"Well, *that* went rather well," he commented to no one in particular.

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[Days later, high on the mountain pass]

Obi-Wan clutched his heavy, woolen cloak more tightly about himself as he tried to think of anything besides the increasing cold and the steady sound of the quads' hooves against the dark, volcanic rock trail they were traveling on.

It had been three days since the fight in the barn, and the people of Northern Yarcu had been downright eager to see them gone. The next morning, they had awakened to find eight fully packed quads--specially raised for cold weather, and a complete complement of gear waiting for the travelers. Turvin, himself, had held out the reigns of the largest to Pohl, mouthing words on how he hoped they had a good journey and other such insincerities. Since that time, it seemed they had done nothing but ride, with only short breaks to nap and stretch aching muscles. At least their guides assured them that they were almost through The Gate, and would soon be traveling downwards to lush grasses and sparkling water.

Unfortunately, the *cold* would stay pretty much the same until they reached the Tanaken Base Camp in one of the lower valleys. Although it was no where near as bad as, say, Hoth, Kenobi much preferred warmer climes. His master, to the young Jedi's chagrin, didn't seem to care one way or another.

++ It's all in your mind, Padawan. ++

[[ Actually, Master...It feels more like it's in my *bones*. ]] Obi-Wan retorted sourly, shivering a little. He *could* use the Force to help regulate his body temperature again, but considering all, he rather save the energy in case...[he gazed quietly at the reason he was on Anara at all]...well, just in *case*.

Wrapped in an assortment of Anaran and Kievet clothing, Nick had remained silent and sullen ever since his attack on Rakin. Even the concerned chirping of the little Kievet, (whom Obi-Wan had decided to christened 'Eyas' after a popular musician on Coruscant), had failed to rouse him from his isolationary funk, although he had adamantly refused to let go of the other for more than a minute at a time. Nick was particularly possessive during the daylight hours when it was hard to tell if he was 'protecting' or trying to *be* protected. Obi-Wan could tell that his Master was concerned by this---both of them were. There seemed to be a dark shadow hovering permanently over their alter-universe friend. Neither said anything, but both worried that the 'evil' that the human had fought against for so long had finally won over him, via the strength of both sides' common fear: being alone and forsaken in a strange land.

And then, the tired Padawan mused, there was the Tanaken Director. Pohl seemed to take an unreasoning exception to whenever Nick fed from the Kievet---though Eyas himself did not seem to mind at all, using the opportunity to croon softly to the troubled being that had latched onto him. And feeding *did* seem to benefit Nick afterwards, as he would lose his defensive posture and fall into a deep sleep that could last for hours. Obi-Wan frowned as he studied Nick's acquired form more closely. Was it his imagination---or was the brownish fur darker than it had been before they had arrived on this planet? And could he possibly be getting smaller?

Qui-Gon telepathically answered him, though outwardly the Jedi Master quiet study of their surroundings remained the same as they rode.

++ No, Padawan, your eyes are not deceived. His body is changing even as his mind is in flux. Becoming more Kievet and less Anaran, I think. ++

Obi-Wan's eyes widened. [[ Eyas' milk? ]]

++ I believe so. It would explain Pohl's attitude---he must have suspected that the genetic material of the Kievet is dominant to that of his own race. All his work is being undone. ++

[[ How awful for him. ]] Obi-Wan mentally snickered. His partner didn't reprimand him.

++ Indeed, I also cannot sympathize overly much with the Director---at least, as far as his interferring with genetics is concerned. However, I am worried about how Nick will be able to cope with this development on top of everything else. My sense of him in the Force has been steadily weakening. I fear we are losing him, Obi-Wan. ++

[[ No, Master! ]]

++ It is a possibility, Padawan. And should Darkness win.. ++

Obi-Wan's fingers played over the spot where his clothing was hiding his lightsaber. When he had first seen the universe-hopping knight, Kenobi had been all too eager to put what he had perceived as a threat to rest. *Permanent* rest. Now, the thought of having to end the 800-year old being's life made his stomach twist. Yet, he knew that they would have no choice: the Council had decreed that Nick with his Jedi Knight training would be too dangerous to let live should he succumb to the Dark Side. Hopefully, that was one duty for the Order that he would not have to perform.

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"There it is, Jedi," Pohl reined in his mount, pointing outward from where an opening on the trail allowed newcomers their very first sight of the land beyond 'The Fence'. "The naugh-so-fabled Land of the Kievet---though I warrant that you will be hard pressed to actually find any of them. They've gotten rather shy of late."

"Or maybe just on the brink of extinction?" Qui-Gon mildly retorted, urging his quad closer to the cliff edge for a better look. The valley below them was like a swatch of emerald green, surrounded on all sides by snow-decorated mountain ranges of purplish brown. In the center lay a sapphire of brilliant blue, being fed by a network of creeks and small rivers rushing ever downward: melting snow and ice falling as thin, yet spectacular waterfalls to form a network of creeks and rivers. It was beautiful and peaceful looking. A vibrant tapestry of the Living Force.

Or was it?

Qui-Gon was no Agri-Corp specialist, but he could sense something was wrong. The Jedi Master concentrated more on the vista before him, realizing that what at first looked like a healthy ecology, was, in fact, suffering. There were minute frays in the tapestry---small in themselves---but taken as a whole---a definite detriment to the integrity of the work.

{{ ..ava.. }}

It took a moment for Qui-Gon to realize that the thought had not been his own or his padawan's.

++ Ayar? ++

{{ ..silence...unraveling... }}

The thought faded away, and Jinn knew that no amount of meditation on his part could call it back again. If it had been Ayar, the Jedi ghost had been too weak to form a better connection with the physical plane.

So what had the padawan tried to communicate? That this ecosystem was unraveling? Of that, any Jedi with a strong connection with the Living Force could tell---and Ayar would have known that Qui-Gon could do so...he wouldn't have wasted failing energy on sending the obvious. So, perhaps, the import of the message was to convey the first word as it related to the second.

Silence.

It was quiet up here. Though, in general, barren mountain tops were. Animals had the instinct to not broadcast their presence to possible predators. Besides, most would be ecking out a living down below rather than up on the rocks. Nothing untoward there.

Silence.

Nicholas was silent. Even 'Eyas' had kept his singing at a minimum and in low tones. The Kievet looked drained---literally. Pohl had not bothered to have the Yarcuans supply much in the way of fresh vegetation, and the herbivorous native was struggling to keep up with both his own body's and Nicholas' ravenous demands. Even with both he and his apprentice sending the little fellow Force energy, the Kievet was often exhausted. He found he rather missed the hourly serenades Eyas had given them. They had soothed everyone somehow---not just Nick---infusing the surroundings with a gentle flow of the Living Force. Now it was nearly gone.

Unheeding of the Jedi's distracted manner, Pohl went on blithely, "It's a pity the place is so fraskin cold---the soil down there is very nutrient rich---it would make ideal farm land. Canna talk any of the Unakan families into moving here, though. Hunters get what they can and get out as quickly as they can. Even I have to be careful to dole out assignments here in short shifts. Nobody wants to freeze. Too, the air is thinner. You canna really get a decent breath into your lungs until you get down to the lower valley. But it *is* rather more beautfiul than the lowlands."

Qui-Gon frowned. On his first visit to Anara, Aven had told him of how the plants kept within the Kievet pens would thrive better than those in the other animal areas---at least until the males would start mysteriously dying. And Pohl had alluded to tales of verdant forests and grasslands that had once covered this continent from the ocean to the mountains back when the settlement was new. Official records put the current soil problems and growing desert areas to the 'natural' degradation of resources: tales of past chloryphll-rich prairie grasses and thick forests were just that---tales. However, Head Botanist Aven, had refused to offer his opinion, citing that his department was still doing research and that speculating before that data was compiled would be 'unscientific'.

He gazed thoughtfully at the Kievet and not-quite-Kievet pair. Eyas' movements were sluggish, but his eyes held excitement as he pointed out to Nicholas various points of the valley below. And strangely enough, Nick actually seemed to be taking an interest in what he saw.

What if the Kievet were---consciously or unconsciously---channeling Force energy to their environment? Natural-born Agri-Corp workers? What would happen to this world when they died out?

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End of Episode Two: Part 13

*** End of Episode Two ****

Episode Three: (tentatively titled the Joining) will begin just as soon as I can get it started. Hopefully it will go in the direction I want without the characters mutinying again. ~~kyer