A life to mend, a saber to defend.

[Damian Starchaser]

It was a long drop. Kana had gotten down to the surface via conventional method, smuggling aboard a ship owned by a friend of Damians grandfather. But he could only take one and so Damian had resolved to meet Kana at a location on the surface via another route. The ship he was on was fully licensed and the pilot wouldn’t risk bringing him through customs. That was just fine, he didn’t need the ship to land to get the rally point.

Damian smiled a wide toothy smile as he checked the ablative plating, and his oxygen supply. Everything checked out. With a deep breath the light turned green and he punched the button on the airlock and jumped outside.

He started out in high orbit sinking lower towards the planet. Damian locked up his joints trying to stay as straight as possible as he penetrated the planet's atmosphere. Flames raced across his field of vision as heat built up around him. None of that mattered to him insulated behind his ablative heatshield. It took a few minutes before his vision cleared and he was soaring through the skies.

Yelling a happy and entertained whoop Damian fiddled with the controls to the pack on his back. Stabilizers shot air in various directions as he calculated his course to the landing point. The padawan watched the altimeter closely examining his descent. The ground was approaching fast and he pressed a button at his side. The silk chute opened with a snap slowing his descent for a minute before snapping off into the air ejecting the a parasail from the backpack unit. No he steered around in the air focusing on his target.

As he approached the ground he smiled seeing [member="Kana Truden"] in the distance. Landing hard he ran to lessen the impact and then sucked his parasail back into the backpack with the press of a button. The helmet fell from his head and he winked at his master walking in her direction and discarding his jump suit for a tunic underneath. Walking to Kana he grabbed her and pulled him close to him kissing her deeply on the lips. Thats how they did it in the holovid, but holovids weren’t real…..

No, what really happened was his chutes deployed and he realized that Kana had picked a heavily wooded area to meet. Crap. Branches scraped against him and slapped him in the face as he descended through the canopy of the trees. The Parasail started to catch, and between weight and momentum broke multiple branches sending them down from the top and jerking his body around. He had no choice. He pressed the ejection button and loosed himself from the parasail falling the rest of the distance from the tree top fo the ground.

As he fell he got ready to bend his knees and fall as he was taught, or rather as he knew to do through some sort of stupid genetic memory. Unfortunately when he hit the ground it wasn’t solid. His feet hit the mud and he sank down. Knees were covered first and then the rest of his legs were covered until finally his descent stopped at his waist. “A swamp… really?” he said with a sigh. “Why would you pick a swamp?” he called out to [member="Kana Truden"]. Okay so it wasn’t a bad location, from enough from civilization but close enough to get there in good time should Kana not arrive. Of course that all predicated him not being waist deep in mud.

 

[Kana Truden]

Their lips would meet in a one-sided affair of passion as a look of utter surprise fell upon the Jedi Master. It would be a look that lingered as seconds passed until she calmed herself down. A quick exhale to display her surprise and to chill herself from the excitement rang out. Her arm softened up and she quickly nodded before reaching up for the boy’s face in a firm and precise slap across his face.

At least, that’s how that holovid would have truly ended and her student damn well knew it.

In reality Kana was sitting down on the ground as she waited for her student to arrive. Had he simply chosen to go the good old fashioned way by way of smuggling compartment he would be here already and they could have been on their way but instead he had opted to do one of those weird orbital drops. If there was one thing she had learned from her student so far it was the value of patience.

“Yes, a swamp.” Kana slowly rose from the ground. “It’s dirty and the air is thicker than you would think. It’s perfect.”

Kana’s legs were muddy. Her regular top had been swapped for a sleeveless tunic in an effort to adapt her equipment to the adventure up ahead. While this place was certainly a nightmare for pretty boys it was a good lesson in just how glamorous the job as a jedi was. Or rather how it was the opposite. It was not a pretty job and [member="Damian Starchaser"] would become more aware of this the further into his studies he got with Kana.

The fact that this was the least muddy area around spoke for the expectations of what came up ahead.

“You won’t need any of the equipment that you brought with you, leave it.” Kana pointed to the ship. “All you need is the clothes on your back and the force.”

It was a simple set of rules, just the way she liked them.

 

[Damian Starchaser]

Damian sank another inch into the mud. “Right,” he said reaching for the blaster at his waist and realizing it was under the water line and sinking into the mud. He lifted his hands into the air and grabbed a branch that had fallen and pulled at it. The branch gave and then snapped as he pulled trying to loose himself from the muck and mire. “Next time we go on a mission I select… somewhere with nice sandy beaches,” he let out a sigh, “Where I won’t get stuck in the mud.”

With every wiggle he sank a little deeper. “Hold on,” he said closing his eyes. “I think I can do this…” The force. Use the force. He reached out with his senses and grabbed a tree, trunk and all. He started pull willing the tree toward himself. Branches cracked and the drunk groaned as it started to twist and malform. Damian kept pulling and found his feet lifting up, the tree resisting his efforts to move it. And then sweat beat upon his brow and the tree sprang away from him and his concentration broke.

With a huff and puff of exhaustion he looked over at [member="Kana Truden"]. “Okay… I need help…” he said. “Stuck in the mud, what a great Jedi I’m turning out to be.”

 

[Kana Truden]

“No.” Kana shook her head. “No beaches and no comfort unless you get assigned to oversee a senator on a cruise.”

Damian began sinking deeper into the ground. She offered her moral support in the form of a confident pose and smile. Arms crossed she looked upon [member="Damian Starchaser"] as he tried to pull a nearby tree to himself. It worked pretty well but inevitably he lost his concentration. She felt like Yoda to his Luke except Kana wasn’t a short-grown alien of unknown origins nor a grand master of the force.

With a slow breath she let her arms rise up in front of her as if holding an invisible box. One breath became several as she focused on the boy. She had to find his center, use the force to-

Actually, no.

With a steadfast grasp around his forearm she helped pull her student out of the mud. Her feet slid as the pull proved harder than she’d think but before long he was out of his little mud trap. The good master that she was she put on the calmest of faces that she could make as the tiniest of giggles resonated within her mind. Something Damian would without doubt be able to feel.

“You did well, Damian. Greater concentration is one of those things that just come as time passes.” By the looks of it he didn’t bring anything except for his clothes. For a second she had expected at least a blaster, but it would seem he had actually listened her this time. “Good to see that you’re at least starting to follow command.”

Connected to her belt was a small pouch with lightsaber parts which she patted.

“Don’t worry, we’ll think of something as we go. For now take a moment to rest up. That distress beacon signal out from somewhere in the area, best we find it before the wrong people does.” Which was a list that seemed to grow for each day. Sith, pirates, looters, thieves, it went on for quite a bit. “How’s life treating you at the temple? All good?”

 

[Damian Starchaser]

[member="Kana Truden"]

Damian gave Kana an appreciative glance combined with a smile as he was pulled out of the mud. He walked over to a mound of earth above the swamp and dropped the hard shelled backpack. “I don’t know if I like being out here without a blaster,” he took out Kana’s old saber she’d given him and rested it in a tree branch. “I’m not the best with a lightsaber yet.” He put the clamshell down next to the tree and started to strip. First he got out of the thick tight protective suit he’d used for rentry stipping down to his skin. He pulled the suit off and disgarded it into the swamp. Dark singe marks raked all over it.

Standing near naked in front of Kana he grew a little red trying to stay focused and calm. He reached down to his backpack and proffered up his clothing. It was a simple set of pants and tunic, all that could fit in the small cavity. “Temple life…” he said sliding on his pants. “I didn’t think I’d fit in,” he continued as he affixed his belt and transferred over pouches with generalized survival equipment and then taking the lightsaber from off the tree and clipping it to himself. “And I don’t really. I mean everyone is nice enough I suppose, but I’m not used to being around so many people…”

He let out a little sigh as he reached for the shirt and put it on one arm at a time. He turned over to Kana and started to button up the shirt. “When I’m there, it's like there is always a murmur in the background. I asked that owl Jedi and he said I would need to learn to shut it out.” he shrugged as he finished buttoning up his shirt and walked to Kana. “I much prefer being alone with you…” Stupid. Oh well he’d comitted, he can’t take it back. Hopefully she’d realise it was an innocent comment. Although given his track record… “I mean as master and apprentice… I enjoy the emissions.”

 

[Kana Truden]

She turned around as the kid got dressed. If she had been dressing she would have expected Damian to do the same, or well, at least try to. “I enjoy these moments alone as well.” She smiled over her shoulder for Damian to see. “Don’t worry about not getting used to it. It took me a few months to truly get into this life, it just kind of grows on you naturally.”

Was he dressed? A sneaking peek said yes. All that was left was the shirt and it was safe to turn around again. It was weird to see [member="Damian Starchaser"] don the more conservative outfit. Weird in a good way. Weird as in the ‘solidfy Kana’s smile and be proud’ kind of weird.

Kana patted the pouch again. “I’ve got the parts with me along with the crystal you asked for. For safety we’ll just find ourselves another spot before we try to create it.”

Her eyes scanned the horizon and nearby bushes. Her sight told her there was nothing nearby. The coast was clear for the moment but one could never be too certain. With a wave she signalled at their transport to take off. As much as it would be a relief to have it close by it only further risked their chances of being found, should anyone be out there looking for them. Call her cynical, but something about the way these things went you could hardly blame her for it.

Tracking device in hand she gave the map a quick glance. “The signal seems to be coming from over there. We should go.”

[member="Damian Starchaser"]

 

[Damian Starchaser]

Damian nodded as he walked at [member="Kana Truden"]. The top most button on his shirt was undone. He was excited about making his own lightsaber, but didn’t want to say anything for fear Kana might say he wasn’t ready. No this was a milestone. Instead Damian plodded along beside her, his knees staying bent, his feet careful of every step they took. While he didn’t have his blaster he wasn’t exactly unarmed, and this was a mission.

Granted it was a more boring mission, checking out a derelict that was sending out an automated distress call. While in orbit Damian had the vessel he was on take some quick scans of the area and combining those scans from an archive provided a topographical map of the area around around the derelict along with a rough silhouette of the crash.

It was a smallish ship, perhaps in the thirty meter range, but it was broken up. The vessel appeared to be in a small valley, sinking slowly into the swamp. It was hard to get a real reading on it, if truth were to be told. Most likely the vessel was half submerged and vegetation growing in the area made it hard to get an accurate fix from orbit.

“I don’t like this Kana….” he said looking up at her. There was a chill down his spine and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. His hand was shaking around the scanner unit and he needed to steady himself before it got better. Everything was wrong, even the location of the crash site. “Elevation around the valley,” he said looking at the map. “A natural crash could happen, but if there are people on any of these ridges they will be able to see us. Do you think this could be an ambush?”

It didn’t seem likely and yet, “I just can’t shake this feeling….”

 

[Kana Truden]

“Then we best be on our watch.” Kana tossed a few stray looks around her again. “A bad feeling can be a lot of things but most often it’s a weird sense of foreboding.”

The mud smudged and slid beneath their feet as they delved deeper into the woods. To have a bad feeling had often meant a great many things to Kana and most of the time the worst really did happen. With the track record she and Damian was starting to pull it was without doubt a sign that they should be cautious of how they go about it.

“The pirates, maybe? Setting up ambushes for fools who seek out the beacon, perhaps?”

It didn’t feel too far-fetched. Looking at the map she got the feel for the land. Valleys and marshes as far as the eye could see and read. It had that whole Yavin vibe to it which perhaps was why the entire situation they found themselves in made Kana laugh on the inside. She was Master Yoda and [member="Damian Starchaser"] was Luke Skywalker. Similarities in lastnames even made it all the more amusing.

Eventually they entered a slightly denser part of the swamps. She couldn’t detect anything in the immediate surroundings except for the occasional wildlife which was probably a good thing. The light had gone considerably darker, the branches and leaves weighed heavily above. It was a good spot to not be seen.

“This is it.” She announced to her student. “A bit off-track but we should be safe in case we have any prying eyes nearby.”

With a smile she unhooked the pouch from her belt and held it out for her student to grab.

“If ever there was a time to do this, now would be it. This thing will be your life soon enough.”

One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us.

 

[Damian Starchaser]

Damian scanned the area wary for any sort of danger. He was excited, eager, and wanted nothing more than to make a lightsaber. He had Kana’s saber of course, but that wasn't’t exactly his. This would be something he himself made with his own hands. Your lightsaber is your life… Kana repeated this often. “You’re wrong though,” Damian said sitting down. “You’re my life master…”

The bag of parts was everything he’d asked for, requested from his master. The crystal was… well pretty. It always amused Damian how a tool like the lightsaber used such a valuable thing. Heck the crystals were integral.

The parts wanted to be hole. Damian could feel it in his very being. He crossed his legs and began the meditation focusing intently. Research had only led him so far, now was time to put everything into practical effect. Components spun around in the air, and Damian let them rotate around him for a brief moment before they finally lined up with each other. The crystal had been attuned and the parts slid together. The saber floated for a moment as Damian opened his eyes and stretched out his hands. The cylinder landed in his palms and Damian stood up.

Taking a breath the lad ignited the blade. Iridescent blue and purple erupted in a flash of color. Damian turned the blade around a little in his hands and smiled back at Kana through the light. The oppressive feeling of impending doom remained, but it was masked by the excitement ot the new achievement.

With a deep breath Damian looked over to Kana. “We really should go,” he said. “we are vulnerable here.”

 

[Kana Truden]

A master never goes ‘Aw’ over their student but Kana wanted to ‘Awww’ the life out of Damian. A crooked smile would have to do as he put the saber together. He did well, the excitement ran rampant to cover up the underlying worry for their safety, but all things were under control. A watchful eye shot out to their surroundings as the final few touches were applied. There was still nothing around but it never hurt to be careful.

“Yeah, we should.” Kana motioned at Damian to follow again. “You think we should keep quiet, or should we just mind what we say?”

She shrugged. It didn’t really matter, for the next ten minutes she would lead them deeper into the woods and further away from their point of insertion. The air grew thicker and the land-to-water ratio sunk drastically. A quick look at her feet had her worried for her leg. Last time it got into contact with just a small hint of water, with Damian no less, it decided to not work. Such a failure at this time would prove far less easily fixed.

Good thing she had learned a few things about the way wetsuits worked. Fitted underneath her very neat pants were waterproof coverings of a bodysuit split in two. It was a homemade solution to a problem she had never encountered before. At least not until the Lianna cruise.

“Well, here goes nothing.” With a hesitant step into the water her boot submerged into the waters. “A lot deeper than I thought it’d be.” No problems so far. “Water up to my knees and still it works...” She jerked her head back in pleasant surprise. “I’ll be.”

Shuffling as quietly as she could through the waters she turned around to look at [member="Damian Starchaser"].

“Come on, it’s the only way.”

 

[Damian Starchaser]

Damian frowned as he looked at Kana knee deep in the water. He knew she should be okay. After the incident on Dac and the cruise liner [member="Kana Truden"] had been careful around water, and yet there was still an underlying worry within Damian. It couldn’t have been for something this… stupid.

“Okay,” he said kneeling down and taking off his shoes and rolling his pant legs way up. He took a little pin from a pouch and pushed it through the fold in his pants. Just above his knee.“What?” he said looking over at Kana, “Its wet….” Damian quickly wrapped his feet up with plastic fiber to keep them dry and protected before he stood up and put his boots on his head before wading in after Kana. “I don’t want wet boots, keeping your feet dry is important.”

And then the pair started toward the signal. Damian frowned as they went about two hundred meters into the swamp and his rolled up pants once thought safe were suddenly moist. “The water is getting deeper…” he said as his feet sunk into mud with each step. “Or at least the mud is.” a look of concern washed over his face. “With your leg, you need to be careful. The mud can take you down.”

 

[Kana Truden]

Treading muddy ground. Kana was not a stranger to it but the warning was welcomed nonetheless. She gave her student a respectful and calm nod while internal snickering raged rampant. The benefits of her homemade solution was proving themselves great. Her leg was just fine despite the fact that the waters would have fried herself and any nearby fish at this point.

“Oh don’t you worry about me.” Kana waved her hand in front of her. “I am fi- !!”

Without warning Kana found herself tugged beneath the surface of the water. A slimy, hairy tentacle pulling at the one part of her body she couldn’t feel anything at. Her lower right leg. The swampy waters would fill her up as a violent underwater argument on who the boss was ensued.

All the while [member="Damian Starchaser"] would be left with little visible clues to the situation except for the fact that his master had gone underwater and started splashing around like an idiot.

Quite loudly so.

 

[Damian Starchaser]

And as soon as he warned Kana about her footing she was underwater. Damian, normal cool and collected, abandoned all analytical thought towards the situation. “Kana?” he called seeing the splashing off in the distance. Shoes still on his head he jumped headfirst into the water striking the muddy bottom. He opened his eyes and felt the sting of the probably disease infested waters and swam towards Kana. He could barely make her out through the murk and mire of the pool. Silt of an organic nature, algae and god knows what else blocked his sight.

None of that mattered though and the youth reached her and pulled trying to bring up to the air. He swam with his might and pumped his feet but she kept moving away and toward the deeper area of the swamp. While holding her tight, not letting her go or get away, he examined the situation. This was no time to panic.

Using her body he maneuvered himself down in the water to see the problem. A slimy tentacle from force only knows where was pulling at Kana’s leg. Damian considered the problem for a moment before the tentacle started to inch its way up her leg, touching her body to get a tighter grip. Nope. Damian drew his lightsaber and prayed the Bifurcating cyclical ignition pulse did its job…

It did and the saber ignited glowing under the water in a brilliant aquamarine. Damian cut the tentacle and swam as hard as he could to the surface. He pulled Kana’s body along with him until he found a rise in the water. Sediment had build up around the root of the tree and made a hollow hill. A hollow hill but no barrow, not today. Damain deposited Kana on the hill and took his hand feeling up her abdomen. He put his hand just below her breast and above her stomach two fingers length from the bottom of the rib cage. He pumped at her chest several times before leaning down to put his lips to hers.

There was no emotion as he pressed his lips against hers and blew into her mouth. He repeated the aforementioned step and breathed again, followed by another cycle of the same before [member="Kana Truden"] finally coughed up a little bit of water. Damian smiled and exasperated lay down beside her. He looked over and leaned into her, face to face and smiled at her. “I’ll always worry about you master,” he said leaning in and resting his head on her shoulder. “You give me a lot to worry about.”

 

[Kana Truden]

Splashing of water and the slipping out of consciousness. Kana had been taken down in second by a tentacle only to be rescued by the daring young padawan [member="Damian Starchaser"]. With the coughing of water came the bitter aftertaste of swamp water. Her head reached up for her forehead as she got herself seated by a tree. The entirety of her body was covered in water and mud and her chest hurt.

“Thanks.” She coughed up. “I’m fine.” The silence hung for a moment as she took a few deep breaths and let her head rest on the tree behind her. “Just fine.”

A shivering arm reached up to carry herself up from the ground. One pull was not good enough but by the third attempt she was up again. A second rest against the tree was warranted for. Had it not been for that boy she would have lost her cool and without doubt drowned. A smile shot out at her student. He was good at cleaning up her messes, and she certainly seemed to make a lot of them.

“I couldn’t focus, I nearly drowned. Lesson learned.” She let go of the tree. “Come on, we need to move. If there were anyone nearby they must have heard me splashing.”

 

[Damian Starchaser]

“I’d never let you drown master,” Damian said watching her struggle to get standing. Quickly and without waiting for consent, he slid in at his master's side and pulled her arm around him. “No,” Damian said. “Not towards the signal.” He led her off and away making sure to keep a firm grip on [member="Kana Truden"] as to not lose her again. Never lose her. He diverted only slightly from his path to pick up the little survival kit he’d deposited onto a tree root before jumping into the water. That was all that was left behind and he frowned as he continued onward. “When we first met,” Damian said as they moved through the swamp at a slow pace, “I made a decision to protect you from harm. I thought that meant only the immediate threat. You remember the Elixer,” Damian remembered. It was a fun night. Well not like that… no, this wasn’t the time to get all emotional and hormonal.

Another fifty yards and then he continued, “But I realise now, that what I really wanted to do, was protect you from now until the end of time.” It was cheesy, but delivered in a way that seemed to show his absolute seriousness.

There was a small strip of land, and Damian pulled Kana up from the swamp and onto it. “Now sit down, we need to rest, night is coming quicker than we thought and that ship can wait another few hours.”

After he placed her on the ground he wandered over next to her. “Also…. I have no shoes…” He lost them when he dove into the water searching for Kana, and he wasn’t about to go back sifting through mud to find them again. The good news was the wrapping on his feet had held, but after a day more of walking it would wear and start to tear and rip. When that happened he’d be barefoot. “We should bivouac here for the night. It seems safe enough, and it's far enough off the path from that signal that anyone coming to look for us shouldn’t see.” Damian pulled at the branch of the tree and used a little length of rope to tie off the branch to a nearby root sticking off the ground. This provided a little bit of soft cover for the two, keeping them hidden from visual detection.

And then he took off his shirt, slowly unbuttoning it and hanging the muddy clothing over the trees. His pants followed. “You should get out of your wet things,” he said with a frown. He was very ill prepared for this. The belt with his two lightsabers likewise got hung up and the backpack with supplies… well most of them were in waterproof containers so at least they would have some food. “Hurry up and take off your clothes,” he said taking out a plastic packet and ripping it with his teeth. Kana was still shivering from her little dip in the water and her body was likely on the verge of shock from nearly drowning. As the plastic covering ripped Damian revealed a mylar thermal blanket with self heating or cooling coils. “Erm…” he looked over at a very wet and muddy Kana and raised the blanket up to make a partition between the two of them. “I got another blanket for me, for the night. But I think we should use it for a basic cover. This part of the planet seems to get a lot of rain, I’d hate to be caught in a storm with nothing over us.”

 

[Kana Truden]

Had Kana not been shivering she would have laughed. The elixir was very much something she thought of, never had there been more of a reason to quit drinking as when an old perverted man on a cruise is trying to drug you. The sentiment that she had gained a loyal follower was not lost on her. “But the mission, we’re...” She shivered again. The body heat from her padawan’s hold though weak was still a small comfort. A comfort taken away from her as she slumped to the ground.

Everything about her spoke of a mess. She would have told the boy to calm down, but to give a speech about fear and attachments didn’t feel right at this point and especially not coming from Kana. Instead she let the Bivoo’Akk take form around her. Before long it got to the part where she had to take off what little clothes she had on her that wasn’t soaked. Her hair was soaked, her clothes were soaked yet her foot still seemed operable.

It was a fair notion to strip down to what little she had on her to call an undergarment but a shivering prude was still a prude. She began with her lightsaber and her belt before taking a long good look at her rest of the damp clothing on her body. There was a partition separating her from her student but that didn’t mean it felt any less... Wrong.

Hesitantly she pulled off the sleeveless tunic and hung it out to dry. The cold of their surroundings bit as the moisture on her exposed midriff would make the cold temperature considerably colder. A shaky breath had her reaching for her boots to get them off. The plan had never been to spend the night in a place like this. If she had been up to doing the right thing the wetsuit legs would have come off as well, but her skin could hate her all it wanted in the morning, it was not coming off.

The rest eventually followed the way of the top until her belt, top and bottom were all hung up to dry much to her body temperature’s disdain. She curled up on the blanket. Her eyelids weighed heavy. Exhaustion kicked in yet in the last few moments before it all went dark she felt the warmth circle around her. For a moment she panicked until she realized [member="Damian Starchaser"] had wrapped the rest of the blanket around her.

“Thank you.” She whispered in a last minute struggle against her own fatigue. “You’re a good kid, Dami-... Da-...”

A small exasperated groan parted her lips. She had fallen asleep.

 

[Damian Starchaser]

Damian smiled as Kana went to sleep wrapped up in the thermal blanket. The thing was rated in retaining 90% of a person's body heat before Damian pressed the little pad to add heat. He let out a sigh as took a length of rope and strung it up between two branches and threw the second blanket up over it. It was just in time. Nearly as soon as he placed the blanket up over him he heard the first trickles of rain. It would be a hard night for the youth, and the rain would lower the temperature anymore. At least they would be dry though.

The rain wasn’t hard, else Damian would be worried about flooding,. Instead he went about pulling branches and cover up their location as best he could. Soaked with water from head to toe he came back underneath the shelter and and sat with his back to the tree just under the cover he’d created. His head touched the ceiling of the shelter and forced him to slouch down a little bit under the cover. The wind would blow and the cold wet clothes would move and strike him in bare flesh. Yes it was uncomfortable.

Uncomfortable and cold. That was the first thing that came to his mind. It was cold. Wet and cold, why couldn’t he ever go anywhere nice with Kana? He smiled thinking back to the cruise ship. A smile crossed his face as he recalled zooming across the water with her, and the night they spent together just talking and laughing. Then again that wasn’t real, and this was.

“I’m sorry Kana,” he said shivering a little. He leaned down and lay next to her wrapping his arms around the thermal blanket. The warmth was comforting. “No…” he said rolling away. He had to stay on watch, who knows what could be out in the rain. But he also needed to stay warm. Quickly he started to gather materials, branches and leaves before they got too wet. Anything that was dry. With a knife he started digging at a hole near the side of the makeshift tent creating a hole about as deep as his forearm. The ground was easy to move and manipulate. Then he dug another smaller hole nearby and bore a tunnel through the ground to connect the two. The original, and deeper, hole had tinder and kindling wood placed in it. Damian took out a ferrocerium bar and started scraping at it with the back of his knife. Sparks from the bar ignited the tinder and soon there was a fire.

“The smoke will be hidden,” he said to Kana. It helped to talk things out, even if the person was asleep. “same with the light from the fire..” he hovered his hands over the flame and sighed a little with relief. The warmth from the fire helped as he kept a close watch on Kana. In his backpack he had two small metal cups which he affixed to branches and kept over the fire boiling some water in them. What else did he have? Some protein bars and basic foodstuffs. There was a large flat rock nearby which he moved to half cover the little fire pit and placed the cans of food on it punching holes in the top to let out steam.

His eyes drooped a little as he made the dinner preparations. No, he had to stay awake and yet a voice in his head seemed to tell him that the more he resisted sleep the more tired he could get. Well, he supposed, a minute or two while food cooked wouldn’t be a bad thing. He leaned up against the tree that broke up the smoke from their fire and smiled down at [member="Kana Truden"] putting a hand on her arm in a comforting pat. And then he was asleep….

He shouldn’t have been sleeping, he should have been on watch. With a heavy sigh he forced himself awake. The canned food was warm now, and the rock was as well. Good. It would stay that way. Unfortunately that meant that it was several hours he’d been asleep. The fire was dying down a little and he fed it with more materials he’d collected willing it back to life. That is when he noticed. Where his hand had once been on Kana now there was only a mound of earth. That wasn’t there before, he could have sworn. Desperately he started to look around. Where was Kana? Had the creature come again?

Grabbing at his lightsaber Damian stepped out from cover and started to look around. The rain was still coming down, though not as hard as just before he went to sleep. His clothes would be dry, but he wasn’t thinking about that right. “Kana?” he called into the swamp. And then he saw her. Was it her? There was a figure dressed in white off in the distance, with golden hair. “Kana…” he said waging through the swamp.

The figure was there, beckoning him until finally he reached the bern she was hiding in. “Kana…”

“I’m here Damian,” the figure said turning and smiling at him. “You need to come with me, look what I found.”

Damian could only find himself nodding, compelled by the sweetness of Kana’s voice. He followed her into the swamp wading through the water. He followed her for a minute, or ten, time seemed to flow weird. “Where are we going?”

“Don’t worry Damian,” the Kana apparition said turning to him with a smile, “We are almost there.”

It only took another, maybe minute, for Damian to see what she meant. In the swamp was a little wooden cabin, sitting on stilts. It was a haven, but who built it? That didn’t matter now as Kana walked up a path made of pillars of standing stones. Damian followed her, straight up the path and into the cabin.

Herbs, vegetables, and all manner of vegetation was hanging and drying in the home. There was a fire and the hut was warm and inviting. Damian licked his lips. This was way better than the meal he had been preparing for Kana. It almost seemed as though he failed her. He should have found this place, instead of making her sleep on the dirty ground. “That is a pretty white dress you’re wearing,” he said with a smile. It was indeed a pretty dress. Wait, where did she get a dress?

“Thank you Damian. I’m wearing it for you.” That was wrong wasn’t it? “Please sit down,” she indicated a chair at a table. Damian did as he was told and sat down as she proffered a cup filled with tea. “Drink,” she said.

“Who do you suspect lived here?” Damian asked holding onto the cup. He went to take a sip as Kana watched but the content was too hot and so he put it down again to blow on it. “And if you’re ready, we should get moving. That ships signal is still out there. This place is too visible, if there are pirates are around….”

“You don’t need to worry about the ship,” the Kana creature said approaching him with a smile. “You know, you’re a handsome young man.” Damian blushed as Kana walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder leaning over and giving him a little kiss. “I’ve always thought so… from the moment we met.”

“You were on drugs the moment we met…” Damian said. No, this was wrong. “Who are you?”

“What?” the apparation said in a little sock. Damian felt something, a presence crawling around inside of his head, “Don’t you recognize me? I’m your,” there was a pause in her voice, “Master… Kana. And I love you. I’m everything you’ve ever wanted….”

Yes, she was. That was clear. She was Kana, and Kana was everything she ever… “No…” he fought the mental control. “You are acting… strange….”

 

[Kana Truden]

Waking up wasn’t any easier than getting out of the water. Her skin was punishing her for her decision not to get rid of the wetsuit bottom but what else was there for her to do? Mud in the circuits of her leg would be more devastating than just water. Water which speaking of was all over her. Not in a heavy way as much as in a very thin layer of moisture from the fog.

For a second she was unwilling to let go of the blanket but just as always duty called. She rolled over to see if her student was nearby only to notice the lack of partitioning walls between them. It wasn’t weird, but something felt... Odd. He was distant, he felt so close yet so far away. She got dressed. Her damp clothing hugged her skin as she rose from the ground and stepped into the open. There was no padawan to be seen and the only trace she had to go on was the faintest of trickles in the force.

She knew better than to get worried. Padawans got lost all the time, it was normal. Especially during missions that had all reasons to go wrong.

No, she was certainly lying to herself. Worry would radiate within her entire being.

“Damian?” Screw the mission, screw being quiet. Calling out for his name felt like the right thing to do. “Damiaaan!”

She strode through the waters towards where the tiniest of flickers seemed to come from. Any faster and she would without doubt be calling half the forest upon her, but she wasn’t there yet. As worried as she was, she was terrified of whatever it was that lurked within the waters, but even then there was no other way to go.

A hand brushed the hanging branches and moss out of her way. She was covered in moss, her hair had turned into a chunky brown mess. She looked like anything but the woman she had been on the cruise where they had met.

“Damian!”

She got out of the waters and got on her knees. The panic was overwhelming, she had to focus. Focus on Damian and more specifically where he was. A deep breath was followed by another. Where was he?

[member="Damian Starchaser"]​

 

[Damian Starchaser]

“There is nothing strange going on here,” the woman in front of him said. “Is that my lightsaber…”

Damian pulled his hand back and gripped the saber on his belt. It was his most coveted possession. “You gave it to me…” he said trying to stand up out of the chair, but the Kana creature pushed him back down. That is when he felt it. Kana was… worried, almost terrified at the prospect of…

“You aren’t Kana…” he said pushing back with all his might. The woman flew across the room slamming into the wall as Damian gripped at his lightsaber. A burst of energy came his way and he rolled out of the chair across the ground. The energy struck the chair which practically disintegrated underneath the weight of the witches spell. “What are you?” Damian asked drawing his own ligthsaber.

“I’m [member="Kana Truden"]…” the voice said worming its way into his mind, “I’m your Master, you’re….”

“No,” Damian called angrily. “You are not Kana.”

“No…” the witch said darting forward. Her face changed, converted. She was young and yet showed signs of… well something. Aging perhaps? No this was something else… starvation.

Damian kicked away at the creature as it grabbed for him and sent out a mental distress call. He hoped that Kana would receive it through their bond...

 

[Kana Truden]

Slowly her insistence about going on the less ‘glamorous jobs’ felt stupid and idiotic. In her quiet meditation she pondered what the mission on Borleias was like. Warm beaches, bunkers to investigate, all good fun for those that like that kind of tasks. Instead she picked this one. A swamp with enough things that could go wrong (and had gone wrong) that she could see double.

A measure of calm was achieved and the master could stand up from the ground and continue her stride in peace, in quiet. Damian was close, closer than before when they -- when she -- had been back at the camp. He was fine, everything was just fine until his signal got through. Distress and panic, for all she knew it could have been her own but at this point she was in no mood for what-ifs or what-nots.

Fear turned to anger.

This was her fault. Had she been careful in the first place they wouldn’t have had to stop for the night. Had she just kept cool she would’ve focused enough to control that breathing. There was nobody to blame but the carelessness of a jedi master.

‘I am coming, Damian.’ Long shot said the message would reach him. Then again, long shot also said Kana would be walking out of this in a good mood or even the same. Though hopefully it was less of the latter and more of the former.

For both of their sake. Probably.

Eventually she stepped out into an opening. There was a small hut like something out of a children’s book. Damian was here, she could feel it just like he would without doubt feel the steaming crater of self-hatred that brewed inside of his master.

“You!” Her saber came loose as she pointed at the wicked witch. “Get off of him!”

The saber hadn’t ignited yet, but it certainly wasn’t far from it.

[member="Damian Starchaser"]​