A stroll in the woods

[Davon Karr]

Marshal Voidstalker was quietly humming to himself as he walked through the bowels of the ship. The droid pilot had them skimming through the clouds just above the treetops of Dagobah. It was looking for a location where it could maneuver through the trees.

Trix was fast asleep. The more he worked with each apprentice, the greater his awareness of them. He didn't need that connection to know she was about to be in a very grumpy mood. In his hand he was a steaming cup of caff; it wasn't for her.

Bringing one fist up he thumped the door to her cabin over and over until she got up.

[member="Trix Bastin"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

Meant to be me!

 

[Trix Bastin]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Trix snapped out of a deep sleep and was on her feet in a heartbeat, shiv curled in her left fist. She took a moment to steady herself. Her gaze travelled over the sleeping pod, the tangled blanket, then across the dark grey carpet to the door.

The door reverberated as the banging sounded again.

Trix pulled in a deep breath and let her shoulders relax slightly.

Voidstalker.

She allowed a flash of irritation to ripple through her and was rewarded by a vague sense of Voidstalker's amusement.

The banging abruptly ceased.

Trix slid the shiv back into the sheath strapped to her right forearm, then dragged a palm through her sleep-mussed hair.

She still had no idea why Voidstalker had summoned her to this ship. Stubborn as she was, she had refused to ask for details about their destination even as the trip stretched from mere minutes to hours.

Considering the nature of her few endeavours under the 'protective umbrella' of Voidstalker, Trix was almost certain she wouldn't like any tidbits he would throw her way.

Trix shoved on her jacket, then bent to pull on her boots, mentally checking off the tests so far.

Enraged Padawan. Enraged Sithspawn. Enraged Dark Jedi. More enraged Sithspawn...equipped with hallucinogenic death poison.

Trix slapped the panel next to the doorframe. She hesitated as the door slid open, then stepped back into the room. Both hands scrabbled amongst the discarded sheet before the pads of her fingers brushed cold metal. With a jerk she pulled out the battered hilt of her lightsaber and jammed it into the right pocket of her jacket.

Then, eyes still blurry with sleep, she stepped into the hallway of the ship.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Trix Bastin"]

"Good morning," he lied cordially with a smile. The mug of caf came up to his lips and he took a slow sip. "We're coming up on where I'm going to make camp," he added letting a small hint work its way into the conversation.

"You'll need this," he added, slipping a bag off his shoulder. It did not contain much. A water bottle and a filtration kit - dagobah swamps were not the best for finding fresh water - one ration portion, some twine and stitched into the seam a micro tracker.

He turned and waltzed towards the cargo bay. "We're skimming low over the swamps of Dagobah by the way, you're going to love them."

 

[Trix Bastin]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

The hell is a Dagobah?

Trix hefted the bag, took a single glance inside, and felt the muscles in her jaw bunch.

She was on a goddamn camping trip.

There was a stirring in her chest, a fanning of the embers, as the first trickle of anger made itself known. Trix struggled momentarily with the powerful urge to stalk after Voidstalker and knock the smug expression from his face. A childish reaction to be sure, but one that would undeniably satisfying.

Breathe Bastin. He’s your last chance.

She settled instead for cursing Voidstalker, his mother, and his mother’s mother under her breath. Feeling only slightly mollified, she slung the dark bag over her shoulder and strode after the other Jedi.

The cargo bay door was already retracting as she ducked under the doorframe. Gears whirled and cranked, the rusted metal sheeting of the ship giving way to a green expanse of tall treetops.

Trix stepped up to Voidstalker’s shoulder to look out over the planet, unmindful of both the height and the wind as it clutched at her hair and jacket.

Upon closer inspection the matting of green was interspersed with large open patches, their surface shadowed by a heavy grey mist. Trix narrowed her eyes, noting tiny flashes of clumps of vegetation, muddy liquid, and gnarled roots amongst the curtain of grey.

Swamps.

Her jaw creaked as Trix battled a fresh wave of irritation.

“Fantastic,” she managed between gritted teeth.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Trix Bastin"]

"A Jedi..." Jacen started to explain in that condescending tone her knew she loathed. "...is sensitive to all life around them. Now normally it's all emotion and colour. Just the odd cognisant thought that cuts through, particularly when it's aimed at yourself."

Jacen strolled down into the swamp, feeling the ground suck at his boots. "Now those are some colourful words you've learned. So when we're done with this excursion we're going to have some lessons in mental control so I don't have to spend every training session blushing.

"Now this place is dark, gloomy and full of things that like to eat you, which is why I'm going to be setting up a nice automated camp a fee kilometers that way," he said, pointing in one direction.

 

[Trix Bastin]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Trix stared at Voidstalker. The usually impassive Jedi Master was radiating so much restrained glee that even she, with the equivalent Force training of a five year old youngling, could sense it.

"I ain't much good at guessing games," she said, the words clipped but calm.

Trix paused to rip a boot free from where it was sinking into grey sludge beneath her feet. Stinging insects were already swarming about her exposed skin, nipping at the flesh of her fingers, neck and face.

"Reckon either way this isn't going to end well for me," she continued. "But I'm not sure how boot camp in this hole is going to teach me anything worth knowing."

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Trix Bastin"]

"This is my radio," Jacen explained, ignoring her probing statement. "When used it'll let the freighter know to come past to collect our shuttle from low orbit. They're only going to come when you call them. Of course, I'm not going to let you have it." Jacen paused a moment to allow that to sink in. Another stinging bite caught his attention. With a flick of his fingers a ripple of energy spread out from the pair, carrying any bugs swept up in it away.

"And of course, the boot camp is for me, not you. Few kilometers that way," he reiterated, pointing in the direction. Already he was stepping backwards towards the ramp. "If you can get into the camp, take this from me then we're head back to sunny Sullust and you can have the rest of the week in the spas. Of course, if it takes you all week...no break."

 

[Trix Bastin]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Trix raised an eyebrow at Voidstalker as he backed away.

"You brought me...here." She jabbed the tip of one boot back into the squelching earth. "To play a game of capture the flag?"

Back on the Harlot this would have been the perfect time to laugh. The false bravado would have followed, punctuated by a few elbows in the ribs, a fair share of eye rolling and a dollop of dismissive frowning. The usual charade as everyone sought to display how bloody fearless they were.

But Trix wasn't on the Harlot anymore. She was on a steaming heap of a backwater planet. In the company of a man who preached peace with one hand and dealt death with the other.

Away from the tranquil backdrop of Sullust Voidstalker's easy strength, and the casual manner in which he employed it to bat away niggling insects, was even more intimidating.

She'd be a goddamn fool to not take this seriously.

Forsaking bravado, Trix settled for a frown that conveyed an odd mix of contempt and concern.

She gave a little, and allowed the question that was annoying her the most to slip free from her lips before Voidstalker made his get away.

"What's the lesson?"

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Trix Bastin"]

Jacen canted his head from side to side and softly hummed as he considered the answer to the question. To some extent he wanted her to figure out the lesson on her own. "Treading carefully and thinking ahead," he replied. "Also learning when not to plan ahead," he decided to add for good measure.

"On Belsavis you put yourself in the line of danger and paid a heavy price for it. But in return you were rewarded with my sparkling company in the field hospital for the next two weeks whilst we shrugged off sithspawn poison. But I was proud of what you did then. Sometimes you need to trust the Force and act. I think you've got that down but sometimes you need to take time and think ahead. You can't go into every encounter trusting your abilities alone and come out the other side in one piece."

As he backed away, his boots left muddy stains on the entry ramp. "There's a body of water a few hundred metres ahead. Do not swim through it. Go around." That was the end of the help he'd be providing.

 

[Trix Bastin]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

The shuttle wailed as it lifted into the air, wind from the repulsors sending violent ripples across the surface of the muddied pools.

Trix raised a hand against the glare of the afternoon sun as the shuttle rotated above her, its silver belly brushing the foliage of the forest canopy, before accelerating rapidly towards the horizon.

As the metallic vibration of the shuttle faded the sounds of the swamp slowly started to return. The gurgle of shifting, bubbling water. The snap of twigs beneath the pressure of pads and claws. A chorus of high-pitched moans as creatures called back and forth to each other amongst the treetops.

Trix simply stood for a moment, letting her senses attune. She didn't need the Force to tell her that this planet was teeming with life, bursting free from each dip, pool and crevice. Or that these alien creatures, evolved over countless Millenia, posed as much a threat to the unwary as a blaster or blade.

With a flick of her wrist Trix opened the knapsack gifted by Voidstalker. A canteen and water purifier, enough to keep for a week. A quick mental catalogue noted the rest of her scarce equipment.

Two shivs. Saber. Half-empty pack of cigarras. Lighter.

She had started anew with less.

Trix shrugged off her heavy jacket and stuffed it in the knapsack. Beneath her black tank was already stained with her sweat, courtesy of the heavy humidity as it greedily leeched moisture from every available surface.

She glanced again at the sun. It wallowed low in the sky, tinged green with the thick atmosphere of the planet. Judging from its position it would likely only be a few hours until nightfall.

Trix pulled out the packet of cigarras from a pocket, lit one, and took a deep draw as she considered her next move.

Voidstalker had told her this exercise was about employing patience. About using strategy to achieve a goal.

Neither lesson sounded particularly appealing.

Trix eyed the sinking sun again. If she could reach Voidstalker's camp and nab the radio before darkness fell she'd be able to get off this rock within the space of 24 hours.

Patience sounded great in theory but action had served Trix well enough.

Kept her head on. Her belly full.

She pulled in another drag of the cigarra, slung the knapsack over one shoulder and started trudging towards the horizon.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Trix Bastin"]

Jacen hummed to himself as he squelched through the bogs. On one hand the going was slow, his boots were saturated and he was sweating through his clothes. On the other hand the soft ground took his non lethal anti personel mines quite nicely. The air con was running in the shelter he'd extended from his ship and there was hot water in the tank.

If she rushed though the bogs between them she would find a series of cyroban mines popping up out of the ground. Popsicle Trix would probably thaw out in this heat fairly quickly. Probably.

 

[Trix Bastin]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

The camp was quiet.

Trix crouched several hundred meters away beneath the gnarled roots of an ancient tree, dank water lapping at her knees, and waited.

It had taken her longer than expected to travel the distance between the drop off point and Voidstalker's camp site.

The swampy clearings dotted throughout the forest, although easier to navigate, were home to large, deep pools of fogged water. It had taken a single glimpse of a dark mass in one of these pools, followed by a ripple of jagged scales above the waterline, to drive Trix back into the relative safety of the tree line.

Progress amongst the forest had been slower. Dense underbrush had blocked progress at every turn, forcing Trix to employ her saber like a vibroblade to hack twisted limbs and great clumps of mottled foliage free. When she did manage to inch her way forward hanging vines had torn at her, hooked barbs ripping deep into exposed flesh, catching at her hair, and curling around her ankles.

After two hours of battling the forest Trix was now drenched with sweat, bleeding from her face and arms, and bearing an aching jaw from her attempt to physically restrain her building frustration.

"Wait." She murmured to herself, grey eyes still scanning the camp. Only a greenblood charged an unknown position - no matter how pissed they were.

The minutes trickled by. A swarm of insects settled around Trix's head, tiny proboscis lapping at the dried blood streaked down her neck.

Trix ignored them as she attempted to calm herself. Stretching out with her feelings and harnessing the illusive Force was difficult enough without Dagobah in the equation. Pulling in a deep breath, Trix closed her eyes. She sketched the outline of the camp on the black canvas of her eyelids, filling in tiny details - the flicker of a lamp against a moss streaked boulder, the gentle baritone of a singer emitting from a speaker, the waft of cooking spiced meat.

Nice for some.

Trix pulled in another breath and looked deeper. A flicker of a human presence, undeniably male. A dozen other unfamiliar life forms suspended around, beneath and above her. And beneath it all a pervading undercurrent of...

Trix snapped her eyes open.

She stepped from the pool, water streaming down her legs and into her boots. Trix was so focused she didn't notice.

She placed one foot down, considered, then leapt forward diagonally. Landing on her right foot, she pivoted, backstepped, then moved forward several quick steps to the right.

The camp loomed closer.

Trix jumped into the air and latched onto an overhanging branch. She snapped her small frame back, core muscles flexing, then used the momentum to carry herself clear of a large patch of earth.

The edge of the camp was now only several meters away.

Trix flashed a feral grin.

She stalked forwards, saber hilt in hand, already scanning the dim shapes propped on a nearby crate. The transmitter couldn't be far.

A twig snapped beneath her foot.

Trix had a brief second to pull in a surprised breath before she was flung skywards, her feet whipped out from beneath her. The saber slipped from her fingers as the world inverted, the camp righting itself in place of the treetops.

She dangled, neatly suspended by the cable around her left ankle, the blood already rushing to her head.

Trix let out a long sigh, too tired to even curse.

"I should have stayed on Sullust."

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Trix Bastin"]

Squelch, squelch, squelch.

"Sullust is boring," came a response. Jacen walked over the firm ground around the camp. Firm was a relative turn here on Dagobah. The thick clinging mud was firm. When you were up to your waist it was soft.

"I'm actually impressed," Jacen said, looking past her dangling form. "I was expecting to find popsicle Trix out in that bog!" In one hand he held a white ceramic bowl full of nuts. He picked a few put and tossed them back.

She might have wondered on the Occluder handcannon strapped to his thigh and on whether he'd been planning to shoot her with it if she made too much noise. He canted his head from side to side, clearly considering something.

"Alright, I'm so impressed you get a waterproof bedroll for the night," he called. He vanished from her sight to return with a small pouch between his arms. With a wave of his hand she was slowly lowered back down to the ground.

"Off you go back into the wilderness then," he said with a smirk. "If I have to come out again in a minute because you've found another trap on the way out I won't be pleased."

 

[Trix Bastin]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Trix swung upside down for several minutes, trying to drum up a latent reserve of energy. Finally she flipped herself up, latched a hand around the lassoed ankle, and sawed through the vine with a shiv.

She landed heavily and sent a shower of thick, rotting mud splattering up and over her face.

Perfect.

Trix lay on her back in the mud and tasted the gritty earth between her clenched teeth. The ever present anger was building, lurking barely restrained beneath the surface of her skin. No longer directed entirely at Voidstalker but at herself for dropping her guard.

Patience and strategy - those were the lessons Voidstalker had advocated. And he clearly wasn't beyond hammering his point home with an iron fist. Cyrobombs, despite being designed to trap prey instead of killing it, were not training weapons.

They were dangerous.

Trix narrowed her eyes at the dark treetops above her.

Dangerous, but not as dangerous as spending the night alone on an unknown planet.

Trix rolled onto her knees and stretched out a hand to snatch up the waterproof sleeping roll Voidstalker had dropped. It took another few precious minutes to locate her lightsaber. By then twilight had well and truly fallen, shifting the forest from shades of mottled grey to a wall of pitch black.

She allowed herself a final, lingering look at the warm fire of Voidstalker's camp. Close enough to touch yet impossibly out of reach for now. Then she turned her back and let herself be swallowed by the pitch.

She had a feeling that she was in for a long night.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Trix Bastin"]

Jacen leant back in the accelerator couch in the communal space on the ship. One by one, he was slowly lowering those mental walls of control he held so tightly around his mind. What Jacen was trying to do, was to figure out whether he felt he was being too harsh with Trix. Logically he knew that this was necessary. She was too rash, too prone to fuel her mind with her anger. That was a dangerous path.

To fall to the darkside, a fate far worse than a cold and miserable night. Or three, depending on the point where he felt she'd learned her lesson.

It wasn't pleasant, having to do this. In the end he permitted the emotion to bleed through. It was important to do that. Sometimes you had to follow the logical path, follow the guidance of the light. But sometimes you needed to allow yourself to feel the pain of a difficult decision. You couldn't be human otherwise.

At the least the ship actually had a very rare hot water bath. He also had a fridge full of beer. Jacen dragged himself to his feet and headed towards the fridge. She wouldn't need all the beer as a reward, he decided.

 

[Trix Bastin]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

She dozed, jerking out of sleep at each unfamiliar sound. The rustle of leaves parting, the caw of a distant flying creature, and the slosh of moving water as shadows hunted. As the first hint of dawn splashed across the sky Trix growled and abandoned the effort.

She arched in place, slowly stretching out legs and arms that had cramped throughout the night. The thick rooted tree she had climbed swayed with the movement, the heavy branch she was resting on protesting with several creaks.

She twisted to one side, resting her chin on her right shoulder as she cracked knots along her spine. With a grunt she shifted to the other side to apply the same treatment.

And froze.

Two obsidian chips of eyes regarded her, set within an angular head. The pointed snout affixed to the front of the head was hovering less than a handbreadth from her face.

Trix felt her mouth turn dry as her gaze tracked the length of sinuous, muscled body attached to the head. It was curled firmly around the tree trunk, winding up like a ladder towards the shadowed foliage of the branch above.

Vine snake.

Trix shifted her weight, then froze again as the creature weaved its head to match the movement.

She would have to be fast.

Trix lurched to her left, rolling completely free of the branch as beast snapped at air. As she fell her left arm hooked around bark, her right hand snatching a vibro-shiv from her belt.

A dull thunk sounded as her shoulder took the sudden weight of her body, pain rippling down her left side. Muscles screamed in protest as she flipped back up, carried by her own momentum, and slammed onto the branch on her knees.

Her hand flashed, metal gleaming in the weak light, before she buried the length of the shiv into the scaled skin just behind the snake's head.

The beast let out a strangled hiss. It reeled back, whipping its head back and forth as it sought to dislodge the weapon.

Trix scrambled to her feet, almost falling in her haste. Her saber snap-hissed to life and bathed the entire scene in demonic red.

With a hiss of her own Trix slashed the blade just below where she had pierced with her shiv. The stench of burning meat filled her nostrils as the skin resisted, sizzled, then separated completely.

The snake's head and a large portion of its neck dropped and smashed into the undergrowth with a loud crash.

Trix stared stupidly at the dangling stump of the rest of the snake's body as it rotated before her. She shook her head to knock herself out of her stupor and deactivated the saber, suddenly aware of the throbbing ache of her shoulder and the warmth of blood radiating from where her knees had slammed into the branch.

"Trees were a bad choice," she muttered to herself, tentatively rolling her shoulder to try and determine how much damage she had done.

Trix paused as her stomach grumbled, set off by the lingering stench of the snake's flesh.

She considered the stump of snake wrapped around the tree trunk again, then reached into her jacket and pulled her lighter free.

Breakfast is served.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Trix Bastin"]

Jacen wearily blinked his eyes open. For a few moments he had been concerned there. The Marshall didn't leave Trix entirely to her own devices. She was alone on an unknown world, full of lurking dangers. There was putting his student under stress to test her resolve and there was being negligent. Instead of sleeping he was sat cross-legged in his chamber. Rather than being anchored to the physical, Jacen was stretching out with his senses.

Connected to all life through the Force, he could observed his apprentice, in a manner. Jacen was no flow walker. What he was able to do, was sense where Trix was, what she was experiencing and what life forms surrounded her. He would go to her if anything too nasty approached. A swamp slug, for instance.

 

[Trix Bastin]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

The water rippled beneath a dim moon, tiny fish darting for cover beneath great chunks of floating purple algae.

Trix paused, waiting for the water to settle back to perfect stillness, before sliding her right foot forward to join her left. The fish scattered again, darting further back beneath the overhang of roots that clumped around the waters edge.

Trix crouched in place and let the liquid soak up to her armpits. After almost two standard days on Dagobah she was unmindful of the brackish, stinking mud that swirled up around her. Her clothes - caked as they were in dried sweat and blood - were completely beyond saving. If anything the mud was a boon, masking her scent from potential predators and acting as a deterrent to the stinging gnats that constantly nipped at her.

Up ahead, barely visible through the tiny cracks between each thick root, was Voidstalker's camp. Unlike the last time she had visited it was dark, painfully quiet save for the constant undercurrent of noise emerging from the surrounding forest.

Trix bared her teeth in a grimace as she considered her next move.

It had been her intent to scout Voidstalker's movements for as long as she could stand the cool water. By noting a pattern, and identifying a period during which Voidstalker left the camp, Trix could drastically increase her chances of successfully infiltrating the camp.

She had not been expecting to find Voidstalker gone. And gone he was, as far as she could sense through her rudimentary grasp of the Force.

Won't have another chance like this Bastin.

Trix slid forward another subtle step, driven entirely by instinct. She reached out a hand and wrapped it around the ancient crumbling skin of the closet root.

Need to be quick.

She started to rise out of the water, sending fish darting away for a third time, before freezing in place.

The lesson was patience. The opposite of everything she usually did.

Trix tilted her head, examining the shadow of the camp again. Nothing moved amongst or under the dim shape of the shuttle. The storage crates around the perimeter loomed teasingly within reach.

"Too easy," she hissed to herself.

Trix released her grip on the root and slid back into the dank water, frustration simmering into existence.

"You're a right fool Bastin" she murmured to herself. "Jumping at shadows."

She eyed the camp again. It wasn't too late...she could just jump from the water and-

"No," she growled.

Trix turned her back and slunk into the night.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Trix Bastin"]

The blaster pistol made a quiet beep as he powered it off. The little blue light that indicated stun mode winking out. As he stepped out from the entrance to the transport he allowed his presence to unfurl back into the Force. He reached out through the Force, a subtle brush against her consciousness that drew her attention to his location. It wasn't necessary to do so, but after that long deliberation he felt she needed some reassurance that she'd made the right decision.

Trix still needed some control of her emotions. Too easily she let them influence her decisions. The end of that path was dark indeed. But she might feel just a hint of his pride when he touched her mind. She'd appraised the situation and followed the logical course in the end.

Then again, given the state she was in he probably needed to keep his wits about himself. If she got the drop on him she might actually hold his head under the water until the bubbles stopped. Hot bath, cold beer. Magic words that might stop her from letting out her frustrations on him. Jacen chuckled to himself as he headed back into the ship to make his supper.