Leea remained still for some time, it seemed the Force remained still and the meditator felt as if she were alone. The slow ripples of Force gently ran or her and the Mirialan at first tried to focus them to her purposes. However, that soon passed as she recalled the Force was not something that always followed the intentions of people. It was a tool, yes, but it was so much more as well.
Sometimes, letting the Force lead is the best way forward. She reminded herself.
It took a while yet before she felt anything, during this time she could hear the world around her. Talohn had busied himself with some conversation with Madlad, but the words themselves seemed distant and vague. Leea allowed her senses to continue to dwell on the world, knowing the Force would guide her as it willed.
If it has a will. Some things were harder to swallow for the trainee. Yet as she listened, the sounds of the distant waves crashing on the rocky walls of the island rose to her, faint but rhythmic, Leea wondered if that had been what she felt before. It was all so much of a mystery to her, she was often surprised that she succeeded in tasks involving it without greater difficulty. The whistle of the wind through the rocks and crags arose next, a simple, persistent noise that reminded her of Makeb, of the nights she had spent with the windows open just to hear the sounds of the night and nature. Simpler times, those had been.
A fluttering noise caught her attention and Leea focused on its source, there was a scrabbling of clawed feet on stone and the rustle of a small body in a nest.
Porg? Those native creatures had struck her as almost too comedic to have survived, but she had realized that they probably could have survived only on a planet like this, where there were relatively few native predators. Her mind returned to the present, but it felt different, almost unsettling. She realized belatedly the sounds had ceased and there was nothing but dead silence. Even Talohn's chipper voice had disappeared. Unnerved, the Mirialan yet refused to open her eyes, to break her concentration on the Force.
It came slowly, but a whisper in the far reaches of her mind, slowly building until a whispering voice, ethereal and unintelligible, sounded near her. As if someone stood right behind her, speaking into her head, the voice rose in pitch and decibel until it became like a star engine. More sounds joined in, laugher, chatter, and screeching all mixed into a single cacophony. Leea felt as if her mind was melting in the chaos, and yet a single voice soon floated above the rest. A calm soothing voice, reciting something in a language she neither recognized nor understood. It seemed to slow the others and Leea felt relief but there was something else. The words continued, repeating as if it were a chant. Characters began to appear before her eyes, these she did recognize, at least in part. They were akin to something she had seen on the ship, writing on a datapad somewhere.
At this, the Mirialan snapped out of her stupor, perplexed.
How could something that was made before we arrived, point in the direction of something on us? What could it mean? Why does it not lead on somewhere mysterious on the island? Isn't that how the Force works when it comes to this sort of thing?
Leea started when her eyes focused and realized Talohn was relaxing right nearby. Mastering her surprise, she smiled gratefully, only noticing as she reached for and accepted the food and drink offered how much her limbs were shaking. "How long was I under? It felt like... well it felt like a long time." Uncrossing her legs, the Mirialan stiffly pushed herself away from the circle, contemplating it a moment before turning her attention to the nourishment.
"That Nerf Stroganoff was pretty good, I think it could have used a bit more of that Corellian Spice."
But no matter what, it definitely beat the fare we have on Corellia, that stuff was nasty. She felt strangely lacking in appetite though and she only nibbled at the bar slowly as the letters rolled around in her head. She realized she should ask, perhaps the Cathar knew more about this than she had anticipated. "I saw something while meditating. It looked like letters or something similar to letters, maybe runes. They look a lot like something I've seen on the ship." Remembering the largest source of runes and sigils on the ship, Leea quickly relayed, "Not Madlad's stuff, it's more like... um... writing, a datapad I think. Maybe it was one of yours." While gnawing on a chunk of the bar she had broken off, Leea began to scribble in the damp earth. The symbols she drew were strange to her, but perhaps Talohn might recognize it.
Talohn Atar
