Hai moved quickly away from the scene of the fight while trying to keep alert and maintain his bearings as he hurried down the tunnels. Jana, on the other hand, waited to give the creature a few more quick zaps and an angry shriek before rolling almost nervously after her Master.
The Tuk'ata twitched and growled, its form limp. A familiar pair of eyes watched the student and his droid hurry down the tunnel. It growled then began to advance onto its fallen companion. With a sharp movement, it managed to snap the cord off. The younger male began to raise before its savior lashed out leaving a painful, red stripe on its skin. A pitiful yelp echoed throughout the caves.
Hai and Jana flinched at the yelp, but the boy quickly shrugged it off and moved on. They passed by several smaller intersections following the Overseer’s instructions, until they came out into a wider circular chamber that ended the passageway. The ground was rougher now, uneven under his feet and easier to trip over in the dark. Except, things weren’t all dark anymore. Apart from Jana’s light and the red flare of the lightsaber, there was a soft white glow radiating from the center of the chamber. As they got closer, it was easy for Hai to see that it was the flowers he needed that gave off the gentle light.
“Jana, snip and store two of the flowers for sampling and fetch a third for my use. I’ll stand guard.”
Hai wasn’t going to be taken by surprise. Not with only one working arm. He backed up facing the dead end’s entrance, lightsaber still held in his left hand. Jana could give him the antidote but he couldn’t risk letting his guard down to fetch it himself as much as he wanted to. Besides, collection for the Overseer came first. He had to prove himself.
A set of glowing eyes glared through the darkness, followed by bared teeth as a familiar shape stepped into the faint light. A sleek Tuk’ata, the very one tangled by the cords, emerged. It growled and edged forward cautiously. A large gash painted its side from its pack’s members.
It rushed at Hai running along the side. Before it reached him, it leapt into the air with mouth open and ready to take a bite out of his shoulder. J4n4 began to saw off a section of the plant causing sticky, glowing sap to leak down the stem.
Hai pivoted, trying to whirl out of the path of the oncoming beast, but his reflexes were just a hair too slow thanks to the poison coursing through him. Instead the beast was a little off target but bit into the shoulder of his paralyzed arm as it bore him to the ground. Between his Zabrak biology and the numbness from the poison, he avoided any real pain or disabling shock, but he was still fighting for his life.
Hai screamed at his attacker more from anger than anything else and started hitting it repeatedly with the training saber. For its part the tuk’ata seemed equally determined, savaging the increasingly shredded shoulder in its jaws and trying to tear into the boy’s face and stomach with both sets of claws. In the writhing struggle neither could land a decisive enough strike until Hai switched off the lightsaber and reversed it to stab down at the Tuk’ata’s face directly.
The pain caused the Tuk’ata to retreat. Half its face a bloodied and cooked mess. It shook the blood off its face, splattering all over. One more shape appeared from the shadows, but it didn’t rush up and into the fray. It lingered at the side waiting and watching. Likely seeing which would kill each other first.
Once the blood cleared from its vision it went in for the boy’s foot. Its jaws clamped down and it ripped him toward the exit. Mindful of the lightsaber, it let go long enough to prevent the boy from hitting it. However, the moment he started to rise it went for his foot with new determination.
Haiki struggled to get a swing in, but the warped animal was too crafty for him now and he’d already taken two more gashes for each time he’d failed. The thing was probably planning to drag him back to its lair and let its packmates devour him alive. No...he couldn’t die like that, he wouldn’t! But between the poison and the blood loss he could hardly focus and he could feel himself getting weaker. Maybe he had already failed.
With a shrieking battle cry Jana bowled into the Tuk’ata and started zapping it in the face with her taser, trying to give her master a chance to break free and fight.
The Tuk’ata shrieked, letting go of Haiki’s foot. It lost its balance and fell onto its side, snapping at Jana’s rounded body. Teeth scraped on the armor creating deep gashes, but no internal damage. The Tuk’ata raised its head to utter a barking cry. Once more it rose wobbily to its feet as its tail whipped about to sting Haiki.
Haiki scrambled backwards and barely got the training saber up in time to deflect and burn the stinger tail, oozing blood from his shoulder and foot along with half a dozen other smaller gashes. He threw himself shakily to his feet as Jana shot another entangling cord at the threat and then the two of them ran as fast as the Acolyte’s near-death condition allowed.
He had no desire to stay and be eaten and who knew if the beast would call others of its kind. Someday he vowed, he would come back here and burn all of these things out of the catacombs and wipe them all out. But today he would count himself lucky to be alive. If he actually lived through the day.
After a while of running, or at least something weakly imitating running he turned back to Jana. He grimaced as he noticed how that filthy animal’s claws had scratched up her paint. His chest was starting to go numb and breathing was getting harder in ways that didn’t have to do with the exertion. Jana beeped hopefully and extended one of the stems out to him. He took it in his one good hand and tried to squeeze the liquid from the stem into his mouth, just one mouthful. He hoped it wasn’t too late. It would be an unforgivable embarrassment to succeed like this and then die moments after.
The numbness subsided after a few moments, leaving him to breathe easier. He relaxed slightly, though blood loss and exhaustion were taking their toll and he wouldn’t truly feel safe until he was far from the catacombs. He made his way slowly back to Overseer Cessair, limping and pressing a torn, formerly less bloody strip of his uniform to his shoulder wound.
When Haiki entered her classroom, Cessair looked up from her datapad. She made no extra effort to move from her seat or help him. Instead, she leaned back.
Hai presented the flower he hadn’t drank from to the Sith Overseer, in the little vessel he’d given her. “Well,” Hai paused and gestured to his many wounds and the blood matting him head to toe. “It wasn’t easy, but I got your flower”
Mara didn’t say thank you as she took the vessel. Her figure rose to place it into one of the pots filled with water and soil. She sealed it tightly in a cabinet with a lock before she went to another. From it, she pulled another vial and passed it to Haiki. Her face remained firm and unaffected.
“Drink this and I will teach you one brew. Any additional lessons need to be earned through tasks and other errands.” she stated clearly to ensure he understood.
The boy nodded, his bloodied face serious more than excited as he took the vial, uncorked it and swallowed its contents. Immediately the symptoms started to fade. Mara continued to keep her unimpressed mask and took her seat. She continued to work on grading the projects, indicating she dismissed him. Before he exited, her voice broke the silence.
“Your lesson will begin next week. About three hours after class, do not be late or I will put my energy elsewhere. I hope you will show more respect and subtlety with your actions in the future.”
