Falo Ilo'taak v. Loom'aisana

[Squee]

((I feel so bad. Gah! I'm so sorry. ))

Arena:


Falo Ilo'taak VS Loom'aisana
Duration: Five rounds
Agriworker versus Gray Jedi
Challenger begins

-grabs the popcorn-

[A®heim]

Falo cursed as he stumbled over one of the slippery rocks on the shore of a crystal clear creek. A light trickling noise filled the otherwise silent landscape. The young Bothan regained his feet unsteadily and shivered. Why did it have to be so cold? The surrounding foliage glistened with frost and the edges of the creek had begun to ice over. Of all the places for the ship to have a "Catastrophic Failure". It probably wasn't even broken, just going haywire from a little tinkering he had done to the engine systems. Whatever the case he was here now, tripping over stones looking for some assistance.

"Why do these things always happen to me? Just because I'm cursed doesn't mean I need to have such bad luck!" Falo kicked a stone in frustration. Big mistake. The sudden action caused his feet to slip over the icy rocks and sent the young Jedi sprawling forward. To his horror, Falo watched his lightsaber unhook from his belt and slide across the thin ice on the creek's surface. "NO!" He dived for his weapon, but it was far too late. There was a soft *kerplunk* as his saber sunk through the surface of the water.

This was very bad. Because of the ice, the saber had managed to travel to the center of the creek before falling in. The ice was too thin to walk upon, even for someone of Falo's stature, and jumping into the water would only serve to freeze him to death. He would have to mark this spot and come back later with help.

"Great, just great. First my ship, then my lightsaber..." Falo muttered quietly, the vapors of his breath mingling with the frigid air. He looked around for a suitable landmark. His gaze fell upon a large stone that glittered with some mineral, perhaps pyrite, that lay in the sand nearby. He closed his eyes and concentrated his will upon the stone. Slowly, it began to rise. In his mind, Falo drew on the calm of his surroundings for strength. He explored the corners of his consciousness for his power, being careful not to unleash the dark memories hidden within. His consciousness spread around him in all directions. He could feel the bare trees, the ancient rocks, and the birds asleep in their winter nests. He could sense the presence of the small creatures within the mud of the creek bed and the will of the being approaching him...wait...

Falo's eyes snapped open and the stone fell upon the sand with a resonating thud. He was not alone...

[Mara]

[This is my first try at this, so bear with me...]


The yellow-skinned Twi'lek stood out starkly against the bluish landscape. Everything around was frozen or at least on its way to being so. She found herself in some kind of coniferous forest, not knowing why or how. Whether it was a dream or just a horrible nightmare that wasn't really a nightmare, Looma could really care less.

She was freezing. Even with her durable leggings and tunic on, they didn't get much protection against the elements. She said a simple thank you to whatever beings were in charge for the fact that it wasn't snowing. Yet. Nor was there much of a wind. But it was still so cold.

Her booted feet crunched on the snow as she slowly made her way among the huge pine-covered trees. She hugged her arms close to herself, trying to stay warm. But then she suddenly remembered: she had the power of the Force. She could use it to warm herself. Or at least try.

Looma stopped her in tracks and closed her eyes, letting her arms fall to her sides and concentrated on the life around her, drawing their life and attachment to the Force to her, wrapping it around herself as a blanket. She opened her eyes, feeling slightly warmer. At least it was something.

Now she needed to figure out where she was. Or at least find some shelter. She could tell by looking at the sky that daylight would be gone in about an hour. Night was fast approaching. Her days on Bakura had taught her a few survival skills, not many, but hopefully enough. She looked around for some dry wood to start a fire with, also scanning the area for a possible cave or sheltered area. If the wind came up again or it snowed, she didn't want to be out in the elements.

She had a good pile of sticks back in her arms and was heading back to the small cave she had found near the base of one of the tall conifers, when something tugged at the back of her mind. Looma spun around slowly, using her purple eyes to search around the whiteness around her. Then she drew on the Force, letting go her blanket of warmth to spread out her awareness.

There was another being here. Somewhere close. But what would she do about it? She could simply go about her business and build her fire to wait out the night. Or should she investigate? Part of her just wanted to let it go, the part of her that Caleb was a part of. The other part of her, the part of her that was more deeply embedded wanted to check out who this being was. It could be a forest animal or something else. Whatever it was, she needed to know.

She ran back to her shelter and dropped down her sticks. Building a fire was useless now; she wasn't so callous as to start one and leave it behind to burn down the forest. She picked up the largest of them to use as a club and left her shelter behind, searching with her senses and the Force for the being she felt. It was moving...

Her thoughts and the surrounding stillness were broken by a crunching thud somewhere up ahead of her. Some kind of weapon? Looma carefully walked ahead, slowly as to not make much noise in the snow. To her right she sensed running water and headed in that direction. If only to know that she had a source nearby her cave and fire. Now walking upon rocks, she walked faster.

Looma felt a little relief to see that down the river about half a klick was just a Bothan. She waved her stick above her head. Perhaps he had a ship, a way off this frozen rock. The yellow Twi'lek had completely forgotten for a moment the possibly of danger in favor of rescue. "Hello! Do you have transport?"

[Squee]

Round 1

Arheim:
Effort: 5/5
Fairness: 5/5
Detail: 5/5
Coolness: 4/5
Bonus: 1/2
Comments: Lost his saber. Nice.

Mara
Effort: 5/5
Fairness: 5/5
Detail: 5/5
Coolness: 4/5
Bonus: 1/2
Comments: I was glad you captured how a Twi'ek would feel in cold weather. Nicely done.

Total:

Arheim - 20
Mara - 20

Keep up the good work.

[A®heim]

The presence was pulling his senses. He could feel the direction the being lay. Falo tensed up ready to spring into action should the situation gravitate into one of hostility. Whatever it was, it had a large force signature, Falo thought he could almost see the aura ahead of him. Falo instinctively moved his hands to where his lightsaber was clipped to his belt. His hand passed through thin air. The Bothan gulped as he recalled the loss of his weapon. "Perfect timing...just my luck to lose it when a danger shows itself."

There was only one chance, he would have to catch the creature off guard. As far as Falo knew the threat hadn't sensed his own presence yet. His senses were burning wildly, the life energy within him wanted to focus on the signature ahead, to connect with it. His mind was setting off one giant alarm making his thoughts scramble, even those he fought so hard to suppress threatened to break free amongst the chaos, but Falo quickly beat the energies back into that dark corner of his subconscious . He couldn't afford to give himself away, though he was pretty sure he knew exactly where his target was now. Any moment now he would spring...

When the voice of a young girl behind him cried out for assistance Falo barely avoided jumping out of his very skin, instead settling for just jumping straight into the air, slipping on the snow, and falling over backwards. The Bothan cried aloud, or at least would had the wind not been knocked out of him. He lay there for a moment in the thin snow, gasping for breath; all part of an unhealthy combination of fright, cold, and exertion. Falo glanced to the girl, a Twi'lek toned yellow from exposure to the snow, then quickly back to where he had felt the force presence in the other direction . Sure enough it was gone, replaced by the figure not 20 yards away from him. There were times when Falo swore his curse interfered with his perception of the force, though more likely the mistake was due to shirking his studies on the sensory arts back in the Jedi Temple.

Whatever the case, someone was here and obviously needed some sort of assistance. Not that Falo leapt up to help, no, he was much too paranoid. He didn't have the best senses, but the dark Aura coming off the Twi'lek wasn't hard to miss. This was a tricky situation. She was obviously force sensitive, powerful enough to have a noticeable signature yet not yet trained to conceal it. There was no way to read her intentions, her face remained blank of expression and though she carried a makeshift club, she possessed no lightsaber that Falo could see. He approached warily and cautiously addressed her.

"I fear I am in the same predicament as you, traveler. Do you know of any cities nearby?" It was a stupid question. If there was civilization nearby would she be asking for help? Unless she was a runaway perhaps? A fugitive from the law? Falo shook away the thoughts, he was getting ahead of himself. Besides, there was a much more direct alternative he could take: break into her mind and find out himself. A smile almost crept to his face, who was he kidding? He was not the slightest bit competent in such areas of the force. He could not as easily read a mind as the Jedi he had seen capable of doing so as if the person was a book waiting to be opened.

He could on the other hand attack her mind using verbal wit, he could only hope that the Twi'lek knew as little about him as he of her. "My passenger vessel was attacked. I barely made it to the escape pods. I am the son of Coruscant diplomat but now I have found myself in this strange land. Coukd you tell me anything." Nothing wrong with a little white (grey?) lie, unless it gets you killed of course.

[Mara]

Looma took the time before the Bothan answered her to give him a better look. Besides the obvious ones of his species, he looked very nervous. In fact, she didn't even the Force to tell her that he was very wary of her presence. She tried to put him at ease, drawing on the Force to send a message of goodwill towards him. With this touch, she felt that he was strong in the Force as she was. It was not simply his normal presence in the Force that led her to him. Intriguing as it might be, Looma put it out of her thoughts for now. If he was marooned here on this forsaken icy rock like she was, they might as well band together. Or try to.

One of the few things she remembered from her time at the Temple before she was sent away--always try talking before resorting to other more physical measures. It was also a lesson Looma didn't very much well like. However, she didn't see any other choice right now.

Aha, so he was stuck her as she was, Looma found out as the Bothan spoke to her after he walked towards her. She also took a couple steps forward to meet him. Cities? She didn't even know which planet she was on. Or what galaxy, for that matter. Maybe they were in a black hole for what she knew. Looma didn't remember landing on this place or even getting here.

She smiled at him, again trying to aid in the presence of her goodwill. "No, I don't." With a small shudder, she pulled tighter her blanket of the Force for warmth. Looma found herself adding softly, and regretting after she said it, "I'm not even sure how I got here."

Suddenly feeling bad, and hating herself for this empathy for a stranger, she found a nearby rock to perch on. Though she wasn't extremely tall, she would be compared to the slight Bothan. Now perhaps they were closer to eye level. Looma listened quietly as he told his story of how he ended up in this icy place. With the Force, she couldn't readily sense any defeat. But she kept her senses on alert, just in case.

She shook her head, her lekku curling a bit and falling off her shoulders where she had them for warmth. "I'm sorry. This place is as strange to me as it is to you." Looma looked down at the ground and drew aimlessly through the snow with her makeshift club. The young Twi'lek was really missing Caleb right now, and she was sure the feeling was mutual, if she had left as suddenly as it had seemed. She would given anything to be back with him, even if it meant overtime at the farms.

[Squee]

Round 2

Arheim:
Effort: 5/5
Fairness: 5/5
Detail: 5/5
Coolness: 5/5
Bonus: 0/2
Comments: Cute fall.

Mara
Effort: 5/5
Fairness: 5/5
Detail: 5/5
Coolness: 5/5
Bonus: 0/2
Comments: You're doing well.

Total:

Arheim - 40
Mara - 40

I would like to see more verbal, if this is going to be a battle of the words.

[A®heim]

Falo barely suppressed a sigh as the young Twi'lek lowered herself to him. He was well used to it back among the Jedi. Some of the younglings used to taunt him over his stature when the elders had their backs turned, though it rarely bothered him. He couldn't control what he was after all. On the other hand, there was little he despised more than when the elders would lower themselves to his eye level. He knew it seemed backwards, but it felt downright degrading. Even now as the mysterious girl brought her gaze on par with his own he wanted to tell her to get back on her feet and treat him like a fellow being, not a insubordinate child.

Naturally he said nothing of the sort. It wouldn't help anything to start a conflict while they were both stuck in this chilly no-man's-land. He instead resigned himself to trying not to scowl as she began relaying her own story. Not that it was much of a story....perhaps he wasn't the only one trying to keep to himself, but that was alright. He would just have to press harder...

"Surely you must have some idea where you came from, or at least know of some shelter nearby. No offense, but I simply can't believe you could have survived so long out here dressed as you are without at least some knowledge that could assist me." It wasn't difficult to deduct this fact as the girl before him was shivering noticeably and if she truly didn't know anything about where they were, she'd be dead. Unless she had amnesia of course...

Falo shook the notion. Inventing mental conditions to be placed upon one you are trying to understand never helps. If he just assumed everyone who told him they had no idea what he was talking about had amnesia, how would he ever expect to get anywhere in this galaxy of wit and lies. No, she HAD to know SOMETHING, he would just have to switch up his tactics a bit. Perhaps a more direct approach... "I know you're force-sensitive, and I'm fairly sure I know you know I am as well. I don't know where your allegiances lie, and frankly I don't really care. Since I left the order light and dark has been unclouded. They are not the two extremes the Jedi have made them out to be. They are simply two perspectives upon the same idea. Now too have I gained my own perspective upon this principle through my travels. I am Falo Ilo'Taak, a neutral factor amongst the force only wanting to find a purpose in my life."

The Bothan paused a moment to let what he had just said sink in. A slight smile crept across his muzzle as he continued. "That's right, I lied. I am no son of a diplomat. My own personal craft has crash landed not far from here. I tell you all this in hope of exchange. Any knowledge you have would be invaluable to me. However, I ask you not to make the mistake of trying to take advantage of me. I may have once been part of the Jedi order, but I have experienced such darkness your mind cannot comprehend..."

[Mara]

Looma looked up from her artistic scribbles in the snow as the young Bothan spoke to her again. His words hurt her. She didn't know why exactly, but they did. He had been friendly to her and she to him, but now suddenly he was on the attack. The yellow Twi'lek really had no inkling of where she came from. Well, she knew she had been on Bakura, but how she had someone transported to this snowy and icy and cold place... that was another matter entirely. She originally thought she was just dreaming this encounter, but now it was too real for her to be anything else.

Had she hit her head when she arrived her? Was she really forgetting something important? The last thing she remembered was having lunch with Caleb in their secret clearing in the forest. They were laughing and having a good time together in the cool shade before it was time to return to their work in the overbeating heat of Bakura's sun. And then the next thing she remember was shivering, standing in a copse of trees with snow everywhere: a stark contrast to her previous location. But as for what happened in the middle... she didn't know.

The Bothan did have a point, though, about her clothing. But as far as she remembered, she had just gotten here, not enough time to really acclimate herself to her surroundings. Everything was just so fuzzy to her...

He suddenly mentioned to her that he knew she was Force-sensitive. She knew she had felt him from afar as well, but hadn't realized that his sensitivity to the Force was helping her. Though Looma felt that it was pretty obvious that she was as well, it was rather shocking to her, to hear him say it. The Bothan was switching tactics once again. From asking her for help to accusing her of lying to him, and now to just explaining himself.

What was his plan? He didn't really seem as if he was stranded here, lost on his voyage. But then again, she wasn't sure why she was here either. Looma had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. What if her memory loss was not because she had fallen but because someone had purposely struck her? Was this Bothan the one who had hurt her? She slowly stood up, her stick still loosely in her grip. Or maybe there was a bigger force at work here.

Maybe she had escaped and bumped her head as she had crashed on this frozen planet. And the Bakura leaders had sent out a party to find her. This Bothan could be one of the searchers, a would-be capturer. Oh, what would Caleb think of her? Did he know what had happened to her? Looma just wanted her memory back, desperately.

The Bothan in front of her continued on, putting words to her thoughts that he hadn't been a diplomat's son. He had concocted the whole story, probably to get close to her, close enough to capture her. But, no, he wasn't the only one who had experienced the dark side of the Force. Looma could be dangerous as well.

Now thinking she was in a fight for her life, she stepped back a few paces away from the Bothan, who had introduced himself as Falo. He was expecting her to give him information back, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction. Besides, he probably already knew her name and what she was doing here, just stalling her and trying to make her feel welcome, so he could take advantage of her.

But, no, Looma saw through his plan. Whether he had hurt her or just be working for those that did, she would not go easy on him. She couldn't run; he would just find her through her presence in the Force. The Twi'lek was not yet versed enough to completely hide herself and make herself disappear in the Force. Her only option would be to stand and fight, defend herself.

She grasped her rod tighter, watching the Bothan closely. Despite his youth and small stature, he could be powerful, as powerful as he had told her. Looma was not one to underestimate the power of the Force by its wielder. And Falo would be wise to do the same...

Realizing she had been quiet this whole time and thinking he wanted some kind of response out of her, hoping she would give out her name and purpose, anything to help him, her mind whirled with a response. No, she wouldn't help him; she would only help herself. "So be it..." Looma spat out.

Immediately, she gathered the Force to her and was immersed with its power. Closing her eyes, she saw her surroundings with her mind, the presence of the Bothan, all the other life around her, the frozen stream, the rocks. With the Force, she grasped a couple nearby large boulders and hefted them into the air. As she threw them at the Bothan with as much power as she could muster, she gripped her stick tightly, holding it in a defensive posture, opening her eyes. Looma kept the Force with her, wrapped around her, partly for warmth and partly for protection. She was ready to do battle now. For her life.

[Squee]

Round 3

Arheim:
Effort: 5/5
Fairness: 5/5
Detail: 5/5
Coolness: 5/5
Bonus: 0/2
Comments: I little twisted and a little bit of circles, but that could be on my tired mind. Just a heads up

Mara
Effort: 5/5
Fairness: 5/5
Detail: 5/5
Coolness: 5/5
Bonus: 2/2
Comments: The memory loss thing was... well, it was great, to play off an idea like that. And to suddenly turn the confusion of lost memory into a situation that Looma felt threatened, I thought it deserved another bonus. That was... I didn't expect it. Very well done. ^.^

Total:

Arheim - 60
Mara - 62

[A®heim]

Sometimes Falo swore that the universe was out to get him. Within less than a few hours (he had lost track of time out here and couldn't be sure exactly how long it had been) he had crashed his ship, become stranded in a frozen wasteland, lost his lightsaber, and now there was a cray Twi'lek with amnesia throwing rocks at him! No- not just rocks, these were considerably large and flying through the air rather quickly...

The Bothan's tired mind leapt into overdrive narrowly allowing Falo to keep the boulder from hitting him square in the chest. However, this adrenaline reflex then proceeded to condemn him as he slipped once again to fall to the ground. Through the fear and panic that swept over Falo at that moment only a single coherent thought could be strained from the turmoil of his brain: Note to self: Let claws grow out and NEVER go to Hoth. He nearly laughed aloud then at the very strangeness of this, his last thought before being pulverized to death. He may have just laid there floundering in his own psychotic bliss had that annoying little voice of logic kicked in telling him that he should probably do something about those other boulders hurtling in his direction.

That realization shocked him to his senses like a bantha prod to the face. Immediately all his terror was routed by what little reason he had left and balled itself up with all his will and faith in the Force. There was no time to gain his feet to avoid the stones. He needed something to defend himself fast...

His brain tired of his conscious reluctance and instinct took over. Without truly knowing what he was doing, a loose sheet of ice maybe 2 inches think lifted from the creek and flung itself between Falo and the second boulder. Stone struck against ice with a horrific crack as the gossamer spiderweb spun it's silk within the ice plate. The young Bothan took in a sharp breath and flinched at the sound, but though the shield had been obliterated, it had done its job by halting the lethal attack by the Twi'lek offender. If only temporarily.

Inside the wanton disorientation of his mind, an ancient power Falo had spent nearly his entire life holding back hammered at his mental barriers. There was no doubt about it: Falo was pissed and that dark corner of his conscious wanted nothing more than to burst free; escape it's cage like some slobbering beast starved for the thrill of the hunt. The Bothan thrust forward his mental vibropikes. The beast threw itself at the bars and though it took almost all of Falo's remaining strength, he managed to throw the horrors of his curse back, back towards that dark corner. However, there is stopped, not moving another inch into that crevice of his mind. Falo warily dropped his mental defenses (he'd always thought it unfair that he actually had to defend his mind from HIMSELF, but then without the strict mental training he had gone through back at the temple he would have been consumed by the dark energies within him long ago). The beast didn't move but simply waited, preparing to make it's strike when the time was right. It had been repulsed, but it hadn't been subdued...

"Are...You...INSANE?!" Falo managed to blurt out between gasps for air. "I didn't do anything to deserve any of this. I just wanted to help and be helped not bashed open by a-" The third boulder slammed into the side of his head just as he had started to get up. Lights danced before his eyes as a dreadful numbness flowed over his cheekbone. So this was it? This was what life had tasked him to accomplish? To be killed by a crazy rogue Jedi with a rock?! For the first time in his life, Falo felt truly defeated. Nothing else mattered...he only wished he could have seen just a little more of this miraculous universe...

...the beast took it's chance and sprung...

Something went click in Falo's head. Before he had even hit the ground from the stone's impact, he had reoriented and prepared for action. He alighted nimbly upon his paws filled with a renewed vigor, as though the very essence of the Force flowed through his veins...and in a sense it did. Falo's conscious had long since retreated to curl up into a little ball. This power had wanted out and he had no qualms at letting it aim at the Twi'lek girl before him. Rage. That all he felt. A burning desire to see this girl perish. It was not a new feeling for him, but the sheer amount of it that now coursed through his veins was more than he ever thought he had in him...

When the Bothan raised his head, the usual green eye and brown eye were replaced by a piercing yellow glare embodying the pure hatred manifested within the poor child. He arose slowly with predatory deliberation and when he spoke his voice was barely a rasping whisper.

"I never wanted this to happen.....it could've been avoided....but now...." The shards of his icy shield began to quiver on the ground and rise slowly. Their shattered facades glittered in the sunlight like a star field. However, this normally beautiful sight was squelched and snuffed out beneath an oppressing aura of darkness. It no longer mattered that the Twi'lek was force-sensitive- you didn't have to be to feel the essence of pure malice flowing through the air. If possible, the white-blanketed forest seemed to go beyond silent as all life stopped to cower from this unnatural presence.

"...your fate is sealed....too late for redemption...." As if on command, the shards floating through the air around Falo snapped around to aim their jagged points at the Twi'lek. A million razor daggers prepared to mercilessly end a life. Just waiting for the order. "...your time has come....TO DIE!!!"

The forest's reflection glittered and flickered as the ice shards struck in unison.

[Mara]

((About time to end this, methinks...
Oh, and this will be the last round/post; Arh and I decided not to go ahead with adding another round, due to time and such))).


She stood on the frozen riverbank, still no idea where she was, with only one thing on her mind--to survive. Looma held her stick in front of her, gripping it with the familiar opening stance of Shii-Cho, remembered from her days at the Jedi Temple. A few large rocks still hung in the air, waiting to be thrown after the others hit their mark. The yellow Twi'lek wearing her simple light work colors stuck in the frozen tundra of some unknown place no longer thought about whether she was dreaming this or not. Her life was threatened; she had to defend it.

Most of her concentration remained on holding tight on the Force, shielding herself from the cold and from any possible attack. Another tendril was focused on holding the boulders aloft and sending them flying towards the Bothan. Only a small percentage was left to focus on the furry being himself, or on herself and any other defensive postures she could make.

Looma saw the Bothan slip as he dodged one of the first boulders, but she didn't allow her resolve to change. If anything, it became harder, close to durasteel. She wasn't one to take a being just at his word, but this one had the Force about him, and she was inclined to believe he could possibly be more powerful than he seemed. It wouldn't take him long, she was sure, to come up with a way to attack back.

So it wasn't entirely surprising she finally saw some movement from his end of the creek bed. However, it was in the form of ice, not the Bothan moving himself. He was actually still kneeling on the frozen ground, and even with her small grip on his Force presence, Looma could feel him strengthen, gathering more energy into himself. All she did was go deeper within herself, grappling onto the raw Force, willing its power to come into her. Looma held her stick even more tightly, though she realized it would not be enough to stave off any sensible attack from this Falo.

The sheet of ice slammed into one of the boulders she had just flung at the Bothan. There was a tremendous crack as they met in the air. Looma didn't think the ice would do much to a big piece of stone, but didn't show any surprise in her violet eyes when the trajectory of the boulder did indeed slow from the force of the ice sheet. But it was only a temporarily slowdown; she still had plenty of large rocks still in the air to hurtle at her opponent and still more lying around her feet. This was far from over.

She was about to do just that, a boulder poised in the air held telekinetically, when a wash of something...evil came over the riverbed and through the forest. Despite the Force wrapped around her body, Looma felt a chill, a chill that didn't come from the air. No, it was coming from the Bothan...

No longer was she just feeling him pulling on the Force's power. It was something more than that. Something more primal. For the first time since arriving on this icy hellhole from who knows where, the yellow Twi'lek felt a twinge of fear. The fear was heightened when she heard the Bothan scream at her, in a voice that didn't sound entirely his own. She briefly wondered if this Falo really was a Bothan... or some other kind of beast entirely. A beast of her nightmares.

Looma didn't bother answering back. She wanted all her focus on the boulders and her grip on the Force. The insane one wasn't her; clearly, it was her opponent, as his presence in the Force resonated to her. No longer was she thinking she just had to defend her life and find a way off this frozen rock. She needed to survive.

A boost of confidence, seeing a boulder take him down, washed way the Twi'lek's earlier fear. Perhaps she could take this crazy Bothan down. It might not all be lost. With increased resolved, she flung even more at him, sometimes two at a time, all the while continuing to hold her stick like some mutated lightsaber's stepchild. Her concentration was so great that she didn't realize right away that the Bothan was more than defeated by one large rock. He had gotten up, and there was something wild in his eyes. Looma swallowed her fear, willing it to never return. Some rabid Bothan was going to attack her, she just knew it. What could Cal do when he found out?

His raspy words made her body shake involuntarily, whether from cold, her fear or something more terrifying, she didn't rightly know. But she still had the Force as her ally. Perhaps with it, she could still survive this. So quickly she had gone from wanting to quickly dispatch this nuisance who was after her, to merely struggling for survival in some twisted nightmare.

The blood pounded in her ears and through her lekku as she watched the shards of ice slowly rising up from the ground. This was it; this was going to be the final test. Looma just hoped that she was up for it, or she could die. That reality of that sentiment hit her like a ton of bricks in the hollow of her stomach. Wherever she was, however she got here, it no longer mattered. She could die on some uninhabited planet with a crazed Bothan standing over her corpse.

She turned her violet eyes to her opponent. If it was the last thing she did, she wouldn't let him have the last laugh. If she had to die here at this moment, Looma would take the Bothan with her. The next few seconds happened in slow motion. The Twi'lek noticed the ice shards flying towards her. At the same instant, she immediately let go of the boulders in her telekinetic hands, dropping the stick as well. Like a black hole, she drew in all the power of the Force she could manage, wrapping it around herself, layering herself with protection as she dropped to the frozen ground and curled up.

* * *

There was a flash and a sound of shattering. Looma opened her eyes. It was dark around her. She blinked, her awareness gathering that she was still alive. And no longer on that icy planet; there were trees around her, lush and green. Quickly, she stood, recognizing the small creek, the dirt clearing, the young human standing a few feet away with a quizzical look on his face.

She was back on Bakura. Was it only a dream?





((Finito! Ready for you to do the final scoring, Squee.
I hope it doesn't suck too badly.))