Private Held in the Currents of the Force

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra opened her eyes fully as he moved, the shift in his presence drawing her attention back from wherever it had been anchored. For a moment, she simply looked at his hand. It was not in hesitation, but in a brief pause as her thoughts caught up to the present. She felt awareness flicker through her before she pushed it back down where it belonged, settling into the moment with a soft murmur.

"Right…"

Her hand rose to meet his, her grip light at first but steadying as she allowed him to pull her to her feet. The contact lingered just long enough to register before she stepped forward and let it go, re-centering herself with a quiet breath.

Focus and a plan were things she understood.

Mapping the jungle ahead, the way she would a flight route, her gaze followed the river's imagined path through the dense greenery. "That makes sense," she said, her tone more grounded. "Water always finds a way through. If there's an opening, it'll lead to it."

She stepped lightly onto the branch ahead, testing her footing before committing her weight with movements that were now controlled and deliberate. "And it's quieter," she added after a moment. "There is less chance of being seen from above if something is watching the canopy."

Her eyes flicked briefly toward him, the connection brief but intentional. "You lead," she said, her voice softening. "I'll keep up."

This time, she meant it without distraction.

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

He gave her a nod while he moved and went to the branches, allowing himself to balance for a moment as he was less testing it and more listening to the vibrations within the branch itself. His breathing coming through before he was moving with quick placements of his feet on the branches. The movements sending ripples in the force that he was able to use to navigate through it all.. going around and leaving the area where it was thickest for Lyra to be able to follow him and he wasn't using all of his speed. Just enough that she could rush and take her time in a brisk pace." His senses were expanding outwards across the ground level of the jungle where he wasn't sensing anything but that was in its own way something. He found the water to follow it from the trees so that they would be able to move faster and get closer to the central area.

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra followed close behind, her attention fixed less on the drop below and more on the pattern of where he placed his feet. She didn't understand whatever else he was sensing through the branches, but she understood movement, rhythm, and trusting a line chosen by someone who knew the route.

So she mirrored him.

Her pace quickened into a controlled jog across the wider limbs, boots landing carefully but without hesitation now as she used momentum where she could and caution where she had to. The earlier uncertainty had narrowed into focus.

"You know," she called quietly ahead of him, breath steady despite the pace, "most people would just use a path."

There was a faint thread of dry humor in it.

Her eyes flicked downward through breaks in the canopy, catching glimpses of the river threading through the jungle below before returning to him.

"But I'll admit this is faster."

She vaulted a smaller gap, landing cleanly before continuing after him.

"And significantly more dramatic."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

"What is most common and something to be used by people is going to be observed. Without going to far into it a smart predator should expect us to sneak around but prepare for us to guess they would know that." He had a whole thing about it and hunting targets like these creatures if there was anything was what he knew. He had to both look at it being from a simple and clever perspective which was at times annoying. The jedi master was moving now along the branches where he made more space for Lyra. He wasn't slowing down as he spoke though but had it to let them move around the canopy so that they would be able to get closer once he found a larger branch to move in closer.

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra kept pace behind him as best she could, using the spaces he opened through the canopy and trusting the line he chose even when she didn't fully understand the logic behind it. Most of what he said made sense in an unsettling sort of way, though she was beginning to suspect he could turn nearly anything into a hunting lesson if given enough time.

"That's comforting," she called ahead dryly. "To know everything out here might be thinking three moves ahead of me."

She vaulted across another gap and landed with a slight skid before correcting her balance, muttering something under her breath that the jungle politely chose not to repeat.

Then she straightened and continued after him, trying very hard to focus on branches, footing, and not the fact that he moved through all of this with infuriating ease.

"I'm not predator or prey," she said a moment later, half to him and half to herself. "I'm just a simple girl on an adventure with…"

The sentence died there.

Her eyes lifted to him ahead of her, broad shoulders, impossible balance, absolute calm in the middle of all this madness.

Oh Maker.

This is totally not fair.

Her cheeks warmed instantly, and she was grateful he was facing away.

"…with questionable planning," she finished quickly, voice a touch tighter than intended.

She cleared her throat and hopped to the next branch.


"That's what I meant."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

He had the grace not to comment on the last part as his movements brought them around and the tree ahead was shifting... more then normal but he could hear the splintering of wood, the raking of claws or teeth before it started to fall down and leave a gap. he didn't stop adjusting as he kicked off of a branch with a look that was going towards the more open and taller area. His senses reaching down there and he could catch a faint glimmer of something in the force but it burrowed into the ground before he could get a full lock on it with his sight. He landed as he crouched but was looking down into the floor of the jungle where the ground was still bright in the force. "Something is here."

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra's next step never landed.

The sound came first, sharp and wrong amid the damp hush of the jungle, splintering wood followed by the violent rake of something moving through it. Her body reacted before her thoughts did, momentum shifting as she pulled back from the collapsing branch while Syn launched clear of it.

For one breathless instant, the gap where solid footing had been seemed far wider than it should have.

Then she moved.

She pushed off the nearest stable limb, catching the next branch with a rougher landing than she would have liked, one knee striking bark before she forced herself upright again. Her pulse hammered hard in her throat, though whether from the near fall or the sudden violence she couldn't entirely say.

"That's one way to announce itself," she said, breath a touch tighter than usual.

She stepped closer to where he had crouched, though not too close to the edge, her eyes dropping toward the jungle floor below. She saw nothing useful there, only shadows, tangled growth, and the lingering sense that the ground itself had swallowed whatever had moved.

Her hand went instinctively to the lightsaber he had given her, fingers settling around the hilt but not drawing it.

"How large is 'something'?" she asked quietly, her tone steadier now that she had her balance back.

Her gaze flicked to him, then back downward.

"Because I'd like to know if we're dealing with a curious animal…" she paused, swallowing once, "…or the reason this whole jungle forgot how to make noise."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor Lyra Ventor

He thought about how to answer that question for her. "It is able to burrow under the ground quickly so I am working with it not being massive but it is fast." He said it with a nod of his head though as one hand slid and held his lightsaber. He was moving as the open area of the floor gleamed in the force before he touched down. "We will have to see." He didn't like the idea of leaving something that could keep attacking them and this might be the better way to establish dominance or it was going to lead to a massive attack against them... He was looking towards the good result beforre the jedi master dropped down onto the floor with a crouch. His hand touching the ground but he remained at the ready. "Alright head down and I'll cover you."

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra stared at him for half a beat after he dropped to the jungle floor, the distance between branch and ground suddenly looking much greater now that she was the one expected to cross it.

Fast. Burrowing. Unknown size. None of those details had improved her mood. Still, she drew in a steadying breath and tightened her grip on the branch above her before beginning her descent.

"Right," she called down, voice dry despite the tension humming beneath it. "Head down. Into the ground where the fast underground creature lives. Excellent plan."

She tested each handhold carefully, boots finding bark and root where they could as she climbed lower. This was not an elegant movement. It was a practical movement fueled by determination and a refusal to look beneath her too often.

The lightsaber remained secured at her side, though one hand brushed it briefly as if reassured by its presence.

"If establishing dominance was part of the strategy," she added while lowering herself another few feet, "I'd just like it noted I voted for doing that from the branches."

A final drop brought her closer to the floor, and she bent her knees before letting herself down the last stretch.

She landed in a crouch that was slightly rougher than intended, immediately straightening and glancing at the earth around them as if expecting it to split open.

"I'm down," she said quietly, moving closer to him without needing to think about it. "Now please tell me you have a better way to spot it than waiting for it to eat one of us."
Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

"Of course." He said it and didn't expand on it while he was moving with a look around. This close to the ground he could see the details better where he was looking. One hand going to the dirt with a look while he pulled up some parts of it. "That explains a little of it. force crystals are throughout the soil." Hmm he was thinking about it while he was moving with a nod of his head. He threw them down with a small toss but was moving as he walked. Only looking around but keeping Lyra within his sight and reach in case of anything. "We will have to see, though I didn't plan on it, I had planned to follow the waters where they were leading in the force to get up into that citadel and see what is inside."

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra brushed dirt from her palms as she straightened, her eyes moving constantly now that they were on the ground. Everything felt closer here. Heavier. The trees rose like pillars around them, the mist hanging lower, the earth itself seeming to hum with something she could not name.

Her gaze dropped briefly to the scattered soil he had tossed aside.

"Force crystals in the dirt," she repeated, still not entirely used to saying phrases like that aloud. "So the whole place is basically wired strangely."

It made an unsettling amount of sense.

She stepped in beside him rather than behind, keeping close enough that she would not lose sight of him through the mist while still scanning the path ahead for movement.

At the mention of the water, her eyes shifted toward the sound of the falls and the narrow channels threading away through stone and root.

"Then let's stop waiting for whatever is under us to make the first move," she said quietly.

She pointed toward where one of the runoff streams disappeared between moss-covered rock shelves near the basin wall.

"That channel looks deeper than the others. If water has been cutting through here long enough, it may have opened a path inward."

Without quite waiting for permission, Lyra began moving toward it, cautious but purposeful, boots testing the softer ground as she went.

"And if your mystery predator wants us," she added, glancing back at him with a faint trace of dry humor, "it can come try and interrupt us on the way."

As she neared the runoff channel, she crouched and studied the stone edges, looking for signs of recent scraping, tracks, or anything unnatural before carefully peering into the darker passage beyond.

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

He gave her a nod to acknowledge what she was saying but he was moving. "It would make it easier." He said it as he was moving forward for the moment. GOing to the water and being able to follow it as he stepped on the stone itself. Motioning for her to follow suit. "In case of vibrations from the dirt and if it can burrow faster." He knew it was't much and the stone would amplify them but it could reduce being grabbed from below and they had the water on one side which reduced the direction of them being attacked. Gave them at least an advantage of know which direction something would have to come from at least.

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra glanced down at the stone as he stepped onto it, then back toward the surrounding soil with immediate understanding. It wasn't a perfect cover, but it was better than standing on whatever apparently doubled as someone else's tunnel system.

"Solid ground. A concept I can finally support," she said dryly.

She moved after him without hesitation, placing her boots carefully onto the wet stone and adjusting her balance as water slipped around the edges. One hand lifted slightly for balance before settling again at her side, her attention shifting between the path ahead and the jungle flanking them.

The logic of it settled her more than she wanted to admit. Limited approach angles. Firmer footing. Fewer surprises from directly beneath.

"So if it comes for us now, it has to be obvious about it," she said, stepping across a narrower stretch of rock to keep pace with him. "I appreciate an enemy being forced into better manners."

Her eyes tracked the water beside them as it threaded deeper toward the hidden interior, then lifted toward the unseen citadel.

"You realize this is exactly how stories begin before people disappear forever," she added, quieter now, though there was more amusement than fear in it.

Then she glanced at him briefly.

"Good thing I came with company."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

He moved and spoke as he was going. "Forever can be different for some but if I had to be lost." He said it but didn't look back. "Being lost with you is not the worse thing that can happen." He said it while he was moving and followed the flow of the river as it was going and the water was both channeled and made but followed the natural way towards it. He could see where the river tried to still go in some places before the trees shifted and became more dense but they formed cooler places. He didn't feel sunlight filtering through but it was closer to the mountain that was near the center before he was moving. "There is the mountain and the stone smells of rotten food. Be careful it isn't meat more eggs." He said it as he stopped and her hand went down to the rocks with yellow sulfur powder on it.

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra nearly missed her next step.

His words landed far more cleanly than her boots did, and for a moment she had to catch herself on the slick edge of stone before recovering her balance and continuing after him. Heat rose instantly into her cheeks, impossible to hide and even more impossible to explain away, while a small, helpless smile betrayed her at the same time.

Maker…

Of all the things he could say in the middle of a hidden jungle full of predators and buried ruins, that was what he chose.

And worse, some treacherous part of her mind had already agreed with him.

"That… might be the most distracting thing anyone has said to me on a mission," she managed, voice softer than usual as she hurried a few steps to close the distance he had opened.

She kept pace beside and slightly behind him where she could, her focus returning in pieces as the terrain changed around them. The air cooled, the canopy thickened, and the sense of entering something older and more enclosed pressed at the edges of her awareness.

Then the smell hit.

Lyra slowed immediately, her nose wrinkling with open displeasure as she looked toward the stone and the yellow residue dusting it.

"Eggs," she repeated, the single word carrying profound disappointment.

She crouched carefully near the rock, but not close enough to touch it, studying the powder and the crevices around it before lifting her gaze toward the mountain face.

"So we're either near a nest…" she said quietly, "or walking directly through the pantry of something large enough to need one."

Her eyes flicked back to him, still faintly pink despite herself.

"And for the record," she added, trying for composure and only half succeeding, "getting lost with you forever would not be the worst thing either."

Then she immediately looked back at the rocks as if the geological features had become urgently fascinating.

"What kind of creature lays sulfur-smelling eggs?"

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

He waited for a moment a little choked up at her admission but he spoke when she asked. "Spice spiders, which would explain the burrowing. There are variants that dig and lay traps for their prey and even moving quickly and quietly they would have had our scent and been able to feel the vibrations." He said it with a small look while he was going forward but stepped a little more carefully so she could follow his foot work and be in a safer place. "Which means the closer we get to an enclosed area the more risk there is. Spice in the air can damage much more from inhaling it." He looked for more before he was checking on a moment longer. The water leading into the mountain when he finally found it and the stone was carved and overgrown more then anything. "We can go in here, be on the look out for egg sacs and webbing."

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra had only just begun recovering from the warmth of her own admission when the word spiders reached her, bringing her to a dead stop. Her expression shifted through disbelief and offense before settling into a look of deep, resigned amusement.

"Spiders…" she repeated slowly, as if the word itself were the problem. Her eyes darted from the dark mountain opening to the stone around it before landing back on him with a heartfelt complaint. "Why'd it have to be spiders?"

Drawing a measured breath, she stepped forward again, though every shadow and crack now seemed suspect. Her hand drifted instinctively to the lightsaber at her side, her fingers resting there for reassurance as much as intent.

"Fast, burrowing, trap-setting spiders that poison the air," she continued, her tone dry but noticeably tighter. "You really do know how to plan a memorable outing."

She matched his careful pace, placing her boots exactly where his had landed with far more discipline than before. At the mention of webs and egg sacs, her nose wrinkled in visceral distaste.

"If I see either of those, I'd like it officially noted that I reserve the right to become unreasonable."

Glancing at him, she felt some of the tension ease under the familiar steadiness of his presence.

"Lead on, then," she said quietly, "before I think about it too much."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

He was stepping in and he gave a nod of his head to her. "If I see any then I shall endeavor to tell you so that you do not see them." He said it with a look of seriousness for her while he was walking. His attention on a few of the things in the area and he felt it in the force. The vision that they had been able to see.. the chamber as the water pooled with pathways going up and he could feel the light filtering in to touch them. He was breathing in more though while he controlled his breathing with a small look at Lyra as he spoke finally not needing to breathe in. "Observe me, take a breath and feel your body relax, allow it to hold in your lungs and enclose it with the force. You can use it to sustain you in dangerous areas. To protect yourself."

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra glanced at him when he spoke, the seriousness in his tone not lost on her, though the promise earned the faintest flicker of relief.

"I'm going to hold you to that," she said quietly, a thin thread of dry humor beneath it.

As he shifted into instruction, her attention followed, grounding itself in something she could focus on instead of what might be waiting in the dark ahead. She watched him closely, noting the cadence of his breathing, the stillness in his posture, the way everything about him seemed to settle at once.

Then she tried to mirror it.

She drew in a slow, steady, controlled breath, letting her shoulders ease as she held it the way he described. For a moment, she managed it. The air filled her lungs, her body steadied, and a brief sense of control felt familiar.

But nothing else followed. No extension. No reinforcement. No…anything beyond what she already understood. Her brow knit slightly as she exhaled, then tried again, slower this time, more deliberate. The result was the same. She let the breath go and looked back at him, not frustrated, just…aware.

"I can follow the breathing," she said, voice low but steady. "That part makes sense." A small pause. "But the rest of it…" she shook her head faintly, "…I don't feel anything there yet."

Her hand rested lightly against the rock beside her, grounding herself in something real, something she could trust. "I'll keep doing it," she added after a moment, more certain now. "Even if it's just air for now."

Her eyes flicked briefly toward the darker passage ahead, then back to him. "Just don't expect me to survive on it if something decides to poison the place."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

He looked and watched her with a nod of his head. She would practice she was too stubborn to be false about it and he stood there looking at her and then the surrounding area. "If it comes to that I will breathed for the both of us." He said it while remaining there and staying where he was while she grounded herself with the rock. The jedi master looking up into the citaadel itself... he could see more of it in here while he was looking through the force and didn't say everythign he saw... just looking up around some parts. "If it will make you happy there doesn't see to e anything moving above use. Just outside the cave and in some of the smaller tunnels."