Through the Understory (Dev Thread/PM for Invite)

[H3xle]

​

Location: Kashyyk (Understory)​

​

Silvano sat bolt upright, sweat plastering his hair to his head and beading along the lines of his tattoos. His breath was coming in loud, ragged gasps as his dialated eyes searched his room for evidence of what woke him. Deep inside, in the wild core that was where he felt his deepest connection to the web of life that off worlders called the Force, Sivano felt a distinct pull, more than a tugging on the heart strings, a yanking on the silver chord of his soul. After a few moments, his eyes adjusted to the darkness of night time below the canopy on Kashyyk. It was not the world of his birth, but it was most certainly his home, and the noises of the wilderness outside his tribes walled village helped to bring Silvano back to himself. His breathing slowed to a more controlled set of inhalation and exhalation. Silvano slipped out of his bed, grown out of the bole of the Wroshyr tree that he called home utiizing both his and Master Grlaak's abilities, and donned his simple clothing of self made grey shirt and trousers and katarn skin boots. He slipped a pair of ryyk blades into sheathes on either side of his belt and grabbed his wroshyr wood staff from next to the door and walked out of his home.

Outside of his small home, he had n family to speak of and so had been granted a small one room home against the bole of one of the central trees in the village. Silvano looked around and saw the tribes guards making their rounds in pair and triums. War had not come to this tribe for some years, but the lessons of the past lived long when you measured your life against that of the trees you live in. The thrum of the web of life was strong in this village, and Silvano could still feel the pull. It pulled down and to the due north. History told of a set of caverns below the forest, the Myyydril Caverns, that hold a great many treasures and horror from the past. The knowledge of this, coupled with the pull in that direction did not assuage Silvano in the slightest. No matter his feelings, however, Silvano knew that he would have to go. The sun would be up in a few hours, Silvano could speak to Master Grlaak when she woke, she would know what to do about this pull. In the mean time, Silvano joined the guards in making rounds. The steady walking along the walls and through the village always helped to calm Silvano's mind.

 

[H3xle]

[Several Hours Later]​

​

After an hour of walking around and through the village did nothing to calm the pull he felt from the web of life, Silvano stepped outside the walls and climbed up. It was the opposite way from where he was being pulled, but it was the only way to get to his favorite vantage point. Growing up among arboreal wookiees led Silvano to become a very adept climber, though still no where near to the skill of your average wookiee. His favorite spot was a limb that was took slim for any grown wookiee to be out on, one of the pluses to being small for your 'family'. The branch he set himself on had a perfect view all around, it stuck up above the canopy for thirty meters and was only partially leafed. It was here that the sun found him, hours later, as he sat contemplating the world. As he was wont to do, he began speaking to the wind and trees as if they were the best listeners you could befriend.

"I am feeling this pull, down towards the understory to the north. Where the Myyydril Caverns lay. I don't know if that is where the pull will take me, I want to speak to Master Grlaak before I make my choice on whether to follow it or not. That is if the web of life will give me a choice." He paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts and watching the sun continue to crest the horizon. "After the world returned from that...other place, I have not felt content here. I feel that my tree branches out and I must needs travel the winds. That frightens me. I've never been off Kashyyk since...since I was found in the life pod. This is where I have grown and learned. This is where I have made my home...but I do not feel I can stay here much longer. I feel I have more to learn, and more to do." He took a deep breath, and pretended to ignore the tear rolling down his cheek. "I wish, not for the first time, that you could speak back to me. I may not be here much longer to talk to you, though I will try to return every so often."

He spent a few minutes just focusing on his breathing, slipping into a meditative state as he let the natural world wake around him with the rising sun. Master Grlaak will be up by now, she did not often allow the sun to beat her to waking and now the sun was fully in the sky. Silvano made his way down from his perch with the surety of long practice, and walked back into the village. He walked to the very center bole of the village, where the elders lived in tiered houses grown out of the tree or built into it, depending on the whims of the architect and the availability of plant manipulation. More people were out and about, going about their business whether it was hunting for food, gather food, relaying messages to and from the village and many others. Almost all offered a polite nod or other greeting to Silvano, everyone who frequented this village knew of him, the only Eldorai to be raised by Wookiees so far as he knew.

Silvano reached the center bole and saw Master Grlaak up ahead, and ran to catch up to her.

"Master Grlaak!" Silvano said as he reached her side. "I had hoped to beg you a boon of time, so I may speak to you of something that is troubling me." While not a true stickler for formality, it was always best to treat the Master Wookiee with respect, and Silvano did truly respect her.

"Grlllew! Mrrraalw. Fwillargh Twallgh Ghrall?" Greetings, young furless one. How may I be of assistance? Growing up among Wookiees included learning their language fluently, though he rarely tried to speak it. Most people in the village prided themselves on knowing Galactic Basic, and a few had decided to learn to translate the Eldorai language that Silvano still knew from his childhood.

"I am feeling a pull from the web of life, northward and down towards the Myyydril Caverns. I don't think I can or should ignore it, but I would like your opinion." He spoke more slowly now, having quickly regained his breath. As he spoke of it, the pull towards the north and down thrummed with more power.

"Brrrallw, thrrrw. Bralwwe Grrrr'arrl fthraghl, thraiwwlw. Wrrralrr, thrralr mrraalw. Thrawwwl, brrllg l'Awwrl, grthrt brrrlawgh Ghral." Truly, the web of life. Such a pull should not be ignored easily, for that way lies trouble. Tread carefully, my favorite young furless one. Of the future, yours is clouded to me, as are your choices. She replied, laying a furry paw on his arm. A tear formed in her eye, before being quickly absorbed by the fur of her face. Tears also formed in Silvano's eyes. He knew that she was not truly strong in the ways of the web of life, she could rarely see farther than the planet of Kashyyk when seeing into the future. It's defense was partially in her hands and it was her home. Emotion clogged up Silvano's throat, causing him to revert to the telepathy that she had so painstakingly taught him.

~Master, I feel that when I return from this journey, I will leave Kashyyk. Not because I wish to, but because I feel that I must let the wind take e to where I can learn more. Of my past, of my bond to the web of life and of the wider galaxy. I feel that, whatever I may find below will be something I need to have on my travels.~

~Ahhh, Silvano. Your path was never meant to remain here. I am surprised that you remained for so long, though I am grateful for the time that I have had with you. You are as a son to me, and I will always cherish raising you. Go with my blessing, though please stop by before you leave Kashyyk, I would like to say good bye.~ With that, her furred paw touched his face softly, and then she walked away.

Silvano steeled himself. He had known all along that he would be leaving soon, and it seemed that the day was fast approaching. It might even be this day, depending on how far the web of life pulled him. Gripping his staff more firmly, he turned away from his home and toward the open gate. He left the village that had raised him and turned north, using skills honed through decades growing up among wookiees, he made his way north and down. Toward the understory.

 

[H3xle]

For hours, Silvano walked, brachiated, jumped and climbed his way down through the stories of Kashyyk's forest. He moved through the woodland like a wraith, using the techniques that Master Grlaak had taught him about moving steathily through the forest, and masking his presence in the web of life by diffusing his essence into the trees around him. To a force sensitive, it would seem as if an area of the forest became more vibrant as Silvano passed through. No truly hiding his presence, but it would be difficult for someone unfamiliar with Wookiee teachings to put a finger on the cause of the invigoration of forest. He was not truly invisible, so far as Silvano knew such was not possible, but he was able to descend through the stories of trees fairly unmolested.

Silvano paused for a mid day meal after a few hours of travel, unable to truly mark the position of the sun in the sky, Silvano told time by body rhythm. When he got hungry, as now, he stopped and ate. When he felt tired he would sleep, so on and so forth. Silvano set down his staff and removed the small pack he had taken with him from the village. He could hunt effectively if this pull took him longer than a couple of days, but he had some food with him, dried meats and fruits. He pulled out a strip of dried, pressed fruit and walked to the edge of the branch he stood on. He peered down and to the north, picking out a way down with his eyes as he pulled off a bite and chewed it. He had made it roughly half of the way down to the floor or the forest, to the perpetual twilight of the Understory. Not many Wookiees even traveled down there, let alone outsiders. Being the one outsider who wasn't an outsider, it felt almost fitting that he make the journey. After he finished the strip of fruit, he moved to a strip of meat and chewed each bite thoroughly. He wasn't hungry any more, but his body needed protein as well as the energy that the fruit would provide. Once he was done, he began his journey down again, grabbing his staff to take with him before he began his descent again.

Silvano made it down a few stories before he felt something. At the back of his neck, hairs stood on end. He felt like he was being watched. Worse, he felt like he was being stalked. Silvano reached out into the currents of the web of life and searched for who or what could be stalking him. Master Grlaak and he had played games in Silvano's youth where one would hide and the other would hunt. They would take turns being hunter and prey until Silvano was able to both hide effectively and hunt well. The continued after that, but it became akin to training as opposed to the game it had begun as. Silvano searched through the web of life until he found what was hunting him. A pair of Katarn had gotten either his scent, which he might have forgotten to mask, or the scent of his food, likewise unmasked after he opened the pack. Either way, it didn't matter. He had hunters and he would have to deal with it on his own terms.

Silvano focused, dissolving the masking of his signature on the web of life, and sent out a call to the animals. He readied the staff in his hand, sinking his mind into the wild core that was his connection to the web of life. His building fatigue went away, his limbs felt lighter and the staff in his hand felt stronger. He twirled it through a few moves before the Katarns appeared from behind the bole of the tree whose branch he was standing on. The branch was about ten meters across, plenty of space to battle, but also plenty of space to be flanked. Silvano set his staff in a refused guard in his right hand, one end coming up behind his left ear with the other pointing down and behind him. His knees were bent, left foot pointing to the space between the two Katarn, right foot perpendicular to the line of his left foot. Silvano pushed out his left hand, and with it he called to the web of life. Elemental shaping was the easiest type of power for Silvano to learn, with his upbringing that was not surprising, but he worked hard to learn the basics of what the wider galaxy called Force powers. Traditional powers were harder to grasp for Silvano, and mentally he had to liken each power to the natural world before he could truly begin the path of mastering it. Centering himself had made him feel faster, but now Silvano called to the web of life, and drew the spirits of wind and air around him to make him light on his feet and agile as a falcon.

The point at which the katarns pounced was the exact point that Silvano's left arm reached full extension. The reptomammals pushed off of the bole of the tree and veritably flew at Silvano. Fast as they were, they appeared to be floating slowly toward him. Silvano had the spirits of air with him, aiding him with their speed and agility. Silvano waited a few moments, truly the space between heart beats, before he moved in return. He danced to the right, closing the distance on one katarn while placing that one between him and the other. Silvano spun the staff in his right hand around, planting it point on into the space between ribs on the closest katarn, hitting it with as much force as he could without losing accuracy. The point of the staff broke a rib and pushed the katarn away from him. Both katarn dropped to the branch, the farther one had gone farther and landed on its feet while the closer one landed on its side. Continuing the spin he had started, Silvano slammed the other end of the staff down onto the skull of the fallen katarn, the squick and crunch telling the end of the katarn.

At the point of contact between staff and katarn, the other katarn leaped at Silvano again, an angry snarl on its face. Silvano continued the spin of the staff and added a spin of his own body. He danced just aside of the katarns leap, the claws of the reptomammal missing him by a scant inch. Before the katarn could turn, Silvano spun the staff in both hands and unleashed a flurry of hammering blows to the back of the animal. Each blow sent ripples through the body of the katarn. Silvano raked the blows forward until he hammered a few onto the head of the katarn, breaking spine, rib, neck and cranium in the matter of a single heart beat. Both animals dead, Silvano released the air spirits with a whisper of thanks and stood there, chest heaving slightly as he drew in breaths. He had not had many times where he fought for his life, and as such each time took something out of him. He knew with more experience, less would be taken, but he hoped he always had something taken from him for taking a life he hoped never to become blase about killing. Silvano set the staff aside and said a prayer to the spirits for the spirits of the two katarn. They had just been looking for food, hunting what they considered prey at the wrong time. When he was done, he pulled out a ryyk blade and began to dress each of the kills. He would only take the choicest meats for drying, using some lesser cuts for dinner tonight. He figured that he could set up camp nearby and get an early start in the morning. Once done with the cleaning and cutting of the meat, he moved down a story and over a few trees, leaving some meat on the carcasses for the other life in the forest. He set a fire and cooked some meat for a meal and set the rest to dry above the fire.

 

[H3xle]

Silvano did not truly sleep through the night, he had been attacked once while travelling, and he knew that he could easily be attacked during the night, fire or no. Silvano instead settled into a comfortable position, legs crossed, hands resting on knees, back straight, and sank into the wild core that was his connection to the web of life. Once there, he entered a meditative state, safe in the knowledge that the web would warn him if anything were to come after him. The night, however, passed uneventfully. Silvano rose after a few hours, the air lighter but not truly day as he was low enough to have little of the filtered light of the sun reach him. He rose and stretched, spending time to warm up each muscle group and ensure that he didn't pull anything on his journey, for even a sprained ankle could kill on Kashyyk.

Once he donned his pack, weapons belt and doused the coals that remained from the previous nights fire, Silvano continued on his way. By the time he stopped for his mid day meal he had reached the lower stories of the forest. Below him was the most dangerous part of the journey for an unprepared traveler. The last hundred meters of the tree were bare of branches, the lack of true light reaching down here would have atrophied anything that tried to bloom below. The bole of the tree did arc out in the last twenty meters or so, but sliding down eighty meters to that point would likely give life threatening splinters and impart a momentum that would be hard to slow in the last twenty meters. No, sliding down was the wrong option, there were wiser options for the prepared traveler. A prepared traveler would have brought scaling claws to attach to hands and feet to scale down the last hundred meters and back up when they were done. That, as well, was not the way Silvano was going to reach the ground.

It was true that most Wookiees did not go down to the bottom of the forest, the area was far from the light and held many dangers. That being said, the Wookiees were practical people. Somewhere in the area would be a hidden stairway, either carved from the bole of the tree like a ladder or grown into the bole of the tree by a powerful practitioner of plant manipulation. Silvano was good at manipulating plants, but not quite strong enough to make his own set of stairs. Master Grlaak, however, was the protector of this local area of forest, and was a masterful plant manipulator. Silvano just had to find the correct sign pointing the way to that stair set. It took the better part of the hour, moving up and down between the lowest stories of the forest, before he could find the stairs down. A short time later, he was on hard earth between the massive boles and roots of the Wroshyr trees of Kashyyk. The last few steps was the moment of truth, he would learn if he was truly heading to the Myyydril Caverns.

Silvano took a step down to the ground, and the pull of the web of life straightened out to be due north. Silvano let out a sigh of relief and began to make his way around boles and under or over root systems to the north.

 

[H3xle]

Silvano stretched from his second night of meditation and doused his fire with soil. He pulled on a strip of partially dried katarn meat as he started off to the North. At this point he had likely passed the entrance to Myyydril Caverns on the western side, still the pull of the web of life drew him north. He had traveled steadily north for many hours each of three separate days, making good time as he was used to walking in the trees and being dirtside only made it easier. The pull of the web of life made it unnecessary to maintain a direction using his skills, so he could travel around harder obstacles swiftly without worrying about losing his way. By midday on that third day, the pull of th web of life grew stronger. He was nearing his target.

Not knowing what is waiting for him at the place where the pull was taking him, he decided to stop and eat a quick meal. He meditated for a short time after he ate, centering himself using techniques that Master Grlaak had taught him through out his life. After the short meditation, Silvano felt centered and ready. He stood, cinched his pack to him and went forth.

A few hundred meters beyond the point where he had had his lunch and meditation stop, he came upon a massive structure grown into the bole of a massive wroshyr tree. The level of work that had to have gone into the shaping of the structure were mind boggling to Silvano, being an initiate of plant manipulation himself. The exterior of the wroshyr tree up to about fifty meters showed signs of shuttered windows and shapings in the shape of animals native to Kashyyk as well as some animals that Silvano had only ever heard about. At the ground level a set of doors stood, twice as tall as a Wookiee would stand and wide enough for three Wookiees to walk side by side. The doors were closed and provided no clue as to how to open them. Silvano took his time to walk around the whole of the bole to ensure that this was indeed the pace he was meant to go. It took him over an hour to navigate around the shaped bole, but no other entrances presented themselves.

Silvano approached the doors and examined them physically. The doors were carved with a language that Silvano did not know off hand, along with several animals. One phrase, near the top of the doorway, was in Galactic Standard. That phrase stated "Here Lies Jedi Master Hrrlaagh".

"A tomb. The web of life wanted me to visit the tomb of a deceased Jedi Master." Silvano spoke aloud to himself. This was quite a tomb, at least fifty feet tall and very wide around the base. All shaped from the living wood of a wroshyr tree. Silvano had to stand there and wonder at it for a moment. He needed to find a way in, there was something inside that he needed to find, he was sure of it. He moved back up to the door and closed his eyes. He set his free hand on the door and extended his senses outward from himself. He let his senses flow into the door, the way he would let it flow into a plant material he was going to shape. Unlike the natural order found within most plants, this tree had an order already placed upon it. The essence of it felt familiar, like that of Jedi Master Grlaak when she was training him to shape plants. He filed that thought aside as he slowly used his expertise in the web of life to part the door shaped part of the tree, one single layer of the tree at a time. After a few minutes of concentration, Silvano opened his eyes and laid them on something that had been closed off for who knew how long. Slowly, he took a step forward, into the dark.

 

[H3xle]

Silvano blinked his eyes a few times to clear them, the air inside the tomb was not as stale as it should have been, and actually smelled less stuffy than the air trapped in the understory. His eyes quickly adjusted to the gloom, though as he stepped past the threshold a dozen or so light came to life, lining the hall in sconces grown from the wood of the tree, holding what seemed to be fireflies. The hallway he was in went straight for a hundred meters, doorways periodically pierced either side along the way and at the very end were a set of regular doors, hinged and all. The walls and doors were all shaped in the same motif as the exterior, animals and strange writing. A sudden thought came to Silvano, he didn't want anything following him in here, so he took a few more minutes, concentrated on the door that was and slowly reshaped the wood of the tree to cover the door again as it had been before. A light sheen of sweat beaded on his forehead from the exertion, but otherwise he felt great. He never felt like he exercised his abilities enough.

Turning back to the hallway, Silvano surveyed each of the doorways from where he stood. The hallway held no furniture except for the light sconces, so it would appear that the only thing to do would be to explore the doorways. The pull of the web of life that had drawn him here faded to a generalized thrum, so it wasn't going to help him discover what it had brought him here for. That was fine, Silvano was interested enough in this place to relish the idea of plumbing it's depths. Picking the closest doorway on the right hand side, Silvano stepped forward and began his explorations.

After several hours spent in the several rooms along the entry hallway, Silvano had found several libraries filled with tomes in languages he didn't know and some he did, he found strange devices shaped like cubes that glowed with strange inner light, though he left those alone for they were unfamiliar and emanated auras of power that varied from as strong as his to stronger than Master Grlaak. After the first room, Silvano had wished that he had brought something to write on and with, so he could catalog what he found. He instead just shrugged and put it down to another reason to return to Kashyyk after he had traveled the galaxy for a stretch. There were some rooms that he couldn't enter, auras of menace kept him back out of fear of treading on something that might fatally interrupt his search. Finally, he came to the door at the end of the hallway.

The door was furnished with a wooden handle, which turned easily enough and the door opened soundlessly. Beyond the door was a warren that held four branching hallways in addition to the one he entered from, as well as a stairway up and a stairway down. He also found a smaller doorway, a single door that opened into a living wood cage that was itself in a shaft that went up into darkness but did not go down. It appeared to be a lift of some sort, like what was in some of the larger cities where offworlders frequented. He filed that away for later, it might save him some trouble returning to the canopy. Next, Silvano investigated the entrances of each of the hallways, as well as the beginnings of both sets of stairs. Nothing indicated any one of the passages above another, so Silvano sat down in the middle and paused a moment to think.

The pull from the web of life had led him here, and there was far more in this building than he could go through before his food and water ran out. He figured that it wouldn't hurt to meditate for a while, to see if the web of life would give him any direction. Removing his weapons and pack and setting them within reach around him, Silvano settled into a meditative position and let his consciousness flow into the wild core at his center, letting the web of life draw his mind where it wanted to take him.

 

[H3xle]

For over an hour, Silvano let the web of life pull him along it's strands as the wind pulls a feather in it's wake. When he opened his eyes, Silvano felt the same low level pull as before, but he had a better idea of where it was going to take him. He stood, then pulled his weapons belt and pack on, cinching them tight and ensuring the ryyk blades were tied down to his thighs before picking up his staff and turning away from the stair wells. They would be for another time he came here, his answer lay on this level somewhere.
Silvano surveyed the four hallways he had not been down yet. Two created roughly forty-five degree angles with the hallway you had come in on, while the other two were at roughly ninety degree angles to those hallways, forming a rudimentary star pattern. Silvano turned to the pathway second to the left and peered into it. This way was where his current destination lay and he should complete his current task and come back another time...likely many times, to discover everything else. Good thing Eldorai had lifespans to rival Wookiees.

Silvano stepped into the archway and down a hallway. As before, lights lit up streaking down the hallway upon his crossing the threshold. This hallway was only about seventy-five meters long, with only a single door set into the far wall. All along the walls of this hallway were writings in that same language that Silvano didn't know, a fact that was beginning to irk him. He was certain that those writings were telling a story or listing what was where, possibly even giving a clue as to why the web of life was drawing him here. Shrugging it off and putting into the back of his mind, Silvano approached the door slowly. He hadn't met any resistance or traps, but it always paid to be cautious in tombs.

Silvano reached the door and saw that writing in Galactic Basic told a story upon the door itself.

'Beyond this door lay the remains of Jedi Master Hrrlaagh.
He was a mighty warrior, a gifted diplomat and a loving husband.
This Wroshyr Fortress shall stand as a repository of his life and work.
​Beyond you will find his personal possessions, but be wary of intentions.
Purity of heart will be tested if one breaches this door,
Take your life in your own hands.'

As he finished reading the words to himself, the pull from the web of life thrummed harder than ever and a soft 'click' could be heard from the door. Silvano tested it and found that the door opened silently. Silvano pushed it open and stepped inside.

Suddenly, Silvano felt himself wrenched from his feet and flung to the far side of the room by an invisible hand. Below him he saw a sarcophagus bearing the likeness of a massive Wookiee, as well as tables with many items laid upon them. His vision blasted white as he struck the wall and crumpled to the ground, stunned for a moment. Silvano sat there a moment, the height of the sarcophagus obscuring who his assailant was for the moment. Silvano took a deep breath and centered himself, before rising to his feet and seeing his assailant. A shambling mound of plant matter in the rough shape of a Wookiee stood between Silvano and the door, power oozed from the creature, but not of the web of life. The creature stunk of the antithesis of the web of life, the web of undeath. (Death is a part of life, and the dark side has necromancy). The shambling mound thrust out it's arm and a bolt of darkness rippled through the air towards Silvano.

Calling upon the spirits of air once again, Silvano spun aside at just the last moment. In his crashing to the wall he had lost his staff, but he still bore his twin ryyk blades at his sides. Grasping the handles in his fists, he slid them free of their sheathes and readied them as he moved around the sarcophagus. The blades were held so the length of the blade was against his forearms with a spike of metal protruding past his knuckles by five inches, similar to a way one could hold tonfa. Darkness gathered in the hands of the shambling mound again, and Silvano streaked forward borne on the wings of the wind. He lashed out, falling into the movements of k'thri that he had learned from Master Grlaak. The focus of K'thri, and thus the reason that the diminutive Silvano (diminutive among the towering Wookiees), was flurries of accurate blows, striking for sensitive areas, pressure points and weaknesses in armor. Landing each blow to the same spot to exploit such weaknesses and end the battle fast. Silvano could not see a true weakness in the shambling mound, he had heard of plant shapers being able to animate plants, but had never seen it. Nevertheless, he picked a point on it's upper abdomen and struck out. Silvano thrust the points of both ryyk blades into the abdomen in sequence, right, left, right, right, left, before the shambling mound could respond. At the point where it looked like it was going to strike back, Silvano began to spin the ryyk blades around. He ducked under a right hook from the mound and jabbed the long end up into what looked like a chin, withdrew that blade and used it's spinning motion to deflect a left jab from the creature. Silvano slashed the length of the blade in his right hand along the creatures armpit, then jumped, pushed his feet against the creature and tried to kick off into a backwards somersault.

The plant material was far less solid than Silvano either expected or wanted, when he planted his feet and pushed, they sank into the creature rather than push off. Silvano began to fall towards the ground, but the mound had another idea. It seemed to like the idea of sending Silvano flying, so it backhanded back, causing Silvano to strike the far wall, again, and crumple to the ground in a heap, again. The ryyk blades had fallen from his grasp as well, and hadn't seemed to do any damage in any case. What he needed was a lightsaber...

Just as he thought that, his eyes fell onto a table just to the side of the shambling mound. A stand with more of the light-bugs in sconces around it was the only thing that the table held. On the stand was an elegant double bladed lightsaber hilt, it's wooden surface shaped with more of the words in a strange language. Unable to think of another way to defeat the creature, Silvano mentally called out to the spirits of air once again and pulled the hilt to his hand (VENTAS SERVITAS (you get a million extra points for understanding the reference)). The hilt responded readily, and instinctively he knew how to activate the blade. He leapt over the sarcophagus in a single bound and ignited both blades. Green light illuminated the room around them as Silvano veritably flew through the air. He spun the lightsaber around him in a series of arcs designed to deflect anything coming at him and cut down what was before him. The mound had readied another blast of darkness and thrown it at him, which was deflected gracefully by the spinning saber staff before Silvano landed and lunged forward. He spun his body, twisting the saber staff around himself, combining K'thri and Ataru, he somersaulted as he spun, the saber staff still spinning around him. By the time he landed to the side of the shambling mound, he had struck the creature a dozen times, though not with the accuracy that K'thri truly required. Nonetheless, with the lightsaber in hand and mixing in the acrobatics of Ataru, the shambling mound was a far less mobile creature, smoking in the ruins of it's body on the floor.

Silvano rose from the kneeling position he had landed in, doing a simple flourish with the saber staff to shake out the adrenaline that had built up in the short battle. The saber staff acted like an extension of himself, a branch of his soul tree. "I don't know what the markings say, but I shall call you Olwa..." He said as he deactivated it, refering to the Eldorai word for branch.

 

[H3xle]

Silvano walked slowly around the chamber, at various points looking at things, picking up overturned tables and reassembling the things on them and picking up his ryyk blades, replacing them in their sheathes. His wroshyr staff seemed to have been shattered in the initial actions of the battle, a loss that Silvano still mounred despite gaining a lightsaber. He could feel the pure, wild energy of the weapon resonating with the wild energy at his core. Once he had righted everything to the best of his ability, working from a single second of vision before being thrown against the wall, the room seemed to shift, a soft blue glow emanated over the sarcophagus. Silvano turned and saw the form of a large Wookiee, he wore traditional jedi robes like that which Master Grlaak kept in her home, but never wore.

"Greetings, Silvano Iluvitar. You have passed the test put forth to you by the Force, what you consider the web of life. The blade that you hold in your hand once belonged to me, within it are twin solari crystals. Only the purest of souls may wield a solari blade, all other would not be able to even activate it." The force ghost spoke slowly, and spoke Basic, though it's mouth did not seem to move.

"Why was this for me to do? I am an outsider to your world and the Jedi. I am an orphan trained and raised by a Wookiee master, but that is my truest and only connection to Kashyyk...what connection do I have to you?" Silvano responded. Master Grlaak had always said that questions were the best way to find out about what you wanted to know.

"Wise questions. Why does an Eldorai raised by Wookiees in what could be considered one of the oldest Wookiee tradition deserve to wield the blade of a Wookiee Jedi Master who died over a century before said Eldorai was born?" The Wookiee replied, sounding amused. "The truth of that answer lies in you heart, and in the heart of the blade you hold in your hand. The crystal is the heart of the blade. The heart is the crystal of the Jedi. The Jedi is the crystal of the Force. The Force is the blade of the heart. All are intertwined. The crystal, the blade, the Jedi. We are one. Such is the Crystal Code of the Jedi Order. Your heart and mine beat in the same way, to the same drum, with the same essence. Therefore, my blade, the crystal of myself, is now yours. Go forth with it and make good use of it."

"Why was the creature of darkness guarding your tomb here?" Silvano asked after taking a moment to gaze at the hilt in his hand.

"Ahhh. For the answer to that, you should ask the builder of my tomb. For it is her tale to tell, part of her penance for what happened after war took me from her side." The Wookiee ghost replied.

"Your wife made this tomb for you..." Silvano uttered off handedly as is mind went through the facts he had witnessed. Then he nodded, understanding something that was being left unspoken.

"Remind her of our love, young furless one." With that, the ghost of the Wookiee Jedi faded.

Silvano looked around the room for a few more minutes. He then walked out and closed the door behind himself. He walked to the warren that held the other tunnels, stairs and the lift. He shut the doors to the entry hall, desiring to leave everything as he had found it, where possible. Saber hilt in hand still, Silvano stepped into the lift and closed the door behind himself. Silvano closed his eyes and focused on the lift, letting his mind slip into the living wood of it. Without any further impetus from Sivano, the lift began to rise. It did not go slowly, but it did not go supremely fast, rather, it went at the speed that allowed Silvano to see each of the seven levels up the tomb went, each level being minusculely smaller than the last. Once past the seventh floor, two floors more than could be seen from the outside, the lift picked up speed. No more levels opened up before him, though he felt that the tree would be willing to accept more if asked. After several minutes more, the lift accelerating the whole time until a minute before it stopped, the lift arrived at a room. The room had to be several hundred feet up, based on the speed the lift had been going once it got past the tomb levels. The room was round, with nothing that expressed itself as a doorway from the inside. Silvano, still connected to the tree through his connection with the web of life, felt which direction he should go, the direction intended for one to leave.

Silvano stepped to the southern wall and paced his hand on it. He focused for several minutes and shaped a small doorway in the wood. The doorway led him out onto a branch that would have been only enough for one Wookiee to stand on. Silvano turned around after making sure no one was nearby and spent several minutes closing the doorway behind him. When he was done, nothing but a normal barky exterior could be seen. Silvano still felt a slight pull from the web of life towards this place, but not of the strength that he couldn't resist, more of a reminder.

Taking his bearings, Silvano set out for his village. He had a conversation to have with Master Grlaak that he felt she was expecting.

 

[H3xle]

It took the better part of the day to reach the gates of the village. The guards let him in, some commenting that they thought he had left for good and were glad that he came back to say good bye. It seemed that everyone knew that he was going to be leaving soon. He spotted Master Grlaak and approached her calmly. Before he reached her, he reached out to her mentally.

~Greetings, Master Grlaak. As you asked, I have returned from my journey to the Understory. I believe we have much to talk about.~ He told her, stopping a meter away.

~Welcome back, Silvano. Join me in my home, I shall put on some tea.~ She replied and led him to her home. Silvano closed the door behind them and took a seat in a chair at the table. Grlaak busied herself making tea, and Sivano remained silent while she did. In a few minutes, they both had steaming cups and she had sat down across from him, looking expectant.

~I followed the pull of the web of life. It took me to the tomb of Jedi Master Hrrlaagh, a tomb that is a masterpiece of plant shaping. It must have taken years to complete, and I haven't been through most of it.~ He continued their conversation mentally, feeling that there were somethings that shouldn't be revealed aloud. All the while he watched her for reactions. ~I found a massive repository of books and strange devices that had their own auras within the web of life, in the entry hall. I did not take any of it, but I hope to go back eventually and learn from what has been gathered there. I found a central room that had pathways branching off in seeming all directions and a lift of such artifice that I did not know was possible. I meditated there, to find where specifically I had to go to satisfy the pull of the web of life. That destination was in the room where Hrrlaagh is interred. There I fought a beast created by the combination of masterful plant shaping and arts darker and more sinister than I ever dreamt possible.~

~Holocrons.~

~What?~

~The cubes with their own auras...those are holocrons. They are repositories used by many force sects to store knowledge. They will only activate through use of the force.~ She explained. She sounded almost dejected.

~Then Hrrlaagh's spirit showed itself...once I had defeated the monstrosity. He told me of why I had been chosen, we spoke briefly.~ He continued after nodding at her explanation. ~He told me to tell you to remember his love. Also, to ask you about the dark shambling mound. He said that explaining it is part of your penance...what happened?~

~He was correct...~ She replied, her mental voice rough with emotion. She cleared her throat and paused a moment to gather her thoughts. ~As with the Eldorai, Wookiees live a long time. Over a hundred years ago I was married to Hrrlaagh, we had been raised here and trained by the Jedi Order together. We never had children though...a regret I hold to this day. Almost a century ago...possibly just a bit over, Hrrlaagh fell fighting the Sith. In a rage I slew those who took his life, using my claws. Blood on the claws is disgraceful in our beliefs, as you know. I was distraught even more when my rage cleared. I had lost my husband, the love of my life, and I had lost my people. I returned here with his body, but people would have nothing to do with me. I journeyed with his body to the understory and crafted the tomb you found. It took me months, I was much stronger in my middling years, and I interred his body and all of our possessions there. Once I had nothing to drive me forward...I fell to the dark side. Rage and fear consumed me for the better part of fifty years. In that time I used the tomb as my lair, crafting mounds such as the one you fought. It was not until my old master, Yardla, appeared to me from the Force. She showed me the error of my ways. Hrrlaagh came to me as well, together the three of us cleansed my body and soul of the darkness. It was a long process, very painful physically and spiritually. In the end, I was diminished in power but I was bathed in light and not blood. Hrrlaagh appeared to the elders here and spoke of my return to the light. I was allowed to remain here, my sole duty to protect this part of Kashyyk from darkness and evil...until you came. I found your pod, you were the only survivor. I took you in as my own, you were gifted in the Force and needed love and nurturing. Seeing the way that I handled you, the elders finally relaxed their guard around me, accepted me as one of them, though all this time I never told them of the tomb. I will likely never tell them of it, if you would allow me my one, final secret. My penance is to tell any who ask the whole story, though I feel like I die inside every time I relive it.~

~I will not tell them of it...they would not likely understand what you have gone through. Truly, even I cannot understand it, but I respect you. May I return to learn from what you have gathered there?~

~You may. It holds many dangers, so explore it slowly. Grow yourself in the ways of the web of life so you may combat my failings safely. Learn what you can. Thank you~ She looked down at the saber hilt in his hand. ~May I see the saber hilt?~

He handed the hilt over, and she looked it over.

~May I remove the writing? It is what I wrote to him, not meant for others...~ He nodded and she spent a moment, transferring the writing from the saber hilt to a blank patch of wall near her bed, then returned the hilt to Silvano.

With that, SIlvano nodded and silently left, he returned to his home. He needed to sleep, and in the morning pack up and leave.

 

[H3xle]

The next morning, Silvano woke and took his time stretching and gathering his possessions into his packs. He attached a clip point to the back of his belt, so he could clip the lightsaber there. He didn't have a great deal of items to his name, Wookiees lived fairly sparse lives, materialistically, and as such he lived the same way. He had several changes of clothes, most of them travel worthy and one or two a bit fancier. He packed all of them into his big backpack along with some wood shaping tools and a flute that was his first example of shaping wood with the web of life. Into his smaller pack he kept the dried meats and fruit, then attached the smaller pack to the top of the larger backpack. A few tie downs that were second nature to him and the whole bundle looked compact and easy to wear. He dressed in a fresh set of traveling clothes similar to what he wore to the understory, strapped on his weapons belt, ensuring that the ryyk blades were secured to his legs and the lightsaber hung well enough to not come dislodged from running. He then hitched the backpack up on his back and left. He left the door open, signalling that the residence was open for habitation.

Outside, the elders and many of the other denizens of the village had come out to see him off. He spent some time speaking with the elders and many of the friends he had made through his decades here. To all f them he promised to return and visit, and he went away with their best wishes. The very end of the parade of people was Master Grlaak. She smiled at him and walked with him to the village gate and through it. This was the person primarily responsible for raising Silvano after his family had died. His love for her had not dulled by finding out that she was flawed, if anything he loved her more. Leaving her was hard, but he knew it was the right thing to do.

Not trusting himself to speak, he reached out mentally. ~I shall miss you, Master Grlaak. I will always hold what you taught me close to my heart.~

She turned and wrapped him in a Wookiee (bear) hug, tears dripped onto his shoulder as he returned it. ~My furless one. I shall always cherish the memories we had together. You are the son that I never got to have with Hrrlaagh. I love you.~

~I love you.~ She let him down then and they looked at each other for a long moment before, slowly, they turned away. Grlaak walked sadly back to the village. Silvano walked sadly away, towards the nearby city with it's space port.

The trail was easily traveled, it was used daily by messengers. In a matter of hours he had walked into the city and to the space port. Using some of the money that Grlaak had given him, Silvano booked passage off of Kashyyk. The destination was a world whose name he had never heard before, with common flights between it and Kashyyk. Silvano felt that was a good start, unfamiliar but likely safe. A good place to begin the next chapter in his life.