Wild Power

[Isar]

Warriors called him a weakling. Shamans called him a liar. They were wrong. They had to be. A prophecy foretold that he would be the Shaman of Shamans. It was his destiny. He did not need to prove himself to them. But still, doubt was a plague best inoculated in infancy before it grew like a weed to choke out all confidence.

Predators lurked behind every bush on Endor.

On Dxun, even the bushes were predators.

He came here to prove to himself a mastery over nature. So far… Well…

He pulled another thorn out of his side, grimacing as a tuft of fur tore out with it.The inch-long thistle glistened with scarlet. Warok tossed the barb aside and rubbed sodden paws against the fur of his thighs. That was the last one, cursed plants. The plant spirits of Dxun were a vile lot. He saw them now as he swept his gaze across the insidious jungle floor. Nothing but a vast green haze.

The Ewok got to his feet, glared at the holes in his size, then trudged froward into that haze. There was rumored to be an enclave of Nightsisters on Dxun. Warok would find them. What happened after, well, that was another matter entirely.

[member="Sirella Valkner"]

 

[Sirella Valkner]

Sirella wasn’t sure what to make of the Teddy Bear. He wasn’t intimidating, and yet she could feel power emanating from him. The Jungles of Dxun proved to be a nice little get away for Sirella. She did love her plants. She had crafted a sort of fortress in the jungle, deadly predatory vines in a perimeter around trees made to grow thick in uneven rows together. This was combined with thick thorn bushes that filled in the space creating a nasty wall of bryar. Like a castle there was multiple layers to this defense and another smaller wall was erected inside the main wall. A detriment to most curious people trying to find Sirella’s hideaway.

In the center she had grown three trees twisting them and allowing them to intertwine. Their branches jutted out and created rooms and stairs, and everything one needed to make a comfortable home. It was a tower, in the center of the fortress, a keep.

Sirella laughed as the Ewok picked vines out of its behind. It had been a little enjoyment to poke the creature. Now however a wave of interest flowed over here. She concentrated on the force and moved the plants aside creating a path for the diminutive creature to follow. The plant sense that this hairball of a creature was somehow liken to her. Empirical evidence suggested the creature was similar to herself, being ritualistic in nature.


[member="Warok the Defiler"]

 

[Isar]

Warok concentrated on the nearest thistle bushes, their brassy spikes bristling in stubborn resistance to his progress. Eyes the hue of tar pits narrowed. Warok puffed out his cheeks and waved a paw, questing out with his mind until he found the Twin Spirits of the plants and sought to bend them with a spell. Some called it the Force. His people called it magic. Such powers defied categorization.

He chanted lightly, casting out with mystical energy as he willed the plants to move. "Wahca oju, iyaye."

The green spirits barely budged.

Warok's fur stood on end with barely contained irritation. Even the mightiest spirits on Endor moved to his will. How could it be that-

A rippling path through the morass of deadly fauna appeared. Warok grunted in surprise, then waddled forward. Had he done that? No. There'd been a surge of power from somewhere else. Something else. Someone? Wary, but undeterred, Warok followed the path toward its preordained conclusion.

After waddling along the leaf strewn path, kicking aside fibrous debris that had failed to decompose, Warok came upon a grove of trees. To those unskilled with woodcraft, the twisting limbs of trees and plants might appear incongruous, but he saw the shapes of chairs and rooms. Nature did not build in that manner. These were old spirits. They did not like being held, but some other power kept them there.

He looked around, chewing on the inside of his cheek, waiting for the hidden one to appear.

[member="Sirella Valkner"]

 

[Sirella Valkner]

Sirella sensed, heard, smelled, and then finally saw the shaman creature. It was a teddy bear, something she might have given her son to play with, if she cared about such things. And yet there was something about the diminutive, fur covered, primitive. With a simple motion she willed the branches and trees to send her toward the ewok. Like a carpet before a queen a limb from a tree lowered, its outstretched branches shaped like odd stairs. Sirella flitted down, her hands up at her side willing the trees to shake violently their leaves rattling.

“You’ve come to my den little one,” Green eyes glared down at [member="Warok the Defiler"]. “I allow few into my sanctums, wherever they be. Fewer still leave, and non without my leave.” Her eyebrow quirked as she looked down at him. Without any trepidation she came straight up to him and took a knee. “Those who leave generally have entertained me in some way. I find it hard to imagine you doing as such. Yet you seem to be on a mission of your own. Tell me why I should let you live.”

She didn’t even know if this primitive thing could speak basic, but if push came to shove she knew he had at least a rudimentary understanding of the Sith Language. Sirella could converse in tongue as well as any. That alone was enough reason to not immediately kill the interloper.

 

[Isar]

Warok froze as a tall, slender being glided down from her perch. Her voice rang clearly through the suddenly silent jungle, perilously calm. The hair on Warok's nape stood on end as he bristled with apprehension. It seemed that in dodging boar-wolves he'd stumbled into the Gorax's den. He still clutched one paw to the wound in his side, where blood trickled in a slow stream, but the pain seemed deadened in her presence. Something... in the air...

The Ewok sniffed, then grunted as the green lady kneeled down to his level.

"You shouldn't. I, Warok of Endor, grow strong. Maybe challenge you one day. Best to end me now."

He shuffled.

"But if you do, I seek camp of Dathomir Witches. Intruders. Don't belong on this planet. Have something that is precious to me."

[member="Sirella Valkner"]

 

[Sirella Valkner]

And that was that. Sirella called forth the trees and vines and wrapped in a circle around the bear setting barbed points to threaten him. Then again...

Sirella doubted that a little teddy bear could ever truly match her power in the force, and yet… “Perhaps I shouldn’t help you little one, however I am prone to making bad life choices.” A pheromone emitted would make sure he had a favorable opinion of her. “But if I helped you, I could gain an ally perhaps?” Those with powerful magics came in all shapes and sizes. “I know of the camp you seek. If I show you, you’d be indebted to me yes?”

The foliage recalled from around the ewok and Sirella nodded, “If that is amicable to you.”


[member="Warok the Defiler"]

 

[Isar]

Hmm, deep-set eyes glimmered at her from their furry caverns. She had been about to kill him. Probably impale him on foot-long thorns, or strangle him with vines. But she stopped. Why?

He paused at her words, looking her right in the eyes. A friend? He shivered. No, no he had no friends. They had betrayed him on Endor. He'd trusted them and they'd used his loyalty as the kindling for his own funeral pyre. Curse them, curse them all. But her... she understood the way of the woods, of the spirits. It had been many moons since he'd spoken with another being who wasn't one of those civilized savages.

Warok shifted his weight from foot to foot.

"Yes. Yes, we go? Kill Witches. Take back the jungle. You show path to camp, I follow."

[member="Sirella Valkner"]

 

[Sirella Valkner]

And so it was that Sirella led the diminutive teddy bear through the thick of the jungles. She pondered the witches for a moment. Sirella’s intent on coming to this planet was to barter for goods in possession of the witches; things that were, in her mind, rightly hers.

“A few hundred meters,” she said, “we are close now. A witches place of power is not lightly tread in.” Eyes narrowed she looked down the started mumbling her words of power and opened up the forest before them, “Their creatures will face us first, they will try to wear us down and fatigue us so they may finish the deed.”

Her hands radiated with a dark red miasma, a pulsating web of pure hatred. And then the first howl erupted, night hunters sent by their masters to destroy the interlopers. A smile crept over Sirella’s face….

[member="Warok the Defiler"]

 

[Isar]

Tar-black eyes narrowed at the jungle. Tendrils of thought quested out, searching for the disturbance. Warok gnashed his teeth as his mind was engulfed by unfamiliar spirits. His nose wrinkled and brows lowered into a bristling snarl.

Dark shapes crashed through the flora, bursting out of the undergrowth with feral howls as they fell upon the warlock and the witch. Warok spun to meet them, only to be heedlessly bowled aside by powerful canine sinews. He fell to the ground, eyes wide and tiny heart hammering with terror. A Maalraas padded forward until it stood over him and opened a maw full of wicked, jutting teeth. Its sibling raced on, seeking to devour the Ewok's companion. This one seemed to have other, smaller and furrier matters on the brain, and soon to be tongue.

The Sithling tried to scoot backward across the jungle floor, but the Maalraas stomped a fore claw onto his leg, drawing blood. Warok hissed, eyes burning with pain and fear.

The Maalraas struck, jaws lashing out toward Warok's neck as its predatory nature drove it toward the easy kill. Loathe to see his lifeblood pumping out across some foreign jungle floor, Warok launched a gauntleted paw outward and caught the night hunter in its gaping maw. The shockwave generator hummed. The blow connected. Bits of shattered teeth scattered across Warok's face. The Maalraas reared back in pain, its snout a bloodied mess.

With a ululating cry of triumph, Warok pressed his advantage before its claws could unbutton his stomach lining. He punched at the creature's throat and heard a satisfying wet crunch. The Maalraas toppled to the ground, gurgling feebly.

Panting with exertion, the Ewok outcast lay upon the ground for a moment, accepting his brush with death and readying him to face more to come. Then he stood and cast his gaze about for what had become of [member="Sirella Valkner"].