trans_9 | Choices, Choices

Arha was standing in a blank Sensorium, frowning slightly into the white expanse of it. She'd walked in, paused, and had been stuck there, waffling hard between scenarios for a full fifteen minutes. On one hand, she wanted to pit her skills against something deadly, on the other hand, she wanted to practice her stealth, and on the hand she didn't have, she would have liked to try her hand at, perhaps, riding a Drexl. She had seen them in the holos that were available on the worlds within the Jed-Eye home universe. They were quite fierce.

And thinking of holos simply made her wish to spend time wandering Luke's Jed-Eye Temple.

The indecision was annoying.

As such, the space around her remained blank and Arha was stuck contemplating the swing of her white cloak and the way it settled against her equally white leather clad legs. She ought ti know what she wanted, but now? Now she was at a loss.

"This is no way to begin," she muttered to herself and sighed as she used the Force to play around with her lightsaber.

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Arha found herself moving even before she'd consciously reacted, her knife already in hand as she flipped out of the way as the beast immediately went for her throat. An instant later, her own white lightsaber flicked on as she'd attached the crysknife blade to the end of her lightsaber. Without the use of the Force, Arha's abilities rested in The Weirding Way. She blurred, letting time slow around her as the vorskr charged again. There were others, too, lurking in the shadows--a pack behavior. They were circling, herding, trapping.

Canine, by the look of them, and sleek, efficient killing machines. Admirable creatures.

Her lightsaber went flying a second later as the snap-hiss of a tail cracked across her wrist. She twisted at the last moment and felt teeth score her shoulder even as her hands came up to slam down on the vorskr's delicate ears. The creature yelped and snapped at her again. Arha barely managed to keep the teeth from her throat and slammed the heel of her palm into the creature's throat. Her lightsaber was definitely out of reach, now, and her wrist was starting to numb even as she worked to purge the toxin.

Her attacks and the beast's were both quick and the battle itself was decidedly matched.

Kyle ducked as one of the creatures leaped at him trying to get him by the neck. As it passed over him he fired repeatedly into it's belly. The thing snarled at him, and let out a small whimper. It was still in the fight though. He could hear the others now. Pack predators, who ambushed their prey. Very fierce clearly, but nothing out of the ordinary for a jungle.

Locking eyes with the one he'd already wounded he started circling it waiting for it to pounce. When it did he stepped out of the way and delivered a swift kick to where he'd already shot it. This was followed up by another shot right into its hind legs. It yelped, and tried to limp off to its pack. He'd have prefered to finish it off quickly, but since they were so tough he'd have to settle for slowing them down first.

Igniting his lightsaber in his other hand he prepared for the pack's retaliation.

Luke decided that previous encounters with the vornskrs--and their cloned, bioengineered cousins the voxyn--still weren't enough to prepare him really for an encounter with them. But his goal was to keep Arha and Kyle from getting in over their heads. Kyle appeared to have things under control for the moment, so with one eye still on him just in case, Luke came up behind the one attacking Arha, watching its lashing tail.

When he'd met Karrde's pet vornskrs, their tails had been docked and they'd been more or less calm. Still predators, still very deadly, but they hadn't been wild. And while he could amputate this one's tail, if it were a real vornskr in the wild it then wouldn't be aggressive enough to hunt on its own, and it would die. It wasn't right to him. He didn't have to kill it.

When the vornskr snapped again for Arha's throat, he lunged forward, dodging the tail that whipped his way and jabbing his lightsaber into its side with the hissing sizzle of burning flesh.

She did not pause, but to shoot a quiet, mental thanks Luke's way as she rolled to retrieve her lightsaber. The next second, she was a blur and had slammed her crysknife tip straight through the creature's skull, twisted, removed it, and grimaced as she tried to turn her lightsaber back on.

It didn't work. Arha drew a breath. The Force dampening effect, of course. One of her curved sections of carvings along her ornate hilt hid a toggle, cleverly recessed and covered by flowing scroll. She had made sure it was well disguised--worthy of a Bene Gesserit, perhaps--just in case of a situation such as this. With no Force available to toggle the inside switch, the external connected to that switch was of use, despite her annoyance in having to rely on it.

The milk-white blade hissed as it extended.

Arha moved to back Kyle up just as she heard the hissing snarl of the pack charging.

The snarled, and eyed Kyle. He didn't need to the Force to sense their hate of him right now. The first member of the pack that moved forward to defend leaped at Kyle, and swiftly had it's head removed. Normally he'd prefer to not have to kill the creatures, but they weren't giving him a choice. At least if he did this maybe he could scare the rest off. This was what he prepared his students for. When their backs would be up against the wall, and they didn't have that choice anymore.

Holding out his lightsaber he moved it from vornskr to vornskr aiming at each he could see in turn. They were going to move cautious now, but he was sure they had plenty of cunning to make up for it.

Luke moved to a position on the opposite side of Kyle from Arha, his green-white blade glowing bright in the darkness of the forest. Around them, the vornskrs growled and snapped, but Luke kept his gaze steady and his blade out, sweeping it in arcs. He was tense, waiting for that moment he knew was close.

It came. One of the vornskrs lunged for him, and with a twinge of sadness, Luke dealt it a blow with his blade. Not one to immediately kill it, just incapacitate it so it might get up and limp away later. It didn't matter that these weren't real creatures, he had to treat them the same. Besides, these things were partially responsible for him and Mara coming together.

From a certain point of view.

Arha found herself locked in battle with another vornksr of her own and used every inch of her speed to her advantage, she killed, though, and was sad for it. They were fierce things, worthy of more honor, but their teeth were not as sharp as her own. Lightsaber and crysknife were barely enough, but she had settled into the rhythm of defense and offense, the dance that wove her around and between the two Jed-Eye as she deflected or maimed...or killed.

A leap for her throat became a howl of pain, claws that flashed for her face met her shoulder and she did not stop moving, twisting, bending herself to fit the situation. Arha knew she would be bruised and sliced when this was over, but it was good training. In a lull, she found herself back to back with Kyle and took a moment to breathe.

Choices, Choices

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ugh sorry this took so long

Re: ugh sorry this took so long