[fic] Star Wars: Duel of Fates Chapter 8

[McClure777]

STAR WARS

 

DUEL OF FATES

 

 

 

 

the spear's of the local's at their backs, Gannor and Arthur marched through the dense forest. "Where do you think they're taking us?" Arthur whispered, "Most certainly to their base." Arthur grimmest. “We need to get out of here!” “Shut your mouths!” One of the captors shouted as he jabbed his spear into Arthur’s back, Arthur gave a little cry as the sharp spear pierced his skin drawing blood. For nearly three hours Gannor and Arthur made their way across the forest, climbing over tree branch’s protruding from the ground, they pushed past rivers, getting drenched in ice cold water which only hurt more with the bitter cold now swooping over the moon. Arthur’s teeth chattered as he rubbed his arms in a attempt to keep warm, “How much further do you think it is?” Arthur mumbled. Gannor looked up at the sky to see the large moon, peering out from between a clearing of trees, it’s blue tint and glowing aura would amaze most travelers with out a doubt, he did not dare to look at Arthur as the captors would notice, he whispered back silently, “We’ve been moving for several hours, it can’t be much further, they don’t seem to be making any hint towards constructing a camp anyway.” Arthur nodded in agreement, “I hope your right, I don’t think I can go any further in this cold!” Gannor too was hurting from the cold, even through his armor and helmet which oddly the captors did not take from him, his armor’s energy cells depleted several hours ago, leaving him only protection from blaster fire, melee combat and other forms of warfare, but environment control was dependent on the energy cells in order to keep the warmth flowing. He removed his right glove to reveal his badly scared hand, Arthur noticed the wounds and snuck a glimpse, the skin seemed to have peeled at one point or another leaving mostly red meat along with fragments of skin strewn here and there across his hand, the sight was not as gruesome as most would believe, however he had to wonder why he never got treatment. There was several treatments for wounded soldiers, mostly paid for by the Republic government, the rest paid for by personal insurance, standard treatments for advanced wounds has been around for several decades now, bacta treatments and other forms of medicine such as kolo was highly expensive for the Republic, but a soldier of his level would undoubtly receive such treatments, the only question is why he did not. “Keep moving scum!” The same captor as before shouted, his voice sounded heavy with exhaustion. Gannor placed his glove back on his right hand tightly, giving off a hiss and it re-connected with the lower arm guard. They continued to march through the forest until they reached a large stone rock with markings carved into it, one of such pictures was a half naked woman with what seemed to be a sword of some sort, but it seemed to look different from any standard Vibro blade Gannor has ever seen. “We’re here.” The woman said. She had not spoken the entire trip until now, Gannor watched her as she and one of the male captors got on their knee’s before the large rock and placed their index fingers on it, it was hardly large enough for two entire hands but it seemed to radiate some form of power, The woman started to enchant a prayer, “Father Joharer, hear my plea, open your arms and receive your children.” At firth nothing happened, Gannor looked about, waiting for some thing to happen, all of a sudden the rock flew into the air, glowing cerulean as it began to spin, it span round and around until at last it halted. For a long moment the rock seemed to just sit idle in the air until it bolted towards the ground, it went into the ground and trembles started shaking the forest floor, Gannor looked down to see the ground splitting apart, he leapt to the right side and watched the ground continue to split, Arthur gapped at it, no doubt wondering how such a small stone could ever do such damage, the trembling ceased and the captors pointed towards the now gaping hole in the ground, “In!” The woman shouted. Arthur gaped at her, “You expect us to jump into a big dark hole?!” She glared at him and raised her spear, “In!” She repeated. Gannor straightened up and walked towards the hole, Arthur yelled, “Gannor don’t go in there, we have no idea what’s down there, this could be a trap, certain death!” Gannor chuckled, “I’m not getting paid by standing here bud.” And he dove into the hole, disappearing into the darkness below.

 

 

 

For a long moment Arthur stood, afraid to leap into the hole. “In!” She shouted again. Arthur sighed, prayed to his god and leapt into the hole after Gannor.

 

 

 

 

It seemed to Gannor that the darkness never seemed to end, he kept falling feet first into nothingness. He stared around looking for some clue of the surface, his feet found it first as he smacked hard against it, he gave out a small cry as his legs buckled and he tumbled to his back. He quickly looked around to see a small what seemed to be a small village, several inhabitants walked about, the woman carrying baskets of fruit and bread, the house’s seemed to have been crudely made from some form of animal hide, the few wooden poles that keep the house up seemed straggly and poorly made. Gannor got to his feet only to be knocked down again by Arthur. Arthur sighed, “Thanks for the soft landing Gannor.” He said sweetly, “Get off me!” Gannor said and pushed him off. Both men once again got to their feet and waiting for the guards to receive them, with in moments heavily armed guards dressed in rags as the others before grabbed them by the arms and drug them off, “Uh Gannor, these guards look different.” Gannor frowned and looked at the guards, he was right. These guards seemed more heavily armored, with larger spears, almost pikes, their rags seemed to have a little but of plate underneath and they wore leather helms. They reached a large hill separating the small village from some thing else, “Climb!” the guard ordered. Gannor and Arthur climbed quickly up the large hill, they grabbed on to small stones to help lift them self’s up, they reached the top and in unison they both gasped, there before them, was a giant city. The city looked as if the whole of it was painted a dark bronze, the thousands of buildings seemed to gleam, but what caught the eye of both Gannor and Arthur was the enormous tower, shining gold in the middle of the city, the top of the tower had what looked like a giant emerald resting on top, lighting up the city with streams of light. “Amazing...”

[McClure777]

Chapter 9 coming soon

[machievelli]

read when my system came back up