The Dua-wurm

[Swan]

CULARIN


Early Morning

@Relent

[fancybox4=http://i.imgur.com/Kjsenn2.jpg?1]Teelo Swan sat in the shuttle, tapping her fingers on the leather grip of her lightsaber. Whether it was the heat and humidity or just her nerves, the sides of her grey tank top were stuck to her sides like clingfilm. She wiped a line of sweat off of her plastered forehead and transferred her gaze to her counterpart. His name was Ferrox, Logan Ferrox, but that was all she knew about him. In fact, no one seemed to know that much about him and the long trip from Lothal didn't bring anything up. They had sat in silence for hours. It was torture. All she wanted to do was find out who this mysterious man was, but she just couldn't bring herself to speak up. There'd be plenty of time on the planet's surface if she could pluck up the courage.

They were travelling to Cularin to survey the native flora (some environmental concerns about a local parasite species). It wasn't the most glamorous task, but it wasn't without danger. Cularin was home to the Kilassin, a species of large reptile with sharp powerful claws. They came in two types, tall and sleek scavengers and large, stocky, dangerous stalkers. However, this reptile paled in danger to the Dua-wurm, a large purple worm with venomous razors for teeth. It measured up to two or even three meters long and could inject a deadly venom into its prey.

And it had two heads.

Teelo shuddered at the thought. She peered out of the window, watching the layers of green surge past as the shuttle flew over the great canopy. They were headed to a clearing a few miles west and would spend the day taking a survey of the local Jo tree population. Teelo had never spent a day in the jungle before so wasn't sure what to expect, but if the weather didn't change she was thinking she may run out of water. One of her 6 water bottles was already half empty from the flight alone, the others tucked away in her bag under a roll mat and insect net. As they approached their destination she turned, giving her travel partner a little grin, before starting to tie the laces on her heavy boots. They touched down in the clearing and after saying goodbye to their pilot, Teelo stepped off the shuttle onto the moss. They had a long day ahead of them, so they'd better get started.
[/fancybox4]

 

[Logan]

The silence in the ship throughout he and Teelo's trip to Cularin didn't bother Logan much. He was pretty used to sitting with others without much to say, especially when the other was a teenage girl he had never met before. Logan wasn't an old man per se, but compared to the youth of his partner and his own graying head of hair he me as well have been one leg into the coffin already. He couldn't help but let a smile crease the corner of his lips just slightly as they descended through the jungle canopies to their landing spot. When he was a teenager, Logan was spending his days fighting for the right to continue to live in some Hutt's gladiator pits. Even nearly two and a half decades later his skin still told the story of his youth, but that was a sad story for a different time. He needn't bore Teelo Swan with such gloomy things.

Following Teelo of the ship and out into the jungle, Logan already found himself sweating. He didn't much enjoy the heat but it was something he got used to a long time ago - again, another gift from his youth - and he already regretted wearing jeans. Looking at the huge pack that Teelo was wearing on her back, Logan couldn't help but chuckle. He didn't bring much other than a few odds and ends in the pouches on his belt, a single water bottle and his lightsaber.

"You're gonna break your back lugging that big thing around the jungle," he said, giving her a little bit of a laugh as he did so. It was the first words he has spoken to the girl since they had left, but he said them as if they had been talking and getting to know each other the whole time. "Since we're out here, I figure it might be a good time to teach you some survival techniques I've picked up over the years. The first one being, if you're a Jedi, you only need one bottle of water."

To prove his point, Logan unscrewed the cap to his full canteen and emptied the contents onto the ground. A normal person would have probably freaked out on him, asking why he would possibly do something so stupid. He wasn't sure what kind of reaction Teelo would have, but he hoped it would be somewhat reserved.

"The force exists in every living thing, it's the single strand that binds all life together. Using this knowledge, a Jedi can call upon their surroundings for aid, even when it seems there is nothing around to help them." Reaching down to the base of a nearby tree, Logan placed his open hand on it and started to channel the force. "It can allow us to seemingly create something from nothing, but we're smarter than that. An adept Jedi can alter the environment around him by manipulating the force energy we already know is there."

As Logan spoke, globs of water began to coalesce on the bark of the tree before coming off with an audible pop like blowing a bubble underwater. Three large globules floated lazily into the air before Logan motioned towards his canteen and they poured into it, refilling it completely. "There are many other ways to use the same basic premise, of course, but that's an easy and always useful one. Another of my favorites is creating small bits of fire, removing your need to ever carry a firestarter around with you in the wilderness." Logan reached into his pocket to withdraw a cigar, one of his very few vices, and with the simple flick of his thumb he produced a small flame to light it. "All it takes is a little practice and some imagination. But I think that's enough standing around for now, let's get a move on shall we?"

Logan knew the general direction they needed to go so he started walking, assuming Teelo would follow. He secretly hoped the girl would start a conversation or probe him with questions about what he had just shown her, otherwise this trip was going to be remarkably boring indeed.

@Swan

 

[Swan]

[fancybox2]"You're gonna break your back lugging that big thing around the jungle,"

Teelo jumped. She wheeled around to face the man, almost falling backwards under the bag in question's weight. With a thinly veiled sigh of relief she slipped it off of her back, a little embarrassed.

"Since we're out here, I figure it might be a good time to teach you some survival techniques I've picked up over the years. The first one being, if you're a Jedi, you only need one bottle of water."

Teelo stood and watched, somewhat bemused. She was still reeling from his first comment. The first thing out of his mouth was a criticism and for a moment she was defensive, about to scold him for wasting water, but something in the way he spoke made her feel he meant well. So instead of leaping up in the poor canteen's defense, she just stood and watched.

The more he spoke, the more her original defensiveness melted away. His tone, informative but not condescending, grabbed her attention immediately, and Teelo could only peer at his open hand in nervous expectation, her mouth opening slightly as the water began to form on the bark. Then, as the water rolled into the open air, forming perfect droplets, before dripping into Logan's rapidly filling canteen, she was enthralled. And then, to top it off, the burst of fire on his thumb was genius. At this point a wide smile had formed on Teelo's face.

"All it takes is a little practice and some imagination. But I think that's enough standing around for now, let's get a move on shall we?"

The young Jedi got up quickly and rushed after her elder, almost forgetting her laden bag. She hurriedly emptied all but a single water bottle, roll mat and lightsaber, before donning the considerably lighter load and chasing after him.

"'A little practise and some imagination?' That's all I get?" She ran around to his front, struggling to keep up with his long legs. "Does it work on anything then? Like, could I suck the moisture out of my own face?"

As if to demonstrate she pressed her hands to her cheeks, furrowing her brow in mock concentration. By the look in her eyes Logan would be able to tell she was utterly captivated by his display of knowledge and would soak up anything else he had to throw at her with equal vigor.

"Oh, before I forget, we're here to monitor the Jo trees in this area," Teelo pulled a ripped page from her front pocket. It had a small diagram of a dark brown tree with some details about population density, location and other general pieces of information. "They can be pretty dangerous if you're allergic, so is there any special Force trick you can use to test that first?"
[/fancybox2]

 

[Logan]

Logan laughed heartily as Teelo pressed her hands to her face, shaking his head in awe of the creativity of young people. "I wouldn't recommend it unless you wanna look like one of those shriveled up Sith," he said, peering down at her through the corner of his eye. "I can show you the finer points of the ability later, but I don't think you'll have many problems. You seem like a smart kid."

"Jo trees, huh?" Logan inspected the piece of paper Teelo was holding as he continued walking, pondering her question. A few different things were running through his mind in regards to the best way to answer it when finally he decided that a little show and tell, much like with the water, would probably be the best way. Logan was always way more of a hands on learner than a bookworm. You could tell him how to do something a million times and he'd never get it, but show him just once and he could pick up almost anything. Hopefully Teelo was a bit the same.

"I know a trick that can get you out of a lot of jams, not just allergies." Slowing his gait, Logan started scanning the jungle floor for something rather common: a mushroom. It didn't take him very long to spot exactly what he was looking for: a small, easily missed brown and yellow toadstool just barely pressing itself out of the dense undergrowth. Walking over to it, Logan plucked it up out of the ground by the stem and showed it to Teelo.

"This is called a widow maker," he said simply, rolling it over in his hand. "It looks startlingly similar to its sister fungi, which is quite fine to eat. The widow maker is brown with yellow spots, the other is yellow with brown spots. An easy thing to forget, especially if you're dying of hunger. I suppose you can ascertain why they named it the widow maker, eh?" Logan didn't even give Teelo the time to answer the question before he popped it into his mouth and swallowed. "In a few seconds my extremities will start to turn purple, and then my lungs will seize." Logan paused for dramatic effect before chuckling and continuing to speak. "Or at least it would if I didn't know what I'm about to show you."

Holding his now purple tinged hand and arm out towards Teelo, Logan held his other hand over it and concentrated with the force. "Using the force, a Jedi can focus their concentration and actually detoxify the body of poisons if used fast enough. Remember, it can only mitigate the poison and remove it. It can't cure any damage that it has already done, so time is always of the essence." As Logan spoke, the purple hue of his hand began to fade back to its normal color of sun baked tan. "The same principle can be used on an allergy. If you focus on the toxins, which in this case would be the allergens, you can force them out of your body and they can't effect you."

Logan started walking again, keeping an eye out for the tree they were looking for. He was surprised they hadn't encountered any local fauna yet, but everything in due time. For now, he was content to simply expose Teelo to these new techniques, get her brain working and thinking about how she can apply them to situations she'd both encountered and yet to experience. "The key to any application of the force is practice and determination, if do and have that, everything will come to you in due time." Pausing for a moment, Logan looked around. "That piece of paper tell you where we might see a Jo tree? I'd hate for us to still be out here come dark. That's when the real fun begins in the jungle."

@Swan

 

[Swan]

[fancybox2]As they walked, Teelo had to periodically jog for sections to stay on the same level as Logan, so she was a little relieved when he slowed slightly. His gaze lowered to the jungle floor and Teelo lowered her information sheet to follow his sight line. He picked a small mushroom from the ground and, to her pleasant surprise, Teelo found she could easily name it. Her research had clearly paid off. Called the widow maker, it was infamous on Cularin for its devestating poison and close similarity to its mimic, the common yellow cap. In fact, some say its sister fungus had powerful aphrodisiac qualities. Many tourists searching for a certain boost in performance had fallen prey to their similarity, with gruesome and compromising consequences.

Not that any of that was altogether relevant, but Teelo was a sucker for trivia.

As Logan quickly swallowed the mushroom, Teelo winced. Sure enough, Logan's extremities quickly turned a deep plum purple, spreading to his forearm almost instantly. It was a vicious, if efficient toxin. However, almost as quickly as it had appeared, it faded away again. To say Teelo was impressed would be an understatement. Who knew the force had such practical capabilities? Up until that point she had mainly seen it as a spiritual power, controlled by the 'life force of the galaxy' or some other meaningless drivel she had been taught. Logan was helping her realise it was much more than that.

"That piece of paper tell you where we might see a Jo tree? I'd hate for us to still be out here come dark. That's when the real fun begins in the jungle."

Teelo flipped the sheet over. On the reverse side was a crudely drawn map of their local area, with the clearing shaded in green and a collection of red splodges marking the rough locations of the Jo tree populations. If her monitoring had been correct so far then they should be approaching the closest of red splodges now.

"It's funny you should ask," she said with a wry smile. "I have a strong feeling that may be just what we're looking for."

She pointed to a small cluster of dark trees, bark almost black with thick green vines clinging for dear life to its gnarled branches. Scampering through the undergrowth, Teelo donned a pair of thick gloves out of the side pocket of her bag and started scratching notes with a short pencil.

"Logan, could you give me a hand with these vines?" She hoped he wouldn't mind the first name basis. "All we need is a sample of this parasitic plant, then they'll probably run some tests on it back at the HQ, see if there's an efficient way of removing it. Then I'm afraid it's the exciting stuff over and we just have to start counting which trees are effected."

Teelo didn't pay Logan too much attention as she scribbled down information, too busy trying not to touch the vine or the bark. She wasn't too sure that she should test out her new found information so quickly after learning it.[/fancybox2]

 

[Logan]

Logan listened as Teelo pointed them in the direction of the Jo tree which, luckily, wasn't far from where they already were. Eyeballing the trees as they approached, even Logan noticed that they didn't appear to be doing particularly well. He wasn't a botanist or anything but he was pretty sure that a tree wasn't supposed to look as unfortunately sad as the Jo trees here.

"Sure," he said in response to Teelo's question. Taking notes was probably a good idea and he was happy to let her do it - Logan had terrible hand writing.

Taking out a boot knife, Logan used the blade to scrape and cut off portions of the parasitic plant that was killing the Jo tree. It seemed like a simple enough task, all they needed to do really was just get a healthy sized sample and then let the nerdos back at the labs figure out some way to combat it. His mind was beginning to wander when suddenly Logan felt a small vibration underneath his boots. Or, well maybe he did? It was so faint he wasn't quite sure. He stopped scraping and focused his attention on the force. Cularin was a planet rife with force energy, here more than anywhere it was his greatest ally.

"Do you feel that?" Logan said quietly, doing his best to remain calm despite the potential danger of what he thought may be happening. There are few things on Cularin that might make a tremor beneath the earth and an earthquake wasn't really that high on the list. "We should find high ground. Get off the soil."

Just as Logan was finished speaking he felt another tremor, this one much stronger than before so there was no denying it now. No time. He reached for his lightsaber and ignited it, the azure blue blades erupting as a massive, twin-headed purple worm erupted from the ground and lashed its acid covered jaws at the air with a blood curdling noise.

Logan hoped Teelo was prepared.

@Swan

 

[Swan]

[fancybox2]Teelo was not prepared. In her excitement to spot the rare Jo tree, she had left caution and preparation behind. Her hand was still gripping the pencil and pad, etching neat notes on the size and proliferation of the parasite species, when the ground began to rumble and shake beneath her. Thin vibrations weaved through the thick rubber soles of her boots, not strong enough to alert her to the coming danger. She was pressed tightly to the base of the trunk when Logan stopped working and asked her the question.

"Do you feel that?"

But Teelo didn't even hear him. Her mind was elsewhere, on to the next challenge and the next job. Once they had finished up on Cularin she wanted to focus on her new skills, perhaps take a week out on Lothal or Dantooine, so she could prepare herself for future assignments. There was a lot more to the Force than she realised. It would require some work and some guidance, but she felt energised to tackle it again.

"We should find high ground. Get off the soil."

Maybe she could look into Form III, focus on perfecting the art of the lightsaber, she thought to herself. You never know when you might nee-

A huge tremor took her off her feet, throwing the pencil and paper far from her. Teelo fell sharply on her back, her rucksack bending her waist awkwardly upwards. The beast reared up, its twin heads thrashing in either direction. It towered over the prone Jedi, its needle teeth thrashing in desperation. One head lunged downwards, jaws closing over Teelo's arm - or at least, where her arm had been a second prior. She rolled onto her front, slipping her bag off her back just in time to see a purple behemoth come crashing into the earth beside her.

The smell was horrendous, a mixture of decaying earth and sharp, pungent sulfur. Teelo reached into her bag to pull out the viridescent blade. She was laid between the Jo tree, vines and all, and the repugnant Dua-wurm, with her bag between her and the worm. Crawling backwards, she pulled her bag out of sight behind the tree and got to her feet. It was the quickest she had moved in a long time and she was quickly ready, lightsaber drawn and bag clear away from the conflict. Her stance was wide and defensive, ready to dodge to one side if necessary; the tree blocked one axis of movement and the thick undergrowth had torn into her clothing, creating tears and cuts in her shirt, shorts and skin, but she was in a good enough state to roll away in case of another attack.

"It's a Dua-wurm! It's teeth are deadly, but it can't attack with both heads at the same time! If we can make it up the tree we should be in a much better situation." Hopefully her gloves would protect her from any allergens, but she always had Logan's technique if not.[/fancybox2]

 

[Logan]

"Get up the tree when you see the opening!" Logan shouted, his feet starting to move in a defensive strafe around the massive dua-worm. He had never seen one in real life before and the thing was truly a horrendous sight to behold. Survival instincts kicking in, Logan's primary concern was making sure Teelo remained unharmed. He felt obligated to protect her despite the clear indications she was a capable Jedi all her own, it was just her nature. "I'm gonna distract it!"

Reaching out with the force, Logan levitated a rather large piece of rotted wood and hurled it towards the beast, striking it just below its ugly heads. The wurm roared with guttural fury, neon-green acid spittle flying from both of its jaws as it reared back and lunged towards Logan. As usual, Logan assumed he would be skilled and agile enough to dodge anything the writhing purple nasty could throw at him. He may have been fast enough, but by the Force did he underestimate the brute force the dua-wurm wielded. Logan had brought up his lightsaber in the hopes to slice off one or both of the heads and get this over with, but his hubris produced different results.

Unable to get a sufficient attack stance up in time due to the strength and speed he'd underestimated, the dua-wurm slammed one side of its head into Logan's chest. The force of the blow lifted him off his feet and sent him flying into the trunk of a nearby tree with a deafening thud. Blinking spots out of his vision, Logan could see the huge frame of the wurm coming back at him probably to bite his face off. The only thing Logan could think to do was to do a hard roll to hopefully get out of the way - shouting "A little help here kid!" as he did so.

This was the last time he volunteered to go look at trees.

@Swan