Xila's hunger

The mouth of the cave was steep, damp and wide. Xila Kota had to be extremely careful with her steps, or the weight of her body would cause chunks of loose rock to crumble beneath her, threatening to yank her back down to the bottom of the mountain.

Ominous rows of jagged stalactites and stalagmites welcomed her moon-lit arrival like a massive, deep-sea monster baring its teeth. Before stepping inside the hungry jaws of the mountain, she reached her right arm up and over her shoulder, rummaged around inside of her backpack, then cautiously pulled out the pyramid-shaped way-finder.

The device was pulsating so hard, she could feel the vibrations crawl across her skin, shuttering her bones. The emerald glass was glowing a bright crimson, and the resonated housing was becoming hot. She was too bewitched by the pyramid’s red aura to feel the dark skin of her right palm sear beneath the way-finder – which had caught fire.

As her flesh continued to melt, the blue and red flames sputtering in her palm danced across her corneas like blood-red lightning bolts. The weight of the pyramid had finally melted its way to the bones inside of her hand and fingers. This was finally enough pain to break the spell and bring her back to reality. Her red eyes went wide with fury, and she dropped the way-finder onto an adolescent stalagmite, breaking it into several pieces of burnt, green and amber glass, and an oozing pool of steaming hot black wax.

The sound which exploded from her throat, like a seismic charge, was so foul the moons sought the protection of thick rain clouds. The nightmarish jungle below her even seemed to cower behind the wind.

The tiny, Wampa-white bones in her hand and fingers glowed beneath the starlight of a storming sky. Thick blood slowly seeped its way through the voids of cartilage, melted veins and charred skin, and dripped themselves onto more teenage stalagmites, making the cave’s mouth appear to have just made a fresh kill.

Adrenaline flowed through her body and mind, numbing the pain. She used her left hand to retrieve the lightsaber hilted to her right hip. She ignited the red blade and carefully sliced away sections of her shirt and pants to use as a bondage strip for her hand.

She disengaged the saber, returned it to her hip, then hovered her left hand over her wounded right, closed her eyes and focused. The charred flesh that still remained on her hand slowly began to bubble, and spread. After a few moments, a rosy layer of thin skin covered the sharp curves of her finger bones. She had crudely healed herself. Using her teeth and her left hand, she wrapped her hand several times until the Bantha-skin dressing was tight and secure, as an extra layer of protection for the new skin.

The two low-hanging moons flanked her position perfectly, silhouetting her against the jagged teeth of the entrance, making her black figure appear as the cave mouth’s slithering, serpent tongue. Lightning began cracking in the onyx sky above the mountain, showcasing the slimy, throat-like tunnel of the cave in flashes of sharp white light. With the sith way-finder destroyed, she could only follow her instincts.

She entered the cave.

The tunnel was long, slippery and smelled like death and decay. Once she was deep enough inside, where the light from the two moons could not stretch, she used her left hand to again retrieve the lightsaber hilted to her right hip – igniting the blade, to use as a torch to guide her through this realm of darkness.

Xila fought back all manners of insects as she squeezed herself through tight keyholes, foot-wide passageways, steep inclines and slick declines. After she was about five-hundred feet in, the passageway narrowed itself down to a two foot crawl-space, where she had to re-hilt her sabers, remove her backpack, tying the straps to her ankle, then wormed herself through the tight slit in the rock.

The passage required her to wither her body fifteen feet before opening into a slightly wider where she could crawl on her hands and knees. As her eyes adjusted to this new space, she noticed that she didn’t need to ignite her blade to use as light. The stalactites and stalagmites in this corridor seemed to shimmer like the crystalline bristles of the Vulptices on Crait. Her black skin reflected the diamond-like decorations, giving her an angelic aura. Such beauty infuriated her and she snarled at nature’s attempt to humble her.

To spite the cave, she removed her saber and began slicing through the stalagmites, sending shards of ice-crystals flying through the tiny space. She was determined to leave her mark. She would not be made a fool of, or made to seem as delicate. Satisfied with her carnage, she pushed her way through the opposite end of the crystal room.

Still on her hands and knees, Xila finally reached the end of the shaft. Stepping out from under the low-hanging rock, she was finally able to stretch out her spine. The new room she was standing in was massive. It had to have been at least a mile high, and stretched for a mile outward in every direction. Resting at the center of the cavern was a steaming, sapphire lake surrounded by black-sand beaches which were home to foul looking aquatic creatures with webbed-feet and white scaly skin.

Something in her heart triggered her mind, and she knew she was exactly where she needed to be. The sith way-finder may have been destroyed, but she had followed her instincts, and they were now alarming her soul that she was in close proximity to her prize.

Xila took both of her hands and retrieved the two sabers dangling from her aching hips. Ignoring the burning pain in her right hand, she used both of her thumbs to engage the warmongering crimson-blades. The lake-side creatures may have been straight from the depths of hell, but Xila knew something that they did not.

She too, was from the depths of hell.