The Rebel Faction

Vonta did not even look back as the Rats passed her. The Storm had reached them and the Womp ratts obiviously found that this was a shelter that was safe. Or so they thought.

The Wind and grit bit at her back. Vonta's padawan braid and short hair blow ahead of her billowed by the strong draft.

Ahead there were more screams. Screams of death plain and simple. The Womp rats were dieing by the hundereds. The three edge their way up to where the sound of carnage was originating from.

They enter a caver the size of a theater of the old days where the classic storys were played out.

In the passage there stood a creature that was some thing that you would have seen in your nightmares. It appeared to be a giant worm With several mouths around what had to be it's head. Large tentacles alont it's skin rithed about it's form. From each mouth came smaller tenticles they must hace have some sort of acid or poison on them becuase every womp rat that they touchs was in the throughs of agony. The dim light that vonta gave of revealed that they were smoking from some sort of burn.

The thing was not coming any closer but it was still killing every thing that came close to it. They could not turn back the storm prevented that. The area they came from was becoming a wind tunnel ampliphying the already strong winds. The only way to go was farther into the cave system. And past this thing. (Adolecent Sarlaac)

The Jedi Knight had sensed a large, partically-sentiet being ahead. Now he recognized the being instantly. Even if he had only lived on Tatooine for the first two years of his life, as a young child Kahn had witnessed many executions that Jabba had held at the Sarlaac pit in the Dune Sea. Getting around the creature in front of them was definately not going to prove easy.

Glancing at the two Padawans, Kahn was alarmed to find that Hanna appeared frozen by fear. That was definately not good; he couldn't have her emotions paralyzing her. Vonta seemed to be handling it as well as was to be expected. Moving next to Hanna, he gently shook her shoulder. Speaking in low tones, since he highly doubted the sarlaac would hear them over the wompa rat's screaming, he attempted to get her attention.

"Hanna, look at me. It's ok. We'll find a way past this thing. Don't let your emotions disable you."

Kahn nodded briefly, his mind whirling. What she had suggested was a good idea, he just needed to check something first. Reaching out with the Force, the Knight was relieved to have it confirmed that, while driven wildly by hunger, the sarlaac was weak-minded enough to be controlled. The problem would be maintaining control for long enough for the trio to get safely past it. Hunger could over-ride a Jedi's control on a primitive animal's mind if it were strong enough. Still, with Hanna and Vonta working with him as well, it just might work...

"I think that may work, Hanna. Vonta, are you up for it?"

With the Jedi's strength combined as one, Kahn knew that it shouldn't be too difficult to manipulate the sarlaac. However, it felt...strange to be controlling a Force ability other than his own. It took the Knight a few moments to get familiar enough with the energy flowing through him to feel comfortable using it. Closing his eyes, Kahn reached out with the Light. He could sense the life forms in the room. Himself, Vonta, and Hanna, as well as the sarlaac and a few womp rats that had either managed to escape the sarlaac's tentacles, or those who's life essence was slowly dissipating.

Latching onto the primitive mind that he knew to be the young sarlaac's, the Knight took a few steps backward, nearly overwhelmed by the imense hunger the creature was feeling. The probing he did caused it to turn towards the trio. Even though it didn't have eyes, the effect was very erie. Quickly, Kahn implanted the idea that the three of them were NOT prey. He also directed its attention to a particularly large womp rat that was scurrying past on the opposite side that the three were on. When the creature attacked that prey, the Knight spoke aloud.

"Run to the other side! Now!"

He had to shout to be heard above the winds that were gaining force as they spoke. Keeping his grip on the sarlaac's mind, he managed to keep it occupied with the rats as they ran past it.

The Knight slowed for a moment at this knowledge. He had been unable at first to sense the Tusken Raiders because the sarlaac's prescence had overridden their own. However, now that Vonta had made him aware of it, Kahn was able to pick out the individual prescences via the Force. He knew that, although the Raiders were seldom friendly to those they encountered in the desert, they were living beings with their own culture and values. Because they conflicted with his own was not reason enough to leave them to die this kind of death. At the same time, the sarlaac was ony doing what was instinctive: searching for, and finding food. Would it be right to deprive it of this food? Doing so would most likely kill the beast...well, once they were safe they could discuss that matter. For the time being, Kahn kept going until they got to the opposite side and were out of reach of the tentacles once again. He finally had to let go of the grip on the sarlaac, having nearly exhausted his Force strength.