The Rebel Faction

Dolash grinned.

"Azguard is nothing but mountains and rivers, this will be easy.

"So you were born on Coruscant, I have heard much about this place. Galactic seat of power for the Empire now, very sad. Someone told me that the Empire is run by a Sith, is this true? Because if so then that makes the Empire very dangerous, and very evil."

He squinted through the wind and snow to look at the mountain, which was suddely very cloe. It was nothing compared to the mountains back home, some commented his homeworld looked like some spikey urchin creature.

Before his master could respond to anything he had said he added "You'll of course be able to climb the mountain too, right?

"Of course," he said confidently, but truth be told he wasn't sure if he'd be able to climb the mountain. He wasn't about to let Dolash know of his uncertainties.

Cole's mind wandered back to Dolash’s previous question, though he failed to answer the question directly.

"Glad to be away from Coruscant."

It was just as he said Coruscant that the winds began to pick up. They would need to find shelter very soon if they wanted to survive.

"We've got to speed up our pace slightly... Snow storm might be approaching."

Donovin seemed to stare back at Dolash for what seemed like too long, meeting him with silence. Just when Dolash didn't think Cole would respond, he did, with a grin.

"No, I just didn't come prepared.... Quite the excellent role model, aren't I?"

Donovin looked away from the padawan, laughing a little.

The two had finally come to reach the mountain, and despite his uses with the force, the cold air was finally settling to play its affects on him.

"You start up the mountain first, I'll be right behind you. I need you to be in front of me so that I can keep an eye on you if something were to go wrong."

It would be quite the difficult climb, the will of both strength and endurance.

As Dolash climbed up the mountainside, Donovin fell behind. Donovin had done many more grueling acts within his lifetime thus far, and he didn't think climbing a mountain would be such a chore. However, his legs provided him with a different sense of accomplishment, exhaustion.

As Cole struggled to climb the mountainside, occasionally he would stop to glance upwards to find Dolash way far off ahead of him.

".. Much too hasty.. "

Ever so often the Jedi Master would mumble to himself, finding imperfection after imperfection from the padawan. Yet as hard as he was on the Azguard, he knew Dolash would one day make a great Jedi Knight.

The Jedi finally reached a point where he felt he needed to stop, a caveat perhaps.

He heard Dolash call out to him, the padawan no more than five to six feet from him. It was as Dolash turned to look down at Donovin through mid sentence that the Jedi Master’s green eyes went wide.

"That's probably not such a good idea, Dolash..."

The Jedi Master's gaze seemed to look past Dolash as he spoke; looking upon something that the Azguard had yet to see.

"... Dolash must have aroused it with his yelling," Donovin mumbled to himself, eyes only slightly wide open as he continued to stare past Dolash and onto the beastly looking creature.

The creature looked much like that of the famous ice creature found on Hoth, the Wampa. However, there were some dissimilarities. Instead of white fur, this creature had brown fur, and no horns seemed to adorn its head like that of the Wampa.

Donovin didn't bother to call out to Dolash to warn the Azguard of the impending danger that came from behind the padawan, doing so would only make the situation all that much more critical.

Instead, he shook his head at Dolash, warning him, pleading with him not to move.

Donovin would have to find some way of dissolving the troubling situation, and soon...

Donovin barely came to recognize Dolash's thoughts as his words came to brush across his mind. He wanted to scold the padawan for moving, but decided it best to not bring about any reprimanding; it was neither the time nor the place for such things. What the Azguard received instead was a firm order.

Don't move!

The Jedi removed his presence and attention off of Dolash only to have it follow off toward the creature. Reaching out with the force, Donovin immediately went to work. However, his own actions seemed to bring hesitation toward his efforts.

I will do what is necessary...

Cautiously the Jedi reached out toward the creature's mind, probing it. There came no visible display of Cole's actions, his form in perfect stillness as he looked onward while using the force to his own will.

He explored the creature’s entire mind within seconds, the creature being too weak minded to be closed off to the force. It was not long after that the Jedi began to control the creature through the use of its mind.

Slowly but surely the brown furry creature began to turn away from the Azguard, it's new found path of direction being centered back onto the cave that it had burrowed out of.

Keep moving, Dolash. We'll have to continue across the rest of the mountain. I'll be right behind you.

Donovin was on the move once again as he continued to struggle up the mountainside. Only when Dolash turned back around to continue up the mountain did the Jedi stop for a brief moment to remove his lightsaber from his belt before continuing on.

He would not be able to fend off the beastly creature for long.

Someone's about to take a hike down the mountainside..

By any means necessary the Jedi Master told himself as he let his left hand hover over the activation switch of his lightsaber.