The Sound of their Wings

[Delirion]

Frustrated, she felt, frustrated and weary. Days and night seemed to be swallowed up more and more by her dreams - dreams in which she was being crushed in the hand of an old hag, her black crow's heart crushed into nothingness... birds, birds, birds... crows, ravens, black and ghostly. Sometimes they stood for her brothers and sisters, sometimes for something she could not fathom to interpret.

What did it all mean?

As Delirion sat in her chamber, her eyes idly glancing around the sparely furnished room, her gaze fell onto the small elongated box that contained her master's old lightsaber.

It had almost cost her a life, to retrieve it from his old chamber. Yet now she possessed it, and yet her fingers had never claimed it since. Was she afraid she would be cursed if she were to hold it and weild it in her own hands?

The thought made her fall back into reverie... Cursed. Yes, maybe that was what she was. Cursed by Adalric, cursed by the old woman in her nightmares, cursed by the crows in her waking dreams...

The crows... they called again. A low cawing noise reached her ears, and she was unsure whether she was yet again dreaming, or still in this reality. But when she opened her eyes, it was not the blurry landscape of her dreams that greeted her, but the spartanic obsidian walls of her own chambers.

And the cawing noise was still there. Birds? On Vjun? How could that be?

Suddenly no more content with sitting in her quarters, she stood up from the ground she had sat on, and went to go outside. In passing, her gaze once more fell onto the box containing Adalric's saber. Well, whatever was out there, it could not be good - as far as she knew, there were only scavenging animals of any kind on this planet, and none of them were harmless.

After another moment of hesitation, her fingers unclasped the lock on the box, and then she held the slim cylinder with the elegant engravings once more in her hand.

A sudden surge of something she had only vaguely felt before overcame her. Power. Strength and the assurance that she could do almost anything she intended if she was to weild this weapon. It seemed to whisper to her...

...of victories there shall be many, if thou hath the wisdom to wield...

A cold shudder ran down her spine. It had sounded so much like Adalric as he had stood behind her, whispering into her ear during their time together...

She shook off the eerie sensation, and, resolved to see what lay waiting for her, she strode out of her qurters and up the long corridor towards the staircase leading outside.

Knowledge lay ahead.

[Delirion]

By the time she had reached the bottom of the staircase, the cawing noise had increased in volume.

What is out there?

With every step that led her upwards, another scream rent the silence apart. The Dark Jedi's fingers gripped the lightsaber handle until her knuckles were white. She felt no fear, other than the fear of being confronted with her own dreams in this life.

The dreams.... She shook the thought away. No, it couldn't be like that.

Outside, the air was humid, dark brown clouds roiling in the sky. The rain had stopped not long ago; water still stood here and there where the stones lay deeper. It was dusk, yet the light had not vanished. And circling the hollowe out ruins of the old castle was a flock of black birds.

The Crows!!!

She shied back, wanted to run backwards into the sanctuary of the underground base, but there ws something about those birds that just wasn't logical.

How could they be crows? There was no life on this planet - nothing to sustain ordinary animals. There was no food, no water other than lichen and fungi, acid-drenched, acid-resistant. Were these birds somehow also resistant to the acid liquid raining from the sky? Yet if this was so, why had they not shown themselves before?

One single bird dove deep and landed on an upturned obsidian piece of pillar. The blackness of the stone almost made the bird vanish against its background as it sat there.

Curious now, Delirion slowly watched it, small and slow steps bringing her closer.

A cross between a raven and a bat, it looked to be; with smooth, glossy wings, like the bat lacking feathers. A bent beak and two black shiny eyes made up the head, as it nervously sat chittering on the stone, watching her approach. Vulnerable it looked, vulnerable, and nothing like the crows in her dreams.

She had almost reached the stone, and stopped. It seemed a miracle that any natural life could be supported on this harsh planet. How had they survived? Yes, bedraggled it looked, used to many a hardship, so vulnerable.

Delirion slowly reached out with one hand, reached out for a reason she did not know. Maybe in the vulnerability of the bird, she saw something of herself; a kinship of sorts.

As her fingers tried to touch, the bird-like creature made a sudden move; its beak opened to reveal a row of sharp teeth, and the creature hissed maliciously.

She snatched back her hand as the bird, startled, rose into the sky again and joined the flock of others circling the sky.

[Delirion]

Delirion was left, watching and wondering, her fingers still gripping the lightsaber. The sudden appearance of these strange bird-creatures was utterly puzzling.

Five years, it had been. Five long years that she had lived on this planet alltogether, and never had she caught a glimpse of these creatures before - whatever they might be. Shy, they certainly were - hiding away. Then what had made them show themselves after all these years?

My dreams... have they been called here by the crows in my dreams?

A ridiculous idea, it seemed; yet why should it not be so? And if it indeed were so - had they been sent to haunt her, or aid her? Curious, it was.

If these birds have some connection to the crows of my dreams... would they not know of me? May there be a link...?

Hesitatingly, she sent forth her thoughts, sent them upwards, towards these creatures, and entered their small minds...

...to look down upon herself from high up. Look down and see the small coloured speck of warmth in the center of coldness. Multi-colored waves spread out from it, encircling it, the brightness slowly fading away into a dull grey. The warmth was so inviting, so... so.. appetizing???

Her thoughts shrank back. They were predators? How could that be? There was no other source of meat on this planet for them to feed on, unless they had resorted to feeding on the humans stranded on this harsh world out of plight and ravenous hunger.

As she watched them circle the inner ruins again and again, and finally settle on one of the still remaining walls, an idea came to her.

She needed practise, and if they had come to aid or obstruct her, it did not matter - they would be the tool of her improvement.

A little more sure of herself than before, she quested out to them, and planted an idea in their heads - an idea that had already existed, and needed only a little nudge.

One black bird stretched out its wings and lifted into the air. After a second only, it dove downwards, at her.

Delirion's fingers gripped the lightsaber handle, waiting, waiting...

[Ryhhhk]

The Ryhhhk swooped down towards the red blotch that rested against the green and blue backdrop in it's mind, charging forth. Suddenly, something even hotter and more appetizing came into view, lightening up already dlicious looking red spot. Other would have seen it as a lightsaber, but to this creature, there was ni distinction between a lightsaber and a meal. The bird flew down, diving just before the wall before it and striking against Delirion's neck, jamming it's beak deep into her flesh and tearing at her muscle tissue...

The red liquid that filled its fanged beak was amazing -Very cold - but still wonderful never-the-less; finer than even the hottest mineral deposits that the large batlike beast had tasted in all of it's lengthy 6 year span of life admist the lavaoceans of Vjun.

[Delirion]

The bird came in too fast - she could not ward it of with her saber in time. Instead, it locked on to her neck, and bit deep into her shoulder.

Her first instinct was to scream out with pain, but she supressed it; she brought up the saber, leaving the tip of it just inches from its wings. Then, concentrating again on the bird's mind, she entered its thoughts.

For a second, she was almost overwhelmed by the taste of her own blood and flesh it had - the taste of blood was sharp, brilliant, nurturing. Then she willed her own thoughts and senses to override the bird's. The sense she fed into it was that of acute danger; she made it aware of the deadliness of the blade hovering at its wings.

With an angry noise, it bit deeper into her neck, but then vanished over her shoulder. It took her a second to follow what it had done - it had used the grip it had on her shoulder to haul its body over her shoulder rather than fall bwackwards and impale its wing onto the saber.

Clever little thing... let's see how far you get now.

Pivoting on her heel, she turned around quickly, before it could get too far away. But the bird had no intention of fleeing - instead, it attacked the source of danger and heat she had made it aware of. To a creature that fed on the planet's harshest resources - maybe even fire itself - the blade had to mean a source of food? She wasn't sure.

There was no time to think about it for too long - as she spinned around to face it, the bird was already coming around in its flight, and in a low dive, coming straight at the blade.

She would let it touch it, feel the pain and death it could mean, before warning it off again. Somehow, the bird had to be made to see how both the blade and she herself were equal dangers.

The bird dipped underneath the blade, tried to attack it from behind - she swung the blade around after it, over and around it as it tried to follow. It flew straight into the laser-beam.