All around them stood humanoid figures pointing archaic archery weapons at them. The ones surrounding them looked human except a few details, they were paler with darker markings, the markings, dots in different sizes, almost seemed to gleam and glow. Their eye color seemed to be everything from green to blue to any other color but they were always bright colors. There was both what looked like male and female around them and when one opened his mouth to speak, Obi-Wan could see that his teeth were pointy, like the fangs of a Togruta.
“Who are yo?” The being demanded but the way he said it made it sound like he was unused to speaking in basic.
“My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi, I am a Jedi Master from the Republic, and these are my men.” Obi-Wan stepped forward.
“Why they have same face?” The being asked again.
“They are clones and…” Obi-Wan started to explain.
“What is ‘clone’?!” The being barked and would have continued if another of the natives stepped forward to whisper in the first one’s pointy ear.
“Amiik is right, you and your ‘clones’ seems to be wounded. How come you be like this?” The leader? asked.
“Our ship crashed and we were injured during that.” Obi-Wan told him.
“We shall take you to Satara and she will decide what to do with you and your ‘clones’.” The leader? said decisively after a while. The natives started to lead them further into the forest, the further they got into the dark the more obvious the gleaming of the marks became and no matter how many questions Obi-Wan asked the only answer he would get was “Satara will tell.”
They walked for close to an hour and when they arrived Obi-Wan could hear Crys gasp. He could definitely understand that reaction, this place was beautiful. The dwelling they enter is not built on the ground with houses but high up in the trees, winding staircases going up the thick trunk of the trees, branches creating arched handles that grows up and becomes almost like a celling over the stairs.
The leader of the croup broke of, almost jogging up the stairs of the biggest tree, while the woman from before came up to them.
“Come, I lead you to Satara.” Amiik said and started to lead them the say why the man had gone but at a slower pace so they wouldn’t jostle Oddball to mush.
Obi-Wan just stopped and stared when they got to a platform near the top. The view was breathtaking. From this point you could see out over the forest and almost all of it was bioluminescence, it was one of the most amazing things he had ever seen.
“It amazing.” Gasped Waxer.
“It’s home.” Amiik smiled. “Come, Satara is waiting.”
Obi-Wan was surprised, because the more time they spent with these people the better their basic seemed to become, almost as if they were learning…but that couldn’t be, right? No one learned that quickly.
When they finally arrived at their destination, they saw the man from earlier talking to a woman. She nodded at the man and he turned to leave as she began to walk towards them.
“Beautiful.” Crys breathed out and Obi-Wan could do nothing but agree.
She wasn’t very tall, maybe 5’5 at most, but her presence in the room was powerful. Her hair was the color of freshly fallen snow that’s braided in a top braid alongside the top of her head with several smaller braids joining the bigger one and some hanging loosely with dark gems and feathers decorating it. Her eyes are a mix of bright greens, blues, oranges, purple and silver making it look like she has a galaxy in her eyes.
As she comes closer he can see that she has the gleaming marks that every one of these people seems to have, in addition to those markings she also has three black dots under each eye with the biggest dot at the other corner and the smallest close to her nose and the she had nine dot on her forehead, three in the middle going up towards her hair starting between her eyebrows and then three on either side of those going toward her temples.
Unlike the ones that had led them there, who wore leather to protect them from the elements, this woman wore a flowing white dress that was longer in the back and shorter in front so you could see her bare feet.
“You have very kind eyes.” The woman smiled at Cody. She too had an accent but not very pronounced.
“Ehh…Thank you, Ma’am.” Cody blushed.
“My name is Satara, young one, not ma’am.” She patted his cheek softly.
She turned to Obi-Wan and smiled kindly. “You shine brightly with Mikoda.”
“Mikoda?” Obi-Wan asked confusedly.
“Mikoda, it is everywhere, all around and in everything. It’s what makes life, from the smallest plant to the biggest animal. Everybody has it, some have more than others but that does not mean it’s not there in those that have less.” Satara explained kindly.
“Oh, you’re talking about the Force.” Obi-Wan exclaimed straitening up, but then gasped in pain from the motion that jarred his sternum.
“You and your friends are wounded.” She looked concerned. “What is wrong?”
“We were injured when we crashed on your planet.” Obi-Wan explained. “Bones, our medic, has done his best to fix us up but he has not had the equipment to do everything that was needed.”
“Who is Bones and what is a ‘medic’?” Satara asked and looked at the rest of the group.
“I’m Bones.” Bones stepped forwards. “And a medic is a person who takes care of and tries to fix injuries.”
“I understand, you are a samathe, a healer.” She nodded in understanding.
Before she could say anymore, she noticed Oddball laying on the stretcher and gave a gasp. She rushed forward and fell to her knees beside him and placed a hand on his chest closing her eyes. Obi-Wan could feel the force moving around her.
“He is very wounded.” She said as she opened her eyes and looked at them. “We can help him, but we must hurry, he already has one foot in Namakan.”
“Namakan?” Bones asked, scared.
“The world we enter after we leave this one.” Amiik piped up from behind them.
“You’re saying he’s dying!” Crys called out.
“Yes, but as I said, we can help him.” Satara declared. “But to bring someone back from the brink of Namakan you are going to have to help.”
“How? We will do anything.” Waxer declared to the nods of the rest of his vod and Obi-Wan.
“I’m going to need five volunteers for this. Five mostly uninjured.” She said when Waxer opened his mouth to volunteer. “While you decide who those five will be, we shall set up so we can begin.”
As she got up and started to walk towards the front of the room she called out, “Novat, Mino!”
A young man and woman came in from a side door and bowed to Satara. She said something to them in a flowing musical language and they bowed again and started to get different things and placing them by the table that was in the middle of the half-circle at the front of the room.
“Which of you will help in the healing ritual?” Satara asked when she came back towards them. Cody, Bones, Wooley, Trapper and Crys stepped forward and she nodded at them.
“You shall follow Novat and he will help you get ready.” She indicated to the young man and he led them into a room that was almost hidden behind the half-circle.
She turned to Gearshift and Longshot who were standing by Oddball.
“Come place the injured one on the alter.” She led them to the half-circle, then she pointed to the left. “The ones who are not to participate in the ritual have to stay outside the healing Kalix. You can watch and be present as long as you stay over there by the pillars.”
As they went to stand at the indicated place the rest of the clones came out of the back room led by Novat. They had taken of their armor and blacks and was instead wearing only a pair of thin white pants. Even though Oddball was at deaths door Obi-Wan couldn’t help but admire the way Codys muscles played under his skin as he moved.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Satara asked as she picked up a beautifully decorated knife from a table besides the alter. “It is going to hurt and you will have marks for the rest of your life.”
“To save Oddball? Without question.” Cody vowed with the rest of them nodding decisively.
“Then we shall start.” Satara said with respect in her eyes.
“Mind.” Satara grabbed Crys and placed him by Oddballs head as she started to carve a symbol at the top of his chest, almost between his collarbones. The symbol had five lines that together looked like an eye. Then she took up a small brush and using the blood from Crys, drew the same symbol on Oddball in the same place.
“Heart.” This time she grabbed Wooley and he was placed on Oddballs left side. The symbol she carved into Wooley over his heart consisted of three interconnected teardrops that in the end looked like a heart. Then she picked up another small brush and drew that symbol over Oddballs heart with Wooleys blood.
“Body.” Bones was placed sitting between Oddballs legs as Satara carved three lines into Oddballs lower stomach, one straight line in the middle and the other two curving around that one. She then repeated the process with the brush and Oddball.
“Soul.” Trappers place was on Oddballs right side. The symbol Satara carved slightly to the left of Trappers right nipple had just one continuous line that twisted around and made a triangle where the ends didn’t meet. And again, Oddball received the same symbol painted in blood.
“Conduit.” Cody was placed behind Crys. Satara started to carve the symbols she already carved on the others in the same place on Cody then she started to carve one in the middle of his torso, over his diaphragm. This symbol was made up of four interconnecting lines in a circle and she drew that one at the same place on Oddball with Codys blood.
Then she started chanting in that flowing musical language she had used earlier when she talked to Novat and Mino. It was beautiful but haunting. As Sataras voice gained strength the symbols on all the clones started to glow a brilliant whiteish gold.
Obi-Wan could feel the force flowing through the room. He had never felt such light before. The pain from his injuries started to ebb away and the shifting feeling in his chest disappeared.
The light was almost blinding at this point and with a bright flash both the light and Sataras voice disappeared.
The first thing Obi-Wan noticed was that he was completely healed and from the chocked noise from Waxer he wasn’t the only one.
“What’s going on?” Oddball sounded so very confused and he looked even more confused as Wooley almost tackled hugged him of the alter. Satara smiled as all the clones joined in the hug, then she staggered and was about to collapse if Obi-Wan hadn’t caught her.
“Are you alright?” Obi-Wan inquired, worried.
“I’m alright, just tired. Bringing someone back from that close to Namakan takes a lot out of me.” Satara smiled. “But it is always worth it.”
“When you said that we would have marks for the rest of our life I thought it would be worse than this.” Crys said looking at Codys chest. There, were there earlier had been knife-carved symbols, was now those same symbols but instead of carved they were shimmering when the light hit them on unblemished skin.
“This is kind of cool, actually.” Wooley admitted, turning back and forth just to watch the marks shimmer.
“You six will have a bond stronger than most from this day forth.” Satara cautioned. “I do not know how it will manifest itself because it’s always different from person to person.”
“Thank you doesn’t seem to be enough but it’s the only thing we can say.” Cody bowed his head in respect to Satara.
“For me it’s an honor to heal and help people.” Satara told him with a nod back as Mino came over to help her from the room.
“Amiik will show you to a room where you can sleep and we shall talk more tomorrow after we all have rested.” Satara, with Minos help, slowly made her way to the door.
“By the way, something I forget to say earlier.” Satara stopped in the doorway. “Welcome to Astoria.”
