Abattoir/Part 1

1,387 BBY

Throwing herself against a tree, the sharp bark tearing into her raw palms, Alecto struggled to pull a breath of fetid air into her heaving lungs; It was less than a kilometer away now.

"Hurry!" Rassan hissed. Alecto could just make out the Anzat's pale face through the fog; his bared teeth might have been a threat had his eyes not filled his face. "They're closing!"

Alecto nodded, but her sides ached from the effort to steady her breathing, and where one of her ribs had cracked. She wiped a lock of her long red hair off her forehead; her fingers came away sticky and a different shade of red, though this deep in the Abattoir the wan light filtering through the trees turned every color to shades of gray.

Except the phosphorescent bugs, of course; as one of them landed above her eye and began lapping at her wound, it glowed pale green. In the distance, something snarled in response.

"Now!" Rassan insisted, grabbing Alecto by the elbow and jerking her away from the tree. She stumbled to her knees, squeezing her eyes shut and hissing through her teeth so she wouldn't scream. The sharp rocks had cut her knees and slit her right palm from her index finger to the heel of her hand. Everything was sharp here…everything hurt…

Rassan looked past her, reeking of tension in the Force, then turned and fled. Forcing herself to her feet, Alecto staggered after him, trusting her instincts as she half-stumbled down the steep incline. A miniature rockslide started halfway down, and Alecto had to jump for it; she landed without falling, but momentum carried her forward and she bounced off a statue she hadn't seen when she jumped. Winded, she fell.

Descend, she had been told.

The hideous thing loomed over her in the gloom. She could not say whether it was supposed to be a native predator or some black god the Anzati had worshipped when the galaxy was young; time and erosion had warped its features into something more horrible still. The shifting mists and the pain dogging her senses made the thing's claws seem to reach for her.

Rassan touched down only meters away, looking up the way they had come. "They're right behind us!"

Alecto tried to follow, but the statute grabbed her. She cried out once in shock, heart pounding so hard she could feel her pulse in her neck. It had not grabbed her; her ponytail was caught in its claws. She reached back to free the braid, but now she could hear them too—the shrill screech of sharp nails on stone, the slobbering growl. Growing closer.

Alecto ripped at the braid, but it only pulled the harder on her scalp. The growls grew to snarls. Alecto extended a hand and the Force pulled a rock to her grip. It bit into her bloody palm, but the sharp edge knifed through her hair, hacking enough free that she could wrench herself out of the statue's grip.

But she sensed It was very close now, and the claws bit into her back.