Shadow swore viciously as his primary repulsor engine failed. Rerouting power to his backup engines, he searched for a spot to set down.
“Too many trees in this friggin’ jungle,” he muttered… and then he chuckled as he realized just how stupid that had sounded.
Becoming serious again, he once more resumed his hunt for a passable landing field. The giant trees seemed to offer no help as Shadow’s ship limped over them on a badly rigged secondary engine. Shadow’s altimeter screeched a warning at him, and before he had time to react, the starboard wing of his ship smashed into the bole of a massive tree, sending him careening into the forest. Shadow’s last thought before unconsciousness claimed him was of how much he’d always loved nature… and how ironic it was that it was nature that was ultimately the end of him… nature, and a really bad repair job…
Some hours later, in the middle of a large groove he’d cut into the forest with his not-so-graceful landing, Shadow shook himself awake and looked around.
“Well gee, things just keep getting better, don’t they?”
Feeling gingerly around his body, Shadow checked to see if he’d broken anything during his crash. And indeed he had, as the howl of pain that he bit back let half the jungle know.
After he had recovered from the agony of touching his shattered leg, Shadow looked again at it. The skin, at least, had not been broken, but it was obvious the bone was pretty well in two, possibly three pieces. Reaching up into a compartment that should’ve been under his knees but that was now over his head, Shadow rummaged around, biting his lip against the pain in his leg every time he moved. Finally finding what he had been searching for, Shadow yanked his medkit from the compartment and looked inside for the splint and wraps that should’ve been kept in it. No such luck, for the kit was empty of all but a little bottle of what had to be some form of alcoholic drink.
“Ah well,” Shadow grunted, “Bought the thing at Mos Eisely, what did I expect?”
Dragging himself from the wreckage of his ship, Shadow pulled himself over the lush carpet of the jungle floor until he reached a tree. Looking up, Shadow saw several branches that were ideal for a splint.
“The question now, I guess, is how in the world I’m supposed to get up there?”
Shaking his head, Shadow reminded himself that in times like this, he was simply going to have to suck it up, and get up that tree. After all, sitting down here crying about it wasn’t doing him one whit of good.
Digging into one of his utility pockets, Shadow found his emergency climbing claws and strapped them to his hands. Grasping the trunk of the tree with the claws, Shadow began his long, painful climb. Gasping with pain at every inch, Shadow hauled himself up the tree, arm over arm, until he reached the set of branches he’d seen earlier.
As luck would have it, there was a large branch that Shadow could straddle right in between the two branches he wanted for his splint.
“Alright, somebody decided to give me a break after all,” he said softly.
Sliding out onto the branch, Shadow once more began to slither along its length, taking care to avoid hurting his leg any more than he already had. Finding a suitable place, he sat up, and drew the long sword that was still somehow strapped to his back, and that had somehow not stabbed through him during the crash. Taking a deep breath, he raised the blade high and swung it down into the branch. With a loud crack, the blade dug into the branch, making a groove about an inch deep. Withdrawing his sword from the branch, Shadow shook his head.
“This,” he remarked to the tree, “is going to be a long day.”
An hour and several near falls later, Shadow had chopped the two branches down, and was ready to get down from the tree. The only problem was, he had no idea how he was going to do that.
“Ah well, like the old man used to say, ‘Prior planning prevents poor performance…’ Guess I gotta just fall…”
Sliding around so that he hung down from the branch, Shadow prepared himself for the drop.
“I don’t think I’m going to enjoy this…”
Shutting his eyes tight, Shadow released the branch and fell to the ground.
“Agh,” he spat as he hit. Curling up and gritting his teeth hard against the scream that threatened to rip forth from his lungs, Shadow lay there until the pain passed.
Once the pain had mostly subsided, Shadow took his knife from the boot of his good left leg and began carving away at the branches. Within a few hours, he had managed to get a decent splint.
“Now all I need is something to tie it on with…”
As if someone had heard his call, Shadow looked up to see a vine hanging down near him. Dragging himself over, he cut the vine down, and brought it back to where his branches lay. Tying the splint on with the cord, his eyes widened with surprise as the vine tightened around his leg. Looking over at the uncut half of the vine, he saw that it too was beginning to shrink up.
“Must need the sap from its roots to stay supple,” he murmured.
Standing somewhat awkwardly and favoring his right leg, Shadow limped back to his ship to find a glow rod, because it was getting dark. Igniting the glow rod, Shadow set about looking for a good place to spend the night.
As Shadow passed through a particularly thick growth of bushes, he noticed what appeared to be a path. Deciding that his need for shelter was greater than his need to avoid contact with the New Republic, Shadow limped down the path. After a few minutes, he began to hear the gentle sounds of a creek running somewhere. A few minutes later, he came out upon a cleared space. Looking around, he saw a tree with it trunk carved out to form a living space. Inside was a small chair and a table, probably made from the excess wood of the trunk. A fire pit, now overgrown with lichen and vines, sat a few feet away from the tree. The place looked as if it hadn’t been used in years, but was still livable. Setting to cutting away the vines, Shadow wondered dimly who had made this place.
Sometime later, Shadow settled into the tree trunk and shut his eyes, more than ready for a good night’s sleep. As he drifted off, he began making plans for the next day. Perhaps he would carve a pair of crutches for himself, so he wouldn’t have to drag his bad leg everywhere. And now with a water supply close at hand, the only thing Shadow needed to worry about was food, and being in a jungle, it seemed he wouldn’t even have to worry about that. Not much, anyway…
And so Shadow fell asleep in the cozy space of the carved out tree trunk, never realizing that the place he now slept in had once been inhabited by a stranded, dedicated, and a bit crazy Imperial TIE pilot named Qorl…
Well, that’s part two, folks. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. So how’s Shadow so far? Looking like he might be a decent character? Have I overlooked or misplaced anything so far? Let me know. I’d love to hear from you.
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