Yisheera awoke the next morning to a brilliant light shining directly in her eyes.

“Ugghhh…” she groaned. “Turn out the lights.” She heard Kayle chuckle, and wondered what could be so funny.

“Sorry.” He said, and a moment later the light mercifully vanished. Yisheera was able to slowly open her eyes and adjust to the dim light of the interior of the gunship. When she saw Kayle standing in front of the porthole from which the morning light was streaming in, the realization clicked in her head.

“Oh, thanks.” She said groggily, slowly stretching to work out the kinks in her muscles that had developed over night. She was so focused that she failed to notice how Kayle seemed mesmerized by the tightening and contraction of her muscles.

“Help me up?” She asked, extending a hand into the air in keeping with her request. Kayle stepped forward and seized her hand, pulling her into a sitting position as she groaned from her body’s protests. “Ugh, I do not feel like standing right now.” She said, half giggling half groaning at how ridiculous the complaint sounded, even as she spoke it. She was a Jedi, trained to survive in even the harshest conditions and outlast any suffering the galaxy could inflict on her, and here she was whining like a youngling about being sore. After a moment Kayle sat down next to her and looked her in the eye.

“So? What’s next?” He asked. She sighed.

“There really isn’t much a choice, despite all that’s happened.”

“House Thul?”

“Yeah.” She said, confirming their next target.

“Well,” Kayle said, turning away to stare at the doorway to the cockpit, “I guess we’d better strip this rig of anything useful that we can carry and get a move on then. Thul is probably farther away than it was before by now, it’ll probably take three or four days to get there.” Realizing he was right, Yish groaned.

“Sorry, I guess I overdid it flying the ship this far.”

“On the contrary,” Kayle pointed out, “if you hadn’t they might have found our landing spot by now.” Realizing he was probably right, Yish smiled.

“You always know just what to say to make a girl feel better.” She said, half-jokingly.

“Still is gunna be one hell of a walk though.” Kayle said less enthusiastically.

“Well,” Yish said, getting painstakingly to her feet and teetering a little on her still-sleepy legs, “there’s nothing to be done about it. We’d best get started.”

The two Jedi searched the gunship and managed to scrum up roughly two days of rations and four days of survival supplies. After stuffing the resources in a pair of emergency backpacks they’d also found, they set off into the Alderaanian wilds, heading East towards where their Force-guided intuition told them House Thul lay.

Nothing notable happened throughout the day until they encountered a Manka cat, which burst from the underbrush in a predatory leap. Both Padawans reacted on instinct, extending their hands simultaneously and sending the beast tumbling backward to slam against a tree trunk and collapse unceremoniously to the ground.

Stunned but not unconscious, the tusked feline began to clamber to its unsteady feet, struggling to regain its bearings after having its initial attack go so horribly wrong. The two Jedi didn’t give it time to recover, in seconds they both attacked it, their lightsabers leaving deep gashes in its front legs and flanks that caused it to howl in pain and anger. It tried to gash them with its tusks, but their quick reflexes allowed them to dance out of harm’s way.

The beast quickly decided they were not worth the risk to its life and scrambled away with its tail between its legs. Having ensured that it was gone, they continued the journey. By sunset, they had found a good place to camp and Yish set about constructing the best bedding she could out of leaves, grass, and various other plants while Kayle secured the perimeter.

Roughly a local hour later, Kayle returned to camp. He’d discovered a few Imperial probe droids in the area but had managed to remain undetected. Other than chasing off a few small predators and gathering firewood, his job had been easy. Yish had managed to cobble together some makeshift bedding out of various nonpoisonous plants and leaves. Sleeping on plants felt dry and crunchy, but it would be better than the hard ground. As they started a small fire and prepared for the night’s rest, Kayle looked like he wanted to say something to her. Several times he almost seemed like he was going to speak up but he kept silent. The tension was killing Yish and she was starting to get a little annoyed with his angsty demeanor. Finally she’d had enough.

“What’s wrong?” She demanded, more forcefully than she’d intended. Kayle flinched at the question and Yish suppressed the urge to kick him. “Come on, something’s wrong. Tell me.” He readied himself, drawing in a breath.

“My duel with Imperious.” He said, “it was terrifying. He had so much power, he could have killed me in seconds but…”

“But he didn’t.” Yish pointed out.

“Exactly, and that’s what’s bothering me.” Kayle said. Yish couldn’t believe her ears.

“So you would rather he’d have killed you?” She asked, equal parts confused and frustrated. Boys were so weird.

“No, no it’s not that just, why didn’t he? If he could kill me he should have, that’s what Sith do isn’t it?”

“What good does it do you to agonize about what he did or didn’t do?” Yish asked. “You’re here, you’re alive. Isn’t that all that matters? Besides,” she looked him up and down, “maybe you’re a lot stronger than you look. Did you think of that?” His smile made her feel she’d brought him back to reality, but it vanished as quickly as it came and he was back in his morose mood.

“But it doesn’t make sense. He’s a Sith, he had no reason to let me live. Killing me would mean one less potential threat to him and whatever operation is going on here. There’s a bigger picture here Yish, and we’re missing a pretty big piece of it.” Yish sighed.

“Well it doesn’t do us any good to spend time thinking when we need to be focused on surviving so we can rescue Master Neeman and get back to warn the Republic in time.” She said, failing to notice the look of absent-minded detachment Kayle had adopted. “We should get some sleep and get ready to start our trek tomorrow.” She lay down and curled up on her improvised sleeping cushion, turning her back to the fire and to Kayle, who was following her lead and getting ready to sleep.

“G’night Kayle.”

The crackling of the flames and the various sounds of Alderaan’s nocturnal life forms was her only reply.