Across the Stars VIII: The Magic Tree

Nathan recoiled, slumping in his seat in the Lucky Star. He felt a sudden pang of anguish, a ripping in his soul, as spirits were separated from their bodies back on Ossus. He sensed it only faintly, but whatever caused the sensation was so powerful that it hit him with the force of a wave.

                “Kid? Kid! What’s wrong!”

                He felt Ozz shaking his shoulder as he drifted into unconsciousness, the strain too much to bear. When he finally woke, it was to Ozz’s worried, ugly face. Nathan stared, as though his eyes were trained on something hundreds of parsecs away.
               
                “The Keepers are dead, Ozz. At least, I think so,” he coughed. “They killed them. Abay…all of them.”

                Ozz asked how he knew this, but Nathan couldn’t explain. Finally, Ozz nodded and sighed. He believed him. He’d seen enough strange stuff by now that he wasn’t going to question this one.
               
                They flew in silence for the next few hours.

After a brief stop for fuel (“That’s gonna be our last fill unless we start makin’ some money soon,” Ozz had complained) and the purchase of a few cheap blaster pistols, Nathan and Ozz were set to continue their search.

“I’ll need some coordinates if I’m gonna fly somewhere, Nate.”

Nathan had spent nearly all of the time since Ossus huddled in the bunk with Luke’s journal and the inscribed slates they’d found in the deep archives. He was a quick learner and a voracious student, and with the help of a few runes already translated in the journal, he was able to compile a mostly accurate key for unlocking the old tongue Balaam had used for his writings. He had no idea what it was, but it wasn’t pleasant.

The writings of Balaam were primarily daily accounts and impossible to understand musings, but they also mentioned 'home made among vines and home made among flame, whilst tethered mine soul to the dark lord wert'. Of all the planets Nathan could recall from Mayla's manifest, Dagobah was the one most likely to feature vines. At least, according to their gazette. It might just be a wild bantha chase, but it was worth a short.

The planet Dagobah came into view. It looked musty and small and remote. Sensors revealed it was entirely free of settlers, based on a lack of technology readings. But it was packed to the brim with life.

Nathan leaned over the dashboard controls with interest. "Take us in, Ozz."

"I know, I know..." said the Iakaru, rolling his eyes.

They dipped beneath a dense sea of cloud and Ozz pulled back hard on the throttle, easing them down into what was revealing itself to be a tangled, dark mass of trees.

Nathan felt the planet, just as he had felt Ossus. There, it had been the power, the war, and the secrets, but on Dagobah, he felt life. Wildness and strangeness, the circle of things. Not good, but not evil. Just very alive.

"This place gives me the willies," said Ozz, peering out the viewscreen. There wasn't much to see. It was mostly fog and the shapes of trees.

"I can see a weirdo like Balaam living here..." Nathan mused. "You don’t think he put the Heart here, do you?"

“Nah, that’d be giving me a break. Luck hasn’t done that in years.” He glanced around at the damp, dismal surroundings, his face scrunched with dread. “It ain’t gonna start on this planet.”

Ozz set the Lucky Star down on some alarmingly mushy ground, and powered down the craft. He turned to his companion and shrugged.

"Let's go find out, nerd. And hey, let's stick it to those Imps, ey? What happened on Ossus..."

Nathan understood. He clapped a hand on Ozz's shoulder. “I know.”

They gathered their equipment and trekked out into the woods. The sounds of a million living things filled the air. The smell of mildew and bog water floated up into their noses from underfoot. Tendrils of vine hung down around them from the twisting branches overhead.

"Yeah, this has got to be the place...now, Balaam's writings mention landmarks; the shores of the swamp, a grove of mushrooms, and a magic tree."

Ozz scanned the canopy with the barrel of his blaster. Something flew overhead. He jumped, but held his fire. "Yeesh! How do we know they're not on the other side of the planet?"

That was a possibility, one that tempted Nathan to despair. But he kept his hope.

"Honestly, I don't know," he admitted. "But...I don't think they are. I'm not sure why, but I've got a feeling."

The sounds of creatures and the dense foliage became obstacles they were unwilling to brave. Much to their disgust, this forced them to their only remaining option: the water. Nathan cajoled Ozz into joining him, which says something about the noises in the void of the woods and how they affected them both, that they were willing to wade chest-deep into opaque, smoky water.

"What's that smell?" Ozz groaned, the swamp water inches from his nose.

Nathan, who was miserable, gave him an incredulous look. They were soaked in oily, gunky swampwater, dragging at their clothes and limbs. Something in Nathan's mind considered what else could he dragging at his hands and legs, and images of tentacles and eels had to be forcibly pushed from his brain.

Then they saw the strangest thing.

The flicker of firelight.

They pointed it out to each other and squinted against the tepid mist. It was real.

Just as real, they discovered, were the two men sitting at the campfire, their leaning tents pitched feet away. Tall trees reaching down towards them with roots like cages.

A shore, Nathan thought. Then he remembered this planet had been on Mayla's list. These strangers could be Imperial spies.

Just as he was about to warn Ozz, one of the men called out.

"Hoy, there! I don't believe it -- people?"

"Wet, stinky people," Ozz replied. "You fellas mind if we come on up?"

The man and his companion smiled. "Please do!"

They were rescued from the swamp waters and joined the strangers around the fire. Wings beat the air above them. Something groaned in the water they'd just left. But the fire was safefy.

"We're pilgrims," explained one of the strangers, with an odd grin. "What about you?"

Nathan and Ozz looked at each other. Even Nathan wasn't willing to extend trust this time, not in a situation like this.

Ozz cleared his throat. "Err, real estate," he lied. "Nice planet like this, with no colonies? I don't get it!"

The 'pilgrims' looked at each other, then broke into laughter. "You're a funny guy. Thanks for cheering up the mood."

Nathan felt paralyzed. Fear danced at the corners of his brain, fear of what might happen if they dropped their guard. He thought about the blaster at his side, and if it would work after being submerged. If he should just shoot them both now. They had to be spies, right?

But no. That would be murder. He couldn’t do something like that. You can't just shoot someone for a suspicion. Reacting to a nebulous fear was never the right opening move, and it was wrong, he decided, to try to prevent the possibility of evil by doing something evil first. Besides, the Keepers were pilgrims, maybe these were similar types.

 A glow nearby caught Nathan's attention.

Small blue spots of light scattered across the mossy ground, hidden in and among the roots of the trees.
A grove of mushrooms.

Balaam's second landmark.

 He felt something pull at him, a force or energy that wanted him to come searching. It was irresistible, and clouded his mind in such a way that he forgot his fears of Imperials and treachery.

He stared long enough that one of the pilgrims caught him looking.

“What are you, uh, looking at there?” the man asked, watching him keenly.

"Oh, nothing,” Nathan said, emerging from his thoughts. “I thought I saw a...an animal, out there. It was nothing. I, uh, better just go check, though."

Ozz half-rose from his spot. "Want a second?"

And expose their backs? No. "No," he said, and he smiled reassuringly. "You keep resting. I'll be right back."

"Sure thing!" Said one of the pilgrims, and the other nodded silently.

Nathan caught Ozz's eye, and flicked his own towards the Iakaru's blaster. Ozz understood.

"I'll be right back," said the young man, who then walked deeper into the woods.

The sound of cracking fire faded into the distance as it was replaced by the hum of forest life. The mushrooms were just the start, they led him like a trail, becoming larger and wilder as he went. Finally, after chasing their path for several minutes, Nathan looked up to see the tree.

It was old. Its bark was like wrinkles, crevices in a face with no features. Its roots splayed out like enormous fingers that raked the ground. It seemed to heave with breath, to pulse, to live. Now in silence, Nathan found he was utterly alone with this ancient thing. The woods shrank back from it, as if from deference or fear. Nothing ventured close.

It beckoned him.

He felt it in his inward being. The draw.

A dark opening in its roots, like a doorway, stood open to him.

Nathan took hesitating steps. His spirit ached with restlessness, a need to see what was inside that burned and fried the edges of his nerves.

He entered the depths of the Magic Tree.

The hollow was dark.

He was alone in a den of soil. Fibrous sinew traced many-forked veins in the earth.

He felt a presence.

"Who's there?" He whispered.

"It's me, Nathan."

Mayla stepped out from behind a gnarl of root. She looked as he remembered. Sharper, even. Her bangs fell over her face, her dark eyes shone in the bare light. She walked with grace, poise, as if compensating for her stature.

"Why are you here?" She asked.

He wanted to reach out, to touch her cheek. "To...to stop the Empire. To save lives and find…something powerful."

He saw the disappointment in her face. The vulnerability, the openness that had drawn him to her in the first place.

"...I thought you were here for me?"

"I am!" He said quickly. "But...Mayla...I don't know how to find you."

She stepped closer and smiled. "I forgot, you think my name is 'Mayla'...that's okay. You've done everything so well, exactly as I wanted."

"Well, that manifest you left us has been our guide. That’s all thanks to you."

"Yes, it is. Just what was needed, right? I was always told I was resourceful."

Nathan stood a hesitant step back. His mind was swirling. Everything felt completely real, the question of how it could be happening seemed distant and foggy and not worth considering. His skepticism seemed to leave him, soaked into the walls of soil. But his reason wasn’t gone entirely, and her words started to raise flags, even in his currently-dim mind. "...What?"

"You've done just what we needed. You'll find what you seek, and the Empire will win."

Nathan started to speak, but she stepped closer, close enough to smell. She held up a finger to his lips, quieting him.

"I know you don't like that, but if you need a consolation prize...we can be together. It's the only way it'll work. Things will happen fast, Nathan."

The way she said his name made his heart flip.

"They'll happen so fast. That's how things happen, when change is coming. Your pilot will die, Syfot, some others...but you and me? We'll be alive, together, forever. And so many others, too. We'll give them safety," she said, and she winked. He could feel her breath as it mingled with the fog.

"I want you," she whispered, and his stomach fell. He stared at her eyes as they closed.

No.

"No," he murmured.

She leant forward, her lips parted.

"No," he repeated, and he stepped back. "You're not her," he said. "I don't want this."

Mayla's eyes flicked open, staring up into his. "You do. You want me, most of all," she smiled, her cheeks dimpling. "Remember what you gave up? Everything else -- everyone else --- was just a way of getting to me."

"No!" He stuttered, and he fell back, tripping on a root. "No, no, no!"

Her eyebrow curved. She frowned. "Nathan..."

"Not anymore!" He said. "No, I...I want to find you so bad, Mayla, but...this isn't just about you and me, not anymore. Things have changed. I'm not just in this for you anymore, I've got to…” He shook his head, trying to clear the fog. “…I’ve got to do what's right. I've got to stand up to these people. It's about the Keepers who died on Ossus, and Eefo, and Abay, and Jep, and...and...Ozz."

Nathan blinked, thinking of his friend. He had left his friend, his best friend, with the enemy.

"Ozz," he repeated.

"That monkey? You've got to be tired of being cooped up with that smelly, stupid thing. Trust me," she whispered, her fingers running up his arm. "I’m much better company than he is."

Nathan, eyes wide, said nothing. With all his strength of will, he pulled away, turned, and fled.

Nathan rushed through the woods. He heard screams. His name.

First from behind, in the voice of the girl he loved.

Then from the shore, echoing, hoarse, in the voice of Ozz Sabaran.

"NATE! NAAATE!" Followed by grunts and shrieks of pain.

Ozz.

The firelight flickered in the mist. A dark shape stepped into his path, weapon raised. The blood-red light of blaster fire struck a tree by his head, sparks and smoke burst from the impact.

Nathan was not afraid. He was not angry. He had to help his friend.

Desperate, he raised his hands.

His fingers curled with the warm mist.

Reached with the roots.

Stretched with the beating wings.

Stood with the soil.

He heard one of the pilgrims cry. The thrash of water and wet cloth and arms. Dragged from the shore, he disappeared beneath the surface.

The wildness of life beat like a drum in his ears.

The other pilgrim—Imperial spy—stumbled and entangled himself in the strong vines. Something seized him and pulled into the air, while he flailed his arms to try and break free of the tightening plants. The flying things took notice, their squawking growing agitated and hungry.

His cries ended abruptly, and the flailing stopped.

Nathan rushed to his friend's side. Ozz's leg was bent wrong, blood trickled from his mouth.

"Too...fast...for me," he choked.

Nathan hurried to tear a piece of tent, his hands shaking.

Ozz wiped his mouth. "What...was...?"

"I don't know," Nathan said shakily. "How about we never speak of it again? Kinda freaked out. Are you okay? I can't believe I left you here!” he cursed himself. “What’d they do?"

"Wanted...to know...what we knew. Turns out, they were spies. Can you believe it?" he said weakly, with a hint of irony.

"Your leg is broken," Nathan said gravely. "Rest here, I'm so sorry, Ozz."

"it's okay, kid, I'm alright. We Iakaru are tough sons of -- ouch!"

Nathan let the leg go, the bone now set.

"What was that?" Ozz winced.

"Oh, a trick from the orphanage. I didn't come up with it."

"Geez, rough orphanage.” Ozz shook his head, impressed and relieved. “See? Long as I got you around, I'll be right as rain. Thanks for the save, kid."

"I’ll try to be quicker next time,” Nathan said with a wry look. “Things got weird. Ozz, we have to get out of here."

"You're telling me. Did you uh, get the Heart thing?"

"I didn't get anything, but I found what we need. But I need your help. Will you…” He swallowed his pride, asking his friend openly, “please come with me? I'm...honestly, I’m afraid to go back alone."

Ozz grinned to himself, chuckling at the irony. "You need Ozzie? Even one-legged Ozzie?"

Nathan made a face. "What else is new?"

"Wanna hand me my blaster? I'm really raring for a hike. Gotta get this leg working, that’s the best thing for a hurtin’ leg.”

Nathan stood before the magic tree again, now with Ozz by his side, supported by an old branch.

Nathan had explained what he'd seen to Ozz, but despite Ozz's vigilant eye, nothing appeared from the shadows of the roots.

There was writing on the trunk of the tree. Nathan got as close as he dared. Ozz covered him with the blaster.

"Whatcha got? Anything useful?"

Nathan was scratching down notes in his notebook, thankful for the material Luke had chosen that had endured the bog.

"Coordinates in the Bark, half."

“Coordinates? Like, readable, usable coordinates?”

“Yeah, I guess it’s that simple. Maybe Balaam wasn’t so bad after all. Thanks, pal,” he said quietly to the carving.
 

"Simple! Ha! You telling me--"

Nathan grimaced. "—He hid the other half on a flame world? Yeah, guess it would be weird for things to get any easier."

Ozz sighed. "Yeesh, another planet with no payout. Can't wait to eat more grayweave..." He shrugged, and gave a lopsided grin to his scribbling companion.

Well, at least we won't get wet again...right, kid?"

Nathan grinned back at him, feeling very glad he was there to joke and lighten the terrible mood. There was no one he could think of he’d rather have by his side.
 

 "Yeah. Right!"

The tree, unmoving, unknown, watched as they left, Nathan supporting Ozz as while he limped along. Soon, the Lucky Star left the atmosphere, and the ancient planet was unchanged for their visit. The roots still dug, the fog still swirled, and the creatures flew between the trees. And despite its appearance, everything was vibrant and alive.