[Solved] Druffin Lesson II: The Cave of Knowledge

Druffin worked his way carefully along a vine-covered rock face, plucking ripe pallie fruits and placing them carefully into his bag. Master Nokori insisted the Jedi initiates under her charge work in the small farm plots that surrounded their adopted home on Ator Hollis; Druffin, however, preferred to forage. His people had never really adopted wide-spread agriculture as their homeworld was too cold. Besides, foraging also gave him a chance to explore and learn more about this strange planet.

Absent-mindedly picking at some burrs tangled in his shaggy fur, Druffin heard a sneeze and looked back to his two companions. Today, he was accompanied by fellow students Itacil and Marv.

The sneeze came from Itacil, a member of the physically blind Miraluka species who relied entirely on the Force for their vision. Despite having known the man for more than a month, Druffin still found it remarkable to watch Itacil navigate his surroundings - if anything, he was even better at knowing which pallies were ripe than Druffin with his four eyes!

Itacil had been sharing his family’s martial arts dance form with some of the initiates who were struggling during the lightsaber lessons. While their backgrounds were vastly different, the pair found they shared a deep appreciation of the importance of family and clan; something they had both left many parsecs behind in pursuit of becoming a Jedi.

Further into the undergrowth, Marv had also looked up at the sneeze. The old man straightened with a grunt, holding up a large plant with several bulbous tubers. “Chak-root!”, he called out triumphantly. Marv was working through a long wish-list of herbs he received from Ma-Riki, the rather eccentric Lannik herbalist and mystic that had joined the Jedi in establishing an academy on Ator Hollos.

Marv was at least 30 years older than Druffin and so the Talz had not immediately gravitated toward the Human. However, over time Druffin found Marv’s self-deprecating style a real tonic to some of the more self-assured - some might even suggest brash - Jedi initiates, who saw every lesson as a competition. 

“Nice!” Druffin responded, his baritone voice emerging from the small vocodoer on his throat that translated his speech into Galactic Standard Basic. “My bag’s almost full. What’s left on Ma-Riki’s list?”

“She’ll always take more warra nuts, but I haven’t seen any growing in this stretch. I think she’ll be happy with what we’ve got.”

“Nice. You all good to head back, Itacil?”

Itacil nodded, a lock of his white hair falling across his face. Druffin turned back to the rock face, looking for his final companion; rather than another initiate, he searched for his pet, a blue lizard he’d nursed back to health. He caught a flick of a blue tail among the vines and called out, “Bacta! Come here, boy”.

Druffin searched through the vines when the reptile didn’t reappear. 

“Hey, there’s a cave over here”, he called back as he shifted what was effectively a curtain of vines. “It’s deep. Anyone got a light?”

The three Jedi peered through the cave mouth. 

“Three Jedi with no light? Sounds like the start of a bad joke. If only we had lightsabers,” muttered Marv. When Druffin stared at him blankly, he added: “I bet they make great torches!”

“Don’t let Aemos hear you say that,” laughed Itacil, “or you’ll be on double meditation shifts.”

“I bet he uses his ‘saber that way late at night while he’s working on the orrery.”

They shared a laugh at the image of their haughty instructor, Master Aemos Suurm-Xachus, reportedly Hybolan royalty, using a lightsaber to read instruments as he tried to map the planet's magnetism.

“Well, I’m looking for Bacta in there,” said Druffin as he pushed through the vines into the caves. “My night vision should be fine,” he added, pointing to his larger pair of eyes. Like all Talz, he had a small pair of eyes that had evolved for vision among the otherwise blinding glare of sunlight reflected off ice and a large pair to gather limited light when underground or at night.

“I’ll join, too,” added Itacil. After a pause, Druffin and Marv said “ah” in unison. If you were blind, what did the darkness matter?

“And I’ll guard the entrance!” concluded Marv with a chuckle, spreading his arms wide. All three were unarmed.

Druffin and Itacil made their way through the cave system. It was damp and the intermittent dripping of water from the ceiling punctuated the otherwise silent cave. Stalactites and stalagmites reached out to one another and, as they ventured further, eventually began to merge. 

Reaching a juncture in the cave system, Itacil asked, “Split up?”

Druffin thought on it. Splitting up would make their search faster and leave Marv alone for shorter. Still, he hesitated. “I’d rather not,” he said softly.

Despite his expectations, Itacil looked relieved. “Good!”

The pair worked further into the cave until emerging into a large cavern. “Here you are, Bacta!” the Talz said, scooping up the blue lizard from the cave surface. As he turned to leave, Itacil spoke:

“Druf, there’s something back there; look on the wall.”

Druffin turned to where Itacil pointed: covering the rock face was a large mural. He scrambled over some stalagmites for a closer look. The mural looked very old but the shapes and markings were still clear. 

The mural depicted a large battlefield, almost a wasteland. A few creatures, light in coloration and with long tails and curved bodies, appeared to stand heroically against a looming, horrifying shape blotting out the horizon. Small dots of red depicted menacing eyes. Smaller dark shapes, the opposing army, appear to be dying en masse.

“This is incredible! It looks like an ancient battle on Ator Hollos. Can you see this, Itacil?”

The Miraluka was standing stock-still, his eyes out of focus. Then he almost stumbled and had to reach out to a pillar to stable himself.

“I… I saw it alright.” He paused to collect himself. “Except it was moving, dynamic… it’s hard to describe. I could almost feel the battle unfolding and feel … despair. Those white beasts … they were being consumed by whatever that monstrous shape was.”

Itacil wiped beads of sweat from his forehead. “I think that was a vision through the Force…” he concluded, expelling a long breath.

“Crazy. That’s… amazing.” Druffin didn’t know how to feel. He was chuffed his friend had received a Force vision, but he had been closer to the mural. Why hadn’t he felt anything? Had he not been trying? He turned back to the mural and opened up his senses as Master, Nokori had been teaching him. Maybe, he could receive the vision, too?

In that heightened state, he did feel something - a sharp spike of fear. “Marv!” he yelled instinctively. “Marv’s in trouble.” Druffin began running back to the cave entrance, with long loping strides. Itacil followed close behind.

They spied Marv, now standing inside the cave, peering out through the vines. Without turning, he raised his hand, palm up, signalling them to slow.

His voice low, Marv added, “There’s someone out there, boys, up top the other ridge… I don’t think he saw me and I don’t want him to, either. I didn’t get a good look but I think it was one of those raiders that took Master Katarn.”

Druffin and Itacil huddled close to Marv, simultaneously striving to get a good view out and be as discreet as possible. It would have been comical were the moment not so tense. 

They needn’t have bothered. 

A figure stepped forward confidently, emerging out of the brush atop the ridge about half a klick away. Its head was wrapped in dark cloth, casting its face into shadow. Its torso was bulky, suggestive of thick body armour. 

The man pointed directly at the cave entrance with a gloved hand and then, slowly, raised a large blade - almost a machete. He pulled the blade across his throat, his intent unmistakeable even from a distance.

Message delivered, he stepped back under the trees and out of view.

“Ah, shavit, shavit, shavit!” swore Marv, “This ain’t good.” The three Jedi initiates looked at each other, stress evident on all their faces. 

Itacil looked back into the cave, longingly. “That other tunnel…” his voice faded off, a question hanging in the air.

“We’re unarmed!” responded Marv.

“We can always come back, Itacil, and armed next time. I think we better get straight back to the monastery.” 

Scrunching his face in regret, the Miraluka nodded.

A sweaty hour later and as the sun was beginning to set, the trio made it back to the monastery, confident they had not been followed. 

With a cheerful greeting from the labour droid RUD4 setting them at ease, they split ways: Marv to Ma-Riki’s quarters to deliver his foraging haul; Itacil to the orrery to discuss his vision with Master Aemos; Druffin seeking out the academy’s combat instructor, Jedi Jun Jin-Wa to share their encounter with the hooded raider.

Jun’s first reaction wasn’t what Druffin was expecting. 

“You were all unarmed? How embarrassing! Bloody lucky only one person saw you. Haven’t any of you been listening to me at training? What have I been saying… ‘You should be able to…’?”

“‘…Shame a stormtrooper with an E-11’.” Druffin completed the sentence. “We thought we were just going foraging,” he added defensively.

“We’re never ‘just’ doing anything, especially on this planet. Next time you go out, you come see me first. I’ll make sure you’re kitted out properly. No glow rod either? Might have to add that to a pack too…” 

Jin trailed off, stroking his goatee as he got lost in his thoughts.

“Um, Master Jin-Wa, what about the raider? They have Kyle…”

Jun refocused back on Druffin. His jaw clenched and his swarthy complexion grew even darker as his face flushed. 

“Katarn knows how to look after himself, but no one threatens my Jedi!” he fumed. “It’s too late to do anything now, but first thing tomorrow you’re going to take me to this cave and we’ll see if we can track that bastard.”

~~~~

Before dawn broke the next morning, Druffin and Itacil led a small posse out from the monastery. They were joined by Masters Jin-Wa and Suurm-Xachus, fellow initiates Lyra and Katch (both experienced fighters) and the quartermaster Asa - this time all toting blasters. Marv opted to stay behind, arguing he would only slow them down. 

When they reached the foraging site, however, the entire landscape had changed. The cliff face had collapsed into a pile of rubble. 

Master Jin-Wa examined the pile. “This is no natural collapse. Look you can see scorch marks where explosives have shattered the rocks. Someone didn’t want us going back in there.”

Druffin felt a hard stare from Master Suurm-Xachus; the Hybolan clenching a fist. Then the stern Master closed both his eyes. “It’s sealed right up - I can’t sense any openings back there. Damn it!”

The curse was uncharacteristic coming from the usually highly controlled Master. 

“Let’s keep moving and keep focused,” interjected Asa. He was one of the few non-Force sensitives among the group, being married to Nokori, who had stayed behind at the monastery that day. As such,he seemed the least interested in the mural. “Itacil, Druffin, where was this raider of yours?”

The boys led the way up the ridge to their best guess as to where the raider had threatened them from. The Jedi’s luck, however, did not improve. There was no sign or tracks to speak of; Druffin wasn’t even sure they were in the right spot. 

With two failures notched up, the group returned to the monastery glumly. They were little closer to understanding the mysteries of Ator Hollos or retrieving Master Katarn, but Druffin at least had hope that there were answers to be found.