Forgotten

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Out in the far reaches of space there sat a lonely planet, the sole in it's system. An unfamiliar place, any visitor never known to return or even heard from. The whole planet is nothing but a giant jungle. Trees stretch higher than any skyscraper, their roots digging deep and strong. With the similar structure and ecosystem to that of tropical rainforests, this planet dwells on sun light and water. Anything below a certain tree line is dark as caves, little undergrowth being able to reach the sunlight due to the large trees. Anything that goes down there is likely to die. Meanwhile, the occasional long grasses and prairies poke through in the occasional place. The climate is generally temperate, stormy and rain showers can last up to days.
The species vary from poisonous plants, to edible ones; vine like snakes and cat like creatures.

However, one thing is for certain. No matter what species you are, plants are at the top of this food chain.

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This particular day was sunny and bright, and Catori found it the perfect occasion to find herself a nice place to sit. Her hut was a safe distance away, carefully hidden on the lower branches a few miles south of her current location.

A warm gust flicked the hair off her shoulders and whipped it around a little before letting it fall. It was beautiful, and the trees almost stretched to reach for the warmth. The forest was moving, alive, and connected. Catori knew that much. She had been stranded here for years after being set off on a mission from the Jedi Council. It resulted in the death of her master, and a deeper connection with the force.
She knew every trick to survive; who hunted whom and the safe paths and trails to take freely.
But for now, she was safe and alone; seated and cross legged in a sunny spot up in a tree miles high. The branch must have been a speeder wide, with mosses and vines that hung limply. She relaxed her mind, and sought out the force; meditation, the calming and expansion of the mind.

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Kaziki Halcyon burned brightly in the Force, and for good reason. He was searching for a needle in a haystack, a single life form on a planet that practically crawled with every level of life possible in a galaxy of nearly endless permutations. It would have been a difficult proposition in explored space but this far into the Unknown Regions it was downright impossible... except Kaz had the Force as his ally and a powerful ally it was indeed.

Two weeks earlier the Corellian had awoken from a Force meditation with a distinct inclination. An inclination that had led him to acquire a vessel (he intended to return it as soon as he was done), divine a heading, and start star hopping in the direction the Force pulled him. It would have been beyond weird if it had been the first time such a thing had happened but Kaz had been following the flow of the Force, it's 'Will' as described by some other Jedi, since he was a Padawan. It had nearly driven his Master to drinking, in point of fact.

The light scouting vessel was perfect for the job, screeching through the atmosphere of the jungle world he'd come across. Small, fuel efficient, space for a passenger if he found what he was looking for, and lots of food storage he hadn't had to similarly 'acquire' in the line of duty. His vessel's arrival, anything but subtle, drew plenty of attention from the life forms below. Some hostile, some fearful, and almost all of it primitive in the way of animals. He circled a few times, scouting the area for what little he could discern about the world from on high before he picked the largest clearing of tall grass he could locate and began his landing pattern.

The scout vessel set down gently, Kaz's hand carefully hovering over the repulsor controls in case some sudden change called for a immediate increase in altitude. After several long moments when nothing happened and no dangerous intent was focused upon him or the vessel, Kaz finally allowed the ship to settle onto its landing struts. He cycled down the engines but elected to leave them on standby rather than shutting them down completely. No point in having to run a full start up if the future called for a hasty retreat, that was Kaz's policy at any rate. He removed himself from the pilot's chair, not his favorite place on a vessel anyway, and moved through the storage/passenger compartment, and disembarked via the door set into the side of the vessel.

Taking in the fresh air with a deep breath as the seal was broken, Kaz poked his head out of the door first to look around. He blinked briefly in the bright sunlight since he now lacked the benefit of the polarizing view screen between that and his eyes. Without further hesitation Kaz stepped out of the vessel and began to walk a circuit around it, reaching out into the Force in an attempt to find that which had been lost. He spoke quietly to himself as he did so, recalling a child's rhyme used during games of hide & seek on his home world. "Come out, come out, where ever you are."

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Catori's mind reached out around her, feeling the force ebb and flow like it normally did. The planet was crawling with various forms of life, and the force swelled almost like a tide. It was what pulled her and her master here a long time ago.
It brought his death, and her rebirth. Or so she would like to put it. It was a while ago, and those early memories were already fading.

She was temporarily at peace, feeling the warm sun and the occasional breeze. Then it struck her like a whip; an unfamiliarity. Something she hadn't senced in years. Human? Metal? The sound of ships?
It was momentarily disturbing, making her eyebrows knit together in concentration. What was their purpose? Why? What had drawn them here? She willed herself to find the peace again. Unable to return, she stood and adgusted the hat on her head. She was beginning to grow curious.

Glancing up at the tree, she bent her knees and sprung. Grabbing onto knots and knarles in the tree, she climed with the grace of a squirrel. Years of practice; this was the only way to survive in such a place. Perhaps a little further higher would grant her a better view of where the disturbance had gone.

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A shock of distress pulled his attention in the right direction, the sense of somebody being surprised to see his arrival keying him to his goal. Long in the habit of talking to himself in absence of somebody else to speak to Kaz piped up to fill the relative silence around his freshly landed vessel. "Well, there you are. Such an imposition... slogging through the woods. So uncivilized." He started off toward the woods, pausing a moment to make sure he hadn't stepped in anything by glancing at the bottom of his boot.

The real trick to jungle planets was the sheer number of creatures that tended to exist on such worlds that also tended to want to eat anything made of meat. This was a concern to Kaz as he was Corellian and Corellians were, themselves, traditionally made of meat. Fortunately, the young Jedi Knight had long ago encountered the problem and developed an acceptable solution. Animals and insects tended to be of a very simple mindset. What they felt about a thing determined the way such creatures reacted to said thing and as a Jedi Kaz was well suited to the task of affecting the way a creature felt. Kaz spread out his awareness in the Force, envisioning a sphere of influence in which he projected a low level, background feeling of undesirability. It was enough to turn away insects without question and most higher order predators would feel uneasy enough to not bother him unless they had a genuinely dysfunctional aggression center in what passed for a brain. Sentient creatures, except for those particularly sensitive to such things, wouldn't notice it at all and even if they did weren't likely to be led blindly by the minor feeling it created.

With his Force powered 'predator repellant' in place he entered the undergrowth where he found a suitable opening, pulled his robes closed with his right hand on the inside, and began his trek toward the source of his Force given quest. There was a Jedi out here, or something near enough to one, and Kaz intended to find them.

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Catori's eyes narrowed slightly as she sat in her new position. The higher tree branch gave her a better view of the area, but it wasn't much. The trees still loomed above like giant towers.
The force pricked the back of her mind; whoever was out there was getting closer. Her curiousity willed her to go on, but her better judgement kept her rooted to one spot. She didn't know who it was, or what it was for that matter. It could be dangerous.

So it was decided, she'd go find whatever it was. Leaping off her branch, she grabbed onto a vine and slid down to the 'ground'. The trees had grown thick enough to make a temporary ground, the 'underground' being the actual ground. It was interesting the way this forest grew, and Catori almost knew every part of it.

Keeping to the shade and underbrush, she crept forward, keeping an eye open for anything out of the ordinary. She stopped, gathering in her surroundings. Perhaps it was time to start getting the upper hand; litterally. Running to the nearest tree, she leapt up into it. Grabbing onto the lowest branch, she swung herself up. There she crouched, preparing for the spring to the next tree.