From how thin and spindly the Tokep was in stature, the four expected to see the twig of a creature be thrown off its feet by the giant Eletai's antler-like tusks. The enormous beast sprinted at a speed that caught the soldiers by surprise and headed straight for the ghostly being, bowed its head to ram the Tokep's body as everyone watched, stunned from moving or thinking or even breathing. In seconds, the Eletai had crossed the grotto and was only yards away when the Tokep hissed and lifted its hands as if to protect itself.

The Eletai didn't stand a chance.

Before the elephant could react, the Tokep tied its fingers around its tusks and its slithering legs grew rigid, digging deep into the ground and holding the Eletai where she stood. There was no budging on the worm-like entity's part. The Tokep was not to be trifled with, and the alpha as well as the surrounding Eletai began to realize the horrifying truth when their eyes caught sight of two more pairs of white fingers sliding into view. They didn't stand a chance.

Caught in a sudden war of strength, the slimy creature let out a shrill scream that echoed throughout the jungle and shook the trees to their very core. The sound of bone shattering pierced the air like a knife as the Eletai's left tusk was ripped from its mouth, then plunged deep into the side of the beast's skull. The rest of the herd screamed in fear and bounded into the jungle as fast as their legs would carry them. It was then that the Tokep leaned its gaping cavity against the limp beast's neck and began to feed, sucking the blood from the dead animal.

"Run," Molindi was the first to snap out of her stupor and yanked Rex's arm before doing the same to Axel. Her voice started out low in hopes of not drawing attention to themselves, but when the rest of the herd began to stampede in the opposite direction into the jungle, there was no way they were getting out of this one unscathed. They were out of their league even by Molindi's standards. Hell, by anyone and any living thing's standards. "Move! Now!"

They didn't have to be told twice; the three men did as she said and raced in the same direction as the remaining Eletai with the woman trailing behind. That is...

...until another blast of despair burst from one of the babies behind them.

In an instant, Molindi slammed so hard on the brakes that her ankles hurt and the toes of her boots dug into the dirt. As she paused, watching the clones and the Jedi run away, she knew that her humanity was going to be the death of her someday.

May as well be today.

***

It had been a few hours since the hounds first scoured the spies' bedrooms and recovered enough strands of hair for the ritual, as well as some drops of blood from the suite upstairs, and nearly all the ingredients for the spell had been collected. The hair, some herbs from the palace's forbidden garden, the heart and brain of a pig, as well as some incantations from Agnacia's spell book.

In all her years as Dooku's apprentice, Ventress had never seen this sort of thing before. She knew that she'd been born on a witch-infested planet filled with all sorts of dark sorcery, but nothing in her faintest memory had anything to do with magic or spells. It felt strange and foreign, yet familiar and comforting all at the same time. Like a bad dream turned good or a good dream turned bad, there was something abut it all she just couldn't get a handle on in a way that felt normal to the sith.

"The spell is almost finished," Agnacia spoke to her sister as Queen Asemdi and Ventress stood outside the woman's personal work shop. The fiery red glow that had filled the room behind her had been replaced by a dull black light and the liquid-obsidian-looking mass swirled in circles on its own as a fire beneath the pot boiled and broiled the mixture. "It will take six more hours before-"

"Six hours, Agnacia?" Queen Asemdi scowled. "You got our hopes up and now we have to wait six more hours before your plan can take effect?"

"Have patience, dear sister," The younger of the two responded and folded her arms. "Trust me, it'll be worth the wait. This magic comes from a time before our mother and our mother's mother and her mother before her and her mother before that. I wouldn't have brought it up if it wasn't effective in a way that best suits our cause. Once the final spell is cooked to perfection, any thought of revenge will be pointless because the spy herself will have killed her companions for us and anything else in her path for that matter. By this time tomorrow, their blood will be spilled and the gods will be honored by our actions once again."

"I hope you're right about this," Asemdi shrewdly responded. "I can feel the shift in the air, the gods are displeased. They yearn for blood and I fear that we'll have to spill our own in order to fend off their wrath."

"With all due respect, your majesty," Ventress began. "I have no true knowledge of your religion and wish to learn more. What exactly might your gods do if their blood lust isn't satisfied?" Asemdi just shook her head and turned her back on the two women, making long strides towards her throne room once more.

"With any luck, you'll never need to know the answer to that question."

Though her response was vague and foreboding, Ventress found herself hoping that the spell would fail if only to see the reaction of the people around her. The sith didn't believe in any of that nonsense; the only truth in religion she'd seen revolved around the Force and its light and dark sides. Whatever gods they worshiped here had no real pull on their reality, though it still would've been a sight to see these blood-lusting deities prove her wrong. Either way, this mission was going to end much differently than she and her master had originally thought and she wasn't sure if that was going to help or hurt their situation more.

Regardless, the sith nodded curtly to Agnacia before jogging and falling into step next to the queen. Despite her main purpose being the security of the palace while they waited for reinforcements, Ventress couldn't help but be interested in what these royals might have to say in regards to their craft. And with six hours to spare, taking in all the information she could seemed like a good way to pass the time. Maybe she'd learn something useful.

***

They didn't know how long they'd ran in total, but once they reached a second clearing, the jedi and the clones came to a pause for a much-needed break.

Inhaling deeply and exhaling with exhaustion, Axel fell to his knees before laying down on his back. His chest rose and fell with each gasp of air; his legs felt like jelly and his stomach ached. It had to have been fifteen, maybe twenty minutes' worth of sprinting at a breakneck pace- something that he hadn't done since his earlier years in training.  He knew he was getting out of shape as time went by, but damn, this was something he'd have to work on when they returned to Kamino.

He looked over to his left and saw that Rex and General Skywalker were in a similar state, the commander leaning against a rock and the general laying on his stomach to rest. Turned out Axel wasn't the only one who needed to work on sprinting long distances.

"Good call-" Gasp. "When you told us-" Gasp. "To get our asses in gear-" Gasp. "Commander Rino." General Skywalker chuckled between breaths from his spot on the ground. He knew they were all thinking the same thing: Molindi had been smart not to underestimate them. Her quick thinking saved their lives, and if she hadn't spoken up, they all would've met the same fate as the alpha Eletai. Another check added to the list of reasons why he wanted her and Rex to get together: She could pull her head out of her ass in situations of crisis.

"Commander?" Rex choked out between inhales and glanced around. Anakin and Axel followed suit and their blood ran cold as they realized there were only three people out of their group of four.

Maybe Anakin had given her that point a little too soon.

"Oh no," Rex groaned and hauled himself up to his feet, then started running once again in the direction they'd arrived from, only this time he had a lot more energy left than he thought. How could they not have noticed her fall back? Or had she been taken? Snagged by one of those creatures and pulled into the camouflage of the jungle before she could scream to warn them?  "I swear, Molindi..." He growled beneath his breath, Axel and General Skywalker trailing behind, hoping that they'd find her alive and in one piece upon their return.

***

The little Eletai had still been swimming in the pond when the Tokep first attacked and that's where Molindi saw it, crying and paddling desperately to stay afloat in the center of the pool as the three Tokep stretched out their hands to try and nab the infant from the depths. It was hard to believe that its mother would've forgotten it, but then Molindi realized that its mother must've been the alpha; there was no one to rescue it when the shit hit the fan.

The woman wracked her brain as she stood on the edge of the jungle for an idea, any idea, that might keep both her and the infant alive at the end of this scenario and she glanced around the area once more for good measure.

The Tokep were reaching for the Eletai- maybe because they hated water? In a few versions of the legend, it said that water was toxic to the Tokep people. Maybe it was true? Regardless, it gave her something to work with and her eyes looked up til they found a tree big and tall enough to be leaning directly over the pool where the baby struggled to stay above water. That would be the first part of her plan: Climb the tree til she reached the pond's center.

But the branch hung at least six feet above the elephant. There was no way she'd be able to pull the baby out of the water if she couldn't even touch it. Maybe there were some vines-?

She was pulled from her thoughts as the Eletai let out another desperate plea for help and their eyes met. Though they weren't the same species and couldn't communicate with words, the woman could hear the fear in its voice, see the pain in its big green eyes, and her legs started moving before her brain told her what it had in mind.

The commander sprinted for the massive tree's trunk and grabbed tightly to one of its lower branches. Moving one hand over the other, she pulled her body up and across the rough surface of its bark, then shimmied her legs across the large branch that stretched above the middle of the pool. Thankfully, the Tokep hadn't noticed her daring rescue mission in action, which gave her enough time to gather a thick length of rope-like vines long enough to reach down to the elephant.

The baby could comprehend what she was trying to do and reached its trunk up into the air when Molindi began to lower the vines towards it. The infant made a trumpet sound of thanks when its trunk wrapped the rope around itself and was prepared for the woman to pull it up, but then things took a sour turn.

The three Tokep creatures had caught on to Molindi's plan and let out three blood-curdling shrieks before racing at an impossible speed to the base of large jungle tree she'd climbed, shoving and pushing past each other the be the first in line for their second meal. Molindi's heart pounded in her chest and her sight fleeted from the threat quickly approaching and the drowning animal beneath her. There was no way she'd be able to pull the elephant up in time; she had only mere seconds before she herself would meet a terrible death. 

With no other way of escape and the nearest blood-thirsty Tokep weaving its way through the branches of the tree, less than three yards from her body, Molindi scooted as far across the branch as she could and yanked the vine from the elephant's trunk. The Tokep stretched its disgusting hands towards her, prepared to wrap them around her neck, and lunged forward just in time for Molindi to snag the vine around its wrist and pull the monster with her into the water below.

She had no idea whether or not this trick would work, but she was out of options and the only way out of this mess was down.