Interlude: Lost in the Shadowlands

At his birth, his name had promised him much. For most of his life, it had delivered.

Gaarurra. Brave Warrior. He who would face the horrors of the Shadowlands and would not flinch.

His mother had given his name as a prayer, for he had been born sickly and faced death as a pup. But as time passed, they knew that the wroshyr spirits had answered.

He quickly grew larger and stronger than his brothers, sisters, and friends. Even as a young wook, he had towered over his father and grandfather. His raw strength was undeniable and he learned quickly. Overall, a boon to his village and people.

But while his family had loved him as dearly as any of their other kin, there had always been a sense of wariness. Though nearly a century had passed, the memories of the Wookiees were long. Many remembered Hanharr, the Stalking Shadow, and the fate of his village, the story of which grew more ominous with each telling. That Gaarurra had been born with the same soot-stained pelt had been seen as an omen of what he could become. His fierce temper had done little to assuage worries.

As a pup, he had felt drawn to the lower reaches of the great wroshyr trees, to the primal depths of Kashyyyk. The Shadowlands, his people called it. A cursed place, where massive monsters roamed freely, hunting for the unwary. None but the bravest hunters ventured into its darkness and only the most skilled returned.

Gaarurra had felt guilty the first few times he tried to go there. The taboo of the Shadowlands had been impressed firmly into him, so his first attempts were halted by his own hesitation. Finally, he screwed his courage to the sticking place and he climbed down with a few days' rations and his ryyk blades.

The moment his feet touched down on the forest floor, all the fear was swept away. Yes, the darkness and gloom was uncomfortable, but to him, it simply appeared to be night. There were no cursed wanderers baying for his blood. No horrors came crashing out of the darkness. It just was.

He stayed in the Shadowlands for two nights, concealing himself in the thick undergrowth to hide from predators. On the morning of the third day, he ascended and returned to his village.

He never again felt the Shadowlands call to him.

Gaarurra would descend only twice more. The first was to retrieve Orga root for Life Day with his father and brothers. The other, to steal fibers from the Syren plant with his friends when he came of age.

His hands brushed the belt around his waist. Only his captors' ignorance of the material's significance let him keep hold of it.

On Kashyyyk, a century and a half passed quickly. The raids from Hsskhor were a despised, though expected part of life. Lives ended and their absence mourned. But the Wookiees endured like the wroshyr and moved on.

Until one such raid forced him into a galaxy he was not prepared for. The Trandoshans proved incapable of killing him, however much they desired his pelt for their Scorekeeper. Instead, they had captured and sold him to the Hutts as a gladiator.

Gaarurra remembered vividly his fifty-year tour of the arenas in Hutt Space, trading hands from master to master. The innocents he cut down, the murderers rightly killed. Intellectually, he knew other Wookiees must have shared in his fate, but he did not meet any.

For fifty years, he kept his silence, clad in chains. Alone in his own mind and kept sane only by dreams of the boughs of the wroshyr trees.

Wookiees were social creatures. To be alone was to face madness, as the Stalking Shadow did. On the world of sand, stained with blood, his rage and silence finally broke. For three years, he unleashed his hatred, roaring it at an uncaring crowd as he tore apart the undeserving.

But then he came to another world of sand, this time stained with betrayal. And there, a strange human pup had reached out. While wary of tricks, he took the offer for what it appeared to be, desperate for some kind of connection.

In hindsight, he doubted he would have survived the First Trial without him.

Gaarurra huffed in amusement.

Aldrex looked up from the Coward's terminal, his yellow eyes seeming to glow in the dim lighting. The light from the screen reflected dully off the cybernetics on the right side of his face, "Something up?"

The Wookiee shook his head.

It was almost laughable that they had survived this long without being able to properly speak with one another. Still, the young human was getting better at reading intent and general ideas, so it was better than relying on charades.

As Aldrex's eyes turned back to his work, Gaarurra's attention shifted to the constant hum in the background that his companion had explained was Korriban itself. A shudder went down his spine.

The depths of Kashyyyk were supposed to be a cursed place, but it was nothing compared to this. Though Korriban's sun shone brightly overhead every day, the shadows lurking beneath were all the darker for it.

He was Gaarurra, Brave Warrior. But on this world, the true Shadowlands, he was afraid for both himself and his people. After his actions in his Second Trial, he knew that war would be coming to Kashyyyk, if it had not arrived already.

Worst of all, Hanharr's shadow loomed larger than ever in his mind.

His hands twitched nervously at that thought. He really needed to do something violent to get his mind off it.

"Now that this problem has been dealt with, the training hall should be…" Gaarurra paused, "Not safe, but at least not as prone to assassination attempts."

Aldrex leaned back on his chair as he stopped to puzzle through what the Wookiee had said before replying, "I guess we did lose a day or so of training. If what I'm seeing from these feeds is right, I'm going to need as much as I can get for Yellow…I mean, Olia."

The pup looked like he'd just eaten something sour as he admitted that. Or said the other acolyte's real name. One of the two.

The human levered himself out of the chair, "Come on, Gaarurra. Might as well use the opportunity while we can."

As he passed by the workbench in their new lair, Aldrex snatched up one of the small cobbled-together probe droids that the Coward had left behind and started fiddling with it as he walked, which quickly consumed much of his attention.

Gaarurra reached a shaggy arm up and nudged him to one side to avoid walking into a wall on their way out.

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I will release the chapter 31 after a few hours

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The first book has been completed on Patreon, alongside the second book. You can visit Patreon if you want to read in Advance.

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