RotF Chapter 12

The water is warm. Enthea senses movement in it, but whatever it is, it keeps its distance.

Laki leads the way, a gentle wake spreading behind her as she wades into the dark with no sign of fear or worry.

“You can feel it in the water,” Obi-Wan notes as he wades, his new female body looking particularly small in the shadows. “The life ****. But it’s savage. Uncontrolled.”

“Was this the reason that the Sith built this temple here? Or is this their doing?” Ryoke asks. Enthea keeps her eyes on Laki’s back. She has to stay focused and at peace.

“I don’t know. But I do know that I don’t trust that priestess,” Obi-Wan replies. “One doesn’t simply set up shop in a Sith temple alone. What is she waiting for?”

“Maybe for us,” Laki says, glancing over her shoulder. “Be careful. It gets a little deeper up here. There’s land up ahead. A sort of island.”

Enthea can’t see that yet.

“Is that where our treasure is?” Ryoke asks dryly, sloshing along behind them. Enthea feels their power: Obi-Wan’s familiar aura, Ryoke’s unfamiliar one, and… nothing from Laki. Is she not using the **** to protect herself? Is she that confident in her control?

“It’s following us,” Ryoke notes.

Enthea has noticed that as well: a gentle swell in the water behind them, made by something large. They are not alone.

“It’s all right,” Obi-Wan says, and of course he doesn’t sound like himself… but something is off. “The priestess doesn’t seem to be lying about how to survive this.”

“It’s getting closer,” Ryoke says worriedly.

Enthea feels a chill. Worry is conflict. Conflict is their weakness here.

“Ryoke, you have to stay calm,” Obi-Wan begins, but Enthea hears the quaver in his voice as well. What she only suspected before, now she knows: Obi-Wan’s control of the **** is disrupted by the changes to his body. He’s not used to walking around as a woman, or wielding the **** through this physiology. Ryoke’s in trouble, but Obi-Wan is too.

“We can go back,” Enthea suggests, trying to hold on.

There’s no time for more discussion. Something surges through the water.

Obi-Wan and Ryoke act at the same time: Obi-Wan’s blue lightsaber leaps to life, and so does Ryoke’s green one as a dark shape erupts out of the shadows. They’re ready to fight the thing coming at them from in front, but not the tentacles that burst from the water behind them.

Enthea also has her lightsaber; she’s been carrying it over her head, out of the water. She leaps, flipping gracefully out of the way as the tentacles reach for her, but Obi-Wan and Ryoke are snatched off their feet.

Enthea swings her lightsaber, severing the tentacles reaching for her as more of them wrap themselves around Obi-Wan and Ryoke, their arms, their legs—all of them. The tentacles are green, slimy, and lightning-fast. Obi-Wan and Ryoke instantly have their soaked underwear torn off, but now Enthea’s there. Obi-Wan dropped his lightsaber, and she draws it to her with the ****, activating it. Swinging both sabers, she leaps in, cutting him free, then Ryoke.

The creature shrieks in the dark, but Enthea plunges forward, chopping away the half-dozen tentacles that shoot out of the dark. She spins around, using all her strength to throw both sabers, swinging the **** behind them to send them spinning into the shadows. The blue glow lights up a wriggling mass of limbs, and Enthea guides the sabers straight into it.

It shrieks, and she pulls back. The sabers fly back into her hands as the creature shrinks away.

Behind her, Laki is unarmed, but already lifting Ryoke out of the water in her arms. Enthea tosses the lightsabers into the air and dives into the water to get Obi-Wan out. Awkwardly holding him up, she thrusts out her hands to use the **** to catch the sabers before they can get wet. She flings them ahead, onto the island, slogging toward it with Obi-Wan.

Laki is already there, pulling Ryoke’s nude, wet body onto the stone before bending to help Enthea. Together, they get Obi-Wan out as well. He falls onto the stone, moaning and writhing. Ryoke’s the same way. Laki holds her down, while Enthea does the same for Obi-Wan, trying to see what’s wrong. There are no wounds. All the creature managed to do was strip the two of them of their undergarments. It’s not as though it could have hurt them…

“A toxin,” Laki says, pinning the writhing Ryoke.

“Master!” Enthea says in a panic as Obi-Wan clutches at her. His eyes are closed. He’s not conscious… not really. “What?” she says distractedly to Laki.

“A toxin,” Laki repeats. “It must be absorbed through the skin.” She climbs on top of Ryoke, straddling her to use her weight to hold the Theelin down. She places her hand on Ryoke’s chest, reaching out with the ****. “It’s inside them. Don’t you feel it?”

“I feel tension,” Enthea says, doing the same with Obi-Wan. “It’s growing.”

“It’ll kill them. Their bodies can’t handle this.”

“What do we do?” Enthea looks worriedly over her shoulder, but the underground lake is now quiet. She doesn’t think that she killed that thing; it’s only wounded.

“We have to release it. The priestess said that surrender was the way.”

“Surrender? It would’ve killed us all,” Enthea protests.

“Not that kind of surrender.” Laki looks over at her, water dripping from her hair and face. “Think about it, Enthea. When is the only time that you give up all control? Look at them! Look!” Laki points, and Enthea looks down, her throat getting dry and tight as she sees what the other Jedi is getting at.

Obi-Wan writhes, legs spread. Between his legs, his new… feminine anatomy is bright red and swollen. It’s easy to see how aroused he is because his body’s new; his pussy is smooth, but the lips are puffy. He’s soaked down there, and it’s not because of the wading.

“They’re in heat, Enthea,” Laki says. “You know what we have to do.”