It was not enough.
He reached for the stars above, into the galaxy that surrounded him.
Into the very heart of the Force.
He felt his entire conscious being lifted into a place that words could never describe. His body was engulfed in flame and then dipped into a vast ocean of ice. He continued to rise, and as he did he felt his mind begin to open. It could not fully encompass what he was experiencing, but he knew he was about to reach a plateau. The most beautiful woman in the galaxy was wrapping him in her arms and pulling him higher and higher.
Something abruptly stopped his ascension.
He heard the rumblings first, the terrible thunder emanating from great stormclouds clearing the horizon. Then came the lightning, unnaturally violet and unerringly vicious. The winds roared with fury and nothing could stand against them.
The great storm tore at the land mercilessly, striking at Drays own heart. The sky that had borne him aloft suddenly released him. Dray found himself falling…
Falling.
A coldness like he had never felt swept over him, chilling his breath even in the temperate clime of Vigils forests.
The storm was coming for him; fueled by fear, rage, hatred. Dray braced himself, but knew there was no hope of surviving the onslaught.
Then came thunder like no other and Dray thought it was the first strike of the dark side storm. The anticipated attack never arrived and Dray realized the jarring sound was not a manifestation of the Force after all.
It was reality…
His eyes snapped open and the trance was lost. The dreadful storm was gone as quickly as it had arrived.
Dray immediately saw the streaking arc of light cutting through the sky; like a falling star only much closer. Whatever the object was it had just entered the atmosphere, burning as bright as any sun.
It seemed to take forever to complete its descent. The flaring object disappeared momentarily behind the tree line and Dray felt the coldness of a metallic craft sheltering three lifeforms. He could feel the vital pulse of each being and for an awful moment, their emotions were also his to experience - fear, hopelessness, despair. A familiar tingle rippled down Drays body as the dark side began to feed…
Suddenly, there was an explosion so great Dray felt it from over a mile away. The ground shook as if wracked by a rampaging herd of angry bantha. Dray lost his footing and rode the rest of the aftershocks flat on his back.
All was silent once more.
Dray was already up and running.
He stumbled through the last few meters of tangled underbrush, nearly landing head-first in the impact trench that stretched across the valley.
Dray followed the track, running parallel to it, and estimated the size of the ship that may have caused the sizable furrow. His heart triphammered inside his chest as he closed in on the unnatural crater that yawned like an open wound.
He skidded to a halt at the lip of the smoldering abyss and surveyed the situation. The vessel was some sort of scout craft; too small to be a freighter and not enough armor or weapons to be a fighter. The ship had split into two large sections and each half was a raging inferno.
Dray slowly descended the dirt mound and moved toward the fiery remains, keeping one arm protectively over his face. He made his way over the minefield of flaming debris to what he guessed was the cockpit. He could see two bodies completely engulfed. For their sake, Dray hoped they died on impact.
As sweat poured off him like rain, he carefully began moving away from the blazing inferno.
He wasnt sure what stopped him… Whether it was a slight tremor in the Force or a faint plaintive cry. Maybe it was neither; just his imagination riled by his failed attempt at a meditative trance.
Whatever the cause, something drew him back to the downed craft. He stepped closer to the other half of the broken ship and peered into the conflagration. Thats when he saw her, a young girl no more than seven years old. Her blond hair was soaked with perspiration, her eyes wild with fear. The girls mouth moved again and again, though Dray couldnt make out what she was saying.
He could get no closer than a few meters because of the raging wall of fire. The girl could not come to him, her right leg was trapped under a large cylindrical power coupler.
“Can you hear me?” Dray called to her.
The girl did not answer him. All of her attention was focused on the cockpit. “Mommy! Daddy!” Tears rolled down her cheeks as she cried out again. “Help me!”
“Im trying,” Dray said under his breath. He waved his arms at her, hoping her eyes would at least track the motion. “Look at me, princess!”
She finally did. The girl was struggling to free her leg, but succeeding only in getting the limb wedged further.
“Listen, dont try to move, okay?”
Time was slipping away quickly, as measured by the metallic groans of the ships superstructure as it tried to hold itself together. It was a futile battle against a relentless foe.