Chapter 73

"Argh, what's with this planet? Why does it keep making me fall of things?" Renn moaned in annoyance.

"Yeah, it does seem to hate you." Ahsoka said from nearby as she looked down at Renn who was lying on the floor.

After the floor to the cave, they were in had collapsed the two of them had fallen helplessly through the unknown for several minutes. Until they crashed down into a tunnel deep bellow where the cave had been.

Renn had come off worse from the fall due to using his own body to try and cushion Ahsoka from any damage, and so he was now lying on the ground in pain while Ahsoka stood next to him in, concerned but otherwise fine.

"The feelings mutual. I'm starting to really despise this stupid ball of ice." Renn muttered and Ashoka giggled.

"Hehe, well I think we're probably close to the temple thanks to that fall so we should be able to get out soon." Ahsoka said happily after she had sure Renn was okay.

Renn had just stood up and was in the process of dusting himself of when a low rumbling sound was heard from behind them.

Renn and Ahsoka turned to look and saw a large ball of ice rolling towards them as the passage began to collapse behind it.

"Ahhh, come on!" Renn sighed in exasperation, "Why does is this planet hate me so much!"

"Less talking more running!" Ahsoka shouted and Renn noticed the jedi youngling had already started sprinting away.

Renn took off after her and it didn't take long before he had caught up to the young jedi and they were running side by side.

The tunnel was much longer than Renn had originally thought, and it wasn't long before he became aware of the fact that Ahsoka was struggling to keep pace with him.

Jedi went through a lot of training from a young age so that they could become strong warriors when they finally passed their trials and became proper jedi.

And they also had the advantage that all force sensitives had, where the force would nourish their body and improve their strength and conditioning.

The stronger a force sensitives connection to the force, the stronger the advantage they would get. With a force sensitive who had never received any training in the use of the force receiving only a slight improvement in reflexes over normal humanoids, and a Jedi master or a Sith lord being almost superhuman when compared to an ordinary person.

This however wasn't helping Ashoka much and as the run got longer and longer Renn could hear her struggling more and more.

The ball of ice was gaining speed and the rumbling sounds were getting louder and closer as were the sounds of the tunnel collapsing behind it.

But Renn could her Ahsoka's laboured breathing over the sounds of destruction and he started to worry about what to do.

He wasn't going to abandon the girl, but he knew that he would need to move faster, and he wasn't sure she would be able to keep up.

Renn's decision about what to do was made for him though as he heard a small yelp from beside him and the sound of Ahsoka stumbling.

Ahsoka's exhaustion, and a particularly slippy part of the tunnel, had led to her losing her footing and twisting her ankle.

This might have proved a fatal accident if Ahsoka had been trying to escape from the ball of ice alone, but Renn merely slowed momentarily and scooped Ahsoka up into his arms and then accelerated away.

Renn ran faster than he thought possible and sweat began to coat his body despite the cold.

He ran carrying Ahsoka for minutes, or maybe hours he wasn't sure, and was beginning to put some distance between him and the rolling destruction when he noticed a small side tunnel up ahead.

Renn darted into the side tunnel but kept running. He could still hear the larger tunnel collapsing behind him and didn't want to risk being buried alive in the side tunnel if it were to collapse.

He sprinted out of the side tunnel into another large tunnel and moments later a loud crash sounded, and the side tunnel imploded sending a great cloud of ice and cold air exploding into the large tunnel that Renn and Ahsoka were now in.

Renn slowed to a stop and began sucking in great lungfuls of air as he tried to catch his breath.

"Woah, that was intense," Ahsoka said, still held in Renn's arms, and Renn just nodded.

"Hey, I know where we are!" Ahsoka exclaimed excitedly as she looked around, "The entrance to the temple is just down there," she said pointing further up the tunnel ahead of them.

Renn followed her finger and began walking towards the caves exit without stopping to put Ahsoka down, despite her giving a few half-hearted protests about being able to walk herself.

They turned a corner, and both swore in unison as they looked up ahead.

"You know I think I agree with you," Ahsoka muttered sourly as she looked ahead. "This planet does hate you."

"Yup," Renn agreed and sighed in exhaustion.

They had finally made it to the caves entrance.

But the passage was frozen shut.

-

Yoda watched grimly as the ice door to the caves finished freezing, sealing the missing youngling in the icy cave system.

He heard a pained shout of despair from nearby and didn't need to look to know it was Scout.

The girl had begun to get more and more insistent about going back into the caves to look for her friend as time went on and Ahsoka had still not returned.

Yoda trusted that the force would guide the youngling out of the caves safely, like it did every year.

Nothing had ever gone seriously wrong in any of the gatherings since they had started to be held on Ilum and Yoda didn't see why anything would go wrong now.

The force would protect the youngling, even if the loud crashing sounds coming from the caves was a bit of a cause for concern.

One thing was for sure though, a jedi youngling whose connection to the force was barley there like Scout wouldn't be able to do much other than put herself in danger if she went into the caves. Despite how insistent the girl was about saving her friend.

It had gotten to the point that Yoda had to ask the padawan assisting in monitoring the gathering to restrain the youngling to prevent her from rushing back into the caves.

Yoda had been so sure that the force would sole the problem that he hadn't felt the need to take any action, right up until the passage had completely sealed itself shut.

And now he was silently panicking inside his head. Things might have gone wrong and now he might inadvertently be responsible for the death of a promising youngling.

The council would probably be furious and even though he knew that the entire council held him in deep reverence they might begin to think about replacing him as grandmaster.

The death of one youngling due to his inaction probably wouldn't be enough to for the council to be forced to replace him but it could start to bring doubt about his leadership.

Yoda had been the grandmaster of the jedi order for hundreds of years, since the beginning of the high republic era, and he didn't want that to end any time soon.

Maybe he should have sent the padawan into the caves to look for Ahsoka… or maybe he should have gone himself. In hindsight he probably should have done things differently, but it was too late now.

"Master Yoda… what do you want to do now?" The padawan who had accompanied the younglings said uncertainly.

The padawan had abandoned trying to restrain Scout and now the youngling was sobbing quietly on her knees while the other younglings stared at either the ice door or Yoda himself in shock.

Yoda knew that the padawan and the younglings were looking to him to know what to do and knew he probably should do something to try and rescue the youngling.

Ahsoka might still be alive, and the ice door would be easy to break for someone as powerful as him, but he was still to shocked about the force not protecting the youngling on its own.

He was just about to give the padawan some instructions when he thought he noticed movement behind the ice door.

Yoda peered closer and then he saw it again, a flicker of movement, as though there was a person on the other side.

He realised it must be Ahsoka and relief flooded through him. The force had protected her after all and soon she would be back safe.

The figure on the other side of the ice then moved back away and into the passage behind it, but Yoda wasn't worried.

Ahsoka was probably just trying to work out how to break down the door and rejoin them, there was no cause for alarm.

Yoda knew that despite it just being a mass of frozen water the door might be a bit too much for a youngling to break through and so thought that he should send the padawan forward to help her.

He was just about to ask the padawan to cut through the ice door when a sense of danger suddenly filled him.

Yoda braced himself just as a large section of the ice door exploded outwards with a deafening roar.

The jedi grandmaster began to panic.

There was no way Ahsoka was capable of causing such an explosion and Yoda began to worry that someone else was in the caves.

Yoda instantly became wary of any potential threats and stood defensively in front of the younglings, ready to ignite his lightsabre to protect them.

He tensed as he saw a figure move through the misty, ice dust filled air. As the figure approached, he switched from a state of wariness to a state of shock.

In stead of some dangerous intruder what emerged from the explosion was a very familiar looking boy carrying his wayward youngling.

"AHSOKA!!" a shout almost as loud as the explosion pierced the silence that had settled on the Ilum temple, and the small form of Scout blurred into motion as she sprinted towards her friend.