Hi! Welcome back! I hope y'all have been enjoying this so far! I certainly have been enjoying writing it! This chapter is kinda long, but super important to the story. So, please bear with me lol! Please leave a review or PM me with any comments, questions, or concerns. I love hearing from you guys and knowing what you think! So, here we go! :)
Chapter 3- Ice World
As we fly through space, I continue to check the computers. The database still doesn't show any sign of the planet we're looking for.
"Don't worry Travis." Cinum commands. "Use the Force. You will find it. Don't trust the computer."
I nod and turn the computer off. Taking a deep breath, I clear my mind and reach out in my head. I can't see the planet, but I can feel its massive presence in the emptiness of space. Also, I can sense that the temperature of the air around the ship is plummeting.
"We're getting close." I say and open my eyes.
"You are right. Well done." My master's voice is ringed with pride and I sit up taller.
Before long, I see something rising into view. A planet that looked like a star. It was bright white, likely covered in snow and radiated cold like an open freezer.
I shiver as the planet looms bigger in the distance. It has an unwelcome feel to it, similar to the feeling of the ambassador's mansion. But unlike the mansion, this planet emitted a sense of tragedy and fear. I also could sense something else. Something strange and cold.
"I feel it too." Cinum says and slows the ship down. "We must be cautious. I don't like the look of this planet, or the feel of it."
"Me neither." another shudder runs down my spine, and I can no longer tell if it's just the cold, or something else. Something bigger.
The ship's engine whines in protest as we enter the freezing world. I quickly release some antifreeze into the engine. The metal groans in the extreme cold and we descend towards the snowy landscape. No hangar bays or landing pads greet us, just endless hills and valleys of snow. Cinum flies just over the ground, looking for a civilized place to land. I stare out the window, feeling the nervousness rise in my stomach.
Imagine the different creatures that live on this planet. Wampas and other snow monsters could very well roam these lands. I force myself to clear my head and focus on looking for somewhere to land. As strange as it might seem, the further towards the heart of the planet we flew, the colder it got.
"Something is happening here that is causing the surrounding systems to freeze." Cinum steers towards the colder atmosphere.
I want to groan, but force myself to hold it back. The colder it got, the harsher the sense of danger and tragedy grew. I knew that Cinum felt it because his face slowly grew more and more grim with each passing minute.
Finally, when the ship rounded a large hill, we saw signs of civilization. A large town carved entirely of ice. Big and small buildings line snow-covered streets, and a huge castle sits halfway up a mountaintop.
I stare in wonder at this sight. The palace rises up steeply from the ground. Icy turrets line the walls and huge spikes leap into the white sky. As my initial wonder fades away, I realize that this is where the cold is coming from.
"Cinum." I say in a whisper. Anything louder seems like it might crack the icy village and shatter the castle.
"I feel it too." Cinum says. "Let us land." We bring our ship down on a snowy hilltop and begin to dress in warmer clothes. Despite my hat, scarf, gloves, coat, snow pants, and furry boots, I still feel the penetrating cold in my bones. Cinum opens the door and we step out. Together, we climb carefully down the hillside and into the snowy streets.
I stare at the beautiful, icy buildings that surround us. At the door of one, I peer inside. What I see startles me out of my silence. I let out a cry and rush back to Cinum.
"You have to come and see this." I say urgently and lead him to the house.
Inside of the doorway are a bunch of humans, frozen into ice. Their skin was gray and their mouths open as they pointed swords at each other.
I stare in horror. Every single one of them was dead, I could feel it.
"Civil war." Cinum murmurs. "A civil war that was stopped by ice."
"This can't be just ordinary ice." I say. "This couldn't have happened with regular ice." "You are right." Cinum steps away. "Everyone here has been frozen to death."
I am suddenly scared. I wish I never would have come. No. I force myself to push my doubts away. I must stand strong and avenge the innocent people who were frozen forever in ice. Me and my master move towards the middle of the street to avoid anymore disturbing sightings. We move closer towards the castle which looms high above us. My hand stays close to my lightsaber as we approach. The danger is growing, I can feel it.
A chilly wind nearly blows my hat off my head. I clamp it down with one hand and my other hand fingers my lightsaber handle. The stairs are made of solid, clear, ice. Cinum steps on and steadies himself with the railings. Our boots were made for ice, so climbing isn't too bad. I force myself to not look down as we climb higher. The gate leading inside the castle walls is covered in ice, but I can see the steel wall underneath it.
Cinum knocks on the iron gate and shakes it. I glance up and, to my surprise, see someone.
"Master!" I call and point upwards. The person disappears back inside.
"What?" Cinum looks up.
"There's someone here." I say. I could only see a bit of her. I think it was a girl. All I saw was a blonde head and a blue dress.
Cinum shakes the gate once more before using the force to blast it open. "We have to hurry." Cinum races through the open gates and across the snowy courtyard. I follow close behind.
The castle is warmer than outside, but our breath still fogs in the dim light. Everything glows with a blueish light from the ice covered walls. Silently, we run through the castle till we reach a massive throne room. I gasp. The ice here is different. An evil red light glows from the ice and a throne made from black ice also pulses with a red.
"This is where she came from." I remark as I see the balcony overlooking the village below.
"This way." Cinum takes off and I see it. A dark tunnel glowing red. The red ice must come from the girl, whoever she was. I take off down the dark passageway. The red light grows stronger as we race down the tunnel. I hear footsteps above us.
"She's here." I say.
The tunnel opens up to a huge laboratory made of ice. Everything is frozen solid. I sense another life form and look upward. A slim shape disappears up another set of icy stairs. We give chase again, my lungs burning in the cold. As we reach the top, I see her jump out of a window. Cinum reaches for her but misses and she falls. We stare after her before Cinum says, "Come."
I gape at him as he jumps. I'll never understand him. I hesitate before jumping, the ground seems forever away. Immediately, my head starts to pound and my knees shake. "Just jump." I tell myself. Closing my eyes, I throw myself over the edge. I'm surprised to land in a deep snowbank that hadn't been there before. I shake the confusion away and climb out of the snow.
The girl and Cinum are already halfway up the nearest hill. I take off after them. We needed to catch this girl, whoever she was. I suddenly stop and reach out with the force. I conjure up a spray of snow and throw it at the girl. She hesitates for a moment, which is all Cinum needed to catch up.
I finish running up the hill to find Cinum standing over the girl with his lightsaber drawn. My triumph at catching her is replaced by something else. Pity.
The girl is lying in the snow in nothing but a flimsy, pale blue nightdress and a pair of tattered slippers. She has long blonde hair and icy blue eyes. She must be responsible for this. I draw my green-bladed lightsaber and point it at her. She cowers at the sight of me. "Travis, put the blade away. She can't escape now." I reluctantly withdraw my blade. I feel anger and pity fighting each other in my heart. The poor girl looks terrified, but if she killed all of these people, then she deserved to die.
"Calm yourself." Cinum is staring at me intently. I shake myself out of my anger and sigh.
"Yes master." I whisper.
The Jedi nods and offers a hand to the girl, but she shies away.
"What do you want?" She says quietly, her voice has a slight accent in it. One I can't figure out.
"We want to know what you're doing here, alone." Cinum says.
"With a bunch of frozen bodies." I add. She shrinks back. I can tell that she's undernourished from the sagging of her face and the boniness of her shoulders.
"I didn't do it." She cries suddenly. "Please, just leave me!" She scrambles away to try to escape, but Cinum is there in a moment. He grabs her and pulls her to a standing position.
"Let us go back." He turns to me. "It will be dark soon."
I look at the sky and see that the day is fading. I nod and grab the girl's arm. Cinum does the same, and we lead her back to the castle. We enter and make our way to a small room near the gates.
"Stay here. I'll be right back." Cinum leaves me standing alone with this girl. Her skin feels strangely cold.
"Aren't you freezing?" I ask. She glares at me.
"No. What makes you ask?"
"Uh," I hesitate. "You don't have, like, any clothes on."
"I do." She retorts, looking at her nightdress.
"It's not a lot of clothes." I say and look for Cinum. "What's your name?" I glance at her. If she were healthy, she would have been gorgeous. Her eyes were a beautiful, icy blue and her hair fell in waves past her ribs.
"If you must know," She looks down dejectedly. "It's Nousha."
"I'm," I start but get cut off by Cinum.
"Come, it's safe." I tighten my grip on Nousha's arm and lead her through the courtyard behind Cinum.
"Wait!" She cries and pulls away. Surprised, I almost let go. "We cannot go through the village." She says urgently.
"We must." Cinum turns and walks back to us. "Any other way would take much longer."
"Why are you so scared?" I ask, all of my previous anger replaced completely by pity.
"I didn't do it." She sets her jaw and stares hard at me. "But I saw it happen. I cannot walk back through there." She looks with genuine fear at the main road that leads to our lonely red ship.
"We must." Cinum says and turns away.
"You can't make me." She snarls and pulls away again.
"I can make you." Cinum says, somehow keeping his cool. I was already fed up with her stubbornness. Pity was the only thing that kept me from getting angry.
"No!" She cries. Cinum grabs her arm and pulls her forward.
"No! No!" She screams and pulls away.
"Travis." Cinum commands.
I reach forward and take her other arm. She retaliates and hits me square in the gut. I double over in pain and she fights against Cinum. I stand up, wincing. I see her break out of Cinum's grip and start to run. I grab her quickly and pull her to face me. Her eyes are full of terror and rage.
"Who are you that you can come and take me away against my will?" She snarls.
I stare into her eyes, mesmerized. I shake my head quickly. "Close your eyes."
"What?" She pulls away but I keep a firm grip on her shoulders.
"Close your eyes, and you won't see it. Trust me."
"How can I trust you?" Her voice has lowered, but her tone stays harsh.
I sigh. "It's either that, or we take you by brute force. Your choice." I say quietly, my hands loosening and sliding down her bare arms.
Nousha takes a deep breath and closes her enchanting eyes. I take her hand and begin to lead her back to the village. Cinum watches me lead her and I talk through force.
I say proudly.
He says and his eyes bore into mine. I nod slightly and continue in silence. We reach the ship and I tap her shoulder lightly. Her eyes open, and she gives me the smallest of smiles.
"Now," Cinum says. "Can you stop this bitter cold?"
"What?" She asks, confused.
Cinum sighs, I can sense his patience running low. "The nearby star systems are freezing over because of the intense cold from this planet. Can you stop it?"
Her eyes drop. "Only time will tell." She whispers.
"We are going to take you to Coruscant. There, you can leave this dark planet behind and the star systems can thaw. Sound good?"
"No." She says.
"You are officially the queen of 'no'." Cinum mutters and opens the door to the ship.
"I am not a queen!" She yells at him before dropping her eyes.
"Take her in Travis. I'll start up the engine."
I had never seen Cinum so close to losing his temper. I take her shoulder. "It'll be OK. Trust me." She glares at me and climbs on board. I follow her in and close the door.
Exhaustion pulls at my limbs as I settle Nousha into a passenger seat in the cockpit. "Don't go anywhere." I say and climb into the copilot seat.
"I have nowhere else to go." She murmurs, so quietly I can barely hear her. The engine rumbles to life as Cinum starts up the ship. We slowly rise into the air and blast off into space.
I keep wanting to look behind me at the girl. At some point, I stand up and get her a blanket. I for one am freezing. She accepts it without looking at me and I sit down again.
don't get too close. Cinum tells me.
I look out the window in frustration. I'm not falling for her. I am caring for her like I would anyone else. I didn't know who this mysterious girl was, but I wasn't that weak. I didn't have to worry.
Hope you enjoyed it! Hopefully, I can start updating more often soon! Please let me know what you think! (constructive criticism is welcome!) See ya around!
~Danielle
