Chapter 4: Visions of Earthquakes and Death

"Ow! Why can't we activate a lightsaber so we can see?" Ezra grumbled as he stumped his toe on a rock for the 18th time. It was pitch black, no light at all. The padawan had been following his master, who hadn't made a single noise of distress.

"Would you be quiet! Do you want to alert someone to our location?" His master's voice did not carry above a whisper, but he was getting frustrated and snippy.

"How can I? I keep tripping over sharp rocks. Why aren't you having any problems?" The kid half whined, half argued. He was pretty sure his toes were bleeding and he had several new bruises forming on his legs and shoulder.

"Because my eyes are shut and I'm using the force to see. You don't have to have your eyes. If you would just focus and concentrate, you would be able to see just as easily. It's not that hard." If Ezra could see Kanan's face, he would see pure annoyance. The student could feel his emotions though. Kanan hadn't been like this since the incident several weeks ago.

"Oh…yeah..I forgot..sorry.." The boy said sheepishly. The words stung slightly, he wondered if it was the atmosphere causing his master to become so irate.

Ezra, determined to not make another noise shut his eyes and concentrated how he had been taught. Within moments he could see outlines of walls, rocks and his master. He quickened his pace to catch up.

Kanan sighed. He didn't know what had come over him, but he needed to fix it.

"Sorry Kid…I keep forgetting that you didn't grow up in the Jedi temple like I did. These things still don't come naturally to you. They will in time with practice, but until then, it's my responsibility to teach you to succeed instead of yelling at you for failure." The Jedi's apology was very sincere. He felt bad that he snapped.

"It's okay." Ezra brightened up a bit again, continuing to follow his master.

The tunnel they were in was so narrow that they two couldn't walk side-by-side, and the taller man was just barely able to clear the ceiling sometimes having to duck down to avoid missing rock. It was obvious this mine hadn't been used in a long time because of the layers of dust and the absence of equipment.

They continued to walk in silence, looking for any sign of what they were looking for. The two had already been walking for about half an hour at a fairly deep slope downwards. Ezra shivered. He didn't feel anything, but the temperature of the cave dropping as they continued to descend the shaft.

They continued to walk another half hour before Ezra was brave enough to speak up again.

"Maybe we were wrong Kanan. Maybe they passed overhead or something." Ezra stopped; an all too familiar feeling of dread and cold hit him. He had never been hit this hard before. He fell to his knees trying to make the feeling go away. It was so cold; he felt like death was engulfing him the already dark world began to spin. Ezra could do nothing to stop it.

Kanan heard Ezra's voice change and his whole demeanor reflect darkness. The kid had said something about being cold. He turned just in time to see his padawan hit the ground hard.

The youth groaned softly as he came to. He had hit his head pretty hard and it was throbbing. Where was he? He tried to look around and almost panicked at the darkness if it weren't for his master who had propped him up and was sending calming waves over him. The kid felt embarrassed that he had passed out.

"Are you okay? You said something about being cold, I turned around and you hit the ground. You've been out for five minutes." Ezra didn't have to use his sight to know that his role model was deeply concerned. Kanan was fixing to pick him up and leave when the boy started to wake.

"You…You didn't feel that…I..I felt so cold…and it felt like something was sucking the life out of me. You didn't feel any of it Kanan?" The padawan felt his master shake his head as he helped up his student. Kanan was concerned that Ezra had gotten a concussion, his student was stuttering and fairly wobbly. He was even more concerned that he hadn't felt what Ezra had.

"There's a chamber up ahead that I saw. Let's check it out, if there's nothing there we're going to head back and get that taken care of." He gently touched the side of Ezra's head. Immediately the boy hissed in pain and withdrew from the touch. Ezra gingerly felt around wincing as he got to a warm, sticky, wet patch of hair and a pretty big gash from his fall.

"Let's hope there's no wild beasts down here that want human blood." The Jedi mildly joked as he continued forward. Ezra was quick to follow and stay right behind his mentor.

"Not funny Kanan." He had heard stories about the creatures that could lurk in the old tunnel systems of mines.

"Zeb would think so." There was a small smile to his voice. Ezra was glad Kanan had lightened up a bit, it was the reassurance the teen needed to get his head back into the game.

"Have you tried to contact them?" The teenager was making sure to keep close.

"We're too far under the ground for the communications link to work." Kanan had tried right after Ezra passed out. All he received was static.

Several moments later they entered an enormous chamber with a ceiling that went up at least 200 feet. Ezra wondered how far down they were from the surface. They were on a ledge with a natural walkway leading down a few hundred feet, to a pool of water. Both humans looked around in awe at the majestic formations all around them. The sound of water dripping of the stalactites was soothing to both Jedi.

Kanan stepped forward a few more steps when another vision hit him.

Master and student were running across the chamber to the exit. The cave began to shake, Ezra just barely managed to move before a piece of earth that he had been standing on collapsed and fell several hundred feet down into the watery abyss.

"Karabast, Kanan what do we do now?" Ezra was having a hard time focusing and kept losing the ability to see as clearly. Without the training Kanan had at the temple, the young Jedi couldn't keep his mind open to the force in times of dire stress.

"Just run!" The two started to run for the tunnel they had entered through to find it blocked a little way up the shaft. Kanan unsheathed his lightsaber moved Ezra out of the way of a falling chunk before moving them both back to the chamber. The Jedi grew concerned, he stared at the rock. It had a black mark from the lightsaber hitting it, but remained unscathed.

'What kind of rock is this? Oh this is not good.'

"What do we do?!" His student was panicking having a hard time keeping focused. Kanan was doing all he could to keep them dodging falling formations. His had sheathed his lightsaber as it was currently useless to them. He got them to the other side of the chamber to another tunnel.

"Just breath Ezra and keep focused." The older man wasn't too good at multitasking. He hit his limit with trying to see his surroundings, dodge falling rocks, and remain on the ledge. Trying to calm his student down took him over his limit.

Ezra stopped dead in his tracks backing away slightly from the direction Kanan was heading. He felt fear radiating from his student. He felt darkness.

"Kanan…I feel him…" They heard the unmistakable sound of a lightsaber being activated. There was a flash of red. Ezra screamed in pain. The teenager disappeared into the darkness. Kanan tried but couldn't see his student. All he saw was the red blade in front of him, blocking him from the other tunnel. He unsheathed his lightsaber and got into position.

** Sorry guys XD I just love cliffhangers don't you? They're sooooooooo much fun. If you want me to post the next chapter later tonight just let me know. Otherwise you'll be waiting until tomorrow evening or Friday for it. I'm going to go do some Xmas baking with my mom now :D Hope you enjoyed! ** ~Ocean