Beyond the Rim
Book 1
Chapter 5: The Monster of Riverside
The Ghost crew continued walking through the woods, they've been walking for three day straight, walking, and walking, and walking.
Zeb reached for his canteen and attempted to take a large gulp, only to receive a tiny drop on his tongue. He looked into his canteen to see the interior metal shine. "Karabast…" he muttered
He walked to the back of the speeder. Kanan was walking to a large jug where they stored the water, he turned the tab, to see only a few drops of water fall into his canteen. "Uh guys, I think we've stretched out our water supplies."
Hera walked back to look at the jug, she lifted and tipped it on its side, getting the very last of the water into Zeb's Canteen. "Now it's empty."
At this point, the whole crew stopped to observe the situation. Sabine reached into her own pack and pulled out a few small white round tablets. "Not a problem, I got these water purification tablets, all we got to do is find a good enough water source."
Ezra scratched his chin and looked around, till he saw a large and tall tree. "I bet I can try to see if there is a source if I get up that tree."
Before Hera or Kanan could object, Ezra dropped some of his gear and began to climb up the tree. Hera looked all the way up the tree. "Just be ready to catch him If he falls or takes the express route down."
Kanan chuckled "I don't know, loth-rats are known to land on their feet"
Hera raised an eyebrow. "Don't you mean Loth-cats?"
Ezra made his way above the tree canopy, and looked out at the horizon, he saw the green treetops, he felt as the wind brushed against this hair, he then saw a linear clearing that looked like it carved its way through the forest. Ezra knew that was the sign of a river.
Without hesitation, he jumped down, he felt the leaves and soft branches move and he fell to the forest level, he used the force to slow his descent and landed on the ground, Jedi style.
Kanan nudged Hera; "I told you Loth-rats always landed on their feet."
Hera rolled her eyes and walked over to Ezra. "Did you see anything."
Ezra pointed in the direction he saw the cut. "I saw a long clearing through the forest, I think it's a river."
Hera Smiled; "Lead the way."
Ezra ran in the direction as the other followed behind, pushing the speeders.
The crew emerged from the trees, and saw a river cutting the forest in half, the water looked clean and pure, Ezra ran through the riverbank sand, he learned over and looked at his reflection on the water.
Before the others had a chance to get a glimpse, he began to remove his books and roll up his sleeves, his pant legs, removing his boots, and gloves, and just started to enter the water.
He shivered just a little with the cold water, but got over it, he spooned up some water with his hand, and took a sip. His eyes widened as he tried to process what was in the water.
"Did he just…" Sabine said slightly disgusted.
He turned to the others. "Sabine, you got to save those tablets, the water here is so pure. You guys gotta try this."
Hera and Kanan walked onto the bank, while Sabine and Zeb stayed back. Sabine tugged at Zeb's suit. "How deep do you think that river is?"
Zeb squinted his eyes. "I say it looks about five meters deep."
Sabine almost curled up and shivered. "Yeah, I think I'll stay here…"
She handed Zeb the empty jugs, he began to walk to the others who began drinking some of the water. They almost didn't see Zeb, as he took a sudden splash of cold water from Kanan, meant to be aimed at Hera.
"Oh, Sorry Zeb…" Kanan began to back up waiting for Zeb's reaction.
Zeb snarled as he dropped the jugs in the water, and began to splash Kanan, Ezra was in the blast radius, and he didn't like the wet either.
Sabine and Chopper watched on as the others were getting wet, but something caught their eye in the water, something big was moving from the deeper end, right towards the others.
"Guys! There's something in the water! Get out of there!"
The others turned to see Sabine and Chopper waving, but before they had a chance to look around them, they all felt something wrap around their legs, and began to pull them into the deep.
They began to attempt to free themselves or swim back to shore as whatever grabbed them tried to pull them into the deep.
Sabine was in a panic, she struggled to find a suitable option to rescue her friends, she quickly attempted to remove her boots.
Without hesitation, Chopper went to Zeb's Bo-rifle, and turned on the staff mode, he then rolled as quickly as he could to the waterfront and raised the Bo-rifle above his body.
The crew looked on, as they knew what was going to happen next.
Chopper then thrusted the electrical end into the water, sending a jolt of electricity though the water. The others felt the surge of electricity run through them, but also felt the creature let go of their legs, when Chopper saw the creature recede to the deeper end and swim off, he lifted the Bo-rifle out.
The others managed not to pass out from the sheer power of Zeb's weapon, and make their way to shore. Hera shook her head and rubbed it with her hand. "So that's what it feels like."
Zeb growled at Chopper as he yanked his Bo-rifle away.
Kanan and Ezra were squeezing the water out of their hair. Kanan looked back into the water. "I think we lost our water jugs; we'll have to find a way to…"
His statement was interrupted by the sound of cocking of a weapon, the crew turned, and to their complete surprise, they saw a human.
He was wearing a large hat like old bounty hunters and smugglers use to wear, he looked like he was wearing a button-down shirt, a vest, a long coat, loose grey pants, and carrying a weapon that resembled a dual barrel blaster. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of dark green rounded glasses, but he had a smile on his face as if he knew the size of the bounty the empire had placed on their heads.
He was standing between the Ghost crew, the speeders along with the rest of their weapons. Zeb tried to raise his Bo-rifle but Kanan stopped him from doing so.
Everyone looked to Kanan to see what he would do, and to their complete shock, they saw him raise his hands above his heads.
The others, unable to comprehend how to get out of the situation, gave in to their leader's motions, and surrendered as well.
The ghost crew walked slowly through the woods, pushing their speeders, making sure not to make too quick a movement to make it look like they were trying to escape. The man walked behind them for the majority, until they saw smoke and lights from the tree line. It was a village.
The man slowly parade into the village, the crew looked up and around at the simple wooden structures, no less than two stories tall, they saw some people looking out their windows, or standing out in the street with blaster looking weapons at the ready.
They eventually reached the center of the village, where a small stage was set up, on top of the stage was a man with ginger hair, he was a little larger than most of the villagers, and he looked at them with confusion, he then turned towards the man who brought them in. "What goes Mister Harris?"
The man who escorted them brought his weapon into a rest position and began to talk to the man on the stage. "I almost had that monster, but then these here strangers decided to make themselves bait, the small metal one scared the thing off."
The man on the stage came down, he began to look at each one of the specters, examine their clothing, he looked extra close at Hera and Zeb. He then stood in front of them.
"And where do you hail from strangers?"
The crew looked at each other and then to Kanan who stepped forward.
"My name is Kanan Jarrus, this is my team, Hera, Chopper, Zeb, Sabine, and Ezra. We're from Lothal, another planet far from here, we've come looking for a man named Jon Khan, if you can tell us where he is, we won't bother you any longer."
He looked around; the entire village was confused on what he just said. The man then stood in front of Kanan. "Listen pal, I don't know where this 'Loth-al' is, or This Jon Khan you speak of. But one question will decide if we let you go on your way, or if we'll use you as bait. Do you serve the Empire?"
Kanan's heart sunk deep, he feared that the town might have already been taken over by the empire, he had to choose the right words to defuse the situation, but to his horror, Ezra spoke out.
"No, we're trying to bring down the empire, you have no idea what they will do if they come here!"
Kanan looked at the man and waited for his response. "You fight against the Empire? Do they have any weapons?"
The man named Harris came forward with all their weapons, "I found four odd looking guns, a staple gun, and this flashlight, and I swore this one looked like it threw electricity into the water." Waving the Bo-rifle in the air.
They began to examine the blasters. "I'm not sure if these are Colts', Andersen's', Heck, I think these are those brand new expensive Semi-Auto ones they made up north." He remarked about Sabine's Westar pistols.
He then turned around the Ghost crew. "But you'll be happy to know that those who are against the Empire, are a friend of ours."
They looked around and saw every man with a weapon holstered them or slung them over their shoulders, and those who hid in their homes came out to get a closer look.
Everyone was just trying to take in what the people around them were saying, but Kanan was still focused on that man, and Mister Harris.
"How long do you think before you can properly track it down again? Mister Harris."
He shook his head. "It's going to take another month or so before I find its new den…"
Kanan freed himself from the people who circled around him and joined in on the conversation. "I can't help but hear you're facing a problem with that thing that attacked us back there."
The man turned to Kanan "We are, mister Jarrus, If I recall? My name is Mason, I'm the sheriff and magistrate around here. I've believed you met Mister Harris?"
The two shook hands. "Sorry about the hot reception, Mister Jarrus, just confusion, that's all. Especial with the green and purple one"
Kanan smiled. "Apology accepted, and please, call me Kanan. That thing attacked us while we were taking a break and refilling our water supplies."
Mason shook his head. "At least you had it easy, that monster has been attacking our boats, scaring away the fish, and dragging anyone to a watery grave if they come close enough to the water, we've lost a lot of people these last few months."
Kanan looked down. "You have my condolences. Is there any way we can help you stop that creature?"
Mason raised his eyebrows. "You got any tracking skills? And a weapon stronger than those pistols."
Kanan smiled. "Oh, I got something more powerful than a blaster."
Mason looked at Kanan confused. "I'm sorry, Blaster?"
"Fire!" Yelled Mason.
His command was followed by a volley of thundering slug throwers, the sound of the shots spooked the Ghost crew, when the smoke cleared, they looked down the range to see holes in the paper the local set up.
Mister Harris walked down the range to inspect the holes made in the targets. "Not good, most of you were a few inches off. How's about we give our new friends here a go at it."
He began to set up some new paper. Hera looked at Zeb, "You want to give it a try?"
Zeb smiled as he readied his Bo-rifle. He waited for Mister Harris to finish and return to the rest of the group.
Mister Harris pat Zeb on the back. "Alright my fuzzy friend, take your shot."
Zeb raised his Bo-rife and aimed it right at the paper, he held his breath, and pulled the trigger. The red blaster bolt, followed by its signature blast emanated from the muzzle, the townspeople watched in awe as the bolt flew down range, and disintegrated the paper in fire when it impacted. The crowd was silent as they looked on as the ashes blew in the wind.
Zeb looked up from his rifle sights. "I think I hit it."
Mister Harris turned to Kanan "Where is it you said you people come from again?"
Kanan tried to find a simple way to explain it. "There are other planets out there, some are super far away, like the one we come from, called Lothal. We have a starship further back in the interior. We came looking for a friend of ours before the Empire reached him first."
Mister Harris looked confused. "Why would ol' Emperor Augustus want with your friend?"
Kanan was puzzled by the statement, he took a moment to think. "I think we're talking about two different empires here. The empire we fight against is the Galactic Empire, they got millions of stormtroopers and countless ships, they invade worlds like these and take all they can for their emperor, Palpatine."
Mister Harris raised an eyebrow from behind his glasses. "Oh? Our enemy empire is a tad different, but as for your empire it seems to have the similar idea of size, there looks to be no end to his boys in red, his tanks, his airplanes, his warships, he wants to keep marching east to pacify the islands, then us here. They're led by that Augustus character."
Kanan took a sigh of relief. "I was almost afraid that our empire was here before us, you can't really find a lot of nature from the planets we come from."
Kanan and Mister Harris looked at the sun go down over the river, and just stood there for a bit. Mister Harris broke the silence. "It's getting late, I'll take your folks to a place you can stay, we'll start in the morning."
The two walked to the rest of the crew, to wait off the night with rest after a crazy evening.
The morning came, the crew were sleeping on a cabin floor, wrapped up in their sleeping bags, it was calm and quiet, then all of a sudden, there was the yell of what sounded like a great and terrible monster. "Cock-A-Doodle-Doo!"
The Crew members shot up in shock from the sound of the creature, it took a moment for them to realize it was one of the weird looking birds outside the cabin, they soon began to scan the room around them, but soon, all eyes were transfixed to Sabine, and what she had clutched in her arms.
She began to notice everyone was staring at her, and her handmade stuffed Madalorian Warrior doll. She began to blush fiery red. "I-I can explain!"
Before anyone could crack a joke or even question Sabine about the doll, Mason burst through the door. "TOP O' THE MORNING LADS!"
The others turned to Mason; Ezra rubbed his eyes. "Can we wait five more minutes?"
Mason came towards Ezra and passed his clothes to him. "Mister Harris can't wait that long, or he'll lose the trail"
The crew began to get ready but looked to Sabine to see her put the doll into the box she always takes out to take to her tent in private every night.
Zeb nudged Ezra. "I bet you an entire box a space waffles when we get back if you can get Sabine to have a tea party with you, your loth-cat toy, and her doll."
Sabine yelled out from across the cabin, tossing her sleeping bag at Zeb. "I heard that!"
They walked out to where two rows of men standing by the docks, they filed in and stood in the line. Mister Harris came out of a small river boat in the docks.
He looked at the group and tipped his hat. "Alright, we know where it was last time, if we can find its tracks, we can find its den, if we find its den, we'll find it."
He took out his pistol and spun the cylinder that held the shots and began to walk towards the main gate of the village, everyone began to follow behind.
They came across the place where the Ghost Crew was attacked, they found that the jugs they were carrying with them were still in the river. Mister Harris went over to them and began to inspect the jugs.
Sabine and Kanan waited at the furthest edge near the riverbank. Kanan turned to Sabine. "Did you get a good look at what could have attacked us?"
Sabine shook her head. "It moved too fast, but we know it has multiple limbs or tentacles that grabbed the others."
Kanan pondered. "Do you think it could be a Dianoga?"
Sabine looked towards the water. "Well, it looks like it's deep enough to hide one, but I thought Dianoga's survived in swamps and muck, not fresh water."
Kanan scratched the hair on his chin. "It could be evolved."
Before the conversation could continue, Mister Harris shouted to the others. "I've picked up its trail."
He began to wade through the water, the others followed behind, While Kanan, Sabine, and Chopper followed along from the riverbank.
They walked further down the river; everyone was following Mister Harris till he abruptly stopped near a small growth in the middle of the river.
He attempted to clear some moss and branches, but Ezra slipped his way into the middle of them. "Don't worry, I got this."
Without warning, Ezra pulled his lightsaber from his belt and ignited his blade, Mister Harris took of his glasses to see if he was not seeing the glare of the sun, the rest of the men stood in awe as Ezra sliced the fauna clean in half without resistance, and revealing a small cave.
Mister Harris took the lead again, he pointed his gun all around the cave, everyone was cautious as they entered, the cave was dark, cold, and in the part that raised above the water, was a pile of bones.
Hera headed for the dryer part to look at the bones, she saw that they were completely dry. "Well, it looks like this is where it has lunch."
Mister Harris walked onto the dry part where Hera was and leaned down to feel around. "It looks like it left early, but judging by these bones, it usually eats around two, and eleven."
Zeb's ears lowered. "So what time is it now?"
Mister Harris reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a round dish on a chain, he then clicked a button as it opened up, he looked at two pointers on the device. And turned to Zeb. "it's about One Fifty-Four. It will be back in about six Minutes. Everyone, get on this dry part and form a firing line here."
The men formed the two rows, the first line facing the cave entrance got down on their knees, while the second remained standing, both lines aimed their slug throwers at the entrance.
Kanan, Sabine, and Chopper waited near the outside, when all of a sudden, they heard the squealing of what sounded like a puffer pig. They hid in the bushes on the bank and saw a pink puffer pig looking creature being dragged in the river, with a tentacle wrapped around it.
The three had the stark realization that they might be unprepared to face a Dianoga, they scrambled for their commlinks, Kanan frantically tried to alert Hera. "Hera, get everyone out of there, it's a Dianoga!"
Hera gasped, she looked to the entrance of the cave to see its eye and the main body slowly surfaced inside the cave, before she could alert the others, Mister Harris gave the order. "Fire!"
The sudden sound of thundering from the local's weapons echoed across the cave, and the Dianoga screeched as some of the slugs found their mark. The Dianoga dropped the creature it was about to feast on and began to crawl its way towards the clearing.
Mister Harris looked as more of the creature began to move onto the dry part of the cave. "Reload!"
The men began to pull back and cycle the rounds with the bolt attached to their weapons, and without further order, they began to fire. The Dianoga kept taking round after round, until it got a hold of the leg of one of the men and tossed him to one of the walls, the firing line broke and everyone began to gain distance while still firing.
Ezra ignited his lightsaber and started to charge for the Dianoga but was stopped when its eye looked right at him, Ezra froze in his tracks, and felt one of its tentacles wrap around his feet. The Dianoga began tossing him around the room, knocking over some of men who attempted to get a clear shot.
Zeb carefully aimed his Bo-rifle. "Hold still kid!"
Ezra saw Zeb aiming towards him. "Zeb, no, no, no!"
Zeb pulled the trigger, Ezra closed his eyes as the bolt came closer, but he felt the heat slowly pass by his upper torso, the bolt traveled into one of the arms of the Dianoga. The creature let out a great and terrible roar as it dropped Ezra into the shallow water.
Ezra quickly reignited his lightsaber and stabbed the Dianoga. But one of its arms came and hit Ezra, tossing him into the wall.
Hera looked to Zeb, "It's in the water, do what chopper did!"
Zeb started to grin as he turned his rifle into its staff form. "Everyone out of the water!"
The men began to fall back onto the dry portion of the cave, Zeb ran straight at the Dianoga and tackled it. He began to push it further into the water.
The creature tried to struggle, but Zeb got his grip on his rifle, and plunged it into the water.
Kanan, Chopper, and Sabine saw the purple light emanate from the cave, as they heard two monstrous screams. Kanan got on the commlink. "Hera, what's going on in there?"
There was nothing but silence on the other end.
In the cave, Hera went to Zeb, being mindful of the now smoking Dianoga. Mister Harris was not taking any chances and unloaded his six-shot weapon into the lifeless body of the Dianoga. "Okay, now It's dead."
Hera shook Zeb forward and backwards "Come on Zeb, wake up!"
Zeb grunted quietly and opened his eyes. "Hera?"
Hera smiled, as Zeb finished his sentence. "I never knew those things smelt so good when fried."
Hera began to giggle, and she helped Zeb get back on his feet.
They arrived back in town, carrying the Dianoga for all the townspeople to see, everyone began to stare and cheer of the falling of the beast.
Mason shook Kanan's hand. "You and your friends did mighty fine taking care of that creature, thanks to you guys, this town has nothing to worry about."
Kanan smiled. "It's our duty to help those in need."
Mason looked at the crew and back to Kanan. "Is there anything our community can do for you, you said you were traveling west?"
Kanan nodded his head, Mister Harris pointed towards the docks. "One of the captains there is about to depart for Newport soon. I can convince him to take you along with him, it will be a whole lot faster on boat then on foot."
Kanan looked towards the docks and grinned. "That's very kind of you Mason, we'll take you up on that offer."
Kanan and Zeb finished loading the supplies and speeder bikes onto the boat, but the others we're held up by Sabine blocking the boarding ramp.
Sabine looked down into the water and turned to Hera behind her. "I'm not going!"
Hera scowled at Sabine and started to drag her by the ear. "Hey, Hera! OWCH!"
Ezra and Chopper then boarded, the captain loosed the boat from the dock and began to set the boat off towards the west.
Ezra turned to Zeb. "Hey Zeb, I just want to thank you for saving me back there."
Zeb chuckled and grinned. "Guess you owe me one again." He elbowed Ezra and the two just started chucking, as the boat continued further into the interior of the land.
Going on a hiatus for a bit, Going to Disney World, the Story should pick up in 4 weeks, but there might be a Adventures In Rebellion story coming soon to make up for it. Have a great day!