Ahsoka held her torch and walked into the cavern by herself... for two minutes anyway. Myra and Zatt were curious too, so the followed from behind.
It was very dark in the cave, and there was a quiet howl of wind as they went farther in.
That was when the kids came across some big...
Boats!
Ahsoka and her friends approached the ships. They were much bigger than the fishing canoes; they looked the right size for a long-distance and long-time travel.
On the sails, there were depictions of the demigod Quinlan, and of the three equine spirits Fantasia, Dreamira Heart, and Forsythiana.
And then, Ahsoka gasped when she saw a special ship closest to a waterfall.
On its sail, it had a familiar symbol Ahsoka recalled seeing as a small child.
Ahsoka planted her torch in the ground and climbed onto the ship, holding the rope to its sail. She looked at the water in front of her. It felt so right.
The younglings looked at all the boats, and came across one with a big drum on it.
"Bang the drum," said the kids together, remembering Qui-Gon's words.
Ahsoka picked up the drumsticks. She banged one onto the drum, the sound echoing. She banged it again. Another echo.
"Let me try!" Myra said, and Ahsoka gave her the drumsticks.
Myra banged the drumsticks twice, and some torches on the ship lit up as though by magic.
The kids looked up at the sails again, some more drawings appearing more clearly. Depictions of sailboats going across the sea, navigation by the stars. And when they focused on the images hard enough, they saw a vision of their ancestors.
Brave islanders sailing across the sea on their boats.
Ancestral Chief:
Tatou o tagata folau e vala'auina
E le atua o le sami tele e o mai
Ia ava'e le lu'itau e lelei
Tapenapena
Men women, and children rode these ships together, feeling the wind on their faces, and touching the water.
Aue, aue
Nuku I mua
Te manulele e tataki e
Aue, aue
Te fenua, te malie,
Nae ko hakilia mo kaiga e
We read the wind and the sky when the sun is high
We sail the length of the seas on the ocean breeze
At night, we name every star
We know where we are
We know who we are, who we are
The sailors learned to rely on their surroundings to find new places and then to find their way back home
Aue, aue
We set a course to find
A brand new island everywhere we roam
Aue, aue
We keep our island in our mind
And when it's time to find home
We know the way
And over the years, those stories were passed down from generation to generation.
Aue, aue
We are explorers reading every sign
We tell the stories of our elders in a never-ending chain
Aue, aue
Te fenua, te mālie
Nā heko hakilia
We know the way
Until now, apparently.
"We were voyagers." Ahsoka gasped with realization. "We were voyagers!"
The three kids exclaimed that over and over again as they ran back out of the cavern and met Qui-Gon, who smiled when he saw them again.
"Why'd we stop?" Ahsoka asked.
Qui-Gon's smiled suddenly vanished.
"Quinlan Vos." he said. "When he stole from the mother island, darkness fell. Lavadera awoke. Monsters lurked and boats stopped coming back. The three daughters tried to protect everyone, but they were not as powerful as their mother. To protect our people, the ancient chiefs forbid voyaging and now we have forgotten who we are."
"So, we're stuck here as a punishment for something someone else did?!" said Myra. "That's not fair!"
"You are correct, Young Myra." said Qui-Gon, patting Myra's head. "And the darkness has continued to spread, chasing away our fish, draining the life from island after island."
Qui-Gon brought the kids to an edge of the island, where the land was beginning to turn black, killing the trees and plants on it. The kids gasped.
"Our island."
"But, one day..." said Qui-Gon, smiling at the kids. "Someone will journey beyond our reef, find Quinlan and the daughters, deliver them across the great ocean..."
Qui-Gon then placed a familiar emerald stone into the palm of Ahsoka's hand.
"To restore the heart of Lei Reigna."
Ahsoka looked at the stone in her hand, feeling old memories fill her mind and heart.
"I was there that day." said Qui-Gon. "The ocean chose you, Little 'Soka."
The ocean glowed and formed shapes as it did when Ahsoka wasn't much more than a baby.
"I... I thought it was a dream." said Ahsoka.
The water danced and splashed Ahsoka and her friends.
"Nope!" Qui-Gon chuckled.
Everyone looked out at the stars and spotted a constellation in the shape of a hook.
"Our ancestors believed Quinlan lies there at the bottom of his hook." said Qui-Gon. "Follow it, and you will find him."
"But why would it choose me?" Ahsoka asked. "I don't even know how to make it past the reef."
Ahsoka then had an idea.
"But I know who does!"
Ahsoka then ran off.
"Hey, wait for me!" Myra said, running after her friend.
"Don't forget me!" Zatt said, running to catch up with the girls.
Qui-Gon sighed and sat by himself, staring out at the stars.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs were all having a grand meeting with the village over what was happening to their beloved island.
"The crops are turning black!" said one villager.
"What about the fish?" said another.
"This is happening all over the island."
"Please, please, settle down." Plo said.
"What are we going to do?" asked Chief Mundi.
"New fields, we will dig." said Grand Chief Yoda. "Find a way we will to-"
"We can stop the darkness!" Ahsoka exclaimed, running in, holding up the heart of Lei Reigna. "Save our island!"
"There's a cavern of boats!" Myra said.
"Huge canoes!" Zatt said. "Big and strong!"
"We can take them," said Ahsoka. "Find Quinlan and Lei Reigna's daughters, make them restore the heart."
"We were voyagers." said Myra.
"We can voyage again!" Ahsoka finished.
But the Chiefs were silent.
"You told us to help our people!" said Ahsoka as she and her friends were escorted out of the hut by their parents. "This is how we help our people."
Mace grabbed a torch and said, "We should've burned those boats a long time ago!"
"No!" Myra said, grabbing the torch. "Don't do that!"
"We have to find them." said Ahsoka. "We have to restore the heart!"
But Plo took the stone and said, "There is no heart! This is just a rock!"
And he threw it away!
"No!" Ahsoka shouted, going after the stone, managing to find it. But that wasn't the only thing she'd found.
She looked on the ground and spotted a cane that was too tall to be Chief Yoda's or Elder Chief Sinube's.
Ahsoka picked up the cane, when a horn was blown, and the Chiefs were called, a villager shouting,
"Chiefs! It's Chief Qui-Gon!"
The chiefs and the children all rushed as fast as they could to get to the storyteller hut.
There, they found a devastating sight.
Chief Qui-Gon laid down under a special blanket that was only placed over a chief if he or she was dying.
Candles surrounded the old chief. Chief Kenobi had tears falling as the elder chief lay on his death bed.
"Ahsoka... come closer." said Qui-Gon weakly.
Ahsoka got closer to Qui-Gon as he was in his final moments.
As the villagers were talking, wondering what could be done, Qui-Gon took Ahsoka's hands into his own.
"Go..." said Qui-Gon weakly.
"Qui-Gon..." Ahsoka whispered, tears in her eyes. She got closer to Qui-Gon.
"Go." he repeated.
"Not now. I can't."
"You must! The ocean chose you. Follow the fish hook. And when you find Quinlan and the daughters... you say to each of them, 'I am Ahsoka Tano of Manta-Jedi. You will board my boat, sail across the sea, and restore the heart of Lei Reigna."
As he said all that, Qui-Gon removed the locket he wore that had been placed on him when he married his late wife, and he placed the emerald into the locket for safekeeping.
"I can't leave you." Ahsoka cried, her voice breaking as tears fell.
"There is nowhere you could go that I won't be with you." said Qui-Gon, placing a caring hand on Ahsoka's cheek.
Ahsoka sniffled and gently touched her forehead to her surrogate grandfather's before she was dismissed.
Ahsoka looked at the tapestry above Qui-Gon. A picture of Quinlan and the daughters was displayed.
The Togruta princess put the necklace on and adopted a look of determination as she returned to the boats. And she wasn't alone either.
The kids' mothers gave them some food
Ahsoka:
There's a line where the sky meets the sea and it calls me
Myra:
But no one knows, how far it goes
Ahsoka:
All the time wondering where I need to be is behind me
We're on our own, to worlds unknown
Ahsoka:
Every turn we take, every trail we track
Myra:
Is a choice we make, now we can't turn back
Zatt:
From the great unknown where we go alone
All:
Where I long to be
When the kids looked at the water as they got onto their boat, they saw a dolphin made of a beautiful blue light swim by and jump near their boat.
Ahsoka:
See his light up the night in the sea, he calls us
And yes I know that we can go
There's a moon in the sky and the wind is behind us
Soon we'll know
All:
How far we'll go
And off they were, on their way to search for Quinlan Vos and Lei Reigna's three daughters.