Chapter Thirteen: "Legendary Evidence"
Obi-Wan now had control of the ship and although he didn't have much experience with space flight, he was doing well. We had agreed to avoid the skies above Knossa, the main city of Ossus, and landed just outside of a dense jungle, where the wastelands began. Unlike some of the planets I'd visited, this less populated area was covered with mountains.
"These are the Eocho mountains," Obi-Wan informed me. "The Temple is about two klicks north of our current position and should be right in front of that range."
I was glad I'd worn my good walking boots. "Then let's head that way," I suggested before glancing down at Obi-Wan's own feet. I recalled he'd previously worn a pair of tall brown boots, although at the time, was wearing nothing but thin, white slippers. Those wouldn't do at all!
"Let me check the wardrobe and see if any of my security left something you could wear."
He didn't argue with me and after a thorough but quick search, I handed him an olive green unisuit as well as a pair of black work boots. He immediately disappeared to change. When he returned, I was amazed that he could apparently wear anything and still look remarkably well.
As soon as we'd left the jungle, the terrain abruptly turned rocky and unstable, and we helped each other out whenever it was required. After an hour's walk, we spied a conical structure rising from a stone embankment. Directly behind it was the most southern Eocho peak which soared high overhead, its summit disappearing into the cloud bank.
Leading up to the structure was a stone path. On each stone were markings of some type that had eroded over time. There were more etchings on what appeared to be a casing, although apparently, there was no door. It looked like there should be one there, but there wasn't.
"How do we get into this thing?" Obi-Wan pondered as he ran his palms around the same area I had just questioned.
I also checked for a hidden latch, an opening in the stone, or a hidden keyhole, but found nothing.
We both looked up at the same time. There were no windows to climb into and no openings of any kind.
"Strange architecture."
"It must've had a purpose," Obi-Wan figured. "I just don't understand what it could possibly be used for if nobody could access it."
"Nobody except Jedi, you mean," I said once the idea had occurred to me.
Obi-Wan looked at me quizzically before studying the narrow dome once more. "So, all I have to do is ask the Force to let us in?"
As far as I could tell, there was no other option. "It's worth a shot, isn't it?"
"All right," Obi-Wan agreed before revealing an expression of focused determination. After a moment, he looked back at me. "Do I just ask it? Or do you think there's a ritual? This is so strange."
"Don't you ever think about the Force?" I asked him. I meditated once in a while just to release some of the stress acquired through my work. "Ever look inside yourself for the source of the power you've been given?"
"In a way," Obi-Wan remarked, "although I have far more questions about it than I'll ever have answers to."
"Don't say that," I encouraged him. "I have the strong suspicion that many of the answers you seek are inside this building, if only we could get in."
Hands on his hips, he displayed newfound confidence. "Very well. Let me try again."
This time, he knelt upon the hard ground and visibly relaxed. I joined him, although there was very little I could do to help.
It took some time, but after a while, I began to hear a scraping sound as if someone were filing against the sand. Not long after that, the part of the wall between the protrusions began to lift. About halfway up, it ceased, displaying a dark void underneath its heavy lower edge.
"That's it!" I told Obi-Wan quietly though with exuberance. "You did it!"
We stood together and excitedly, though anxiously, stepped forward. "Why am I so nervous?" I asked while reaching into my utility belt for a couple of glowsticks, one of which I handed to Obi-Wan.
"Maybe because what lies before us has the potential to affect our future in one way or another."
"True," I agreed, stepping forward into the darkness. Even with the handheld light source, we couldn't see much but the ground directly in front of us.
"There has to be some type of lighting in here," Obi-Wan wondered as we carefully stepped forward.
His voice echoed, which told me there weren't very many obstructions close by and led me to believe that perhaps we were standing in one big room.
"Let me try something," he suggested, reaching for my hand and closing his eyes. While he concentrated, above our heads, at the center of its peak, a stone moved backward inside the roof, which allowed enough light to come streaming down to illuminate everything around us.
We immediately doused the glowlights and observed the interior. Around the perimeter of the structure, lining the walls at least two-thirds the way up were diamond-shaped wooden shelves. Inside each one of the diamonds were scrolls. Around twenty of them. And from what I could tell, there were at least two-hundred shelving units. Each unit had fifteen sections.
Obi-Wan was calculating as well. His lips had been moving as his eyes scanned the area. "There's got to be over six-thousand scrolls in this place!" he said with a good dose of amazement. "How are we ever going to get through them all?"
"One thing's for sure," I commented dryly while removing one of the dusty linen relics. "We're not going to get anywhere by standing around staring at it. We might as well get busy!"
In the center of the floor, directly below the opening was a dark stone medallion with etchings in its middle as well as its circumference. I didn't recognize the language or any of the symbols, though I wish I had. I would love to know what was written on it.
"What do you think that says?" I asked Obi-Wan, who had gathered an armful of scrolls and was trying to find a comfortable place to begin reading them.
"Wait," he said before dropping everything he carried minus one. Quickly, though carefully, he unrolled the decorated linen and scanned it. With an expression revealing utter disappointment, he handed it to me.
I had no idea what the trouble was until I looked at the thing myself. I then lifted my head in disbelief. Why hadn't I thought about this before?
"We can't make sense of any of this, can we?" I admitted, revealing my discouragement as well. "Why didn't I think about bringing a protocol droid along with us? It stands to reason that an ancient civilization wouldn't speak Basic. What an idiot I am!"
"Don't be so hard of yourself," Obi-Wan encouraged me. "I'm the professor here. I should've thought about this possibility a long time ago." He sat down cross-legged on the dirt floor, spread the document across his lap, and pensively scrubbed his short beard. "If I study these images, I may be able to figure out a pattern of the glyphs, although it's going to probably take some time."
I thought hard myself. The inside of this structure was like an oven and I had a feeling it was only going to get stuffier the higher the sun rose. "Why don't we gather all we can and take it back to the ship? At least we'd be comfortable there and can rest if we need to."
"Good idea," Obi-Wan replied before he began stacking as many scrolls together as he could.
I removed the vest I had on and created a type of carrier to hold some myself. Once satisfied we had as many as we could carry, I glanced up through the portal above. "We should start heading back before we lose the daylight," I suggested.
"I'll be right behind you," Obi-Wan said as I carried the precious cargo, only to come to a sudden halt when a being appeared in the doorway just ahead of us. At first, I hadn't noticed him, seeing he was of such small stature. He appeared to be less than a meter tall and was of a species I was not familiar with. His skin was green, his ears were large and stuck straight out from either side of his wrinkled head. His eyes were large though kind, and he seemed harmless. In his hand was a walking stick, and he took a few slow steps forward with its assistance.
"Leave this place, the ancient scrolls may not," he told us in a coarse tone.
I was taken aback and quite speechless while Obi-Wan once again showed his bravery and stepped forward, obviously intrigued by the creature.
"Who are you?"
"The caretaker of all things Jedi, I am," he explained. "For five hundred years, protect this Library I have. Now, know you who I am, who are you?"
He was the caretaker of this place? For that long? Was he serious? Or just insane?
"I'm Obi-Wan Kenobi and this is Senator Padmé Amidala. We've come here looking for the history of the Jedi. I'm sorry, but I didn't catch your name."
The being stretched his wide mouth into a smile and gazed at us both as if he were trying to weigh the truth of what Obi-Wan had just said. Apparently satisfied, he leaned forward onto his stick. "Yoda, my name is. Jedi Master, I am."