Chapter 4

A/N: You've officially made it to chapter four! If you're still here by now, thanks for sticking to the story, even if I sometimes have inconsistent posting habits. Sorry, lol.

Anyways, as usual, thank you for your support. Enjoy the story!

When Ezra had seen the distance from their location to Das'tor on the projector, he hadn't realized how long the trip really was.

The Ghost and her crew had been in hyperspace for an unholy amount of time without stopping. Usually, long trips didn't bother Ezra. In fact, he rarely tired of watching the blue-white swirl of hyperspace, but one eventually ran out of things to do, especially when things were as quiet as they were.

This was his third time in he had gone through all the lightsaber forms Kanan had taught him, and he could have sworn he felt cabin-fever slowly descending upon him.

Ezra was halfway through a stroke when Chopper burst into the room, right into the path of his lightsaber. Desperately, he jerked his arm up, the momentum causing him to stumble.

"Stupid droid!" he shouted, after regaining his balance, "I could've sliced off your rusty metal head!"

Beeping indignantly, Chopper aimed a smack at him. Ezra dodged it smugly, and the astromech let out a disappointed sigh. When it seemed that Chopper was done swinging his arms around, Ezra flopped down on his bed and asked, "alright, what do you need?"

Chopper grumbled at him in binary, and Ezra shot right back off his bed, "thank the Force! I'm ready to get out of here!"

As Ezra walked past, Chopper whacked him and raced off. With a shout of indignance, Ezra pursued the droid, almost running into Kanan, who was exiting his room at that moment.

"Sorry Kanan!" Ezra said, skidding to a stop. "Hera wants us in the bridge. We're almost there!" He shot off again like a blaster bolt until he came to the cockpit.

When the door slid open, Hera spun her seat around to face him and Chopper. Shortly after, Zeb and Kanan joined them. Hera began discussing her plan, but Ezra's eyes gradually drifted to Sabine's empty chair.

In the near two days they had spent navigating through roughly charted space, he had only spoken to her once, mostly because Hera insisted that he shouldn't bother her, and she needed to be resting.

For a long time, the two had sat in her room without a word, avoiding eye contact. Finally, she had said, "I know what you're thinking, and I don't blame you."

"What? I— I knew that!" he had spluttered, face flushing.

Sabine only raised an eyebrow, before breaking out into a fit of giggles. Incredulously, Ezra stared at her. He had never ever heard her giggle before. Sure, a laugh here, or a sarcastic chuckle there, but never a giggle. He didn't think that she was capable of giggling.

"Your face," she wheezed between gasps of breath, "is so funny!" Again, she burst into uncontrollable laughter.

Okay, now that was just weird. Ezra was just wondering if he should do something when Hera entered the room. As her eyes moved from Ezra's perplexed expression, to Sabine, who was now laughing so hard she was crying, she smiled gently.

"Hera?" He asked awkwardly.

The Twi'lek had only chuckled, "alright, that's enough pain meds for you." Then, she had ushered him back out of her room, still smiling.

In a way, Ezra had been relieved that it was only the painkillers. It was rather unnerving. "Giggly" just didn't fit her. Then again, it was another reminder that Sabine had been injured and he hadn't been able to stop it.

"Hey, are you even listening?" Kanan's exasperated voice snapped Ezra out of his thoughts. Turning back to the others, Ezra gave his master an apologetic smile. Kanan sighed and swiveled his chair to face the window.

A few moments later, the blue streaks shortened into stars and a small system appeared before them. The planet was a fair size, but it was uninhabited. It was one of its six moons that they were looking for. As the Ghost skirted around the planet, Das'tor gradually came into view.

Slightly larger than the others, the moon was covered with swathes of brilliant green and yellow, colors more vibrant than anything Ezra had ever seen before. Splotches of white and blue hinted at soaring mountains and wide lakes. He gazed in amazement at the pristine scenery as they entered the atmosphere.

"We're coming up on the coordinates now," Hera announced, bringing the Ghost closer to the tree line. The trees passing below them had all turned shades of yellow, orange, and red, hinting at the approaching winter. Suddenly, the mountainous forest below declined, opening into a large, grassy valley. A meandering river snaked through the middle of the expanse of green. Beside it, Ezra spotted a small village, dwarfed by the distance.

"The townspeople know this land better than anyone," Kanan said. "They might be able to tell us where our 'friend' is." As he finished, Hera slowed the Ghost, bringing her down not far from some fields of crops.

As soon as the ramp came down, Ezra was outside breathing in the scent of the chilly, clean wilderness air. He choked. "What's that smell?" he asked, wrinkling his nose.

Behind him, Zeb grinned, "that's manure." Ezra shouted in surprise and indignance as Zeb grabbed the collar of his shirt, lifting him straight off the ground. "Wanna take a closer look?"

Ezra wriggled and squirmed, but the Lasat's grip didn't budge. As he brought him closer to the rows of crops, the smell became steadily worse, and Ezra tried to keep himself from gagging. When they were directly in front of a lumpy, brown pile of the stuff, Zeb dropped him and pushed his head closer and closer to it. "Y'know what that is?" he asked, a triumphant grin on his face.

Ezra coughed. "I don't know, but it smells almost as bad as you do."

Zeb let out a furious growl, "why you little—"

"Zeb!" someone shouted, and the Lasat instinctively released Ezra, who landed, headfirst into the pile of manure.

"Eww!" he spluttered, wiping off as much of it as he could. He turned around just in time to see Kanan facepalm, then turn on Zeb and begin berating him on his immaturity. Somehow, Ezra managed to wipe off most of the manure. Despite this, that distinct odor hung about him for hours. Boy, was he glad Sabine wasn't there to see, or smell, him now.

The crew, excluding Hera and Chopper, walked the short distance from the Ghost to the town. The well-worn dirt path was lined with tall stalks of some sort of grain. Gently, they swayed in a cool breeze, reminding Ezra vaguely of the grasslands of Lothal. He missed his home world. He missed those vast expanses of yellowed grass, the towering stone spires, the people, the places, the familiarity of it all. What he didn't miss were the Imperials who refused to loosen their grip on his planet, slowly choking the life out of everything.

He sighed. Ezra was aware that the rebellion had bigger problems right now. They were fighting a war that was so much bigger than a single planet. Still, he had the feeling that someday, his planet would be freed. He didn't know when, or how, but he knew he would play an important role in the bigger picture.

Gradually, the dirt road transitioned into cobbled stone under his feet and the fields opened into a collection of buildings that consisted of more stone and thatched roofs. Other than that, they varied in size, shape, and level of disrepair. Ezra thought it was rather charming.

As they walked through the town, he felt the townspeople's gaze following him from every direction. Maybe they're not used to visitors? Regardless, Ezra felt his hand drift down to his lightsaber.

"In there," Kanan said, gesturing to one of the shabby yet charming buildings lining the street. A rusty sign hanging over the door announced that it was the town's canteen. Approaching the modest building, Ezra could hear voices and music coming from inside.

The door slid open squeakily in front of Kanan, attracting the attention of those sitting at tables near the door. Gradually, the voices hushed. Ignoring the sudden interest, Kanan strolled up to the bar and sat down. Zeb and Ezra followed. The chatter and music resumed, but never returned to its initial, carefree volume. Ezra couldn't help but feel uncomfortable with the eyes still watching them. The barkeeper, a Duros, stared at them inquisitively with crimson eyes, and Kanan explained why there were there. As he spoke, the Duros' eyes narrowed,

"Another ship arrived 'bout a day before you. Everyone's talking 'bout it. Settled down jus' over a kilometer t' the north."

"Thank you," Kanan said, and was about to leave when the Duros crossed his arms.

"We don't get many visitors here." Ezra thought he detected a threatening tone in his voice. "Best t' keep it that way."

Without a word on the Duros' comment, Kanan gestured to Ezra and Zeb, who followed him to the door. As they passed back through the building, conversations faded into uncomfortable silence again. Ezra was relieved to be out of there.

Now that they were outside again, Ezra realized it was much later than he thought.

"It's just past midday," said Kanan, looking up into the sky. "I think we still have enough time to find our contact though."

Zeb growled. "Are you sure? I don't wanna get eaten," he said, peering skeptically into the forest.

"It'll be fine."

"Yeah, Zeb–" Ezra elbowed him, grinning– "It'll be fine."

The Lasat only rolled his eyes and pushed him away. "Be quiet."

Although the sun had been high in the sky when they entered the forest half an hour ago, the canopy made the forest itself seem much darker. Wherever it did get through the leaves, the sun cast light that was tinted shades of red or yellow.

While he thought the planet was pretty and all, Ezra was skeptical about the tall trees and thick canopy surrounding him. On Lothal, you could see for miles in every direction. Here, he could barely see more than ten meters. But, as Kanan had said, there was nothing to worry about. At least, not that we know of.

"I don't see any ship," grumbled Zeb sarcastically, gesturing in mock exasperation at the thick forest. "Maybe that Duros tricked us."

Honestly, Ezra had been thinking the same thing. There wasn't enough space among the trees to land any ship, no matter how small, and they hadn't seen or heard a single sign of life other than the native wildlife since they entered the forest.

"He had no reason to lie to us. As he said, this planet has very little contact with anyone else, so he couldn't be selling us out to the Empire." Kanan continued down the path. "Besides, we've barely gone half a mile."

Ezra and Zeb glanced at each other skeptically. Well, Ezra thought, following his master, nothing bad has happened yet, so we might as well try.

The group had marched on for at least another ten minutes when Ezra spotted a wide patch of light ahead. "Look!" He said, pointing up the path. "It gets wider up ahead!"

Quickening their pace, the three approached a large field of verdant grass, spotted with piles of fallen leaves. Sitting peacefully in the middle of the clearing, blanketed in the golden, afternoon sunlight, was a ship unlike anything Ezra had seen before, and had seen his fair share of odd-looking ships in the spaceports of Lothal.

The entire scene was quiet. Not a sound came from inside the ship, although the ramp was down.

"Where are they?" Ezra wondered aloud.

As if answering his question, he heard a rustling in the bushes to one side. The group froze, weapons drawn, prepared for the worst, when a helmeted man in dark armor pushed the branches aside.

Before Ezra could even blink, Kanan lightsaber had buzzed to life. "Ezra! Get out of here!" He yelled, voice filled with fear. He swung his lightsaber at the armored stranger, and the man nimbly dove out of the way. The man shouted something, but Kanan didn't react, lunging again. Beside him, Zeb had dashed behind a tree for cover. For a moment, Ezra stood, feet plastered to the ground, terrified by his master's reaction.

"Go!"

Stumbling back a few steps, Ezra's foot caught on something sticking out of the ground, and he landed heavily on his back, breath knocked out of his chest. As he tried to regain his breath, he paused. Was that… movement? Something shifted in the tree above him, something bigger than any of the wildlife that they had seen.

"Kanan!" He shouted, pointing into the leaves. His master whipped around and looked to where he was pointing. Just before a figure dropped from above, rifle held inches away from Ezra's face.

A/N: Another cliffhanger! Have you figured out that I really love my cliffhangers yet? Muahahaha! ;)

Sorry that this took me longer than usual to finish. I've been pretty busy lately, with life and all. This chapter was mostly just a lot of random junk mixed with me having fun with descriptions.

Also, I know Lothal is a farming planet, so Ezra probably knew what manure smells like. But it's funnier that way. Sorry that my humor is that of a five-year-old boy's. lol.