Author's Note: Okay, this is Kaisa's first chapter. Huzzah! The author of this chapter, one of my two co-writers, decided that she was going to show us all up by writing a very long and impressive chapter. I guess that's our punishment for not giving her a chapter until Chapter 7.

Chapter 7 Written by Kaisa Enara

One thing about Hoth became transparently clear to me the moment I stepped off the ship: it was cold. Really cold. So cold that, even with my layers of warm clothing, I felt like an ice cube.

Of course, I'd already known that Hoth was a wintry planet. I'd read all about it in the Temple library. But let me tell you, reading about cold and feeling cold are two totally different things.

Not only was I freezing, but I also felt incredible stupid. As it was my first real mission, I guess that this was normal, and I figured that Kiami and Tian felt the same.

But my problem ran deeper than that. You see, Tian was from Yavin 9. Master Bant was from Mon Calamari. Kiami was from Phoenixia. Anakin was from Tatooine. All of them, Master Kenobi included (I just don't know where he's originally from) had been away from their home planets at least once.

On the other hand, I had lived on Coruscant all my life, even before I became a Jedi trainee. This mission was my first away from home, and I was a little nervous. "A little" really meaning "extremely".

So, as I stepped off the ship onto the frigid planet of Hoth, I prayed that I wouldn't do anything stupid. Then, instinctively, I began fiddling with the bracelet I wore on my right wrist. It was an idiosyncrasy of my, I did so whenever I got nervous or worried.

I'd had my bracelet since before I could remember. My most prized possession, it wasn't especially ornate: a simple gold band, with a small gold bead on either side of a round green gem. I continued to toy with it as I started out a wide expanse of snow.

"Kaisa! Anyone home in there?" Tian asked, snapping me back to reality. "Time to go."

I looked up. Filling up most of my vision was Tian, waving a hand in front of my face. Leaning to one side so as to see around her, I saw Master Bant waiting for us atop a tauntaun. Five more of the beasts trailed behind her.

We arrived at the capital without incident. Well, without much incident, anyway; there was Anakin's and Kiami's fistfight, Kiami's little afraid of heights episode, Kiami and Master Kenobi falling off their tauntaun, and Tian's snowball fight.

So we finally got to the capital and met the mayor, Janise Istran, who was paranoid nearly to the point of being a raving lunatic.

Now, there's this bad habit that I have: thinking out loud (it comes from spending half my free time alone in my chambers with a book and inevitably needing some background noise). It's gotten me into trouble in the Temple on quite a few occasions, especially when it came to my thoughts about certain teachers. And so, just as I was about to tell Istran that he needed some therapy, thankfully, a wampa broke free and decided to try and take out a major power coupling.

Kiami, Tian, Masters Bant and Obi-Wan, and I (Mayor Istran obviously didn't want to get his hands dirty) rushed to stop the creature. The Masters ignited their lightsabers, and the rest of us drew our blasters.

I took aim at the wampa, realized I should probably set my blaster to stun, did so, aimed again, and prepared to fire.

A flash of movement some distance behind me and to my left caught my attention. I turned and squinted, just barely glimpsing a figure camouflaged in white moving away from the broken cage that had formerly held the wampa.

"Master Kenobi!" I shouted to the person nearest to me, pointing. "Over there! That's the guy that did this!"

He looked. Now our white-clad friend was in a snowspeeder (also white), and hauling away for all he was worth. Master Kenobi was quick to act; he leaped into another snowspeeder and took off after the culprit. But before he could begin his pursuit, Kiami, in some brief moment of insanity or something, jumped on behind him. Before anyone could object, they were shrinking into the distance.

Then, suddenly, Bant found herself being charged by the wampa. Tian shot, stunning the thing and giving the Jedi Master time to kick the wampa and knock it out. Some guards came along to transport the wampa to its new home, a cage with a reinforced lock.

Of course, the guards show up after we got the wampa, I thought. How very convenient.

We all put our weapons away and headed back to the mayor's building. As we did, the wind picked up and blew the snow around us in torrents. The blizzard had come out of nowhere.

"Hurry!" Master Bant shouted over the wind. "Snowstorms on Hoth are very dangerous!"

We fought against the wind and snow for what seemed like an hour, but we finally got inside.

Istran welcomed us warmly. "Many thanks, Jedi. The coupling that the wampa was heading for is a power source for over half of the capital. Thank you all," he said, sounding normal. But, alas, it was soon back to psycho mode. "Any clues as to the party behind all this?!"

"Not much to go on, but two of us are following him now," Bant explained.

"Good," Istran said. "Please wait here while I have some rooms prepared for you." He left the room.

The four of us sat there, staring out the window and not seeing anything but driving snow.

"This is bad," Bant murmured. "By the looks of it, this won't let up for days."

"Days!" I yelped. "But Kiami and Obi-Wan are out there! We've got to do something!" I was unintentionally tugging at my bracelet again. The thought of my best friend and the Jedi Knight freezing to death out there was unnerving (to put it very, very lightly).

A sharp look and an elbow in the ribs from Tian told me to calm down and control my emotions. "Right, sorry," I muttered.

Then came one of those long, awkward silences where everyone had something to say but thought it wasn't really the right thing to say, and thus kept quiet.

I eventually decided to cut to the chase and read everyone's mind. That ability, like healing, came very easily to me. Besides, silence was driving me insane, and any minute and I'd start talking to myself again.

Tian was basically feeling the same way as me; worried and scared for Kiami and Obi-Wan, but trying to stay under control. I realized that I had just stupidly read my friend's mind, when a glance at her eyes told me all I needed to know. They were a dark grey now, clearly saying that she was afraid.

Bant was still peering through the window at the snow, hoping against hope that her best friend and ours would ride up on their snowspeeder and everything would be fine. It will be alright, she kept telling herself. He'd never put himself and a trainee in so much danger. They're fine…

I turned my attention to Anakin. Of course, he was worried too. But that was pushed nearly to the back of his mind as he fumed. 'I should have gone with Master Kenobi, not her!' he thought angrily. 'He's my master, not Kiami's! She's just trying to help save the day so Master'll get rid of me and take her as his Padawan. Guess being a princess makes her think that she can get away with things like that, but she won't. I hope she freezes to death!'

That was it. There was no way I was gonna let Anakin get away with insulting Kiami like that.

"Look here, Anakin," I said, trying and failing to keep my temper in check. "Don't you dare ever talk about Kiami like that again. EVER." I raised my hand, about to smack the jerk.

Tian was staring at me, her eyes a blue-green now, showing confusion. Bant turned to me and looked quickly at my hand. The force wrapped tightly around it, preventing me from slapping Anakin.

"Rooms have been readied for you, Jedi," Istran said, entering. "If you'll follow me…" he paused, seeing all of us. "Er, is this a bad time?"

"No, Mayor." Bant said coolly. "Trainee Enara was just apologizing." From her tone, I figured that was a hint.

I turned and bowed to her. "I apologize for my behavior, Master Bant. It will not happen again." I turned to Anakin and muttered, "Sorry."

"Well, if that's all, then please follow me," said Istran. He led us down a hall to three rooms. "You two young ladies will be in the far left room. Young man, your room is on the right. Master Jedi, your room is the center one. Sleep well." He turned to leave.

"Wait!" Tian said. "Um, Mayor Istran? Would it be possible for you to send some help to Master Obi-Wan and Kiami? I mean, Master Bant said this blizzard is bad, and they might not be okay."

"Yes, it is bad, very bad," Istran said gravely. "I can't send anyone without putting them in danger. They could die." Seeing the looks on our faces, he added quickly, "But I'm sure that your friends are just fine. They can just use the force to get themselves out of danger. You Jedi can do anything with the force." Tian scowled. I rolled my eyes. Istran left.

The four of us exchanged good-nights and went into our respective rooms. When Tian and I got into ours. I threw my bag into a corner and flopped down onto one of the two sleep-couches. Tian did the same.

"You know what," I said. "That Istran guy isn't just paranoid, he's delusional."

Tian nodded. "You Jedi can do ANYTHING with the Force!" she exclaimed , imitating Istran. She even made her voice sound all high and squeaky like his.

"Exactly! He thinks it's like magic or something," I agreed. "Jeez, that guy is an idiot.

Tian said, "He'd better send help the second this blizzard is over!…Well, night Kaisa."

"Night. May the Force be with you, Tian," I said, switching off the lights. I thought for a moment, then added, "You too, Kiami and Obi-Wan, wherever you guys are. May the Force be with you."

With that, I drifted into an uneasy sleep.