A/N: Thank you to TrimusicaDrag00n90 and dragonbreath88 for being my first follows! I appreciate yall! Watch out for some language here guys.

Chapter 2

Morning came far too early for Kai.

When she woke to the sound of birds in her face, Kai just sat there, trying to figure out why she was tied to a tree in the middle of a forest.

Then she turned her head and she remembered what happened.

Kai winced as she took in the crash site, which looked much worse now in the early light of day. The paint on her fighter was burnt off, the metal scorched pitch black. Kai's wince deepened when she turned her attention to the trail of carnage left. There was a massive gouge in the dirt where her starfighter had cleaved a path upon reentry, ending at her fighter. Kai had to unclip herself in order to get a better look of the trees that had been impacted by the crash of the starfighter. A lot of the trees that she could see, and from her view point was a lot, were affected by the crash.

Some were completely knocked over, on their side with the roots exposed.

Others were only broken in half.

Very few within the entry point were still standing with the only damage to them being missing a piece of bark and a couple of branches.

"Eeeeeeeeee." She muttered as the entire thing hit her. "Maybe no one will notice."

Though deep in her heart she knew that wasn't going to happen.

Kai took a deep breath as she figured she might as well start her 'cleanup'. The first step, she realized with a sigh, was that she had to find an adequate place to hide her fighter and set up a base of operations of sorts.

And that would require her using the Force to move her ship, since there was no kriffing way that she was going to drag it by hand.

Kai sighed heavily as she slid down the tree, landing on the uneven ground. She headed towards the fighter, grabbing the items that she thought she would need and putting them in a pack that she found behind the seat. Kai started to pull all the items that she had stuffed in her cockpit out of boredom and began to sort through them and stuff them back in the bag based on their importance.

Thirty minutes later, Kai had compiled a survival pack that would, hopefully, last her the rest of the day.

It included several packs of ration bars, a canteen that would need filling, a flashlight, a compass and of course, her lightsaber. With an afterthought and a hesitant glance at the cloudy sky, Kai packed a raincoat in with the other items. She sighed as she turned in a random direction and started walking. As she moved further away from the crash site, Kai found herself enjoying the weather and scenery around her. There was a chill in the air but not too overpowering that it made Kai wish for a heavy jacket.

Kai hoped that the winters on this planet weren't too harsh in the region she had crashed in. Otherwise she was screwed beyond all belief.

The teen paused as she came to a clearing, listening for any signs that she wasn't alone. She perked up a bit when she thought she heard what sounded like a babbling stream. Hopefully, it was deep enough that it had a plenty abundance of fish and deep enough that she could swim in it. While her kind was able to live out of water, Kai would love to take a refreshing dip in a pool. It had been far too long since she had done so.

Added bonus that the water would help her wash off all the grime that coated her skin.

Kai lingered in the clearing, taking the time to eat one of the ration bars she had packed. Her eyes watched birds play with each other in midair as she nibbled on her snack that would hopefully hold her over until she could hunt some dinner. After her ration bar was gone, Kai stood and continued her trek.

About midday, Kai had found several suitable places to stash her fighter, one of them being about twenty minutes from a pond that was deep enough for her to swim in. Oh, how her skin tingled at the anticipation of being clean.

Now that she had found and cleared out a suitable place for her starfighter in the cave closer to the pond, her unenviable task now was to move the thing there.

"Not really looking forward to that." She muttered to herself as she started the hike back, following the trails of 'x's that were marked in the trees. Kai growled lowly, barring her teeth a bit as a thought popped into her mind. "God, that thing probably weighs a ton! Uggh."

Kai was more in tuned to the Force than her fellow Padawans, but by not very much. So, as she stared at her fighter, it wasn't too much of a surprise to find her arms tingling in anticipation of being sore and tired. It suddenly hit her that there was no clear route to get ship to the cave. Kai nibbled on her bottom lip, trying to map out a way that would be the easiest way in her mind.

"Fuuuuck me!" she exclaimed. Finally, she exhaled through her nose, calming her mind and centering her soul. "Okay. Let's do this."

Closing her dark eyes, Kai held out her hands and took a deep breath as she reached out with the Force. As expected, there was resistance as the heaviest thing she had lifted with the Force was a Clone Trooper, so her arms trembled as she gestured upwards. Her arms trembled as the torn and burnt metal groaned as it caught the dirt. Kai gritted her teeth as she lifted in an upward motion, the ship barely lifting off the ground.

"GAAAH!"

She dropped the ship out exhaustion. Kai let out string of curses as she plopped down on the ground, the fine sheen of sweat that had accumulated being noticed by the chill in the air. And the ship had only moved maybe less than half an inch.

Kai refrained from cursing, figuring that it would be better to catch her breath. There was a moment where all she could hear was the afternoon sounds of the birds calling their young ones home for supper and her deep breathing.

Then, something came to mind.

Kai wondered if there was a settlement or something near her position. And if there was a settlement, then there were farming tools.

And if there was farming tools, there was probably something she could use to get her ship moved.

Kai grabbed the raincoat and flashlight since it was getting a bit dark. Hopefully, she would be able to get back before she couldn't see anything but that was anyone's guess. Stupidly, she made the decision to leave her lightsaber behind at the temporary encampment because she didn't see the reason to have it. It had been drilled into her head since she could remember that her life depended on her lightsaber and that if she left it behind, then she would die.

She shook her head as she started her trek in a random direction. As suspected, the sky started to darken as night approached. Though her kind could see in the low light, she didn't know the area really well so she used the flashlight to keep herself from tripping over upturned roots.

Kai didn't have to walk very far before she hit what looked like a road lined with a simple fence. The sky was empty of stars as clouds, illuminated by the half moon, started to gather.

Kai huffed in annoyance as she donned the raincoat in preparation of rain, pulling the hood over her head to hide her lekku. "Well, at least I came prepared."

She marked a white 'x' on the nearest fencepost before continuing forward. Her feet ached something awful by the time she came to what looked like a farm. Kai snuck around, keeping to the shadows as she did so. There were three forms that she could see in the distance, putting a couple of animals that she didn't recognize into a barn. Kai kept in the shadows, her eyes squinting as the beasts of burden were shooed into the barn and the figures hobbled off.

The teen moved closer.

"Meeka'l vocial manalu a keefup." One of the figures, his features hidden by the darkness, muttered. Kai's brow furrowed at the language differences. His friend laughed in agreement.

"Tookal mayu, baadu."

The three men all laughed as they went into another building, what Kai suspected was the house. Thunder rolled across the sky as Kai moved towards the barn, licking her lips in anticipation. She pushed the doors with all she had until it opened. Sounds of all kinds greeted her sensory tails.

Sounds of braying, mooing and neighing.

It was almost overwhelming after spending the day in the overwhelmingly quiet forest.

Kai moved forward, spotting the creature that the man had just put in there and approached it. It was large with two large horns that looked like they could do some serious damage. The creature didn't look all that intelligent but Kai knew from experience that even the dumbest creatures could do the most damage. It made known its discomfort as she moved forward, hunched over.

"Easy big boy," She whispered. "Easy. I'm not gonna hurt you."

Mooooo!

Kai could sense the creature's distress so she closed her eyes and reached out, carefully sending out calming waves through the Force. The creature calmed down, eyeing her with those big eyes. When it remained where it was with no danger to Kai's person, the Nautolan jumped into its pen. It lumbered over to her, nuzzling its snout into her chest. Kai giggled.

"Oh, hey there! Ah, you're not so bad. Just like a big puppy!" Kai started to stroke its snout all the way up to its still unnerving big horns. She leaned forward, her dark eyes connecting with the creature's and whispered, "You're gonna help me with something and I promise I'll bring you right back."

She hopped back over the stall door and unlatched it. Kai took hold of the rope that was around the creature's neck, and with all her strength, tugged it in the direction that she had come.

Kai was thankfully for the 'x's that she marked.

Without them, she was sure that she would never find her way back to her hiding spot.

It had started to pour by the time that she arrived at her stuck starfighter. Kai glanced up at the sky with a scowl.

The rain would cause more mud, which would make it more difficult to get her fighter out if she didn't get it out soon.

"Well, at least I've got you bud." She muttered to the brown-furred creature. "I know it might look a hard task to do alone, but I'll help out. I may not look like much, but there's more to me that meets the eye!"

The creature just mooed.

"Alright, alright. No need to get snappy." Kai pulled the creature to the front of the craft. She fumbled for a snag of metal that she could attach the creature to, holding the rope in her other hand. Kai found one with an exclamation of victory. "Ah-ha! Here we go."

She tied the creature to the piece of metal, giving it a tug to make sure that it was secure enough so the creature wouldn't get away. The rain was coming down harder as she tried to make it to the back of the ship, having to employ some of her balance so she didn't slip in the mud.

"Alright!" She called to the creature as though it was a normal being. "Start pulling and I'll push! Give it everything you've got!"

Kai sank almost up to her knees as she tried to get her ship to budge. While the threat of her ship sinking into the mud was viable, it seemed that it helped make her ship a bit easier to move.

But it only moved a couple of inches.

The creature kept pulling while Kai tried to catch her breath. Her raincoat was soaked and, when she glanced up, it was still raining hard.

Not showing any signs of stopping any time in the foreseeable future.

"Okay!" she shouted. "Let's try this again."

A couple of hours later, Kai was wet, cold, muddy, tired and furiously annoyed with her situation.

And it was still raining hard.

The starfighter was out of the deep pit that it had created upon reentry, but it was still quite a way form the cave that she chose.

"You know what? Screw it!" She exclaimed, standing up from where she was sitting in the mud (she figured that she was already muddy enough so it wouldn't hurt to get a bit muddier). "Let's move it to that cave, Bud!"

The creature, which over the course of the hours that they were pulling their starfighter she had taken to call 'Bud', mooed and complied, turning. Kai pushed and pushed and pushed for all she was worth as the starfighter moved inch by inch.

Finally, finally, they got the fighter into the cover of the cave right as the rain stopped and the sky had started to lightened up. Kai collapsed on the dry floor, shivering a bit as she removed her muddy raincoat and wringing out her robes.

"We did it! Whooo!"

The tired creature, where it was plopped down on the ground just as exhausted as her, just watched her with half-lidded eyes.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm tired too."

Kai glanced over at the last few drops of rain as the storm passed. The sky was lightening up, showing the start of another new day. With as much limberness as her exhausted joints could, Kai stood and made her way over to Bud. She sliced the rope that tied it to her ship and slapped its hind. It mooed its displeasure before trotted out of the cave.

Kai watched with sad, tired eyes as she sat down against the wall of the cave, leaning her head back. She listened to the sound of the last bit of rain dying off as she slid her eyes shut.

Maybe a light doze wouldn't hurt….