Audio reading for Chapters 27-30 available on YouTube:

watch?v=M0_iiEe-mAs

- - - - - Jabba The Hutt's Palace - - - - -

Tess looked down at her new Padawan robes, their off-white color turning tan with the Tatooine sand glowing below her. She had her long, dark hair pulled back into a single braid with a few escaping ringlets around her face. Her left hip was heavy with the weight of her lightsaber.

"That's it, huh?" Tess assumed. She was referring to the large, metal-looking establishment ahead of them. Luke nodded.

"Remember, you say nothing," Luke reminded his Padawan. "Just stand besi—"

"Just stand beside you unless asked to do otherwise," Tess finished. She gave him a look. "I know."

Normally, he would scold her for something like that, but they were both too nervous to continue the conversation. Jabba's Palace was a mere step away.

Luke reached the door first. He stood. Listened. Tess almost said something because he was taking so long to debate going inside or not.

Then suddenly, a small hatch on the door opened. A surveillance droid with a large eyeball at the end of it emerged to look at Tess and Luke.

"Tee chuta hhat yudd!" it snapped.

With a wave of his hand, Luke sent the surveillance droid back into its circular hatch and the large main door began to grind itself upwards. Tess looked at her master, impressed.

"That was easy," she muttered to herself.

Once the doors fully opened, a rather unattractive Twi'lek greeted them. He spoke in a rushed Huttese.

"I must speak with Jabba," Luke told him simply. The Jedi Knight and his young Padawan backed the Twi'lek down the hallway. Tess soon realized that Luke was influencing his thoughts.

Tess and Luke finally found themselves face-to-slug face with a sleeping Jabba the Hutt. His throne room was dark, with shades of rusty brown and metallic silver. It smelled horrible—like a mixture of sweat and alcoholic drinks.

The large brown slug was the most disgusting Hutt that Tess had ever seen. He was nothing but a mass of slimy rolls and flab that could speak. Tess noticed that the human slave dancer chained to the slug had caught eyes with her when—wait, Leia?!

Luke, having seen the princess before Tess, readily placed a calming hand on her shoulder. In taking a deep breath, she also met eyes with a disguised Lando Calrissian. The gambler gave her a friendly wink.

"At last! Master Luke and Mistress Tess have come to rescue me!" the golden Threepio cried out with relief. He had been assigned as Jabba's translator.

His mind under Luke's control, the Twi'lek approached the giant sleeping slug and woke him with Luke's introduction. Jabba's loud arousal woke most of the remaining creatures in the room. Tess looked at Leia worriedly. It seemed like every move Jabba made pulled on the collar around her neck. It looked painful.

"I must be allowed to speak," Luke insisted in response to Jabba's Huttese dismissal. The Twi'lek translated, but the slug must not have liked what he said because he took a giant flabby arm and knocked the assistant down.

Throwing the hood of his cloak off his head and staring intently at the Hutt, Luke stepped forward.

"You will bring Captain Solo and the Wookie to me."

Jabba let out a deep Hutt laugh. Clearly, the mind trick had not worked. Acting on instinct and not on her training, Tess stepped forward.

"We insist that you bring us Han Solo and Chewbacca," she demanded.

The Hutt's face changed for a moment. Luke glared at Tess, but she did not take her eyes off the slug. She didn't know if her master was disappointed for her talking out of turn, or impressed. Tess knew she had Jabba—for a moment. Still, longer than Luke did.

"I'm taking Captain Solo and his friends," the Jedi Knight told Jabba while he was slightly infected with the mind manipulation. "You can either profit by this, or be destroyed. It's your choice, but I warn you not to underestimate my powers."

Jabba interrupted with more Huttese, prompting his guards to advance. Luke used the Force to take a blaster from one of the guards, and Tess did the same to another creature wielding a blaster so she could shoot a Gamorrean who lunged towards Luke's arm.

Only then did Tess see what she and Luke were standing on. It was definitely some sort of trap door, and as soon as she saw it she got a feeling they needed to move. But before she could warn him, the trap door opened, sending them tumbling down into a pit under the floor with Leia screaming after them.

Luke managed to tumble to his feet somehow, but Tess was less agile and found herself covered in sand. She also felt a jab in her side.

"Are you alright?" Luke asked, helping Tess to her feet. She nodded, favoring her injured side and giving a worried Leia a look of reassurance from far below.

"Some sort of remains," Tess pointed out, referring to the culprit of her injury. Luke nodded in agreement, his expression worried. Tess followed his thoughts. Remains from what creature's meal?

As if to answer their question, a large door in front of them creaked open. The bottom of the door was structured in sharp points like teeth, creating the illusion of a giant creature opening his mouth. Inside that mouth was an equally terrifying creature—if not more so. A rancor.

Behind the shadows, two large hands with fingernails as big as Tess were the first to emerge, followed by a slimy, red and brown mass of a humongous monster. He roared at the two invaders, his fingers wide open as if to grab them as his next meal.

The Gamorrean that Tess had shot had also fallen down with them. He became the appetizer for the giant rancor, which easily crushed the plump, green Gamorrean head inside his mouth.

"Luke…?" Tess stammered expectantly. She did not know what was scarier—the rancor, or the fact that Luke did not seem to know what to do.

"What do your instincts tell you?" Luke asked, his calm voice a confusing opposite to his wide, fearful eyes.

"That we're going to die?!" Tess blurted with terror. She looked between the two of them, comparing her white robes to Luke's black. "And since I didn't go all camouflage, looks like I'm the first course."

Luke rushed over to another pile of remains in the corner, where he grabbed a large bone.

"What about your lightsaber?" Tess asked hurriedly, pulling out her own.

"One of them grabbed it from me."

"They wha...?—Then take mine! You're the Jedi Knight!" Tess insisted. Luke pushed it away and stepped back.

"Let the Force flow through you," he instructed with an annoying composure. "You can do this, Tess."

"Bu—but…it's a rancor!"

Tess faced the rancor with the lightsaber in hand, but the doubt was clear on her face.

"You know, now really is not surprise training time," she told him semi-sarcastically. Her hands shook with the weight of the lightsaber. Then, she second-guessed herself and tucked it safely in her robe before grabbing a large bone much like the one Luke had picked.

"What are you doing?" Luke asked, hiding his fear.

"Saving the shiny weapons for the finale," Tess explained simply. "Hey!" she called out to the monster. "Down here! Pretty white lunch, right here! Don't go for the guy in black, he tastes weird."

"Tess…" Luke said hesitantly. Tess ignored him.

"Come here, buddy…" she taunted the rancor. He responded angrily and whipped his large hand in her direction. Suddenly, Tess felt his fingers around her waist and her feet come off the sand.

"Tess!" Luke cried out. "Focus! Go with your instinct—you can do this!" If Tess didn't know any better, she would say Luke was trying to convince himself more than her.

With a knowing certainty of success, as the rancor pulled Tess closer to his mouth, she placed the bone inside, trapping his jaws open.

"Good!" she heard Luke congratulate her from below.

The rancor dropped Tess back to the sandy ground, where she pulled out her lightsaber and stood in front of her ill-armed master.

"That was my idea," Luke mused, partially to himself. Tess smirked.

"Maybe you should shield your thoughts better."

Tess intentionally waited until the rancor's hand was about to grab her again before she ignited the energy of her lightsaber with an electrical hum. With two slices, she amputated three rancor fingers and then its entire wrist.

With that distraction, Luke took the opportunity to run to the other side of the pit and try to pad open a door. To their dismay, there was nothing but unbreakable durasteel bars on the other side. Luke angrily shook them before moving on to a new tactic.

"Tess!" he called. "Let me lure it over here!"

Tess glanced over at him unsurely.

"I can get the second arm in—"

"Just do it!" Luke demanded, as if Tess' successful strike at the rancor's arm was just luck. She finally decided to obey her master and turned off her lightsaber. By backing into a corner, she hid herself enough to allow the rancor to be distracted by Luke.

"Hey!" he called after it, waving his arms. The simple-minded rancor immediately trudged in Luke's direction. "Tess, get on this side of the door!"

Acting on instinct as always, Tess raced in that direction. But rather than slip under the rancor's legs, she Force-jumped onto its back.

Her thoughts just seemed to slip away as adrenaline took over and had her running up the rancor's spine to his neck, where she slashed her lightsaber down deep and hard into the flesh. With athletic grace, she pulled her weapon out and flipped over to Luke's side of the door.

The Jedi Knight stood with a gaping mouth as he watched the rancor's heavy head detach from the neck and fall at his feet. Tess looked up at him with a boastful grin.

"You're welcome."