Malla looked out the back door and down at the ground below. It had been snowing nonstop and the bottom of the tree and ladder leading up to the house were already hidden. There must be a foot of snow already. Looking back up to the dark gray clouds, Malla didn't know about snow, but she'd seen enough rain in her life to know those clouds had no intention of letting up anytime soon. At this rate they would get that full ten feet the forecast had promised.
Maybe knowing her husband was coming home early should've been a relief, if they were only an hour or two away, they should get here before the worst of the snow hit. But for some reason, Malla's mind wasn't anymore at ease knowing this than when she thought Chewbacca wouldn't be home until tomorrow. She just had a bad feeling about this, she couldn't put her paw on it, but she had a feeling that something was wrong. Of course this storm didn't help. It simply didn't snow on Kashyyyk, not like this. There might be an occasional freak storm every hundred years or so, but that resulted in little more than a light dusting, it melted in an hour or two, nothing like this, not a foot of snow, not ten feet of snow. Even wookiees couldn't travel when it was that high, if anything went wrong, Chewbacca and his human could be buried out in it and freeze to death.
From the living room she heard the excited chatter of her cubs as they too watched the snow keep coming down and talked about going back out to play in it. She almost envied their innocence, they had no idea that something so beautiful could be so deadly. For the time being she didn't want them to worry, as a mother she could do enough of that on her own. She hadn't told them what the humans had said, she didn't want them asking why their father wasn't home yet, she was asking herself that enough for all of them. They should've been here by now, with that much of a head start, under any circumstances, unless something was wrong. So many possible scenarios ran through her mind, if they'd been caught by the Imperials, if the ship had been hit by an asteroid or a comet, anything could've gone wrong, anything could've happened.
It took Malla a few seconds to realize the warning klaxon blaring wasn't just in her head, she looked up in alarm and trailed the sound to the living room. An alert pattern was forming on the wall screen. The entire wookiee family gathered around to see what was going on. An Imperial officer came on the screen, standing straight and rigid with his hands behind his back, and told everyone listening, "Attention all viewers, due to suspected Rebel activity in the Mid Rim, the Empire has declared martial law. Blockades are being set up in all sectors, no ships will be permitted to land or take off until further notice."
Malla howled mournfully as she felt her heart drop in her chest. Chewbacca and his human were never going to get here now. She wrapped one massive paw over her mouth as she tried to think. An idea came to her, it was a long shot but it was their only hope. She moved back over to the wall shelf and removed the fake panel concealing the comm system. She dialed up the coordinates for the comm system on Han Solo's ship. Her heart was in her throat as she waited for contact to be made. Several tense seconds passed before the screen went to static, then black. The connection wasn't going through. A boulder was forming in her stomach, maybe the Imperials had already caught them.
They were in the Kashyyyk system now, and just a few miles from touching down on Chewie's home planet.
Han whooped and howled victoriously as they entered Kashyyyk's atmosphere. "I told you we'd make it, have I ever let you down?"
The wookiee navigator grunted in response.
"That was rhetorical," Han replied.
Chewbacca made a small snort.
"Hey look at that," Han said, "those look like snow clouds. Wowie," he added as they came in lower, and lower, "look at that, everything's already white down there, must be a freak storm. Looks like we got here just in time."
Chewie howled as he reached over to the other seat and put a furry hand on Han's shoulder.
"I feel the same way about you, pal," Han told him. "You and your family."
There was a bleep on the radar and Han looked at the screen and saw TIE fighters in the vicinity.
"I've never seen so much Imperial traffic in this system," he said half to himself, "we'd better go around and land on the north side, we'll be safer there."
Chewbacca howled in protest. He wanted to get to his family as soon as they landed.
"So it's a long walk," Han said. "A little exercise never hurt anybody."
There were some things you couldn't explain how you knew them, you just knew them, and Malla just knew the knock on their door was an authoritative one. She looked at her father-in-law and grumbled worriedly.
Itchy waved off her concerns and gestured one long finger around at the cubs and told them what to do. Everybody just be their normal selves. Seldom was such a dangerous statement ever uttered. The kids ran up to their rooms while Itchy hobbled over to the door, leaning on his cane. He slid the door open and he and Malla found themselves face to face with Stormtroopers and uniformed Imperials.
The two wookiees stepped back as the men forced their way into the tree home, along with them there was a black humanoid droid, built similar to the golden one Chewbacca's friends were with, except this one had red tinted photoreceptors giving him a demonic look.
One of the Imperials told his superior, "This home is inhabited by two wookiee males, one wookiee female, and five wookiee children, two girls, three boys."
The Imperial captain smugly walked over to Malla and asked condescendingly, "Where is your husband, and your children?"
Malla howled in response.
The droid's mechanical eyes lit up and he told the captain, "She says her husband is away on business, and her kids are none of your business."
"Is that a fact?" the captain asked with a sardonic sneer. "Where does your husband work?"
Malla folded her large arms against her apron and roared.
"She said he bounces from system to system and sells speeder insurance," the droid answered.
"And where are your children?" the captain repeated. "Surely a good mother wouldn't let her young children out into such...hazardous weather, correct?"
At that moment everybody's attention turned upward as they heard a sudden commotion. The ceiling sounded like it was going to cave in, but it was only the sound of 10 wookie feet stampeding down the stairs as the kids ran down single file playing various musical instruments, Chinook was beating a drum, Nikomi and Izaal were blowing toy horns, Thisny was blowing into a set of mouth pipes and Lumpy had a mallet he was using to beat a handheld chime in a monotonous mind-throbbing rhythm.
Malla gestured towards her cubs and snorted in response.
"She says 'You asked'," the droid translated as he folded his mechanical arms against his plated chest and shifted his weight to one side in a humanoid gesture of attitude.
"KNOCK IT OFF!" the Imperial captain yelled over the noise.
Malla chattered to her kids to find some other way to keep themselves entertained while the grownups talked.
Thisny roared in answer, then turned to his siblings and grumbled something to them.
"He said 'Let's play follow the leader'," the droid told the captain.
Thisny turned to the uniformed man and sharply jabbed him in the stomach with one finger and let out a howling grunt and stormed off.
"He suggested they start with 'Poke the bantha'," the droid said.
"Shut up!" the captain told him, and doubled over as Izaal also poked him in the stomach and repeated the same howling grunt. The three smaller wookiees repeated the same action and let out the same howl before they disappeared into the kitchen.
"Rotten kids," the captain said through gritted teeth as he practically fell on his knees, "I oughta-"
"Captain, if I might," the droid shifted his weight to the other side, "the Empire gave orders to find the Rebels, not waste precious search time harassing the natives."
The captain turned and glared up at the droid and asked him, "How would you like to have your memory chip ripped out?"
"Well that would certainly be unpleasant," the droid said as he folded his arms again. "But I imagine it would pale in comparison to what Lord Darth Vader could do to you if he found out you were shirking your duties and holding up the household searches for personal vengeance, and possibly while doing so allowed the Rebels to escape."
The captain sneered up at Malla and sarcastically commented, "Charming family." He stood back up and told the others, "Search the house."
Malla stood in the middle of the room and tried to remain calm and nonchalant as the Stormtroopers tramped through her house and looked through everything, including all kinds of places nobody could even hide. Her home was going to be destroyed in front of her eyes and she couldn't do anything about it.
From the second floor they heard a howling scream and a few seconds later one of the Stormtroopers fell down the stairs, rolling most of the way, and crashed to the floor with a pronounced skid halfway to the front door.
"What is it?" the captain demanded to know.
He got his answer at a sudden sound underfoot and saw several variegated marbles rolling across the floor.
Malla covered her face with one paw and grumbled sheepishly.
"She says she told her kids to pick up their toys," the droid translated, "apparently they didn't."
Naturally it wouldn't be becoming for the Empire if word got out its Stormtroopers could be overpowered by something as simple as children's toys. The Imperial captain likewise covered his face with a hand and slowly raked the nails of his fingers downward in frustration.
Malla chattered as she took a testing step towards the kitchen, and pointed a huge claw at the captain.
"She says she was just going to make some tea, and would you care for some, captain?" the droid said.
"No thank you," the man answered venomously, "never touch the stuff."
That said, he did follow Malla into the kitchen.
Malla took a giant durasteel teapot off the stove and poured a stein full of boiling water and dropped half a dozen teabags in to let it steep. She sat down at the table and while she waited for her tea to finish, picked up the bowl of cookies and held it out to the captain with an invitational grunt.
"No thanks," he sneered in response as he looked around the kitchen, as if expecting to find the Rebels in there. He came to a door and demanded to know, "What's in here?"
Malla turned to him and snorted. He didn't bother waiting for a translation, he slid the door open and was immediately bonked on the head with a metal bucket. It fell to the floor and made an ear-splitting clang but that was forgotten when the captain was bonked on the head again, this time by an ironing board that unfolded, and once it fell to the floor, something else fell out and this time the captain had bristles and mop strings shoved in his face.
Malla repeated her snort in a louder howling expression.
"The broom closet," the captain translated for himself as he shoved the implements back in, picked the bucket up and tossed it in with a deafening clatter, "I got that." He slid the door shut and looked around as if there might be any other possible hiding spots.
"Captain," another Imperial entered the kitchen, "the Stormtroopers have searched the house, there's nothing here."
"Very well," the captain replied, "we'll continue our search elsewhere." He smiled sardonically at Malla and said with forced cheerfulness, "Have a nice day, madam."
Malla bluntly waved goodbye as she calmly took a sip of her tea. Once she heard the door slide shut and Itchy gave the all-clear, she stood up and wearily headed back into the living room to see what was left of her home.
It honestly went better than she thought, almost nothing was out of place, nothing torn up. Malla howled to her children and reached out to them with one large furry arm and gestured them over to her. The five cubs walked across the living room and gathered around their mother, who put her arms around them and let out a howling sigh of relief that that was over and they were safe.
"Man I've never seen snow like this on this side of the galaxy," Han commented as it continued to pour down on them and the winds picked up and blew relentlessly on his skin. Every breath out of his nose or his mouth became huge white clouds.
Chewbacca howled in agreement, a particularly huge white cloud escaping from his mouth.
"Oh boy will Malla and the kids be surprised to see us," Han said, and added under his breath, "especially like this."
By the time they landed the snow was already two feet tall, for better or worse a lot of it was already hard packed and didn't sink under their feet. However after walking through it a while, Han's boots were already clear full of the stuff and he could hardly even feel his toes. So he found himself riding wookiee-back the rest of the way to the tree house while Chewie made the trip in huge bounding steps. At this rate it shouldn't be too much longer, and Han was glad about that. He'd brought a bag with him from the ship with a change of clothes and a few other things, the bag was weather proof anyway, so at least once they got inside he could get into some dry clothes.
Han was lagged from the flight and found himself resting his head on top of Chewie's from time to time during the walk. This snowstorm really was a blessing for them. Everything was coated in white, everything. Ordinarily the Millennium Falcon would stick out like a sore thumb amongst the trees and grass and dirt, but in a short amount of time it too would be coated in white, and perfectly blend in with the rest of the scenery, then the Imperials would have a hard as hell time trying to find it. Han let out a groggy chuckle as that thought occurred to him.
Malla patted her kids and ordered them to go upstairs and clean their rooms. Lumpy made a chattering whine in response. Hadn't it paid off by them not cleaning them? Malla rumbled that it had, but now that the Imperials were gone there was no need to leave their toys lying around, and in any case that trick wouldn't work twice.
The kids were halfway up the stairs when everybody heard another knock at the door, just as strong, just as authoritative.
Malla's heart was in her throat as she looked to Itchy, who was just as clueless as she was. Itchy grunted for everybody to stand back, he went over to the door, stood beside it, and raised his cane up like a club. The truth was he didn't need it near as much as he let on, it was just a very convenient cover to fool humans. With his free hand, Itchy slid the door open, and came face to face with-
"Itchy!"
The old wookiee let out a shocked howl and dropped his cane on the floor at the sight of Han Solo, covered in snow and freezing with the cold, but he'd recognize that scruffy face anywhere, and immediately behind him-
Malla let out an earsplitting howl at the sight of her husband, alive and well, and finally home!
Chewie howled in response as he laid his eyes upon his wife, who he hadn't seen in so long, and he took two large steps over towards her and the two kissed. The only thing that could ruin such a perfect moment was five rambunctious wookiee cubs running down the stairs and crowding around their father, jumping up and down howling in greeting.
Han slid the door shut and heaved in his first breath that wasn't frozen in the last half hour.
"I bet you folks thought we weren't going to get here tomorrow," Han said as he folded his arms against his chest and shivered. "Well, with this weather we sure wouldn't have...but luckily we got some down time and decided to come early."
Malla stepped away from her husband and moved towards the Corellian with huge open furry arms and howled in gratitude as she hugged the smuggler and jerked him clear off his feet. Han groaned as he felt his spine about to snap, then felt his heels click against the floor and patted Malla on the arm and told her, "It's great to see you too, Malla."
The next thing Han was aware of was five wookiee cubs gathering on either side of him, digging their little claws into his ribs and his hips and his waist as they all looked up at him and chattered.
"You're welcome," he told them as he patted the first two he could reach on their heads. "Hey, you didn't think I wouldn't get your dad home for Life Day, did you? Nothing was going to stand in our way, and now that we're here, nothing's going to ruin it."
Outside the snow continued to fall, and continued to accumulate and hide everything in a solid coat of white. The Millennium Falcon was almost completely hidden from the human eye, even the wookiee eye. Yes, it was true, the good thing about a blizzard like this with the snow pouring down mercilessly, it could offer perfect camouflage to an off-white star ship. The bad thing about a blizzard like this with the snow pouring down mercilessly, was that it also provided the same perfect camouflage for the white armored boots trekking through the snow in the same direction as the wookiee and the smuggler had gone, and as fast as the snow was coming out of the sky, in mere moments there wouldn't be any trace of boot prints. This snowfall was the perfect cover for the Stormtroopers who had stuck around to conduct surveillance patrols, and by sheer luck had witnessed the occupants leaving the cargo freighter and heading for the same tree home they had just searched. They had found the Rebels.