Hey guys, it's time for the next chapter! I just finished my last exam so I might have more time to work on the story. I haven't decided if I want to make Cal's POV a regular thing. I might just do it every now and then but feel free to let me know what you think about that. Also, if any of you are artists, I might be interested in making something with Cal and Luna. Please review or comment and tell me what you think of the story! The ones I've gotten so far were awesome to read! Finally, here's the chapter!
Ch. 6: Exploring Zeffo
(Luna's POV)
I woke up a little earlier than I usually did. I bet it was because I went to bed early yesterday. I was just feeling extremely tired out of nowhere. Hopefully Cal doesn't think I wanted to get away from him or something like that. I was exhausted, I swear!
I sat up in the bed and saw the blue rays of hyperspace rushing past my window still. That meant we hadn't reached Zeffo yet. I stretched my arms over my head and felt the bones in my back and shoulders pop. I groaned and got out of bed to take a shower. Greez hasn't knocked on my door so I wonder how long I have in the shower before he does.
"Ouch!"
I accidentally turned the water on the hot setting and flew my hand back as soon as I felt the scorching temperature hit my skin. I clenched my jaw at the showerhead and lowered the temp of the water.
"There we go."
I stepped in the shower and stood in the water for a second, trying to shake the sleep from my eyes. It's better to take a cold shower in the morning because it improves your circulation, which wakes you up faster. However, I just can't bring myself to take a cold shower as soon as I wake up. It's the absolute worst.
Once I finished, I turned off the water and dried my hair. For today, I decided on a messy ponytail. I figured since we'll be exploring Zeffo today, I better not wear it down. As for my outfit, I started looking through all of the clothes I had. I stopped at a poncho and narrowed my eyes.
"Cal, you sneaky bastard," I muttered with a smile. He must have left that in here for me. Well, guess what! I'm not wearing it, Cal! I tossed it to the side and stopped on a set of clothes that seemed right for today. The top was a gray, hooded wrap style top that was sleeveless and the bottom was a matching gray set of capri pants. Then for shoes, I just wore the brown boots I usually wear. The outfit's a style you'll see a lot on Hosnian Prime on women my age. I don't know, I think I look good in it!
Grabbing my lightsaber, along with fingerless gloves, I went to leave my room. I opened the door and my eyes widened at the sight of Greez about to knock on the door.
"Ah-ha, up early this time! Good, then you can wake up the kid. There's no way he woke up early too," he said with a laugh. He walked away from me and I snickered from his little comment about Cal.
"I'll do my best," I remarked. I walked across the hall to Cal's door and gave it a light knock. I heard nothing, not even a groan or complaint. I shook my head and opened the door slightly. Sure enough, he was sprawled out on the bed with a peaceful expression on his face. He looked as if he was having the best dream of his life. Too bad I had to ruin it…
"Cal, wake up," I said quietly, nudging his arm. He breathed in audibly through his nose and his eyes flickered open. I smiled and put my hands on my hips. "Ready to go to Zeffo?"
He slowly smiled back and yawned.
"Yeah, just need to shower up. I should be ready in a few minutes."
"Okay, I'll be in the kitchen," I told him before going out of the room and closing the door. I exited the hallway and Cere and Greez were already in the cockpit. I made my way over to them and leaned my arm on the back of Greez's chair.
"Are we almost to Zeffo?"
"Yeah, we should be leaving hyperspace in a few minutes," he replied. He turned his head at me and clicked his tongue.
"Cal didn't wake up, did he…"
I smiled and took my arm off the chair.
"He's taking a shower right now."
"Really? Wow. You seem to be the only one who can get that kid up the first time. You've got a gift!" He exclaimed in wonder. I explained to him that kindness was the key. After hearing that, he turned back to the cockpit window and muttered something under his breath. Next to me, Cere stopped listening to Imperial comms and turned to me in her chair.
"Go ahead and get a quick snack before we land. You're going to need it," she said. I nodded and went back to the kitchen to eat something. I settled on a nice, warm honey bun. I didn't want something too heavy because I didn't want to get a stomach cramp on the planet. Cal came into the room looking refreshed compared to how he was in the bed. His hair was wet from the shower with most of it brushed back and a tuft of red hair falling over the outer edge of each eye.
"How does your hair look so good even when it's wet?" I asked him. He smirked and grabbed a honey bun as well.
"I wouldn't say good but it's alright. One thing I hate are these bundles of hair that fall over my forehead whenever they get wet. I keep having to brush them back?" He said, doing exactly what he just said.
"I don't know, I kind of like them," I said, resting my chin on my palm. He gave me another smile while brushing the hair back out of his face.
"I think you just like my hair in general," he joked, "I like yours too! It looks great today!"
BD-1 walked in as I was focusing on my ponytail. He jumped on the table and I patted the top of his head.
"Good morning, BD-1, and I got a little lazy today. Instead of a special braid or style, I just put it in a ponytail," I told Cal, not seeing how he thought it looked good. He shrugged and smiled even more.
"Could've fooled me."
"Hey, you two!"
We both turned our heads to the sound of Greez's voice.
"Come take a seat up here! We're about to leave hyperspace!"
Cal and I looked at each other and then quickly ran up to the seats to buckle ourselves in. Don't get me wrong, I love this ship, but I wanted to spread my limbs outside and do some exploring. That's why I was so excited to go on Zeffo. I haven't been to a different planet in five years so it was a bit jarring when Zeffo finally came into view.
The planet looked very stormy, with an epic-looking hurricane taking up a large portion of the surface.
"Pretty bad storm down there...Might not be the best time to land if you ask me," Greez muttered. Cere covered her ear in irritation and a static noise emitted from her headset.
"The wind's also disrupting the comms."
"Hey, Cordova said something about peace in the eye of the storm? Well I can make out a settlement right in the middle of it," Cal said to us.
"Good job, Cal! He must have meant for us to go there," I said, trying to be at least somewhat helpful to the group. I wasn't ship savvy like they seemed to be so all I could really do was hold BD-1 and make sure he felt safe. I'm sure Greez or Cal could teach me some things about piloting or working the cockpit controls.
"If that's what he said, then we have to get there," said Cere, becoming more hopeful of our mission. Greez grumbled like an old man and flicked on a row of switches. The ship immediately increased in speed and we entered the planet's atmosphere.
"It's okay, BD," I told the little guy as I held him tight. The ship became bumpier and bumpier the closer we got to the settlement. Through the storm clouds, the planet revealed itself to us. It was mountainous with a number of lakes flowing through said mountains. Down below, a metal landing could be seen and Greez directed the ship towards it.
"A couple of bumps ain't gonna kill ya, kid," Greez laughed when Cal grabbed the arms of his chair tightly. Cal gave him a look in return and looked back at me and BD-1 to see how we were doing. I was okay but BD-1 kept making panicked beeping noises.
"Tell that thing to keep his opinions to himself!" Greez yelled.
"Well, I happen to agree with him!" I yelled back.
"We'll be fine, you two. We just need to land on that platform," Cere interrupted, making us stop yelling.
"Leave it to me, I got this!" Greez boasted, turning the wheel and causing the ship to go sideways and slide to the metal platform. He lifted up his wheel right before we made contact with the ground and then slowed the ship down until we came to a complete stop.
"See there!? Piece of cake! Greezy money, baby!"
I smiled at Greez and shook my head.
"Mhmm."
"It was a little tricky, but when you've got skill like mine, it's nothing!" he continued. I mean, I don't really have room to argue with him when I can barely drive a ship myself. Because of that, I just patted him on the back and helped increase his ego.
"You did good!"
"About time someone on this ship said it!"
"Okay, well, I'm still having trouble with the comms," Cere said to us, "I'll be in touch when I get a crack on it."
Cal nodded and swung out of his chair.
"In the meantime, Luna and I will look for signs of Cordova. You ready?" he asked me. I smiled and told him I was. I stood up and followed him to the entrance of the ship. We waited for Greez to open the door and were about to leave until Cere walked over to us.
"Wait, before you two leave. I just wanted to say you did good on Bogano. I'm counting on you to do the same here. Any message from Cordova will help us against the Empire," she said, her first sentence coming off in a motherly tone.
"Thank you, Cere. Any idea what we'll be getting into?" I asked her.
"I'm not sure, but Cordova had always been obsessed with ancient civilizations, especially the Zeffo. I would expect something major if he brought us here specifically. You two be careful out there."
"We will," Cal said, "and thanks, Cere."
She nodded her head and went back to the cockpit. Cal looked at me and then motioned for us to exit the ship. I let BD-1 hop on his shoulder as we walked down the ship ramp. The weather was moderate, maybe a bit more on the cold side. I felt a small shiver run through my body at the feeling of the wind on my bare arms. Cal noticed me cringe a bit and I rubbed my arms for a couple of seconds.
"You good?"
"Yes, just kind of windy out here," I replied.
"Really? Because if I need to I can…"
He started taking a poncho out of his bag and I quickly pushed his hand back into it.
"I'm not wearing a poncho."
He laughed and let go of the poncho fabric.
"I think me trying to get you to wear one has gotten old by this point."
I smiled and sashayed past him.
"Nah, you can keep trying. I want to see if you can actually get me to wear one and like it. I'd say...you got a 5-10% chance of that happening so it's not impossible!"
"That's a better chance than I thought I had," he chuckled while looking around. There were three spots of entrance on the platform. On the left was a door, in the middle was a hangar, and on the right was a pathway that led away from the platform. "...Want to start at the door first and then make our way around?"
"Yeah, that sounds good," I said, walking to the metal door. I tried opening it but it was locked from this side. To the hangar it was! We walked inside the large hangar and found most of it to be filled with supplies and crates. There was a door in the back of the hangar but it too was locked.
"BD found another chest over here," I heard Cal say to me a few feet away. I left the door and joined the two of them at the chest. BD-1 jumped inside it and took out what looked like a brown and white striped blanket. Cal tilted his head at it and held one end of it so that the other fell. The remaining part of the blanket fell, revealing a poncho! Are you freaking kidding me!? Whose ponchos are these!?
"You have got to be kidding me…" I said, slapping my forehead with my palm.
"You can't escape the power of the poncho," Cal said with a grin as he slipped it on. "...perfect fit too!"
This poncho was a different type of fabric than the others which is why I thought it was a blanket. It was almost a cowboy-western style if I had to compare it to anything. I hate to admit this but it didn't look too bad.
"Ugh! At least it's better than the other ponchos you own," I conceded with a pout. He flashed me a bright smile and went to exit the hangar.
"Glad you like it! There doesn't seem to be anything else for us in this hangar so we should explore that path now."
I gave the opened chest a glare and then jogged to Cal to catch up with him. We left the hangar and turned left in the direction of the path. The path twisted around a rock with a small waterfall adjacent to it.
"This place is really pretty," I commented. Cal smiled and then frowned.
"Yeah, but that isn't."
He pointed down in front of us and below was the most peculiar thing. It was two rat-looking creatures fighting over the dead body of a stormtrooper. How morbid...My face scrunched up in disgust and I ignited my green lightsaber. Cal seemed almost surprised by my willingness to go ahead and fight these creatures and ignited his own blue lightsaber.
"Well, alright then!" he said with enthusiasm. He broke out into a sprint towards the rats and I followed close behind him. Once below, he killed one of the rats by slicing right through it. As for me, I had missed my first attack because the rat was alert now. The rodent lunged at me faster than expected and I dashed out of the way before it could bite me.
"Geez! They're fast!" I told Cal.
"Not anymore!" he yelled, holding his hand out. The rat suddenly slowed down, which gave me the opportunity to kill it point-blank.
"Thanks, Cal."
He nodded and looked down at the stormtrooper. Blood covered the whiteness of his armor and parts of his body were already eaten off. Yikes…
"The Empire must be here if there are stormtroopers here. What do you think-"
He was cut off by the sound of static coming from the telecom Cere had given us.
"Cal, Luna, can you hear me?"
"Yes," we both answered.
"Anything yet?" she asked.
"Looks like the Empire's found the Zeffo. There's a dead stormtrooper here," Cal told her through the comm. There was a pause before Cere began speaking again.
"I hope they aren't looking for the tombs and that they're just there for other reasons. I just got our comms fixed so I'm going to try to crack into theirs."
With that, she left the transmission.
"I guess we keep going then," I said, looking around for our next path. Next to us was a door and then to the right was a path up. I tried opening the door but it was locked. "...Not that way," I told Cal with a look. He cracked a smile and led the way to the other path. This path had a lot of elevated ledges so we had to jump and climb up them. If we weren't jedi, this would totally be a pain in the ass.
At the top, we saw another rat walking right in the middle of the path. It was blocking our way...
"I'll take him out," Cal whispered before running at the rat. However, before he could slash at it, another rat suddenly jumped from the ground and sent Cal flying into the ground.
"Ah! Shit!" He yelled out, not expecting the second rat. I quickly ran in and killed the rat before it could jump at Cal again. As for the other one, Cal slowed it down with the force and then kicked it off the edge of the platform. With both dead, he rubbed his shoulder and muttered something that I couldn't hear.
"You okay?" I asked worryingly. His eyes widened slightly at me and he nodded his head frantically.
"Y-Yeah! I'm good! Just a bruise I think."
"Well, at least let me look at it," I said to him, carefully touching the fabric of his collar.
"O-Okay."
He didn't shy away from me as I lifted his collar a little and shifted it to the side to look at his bare shoulder. I glanced up at him and he was looking to the side at nothing in particular. I looked back down at his shoulder and could see the spot where the rat had hit him. It was red but there was no bleeding. Luckily, his shirt had protected him from the rat's sharp-looking teeth.
"Looks okay enough not to need a healing stim. But I did bring some of this gel to put on sore muscles and burns. Would you want some?" I asked. He thought for a minute before nodding.
"Yeah, that would be cool. It kind of feels like I got punched really hard there."
"Well, it did knock you off your feet," I said, taking out the medical gel. I squeezed out a bit on my index and middle finger and then rubbed some gently on his shoulder. He made a sigh of relief and I could tell that it was working.
"Thanks, Luna," he said with a smile. I smiled back and put the medicine back in my bag.
"You're welcome! I just hate to see either one of us get hurt."
I closed the bag shut and looked around for BD-1. He had fallen off Cal's shoulder when he got hit. He was just a few feet away from us scanning the dead rat I had killed. Once the scan was over, he made a beep of knowledge, telling us that the rat is called a "scazz". What a dumb name, to be honest.
"I wonder who names these things," I muttered. Cal smirked and picked up BD to get back on his shoulder. We continued on the path which seemed to lead back to where the first locked door was. Sure enough, we jumped to ground level again from the elevated metal road and the door stood there waiting for us. I clicked the lock and the door opened, giving us a nice little shortcut back to the Mantis.
"We can mark that area off our map," Cal said. BD-1, who held our hologrammed map, colored it in a way that symbolized we had gone through it already.
"That's pretty neat BD-1!"
I patted the top of his head and he beeped happily to me. Staring at the map, it showed that we needed to go from the door straight ahead. We walked a few steps forward and saw that a group of stormtroopers were shooting at a scazz rat. They were missing for the most part, of course. Cal glanced at me and lowered the volume of his voice.
"How are you with deflecting blaster shots? I know it's been a long time since you've done it."
"After deflecting one shot, the rest should be easier. Kind of like remembering how to ride a bike after not riding one for a while," I replied. He took his lightsaber out and powered it in front of him.
"Right. Just let me know if you need me to take some pressure off you if for some reason they focus solely on you."
I nodded and powered my own lightsaber. I was feeling a bit nervous because the last time I fought stormtroopers was back when they killed my master. Well, I didn't really fight them back then I just ran away…
"Okay, let's go."
We turned around the corner and the stormtroopers had finally killed the rat. It sat on the ground with multiple blaster burns on it. They saw us coming for them and started shooting.
"Two Jedi! Kill them!"
I held my lightsaber out in front of me and tried to focus on deflecting their shots back at them. The first shot that came at me headed for my arm and I deflected it, but not back at the trooper. My aim was off. Cal deflected a shot at him and it shot straight back into the stormtrooper. The next shot towards me went for my face, which actually was easier to deflect than the one for my arm. I stopped the shot with my lightsaber and tilted it in such a way that it zoomed right back to its shooter.
There we go.
Two stormtroopers remained and they were soon killed by our deflections. I turned my saber off and sighed, looking down at the dead bodies of the troopers.
"What's wrong?" Cal asked me.
I shook my head and sighed again.
"I don't know, I know they've been our enemies for five years but I can't help but remember all of the years that they were on our side. Every time my master had to leave me for a mission or meeting, they would hang out with me and we would play games...I don't know, I'm being stupid."
"No, you're not," he said with a saddened expression on his face, "I get what you mean. They used to be my friends too but we have to forget about all that. It fucking sucks but they're our enemy now," he said.
He was right. I knew deep in my heart that he was but it still hurt to know I used to trust these troopers.
"I know...it just makes me sad."
"Me too…" he whispered, "but...now we have new lives and you have me, BD, Greez, and Cere. We won't hurt you like they did. I know I won't," he finished with a touching smile. I felt my heart flutter at his caring words. It was something I needed to hear after not having any support for so long, which I feel like I've said repeatedly in the past couple of days. I almost teared up with happiness but I kept my cool.
"Thanks for saying that, Cal...I'm giving you a hug for that," I said gleefully, giving him a hug.
"No problem," he chuckled, hugging me back. His body felt sturdy against mine.
"I feel the same way about y'all. I feel like you guys are my chance to actually have a group of people I truly care about. I hope that isn't too deep or personal to say," I said with reddened cheeks. I could see his green eyes brighten up at me as he shook his head.
"No, not at all."
"Okay, good! I'm ready to keep going if you are."
He grinned and we moved past the clone troopers. It's painful to think that they used to be there for us but we need to move on from the past and not let it hinder our future. I think the talk I just had with Cal was helpful in seeing that. It also made me feel more trustful with him just by how genuine his words felt. I'm not sure he knows how important it was to me.
We can't linger on emotions though. We have a mission to do! Cal and I walked up to the hill and saw that it was overlooking an abandoned-looking village. There were packs of stormtroopers spread throughout the village on patrol. They didn't look like they were paying much attention to anything in particular.
"Alright...we're probably going to have to do a lot of fighting here. We should stay close together," the boy whispered next to me.
"I agree. Let's stay cautious."
Continuing on, there was a spinning wheel that led into the abandoned village and we were forced to slow it down with the force. No pun intended. With it slow, we were able to jump on the wheel and then bring down our lightsabers at the storm troopers below.
"What the?!" they yelled before being sliced clean in half. Their bodies fell to the ground and we ran to one of the empty buildings to keep hidden. BD did his usual thing and started scanning a sign on one of the village's doors. The language on the sign was in a different language but he translated it easily for us.
Eviction Notice
In accordance with Imperial Code 94364: Civilians must immediately report to relocation. Looters will be shot. This property now belongs to the Galactic Empire.
I scoffed at the translation and glared at the storm troopers who were patrolling the area up ahead.
"Just like the Empire to steal people's homes and send them to camps," I whispered.
"I know. There's no telling how many families they've destroyed…" Cal whispered back. He looked down at the innocent droid and gave him a small smile.
"BD-1, you stay here and see if you can scan anything else while Luna and I take these troopers out."
The droid didn't even have a reply as he found another thing to scan. He's like a cat sometimes; so curious. I was ready to go again so Cal and I left our hiding spot and ran up the hill in the middle of the village. Scout troopers and regular storm troopers jumped back in shock at the sight of us and didn't have time to react to our surprise attack. We killed all of the troopers on the village grounds, which only left the troopers who were on the roofs of the homes. You would think, with the high vantage point, they would see us but they didn't. We climbed one of the buildings and got their attention. I'm still kind of bad with reflecting blaster bolts but managed to hit them back at the shooters.
"Good job, Luna. I think that's all of them!" Cal exclaimed. He looked around and saw that a door was unlocked next to us. It opened automatically when we stepped towards it and it revealed a lonely metal staircase.
"Let's see what's in here real quick and then get back to BD," I said. We both walked down the stairs carefully, in case there was an enemy here, but the stairs just ended up leading back to the hangar near the ship. I shrugged my shoulders.
"Okay, well now we have another shortcut."
"Yeah," Cal noted, turning back to the village. I followed him and we met back with BD-1 who had a barrage of new information for us. Some of the information included some more notices from the Empire and a new species of plant.
He's pretty much our own little librarian.
We moved on past the village to a cave. As we started walking inside the cave, I realized it was really dark. Like pitch black dark. I took out my lightsaber and the green light lit up the environment. Cal lit up his lightsaber too. With the combination of his blue lightsaber and my green lightsaber, it created a cyan light throughout the cave. Cyan's one of my favorite colors. It's so pretty!
"Seems like this used to be a research lab of some kind?" Cal muttered to me.
"Possibly, but I guess they abandoned it for something bigger. I don't blame them; caves are creepy anyway."
We walked some more through the cave until we found another one of Cordova's messages.
"My friends, in the rotations since I left Bogano I've uncovered more and more information on the Zeffo than I once believed possible. Many but not all of the Zeffo could wield the force. They called it the 'Life Wind'. They referred to those who could wield the force as Sages."
The transmission ended and we kept walking towards the other side of the cave.
"This stuff is really interesting. No wonder Cordova was so invested with it," I said to the redhead beside me. He looked at me as we proceeded to wall run to the other side of a gap in the platform we were standing on.
"I agree, I bet you they were one of the first force users. If I'm wrong, I'll buy you whatever you want at any restaurant you want too."
I grinned and crossed my arms.
"Oh yeah? I'm willing to bet the same thing but what if you're right? Do I have to buy you anything even though I'm thinking the same thing?" I asked.
"Nah, you can just tell me I'm always right. That would do it," he replied in an extremely cheeky fashion. I tapped my chin with my index finger.
"Hmm...I'd rather just buy you something."
"Ha, wow," he said with a small laugh as we finally reached the end of the dark cave. It was a winding path up that overlooked the village. Further up, there was a stormtrooper with a sniper rifle just standing there. AGAIN, what was he doing while we were taking out all of his buddies a few minutes ago!?
I took a step forward as I readied to attack him but a scazz rat jumped out of a hole in the ground and headbutted him off the edge of the cliff. You hate to see it...I sneaked up on the scazz and gently pressed my foot on its back before pushing it off the ledge as well. I watched it fall down the cliff and into a large river below. I know they're our enemy but I hope he can swim. Like I've said before, I don't really like killing them. I wish they wouldn't attack us all the time but that's just wishful thinking on my part.
I sighed and looked forward. My eyes widened at the huge swinging boards. There were two metal boards swinging overhead and it would require us to use the force to slow it down to even cross to the other hillside.
"I got it," Cal said as he slowed the boards down. We ran and jumped on the platform and then the next one before they started swinging at regular speed. We didn't even get time to catch our breath as a freaking mountain goat-looking animal came barreling down the hill. It was faster than it looked too because it managed to headbutt me right in the gut with its strong horns. They weren't spiky so I didn't get stabbed but it still hurt...A lot…
"Ugh!"
I fell to the ground and held my stomach in pain. I heard Cal call my name but it was muffled. He began fighting the goat and BD-1 quickly ran over to me, shooting me a healing stim. I carefully aimed for my abdomen and injected the healing medicine into me. I gasped as the effects of the stim coursed through my injured area. It did the trick though.
I slowly got up just in time to see Cal finish the creature off. He put away his lightsaber and ran over to me.
"You okay!? You're not hurt too bad are you!?"
His face had worry written all over it. I nodded my head and touched his arm.
"Yeah, I'm okay! BD gave me a healing stim so I'm all better now. That really hurt though…" I murmured. He gave me a saddened look and touched my arm in return.
"I'm sorry, Luna. I should've paid more attention and got us both out of the way before it could hit you."
I shook my head.
"No, it's not your fault! I should've been faster in dodging," I said with a lighthearted chuckle. He still looked like he was blaming himself so I rubbed his arm reassuringly. "...Really, Cal. I'm okay."
He sighed and then nodded. I'm glad that he cares about me. I care about him too. Bd-1 decided to break our gazes to each other by giving us the name of the goat that just rammed into my stomach.
"A phillack? Better than a scazz I guess," I said. Cal finally smiled and reverted back to his normal self. Dang, he was really concerned...Then again, so was I when he got hurt by that scazz rat earlier.
We moved past the fallen animal and found a new area. It was extremely wide-open. To the left of us was a magnificent display of waterfalls that flowed water into a never-ending abyss. To the right was another group of stormtroopers just talking to each other. Behind them was what was really interesting. It was like a line of jutting out engines that went in and then out every couple of seconds. You could even hear the sound of metal all the way from where we were.
"All I'm sayin' is that it's not my fault that I miss every time," one of the troopers said. I glanced at Cal and then rolled my eyes. Yeah, for some reason every single stormtrooper has the shittiest aim I've ever seen. Not sure why...Back during the Clone Wars they were great shots!
"Let's take them out."
Cal and I ran forward and sliced through the men easily. One of them actually had a rocket launcher but I slowed down the rocket before it could hit us. I thought we would end up at those weird engine things but it turns out they were a bit farther out than I had expected. Instead, the three of us ended up having to go through more troopers and obstacles like a giant ice slide.
Yes, an ice slide.
"Umm...What do we do about this?" I asked Cal and BD-1. He stood there with his hands on his hips before a huge grin adorned his face. I narrowed my eyes at him and realized what he was thinking. I took a step back and turned away from him.
"Oh no, I don't think so," I said.
"Oh! I beg to differ!"
He jumped on the beginning of the slide and slid down it like a skateboard. My jaw dropped as I watched him weave left and right, having the time of his life. The back of his poncho waved majestically in the wind behind him. I bit my lip and placed my boot on the start of the slide. I can't believe I'm doing this...I brought my other foot up and onto the slide before I felt myself moving forward.
"Oh geez…"
I planted myself firmly in the ice and felt the wind pick up, my hair flying behind me. I picked up more and more speed and actually didn't feel as scared as I thought I would be. This was pretty fun! Up ahead, Cal reached the end of the slide and jumped on solid ground. He turned around and his eyes went big when he saw me. I don't think he thought I would join him so quickly either.
"Take a picture, it'll last longer!" I yelled to him with a laugh.
He slowly smiled and looked at BD on his shoulder.
"You heard her, BD-1! Take a picture of her!" he said to the droid loud enough for me to hear. I blinked as BD-1 looked at me. His lenses changed shape and formed a lens that resembled a camera. I found that strangely hilarious. Of course he has a camera built in!
"I didn't mean literally!"
I couldn't stop giggling as I slid down the ice slide. I must have looked pretty goofy. Once I reached the end, I hopped beside Cal and brushed my hands through my hair to fix it.
"Okay, you looked totally badass when I turned around and saw you sliding down," he said with excitement laced through his voice. My cheeks went pink and I flipped my hair with exaggeration.
"Naturally," I said back to him with a smirk.
He almost rolled his eyes but he fought against it. Instead, the corners of his mouth turned upward at me. He turned around and looked at our location. BD-1 brought up the map of Zeffo as a point of reference as well.
"Okay we're right here. There's a huge door right there so I think we should head that way. It should be up here…" Cal pointed out on the map.
"Yeah, it looks like an Imperial door too," I chimed in. It's possible that the door could lead to an Imperial base where we could gain information. It's also possible that the door might lead to the actual tomb of Zeffo.
"Alright, to the door we go! There's more troopers though…" he muttered quietly. I clicked my tongue in annoyance and gripped my lightsaber.
"Let's take them out then."
We sliced through the group of troopers with only a bruise or two as a result. One trooper hit Cal with his electric baton but he said it didn't hurt as much as it looked.
"I'm good, just felt a big shock go through my body. It sucked," he laughed. I laid my hand on his back comfortably and sighed.
"Sorry...I'm glad you're okay!"
"Thanks," he replied happily. Okay, he's totally fine. I've gotten a little better at noticing how Cal is feeling. He has a particular way in how he acts when he's happy or when he's sad or angry. But right now, he's happy.
"Boop bee doop!"
We looked down at BD-1 and he was directing his antennas toward a sloped hill that led to the giant Imperial door we had seen on the map. Those troopers were the last defense to it. I picked the droid up and carried him against my chest as we walked to the door. I was correct in thinking it would be something Imperial-related.
"Huh...Do you think it's safe to go in?" Cal asked. I shook my head.
"No, but it might help us find the tomb."
"You're right...okay, let's go! Screw it!" He yelled. I held BD-1 tighter in anticipation of the Imperial base. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't fearful of what was to come.
As long as the three of us are alive by the time we get to the tomb, everything will be fine.
And that is the end of the chapter! Sorry it took so long, I had to graduate! Hope you liked the chapter! The next chapter will be about the Zeffo tomb so be excited for that. If you have any ideas for the story, don't be afraid to share them with me! Also, any artists who want to draw Cal and Luna together please do so! That would be awesome! Please review or comment and tell me what you think! Finally, I'll see you guys next time!