Jacen, Jaina, and Tenel Ka looked at each other, the same thought in each of their minds. “Let’s go see what’s going on!”
3
Jacen saw that other Jedi students, who now rushed to the winding internal staircases or crowded into the turbolifts, had the same idea.
Tenel Ka, though, leaped to her feet and grabbed Jacen’s arm, yanking him off the stone bench. “We can do it faster my way. Jaina, follow!”
Tenel Ka raced back to the stone wall below the skylights, weaving between two short lizardlike students who seemed baffled by the commotion and cheeped to each other in high-pitched voices. Already Tenel Ka had unreeled the lightweight fibercord from her belt and removed the sturdy grappling hook.
“We’ll go up the wall, out the skylights, and down the outside,” she said, twirling the grappling hook in her hand. The muscles in her arm rippled. At precisely the right moment she released the hook.
Jacen and Jaina helped it with the Force, guiding the hook so that it seated properly in the moss-covered sill. Its sharp durasteel points dug into a crack in the stone blocks and held there.
Tenel Ka grasped the fibercord in both hands, tugged backward, and began to climb up the rope. She dug the toes of her scaled boots against the wall, hauling herself up, somehow finding footing on the polished stone blocks.
Jacen grabbed the rope next, holding it steady as Tenel Ka ascended like a lizard up a sunbaked cliff face. As he climbed, his arms ached. He used the Force when he needed to, raising his body up, catching himself when his feet slipped. He would have preferred to show off his physical prowess, especially with Tenel Ka watching.
At last he pulled his wiry body to the top of the Great Temple, squirming out the windowsill to stand on the broad rough-hewn platform left by the ancient builders.
Jacen reached behind him to grab his sister’s arm and pulled her up. The humid air of the jungle clung to the top of the pyramid, making it hot and sticky, unlike the cool mustiness of the temple interior.
Before they could catch their breath, Tenel Ka had retrieved the fibercord and was picking her way rapidly along the narrow stone walkway. Pebbles crumbled under her feet, but she didn’t seem the least bit concerned about falling.
“Around to the side,” she said, not even panting. “We can get down faster that way.”
Tenel Ka ran with light footsteps around the perimeter until she stopped, looking down at the cleared landing field where all ships arrived and departed. She stood stock still, like a warrior confronted with an awesome opponent.
Jacen and Jaina came up behind her and stared in amazement and horror at what they saw down in front of the temple.
A battered supply ship, the Lightning Rod, had landed in the jungle clearing. Their normal supply courier and message runner—long-haired old Peckhum—stood transfixed beside the open jaws of his cargo bay. His eyes were wide and white. He looked as if he had screamed himself hoarse, and could now make no sound.
He stared at a huge, unnatural-looking monstrosity that loomed out of the jungle as if ready to attack, snarling at him… waiting for Peckhum to make the next move.
“What is that thing?” Jaina asked, looking to her brother as if he would know.
Jacen squinted at the behemoth. As enormous as a shuttlecraft, its huge squarish body was covered with shaggy, matted hair tangled with primordial mos’s. It stood on six cylindrical legs that were like the boles of ancient trees. Its massive triangular head sat like a Star Destroyer on its shoulders, but instead of eyes inset in its skull, it had a cluster of twelve thick, writhing tentacles, each one glistening with a round, unblinking eye. Curved tusks sprouted from its mouth, long and sharp and wicked enough to tear a hole through a sandcrawler.
“It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen in my life,” Jacen said.
Tenel Ka glared down at the monster with a grim expression. “Working together, we can fight it,” she said. “Follow!” She dashed down the wide-cut stone steps outside the tall temple.
The monster let out a bellow of challenge so loud and so horrendous that it seemed to make the ancient stone blocks tremble. The three young Jedi Knights hurried to the ground level, careful not to slip and fall from the steep steps.
“Help me!” Peckhum cried, his voice tinny with fright.
At the jungle’s edge, the hideous monster turned, as if distracted by something. Jacen felt his heart leap, thinking at first that perhaps the wild creature had seen the three of them approaching. But he saw that its attention was fixed instead on another figure walking alone, emerging from the lower levels of the temple pyramid, confidently gliding over the clipped grasses and weeds.
Luke Skywalker wore only his Jedi robe. Jacen expected to see him holding his lightsaber, but both of Luke’s hands were empty.
Luke stared at the creature, and the creature stared back with a dozen eyes waving at the ends of tentacles covering its face.
The Jedi Master continued to walk forward, directly toward the monster, as if he were in some sort of trance. He took one step, then another. The beast bristled, but held its ground, bellowing loudly enough to make the trees swish. Jungle birds and creatures fled from the horrifying sound.
While the beast was momentarily distracted, old Peckhum dove to the ground, scuttling on all fours through the open cargo doors of his battered shuttle. Jacen was glad to see the supply runner safe inside the shielded metal walls.
The monster roared upon losing its prey. But Luke spoke in an oddly calm and clear voice that was not at all muffled by the distance. “No, here! Look at me,” he said.
Tenel Ka reached the ground by leaping down the last four steps and landing in a crouch. Puffing and red-faced, Jacen and Jaina dashed down beside her, then all three teens stood rigid, watching Luke Skywalker face the jungle beast. They had no weapons of their own.
Suddenly, unexpectedly, old Peckhum charged back out of the open bay doors of the Lightning Rod. In his hands he held an old-fashioned blaster rifle. “I’ll get him, Master Skywalker! Just stay there.” He ducked down and aimed.
But Luke turned to him and motioned with his hand. “No,” he said.
The blaster rifle went flying out of Peckhum’s grip. The old supply runner stared in astonishment as Luke continued to stroll toward the monster, seemingly without a care in the world.
“This creature means no harm,” Luke said, his voice quiet but firm. He never took his eyes off the beast. “It’s just frightened and confused. It doesn’t know where it is, or why we are here.” He drew a deep breath. “There’s no need for killing.”
Jacen’s stomach knotted with unbearable tension as Luke approached the monster. The thing’s long eyestalks waved at him, and its six tree-trunk legs took ponderous steps like an Imperial walker.
The beast lowered its triangular head, shaking it from side to side so that the pointed tusks seemed to scratch holes in the air. It let out a strange, soft blat of puzzlement.
Jacen hissed with fear, and his sister’s entire body clenched. He had used his own talents with the Force to confront many strange animals out in the jungle, but never anything as powerful as this monster, never such a boiling mass of anger and confusion.
But Luke stepped right up to the shaggy, angry thing, within touching distance. The Jedi Master looked incredibly small, yet unafraid.
Beside the battered freighter, Peckhum fell to his knees. The discarded blaster rifle was at hand, but he didn’t dare pick up the weapon again. He looked from the monster to Luke, then to the three watching teens—then off into the jungle, as if terrified that another one of the creatures might appear.
Luke stood in front of the nightmarish beast and took a deep breath. He didn’t move. The monster held its ground and snorted. Its eyestalks waved unblinking, pointing slitted pupils down at him.