Rey searched the overgrown forest for Shudu. "Shudu!" she called.
No answer.
"Shudu!" Rey yelled again.
Still no answer.
Rey reached the beach. Her boots dug into the fluffy, white sand. Beside her was a line of water speeders the Resistance used for scouting the island, hunting, and sightseeing. They were just like the speeders Rey used back on Jakku. However, the primary purpose of these speeders was to trek water, not land and desert planets.
They, though, were not the only things that grabbed Rey's attention. There was Shudu. A short boy, he was about nine years old and had long black hair and deep brown eyes. Over his torso, he wore a white, puffy-sleeved shirt, which he had tucked into raggedy, old pants and brown boots.
Shudu stood at the edge of the turquoise lagoon. It looked like he was meditating. Not only that but on either side of him, rocks covered in green seaweed slowly lifted into the air and created a ring around his small body. The Force. This was fascinating.
"Lifting rocks," Rey murmured under her breath. She hid behind a small cluster of ferns and watched the boy.
In his left hand, he held a tree branch. He wielded it like a lightsaber.
Rey rested her hand on her own lightsaber. She felt his determination to get the exercise right.
Shudu practiced different thrusts. He even tried a backflip, but unfortunately, that did not go as planned. He landed on his face in the sand. Instantly, he was back on his feet. He held the branch up to his eye and hid behind it.
For a good ten minutes, Rey did not bother him. Finally, she stepped onto the sand and rested her hand on a hanging palm tree. Clearing her throat, she spoke two words: "Hello, Shudu."
At her voice, Shudu lost concentration. The ring of rocks surrounding him crashed into the sand, and he almost poked himself in the eye with his branch. In complete utter shock, he shouted, "Master Rey!" He nearly caused an earthquake with the pure power in his voice.
Rey nodded. She came within reach of him. "I feel your determination. The way you lifted those rocks was very impressive. Nevertheless, I feel something else, too. Fear. Did you not introduce yourself to Temiri?"
"I couldn't bring myself to, Master. I'm shy, but it's great that the academy continues growing. I just don't feel cut out for this."
"Why not? You can talk to me." Rey kneeled to the little boy. She took his shoulder. "What's bothering you?"
"This feeling I have..." Shudu explained. "It's as if something is about to happen."
"The Force is trying to tell you something. Are you able to translate what it is?" Rey wanted to know.
"No." Shudu disappointingly shook his head. "And I don't know if I ever will." He shivered and rubbed his arms. "I guess my point is, you should maybe take a break from recruiting soldiers for your army."
Just before Rey could say more, she heard a roar across the lagoon. It came from a small island in the heart of it. "What's that?" she asked. "Did you hear it, too, Shudu?"
"I did." Shudu's attention moved from Rey to the island she examined. "Do you think it's a creature in pain? What if it needs help?"
Rey narrowed her eyebrows. She clenched her fists and sternly said, "Get yourself back to General Leia, kid."
"What about you?" For some reason, Shudu did not like where this was going.
"I'm going to go investigate."
There they were, the words Shudu dreaded to hear from the beautiful young woman. He tried to go with her. He jumped before her and held his arms out to his sides. "Now, just wait a minute, Master! I heard it, too! So I think we should both check it out!"
"Sorry, kiddo, but this is something I must do myself. Your safety is in my hands, and you're not old enough to attend a potentially dangerous mission yet," Rey said.
"But I am one of your best students!"
"True, but still. Please, Shudu, how you can help me is by returning to your quarters with the other orphans. I'm sure General Leia has lunch for you."
"But—!"
However, Rey pushed by Shudu and approached the line of water speeders. She paced back and forth behind them for a bit as she searched for the perfect one. One like that. The speeder she spotted was just as turquoise as the water. It was the perfect size for her. She jumped onto it and turned it on. The engine roared to life, sending a blast of smoke to spit right in Shudu's face.
He closed his eyes against it and coughed. When he could finally open them, Rey was already gone. He saw the speeder kicking up water as it hurried toward the mysterious island. He hoped Rey knew what she was doing.
Even though she told him to return to his quarters, Shudu did not. He decided to wait on the beach for her. He wondered if he could use the Force to see what she was seeing. Well, it was worth a try.
The young boy closed his eyes and tried to close himself off from the rest of the world. He felt for Rey's aura, but it was much more complex than he thought. He was not skilled enough yet with the Force. As the young Jedi told him, she had to do this herself.
As the island drew closer, Rey felt the aura of the creature who roared. A sinister presence came from the aura and the island. There was definitely something big on it. Strands of Rey's brown hair whipped in her face. She found it very difficult to blow it off to one side. Saltwater sprayed in it, and she tasted blood as she tightly bit her lip.
Only a few minutes later, the roar sounded again. The tone was desperate as if something had just injured it, and it could not find help.
"There is definitely something on that island," Rey told herself, "and I'm going to find out what."
Eventually, the speeder hit the shallow water surrounding the island. The sudden bump almost threw Rey off its handlebars, but she caught herself and pushed it onto the sand. Turning it off, she dismounted her vehicle and peered forward to the overgrown jungle before her. Its interior was dark, while its exterior was light. There was no light in the jungle.
The sinister presence Rey felt was the Dark side calling out to her. The island reminded her so much of the Mirror Cave on Ahch-To when she saw the many reflections of herself. From that day forth, she still did not understand the point of it. Rey stumbled into the cave to search for answers regarding her past, and she received none. Just the very thought of the prank enraged her. Rey was very short-tempered, which was one of her weaknesses regarding the Dark and Light sides of the Force.
She thought about what happened in the Mirror Cave. Who was she? A nobody, or was she? To admit, there were times when Rey felt that Ben Solo/Kylo Ren lied to her in Snoke's throne room when he told her who her parents were. He just wanted to get in her head. After all, that was what Kylo Ren did best. Not Ben Solo, but Kylo Ren.
Rey must have spaced out thinking about that because a third roar from deep within the jungle caused her to jump, and it snapped her right out of her trance. She stared at the darkness, took deep breaths, and pulled her lightsaber off her belt. She had to do this. Who knew... Perhaps Kylo was in there, and he was waiting for her to meet him? What if all the answers Rey needed in life were in the jungle? The Dark side of the Force felt so natural to her, but she could not understand why.
Inhaling again, the young Jedi tightened her grip on her lightsaber and stepped into the Mirror Cave Round 2.
***
It was so quiet. Why did it feel like the whole planet of Supher had been lost to oblivion? There were absolutely no life forms in the jungle, excluding the space creature Rey was looking for. She maintained a tight grip on her lightsaber's hilt and traveled deeper and deeper. The further she walked, the darker it turned. Strangely, the Dark side energy did not hurt her. She received no headaches and no aches and pains. To be honest, she felt at peace with herself. It was the most peace she had felt in all her twenty years of living. She felt like she was right where she belonged. But why? What was it with the Dark side of the Force when it came to Rey?
Many uneasy thoughts and feelings flushed through her body, but she continued her trek. The peace she felt was so great that she almost fell asleep on the sandy jungle floor. She did not know if that was good or bad. All she knew was that the space creature's aura was growing stronger, and then things went from zero to one hundred very fast.
A scaly arm with sharp claws at the end of its hand emerged from the shadows and dove straight for Rey. She had no time to think and dodge before one of the claws slashed her upper right arm. Yelling, she dropped her lightsaber and grabbed hold of the bleeding, burning wound. Her skin sizzled. She feared her whole arm was about to burn off, but it didn't. However, Rey tripped over her foot and fell flat on her face. She hit the ground with so much force that it knocked the breaths clean out of her. Her tummy ached, and she coughed as she tried to bring them back. Her burned arm was already starting to swell. What on Supher just attacked her? That was when she saw it. The creature. The one she heard from the Resistance base beach.
It had to be one of the scariest creatures she had ever seen! It even beat those awful Teedos back on Jakku. The creature stood at least forty feet tall. It had a huge, gaping mouth filled with razor-sharp fangs. Its three sets of eyes were red with white pupils. Gray and brown, scaly skin covered it from head to toe. It had a few sets of arms and hands with sharp claws. Tentacles waved all over the place in the warm, tropical breeze. It stood on two sturdy legs and roared at the girl before it.
Rey broke down in sweat. "Oh God. What have I gotten myself into?" she asked. As quick as a flash, she pushed herself to her hands and knees and scooped up her lightsaber. Arm still sizzling from her burned flesh, she rose to her feet and looked the creature up and down.
Rey tried to reason with it. "Why did you attack me? When I heard you from the lagoon, you sounded sad and injured. What do you want from me?" With her being Rey, she refused to run away from a fight she knew she could win. "I'm not scared of you," she told the creature. "I have dealt with things far worse."
Like Kylo Ren. Currently, Rey did not believe there was another individual in the galaxy who was as heartless as Han Solo's son, or as heartless as Supreme Leader Snoke, but she was wrong. So very wrong. That was what the test was trying to tell her.
She ignited her blue lightsaber, buzz, and delivered the first strike of the battle—a forward thrust. She expected to chop off one of the creature's arms or tentacles, but before the kyber crystals could sever any of them, it ignited a lightsaber of its own—a red one. The two blades met. What the—? Since when did the Kraken-like alien own a lightsaber? Once again, it was all part of Rey's test.
She tried another forward thrust. From the corners of her eyes, she saw one of the creature's tentacles creeping up on her. It, too, held a lightsaber. What the heck? How many lightsabers did this thing have? What in the name of General Grievous was happening right now?
Rey ducked under the approaching blade and rolled away from her enemy. "I'm trying to help you!" she shouted, but the creature refused to listen.
It swiped its first lightsaber blade above Rey's head but ended up in a tree. The top half of it fell and smashed down on its head. Stunned, the creature retreated a few steps back as it tried to recover from the blow.
Rey delivered another forward thrust. That one severed one of the creature's tentacles, so now the two were even. Rey got in a hit, and so did her enemy. With a furious look, she paced back and forth before it and aimed for another tentacle. Come on! She beat Kylo Ren on her first try, so surely she could beat this creature, right? Why did she suddenly feel not as confident? It may have been because her arm was killing her, and she could barely move it now. She feared she would lose it if she did. Usually, the rumor went that the injured animal returned to its den, but not her. She refused to rest until she took the creature's tentacles home for dinner. That thought was gruesome, especially for Rey, but it felt right. She started to give in to her fear and anger again. Depending on who was giving her the test, she was either failing or passing.
Just before Rey's lightsaber blade could take out another tentacle, the creature's gaping mouth spat out smoke and hit her right in the face. It knocked the young woman back. She ended up losing her lightsaber.
If things couldn't get any stranger, she was no longer in the jungle with the creature when the smoke finally cleared. She was back on the beach, with her lightsaber sitting beside her. The creature teleported her out of danger, but why? Just a second ago, it wanted to beat Rey to a pulp, and then it suddenly saved her. Like the Mirror Cave, she found no answers in the Dark side jungle, which made her mad.
She leaped to her feet and picked up her lightsaber. "Coward!" she yelled into the darkness. "We were perfectly even, and then you retreated like a scared little Padawan!" The creature did not answer her. What started as a desperate cry for help turned into a scene of Rey yelling like a madman to the oblivion. Boy, did she have a story to tell General Leia, Finn, Poe, and Rose when she returned to the Resistance base.
On her way to a pool of water at the base of a palm tree, she murmured, "I hate Mondays." Rey fell to her knees behind the pool and cupped her hands. She scooped up some water and tried to drink it (she was so thirsty) but instantly spat it out. Ugh! Right! Salt water.
Rey's nose twitched. She turned on a disgusted face. It almost looked humorous. Shaking her head, she reached into the small bag on her belt. From it, she pulled out a brown cloth. Rey wrapped it around her burned arm. If Leia, Finn, Poe, and Rose found out she touched into the Dark side of the Force and got beat up by a Dark side creature, they would not be happy. The least they wanted was another Kylo Ren or, even worse, another Palpatine. If she wasn't careful, Rey was powerful enough for something like that to happen.
Clenching her teeth, she tightened the cloth around her arm and reattached her lightsaber to her belt. She then stared at her reflection in the pool. She only saw a scared little girl who did not know her place in the galaxy.
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