The Luggabeast’s huge feet stomped through Jakku’s deserts and picked up sand.
On its back, Rey lowered her cape’s hood over her head. Sand whipped in her face from the Luggabeast’s powerful feet, and she spat it out. She kept an eye out for the Eastern Sinking Sands and the town Aerolin mentioned for her to travel to, but then she stopped the Luggabeast, for she saw something in the distance—a sparkle in a giant sand pit. Rey was mesmerized by it. She stared at the sparkle, as did the Luggabeast, and slid off its back. Clutching her arm, she started toward the pit, the beast following her.
Rey walked for a good minute or two, and then she stopped over the pit and peered down at it. She saw the hilt of something—a weapon of some sort. The girl gasped when she recognized it. It was her lightsaber! How did it wind up there? She remembered throwing it away, and now she had to stumble upon it again?
Rey felt her right hand tingling, and she grasped it with her left one. She hated this! She hated being so conflicted! Why wouldn’t the hooded man leave her alone?
She heard his cackling in her head. She did not want to pick up the lightsaber, but then she remembered what happened to her when she threw it away—the pain. The pain the man unleashed on her was excruciating. It almost killed her. It would have if Aerolin did not come to her rescue. Rey feared the man would punish her again if she refused to pull the saber out of the pit. Therefore, she did.
Rey grasped the hilt with both hands and started to pull. Both her hair and cape waved in the wind.
The Luggabeast snuck up on her from behind and watched, intrigued. Just as Aerolin had told her, the girl was a unique individual.
With one more tug, she freed the lightsaber and stumbled backward.
The Luggabeast caught her on its nose.
Thanking it, Rey pushed herself off and studied the lightsaber she held up and down.
Next came the hooded man’s voice since he just loved tormenting the young woman. “Well done, Rey. Well done. You are one step closer to your new power.”
Again, what was the “power” he mentioned? Rey wanted to know, but at the same time, she didn’t want to. Her mind returned to Aerolin and the town she mentioned. Even though she no longer had her Force abilities, she still had her instincts, and they told her that what she was looking for was nearby. Therefore, she clipped the saber to her belt and ran toward a massive dune across the sandy plain.
She did not get far before feeling something grab her by the back of her cape and pull her back—the Luggabeast. Rey nearly stepped into a vast pit of sinking sand—the Sinking Sands of the East—and gasped when she saw her mistake.
Only a few seconds later, she yelled, “Whoa!” when the cybernetic creature picked her up, twirled her in a circle, and tossed her back onto its back. Her jaw dropped, and she wrapped her arms around its neck again.
The creature safely escorted her to the dune she wanted by avoiding the other pits of sinking sand.
Rey twisted her head and peered back at each pit as it did that. Eventually, when they reached the end of the plain, the Luggabeast dropped her, and she landed on her backside directly before the dune. Thanking it, Rey rose to her shaky legs and brushed herself down.
She peered up the face of the dune and told her new friend, “Something tells me this is where we need to be.” There was only one way to know for sure. She had to climb the dune. Oh, fun. That would be an adventure when she had a badly injured arm. Then again, if Aerolin said that the town on the other side of the dune specialized in medical technologies, she should be able to soak her injury in bacta and heal it.
With that in mind, Rey and the Luggabeast started up the tall, steep dune. The proper name for it was the Skyscraper Dune. The Luggabeast followed closely on Rey’s heels as she climbed. She lost track of how often she tripped and rolled into the creature’s nose.
Behind the friends, though, something eerie appeared on the horizon. A massive dust cloud slowly approached the Eastern Sinking Sands and the Skyscraper Dune. A sandstorm was getting ready to hit.
***
“So, why are you two good friends again?” Finn asked Yamo and Lando back on Phonolukamy. He and his friends sat around the fire with the seven-foot-tall Lukaemians.
They exchanged uncomfortable glances at one another, but Yamo smiled.
Lifting his blue, muscular arm, he wrapped it around Lando’s shoulders and pulled him close to his chest. “Oh, we go way back. Don’t we, buddy?”
“Yes, we certainly do.” Lando pushed away from his friend’s chest and faced Finn, Temiri, Rose, Poe, Chewie, and the droids.
Finn furrowed his eyebrows and asked, “Mr. Calrissian, what are you hiding from us? What did you smuggle into Phonolukamy?”
“We have to know,” Poe said in a stern voice. He squeezed the cup of water he held in his hands.
Rose mimicked him and asked, “Does it have something to do with the First Order? Rey? Kylo Ren? What is it?”
“I told you guys on the Falcon.” Lando scoffed. “That’s between Yamo and I. Right, Yamo?”
“Sure is, bro!” Yamo once again pulled him close to his chest. He clenched his fist and rubbed his knuckle on Lando’s head.
Annoyed, Temiri angrily asked, “Then what’s the point of us coming to Arcean?”
“Oh yes!” Lando suddenly spoke. “Yamo.” He again pushed himself off Yamo’s chest. “Could you check the Falcon for us? I’m unsure if she can return to the Wormhole without being spaghettified.”
“Why certainly, little brother!” Yamo leaped to his feet and pointed a huge, meaty finger in the sky, “It is my duty to protect my friends from turning into the blue-plate special!”
“The blue-plate special?” Rose shivered just at the thought of her getting served on the Beacerika’s dinner plate. Goosebumps appeared on her arms, and she rubbed them.
Behind her, Temiri huffed and closed his eyes. Rising, he turned on his heel and left the gathering.
Chewie followed him since Leia had given him the task of looking after him.
The two friends headed to a platform on the edge of Arcean that overlooked Phonolukamy’s dry landscape. Temiri rested his hand on a single tree beside it.
He sensed Chewbacca was behind him and said just one thing: “Hope.”
Chewie growled in agreement.
“We’ve goofed off long enough,” continued the little boy. “Master Rey needs us, and we’re ignoring her like trash.”
Again, Chewie growled.
Still staring ahead to the landscape, Temiri clenched his fist and turned on a serious face. He lifted his left hand and pointed at a single house beside him and the Wookie. A broomstick suddenly flew into it—it had been propped against the side of it—and Temiri clutched its handle so tightly that his fist turned white.
“Let’s go,” he told Chewie in a serious voice.
Chewie nodded. He grabbed the boy and tossed him onto his furry shoulders.
As they made their way toward Arcean’s spaceport, Temiri wrapped his arms around the Wookie and told him, “The first thing we need to do is figure out the Emperor’s plan, and the only way we’re going to do that is if we return to the Phonolukamy Blockade.”
“The Limpton?” Chewie growled at him, and Temiri nodded.
“Yes. The Limpton. That is our first stop.”
***
Okay, Rey was getting sick and tired of constantly rolling down the Skyscraper Dune now. Couldn’t she and the Luggabeast make it to the top already? Now she knew why it took the name the “Skyscraper Dune”. Sweat trickled down her temples as she started to grow hot again. Strange, she knew Jakku was hot, but she never recalled it being this hot. Something was wrong, but what?
Rey suddenly felt like Jakku was no longer safe. She tried not to let it bother her as she continued to climb.
As the sandstorm drew closer, the wind picked up.
Rey, though, did not give up. She may not have had her Force abilities, but she did have herself: her willpower and bravery. The look on her face was serious, but it also showed that she was touching into the Dark side of the Force. Rey did not feel like herself. She felt evil, almost as cruel as the hooded man. Her lightsaber trembled on her belt—it feared her power, and Rey tightly clenched her right fist.
Finally, she and the Luggabeast reached the top of the dune.
Out of breath, the Luggabeast stepped off to the side and tried to catch them.
On the other hand, Rey moved over to the dune’s edge, still looking as conflicted as ever. She paused in her tracks and examined her find. What she was looking at was a huge resort town, which had a considerable number of sand waterfalls surrounding it.
Her hazel brown eyes landed on the bazaar, and the only thing that escaped her lips was, “The Desert Resort.”
Boom!
The devastating sandstorm hit Rey and the Luggabeast the second Rey said that. Not only that, but Jakku’s sun suddenly let off a great blast of light that momentarily blinded Rey and sent her front-flipping down the other side of the Skyscraper Dune.
Roaring, the Luggabeast shook its head and followed her.
The sun looked larger and brighter and flickered like crazy. There was the problem. The whole reason why Jakku felt so much hotter than usual was because its sun was starting to go supernova.
***
“All right, I confess!” Lando shouted at Finn, Rose, Poe, and the droids. “I had to do this, guys! I had to!”
“What did you do?” Finn asked in an angry voice. “We won’t move until you tell us, Mr. Calrissian.”
“That’s right.” Rose crossed her arms and glared at the older man.
As did Poe, and he agitatedly spoke, “You’ve done us wrong. I can feel it. It has to do something with the First Order, right?”
“Yes.” Lando shivered and shooed Yamo away, who was trying to stick up for him. “Here’s the truth, guys.” Again, he shivered. With his head lowered, he placed his hands in his lap and shook with fear. “I smuggled in weapons for the Phonolukamy Blockade.”
***
“Jakku’s sun is going supernova!” Temiri shouted at Chewie in the cockpit of an X-Wing. It was the first ship they saw when they made it to Arcean’s spaceport.
Behind Temiri, Chewie roared with fear.
“I feel it,” continued the little boy. “We do not have much time. If Rey doesn’t move fast, the whole planet of Jakku will be lost to the ashes of the galaxy. We have to make this quick if we are to change its fate, as well as hers. We need to hurry to The Limpton. Only then will we be able to speak to the Emperor in person.”
Nodding, Chewie roared and grabbed hold of the wheel on his side of the X-Wing. He and Force-sensitive Temiri lifted the ship into the sky, even though a few angry Lukaemians were shouting at them from below.
As the two flew away toward space and the Phonolukamy Wormhole, Temiri told Chewie, “Kylo Ren is almost at Jakku. He will make sure Rey gets out of there safely. For now, we must try to stop history from repeating itself.”
Then, just like that, the Wookie and boy accelerated into space, leaving nothing but a puff of smoke behind.
ns 18.68.41.175da2
