Consequences

Chapter 19 - Into the Trap

The droids go in front, with me and Luke right behind to help guide what direction we should go in. They'll use scanners, and we'll use the Force. It shouldn't be too hard to find her. Hopefully. But as always, things are pretty much never simple, so who knows what kind of trouble we're probably going to run into now.

"Don't worry, Master Luke," Threepio assures him as we keep moving, "We know what to do." Then he looks down at Artoo and grumbles, "And you said it was pretty here. Ugh!" It is, but that doesn't mean nothing can go wrong. In the mind of a droid, I guess that's not true. At least in the mind of this droid.

Once we reach the area where we had last seen Leia before she zoomed off in pursuit of the other Imperial, our search party spreads out, looking through the undergrowth for any signs of her. Where could she be? Either she got lost in the forest trying to find her way back and doesn't have her bike anymore, or she was captured by more Imperial scouts, or she's injured somewhere, or I don't even know.

As I continue making my way through the brush, I suddenly spot two speeders nearby each other, both burnt and damaged, and lying on the ground next to partially burned trees and brush. Those could be Leia's and the scout's speeders, or maybe more scouts' speeders, or... But at least it seems like we're going in the right direction. Which is a good thing considering that it's already late in the day, nearing dusk. We need to be getting on with deactivating the shield generator already. Hopefully, the other Rebels are managing without us.

"Look," Luke suddenly calls to me, since I'm the closest by. Turning, I see he's holding a helmet. Leia's helmet.

"I found two burnt speeders," I inform, worried as I step over to him.

"She –" he begins but is promptly interrupted.

"Luke! Luke!" Han hollers from where he is a short distance away in the brush. We immediately run to where he is. A burnt, damaged speeder lies in the grass, not far from a charred tree. It obviously smashed into the tree, whatever happened. So, three speeders then. She obviously ran into more scouts, which means, who knows what happened to her.

"Oh, Master Luke!" gasps Threepio as he rushes up. Artoo beeps in concern as he rolls over as well.

"There's two more wrecked speeders back there. And I found this," Luke announces, tossing Leia's helmet to Han.

"I'm afraid that Artoo's sensors can find no trace of Princess Leia," declares Threepio.

"I hope she's alright," murmurs Han gravely.

"I don't think she's in any danger at the moment," I mumble as I reach into the Force. She seems to be fine, but the question remains, where is she?

Chewbacca suddenly sniffs the air and growls, before turning and bounding off through the forest with an excited bark which I don't quite catch. Did he just smell which way she might be? Since he identified me because of smell, I'm sure he could. Doesn't mean following Chewie sniffing along the ground is a good idea, though.

"What Chewie?" demands Han, running after him, "What? Chewie?!" Luke and I hurry after them, the droids trailing us. Artoo beeps uncertainly.

"Does he know where he's going?"

"I don't know," I reply as we try to keep up with him.

The forest grows denser as we continue to move, following behind the frantic Wookie. I can feel more life forms wherever we're headed, and suddenly a distinct sense of approaching danger. Just what is it that Chewbacca is after? Suddenly I'm not so sure he's following Leia's scent after all.

The Wookie comes to a halt in a small clearing. There's a pole in the center of it, with a dead animal hanging from it. Chewbacca trots over to it. Luke and I, now in the back, hesitantly walk a little closer. Something is not right here.