silver

Four - Trapped

"We are going to have to stay overnight here," whimpered Squeak. Barriss gave a stuttering wh-what? I glanced over at her, frowning with concern.

"Barriss...?" Her eyes widened. Her throat constricted. She could feel her lungs begin to shudder at the rate she was hyperventilating. She closed her eyes and clutched at her hair as sobs wracked her body. She took a deep breath and kept sobbing, sinking to the ground.

She told us this after the fact because at the time she was having a full-blown breakdown.

"Barriss!" yelled Ahsoka. She rushed over and skidded to her knees, cradling Barriss and rocking her back and forth, murmuring comforting words to her.

I clicked my tongue and swung my head to the side at Squeak and Mai. They got the message, and we left the two alone.

We came back in an hour, having scoured the labyrinth of caverns for anything edible. What we found was a whole lot of ice and a few bioluminescent mushrooms. We collected those and brought them back to the central cave near the entrance.

Ahsoka and Barriss had made a pit in the center of the cave. Barriss was leaning against a wall, conversing with Ahsoka.

"Ah! You're back, good. Did you find anything-" Mai held up the bag of mushrooms.

"Good job," laughed Ahsoka. I nodded towards the pit.

"What's that for?" I asked. She shrugged. I nodded apprehensively and dragged Mai by the arm over to where we had ditched our bags.

"We need to use them," I said, gesturing to the bags. Mai gasped and shook her head.

"Clarissa! We can't! We've spent so long getting the bits and pieces to make-"

"I know, I know, to make the hilts of our lightsabers. But this is urgent, Mai. Your father would-"

"My father doesn't care," said Mai coldly. I internally cringed and sighed, I should have never brought up her father.

"Mai...I'm so sorry..." I trailed off, and Mai huffed, pulling open her bag.

"I-I shouldn't have flown off the handle, I'm sorry, it's just, having your fathers' picture on wanted posters, all throughout the galaxy..."

I pulled her into a hug and comforted her. She shook me off and nodded towards our bags.

"Are you sure?" I asked. She nodded. I grabbed my bag and she grabbed hers. We brought them back into the main cavern.

Sighing, I grabbed a stack of materials and laid them in the center. Mai pulled an igniter out of her bag, and a fire burned in the freezing cavern.

"Th-thank you, Mai," wheezed Barriss. Mai nodded and held out her hand. The snow quivered, then slowly rose into a soft mound. Ahsoka guided Barriss onto it, and Mai, using the Force, scooted it closer to the fire.

"Thanks," said a shivering Barriss. Mai nodded happily and kept on unloading things out of her bag.

"Whoa," said Squeak appreciatively. "That's so much stuff...did you know something was gonna happen?"

"Well, before we met you, Barriss and Mai had visions that something was gonna go wrong on Ilum, so we packed some stuff extra...just in case, y'know, something happened," I explained.

"Speaking of which, I need to go and, uh, well, I'd need to use the fresher, but-"

"I get it, Squeak. I'll take you to some secluded place and you can wazz, 'Kay?"

Squeak nodded. I waved to the rest of the crew, and they waved back. Mai had done loads of good stuff with her pack of supplies.

A few minutes later, Squeak and I eased snow off of a creaky stone door. Squeak giggled with delight and ran into the small, snowy room, shutting the door behind her.

"But if it's stone," I mused. "Then why would it creak-" I was cut off by Squeak screaming from inside.

"Squeak!" I yelled, shoving the door open. I found Squeak cowering inside, at the base of a huge, glowing altar, carved out of stone and ice.

"C-Clarissa? Clarissa, wh-what is that thing?" Squeak squeaked. I shook my head in bewilderment, taking in the carved Snowfeather statue. Glowing blue ice surrounded the stone, making the bird look bigger and grander.

"I think...I think we've discovered the old Jedi temple, here on Ilum," I told Squeak.

"We've found a shrine that depicts the mighty Forcewielding Snowfeater birds."