No Second Chances (Star Wars Rebels)

Chapter 5

Kanan's POV

After throwing rocks and logs at the stormtroopers to slow them down, I turned and ran back to the tree that I had told Ezra to climb. I could see him now, scrambling farther up.

A net sprang up from underneath my feet and yanked me into the air. I pulled at the ropes, but they held firm. The stormtroopers raised their blasters to fire at me.

Little fuzzy people sprang out from nowhere. They looked like miniature bears with clubs and tiny slings. They began attacking the stormtroopers, completely ignoring me.

"Stop the kid!" shouted a stormtrooper. I turned to look at Ezra. He was incredibly high in the tree, but not out of firing range. The stormtrooper fired.

I saw everything as if it were in slow motion. The blaster shot shattered the branch Ezra was on and he fell out of the tree. When he neared the ground he vanished from view.

I didn't have a chance to worry any more about him because something clubbed me on the head and I blacked out.

---

When I came back around, I was tied by my wrists and ankles to a thick stick. I quickly glanced around, sure that the stormtroopers had caught me and I was about to undergo some new form of torture.

I was on a wooden platform that was raised high above the forest floor. All around were other platforms and wooden huts. The furry bear things were everywhere. This was probably their village.

I must have fallen into their trap, which was the net. When they caught me, they fought off the stormtroopers and took me back to their village. But why?

A white creature walked up to me, followed by several others that were various shades of brown. The white one was wearing an elaborate headdress and was carrying a staff. That was probably their leader. He spoke loudly to all the others, pointing at me and waving his arms. One of the creatures stepped closer and poked me with a spear.

"Hey, cut that out!" I demanded. The creature jumped back in fright and the rest of them raised their weapons threateningly. The chief waved his arms while making angry noises.

"Look, it was nice talking to you, but I need to go find my padawan," I told them. "And the rest of my crew for that matter."

The bear creatures showed no signs of wanting to release me, and I sighed in frustration. I didn't have my blaster or any other weapons with me, but even if I did I couldn't hurt these fuzzy guys. They might have saved me from the Empire, and Hera might never forgive me for attacking harmless fuzzy bears.

One of the bears stepped forward and poked at me with the spear again. I jerked away.

"Hey! Just because I'm not going to kill you doesn't mean I won't hurt you," I snapped. The chief pointed at two other creatures and they both grabbed the stick I was tied to. Some others helped them out and they began carrying me somewhere. Hanging the way I was, there wasn't a lot a could do. They brought me to what must have been their village square, where a fire was set up. It didn't take a mastermind to figure out where this was going.

I tried to think of how I could get out of this situation. I didn't have any weapons. I was outnumbered. I didn't want to hurt the fuzzy little guys (who were actually sort of cute). The only thing I could use was the force.

I remembered how a while back I had taught Ezra to use the force to connect with other living beings. Maybe I could do that to these creatures. If I could connect to them, they probably wouldn't kill me.

I reached out with the force and tried to connect to the chief. I couldn't feel any sort of connection. I changed tactics and tried to connect to one of the creatures carrying me to the fire. I couldn't feel anything from them either. Feeling desperate now, I attempted to connect to any of the creatures at all.

Finally, I felt something. I had managed to connect to one creature. It was a reddish creature with white speckles. It was wearing a brown cloth hat, and was standing near the chief.

I couldn't exactly speak to it, but we could send each other feelings and thoughts. He seemed confused about what I was doing in his head. I sent across the message that I was a friend, and I didn't want to be eaten. He seemed to have gotten the message, because he began speaking to the chief.

The little creature sent me happy, slightly scared, thoughts. The chief said something to the other creatures, and they all set down the stick and untied me, backing away and bowing.

On the upside, I wasn't on the verge of dying anymore.

On the downside, I now seemed to have gotten a village of fuzzy ninja bears who worshiped me, and I had no idea where to start looking for Ezra.