Hearts of Rebels | Star Wars Fanfiction

Chapter Thirty

Luke, Rhea and the unfortunate pig guard, all tumbled down the chute and into a large pit underneath the palace. Luke immediately jumped up into action and threw off his robe looking around for any means of escape.

He spotted the second skiff guard from earlier, the helmet had fallen off to reveal Rheas face confirming his suspicions. She was lying face first on the hard rock ground and made a move towards her, but at the side of the pit a giant iron door wailed. As it's rusted metal grated against the caves rock moving upward, it revealed a giant, fanged creature. At the top of the pit through the grate in the floor, the crowds roar in delight was almost enough to drown out the terrifying roar of the Rancor. A beast Luke and Rhea had only heard stories about as children when they lived on this dustbowl that was Tatooine.

Luke stared at the horrifying beast and slowly backed up to shocked to do anything else. The guard squealed in terror and ran to the now sealed chute the three had fallen through, and tried to push himself through the small openings of the gate. The crowd above cheered as Jabba laughs at the guards clear fate. The Rancor wrapped its claws around the squealing guard and slowly picked the Gamorrean up. It kicked its legs about and slammed its pudgy fists against the Rancor's claws but to no avail, it stuffed the Gamorrean head first into its mouth and slowly munched trying to eat the guard whole.

The thunderous roar of the crowd and shaking of the ground was enough to jolt Rhea awake from her short unconsciousness. She pushed her upper body up finally gathering enough effort from the fall and slowly looked at the giant creature. Her heart skipped a beat watching it stuff the last of the guard into its mouth and taking a moment to swallow it whole. She wanted to scream but her mouth wouldn't open and her legs wouldn't move from the terror.

Once the Rancor finished with its first meal its tiny eyes spotted Luke and it slowly turned its head and lumbered towards him. Finally, snapping out of shock Luke dashed away but the Rancor only had to reach its giant arm across the pit to grab him. He quickly grabbed hold of a rather large bone and held it like a bat as the beast reached for him. Before Luke could try and ward off its claws by striking them with the bone it wrapped its claws around him, almost squeezing him to death.

Luke pushed himself up in the monsters claws and gripped the bone tightly. Before the Rancor could eat him he wedged the bone between the beasts slobbering mouth. The Rancor bellowed in rage and flailed about, hitting the side of the pit and causing an avalanche, dropping his meal in the process. While the Rancor was distracted, Luke looked behind him and saw Rhea pressed up against the edge of the wall and a small crevice at her feet. He waved at her grabbing her attention.

"Come on"

He yelled, she jumped off the ledge and landed beside him, he pointed to the crevice and pulled her down so she was crouching like him.

"Under there, quickly"

He ushered her, she laid flat and pushed herself under the crevice. Luke squeezed himself as much as he could into the small crevice beside her. Looking beyond the Rancor, he saw a much human sized door in the cave the Rancor exited out of.

Now the Rancor had finally crushed the bone between its jaws and reached a giant claw into the crevice. It moved its claws around Luke's legs and tried pulling him out. He scrabbled with the sandy ground trying to find something to hold onto. Rhea quickly grabbed a large rock that had previously been digging into her side in the cramped space. Moving towards the opening of the crevice, now holding the rock,  she smashed it into the skin just above its claw. The Rancor let out an earsplitting howl of pain and the two rebels pulled themselves out the crevice making a run for the opposite side of the cavern.

Rhea stopped beside the larger door noticing a control panel with a red safety button above it, taking a guess it would close the door she stood by she slammed her fist against it. Luke, however, ran to the maintenance door he spotted earlier. It slid up only to show a heavily barred gate between him and safety. Past
the gate two keepers looked up from their posts to see Luke banging against the gate, futilely trying to open the gate with brawn. Luke glanced behind him hearing a loud roar to see the Rancor heading for them, he faced the gate again and pulled with all his might but the gate remained steady. The keepers had gotten next to the gate and began poking at him through the bars of the gate with spears and laughed as he stumbled back after they pushed him away.

Luke turned back round towards the Rancor who was now moving towards Rhea. She was still slamming her fist against the door panel, now in vain hope that it would close at any moment. She looked up at the Rancor and then at Luke shouting, fear evident in her voice.

"It won't shut!"

Lukes eyes darted all around the cave looking for something, anything, that would help them. He drew up a plan. He had no clue if it would work but he had to try. He picked up a skull from a previous meal of the Rancor and yelled at Rhea.

"Move!"

She nodded and ran towards Luke. The Rancor followed her every movement not planning to lose its meal this time. It moved underneath the massive door and reached its arm out grasping for Rhea. Now was the perfect time. Luke hurled the skull at the panel. The skull impacted on the red button perfectly and the iron door quickly fell down crashing on the rancor's head, the spikes slicing into its neck. It whined in pain and then went limb, the light quickly dying from its eyes.

The once cheering crowd above let out a startled gasp. Jabba started to yell furiously ordering his guards about. Back down in the pit, the two Rancor keepers opened the smaller door and flew past Luke to their beloved pet. One of them wept as the other tried to comfort him. Both Rhea and Luke gave them a questioning glance wondering how one could ever love such a horrific beast. Suddenly the echo of many rushed footsteps bounced off the caverns walls and Luke turned to watch as multiple creatures poured into the cavern.
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