The Sands of Jakku

The Cave of Wonders Part 2

Two for one :).

*

"Rey!" Finn shouted in the darkness, her body colliding with something metal, smooth, and most importantly cool beneath her heat-scorched skin.

"Finn," she said. Her voice felt raw, throat dry as if she had been screaming.

She smiled to herself. So far death seemed nice.

"I'm sorry for getting us killed," she said.

"What the kriff are you talking about?" Finn asked, voice shrill.

Rey's eyes snapped open, the Cave of Wonders still collapsing around them.

"What?" she asked, looking around and drawing her body up into a ball.

"Careful!" Finn shouted over the noise of the cave. "You could throw us off balance!"

Rey stared down at the smooth flat metal beneath her. It was like nothing she'd ever seen before, some sort of flat flying object.

"What is this thing?" Rey asked, gaze locking with Finn's.

"It's a ship," someone else said from behind her. "My ship."

"Kriff!" Rey shouted in surprise, jerking slightly and earning another warning from Finn.

"Who is that ?" Rey asked, turning over her shoulder to see another man seated at a digital control panel, accelerating through the collapsing cave around them.

She didn't even give Finn a chance to answer, looking back down at the "ship".

"Not much of a ship though, is it?"

"Hey!" the pilot shouted from behind her, sounding offended, "Is she always this rude?" Finn glared at her.

"We're trying to save your life here, Rey," Finn said through clenched teeth. Rey made to respond but the pilot banked left to avoid a chunk of falling rock. Rey and Finn both yelped in surprise and reached for each other.

"Are you trying to get us killed?" Rey hissed when he banked again, nearly throwing them from the strange machine.

"Nope," the man said, "Quite the contrary, actually."

Rey turned her head again to glare at the man over her shoulder as she held onto Finn for dear life. She saw the mouth of the cave approaching quickly. The rock formations that once dangled like canine teeth had shattered and fallen and were being devoured by the unforgiving heat beneath them, a heat that she could somehow no longer feel.

"Almost there," Finn said against the shell of her ear as they both watched the entrance approach, hearts thumping wildly in their chest.

"Looks like the entrance might collapse," the pilot said nonchalantly.

"What?" Rey and Finn said in unison.

"Better hold on to something, this could get a little bumpy." A little bumpy was an understatement. Rocks and debris fell from all around them, pelting the makeshift machine and bouncing off some sort of invisible shield. The whole thing was surreal. Rey felt like any moment she was going to wake up from some strange dream.

"Not gonna make it through the mouth," the pilot said regretfully.

Rey sighed, accepting defeat for the second time that day. She was ready to confess her shortcomings to Finn, when the pilot finally finished his sentence. "But we will make it through that eye. It's gonna be a little tight, so watch your head!" He banked the machine slightly to the right to fit through the space. Both Rey and Finn ducked, closing their eyes and hoping they were going to make it out in one piece.