Maz Kanata's Journey

Childhood

Maz Kanata stirred in her room inside the dark castle. She heard the sound of blaster fire outside. Alarmed, she looked around to find her bag. She saw books, the unlit lamp by her bed, and the small straw rug also by her bed. All of the items bathed in darkness only lit by the light of occasional explosions. The smell of dust and smoke made her head hurt and the sound of explosions had her ears ringing. She quickly got up and grabbed her bag. Adjusting her big circular glasses, she knew what to do.

With her packed bag, she ran down the dark halls. She got to the first floor of the castle, raced past the scattered chairs and table, and went down the stairs to the stone basement. Maz sprinted to the end of the dark hall and took a hard left into the storage room. Behind some dark brown boxes, she opened the secret metal door behind them. She entered the tunnel dropping onto her hands and knees. She crawled through the tunnels with a single goal: Alert the Resistance. Underground she imagined the sound of incoming TIEs. She could still hear the muffled sound of explosions. As Maz made her way down the dark tunnels she smelled the damp soil and brick. She knew the way to the Resistance base of course, she had done this many times before, though never had there been so many explosions.

As she made her way down small tunnels she saw purple lizard-like creatures. They scattered at the sight of her. The circle shaped tunnels had green steamy liquid flowing at the bottom. A few years ago she would have absolutely refused but she had been living like this for a while now. The tunnels were like a second home to her.

Flashback:

Maz sat on a wood stool. In the bright room, sunlight streamed through the small windows. Flipping through her books, she poured over ancient drawings of Jedi and their lightsabers. She read about how they fought for peace in the galaxy. As she engrossed herself in the books she heard a boom. The sound of explosion startled her. She heard the scream of people within the castle walls. The many residents of the castle started ushering her to the basement where she was pushed behind boxes. In the blur, she was shoved into tunnels that seemed to run under the castle. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of sewer and tried not to touch the green liquid.

Maz snapped out of her daydream as she approached a fork in the tunnel. She knew to choose the left one and she kept crawling as fast as she could.

Flashback:

She followed the red arrows scribbled on the walls of the tunnels. The arrows were faded away now, but she knew that way. As she nervously made her way down the tunnels she looked around at the dark stone walls and the small claw marks towards the bottom of the circular structure. She heard blaster fire from above and gasped. She crawled faster until she reached a two way in the tunnel she continued to follow the arrows. She noticed that the tunnel was going upwards perhaps towards land! The slope stopped after a few meters, so she rested for a little, her stomach grumbling. How Maz longed for some food, even the disgusting Limfarsian chips that she gave to the animals would do fine. She inhaled, instantly regretting it for the smell of sewer filled her nose and her head. She didn't have much time, she got moving. As she kept crawling, she saw light at the end of the tunnel. She picked up the pace and reached a room with dozens of people buzzing around. One woman with dark brown hair and a circle face noticed her and said something into her mic, she helped Maz out of the tunnel and gave her some clean clothes and a bite to eat.

Whilst daydreaming, she hadn't realized how far she had gone down through the tunnel. In a few meters she knew she would turn and reach the base. As she made the turn she quickly crawled through the tunnel. She hopped out of the big tube on the ground and ran into the room filled with busy people. With lanterns illuminating the green walls, she found her way through the busy space. Past the holograms of space ships, she ran into the commander. Maz alerted him and over the radio she heard the call to send in X-Wing fighters. She knew her home would be safe.