#ossus

Ten klicks hadn’t sounded very long. It was really quite frustrating that it was taking so long. His feet were getting sore and he was more hungry than he liked to admit and he was getting tired because he hadn’t really been sleeping very much either because he’d wanted to catch up on the episodes of  ‘Diggle and Daggle the Fish that fish’ that he’d missed. He should have been better prepared. He knew that what they were setting out do, what he was setting out to do, was potentially dangerous. Uff.

Also, why the heck did the ancient Jedi need secret entrances to everywhere all the time!? Grogu remembered what it took for he and Ta’lan to enter the temple on Dantooine. That wasn’t some simple, what you see is what you get kind of experience. Nope. Now she was worried about him and there was nothing he could say or do other than walk, trot and jump his way to their meeting point.

Which honestly, was kind of weird, right? Grogu had plenty of time to think about it, as he trudged toward his goal. Couldn’t they just take the speeder bike to the right entry way and then zip right down to him? It would take the speeder bike less than a minute to travel 10 klicks. A minute! He could have stayed right where he was and waited for them but instead he did what Heffee Trad told him to do. Uff.

It wasn’t that Grogu thought Heffee Trad was wrong. He didn’t. He supposed that he needed to check in with him and see if Ta’lan was doing any better, if his dad had finished yelling, pouting, and giving her the cold shoulder, and if they had remembered that there was a perfectly good speeder bike in the cargo bay. 

With that in mind, Grogu sat down on the smooth stone floor and took a deep breath and reached out to the only ‘person’ he could reach out to. Heffee Trad.

“Well, Grogu of the Jedi, are you at the entrance yet? We are waiting for you. My dear friend is still distraught and my grandson will not stop complaining about speeder bike maintenance and size. Apparently we will have to repair the bike, fascinating mechanical device that it is, and move to a more desirable location in the Razor Crest, but none of that can be done until you are secure.”

Dank farrik! Of course he wasn’t where he was supposed to be yet. Then he remembered to ask Heffee the question he hadn’t asked when they first ‘spoke’.

“How will you know when you are at the correct location? As I recall, there is a symbol there. It reminds me of a star chart, but I am sure there was another name for it. Something that sounded majestic and important and full of grandeur. But I digress. When you find that symbol and it fills your heart with hope, then you will be at the right place. The protections on the corridors are less there and your mother will be able to reach you.”

Grogu thanked Heffee Trad until he was certain that his holocron guide was gone and had gone back to taking care of his dad and Ta’lan. He was more hopeful now.   Heffee Trad could tell his dad and Ta’lan that he was fine and was doing his best to get there as quickly as he could. They would feel better about that and the whole event would be something they would all laugh over the next time they saw Seb and were sharing stories. His dad would probably act all brave and tell Seb that he was never worried for an instant and Ta’lan would shed a few tears because she was so soft hearted. It would be a nice moment, if he ever got to the exit.

That made him think. In the Jedi temple when he needed to get someplace fast he could generally find someone else to help him or something else. One time he’d found a ball and able to run on it with the help of the Force and go a lot faster. Given all the lessons he had taken with Ta’lan and Seb and Kish and even Sha, he wondered if he could find something to help make the journey faster.

He looked around the corridor and almost felt defeated. The floor was smooth stone. The walls were smooth stone. The ceiling… had been smooth stone, but now there were vines and other plant roots woven like a tapestry along it’s length. Lights seemed to glow from under that tapestry every twenty meters or so. It was too bad that wasn’t the floor instead of the ceiling. He could have used the vines to make a mat to stand on and then used the Force to move the mat forward. He’d go much faster that way.

He didn’t think that using the roots and vines would be easier on his arms that trotting down the corridor had been on his feet and his feet were meant for that sort of thing. But maybe he should test his theory before he decided it couldn’t work… He jumped up and grabbed a vine and then tried to ‘leap’ to the next vine and found himself sitting on his backside on the corridor floor. Ouch!

He did it again but used the Force to help him, but that was also a mistake. He didn’t really know how far or how fast made sense and ended up bumping his head, swinging himself in a quick circle and falling again. This time he stuck the landing but that did not make his feet feel better. Dank Farrik! If only he had a disk or sled or even a dinner tray like the ones from the food hall on Tzura. And while he was wishing for things he didn’t have he also wished the corridor was cooler. All that effort had made him sweaty and he hated being sweaty. 

At least he could fix that. Grogu undid his coverall so it wasn’t quite so warm. Then he took his rondel off and set it on the ground. He wanted to take the beskar shirt off because he was certain that would… Wait a minute! He had a rondel. It was meant to protect him from weapons, but it was round and kind of flat and he could use it like a food tray! Yippee!

Grogu quickly put his coverall back on properly and flipped the rondel over. He wanted to protect his feet as much as possible. He hopped onto it and worked to get his balance just right. He just hoped the Armorer wouldn’t get mad at him as he zipped down the corridor, the Force helping him do just what he imagined. Beskar was tough, but then so were these stone floors and the arc of sparks that sprayed behind him would leave a mark everywhere.