82 Chapter 72

"Where are we going." Ahsoka complained as she crawled behind the mysterious person she met in the caves.

"Don't know" The boy, who had introduced himself as Renn, muttered from in front of her.

"We should be heading back to the entrance," Ahsoka said slightly annoyed. "You know, so we don't freeze to death when we get trapped in her."

"We wont freeze… you know…Probably" Renn mumbled and Ahsoka rolled her eyes.

"But when the ice door freezes shut well be stuck and the whole cave system will freeze. So, we should really go back now." Ahsoka tried once again to persuade the boy, but he kept crawling forwards.

"Nah, it'll be fine. It's a just an ice door, right? So, we can just break it if it shuts, can't we?" Renn dismissed her worries and rearranged some of her world views at the same time.

"We can't do that… can we?" Ahsoka said shocked, "This is sacred ground… and the gatherings been happening here for ages. We can't… no one's just decided to… destroy a bit of it."

"Sure, we could. Who's gonna stop us." Renn said absentmindedly as the tunnel they were crawling through began sloping upwards.

Ahsoka silently glared at Renn as she crawled after him through the icy tunnel. "I still think we should head back to the exit." She mumbled quietly after a moment and Renn peered over his shoulder to look at her.

"You can go back if you want. It's not like anyone forced you to follow me, is it?" He said before looking ahead again and continuing crawling.

"As if." Ahsoka muttered," I'm the one who'll end up in trouble when you either die or end up breaking some priceless ancient jedi artifact."

'And besides. This is definitely some sort of surprise test, that I'm totally going to ace and end up becoming a padawan before anyone else." She added in the privacy of her own head.

Ahsoka grinned to herself and began imagining herself finishing her trials and becoming a proper jedi.

She was still happily thinking about all the ways she could become a padawan early and about how cool her master would be when Renn stopped crawling in front of her causing her to crawl straight into him.

"Oww!" She hissed rubbing her head after she banged it against Renn, "What'd you stop for?!"

"Errr… because wall?" Renn said cocking his head to one side and raising an eyebrow in confusion as he pointed at the solid wall of ice blocking the tunnel ahead of them.

Ahsoka's face flushed in embarrassment that she hadn't noticed the wall in front of them. "Oh… Well… We should probably head back then." She muttered.

"Nah, we just gotta go up." Renn said pointing upwards and Ahsoka noticed an opening on the tunnels roof that led to a narrow passage going near vertically upwards.

"Urgh, great" Ahsoka moaned sarcastically, "More climbing."

Ahsoka watched Renn begin climbing up into the overhead passage and sighed before following him.

-

The Force was still guiding Renn forwards, but he felt like he was close to were it wanted him to go.

He had been crawling through tunnels and clambering up passages for what seemed like forever, and he was glad that the journey was nearly over.

Renn could still hear the annoyed jedi youngling crawling behind him and he couldn't help but grin as he heard her curse about the length of time they had been in the tunnels for.

He liked the youngling. Despite her snarky attitude and frequent complaints, he could tell she was kind-hearted, and he found it sort of endearing how she was following him around to make sure he stayed safe.

Renn remembered her worries about not making it out of the caves before the entrance sealed shut and he made a silent promise to himself that as soon as he had found whatever it was the force wanted him to find he would make sure she got back to her space wizard friends.

He found it weird that the jedi, who were known for being champions of peace and justice, would send children into a dangerous cave system and risk them getting entombed in it if they aren't able to exit the caves in time.

But he decided it didn't matter. The jedi order was filled with hypocrisies and Renn couldn't be bothered spending time trying to figure it out. He would just make sure Ahsoka made it safely out of the caves and leave it at that.

A narrow gap appeared at the end of the passage they were crawling down and Renn was able to see a small cave on the other side of it.

He managed to squeeze through the gap and soon found himself in a small cave made of ice.

The walls of the cave looked like glistening mirrors and the ceiling was dotted with pointed icicles that made the cave look like the mouth of some giant predator.

Renn ignored all of that however as his gaze was locked onto a small pillar in the centre of the room, or more specifically the fist sized crystal fused into the top of it.

This is what the force had been guiding him to, he could feel a strange connection to the crystal and began walking towards it.

That was when he heard a crash and a yelp from behind him and turned to see Ahsoka had fallen through the gap into the ice cave and was now rubbing her head in pain.

He was just about to ask the girl if she was okay when he watched her jump to her feet and look around the cave in amazement.

"Woah, look at all these crystals" Ahsoka gasped, and her eyes seemed to fill with wonder.

Renn followed here line of sight to see that the entire circumference of the cave was covered in glittering crystals that he completely missed while he was looking at the giant crystal embedded in the pedestal in the caves centre.

He left Ahsoka to admire the scenery and returned to the ice pillar in the caves centre.

Renn ran his hand across the surface of the ice pillar that contained the crystal and felt for any weaknesses that he could exploit to break it and retrieve the crystal.

"Oh cool!" Renn nearly flinched as Ahsoka popped up by his elbow, but his years of dealing with Sapphire appearing randomly in front of him stopped him from showing any signs of surprise.

"That looks huge!" Ahsoka continued, "It seems similar to a kyber crystal, but its soo much bigger and just feels different. What is it?"

"I'm not fully sure myself," Renn said and Ahsoka glared at him, "All I know is, this is the reason I'm here."

"Well, its stuck in a pillar. Sooo, how are you expecting to get it?" Ahsoka said gesturing to the crystal and looking slightly smug as she did.

"Easily," Renn said and took a step back before spinning and delivering a powerful kick to the pillar shattering the ice into millions of pieces and freeing the crystal.

Renn steadied himself after his kick before stooping and picking up the crystal and raising and admiring its surface.

The crystal was a pale blue in colour and had what looked like veins running through it, which were a mix of dark blues and forest greens.

He could feel power coursing through the crystal and felt a connection to it, as though the crystal could read his thoughts.

Renn was still studying the crystal when Ahsoka came to stand beside him and began to poke its surface inquisitively.

Ahsoka then let out a small yelp of pain and snatched her hand back as though she had been stung by the crystal.

Renn looked over at the girl with a mixture of concern and confusion on his face as he saw Ahsoka sucking the tip of her finger and glaring at the crystal angrily.

"Are you alright, what happened?" He asked concerned, and transferred the crystal to his off hand so he could check on the young jedi.

"I'm okay, I think." Ahsoka said still glaring at the crystal, "I don't know what that was… I just touched the surface of the crystal, and it was like it was trying to push me away, like it was rejecting me or something."

"Hmm," Renn mused as he checked Ahsoka's finger to make sure she was okay.

The crystal 'rejecting' Ahsoka did confirm a few things for Renn though.

First it meant that the crystal definitely wasn't a kyber crystal, the crystals that jedi used to power their lightsabres weren't known for being overly picky about their owners, especially not to the point of attacking them.

And secondly it confirmed Renn's suspicion that he and the crystal shared some sort of psychic link, making him the only one capable of using it.

Both were a pleasant surprise for Renn as it gave him some ideas for what to use the crystal for and a wide grin began to split Renn's face.

Ahsoka was just about to ask Renn about the crystal when they both heard a loud splintering sound echoing throughout the cave.

They both looked down to see a fissure begin to appear through the icy floor of the cave, originating from the spot where the crystal's ice pillar used to be.

Renn and Ahsoka looked at the growing crack and then in unison turned slowly to look at the narrow entrance to the cave before mechanically turning to look at each other.

They both realised at the same time that they wouldn't be able to squeeze through the gap and back into the tunnel quickly enough to escape what was about to happen.

""Oh, Sh----!!"" They both began to say as the floor splintered and gave way beneath their feet, and they were swallowed by the darkness beneath them.