Chapter 17

                                    

                                          
"The force is strong with this place," I mumble under my breath, tilting my head to the side as I close my eyes and listen to the planet beneath me. The ship's ramp is already lowered, leaving me exposed to the icy winds of Ilum. The planet is practically singing with energy. 
"What does that even mean?" Din grunts from behind me. I sigh, opening my eyes as I spin around on my heel to face him. He's standing there holding my jacket and staff out to me with one hand while the other cradles Grogu. 
I quickly take the jacket and pull it on, strapping the staff to my back. Grogu starts to coo and I send him a soft smile. "You feel it too, little guy?" I ask, taking him from Din. He giggles up at me and I tickle the side of one of his large, green ears. I walk to the edge of the ramp, pulling in a deep breath as I take in the wall of white before us. "Well, this is it. What do you think, Grogu?" 
He doesn't say anything, of course, but he coos again when Din comes to stand beside us. "We'll go with you," he says, placing one hand on my lower back. I look over at him, fighting the intense heat growing on my face despite the freezing planet, as I shake my head.
"I have no idea what I'm walking into here. It could be dangerous."
"That's why we're coming," he quips, walking down the ramp before I can argue with him. 
I follow him with a sigh. As I step off the ramp, my boots instantly sink into powdery layers of snow. Trudging through the stuff is bad enough, but the wind picks up on top of everything. I press Grogu tighter against my chest in an effort to keep us both warm as we drag ourselves through the mountains of snow and ice. It gets a little easier when I start stepping into the sunken bootprints from Din in front of me, hopping from one to the next as Grogu giggles in my arms.
I almost ram into Din's back when he suddenly stops. When I step around him to see what the hold-up is, my eyes land on a massive rock wall blocking our path. My eyebrows shoot up and I huff out a sigh. 
"Maybe we took a wrong turn somewhere," Din mutters, planting one hand on his hip. I crane my neck to look up at the wall, but it seems to stretch far past the milky white clouds covering the sky. There's no way Din could jet over it. 
I close my eyes, stepping forward to place one hand on the rock. The cold stings my palm but I ignore it. I focus only on the force and the immense energy on this planet. Ahsoka's words echo in my head as I reach out. "An open mind," I murmur. 
The rock moves. 
My eyes snap open and I stagger back a few steps as a small piece of the rock wall loosens and slides to the side, revealing a cramped opening into an icy cave. I look over at Din, suppressing a grin as I jerk my head toward the opening. "This is the way."
"That's not funny," he says, a sigh trailing his words as he starts forward. I let out a quick snort as I follow him, glancing down at the child in my arms. 
"I thought it was hilarious."
Grogu coos as Din ignores me, instead flicking on the light on the side of his helmet to guide us. The cave path, it turns out, is beautiful. The light shines off the ice and reflects the hints of silver from his armor in a way that illuminates our path even more. There are countless tiny, glittering crystals lining the walls and ceiling like little stars around us, guiding us through a new and hidden galaxy. 
Grogu's wide eyes blink in wonder as he takes in the mystic beauty of it, and I can't help but smile at him. "I wonder why I never knew about this place," I muse. 
Din lets out a low hum as he keeps one hand on the blaster at his hip. "The Empire never got their hands on it?"
"If they did, I wasn't important enough to know about it." A wrong step makes me slip a little on the ice and I suck in a breath, catching myself on the nearest wall. Din stops, immediately spinning around to grab my arm. "I'm fine," I mutter softly. My brow furrows as his hand slides down my arm until our hands meet. He intertwines our fingers and squeezes once before walking again. "I'm not going to fall, Din." I roll my eyes as he keeps my hand firmly in his.