Chapter 13 - Rather kiss a Hutt...until now!

Most of the time, Jabba just had them sit at his side. But then, a day or 2 later, Jabba had something else in mind.
Jabba said something to Echo. Ash had no idea what he was saying. It just sounded like gibberish. But Echo’s reaction to it was startled. Ash forgot she knew how to speak Huttese.
“You want me to do WHAT?” Echo said.
Jabba said something back. He seemed startled as well.
Echo stood up and slammed her chain to the ground.
“No! There is no way I’m gonna do that! Not in Yoda’s lifetime!” Echo said.
“What is he asking?” Ash whispered.
“He wants me to dance for him. In front of everyone! I DON’T DANCE, ASH.” Echo said firmly.
Jabba just laughed. Guards came in around Echo and formed a circle around her. Jabba said something in his own language, and Echo put a startled look on her face. Jabba slammed his big fist on a button and the floor beneath Echo slipped away. Echo fell down the hole screaming.
“Not again!” she screamed.
Ash looked down the hole and watched as her sister fell. She was in shock. She heard Jabba laughing behind her. She turned around, and Jabba pushed her down the hole too. She screamed and landed on her bad leg. Again, she screamed.
Echo came over and helped her up. “You ok sis?” she asked.
“Ya, I’ll be alright,” Ash replied.
Then, they heard a squeaking noise. They turned around and a large door was opening behind them. Slowly, Ash and Echo saw the form of a rancor appear behind the door. The beast roared so loud the walls shook. Then the door behind it shut.
“Ahhhh! Bantha fodder!” Ash said.
Echo looked over to her.
“Where did you get your dirty mouth?” Echo asked.
“Never mind that now, let’s just try to stay alive, shall we?” Ash said. She mustered up as much strength as she could and drawed and on the Force a lot to stay up.
The rancor was slow, but it was massive. Ash was slow on her bad leg, but she managed to dodge a lot of the rancor’s attacks by jumping or somersaulting over them. She saw Echo out of the corner of her eye jumping and flipping over walls to dodge the rancor. She wondered how she still had so much strength. She finally couldn’t hold herself any longer and hid under a rock, hoping the rancor wouldn’t notice her.
Unfortunately, it did.
The rancor moved away from Echo and moved to where Ash was hiding. She was cornered. Up above, she heard Jabba’s mighty laugh.
The rancor moved his huge hand under the rock and grabbed Ash. It squeezed tighter. Ash yelled. Her back was still sore, and this wasn’t giving it any help. She saw Echo out of the corner of her eye just watching. She knew she couldn’t do anything. She didn’t have a weapon, and she wasn’t that powerful. Ash tried to accept her fate, but then she heard shooting outside, the sound of buzzing lightsabers, and the massive door behind her started to open. The brilliant glow of a green and blue lightsaber shown through the door. One of the shadows threw its lightsaber. It spun around and went through the rancor’s skull. A horrible smell filled the air in front of Ash. It was the smell of burnt flesh and rotten dead animal.
The shadow, Ash’s master Cin Drallig, sprang from his position and on top of the monster, grabbing his lightsaber and then jamming in back through the other side of the rancor’s head. The beast roared and dropped Ash to the ground. She tried to use the Force to soften the landing, but she was too weak, and she hit the ground hard. Echo ran over to her side while Cin and Echo’s master, Rahm, took care of the rancor. When they were done with that, Cin came up and scooped Ash up into his arms.
“Just in time,” Ash said, starting to see stars. “I was beginning to think you weren’t coming.”
“Do you think I would forget you that easily?” Cin said smiling.
Ash smiled. She felt Cin move her hair away from her face.
They made their way out of Jabba’s palace. Echo and Rahm lead the way, taking out any person that tried to stop them. Rahm had brought an extra lightsaber and gave it to Echo to use. Ash was too disoriented to stay concentrated on what was going on, but she did notice that Echo was still walking, unlike her.
They finally made their way back to the ship. Cin strapped Ash onto a medical cot and attended to her wounds the best he could while Echo and Rahm got the ship flying and away from the miserable planet of Tatooine.. Ash eventually passed out. She wanted rest. Rest that wasn’t interrupted by an electrical shock every hour.

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