Ahsoka, Daughter of the Light (Book 6): Hero

Chapter 8: A Curious Bird

KATOONI ADANA

It had been about an hour since she had gotten up, and Katooni was practicing her skills with the force out in the field.

So far, she had managed to lift several rocks, and even get a few boulders to budge.

She was practicing on a fairly large sized rock when she heard a peculiar noise.

Wreeeeaaaaa!

It sounded like some sort of hybrid between a screech and a squack.

Katooni looked above her to see a Convor circling the field.

"That bird again!?!?" she said.

This was far from the first time she had seen that Convor. It was quite the oddity. There was no possible way that, unless some were brought here intentionally, Convors could be native here. This world seemed that it historically had zero contact with the outside Galaxy, meaning that an introduced species was highly unlikely. And even then, it wasn't a population of Convors, it was just this one.

Even weirder, it's appearances seemed to directly coincide with when Ahsoka was present. Whenever Ahsoka was offworld, it would never appear.

"Curious about that Convor?" asked a voice from behind her.

It was one of her friends, the Nautoulian youngling Zatt, holding a datapad behind her.

Zatt was one of the younglings that made up the group Katooni went with at Ilum. Petro was among that group as well. Unfortunately, the other three younglings in said group were not at the camp, and their fates were left up in the air. Ganodi (a Rodian), Gungi (a Wookie), and Byph (an Ithorian), were all M. I. A., and presumed dead, unless theyhad escaped their own way.

"Yes," Katooni said, "It's... honestly kind of weird. How did it even get here?"

"Well," he said, "It perched close enough to me once that I managed to place a tracker on it..."

"Oh-"

"And it stopped working almost immediately."

"What?" Katooni questioned.

"I've still managed to draw some conclusions, however," he continued.  "It seems to go missing every time Ahsoka goes offworld."

"I've noticed that," Katooni said. "And furthermore, it seems to really like to stick around her."

"Katooni," Zatt said, "do you-"

"Think there's something we don't know about Master Tano?" Katooni continued his sentence. "Yes, but I'm honestly doubtful if she knows herself."

"Probably," Zatt said. "The bird may have some sort of spiritual connection to her. Perhaps it's some sort of ancient deity manifested in the form of a Convor."

"Well, I'd call that absurd, but if the bird really does follow Ahsoka between planets, I'd be willing to take anything for an answer."

"Maybe we should ask her?" Zatt suggested.

Then, suddenly, a Belbullab-22 starfighter exited the Holt's hangar bay and flew up into the air.

That was Ahsoka's fighter.

"Too late," Katooni said. "She's gone."

"Wait," Zatt said, "This might be the perfect time to try and see what the bird does!"

"Good idea," Katooni said.

The two looked at the bird, and suddenly, it broke off from the circle it was making and went into the woods.

"I'm gonna go run after it," Katooni said.

"I'll come with you!" Zatt replied.

Previously, they had not been allowed to go far away from the camp. However, after it was confirmed that the planet had practically zero environmental or predatory threats (at least in this region), said limitation was lifted, so long as you brought a commlink (which both of them had).

The two ran into the woods, and made sure not to lose sight of the bird.

They jumped through and over tree roots, rocks, and shrubs.

Then, it flew behind a large rock.

"Where'd it go?" Zatt asked.

"Behind this rock!" Katooni replied.

They moved up to the rock and looked behind it, but the Convor was nowhere to be found.

"Darn it," Zatt said. "It must have gotten away somehow. It could've flown further off and we missed it because we couldn't see it from behind the rock."

"Yeah," Katooni said.

"Still too early to draw any conclusions," Zatt said. "We'll have to ask Master Tano about this when she gets back."

"Let's head back to camp," Katooni said.