spaceship glided to a soft landing in a valley surrounded by giant mushroom forests. Ken was the first to hurry down the entrance ramp to the soft, spongy ground of the planet.
"Zneeeech Kboooop!" Artoo-Detoo tooted.
"Artoo is right-I suggest you pay attention to where you’re walking, Master Ken," See-Threepio exclaimed. "Watch out for arachnor webs-they’re horribly sticky and rather huge. And keep your eyes to the ground, and beware of tentacle-bushes."
"What’s a tentacle-bush?" Ken asked.
"Just like the name suggests," Threepio explained. "A small plant with long, thin tentacles that reach out to snatch little rodents."
Luke Skywalker hoisted a portable stun-cannon to his shoulder. "This may prove to be useful if we meet up with any arachnors."
Ken glanced around at the nearby mushroom forest. "Cool!" he exclaimed. "There’s macaab mushrooms everywhere up on that hill. Let’s go, last one there is a Kowakian monkey-lizard!"
"Wait up, Master Ken!" See-Threepio shouted. But Ken was already far ahead of everyone. It was also the first time Luke had been in a macaab mushroom forest. He too was quite overwhelmed to see the range of sizes, from the small mushrooms that hugged the ground like little flowers, to the tree-size macaabs that towered high above them.
HISSSSSSSS!
Ken’s heart skipped a beat. He glanced over his shoulder and saw a spidery arachnor twice his size crawling down a huge mushroom.
Luke saw it too, and he began firing his portable stun-cannon as he walked toward the spider. But he didn’t notice the thin green tentacle that was slithering along the ground near his right boot. Suddenly the tentacle twisted around Luke’s ankle and gave a sharp tug, pulling him to the ground headfirst as his legs slid out from under him. The stun-cannon fell from Luke’s hands and slid partway down a steep embankment.
"Groooowwwf!" Chewbacca growled, heading down the embankment to recover the weapon. But as soon as Chewbacca reached out for the stun-cannon, a spindly tentacle wrapped around his left ankle. The tentacle-bush tightened and squeezed, toppling the big Wookiee right into some thorny shrubs.
"Rooooarrrf!" Chewbacca moaned in protest.
"Well, don’t blame me!" Threepio scolded, as he took a few cautious steps down the embankment. "I warned you about those tentacle-bushes-obviously no one was listening."
"Just a second, Chewie," Ken shouted. "I’ll get the stun-cannon!"
"Wait, Ken!" Luke yelled.
But Ken didn’t wait. He bounded down the slippery embankment. And as he reached for the stun-cannon, he just kept sliding, down and down until he found himself far past the point where Chewbacca had fallen. In fact, Ken slid so far, he brushed up against an arachnor web at the bottom of the hill. Ken stuck to the web like molasses.
"Hey, get me out of this!" Ken screamed. As he shouted, out of the corner of his eye, Ken could make out a strange tower just beyond the forest at the bottom of the hill. Back near the top of the hill, Chewbacca, who was covered with prickly thorns, growled in outrage. "Rowwwooooof!" Chewbacca moaned, unable to loosen the tentacle from his ankle with his big hairy paws.
Luke had more success than Chewbacca. Drawing out his lightsaber, he aimed the green blade of the laser at the tentacle that was still gripping tightly onto his boot. With one swift swing of his blade, Luke sliced the tentacle in two. Then he jumped to his feet and hurried down the embankment to attempt to free Ken and Chewbacca.
"I’ll be right back, Chewie," Luke said as he passed the big Wookiee and continued down the embankment. "I’ve got to get to Ken first. Those arachnor webs are like quicksand-the more he struggles, the harder it will be to get him out!" Luke was right. As Ken wiggled his arms the sticky web seemed to wrap around him like a cocoon.
"Oh dear, oh my! I knew we never should have come here," See-Threepio complained, keeping his eye sensors trained on Luke, who was now nearly at
MR. PINK-WHISTLE INTERFERES