Star Wars - Ewoks - The Ice Princess!

The Season of Snow had come around again on Endor. Usually the forest rang with the laughter of the Ewoks as they played in the snow, but not this year. The Ewoks were in mourning.

When the first snows had come, Princess Kneesaa, Wicket and Teebo had been making a slide when the princess had tumbled over and had been bitten by an ice-beetle.

Wicket was broken-hearted and stood sobbing as he and Teebo looked at the beautiful princess, encased in a tomb of ice crystals. Chief Chirpa knelt by his daughter’s side, his hands covering his swollen eyes.

“Is there nothing we can do?” asked Teebo.

“I don’t know,” said Wicket. “Master Logray is going through all his parchments. Maybe he will come up with something.”

Just then the old sage approached the three mourners.

“Have you found an answer?” wept Chief Chirpa.

“There is a way,” said Logray. “But it is fraught with danger. The ice-beetle’s poison can only be combated by the juice of the fire plant…”

“But that is only found on the Mountain of Doom,” wailed Chief Chirpa.

The Mountain of Doom was the home of the Frost Giants. None of the Ewoks who had set out to journey there had ever been seen again.

“Even if there was a way, I can’t spare my men,” said the chief. “The Duloks are hungry. They were too lazy to harvest crops this year and they have begun to attack our store-houses. I need all my men to fend them off.”

“You must spare Teebo and me,” said Wicket bravely. “We shall go to the mountain.”

“Shall we?” squeaked Teebo.

“By glider!” said Wicket bravely. “And we shall succeed.”

A few days later, after an uneventful flight, Wicket and Teebo landed their glider at the base of the Mountain of Doom. It was much too high for them to contemplate flying to the top, so with ice-clamps attached to their feet to give them some grip on the smooth mountain face, they set off to scale the peak.

“Wicket,” said Teebo as they struggled up the steep slope. “What’s big, red, flies and eats Ewoks for dinner?”

“This is no time for jokes,” snapped Wicket,

“Who’s joking?” gulped Teebo, pointing to a deadly, red dragon-bird that was swooping towards them.

With a blood-curdling squawk the dragon-bird zoomed towards the two Ewoks. Teebo clutched the mountain-face for safety but the dragon-bird’s wings clipped his back and knocked him off his balance.

“Yeeeooow!” his cry filled the air as he plunged down towards the jagged rocks far below.

A few feet further down the mountain, Wicket watched in horror as his friend fell towards him. Clinging precariously to a tufty plant with one hand, he somehow managed to grab hold of Teebo’s leg as he flashed by. The force almost pulled Wicket off the mountain, but he held on with grim determination as Teebo scrambled for safety.

“This makes a change,” giggled Wicket nervously. “It’s usually you who pulls my leg!”

Teebo was much too shocked to think of something funny to say, and the two continued climbing in silence until they reached a ledge.

With a great whoosh of wings, the dragon-bird swooped in again. Just in time, Wicket spotted a cranny in the rock-face and he and Teebo pressed themselves into it. Imagine their surprise when they found that the cranny was, in fact, the entrance to a cave.

“Come on,” said Wicket. “I’d rather face whatever’s in there, than stand up to the dragon-bird.”

A few minutes later, Teebo’s voice echoed through a maze of tunnels. “At least if we’d stayed out there, we’d have been killed quickly. Now we’re lost and will probably starve to death slowly and miserably!”

“We may as well press on,” said Wicket.

It seemed to Teebo that they had been in the tunnels for hours before they turned a dark corner and stopped in amazement. For there in front of them, was an enormous cave lit by hundreds of shining crystals. At one end there was a table laden with delicious-looking food.

“At least we won’t starve to death,” said Teebo, scurrying towards the table.

“Come back, Teebo!” ordered Wicket. “We don’t have any time to eat. We must find the fire plant and we won’t find it here. That’s for sure!”

“How do you know?” asked Teebo.

“Because I think this must be the throne-room of the Frost Giants’ king, and Frost Giants are obviously unlikely to have the fire plant.”

“Why?”

“It would melt them, silly.”

“No need to be quite so hot-tempered,” snapped Teebo. “All right. Let’s go.”

But it was too late, for as Teebo spoke a procession of Frost Giants entered the cavern, heralding the arrival of the king.

The Ewoks gulped at what they saw, for the Frost Giants were indeed gigantic, at least eight times the size of an Ewok.

“Run,” cried Wicket. But before they could move Wicket and Teebo were surrounded by a circle of Frost Giants.

“Trespassers!” roared the king.

“Your Majesty,” gulped Wicket, bowing low. “We did not intend to trespass. We were trying to…”

But before Wicket could finish, the Frost Giant king scooped him up in his icy hand.

“You are doomed,” he said. “We have a special way of dealing with uninvited guests. We breathe on them.”

“Oh well,” said Teebo. “As long as you haven’t had too much garlic, it can’t be all that bad.”

But Wicket had heard the legend of the Frost Giants’ breath. Anyone who was touched by it was instantly turned into a block of ice.

Just as it seemed the Ewoks were doomed, two guards rushed into the throne-room. “Sire,” gasped one. “The devil-bird has returned. We are being attacked.”

Wicket realized that the guard was talking about the dragon-bird, and he could see that the Frost Giants were terrified: with good reason, for one puff of the dragon-bird’s breath and the giants would melt.

“Sire,” said Wicket. “Teebo and I will deal with it. I have a plan.”

Wicket quickly put his plan into action. He ordered the giants to build a huge wall of ice on the very edge of the mountain summit.

Then he asked one of them to lead him back to the entrance to the maze, which was just below the summit. He could see the fearsome bird flying nearby.

Wicket made a very rude noise at the dragon-bird which swooped down towards him. Just as it looked as if the bird would have the courageous Ewok in its grasp, Wicket shouted “Now!” and darted backwards into the tunnel. Above, on the summit, the Frost Giants pushed with all their might against the towering wall, and before you could say, “Ewok!” it cascaded down the mountain in an enormous avalanche and smashed into the ledge.

The dragon-bird squawked as it was buried beneath tons of ice, and then was heard no more.

Teebo looked down and started to sob, for he thought that his friend had died along with the dragon-bird.

“Gone!” he sobbed. “Wicket’s gone!”

“Well, I think that was very successful,” said a voice behind the weeping Ewok. He spun round and there, standing quite calmly, was Wicket, looking for all the world as though nothing had happened.

“How…” started Teebo.

“I’ll explain later,” said Wicket.

“Ewoks,” said the Frost Giant king. “You have saved us. How can we reward you?”

“If it please Your Majesty,” said Wicket. “All we want is to be shown where the fire plant grows…”

“We will show you, but we dare not go near it,” said the king…

When Wicket and Teebo returned to the village with the fire plant, Logray immediately

began to mix a steaming potion. When it was bubbling furiously he poured it over Kneesaa’s icy form.

All the Ewoks watched impatiently and then there was a huge sigh of relief as the ice began to melt. Soon she was free of her frozen prison and a great cheer rang out through the forest.

Chief Chirpa was so grateful that he could hardly speak. But eventually he got his tongue back and thanked his two faithful Ewoks time and time again.

“It was nothing,” said Wicket modestly.

“Any time,” said Teebo bravely.

“Let’s go and play in the snow,” said Princess Kneesaa smilingly.

A few minutes later the Ewoks were having the time of their lives as they zoomed down the snowy slopes on their sledges—apart from Wicket and Teebo. They’d had enough of snow and ice for one season!

From Ewoks Annual 1988

11.6.18.15.14.5-1