The Jewel Casket

The Jewel Casket
The Kitchen Maid
The Lady of Shalott
the night watch by rembrandt
The mound shook again, with a roar that nearly destroyed the probe droid'sauditory sensors. It zoomed back several meters, widening the space between it andthe creature. The droid had never before encountered a Wampa Ice Creature; itscomputers advised that the beast be dealt with expeditiously. The droid made an internal adjustment to regulate the potency of its laser beam.Less than a moment later the beam was at maximum intensity. The machine aimedthe laser at the creature, enveloping it in a great flaming and smoking cloud.Seconds later the few remaining particles of the Wampa were swept away by the icywinds. The smoke disappeared, leaving behind no physical evidence—save for a largedepression in the snow—that an Ice Creature had ever been there. But its existence had been properly recorded in the memory of the probe droid,which was already continued on its programmed mission