Skirmish at the Kete Hive

The Skirmish at the Keet Hive was a minor conflict involved in the Stranglethorn crisis. The event was the result of the intrusion of two young Ewoks into the Keet Hive. After discovering the trespassers, the Keet Queen and her subjects chased the Ewoks throughout the hive, but they eventually escaped.

Build-up
Following the beginning of the Battle of Bright Tree Village, the two Ewoks, Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka and Wicket W. Warrick decided to obtain the ingredients for the antidote to plant growth formula, a powerful potion which had dramatically enlarged a carnivorous stranglethorn. The large plant had begun to take over the village, and the stores of antidote that the Ewoks possessed were held hostage within the Ewok Shaman Logray's hut by the vines of the stranglethorn. Since they were unable to get past the hostile plant, the Ewoks needed to find the ingredients and quickly.

The first ingredient to the antidote happened to be keet nectar, a sweet fluid that was produced by the nearby insectoid Keets. Making their way to the Keet Hive, the two Ewoks witnessed a Keet worker walking up the side of the hive, using his sticky feet as anchors. After seeing this, Kneesaa was struck with inspiration and fashioned sticky shoes made of leaves and the nearby bog surrounding the hive. With the shoes strapped to their feet, the two Ewoks scaled the outside of the structure and entered the hive, keeping a look out for other Keets.

Confrontation
"Gupa Keets. You're probably wondering what we're doing here…"

- Wicket W. Warrick

As the Ewoks tread carefully through the hive, they saw the Keets storing nectar pearls of keet nectar in one of their storerooms. The Ewoks planned to sneak into the storeroom and obtain one of the pearls, but before they could come up with a plan, they were discovered by the Keet Queen and several of her subjects. The Keets backed the Ewoks into a corner of the hive, disturbed by the intrusion of the outsiders. Kneesaa tried to explain that they desperately needed a nectar pearl, but the Queen just snapped her mandibles menacingly. Realizing that the Keets were about to attack, Wicket grabbed Kneesaa and fled from the area with the Keets in hot pursuit.

The Keet warriors slowly began to advance on the two Ewoks, but Wicket and Kneesaa were eventually able to lose their pursuers. Backtracking back to their original location, the two Ewoks entered a nectar pearl storeroom and were delighted to see the huge stock of pearls that it contained. However, as the two Ewoks prepared to remove one of the pearls, a single Keet, who had witnessed their escape from the Queen, was able to roll a boulder in front of the entrance to the storeroom, trapping the two Ewoks inside. The triumphant Keet then signaled the rest of the hive, and they quickly arrived at the site with their Queen.

Escape
"Yeah yeah! Real funny you Lurdos!"

- Wicket W. Warrick

Unknown to the Keets, inside the storeroom Wicket W. Warrick had accidentally removed a nectar pearl from the bottom of the large pile. The removal of a base pearl caused the entire stack to collapse, flooding the room with the pearls and enveloping the Ewoks. Outside of the storeroom, the Queen signaled several Keets to remove the boulder that was sealing the Ewoks inside. As soon as the rock had been moved aside, the pearls inside, and the Ewoks with them began to pour out of the room. The supply of nectar pearls hit the unsuspecting Keets, knocking them aside. With the Keets out of their way, the Ewoks rolled the rest of the way out of the hive and to freedom.

Unfortunately for the Ewoks, their escape was less than coordinated, and they fell less than gracefully from the entrance to the hive. Along with several of the nectar pearls, the Ewoks plummeted into the bog that surrounded the Keet hive. Covered in sticky goo, the two Ewoks struggled to extricate themselves from the mess. As the Ewoks slowly made their way away from the hive, the Keet Queen and her subjects came to the entrance of the Hive to see the plight that the Ewoks had found themselves in. The Keet Queen found the sticky Ewoks to be extremely hilarious and collapsed in laughter. As the rest of the hive joined their leader in guffawing at the two Ewoks, Wicket and Kneesaa grabbed one of the nectar pearls surrounding them and escaped the area still covered in the bog's goo.

Aftermath
After obtaining the keet nectar, the Ewoks moved on to obtain a ganga root. Unfortunately for the Ewoks, the keet nectar proved almost worthless in concocting an antidote, as they were unable to obtain the last ingredient in the trome sap. However, the event at the hive allowed Kneesaa to learn one of the Three Lessons, the lesson of the hand, preparing her for future leadership over the tribe. Additionally, the invention of the sticky shoes was instrumental in saving several woklings during the Battle of Bright Tree Village, when Kneesaa used the shoes to climb up to their location and fed one of the sticky shoes to a stranglethorn, sealing its jaws shut.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Ewoks
 * The Three Lessons