My new bit of ingenius, this baby wrote herself about an hour ago. Hope you all enjoy!
Swoop Bike
The Thrill of Being Spontaneous
He sat on the edge of the derailed balcony, one leg swinging freely off the side and the other propping his elbow up. Another night gone and his father wasn't home, not that he had highly anticipated his father's return home. He knew it wasn't likely, but his father had hinted. He pulled another button free from its hold on his shirt. Granted, his father was likely to kill him for the handiwork he had performed this time on a speeder, but seeing his father again would overshadow that. He envied the kids at school whose father's came to pick them up, while he trudged the lonely path up to the mansion at the top of the hill behind wrought iron fences and into an empty house. But empty was relative, there were plenty of servants and maids and droids and all manners of other things scurrying about, but when his father wasn't home, he considered the house empty. Why a nineteen year old would feel this way was beyond him, but he did regret not seeing his father more as a youngster.
He gazed out to the mountains in the distance and watched as the sun created a brilliant display of light, shooting out bright oranges and yellows and softer reds and softer still pinks until far behind him the sky was dark with the absence of the sun's light. His mother had always loved sunsets like these; maybe that was why he had always enjoyed them so much. His mother had died about ten years ago, leaving him alone with his father. Not that he minded so much, he just wished that his father wasn't always on Coruscant, fighting for the better good of the galaxy. Or so he called it.
He sighed, and breathed deeply the fresh air that permeated the space around him. Being left in a mansion with millions of thousands of hundreds of credits had its benefits, he had to admit. He did what he liked, when he liked, how he liked. He always had and, he thought, I always will. Sometimes he was invited over to stay at a friend of his father's palace in Aldera. High Prince Bail Organa and his wife were very welcome to him, and their daughter was only a year younger than he was. He enjoyed the company at times, and at others, he craved to be back in the solitude of his own mansion. Where he could do what he liked, when he liked, and he could do it how he liked. He dropped his leather duffle off of the balcony and listened for the soft sound of it hitting the ground. Throwing a glance over his shoulder to make sure that none of the maids or servants was watching, he stood up and jumped off of the edge of his balcony, landing softly in the grass below. He made his way down to the garage where his father let him keep all of his machines. He pulled out his sport swoop and hopped on after pulling on the helmet, speeding down the dirt lane to the iron gates that barred the entrance to the mansion grounds. Throwing a nod to the guard, he slowed long enough to allow a space big enough for him to fit through. Shooting off into the distance and winding through the forest that sheltered the path to his home, he left the guard fumbling for his comm.
All that could be seen of the nineteen year old was a blur of black against vivid red speeding along, down towards the bustling city and was alive with light below his mountain kept secret hideaway. He heard the howlers in the forest keeping up their namesake, even over the scream of his swoop. A daring gleam that none could see flashed across his eyes and he veered into the woods. Dodging trees and branches and the overgrown forest floor, he shot over the edge of the overhang he was expecting to be there. With an exhilarated whoop, he let the bike fall hundreds of feet, with the forest come up underneath him quickly. He gunned the engine and kicked on the repulsors at exactly the right moment and rode along the tops of the trees until there was a gap and then he fell back to riding through the trees and overgrown shrubs. When he excited the forest, he pulled up sharply before he went over the next ledge that would take him to the depths of the biggest lake within a hundred thousand miles. He enjoyed the view of the sparkling city and swung the swoop in the opposite direction, flying along the edge of the cliff back towards the path that lead down to it. He pulled into the path directly in front of a large freight speeder, and he gunned the engine, getting away from having the back of his bike scrunched up in the last few seconds. Newly exhilarated from his skirmish, he speed up and flew into the city, easily mixing in with the traffic.
He reached the passenger shuttle in the knick of time and hurriedly secured his speeder into the cargo bay. He threw a credit chip at the man standing by the landing platform and slunk up into the holds of the ship. He fingered the quick release of his blaster as he wound through the throngs of people lingering around the ship. He barely felt the lurch of takeoff as he continued to stalk through the passage ways. He saw a girl who looked to be about his age and began to walk over, but the flash of something shiny on her left ring finger caught his eye and he diverted from the hoped familiarity. He didn't spend a lot of time leaning against the wall, hazel eyes shifting through the crowd, for Aldera was the first stop. He hopped off and went to the cargo bay immediately, backing his swoop out of and pulling the helmet over his head, being sure to keep his brown bangs from falling over his eyes. He pulled out and mixed into the traffic of Aldera, taking a familiar path up the side of the sloping mountains to House Organa, where he hoped his friend Leia was still awake. He slowed as he neared and pulled off his helmet to identify with the guard. The man waved him through as wrought iron gates similar to those which guarded his own estate swung open in a graceful arc. He eased through them; not wanting to make too much noise for fear that some of the occupants of the huge estate might be asleep. He left the bike in its usual place of occupancy on his visits and slipped into the gleaming building silently. The maids and servants nodded at him in acknowledgement as they passed him in the halls as he made his way up to the personal living quarters, hopefully that Breha was still awake, and even more hopefully of Leia being awake. He knocked softly and waited a few moments for the greeting of the droid that always answered the door.
The droid, familiar with his presence of coming and going from time to time, quickly let him in and told him to sit and he would fetch Mistress Breha. He called after for the droid not to wake her if she was asleep. However, moments later, Breha Organa swept into the room and grabbed him in a motherly hug. He broke out beaming. Her smile was just as large as she offered him his seat again and took a seat herself. She informed him that Leia would be along in a moment and before he could say anything about waking her up she silenced him saying that she wasn't anywhere near even thinking about going to bed. He grinned and sat back to wait for his friend in the plush couch that he had chosen as his seat for the evening. A flurry of ivory caught his eye and he turned, allowing the ebony to accompany it. Another grin, this time a cocky and lopsided one, found its way onto his face and he stood up.
"Han Solo, what are you doing showing up here at this time of night?"
So? Let me know...there is more, the second chapter wrote itself about five seconds after this chapter was done.