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Chapter Two: The Star Map
Carth stared at the woman, letting out a gasp.
"Deigo…." He repeated.
"Good!" The woman smiled. Carth chuckled uncertainly.
"Umm…." He started off. "Can you speak Basic?"
"Bay-sik?" Deigo asked, scratching her ear with a cupped hand. Carth groaned.
"Well, I guess I'd better find Salvi and tell him I found the Deigo." He told himself, standing. He stretched. The Deigo stared at him.
"Eh?" She seemed confused. She stared at Carth's legs, her eyes wide and her fingers griping the dirt.
"What? Oh, this is standing." He pointed to his legs, feeling a little more than ridiculous. "Standing—" Deigo nodded, attempting to stand on her two feet.
Deigo lifted herself up onto her two feet and attempted to keep her balance. She held her arms out to her sides, waving them desperately, trying not to fall over. She failed, tumbling down onto her bottom. She cried out.
Carth shook his head, helping her sit in her usual position.
"We'll work on that," He said. Deigo nodded as if she understood.
He sat back on the ground. "Sitting."
The Deigo nodded. She mimicked Carth's current position on her bottom.
"Sih-ting." She pronounced.
"Good enough."
"Good!" Deigo recognized that word. "Good!" Carth couldn't help but smile. She wasn't scary at all… he didn't know what the old man and the Wookies were so miffed about.
That was when they came back. Those animals that attacked Carth at first returned with more of their kind. They stood in front of Carth, roaring and challenging him. Carth stood, pulling out his sword again.
The Deigo screeched, standing in an attack position in front of Carth protectively. She and the animals roared back and forth, each becoming fiercer.
"She can understand them…." Carth thought aloud.
Apparently, the Deigo wasn't very intimidating. The animals jumped onto her, covering her in their bodies. Carth was knocked backwards. He couldn't see her.
"Deigo!" He called, standing once more.
The animals went flying. All of them, at the same time, launched into the air and hung onto large branches. The Deigo stood on her haunches as if nothing was hurt. She gave another threatening growl to the now-whimpering animals and returned to Carth. She took his hand in one of hers and began pulling him away.
"Ngrah," She pleaded, pulling still on Carth. He followed her.
"But the way up is that way." Carth pointed in the other direction. The Deigo ignored him. She probably couldn't understand him, anyway.
Carth followed the Deigo through the forest, climbing over logs and dead animals.
"Where exactly are we going?" He wondered out loud. The Deigo once again ignored him. She glanced around as she turned left into the deeper part of the forest. He followed wearily.
After a while, they came in to a clearing with a big black tack in the center of it. A huge platform stood next to it, with a hologram of an alien in the middle. The Deigo pointed at it.
"S-ss-steah ma-a-a-ma." She squinted as she tried to speak. She frowned.
"What are you trying to say?" Carth asked, crouching down beside her.
"S-s-s-tauh ma-a-ap." The Deigo tried once more to pronounce the words. Carth followed her finger to the tack.
"Are you trying to say Star Map?" Carth asked again. The Deigo's head perked up.
"Ss-tah M-a-a-a-puh." She strained. Carth chuckled.
"S-tar." He pronounced slowly. "Star."
"Star." Deigo repeated.
"Good!" Carth congratulated. The Deigo beamed.
"Good!" She echoed.
"M-ap." Carth pronounced slowly. "Map."
"Map. Star Map." The Deigo clapped. "Good!"
She was applauding herself. At least she knew that "Good" meant that she did well.
"So this is the Star Map?" Carth circled it. "We'd better find Salvi."
The Deigo sat on her haunches and sniffed the air, just about the time when a Wookie cry rang out. She cried out, bolting in the direction of the sound. Carth worked to keep up with her.
There was Salvi, battling a Wookie. The Deigo jumped into the fight, smacking the Jedi across the face and jumping backward. Salvi fell over, surprised by the other attacker. He whirled around his lightsaber and lunged at the new party member. Deigo jumped out of the way and knocked him down, landing behind the Wookie. The Wookie was having problems fending off the woman Jedi and the old one. Deigo leapt onto Salvi and knocked his head onto the ground. Jolee held his hand up in front of Salvi and sent the Deigo flying.
Slightly stunned with surprise, the Deigo came back. She held her hand up to Jolee and shouted. He rushed backward, slamming into a nearby log.
Carth stood outside the danger, staring in awe. Why was the Deigo attacking the others? What was the Wookie doing attacking the others? He knew the Wookies didn't like them, but they never attacked.
"That's enough!" The old man's voice scared the Deigo, who scrambled behind Carth, who stood behind the Wookie.
The battle was stopped.
"Are you okay, Jolee?" Salvi helped the man up.
"I'm too old to be slamming into logs all the time! Just be lucky it didn't kill me." The man answered. Salvi smiled.
The Deigo began talking in the most peculiar language, shouting the most impolite things at Salvi. Carth laid a hand on her shoulder and knelt down beside her.
"No," He squeezed her shoulder. "That's not good." She seemed to understand enough. She stopped all her name-calling, staring down at her filthy feet.
The three humans and the Wookie exchanged words. The Wookie was identified as Freyerr, the old chieftain of the Wookie clan.Carth never left his spot beside Deigo, as if afraid that she would pounce on Salvi again.
"Now," Jolee said finally, looking beside Carth to the woman. "I see you've found her."
"Who? Who is that Carth?" Bastila asked, pointing at Deigo.
"Deigo. Ai am Deigo." Deigo pointed her thumb to her chest. Bastila blanched. "What—is—your—name?"
"The Deigo?" Bastila repeated. She ignored the last, more complete sentence.
"Good!" Deigo smiled.
"I see someone's been teaching her Basic." Jolee eyed Carth, "harrumphing" and crossing his arms. "She wouldn't learn from me."
"You gave her the clothes, didn't you?" Carth asked, ignoring the first inquiry. "They're too big to be a female's clothing, and you're the only Jedi around here."
"Yes, I gave them to her some time ago. Couldn't stand to have a woman running around without totally naked." The old man began rambling. "Wouldn't do the eyes any good. The things are already beginning to fail on me; I don't want to get them any worse."
"What are we going to do with her?" Salvi asked.
"She could help you find your Star Map and Bacca's blade." The Wookie suggested.
"Star Map!" The Deigo caught the words clearly, translating them into Basic. She threw a finger in to the air. "Star Map! Star Map!"
"Does she know the Wookie language?" Salvi pointed at her.
"Yes; when we found her we taught her our language. She can understand us but can't talk back. It is surprising that she is learning Basic so easily."
The Deigo slowly crawled out from behind Carth, who restrained himself from holding her back. She glanced at everyone, keeping closer to Freyerr.
"So why did Chuundar say that you were taken by the Deigo?" Salvi asked, placing a hand on his chin. The Deigo backed up again, hissing.
"Chuunda! Chuunda! Grrr!" She glared at Salvi.
"That's enough, Deigo." The Wookie ordered. Deigo "meeped" and hung her head. "Chuundar and Deigo never got along, she likes Zaalbar more."
"Zaalbar!" Deigo cried, smiling. A look of puzzlement came over her. "Zaalbar…" She couldn't find a word to finish the sentence, so she pointed to the ground. She stared at Carth, as if asking him to finish the sentence.
"Here?" Carth guessed. "You mean here?"
"Heer." Deigo copied before frowning. "No. Here." She corrected herself. She nodded her head up and down. "Zaalbar here?"
"My dear man, she just formed a sentence!" Freyerr clapped his hands together. "That quickly! I'm so proud of her!"
Bastila translated to Carth.
"Good!" The Deigo smiled. Carth chuckled sheepishly.
"Just a word here and there." He shrugged.
"It's more than we could get her to talk. She must really like you."
"Yes, well," Salvi jumped in, seeing Carth's anxiety. "We should get to finding the sword of Bacca."
"Deigo knows where it is. I'll ask her to show you."
"Hmmm?" The Deigo cocked her head to her side at the mention of her name.
"Can you show them where the ritual beast is?" Freyerr asked the woman. She frowned, moaning. She said one word.
"Tarentatek."
Bastila froze, her eyes bulging. Carth crossed his arms. Salvi placed his head in his hands.
"A tarentatek? Isn't that what that Twi'lek was talking about back on Dantooine?" He asked. Bastila nodded. "Oh, good." The sarcasm dripped from his voice, but Deigo didn't know what sarcasm was.
"No." She shook her head. "No good." Salvi rolled his eyes.
"Let's head out." Jolee said. "Carth will have to come, too."
"Must he?" Salvi sounded a little peeved, making Carth bristle.
"Yes, he must!" Scolded Jolee. "Apparently, he's the only one the Deigo will listen to." Deigo perked her head at the sound of her name.
"Hmmm?" She asked, tilting her head.
"Tarentatek." Carth said. "We need to find it."
"Fai-n-duh?" Deigo pronounced.
"Find. He means 'find', Deigo." The Wookie translated.
"Good! Fai-n-duh Tarentatek. Here." The Deigo began walking in another direction.
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I was gonna add more but it took me this long to come up with this much. I know what I'm going to do next; I just don't know how I'm going to go about it. So please review and will get to updating as fast as I can!