The coast alternates between icy beaches of coarse sand and pebbles, to jagged cliffs of black rock. They avoid the cliffs when they can, and when they can't, Ahsoka and Barriss use the Force to help Riyo climb over them. After the second set of cliffs, Riyo finds a land speeder road for them to walk along. The road is overgrown with grass, but at least it's flat. The further they get from Reindeer Ridge, the more relaxed Riyo becomes until she actually hums a little song. Now and then, a little tongue click escapes her as she mutters some of the lyrics.
Ahsoka smiles, but Barriss' eyebrows scrunch together. They've been doing that a lot lately, and Barriss' natural state just seems to be full of tension anyway, but this is different somehow. Ahsoka catches her eye and jerks her head back, and the two of them fall behind until Riyo's out of earshot.
"What's wrong, Barriss?" Ahsoka asks.
"Do you believe Riyo? About the whole Sea Goddess issue, I mean."
"I've seen stranger." Felt stranger too, if she remembers the entire Mortis debacle correctly. If the Force is capable of creating creatures like that, then It could do anything. If It could turn her into an deranged shadow of herself and then kill her and then bring her back again—mostly back anyway; something about her must be different, even if she hasn't yet figured out how—then It could certainly create undead Pantorans.
Barriss looks askance at her, her blue eyes sharpening for just a moment.
"All things are possible through the Force," Ahsoka says and hopes that that's enough. Barriss sighs.
"I suppose you're right. The galaxy is a frightening place sometimes. It'd be foolish to limit what the Force could do."
A soft rumbling noise comes from down the road behind them, and Ahsoka turns her head to better hear. When it starts getting louder, Ahsoka hurries up to reach Riyo in time.
"Ahsoka, what's wrong?" Barriss asks as she follows.
"A speeder's coming," Ahsoka says. She takes Riyo by the elbow and gently steers her off to the side of the road.
"Should we hitchhike?" Barriss asks.
"Let's not. I'd prefer to not get wrapped up in more weirdness if I can help it," Riyo says. They keep walking until the promised speeder zooms past them. It's a pickup landspeeder, with scratches and dents all over. Large patches of the body have been stripped of paint completely and are growing a layer of rust.
The three of them watch it go in a cloud of dust kicked up by the hover engines. It dips down a sloping hill, then turns to the right and parks in front of a run-down garage. The sign over the top reads Kortzeer Speeder Repair. There's a Pantoran girl standing in the bed of a pickup speeder surrounded by a group of men. They're all purple in the face yelling at each other.
"Oh my," Barriss says. "Perhaps we should intervene."
"It looks pretty serious," Ahsoka says.
They make their way down the hill and towards the garage. The ground in front of it is packed dirt, with grasses growing here and there. There are a few other speeders parked haphazardly in this lot, all different shapes and sizes, but in similar states of disrepair.
It's a real shame they're the way they are too. Ahsoka's seen the same makes and models painted and pristine as part of collections and museums on Coruscant. Here in the Outer Rim, these junkers are probably all that the locals can scrounge up.
The Pantoran men are dressed in work clothes already dusted with dirt. Some of them wear wide-brimmed hats and slitted goggles to protect them from the sun. They scowl up at the girl, who is dressed in coveralls stained with engine oil and grease. All of them argue in Pantoran, all tongue clicks and rolling r's.
"What are they talking about?" Ahsoka asks.
Riyo cringes. "The girl and her brother are mechanics who run this garage, but they're very behind on their queue. These farmers need their speeders to do their work, so they're understandably upset."
"So they just need an extra mechanic? Maybe we can help," Ahsoka says.
Riyo gently pushes through the crowd, and at her touch, the men fall silent and step aside until she's standing before the girl. Ahsoka and Barriss follow her, and the crowd parts even further upon seeing Ashoka.
"Awe usisi, ingaba uyasithetha Basic?" Riyo asks.
The girl, who really can't be much older than they are, looks down at Riyo in surprise. "Hah? I know enough, Snow Walker. What do you want?"
"My friends and I can help you with the shop. At least until the worst is done," Riyo says.
"Eish! Move on, you grifter. I can't afford to hire anyone."
"I should be clearer; we'll work for free, out of the goodness of our hearts."
The girl stares down at Riyo, then at Ahsoka and Barriss. "Yeah, dunno about that."
Riyo shrugs. "Okay, then I wish you luck with wrangling this crowd."
"Wait! Wait." The girl crouches down. "Please don't leave. I don't know how you got all these guys to calm down, but it won't last if you disappear."
"Come on, let us help you. What do you got to lose?" Ahsoka asks.
The girl sighs. "Yeah. Come with me." She jumps over the side of the speeder and lands on her feet, then gestures for them to follow her.
Unfortunately, the men break out into angry yells and try to follow them too.
"Whoa!" The girl changes direction and heads for the attached building instead of the garage. She leads them all into a small waiting room, complete with a receptionist's desk, and lowers the counter before the men can follow her much further.
"Can you read?" The girl gestures to a sloppy stack of flimsi on the desk. "My mum's supposed to take care of this stuff, but she never does."
"Yes." Riyo flips through a few of the flimsies and nods. "Seems simple enough."
The girl flashes a smile. "Enkosi! Come on, the garage is this way." She opens another door and Ahsoka follows her through, letting the door close behind her.
The garage is warm and dry and messy. The two of them pick their way over the parts and tools littering the ground until they reach a speeder suspended on a lift. A young, Pantoran man lounges in an oversized tire with his arm thrown over his face.
"This is why we're behind schedule," the girl says. She kicks the sole of the man's boot and ignores his tortured groan. "I'm Sanele, this is useless sack of bones is my brother, Vuyo. Awe, Vuyo! Speak in Basic; we have guests."
Vuyo gives a long-suffering sigh.
"He's the head mechanic. I do what I can, but it's not enough. I'm not trained, you see. My strength is more civil engineering." Sanele pulls on a pair of thick leather gloves.
Ahsoka takes off her parka, then fishes a pair of goggles from an interior pocket. "What's wrong with him?"
"He broke up with some girl earlier this week and he's been moping ever since."
At this, Vuyo finally stirs. He sits straight up on the tire, eyes blazing. "'Some girl?' I was going to marry her!"
"If she was so special, then you wouldn't have let her go so easily!" Sanele says.
"Eish! Help me out, stranger. When your mother tells you to do something, you do it, neh?"
"From what I understand about marriage though, shouldn't you be doing what your fiancé tells you to do instead?" Ahsoka asks.
"Ooh!" Sanele throws a grease-stained rag at her brother's head. "Suck it up, mama's boy! Now get off your ass and help us."
Vuyo grumbles as he gets to his feet.
All speeders, regardless of whether they are land or air, follow the same basic checkup routine. First, park the speeder on a flat surface and engage the parking brake. There is a lever underneath the dashboard that opens the hood.
Speeder engines are convoluted things, a tightly packed system of hoses and pipes. All of these moving parts require all kinds of fluids to run. So check the engine oil, transmission fluid, power steering fluid, and the coolant. Top these fluids off if the levels are too low.
Ahsoka pauses as a phantom wave of pain passes through her body. When it's over, she blinks and continues her work. Whatever Riyo and Barriss must be doing back in the waiting room seems to be working, because none of the men come back to bother them and when they release the speeders back to their owners, there are neat stacks of flimsies ready for the siblings to sign.
After the fluids are done, test the speeder lights and the horn. When replacing spent lightbulbs, it's important to handle the new ones with rubber gloves, and not with your bare hands. Any oil on the glass will cause the bulb to burn out quicker.
"Ahsoka?" Sanele waves a little to get her attention. "Can you help Vuyo take out the engine? I have to sign these flimsies."
One of the last speeders has a cracked belt in it, and in order to replace it, the entire engine has be lifted out. A harness has already been strapped around it to keep it from falling after it's been loosened and detached from the rest of the speeder.
"Sure." Ahsoka takes off her vambraces and sets them to the side before she joins Vuyo at the speeder. He slaps the business end of a power wrench into her hand.
"Our power wrench is poodoo, so I have to watch the power levels." Vuyo gestures to the thick cord connecting the power wrench to a small control panel. "Gotta start at max power just to turn it on, and then I have to keep moving the dial around to keep it from overheating and to keep it from turning off."
"You should get a new one," Ahsoka says. She eyes the electrical tape wound around a portion of the cord. It's pulling apart, revealing the stripped wire underneath. A tool that temperamental would be scrapped in a heartbeat on Coruscant.
Vuyo shrugs and squats next to the control panel. "Can't afford a new one. Let me know when you're ready."
Ahsoka leans over the engine and touches the wrench to the first bolt head. "Ready."
VRRRRM.
The wrench jumps to life in Ahsoka's hands, but she's strong enough to keep it under control. The bolt loosens after a couple seconds and Ahsoka moves the wrench out of the way so that she can pull the bolt free. She tosses the bolt into a nearby bucket and goes to loosen the next one.
"Do you really think I shouldn't have broke up with my girlfriend?" Vuyo asks over the rumble of the wrench.
Ahsoka rolls her eyes. "What do you think?"
He sighs. "It's just…she's the first girl my mum hasn't chased off, so I thought, 'hey, maybe she's the one.'"
"She what?"
"My mum's hard to please, that's all. Her standards are high, so that's why she does the things she does. Like Sanele, she had a full ride to the Bravado Tech, but she didn't go because my mum said that the school wasn't good enough for her."
Ahsoka tosses another bolt into the bucket. She's kind of afraid to hear more, but doesn't interrupt. The Force is a stormy mess of sharp anger, fear, and guilt around him, but the more he talks, the more it seems to ease. The wrench trembles a little harder, and it heats up a little, but Ahsoka continues. Only a couple bolts more, and the engine can be lifted out with ease.
"And I didn't used to care that my girlfriends would leave, but when Zola was hurt, I was hurt. We made each other happy. She made me want to be a better man. Maybe I wasn't good enough for her."
"Uh, Vuyo? Buddy? Are you keeping an eye on that dial?" The wrench grows unbearably hot and Ahsoka wraps the handle with a rag. She can't drop it, however, because then it would whip around the garage and become exponentially more dangerous.
"Ah! Sorry!"
POP.
Ahsoka recoils as the power wrench sparks and crackles in her hand. Sparks fly out from the exposed bit of wire. Vuyo lunges to the side to unplug the tool, but not before it flies out of Ahsoka's grip and twists in the air, catching her right across the inside of her forearm. Ahsoka shouts a curse in Huttese and retreats to the other side of the garage.
The door to the waiting room flies open, and Sanele runs in, followed by Barriss and Riyo.
"Who shouted? What happened? Vuyo, what did you do?" Sanele asks.
Vuyo stares down at his scuffed boots. "The power wrench overheated again."
"Because you weren't focused on the dial, neh? Sidenge! You soft-headed fool!" Sanele's voice lowers to a dangerous whisper as she continues to berate her brother. Vuyo nods his head, and his shoulders slump.
Barriss makes her way across the garage towards Ahsoka, and when she nears, she slows to a stop. "Ahsoka? You're bleeding."
Ahsoka closes her mouth around a snarl and turns away. She's hurt and she was powerless to stop it even though she should have been able to and all this because she wanted to help! What good is being a Jedi if all it gets her is shock collar around her neck?
She takes a deep breath, then another, then another. The anger drains from her body, leaving behind exhaustion. There's a slight pressure on the Force Bond she shares with Barriss, like she's trying to get through, and Ahsoka eases the bond open.
What comes through is a gentle concern. Not for Ahsoka the Jedi Padawan Learner. Not for Ahsoka the Commander of the GAR. But for Ahsoka Tano, who is hurt and deserves help.
Ahsoka's breath hitches in her chest. She's been putting it off; getting treated. Perhaps it's because to be healed is to forget what happened and to move on, and Ashoka will never forget. How can she forget something so unfair? Evil even. And even if the Bacta soothes everything away, she knows that it won't be enough. There's an ugliness in her head and her heart that will linger far longer than any physical scar. The concept of healing sounds so dishonest.
But Ahsoka focuses on the Force Bond and the sheer amount of endearment that comes through. Riyo too, projects distress in the Force for her lack of mental shields. Ahsoka didn't think the both of them could care so much. Intense, yes. Staggering, definitely. There is so much waiting for Ahsoka if she would ask for it.
Barriss and Riyo will make it fun. They always do.
When Ahsoka turns back around, she finds that Barriss hasn't moved. She stands a few feet away, nervously wringing her hands. Beyond her waits Riyo, watching them both with thinly-veiled worry.
"Barriss, please," Ahsoka says. Surprise flickers through the Force, even as Barriss' face melts into relief. She reaches out to her.
"May I see?"
Ahsoka goes to her, and they sit on an unused bench. They're close enough for their knees to touch.
"What do you need?" Riyo asks.
"Water and a clean rag. Maybe a Bacta patch." Barriss frowns as she stares down at Ahsoka's forearm. Riyo turns and goes to Sanele and Vuyo, and after a few words, the three of them leave the garage. Barriss seems not to notice; her hands come up to cradle Ahsoka's forearm.
Barriss's hands are slightly cool. They're always slightly cool, and a little chapped, because of all the hand washing that Barriss is required to do, but it's soothing compared to the heated pain of her cut.
Ahsoka's fingers involuntarily curl as Barriss strokes a parallel line alongside the cut. It's already crusting over. Barriss pauses, then asks, "Am I hurting you?"
"No," Ahsoka softly says. Far from it, really. "I'm sorry for making you worry."
"Don't apologize for that. You're no trouble at all." Barriss looks up at her and swipes a thumb over her cheek. Warmth spills into Ahsoka through the touch, and she finds herself leaning into it. And after the scratch she got yesterday heals and the warmth fades, Barriss remains a vibrant beacon in the Force.
She also remains rather close, her blue eyes flickering over Ahsoka's face as if memorizing it.
"I found a Bacta patch," Riyo says. She's standing right next to them, holding a rag and a chipped bowl of water. Ahsoka wasn't aware she came back.
Barriss drops her hand and ducks her head. "Thank you, Riyo! How-how long have you been standing there?"
"Not long." Riyo's voice and face are too carefully composed; she probably thinks she's being merciful by answering so calmly, as if she hasn't seen anything. She'd be wrong. A dark blush spreads over Barriss' face, and Ahsoka's lekku burn hot.
Riyo holds out the bowl and the rag. "Your water, Barriss."
"Yes, thank you." Barriss takes the rag and dips it into the water, then wrings it out and begins to clean Ahsoka's arm. Thankfully, the cut isn't deep at all, nor is it long, and after a few wipes, Barriss leaves the rag in the bowl and takes a wide Bacta patch from Riyo.
"Why did you take off your vambraces, Ahsoka?" Barriss asks.
"It's best to not have anything on your hands when you're working with power tools," Ahsoka says. "No bracelets, rings, long sleeves, anything like that. If the power tool just catches skin, you could move away and might get a scar, but that's it. If the tool catches a sleeve, however, you wouldn't be able to escape, and you could lose the entire limb. If I was wearing my vambrace, I would have broken my arm."
"Well, I'm glad you're in one piece." Barriss peels away the sanitary wrap of the Bacta patch and smoothes the patch over the entire cut.
"What a good patient," Riyo says. The corner of her mouth quirks up. "Does she get a sucker?"
Barriss blushes all over again.
Ahsoka raises the garage door with her good arm and steps out into the crisp air. The sun is already setting, throwing beautiful ribbons of red and gold across the darkening sky. In the east, the sky brightens with different lights of green and purple, all veiling the pinprick of stars beyond. The dirt parking lot is mercifully empty of speeders, and Ahsoka's sharp eyes catch a loper scurrying near the grass line. The loper's coat is a patchwork of brown and white as its winter coat grows in.
"I'm sorry." Vuyo stands next to her, head bowed in guilt. Ahsoka looks down at her arm. The edge of the Bacta patch peeks out from within her vambrace.
"Thanks, man, but stang, I almost got my arm chopped off! All because you're hung up on your ex."
"I know."
"Your sister's right; if she was so important to you, then you wouldn't have broken up with her." Ahsoka pulls her parka over her head.
"But my mother…."
"How old are you?"
Vuyo blushes dark purple. "There's nothing wrong with doing what your mother tells you to do."
"Okay, but there's everything wrong with your mom telling you to do something that hurts you."
"She's right."
The both of them turn to see Sanele. She joins them outside the garage and jumps in order to reach the garage door. She pulls it down and crouches down to lock it.
"I should have never quit Bravado Tech." Sanele straightens up and turns to them. Her smile is pained. "Thanks for helping us, Ahsoka."
Ahsoka shrugs. "No problem."
"It's getting late, and it's not right to just kick you guys out after doing all that work. Our flimsi filing system has never been so organized. Do you want to join us for dinner?" Sanele asks.
"Sure."
Ahsoka, Sanele and Vuyo fetch Riyo and Barriss from the empty waiting room, then walk around to the back of the garage to the house. It's a single story, made of dark wood, and the yellow and purple sigils painted on and around the door are cracked and peeling. Sanele and Vuyo lead the way onto the creaking, sagging porch and open the door.
The inside of the house is simple. There's a kitchen, and a living room beyond. The furniture is old, but sturdy. Everyone huddles inside to get out of the cold and Barriss closes the door behind them.
"Umama! Sisekhaya. Uthetha ngesiBasic; sineendwendwe," Vuyo says.
"Hah?" A middle-aged Pantoran woman sits on the couch in the living room, watching the holoscreen. She glances up at them, then does a double take. She looks at the holoscreen, then back at them. Back at the holoscreen. The woman raises a remote and presses a button, turning off the holoscreen.
"You bring the Senator of Pantora into my house? How did this happen?"
"You're what? Did I know that? I didn't know that," Sanele says.
Riyo pulls her button-up shirt off of her head and hurries to put it on properly. "I never mentioned it. I was Snow Walking, Ma'am."
"They helped us with the garage today, Umama," Vuyo says. "I invited them for dinner."
The woman shrieks. "The Senator of Pantora eating dinner in my house? At my table? Of course! Come in, come in." The woman gets up and bids them to sit at the round dining table, then hurries into the kitchen. She grabs a kettle and begins to fill it with water.
"My name is Mrs. Kortzeer. It's a pleasure."
"Thank you, Mrs. Kortzeer. These are my friends, Ahsoka and Barriss." Riyo dons her now-wrinkled suit jacket and sits at the table, followed by Barriss. The siblings disappear deeper into the house. Ahsoka sits down and leans into to whisper into Riyo's ear.
"Is it a thing for senators to write letters of recommendation?"
"Yes, it is. I do it all the time for my interns. Why?" Riyo whispers back.
"Sanele had a full-ride to Bravado Tech, but she dropped out to stay at home."
"Say no more." Riyo turns her head slightly to do a visual sweep of the living room. Whatever she must be seeing seems to convince her, and she nods. "I'll do it."
"What did you see?" Barriss makes the same sweep, but remains confused.
Riyo leans in very close, her voice barely audible over the sounds in the kitchen. "There aren't any holographs of Sanele in the living room. Only holographs of Vuyo and Mrs. Kortzeer."
Sanele and Vuyo come back out, dressed in clean clothes. Riyo straightens up and turns to them.
"Sanele, Do you have fresh flimsi and an envelope?" Riyo asks.
"Uh yeah. Why?"
"Because I'm going to write you a letter of recommendation for Bravado Tech."
Sanele's eyes widen. "You'd really write me a letter of rec?"
"Senator, you don't have to do such a thing," Mrs. Kortzeer says.
"Nonsense, it's the least I can do." Riyo waves it away and Sanele squeals and rushes back into her room.
Mrs. Kortzeer frowns, but busies herself in the kitchen again. After a few seconds, Sanele comes back out with a flimsi, a stylus, and an envelope. Riyo takes the things with thanks, and taps the end of the stylus against her cheek as she stares down at the blank sheet. Sanele sits down on Riyo's other side and leans forward to better see.
"Pantoran, neh?" Riyo asks. Sanele nods. Riyo hums and begins to write. Each stroke is calculated, slow, and sure, and the Aurebesh flows out in neat rows across the page. Now and then, she pauses and mutters under her breath as she composes the next part of the letter before continuing on. Ahsoka finds herself watching in fascination. Next to her, Barriss seems to be holding her breath.
"Her handwriting's better than yours," Ahsoka whispers.
Barriss frowns. "I don't worry about neatness when I need to write dozens of prescriptions a day, Ahsoka."
"Alas, I'm missing my senate stamp, but I suppose my com code and my datapad address will do if they need to verify it." Riyo finishes the letter with a flourish and folds it into thirds.
"Senator, really. You don't have to do this," Mrs. Kortzeer says again.
"Bravado Tech is a fine school. Many of my interns did their undergrad there." Riyo slides the letter into the envelope and seals it, then scrawls her signature over the seal. She hands the letter and the stylus to Sanele, who takes it and holds it to her chest. Her eyes are watery.
"Thank you!"
"Good luck." Riyo smiles at her.
The kettle whistles. Mrs. Kortzeer takes the kettle off of the stove and brings it to the kitchen table, where she pours them all cups of tea. Sanele excuses herself and rushes off to her room again, wiping her eyes as she goes.
"She won't go," Mrs. Kortzeer says, her voice hard. Vuyo stares determinedly at his cup of tea, and Barriss looks up in surprise. Riyo calmly stares up at Mrs. Kortzeer.
"That is not your call to make."
Mrs. Kortzeer purses her lips and goes back into the kitchen. Riyo quirks her eyebrows up and takes a sip of her tea.
"What an odd family," Barriss whispers. She frowns down at her cup of tea, but after swirling it around, picks it up and drinks it.
"We should go after dinner," Ahsoka whispers. The Force twinges as she picks up her cup, and she sniffs it, but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it. The Force must be warning her about Mrs. Kortzeer. "It's all farmland out here, right? Maybe we can stay the night in a barn or something."
"I agree." Riyo finishes her tea and sighs as she lowers her cup.
"Our neighbors have a barn. You could tell them we sent you and they'll put you up for the night; no problem. They're about a half-hour walk down the road," Vuyo says. He keeps worriedly looking back towards the kitchen.
Warmth spreads through Ahsoka's body from the tea, and she relaxes in her chair. "Thanks, Vuyo."
Riyo slumps onto the table, knocking her cup over and spilling the rest of her tea over the rough tablecloth. Vuyo curses in Pantoran and leaps away, his face pale. Barriss gasps and gets up too, knocking her chair over to get to Riyo. She presses a couple fingers against the side of Riyo's neck and waits, completely still.
"What's wrong with her?" Ahsoka asks. "Barriss, is she okay?"
"She's alive." Barriss holds a hand in front of Riyo's nose and mouth. "She's breathing. She's…." But Barriss sways dangerously and her other hand grips the back of Riyo's chair to steady herself. "By the Force, it's happening to me now."
The both of them turn to the cups of tea in horror.
"No!" Vuyo's face twists in anger. "Umama! What have you done?"
"Sit down, boy! You don't understand." Mrs. Kortzeer shouts. "There's a hefty bounty on all three of them, and we're going to bring them in alive."
"Umama, they're our guests. The Gods will curse us!"
"It's all over the holonet! The Gods have blessed us with this opportunity."
Ahsoka gets up and her knees almost give out from under her. Her vision swims and tilts and she blinks and reaches out to Barriss.
"You've the most mass out of all of us," Barriss whispers. She reaches out to Ahsoka to keep from collapsing. Ahsoka must lean down to hear her better over Vuyo and Mrs. Kortzeer's screams.
"What?"
"You can resist the poison longer. You've maybe one minute to get Riyo to safety."
Ahsoka looks down at Riyo, then at Barriss. "I'm not leaving you."
"You have to. You'll get further if you only carried Riyo." Barriss rag-dolls in Ahsoka's arms. Ahsoka pauses, amazed at what she just heard.
"No, I wouldn't." Ahsoka grunts as she hefts Barriss over her shoulder, then picks up Riyo and throws her over her shoulder too, draping her over Barriss. Her legs are jelly and threaten to pitch them all onto the floor of the house, where she'd definitely fall asleep regardless of her supposed poison resistance, and her vision is a smear of colors, but damn if she isn't going to get them all out. Ahsoka grabs her parka and Barriss's winter cloak with her free hand and slowly staggers out of the house, internally cursing all the way. Each agonizing step seems to take a thousand years, and takes so much energy, so by the time Ahsoka reaches the porch, she is reeling and exhausted and quietly panicking. How is she supposed to get them all to safety like this? Sanele appears before her.
"The speeder! Take them to the speeder, Ahsoka! We'll take you somewhere safe." Her voice is muffled, like she's underwater. She points, and Ahsoka shuffles in that direction until she reaches a pickup speeder.
The tailgate is down, and Ahsoka lowers Riyo and Barriss into the bed and climbs in herself. She takes Riyo and Barriss's collars and drags them up until they're all settled against the cabin of the speeder, amongst several packed bags. Vuyo and Sanele are yelling at each other in Pantoran as they load up the rest of the pickup bed with other bags. Vuyo throws a fur blanket into Ahsoka face before he lifts the tailgate and locks it into place.
"Use this!"
Ahsoka huddles down between Riyo and Barriss and tucks the fur in around all of them, then closes her eyes.
Ahsoka wakes up to a jostle. The pickup speeder must have been driven over a large stone in the road. The only source of light is the speeder headlights, and the world beyond is spooky and dark. Ahsoka groans and puts a hand over her face. She's got a splitting headache.
The cabin rear window squeals as it slides open, and Vuyo sticks his head out.
"Ahsoka? Are you awake?"
"No, I'm dead," Ahsoka says. She sits up against the cabin and turns to Vuyo. "What the kark did your mom give us?"
"A special poison." Vuyo sticks an arm out of the window to hand her a vial. "Here, this is the antidote. A couple drops of this will fix everything. Sanele swiped it before we left."
"Ugh, thank you." Ahsoka uncorks the vial and pours a few drops into her mouth, then looks down at Barriss and Riyo.
Alive. They're both alive. Ahsoka smoothes the hair out of Riyo's face, her fingers lingering against her heated skin.
"I'm sorry about my mother. I can't believe she'd turn you in for money. I can't believe she'd poison guests," Vuyo says. He's still in the window, watching her.
"It's not your fault." Ahsoka gently opens Riyo's mouth and pours a couple drops in, then tucks the furs in around her. She turns to Barriss.
Even in sleep, Barriss is tense. Her face is drawn in a frown and her shoulders tight with worry. All the concealed anxieties that she carries with her while awake bleeds through now, and Ahsoka doesn't need to pry the Force Bond open to know how Barriss feels.
Ahsoka carefully opens Barriss' mouth too, and gives her some of the antidote, then corks the vial again and gives it back to Vuyo.
"How does she have that poison anyway?"
"I don't know, but she would use it to punish us when we did things she didn't like." Vuyo pockets the vial.
"What? That's messed up."
Vuyo sighs. "Yes, Sanele and I are starting to learn that. Anyways, we're done. We've decided that we're better off leaving…all that. It's too much for us. Sanele will go back to school, and I'll find my girl. As for our mother, we've locked her in the house, but rigged the door to automatically open after 24 hours. That way she'll be okay, but it'll give us a head start to get our lives back together."
"Good luck," Ahsoka says.
Vuyo snorts. "Thanks, we'll need it." He pauses, then, "jokes aside, thanks for everything, Master Jedi. The three of you might have saved our lives."
EXTRA SCENE:
The farmers begin shouting again as soon as the door to the garage shuts behind Ahsoka. Barriss cringes as she steps back, leaving Riyo to face them alone. Riyo doesn't blame Barriss at all. Anyone would be intimidated by a crowd of angry men. It took a considerable amount of coaching and training for Riyo to get over her own fear.
"Sit down! Sit down or I'll charge you double!" Riyo shouts in Pantoran. The men immediately stop and a couple of them step back. Riyo stares them all down until they retreat to the other side of the waiting room and sit down in the chairs. Barriss sighs and Riyo turns to find her flipping through the stack of flimsies.
Whatever script Pantorans originally used was scrapped a long time ago in favor of adopting Aurebesh, and while society has smoothly transitioned, it hasn't exactly improved the rate of literacy. A lot of these forms have 'xesh' marks on the signature lines.
"I can't read Pantoran, yet I might be more useful here than in the garage," Barriss says.
"You might be more help than you think. All of these forms are shuffled together and need to be sorted. If you can match the names here, then that'll do." Riyo points to the first line of the top flimsi.
A shadow falls over them both, and they look up to see an older man standing before them. His thin, greying beard grows down over his chest.
"You can read." His voice is gravely.
"Yes, sir," Riyo says.
"You're very pretty. Both of you."
"Thank you, sir."
"I have two sons."
Well. That's something she hasn't heard before. Riyo turns to Barriss, who is already halfway through the stack of flimsi. The forms fan out in an arc on the table before her.
"What's wrong?" Barriss asks.
"Are you looking for a husband, Master Jedi? This nice man is offering us his sons."
Panic flashes over Barriss's face before she settles for a slight frown. "Alas, I'm hooded."
"More for me then," Riyo says, and Barriss gives a strangled noise. But when she turns back to the old man, she says, "You're generous, Uncle, but we're not looking."
Note Bene: I love that extra scene so much, because it's funny. I haven't had much chance to put some funny into this story so far and humor means a lot to me.
With the Pantorans speaking their own language, I do have to be careful with the point of view. Barriss and Ahsoka don't understand Pantoran, so if we're in their heads, we can't understand it either. If characters are speaking Pantoran, and it's important that we know what they're saying, then I need to write the scene from Riyo's point of view, and then format the dialogue to differentiate between Pantoran and Galactic Basic.
That said, some people just shouldn't be parents. But enough of that.
Have a guess as to what this story is based on? Tell me! Got some feedback? Tell me that too!
I have a Tumblr, by the way: Artyblogs. Check it out.
Thanks.
