AN: Thanks for reading and reviewing as always!
"Among the Wookiees"
By EsmeAmelia
Chapter 9
As the Jedi extinguished his blade, he stared up at Han with piercing eyes surrounded by rough wrinkles. "Dangerous it is for children," he said in a rough, raspy voice. "Foolish you are, home you should go!"
Han lowered his brows. "Who're you callin' foolish?"
Suddenly the Jedi jabbed Han in the knee with his cane, making the boy cringe in pain. "Killed, you could have been. Thinking, what were you?"
"Why are you talkin' so weird?" Han asked.
"Hmmm," said the Jedi. "Judge people by their speech, do you?"
"Look, green guy," snapped Han, pointing an angry finger at the Jedi, "I've lived with Wookiees my whole life, but even I can talk Basic right!"
The Jedi responded by jabbing Han's other knee with his cane. "Time for this, I do not have. Go home you must."
"Relax, Jedi," said Han. "I'll go back as soon as I find Chewie."
But before the Jedi could answer, another group of battle droids emerged through the trees. "There they are! Blast them!" ordered one of the droids.
The next thing Han knew, the Jedi had activated his laser sword weapon thing again and was swinging it around to deflect the droid's blasts. Han leapt to the ground, crouching behind the Jedi – which wasn't an easy task seeing as how the Jedi was about two feet tall. "Why aren't you taller?" he muttered.
The Jedi shifted from side to side as he blocked the droids' shots, which meant using him for a shield was getting even more difficult. Finally Han opted to crawl out from behind the Jedi and crawl up to one of the droids. He might not be a Jedi, but that didn't mean he couldn't be useful.
"Hey, metal head!" he yelled. "Leave the Jedi alone!" Before the droid could react, Han yanked at its heavy leg, which strained his arm, but he did manage to pull the droid down with him as he tumbled over into a heap, colliding with the droid's metal body as he did so.
"Ow . . . ow . . . ow . . ." he grunted.
"Doing, what are you?" the Jedi yelled.
"What does it LOOK like I'm doin'? I'm tryin' to help!"
"Then try to help do NOT!" The Jedi leapt into the air, looking almost like he was flying as he soared over Han and the broken droid and sliced his weapon through the rest of the droids.
"Phew," said Han, kicking away the wires that had tangled around his feet. "You've got some good moves."
The Jedi wrinkled his face in a disapproving manner. "Now home, you GO!"
"I already told you!" Han muttered as he struggled to his feet. "I ain't goin' back until I find Chewie."
"Know this 'Chewie,' I do not," said the Jedi.
Han groaned. "Chewbacca, okay?"
Finally the Jedi perked up a bit. "Chewbacca, I do know." He sighed. "Your guardian, is he?"
"Yeah," said Han. "I just wanna make sure he's okay."
The Jedi sighed again. "Fine. Take you to him, I will."
. . .
"So does your laser sword thing ever go off by accident? What happens if it breaks? Could I learn how to do flips like that? Why do you need that cane when you can do all those acrobatics? Is it true that Jedi ain't allowed to get married? Why not?"
The Jedi ignored all of Han's questions as they made their way through the forest, but Han kept asking them anyway. Asking questions helped take his mind off the fact that more battle droids were out there somewhere and could attack again at any minute.
"You know," he continued, "if I could get inside the wiring of those droids, I could probably turn 'em off. I'm gonna be a pilot when I grow up, so I'm tryin' to learn stuff about mechanics. They teach some of it in school, but not enough."
"If a pilot you wish to be, then common sense you must learn," said the Jedi. "Common sense not to rush into things. Worry about you, Chewbacca should not have to."
"But what if Chewie's in trouble?" Han asked.
"Take care of himself, Chewbacca can."
Suddenly, as they reached the edge of the forest that led to the beach, a blinding light shot into Han's eyes, causing him to squint. "Hey, what's goin' on?" he shouted, raising his arm in front of his eyes.
"Going on, what do you think is?" asked the Jedi. "A war we are in."
After the spots cleared, Han realized the lights came from a Republic warship, around which both clones and Wookiees were talking, planning out strategy around small portable tables, cleaning their blasters. If he hadn't just been attacked by battle droids, Han would have thought this was the coolest thing he'd ever seen, but now that he had been attacked by battle droids, a strange chill was going through him.
Some of these people would be killed.
[Han! What are you doing here?]
"Chewie!" Han shouted, rushing up to one of the tables were the Wookiees and clones were strategizing and Chewie was glaring at his adopted son.
"Find your human friend, I did," said the Jedi. "Almost killed by battle droids, he was."
[What?] Chewie grabbed Han's shoulders, staring directly into his eyes. [What were you THINKING?}
Han gulped. "I was worried about you and I was tired of sittin' in the bunker . . ."
[And it didn't occur to you that the children were being kept in the bunker for a REASON? How can we keep you safe if you don't listen?]
"I don't WANT to be kept safe!" Han shouted back.
Chewie buried his face in his paws. [Han, I'm taking you back to the bunker and you're going to stay there until it's safe.]
"And what if you lose the battle? What if the droids take the planet – are we gonna be stuck in the bunker forever?"
The Jedi was leaning on his cane, his mouth wrinkling. "Intelligent you are, young one, but too reckless to put your intelligence to any use."
[Han, listen,] said Chewie, his hands on his hips. [We're not going to lose the battle.]
"You don't know that!" Han protested, folding his arms. "I'm not a little kid anymore – I deserve to know the truth."
[Han, listen . . .]
Chewie didn't get a chance to go beyond those two words, for a Separatist ship appeared out of nowhere and started shooting out of the sky.
[Retreat!] Chewie yelled. [Retreat!]
He scooped Han into his arms and went running into the woods.
