CHAPTER 14:

Leia's large brown eyes shifted between her friends, "Now what?"

"Don't look at me." Han waved a hand at Luke, "This was his idea."

"If you didn't trigger the explosion then this would have been a good idea," Luke argued.

Leia threw her arms up in the air, "Now's not the time to play the blame game."

Lifting her skirt just a bit, she reached over and grabbed Luke's light saber. She activated it, and both Han and Luke jumped back. Leia studied the weapon for a moment before plunging it into the tree trunk.

"Whaddya doing?"

"I think we should know what we're facing before we make any decisions," she deactivated the light saber and handed the hilt back to Luke. Then she leaned on her hands to peer out of the hole she created.

"What do you see?"

"Doesn't look like Imperials," she reported. "But they have bregal leeks." She leaned back, "They'll be able to sniff us out pretty quickly."

Han grabbed the princess under her arms and pulled her away from the peep hole.

"Hey!"

"I wanna see." Han pressed his eye against the hole. "They look like they're about a less than a kilometer or so away. Doesn't give us a lot of time."

"There are only six of them from what I could see," Leia offered.

"That's three more than us," Luke pointed out. "And they're probably armed."

"Since when has being outnumbered been a problem for us?" Han flashed his lop-sided grin.

Leia returned his devilish smile, "You do have a point."

"Leia!" Luke shook his head, "You two are insane."

"We can't stay here. Those bregal leeks will sniff us out and we'll be trapped."

Leia shoved Han away from the peep hole and took a gander for herself, "I have an idea."

"Why do I have the feeling I'm not going to like it?" Luke whined.

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"I don't like this," Luke whined.

"You already made that clear," Leia said through clenched teeth.

"It was a fair vote," Han mumbled. "Two against one."

"Hush up!"

"I still don't like it."

The princess would've glanced up and given a good chastening, but their pursuers were closing in. She sat amid the dead leaves and overgrown roots, skirt spread out around her.

"Over here," one of them yelled. "I see one of them."

The six men converged on her, and she noticed only three of them held long leashes attached to the collars of the bregal leeks. As they approached, Leia contorted her face with fear and held her hands out, palms open.

"Please!" her voice trembled, "I'm unarmed and hurt."

The men closed in on her but held the leashes of their search animals tighter.

"Where's your friend?"

Leia recognized the security guard, "That scoundrel abandoned me."

"This the girl that killed Arnie?"

"He shot first!" Leia argued, but the thought better of it. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to kill him, only scare him. That's all. I'm not so good with a blaster."

"Could've fooled me."

"It was a lucky—unlucky shot," she looked contrite. "Really, it was only meant to scare him."

"Where you hurt, girl?"

"My ankle," she lifted the hem of her skirt just a bit to stick out her ankle. "I think I twisted it. It hurts something fierce."

"She killed Arnie," the security guard aimed his blaster at her head, and Leia cowered.

Another man slapped the guard's hand down, "It's not our way. We'll turn her into the Imperials."

"No, please."

"You brought this on yourself," one of the men approached her. "Can you stand?"

The princess made to stand up, but then she yelped, "It hurts too much."

They all looked at each other until one of them groaned. He stalked over to her, "You sure your ankle hurts, Missy?"

Leia nodded, and her eyes widened with mock-fear.

"Just get her so we can go," another called out. "It's cold out here."

The man glanced over his shoulder and shot his companions an angry look. He reached out to check Leia's ankle for himself. Just as hand lifted her skirt, a blaster shot rang out, and the man dropped to the ground.

Leia rolled back, and Han jumped up from beneath her skirts blasting away. Before anyone could get a good shot fired back, Luke leaped down from the branch that stretched above the action, landing on a man aiming his gun at Han and slashing another with his light saber. Leia grabbed a large log and swung it hard against the legs of the closet man while Han tried to shoot the bregal leeks before they attacked.

Those still able to fight backed found cover behind the large trunks of the trees and kept on fighting. Luke blocked their shots with his saber while Han fired from behind a tree. Two of the men and two bregal leeks were dead while another man was gravely injured. Leia swung the log at the remaining bregal leek. She managed to get a few good hits in, but she was fighting a losing battle. The bregal leek sunk its teeth deep into the log, pulling it from her hands before shattering it to pieces.

"Oh, Sith!"

Leia tried to back pedal, but her feet only got tangled in her skirts. The bregal leek crouched down and leapt. Leia rolled to her stomach and grasped at the gnarled roots to pull herself out of its reach. To no avail; she wasn't quick enough. The drooling beast caught her skirts with its needle-like claws, dragging her back.

The princess' frantic scream got the attention of both Han and Luke.

"No!"

"Leia!" Han turned away from the fire fight he was engaged in, and started toward the princess knowing he'd never reach her in time.

"Awh!" Han yelled as a shot clipped his injured shoulder.

Luke glanced between his two friends as he blocked the blast fire with his light saber. Han was lying out in the open, and the remaining men were not letting up. If he went to Leia's rescue Han would be dead. If he didn't…

Leia closed her eyes and prepared herself for the worse.