DISCLAIMER: CRADLE AND GILL ARE NOT MY CHARACTERS. These two are the creation of Rustic-Space-Fiddle (insta: @rusticspacefiddle). This story was written and published with permission from Rustic-Space-Fiddle to use her characters. She also beta-read this story.

Thanks for reading and understanding. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did and as much as Rustic-Space-Fiddle did. Have a blessed day! :D

- A. W. Shire.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

Cradle and his fellow temple guard snapped to attention as the Jedi ambled towards them, nodding respectfully in acknowledgement as he stopped just in front of them. He moved slowly and must have been at least a thousand years old. He resembled a turtle in most rights, with so many wrinkles the only definable feature on his face was a bulbous, bent nose with a large wart on the end of it. A few wisps of silver hair sat wilted atop his head and his profile was bent and haggard, but somehow you could tell that most of the wrinkles on his weathered face were created by years of warm smiles. To top it off, a loth-cat—which appeared to be nearly as ancient as it's master—followed faithfully behind the old Jedi.

"Ah! You!" The turtle-man jabbed his cane in Cradles general direction. "How are you today, young man?"

"Outstanding, sir!" Cradle replied, a little surprised the old man was addressing him. Often, especially at this door, the temple guards were just ignored.

"Good, good! Tip-top! Excellent! At ease, at ease! There's no need for the military theatrics; I'm too old to be addressed like I'm about to bust a move leading an army," the Jedi chortled. Cradle relaxed, and the ancient turtle continued.

"I am in dire need of your assistance. See, I'm heading into a meeting, but they tend to be dreadfully long and boring and poor Whufflekins hates them so. I wondered if I could persuade you to watch him while I'm there?"

Out of habit, Cradle said "Yes, sir!" Inside, he was somewhat dumbfounded. Pet sitting a loth cat named Whufflekins? By far, this was the weirdest mission ever assigned to him.

"Splendid! Wonderful! Tip-top!" The old man cried. "He won't require a meal or trips outside, but do keep an eye on him—he can be adventurous." The twinkle in his eyes as Cradle assured him everything would work out was one of humorous insight, and it made the clone uneasy, but there wasn't anything to be done about it. The ancient Jedi entered the meeting after affectionately warning his cat to behave itself, and then it was just Cradle, Whufflekins, and Cradle's fellow door guard, Chatterbox, who was obviously amused. There was silence between the three, and a few odd glances from other Jedi who entered the meeting, but the real commotion didn't begin until a certain green-skinned padawan showed up.

"Cradle!" The call came from down the hallway, and Cradle's gaze was wrenched away from Whufflekins to see Gill jogging gleefully towards him.

I'll never hear the end of it, Cradle thought in some degree of horror.

"Shouldn't you be in class or something?" Cradle hissed at the young half-nautolan, half-mirialan.

"I got bored," the padawan said, eyes already on the loth cat laying by Cradle's feet. He raised his eyebrows at his friend. "Are we using sniffer cats to detect weapons or something now?"

"No," Cradle sighed. "I've been charged to look after him, by one of the Jedi."

Gill crouched, scratching the creature behind its ears. "Really…what's his name?"

"…Whufflekins…"

Gill collapsed backwards with a shout of laughter, abandoning giving the loth-cat cuddles.

"You're babysitting a loth-cat named Whufflekins? You're a temple guard!" He cackled, getting to his feet and using the wall for support.

"Shut up, Gill! The jedi are in a meeting, you'll get us in trouble!"

"Whufflekins," Gill wheezed. "The Jedi was right, giving him to you; he's well protected. Your reputation though…" Gill chuckled again.

"You're Cradle the Pet-sitter now."

"I earned that title when I became your friend," Cradle told him. "Now, get back to your classes, or I'll call animal control."

Gill grinned and made no move to go anywhere, so Cradle turned back to watching Whufflekins—

"Gill, where's the cat?"

"What?"

"It's gone."

"You lost it?"

"No, I—Just help me find it!"

Cradle couldn't go far from the door without and having a replacement sent to his place, but the length which he could go held no signs of a loth cat. Thus, there was no other option but to contact commanding officers and request an early leave of his position. It was made more difficult by the inevitable explanation of why he should be granted said leave, but thankfully his commanding officers were understanding. (Apparently, one or two had experienced similar incidents in the past.)

"Alright, let's go," Cradle said assertively when his replacement took his place by the door.

"Good luck!" Chatterbox called as he strode away, Gill trotting behind him. Cradle didn't answer, just kept walking. The two walked in silence for a second before Gill spoke.

"So where are we going to start looking?"

"I don't know! Where would a loth cat go?"

"Maybe it was hungry."

"Not a bad idea. We'll check the mess hall first and ask around the temple."

The cafeteria yielded no animals of any kind. Actually, it seemed emptier than it actually was, as if it were mocking them.

After that, they checked the library.

Then the Jedi lounge.

The Padawan lounge.

Youngling lounge. ("The younglings get a lounge?"

The public lounge. ("How many kriffing lounges can there be?!")

Two hours of searching and they'd covered maybe half of the temple (emphasis on maybe; the place was giant) without any results. Breathing hard and worn out, they stopped for a rest in yet another hallway.

"This…won't work…we need…another…way…" Gill heaved, sprawled in the floor.

"There ain't…another way." Cradle wheezed. "Kriffing loth-cat…where the heck could it have gone?"

They sat for a few more minutes when something occurred to the clone which might solve their problem.

"Hey…can't Jedi sense stuff with the Force?"

"Yeah, and?"

"Well…you're a Jedi."

Gill sat up, a frown creasing his brow.

"No, I'm a Padawan. I still have lots of training to do."

"The point is you have the Force, right? So you can sense stuff."

"You want me to sense Whuffles?"

"No, I want you to make me some waffles. Yes I want you to sense the kriffing loth-cat,"

"Calm down, Cradle. I can try, but no guarantees it will work."

"Fine, whatever. Just do it; that meeting can't go on much longer."

"I found him!"

"That fast? Wow, I'll never underestimate the Force again—"

"What? No—I just looked down the hall."

Cradle's eyes followed the path of Gill's pointing finger, down the hallways, at the very end of which, in the distance, they could make out a cat. A beat passed and both clone and padawan bolted. The loth-cat let them come a bit closer before it also ran.

Gill and Cradle followed the wretched creature through countless hallways, startling many a Jedi, padawan, youngling and droid in their wild plight. The animal lead them out of the temple, through two courtyards and even out onto the streets of Courescant, Cradle regretting his temple-guard position the prevented him from running more often while Gill seemed to enjoy the chase, vaulting obstacles and never breaking his stride.

They pursued that villainous loth-cat past shops, roads, and confused passers-by, until eventually they cornered it in an alleyway between two restaurants.

"Okay, you little * ," Cradle snarl-wheezed, grasping the animal by it's scruff. "Time to…"

Gill, sensing his friend's sudden drop in emotion, picked his head up to look at him. "What?"

Cradle was silent for a second. His eventual reply was quiet with either rage or despair.

"I don't think this is Whufflekins,"

"What?"

He repeated the sentence louder. "This isn't the cat we're looking for,"

"What?!"

Gill stood up this time, peering at the loth-cat hanging from Cradle's fist. Sure enough, while it had looked the same from a distance, up close he could tell the color and pattern were different from Whufflekins. Cradle dropped the cat, which scuttled away between their feet. Sighing and groaning, the two sat down to catch their breath and dwell a minute on this new twist.

"What are we going to do now?" Gill asked softly after about five minutes. Cradle heaved his ten billionth sigh and got to his feet, placing his hands on his hips and squaring himself bravely.

"We're going to go back and tell him we lost the cat." He said bluntly.

"That was anti-climactic," Gill commented. Cradle looked at him with raised eyebrows?"

"What? How?"

"Idk it just was,"

"Whatever. Let's go."

Gill hauled himself to his feet and they began the walk back to the Temple, although it turned into "RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN BACK TO THE TEMPLE" when they saw how late it was.

Out of breath yet again, they stumbled back to Cradle's post outside the doors to the meeting room just as the meeting itself was adjourned. They were bracing themselves to break the bad news to the ancient turtle-man when he emerged from the room, but were struck dumb when they saw Whufflekins cradles comfortably in the wrinkled arms.

"I am sorry to have troubled you," the man began, apparently oblivious to Cradle and Gill's hanging jaws and bulging eyes, "it seems Whufflekins did not find this meeting boring enough to want to be away from me. Thank you for previously agreeing to watch him, though."

Cradle shook his shock away to reply. "Of course," he croaked, "I'm always at your service, Sir."

A smile shifted the shape of the wrinkles on the old Jedi's face.

"Splendid! Tip-top! Excellent! Well, not I must depart—Whufflekins must be starving now, aren't you, sweet pea?"

The turtle Jedi master shuffled away, murmuring "tip-top! Splendid!" As he went.

Gill and Cradle remained silent, reveling in the miracle that was Whufflekins' safety. Eventually they found themselves alone again (accept for Chatterbox—Cradle's replacement had as soom as he saw him coming) as the room emptied completely.

GRRRRRRROOOOOWAHJGHSHLJHFKHGJJDLGLJHISHGHJSHKSHHSGD

The unholy noise broke the silence and probably sent a disturbance through the Force. Cradle jumped, one hand on his gun as he tried to locate the threat. All he saw was Gill's rather flushed face.

"Was that you?!"

"No!" Gill was quick to defend himself. "It was my stomach. I'm hungry." He rubbed his belly somewhat sorrowfully before glaring at Cradle.

"I might not be quite so starved if someone hadn't dragged me on a cat-hunt across the planet,"

"Excuse u you came willingly. And you enjoyed it."

"No I didn't—"

"Yes you did; you didn't think I'd notice that devilish grin on your face the whole time we were chasing that cat, did you?"

"I was actually laughing at your pain. Anyways, let's get something to eat before I collapse."

"Don't be so dramatic."

"I can't help it, I'm friends with you."

The sibling-bickering followed them down the hall as they made their way to the cafeteria. The day winded down quickly after that, and all was well. Interestingly enough, they never saw Whufflekins—or the wrinkly old Jedi—again.

END