Jax rounded a bend and slipped into an alleyway. This time, he had been lucky. No one seemed to be occupying this one at the time. Waiting for Nelkf to catch up to him on the streets was dangerous. Besides, Jax knew of a shortcut that ran this way.
He watched some Jawas ride by on a huge reptilian creature. Hopefully Cail still hangs out around Chulman's cantina. Hopefully he doesn't do anything but hang out. If Cail was not at the cantina, Jax had never known an inhabitant of Mos Eisley whose tongue a few credits wouldn't loosen. He tightened up against the wall and continued to look for Nelkf. A simple whisper to catch her attention was too risky. In Mos Eisley, if you wanted to live, you never let anyone think you had something to hide.
Nelkf had lost sight of Jax. This might not have been so bad, had the smuggler told her where they were going. Leaping out of the way of two wolf creatures, she lost her grip on the leather bag. The sack with the disrupter in it fell.
A tiny, gloved hand caught it before it reached the ground. Nelkf barely had time to glance up before the Jawa disappeared into the crowds.
"Hey!" Nelkf broke into a dash after it. "Hey you slimy little Sith sucker! Give that back!"
Despite his size, the Jawa was extremely swift. He entered a clear spot in the crowds and glanced behind him. All he could do was give a shriek of despair as the enraged Sklinth bore down on him with her vibroblade drawn.
Nelkf pinned him against the ground and held the vibroblade above her head, ready to strike. "Got any last words, rancor bait?" she snarled. Nelkf suddenly realized just how stupid this question was. Several data tapes referred to the Jawa's language as "unintelligible." Unless the little thief wished himself to be understood, Nelkf would hear very little out of him. Well, last words or no last words, this guy's gonna have one less hand and a lot less blood to steal with.
Her knife struck down and slit off the Jawa's hand. The creature howled in pain and squeezed his wrist, attempting to numb the despised hurt. The small alien seemed to shrink at the blow.
The commotion drew a small crowd of onlookers, most of them placing bets on the outcome of the brawl. Some of them laughed and cheered the Sklinth on as she drove the knife into the Jawa again and again. Unfortunately, unlike the world where Nelkf grew up, enemies were on the watch for a vicious Sklinth and a Human male.
Their day had been long, tedious and boring. They had only just received orders from Lekan to be on the watch for escaped prisoners, and it had shocked them into action. The crowd presented an opportunity for them to prepare for whatever might happen, and who knows? Perhaps they'd find the escaped prisoner there. They began to push their way through the crowd to find the troublemaker behind it.
Nelkf looked up. Something was wrong here, she could tell. The crowd had begun to thin to one side, allowing for someone to come through. Nelkf still had the vibroknife in her hand, and had not even noticed the Jawa was well past dead. She scrambled to her feet and snatched up the disrupter. Suddenly, a thug burst through the crowd. He moved like an enforcer, acted like a stormtrooper, but did not look like one.
The thug glanced around. Seeing the dead Jawa, and Nelkf holding a bloody vibroblade, he barked at her; "You! Hey, you! Stop!"
Nelkf had no intentions of standing still and allowing herself to be captured. Shoving the vibroblade into her pocket, she turned tail and ran through the crowds. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She thought angrily at herself. Chaos take it, when will you learn to control your temper?
A blaster bolt sailed past her face, and she dodged away just in time. That was an aiming shot. If she had not dodged, the next one could have taken her head off. Ahead, she could see a Bothan -or something close to a Bothan- getting off a speeder bike. The thugs continued to order her to cease. Yeah, right, like I'm going to stop for them. Nelkf ran faster. If she could jump on the speeder, she could leave these goons in the dust, and leave planet without a second thought. If they went after Jax, well, better him then her. She couldn't watch his back every two milliseconds. The speeder was five or six meters away. It would be a chancy maneuver, even for a Sklinth. Well, she was going to try. The Sklinth pushed her muscles to their extreme and ran...
Jax was so surprised to see Nelkf run past that he almost missed her. He reached out one hand and caught her shoulder, dragging her into the dark alleyway. He cupped his other hand over her mouth to avoid the inevitable scream. "Calm down Nel. It's only me."
Nelkf tore his hand away from her mouth. "Jax? You idiot! What do you doing?"
Jax covered her mouth again. He didn't feel like being snapped at right now. "I could ask you the same question," he said. "Why were you running like a dewback with it's tail on fire?"
A blaster bolt slammed into the wall next to them. A second later, a thug rounded the bend and saw them. Calling loudly to his comrades, he began to give chase. Jax grabbed Nelkf's wrist and began to drag her along the back alleyways. "Never mind," he muttered.
They turned corners, dodged other beings and leapt over obstacles as they attempted to lose the persistent troops. Nelkf fought to free her wrist as Jax leapt over a barrel and she was forced to do the same or fall.
"Where are we going?" she growled.
Jax tugged her around another bend in the labyrinth of alleys. "Actually, I lost track about three turns back."
The Sklinth growled deeply, a sound she had yet to see any Human produce. "Where were we going?"
Jax didn't answer. Instead, he pulled her around another bend, leading them out onto the main street. Jax glanced at the signs lining the roadsides, and tugged Nelkf through a crowd into one of them. Nelkf had never been good at reading Basic, but she was able to make out the sign just barely operational in the intense Tatooine day. C-H-U-L-M-A-N-'S C-A-N-T-I-N-A. Cantina. That was not a good word in Nelkf's vocabulary.
