The Hidden Truth
Chapter 16: the heat of the moment
** If found the last chapter to be weird, don't blame me because my beta-buddy went on strike! Thanks again ** grumble**. I need to find a new one, any volunteers? I'm not kidding!**
** Forest**
Obi-Wan observed Det very closely. They had been walking for three very long and exhausting days. Kyah seemed to be a bit wobbly a few times, but she was progressing fine and not complaining or whining.
The large trees cast shadows on the three walking figures, which was a relief for them because of the intensity of the sun. But with the sun almost every ray of light was blocked out of the jungle.
"A bit creepy, isn't it?", Kyah asked in an unsure voice. Obi-Wan looked at the girl. Sometimes she seemed to be so mature and other times she let the child peek through her features- a growing teenager. Det played the gentleman and moved closer to her offering her his protection and hand.
"If you think, that this place is a bit spooky, wait for the ghost-villages. Their enchanted!", then Det added a faked evil laughter. Obi-Wan seemed to get a headache, he moved a hand to his aching temple and regarded the scene in front of him. A hardly grown-up boy tried to impress the girl by frightening her. Had he ever been like that? He hated to interrupt this mating ritual of the young man, but he couldn't help.
"Det? How long do we have to walk from now on?, he asked annoyed.
"A day maybe two." Det raised a brow.
Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. The whole trip was coined by Det's immature behaviour, but Kyah was playing along. For the lad everything was a game, he didn't understand the seriousness of it, at all.
They went deeper into the jungle and the nagging bad feeling started to rise again. Suddenly Kenobi felt cold and he knew, that something wasn't right. The knight shivered involuntary. He didn't trust Det in the beginning, but after spending a couple of days with the lad, Obi-Wan was sure, that he wasn't capable of moving against Kyah- his love. A hand dropped to his lightsabre, that was attached to his belt. Something was awaiting them in the darkness. The evil was somewhere out there.
Suddenly a person jumped from a high tree, it was a scout of the king. The archer reached for his weapon, and started to fire arrows. But the blue blade was a blur and cut all the nasty arrows before they could harm anybody. When the archer realised, that he couldn't do anything against the Jedi, he ran off, but Obi-Wan was on his heels and brought the clumsy man to fall. Maybe he wasn't a soldier of the king because he wasn't trained very well in the way of arms- and he too old.
"Please, Sir, don't kill me!", the old man begged.
"Be sure that I won't do anything to do, old man. Why are you here and who sent you?" Obi-Wan asked in a stern voice.
"The king set a high amount of money on your heads. It would be enough to live the rest of my life without any debts or worries. I thought, that this place would be a welcomed hiding-place for you. So I came here. Nobody sent me and nobody will get to know, if you let me go, please Sir.", the old man seemed to start to cry. So Obi-Wan let him go. He knew, that the old man wasn't the reason for his shivering body. There was something else… hard to express, elsewhere. The archer hurried off as fast as he could.
"Obi-Wan, what do you think you are doing? You are helping him to escape? He will denounce us!", a furious female voice screamed in the back-round.
"He won't do anything. He learned his lesson and besides, he has a long journey home, we will be far away, when, IF he comes back with reinforcement.", the Jedi said confident.
"Your arrogance is our downfall, Obi-Wan!", she told him icily into his emotionless face.
"You should trust my judgement as you should trust yours. We have to find compromises in order to survive and I won't kill a starving old man, who tries to get his family out of any misery, my little princess.", with this statement he ended the loud conversation. Det stood in the middle of the two and looked a bit helpless. This was the first real argument between the Jedi and Kyah. She was headstrong and used to the fact, that everything went like she wanted to have it. She didn't mean to kill the man. But for sure, she wanted, that the old guy stayed silent and therefore had to spent a certain amount of time with the group. This wasn't lack of compassion, this was her will to endure the situation. He was a Jedi and didn't like to explain his actions, the so-called "force" told him to perform. They weren't so different. They both searched the confrontation and didn't like it to be disregarded. Their egos couldn't stand that. Det opened his mouth to speak.
"Maybe we should camp here for the night and rise early in the morning.", but he was ignored. Kyah and Obi-Wan strode deeper into the jungle.
He paced behind them. The atmosphere was tensioned. He wondered, what is sister was doing now….
Tbc…