Obi-Wan's bare feet touched the floor as he lay on the small bed with Nahlia. She was curled up in his arms, sleeping. He stroked her hair, finding solace within the soft straight locks. 'Qui-Gon will not understand this...' Seeing her shiver slightly from the coolness of the night, he pulled the hand woven maroon and beige blanket covering them, up over her arm and shoulder.

Nahlia stirred gradually. After a quiet yawn, she lifted her head from his chest to look at him. "Morning already?"

The corners of his mouth turned up slightly in response. "Not quite yet, no..."

"Oh..." Nahlia beamed. "Good." She stretched her neck until she was in reach to kiss him but his reaction was not quite as warm as she'd hoped. He seemed so distant from her now. "What's wrong?"

"It's... nothing..." Obi-Wan caressed her cheek with the back of his fingers.

"Please, tell me."

He sighed. They had shared so much that night, and yet he still was having trouble sharing his fears and concerns with her. "I'm just wondering what's going to happen if we do find our way back to Coruscant."

Nahlia looked down at his chest and thought a moment. She never thought of herself as the sort of woman who could become someone's mistress, and nothing more, but there it was: the only possible conclusion to their situation that seemed acceptable. She knew in her heart, Obi-Wan was meant to be a Jedi Knight just as she was meant to die before she was forty years old. To her, it wouldn't seem right to ask him to give up something that he'd worked all his life to become for a woman who only had half a life to give to him. She wasn't sure if she could bring herself to ask that of him even if she knew she would live. Her eyes met his again. "You can see me... whenever you can... I know it won't be often."

Obi-Wan nearly laughed. "Is it really that simple?"

"It can be."

"I wish I could say I agree." Obi-Wan responded, running his thumb across her chin thoughtfully. "My Master will never approve of this."

"He doesn't need to know. No one does."

"He'll know." He insisted. "I won't be able to hide it from him."

Nahlia took his hand into hers to kiss it. "You won't know until you try."

"I won't lie to him."

"You won't have to, just... don't say anything to him."

"You don't understand, he'll sense that something's happened between us. He's already sensed my feelings for you, from my thoughts..."

"Then don't think about me when you're with him... don't think about us..." She advised, intertwining her fingers with his. "I'll be doing enough of that for the both of us."

Obi-Wan brushed a bit of hair from her face with his free hand before picking his head up from the pillow to kiss her tenderly. Suddenly something hit him - a wave of emotion traveling through the village. He pulled back from her to concentrate.

"What is it?" Nahlia asked - sensing his alarm.

"Fear..."

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Dwarfing the native's tiny wood huts with his massive body, Volacca stalked through the village as quietly as one his size could. Beebo and the rest of the villagers kept to their huts, huddled together - terrified of the invader. Above their doors were symbols carved into the wood meant to keep the creature out, though this had not yet been tested. Some had seen him before in the forest, and managed to escape, others had only heard tales of him taking away their brethren to devour their flesh with his razor sharp teeth. This was the myth this simple people had bestowed upon the monster. And now the monster was before them, wading between their homes, in search of a new victim.

Inside their hut, Obi-Wan finished dressing and buckled the belt keeping his lightsaber at his side. Nahlia had put her skirt and yellow top back on, and was slipping his Jedi robe back over her when Obi-Wan began to head for the door. "Stay here."

"But-"

"Stay here." He insisted. "I don't want you to get hurt."

After watching him go, Nahlia sighed and muttered. "I don't want you to get hurt..." She smoothed out the blankets and sat down on the edge of the bed to wait for him to return. She thought about their conversation earlier. 'But I don't want to get hurt either...' She wondered what would happen if they returned to Coruscant. Her own doubts and fears began to set in, perhaps he wouldn't even try to see her again. She told herself that she could accept that, but knew it wouldn't make it any less painful, especially after being so profoundly intimate with him.

Obi-Wan kept his lightsaber at the ready as he silently crept through the village. Fear surrounded him, so much so Obi-Wan found it difficult to keep the villagers' emotions from effecting his own. He became jumpy, which Obi-Wan prided himself on never being, but it was a natural response to so much overwhelming fear. One image stuck in his head - Volacca.

On the dirt floor inside the hut, Nahlia noticed the elastic she had freed from the hair on the back of his head earlier that evening. She leaned down to pick it up and wrapped it around her wrist for safekeeping.

Just above her, Volacca's fist smashed through the ceiling. Nahlia screamed but was unable to move out of the way before Volacca could grab the hood of Obi-Wan's robe and pull it and her through the gaping hole in the ceiling.

Obi-Wan turned on the spot, recognizing the scream. "NAHLIA?!" Obi-Wan shouted and began to run back to their hut, when a small detonator landed just in front of him and exploded - knocking him off his feet and his lightsaber out of his hand.

Volacca held Nahlia in the air by the hood as she screamed. He laughed as she struggled. Little Beebo peeped through his window and growling angrily to himself at this. To Volacca's surprise, Nahlia lifted her arms and, slipping from the robe, fell to the ground with a thump. She quickly picked herself up, and ran as fast as she could.

"GET BACK HERE!" Volacca cursed loudly and charged after her.

Obi-Wan shook the effects of the blast off quickly and looked up. Diora had a blaster aimed at his head as she hovered on her swoop bike above him. "Don't move Jedi."

Obi-Wan searched desperately for his lightsaber from his vantage point on the ground. Diora kept her blaster trained on him as she hopped off her bike and grabbed a set of manacles from a compartment on the side.

"Boss," she seemed to speak to the air, but was actually talking to her employer back at his compound with a communicator implanted in her brain. "We are securing the Jedi and the girl now..." Getting no more than dead air in response, she frowned. "Hm. Funny it was working earlier..."

She shrugged it off and smiled confidently down at Obi-Wan - the manacles clattering together in her hand. "Did you miss me?"

"Not particularly, no." With that, he launched a kick that knocked the blaster from her hands, then rolled back on his shoulder-blades and hands to launch himself back up onto his feet. While Diora rushed to retrieve her blaster, Obi-Wan spotted his lightsaber in the tall grass nearby and called it to his hand.

Nahlia dashed between the trees. She knew Volacca wasn't far behind her, even without looking back. His thunderous footsteps pounded the ground as he pursued her relentlessly. Out of nowhere, little Beebo was running up beside Nahlia, beeping and hooting at her urgently.

"Beebo!" She quickly realized that the little fellow wanted her to follow him.

Obi-Wan deflected every shot Diora sent his way and began to press towards her. Diora rarely broke a sweat but this was an exception, she reached behind her and grabbed another small detonator from her belt to throw at him. Obi-Wan narrowly avoided the explosion with a back flip but one of the miniature huts didn't fare as well. Several of the creatures screamed as they escaped the carnage. 'I must draw her away from the village before someone is killed...' He thought, and took off running into the forest.

"Blasted Jedi!" Frustrated and angry, Diora jumped back onto her bike in pursuit.

Beebo led Nahlia to a rock face on the side of a hill, there he pointed at a small hole and began to crawl inside. "You want me to go in there?!" Nahlia looked at it doubtfully, there was just barely enough room for her to fit through but once she was in she doubted Volacca would be able to get to her. Behind her she heard Volacca coming, and cursing her out in his native tongue. She knelt down and looked at Beebo through the hole. "Good plan."

Nahlia crawled on her belly through the cramped space towards Beebo. She had just made it to the other end, which revealed a much more open place within the rock, when she felt a large hand grab hold of her ankle. She screamed and scratched at the ground in an attempt to stop Volacca from pulling her back but it did no good. Beebo valiantly grabbed hold of her hands and tried to pull her back in. The claws on his feet dug deeply into the ground in the effort. Then just as suddenly as she had been grabbed, she was let go again.

Nahlia and Beebo looked at each other both stunned and curious. There was the sound of a lightsaber. Volacca's tone had changed from angry to pleading. "I-I wasn't gonna hurt her, I just wanted to talk to her!"

Nahlia couldn't make out the rest of the conversation after that through the thick rock and decided to wait for more of a sign that the danger had passed.

"A-hem." A moment later, a familiar voice inquired into the hole, "Were you planning on staying in there long?"

Nahlia crawled backwards out of the hole. Volacca had been subdued and his massive arms bound together. Nahlia recognized her savior immediately. "Qui-Gon Jinn!"

Qui-Gon gave her a courteous smile and extended his hand to help her up. His companion, a young dark haired Jedi named Stamir Bandu, was attempting to keep a keen eye on the captive Volacca but couldn't help but double take at Nahlia's revealing outfit. Qui-Gon Jinn noticed as well, but with a far less appreciative look.

Nahlia reached up to accept the Jedi master's hand. "I think Obi-Wan's in trouble."

As Qui-Gon helped her to her feet, he observed that the hand she had extended to him had a brown elastic around the wrist that looked suspiciously like the ones Jedi Padawans often wore to tame the hair on the back of their heads. "He most certainly is."

TO BE CONTINUED...