Saber Girls: Yeah, I guess you're right. xD
Neassa: I like them too - so cute!
D'Attitude: Thank you:) Here's an update.
GreatOne: Can't have Endor without crazy little Ewoks, can I?
Anakin Skywalker-Darth Vader: Yup, it is. :D
yellow-lily: Nah, you're not traitorous. But I do love your reviews. :DDD
dm1: Ah, yes, she is right. Lol, I just saw dark hair and heard 'Antilles'. And i know, I hate him dead too. But this story wouldn't let go, and I had to get it down. And thanks. :))
Dovasary: Thanks! Lol, he did make an appearance, though. In that holochip in Chapter II. - points - xDDD
Author's Note: Okay everyone, I'm leaving somewhere around the twenty-sixth for vacation to my mom's for a few months – and she doesn't have a computer. Or, she might, but I won't be spending a lot of time on it. I'm going to try to finish the story by then (which shouldn't be too hard, considering I have just sprained my ankle and can't do anything but sit around all day. Yeah. RIGHT before summer vacation. I finally finished school, though- a week of finals, it was torture. x.x And I get a week of lazing around and getting fat then the first week or two at mom's lazing around and getting even fatter until the stupid ankle heals. Gahh. Wow, this parentheses section is long), so I won't leave you there for two months with nothing new. On with the story!
CHAPTER NINE
There's a smattering of strange tongue behind me, that sounds slightly like that of a Jawa's yet different. I follow Tyl's lead, and raise my hands for fear of getting brutally stabbed by the pointy things at my back.
"I told you." Tyl hissed at me.
"Told me what?"
"Told you what?" he asked incredulously. "That we were gonna get kidnapped by Ewoks, that's what!"
"We are not getting kidn – " I start for sake of argument, but am shut up quickly from a glare and jerk of the head by Tyl. I follow his gaze, and standing somewhere near my ribcage and ten feet away is a large, furry, tribal teddy bear. Or Ewok. It has its little spear thing pointed straight at us.
That little thing is threatening us? You've got to be kidding me. How is it possible for a band of things little girls take to bed with them to kidnap I, Jedi (…almost) Syrmé Carr? Or, for circumstance's sake, Mtyle Nolon. Although, they are kinda cute. I don't know if I would be able to use my lightsaber on them.
The little thing - Ewok - had been joined by three of four others, and the leader - the first one - seems to be trying to aggresively communicate something at me, repeatedly jabbing its spear at me while spitting out suspicious words in their tongue. I look around in perplexion. I wasn't doing anything. If anyone, they should be threatening Tyl, because he's bigger than I am.
"Put your hands up." I hear Tyl hiss at me through clenched teeth.
"You put your hands up." Is my oh-so-witty retort, as I swiftly oblige.
We had been marched along for an hour or so; through the forest, up their platforms (swinging on vines and all), then into a room where we were stripped of our weapons and where we had been for the past three hours, staring in moody silence.
There are four Ewok guards at the door plus coutless more outside, and two stationed by each window - like Tyl or I would've fit through those, anyhow.
Escape is uselss. Even if we could get through those overly-aggressive pint-sized bears, there is the point of finding our way through the maze-like city, then through the forest back to Ruth. They had blindfolded us with crude bits of cloth, so if we ever escaped the city it would be a good chance we would spend a few weeks or more getting lost in the never-ending forest. We are trapped.
"What d'you think they're going to do with us?" So I had to break the silence. Hey, it was unbearable.
"Dunno. From what I've heard, when they first discovered humans last time they tried to roast 'em, but it doesn't look like they're doin' that now."
"Huh." I, of course, knew that story all too well - Mom and Luke had told it to me, trying to fit it in between bouts of laughter. "So."
"So." he repeats, raising an eyebrow at me, his eyes staring sharply into mine. "Mind tellin' me why you ran away?"
"Why do you care?"
"Just trying to do somethin' useful."
"You call you - of all people - showing parental concern useful?"
A snort. "No. I call saving myself from boredom useful. But hey, believe what you want."
Ugh. He is so aggravating.
"Screwed-up family. Long story." I mutter nonchalantly, with a shrug.
"We have all day."
True.
"Fine." I snap, drawing my knees close and crossing my arms across my chest. "But only if you shut up." He simply grins at me in reply.
"To make it short, found out dad was cheating on mom. Told mom, found out mom knew and didn't care. Also found out the only reason she has suffered through this marraige is because of getting pregnant with me, because, in her words, 'unwed mothers aren't taken to easily'. Ran to my room, out the window, to the X-wing uncle gave me - by the way, he probably knows about this too - and took off. There."
Tyl was quiet for a moment, looking impressed. "Wow. That sucks."
I look at my knees, the dirt staining the once-pure white. I feel my head nod slowly.
"Yeah..."
Now that we're on the subject...
"What about you?"
Tyl looks taken aback, and I feel strange pleasure in his surprise.
"I'm shuttin' up now, like promised."
"No. Tell me. What's your story?"
"Don't have one. Boring life."
"Of course you have one." I say exasperatedly. "Otherwise you wouldn't be so defensive."
"I don't. And I'm not."
"Tell me!"
"No!"
"You made me tell you something I didn't want to tell, so it's only fair!"
"Life isn't fair, priss."
"You are such a jerk." I shoot at him, making sure to put a pained look on my face.
And it seems to work.
"FINE. But only if you shut up, got it?"
I can feel my face immediately brighten, and I nod fervently and lean forward onto my knees.
"After the Rebellion, I lived on Muunilinst with my wife. One day, several years ago, I decided to visit a few friends of mine who lived in the Pelek Baw settlement on the planet Haruun Kal. Kissed the wife goodbye and took off with my copilot - Bache, was his name.
"Halfway there my hyperdrive went out, and I was near Dantooine, so at sub-light speed I landed there and started to do my repairs. A day passed. Maybe two. It doesn't really matter, because Bache and I were kidnapped by slave merchants who happened to be cruising by when they caught a distress signal that was comin' from my ship.
"We were shuffled around for a few months, before the pair of us were sold to some insecty thingies on... Genesis, Gonesos -- "
"Geonosis?" I interject, softly.
"That one. Yeah, Geonosis. Anyhow, turns out they have a weird grudge against humans, may have something to do with the Clone Wars, anyway... Bache and I were kept there for..." he pauses, and his brow furrows and he glances upward in contemplation. "Four... no, six years. That's where I got this..." A finger traced over an old, jagged scar that extended from his eyelid to crossing the brow. " - Nearly blinded me, and this one." he gestured at another scar on his face, that was perfectly straight and extended from his earlobe to nearly the corner of his mouth on the left side.
"One night, most'a the insect things were gone and partying about something I don't care about, except a few guards. Bache, me, and some other slaves desperate for freedom easily took 'em out, and we hijacked a ship and blasted off. The others went home, and I kept the ship since the whole thing was my idea anyways. Then I headed back for Muunilinst and for my wife.
"Got there one day, and I saw her. She was six years older, but still mine."
Tyl stops, and takes in a deep breathe. I feel pain, and anger, no, rage...
"Apparently not, though. Soon enough, there was a little girl, couldn't be older than four, trailing after her, clutching her hand. On that hand was a ring. Well, a different ring than the one I gave her. The girl was four. I was gone for six years. You do the math. In two measley years my wife managed to get remarried and knocked up. So I left, found Ruth in a junk yard on Tatooine, sold the scrap pile I was flying and got back my own ship, and I've been chartering and things of the sort ever since."
A pronounced silence followed this.
"I'm sorry." I say, as sincerely as I possibly could. And it is sincere, I've never heard a worse story in my life. Hell, it makes my problems sound wimpy. I manage a weak smile. "I guess you beat me."
"Guess I do. I remember you promising to shut up after the story, though." he reminded.
I sigh, and slump once again against the wooden wall behind me.