Chapter 2

Into the Village

Over at the Czerka camp, everyone was drawing straws. Bastila, Sura, and Jolee were already gone, and the people who picked the two short straws would have to go and send the message to the Wookiee Chief Chuundar and get Zaalbar back for Mission, who was wailing and refused to move. Carth pulled the first short straw. To his extreme distaste, Canderous chose the other one.

"Why him!" Carth cried. "I demand a redraw!"

Canderous, however, was amused. "Oh, I don't think that will be necessary," he said with a malicious grin. "We're going to have a lot of fun together, Carth."

Carth gulped.

The two made their way to the elevator, where the Wookiee who managed it glared at them as they stepped on. "Take us up," Canderous said with a scowl.

"Hey," Carth said, peering at the Wookiee, "you look like Zaalbar!"

The Wookiee screwed up his face. "Rrrrawaarrr?"

"Erm," Carth said. He glanced around. Normally Sura or Mission would be there to give a translation. He stared blankly at Canderous. "I can't speak Wookiee," Carth said nervously.

"That makes two of us," Canderous said sourly. "But it doesn't matter. As long as we hand this note to that Wookiee chief we can get out of here with Zaalbar."

……………………………………………………………………..

Chuundar sat with Zaalbar in the main hall. There were Czerka representatives all over the place, and Zaalbar knew there was no chance for escape. He worried about his friends. He expected them to have come back for him by now.

Chuundar, apparently, thought the same, and he told his brother so. "Your little friends seem to have forgotten all about you, eh?"

"They haven't forgotten!" Zaalbar cried. He knew they wouldn't forget about him, but if they were dead...

"So, you think they might be dead?" Chuundar guessed. "That could be true, too...more likely than if they forgot about you, I guess...your friends are pretty stupid...then again, who knows? Maybe they are coming for you...or maybe they already have. They might not even recognize you."

"Sura and Mission know what I look like, and so do the others!"

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because after spending Taris, Dantooine, and Tatooine with them I think they'd be able to recognize me!"

Zaalbar was not in chains. In fact, he was simply standing in the hall like all the other Wookiees, right next to his brother Chuundar. But he knew he didn't dare move. Everyone was watching him, and those Czerka people had pretty big blasters...

The door flew open. "We demand to see the Wookiee chief!"

Zaalbar's heart rose. Carth and Canderous stood at the doorway. Carth was trying to look diplomatic, but Canderous kept looking around at all the Wookiees with narrowed eyes, his finger dangerously close to the trigger on his blaster.

"Welcome!" Chuundar said. "Come on in!"

Carth and Canderous stared blankly back at him.

"Translate for me," Chuundar snapped at a Czerka guard. "Ask them why they're here."

The guard translated. "We have brought you a message from a good friend of yours," Carth said, stepping up to the chief. "His name is Jolee Bimbo..."

The guards sniggered. "Bindo," Canderous hissed.

"Right," Carth said, coughing. "Erm...well, Jolee wanted to send you this message."

Chuundar snatched it. "Hmmm...he never does seem to run out of credits, does he? Tell you what, my unfurry friends. You can have Zaalbar as long as you promise to get out of here and never come back."

After the guard translated, Carth hesitated. "Erm...Canderous, I don't think Sura would like it if we made any promises..."

"Who cares? She wanted the Wookiee and we're giving her the Wookiee. Now let's get back down to the Shadowlands. There's some kinraths down there I want to teach a lesson!"

"We promise!" Carth said to Chuundar.

"All right, you can have Zaalbar. Take him and leave."

Canderous and Carth hesitated. "Erm..." Carth said.

"Oh, I see," Chuundar said. "Wait! Another deal!"

"Yes?"

"You can only take Zaalbar if you know which one he is!"

Canderous stared at the translator, sure that wasn't what Chuundar had said, but the Czerka man shrugged.

"Okay," Carth said, looking around. "Hmm...which Wookiee..."

The Wookiee standing next to Chuundar started coughing.

"Hmm..." Carth continued.

The cough turned into a roar.

"Now what did he look like again?"

The Wookiee next to Chuundar could take it no longer. He roared at the top of his lungs and started sprinting around the room, howling and waving his arms.

Canderous laughed at the crazy Wookiee. "Well, we know that one isn't Zaalbar..."

Chuundar whispered something to one of the loyal Wookies close to him. "Pretend you're Zaalbar..."

But it was too late. "That one!" Carth said, pointing at something hairy in the corner.

Canderous peered at it. "Carth, are you sure..."

But before he could finish, Wookiee guards had ushered them outside...but not before Chuundar could whisper instructions to "Zaalbar."