13. Day 37
Princess Leia had advanced so much with Shyriiwook that she could now understand Chewbacca at last, as long as he spoke slowly and did not use complicated words. And he had turned out to be a wonderful interlocutor. Of course, he was as happy as she was to have someone else to talk to besides Han and Threepio.
They were playing their umpteenth game of holo-chess. The ongoing championship had Han and her at a virtual tie with Chewie far ahead. She had started fairly behind and her travel companions beat her in every game, until she caught the particularities of her opponents and her natural gift for strategy flourished. But the Wookiee was a formidable player and still won seventy percent of the games against her.
"Hey, where did you learn that move?" She asked flabbergasted when one of Chewie's pieces jumped and wiped out three of hers, cleanly winning the match.
Someone I met in the front, he answered, looking a little melancholic.
The Princess restarted the board to make it ready for another game. "Which war?"
The Clone Wars.
"The Clone Wars? Which battles did you fought?" She made the first move.
The defense of Kashyyyk.
"Oh."
She knew that Kashyyyk had been part of the galactic battlefront at the time of the Jedi Purges. After the rise of the Empire, the same clone troops that were supposed to assist the Wookiees in the defense of their planet turned against them and slaughtered them. But some of them where spared, as they had always been valuable slave material. Not because of their docility precisely, but because of their strength, ability and long lifespans.
"How did you...?"
I was captured. We had fled and hidden for days. We finally had an opportunity to go into the untamed regions of the planet, where they could not go after us. But it was a trap. I... stayed behind while the others escaped. At least my ... and my cub were free.
"Sorry, I didn't understand the last," Leia apologized. "What was that word again? Your what?"
Cub?
"No, the other one."
Ah. He repeated the word. My partner in life, the mother of my cub. My lifemate.
"You are married?" The Princess could not hide her astonishment. "And have a child?"
Chewbacca nodded. You can say so. It does not translate exactly, but it is close enough.
"Where are they now?" she asked.
Still in Kashyyyk. Hiding.
"Why are you not with them?" She realized the foolishness of the question the moment she spoke it.
Because of my life debt with Han. She understands it.
He didn't say exactly Han but he used a sound that Leia had come to associate with him. It sounded very close to the word for reckless but not exactly. The word for Luke was something like light, but she still hadn't discovered which word Chewie used for her.
"But they need you!" she argued anyway.
Han needs me too. And I would be dishonored if I left him. Wookiees take their life debts very seriously, you know.
"I know." Han had explained it to her once. The life debt concept, not how he acquired one. That, he had not told and she had not asked. She knew by instinct that he did not like to talk about his past. The only thing that he had disclosed about it so far was that a female Wookiee named Dewlanna had taught him Shyriiwook and to cook when he was a kid.
When she had asked further, he had ignored her and pretended that he had something to check on the Falcon. Maybe one day he would tell her more, but she knew she could not press him. But the more sneaky part of her brain argued that that didn't meant that she couldn't do a little research.
"Did you ever meet Dewlanna?"
No. But, in fact, the Wookiee started, dimming his voice, I wanted to talk to you about her.
"Really?"
Yes. She died, many years before I met Han. If my guess is not wrong, I think it will be twenty standard years in a few days. He shouldn't let it pass unacknowledged.
The Princess considered the idea for a moment.
"Maybe that's why he's been a little grumpy these days. How did you find out? Did he tell you?"
The Wookiee shook his head. Years ago. He was drunk and maybe a little high too. He winced and Leia understood perfectly the situation. That's why he left the stuff, it made him talkative.
Anyway, Chewie continued, I was wondering if you could have a word with him.
"I don't know, Chewie. Maybe he won't like it. Do you think he would listen to me?"
Chewbacca turned his eyes again to the half-forgotten game.
You make him happy. He'll hear you, he declared.
Leia's cheeks turned a deep pink.
Eventually, everybody heard him. Chewie, the Princess and See-Threepio, who walked as fast as he could down a corridor trying to make himself inconspicuous. While the Wookiee waited patiently for the storm to die out, Leia confronted him.
"What right d'ya think you OR the furball" - a long finger pointed accusatory at Chewie- " "have to sneak into my private business?" Han Solo shouted to the Princess angrily. "You really think I wouldn't remember her without a blasting memorial service?"
"I'm sure you remember her, Han, but..." The politician tried to placate him, with little success.
"You think I can forget the only person that was kind to me when I was a kid? You really think that of me?" His eyes shone like durasteel, hard and hurt.
The only one? Ice run down her spine."No, Han, but we thought..." she managed to answer.
"I don't care what you thought!"
The Princess crossed her arms on her chest.
"Fine, Han. But you must know that we'll do it with or without you. You decide if you'll join us."
Two humans and a Wookiee were seated around the holo-chess table over which a single green candle was lit.
Chewbacca calmly recited the prayers for the gentlebeing only one of them had known. Han Solo followed his words silently, his head bent in respect. His lips twitched slightly now and then in recognition of some familiar invocation.
Princess Leia understood little of what Chewie said, because that type of ceremonial language was far out of her reach. Nevertheless, prayers sounded similar in every language she knew. So her focus was in the man by her side. She had never seen Han so upset and to see him abandon so completely his usual anything-goes attitude was quite shocking.
The two last days had been tense, to say the least. He had stubbornly refused to hear about the memorial, no matter how hard she pleaded or shouted at him. She had been a little mad at the Wookiee at first for sending her to the front, so to speak, without warning. But he had apologized to her extensively. After all, even two-hundred-years-old Wookiees made mistakes occasionally. But if someone in this galaxy knew the power of a prayer for the beloved departed, that person was she, and she sided with Chewie.
The two of them had finally started alone, the old warrior and the Princess. The smuggler had quietly slid into a seat minutes afterwards. And there he was, eyes reddened and jaw clenched.
When Chewbacca was done, the three of them remained unmoving. Then Han stood, grunted something and stormed out of the room. It took Leia a few moments to understand that the sounds that had come out of Han's mouth were very similar to Shyriiwook words.
"What did he say?" She asked to Chewie.
He said 'I cared for you, Lannie'
Oh, yes, it lacked a few consonants impossible to form in a human larynx but she recognized it now. Still, she did not catch the whole meaning of it.
"He cared for her? What is that suppose to mean?"
"Mrs. Leia," Threepio interrupted. He had observed the whole proceedings from a corner. "I think the word you are looking for is 'loved'."
Chewbacca did not agree. He said the meaning was not the same, that the Wookiees did not use the expression care for someone as lightly as the humans used the word 'love'. But she wasn't very interested in the semantics controversy between the golden droid and the Wookiee.
She stood to go after Han, but a powerful paw halted her.
Wait, Chewie said, give him a few minutes.
She found him in the cockpit, sitting in his chair, his gaze lost in the stars ahead. Silently, she placed her palm on his broad shoulder. He did not turn his face to her but his own hand reached up and he interlaced his fingers with hers.