She woke to the whine of the landspeeder's engine and the low rumble of men's voices. She rubbed her eyes and sat up, gingerly prodding the dressing on her nose. It still hurt, although it was definitely an improvement from the last time she had awakened. The voices stopped, and she looked up to meet the brown eyes of her rescuer.

"You sleep well. We arrive home soon. Can you remember what happened?"

She rubbed her forehead, yawning. "Not really. I got in the pod and the ship exploded. Something really big must've hit it because it jerked and I hit my head and blacked out. The next thing I remember is you."

He nodded. "Anyone else on board? Your parents, any relatives?"

She shook her head. "Nobody but me. And the crew, of course," she added quickly. She fidgeted, changing the subject. "Have you, um, seen any other pods? I think the crew jettisoned before me."

He made a negative gesture. "No, only yours. They probably tried to find spaceport."

She nodded. "That would make sense." The setting sun cast deep shadows behind each blade of grass. A chill wind whispered through the open speeder, and she shivered, pulling the old blanket she had been covered in around her shoulders. Her nose was beginning to throb again and she wondered how long she'd been asleep.

He smiled. "Almost home," he repeated, and turned back to the front.

She slid over to the side of the speeder, resting her chin on it and watching the sunset over the endless plains. Beautiful as it was, it wasn't very exciting, and she was nodding again before the speeder began to slow. She sat up and squinted into the dusk in front of her, seeing only dots of light, which slowly resolved into a campfire and some hanging lights and a collection of buildings. There seemed to be people moving around the fire, but how many she couldn't tell.

Davrel glanced back at the girl as Orade smoothly halted the speeder under an overhang. She was taking the scene in, wide-eyed. Reassured, he turned his attention back to the people now gathering around the speeder.

"Get anything?" one said.

"No, but Dav finally found himself a girl!" Orade replied.

Dav grinned and punched his friend in the arm among general laughter. "At least I found one! That's one more than you!"

Orade raised an eyebrow. "At least I won't have to drag one out of an escape pod!"

Dav shook his head. "You couldn't find one that would let you, with that rat pelt on your face!"

An older woman, her graying hair in a tight bun, elbowed her way through the crowd. "All right, Davrel, what's this about a girl?"

Dav hopped out of the speeder. "Ruusaan! You're just the one I wanted to see." He turned to the girl, who smiled politely despite her obvious confusion. "Zace," he said in Basic, smiling wryly at the shared joke, "meet Ruusaan, our real medic." He extended a hand, and she took it, sliding gently out of the back seat but wincing slightly as she landed. "Ruusaan, Zace was in that ship that crashed. I think her nose is broken, but there's no sign of concussion and she seems to be lucid enough. I put some numbing cream on that bandage, but it's probably wearing off by now."

Ruusaan nodded approvingly. "Good. So I did manage to teach you something."

Dav turned back to the girl. "Go with Ruusaan. She will fix your nose, and then we will eat."

Zace nodded solemnly, looking up at him. "I will see you again?"

Dav wondered if he had maybe put a bit too much painkiller on that bandage, or if she was just exhausted. "Yes, of course. I will help Orade put up the speeder and then I will come."

She nodded again and transferred her gaze to Ruusaan. "I'm Zace," she said seriously, holding out her hand.

Ruusaan took it and squeezed gently, leading her out of the crowd. Dav watched them go, but was distracted by Orade's poke in the ribs. "You going to help, or make me do this all by myself?"

Dav grinned, picking his helmet up from the speeder's floorboard. "Well, I guess I really should help, seeing how kind you were not to leave me to walk home."

Orade laughed. "You better believe it!"

Zace followed the woman through the crowd and out into what seemed to be the main street of the village, if it was a village. She felt rather light-headed, although she couldn't tell why. She yawned again. The woman looked back at her and said something, and Zace smiled back obediently. The woman- Ruusaan, Davrel had called her- stopped in front of one of the buildings and opened the door, beckoning Zace in after her. She slipped off her boots and motioned for Zace to have a seat on a cushioned bench against one wall. Zace was only too glad to sit, and Ruusaan carefully removed the bandage from her nose, tsk-ing in commiseration. A pad smelling of something sharp and clean was produced, and the residue of numbing cream removed. It was definitely wearing off, Zace decided, gritting her teeth as Ruusaan dabbed at her still-swollen nose. A fresh bacta pad was applied, along with more numbing cream, and Ruusaan moved on to her other injuries, poking and prodding at her ribs, back, and head. Aside from minor lacerations and scrapes, nothing else seemed to be wrong, and Ruusaan had just applied the last bandage when Davrel appeared in the doorway bearing three bowls of something hot and delicious-smelling. Zace hadn't realized until just then how long it had been since she'd eaten, and her stomach rumbled audibly. She blushed, but the other two seemed not to have noticed, carrying on a quiet conversation. Davrel finally turned to her, handing her a bowl of stew. "Ruusaan says you are well except for your nose, which will heal quickly now. She also says that a broken nose requires no special diet, and so I bring you supper."

Zace smiled gratefully, taking the warm, surprisingly heavy bowl in both hands. "Davrel, how do you say thank you?"

"Vor entye, or vor'e."

"Then vor'e, Ruusaan."

The older woman smiled. "Ba'gedet'ye."

Zace smiled back and took a bite of stew. It was wonderful, hot and redolent with exotic flavors and full of vegetables and hunks of meat. There was bread to dip in it, made of some unfamiliar grain but just as delicious as the stew. She finished the bowl, mopping up the last drops with her bread crust, and discovered that she was very sleepy. "Davrel?"

He looked up from his own bowl.

She yawned, and tried to cover it with a hand. "Sorry. I'm a bit tired…" She yawned again. Davrel grinned.

"You will sleep here tonight, in the, um…" He waved a hand vaguely.

"Infirmary?" she suggested.

He frowned. "Possibly. The home of the medic."

She nodded. "Close enough."

Ruusaan had finished her stew and, setting down her bowl, brought out blankets and a bolster. She turned to Davrel and said something.

"Ruusaan says that the cream she put on your nose makes some people very sleepy. She says that if you take off your boots, you can go to sleep now."

Zace nodded, stifling another yawn. She leaned down and undid the clasps on her worn boots, slipping them off and letting them clunk onto the floor. Ruusaan placed the bolster at one end of the bench, motioning for Zace to lie down. Zace was only too happy to comply, and Ruusaan covered her with the blanket, which was heavy and warm and smelled of flowers. "Vor'e, Ruusaan," she murmured sleepily.

The woman touched her hair. "Jate'ca, ad'ika."

Ruusaan collected the girl's stew bowl and her own, handing them to Davrel. He stacked them inside his own. "Thanks, Ruusaan."

She waved dismissively. "Poor thing, it was nothing. It's about time you found a girl."

His face warmed. "Ruusaan, she's just a-"

"A what?" she asked, giving him a sharp look. "Another baby shriek-hawk with a broken wing, like the ones you brought me when you were just an adiik? This one's more of a strill. Will you want to keep her too, I wonder."

He had wondered what Zace would want to do once she was well, if she had family and a place to go. Surely she did, but that ship… It had been a cargo freighter, not one that typically carried passengers. Was she a stowaway?

Ruusaan shook her graying head. "Go to bed, Dav'ika. I know you too well. Go stew in your own juice until tomorrow. She won't disappear overnight."

He stepped outside and took a deep, bracing breath of cold night air. What was she talking about? Zace was just a girl with the misfortune to have been in the wrong ship but the luck that he and Orade had come along. She'd probably want to leave when her nose healed up, and he'd take her to some place she could catch a passing trader vessel so she could go home.

But what if she doesn't have a home? a sneaking voice in the back of his brain asked. What if she stays here, chooses to become part of the clan?

He found himself hoping that she would, and shook his head. "It's been a long day. Ruusaan's right, I need some sleep." He often found that speaking aloud to himself helped him sort things out, but tonight nothing seemed to be able to get her face off his mind. She wasn't even pretty, and she wouldn't be with a broken nose anyway. But there was something about the tilt of her eyebrows, the way she set her jaw when he had mopped her up, obviously in pain but not wanting to let it show… He shook his head, trying to clear it. He realized that he had walked right past his house, and had to backtrack. He left the bowls carelessly on a table, and it was a long time before he slipped into restless dreams.