Chapter 2: Falling Jedi

Obi-Wan slowly regained his consciousness. Everything hurt, and carefully he tried to move a leg. Obviously he succeeded because the ground below him exclaimed a loud and clear "Ow!"

Wait? This was all wrong. The ground should definitely not speak to him, that much he knew. And the ground began to move. Obi-Wan rolled to the left and looked directly into a young man, well…not man but definitely a being which was humanoid.

"Where in all the stars' and moons' orbits did you come from?" the young man asked, slightly superfluous.

"I fell," Obi-Wan explained, "someone took me, and I fell."

The being in front of him sat up and scratched his neck.

"Where did you fall from?"

"There!" Obi-Wan pointed up in the air.

The stranger tried a new approach.

"Who took you, and why?"

Obi-Wan stared blankly at him. "Dunno'. I was about to climb the stairs and then Garen ran off and someone took me."

"I kicked him," he added with some satisfaction, "and then I fell down here."

The dizziness was slowly disappearing and he got a better look at the being in front of him. It, or he, was rather slim. He had a tanned leathery face which somehow reminded Obi-Wan of a skull he had seen in a book once. His eyes were covered by goggles and he was dressed in leggings, a plain shirt and a sync-leather vest.

"Who are you?" he asked curiously. The being in front of him seemed, if not friendly, so at least not too dangerous. Obi-Wan even believed he could see a glimpse of humor in the dark eyes behind the goggles.

"Hondo Ohnaka, at your service," the man answered and even managed to deliver a slight ironic bow as he carefully stood up from the ground, "and who may you be, young one?"

"I am Obi-Wan Kenobi," Obi-Wan answered and stood up as well, happy to realize that he was able to stand. Then he stretched his right hand towards the stranger as he had been taught was a proper way to greet a stranger. "Pleased to meet you, Sir."

A low chuckle escaped Hondo. "So, now, that's the first time someone has called me 'Sir'. Pleased to meet you as well young Kenobi. Uh…what's that?"

His sharp eyes had detected an unusual movement in the crowd. Someone was approaching them and they did so fast, and he decided to run. Then it struck him - the boy had said someone had taken him, and that said someone had tried to carry him away. What if the fast moving someone was the very same 'someone' that had tried to abduct the boy from whoever his family might be? Well, that wasn't really his business? Was it? The he turned to run.

"Where are you going, Sir? Can you please tell me where I am and how I can get back home before you go?"

Hondo cast a glance at the small boy and made one of his life's very few unselfish decisions.

"Come here, boy," he said and grabbed the boy's small hand,"I think we need to get away from here, or else there may be no use in me telling you anything."

Then he began running.

He weaved through the crowd in a speed that witnessed of long experience in fleeing from other beings, and before long Obi-Wan's much shorter legs were almost giving up in following the Weequay's long strides. For the second time this day he felt himself lifted off the ground as Hondo grabbed him around his waist and continued running. They turned left and right and then down some levels and then to the left again. The area they were approaching seemed less crowded than the level above, and in an unnoticed moment Hondo opened a door in huge building and slid in. Then he dropped Obi-Wan to the floor and bent over panting.

"I….think we…..lost them…," he gasped, trying to catch his long gone breath. "What are your parents feeding you, boy? You're heavier than you seem."

"I have no parents," Obi-Wan answered.

"Everyone have parents, boy. Even you. Are they wealthy? I bet they would ble glad to have you back safe and sound, so don't you think they would pay me a minor…ah…compensation for taking so good care of you?" he suggested. "I wonder how much they would be willing to give?"

Obi-Wan sighed.

"I don't have parents," he said again, "I'm a Jedi."

Hondo's eyes almost popped out of his head in astonishment.

"Jedi? No way. You're too small."

Obi-Wan felt a sudden urge to make a very little Jedi-like stomp with his foot in the ground.

"I am a Jedi, and we don't have credits so they won't pay you anything, I'm afraid," he explained.

Hondo sighed dramatically and slapped his palm to his own forehead.

"By all the stars. The only time a wealthy looking boy is raining down on me from heaven and I have the possibility to earn some honestly achieved credits for my good care of him, he's a Jedi, and I cannot have any."

"You haven't taken care of me yet," Obi-Wan shot in. "I'm hungry."

"You're…what? Do you think I run a restaurant here? There is no food around."

Obi-Wan's lower lip quivered for a moment. Then he managed to calm himself. This would be a long evening in the companionship of the weird but rather kind Weequay in front of him, but he was hungry, tired and he was missing his friends and Ali-Alann and he didn't like the world outside the Temple one tiny bit. It was…unfriendly."

Hondo watched the boy's facial expression change and for a moment he felt something that might have been compassion. He shook off the unwanted feeling and began rummaging around in a bag that was resting on the floor. Finally he found what he was looking for. He grabbed the piece of dry bread and threw it in Obi-Wan's direction. Obi-Wan had no problem catching it in mid-air.

"Eat!" Hondo ordered. "And then you can take the blanket and lay down over there. We need to stay out of sight in case your pursuers are roaming the streets. Let's rest here in my humble home until dawn and then we can try to get you back to the Jedi Temple."

"Will you really take me back there, mister?" Obi-Wan brightened visually by the thought. If he managed to get back home in one piece he would really have a story to tell his friends.

"Seems like I have no choice. I cannot take you with me, and besides you eat too much i cannot afford it. Steal.…uh…finding food for myself is hard enough. And I cannot kill you. My own good mother would kill me if the rumors of me killing a child reached her ears. She's a warm and caring person, my mother, even though she sold me to slavers when I was a child."

"She sold you?" Obi-Wan's surprise was almost palpable.

"She sure did. I guess she needed the money. I just hope the slavers paid her my true value. Then she must be quite rich by now. Maybe I should go back and claim my fair share of it? Anyways, I managed to escape the slavers and stow myself away on an off world ship and here I am," he finished. "But for now, sleep."

And with that he laid down on the dirty floor and fell asleep with the now empty bag as a pillow.

For a moment Obi-Wan thought of sneaking out of the hiding, but then he realized that he had no clue where he was and how to find the Jedi Temple. It seemed like his best chance was to follow Hondo's lead and hope that the man really would take him home the following day.

He finished the rather stony piece of bread he had been given and wrapped the blanket around him. Soon he was asleep too.