The next morning after breakfast I wanted to find a few things. I wiped the back of my arm against my forehead, sweating from the heat as I finished scavenging before I had to go to Watto's. It was oddly windy today. Before I left home this morning, I put on my scarf to cover my face up to my nose, my racing goggles temporarily being used as eye protection to keep the sand out. Mom woke me up and gave me a new headband she bought for me the day before. Failing to persuade her to give it back, I left my hair down today to wear it and make her happy. With my bag full of metal junk, I made my way to Watto's to start my day.
I entered the shop, putting my bag roughly on the table. My shoulders were screaming in relief now that the weight was off. It may not be worth much, but junk was bulky after lugging it in the desert. Watto's shop was tiny. Small cheap droids rested on the display wall with shelves full of different parts for sale. If Watto didn't have it, no one would. I took my boots off one by one, emptying the sand before putting them on again. I took my goggles and scarf off as well, shoving them into Anakin's bag I noticed rested on the floor.
"Watto, I have more parts to sell," I announced, emptying my bag of junk onto the table. "What do I need to do today?" I turned to face him, but instead, I saw three strangers with my brother talking to Watto. The one guy, looked like the man from my dreams, and so did the girl and I immediately felt on edge. My dream was real! "Ani, who are these outlanders?" I crossed my arms defensively.
There was a tall man, with long curly brown hair and a beard. He was wearing a grey poncho with black pants and boots. A girl who looked around my age was standing by my brother. She had brown hair in a fancy braid and blue expensive-looking clothes, but she had flat shoes. An orange-looking alien was with them as well. He had big ears that laid against his back, a black vest, and pants but no shoes. His feet had to be burning, walking outside on the hot sand. I cringed just thinking about the feeling. I felt something strange and saw the tall man looking at me as if I had something on my face, making me instinctively touch my face. I felt something weird about him, and I narrowed my eyes at him. Watto led the man into the back, leaving the girl and alien with my brother and me.
"Anakin, answer me." I wanted to know the answer to who these people were.
"They are looking for a part. That's all I know." He huffed and went back to what he was doing, occasionally staring at the girl in the room with us. I decided now was a good time to organize the junk I found earlier, but I stopped when I heard my brother ask the girl if she was an angel. I snickered, my brother had a crush.
"An angel. I heard the deep space pilots talk about them. They're the most beautiful creatures in the universe." Anakin went on, explaining as the girl walked closer to him curiously. "They live on the moons of Lego, I think."
"You're a funny little boy." the girl smiled, "How do you know so much?"
"He's little, not stupid." I muttered, feeling irritated. Some of the junk started to rattle and I closed my eyes and took deep breaths.
"I listen to all the traders and star pilots who come through here." Anakin explained while he cleaned a fan switch. "I'm a pilot, you know, and someday I'm going to fly away from this place."
"You're a pilot?" To say she was shocked would be an understatement. I smiled when my brother bragged, humans weren't known to be good pilots at all. Except us.
Anakin nodded and then looked at me proudly. I walked over and put my arm around him, pulling him to my side. "Well, my sister and I have been pilots all our lives."
They continued making small talk about how long we'd been here, which made Ani tell her how we were slaves to Gardulla the Hutt until we became Watto's. I liked to call them walking talking slugs who only spoke one language.
The girl's face fell, "You're a slave? Is that what language you were speaking before?"
Before he could reply with his snarky comment, I stepped in front of him facing the girl, "His name is Anakin, and he's not a slave, our mother and I are." I crossed my arms in front of my chest. "That language we spoke was Huttese, that's pretty much all anyone here speaks with a few who speak English. The Hutts practically own Tattooine." I heard a clunk and saw the droid next to Ani had a nice new dent in it, making Ani tug on my sleeve.
"She's a person too, and her name is Kida." Anakin defended me, suddenly glaring at her. It made me smile, knowing he was just as protective of me as I was of him, being my little brother. It was my job to protect him, I was his big sister after all.
The girl became nervous, "I'm sorry. I don't fully understand. This is a strange place to me." she looked at the droid that I accidentally bent, "I've never seen a woman be able to do that!"
Before I could ask her to explain, we all heard a crash. We saw the annoying alien making a mess in the shop and turned on one of the droids. Anakin yelled at him to hit the nose to turn off the tiny droid. I walked over and placed the droid back on the display area. Just as Anakin was beginning to explain our pods, the man came back into the room with Watto. He looked at me, and I felt a strange feeling again. He announced they were leaving and called the annoying alien, Jar Jar, to follow. The girl smiled and told us she was happy to have met us, then walked out as I turned to Anakin. "Annoying alien, huh?" I nudged my brother, making him giggle. Watto flew over and started speaking Huttese to us about how outlanders think we're dumb.
"Well, you do look the part." I mumbled. Watto glared at me until he noticed the pile of junk I organized on the table and started going through it.
"They seemed nice to me." Ani smiled at us. Watto had him clean the racks, and when he finished, we could go home, making Ani and I work faster.
Anakin and I were on our way home since everything at the shop was clean. We both felt a sandstorm was going to hit, so we were going straight home today. I glanced over at Ani, who was telling me about the next part I needed to find for our pods, a power cell. I felt a strange feeling when the tall man was near me. It was almost the same as when I felt Anakin. I didn't have to be close to him to know where he was, and it was similar to the stranger we met. I asked him about it, but he didn't feel anything weird, which he claimed were my nerves from a stranger visiting. I always got anxious when outsiders came into the shop. I didn't know if they were looking for slaves, which meant I would be separated from my family. Anakin told me the strangers were looking for parts for their ship and they were stranded here. What a place to be doomed.
We were almost at our house when we saw Sebulba choking the annoying alien, Jar Jar.
I sighed and walked toward them, knowing entirely well I couldn't leave a person who needed help, no matter how annoying I thought they were. "Careful, Sebulba." I warned speaking in Huttese. I found the language annoying. It was a simple language, but I didn't know why this language was even spoken. The talking slugs only spoke it, meaning everyone else had to speak it on this hot hell of a planet.
Anakin walked and stood next to me, "He's a big-time outlander."
I pushed Anakin behind me, switching Sebulba's focus back onto me. "I'd hate to see you diced before we race again." I didn't like Sebulba in general, especially when he picked on Anakin, so I made sure to always be with him when I felt him near us.
Sebulba pointed at me with a dead crunchen in his hand, or was it his feet… I could never tell with him since he crawled everywhere. "Next time we race, girl, it will be the end of you. If you weren't a slave, I'd squash you now."
"Luckily for me, I am a slave. Otherwise, you'd have to pay for me." I glared at him. I was never afraid of him even though he found countless ways to intimidate me. It never worked. I was hardly afraid of anything. Sebulba walked off in a huff while the group we saw earlier walked toward us which made Ani smile more, greeting them while explaining their friend was about to be turned into goo.
"He picked a fight with a dug," I elaborated. I look to Ani to keep quiet, "an especially dangerous dug called Sebulba."
The alien stood up and wiped his clothes, "Mesa haten crunchen. Das da las ting mesa want."
The tall man spoke up looking at me, "Nevertheless, the girl is right. You were heading into trouble. Thank you, my young friends." he walked away while the alien complained some more.
"My name is not, girl, it's Kida." I muttered and looked at my brother, "Ani we really should get home," I looked out in the distance, "The storm is almost here." I looked back at the group of strangers we met and consciously couldn't let them get caught in a sandstorm. I turned to my brother, "You said they need to repair their ship?" Anakin nodded at me and I sighed again, putting a hand behind my brother's back and pushing him toward the group with me, "Let me do the talking please." I cleared my throat to get their attention, "My brother has Pallies for you."
Anakin nudged the tall man to get his attention and gave us his thanks in return. He tucked it into his pocket, lifting his poncho, revealing his shiny lightsaber. I gasped as Anakin tugged on my arm. This man was a Jedi.