The Approaching Storm

Chapter 11

The chawix outbreak did not last long. Only long enough for a snack, a quick drink, and a brief rest, following which the travelers prepared for departure. It was when she was preparing to climb back onto the saddle of her mount that Barriss noticed the creature digging through the supply pack that was tied across the suubatar's second back. Momentarily startled by the unexpected sight, she froze.

It looked very much like any other Ansionian. The bright, convex eyes, the bipedal build, and the long, nimble fingers and toes were identical. But instead of the narrow mane that ran from the top of the head down the spine to terminate in a short tail, this intruder was completely covered in short, dense, dark brown and beige fur striped with dull yellow markings. Instead of a twitchy stub, its weaving tail was as long as her arm.

Most striking of all, it barely came up to her waist.

"Hey, stop that!" she yelled in all-purpose Ansionian.

Both arms laden with a trio of flexiwrapped foodpaks, the startled intruder looked up in response to her sudden shout.

Emitting a defiant squeal, it turned and leapt off the back of the indifferent suubatar. Unhesitatingly, she raced around her mount's front end. If the creature stayed where it was, it would be trapped against the rear of the overhang. If she failed to intercept it and it ran outside, it would be highly visible and therefore easy to track down on the slopes that bordered the gully.

As she rounded her mount's head, it lifted its snout to sniff lazily at her, then closed its eyes and resumed its resting posture. She expected to see the prowler huddled against the back wall, or racing for the gulch beyond. What she saw instead was a pair of legs vanishing beneath a protruding shelf of rock near the rear of the overhang.

A quick backward glance showed her companions chatting or preparing for departure. If the little thief thought he could hide in a hole, he was very much mistaken. She was not so easily deceived. Dropping to her knees, she went in after it. If she could get a hand on one of those small feet, she was sure she could drag the intruder back out.

Unexpectedly, the hole opened into a fissure that ran back into the hill. Light filtered down from above. At that point she hesitated. Cornering the thief in a dead-end recess was one thing; chasing it down a slot canyon of unknown extent quite another. But-they needed every bit of their supplies. And every second she lingered put more distance between herself and the thief.

Determined not to let the prowler get away, she rose to her feet and raced after it. If the rocky cleft branched off into multiple passages, she would have to terminate the chase and return, defeated, to her companions. On the other hand, if it dead-ended somewhere not far ahead, she would have the furry bandit cornered.

Though clearly cut by running water, the crevice cooperated by not splitting into different branches. Agile though he was, the intruder was slowed by his ill-gotten burden. He never managed to slip entirely out of her sight. In fact, she was gaining on him noticeably when he suddenly turned to confront her. Jumping up and down, he proceeded to unload on her a series of furious squeals that she struggled to translate. The dialect was far more difficult to decipher than the comparatively sophisticated speech of the city, the idiom spoken by Kyakhta and Bulgan, or even the rough variant that was employed by the wandering Yiwa.

"Get back, get back, go away, go away, leave alone, leave alone!" In addition to these straightforward exclamations there were also numerous rapid-fire individual phrases that proved beyond her capacity to interpret, but whose general implication could be inferred from the vaguely obscene gestures that accompanied them. On careful consideration, Barriss did not believe any were intended to be flattering. Such imprecations and insults didn't bother her.

What did were the dozens of echoing comments and cries that emanated from the thief's cohorts, who by now lined both sides of the crevice's upper rim. Yelling and screaming, they hurled, exceptionally inventive epithets down at her while their absconding colleague stood his ground and assumed a posture of unmistakable triumph.

The sight of them was as astonishing as it was unexpected. Despite their diminutive stature, proportionately slightly larger eyes, and full fur body covering, the similarities to the dominant Ansionian race were unmistakable. Her little thief and his comrades clearly represented a distinct branching of Kyakhta's and Bulgan's species, a dwarf genetic offshoot. Already she'd recognized their speech as a variant of the Ansionian norm. Every one of them, she noted, boasted a different pattern in its fur.

The cleft in the hill was a dead end, all right. For both thief and pursuer. But he was the one with the swarm of allies. It occurred to her that not only did her companions not know she was in trouble, they didn't even know where she was. Master Luminara would be displeased. Cautiously reaching for her lightsaber, Barriss hoped fervently that she would be able to accept that displeasure in person.

"Hahaheehee!" With unflagging energy and enthusiasm, the thief was jumping wildly up and down. "Tooqui fool you, fool you! You trapped good now, you big back-bald bully-goo! Squinty-eyes! Syrup-stink! What you do now now?"

That depended entirely, she knew, on what the thief's com rades did next. If she backed slowly down the crevice, retracing her steps, would they track her retreat from above? Or would they immediately lose interest in lieu of scrambling down to fight one another over a share of their successful colleague's plunder?

The answer came in the form of a hail of stones. None was particularly big, but she would only have to catch one fist- sized rock between the eyes to be knocked senseless. Derived from her training, her response was pure reflex. Raising a hand, she concentrated hard, hard.

The flung stones hit the sides of the narrow cleft. They struck the floor at her feet. But none made contact with her. She was too busy focusing on deflecting the missiles to wonder how long she could maintain her concentration. Sweat began to bead on her forehead. She couldn't spare the energy to yell for help. Given the twists and turns in the cleft and the distance she'd come, she doubted her shouts would be heard by her friends, anyway.

She was on her own.

Apart from the actual, very real danger, it was a strange feeling. This was the first time she had been attacked by herself, not counting the abduction in the Cuipernam shop. Involving as it had nothing more threatening than a soporific mist, that had been a relatively benign assault. This was completely different. The howling, gesticulating creatures on the gully rim above her were doing their utmost to split her skull.

Wouldn't they ever get tired? she wondered. The strain was beginning to tell. She felt herself growing dizzy from the effort. If they saw, or sensed, that she was weakening, they might redouble their efforts.

If she went down, it was entirely possible that nobody would find her. Words would have to be said over her demise in the absence of a body. Those she had known and studied with would grieve, wondering what had happened to her on distant, suddenly critical Ansion.

Just as she felt she was going to pass out from the strain, the barrage slowed, to finally cease altogether. Overhead, the assembled creatures turned from attacking her to jabbering excitedly at one another. Occasionally, one would point down at their intended target standing cornered below. At such moments she strove to project an air of complete confidence, even indifference. The pain in her head was beginning to fade. She saw one of her assailants shove another. A couple of fights broke out among the stone throwers-all long slapping fingers and angry tiny fists. Apparently, her assailants were a fractious bunch.

Hoping she remembered enough of the language course and still keeping a wary eye out for the odd hurled rock, she tilted her head back and addressed them forcefully.

"Listen to me!" Stunned debaters immediately ceased their arguing. Several dozen wide-eyed faces turned to look down at her. "There's no need for us to fight. My friends and I mean you no harm. We're not from this world, from Ansion. We're humans, and we'd like to be friends. Understand? Friends." Turning slightly, she pointed back the way she'd come.

"Two of my companions are Jedi Knights. I and one other are their Padawans, their apprentices. We also have two Alwari guides with us."

She should have stopped with her own identification. At the mention of the guides, the assembled group resumed their leaping and howling-though not quite as vociferously as before, she noted. She struggled to keep up with the meanings of their overlapping cries.

"Hate Alwari!. . Alwari bad, bad, bad!. . No Alwari here!. . Kill Alwari!. . Alwari go away, away!…" A few picked up and brandished fresh stones.

She raised both hands. "Please, listen to me! The two Alwari who travel with us are not only from another part of this world, they're clanless! They are completely under the control of myself and my friends and will not harm you. We just want to be friends!"

The flourished stones were not set aside-but they were low ered. Once more the creatures lining the rim resumed their internal bickering. If not for their uninhibited belligerence, they really were quite attractive, she decided, in the diversity of their full-body fur. Eventually the squabbling diminished, though it didn't cease entirely. A gray-coated individual, clearly an elder, leaned over the rim of the crevice to peer down at her.

"You strange person, you is. What a 'Jedi Knight'?"

"What a 'human'?" exclaimed another, interrupting. Suddenly she was inundated by a volley not of stones, but of queries.

Wrestling with her limited local vocabulary, she did her best to answer them all.

Meanwhile, the singular thief who had triggered the con frontation stood with his back facing the cleft's dead end, still clutching his cumbersome spoils. "Haja-what about me? What about Tooqui?" He tried to raise one of the big foodpaks over his head but succeeded only in dropping it on his right foot. Now much more interested in asking questions of the tall stranger, his comrades ignored him. Putting down his burden, he began hopping about furiously, waving long- fingered fists at those gathered overhead.

"Listen to me! Talk to me, not this ugly beady-eyed one! Jnja, I'm talking to you, you noisy stupid heads! It's me, Tooqui! Listen to me!" In his uncontrolled rage at being ignored by his fellows, he was all but bouncing off the narrow enclosing walls.

Meanwhile, Barriss continued to reply to as many of the thief's now inquisitive companions as her limited knowledge of their language would allow. She learned that they were called Gwurran, that they lived in the caves and crevices that ran through these hills, and that they hated the Alwari nomads.

"Not all nomads are bad," Barriss told them. "The Alwari are like any other people. There are good people among them, and bad people. My kind, humans, are no different. There is good and bad in everyone."

"Nomads kill Gwurran," one of the tribespeople informed her. "Gwurran have to live here, in hill country, to survive."

"Not our nomads," she countered. "Like I told you, they come from far, far away. I'm sure they've never hurt a Gwurran in their lives. They may never even have seen one of your kind." Even as she said it, she fervently hoped it was true. It was hard to imagine the thoughtful Kyakhta or the kindly Bulgan ever showing such unreasoning hostility to a cousin, even in their formerly addled condition. "Why not come and see for yourselves? Come back with me and meet my friends. We'll have a party. You can try some interesting food."

Her assailants exchanged dawning glances. "Party?" someone murmured hopefully.

"Food?" exclaimed another expectantly.

". . is anybody listen to me?" Having spent some time now bouncing off the walls, the Gwurran who called himself Tooqui was out of breath and out of energy. "This Tooqui talking. You know Tooqui. Tooqui who-" Dumping his ill- gotten gains indifferently to one side, the thief sat down on the gravel floor of the fissure and exhaled deeply. "Ah, moojpuck! Nobody care. Gwurran bunch of brainless bonehead stupids." Thrusting an accusing finger at Barriss, Tooqui raised what was left of his voice.

"This all you fault, you small-head outland big-lips! You twist word noises, make friends forget Tooqui. I hate you."

She walked toward the disheartened thief. Everyone on the rim above went suddenly quiet. As for the talkative Tooqui, seeing the much larger stranger approach, he picked up one of the foodpaks and backed up as far as he could.

"You keep away from Tooqui, you long-leg ugly bean thing! Tooqui fight you! Tooqui kill!"

Halting, she indicated the foodpak he held awkwardly in a throwing position. "Not with a few packets of dehydrated energy pudding, I don't think." To make herself less intimidating, she knelt, bringing her face as close to the Gwurran's level as she could manage. It was a risk. While concentrating on the thief, she couldn't keep an eye on his rock-armed comrades overhead. If they chose to bombard her while she was talking to him, she wouldn't be able to defend herself. But as Luminara had often told her, it was difficult to accomplish anything worthwhile without the taking of a risk.

Little did she know that at that very minute, on distant Coru-scant, a group of extremely powerful and very determined individuals were contemplating that exact same conundrum- though for them, the stakes were inconceivably higher.

"I don't want to hurt you, Tooqui. I want us to be friends." She nodded up at his comrades who lined the top of the fissure. Some still held rocks in their small but strong three-fingered hands. She fought not to show her nervousness. "I want all of us to be friends."

The Gwurran hesitated, aware that his fellow tribesfolk were following with great interest the confrontation being played out below. "You not hurt Tooqui? You not angry with him?"

She smiled engagingly. "On the contrary, I admire you for what you did. I imagine it's not every Gwurran who would be so bold as to try to steal in broad daylight from a party of tall, strong offworlders like myself and my companions."

Though still uncertain and continuing to eye her guardedly, he slowly lowered the foodpak and moved away from the wall. "Jaja, that true so. Nobody but Tooqui brave or clever enough to do it." He came a little closer. "Tooqui bravest brave of all Gwurran."

"I don't doubt it," she responded, repressing a smile. "Actu ally, I think you're kind of friendly."

He took immediate offense, standing as tall as he could. This brought his face up to the level of the Padawan's stomach. "Tooqui not friendly! Tooqui most fierce ferocious slayer of all Gwurran enemies!"

"I'm sure you are," she agreed, reaching out to brush the fur on his forehead from back to front. He stumbled away from her, flailing irately at his head as he struggled to smooth down his ruffled fur.

"Don't do that! Don't touch Tooqui." Fur once more flattened and smoothed back, he glared up at her out of bulging, orange-tinted eyes. "Tooqui have much dignity."

"Sorry." She lowered her offending hand, palm upward. "Now, if you and I are going to be friends, Tooqui, and if you're going to join the party, you have to return what you took."

The Gwurran eyed the three foodpaks uncertainly. "Tooqui work hard for to steal this stuff."

"Take my word for it, you wouldn't like it anyway. At least, not until it's been properly rehydrated. If you'll come back with me, I'll see that you're the first one who gets to taste it."

"First one? Tooqui be first?" His single nostril sniffed at the pak he still held. "Tooqui always first."

In your own mind, anyway, you sly little sneak. "It's settled, then? You'll come back with me, we'll be friends, and we'll have a party?"

The Gwurran vacillated only a moment longer. Then he con fidently placed first one foodpak and then the other two in Bar-riss's waiting arms.

"Tooqui consent to join you." Leaning back, he regarded his comrades on the rim above. "It okay okay now. Tooqui make stranger harmless. All Gwurran can come down safely safely now. We go to see what nasty ugly outlander strangers got to offer Gwurran."

Smiling to herself at the little brigand's bravado, Barriss waited while the rest of the chattering Gwurran, agile as spiders, scrambled down the walls of the fissure to join them. Tooqui's blustering notwithstanding, they largely ignored him as they pushed and shoved to get close to her, feeling her feet, her exposed lower arms, and her protective clothing. She put up with their innocent, wide-eyed curiosity for several minutes, until it threatened to become more intimate than she was prepared to tolerate. Then she shrugged them off and started back down the cleft, the three foodpaks slung over her left shoulder, accompanied by the entire tribe of chattering, jabbering, energized Gwurran.

Slender but strong ringers continued to tug at her as she walked, along with a continuous flow of questions.

"Where humans come from?. . Why you so silly-tall?. . What happened to rest of you hair?. . How can you see see out of such small small flat flat eyes?. . What this shiny-pretty on you waist?…"

"Don't touch that." She slapped the probing fingers away from her belt. The notion of a lightsaber in the hands of an unruly, combative, slightly rowdy Gwurran was more than a little unsettling. In the constricted confines of the fracture in the hillside, the riotous babble of the diminutive Ansionians was deafening.

"She can't just have disappeared into thin air!" For the tenth, or maybe the twentieth time, Luminara ran through the list of possibilities. Barriss had gone walking outside the protective overhang and had managed to get herself lost. She had found something of interest and wandered off into the hills. Something vast and voracious had swooped down out of the sky and carried her off. She was attending to personal needs that were taking more time than usual.

The last seemed the most likely, but even allowing for a se vere gastrointestinal upset, the Padawan ought to have reported back in by now. If nothing else, she should have used her com-link. That she hadn't done so suggested a number of possible explanations. The device was broken, its power pack had inexplicably gone dead, she had lost it off her belt somewhere and was even now searching some hillside for it, or-it had been forcibly taken from her. Who or what might be responsible for the latter Luminara could not imagine, but in the absence of solid facts, any and all possibilities had to be considered.

Movement made her turn. Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Kyakhta returned from searching the slopes outside their little refuge. "No sign of her anywhere." Anakin's tone was full of concern. "Would she have run somewhere instead of walking?"

"That would depend on the circumstances, wouldn't it?" Luminara was hard-pressed to keep anger and sarcasm out of her voice. She knew that Barriss's absence had nothing to do with Anakin. But the Padawan was Luminara's responsibility. If anything had happened to her. .

Anakin had bristled at Luminara's tone, but held his peace. It was not his place to question a Jedi Knight, not even if she was being unreasonably abrupt. He could not yet talk back to someone like Luminara Unduli as an equal. Soon, though. Soon. .

Bulgan looked up at her out of his one good eye. "We'll take the suubatars and make a spiraling sweep of these hills and gullies, Master Luminara. We can cover much more ground that way. Perhaps she has fallen into a hole in the rocks and hurt a leg."

A worried Luminara nodded absently. Sitting high up on the back of a suubatar would certainly provide a better view than was available from searching on foot. The implications of the Alwari's observation were distressing. If Barriss had fallen into a hole, and if the hole was big enough, and if she had been knocked unconscious, they might never find her.

That was when they heard a voice hailing them.

"Hey, everybody. I'm over here."

Racing around a pair of resting suubatars, they saw the object of everyone's present concern emerging on all fours from beneath a projecting slab of rock. The crawlway it concealed was exceedingly well hidden from anyone not standing directly in front of it and bending to look under the jutting stone.

"Barriss! Are you al-?" Slowing as she drew near, Lumi- nara's expression quickly changed from open concern to a re proving scowl. "Where have you been, Padawan? We've been looking all over for you. And-are you hurt?"

"No, I'm fine." Rising from the crawlway, Barriss brushed dust from her hands and stretched. "And so are our new friends."

Luminara was not alone in taking a couple of surprised steps backward as a veritable deluge of noisy, jabbering, furry bipeds spewed from the concealed crawlway. In an instant, they were investigating Barriss's companions with the same candid zeal and lack of discretion they had shown toward her.

"Suubatar," one shouted as it clambered up onto the back of Kyakhta's mount. Glowering his irritation, the guide hurried toward it.

"You, little fella! Get down from there! Get down just now!"

Sitting atop the unconcerned suubatar's middle shoulders, the brown and blue Gwurran made energetic faces down at the aggravated guide. "Nyngwah noojjlik, goofy-talking no-hair out-lander darling! You make make me!"

"Why you little!…" Kyakhta would have started up after the taunting pygmy, but Luminara called him back.

"Never mind that one now, Kyakhta."

"But Master Luminara, it is-"

"I said, never mind. Come and meet these people."

"People?" Muttering under his breath, Kyakhta reluctantly complied with the Jedi's order. "These are not people. These are dirt crawlers."

As Barriss proceeded to explain the reasons for her extended absence, Luminara was soon mollified. The Padawan's tale was brief but intriguing.

"… and so I convinced Tooqui here to return what he'd taken, and to bring along his whole tribe with him." Barriss eyed her teacher hesitantly. "I promised them a kind of a party."

Luminara frowned. "This is not a pleasure trip, Padawan. Obi- Wan, what do you think about this?"

The other Jedi considered. After a moment, somewhat unex pectedly, he grinned. "A Padawan's promise does not bind a Jedi, but that doesn't mean it should not be honored. We don't have musicians, and speaking for myself, I feel I've already done enough entertaining on this journey. But we can certainly show them some things, and let them try a taste of our food. Maybe they'll consider accepting a little education about the galaxy at large in place of singing and dancing. Perhaps that'll be enough entertainment for this get-together to qualify as a 'party.' "

Actually, it did not matter what the travelers did: the Gwur ran seemed to find everything and anything about the humans most amusing. Whether it was demonstrating technical gear, or exposing their differently toned furless flesh, or matching five comparatively thick human fingers against three slimmer Ansion-ian ones, the tribe was utterly enthralled. Wholly devoid of tact, they crawled over everything: travelers, dozing suubatars, and supply packs alike. But there were no more attempts at petty theft. When one adolescent attempted to make off with a plasticine pack covering, she was roundly chastised by several of the adults. Luminara was gratified to see that friendship, if not comprehensive understanding, had been established.

At least, it had been established between human and Gwur- ran. The two petulant Alwari guides observed the proceedings in bad-tempered silence, tolerant of the tribe's antics but less than enthusiastic-to the point that Luminara felt compelled to question them about their reticence.

"Why the attitude, my friends?" she asked them. "Is it that you've had bad dealings with people like this before?"

"I've never seen creatures like this before." Kyakhta re mained scrunched up against his softly breathing suubatar, as if he was afraid a bunch of the Gwurran were going to hoist the huge animal up onto their shoulders and walk off with it. "Don't know their kind, don't think I want to know."

"Alwari keep away from hilly places like this," Bulgan added, "so it's not surprising my clan has never encountered such as these."

"But they're not so very different from you," she pointed out. "They're much smaller, true. That should make them less of a threat, not more. So what if their eyes are slightly bigger in proportion to their faces than yours are, and unlike the Alwari they're completely covered in fur? They speak a variant of your language, and they look and act like the representatives of many other tribes we saw in Cuipernam."

"Not Alwari," the normally equable Bulgan argued. "Ignorant little savages is what they are."

"Ah, I see." She turned to watch the merriment as Obi-Wan demonstrated how a self-heating foodpak worked. Squeals of delight followed by energetic conversation rose from his furry audience. "So the Alwari are educated, sophisticated, forward-looking beings, while these Gwurran are primitive ignoramuses? " The guides' ensuing silence was answer enough.

Nodding knowingly, Luminara eyed each of them in turn. "Isn't that how the city folk of Ansion look upon the Alwari?"

Kyakhta looked confused. As for Bulgan, his face contorted as he struggled to get a handle on the concept. Then he looked at his friend and companion. If it was possible for an Alwari to look sheepish, both guides succeeded.

"You are a good teacher, Master Luminara." Kyakhta rose from his resting position. "Instead of yelling and screaming, you let those you are instructing come to the truth at their own speed, by their own road." Looking past her, both he and Bulgan contemplated the frenetically active but good-natured Gwurran from a new perspective. "Maybe you're right. Maybe they are just curious, and not a tribe that lives by stealing."

"Give them a chance. That's all that's being asked here. Like Barriss gave you and Bulgan a chance."

"That is fair enough." Gesturing positively, Kyakhta moved off to see if they could help with Obi-Wan's demonstrations. Watching them go, Luminara felt she had struck a small blow for the kind of tolerance and understanding that would be needed to make for a just and strong planetary government.

And for a durable Republic as well, she told herself as she watched Barriss at work.

"But we're not nomads." The Padawan was trying to explain the nature and purpose of the Jedi Knights to a small cluster of attentive but obviously confused Gwurran.

"Sure sure you are," argued one of the tribe. "You tell us what Jedi folk do: travel travel all the time, go from this place to that place to next place, always on the moving, never staying same place very long." She looked to her multihued companions for support. "That a nomad."

"It's true that some of us do seem never to put down any roots," Luminara admitted. "But others do live for a long time in one place. If you rise to a position on the Jedi Council, for example, you find yourself spending most of your time on Coruscant."

"What a Coruscant?" one of the other Gwurran asked.

"Another whole world, like Ansion," Barriss explained.

The tribesfolk exchanged puzzled looks. "What an Ansion?" one finally inquired ingenuously. With a resigned sigh, Barriss did her best to try to explain the concept of multiple worlds. It would have been easier at night, with stars in the sky. Clearly, the horizons of the Gwurran were far more limited than those of the Alwari.

Much of the remainder of the day, when the travelers should have been galloping through the hills and across the open prairie beyond, was spent educating and entertaining the Gwurran, who were passionate in their desire to learn, to explore every new object and idea. What they needed, Luminara decided, was not a casual visit but a permanent school, to at least bring them up to the educational level of the taller nomads they so disliked. Starting with physical and intellectual disadvantages, they needed proportionately more help. When they returned to Cuipernam, she resolved to mention it to the proper authorities. Failing local interest, there were societies and organizations within the Republic specifically designed to help isolated ethnic groups like the Gwurran.

Also, she and Obi-Wan determined that, despite the genuine affability exhibited by the little Ansionians, the onset of night might prove just a tad too tempting for the more acquisitive among them. Better for all concerned to remove any opportunity to stray by leaving while the sun was still up. While the overhang in the gully offered an appealing campsite, they would find a way to manage out on the open prairie.

So they bade their farewells and promised to send others to teach and assist the Gwurran. It was as they were making final preparations for departure that Luminara felt a tug at her pant leg. Looking down, she saw a Gwurran she recognized. It was Tooqui, the enterprising and unusually bold would-be thief who had led a persistent Barriss to his tribe.

"What is it, Tooqui?" she inquired politely. "We're almost ready to go, you know."

"Tooqui know." He slapped both long-fingered hands against the striped brown and black fur that covered his chest. "Tooqui bravest of all Gwurran. The best fighter, the smartest, the most handsomest, the-"

"Yes, you're a fine representative of your tribe, Tooqui." Luminara agreed absently as she checked the supply pack harness of her patient suubatar. "I'm sure they're very proud of you."

"Pifgah!" he exclaimed sharply. "Gwurran multiple stupids! Got no dreams, no purposes, no goals. Happy living in holes in hills." The little thief managed the difficult task of appearing to strut while standing still. "Tooqui want more. Tooqui got to have more." Bulbous red-orange eyes gazed up at her. "I want go with you."

That put pause to her inspection. Squatting, she gazed apologetically into those oversized, staring eyes. "Tooqui, you can't come with us. You know that."

"Know what? Don't know that." The Gwurran was not in the least intimidated by the much bigger Jedi. "Tooqui know

only what he can see. See that you have plenty room on great big riding suubatars for little guy like Tooqui. I fight hard, don't eat much. Usually."

She had to smile. "You mean, usually you fight hard, or usu ally you don't eat much?"

Taking a step back, he kicked angrily at the ground. "Don't word-game Tooqui! I not stupid stupid like these other ground-burrowers! Tooqui smart smart."

"Smart enough to steal from us when we're sleeping?" she inquired pointedly.

Placing his right hand over his face and his left over the back of his head, he declaimed as sonorously as his small stature would permit. "May Tooqui shrivel in the sun if he ever take a grain crumb from his new friends without asking. May his insides spill out on the ground and run run away like worm suckers. May all his relatives burn in grass fire that cleans the open places and-"

"All right, all right." She was laughing softly despite herself. "I get the picture." Although she had the feeling that Tooqui wouldn't particularly mind if certain of his relatives did happen to meet an untimely and unpleasant end. "You're brave and true. But we still can't take you with us. As Barriss has already told you and your fellows, we're engaged in a difficult and dangerous mission and have no time to look after guests."

"Tooqui take care of self! You see see. Tooqui not afraid of danger." Once more he slapped himself on the chest. "Tooqui eat danger for morning meal! Make good pet, too."

She blinked. "Pet? You're an intelligent being, Tooqui. You can't be a pet."

"Why not? Gwurran keep small yirans and sometimes omohts as pets. They get free food, free living place, protection from shanhs and other things that want eat them. Seem seem like pretty good deal to me. If I intelligent like you say, then not I smart enough to choose what I want to be?"

"It's not that." The last thing she would have expected was for the glib Gwurran to confuse her with subtle academic argument. "It just-it wouldn't be proper, that's all."

"If I intelligent enough choose for myself, then where be im- properness?" He smiled, showing miniature versions of the same sharp teeth as their guides. "That intelligent Tooqui's choice: I want want go with you new friends as pet. Learn about Ansion world-ball. Maybe other world-balls, too. Learn much, then come back and help Gwurran."

Not only was the proposal rational, it was downright noble, Luminara mused-although Tooqui doubtless had personal mo tives as well. How was she going to put him off? Jedi were taught to use logic and reason on those who disagreed with them, not to terminate an awkward dispute by saying, "Because I say so."

"Jedi can't have pets," she finally declared in exasperation.

"Where does it say that in the regulations, Master?" It was Barriss, injecting herself into the debate at the worst possible time. Luminara glared at her Padawan.

"I'm sure it says something of the kind somewhere. Anyway, we're not equipped to accommodate guests."

"Tooqui equip self." Putting a hand in Barriss's, the Gwur ran smiled innocently. "See? Good pet, yes yes?"

"Please!" Turning to resume her final packing check, Lumi nara grumbled as she struggled to secure a strap seal. "If you want to take responsibility for him, Barriss, then I suppose he can come along." She looked back sharply. "But if you cause us the least trouble, Tooqui, if you slow us down or impede our work in any way, then you have to leave leave. It's back to the hills for you, and no arguments. Agreed?"

Repeating his hands-over-face-and-head gesture, the eager Gwurran replied without hesitation. "If I cause any impede — thing, may I rot rot slowly in decaying water. May all my fur turn purple and I sick sick turn myself inside out. May I chew on my feet and-"

"Just keep him quiet," an exasperated Luminara instructed her Padawan. "And away from me."

"He'll be good." Bending over, Barriss patted the Gwurran on his furry pate. "Won't you, Tooqui?"

"Good as a Gwurran can be be," he told her genially.

Somehow, Luminara did not find that pledge particularly reassuring.