A Good Thing

-secrets-

Chapter 4

-secrets-

With work done early in the afternoon, Omera decided to spend the day with her daughter. It was their habit on days off to take walks together in the woods close to the village and have a picnic dinner. Thanks to the Klatooinians, it had been more than a year since they had been able to indulge like that. In the two months since Din and Cara had helped them defeat the raiders, there had been too much work to be done to make up for the losses before the season ended. Preparations for winter were winding down and there was finally time to relax.

She smiled to herself as she came out of her home, waders and pond skirt exchanged in favor of an old pair of olive colored pants and sturdy boots. She didn't wear them often anymore. At one time in her life, they had been part of a daily uniform and were worn and comfortable from near constant use. Here in the village though, most of the women wore long skirts when they weren't working so she saved them for treks through the woods.

Winta would be with Din and the child at this time in the afternoon so she headed for the barn. Sure enough the three of them were crouched around a large woven basket. Or rather, a large, partially woven basket.

"See, you take this long piece and just weave it between these other pieces, like this. It's easy."

Din grunted but Omera couldn't see what he was doing from where she stood just inside the doorway. "So you keep saying."

Giggling and reaching forward to show him again, Winta seemed intent on helping him understand. "You can do it. You clean your blasters and put them all back together, this is way easier than that. Let me show you again..."

Deciding to interrupt the lesson before he lost his patience with the finicky task, Omera announced herself and stepped into the barn fully.

"There you are Winta, I've been looking for you. We're done early so I thought we could go on a walk and find a nice place for dinner."

Winta leapt to her feet excitedly. "Really? We haven't done that in ages! Oh! Can they come too? Please?" At Omera's smile, the little girl spun to implore DIn. "You'll come too won't you? We take long walks in the woods and find cool places to have a picnic. Please?"

Din looked back at Omera over his shoulder and then down at the child. The noise that escaped his modulator sounded halfway between a laugh and a long suffering sigh but he stood and scooped his son into his arms.

"Why not. I'm not having any luck here."

Omera covered her mouth with a hand to hold back her laughter.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about it Din. Basket weaving takes a great deal of practice. Besides, not everyone's suited to it. Personally I prefer the actual krill harvesting and the odd medical care to weaving."

Having finished reholstering his blaster, he turned to face her. Finally getting a good look at her, his helmet tilted down and to the side just a bit and Omera got the distinct impression he was staring at her legs. Blushing, she looked down at herself. They were a bit on the tight side she supposed. When she looked back up at him, he was facing determinedly away from her, nodding with perhaps a bit too much enthusiasm at whatever Winta was saying. She smirked at him before leading the way out. Well, she hoped she wasn't as obvious when she stared at his behind.

It was a beautiful afternoon. Winta carried the much slower child and walked ahead of them a bit on the trail, stopping every now and then to point something out to him. Din had offered to carry the pack she'd filled with food and a rough spun blanket was draped over her arms as they followed the children.