Kenobi Chronicles

Episode 8 (part 2)

Kenobi pulled his hood over his head further. He had been lucky so far—tremendously lucky. But he couldn't be as careless now. He made his way through the Theedian market, straight towards a vendor of cloaks and hats—and various other outerwear.

"Hello, excuse me—how much for these green ones here?"

The vendor looked up disgruntled as if the potential customer irked him. He cast a red eye at the two cloaks in Kenobi's hand.

"Three hundred credits." He groused.

"Three hundred? Oh dear, I'm sure you can—"

"Three hundred—or find a different one." The vendor said emphatically. Kenobi nodded and gave a hint of a smile.

He searched in his pockets for any money that he had accumulated over the trip. Painfully he pulled out the amount and handed it to the vendor. While the vendor counted it, he and Leia pulled the cloaks over their backs, and wrapped their brown ones up in their arms.

"How much would you take for these?" Kenobi bartered. The vendor looked them over skeptically.

"Ten credits." He grunted.

"Ten? My cloak is worth at least a thousand!" Leia protested. "Do you know where I got—"

Kenobi quickly put his hand over the princess's mouth.

"Perfect." Kenobi forced a smile across his face. He quickly took back the few credits they earned and stuffed it deep in his pockets. "Go—" he pushed Leia into the crowd and away from the vendor.

Kenobi didn't stop pushing Leia through the crowd till they had made it a couple of blocks from the vendor. Now they needed to find a place to stay till Kenobi could find out what to do next.

As he racked his brain, Kenobi paused and looked about them. This was the capital of museums—large, open ones. Surely, they could find one to spend the night till they developed a plan.

"Leia, I think—" he looked down at the young girl who was now pulling orange fingerless gloves made of leather over her hands. His mouth fell open. "Leia, where did you get those?"

She looked innocently up at him as she tightened the latch around her wrists.

"When we unfairly traded with that vendor back there. I got these to sweeten the deal. Even though these weren't even worth half of what my cloak cost!"

"Leia! You can't—" Kenobi heard his own voice reverberate off the walls. He inhaled deeply as he held the bridge of his nose in frustration. Then not as gently as before, he grabbed the scruff of her neck by her cloak and pushed her onward in front of him. This was not the time to lecture on the morals of stealing. They needed to get out of sight.

It had been over thirteen years since Kenobi had been to the planet of Naboo—especially the city of Theed. But there were some things he still remembered. There was an open-air museum commemorating an old architect at the edge of the city, most often overlooked by the tourists who came for the sites. They would be safe there for the evening.

No sooner had they found the abandoned memorial than the sun dipped below the horizon. They quickly found shelter between a couple of pillars and waited for darkness to cover the city completely.

Once it did, Kenobi sat on the steps between the cluster of pillars that shielded them from the wind. The night was dark, peppered with stars, and the moon shone on the waterfalls that fell near the memorial. It reflected blueish-white as it disappeared into the misty depths below.

The light sounds of footsteps from behind told him that Leia approached. She came and sat down at his side, gazing at the world around them in the dark misty air. The city twinkled on their right—soon to be completely dark with its citizens asleep.