Left Behind

Chapter 2: The Friend

I was looking into the fire as I slowly, but surely... fell asleep.

When I opened my tired eyes I was back in the jedi temple sitting next to grandmaster Yoda. He was meditating and absolutely quiet. Why was I back here again? I haven't even been to the planet of Coruscant in three years. Or were my adventures with Zabru a mere dream or maybe even a vision? I stood up from my seat and looked around. Everything was the same as I remembered it. "Master Yoda?" No answer. Maybe he is deep in thoughts? I should probably leave him be. I walked up to the door and left the meditation chamber master Yoda was sitting in. The halls were empty. There wasn't a single sound to be heard nor a single person to be seen. As far as I remembered there was always at least one person strolling the halls. Even to the right, where the training chambers for the younglings were situated, was absolutely quiet. "Well this is highly... unusual", I mumbled as I started walking through the halls inspecting every room. Not a single person... Master Yoda was the only person I had seen so far. As I was looking through one of the meditation chambers an obscenely loud blaster shot missed me by just a few centimetres. I immediately turned to where the shot came from just to see Zabru standing about 15 metres away from me holding a small blaster. "What are you doing Zabru? Why are you here? Where are all the jedi?", I questioned him with fear in my voice. Why am I feeling all this fear? I thought I had my feelings under control by now. Without batting an eye he immediately aimed his blaster back at me. "Why are you doing this?" No reply. Just when I was looking for my lightsaber on my jedi robe's belt I noticed that it, too, was gone. He shot.

Drenched in sweat I woke up. My breathing quickened and I was terrified. I sat up and put my face in my hands and sighed deeply. So it was a dream after all. Or maybe a vision. I didn't know yet. When I looked around I saw that the fire had extinguished like it had the night before and the sun started to rise. Osla was still fast asleep but Zabru wasn't there anymore. "Z-Zabru?", I stuttered, still terrified of the dream. I heard steps behind me and got ready for a possible confrontation. With quick movements I promptly got up from my sleeping place just to see Zabru coming my way. When he saw my terrified facial expression his steps got faster. "Are you okay, princess?" "I- I think so." "What happened? Did some animal bite you like last time?", he asked, concerned and walked around me to inspect my body. I looked to the floor in distress. "No... It's not that. I.. I just had a nightmare." "A nightmare? You haven't had one of those in months. Are you okay?", he asked anxiously and bent down a bit to look me in my aquamarine coloured eyes. "I'm okay, Zabru", I said as I looked up into his hazel eyes. His hair was slicked back as always and his slightly tanned skin seemed almost golden in the light of the sunrise. Zabru smiled softly and put on his hood. He then walked over to my backpack and put it on himself. "I'm going to carry it today. Okay?" I nodded. He may seem a little harsh when you first meet up but Zabru is a cinnamon roll deep down. A couple of months ago he told me how his family was killed by malfunctioning droids when he was still a little kid.

"Thank you." Now he nodded and walked up to Osla to wake him up. I followed his lead and got rid of the cloth gag in Osla's mouth. The old man woke up and looked at us. "Oh yeah. Nearly forgot about this. How much we gotta walk today? And why the hell do neither of you have a speeder bike or at least a damn bantha?" "Shut up, you ancient relic. It's only like 20 more kilometres today", replied the bounty hunter and untied his bounty's legs. "Time to get going", I smiled at Zabru and started walking the right direction.

On our way to Mos Espa we didn't see much. Mostly sand. After a couple of hours of walking we suddenly heard roaring in the distance. "Tusken Raiders", I mumbled and got anxious. Either we were getting lucky and were about to meet Vaic's clan or a hostile one. "Oh good grief. We're going to die. They're gonna skin us alive and dance on our remains", grumbled Osla hastily. In order to make him shut up Zabru punched his rips a but which made the old man whimper.

I walked around to Zabru's backpack and grabbed the binoculars inside it and looked through them up the dunes. A couple of Tuskens and their banthas emerged from behind the dunes. I sighed in relief as I spotted Vaic. Zabru smirked in anticipation of meeting his old friend. The Tuskens also spotted us and started roaring in joy as they immediately recognized Zabru. "Wha- What the hell is happening right now?!", muttered the aged man. Both of us decided to ignore him though. Vaic, this clan's leader, was wearing his distinct dark brown cape with blue seams which was a gift from Zabru. He ran down the dunes and started talking to Zabru in Tusken. They were old buddies as they had saved each other's lives when Vaic's late clan was attacked by a group of looters a couple of years ago. I, of course, didn't understand a thing they were saying. The masters at the temple always told me that I was rather smart but languages were the one thing I was obscenely bad at. "Why is he hugging that.. thing?", asked the ancient man and looked at the friends in disgust. "None of your business, Osla", I simply responded. The rest of the clan was slowly walking down the dune down to the rocky terrain we were standing on. They were probably going to set up camp here. As occupied as Vaic was with telling stories to Zabru he finally noticed me and walked up to me. "Hey, Vaic", I greeted him and waved. He knew that I didn't know any Tusken yet he still nodded and decided to hug me. His coarse coat was rubbing against my face as the man was rather tall. I hugged him back. He had once also saved my life when Zabru and I were going after a dangerous bounty... A sarlacc. I was about to fall into it when Vaic managed to hold down his gaderffi stick and I was lucky enough to grab it just in time for him to pull me back up. After a short while Vaic released me from his tight bear hug and nodded again. We didn't understand each other directly, but we always knew what the other one was trying to communicate. The Tusken Raider walked back to Zabru who was just standing there. He's a bit socially awkward from time to time. I sat down on a rock and brushed some dust and sand off my lekkus. I hated this planet. The twin suns were harsh on my lekkus and montrals. It was a wonder that they weren't discoloured yet. After a couple of minutes of relaxing Zabru told us that we'd continue walking. If we were to continue walking towards Mos Espa now we'd make it in about an hour. I shook Vaic's hand and both him and Zabru shared a quick hug before we withdrew from the new camp and waved as they saw us off.

We continued walking towards Jabba's castle. The sand was slipping under my tired feet. "Can we stay in a hotel for tonight?", I asked my bounty hunter friend, who was already looking forward to a nice bed and clean water. Maybe I could even get to take a shower. "Of course, princess. This bounty will be enough for a hotel and we should still have enough for a decent ship and enough fuel", he retorted as he looked back at me and smiled. His smile was always warm and comforting. We took a couple of steps up a dune when we finally spotted Jabba's palace. It was just about a couple hundred metres more when Osla started whimpering and crying like a little baby. "I"-, he sniffed , "I don't want to die yet." "Maybe you shouldn't have killed Jabba's guards if you didn't want to die", I chuckled at the irony. He killed people voluntarily but didn't expect to get punished for it? Ridiculous. He looked down at his feet, sighed and didn't say anything until we reached the palace. The guards were walking up to us and looked at Osla and then each other. "His name is Osla. There is a bounty on him set up by the Hutts", explained Zabru as he pushed the old man forward a bit and grabbed his hair from behind to lift the man's face. The guards finally recognized the target and made several acknowledging pig noises before they yelled something in their language. The large gate was opened and Zabru smirked at the sight of it. "Man, I haven't been here in... five standard years I believe", he chuckled as he further pushed the old man who was rubbing the back of his hand. Zabru's grip must've been tight. We graciously walked into the palace and walked towards Jabba's chamber where we would receive our life saving bounty and probably get to see the geezer get eaten by the monstrous rancor.