Left Behind

Chapter 3: The Padawan

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. 

The halls of the palace were dusty and shady figures were standing near the walls looking at us like we were invading their personal space. One slave girl didn't notice us at first but when she noticed me her mood dropped. She was a togruta as well. Of course I felt sorry for the orange coloured woman, but then again, I can't save every person from slavery. And this was not the republic. Slavery was not just common but also rather normalized in these parts of the galaxy. If you were a shop owner in a 'richer' part of Tatooine, most people you would come in contact with were slaves who were shopping for their owners. Trying to ignore the countless slaves, bounty hunters and other dubious figures we walked up to Jabba's throne room where two of his Gamorrean guards let us in. All the talk that was previously happening in this room was immediately silenced as everyone looked at us.I audibly gulped. Zabru noticed my nervousness and slightly tilted his head back to me and nodded. And he then, again, showed his famous smirk. "We greet you almighty Jabba! My name is Zabru and I'm bringing you the man who murdered your trustworthy guards in cold blood!", exclaimed Zabru and bowed down and looked at Osla. I did the same and bowed in front of Jabba. I may not respect the Hutts, but I did want to survive this encounter. The slave girls behind the Hutt looked stunned when they discovered the old man. Jabba started talking in Huttese while his gold shimmering protocol droid started translating for us. "The almighty Jabba greets you, bounty hunters. He acknowledges your efforts in bringing in the murderer and terrorist. You will be paid what was agreed to in Peggats." Osla was crying the most I've ever seen a grown man cry. Hell. The most I've ever seen anyone cry. "Do you want to watch his execution by rancor?", continued the protocol droid just when a beautiful Twi'lek woman gave Zabru the suitcase with the money. "Sure", agreed Zabru before I could even say anything. Jabba, the big Hutt, laughed and ordered everyone to move away from the trapdoor. Zabru and I both walked over to the tables and sat down to watch. "This is... macabre", I complained about the whole situation. "You get used to it." "Do you think so?" "Not really."

"Please don't kill me! I have a wife and kids!", screamed the middle-aged, really old looking man seconds before Jabba pulled the lever that activated the trapdoor. The rancor was already roaming his small habitat, looking for something to eat. It heard the trapdoor and let out a mighty roar. With a loud thump Osla landed on the sandy floor. The trapdoor was closed again and the rancor approached the man. While I couldn't watch it as it was way too brutal for me, Zabru ordered a drink to watch the murderer get eaten by the monster. "It's not everyday you get to see a rancor eat someone", he declared happily. "Thank the force it isn't. I couldn't watch this... show... everyday." He chuckled and wiped his sweaty forehead with his coarse looking sleeves. "You need new clothes", I said to him but he was nearly in a trance. Zabru was a weird guy. He was sometimes the most warm hearted person out there, hugging you after a nightmare and gently patting your back and sometimes he had fun watching people get eaten alive. While listening to the gut wrenching sounds of well... literal gut wrenching I looked down at the dirty table and tried not to concentrate too hard on the whole situation. Seeing people die had always been a problem for me. During the second mission with my old jedi master we were on a planet called Hoth where we went to investigate a crime scene in one of the caves. The victims were killed by lightsabers, so the jedi were naturally contacted. One of the poor victims was still alive when we found him. His whole body was covered with blood. When I got to him he died in my arms. That sure was a lot to handle for a thirteen year old girl.

Distracted by my memories I didn't notice Zabru staring at me. "You good, princess?", asked Zabru as he put down his drink and got ready to leave. "Uh, yeah sure. Where should we go now?" "Let's walk over to Mos Espa's shipyard and look for ships that are up for sale, eh?" "Let's do it! Do you have anything specific in mind?", I exclaimed and stood up. We bowed down to Jabba the Hutt and left his palace. "Not yet. We'll see what they have and what's in the budget for us." I nodded and we started walking over to the city of Mos Espa which was, lucky for us, only about two kilometres away.

The two of us walked through the sandy streets of the city. There were aliens, humans and droids everywhere we looked. We even saw a Wookie, which was unusual for a planet like this. They mostly stayed on Kashyyyk or inhabited other forest planets like Onderon. Suddenly the force reached out to me. I stood still lost in the waves of the force rushing over me. "Something wrong?" I didn't reply. Instead I looked around me and spotted a figure with a dark brown coat standing in a corner between two buildings looking around helplessly. "Is that a jedi?", asked Zabru after he spotted the person I was basically staring at. "I don't know. Let's just ignor-", but before I could finish my sentence Zabru walked over to the short person. "Zabru- No! Let's go!", I yelled and ran after him. "Hey little guy? Are you alright?", Zabru questioned the short humanoid person.They didn't answer. They were just staring at the ground like they were a lost child looking for their mother. Just when I reached them they looked up and straight into my eyes. I was stunned. Their gaze was determined but also scared. "What is a jedi doing here?", the individual suddenly asked, stumbling over their words. "You're a padawan, aren't you?", I asked, avoiding his question. The human boy looked down at the ground, loose strands of his jett black hair falling into his face. "Who is your master?" No reply. "What should we do?", asked Zabru and looked me deep in my eyes. "Well, we can't just leave him here", I replied looking at the boy who looked no older than 12. The boy sighed, looked at me and whispered: "Master Tairnair." All colour left my light blue skin and I was just speechless. Zabru just let out a faint "Oh." Memories of my old master were flooding my brain making me unable to process anything at the moment. Did he leave behind another padawan? Why did he leave this child on Tatooine? Why is he doing this?

The padawan must've sensed my probably obvious distress and asked me whether I was okay or not. "Yeah- No- It's.. It's fine. What's your name, padawan?" He paused a second before replying ,"My name is Erlin Burzi. What are your names, if I might inquire?" He was well-spoken, I must say. Before I could reply though, Zabru walked forward and replied for the both of us, "My name is Zabru and this is Roccha." The boy whose name I now knew was Erlin, looked at me and squinted his dark blue eyes a bit like he was trying to take a closer look at me. "Wait a minute.... Roccha as in Master Tairnair's dead padawan?" I audibly gulped. "What do you mean 'dead'?", I asked. Maybe Master Tairnair actually believed me to be dead? Was it all a huge misunderstanding? Impossible. He literally smiled at me when he left me buried under the rubble. "Yeah. Master Tairnair's old padawan died while protecting some citizens. It's weird that you're both a jedi and have the same name..." "I hate to break it to you", started Zabru and looked at the young padawan, "But your master left her behind on purpose." Erlin was obviously taken aback. "How could this be? He told both me and the Jedi Council that you died! He saw you die!" "Then why did he never bring back my body?" Realisation kicked in and he looked down in both confusion and disgust. "But how could... How could he just leave you behind on a planet like this? Were you not a good padawan? There surely must be a reason!" "Then why are you here, padawan?" He looked up at me and then down again like he was trying to search for an answer to my question in the back of his head. "He... I think.. No.. Now I remember! He sent me on a mission here!", he said as his eyes sparkled. "And what is your mission?", asked Zabru and crossed his arms. The previous light in the boy's eyes immediately left again. "He didn't specify..."

Both Zabru and I simultaneously sighed. Now we have two padawans here who were both left by the same master. Is he trying to slowly get rid of the Jedi Order's padawans? If that's the case, this is probably the slowest way to go about. "Zabru", I started talking and looked him deep in the eyes. "I know what you're thinking and I'm not sure I like it" Erlin first looked at Zabru and then at me with a confused expression written all over his face. "We have to try", I sighed and also crossed my arms. "What's going on?", asked the padawan and crossed his arms like he was trying to mimic us. Cute. "Listen here, Erlin. Zabru and I have been saving for a decent ship to finally get off this planet. Looks like we're gonna pay a visit to Coruscant."