The Kenobi Saga Book Two: The Dark Times

Chapter 2

Solitaire was fairly certain this kid was trying to kill him. Lore-Val had taken him to a restaurant that served traditional tingilar (spicy casserole). She had warned him that it was spicy but this was burning him from the inside out.

"Are you okay?" Lore-Val asked, seeing how red Solitaire's face had gone.

He shook his head, reaching for his ale.

Lore-Val grabbed it away from him. "That won't help." She waved over a waiter and asked for a glass of milk. Solitaire was choking by the time the new glass was placed in front of him. He swallowed down the milk greedily, feeling relief almost immediately.

Lore-Val smiled at him and took another bite of her own tingilar. Solitaire blinked at her, he didn't know how she was enjoying this.

"I can feel it in my eyes," Solitaire told her, taking another sip of milk.

"That's the hetikles (nose burn). It's good for you."

"I'm dying."

"No you're not. Try this, you'll like it," she passed him the plate of haashun (parchment bread).

By the time he finished his first slice of bread his face was back to its normal color and he was able to string together a full sentence.

"Can we be serious for a minute?" Solitaire asked when their plates were taken away.

"Sure. What's wrong?"

"Well I was talking to Bo-Katan-"

"That can't be good."

"Lore, serious remember?"

She sat up straighter and smiled at him, "Right. Sorry. Go ahead."

"Bo-Katan and I agreed that if the Empire, or anyone else wanted to find you, Mandalore is the first place they'd look. We think it's best if you and I go somewhere else."

"Okay," she nodded slowly, "Where?"

"I think our best bet is to aim for the Outer Rim or Wild Space. Bo-Katan says you can finish your training in eight months. You and I have until then to choose somewhere."

Lore-Val frowned, gaps in the plan already making themselves evident. She took a sip of her drink to buy sometime. "What do we tell people when you age twice as fast? You don't think that would call attention from the Empire or," she dropped her voice down to a whisper, "Maul?"

"If we find somewhere back water enough people will be too busy keeping their own heads down to care."

"Really?"

"I don't know." he sighed. He'd been trying to figure this out for days and still didn't have an answer. Lore-Val's safety was his priority, and staying in one spot, no matter how far from the galactic center, just made them sitting mynocks.

"It's a good start," she said with what she hoped was a reassuring smile, "We'll burn that bridge when we get to it right?"

"Sure," he frowned, rubbing the back of his neck, "but for now, start looking at planets you wouldn't hate living on, at least for the short term."

"Okay," Lore-Val took another slice of haashun and tore it into quarters, "I trust you. You'll have it battle ready."

"Thanks kid."

"What else will we need?"

Solitaire leaned in across the table, "It's a long list."

The waiter came by and slid a plate of uj cake between them.

Lore-Val reached for the cake and pushed it closer to Solitaire "Well it looks like you just got the time to tell me about it."

AN: sorry guys. I posted this to AO3 last week but couldn't get onto Wattpad on my laptop so it got delayed. I hope you like it and it was worth the wait.