Star Wars: A New Change

Chapter 36.

We kept an eye out for any signs of intelligent life. Any cut trees, any roads or anything that resembled shelters. We followed the river deciding that people usually lived by a water source.

Anakin was quiet again as we walked. It frustrated me, but I understood why. He was probably hurting. Being together at all times was making everything worse.

"Anakin, what's that?" I pointed into the distance at some smoke in the air. We had been walking well into the afternoon and hadn't found anything until now.

"Smoke. That could be a good sign." Anakin said excitedly.

"It isn't the ship we came in is it?" I asked unsure of which direction we had even headed.

"No the ship would be behind us. That's something else. I only hope they're friendly." Anakin said grimly and held my hand tightly as we walked towards the smoke.

As we drew nearer, we came upon a small little village. We saw a human carrying a basket full of fish to a small hut. There were a few children running around and some other adults milling about.

One by one they all slowly stopped their business to stare at us.

"Hello, can you help us?" I walked over to a lady who was holding a young child in her arms, but she just looked at me in confusion.

"Can anybody help us? Where are we?" Anakin called out, but no one said a word.

"Can they understand us?" I asked Anakin in confusion.

"I'm not sure." he replied looking around at all of the people. They were starting to gather around us.

One of them spoke a foreign dialect that I didn't understand. Anakin and I looked at each other in confusion.

"Do any of you understand Basic?" Anakin asked looking around hopefully. Anakin tried a couple of other languages that he sort of knew, but his words were meet with confused stares.

"Well this isn't going to work if we can't understand each other." Anakin said in annoyance.

"I guess it's time to play charades?" I shrugged and started trying to explain what had happened to us with movements and my hands.

I mimicked a ship crashing and exploding and gestured to Anakin and I and then up at the sky. I pointed to Anakin's leg and then made a groan as if I was in pain. Then I pointed to a hut and made a sad face and once again pointed to the sky.

"That's the best I can do." I said hopelessly.

The people looked at each other thoughtfully and then one of them gestured for us to follow them.

Anakin and I looked at each other and shrugged before obliging.

The man who was leading us, took us to the largest hut in the village and had us enter through the door. Inside was a very old man. He looked ancient, with his long white hair and skin covered in so many wrinkles. He seemed to be either meditating or sleeping while sitting up.

The man who brought us here walked over to the old man and whispered something into his ear. The old man opened his eyes and stared at us. He gestured for the other man to leave us, and soon we were alone with the old man.

"Who you?" the old man asked. His voice sounded a thousand years old. Deep and dry.

"I'm Ivy, and this is Anakin Skywalker. Our ship crashed on this planet and we're trying to get back to where we're from." I explained quickly.

"We keep ourselves. Don't like others." the old man said.

"We will try not to be long. We just need help getting off the planet. Do you have a ship we can borrow? Or some sort of transmitter we can use to call for help?" Anakin asked.

"No ships. No radios. Don't need them here. Here peaceful. Only need us." The man shook his head.

Anakin groaned. "Then how are we supposed to get off this planet?" I could tell he was getting frustrated. His hands were clenched into fists. I placed a hand over his to try and calm him.

"No get off. You stay now."

"We can't stay here! I'm a Jedi! There are important things happening right now. We have to get back to Coruscant quickly before it's too late!" Anakin said angrily.

I knew he was thinking of the death star plans. I still had them hidden in my clothes. Thankfully they weren't too damaged after our crash landing. Although I wouldn't have minded if they were gone for good.

"Can't get off. Stay here. No ships." the old man said.

"Who are you? How come you're the only one here that speaks Basic?" Anakin asked suspiciously.

"I am Bona Droon. I come long time ago. I take care of people here." he explained.

"Where even is here?"

"Korith Mazi. Far away from others." Bona Droon said.

"I've never even heard of Korith Mazi." Anakin said confused.

"Well, we are somewhere in the outer rim. Who knows what's out here?" I shrugged.

"We can't just stay here forever. There has to be something we can do." Anakin rubbed his face with his hands tiredly.

"Try to help. Not much we can do. Give you home and food. Help you." Bona offered kindly. I did feel grateful that he was trying to help.

"Thank you. I guess that's all we can ask for, for now." I said bowing to him.

Bona called back in the man who brought us, who I was pretty sure now his name was Karim, and exchanged some words with him.

"Karim help you build house. We work together. All help all." Bona said.

Anakin and I thanked the man again and followed Karim out.

Karim pointed at me and Anakin and then at a small hut a ways away and then motioned like he was sleeping. Then he pointed at the sun and held up two fingers before pretending to work with tools.

"I think he's telling us to stay in that hut tonight and then we'll work on building our own in two days, or it'll be done in two days? Something like that. Maybe." Anakin looked at me and shrugged.

"Thank you." I said to the man before realizing he obviously didn't know what I was saying. So I bowed my head to him.

We went to the small hut and inside there was a young man weaving a basket. Karim said something to the man and the young man nodded and smiled at us before loading his arms full of items around the hut and leaving.

"Oh, I hope we're not kicking that guy out." I said sheepishly.

"It looks that way. Or at least for the time being." Anakin said.

Karim gestured for us to stay here and that he would be right back.

A few minutes later he came with a couple of women who were carrying baskets of clothes, blankets and food.

Anakin and I tried to show our thanks by buying our heads and smiling. The people here seemed friendly, so that was good. I only wished we were able to communicate better.

The women helped set up the hut for us. They put straw on the floor and then fur blankets over it for padding for a bed. They had pillows made from animal fur and some sort of straw or grass stuffing as well. A small table with two chairs were set up with food placed on top of the table. Then they brought another chair and placed the folded clothes gently on it.

I was so thankful that these people were willing to help us. The chances of us getting off the planet were looking slim, but at least we weren't alone.