Part 5 (1/2)

Han took a deep breath. ”What did she look like?” he asked. ”I may know this Corellian. She may be...” He hesitated. ”She may be my... mate. We were sepa-rated long ago, by the Empire.”

Which was true, strictly speaking. Bria had left when Han was preparing to go into the Imperial Academy saying she didn't want to hold him back. He still had the flimsy she'd written him. It was stupid, keeping it, and every time he ran across it, he resolved to throw it away, but, somehow, he never had ....

Katarra's wary expression visibly softened upon hear-ing this. She put out a paw-hand and laid it on Han~ arm, expressing sympathy. The Empire was evil, had torn apart so many families ....

Ralrra made a gesture in the air on the level of Han~ nose. [This tall,] he said. [Long hair, the color of the sunset . . . golden-red. Eyes the color of our sky. Not wide.] His hands described a slender form. [She was the leader of the team, a person of rank. She said she had been asked to come to Kashyyyk because she under-stood what it was like to live as a slave. She told us she had been a slave, on the planet Ylesia, and she would give her life to free Kashyyyk and any other world en-slaved by the Empire. She spoke with much pa.s.sion.]

R'alrra~ voice changed slightly, took on a more persona] note. [I, too, was a slave until my friends freed me from the Empire. Quarrr-tellerrra spoke truth about having been enslaved. I could tell. She knew what it was like. We talked much of how much we hate the Empire.]

Han's mouth was dry. He managed to nod, and mumble, ”Thanks for telling me .... ”

Bria, he thought, numbly. Bria, a member of the Corellian rebellion? How in the galaxy did that happen?

It was wonderful to be back on his own world. Chew-bacca was taken from home to home, and his father, Attichitcuk, proudly showed off his son, the adven-turer, the former slave, and his human friends. All of the Wookiees made much of Hah and Jarik.

Of course, Kashyyyk was a world occupied by Im-perial forces, so care had to be exercised to conceal Han's real purpose in coming there. For the duration of his stay, Han donned clothing more befitting one of the human traders who lived in Rwookrrorro. He and Jarik posed as brothers who'd come to trade trinkets and household items with the Wookiees. This fiction was strengthened by the fact that both humans had brown hair and eyes, and Jarik was only a little shorter than Han.

The Imperial presence of Kashyyyk was mostly con-fined to the posts scattered around the planet. Troopers were sent out in squads, since single troopers had a dis-turbing tendency to vanish without a trace.

Han and Jarik were careful to avoid any contact with the Imperial squads that occasionally patrolled Rwookr-rorro. And, with the Millennium Falcon concealed in the special ”smuggler~ dock,” protected by the camou-flaged and jamming devices, there was nothing to link them with any illegal activity.

Han spent time with the Woollee techs down in the s.p.a.cedock, tinkering with his new baby. Several of the Woollees were experienced techs, and they spent hours with the Corellian, checking out every system, over-hauling every bit of equipment. The Falcon was far from a new s.h.i.+p, but, under the ministrations of the Woollee techs, it was now in better shape than it had been for a long time.

Chewbacca hadn't realized how much he'd missed his home and family. Seeing them 'all again made him tempted to come home for good but that was not pos-sible. Chewie owed a life debt, and his place was by Han Solo~ side.

Still, he enjoyed his time on Kashyyyk. He visited with all his cousins, with his sister and her family. Since Chewie had last been home, Kallabow had married a fine male named Mahraccor.

Chewie loved playing with his nephew. The little Woollee was smart and fun to be with, with a lively cu-riosity about the universe. He spent hours getting his uncle to talk about his adventures out in the s.p.a.celanes.

In addition to Chewbacca~ family, he saw old friends . . . Freyrr, his second cousin, the best tracker in the family, Kriyystak, and Shoran. It was a source of sorrow that Salporin, Chewie's best Wookiee friend, was not there. He had been captured and enslaved by the Empire, and there was no news of his fate-no one even knew if he was alive or dead.

Chewbacca mourned his friend, wondering if he'd ever see him again.

But he didn't have time to mourn very much. Life on Kashyyyk was too busy. In addition to all his friends and u family, there was... Mallatobuck.

The Wookiee female was even lovelier than Chewie had remembered, and her shy blue glance was even more intriguing. He saw her their first night at home, and was pleased to discover that she'd journeyed from a neighboring village, where she had been working as a teacher and caregiver in a Nursery Ring. Malla had many friends in Rwookrrorro, and it didn't take much urging from Chexvie to convince her to extend her visit there.

The two spent long hours wandering the bough- trails, looking up at the nighttime sky, heating the soft sounds of the arboreal dwellers. They did not talk much, but their silence was filled with unspoken things ....

On his third day on Kashyyyk, Chewbacca decided it was time to go hunting. Hah was busy haggling with Katarra, Kichiir and Motaruba about the cargo of ex-plosive quarrels. His friend would be occupied for hours. The Corellian had taken a sudden, unaccus-tomed interest in the resistance here on Kashyyyk, something that Chewie would have found puzzling, and a bit disturbing, if he'd noticed it. Usually Han was nothing but scornful toward sentients who risked their necks (or whatever equiv',dent body part) for causes other than their own well-being.

But Chewie was too distracted to notice Han's odd behavior. He was concentrating on bagging himself a quillarat. Quillarats are smallish creatures, standing only half a meter high. They are reclusive little animals, hard to find, because they were a mottled brownish-green in color, and tended to simply melt into the sur-rounding brush.

The most distinctive feature of the quillarat was the long, needle-sharp quills that studded most of its body. Capturing and killing a quillarat was soinething of a challenge, because the beasts could actually hurl their quills at a hunter. Wookiee males (and only males hunted quillarats) had to approach the creature with some kind of s.h.i.+eld to collect the barrage of quills until the quillarat~ supply of ”throwable” quills was exhausted.

To complicate matters, tradition declared that the quillarat must be hunted bare-handed, and killed by blows delivered by a Wookiee's own strength, as op-posed to quarrels or any other kind of projectile.

Chewbacca did not tell anyone about his quest. He simply waited until late in the day, when darkness would be deepening in the lower levels, then left Rwookrrorro and began his long climb downward.

Even Wookiees never went down 'all the way to Kashyyyk's surface. There were rumored to be night-crawlers down there that feasted on the blood and spir-its of their victims. It was said that the spirits of those who had not honored their debts sank down to the sur-face, and prowled there, ready and waiting to trap and kill anyone foolish enough to come near them.

There were reputedly seven levels of distinct ecology on Kashyyyk, with the seventh level being the topmost tree branches. Normally, not even the bravest Wookiees ever descended below the fourth level, and even Wookiee legend did not speculate on what lay below that. No one that Chewbacca had ever known had walked on the actual surface of his world. The bottom-most levels of Kashyyyk were a mystery... and would likely remain so.

To bag his quillarat, Chewie had to travel down be-low the fifth level. Life was different here, for the forest in the late 'afternoon was almost completely dark. Ani-mals down at this level had large eyes to facilitate their living at such dim light levels. There were dangerous predators... the kkekkrrg rro, or Shadow Keepers, that had ventured up a level to hunt, and the katarn. Chew-bacca kept a sharp eye out, his every sense 'alert.

Old habits came back to him as he traveled the forest trails, seeing bridal-veil suckers, broad-leafed mock shyr, and kshyy vines in profusion. Things were not really green down here, but pale and washed-out look-ing. There was not enough sunlight to support the green growth from above.

Chewbacca walked the broad trails, feeling the rough bark of the wroshyr boughs beneath his feet. His eyes moved constantly, searching for quillarat spoor. His nostrils twitched, filtering and identifying the scents he had not whiffed in more than fifty years.

The Wookiee~ gaze was caught and held by a tiny sc.r.a.pe of the wroshyr bark, and a small rip in the trac-ery of the bridal veil plant next to it. The height was correct... yes, a quillarat~ quills had done this, and... Chewie dropped to one knee to examine the spoor... not long ago.

The animal had been heading off, on this far smaller, secondary bough. Chewbacca walked warily down a bough-trail not much more than two meters across. On either side of him yawlled the green-brown-gray gulfs of the forest.

The Woollee kept every sense 'alert, eyes scanning, ears listening for the faintest rustle, nostrils twitching. Quillarats had a distinctive, and, to a Woollee, entic-ing odor.

His ”s.h.i.+eld,” made from woven strips of bark on a lashed-together frame, was held ready on his left forearm.

Chewie~ steps slowed... then the Woollee stopped, every muscle poised. There! Amid those leaves!

The quillarat froze, sensing danger. Chexvie leaped, s.h.i.+eld held out.

Suddenly the air before him was filled with a rain of quills. They thudded into the s.h.i.+eld, for the most part, though a few embedded themselves in the Woollee~ shoulders and chest. Chewbacca's right hand went out, grabbed the quillarat by the quilled tail, moving his hand in a particular twist that made the quills lie flat be-neath his flesh.

The terrified animal squawked, turned to bite, but it was too late. Chewie heaved it up, and sent it thudding hard against the bough beneath his feet. Stunned, the animal went limp, and another quick swing dispatched it altogether.

Only then did Chewbacca take a moment to pull the quills from his chest and shoulders, and spread a salve on the tiny, burning wounds. His right hand had one small puncture, which he also treated.

Then, wrapping the quillarat in the woven bag he'd brought, the Woollee began a triumphant journey back to Rwookrrorro.

It took him quite a while to find Mallatobuck. He didn't want to ask anyone where she was, since any of his friends and family would be bound to identify the scent of the quillarat in his bag. Chewie wasn't in the mood for advice or jokes.

But, finally, he located her, wandering 'along a little-used trail. By now two of Kashyyyk's three tiny moons had risen, and moonlight silvered her fur as she wan-dered along, not at first noticing that anyone was ap-proaching her.

She had been picking kolvissh blossoms and weaving their stems into a headpiece. As Chewie watched her, she placed the flowers on her head, tucking their fragile white beauty behind her left ear.

Chewbacca halted on the trail and stood there, lost in wonder at her beauty. His stillness attracted her at-tention as his movement had not, and she stopped, looked up, and saw him.

[Chewbacca,] she said softly. [I did not see you .... ]

[Malla,] Chewie said. [I have something for you. A gift that I hope you will accept .... ]

She froze, eyes wide with either consternation or hope, as he walked toward her, bag in hand. Let it be hope she feels, Chewie thought fervently. By my honor, let it be hope ....

As he stopped before her, Chewbacca, in one fluid motion, knelt and removed the quillarat from its bag. Careful of the quills, he balanced the animal across his palms and held it up to Mallatobuck. His heart was pounding as though he'd climbed all the way from ground level.

[Mallatobuck...] Chewie tried to get the rest of it out, but his voice failed him. He was overcome with fear, as he had never been in battle. What if she refused him? What if she took his traditional propos'd-offering and tossed it off the trail, sending the dead quillarat, and his hope of happiness, plummeting into the depths?

Malla stared at him for a long moment. [Chew-bacca... you have been long away from your people. Do you remember our customs? Do you know what you are offering?]