Star Wars - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Especially Jedi ❯ 2/6 ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

By: pronker

Obi-Wan saw the neks were scarcely more than pups. They capered awkwardly, their mouths open wide in dog laughter. They wriggled their stub tails, they ruffed more. He had never seen nek dogs act in this way. Were they enhanced for friendly dispositions, rather than for viciousness? On impulse, he splashed water at them. They bounded in the air as one and then dropped down to front paws and made a great deal of noise. Then to prove their friendliness, they pounced upon his clothing.
"Hey! No!" cried the Jedi, and scrambled out to rescue his apparel.
It was kind of him, the dogs thought, to take so much interest in their game, and not to be outdone in heartiness, they scampered off through the woods, dragging the clothes with them. All they left behind was his left boot. He threw sticks and stones after them and had started to chase them when a dreadful sound trilled through the greenery: the voices of women.
The Force warned him of no danger, but then that entity did not consider embarrassment as a threat. There was one safe hiding place - the pool. With his last shred of presence of mind, he concealed his lightsaber inside the boot, secured the boot under a gnarl of root and plunged just in time, diving under a clump of low-hanging branches where a friendly knurl gave support to his arms and breast.
Two elderly ladies of forbidding aspect came slowly within his range of vision. One was tall and thin and the other was short and thin. While both wore the plain black gowns of this region's women, not even the folk of the village from which Obi-Wan had escaped this very morning evinced the repression shown by these two. Hair parted to a meticulous degree had been pulled back over the ears and when one turned her head, he could see the knot of hair secured so tightly that it made her eyebrows nearly immovable. He shivered, and not just from the chill of the water.
Some weighty problem bowed their shoulders, but as they came opposite to him, the taller of the two burst out with:
"Men, men, men! Nothing but men, morning to night. Please explain, Sister Georgette! Where did Edna, during my brief absence, get her curiosity about the despicable sex?"
"It was the recent visit of Doctor Fromitzen, dear Sister Dolpha," meekly replied the smaller woman. "She lost a holomag here and Edna found it. Thethingcontained several love stories, so-called, an objectionably illustrated article on 'Young Captains of Industry' and another on 'Handsome Young Studs of the Stage.' I destroyed the pernicious thing as soon as it came into my hands, but the damage had been done!"
"Damage, indeed, Sister Georgette!" snapped the other. "Since the age of five, poor Sister Jan-Elaine's orphan has never been permitted to see a man. Big girls have even been hired to work our fields. And this,thisis the end of fourteen years of self-sacrificing care?"
The young Jedi in the pool cautiously ducked his head under the water. A midge with a healthy appetite for damp skin and the blood pulsing beneath had settled back of his ear and was driving him mad.
"Dreadful, simply dreadful," moaned Sister Dolpha. "Edna goes about sighing all day long and primps in the mirror. She has taken to wearing gray rather than black, and does up her hair with flowers. I suspect she is pinching her cheeks to make them flush becomingly, and as for the way she broods, and takes long walks by herself in themoonlight- "
A coiling reptile coursed through the water near Obi-Wan and he wanted out, but he stayed.
"Moonlight, hmmph." Sister Dolpha's sniff was so hard it must have hurt her. "Moonlight." No language in any galaxy could express the disdain with which she spoke the word of philandering and frivolity.
"Moonlight is very pretty," ventured Sister Georgette. "I rather like it myself."
"Atyourtime of life, really, Sister Georgette," retorted Sister Dolpha. "You are too sentimental as well as too careless."
Thank the stars they were going! The young Jedi waited until their voices died in the distance, then crept cautiously to the bank. He had to find those neks, and in a hurry. He had just seated himself to dry for a moment in a sunsplotch of clear light, when he again heard the voices of women and once more plunged into the pool like a compact Gungan, as he reflected he must seem to the furry creature still watching him from the tree.
"But, Aunt Randii, how do you know?" Obi-Wan heard as he came up under the drooping branches of the aptly-placed tree. This new voice, sweet and limpid, belonged to a girl of such striking appearance that the young Jedi was on the point of forgetting his dilemma, until that infernal midge settled back of his ear again.
"My dear Edna," answered a jerky little voice, "your aunts, remember, were all young once, and considered great beauties in their day." There was a nebula of gentle pride in Aunt Randii's voice as she said this, and it sounded so well that she said it over again. "Greatbeauties in their day! In consequence they each had their experiences with men, and know that there is not one to be trusted. Not one, my child, not one! Believe your aunts."
"It seems impossible, Aunty," declared the soft voice of Edna. "Why, in that holomag were some of the most noble-looking creatures ..."
"Those are the very worst kind," hastily interrupted Aunt Randii. "The more handsome they are, the more dangerous. Since you remain so incredulous, however, I suppose I shall have to tell you what we know about them."
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TBC