Star Wars - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Especially Jedi ❯ 4/6 ( Chapter 4 )

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

By: pronker

"Excuse me, madame," Obi-Wan began, lunging with a vigor at Milo and Gloria with his feet. "Please call off your neks."
Aunt Randii, pale but determined, whipped out an antiquated monster of a Verpine pistol from her pocket, though she held it far off from her and to one side, with no intention, past, present, or future, of ever firing it. It got its effectiveness from size alone, built for pure moral suasion if ever a pistol was.
"Hold perfectly still or I shall shoot," she quavered. "You are a male trespasser, sir!"
"I sincerely regret it, madame," replied the culprit, slapping at the midge behind his ear. It fled.
"You probably will," retorted Aunt Randii. "I shall comm for the constable immediately and if you are still here when she arrives, you shall receive the full penalty of the law." She rummaged further into the pocket with a shaking hand. "And cease pointing that thing atme,young man!"
"Erm, what?"
"Your braid! Your braid! Donotthink for one millisecond that I do not know aJediwhen I see one!"
Obi-Wan thought hard. It was necessary.
"Madame, your neks have stolen my clothing and I cannot leave until I get it back," he declared with Force-inspired acuity. "If you have me arrested for trespass, I shall bring suit for recovery of property."
Aunt Randii was sufficiently perplexed to lower her pistol and allow him to explain, while she coaxed the neks out of the water. He was a splendid talker and had fine eyes that looked honest enough.
There was a rush of footsteps among the trees.
"Hide!" commanded Aunt Randii.
Obi-Wan promptly hid, and when Edna arrived with the bathing suits, the young lady found her aunt calmly seated on the ground, holding Milo and Gloria each by a dripping collar.
"Leave my suit and return to the house at once with these rapscallions," directed Aunt Randii without turning her head.
"Why, Aunt Randii, what's the matter?"
"Nothing!" snapped her aunt in exasperation. "Go back to the house and stay until I come. Ask no questions."
Edna searched the scene with mystification.
"Yes, Aunty," she suddenly said, and walked away in a flurry of excitement. She had caught the gleam of a bright eye peering at her from among the greenery.
Edna burst into a rhapsody as she went, trilling and warbling as she had learned from the birds of the wood, as mate called to mate in the springtime. If she could have skipped, she would have, but her skimpy gown disallowed any natural spreading of limbs for recreational purposes.
"She has a marvelous soprano," thought Obi-Wan. He was sorry when she was out of hearing, but glad, too, for the water was beginning to pucker his cuticle in hard ridges like a sine wave.
"Now, youngman," said Aunt Randii, "I shall leave this bathing suit here for your use. I shall expect you to put it on and retire from the premises as quickly as possible."
"I must remain until nightfall," was the firm reply. "I must find my clothes. I should feel ridiculous to be seen in clothing such as that. You, yourself, would scarcely care to have me be seen emerging from your premises, on Rest Dayespecially, in such outlandish garments."Turn their weakness into your strength. Negotiate with an eye to your opponent's shatterpoints.Obi-Wan remembered the lesson as he Sensed his Master's large hand on him, guiding him along the Jedi path.Yes, Master.
That last argument told. Aunt Randii weakened visibly.
"Very well," she grudgingly agreed, "but at dusk ... stars and galaxies, young man, how your teeth do chatter! Are you getting a chill? I'll bring you a pot of tarine tea and some dinner right away," and she hurried off, refastening her gown's topmost button as an afterthought.
Obi-Wan lost no time in getting into that bathing suit. To distract himself from the outré quality of his experiences this day, he fell on childhood rote as if he were dressing himself in his customary layers of Jedi attire: "One for the Master" ... he pulled on a pair of midnight blue bloomers that came just below his knees ... "one for the Padawan" ... he struggled into a blouse of the same hue ... "one for the F ... erm, no." The bonnet festooned with grosgrain ribbons he placed neatly on the turf. He stood, casting about in the Living Force for traces of his clothing and thinking of Master Qui-Gon as he did so. Unconsciously, he flexed his biceps. There was arrriipas the blouse split down the back and at the armpits. Still, he was very grateful for it; a warm glow had begun to pervade him the moment he had donned it. He hurried to the spot where he had hidden his lightsaber. His weapon was safe, but his left boot had not escaped damage. Gashes scored the smooth leather and one recurved tooth had broken off and stuck in the vamp. Obi-Wan thought with redoubled relief of the strobing lights in Milo and Gloria's behavior enhancement electrodes. Their teethcouldhave minced his flesh for appetizers.
He rolled the lightsaber into the waistband of the bloomers, reluctant to let it out of his reach. The bulge made him reconsider. "No use frightening these delicate ladies further," he thought. He tucked the symbol of his Jedihood once more in the boot and replaced it under the gnarl.
"Nowyouleave this alone," he warned the small furry creature which watched him with bright eyes, and was quite comfortable on the stream bank when Aunt Randii came bustling back with a pot of steaming tea and a tray loaded with nutritious things to eat. He would see whether they weregoodor not.
She sat by admiring his appetite until he had finished, then made him drink the restorative tea to the last drop. He talked in cultured tones all through the dinner, and it was with a sigh of almost regret that she started away with the empty dishes. She came back presently.
"You will find our summer bower up in that direction," she pointed out. "We shall expect you to - to keep out of range during the day, and to report to the kitchen door at dusk, when you will be escorted to the road."
"I shall follow your instructions assiduously," he assured her.
Aunt Randii again walked slowly away. To save her life, she could not think of another reason to prolong the interview. He was a most gentlemanly young man, and he had splendid eyes!
The male trespasser spent the next hour in hunting clothes and anathematizing nek dogs. Rags, threads and disjointed sleeves were all he could find, and at length he gave up, most bits accounted for, but worthless. Discovering a high grassy plot near the stream, screened on all sides by a thick copse of bushes, he leaned back on his elbows to study an outcropping of jade which rain from the dripline of the bushes had uncovered. Jade, he mused; opaque or translucent, deep forest green or pale lavender with rosy undertones, it was as changeable as a callow youth's mood. He lay down further to think matters over and promptly fell asleep.
Perhaps half an hour later, he slowly opened his eyes with the feeling that he was being compelled to awaken, and found Edna seated quietly beside him, keeping the midges away from him with a gracefully waved frond of fern.
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TBC